#MOVIEREVIEW – #AeDilHaiMushkil – (2016)

Today we are here with the review of one of most controversial movies of the times due to Pakistani artists ban controversy and the more. Yes, it is AE DIL HAI MUSHKIL (2016), love theme movie by Karan Johar with Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Aishwarya Roy Bachhan & Fawad Khan in lead roles. The  present movie is somewhat different from typical Karan Johar’s romantic love stories. AE DIL HAI MUSHKIL deals with complexed lines between love and friendship & living with one side love.

Ayan (Ranbir Kapoor) and Alizen (Anushka Sharma) met accidently at a bar in London and hooked up a friendship. Both are crazy bollywood fans who sing cheap 80’s songs, make fun of each other’s partners and enjoyed alot with each other. Ayan has a feeling for Alizeh but she has painful past due to break-up with her long time boy friend Ali (Fawad Khan), due to which she wants only friendship which is evident from her dialogue “Pyaar mein junoon hai, par dosti mein sukoon hai.”

After they get closer, Ayan falls for Alizeh, Ali returns to Alizeh’s life and she gets married to him. Heartbroken Ayan tries to find love in the beautiful Sabah (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) who is a ‘Shaayara’ but the duo don’t go a long way because of Ayan’s continued love for Alizeh.

Will Ayan’s unanswered love for Alizeh receive any response is what you can know after watching the movie.

Certain scenes touch your heart such as the entire Channa Mereya song. This one will make you reach out for your tissue box as always with Karan Johar’s film.

First half of the story is full on entertainment with every section of bollywood masala and doesn’t let you move from the seat but in the second half story seems expected and it is felt that movie is unnecessary dragged and the last 15 odd minutes are the weakest part of the movie.

There are many things about the story I don’t understand, first of all when we see all around our society struggling for livelihood, we watch the lead actors of the movie roaming here and there, partying, moving in chartered planes. All this doesn’t seems connected to our society in general and serves only to a specific class. Filmmaker not even introduced us with other family members of any of the lead actors and only a reference is made at some places.

One more thing I am not able to understand that what kind of relationships are being portrayed by Karan Johar and such filmmakers. Their definition of being in love and being physical in relationships is very complex.

Music has always been integral to the Karan’s films and this legacy continues in the present movie also as all the songs are melodious and already hit.

What’s Good:

Typical Karan Johar’s heart warming tale of love in its complicated nature with fun, parties, beautiful people, beautiful foreign locations and complementing music.

Loop holes in the movie:

Second half of the movie seems expected and slow. The last 15 minutes could have been replaced with a scene or two.

Star Peformance:-

Ranbir Kapoor has performed the ‘true friend type’ and ‘heart broken lover act with perfection. At times, it may have looked repetitive like Rockstar, so what it was one of his best performances. As Ayan he has looked cute and girls will love him.

Anushka Sharma looks beautiful as Alizeh. From her delightful bubbly girl to her breaking down when in pain is well performed and one must say that after Sultan, its her another good performance.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has looked good in a new glamorous avatar and could be a tough challenge for new actresses in her second inning. But she should have given bigger role.

Fawad Khan has looked too hot. But he had very little to do in the movie given his small role.

Lisa Haydon’s cameo as Ayan’s girlfriend is spot on.

Shah Rukh Khan, Alia Bhatt and Imran Abbas are also looked good in their Guest appearances.

Final words:

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is for lovers who believes in the power of it and has been through a heartbreak or even close to it. Full on bollywood masala with a different ending for Karan Johar’s film.

My ratings for this movie is 2.8 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 – SHIVAAY – (2016)

Today we are here with the review of one of two big budget movies released this Friday i.e. 28th October, 2016 namely SHIVAAY – (2016), the action flick starring Ajay Devgan, Erika Kaar, Abugail Eames & Sayesha Saigal in lead roles. The movie is directed and produced by Ajay Devgan. Moreover, its story is also given by himself. SHIVAAY is a ambitious project of Ajay Devgan and because of it he has delayed the Golmaal & Singham series films.

