MOVIE REVIEW – A FLYING JATT (2016)

We are here again with a much buzzed Superhero movie A FLYING JATT (2016) directed by Remo D'Souja which is released this extended weekend on the eve of Janamasthmi. As evident from its name movie the superhero of the movie is named A FLYNG JATT (played by Tiger Shroff) who helps people with his superpowers. The movie is inspired heavily from Hollywood superhero cliches which is mixed and matched up with popular bollywood formula by adding local touch.

Mr. Malhotra (Kay Kay Menon) is a relentless local industrialist who has been dumping his industrial waste into a local lake and is after a crucial peace of land where a holy tree stands with a society owned by Mrs. Dhillon (Amrita Singh) and her sons Aman (Tiger Shroff, who is a martial arts teacher in a school) and Rohit (Gaurav Pandey). When Aman's mother stands tall against Malhotra's men to save her land, he deputes Raka (Nathan Jones) to kill Aman and his family.

When Raka fights with Aman below the fatefull tree in the rains, clubbed with thunder, lightening and with the divine power of the tree Aman gets the superpowers. Interestingly, Raka after lying in toxic waste for over 10 days becomes a toxic supervillain, who fights our superhero 'A FLYING JATT' with instructions from Malhotra.

Remo resorts to comic relief in the movie as a get away and hence we have a superhero who has height phobia, who buys 'Lauki' in the market and who stops at the red light. If the textbooks are boring enought to tell you that pollution is harmful, Remo is here to tell you that the pollution is the cause of cancer today. As Jadoo got his powers from 'Dhoop' this superhero gets it from 'fresh air' as opposed to villain of the movie, Raka who breathes polluted air and get power from it.

If you are tired of listening to that, you will have to torture this lecture for two and half hours during the moive. Not all of it is bad and it is good for kids but a lame attempt to appeal to adults. All in all, Remo comes up with a film that could serve as a fun lesson for kids on why not to pollute air, why to eat ‘lauki’ (because superhero bhi khata hai) and the fact that if you’re an Indian superhero, Ghar ke jaale saaf karna would definitely be your thing!

What’s Good:

A Flying Jatt is a funny superhero drama that has loads of light moments. Its Kid-friendly theme seems to be the most salable point.

Moreover, the fight scenes of Tiger are good as always.

Loop holes in the movie:

If the kiddish storyline is any less, elements such as the Holy tree  is even more irritating and if filmmaker wants to show us a children he could have reduced romantic scenes and avoided kissing. Basically, with all the laughs that come from the funny scenes, there are also the constant yawns over ‘preachy’ stuff!

Since the name is A Flying Jatt, we are also given a doze of history of the Sikh bravery and Remo also manages to push in the ‘don’t make jokes on Sardars’ message in this one. All this stuff is felt out of context.

A dragged second half is a Swachch Bharat ad-campaign, copied elements of Hollywood superheroes and Remo's ambition to ‘preach’ through this movie lets him down.

Some scenes are hilarious such as Tiger dancing to Sunny Leone’s ‘Baby Doll‘.

What’s with telling people pollution is the cause of cancer? This starts to make

Another problem with this film is the music album. The music is totally out of context.

Star Peformance:-

Tiger Shroff, who appeared in his third film still seems quite uncomfortable with dialogue delivery but he looked great during fight scenes. He still has long way to go to come up in the top league of bollywood actors.

Jacqueline Fernandez with her limited role has looked ordinary in the movie. She has played a teacher in the movie but she was not shown teaching even once in the entire movie.

Amrita Singh once again has played the Punjaib Mom after 2 STATES. Her overall performance in the movie is average.

Gaurav Pandey plays a decent part in the movie and his comic is great.

Kay Kay Menon's role in the movie is also not that much interesting.

Nathan Jones as Raka looks scary enough thanks to his huge structure itself. His physical appearance is enough to establish him as a strong villain without dialogues.

Final words:

 A FLYING JATT is good to watch but strictly for kids. For adults, it is too silly to learn about pollution from a Superhero. So, it is recommended to watch this movie alongwith Kids only....

My ratings for this movie is 2 out of 5 stars.

