Krantiveer - The Revolution Release Date : 25,Jun 2010

Producer Mehul Kumar
Director Mehul Kumar
Music Sachin-Jigar
Writer Mehul Kumar
Lyrics Sameer
Release Date 25-Jun-2010

June 25, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Designed as a sequel to the super successful Krantiveer (1994) which got Nana Patekar the Best Actor, National Award, Krantiveer - The Revolution (KTC) is a weak attempt at recreating the patriotic fervor which the original had.

Roshni (Jahan Bloch) is the young daughter of the man responsible for the last revolution, Pratap Narayan Tilak and his wife (Nana Patekar and Dimple Kapadia). She just like her dad wants to rid the nation of corruption, and the evils present in the society. She gets herself a platform by joining a TV channel as an investigative journalist. She is hell bent on exposing all the scams in the country including those involving high profile businessmen and top ministers. Along with her friends Vishal (Samir Aftab), Goldie (Aditya Singh Rajput) and Uday (Harsh Rajput) she takes this crusade forward and becomes successful eventually despite many odds.

The sole reason why Krantiveer was a success was because of KK Singh's dialogues, Nana Patekar's character and Mehul Kumar's direction. Here Singh is not involved with the project, Nana is not acting in the film and the veteran director though having made a sincere attempt, falls short. There is no direct relation of the plot to any of the 26/11 terror attack scenes which come towards the climax. Though Mehul Kumar has tried to show authenticity by using footage of the 26/11 terrorists attacks, he fails to impress the audiences.

His debutante daughter Jahan has been made to rant lengthy dialogues from the word go. While she does it with sincerity, it doesn't really work. Too much responsibility has been given on her shoulders leaving less scope for the rest. New comers Samir Aftab, Adiya Singh Rajput, Harsh Rajput put in their honest efforts too. Senior actors like Ranjeet, Farida Jalal hardly get any scope to perform. Aman Verma playing the corporate head honcho, Mukesh Tiwari and Govind Namdeo playing sleazy ministers act well.

Music by Sachin-Jigar is passable and the songs 'Khuda mere khuda' and 'Chhote tera birthday aaya' work on screen. But the songs 'Firangi paani' and 'Lau jalee' were not needed. Editing and cinematography don't match up to standards.

Though it may not be worth an effort to go to the cinema hall, the film definitely appears like a genuine attempt to awaken the young Indians to come forward and erase corruption from our politics.

Mr Singh Mrs Mehta Release Date : 25,Jun 2010

Producer Tutu Sharma, Manu S. Kumaran
Director Pravesh Bhardwaj
Music Ustaad Shujaat Husain Khan, Shaarang Dev
Writer Ashwin Mehta, Neera Singh, Pravesh Bhardwaj
Lyrics Amitabh Verma
Release Date 25-Jun-2010

June 25, 2010: Aditya Mehta (Prashant Narayanan) is an artist who is more shown painting his wife’s toenails than the colours of the canvas. His wife Sakhi Mehta (Lucy Hassan) is shown to be having an extramarital affair with Karan Singh (Naved Aslam). Now, Karan’s wife Neera Singh (Aruna Shields) discovers that her husband is cheating on her and she ends up seeking solace in Aditya’s company. They get drawn together by shame and anger as they find more comfort in each other’s friendship. But despite bonding well, they try not to have a relationship with each other.

One fails to understand that though the adultery is shown openly obvious since the start, why do Aditya and Neera never try to confront their respective partners over it? Trying to make the film more provocative widespread nudity has been incorporated on the pretext that overcome his block by painting nude female form ala Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic. Now funnily, Neera is shown to be shying away from posing nude for the painting that Aditya wants to do, despite the fact that she has been shown moving around naked in Aditya’s warehouse for big part of the film. What irritates more are the continually censored blurs that attempt to cover up her nude body. The climax is supposedly symbolic but it is too rushed that you end up feeling there some more of the film left! There is nothing wrong in making a complete art house project but at least let the film connect on some level or derive some emotion out of the viewer apart from frustration!

Debutante director Pravesh Bhardwaj takes his own sweet time to establish the growing proximity between Aditya and Neera but leaves it hurriedly towards the climax. The film’s shot in London but you don’t see much of it apart from some unflattering lanes of London. A wonderful ghazal based track by Shujaat Hussain Khan goes waste in a film like this.

Prashant Narayanan is just about okay but he has done better work before. Aruna Shields is made to expose her body more than her acting skills. Lucky Hassan is passable. Naved Aslam is fair.

The film is a plain bore with nothing good to talk about. Please avoid!

