Movie: Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai
Director: Milan Luthria
Year: 2010
Stars: Ajay Devgan, Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranawat and Prachi Desai

Snapshot of the story

Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai is a story of an underworld don Sultan Mirza / Haji Mastaan (Ajay Devgan) and the rise of Imran/Dawood (Imran Hashmi). Sultna Mirza is famous don of Mumbai and lives life wanting to rule Mumbai in a clean way as this city has given him shelter. Imran wants to rule the city by any means (hook or by crook), this leads to clashes between the two. Movie has the retro look of the 80’s and has some excellent dialogs which are refreshing to watch and listen.

Storyline

Commissioner of Police (Randeep Hooda) puts himself in charge to create a don because due to him a Mumbai blast happened when once a gangster Sultan Mirza (played by Ajay Devgan) ruled Mumbai. Sultan was not only a gangster, but also godfather of the poor people, he used to donate half of his earnings to poor people when he was a child and was working in a dock yard. He used to handle his job with discipline and humanity. He believes in his ideology that “when the work can be done with friendship then, why make enemies”. He is fond of the film actress Rehana (played by Kangana Ranaut) and manages to meet her and impress her and they start dating each other and both fall in love.

There is a guy named Shoaib as depicted underworld don Dawood in real life (played by Emraan Hashmi). He is ambitious and an unruly boy from his childhood. Sultan Mirza is powerful and Shoaib also wants to be like him and joins his gang and in the passage of time Shoaib becomes the right hand of Sultan. Shoaib has a girlfriend named Mumtaz (played by Prachi Desai) whom he deeply loves.

Sultan decides to leave all the bad jobs of his past and wants to join politics and gets involved over in Delhi, but here in Mumbai Shaoib is taking care of his empire in his absence. Shoaib enjoys his powers and position and continuous with all of his illegal ways including contract killings, extortion and production of illicit liquor. When Sultan returns to Mumbai and comes to know about Shoaib’s act he asks him to stop all that he is doing which create a rift between them, Now the infuriated Shoaib in is no mood to shut his operation as he wants to be the king on Mumbai underworld and plans to kill Sultan Mirza.

Movie has the complete look of 80’ retro fashion and shot with immense perfection. Ajay Devgan has been shown in larger than life image. Movie has great dialog and every scene of Ajay Devgna was phenomenonal. Imran Hashmi looked very in good in the movie and helping him to shed his serial killer role as in his previous movies.

Final Thoughts

Movie is shot in the 80’s when Mumbai was called Bombay. It was the time when the underworld drug mafia was ruling the city, no opportunities for the young and crime too its place in the city. Movie has been shot very well and the screenplay of the movie is excellent. Movie connects with the audience and engages them throughout. Both ladies Kangana Ranaut and Prachi Desai gave strong performances. Director Milind Luthria, directed movies like Kachhe Dhage and Taxi No. 9 2 11 and was able to deliver once again on the silver screen.

Rating

Once Upon a Time in Mumbai scores 8.5 for its larger than life image of mainly Ajay Devgan with good music and recreating the entire 80’s era and gains an extra half a point extra for its very well written dialogs. This pushes the overall rating to 9 out of 10.

Tags: Ajay Devgan, Imran Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut, Milind Luthria, Movie reviews and ratings of Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai - Beauty of Retro with Drama is Missing, Prachi Desai

Movie: Cloverfield
Year: 2008
Genre: Sci-Fi/Horror/Action
Director: Matt Reeves
Stars: Mike Vogel, Jessica Lucas and Lizzy Caplan

Snapshot of Story:
New York is invaded by alien monsters as witnessed by a group of people through their video camera recovered after the aftermath.

Storyline:
The movie Cloverfield comes in the wake of other ‘reality’ movies such as Paranormal Activity that created quite a sensation during its launch. This movie attempts to do the same by capturing scenes through a video camera as witnessed by a citizen and add more realism to the whole story. Unlike Paranormal Activity, this movie had a much bigger budget to create the special effects of the huge monsters terrorizing New York city.

There were some complaints by viewers that the constant movement of the camera by the person capturing the scenes had a nauseating effect. From my point of view, I thought the camera shake was acceptable and I am pretty sure that the producers went to great lengths to get this part right. There was a good balance of camera shake and the actual footage of the events happening and I believe one needs to be somewhat immersed in the movie to dismiss the camera shake.

