Rating: 3.5/5 stars (Three-and-a-half stars)

Star cast: Arjun Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra, Gauhar Khan.

What’s Good: The breezy first half; the good performances; the music and the background score.

What’s Bad: A few boring portions in the second half; the climax, which will not be liked by a majority of the lay viewers.

Verdict: Ishaqzaade makes for an entertaining watch.

Watch or Not?: Go for it if you want to watch a love story with a twist.

Yash Raj Films’ Ishaqzaade is a love story of two youngsters belonging to two opposing political families.

In a small town in UP where muscle powers reigns and politics is conducted through the muzzle of a gun, Parma (Arjun Kapoor) is one of the grandsons of Chauhan, a political leader who is contesting for the post of the MLA. Chauhan’s bête noire, Qureshi, is the current MLA of the area. Chauhan and Qureshi are sworn enemies, whose fight for supremacy often leads to gun battles in broad daylight. Parma, who is one of the ringleaders of the Chauhan family, wants to rise up the family ladder. He brazenly uses his might to do things for the family.

On the other hand, Zoya (Parineeti Chopra), Qureshi‘s gusty daughter, is no less than her brothers in her hate for the Chauhans.

While canvassing for votes in their college, Parma and Zoya have a tiff and Zoya slaps Parma in front of everyone. As he has orders from the family patriarch to not indulge in violence, Parma stops short of shooting Zoya.

Soon, he falls for her and woos her till she reciprocates his love. The two meet secretly and even get married in the presence of two of Parma’s friends. Immediately afterwards, Parma has sex with Zoya. Then, to her surprise, he abandons her, claiming revenge for the slap.

Parma even uses photos of Zoya getting married in the Hindu way – without showing his own face – to rubbish her family’s name. As a result, Zoya’s dad loses the election. Parma becomes his grandfather’s blue eyed boy.

Zoya’s father decides to snap all ties with her. Zoya, meanwhile, escapes from her home with the intention to put a bullet in Parma’s head. What happens then? Does Zoya kill Parma and avenge her honour?

Ishaqzaade Review: Script Analysis

Story writers Aditya Chopra and Habib Faisal take the age-old plot of a love story between members belonging to feuding families and give it a very nice twist. Faisal’s screenplay does full justice to the story. The first half is fast paced and entertaining. All the characters are well-etched and leave an impression the viewer’s mind. The last scene of the pre-interval portion has a surprise in store for the audience, which is shocking as well as engaging. However, the drama loses steam in the second half when the young couple deals with the aftermath of their marriage. Certain portions of the second half seem repetitive and even bore the audience a little bit. The climax, which is very unlike the happy endings the audience is used to seeing in commercial movies, will disappoint a section of the viewers.

On the positive side, the emotions will appeal to the audience, especially the youngsters and girls. Screenwriter Faisal also successfully establishes the film’s milieu very well, something that makes the drama completely believable. The angle of Hindu-Muslim rivalry has been exploited very well. Dialogues, penned by Habib Faisal, are earthy and entertaining.

Ishaqzaade Review: Star Performances

Arjun Kapoor makes a fine debut as Parma. He emotes well, acts with a swagger and dances delightfully. He has a very good screen presence as well. Parineeti Chopra, whom we loved in Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl, shines again in a complex and intense role. She looks very good and acts like a song. Arjun and Parineeti’s on-screen chemistry and excellent performances are the highlights of the film. Gauhar Khan, who plays courtesan Chand, does very well. All the supporting cast members provide very good support.

Ishaqzaade Review: Direction & Technical Aspects

Habib Faisal’s direction is first-rate. The writer-director treads a very different territory after Do Dooni Chaar but manages to make the narrative compelling. Only if he had paid more attention to making the second half crisper, the film would have proved to be a better package. Amit Trivedi’s music is very good. The songs go with the narrative. Lyrics, by Kausar Munir and Habib Faisal, are fine. Ranjit Barot’s background score sets the pace of the drama. Choreographers Chinni Prakash and Rekha Chinni Prakash make the songs a delight to watch. The production design is excellent. Cinematography, by Hemant Chaturvedi, is eye-pleasing. Aarti Bajaj’s editing is fine. Sham Kaushal’s action choreography is realistic.

Ishaqzaade Review: The Last Word

On the whole, Ishaqzaade is an entertaining fare which works on the strength of its first half and the performances.

Ishaqzaade Trailer

Bipasha Basu, Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Sonam Kapoor in Players

Business rating: 1 / 5 star

Star cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Bobby Deol, Bipasha Basu, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Sonam Kapoor, Sikander Kher, Omi Vaidya, Vinod Khanna.

What’s Good: The train robbery sequence; some comedy in the second half; Omi Vaidya and Neil Nitin Mukesh’s acting.

What’s Bad: The loose and uninteresting screenplay; the poor music; the dull acting of Abhishek, Sonam and Bobby.

Verdict: All that glitters is not gold. This gold rush adventure will not see people rushing to the cinemas.

Loo break: Several, especially after interval.

Watch or Not?: Watch it for the stylised shooting.

(Spoiler alert! You may want to skip directly to the ‘Script Analysis’ portion of the review.)

Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Burmawala Brothers’ Players (UA), the official remake of the Hollywood film, The Italian Job, is about a gold heist adventure. Charlie Mascarenhas (Abhishek Bachchan), a chartered accountant by profession, learns from a DVD he receives from Shehla, the widow of his deceased friend, Raj (Aftab Shivdasani in a friendly appearance), that gold worth Rs. 10,000 crore is going to be transported from Russia to Romania in a train. He approaches Victor Dada (Vinod Khanna), who is serving a jail sentence, and seeks his help in putting together a team to rob the gold.

Victor Dada introduces Charlie to a group of people with varied skills: Ronnie (Bobby Deol) is a magician and illusionist; Sunny Mehra (Omi Vaidya) is a makeup and prosthetics artiste; Bilal Basheer (Sikander Kher) is an explosives expert; and Rhea (Bipasha Basu), an automobile expert who also doubles up as a seductress. Spider (Neil Nitin Mukesh), an expert computer hacker, is the only missing block since he is untraceable. Naina (Sonam Kapoor), daughter of Victor Dada and friend of Charlie, is herself a hacker, and she tracks down Spider, thereby helping Charlie and his group to establish contact with him (Spider). However, Naina is the only one who doesn’t know of the proposed gold robbery. In fact, her dad has broken the promise he had made to her about never again indulging in criminal activities, just so that he can make enough money in this one last act, to build an orphanage and school for the orphans.

Spider plays hard to get but he ultimately comes around. Detailed plans are made to execute the train robbery. Rhea seduces a Russian official and drugs him so that Sunny can make a mask to resemble his face. On the appointed day, the Russian official is drugged by Sunny. Charlie impersonates the official, thanks to the mask. By then, Rhea has readied another train to match the speed of the train carrying the gold bars. Spider is hacking into the site of the Russians to crash it for ten minutes during which the gold bars have to be transferred from the train carrying them to the train in which Charlie’s team is travelling. Ronnie creates an illusion so that the guards travelling in the train with the gold can’t see the train running alongside their own train.

Everything works according to clockwork precision including the code to open the train compartment carrying the gold bars, which has been obtained by secretly and strategically placing a camera. But things go wrong in the last few minutes. However, Charlie and his team still manage to steal the gold.

There is a hitch though. One of the team members betrays the rest of the team and makes away with all the stolen gold bars. In doing so, s/he kills Victor Dada and the other team members – or so s/he thinks. Most of the team members actually survive and re-surface after a year to reclaim the gold. What happens then? Does the betrayer have the gold? Where is s/he and where is the gold? Do the other team members succeed in laying their hands on the gold?

While the story is interesting the screenplay botches the attempt so badly that Players turns out to be a boring fare

Players Review: Script Analysis

A thriller like Players could have worked only if it were made as a fast-paced and stylish film. While this film is stylish, it is anything but fast-moving and, therefore, gives the audience so much time to think that it fails and falls flat on its face. It is for this very reason – giving the viewers time to think – that the entire train robbery sequence and the latter part look fake and unbelievable. Charlie and his team get to know every detail of the train journey so easily and are able to carry out their plan so meticulously and effortlessly that the audience starts questioning the security arrangements made to transport so much gold.

There have been earlier films, too, in which major crimes have been committed to clockwork precision but if one hasn’t questioned them, it is because the audience did not get the time to think of the loopholes while watching them. In this case, the pace is so slow and the drama, so half-baked that tens of questions crop up in the viewer’s mind for which the story and screenplay writers offer either no logical answers or half-baked answers.

Screenplay writers Rohit Jugraj and Sudip Sharma have written a script of absolute convenience, which the intelligent audience of today will find hard to digest. At least one team member oscillates between the betrayer and the betrayed and why s/he does so is not clear. When the intention of that member becomes clear towards the end, the audience is left wondering why that member behaved the way s/he did and why s/he did not come clean in the beginning itself. How the betrayed traces the betrayer, how the team gains entry into the betrayer’s citadel so easily, how the team works thereafter and how the betrayer falls prey to the team when they succeed in locating him/ her, all these have been sought to be explained as becoming possible through technology and computers. But it is anybody’s guess that the viewer is not going to accept these merely because it appears to be possible because of technology. Of course, the writers have taken care to explain things in a very basic manner so that even those who are not computer-literate or technology-savvy can understand the progression of the drama but that’s about it. For, even though the viewers (literate or illiterate) would be able to follow the drama, they may not necessarily go with it.

All in all, while the story is interesting, the screenplay botches the attempt so badly that the film turns out to be a boring fare. On top of it, the drama is so long-drawn that it tests the audience’s patience, especially in the second half. Probably, the worst part of the drama is that the key players are so laid-back in their approach that they should never have been successful, yet success comes knocking at their door always. Also, the audience’s sympathy goes to no character in the film, because of which the viewer remains an outsider and never ever gets involved with the drama. Dialogues, also penned by Rohit Jugraj and Sudip Sharma, lack the fire and the thrill.

This is not to say that there aren’t any plus points in the film. The train robbery sequence, for one, is quite nice and has also been shot well. The track of Johny Lever in the post-interval portion is interesting because of the Hindi and very Indian dialogues mouthed by his foreigner-wife, his twin sons and the foreigner servant.

The climax is not half as exciting as it ought to have been. Also, the film lacks romance because although there are two girls and five guys, the script doesn’t allow the romantic track to really come through. In fact, why the writers have shied away from clearly telling who Charlie is fond of – Rhea or Naina – is not clear. Even comedy is lacking in the film. The drama, as mentioned above, is rather boring. Emotions completely fail to touch the heart. Music, which could have been another important pillar of the star-cast thriller, is a minus point in the film.

