Sunday, October 22, 2017

Golmaal Again

 
Ghost based comedy movie is Golmaal Again. Gopal (Ajay Devgan), Madhav (Arshad Warsi), Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor), Laxman Prasad (Shreyas Talpade) and Laxman (Kunal Khemu) are brought up in an orphanage, run by Jamnadas (Uday Tikekar). One day they find a little girl left in a basket at the gates of their orphanage, they name her Khushi (Parineeti Chopra). Anna (Tabu) is a librarian there and has a special power to see and interact with ghosts.

Years pass by and one day while playing cricket, Gopal (who is afraid of ghosts) hits the ball into a locked bunglow and kids ask him to fetch the ball as he was the one who hit it. While Gopal goes inside, other kids scare him and they all get into a fight. Jamnadas punishes them and they all leave the orphanage. Gopal and Laxman Prasad stick together and the other 3 separate. Kushi is told to have been adopted by a couple.

Years later, they come back to the orphanage for Jamnadas's funeral. Their they meet Anna and Colonel (Sachin Khedekar). At the funeral, they meet Vasu Reddy (Prakash Raj) who claims that Jamnadas had given him the right to manage the orphanage and that he is going to get this shifted to Bangalore from Ooty. No one has any problem but he cannot get Anna and Colonel to vacate and he needs to get that vacated to execute his Business plan as their bunglow is in an adjoining plot to the orphanage

Vasu Reddy sends his gang (Madhav, Lucky and Laxman) to get the bunglow vacated. They (5 heros) stay in the bunglow with Anna, housemaid and Colonel. Byt they do not know that the housemaid is Kushi's ghost. As the movie unfolds, Kushi's ghost explains the intentions of Vasu Reddy and Nikhil (Neil Nitin Mukesh) and how they murdered her and Jamnadas.

The team of 5 along with Kushi's ghost and Anna device a plan to get Vasu to confess and just when is about to confess, Nikhil enters the scene and explains Vasu that they are trying to get him to confess. Ghost shows its powers to Nikhil and gets the evidence to their police friend..

Verdict: Okay movie..

Friday, October 20, 2017

A Gentleman

 
Gaurav (Sidharth Malhotra) is in Miami, US and works in Sales department of a Company. He has recently purchased a house and a mini-van. He seems like an ordinary person and parallely we see Rishi (Sidharth Malhotra 2nd role) who works with Colonel Vijay (Suniel Shetty) with others as part of Unit X - part of Indian Spy. Rishi has been doing this for quite a few years and wants to quit and parallely we are shown that one of his missions is to intercept and extract information from a person called Gaurav, who is bringing in valuable information, worth 11 million USD. While Rishi is going to meet Gaurav, we think that the 2 versions of the same looking actors on the scene but just now we understand that Gaurav and Rishi are the same. Rishi is approached by a member of NSC (National Security Council) and he tells Rishi that the last few missions headed by Colonel were rouge and were not approved by Indian Government. Colonel also comes to know that Rishi is going to double-cross him and he has his team kill Rishi once Rishi gets the data drive from Gaurav. But Rishi escapes and uses Gaurav's identity to travel to US.

In the rest of the movie is about how Rishi/Gaurav comes out of this mess

Verdict: The first half was a bit confusing, but it was executed very well.

Simran

 
Praful (Kangana Ranaut) and her parents live in Atlanta, US. She is one of the house keeping staff in a hotel. She tries to save money and buy a house in the US but her father is not into it. Her friend invites her to join her in Las Vegas for a weekend and while she is there, she gambles & wins $2,000. She instantly becomes fond of gambling and wants to gamble more and eventually loses all her savings (close to $8,000). Her friend literally pulls her out of the place and puts her in the flight back to Atlanta.

When she is back, the bank informs her of her poor credit history and that she has spent $8,000 in just one day and rejects her loan. Frustrated, she arranges for more money (from where!?!) and goes back to Vegas in an attempt to win back, but loses terribly again. She gets drunk and takes $32,000 loan from a private money lender against her Social Security Card (US's Aadhar Card) & Driver's license and loses that too

The private lender follows her back home and asks her to pay-back $50,000 with interest. She doesn't have that much money and tries her hand in robbing banks! She robs a total of 4 banks and collects $42,000 and keeps it in her workplace but due to lack of her focus on work, she gets suspended. The manager at workplace finds out that she has been stealing and takes all her money. The private lender gets impressed by her "smartness" and gives her a gun and asks her to rob another bank. She successfully robs $90,000 and on her way back, gets chased by police. She leads the police to the manager and gets him arrested and surrenders herself.

