Change Your Image
shvmshrma
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Dilwale (2015)
Awesome Entertainer
After delivering the monstrous hit CHENNAI EXPRESS, Shah Rukh Khan teams up with the Hit machine -- director Rohit Shetty -- yet again. Also, Kajol, SRK's co-star of several unforgettable films, adds incredible weight to this keenly anticipated project. In addition, several enviable names, on and off screen, lend muscle to the enterprise. The canvas is gigantic as well. It can't get bigger than DILWALE, honestly.
Rohit Shetty is synonymous with audience-friendly movies. Most critics may deplore his work, but the paying public -- the ones who matter ultimately -- reveres his cinema. He promises dollops of entertainment and encompasses just about every ingredient available on the shelf, which the hoi polloi laps up with glee. His movies may not offer ground-breaking stuff, nor do they pick up meritorious awards, but he whips up a storm at the box-office every time he attempts a high-on-entertainment fare. Naturally, one expects DILWALE to surpass SRK-Rohit's previous endeavor by a wide margin.
Come to think of it, DILWALE is similar to CHENNAI EXPRESS in several ways. Rohit Shetty focuses on the love story yet again, while the light moments, high-octane drama and aimed-at-masses dialogue -- the staple ingredients or fodder that contribute to a masalathon -- adorn the goings-on wonderfully. At heart, and true to its title, DILWALE remains a love story, not an assemblage of sequences to win and woo the spectators.
Last word? DILWALE delivers what it promises: Entertainment in enormous doses. Rohit Shetty's latest creation speaks the language that the masses comprehend. It's one formula that can never go out of fashion, if handled smartly. And, don't we know by now, how proficient Rohit Shetty is when it comes to delivering a full-on entertainer in his unmistakable style.
The gist of the story: Raj aka Kaali (Shah Rukh Khan), a don, now leads a changed life in Goa. His world revolves around his brother Veer (Varun Dhawan). Veer falls in love with Ishita (Kriti Sanon), who happens to be Meera's (Kajol) sister. Raj and Meera's paths had collided in the past and that becomes an obstacle for Veer and Ishita.
First things first! Speculation is rife that DILWALE is an updated/modified version of HUM (1991), but that's not true at all. Most love stories navigate identical paths and DILWALE is no different. Rohit Shetty stresses on vintage stuff (love triumphs against all odds), but he along with screenplay writer Yunus Sajawal narrates it smartly, peppering and garnishing the proceedings with sub-plots that keep you completed captivated, while the dialogue (Farhad-Sajid) act as the icing on the cake. The twists and turns involving SRK and Kajol is clearly the USP of the enterprise. In fact, the two turning points in the love story, both in the first half, will catch the viewer completely unaware.
Sure, DILWALE has its share of blemishes that cannot be overlooked either. The writing stagnates at regular intervals... The villain's track could've been more persuasive... The pre-climax, when things are sorted out between SRK and Kajol, seems convenient... However, these are minor aberrations. For, the plusses easily outweigh and outnumber the minuses here.
The soundtrack (Pritam) gels wonderfully with the genre of the film. 'Gerua', filmed most exquisitely, is a rage already and definitely the pick of the lot. 'Manma Emotion Jaage Re' is another groovy track that has caught on in a big way (the social media is flooded with its Dubsmash versions and that clearly indicates its popularity). 'Janam Janam' is another soulful composition, while 'Tukur Tukur', which comes at the end credits, is a vintage track that's mandatory in a biggie. The best part is, the songs are appropriately interspersed in the scheme of things. The background score (Amar Mohile) is creditable and in sync with the on-screen situations.
Rohit Shetty's movies are embroidered with some implausible, but incredible stunts. DILWALE has a few action pieces, but the ones featuring SRK are vibrant. Cinematography is top-quality and the DoP (Dudley) makes every frame appear larger-than-life. The panoramic locales of Bulgaria appear truly spectacular.
The principal cast provides the much-needed sheen to Rohit Shetty's vision. For the incalculable fans of SRK and Kajol, it's a treat to watch the celebrated couple after a hiatus (after MY NAME IS KHAN; 2010). It goes without saying that the duo dominates the proceedings with their effervescent acts. SRK is at his charismatic best in the young avtaar and carries off the angry, middle-aged guy with aplomb. Kajol looks gorgeous and steals your heart with a performance that stays in your memory. Actually, her character is one of the high points of the film and the terrific portrayal takes it notches higher. Besides, the on-screen chemistry is one of the pillars on which DILWALE rests.
Varun Dhawan, the teen heart-throb, is excellent, despite being pitted with some of the best names in the business. The young actor, barely five films old, is credible in light moments and compelling in poignant sequences. Kriti Sanon is camera-friendly and confident to the T.
DILWALE boasts of a commanding supporting cast, but the ones who sparkle include Sanjay Mishra (exceptional), Johny Lever (super), Mukesh Tiwari (first-rate) and Pankaj Tripathi (competent). Boman Irani does exceedingly well. Vinod Khannna and Kabir Bedi, the two veterans, are just right. Varun Sharma contributes amply to the comic situations. Nawwab Shah is adequate.