Abhishek Bachchan fails to make an impression; Sonam Kapoor seems to be in a hurry

Players Review: Star Performances

Coming to the performances, it must be mentioned that several of the lead players have spoken their dialogues in a flat manner and with much the same expressions throughout the drama. Abhishek Bachchan and Bobby Deol, especially, seem to be under the mistaken belief that uttering dialogues in a very sober and serious way, with absolutely no smile or emotion on the face, is akin to good acting. But it only makes them look limited as actors. Abhishek Bachchan fails to make an impression, least of all as a team leader. His expressions hardly change and his acting is ordinary. His dialogue delivery leaves something to be desired. Bobby Deol gets limited scope and is routine in what he does. Again, voice modulation and body language are as good as missing in his acting. Bipasha Basu looks sexy and does an okay job. Sonam Kapoor is dull. Her scenes give the impression that she was in a hurry throughout the making of the film. Neil Nitin Mukesh is quite effective. He is at least earnest about what he does. Omi Vaidya goes through his role with sincerity. He evokes laughter at some places. His acting is probably the best in the film. Sikander Kher needs to loosen up. His acting is barely average. Vinod Khanna hardly makes his mark. His voice gives the impression that he is very tired now. Johny Lever entertains in two roles. Aftab Shivdasani is alright in a friendly appearance.

Players Review: Direction & Music

Abbas-Mustan fail to deliver as directors. Their choice of subject for the actors they’ve chosen and, more importantly, their acceptance of the screenplay is shocking. No doubt, they have given the film a huge canvas and wonderful gloss but what’s lacking in the body beautiful is the soul. Their narration is loose and it fails to hold the audience’s interest. But it must be said, their shot takings are very stylised. If the writers have let down the director-duo, so has the music director. Pritam Chakraborty’s music is a major minus point of the film. The songs are dull. The absence of hit music is sorely felt, especially because the cast is youthful. Even the choreography (Bosco-Caesar and Raju Khan) is commonplace. Lyrics (Ashish Pandit) are ordinary. Sandeep Shirodkar’s background music should’ve been better and more forceful. Ravi Yadav’s camerawork deserves distinction marks. He has captured the foreign locales beautifully. His work in the train robbery sequence and the aerial shots is especially noteworthy. Allan Amin’s stunts are good but a negative point is that they lack novelty. Hussain Burmawala’s editing is sharp. Technically, of a good standard. Production values are grand. Sets are very appropriate.

Players Review: Komal Nahta’s Verdict

On the whole, Players will play a losing game at the box-office. Given the huge investment (of Rs. 65-70 crore) made in the film, it will end up entailing heavy losses to the producers as well as distributors. Its dull start will only add to its tale of woes.

Don’t agree with our review of Players? Feel free to voice your opinion in the comments box below!

Note: To take part in the ‘Players Weekend Box-Office’ contest, just scroll below.

Players Video Review by Komal Nahta

Komal Nahta, the Editor of Koimoi.com, is Bollywood’s most trusted trade analyst & film reviewer. You can follow him on Twitter and check out his Video Blog.

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More by Komal Nahta

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I Am Singh Movie Review

Business rating: 1 / 5 stars

Star cast: Gulzar Inder Chahal, Puneet Issar, Rizwan Haider, Tulip Joshi, Brooke Johnston, Amy Rasimas.

What’s Good: The constant references to and from Sikhism which will appeal to the Punjabis and Sikhs in the audience; a couple of song picturisations.

What’s Bad: The disgustingly silly, lifeless and done-to-death script; the boring drama; the irritating English dialogues; the never-ending rhetoric; the below-average performances; poor editing.

Verdict: I Am Singh is a botched fare that will fail to do anything at the box-office, save maybe, in some pockets of Punjab.

Loo break: Several.

Watch or Not?: Watch I Am Singh at your own risk.

P.S. Thind’s I Am Singh (UA) is about the post-9/11 hate crimes against the South Asian community, especially Sikhs, in the US.

Days after the 9/11 attacks on America, Ranveer Singh (Gulzar Inder Chahal), a young, rich man who lives in Chandigarh, travels to the US when he finds out that one of his elder brothers has been killed, while the second is missing, and his injured father is in hospital. Once in the US, Ranveer consoles his mother and sister-in-law and sets out to find what really happened. He approaches the police force, which is non-committal. He also approaches a few eye-witnesses who refuse to help him. Then, he meets a Pakistani, Rizwan (Rizwan Haider), who was not just an eye-witness but also a victim of the hate crime that was perpetrated upon Ranveer’s family by racists who confuse Sikhs for Arabs after 9/11.

Ranveer vows to fight back at any cost. Helping him in this endeavour is a Punjabi ex-cop, Fateh Singh (Puneet Issar), who was fired from the US police post-9/11 because he refused to take his turban off. Fateh Singh gives Ranveer Singh the photos of men who had attacked his brothers and asks him to take the legal route to justice. In fact, Fateh directs Ranveer to an attorney, Amelia White (Brooke Johnston), who is fighting his (Fateh’s) own case in the court. When attacks on Sikhs and Muslims increase in their intensity as the attackers become more vicious and better organized, in complicity with a couple of police officers, Ranveer, Fateh and Rizwan start organising their community against the oppression.

