Ae Dil Hai Mushkil Teaser Review

My favourite director, Karan Johar, is back at direction with what looks like a roller coaster of love and passion with “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil” which will take us through a tale of One-sided love, deep friendship and heartbreak. Watch the teaser here:

The teaser is an old school style, similar to the way Yash Chopra used to release his trailers – a key song of the movie playing with a web of emotional romantic scenes spun to show the flow of story. The broad line approach may not be unique but the presentation is no old-school. It is fresh, intense, engrossing, captivating and stunningly beautiful with a depth added by the soulful voice of Arijit Singh.

After the director’s credits, the teaser starts with Ranbir on mike (Rockstar anyone?) and then some fun scenes with Anushka, which looks straight out of Jab Tak Hain Jaan. And when you feel what is new that this movie has to offer then comes the highlight of the teaser is the beautiful Aishwarya Rai, who maintains her title of being the most beautiful woman in the world. The teaser has been designed exquisitely with the intermingling of scenes with Aishwarya & Anushka drawing out the parallels between two relationships, one which is all about intense, serious intimacy and second is fun, friendship bordering on love with a tadka of Fawad “SuperHot” Khan. The movie has brilliant cast and they look ready to stun the audience.

The ascend of emotions is beautifully done with the first clip being a non-emotional Ranbir singing, then fun moments with Anushka, the touch of romance with Aishwarya’s introduction, then build of romance with both the women, the emotional drama with Fawad as the anchor, the intimacy with Aishwarya, little drama with the history and then boom – the last line about one sided love. For me biggest impact  – the almost into tears – the nerve wrecking moment was the ‘Ek tarfa pyaar..’ dialogue which I am sure will give sleepless nights to people reminding them of their one sided love stories. The pain in the dialog is almost like Sahil Ludhyanvi’s lines in Kabhi Kabhi:

Kabhi raste mein mil jao to, katrakar guzar jaana
Hame iss tarah se takna jaise pehchaana nahi tumne,
Hamara zikra jab aaye to yun anjaan baan jaana
ke jaise naam sunkar bhi hame jaana nahi tumne

With his movies, Karan also seems to have matured moving from college romance to mature emotions. He makes sure that this movie his cast also looks matured with bearded Ranbir & Fawad looking elder. Ranbir did sport a similar look in Rockstar and Ye Jawani Hai Diwani, which won him many accolades and gives him the serious guy effect. Fawad on the other hand has look mid-way between his Khoobsurat and Kapoor & Sons look, giving him a more contemporary yet casual look.  Anushka also seems to have added weight to get closer to Aish’s age and there is a transition shown from JTHJ like chirpiness to RNBDJ agony. There are scenes with younger looking Ranbir which probably are introduced to give a background to his and Anushka’s relationship. Aishwarya is the blue eyed beauty of the story, who looks younger than her actual age and wins your heart with that every look. The fun part will be the dynamics between the four of them and to see if Karan treats them in the strained and bubbling fashion like Silsila or boiling and bursting like Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna.

Like in all Karan Johar movies, the movies is expected to be the fourth big pillar of the money after direction, story & cast. Though there is only one song to testimony, but the music sounds promising with Pritam touching the souls with the title song. Hope to definitely hear a fun-weird lyrics based song, an Arabic/Folky song with Anushka & Ranbir, a slow romantic duet based number and a heart wrenching slow sad song (if the director follows the traditional approach).

Dharma production is going big even with the marketing of this one with front page advertisements across dailies, a big viral and social media campaign, digital advertisement placements and star promotions. I expect a series of viral videos to also come in some time, not just the making videos, but web series. The teaser got launched today and is already getting closer to 2M views. 

Basis the teaser, I can say that this movie will get a 4 or 3.5/5 rating. Can’t wait for Diwali and for SRK’s cameo in the movie!!

MS Dhoni: The Untold Story trailer review

No other movie trailer has given me goose bumps like this movie. In the country where only Bollywood and cricket sell, ‘MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’ is the movie that all have been waiting for. The trailer is now out.

Mahi – India’s favourite, who helped India lift the World Cup one more time, the most popular, multi-record holding Captain of India was always a subject of attention for the junta, not only for his cricket but also for his background and his looks, and this is portrayed brilliantly in the trailer. The journey of a Ranchi born ticket collector in Kharagpur, getting Rs. 1500 as stipend, to one of the highest paid athletes in the world, against the odds of his background and then being questioned once he succeeds, is what quintessential Masala Bollywood movies are made of.

While the story sells itself but portrayal of great story on the screen is as important as the story itself and this looks like a movie which will not disappoint. Sushant Singh Rajput looks every bit of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in all frames of the trailer. Though they could have done away with the VFX when they showed the school boy Dhoni with Sushant’s face.

Bollywood loves biopics but many of them fail as the focus on the portrayal of the story supersedes the desire to create the effect that the story deserves. There is big bang drama created by this story, drawn by the award winning director of A Wednesday, Special 26 & Baby – Neeraj Pandey. Neeraj knows that art of showing biopics frozen in their time frame and aesthetics, and this is no different. The multi-shades of Mahi’s journey and the aspects of his life – school days, struggle with family, initial cricket days, Indian cricket team days, are all shown not only with the dimension of time period but also with the complexity of the change in the person that comes when someone grows in life and career.

The background narrative, which is provided by the intertwining of obstacles or opinions of people in Dhoni’s life and the counter responses, helps in building up the milestones along with the protagonist’s perspective. One of the most impactful scenes, apart from the cricket shots, are those that depict his Railway days with the multi-angular influence from his employees, father, sister, mother and the juggle in his own mind.

While Neeraj Pandey experiments with his protagonist, his second line of actors is usually the same – Anupam Kher and Rajesh Sharma, two of the most brilliant actors of today’s times. Bhumika Chawla is also seen after a long time taking a centre stage as Dhoni’s sister.

As in all Neeraj Pandey’s movies, we can expect this movie to have a tight story build up, which is also very obvious from the trailer, most appropriate depiction of a biopic, accuracy of art designs, strong background score, and a strong lines of performances.

If Sushant pulls this off then this could change his course of career placing him in the league of Ranbir Kapoor & Ranveer Singh.

Basis the trailer, I can say that this movie will get a 4.5/5 rating.