Review of The Body (2019) . . .

Review of The Body (2019) . . .

Jeethu Joseph who made Drishyam a brilliant thriller in Malyalam which later got remade in other languages Tamil and Hindi. Papanasam(Tamil) starring Kamal Haasan & Drishyam(Hindi) starring Ajay Devgn. All versions of Drishyam were very well made and loved by people. This Director once again came up with another murder mystery thriller which is officially adaption of Spanish film by the same name The Body.
I'm big fan of thriller films and sometimes i wonder why Hindi film industry people don't make such unusual murder mysteries like Hollywood or any other film industry. In 2019 Badla came starring Amitabh Bachchan & Tapsee Pannu which was also remake of Spanish film but Bollywood produces more than 100 films in a year and ratio of crime suspense thriller is very low and even nowadays some good web series are coming in this genre and people loving it and Hollywood also producing many film of this genre successfully since years then why Bollywood is behind in the race?
Well film makers more interested in money games than providing content cinema or scared of experiments.
Jeethu Joseph who made several regional films The Body is his debut film in Hindi. Yes Dirshyam was originally written by him and he directed other two versions Tamil & Malyalam while Hindi Drishyam was directed by Nishikant Kamat so as a director this one is his first hindi film.
I have not seen the original Spanish film The Body so not able to compare but gonna write about what I liked about this hindi adaption.
Story of Ajay Puri (Emraan Hashmi) whose wife is dead and body kept in morgue and same night The Body disappears. One Cop (Rishi Kapoor) is taking the charge of investigation of this body of powerful businesswoman (Shobhita Dhulipala) whom Emraan Hashmi married for wealth only and he is already started to be in touch with another girl played by (Vedhika) and they plan a mysterious murder of his wife to acquire all the properties post natural death. Emraan giving her dose of one medicine along with vine which causes heart attack post 8 hours of consumption.
80% of the story set in hospital in just one night where Rishi Kapoor is investigating the case with his officers and kept Emraan Hashmi there as a suspect. Rishi Ji feels that he has murdered his wife. Actually it's not the suspense for us we the audiences know it he killed his wife but police doesn't know it and also they and we have one more suspense that where's the body has gone? Who has taken away The Body from morgue and most importantly why?
In the initial scenes i felt that it's a horror film while later i got to know it's not a horror but murder mystery then again i thought it's gonna be a superficial thriller but then later got to know it's something another genre so this is how from beginning to end it kept me hooked but yes in this kind of engaging thriller film unfortunately there were 4 songs which i had to let go for better focus and even none of them were necessary for the script. Thank God Jhalak Dikh La Ja was missing and made for promotional part only.
Screenplay is engaging enough as it is not very lengthy film. Many scenes are in the hospital in just one night. Interrogation scene of Rishi Ji with Emraan is finest scene from the film, interval block, climax etc i found quite interesting. As per storyline it should have been pure murder mystery but still we can't deny the fact that our Bollywood film makers can't make a film without adding masalas or glamour unnecessarily. It has songs and unnecessarily romance of Emmy with two girls which could have been avoided if they wanted to but it happened in history of Bollywood it's happening and i think it will keep happening like this whenever they are going to adopt any film from any industry.
Direction is fine here not as much great like Drishyam. I wonder he's the one who made the Drishyam so he could have definitely made it more tighter than it is. Some scenes are well made while overall execution is fine cinematography is also very nice in hospital scenes.
Background Music by Clinton Cerejo is quite ok but this kind of thriller requires Kickass background score. Editing job done nicely.
Performance by Shobhita Dhulipala is very nice but she did better work earlier so here nothing new for her but she plays her part so well.
Vedhika looks glamorous and does her part with an ease. She's looking very cute in several scenes.
I must mention Rukhsar Rehman has very less to do here but if more space was given to her then she would have definitely done it confidently. She's damn good actress and would love to see her doing Kickass roles in future.
Emraan Hashmi excellent as always in thriller roles. His image is serial kissser but for me he's damn brilliant actor. I just love him a lot. We have seen him doing outstanding roles earlier so here again he did his job very well.
Lastly Rishi Kapoor Ji reminded me of his role of cop from Aurangzeb film. What a great performer he is specially in his second inning. Be it Agneepath or Aurangzeb or Do Dooni Char he shines and lives his roles with full confidence. What a dialogue delivery. So much respect for him.
Overall it's a quiet nice engaging murder mystery not a great one as it has no logical points and some loopholes but eventually we will say cinema hai to thodi bahot liberty chalti hai. But i really wish Bollywood should make some more films in this genre.
My Ratings
3.2/5.
--- by Harsh Desai Filmy . . . 