In the meantime, Ranveer’s missing brother is found to be in police custody under the false charge of killing his own brother. Ranveer also finds out that Rizwan had been arrested post-9/11 in a case of mistaken identity, something that had led to his mother’s death and a cancellation of his engagement to his fiancé (Tulip Joshi). As the racist attackers try to corner Rizwan and Ranveer, and the court case goes on, is Ranveer able to reclaim his pride and the release of his jailed brother? Is Fateh Singh reinstated in the police force? What about Rizwan? What about the South Asian community as a whole? These questions are answered in the rest of the drama and the climax.

I  Am Singh Review: Script Analysis

Puneet Issar, Deepali Issar and Satyajit Puri’s story is ordinary and of the kind that has been seem many times. Moreover, the screenplay, by the same writers, is very poorly written. The first half of the film is spent in unfolding inane scenes, where Ranveer discovers, at a snail’s pace, what has happened to his brothers. It seems as though Ranveer has no idea of what a hate crime is because it takes him so much time to realise what is happening in the US. Scenes where Ranveer interacts with the police officer, his mother, and even the eye-witnesses might have been intended to be dramatic and impactful, but they come across as unimpactful, boring and silly. In fact, Ranveer’s character moves from one end of the spectrum to another. In one scene, he is bashing up skin-heads and, sometime later, in another, he is preaching non-violence. What’s more, the drama, especially in the middle portion of the film, is filled with diatribe against the racists, and earnest-sounding but very boring dialogues about how the Indian/Sikh/Asian community in the US should stand up for their rights.

It is difficult to find one scene in the film which does not seem farcical. The American lady lawyers, who stand up for the Sikhs in court, are dressed so inappropriately that it looks funny. Ranveer’s sudden disappearance in the second half of the film, where he seems to be missing in several crucial (if one may use the term) scenes, is baffling. Instead, Rizwan’s sob story and Fateh Singh’s struggle take up much space in the second half, which, incidentally, is slower and more boring than the first.

Yes, the writers have made sure that their screenplay has ample scope for a few fight scenes, songs and even verbose, information-filled lectures on Sikhism and its tenets, which is all fine. But all this is simply not enough to entertain the lay viewer, who might not necessarily be interested in educating himself while watching a film, especially when the drama seems so fake. Dialogues, again by Puneet Issar, Deepali Issar and Satyajit Puri, are ordinary. The English dialogues, which make up for a good 40 per cent, are even worse – for, it seems that the characters are reading out of an English textbook and not speaking their minds!

On the positive side, a few scenes, where members of the Khalsa Panth are depicted wielding swords and showing off their martial skills, are well-shot and exciting.

I Am Singh Review: Star Performances

The performances are below average. Gulzar Inder Chahal neither has the looks and the body nor the acting prowess to pull off the role of a lone Sikh fighting against injustice. Rizwan Haider looks his character and does an average job at it. Puneet Issar is competent but is let down by the script and the rest of the cast. Tulip Joshi is effective in a bit role. Brooke Johnston (as Amelia White) and Amy Rasimas (as Amy Washington) are nothing but dolls on show. Daler Mehndi and Mika Singh add some glamour in their guest appearances. Sunita Dheer (as Ranveer’s sister-in-law), Neeta Mohindra (as Ranveer’s mother), Donny Kapoor, Akash Karnataki, Aushima Sawhney and others offer poor support. Yusuf Hussain is alright in a blink-and-miss role of Rizwan’s to-be father-in-law.

I Am Singh Review: Direction & Technical Aspects

Puneet Issar’s direction is rather poor. He has not been able to tell the story, as good or bad as it might be, in an effective or entertaining manner. His dramatisation is over the top even in the handling of emotional scenes, something that is a thing of an era gone by. There are seven to nine songs (music by Daler Mehndi, Sumitra Iyer, Monty Sharma, Sudhakar Dutt Sharma, Sukhwinder Singh and Arvinder Singh) in the film, all Punjabi-style. The title track is hardly memorable; the rest of the songs are not upto the mark. Lyrics (by Sandeep Nath, Sameer, Sunil Sirvaiya and Deepali Issar) are just about okay. Song picturisations (by Chinni Prakash, Raju Khan, Rekha Chinni Prakash and Rajeev Surti) are of a good standard. The background score, by Surendra Sodhi, is irritating and very loud. W.B. Rao and Raja Ratnam’s cinematography is good at most places. The film is technically sound. Action, by Kaushal-Moses, is average. Sanjay Verma’s editing is shoddy. Several scenes follow each other for no particular rhyme or reason.

I Am Singh Review: The Last Word

On the whole, I Am Singh is a poor fare that might see some initial footfalls in cinemas of East Punjab circuit. However, its messy script and drama will seal its fate at the box-office. Disaster.

I Am Singh Trailer

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Rockstar Review

Star cast: Katrina Kaif, Imran Khan, Ali Zafar, Tara D’Souza.

What’s Good: The entertaining screenplay; the emotional undercurrent of the drama; Katrina Kaif’s fantastic performance; the hit music and the eye-pleasing song picturisations.

What’s Bad: The screenplay dips at a few places; a few comic scenes seem forced.

Verdict: Mere Brother Ki Dulhan has reasonable entertainment value, very good music, exciting song picturisations which will all result in a good run at the box-office.

Loo break: None really.

Watch or Not?: Watch it for Katrina Kaif’s fine performance and Ali Abbas Zafar’s direction.

