DON JON: Real, honest, witty & confident…a rare in romantic-sex-comedies! [3/5]

There have not been many adult comedies that are clear in head, certain in content & honest in effort to make you laugh with the real-to-the-core wit and also feel for the hearty participation of its characters in making it a not-so-regular adult joke book. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is not a new name in need of any introduction but with his directorial début in romantic-sex-comedy ‘DON JON’, he definitely earns another feather in his cap. ‘DON JON’ is real, honest, witty, emotional and matured enough to talk firmly & unhesitatingly about ‘grown up’ issues covered under the sheet till now.

Jon [Joseph Gordon-Levitt himself] is any young blood who loves his life more than anything. The space he lives in, the bed he sleeps on, his regular workouts in gym, the church time on every Sunday with family, his friends, his car and anything that you can think of, for a self-centered man like him but what makes him out of the league is his self-acceptance of the fact that he loves watching porn. With enough reasons and grounds of his own, he just believes in and enjoys the idea of masturbation while watching sleazy sex-clips on porn-sites, even if there is a girl in his bed to give him the real pleasure.  

Things don’t pay any favor when one day his bossy girlfriend [the lovely Scarlett Johansson playing bitchy here] - a fairytale romance believer, catches him sticky dirty handed enjoying what he enjoys the most. Now, Jon has to compromise with his likings if he really wants to make it all good in his ‘true love’ relationship but is he ready? What about his new bonding with the much experienced and more thorough in life-lessons Esther, played by enigmatic Julianne Moore? Will he be able to learn-unlearn few things from her??

From the opening title sequence falling in between while surfing channels on TV to the montages showing the monotonous routine in his life-hours to the intercuts between porn clips & real life illustrating what mental state he’s in to, film impresses with the story-telling techniques big time. The fresh approach to be simple but straight in your face is very well communicated. The humor comes easy with the writing and in situations that fall apart out of nowhere. Joseph Gordon-Levitt looks every part of the character played by him, who can be very sure of one thing but completely clueless in impulse. Scarlett in her portrayal of a dominating-typical girlfriend material impresses. Her igniting presence on screen clearly pays off. Julianne Moore brings the sensitivity & sensibility factor in the account. There are also some delightful cameos to raise your heartbeats [Channing Tatum & Anne Hathaway is one of them].

With an unsullied writing hand and impressive directional skills, Joseph Gordon-Levitt creates an amusingly witty adult comedy that is best enjoyed if you do dare to accept things as they are in real. Not for ones who are adults but still think of sex as a cultural taboo to talk, to show & to entertain. Thoroughly enjoyable!! [3/5] 

DHOOM 3: The Great Indian Bollywood Circus! Formulaic but Spectacular & Extremely Watchable [3/5]

It’s not very hard to predict what’s in store for you, if you have booked your tickets to take a roller-coaster ride in the latest & the third installment of Bollywood’s first of a kind film-franchisee DHOOM: 3. High octane action, vrooming bikes, eye-catching locales, brilliantly choreographed song & dance sequences, fantastic production design & twists in the tale that you can only see it coming just a few moments before it actually comes. So, what are the additional elements that make YashRaj Film’s DHOOM 3 an extremely watchable action thriller, better and bigger than the previous two installments?

Written & directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya, DHOOM: 3 is the most spectacular presentation of all in the series, one would never question that, but it’s the writing and the performances [I desperately wanted it to make singular but then you’ll agree to it after watching it] that take it to another level.

Set in Chicago, story takes you back in 90’s when the owner of ‘the great Indian circus’ [Jackie Shroff in a delightful cameo] kills himself after losing his battle to save the property from financial crisis. Years later, his only son Sahir [Aamir Khan standing tall as a towering inferno] decides to bring the Bank responsible for his father’s death down all in the dust by constantly robbing all its branches. With no valid logic behind, ACP Jai Dixit [Abhishek Bachchan in his one-expression mode] & his ‘still irritating’ associate Ali Akbar from Nagpada [who else?? The ‘Uday Chopra’] are called in to help the Chicago Police Department. Rest is the thrilling cat-and-mouse chase sequences with good amount of bike-stunts, an unpredictable pinch of emotions and a satisfying surprise in the box that I wish I could tell you more about.

Though the story seems & is very filmy, formulaic and borrowed straight from some late 70’s vengeance potboilers, the surprise in the box alone keeps you thoroughly engaged and entertained. Till the time it reaches you from various sources, I don’t want to be the spoiler. All I can say is it brings lots of emotions on the board and in a very well executed manner. Keep guessing!

Of the cast, let’s talk about Katrina first. She’s sexy, sensuous & stunning as all the Dhoom girls in the past. Though the writing doesn’t provide her a good meaty role, watch her introduction scene in the ‘Kamli’ song and as briefed by the character of Aamir in the film, you are bound to not take off your eyes from her for once. What an electrifying appearance!

