Ae Dil Hain Mushkil Review

Ae Dil Hain Mushkil

Director- Karan Johar

Starring- Rich Gorgeous People

Rating- One time easy breezy watch. Don’t expect any life love lessons.

Nano Review- Bratty and Bubbly are best buddies. Bratty loves Bubbly. But Bubbly loves the Beyond-Borders-Bearded-Boy. Then Bratty falls in love with the Bold and Beautiful Bachchan. And amid this quadrangle of Bratty, Bubbly, Bearded and Beautiful, we get three hours of heartbreak, unrequited love and a free trip to London, Paris and Vienna.

Karan Johar movies are interesting because the reasons you like these movies for, are the same reasons you have a problem with.  Today’s review is a listicle of the same.

1. Writing– Karan Johar has quite a knack for dealing in relationships. His writing is mature, mostly honest, humorous and rarely offensive. There are some scenes that simply stand out. Two best buddies cuddled under a rug, discussing attraction, egos and a possibility of a relationship is such a rarity in Hindi films. Karan Johar is also the master of writing ‘thrilling’ dining table conversations. Remember SRK’s poker faced “Sense of humor, Mr. Talvar” in Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna or (Shakun Batra’s confrontation scene in Ek Main Aur Ek Tu)? In Ae Dil Hain Mushkil Bratty, Bubbly and Beautiful have dinner together. The writing is sharp enough to create each of their characters and give them insights into the dynamics of their relationships.However the scenes where Bratty and Bubbly bond are fun initially but become highly superficial with too many forced Bollywood references and spoofs. Honest conversations coexist with drinking and dancing sessions that rarely lend any depth to their relationship. The singing at the Parisian bars and the RD Burman songs mash up sequence add unnecessary length to the movie.

   And of course there is a typical K Jo Red Wine joke (remember Student of The Year’s Washing Machine Tip) done rather funnily here and his typical “heard such good things about you, hope all good things” (KANK) is also done differently in ADHM.

2. Characterization– Despite K Jo’s characters pooping on diamond studded commodes are deep rooted into realism. Both Bratty and Bubbly speak our language and share genuine fears and insecurities but are so alienated from the rigors of reality. There are no errands to run, bills to pay and always enough money around to switch cities at a blink of an eye on a private jet plane and we have no clue where the goddamn money is coming from. I want to meet Bratty’s rich parents. And be adopted by them.Alizeh is all heart, emotionally mature, effervescent and sticks to her instincts right till the end. Ayan is a demanding brat. The film almost justifies his chauvinism, his meanness in garb of a broken heart. He shows his middle finger to his lady love on her wedding and insults her again in front of his rebound and nobody seems to have a problem with that. I understand people like him do exist but to celebrate them as heroes is wrong. JUST SO WRONG!!

   Also the characters in Ae Dil Hain Mushkil are mostly one-dimensional. We see them only through the context of love and friendship. The lack of a Farida Jalal or a Kirron Kher and hence no new perspective to the leading pair make them rather flat than rounded.

3. Performances– Brilliant. Ranbir and Anushka lend such credibility to their characters. Even when the lines are contrived and are meant only to cajole a few laughs, both the actors save the scenes. Anushka is such a natural. The scene where she breaks down in the hotel or when she explains her love to Ranbir towards the end, show what an incredibly talented actor she is. Ranbir breaks down too. Many times. And is brilliant every time. Ayan in Ae Dil Hain Mushkil is a heady concoction of Ranbir’s previous roles; childlike vulnerability of Wake Up Sid, cocky, selfish confidence of Bunny in Yeh Jawani Hain Deewani and longing and angst of Jordan in Rockstar. Ranbir’s repeated roles are like stale dry fruits ke dabbe that get recycled every year on Diwali. He is good but should soon shock us with a different role in his upcoming films.

   Fawad Khan is almost wasted in the movie. The man has two and a half scenes and monosyllables as dialogues.
   Lisa Hayden is much fun, despite landing a caricature of a character. (Writers must take a cue from Kalki’s character in Happy Ending, written and enacted so well, without ever making it look comical.)

