Movie Review: All The Best

All The Best: Total time pass flick

Starring: Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Fardeen Khan, Bipasha Basu, Mugdha Godse, Johnny Lever, Sanjay Mishra, Ashwini Kalsekar and Mukesh Tiwari

Director: Rohit Shetty

Settled in Goa, Veer (Fardeen) is a singer by profession and is making a daily living out of his older brother Dharam’s (Dutt) sent pocket money. Veer has even lied to Dharam that he is now married and aiding him in all his lies is his buddy Prem (Ajay Devgan). Though in reality Veer is in love with Vidya (Mugdha) but her father hates him. Prem however is married to Jhanvi (Bipasha) who is looking after his ancestor’s outdated gymnasium. Things go awry for Prem and Veer as they end up losing a lot of money and are neck deep in debt. Just then Dharam takes a detour to Goa en route his travel to Lusoto. With his sudden arrival, Veer and Prem don’t get time to cover up their lies and Dharam mistakes Jhanvi to be Veer’s wife and Vidya to be Prem’s girlfriend. What chaotic situations it all leads to with multiple characters dropping in to make their problems more complicated forms the rest of the film.

All The Best is undoubtedly the most entertaining film amongst the 2009 Diwali releases. Rohit Shetty has yet again got it right when it comes to keeping his audience laughing without resorting below the belt humour and vulgar interludes. Witty one-liners and hilarious sequences involving Dutt and Johnny Lever have you laughing out loud. However, the first half isn’t that gripping. But the second half covers up for it with confusions multiplying and each actor also contributing his comic best. The length however appears stretched as it runs around 2 hours 25 minutes. Some gags could have been shorter one feels. Pritam’s music is perfect for the film.

Ajay Devgan showcases his improved comic timing and towers above the rest. Dutt too is in top form and entertains. Fardeen is passable. Bipasha and Mugdha don’t have much to do but be a part of the chaos which they do ably. Johnny Lever finally after a long time gets a meaty funny part and he utilizes this opportunity to the maxim. Sanjay Mishra and Ashwini Kalsekar make the proceedings funnier.

It’s a total paisa vasool entertainer and worth a Diwali outing. Go for it guys and forget your recession worries!

'Acid Factory' - stylish action, but loses the plot

Film: 'Acid Factory'
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Manoj Bajpai, Fardeen Khan, Dino Morea, Aftab Shivdasani, Danny Denzongpa, Dia Mirza
Director: Suparn Varma.
By the time the chemically-zonked characters trapped in a padlocked factory realise who they are and what they are up to, we couldn't care less about the outcome of their violently vivacious life. Our disdainful indifference for the characters of 'Acid Factory' comes from the enforced cool quotient. Everyone behaves he was born in a posh retreat and has spent the majority of their lives driving in swanky Porsches.
But the actors lack the charisma to carry off the posh characters with elan.
These, however, aren't the only reasons why we give up on these lost souls. Mainly, the game is up because the film turns out to be an almost frame-by-frame copy of a Colombian film, Simon Brand's 'Unknown'.
Like many of the films produced by Sanjay Gupta, 'Acid Factory' seeks direct inspiration from a foreign source and adds a sheen of extra-ruggedness to the original proceedings. After a point, it doesn't matter what the original reference point is. These are people who've lost their bearings.
But director Suparn Varma remains pretty much in control, specially when the chase sequences take over. That's when the narrative really lets its hair down. The skidding wheels, exploding cars and crashing dreams of characters, who are as amoral as they are adventurous, signify the complete takeover of the film's universe by forces that rule the realm of video games.
Long before they became fashionable, Sanjay Gupta has been making video games on celluloid. The background music by Amar Mohile totally supports the vibrant rugged and macho visuals.
Women are objects of classy but lustful adoration in Gupta's scheme of things. Dia Mirza makes her athletic entry mid-way through the film when the characters locked up in an acid factory have just begun to figure out their raison d'etre. By then we've begun to lose our bearing vis-a-vis the askew plot.
To their credit the actors seem to exude an energy beyond that provided by the adrenaline-motivated visuals. Each characters comes across as an individual. Manoj Bajpayee is wacky, Aftab Shivdasani is restrained. Dino Morea is wry and Fardeen tries hard to come to terms with his amnesiac character.
Danny Denzongpa and Irrfan Khan remain peripheral, never quite entering the domain of the damned, remaining above the pyrotechnics even while indulging in them.
Technical qualities of 'Acid Factory' deserve a special mention. Sahil Kapoor's camera captures the bends of Cape Town effectively.
'Acid Factory' is overall a stylish action film.

