Tees Maar Khan

Medium : Hindi
Starring : Akshay Kumar, Akshay Khanna, Arya Babbar, Katrina Kaif
Director : Farah Khan
Music : Vishal - Sekhar, Shirish Kunder (bg score)

giving two hits like 'Om Shanthi Om' and 'Main Hoon Naa' with the favorite star Sharukh Khan, choreographer turned director Farah Khan had done her new movie with another star, Akshay Kumar. It was heard that Akshay had agreed to do the lead role, after Sharukh had rejected the director's request. Katrina Kaif is once again doing the heroine role for Akshay, their previous projects being 'Blue', 'Singg is Kinng', 'Welcome' and 'Namastey London'. Another major name to be noted in the technicians list is Shirish Kunder, who comes in the role of producer, script writer, editor and even he gave the background score for the movie and Shirish is none other than Farah Khan's husband.

The police force is searching widely for the notable thief, Mirza Khan (Akshay Kumar), who has escaped from their captivity, many times. He is in love with Anya (Katrina Kaif), a struggling actress who is deeply passionate for films. Mirza had committed the task to rob a train loaded with valuable materials owned by the government. He had made a plan using the actor Aatish Kapoor (Akshay Khanna). Mirza appears in front of him as a director. Aatish had agreed to do the movie and the villagers were also participated in the fake shooting episode, where the ultimate aim was to rob the train passing through that village, whether they got succeeded in their task is shown towards the end.

The story of the movie is good, but the foolish presentation of the movie had affected the seriousness to a great extend. Some of the dialogues here and there creates laughing, but the addition of some non sense ingredients had polluted the environment.. The hero's flash back is portrayed in a song, while he is in the mother's stomach, with the help of graphics sequences are good; but the hospital scene at its end is good for a situation in the cartoon magazine for children. Akshay Khanna is shown here as a well known actor, the way in which he believes the fake shooting scene as a real one, cannot be accepted at any cost. The director and the crew might be able to fool the poor villagers, but how a well known artist like him simply keep silent and obey orders of somebody who pretends to be a director. More over the camera looks like a toy only, but they were seriously speaking about putting film roll in it. We might lose our temper, when the visuals shot by the crew has been made into a movie and more over such a movie is winning an oscar award, which is a dream come true for Aatish. The director should explain, whether such a creation is included to generate humor. The two officers following the hero are looking gentle, but their activities are too foolish. The hero is succeeded in escaping from the middle of such a tight security, which is also an unbelievable episode to be noted. The 'sayamees twins' placed as the leading villains and their activities are the best example for un professionalism.

Akshay Kumar is there in his usual style. Akshay Khanna had done the comedy oriented role in his best way. Katrina Kaif is kept here to show maximum glamor. Her artificiality in performance is still there, but it is a confusing one; one might asks, is that deliberately done or is that her realistic approach, only the performer knows. Salman Khan's presence for a single song was not at all needed one. The art work done by Sabu Cyril for the railway track is ok, but the side fence is placed too close to the rails, which in turn felt that the location is a created one. The title sequence done using computer graphics of building models are colorful, but some of the names are moving fastly with in fraction of seconds, which should have been avoided. 'Sheela Ki Jawani...' song and its choreography is a catchy one. The village song is confusing by the improper mixing of real visuals with the cinematic ones. Cinematographer P.S.Vinod ('Musafir', 'Neal N Nikky', 'Striker', 'My Wife's Murder' fame) had given some rich frames.

Though 'Tees Maar Khan' gives you few laughing situations here and there, the total output will only be helpful to lose your temper.


