Anek - (2/5) - {Hindi}

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Madaari - [ Thriller / Drama ] - (3/5)

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Madaari - 

Madaari is thriller directed by Nishikant Kamat, it's a story about a grieving father Nirmal Kumar (Irrfan Khan) who lost his son in tragedy which is caused by negligence of government.

In terms of taking his revenge from system he kidnaps the son of home minister Prashant Goswami (Tushar Dalvi) and ask the Home Minister to use all his power to find out the tragedy in which Nirmal had lost his son and bring the culprit to justice in front of world.
Prashant hires Nachiket Verma (Jimmy Shergill) who is Jt. Director of CBI to use entire government machinery and catch Nirmal Kumar.

Nirmal being a smart and techie guy smartly plans the kidnaps and always on move which makes impossible for entire government machinery to nab him. He smartly makes his demand heard and also uses social media to spread the message why he is doing that and gets public sympathy.

The movie plays around on apathy a common indian goes through from our corrupt insensitive systems and shows what happens when same thing happens to powerful people like a home minister. It will give you kind of feeling of "Wednesday" kind of movie.

Nishikant Kamat has delivered good movies in past and try his best here however after a point movies looks very predictable and looses it's thriller flavor. Irrfan Khan has done superb performance and overall the movie is a decent watch.

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Manjhi : The Mountain Man - [ Drama ] - (5/5)

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Manjhi : The Mountain Man - Ain't no mountain high enough

Manjhi - The Mountain Man is a true story about Dashrath Manjhi, a low caste poor labourer who alone carved a path through a mountain using only a hammer and chisel. The movie goes back and forth in times through 1960s and 1970s about a life of Dashrath Manjhi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a poor labourer from small village Gehlaur, Bihar which is situated near small town Wazirganj across huge rock mountain hill. The villagers had to either climb across mountain hill or travel around to gain access to Wazirganj town for essentials and basic medical care. 

The movie start showcasing caste disparity in Gehlaur where land owner Mukhiya (Tigmanshu Dhulia) exploits lower caste villagers by making them his lifetime bonded labour. Dashrath refuse to be bonded labour and flees from his village during his teens and he returns back when he is all grown up. As per tradition he got married in his childhood and when returns meet his wife from child marriage Phaguniya (Radhika Apte). He loves Phaguniya passionately and was trying to make his own small world within the village till the time Phaguniya fell down from mountain and dies. Phaguniya's death and his inability to take her to closest medical aid in Wazirganj in time motivates Dashrath to break mountain and carve a path through it. Dashrath is being ridiculed by Villagers and his own father but his determination to see hope and dream to have a road through solid rock mountain hills makes impossible things possible.

The main character of the movie Dashrath is a small guy but has persona of larger than life. At one side it reflects real issues our country faces in villages especially for poors and low caste population and at the same time it shows strong human spirit to overcome such challenges. Ketan Mehta's direction is perfect with amazing cinematography and great dialog writing. The narrative sequence is done well to explain the story. Above all, this movie completely belongs to Nawazuddin Siddiqui with his great performance where he pulled the entire movie on his lone shoulder. He is perfect in each frame and you will be delighted with his performance.

I am giving this movie 5 star for it's attempt to put such a great story and irony of our country when even after 22 years of Dashrath's struggle it took indian government 30 years to build real road there. Its a story about triumph of Indian Spirit and Failure of our political system which is still nearly at same state.

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Drishyam - [ Thriller ] - (4.5/5)

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Drishyam - Family is everything

Drishyam is a crime thriller directed by Nishikant Kamat and also a remake of Malyalam movie with the same name. Its a story about Vijay Salgaonkar (Ajay Devgun) who is a mediocre middle class man who runs a cable TV network in a remote hilly village in Pandolim, Goa. Vijay is 4th grade drop out who has worked towards the success with his hard work and sharp intelligence which he developed by watching several movies in his cable TV office. Vijay lives a happy simple life with his wife Nandhani (Shriya Saran) and two daughters until his family through some uncalled bizarre incidence get involved in missing of a teenager guy Sam who turns out to be son Goa State Inspector General Meera (Tabu) and Rajat Kapoor.

Meera is powerful no-nonsense tough cop who tries to get information from Vijay and his family about her son's whereabouts by putting entire Goa Police machinery. The movie runs with twists & turns of Meera's investigation and Vijay's perfect tactics to protect his family.

