A Girl

Short Story 

A Girl

I work in a Govt. Department and generally travel to office on my bike or by car. It was raining profusely overnight and was not possible for me to travel by bike and my car was also at service station, so I was left with only option  of going office through public transport i.e. Bus. Carrying an umbrella in one hand and Tiffin in other, I was thinking of my past when I use to travel by Public transport during my college days, my struggling days as I had no other means of transport.

Travelling after in Bus after so many years, I felt that not many things have changed. Drivers still stop their vehicles here and there without proper bus stop, use to overload their vehicles and use other illegal means etc. Anyways, till the closing of office , rain had stopped and for going back home the bus I had boarded was full to its capacity except one seat where one middle-aged person was sitting. I adjusted myself there and taken that seat beside that man. Till the next stop the bus was so crowded that even day light couldn’t pass through. Then only I saw a confident young modern girl in western attire standing near my seat with pile of books in her hands and a bag on her shoulder. As a courtesy call, I offered my seat to her and after my request she while thanking me with a smile on her face for this generosity sat over there.

Due to very heavy rush in the Bus I was not able to see outside and then only when I was looking at her books, I noticed that the middle-aged man was touching her with his elbow and she in order to save herself and avoid the situation separated herself from him or may be she was thinking that it was accidental due to heavy rush in the bus. But the man shamelessly again came closer to her and again started to molest her and then only she raised an alarm that he is trying to misbehaving with her.

The said middle-aged man smartly in order to save himself from the public wrath said: “You are mistaken young lady, you are like my daughter.” Passengers sitting in the bus have different opinions over the incident. Some were saying; “How mean or cheap this girls is, who is trying to tarnish the image of a respectable person by accusing him of molesting her” and some were talking about her western attire that such girls attract innocent male with such clothes and then create scenes.

Then only I thought that I am living in a country where our Ministers are issuing advisories to female foreign tourists for avoiding short clothes and skirts during evenings then such state of mind of the common masses towards female folks is acceptable.  

After coming out of my thoughts I realized that the girl is feeling alone and then only I intervened in the matter and asked; “I had seen him teasing her.” On hearing the man had heating exchange of words with me and which ended in a scuffle and me and the girl didn’t gave any respect to his middle-age and gave him a thrash. Later, we were joined by several other co-passengers and he asked the driver to hand him over to the Police. On his repeated requests only, the girl forgiven him.

During my Bus visit I realized that how our mothers, sisters, friends, co-worker girls or ladies feel humiliated everyday because eve-teasing and sexual abuse is common in our society but only few of them are reported to the authorities due to many other social obligations. We are living in a society where on one hand female is given the status of goddess and on the other hand they are looked as a commodity.  

                                                                                 -         Swarn Deep

#MOVIEREVIEW – #RAEES – (2016)

Today we are here with review of a much delayed movie released this week by the name RAEES (2016) directed by Rahul Dholakia. Raees is starred by Shah Rukh Khan, Mahira Khan & Nawazuddin Sidiqui in lead roles. The movie is allegedly based on the story of Gujarat based Gangster and bootlegger of 1980s & 90s.

PLOT:

Raees (Shah Rukh Khan), a child of a ragpicker widow, early in his school days learns the trade of illegal alcohol in a dry state of Gujrat. After working under a popular liquor smuggler Jai Raj Seth (Atul Kulkarni) in his teenage, he decided to start is own illegal liquor smuggling business.

He was truely inspired by his mother’s quote ‘Koi dhanda chota nahi hota, aur dhande se bada koi dharma nahi hota, jisse kisika bura na ho.’

Due to his ‘Baniye ka dimaag aur Mian Bhai ki daring’ he soon manages to become a big liquor smuggler with the help of corrupt political network and due to his success in his illegal business, he was attracted towards the honest Cop Jaideep Majumdar (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). The cat and mouse chase between two continued till the end.

ANALYSIS:

Like numerous other bollywood movies, Raees is also glorifying the smuggler and a criminal who does the Robinhood types of deeds for the poors and downtrodden by the money made from the illicit means. Raees is also shown helping the kids by providing them books etc., helping ladies to providing them sewing machines and also wants to build housing colony, a hospital and an English medium school for his locality. He also provide food and assistance during the curfew days for his localities irrespective of religion of the locals.

Raees impresses by its great dialogues such as ‘Battery Nai Bolneka’, ‘Dhande mein koi Hindu-Muslim nahi hota’ and ‘Main Dharam ka dhanda nai karta’.

Script wise, the film starts with good pace and become dull in the second half when there is too much of heroism portrayed by Raees. Overall the movie is a good entertainer, involving romance, politics and action and justifies in the end that dhanda tab tak bura nahi hota jab tak isse kisi ka bura na ho.