Rating : 4.5 / 10

Action Replayy

Medium : Hindi

Starring : Akshay Kumar, Aiswarya Rai, Aditya Roy, Randhir Kapoor, Ompuri, Neha Dhupia
Director : Vipul Amrutlal Shah
Music : Pritam, Salim Sulaiman (bg score)

The director of 'Aankhen', 'Waqt', 'Namstey London' & 'London Dreams', Vipul Amrutlal Shah had come up with his new movie, 'Action Replayy'. The hero of the director's first three movies, Akshay Kumar did the lead role with Aiswarya Rai. They have teamed before in Rajkumar Santhoshi's 'Kaakki', which happened 7 years before. The posters and the promotional scenes of the movie with hero - heroines in different appearances, showed that the story is happening in the olden days.

Bunty (Aditya Roy) is the only son of rich couple Kishen (Akshay Kumar) and Maala (Aiswarya Rai). He is fed up after witnessing the quarreling happening between his father and mother for silly things. Hence he don't want to marry his lover. One day, he got a chance to meet the latter's uncle (Randhir Kapoor), who has developed a time machine with which one can travel against time in the past. Using the equipment, Bunty tried to go to the time when his parents started loving, thus comes the flashback where he is shown as it is with his parents at their younger age.

The story of the movie, based on a gujarati play, is an unbelievable one, though we have seen similar ideas in english movies like 'De Jaavu' and 'Inception' before. Here also the director had tried something similar to it, but the motive is not so strong and the climax given to the movie is not easily conveying. It is not easy to digest the fact that a child (even before his birth) is planning to make his father getting love with mother. It would have been better if the director would have avoided such a negative logic to tell that story. The mid 70s period is totally wasted to tell the hero becoming glamorous and bold to express his love. The changes happening to the hero is all on a sudden. The machine used by the scientist to travel through the past looks like the one that used by bike riders in circus. The passing shots of extra artists wearing the old style dress in many sequences, felt that it is deliberately created.

The title sequences had got good visual effects similar to the old style movies. Salim Sulaiman had given the essential bg score there. It comes here and there, but is not maintained through out in all portions. Songs by Pritam have got the beats, but not the best. Cinematography by Sejal Shah is colorful. Aiswarya Rai's make up is not suited some times, as her old look is revealed. She had done well in the dance scenes. Akshay Kumar is ok, needs more improvement in performance as an old man. As a new face Aditya Roy did well.


No need to go for 'Action Replayy' with the impression of a different entertainer. The story and its presentation is not good enough to attract you.


Rating : 4.5 / 10

Khatta Meetha

Medium : Hindi
Starring : Akshay Kumar, Trisha, Rajpal Yadav, Kulbushan Kharbhanda, Milind Gunaji, Manoj Joshi
Director : Priyadarshan
Music : Pritam, Ouseppachan (bg score)

Notable director Priyadarshan is still enjoying his reign in bollywood through remake subjects. After the remake of a foreign classic ('Bumm Bumm Bole'), he has borrowed a project from malayalam. This time the chance is for his own hit movie, 'Vellanakalude Naadu', written by Srinivasan. The director's favorite star Akshay Kumar, once again tries to make fit in an ordinary role, done brilliantly by Mohanlal, almost 22 years back. South indian actress Trisha make her debut in hindi through 'Khatta Meetha'. It should be noted that she came to the movie field from the modeling area through Priyadarshan's tamil project named 'Leysa Leysa' (remake of malayalam hit 'Summer In Bethlehem'). V.Manikandan, who worked with the director in 'Billu' is the cinematographer. As usual, Arun Kumar is the editor. Director's favourite music director Pritam has composed the songs. Like 'Bumm Bumm Bole', Ouseppachan is in charge of the re-recording section.

Sachin Tichkule (Akshay Kumar) is a struggling pwd contractor. As he is not earning much money, he is taking debts from many peoples and his parents (Kulbushan Kharbhanda and Aruna Irani) are angry and sad about this attitude. His brother-in-laws (Milind Gunaji and Manoj Joshi) are corrupted guys, they have joined hands with the political leader for the illegal activities. They are spending lot of money and even commit a murder to save themselves from a bridge collapse case that killed many innocent villagers. Gehna (Trisha) is joined as the municipal commissioner. Through a flash back, the relationship between Sachin and Gehna is revealed. She is surprised to see the contrasting character of Sachin now. The lack of stability in the relationship between the M.C and the contractor happens in the following days. At this time, Sachin's sister is being married to a political leader. Whether Sachin is able to get success in his current job is shown in the later portions of 'Khatta Meetha'.

