Satya Agraha

Satyagraha is yet another attempt by Prakash Jha to unmask the monster behind the politicians face, like his previous movies Satyagraha too takes on the system against the common man and shows how a single common man cannot make a difference even with a huge support and backing.

Satyagraha is a story of Dwarkanath (Amitabh Bachchan) who decides to take a stand against the system of a small constituency namely Ambikapur with the help of Manav (Ajay Devgan) a successful businessman who gets his things done by hook or by crook, Yasmin (Kareena Kapoor) a TV journalist who wants to fight for truth and does not believe in sensational news sections, Arjun (Arjun Rampal) is a local social worker who has been born and bought up in Ambikapur and shares the grief and pain of its residents. The fight is between The Jan Satyagraha Samiti including the former members vs the giant crocodile of the  corrupt river Balram Singh (Manoj Bajpai) who has things his way or no way ! Drawn from the inspiration of Anna Hazare (read Amitabh Bachchan) demand for “Jan Lokpal Bill” Satyagraha loosely depicts what went wrong with the movement and how anything like this cannot work in the future.

Amitabh Bachchan can now be called the Father of Nation ooops Father of the Bollywood  with an amazing performance and a  very meaningful role Amitabh strikes gold. There was never a doubt that Amitabh cannot play such a role, with his command over the language and beautiful timing no other actor could have done this part better. His mass popularity on Social Networking Sites like Twitter and Facebook has helped him become more popular amongst the youth generation, this helps us relate to the character of a person who believes in truth and true sense of freedom.

Ajay Devgan was a little disappointing for a couple of reasons: A.) Ajay looks completely out of shape and looks like he has been not hitting the gym off late, B.) He does not have any meaty dialogues, punchlines or memorable one liners just like “Ata Maazi Satakli” of Singham & C.) Ajay Devgan has done this kind of a character N number of times and we have seen him perform better. For an actor like Ajay Devgan the performance bar has to go up with every new movie, any mistakes or under performance will definitely accepted by his fans specially after the Himmatwala fiasco.

 

Kareena Kapoor has a very subtle but very strong character, for a change we don’t see a glamour doll to fill the screen with her oomph and karizma, this time Kareena has a power packed role with a very clean and clear reflection of the character. A sensible journalist could have been played by many actress, but taking a risk of playing a leading lady in a movie amongst gigantic names and path breaking performers like Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgan & Manoj Bajpai  is worth an applaud.

 
Arjun Rampal is getting better day by day or should we say the selection of his movies is getting wise, Heroine, Chakravyuh, Inkaar, D-Day and now Satyagraha what more can any actor ask for ! Once known as a rock faced actor and go ahead and win a National award is not a simple thing to do. With Satyagraha Arjun Rampal once again proves that no role is small or big its only good or bad, and if you can do justice to your role you will definitely not be ignored.

 

Manoj Bajpai has a special bond or rather a better understanding with the Prakash Jha or Ram Gopal Varma style of filmmaking, and he cannot go wrong in any ways. You can love him and you can hate him but you cannot ignore him, while watching the movie you cannot decide whether to love his acting or to hate the character, the class and the fineness shown by Manoj Bajpai as the cold blooded killer and full of corruption is played amazingly by him.

Amrita Rao plays a damsel in distress who loses her husband (Indraneel Sengupta) who is the son of Dwarkanath (Amitabh Bachchan) the character has a very fine outline in the beginning but the sheen and sharpness of the character gets lost in the crowd of seasoned characters and moreover does not have any purpose besides being the supplementary reason of begin of the revolution.

Prakash Jha as a director has done nothing wrong but hasn’t done anything new, what looks so easy and achievable looks just good on screen, we have seen this in all Prakash Jha movies right from Gangajal to Apaharan to Rajneeti to Chakravyuh and now Satyagraha. The most common thing in a Prakash Jha movie is Reformation of Society but the path is the same one small flame converting to a huge wildfire.

Overall Satyagraha is old wine in new bottle, the major let down of the movie is that it cannot decide whether doing a Satyagraha proved good for Amitabh & Co. or did it give a lesson that no one should mess up with the Politicos. When we go to see a Society Reforming movie we are expected to come out with a new thought process and inspiring new thoughts even though its for a few hours after the movie but it needs to be there, well in that case Satyagraha is more like an eye opener teaching you not to mess with the politicians or they will make your life miserable. To cut the long story short if you expect the movie to be a path breaking revolution or a Society Reforming Movie you will be disappointed, otherwise the movie a one time watch.

My Rating 2.5/5 (-1 for underrated performance and dialogues by Ajay Devgan, -1 for uncooked or may be weak story telling & -1/2 for boring and useless songs in the movie  apart of the title song… Watch At Your Own Risk)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fall And Crawl at Wadala

Was keenly awaiting the comeback movie of Sanjay Gupta (Indian Quentin Tarantino) with his latest movie Shootout At Wadala. I had lots of expectations from the movie along with so called hype around the movie. Frankly speaking it falls flat !  When we go to see a noir film there is a certain kind of conceptions and mind set we carry along before going to see the movie; for e.g. movies like Satya, Company, D, Sarkar Shootout At Lokhandwala, Once Upon A Time in Mumbai etc. these are the movies in which when you are out of the theatre you feel like keeping your first button open and walking chin up chest out ! But SAW is a movie which bears the curse of the weak second half.

SHOOTOUT AT WADALA narrates the story of Manya [John Abraham], who gets implicated in a murder case and is sentenced to life imprisonment. Manya flees the prison, returns to Mumbai and forms his gang. The cops launch Operation Manya Surve to curb his dominance… A lot like what we saw in a lot of Ram Gopal Varma Films.

