Shaurya --- Movie Review

The second film of television host turned Director , Samar Khan , released this week and I must say that it is worth a watch if you are tired of watching same movies every week with a typical formula . The first movie of Samar was Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye which nobody remembers . I only remember one song of that movie featuring Arshad warsi . The remarkable quality of that movie was that it was so damn dull and had no energy in it even though it was a love story . And I must say that this movie also has shades of that dullness in the first half because the first half of shaurya moves too damn slowly . The story is somewhat quite small but it has been blown to make a full length feature film out of it . The story is good and since the casting is top notch the audience won't feel bored but what lacks in this film is its loose direction .

The story is of an army officer , Javed Khan , who kills his senior for some reason . Then there is a court case in which Rahul Bose defends Jaaved Khan and Jaaved Jaffry who is a dear friend of Rahul is the advocate of opposition . Rahul is an easygoing guy who doesn't like army but he still joins army on his Dad's wish . His dislike increases even more because he loses his dad in War . He is never serious in life and Jaaved who is his best friend insists him to become serious . Rahul lands in this case as an advocate to Jaaved Khan on the recommendation of Jaaved Jaffry . Everybody believes that the case is an open and shut case but Rahul doesn't think so and he defends Jaaved reaching to his motive for killing his senior officer . The regiment to which jaaved belongs is headed by RP Singh (Kay Kay) who is a very powerful and disciplined army officer . Kay Kay loses his family because a Muslim guy, who was a servant in his house , rapes and murders all of his family . Since then Kay Kay develops a deep seated hatred against Muslims and hence thinks every Muslim to be a criminal and hence makes all his officers of his regime think the same way and also makes them sick to such a large extent that they kill innocent people in the valley just beacuse they are Muslims . Due to this unjust approach of officers Jaaved Khan who is a junior officer kills his senior who causes a lot of hate massacres . When Rahul realises that how sick Kay Kay is , he defends Jaaved with his full strength and in the end manages to prove Kay Kay guilty .

The story is very short and has been en-longed just by putting in characters of Minissha Lamba who is a reporter and Love interest of Rahul . Even Jaaved Jaafry's character as a friend of Rahul is a minor character and has been put in just to waste some time . The entire first half consists of introduction of Minissha , Rahul and Jaaved and the story moves very slowly in the first half . If a person omits the entire first half even then he would enjoy the movie to same extent .

What is the strong point of the movie is the pacy second half and powerful acting performances by Kay Kay and Rahul . The climax of the movie where Kay Kay confesses all his crimes is a treat to watch and Kay Kay has given one of the finest performances in those scenes in his entire career . Though the role of Rahul was strange in many ways and lacked the finesse in terms of an Army officer but still it was quite good . Kay Kay plays negative roles quite good but he should now look for some more positive roles or else he will get type casted as villain . There is a very small part of Amrita Rao but even in that small part she leaves a mark and displays her acting skills to the max . So much so that even with few minutes on screen she overshadows the role of Minissha completely . Minissha's role is quite different and even she is a fantastic actress . She has the mettle to become star of both commercial and off beat cinema . Jaaved Jaffry's role is just pure time pass and it has got nothing to offer . Still it has been well played by him .

Cinematography by Carlos Catalan is top notch and he has shown the valley quite beautifully . Full marks to him . The background score is not that good with repetitive sounds that don't even fit the situations that well . Thank God , the movie has no songs or else it would have got longer with story still moving slowly . The film is well written and the writer's have done a good job .

Overall , the movie has got a good script but what it lacked was the inefficient direction and unnecessary blowing up of the plot . The director Samar Khan still needs to learn a lot in Direction . Still , it was way much better attempt than his last movie . The reason why you should watch this movie is that it has got some message and it even has some great acting performances by Kay Kay and the entire remaining cast .
It is not at all a court room drama and has got way much more important message than a typical courtroom drama .

Movie Rating : Two and Half Stars out of Five , for great acting performances and different script . Go watch it and support off-beat experimental cinema .

Love Story 2050 --- Trailer Review

The movie that is supposed to be the most expensive sci-fi flick of Bollywood ever , Love Story 2050 , will release this summer . The Teaser promo of the movie is out now and the visuals are exciting but the content is not . The movie stars Harman Baweja , son of Harry Baweja who has Produced and Directed films like Qayamat , Main Aisa Hi Hun , Yeh Kya Ho Raha hai , Girlfriend etc. If you look at the list of films closely , all are inspired from Hollywood Cinema , Qayamat from The Rock , Main Aisa Hi Hun from I am Sam , Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai from American Pie etc . So one thing is for sure that Love Story 2050 would also be inspired significantly from the west .

And the promo proves my point . It starts with Boman Irani being shown as a Crazy Scientist who works Hard to build a time machine and finally makes it . The Time Machine shown in the promos is an exact copy from the film of same name and Priyanka uses it to travel to the future Mumbai . Then the movie takes a 42 year leap and goes to 2050 and the world changes totally . Then starts a series of visuals showing the glimpses of movie and in fast motion . But what appears from those visuals is that it is a mixture of all the sci-fi movies made till date with a little Indian masala in it . There also two kids in the movie so the movie will attract Kids for sure And since there is no big summer release it may attract audiences to a large extent . Even the background score is inspired from the west with inputs from Evanescence -Bring Me to life .

The movie no doubt would be focussed on Harman Baweja since its his home production . Harman has been kept under wraps since a long time so that people see him only on the big screen first . During entire trailer he has been not shown clearly and only rushes of him can be seen . But at end of the trailer Harman is shown with a Tagline going this way -The Future is Here . He is been shown in the trailer as if he is already a big star and I hope his dad has not done the same in the entire movie . In my opinion his first impression wasn't that effective and the tagline that "Future is here" is too heavy for him . He looks good but not as good as Hrithik . But on the other side even SRK didn't look like a superstar in his earlier days . What matters is that how well one connects with the audience and that depends entirely on his Acting skills and overall personality , so nothing can be said just with a look . I hope he is the future because there are no young male superstars in Bollywood today apart from Hrithik .

Priyanka looks good and it would be interesting to see the on-screen chemistry between the two main leads as their off-screen chemistry has been quite in news .

Overall , the trailer is good but it didn't excite me as much because it is too much influenced from the west . Something original and of smaller scale would have excited me even more . One thing that will make this movie a success is its Scale . The movie has been made with a huge budget but still from the rushes it doesn't look at par with the west . Lets hope that the mixture of Hollywood Sci-fi is good and it can be great also .
Check out the trailer :