Ye Jawaani Hai Diwani: Don't miss

Ye Jawaani Hai Diwani

Director: Ayan Mukerji

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Kalki Koechlin, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Farooq Sheikh, Tanvi Azmi, Dolly Ahluwalia

Diaogue: Hussain Dalal

Music: Pritam

Genre: Rom-Com

Ye Jawaani Hai Diwani is a coming-of-age film of two protagonists, Kabir Thapar and Naina Talwar.
Kabir Thapar is an extroverted and street-smart youngster whose looks and charm make him everyone's favourite. A college passout, he is ambitious and self centred. He is also fun-loving, mischievious and a very reliable friend, who can fight with the local goons for a friend or sponsor his holiday trip. There is also a sensitive and caring side to him which gets revealed when he involves an isolated Naina in his gang, or when he lies to his dad about his adventures lest he gets worried.

Kabir's friends are Avi ( Aditya Roy kapoor ) and Aditi ( Kalki ). Avi is a rich, spoilt and care-free guy with a "chodh na yaar..." attitude towards life, but very attached to friends. Aditi is the short-tempered but good-natured tomboy, who cares a lot for her loved ones. All the three go on an adventurous trip to Manali, enroute which they are joined by Naina.

Naina Talwar is the introverted, conservative girl-next-door. Having spent all her life studying and topping her classes, she craves for some fun and friends in life. So much that she joins Kabir and his gang on the trekking trip to Manali, without informing her parents. But inspite of all her self-empathy, she is a very self respecting girl. The moment Kabir says, "Tum jaisi ladki ke saath tho flirt nahin kar sakta na !", she retorts back, "Meri jaisi matlab ?". 

And she falls for Kabir when he says, "Stop pitying yourself. You are absolutely fine the way you are." 

Kabir, unaware of Naina's feelings, goes abroad to a life of travel, fun and adventure and Naina moves on.

Eight years later, all the four meet at Udaipur, for Aditi's wedding.

Naina grows into a self-assured lady who is more at peace with herself and all the people around her. Kabir, inspite of living his dream, is not exactly happy. His dad's demise and loneliness catch up with him. Avi turns into a loser, incurring losses in whatever he ventures in. All the four re-unite to sing, dance and have fun again and rejuvenate the bonds of friendship and love. Kabir realizes that he needs to strike a balance between his dreams and his people to stay happy.

Ayan Mukherji has written some brilliant scenes for the film and proves that he can both handle romance and control mush very well. Kabir, Avi, Naina are very relatable and likeable. The detailing of Naina Talwar's character is incredible, and the film clicks because of her.
In contrast to Wake Up Sid, this film has lavish sets and rich ambience, with upper-class urban characters and a conventional storyline. And he proves he can be both versatile and brilliant.

Ranbir Kapoor is flawless in his performance, both as the fun-loving pass-out and the sulking-under-guilt professional, or when he admits to Avi of being selfish. He is brilliant in dancing and it shows off in Badtameez dil. His stardom is a huge plus.

Deepika Padukone gets the best role in the film and she gives her career best performance. She successfully brings out on screen all the nuances of her character and uses her smile particularly well to convey varied emotions. Her costumes and look match her performance and she looks as good as she acts and vice-versa. Can watch the film for her!

Aditya Roy Kapoor is brilliant, be it the shake of his head when he begins his dialogue or his wonderful timing when he says,

"Biology ki student ho..... phir bhi nahin dekhi...",

he turns out to be the surprise package of the film.

Kalki is both likeable and convincing as the tom-boy. Farooq Sheikh is brilliant in his cameo as the concerned and caring father of Kabir.

The film is shot in beautiful and exotic locations as per the plot. Costumes are as per the characterisation and are very good.
Preetam's music is probably the best of the year so far. Lyrics are light and very meaningful.

Dialogues are short, crisp, witty and very, very effective.

On the flip side, the film religiously follows a few cliches like...
Its mandatory for a gal to have alcohol if she wants to enjoy life.
And only the hero has the right to give her the first drink.
There is no fun possible without alcohol and disco.
The bridegroom of every arranged marriage has to be a weird joker ( Kunal Roy Kapoor in this case ), more so if he is a doctor or an engineer.

In conclusion, inspite of a predictable and cliched storyline, YJHD is a feel good film about fun, friendship, love and life that you cannot miss, because of brilliant characterisations and performances. Go through all the rains and water logged roads to watch the film. Its worth it.

BAADSHAH: Priceless Entertainment

BAADSHAH

Director: Seenu Vytla

Script: Gopi Mohan, Kona Venkat

Lead Actors: NTR Jr, Kajal Aggarwal, Brahmanandam, Kelly Dorjee, Ashish Vidyaarthi, Mukesh Rishi, Nasser, Vennela Kishore, MS Narayana, Navdeep
and others..

