Zila Ghaziabad Movie Poster

Rating: 1/5 stars (One-star)

Star cast: Vivek Oberoi, Paresh Rawal, Charmy Kaur, Arshad Warsi, Sunil Grover, Ravi Kissen, Chandrachur Singh, Sanjay Dutt, Minissha Lamba.

What’s Good: A few sequences; Arshad Warsi’s acting.

What’s Bad: Almost everything else.

Loo break: As many as you like.

Watch or Not?: Zila Ghaziabad is a forceful mix of gang-wars, hinterland action and a sprinkle of a nasty Dabangg-esque cop too and disappoints miserably.

User Rating:

The first half of the film shows how the righteous teacher Satbir (Vivek Oberoi) replaces the chalk in his hand with a gun. The local Chairman (Paresh Rawal) has a soft corner for Satbir, as does his daughter, Charmy Kaur, since Satbir often helps him in situations where brains are involved. The muscle power for the Chairman comes from a rabid goon Fauji (Arshad Warsi) who probably has gun shells where his brains should have been. The Chairman’s growing proximity to Satbir leaves his good-for-nothing brother-in-law (Sunil Grover) jealous and he plans an attack on Fauji’s home, making it look like Satbir was responsible for it.

It’s not long before swords are drawn and sides are set. Satbir has the protection of the Chairman while Fauji joins the gang of Rashid (Ravi Kissen). After Satbir’s brother (Chandrachur Singh) gets killed in the battle, there’s no looking back for either of them. When their rivalry becomes unbearable for Ghaziabad, maverick cop Pritam Singh (Sanjay Dutt) is called in. Known for his use of force, this time Pritam wants to use his cunning to get them killed without straining his hands.

There is a lot of blood spilt and bullets fired before the movie finally gets to its conclusion.

Sanjay Dutt (Zila Ghaziabad Movie Stills)

Zila Ghaziabad Review: Script Analysis

Zila starts off like Othello/Omkara with a nasty character trying to sow the seeds of distrust so that he can have his foot in the door. After that, it’s all downhill. With all the characters trying to outwit each other, the film just reeks of bad writing. Vinay Sharma’s characters live in the same city, yet they seem to take every other person out of their way except their main nemesis. The movie then drags endlessly and the intrusion of a police is just another added trick to lengthen it. It’s also strange as to why they have to show Pritam as a my-punches-do-the-talking cop while his strategy involves staring at a chessboard and vainly listening to his old film songs in his office. The love angles with Minissha Lamba and Charmy Kaur are parts that jump out like annoying jacks-in-boxes. The dozens of inspired scenes means that even our cop here gets a Dabangg-cop-song-and-dance entry with even the dance steps similarly choreographed.

Unsurprisingly, the most entertaining scene is the walkthrough with the chai-wala in the police station and it doesn’t involve any of the lead stars.

Zila Ghaziabad Review: Star Performances

Zila is like a madhouse with varying amounts of craziness. The top honour goes to Arshad Warsi for his portrayal of Fauji – the mad dog who should have been put down shortly after he barked first. He’s happy to shoot anyone and everyone; the only flaw to his character being the forced romantic angle written in. Poor Vivek Oberoi, either he’s trying to be the righteous teacher or the masterji-turned-gangster. Either way, the straitjacket shackles him with a bad performance. The most annoying part is when they take close-ups of his face twitching in slo-mo. Bad idea.

Paresh Rawal is good as the Chairman. Charmy Kaur looks incredibly daft and has exactly two expressions. Ravi Kissen is quite good as Rashid. Chandrachur Singh is probably the fattest subhedar you’ll get to see on screen. Sanjay Dutt is mashup of other on-screen ex-cops and gets under your skin after a few scenes. Sunil Grover is excellent as the wily villain.

Zila Ghaziabad Review: Direction, Music & Technical Aspects

With a tumbled script like this, it’s no surprise that Anand Kumar doesn’t make a memorable movie out of it. If that isn’t enough, you have scenes looking like they’ve been shot from a webcab with shady yellow lighting. The songs are so badly placed. Sample this, shortly after the heroine’s father dies, she’s singing and breaking the bed with Vivek Oberoi. The background score is just a lot of sholkas remixed with noise. Bunty Nagi’s editing is unsatisfactory. The cinematography is alright.