To compare the classical satire 'Vellanakalude Naadu' with 'Khatta Meetha', will be a stupidity. Other than copying all the scenes, director has included the lengthy comedy scene inside palace from malayalam movie 'Friends', the scene involving Pappu and James from his own project 'Midhunam' with an addition of three songs (most of them in un wanted situations). The road roller scene, which was the highlight of the original version has not done here in the best way. The visual 'effects' done for the elephant, over acting of Johny Lever, the way in which road roller comes back etc are not realistic and won't be good enough to make us laugh. The continuity is also missing as the particular house is shown without any damage later. The comedy scene with phones involving Asrani, looks like a deliberate one.

We can't expect more from an action hero like Akshay Kumar in this odd role. Trisha doesn't look confident enough to do the matured role of a government servant. Rajpal Yadav, Kulbushan Kharbhanda and Manoj Joshi have done well. The role of Makrand Deshpande (in place of Sreenivasan) is not not neatly portrayed and thus the character has got some negative shades also. Songs by Pritam are not good enough to be remembered. The director has tried to add some dialogues involving the corruption of the system and the necessity of the national integrity. V.Manikandan's camera work is colorful, but how ever the lack of detailing of the road work shots for such a theme, is a draw back. Ouseppachan's bg core is good. The action sequence towards the end is done neatly.


With each and every shots of the original version still in my mind, it is difficult to recommend for 'Khatta Meetha'...


Rating : 5 / 10

Housefull

Medium : Hindi
Starring : Akshay Kumar, Ritesh Deshmukh, Arjun Rampal, Bomman Irani, Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta, Jiah Khan
Director : Sajid Khan
Music : Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Sandep Chowta (bg)


Akshay Kumar is not enjoying successful days, as some of his recent projects like 'Blue', 'De Dena Dun', 'Kambaqt Ishq', '8 X 10 Tasweer', 'Chandni Chauk To China' etc bombed at the box office. Now he has once again chosen a comedy subject (with Ritesh Deshmukh as his partner), named 'Housefull'. It is directed by Sajid Khan ('Hey Baby' fame), the younger brother of choreographer turned director Farah Khan. Sajid Nadiadwala, the producer has also got the credit of the story of this film. It is shot in the foreign locations of London and Italy.

Aarush (Akshay Kumar), finds himself as an unlucky person. Due to this, his lover leaves him. Being frustrated, he reaches the house of his friend Bob (Ritesh Deshmukh), who stays with his wife (Lara Dutta). Bob took his friend to his work place and met the owner (Randhir Kapoor). Aarush is being impressed by the rich man and he decided to arrange his daughter's (Jiah Khan) marriage with the former. Marriage happens, but his wife went to her old lover soon, leaving Aarush. At this time, Sandy (Deepika Padukone) arrives, hearing the tragic story of Aarush, she started loving him. Bob's father-in-law (Bomman Irani) reaches abroad to see his daughter's baby. He misunderstands Aarush as his son-in-law. At the same time, Sandy's brother (Arjun Rampal) visited them to arrange her sister's marriage with Aarush. The first lover of Aarush, who left him, happened to be the elder sister of Sandy. There starts the cat and mouse game and how Aarush and Bob manages the situation, is the theme of 'Housefull'.

Though 'Housefull' is shown as a comedy subject, you don't experience big laughing here. The similar situations has been told many times in the past through films like 'All The Best', 'Hey Baby', 'No Entry', 'Garam Masala', 'De Dena Dun', 'Kaathala Kaathala' (T) etc. The confusions and misunderstandings along with the hiring of house, baby, lovers etc are the same in almost all the projects.

