Chintu ji

You may or may not know that a film called Chintu ji is playing at a theatre near you this week. It has released with minimal marketing and no marquee names, except for Rishi Kapoor who plays the lead.

But don’t let this lack of fanfare dissuade you. Chintu ji is an unassuming and delightful film that will keep you smiling long after you’ve left the theatre.

Written and directed by theatre director Ranjit Kapoor, Chintu ji is a part-factual, part-fictional story set in a small town called Hadbahedi. This is a Utopian town with no cell phones, one weekly newspaper and half an airport.

But everyone lives in harmony because they follow the path of truth, non-violence and always listen to their hearts.

Hadbahedi’s only claim to fame is that Raj Kapoor happened to be visiting when his wife Krishna went into labour and therefore Rishi Kapoor, also known as Chintu, was born there.

The kindly citizens of Hadbahedi invite the actor to the town. The arrogant, insufferably spoilt, past-his-prime actor, who now wants to make a foray into politics, accepts.

What follows is a superbly funny culture clash that becomes an insightful exploration of stardom in India, the relationship between God-like stars and their audience and the hollowness that exists behind the larger-than-life image.

Ranjit, whose best work includes the dialogue of Kundan Shah’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, creates a satire with heart. There are moments of absolute genius here, including one in which a Bengali doctor treating Chintu ji after he has had a fall, insists on narrating his script to the actor who merely gets drunk and passes out.

The film industry isn’t spared either. Saurabh Shukla plays a harried filmmaker who shifts shooting to Hadbahedi only so he can finish quickly. When an actor asks him the motivation for a particular scene, the filmmaker replies, "Actor ka ek hi motivation hota hai, money".

There’s also a power-broker, tellingly named Amar Sanghvi who persuades Chintu to come to the rival town Triphala by handing the actor a check of one crore. At which point, Chintu ji requests, "Please TDS mat katna".

Chintu ji of course wouldn’t exist if Rishi Kapoor did not have the courage to play this frankly unattractive version of himself. Rishi plays the greedy, narcissistic actor to perfection.

The supporting players - Saurabh Shukla, Grusha Kapoor and an elderly actress who plays the mid-wife who delivered Chintu - are also very good.

Chintu ji doesn’t have craft or technical finesse. In parts, it is wobbly and theatrical. The romantic track, which has a patched on sub-plot about the Parliament shooting, doesn’t work.

But Chintu ji is a film with heart and an inspired strain of lunacy.

In the second half, the filmmaker shoots an item song with his cast dressed as tribals. The film he is shooting is called Khooni Khazana but the song is a long list of the world’s best filmmakers: so names like Tarantino, Vittorio de Sica, Visconti, Mizoguchi have been set to music. It’s deliciously mad.

I’m going with three and a half stars and strongly recommending that you watch it.

Fox

The good news is that Fox might be Deepak Tijori’s best film. The bad news is that Tijori’s earlier films include gems like Oops and Tom Dick and Harry.

Fox is a hugely convoluted and dim-witted thriller about a criminal lawyer named Arjun Kapoor, played by a stone-faced Arjun Rampal.

Kapoor is called a Law ka Genius and a Mujrimon ka Messiah because he manages to get criminals off the hook with his acumen. One day, he develops a conscience, throws it all up and moves to Goa. Here an elderly stranger hands him an unpublished novel and promptly dies.

Kapoor publishes the novel under his own name, becomes a best-selling crime author and then finds himself in jail because every murder in the novel is an actual unsolved murder which the police claim, Kapoor could have only written about in such detail if he were the murderer himself.

The novel incidentally is called "Find the Fox" and the cover features - I am not making this up - an actual fox in lawyers’ robes. The book’s publisher is a heavy-breathing, mini-skirted Udita Goswami who doubles up as an item girl when necessary.

The trouble with Fox is that it makes very little sense. The big reveal at the end is likely to draw more laughs than gasps.

The story, also by Tijori, is compounded by the bad acting. Each actor goes through the motions wearing forlorn expressions and bad wigs. The camerawork is patchy and for reasons unknown, Tijori spends a lot of time focusing on his actor’s hands.

