Critic Mohit's review of '3 IDIOTS' :-

Cast: Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi, R. Madhavan, Boman Irani & Kareena Kapoor

Music: Shanatanu Moitra

Writers: Rajkumar Hirani & Abhijat Joshi

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Duration: 2 hrs, 48 mins.

From the director of the super hit Munna Bhai series, comes another extraordinarily outstanding movie – 3 Idiots. Yes, who can forget the talented and wonderful director Rajkumar Hirani who has two back to back hits to his credit, Munna Bhai M.B.B.S and Lagey Raho Munna Bhai. This is a clean hatrick from him because 3 Idiots will surely go on to be his third successful super-duper hit in a row. There’s not an iota of doubt about that.

3 Idiots is loosely based on writer Chetan Bhagat’s bestseller novel Five Point Someone- The story about three friends who meet in a highly esteemed engineering college of the country, they become room mates, then become the best of friends and always go through many ups & downs that happen in the course of their college life.

The story starts with two friends or should I say two idiots, i.e. Raju (Sharman Joshi) and Farhan (R. Madhavan) who are on a journey in search of their third friend/buddy rather the third idiot Ranchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad aka Rancho (Aamir Khan) who is in Shimla as informed by their ex class mate Chatur Ramalingam aka Silencer (Omi Vaidya). That special friend of them whom they haven’t seen or heard about since the day they graduated from their college five years ago. The movie goes into flashback starting from their first day in the college and the funny incident in which they (as juniors) are being ragged by their seniors. Raju & Farhan see Rancho for the first time then. Co-incidentally he is also their room mate. Soon they realize that Rancho is a very lively guy who knows how to enjoy life and also make others enjoy it thoroughly. He loves to think and do things that are out of the box. Always has an almost impromptu answer or solution to any kind of a question or a problem and deals with it in an amusing style of his own. The Director of their college Prof. Viru Sahastrabuddhe (Boman Irani) is kind of a psychotic person who blindly believes in his own saying- that life is a race and one should always be first in it, in order to be successful. Raju wanted to be an engineer only to get a decent job and support his poor family that comprised of his mother, his paralyzed father and an unmarried sister. Farhan who always wanted to be a wildlife photographer was forced to do engineering due to pressure from his family. On the other hand, Rancho was the rare kind who wanted to do it only for the love of it.

The first half of the story is quite a roller coaster ride with lot of funny and hilarious incidents but also a pitiable one where the three of them face the suicide of one of their senior students. It also has instances where-in Rancho directly expresses his anguish with regard to the existing education system and the grading method in practice. He also gets to meet Pia (Kareena Kapoor) a doctor-in-progress who is the daughter of their college Director whom he almost rescues her from getting engaged with a silly rich guy. The first half of the story just before the interval ends in a shocker where Raju and Farhan discover that shockingly Ranchordas is a person with another identity but with all the degrees and certificates that actually belonged to Rancho.

The second half of the story again takes us into the flashback showing some serious incidents like the failed suicide attempt by Raju and his recovery from the multiple fractures. Rancho gives Farhan the confidence to convince his parents that his dream is to become an ace photographer and not an engineer, the confidence to Raju to face the interview and get his job. He also gets beaten up by the director for stealing the final exam papers from his staff room which he does for helping his Raju pass his exams. Rancho also manages to help Pia’s elder sister deliver her child on a Ping-Pong table in their campus with some support from Pia who's on the web cam. Rancho leaves the college on the last day after their convocation without returning back in anybody’s life. Relating and connecting to the present mode of the story, Raju and Farhan go on to kidnap Pia from her own marriage in order to get her married to Rancho, whom she loves, when they finally find him in Ladakh (where he actually is). They story as is expected to be, ends on a happy note with the two idiots Raju and Farhan finding the third i.e. Rancho and Pia finding her love. All of them united again after the long gap. As it is said, ‘aal izz well’ that ends well.

The movie has some superb acting by Boman Irani as the director of the college and Omi, a debutant who enacts the character of Silencer. Though Kareena did not have much longer role, she was impressive in her work. Sharman and Madhavan can definitely count this as one of their best career performances. What do I say about Mr. Prefectionist Aamir Khan. Even in a multi-starrer film, he manages to make us feel that he is omni present. He’s undoubtedly the backbone of the movie, the soul of 3 Idiots and truly gets into the skin of the character almost effortlessly.