Review of Love Aaj Kal (2020) . . .

Review of Love Aaj Kal (2020) . . .

At various stages of life we become so indecisive specially when it's about career or love life. It happens with almost everyone at least once in a life particularly in young age. Such situations like when you're in true love with someone you'll feel sometimes that person doesn't love you like the level like you love her/him. In a relationship where you'll feel is this the true love with whom I'm going to spend the rest of my life or may be i have hurried in choosing life partner so earlier or sometimes we may feel that career is more important than love or relationship. We feel relationship can take place after successful career but at the same time we may feel we can compromise the career for true love after all nothing is more precious than love in this world. All of us must have gone through or must be going through all these complexity in life. Then Realization stage comes either we regret for the decisions we have taken in the past or we feel happy for those decisions. 

There are some film makers in Bollywood who present this kind of complex stories of confused protagonists. Imtiaz Ali Sir is one of my most favorite film maker i have learned a lot from his films. In 2009 he made a film Love Aaj Kal with Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone as lead roles which was super successful film and music too. He again made a film with same title Love Aaj Kal version 2.0 or (2020). It's not a remake of first one but plot is similar to that such as this film is also running two parallel stories together one is present where Zoey (Sara Ali Khan) and Veer (Kartik Aaryan) playing lead roles while another one in late 80s where Leena character played by new comer (Aarushi Sharma) & Raghu is being played by (Kartik Aaryan).

Like how Rishi Kapoor Ji narrated his story to Saif in Love Aaj Kal (2009) similarly here Randeep Hooda is narrating his story to Sara Ali Khan but in the past we see young character of Randeep Hooda is being played by Kartik Aaryan. Ratio of two stories are 60-40 we see more present and less past it's not like one particular part of the film belongs to past but from starting to end we see present past scenes simultaneously.

Sara Ali Khan is playing the most confused character among the others from two stories. She's is career oriented sometimes while sometimes she says I'm in love with you and will sacrifice my career for you, she is modern girl who argues with her mother on career & relationship, who keeps the button of her shirt open during an interview to look more confident, she doesn't like to fall in love before becoming successfully financial independent. This is what we see in the character of Zoey while Kartik Aaryan of present is also little confused but more old school kinda thought he carries inspite of being a software engineer. He thinks that he can have sex with anyone but Sara is special girl for him but Sara doesn't feel anything for him special until she listens love story of Randeep Hooda. 

In past story character of Kartik Aaryan is in love with Aarushi Sharma who is also in love with Kartik Aaryan but when they meet character of Aarushi we see is quite forward as compared to that era of 80s which is not digestible. Well Imtiaz Ali Sir wrote the screenplay of the film where we see or feel mixture of Tamasha and Love Aaj Kal (2009) here storyline is similar to Love Aaj Kal while characterization reminded me of Tamasha.

Tamasha was not an appealing film to all mass or family audiences but it was loved class multiplexes audiences and specially loved by fans of Ranbir Kapoor and Imtiaz Sir. Film lovers also loved the film Tamasha but as it wasn't masala film like Jab We Met general audiences didn't welcome it with the heart. Imtiaz Sir made Jab Harry Met Sejal which also got negative reviews because Imtiaz Sir set high benchmarks with Rockstar, Jab We Met, Love Aaj Kal kinda films and SRK is also having damn more talent than we see in JHMS so i personally also didn't like the film much. If role of SRK played by any other actor then impact would have been something else.

This second version of Love Aaj Kal is also a film which is likable by very little targeted audiences of youths or class of multiplex to be clear not likable by many youths like Kabir Singh but very small targeted youths may find it appealing to them while rest mass audiences or family audiences will be bored because of screenplay. I watched on Valentine's Day and honestly some couples in ahead row talked to each other it was better to be at home than being here. Reason is very confusing screenplay.

