MOVIE REVIEW – BANJO (2016)

 Sorry for the delayed response guys.

Today we are here with the review of the movie named BANJO (2016) released this Friday with Riteish Deshmukh and Nargis Fakhri in lead roles, directed by Ravi Jadhav and music given by Vishal Shekhar. It is a movie based on the life struggle of talented Banjo Band from the Chaals of Mumbai. Riteish Deshmukh has taken a risk by playing solo hero as a Banjo player in a movie when his multi star movies are performing remarkably well.

In the opening credits, the movie mentions that it is dedicated to street musicians all over but as the movie starts it is off colour. The film maker put every bollywood masala in the film like a crime scene, love story, emotional twists and rival gang and result of which effects badly to the film.

The movie is like many other movies based on music and dance. BANJO is a story of a budding NRI girl Chris (Nargis Fakhri) living in New York who is impressed by a group of Banjo players led by Taraat (Riteish Deshmukh) who comes all the way to Mumbai for searching their part time band for composing two songs for entry in a music festival in US.

Taraat (Riteish Deshmukh), who is known as ‘Banjo ka Bachchan’ works as part time extortionist with local Corporator when he is not playing Banjo but he is very helping and very loved one among his Chawl walas.

Will Chris be able to help Taraat and his Banjo Band get the recognition and respect they deserve is what the film has in its kitty.

While talking of direction, Jadhav has given us complete Mumbai feel of Worli and marks for capturing Ganpati Festval.

What’s Good:

Some peculiar dialogues that gives you comic relief in an otherwise boring film. Look of Riteish as a Rockstar is also good.

Loop holes in the movie:

Unnecessary love angle when main focus should have been Banjo.

Useless characters such as Pandit who is Chris’ friend’a uncle.

One of the most silly scene of the movie was that when the band was performing live at a club and during the song, all the four performers were dancing (Hello Director Sir, they are Banjo players not dancers).

Star Peformance:-

Riteish Deshmukh as Taraat in the rockstar look this time tries hard to impress in this heroic role but a half-hearted script pulls him down. If Banjo was written any better, the fate of the film could have much different.

Nargis Fakhri as Chris is completely disappointing. She lacks body language while performing American budding musicians. Her trying American accent is even more pathetic.

Luke Kenny as Mikey is impressive and his Marathi speaking dialogues funny.

Dharmeah Yelande doesn’t get to dance much in this film but he played his role efficiently.

Final words:

If you love such movies with bands and their uprising, you will surely love it. Otherwise it is passable.

My ratings for this movie is 2.2 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 – PINK (2016)

 Today we are here with a review of one of the movie released this Friday i.e. 16^th September, 2016 namely PINK (2016), starring Amitabh Bachhan, Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang and Angad Bedi in lead roles. The movie is directed by Bengali film director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury and Co-produced by Vicky Donar, Madras Cafe and Piku fame Shoojit Sircar. It is a simple story of girls which can happen to any girl in India.

The movie has a strong statement on the feudal mindset of majority of Indians, where men and women are judged by different yardsticks and if the man is from the influential and higher strata of life, then the fight for justice is even more tough.

The movie questions our patriarchal society which has different safety manual for females where men will decide what to eat, what to drink, what to wear, what to eat, how to behave, where to go or not to go etc. etc. Pink questions the society’s mindset where we think girls with western outfits and those who enjoy a drink with men are of loose character.

One more point the movie raises is that of harassment against North Eastern girls. Andrea’s character even admits to have been through much more    eve-teasing. Ritesh Shah cleverly also puts across a strong point as to why in spite of being seven different states, we refer every person from Meghalaya, Sikkim, Manipur etc to be a North-Eastern.

PINK has one more strong message that whether the woman is a wife, girl friend or a sex-worker, when she says ‘NO’ to being touched then no man has the right to force himself on her or outrage her modest.

Minal Arora (Taapsee Pannu), Falak Ali (Kirti Kulhari) & Andrea (Andrea Tariang) are three independent working girls from Delhi, Lukhnow & Meghalaya, who share a rented apartment in South Delhi. On the fateful night during a party in a Resort in Surajkund, Faridabad, these three girls met three young men and after Rajveer’s repeatedly ignoring the warning of Minal, she accidently hit him with a bottle above the eye.

