Johnny English Reborn: LOL guaranteed !!

Rating: 2.5/5

Rowan Atkisnson, whose life’s motto seems nothing but to make people laugh-loud is back with a brand new film, Johnny English Reborn – a sequel to Johnny English (which was released in 2003). I am neither a die-hard fan of his Mr. Bean Series nor Johnny English but I must admit I really enjoyed this sequel.

Director Oliver Parker takes no chances; he has made this film simple & stupid. Well, there’s Rowan (as Johnny English) & film is supposed to be a spoof of Bond, so expecting smartness here would be an inhuman act.

Opening scenes show our buffoon protagonist Johnny mastering unique fighting techniques & learning to take charge of his mind at some monastery in Tibet. After 5 long years, he returns to MI 7 with all his electrifying & unpredictable idiocy. He tries to resolve the mess which he made at Mozambique. Being as stealthier as Bond, Johnny’s task is to grab hold of 3 assassins who are hell bent on murdering another leader with the utilization of remarkable mind-controlling drug.

Coming to the film’s humor, it’s nothing less than terrific. Chase & fight sequence with Chinese chap is a signature of this great great humorous actor. With his simpler than simplest facial expressions & matchless body language, he wins giggles of king size. Gillian Anderson is a chief of MI7 agency and our senselessly-naïve Johnny hitting her mother with tray is the best & funniest scene of the film. There’s much more than that which I request you to find out by watching this amiable entertainer.

Dominic west (as agent Simon) accompanies him in his mission & love interest of Johnny is Rosamund Pike (as Kate). Charismatic looking Rosamund is a behavior specialist who lends helping hand to Johnny in his mission. From monastery in Tibet to French Alps in the climax, film is lavishly shot & each & almost every frame is eye-catching. What hampers this film to an extent is its inconsistent flow of humor & length. Film could have been better if it would have been shorter.

Forgive the flaws because laughs are guaranteed, go for it !! 

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan: is deadly boring !!

Rating: 1/5

To motivate & engage new-young film makers to think something out of box and give delight to audience is just not the idea of film-makers these days. They are busy making truck-loads of money by shamelessly & incessantly making stupid films.

Title of YRF’s latest outing is quite funny but film is not. Protagonist Imran Khan (as Kush), assistant director of bollywood films, is supposed to search a bride for his brother as his brother Luv (played by Ali Zafar) has broken-up with his girlfriend. Bride is undeniably none other than Dimple (played by Katrina). To bore us to the core, first time director Ali Zafar utilizes the same old trick i.e. moronic flash-back story. He takes us 5 years back and shows us the first meeting of Imran & Katrina. They develop liking for each other and after 5 years when they meet on this let’s-find-bride occasion, Imran gets shocked to see a Miley Cyrus kind of girl transforming into an absolutely Indian girl. He happily agrees to pick her for his brother.

After an engagement of his elder brother with Katrina, Imran portrays typical bollywood cry-baby. Now you definitely know what’s next. Both realize the mistake and they use same old traps to break the marriage. Such is the inanity of story-writer of this looks-charming-but-totally-trashy film.  

One could digest the over simplistic plot if film has some genuine laughs to offer. But jokes here are even less funny than those santa-banta jokes which we receive on daily basis (vis sms). Only scene which made me laugh-loud was Katrina crying on a highway for Imran’s abrupt demise. All the mockery they made of Khans was indisputably unfunny & badly lit.   

Story, screenplay, dialogues & direction – everything’s done by one man, Ali Zafar. He has messed up everything. Thank God, he didn’t give music. Music of the film generates some enthusiasm but it’s brutally let down by other aspects of film. Imran Khan’s character is carbon copy of his character in “I hate Luv Stories”. Cuteness of Imran Khan is what I am tired of seeing on-screen. He is just not getting tired of identicalness, makes me wonder why.

Katrina and Ali Zafar both resemble ideal examples of “over-acting”. Ali Zafar’s accent is intolerable. Katrina looks stunning & performs well in songs (as always) but her acting (as always) is nothing to speak of. After ZNMD, I was expecting her to act but I was disappointed. If truth to be told, whenever she voiced dialogues louder than normal tone, I felt the need of cotton plugs.      

Mere Brother Ki Dulhan robustly sticks to the current trend i.e. if we have music and stars, audience will watch anything. And sad part is, audience is really watching. If you have fondness for good cinema, stay far far away from this one.

That Girl in yellow boots: is very dirty !!

Rating: 2/5

Pedant film-maker Anurag Kashyap’s latest outing “That Girl in Yellow Boots” is director’s most daring film till date. Some will give massive round of applause while some will hit screen with their foot wears.

Ruth (played by Kalki) – a half Indian, half American girl (with not so bad Hindi ) is the central character of the film who is hell bent on searching her father. She earns livelihood by working at massage parlor (read ‘working’ as giving pleasure to customers). Her boyfriend Prashant (played by Prashant Prakash) is no different than a gang of male characters from Kashyap’s previous venture – Shaitan. Drug addict, hormone crazed, trouble arousing & immature, yes, that’s Prashant. Scenes showing him tied with window succinctly portray his excellent acting skills.

