Laal Singh Chaddha Movie Review

Review: ‘D-Day’ is too Bollywood for its own good

Don’t be fooled by other reviews of this movie. Nikhil Advani’s film on Dawood Ibrahim isn’t daring enough, and in fact scares itself onto the typical Bollywood route. Read our review to know what this RAW-takes-on-the-underworld-don flick is all about

Bollywood movies have a bad habit of trying to cater to everyone. This tendency mostly ruins films from being enjoyable watching experiences, and it’s absurd that directors don’t understand that. Nikhil Advani, perhaps to please the producers of D-Day, has made the movie fit for sale by way of inserting songs, and even attempts to sell the film to you by making it excessively sentimental. The music, however not-bad it may be, breaks the flow of the story, and weepy songs are the last thing you want when a group of RAW agents is trying to capture India’s most wanted fugitive.

D-Day has its tense moments in the second half, but it isn’t gritty at all. Operation Goldman, an attempt to nab Dawood Ibrahim and bring him back to India alive, goes awry. The plot of the film is broader, though: it’s also about the price the people related to these RAW agents pay, and the movie gets overemotional every now and then. The viewer is used to this tactic and is tired of every other Hindi film using it. Nobody is shedding tears, because we came to see Dawood.

Of all the actors who have played the underworld don, only two have done justice (funny, haan?) to Dawood Ibrahim. Vijay Maurya did it first and did it perfectly in Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday, keeping intact and even magnifying Dawood’s image as this powerful, intriguing kingpin – the bhai of all bhais. In Ramgopal Varma’s Company, Ajay Devgan gave an intense performance as Malik, a character based on Dawood. Rishi Kapoor here, otherwise a fine actor capable of pulling off almost any role, has fun at the movie’s expense. He’s dead serious in the beginning, but as the film rolls on, he starts to enjoy himself, and you realize that the character he’s playing isn’t menacing at any point. Rishi Kapoor’s Dawood Ibrahim (Iqbal Seth in D-Day, because of the fraidy-cat filmmaker) delivers a hard-hitting yet funny monologue at the end, but that’s just one punch, and raise a chuckle is all it does.

Irrfan does his job right as usual, Huma Qureshi is beautiful, and Arjun Rampal gets to chill and mouth a few cool lines and have sex with a Pakistani hooker. In the end credits, Shruti Haasan is acknowledged not as ‘The Prostitute’ but as ‘The Girl’, and that’s pretty cool. No harm in showing respect.

But most of what you get from D-Day isn’t required; all you wanted was a tough, uncompromising film about Dawood Ibrahim, but we already got that in Black Friday and Company – even though those movies were about much more than Dawood Ibrahim. Maybe someday, when directors stop feeling the need to make their films salable.

RATING: 2/5

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Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises

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Christopher Nolan gives his fantastic trilogy an exhilarating end

It’s fitting, really, that a comic superhero this revered has movies made on him by a filmmaker whose vision penetrates deep into what seems impossible to think up. Christopher Nolan has taken a tired franchise (fuck you, Joel Schumacher) and recharged it for eternity. The Batman has been elevated to a place so high that it will make us laugh if anybody as much as talks about attempting to revive him in cinema after Chris Nolan’s trilogy.

The reluctant crusader with inner demons to fight must battle Bane, a monster of a man with a goal to terrorize and blow Gotham to smithereens.  Tom Hardy plays the bald beast in a mask Hannibal Lecter might like to try, and imposes with physical presence and an absurdly gruff voice. Here’s where you can forget about the Joker and understand that different villains can do things differently as long as they’re menacing enough.

The Dark Knight Rises has Bruce Wayne struggling to make his comeback as the Batman, a role Christian Bale is very familiar with. While we already know what he’s like as the billionaire with little to look forward to and the vigilante who hammers the hell out of bad guys while making sure he doesn’t kill them, it is Michael Caine and Anne Hathaway who have your attention. Caine, as the caring, witty and lovably shrewd Alfred, keeps the chuckles coming, dry as they are. Hathaway, not once called ‘Catwoman’ to her face, is slender and agile and looks irresistible in her suit.

What’s really going to stay with me is Joseph’s Gordon-Levitt’s John Blake – there’s no way you can’t love the last thing you learn about him.

Christopher Nolan succeeds once again in telling a superhero story the way it needs to be told. The Dark Knight Rises is a motivational and inspiring tale of a man as human as us you all, and teaches us that heroes are men of action; the ones who see something wrong and fix it with their hands. The Dark Knight Rises is a gratifying watch that will thrill the hell out of you, and this reviewer’s claps and whistles weren’t for the Batman as they were for Christopher Nolan as he ended his fantastic trilogy with an exhilarating ride. Now if only we could get one of those machines.

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REVIEW – Ram Gopal Varma’s Rann

Forty minutes have passed by the time Ram Gopal Varma begins telling you the story of Rann. The attempt at establishing the characters is futile, and the endless close-ups get on your nerves after awhile. Worsening matters is the background score, with music being inserted in just about every frame. Instead of creating a suitable atmosphere, it just doesn’t let you get into the movie.

The main characters of Rann are far too sour to have any kind of appeal, except Amitabh Bachchan, who somehow manages to pull it off. Instead, comic relief comes in form of Rajpal Yadav, who is an embarrassment. Mohnish Behl steals the show from Paresh Rawal, Ritesh Deshmukh and Rajat Kapoor from right under Amitabh Bachchan’s nose.There are some women in the movie; Simone Khan if you like. Suchitra Krishnamurthy is a MILF and Neetu Chandra is a skinny hot chick. I’d fuck them both, but not at the same time.

Self-indulgent, unexciting camerawork teams up with unbearable background music to take the fun out of a promising story. Ram Gopal Varma has rediscovered his magic formula but he’s overdosing on it. Rann is disappointing.

RATING: 2/5

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