Drishyam keeps you on the edge at every moment the way story progresses. It grips through out plot and put you in moral as well as legal dilemma of right or wrong and on how much extent one can go to protect their family. The main highlight of movie is it's amazing storyline along with perfect direction. Ajay Devgun convinces us as simple middle class man who shows the strength of his character with his fabulous performance and Tabu steals the show the way she handles her role as a tough cop at one hand and as helpless mother in another. 

No wonder this movie got the rave reviews  in it's Malayam, Tamil and as well as Telugu version. Go for it, it's a great thriller movie came out after a long time.

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Detective Byomkesh Bakshy - [ Drama / Thriller ] - (4/5)

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Detective Byomkesh Bakshy - A Spy Next Door

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is a period crime thriller directed by Dibakar Banerjee setup in Kolkata during World War II era. The film is based on famous fictional detective Byomkesh Bakshy created by Bengali writer Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay. The film is setup in British era where there is gang wars going on between Chinese and Japanese to own Kolkata and to make it as their center of operation during World War II. Ajit (Anand Tiwar) is a student who approaches Byomkesh Bakshy (Sushant Singh Rajput) to find his missing dad who was gold medalist Chemist. Byomkesh suggests he may get killed because of some dodgy business and while solving his murder  mystery he realises  that Ajit's father Bhuvan was small pawn in the bigger plan of attack to Kolkata by Japanese army and he works out the plan to stop that attack and save Kolkata.

It's an excellent film and like any good detective movie it grips you as the time passes by it becomes more interesting and with the perfect climax. Dibakar Banerjee once again excelled in his work on putting every characters and plot in perfectly and engaging manner. It has brilliant Cinematography and also the detailing it gone to show Kolkata of 1942 is make you travel  back in time. Sushant Singh Rajput carries the lead role with perfection and so does each characters and yes the one which takes away as a best performer is Neeraj Kabi who played Dr. Ankul Guha. I am proud that Neeraj is another artiste who hails from my city Jamshedpur and if you would have seen Ship of Theseus, he is the guy who played the Jain monk.

This is a must watch movie.

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Dum Laga Ke Haisha - [ Romantic Drama ] - (5/5)

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Dum Laga Ke Haisha - Big is beautiful

Dum Laga Ke Haisha (DLKH) is romantic drama setup in Haridwar city where Prem (Ayushmann Khurana) lives a mediocre life as cassette shop owner. He is a school drop out and his family arranges his marriage without his consent to an educated however over weight girl Sandhya (Bhumi Pednekar) assuming she can help family by doing some job. Prem never liked Sandhya because she was fat and try to ignore her and finally insults her among his friend in one of social function. Sandhya being an educated girl leaves him and files for divorce where court asks the couple to spend 6 months together to see if they can work it out. In the backdrop to save Prem's business from competition he was challenged to participate in race contest called DKLH where husband carries his wife on his back. The movie is about how they build their relationship from pieces which gets concluded in DKLH contest.

The movie is a master piece in terms of screenplay and the characterisation of each cast. The writer and director took bold attempt to break the cliche and brought the real life situation which happens in actual events across India. It celebrates the simplicity of love & relationships and also represent that how stereotyping personalities affects our lives. Ayushmann and Bhumi was superb in their performance which was also supported by entire supporting casts of movie in perfect manner and finally Sharat Katariya direction is just flawless.

It's a great fun and simply the best movies of 2015 so far, go for it. 

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Badlapur - [ Crime Thriller ] - (3/5)

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Badlapur - The Life Long Revenge

Badlapur is hindi crime thriller directed by Sriram Raghvan, a movie about Raghav (Varun Dhavan) who is spend entire life to take revenge from Liak (Nawazuddin Siddiqui).

Liak and Harman (Vinay Pathak) robs a bank and take Misha (Yami Gautam) and her child as hostage and they killed by Liak while they were trying to escape. Liak asks Harman to escape money and get himself arrested and Misha happens to be wife of Raghav who is shattered with death of his wife and son. Liak try to convince police that it was Harman who shot them but doesn't disclose Harman's identity and get life sentence for his crime whereas Raghav is living a mediocre life in Badlapur in hope to get details about Harman's from Liak and get his revenge. Liak is been diagnosed with Stomach cancer in jail and an NGO worker Shobha (Divya Dutta) convinces Raghav to give him mercy release on medical ground. Raghav agrees to release him when he learns about Harman's whereabout through Liak's mother. The movie is about Raghav's revenge and how the revenge bring the evilness in human being.