Talking about the performances, the lead star and the face of the movie John Abraham has a good physical presence and an excellent body language. The only place where John looses the battle is his expressions and dialogue delivery. John was, is and always will be a poster boy. However hard anyone tries no one can make a rock smile. But  a special mention to the improvement in John’s acting from his previous films he’s trying hard and it shows that he can achieve much better than what he does now

The biggest mistake of the Sanjay Gupta or for that matter any director can do is cast Kangana Ranaut ! One needs to understand that Kangana is “NOT AN ACTRESS”. Period.

This is the only film except Kya Kool Hai Hum series where i could stand Tusshar Kapoor tolerable with words coming out of his mouth unlike we all love him when he does his Aa Ae EE OOOO in Golmaal series. This time he manages to play a good character with great conviction and believability.

Anil Kapoor is good but once you see the movie you cant stop believing or understanding that this role was written only and only for Sanjay Dutt. Not that Anil Kapoor doesn’t suit in this role but if Sanjay Dutt would have done this role it would have been a different “Character”

Ronit Roy is good in whatever he got to do. You don’t have to say anything about Manoj Bajpai even if he does not act he’s very good always playing the roles in his own style with grace and elance. Sonu Sood has played his part very well but only too soft. Siddhant Kapoor is also one actor to watch out for with genes in his acting, although he cannot be fitted as a lead actor but has a lot potential as a supporting actor.

The movie killer is the Songs & Dance uselessly cropping up from time to time, I am sure it will be for people to get an excuse to get out of their seats and take a smoke keeping in mind the single screen audience in B Categories cities and villages. It would be unfair on my part if i don’t  appreciate the art of filmmaking Sanjay Gupta has ! he takes the camera work and technicalities to a all new level, however the movie may end but the visuality of the movie always stays with you. The Dialogues could have been much better and with a lot of punches like the ones in “Once Upon A Time In Mumbai”

On the whole Shootout At Wadala is a “Charane ki Murgi Barane Ka Masala” nothing great about the movie but not totally disappointing too, if i could hold on to my seat for 150 minutes i am sure you will be able too. The Plus of the movies are Sanjay Gupta’s Direction good supporting cast and believeable screenplay. The Minus points are useless songs, trying hard to act John Abraham, underutilised Anil Kapoor, anything else but Kangana Ranaut could have been better, slow story and many unanswered questions !

My Rating 2.5/5 (-1 for Useless Songs & length of the movie, -1 for Un-exploited art of great cast, -1/2 for loosing the grip in the second half)

Really SPECIAL 26 !!

Ajju (To a Female Candidate): Tum CBI kyun banna chahti ho

Female Candidate : Corruption Ko Ukhadke Ke Phenk Dena Hai Sir !

Ajju : Tum Ukhadogi ?

Female Candidate : Milke Ukhadenge na Sir… Thoda Aap Thoda Hum

And the crowd bursts out into a roar of laughter… When you are sitting in a single screen theatre watching a intelligent movie in which the hero is a antagonist and the movie is about a heist  by a criminal mind and you you hear Seetis and applause this movie is nothing but a Super Hit then and there !

Yet another Heist movie ? NOT EXACTLY ! Special 26 is based on a true story that happened in Mumbai in late 80’s. A story about 4 conmen Ajju (Akshay Kumar) P.K. Sharma (Anupam Kher)

•  Joginder (Rajesh Sharma)
• Iqbal (Kishor Kadam)

who present themselves as CBI, IT, ACB officers and make false raids of people having black money, soft targeting them as they cannot launch a complaint or create a media  hype as the money is black and  the chances of more headache to these Politicians, Businessmen & Corrupt officials is more. After doing many small con jobs and fake raids its the last plan and since it is last it also has to be LARGE. So the team of these 4 conmen set up for the biggest Con Job they have ever attempted a job where they will earn more than 2 crore (The 80’s value could today be anywhere around 100 Crore). This time Ajju (Akshay Kumar) the Master Mind is the brain behind every job rejected in a CBI interview he decided to challenge the CBI and prove how weak they were, he makes plans thinking like a CBI officer but the only difference is that he is one step ahead !

 

Performance wise Manoj Bajpai (CBI Officer Waseem Khan) Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergil (Inspector Ranbeer) Akshay Kumar & Kajal Aggarwal are all supremely effective and are all apt for their characters. Though Kajal has a very small and insignificant role she manages to play it with all justice, Jimmy Shergil is excellent in his supporting character and makes you think why such talent is overshadowed in Hindi Film Industry. Manoj Bajpai is one man to look forward to, ever since he has innovated himself first in Rajneeti, Aarakshan, Chakravyu, Gangs Of Wasseypur and finally Special 26, this is the Manoj Bajpai we wre looking for after Satya’s Bhiku Mahatre. Applause ! Reviewing Anupam Kher’s acting ability will be like Chota Muh Badi baat ! and Akshay Kumar has literally transformed himself and moulded himself as Ajju totally contrast from his Action or Comedy image Ajju is a poker faced conman with no non-sense attitude played perfectly.

 

Technically Hats off to Neeraj Pandey the director of the film for presenting such a film and extra efforts to re-create India as in 1980’s I was literally searching for mistakes but failed miserably, kudos to the detailing. Music is negligible, in fact there is actually no need for songs in this film, they look pushed in the gap but fail. Cinematography is good though most the locations are Computer generated but the remaining part is well handled. Such a movie with such powerful characters would have been dull without hard hitting dialogues, and thankfully there is no stone left unturned in having great dialogues which make you feel the situation.

 

On the whole Special 26 is what Hindi Film Cinema needs fresh, intelligent, performance oriented, great story &  amazing script. I recommend this movie to all the movie lovers. GO FOR IT !

My Rating 4/5 (-1/2 for Unwanted Music & -1/2 for Useless Love Story)