Badmaash Company Movie Review

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Vir Das, Meiyang Chang

Director: Parmeet Sethi

Parmeet Sethi, writer-director of this week's "Badmaash Company" has been quoted as having said that he took all of six days to hammer out the script of this film. Well, guess what? It shows! Set in the early 90s, in a pre-liberalized India when foreign brands were expensive and hard to get your hands on, "Badmaash Company" is an outrageously silly story of four middle-class friends who accumulate much wealth when they figure out a perfect con that involves selling imported sneakers. 

Shahid Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Vir Das and Meiyang Chang star as the bore-some foursome who are shown repeating this con over and over and over again till it begins to feel like a tutorial guide. Greed takes them westwards, and next thing you know they're in New York repeating the exact same con with leather gloves.

Like those melodramatic buddy movies of the 80s, the friends fall out over ego clashes and disagreements, but are reunited in the end, when -- believe it or not -- they repeat a similar con with a range of defective shirts that they label 'The Bleeding Madras', whose sales go through the roof when they somehow manage to get Michael Jackson to wear one. Packed with lazy clichés and convenient plot-holes, "Badmaash Company" is unforgivably long and insufferably boring. The acting -- from all four leads -- is nothing to speak of, and Sethi's direction is amateurish to put it politely.

The funniest scene in the film takes place in an airplane when an oversexed Vir Das appears to be talking to Anushka Sharma, but his eyes are fixed on her chest. Pulling up her blanket to hide what he seems so distracted by, she says: "These don't speak." This scene appears within the first 15 minutes of the movie, and it's the only time you smile. 

Flogging the infamous Yash Raj Films formula of stylish costumes, gorgeous foreign locations and hip dance numbers, Sethi delivers a film that is entirely superficial and staggeringly dull. I'm going with one-and-a-half out of five for director Parmeet Sethi's "Badmaash Company". Unless you enjoy being punished,

City of Gold Movie Review

Cast: Seema Biswas, Ankush Choudhary, Anousha Dandekar

Director: Mahesh Manjrekar

City of Gold, directed by Mahesh Manjrekar, is one of those films that had the potential to be better than it ultimately is.

Adapted from a play by Jayant Pawar, the film examines the plight of Mumbai's mill workers who were rendered redundant in the '80s when the mills shut down to make way for plush malls.

Focusing on one particular family struggling to make ends meet when the closure of the mills robs them of their livelihood, Manjrekar tells a hard-hitting story without pulling back any punches.

You empathize with the mother (played by Seema Biswas) who watches helplessly as her family disintegrates before her very eyes. One son, a struggling playwright toils away at scripts, hoping his work will be noticed soon. Another son loses his bank job after his involvement in a fraud. The unmarried daughter becomes pregnant with the neighborhood grocer's son, who as it turns out, is already married. And the youngest son gets involved with the local underworld.

Manjrekar extracts credible performances from his actors, but sadly there is no one to rein in the director himself. So there are parts of the film that flit between exceedingly melodramatic and impossibly exaggerated, and after a point the director's grim, cynical and utterly despondent perspective fails to ring true.

The core story unfolds in flashback, and is book-ended by present-day portions that are laughably silly. Even the violent climax appears ridiculously contrived.

In the end, the film is salvaged to a fair extent thanks to the arresting performances by the mostly unknown cast -- particularly Veena Jamkar as Seema Biswas' daughter, and Karan Patel as the youngest son who turns to crime. There are also several disturbing scenes that Manjrekar films uncompromisingly -- like the one in which we learn that one of the brothers has sold a kidney to raise money, and the one in which the family discovers their daughter is pregnant. These portions punch you in the gut with their unrestrained intensity.

The film is watchable for the most part, and might have worked perfectly as an honest slice-of-life drama if it weren't for the filmmaker's tendency to go over the top. I'm going with two-and-a-half out of five for Mahesh Manjrekar's City of Gold. Watch it because it makes some disturbing yet important points. Watch it also to understand just how compelling it could have been!

Housefull Movie Review

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Ritesh Deshmukh, Arjun Rampal

Director: Sajid Khan

'Housefull' is the kind of pedestrian comedy that makes 'Singh Is King' feel like a Woody Allen gem. It's the kind of film that will stop at nothing to get a laugh out of you. So a monkey is slapped and punched, a black baby becomes the butt of a racist joke, and the words "homo" and "gay" are used liberally as a form of insult.

The humor here is strictly low-brow and the gags mostly slapstick. It doesn't help that the director plagiarizes many of his jokes directly from popular American comedies like 'Night at the Museum' and 'Meet The Parents', and even whacks an old gag involving a vacuum cleaner gone beserk from the "Mr Bean" TV series.

The premise itself is a flimsy one centered on a perennially unlucky fellow played by Akshay Kumar, and his misadventures during his search for the perfect bride. In the tradition of similarly dimwitted comedies like "Welcome" and "Golmaal Returns", the screenplay banks on instances of mistaken identities and misunderstandings to take the narrative forward.

Ritesh Deshmukh who stars as Akshay's best friend, is passed off by his wife Lara Dutta as the family cook when her father suddenly shows up unannounced. And Deepika Padukone, who stars as Akshay's girlfriend, must present Lara Dutta as his sister, when Deepika's brother Arjun Rampal decides to pay a visit.

This merry-go-round of madness is neither imaginative nor original, and when the director can't think of any other direction to go with his scenes, he gets his characters to stand in a circle and slap each other repeatedly.

Some genuine laughs are provided by peripheral characters like Chunky Pandey who plays a half-Italian hotel owner named Aakhri Pasta, and Boman Irani who appears as Lara Dutta's farsan-baron father who makes the trip from Gujarat to London to see his estranged daughter.

