Aa Dekhen Zara

Aa Dekhen Zara, a Sci-fi action thriller first of its kind in Bollywood released this week with no other competitors at the box office. Directed by debutant director Jehangir Surti, Aa Dekhen Zara is a good watch with every ingredient rightly added.
The script is good not great. Being Neil Nitin Mukesh's second movie, ADZ is not a Johnny Gaddar and doesn't even come close. First half is absolutely engaging and keeps you on your toes right till the intermission. Like a few previous flicks,the script of ADZ too is let loose as the passing second half.

Aa Dekhen Zara's, protagonist Ray(Neil Nitin Mukesh) a photographer finds himself a camera left off by his dead grandfather which quite amusingly clicks photos, when developed shows the future of the people in the photos. During one such camera encounter is when he accidentally runs into Simi(Bipasha Basu) a DJ at a club. Ray adds color to his struggling life by the aid of the camera to win bucks through Lottery, Horse Racing and various other sources. He then starts living a polished life with Simi when fate strikes. He finds himself chased by both cops and Captain(Rahul Dev) to get hold of the camera. To add to Ray's agony is when, he finds out that he's going to be dead in a week's time and all he has is 7 days to find a safe place both for the camera and Simi. The events that lead upto the climax is for you to see it youself.

Aa Dekhen Zara is fresh and feels good. Second half of the movie is more of the typical Bollywood chases and makes you feel restless as it seems never ending.
All the actors are pretty decent but the performances are nothing to be excited about. Neil Nitin Mukesh and Bipasha Basu both look good together and their screen presence is felt right away.
Rahul Dev with his age old trademark negative role is spot on.

Music of ADZ is composed by Pritam and its average. Though nothing remarkable is seen in the Music Department, the album of ADZ is not a bad one.
Though being an above average watch, the trick that is going to work for ADZ, is the marketing factor which was done quite superbly and that is going to pull people to the theaters.

I will go with 7 out of 10 for Jehangir Surti's Aa Dekhen Zara.

A good watch for this weekend.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge

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0 comments Posted by Rag at 1:03 PM  |

Barah Aana

Firstly,Extremely sorry for reviewing the movie so late.



Written, Produced and Directed by Raja Menon, Barah Aana is an below average watch. The movie that claims to be comic flick doesn't even come close to making you laugh and the max that you can probably do is to smile at a few scenes. I cannot believe the fact that an actor like Nasserudin Shah is wasted in this movie. Barah Aana's script is extremely ordinary and execution of it is where Raja Menon goes wrong. His way of story telling doesn't impress but is sure to make you bored. This movie doesn't engage you for more than a stretch of 5 minutes at a time.

Barah Aana is a story of three poor and simple individuals Shukla(Nasseruddin Shah) a car driver, Yadav(Vijay Raaz) a watchman in a housing society and Aman(Arjun Mathur) a waiter at a restaurant. All their lives change when they involve themselves into a crime accidentally committed by Yadav. Both Aman and Shukla find their reasons of continuing the crime may it be Shukla's grudge against the Owner's Wife or Aman's attempt to save his love. And how the things lead up the climax is for you to watch out for.

Barah Aana is definitely a light comedy. A light comedy that makes you smile and nothing else. Barah Aana's soul are the actors in it. Vijay Raaz is the most impressive of the lot. He recreates the magic created by in him in Raghu Romeo(2003) that had him in the lead. He's funny and emotional. Arjun Mathur after petty roles in movies like Luck By Chance..etc, gets a slightly important role in Barah Aana and he does justice to the role completely showing his potential. He's good in every part of the movie. The setback of Barah Aana is the execution of the script. Its way too ordinary to make an impact. Nasseruddin Shah goes totally unnoticed which is quite rare for the actor of his caliber.

Barah Aana is an below average watch but not that bad after all.

