shailu_nonstop Reviews

Angaar (1992)

Just short of being a classic...

[8/10 · 21 June 2011]

It's surprising that this movie did not win that accolades it deserves. When I saw it few days back I was amazed by the story , dialogues, direction and the performances. All were amazing.

The plot of the movie is the socio-economic class difference which exists even today in Mumbai. There are rich mansions and next to it are hutments of laborers. There are people earning 10 digit incomes and there are people who daily struggle to earn 10 bucks in an hour. This is how the story begins with Underworld Don, Jahangir's Khan palatial life with his two sons viz. Majid and Farid. Majid is married and has a mentally retarded son. On the other end we have a unemployed Jaggu living a middle class life with his parents, younger sister and is a leader of the young crowd in Asha colony. As the saying goes that wealth does not necessarily bring happiness, Jahangir has always a dispute with Majid. Jahangir is known to help poor people but for Majid what matters is wealth and power. Jaggu and his family have a very happy going life. Jaggu happens to meet a very shy girl named Mili and it doesn't take much time for them to fall in love.

The action begins when Majid eyes Asha colony and requests Jaggu to take some money and ask people living there to evacuate it. Jaggu refuses even when Jahangir calls to his palace to talk about it. This makes Jahangir furious and he orders Farid to beat Jaggu heavily. In the ongoing clash between Farid and Jaggu, Farid loses his life. Revengeful Majid proves in the court that Jaggu is insane and orders his doctors in mental asylum to torture Jaggu to an extent that he becomes a vegetable. A press reporter Parvez and Mili try to help Jaggu through their publications. Majid orders his men to kill Parvez but things turn upside down when his men kill Jaggu's father instead. Jahangir now repents his fury which leads to all this and requests his loyal Anwar to protect Jaggu in the asylum. Anwar fights till his death and rescues Jaggu. Mili and Parvez take Jaggu home and try to bring him to normal through his old memories. Jaggu recovers and takes revenge against Majid and his men till the end with Jahangir supporting him.

What the movie lacks is in the execution of last 20 minutes. Jaggu's rebellion against the law and order system is highly overdone. How come they get so much amount of RDX to blast each and every building of Majid? Why would Majid wait till Jaggu recovers, in order to bring down Asha colony? Where were Jaggu and his friends when Asha colony was brought down? Due to all this the movie turns out to be an action flick rather than bring a classic.

If this part is left aside the rest of the movie is good. Direction was good. Script was well made and very good performances by Kadar Khan, Nana Patekar and Jackie Shroff. Most of their movies Nana would dominate Jackie, but in this movie Jackie performs in par with Nana. All the supporting case were adequate in their performance. For Hindi movie viewers, I would recommend them to watch at least once.

Shola Aur Shabnam (1992)

Started Govinda-David trend of movies

[8/10 · 11 February 2011]

Few people would know that success of this movie actually started the trend of Govinda style acting and David Dhawan style direction of comedy movies in Hindi. This was not the first time they worked together but the success of this movie made both of them popular.

When this movie came, both of them were in a lean phase. Maybe, the late Divya Bharti was lucky for them as she agreed to work in this movie.

Story wise, the first half of the movie is similar to romanticism in Dil (Aamir Khan & Madhuri) and second half is similar to the action based chase in Ghayal (Sunny Deol). The first half entertains by the comedy of the NCC cadets versus the women hostel. The second half is good in its way by the action and chase sequence where viewers would not like to miss it at least in 1st time view.

Govinda was very good in all aspects of the movie whether it is comedy, tragedy, fights and dance and Divya Bharti did not leave far behind. She matched virtually every step with Govinda. Both of them were ably supported by Anupam Kher, Bindu, Alok Nath and the three lesser known guys who play Govinda's friends.

I would not call this movie a classic but surely entertains and relaxes my mind when I am back home in stressful condition despite of the fact that I have watched it 'n' number of times since it's release.