So keep following the page, good day till the next review

Bogal | R E V I E W S

MOVIE REVIEW – HAPPY BHAG JAYEGI (2016)

Today we are here with a review of HAPPY BHAG JAYEGI (2016) - a comic genre movie released this Friday, written and directed by Mudassar Aziz with Diana Penty, Abhay Deol, Ali Fazal, Jimmy Shergill in lead roles. As the name suggests movie is based on an Amritsari girl ‘Happy’ (Diana Penty) who ran away from his wedding as she loves his college mate ‘Guddu’ (Ali Fazal).

The movie opens with a marriage function in Amritsar where Bride - Happy (Diana Penty), who is getting married to a local Corporator Daman Singh Bagga (Jimmy Shergill), escapes from her wedding for getting married to her lover Guddu (Ali Fazal). Accidently, she jumps into a wrong truck which goes to Lahore, Pakistan alongwith convoy of Pakistani Ex-Governor, Javed Ahmed and his son Bilal Ahmed (Abhay Deol), who were returning to Pakistan after attending a Conference in India.

After accidentally reaching Lahore, the energetic and vibrant Happy takes the whole town on her head while an agitated Bagga kidnaps Guddu with an assurance that Happy will come to him. Will Happy and Guddu’s love story have a happy ending? Is Bilal too in the race to win Happy’s heart is all you have to find out by watching the movie!

The film even with a predictable plot, manages to keep you on the seat with its funny dialogues. The comedy in the movie is far better than Housefull series and other Romantic Comedies of Bollywood. There are instances when one is reminded of Kangana Ranaut starrer Tanu weds Manu, Kareena Kapoor starrer Jab we Met, Praneeti Chopra starrer Shudh Desi Romance and Sonam Kapoor’s sneakers-preferring bride in Dolly ki Doli.

The film’s story is set in both India and Pakistan and the good point represented in the movie is that life beyond the border is quite similar to us. Taking on the country’s nature through subtle jokes, dialogues such as ‘Yahan bandook ke bina baat karo toh koi sunta hi nahi hai’ work well. The urdu conversations between Bilal and Afridi are amazing and funny too.

Happy’s character is told us more crazy than actually seeing it in the film. Mostly, it is the side characters that are written best. First half is good but the second half typically gets all the lead characters in one place and thus begins the chaos with multiple sub-plots that kills all the fun as in the most of the bollywood comedies.

What’s Good:

This film’s soul lies in its dialogues and the comic timings. For example when drunk Guddu and Pakistani policeman, Afridi (Piyush Mishra) discussing Urdu and not Kashmir, Bilal convincing his father about seeing his late mother’s ghost to cover-up for Happy’s movements in the house.

Abhay Deol as Bilal Ahmed has played the role which binds the movie altogether. Jimmy Shergil as  Bagga is also good with his comic dialogues such as

The Indo-Pak angle works in favour of the movie and one of interesting scene showing the relations between the two countries is when we see Bilal enjoying a game of Cricket in the by-lanes of Amritsar and after hitting two sixes, he causally mentions being from Pakistan and the kid bowling, immediately gets him bold saying “Pehle bataya hota Pakistan se ho.”

On the whole, clever writing holds this film together.

Loop holes in the movie:

With too many sub-plots, the film’s second half seems stretched.

Moreover, being the lead character ‘Happy’ (Diana Penty) doesn’t justifies his character. Diana must have put her best to play the character of ‘Happy’ most importantly in the era when most of the bollywood movies are male centric and female actresses has seldom roles to play other than to glamorize the movies.

Guddu was shown the musician in the movie but we are never shown him singing or performing throughout.

Star Peformance:-

Diana Penty has put efforts for playing the role of Punjabi girl but she does not come off as convincing.

Abhay Deol looks charming as Bilal Ahmed and holds the movie altogether. Ali Fazal plays the lover boy Guddu and does a decent job.

Jimmy Shergill once again does not get the girl in the film like in the Tanu Weds Manu franchisee movie. His act of Bagga, is quite enjoyable.

Piyush Mishra as the Pakistani cop does a great job and his comic timing is spot on.

Pakistani TV actress Momal Sheikh is seen as Bilal’s fiancee in the film and she does an average job and fails to impact his presence.

