Dabangg 2: Fight, Dance, Repeat!!!

Clearly Dabangg2 is not a film for people who read or write stories. Clearly Dabangg2 is not a film for people who read or write reviews. Heck, Dabangg2 is clearly not a film for people who read or write at all.

For those of you who crib that Salman Khan no longer ‘acts’ in his films I recommend watching Dabang2. He doesn’t even do his steps here. His belt sways itself automatically to ‘Hud Hud Dabang’. Now if that doesn’t tell about the star I don’t know what does.

With Chulbul Pandey’s mother and bothersome father-in-law safely out of way in the original, we no longer have the need to be concerned about what happens to anyone. Sure, we know the baddies get killed, the wifey gets her share of kisses and songs, the father is content and happy listening to the heroics of his son and the brother is only too willing to be ignored. So what we are left with are the antics of the actor having so much fun himself and delivering some of them to us too.

The story is such a joke that had Arbaaz Khan heard it himself, he would have laughed to his heart’s content. Pandeyji has now transferred himself to Kanpur and is busy saving children from goons there. But as we all know the world does not let a man do his aviator tricks and pelvic thrusts in peace does it? So we have Bacha Bhayya (Prakash Raj) and his two brothers. Why three you may ask. It is simple. One to get killed in the first half and the other who has some political ambitions to be killed in the second half. You did not think Salman Khan needs to get his shirt off to fight Prakash Raj. So we have the third beefed up brother to facilitate the climax act. Gotcha?

This is a Salman Khan film and no one messes his party for him and this applies for decent artists too. Deepak Dobriyal learns it the hard way when his head gets twisted for putting in a competent act. People are equal in number whether he wants to kill them or shake a leg with them dressed impeccably in formals. Believe me, all of it is so entertaining that the first half breezes away even when it has no real story to connect these acts and you are not even guilty of enjoying it.

So folks, that’s about it. Go and Watch Dabang2 because “Chulbul Pandeyji aapka Manoranjan Karenge”

Aate Hai.

Talaash: Say No to Cheese

Talaash is a great film made out of an absurd story and it is not necessarily a good thing to happen. The much-hyped twist at the end might live up to it in terms of its shock value to find its presence in  an Aamir Khan film but it is certainly out of place. It is surprising to see how everyone decided to play along when the bluff was so easy to call and to think that they have made one flawless film out of this insanity is difficult to chew.

It is a tempting thought to call Talaash a film-noir since it evocatively checks most of the boxes of the genre. But the generous amount of cheese its script is peppered with and the leisurely pace with which the plot unfolds bring down what could have been a decent tribute to the genre.

The film is consistently watchable thanks to the ensemble both on and off the screen. Kareena and Nawazuddin Siddiqui are the standout performers and the later in particular adds an altogether different and interesting perspective to the plot. Aamir plays the role of the cop with his usual earnestness but Surjan Shekhawat is not one of his memorable roles since the character is neither likeable nor layered enough to follow. He asks all the questions in the movie but forgets or conveniently ignores the most important one. The logic of the script. Rani is a natural and seems to be at home playing Roshni who does not resort to theatrics to make her point. Mohanan’s cinematography gives the film the desired moody feel and Ram Sampath’s background score manages to hook you to the proceedings. As we noted earlier, this is indeed a brilliant ‘film’ if one has to go by the true definition of cinema.

There is a scene in the film where Surjan Shekhawat contemplates what might have been his son’s fate had he chose to act differently on that fateful day. Perhaps the film’s current ending is one of those choices (the wrong one, even in the film) made by the writing team. Perhaps there was a better ending to the tale that was not shown to us which would have been more fitting. With a couple of smooches and tackier visuals, this one would well have been Raaz 4 or Jism 3.

To sum it up Talaash is Travis Bickle trapped in a film-noir only to be bailed out by the Bhatts.