Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya

Lead Actors: Simbu, Trisha     Genre: Romance, Drama
Rating: 3/5
PLOT:

Boy meets Girl, falls in love? Check. Boy and girl live in same South Indian conservative community? Check. (Boy’s family is a tenant of the girl’s). Boy is a college graduate without a job? Check. Girl is a responsible kid doing her bit for the family? Check. Boy trying really hard to woo girl? Check. Girl respects strict parents and won’t cross the line? Girl and boy belong to different religions? Girl takes time to realize ‘love’? Check. Check. Check. Boy and girl decide to elope irrespective of parents’ interests? Err...no. OK, I don’t care about the plot…just tell me the boy and the girl are united at the end. Hmm..No.

So there, that’s the best part– the last few portions in the story. In short, it’s a love story with a practical ending, a twist if you will. Karthik (Simbu) during his pursuit of becoming a Movie Director, spots Jessie (Trisha) and falls head-over-heels in love with her. Soon after, Jessie ‘realizes’ her true feelings, and officially begins a relationship with Karthik. Her parents are in the know and don’t approve. Jessie ‘being herself’ is in turmoil and decides to end the relationship. Eventually it’s learnt Jessie was married and shipped off to the US. Two years after the break-up, Karthik has a readymade script (of his own love story) based on which he would direct his first movie. Shooting on-location in New York, Karthik and Jessie bump into one another. Later, a pseudo-climax follows which is really a dream, but is also the climax of Karthik’s movie. In reality, Karthik and Jessie did not meet although spotted each other while in New York. The real climax few moments later, is that a happily married Jessie and still-single Karthik are watching the premiere of his new movie with Jessie asking Karthik if he really thought she was so good-natured.

PERFORMANCES:

Simbu, after VTV will be officially moniker-ed the Young Super Star. It was time the actor not be ‘Little’ anymore, and the transformation is more apparent with his renewed acting capabilities in VTV. Simbu wasn’t given any room for dappan-kuthu dance to charm his audiences, so his only tool could be emoting, given the story line. In summary, he has carried off the movie well, and for the most part seemed like the only protagonist. He plays a character from a middle-class family, and his language, audible thoughts and lifestyle are well etched, accordingly. His role centered on being a puppy-dog in love and urge Jessie to like him enough until she fell in love with him. In first half of the movie, the emotions had to range from excitement to anxiety to happiness to anger and frustration. This is because Jessie hasn’t ‘liked’ Karthik yet. Simbu had to play a character who remains resolute through and through. This, he proves with the help from a new friend in the movie field Ganesh (Ganesh Janardhan), Karthik follows Jessie everywhere including Kerala and works on improving the friendship/relationship. This, to the extent of picking fights with her brother and being more loud and vocal. Although, the plot was designed in a way to characterize Karthik as an ardent lover, Simbu’s effort shows through his dialogues, emotions. 

From the initial looks of it, Trisha probably did not face a challenge to essay the role of a lover girl. That is not completely true because Jessie is a fickle-minded character who won’t cross the line, yet is involved with Karthik and wants to share life with him. Jessie’s characterization is complex but the credit must go to Trisha for portraying fickle-mindedness so well. Lot of Trisha’s effort is about dialogue delivery, and the adorable part is her *cuteness* (can't define here), which is Trisha’s forte. The viewer may label Jessie’s personality as bordering on the eccentric, but it’s not impossible for a girl to be under stress and be unable to decide who to ditch - strict parents or the mad lover. Trisha plays a Mallu girl born and brought up in Madras, so her Tamil is straight with a mild flavour of Malayalam. Trisha is Saree-clad mostly, or is in Salwar-Kameez; and has carried off both very well. Her make-up is minimal, and somehow the skin-tone along along with hairstyle and attire may remind some, of a South Indian Christian girl they may even know. Jessie is a year older than Karthik and that probably makes her assume some kind of upper hand in the relationship right from the beginning – Trisha takes the credit away here too, for playing a confident character who Karthik is madly after. For the most part, Trisha has been able to share screen space with Simbu very well, making the viewer take notice of her emoting abilities and not just her glam image.