Well this is an amazing story line however I am not happy the way it is being presented. After making movies like Ek Haseena Thi and Johnny Gaddar, Sriram Raghavan is known to make a movie which keeps you interested through out and at the edge of your seat till the end, however Badlapur is a bit dull and dragged you wish the movvie to end quickly. The casting were amazing especially Nawazuddin and Huma Qureshi however Varun Dhawan was far from convincing as per his character, I think people are appreciating him only because of craps he done in past or he is surrounded by superb talents like Nawazuddin, Huma, Vinay and Divya. Nawazuddin was great delight and only reason I am giving three star to this movie. It's an average movie which could have been really made much better.

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Finding Fanny - [ Comedy / Drama ] - (4/5)

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Finding Fanny: Finding Everything

Finding Fanny is movie about a small village "Pocolim" in Goa where a retired post master "Ferdie" played by Naseeruddin Shah, get's a 46 year old letter back which he has written to his first love Fanny and realised the letter was never ever delivered. Angie a young widow played by Deepika who stays with her mother-in-law Rosie played by Dimple Kapadia who is like first lady of pocolim. Angie takes help of Savio played by Arjun Kapoor who was having romantic interest in Angie to go for a road trip to find Fanny. Finally all of them go for road trip in Don Pedro's (played by Pankaj Kapur) car, a painter who is obsessed by Rosie and wish to make her portrait.

The best part of movie is it's characterisation and the way they build up the story and revealing aspects of their life. It's full with amazing dialogs and laugh riots and superb performances by all the actors. It reveals various aspects of life in simplistic manner.

This is a director's movie and all credit goes to Homi Adajania who has managed to put this story in such a beautiful way. This is not regular run of mill movie, go for it if you enjoy off beat comedy and good cinema.

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Fimistaan - [Comedy] - (5/5)

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Filmistaan - The entertainment knows no boundaries

Fimistaan is a movie about a great bollywood buff, Sunny played by Sharib Hashmi who is living in dream city mumbai as a struggler to make it big in bollywood. He is great entertainer with a passion to become a film star and always mimic hindi movies scenes in his real life. To earn some money he joins american documentary movie crew as assistant director which is been shot at India Pakistan border in Rajasthan where he gets mistakenly kidnapped by pakistani terrorists. The movie is about his survival at small village in pakistan border and passion that both country shares for indian films. He becomes friend of Aftaab played by Inaamulhaq who sells pirated movie and also a great bollywood buff and they plan escape together. 

The movie has amazing screenplay and superb direction by Nitin Kakkar. It has real funny and touchy moments which shows how much bollywood is there in our like. Sharib Hashmi and Inaamulhaq has given brilliant performance. It shows the entertainment & nature of people are same and cut across any borders and political situation. It is a great tribute to indian films and also one of the great movie on friendship between Sunny and Aftaab.

The movie has already won lots of international awards and also won National Award For Best Feature Film. Do not miss such excellent movie.

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Englsih Vinglish [Comdey / Drama] (5/5)

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English Vinglish : Language no bar

Every film stands for an idea, a notion, a story, a thought; something that filmmaker wants to tell the audience. How faithful the film sticks to this idea - in it's language, and through it's duration - is a measure of how good and how successful the film is. English Vinglish has a very simple premise. A housewife founds herself inferior to her more educated husbands and kids, her self esteem in direct proportion to her knowledge in English. Without their knowledge, she masters the language, and in the process discovers she is equal to all and inferior to none. That's the story. Nothing Less, nothing more.

The character played by Sridevi is awesomely written and focus on main theme- it never makes it dramatic nor boring. Even at the climax as an audience you will feel that she must vent out and shock people but again she handles it with humility and sweetness. It's a great movie straight away made with honesty by Gauri Shinde and what a comeback of Sridevi. 

Just loved it.

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Ishaqzaade : [Action/Drama] (3.5/5)

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Ishaqzaade: A Bloody Romance

Ishaqzaade is debut movie of Arjun Kapoor & Parineeti Chopra setup in backdrop of small town Almore, UP where two belongs to political rival of hindu & muslim. They both hated each other to their guts and literally wanted to kill each other. Setup in background of election season where both trying to outdo each other, Parma (played by Arjun) tell Zoya (played by Parineeti) that he loves her and win her heart and finally get married. Then movie takes a twist and turn to depict political interest and battle between two religion against the idea of hindu-muslim marriage.

The movie is fast paced and the new comers has done impressive job to keep the story fresh and interesting. The cinematography, picturesque, dialogs are very real and represent the entire story amicably. 

Good direction debut by Habib Faisal, superb background score by Ranjit Barot and excellent music by Amit Trivedi. On top of the that a very experimental climax.

An overall good watch. And yeah also the best part of movie was exclusive trailer of "Ek Tha Tiger"

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