Bollywood World

Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 29th August, 2014
Time : 141 minutes
Director: Kunal Deshmukh; Writer : Sanjay Masoom; Music : Yuvan Shankar Raja
Starring : Emraan Hashmi, Humaima Malick, Paresh Rawal, Kay Kay Menon, Deepak Tijori



A good Indian con film needs several ingredients to make it work, none of which are found in this one. Neither a strong lead pair (Emraan is ok while Humaima looks decent but is otherwise wooden), nor an unrelenting pace (broken up by mushiness, many lip locks � its an Emraan Hashmi film after all - and many extremely average songs), or a great con�in this day and age, its rather hard to believe what transpired is actually possible, even though with their last explanation they did move the needle from ludicrous to unbelievably far fetched.



Emraan, a small time con artist, and his partner in crime / mentor, Deepak Tijori, go for the big one but steal from the wrong man. Kay Kay Menon. A Cape Town based Mafioso. Emraan now is on the run but seeking revenge. And enlists the help of another con artist, Paresh Rawal. They decide to prey on Kay Kay�s love for all things cricket to lure him in. What transpires has to be seen to be believed�or in this case, not believed�



Emraan�s love interest, Humaima, a dancer at a dance bar also, some corrupt cops, who want a piece of the action and Zeeshan Ayyub, a hired gun, are all the other pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that never truly comes together. Actually, apart from Deepak�s brief cameo, nothing in this film really rings true � everything somehow strikes a false note. From Paresh Rawal�s retired conman, to Emraan�s desire for revenge, Humaima�s anger at what Emraan does and even the whole con set up. In this day and age, there are not less than fifty loopholes, which anyone with half a brain and an internet connection couldn�t have seen through.



The pace drags too, the film being at least 30-40 minutes too long with the unnecessary, contrived songs and emotional drama, seen as so critical to the masala our films are expected to have, taking their toll here. The humour quotient is also missing, so critical to a good con movie (Oceans Eleven, Khosla Ka Ghosla, to point out two very different con films). So in the end you�re left with a rather lame film, which limps through to a finale which, even though its unexpected, fails to rescue the previous two hours�the con, unfortunately on this holiday weekend, seems to be on us !

Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 29th August, 2014
Time : 108 minutes
Director: Roger Donalson; Writers : Michael Finch, Karl Gajdusek, based on Bill Granger�s book �There Are No Spies�; Music : Marco Beltrami
Starring : Pierce Brosnan, Olga Kurylenko, Luke Bracey,Bill Smitrovich, Lazar Ristovski, Will Patton, Mediha Musliovic



An ageing Pierce Brosnan is unable to convince us that he could still pass off as a Bond style secret agent, who comes out of his retirement for one last assignment. A wafer thin plot, full of more holes than Rahul Gandhi�s election strategy, borders on the ridiculous at times, and is only given a tinge of seriousness by Luke Bracey�s menacing presence.


Everyone seems to have a secret in this one. A Russian general, Lazar Ristovski, on the brink of becoming the President, has one. The CIA head of the Belgrade office, Bill Smitrovich also has one. Even Pierce Brosnan, who retired from active service, has one. And everyone is after Mediha, who wants to reveal Lazar�s secret, with Olga, an aid worker in Belgrade, turning out to be a key person as well.


I think I�ve reached the point, where political conspiracy films rarely shock me anymore. Most revelations barely making me, like Jeeves, raise my eyebrow by a miniscule millimeter. In this film, I doubt if any of the spilt secrets would even induce a yawn in anyone. Would, after what�s happened in Afghanistan, Pakistan Iran, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, the fact that the CIA helped foment a war, with a power hungry General in a former Soviet nation, come as a surprise to anyone ?



Also, imagine the same General, now also a Presidential candidate, staying in a hotel in Belgrade for a major energy summit. Protected only by 4 guards. Whom Pierce Brosnan casually walks up and shoots. With a gun without a silencer. Then proceeds to interrogate the General in his room. Without being disturbed by anyone �hotel security / cops / no one. Then CIA operatives brandishing guns run inside the same hotel. Again, are stopped by no one, no alarms are raised. And proceed to have another gun battle with Pierce. Again, without anyone interfering. I mean, I know he�s a former James Bond, but don�t you give up your license to kill when you retire from the role ?


Pierce�s big secret too, buried from his employers (including close friends in the agency) for over 20 years, is discovered within a few minutes, from, don�t hold your breath, file photographs, which were on record. Its just all too easy, too convenient and much ado about nothing.


The locations are nice. Olga looks great, especially when she walks into the hotel wearing a dress that does full justice to her lovely long legs, but seems uncomfortable in the scenes which require her to emote. Luke, playing Pierce�s prot�g� in the CIA, is the only one who actually fits his role perfectly � ice cold, menacing, with a bee in his bonnet to prove that the student has surpassed the teacher. Wish that was what the movie was actually about rather than the rather convoluted plot they actually came up with. It even sorely lacks the sense of humour, one liners that made Pierce so devastatingly good in most of his other films. This one unfortunately just doesn�t work in any month�November or otherwise�

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 22nd August, 2014
Time : 113 minutes
Director: Pradeep Sarkar; Writer : Gopi Puthran; Music : Salim-Sulaiman
Starring : Rani Mukherjee, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Priyanka Sharma, Jishu Sengupta, Anil George



Its Taken (if you�d like to know more about that film, click here) but Indianized. Its Rani Mukherjee, instead of Liam Neeson, playing a Mumbai cop. Not the daughter but someone who is daughter jaisi (wonder why ?). Add a huge amount of melodrama, teary music to an otherwise decent portrayal and you have a film which is decent, has good performances but, thanks to the above melodrama, never really builds up any tension or tautness to make you live the experience.



I like the way they built Rani�s character. Right from the opening raid to nab a criminal, the way she worked with her unit, her planning. The way she isn�t scared of getting her hands dirty. How she doesn�t really lose her cool, staying focused on the job at hand, battling bureaucracy, seniors and apart from one preachy scene, she mostly just gets on with it. The girl who gets kidnapped, Priyanka, someone she�d �adopted�, who lives at an orphanage but meets the family, including Rani�s niece who lives with them, frequently.



Her performance is matched by Tahir�s chilling, efficient and �its only business portrayal, the chief villain. He�s very good. Suggesting a better method of killing herself to a victim who threatens to commit suicide. Having phone conversations with Rani, trying to persuade her to drop the case.


What the film does well is make us care for the characters. Build them up nicely. Even people who appear in minute roles manage to make a mark, like Tahir�s mom, or the lady who takes care of the girls, or the police unit Rani works with, or the car dealer who is the front for the syndicate in Mumbai. What doesn�t work well are the slightly gratuitous scenes of the young girls undressing (well, perhaps necessary to show how the system works), the beauty parade they go through, the attempts to wring a tear, which actually dissipate any tension that was being built up.


I may be pilloried for this but child trafficking is probably a crime worse than rape and happens a lot more often (apparently one every eight minutes in India). Without as much media noise, police prevention effort going behind it. This one does a fair job of bringing this heinous deed to the forefront, describing the modus operandi, the organized nature of the syndicates running it and also the end users, mostly rich, well-connected, sick b****rds ! Probably just for that, it deserves an audience and a decent rating.

PS : The Nth time I�m saying this, but our celebrity obsessed culture really needs to change. Why is it so difficult to get names of the entire cast, as you can do on countless websites for English / French / German films. According to the YRF website the film only stars Rani & Tahir. Quite a few �big� sites, in fact, only name Rani as the cast�which I don�t think is respectful to the other actors who sweat it out and perform in the film