The dialogues are outstanding especially the sequence in which Rancho muddles up with Silencer’s Teacher’s Day speech is truly hilarious. If Rajkumar Hirani gave us some really wonderful one-liners like “Jaadu ki jhappi” and “Gandhigiri” in the past, them this time he coins another wonderful one as in “Aal izz well” that is used in the movie in many occasions. Music by Shanatanu Moitra is awesome with “Aal izz Well” already becoming a youth anthem and topping the charts, credit to Swanand Kirkire for his amazing lyrics.

A free advice to all of you – please don’t miss to watch 3 Idiots at any cost. It has all the ingredients in it that’s required for it to be a blockbuster hit. Also, not often in your life you get to see a story on celluloid, which manages to touch both your mind and heart and also influence you strongly, in a very positive way. It drives one message very clearly - "Chase Excellence. Success will follow."

Aamir, you really make our film industry proud. Keep rocking!!

Rating: ****3/4

Critic Mohit's review of 'PAA' :-

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan & Paresh Rawal

Music: Illayaraja

Writer & Director: R Balki

Duration: 2 hrs, 24 mins.

First of all, hats off to the talented writer/director R Balki (Cheeni Kum was his directorial debut) for thinking and making a movie on such a unique concept of a rare disease called Progeria. Yes, that is the essence of the movie. Progeria – a very rare genetic disease/defect that causes accelerated aging of a person. There are hardly 8-9 cases of this in the entire world. Here in Paa, Amitabh Bachchan plays the role of a child named ‘Auro’ who is suffering with Progeria like syndrome. Though he’s just a 12-13 yr old kid mentally but physically his body growth is 5-6 times of his age i.e. like a 65-70 year old man.

He is brought up by his mother Vidya (Vidya Balan) who is a gynecologist, in Lucknow, also with the support of Vidya’s mom. Auro is a very creative and talented boy with a great sense of humour. On the eve of his school’s 50^th anniversary, he gets awarded with the ‘Visionary of Modern India’ award for an internal school competition. This award is given to him by a very young and ‘cool’ Politician/MP Amol Arte (Abhishek Bachchan). This very incident also brings Auro into the limelight by the media. When Vidya sees her son receiving the award from Amol on the television, she is thunderstruck because of the fact that Auro is Amol’s son.

This is where the movie goes into a slight flashback mode all the way to Europe. Amol and Vidya are pursuing their higher education in an esteemed University there, one in gynecology and the other in Political Science respectively. They meet accidentally, become fast friends, very close friends and finally in a relationship. When it is known that Vidya is pregnant, Amol is not ready to accept the responsibility of a father at such an early age of his and he suggests Vidya to abort the child. He explains to her that both of them have their respective careers ahead and hence they cannot get married. Vidya needs to complete her gynecology and Amol has to become a politician and take his dad’s (Paresh Rawal) political party ahead. Amol wants to be a clean, non-corrupt politician who is out to prove the world that ‘Politics’ is not a bad word. He is a man with a mission and a modern vision. That’s why Vidya decides to leave him alone and comes back to her mother in Lucknow, where she decides that she’ll give birth to her child. Her mother supports her right throughout this period and Vidya also pursues her remaining studies simultaneously. The tough time which she goes through in bringing up her son Auro, makes her a really strong headed woman.

The fact that Auro is Amol’s son is not known to anybody except for Vidya alone. Not even Vidya’s mother knows that because Vidya doesn’t discloses Amol’s name to her mom. The movie slowly comes back to the present. At times, Auro keeps asking his grand mom whether his mom Vidya got married in the Indian traditional way or not, which he funnily terms as the seven round-round. Vidya’s mom insists to her that she discloses Auro’s father’s identity to her as well as to Auro. Auro and Amol start having some interaction through phone, internet and one day Auro requests Amol to take him to Rashtrapati Bhavan (President’s Residence) in New Delhi and Amol promises him the same. That however gets postponed due to Amol’s political commitments and Auro is upset with the same. On his 13^th birthday, Vidya gifts Auro with her and Amol’s photograph thus telling Auro that MP Amol is his ‘Paa’ i.e. father. However, she suggests him not to let Amol know the same.

At a later date, when Amol takes Auro to New Delhi, they both have a great time there together. Now the story starts getting bit slow and emotional towards the latter half of the second half. Auro’s health starts deteriorating very fast as the doctor had already hinted that to Vidya previously. He’s admitted in the hospital and is in a very critical condition. It is then when Amol gets to know the entire truth when he sees Vidya sitting in the hospital beside Auro. The world around him is shattered when he realizes that Auro is his own son. Though he his very happy to know that, at the same time also repents for the mistake he had done and also apologizes to Vidya for that. Auro unites his parents and ensures that they both do the round-round (marriage thing) right in front of him in the hospital. He calls his mom as “Maa” and then Amol as “Paa...” the last word he speaks. Auro then dies that also brings us to the end of the movie at a very heartbreaking note because every one of us would be definitely feeling sad for him.