The first half of 'Housefull' contains many intolerable and amateur scenes. The confusions and the comic scene happening in the road in the beginning, as a result of the lover leaving the hero is not created realistically (It is shown well by Priyadarshan many times), The way in which the hero destroying the whole room using vacuum cleaner and the behavior of the the friends, affected by electric shock, shows the non professionalism of the creator. Bob's father-in-law being beaten by his mother is another area of childishness. The relevance of tiger inside the house is not communicated properly. Chunkey Pandey, who comes as the hotel owner gave a horrible performance and the scene in which he invites the media to watch the suicide of the hero is another area of wastage of time. The reason told for telling lies by all the characters are too repetitive. The lie detector equipment used by the military officer looks like a toy only and last but not the least, the climax created in Buckingham palace, where the crowd along with the Queen laughing as an effect of the nitrous oxide gas, exceeds the limit of tolerance.

Akshay Kumar did his role in his style. Ritesh Deshmukh is over acting in many areas. Arjun Rampal is serious. Deepika Padukone and Lara Dutta are charming in their outfits. Music directors Shankar Ehsaan Loy gave some fast songs. Cinematography by Vikas Sivaraman is colorful. Songs has been glamorously choreographed by Fara Khan.

The movie 'Housefull' is colorful, but it can't create a house full environment in the theaters as it is not having that much realistic laughing situations as you expect.


Rating : 4.5 / 10

De Dena Dun

Medium : Hindi
Starring : Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Katrina Kaif, Sameera Reddy
Director : Priyadarshan
Music : Pritam, Salim-Sulaiman

Since a month before, the trailer of the film 'Den Dana Dun' is being showed in theaters. The film produced by big music banner, Venus has got a big star cast. The majority scenes are shown in the comedy background and most of them reminds us of the sequences which came in a malayalam film before. When I looked for the director's name, my assumption became right. It was none other than Priyadarshan, the director who holds the record for giving maximum remake subjects. More over the majority scenes were taken from his own malayalam film, 'Vettam'.

To watch a remake subject is not an interesting task. Only thing you can do is to compare and analyze the current version with the older one. The 60+ films old director had got an immense experience in recreating projects from different languages; he starts such an experimenting from the days of 'Boeing Boeing' and 'Thaalavattom' itself. and that too from the English. With some curiosity, I entered the theater to watch how an average film like 'Vettam' has been remade in hindi.

To my surprise, here the hero (Akshay Kumar) is shown as a servant of a rich woman (Konika). He has not even got a place in the house like her pet dog who is being treated like a close relative of her. After suffering a lot, the decides to commit suicide(?). On the other side, his friend (Sunil Shetty) is shown struggling for his livelihood. Both of them had made a plan to kidnap the dog in lieu of a big amount of money. The plan works and they kidnapped the dog, but it escaped from them and reached back the owner. Since the servant is missing, the lady thinks that he is being kidnapped and investigation goes in that way. The culprits decided to stay in a hotel, their lovers also reaches there. The rest of the portions of the film happens in the particular hotel, where all the characters assembles. It later on leads to utter confusion and misunderstandings(like the situations in 'Vettam'), after a tension prevailed climax all are happy.

The marriage celebrations of one of the heroines happens in the hotel. At the same hotel, the two heroes and the other heroine decided to stay. A professional killer reaches there as a part of his mission to kill one of the important members in the bride's party. A womanizer also reaches the hotel. A police officer comes in search of the bridegroom's father, who has been involved in many cheating cases. A girl who involves in the prostitution, reaches there to meet her customer and to collect money. An underworld don and his gang reaches there with a dead body as per request from one of the heroes to do some fowl play. What will happen if these characters are shuffled and get involved in the misunderstanding situations. Here almost all the characters are indirectly or accidentally linked with each other. Other than the actors in lead roles, here you have got a bulk number of artists like Paresh Ravel, Tinu Anand, Shakti Kapoor, Johny Lever, Rajpal Yadav, Chunkey Pandey, Sharat Saxena, Asrani, Neha Dupia etc etc. Thus the confusions and complexity shown in 'Vettam' is being doubled here.