Verdict: Worst movie, I don't understand what is the message that's being conveyed in this movie !

Mubarakan

 
"Confusion" is the mantra of this comedy movie. Karan & Charan (Arjun Kapoor dual role) are twins and their parents die in a car accident. They are raised separately, within the same family - Karan in London and Charan in Punjab. They both have a girlfriend and do not have the guts to discuss this with their parents, which leads to confusion after confusion to the extent that they both get engaged with each other's girl-friends.

Kartar Singh (Anil Kapoor), who plays Karan & Charan's uncle is the epicentre of all the confusion that is caused - just like the knots created by ear-phone in your pocket and finally he clears the confusion he had created and everyone lives happily ever after

Verdict: Funny movie, but with so much is happening in such a short time, it probably would not create strong impact.

Thursday, October 19, 2017

Mersal

 
The film starts where Vadivu (Vadivel) kidnaps a few people in an ambulance. This is investigated by Police lead by Rathnavel (Sathyaraj) and they find out where the hide-out is. When they come to arrest the kidnapper, they meet Vijay (Dr. Maaran). During interrogation, he narrates his flashback and tells Rathanavel that he is not Dr. Maaran but Vetri (Vijay, 2nd action). Dr. Daniel (S.J.Surya) who happens to see one of Dr. Maaran's interview on TV on why he charges only Rs.5/- from his patients, comes to meet Dr. Maaran, thinking he is Vetri.

The flashback of who Dr. Maaran and Vetri are, why Dr. Daniel is looking for Vetri reveals that Dr. Maaran and Vetri are brothers and Dr. Daniel was helping their father Vetrimaaran (Vijay, 3rd action) in the hospital that Vetrimaaran built in their village. Dr. Daniel, who is business minded, gets the hospital transferred to his name and Maaran's mother Aishwarya (Nithya Menen) dies soon after she delivers Vetri, who is assumed dead on delivery. Dr. Daniel tries to run away from the hospital and when Vetrimaaran tries to follow, Dr. Daniel's gundas kill Vetrimaaran. Now, Vetri and Dr. Maaran understand their past and join hands to avenge Dr. Daniel.

Verdict: Very average movie, nothing great - neither story nor screenplay

Saturday, October 14, 2017

Goutham Nanda

 
Gautham (Gopichand) is the only son of Vishnu Prasad (Sachin Khedekar), who is a billionaire. Vishnu appears on Forbes magazine and Gautham celebrates this with his friends. One of the old waiters spill something on him inadvertently for which Gautham slaps him, asking him if he knows who he was. The old waiter's question back to him as the response wakes his consciousness and he understands that he has not achieved anything and is living a luxurious life from his father's money only. He feels very bad and drives his car recklessly, trying to commit suicide.

He stops his car, just before he hits a person on the highway and to his surprise, the other person, Nanda (Gopichand - dual role), is a xerox copy of him. Nanda explains Gautham that he is committing suicide due to lack of money in his lower-middle class house. They agree to live in each other's life for the next 30 days, i.e. Gautham in lower-middle class home in search of meaning, emotions etc... in his life and Nanda in the luxurious house.

As events unfold, Gautham likes the lower-middle class love and affection and Nanda becomes addicted to money to the extent that he tries to kill Gautham along with his parents and his sister. How Gautham proves that he is Gautham and comes out of this is the movie

Verdict: Not the first of its kind, but very entertaining movie

Thappu Thanda

 
This is a nicely executed suspense movie. Till the fag end of the movie, you'll keep wondering if the lead character (Vetri) is a double role or not

Vetri comes to his friend's house from his village in search of some job. His friend is working for the MLA and is helping him distribute a huge sum of money to the public before election. Vetri joins a 'Thief Academy' to learn how to steal from people. The students in that academy and Vetri make a plan to swindle the money in transit. Police finds this our and ceases the money. Vetri double-crosses the team, steals the money from the police and escapes.

Miller, the investigating police officer, from whom Vetri stole the money, finds another person who looks exactly same like Vetri so he takes him to station and thrashes him to get him accept the crime. But he repeatedly is able to see from media and other proofs that the captured individual is not Vetri but works in a BPO.