There is nothing foxy about Fox. I’m going with one and a half stars.

Aagey Se Right

The promos of Aagey Se Right have been misleading to say the least. While it has been projected as a Shreyas Talpade-starrer, Kay Kay Menon has an equally important role.

Not that it really leads one to cheer. Reason being that what seemed like an innocent tale of a newly recruited cop (Shreyas) hunting for his gun takes an altogether different dimension with a terrorist (Kay Kay Menon) from border ke uss paar coming into picture.

He gets all moony-eyed for a bar girl Shenaz Treasury (who has dropped 'vaala' from her surname). He begins with his sher-o-shaayari only to turn into a full-on tapori.

From here on the film becomes an assortment of a series of coaching classes where a South Indian don Vijay Maurya, who operates as an entrepreneur with the promise of 'customer delight' and 'satisfaction guaranteed', teaches some tricks of the 'love trade' to Kay Kay.

Yes, there are quite a few scenes that invokes chuckles and even full-throated laughter as Kay Kay goes through a heart transformation. His dialogues are witty while Vijay Maurya is a riot. In fact it's the latter's presence that keeps the momentum despite a wayward tale that debutant director Indrajit chooses to tell.

One understands Indrajit's intent though -- which is to tell a story that is whacky, quirky, utterly unbelievable and on-your-face nonsense.

Aagey Se Right aspires to be right in all these departments. It's just that the direction is all over in the second half of the film and the momentum that had built up in the first half doesn't remain as the film progresses.

Change in heart for the terrorist, his accomplice flying into the country in search of him, a mother (Bharti Achrekar) who is always there to give direction to the novice cop, a bunch of DJs who play mischief mongers - there are too many characters and incidents that spoil the show.

In fact, the entire track revolving around a struggling actor (Shiv Pandit) and his girlfriend (Shruti Seth) was completely unwarranted.

One also wonders what made Mahie Gill sign this film. As a gossip news channel reporter, she makes an appearance every now and then in a thankless role. On the other hand, Shreyas is good but hardly has a role that can be compared to many of his earlier superior performances.

Indrajit's direction becomes a little patchy, especially in the scenes that require multiple actors in one frame. So whether it is the shooting of a Bhojpuri film or a stampede that follows in Vijay Maurya's den or the suicide attempt by Shruti - there is an all around amateurism that is more than just apparent.

However, in scenes that have only two actors interacting (Shreyas and his mother, Kay Kay and Vijay Maurya), he manages to get it right most of the time.

Aagey Se Right starts off as a sweet fun film but becomes tiring once it loses focus.

Vaada Raha

Bobby Deol is a genius cancer specialist named Duke Chawla. That itself should give you some idea what Vada Raha has in store for you. I'm not sure where Duke lives-the action cuts from Grecian ruins to snazzy yachts in dazzling blue seas to a Sardar neighbour.

But Duke is successful, in love and seriously happy. Of course it can't last. One rainy night, Duke has an accident and ends up in a hospital bed with neck-down paralysis. His love interest, played by Kangana Ranaut, promptly dumps him and Duke becomes a bitter man, who in one unintentionally hilarious scene, tries to commit suicide by chewing on his IV tubes.

A precocious child, played by Dwij Yadav, brings the light back into Duke's life by teaching him the importance of hope and love. In case you still haven't got the point, the kid is called Roshan.

The film, which is inspired by a Russian fable, could have been a reasonably moving hospital drama. But director Sameer Karnik, who also co-wrote the screenplay and dialogue, creates a dim-witted, staggeringly tedious soap opera. Duke's supine condition is an endurance test, not just for him but also for us.

To begin with, the medical situations in Vada Raha are comically disconnected from reality. At one point, Duke, still paralysed, supervises a heart operation from his hospital bed, because there are no heart surgeons available at the hospital. He gives instructions like: position the valve, make the incision. And if that isn't enough--Duke then begins to do research on bone marrow cancer, again from the bed.

He stares hard at the computer screens and says: Eureka I've done it. Yes, Duke has found the cure for cancer. The actors can't shore up the story much. I think Kangana decided to make up for the brevity of her role by applying as much eye make-up as is humanely possible. Bobby works hard to be convincing but the outlandish plot outdoes him.

