I know this comes in a bit late. Most of you must have already watched this one or planned to skip it. The former can let me know if you agree and the latter can decide whether they can catch this on a DVD once it arrives.
I did not get a lot of positive reviews for this one ( that being one of the prime reason for delaying watching it). The main complaint being the length of the movie. For a movie running for almost 3hrs the pace was not fast enough to keep me glued to my seat (and away from the fast forward button )
The other thing which I didn't like was the narration by their family dog (Aamir Khan voiceover). Its a novel concept and I did like it in the beginning but as the movie progressed it seemed irritating. The dog stating the obvious at times and narrating incidents which are being shown right there. Like an audio subtitle. There is a scene where the dog just looks towards, Ranbir and Anushka as they meet the first time. That's hilarious. But then he goes on to explain how they are now thinking about each other etc etc. Also Zoya narrates human emotions and how we react to incidents in life from his perspective. Remember school days when we used to watch Wild safari on Discovery (dubbed in the funniest hindi accent. " Ab nar khana dhoondhne ke liye jungle mein jata hai aur mada apne bachon ko sambhalti hai"). Pluto gives the same feeling. The movie is like a human documentary for the dog world.
But keeping those two things aside, the movie is really nice and is definitely a one time watch. The one liners are hilarious. The stereotype characters chosen are quite believable, like the uncle who uses an extra "s" after every English word, Priyanka's mother in law who is a hypochondriac with n number of diseases. Each couple in the movie is different and has a different agenda, But the solution for all their problems is being vocal about one's thought. This is the central theme of the story and is summed up really well by Zoya ( via Pluto, the dog) at the end of the movie. Of course the actual end of the movie is vague. It feels that they kept on making it until they realised its been more than 170min.
Anil Kapoor and Ranveer Singh are the stars of the movie. Rest all are supportive. Music is not that great.
All in all it's a good movie but flawed in its presentation.
Zoya did get her Luck by chance Doobara, but definitely not the third time ;) !
I know this review comes quite late. There is reason (like there is one for all the stupid things in life). I failed to find company all this time for this movie. Convincing people to watch an Anurag Kashyap movie is odd. But isnt that surprising because he has a different set of fans (the majority belonging to the inverse set of the "bhai-i-love-you-whatever-acting-psuedoacting- you- do" set). But then this one had the big stars to attract the masses. In spite of that it couldn't. This is what bad publicity and poor understanding of his kind of cinema is. I being an ardent fan of his work I wanted to watch this. And after hearing all the negativities I definitely had to watch it. Not when the DVD is out but while its still in the theater
Ok to start off, the movie is not good. Not good by Anurag Kashyap's standards (which are very high. Atleast for me he is the best director bollywood has at the moment). And please note that a bad movie by Anurag Kashyap is probably any day better than even the best one by some other directors like Ab-Basss and MAST-an (name changed).
Has he tried something completely different than his prior films ? I doubt that. It has all the ingridients of a typical Anurag Kashyap movie. The plot (revenge :Gangs of Wasseypur , the lust for power and money :Gulaal , Ugly and the intertwining of multiple subplots and showing the best and the worst aspects of interpersonal relationships: All his movies) , the cinematography , the art of weaving songs into the plot in a way that you want more of them (Dev D , GOW. GOW infact boasted off 14 songs in the first part and 13 in the second). So whats different?
Let start with the goods. The real stars of the movie are the set design and the music. The sets are lavish, not only the one showing Bombay Velvet the theater, but even the Bombay of the 60s shown in the movie (Bombay not Mumbai :)). The music ! Amit Trivedi (Dev D , Udaan, Ishaqzaade and many more here) has done such an amazing job. It was the first time that I didn't like his songs when I heard the album. But then they seem so good when I saw them in the movie. Plus the built up and background Anurag has given to each of them is simply brilliant. Dhadaam Dhadaam is my personal favorite. Also the choice of " Fify - Jaata hai kaha hai deewane" is so apt for the situation. The remi of the same by Mike Mcleary is nice (He is the same guy who composed Khoya Khoya Chand and Dhak Dhak)
Anurag Kashyap has this knack of looking into the smallest of things. ( For eg In Ugly when he was wanted to show a bollywood struggler's dingy house, he had a can of whey proteins in one of the shelves. Rest of the house was a pity. Useless fanboy info). He has his strokes of brilliances in this one too. One special scene is the one where Karan Johar mocks Ranbirs English. I wont reveal the details, but its epic. Simply epic. The climax scene where Ranbir goes on a killing spree is well shot but it seems borrowed. The background score reminds you of Tarantino and the scene is way similar to Faizal ka badla from GOW-2. There are other "inspirational"scenes as well but he has given due credits these at the start of the movie.