After the court trials, the captured individual is released but the MLA captures Miller and the innocent and has his men kill them

Till this time, viewers think that Vetri and the innocent individual are 2 different people but infact they are one and the same.

The core of the film is that the information or "news" shown in the media can be manipulated and can make public believe something that might not be true.

Verdict: Nicely executed movie. The cast might not have any super-hit people, but the content and execution was very nice. Worth the watch. However, the first half was a bit slow and could have been better.

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Vikram Vedha

 
One of the best movies of all times.

The core of the movie is based on the historical story of Vikramadithyan & Vethalam. Vikramadithyan captures the Vethalam and carries it on his shoulders. While walking, Vethalam recites a story and at the end of the story, it asks a question. If Vikramathithyan answers, it will fly back to the place from where he caught it (a tree) and if he doesn't, Vikramathithyan's head will burst into 1000 pieces

Similar to this story, Madhavan (Vikram) plays the lead role of Police Inspector and Vijay Sethupathi (Vedha) plays the role of a goon. Vikram and his team will carry out an encounter operation in which Vikram's younger brother will get killed. While Vikram & his team plan to find out Vedha's hideout and neutralize him, Vedha walks into the Police headquarters with a gun and turns himself to the Police.

Because he surrendered, the Police cannot carry out an encounter operation. So everyone in the department will speak with Vedha to make him speak - on his plan, why he surrendered, etc... But when Vikram comes to speak with Vedha, then Vedha tells him a story and asks him a question.

At first, the questions asked does not have anything to do with what is going on in the movie but as they keep meeting, Vedha recites different stories which happened at different points in time in his life, and the questions open up a lot of information to Vikram, which helps him solve the case on hand.

Verdict: Amazing movie, must watch. The screenplay is amazing and not even for a minute, you would feel bored / left out. The movie background keeps lingering in your head for days. Vijay Sethupathi's acting is amazing, especially when he asks, "Oru kadha solla taa Sir"

Monday, October 2, 2017

Be Afraid

 
Brian Krause (Dr. John) has 2 kids and live in a house that's very remote. He complains that he sees some creature in his dreams that are so vivid that he can see the creature in their house. He is told that he is experiencing sleep paralysis. One day, while his son is playing outside, he sees him with another man asking his son about his daughter. He calls the cops and later understands that he had lost his daughter earlier which made him unstable

Another day, his wife finds his son near a tunnel and warns him not to go there. As the movie unfolds, the 'creature' is not just in the dreams but is very real and to save his younger son, he gives himself to the creature

Verdict: The storyline is not very clear (atleast to me). Best to skip this one

Karuppan

 
Vijay Sethupathi (Karuppan) earns his living by doing piece-meal jobs around the village. Due to his built, when he works, he works heavily and then drinks his earnings away with his friends and uncle. He has a mute mother and he takes care of her. He also takes part in Jallikattu and presumably trains others

Pasupathy has a bull, which is difficult to handle in the field. He challenges Karuppan to tame it which has the 10 soverigns of gold as a prize. While Karuppan is not interested, one of his friends say that gold is not what he needs and in return Pasupathi specifies that he will marry off his sister Tanya (Anbuselvi). Karuppan accepts this and tames the bull

Bobby Simha (Kathir) has been interested in Anbuselvi but no one in their family, including Anbuselvi, have any clue. Anbuselvi initially resists her brother's decision but later agrees for the marriage once she learns about Karuppan.

These happen in the first 30 minutes of the movie and in the remainder, Kathir tries to break Karuppan and Anbuselvi's marriage. This is not known to anyone until the last 10 minutes of the movie. Once they know, there is a fight where Kathir is killed and everyone lives happily ever after

Verdict: Very thin story line, can skip this one

Mom

 
A fantastic movie played by Sridevi (Devki). Devki is a teacher in a school and has 2 kids of which the elder daughter, Sajal Ali (Arya), is her step-daughter. When Arya goes out to a far away farm house for valentine day's party, she gets kidnapped, physically abused and thrown away in a ditch. Devki complaints to police and when someone finds her daughter the next day, they inform the police and they inform Devki.

Devki and her husband are completely shattered and they file a case in the court. Due to lack of evidence, and the bad guys' alibi they wont be able to get justice. Devki takes law in her hands and executes immaculate plan and takes down each one of them.