Watch out for the shifting bald patch/es on Sanjay Dutt’s head for more entertainment.

Zila Ghaziabad Review: The Last Word

Zila Ghaziabad is a gang-war story done in a confused Dabangg style that will bore the daylights out of you.

Zila Ghaziabad Trailer

Zila Ghaziabad released on 22nd February, 2013.

Share with us your experience of watching Zila Ghaziabad.

Minissha Lamba

Minissha Lamba

A Photographer by accident – that’s the phrase which describes Jitu Savlani best. He believe that this profession chose him rather than the other way around. You can read more about him here.

Stars attired in their very best brightly added a greater sheen to what was already going to be grand evening. As Bollywood celebrated 100 years of cinema they decided to make Filmfare Awards this year more lustrous than ever. The black lady donned a gold base as well.

KoiMoi brings to its readers, a little sneak peek of the Filmfare Award Night which was held at the Yash Raj Studios in Mumbai on 20th January, 2013.

Yami Gautam At The Red Carpet Of Filmfare Awards 2013

Yami Gautam, who made a stupendous entry in Bollywood with Vicky Donor dressed aptly for her First Filmfare. She wore a Tarun Tahiliyani designed corset dress which was structured like a lehenga.

Ayushmann Khurrana At The Red Carpet Of Filmfare Awards 2013

Ayushmann Khurrana wore a Tux and looked absolutely chocolate boy adorable.

Vidya Balan and Siddharth Roy Kapur Walk The Red Carpet Of Filmfare Awards 2013

The new bride Vidya Blan arrived with husband Siddharth Roy Kapur and was dressed in a gorgeous black and pink saree by her favourite designer Sabyasachi. The marital glow has definitely enhanced her face’s sheen!

Chitrangada Singh At The Red Carpet Of Filmfare Awards 2013

Chitrangada Singh who made the audiences go ooh lala post her recent release Inkaar, managed to keep up with darn hot look, in a more traditional way. Sporting a yellow and gold saree, she looked stunning in her Anand Kabra designed attire!

Dr.Sriram Nene And Madhuri Dixit Walk The Red Carpet Of Filmfare Awards 2013

Madhuri Dixit made a brilliant entry with her husband Dr Sriram Nene. Madhuri carried herself regally dressed in a royal blue long dress designed by Alberto Macalli!

Boney Kapoor And Sridevi Walk The Red Carpet Of Filmfare Awards 2013

Actress Sridevi arrived with husband Boney Kapoor dressed in a beautiful orange gown.

Deepika Padukone At The Red Carpet Of Filmfare Awards 2013

Black seemed to be the in color for actresses this year. Deepika Padukone, Parineeti Chopra both sported black gowns for the occasion.

Parineeti Chopra At The Red Carpet Of Filmfare Awards 2013

While Deepika was her usual hot self, Parineeti maintained her sweet, innocent charm!

Priyanka Chopra At The Red Carpet Of Filmfare Awards 2013

Priyanka Chopra arrived in style wearing a sea blue Armani gown. Her Barfi! co-star Ileana D’Cruz, however, sported a Cavialli outfit which had a firang.

The important men in the industry mostly sported black. Trendsetter Karan Johar wore Black and White outfit and looked as brilliant as always.

Arjun Kapoor At The Red Carpet Of Filmfare Awards 2013

Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor and many other actors wore variations of the same Black and white styles.

Rekha At The Red Carpet Of Filmfare Awards 2013

The evergreen beauty Rekha maintained her grand and gorgeous Filmfare look. She looked stunning in her gold saree. Age doesn’t really matter when you are that beautiful.

Manoj Bajpai At The Red Carpet Of Filmfare Awards 2013

Manoj Bajpai who was nominated in the Best Actor category for Gangs of Wasseypur decided to play safe with wearing Black teamed up with a white shirt! Underplaying, yet brilliant appear to be this man’s style.

Keep following KoiMoi to find out, who grabbed the Black Lady this Filmfare Night: - Filmfare Awards 2013: Winners List

‘Ye Hai Zila Ghaziabad’  is a high energy and playful song. Sung by Sukhvinder Singh, the song is composed by Amjad Nadeem.

