Rajeev Masand – movies that matter : from bollywood, hollywood and everywhere else

March 31, 2017

Cast: Tapsee Pannu, Akshay Kumar, Manoj Bajpai, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Anupam Kher, Danny Denzongpa

Director: Shivam Nair

Although she showed up only for a brief cameo, most notably facing off against a terrorist in a Kathmandu hotel room, Tapsee Pannu’s ass-kicking special agent Shabana Khan was easily one of the best things in the Akshay Kumar starrer Baby. The prospect of revisiting that character in a film that puts her front and centre of its story is an appealing one no doubt. But as it turns out Naam Shabana – never mind how you describe it; as a prequel, a spin-off, or an origin story – is a plodding bore of a film.

It’s a shame because there’s so much potential here. What there isn’t, unfortunately, is an adequately fleshed out plot.

Tapsee returns to play Shabana, a solemn-faced Muslim girl with a dark past. We first meet her as a college student and martial arts enthusiast living with her mother in Mumbai. Since the film is set a few years before the events of Baby, we learn why and under what circumstances she is recruited by a top-secret, off-the-grid intelligence agency that has been tracking her for some time.

The first half of the film moves at a snail’s pace, as writer Neeraj Pandey and director Shivam Nair spend way too much time on set up and backstory. Tapsee is terrific in the action sequences; her kicks and blows feel real. The film is on solid ground when she’s throwing punches, but little else is as compelling.

Midway through the film it becomes your standard espionage thriller about a crack team tasked with pinning down a most-wanted international arms dealer. Shabana, yanked out even before she’s completed training, is embedded in the mission because presumably the agency doesn’t have anyone more experienced or more skilled to do the job. It all makes very little sense.

But looking for logic or common sense is setting yourself up for disappointment. A big twist involving the identity of the chief bad guy can be spotted from a mile away. And while you can always count on Akshay Kumar to bring some flair, unexpected humor even, to dull proceedings, his presence as a safety net for our more-than-capable protagonist is both puzzling and a little insulting.

The problem at the root of this film is that it literally offers nothing new, other than the idea of a woman who knows her way around a fight. The plot is predictable from the word go, and yet it unfolds over an excruciating two-and-a-half hours. Familiar faces from Baby – Manoj Bajpai, Danny Denzongpa, Anupam Kher – show up to pad out the narrative, and cast in a negative role Malayalam star Prithviraj Sukumaran brings an appropriately menacing presence.

The star attraction though is Tapsee, but strictly when she’s in action-heroine mode, letting her fists and her feet do the talking. Her performance through the rest of the film is strictly one-note.

I’m going with two out of five for Naam Shabana. I’ve seldom been this bored.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)

March 31, 2017

Cast: Aditi Inamdar, Rahul Bose, S Mariya, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Heeba Shah, Gyanendra Tripathi, Arif Zakaria

Director: Rahul Bose

There’s not a lot to complain about in Rahul Bose’s moving biopic of Poorna Malavath, a 13-year-old Adivasi from a small village in Telangana who became the youngest girl to summit Mount Everest. It’s an inspiring story of overcoming the odds and finding one’s purpose in order to take on – pun intended – a Himalayan challenge. But admirably, Bose, whose second directorial outing this is, scratches beneath the surface to give us a sense of the real achievement behind the headline.

The film’s best moments are the unguarded ones between cousins Poorna (Aditi Inamdar) and Priya (S Mariya), who’re desperate to escape the lives that have been decided for them. Priya, the less fortunate of the two, is married off while she’s still a child. Poorna somehow manages to make her way to a government-run school where, by sheer chance, she happens to attend a rock-climbing camp. It’s a moment that will change her life forever.

The film ticks all the boxes of a standard sports drama; it’s a bonafide underdog story. There are rousing speeches, training montages, and last-minute conflicts. Yet like so many inspirational films about child protagonists, it’s never cloying or patronizing. It helps that Inamdar has incredible earnestness, and never drains the character of her innocence even in her proudest moments. But not everything is perfect. Bose himself, who takes the role of Poorna’s mentor, IAS officer Praveen Kumar, is saddled with bumper sticker dialogue and offers a performance that comes off as a just a wee bit affected. Meanwhile, the naysaying government officials (Dhritiman Chatterjee and Heeba Shah) stick out like cardboard caricatures.

Poorna’s triumphant ascent to the snowy peak is left to the final moments in the film. Bose chooses silences and quiet interludes over booming background music to highlight these bits, and it’s a wise choice. Because while Mount Everest may be the reward, it’s Poorna’s journey overcoming poverty and patriarchy to find her wings that the film is actually about. I’m going with three out of five.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)

March 24, 2017

Cast: Anushka Sharma, Diljit Dosanjh, Suraj Sharma, Mehreen Pirzada

Director: Anshai Lal

A big fat Punjabi wedding is temporarily interrupted by the arrival of a ghost in Phillauri. It’s a promising film that tosses around some ambitious ideas but it’s also weighed down by pacing issues and occasional script contrivances.

