AGNEEPATH - The Remake - An Excercise in Futility

The Official Agneepath Trailer

Karan Johar is spreading his wings and wants to remake old hindi movies that fired his imagination. He wanted to remake AGNEEPATH (Amitabh Bacchan) to remind people that that movie was a classic- a precursor to the underworld movies of  today. The good versus Evil and the classic revenge story that consumes lives. Now I havent seen the original AGNEEPATH and therefore cannot compare it with the original, however, my impressions are far from

Dinanath Chauhan is a crusader, a teacher, who is out to educate villagers of Mandwa (an island off the coast of Maharashtra, close to Mumbai). He preaches to his son that violence cannot solve problems and strength is of no use if not used properly and at the right time. The key is to get strength and use it when needed to solve your problems. This "Chanakya neeti" is drilled into the young Vijay.  His growing clout is not liked by the erstwhile king/landlord of Mandwa). Enter Kancha Cheena ( Sanjay dutt, looking scary..), who promises the villages some quick money, sets a trap for the Masterji and gets a mob to lynch him. The king, now rides a tiger who he cannot control and needless to say, the drug trade follows and the villagers realise that all their quick riches were ephemeral and now they are slaves....so much for a quick buck.....

The son (Vijay Dinanath Chauhan) his mom leave the village, come to mumbai and enter the red light area where the ladies are plying their trade. His mother gets labour pains and young Vijay, runs to get help. A lady with daughter Kaali (Priyanka Chopra) helps his mum to give birth and the people of the basti adopt them. Enters Rauf Lala (Rishi Kapoor- looking every bit the underworld gangster) and a horrific scene where he is auctioning young girls ..... Fast forward, young Vijay sees rauf Lala commit a murder and realises that he needs his strength to get back at Kancha...and so he does not squeal on him to the police Gaitonde (Om Puri in a confused role) kills a police man who is molesting Kaali's mon to achieve that and becomes his right hand man. Here the movie loses the plot....

Fast Forward 15 years and Vijay is hitman, disowned by his mom, has acquired a girl friend kaali (Priyanka Chopra- looking gorgeous and suitably in love), is now an informer for Gaitonde and is slowly moving up the ladder at Rauf Lala's. Kancha Cheena has made Mandwa into a fortress (akin to a columbian drug lord) and has enslaved the villagers.  Thereafter the movie labours towards its most obvious conclusion --

The Verdict

The movie has a dark feel around it, mirroring the mood. Sanjay Dutt is scary as Kancha and looks powerful and baaaaad !!!  Hrithik as Vijay, is excellent and thankfully is not made to dance at the drop of a hat. He has given it all... Priyanka is gorgeous and completely underutilised as Vijay's love interest. She has got a raw deal..In fact, no one would have missed her if the role wasnt there. Rishi Kapoor is amazingly convincing as the Don Rauf lala..(he is a natural villian). Om Puri looks confused.. The screen play is patchy, the story telling is disjointed and stretches one's imagination especially towards the end.. The songs are a distraction and could've have been dispensed with...however, Gun-Guna is hummable, Chikni Chameli is disastrous (Katrina has no grace and the song is terribly picturised) and the rest are forgettable.The story deviates quite a bit from the original. You can read the story of the Original Agneepath to compare, if you wish.

I would rate it 2/10 and watch it only if you must and PLEASE KEEP CHILDREN AWAY.

4084 CHAALIS CHAURASI - REVIEW

Its not often, that in the recent past, a movie comes along, with no item number, no herione and with 4 main stream actors who are known for their off beat roles. With an intriguiging title like Chaalis Chaurasi  or 4084 (Reminds one of TAXI 9211-follow the link to watch the complete movie ), I was left wondering what it could be about. The posters did indicate that there were some vehicles involved and I thought the movie would be centered around the same. Was I sadly mistaken - well yes, to some extent..

The movie is primarily centered around 4 men, One a disgraced English professor Mr Puri - Naseerudin Shah (who killed his wife inadvertently when they had a showdown over his affair with another teacher and then served a jail sentence for the same, and now is presently teaching English cum Driver to a rich business man),  A wannabe singer, Atul Kulkrarni aka Bobby- who had to give up his dreams to become a pimp (a rather successful one, a drug dealer - Ravi Kishen- who tells us not to lecture him on selling drugs and not buy it if not interested) and finally Kay Kay Menon - as Albert Pinto, a retro car loving thief... These four men have one thing in common- to get out of their present rut and retire for life - But no clue on how to go about it.

So then Puri (or 'Sir" as he is known), comes up with an  extremely simple plan, which can get them enough money, split 4 ways, to retire for life. They make their plans as the movie goes along, running into various obstacles (or twists in the plot largely due to their fondness for liquor and bar girls). If and only if they can pull off this 20 crore heist will they be able to realise their dreams. What stands in their way is a corrupt crime branch officer, a renegade gangster (tony bisleri) and a host of other quirky characters. The significance of the number 4084 is known only towards the end...which is a good thing.!!!

