Airlift - One more candid entry to the list of good patriotic movies

A great movie deserves a great script. And that's what is proven by Airlift. It's not perfect, but does its job to makes us feel what our countrymen went through during the invasion of Iraq in to Quwait.
More than a thriller it's an emotional drama about how 1.7 lakh Indians were evacuated from Quwait that betrayed them when needed the most.

Coming back to the movie, I would say just sit through and experience the realistic filmmaking by Raja Krishna Menon while he captures what all happened while gathering all Indians under one roof in Quwait and the efforts by the leading man to get all the required permissions from Iraq for the evacuation operation.

The plot is very small. In 1990, Iraq invaded Quwait over oil issue and killed everyone they saw. Because Indian Government favoured Iraq once upon a time, they spared Indians. But wouldn't give guarantee if they are killed in random firing by teenage soldiers who learnt firing like yesterday.
Ranjit Katiyal (Akshay Kumar) is one of the few wealthiest man in the world considers himself an Iraqi until that night. Suddenly his patriotism dies when his Malyalali driver killed in front of his eyes by 15 year old armed crackpot from Iraq. Being helpless he tries to flee out of the country but suddenly develops love for the fellow countrymen when they count upon him as their only saviour. After that, watch how he manages to get everyone home by his honest efforts, sleepless nights and also if required to go against his wife's wish. Finally, comes out as a hero every Indian is proud of.
Akhsay has proven it again with Airlift that he can show what a real protagonist looks like without hanging on to his image from movies like Boss and Entertainment and coming out as a sheer and rare performer when it comes to delivering an Action drama (Still my personal favourite of Akshay has always been 'Special 26'). All others have delivered their best including Nimrat Kaur and Purab Kohli who have lesser screen time than Akshay alone but lived up well.

Watch it to witness a story based on true events and not to miss some proud moments for us from the true happenings told nicely in the film:

Salute to the great country of ours that didn't ignore Indians stranded in merciless Quwait. It's a shame and surprise to know that entire Quwaiti Government and their army ran away the moment it was invaded by Iraq over Oil issue by Saddam Hussain. Our soldiers have never done that ever, never ever.

with help of Air india, which we always curse for its aunty-like air hostesses, sarkari ambiance and typical government delays in all operations. Salute to Air india and it's brave pilots for pulling this through in almost 500 flight trips.

Salute again to a Sarkari babu in External affairs office who first ignores the SOS call by Ranjit (Akshay Kumar) giving typical excuses like "Woh mera department nahi hai" but then empathising with his fellow Indians and helping them by awakening the Air India officials.

My rating: 3.5/5

Give it a watch, it's worth.

Gangs of wasseypur: the school of details

4.5/5

Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Pankaj Tripathi, Richa Chaddha, Reema Sen, Huma Qureshi, Jaideep Ahlawat, Piyush Mishra


Sultana looted British trains. Years after Shahid Khan continues to loot the same trains on the name of Sultana while Sultana is retired. Sultana takes on Shahid Khan and paralyzes his strength by killing all his men. 
Shahid khan now works for Ramadeer singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia), and gets killed by Ramadeer himself when he's planning a conspiracy against his boss. And here starts the revenge saga. Shahid's son Sardar khan (Manoj Bajpayee) doesn't want to assassin the big-shot politico Ramadeer, but  wants to break him down in pieces of defeat, insult, humiliation and fear, one by one. The signature line of the film explains this well which is in colloquial hindi: Teri keh ke loonga.

No one can deny the fact that Anurag Kashyap is the man of details. See how Sardar learns to make bombs in jail, or the scene where his son, Faisal (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) tries to hide guns in the train to save them from cops. These are just a few good examples. You have to see the film to embrace the style of story telling by the guy behind Dev-D to say the the least. 


In this film, you can see shades of Omkara, directed by another genius Vishal Bhardwaj. This story is not about hero or villain, it's not about good or bad. It is about some bad guys trying to be more sadist than the other. All brutal characters, delivered by beautiful performances. 


Every time Sardar's wife (Richa Chaddha) is on screen, she will have you in splits by her completely adult one liners and a sleek performance that's hundred times better than some so called top actresses. She is confident as a dominating lady and the only one who Sardar khan is scared of. All other characters deliver their part of fun and make you laugh till you miss the next dialogue. Even some of the darkest scenes here will make you smile at least once. 