   Aishwarya plays a poetess who stays in an Ikea or a Crate & Barrel showroom. She gasps and gushes and spews Urdu with much effort. “Rishton ki geeli zameen par log aksar phisal jaate hain…” she philosophizes through a pair of distracting red hot lips…and you are like…whaaaaa? Calm the Ghalib down bro and say that again please!! In fact in a scene of much Urdu tongue twisters of lafz, ishq, rishton, gehraayee, haar, baazi, jeet, maat, kashish, mohtaaz…oh what a farce…Bratty questions “aap log yeh ghar se ratt ke aate ho kya?” and I burst out laughing. Full points on self deprecatory humor.

   Also the gyaan on the power of one sided love by a superstar special appearance is just forced with no consequence on Ayan or on the film.

   On a side note, Ayan is dating a rather hot Lisa in the beginning, but she ain’t Sufiana yaar. He then meets Alizeh who is all Sufiana and uses words like Khuda, Khair and Khan all from the epiglottis but alas she is too much of a bro…she ain’t showing much skin. Kavita hain par cleavage nahi. Ayan then meets Saba, an alluring poetess who is a red lipped Mirza Ghalib, a love child of Lisa and Alizeh. But is that enough for Ayan? Watch it to find out. It’s a one time, easy breezy, non offensive and a rather too long film on love, life and friend zoning!!

   This is my weekly review on Masala. Here- http://www.masala.com/movie-review-ae-dil-hai-mushkil-226842.html

Shivaay Review

Shivaay

Director- Ajay Devgn

Starring- Ajay Devgn

Audience- Ajay Devgn

Rating- Let’s go watch Ae Dil Hain Mushkil instead!

 

OMG. Shivaay has achieved that feat that no Hindi film has ever achieved so far. Sheer mind bending stuff. I am totally blown away. Shivaay managed cast an female actor who speaks with an accent and her name is not Katrina Kaif. Wow!! She is not even Nargis Fakri. Or Lisa Haydon. She is Erika Kaar, a Polish actress (playing a Bulgarian girl) who can speak better Hindi than all of the three above. And you will be pleased to know Bulgarians also have ‘boodi ma’ ‘jawan behan ki shadi’ problems. Ha! In exact same words. Ha! Ha!

 

The most amazing thing about Shivaay is its breathtaking shots of snow-capped mountains. Aseem Bajaj’s camera creates quite a grand scale and it indeed is spectacular.

But the mountains have no context. The film could have been in the desert, plains or plateau, it wouldn’t matter. Because you see the place is immaterial. The hero is. I kid you not; one of the characters even calls Shivaay a superhero. So our hero is Superman sans chaddi, cape or cerebral. Giggly girls call him hot and sexy and we believe it because it’s said in an accent.

He runs behind a zooming van so fast that Usain Bolt is taking furious notes.

He jumps from one building to another so effortlessly that Shaktimaan is twirling in anger and insecurity.

And he defies gravity so easily that Newton is shredding his theories into bits.

And we must believe all this because Sukhwinder Singh croons “Har Har Mahadev” in the background and anything sounds inspiring and convincing with lyrics like ‘Jai Jai Kailash, Ja Kar Vinaash’. Ooooo so inspiring.

It’s interesting how Ajay Devgn has thrown Singham Shetty director out of his job. He must be thinking, ‘100 crores anyway is all about cars flying in flames, so why not me, after all I am the son of India’s best action choreographer. Chalo kholo director ki dukaan!!’

Our Shivaay is as deluded as his director. He screams at his lady love, for, err, getting pregnant with his child(?), emotionally blackmails her to keep the baby and then says he is not forcing her to change her decision. Dude you just tried every trick in the book to dissuade her. There is another scene where he is accused of being a criminal and he shouts he hasn’t killed anyone. Wait, you just threw a taxi driver out of his taxi, shot a few policemen dead and a crashed half a dozen cars in the whole process and you claim innocent? Yeah that makes sense. After all those are not people, they are extras, they don’t matter.

Like how logic doesn’t matter in such films. Our Shivaay is convicted of human trafficking. The Bulgarian Police don’t believe him. And this is after he had rescued a young boy from a pedophile and handed over to the same police.

But I feel bad for Ajay Devgn. Last time he was seen on a foreign land, he was chasing his wife’s boyfriend (read Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam). This time around, the search is for his daughter’s mother!!

So we wonder what the point is behind Shivaay? Shopping!! You see Kajol shot Dilwale in Bulgaria. It was back to back days on the sets, hence no time for recreation. Considerate husband decided to shoot a film there so that the wife could chill and explore the city!!