SHIVAAY is a story of a mountain trekking guide, who treks in Himalayas. In one of his treks, he mets a Bulgarian girl Olga (Erika Kaar) and after saving her life in a deadly avalanche, both fall in love. On Shivaay’s insistence, she agrees to gave birth to their child but refuses to live with them due to her personal pre-occupations and left for Bulgaria without having a glimpse of her newly born daughter who was later named Gaura by Shivaay.

Nine years later when Gaura learnt that her mother is alive, she forces her father to meet her mother at Bulgaria and during the visit, Guara gets kidnapped by a Child trafficking & flesh trade nexus. The kidnapping of his daughter turns over Shivaay into deadly killer, who confronts with the racket in Bulgaria. Soon death-defying action sequence take centre stage, which are at par with Hollywood movies.

Will he be able to save Gaura and such kids from the clutches of child traffickers is what you can know after watching the movie.

There had been a lot of expectations from SHIVAAY considering the fact the time and money Ajay has spent on the project. As expected in the promos of the movie, the action sequences are well executed as in the Hollywood movies and the only hope in the movie.

But the movie has lots of issues, be its run-time of about 3 hours and poor editing. Every scene of the movie seemed lingered on, as Ajay forget where to stop it. The action sequences and stunts are for complimenting the story of any movie but in the present case, it seems the filmmaker missed to work on the story.

His quick romance with Bulgarian girl Olga is highly bollywood masala and difficult to digest. One more thing when Shivaay requests Olga to give birth to their child out of her wish and leave him after giving birth as he is Orphan and wants to be a father. Hold on my dear its about giving birth to a child and not like that you are requesting to buy a thing from market. The whole thing is highly illogical. I also don’t understand the logic behind showing Gaura as Dumb.
The music of the movie is good particularly, Har Har track.

What’s Good:
The stunning action, locations and cinematography of SHIVAAY is complete breathtaking.

Loop holes in the movie:
The movie fails to make any emotional connection, the soul of any movie is the story and Shivaay lacks in this context. The dialogues in the movie are also pathetic.
Star Peformance:-
SHIVAAY is Ajay Devgan show all through the movie and he is literally in every frame of the movie. Although in the multitasking spree, he missed out in acting sometime and directions some other times. Overall he has looked good as Shivaay.

Erika Kaar’s acting is not that good.

Sayesha Saigal is good in her small role.

Abigail Eames as Gaura (an 8 years child) does a good job though her character is speech impaired.

Other characters are negligible in the movie.

Final words:
Shivaay is an action movie with great visuals, but lacks emotion, good story. The fans of Ajay Devgan must love it but for others watching such long action movie would be bit difficult.
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

#BookReview – #OneIndianGirl – (2016) #ChetanBhagat

                                                                Pic credit: Google

INTRO:

It’s a new initiative for #BOGALREVIEWS as today we are here with the review of a recent book (Novel) #OneIndianGirl launched few days ago, written by the most talked about author of India in recent times CHETAN BHAGAT. All his earlier books have remained bestsellers and four among them have inspired Bollywood movies namely 3 IDIOTS, KAI PO CHE!, 2 STATES & HELLO. Moreover, Chetan Bhagat has also written screenplay for many bollywood movies.

Unlike his earlier books where the stories are narrated by the male characters, the story of the ONE INDIAN GIRL is surprisingly narrated by a female girl namely RADHIKA MEHTA, who had done MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad and working with Goldman Sachs as Investment banker like Chetan Bhagat himself who worked with Goldman Sachs for nearly a decade.

Radhika Mehta, a 24 years old investment banker (Vice President) in Distressed Debt Department of the Goldman Sachs, who has worked at New York & Hongkong and presently working in London is at Goa with her extended family for her destination wedding with Mr. Brijesh Gulati, a Facebook techie working at San Francisco.

During the marriage functions, her two Ex-boyfriends namely Dabashish Sen from the New York and Neel Gupta from the Hong Kong office of Goldman Sachs reaches at the venue to patch up with Radhika and persuade her to marry them. During the course of the story, we are taken back to four years back when Radhika joins in Goldman Sachs at New York and how she progresses in her career and how develops her affair with Dabashish Sen, the advertiser and how she had left the New York.