Another personality needing mention is Ganesh Janardhan who plays Karthik’s friend and acquaintance in the movie industry. Ganesh is a sort of comic relief in the movie who's able to keep his cool and crack jokes in serious situations too. He is also Kathik’s punching bag, gives him the confidence to keep pursuing Jessie and ideas when necessary. Role-wise, he pushes Karthik to keep at it, so the story kinda moves with his help. He keeps up with Karthik through the end, also being instrumental in helping him gain a firm footing in the movie industry.Performance wise, Ganesh's character is loosely developed but it does not hamper the story in any way. 

DIRECTION & SCREENPLAY:

Gautam Menon chose a simple plot and given a twist to it, at the end though. The story really is about how the girl dilly-dallies and finally makes an important decision as choosing a partner. The plot is thinner than the usual Desi love story but the treatment and performances make it somewhat a worthy watch. Elements like strict parents, unsettled career situation, religious differences, and last but not least, the age difference has been used in multiple ways and situations to move the story along. There definitely are some unjustified sequences, and scenes that are not built on a strong platform – a) How Jessie soaks in Kathik’s proposal in Kerala b) How Jessie is able to be a friend, yet let Karthik kiss her in the train on way back from Kerala c) Jessie’s on and off confusion whether or not to accept Karthik d) Karthik’s growth in the movie industry e) Scenes with Karthiik directing his first movie.

Everything about Jessie’s confusion has been portrayed well by Trisha, but the script-content is not adequate. The nature of the script allows only so much for the actor, and Jessie’s erratic behaviour is more realistic than cinematic. This movie did not offer much scope for screenplay, given the thin plot. The actors had to say and emote a lot of the same thing at length, and with pauses. But to carefully observe, the second half has more content-rich than the first. It’s in the second half that Jessie sets out to marry and calls off the wedding, Karthik goes to Kerala, Jessie agrees to begin a relationship with Karthik, his career takes off, his parents and Jessie’s parents fight, the action scenes between Karthik and Jessie’s brother, and finally the climax. Performance scope wise, the movie provided a pure white canvas to the actors and looks like they have stretched beyond expectations. But the best part, to re-iterate, is the climax. Menon has been brave enough to try and show what most of the viewers can relate with – that an unhappy ending is just as common. The protagonist need not lose himself to being a Devdas if things don’t work out and they can continue pursuing their dreams!

Cinematography by Manoj Paramahamsa is worth mentioning. The slow motion of the actors, the song sequences in European locales, Kerala backwaters (Allapuzha), movie sets with K S Ravikumar, etc are well-captured. Indoor scenes in homes have good interiors like in most of Menon’s movies. Solo shots with just Trisha or Simbu have been well-done to highlight the sharp features of both actors, who otherwise haven’t dressed extraordinarily well. Manoj has been been extremely good with emotional give and take between Simbu and Trisha with Simbu’s outbursts or Trisha’s stolid stance. The best picturization though is of the Central Park bench scene. 

MUSIC:

He is called the Mozart of Madras and it is for a reason. A R Rahman continues to do a brilliant job with Tamil music. Two songs which are absolutely awesome are Anbil Avan, and Aaromale. The visuals in both are very good too. The album has a couple of peppy numbers like Hosanna and Kannukul and a couple of slow, sad numbers which run in the background as the story progresses. The background music is also by ARR and the experience shows, really. For example, the first scene (in the Church) with Aaromale guitar strumming in the background generates great amount of curiosity for the viewer. The quality of the sounds used is very appealing and the overall background music is new-age fusion, Indian and Western.

WHY 3/5:

The plot could have been developed better by including more elements – like making Karthik’s resolution somewhat unstable, or by allowing more time for the love relationship to mature before it fell apart. Elements like these add more uncertainty even to an experienced movie-watcher. How Karthik carves a career for himself is not justified fully, but that’s not the crux of the movie anyway. It’s good that unwilling parents are not shown to act like goons and act human, which is the saving grace. Simbu and Trisha have delivered well and are able to justify their roles by also displaying varying ranges of the same emotion at different times. All in all, the climax makes the viewer’s heart go all out to Karthik. The viewer knows by this point how much he wants Jessie back in his life; gets an opportunity to meet her by chance only to learn his dreams are now crushed forever. A performance oriented film, not a chick-flick for sure and a movie meant for mature audiences not looking for nitpicks in a romantic story.

