Sherlock Holmes- A Game of Shadows: Masala Detective

Well the not so awaited sequel of the 2009 guy ritchie interpretation of sherlock holmes hits the theater and provides the masala and entertainment value, but doesn't do justice to either the plot or the original sherlock holmes. Ritchie packs up a single line plot with too much action, too many jokes, too many matrix-y slow motion action sequences and far too loud (and absolutely not necessary) Hans Zimmer Score. If Cheap laughs, 'coolness', Masala are your cup of tea, you will enjoy it but if you are one of those purists who despised Ritchie's interpretation (or misinterpretation) of the victorian era detective in the last installment, then its better to be prepared first and not expect a mystery but an action comedy. Watchable nonetheless.

Ritchie's Interpretation of the detective is no where close to the original version by Sir Doyle. His Sherlock is more of a cool, full of attitude, eccentric action hero rather than an astute detective. He believes more in brawn than brain. And to be honest, you can see a lot of Iron Man in Downey's portrayal. There is too much coolness to his portrayal. Its entertaining no doubt and provides you a full paisa vasool but is not in line with what the original sherlock would have been.

Movie revolves around a certain Prof Moriarty who wants to spark off a world war in 1891 so that he could make money by supplying arms to different nations. Sherlock and his just married sidekick Dr Watson need to stop him from doing so with the help of a gypsy woman. Jared Harris is the pick of the lot for me for his straight faced cold blooded portrayal of prof moriarty. RD entertains through out the movie with his slapstick, drag avatars and a supposedly funny take on the detective, but seems too far from the original character. The portrayal is so distant that ritchie could have easily called him by other name and the movie would remain exactly the way it is.

Though the movie drags in the first half, the last 20 minutes or so provide total paisa vasool entertainment with a right mix of action and comedy with a dash of hollywood masala and you forget about the flaws in the plot or the character portrayal, relax and enjoy. Though I'm not quite sure why Ritchie chose the matrix-y fast-super slow motion style action. It looks good but totally out of context. Also, from the first scene onwards you think the soundtrack has a big Dark Knight hangover and you start wondering if the score is by Hans and about 15 minutes in the movie and you are confirmed. Its too loud for the setting and there is absolutely no correlation between what's happening on screen and what's playing in the background. Hans has done a brilliant job in making a killer background score but it's just not for this movie. May be the third installment in the dark knight series (if it comes out) or an inception sequel but definitely not for sherlock holmes.

Overall: Watchable if you want to sit back and enjoy a masala hollywood portrayal of the classic detective. Not inline with the character but definitely entertaining.

Feel-O-Meter: 7/10

Jhukta wahi hai jisme jaan hai. Akadna to murde ki pehchaan hai :)

Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl: Story Vs Bollywood 6/10

Though I had seen the movie almost 2-3 weeks back, but didn't find time to update it. Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl is quite an entertaining movie, especially in the first half but loses its steam when the director HAS TO introduce a Love Story in a typical Bollywood fashion. The performances though not award winning are pretty decent from all the cast members. Music definitely is a plus point. Screen play is pretty interesting in the first half and drags in the second. Dialogues are pretty corny. Parineeti Chopra brings a freshness to the overall feel of the film. Overall, a sweet li'l Watchable movie though nothing fabulous to write home about. Recommended.

Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl suffers from the problem so typical of bollywood. We just can't tell stories as they are. We have to have to introduce a corny love story somewhere in the end and have that all's well happy ending. The movie is about a conman who specializes in robbing women after making them fall in love with his drop dead good looks (Yes, its Ranveer Singh we are talking about here) and charm. 3 of his shikaars come together and hire Anushka Sharma to con him this time to get their money back. Pretty Interesting till this point right? Yes, but now add the usual twist to the story. The girl supposed to con him falls in love with him and he also is passionately in love with her. So much so that he's ready to leave all his galad dhandhaas coz of this. Why this sudden change? Nobody knows. Oh yeah, may be coz they made out one time.

On the performance front, Parineeti Chopra was my pick of the lot (And that has nothing to do with her looking scaringly close to one of my ex girlfriends :P ). Though not the best looking of the lot but She definitely was the freshest and cutest.. Her comic timing too was almost perfect and the boring scenes came to life with her typical punjabi kudi performance. Others were just about okay even Ranveer Singh. So no problems there.

Music was pretty hummable and full marks to Salim Suleiman yet again to keep the audience's interest alive when the movie was dragging. There are certain nice twists and turns in the script especially in the first half and the con jobs have been written quite well. So full marks there too.And As already established, the movie suffers from being too bollywood-y in the second half. Lead couple ending up making out after a song and THEN hopelessly falling in love was definitely where the script would have allowed in a good movie but yeah, Yeh sab to karna hi padega na.

Overall: A Pretty Decent Movie though drags in the second half due to too much of bollywood-y treatment. Recommended for a One time watch

Feel-O-Meter: 6/10

Mission Impossible- Ghost Protocol: Same old Adrenaline Rush

MI: GP, the 4th instalment in the MI series is absolutely fantastic as far as picturization, choreography of the stunt sequences, bigger settings, Meaner Chase sequences and also provide a humour backdrop in the tense situations which we haven't really seen before in the franchise. But may be the brand MI is its own enemy, When you walk into the theater having seen the earlier 3 installments, you kinda already expect all that and unless something extra ordinary happens, you 'like' the movie not 'love' it. Its great as a stand alone movie but left me wanting for something extra. I have already seen world at the brink of a nuclear explosion which has to be stopped in the last 3 seconds, so i was kinda disappointed there. Nothing new to offer though a couple of sequences were very 'Oh My god-ish'. Must Watch nonetheless (Though that seems like a no brainer especially when i'm writing the review almost 2 weeks later) if you haven't already.

