Heroes (2008) Movie Review- An embodiment of Pure Patriotism

Indeed, if you know filmmaker Samir Karnik's work – early and later titles like 'Kyon Ho Gaya Na' and 'Nanhe Jaisalmer', you may find yourself watching his recent movie, 'HEROES' surmounting your expectations. Obviously, his earlier directorial were merely dashing down everyone's hopes and how about this one? It's a fantabulous piece of work churned by Samir Karnik and it's worthy to be ennobled as one of the year's best film.  Well, for those who ever thought that 'Heroes' is a flick centering on Jawans of Country's borders breathing their last for saving Nation from clutches of rivalries, there's a surprise element awaited.

Naturally, possibilities are sure to have evoked your quotients of assumptions after watching the promos that it's a film of war genre. Hats off to the auteur for he doesn't beat the same bush as 'Border' or 'LoC Kargil' and you don't even see a sequence moving across these panoramas. Merely, it has the gripping substance, 'You needn't be a soldier to love your Country'. Indubitably, your chests are certainly to be filled with emotions and patriotisms even after the show is over.

The film seems to be carrying partial traces of Walter Salles's 'Motorcycle Diaries' (a film based on life of Argentina's Ernesto Che Guevara).  Sometimes it takes only a moment to bring about a big change. One experience can transform you forever. One journey can set you on a path that you will follow all your life. Heroes is the story of one such journey.

Sammy (Sohail Khan) and Ali (Vatsal Seth) are childhood friends. They have taken joint decisions in life, right from choosing a school to taking up a career. Even though they are not like-minded, they are together because they rely heavily on each other - two bodies, one soul. Sammy is an eccentric boy, high-spirited and has an uncanny knack of finding humor in the weirdest of situations. He's generous, compassionate yet impulsive. He is like a kid who needs to fall to learn how to walk. Ali on the other hand is quieter and more mature. 

'Heroes' is the story of these two boys who travel a thousand miles to deliver three letters as a part of their film school assignment. But little do they know that the journey they have embarked upon will give a new meaning to their life. They discover the power within themselves to change lives and events that are of importance. Heroes emphasizes on the simple experiences that can awaken feelings of patriotism. A fun road trip for two boys and a series of experiences that finite emotions that have never been experienced before, this is the underlying crux of the film.

The film goes inclusive of three different chapters as young lads meet three families pitiably bounced with demise of their beloved ones in war. First, they meet a widow (Preity Zinta) in deep village of Punjab, who lost her husband Balkar Singh (Salman Khan) during war. The flashback reveals a beautiful love story between both of them and the pain possessed by her.

Next person they meet is a disenabled ex-air force officer Vikram Shergill (Sunny Deol) in Himachal who is boozed up all the time. He narrates the life of his brother Dhananjay (Bobby Deol) and his death in war. An attribute that gets you more adhered is about brotherly bonding between them. Well, that's not an end; you have lots and lots that'll get you enthralled with this chapter.

Finally, the letter is delivered to a despaired father (Mithun Chakraborty) who has lost his son Sahil Nagvi (Dino Morea) in the war. Over here, there's something a bit missing that lets us down. Nevertheless, the emotional quotients diminish those factors keeping the pace moderately gripped up.

Hats off to Director Samir Karnik! An awesome flick… It enhances the emotional and patriotic feel amongst all the audiences. A smart way of storytelling precisely presents the film fantastically. How about negative traits? Fine! It doesn't carry much apart from lengthy flashbacks with bits 'n' pieces of flaws in third chapter (Mithun, Dino).

The actors meet the film's challenges every step of the way. Sohail Khan brims up with over-the-top performance on humor as well emotionally in the latter parts. Preity Zinta steals the show with her mind blowing gestures and trenchant style of uttering Punjabi… Salman strides outstandingly and his looks of Singh is cool. Sunny Deol grabs your attentions with his profound on performance. Well Bobby carries off the same credits and it would have been nice if his portion was elongated.  Dino Morea and Vatsal Seth don't exceed your expectations and their performance is simply mediocre. Amrita Arora and Ria Sen have nothing more to perform before the lens.

Nothing to blame on technical aspects: Different backdrops of exotic locations have been fabulously canned by Binod Pradhan and Gopal Shah. Be it songs (especially 'Mannata' and 'Makhana') and background score, Sajid-Wajid sway enhancing the top-notched quality of film.