Enjoy the track right here:

Arshad Warsi in Ye Hai Zila Ghaziabad Song in Zila Ghaziabad Movie Stills

Zila Ghaziabad is a biopic, based on the notorious gangster Mahender Fauji’s life. The movie is scheduled to release on 22^nd February, 2013.

Sonakshi Sinha and Akshay Kumar In Joker Movie Stills

With an opening of merely 20% (which didn’t really show much improvement over the weekend either), ‘Joker‘ continued to be poor all through. After the weekend collections in the range of 15-16 crores, the film doesn’t carry many hopes in the rest of the week either. Despite the fact that it managed a solo release for itself and ‘Ek Tha Tiger‘ wasn’t a huge competition any more, ‘Joker’ has proved to be a downer at the box office. Though it is obvious that the film would suffer losses, the only silver lining is that the losses won’t be of disastrous proportions since the film hasn’t been sold at a very fancy price.

Meanwhile Akshay Kumar has moved on and is already eyeing ‘OMG – Oh My God‘ as his next money-spinner. Sonakshi Sinha has seen a break in her century run but has ‘Son of Sardaar‘ and ‘Dabangg 2‘ lined up to bring her back in the reckoning rather soon. On the other hand Shirish Kunder could well be taking a short break before announcing his next.

Other releases of the week, ‘I M 24‘, ‘From Sydney With Love‘ and ‘Jalpari‘, didn’t find any favour whatsoever from the audience. Poor release, negligible show count, abrupt arrival and hardly any mention from those within and outside the industry further proved to be a death knell for these small budget affairs. Each of these is a major commercial failure.

Sonakshi Sinha, Akshay Kumar and Shreyas Talpade (Joker Movie Stills)

The movie it seems will have to rely on it’s Saturday and Sunday box office collections to leave any mark at it’s 1st weekend box office. Let’s see if Joker floats or sinks like Tees Maar Khan.

Joker Movie Poster

Rating: 2 stars (Two stars)

Star cast: Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Shreyas Talpade, Minissha Lamba, Vindu Dara Singh, Asrani, Chitrangda Singh (item song), Darshan Jariwala.

What’s Good: The direction; the music; the cinematography; some puns.

What’s Bad: The predictable storyline.

Loo Break: None.

Watch or Not?: It’s a timepass watch but not really engrossing.

User Rating :

As bland as the title of the film may sound, Joker does not disappoint.

In a bit of an out-of-world way, the small village of Pagalpur is overlooked when India’s map is being charted during independence. After the inmates of the mental asylum in the village break loose, all the other inhabitants flee the place.

Surrounded by his crackling machines, Agastya (Akshay Kumar) is a scientist in the US searching for signs of life beyond the earth. When he has nothing more than static to show his research sponsors, Agastya has a month to hope that ET or his brethren show him proof of their existence. When he finds out that his father is seriously ill, he abandons his work and goes back to Paglapur with this girlfriend Diva (Sonakshi Sinha).

The current inhabitants of Paglapur make one hell of a fruit basket. There’s Agastya’s brother (Shreyas Talpade) who speaks only in a strange tongue, his cross-eyed father (Darshan Jariwala), a loud friend (Vindu Dara Singh), a teacher (Asrani) who thinks that WW2 is still on and many others. Agastya finds out that his father was faking illness but decides to stay back and help the villagers out of their misery. Since Paglapur is not on the map of India, they don’t belong to any state, have no electricity, roads or water supply. Since the tiny crackpot village has nothing to offer, even the ministers Agastya approaches for help pass the buck to the next state.

At last Agastya comes up with a plan: to create crop circles in Paglapur and sell it to the media and the world as alien doing. Soon his plan brings reporters and scientists in hordes to the village and things are starting to look up with lots of song and dance. But Agastya’s competitor Simon Goeback (get it?) (Alexx ONell) puts a spanner in the works when he arrives in Paglapur and calls the whole thing a hoax.

This other-worldly mess plays out in the rest of the movie.

Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Shreyas Talpade, Asrani (Joker Movie Stills)

Joker Review: Script Analysis

Shirish Kunder’s premise for Joker is too simplistic. Obviously, logic takes a backseat but it’s the predictability that is the real downer. The dialogues are alright. Some of the puns like Simon Goeback, the tongue-in-cheek timing of the Ayega song etc. are well written. The reason behind the title of the film Joker is well thought of.

Why Agastya decides to stay back is not convincingly done. While scientists from all over the world ascertain the crop circles have an alien hand, how does Simon blow their lid in less than 5 seconds? Why do the armed forces stand at the perimeter of the forest where the aliens appear instead of hiding inside the forest? And why the heck did they open fire on them? Looks like Jadoo took all the logic away in his spaceship.

Joker Review: Star Performances

Akshay Kumar does a good job but nothing extraordinary as Agastya. Sonakshi Sinha mostly clings on to Akki’s arm as his girlfriend Diva. Shreyas Talpade is very good as the brother and manages to convey all his emotions with just a handful of gibberish words that he has to mouth throughout the movie. Vindu Dara Singh’s act is annoying. Thankfully Minissha Lamba gets very little time for hamming as a press reporter. Darshan Jariwala and Asrani are good as Agastya’s father and nut job of a teacher respectively.

Joker Review: Direction, Editing & Music

There’s not much that director Shirish Kunder could do to the script, but he does a good job. His editing is alright. Gaurav Dagaonkar and G. V. Prakash Kumar’s songs are enjoyable. Shirish’s background score goes well with the scenes. Sudeep Chatterjee and Anay Goswami’s cinematography is very nice. The colours keep the movie quite cheerful. Visual effects are well done.

Joker Review: The Last Word

Joker is an amusing but predictable fare. Nothing out-of-this-world.

Joker Trailer

Joker movie releases on 31st August, 2012

Sonakshi Sinha, Akshay Kumar, Shreyas Talpade ( Joker Movie Stills)

This also means that unlike a ‘masala‘ blockbuster a la ‘Ek Tha Tiger‘, ‘Rowdy Rathore‘, ‘Housefull 2‘, ‘Bol Bachchan‘, ‘Agneepath‘, ‘Ra. One‘ or ‘Don 2‘, each of the films in last one years which promised a solid start from the very first show and fetched 100 crores or more at the box office, ‘Joker’ is a film that is expected to grow as the day progresses and register some good collections over the rest of the weekend, if the word of mouth is really positive.

Though currently there are a million stories floating around the pre-release promotion of the film, eventually it should all boil down to the content. What works in the favour of this Akshay Kumar-Sonakshi Sinha starrer is that one can expect the unexpected in the final results. Also, one has to keep in mind the fact that both the actors are coming after two blockbusters each and there is a large fan-base/regular audience which does check out a film regardless of what is published or written about in various forums or social media.

While the opening few shows are expected in the range of 50%-60%, there is enough potential to grow for two major reasons. First and foremost there is no significant competition this week. Secondly, the run of ‘Ek Tha Tiger‘ is almost coming to an end which means ‘Joker‘ can consolidate it’s position, especially if kids catch fancy of this sci-fi flick.

Jugnu Song – Joker Movie | Akshay Kumar And Sonakshi Sinha

Sonakshi Sinha and Akshay Kumar in Jugnu Song in Joker Movie Stills

Joker releases 31st August 2012

User rating:

Rowdy hit pair of Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha is yet again prepared to hit the box office with its upcoming movie Joker. The music of the movie is composed by the G.V Prakash with Gaurav Dagaonkar chipping in as well. Lyrics are penned by Shirish Kunder himself who is definitely aiming at the masses here.

Sonakshi Sinha and Akshay Kumar dance steps on a song in Joker Movie Stills

Joker Music Review: I Want Just You (Kafirana)

The album begins with the item number I Want Just You – Kafirana which is already a hit. We have heard hit folk item numbers from U.P and Bihar, but this one is a latest experiment in the series – a Maharashtrain item number with the theme of ‘Lavani’. Composed by Gaurav Dagaonkar and sung by powerhouse Sunidhi Chauhan, this is yet another addition to the family of ‘Sheela’ and’ Munni’. The catchy lines of the track I Want Just You were originally I Want ‘Fakht’ You that suggestively used a Marathi word and thereafter was changed to avert any controversy. This one is a fine composition that uses traditional Indian instruments that create their own magic.

