Tangled: Pleasurable & Twinkling Disney movie !

Rating: 3/5

Disney's energetic re-telling of Rapunzel in 3D animation turns out to be a dazzler. Despite the need to wear flimsy plastic glasses, watching Tangled reminds one that some brands of storytelling never go out of style, whatever that style may be.

The script's feisty humor and the cast's vocal charm bring to jaunty life a flimsy Grimms' fairy tale. It tries for the appeal of Disney's animation heyday, but individual scenes borrow a bit too liberally from such movies as Beauty and the Beast, The little Mermaid & Aladdin.

With his stolen bounty in his satchel, charming bandit Flynn Rider (voice of Zachary Levi) climbs up a tall, mysterious tower to hide out. But he is taken hostage by Rapunzel (voice of Mandy Moore), a beautiful girl with 70 feet of magical, golden hair, whose controlling Mother (Donna Murphy) has kept her tower-bound for many years. Rapunzel strikes a deal with the handsome thief, who reluctantly agrees to take her into the Kingdom on her 18th birthday to watch the floating lanterns released into the sky. Every year on the same day, the lanterns are released by the King and Queen, as a symbol of hope to find their kidnapped Princess daughter.

The movie’s real accomplishments are in its look, which was generated inside a computer but is as warm and wealthy as a painting. This is, of course, a credit to the animators who do manage to preserve that amazing classic Disney Movie Musical look, but with cutting edge CGI! Perceptibly the film looks incredible, but it looks incredible in all the precise ways. Emotion is captured, both slapstick and more multifaceted visual humor manages to be handled perfectly. Luckily this is never at the expense of character development. These things go hand in hand, as they should. Rapunzel is believable in her evolution and Flynn, the scoundrel, makes perfect sense as he slowly becomes much more... well, Disney Princely!

Stunning chase sequences and the scenes featuring countless lanterns are the most delightful visuals which Tangled offers. And, Alen Menken’s songs are written with infinite gusto which acts as heart of this fairy-fulsomely entertaining tale.

Though not exactly inventive, Tangled is hasty and the Broadway-style appeal of archetypal Disney fare.

Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries): Art for art’s sake doesn’t comprise of right art!!

Rating: 2.5/5

Devoid of Desi Dhinchak Dhinchak, this bullock cart paced art film comprises of 4 diverse stories which unravels in an unconditional, imaginative and uncompromised way. But even at a moderate running time of 95 minutes, film becomes bore some and insufferable at few instants.

Film kicks off with Shai (played by Monica Dogra) assembling with Arun (played by Aamir) in a party and then after they make love for a night. They depart intentionally, as Arun realized the next morning that it was a folly act. Shai is a NRI banker by profession, but photographer by passion. Her path intersects with Munna (played by Prateik Babbar) who is Dhobi (Laundress), but dreams to become a superstar actor. Munna asks Shai to take his portfolio pics and with passing days, Munna eventually falls in love with her.

Arun is a terrific painter who has got divorce and also is a chain smoker. He changes his residence every now and then. If you are ignorant about such things consider it as an artist’s style to get inspiration. In his new-fangled seat, he comes across 3 tapes which show us the fourth and the final character of the movie i.e. Yasmin (played by Kriti malhotra) who shoots herself in a video. She wants her brother to see all those tapes.

Stroke of white color on Aamir’s hair show us how hard this actor tries to get into the skin of character not only with his expressions, but also with his hairstyle. Sadly, it looks unimpressive here and Aamir’s acting is not at all worth appreciating. It felt as if, he struggled throughout the movie to identify his character. All other actors have performed superbly. Few light moments are fulsomely cherish able, thanks to Prateik & Monica for that, as they delivered dialogues in a glowing way. Munna running after Shai’s car with pitch perfect emotions is my favorite scene, in which one can truly identify this new star’s potential.  Kriti malhotra is the finest of the lot who convincingly strikes the correct emotional chord & in such a manner that the viewer gets spellbound with it.  

One’s painter, one's a photographer, another likes to pose & the other shoots herself with a camera.  Premise is undeniably intellectual but writing here is amateurish and narration too, film is loaded with dull dialogues.’ Why people visit Gateway of India and Marine drive in Mumbai’ is an attention-grabbing topic from world cinema’s point of view, but Kiran Rao messes that plot miserably.

Painting which Arun creates from Yasmin’s tapes shows us Kiran Rao has atleast got something convincing & sparkling to show us, which to some extent also makes me say that her next project would be awaited. Mumbai could not have been more persuasively shown. Cinematography is the epicenter of the movie on which movie relies strongly. Background score is soothing, but to be honest it’s just less than gratifying. It could have been much more powerful.

Due to screenplay and dialogues comprising of nothing but flaws, I’d say Dhobi Ghat is an art for art’s sake that doesn’t comprise of right art !!

Yamla Pagla Deewana: Asinine but nevertheless comical !

Rating: 3/5

Yamla Pagla Deewana featuring real life father & sons Dharmendra, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol is a film which is silly, old-fashioned, lengthy, predictable but funny for most of its part.

