Cocktail Saif Ali Khan, Deepika and Diana - 2012 Movie Review

Deepika is the rich wild child , the emotionally raw Veronica. She's flash and cash all the way but has a soft spot under her party girl facade . One night she runs into a bathroom after boozing it up too much and happens to meet a beautiful traditional Hindi girl Meera (Diana) who's crying her eyes out. She just found out that the arranged marriage she thought she was part of was real only on paper and she has been victimized by a total rat (extended cameo in two sections of the movie played by Randeep Hooda) . The marriage was a sham hoax. When she showed up in London because he didn't send for her , she finds he married her for her dowry money . He tells her to get lost she can file for married visa and he will divorce her later but he spent her money. After hearing this tale Veronica (Deepika) basically takes her home to help her out until she get's settled in and helps her to slowly change into a more confident person. They become best friends and room mates.

Enter Saif who meets and start a Friends with Benefits relationship with Veronica and a somewhat bumpy friendship with Diana who is his total opposite. They annoy each other in constant little ways but get along for Veronica's sake. One day when his mom shows up with BRIDE ON THE BRAIN , he freaks and tells his mom (Dimple) it's Diana's traditional hindi character that he's in a relationship with not Veronica and that he's going to marry her (hilarious scene you have to see this ). Since Veronica doesn't want anything to do with permanent at this stage and she finds this very funny, she goes along with the lie.

While on a trip to Capetown his mother takes them on, they all discover a few things about themselves. Saif really is attracted to the traditional Diana even though he always dated modern women; and Veronica now wants what she can't have . Saif as her husband . She's fallen in love with the idea of love. She's been alone so long emotionally and Saif was the closest she ever came. His mother is so sweet to her as a person, like a mother figure, filling an empty spot in her life . She is more in love with the idea of being the daughter of the house than she is with being in a giving relationship . She's never seen one in her life. She basically does everything she can do to destroy Diana and Saif to get him back even though when she had him she never really wanted him completely. Her pain and misery almost destroy all of them before she has a second epiphany and restores their lives back to some semblance of sanity.

Deepika soars, crashes and claws her way through this film , peeling back the character layer by layer until ultimately the human weakness in all of us is dealt with at it's most painful level. All human ,no self sacrificed moments for her character . She want's the prize this time . She wants her self respect back she just doesn't know how to go about it anymore. Always grasping but never obtaining.

Diana's character grows more subtlely in the movie, in strength and love, both obtained in measure by her relationships with Veroncia and Saif . Her softly overlapping layers are a stark contrast to Veronica's . She has her self respect but is constantly trying to sacrifice herself or later her love because she is somewhat conflicted by the new perceptions of her life that she is shown. Her traditional values have given her inner strength but unfortunately some of the old perceptions are also suffocating her in her new life. It's hard for her to see that she is not at fault all the time . That her strength and acceptance of all things that come at her are not helping the other people in her life be stronger. At some point she will have to stop accepting and start fighting for what SHE needs and only then can they ALL start to work at being healthier in their perspective relationships. She feels a sisterhood with Veronica and mistakenly thinks she can gift Veronica her own happiness. She can try to be there for her but she can not MAKE Veronica's life a happy one until Veronica is ready to take responsibility for her own actions. The writers are very good at making these situations felt and swap out tense moments with some music and lighter moments in attempts to keep it from being too dramatic. I liked the songs but could of done with a couple less of them but that is purely a taste thing and not a quality issue.

Saif rocks his role and manages to fulfill the balancing act of first the hilarious imp of a boyfriend to Veronica and then ultimately the slowly evolving picture of a man coming into his own adult hood and finally knowing his own mind . He grows into the man his mother knew he could be and the man they all needed him to be. Soft heart but strong back bone. They all walk away together as heroes with no total evil only flesh and blood humans with flaws present and accounted for. Lovable. Redeemable. Whole again.

Totally recommend this movie. Some great humor . Some great songs, good emotional scenes and an ending you can live with. Don't worry. It's Bollywood. That's why we watch.

 

Darr Movie Review

 

Darr: A Violent Love Story is a 1993 Bollywood romantic psychological thriller film directed by Yash Chopra under the banner of Yash Raj Films. It is the story of an obsessed lover (Shahrukh Khan) and the lengths to which he goes to get the girl (Juhi Chawla) who is already happily engaged to Sunil (Sunny Deol). It is the second film in which Shahrukh Khan played the role of a villain. It is considered to be one of his best performances and earned him a Filmfare Award nomination for Best Villain. Darr was the third highest grossing movie of 1993, being declared a Super Hit at the Box Office.

In 1993, Khan won acclaim for his performances in villainous roles as an obsessive lover and a murderer, respectively, in the box office hits, Darr and Baazigar. In Khan's entry in Encyclopædia Britannica's "Encyclopedia of Hindi Cinema" it was stated that "he defied the image of the conventional hero in both these films and created his own version of the revisionist hero." Darr marked his first collaboration with renowned film-maker Yash Chopra and his banner Yash Raj Films, the largest production company in Bollywood.