The opening scenes in which the hero narrating his story is adapted from some of the director's own projects which came in malayalam in the 80's. A scene from 'Mannar Mathayi Speaking' and 'Ee Parakkum Thalika' is taken as it is by the director here. The climax water sequences reminds the film 'Titanic'. Akshay Kumar was more flexible in some of the films he done recently, but here he was not so impressive as before. Lady with very less expressions in her face, Katrina Kaif has done the role in her usual way. Many experienced supporting actors placed in the film had proved their talent to their maximum through the comedy sequences. In the climax, the servant walking through the water with many glasses in his hand is an avoidable situation.

Cinematographer from south, who did films like 'Vettam', 'Kanthasamy' and E', Ekaambaram has done a neat job behind the lenses. Art director Sabu Cyril did some miniature jobs and visual effects for the climax portions. Another malayalee in the chief technical crew is Arun Kumar, the editor of the film. Songs by Pritam were not impressive, but the busy musicicans, Salim-Sulaiman managed to keep the tempo through their background score.


'De Dena Dun' has got endless comic situations involving too many chaos and confusions. If you like such kind of comedy films, then you can also have a 'forced' time pass here; (those who have seen films like 'Pyar Tho Hona Hi Tha' and 'Vettam', please keep distance!!!).


Rating : 6 / 10

Blue

Medium : Hindi
Starring : Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Zayed Khan, Rahul Dev, Lara Dutta, Katrina Kaif
Direction : Antony D'souza
Music : A.R.Rahman


The biggest news happened in this year as far as our film industry is concerned will be the representation of the Indian films in the Oscar Award ceremony. A.R.Rahman was thus lucky enough to grab two music awards and Rasool Pookkutty also got one for sound designing in the English film, 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Hence those films that are done by these guys, after such an achievement will not be treated ordinary by their fans. A film that caught special attention and is placed in such a category is 'Blue'. Though I am not interested in such a kind of extra publicity regarding any personalaties in the film field, as we are a witness for whatever happens in front of us, I can't keep mum. Another media hype related to this film was that majority of the portions of the film is being shot inside the deep blue sea and also the stars were given special training and in some scenes they were asked to swim even in the middle of big sharks and sword fishes. Anyway such a news can't create big expectations about the film in me; I decided to watch it as a part of the normal procedure only.


The film has got the opening scenes in a boat in the middle of the sea at Bahamas where Sanjay and Akshay are shown fishing and when the latter's cap fell into the water, both of them dives, get it back and a shark is freed from a fishing net. When Akshay asks about the treasure ('lady in blue'), Sanjay gets angry. We are also shown a romantic song on the beach sands featuring Sanjay with the two piece girl, Lara. At the same time Zayed, who is Sanjay's brother and a bike racer, gets into trouble in a foreign country. He reaches his brother's place to hide after a bulk loss of money. Finally as per Zayed and Akshay's request, Sanjay is willing to take the treasure in the underwater area. In the climax, the cheating is revealed. (to be honest, the cheaters here are the makers of the film and the real victims are viewers like us!!!)


Sanjay Dutt is shown shaven head in some scenes followed by the hairy head; his character loses continuity here and there. The way in which he describes his father's past looks like a documentary. There is no depth in the characterization of all the stars. Maybe in one line the story is good; but the way in which the director treated the film shows the immaturity of the scripting side also. The underwater scenes are good; since that portion didn't have much dialogue as the situation demands, sometimes it feels boring. The bike race and the chasing by the villains might have been used as the fillers to make up the length.


