Quick Gun Murugun - Review

One tumbler whiskey, One plate masala dosa !!!!
Colourful clothes, tacky sets, Rajni style fights & a cowboy to put Clint Eastwood to shame.....is Quick Gun Murugun worth the effort ???

Quick Gun Murugun (Dr. Rajendra Prasad) is the story of a cowboy, who believes in protecting cows. He encounters a local goon Gun Powder (Shanmughja Rajan), who works for non-vegetarian don Rice Plate Reddy (Naseer). In a brief encounter, Rice plate sends QGM packing, but understanding his needs Mr. C. Gupta (Vinay Pathak) allows QGM to come back to earth to complete his unfinished deeds.
Cut to Mumbai-2007, QGM finds himself confused with the surroundings & with one aim, to find Rice Plate Reddy & destroy the McDosa business enterprise.
The story then unfolds as he finds his nemesis & encounters along the way, some interesting characters such as a cigarette smoking, Rowdy MBA (with the background music MBA MBA),
a sultry club dancer Mango Dolly (Return of Rambha) & a firangi chef Dr Django (Ashwin Mushran.

The film plays on the cliches of south Indian cinema, making for many hilarious scenes. The spoofs scenes from The Matrix, Crouching tiger hidden dragon as wells as numerous Rajni action sequences. The characters are outlandish & remain etched in your mind way after the film is over. Most of the films dialogues are either English or in Tamil, hence not much for the hindi speaking audience.
The problem with the film is the length, which if shortened by 30 min, would do wonders for the film. The story itself is funny in parts & redundant in others. The dialogues are great and the look & feel of the film is brilliant & brings out all that the director has aimed at.

This is a movie of individual performances. Of the actors, Raju Sundaram as Rowdy MBA, Shanmughja Rajan as Gun Powder & Rambha as the cleavage showing Mango Dolly deliver hilarious performances. Their characters are definitely well written & have scope for future endeavours as well. Even main man Rajendra Prasad as QGM is top notch.

The director Shashanka Ghosh has made a good attempt at taking this popular character & weaving a story around him, but alas, the script doesn't hold strong. It runs out of steam a little after the interval. A little more English & a little less Tamil would have strongly helped the film.

All in all, Quick Gun Murugan is an entertaining fair, which makes a good Sunday evening watch. If you are one who likes melodrama, filmi cliches & some over the top performances, go spend some time with Quick Gun Murugan........Agar tu lightening hai, to mai 250 volt current I say.......so MIND IT.

Critical: 3/5
Commercial: 2/5

Kaminey - Review

The most awaited movie of recent times finally hits the screens today, but does it live up to the hype; well almost....

Kaminey is the story of twin brothers Charlie & Guddu (Shahid Kapoor), who are absolutely different from each other. One stammers, the other lisps, one is a crook, the other a simpleton.
Charlie wants to become a successful bookie, fixing horse races & needs money to do so;
Guddu is in love with Sweety (Priyanka Chopra) & they plan to tie the knot, when one rainy day, their lives change.

Their lives get entangled with that off drug smuggling gangsters, corrupt policemen & a local political aspirant Bhope Bhau (Amole Gupte).
The backdrop of this film is greed & how it drives everyone to forget old relationships and forge new ones.
All the characters are after a "guitar", one which contains something of great value to all. I would not give away much of the story, but add that the film takes some twists & the web becomes more complex.

The film is dark, gritty & something unlike most Bollywood films. The filmmaker definitely wants the viewer to think & concentrate.
The first half of the film moves past swiftly & leaves the viewers wanting to see what happens next. The second half is a bit laborious & makes the narrative a little complex. Towards the end of the film, the average viewer might find the number of characters in play a bit too much to handle.

Of the actors, three need a mention, Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chpora & Amole Gupte.
Shahid Kapoor does a great job in both the roles. He makes the characters very believable & fun to watch. Priyanka Chopra does a fabulous job as the Maharashtrian mulgi Sweety. She adds in a different flavour to the character & does full justice to it.
But the true find here is Amole Gupte. He delivers a knockout performance as the politico-in-waiting Bhope Bhau. He plays the role effortlessly & delivers dialogues with panache. He is definitely one to watch out for & one can see another director-actor in the making.

The camera work in the film is very different from what one might have ever seen, with a lot of handheld shots, quick jerks & movements & innovative lighting. While it makes for a fresh look to a film, it can also get a bit irritating at times.

Director/Music Director/Dialogue writer Vishal Bhardwaj definitely deserves an applaud for trying a different style of filmmaking. Dark & Gritty, this film is unlike the Hindi cinema one is used to, though on some level, it attempts to do too much.
A special mention be made for the action sequence in the finale, not for the action, but for the execution. With a song playing in the background, it makes for some very unique viewing.
Dhan Te Na is truly the highlight song of the film & is the soul of Kaminey.
Even though the film has so much going for it, the story pulls it down a notch, not making it Vishal Bhardwaj's best outing to date.

All in all, this film has some great performances & a unique style, but not the best storyline. It's dark, complex & definitely worth a watch. At the box office the film will do great, owing to the hype the promos have genereated.
So forget the flu & hit the theatres....for this one might just work for those with a taste for something different.

Critical: 3/5
Commercial: 4/5