Aakrosh

Medium : Hindi
Starring : Ajay Devgan, Akshay Khanna, Paresh Rawal, Bipasha Basu, Reema Sen
Director : Priyadarshan
Music : Pritam, Ouseppacham (bg score)

A couple of months ago, I happened to see an unusual promotional trailer of a hindi movie as a coming attraction. The visuals in the movie titled 'Aakrosh', showed that it is a village based action subject and seeing Priyadarshan's name in the creator's credit was also an unbelievable one. Also I didn't heard any malayalam project's name as the story base for this new venture. Ajay Devgan and Bipasha Basu comes to the Priyan camp for the first time. LIke last couple of movies, Ouseppachan did the bg score. Tiru is the cinematographer. The movie is based on a true incident which happened in a north indian village in the past, the movie was in the news before its release as the censor board has ordered for some cuts for the controversial dialogues. Robin Bhatt and Akash Khurrana has written the screenplay for the movie.

Three students from Delhi were missing, since two months as there is no information, the central government has ordered for an enquiry. The CBI officers Sidharth (Akshay Khanna) and Pratap (Ajay Devgan) reaches the Jhanjar town for an investigation. The local police and the government officials were not willing to support them. They came across the police officer (Paresh Rawal), the village lady (Reema Sen) and even happened to see Prathap's ex-lover (Bipasha Basu). How the officers solves the case in the middle of a tensed situation, is told in a serious manner in 'Aakrosh'.

Priyadarshan has given a different serious approach on the presentation side here. His boldness to take the issue of caste system that still exists in the north indian villages as the theme should be praised. The action mood necessary for such a story is given by cinematographer Tiru through his visuals and the grading style used is suited well. Ouseppachan gave a good backing with an excellent bg score. The action sequences, especially the chasing shots are neatly executed with the help of Thyagarajan and Yadav. The frames have been neatly edited by Arun Kumar (he is looking forward to the release of his debut directorial venture in malayalam, 'Cock Tail' this week). The art work done by Sabu Cyril is also good.

Ajay Devgan and Akshay Khanna have done their job well. Paresh Rawal, who is seen as a humorous person in the director's previous projects, has done his serious role in an attractive manner.

Some of the situations here has got the flavor of movies by directors like Prakash Jha and Vishal Bharadwaj. A couple of songs (including an item song by Sameera Reddy) has affected the flow of the story. The channel name is missing in the tv visuals shown in the beginning, which should have been noticed. The anti climax happening is good, but should have been more realistic.


'Aakrosh', based on some real incidents, is an investigation thriller by Priyadarshan presented in a different style.


Rating : 7.5 / 10

Lamhaa

Medium : Hindi

Starring : Sanjay Dutt, Kunal Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Mahesh Manjarekkar, Bipasha Basu
Director : Rahul Dholakia
Music : Mithoon, Sanjay Chowdhary (bg score)

'Parzaania' was a movie that discussed the sensitive issue of Gujarat happened in this decade. Now after three years, the same director has come up with another project, named 'Lamhaa'. Here the topic is also very big, it is about the untold story of Kashmir (the creators projects like that). Sanjay Dutt and Bipasha Basu did the lead roles along with Kunal Kapoor ('Meenakshi : a tale of three cities', 'Aaja Nachle', 'Rangde Basanthi' fame) and Anupam Kher. Movies like 'Nair Saab', 'Roja', 'Mission Kashmir', 'Fiza' etc were told on the backdrop of Kashmir environment. It is the most beautiful place in the world as well as the most dangerous place also (a dialogue from 'Lamhaa' goes like this).

Vikram (Sanjay Dutt) is an intelligence officer who is assigned on a mission to investigate the blast happened recently in Kashmir. A local leader Haaji (Anupam Kher) is fighting against the government for an independent Kashmir. Aziza (Bipasha Basu) is supporting him in all his activities. Vikram gave her the details of those involved in the bomb blast happened recently. It caused a split between Haaji's family and Aziza. (Kunal Kapoor) wants to fought elections for the welfare of the people of all segments in the area. Vikram came to know that a rally organized by Aatif at the Kashmiri Pandits locality will be targeted and many peoples are going to be killed. Vikram and Aziza tried their best to act against the rally, what happened to the rally is shown in the climax portions of 'Lamhaa'.

