Badmaash Company

Medium : Hindi
Starring : Shahid Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Vir Das, Meiyang Chang, Anupam Kher
Direction : Parmeet Sethi
Music : Pritam

After flop films like 'Dil Bole Hadippa' and 'Chance Pe Dance', Shahid Kapoor has tried his luck under Yash Raj Productions, directed by new comer Parmeet Sethi, the film is 'Badmaash Company'. Anushka Sharma, who has acted in 'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi', is the heroine. Music is by Pritam.

The story happens in Bombay in the early 1990's (pre-globalization period), where mobile phones, internet, foreign goods etc were not so popular as the current period. The four youngsters, Karan (Shahid Kapoor), Bulbul (Anushka Sharma), and two others (Vir Das and Meiyang Chang), wished to make money by doing the import business. Thus they planned to cheat the customs by not paying the tax for importing shoes and got succeeded in it. When a bulk amount of money is seen in Karan's room, his father (Anupam Kher) warned his son to stop the business. Karan left the house, the gang repeated the same cheating business in many places and when the govt reduced the customs duty, they were forced to stop such things in India and reached US.

By the help of Karan's uncle, they borrowed some money and did the same activities, abroad also. This time, they cheated a big business man by doing the import business of gloves. In between, the love affair between Karan and Bulbul also happens. By making lot of money, the attitude of each one in the group changed. This got affected badly in their friendship also. They all got separated and Karan was sent to jail for cheating. He is sad due to the lack of unity of his friends and the attitude of his family. After few months, when came out of the jail, Karan found that his uncle is in a big financial crisis. He made a master plan and asked the help of his old companions. This time it was not a cheating business, everything was straight and whether they got succeeded in it or not is shown towards the climax of 'Badmaash Company'.

Music director Pritam gave some fast numbers. Julius Packiam gave the high voltage bg score, relevant for the mood. Cinematography by Sanjay Kapoor is colorful. Shahid Kapoor and Anushka Sharma did well in their roles. The guys who came in the role of friends, also gave their best. Though there is a cinematic style, the trick used by the team in the garments business is good.

Most of the sequences used in the film are predictable. The cheating technique used by the gang for the first time in the case of shoes import is fine; but when the same is repeated in the case of gloves business and the cheating episode of the rental house also, the freshness is gone. The problem happened between the friends are not neatly communicated. The scene in which the hero lying down on knee, begging to his yet to be born baby, felt dramatic.


'Badmaash Company' has got a good story line, the lack of experience in conceiving it, happens to be the main problem here.


Rating : 5.5 / 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

Love Aaj Kal

Medium : Hindi
Starring : Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Rishi Kapoor
Director : Imtiaz Ali
Music : Pritam, Salim Sulaiman

We have already discussed about the different trends going on in the current bollywood film arena. The canvas is big, budget is high and the release is globally these days. There is also some experimentation happening in the theme side. Some of them are good, but some others are cliches only. They always give importance to romantic subjects (some exceptions like Ramgopal Varma, Madhur Bhandarkar etc are also there). Since they are targeting the global audience, the ingredients in the film has also been changed. This is the reason why Sylvester Stallone has been placed in a guest role in Akshay Kumar's recent film. The inclusion of more intimate romantic scenes as in english films is also evident in bollywood. Now they got the reason for the story of a film happening in US or UK.


May be for an average viewer, a film starring Deepika Padukone and Saif Ali Khan can be the main reason for watching 'Love Aaj Kal'. Any how I won't miss watching such a hindi film. But for me, the cause is different. The director of the film, Imtiaz Ali is the factor as far my interest is considered. Those who have seen 'Jab We Met'(starring Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor), which was director's previous film, will totally agree with me. The film which got released two years before was a romantic comedy that gave the real nostalgic feeling of the hindi films in the 70's and 80's. The new film is also produced by the same banner Shree Ashta Vinayak Cine Services Ltd.


In the opening scene, the development of the love affair between the hero (Saif) and the heroine (Deepika) who stays in Europe is shown. It is carried through different months and reached almost two years with in the first few minutes of the film itself. She wants to settle in India. On the other hand, he doesn't give real value for the love and he follows the western culture of romance. Then they decides to have a break down in their relationship. They have been watched by a sardarji (Rishi Kapoor), who is a restaurant owner also. He gives advice to the hero about the real value of love and the difficulties faced by him for loving a girl in his younger days. All such things are shown through a flashback. At the same time even after got splitted, the hero and the heroine can't lead a normal life. Both of them had found a new spouse of their own; whether they are satisfied in it is the area where ''Love Aaj Kal' discusses.



The main attraction lies in the treatment of the film. The flashback scenes of the film is the specialty. A new style has been developed by the director where the hero does the double role. He represents both the current and old generations. Such a contrasting characterization where the hero did the flashback character of another senior actor also felt different. But the director failed to show the deepness in the affection of the characters in the flashback and the theme is not unusual.



The film has got the flavour of films like 'Anbe Sivam' and 'Hum Dil de Chuke Sanam' in few areas. Saif, Deepika and Rishi Kapoor had done their roles well. Gisello Monteiro, who comes as the pair for Saif in flash back scenes is not a good choice. She is not flexible in the song scene also. Also Neetu Singh (Rishi's wife) who comes as her old age character in the climax shot doesn't have similarity in appearance with this young girl (it can be left un noticed saying cinematic!). Nataraj Subramanyam, the cameraman who worked for the director in his previous film, has given excellent visuals. As usual, Some peppy songs has been given by music director Pritam.


Those who are too interested in watching bollywood movies can watch 'Love Aaj Kal'. It is presented differently, but the message is same, "Love Never Fails..."


Rating : 6.5 / 10