Imtiaz Ali has directed 7-8 films so we can't say it's not technically well handled film but yes narration of the film is confusing so we can not connect with these two stories. For general audiences it lacks masalas or something which can make them feel entertained.

My view on it is i liked it. Not as good as Imtiaz Ali's previous films but yes undoubtedly it's not a bad film for me at least.

Big fan of work of Imtiaz Ali Sir and i got what i had expectations from the film. I liked his many films but from this i had no expectations like Rockstar or Tamasha or Jab We Met so no point to get disappointed with it. Although star cast announcement was  also not impressive for me because i liked Kartik little in his earlier films but not loved like i loved other Heroes of Imtiaz Ali's films.

Screenplay is slow and little confused but for me it was engaging because i love the way Imtiaz Sir narrates all his stories. Dialogues are fine not great but ok kinda.

Direction is top notch. No doubts in that from beginning to end loved many scenes specially past scenes where they showed era of Maine Pyar Kiya & Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, auto rickshaws having photos of Salman Khan from 90s, Sara's arguments with her mother, Kartik-Sara romance, Randeep Hooda past story narration by him is the most enjoyable part of the film, Aarushi Sharma's scenes in past story very nice beautifully shot, climax could have been little better there's no faults in direction but screenplay lacks engagement.

Editing by Aarti Bajaj is very very nice she is damn good in her job. Whenever she works with Imtiaz Sir we get the best Director-Editor pair.

Music can be weak point here to attract the audiences to the theatres. Yes unfortunately it doesn't have super duper hit music like Love Aaj Kal (2009) had. Pritam Dada is repeated here as a music composer and he gave two very nice tracks but what we expect from him is full album should be chartbuster but here it's minus point if it had strong music then impact would have been much better. I was damn missing guitar tune of Ahun Ahun during the film.

Performance by Aarushi Sharma is brilliant. What a fine act. Loved her this role. Good luck to her for bright future in Bollywood.

Kartik Aaryan is playing mainly two roles one from past story Raghu where he did good job one of present story as Veer he has done good job in this role too but my personal view is i was damn missing Ranbir Kapoor here. Many scenes where Kartik was trying to act he reminded me of Ranbir. Ved from Tamasha stayed with me since i watched it and i don't think so i will ever forget this performance by him so whenever this kind of role will be played by any actor it will remind me of Ranbir Kapoor. 

Here HERO of the film is Sara Ali Khan OMG what a powerful performance. Critics found it over and audiences may find it boring but i think she nailed it. Killer role playing no doubts in that. I love the way she acted and i don't think she can act seriously like Taapsee or Swara or Alia but this is what she can do in her career. It's her third film and this is her best one. She's has got the major screen space than others after all she's the main protagonist of the film. She looks damn sexy and glamorous kudos to her costume designer. Her dialogues are sharp and worth watch performance for me.

Lastly besides Imtiaz Ali's direction there was someone else who made excited to watch the film on very first day. Randeep Hooda steals the show here. I loved his combination for Highway and here once again we got to see him with Imtiaz Sir. He's playing cafe owner here an older version of Raghu now Raaj from the past story. He's terrific and looking damn hot and hit in his role. His talks with Sara lovely scenes. His breakdown scenes, his dialogues etc loved it. Kudos to him for another classy performance. Very natural actor.

Overall it's very nice film not belong to all but yes some people will definitely love it specifically who prefer to watch films like Tamasha or who ever loved someone in his life and stuck in relationship.

My Ratings

3.7/5.

--- by Harsh Desai Filmy . . . 

Review of Malang . . .

Review of Malang . . .