The script is awesomely executed by its director. You can't find any loopholes in direction when Kashyap is on the seat. The best scene is the final part which leaves so much intrigue that makes you die to watch the sequel. 


The music delivered by Sneha Kahwalkar fits in the story so well that it looks like being made right when the scene is shot. Even lyrics of the tracks look like a part of the situation. The narrations by Piyush Mishra are worth paying attention to.


This one takes you completely to Wasseypur, a small town in Dhanbad. Because it's shot in where it belongs, with attention to smallest things like the way these characters deliver their lines in the perfect accent, and a lot of other things. Yet this one is completely modern in its treatment whether it is about the perfect background score, the actors who live their characters or they way the story is been told making you engrossed till the closing credits.


Overall, this piece of work is completely worth Cannes. Watch is again and again to find out more details every time.  

Shaitan: It's mad, messy, but doesn't stink

3/5

Director: Bijoy Nambiar

Lead: Rajeev Khandelwal as Inspector Arvind Mathur, Kalki Koechlin as Amrita Jayshankar a.k.a. Amy, Shiv Pandit as Dushyant Sahu a.k.a. Dash, Neil Bhopalam as Zubin Shroff, Gulshan Devaiya as Karan Chaudhary a.k.a. KC, Kirti Kulhari as Tanya Sharma

There's a very nice dialogue in this film. "There are two kind of friends. one, you can call them even at 2 am, Second, you can call them only at 2 am." Shaitan is the story of second kind of guys. From these five, three are brats of super rich parents, one is an upcoming actress and one is a drug champion. Brats include Amy (Kalki), Zubin (Neil), and KC (Gulshan). Tanya (Kirti) is a budding actress and Dash (Shiv) frequents jail in drugs dealing. Doping, drinking, casual sex, one to one fights, roaming around streets of the city till morning is their regular schedule. But their routine goes for a toss when they knock down a couple on scooter. You can see their merciless nature when they run away from the scene crushing the dead bodies under the wheels of their super cool Hummer. Now they must pay 25 Lakhs to the corrupt cop to close the case. They decide to kidnap Amy and ask for ransom from her dad. But it doesn't go as smooth as they had planed from the moment Mathur (Rajeev) is handed over the case. He's a brutal, bad ass but honest cop who will not think twice two push a politician from his bungalow terrace as a girl complains that he misbehaved with her. While Mathur is behind the kidnappers as well as Amy's disappeared friends, our Shaitans' lives go up side down as they are running around and getting in to the mess created by themselves. 

     What is worth watching about this one is, you love watching these guys getting in to one mess or other while they are still cracking jokes and create dark humor that makes you laugh, though you are scared to laugh because you are foreseeing the problems that they are delving into. While they are trying to smoothen their issues, Mathur keeps giving them goose bumps. The soundtrack by various music directors and a heavy metal number by an awesome Indian band, Bhayanak Maut keeps you engrossed. A chasing scene makes you feel itchy and at the same time tickling you with a retro song "Khoya khoya chaand" as the background music, brilliantly remixed. Cinematography is mind blowing by Madhie, and screenplay by the director himself doesn't give you feeling of a small budget film. Nabiar does a great job of a director, still you can taste Anurag Kashyap flavor in between. 

     Apart from all this super exciting and almost never before story line, it has it's own loopholes. There are some irrelevant fillers like Kalki's flashback and a flashback story of another brat who has nothing to do with the story, which is played by "Udaan (2010)" lead Rajat Barmecha. The climax turns out to be a very regular 'good vs evil' drama, so 'non-Anurag'. These things make the film look longer because they keep breaking the link between the main story and the audience's scared minds. This film has bits and pieces of Anurag's debut film "Paanch". A few scenes where these kids visualize their planning, is shown on screen, which turns out to be a very nice experiment to see. If you forget some loopholes in the story, it also has many scenes you may have never scene before. These boys don't think twice before breaking someone's head for no reason or bashing a TV on someone's head because he was trying to rape one of them. These kind of scenes are very nicely filmed with no assumed moments, all on screen. 

Overall, Shaitan is not something if you are looking for an entertainer, it's not a time-pass. I recommend watching this to experience something unusual. Don't miss the those hidden details and a sharp direction.

Kung fu panda 2: Awesomeness is an understatement

4.5 / 5

Po and The Furious Five

When Kung fu panda surprised us two years back, with Po doing all those Kung fu stunts and defeating Tai lung, The second one comes with more surprises, more action, much better special effects, and in 3D. 3D effects in this one are superb. This one has more humor too.


