pawanfeverbaba

I have loved martial arts ever since i was a child and grown up to movies like 36 chamber of Shaolin, enter the dragon, Ong Bak, tom yum Goong, to the classics like raid and raid 2 today. I always had a grouse when will a competent actor do this type of film in our industry. There was Akshay Kumar in 90s who did well in few action films but the std of action kept getting higher. Today the ones the true martial art film fans look upto are Iko Uwais , tony Jaa and we had guys in India with equal talent like Vidyut. you wish someone would direct a raid with Vidyut and let the world know India is not behind when it comes to international talent. but somehow he has lagged behind . I thank Tiger Shroff from the bottom of my heart for fulfilling one of my wishes so early in his career.

I never had high expectations from baaghi even after its good trailers mainly Cos i was wary of the director Sabbir KHAN who was behind Chutiyapas like Kambhakt Ishq and Heropanti. I have to take my words back in Baaghi Cos he has literally stunned me. He has give tiger shroff all the great moments that one expects from a star of his calibre. He has the karate kid moment with real life grandmaster Shifu Shaurya Bhardwaj (the guru) in Kalaripayattu. He has tony Jaa's epic Parkour scene moment in Ong Bak an excellent chase sequence . He has Iko Uwais moment in raid in the Pre climax fight in the building. BUT THE BEST OF ALL is the climax fight. I was BLOWN AWAY. The one on one of tiger Shroff with Sudheer Raghav (excellent and evenly matched villain to tiger Shroff). The climax fight overwhelmed me when Raghav , the man behind the murder of his Great father, sees his father in front of him seeking a fitting revenge in the form of tiger Shroff. I am yet to see this type of masterly direction from great filmmakers let alone a sabbir khan. never ever expected him to deliver a film of this level. The film is consistently engaging in spite of songs. Tiger Shroff is awe- inspiring in action scenes and a total bad ass in the second half. loved it . He is sincere and earnest in romantic portions though goes OTT in one or two scenes before interval. Shardhha is good in her role. Raghav , the nemesis is supremely talented and a fitting match to tiger. But the greatest character in the film has to be Shifu Shaurya Bhardwaj. He is the Katappa of Baaghi. the man who choked me in the climax fight. Rating : 4/5 (bigtime guilty pleasure)

Some thoughts on airlift:

I don't remember a movie that moved me to this extent in the longest time. We saw war thrillers like madras cafe which dealt with it only on political level . airlift deals with it at both political and human level yet never goes filmy or remotely unrealistic. Its a proper docudrama . The journey of akshay in the movie is from a cynical selfish businessman to a man who starts caring for even a Kuwaiti woman. His gradual transformation from murder of his driver to the last flight of air India is touching and inspiring. Nimrat kaur as his wife is excellent and shows how underrated she is in bw. Supporting cast is equally great. Director Menon has proved his worth whether it's story or direction. The way he has covered the human emotions in such a movie is commendable. At the end when Jordan airport staff hoists the Indian flag you get goosebumps that stays with you long after you leave the hall. The end credits nearly made me cry again. It is difficult to believe that ppl like these existed and did what they did.

Airlift at the end is not a film but an experience that everyone must get.

