As i sauntered into a plush Pune multiplex to watch FANAA, I was carrying an excess baggage of expectations. From Yashraj to Aamir... From Kunal Kohli to Kajol. But when i walked out after the show, i felt cheated... cheated for the fact that i actually bought a ticket to watch a really, really dumb film. FANAA fails majorly. Why? Read on...
WARNING::::
This Review is a Spoiler and has details about the plot. Things that might shock u while watching the film. So if u intend to watch it. Dont read beyond this. But still, dont watch the film. Its not worth your money.
Basically, FANAA is a love story between a Blind kashmiri girl, Zooni (Kajol) and a tourist guide (Rehan). Now it doesnt come as a surprise when we realize that Aamir is not a tourist guy but actually a terrorist, and a major terrorist for that matter. Zooni comes to Delhi to perform in a Republic Day function with a few friends. There tourist guide Rehan is assigned duty to take them around. He says more shayari than dialogue, flirts with our blind jane, sings songs and when he is not doing either of the three things, he talks on a cellphone.
Then, despite of repeated warnings from her friends, Zooni falls for Rehan's charm. They start dating(!) and end up in bed after a night long date.
Rehan also falls in love with her after she mouths a dialogue and decides to marry her. She has an eye operation but then gets the shock of her life.
The director spares us for the 7 years in between as he introduces us to the other side of Rehan, the terrorist mastermind who has joined the Indian Army(!) on a mission. After an MI-2 esque chase sequence, he ends up injured standing at Zooni's door. He is shocked when his son (Remember He and Zooni had made love once?) opens the door. Obviously Zooni hasnt seen him, but she can still remember his voice n touch n all that. Basically the terrorist assures marriage once again when fate strikes again...
This is the story of Fanaa. Interesting? Not at all. Boring? Majorly. Did i feel like getting out of the theatre? Yes. How many times? Well... 3 to be precise.
This is a film from the Yashraj stable who claim to be making high quality products to demand a hike in ticket prices at multiplexes. Well, if Fanaa is their definition of high quality... I cant really say much.
Why did I hate Fanaa so much...? Here are 10 points i hated about the film. Some logical flaws and some glaring technical loopholes...
1> Why would a blind girl start dating a tourist guy and end up in bed just 2 days later? What the hell was her teacher(Lillete Dubey) doing when Zooni wasnt at the hostel at night?
2> If Rehan is a mastermind terrorist, why does he roam out in the open flirting with blind girls, guiding tourists... and how the hell does he keep his actual identity?
3>What is Rehan's ideology? How does he conviniently fall in love, then even more conviniently get out of it and still more conviniently fall in it again?
4>Why does a most wanted terrorist sing stupid songs with his kid long after he has recovered? Why does he not go and finish his HIGH PRIORITY mission first?
5>How does he manage to join the Indian Army? I mean, is it so easy to get in the Indian army?
6>Which anti terrorist outfit will make a nuclear missile by stealing different parts from different countries?
7> What the hell was the editor doing? The film is painfully L0000000000ng and lasts for a total 3 hrs. It is very slow.
8> All songs except Subhan Allah and Dekho na are pathetic.
9> The Screenplay kills the film. It is full of loopholes and potholes. It is full of logical flaws. The ones i mentioned above are just 50% of the total flaws.
10>The direction(Kunal Kohli) is a downer. He is not at ease with the script nor with the treatment of it.
There are a few heartwarming scenes in the film like the initial confrontations between Aamir and Shruti Seth(Kajol's friend) or the scene between Kajol and Aamir in an Auto Rickshaw.
The actors are amazing. Kajol looks stunning and does her part with conviction. You cant help but smile in her intro scene where she salutes the Indian Flag. Aamir's character is terribly sketched and is very confused for the lead man. It is neither plain white nor is it a black. It fails and is the reason for Fanaa failing. Actors like Shiney Ahuja, Lara Dutta and Lillete Dubey are wasted in totally inconsequential roles.
On the whole FANAA is a notch below average. Dont watch it in a theatre people. It is simply not your money's worth. Wait for the DVD release.
All i can say is people in Gujarat are lucky. For beginners, FANAA wasnt released in Gujarat!
My Rating: *
Monday, May 29, 2006
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
This GANGSTER rocks!!!
As i sauntered into the cinema hall screening GANGSTER, i was assured that it would be just another movie from the Bhatt stable with Emraan Hashmi kissing his way through it. The only reason why i went for it was that there was nothing better to do and HELL! it had a rocking soundtrack.
But 3 mins into the film and i was pleasantly surprised to see a technically sleek, well told and very engaging story unfold in front of my eyes. GANGSTER is one of the very few films i have thoroughly enjoyed watching in the past few years.