A deep cut and male ego leads Rajvir and his friends to further harass these girls further for teaching lesson. After repeated harassment, Minal lodges a police complaint against Rajvir and friends for molestation which backfires and Rajvir using his influence in Police charges Minal for attempt to murder and extortion as a Sex Worker.

When the matter comes up in court with defense lawyer Deepak Sehgall (Amitabh), who has a bipolar disorder, representing the girls, the film takes a dramatic turn. The court-room sequence in the movie is inspired by Hollywood movie “The Accused” which was released in 1988. The role played by the AMITABH BACHHAN is simply outstanding and one must say that by growing age his acting is speechless.

What’s Good:

PINK is a gripping movie that forces us to think and think again. Powerful script, good screenplay and backing performances lift the film into a must watch category.

Loop holes in the movie:

However, Deepak (Amitabh) was suffering from Bipolar Disorder or he is protecting himself from Delhi’s Air Pollution but his mask is seriously not good. Second half of the movie is also bit long.

Star Peformance:-

Taapsee Pannu plays the strong Minal Arora effortlessly. She has performed every scene in the court as a common girl and we hope her as an actress in making for bollywood.

Kirti Kulhari as Falak Ali does a brilliant job. One of the scenes where she breaks down in the court is marvellous. Andrea Tariang does a fine job too but gets a slightly smaller role than the other two.

Amitabh Bachchan as always is outstanding in any given role. As Deepak Saigal, he does a brilliant job.

Piyush Mishra as the prosecution lawyer is brilliant, as he succeeds in the audience hate him for scathing remarks against female and the societal norms they must conform to.

Angad Bedi nails the bad boy act of Rajvir with just his arrogant stare. You wish to kill him and that’s all for him as an actor. The rest of the cast too, comprising the landlord, the lady police officer, the three friends of Rajveer, support the main actors with their strong performances.

Final words:

YES! All males who claims to be liberal yet have no shame in categorizing girls into ‘Loose character’ based on their dressing, their being frank, this movie is a big lesson. For girls I’d say it is so common that it could be related to anyone of you or your friends such situation.

My ratings for this movie is 4 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 – BAAR BAAR DEKHO (2016)

Thanks to all my friends who are regularly following Bogal |R E V I E W S which is inspiring me for regular reviews of the movies releasing every weekend.

So coming on the topic, today we are again here with a review of a movie released this Friday on 9^th September, 2016 namely BAAR BAAR DEKHO (2016), starring Sidharth Malhotra and Katrina Kaif in lead roles. The movie is directed by debutant director Nitya Mehra, who has also earlier worked as Assistant Director in the movies like DON, LIFE OF PIE etc. and also directed the blockbuster teleseries 24 (2013) Season 1. The movie is based on a love story of a passionate mathematician Jai Verma (played by Sidharth Malhotra) and a lovely Painter/Artist Dia Kapoor (played by Katrina Kaif) and their struggle to be a married couple.

The movie has a strong message that life is not a mathematical calculation and it is about living the present moment lively and it also has a message that there should be a balance between personal and professional life like a mathematical equation. With materialist approaches and ambitious careers we generally forget to enjoy the small moments of life like the hero of this movie Jai Verma.

There are lot Hollywood movies of the similar themes. However, the filmmaker has taken a challenging subject about the time travel by showing the time from 2016 to 2023, 2034 & so on in the movie and has not succeeded perfectly.

Jai Verma and Dia Kapoor are childhood friends, while Jai is a brilliant mathematician who wants to work in Cambridge University and leave anything for the sake of his love for mathematics, even his beloved Dia Kapoor. When they are about to marry, he feel trapped in their relationship and felt that wedding will affect his career.

Then only starts a time travelling twist in the movie and what it has in store for the lives of Jai and Dia you have to watch in the movie.

What’s Good:

Good looking Sidharth Malhotra and hot Katrina Kaif, the beautiful locations and the portrayal of future times is the main stay of the movie.