Karthik Calling Karthik

**This review does not reveal the suspense in the story **

Lead Actors: Farhan Akhtar, Deepika Padukone
Genre: Suspense, Thriller

Rating:  3.5/5

PLOT: This is a suspenseful story about Karthik Narayan, who is a timid individual working in Mumbai for a construction firm. Karthik lives alone and does not have life beyond work. Karthik is a hard worker (as is portrayed), but does not claim any credit for the duties oaf his co-workers that which he takes on without being able to say no.  In the eyes of his boss he’s a worthless dud. Not being able to say no is only one of his many shortcomings. Karthik manages to stay holed up in his office cube all day, complete all work thrusted upon him and go back home to stare at his television before hitting the sack. Karthik does not have any friends and his non-work related excitement in life is the office Architect, Shonali. He seeks counseling from a shrink to improve his life, but the sessions are not fruitful.

Karthik’s life changes through a phone call he receives on his birthday from a person, also called Karthik (‘K2’ for purpose of this review). K2 sounds like Karthik, knows Karthik in and out and continues to call Karthik at 5am every day. K2 counsels Karthik, makes him wordly-wise and worldly-wise. Karthik forms a bond with K2 although they never meet and the counseling sessions are only on the phone. Karthik soon becomes a confident individual, gets a grip on life and manages a promotion at work. Shonali takes notice, and they eventually fall in love. Karthik eventually reveals his little secret to Shonali against K2’s interests; she does not buy the story and asks Karthik to get treated by a shrink. Karthik manages to prove to the shrink and Shonali that the calls do come at 5am. K2 does not like that the secret is out, and takes control to spoil it all for Karthik who goes into hiding. The rest of the story is about how Karthik comes back to being himself and revealing the identity of K2.

PERFORMANCES: Farhan Akhtar has shown great maturity in acting right from his first movie as an actor, Rock On, where he shared screen space with multiple actors. In this flick, Karthik shuttles between 2 mental modes – shy, frightened and recluse to being a confident, happy character. Farhan as Karthik is brilliant and he makes the movie look like a one-man-show. Farhan as the shy Karthik generally has a straight face and is often confused about why he is being a pushover. He has a lot of screen time being the protagonist. He has used his husky voice, and his looks - short hair, spectacled face well to act out the shy Karthik. The 5am phone call scenes are amazingly done, especially after K2 and Karthik fall apart and K2 turns to threatening and being negative. Farhan as the confident Karthik is not as impressionable as the sad and frightened Karthik. Farhan has made a conscious effort to not overdo the happy Karthik bit, so it’s easier for the viewer to understand the behavioural change of Karthik's role. His emotions are well-rendered through his eyes and this is Farhan’s plus point, even in movies to come. Farhan looks stylish after the transformation (loses spects too) and his language is generally urban. As such, Farhan has decent chemistry with Deepika Padukone (playing Shonali). He's been able to portray intimacy, flirting and physical proximity without any  awkwardness.

Deepika as Shonali is alright. IMHO though, Deepika as Shonali is not indispensable. Within the realms of the subject, Shonali is a glam doll and that’s that. Deepika with her sense of style, dressing, and body language plays a confident Architect who’s newly out of a relationship and is trying to make a long-term commitment to Karthik. Deepika was expected to look good, and…period. The role does not require her to add weight to the storyline, except create a turning point after she’s flabbergasted with Karthik, when he reveals about his phone-counselor, K2. She has played Shonali's part to perfection though, by being a flirtatious single and uptown girl newly in love, one who’s not conservative about getting intimate with a new guy friend. Deepika hasn’t done a ‘news-reader’ this time, she's more into the role and her diction does see some improvement. She's a fine add to the movie and adds adds the ‘sexy’ quotient to this  thriller.

DIRECTION & SCREENPLAY:

Given the genre, it’s not the type of story which ambushes the viewer with facts never revealed until the fag end. The ‘clues’ are right there, the viewer just needs to stretch their brain muscles a bit more as and how the story progresses by constantly evaluating the cumulative set of events. If you have seen a lot of Bollywood cinema, you have all tools you need to analyze the movie right from the word go. But Vijay Lalwani, the director and has developed the plot well and the revelations/turning points in the script are timed well. The best part of this project is the background work of direction, screenplay and editing. The treatment is intelligent in that nothing is very obvious for the viewer. For most part of the story the viewer may not see the missing piece. It takes careful observation because the information is made available subtly. The development of Karthik’s character was very important for the viewer to think on line of what-would-Karthik-do. Scenes like Karthik losing his elder brother as a child, his counseling sessions with the shrink, and phone calls with K2 add right amounts of thrill. There are really no viewers-don’t-digest moments and the editing has been done in a way to logically prove K2’s presence and intentions. The Rublik’s cube has been used well – incomplete cube for scenes where Karthik is all undone, and somewhat patterned correctly when his life is under better control.