Cinematography by Laxman Utekar is good; especially the underwater scenes are notable. A.R.Rahman's style is different from the usual pattern of the hindi music directors. Here you don't have any memorable surprises from the Oscar winner; the background score is also not the best. Rasool Pookkutty, who did an excellent job in the film, 'Keralavarma Pazhassiraja' didn't used the opportunity to the best level here.


'Blue', as expected is not upto the mark. With such a theme, they should have done a better job.


Rating : 4 / 10

Kambakht Ishq

Medium : Hindi
Starring : Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Aftab Shivadasani, Amrita Arora, Sylvester Stallone (guest)
Direction : Sabbir Khan

Music : Anu Malik, Salim - Sulaiman

The name of this new hindi film by Akshay Kumar originated from the first line of a hit song from the film ‘Pyar Tune Kya Kiya’ (Fardeen Khan-Urmila starrer produced by Ramgopal Varma in 2001). Right from his debut in the early 90’s, the 80+ films year old actor, who is also a martial arts expert has grown through films like ‘Khiladi’, ‘Mohra’, ‘Main Khiladi Tu Anari’, ‘Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi’, ‘Hera Pheri’, ‘Ajnabee’, ‘Garam Masala’, ‘Namasthey London’, ‘Singh is King’ etc. Though the majority of them were action oriented roles, in the last 4-5years, Akshay kumar has started giving importance to comedy subjects also. ‘Kambakht Ishq’ is directed by debutant Sabbir Khan, who was working in the field as assistant director since last 14years.

In the last years, bollywood has changed a lot in many aspects especially on the technical side. Even then they are giving films like ‘A Wednesday’, ‘Lagaan’, Chak de India’ etc along with ‘Dhoom’, ‘Bhoot’, ‘Kabhi Alvida na Kehna’etc. Another important change is in the environment of story telling. The majority of the film happens in US or UK or any other country abroad. In the 60% of the films relasing here, we can’t spot out a single scene containing visuals from our country. (Personally, I am against such an attitude of the film makers, but looking on the commercial side I will prefer to be silent). Since, hindi films have got a global audience, Eros International has released ‘Kambakht Ishq’ overseas also. The film fully shot in US, has got casting of Sylvester Stallone. The intention was clear.

Viraj (Akshay) is working as dupe for Hollywood actors in action sequences. His young brother (Aftab) who also works in the same field decides to get married. This is not supported by Viraj. On the other side the proposed girl (Amrita Arora) has got a friend (Kareena) who also opposes the marriage. She tried to separate the couple blaming the stability of their job as dupes. Irritated at this, the hero advises his brother not to break up their family relation. When Viraj met with an accident, heroine who is a doctor conducts the surgery. When gone through the X-ray, she came to know that before stitching, by mistake she left her watch inside hero’s stomach. Without telling this, she started in front of him as if she loves him. When her intention of doing surgery again becomes successful, she reveals that she don’t like him. Anyway after few dramatic situations, heroine begs the hero for love in the climax and what to do, he agrees…!

Have you heard the story before? It was only at the interval time only that I identified that this film is the remake of a Kamalhassan-Simran film in the early 2000period, ‘Pammal K Sambandham’. Only thing they have done is the change of location and addition of more glamour scenes. Universal Studios in Hollywood forms the main location here. The actions scenes directed by foreign technicians are shown as a part of the hero’s profession as dupe in films. Stallone comes in two scenes, his climax fight and the shot in which he tells the word “Kambakht Ishq…” felt cinematic. The way in which the alarm rings inside the hero’s body and its impact is not realistic. Javed Jafri’s character also felt intolerable sometimes. The single comedy scene given for Boman Irani is also repetitive. The film sounds high technically. Cinematography by Vikas Shivraman is notable. Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor have done well.

The original version of this film was a flop. Here they managed to recreate it through ‘Kambakht Ishq’ to a certain extend. But, we can’t promote it as the best.

Rating : 6 / 10