Noor

Noor is Sonakshi Sinha's most confident movie till date. Her character Noor Roy Chaudhary is believable as an irresponsible journalist who messes up her first big chance of foraying into 'real journalism' only to make the most of her second one. The first-person narration does get to you at times. Actors Kanan Gill and Manish Chaudhary provide great support to Noor. Director Sunhil Sippy knows his city well and he makes the most of it by letting his camera  more around freely. The writing is laidback but funny and so is the screenplay which takes ample time to unravel. You feel as if you have seen everything but nothing. Overall, a nice movie with some really fine performances.

Journalism can be an evil activity as long as you know when it is the right time to expose somebody. So basically this is true story based movie but with a different name and city.

Honestly, the trailer did put some interest to my excitement for this film making me think that this could be the comeback for Sonakshi Sinha. But when I saw this, I felt like y expectations just went down the drain.

So the movie focuses on a broadcast journalist named Noor Roy Choudhury who lives a cringe- worthy life that involves being overweight, expecting some bad luck when it involves work such as getting to an interview with Sunny Leone who makes an appearance in the film all soaked by the Mumbai rain, and getting reprimands from her boss which in addition includes having a broken geyser in her house and pressuring her maid to fix it. Basically when Noor tries to expose a piece of news, it becomes a war for Mumbai that results in the death of her Maid's brother who was the victim in the exposure of the news resulted by her photographic boyfriend named Ayaan that she got duped by. Basically what Noor does to fix this matter and to try hard to expose the doctor involved in the maid's brother's departure is basically what this film is about.

I'll put the positive differences aside but this movie is quite frankly a drag like the informational factors in this movie are as low as if Anubhav Sinha or as if the director of Roy was making this.

The writing elements are terrible like clearly this was supposed to be a movie about a journalistic hero but this movie really tried hard. The humor in this movie was rather sluggish and really didn't fit the part for this movie. The dialogues in the movie are cheesy with such one-liners like I hate my life or becoming daily savitri to tedhi savitri.

The acting in this movie was average at best. I am almost thinking that every film Sonakshi is doing involves scripts that could just put her career down the drain. She is not a bad actress but her roles like these will just familiarize yourself on already seeing her previous film roles like Lootera or Dabangg which means that she just couldn't really leave her comfort zone.

Kaman Gill (not the one from Phillauri) did make me laugh when I saw his comedy stand ups on Youtube but his acting in the movie was something I didn't like seeing especially when it came to his dialogues.

Purab Kohli in my opinion gave a performance that was slightly better than what he did in Rock On 2 but he was okay which did give me the enjoyment.

Shibani Dandekar is rarely an actress and more than a money maker and that is what she did for her part as Zara Patel.

The music is highly average at best. Gulabi 2.0 is a decent soundtrack but Uff Yeh Noor is too crass and something you shouldn't include in your loop listening playlist.

The direction and cinematography in the movie is a saving grace especially the editing which makes the film very well paced and very creative. Good job Keiko Nakahara who also did commendable work for Mary Kom.

Overall, this was one movie I really couldn't stand based on its horrible writing and average acting but the good cinematography and music saved it but no one is really going to spend 35 AED just to watch it for these 2 positives. Poor is worth watching but on a T.V broadcast but for more-goers a one-time watch can be counted if you want to learn cinematography and music composition only for Gulabi 2.0.

2.5/5- Journalism is a dogs house.

A below average movie with no big content, but seems like its based on a real story, but nothing me tionable here.

My sisters dragged me to watch this movie. Needless to say, this movie is extremely painful. It's a pathetic attempt at being a movie and jumbles between genres with over the top dialogues that fall flat every time.

It starts off with narration. And within the first 10 minutes, the lead/narrator admits that she has a habit of speaking/talking a lot. And as a matter of fact. SHE DOES. Her painful expositions and talks to herself as an attempt to narrate is annoying at best, and fever- inducing at worst. She keeps it up for a good half an hour before pausing to take breaks. Guess she was tired of all the talking.

The light-hearted jokes that are meant to amuse make you roll your eyes. You do get a few smiles here and there and that's it.

She and her friends bask in a glory of binge drinking at seemingly expensive clubs and bars more than a few times. She owns an iPhone (seemingly the latest model around the time the movie was shot) and a MacBook (possibly Air?) And her dad owns a fat cat. Still, she manages to pity herself for being "poor".

She keeps putting herself down and has an extremely low image of herself. Right from the start. And considers herself to be "FAT", even though every time she weighs herself it comes out to be 65 KGs, which, according to me, is NOWHERE near fat. I mean, any lesser pounds, and on her body, she'd look malnourished/underweight. But for some reason, the writers never failed to make note of her "fat" body for the entire duration of the movie.

Despite having a low opinion of herself throughout the movie, her best friend seems to be completely sure of the fact that she is not being herself when she puts herself down for what she did and feels guilty for the same (I'm not going to "spoil" it) Even the characters are confused about themselves and each other. How brilliant.

Put in a little bit of romance, after the supposed comedy drama bits, and you've got a love story. Then there's the heartbreaks, and the "oh so unexpected, and tragic" betrayals, and a big fat case of corruption and the movie reaches the interval.

Yes, it tumbles through genres and stumbles on its way to the mid- point. It was the second day of the release of this crap fest, and only 10-20 percent of the people showed up to watch it. After the interval, the number reduced to less than half the original.

I stayed throughout, and kept blabbing various sarcasms and witty one- liners to myself and one of my sisters to try to make it bearable. It really helped. It's what I do when I'm forced to sit with my mother when she is watching any daytime soap. And honestly, it DOES help.

My favorite part was when the movie ended, because that meant I could stop yawning and ACTUALLY go home and sleep on a proper bed.

My rating? 2/10

The only point I'm giving is for the attempt, because COME ON, even if it's a crap fest, people worked to make this. And anyway, some of the shots were REALLY beautiful. So cinematography was good, I must say.

(I always look for silver linings!)

So, my advice? AVOID THIS ONE AT ALL COSTS. This is the kind of a flick you'll regret watching even if you're​ being paid to do so.

Director Sunhil Sippy seems unplanned while directing the movie as he loses focus and gets confused on what the film should be all about. In an attempt to emphasize on the moral responsibilities of a journalist and the rising organized crimes in India, he lost Noor which could have been a flawless entertainment and a self-reflecting movie for today's youth who is facing quarter-life crisis. The first half of the movie is a fun-filled insight into the life of Noor and is the soul of the movie. Here we meet this ambitious lady who won't settle down for anything immaterial, be it on professional front or her personal life. The script gets serious in the later part of the movie where she accidentally bumps into a racket. The chaos in the movie could have been avoided if illegal activities of the state were not involved just for the sake of highlighting and not with an intention of working towards the change.

Strength: Sonakshi Sinha who very comfortably steps into the shoes of Noor.

Weakness: The over-exhaustive plot. Dialogues, which at several occasion seems unnatural and for the sake of adding moral take-away.