Karan Malhotra , the director of new Agneepath had impressed me with his intense and focus in direction in his first film. It was to the point and he has a knack of extracting great performances from his cast. But there is a self-indulgence in him which he is unable to control in some of the films important junctures. He had plenty of them in Agneepath climax and it is there in plenty all throughout brothers especially in first half. I don't have a problem with slow pace . It helps invest ourselves into the characters. I loved pace of Drishyam , gone girl, Shawshank redemption and so on. But I am not a fan of overstretched scenes which is the case in a lot of scenes of brothers. Jackie Shroff is a drunkard who has doting wife/son and a step son. we get it in the first instance. WE get the lives and turbulence of each of them in first instance. There is no need to slow down and stretch them so much. Karan has tweaked the character of tom hardy who had a rather coolness about himself that he dint care about any of his family members. here Sid is shown as a "dutiful" son which is filmy and reduces the complexity of the character. No fault of Sid Malhotra who has done very well in is role. The heart of the film lies in R2F ( meant to be UFC of real world) championship. The training montage of Akshay and Sid is awe- inspiring . The action choreography is not just brilliant but 1000000 MILES AHEAD of anything BW has given so far. But every time the adrenaline rush is poised to reach the next level, Karan squanders it by slowing the pace with irrelevant scenes. The fight scenes are so well choreographed but camera-work is not as good. What is the need to show expressions of Jacqueline and Kulbhushan Kharbanda in between, every single time? who cares how they are reacting! we want to see the fights uncut and in flow. The real coolness and brain of brothers is thanks to Eric Brown and Micheal Leher, the action choreographers. Thanks to these two talented people that at least each of the fight scenes has a unique personality and attitude in them. Siddharths fight scenes are about not just about brute force . They reflect a personality of one kind of fighting style. He views his opponents like his brother and thinks of ways to knock him out as fast as possible. While its the reverse for Akshay Kumar. His style is a different personality by itself. His signature moves are about exposing weaknesses of the fighter and then dominating them with technique. In this process, he allows himself to take a few blows if needed. I wish the film was directed by these two instead. Akshay Kumar takes his acting notch above baby and comes up with a subtle yet intense performance. His acting in climax is superb and he is at the peak of his career as an actor. Sidharth Malhotra is avg in first half but comes into his own in the second half. His scene with Jackie Shroff asking him to about the dilemma of his sons is brilliant. Jacqueline is very good as Akshays wife and gives realistic performance though her scenes were just not needed in second half. Jackie Shroff shouts , whispers and irritates in a role which needed someone more mature like Paresh Rawal may be Brothers is a very good effort to remake warrior but it is not entirely satisfying . it could have been a real masterpiece after baby. But its not a film to be missed because of strong performances from Akshay and Sidharth Malhotra. and of course the eye pleasing action scenes for the action junkies

When the first promo of had come, i had predicted that this film will show Pak as angels and Indians as villains . Its not entirely far from truth. this story was always a one line plot stretched for over 2.5 hours and really gets on the nerves towards the end. a Pak girl Jaise Kumbh Ke Mele me Bache Gum Ho Jaate Hai Waise Ye Pak girl train me Se Bichad Gayi. she meets Salman who is a simpleton living in Kurukshetra bordering mental retard. has anyone ever seen a Hindu bowing to every monkey he sees and even random guys dressed as Hanuman? Kabir khan is some sadist. the pak girl artist is cute but her character is not very likable in first half at least. she is shown to excessively celebrate pak victory in a indo-pak match and loves chicken. there is one really retarded chicken song that comes out of nowhere. i don't get it. whats the point of it? i mean do 6 year olds even know how to wear Chaddis? but then kabir khan has his ideas. Salman is ready to arrange a sum of rs 1.5 lacs to send the girl he just met , to Pak. who does that? the Indian agent who promises to send her to pak takes her to a brothel and salman beats them up and comes back safely in second half, he is able to cross the border with the help of some angelic Pakistanis who are forever ready to help him. even the army are willing to give him time to do whatever he wants (instead of shooting him at sight) in the parallel world of kabir khan . Nawazuddin as the reporter provides some laughs but even he runs out of steam bcos the climax just refuses to finish. there are 80s style co-incidences of kid identifying her mother ina video taken by Nawaz. and then the grand climax - the ultimate wet dream of mr Kabir Mardood Malaoon khan where he shows the angelic secular Pak crowd breaking the barriers of the border and chanting Bajrangi Bhaijaan and how even the army and the officers are all for Aman Ki Aasha. it is just that Indians are big whiners. Salman khan is sincere. its commendable that he was ready to submit himself to the director and not bring his "Bhaigiri" in this at any point. Kabir ditched him. no fault of his. but Nawaz was the show stealer wherever he had the dialogues. i am not excited about phantom as much as i was earlier