MS Dhoni The Untold Story - delightful first half, disappointing second half

Be it MSD the player, or MSD the film, the expectations have to be sky high. More often than not, the player has risen to the occasion, and met the expectations. Sometimes, he has failed too. Unfortunately, the film too will go down as a failure in rising up to those expectations.

The film is not without its merits. In fact describing it is pretty simple - it has a really good first half, and an utterly disappointing second half. Just like Dhoni, the film finishes in style, it even led to audience clapping in the end, but I guess the claps were mostly for MSD the player, and not really for the film.

Shot in Ranchi, in the actual colony where Dhoni lived, the school where he studied, the first half has done ample justice to the early days of Maahi. The screenplay is witty and realistic at the same time - you root for the lead character, and you are constantly entertained. (hume to "singhaada' sun ke hi mazaa aa jaata tha)

The small town limitations, the constant support of friends, a typically worried father, the middle class household, all come out really well. This said, couple of things which I believe were lacking here - a bit of that street smart, sort of awaara like attitude that we Ranchites have known Dhoni to display. That aspect was missing, as Maahi was shown in a perfect "nice boy" image always. Secondly, the fact that Dhoni studied in a school which is academically one of the best in the country, and produces some of the finest brains (ok, DPS is the best in Ranchi, but uske baad Shayamali :P) in all the conventional careers, is something that should have been explored. Just studying there as an academically average student (which Dhoni was) is a pressure in itself. And am not talking about these aspects because of the authenticity or relatability associated with them, but I genuinely feel exploring them would have created better moments and a better impact. This said, there are many scenes which are mundane details from his life, and yet are neatly done, and end up being impressive. The screenplay has had a keen eye for humor, and as mentioned, keeping the realism intact. A conversation on a railway platform with references to (simple) cricketing terminology, is a delight in itself. All in all, one cannot have many complains from the first half.

The problem is once Dhoni gets into the team, the storytelling goes for a toss. I would love to keep myself in the writer's shoes and acknowledge the limitations though. Since all the cricket footages are actual videos, so any scene involving other cricketers would have required them to act in the film, which obviously did not happen. The first half succeeds because it does justice to the roots of the character, and the challenges, and succeeds in answering why Dhoni never gave up - because of his passion and self belief. The second half fails because it fails on answering something that has to be a pivotal question of the biopic - once Dhoni got the opportunity, what was so special about him, that he was able to produce the magical results that he did. What gave him the kind of leadership skills he went on to display, why did he transform himself from a swashbuckling hitter to a reliable steady batsman (who was capable of shifting gears). The film had enough, and more potential, to explore these points, but this is where it loses focus of what its focal points should have been. If scenes with cricketers were an issue, it could have been brought out in conversations with friends, or even family.

Surprisingly, the film is full of missed opportunities in the second half. After a brilliant set up in first half, involving a young Yuvraj and Dhoni, the film absolutely misses out on golden opportunity of highlighting how they were finishing off so many matches together, in style. Maybe even how Dhoni, was standing at the other end when Yuvi hit 6 sixes. How Yuvi wa standing at other end, when Dhoni hit that winning six. How Yuvi was magical in 2007 T20 WC. 2008 final victory was shown, and we miss out on the detail that Sachin played 2 match winning knocks at a time when Dhoni was in the process of replacing older players with younger and fitter ones (can be presented in a perfectly non controversial manner).
We had Dhoni playing tennis ball cricket, and this part was given sufficient screen time in the first half. I am surprised that there was not enough hints thrown in the film, that such cricket gave Dhoni his unconventional style (sometimes a little spoon feeding is necessary for the audience)
This may seem like a minor detail to many, but the fact that Dhoni made significant improvements as a wicket keeper at international level, is also something which should have been addressed. Wicket keeping again has a lot of focus in first half, and goes missing in the second half.

The romantic angles are decent, the writing is pretty mature. But as plot points, they simply fail to create the impact. I am sure there are creative liberties already taken, I guess it needed to be more inventive. I am sure most people are going to find this angle pretty uninteresting.

