Agent Vinod: Save yourselves!!!

.....Continuing from my previous movie reviews of Agneepath and Kahaani, here comes the finale movie review of the last movie I saw, Agent Vinod.

Agent Vinod:
Ok. Where do I start for this movie??  I guess I saved the best for the last, oops...I mean the worst for the last to be in the list of  movie reviews!!

The movie starts in the country of Afghanistan where they show Agent Vinod (Saif Ali Khan) captured by some ISI officials hoping to get some info out of him.  Well then it turns into some action sequence right away with open firing by the goons vs. Saif.  Looks interesting, right??  Right into the 10 minutes of the movie, they show a scene for which you have to pretend that you are hanging upside down on the wall which I wish I had done in reality because that would have saved me from seeing the movie!!!!  That couple of minutes was waste of time and proof of terrible direction....

Sometime after that scene, Saif's partner is murdered who leaves an only clue of number 242 for him.  With just one clue in hand and a name of one of the Russian mafia, he goes on a searching spree from country to country.  It is very important that you remember this number because 3/4th of the movie is based on just finding out what this number is!!! In this process, he travels to half a dozen countries, kills number of people, even gets shot himself, but no worries, he is back to work after 5 minutes as if nothing happened, then again follows the clues to some more countries which lends him back in India where some bomb is going to explode.  Wallah!! There you have Agent Vinod!!

I have never been wanting to get out of the theater early as much as I did for this movie!! It has no story, no plot, boring dialogues, and no direction!!! I have never seen a movie with such a bad direction where scenes are just put together to make it into a movie....there is no flow, no connection from scene to scene which leaves the audience completely lost and in a confusing state of mind.  Sometimes movies which has no story turn out to be at least entertaining but this movie lacks the entertainment part too!! Saif Ali Khan is such a good actor but giving a movie like Agent Vinod was a huge disappointment.  I almost felt as if Kareena's character was added just to give oomph to the movie....because apart from looking good I thought she was just as lost in the movie as I was seeing the movie :P.  Her modern mujra "Dil mera muft ka" was so hyped much before the movie (which shouldn't even be called a mujra, just another item song) even failed to save the movie since the movie had already done too much damage to itself by the time that song came.  Unfortunately, I found  no chemistry between Saif and Kareena in this movie...in fact their scenes turned out to be really boring.

I can only remember 2 scenes from the movie which were actually really funny and a lot of other scenes which we made a lot of fun of in the theater!!  Here is one scene which I would like to share with you all to know what you all think about it.  I am sure as Bollywood Cinema goers, you would have seen our heroes get beaten, no...brutally beaten, by the goons, yet they get up (obviously as if they have some supernatural power), and beat the hell out of the bad guys!!  BUT, have you ever seen such a heroic effort by the heroins???  So listen to this, Kareena gets shot by one of the bad guys (oh don't worry...you're better off knowing it this way than watching the movie anyways), she gets shot 3 times....you would think that would kill her, right?? Well, no, she gets up and screams her lungs out from a 10 story building down to the base where the cops are standing, to point them to the culprit guy.....that too in a presence of a helicopter which is currently running.  In reality, you can't even hear the guy next to you when you are near the helicopter, but these cops can hear Kareena very clearly and even understand what she is saying to catch the guy in time!!!  But then the director comes to his senses, and realizes that she has been shot 3 times, so it would probably be realistic if they make her die, so she dies.  As an audience, you would think that's the climax of the movie.....but they still have 15 more minutes to torture you and finish the movie on a mysterious climax ever which only makes me think that there might be a sequel coming ...(I sure hope not) which I won't be going to!!

If you haven't seen this movie, don't bother about it!!  This was the first (and hopefully last) movie that I saw in theater with such a disappointment that I wanted my money back!!!  On top of that, I felt that Saif played an April fool's joke on me because I went to see this movie on April 1st :P....I think he fooled me well!  Saif was being called the Indian James Bond with this movie...but I say that his attempt in being the Indian James Bond failed....Miserably!!  It's sad that these actors' dream projects are turning into nightmares for the audiences when they have worked so hard behind it, but why don't they see the movie themselves to understand the torture they put us through....