Raavan Release Date 18-Jun-2010

Producer Mani Ratnam
Director Mani Ratnam
Music A. R. Rahman
Writer Rensil D
Lyrics Gulzar
Release Date 18-Jun-2010

“Raavan” is a modern-day replication of the mythological epic Ramayana. Director Mani Ratnam has beautified the character of Raavana from Ramayana and illustrated his personality from a different angle. Though Beera (Abhishek Bachchan) is depicted as Raavan who is expected to be the villain of the story but, effort has been made to show a different image of the Raavan. While hubby Abhishek Bachchan plays the Raavan, Aishwarya Rai plays the beautiful Sita with South actor Chiyaan Vikram as the good soul Sri Ram.

Beera (Abhishek Bachchan) is a criminal who hides in thick forests of Lal Maati from where he executes his criminal activities. He is a menace to the police and he has thorough knowledge of the jungle with hunting skills and he kills policemen and seizes all their weapons. Everybody is scared of him except SP Dev (Vikram) who is the husband of Ragini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan).

Beera kidnapped his pretty wife Ragini to revenge Dev’s dare and to settle his enmity with him. During Dev’s fight to get back his wife, he meets a forest guard (Govinda) who helps him in his search for Beera. Govinda is depicted as a modern-day, Hanumaan though he is not able to do justice to his role. Ragini is a brave girl who is not scared of Beera but, tries her best to escape.

Dev who couldn’t trust Raavan after Sita’s abduction and so demands an Agni-pariksha of Ragini in the form of a polygraph test. There comes a twist in the plot, Ragini is a modern woman and he could accept her husband’s distrust on her and falls for the goodness in Raavan whom she previously hates and loathes. She realizes the good side of the bad man and vice-versa.

The first one hour of the movie is quite slow which would in one way test the patience of the audience. However, Ash was just too good in her facial expressions which reflected her fortitude and determination in the various attempts she makes to run away. Mani Ratnam has tactfully humanized Raavan and showed the demon in otherwise good guy, Ram. Beera, although plays a negative role but he is not heartless like Dev. Beera never misbehaves with captive Ragini.

The movie has a simple plot but what makes the movie beautiful is the acting of the crew and their expressions. Excellent photography by Santosh Sivan gives the movie a special touch and feel. He has captured the beauty of the forests, springs and the mountains. The songs of the movie are by AR Rahman and it’s very rhythmic as expected. Though, it is nothing exceptional.

The acting of all the main characters is worth mentioning, Abhishek Bachchan has effectively brought live to his character and from a villain becomes the hero of the movie. Ash is looking very beautiful with minimum or no makeup. Chiyaan Vikram is also quite good with more actions and less dialogues.

Ek Second...Jo Zindagi Badal De? Release Date : 11,Jun 2010

Producer Rachna Sunil Singh, Agastyaa Singh
Director Partho Ghosh
Music Arvinder Singh, Sawan Kumar
Writer Amit Khan
Lyrics Pradeep Choudhary, Anand Raj Anand
Release Date 11-Jun-2010

June 11, 2010: Having missed the press show of the film, it was a tough job on my part to convince the multiplex staff to play this film which had no audience but just myself because I had to review this film. While they almost decided to cancel the show, they finally kept it on as two couples came in for the show, confident of seeking solace in the empty hall. Now if that, my dear friends, hasn’t given you any idea of how the film is! Well! Read on.

The film narrates the tale, rather the tales of Rashi (Manisha Koirala) who is engaged to the famous novelist Shantanu Rai (Moammar Rana). She is unaware of all the girls who were present in Shantanu’s life before. Then destiny plays a game bringing Rashi face to face with a situation when she loses her job and misses her train, the very same day. Here on, the narrative structure suggests two parts. One where she is unable to catch the train and what follows thereafter and second one where she manages to catch a train and meet Yuvraj (Jackie Shroff) – who is a fun loving and kind hearted person.

With a plot, that is blatantly copied from Gwyneth Paltrow starrer Sliding Doors (1998) which incidentally wasn’t much of a box office success, ESJZBD is a total bore. Though the bottom line of the plot suggests that whatever is destined to happen, do happen but if we fight against it and turn around the incident it will occur accordingly. But nowhere does the screenplay matches up to that. Badly written, and badly directed the film is a total waste of your time.

Director Partho Ghosh ,who had once delivered super hits like 100 Days, Agnisakshi and Dalaal has lost his form and this one shows that he has completely lost his technical finesse as well. One wonders who the target audience of this film is. Manisha Koirala may be making her comeback but audiences have lost interest in her already.

Manisha Koirala, in an author backed role, fails to evoke any interest due to her laid back style of acting. Jackie Shroff ,appears disinterested too. Pakistani actor Moammar Rana is mechanical. Nikita Anand looks hot and indulges in an uninhibited body display but displays very little of her acting talent. Rozza Catalano is just about okay but dances well in the item song. The producer of the film Suniel makes a blunder by casting himself in the film.

All in all, this is one of those films which shall be forgotten past its release day. Just avoid it!

