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Vicky Donor (2012)
An attitude-heavy romantic comedy drama
Film: Vicky Donor Cast: Ayushmann Khurana, Yami Gautam, Annu kapoor Director: Shoojit Sircar Rating: * * * out of 5 Six years after his debut film 'Yahaan' created minor tremors at the box-office and won critics praise, ad filmmaker/ feature director Shoojit Sircar, who also burnt his fingers with the stalled Amitabh Bachchan starrer 'Shoebite,' makes a comeback of sorts on the mainstream screens with the hyper-energetic, charismatically engineered, freshly cast, high-on-attitude film, 'Vicky Donor.' He also managed to pull off a miracle by getting John Abraham to co-produce it along with Eros. 's plot is threadbare but it's heart is in the right place. Vicky Arora (Ayushmann Khurana) is a typical Delhi lad who plays club cricket and looks down on his Mamaji (maternal uncle)who owns a wholesale clothing store. So when offered a job at the long-standing establishment, this lay-a-bout thumps his nose at it saying he prefers to stay unemployed. His mom , Dolly, who runs a beauty parlor in the ground floor of their one story tenement, is not happy about her son's unemployed status but his grandmother is far more supportive of his ambition less pursuits. His other pursuits involve flirting with attractive girls, including his next-door neighbor and several other young woman until his eyes alight on a stunning bank employee, a Bengali and a divorce to boot, Ashima Roy(Yami Gautam). If he has to make an impression on the gal, he needs to find an occupation . Luckily for him, Dr Baldev Chaddha (Annu Kapoor), a well qualified fertility expert, who runs a fertility clinic and a sperm bank in Dariyaganj, New Delhi is already in hot pursuit of his sperm. Aryaputra Vicky, who till then has been quite vociferous about spurning Dr Baldev's offer suddenly capitulates, agrees to bite the bullet (without sufficient conviction), and scoop a bounty rich enough to earn him several thousands along with expensive white-goods gifts, enough to take his and his family's lifestyle to another level altogether. And no one is the wiser for it. Whenever queried(all too rarely to be believable), he fobs everyone off by calling himself a handicrafts exporter (pun intended) . His mom and grandma just lap it all up and the seductive banker also becomes more than eager to tie the knot without ever checking on his credentials. So once the honeymoon is over, it becomes discovery time and a rift is foisted on the couple, by the scenarists who prefer to structure even a hatke film like this in traditional tripe.. The rest of the film is devoted to conveniently settling the manufactured dispute and getting the couple together in a happily ever after.
The concept from the writer Juhi Chaturvedi, is definitely hatke for a mainstream venture and risqué too, considering that any mention of bodily fluids has not really gone down well with the audiences, previously. Even the sensitively handled 'I am' with ne of it's stories high-lighting sperm-donation and infertility, found it difficult to attract audiences. Infertility and sperm donation is not a laughing matter for most, neither is it something that is openly talked about within the privacy of our homes. So the issue had to be dealt with, in such a manner that the audiences would not shy away from watching it with an open mind. The calculated irreverence, loud attitudinal displays, innuendo-laced duologue's, and blasé humor which runs through the film, appears therefore to be calculated to make the audience feel like they are part of a joke-fest. The film is supposedly based on real anecdotes, sourced from Dr Aniruddha Malpani, who pioneered the establishment of infertility clinics and sperm banks in India. The plotting though is far too unimaginative and clichéd to be acceptable. Ashima is presented as an independent, free-thinking individual who leaves her first husband on the very night of her wedding because he confesses to a past love. Yet, the second time round, she falls plumb for a guy who doesn't even reveal his true occupation, and then uses his past antecedents as a wedge to engineer a separation.
Shoojit Sircar's film has more to tell about Punjabi and Bengali cultures than it has, in plot and story. The film is in effect a marvelous study of attitudes and manners, the clashes that take place between two cultures when they are threatened by youthful romance and their coming to terms with modern love and romance which in filmi parlance, triumphs, no matter what! I wouldn't call this film forward thinking but it is educational in a back-handed sort of way and there's no doubt that it has all the ingredients to be uninhibitedly entertaining. The scenario may be faulty but the duologue's more than make-up for that lapse and the impressive performances by all the cast members makes the effort doubly memorable.
"Vicky Donor" is a first in many ways. It marks John's foray into production, it is VJ Ayushmann Khurrana's first film, Yami Gautam's first Hindi film and music director duo Abhishek-Akshay's first credited music composition for a film. Despite these firsts, the film plays out like a thespian effort. It has loads of attitude, a charmingly pointed dramatic clash of disparate cultures, a movie full of charismatic, superbly poised performances including a brilliant Annu Kapoor, and a musically energised vibrant narrative that makes this largely uneventful, weakly conceptualised rom-com-drama far more worthy of your patronage than the crass 'Housefull 2.' Go for it!
Hate Story (2012)
old fashioned titillation
Hindi Film review
Johnson Thomas
Old-fashioned titillation
Film: Hate Story
Cast: Paoli Dham, Joy SenGupta, Mohan Kapoor, Gushan Devaiya, Nikhil Dwivedi, Saurabh Dubey, Iravati Harshey,Bhairavi Goswami, Gopal Singh
Director: Vivek Agnihotri
Rating: * * out of 5
From love to vengeance and brutality, this Vikram Bhatt offering directed by former TV serial specialist Vivek Agnihotri, starring seasoned Bengali actress Paoli Dham, in the pivotal role, is sort of eye candy for those who get their thrills from conspicuously plotted eroticism.
Kaavya(Paoli Dham), a middle class girl who works as a journalist ends up as a sex-worker plotting revenge on her exploiters. As the tag line insinuates, she uses her body as her weapon of revenge. Kaavya's main target is Siddharth (Gulshan Devaiah) and all his associates . Hard to believe that in the post millennium era our filmmakers are still churning out such a trite, unconceivable vendetta story that eventually ends-up glorifies the oldest profession in the book.
It's a crude film masquerading as an erotic thriller. There are plenty of scenes designed to titillate the viewer and the gamey plot is specially structured to tease the senses. The overt sexual posturing, exploitative content and highly crude language may act as a magnet for the depraved. The incredible lengths to which the protagonist goes to seek revenge have to be seen to be believed. The plotting is in fact not in the least credible or believable. But Vivek Agnihotri's narrative style allows for some much needed visual appeal. Attar Singh Saini's camera-work aids the cat and mouse plotting quite vicariously. Rohit Malhotra's spiky dialogues lends added vitriol to the vengeance scheming. The background score, as is wont for such a venture, works hard to electrify the proceedings. Paoli asserts her strong presence and so does Gulshan, Joy Sen Gupta, Mohan Kapoor and Nikhil Dwivedi. But even so, the credibility and conviction appears suspect. The story is reminiscent of the Icchadhari Nagin staple that bollywood churns out every other decade. The sense of incredulity that takes root with Kaavya's first foray into vengeance only increases with every subsequent hit. So in effect, this film really flatters to deceive!
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