Bollywood World

Rating : 7/10
Release Date : 3rd April, 2015
Time : 153 minutes
Director : Dibakar Banerjee; Writer : Dibakar Banerjee, Urmi Juvekar based on the character by Sharadindu Bandhopadhyay; Music : Various
Starring : Sushant Singh Rajput, Anand Tiwari, Meiyang Chang, Swastika Mukherjee, Neeraj Kabi, Divya Menon, Mark Bennington, Shivam, Dr Kaushik Ghosh



Anand Tiwari�s father has been missing for two months, and he hesitantly approaches the film�s titular character, Sushant Singh Rajput, for help. Thus begins an adventure that involves Calcutta in 1943, the English rulers, opium, our freedom struggle, Chinese gangs, the enemies of our enemies and by that logic our friends, the Japanese and a crucial stopover cum import from Rangoon.



Its quite an interesting adventure, not one that is entirely coherent but fun to watch nonetheless. Dibakar Banerjee, as usual, is excellent in creating an overall atmosphere via the costumes, the locations and keeps the action pacy, with enough twists and turns to keep you hooked. Where he misses out, quite oddly, is with the Bengali character / feel, something that Sujoy Ghosh got so brilliantly right in Kahaani. Here everyone speaks perfect Hindi without any trace of a Bengali accent, and the walk, posture, demeanour lacks the inherent laziness of the denizens of Bengal.



The ensemble cast is quite excellent � really liked Anand Tiwari, Swastika Mukherjee and Divya Menon. Special praise for Neeraj Kabi and Meiyan Chang. And quite liked Sushant � he doesn�t quite behave like a Bong but keeps you interested in what�s happening with him.




There are quite a few murders in the film, and it begs the question as to why Byomkesh�s life is never really threatened, why the villain is so magnanimous even while knocking off anyone else who is remotely threatening ? But I guess that is true of most detective stories. There is more than a homage to Guy Ritchie�s restyling of Sherlock Holmes here but it�s Dibakar�s deft storytelling which is the primary reason to watch this one, even though there is a lot in there which doesn�t make sense.

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 19th September, 2014
Time : 123 minutes
Director & Writer: Habib Faisal; Music : Sajid-Wajid
Starring : Parineeti Chopra, Anupam Kher, Aditya Roy Kapur




This is a sweet, but extremely predictable story. One where you wish there was more meat, literally, to justify the title. You visually do see lots of food, in some cases being consumed too, but apart from stray mentions of �my grandfather�s recipe�, you don�t really talk about food � the favorite dishes, the taste�and thus what is cooked up is just another love story.


Tired of incessant dowry demands from would-be suitors, Parineeti, one day, decides to get even. Till then, along with her father, Anupam Kher, she ekes out a normal, humdrum, middle class existence as a Hyderabadi Muslim, complete with dreams of America. Inspired by a huge settlement in a local dowry case, she decides she will entrap some rich, dowry demanding family and then use the settlement money to fulfill her dreams. Off they go to Lucknow, under fake identities. And meet Aditya Roy Kapur, who runs, one of the city�s most popular eateries. And then the plan changes. Or doesn�t it?



Being a Habib Faisal movie, it obviously gets the mileu right � whether its that of a Hyderabadi Muslim (with their sing song dialect), or that of a wannabe middle class person (dreams of America while being a salesgirl at a local shoe store, wants a guy who speaks good English � even better if with an American twang), or even the scared/worried father, desperate to get his daughter married off. In fact, one of the more endearing sub-plots, which was briefly introduced but not really built on, related to Anupam Kher�s job as a legal clerk, his own knowledge of the law and the court system yet, despite some egging from colleagues, his inability to fly � ie make the transition from being a clerk to becoming an advocate � despite retirement being just around the corner.


Aditya and Parineeti, both, did justice to their roles, making their slightly over-the-top characters come to life. I particularly liked Aditya�s screen presence, he has this slightly gangly look but more than makes up with his expressions and a shy, disarming smile. Hope he doesn�t take up any more drunk, suicidal roles. The supporting cast, including the various demanding parents and suitors, was fascinating to watch � their mannerisms, the way their �requests for help� were communicated (since no one actually uses the word dowry) and also the communication between spouses.


All in all, a good film, a sweet love story, but one which doesn�t really rise above the average Bollywood romcom and one where the title, Dawat-E-Ishq, seems like almost an after-thought, to differentiate itself from other films in this genre, without any substantial meat or spices in the script

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