When Bappa wished ‘All the Best’!

Trust Ajay Devgan to surprise us with the most unusual antics!

If you thought that making the most expensive Bollywood song and performing a somersault in a car for his upcoming film “All The Best’ was crazy enough, here’s some more news… The producer- actor launched the music of the film at Mumbai’s Siddhivinayak temple on Friday!

The entire team of the film, including Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Fardeen Khan, Bipasha Basu, and Mugdha Godse along with Director Rohit Shetty visited the temple on Friday morning to launch the music of the film. Giving them company were music director Pritam and Krishan Kumar representing T-Series (as head honcho Bhushan Kumar was not in town).

Bollywood stars, producers and directors visiting temples at the time of a film’s release in not a new phenomena, but a producer actually releasing the music of his film at a temple was something unheard of in Bollywood so far!

Interestingly, Ajay Devgan picked up Fardeen from his Juhu residence and went straight to Sanjay Dutt’s place at Bandra, where Bipasha and Mugdha were already present. The team then left together from Sanjay’s place for the temple at Prabhadevi; a clear sign of the camaraderie amongst the cast members.

The promos of “All The Best’ are already high on the popularity charts with their fresh and colorful illustrations and music director Pritam has created some rocking numbers for this comic caper; including 5 songs and 2 remixes packed in the audio CD.

Produced by Ajay Devgan Films and directed by Rohit Shetty, “All The Best– Fun Begins’ is a rib-tickling comedy resulting from mistaken identities and hilarious goof-ups.

Starring Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Fardeen Khan, Bipasha Basu and Mugdha Godse, this Diwali Dhamaka packs in some breath-taking locales, extravagant sets and a carnival of colors!

Looking at Ajay Devgan’s passion towards his films, we are sure that all the gods will be smiling down on him!

Govinda brings the house down in ‘Life Partner’

Film: “Life Partner”

Cast: Govinda, Tusshar Kapoor, Prachi Desai, Fardeen Khan, Genelia D’Souza

Director: Rumi Jaffrey;

Some of the writing invested into this not-bad comic look at the roller-coaster called marriage is surprisingly sharp.

For example, there’s this Gujarati family lorded over by a tycoon (Darshan Jariwala) in Cape Town who remains rigidly rooted to conventions that ended 50 years ago. Back home in Gujarat a modern business family run by a liberal patriarch (Vikram Gokhale) ends up giving his daughter (Prachi Desai) to the NRI tycoon’s mousy son (Tusshar Kapoor). The conflict that ensues is likeable and in a fully filmy way, believable.

Elsewhere this spoilt rich girl (Genelia) with a father (Anupam Kher), who never bothered to discipline her, gets herself a domesticated husband who does all the work while she attends to various disastrous hobbies.

Genelia as the destructive daughter gets to sink her teeth into a meaty part.

Witty and sometimes genuinely funny, “Life Partner” is a light bubbly take on the pitfalls of various kinds of marriages, arranged or otherwise, and how to avoid perils of getting into a marital alliance where the partners know nothing about the future.

While Genelia is happily over-the-top, Prachi in the rounded sensible part of a Gujarati girl standing up to her autocratic father-in-law does well for herself. Of the two young leading men, Tusshar as the timid believer in virginity as a gift to his bride suits his part and does at least one sequence when he bursts into tears after Prachi accepts his proposal with tonal correctness.

But it is Govinda as the frazzled divorce lawyer who brings the house down. Govinda gives the kind of tongue-in-cheek performance that once made him the number one choice for roles that required comic interpretations of social problems. He works well in combination with every actor in this film, wooden or hammy.

Rumi Jaffrey’s direction is most of the time even in tone. But the last half hour with its screeching sermonizing gets on to slippery ground. Nonetheless “Life Partner” is a decent inoffensive marital comedy mostly free of double-meanings.