The movie on it’s first watch created a sense of realism as the few members of the group make their way through the chaos towards safety as portrayed through the eye of the lens. The special effects of the bridge falling and the haphazard appearance of the monsters and their siblings were very well done. There was one particular scene where the members witness the ensuing battle of the US soldiers firing against the monsters which was very well captured and added a heightened sense of franticness and pace.

Although the movie did somewhat focus on the lives of the members of the group at the start, this was dwarfed by the action scenes that followed. Only when Jason (played by Mike Vogel) pursued his love interest did the audience come back momentarily from the chaos and destruction that was surrounding them.

Final Thoughts:
Overlooking the ‘camera shake’ that a few people complained about, Cloverfield set another bar for a movie reality show and did it in style. This was a big budget movie and not the typical amateur point and shoot that one came to expect, ie. Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch Project. One felt quite immersed in the whole action movie due to some good acting and excellent direction by Matt Reeves.

Rating:
7.5/10

Tags: Jessica Lucas, Lizzy Caplan, Matt Reeves, Mike Vogel, movie reviews and ratings of Cloverfield, Spectecular to See Monster Drama in Cloverfield

Movie: Devdas
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Year: 2002
Stars: Shahrukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit and Kiron Kher

Snapshot of the Story
Devdas (Shahrukh Khan) is a son of an affluent landlord and born with a silver spoon to his mouth. His upbringing is luxurious in every way. Paro (Aishwarya Rai Bachachan) is a childhood friend of Devdas and both love each other, but destiny has decided something else for them as Paro marries someone else as a result of family pressure. Shattered by this news Devdas becomes recluse and alcoholic.

Storyline
The story of the movie revolves around the three characters Devdas (played by SRK), Paro (played by Aishwarya Rai) and Chandramukhi (played by Madhrui Dixit). Devdas is a son of an affluent landlord and has grown up in a much wealthier environment and lives a luxury life. Paro is Devdas’s childhood friend and lives in his neighbourhood. Being childhood friends both of them love each other. Devdas’s parents had sent him to London for higher studies. Here in Indian Paro is waiting for Devdas to return.

When Devdas returns from London Paro’s mother (played by Kiran Kher) proposes Paro’s marriage with Devdas. But Devdas’s parents condescend and insult Paro’s mother. This creates the rift in both families and Paro’s parents look at another groom for Paro and makes Parro marry a wealthy man without knowing the fact that he is a much older than her. Heart broken Devdas becomes alcoholic.

One day he finds Chadramukhi, a stunning courtesan. She develops an affection for Devdas. This proved to be a myth and he keeps on wandering life like a refugee. Devdas’s life becomes sad case as he could not marry the person he wanted and the story depicts his pain and misery.

Final Thoughts

Devdas is best on Saratchandra Chatterjee’s novel Devdas. This is the 2nd Bollywood version of Devdas, the first was in 1955 with legendary Dilip Kumar as the leading actor. Director Sanjal Leela Bhasali did an out standing job as director right from casting to the final editing of the movie. Shahrukh Khan along with the beautiful and gorgeous ladies Aishwarya and Madhuri were good to watch and gave towering performances. Ismail Darbar provided a vibrant and versatile music after his first super hit movie “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam”. Kiron Kher was very impressive in her supporting role.

Rating

Devdas bags 7 out of 10 as overall rating. Movie is slow at times and fails to connect with the audience. The highlights of the movie were the different choreographer’s being used for different song including Saroj Khan, Vaibhavi Merchant and Pandit Birju Maharaj.

Madhuri Dixit’s back in action in 2012

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will get to work soon

One to one with Aishwarya Rai - The personal interview

Tags: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Kiron Kher, Madhuri Dixit, Movie reviews and ratings of Devdas, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Shahrukh Khan, The Most Unromantic Love Story Revisited - Devdas, Vaibhavi Merchant

Movie: Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna
Director: Karan Johar
Year: 2006
Stars: Shahrukh Khan, Abihshek Bacchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Kiron Kher, Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee

Snapshot of the Story

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna is story of an extra marital affair between an unsatisfied man and woman with very different reasons. Story flows smoothly until both meet each other and share their unsatisfaction in their love life. It generates a soft corner for each other and they fall in love with each other.

Storyline

Story is about the two married couples, Dev (played by SRK) and Riya (played by Preity Zinta) and Rishi (played by Abhishek Bachchan) & Maya (played by Rani Mukherjee). Dev is an ex-football player who could not make it to the professional league because of an accident that crippled him and Riya is a successful model. Due to her profession she has to meet different people. Dev in not happy with her professional contact and want her to spend more time with their son. On the other side Rishi and Maya are a young couple about to get married. Rishi is a successful man and popularly know as “Sexy Sam”. Maya is a school teacher of Arjun (Son of Dev and Riya) but Maya is not comfortable with Rishi’s casinova image.

