Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns - Twisted Tale

 I just loved the First installment of this movie - Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster. The story of intrigue, deception and betrayal was woven so beautifully in to the fabric of a small town UP Royal Family, that one could almost empathize with them. The Rich and royalty have money and servants who are fanatically loyal to them, but they have different problems. Loneliness, betrayal and a longing for the good old days when they were kings and treated like one. But, stopping my rambling and getting back to the movie, I really liked the second edition too.

This edition too has it all. Love, intrigue, betrayal, sex, despondency, greed, revenge and a lot more. Saheb is Jimmy Shergill, Biwi is Mahi Gill (Man, we are up to our "Gills" in this cast!!! ) and the Gangsta is Inderjit Singh - A poor royal whose family was wiped out by Jimmy's family somewhere in the past.... REVENGE!!!
Mahi as Madhavi is the Sozzled (and Sizzling !!) wife, who is also the MLA of Devgarh, in name. She is controlled by Saheb and he doles out favours using her as a proxy. Continuing from the last movie, he is wheel chair bound but as deadly as ever. The venom that he displays while talking to Madhavi can only be rivaled by a Cobra! Madhavi, as the neglected wife, displays a perplexing love for Saheb and is perpetually drunk. She drinks to forget her loneliness and neglect.... u almost feel sorry for her!!!

The game changes when Saheb's mother ask's him to get married again and shows him Soha's photo (Ranjana in the movie). He is floored and then plays a game to force her father to get her married to him. But there are no free lunches in life... her father starts plotting his downfall by attacking him where it hurts.. his criminal enterprise and sending Irrfan (who is Soha's  lover) to work on Mahi and subvert her.

And man!!. How he subverts her..!!! But Madhavi is smart and manages to subvert Irrfan..thereby creating a weird foursome.... and setting the stage for a very strange ending.

The movie is slow, but the screenplay manages to grip you. The plots, sub plots and betrayals just add to the charm. However only the main characters are well defined.. the rest are wishy washy.. I can understand his predicament.. the movie wxyould have been too long.   However,,, the acting is really really good.. Irrfan shines.. Jimmy is suitably ruthless and at the same time vulnerable. Mahi is mind-blowingly sexy, sluttish, vulnerable and ruthless. Soha is competent as she really does not have much of a part to play.. Rana as Kannaiya is strong and silent....

Btw.. the lone item song is really ghastly and spoils the mood the movie creates. Mugdha is pretty and all that,, but she was not looking sexy nor could she dance to save her life..... on the other hand, Mahi was born for this role... she has the body (or bawdy!!) language to pull it off....

I liked the movie because it is different.  It is subtle and has wheels within wheels within wheels. Do go and watch it. My friends found the movie slow and were waiting for something to happen!!! The Rowdy Rathore effect!!!  Maybe that's why I am known as the NERD..

Rating: ***1/2

Gali Gali Mein Chor Hain - Satire without the Fizz

 
Everyonce a while, comes along a movie that has a lot of promise, but somehow does not live up to it.. However, all said and done, this movie's  screen play (a satire on the times we live in) starts off on a promising note and like a tired long distance runner... gives up in the end.

The movie is has three plots running side by side and all converge towards the end. Akshaye Khanna (Bharat) is a boring cashier, married to a jealous Shriya Saran (Nisha- A school teacher). They both stay with his father - Satish Kaushik, in Bhopal. The movie starts off with a wandering sadhu (who wanders every week to their house to collect oil and is obliged by the lady of the house). As Bharat keeps grumbling about the cost of oil, the sadhu makes a prophecy that Bharat is about enter one of his darkest phases in his life and is going to be beset by several Misfortunes. The only way to deflect the impending crisis that "Shani Dev" has to be appeased....

The first  track is that Bharat  is a amateur Ramlila actor (playing Hanuman), the second track is that he has given shelter (as a paying guest) to Mugdha Godse (his bosses niece) and cannot tell her to go as he would get transferred to a village and the third track is that he refuses to give a room in his house to the residing MLA's volunteers. So I guess you would have got the plot.....

Just because he refused to give the room to the MLA (insipid performance by the MLA Tripathi and his brother) and his father giving the room to his opponent Mohanlal (Singapore returned NRI wanting to do good), the MLA's brother ropes in the police to harass Bharat. Annu Kapur as the constable and a host of other characters (the portly pan stained pan vendor - the witness,  a thief, a government lawyer, the SHO, all hatch a plot to harass him over  trivial issue (Supposedly a fan stolen from their house which they have to identify in court) and ends up costing him Rs 31000/- in chai paani, bribes and the works. (This entire portion of the movie is"Inspired" by Office-Office and is really tiresome after sometime.

There are enough instances for Nisha to suspect that something is brewing between Mugdha and Bharat( the lipstick mark on his cheeks when she thanks him, the midnight rendezvous at the refrigerator ....) and she leaves home because of that. After that Shani dev takes over and Bharat and his dad are convinced that the FAN   (which turns out that it wasnt theirs after all) is the cause of all worry. The MLA's bro who is playing Ram in the Ramleela, is getting jealous of all accolades that Bharat is getting and is tryng to sabotage him. Bharat's pop wants him to ditch the FAN but every attempt by Bharat to ditch it (throwing it in the lake, leaving it in the bus, ditch etc) all fail and it comes back to him.

In the finale, Bharat gets his bag with the fan mixed up with another bag which has RDX and the terrorists are trying to get it, and finally during Ramleela, dressed as Hanuman, unknowingly is able ditch the bag in the pond and then blah ..blah..he gets arrested , his dad has to grease many people to get his son off..

The movie reinforces the belief that if you are straight, you are going to get kicked and how. If you want your work to be done, u need to be pragmatic. All politicians are goondas and chors and there is nothing one can do about it!!!!!  The feeble attempt at showing some aggression at the end does little to salvage the movie.

Veena Malik's Channo song is decent, and she looks hot...but by that time you are so bored that even she fails to enthuse you.....

Concluding, The movie is a bore, cliched and not very original or inspiring. The satire is there but is tiresome as it is stretched to the limit. A definite Office - Office rip off.... Redeeming factors - Shriya looks really good..but does not get much chance to show off her talent, Akshaye is consistent and good , Annu kapoor is irritating and thats it. Mugdha looks tired and uniterested in a pathetic role, satish kaushik is wasted, the MLA and his bro are terrible (seems like a Dabangg rip off) and the list goes on.......... (I almost slept off writing this review...)

Rating - * */2