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JAWAAN (2023) : review

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And finally the much hyped, much awaited Jawaan saw light of the day ! Big stars, big budget( humongous budget actually), big music composer, everything super large. But does it meet the expectations of the average viewer? No it goes not. Read on.  A decorated jawan locks horns with a criminal called Kaali, this is in 1986 ( the year movies like Aakhri Raasta released, just for reference). Kaali gets him eliminated and send the pregnant wife to jail. The baby born in jail grows up to become the hero (look alike of the father) and decides to avenge the misdeeds done to his innocent patriotic parents. Well, isn’t it a masaaledaar full on Bollywood- Tollywood drama subject ?  And then the director Atlee also borrows ideas and references from various retro movies, some idea from Sholay (1975) as the hero assembled a gang of jailed Qaidis in order to form a team to nab the villain, then there’s an entire episode borrowed from Dhartiputra (1993), and the basic theme is copy pasted from Kaml
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Whatever Happened To: Farha Naaz

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Where-for art thou Farha ? Remember her ? Today best known as actress Tabu’s elder sister, during her heydays she was better known as a feisty and spitfire leading lady who never minced her words. Revisiting the daring Hyderabadi lass who was once the darling of the masses.  Introduction to Movies:  Born in 1968 Farha was raised by her mother, a single parent. With little sister Tabu (b. 1970) for company Farha grew up as a daring and bold young girl who preferred taking the bull by his horns. Her only connection with Bollywood was aunt Shabana Azmi. The filmy connection helped both sisters who debuted in the same year 1985, Farha with Yash Chopra’s Faasle and Tabu with Dev Anand’s Hum Naujawan.  A brief eventful career:  After Faasle, Farha was flooded with offers and was seen playing lead roles in movies like Love 86 (1986), Palay Khan (1986), Marte Dum Tak (1987), Ghar Ghar Ki Kahani (1988), Do Qaidi(1989), Jawani Zindabad (1990) and others. She lost out on big projects like 100 Da
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30 YEARS OF KHILADI (1992)

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Revisiting The suspense musical thriller Khiladi (1992) as it completes thirty years of its theatrical release date today.  KHILADI (1992) ~~~~rewatched  Directed by: Abbas-Mustan  Cast: Akshay Kumar, Ayesha Jhulka, Shakti Kapoor, Deepak Tijori, Johnny Lever, Dinyar Contractor, Anant Mahadevan, Harpal Singh, Sanjeev Chitre, Sabeeha, Beena Banerjee, Kunika, Guddi Maruti, Tinnu Anand, Sharat Saxena, Amrutlal Patel & Prem Chopra.   This enjoyable suspense thriller was playing on tv yesterday and it just doesn’t get old, it’s so 90s. So what worked in its favour? It had a stale storyline, an unknown lead hero, the director duo and music composer duo were non entities, so what worked? The “freshness” is what u believe.  Four young college going fun loving friends play a prank that goes awfully and fatally wrong! A murder that needs to be investigated and the real killer should be nabbed before the innocent youngsters get caught in a web of mystery. A similar storyline was used earlier,
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Gone With The Wind ? …….

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‘What went wrong’? Or rather why it went wrong, it’s not that easy to dissect and find out why some artists just fizzled out after an initial spark! Revisiting some dashing leading actors who ‘sparked’ and then vanished from the silver screen.  Prithvi was almost like an 90s Hrithik Roshan, those light eyes, a good height and he could act as well. Dil ka Kya kasoor(1992) a musical that made him a star. Followed by second lead roles in Platform(1992), Ikke Pe Ikka(1994) and then sliding lower to a junior artist in Daraar(1996) and then shifting to tv. He had it in him, but luck didn’t favour.  Avinash Wadhwan had a good personality, and acting skills as well. Movies like Aayee Milan Ki Raat (1991) and Meera Ka Mohan(1992) did well with good music, but did very little for his career. He was unceremoniously pushed into the supporting role category and soon vanished from the big screen only to surface on tv in Daddy roles.  Ravi Bahl  could dance well, Narsimha (1991) and AgniSakshi(1996
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Dhaakad- Review

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From Budapest to Bhopal you get to experience a torturous, terribly violent and eardrum shattering journey of good vs evil in Razneesh Ghai’s Hollywood inspired thriller Dhaakad!  Packed with punch, that fizzles out every now and then the story (or the lack of it) is about an agent named Agni (Ranaut) and her fight against a human trafficking mafia Don (Rampal). Dragging for over 131 minutes it’s a long and never ending boredom. Some of the scenes are stretched and dragged till you yawn, some flashbacks are so recurrent that you wanna catch hold of the director and request him to stop it right there !  It’s good to see the beautiful and unexplored city of Bhopal and some more lovely locations in Madhya Pradesh being beautifully explored in this movie. That’s the only saving grace, the lovely photography and scenic locales. The screenplay is weak, dialogues dull and storyline is a mishmash of 70s Bollywood trash combined with wannabe Lara Croft meeting kill bill.  Ghai’s direction lack
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The Sunset Nightingale: Sulakshana

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‘I asked for the Mike, I was given the mirror’  ‘If I were a boy I would’ve married LATA MANGESHKAR’  Just two of the many quotes attributed to yesteryear’s star singer Sulakshana Pandit, a former star forgotten by film lovers and her own fraternity as well.  Sulakshana was born in 1954 in the illustrious Pandit household which boasted of renowned classical vocalists like Pandit Maniram, Pandit Pratap Narayan(her father), pandit Jasraj and many others. In the mid 60s she along with her father and older brother shifted to Bombay and started singing as a child star in movies like Taqdeer(1967).  Her rose complexion and golden tresses only added to the film makers and Co singers recommending her to take up acting as an alternate career. She struck gold with the suspense thriller Uljhan(1975) her debut as a lead star opposite Sanjeev Kumar. She alternated between a singer and an actress and struggled hard to establish herself as a singing star. She appeared in films like Raaja (1975), Hera
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BHOOL BHULAIYAA 2- Review

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Priyadarshan’s sleeper hit bhool bhulaiyaa(2007) gets a poor cousin in the form of this franchise successor bhool bhulaiyaa 2 this time spearheaded by comedy king Anees Bazmee. Now Bazmee is nowhere in the league of Priyadarshan, considering his penchant for brainless comedies (some of which have become all time blockbusters) and the ‘brainlessness’ reflects in every frame of this horror- comedy!  Set very evidently in Rajasthan inorder to justify a ‘Royal’ background for the story, a lot of paranormal events start occurring in the Thakur family during the course of a wedding preparation week. Rooh Baba (Kartik Aaryan) arrives to solve the mystery which is deep rooted in the dark past of the Thakur’s.  Comedy- okayish, mystery- hollywoodish, music- pathetic. Overall is a bore drama, there are some genuinely funny moments specially the ones involving Mishra and Yadav, but Aaryan acting like a poor man’s Akshay Kumar is a big letdown. Advani looks as beautiful as 70s Dreamgirl but she ca
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