Aga Bai Arecha (2004)

A gem of a movie

[8/10 · 6 February 2011]

No doubt about it that movie is inspired from Mel Gibson acted 'What Women Want'. But the story here has a completely different getup and the makeover is done well.

Set in the backdrop of Mumbai chawl locales, the protagonist Shrirang(Sanjay Narvekar), has a good family and a decent job, but is always irritated by the act of women. To top on that, his female chauvinist boss always treats the male workers unfairly. While worshiping a Hindu goddess, Shrirang gets the divine power of reading the minds of women. Realizing slowly this power, at first Shrirang feels more irritated and visits a Psychiatrist. The Psychiatrist also turns out to be a woman, but she tells one plain simple thing to Shrirang. 'It all depends on you whether you want to get irritated by this power or take it as a gift to understand women'. Shrirang chooses the 2nd option and after that his life changes completely as he now better understands the women around him(wife, mother, sister and boss) and makes them feel happy.

What makes the movie different from the original English version, is the subtlety and the local feel given by the director. Where I felt the English movie to be funny, this movie touches the heart. The family setup, daily lifestyle, the past of Mumbai Textile Industry, middle-class issues are very well depicted. There are no harsh realities or brutal truth but plain life of a middle-class family of Mumbai. The music is good but I am not sure how much non Marathi speakers will understand the softness in the music since it's typical Marathi. The poetic and traditional verses have to be understood to get the flow of the song.

After watching this movie, I felt a bit relaxed that amidst situations of adversity there is always opportunity. The opportunity to choose happiness, no matter what state our life is. It's not easy to live, but then it's not that difficult as well. And this theme applies to not only Mumbai life but all places in the world where people are struggling to move ahead. A positive attitude is all what we need.

Permission (1987)

A subtle poetry of love

[8/10 · 16 December 2010]

The movie deals with love story. But in a very different sense.

Mahinder (Nasir) is in love with Maya (Anuradha Patel). His family has formally engaged him to Sudha (Rekha). He confides in Sudha that he loves Maya and Sudha lets him go. But now Maya has somehow walked away from his life. No reason mentioned here but in later half one gets a feeling that Maya does have some psychological problem with the kinds of act she does. Mahinder walks back to his family and marries Sudha.

Mahinder still cannot forget Maya. Sudha understands this fact and does not force Mahinder into anything. This understanding of her makes Mahinder love Sudha in a different way. Time passes and one fine day Maya arrives and calls up Mahinder congratulating him for his marriage. Mahinder tries to be aloof from her. This shows that slowly but surely Mahinder now loves Sudha. But Maya tries to commit suicide and Mahinder comes near to Maya just to comfort her and make her understand that he now belongs to Sudha.

With growing closeness of Mahinder and Maya, now Sudha thinks that she is coming in their way of love. She walks away from their life and Mahinder just can't bear her separation. He tries a lot to bring her back and today he has met her accidentally. The whole story above is in flashback, where today Mahinder and Sudha have met each other in a railway waiting room. The truth which Mahinder and Sudha disclose to each other as what happened when they were separated for this period is something which leaves the viewers stunned till the end.

What a depiction of love story!!! Mahinder is torn apart by the sacrifices of the two females where for that matter the females wanted happiness for him. Gulzar has woven this tale of love with beautiful poetic verses. The actors have given their excellent romantically emotional expressions. I don't remember Nasir and Rekha in any other movie and here their chemistry blends so brilliantly. This fits very well with the classy music of R.D. Burman.

If one adores deeply rooted love stories, this one is not worth missing.

Aakrosh (2010)

Aakrosh - Anger within

[7/10 · 15 October 2010]

Priyadarshan finally decided to make a movie based on serious issues after a series of comedy stuff. The last I remember was Virasat and before it Gardish. Now both of them were well made movies but not to forget that they were remake of South Indian movies.

This would be the first time he comes with a serious and original script. The movie is based on the recent hyped honour killings in India. An honour killing is a killing of young ones who despite of belonging to different castes, fall in love with each other. Not that honour killing weren't happening earlier but Priyadarshan took the right opportunity to make a movie on this subject due to lots of media news on it.

