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Reviews
Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023)
A relevant movie for today..... And it's entertaining
I can't understand what all the haters want. Movies are supposed to be entertaining and diverse. Imagine a World where everyone only made serious entertainment.
This movie surprised me in every way. It started off being a typical KJo movie that makes me roll your eyes. But it started throwing off hints of relevant and relatable issues very casually very early on in the movie (even the insecurites that Rocky had due to his incompetence compared to his very educated gf, and the commitment issues Rani had due to their differences) . This kept me going without judging it for it's usual loud dramatic Bollywood masala movie foundations. And then came the overwhelmingly unexpected deluge of very relatable social issues that cannot be taught to Indian society without the cover of entertainment( please know our parents will never relate to these messages if they're sold in today's style). So i had no choice but to recognise and appreciate even more that this movie does the job without even trying to pretend to be anything else. It's a hard core entertainer that brings you those superficial moments of joy, tears and feeling butterflies in your tummy owing to the ott romance, but also carries some very loud but totally important relevant messages in a format that the target audience would actually understand. So watch this movie and be entertained, and take home some memories, instead of over expecting every movie to be perfect. Appreciate the messages and may be hopefully it'll teach everyone a thing it two about their own judgements and biases.
Kalank (2019)
Did I watch a different version than everyone else??
I'm baffled by the ratings on here for this movie. I mean Bollywood constantly produces sub standard classless movies with 0 acting, direction or dialogues and they still get by just because of a lucky release date close to a festival. And this unfortunate MASTERPIECE that probably bombed at the box office because of a few flaws here and there like its length, ott setting and an unhappy ending gets only hate from people? Pathetic!! This movie setup, costumes, dialogues, acting were all breathtaking even if story not so great or new. It tugged on my heartstrings in some places (varun's charactr.
Ladies vs. Ricky Bahl (2011)
None of the flare of B3......but Anushka Ranveer make it watchable
STORY, DIRECTION and ACTING
..were few highlights of the immensely likable BBB. Bad news is they were all missing from LVRB. I kept my cool in the first half and ignored some large flaws in the story, but the 2nd half was even more so miserable when the hyped 'biggest con' turns out to be that Ricky Bahl conveniently has a change-of-heart.
The story starts with Ranveer scooping money from an innocent Delhi girl who is hopelessly smitten by him (Parineeti Chopra is brilliant as Dimple). And similar stories follow. Ricky's relatively primitive & 'unsmart' schemes make you raise your eyebrows and story starts to feel immature in many ways. Remember Hrithik's mind-blowing '13 dwarfs' scene in Dhoom 2?? It needed that kind of excitement!!
Then there is even more disappointing news in the 2nd half which I was personally looking forward to, as Anushka's much anticipated entry fails miserably when Deepanita Sharma takes control of the entire scheme from the beginning. The whole introduction scene where Ishika is introduced as the smart witty sales girl could be trashed as she didn't have to use her sales-girl brains anywhere in the movie and just had to be a hot-looking rich damsel who seduces Ricky Bahl by being all sweet and desirable. Even though Anushka manages well in the looks department as she undeniably looks her incredibly hottest best, the story gets wasted when the 2 leads suddenly start saying their rushed ILuvU's. The whole journey of falling in love is missing and everything feels superficial in the end. Thanks a ton to the physical chemistry between Ranveer & Anushka and to their memorable history in B3 that their attraction for each other looks believable to an extent, otherwise the script does nothing to make it so. One would question, why on earth would an extensively selfish and money-minded con artist like Ricky Bahl give up his old ways? And how could he be thick as concrete to not be able to see through a very obvious trap where his seemingly rich and cute girlfriend has no money whatsoever to even go shopping? The story contradicts itself when the built up image of Ricky Bahl becomes laughable and he fails to recognise a very simple revenge scheme by 4 stupid girls and has to eventually stoop to listen through walls to figure he is being conned.