This is not a bad film. The writing never loses that touch of maturity, so the film remains respectable.

However, it simply fails to do justice to the immense potential the life of the cricketing legend had.

If I had to sum it up, whatever the film chose to show, was written and executed well. The choice of these elements, the settings, the characters, work out well in the first half, but leave a lot to be desired in the second half.

Honestly, disappointed with the film. But I guess, one should watch it once. The film ends with flashes of (actual) Mahendra Singh Dhoni. I am sure in most theatres, people will not be able to stop themselves from applauding, for that visual alone.

Btw, the 3 major theatres in Ranchi are running around 12 shows each for the film. Almost all the shows for the day are completely sold out (such a response for any film, ever, is unheard of in the city) . I suddenly feel this urge to watch this film in the city, the city which is such a lovely and interesting character of the film. I can only imagine what would be the experience like, back in Ranch

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil - Succeeds as a simple light hearted film; fails as a blockbuster material

One liner for the people who would prefer not to read a longish post - pretty average film, with some feel good moments, but mostly fails to connect emotionally. Simple, harmless film, but nothing special about it.

Now the longish post - I guess the issue with the film, and I think it is going to be the major issue, is that we have seen it all before. The pyaar-dosti confusion has been around for a long time. Rich youth trying to do something different/creative has been there in Wake up sid, ye jawani hai diwani, tamasha etc. Heartbreak leads to success as a singer has been the major plot of the film earlier (rockstar). Ae dil hai mushkil picks up all these themes, which have seen earlier, and actually with a better execution in some of the above mentioned films. Characters fooling around with bollywood nostalgia was also present in Tamasha, but this is one aspect where the bollywood buff Kjo has done a much, much better job than what Tamasha managed. There is one more point, but that will be a major spoiler, so will avoid sharing that.

Film has its share of nice, feel good moments. Lot of it is contributed by the bollywood nostalgia thing. A significant share of these moments come from an unexpected quarter - Lisa haydon in a delightful cameo.

Problem starts when the film tries to connect emotionally, and fails. Characters break into tears, when you are absolutely unmoved. You dont really root for the characters. A rich guy, who can afford a private jet, childishly fooling around - comes across as a protagonist unlikely to move audience to tears, even though he (Ranbir) gives an earnest performance.
Fawad Khan is just a filler, both the actor and the character remain underutilized. Anushka is the best as far as her performance goes, but since the film is practically from the POV of Ranbir, her role has serious limitations (would blame the writer for that). Aishwarya makes her entry only in the second half. In the first scene itself, her role (as a poet) shows a lot of promise. But some mediocre writing (including her poetry), and pathetic acting by Aish, makes her a major weakness of the film.Srk has a delightful cameo, and actually gives a glimpse of why his presence has had an aura of intensity in films in the past. One may dislike him and all, but one needs to possibly reflect upon how current generation of actors are failing to pull off themes like these, while Srk had worked magic in the most cliched films. And yes, he even gets to recite a couplet by Faiz in the film :)

Music is a major weakness. Except for a couple of songs, the others do not create much impact. In fact, there is even a narrative blunder in the use of songs in an instance where we have 2 songs, immediately after each other in the film!!

In the end, the film will either not touch you at all, or work as a small lighthearted kind of a film - but is unlikely to have the blockbuster type appeal. In one line, the film has its share of aww moments, but surely lacks the wow moments.

It is somewhat surprising that an experienced story teller like Karan johar has made certain basic narrative errors. The screen space of certain characters is tightly compartmentalized - first half has no Aishwarya, and once she comes we have no Anushka for a long time. There is very little overlap between characters with a conflict (and a couple of scenes with overlap are actually gripping). It is very difficult to create enough emotions and drama in a storyline/narrative of this type. Jab tak hai jaan was another film with a similar drawback.

