Top 25 Must Watch Indian Films

 

 

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Singham : Movie Review

Singham roars loud...

as a winner

Director : Rohit Shetty

Cast : Ajay Devgn, Prakash Raj, Kajal Aggarwal, Sonali Kulkarni, Sachin Khedekar, Ashok Samarth, Govind Namdev, Anant Jog, Murli Sharma and Sudhanshu Pandey.

          In a car chase sequence when the protagonist comes out of a high speed Scorpio and shoots the SUV of thugs, the hero is greeted with seetis and taalis and believe me the reaction of spectators marks a stamp on the fact that Ajay Devgn has no less star power or fan following than his industry counterparts...the Khans. Though Devgn has been always consistent with his work and has delivered a hit per year in his career of 20 years except for 2 times, he was always refrained from the number one title. But time's changed now since Devgn has earned a lot of respect within the hearts of both audience and critics by doing some of the notable work in past few years. Eight out of his last eleven projects have been successful. Even his part received positive reviews in those three which did not worked on the box office. The Khans have their share of recognition. If Aamir is the actor of classes, both Salman and Shah Rukh are loved by the masses. But Devgn has emerged to be the only actor in this league who has both the respect of classes and the love of masses. Even fellow action stars like Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty have been facing hiccups in their career graph in past few years. Devgn on the contrary stands tall with some consistent quality work with a lot of variety, and Singham is another milestone for the Topgun of Indian cinema. But Singham is not the victory of only Ajay Devgn but also celebrates the contribution of two under rated champions Rohit Shetty and Prakash Raj.



Singham *ing Ajay Devgn, Prakash Raj and Kajal Aggarwal

          The plot revolves around honest Sub-Inspector Bajirao Singham (Ajay Devgn) who lives in Shivgad, a small village near Goa-Maharashtra border and deals with the cases in his very own and unique ways. On the other side is Jaikant Shikre (Prakash Raj), an extortionist and powerful lawbreaker of Goa who can forego anythig except a person who hurts his ego. The twist in the tale comes when these two men come into contact and Shikre is insulted by Singham in Shivgad. The furious Shikre swears revenge and with his political connecection gets Singham promoted and transferred to Goa and makes every possible attempt that makes his living miserable. Singham on the other hand does not give up fighting against corruption and the system that supports Shikre and how he combats all the bad men and bring honour to his preceeding police officer's name who was another victim of Shikre is what the rest of the film is all about.

Ajay Devgn

Singham is the remake of the 2010 Tamil hit film Singam that featured south sensation Suriya in the title role and Prakash Raj played the antagonist. But its not a frame by frame copy of the Tamil version, rather Rohit Shetty has changed the entire second half of the film. After making a mark in the comedy genre Rohit Shetty returns to his first love action cinema and excels in the stunts which are designed by Shetty himself. Devgn has performed these death defying stunts himself and a couple of them need special mention including the scene where Devgn comes out of a running Scorpio and pulls a thug out of an SUV thats rolling over his head or the scene where Devgn climbs over a thug to beat up another one on the head in lion style. Apart from the action the humour that Rohit Shetty manages to create in the film is really amazing. The story again is old wine in a new bottle and the credit goes to the ace director. While most of the recent films fail in presenting a meaningful end, Rohit Shetty comes up with an excellent climax and as correctly said all's well that end's well. Singham roars loud... as a winner.



Ajay Devgn and Prakash Raj

Performance wise also Singham is a worth watch. Ajay Devgn as Bajirao Singham excels in action scenes and Rohit Shetty showcases the flesh and six packs of his hero in great style. Though Singham lacks drama from Devgn's perspective in comparison to his previous works like Gangaajal or more recently Once Upon a time in Mumbaai, still the actor has emerged to be a big crowd puller in recent times. The show stealer is undoubtedly Prakash Raj as Jaikant Shikre who thankfully is a part of this film and gives Devgn a tough fight. To be very frank Singham without Prakash Raj is unimaginable since with his absence the film would have restrained itself to just an action flick. Prakash Raj's powerful performance creates new dimensions in the film and the result is the high voltage dramatic confrontations between Devgn and Prakash. Kajal Aggarwal as Kavya makes it a beautiful debut within her character's limits. Sonali Kulkarni as wife of Inspector Rakesh Kadam has done a fair job. Sudhanshu Pandey does a cameo as Inspector Rakesh Kadam. Of the supporting cast Ashok Samarth as Shiva Naik and Anant Jog as minister put up a good show. Sachin Khedekar's intentional funny scenes shape up the other way.

