Film Review - Tevar

The Tevaring Inferno

Film: Tevar

Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Manoj Bajpayee

Directed by: Amit Ravindernath Sharma

Duration: 2 hrs 37 mins

Rating: * 1 / 2 

Just about everything about Tevar is outdated and above everything else, it is the story. A good guy saving the heroine who is on the run from goons is so passé making you wonder why on earth this film was made in the first place. It is a big budget production and considerable money has been blown on lavish décor. In fact the electricity used to light up the sets itself could easily finance a couple of Indie films.

Not even a fraction of the moolah has been spent on writing a decent story, there are clichés after clichés and you don’t have to be a Bollywood aficionado to predict what is coming next. This is an old fashioned 80’s kind of movies with over the top scenes, lots of songs and a considerable long running length which leaves you exasperated by the end. 

Set in Agra, Pintu (Arjun Kapoor) is a young smug who is also an ace kabaddi player. This is one of those films where the hero doesn’t sit inside a bus to make a journey, he stands on it to show what a brash he is. After all, as he says, he is a Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Salman all rolled in one.

Meanwhile there is a damsel in distress, a Mathura girl Radhika (Sonakshi Sinha) is on the run because the Home Ministers brother (Manoj Bajpayee) is forcibly trying to rescue her. No prizes for guessing who saves her from the clutches, but it is all so very contrived that you are least interested in the proceedings.

There is a fair bit of jaw and breaking violence in the film and at some point even you start feeling the pain - in one scene, the hero ties a big stone to a rope and swings it around hammering the bad guys. 

This is a remake of the Telugu film Okkadu (2003) and this strange and inexplicable fascination for South Indian action films continues.

Some scenes have flair but on the whole the ratio of what you like and what you despise is very poor.  On the acting front, Arjun Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha are passable, there is nothing much to write about them. Manoj Bajpayee is the only silver lining in this otherwise dark cloud, he plays the villain with absolute conviction. In fact, it is more fun watching him than anyone else in the film.

Avoid getting burnt in this Tevaring inferno.

Published in The Navhind Times on 11th January 2015

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Film Review - Lingaa

Return of the King

Film: Lingaa

Cast: Rajnikanth, Anushka Shetty, Sonakshi Sinha

Directed by: K.S Ravikumar

Duration: 2 hrs 55 mins

Rating: * * 1 / 2

It has been four years since Enthiran when Rajini saar graced the screen (not counting the live action capture disaster Kochadaiiyaan) so Lingaa comes after a considerably long for wait for the fans of. They will be and usually are happy with whatever he does, there is no two ways about that. But what about the rest ?

Well, as a film Lingaa is not just old school it is antique school. As a story there is absolutely nothing novel on display here, in fact some of it is embarrassingly shoddy, like a heist scene for example inspired by Peter O Toole’s How to Steal A Million (1966). But you have to hand to the man, the superstar himself who brings a great deal of zeal to the table and becomes the singular reason you want to watch this film.

Lingaa (who else by Rajnikanth) is a petty thief aspiring to pull off a Rififi kind of job with his friends. A television anchor (Anushka Shetty) who otherwise is a crusader to exposed wrong doings is a witness to the crime but instead of bringing him to book, she is highly impressed by him. After all he is Rajnikanth.

There is also a dream sequence song and dance routine inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean and Mission Impossible. Not quite sure what the lyrics meant in Tamil but the subtitles said the following – “Mona, my catalyst gasoline darling” and “"Your Mona is like Fort Knox treasury.”

Ms. Anchor takes him to her village because he has ‘royal blood’ and the doors of a temple which has been locked for decades should be opened by royalty. In flashback we are told about the origins of the temple where during the British era, in 1939 to be precise, Rajnikanth plays Raja Lingeshwaram who volunteers as the district collector of Madurai since he has studied civil engineering at Cambridge. He is also seen reading Joseph Campbell’s A Hero 

With A Thousand Faces (self reference?) and we can only presume it was a draft because the novel was published in 1949.

King turned collector turns king again to help the people suffering from an acute water crisis to build a dam. Sonakshi Sinha plays his love interest and sleepwalks through her role as if she was romancing Akshay Kumar or Ajay Devgn.

There are plenty of references to Rajini’s reel (Baasha, Billa) and real life (his profession as a conductor and political statements). The well informed crowd (even in Goa) whistled and clapped at every such occasion.

The dialogues are a hoot, at least the subtitles certainly are. Surely a lot of effort has gone into writing some of those crackling lines and to suit his image, there are social points made as well.   

For those unaware of why Rajnikanth is such a phenomenon, Lingaa gives ample reason and proof. Whether it is his dialogue delivery, his facial expressions, his style or even his walk, you know you are watching a very special actor in action.

