Badmash Company (H) - Review

Review Coming Soon...

Rating:

1/5

Hot Tub Time Machine (E) - Review

Review Coming Soon...

Rating:

3/5

Raavan (H) - Music Review

'Raavan', directed by the veteran director Mani Ratnam who already has many successes in his list. This time he teams up with his very popular hit 'Guru' couple Abhi-Ash. The movie stars Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Vikram, Priyamani, Govinda and many more south Indian as well as north Indian cast.

The music is composed by the Academy Award winner A.R.Rahman who has already composed for Mani Ratnam in many of his previous movies.

The track list of Raavan :

Beera - Vijay Prakash, Mustafa Kutoane, Keerthi Sagathia

Behene De - Karthik, Mohammed Irfan

Kata Kata - Ila Arun, Sapna Awasthi, Kunal Ganjawalla

Khili Re - Reene Bharadwaj

Ranjha Ranjha - Rekha Bharadwaj, Javed Ali, Anuradha Sriram

Thok Di Killi – Sukhwinder Singh, Am’nico

No doubt A.R.Rahman has proved to be one of the best music composers in the world, but a few tracks of Raavan do disappoint.

Beera is a mix of various musics which we find in all Mani Ratnam movies. It doesn’t live up to the expectations of an A.R.Rahman song. It gives you a feeling of hearing to the same old Rahman song.

But Behene De steals everyone’s heart with its mild and pleasant music. You start humming it once you listen to it.

Kata Kata is one more track with the traditional A.R.Rahman way of composing. It does impress and gives us a small idea about the movie.

Khili Re comes as a surprise for A.R.Rahman’s fans as it is not only away from Rahman’s usual music but also a different type of song never before heard in Mani Ratnam’s movies.

Ranjha Ranjha is one more beautiful track which just steals your heart and goes over you like a cool breeze.

Thok Di Killi is one song which is of the style that works only for Mani – Rahman combo. It is quite impressive and is full of power.

Overall ‘Raavan’ is a fair collection with majority songs enjoyable though some tracks disappoint.

Housefull (H) - Review

‘Housefull’…yet another comedy from comedy ka khiladi Akshay Kumar!

Housefull doesn’t live up to the expectations, just like Akshay’s last few movies. The ‘Heyy Babyy’ team is back but fails to recreate the magic! Housefull is infact yet another bad comedy with only some good scenes. The movie starts with the song ‘He’s such a Loser’ and ends with ‘He’s not a Loser’. This itself gives us an idea of the story! It’s a story of an unlucky boy who sets up right his complicated life!

Synopsis :

The movie starts off in London – England with a casino owner, who’s casino is in a position of loosing all its wealth and facing losses, calling a ‘cooler’. Cooler is a person who makes the casino win and the customers lose. And here, the cooler is our very own Aarush(Akshay). And no…he is not a khiladi who wins against the customers, but a panauti who makes the customers lose, as he passes by them. And a song in the background ‘He’s such a Loser’. No prizes for guessing…yes, he is a poor unlucky guy who loses whatever he loves, even his long time girlfriend Pooja(Malaika Arora Khan) to whom he proposes marriage. And then come a couple of scenes to show how unlucky he is.

He gets fed up of this unlucky life in London and decides to go to his best friend Bob(Riteish) who is the only person for whom Aarush is lucky. Bob and his wife Hetal(Lara Dutta) work in their boss(Randhir Kapoor)’s casino. And as expected, Hetal starts hating Aarush as he makes a mess of her house and kills her very sweet and lovely pet parrot. But good friend Bob explains her about him and settles the matter. They become a good family with Aarush presenting them a tiger…yes, tiger as compensation for the loss of Hetal’s lovely parrot.

Then Bob and Hetal get Aarush married to their boss’ daughter Devika(Jiah Khan) who pretends to be a traditional Indian girl just like what Arush wants. They get married and sail to Italy for their honeymoon. Here enters the hotel owner Aakhri Pasta(Chunkey Pandey) who is ready to do anything for his hotel’s publicity. He promises some good laughs. And then there’s a twist in the tale with Devika eloping with her boyfriend and leaving Aarush in pain and fix. Aarush gets depressed and decides to suicide who is saved by Sandy(Deepika Padukone). A joke by Aakhri Pasta makes Sandy like Aarush and loves him after he gets a rare flower for her by walking on fire and even fights with a monkey!!!

Then enters Hetal’s estranged father, papa Batuk Patel(Boman Irani) who is angry on her daughter who goes to London for studies and marries Bob. With the traditional Indian bonding, Hetal manages to make papa talk to her by lying that his son in law is a billionaire and they live in a big palace like bunglaw. Same happens when Anna Major Krishna Rao(Arjun Rampal) who is a strict Indian major, calls chinna, his sister, that’s Sandy (it’s a telugu brother-sister family) and she tells him about her love Aarush and lies to him that Aarush is also a billionaire.

The rest of the story can be predicted. With both papa and anna coming to meet their daamaad and bro-in-law respectively. Adding to this, there is one more lie by Hetal who says her papa that she has a baby too. This is just to reduce papa’s anger as Sandy says “jis jhooth se ghar banta hai woh jhooth jhooth nahi hoti”. Then hiring a bunglaw and a baby followed by confusion and complication.

