Firangi Movie Review

FIRANGI STORY: Set in 1921 pre-independent India, this limited budget period film is a languid love story served with a pinch of patriotism. 

FIRANGI REVIEW: One thing's clear. With his second outing in the movies, Kapil Sharma wants to desperately drive home a point that he has no interest in milking his comic talent in the movies. 

While it's a ballsy move for a successful comedian to explore other genres, the question is, are his fans ready for it and can he do it convincingly? Not really, when he wears one expression (lack of interest) on his face, throughout the film. 

Watching Kapil act innocent and robotically romance a much younger looking Ishita Dutta (last seen in Drishyam), who channels her inner Amrita Rao for almost three hours is hard to sit through. Unfortunately, the film's massive runtime is not its only drawback. 

The plot is heavily borrowed from Lagaan. Like Bhuvan (Aamir Khan), Manga (Kapil Sharma) must lead a group of villagers to challenge a British officer Mark Daniels (Edward Sonnenblick, modelled on captain Russell) with the help of his kind romantic interest Shyamli (Monica Gill, like Russell's sister Elizabeth). Ishita Dutta plays Sargi, like Gracy Singh's character Gauri. Mark wants to forcibly vacate Sargi's village for financial gains and Manga must protect the land to win over Sargi's parents. 

Even if you ignore the 'inspired content', a period film deserves to be made on a certain scale and with some authenticity. Firangi has neither. All villages look the same and you see the same 15 people roaming everywhere. The costumes and accents are inconsistent. The British sound American, a London returned Indian princess (Monica Gill) dresses and acts more British than the British. She speaks to her fellow Indians in English and with the British in Hindi. The evil Indian king (Kumud Mishra) is neither funny nor menacing. The only actors who look logical and put in some effort to their characters are Edward Sonnenblick and Anjan Srivastav (as Gandhi bhakt). They try to infuse some method to the unending madness. 

Eventually, Firangi moves at a snail's pace leading us to a semi-fun climax. Sadly, the film doesn't even fall into 'so bad, it's good' category. It is outright boring and thus not even perversely entertaining. 

Film Review: 'Machine' High on style, low in substance

According to the MD: This is the kind of film that makes you wonder, "What was on the makers' minds when they thought of it?" The type when the audience laughs in sheer disbelief. Abbas-Mustan had a reason close to their heart to make 'Machine', as it marks the debut of Abbas's son, Mustafa. But sadly, it has turned out to be a heartless effort. High on style, low in substance, no troubleshooting can help this 'Machine'.

Attention has been paid to exotic locations, fancy costumes and aerial cinematography, with scant regard to the plot. The wafer-thin story crumbles in 'Machine'.

There is the quintessential Bollywood girl meets boy plot. Cupid strikes at first sight. They decide to get hitched, but not before breaking into umpteen song-and-dance sequences that stretch through the first half. There is a twist half-way inspired by the director duo's Shah Rukh Khan-starrer 'Baazigar' (1993). Instead of keeping alive the intrigue, things turn bizarre, going downhill to hit rock bottom, rendering the 'Machine' useless.

Abbas-Mustan have hits like 'Baazigar', 'Soldier' (1998), 'Ajnabee' (2001), 'Humraaz' (2002) and the 'Race' franchise (2008 and 2013) to their credit, but sadly, 'Machine' mars Bollywood's Men in White's spotless track record.

Will Badrinath Ki Dulhania prove to be the perfect entertainer?

Both the Shashank Khaitan movie and Varun Dhawan's character have very few redeeming features. This seems like a film from the '90s. In the '90s, of course, one could get away with all kinds of stuff. Maybe, even now you can after all the lead actors look so effortless and easygoing on screen.There's much to admire about the ultra energetic, feisty Varun Dhawan. He acts the hell out of this film. But he plays a character with such few redeeming features —- much like this movie -— that at some point you actually begin to feel kinda sorry for this young lad. I mean what sort of a duffer is Badrinath (Varun’s character) —- six-pack ab son of a local gun/goon, who’s a 10th class pass, and absolutely all he thinks about all day, is how to get married.
Perhaps the loss of personal connect with this fellow could have something to do with geography (let alone sociology). I don't know. Already I've looked up the India map to place the two small towns this film is set, in terms of distance. The boy lives in Jhansi, which is in Uttar Pradesh. The girl (Alia Bhatt) is in Kota, which at least the IIT aspirants will know, falls in Rajasthan. The two small towns are 316 kilometres apart. The hero casually covers this distance for the girl, who he doesn't want to see/charm/date/ask-out. But marry. Get her proposal sent to his dad. Who could then negotiate the correct dowry, perhaps.