On the whole, DILWALE is akin to a mouthwatering meal that satiates the craving of those who relish masalathons, besides being an absolute treat for SRK-Kajol fans. An unadulterated crowd-pleaser, DILWALE delivers what you expect from a Rohit Shetty film: King- sized entertainment. Go for it!
Fan (2016)
Spellbinding film. Best movie of Bollywood.
WHAT A MOVIE! I am totally mesmerized with this movie. What a film. I have never seen a Bollywood film so good as this one that too a thriller one.
Bollywood film-makers should learn how to make thrillers from FAN, Maneesh Sharma & Shah Rukh Khan.
Shah Rukh Khan in FAN has given a DEADLY FANTASTIC performance. What a classy act! National Awards, Filmfare, IIFA and even Oscar worthy performance it was. Thats why SRK is the best actor of Bollywood.
The direction of Maneesh Sharma is superb & it is really his best work ever.
Hats off to Yash Raj Films for bringing FAN into reality. Thriller films should be made like this.
This movie is a milestone in world cinema. Thank You SRK, Maneesh Sharma & YRF for bringing this film to us.
Fear the Walking Dead: Monster (2016)
Zombies on the High Seas
In the premiere of Fear the Walking Dead's second season, the mysterious yacht owner Victor Strand (Colman Domingo) gives a succinct rundown of the new world order to his stowaways, whom he rescued from the zombie apocalypse. "Let me explain the rules of the boat," he says. "Rule number one, it's my boat. Rule number two, it is my boat. If there remains any confusion about rules one and two, I offer rule number three: It's my goddamn boat." And with that, Strand illustrates how simple and arbitrary "laws" can become at the end of the world— and how willing people are to abide by them if it means they'll be safe.
RELATED STORY
The Real Villains of Fear the Walking Dead
The Walking Dead, AMC's long-running hit and Fear's parent show, began with a world already overrun with zombies. Despite occupying quasi-prequel territory, Fear the Walking Dead is compelling for the way it actually portrays the slow, painful breakdown of society. In the first season, a Los Angeles family watched as zombies started to pop up in their city, normal life collapsed, and the military started to herd people into camps before being overrun. In the second season, the surviving characters have huddled onto Victor's yacht and set sail for open waters, where even more new, nebulous laws are taking hold.
It's only been one season, but Fear the Walking Dead is already doing a better job than the original of examining how civilization— rather than a small band of survivors—reacts to and evolves during the crisis. The Walking Dead, directly based on an ongoing comic book by Robert Kirkman, is a simpler tale of survival that has turned into a grim (if wildly successful) slog. Around the corner is either another awful villain or a wall of flesh-eating zombies, and efforts to rebuild society in the show always revolve around protection, isolation, and bonds of deep trust forged by years of bloody battles. Anytime some semblance of community is built, the show simply tears it down again.
Meanwhile, the heroes of Fear the Walking Dead aren't soldiers, and as they strike out into the ocean in the second season, they're still learning how to adapt to life without traditional systems of authority. The first season was a surprisingly hard-edged, political work that cast the U.S. military as the primary villains, ones who quickly turned against the people they were supposed to protect as the world around them fell apart. As the season ended, the blended family of Madison (Kim Dickens), Travis (Cliff Curtis), their children, and their neighbor Daniel (Ruben Blades) fled the military's quarantine camps for Strand's boat, a luxury yacht parked in the Pacific Ocean that he claimed to own.
In the first season, Fear the Walking Dead's tension derived from the military's secrecy and soldiers' erratic behavior (eventually, it was revealed they planned to flee and wipe out everyone they left behind). In the second, the power is suddenly in the hands of the main cast, especially Victor, which proves an equally terrifying prospect. Victor is friendly enough, but he won't allow any other survivors onto his boat, which leads to many wrenching scenes of desperate dinghies petitioning for help and being ignored. Fear the Walking Dead could easily feel claustrophobic, but the show uses its setting to its advantage, ratcheting up the paranoia as the survivors begin to wonder about Victor's background and his plans for the future.
The most recent season of The Walking Dead was riddled with pointless cliffhangers and featured a drawn-out plot involving a new supervillain too cartoonish to take seriously. Fortunately, Fear the Walking Dead's second season manages to maintain the great momentum of the first, even as it transitions to a new arc. It's also much more fun than it sounds (even though half of the cast is made up of angsty teenagers), as the show takes typical story tropes and manages to smoothly mix them with zombie-horror adventures. If the first season was a domestic drama, focusing on Madison and Travis's blended family as they tried to keep everyone together, this second season is a naval adventure, as the group bands with new, darker allies to fight off pirates and monsters on the high seas.
In Sunday's episode, Daniel darkly refers to Victor as "Ahab," and indeed Victor's edicts do sometimes echo the dictatorial madness of Herman Melville's famous creation. Domingo, a Tony-nominated actor and playwright, is giving a command performance this year, a fascinating portrait of the kind of authoritarian whom society reforms around after being blown apart. It's heartening to see the show take the chance to build that kind of a character from the ground up and invest the audience in his decisions going forward. It might be a comic-book show spin off, but Fear the Walking Dead is proving that it won't settle for a story with easy heroes and villains.