It is basically the story of Simran (played by newcomer Kangna) who is a drunk. She has gone totally into depression and has taken up the bottle in a big way. Her only support system is Akash (Emraan Hashmi) a singer in a seoul club. He loves her, but somehow Simran does not respond.
The movie subtly shifts from a picturesque Seoul to apni Mumbai as Simran narrates to Akash her past... her story. Simran who was a bar dancer is virtually married to A dreaded gangster, Daya (Shiney Ahuja). What does virtually married mean... Watch the film for that. She is madly in love with Daya who is madder in love with her. Constantly running from the cops with his life on the edge constantly, Daya has left Simran in Seoul. She is lonely and deppressed till the day Akash convinces her to start a new life with him. Life is fine for both of them till the day.... Daya returns.
GANGSTER is stellar in every aspect. An amazing screenplay by Anurag Basu, makes sure that we are subjected to a striking twist at regular intervals. Though the film takes its own time, often going slow in the first half but promising a thoroughly thrilling second half. It has smart editing, awesome camera work and good direction by Anurag Basu.
Performance wise all the three leads play their parts with utmost conviction. Emraan Hashmi gives his career's best performance, Shiney Ahuja rocks in a shockingly subdues performance. Newcomer Kangna looks stunning and acts wonderfully in a very difficult, author backed role.
GANGSTER works primarily because the director carefully peels of layer by layer of the mystery unravelling it in a wonderfully written, convincing but a painfully slow climax. We just hope that the climax wouldve been faster.
The music, needless to say is ROCKING! the Yaa Ali track is wonderfully shot and takes the story ahead in more than one ways.
GANGSTER is a surprisingly good film. Go For It.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
My Rating: * * * * 1/2
But 3 mins into the film and i was pleasantly surprised to see a technically sleek, well told and very engaging story unfold in front of my eyes. GANGSTER is one of the very few films i have thoroughly enjoyed watching in the past few years.
It is basically the story of Simran (played by newcomer Kangna) who is a drunk. She has gone totally into depression and has taken up the bottle in a big way. Her only support system is Akash (Emraan Hashmi) a singer in a seoul club. He loves her, but somehow Simran does not respond.
The movie subtly shifts from a picturesque Seoul to apni Mumbai as Simran narrates to Akash her past... her story. Simran who was a bar dancer is virtually married to A dreaded gangster, Daya (Shiney Ahuja). What does virtually married mean... Watch the film for that. She is madly in love with Daya who is madder in love with her. Constantly running from the cops with his life on the edge constantly, Daya has left Simran in Seoul. She is lonely and deppressed till the day Akash convinces her to start a new life with him. Life is fine for both of them till the day.... Daya returns.
GANGSTER is stellar in every aspect. An amazing screenplay by Anurag Basu, makes sure that we are subjected to a striking twist at regular intervals. Though the film takes its own time, often going slow in the first half but promising a thoroughly thrilling second half. It has smart editing, awesome camera work and good direction by Anurag Basu.
Performance wise all the three leads play their parts with utmost conviction. Emraan Hashmi gives his career's best performance, Shiney Ahuja rocks in a shockingly subdues performance. Newcomer Kangna looks stunning and acts wonderfully in a very difficult, author backed role.
GANGSTER works primarily because the director carefully peels of layer by layer of the mystery unravelling it in a wonderfully written, convincing but a painfully slow climax. We just hope that the climax wouldve been faster.
The music, needless to say is ROCKING! the Yaa Ali track is wonderfully shot and takes the story ahead in more than one ways.
GANGSTER is a surprisingly good film. Go For It.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
My Rating: * * * * 1/2
DARNA ZAROORI HAI
Well, well, well... writing reviews for Factory films has always been tough, and it cannot get tougher than this. DZH is definitely different... but does it really work? Well... read on to find out.
Well DZH is a sequel to a-not-so-successful Darna Mana Hai. It follows the same path and takes 7 different stories and ties them together using one main story. In the case of Darna Mana Hai, it was 6 friends telling each other Ghost stories, here its an old lady who tells 5 kids ghost stories when they enter her mansion because of rains.
DZH has 6 stories ranging from awesome to aweful. Well, to make life simpler for all of us, lets just take each story one by one.
1> Sajid Khan writes and directs the first story that has an amazing Manoj Pahwa taking a potshot on every possible horror cliche including Chudails, Kabristans, Amavas raats n what not. Shifting regularly between scary and Hilarious this story is one of the best enterprises. Manoj Pahwa rocks in a role tailormade for him, eating and laughing his heart out and Sajid Khan proves that he can make a promising director.
2>Ramu himself weilds the megaphone for this story starring Amitabh Bachchan and Ritesh Deshmukh. It is about a professor who thinks that someone is staying in his house. Ritesh and Amitabh excel in thier respective roles, Ramu directs well, but the story does not scare you and is culminated into a childish looking climax.