From the beginning of career Mohir Suri made thriller and romantic drama kinda films such as Zeher, Muder, Kalyug, Aashqui2, Ek Villian but my personal favorite of the director is Awarapan. I'm so much connected to that film. I can take it's name in my most fav film of Emraan Hashmi too.
Mohit Suri delivered superhit musical romantic drama Aashqui2 and then also successful Ek Villian and now came back with one more thriller Malang - Unleash The Madness.
It's his second film with Aditya Roy Kapur, second time working with Kunal Khemu and casting one Jhakaas Actor in supporting role Anil Kapoor & as there is Aditya then there must be someone very hot actress needed and he got Disha Patani for this role.
It is suspense thriller so I'm not going to write much about the story but it is set in Goa so we can expect some definite things from Goa location such as Beaches, Bars, Drugs, High Music etc and we can see all these things in the film.
Film starts from one fight sequence of Advait (Aditya Roy Kapur) in Jail and then introduction scene of Anil Kapoor who is shown short tempered drug addicted Cop who believes justice is killing the killer rather than taking him to court. then one murder happens, then Kunal Khemu's personal life scene and professional life scene is showing where his character has built up for us to understand what he kind of a character as a Michael he plays. and sometime story goes in past while sometimes it goes on with present scenario. In present it's story of just on night which is an eve of Christmas 24th December. This is how first half of the film is going on with character building and story building. I didn't get bore for a second as it's a fast pace story telling.
Indian audiences prefer to watch suspense thrillers as they are so engaging and it's taste of Indian people to watch nail biting films it may not get much audiences at theatres but later whoever will see this film on television or web they're going to appreciate it as it's well made thriller. I heard reviews on first day it was negative to average not a single critic appreciated the film all of them were finding faults in this well actually it's their job but as i am one film lover i must go for the film which film's trailer made me super excited. I always have my own views on the films. Many times it happens that critics appreciated the film a lot and when watch it i may find it very average film and also critics rejected the film totally and i loved it. So it's an individual choice to watch and share your thoughts.
Malang has usual predictable story but it's stylish direction, sharp editing and specially major twists and turns makes it winner. Once again Mohit Suri delivering finest thriller which has all the elements one suspense film requires.
Writing work is quite ok but dialogues could have more better. Direction is very stylish, Mohit Suri managed to execute actions, emotions, drama, thrills, romance everything in just 2 hours film without loosing it's core. He is too good in making thriller films.
Loved first fighting sequence of Aditya Roy Kapur in jail, the his first meeting with Disha is lovely scene, Disha entry scene is very nice, Anil Kapoor's intro scene, some chasing scenes, interval block and specially climax i really enjoyed it.
Title track by Arijit Singh is mind blowing i could not get over from that track when i came out of the theatre. Background score is also superb. Cinematography very fine specially captured Goa amazingly. Casting is also very nice some special appearance and some extended cameos are there except the 4 leading characters.
Disha Patani from her entry she is looking damn stunning and sexy. She has done very good job. I must say decent one performance of her career. Her appealing in bikinis make people fall in love with her hotness. She's good choice for the role and she proved herself in emotional scenes too.
Aditya Roy Kapur is seen here playing dual type of character one from the past who is young cool guy traveling at places to spend more and more time with himself while another one we can see in present where he's killer and killing one by one cops. For us they have revealed that Aditya is a killer but why he is killing is the suspense of the film. He nailed his character completely specially his physics is looking damn good for his role of present.
Anil Kapoor's performance is brilliant. His laughing obviously reminded me and all people of Nawazuddin Siddqui's character in Kick. He's not exactly laughing like that but still we can feel that. In emotional scenes, angry scenes Anil sir shines. Powerful performance by him.
Last but not the least Kunal Khemu is stealing the show here. OMG what a performance as Michael. He nailed it completely. Last year in Kalank he was outstanding but his role did not have much length. Here he gets really good space. I must thank to Mohit Suri Sir for not showing heroism only here all the leading characters whether it's Aditya, Disha or Anil Sir all of them are given good space to share the screen rather than just showing only Aditya again and again in every scenes.
Kunal Khemu is brilliant actor i loved him in Kalyug also liked him in comedy roles like Dhol or Go Goa Gone types but here he played his best role till date. Hatz off to him for this solid performance.
I am not going to share more about the second half of the film as it has the major two suspense that why Aditya is killing and what happened in the past of all the characters.
It is not for the below 18 as it's showing consumptions of drugs and some other scenes.
On the whole Mohit Suri brings another thriller and I wish it may get enough audiences to enjoy the thrilling experience of suspense drama Malang.
My Ratings
3.4/5.
--- by Harsh Desai Filmy . . .