Bollywood World

Rating : 5/10
Release Date : 7th November, 2014
Time : 132 minutes
Director: Ketan Mehta; Writers: Ketan Mehta, Sanjeev Dutta; Music : Sandesh Shandilya
Starring : Randeep Hooda, Nandana Sen, Gaurav Dwivedi, Vipin Sharma, Paresh Rawal, Jim Boeven, Feryna Wazheir, Darshan Jariwala, Suhasini Mulay, Tom Altar, Triptha Parashar, Rashaana Shah



One day, we, in India, will learn to make biopics. Where we will be happy to take one or two defining moments in a person�s life and focus an entire film around it, rather than attempting to show someone�s entire sixty-seventy year old lifespan in a couple of hours



This one takes Raja Ravi Varma�s life, played by Randeep Hooda, and attempts to show us, in a quite episodic manner, his love for painting, his love for staying at the forefront of art, his desire to allow art, especially with the aid of technology, to transcend the otherwise physical and moral constraints faced by artists of that era. It also spends a large part of the film showing us his extremely colorful life, especially with various women � Nandana Sen getting the most attention and notoriety.


There is a lot shown in the film, historical fact, that most of us are probably not aware of. But it is a very jerky style of story-telling, where we skip from one episode to another, without really, consistently understanding the man, his thought process. The scenes involving nudity are quite aesthetically done � don�t seem gratuitous or vulgar.



If a society were to be judged for how liberal it was in its arts, there was a time when we would probably rank right up there but the sad part is, today, we would probably be scraping the bottom of the barrel. We seem to have been this way for the better part of the last couple of hundred years at least, and in some ways, maybe even regressed. Just for a great speech towards the end, delivered calmly, without histrionics, and the core idea � of letting art soar free from a judgmental society � am going to be slightly generous with my rating.

Rating : 5/10
Release Date : 10th October, 2014
Time : 140 minutes
Director: Ravindra Gautam; Writer: Rahil Qaazi; Music : Ram Sampath
Starring : Anupam Kher, Divyendu Sharma, Manu Rishi, Aditi Sharma, Rajesh Sharma, Neha Dhupia, Supriya Kumari, Uttara Baokar, Bhagwan Tiwari, Sudhir Pande



A decent idea, good performances, especially by the lead pair and the ever reliable Rajesh Sharma, and a couple of (intentional) hilarious moments cannot protect the film from the curse of the second half, where it descends to near farcical levels and the yawning chasm of predictability


Common man, honest crusader, the scourge of mosquitoes, Mumbai Municipality employee, Anupam Kher, alas, has two kids who are extremely unlike him. His elder, Manu Rishi, a bit dheela, also in the BMC but corrupt and the younger, Divyendu, a bit of a firecracker, working for the corrupt CM of the state, Rajesh Sharma, as a party employee. The CM�s speechwriter, the cute Aditi, is his girlfriend while the vacuous Neha Dhupia, is the CM�s �keep�. The clash of ideals, doesn�t last too long, with Anupam Kher popping it after being wrongly insulted in office and then later by his kids. But not before we discover that he wants to be honoured, at least once, for his honesty and hard work. By a 21 gun salute at his funeral.



You can see most twists coming a mile away and those you can�t, are silly beyond belief (the Swiss bankers bit, for example). The sentimental bits were particularly tedious, especially the flashbacks (via Anupam Kher�s diary), the crowd getting together at his funeral and the ideological clashes between the various members of the family after their patriarch�s passing away. The climax is very painful and very long drawn out

The truly paisa vasool moments are when Aditi actually writes a speech for the CM, translating his expletive filled tirade into a palatable press release, when the CM bemoans the fact that he will go to jail for a mere Rs 12 crore scam when he has cheated so much more and when Neha Dhupia and Rajesh Sharma do a sort of Hindi film item girl retrospective�



This is one of those which would�ve sounded funnier on paper than it does in reel life. A comedy which tries to tread the ground of classics like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron but without being able to incorporate the zany humour of the same and also giving in to maudlin tear-jerking moments at every opportunity. There is also something paradoxical about a common man craving for recognition. Wouldn�t that, then make him, an UnCommon Man ?