I think I have done a lot of bashing of this movie...probably more than it deserves...but I had to take out my frustration on something to recover from this movie...and blog is the best way to express your anger and relieve yourself from it :).

I guess from the 3 movies I saw, Kahaani is a Must Watch, Agneepath is a Good Watch, and Agent Vinod is a Must NOT Watch movie!!!

Kahaani: Vidya Balan rocks!!

....Continuing from my previous movie review of Agneepath, next movie I saw was Kahaani.

Kahaani:
If Agneepath was an entertainer, Kahaani was a thriller with brilliant performances by Vidya Balan and Parambrata Chatterjee!!

Vidya Balan plays the role of Vidya Bagchi, a pregnant woman who have come from London all alone in search of her missing husband in the city of Kolkatta.  She finds herself lost when every door closes that can lead to the finding of her husband, but she is determined and motivated to get to the bottom of the truth to get answers for her unborn child.  Vidya Balan's performance is so convincing and brilliant that she has kept the audience believing in her till the climax when she actually reveals herself to be someone on a revenge rampage!!  She is strong and she is the Hero of the movie! Her performance is so real that you can not find any flaws or anything fake!! I can go on and on about her performance which will sum up to only one thing: Vidya Balan Rocks!! :)

Now, every movie who has a great performer like Vidya Balan also has a great supporter to carry the movie forward!!! That supporter is played by Parambrata Chatterjee who essays the role of Rana (also, Satyaki).  Rana happens to be a junior police officer who tries to help Vidya Bagchi find her husband and in the process develops a soft corner for her.  His affection towards her makes him help her all the way till the end.  He breaks every rule and takes any risk with her to help her find her husband whether it's breaking into an old corporate office or someone's locked house, and even letting Vidya hack into one of the higher cooperative's computers....he is there!!  He even risks his life to save her from any trouble like a good cop (well that's what we think, but he like her).  Parambrata's performance is just as brilliant as Vidya's and very commendable because Kahaani wouldn't have shaped up the way it did if he wasn't in the picture.  I hope we see him more in future Bollywood Cinema.

Well, talking about the two main protagonists, I completely got sidetracked about the movie.  This movie is brilliant, a total thriller which keeps the audiences glued to their seats and has a twist and turns from scene to scene.  It was so refreshing to see such a good movie after a long time of this genre.  The beauty of this movie is that it gets you so involved in the story that you can't wait to know what happens next.....all the way to the climax when they surprise you with Vidya's character.  Another angle of this movie is how they have portrayed the city of Kolkatta, in such a festive manner, right around the time of Durga Puja.  What a great way to show the limelight of city in a festive mood alongside a completely unknown thriller in the story!!  I haven't really heard the songs of this movie, except one, so can't give you any insight on that.  The only song I have heard from this movie is "Ekla cholo re" sung by our own Amitabh Bacchan!  Boy, he can sing!! It's such a soft-soothing song and Big B gives a special touch to this song.  For some reason, it feels like the song was written to be sung by him.  Definitely listen to it!

I read somewhere before seeing the movie that the story was penned by Sujoy Ghosh, and Advaita Kala.  I was really happy to see Advaita Kala's name because the first book I ever read was by her, Almost Single, and I really enjoyed that book.  It was such a fun book and I completed reading that book within a week which is completely unexpected of me because I am not into reading at all :P.  I was surprised myself but the book was so engaging and funny that it kept me going!!  Without a doubt, Kahaani is a Must Watch!! One of the best movies so far....Go Watch It!!