Then there’s a big confusion in the house as to who is who of who and a few rib tickling scenes. The movie ends in the Buckingham Palace where laughing gas(Nitrous Oxide) is spread instead of coolant, by Santa-Banta (Sardar brothers). Finally everyone in the palace ends laughing, including the queen! But no one in the theatre laughs for it. Wish the laughing gas was spread in the theatre, atleast a few would have laughed!

Cast :

Akshay Kumar – Akshay who has his hopes pinned on this movie as some of his recent outings bombed at the box office,fails again. Same old Akshay with the same old expressions. Nothing new..nothing interesting.

Ritiesh Deshmukh – Impresses in a few scenes with his excellent comic timing.

Lara Dutta – It is clearly evident that Lara Dutta is improving with every movie. Beautiful expressions and wonderful dialogue delivery.

Deepika Padukone – Good. That is the only word which suits her performance. She is always good.

Jiah Khan – Small role but is upto the mark.

Arjun Rampal – He rocks as the strict Indian major and a serious brother.

Chunkey Pandey – Awesome. He is the only actor in the movie who makes you go laughing with his excellent Italian accent.

Boman Irani - Fails to impress.

Randhir Kapoor – No one can beat him when it comes to acting. An experienced actor will always do a good job.

Crew :

Sajid Khan (Director) – Direction is what went wrong with the movie. The director attempts to give a comic touch for each and every scene, but fails. Only a few scenes make you laugh whole heartedly. Nothing good when compared to ‘Heyy Babyy’

Sajid Nadiadwala (Producer) – The movie is high on it’s production values with almost the whole movie shot in foreign locations.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (Music) – The tracklist of Housefull contains all elements of music. While ‘Aapka Kya Hoga(Dhanno)’ a remix of the old ‘Laawaaris’ song is rocking, ‘Oh girl, you’re mine’ gets you grooving. ‘Papa jag jaayega’ is humourous as well as enjoyable and ‘I dunno wat to do’ is quite good. Only ‘He’s such a loser’ disappoints a little.

Conclusion :

A senseless comedy with a few really sense full and funny scenes. Can be enjoyed but not as much as Akshay’s previous comedies. Watch it only if you want some weekend timepass.

Rating:

2.5/5

Ullasa Utsaha (K) - Review

The expectations from 'Golden Star' Ganesh have increased after his home production 'Maleyali Jotheyali' did a handsome business at the box office. And 'Ullasa Utsaha' surely lives up to the expectations. It seems to be the come back time for the 'Golden Star'!

Ullasa Utsaha is a blend of humour & love mixed in proper proportions. The first half is a laugh riot with comic scenes which tickle your funny bone with Preetham(Ganesh) and his gang trying to woo Mahalakshmi(Yami Gautam) with whom Preetham falls in love at first sight! The second half shows us how the hero tries to get the heroine's love who already is in love with her childhood 'friend' Balaji.

Synopsis :

Ullasa Utsaha starts of with a black and white play of the childhood scenes of Balaji and Mahalakshmi. Like in many movies, even here the best friends are split when Balaji's father is transferred to some other place.

Then its present...n the intro of Preetham is highly enjoyable! This is followed by the intro of Mahalakshmi who is a guest to her friend in that locality. Preetham is in love at first sight with Mahalakshmi. This is followed by his playful attempts to win her love which all goes in vain when she tells him about her childhood love Balaji. Then comes the second half which is a mixture of twists and twirls with some unknown person trying to cheat her as Balaji, then an attack on the hero by a smuggler and heroine realising that Balaji was just a friend and that was not love and the one she is in love with is Preetham etc.

Performances :

The movie is wholly a visual treat with actirs performing their roles with high respect and command.

Ganesh shines throughout the movie including the fights which ho was not that good in his previous outings. With his comic timing, he surely makes the audience go laughing till the last minute of the movie.

Ganesh steals the show!!

Yami Gautam shows a decent performance. Not upto the mark but good as for a new comer.

Rangayana Raghu is excellent in the role of hero's garage owner father who always keeps shouting at his son.

Sadhu Kokila, though appears only for a short time, entertains fully with his expressions.

Sharan, also with a small role, has done a good job.

Preetham's gang of friends are the cool guys who ensure laughs in the theatre with their excellent timing and dialogue delivery.

Crew :

Devaraj Palan(Director): It's the direction which makes such movies look impressive. And Devaraj Palan gets full marks for it. Though a remke, he has given it a Kannada look with impressive locations and humourous dialogues.

BP Tyagaraju(Producer): The movie is upto the mark in its production values.Though not a rich movie, it has a feel good look.

GV Prakash Kumar(Music): The music gets people grooving for sure. The director has taken a clever step by roping in the same music director who had composed for the Telugu version(Ullasanga Utsahanga). With all the tracks being same as Telugu except for 'Chalisuva Cheluve' which the audience would humm even after going home, the music director proves to be a talented person.

Overall :

A feel good film which looks like happening in your own locality...with a bunch of guys helping their leader to get his love and the girl refusing. An old line...but a new style!

Enjoyable (Not as much as the telugu version).

A perfect family watch..enojoyable by the whole family like a weekend outing!

Ullasa Utsaha surely drenches you in 'the rain of joy'!

Rating :

3/5