 

Story / Plot

Kiran Ahwasti (Juhi Chawla) studies at a college in Shimla, where she is one day serendaded by a man whose face she cannot see. She believes this was done by her lover Sunil (Sunny Deol). However, when they reunite Sunil tells her that he never came to Shimla. When Sunil drops Kiran home one night, a stranger shines a torch in her eyes and says "I love you K-K-Kiran." Later that same night, he telephones her house and says the same words. Kiran believes that the man who did this is the same man from Shimla.

Sunil works in the Indian Navy, his boss is Captain Mehra (Dalip Tahil). It is soon revealed that Mehra's son Rahul (Shahrukh Khan) is Kiran's obsessed lover. Rahul is a lonely man, with very few friends and is often in a world of his own, to the extent that he talks to his mother (who died eighteen years ago in a car crash) about his love for Kiran. He follows Kiran around and is increasingly jealous about her love for Sunil. On the phone he starts threatening to hurt Sunil if Kiran continues to meet him. Rahul soon meets Sunil and befriends him with the hope of getting closer to Kiran - he manages to hide his true intentions by telling Sunil he is Captain Mehra's son. Later, on Kiran's birthday, Rahul manages to make his way into her house. Sunil and Kiran's brother (Anupam Kher) and sister-in-law (Tanvi Azmi) decide the incident needs to go to the police - when Sunil goes to report it, his car crashes because Rahul had tampered with the breaks. The next day, when Rahul phones, Kiran attempts to trick him into meeting her so that they can apprehend him - the plan nearly succeeds until Rahul notices Sunil standing and watching Kiran from a distance. Later, Kiran's family bring a police inspector to the house - after Rahul next phones, they ask him to trace the number and are in shock to find that Rahul had phoned from one of the upstairs bedrooms. During Holi, celebrations are held at Kiran's house. Rahul manages to sneak in and confess his love for Kiran but Sunil again fails to capture him. Kiran and Sunil now decide to get married in order to warn off Kiran's obbsessed lover. Rahul learns they are to marry and is livid - he attempts to shoot Sunil but misses. Sunil angrily chases him down, still unable to identify him. During the chase, Sunil is run over and severely injured. Kiran blames herself for this and decides to leave the city - however, Sunil stops her and they get married. Rahul carves Kiran's name on his chest, vowing to break up her marriage to Sunil. Kiran and Sunil move into a new apartment - the police inspector places two constables outside to protect them. When the constables enter the lift, it crashes (Rahul made it crash). When Kiran and Sunil enter the apartment, they find messages written from the obsessed lover.

To get away from the stalker, Kiran and Sunil decide to take their honeymoon in Switzerland. Rahul is falsely told at the airport that they have travelled to Goa - he goes there but cannot find them, instead he reunites with an old college friend Vikram (Annu Kapoor). Rahul befriends Kiran's family, because of his friendly nature neither of them suspect he is up to something. Vikram is soon dying of liver failure, Rahul makes it look like Vikram committed suicide and places photos of Kiran along with a suicide note next to his dead body, making everyone believe that Vikram had been Kiran's obsessed lover. Rahul overhears that Sunil and Kiran are in Switzerland. Kiran and Sunil receive the news that the man who had been scaring Kiran is now dead - they are overjoyed. They later bump into Rahul - Kiran recognises Rahul, as they were friends from college. Kiran also tells Sunil how Rahul was in love with a girl at college but nobody ever knew who the girl was. Later, Sunil is on the phone to Kiran's brother, who reveals that Rahul had been visiting them whilst Sunil and Kiran were in Switzerland. Sunil puts two and two together and realises that Rahul is the one who terrorised Kiran. He lures him into the forest and beats him, but soon Rahul stabs him. Rahul finds Kiran on a boat and confesses everything to her. That night,Sunil reaches the boat and they have a brutal fight Rahul beats Sunil but dies confessing his love for kiran. Thus they both came back to india where Kiran's family welcome them warmly.

Review

"Darr" is fear. And fear beats in every lover's heart. Fear that your love may not be reciprocated, fear that you lose the one you love, fear that your beloved could have a change of heart. In short, fear is the villain in every love story. But in "Darr" fear is the ultimate expression of passion, of obsession and of sacrifice. "Darr" is Rahul's story whose love and obsession for Kiran frees him from all fears of life and death. "Darr" is Sunil's story, whose enduring love and passion for Kiran gives him the courage to face the fear of death.

And finally "Darr" is Kiran's story, one who is caught between one man's love and another man's obsession. She fears one and fears for the other. One stands for love and the other for life.

In this battle between love and life, the supreme victor is Love, because Love always wins, in Life and in Death.