'Heroes' – A film that'll get your senses brimmed up emotionally and sure to be liked by all… Of course, the film reaches the tops the chart prior to other releases hitting screens for Diwali…

Verdict: Don't miss it… Strongly Recommended

Rating : ****

Roadside Romeo (2008) Movie Review - Precisely Average in deliverance

Obviously, lots of multiplexes launched should have urged Yash Raj Films to stride successfully on new genre of Animation. Indeed, the biggest production house inIndia joining hands with the ever best studios of Hollywood Walt Disney Pictures is a cock-a-hoop for all. With animation flicks of several foreign countries bringing home the bacon across the World, India lags far behind. Many of our Indian professionals have presented their top-notched outputs in Hollywood animation films. When it comes to Indian Animation film, none of them shored with grandeur. If you had ever thought, budget was our only constraint? Might be, but not for a greater extent. Despites, the same talented animators and greatest producers involved, many of the films are just mediocre.

Of course, 'Roadside Romeo' falls on the same lines of being an average based film. Unlike previous week's release 'Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang', this one offers a fabulous piece of work in technical terms. Nevertheless, the film lets our hopes with middling screenplay.

Precisely, a perfect difference between animation flicks of India and Hollywood lies on this aspect. Leave out the top-charting films Lion King, Shrek, Ice Age; even the average ones like 'Meet the Robinsons' were extraordinary. You know why? A powerful narrative structure, skillfully drawn characterizations and emotional aspects got us adhered to the film.

Does 'Roadside Romeo' tread following the same formulas? Does it capture everyone's interests' or just kids? Why ask so many questions, just drive yourselves for this film and you'll merely utter 'the fantastical deliverance of animation is sure to attract kids, but nothing well to appreciate on narrative aspects'.

Glimpse through the storyline and get on with more analysis…

Romeo, a rich dog leads a life of complete style. He was a complete dude. He had the works - a mansion to live in, chicks to party with and the cars to be driven around in, until one day, the family he was the favourite pet of, decided to move and left him back, abandoned on the mean streets of Mumbai.

Romeo is now faced with situations he has never been in before. He encounters four stray dogs, which scare the living daylights out of him. Soon, he smooth talks his way into their hearts and becomes friends with them. 

Then, Romeo finds love! He encounters the beautiful, ravishing Laila, the most beautiful female dog he has ever seen... and he loses his heart to her at first sight! 

And finally, he encounters a villain! The dreaded Don of the area - Charlie Anna! The Don who everyone is scared of. 

So hop on to this adventure as Romeo wins friendship, love and a new life - in spite of Charlie Anna and his gang! 

Cute and beauteous story, isn't? Yup! But looks like it has been vividly inspired from yesteryear commercial films of hero falling in love, fighting with baddies and exposing his heroisms… Screenplay drops down the pace right from beginning, but greatness of Director Jugal Hansraj is revealed in latter part as it has some entertaining elements.

Don't miss the Pakka- DDLJ ending sequence of train; you'll be elated to extremity… Innovativeness of great direction has been showcased and it would have been nice if he had carried on rest of the film with same wavelength.

In-depth, voices rendered are absolutely top-notched. Be it Saif (Romeo), Kareena (Laila) or any other characters' voice, everyone have excelled remarkably.  

On the technical areas, a perfect animation as mentioned earlier intensifies the film. But musical score by Salim-Sulaiman doesn't stand out for good credits. Perhaps, the musicians could have just worked for ne plus ultra and it's a mere disappointment from this duo.  

 Roadside Romeo is enjoyable at certain part for Kids, but they wouldn't be relishing all throughout with it. Flaws are blatant on screenplay and dialogues uttered by characterizations (Charlie Anna speaking in South Indian language slang) and not many vistas do really attract adults.

On the whole, 'Roadside Romeo' can be watched for exquisite animation presentations, celebrated voices and nothing else. The screenplay doesn't tread on same tempo and that stops our Romeo hitting bull's eyes.

Verdict: Can watch it once

Rating :**½

Golmaal Returns (2008) Movie Review-A real Golmaal

Perhaps, 'Golmaal Returns' is worthy to be ennobled – 'impaling speculation' for producers of the film. 'Golmaal' made headway with critical éclat for its top-notched drolleries; Rohit Shetty brimmed up with an ebullient show for the family audiences. The prequel had the best show-ups of perfect comedy timings, reasonably good jokes and moreover, the emotional quotients picked everyone's interest. Merely, 'GR' a falderal show with good star-casts and clichéd plotline and what else? Rohit Shetty doesn't touch on any lines of its prequel.

What should have really instigated Rohit and producers to churn out this flick? You wouldn't be able to zero down the precise reasons even after the show is over. To a greater extent, the film is so cranky and again what could be the traits making it look so? Clumsy jokes unapt for universal audiences. Totting up to the annoyance is nit-witted screenplay penned by Yunus Sajawal.  It's a billion-dollar question how Rohit Shetty could elatedly turn the superfluous pages of Yunus into pictures.