I guess actors were roped in first and then script was printed later because the plot here is no different from bollywood movies of 90’s. Actually, there is no story here. In childhood, son loses track of his brother-father who after 2-3 decades turn into con-men and in disguise they play con on him only. Haven’t you witnessed such similar stories million times in our hindi movies? Nothing’s diverse here. Macho man, Sunny deol (as Paramveer) from all the way to Vancouver, lands in Banaras to search his father-brother and that’s it, he finds them effortlessly with sheer ease. Bobby deol (as Gajodhar) wants to win his love i.e. Sahiba (played by Kulraj), in that process helping hands are but obviously Paramveer and Dharam (played by Dharmendra) and against them, odd-man is Anupam Kher (as Joginder singh) who is Saahiba’s elder brother.

Screenplay and Dialogues were quite ordinary; freshness and sharpness were surprisingly absent. Particularly, during songs, you feel like leaving hall and get a sigh of relief. If the backdrop is of Punjab, music should be perceptibly uplifting, but here regrettably, it’s thoroughly unsatisfactory. Each and every item number used purposefully without situation fails to engage and amuse the viewer. First half depicting  mostly Gajodhar’s love story is plain monotonous and long-drawn-out while second half of the movie is well executed and it never loses pace and succeeds to lit a smile on viewer’s face.

Revisiting Gadar’s action sequences least seriously was pure fun. Rajnikant and Chulbul Pandey’s action sequences has become a fashion now, a trend which is repeated stoplessly and Samir Karnik uses it wisely. Legendary grunt of Sunny Deol was worth appreciating here, when he stands tall and broad against 15-20 men, as usual is the most funniest scene of the movie. This is indeed the USP of this actor and considering his previous works in past few years, this one’s the best.

Watching all deols with turban and fake beard dancing, laughing, crying and hugging was a scenario which you don’t get to witness usually. It seemed all of them cherished this film much more than the audience. And that’s why, this silly movie becomes not only watchable, but pleasurable.

The one performance which stands out in this 3 hour long film is of poli (played by Sucheta Khanna) as younger sister of Sahiba. The way she tries to butter up Gajodhar is immensely funny and her incredible style of pronouncing Canada as “Canneda” is exclusively rib-tickling. This is a character which reminded me of witty sales girl in supermarket of LSD.

It’s funnier than each and every Akshay Kumar starrer of 2010 and for the dignity Deols invested here, I’d recommend you this asinine but nevertheless comical movie without hesitation !!

127 Hours: Shocking, thrilling and mighty !

Rating: 4/5

127 hours is an enthralling movie based on Aron Ralston's autobiography "Between a Rock and a Hard place" Only a truly visionary filmmaker could take an anecdote largely set in a confined canyon and give it a sense of candidness and hope.

So many films assert inspiration, but here is one to truly inspire. The opening credits of 127 Hours are a blissful hodgepodge of the race of every day life leading to the pledge of an adventurous weekend which is shot in stunningly stylish and luminous approach. Most remarkable opening sequences in recent times!

Young Aron Ralston, played by James Franco, is a high-spirited, cheerful and wild adventurer who schedules to the wildest desserts to rock climb and bike across the terrain which at one point of time makes the viewer feel that he is watching brand new commercial of Mountain dew, of course nevertheless pleasurable. He gets hand-in-hand with two vacationers (played by Amber Tamblyn & Kate Mara) who have just got no idea about where to go. Aron shows them his fancy spots, all 3 of them cherish great time and right after after departing from them, Aron lands into hell, actually canyon, where boulder crushes his hand & 127 hours is his mighty story of how he saves himself from this place, where exactly no one is there for his assistance. A bottle of water and some of his made in china’s useless tools somehow aid him but you got to see how Aron spends 127 hours in canyon. Also, he uses camera to shoot his out-of-blue, desperate and painful efforts in the canyon to slide away the boulder.

In a canyon, where he is stuck & stalled, he is almost dying, even in such scenario; he throws humor to uplift himself which astonishingly succeeds to lit a smile and uplifts the viewer also. It's worth elaborating on the splendid & amusing performance of James Franco, who's up for every bit of Boyle's challenge. It’s his incredible acting that makes 127 hours more than just a movie. Effortlessly, viewer is able to sense the tension of the protagonist’s scenario and his desperation to survive and get away from canyon as soon as possible. 

Screenplay is wholly uncomplicated and superb by Simon Beufoy and Danny Boyle, through which viewer’s emotional chord easily intersects with the protagonist’s suffering. It makes me say that Anthony Dod Mantle is so passionate about cinematography that his passion is just indescribable. Camerawork is enormously radiant and dazzling which makes 127 hours visually spectacular.

When you listen to the soundtrack through your headphones it is not that impressive. But when it comes as background score, it’s truly extraordinary and gives soothing effect to the movie and the listener. Asian Mozart never misses a beat. “If I rise” is undeniably the best of the lot, which harmonically talks about hope, conviction and optimism.

Reality could not have been more real. Don’t miss this shocking, thrilling and mighty movie. It teaches you many things, one of them exactly is what no to do while going for an adventure on a deserted place!