Movie Review: Life Partner

Life Partner: Timepass flick
Starring: Govinda, Fardeen Khan, Tusshar Kapoor, Genelia D’Souza, Prachi Desai, Darshan Jariwala and Amrita Rao in Sp.App
Director: Rumi Jaffrery
“Marriage’ is the union of two souls in a bond, which lasts a lifetime. Though practically, there is far too much that goes into actually managing a “marriage’. This is what “Life Partner’ is all about in a nutshell.
It is a story about three friends, Karan (Fardeen Khan) for whom “Love marriage is the perfect bet’, Bhavesh (Tusshar Kapoor) who does not believe in the concept of “Dating’ and prefers an arranged set up and then there’s Jeet (Govinda) a divorce lawyer who believes in “No marriage’. Karan’s and Bhavesh’s lives turn upside down when they marry their respective partners, Sanjana (Genelia D’souza) and Prachi (Prachi Desai) and how they re-affirm their faith in the institution of marriage is what the rest of the film all about.
Turning producers, director duo Abbas Mustan have not left any stone unturned from giving the film a grandiose look. Wish they were equally charged about promoting the film as there is no buzz around the movie. The locales of Cape Town are eye catching and Sameer Arya’s cinematography makes it look so much better.
Writer-Director Rumi Jaffery has already proved his prowess in writing in the past and after seeing this film one can easily say that his craft in direction is equally good as far as films of this genre are concerned. But the screenplay (Yunus Sajawal) suffers on many counts as the film starts off well, dips intermittently, gathers momentum in the second half and drops again during pre-climax and climax. Niranjan Iyengar’s dialogues are funny at most places and tickle your funny bone at most occasions. Less said about Pritam’s music the better. We also wonder how could a master lyricist like Javed Akhtar could come up with such mediocre work. Though each of the song numbers have been shot well, there is not a single song you want to carry home or even hum around. Watching Kuke Kuke number is fun because of Govinda and Genelia’s histrionics. Editing by Sanjay Sankla needs some serious trimming especially in the second half.
Fardeen Khan has by now got comfortable with the camera and it shows. Tusshar suits in his part well and does full justice to it. Genelia looks cute but her dialogue delivery needs to be improved. Prachi Desai is very likeable and gives an earnest performance. Govinda once again plays to the gallery and succeeds in evoking laughter. Anupam Kher is like always, ever dependable. Vikram Gokhale and Darshan Jariwala are sincere in their respective roles. Amrita Rao in a guest appearance as a bar girl fails to create any impact again with her miniscule clothing.
All said and done, Life Partner can be a good fun filling experience this weekend (if you are not living in Mumbai) and can be watched along with your partner. For those who are still single, it teaches you the repercussions of having one in your life. So, be prepared!

Dia Mirza turns bad in 'Acid Factory'

Actress Dia Mirza, who has shed her girl next door image to don a glam diva look in her upcoming film 'Acid Factory' said she trained with action director Tinnu Verma to develop the agility her character required.

"An actor's body needs agility to carry off the action or stunt sequence convincingly. The body needs to be in optimum form. I trained to develop it before the film went on floors," Dia, whose character has shades of grey in the movie, told reporters here, unveiling the film's "first look" .

"Besides, it's good to be bad," she said adding her's is the only female character in the film which stars Danny, Fardeen Khan, Irrfan Khan, Aftab Shivdasani, Manoj Bajpayee and Dino Morea.

The film directed by Supran Verma and produced by Sanjay Gupta of White Feather Films will release worldwide on September 3.

Fardeen said he earlier worked with Supran in 'Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena' also produced by Sanjay Gupta.

"The film did not do well, but I feel actors, directors make a mature transition since the time they make their debuts," he said.

"In 'Acid Factory' actors needed to be in a certain frame of mind. They don't trust each other, but are still part of the same gang," he said.

The special bond shared by all the actors during the course of shooting in Ramoji Rao Film city in Hyderabad and South Africa is a testament of onscreen chemistry, he said.

We discovered each other as friends and people," the actor, looking dapper in a grey suit, said.

On repeating Supran after his failed box office debut, producer Sanjay said he does not look at the director's body of work but the energy level he possesses before signing them on for his banner.

"I like to do films which defy formula and does not go down the beaten path," he said.

Actor Irrfan Khan, fresh from the success of 'NewYork' seemed to be in a jovial mood when many wondered what he was doing in such a stylised Bollywood action flick.

"Supran told me that I will be holding guns and romancing Dia. I said I am in. But then, what about acting ?, and the director told me forget it for once," Irrfan joked.

Gulshan Grover was however, miffed with the producer that despite being an integral part of the film, he was missing from the promos and trailers.

"I would like to believe that it is part of marketing strategy," he said, to which Sanjay Gupta said Gulshan was a surprise package in the film.