Cinematography by Sanu Varghese is alright. Scenes with phone calls, counseling sessions with the shrink, Karthik in deep thoughts, are some crucial sequences with focus on conversations than the set-up or personalities. One significant thing throughout is the dim lighting, probably to dramatize scenes more. The sets used, in general are practically designed and not overdone. Most of the visuals probably are live locations. Again, the movie is absolutely about Karthik’s intrigue than any other person or thing.

MUSIC: Songs are by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and the album is a good mix of dance/romantic numbers like Uff teri Ada and Hey Ya. The latter is an amazing composition and the tune runs in the background quite a bit. Lyrics by Javed Akhtar are very urban too! The songs as such don’t propel the storyline. They are picturized well but the videos are not loud by any means. The background score by Midival Punditz and Karsh Kale is commendable. The montage, the pauses or the KCK theme, all add up to get the viewer hooked onto the suspense. Scenes meaning to throw off the viewer have great background compositions in form of electronic jazz, guitar; Eg.K2’s call while the shrink or Deepika are at Karthik’s apartment or when Karthik sets out of Mumbai to begin another life. Kudos to the new folks.

WHY 3.5:

The suspense unravels slowly but comes all-too-easy to the viewer at the end, in the manner of deliberating around Karthik's nature. It would have helped to throw off the viewer a bit by encompassing some superfluous characters or distracting events. Focus on Farhan Akhtar is a lot, but could have been avoided. Even otherwise, the viewer does not mind the plot. In any case, the movie is sensibly made. The flick loses 1.5 points because the script is not extraordinary, neither is the treatment which I was expecting. If I were given one thing to change about the movie in a minute, I would change the name. Farhan Akhtar, Direction and Editing are the USP-in-toto. Watch if you like drama, or even plain Bollywood.                                                                            

My Name Is Khan

Lead Actors: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol

Genre: Drama
Rating: 3.5/5

Launched amidst fanfare and controversies alike, My Name is Khan or MNIK made enough news to grab eyeballs right in the first week creating some sort of viewership record (at least in North America). For the common Bollywood buff, the low-key shoot, low publicity did generate a certain amount of pre-release curiosity, but the bigger reasons must be Shah Rukh-Kajol pairing almost after a decade and Shah Rukh’s portrayal of an mildly-autistic person, suffering from Asperger’s syndrome.

STORY:

The film comes from the KJo stable, so should have good amount of melodrama - Myth, busted. MNIK provides a great platform for Shah Rukh and Kajol’s reel romance to come of age. Their recent movies in the last 2 years or more haven’t portrayed any candy-floss romance, or pre-wedding blues leading to their unification. The story of the movie touches upon the family as a whole, and how a man and woman co-exist in a marriage, a person’s beliefs and their determination to keep their partner happy. A mildly-autistic Rizvan Khan grows up in India in a lower-middle-class Muslim household with a widowed mother and a younger brother, Zakir. Sibling Zakir constantly feels overshadowed by love of the mother for her elder, autistic child, and later leaves to US for a better life. Rizvan, who’s inherently smart is home-schooled by a local Parsi gentleman. While he learns science and arts from his teacher, mother gives gyaan on ethics and moral science.

With mother passing away, Rizvan who’s socially inept needs to be taken care of, and leaves to the San Francisco to live with his brother. Zakir is now a dealer of beauty products and asks Rizvan to help out by being a salesman. Zakir is already married to a Muslim woman, Rizvan, although new to the city, readily takes up the job and meets Mandira, who’s a stylist at a beauty parlor. They become friends, learn about each other more and eventually fall in love. Mandira is a divorcee and has a son from the previous wedding. Rizvan always walks on the line drawn by his mother, has little regard for social boundaries; proposes to marry Mandira. Although Zakir is not happy about the Hindu-Muslim betrothal, Rizvan moves in with Mandira and her son and they form very healthy relationships. All this, pre-9/11. In this meantime Mandira’s son Sameer is killed in a racial attack at school. Mandira accuses marriage with Rizvan being the reason for this consequence. Rizvan, who does not understand racism, fails at pacifying Mandira who in a fit of rage asks him to go prove to everyone, including the President of US that he’s innocent although a Muslim. Given his strong determination, Rizvan pursues this journey while Mandira tries to track the killers.