Sanjay Dutt did well in the lead role. It is not that much rough, but his character has got the small shades of his own movies like 'Kaante', 'Musaafir', 'Zinda' etc. Bipasha Basu is ok. Kunal Kapoor suits the role, but his dubbing is not matched in certain portions. Anupam Kher's character is a fluctuating one, sometimes positive and on other occasions, he acts as a villain. The identity of Mahesh Manjarekkar's role is unknown.

The director Rahul Dholakia had conveyed through out that like Kashmir other parts of India are also targeted. The hero has to stop the blast at happening at Jammu. At the same time, the militants are recruiting even many children also on the mission, it all ended very ordinarily as the creators didn't gave any importance to the mission episode and its impacts in the climax part. The advantage got through the hype created by showing some serious scenes like the blast in outdoor portions, the political environment, the big gathering at outdoor rally and mosque, the media people and the press conference, the helpless mother searching for the family members, the help done by the hero to the heroine, the child playing with the bullets, the hero remembering the old incidents in the beginning, the attack on the heroine by the women group, the militants reaching through the border in exchange of money etc all disappeared in a moment. Thus it really became the 'untold story of kashmir'.

Cinematography by James Fowlds gave some colorful visuals of the heaven on earth. The shaking frames along with the tight close ups helped to give the real mood (some may complaint that it is a strain for the eyes). Ashmith Kunder is the editor. Sanjay Chowdhary's background score is good. Songs by Mithoon are not needed in such a story and they are not memorable ones also.


'Lamhaa', that shows the incidents happening in and around Kashmir, started with a big expectation, traveled seriously through some emotions, plans and tensions to reach no where in the end...


Rating : 5 / 10

All The Best

Medium : Hindi
Starring : Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Fardeen Khan, Bipasha Basu, Mugdha Godse, Johny Lever
Direction : Rohit Shetty
Music : Pritam, Sanjay Chowdhary


A hindi film with a star cast Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Fardeen Khan, Bipasha Basu etc may not be a big thing to promote as multi cast projects are usual in the bollywood industry; but if it is a comedy subject directed by Rohit Shetty, after comedy hits like 'Golmaal' and 'Golmaal Returns' and more over produced by Ajay Devgan himself, then it is interesting. Cinematography is by Dudley and Pritam is the music director.


Different from the usual style, here you have got the title song featuring the main stars in the film with a bulk of dancers in a peppy number. Ajay and Fardeen are close friends. Fardeen's elder brother (Sanjay Dutt) is in abroad for a long time; he is sending money every month for his brother. Sanjay believes that his brother got married and is staying in their own house at native. In the mean time Fardeen and Ajay gets into some financial troubles. They decided to give the house for rent. At the same time Sanjay reached there. He sees Bipasha, Ajay's wife and misunderstood her as his brother's wife. How both friends manage the situation in the presence of the senior who stays with them for few days is told in an out and out comedy background.


May be we might have seen the same situation many times in malayalam films also. Even directors like Priyadarshan, Sidhiq Lal and Rajasenan have given n number of films in this manner. But the power of comedy is so high that if neatly presented, it can still attract the crowd. This is what happened in the case of 'All The Best' also. Since the director came to the cine field in the early 90's and has got experience in giving comedy hits recently, the chance for errors are less.


It is a fact that after a long gap, I had got some un believable laughs for a hindi film throughout in many scenes. The scenes featuring Johny Lever is a good example and the combination scenes of Ajay & Sanjay are also notable.


Though they do serious roles most of the time, here Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgan had done well by handling many lighter situations. Background score by Sanjay Chowdhary cope up with the situation well.


'All The Best' is a time pass, funny entertainer with an old theme. Those who are really interested in comedy films can watch it.


Rating : 7.5 / 10