And if you're there guessing could there be any solacements for audiences. Yup! Mind blowing performance by Tushaar Kapoor and Shreyas Talpade offers best fiestas of humor. Doubtlessly, you are sure to break down with laughter as these character jape simultaneously on each other.

Gopal (Ajay Devgan), who lives with his wife Ekta (Kareena Kapoor), sister Esha (Amrita Arora) and a dumb brother-in-law Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor), grinds to a halt in a yacht after saving an attractive woman Meera (Celina Jaitley) from some goons. 

Both end up spending the nighttime on the yacht and when he comes home the next day, his distressing leery wife who is also a hardcore fan of the saas-bahu serials, smell fish. 

Gopal knows it's going to be hard to quell her suspiciousness, so he concocts a cock-and-bull story about having stayed the night with a fabricated friend called Anthony Gonsalves. Ekta refuses to buy his yarn and writes to Anthony (on a fictitious address given to her by Gopal) asking him to visit her. 

Gopal convinces his junior at work, Laxman (Shreyas Talpade) to pretend to be Anthony. Everything goes according to plan till the address to which Ekta had written to Anthony turns out to be real! 

If that isn't complication enough for Gopal, a dead body is discovered at the location where he had saved Meera. The Investigating Officer, Madhav (Arshad Warsi), who is Esha's boyfriend and also who cannot stand the sight of Gopal, learns that the latter had been missing from home that eventful night and begins checking on him. 

Promotions prior to release often sounded 'Biggest Comedy Title of 2008' and it's about dashing down your hopes after watching the show. It's a mediocre in terms of presentation. Bits and pieces of surprisals move you along with it, but not to a greater extent. Blemished screenplay lacking substance diminishes the crème de la crème efforts rendered by few best ones.

Rohit Shetty with his 'Sunday' won the credits as the best lollapaloozas, of blending murder-mystery with comedy (Call it 'Black Comedy'). The flick savored to everyone's tastes offering best entertainment. The scenario is quite bleak and contrastive here; nothing impressive that pulls you in.

Lots of actors and does everyone best deserve best credits? Must be quite straining for you all, going through so many questions. Comparatively, you would shoot out many more after the show. Ajay Devagan kindles – his 'Simpatico' catching breath of a struggling husband.  Arshad Warsi lags behind with his goofy role. Kareena Kapoor deserves pat of appreciations as a leery wife. Despites, appearing on with a short role, Celina scores best. Amrita Arora and Anjana Sukhani, merely keep middling…

You'll have entire spotlights turning on Tushaar Kapoor as he eclipses everyone. Ditto to Shreyas Talpade; he treads highly-electrified rendering his laudable performance.  Don't miss the rib-tricking takes between these lads; they're over-the-top.  Ashwini Kalsekar, replica of Saawariya's Rani Mukherji and Arshad Warsi imitating Big B of Black hastens best of all laughter. Kya Hai Rohit Aur Sanjay Leela Bansali Ke Beech? (Ashwini Kalsekar planning to design her interiors with blue color is again a big gag).

Again, fallible technical aspects are a big letdown; neither music nor cinematography is up to the mark. Except, Neeraj Sridhar's 'Tha Karke' and 'Meow' by Suzy Q, nothing offers best scores.

As a whole, 'Golmaal Returns' is a light-headed entertainer, on the buttons plainly for pie-eyed individuals, while for others, enjoy if you want to…

Verdict: Watch it… Kill your time

Rating :**½

Fashion(2008) Movie Review-Stunning strike by Bhandarkar

For all who ever intended 'World of Fashion' is something about fun, glamour and ramp shows, Madhur Bhandarkar enlightens them. Rendering the best realistic themes in each of flicks, Madhur Bhandarkar had conquered the hearts of world-wide audiences. Of course, his top-notching directorial 'Fashion' surmounts our expectations and to define the film, it's 'Wordless'. Lots and lots of ramp walks, backstage happenings, photo shoots of alluring missies, kingpins of Fashion World and more than all, you have drearier slope of it unveiled. Uh-Huh! Blended with these aspects, Bhandarkar crafts a melodrama of three supermodels and their transcending lives. Indeed, the very tagline 'In the World of Fashion, You will have to give more than your morals' wins the applause. Famous philosopher Stella Blum quoted "Fashion is so close in revealing a person's inner feelings. It's really too close to the quick of the soul."  These phrasings have a deep relevance with this film and obviously it is so close to everyone's heart.