PERFORMANCES:

Being a big star outside of the movie world too, the image of confident individual is a great impression on the common folk. For a change, in MNIK, you’re not experiencing SRK’s star power; he has played a character with inabilities and phobias. His acting experience of 2 decades, being the midst of socially-powerful personalities in real life, and his inclination towards being a people-person shows very clearly through the character of Rizvan Khan. Rizvan has 5 main traits: (1) phobia of anything loud – noises, colours, fights, nagging, crowds (2) intelligence/ common sense + confidence(3) sense of humour (4) being 'human', love for peace (5) strong ethics (6) a secular yet devout Muslim.

SRK has displayed the above traits with great hand-eye motions and physical gestures. He had earlier stated in press that an actor’s checklist should comprise walking the walk of the character before anything else. SRK has nailed it with Rizvan’s body language and gait. Sometimes comical, the character reminds some of us of Mr. Bean. Rizvan has some speech issues, uses double-words yet speaks clearly with good deal of knowledge and vocabulary. SRK’s ‘trademark’ has been emotional scenes with some amount of weeping, but Rizvan is a diametrically opposite character who emotes his sadness through words since crying is his one of his disabilities. Rizvan is a stone when he loses people dear to him, but again it’s his inability. The movie has bits of tongue-in-cheek adult humour which is tastefully done. Rizvan moves confidently well with people he likes and in these scenes it’s as if SRK is being himself. Lastly, an attribute of SRK is to be the man in love. It shows, it grows. Rizvan does not have an ego, loves Mandira and just wants to see her happy. All through the movie, he sticks to his values and wants to prove that being human is the most important thing in life.

Kajol as Mandira is very refreshing. Her character is secondary to SRK’s given the storyline and purpose of the characters. Mandira is a single mother who’s seen quite a bit quite early in life. Along comes Rizvan who sweeps her off her feet with his simplicity, perspective about life, selflessness and a way with people. Mandira is a compassionate person who’s happy about most things in life. She’s is very happy after forming a family with Rizvan and son, Sameer. It’s known Kajol can do comedy and drama with equal élan. Her excitement for life, her interest in a beauty-salon career and a need for love, her sociable nature are all very visible. Kajol’s chemistry with SRK is worth noticing and is as magical as their DDLJ days. Scenes after Sameer passing away required Mandira to be a melancholic self, who is lost in negative thoughts and just wants to hold a grudge against Islam. Kajol’s scenes before Sameer’s death are probably more memorable than the others, probably because her smile and happy expressions make a bigger impression on the viewer.

The other characters are Zakir (Jimmy Shergill), Haseena(Sonya Jehan) and Sameer (Yuvaan Makaar). Jimmy has held his own in scenes with SRK too, but seems like a forgettable character, same is the case with Haseena who has interesting screen presence in the introductory scenes but fades out quickly. Sameer is present here and there with limited dialogues to mouth, but his screen presence has been adequately used to move the story along. Parveen Dabas, Arif Zakaria, Zarina Wahab have smaller roles but scenes with them are significant milestones in the story’s lifecycle. Especially commendable are the American actors Katie Keane (Rizvan’s neighbor Susan) and Jennifer Echol (Mama Jenny) who share great camaraderie with Indian actors.

DIRECTION & SCREENPLAY:

Karan Johar or KJo has officially stepped out of his comfort zone with MNIK. This movie is not candy-floss, and at the least does not have an agenda for the actor and actress to ‘become one’ at the end. MNIK has a bigger message to deliver and it’s about crossing boundaries and religions to be more human. The story and screenplay are by Shibani Bathija. The movie begins with development of Rizvan’s character from his childhood and some of recent past with Mandira before landing onto the present. Rizvan is an intelligent person who can earn money repairing things and is confident of fending for himself. Rizvan believes in the importance of praying, and the gesture of being of help to others in need, and that’s how he earns admirers. KJo has done his research, used the right types of props and sets for the movie and has sketched a phoren land without the audience having to question the authenticity of events or life in US. In terms of screenplay, there may be a few superfluous scenes here and there – may be the birthday scene, praying scenes, knowledge-discussions between Rizvan and Mandira and few others which necessarily don’t add momentum to the story. But scenes where Rizvan’s praying or religious chanting is viewed suspiciously by frightened locals are well-portrayed. So are the scenes where Rizvan is detained for checking by Homeland Security or at the prison. Rizvan and Mandira don’t break into a song every 30mins (at all) and the movie has a realistic feel with songs in the background helping to propel the story. The story somewhat feels like a Forrest Gump, but at least our man has a specific mission!

