Rowdy Rathore

June 24, 2020 Leave a comment

Theatrical Release Poster

Genre: Action | Year: 2012 | Duration: 140 mins | Director: Prabhu Deva | Medium: Theater (PVR-EDM) in 2012, repeat on DVD in 2020. | Trailer: HERE | Language: Hindi | My rating: 3/5

Favorite Dialogue: “Rowdy Rathore: Don’t angry me.”

Rowdy Rathore, a remake of the Telugu film Vikramarkudu, was supposed to be a come back film for Akshay Kumar as an action hero. Even though there’s several good sequences of action throughout those 140 minutes, it somehow lacked the punch of Khiladi Kumar, especially with no story or plot whatsoever, the characters are easily forgettable. Prabhu Deva has used all the tricks that goes in making a successful Telugu hit in this Hindi remake – song, dance, crass humour, romance, thunderous action and a fearless supercop out to outsmart a bunch of fearsome goons. Comic scenes are not so comic, and what really made me laugh was the dialogues in Bihari Hindi of the villains and the way it was delivered UP-style with southy twang. After a very long time, I got to hear words like, ‘Pagalet’, ‘Baklol’, ‘labarchantis‘, etc. Prabhu Deva made Akshay Kumar wear multi-colored pants forgetting Akshay’s style and using Telugu tricks, reminded me of Raja babu of 90s.

The story is of a small time crook Shiva (Akshay Kumar), who is obliged to get in shoes of his look alike, Vikram Rathore, a fearless cop who dies with severe head injuries during a fight, to rescue a fictitious village Devgarh in Bihar, from its despotic feudal lord.  Shiva falls for a girl from Patna, Priya, played by the buxom Sonakshi Sinha, whom Shiva refers as ‘Mera Maal’ repeatedly, and who could have done better than just showing her midriff!

This low-IQ, deafeningly loud, unapologetically crass, regressive drama full of mindless action is my re-watch Movie of 2020.

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Gangs of Wasseypur

April 16, 2020 Leave a comment

gangs-of-wasseypurGenre: Action | Year: 2012 | Duration: 150 mins | Director: Anurag Kashyap | Trailer: HERE | Language: Hindi | My rating: 4.5*/5*

Favorite Dialogue: “Sardar Khan [Manoj Bajpai]: Us harami ko hamein mitana hai. Goli nahi marenge saale ko. KEH KE LENGE USKI.”

I have watched this epic several times over last 8 years! Anurag Kashyap’s crime drama Gangs of  Wasseypur starring Manoj Bajpayi (truly outstanding as Sardar Khan), Richa Chadda (as Nagma Khatoon), Reema Sen (as Durga), Piyush Mishra (as Nasir, the narrator of the story) among 370 others, portraying immoral criminals is a story of emergence of coal mafia in Bihar from pre-independence 1941 moving forward through three generations. I quite liked Kashyap’s style of short scenes, several in number and often a series of montages taking the story forward continuously maintaining the intrinsic impact of the story. Kashyap’s use of dark humor to judiciously propagate violence bears an uncanny similarity to Quentin Tarantino’s style of film making, though he never allows his influences override the distinct Indian color and the local Bihari flavor of language, environment, diction and character.

Sardar Khan is an anti-hero protagonist who finds it difficult to go without sexual release, yet he is tender at heart for the people he really cares about. Sardar has four sons from Nagma Khatoon and one from Durga. Each son has a different story apportioned to them. Sardar’s oldest son Danish Khan takes the rein over from his father. Faizal Khan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), who is a useless drug addict, gets a sudden transformation from a die hard film fan and a pot smoking idler to a responsible family man. Faizal falls for Mohsina (Huma Quraishi), and this romantic track gives the movie a refreshing change. Because of the length of the movie, Gangs Of Wasseypur was released in two parts. While the first  part explored this revenge saga, the second part dealt with the money squandering lobbyists, turning into foolhardy gangs overnight.

This gritty, exciting, violent, must-watch movie with outstanding music and full of dry & dark humor is a must watch more than once.

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