Background music and songs are nice and complimenting the movie. Laila song of Sunny Leone is far interesting and better than ‘Haseeno ka Deewana’ played by Urvashi Rautela.

WHAT’S GOOD:

Raees is a complete package of action, romance and drama, an entertainer with nothing to take away home.

UNINTERESTING:

As already said the movie has nothing to take away home, as it glorifies the  gangster and negative shade character.

STAR PERFORMANCES:-

Shah Rukh played Raees quite efficiently and his fans will love his recent outing.

Mahira Khan has not nothing special in the movie for which she was assigned.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is in his golden times. He has once again played the role of Cop with full energy and enthusiasm. I love it.

Mahira Khan’s casting has been the talk of the town. Unfortunately, she does nothing special here and for all we care, any Bollywood actress could have pulled off that role. She even fails to emote appropriately in a few scenes.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is a star. Every scene with this man is loaded with entertainment and he is the true key to why this film is a fun watch. Loved him all through!

Zeeshan Ayyub, also played is role as Sadiq quite efficiently.

FINAL WORDS:

An entertainer with Shah Rukh effect and Nawaz is also a treat to watch. But nothing to take home.

My ratings for this movie is 3.2 out of 5 stars.

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

Bogal | R E V I E W S

#MOVIEREVIEW – #KAABIL – (2016)

Today we are here with review of one of the movie by the name KAABIL (2016) released this extended weekend in view of the Republic Day. The movie is produced by Rakesh Roshan and directed by Sanjay Gupta. KAABIL is starred by Hrithik Roshan, Yami Gautam, Rohit Roy & Ronit Roy in lead roles. The movie is inspired by a Hollywood movie by the name Blind Fury.

PLOT:

Rohan Bhatnagar (Hrithik Roshan), a visually impaired voice over artist and Supriya Sharma (Yami Gautam), a visually impaired piano player met over an arranged date, fall in love for each other and after brief courtship, got married as they both are of the opinion that ‘two negatives are becoming positive’.

Just when their happily married life was started, a disturbing event shakes their lives as Supriya got raped by Corporator Madhavrao Shelar’s (Ronit Roy) younger brother Amit Shelar (Rohit Roy) and his friend. As expected, even after filing FIR, police turned a blind eye to the case in the influence of the Corporator. Rohan was even more broken when Su committed suicide and then he plans to take law into his own hands.

ANALYSIS:

Kaabil is a challenging film which portrays a visually impaired protagonist seeking revenge against powerful villain. It sounds impressive as a plot but seems lacking during the film.

The first half of the movie takes off quite hurriedly with meeting of the lead actors and fast forward love story and lesser happy moments for them. We feel the filmmaker wants to rush towards the thrilling zone. The post rape scene is not well handled between the couple. Rohan leave his shocked wife alone to finish off his dubbing deadline is also unbelievable.

One of the scenes that has been shot in a mall had a chance to be extremely impactful but is executed in an immature manner.

Dance sequence between Hrithik and Yami is good but the action sequences are the best directed portions in the film and hence the second half is a much better watch. The climax is well executed and makes a good enough ending to the film. The music is not that good.

WHAT’S GOOD:

Hrithik Roshan’s toiling effort and Ronit Roy’s Marathi accent as a villain are the two best things in Kaabil.

UNINTERESTING:

The movie had a good plot, good acting but looks unrealistic at times. The music is not that good

STAR PERFORMANCES:-

After his terrible outing in Mohenjo Daro, Hrithik has worked hard to reinstate the faith of his fans. He has performed the role of a physically impaired person quite confidently. Particularly in the action scenes, he is near perfect and performed excellently.

Yami Gautam has looked pretty as Supriya. She also performed her role good.

Rohit Roy in a negative shade is also looked good but its Ronit Roy who stealed the show as a baddie as Madhavrao. He has picked up Maharashtriyan accent quite efficiently.

FINAL WORDS:

Revenge film with unrealistic sequences plus typical bollywood masala. Hrithik fans must watch this movie as he has worked very hard to perform such a challenging role.

My ratings for this movie is 3.0 out of 5 stars.

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

Bogal | R E V I E W S

#MOVIEREVIEW – #OK #Jaanu – (2016)

Today we are here with the review of the romance genre movie released this week i.e. OK Jaanu – 2016 starring Aditya Roy Kapur and Shradha Kapoor in the lead roles after their superb love chemistry in Aashiqui 2. The movie is a remake of Mani Ratnam’s Tamil Hit movie ‘OK Kanmani’ and directorial venture of Shaad Ali after his last disastrous venture ‘Kill Dil’.

