Latest Bollywood Movie Reviews

Hindi Movie plots nowadays pick up topical issues which were considered taboo earlier .This movie speaks about one aspect of the phenomenon of body shaming, that is male pattern baldness . A little  bit of trivia related to this film is that 3 films including this one were made simultaneously with the same plot and hence the other two couldn't do well. Many young people will be able to identify themselves with the embarrassment faced by Ayushmann in the film as he starts getting bald as a young man after a perfectly happy childhood and teenage years.The rejection he faces in social life and the workplace because of being bald has been brought out by the director very effectively. Ayushmann has proved to be a pioneer in the portrayal of persons of some type of social disability. Not just satisfied with tackling the issue of male pattern baldness, the director also deals with the issue of dark skin of the female character ( Bhumi Pednekar). Incidentally a jarring aspect is Bhumi's makeup  as a dark person as it appears artificial.
A fairly well made film which makes a point through entertainment that one needs to be happy and satisfied with one's body as it is. Direction by Amar Kaushik is impressive as he goes about showing the trauma faced by the hero and the difficulties faced by him in getting accepted by society with this so called disability. The actors Ayushmann,  Bhumi and Yami  have performed well.  less

We have had a number of movies where the patriarch is against the relationships between their off springs for reasons of faith ,caste,economic status etc.
Here it's the matriarch on both sides who are the antagonist.
Why? Not known though.
The neighbouring moms ( Pinky Bhalla and Lalli Khanna) are domineering and reject the relationship of their daughter ( Saanjh) and son ( Puneet) respectively.
As predictable ,the hiccups are sorted out in the climax.
How? Go view for yourself.
Veterans - Poonam Dhillon and Supriya Pathak Kapoor play the warring moms while Sonnalli Seygal and Sunny Singh the lovers.
Though low budgeted,JMD is over streched ,forced and irrelevant .Songs only act as the fillers ,with nothing to do with the ' thin plot'.
Could have been better had it been made in Punjabi.
Make your own choice. less

Timely, topical and traumatic to watch, this movie makes a serious analysis of the agony of an acid attack victim. It is based on a real case of Laxmi Agarwal. Megha Gulzar deserves all credit for having the courage of conviction to take up this subject which had hit headlines some time earlier. Not to be left behind in this project is Deepika Padukone who delivers a rock solid superlative performance as the the physically and mentally agonized girl. No doubt the acting which should fetch her a national award. These two highly talented women have brought to life a heart wrenching story, which will keep the viewer riveted. There are some scenes which will move you to tears if not give you a lump in the throat. The film avoids all trappings of a melodrama as it unfolds the story in a simplistic manner. Even the courtroom scenes are kept at a realistic level. Vikrant Massey as the NGO boss gives solid support with his restrained and underplayed acting. The reaction of the media persons are also shown realistically. An impressive feature of the film is the music .The lyrics have a soulful quality and Gulzar's work is commendable. The songs are well knitted into the film and enhance the emotions. These songs will stay with you long after you have leave the theater. The title track is indeed haunting and a brilliant combination of music plus lyrics plus picturisation.
Certain aspects of the film standout. While it is a woman who throws acid on Deepika, there are other two women who go out of the way to help her, one her lawyer and the other her father's employer. There are other subtle directorial touches which leave an impression.
The film is a huge change from the crop of no brainers which are presently collecting crores in theaters. It will not be as commercially successful as those films, and this was obviously known to both Meghna and Deepika. Nevertheless a brave and an impressive effort. less

The Good Newwz about mankind is that God has bestowed woman the gift of motherhood.
All married couples long for being parents at the earliest. But do all succeed? If not,what's the way out?
Here ( for the first time) the focus is on parenthood through IVF.
It could partly b inspired by the route taken by some celebrities ,partly because in the present set ups with stressful lives,some couples may have medical and psychogical problems in not going for the traditional route. ,the easy accessibility of IVF centres mushrooming all over,the working couples may b staying apart etc.
In the movie under review two couples with the same surnames are undergoing parenthood through IVF.
It so happens that because of the similar surnames the clinic personnel have mixed up the samples.The women are carrying the child of the other husband's.
Should they continue with the surrogacy? Should they abort?Should they seek legal redressal against the clinic?
At least both the surrogates and one of the two husband's have reconciled to go through it.The other husband was never inclined to raise a family and is against the continuance of the what has happened.Jn simple words ,he's for an abortion.
What ultimately happens? Go see for your selves.
To me ,a sensitive subject should have been handled in a calmer and sensitive manner instead of a loose ' comic ' approach.
The choice of abortion should always b with the mother.
It's surprising that Akshay Kumar's character is throughout indifferent and negative till the near end.
Double meaning ' humour' could have been avoided .
The compositions are forced and have been inserted to streach the length.
Daljit Dosanj has certainly outperformed Akshay.
To me the subject could have been handled much better by a woman director like Meghna Gulzar/ Gauri Shinde.
Am not sure about the box office success of GN.Why? Because it could be taken note of the urban moder elite segment only.
All in all an untouched subject has been focussed upon is apprecitiable. less