Okay, I'm sure you are confused with the title of the note, Right? It doesn't tell you clearly whether its a good movie or just another installment in a super successful spy-fi franchise and If you have been reading my reviews, you would agree that this is definitely not how I describe movies. There are movies which I like or there are movies that I hate. There are not many movies that leave me confused. But this is definitely one of them. Everything is great on paper as well as on the screen. There are hardly any scenes which i did not like and every action sequence has something new to offer but there is still something that was not there. There is hardly anything which hasn't been seen already, the high rise falls (though this time its from a 160 storey world's tallest building Burj Khalifa), The Gadgets (though this time, they may be out of warranty to provide some goofiness/forced oh my god moments), or the Car chases (though this time, they are in a sandstorm). So there are incremental changes here and there but overall it still remains the usual adrenaline pumping spy-fi thriller as seen in the  last 3 instalments.

The plot (if you care) is the same old nuclear attack by a scientist who wants to put Russia and US at war front, has a detonating device with him. Gets the codes to launch the attach and has to be stopped at any cost to prevent the usual 'End of the World' as we know it. Cliched? Absolutely. But the difference lies in the execution of a cliched plot and in this case, though it definitely has been done in the action sequences but the changes are more incremental in nature rather than 'Reinventing the Wheel' stuff. Everthing remains mostly the same as any other hollywood spy-fi but adds a 10% to it. If you are a Bourne or a Bond fan, then what you should look for is, just a couple of sequences which have a slight twist compared to the usual. Two or Three Sequences at Max and to me the whole chase through out the movie did not put anything new to the table.

So in the end, I am left confused, whether i lovee the movie or I hate it and this time around its neither. Its just another Adrenaline Pumping (in a few sequences) Spy-Fi Installment of the MI franchise which though travels the distance but doesn't take you anywhere long. A Definite Watch but if you have seen it all, don't expect something which can 'wow' you.

Feel-O-Meter: 7/10

The Dirty Picture: Only Dirt, No Picture

The Dirty Picture is yet another example of a good story wasted by not being true to the product but bothering too much about the masala to make it a success. The movie has a very solid performance by Vidya Balan (sans her ample and absolutely not hot cleavage show) but offers almost nothing else. The sleaze is over done. The dialogues are Jhel. The pace is slow and does not do justice to the 'emotional appeal' of the movie. The director just trivialized the subject due to incorporating too much bollywood masala and lost the soul of the movie in all the hulla gulla. Give it a miss. Wait for it to release on Tata Sky instead.

TDP is loosely based on Silk Smitha's life as a south siren who attained a cult status in regional movies due to her 'bindaas' attitude, her relationship with men and her downfall later. The plot in itself is pretty interesting given the lack of 'inspired from real life' scripts in bollywood and obviously you have some expectations while walking in the cinema hall. Add to it, Vidya Balan and all the ho halla around her weight gain and the sleazy avatar she adorns. Add Naseeruddin Shah and Milan Luthria and the expectations rise even further. But the movie hardly delivers on any counts.

Vidya does a fabulous job especially in the last 15 minutes of the movie portraying a 'once the hottest property in south' falling into depression and spending her life in loneliness. Naseeruddin Shah is just his old reflection of good work. Tusshar is as pathetic as his earlier work and Emraan is as intolerable as earlier. But you can't have a single actor take all the burden no matter how strong the shoulders are (yes, we are talking literally here). Also, only in the last 15 minutes you seem to start connecting with the lead character and it's too late. Those 10-15 minutes are the only few minutes worth watching but since you have spent 2 hours tolerating the non sense, you are not in a mood to appreciate anything and ya, those last moments also have a stupid sufi song cropping from god knows where. May be the director suddenly recalled, he had to tick the 'Put a Sufi Song in the CD' checkbox and put the song in the movie at the last moment.

The biggest problem for me, was not being true to the story and just losing in the sleaze for majority of the length. Full first half is wasted in showing Vidya's Cleavage and trust me, it ain't a treat to watch. Every single shot, she is bending over to leave nothing to one's imagination, courtesy a high fat diet for the past 6 months and a bulk shipment of wonderbra. There is nothing taking you away from it, no matter how hard you try and it IS irritating after the first 10 minutes. Dear Milan, you need to understand that we get the point of her going to any lengths (except prostitution. which i guess is only to avoid any legal battles) and using her assets to bag roles in the movies, pretty early in the narrative. You don't have to keep harping on the same thing for full first half. The movie just doesn't move anywhere. There is just shot after shot of her sleazy item songs and nothing else.

The director falls into the same trap that the directors that he portrays in the movie. Though he is trying to criticize the directors for portraying women as sex objects, he does exactly the same here as well. Scene After Scene, Shot after Shot and it doesn't help that its Vidya too. Had there been any other 'actual' hot property, may be it could have worked, but not in her case. Secondly, once you understand that she herself took her decisions and was not forced into this lustful world of stardom, you don't seem to empathize with her as well. Once the emotional connect is lost, you don't really care what happens with her. Even if the director wanted to engross the audience through the 'oh poor girl' card, he couldn't because the story wouldn't have allowed him to.

Overall, A could have been much better movie, lost in the sleaze trap with no emotional connect with the lead actor, no support from the co-actors, very few 'moving' sequences and snail paced narrative. Not Recommended.

Feel-O-Meter: 4/10

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