gangster
Director: Anurag Basu
Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Kangna Ranaut, Shiny Ahuja
5/10
In his attempt to introduce a wheel within wheels, Anurag Basu leaves his audience lost in a confused maze of flashbacks. The necessary ingredients are all there, a gangster with a heart of gold, a beer bar girl and the ‘other’ man. But all it lacks is harmony. Gangster fails to capture either the freshness of a love story or the jungle reality of the mafia world, leaving aside the tautness of a mystery thriller. Also, the volley of justifications offered to validate a woman’s drinking makes the hackles rise unconsciously.
However, one scene has earned the film its rating, towards the end, when we come across the middle class sexual duplicity of the CBI cop (Emraan). The performances are average, with Gulshan Grover’s being slightly above and debutante Kangna Ranaut’s slightly below it. The songs are okay, too, except that one could not help wincing at Pritam’s version of Bhebe dekhechho ki, originally from the Bangla band Mohiner Ghoraguli.
Sunayani Ganguly
the pink panther
Director: Shawn Levy
Cast: Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Beyonce Knowles, Jean Reno
5.5/10
Instead of the Sellers’ drooping moustache it’s Martin’s toothbrush upper lip; instead of the nasal French drawl it’s the hamburrgerr accent. You’re going to miss the original Clouseau terribly in this latest film in the Pink Panther series. Steve Martin is too quintessentially American father of the bride to fit into the maddeningly eccentric French inspector Jacques Clouseau who beats not just the killer, but also his conspiring boss, played oh so cooly, by Kevin Kline to clinch the credit. Beyonce Knowles is the surprise seductress who does a tantalising number. Jean Reno is Clouseau’s aide on Kevin’s payroll, but who finally falls in line with his inspector. Clouseau apart from causing the usual havoc including bringing shame to the French honour unravels the murder of a soccer coach by deciphering the Chinese accent and retrieves the pink panther from Knowles’ clutch bag. With all its subplots and side characters, Shawn Levy doesn’t lose his plot and tickles you right to the end.
Anasuya Basu
darna zaroori hai
Directors: Ram Gopal Varma , Sajid Khan, Jijy Philip, Chekeravarthy, Prawal Raman, Manish Gupta, Vivek Shah
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Manoj Pahwa, Arjun Rampal, Bipasha Basu, Makarand Deshpande, Anil Kapoor, Mallika Sherawat, Suniel Shetty, Rajpal Yadav, Sonali Kulkarni, Randeep Hooda, Zakir Hussain, Rasika Joshi, (Nisha Kothari)
5/10
If it’s a horror film you would agree darna zaroori hai. But RGV makes a mockery of the scare factor. The multiple-horror film takes off with a cheeky one, Sajid Khan’s take on RGV’s Darna Mana Hai. A die-hard horror film buff Manoj Pahwa is not impressed, he wants a refund. But on his way back home through a graveyard he suffers a heart failure. The jingling of coins in his own pocket scares him and the sight of a looming figure in the moonlight (it turns out to be a huge poster of Darna Zaroori Hai) kills him. Now that’s at best a smart promo-film and it stops at just that.
The film switches to the storytelling mode. Directed by Manish Gupta it is hackneyed stuff. Grandma tells eerie tales to five kids but they all turn out to be you-know-what. RGV’s Amitabh-Riteish starrer is a total let-down. Vivek Shah’s Rajpal-Suniel Shetty episode irritates with Rajpal repeating himself. Jijy Philip’s Mallika-Anil episode is interesting and keeps the curiosity alive till the end. Prawal Raman’s Arjun-Bipasha-Makarand episode has a twist and is somewhat eerie. Two unexpectedly subtle but powerful performances are by Riteish and Randeep Hooda. In Chekeravarthy’s story, Randeep is a man possessed by an evil spirit. Darna Zaroori Hai entertains to a point with its variety, but who’s scared!
Madhuparna Das