The only saving grace of LVRB is Parineeti Chopra whose crisp 'in your face' humor triggers couple of laughs throughout the movie. Another plus is the undeniable chemistry between Ranveer and Anushka which will keep hopeless romance fanatics patiently waiting for the love story to materialize.
Some negatives:
Stale story: Nothing fresh. We have seen smarter thefts and frauds in previous Bollywood movies. There were no intricate details of the cons carried out by Ricky Bahl.
'The Ladies': The movie drags in 1st half as the 3 ladies get conned in a predictable fashion one by one. All this could have been shown in a short & sweet 10-mins flashback and then our main heroine could make her entry early and strong and they could spend more time on building the love story between the 2 leads. Or the director could adopt a 'Yuva' or 'Rockstar' approach where story starts with the present and flashbacks from the past are then intertwined and shown in parallel to keep the viewer hooked.
Repeats from B3: Few scenes felt like variations of scenes from B3 to me (honestly!)which obviously didn't belong in this movie. Take the morning scene after the kiss in nightclub. These characters shouldn't have been confused about the kiss at all as they already knew what was coming. Weren't they flirting with each other all this time? I felt the director tried to repeat the magic of B3 as the morning after scene in B3 was praised for its sensitivity and originality. Also, cupid-hit Ricky's love-struck facial expressions and tone suddenly reminded of Bittu Sharma in 2nd half. Where did overconfident Ricky Bahl and his resolve disappear? I have heard love changes you, but that much?
Ishika's role: The biggest negative for me was Anushka's insignificant role. Her delayed entry could be justified if her role lived upto the hype created during the first half and equaled Ranveer's on some level. I wish she played a professional who worked as a con artist and she plotted an extraordinarily clever scheme to get revenge but ended up falling in love with her victim instead. Who knew, one of the 'conned' Raina gets to be the hero and plots the whole revenge and our anticipated main heroine turns out to be just a pretty face who plays the part for a small fee.
Anushka's disappointing acting: Anushka is a talented actress and needed a completely new avatar to play so she could prove her variation. But unfortunately her acting reminds very much of her earlier roles. She did look extremely good in her western outfits, but a complete contrast in her dialogue delivery and role was required to prove why she was chosen to bring Ricky Bahl down from his throne. Deepanita Sharma's 'Miss brains' role actually undermined Anushka's presence in the movie. Plus Anushka's acting as rich NRI wasn't convincing either. Not denying Anushka's acting talent, it's the director's fault that he approved of her characteristic Hindi dialogue delivery in scenes where she needed to sound comfortable as a rich U.S. returned millionaire's daughter spoiled to bits. She noticeably talked a lot like her mediocre self Mumbai sales girl. It was uncomfortable to watch her stretched 'thankyous'.
Overall I just hope this crew realize their mistakes, understand their potential and move on to make better movies in future. I could take 10 more of B3 like movies!
Band Baaja Baaraat (2010)
Fresh as an ice-soda!!
This is one of those movies that start off in a predictable fashion. Boy meets girl, boy being a stud chases after girl and girl being focused snubs him. But that's all the predictability you are going to get from this movie. The movie soon steers itself into Shruti and Bittu's ambitious plans of wedding planning 'binness' and you lose your earlier sense of what you thought was going to happen.
