A good end could have saved RAAZ!

Raaz-The mystery continues [Review]

Just like most of the actors in the tinsel town of Bollywood, the mysterious evil spirit in the movie Raaz-The mystery continues, prefers he’s Hindi script to be written in English. The ghost conveys the threatening messages and clues in the language of Hindi, boldly written in the Queen’s alphabets. You wonder why? But that remains as good a Raaz as the coils of mystery keeps unfolding in the first half of the movie. [The second half is insane, and, hey, you don’t get answer for the above question even in the second half, I certainly didn’t]

Director Mohi Suri’s Raaz scares you, builds quite a mystery, and as it goes into the spiral of spooky events leading toward the second half, it makes you build an expectation of a good solid flashback to substantiate the trauma the protagonist [Kangana Ranaut's character] goes through and that expectation evokes a hope that the director would at least give a shocking, surprising ending to an otherwise one of the run-of-the-mill horror films. And the hope comes crashing down like the sensex of the Bombay stock exchange.Supermodel [Kangana] is happy in the city of Mumbai, with her boyfriend [Adhyayan]- An ace reporter cum Anchor busy busting the myths and superstitions the Indian society is grappled with. The couple achieves quite a success by compromising on the great Indian values and what not. Their sole Mantra is- ‘own a dreamworld no matter what it takes.’life seems good and happening until, Kangana comes across an artist [Hashmi], who claims to know the discourse of the evil things are on their way, slowly approaching Kangana through the ‘masterpieces’ he paints. Life is no more a peppy ball for Kangana as she confronts with weird instances happening, one after the other, that’s when, she decides to meet Hashmi, only to get to know that she is part of a plot, a mistake committed in the past. Soon, she discovers the death of some people from the city under suspicious circumstances is the end result of their inclusive, collective Paap committed in the past and she is to meet the same fate the other people died with. And the journey to get to the root of the rotten fate err…Razz begins. To know the Mystery you will have to go through Animated Bisons, Black-magic, voodoo dolls, occult power and wooden faced Adhyayan.

The Film is not bad, but it will serve a great example of how a good, intrigue generating story could be butchered by a hurried direction. As I said, the first half of the movie is good, but the second half is so overwhelmingly unjustified that its failure overpowers the goodness of the first half. Kangana by now knows how to portray that drowsy, bleary-eyed problem-infested young woman. [Right from Gangster to Life in a Metro to Fashion to blah blah] there isn’t a much difference between the characters she has portrayed till now. In this movie she has done a good job, but again the same tone and more or less the similar character she has portrayed before. As for Hashmi, he dosen't kiss anybody on screen this time [The job is passed on to Adhyayan this time around, and he does that well] yes, Imran has done a justice to his character with an apt performance. His lost-in-his-own-world artist comes across very subtly but pretty nicely. Adhyayan could have been portrayed by any Tom, Dick and Harry and it could have come better if not the same.

Like Bhutt's earlier success at the box office, Raaz too has good music especially, the two tracks of soniyo and aaja mahi. The movie is marred by an unconvincing, almost a laughable end that suddenly takes the fizzle out of a well built up drama. What makes the matter worse is the fact, that, unlike, the Raaz part 1, presence of a ghost doesn’t come across well. [You start sympathising with the ghost instead of getting scared by him, and guess who the ageing ghost who has played a spoilsport can be?] This flick is in no way related to the Dino Morea and Bipasha starrer prequel. [no continuation of mystery, no matter what the title says.] All in all, not a bad watch for one time if you are up to a naught!

Ratings- *** almost three on five [and that’s being generous!]

BACHKE REHNA

BACHNA AE HASEENO
DIRCTOR-SIDDHARTH ANAND
PRODUCER-YASH CHOPRA
CAST-RANBEER KAPOOR, BIPASHA BASU, MINISHA LAMBA, DEEPIKA PADUKONE

Siddharth Anand’s Bachna ae hasino is another movie that is part of Yash raj campus’s another ordinary bead of the long necklace of poor and ordinary films. [Read flops] This film is slightly watch able than the previous two releases from Yash raj banner, but it also emphasises the fact that, evoking that good old romantic charm, creating magic in the air, tickling that mushy-gushy feelings is no more their forte. I would rather prefer watching Dilwale Dulhaniya,,,,,,,,,at Maratha mandir once again rather than recommending anybody to go and watch Bachana ae haseeno. In spite of having young blood [except Bipasha] which fails to perform and deliver, exotic locations, bright colours and half-naked Ranbir throughout the film, Bachna ae haseeno has nothing in it.Raj [Ranbir Kappor] is a cool and equally cute guy who is on vacation [of course in Switzerland…where else] with his four friends, bump into sweet and sassy Mahi [Minisha Lamba] and the cupid strikes. Mahi who daydreams about her Raj, I mean her charming prince, misses the train and Raj ‘intentionally’ helps her out. In the mountains and meadows of Alps Mahi and Raj fall in love and looks a good pair. But Mahi discovers Raj’s looking for fun-not-love attitude at the right time, when raj is busy boasting about his heroic ‘deed’ with Mahi to his friends. She shatters, philander Raj on the other hand only gets better [with his histrionics]Five years later Raj who is a techie in a multinational company in Mumbai is in living relationship with a girl next door [actually] sexy, buxom Radhika [Bipasha Basu] falls for Raj. Raj who is happy with his life so far, is struck by the blow of the shaadi-demand by Radhika. Raj tries every ploy to avoid the marriage, does not quite work, leaves Radhika for a high paid job in Sydney [and also for hot Australian ‘mates’ you see.] five years later Raj comes across a female taxi driver in Sydney [who eventually turns out to be an Indian] Gayatri [Deepika] and this time Raj falls in ‘real’ love with her. He proposes to her, but the B-school student by day and taxi driver at night Gayatri, who wants to live life on her terms, turns down his proposal. Moral of the story so far- whatever that goes around comes around. Completely tattered and now matured [mentally] Raj looking for redemption. How does he achieve it? For this you have to bear with the unbearable other half of the movie.Bachna ae haseeno has very little story in it, which is executed even more badly. Ranbir’s character is so confused between now-sweet-then-mean, so much so that Raj seems to be suffering from multiple personality disorder. Though he gives the hope that he can act, Minisha looks promising, as for Deepika Padukone, she is almost non existent entity in the film. She looks wooden and Bipasha simply swallows both Deepika and Minisha not only with her looks but also with her act. [Ignore those wrinkles on her neck….otherwise she looks hot] as far as music is concerned the title song and Khud jaane kyun are good enough. Other songs are deprived of tune or melody, they are simply inserted anywhere as fillers non-convincingly. The only plus point of the movie is Sushil Patel’s excellent cinematography, probably the only factor that avoids you from going to a deep slumber. There is a dire attempt to make Ranbir look next manhunt winner [agreed he’s got fabulous lean body] but It’s done and overdone and you tend smile when he is in ‘something’.All in all Bachna ae haseeno is for those who want to get to know how feeble the relationships are in the cosmos in these times. With some unrealistic and boring love stories the movie drags without a single entertaining moment……..sorry Ranbir I am suggesting everyone to Bachke rehna from this movie………now, it’s your turn to accept my ‘SORRY’Rating- * *