Meenakshi Rao's Bollywood and Hollywood movie reviews

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane At: DT Cinema Rated: 7/10 He is a bear on heat but chances are you would still love him. And that despite the fact that he is also high on drugs, women and, well, sorry to say, sex sessions without the mandatory organs! He does it to women, not other stuffed bears as you might just think. And he talks too, all the time — like a drunk man at a bachelor party. He also has a job, where every time he messes up, he gets a promotion. Nothing deters him from having fun, least of all propriety of any kind. But behind all this overtly sexual mores, he is also a friend — a good one at that — much better than his human counterpart who dumps him to get a life with a girlfriend who can’t be with a 37-year-old man with a teddy bear! It is a well-done sexual comedy and Hollywood’s imagination in making a stuffed toy the centrepiece of a bawdy comedy needs to be applauded. Really, who would have thought that a stuffed toy, a Chr...

Cloud atlas Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon At: DT Cinemas & others Rated: 5/10 It has everything going for it — an awesome star ensemble, a part sci-fi, part period, part contemporary drama, a big canvas and a intricately intertwined stories of many eras. So why is that it sits uncomfortably on your shoulders. Perhaps, because it is just too complicated? Or, may be, because it gets to be overly ambitious in its bid to jump wide apart ages, or may, because it is an amalgamation of all these factors. Whatever it is, despite the presence of the likes of Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon and a host of other stars, Cloud Atlas does not entirely click or overawe. From 2041 to backwards into pre-historic times where clan king Tom Hanks converses in a strange language with sci-fi woman Halle Berry, the string gets caught in too many webs. Apparently, the message is that all lives have a bearing on future lives, that very many past actions s...

Rush Starring: Emraan Hashmi, Neha Dhupia, Sagarika Ghatge, Aditya Pancholi At: DT Cinema & others Rated: 3/10 First and foremost, the alleged Zee TV extortion scam notwith-standing, the visual media is still eons away from committing murders, rapes and arson merely to create breaking news. Yes, they are still irritatingly fixated on Breaking News but all they do for now is fall into a farcical coverage of events which should be pushed into capsules or be ignored. So, to see Emraan Hashmi as Editor-in-Chief of a 24-hour crime channel, anchoring a show which reaches the crime spot before any other channel — always — is far-fetched. As is the theme that selling news has become like selling illegal arms and ammunition. As a journalist, and sans a single kiss in any direction, Hashmi struggles to make his mark here. Not so much because of his less than potent acting skills but because the script is lean, not at all mean, and has a tendency to sag a bit too often. Neha Dh...

Ajab gazabb love Starring: Jackky Bhagnani, Kirron Kher, Nidhi Subbaiah, Darshan Jariwala At: DT Cinema Rated: 5.5/10 It is, indeed, an ajab gazab love — a riches to rags story of a auto-manufacturing giant. There are many ajab things to talk about here, one of them being a hyper camera which does not let you settle down and enjoy the comedy. Director Sanjay Gadhvi, with a Dhoom and YRF legacy behind him, got too opportunistic with this one. However, his intense bid to make it slick, happening and stylish put him in the paddock area. Too many bikini babes, too much of 8-pack Bhagnani, too much of staccato camera. All this put together took away from the comedy of it all — which should have been its primary aim. Having said this, the only reason you would see this film would be because of the absolute hilarity that Kirron Kher brings to her role. And you feel really really bad about the fact that Arshad Warsi as the south Indian servant-turned-maalik has such a small role i...

Chakravyuh Starring: Om Puri, Manoj Bajpai, Abhay Deol, Arjun Rampal At: PVR & others Rated: 7/10 Prakash Jha mounts are keenly awaited and mostly serenaded. Chakravyuh is no different. It has a simmering topicality, several reality bites, an expansive canvas and an issue that has gobbled up more than half of India — without a solution. Jha tries his best to not take sides here but, in the end, much like his protagonist Abhay Deol, he gets caught in the romanticism of a struggle for the unpossessed. He does give a keen look to the system which has allowed the Maoists to spread and the report card that he brings home to the viewers is not good at all for the establishment. Much like a firebrand Naxalite, he shows up the system for what it is — corrupt, incestuous with business and politics and ruthless with a law enforcement machinery crying for reform and sensitivity. Arjun Rampal as the upright police officer on the trail of notorious Naxal leaders in the badland...

Student of the year Starring; Siddharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan At: PVR & others Rated: 6/10 The oomph here is male, overtly, rawly male. The bods, as Karan Johar would have them — they are ostensibly in college these boys (read males) but most of the time you will see them emerging out of the pool in a male Ursula Andress avataar — bheega, sexy and well, material enough for a gay wet dream. The abs here, mind you, are many more than six, the muscles seemingly run out of some Mr Universe’s body to sit pretty on Karan’s new finds Siddharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan, more Sid than Varun most times. In the middle of all this Karan wali worship of male bods, Johar suddenly remembers here and there that there is Alia too to show off. So she suddenly does a bikini shoot or a chhoti choli wala number to make her presence felt — rest of the time the boys think her to be a red-lipped pouting bimbo good to be on one rippling wala arm or the other. Then there’s a ...