Dev and Maya meet at Arjun’s school and connect with each other very quickly. They share their life with each other that becomes the catalyst for their love for each other. They soon get involved in a physical relationship with each other and realize that they took the wrong steps that could hurt their marriage. Both Maya and Dev decide that they will tell their partner about this and accept whatever consequence.

Riya and Rishi were shocked by this extra marital affair and take extreme steps. Riya divorce Dev and Rishi refused to get married to Maya. But the story does take a twist as both tell each other that Rishi and Riya did forgive them for their mistake. The completely broken Dev leaves New York and join as a coach of a school football team in Chicago. Maya also gets an offer from school to teach 2nd grade student. This entire drama gets exposed when Riya finds Maya in Chicago living alone. Riya finds that both Dev and Maya are living alone and force Maya to meet Dev. Both of them meet and realize that they still love each other and they eventually get married.

Final Thoughts

After the success of “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham” and “Mohabbatein” Karan Johar got sidetracked and strangled the story with too many twists. The first half hour of the movie is good and has romantic and comic scenes. However, as the story goes on it looses its charm. Extra marital affair movies are not new in Indian cinema. Shahrukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee were good in the movie and justify their role, but Priety Zinta and Abhishek Bhachchan did not have much to show in the movie and look as if their talent was wasted. Music of the movie is good as trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy did a fantastic job but even that could not make it to the big charts.

Rating

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna scores only 6 out of 10 even with his big star cast which failed to make it hit. It is truly said that fresh innovative ideas that can make movie successful even if it does not have a big star cast.

Abhishek Bachchan’s latest movie Players - Movie Trailer

Tags: Amitabh Bachchan, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna - Just a One Time Watch, Kiron Kher, Movie reviews and Ratings of Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherjee, Shahrukh Khan

Movie: Rockstar
Director: Imtiaz Ali
Time: 2011
Stars: Ranbir Kapoor, Nargis Fakhri (debutant) and late Shammi Kapoor

Snapshot of the story

Yet another love story from Imtiaz Ali camp but bit different from his earlier romantic story like Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal. The movie is about a Delhi based college student Janardan Jakhar aka Jordan who dreams of becoming a “Rockstar” someday. He gets suggestion from his friend that true music can evolve only from the broken heart, and he tries to get his heart broken from a girl Heer who has done this many time with other guys. But as fate has decided something else they fall for each other and then separate because their ways were different. Rest of story shows us the music evolving from the broken heart and how deep was the love between Jordan and Heer.

Storyline

Story of the movie starts with a nerdy college student from Delhi Janardan aka Jordan (played by Ranbir Kapoor), who has fond of music and dreams to become a Rockstar someday. Once while sitting with his best friend he is told that “tute hue dil ses hi sangeet nikalta hai” means true music evolves only from the broken heart. Now Jordan tries to get his heart broken from a girl named Heer who is famous for ditching guys.

On meeting Heer first he gets insulted by her but later on both of them gets befriended and slowly starts loving each other. But as their ways were different they have to get separated. Heer gets married in Prague and Jordan becomes a Rockstar (as his heart is now actually broken). Then there are few superb songs from A R Rahman and beautiful camerawork by Anil Mehta.

Now the story gets a turn when Jordan gets a chance to go for a music concert at Prague. There he starts searching Heer and finally meets her. Confronting each other both Heer and Jordan feels refreshed and becomes exciting. There are few romantic scenes that show the love between both of them still alive even after so many years.

Final Thoughts

Rockstar is emotional love story where Janardan Jakhad becomes Jordan. Ranbir Kapoor acting was awesome in the movie. Nargis Fakhri is impressive in her debut movie more with her beauty. Music composed by Oscar award winner A.R. Rahman and songs sung by ace singer Mohit Chauhan create the magic as they made the chart topper songs. Rockstar certainly established Ranbir Kapoor in the industry and gave Nargis Fakhri the perfect start needed.

Rating

Rockstar scored 7 out of 10 with rocking performance from Ranbir Kapoor. Director Imtiaz Ali has proved him as versatile director but he still need to come out of his emotional love story theme. Even though Rockstar failed to bring expected audience but it silence all his critics.

Tags: Imtiaz Ali, Moview reviews and Ratings of Rockstar, Nargis Fakhri, Ranbir Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, The Must Watch Movie of Ranbir Kapoor - Rockstar