Just days before he’s meant to tie the knot with his childhood sweetheart, Canada-returned Kanan (Suraj Sharma) appears to have developed cold feet. Add to that the fact that as a result of performing a precautionary pre-wedding formality, he’s accidentally married a spirit. Anushka Sharma, playing the ghostly apparition, floats around the place visible only to the young man. Naturally all sorts of mayhem ensues.

The film cuts between this track, and the past, in which the ghost’s back-story is revealed. Turns out she has some unfinished business from nearly a hundred years ago. At the time, she was a young woman named Shashi, living not too far from Amritsar in the rural town of Phillaur under the watchful gaze of her strict older brother who had no idea that she wrote poetry or that she had fallen for a reformed lothario and folk singer (Diljit Dosanjh).

Despite some nice moments between Diljit and Anushka and the distinctly earthy songs, this track unfortunately ends up feeling like a slog because it offers little by way of surprise or intrigue. You’d much rather stay in the present day, where Kanan, still being stalked by Shashi’s ghost, and confused about his feelings on getting married, is causing much stress to Anu (Mehreen Pirzada), his pretty bride-to-be, even as the rest of their extended families – particularly a scene-stealing, whisky-loving beeji – try to calm his nerves.

Director Anshai Lal and writer Anvita Dutt mine laughs from the absurdity of the contemporary track, while giving us two interesting female characters who couldn’t be more dissimilar. Although separated by a century, Shashi is feisty, strong-willed, and possesses a flair for the creative. Anu, meanwhile, so blinded by love, reveals nothing by way of spine or self-respect. The film then is centered on the idea that love – or the pursuit of love – is the only honest, enduring emotion even as everything else is susceptible to change.

However, the film is truly and irreparably crippled by its languid pace. At nearly 2 hours and 20 minutes, Phillauri is way too long, and just doesn’t have enough plot to merit that running time. The film’s second half is stronger than the first, but ends in a climax that is sure to polarize viewers. I thought it was bold and original, and it worked for me, although I wish the special effects team – which until this point had done a good job – hadn’t gone beserk trying to show off in the film’s final moments.

All four leads put in strong performances, but Suraj Sharma’s flair for physical comedy is a refreshing revelation, and Diljit Dosanjh is impressive, particularly in the intense bits. Anushka Sharma, who’s also produced the film, brings a nice old-world charm to Shashi. She shines both in the dramatic portions and the comedic ones.

Phillauri isn’t a consistently smooth ride. It’s uneven and bumpy and unforgivably slow in portions. But a lot of it works and some of it flies. In a landscape where original ideas are hard to come by, I’m willing to settle for that.

I’m going with three out of five.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)

March 17, 2017

Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Geetanjali Thapa

Director: Vikramaditya Motwane

From his debut in Dibakar Banerjee’s Love Sex Aur Dhokha, in which he played a misguided shop attendant who makes a sex tape with an unsuspecting young woman and sells it to get out of a debt, to his role as a poor migrant in City Lights who turns to desperate measures to provide a better life for his family, Rajkummar Rao has brought nuance and layers and unmistakable grace to the various iterations of the ‘everyman’ that he has built his career playing. Few actors have revealed such a gift for taking categorically nondescript men and turning them into memorable characters.

Which is why it makes perfect sense that Vikramaditya Motwane chose Rao to play Shaurya, an Average Joe stuck in a flat without food, water, electricity, or a functioning mobile phone. Because watching him go through that ordeal, you know this could happen to anyone.

Trapped is Motwane’s third film, and unlike Udaan and Lootera it’s a stripped-down character piece more reliant on plot and performance over craft. It’s a genre film, a survival drama to be specific, but Motwane and his writers put an interesting spin on things.

Rejecting the classic template wherein these stories are set against isolated, abandoned landscapes – think Cast Away, 127 Hours or Buried – the struggle for survival here unfolds in an apartment in an unfinished high-rise located in the heart of Mumbai’s busy Prabhadevi neighborhood. A big part of the film’s thrill comes from watching Shaurya make multiple, desperate attempts to draw the attention of those going about their lives only a few hundred feet below.

The film then is as much an allegory about the city. A concrete jungle where one is well and truly on one’s own, despite being surrounded by thousands of people at any time.

Rao effectively conveys the multitude of emotions that Shaurya is overcome with, and his transformation under the circumstances is utterly convincing. In purely physical terms, his frame has become gaunt, his ribs are starting to show. But there is more going on here. The transformation is internal too. The desperation has led to fearlessness, the timidity is gone. A furry foe becomes a Wilson-like figure, a companion with whom feelings are shared. Rao keeps it all within the realm of honesty and believability, making the viewer feel as if you’re trapped with him.

