2.0 Review

2.0, called as the Spritual Sequel to Shankar's 2010 movie Robot, has finally been released worldwide. Fortunately I got the chance to watch the movie in the first weekend of its release, and I have mixed feelings about the movie.

2.0 has been made on a larger than life scale with a budget going around Rs. 550 crore, which was unthinkable for an Indian movie. Lets first talk about the positives. The biggest positive of the movie are its Visual Effects. It can be seen that enormous amount of work has gone into the Visual Effects of this movie as they are just spectacular, when you consider that it is an Indian movie. The VFX are the best yet for an Indian movie, however they still fall short of Hollywood, mainly because of budget constraints. This is the one thing that raises the bar of this movie. Another thing that goes for this movie is Rajnikanth. He shines through the movie along with Akshay Kumar and makes the movie enjoyable. The third positive point, and this is something that I give credit to Shankar for his movies, is the importance he gives to women's roles. Amy Jackson has got a large enough role and she does not go unnoticed. And it is also perfect casting, as she didn't have to emote for the role. 

Now coming to the negatives. The biggest negative point is the script of the movie, The makers were so engrossed in the getting the visual effects right that they forgot to pay attention to the movie's script. There is not much character development because of which character deaths do not shock us. And finally when the reason for all the deaths and devastation is revealed, it does not seem very plausible. Even the concept of how the movie's villain was formed is not very convincing and raises a lot of questions. The second negative is how the visual effects have been handled and included in the movie. While Hollywood has learnt the art of using VFX as a support to tell their stories without losing out on the human element of their stories, 2.0 fails in this effort. The VFX in this movie seem to have become more important than the story itself and instead of helping the story move forward they take the center stage. Indian movies need to learn to marry VFX with a movie's story. Unless they do that this problem will remain. The third negative is that most of the movie's focus is on Rajnikanth and his avatars, which relegates the others, including Akshay Kumar, into secondary characters. In total there are only 4 characters who are central to the plot (to of them being Rajnikanth himself), which is very low considering the scale and story of this movie. Development of higher number of important characters would have lent more credibility to the story, an example being the Bahubali movies.

On the acting front not much can be said as you can see only Rajnikanth throughout the movie, who has done a decent job in bringing out the various avatars. Amy Jackson has been cast perfectly as a robot and as it did not require much emotions and acting. Akshay Kumar though looks good in some parts, seems to be hamming in most of the action sequences involving him. Acting wise there is nothing to see in the movie.

Shankar is truly a phenomenal director who has time and again shown the grip he has on his art with slick movies. However with this movie, it seems he was more interested in showcasing the VFX quality and thus fails to bring the same quality in his direction. However he has been able to bring his vision to life and that is one heck of a work done. Full marks to the director for his vision.

Thankfully there are not too many songs in the movie and those which are there help in moving the story forward. Thus the songs are welcome in this movie. The movie's background score is also good and brings out the mood of the movie.

Overall this is one of the most ambitious projects ever attempted in Indian movie industry and all Sci-Fi fans should go and watch this visual extravaganza.

Rating - 3.5 / 5 (.5 extra for breakthrough VFX)

Badhai Ho Review

Badhai Ho is another out of the box movies from the new breed of film-makers who are not afraid to take risks while telling a story. The movie does full justice to this new brand of alternate cinema that is being made these days.

Badhai Ho is a wonderful movie. There are multiple things that work for the movie. Firstly, the story has been told in a humorous way which makes you laugh throughout the movie. Secondly the actors of the movie have played their parts brilliantly in mixing both the humor and the serious elements in their respective scenes. Thirdly, the dialogues and the script of the movie is awesome. So even if you go ahead and change one or two elements in the movies dialogues or the script, it won't affect the movie very much. Thus full marks to the writers of the movie. However even with all these positives it feels that the movie moves at a somewhat slow pace. This could have been improved with better editing, though I am not particularly complaining.

As already mentioned acting is one of the best things in the movie. The casting has been done perfectly. While the movie's lead actors, Ayushmann Khurrana and Sanya Malhotra are good, the movie belongs to the seniors. Gajraj Rao is fabulous in his role and he has brought out the nuances of seriousness, romance and humor perfectly. At times he acts like a teenager, and that is what makes his character very endearing. Neena Gupta is also very good in her role and is able to bring out all the emotions associated with her character. The other actors have also played their roles really well.

Amit Sharma has been able to mix humour and emotions very well in the scenes of this movie. His direction skills in this movie need to be lauded. He will go a very long way in this industry.

Overall this is another movie which can be seen with both friends and family. So go to the theatres and watch this movie.

Rating - 3.5 / 5

Sui Dhaaga Review

Sui Dhaaga was released last week without much fanfare of a usual big starcast movie. Even the trailers of the movie indicated that the movie was simple in both nature and story. So here's my review of the movie along with the answer whether the movie matches the trailers.