User rating:

Yash Raj Films’ Mere Brother Ki Dulhan is a love story. Kush Agnihotri (Imran Khan) works as an assistant director in Bollywood. His elder brother, Luv Agnihotri (Ali Zafar) has a job in London. Luv has just had a break-up from his girlfriend of several years, Piyali (Tara D’Souza). Luv telephones Kush, asking him to bride-hunt for him. He’s confident that his younger brother would be able to find a girl of his taste, as both the brothers have similar tastes. Now begins Kush’s hunt for a duhlan for his brother. After many failed attempts, he finally meets Dimple Dixit (Katrina Kaif), daughter of a bureaucrat (Kanwaljeet), when her father invites Kush in response to a matrimonial ad for Luv. Kush is shocked to meet Dimple as he knows her as a wild, fun-loving, bold but endearing girl whom he had met five years ago on an excursion. The two families also approve of the liaison and so preparations for the marriage of Luv and Dimple begin in right earnest. Although the Agnihotris live in Dehradun, the marriage is scheduled to be held in Delhi where the Dixits stay. In the course of the preparations, Dimple and Kush fall in love with one another, a fact Dimple realises on the first day she goes out with Luv when he arrives in Delhi from London for the marriage. Dimple speaks her heart out to Kush who takes a little longer to realise that he too is in love with her.

Dimple forces Kush to elope with her. Does Kush oblige? Is it so easy for the two lovers to unite? Or do they sacrifice their love for one another? Does Luv get to know that he is about to get married to a girl who loves his brother and whom his brother too loves? And what about Piyali? Answers to these questions are revealed in the latter part of the film.

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan Review – Script Analysis

Ali Abbas Zafar’s story is based on the age-old formula of a love triangle and is not really novel. However, the screenplay, also penned by Ali Abbas Zafar, keeps the audience involved and engrossed at all times. The story unfolds in such a manner that the viewers are eager to know what is going to happen next. At places, the screenplay dips and the pace also slackens but overall, Ali Abbas Zafar manages to make the script impactful. The emotional points of the drama touch the heart, especially the scene where Dimple tells Kush that she has fallen in love with him. Also, the scene in which Kush feels miserable about falling in love with the girl whom he has selected as his brother’s wife touches a chord.

The emotional undercurrents in the drama make it more than just a light-hearted comedy. But what prevents the film from becoming a memorable love story is that the emotions don’t come full throttle. Also, right till the time Luv gets married, he doesn’t realise the truth about Kush and Dimple’s affair. The track of Kush and Dimple trying hard to take Luv out of their way looks a bit forced and slightly unbelievable. Nevertheless, the youth will enjoy the drama. The dialogues are good and entertaining at the same time. The youngsters will definitely identify more with the dialogues than the older generation.

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan Review – Star Performances

Imran Khan does a fine job. He is more relaxed in the comic scenes as compared to his previous films. Katrina Kaif looks beautiful and endears herself to the audience. Her performance is absolutely fantastic. Katrina will also earn brownie points for her graceful dances. Ali Zafar acts with effortless ease except when he goes a bit overboard in some scenes. He looks cute. Tara D’Souza stands her own.

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan Review – Direction

Debut-making director Ali Abbas Zafar has handled the film in a mature way. He succeeds in keeping the audience engaged for most of the duration of the drama and he has packaged the film in a very appealing manner. Music (Sohail Sen) is a big plus point of the film as all the songs are very appealing. Dhunki, Madhubala, Isq Risk and the title track are truly entertaining numbers. The lyrics (Irshad Kamil) of the Isq Risk song are very meaningful and take the drama forward. Song picturisations (Bosco-Caesar) are youthful, colourful and eye-filling. Background score is good. Sudeep Chatterjee’s camerawork is splendid. Ritesh Soni’s editing could’ve been slightly sharper.

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan Review – Verdict

On the whole, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan has reasonable entertainment value, very good music, exciting song picturisations and an impressive start to make it a rewarding experience for all concerned.

Review updated on 12.00 IST on September 10, 2011.

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan Trailer

Business rating: 0.5/5 star

Star cast: Rahul Bose, Shefali Shah, Sumeet Raghavan.

What’s Good: The performances.

What’s Bad: The screenplay; the inane conversations between Shefali and Rahul; the confused characterisation of Shefali.

Verdict: Kucch Luv Jaisaa doesn’t have much to love in it!

Loo break: A couple of places when the pace drops.

Watch or Not?: Watch it if you are fond of different cinema.

Sunshine Pictures Pvt. Ltd.’s Kucch Luv Jaisaa (UA) is the story of a bored housewife and a criminal on the run and how their worlds meet. Madhu Saxena (Shefali Shah) is a housewife whose life revolves around her husband, Shravan (Sumeet Raghavan), and two kids. Although she does everything humanly possible for her family, she doesn’t get her due as nobody has time for her. It’s her birthday and her family members don’t even remember to wish her. She decides to take a grip over her life. She chooses to head out of her home and enjoy her birthday. She meets Raghav (Rahul Bose), a criminal wanted by the police. He forges passports and helps criminals leave the country on fake names, but he now wants to settle down with his girlfriend, Riya (Neetu Chandra). However, the girlfriend has set a trap for him to be caught by the police.

Even as Raghav is on the run, a casual conversation leads Madhu to believe that Raghav is a private detective. And Raghav plays along… Does this day-long adventure change the lives of Raghav and Madhu?