PLOT:

Adi (Aditya Roy Kapur), a video game developer & Tara (Shraddha Kapoor), an architect first met rather encountered from distance when she was about to jump in front of a local train in Mumbai after fighting with her boyfriend. Few days later, both met again in a friend’s marriage and started to develop chemistry and within no time, they become more than just friends, in their words, JAANU.

Adi followed Tara on her official trip to Ahmedabad and they spend quality time together and after their return, Tara shifts to Adi’s rented room at retired High Court Justice G Shrivastava’s (Naseeruddin Shah) house. His wife Charu is a renowned classical singer and Alzheimer’s patient who often leaves the house on her own and loses her way.

Charu’s bond with her extremely caring husband, whom she calls Poplu, inspired the young lovebirds inspite of their unconditional relationship to respect each other’s privacy. But that does not happen in reality and they end up behaving like every other couple caring about each other thanks to the older couple living with them.

Six months pass like a dream and then comes the time to separate. Adi creates a video game called Mumbai 2.0, for which he has to move to Los Angeles and Tara gets admission to study architecture in Paris. What next???

ANALYSIS:

There is absolutely nothing new in movie and the story is so predictable. Bollywood has witnessed a number of movies with a similar theme when a couple with no commitment ends up with marriage.

But Naseer’s character is good. He is strict but affectionate person, who treats his tenants as his children and takes care of his ill wife singlehandedly, with no household help without any complaints. Chaaru, his wife is also very kind lady who unfortunately fails to remember people due to her disease.

Taara’s relationship with her mother depicts how children get affected when their parents part ways. All the characters in the film are nicely created. Adi and Tara fall in love a bit too fast. We wonder if people do fall in love that fast in reality!

There are some funny moments in the film too. The music of the movie is good but not the best.

What’s Good:

Aditya and Shraddha’s love chemistry. Naseeruddin Shah’s love and care for her ailing wife Leela Samson.

Uninteresting:

The music in the movie is not as great as original Tamil venture. Repetitive bollywood love story theme with nothing new.

AUR BHI GAM HAIN ZAMAANE MEIN MUHABBAT KE SIWA

Star Peformance:-

Aditya’s performance as an actor is outstanding in the movie. He is a grown up actor for now.

Shraddha also puts up a good performance.

Naseeruddin Shah as always is love to watch and Leela Samson’s portrayal of An Alzheimer’s patient performs good enough.

Final words:

Ok Jaanu is a today’s generation love story with no commitments who are inspired by the love bond of oldies. Full entertainment movie nothing as such to come home.

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

DANGAL MOVIE REVIEW

#MOVIEREVIEW – #DANGAL – (2016)

The two years long wait for Mr. Perfectionist, the Aamir Khan has come to an end and he is there with his most anticipated movie DANGAL (2016) featuring himself, Sakshi Tanwar, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sanya Malhotra, Aparshakti Khurrana & young Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar in lead roles. DANGAL, is a sports biopic, co-produced by Aamir Khan himself, Kiran Rao & Siddhart Roy Kapur and directed, screenplay by Nitesh Tiwari.

DANGAL is based on true story of Mahavir Singh Phogat (played by Aamir), who taught wrestling to his daughters Geeta & Babita, who both brought laurels for India in international wrestling by winning gold/silver medal/s in Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games. The filmmaker has taken a challenging subject of making movie on Mahavir Singh Phogat and his two wrestler daughters but has passed with flying colours.

Mahavir Singh Phoghat (Aamir Khan) is a National level wrestler who was forced to give up his dream to won a medal for his country in wrestling to earn livelihood for his family. As such, his only dream is to see his son fulfill his wish of winning a Gold medal for India but the destiny has something else planned for him as his wife (Sakshi Tanwar) gives birth to four daughters. A heartbroken Mahavir, gives up his dream with no son in the picture.

After a fight with local boys, Mahavir’s elder daughters, Geeta (Zaira Wasim) and Babita (Suhani Bhatnager) beat the boys profusely and after receiving complaint from their family, Mahavir realizes that his daughters are no less than boys and starts to train them for wrestling.

The young girls are unhappy with their new way of life and even try to get out of it but later they are trained enough to take on the boys at a local Dangal where Geeta starts to win against the best of trained male wrestlers. From there on Geeta and Babita started winning sub-junior, junior, state, national and finally Commonwealth Games.