The movie is a work of fiction with the background being disappearance of three young boys in a remote village named Jhanjhar. Enter our two CBI officers Sidhant (Akshaye) and Pratap (Ajay) who are given the task by the central government to find the whereabouts of the three missing ones. What starts from here is the mystery behind their disappearance, the corrupt acts of the local policemen (Paresh Rawal as the SP), the violent acts of one Shool Sena, the silence of villagers despite of multiple atrocities, the frustration of the two protagonists on being within the law despite of the fact that everyone else around is lawless and despite of all their efforts the criminals set free by the court. All this leads to anguish(Aakrosh) in both of them.

What Priyadarshan misses is demarcation in making this movie serious or entertaining. Recently we had one serious movie on the pitiful state of farmers who cannot payback the loan they owe (Peepli Live). On the other hand there was a recent entertaining stuff on the background of a village with a Robinhood type cop (Dabangg). Aakrosh goes one way or the other in its whole run. There are authentic talks and brainy investigation by the two officers but then there are also unnecessary song sequences, romantic moments and unbelievable stunts.

As a package though, the movie is not bad. Viewers will be glued to their seats due to the thrill and tensed theme of the movie. At times the direction of the movie picks up but loses momentum later on. This goes on till end. The script is good if not brilliant and at the end you have a satisfied feel. Performance wise, the cop duo chemistry between Ajay and Akshaye is excellent and the biggest turn on of the movie. Ajay takes most of the canvas and in his ruthless and gutsy role, performs very well. Akshaye also plays superbly his role as the tactful and strategist cop. Paresh Rawal is good but his character development as a comical and villainous SP of the village is improper given the fact that earlier he has played this kind of role very well(e.g. Milan, Mohra). The actresses are just shown as depleted woman of the society but they play their part as what supposed to be.

Not in terms of a serious view but to watch an decent action flick this movie can be seen.

Qatl (1986)

Worth watching!!!

[8/10 · 3 November 2009]

Having watched a few movies, I was a fan of Sanjeev Kumar's(Haribhai) performance. I wanted to give a try to this movie with an anticipation that will be a time-pass murder mystery. The movie wasn't a mystery. It was a story of a man for whom his world was his wife. He even loses his eyesight on the pretext of saving her life. But what does he get in return? Taking advantage of his blindness, his wife stages an illicit affair with his own friend. A friend who claims to be his best friend. Love-grieved by her unfaithfulness, back-stabbed by his friend and with physical disability, it could have been easy for him to continue what has been going on. But he decides to teach both of them a lesson. How he does that forms rest of the plot. Till this point the movie is good. From here on the movie turns out excellent. This movie is underrated and did not get the applause it deserved. A superb performance by late Haribhai, as a blind man plotting a task which would seem impossible for a blind person. He was a gem of an actor and had he been alive for few more years, we could have seen more of his good performances. Alas. The story is well written and well executed. Rest of the cast(Sarika, Ranjeeta and Marc Zuber) have justified their characters. The movie lacks in technicality. The picturization and presentation were not to the mark where the story was. This could be due to low budget. Overall, this movie is not worth missing for Haribhai's fans. If you are not his fan, after watching the movie you surely will be.

Katha (1983)

The tortoise and hare of modern days...

[10/10 · 27 May 2009]

During school days everyone would remember the old story of the race between Tortoise and Hare. Sai Paranjape here depicts the same story but using male characters as Rajaram (Naseeruddin Shah) for Tortoise and Bashudev (Farooq Sheikh) for Hare. The story is based on the background of the chawls in Mumbai where there are day to day common issues of common toilets, filling water early in the morning, residents acting as one family, the social and cultural meetings for various occasions etc. We see Rajaram suffering each day in order to help others but his happiness for helping others supersedes the pain in suffering. In perfect contrast, Bashudev acts to help others and this way fulfills his own wish, without even the other person realizing that he/she is actually getting used by him…Rajaram believes in the aspects of truthfulness and honesty. But for Bashudev conman ship is the act of life. Bashudev believes until you get caught enjoy your way out and once caught or fulfilled the wish, time to say 'Alvida' (Good bye)…

