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Shaadi Ke Side Effects (2014)
A missed opportunity... could have been much better
The movie, being a sequel to directors fresh and delightful Pyaar Ke Side Effects, starts on a high note. The jokes are good and you have some really smart dialogs and funny situations as the first half progresses. Especially the part where Farhan tries to feel like a pregnant lady. However that's where the good things end.
Second half is a Mish-Mash of emotions and multiple characters which are totally wasted. Taking nothing away from Farhan or Vidya's acting, it's the director's confusion about what he wants to show that is the culprit. The love a father may have for his child has been totally ignored with Farhan's character treating his daughter as nothing more than a hassle as there is no father-child connect in the movie. Characters like Vidya's mother and Vir Das are underutilized. Even Ila Arun's character has been mis-handled.
The movie tries to show the issues a couple with kid with single income may face, yet we never see Farhan working hard while whining about expenses all the time (While living in a luxury house by Mumbai standards). The movie completely loses its plot and the climax leaves a bad taste as a half baked attempt.
I would still say it deserves a one time watch for the first half which comes as a tasty appetizer, its the main course that got burnt.
Luck by Chance (2009)
One of the best directorial debut's
An excellent movie by all standards. Everything from cinematography, dialogues, performances and characterizations reek of high quality, earlier seen only in art house cinema or a few rare movies like Dil Chahta Hai.
I would not talk about the story but rather the finer nuances of the direction i observed. The name of the movie is totally justified by the script, you can literally see luck working in favor of Farhan's character (Vikram) through a series of events and each of these events have been cleverly marked by the director with the use of same background piano tune. A lot is said in the movie about outsiders who have to struggle and star kids who get things on a platter. However, the three characters shown to be belonging to outsider category (Hrithik as Zafar, Konkona as Sona and Farhan as Vikram) are in real life all star kids while the sole star kid in story (Nikki) is actually an outsider. Don't know if this was intentional but another of the interesting tit-bits we noticed about the movie.
Zoya Akhtar has shown immense maturity by not being judgmental about her characters. For example Sona's probable physical relations with Satish Chowdhary (Aly khan) are not given much importance in the story.
The movie has a lot of interesting cameos with Anurag Kashyap as writer being an interesting one. Sanjay Kapoor's role as a successful producer's failed-as-an-actor brother was a casting master-stroke, as he fits the bill in real life as well, as Anil Kapoor's brother. It was very brave for Sanjay to take up such a role and he has done brilliantly at it. Dimple Kapadia, Rishi Kapoor and Juhi all gave commendable performances.
This movie is not just about Hindi film industry, its more about people in general and how they can change to gain from situations. It has one of the most matured endings for a Hindi movie and needs to be appreciated for showing that real life endings are somewhere in-between the perfectly happy or pathetically sad endings that we get in movies.
Please do watch this movie with a relaxed mindset and I can assure you it will be one of the numerous re-runs you are going to have as it tastes better and better every time you watch it.