Of the leads, Akshay Kumar has a few moments of convincing straight-faced humor, but he does nothing new that you haven't seen him do before. The ladies aren't expected to do much more than look comfortable in skimpy beachwear, and Ritesh Deshmukh and Arjun Rampal make for reasonably engaging background distractions.

In all fairness, some jokes do make you laugh but those are few and far between. For the most part 'Housefull' makes you cringe in embarrassment and disgust for what passes off as 'entertainment' and 'cinema' these days. Bereft of craft and style, and lacking in even simple storytelling, the film is a test of your endurance.

Sura movie review

Star cast: Vijay,Tamanna
Music Director: Mani Sharma
Lyricist: Vaali, SP Raj Kumar
Director: SP Raj Kumar

The much anticipated Ilaya Thalapathi starrer Sura hit the marquee today. With Sura being his 50th film, movie buffs and Vijay fans were looking forward for something different from their star. However, there is no variety in the film and it happens to be a usual Vijay fare. The script seems to be a combination from his earlier ventures. Of course, the actor does not disappoint his fans, as Sura has all the elements that will satiate them.

Sura is about the lives and plight of the fishermen living in Yazh Nagar, a fishing hamlet in Tamil Nadu. The story, no doubt centers only on Vijay, who is known as Sura.

It is Vijay’s attempt to thwart the efforts of villain Dev Gill (who played the villain in the popular Telugu film Magadheera) from acquiring the hamlet to develop it into a resort. In chips the hero, fights for justice and dramatically obtains patta for the land so that everyone living there could build a house. However the duel between the hero and villain could have been more gripping.

The role of the heroine in this film leaves a lot of room for debate – is it really essential to have one in Sura? Tamannah appears in some dance sequences, a few scenes and in all adorns the movie as a glamour piece. This is perhaps the first film, where Tamannah marries on screen! Yes, Sura ends on a happy note with the lead pair entering wed lock.

Talking about the heroine, her introduction itself is very amusing. Tamannah attempts suicide by drowning in the sea, for the simple reason that the pet dog goes missing. Of course, the hero makes his dramatic appearance to save her. Somewhere in the middle love blossoms and then follows a couple of duets.

While talking about the hero Vijay’s introduction it is even more amusing than the heroine’s and needs a special mention here. The movie begins with a cyclone hitting the fishing hamlet and the all the fishermen moving back to the shores for safety. Vijay, of course is missing and everyone is in search of him. Being the hero, he saves one and all before making a very dramatic appearance from mid-sea.

The fights in Sura could have been choreographed well, considering Vijay’s performance levels in other films. Though there are some gravity-defying stunts, the fight seems to lack the punch and force that one usually associates with a performer like the Ilaya Thalapathy.

For an excellent dancer, this film offers very little scope for exhibiting his dancing skills too. The Bommayi – Choo Mandra Kali song happens to be that ‘once more’ type of song, while all others except En Peru Saravedi does not turn up the heat.

Vadivelu’s mere presence is enjoyable and there is nothing much to say about the comedy track. The scene where Vennira Aadai Murthy renders the popular song Marudamalai Maamuniye in a concert and Vadivelu gestures not to exert too much but thinking that Vadivelu is coercing him to sing even more forcefully, Vennira Aadai Murthy sings with full gusto, had the audience in splits of laughter.

There are umpteen numbers of irrational scenes in the film that has even the Vijay fans squirm in their seats with dissatisfaction. The classic example is when the actor lights up the stove with the flip of his fingers.

Vijay has made sure to draw the attention of the Tamil audience by addressing the sensitive Sri Lankan Tamils issue and the Rameswaram fishermen’s plight. These scenes were probably included to pacify the Tamils.

The negative aspects of Sura are no doubt the music, illogical, if not slow screenplay, gravity defying stunts, slow moving scenes.

Rettai Suzhi – Tamil Movie Review

Star-casts: K. Balachandar, Bharathiraja, Aari, Anjali, Jayachitra, Manobala, Ilavarasu and others
Direction: Thamira
Music: Karthik Raja

Ramaswamy (K. Balachandar) and Singaravelan (Bharathiraja) belong to the same village and yet have a most brutish regard for each other. Singaravelan, a diehard follower of Communism and Ramaswamy, a congressman have into a long termed contravene for past 40years. Their families are no more friends, though they want to be. But their kids are so deadly in war against each group. When Moorthy (Aari) arrives in town as a military man, his childhood love with cousin girl Susheela (Anjali) is rekindled. Sooner when they find their two elder persons not letting this happen, kids from both the groups join hands together for setting things right.

Having a vast experience as a short fiction writer and dialogue writer, Thamira has written a tale that is mainly centered on kids. In fact, the old men K. Balachandar and Bharathiraja are also been portrayed with childish nature. This is more discernible with the village Panchayat scene where Bharathiraja complaining against KB. The screenplay is quite sluggish that it fails to cater for major group of audiences, especially for the city audiences. Thamira should have slightly modified the narration with the crisp and stylish approach so as to provide a wholesome entertainment.

K. Balachandar and Bharathiraja have just lived under the skin of their characterization. Anjali is cute and lovely to watch. Newcomer Aari has places to go for his talented skill of acting. Manobala and Ilavarasu have done justice to their roles. Jayachitra does not get a full-fledged role. The kids do ham it up on many occasions which could have been avoided.

Good music by Karthik Raja and eye-catching visuals by Karthik Raja emblazons the screens with attraction. Editing is moderate and is done according to the screenplay.