Tashan…..

The most awaited movie of the year….

I do not say it, a survey says this.

So what’s the fate of it today on the D-day?

The story:

It is about Bhaiyaji (Anil Kapoor), Akshay Khanna (Bachchan Pande), Saif Ali Khan (Guruji) and Pooja (Kareena Kapoor). Saif Ali Khan is call center employee and trainer. Kareena requests him to teach English to he boss, bhaiyaji. Bhaiyaji is learns “tod-fod” english from Guruji. In the process guruji falls in love with Pooja.

One day Saif comes to know that Kareena is being tortured by Anil Kapoor  and is stuck with him due to 5 crore loan on her father from Bhaijayee. They both make plans to steal 25 crore of him and run away. They successful do the operation and return to Saif’s home. Saif goes for a visit to office and gets stuck there. When he comes back, he finds Kareena missing with money.

Bhaiyajee hires Bachchan Pande i.e. Akshay Kumar, who is from his town Kaanpur, to find these two people and get his money back.

What happens after that is a roller coster ride called…. TASHAN!

The promos, promotional material did not excite people much…. first impression is last impression. The first look of the movie was Kareen on bike with Saif and that has generated huge curiosity due to Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Breakup. The publicity was low key. So it did not give any clue to audience about what to expect. Akshay Kumar with jeans and long shirt with Gamachcha on his head was quiet interesting to see.. Kareena and Saif in urban atires, Anil Kapoor in some weird dress up. It was all confusing but was interesting.

The movie is like that. It is a mash up i.e. “Bhel” of rural and urban masala with southern style tadaka. Some may like it, Some may hate it.

The story is a thin plot and is like Manmohan Desai style. The narrative is unique where each characters tells the story and takes the movie forward. The low point is screenplay. The movie has up and down graph of excitement and engagement which is tiresome and boring at some points. That is troublesome. The dialogs could have been better with so much witty star cast. Anil’s hindi-english blabbering was not necessary for full time. I mean, once you learn English, you don’t use it always. Using that mix language was not at all required for full time.

The biggest hitch is Songs. Those are not very long lasting and some are bad. All songs sound same with rustic rural flavors and urban mix to it. However those does not move the story forward except the “Dil Dance Mare Re”. If those are removed or only small part of song is used, then it can be helpful to the movie. Vishal-Shekhar disappoints this time.

The first half is fast and furious and ends in straight 70 mins. But the 2nd half lingers and goes round and round. Direction from debutante director Vijay Krishna Acharya is promising but it has full south Indian movie touch. What let’s him down is the screenplay.

Cinematography is excellent. Locations are beautiful.

On performance side, Akshay is excellent, Anil is entertaining, Saif is ok (it is not his problem, he has been wasted). Kareens is mind blowing. She looks Billion Dollars (million will be less for her). She acts good. She does the given job with full justice. And yes…. she is in bikini…. and all other outfits are also not much bigger than bikini. So there is lots to watch for Kareena fans.

There are not many other characters and whatever are there are ok.

This was supposed to be comeback of Akki in action film genre. There are only 2 action sequences in the movie both are after interval. Akshay shines there. However, while trying to maintain the rustic and raw feel, the director has lost a chance to deliver a sleek action movie product. So though the scenes are good, they are not extraordinary. This is a chance wasted by the banner and the director.

To sum it up, I think Aditya Chopra is trying to develop some Urban/Rural Mix formula from Bunty aur Bubly. A formula which will apease to all kinds of audiences (Om Shanti Om?). He is not yet getting success in it. So this movie goes over the top, weird and boring at many places. After all making movies without a story is not very easy art.

BR Rating: 2 (1 star for the movie, 0.5 for Kareena, 0.5 for Akshay)
BR Verdict: Average
BR Recommends: You must watch this movie if you like south Indian masala movies or 70s failed headless formula movies. If you like good movies, you can stick to Shaurya.

Krazzy 4…. one of the most awaited movies due to the tremendous hype created by SRK item number followed by Hritik Roshan’s with added “tadka” of Rakhi Sawant. Also there were many controversies created to generate public attention. Not to forget the last minute fight for copyright which cost 2 cr to the producer and  made a bad black spot on the Roshan’s. A movie which made 2 cr loss before its release…. due to the copyright issue.

Forget about all the above and just have a look at the credentials of the promoters and the actors. Roshan’s as we all know are the marvelous masterminds who know the key to Indian Audience’s heart and have been in the industry with very less failure ratio. The actors including Arshad Warsi, Irfan Khan and Rajpal Yadav have shown great flavor for comedy in the past. People look forward to their movies if its an comedy. Even Suresh Menon has fan following who watch TV a lot. I mean a combination of all this can be a dynamite of laughter. That’s what Krazzy4 promises and is meant to be…..

Does it fulfill its promise? Does it live up to expectations? I will leave the verdict for the end.