Then we are brought to present and then to two years back at Hong Kong where Radhika had an affair with 20 years older Goldman Sachs Partner Neel Gupta who was already married and had two kids too. In the end we are told how Radhika Mehta, the strong Indian Girl comes out of the mess of her three suitors.

The author has taken a tough call by writing the story through female perspective and has succeeded to some extent but carrying the flag of feminism & Gender Equality throughout is not possible at every point of time. One can’t call the book ‘feminist’ just because it features a female a central character. If Radhika Mehta is a feminist then why did she agreed for an arranged marriage in the first place? Why was she getting waxed only to please a man? Where was her feminism when she kept running from one city to other only to get away from men? Why she agrees with her husband-to-be Mr. Brijesh Gulati who said that feminism is misguided and the correct term is humanist? However, it doesn’t matter whether Radhika is a feminist or Investment banker or nerd, but according to Bhagat all Indian women need a ‘SWAYAMVAR’ to make up their mind.

As we know Chetan Bhagat is a great story teller and while reading his books we feel that the things are happening around us and that is why most of his books are bestsellers and that magic is continued in this book also and I will not be surprised if ONE INDIAN GIRL also inspires one more bollywood movie. The book has also a nice conclusion and shows the strong character of a Working Indian Girl.

What’s Good:

The great story telling and nice conclusion.

Loop holes in the book:

It is understandable that Radhika Mehta had a live-in relationship with Debu but I don’t able to get what point Bhagat wanted to prove when Radhika got involved with Neel Gupta, a married man, a father of two kids and whom she believes that should not leave his wife.

Chetan Bhagat is a great story teller but I don’t know why the hell he uses the cheap bollywood masala tricks in his books when is already a bestseller and a role model for the Youth of India. He is a torch bearer and he should also take the onus on him and avoid adult scenes with minute details as I don’t believe that if he do so he is going to lose his audiences. 

Even in the present book his minutes detail has gone far away from his earlier books and at times it seems like a porno.

 

Final words:

Good melodramatic story like a bollywood movie and there is lot of fan following for Chetan Bhagat but I think there should be an adult certificate the books too like we have on movies.

My ratings for this BOOK 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 – MIRZYA – (2016)

Today we are here with the review of one of the movie released this Friday i.e. 7^th October, 2016 namely MIRZYA – (2016), based on the Punjabi folk legend on the love story of MIRZA-SAHIBA. MIRZYA starring deubtant Harshvardhan Kapoor and Saiyami Kher in lead roles is directed by Rakeysh OmPrakash Mehra and its screenplay is written by Gulzar

MIRZYA  is divided into two eras, one where horse riding and shooting arrows, Mirza tries to win his beloved Sahiba by fighting her brothers; whileas in contemporary times, Suchitra (Saiyami Kher) and Monish (Harshvrdhan Kapoor) are childhood friends until a dreadful crime made them apart. Years later, when Suchi returns to India for her engagement to a royal prince, Karan (Anuj Choudhary), she revived her friendship (actual love) with the stable boy, Adil who happens to be Monish.

The horrible question of Class difference between the two and the criminal past of Mohnish is the big obstacle in their love story. Can their love story is like the old legend of Mirza-Sahiba or they lived happily is what you can know after watching the movie.

There had been a lot of expectations from Mirzya considering the screenplay by Gulzar who can write silences they conveys more than words. However, the cinematography comprising of Ladakh’s beautiful landscapes and the colorful Rajasthani folk flavor and palaces is absolutely stunning.

The poetic narrative of the film is difficult for everyone to digest figure out. Moreover, the folk tale makes sense even but its modern day take seems nothing. There is hardly any dialogue given to Harsvardhan and Siyami. There is a level of disappointment in the script since we rarely feel the passion that Suchi and Monish are supposed to have. Even a music video on a love story could have narrated better.

What’s Good:

The stunning visuals and horse riding long shots are great. Editing too is top notch.

Loop holes in the movie:

As a piece of content, Mirzya has little to offer. It is poetic but fails to connect with the viewers due to many reasons.