Characters like the press folks, Dr. Rahman, etc highlight the storyline very well. Scenes where Rizvan helps hurricane-hit Wilhemina, GA are not so great, but the message is clear. Better editing probably was needed to illustrate how Mandira believed Sameer’s death was due to a racial attack, just because the investigation officer called it so based on type of wounds (?!!). Also unjustified is the sequence where Rizvan is being released from prison and Mandira shows up (after deciding 'hate' is not good), but leaves without meeting him or asking him to stop the meet-the-president journey. Dialogues by Shibani and Niranjan Iyengar are very today and have some US slang. Rizvan is all words, and the dialogues (with fillers/double-words especially) have accentuated SRK’s appeal. Some quips from Rizvan, some sarcasm from Mandira but overall good dose of emotions without too much melodrama.

CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Ravi K Chandran is a seasoned Cinamatographer who has vast experience in filming successful mainstream Bollywood movies. Key to good screenplay is an intelligent visual and Ravi knows it far too well. Rizvan’s body movements were very important to be captured to show his mood and the long-range/short-range shots are appropriately timed. Capturing the hurricane scene, the beautiful home communities of California, the streets, the people, the landscapes, the highways, the President’s public meets, all accentuate life in US and help the viewer not to forget that this is happening in the US. Couple of areas of improvement could have been Sameer’s death scene (hit by a ball?!) and the Hurricane scene. The story only required the viewer to have focus on actors’ expressions and dialogues but Ravi C has gone beyond his scope of responsibilities. Excellent work with capturing faces and expressions overall.

MUSIC:

The musical score/background by Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy is slowly catching up. The songs are not picturized per se; they just begin playing with story moving ahead. Songs of MNIK are either romantic or highlight the determination of an individual who wants to prove that being a Khan is not an offence. The background score when Rizvan is happy, or when Rizvan is thinking, or struggling are well-crafted and makes the viewer empathize with the plight of conditions.

The journey of a mildly-autistic individual to meet the President only to say that he’s not a terrorist can sound silly. But given the nature of Rizvan’s character, his hope in positivity and a secular belief puts him on the brink of many life-changing events and the President himself takes notice! Overall, MNIK leaves us with a message that it’s important to love our people, and treat everyone with respect. We all deserve a good life and only WE can make it happen.

Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year

Lead Actors: Ranbir Kapoor, Manish Chaudhary
Genre: Drama, Comedy

A very fresh story for a Bollywood movie, and good performances. The plot of the movie is based in Mumbai, the working class is trying to succeed in life (and make better money) amidst competition, rules and constraints. The plot may seem to be focussed around one person (Ranbir Kapoor as Harpreet Singh Bedi), but to carefully analyze, the weight is on the plot itself. Harpreet is a recent BCom graduate who commends himself as a being a good salesman, and his confidence does land him a job at a computer assembling and delivery company (say, A). A wrong step in accordance with his morals costs him his impression with the big dogs at A and he gets an ultimatum to quit the job after the probation.

On finding out cost specifics from the grey market, Harpreet decides to venture and start the same business, but due to lack of logistics, ends up using A’s facilities and keeps track of every penny-worth used. Harpreet uses help of his colleagues at A – a technician, a peon, a receptionist, a sales lead. He christens this fictitious corporation as ‘Rocket Sales’, makes these helpers ‘partners’ at Rocket Sales, and continues to offer business to clients - most of them A’s. Their limited number of employees form an efficient organization, meet regularly outside of office hours and make timely deliveries. A starts losing business eventually to Rocket Sales, and the MD of A, Puri (played by Manish Chodhary) figures out this ‘golmaal’ eventually and puts an end to this corporation by making Harpreet signing legal paperwork to merge (give away) the brand of Rocket Sales to A, and himself stay out of this business for at least 3 years. Rocket’s clients who are now A’s are continuously unhappy and Puri figures it’s the good customer service which A cannot provide and throws the legal paperwork away to bring Rocket Sales back into the game.  