Although it’s only 103 minutes in running time, it’s true the film feels long and stretched, as movies of this genre – centered around a single character – usually do. Nail-biting moments, unfortunately, are too few. Yet despite its occasional shortcomings, Trapped is a wholly involving drama that you become quickly invested in. The bulk of the credit for that goes to the film’s incredible leading man who delivers his finest work here.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)

March 10, 2017

Cast: Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Sahil Vaid, Rituraj Singh, Shweta Basu Prasad, Aparshakti Khurrana, Gauhar Khan

Director: Shashank Khaitan

Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt’s last film together Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania was powered by their incredible, crackling chemistry. It was a sweet film at best, a decidedly desi, middle-class take on Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge set in the Indian heartland. A familiar tale of young love and parental opposition, but elevated by the sheer likability of its two leads and the fact that they played off each other so well.

Which is why it’s surprising that their new film Badrinath Ki Dulhania keeps them apart for a chunk of its running time.

Badri (Varun) is a young fella from Jhansi, a lovable simpleton who wears his heart on his sleeve. He falls hard for Vaidehi (Alia), a spunky girl from Kota whom he meets at a wedding and to whom he promptly proposes marriage. But she’s got big career ambitions, and laughs in the face of his tenth-pass qualifications. She has no interest in marriage.

Badri pursues her relentlessly, and because Vaidehi is amused – although still not interested – we’re meant to regard this stalking as cute. Subsequently through a series of conceits, the film separates these protagonists, and the bits where they’re not together are a real drag. The film’s second half is less surefooted than the first, particularly when the plot moves to Singapore and the writing loses its bite. There are multiple scenes here that feel pointless and puzzling. Chief among these is a scene in which Badri is accosted by a gang of masked men, presumably gay, who feel him up and rip his shirt in passion.

Writer-director Shashank Khaitan evidently bites off more than he can chew. Badrinath Ki Dulhania isn’t merely interested in being a breezy rom-com. Admirably, it’s also a critique on the dowry system, and makes a strong case for a woman’s right to choose career over marriage. Unfortunately some of this is communicated in a tone that’s too heavy-handed, and as a result you’re easily bored.

The film’s supporting cast is very good, particularly Sahil Vaid as Badri’s best friend Somdev, but it’s the leads who’re left to carry the film. Despite being saddled with a character who doesn’t always behave responsibly, Alia imbues Vaidehi with honesty and vulnerability that makes it hard to hold a grudge against her. It’s Varun, however, who gets the complete arc, going from an entitled young man to one who understands and appreciates women. He plays the part with the just the right goofiness and innocence, and wins you over completely.

Badrinath Ki Dulhania has its heart in the right place, but its writing is often clumsy. There is a lot to appreciate here, but it’s also overlong and made me restless. I’m going with two-and-a-half out of five.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)

March 03, 2017

Cast: Vidyut Jammval, Adah Sharma, Esha Gupta, Freddy Daruwala, Shefali Shah, Adil Hussain

Director: Deven Bhojani

Commando 2 is the kind of movie where we’re introduced to the hero with a close-up of his bulging bicep, even before we see his face. Vidyut Jammval is the impressive action star in this thriller, but for all the kicks, the back flips, the sliding through tiny spaces in the nick of time, and the slow-motion flying-in-the-air stunts, this film lacks punch. It takes superhuman strength to stop yourself from nodding off to sleep, because Commando 2 just goes round and round in convoluted circles.

The makers shrewdly attempt to cash in on hot-button issues like demonetization and farmers’ suicides, but to be entirely honest this is a bargain basement version of an Abbas-Mustan film with a simplistic plot and logic-defying twists.

Commando Karan (Vidyut) and a motley team are put together to bring back a famed money launderer by the name of Vicky Chaddha who is hiding out overseas. The idea is for the Indian government to get hold of crores of rupees in black money, and to use it for the good of the country before slimy businessmen and slimier politicians (Shefali Shah) can get their hands on it.

The team heads to Bangkok in pursuit of Chaddha, but this plot is more twisted than a pretzel and you wish you had Commando Karan’s energy to just keep up with what’s going on. His team includes the usual computer nerd (Sumit Gulati), a hard-nosed cop who switches sides in an instant (Freddy Daruwala), and a motor-mouth encounter specialist (Adah Sharma) who’s so ditzy you can’t help chuckling at some of her low-IQ one-liners. Esha Gupta, whose endless supply of sexy gowns and accessories is way more entertaining than her trite dialogues, plays the token vixen with mysterious motives.

Director Deven Bhojani ought to have cut the flab out of this movie and made it, metaphorically speaking, as tight as his leading man’s abs. Vidyut does a crazy, eye-popping number of stunts – including one in which he slips effortlessly through a cubby hole – but the action feels overlong and repetitive since it’s in service of a frankly underwhelming plot. And while Vidyut may flex his muscles like few can, his acting chops need work.

I’m going with a generous two out of five for Commando 2. This film gets tiring very quickly.  Sadly, it feels as pointless as a demonetized 500-rupee note.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)