D3 uses the Bahuballi 'formula' of a sequel being shown first,then the prequel.
Here the first part is a prequel,the second a sequel.
What's the prequel?
A family with a biological son( jobless) falls in love with a lass .Offers to take care about her by arranging funding for her medical expenses ( 50 lacs) to b a doctor( a dowry in reverse).Another person also( a mafioso) is in a one sided crush with the same lass.She gets killed by the mafioso.
What's the sequel?
The jilted lover is trained to be a cop to seek revenge. Which he does in the dishum dishum mode,lynching,
etc.
The end.
In the sequel it's revealed that the cop has married the elder sis of the lass of the first half.The cop has a step bro who is siding with the enemy.
The focus throughout is on Salman Khan( the one man army) .A new antagonist from the south ( Sudeep) is introduced.The screen play is predictable and the ' humour' forced.
By now the audience has seen any number of revenge theme movies,each seems to be a carbon copy of the previous one.The director ( Prabhu Deva) being from the south has background dancers and action characters from the south.None of the songs,including the male version of Munni Badnam hui,are listless.
The principal male characters are OTT.
By glorifying crime and revenge one only fortifies the thoughts emerging in a cross section that since trials take ages why not go for speedier route of lynching,hanging in public and encounters. less

What a movie yaar mast hae bhai sid ka ye is time ka sabse mast picture songs ke baat na kare to acha he aur back ground music b bahut acha tha dil khus kar deaa. Tara ki baat to algh hae unka style unke acting bahut hi hard hae aur Rakul ka itna bada seen to nahi tha fhir bhi bahut ache se apna kaam Kiya aur Ritesh is a great actor who plays every character very smoothly and carefully her acting is jhakas mera to 10 se 9 aur apka...??!!?? less

Outstanding performance by the vicky kaushal

Such a relatable story it is

And vicky acting is marvelous .

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There are good movies, there are bad movies, and then there is Thugs Of Hindostan. The movie with a cast including Amir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, one would expect this to be the movie of the year. But that is not the case.

The movie doesn’t have much on its story line. A British Official brutally takes over a small kingdom in India, a few years later the surviving princess and her caretaker are now leading a group of bandits who pose as a challenge to Britiain’s forces. Thereafter comes Aamir Khan as a man named firangi who is constantly changing sides. less

No matter how many times you may criticize Karan Johar’s fanstasy-oriented & candy floss style of filmmaking, but you can also not deny the fact that this very style ruled the hearts of several people, thousands of NRI’s, and millions of girls nationwide, from his directorial debut Kuch Kuch Hota hai to his hit movie Student of the Year. His movies catapulted SRK into one of the most hyped heartthrobs across the nation and world and no doubt this style of filmmaking that involved teenage emotions, college hormones, mushy love stories, and beautifully choreographed dance sequences, became a staple diet for audiences for more than a decade and this very art of selling dreams became to be known as mainstream cinema in Bollywood.
Now, Students of the Year 2, the second installment of the Student of the Year franchise, also is imbues the similar creativity that was earlier used to make typical Bollywood romantic dramas with a tinge of Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikander in order to entertain the audiences. But, unfortunately, director Punit Malhotra & Dharma Productions along with Karan Johar forgot that this trend is now long gone and audiences have reached a saturation point after buying into fantasized high school & college lives that never existed.

The seismic shift that Bollywood is going through with more and more content-oriented cinema with well-acted characters gaining viewers in trifold numbers than before is surely diluting the art of selling dreams with pretty looking lead actors, sexy actresses, intensely choreographed songs, and luxurious sets with mesmerizing foreign locations or hill stations.

Now, the problem with Student of the Year 2 is that it is not a bad film even in today’s cinematic context, but the storyline is so common & predictable that only that section of audience that has zero knowledge of socio-political affairs will only like the film in totality and unfortunately, that audience rarely exists today due to the onset of Internet & smartphones. The Dharma Production style of filmmaking is now getting obsolete and they have to definitely adapt to the changing circumstances as audiences are no longer in theatres for just visual pleasure. The proof this are the debacles of mega-budget projects like Kalank & Student of the Year 2, that were expected to do well and both movies featured one of the brightest talents of young crop of actors. Overall, Tiger Shroff Works hard and dances well, the actresses look gorgeous, and the college campus is no doubt similar to that of a resort, but the content, storyline, direction, plot, and screenplay are amateurishly average, which has lead to this movie being flop despite being a one-time watch.
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Maybe this is the first time that I am reviewing an action movie made at such a grand scale having two of most worshipped action superstars of their respective generations, but still its good as this review will be full of praiseworthy words and I am definitely good at it. There are action fans, then there are hardcore action fans, and finally there are die-hard action fans. Now, with names like Hrithik Roshan & Tiger Shroff in the main leads, it is a great challenge for the director Sidharth Anand ( who has previously given us movies like Bang Bang, Salam Namastey, & Anjaana Anjaani, to name a few) and for the production house to live up to the massive expectations of the masses.

