Badmaash Company Release Date : 07,May 2010

Producer Aditya Chopra
Director Parmeet Sethi
Music Pritam Chakraborty
Writer Parmeet Sethi
Lyrics Anvita Dutt Guptan
Release Date 07-May-2010

Story: Shahid Kapoor and his gang of three friends -- Anushka, Vir Das, Chang -- dream of getting rich quick. Obviously, morals don't have much to do in their show-me-the-money schemes and they set up their million dollar company on umpteen crooked deals. So far so good, but soon power corrupts, the law catches up and family values come in conflict. Can the dream run continue?

Movie Review: They are your average friendly neighbourhood guys: the hazaar Cafe Coffee Day dreamers and diviners who hatch a million plots and plans for a zingy future before their cappuccino gets cold. And they all have one thing in common. They all want the good life fast, any which way, and don't mind breaking a few rules here and there. No nine to five stiff-collared jobs for this Badmaash Company who may have been brought up with middle class values, yet they couldn't care less before dumping them in the nearest trash can. Extra baggage for them, all this blah-blah about imandari (honesty) and izzat (respect).

Hence, the importance of Shahid Kapoor and gang who tell their dads to take a chill pill and turn their backs to papa's punctilious way of life, believing it got him nowhere. In a seminal scene of the film, Shahid watches his mom pawn or sell off her jewels -- or something precious--for a couple of thousands which she hides under pallu, as the duo drive off to the hospital to save daddy (Anupam Kher) who's suffered a heart attack. His eyes well up but his face grows hard, with anger and frustration. Ah! the desperation and the drudgery of the middle class existence....After that, it's mission get-rich-quick all the way, as Shahid embarks upon a dangerous journey with his friends to unleash one shady business deal after the other. The foursome christen their badmaash company as Friends and Co. and hop aboard a roller coaster ride that obviously has no disembarkment point. And, when they've done all the stuff that money can do, they realise they aren't the same simpletons any more. More importantly, Shahid's grown into an egotistical, power-hungry maniac who actually believes he's God! Watch out for this neat little sequence which adds punch to the proceedings.

Indeed, Badmaash Company does have a bunch of riveting scenes, although the story does follow a very predictable line of crime and punishment/repentance.Also, what jars most are the repetitive business deals which form a major chunk of the film and say nothing new, other than the fact that the foursome are building their empire on fraud. The film picks up when the cracks begin to appear and the company breaks up due to internal fission. The chemistry between the foursome does have a dash of energy, although most of the time is spent in song and dance.

Badmaash Company may not be as buoyant as Bunty aur Babli, the original badmash couple in recent cinema, but it does make for some merry viewing.

A word about:
Performances: Shahid Kapoor does manage to hold your attention in certain sequences, but essentially it's the ensemble cast of Vir Das, Chang and Anushka that creates most of the drama.

Story: Parmeet Sethi makes his debut, both as director and scriptwriter of the film. The story is interesting, simply because it talks of today's youth and their rush to rise to the top.

Cinematography: Sanjay Kapoor captures middle-class Mumbai with credibility, though goes touristy with Manhattan.

Dialogue: Loads of four letter words, freakin', f'of and the rest: Badmaash Company is peppered with aaj ki bhasha

Music: Music by Pritam. Really? Quite un-Pritam like. No chartbusters.

Styling: Urbane and chic, the foursome pass from chokra style to brando-maniacs, minus hiccups.

it's wonderful afterlife Release Date : 07,May 2010

Director Gurinder Chadha
Producer
Starring Shabana Azmi, Shaheen Khan, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Zoe Wanamaker, Jimi Mistri, Sally Hawkins, Goldy Notay, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Mark Addy, Ash Varrez, Adlyn Ross

It set me thinking as reel after reel of Gurinder Chadha's It's A Wonderful Afterlife unspooled. We (the Bollywood reviewers/critics) are extremely harsh on films produced on hometurf. We go hammer and tongs after these film-makers, as if they have committed a crime that they cannot be absolved of. We tend to ridicule films, its makers, the actors in those films… In fact, just about everyone associated with those films.

How about using the same yardstick for movies attempted by names that command tremendous respect in the West? We forgive them, most of the time. We even turn a blind eye, ignoring the deficiencies only because the West holds them in high esteem. The thought crosses our mind pretty often: Wouldn't we come across as complete nincompoops if we ridiculed them, even if they turn up with pure trash?

I am not going to mince words. With It's A Wonderful Afterlife, celebrated filmmaker Gurinder Chadha hits a new low. It actually makes me wonder, was Bend It Like Beckham a fluke? It's A Wonderful Afterlife is so insipid and hollow that it makes her previous film Bride & Prejudice, considered by many as her weakest film, look like an epic in comparison.

Final word? It's A Wonderful Afterlife had everything going in its favour. But let's not forget that great vegetables don't necessarily make a yummy meal. This Gurinder Chadha curry is just not palatable!

Mrs. Sethi (Shabana Azmi), a widow, can't bear the thought of her daughter being alone and unhappy. When Mrs. Sethi can no longer stomach the rudeness of families who refuse her daughter, she takes matters into her own hands with the only way she knows... Suddenly a police hunt begins for a serial murderer.

Mrs. Sethi doesn't feel too guilty until the spirits of her victims come back to haunt her, as they are unable to be reincarnated until their murderer dies. Mrs. Sethi has no problem killing herself - she'll get to see her dead husband again - but how can she go before her daughter is married? The spirits realize that helping Mrs. Sethi find a suitable husband for her daughter, before the police catch her, is their only chance for a wonderful afterlife.

On paper, perhaps, the story of It's A Wonderful Afterlife may sound tempting and alluring. At least I found it attention-grabbing when I first heard it, several weeks ago. But sitting through those 1.40 hours of this cinematic journey is an ordeal. Seriously, what were writers Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges thinking when they wrote the screenplay? Barely a few minutes into the film, you realize that Chadha has lost the plot already.

To state that the screenplay is shoddy would be putting it mildly. The only aspect that's amusing and which bears the unmistakable stamp of Chadha are the sequences between Shabana and the spirits. The love story is a total yawn, while the emotional moments are weak and the investigation of the murders is half-baked too. In fact, an investigating officer gets killed in the backyard of Shabana's home and guess what, the crime is conveniently forgotten, except when Senthil talks about it to Shabana. And why the beaten to death 'cancer' end? Gurinder seems to be watching too many (terrible) Bollywood films, seems like.

Talking of performances, Shabana is dependable, as always. Goldy Notay as Shabana's daughter is efficient. Sendhil Ramamurthy is alright. Jimi Mistry doesn't get ample scope. Sally Hawkins is first-rate. Mark Addy is passable. Sanjeev Bhaskar is wonderful. Shaheen Khan and Zoe Wanamaker (Shabana's next-door-neighbour) are decent.

On the whole, this one's a woeful experience, not wonderful by any standard!