Moreover, the entertaining music is also interesting and enjoyable.

Loop holes in the movie:

Weak acting by both the lead actors be it Sidharth or Katrina is the biggest loop hole of the movie. Moreover, portrayal of second half is also not upto the mark.

Star Peformance:-

Sidharth Malhotra couldnot adopt the role of Jai Verma upto satisfaction and has very confused expressions at times in the movie.

But Katrina Kaif has once again disappointed with his acting in the movie, her expressions and dialogues are out of sync. Her new avatar abs act better than her!

Ram Kapoor as Katrina’s dad has played his character well. Rest of the supporting cast also put up decent work.

Final words:

BAAR BAAR DEKHO is only ‘Ek Baar Dekho’ movie. A new combination of good looking actors, good music and love story is the only reason to watch.

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 – AKIRA (2016)

Today we are here with a review of a female-centric movie AKIRA (2016) – NO ONE WILL BE FORGIVEN by the GAJINI and HOLIDAY fame director A. R. Murugadoss. The movie has Sonakshi Sinha (playing Akira Sharma), director turned actor Anurag Kashyap and Konkana Sen Sharma in the lead roles. AKIRA is a hindi remake of a Tamil movie ‘Mouna Guru’ released in 2011.

AKIRA is a story of a simple girl living in Jodhpur with her family, who is forced at a very early age to learn to protect herself from the bad goons residing in her society. Her deaf-mute father (Atul Kulkarni) sends her young daughter (played by Mishiekka Aroar) to learn Martial Arts over dance (as choosen by most girls of her age) to make her strong enough to protect herself from the goons. In an incident of defending herself from the bad guys, Akira accidently throws acid on one of them and lands into Juvenile prison for three years of her life.

After 14 years, the story moves on and Akira alongwith her mother has to move in with her brother who lives in Mumbai with his wife for higher studies. She decides to stay in college hostel when she finds her sister-in-law is unwelcoming.

The other story revolves around a weird, corrupt and chain smoker ACP Govind Rane (Anurag Kashyap) and his three other associate/disciples who spot a huge money at an accident spot in a vehicle, and in their greed to keep it with themselves they killed a person which changed their lives forever. In unending efforts to keep all this a secret, series of events happened one after another.

A. R. Murgadoss made sure that film doesn’t bore the audience at any point of time and the plot is so interwoven that you cannot leave the cinema hall during the movie even for a loo break. One thing is for sure that the movies like KAHAANI and QUEEN have opened doors for female centric movies in Bollywood which is known for Male centric films.

Murgadoss as we see started with honourable intentions of trying to impart self-confidence among girls but besides such noble thought he couldnot manage a solid plot. Post interval, things get so complicated that you want to kick and punch when the entire onus of cracking the case is given to a heavily-pregnant, Rabia Sultan (Konkona Sen Sharma) inspired from Frances McDormand of the Hollywood thriller FARGO (1996).

What’s Good:

The start of this film have been wonderfully shot and edited though. Akira has a fast-moving and thoughtfully interwoven story.

Anurag Kashyap as the corrupt and cocaine addicted ACP Rane has steal the show.

Last but not the least, the background score the movie is to the point and well constructed.

Loop holes in the movie:

With the kind of theme and plot AKIRA has, it possessed a lot of potential to make socio-political statement but the film makers have taken the easy and commercial-friendly route here.

The movie has excess of drama in it.

The kind of help a mentally sick patient extended to Akira was not justified and looked superficial.

And it was really ridiculous in the end when the Akira compares herself to Jesus Christ.

Star Peformance:-

Sonakshi Sinha in an action avatar has looked great and justified her role to a great extent and this movie will surely help her in changing her stereotyped image of roles Dabang, R-Rajkumar type movies where female actresses has nothing to do.

Anurag Kashyap plays the role of corrupt ACP with full perfection. His character seems pretty believable, and makes for a good villain to have over hate.

Konkona Sen Sharma has done full justice to her small role with her usual acting style.

Final words:

Akira is an entertainer. It will surely manage to get you involved right from the start. This film is a good one-time watch, a female centric movie with nothing new to offer.

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