Ranbir plays his character well. But it is the side characters that impress, for eg Satyadeep Mishra as his friend Chimman, Kay Kay Menon as the honest cop and Manish Chaudhari as the parsi reporter. Also Remo Fernandez, Raveena Tandon Siddhartha Basu and Amit Trivedi (How many of you noticed him in the club?) have special appearances
What doesnt work? I guess the major weakness is the plot. In an attempt to be true to the facts , the movie's plot seems not that great. The story about the development of the metropolitan MUMBAI and about the greedy janta who made that happen. The second thing that I feel that went horribly wrong is casting Karan Johar. He is not able to generate that kind of aura that was expected from him. The perfect example was was the wicked Ramadhir Singh in GOW (played by Tigmanshu Dhulia, who has also directed the movie Paan Singh Tomar. Again useless piece of information). You actually felt nice when Faizal takes his badla. Karan Johar and his lack of emotions is a major setback in most of the scenes. You simply don't feel the tension between him and Ranbir. Also the climax doesn't reach its pinnacle as it does in GOW. Its rather an anticlimax The other bad choice he made was Anushka Sharma. Not because she cant act, but because of the ducky face. He has these close ups of her face while she performs for Bombay Velvet and trust me that doesn't make a good picture. It is so bad that you feel good when Raveena recites the same songs in her absence. Plus the movie is slow. Kashyap takes his own time to come to the theme of the movie and it seems a drag. Its not that first time that he is making a long movie. GOW was so long a movie that he had to make two parts out of it, and there wasnt even a single dull moment in it.
To sum it I would say that is a bad movie by Anurag Kashyap's standards but its definitely a good film. Plus you need to watch it in the theater to experience the grandeur of its stars: the sets and the music.
P.S. This has turned out to be quite a long post and it may seem like a Anurag- Kashyap - fanclub -page rather than a movie review. But then thats the way it is. I am a huge fan of his work for he is one of the few film makers who respects the audiences intelligence. For the uninitiated , Dev D , Gulaal , Gangs of Wasseypur , Black Friday are simply superb. Yes there is lot of violence in these, but thats not the best part. His way of presenting the minute details is what makes him stand apart. For eg watch this scene from GOW if you haven't watched it yet. Nawazuddin's acting being a cherry on top of the cake.
It takes some great reviews/ story line to drive me to the theaters ,especially when our friends at PirateBay have reached new levels, delivering high quality rips within 3 days from the release. NH10 did manage to do that. But at the end of 1 hr 45 mins , I was utterly disappointed. When I say this , I know I will be contradicting almost all the reviewers, but that's the way it is. NH10 definitely has a nice concept. A brave attempt. But as Siddhu paji would say it, "You are remembered for hitting the target not for aiming at it". And that's what NH10 does. Anushka has definitely given a good performance, but that's by her standards which aren't that great either. However, a single good performance isn't good enough to make a good movie. What starts off as a hatke concept goes haywire by the time we reach the end of the movie. Honor Killings is something which hasn't been highlighted in Bollywood. But NH10 does no justice to that. Plus the movie seems unrealistic at so many places. And the rest of the cast is very passable. So irrespective of what the (paid ?) reviews say its better that you save this one for your lappies.
P.S. I have stopped liking Anushka after a certain job she got (Read:Quack Quack!). And from the performance point of view , she was way way better in Band Baja Baraat