Genre: Action/Comedy

Plot:

Baadshah (NTR Jr.) is a young recruit in the south-east asia mafia world. He has both ability and ambition to grow and in the process, picks up rivalry with the big man Saadhu Bhai (Kelly Dorjee). Saadhu Bhai has plans to carry out blasts all over India and a cop Adi(Navdeep) is working for him on this. Adi is engaged to Janaki (Kajal Aggarwal), daughter of Police Commissioner JayaSimha (Nasser).

The first half has Baadshah acting as Rama Rao in Milan, a character depressed about his girl-friend ditching him. He gets sympathy from Janaki and converts that into love. The plot shifts to Hyderabad in the second half, where Baadshah turns into a wedding planner. Baadshah foils Saadhu Bhai's plans and brings him to justice and as the wedding planner he exposes Adi and gets Janaki. There is however a strong emotional reason behind Baadshah's rivalry with Saadhu Bhai, which cannot be revealed here.

Analysis:

NTR is a revelation as the soft and depressed Rama Rao. His comic timing is good. He emotes well and tones his voice down adequately. He even plays second fiddle to Kajal in a few scenes.The end result is that the Milan episode turns out to be very engaging and entertaining.
NTR looks very stylish and sophisticated as Baadshah. His body-language and intensity make him believable as don.
As the wedding planner, he sports a very simple yet refined look and displays high energy levels. His body language is completely different and his fast paced Telangana dialect is praiseworthy.
NTR plays all the three characters very well, varying his body language, voice modulation, diction and intensity appropriately. Baadshah is a film which showcases NTR's versatility as an actor and he will be appreciated by fans and critics alike.

Janaki is a self proclaimed psychiatrist cum philosopher cum philanthropist, who spends most of her time on either solving people's problems or on charity. She says funny one-liners on her Banthi philosophy, but its her naivity which makes her very likeable. Kajal displays all these traits very well without going overboard. In fact, this is one of her most subtle performances. She is at her best, both in terms of role and performance after Mr. Perfect. She looks very good and dances well in the Banthi Poola Janaki song.

Brahmanandam is introduced as Padmanabha Simha, brother-in-law of Jai Krishna Simha( Nasser ).  The former is an incompetent Police Inspector who is the butt of ridicule in the house. The latter is a strict and disciplined Police Commissioner. They keep clashing with each other and every time they do, its a laugh riot for the viewers.
Brahmanandam is ruthless in evoking laughter, be it annoying Nasser, or saying the famous lines of or walking to the tunes of Dabang. Padmanaabha Simha is one of his best works.

If laughter is the best medicine, no one heals better than Brahmanandam.

MS Narayana as Revenge Nageswara Rao and Vennela Kishore as Daasu, are good in their limited roles. The film has narration by Mahesh Babu and guest appearance by Siddharth, they add to the excitement.

Songs are all chartbusters. Thaman deserves a special mention for Banthi Poola Janaki and Sairo Sairo. Background music is good, partcularly for the character of Baadshah.

Choreography is a trend setter. NTR has set new standards of dancing with this film, be it the fast paced steps in Sairo Sairo or the massy steps in Rangoli and Welcome Kanakam. Fans are bound to go crazy watching him dance. Banthi Poola Janaki song is also choreographed well. As an icing on the cake, the film has NTR dancing to a medley of his grand father's old songs which will be liked by one and all.

The first half of the film has beautiful locations from Italy and Spain and the second half has lavish sets. Its a well-made film.

Seenu Vytla has outdone his own work in Dookudu. He deserves a standing ovation for creating characters like Padmanabha Simha and Banthi Janaki and showcasing NTR's versatility as an actor like never before. Dookudu had an overdose of emotions, but he toned it down in Baadshah. However his stories are getting repetitive and so are some of his characters ( Nasser and M.S. Narayana ). There are few other negatives which stops the film from being flawless.

The film gets boring half an hour before the interval, where it shows the rise of Baadshah in the underworld. Too many fights only make it worse. Also, there are too many character artistes playing very short roles, which is both confusing and irritating.

Screenplay is not gripping at all. It starts with a fight in Macau and moves to Milan and then throws a flashback episode in south east asia. And again shifts to Milan enroute Hyderabad. It fails to hold viewers' attention. The film also does not start well. The opening fight scene that introduces NTR gets played again before the interval. Usually such repetitions are meant for scenes which are very crucial to the story, which is not the case here.

The story has a few loopholes. An underworld don going all the way to Milan to disrupt a wedding is not very convincing. The track involving Baadshah's parents is neither convincing nor touching. However, the negatives are heavily outweighed by the positives.

Conclusion:

Baadshah works for the priceless entertainment it provides. Career best performances from NTR, Kajal and Brahmanandam, mind blowing dances from NTR, chartbuster songs, beautiful locations make it an ideal summer treat.

Bottom Line : priceless entertainment