Chillar Party Movie Review

Cast: Irrfan Khan, Sanath Menon, Rohan Grover, Naman Jain, Aarav Khanna, Vishesh Tiwari, Chinmai Chandranshuh, Vedant Desai, Divji Handa, Sherya Sharma, Ranbir Kapoor.Director: Vikas Bahl, Nitesh TiwariProducer: Ronnie ScrewvalaBanner: UTV Spot BoyMusic: Amit TrivediScreenplay: Vijay MauryaStory/Writer: Vikas Bahl ,Nitesh TiwariChoreography: Bosco Martis, Caesar GonsalvesCostume: Aki Narula

All the Pamela Andersons and Celina Jaitleys who strip to stop cruelty to animals and whose steamy PETA ads are like magnets to many eyeballs, now have competition from a very unexpected quarter: a bunch of feisty kids in a middle-class housing society in Mumbai.

A tribe of tykes ride on bicycles, congregate in dusty sheds, and steamroll the enemy team on the cricket field. The gang is called Chillar Party and they have a new task at hand: a poor waif Fatka (Irrfan Khan) and his inseparable other half Bheedu (a dog).

Fatka enters the housing society and takes up petty car-washing jobs and comes under the crosshairs of the Chillar Party before securing his place in it by proving his pluck on the cricket field.

All is well in the first half and the audiences are laughing silly at the juvenile gags. But then the film moves onto a somewhat serious terrain as a dog-despising politician vows to clean the city of stray dogs, which means Bheedu, now an inseparable part of the Chillar Party, could soon be cooped and done away with.

That’s when the spunky kids decide to take the cudgels for the canine and hoist a banner of rebellion against the cynic and corrupt politician. Their way of protest -- stripping to their undies in public. And they do grab the eyeballs.

Chillar Party is a sweet little film that starts off very well but steers into a bumpy zone in the second half as the standoff between the kids and the politico begins. Of course, there’s a message or two squeezed in here by the director duo Vikas Bahl and Nitesh Tiwari.

The kids are all right, but it’s Fatka, Encyclopaedia and Mottu who stand out. The movie packs in funny moments aplenty, most notable being the ones where the kids begin to imitate Fatka’s style.

All in all, a film with a heart and ample humour. Quite canny for Salman Khanto back it as a producer - his first one and surely worth a watch.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

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Murder 2

Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Jacqueline Fernandez, Yana Gupta, Prashant Narayanan, Sudhanshu Pandey, Sandeep Sikand, Shweta KawatraDirector: Mohit SuriProducer: Mahesh BhattMusic: Harshit Saxena, Sangeet Haldipur, Siddharth Haldipur, MithoonSound: Kunal Mehta, Parikshit LalwaniLyrics: Sayeed Qadri, Kumaar, MithoonCinematography: Ravi WaliaEditing: Devendra MurdeshwarScreenplay: Shagufta RafiqueDialogue: Shagufta RafiqueStory/Writer: Mahesh BhattChoreography: Raju Khan


 Murder 2. “Just cut off the darned root of the problem.” Well, that seems to be the mantra of the psychopathic, misogynist, serial killer inMurder 2. He’s sure had a troubled past. When the sexual attraction towards women had the better of him, he cut off the damned root of it (if you know what I mean). But when the attraction didn’t cease, he turned the blade towards women and began abducting them and slicing them off in little pieces and packing them in big poly bags (not banned in Goa yet?) and dumping them in a deep dark well in the backyard of the creepy mansion he lives and kills in.

Meet the consummate nutcase Dheeraj (Prashant Narayan) who’s plain lame, and anything but his name. And meet the ex copper Arjun (Emraan Hashmi) who works with Goan pimps and druglords and sleeps around with a PYT named Priya (Jacqueline Fernandez). She loves him, but he reciprocates her affection by doing the obvious in the bed and later offering her a wad of money. “Rakh le,” he says with a deadpan expression.

But Murder 2 is more about Reshma (Sulagna Panigrahi), a young girl whom Arjun uses as a bait to trap the man behind the mysterious disappearances of prostitutes in Goa, not knowing that he was feeding the rookie hookie to a raving lunatic.

Far from being a crank with an ingenious methodology, the serial killer inMurder 2 is impulsive and even downright dumb, and his murders are artless despite him being a sculptor. So the hammer and chisel are mere props while his weapon of choice is something that will put a lot of kirtan-loving ladies at unease.