First let’s talk about the plot or the story (Rakesh Roshan). Its about 4 mental patients who are being treated by their Dr. Suman (Juhi Chawala). Everyone has different mental disorders with heavy medical names. In layman terms, Raja (Arshad Warsi) is very very short tempered and can get violent over small issues. He was a cricketer and was in love with Shikha (Dia Mirza). But due to his anger, he had breakup with her and is being treated at hospital.

Dr. Mukherjee (Irfan Khan) is obsessed with cleanliness. He has to get treatment when that obsession turns into an disorder. Gangadhar (Rajpal Yadav) is researcher in Freedom Movement and later assumes himself in pre-independence era and as a freedom fighter. He is being treated to get back normal to current times. Dabboo (Suresh Menon) has selective mutation disorder means he can speak but when and where, one can not tell. Not even he himself. (But why does he acts like a child?) So he is mute throughout the film with 1 word (Kidnap) to utter and a dialog at the end.

Dr. Suman finds a lot of progress in them and thinks they are ready to face the society now. She wants to take them to watch cricket match on Independence Day. Defying the oppositions of the fellow colleagues, she takes them out. On the way she stops at her husband’s house to take some papers and is kidnapped by some goons. Dabboo witnesses that but as he can not speak, he can not tell anything to anyone.

Despite strict orders of Dr. Suman that no one moves out of the car till she comes, everyone is out with their own reason. So 4 krazzy men are out on the streets of the city…. What happens next? You can see that when you watch the movie.

This was a great comic plot. But sadly it does not turn into great comic screenplay and movie. Credibility gained by Ashwani Dhir is being at stake after 2 movies back to back i.e. 123 (one two three) and Krazzy4. He does not have expertise on the movie medium as he has on television. He is good dialog writer but that does not help a bad screenplay and a bad movie. He sure needs to get back to basics.

Director Jaideep Sen must be happiest man before the release of the movie thinking that he has got the chance of his lifetime to prove himself and that to with FilmKraft as his launching pad. The poor guy got carried away with the chance and overtook a bad screenplay. It is like being captain of a ship with a big hole at its bottom. He shows his direction skills in emotional and patriotic scenes of the movie (like Rajpal Yadav’s scene when he stands still as national anthem plays). I am sure he can do wonders with a emotional or patriotic movie (with good tight screenplay). However, Krazzy4 is complete dull product from him. I hope he gets second chance to prove himself.

The first half of the movie is STAND STILL. Nothing happens in it. It takes 35 mins to get the first good laughter from the audience. Can you imagine? First laugh after 35 mins in a movie which is supposed to be comedy which can make you krazzy. Sure it does but due to the thought that why on earth we choose this movie to watch. Even 123 was bearable.

Second half picks up little bit when the 4 guys come into action. However, there are many things which you feel as made up (climax talk), childish and amateur. We come out of the theatre dancing to the title tune only because of SRK and Hritik. But inside we pray that thank God! The movie Ended.

I mean why on earth you have to make a movie for which you even don’t read the script? Why did Irfan Khan chose this role? First of all, why did Rakesh Roshan chose this story? It was good story but why he did not look into details of the screenplay? Didn’t he feel that it is going to be a weak product? Or is it that he knew it and hence he used star power like SRK and Hritik Roshan (even Rakhi Sawant) to create hype? I think thats what he did and business wise I hope he will recover due to low budget of the movie and highly over hyped publicity. I can be a successful business venture for FilmKraft, but for the audience, it’s a heartbreak.

Music by Rajesh Roshan is already in news for good and bad publicity. The item numbers for which they paid 2 crore are the only saving grace of the movie and also Rakhi Sawant song can be paisa wasool for the masses. Cinematography is average. Locations are average.

Talking about performances, Irfan Khan and Arshad Warsi are totally wasted. Arshad is more like a angry young man of the movie than being a krazzy comic character. He does his job well but its not comic. Irfan Khan does not have much to do and should have clearly stayed away from this movie. Ditto wasted is Suresh Menon. Again he does his job well. Dia Mirza is ok. Juhi Chawala has got perfection in the role she play i.e. of a sweet lady. The character and performer who gets out most laughs and also stands out in touching scenes is Rajpal Yadav. Afterall, all good things come in small packages.

Err… but not the movie… it is small (approx 100 mins) but it feels long and bore. Being small can not always guarantee a good product.

So to sum it all, stay away from this movie. Download the item number on your mobiles and mp4 players, watch it on TV, buy its VCD/DVD. Because that’s all this movie has to offer. You don’t need to go to theatre for anything else. If you wish a better movie to watch on weekend, I will suggest you to buy or rent out DVDs of even Dhamal and Dhol, but stay away from Krazzy4.

BR Rating: *1/2 (1 star for the item songs, 1/2 for the movie)
BR Verdict: Below average
BR Recommends: Why these guys just burn their money? It will be more fun than making such movie. Audience, you can also do that with your ticket money than to watch this.