Neerja Movie Review!

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She was kneeling by the flight’s door; in front of her a scared passenger. And like a dark nightmare, were two men standing behind with blood on their mind and guns in their hands. They were trying to negotiate with voices outside. There were tactics, resistance, convincing and frustration and within seconds a gun shot. A life lost, lost in front of the 22 year old flight purser.

Neerja, is a film by Ram Madhvani, based on the real life brave heart: Neerja Bhanot. The story captures the hijacking of the ill-fated flight Pan Am 73, by four terrorists from the Libya backed terrorist organisation Abu Nidal , with a focus on depicting the immense courage, devotion and quick thinking of the Ashoka Chakra awardee Neerja Bhanot.

                                                        source-indianexpress.com

The story is one that must be shared and let me say Ram Madhvani and Saiwyn Quadras have done a pretty good job. The cinematography is well done, with both the sequences done at home and in the flight. The screenplay is only descent ; it is nothing extra-ordinary or new. There is as expected, a dose of foreshadowing, but marginally avoiding clichés. There are some attempts to creatively infuse extra melodramatic situation in the story like the singing scene in the flight or the one featuring all the kids but they seem superfluous and filmy. With a story like this, the viewers automatically experience very deep respect and easily connect with the gravity of the situation and so those attempts are unnecessary. But let me warn you, the story will make you cry a river.

                                  source-pinkvilla.com

Crucial to stories like these is the casting. Sonam Kapoor as the lead actor did make me skeptical but I have to say ever since the first look, she looked promising.She has done a great job. She not only looks the part but has wonderfully conveyed the emotions, we can only imagine Neerja must’ve experienced.

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Supporting the protagonist is the fantastic Shabana Azmi, who fits like a glove to role of Rama Bhanot(mother). She feels like the second lead, the audiences feel her worry, her pain and sympathise with her. 

Yogendra Tikku , as Harish Bhanot (father) has done an amazing job too. Shekhar Ravjiani as Neerja’s love interest Jaideep, in his short role, is very endearing. The music of Neerja by Vishal Khurana is very appropriate to the story. It pairs well with the plot except the one time where it seems to be just placed for the emotional milking. There are some soulful numbers as Gehra Ishq and Jeetein hain chal.

At the end of the day any movie, which is based on real life bravery, is expected to evoke emotions like motivation, pride and makes you question life and your actions. Ram Madhavni’s Neerja does a good enough job on the scale.

Neerja Bhanot’s story is an incredibly awe-inspring one. She suffered, she overcame and she displayed paramount courage and loyalty!This is the story you must know.

 You should watch the movie:

    1.For Neerja and her story     2. For the great acting performances by Sonam and the cast.  

       Rating-3.5/5

Jazbaa -Movie Review!

Sanjay Gupta with the corpus of movies like Kaante , Musafir, Zinda and Shootout at Lokhandwala brings another action thriller for the Hindi film audience –Jazbaa. The story revolves around a single mother, a lawyer by profession, whose daughter gets kidnapped and how she retrieves her with the help of a dabang-esque cop/friend.

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Looking at the trailers, I couldn’t help but draw parallels to the primary plot of Rani Mukherjee starrer Mardani. But, let me assure you, loosely speaking apart from a lady trying to get her daughter back the story is pretty different. Jazbaa , a remake of Korean film Seven Days , does keep you engaged like a mystery should, but it is not exceptional.

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Aishwarya Rai Bachchan making her comeback after 5 years , looks appropriate for the part and her acting is way above her standard  but is still bordering on overacting .Her shrill shrieking numerous times in the movie becomes a little too much.

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 Irrfan is a one hell of a star in the movie. Part of the credit definitely goes to the dialogue writer Kamlesh Pandey (known for Tezaab and Rang de Basanti) , who as Irrfan has right said given ‘chavvanni phek’ dialogues.  Irrfan’s role can then be justly said to be a deadly combination of a partner-in-chase and a comedian if you will. He too is the best cast for the role and does his job with an incredible superstar quality. You can’t wait for his scenes. Needless to say, Shabana Azmi as a supporting character lends a certain finesse to Jazbaa, she is fantastic.

Music does not play a big role for the movie and as an audience we too don’t really miss it. Except, I don’t understand the need to rope in Badshah for his rap,it was unnecessary. Bandeya ,on the other hand,  as a promotional song is pretty good.

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But then with a good enough story, and acting, why did the movie fell short of being the exceptional? The burden, I’m afraid lies with the director, Sanjay Gupta. Where Aishwarya is not new to it, the director even made Irrfan unfortunately doing his bit of overacting!! In fact, right after the intermission, where the second half should’ve made the movie better the very first scene is sadly the worst of the movie. Imagine a terribly and emotionally exhausting situation and the audience is laughing?! This over indulgence is perhaps the reason the audience doesn’t connect to the movie emotionally.

The direction also fails on the level that certain loopholes (like the door lock or the minister’s presence in the courtroom) start surfacing in the second half in an otherwise fool proof thriller.Some scenes like the hospital seem over hyped and some scenes with Irrfan like the train scene seem awkwardly shot or the bar scene which lingers on with a song. And please God tell me,were the actors wearing leather jackets and heeled booties in Mumbai?!

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Jazbaa(which btw doesn’t seem like an appropriate title) is a movie which you can watch in the theater but not with the expectation of being blown away.

Watch it for-

1. IRRFAN AND HIS DAILOUGES!!!!!        2. IfD in mood for some satisfactory action thriller


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Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola Review

“Khatra hai!” –don’t worry I’m not warning you against anything this is just, alike barfi, a delightful, creative and funny pre-intro to Vishal Bhardwaj’s quirky titled “Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola “. This maiden politic satire from the director cum composer takes up farmer’s  land issue and the corruption thereof involving a young do –gooder Matru (Imran Khan) , a filthy rich and ardent drinker  Harry Mandola (Pankaj Kapoor) ,his daughter engaged to be married  Bijli (Anushka Sharma) and cunning politician Chaudari Devi (Shabana azmi).

Where Vishal Bhardwaj aces the comedy card with brilliant drunk humour from the power packed Pankaj Kapoor appropriately complimented by Imran Khan, the first half represents a weak amalgamation of the comic element and the story line .Unlike other comedy drama movies like Hera Pheri ,Housefull 2,Rawdy Rathore where the major plot of whatever nature re-enforces itself after comic gags, in this movie the plot specially in the first half seems over shadowed by character development . The second half shows much more actions to move the plot which culminates into a low key climax but seems a bit boring with its unnecessary length.

The casting looks good and this results in awesome performance delivery, where Pankaj Kapoor is truly amazing with his perfect Haryanvi dialect and stupendous acting, Imran Khan breaking out from his chocolate boy image fairs well in his handsome portrayal of Matru , Anushka’s character though under developed remains monotonous vis a vis her characters in other movies , she does fine .Shabana Azmi is another gem with her perfect portrayal of the shrewd character. Arya Babbar does well for his role.

Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola adds to the list of movies bearing sheer realistic cinematography by the director. It also visually conforms to the Vishal Bhardwaj movies with its lighting and colour reminding one of Omkara and Saat koof Maaf. 

The music fits like a glove to the movie and boasts some local flavoured numbers like the title track, sha ra ra, oye boy Charlie and khamakha/

Watch this one for gulabo (the pink cow), a haryanvi Imran Khan and a drunk Pankaj Kapoor!

Rating 3/5