I guess, ADHM is basically Karan's statement (and this is a bit of a spoiler) that his idea of showing Dosti as latent Pyaar in KKHH was actually misplaced. Friendship can remain friendship, and it can have all the love without fitting into the traditional mould of a romantic relation. The statement is good, but isn't very well made.

Shivaay - Stunning visuals, Stupid film

One liner - silly, stupid film with stunning visuals and camera work. The fresh faces act really well, while familiar ones, including Ajay devgan disappoint.

Talking about the positives first (and this will end quickly), the film has some amazing visuals. It is not flawless, but cinematography is great. Not just the action sequences, most of the scenes have excellent framing and well thought of camera angles. Add to it, the sheer audacity of the camera work in some of the action sequences. The film has a chase scene(kid being kidnapped), which is something that we have really not seen in Hindi cinema so far. The brilliant title song is also another strong point. It starts off the film on a high energy note, and is used quite a few times in the film. Acting department has its share of positives. I am not being racist here, but Katrinas and Nargis Fakris have created a certain perception about acting skills of "foreign" faces that we see in Hindi films. We have two such faces, and they end up being the best performers in the film, and by quite some margin. The intense performance by a child artist especially helps the film.

The downside of the film is fairly straightforward. It is a remarkably stupid movie. The plot points are fine, in fact have enough potential, but the execution is extremely bad. It does not help that the lead delivers a lacklustre performance. Ajay fails to generate the aura that was required. It starts with the character talking to army men (how ironic) in a condescending tone, in his very first dialogue, and that creates a bad first impression. It really does not improve - surely not when he carelessly makes a girl pregnant, and forces motherhood on her. With some mature writing, maybe all this could have been pulled off with some grace, but you cannot expect maturity from this film. Also, there is stuff like the hero taking down the police headquarters, him escaping bullets from a range where it was impossible to do so, the hero going around (almost) killing people. We thought we have left all this behind in the 90s.

There are moments which may look exciting at first, but once we revisit it logically, a lot of it seems silly. The emotional scenes are poorly directed, and often, terribly written. The kid is extremely cute, but even there, beyond a point her overly aggressive haughty behavior can go from being cute to irritating. The Shiv connection is the weakest point - the character lives in himalayas, and has shiva related tattoos, that is all. Talk about exploring the central theme with some maturity?

It was sad to see high potential actors like Girish Karnad, Vir Das, Saurabh Shukla lacking in impact. One of the examples of immature writing, was creating a bihari caricature in a scene. Issue is not with the bihari thing, but that it is so poorly done. Saurabh shukla delivers one dialogue in Bihari tone, and otherwise that manerism is non existent. Also, you have certain expectations from the villain in such action films. That is another mighty disappointment (won't say much else would be a spoiler). In fact, you can expect this film to be a major punching bag for various reviewers.

The film makes a nice point about father-daughter relation in the end. But, if you are watching it in a theatre like pvr (with long ad belreaks), it has already been 3.5 hours since you entered for the show - and you are totally exhausted. The film also had the potential of comparing two contrasting lifestyles - city life luxury and that in the lap of the mountains. It has the sensitive topic of flesh trade at its heart. And we just have more and more of potential wasted.

Shivaay is basically an opportunity missed. Missed by a big margin. The film is definitely a visual delight. But as far as indian audience is concerned, we give (unconsciously) much more weightage to the plot as compared to the audio visuals of the film.

As far as prospects of this film go, I think ADHM will greatly benefit from the weaknesses of Shivaay. An ordinary ADHM begins to look good when compared to the absurd Shivaay. This said, I really wish both the films were much better.

Mastram

Hey Mastram

First of all I will admit that I never read any of your books during my childhood, or even later on. I don’t think you are that popular today but I remember during my later part of schooling, you were one of the most popular names. You were a rage, a craze, a common part of jokes in those days.

I am really happy to see a film made on you. It is indeed amazing that (almost) nobody knows who the actual author was, behind these books, or if there were multiple people. It makes this film an even more brave attempt.