I'll go with 6 out of 10 for Raja Menon's Barah Aana.
Thumbs down for wasting Nasseruddin Shah in the Movie.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge

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2 comments Posted by Rag at 1:00 AM  |

Little Zizou

Written, Directed and Produced by Sooni Taraporevala and distributed by Studio 18 Little Zizou just manages to make it to the above average category. Sooni has been a part of almost every Mira Nair venture right from Salaam Bombay to The Namesake. After such a vast experience with a different genres of movies, the expectation bar was already set high for Sooni with Little Zizou which does not even come close to the movies that she's previously worked on. Little Zizou is definitely a fresh script that simply is made for the multiplex audience. The movie is a little funny and a little emotional had it been funny or emotional completely, it would've done the trick.

Little Zizou is a story of 2 Parsi Families called the Khodaiji's and Pressvala's.
Cyrus Khodaiji(Sohrab Ardeshir) who claims to be a religious Parsi healer wanting to establish an liberation organization for the parsi's is often troubled by his parsi counterpart Boman Pressvala(Boman Irani) who owns a Parsi news journal and is against the values and principles of Cyrus Khodaiji and makes sure to print articles against him everytime.The youngest little boy of the Khodaiji family is Xerxes or Little Zizou(Jahan Bativala) a football freak who idolizes Zinedine Zidane and hopes to meet the football star if he ever toured Mumbai. His brother Artaxerxes(Imad Shah) an soft spoken artist and who visualizes life through his weird cartoons and dreams to build a Flight Simulator with his two other friends. The young little gal of the Pressvala's is Liana, who is clever and witty. The story just revolves around this subject and things go way too complicated when people react to the articles written by Boman Pressvala. The events that follow is to watch out for.

Little Zizou is a movie that could be watched once. It entertains you convincingly till the first half concludes but gets a little slow as you step into the second half. What is really good about the movie is, it keeps you with it till the credits roll. The two child actors Iyanah Bativala and Jahan Bativala steal the show. They're absolutely lovely and makes you love them as you watch the movie. They're naive and funny. Sohrab Ardeshir, who's seen mostly in ad-films gets his nod to show his acting skills and is impressive too. Boman Irani is very good as usual.
Dilshad Patel,Shernaz Patel and Imad Shah have their done their bit convincingly.

Music by Bickram Ghosh is ordinary and suits the subject of the movie quite well.
Little Zizou could be your movie for this weekend provided many releases this week.

I will go with 7 out of 10 for Sooni Taraporevala's Little Zizou.
And a thumbs up to the two child actors of the movie.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge

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5 comments Posted by Rag at 3:13 AM  |

13B - An Average Thriller

13B, produced by Big Pictures and directed by Vikram Kumar is more of a thriller with a slight hint of horror, is an average movie. 13B lacks the energy that a thriller movie needs to carry right till the end. Again this movie is engaging and makes you cling on to your seats only in parts. The script is let loose on most of the occasions.
However 13B doesn't disappoint once you're done watching it.

13B's protagonist Manohar(Madhavan)an civil engineer moves in to a new flat 13B with his family. Strange events follow, after their entrance into the building. Every event makes Manohar aware of the presence of something that's very unusual like the camera in his phone or the lift in the building. Till one day when he finds out that a daily soap on TV which starts siring at exactly 13:00 p.m resembles the story of his own family and how the family's future is dependent on the Daily Soap. A series of unpleasant incidents follow, making Manohar desperate to solve the mystery about the Soap and characters in it. He goes on to find out, how a family was brutally murdered in 1977 in their home which marked the same house number and address as his own apartment. The uncanny events that follow are something to seriously watch out for.

13B is an sincere attempt by the debutant director Vikram Kumar to give the audience a good movie but he just manages to make it a average watch. 13B's main highlight are the actors, who have done a stupendous job. Madhavan is absolutely spot on with a very good performance supported well by the rest of the cast. Not impressive but certainly good are the old creepy sound scares. 13B could have been better had there been no songs.

Music of 13B is by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and is nothing to be talked about. The music is ordinary and totally unnecessary provided the theme of the movie.
Background Scores by Tubby and Parik are definitely good.

At the end of the day, 13B is an average movie.
Go with no expectations and you may well like it.

I will go with 7 out of 10 for Vikram Kumar's 13B.

Raghav
Movie Critic,
Writer's Lounge.

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2 comments Posted by Rag at 4:43 AM  |