Zila Ghaziabad

As a full length review of ZILA GHAZIABAD, I really don't have much to say in details since it just reminds you the unexplainable, silly or over the top kind of commercial cinema we used to make in the forgettable 80s. Still, here is a brief description of its few scenes which would clearly give you an idea of what I am referring to here.

The film begins with a completely filmy entry of our negative hero Arshad Warsi (by stopping a speeding train), who straight away starts singing and dancing with his goons after getting back to his hometown Ghaziabad. Within next 30 minutes you have 3 songs including an item number with all seen before sequences dealing with rival gangs, corrupt politicians, a love affair and the betraying insiders.

As our positive hero, we are introduced to Vivek Oberoi, who is a teacher in the local school and is fondly called Master Ji. Now this teacher has pierced ears with silver rings and shows no hesitation to drink or dance with an item girl, shooting fearlessly in the air from a rifle in his hand.

Just before the interval we have Sanjay Dutt entering the scene as another famous police officer who is even considered dangerous and incontrollable by the Commissioner of Police himself. Now since he is a big star too so here also we get to see the whole Police force beating drums, singing and dancing with Sanjay Dutt in the middle in full uniform on a song sung by Sukhwinder quite close to the title songs of OMKARA and DABANGG. It this is not enough then we have another sequence post intermission, where Sanjay Dutt enters in the villain's den alone where there is a meeting in progress attended by all the wanted persons in the area. And what Sanjay Dutt does there? He simply calls Shreya Saran, the item girl and starts singing a song right in front of those criminals like a paid bar-dancer himself.

However despite of all these weird and unthinkable kind of sequences mentioned above, I would like to call ZILA GHAZIABAD as "A Completely Professional Film" in all respects since the producer-director have purely made it to run in the smaller centers (at the single screen theaters), for a specific kind of audience and the entire cast has acted in this movie just as one of their professional assignments to earn money and nothing else. Because what else can be the reason for talented actors such as Sanjay Dutt, Paresh Rawal, Arshad Warsi, Vivek Oberoi, Ashutosh Rana, Divya Dutta, Ravi Kissen, Zarina Wahab, Minissha Lamba, Chandrachur Singh and Sunil Grover to sign this film reading its outdated script with such questionable execution & an entirely repeated storyline in terms of content.

On a concluding note, the area of GHAZIABAD today is not at all like what they have portrayed it on the screen and there can be only one reason you can watch the film in your spare time. And that is if you are a die-hard fan of Arshad Warsi and cannot afford to miss even a single film featuring him in the lead.

Score 2/10 Makers had the formula of a success full mass film. They stuffed some gore action, a love track without love and a lovemaking scene but unfortunately they forgot the importance of emotions. They tried to put it but it remained on paper and in mind only. Director, Mr. Anand Kumar is very confused. Story, screenplay and dialogues deserve to be not mentioned. This film is full of illogical incidents. A school teacher suddenly converts into a typical hard core goon and sometimes also behaves like he has heart of gold. They presented Zila Ghaziabad like it is some Chambal type of place. No law and order but still a Daroga can do wonder. A don, who doesn't mind to snatch Rifle from Police Constables is scared of a Daroga. In such type of criminal ruled district, there is working Panchayat. A teacher speaks in fluent English so Panch, get convinced by his logic. Director confusion clearly visible through all artists performance. All actors performance is jerky. Their are lot of actors but no one is able to leave their mark. Action sequence by Kanal Kannan is OK. In climax, especially fight between Vivek Obroi and Arshad Warsi is fine. Musically two tracks , one title track Zila Ghaziabad and Apne Baap Ka Na Samjho Maal are good. The later one could have been more impressive if there were no male voices inside it.

The film overall had a good storyline. Vivek snatches his role as always and Arshad comes as a good villain here... But what I felt a lot is it's inspired from the epic gangster films "Gangs of Wasseypur- 1,2" by Anurag Kashyap... the idea of this gang wars and the betrayals etc.

Which makes sense also since GOW 1,2 released in 2012 and Zila Ghaziabad a year later. Good acting skills though.

I normally don't go to cinema halls to watch Hindi movies because leaving the very few ones I think they are heavily plagiarized either from other regional languages or from movies all over the world. Well, today me and my friend went to see "kai po che" because Chetan Bhagat is one of my favorite author and this movie is adapted from his novel. But we didn't get a ticket so we went to see "ZILA GHAZIABAD". After watching 5 mins of the movie I realized why Indian movies don't get nominated for Oscars. This movie has a cast which any director may dream of.. I mean Vivek Oberoi, Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Paresh Rawal, Asutosh Rana,etc etc.. either the Director is a new one and has simply followed the styles of other movies or the actors are desperately in need for some money. It lacked acting, direction, editing everything.

What hurts me is that the audiences was cheering the Ludicrously odd action scenes which can only be possible if the hero is "Superman". Same cliché, songs, dance, dialogues. Sitting there I can tell what will come next after a particular scene!!!

So when will Indian movies be ready for Oscars? Movies like Barfi (I haven't seen it yet) failed to even nominated for Oscars. So what is the meaning if we produce more than 1000 movies each year and not even a single movie get nominated for Oscars!!.

When will this change? It's the Indian audiences who can change this thing. If they are not ready to change their thoughts, ideas or perspectives, India don't stand any chance at Oscars.

My rating 2/10.

The most ridiculous scenes in this movie are people from an uncivilized panchayat wearing branded sunglasses and talking fluent English. And what I loved about it is Paresh Rawal, Ravi Kishan & Vivek Oberoi with his charming style (after Jayantabhai debacle) and Arshad Warsi. Sanjay Dutt imitates Salman Khan of Dabangg and is a total waste. Minnisha Lamba is useless but Divya Dutta is good enough.

The script is exponential just like in mathematics and plot points are assumed. There are no proofs for the screen-playing events while the theorem is poorly executed. The lead role-players are like superheroes who can defy gravity anytime & anywhere. Director has wasted all his resources. I think he was in dire need of giving us this crap that he totally lost it. The same dialogs, the same item numbers (there are 2), the same narrow deep cleavages, the same unexposed love-making, same songs for every lead actor and finally, a predictable story... well ZG is not a shocker but it could be considered as one of the disastrous movies of 2013.

BOTTOM LINE: Zila Ghaziabad is such a movie, which if not made, would not have made any difference. Go watch Kai Po Che! It is much better than this!

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? 80% YES

Language: Strong | Sex: Mild | Violence & Gore: Critical | Foreplay: Critical | Alcohol, Smoking & Drugs: Mediocre | Nudity: Mediocre