While Po is now a well known "Dragon warrior", his dad's business has grown because of him. After hunting down Tai lung, it's not over for Po. He has more challenges. The peacock Shen has made a weapon will make Kung fu extinct, killing all kung fu masters. He's already killed Master rhino, and Po hears the news. Now, Po is ready to take on Shen, with his super charged team of 'The Furious Five' - Tigress, Mantis, Viper, Crane and Monkey. While fighting with Shen, he also has to find out why his parents abandoned him. Watch how Po reaches Shen and destroys his weapon.

Little Po

Po is still lazy, innocent, cute, foodie and fat. He's developed a little inclination for Tigress. Tigress is more furious, you'll see some her moves which you didn't see before. The moment Po appears on the screen, it's full of humor and action till the end. You'll meet the kid Po while he takes you in to flashback to find out how the goose became his father. The Furious Five with two more Kung fu masters, Ox and Croc create that action packed momentum which never goes down. When Master Shifu enters the action scene, he lightens up our faces with those moves.




Kudos to those 3D effects. In every scene, you say, "wow". While everything going simultaneously, you'll not know what to appreciate - 3D effects, humor, Po's cuteness or swift action. It would be a sin to miss this film.

Directed By: Jennifer Yuh Nelson

Written By: Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger

Lead: Jack Black (Po), Angelina Jolie (Tigress), Dustin Hoffman (Master Shifu), Jackie chan (Monkey)

Stanley ka dabba: A tiffin full of talents

4.5 / 5

Dir: Amol Gupte

Lead: Partho (Stanley), Amol gupte (Verma teacher), Divya Dutta, (Rozy miss)

The best part about the film, the protagonist here is not a person. It's the 'food'. Food makes us smile, laugh, cry, love and hate throughout the movie.

Stanley ka dabba takes us back to our schools. Not today's multi speciality international board School, but to those schools where we have grown up. Where we used to fight and freak out between two lectures and be good guys again when teacher enters, where we used to keep nick names for all teachers, where we had crush on our young teachers, and especially, where we used to hop on each other's food, the dabbas. 

Stanley (Partho) is a kid who doesn't bring food and hops on his friends' dabbas who are cool with it but Verma Teacher (Amol Gupte) is not. He's a big foodie and always pissed with Stanley because he doesn't spare any food for him. Rozy Miss (Divya Dutta) is a sweet, kind hearted, young teacher who we had a crush on while we were in school.

A great cinematography of this film makes you feel like part of the school, and one of those students. Throughout the movie, Stanley finds his way to your past. Why Stanley doesn't bring his dabba has a secret which opens in the end and brings tears. At that moment, you completely empathize with him and want to hug him and say, "Buddy, I am with you". Somewhere you feel that Amol Gupte is inspired from his own film 'Tare zameen par', but you get a very different feeling while you watch through the climax. The music is delivered so well that tightens up each moment.

Amole Gupte appears perfectly as a Khadoos Teacher. Divya Dutta is delightful and graces the screen. you'll love her in the film. Partho is not a small kid when it comes to acting. Raj Zutshi has a small but impressive role. 

This is a perfect film for everyone to find himself/herself and supports a social cause which surprisingly brings tears in the eyes. You'll be speechless when it ends and will walk out quietly without discussing "how was it". Don't miss this one. 

Dum maro dum: entertains and never loses it's pace

The moment it starts, you feel that "it's not how I expected it to be". It starts with a dull scene where you see Lawrence (Pratiek Babbar) losing his girlfriend and flying abroad. But, after sometime, it suddenly picks up when ACP Kamath (AB) enters. It doesn't lose it's pace till the end. Kamath is appointed to release Goa from drugs. He's an ex corrupted narcotics cop who takes his job back for his family, lost in a car accident. He's now a clean and all-set-to nab all dirty guys around.

Lorsa Biscuta (Aditya Pancholi) is the biggest drug dealer who loses everything the moment Kamath is back to his job. He's now counting on his guy Barbosa, to take care of his 970 crores worth of drugs what Kamath is after. Because Kamath has grabbed all his buyers. 

Simultaneously, Lawrence wants to go to his girlfriend and choses to supply some of Lorsa's drugs for $15k. He get's caught by Kamath. Joki (Rana Duggabati) doesn't want to lose his friend like he's lost his Girlfriend Zoe (Bipasha Basu) to Loarsa (Pancholi). He decides to help Kamath get Barbosa out of the hideout. Then starts action packed ride which never loses it's speed. You would love to see how Kamath is progressing towards catching Barbosa while crushing everyone who comes in between.