Surprisingly, Prashant Narayan isn’t bogged down by the sketchy character written by Mahesh Bhatt. Narayan lends edginess to Dheeraj’s lunacy, a discomforting menace to the madman. In comparison, Emraan Hashmi as the cop is mostly left huffing and puffing. His character is resentful towards God, and much like the Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) of Deewar he doesn’t step inside the church even when a semi-clad Jacqueline Fernandez eggs him to do so. In one scene when he stands in front of a statue of a crucified Jesus, you half expect Hashmi to say “Aaj khush toh bahut hoge tum”.

Director Mohit Suri displays shocking amateurishness in a lot of scenes. There are continuity blunders like Hashmi’s stubble mysteriously getting bushier or lighter from one scene to another, or a scene where posse of cops appear out of nowhere at a temple just as Emraan rushes in to have a dekko at the dead body inside. And guess what? Once he sees the victim in the welter of blood, a song follows!

Jeez! At that point and threw my arms in the air and looked around to check what other people were doing in the theatre. A couple necking and petting in the front row. The guy next to me glued to his cell. The aunty in the front gorging on popcorns. The uncle looking around, just like me.

This was a film that was supposed to keep us on the edge of our seats and knock the very breath out of our lungs. It doesn’t. Not that we expected some sort of Hitchcockian suspense, or Hannibalistic chills, or John Doesque lunacy. All we bargained for was a taut thriller which Murder 2 is far from being. Yet, credit to Prashant Narayan for saving the day for the Bhatts. For once, the serial killer outshines the serial kisser.

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

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Delhi Belly

Cast: Imran Khan, Shenaz Treasuryvala, Rahul Pendkalkar, Vir Das, Kunal Roy Kapoor, Vijay Raaz, Paresh Ganatra, Raju Kher, Rahul Singh, Rahul PendkalkarDirector: Abhinay DeoProducer: Ronnie Screwvala, Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao, Jim FurgeleBanner: Aamir Khan ProductionsMusic: Ram SampatLyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya, Akshat Verma, Munna Dhiman, Ram Sampat, Chetan ShashitalStory/Writer: Akshat Verma

None of you, I am sure, is DK Bose. But the first thing you ought to do after reading this review is bhaag and get yourself a ticket for the most hilarious comedy of the year -- Delhi Belly. It’s a film that brings the house down, both figuratively and literally.

The camera scans through the cracked roof and the messy interior of a run-down room, through the musty bathroom and its antediluvian flush, and rests at last on the partly exposed bumline of the fatso who’s going to have the Delhi belly after eating a piping hot fried chicken handmade by a crotch-scratching vendor. Writer and associate director Akshat Verma sure has an imagination to cook up a plot that’s clever and hilarious without ever succumbing to the slapstick.

In this ramshackle room reside three chums - Tashi (Imran Khan), Arup (Vir Das) and Nitin (Kunaal Roy Kapur). Tashi is a journalist with a girlfriend (Shenaz Treasurywala) he doesn’t really want to marry. Arup is a cartoonist in an ad firm, and Nitin a photographer. The plot thickens when Nitin suffers from diarrhoea, and a package containing his shit sample is mixed up with another package containing smuggled diamonds.

In one of the best and yet yucky scenes in the film, the gangster (Vijay Raaz), after receiving the package, lays out a velvety cloth on the table, carefully brushes away the dust, and opens the container and upends it for the glory of sparkling diamonds, but what comes out is slushy shit. 

The squeamish souls be forewarned. Delhi Belly is stuffed with scatological gags. There’s more orange juice in the refrigerator than water in the bathroom for the diarrhoeal Nitin to potty wash. And hardly a few reels go by when he isn’t scurrying to a seedy toilet to relieve himself, and also farting liberally on the way. This apart, there’s a lot of risqué humour. Like that scene when Arup, dumped by his girlfriend for a Canadian techie, imagines himself ruining her marriage with a revelation that’s simply ‘blows’ everyone’s mind. A lot of funny scenes involve the gangster Vijay Raaz and his cronies, particularly a nitwit baldie who calls laundry “lundry” and is caught up in the confusion of putting on and then taking off the gun silencer when the moment comes to pull the trigger.