The dialogues in the movie are very good especially when Auro always calls his grand mom as ‘bum’ and his funny interactions with his class mates and Amol. Music by Illayaraja is remarkable. Paresh Rawal has perfromed his role very well. Abhishek has been emerging really strongly as an actor and his role of a young & modern politician is enacted by him superbly. Vidya’s role suited her very well and both Abhishek and Vidya make a really good pair. It is Big B’s one of the best career performances undoubtedly. He is exceptional as Auro – the new child sensation of the year. R Balki has again proved that he is a superb filmmaker.

Paa is a not only a very rare father-son son-father story but also shows the emotional bonding which every mother shares with her child. It is one of those few best movies, to have come out in the year 2009. Do go ahead and watch this movie, at least for Auro.

Rating: ****

Note: I would have rated this *** but its 1 * more only for Big B aka Auro.

Critic Mohit's review of 'WAKE UP S!D' :-

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Konkona Sen Sharma, Anupam Kher & Supriya Pathak

Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Writer & Director: Ayan Mukerji

Duration: 2 hrs, 16 mins.

Well, after a long time we get to see a coming-of-age movie which has in it, all the ingredients that makes it a movie worth watching. The story may sound common & familiar but the director has given a complete fresh look and feel to it. Kudos to the young debutant director Ayan Mukerji for making a movie, so refreshing, right at the beginning of his career.

The story is about a lazy, laidback, careless and stubborn guy Sidharth Mehre aka SID. He has a ‘take it light’ & ‘easy go lucky’ kind of attitude towards life and is bugged up with studies. He is unfocussed and undecided about his career, goal or his future. He’s done with his graduation exams, awaiting results. Has a group of 2-3 friends with whom he loves to hang out and party hard in the night, thanks to his credit card. On his farewell day, he meets a stranger, a girl named Aisha (Konkona Sen Sharma) who is new to the city Bombay, rather Mumbai I should say. He talks to her, walks with her in the streets, late in the night and very soon they become very good friends. Sid’s dad Ram Mehra (Anupam Kher) is a very rich businessman but Sid is least bothered or concerned about that and is not at all interested in his business. He is irritated by the same common questions which almost every second person asks him; like “Apne career ke bare mein kya socha hai? Dad ka business ya phir higher studies like MBA etc.?” He can’t understand as to why other people are bothered about his future or career.

His life suddenly changes track when his final year graduation results come out and he fails in it. The fact that all his friends have passed and he’s the only one, who has failed, hurts him even more. The same night he has an argument with his parents, where in he also speaks disrespectfully to his mother. Frustrated with his dad’s words, he decides to leave his home immediately. He goes and stays with his friend Aisha. Slowly, a feeling of responsibility arises in him and he starts taking life seriously. The one thing which Sid is great at is his hobby and like for photography. With this ability of his, he Aisha manages to get him a job, as an intern, in the same magazine which she works for – Mumbai Beat. Also, Aisha doesn’t realize when she starts liking Sid and how that like turns into love for him. Sid who is easily 6-7 years younger to Aisha, also loves her but we can’t understand as to what kind of love is that. Nevertheless, the fact is – ‘love, is love’. When Sid meets his dad after a long time, giving his first salary check to him, his dad feels very proud that his son has become serious in life and achieved something entirely on his own. He takes Sid back to home and everything is fine in the end. Aisha expresses her love to Sid, by way of her article in the magazine for which they both work for.

The best part about Wake Up Sid is that, it has a slice of everyone’s life in it and any normal person can relate themselves with Sid’s character, at some point or the other.

Wonderful acting by Ranbir Kapoor and he’s improving as an actor with every movie of his. Konkona’s simplicity and acting was superb as usual. Thanks to Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for giving us some great music again. ‘Wake up S!D’ – a movie that is worth watching in every aspect. A must watch at least once.

Rating: ****

Critic Mohit's review of 'KAMINEY' :-

Cast: Shahid Kapur, Priyanka Chopra & Amol Gupte

Music: Vishal Bharadwaj

Writer & Director: Vishal Bharadwaj

Duration: 2 hrs, 15 mins.

It is said that a person’s intelligence can be judged by his work. This is exactly what director Vishal Bharadwaj has proved. With his latest movie Kaminey, he has yet again proved to every one that he’s not only a director of different genre but also an 'Intelligent filmmaker'. If I want to describe the story of Kaminey in two words, then I would say that it’s a ‘VERY HATKE’ movie & one word in appreciation of the movie- ‘FUPERB’.