Aditya Pancholi fails to support his character Loarsa Biscuta. Bipasha is ok, while Rana Duggabati (as Joki) is average. Abhishesk Bachhan is someone who lives up to a rough and tough young cop who's impossible to be tricked. The film has a great background scores but bores you with random full sized songs which is out of fashion now. 


The film is in and out enjoyable as a technically strong one with excellent cinematography, a kickass screenplay and keeps you at the-edge-of-the-seat drama. But it sucks when it comes to the plot and story. The only thing saves this story a bit is the way it is told. 


You will enjoy the pace of the film which doesn't let you think what's gonna happen though it doesn't have much to surprise. Barbosa is a suspense character which generates a bit of an intrigue and opens with a good surprise in the end. It will never bore you.


Overall, Dum maro dum is a supercool film with no memorable dialogues except a few, or no great plot which supports it's style. Watch it for Abhishek Bacchan and you will not regret. Sure go for it if you are dying to see a refreshing content after the exams and cricket season slowdown. 


My rating for this one: 2.5 stars

Movie Review: UDAAN - it's an inspiration

I have been watching a lot of movies meanwhile, but feeling lazy about writing. But this one really got me thinking.

A boy, expelled from the best school in India, having a father cruel to the core. A merciless father imposing his ambitions on the son. Son tries to follow his dad, but can't leave his dream too. Runs away from the house one day.

UDAAN is a predictable story. It's not an inspiration to rebel. Short story, but long a journey of a teenager's dilemma, nicely executed.

Ronit Roy seems to be wasting his career doing overacting on TV. He's done a commendable job in the movie. Best amongst all. Ram Kapoor plays Roy's younger brother, and has a short but important role. (Rohan) Rohit Barmecha has done a great job of a frustrated teenager. His younger brother (Arjun) is sweet yet powerful actor. Both the brothers remind me of two sisters in the recent Hollywood movie, Orphan.

Rohan has not met his dad in past 8 years. He gets expelled from school as he was caught watching blue film with his friends. He gets surprised when he learns that his father has married again when he was in school and has a 8 year old kid. Both the brothers share a very good chemistry on screen. First, Rohan is not happy with Arjun's sudden existence is his life and especially, his room. But gradually, when he comes to know that his father is as rude with Arjun as he is with him, he feels sorry for Arjun and starts parenting him, the sweetest situation in the film. Arjun's character really makes you cry. He's also beaten up by his dad like Rohan.
Rohan's father wants him to become an engineer and help him with his steel business. Rohan has a dream to become a writer and makes people surprised with his creative lines. The Hitler-dad doesn't see his creativity and wants him to become another machine in his factory.
Inspite of staying in dad's jail, Rohan lives a happy night life. He steals money from dad's pocket, flicks his car key and roams the town. He becomes friends with his senior college friends in a bar and they become his company to spend fun filled nights. All the friends of him, in school and in college have small but suiting roles.


You can predict that Rohan is going to run away from his home due to his father's such behavior. but the journey of his state of mind makes you think. After a few minutes in the movie, you start relating yourself with him. You start framing your behavior with such a dad. Once the father beats 8 year old Arjun with his belt. This is when you feel like going inside the screen and killing him.

Finally when Rohan runs away from home after beating his father, he takes Arjun along thinking that the father will make his life hell. He's now free to live his dream as a writer, on his way to Mumbai where his school friends run a restaurant.

The movie has an inspiring music by Amit Trivedi (Dev.D). The first time director Vikramaditya Motwane has done award winning job showing a short story in 2 long hours still making it interesting. There are some very good one liners and comic situations which make you roll. Overall, UDAAN is a simple and straightforward story which arises from our neighborhood.

My take on this one is 4 /5. Watch it for a rare content in India Cinema. It will make your day for sure.

Got Email from your Bank? Check it properly

There's a term in hacking called "phishing". Wikipedia gives it's definition as:

"In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication."

In simple words, "Phishing" is capturing your personal information (especially banking passwords and account details) by fraud.

I got an Email from ICICI Bank. The Email asked for my net Banking information.



The Email looks like a normal mail. But,
1. No mail from any bank asks for any personal information on mail.
2. When you click on "Show Details" (in Gmail), it shows the server name the mail was sent from. In normal cases, the server name will be your banks name, but in the mail which i got, it was not the case. See the server name below.