Barnali Ray Shukla’s story idea is interesting but it is more of the kind which would’ve worked better on television. Her screenplay is so weak that at the end of it, the audience gets the feeling that a mountain has been made out of a molehill. For, most among the audience are likely to ask – so what if the husband forgot to wish the wife many happy returns of the day? Doesn’t it happen so very often? Does every wife decide to teach her husband a lesson for this lapse, by leaving home without informing him, buying herself a car, clothes and shoes and befriending a complete stranger, sharing a hotel room with him, and not taking her worried husband’s calls on her cell phone? Even if one were to accept that this is the story of one such wife, Madhu Saxena, the drama is so poor that nothing rings true in it and the comedy doesn’t even create laughter.

For one, Madhu Saxena is shown to be smart or dumb as per the convenience of the writer. She is smart enough to buy a car in a minute but dumb enough to agree to share a room in a hotel with someone she didn’t even know a few hours back. Madhu Saxena trying to act shy and coy – again, when and only when the writer feels like it – irritates the viewer.

Madhu’s husband doing nothing at all to trace his missing wife except trying to contact her or her parents on phone and looking exasperated also looks weird. The conversations between Madhu and Raghav are just not interesting enough to hold the bored audience’s attention. It is also not clear why Madhu assumes that Raghav is a private detective, why she accompanies him for the day and why he plays along. Wouldn’t he want to run away, especially since the police is hot on his trail? It is absolutely clear in no time that Raghav barely knows English (note, for instance, his question, ‘Ladies kahan hai?’ instead of ‘Lady kahan hai?’) but Madhu keeps speaking to him (often in English) as if he is a Harvard-returned scholar! Why? No reason!

Madhu loses her cool when she realises that Raghav is not a detective and mistakes him for a womaniser instead. Not only is the mistaken identity for the second time a very convenient and half-hearted twist in the tale but even the clarification of the misunderstanding (when the telephone both owner comes to return her the money) is equally childish. What’s more, Madhu lectures Raghav on life and it sounds so ridiculously fake if only because the lecture applies to her as much as it does to him. It indeed looks like a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Also, why would a housewife like Madhu, on learning that she was with a fraud or a womaniser, go to that person’s hotel room and ann- ounce that she was leaving? Would she not fear for her modesty and life and, therefore, run away from there instead?

Kucch Luv Jaisaa Movie Stills

Kucch Luv Jaisaa Review – Script Analysis

All in all, Barnali Ray Shukla’s screenplay is full of big, gaping holes and is just too philosophical. Even her dialogues are good only at places. The talk of Madhu’s school-going daughter indulging in sex with her boyfriend looks like an aberration because the rest of the film is not about this aspect at all. If the writer wanted to establish, through this sex talk between mother and her school-going daughter, that in spite of the daughter having no time for the mother, the loving mother understands and cares for her daughter always, well, the point is lost. And if the aim of the writer was to bring in the novel – and bold – element of teen sex, the impact is negative because it looks out of place in the film.

Kucch Luv Jaisaa Review – Performances & Direction

Rahul Bose is natural and does a fine job, underplaying to advantage. Shefali Shah is good but overacts at places, probably to camouflage the weaknesses in the script and her character. She is very good in the scenes which require her to change her mood instantly. Sumeet Raghavan does a fine job. Neetu Chandra is okay in a guest appearance. She hardly gets any scope. Amin Hajee is fair. Om Puri is wasted in a guest appearance. Manmeet Singh (as Shravan’s manager), Kunal Kumar (as Shravan’s co-worker), Manish Chaudhari (as a police officer) and Makrand Deshpande provide ordinary support.

Barnali Ray Shukla’s debut direction is alright but her script leaves so much to be desired that even her directorial qualities, evident in the film, will be clouded by it. Pritam’s music score is quite melodious. Naina and Thoda sa pyar are quite tuneful. Irshad Kamil’s lyrics go with the film’s mood. Tapas Relia’s background score is ordinary. Camerawork (Bobby Singh) is fair. Hemanti Sarkar’s editing could have been better.

Kucch Luv Jaisaa Review – Komal Nahta’s Verdict

On the whole, Kucch Luv Jaisaa is a weak fare with bleak box-office prospects.

Star cast: Raj Singh Chaudhary, Swati Sen, Vinay Pathak, Akhilendra Mishra, Jaya Bhattacharya.

Plot: Akhilendra has Raj kidnapped and married off under force to his daughter, Swati. Does the marriage work?

What’s Good: The ambience of the interior of Bihar; the language spoken by the characters; the authenticity.

What’s Bad: The single-track story which holds no interest for the average cinema goer.

Verdict: ANTARDWAND is for the critics. The public will ignore this well-intentioned attempt.

Loo break: A few in the second half.

Nawabs Film Company’s Antardwand (UA) is about the practice of groom kidnapping rampant in Bihar and Eastern U.P. Raghuveer (Raj Singh Chaudhary), who has appeared for his civil services examinations, is admonished by his father, Madhukar Shahi (Vinay Pathak), for dreaming of marrying his pregnant girlfriend, Sia (Himanshi), whom he had befriended in college in Delhi. Madhukar wants Raghuveer to marry the daughter of his friend. Distraught and defenseless, Raghuveer terminates his visit home in the interior of Bihar and leaves for Delhi.

