Movie Review : Hindi Medium.- Class is the new caste.

There was a time when caste decided norms of the society - dining, marriage, education et.al. Caste is now limited to remote villages, in cities it is now restricted to arranged marriages. One good thing about class is that it can be improved upon whereas caste cannot. The movie is a fine struggle of a young couple trying to up their class.

The first step towards this is of course to secure an admission of thier child into an 'elite' school. Complete movie is centred around this. Whether they were successful or not, only movie will tell.

Screenplay and Direction

Screenplay was awesome in the first half but average in the second half. Many scenes were dragged in the second half and unnecessary drama was introduced. Same is true for authenticity also. Direction was good though.

Acting and Cinematography

Cinematogrphy was average. Irfan khan stole the show with his awesome acting. You will fell in love with the charm of Saba Qamar. Other actors have also played their role well.

Music and Sound

This was the best part of the movie. All songs are paisa wasool. You will be humming "tainu suit suit karda" while leaving theaters.

Final Verdict

Die hard fans of Irfan Khan should not give this movie a miss. The movie is safe to be watched with family.

I will give it 3 stars out of  5.

Movie Review : Haramkhor

Lust and jealousy are older than human existence. Many bollywood movies have tried to potray lust as love and jealousy as competitiveness, this movie is different from the other ones in the fact that it has not done that.

The movie is narrated from the point of view of two kids. All the small town 90s people who did not study in today's corporate schools would relate to the two. At least I could relate. There used to be a lot of free time to think about un-necessary stuff, do various chutzpa. Many of us would also go to tutions where we would do everything but studying. We would have a best friend. Of course the best friend and you will plan and execute various gimmics for one of your 'crush'. The gimmics would be successful or unsuccessful depending upon your luck. The movie is all about those but with two twists. One is that the 'crush' loves your teacher. The second is that the teacher is 'Haramkhor' unlike our teachers who were living examples of morality, uprightness and discipline.

Acting, Screenplay and Direction

Movie seems incomplete. I donot know if sensor board is to be blamed or the writers. Direction seems to be poor and lacking. Acting was average except Shweta and Nawaz. The side actors and the two kids could not match up the high standards we set up for a Nawazuddin movie.

Screenplay was very poor. There are some points when Nawaz finds it difficult to carry the movie. The director probably wanted to make a very dark movie, but failed miserably.

Who should watch the movie:

Other than statutory exclusions, people who are not die hard fans of Nawazuddin should skip the movie. Kids and Newly married couples should especially avoid.

My ratings for the movie : 1/5


Image credit :Internet (official poster)

Kahani Review Part 2

In the part 2 of movie reviews, I will concentrate on the following.

1.     What is the social impact that the movie has tried to make ?

2.     If there are some improvement points.

1.     Social Impact

1.1  Women Characters : The movie boasts of strong women characters but the case in not so. The character of Arjun Rampal’s wife was especially troublesome. Even after knowing about his another marriage, she remains apologetic is disturbing and sets a wrong example. The central plan was also executed by the character of Arjun Rampal himself. This waters down everything that I had expected of the so called strong character of Vidya Balan. Although her character remains strong uptill the last 5 minutes, but the take home feeling is that she just executed the plan made by someone else.

1.2  Taking up Social Causes : The movie takes up a very important yet neglected social evil of ‘in family sexual exploitation’. It happens everywhere. The issue is taken up fairly well. However the problem is that no solution is proposed. Running away with the girl and shooting the culprit is not the correct thing as per me.

Overall the movie scores low on social impact. The impact is limited to realization and highlighting of a social evil.

2.     Improvement Points

2.1  Movies are a powerful medium to bring about social change. They impact the subconscious mind and indirectly the decision making. If I were the story writer, I would have given more power to the women characters.

2.2  The indifference of the small girl’s grandmother to the sexual exploitation of her grand children is unrealistic.

2.3  The over attachment of Vidya with the small girl is also unrealistic as per my understanding.

3.     Social Impact Rating 0.5/5

Dangal Review - Part 1 - For viewers who have not seen the movie

It is incredible to see how an expected storyline was so beautifully crafted by the screenplay and writing team. I had expected the story line to be something like this –

• Ø There would be a failed wrestler,
• Ø  He would train his daughters and
• Ø The family would eventually win.

Unsurprisingly this is exactly what happened, yet I could see tears rolling down my cheeks whenever the girl misbehaved and whenever the helpless father was defeated (once even by his daughter). The audience in our theater thoroughly enjoyed though, there was roaring applause after every point scored, massive clapping and whistling after every match won.

The movie opens up in a government office where Mahavir Phogat (Aamir Khan) is working. He then makes a grand statement by defeating state level champion both in fight and in wits (What we call Baatbaazi in hindi and urdu) and with turn of events the movie ends with the girl winning CWG gold. Father Phogat infact won the much deserved standing ovation towards the end of the movie.

