Kahaani (2012)...

Its Vidya Balan back to back for me in my reviews. This time in Kahaani, but have to say unlike in The Dirty Picture, Vidya as been upstaged. Upstaged by Kolkata, the charm of Kolkata, the richness of its culture and more importantly the shear presence of life in that place that comes out in the movie. Sujoy Ghosh has captured the essence of the city Beautifully.

Coming back to Kahaani and Vidya Balan, Kahaani is a kahaani of a pregnant female who comes from UK to India in search of her Husband, who came here 4 weeks back and has gone missing for the last 2 weeks. Its a thriller where the main protagonist Vidya Bagchi (or as the Kolkatains say Bidya Bagchi), searches for her husband and slowly and steadily uncovers the plot which opens up one peel at a time. The movie will grip you from the first scene itself which takes place in the shape of a terrorist attack in the Kolkata Metro and then post that in walks a probably 7 months pregnant Vidya Bagchi with a Evian water bottle in one hand and her passport in the other, immediately getting mobbed by the ever waiting Taxi guys in Kolkata Airport. From there on the ride is preety interesting going in Roller Coaster mode and then slowing down to again go back in Roller Coaster mode. This really helps as it gives the viewers that breathing time badly needed in between these developments.

Giving Vidya Balan company are a few unknown but very good actors, who seem to grow on you slowly and steady. But what really grows on to you in the City of Kolkata, or if I may say, the Charisma of kolkata, slowly one shot at a time. This for me is the best ever catching of this wonderful place in any movie that I have scene, may be even going way ahead of Amar Prem, with a Drunk Rajesh Khanna sitting on a boat with Sharmila Tagore under the Howrah Bridge. Watch out for a really odd looking LIC agent who really brings to life a very interesting character and for the weak hearted, please close your eyes at the Intermission scene, you are bound to skip a beat.

Vidya has again done a very good job in the movie, She is bound of continue her award winning streak with this, don't see any other actress upstaging this performance on a fair award distribution. Her Character gains the sympathy of the viewers slowly and steady with her condition and the progress of her search. The rest of the actors will be better remembered for their characters instead. Whether it is the ever committed Rana (a Sub-inspector) who for what ever reasons becomes Vidya's man-friday in this new town or Khan (Second in Command in the Indian Intelligence Bureau -IB), who flies down from Delhi to Kolkata, troubled by a female looking for her lost husband. Why is he curious, well that forms the crux of the story and I ai'nt revealing that, for that will kill the fun for you.

So, if Kolkata is ever beautiful, Vidya is as good as she always is in her performance, all the characters do there role to the core and the story ever gripping, then is there anything that I did not like. Well there are a few, like the Number 2 in the IB needs help from a IT professional from UK to help him hack a machine. Surely India IB has its set of genius hackers who can easily hack their way into a Computer. The ease with which Vidya is able to get one clue after the other which the IB is trying to search for the last 2 years also somehow seems a little off track. Having said that, treat this as a movie and a story and do not let your practical side to take over, things should then remain fine.

So in the end, what does Kahaani have in store for you, well its 2 hours of gripping and thrilling drama with the soul of the story being the Kolkata city itself. For me the last scene between Vidya and Darshan Jariwala was a little more dramatic, something that could have been avoided, but then that might just be a personal choice and it might work for a lot of you instead. On the question of whether it is worth watching on the Theatre, you bet it is. If not for the Thrills, or the ups and downs of the story, or the beautiful performances by the actors, then only for the way the whole Kolkata city will make you fall in love with it. This one's got almost everything, ALMOST!!!

The Dirty Picture (2011)...

The following review has adult content, please ensure you are 18 years or above before you proceed. :-)

When you review a movie like "The Dirty Picture" some of the content of the movie is bound to rub on to the article. Its better to warn the reader upfront, which was the case the website did while booking the movie tickets for this movie. Did not realize, it might be so open and free in its content. Now before you all start running away with your imaginations, even though the movie is loosely based on the life of the so called "Soft porn queen" of Soft, the movie is not. It is explicit in nature both with Dialogues and certain acts though. Actually just like the previous Balaji production, "Once upon a Time in Mumbai," this one also has some really interesting dialogues.

So what is The Dirty Picture (TDP) all about. Its the story about a girl Reshma/ Silk (Vidya Balan) and her rise and fall in the Southern Cine world. Her struggle to break the male bastion of being the one, who make or break a movie, the so called "Crowd Pullers". Does she do it? As a matter of fact almost before going into a self destruction mode and ruining everything she has gained, Name,Fame and Money. She becomes a Huge Crowd puller, pulling away the attention of everyone, Fans, Journalists, Producers and Directors from the existing rulers of the Movie Industry.

In parallel, Abrahim (Emraan Hashmi) plays the narrator of the story and also a misfit director in the times, when there is no takers for his kind of serious cinema. There is a dialogue by a producer to him saying "You wanna make movies which will make the audience scratch their head, where as the audience comes to see a movie, where they can scratch something else". (There are multiple such dialogues, some with Double and some direct meanings, so be prepared). The story also sees him start from hating the Silk kind, who believe in providing Pure Entertainment to their audience to slowly moving to become not only one of them but also fall in love with Silk. And this is the part of the story that is weak for me. There is hardly any convincing reason given behind this such a big sea change in his thinking.

There are also brothers, Suryakanth (Naseeruddin Shah) and Ramakanth (Tusshar) playing the first family of South Film Industry (now you all know who is the first family of South Film Industry and which Kanth... ;-)) They both end up bedding Silk, while she uses that to rise up in her career. Her heart break by both of them one after the other actually becoming the undoing of a promising career. (The scenario is partly inspired by Maryln Monroe and the Kennedy brothers story, with Silk's end also similar to Maryln).

