February a month for lover’s , a month of red and pink , a month for romance , But 22nd Feb with the release of “KAI PO CHE” made alteration. 22nd feb 2013 would be remembered for its BROMANCE. 

Set in Gujarat in the amidst of earthquake and riots “Kai Po Che” takes Chetan Bhagats enchanting novel   about brotherhood and  converts the written word into mesmerizing world far beyond just a story well told. Kai Po Che  is about the common dream shared by three best friend , Ishaan a District level cricketer but like millions of boys in India , His talent was lost in the maze of politics , he now is hot-headed , wild & reckless . Govind is business minded,   geek and shy who wants to be a successful businessman . Omkar (Omi) is the son of temple priest and nephew of a political leader in right wing of Hindu party  , he is confused and can easily influenced by anyone,he  sees the same dreams as his   friends .  Their dream comes true when they open their small sports shop in the premises of a temple , with the help of Omi’s uncle Bittu mama , in this journey they comes across a god gifted young Muslim  boy  Ali who hits six on every ball, and this god gifted boy gives Ishaan  direction to his life , who now wants coach  Ali so that Ail can achieve the dreams which he wasn’t successful off , Govinds dreams gets grander when their sports shop picks up business,  now he wants  to take their small shop into lavish mall, to accomplish this dream yet again they take help of Omi’s uncle. 

In journey of these three best friends, joined by a fourth is a girl Dolly sister of Ishaan who is secretly involved in relationship with Govind , and has missed out on her periods due to her secret rendezvous with Govind. Adding to Govind and his friends  misery ,  Ahmedabad is hit by earthquake where all their grand dream of a shop in mall crashes into dirt . As the three gather themselves from this setback from natural calamity they are again hit by crude reality of communal riots of Godhra  , where Omi loses his parents and  Ishaan is set out on the streets alone to save his prodigy the young Muslim boy Ali.

Kai Po Che brings life to a world where misfortunes of reality crashes gently but powerfully with  natural and man-made calamities that shakes the very existence of human being , living on the edge where tumbling into the deep valley of human emotion is a real probability  

Although the Abhishek Kapoors “Kai Po Che” is a depiction of “Three Mistake of my life” but not completely , The director exquisitely  weaves together fine embroidery of fresh  sequence , emotions, characters and lives that grips a complete philosophy and culture without surrendering originality of the book. The Screenplay writers Abhishek Kapoor, Chetan Bhagat, Pubali Chaudhuri and Supratik Sen have written  a beautifull Bandhani sari type of screenplay , which emphasis on human bonds , emotions & situation. Songs by Amit Trivedi and Lyrics by Swanand Kirkire  are not the usual type of dance number but these songs reflects the inner voice of the lead characters, Background Score by Hitesh Sonik  camouflage with each emotion and situation easily , this music might remind you of Gustavo Santaolalla’s Babel and 21 grams, Special attention has been paid to detail as the art director by Sonal Sawant  and costume designer Niharika Khan brings out the colours of Gujarat alive on celluloid.  Anay Goswamy camera work portrays the small lanes and beautiful planes of Gujarat magnificently. Not to forget the casting Director Mukesh Chhabar who deserves a pat on his back for assembling such an excellent cast together. Editing by Deepa Bhatia is Crisp and to the point .

Debutant Sushant Singh Rajput effortlessly sinks into the character of Reckless , hot headed & wild  Ishaan , he surely catches your eye. Rajkumar Yadav who plays Govind gives his best performance makes you forget his past work and makes a point that he was born to essay this role. But among the trio Amit Sadh as Omkar aka Omi is the only one who has character graph,  a confused guy who later turns into Hindu radical , Amit Sadh has exceptionally  played the characters with his undertone acting, emoting with his eyes and body language in each scene. Dolly played by Amrita Puri has also done well of a bubbly character. Bitto Mama played by Manoj Kaul  adds friction to the story by his acting skills and last to mention is the young Muslim boy Ali played by Digvijay Deshmukh is another actor to watch for , from is perfect cricketing shots to the accent and body language Digvijay does everything with ease .

Kai Po Che is nearly immaculate, effervesces with lively bonding of three friends and surprises with varied situations and it’s a cinema of coming age. 