It is a good story of a father in 80s in Haryana, who trained her daughters for wrestling against the wills of the prevalent society of the time but the most important and impacting thing is the way of execution. Everything in the movie is perfect, be it the Aamir Khan playing the character of Mahavir Phogat, Sakshi Tanwar’s class acting, Aparshakti Khurrana’s comic timing or roles of wrestlers of Phogat sisters played by Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sanya Malhotra and young Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar.

The movie also took the issue of government not funding the budding players to grow and win medals for states and country.  The father-daughter relationship between Geeta and Mahavir & Babita and Mahavir are explored well emotionally.  

The music by Pritam is good and complimenting the story. Dangal title track is an energy booster and Haanikaarak Bapu is simply superb.

Loop holes in the movie:

A cinematic twist in the climax seemed unnecessary. Babita’s wrestling should also been given some screen space may be by curtailing some fights of Geeta.

Star Peformance:-

The Best Ever performance of Aamir Khan. He performed the role of Mahavir  Phogat so perfectly, that’s why he is called Mr. Perfectionist.

Sakshi Tanwar also played her role of Mahavir Phogat with perfection and ease.

Young Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar as young Geeta and Babita are absolutely stunning. Especially Zaira acted like a real life wrestler.

Fatima Sana Sheikh as grown-up Geeta is marvelous. She clearly has undergone immense training for this role and hence pulls off the wrestling extremely well.

Sanya Malhotra as Babita does not get a big chunk since the story focuses on Geeta’s journey more, yet she puts up a great performance. Also, Ritwik Sahore as Mahavir’s young nephew is a delight.

Aparshakti Khurrana (Ayushmann Khurrana’s brother), does a great job as Mahavir’s grown-up nephew. His comic timing is spot on.

Also, Ritwik Sahore as Mahavir’s young nephew is a delight to watch.

Final words:

DANGAL is an inspiring, emotional and perfect movie in all departments. Its a treat to watch.

My ratings for this movie is 4.3 out of 5 stars.

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

Bogal | R E V I E W S

#MOVIEREVIEW – #DearZindagi – (2016)

Today we are here with the review of the movie released this week i.e. DEAR ZINDAGI – 2016 an impact giving movie on our mind that how important mental health is.  Its a nice movie on different theme as her previous directorial film by Gauri Shinde. The movie is co-produced by Gauri Khan & Karan Johar starring Alia Bhat and Shah Rukh Khan in lead roles.

PLOT:

Kaira (Alia Bhatt) is a talented young cinematographer and an independent girl but is confused when it comes to love.

When both her personal, work and love life slides simultaneously, she needs someone to fix it. Moreover, she also has complex relations with her parents. All that lead her to meet a Psychiatrist (Dimag Ka Doctor) i.e. Dr. Jehangir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) for her problems, whom she met accidently in a hotel for the first time.

With his ‘out of text’ ways, JUG i.e. Dr. Jehangir Khan helps Kaira to open up with initial reluctance and humour. With his ‘cool’ stories, he win over Kaira’s fears and teaches her to embrace life.

ANALYSIS:

First positive thing in the movie for the bollywood is that we are introduced to the leading lady’s character by her profession at her workplace and then in the bars & parties. Then we are told about her problem with commitments & her other issues with her parents.

Giving her good support as the friend indeed is Yashashwini Dayama's Jackie who gets some of funniest bits of Shinde's script. There is a feminist perspective too as Dear Zindagi looks at Kaira pushing to make it in a man's field (She is a camerawoman), having numerous relationships and the pains of being a single woman in the city.

In the first ten minutes, she breaks up with Sid (Angad Bedi) and later she bails on giving Raghuvendra (Kunal Kapoor) a crisp answer about getting serious. What follows is her dealing with the recent break-up with Raghu and an entire first half is wasted in this.

What Gauri Shinde tries to do is a pack of hefty learnings such as importance of parenting in shaping an individual, being open to seeking mental health or societal acceptance for a girl with multiple relations but unfortunately she couldn’t blend all them seamlessly perfectly in the film.

Overall, the humor element is too forced and Kaira’s uncle asking her if she’s Lebanese instead of Lesbian is quite out of place. The focus all through remains on Kaira and hence her love interests, Raghu (Kunal Kapoor), Sid (Angad Bedi) or Roomi (Ali Zafar) get no background whatsoever.

Dear Zindagi has its heart in the right place ridden with cliches such as a gay visiting a DD (to help him accept himself). Dialogues like Jug saying “Genius is knowing when to stop” say much more than needed.

Much like the teasers, the scenes of Kyra’s meetings with Jug are the most interesting bits and particularly powerful in the second half. Kyra’s breakdown is shot brilliantly and will leave everyone with a lump in their throat. After a sluggish first half, the movie picks up well in second half and never slows down till the end.