In this trenchantly spelled piece of work, Bhandarkar has his galaxy inclusive of best star-casts who are so realistic in their performance. Despites filled with 'Glitz' n 'Glam', the film offers more on other quotients… Where does the film lag behind? Not at many points, but Bhandarkar could have penned his screenplay bit precisely in the latter half.

 The journey of the rise and fall and phoenix like re-birth of India's number one Supermodel. Set against the glittering backdrop of the glamorous but ruthless world of haute couture. 

Fashion, this tells the story of one small town girl with a dream and the determination to make it a reality. Meghna Mathur (Priyanka Chopra) knew that she was meant to be famous. Ever ambitious and bright with stars in her eyes, even as a girl with a conservative background, she dared to dream of bright lights and the big city. The world of fashion - the clothes, the colors, the make-up, all of these form a part of the fascinating world that Meghna has longed to be a part of. She reaches the peak of her success and rises to walk the ramps for leading designers across India. The fashion world lies at her feet - the parties, the brand endorsements, the photographers, the models, the romance and of course - the shows, the shows, the shows! 

However, karma catches up with Meghna as she slowly starts to pay the price for her fame and her journey to the top. Her attempt at a comeback was going to be a near impossibility but she was never a woman to turn away from a challenge. On the pars, the film focuses on other two models: A top-charting model Shonali (Kangana Ranaut), so hard-pressed in her life. Jannet (Mugdha Godse), an aspirational model who has to compromise certain things in her life and settling down with her marriage.

"Fashion" explores the world of style through the emotional personal journey of the key people that make the industry, the dream-weavers of that elaborate world of glamour: the models, designers, photographers, businessmen, agencies etc. 

'Smart as a whip' - A perfect metaphor to fix the earnest work of Madhur Bhandarkar and grand round applause for hitting bull's eyes with a reality theme. It's so realistic and to make it so precise, watch out the sequence where Madhur himself appears on the screen where models says, "He's gonna make a film on Fashion". (Aae Logh Fashion World Ko Bhi Nahi Chod Sakthe).

Even the most minute factual has been picturized with crystal-clear modality. The egoistic nature of models, their frustrated attitudes (Kangana Ranaut), fashion choreographers as gays are so shocking for Indian audiences to accept. Reality really bites, isn't?

Priyanka Chopra spellbinds on her part without any flaws. A girl from small town and her varying colors of life: success and failures, innocence and arrogance; she strides rendering over-the-top performance on her characterization. It's not a long-drawn-out role that Kangana Ranaut dons, but her actions are mindblowing, especially in the latter part. Ditto to Mugha Godse; she does a decent job throughout the show.

Arbaaz Khan excels on the overall show while Arjan Bajwa does justice to his role. No words to describe the tremendous performance of Harsh Chhaya as gay designer. He carries off the show so perfectly on his part. Ashwin Mushran, Samir Soni and Kittu Gidwani tread with naturalistic approach breathing lives on their characterizations.

The auteur has picked in some of the most shocking facts; pathetic scenario of Kangna Ranaut and her wardrobe on the ramp. Was it a replica of what happened to Vikram Rathore's show before 3 months? You've got to ask Madhur about this.

The last few minutes of the flick may get you ungratified for the dragging screenplay, but everything is diminished in climax. Despites, prone to shocking news, the way how Priyanka acts to the situation once the lights are on are so prodigious.

Maybe, Madhur Bhandarkar hadn't focused so precisely on emotional quotients in his previous flicks of Page 3, Corporates and Traffic Signal.  Over here, there are lots of those heart-melting sequences that'll let your eyes soaked with tears. Priyanka Chopra's care and affection for despaired Kangana Ranaut, parents' encouragement for forlorn Priyanka and friends extending their support; they are amazing.

Musical score by Salim-Sulaiman are magnificent and two numbers 'Jalwa' and 'Mar Jaava' grabs your attention. Signature theme of Fashion is played throughout the show in varying tempos and tones, but still they are electrifying your senses. Mahesh Limaye's cinematography is so detailed in each shot and if you are a great analyst of camera works, it's gonna be interesting for you. Niranjan Iyengar throws more life on each character with his dialogues. Of course, costumes and styling are grand fiestas for all…

Valuating 'Fashion' on the whole, it's strongly recommended for all the audiences. Madhur Bhandarkar has limned the real life drama of Fashion World that offer more surprises as well shocks. Not just in multiplexes, the film is sure to make high waves across other centres too. Hats off to entire team for a flawless and brainy show catering to all audiences… Bhandarkar not just presents the drama, but there is something more educative over here.

Verdict: Madhur Bhandarkar – The Real Fashion Maker of Bollywood

Rating : ****