.....Next up is the review of Agent Vinod (I guess I saved the best for last! Hahaha)

Start of 2012: Agneepath

Hi friends,

It's already the month of April and 1/4th of 2012 is already gone....time is flying faster than ever!!  With that said, I haven't written a post in a long time...so here I am with some movie reviews that I have seen in the last 3 months.  I must say it was an interesting mix of movies watching Agneepath, then Kahaani, and finally Agent Vinod.  You might think different of each movie...but this is just my opinion with what I felt after watching the movie, so please don't be offended with this review.

Agneepath:
First of all, this movie was remake of 1990 blockbuster of Amitabh Bacchan's Agneepath.  Do not make comparisons because you will not find many (well, there are similarities but not that many)!!  The new movie is completely reworked to give a new look with eliminating one of the main characters from the old one, guess who?  Also it's totally violent and very bloody (It's not for kids), and has a very over-the-top climax, BUT I really liked it.  The performances by the star cast were phenomenon including Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Rishi Kapoor, and Sanjay Dutt.

Hrithik Roshan: He looks rough and tough :P...haha..no kidding.  His one punch can throw a goon miles away and his one look surely kills the ladiesssss in the theater without a doubt!!  He looks just too good.  The only negative comment I have for him is that he had no strong dialogues apart from the only line of "Mera naam - Vijay Dinanath Chauhan" unlike the old movie where Amitabh Bacchan's every dialogue would have the audience waah-waah and clapping.  I guess the director thought that Hrithik's looks will be enough to substitute for the old movie's dialogues :P....which works for me...but not for the Big B's fans, I guess!!

Priyanka Chopra:  She looks amazing in the Marathi look...I think this look really suits her.  She acts well and not over the top and that balances out her character and her role in the movie as well!!

Rishi Kapoor: I am a huge fan of Rishi Kapoor from childhood and have seen a lot of his movies.  I really feel that he had his own style in Bollywood and set his own league where his competitors were actors like Amitabh Bacchan and Vinod Khanna (two of the best actors of their era)!  Rishi Kapoor was par excellence as Rauf Lala and proves to be a versatile actor by giving stellar performance in a negative role.  He really surprised me with this villainary side of him!!

Sanjay Dutt: All I can say for him in this movie is, SCARY!!  His look may have been inspired by the Voldemort (from Happy Potter) but I think this Bollywood Kancha could give Voldemort run for his money!!  I don't think anyone else will even be considered to be put in the Best Villain category for 2012 alongside him because he stole the show!!

Overall, I really liked the movie and the songs are really good too, not to forget Katrina's Chikni Chameli is foot tapping along with Gun Gun Guna (very danceable), and Abhi Mujhme kahin (soft emotional with Sonu Nigam's touch - he is great with emotional songs).  Also the picturization of the song "Deva Shri Ganesha" is magnificent with huge idol of Ganeshji!!

Now, being said all that, old is gold and the old Agneepath will always remain the best (apart from some cinematography that was fantastic in the new one).  There are many reasons for that: 1) There was no Mithun Character in the new movie!! He was the soul of the old movie with his great comic timing. 2) Amitabh Bacchan had a persona, a personality that can speak a lot about Vijay Dinanath Chauhan and he owned each and every dialogue he said which made you believe that he is out for revenge!! AND 3) The new movie had a lot of blood-shed which was completely unnecessary and unrealistic!!  I mean over-the-top climax will make you say "did they really think we're stupid?"....how do they assume that the audience will believe that after being stabbed million times, and being punched by Sanjay dutt (I mean look at him, his one punch would throw you out of the country :P), Hrithik will not only have the energy to lift Sanjay Dutt, but his wounds will automatically heal when he is trying to hang Sanjay Dutt on a tree???  In my guess, Hrithik would have been dead the second he received a punch from our beloved Kancha!!  But that's Bollywood!!  Anything is possible :).

Agneepath is total entertainer and I recommend watching it if you don't mind the bloodshed...but don't watch it with your kids!! This movie set a great start to 2012!!

.....Next up is review of Kahaani