Final words:

Happy Bhag Jayegi is watchable. The film’s comic elements and acts keep you entertained and this could be a ‘Happy’ family movie.

My ratings for this movie is 3 out of 5 stars.

So keep following the page, good day till the next review

Bogal | R E V I E W S

MOHENJO DARO REVIEW

MOVIE REVIEW – MOHENJO DARO (2016)

Today we are here with a review of another movie released this Friday MOHENJO DARO by the Lagaan, Swadesh & Jodha Akbar fame director Ashutosh Gowariker. As its name suggests, the movie is set in the pre-historic era of Indus valley civilization and was one of the biggest challenge for the film maker to re-live the time of four centuries ago.

The movie opens in 2016 B.C. with a thrilling scene of hunting a crocodile by a group of youths lead by the lead character SARMAN (Hritik Roshan), who is an Indigo peasant living with his uncle and aunt in Amri village. After hearing big things about the town where they trade their goods, Sarman has a fascination of visiting Mohenjo Daro and convinces his uncle to send him there for trade. Then he visits the town of Mohenjo Daro which seems familiar to him.

There are much efforts to give the movie pre-historic look such as hand stitched clothes, wooden tyres of bullock cart, showing bronze statute found during excavation of Indus Valley, set up of town planning and division as per excavation, pottery, mention of towns of time such as Harrapa, Lothal, Dholavira, Kot-Diji, Amri and the like. Moreover, the filmmaker also mentions about the trade relations with different contemporary civilizations of the time. We are also shown Barter system in operation at the time for trade.

But still there is something missing which sync the whole things with that time.

What’s Good:

Hritik Roshan with his bronze look has tried to entertain us as ‘SARMAN’ and has probably the best thing in the film. The Bhakar-Zokar action scenes in the movie are good to watch and last flood scene is also entertaining to some extent.

Loop holes in the movie:

Movie uses the simple and repeated tale of foster parents, mistaken identity and good vs evil.

Love at first sight scenario, ‘Palat’ scene like in DDLJ as typical bollywood masala.

Overall the movie look like a costume drama and poor editing.

Star Peformance:-

Hrithik Roshan has done his job with perfection has given more than 100%. He delivers a decent performance in an already spoiled script. His action scenes with Bhakar-Zokar are good enough.

Pooja Hegde debuts with this film and but doesn’t have much to do other than a smiling face. As Chaani, she has done nothing other than the costume.

Kabir Bedi as Maham in his scary is ordinary in the movie.

Manish Chaudhary as priest and Chaani’s father does a decent job.

Final words:

Mohenjo Daro has failed in terms of both history and execution.

My ratings for this movie is 2 out of 5 stars.

So keep following the page, good day till the next review

Bogal | R E V I E W S

MOVIE REVIEW – RUSTOM (2016)

Today we are here with a review of a movie named ‘RUSTOM’ (2016) which has created a much buzz among the viewers by its trailer and promotions from the past sometimes. Produced by Neeraj Panday & others and directed by Tinu Suresh Desai, RUSTAM is a crime-mystery film based on a true case of 1959, where a Naval Officer KM Nanavati murdered his friend for cheating him by having illicit relations with his wife.

The movie opens in deep seas in a naval ship with Commander Rustom Pavri on board. While returning home, he finds his wife Cynthia (Ileana DCruz) cheating on him with one of his friends Vikram Makheeja (Arjan Bajwa), who holds the reputation of being lose with girls. The heart-broken husband goes to the friend's house, pumps three bullets into his chest, and surrenders himself before the police.

Director Tinu Suresh Desai has tried to recreate the real life incident on screen with a touch of suspense, entertainment, and romance and he has more or less succeeded in his efforts. The film has some pleasant surprises that will keep your interest alive every now and then. Also, the director has kept the characters' costumes and appearances true to the timeline, as the Nanavati case unfolded in 1959.

In Rustom, the protagonist’s character is written with lot of sugarcoating that we hardly find him a murderer. The filmmaker has added some fiction in the story and added the angle of patriotism by adding the corrupt deal of aircraft career to add more masala. The film’s story has been crafted well with good twists, turning points.