Badri's daddy of course you've met in practically every other film from three decades ago -- quiet, stern, male-chauvinist patriarch type, who treats his family as his personal fiefdom and the women as quiet house helps. Badri's buddy, present throughout the film, is the other old Bollywood trope -— the hero's best friend, who has no life of his own, and has nothing better to do but shadow the lead character as he chases his girl around. Why the boy likes the girl is beyond me — besides that she’s attractive. Why the girl, full of zest and aspiration, would ever entertain a futureless nalayak like Badri is hard to tell. Why are these questions so important? Because this is a rom-com. And eventually you'd like to root for the two to meet.

Maybe, on occasion, you could. And this is mainly because the lead actors look so effortless and easygoing on screen, even as they try rather hard to sound like small-townies. This is a story of young love, if you may. Alia's the only under-25 star suited for that bracket. Varun, on the other hand, is the only proper, under-30 male star around, who often aims his antics at the front-bencher, single screen audiences that this dance-drama also seems to be aimed at.

Sure, this obvious analogy has been done to death. But you can so imagine the podgy, carefree Govinda as the rich man's loser son, winging a picture like this back in the ‘90s. In the '90s, of course, one could get away with all kinds of stuff. Maybe, even now you can.

Who is the Next Partner of Scarlett Johansson !

The rumor is on at hollywood that who is next partner of divorcee Actress Scarlett Johansson .Actress Scarlett Johansson has filed for divorce from her husband Romain Dauriac. TheAvengers star’s attorney Judith Poller served the divorce filings to Dauriac’s lawyer, Harold Mayerson

This would officially mark the end of Johansson and Dauriac’s two-year marriage. The former couple might fight over the custody of their two-year-old daughter Rose Dorothy Dauriac.

Mayerson said that the estranged couple’s “gearing up for nasty custody battle” over their only daughter. “He would like to move to France with his daughter and Ms. Johansson does a lot of travelling. It will be an interesting process,” he said.

Johansson and Dauriac were first linked to each other in 2012. They got married in a private wedding ceremony in 2014, shortly after they welcomed their daughter. Earlier this year, it was confirmed that the two separated in summer 2016.

On work front, Scarlett will be next  seen in Ghost in the Shell. The live action adaptation of manga series has quite a great buzz internationally. She is also set to star in the next two parts of the Avengers franchise. She has been shooting for Avengers: Infinity Wars and the untitled Avengers film.

Scarlett Johansson files for divorce from husband

Actress Scarlett Johansson has filed for divorce from her husband Romain Dauriac. TheAvengers star’s attorney Judith Poller served the divorce filings to Dauriac’s lawyer, Harold Mayerson

This would officially mark the end of Johansson and Dauriac’s two-year marriage. The former couple might fight over the custody of their two-year-old daughter Rose Dorothy Dauriac.

Mayerson said that the estranged couple’s “gearing up for nasty custody battle” over their only daughter. “He would like to move to France with his daughter and Ms. Johansson does a lot of travelling. It will be an interesting process,” he said.

Johansson and Dauriac were first linked to each other in 2012. They got married in a private wedding ceremony in 2014, shortly after they welcomed their daughter. Earlier this year, it was confirmed that the two separated in summer 2016.

On work front, Scarlett will be next  seen in Ghost in the Shell. The live action adaptation of manga series has quite a great buzz internationally. She is also set to star in the next two parts of the Avengers franchise. She has been shooting for Avengers: Infinity Wars and the untitled Avengers film.