Authenticity

The movie is very spontaneous. As some critics have argued, it never tries to manipulate you. The movie does not fell prey to any 'isms'. Even while making a strong push towards feminism, it has not a single dialogue attributed to it. The deeply patriarchal society is shown without becoming an apologist or a critic. Things are shown as they are and left to the audience to reflect and decide.

I want to say a lot more on this in the second part of review that will be released on second sunday at 10 PM. I hope everybody would have watched the movie by then. PS - Kahani Review Part 2 will be released this sunday.

Screenplay

The characters are so real. I think I have lived with almost all of them. Aamir khan, the always stern and serious father, Sakshi Tanwar -caring and low profile mother, a random helping cousin, an arrogant coach and a sister who is also a guide. These things comprise a typical Indian family. The movie scores high on importance of indian family values also.

Technicals :

• 1. Costume Design – Fabulous  – Especially the description of local Haryanavi women and men..
• 2. Cinematography and Direction – Nitesh Tiwari is Awesome as always.
• 3. Sceenplay is superb. Not a single frame is without purpose. Not a single dialogue is without reason.

Go and watch this movie to pay your respect to Mahaveer Phugat and for the charm of Fatima Sana Sheikh. (I know most of you had secret crush on her from childhood days).

Who Should Go :

Everybody should watch this movie. It is definitely in the league of best movies that Bollywood has made so far (Eg. Sholay, Border etc)

My Ratings for the movie 4.5/5

Kahani 2 Review – Part 1 (For readers who have not seen the movie)

The movie starts with a very powerful walk-through into the life of any other single mother, working middle class Bengali woman. The first 30 minutes are so power packed, audience would definitely feel a chill with every twist. Vidya Balan, is awesome both in acting and dialogue delivery. The audience gets carried away with her at times. She has done the role so well that you would forget her gorgeous diva avtar. The carelessly unkempt hair, rough saree and dirty by lanes everything feels so real.

Movie is written extremely well. It has everything that a perfect suspense thriller normally offers. A strong character, good choice of twists and a big suspense reserved for the end. The final twist was, however, not as awesome as that of Kahani. But let us not tie the burden of outperforming a superhit movie Kahani on Kahani 2.

(image credits – Internet – Rediff.com)

One more good thing about this movie is that there are no un necessary songs, no dilli dallying on exotic locations. Even the limited romantic scenes are kept very simple and realistic.

The movie gives a solid message against domestic child abuse and how it may easily go un-noticed.

There are however a few short comings that I could find. There are a lot of, lot of coincidences. Almost all strong characters are somehow connected. Although even large number of coincidences could not remove the tinge of realism from this movie.

Few movie critics argued that story line was to some extent predictable, however I did not felt so. This was partly because I did not see the trailer which was allegedly too revealing.

I have refrained from giving away story line or suspense. I will write another section “For readers who have already seen the movie” for more detailing.

Technicals :

1. Editing – Superb work by Namrata Rao
2. Costume Design – Average – Nothing special – Opportunity lost in displaying the character of Vidya Balan.
3. Cinematography – Awesome
4. Direction – Fabulous

Who should go :

People who love non romantic, fast paced thrillers. The movie has some violent scenes also, viewer’s discretion is therefore advised.

Go watch this movie for the charm of Maninin Chadda and acting of Vidya Balan.

My Star Ratings : 3.5/5

A letter to my Younger Self.

There are times when we wish we could go back and correct things (not) done in the past. Obviously no one can, no one could. This life is beyond our control. This life as they say is like sand gripped in our palm. The more tightly we grip it, the more it slips away.  Osho has long back given his famous sermon “Life is for living and not controlling”. I know all these things, and therefore, am conscious of the fact that past cannot be changed but what if despite knowing the fact that we cannot go back and correct things, we may still try to write some advisory to our younger selves.

These are the 5 things that I would like to tell myself 7 years back, when I entered college. These are written in descending order of importance.

5. Do not believe in that senior who says “Studying is not important. 7 pointers get the best placements.” I do not know if such people still exist. There were a lot of them during our time. When you pass out knowing very little and will have to return to Ganeshan and Cengel  time and again, you would understand the folly of this misconception.

4. Make 5 friends with whom, 5 years down the line, you can talk atleast once in a week. A friend made in college life comes out to be your most valued treasure.

3. You have a lot of time. Everything can be done. Learning Music, dance, taking up College responsibility (Fests etc) and still scoring a 9.5 pointer.  You can manage. You will have to manage your  time during your job, and you will enjoy it in college.

2. Sports are as important as studies, extracurricular and a good job. Donot put your health at stake for tomorrow’s exam. You will be writing enough of them. One exam out of more than 100 does not count much.

1. Revoked 

Having said that the four year time is going to be the BEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE. Even before you realise, it would be over. Dear self, enjoy it to the fullest – Take part in fashion parade, all the weird quizzes, play basket ball, football and what not.

Regards

Your Older Self.

Here we Start afresh.

I never expect to lose. Even if I am the underdog, I prepare a victory speech.
- H. Jackson brown Jr.