The side characters are much more well-written. We love the ‘maid’ who shouts in favour of her employer in court without the fear or knowledge of being held in contempt. Also Kumud Mishra’s newsmagzine owner character is lovely to watch. The representation of a young kid selling the newspaper by attractive dialogues also worked well. The courtroom scenes are dramatic and at times look like TV-serial type drama.

What’s Good:

Akshay Kumar in Navy uniform is looking gorgeous. Good recreation of 60s time by the film maker. An entertaining and interesting plot and suspense of three bullet shots scene till the end keeps you well-hooked to your seats.

Loop holes in the movie:

They fail to show how justified it is for a Navy officer’s wife to drift into adultery given the circumstances. Towards the climax, the plot falters hugely when the jury is deciding the decision and it looked terrible.

We are also not told how the protagonist is wearing the white stainless uniform even when he is in lockup and has not met even his wife.

Movie is also bit slow at certain points.

Star Peformance:-

Akshay has played his part very convincingly and effortlessly.

Ileana DCruz does not have much to show as an actress in the film except shed tears, and look good. She has managed to do both well.

Esha Gupta has also lived the character of arrogant sister of Vikram Makhija.

Arjan Bajwa as Vikram Makhija is uninspiring. He is made to look like a 50s villain but there is nothing like that in him.

Pavan Malhotra as the investigating officer on case does an excellent job.

Kumud Mishra in his tiny role too manages to impress us.

Final words:

RUSTOM is good enough to be watched in the weekend but viewers who are expecting a well-made movie in all departments may be disappointed.

Die hard fans of Akshay Kumar are most welcome.

My ratings for this movie is 2.5 out of 5 stars.

So keep following the page, good day till the next review

Bogal | R E V I E W S

MOVIE REVIEW – BAMBUKAT (PUNJABI) – 2016

Today we are here with a review a review of a beautiful, lively and healthy movie namely – BAMBUKAT (meaning Motorcycle). The movie is from the makers of ANGREZ and LOVE PUNJAB and is directed by Pawan Batra. Like ANGREZ too Pankaj Batra in this movie too takes the audience back in the era of 1960s when owning a motorcycle got a great amount of respect from the entire village.

BAMBUKAT is the story of 2 sisters: Pakko (Simi Chahal) and Simmi (Sheetal Thakur) and their husbands: Chanan Singh (Ammy Virk) and Resham Singh (Binnu Dhillon). Chanan is from a humble family of farmers and dreams of getting ‘Bambukat’ like his brother-in-law Resham Singh because he feels that in order to gain the respect in the eyes of his in-laws, he also needs to own a Bambukat. So his love for buying a Bambukat lands him into a trouble which accidently put him behind the bars and what follows next and how he proved his love for Bambukat and for ‘Pakko’ is the rest of the story, for which you will have to watch the movie.

Director Pankaj Batra has successfully put the old Punjabi scenario on screen. Some scenes from the movie are that much perfect that makes unbelievable that it’s a Punjabi movie. Direction has taken the story of a common man and his dreams exactly on the right path. All the songs from the movie sound really good and back ground score is good but some songs seem to like disconnecting from the story.

Bambukat is a story of 2 sisters of different complexions. The biased approach of their family could also be seen in their marriages as the dark skinned is married to a poor family and the fair toned is married to a government officer. The title is very apt for the movie. It’s a complete family entertainment movie. The movie contains a mixture of comedy and drama and ensures that viewers are fully entertained throughout.

Star Peformance:-

Ammy Virk shows us yet again proves that he is in industry to stay. The rural charm that this guy has is simply mind blowing and he is outstanding throughout the movie. He got into the skin of Channan Singh with much ease and carried off the character with full confidence.

Simi Chahal has done a wonderful job as a debutant. Her cute looks, her expressions and earthen make up made her character Pakko, pretty believable.

Binnu Dhillon is once again looked great as Resham Singh and no one but him could have done this character so well. His moustache, his body language, his portrayal of Resham was outstanding.

Sheetal Thakur was pleasant on screen but she wasn’t really given much to do in the film. Other artists were also good.

Final words:

If you are a dream lover then, Bambukat is a must watch movie for you because this will make clear to you that how much hard work is needed to fulfill our dreams.

My ratings for this movie is 3.5 out of 5 stars.

So keep following the page, good day till the next review

Bogal | R E V I E W S