Before he can get out of the village, he is abducted by Mahendra Babu (Akhilendra Mishra), the headstrong father of a girl, Janaki (Swati Sen). Mahendra Babu, desirous of having an IAS officer as his son-in-law, had gone with Janaki’s marriage proposal to Madhukar Shahi for son Raghuveer, but Shahi had turned down his request.

Held captive for some days, Raghuveer is thereafter married off to Janaki, much against his and the girl’s wishes. What happens thereafter is dealt with in the latter part of the film.

Sushil Rajpal’s story tackles a social issue and Amitabh Verma’s screenplay weaves a believable plot around the story. The ambience, the language, the drama are all so believable that it almost seems like the viewer has been transported to the interior of Bihar. Even the dialogues sound real. However, having said that, it must be added that because the film moves on a single track, it gets monotonous after a point of time. As there are no sub-plots, it gets boring to see the drama unfold, especially after interval, except in a few scenes. Also, because the topic of groom kidnapping is not too well-known an issue, a lot of people won’t be interested in seeing an entire film devoted to it. In other words, this could’ve been an interesting subject matter for a documentary or, at the most, a television serial. Dialogues (Amitabh Verma) are realistic.

Raj Singh Chaudhary acts ably and conveys the frustrations of a city-educated youngster caught in the evil practice of groom abduction. Swati Sen also performs very well. Vinay Pathak is excellent as the authoritarian father. Akhilendra Mishra is superb. He gets into the skin of the character and delivers an outstanding performance. His last scene is simply remarkable. Himanshi gets limited scope and is alright. Jaya Bhattacharya gives a lovely account of herself. Neelima, as mother of Raghuveer, acquits herself creditably. Sumukhi does well in the role of Janaki’s mother. Dhairaj leaves a mark as the servant. Dr. Wajahat Kareem is natural in the role of the police inspector-friend of Mahendra Babu.

Sushil Rajpal’s direction is mature and he has done full justice to the script. But the film holds appeal for a very thin section of the audience which likes to see issue-based films. Bapi-Tutul’s music goes well with the mood of the film. Amitabh Verma’s lyrics are appropriate. Cinematography (MalayRay) is okay. D.K. Singh and Rajeev Dwivedi’s sets are good. Aseem Sinha’s editing is crisp.

On the whole, Antardwand is a well-made expose on the evil practice of groom kidnapping but its commercial prospects are dim in spite of being a realistic account.

- By Komal Nahta

]]> http://www.koimoi.com/reviews/komal-nahtas-review-antardwand/feed/ 1 http://www.koimoi.com/reviews/komal-nahtas-review-milenge-milenge/ http://www.koimoi.com/reviews/komal-nahtas-review-milenge-milenge/#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2010 10:01:27 +0000 Komal Nahta http://koimoi.c2w.com/?p=7414

Star cast: Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Aarti Chhabria, Panini Raaj Kumar, Satish Shah, Satish Kaushik, Kiron Kher, Delnaaz Paul.

Plot: Kareena meets Shahid in Bangkok, as predicted by a tarot card reader, and chooses him as her life partner, again as predicted. However, misunderstandings arise between the two and Kareena walks out of the relationship even before it can be sealed. But destiny has something else in store for them. What is it?

What’s Good: The story idea (inspired by Hollywood film Serendipity); the acting; music.

What’s Bad: The screenplay of convenience; the illogicalities; the staleness.

Verdict: Milenge Milenge will not meet with box-office success.

Loo break: Not really!

S.K. Films Enterprises and BSK Network And Entertainment’s Milenge Milenge (UA), inspired by the Hollywood film, Serendipity, is the story of Priya Malhotra (Kareena Kapoor) and Immy alias Amit (Shahid Kapoor). Priya, a choreographer, meets her Mr. Right, Immy, in Bangkok, exactly as predicted by a tarot card reader (Kiron Kher). Soon after she falls in love with Immy, Priya realises that he has lied to her and has feigned love for her as he had access to her diary jottings in which she had mentioned what the tarot card reader had predicted and also about her detestation of guys who smoke, drink alcohol and speak lies.

Crestfallen, Priya walks out of the relationship even as Immy tries to explain that he has begun to love her and would give up all the three bad habits which she so detests. However, Priya is unrelenting. She, nevertheless, gives Immy a chance when he tells her, the two were destined to be with one another for the rest of their lives. Actually, she gives him two chances by testing destiny in two different ways, the result of one of which is immediate and the result of the other would take any amount of time to be out. Immy loses the first test. In the second test, Priya writes her name and telephone number on the first page of a book on numerology and sells that book randomly to a secondhand books dealer; before that, she also asks Immy to write his telephone number on a Rs. 50 currency note and buys the numerology book with that note. She then tells Immy, if they were indeed destined to meet, they would get the currency note/book and contact one another.

Three years later, Immy is engaged to be married to Sophia (Aarti Chhabria) but no sooner is his marriage fixed than he begins to miss Priya and also feels, life is giving him signals to search for her using the second test. He begins searching for the book containing Priya’s number. Simultaneously, Priya finds a guy, Jatin (Panini), whom she decides to marry. But once she accepts Jatin’s marriage proposal, Priya, too, realises that Immy was the guy for her – and this, not just because life gives her signals. Priya, too, desperately sets out in search of Immy for which she has to lay her hands on the Rs. 50 note. Both, Immy and Priya, also use other methods to track each other down, but they fail.