In Short 

Kai po Che ma baau saaro Dum che 

****/5

(Note : Those who have read the book might find the film a little slow)

Education begins with ABCD , mine too started with ABCD in this film industry . The first project I worked as an Asst art director was in ABCD. So this film holds a special place in my heart. But that’s not going influence the viewer in me.  ABCD is a story of Vishnu Sir (Prabhu Deva) an ace choreographer, instructor and founder of Jehangir Dance Company  (JDC) , who finds himself in cold situation when his friend cum shallow business partner  Jehangir khan (Kay Kay Menon) ask him to step down to make place for American Choreographer and take up a desk job . But for Vishnu dance is the only way of life ,So heartbroken Vishnu decides to leave the city , before returning to back from where he came , he visit his old friend Gopi (Ganesh Achrya) who was thrown out of JDC cos his weight gain .This last Visit turns Vishnu’s life all the way around. He finds a reason to live and fight back as he discovers a group of untrained dancer (DID Gang). Whom he takes under his wings and polishes so fine that, he pitches them against India’s best talent of TV dance show to win back his pride. A very thin story line and even thinner screenplay filled with long list of clichés, The screenplay writer tried his best  to fill the gaps with Drama, Romance , Suspense but fails evidently,  not even a single scene could  evoke the emotions , but only succeeds in bringing  out laughter in few scene  . Remo Sir risk on the his fresh faces has paid him well at the box office but as a director he fails to bring out the emotion and acting from the dancer. I remembered Remo Sir Words to the  dancer in a dancing show “Is act mai mujhey Dance Kam nazar aaya”. May be same goes to him “Iss Film mai hume Story kam nazar aayi aur acting to bikul bhi nahi”. If one only wants to see dance there are many dance shows already on Television . Prabhu Deva as an actor doesn't impress, but decades after he shows that he can still dance like what he did in 90’s. Ganesh Acharya  also fails to impress with his acting skills.  Kay Kay Menon who is the only non-dancer in this film he too fails to impress with his acting at times he over acts .  The whole DID group did best what they always did best “Dancing” they should have focused more on acting as this could have opened new avenue for them. The music by Sachin–Jigar is Foot Tapping but fails to engrave memorable track in one’ memory. Production Designing or set designing by Aparna Sud is good but details are missing. 3D Cinematography by Vijay Kumar Arora is appreciable , the use of Slow motion and chase sequence have been handled very well. With only dance number and less story two and half hour is too much of length.

In Short

ABCD is a grandeur version of DID tv show .

** /5

(Note :   ½ star if given because I watched the movie with my parents , they loved the dance and also giggled  I consider that as mass audience appreciation )

What are the ingredients to make a super-hit movie?

Make a movie with good Story or Make a movie with good controversy. Vishwaroopam does the later. I wonder what would have happened to Vishwaroopam if there was no controversy, it would have simply boomed. An Afghani terror group  is plotting a terror attack on U.S with a Cesium bomb    An ageing Kathak Dancer Vishwanath (Kamal Hasaan) is married to a young nuclear oncologist Nirupama( Pooja Kumar) , in New York who confesses a physiologist that the only reason for this marriage for a gateway to U.S to pursue her Ph.D . The age difference between them putts Nirupama off and she gets attracted to her immediate boss Deepak (Samrat Chakrabarti ) , With the guilt of cheating on her husband she tries to find if her husband has any secret to hide , She hires a private detective to trail him, from him she learns that Vishwanath is not Hindu but a Muslim, in this search for truth the detective gets killed by an terrorist gang led by Omar (Rahul Bose) , the Visiting card on dead gives away Nirupama location and the terrorist gangs nabs Vishwanath and Nirupama t interrogate. In the Interrogation Nirupama & the terrorist find the truth about Vishwanath that he is an undercover agent for India who is on special task. Vishwanath and Omar have a past of their own. Ten years back, Vishwanath was working on a mission in Afghanistan where he meet Omar in Al-Qaeda training camp. Nirupama is mesmerized with the new Avtaar of her husband and stunned with the facts that her Uncle ( Shekhar Kapoor) , American friend Dawakins (Miles Anderson) & the dance Student Ashmita (Andrea Jeremiah)  too are undercover agents , What follows are the events of unfolding the past between Vishwanath and Omar and search of the Cesium bomb.

Trailers of the movie promised fireworks, and the movie keeps it promise, the only problem is that it’s a  Diwali firework conic fountain (Anaar) which rise’s quickly and descends even quicker . The movie takes off with catchy dialogues, beautifully choreographed dancer number and equally well choreographed fight sequence, but what trails later is slow narrative non-linear story-telling and a fizzed out climax. Acting by sir Kamal Hassan is not one of his best neither is the direction we have seen wonders from him in the past and expect milestone with every movie.  Nirupama played by Pooka Kumar is refreshing her facial expression and dialog delivery brings out the lighter moments in the movie, Shekhar Kapoor dint have much to prove in mantel. Rahul Bose was the Bonsai Afghani who tried to do his best but fails. Music by the trio Shankar Esshan Loy dint help much to enhance story , Editing by Sheekhar Prasad could have cut the story more tighter , The only savior of this Film were the Cinematography and Visual Effect dept , they have done a fantabulous job. It’s a visual treat to see for Indian Cinema.

In Short :

Vishwaroopam is a Bogus Swaroopam 

* ½ /5