Mastram movie ji, I will have to say that I quite liked the approach taken by your film maker. You are not a film with sleazy scenes. You have the touch of erotica that was a part of these books, and I will simply say they are amazing. Let us not be hypocrites and accept that we will enjoy it. You have good direction and acting. It has to be mentioned that one feels the film could have been more impactful, at various levels. At times, you were a little flat. You started with with one of the funniest scenes I have ever seen, so my expectations were raised :)

Mastram, let me tell the readers couple of important things about you:  Now to the most important thing. This film is NOT about semi porn. In fact it is about two very important aspects of our society. It is about the hypocrisy and repression prevalent in our society when it comes to sexuality. Secondly it is a rare film which talks about the worrying situation of Hindi literature in the country today. This is where I really appreciate the film maker for presenting mastram as a person who wanted to write great Hindi literature, but situations led him in to becoming a legend as an erotica writer.

You are a film that deserves to be seen. You surely do. You are a good and significant effort which could even have been a classic movie if you were more impactful, a little more funny and had a stronger ending.

Kya Dilli Kya Lahore

Hi KDKL

I Love You. Before I say anything else to you, I will say this, and repeat it. I Love You. You are much more than just a film to me.

I rewind back to 3 years back, same month, during my summer internship. Lakeerein was the first play of a theater festival (dedicated to Gulzar) that I saw back then. I smile at my excitement of those days, as I had booked tickets for each of the 4 days of the fest. I remember how I had borrowed money from my HR for doing so as the first month stipend was delayed by few days :D

I can't vividly recall, but as far as I remember, one of the parts of the play had a plot similar to the one in this movie. The Gulzar poem used in the film, was one of the many gems of poetry that this play had (the play has Gulzar at even his poetic best). It was also the day I first saw Gulzar in person,and later met him as well.

Today I saw you, and obviously you were so much more than just a film to me. As a film, you are pretty amazing. The whole idea to present this concept as a film is extremely challenging, as most of the movie is about two people talking to each other, while they are hiding from each other. It is a brave effort and two excellent actors have done excellent jobs.

You are really entertaining in first half. Second half demands more patience as it gets more sensitive. You have a beautiful soul, excellent ideas, and amazing moments. You are the kind of cinema we need. We had a brilliant anti war film last year, and we have had another one this time. A very good friend of mine says an interesting thing,  that we have a weapon against Pakistan, the kind which no country possibly had against any enemy. A weapon which can make us reach every household of the neighboring nation. It is our cinema. We need to speak this language more and more often through our films. It is possibly the most beautiful way we can win over our neighbor country :)

I hope you do not get neglected. Do not complain if you do. It will only be symbolic of a hyper hypocrite audience which finds it fashionable to criticize masala films, but just does not show enough eagerness to real real good cinema.

Hoping there will be more like you in future. I love you. Thanks.

I have poured my heart out. This is what the legend himself said about you:
Gulzar Speaks about Kya Dilli Kya Lahore

The Amazing Spider Man 2

 The Amazing Spider Man 2

 You belong to a genre, I pretty much enjoy, but do not have much expertise in it (not meant to imply am an expert in other kind of cinema). I have enjoyed all Spiderman films so far, yes even Spiderman 3, which in fact was my first superhero movie in a theater!
The amazing spiderman series has a fresh approach – humor and music were integral to the first film, which is even more visible here. There will be people who will end up finding a lot of it silly.

If I were asked to describe you, I would think of a metaphor like a Chemistry Formula, a balanced yet complicated formula. Villains which are actually friends of the hero, the love story going through ups and downs, and add to it the entire family saga.

The action was fine, it usually is with Spider Man, but even with it being one of the most violent, wasn’t in the league of the best one would see. There is a lot in the film, especially in second half which seems like lazy script writing. I will have to admit, that beyond a point you were too clichéd to be too exciting. You had your moments but they were few and far in between.

I will be honest with you. You had much more potential than what was delivered. The series will have more movies to follow. Wish to see better in the future.

Best Wishes!