Argo Starring; Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman At: PVR & others Rated: 6/10 In the 70s, America was doing things to Iran which it should not have. It had gotten a good man deposed to save its oil interests in the region and got a dummy Shah installed. The Shah was a picture of debauchery and atrocities and was, after a long rule, finally removed by the people of Iran who installed the religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini at the helm. The Shah sought asylum in the US and got it. Enraged Iranians took to the streets and gheraoed the American embassy there. Fifty-six Americans were taken hostages and six managed to sneak out and take refuge at the Canadian ambassador’s residence. The hostage saga ended only after 444 days with all Americans being released from the embassy prison. But this story is about the great escape of those six who had managed to sneak out of the embassy but had to be rescued by a CIA operative (Ben Affleck) to get out of the vola...

Delhi safari Starring; Akshaye Khanna, Govinda, Suniel Shetty, Boman Irani, Urmila Matondkar At: PVR & others Rated: 6/10 Here comes an Indian animation that is entirely entertaining. No, you can’t compare the illustrations with the long-standing technological acumen of a Disney or something similar, but still Nikhil Advani’s animal kingdom comes across as mostly engrossing. The entirely Bollywoodised show, with soulful songs and peppy voice-overs you can instantly identify, not to mention the vintage Bollywood drama that sits pretty on the shoulders of the four-legged beings of a decimated environment, makes you laugh and come along with the motely campaigners against deforestation. Advani’s Delhi Safari is a typical love-romance-poignancy-family drama which not so subtly puts across the message of saving the earth by saving the fauna and flora. Urmila Matondkar as the recently widowed tigress, Govinda as the scheming and rabble-rousing monkey, Akshaye Khanna as the par...

  Makkhi Starring: Sudeep, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Nani At: PVR & others Rated: 6/10 No, it is not an animation film — everyone in the movie is human, but for a small house fly. And what, you would think, can a fly do except hover irritatingly over your food and get smothered by the swish of your hand. Makkhi will tell you how wrong you can be. For this is one fly who is on a revenge path, who is in love with your heroine, who wears metal nails and eye casing designed by a micro artist. It is bigger, badder, faster than its species and it has vowed to let you into all the fun. As the baddie kills the heroine’s lover and his soul gets into a pupa, you know something fascinating is about to unfold. In Makkhi, the director has worked wonders with the visuals, with the animation and with the storyline all in one go. The result? A roller coaster of a different kind where you fly the heights of fun, taking revenge on a bad man riding on a makkhi ka badla. Surprisingly ...

Starring: Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace At: PVR & others Rated: 7/10 I am a Liam Neeson fan so I like whatever he does on screen  — even if it means he is acting in a veritable repeat. Taken 2 looks and feels like its prequel — only, it is far less than the original. Having said that, it still holds on to your interest, getting into a zone of relentless action without losing time or footage. Not the gory kind but the somewhat old-fashioned one — hand to hand fights, all bullets by the hero finding their target and all by the enemy going astray! There’s a kidnapping too which tantalisingly flirts with the knife but does not cut and scrape or take lives. The proceedings are peppered with a lot of car chases on pebbled alley-ways of Istanbul. There’s a bit of family reunion too and the subject is not new but takes you ahead in the same saga of an ex-CIA operative’s daughter being kidnapped by human traffickers and his gun-them-down vow that made huge money with...

Aiyyaa Starring: Rani Mukherjee, Prithviraj Sukumaran At: PVR & others Rated: 4/10 Romances are often tagged to be illogical affairs of the heart, sometimes unviable and a lot of times unsustainable. Aiyya falls into this category without a care in the world. So, if you go looking to making some sense of this very strangely strung love story, you will be questioning many things, including the sanity of such a venture, especially when it is Rani Mukherjee who is at the helm. Aiyya is not about anything really. It has a very convoluted storyline, the execution of which is equally skewed. Nothing makes sense in this one – neither the over-the-top Maharashtrian family of Rani which has a grandmother whizzing past every camera angle, yelling into the high heavens and baring her shocking teeth in gold, nor the impunity with which Rani’s father smokes four cigarettes in one time, making a mockery of the Censor Board and its stern warning that cigarette smoking is injurious to h...

English Vinglish Starring: Sridevi, Mehdi Nebbou, Priya Anand, Adil Hussain At: PVR & others Rated: 8/10 This one is a made-for-Sridevi movie in which the comeback lady is as much the centrepoint as is the well-handled chhoti si lovely story. Together the two script a becoming tale told simply and endearingly about the English Vinglish problems of a middle-class housewife and mother who is treated much like furniture of the house. The deglamourised Sri, even at 50 plus, looks comfortable on the big screen. No, she no longer is hawa hawai girl but a well-matured actress who shows no fear in being her age. As a woman who is a dedicated wife, who does not know a word of English, she does well to sport her insecurities and hide her anguish about being treated by her family as if she is no better than an exotic cook of laddoos who also has the special abilities to look after the house without any complaints. Her children are embarrassed about her inability to understand...

OMG Oh my god Starring:Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty At: PVR & others Rated: 6.5/10 T his is the best preachy movie one has seen in a long time. It is also the most courageous one against religion in quite a while. It is brutally irreverent, it puts the  sadhus  and the pundits in their place. And if that, you think, is no big deal, it goes much ahead and questions the role and existence of God himself. By the way, despite all this Almighty bashing, this making fun of Him, castigating Him, smearing Him with allegations and what not, the God who appears on screen is the most becoming, handsome and engaging one to have ever visited the big screen. Akshay Kumar in a modern-day avataar of Lord Krishna gives you one reason to believe in God, so cool he is. And when a seasoned Paresh Rawal is doing all such politically incorrect things like berating celestial entities, you somehow feel it is not all mere bluster. As a Gujarati merchant of religiou...