And that brings us to the grouse I have with the film and some of his other films recently. Why have such inane scripts for such a talented actor? The audiences love his act anyway so isn’t there any writer /director out there who can raise the bar instead of just dishing out the same fare time and again? 

The audiences may or may not but Rajnikanth surely deserves better.

But meanwhile, if you are his fan, Lingaa is a wet dream.  

Published in The Navhind Times on 14th Dec 2014

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Film Review - Action Jackson

Double Trouble

Film: Action Jackson

Cast: Ajay Devgn, Sonakshi Sinha, Orange suits, Glass eyed man

Directed by: Prabhudheva

Duration: 2 hrs 26 mins

Rating: *  

"Na commitment na appointment, only punishment" thunders the hero. True, Action Jackson has no commitment to a sensible script and this film is one appointment we could do without.  But if a punishment is what director Prabhudheva was intending to unleash on the unsuspecting audience, then he has succeeded. And how.

Regressive, illogical, sexist, over the top, ludicrous are some of the words that come to mind as an instant reaction after watching this travesty of a film. Somehow, Prabhudheva   struck gold at the box office with films like Wanted, Rowdy Rathore and R..Rajkumar which were pretty awful in their own right, but this one takes the cake. 

The mind boggles to think of the story even for the purpose of writing this review.  There are two Ajay Devgn’s in the film, lets deal with the first one - Vishy is a Bambaiyya goon who could single handedly defeat the army of say Saint Kitts and Nevis or Kingdom of Tonga. Sonakshi Sinha plays a character whose I.Q is not only low, if a test is done, I suspect it come in the negative. She works in a corporate office and along with her other low I.Q friends is convinced that is she sees the goons family jewels, her luck will change. And to achieve her objective she makes several attempts and even tries to pull his pants. Meanwhile, you want to bury your head in a sand pit.

Now meet Devgn No.2, a lookalike of No.1, who is simple called A.J. He is an assassin from Bangkok, an expert with the Samurai sword and works for a don (Anand Raj) with one glass eye and a tonsured head. All his henchmen, with the exception of A.J of course, wear orange suits. Even the Dutch don’t wear so much orange at a football game. 

The bone of contention is the Don’s sister Marina (Manasvi Mamgai) who has the hots for A.J after he rescues her from another set of bad guys.  The feeling is not mutual as A.J is going steady with Anusha (Yami Gautam) making Marina the most desperate woman in our solar system.  The two lookalikes then have to help each other till a fight to the finish is arranged leaving you brain dead.

People slap each other for no particular reason and women are punched in the face and if there was a race for pregnant women to run in high heels, Yami Gautam would win it hands down.  Prabhudheva ji also tries to be a Tarantino and Roberto Rodriguez in the action scenes and needless to say, he fails. 

There are plenty of routine dance numbers and the dialogues are completely inane, like this one “My way or the sky way” whatever that is supposed to mean.

Sonakshi Sinha is getting used to and becoming an expert at these dumb characters. But whatever has got into Ajay Devgn? Last year it was Himmatwala and now this. 

Move over Sajid Khan, you have stiff competition from Prabhudheva. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 7th Dec 2014

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Film Review - Holiday

Working Over Time

Film: Holiday

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha

Directed by: A.R. Murugadoss

Duration: 2 hrs 50 mins

Rating: * *

Written and Directed by A.R. Murugadoss of Ghajini fame, Holiday is a remake of hit Tamil film Thuppakki. More often than not,when it comes to films, what works in South India doesn’t work in Bollywood as far as the box office is concerned. From a creative point of view also, it has hardly ever struck a chord and this film is no different.

With no regard for logic or a plot that makes sense Holiday is aimed at the lowest common denominator. The good news is that it is not as painful as some of the other Akshay Kumar films we have been subjected to but then that is not saying much.

Virat (Akshay) is an army man who is taken straight to the prospective bride’s house from the railway station. While he thinks that the girl Saiba (Sonakshi) is a shy, simpleton, it turns out she is a boxer. All the commotion and romance that ensued prompted me to say saiba bogus in Konkani.

When the initial part of the romance is done, it is time for some action. A deadly terrorist attack takes place and the before the sleeper cells are activated for more destruction, Virat and his friends cleverly kill all the 12 members of the terrorist gang. Well, not so cleverly actually. They all wear suits and ties while carrying out this operation in broad daylight in Mumbai, and our hero belongs to some intelligence wing in the army but it takes a while for his grey cells to get activated as to how the terrorists track them down.

Bones are broken, blood is splattered and even a finger is chopped and thrown in bin to ensure that peace prevails. Freddy Daruwala plays the not so menacing terrorist who heads the outfit seeking revenge.

It is not just the hare brained plot even the length of the film is a deterrence. Akshay Kumar has been there done that and to be fair he still has some screen presence. It is just that we have seen it time and over again. All said and endured, this Holiday is like working overtime. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 8th June 2014 

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