Joker Music Review: Jugnu

The soulful and addictive voice of Udit Narayan is back with Jugnu. A nice treat to the listeners, the initiation of this track reminds one of the ever-so-memorable character ‘Jaadu’ from Koi… Mil Gaya. This one promises to fit in well with the story, courtesy lyrics by Shrish.

Joker Music Review: Sing Raja

Next in the list is Sing Raja with vocals being shared by the Bhangra maestro Daler Mehendi and Sonu Kakkar. This one is a fast and an electrifying number. Sing Raja seems to be more of a techno based fusion of the instruments with extremely bizarre lyrics that go as ‘Dance Kar Le English mein, aur naach le tu Hindi mein’. Overall the song proves to be an average affair.

Joker Music Review: Yeh Joker

Yeh Joker is a duet with vocals by Sonu Nigam and Shweta Pandit which marks the mood of celebration, joy and happiness. With add-on vocals by Gaurav and G.V Prakash, the song includes powerful beating of dhol and drums in the background, hence turning out to be quite energetic. Moreover, lyrics by Shirish are also uncomplicated and interesting.

Joker Music Review: Tears of Joker

The album moves ahead with Tears of Joker, an instrumental. The composer has very well blended various classical instruments including melodious flute, delightful and pleasant soft strings along with rhythmic tabla and a stunning sargam that prompt you to close your eyes and reach to a distant beautiful world. Female chorus in the background further enhances the beauty of this track. Tears of Joker is really an enjoyable number that adds another dimension to the music album.

Joker Music Review: Alien Arrival

The album concludes with an instrumental track Alien Arrival that very well sketches the arrival of Aliens, welcoming them to Akshay’s wonderland. This one is a good and powerful track, the opening of which resembles sound of the 80s with the later part resembling the beats of an army band. Composer Prakash has used the trumpet magnificently, hence infusing an element of passion and energy. This unusual and a diverse composition very well creates the right amount of suspense, anticipation and mystery which would certainly pull the audiences to the theaters.

Joker Music Review: The Last Word

Overall the tracks of Joker are good whereby each song has its own story to tell. Though not each one of them has chartbuster written on it, it has in it to fit in well into the film’s narrative.

Akshay Kumar and Shirish Kunder

After choosing an unconventional story about aliens landing in a village, did you promise yourself to work towards visual treatment as well once you started filming ‘Joker’?
It is not about making a promise, it is an intention to bring something new visually. If that is not to be the case then why direct? I can just write or perhaps go on to produce a film and then leave it that that. The reason why I directed ‘Joker’ is because the story demands certain treatment.

How exactly?
I will explain. Look at Jaan-E-Mann; at the face of it was a normal love triangle but I made it look different from visuals perspective. It was my first film and I did whatever I could do best. I remember Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan and Preity Zinta being amazed with what they saw on screen even though during the days of shooting they didn’t have much clue around what was being shot since we did a lot of work on VFX.

Looks like it was Akshay’s turn to be surprised again?
(Smiles) Yes, Joker too has a very different style with completely different visuals. Lot of scenes featuring Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha have been filled with VFX. My films would always have certain visual difference to them and that’s the reason why the entire palette of Joker is so distinct.

How about the commercial perspectives of the film though? Now that the film is being released, do we see an out and out mass entertainer in the offering or something that is primarily a visual benchmark?
Of course the intention is to make a mass entertainer only. However for some strange reason many out there feel that mass entertainers are only those films which are either brain dead or remakes! Come on, ek achchi story bhi mass entertainer ho sakti hai. You can have humour, drama, action – everything that children can also understand.

Still, the film is an experiment of sorts, isn’t it?
I look at it this way. When you do something which is formulaic, you know pretty sure-shot that the film would do so and so business. With new things and experimentation though you can only hope that audience likes what you make. (Smiles) Even Einstein didn’t invent everything on the same day and gained success; he used to keep making something new everyday and then get his success!