Cinematography by Laxman Utekar is simply superb. He captures Goa and its natural vibe of breaking free rightly. Also, the entire sequence of Kyra’s dream is shot nicely.

What’s Good:

Shah Rukh’s role of DD in the age somewhat equal to his actual age is great. Alia Bhatt once again has proven her metal. A good second half pulls his film up.

Loop holes in the movie:

The music in the movie is not complementing its theme. Slow first half is also a problem.

Star Peformance:-

Alia Bhatt has once again performed so brilliantly in the movie.

Shah Rukh Khan as Jug is simply adorable. Flashing his dimples, playing his age and a matured dressing, all put him in the likable category.

Kunal Kapoor as Raghu, looks the enticing young man, Angad Bedi is hardly there for two scenes in the film as Sid, Ali Zafar’s act as Rumi, the musician is likable enough.

Ira Dubey and Yashaswini Dayma are decent in their supporting roles.

Final words:

Dear Zindagi wander through many nothings to say something. It has come up with a message for us to treat mental health like other health issues.

My ratings for this movie is 3.3 out of 5 stars.

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

Bogal | R E V I E W S

#MOVIEREVIEW – #TumBin-II – (2016)

Today we are here with the review of one of the two movies released this week TUM BIN-II (2016), a romantic drama movie starring Neha Sharma and new comers Aditya Seal & Aashim Gulati in lead roles,  written and directed by Anubhav Sinha. It’s the sequel of the movie of the same banner 15 years ago by the name TUM BIN. The present movie plot is somewhat similar to first TUM BIN with minor additions/alterations.

PLOT:

Taran (Neha Sharma) and Amar (Aashim Gulati) is a loving couple. On their vacation together, Amar takes a skiing expedition and met with an accident. After, 09 days of search operations, the rescue team fail to find his body and assume him to be dead.

Taran is mourning the loss of her fiance and her family tries to keep her cheered up. After about six months of the incident, her father in law (Kanwal Jeet) introduces her to Shekhar (Aditya Seal), who reminds Taran that in spite of all the pain in life after going of our loved ones, life must go on. Then they start to develop a feeling for themselves and just then only, Amar miraculously returns back after being treated by a doctor for coma for eight months.

Then Taran has a situation to choose between her past and present. Whom will she choose, for that you have to watch movie....

ANALYSIS:

TUM BIN-II may be called remake of the original one and not the sequel as the same concept is used in this movie except for Amar’s return after the accident and more painful is that the movie even lacks emotional connect which was the soul of the previous TUM BIN.

The characters have been crafted so poorly that it you couldn’t bear to sit and watch someone so confused about their life.

Towards the end, one gets a feeling as to how messed up all the three lead characters are when both the boys are playing passing the parcel about Taran and saying ‘Bhai Tu Le Le’, ‘Bhai Tu Le Le’. The over-sentimental  second half drags without any point.

The side characters of Taran’s sisters, Manpreet and Gurpreet are much better than lead roles. The scenes where we see the family enjoying together are very good and specially the dinner table scenes. Light hearted humour in the Gurpreet’s Pakistani love and her sister’s drama over Pakistani is also very enjoyable.

Shekhar’s role in the present movie is philosophical and entirely different to the original film in which Shekhar is a matured guy where his guilt needed no words to express his pain.

TUM BIN-II in spite of having a situational love triangle, teaches you nothing about love where characters are confused between real meaning of love, infatuation, guilt, right or wrongs.

There is nothing new in the film and nothing is surprising which happens during the course of story.

Like the original, the soul of the movie is its beautiful music. But, one thing is for sure that not even a single track could beat Jagjit Singh’s Koi Fariyad even if it is the revamped version. Cinematography is also stunning in the movie.

What’s Good:

Few lighter moments with the family of Taran, melodious songs & good cinematography are few good things in the movie.

Loop holes in the movie:

Second half of the movie is overstretched. Also, the main loop hole is the pathetic acting by the three lead actors.

Star Peformance:-

Neha Sharma with a weak performance almost destroyed the film as one cannot feel the pain of Taran’s character with her expressions & dialogues.

Aditya Seal as Shekhar looked ordinary particularly with expressions.

Aashim Gulati as Amar, who look alike Sidharth Malhotra’s acting is pathetic. It would have been better, he doesn’t have had spoken either.

Kanwal Jeet as we know is a talented actor and performs his part perfectly and so was the role of the Manpreet and Gurpreet, better than the lead roles.

Final words:

If you are going to watch as it is a romantic love story, better stay away, the first version even after 15 years is much more better.

My ratings for this movie is 1.8 out of 5 stars.

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

Bogal | R E V I E W S