Both the actors have marvelously done their part. I don't think Farooq exceeded himself in any of his other movies. Sir Naseer is of course a gem of an actor. The more we appreciate the less said it is for his caliber in acting. In between the two male actors, Dipti Naval as Sandhya (read the prize for the race) also does a splendid job. The supporting casts do play their roles properly. But hats-off to the director Sai Paranjape for making one of the masterpiece in Hindi cinema.

With repeated viewings, I could find a lot of scenes which depict the genius in both direction and acting, e.g.

1. Rajaram repeating his "Main permanent ho gaya hu"(I am confirmed in my job) quote to neighboring Bapu, but Bapu only concerned about fulfilling his own small needs. When Bapu is done with his demands, Rajaram modestly asks him "Aur kuch kaam Bapu..."(Anything else?) and leaves Bapu's room… 2. Rajaram asking his love Sandhya to not call him Rajaramji (Ji stands for Sir) but Rajaram….and she replies "Aapke personality main hi 'Ji' hain" (Your personality reflects Ji)… 3. When Rajaram is asked by his boss as how he liked the new ad-movie about their product(Footprint Shoes), he is the only person in the audience who honestly replies that movie is waste and such an ad-movie would make their product appear funny…As what happens with such lone opinions(despite of being honest) the boss humiliates him "Obviously you know more about office files then about Art" 4. Bashudev flattering the owner of 'Footprint Shoes' and getting a precious job for himself…Rajaram is in grave surprise that Bashudev neither has any qualification nor any experience but still has a better job than him… 5. Bashudev flirting with his boss's wife in the party thrown by the boss himself… 6. Nearing climax when after listening the whole story by Sandhya…Rajaram still claims honestly that his decision and love haven't changed…

One scene which stands out and shows Sir Naseer's caliber is,

When Sandhya's parents come to Rajaram's place to talk about Sandhya's marriage, Rajaram blushes to the maximum but when he realizes that they(Sandhya as well) expect groom as Bashudev…his expression changes from vast happiness to severe sadness…

This movie is a rare combination of entertainment on offbeat ground. This is was a rare occurrence in those days. In whatever way, this movie can be watched on either view viz. to see pure Art or to get entertained. On the concept of real human philosophy, this is not a cinematic grandeur worth missing.

Khamosh (1986)

An OK murder mystery...

[7/10 · 14 April 2009]

Having heard comments from a few friends and users that this movie is the best thriller from Hindi movies, I was curious to watch it. Other reason was the plethora of star cast which had names like Pankaj Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Amol Palekar. But when I watched, sadly the thriller part was missing. Many of the suspects ham so much and have very clear objectives that you get a feeling that they are not the actual murderers and most likely the one not amongst them is the culprit. Mystery was not that good and I am saying that despite of not watching any other language movie from which this movie could have been inspired.

What stands apart and as an appreciation is the performance of the investigating CBI officer by Naseeruddin Shah. Right from his entry the eyes, facial expressions and body language depict that he is not taking this murder just as any CBI officer's routine investigation. The way he tries to investigate the murder is shown very well and seems realistic. No wonder that Sir Naseer is the best actor ever to come from India.

Rest of the cast(names I mentioned in my first para) do play their part with full honesty especially Pankaj Kapoor. Direction wise the movie is OK but some elements like the shooting of the rape scene really does not fit in the actual plot. At some places the comedy seems to be forced and puts a dilemma as whether viewers should chuckle or see the tragedy which goes on in a movie shooting.

Overall, watch it once and get engrossed at the first time. Need not have a repeat view to enjoy the mystery part.

8 x 10 Tasveer (2009)

A super suspense thriller!!!