The songs except the title track do not work and form the only avoidable element in this film. The background score by Amar Mohile supports the story. The biggest strenghts still remain the trio of Ajay Devgn, Prakash Raj and Rohit Shetty. My rating for Singham is a handsome 3.5/5. Its a complete entertainer and watchable with family. Expect little and you will savor the most of it.


  

 

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Shor in the City : Movie Review

SITC is fresh and original 

Directors : Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K.

Cast : Tusshar Kapoor, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Nikhil Dwivedi, Pitobash Tripathy, Radhika Apte, Preeti Desai, Girija Oak, Sundeep Kishan, Amit Mistry and Zakir Hussain.

Balaji's latest production Shor in the City is a tale of Mumbai city and the noise that exists yet invisible in the society. Fresh and original in its treatment SITC is a compilation of three parallel tracks. The first one is of Abhay (Sendhil Ramamurthy), an NRI who comes back to India to revisit his business talents and becomes an easy target of extortion by the local gangs men. The second track is of Saawan(Sundeep Kishan) an aspiring cricketer who needs to finance the selectors to push his name in the Under 22 cricket team. The third and perhaps the most interesting track is of Tilak (Tusshar Kapoor), a pirated book publisher and his two creepy friends Ramesh (Nikhil Dwivedi) and Mandook (Pitobash Tripathy), who always in a hunt of making money land up in illegitimate activities. The trouble starts when the three stories clash at a single point.

The actors put up a decent show, however as it progresses SITC shapes up as more of a directors' movie. The first half is interesting, well paced along with some quirky funny moments. The second half keeps you involved in the story in the same way as the pre-interval part did. By the time the film reaches the pre-climax there's already a kind of curiosity in the viewer's mind and thats where comes the only shaky link of the film, which is nothing but the sluggish climax. The ending in fact eclipses the entire positives of the film and negate it's impact.

As already stated its a team effort with decent performances by all the actors. Pitobash Tripathy as Mandook is the find of the film and shines in all the scenes he appear with his mindless one liners and good comic timing. Zakir Hussain is impressive in his part of a local extortionist. Tusshar Kapoor has grown as an actor. Sendhil Ramamurthy makes an impact despite his unparallel hindi accent. The girls hardly get any space to showcase their acting talents. 'Karma is a bitch...' is a catchy number. I would go for 2.5/5 for SITC. The directors Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. have made a decent attempt, however the sloppy climax just spoils the fun.



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7 Khoon Maaf : Movie Review

7 Khoon Maaf is monotonous

Director : Vishal Bhardwaj

Cast : Priyanka Chopra, Naseeruddin Shah, John Abraham, Irrfan Khan, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Annu Kapoor, Aleksander Dyachenko, Vivaan Shah, Usha Uthup & Konkana Sen Sharma.

All that shines is not gold. Promising to have enough potential Vishal Bhardwaj's latest dark drama 7 Khoon Maaf does not meet up to its expectations. Now the fact that 7KM does not click has some serious reasons, since it has some of the most noted people of contemporary cinema associated with itself. It's not like a very bad film but the kind of expectation one has from a Vishal Bhardwaj flick makes 7KM look a pretty ordinary stuff in the end. In fact I am a big fan of Bhardwaj's work including Maqbool, The Blue Umbrella, The cult classic Omkara and even Blood Brothers, his short film on HIV AIDS. But ever since giving these much applauded films the graph has started tumbling the other way round for Bhardwaj. It started from Kaminey and continues in 7KM. The audiences expected a lot more from a Vishal Bhardwaj movie than what they were served in Kaminey, however the goodwill of Omkara perhaps helped the box office collections of Kaminey  and made it a hit before people could make out that the latter in no way appeared to be a work of a director who gave us Langda Tyagi. But fate is what one would say, that movies like Omkara are refrained from attaining a 'hit' title, but the Kaminey kind does a better job at the box office. Sad to say even the luck does not work for 7KM.

