harshcalling

Casting – 4/5

Acting – 4.5/5

Story – 5/5

Screenplay – 5/5

Editing – 5/5

Cinematography – 4/5

Background Score – 4/5

Wow, finally a good thriller movie after a long time. Drishyam is a remake of the Malayalam movie by the same title. The movie is nestled in a Goan village, the kind where everyone knows one- another. The protagonist is a middle-class Goan Vijay Salgaonkar( Ajay Devgn) for whom his family's well being is paramount.

Ajay plays the role of a 5th class school-dropout who runs a local cable-service provider shop. He is a big movie-buff and spends most of his time at work looking at the motion pictures.  

Vijay has a cozy life with his wife Nandini(Shriya Saran) , elder daughter( Ishita Dutta, 'Poonam  from Ek Ghar Banaunga'  & Tanushree Dutta's sister) and younger daughter(Mrinal Jadhav).  The coziness of his family is shattered one night following an offhand chain of events.

Vijay's character development is myriad throughout the film and it compels you to think away from the extreme principles of black vs white,  right vs wrong, yin vs yang.  His strong will and steadfastness to protect his family at all costs forms the backbone of the story.

The unfateful night's chain of events leads to a massive police search headed by the stern and steely IPS Meera Deshmukh (Tabu).

Tabu's acting is top-notch in multiple interrogation  scenes throughout the movie with a distinct no-nonsense persona on display at all times.

Ishita Dutta is remarkable in her Bollywood debut with a wide palette of emotions. Mrinal Jadhav plays the role of the innocent and adorable younger daughter splendidly, generating a few interspersed audience laughs.

Rajat Kapoor has a knack for playing the upper-class, businessmen –roles and is casted perfectly as Tabu's husband. However his character is a bit monochromatic, probably due to the script.

The movie has multiple twists arousing the curiosity of the audience culminating into a superb climax.

Even though the film is 2 hours and 43 minutes long, it binds the audience to their seats till the very last scene.

I strongly recommend this film, especially to the thriller genre lovers.

P.S. The film also teaches you why watching movies can impart you with paramount life-skills. So, definitely a connect with the movie buffs :)

'Guddu Rangeela' showcases  the falsified concept of honour ingrained within the minds of the Khap Panchayat and has sprinkles of humour throughout the 2 hours. It covers multiple genres – Action, Social Message, Suspense, Comedy and Drama.

Guddu and Rangeela work as orchestra members for weddings  who also make a secondary living as informants of thieves(They provide a money estimate of the wedding-homes they play at and the exact time to carry out the theft).

How they get embroiled in a kidnapping of a girl? How they become enemies with a local goon politician who acts like an adviser to the Khap Panchayats ?  And finally, how they take revenge and fight with the goon politician and his aides ?

These are the questions that the audience finds the answer to as the movie progresses.

20 mins. into the movie and I was blown away by the background score during the action scenes. Very few Indian movies use creative and innovative rock music for their action scenes and this movie is one of them. Being a rock-music lover and a guitarist, I was simply absorbed by the music and my expectation from this movie grew a bit.

The dialogues are probably the most important ingredient in this non-Khans/non-Kapoors small starrer movie. The non-Hindi viewers (watching through subtitles) will probably not be able to relish the movie due to non-comprehension of the original Hindi dialogues.

I liked almost all the characters in this movie but my favorite has to be Ronit Roy who plays the goon-politician. You can actually feel his terror and the cold-heartedness throughout the film.

The camera-work ranges between good to excellent and there are a couple of beautiful close shots. The screenplay is interesting and keeps the suspense part of the movie alive.

 

It was only in the last 15-20 mins. that I got disappointed with the director. At the end, the movie reeks of the masala Hindi movie action scenes where the logic goes out of the box.

 

In a nutshell, I applaud the intentions of the filmmakers to create a film which tries to convey a social message through drizzles of humour and without sounding too-preachy. This movie should reach out to a wider audience, especially those who don't wish to view out-and- out serious movies with low entertainment/leisure content.

 

The Friday evening show had only about 30 people in the cinema hall. I am guessing that the box office will pick up the collections from Saturday night when the people will get to know about 'Guddu Rangeela' from their friends/family/colleagues/ acquaintances.

As the usual Pixar movies, there is a small animation film 'Lava' before the main 'Inside Out' movie.

Lava is a nice mix of emotions + comedy and gets the 'joy' emotion in the driver's seat of your brain.

The movie is mainly about a young 11 year old girl and the different(joy, anger, fear, sadness etc.) emotions in her mind working together to keep herself going.

The 1st half is wonderful and will keep you thinking about how human mind and emotions work.

The starting part of 2nd half(10-15 mins.) felt a bit elongated and could be shortened.

Nevertheless, I myself went through all the animated emotions felt by the protagonist on the screen.

I was surprised that the PVR cinema had only 8 occupants on a Friday evening.

Out of 8, 5 people left the hall before the ending credits. Guys, there are some rib- tickling moments through the ending credits so just sit for 5 more mins. instead of rushing out.

I would keep this animation movie below Ratatouille which is my favorite Pixar movie. Anyways, it is always difficult to rate among the Pixar movies.

In a nutshell, go out this weekend and watch this gem of a roller-coaster people.

It is fun for children and adults alike.