It’s a fast paced story of two twin brothers Charlie (who lisps) & Guddu (who stammers) played by Shahid. Charlie is a ‘chota mota’ gangster who is into the world of guns, bettings, etc & other illegal activities, whereas Guddu is an NGO worker, very decent and humble. Charlie lisps, he says ‘f instead of s’. One of his cracking dialogues in the movie goes like “aife aife.. kaife kaife..” On the other hand, Guddu stammers atleast once in every two or three sentences he speaks. Priyanka sizzles as a typical ‘Marathi mulgi’ Sweety, who’s in love with the ‘seedha-saadha’ Guddu. She’s also the sister of the gangster/politician Bhau Bhape played by famous writer/director Amol Gupte, who triumphs with his debut as an actor.

The backdrop of the movie basically concentrates on the two completely different lives of the two brothers, Charlie & Guddu who even hate to see each other because of an incident that happened in their past. It’s when these two brothers meet each other at one juncture (after a gap of almost 3 years) that everything in the story goes topsy-turvy.

In between, there are quite a few crisscross stories with quite a few interesting characters that intersect with the main story. Post interval, gradually, the entire focus of the story shifts to a particular ‘Guitar’ (that has drugs worth Rs.10 Crores) which finally drives the movie to a very interesting & different climax.

The way in which director Vishal Bharadwaj relates & interconnects these stories with the main story is really amazing. A director of his caliber can only do so. Shahid impresses tremendously with this powerful acting, leaving behind his chocolate boy image. Music of the movie is simply outstanding with “Dhan Te Nan” becoming a rage, an anthem. Camera work is wonderful & screenplay is superb.

Kaminey, undoubtedly is one of the ‘BEFT’ movies to have released this year. Try not to miss watching this one.

Rating: ****1/2

Critic Mohit's review of 'Love Aaj Kal' :-

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone & Rishi Kapoor
Music: Pritam
Writer & Director: Imtiaz Ali
Duration: 2 hrs, 18 mins.


Firstly, kudos to the young and super talented director Imtiaz Ali..

I am sure we can’t forget his blockbuster hit Jab We Met in the year 2007 for which Kareena Kapoor won the Best Actor (Female) & Imtiaz Ali won the award for the Best Dialogues, in almost all the awards that year incl. Filmfare..

Now wid Love Aaj Kal., he once again brings us a wonderful love story. In fact., two wonderful love stories in one; describing love ‘aaj’ (ie in the present) and love ‘kal’ (in the past).. Jai (Saif) & Meera (Deepika), who are a modern gen-x couple in London, who don’t believe that something called ‘Love’ can really happen.. When Deepika decides to move to India, due to their personal challenges, both Jai & Meera decide to end their relationship but on a happy note.. A "happy break up".. As Saif ironically says, “we are the aam janta (the mango people).. We need to be really practical in life..”
Now both of them stay apart, decide to move on in their lives but are still very much connected and in touch with each other..

There’s another parallel love story running simultaneously that is set in the 60’s.. It’s the story of Veer Singh (a Punjabi Munda) & Harleen Kaur (a Soni Punjabi Kudi) that is Rishi Kapoor’s love story, being narrated by him to Jai.. It’s with this story in the background, that the director is trying to compare and relate the love in the past and in the present.. The way the director manages to connect these two different, yet so similar love stories, is commendable.. The first half of the movie is so fast that you don’t even realize when it’s interval time..

It’s in the second half where you get to see that both Jai & Meera are not at all comfortable staying away from each other and are trying to figure out what actually is keeping them connected?? They still can’t realize that the thing which is keeping them so connected to each other is nothing else but ‘Love’.. As the saying goes, “It’s better late than never”.. It’s then when both Jai & Meera realize that they need each other and can’t stay without each other.. In fact, Meera realizes it post her marriage with Vikram (Rahul Khanna)..
By now, love has completely taken over both Jai & Meera and in the end both of them live together like a happy couple.. Veer & Harleen’s love story also had a similar happy ending.. Happys endings.. After all, yeh bollywood hai mere yaar.. Jahan end mein sab accha hee ho jaata hai..

Saif has done a good job as an actor and Deepika’s acting as well as her looks, is very natural.. Thanks to the director for making her act so naturally.. Rishi Kapoor is fantastic all through..

Dialogues are superb and the Music is outstanding.. My personal favourite being Dooriyan (by Mohit Chauhan).. The screenplay of the movie is also amazing..


Rating: ****1/3


{Additional info: The week one collections of Love Aaj Kal is mind blowing (Weekly Gross 13,89,26,742 INR.) & it’s being considered as Saif’s biggest solo hit till date..}