Based on Ruskin Bond's short story 'Susanna's Seven Husbands', 7KM is a story of Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes (Priyanka Chopra) and her quest to find true love. She marries six men during her lifetime, however does not find anyone as 'the one' she's been looking for. Her first husband Major Edwin Rodriguez (Neil Nitin Mukesh) has an imperfection of being over possessive and is unable to bear the fact that such a beautiful wife would ever be faithful to him. The second one is Jimmy Stetson (John Abraham), a professional singer whose flaw is pride and changes after having a taste of fame and ultimately moves to drugs. Wasiullah Khan (Irrfan Khan), a subtle poet by vocation happens to be her third husband who pertains a nasty beating habit while expressing his love towards Susanna ending up with some real painful bruises to the lovely lady. The fourth husband is a Russian Spy Nicolai Vronsky (Aleksandr Dyachenko) leading a double life. He has a wife and 2 kids before marrying Susanna and has not unveiled this hidden aspect of his life to Susanna. Her fifth husband is a lusty Police Inspector Keemat Lal (Annu Kapoor) who marries her for physical appetite. Her last husband is Dr.Modhusudhon Tarafdar (Naseeruddin Shah), a bankrupt Bengali doctor who convinces Susanna to marry him with a motive to acquire all her property after her death. The seventh man in Susanna's life is Arun Kumar (Vivaan Shah) who noticed Susanna since his childhood and has nurtured a crush on her. 

7KM explains 'anger' as an emotion like love and also the fact that both are complimentary to each other. A lot of love or even a desire of the same may come up with extreme anger. And in a flash all is gone. Its only after a deadly showdown of Russian roulette, Susanna realises that she did something out of anger to someone she loved the most. After 5 seconds of the shot, the blood spilled on the wall makes her realise that she just shot her husband dead. Love kills and has no scope of mercy. This is how a loving lady kills her husband whom she loved the most. And when she does it with 6 men...Its called 7 Khoon Maaf. Wondering what her 7th crime was. Anyhow it is an Interesting plot indeed but how can you see the same thing happening repeatedly one after another. The same story works as a book since one has an option of not completing a book at one go, however when being shown in a 3 hour film makes it monotonous to watch. After 2-3 kills the story starts becoming a lot predictable which is another drawback of 7KM. A couple of uninteresting stories should rather have been excluded from the film.

Performance wise also 7KM fails to leave any strong impact. This is certainly not the best performance by Priyanka Chopra and it could have been a lot better. Her on screen presence in most parts of the film also does not help her to make it look anything beyond an average attempt. Also, great talents like Naseeruddin Shah and Irrfan Khan are wasted. The only exception we have here is of Annu Kapoor who makes the character of Keemat Lal look so very special by his lewd instincts. Special mention for Neil Nitin Mukesh who gives his best performance till date in the role of a cold hearted Army officer.

Bekaraan... and Daaarling... are the best songs we have in 7KM. Apart from this, anything which needs a special mention in 7KF is Gulzar's lyrics and Ranjan Palit's cinematography. I give 2/5 to 7KM. Please stop disappointing your fans Vishal including me. Hopefully next time we have something that suits your caliber.





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Yeh Saali Zindagi : Movie Review

Yeh Saali Zindagi is a definite entertainer

Director : Sudhir Mishra

Cast : Irrfan Khan, Chitrangda Singh, Arunoday Singh, Aditi Rao Hydari, Saurabh Shukla, Sushant Singh, Yashpal Sharma, Prashant Narayanan & Vipul Gupta.

                Yeh Saali Zindagi happens to be a good entertaining movie made in a long time. A musical romantic thriller in its genre, YSZ surmounts in almost every single department. The credit has to be given to the 2 time National award winning director Sudhir Mishra who gives another master stroke in the form of YSZ continuing his legacy of offbeat films including the likes of Dharavi, Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin, Chameli & Hazaaron Khwaishen Aisi, but unlike his most of previous work, YSZ is a definite entertainer.