MS Dhoni Review

DIRECTOR: Neeraj Pandey
STARRING: Sushant Singh Rajput, Kiara Advani, Disha Patani
RATING:  2.5 stars

 

Bollywood hardly ever makes biopics where the journey is intrinsic, documenting a star’s internal journey, his/her insecurities/fears and how they overcame those fears to become the celebrated sportspeople that they are.

I understand it’s not a mandate to explore the internal story of a star but the reverential tone of most biopics, singing paeans in their praise, could be boring and uninspiring.

MS Dhoni like most biopics focuses on the hardships of a young Ranchi boy who dreams big Cricket dreams.

Director Neeraj Pandey creates a heartwarming small town atmosphere in the first half where friends and family cheer for the young Dhoni as the news of “Mahi maar raha hain” spreads like wildfire.

The strength of the film is in its beautiful characters played so brilliantly by each one of them.

Rajesh Sharma as a Bengali Coach and Kumud Mishra are my favourites. You give them any role, any dialect, any emotion and they nail it every time.

Even Dhoni’s friends Chittu, Param and Santosh are innocent characters set in simple times where one of them finds no fault in Dhoni and blames everyone else, fiercely defending him and the other teaches Dhoni a cricket trick for a samosa; alas the trick is never used again in the film. Like how life lessons beautifully equated with the game of cricket, “Merit pe khelo aur lage raho” make sense, but is hardly incorporated in the film.

In fact, there are a lot of things that happen in the film that have no or little relevance to the film, like kids exchanged comment in the hospital or Dhoni’s friend commenting on a hotel staff’s short dress.

All goody-two-shoes characters don’t lead to any crisis. Dhoni’s humble background is his biggest hurdle. The good thing is that they don’t manipulate it. The bad thing is that they don’t do anything about it. Anupam Kher as MS’s father sulks a bit and that’s it.

One can’t help but think of Yatin Karyekar as a farmer father in Iqbal whose fears and concern for his mute son seemed more real, his decision against his son playing the game far more convincing.

There is a brief ‘caught in the wrong job’ phase but all it takes is a match that earns Dhoni a place in the Indian cricket team.

I expected a little more tension, some scandal, some shade in the second half. Dhoni becomes the captain of the team, does that affect the morale of other players who had been playing for the country? Dhoni dismisses three senior players. How does that change his equation with the team? None of this is explored. They don’t even mention those three senior players.

All we get are two long loopy love stories. And no, Dhoni is not cheating one with the other. YAWN!! There is an interesting shade to the romantic side of Dhoni though. He is commitment phobic. Why? Because he is committed to his game and doesn’t want romance to distract him. Cut to next scene, he is calling his girlfriend up from a tour in Pakistan! Err…ahem!!

Unlike Azhar, the film thankfully doesn’t change names and shows real life players as are. In fact, the film even creatively incorporates Sushant Singh Rajput in iconic cricket matches with the real life players.

MS Dhoni is yet another safe, simple, decently directed, decently enacted, never-ending ode to Dhoni without any crisis to deal with. Watch it only if you are a Mahi fan.

To me it felt like Bollywood doled out a bonafide certificate to the captain.

The script of the film looked like this-

_________________________________________________________________

 

Bollywood Public School

308, Mutual Admiration Club, We Will Play Safe Building, Love You Dhoni Street, Ranchi.

Sr. No. 7 (Gedit? Gedit?)

This is to certify that MS Dhoni s/o of Pan Singh Dhoni is a bonafide player of the Indian Cricket Team.

He is very obedient, very sincere, very hardworking, OMG so upright. He is even a teetotaller, doesn’t even smoke, respects women, old people and is so morally conscious that when the third umpire is confused, he turns to MS Dhoni. Ha!

Principal/Producer: Mr. Pandey (aka Dhoni’s Manager!)

B.U.R.P

THE RATINGS MEAN:

5 stars: Loved it. (This could make to top ten movies you must watch before you die!)
4 stars: Liked it. Recommend it. (This will help you sound intellectual and give you stuff to add at water cooler conversations.)
3 stars: Didn’t hurt. Watch it once.
2 stars: It put me to sleep. Watch it if you are an insomniac or a newly wedded couple. Winks!
1 star: Do I even need to explain this?