Same goes with Aamir. The certain amount of charisma and the sincerity in the performance that he brings with himself is totally infectious. He sets screen on fire in the magical & the magnificent ‘Malang’ song. Look at the kind of effort he makes to meet the expectations par level to the new generation in industry. Commendable job! This is the most commercial performance of his after GHAJINI.

In a whole 3 hours of duration, it is not plausible that you do not get carried away with some really putting off sequences like the typical ‘Uday Chopra’ comical scenes, disregard of a good mix of logic in the screenplay and a hurriedly conceptualized love-angle between Katrina & Aamir! But the grand canvas, great production quality, good performance and the surprise element compensate for the most of it. If you love ‘no logic’ formula Bollywood, you will love it more! [3/5]

THE HOBBIT- THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG: Breathtaking visuals, breathless action, good entertainer! [3/5]

Confessions first, neither I am very fond of creepy creature sci-fi Hollywood adventures nor I had been a factual follower of ‘THE LORD OF THE RINGS’ series. So without bothering about what was all in the first of THE HOBBIT trilogy when I decided to visit the nearest multiplex to watch the latest in series, my only expectation was to have a good leisure time of nearly 3 hrs at a stretch without being supersede by excessive power play of visual effects and extreme action mixed with unwanted labyrinth of subplots.

I know I was hoping for much, considering recent science fiction movies not being competent to overwhelm us but to my surprise, Peter Jackson’s THE HOBBIT- THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG didn’t disappoint me at all. With no assessment of earlier parts in hand, I must say it is quite an engaging experience all together [though being in 3D viewing format itself brings lots of advantages to not have much option but to keep yourself looking at the screen].

Martin Freeman plays the courageous-gutsy & street smart hobbit Bilbo Baggins, responsible to lead a group of dwarves headed by once a ruling king Thorin [played by Richard Armitage] in order and desperation to regain their power. En route to this quest of their lifetime; first they need to pass through a pathway in the mysterious jungle crammed with confusions and giant Spiders then to wrestle their muscle and mental strength out with defaced-dreadful evil forces and finally to unleash the wrath of fiery dragon Smaug [Benedict Cumberbatch in his ‘hear me only’ voice-over avatar].

Watching a film for almost 3 hours is not very regular idea of entertainment these days, but Peter Jackson makes sure despite a ‘predictable at most places’-lengthy- less juicy storyline, the breathtaking visuals especially grabbed in the most-effective aerial shots, non-stop breathless action providing you very less time to counter its significance, a smartly written screenplay to give more playground to humor component than going one-dimensional to the emotional route and the flawlessly charming VFX works fill your appetite for a good entertainment.

On the performance page, it is Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of Smaug the dragon who steals the show in the last 45 minutes. His monstrous, gruesome, ghastly tone of voice never falls short in chilling your bones in fright. Martin Freeman charms with his effortless acting skills and the comic timing even in midst of mountain-high fear. Watch out for his face-off with the dragon and also the barrel fight sequence that stands out in many of such engaging scenes.

Overall, you may not be very familiar with the breeds and names if you are watching it for the first time as your first exposure to the series [like me] but do not you worry, this film never bothers you much for that but sure leaves you unfulfilled with an open-ended climax that urges you to wait for the next in the lot. Holding a fort for 2 hour 42 minutes is not an easy task. Peter Jackson’s THE HOBBIT- THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG does that effortlessly. Watch it for a good time with friends. [3/5]  

JACKPOT: Poker faced entertainment! Promises everything, offers nothing! [.5/5]

Earlier in the film; when being questioned by a sluggish, lethargically slow-spoken cop played by the theatrical Makrand Deshpande, Naseeruddin Shah is seen with the name of Ram Gopal Varma on the board in the backdrop, I sink in my deep confusion if that was done in good gesture to show a great respect to the filmmaker or it was just a pun intended because this baffling camel sits neither of the sides.

The comedy con thriller ‘JACKPOT’ marks a long-awaited comeback of Kaizad Gustad- a filmmaker who, despite giving ‘Dud of the Decade’ BOOM, had shown great promises as a new-wave filmmaker [of then, at least] with his violently witty BOMBAY BOYS well before the ‘Anurag Kashyap Phenomenon’ came in to the scene. Sadly, JACKPOT disappoints at all fronts. It misses the magical touch of Gustad that used to bring the underworld in light in the most ‘unexplored before’ maniac manner. It also fails to impress with an amateurish approach in film-making.