3>Prawaal Raman, the guy who had directed DARNA MANA HAI, comes up with the third story starring an stunning looking Bipasha, and a wooden Arjun Rampal. The story is decent in parts but thanks to Arjun Rampal's pathetic acting skills, it loses interest midway. Makrand Deshpande is brilliant in a role that seems to be tailormade for him.
4> New comer Vivek directs the fourth story starring Sonali Kulkarni, Rajpal Yadav and Suneil Shetty (yawn!). After u watch this story u will actually wonder if this is a horror story. Pathetic to the T, it falls flat on its face right from the first frame. Rajpal gives a spirited performance, Sonali is Ok but Suneil Shetty takes the cake by coming up with what could be called the worst performance by an actor in a decade. This story is so bad that you can actually go out of the theatre and come back after 15 boring minutes.
5> Anil Kapoor and Mallika Sherawat act with amazing ease in the fifth story directed by Jijy Philip of My Wife's Murder. Taking a dig at Karan Johar this is a highly predictable story and hardly evokes any scare. Its a very average story. Can be called as the second worst of the film... after Suniel's Sucker Story of course.
6> Now this one is the true shocker. Directed by Chakraverty and starring Randeep Hooda and Rasika Joshi, this story is easily the best of the enterprise. Written by Manish Gupta, it is a truely shocking story and is worth ever penny u spend on the ticket of DZH. Simply Spellbinding is the only phrase i can use to describe this story. Both Randeep and Rasika act brilliantly. Its the best of the lot.
Now coming to the connecting story; that of an old lady and a bunch of kids is also Ok in parts but becomes very predictable towards the end. Manish Gupta shows spark as a director.
All in all DZH is a decent attempt. You wont get bored. Worth a ticket's price.
GO FOR IT
My Rating: * * *
Well DZH is a sequel to a-not-so-successful Darna Mana Hai. It follows the same path and takes 7 different stories and ties them together using one main story. In the case of Darna Mana Hai, it was 6 friends telling each other Ghost stories, here its an old lady who tells 5 kids ghost stories when they enter her mansion because of rains.
DZH has 6 stories ranging from awesome to aweful. Well, to make life simpler for all of us, lets just take each story one by one.
1> Sajid Khan writes and directs the first story that has an amazing Manoj Pahwa taking a potshot on every possible horror cliche including Chudails, Kabristans, Amavas raats n what not. Shifting regularly between scary and Hilarious this story is one of the best enterprises. Manoj Pahwa rocks in a role tailormade for him, eating and laughing his heart out and Sajid Khan proves that he can make a promising director.
2>Ramu himself weilds the megaphone for this story starring Amitabh Bachchan and Ritesh Deshmukh. It is about a professor who thinks that someone is staying in his house. Ritesh and Amitabh excel in thier respective roles, Ramu directs well, but the story does not scare you and is culminated into a childish looking climax.
3>Prawaal Raman, the guy who had directed DARNA MANA HAI, comes up with the third story starring an stunning looking Bipasha, and a wooden Arjun Rampal. The story is decent in parts but thanks to Arjun Rampal's pathetic acting skills, it loses interest midway. Makrand Deshpande is brilliant in a role that seems to be tailormade for him.
4> New comer Vivek directs the fourth story starring Sonali Kulkarni, Rajpal Yadav and Suneil Shetty (yawn!). After u watch this story u will actually wonder if this is a horror story. Pathetic to the T, it falls flat on its face right from the first frame. Rajpal gives a spirited performance, Sonali is Ok but Suneil Shetty takes the cake by coming up with what could be called the worst performance by an actor in a decade. This story is so bad that you can actually go out of the theatre and come back after 15 boring minutes.
5> Anil Kapoor and Mallika Sherawat act with amazing ease in the fifth story directed by Jijy Philip of My Wife's Murder. Taking a dig at Karan Johar this is a highly predictable story and hardly evokes any scare. Its a very average story. Can be called as the second worst of the film... after Suniel's Sucker Story of course.
6> Now this one is the true shocker. Directed by Chakraverty and starring Randeep Hooda and Rasika Joshi, this story is easily the best of the enterprise. Written by Manish Gupta, it is a truely shocking story and is worth ever penny u spend on the ticket of DZH. Simply Spellbinding is the only phrase i can use to describe this story. Both Randeep and Rasika act brilliantly. Its the best of the lot.
Now coming to the connecting story; that of an old lady and a bunch of kids is also Ok in parts but becomes very predictable towards the end. Manish Gupta shows spark as a director.
All in all DZH is a decent attempt. You wont get bored. Worth a ticket's price.
GO FOR IT
My Rating: * * *
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