Why should you watch it? Well, four fine actors, a reasonably strong storyline with lots of twist and turns, good editing and screenplay, good dialogues and the evergreen hit Hawa Hawa.

Why you should'nt ?  Some tiresome songs and background music, the almost comical ending, which is a little stupid and stretches the sensibilities.

Overall - A 3 out of 5 for a pleasant watching experience.
Read the Times of India review, the DNA review and the Indian Express review  to get another perspective.

Players - A Sweet Sour Affair

Most hindi movies which have been "inspired" by hollywood movies, dont acknowlege the fact and well...dont do so well. Here is one movie that has been publicised as an official remake of "The Italian Job" and to be honest: Abbas-Mastan have done a pretty decent job.
The movie is a classic hollywood style story with a villian (Vinod Khanna as Dada)  trying to turn for the better because of his daughter (Sonam), A master thief (Abhishek Bachan) who wants do a big job and retire, his girlfriend(Bipasha) whom he meets every six months to do a robbery and then part ways. (Sonam (Naina) is, as they would have you believe a Masters in Computer Science (and can type with manicured long nails!!!! amazing) who is co-opted into undertaking a big heist (Gold worth 10,000 crores). The job is similar to the one in The Italian Job. Steal gold when it is in transit with multiple variables (Decoy trucks, unbreakable locks, hundreds of security men, secret passwords blah, blah, blah ...) Basically the message is that its an almost impossible job to pull off.. but the team comprising of Abhishek, Sonam, Bipasha, A explosive expert called "Behera" (Sikander Kher), a failed actor and successful makeup artist (Omi Vaidya), A master illusionist (Bobby Deol) and a computer hacker (NN Mukesh as "Spider") pull off the seemingly impossible job with military precision in Murmansk.

The twist in the tale is that some members of their team dont want to share to loot and double cross them. The second half is full of one upmanship and betrayals that would make John Le Carre proud. The basic story now is to recover the stolen gold from the double crossers (here the Italian Job style robbery is almost played out to perfection).

Abbas-Mastan are known for their action flicks and they dont disappoint. The movie is fast paced, with only song (below par) providing some distraction (not needed). The stunts are excellent (the train robbery is superbly shot), acting is good in parts(Abhishek is competent but looks detached sometimes, NN Mukesh is believable as a baddie- he is a natural), Bipasha is hot..but not a very believable thief. Sonam is just not believable as a hacker and Johnny Lever as a car dealer and mechanic is just so-so and not very funny. Direction is good and the pace of the film is fast...redeeming points. However, something's lacking- The thrill is not there. Maybe we have become too blaise  or cynical.

Bottom line - Players is a decent flick and makes for a decent watch as the first film of the year. Abhishek deserves a hit and I hope for his sake this film is.....:). I would rate is 3 out of 5. (I have chosen the standard rating to maintain consistency :) )

To watch the movie online check out this link.  Read Taran Adarsh's review here and the Times of India Review here

Don 2 - The Chase for the audience begins!!

I am a big fan of Farhan Akhtar’s directing skills and he has not let us down in Don2. Slick editing, great production values, snappy story line and great stunts make this a technically sound movie. However, the zing is lacking.

Screenplay

The story takes off from where we left off in Don 1. Don has become the king of the underworld, so big and powerful that other crime syndicates are out to get him. During one such attempt, Don masterminds the biggest plot of his life, that will get rid of all his enemies and he shall be able to retire from a life of crime. To achieve this, he gets himself arrested, teams up with his old foe Vardhan(Boman Irani), escapes a maximum security prison and then moves across the world openly(inspite of an Interpol alert) to mastermind a mint robbery. Anything more and I shall be giving away the plot so watch it if you must…

Editing

 Slick and racy.. great work  Never a dull moment. Always a twist and nothing is what it seems.

Direction and Acting

The characters have been pretty much defined in Don 1 so only some additional characters were required. Shahrukh is looking grungy in parts, suave in others. There is a touch of daredevilry in his acting.  Priyanka looks gorgeous in the detective outfits  but seems lost. The director tried to show that she still had a soft corner for Don ( Bad guys are more interesting) but she does not believe him. Om puri as the chief looks woefully out of place and not in command.  Lara Dutta as the Don’s moll is ok-ok. Boman Irani looks as devilish and conniving as ever.  The rest are quite ok but lack soul.  Shahrukh has tried to copy Pierce Brosnan, Tom cruise (Ethan Hunt) put together but does not seem very convincing.

Overall rating.

Don 2 has been “inspired” by myriad James Bond movies and Mission Impossible 1(the scenes, the dialogues, the setting, the stunts etc ) and have a déjà vu feel to it.  Don’s seeming indestructibility is somewhat boring.  It’s been done before and it looks repeated and jaded.  That’s why the film is boring for people who are used to MI and James Bond. The plot is explained reasonably well and executed admirably.. but at the end of the day, like I said, the movie lacks soul. What is sad, is that Don could've have become a big brand like James Bond and Ethan Hunt (MI) but, it sadly misses the bus. Watch it if you want to know what happens otherwise you can safely miss it.