The role also requires him to weep copiously on screen. Some men can pull off full-frontal crying but Bobby isn't one of them. Vada Raha has little to offer. I'm going with two stars.

Kisaan

Kisaan does not delve deep into the problems of farmers in remote India (read suicide) but scratches gingerly on the surface. It's sad, because this film had the potential of being taken rather seriously; entertaining as well as educating.

Although it briefly touches on the malady of farmer suicides and land sharks, it does not go the distance. It ends up being a 'typical Bollywood masala flick'.

The film is about Dayal Singh (Jackie Shroff), a widower, who raises his two sons Aman (Arbaaz Khan) and Jigar (Sohail Khan) singlehandedly. He faithfully toils with his sons on his ancestral land as a true farmer would. One day, his neighbour commits suicide because he had taken a meager loan and could not repay it. Also, he had given his thumb impression on a blank piece of paper to the loan sharks. That paper turned out to be his noose.

Deeply disturbed, Dayal decides to send his elder son to the city to get a degree in law. Fifteen years later, when Aman returns to his village, with a law degree in hand, he is facing a rather peculiar problem. Sohan Seth (Dalip Tahil) an industrialist wants the farmers to sell their land. He is willing to pay more than the market rate. While most agree, others are being forced. Dayal and his sons are of the opinion that no one should be forced. In one such meeting, the melee, Dayal is slapped by a local goon who has teamed up with Sohan. Being the lawyer that he is, Aman stops his dad from retaliating. However, when Jigar, who was not at the scene, learns of the incident, he exacts revenge by cutting the hand of the offender.

	view KISAAN movie stills

From there on the film sinks into melodrama with Sohan befriending Aman and causing a rift in the family. To add glamour, there is Dia Mirza paired opposite Arbaaz and Nauheeh Cyrusi as Titli (cute) who is Sohail's love interest.

Jackie Shroff is solid, giving off a very good performance as the father and farmer who is protective of his land and fiercely proud of his sons. After his debut flick HERO and later GARDISH, Jaggu stands out yet again. There's something about Sohail Khan that strikes you. I think it is the sincerity of his performance. As the hotheaded son with an immense love for his father and land, he is a powerhouse. Arbaaz's vague wig casts an unreal air around him.

The music has a distinct feel of eighties, which goes well with the theme. With over five releases this week, the film will hit bulls-eye in the rural areas of India. Producer Sohail will have to make sure they get a tax-free entry onto the theatres.

Rating - 2.5/5

Movie Review : Baabarr

BAABARR is the story of crime set with Lucknow as the backdrop. It is also the story of how crime is nurtured for political gains; how vote banks are developed and protected and of the good cop and bad cop.

Shot in the by lanes of Uttar Pradesh, this crime fest is loaded with gunshots and dead bodies. You lose count after the first reel. It is also the story of a 12-year-old boy who fires his first shot to save his brothers from being killed. There on, at age 22, he roams the streets fearlessly, protecting those who pay their �protection fee' and eliminating those who refuse.

As expected, there is violence galore. But our hero Baabarr (newcomer Soham Shah) looks more a lover boy than a killing machine. There is no meanness in his eyes and his body language is that of a teenager who has just set his hands on a revolver; not that of a seasoned killer. Though heavily bearded, he is allowed to enter a school dressed in a uniform. He is there to assassinate the Chief Minister's brother. At another instance, he dresses up as the groom and sits besides the bride's father! Even when he is shot from a point-blank range with the gun placed at his temple, he survives with a scratch on his cheek. What cheek!

Though Soham has a screen presence, his choice to play the lead was a bad one. In fact, Tabrez, Baabaar's rival, portrayed menacingly by Sushant Singh has enough fire in him to give Soham a complex.

There are also shots of Baabarr's elder brother Sarfaraz (Shakti Kapoor) making frantic calls to a Mayawati lookalike from his prison cell when Baabarr has been captured. What one cannot understand is how Sarfaraz became so powerful in prison. He was sent to jail when Baabarr was 12 years old. Sarfaraz then had accidentally killed a goon in a fight, which got out of hand.