Set in the mysteriously drugged nature of Goa, 4 con artists [Sachin Joshi & Sunny Leone plays two of them] induce a 250 Cr land-deal to the owner of the biggest casino in the city [played by Naseeruddin Shah in his weirdly ‘rope like hair strings’ getup] but in order to get things in process, they also must win the yearly poker game of 5 Cr Jackpot organized on Shah’s cruiser. They get succeeded but not the way it was planned. Now, the jackpot money is missing and everyone involved believes others are done with it. Does it not sound familiar with most of the con films? Well, even that can be overlooked if the screenplay takes the lead and provides breathtaking twists and turns to let loose your thinking horses all the time.

In the countable-on-fingers merits if I think hard, there is an impressive opening credits inspired by 007 Bond movie title sequences. Though it creates only some false conjecture to what it may come to you in next 90 minutes, it is a well-thought, nicely done part. I also can not agree more on that the duration was defiantly a big & decisive pro for me. Cinematography is strictly ok. Some one-liners are witty and remind you of the Kaizad Gustad of late 90’s but I don’t see reasons for what songs were doing in the midst of this entire supposedly crisp thriller.

For the performances, I would say you are looking for wrong thing at the wrong place. Sachin Joshi is probably the worst looking hero in recent times. He impressed most with his action sequences in AZAAN but here he depresses everyone with his unkempt, messy look and equally bad dialogue delivery [He doesn’t even bother to lip-sync the song he’s performing in]. And to top it all, he is the one who narrates the story for the most part. God bless the viewers! Sunny Leone doesn’t disappoint much as she does what she does best…and I am not talking about acting. Naseeruddin Shah repeats himself. We have seen him before in such avatar. Why he needs to opt for such scripts is unconvincing.

Overall; if this is the comeback, I would like to see Gustad resting in peace wherever he was till now. This JACKPOT makes you feel loser at the end and is something that no one wants to win. Boredom is what you get out of this poker faced entertainment! [.5/5] 

R…RAJKUMAR: The Worst Mash-up of Action, Emotion & Drama! Southern curry turns sour & tasteless!! [1.5/5]

Try to visualize 12 minutes of bone cracking- neck breaking fight stunts, 10 minutes of absurdly insensitive & irksome concept of romance where the boy does nothing but stalking the girl and 3-4 minutes of bum shaking- chest popping dance sequences filled with pelvic movements & blended in with equally annoying lyrics with no sense or sensibility! It is not hard I guess, since we all have seen such formula lately in many 100 Cr club entries. Now, multiply this whole formula with 5, add some credit rolls in the opening & closing and whatever filth/waste you will take home is nothing but Prabhu Dheva’s southern curry & sheer stupidity in the name of mass entertainment called ‘R…RAJKUMAR’!  

‘R…RAJKUMAR’ is the worst mash-up of all the ingredients required for a blockbuster. It has action, it has drama and it has humor but lacks a good punch in the storyline and the much-needed smart & skilled expert hands to mix it well. The wafer-thin story doesn’t give much scope to shock & surprise you in every sense. Romeo Rajkumar [Shahid Kapoor’s first & the most commercial attempt to set the box-office ringing], a fearless rowdy working as the most promising sidekick to Shivraj [Sonu Sood in an equal share of screen presence] falls in love at the first sight with Chanda [Sonakshi gets repetitive in her typical ‘Dabangg’ avatar]. Game Changes when Shivraj’s lust for Chanda forces Rajkumar to stand against his powerful master.

Film doesn’t bother to show any kind of involvement of intelligence, sensibility or respect, neither in writing nor in performances. Characters mouth dialogues that start & end with harsh addressing sounds and with very little hints of logics! Women here are just a material to own at any cost and even thrown in the pool of gaming as the winner’s trophy. In performances, Shahid shows off his upper hand in highly flexible moves for action & dance. Sonu also succeeds in flaunting his well-built muscles and in some of the comic scenes. Sonakshi should really need to work on her priorities in choosing roles. I fear if this would land her in the league of forgetful actors. In others; from Ashish Vidyarthi to Asrani, everyone else is as loud as they could be. Notice if you can, Bharat Dabholkar wearing Merlyn Monroe printed Ties whenever he appears on the screen and that could add some joy to feel in the wasteland of tasteless entertainment.        

In the very climax, Shivraj beats & thrashes Rajkumar his guts out with metal rods, wooden furniture and anything that comes in way! Our Romeo Rajkumar as he is supposed to be in deep love; feels no pain or hurting…so do we but because of the beatings and bashings we have been experiencing since the very start to become numb till the time, to any kind of brutality.  

In other words or in better words if I choose to describe Prabhu Dheva’s  ‘R…RAJKUMAR’, it would end up sounding like bam…bang…bash…biff…buff…bong…bonk…bop…clang…clank…crash…dong…fash…pock…plunk…shoop…shwap…swoosh…snap…slap…splat…throb…thud…thump…thung…thunk…tup…whack…wham…whop…whump and zlopp! This weekend, be blessed-be safe-stay at home! [1.5/5]