So, what is actually there in TDP to watch. Frankly its a Vidya Balan show to the core. She has displayed the role fantastically (there is a lot at display by her), apart from the immense talent as well (hats off to her for taking on such a role and playing it beyond excellence). She has excelled in every act that she comes in and frankly the scenes without her seem very boring. That is the power of her performance in the movie. Naseeruddin Shah has played the role of the Ruling king of South amazingly, but frankly has been overshadowed by Vidya. Emraan Hashmi has done preety well, with Tushhar actually shining only in one scene for me. (Once you watch the movie, you would know which one ;-)

Coming to Disappointments, the movie is based on the story of a Item Girl (may be the first in South Film Industry) and hence you would expect the movie to have strong music support. Completely fails in that, hardly anything (apart from Oh La la) to talk about. Secondly, the fall of Silk in the movie should have been a tag bit slower, I felt the depiction of the same was very quick.

Two scenes stand out for me, and both have Vidya Balan in it. One the speech she gives after receiving her first award, practically declaring a war to all Male actors and the other in which she decides to spoil the party of Nyla (Anju Mahendroo), playing a magazine journalist, when Nyla refuses to meet her after writing a nasty article about her. Both the scenes are just stealers for me.

So what do I think about TDP, let me try by saying it in a dialogue in the style of the movie, "Entertainment comes from 3 things, Vidya, Vidya and Vidya, aur Vidya TDP mein hain". That for me sums up the movie.

So the final verdict, if you are an ardent Vidya Balan fan, go ahead and watch it in cinema (worth every penny), else wait for the DVD to come out. A word of Caution though, if watching on DVD, make sure you do not have Kids or Elders around, else you will watch 75% of the movie in Fast Forward (oh la la!!!) ;-)

Review of Ishqiya (2010)...

What Ishqiya brought back for me is the "Mitti ki Khusboo". The Rustic rural setup, the calm and quietness of a small town and the simple looking complex problems of its people. Living in Bangalore now for the last 10 years, some how I have gotten cut off from the farm lands and rural part of India. The days I used to spend in my Grandma's house, with people living a really carefree life. I had started to believe that in this mad progress that India has made in the last 2 decades, that kind of India has been lost somewhere. Ishqiya has brought back those days and the belief that that India still is very much there, may be not in the Bangalore and Delhi's of the world, but certainly in the Gorukhpur's and Lucknow's of India.

Ishqiya is a story about 3 key characters Vidya Balan(krishna), Naseeruddin Shah (Khalujaan) and Arshad Warsi (Babban), and how there lives get entangled in Love, Lust and Deceit. There is the plutonic style love of Naseer for Vidya, and also the Lusty love of Arshad for her. Both the love stories progress together, and one cannot understand why Vidya is playing with the emotions of both of them, clearly she has an agenda of her own. All this going on with a Maoist movement, Murders and kidnappings happening in the background, A business man having an affair outside of his marriage, a young boy having his own dreams, a small time Bhai trying to recover his money or blow off the brains of our characters and all these characters being involved with each other in some way or the other. I will not reveal the plot of the movie further, as there enough twists and turns in the story, incase I was to reveal them, it would make your movie experience predictable. All I can say, the story is like a Onion, with each peel coming of, the story becomes more and more interesting. Just that in this case peeling of Onion does not bring tears to your eyes, but rather a smile to your face.

The screenplay is co-written by Vishal Bhardwaj along with Abhishek and Sabrina Dhawan, and is the main strength of the movie, like all the previous Vishal Bhardwaj ventures. He has not taken the role of Director this time, instead it is Abhiskey Chaubey who has directed Ishqiya. Inspirations from Vishal's previous works, Omkara, Maqbool are clearly visible though. Vishal has in the last few years has managed to create a handsome following for himself and a unique moving making style. In his movies, it is the characters of the movie that are in the limelight and not the stars playing them.

Though the story line is complex, it is told in a really calm and realistic way, and it grows on to you slowly as every leaf of the story unfolds. Each of the 3 main characters have an equally strong role to play and each of them try to outdo the other with their performances. There are equally strong support characters in the movie, which contribute to the movie becoming more and more gripping. For me the second half of the movie is more interesting than the first half. This does not mean the first half is boring or anything. Its just than the movie takes off beautifully in the second off, and does not look down after that.

On the performances, while we all are aware of the acting ability of Naseeruddin Shah, it is Vidya Balan and Arshad Warsi, who have come out with some mind blowing performances. Arshad Warsi has clearly given the best performance of his career yet. Vidya Balan has shown that one does not need to be Size zero and wear small clothes to look sexy and seductive. A village girl can be as Seductive and attractive as a big town girl wearing designer clothes.

My favorite performance of the movie though was by Salman Shahid, playing the role of Jijaji in the movie. A person whose money has been stolen by Arshad and Naseer and he is after them to get his money back or blow off their brains. The way Salman has played his character is really fantastic. He has brought in so much of realism to his character with his Dialogue delivery and suttle nuances, that one looks forward to his return to the screen. We surely could have done with another 10 mins of his additional screen presence.

The movie flow is crisp and with a running time of hardly 2 hours, is aptly timed. The music is nice and simple and the camera work great. Another feather in the Cap for Vishal Bhardwaj, looking forward to his next movie now. Net net a great story, some sleek direction and great acting by the actors, make Ishqiya a must watch in the Theatres. Incase you can't catch it on the Theatre, Wait for a the DVD release. A good item to add to your collections.

Beware, the dialogues are very realistic (very U.P. like) hence it will not be a good idea to watch this with your Kids (what ever be there age). Strictly for Adult viewing.