The film stars Irrfan Khan as Arun who works in a finance company of Mehta (Saurabh Shukla), a double dealing deceitful finance goon. The duo are in a black money flip-flop white money business where Arun neatens the unlawful money of gangsters, politicians and high profile businessmen. In an episode of imparting legal imputation on a pub owner with a motive to rack up his property, Arun unintentionally meets a beautiful singer named Priti (Chitrangda Singh), sister and partner of the pub owner and falls for her alluring looks. After having learnt that Priti has nothing else apart from the pub property Arun decides to help Priti come out of this nuisance. However Arun in return obtains nothing but a mere friendship from the stingy Priti, who becomes occupied with her boyfriend Shyam (Vipul Gupta); son of a business tycoon and soon starts avoiding Arun. Mehta warns the infatuated Arun and pushes him to forget Priti and his one sided love story. On the other side Shyam is leading a double life and has a fiance who is a daughter of a politician and this is where the trouble begins.

Kuldeep (Arunoday Singh), an outlaw living in the outskirts of old Delhi is married to Shanti (Aditi Rao Hydari) and has a 5 year old son, however his wife wants to make their ways apart due to the anti social behaviours of Kuldeep. However, he assures her that he will discontinue his crime life forever, but secretly agrees to perform one last job before he retires from the crime world to ensure the financial security of his family. And this last job is nothing but a task of kidnapping the politician's daughter along with her fiance Shyam. A local brigade of outlaws leaded by Kuldeep go for the kill but unwittingly abducts Shyam with Priti instead of the politician's daughter. This is where Arun finds himself in a pickle of either to risk his own life for a girl who does not love him or to leave the city where already people are after his life.

The film has portions of narratives by Arun and Kuldeep, both justifying their enslavement to their respective love interests by doing things which have no personal incentives , unleashing their Unconditional love. Unusual to find such feelings in today's age of flings, we are pushed to believe the Platonic love of Arun by his subtle behaviour towards Priti. And in the midst of all these kidnappings and gunshots the one thing that keeps the entertainment moolah always on the top is the dark humour which the director manages to create quite effectively and 'consistently'. Be it the bad-mouthing one liners of the bizarre gangsters or the conversation of the underworld siblings Bade (Yashpal Sharma) and Chhote (Prashant Narayanan), all comes as a laughter bonus in every scene one after another making the viewer wait for another one to come and believe me the viewers are not disappointed at all. One of my favourite comes from a mad gangster who says "Side Income hai Bhai" after a fellow crook asks the reason why Priti is trying hard to save Shyam. Even the greedy cop Satbeer (Sushant Singh) joins the party and smashes a sixer off the last ball.

Of the cast, Irrfan Khan deserves a standing ovation for enacting such a difficult role effortlessly. He is simply superb and is one of the biggest strength's of the film. Arunoday Singh with the 'Hulk' looks was last seen in Mirch and Aisha earlier, looks like a prominent talent to watch out for. Chitrangda Singh as the mysterious Priti is good. Aditi Rao Hydari was last seen in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Delhi6 in a small role but she makes a good debut in a lead role of the beautiful wife of Kuldeep. Also all the supporting actors have given their best in their respective parts, be it Saurabh Shukla, Yashpal Sharma, Prashant Narayanan or the Delhi bad boys. The music of the film excellently supports the story with some real nice tracks. Kaise kahein Alvida..., Dil dar ba dar... and Sararara... make the best of songs.

Many of the recent films have had the dialogues which have gone across the line, including the likes of Kaminey, Ishqiya, Peepli Live and No One Killed Jessica. The raw language trend continues with YSZ, infact the film faced some censor issues prior the release on the usage of the word "Saali" in the title of the film. Ironically the script makes YSZ as the most suitable title for this film. Written by Mishra himself YSZ comes up as a winner in the end. Not a movie for family audiences, but this one is a treat to watch for those who like cinema to its core. For a brave move by an ace director and excellent performances, i would go for a 3.5/5 for YSZ. Thank you Sudhir Mishra for the real entertainment!!!

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