PERFORMANCES: Ranbir Kapoor as a Sardar is very convincing. The role requires the character to be confident, bold, straightforward, pushy and not bog down under pressure – a salesman, and Ranbir does an excellent job at displaying all these characteristics. Although he is not a seasoned actor, the maturity in his acting gives a great projection of his abilities and his versatility. His sales pitch would sometimes remind you of sales people you may have encountered in real life, for their ability to stay in your mindframe. His chemistry with the Shazahn Padamsee (as Sherena) is alright, but is nothing worth mentioning. But there are quite a few scenes where Harpreet does not react, or keeps numb – the visuals fall flat here and better treatment of the scene could have been possible - may be by making Harpreet’s enthusiasm more visible and consistent throughout.

Manish Chodhary as Puri is an excellent addition to the cast. Shimit has tapped his potential very well. Puri is an aggressive CEO (of A) and wants results, cares little about relationships but measures everything in terms of profits. His actions, body language, costumes, dialogue delivery very clearly depict that he’s the boss at A. Nitin (Naveen Kaushik) plays a sales lead who’s commanding, but not very respected. Harpreet looks upto him, trusts him but Naveen is a smart person who knows how to deal with people. He is a good sales person, but lacks boldness which Harpreet teaches him by having him join Rocket Sales. His character is that of being a mentor to Harpreet in initial stages, which he does well by adding some humour - regular and sarcastic. Koena (Gauhar Khan) becomes another ‘partner’ of Rocket Sales who adds more than glamour to the team. Scenes where she sympathizes with Harpreet when he gets shunted by Puri are good. Girish (Santosh)’s performances in the past have been well-appreciated. He is best suited for comedy and begins the journey in the movie as a guy watching porn at work, a technician who knows the ins and the outs and willing to help a fellow colleague being run down by peers and bosses. His dialogues are in Hyderabadi and he does the accent well, although not perfectly.   

SCREENPLAY & DIRECTION: Given a central idea and wide plot of developing an ambitious idea in silhoutte without getting caught, the screenplay of the movie had some flexibility, but Director Shimit Amin has used the screen time and space very economically. A few scenes could be called superfluous – based various characters are developed, or eg. the bribing scene, the office party, etc. These scenes and a few more have particularly not added value to the script. Shimit has experience directing movies in diverse genre like thriller and sports-motivation. A few characters in the film could have been done away with, or probably built better – like Harpreet’s grandfather (played by Prem Chopra), or Sherena or Harpreet’s friends. Their screen-time leaves the viewer asking for the director to get the story back to Rocket Sales. The dialogues for each character are well-written. Most of the language is Mumbai Hindi slang, with hand gestures too. The sarcasm is alright, which more or less all characters exude and scenes are placed in a logical sequence. What’s confusing with the plot though, is how in the end Puri of A is not able to meet the service requirements as demanded by the clients of Rocket Sales who finally convert to A. How difficult can it be to mobilize 24x7 technicians for your clients, when a team of 5 was already doing it? Although, what’s convincingly portrayed is a company which is as big as 25-30 people can easily lose information and resources to situations and opportunities outside. Overall, the screenplay and direction could use some improvement. 

CINEMATOGRAPHY: The main job of Vikash Nowlakha Anshum was to place more emphasis on events than people. The sets are those of an office majorly, sometimes streets and sometimes an apartment being used an office. All this said, Vikash has used short-range shots, and has been able to capture body language and expressions perfectly. The office sets (that of a small-size company) have been well absorbed. The lighting could have been better in some scenes where the look and feel is dull, may be the angles used could have been better. But the movie wasn’t designed to be a visual treat, so Vikash has been able to project ‘reality’ without distorting the visuals so much. The props in the scenes are adequately caught on screen and so are the locations.

MUSIC: There are no songs in the movie (but are in the album), and it’s a good decision. The background score is a take off on songs from the album. Both by the artiste duo Salim-Sulaiman. The music is very urban and suits the look and feel of the movie, without any unwanted dramatization. There are some pauses here and there, which movies in this new millennium are witnessing compared to ones from the 90s where background scores in parallel to dialogues were the norm. The pauses are adequate. There probably isn’t much variety, but the score has definitely accentuated comical scenes.

Rocket Singh has a plot that could have definitely been exploited better, but the performances are worth noticing. The viewer may not lose their concentration, although, there was more flexibility with story development (fast vs slow, may be more ‘masala’). Shimit and team have stuck to the central plot which is a good thing. Overall, the movie is a good watch, which should receive critical acclaim if not commercial success.