In this, Nawazuddin Siddiqui (DK), who plays a private detective, helps Devki in collecting information on each of the bad guys. He eventually gets killed by one of the bad guys.

Akshaye Khanna (Mathew Francis) plays the lead detective and will find out what Devki is doing but will be unable to collect any evidence. But he helps her at the end to kill the last bad guy.

Verdict: Very good movie that showcases the lengths parents go for their kids.

Spyder

 
Mahesh Babu (Shiva) plays the lead role in this movie. He works in CBI and is fond of helping public. For this, he has invents a piece of software using which he can monitor voice calls (not here to discuss if this is right or not). He happens to hear a conversation where a young lady mentions to someone over a phone that she feels someone is following her and that there is no electricity only at her house. He takes this very casually and sends one of his female colleagues. The next day he comes to know that they both were killed the previous night.

He feels really bad that he could not save them and resigns his job but his father talks him into taking his job again and ensuring he catches the culprit. He investigates the case innovatively using social media and he reaches to a duo-brother-psycho-killers Sudalai and his brother (S.J.Surya / Bharath). Flashback explains that they both are sadists and draw happiness from other's cryings. They have been involved in mass murders in the past and have planned multiple such killings

The movie unfolds on how Shiva stops Sudalai

Verdict: Simple storyline which was taken through in an entertaining way. Good thing in this movie is that no one from the hero's family is killed, just to agitate hero (which happens in most of the movies)

Wish Upon

 
This is a fantasy movie where a Chinese "Wish Box" is at the center of everything that happens in the movie.

The main character in the movie is a teenager, Clare, (played by Joey King) and at the beginning of the movie, her mother wraps this wish box, throws it away in a thrash can and commits suicide by hanging herself in the attic.

Then, a few years later, Clare's father brings her this wish box which he finds. Neither of them have any clue about the box and it has ancient Chinese writings all over the box. Clare tries to read and understand but even her school teachers mention that the writings are in ancient Chinese and only a scholar can help.

Clare only is able to make out that its some kind of wish box and makes her wish but is unaware of the price that has to be paid

As the movie progresses, she understands that the box grants 7 wishes and the price of each wish is to be paid by blood - its not explained how it selects who to kill; someone around Clare is chosen and killed

After 7 wishes, it consumes the soul of the wisher and if the wisher disposes the box, all wishes are reverted (not the lives taken by it though)

Clare tries to cheat the box by making her 7th wish to go back to the morning when she got the box but eventually gets killed by an accident

Verdict: Average movie.

Spiderman: Homecoming

 
This movie is a continuation of "Captain America: Civil War" movie, focusing on Spider man's day-to-day life.

The movie revolves around how Spiderman involuntarily gets involved in finding out who was stealing the alien damaged remains and is modifying , using and selling them without Government's knowledge. Spiderman uses the suit from Stark company which enhances his ability to help the public.

There are a few scenes which I liked the most - the lift break down scene and the fight scene in ferry

Verdict: Overall good graphics. Entertaining movie

Judwaa 2

 
Entertaining remake of original Judwaa which was done by Salman Khan. Varun Dhawan plays a dual role (Raja / Prem) with Jacqueline Fernandez (Alishka for Raja) and Taapsee Pannu (Samaira for Prem).

Prem's father meets a person (the villan) on his flight from London to Mumbai. Upon landing, the villan keeps a water bottle filled with smuggled goods in his co-passenger's bag so that he comes out clean when Airport police checks him.

Prem's father rushes to hospital to know that he has twins and the villan visits him in the hospital (how !?) so that he can take the water bottle. But, Prem's father has already intimated the Police and they catch the villan. When he tries to escape, he takes one of the twin babies (Raja) and leaves it near train track, runs to a godown, and blows it by opening a gas cylinder making the police and Prem's father believe that Raja was inside and is dead (due to the blast). Villan is presented to court and is sentenced to jail. Due to villan's strong network, Prem's father is advised by the Police to go elsewhere. Prem, his father and mother go to London, settle and he is raised there while Raja is raised in Mumbai.

As the story unfolds, all the characters travel to / meet in London

Fun concept is that when the twins are in nearby, each others are connected and action done by one are mirrored by the other

Plot holes:

  • There are a lot of scenes where twins are nowhere nearby but they mirror actions
  • There are a lot of scenes where they are next to each other, but they dont mirror their actions


Verdict: Very entertaining, nice songs and fun movie - just dont ask too many questions !
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