Circuitous path of Ruth includes her meeting with good & reprehensibly bad characters. Naseeruddin Shah is the only concerned being in her path who is a regular customer of her basic-respectful massage. Affectionate conversations between them are the only light moments in this film. In a cameo comes legitimate figures like police inspector (played by Ronit Roy) & postmaster (played by makarand deshpande). Rajat Kapoor appears for just 3-4 seconds & must say, trick works. Chitiappa (played by Gulshan Devaiah) is a south Indian Gangster who takes away Ruth’s hard earned money and in male section, his performance stands taller than others. Chitiappa and Maya, massage parlor’s receptionist (played by Puja Sarup) are the sources of murky humor here. Puja Sarup’s chatty avatar is just mind-blowing. 

Even without 3D, Anurag Kashyap easily succeeds to make his audience peep deep into his film’s dark, uncultured & egregious atmosphere. Cinematography and background score are two solid elements of this film which never fails to induce anxiety. Kalki’s acting is truly spectacular. However tough the scenes are, however abusive the dialogues are, Kalki did all with sheer sincerity. No other actress could’ve fit in yellow boots.

Editing here seems totally rough & amateurish. 90 minutes don’t add to precise character sketching because this film has plenty of characters. Abusive tone of the film becomes over abusive at times but no complains for that. We can’t expect soft-silky dialogues in an Anurag Kashyap film.

Main drawback of this film is its climax, which some say is disturbing & shocking but I think appropriate term would be “dirty”. It is the “dirtiest” climax in the history of bollywood. “That girl in yellow boots” unfortunately ends as an eternal obscurity of shameless minds. Kalki & Anurag have jointly written this film and quantity of absurdness which they’ve inserted here is beyond my tolerance capacity.

This is the particular film which I’ll never ever recommend to anybody. 

Not a love story: Camera works, film doesn't !!

Rating: 2/5

I’ve always appreciated RGV’s uniqueness, not only on twitter but in movies too (Why are you thinking of RGV ki AAG??). RGV’s newest film is a ‘take’ on Neeraj Grover murder case which occurred in May 2008.

Grover was a TV executive and his character in the movie is played by Ajay Gehi (as Ashish). Kannada actress Maria Susairaj’s character is enacted by dashing & daring Mahie Gill (as Anusha). And finally comes the character of Maria’s former fiancé i.e. Emile Jerome, portrayed by Deepak Dobriyal (as Robin) who commits the unwarrantable crime.

Film begins with Anusha convincing Robin to allow her to go to Bombay as she felt that she was capable enough to rule bollywood. Robin’s reluctant-ness fails to stand against Anusha’s sky-high stardom dreams, so she reaches Bombay. Then, for odd 30-35 minutes I felt like I was watching Madhur Bhandarkar’s ‘Fashion’. It was just that actress’s behavior & tone of the movie were according to RGV’s train of weird thoughts. Somehow, Anusha succeeds to bag the role of lead actress in a movie and celebrates the victory by sleeping with Ashish, the one who gave her that role. Unexpectedly, the very next morning Robin arrives, who sees Ashish absolutely naked. Losing temper, he just kills Ashish with knife.

Movie begins now. Not really. It should’ve been but sorry to say it didn’t. After killing Ashish, both of them decide to chop down the dead body into pieces, as proposed by Robin. Anusha buys him an elder brother of “Rampuri knife” and then Robin, with that tool does what he decided. Loading Ashish into car was easy now, as he was packed in 6-8 plastic bags. Couple goes to Jungle & burns the undersized portions of Ashish. Now, task for both of them is “not to get caught by police”. But Mumbai Police catches them easily, so easily that it makes you laugh. Even C.I.D mysteries are not that lame. Zakir Hussain as cop-in-charge of the case invests genuine earnestness to his character and performs superbly, irrespective of very short screen presence. Tiny conversation between him and Anusha is gripping.

Apart from mystery getting solved within no time, film has many loopholes. Length of the film has never been a reason to dislike a RGV film but this time, it is. Was editor hired or not? Film is also devoid of sharp dialogues and an important element called “unpredictability”.

Fascinating aspects of this film are camerawork, acting & background score. Camerawork is of top-notch quality. Yes, I did felt like it was shot from some mobile phone but the way RGV explores each and everything of Mahie Gill without actually showing us the real thing, is just amazing. It reminded me of that mermaid in last Pirates’ movie. Mahie Gill shows her thighs and acting skills in equal proportions i.e. abundance and both assets are very impressive. Deepak Dobriyal also gave watch-worthy performance. Background score by Sandeep Chowta is truly miraculous and yes, rangeela song is utilized smartly. There's one horrifying nightmare scene, it is truly RGV signature.

Real Story on wikipedia is much more haunting. Only if you have affection for RGV and his style, watch this film. Else, wait for world TV premiere.