My Take On BADLAPUR - "This Skillfully Made, Well Acted Thriller Can Be Very Much Watchable"

Badlapur, a neo noir revenge saga, directed by Sriram Raghavan is sharp, edgy, unusual and unpredictable thriller which is far from our regular Bollywood masala thrillers that have over the top actions, tacky dialogues, too many cliches and loud performances. This one is more of a real, twisted drama and director Raghavan succeeds in making us engaged and captivated for the most part. The mixture of violence, sex and maniac like characteristics due to a sudden grief of our hero plus the weird yet humorous nature of the antagonist works here.

Highpoints -

1) Unpredictability, crisp twists and turns in the screenplay are appreciable.
2) Solid script consisting of clever humour and deep sorrows backed by neat direction deserves applause.
3) Exceptionally well acted by the film's two leads - Varun Dhawan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Varun, just in his fourth film, has shown tremendous growth in acting. He successfully portrays the very complexed role with both sincerity and maturity. Its a crazy, wicked character which Varun does complete justice to. Meanwhile, the vastly skilled Nawazuddin yet again impresses with a striking performance. He's funny, cunning and even likeable as the baddie 'Liak'. Its a sheer pleasure to watch him on screen.
4) Among the supporting performers, Huma Quereshi is wonderful. Divya Dutta does well. Vinay Pathak is alright.
5) Music of the film is nice. Jee Karda is a terrific number. Others are passable too.
6) Editing and background score are good.

With all this going in its favour, Badlapur is still flawed and problematic.

Lowpoints -

1) Sluggish pace and chaotic moments at several places will make you bore.
2) This crisp thriller is letdown by an unconvincing climax that has no spark, surprise.
3) There is no great suspense in the film. If you are expecting a nail biting suspense from this flick, you will be disappointed.

Thus Badlapur on the whole, is a smart attempt to the thriller genres. Its off beat nature may not be liked by all but no doubt this is a skillfully directed revenge tale boasted with two spectacular performances. Its mainly for all the intellectual movie viewers.

Rating - 3.5/5

Watch it friends. Its mostly watchable!

My Take On SHAMITABH - "Far From Perfect, Yet A Pleasant Experience That Deserves To Be Seen"

Shamitabh, a smart movie directed by R.Balki of Cheeni Kum & Paa fame takes on the inner and outer world of our cinema, tells the story of a mute boy dreaming big of establishing himself as a Hero cum Superstar in film's line one day. His initial struggles never seem to be stopped as he's dumb, a handicapped. But when he gets his voice courtesy an ageing drunkard, his fate alters and starts blossoming. So the dumb Hero DaniSH's acting combines with the old drunkard AMITABH Sinha's voice(dubbing dialogues) and together they become SHAMITABH. Everything goes nicely until their ego clash brings disturbance in their personal and professional lives. Now this is quite an interesting storyline where Balki's presentation is both unique and inspiring. But there are several problems in the script that are hard to accept.
However, looking into the film's plusses we have.

HIGHPOINTS -

1) The initial plot may be indifferent but the idea here is new and commendable.
2) Terrific bonding between the 2 central performers that gives you joy and warms your hearts.
3) Remarkable performances by both Amitabh Bachchan and Dhanush boost the film greatly. Big B hits all the right notes and shines through out as expected. Dhanush meanwhile is the heart of the film with an absolutely striking act as the mute hero. Its tough to take your eyes off both the actors when they are on screen. They empower the film.
4) Young Akshara Hassan impresses too in her debut Hindi outing.
5) Balki's direction & storytelling hardly looses sharpness or control.
6) Some really good dialogues and touching scenes work well.
7) First rate cinematography and alright music. Piddly song is amusing.

But even with the above stated merits, the film couldn't become a great one due to the following drawbacks.

LOWPOINTS -

1) After a top notch first half, the film dips and drags post interval.
2) Melodrama to make it excess emotional doesn't work as it looks unconvincing. For e.g, the poignant climax no doubt will make u melancholic but it comes out sudden and abrupt that it fails to justify the movie properly.
3) Lack of logic that's unacceptable in the screenplay dents the film. Like how can a mute actor and his voice artist hide their secret to the whole world for so long. Its not possible in today's technological universe.
4) Editing could have done tightier as repetitive scenes seem monotonous.

So in the end, Shamitabh is a cleverly conceptualized and superbly enacted film that despite flaws is rare in Bollywood. Its a pleasant experience to watch 2 robust actors delivering their best to make this movie pretty much likeable. Yes its likeable if not perfect.

My Rating - 3/5

Give it a view friends!