Cast and direction - Anushka and Ranveer, apart from their obvious sizzling physical chemistry, seem to have learned acting from a common source. Both actors have amazing control on their face expressions and dialog delivery. Being a U.P. k 'chhokra', Bittu never fails to falter in English words like 'hundaad (hundred)' or 'quechchun (question)' while Shruti being a hard-core Delhi 'kudi', speaks half words/sentences and can spit out alarming and loud Hindi insults without blinking an eye. When Shruti dances with her friends in the midst of a mad celebration,she doesn't care about being graceful, nor does Bittu have any qualms about speaking while eating. These small things surprise you in every scene and make you want to believe this story and these characters. Anushka Sharma plays Shruti with a die-hard conviction and Ranveer Singh slips into Bittu's character with amazing ease. In fact, Ranveer will have to prove himself in Ricky Bahl once again because he seems so at ease as the unsophisticated 'saharanpuriya chhora' that it's hard to imagine him in a sophisticated city boy Casanova role. Anushka may not be the best looking bollywood dream-girl out there, but she is more believable as a middle-class ambitious Shruti compared to the enormously unconvincing taxi-driver Deepike Padukone in Bachna Ae Haseenon or utterly absurd Katrina Kaif as porn star Sheela. As Karan Johar asked her on KWK, Anushka can definitely act the pants off of today's A-list dream girls. The cast is brilliant as not just the main actors but even side-actors seem like people you may have met in your life. Maqsood bhaai (florist), Rajendar (caterer), Santy (band lead) and Shruti's parents are all good actors who have been utilized very well in bringing this 'filmy story' as close to real life as possible.
Dialogues - Realistic dialog spoken in an equally real tone/lingo are the highlight of BBB. When Shruti says she doesn't want 'love-shove k syaapa', you are forced to believe she has grown-up in a typical Punjabi family in Delhi. They call out to each other mostly by 'oye' rather than the more typical 'suno' or 'hey you' in movies. Bittu doesn't say the clichéd 'I love you' or 'tujhse payer hai' but chooses to propose with a more 'U.P. k Luanda' fashioned "bol,degi love?". It's awkward and hilarious at first but fits, as Bittu is no convent-educated and they don't speak a civilized language anyway. Commonplace expressions like 'dhin-chaak', 'fati kyun padi hai' and 'janakpuri k kanjar' seem 3rd world when you hear them in this movie because you may not have heard them in a Hindi movie before. It's not hard to guess the director and crew is from Delhi, as they have used their knowledge of Delhi lingo and expressions to their best advantage.
Repeat Value - The movie leaves you at a high point and you feel compelled to go back and enjoy the lively scenes once more. There is a definite repeat value to it. Every scene is buzzing with life in some way.
Music - Music is very pleasant and background score is the life and heart of every scene. The continuous 'beep' is the only noise heard in the kiss scene and kind of gives you warm cheeks. While the passionate young-at-heart music that plays in the climax makes you want to fall in love again. The cocky tune that plays every time Bittu is up to some mischief is quite endearing and makes you smile. Overall, background music in this movie is there for a reason and enhances the effect 10 times.
Best scenes and memorable moments: The kiss: This has to be the best and most realistic kiss I have seen in a Hindi movie by far. Its believable,convincing and immersing. The scene of the after morning that follows is even more brilliant. Shruti's face expressions of seeing the whole world in a new light, Bittoo's clueless and 'screwed up written in bold letters' face as his friends puts it later were so believable. Once Shruti was dropped home, I straightened myself up to watch rest of the movie carefully as I realized I could be watching the best and my soon to be most favorite love story on screen. And it was!!
Bittoo's character development scenes: I expected Bittoo would just tell his friend how he had 'fun' with Shruti or how he just wants to dodge her somehow in typical bollywood style. But because Bittoo is only childish and not a villain (which other hopeless ROM-Com's make the hero out to be in such scenes), he respects Shruti for the role she played in his life and just worries about the future of their business. Also, i loved the fact that he tries to be at his best behavior with Shruti. The hero normally becomes a villain at this point in bad ROM-Com's who wants to do nothing but hurt the heroine's feelings.
The confrontation scene: Anushka confronts Ranveer about their one-night stand. This scene left me a helpless fan of the direction as well as Anushka's acting skills. She is flawless and mesmerizing good in this scene.
Summary Overall, BBB is a rare ROM-com which has a familiar sounding story but told in such a refreshing way that will take you by surprise. There are some memorable moments and performances which may not be Oscar-worthy but definitely touch the heart!! Don't miss experiencing this colorful and fun ride with Bittu and Shruti!!