[10/10 · 4 April 2009]

What to say about Mr. Kukunoor??? He made inspiring and out of the world movie in terms of the story and weaves out one more in same way. 8x10 stands out as one of the superbly made suspense thriller movies in Hindi. I am not sure as whether the movie is a rip-off of any other flick but Nagesh pulls out a nail-biting and exciting tale around a person(Jai Puri played by Akshay Kumar) who has a psychotic power(or a natural gift...) to peep inside people's past through their eyes itself for about a minute, by having a look on their photograph. But power is very risky as it can even take his life after that dreadful minute. When Jai's dad dies due to so to say natural circumstances, one Inspector(Mr. Happi played by Javed Jaffery) thinks otherwise. This leads Jai to check the past when his father died. Was his dad actually murdered? If yes, what was the motive? If yes, who was the murderer?

Anything else I say and I would spoil a part of the fun in watching the movie. Direction is superb. Script is mind-boggling and despite of many twists still the final resolution solves all ends. Performances...well forget Chandni Chowk to China...Akshay Kumar shows his real talent and gives his best performance till date. He outshines as the psychotic forest officer Jai Puri and gives one a feel that no one else could have probably justified the character he did. Javed Jaffery shines again with his comic timing and is as well a psychotic. Rest of the cast do give proper justification to their characters. But the real hero is the director(who is the writer as well). Kind of a suspense movie which does have a repeat value in it's plot. Whether it's a week-end freak-out or a end of the day tiredness, this movie would suit all times. So go and indulge yourself in this must watch mystery drama.

Kaash (1987)

Pain of a father

[7/10 · 6 February 2007]

The movie was not a success at box office but earned reviews due to the meticulous handling of the script by the director Mahesh Bhatt. Movies like Saraansh, Arth, Zakhm and Kaash make us feel the worthiness of this director. Story is quite sensitive, touching and touches your soul. Jackie has so brilliantly played the role of Ritesh that you actually feel the pain of the man who lost his wealth, fame and spouse and has to be prepared to loose the only hope of his life, his son. Unlike Akele Hum Akele Tum, the separation is not short lived but forever. The scene where the Doctor informs Jackie that his son is not gonna stay alive longer really pierces through your heart.

I would recommend to watch it on a quite evening. But be prepared to resist a woeful tale of a father torn apart with emotions.

Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (1994)

SRK at his best

[10/10 · 28 February 2006]

The movie was released at the time when SRK had begun his steps towards stardom. This is by far his best performance to date. The story is very simple and entertaining. Kundan Shah does a good job in direction. A simple love triangle melded with hummable numbers and some comedy makes the movie superb.

The support cast have done proper justice to their job. Whether it's Deepak or Naseerudin or Anjan or Ashutosh. But the charm of the movie is the débutante Suchitra who plays her role of Ana as beautifully as she is in looks.

And above all, SRK with his lifetime best role. Critics of SRK should watch this movie as SRK gives a Baadshah performance even though he plays the role of a simple Town guy. His act as Sunil, so simple but yet so convincing. One feels as SRK is playing their role, when he talks, when he fancies Ana, when he laughs and even when he cries. It all seems so natural. My rating - 9/10

Gol Maal (1979)

Top Class Comedy !!!!!

[10/10 · 7 September 2005]

One of the best comedies of all time in Hindi cinema. Gone are the days when comedy used to be clean and without loud expressions or stupid facial gestures. Golmaal comes out to be one of the favorite comedies of all times. As an adamant businessman, Utpal Dutt excels in his performance. This is probably his best role in Hindi movies. Amol Palekar outrightly describes that why he is renowned as an actor of extraordinary caliber. The supporting cast viz. Deven Verma, Dina Pathak and David have added pinch of flavor to the outcome. Keshto and Om Prakash have done well in a small cameo. Salute to the great director, Hrishikesh Mukherjee who has given loads of humor with excellent movies viz. Chupke Chupke and Anand. Golmaal is the best and will be ever remembered for it's hummable number like "Aanewala Pal". Truly Outstanding!!!