Further, when a vintage old production house like Yash Raj Films is not doing well as per the records of the past few years, it is indeed a humungous task to appease the audiences. But, surprisingly, the makers excel in not only giving us an action –packed entertainer, but also succeed in enthralling the audiences through a well-constructed plot with necessary and effective sub plots that succeeds in keeping the audiences guessing due to the suspense, high-octane drama, and unpredictable twist & turns, that will satisfy the cravings of thriller junkie as well. The action scenes are well crafted and beautifully choreographed by putting the martial arts skills of Tiger Shroff to supreme effect and the Herculian demeanor of Hrithik Roshan is befitting to his dominating, authoritative, and patriotic character of Kabir who has a streak of badass traits in him.

The experience of the light-eyed superstar shimmers in his performance as an actor as he keeps the audience on their toes in guessing who is the ultimate rogue or villain. Now, the action has everything from flying in the air out of plane in a jeep, gun shooting sequences, fist fights, jumping from bridges, cars & tankers blasting, hand combats, and old-school heroism that is trademark of Bollywood action thrillers. So, it’s a kudos to stupendous action choreographers namely Mr Oh from South Korea and Andy R Armstrong from Hollywood who have helped the Indian Cinema in pushing the benchmarks of the stylized action movies of Bollywood.

Last, but not the least, the picturization of songs & locations were also fantastic as the dance moves of Tiger never fail to impress us and obviously Vaaani Kapoor looked hot in the bikini with a toned hot bod in Ghungroo. So, we can finally conclude that despite its long length and some minor glitches, the action genre of Bollywood is also going international which is no small feat, and finally we are churning out global hits in which the love story doesn’t have a happy ending either way.
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R.A.W. (Romeo Akbar Walter) is another addition to the list of patriotic spy thrillers that Mr. John Abraham has been endorsing since Force 2 which conveys his dedication to churn out true incidents that changed the course of free India and led to giving us a safer society to live in. Also, his production house JA films has also deliberately been set up to promote nationalism through his movies that act as an ode to people such as RAW agents, scientists, defense personnel, covert agents, undercover agents and off course, the cool spies who are not as celebrated as our politicians in victories that concern the nation at a global level in any field or national security primarily.

Now, one such story is of a theatre artist who works in a bank and leads an ordinary life but is approached by the undercover agencies to lead their mission as a spy and infiltrate the Pakistani base camps in order to extract information and knowledge about ongoing or upcoming terrorist activities. The interesting twist in this narrative is that this story is based on the true story on an Indian spy who had worked as RAW agent, in a time when the India was struggling against terrorist activities. Now, to be fair the script is quite engaging and there are twists and turns which involve minute mind manipulations to convey the story, but honestly the action and the firepower of the sexy thriller genre was missing and the movie has been given a much more of a docu-drama treatment.

But, still this treatment works for the most part as the plotline suffices to be a smooth journey for the viewers to be absorbed in the movie till the end due to the suspense. But, the end is a bit flawed in terms of logic and execution as it seems too far-fetched and cinematic, but still John’s looks work for the character of a cool spy and the director Robbie Grewal tries to use most of tools used for a spy thriller. All in all, it is a one time watch, but with some action and one or two hot scenes, the movie could have been a hell lot of badass.
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Well, no doubt, the movie is worth watching, as it has a novel and noble concept in adherence to the clearance of section 377, which was in favour of the LGBTQ community. It was not doubt a triumph of humanity in our country as any transgender, gay, or lesbian is not responsible for his/her sexual orientation, as he/she is not so by individual choice. So, we can say that this film was in a way a brave step towards this sensitive issue as this doesn’t happen often in mainstream cinema of our country in which Vidhu Vinod Chopra is backing the movie as a producer, a mainstream lead actress is acting in it and portraying the role of a lesbian (Sonam Kapoor), and a fantastic actor like Rajkumar Rao is being cast as a romantic hero (as far as the posters, promotions, and songs go).

The makers have ben clever in the promotion of the movie as they have not created a hype around the fact that they are promoting the underprivileged sect of the society and instead the movie was being projected as a love story between Rajkumar Rao and Sonam Kapoor. Thus, in accordance to that the first half of the movie flows with that flavor as well as there are songs celebrating weddings on lavish sets with beautiful bungalow in the background that show Anil Kapoor dancing with his trademark enthu. Further, Rajkumar Rao plays a writer giving artistic touches to the movie which also has theatre in the form a tool that is used to convey the message through a beautifully designed play and on top of everything, a surprise twist in the one-sided love affair of Rajkumar Rao with Sonam Kapoor that literally gives a shock to the audiences.

This is one of the most well-crafted films of the year, but problem is that the masses and major part of Indian audiences have not grown up to that mental level in which they can grant acceptance to this taboo and deal with the way west deal with it as off-course, we as a community are too obsessed with our “sanskars” and “parampara” which makes us one of the most conservative nations in the world. Offcourse, the movie will garner critical acclaim and praise from the modern generation & open-minded viewers, but sadly due to the under-grown mentality of our society in the sensitive issue that still pertains towards the LGBTQ community, the film will sadly not garner much box office success, and that has proved to be true as well. Nevertheless, it is definitely a strong leap towards giving the LGBTQ sect the much more optimistic future which is free from discrimination & prejudice.
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