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jain-anirudh
Reviews
Stree (2018)
Smart marketing and some lighthearted comedy. Not a great movie overall
The best thing about Stree is the clever name given to the ghost as well as the movie itself. Indirectly referring to women in general while talking about the ghost, gives rise to most of the gender based humor that makes the movie entertaining. After a lot of slapstick gender jokes in the 1st half, the writer tries to give the story some direction/ purpose by building a backstory with the moral of gender equality/ women empowerment, which is probably the most clichéd in current Hindi cinema. Stree follows the general trap of Hindi movies of having a very light and slapstick 1st half which is focused on entertaining rather than carrying the story forward and then suddenly the 2nd half trying to build a purpose/ moral into the story and becoming a drag by trying to do too much, preach, and tie loose ends, all at the same time.
The weakest point of the movie is definitely the stone cold performance of the lead actor. All Shraddha Kapoor can manage is to look pretty and give blank expressions in all scenes. Good performances from Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi, and other supporting actors save the movie to some extent but one can't help wonder how much better it could have been with someone of the acting caliber of Alia Bhatt or Vidya Balan in the lead role and a much better story with some twists and turns in the storyline or at least in the identity of the ghost itself...
The Dirty Picture (2011)
Watch first half for some lighthearted fun and a few laughs. Bail in the interval. Don't stay for the second half.
This movie was extensively marketed and apart from the sleaze, also appeared to be a promising story and biography. The final output is quite disappointing.
The first half is enjoyable with Vidya Balan playing a "devil may care" character, some funny double meaning dialogues and sequences and general cheerfulness of the movie.
The second half is pathetic. The transition of Vidya from a successful star to a self-destructed wreck is not at all convincing and Balan fails to impress. The story is very patchy and disorderly. The end is specially an overkill with the bridal dress and the sleeping pills. The kind of character Vidya plays wouldn't act like a helpless and pitiable character of 1960s. I guess the only good thing about the second half is the attention paid to Vidya's makeup - the eye bags, clothes that suggest many extra pounds and the paunch.
As for the other aspects of the movie, Tusshar looks mentally retarded as usual. He should probably only play mentally challenged characters as he wouldn't need to act much and would fit right in. Whoever wrote the dialogues tried to hit a six off each delivery. He needs to understand that each dialogue can't and needn't be a punchline. Emraan Hashmi should specifically get someone to write dialogues for him that are not always senseless metaphors.
Overall - 5/ 10 rating. Watch the first half for some lighthearted fun and a few laughs. Don't bother with the second half.
That Girl in Yellow Boots (2010)
Average stuff. "Bold" end but quite average storyline and acting if you are looking for a mystery/ thriller
I consider myself a big fan of Anurag Kashyap and think Gulaal to be one of the best movies made in Bollywood. In that perspective, I think this movie doesn't live up to expectations and is quite avoidable.
The movie does well in taking you through the Mumbai underbelly from the eyes of an illegal foreign immigrant and inspires images from Shantaram. However, the story is too loose. If it was intended to be a mystery/ thriller, it doesn't have enough pace and coherence. It just keeps jumping back and forth b/w Kalki giving customers hand shakes and randomly following leads to locate her father.
The best sequence in the movie is Kalki narrating her father's death to the gangster when he comes for a massage. The revelation at the end of the movie is shocking and disgusting but there is no build up to it which would make it sort of an inevitable end. It comes as if it's there in order to shock you rather than being the purpose of the story all along. The extremely unconvincing and weak performance of Kalki's father is the weakest link in the movie.
The subject and the first 40-50 minutes are promising and this movie could have been much more. The last 20-25 minutes are a dampener, if you don't give too much thought to the shock/ disgust aspect of the end.
To conclude - Just about an average, "art" movie that might appeal to you because of its "boldness" and being out of line with "societal norms". But very average story line, acting and direction.