Raajneeti Release Date : 04,Jun 2010

Producer Prakash Jha
Director Prakash Jha
Music Wayne Sharpe
Writer Prakash Jha
Lyrics Gulzar, Sameer, Swanand Kirkire
Release Date 04-Jun-2010

One of the most powerful and pertinent political parables in India undoubtedly happens to be Mahabharat where brothers fought against each other to gain ultimate power. Prakash Jha employs the same politics of power in his contemporary adaptation of Mahabharat, deriving its primary plot and central characters from the epic.

Amidst continual character introductions, technical political procedures and several subplots, it takes a while for you to grasp the scheme of things in the initial reels. Here’s an attempt to summarize the multilayered story in the most elementary manner. Cousins Veerendra Pratap Singh (Manoj Bajpayee) and Prithvi Pratap Singh (Arjun Rampal) are heirs of a powerful political party. When Prithvi gets to take the lead, Veerendra teams up with a backward class leader Sooraj (Ajay Devgan) to plot against Prithvi and evict him from the party.

Prithvi’s younger brother Samar (Ranbir Kapoor) who is studying abroad and has no political aspirations gets sucked into the political rivalry between the families. Under the mentoring of senior party and family member Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar), Samar takes charge of the conniving affairs of state to start their own political party, gather funds and get Prithvi contest against Veerendra.

Those acquainted with Mahabharat will certainly comprehend the character analogy. Veerendra (Bajpayee) is derived from Duryodhan and Sooraj (Devgan) from Karan. Samar (Ranbir) corresponds to Arjun who fought the battle under the guidance of Krishna equivalent to Brij Gopal (Nana) – the passive participant in the war. The characters are effectively recreated and the core concept and conflicts are ably redrafted in the modern milieu.

The screenplay by Prakash Jha and Anjum Rajabali is crisp and has a dynamic flow with the drama building up through the political one-upmanship between opponents in every passing act. With the premise that politics corrupts every soul, almost every central character in the film is sketched with shades of grey. So much so that till a point you are puzzled on who’s the protagonist and who’s the antagonist. But by the second half the two are distinctly demarcated with Ranbir’s character coming to forefront. Other than Mahabharat, there’s also a hint of Godfather in the writing when Ranbir stays back in India to win over his father’s lost empire. And here’s where the film shifts track from a political saga to being a regular revenge drama. The formulaic climax adds to the vengeance plot but at the same time complements the original essence of Mahabharat.

Samar’s entire quest to find his father’s murderer seems frail since the assassin’s identity is obvious with no other character left to gain the benefit of doubt. Arjun Rampal’s arrest in the first half seems as much forced as much as Naseeruddin Shah’s presence in the film’s prologue. The firebrand leftist leader suddenly disappears into oblivion. However the minor loose ends in the narrative are overshadowed by it’s brisk pace and deft direction.

Prakash Jha is the best in business when it comes to handling political drama. While his Hindi heart-belt dialogues and political jargons add authenticity to the film, at times it may be difficult for the audience to appreciate the proceedings. Nevertheless his storytelling is simple, effective and gripping never letting you lose the film for any moment. The hypocrisy of the two-faced politicians that he brings out through the film, as they smile externally and scheme internally is admirable. Also while having a star-studded cast, at no point does he exploit the heroism of his stars but focuses only on the performance of his actors. There are no snazzy entries, starry songs or heroic action sequences. The script gets the better of the actors.

Raajneeti is an absolutely performance driven film and Jha not only extracts excellent performances from his cast but also balances each role so that no actor overshadows the other. Ranbir Kapoor as the protagonist who is willing to go to any extent to win the political race stands out from the towering cast with the most poised performance of his career so far. Manoj Bajpayee is theatrical but since his character demands that, he doesn’t end up hamming like he has been doing in recent roles. In fact he is in superb form and delivers a vicious negative act. Nana Patekar as the silent spectator and guide is so effective that despite taking a backseat his screen-presence is never diluted. Ajay Devgan, once again, speaks through the intensity of his eyes and is remarkable. Arjun Rampal is amazingly confident, playing a character divergent to the roles he has done so far. Katrina Kaif adds dignity to her role and also speaks fairly decent Hindi. Nikhila Tirkha as Ranbir’s mother is impressive. Shruti Seth is effective in her two-scene slattern act.

The epic tale of Mahabharat has been repeatedly adapted on the small screen ever since B.R.Chopra first did it more than two decades back. But barring Chopra’s version, all other direct derivatives have been shoddy and forgettable. All those losers and other aspirants can take a lesson or two from Prakash Jha about the politics of the trade. Raajneeti is the most effective cinematic interpretation of the Mahabharat since Shyam Benegal’s Kalyug (1981).

Prakash Jha’s Raajneeti is a politically correct tribute to Mahabharat. Absolutely recommended!