As destiny would have it, both of them are scheduled to get married to their respective partners on the same day and in the same city, Delhi. What does destiny ultimately have in store for Priya and Immy? Do they meet?

The film has a nice story but the same can’t be said about the screenplay (Shiraz Ahmed) which has too many holes and flaws. For one, a girl in today’s times not willing to marry a guy who smokes and drinks alcohol seems a bit out of synch in view of the fact that leave alone boys, even girls have no qualms about smoking and drinking. Even these conditions may have seemed genuine but for that, the screenplay writer ought to have prepared a proper base. In fact, lack of proper base is a running problem throughout the drama as so many incidents don’t appeal because they’ve not been established properly or do not rest on solid bases. Ironically, when Priya gets engaged to Jatin and the two go out to a restaurant for dinner, the first thing the waiter is shown serving both of them is wine!

Although the film is all about destiny, the very base of the film is incorrect because Priya meets Immy not due to the fact that she was destined to meet him but because he happens to read her personal diary jottings in which she has written about the tarot card reader’s predictions. In other words, although it was the intention of the writer to have the audience believe that Priya and Immy meet due to the play of destiny – as predicted by the tarot card reader – they actually meet because of her diary. Now, the writer may have us believe that he chanced upon the diary due to the play of destiny but in that case, everything could be attributed to destiny. A better course would’ve been for Priya to spot Immy purely because of destiny and only thereafter, Immy getting hold of her diary – that is, if the diary had to be a part of the drama!

Immy tells his friends that although his relationship with Priya had started off as a joke, he had fallen in love with her. Soon thereafter, he tells Priya, his relationship was never a joke. And yes, it is not clear when Immy, as he himself confesses to friends, actually falls in love with Priya.

Again, it is not clear why Priya yearns to meet Immy after three years. Had it been only because of the signals life is giving her, it would still have been fine. But she is suddenly shown to be madly in love with Immy once again after three years for no apparent reason.

In testing destiny, Priya gives Immy the second chance before she completes the first one, that is, before selling the book with her telephone number, to a book dealer randomly. When, according to her, Immy fails the second test, why does Priya go ahead with the first test by writing her number on the book and giving it away to a books dealer? After all, she has no faith in destiny following her break-up with Immy, so why on earth is she testing something she doesn’t believe in?

Although Shiraz Ahmed has kept two hooks – the Rs. 50 currency note and the book on numerology – for the lovers to meet, it becomes abundantly clear that just one hook would suffice to unite the lovers, making the other hook redundant in that sense.

As the aforementioned points would indicate, the defects in the screenplay are too many to be overlooked. Besides, in today’s age and time, it seems rather unbelievable that two young people can’t track one another down. In their search, it also emerges that Priya is unaware of Immy’s real name (Amit) although she had proposed marriage to him! Even if for one moment, one were to accept that she only knew his nickname, did she never bother to know the real names of Immy’s college friends who accompanied him to Bangkok, where the two of them met and fell in love? If she had, she’d have at least found out their whereabouts from Immy’s college.

It is because of the above weaknesses in the script that the audience does not experience the high it should, in the climax.

Of course, notwithstanding the drawbacks, there are some exhilarating moments in the script. For instance, the second test of destiny – when Priya and Immy enter two separate elevators in the hotel to see if they both press the button of the same floor, and they do exactly that, implying thereby that they are destined to be together – is excellent. Similarly, the track of the secondhand books dealer, Ijazbhai (Satish Kaushik), and the brief track of the lady (Tanaaz Currim) who gives Immy the credit card details of Priya by breaking the rules of the bank are very heartwarming points in the drama. However, they are few and far between.

Emotions fail to touch the heart. For instance, Priya crying at the Mirchi Radio station doesn’t have the desired impact.

Overall, despite some genuinely good moments in the film, the screenplay looks like a job hurriedly done, often without proper application of mind. Dialogues should’ve been more weighty. The film has taken over five years after completion, to be released, and the staleness shows, especially because Shahid Kapoor’s looks have changed over these years and so have fashions.

Shahid Kapoor does a sincere job and is quite endearing. Kareena Kapoor is very good and does full justice to her character. Aarti Chhabria is good in a brief role. Panini Raaj Kumar fails to impress in his debut performance. Delnaaz Paul gets limited scope and is natural. Sarfaraz Khan does an average job. Satish Shah is okay in an inconsequential role. Kiron Kher lends the desired support. Satish Kaushik is very nice and his interaction with Aarti Chhabria evokes laughter and offers the much-needed relief. Tanaaz Currim, Himani Shivpuri, Hemant Pandey and the others provide fair support.

Satish Kaushik’s direction is alright but it is not what the youth today wants (fast cuts, racy pace, brief dialogues etc.). Himesh Reshammiya’s music is a mixed bag. The title song, ‘Rabba’ and ‘Kuchh toh baaki hai’ songs are appealing. The engagement song and the romantic number are not upto the mark. The absence of a super-hit number in the youthful romantic story is sorely felt. Song picturisations (Ahmed Khan) lack freshness obviously! Sanjoy Chowdhary’s background music is good in parts only. Cinematography (S. Sriram) is quite eye-filling.

On the whole, Milenge Milenge is not just stale but also a script of convenience. At the box-office, it will record dull collections. However, it must be said that because of its limited cost (since it was made years back when star prices and other costs were far lower) on the one hand and its handsome recovery from sale of satellite rights, it will not entail losses to its producer who is also the distributor.