Performances are pretty spot on. Imran Khan doesn’t crack much humour, but is verily the non-committal guy with the gumption to take on a gangster or rob a jeweller or simply concuss an irate brat with a flower pot. Vir Das does chip in humour in the edgeways but it is Kunaal Roy Kapur who takes the cake with his creditable portrayal of an immoral, blackmailing, shrewd character with an upset tummy. A special mention for Vijay Raaz and his gang of oddballs. Raaz is decidedly amusing yet has a subdued menacing streak. He’s particularly brilliant with the cuss words, which Delhi Belly is generously sprinkled with. Poorna Jagannathan does make her presence felt as Tashi’s colleague.

Songs only play in the background and the cinematography verily captures the essence of downtown Delhi. As someone who has shuffled through the grime of Delhi streets for a good part of struggling life, I did not watch Delhi Belly in its original English version. Nah! The spirit of Delhi, its gullies and gaalis, cannot be captured in a language that’s still at best cosmetic for Indians. You need the absolute vernacular of desi Hindi when mouthing cuss words of the G@, L# and Ch%%% variety. It’s a pity that the film is only dubbed in Hindi, which should have been its original language.

Yet, credit to producer Aamir Khan and director Abhinay Deo for making a film that’s unpretentious, crass, but extremely funny. Yes, it takes a few cinematic liberties which leave you a tad disappointed (like the trio going scot-free after a bloody shootout), but all in all Delhi Belly (Hindi dubbed) is a film that anyone who’s an adult and not a DK Bose, shouldn’t miss. 

So don’t think or blink. Just Bhaaag!!!!!!!!!!

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

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Bbuddah - Hoga Terra Baap

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Raveena Tandon, Hema Malini, Minissha Lamba, Sonal Chauhan, Neha Sharma, Sonu Sood, Prakash Raj,
Charmi, Mahie Gill, Makrand Deshpande, Shahwar Ali, Rajeev Mehta, Rajeev Varma, Vishwajeet Pradhan,Atul Parchure , Abhishek BachchanDirector: Puri JagannathBanner: AB CorpMusic: Shekhar Ravjiani , Vishal DadlaniSound: Rakesh RanjanLyrics: Anvita Dutt GuptanCinematography: Amol RathodEditing: ShekharArt Direction: Aparna SudStory/Writer: Poori JagannathAction Direction: Vijay (3)Choreography: Remo D'SouzaCostume: Nahid Shah


Bbuddah - Hoga Terra Baap. Before the newly anointed superstars paved their way to stardom by doffing shirts or by their flared-nostril stutters, there was a mega star who at his best then could have been the baap of every self-proclaimed star today had he retained his pizzazz and had directors continued to come up with scripts and roles to match his talent. Director Puri Jagannadh tries to bring that baap back with a bombastic tribute toAmitabh Bachchan in the film Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap. 

Alas Jagannadh’s idea of a befitting tribute doesn’t go beyond recreating the panache and swagger and paying token homage to the best cinematic moments of the superstar. So we have Amitabh Bachchan dressed in the gaudiest of togs, boogieing with a bunch of blondes to a medley of his popular songs from ‘Paan Banaras Wala’ to ‘Rang Barse’. In action, Big B bashes up the baddies singlehandedly and flaunts his ambidexterity with guns. And all this he does in the film that has a threadbare script to prop the comeback megastar’s shtick.

So a good length of the film unspools by with Big B just bumming around with pretty babes (Charmee and Sonal Chauhan) or training his gun on a copper (Sonu Sood) or impressing the goons (Makrand Deshpande and Prakash Raj) in seedy dens with his sharp shooting skills.

Bachchan plays an ex-hitman Viju who returns from Paris to Mumbai on his last assignment which seems assassinating the crime-busting ACP (Sonu Sood). However, as the story progresses new equations are unravelled and a family picture emerges.

The troubles with Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap are many. It’s disjointed, it’s hardly got any story or plot progression, and it hinges only on Amitabh Bachchan’s strut and swagger. The superstar doubtlessly delivers and saves the film from being an outright disaster, but one expected a better tribute to the man who’s immortalized many a role, many a dialogue in Hindi films, including a seething monologue with the almighty.

In supporting roles, Raveena Tandon (as Viju’s smitten admirer) is almost reduced to a caricature while Hema Malini (as Viju’s wife) rekindles the old chemistry of Naseeb days. Sonu Sood doesn’t do much more than woo Sonal Chauhan who looks pretty and acts okay. Charmee simply disappears after the first half.

All in all, Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap is strictly for Amitabh Bachchan fans.

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

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