You can also get such mails. So just beware.

But there's a simplest thing you can do to save yourself from these fruads. ALWAYS KEEP YOUR WEB BROWSER UPDATED. My firefox is upadated to the latest version. So the moron who sent this mail couldn't do anything. Even after clicking on the mail, my Firefox didn't open the page and showed me this message:


Some idiot created this without checking it on all browsers and sent it to me. What a fuckall hacker!

But still beware and don't give any personal details to anyone on mail. Even if it lands you on the website the site must be your bank's website with actual URL. I once got a similar mail and it landed me to a website called ICICILOANS.COM. Always check the URL. Your bank's official website will always be HTTTPS://icicibank.com and not HTTTP://iciciloans.com. check for the prefix HTTPS.
Also, always forward these type of mails to your bank's helpdesk so they can take some action towards this.

Beware otherwise someone can empty your Bank A/C or Credit card in minutes.

Kaminey: Not Vishal Bhardwaj's best but still Awefome

Awefome and Fuper Cool but first things first.

About Vishal Bharadwaj - Full credit for Kaminey goes to Vishal Bharadwaj. His latest movie lives up to its promise and delivers full-on entertainment. Even if it’s not Vishal’s best, it beats other current movies. The best part of his movies is that the characters are very strong. Each one of them is important, unique and has a fan following. He can also make anyone act. If he can transform a chocolate boy like Saif into a ruf ’n’ tuff ’Langda Tyagi’ (Omkara) and make him speak a language he has never heard of smoothly, then Shahid doesn’t come with any surprise in a dual role.

About Kaminey - Despite being a Bollywood masala movie, there’s something about this movie that makes it a full blown entertainer and a must-watch. The reason can be Vishal’s inpiration from Hollywood. Again, like other Bhardwaj movies, each and every character in the movie is important and strong and has his own style. Charlie (Fahid) never has a easy moment in his life. Guddu (Ssshahid) loves Sweety (Piggy Chops) and takes panga with her anti-UP brother Bhope (Amol Gupte). Bhope is a ‘kattar marathi’ politician and after Guddu’s life because he loves Sweety but more than that because he’s a North Indian. Sweety saves Guddu from her brother but they fall in trouble again and again. Charlie plans to sell cocaine stolen from corrupt cops, with his best bud Mikhail (Sanyal). But Bhope finds Charlie to get to Guddu and there starts the complication- the cops are looking for the lost coke, a drug dealer is looking for the cops, Charlie is looking for the drug dealer and so on.

The entire movie is about double crossing, revenge and fight for money which quickly becomes a fast paced action game. Everybody is looking for someone or something and all are selfish. Both Shahid and Priyanka have perfomed their career’s best. Amol Gupte is as promising as he’s expected to be. Vishal has done a very good job also as a music director and writer. Overall, Kaminey is definitely a must-watch no matter how busy your life. Go for it.

Love Aaj Kal: Imtiaz Ali can't get worse

On one side, you have a talented director who gave Socha na tha and Jab we met and has again written a beautiful story. On the other side, there's saif who produces the movie and ends up giving his own "professional" touch and what gets ready is a confused khichadi of Soch na tha, Jab we met, Dilwale dulaniya, Jane tu, Hum Tum and so many such stories.

A modern couple is parting their ways and decides to break up because they want to get serious in life and choose their own career. Jai(Saif) meets a guy called veer(Rishi Kapoor) who relates his love story with Jay's. Jai doesnt believe he's in love but still follows Veer. He even surprizes his ex - girfriend Meera(Deepika) by landing up in India where she's pursuing her career. Both, Jai and Meera have moved ahead in life and found other partners. Meera realises she's in love with jai after getting married to her boss(Rahul Khanna), Meanwhile Jai gets his dream job and moves to the US. After spending a year, Jai also realizes that he loves Meera, and then, They lived happily ever after.

Love Aaj kal is a very well written but disturbed while direction. There are some very nice dialogues to look for. Wjat's new is, the film keeps roaming between old and new generation, thus ends without leaving the seat for a smoke or toilet. The film is not so interesting but not boring either, because it's a fast paced romantic movie. Both Deepika and Saif have acted very well. Rishi Kapoor is awesome as ever. The new comer Giselle Monteiro has a small but sweet role. Still, it's a must watch if you get a free ticket and worth a watch if you are paying for it and have nothing else to do.