Star Peformance:-

Much awaited performance of Harshvardhan Kapoor in his debut goes in vain. He doesn’t get much to show off his acting skills although with his exhausted look of the stable boy, his impressed. Moreover, his features behind an overgrown beard prevents his expressions from coming through.

Saiyami Kher looks good in the movie but the challenge for her is to emote without much dialogues and believe me she is not that good.

Anuj Chaudhary who play Saiyami’s fiancé performs impressively. Rest of the cast is also good.

Final words:

Mirzya is dramatic, poetic and has great cinematography but lacks story and dialogues which are soul for any movie. Moreover, this is not everybody types movie and for those who like poetry in motion.

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 – M. S. DHONI: THE UNTOLD STORY (2016)

Today we are here with the review of one of the most anticipated biopic of the year namely M.S. DHONI: THE UNTOLD STORY (2016) featuring Sushant Singh Rajput, Anupam Kher, Kiara Advani & Disha Patani in lead roles. The movie is directed by A WEDNESDAY, SPECIAL 26 & BABY fame NEERAJ PANDEY & co-produced by Dhoni’s close aide Arun Pandey. As its name suggests, the movie is based on the untold life history of the Indian Cricket Team captain M. S. Dhoni. Sushant Singh Rajput has taken a big leap in acting by portraying Dhoni: the living legend and has succeeded to a great extent in his marathon effort.

From the opening scene of the big World Cup Final through the streets of Ranchi where M. S. Dhoni is brought up, the movie grips up well and the filmmaker beautiful portrays the life of a middle class family living in small towns, their small dreams of getting Govt. Job. Till the half time, we never loose interest but after interval there are some unnecessary things such as exaggeration of romance and love songs, honeymoon etc.

The movie starts with the big World Cup final and from there we go to flashback to Dhoni’s childhood where we are shown that he had no interest in cricket earlier instead he was a football goalkeeper. The movie shows how he toiled hard to become cricketer despite all odds including his father’s aspiration to get the govt. Job.  We are shown his focus, his commitment and his love for cricket when he left his Railways Ticket Collector’s job. We are also introduced to his friends who helped him alot during his early days.

Pandey has made a glorifying image of Dhoni in the movie and it is all right by one way but a biopic shouldn’t be biased we should be told other side of the story too. There should be references to the controversies that were revolving around Dhoni such as his giving up Test captaincy in the middle of a difficult away series and Chennai Super Kings betting scandals.

Anyways this is expected from Mr. Arun Pandey, who is long time friend and business partner of MS Dhoni.

What’s Good:

Sushant Singh Rajput efficiently played his act as Mahendra Singh Dhoni and dialogues such as ‘Hume Bhi Ek Chance Dijiye Naa” and “Naukri ke liye out thodi na honge” are awesome.

Loop holes in the movie:

A three hours run time could have been avoided by cutting the love songs and the honeymoon tour. Second half should have been curtailed.

The movie should have some negative shade of MSD also to balance a biopic. Give a break yaar! No one is so perfect.

Some scenes are silly e.g. when his school coach leaves the keys of his scooter after parking in front of gate. Another such scene happens when team-mates lift Dhoni to celebrate win even when Dhoni has scored a century in the first inning as told in earlier scene and match has not been concluded.

Star Peformance:-

Sushant Singh Rajput gives his best ever performance for this movie. He has been completely transformed as Dhoni not only by his body language but he also has learnt to play cricket especially the helicopter shot.

Anupam Kher played good as Pan Singh Dhoni, the father. He played brilliantly in emotional scenes where he is full of pride for his son.

Bhumika Chawla plays Dhoni’s sister and played her part fairly well.

Kumud Mishra’s character is the one that holds importance in giving Dhoni the big break.

Kiara Advani and Disha Patani have also played their part well as per the requirement of the script.

Herry Tangri, who played Yuvraj Singh has ordinary role. Only thing which was his saviour was his face and his body language like real Yuvraj Singh.

Final words:

If you are a big fan of M. S. Dhoni or you are a cricket lover you should watch this movie. Otherwise you may skip it.

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