Sui Dhaaga is truly a simple story made in a simple style with very ordinary characters that you may meet in everyday life. It is very rare to find a movie nowadays that adheres to these simple characteristics. This simplicity is what makes the movie special to watch and one can really enjoy it. Due to this simple story the movie seems to be moving slowly during the short first half where not much happens. The major story happens in the second half of the movie where the characters learn to make it big in life even after facing many hurdles. I have already said that the essence of the movie is its simplicity. However this simplicity also somewhat goes against the movie as it prevents the movie from presenting very high stakes for the characters, which would have otherwise heightened the movie. But it may have also made the movie more complex which could have marred the storytelling and the screenplay. Thus what is the best point of the movie is also the biggest obstacle for the movie. Had the writers taken some risk, it could have really lifted the movie and made it into a special one.

Acting wise the movie truly is a gem. Both Varun Dhawan and Anushka Sharma have played roles that needed very subtle performances and required portraying so many emotions without going overboard. Both of them have carried out their roles very well. I may even go on to say that this is perhaps Varun Dhawan's best acting till date. Raghuvir Yadav is also first rate as Varun Dhawan's father and his presence provides for the lighter moments along with seriousness of the scene. Since Raghuvir Yadav is one of the best actors to grace Indian cinema, he does it effortlessly.

Sharat Katariya has done a good job at directing this simple movie. The movie has the same consistency of narration throughout the movie which must not have been very easy considering he had two of the biggest new stars acting in the movie, but he handles them well. He is the same director who had also directed Dum Laga Ke Haisha, which was another movie known for its simplicity. Thus eagerly waiting to see what he brings on next.

Overall the movie is a slow entertainer and one must like watching simple movies to be able to enjoy the movie. One should go with family and friends to watch this gem of a movie.

Rating - 3.5 / 5

Stree Review

Stree is surprisingly one of the best and most interesting movies to have released so far this year. From the trailers one could gather that it is in the Horror Comedy genre and when the film released it managed to both scare and make the audience laugh at the same time.

Stree has a very interesting storyline which is not seen in most of the movies. This interesting story with good and funny dialogues is what makes this movie great to watch. Add to that superb acting performances from most of the cast and you have a winner in your hands. Stree moves at a fast pace in both the first half and post interval parts and unlike most other horror movies it has a very interesting ending. The ending of the movie has primed it up for a sequel and lets hope they come up with an equally interesting and enjoyable sequel. What is also surprising is the use of memes in the movie. Two of them are spectacular - the usage of Mission Impossible theme with indian instruments and Rajkumar Rao acting like Shah Rukh Khan when asked to show love to the ghost. These things have been done very well and don't feel out of place.

Rajkumar Rao is a terrific actor and he shows once again why he is rated as a very good actor. He has enacted the role perfectly and I don't think anyone else could have done it better than him. Shraddha Kapoor is good in her role. Aparshakti Khurrana and Pankaj Tripathi are also superb in their roles. This movie has been taken to another level by the actors and thus everyone deserves credit.

Amar Kaushik has brought the story and the script of the movie to life in best way possible and deserves all the credit for the movie. He seems to be a director who can nake good films with small budgets and thus waiting to see what he makes next.

The songs in this movie are not very great but have been superbly woven into the plot and echo the movies mood. Thus after watching the movie you start to hum these songs. This happens most of the times for good movies and it has happened for this movie as well. The background music is also done very well as it heightens the horror element.

Overall this is a movie which wasn't expected to be so good but turned out to be spectacular. So evertone should go ahead and watch this unique movie which frightens you and makes you laugh at the same time.

Rating - 4 / 5

Gold: A Dream that United a Nation Review

Gold was one of the most awaited movies of the year with big hopes riding on the movie. With Akshay Kumar in the lead everyone was eager to see the story of free India's first olympic hockey gold medal.

The movie has a patriotic backdrop with India trying to win an olympic hockey gold after getting independence on the land of its ruler of past 200 years. This emotional track has been woven well in the movie, however it is not the consistent theme as the movie focuses more on the dreams of a few individuals and tries to present it as the dream of a nation. Thus there is inconsistency in the central theme of the movie. The movie does well to weave the different historical facts like India's partition and the riots into the movie's storyline which form a part of the conflict in the storyline. The movie is also engaging due to good character development for the main characters. However this is also a drawback for the movie as it focuses just on three main characters and fails to build stories around other characters. If the writers had concentrated on building the characters of a few other hockey players, it would have made the movie more engaging. Overall the movie moves at a slow but consistent pace in the first half which picks up in the second half. At 2 hours and 50 minutes the movie feels long and could have warranted a few cuts to make it more taut.

Akshay Kumar has done a decent job at potraying a Bengali babu. His performance is sincere but it lacks the edge that could have made it great. However Amit Sadh is the star of the movie. He exudes a raw confidence and arrogance that was required for the role. He is spectacular in all his scenes. All the other actors do not get enough due which is the fault of the writers, and the actors could not have done much to change that.

Reema Kagti has done a good job at directing this movie. There are more positives than negatives which is a job well done for a movie of this stature. She keeps her movies moving at a slow pace which can also be seen in her earlier venture, Talaash. She is a new breed of filmmakers who believe in content over glamour and thus hoping for her to go a long way in her career.

The movie has average songs and none of them are hum worthy. However what is commendable is that most of the songs have been woven well into the storyline and work as background scores while the story moves ahead and thus you do not realise that there are so many soundtracks in the movie.

Overall the movie us a good watch with your families and friends and one can go for it to get some patriotic flavour.

Rating - 3.5 / 5