"DARR was an important film for everyone associated with it. Most of all it was important for Yash Raj Films who had tasted only moderate success with Lamhe and Juhi Chawla, who was looking for perfect ending to the year 1993 so as to come up as Number 1 in the film industry. Shah Rukh had already had a monster hit in baazigar and was hot as sun, Juhi was resplendent and challenging the queens of Bollywood, Sridevi and Madhuri and more than that we had a Yash Raj Banner. The song Jaadu Teri Nazar had become a rage and add the ever dependable Sunny Deol who was coming back from critical appreciation from Damini and you had a lethal combo lined up. The movie moves at good pace usually with perhaps a little too many incidents in the second half. Those could have been done away with. And like the movies of early 90 s it does not have the polished look that yash Raj films were to master with DTPH. Cinematography is quite ordinary at places and the music is pretty ordinary save a couple of songs. The direction is good most of the time but it does not have the deft touches which made Lamhe a classic. Performance wise it is perhaps SRK s more original performance, rest all the films are a copy of this performance with an addition here and a deletion there. KKK Kiran is so much like KKK Kaurwaki. It is definite benchmark for the performances of SRK. But still it would have been nice if he had just curbed his instincts a little and given a controlled performance. Sunny is as plastic as u get and Juhi has pretty much nothing to do but look pretty. Anupam Kher is irritating to say the least. Rest of the cast r there to just compete is a wildlife park. Overall the high that SRK and Juhi were in 1993 got the film a fantastic initial and also miffed more feathers like Sunny who claimed to have been sidelined completely in the film. Yash Raj banner was established and though the movie did not win any major awards it established the Yash Raj banner and gave it the direction to go to in 1990 s." --mouthshut.com

 

Salman Khan's Veer Movie Review

"Veer" is a sprawling, action epic starring Hindi cinema's favorite action hero, Salman Khan. The violence and gore is reminiscent of "Gladiator", and the elaborate fight sequences centering on the hero-who-can-do-anything will remind you of Brad Pitt in "Troy". Of course, Salman can do something that neither Russell Crowe nor Brad Pitt can do - dance! But more on that later.

"Veer" opens in 1870s colonial India: various tribes and chiefdoms vie for power by collaborating with the occupying British. One of these tribes, the Pindari, are a rough bunch who live by a strict code of honor - a code that is often maintained through duels within the tribe itself. One thing the Pindari refuse to do, however, is collaborate with the British. When they are betrayed by a more sophisticated Indian chiefdom, they become even more entrenched in their hatred for the British and their Indian puppet-kings.

Our hero, Veer, is born to the Pindari tribe after this great betrayal, and he is raised to be fiercely anti-British and physically aggressive. However, unlike his father, he is also raised to be educated so that he might one day match the cunning of the British. Veer is sent to England, ostensibly to join one of the schools meant to educate the "natives", but really to learn the ways of the evil occupiers.

As one reviewer noted, it is true that this film portrays sections of society in rather black-and-white terms: the British are always evil; the Pindari are always fighting for what is right; and other Indians who collaborate are good at heart but unfortunately stuck with corrupt rulers who follow the British. This film suffers from what almost every other Hindi film suffers from: mediocre actors in the "white" roles. I've always been puzzled as to why this is the case, or where Indian studios find their white actors, but they never quite live up to their Indian counterparts in the acting department. So, be prepared for some stiff acting from the British actors.

On the Indian side, however, the casting is superb. Mithun Chakraborty looks fantastic and entirely believable as the chief of the Pindaris; Jackie Shroff is also great as the corrupt ruler of the kingdom of Madhavgarh. Zarine Khan is beautiful and fits the role of a crown princess who is also being educated abroad. Her character is a bit more passive than I would have liked, but to be honest, this film is really not about the women. Salman Khan is, of course, perfect for the role (since he wrote it himself).

The locations are stunning, particularly the shots of Rajasthan. It's the costume design that is strangely divided: the Indian costumes are magnificent, the British ones less so. The time period should be turn of the century, but the Western costumes seem to run the gamut from late 19th century to 1920s in style. It feels as though the costume designers weren't too sure about the Western outfits, particularly for women, and they're not as high quality as the Indian costumes.

The music is pretty good - the opening song, "Taali", is a rousing number that features Mithun, Salman, and Sohail Khan with some good choreography. "Meherbaniyan" is a catchy song with some bagpipe-sounding elements. I particularly like the choreography for this one, because it's creatively structured around the fact that Veer is supposed to have an injured leg at this point in the story, so the steps are meant to highlight that Veer's dancing mostly on one leg. Very fun, and Salman's a great dancer. "Surili Akhiyon Wale" is the main love theme and it's very nice - especially with the fantastic Rahat Fateh Ali Khan on lead vocals - but it would have been better without the female English part.

Overall, the story is a bit lacking in nuance, but if you're a fan of big historical epics, then it's worth watching. I was particularly struck by the amount of violence and blood, which I haven't seen very frequently in Hindi movies. Veer is a vicious, tribal character who also adheres strictly to his code of honor. His character is perhaps the most nuanced, as he wrestles with very violent rage alongside a desire to be humane.