Patiala House (2011)

As soon as you see an Akshay Kumar movie’s trailer you jump to a conclusion that it will be a mindless comedy but let me be clear on this one, Patiala House isn’t just that! It in fact is probably one of the most serious roles Akshay has ever performed. Patiala House is a story about a father son conflict and revolves around the life of Gattu (Akshay Kumar) who has sacrificed his dreams for his father. Even though Gattu is a super bowler, his father didn’t let him play for the England cricket team because their family was subjected to racist attacks years ago. Gurutej (Rishi Kapoor) turned very aggressive after that particular incident and started raising his hand or voice at the drop of a hat.

Only due to his father’s hatred towards England, Gattu, sacrifices his dream and leads a very mediocre life, working in a Southhall corner store for years now. Instead of applauding him for the sacrifice he made, his family’s younger generation blames him for setting the wrong example.

However, Gattu never succeeds in getting over his love for the game and hence secretly practices bowling when there is one around him. Then comes Simran (Anushka Sharma) in the picture as his neighbor and she is the one who assures to get Gattu’s life back on the track. Whether he gets his life and his passion back or not is what builds the rest of the story!

Nikhil Advani’s directorial skill clearly shows in the movie. Even though the plot is quite predictable and anyone can easily guess what will happen towards the end, the way Nikhil makes the narrative move forward is commendable. However, I think he could have used the first half time of the movie in a much better way. There were a bit too many sequences that showed Gattu is a loser. Chopping a bit of that would have made the entire narrative even more effective.

The lighter moments in the film, manage to make you laugh at times and bring a smile on the face. However, since Patiala House (contrary to popular belief) is not a comedy film, don’t go to the cinema expecting that or you’ll be disappointed.

Akshay Kumar stands out because he takes a break from the kind of comedies he is famous for and also because he performs the serious role perfectly. He even looks like a cricketer. The sequences where he is practicing look very authentic too. Anushka Sharma brings life and color in a film which would otherwise have been pretty boring. She indeed is responsible for adding the spark! Her character is of a fun loving and talkative girl and she performs it very well. Rishi Kapoor is perfect as always. Nothing more or less could be said about him.

The music of the film is good enough. Some tracks might not be up to Shankar Ehsan Loy’s level but “Laung da Lashkara” is surely one of the best tracks of the year. I was expecting it to be placed in a wedding sequence and when it came at the end just before the credits that was disappointing. The song deserved a better placement but the fact remains that it will be the most played track at the next wedding season and is definitely very catchy.

That said, Patiala House sure has some flaws too. To begin with, there is a major question left unanswered in the story. If Bauji really was that bothered by the goras and their hatred toward his family, why didn’t he simply pack his bags and leave? No one forced him to stay there so why was he complaining about something that happened years ago?  It is funny how he himself chooses to live in England and has such harsh feeling towards the land and its people. So clearly, this was the crux of the story which was slightly hard to swallow. Also, like pointed earlier, the first half of the film is slow and takes a while to settle in. The constant reminders of Gattu’s sad state are a drag on the pace of the film. The cricket scenes are nicely done but they don’t create the kind of effect Lagaan did and one shouldn’t expect that either to avoid disappointment.

But overall, Patiala House is a good watch. Apart from the plot and all that happens in the movie, it speaks a lot about familial relationships and bonding, affiliations, attachments and how in some circumstances one is ready to leave their life’s dream for people who he/she loves. The film also teaches that fate does offer you a second chance and one shouldn’t let that go because second chances are indeed rate! – Hafsah Sarfraz

Rating – 3 out of 5

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 2011, Genre – Drama/Family, Country – India, Language – Hindi, Producer – Bhushan Kumar, Mukesh Talreja, Krishan Kumar, Twinkle Khanna, Zoeb Springwala, Director – Nikhil Advani, Music Director – Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonsa, Cast – Akshay Kumar, Anushka Sharma, Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia, Prem Chopra, Hard Kaur, Armaan Kirmani, Rabbit Sack C, Soni Razdan, Tinu Anand, David Frost, Jeneva Talwar, Masood Akhtar

Thank You (2011)

After a break in movie releases at the box office because of the World Cup, the first movie to come is Thank You, an Anees Bazmee film starring Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Irfan Khan, Rimi Sen, Suniel Shetty and Celina Jaitley. The story of Thank You is quite simple. It revolves around three philandering husbands Bobby Deol (Raj), Irfan Khan (Vikram) and Suniel Shetty (Yogi) who are very good friends. Raj and Simran (Sonam Kapoor) make a happily married couple until Simran finds out that Raj is cheating on her. While Yogi’s wife Maya (Celina Jaithley) and Vikram’s wife Shivani (Rimi Sen) already suspect their straying husbands, for Simran it was a shock! Maya insisted her to hire an expert private detective, Kishan played by Akshay Kumar. That’s when the cat-mouse race starts where Kishan tries to show the real side and infidelity of these three husbands specifically Raj. On the other hand the husbands try to get out of the mess with the help of Vikram and his advice.

Kishen manages to expose the real faces of the three men to their wives and that’s when Simran decides to commit suicide. Since Kishen is playing the angel here, he manages to convince her to live and promises to bring back her husband. And while this detective helps the females get even with their husbands and then eventually get them back, you can’t help but wish he would have solved the mystery of what the story actually is.

The plot doesn’t offer anything new. It has been done before in No Entry, Masti, Do Not Disturb, Life in a Metro, Biwi No 1 and so on. Despite the clichéd plot, the first half isn’t bad. It has moments which make you laugh. Akshay Kumar has been perfect with his comic timing and probably the only reason why anyone would want to watch this film. Even though the film doesn’t revolve around him, he manages to make the audience laugh and does what he’s good at. It’s a different story altogether that he’s done the same thing in thousands of other movies.

Post interval Thank You becomes a drag. There aren’t any surprises in the film after the interval and one can easy guess exactly what is going to happen. That said, there are several genuinely funny scenes in the movie that make you realize watching wasn’t such a bad decision but these scenes are very scarce. The entire kisna scene in the first half makes one laugh. Another sequence where a drunken Raj bashes up a person wearing black hat in a pub, only because he had seen his wife Sanjana with man in a black hat also adds life to the second half. However, like I mentioned earlier these scenes aren’t enough to glue the viewer’s eyes to the screen. Another strong element of the film is Irfan Khan, who is flawless as an actor and that is evident in Thank You as well. Suneil Shetty also manages to contribute some comedic scenes to the movie whereas Bobby Deol fails to make a mark.

Coming to the female actress, Sonam definitely looks convincing in the innocent wife’s role. Rimi Sen has also done a great job whereas Celina Jaitley has very limited scope. In fact she just disappears from the film for a while, which is absurd.

Thank You could have been much better if it had better music. Akshay’s movie, no matter how silly and ridiculous they are, always have great music. Take Tees Maar Khan or Housefull for example. Even Patiala House gave us one song to remember for quite some time but unfortunately there is not even one song that could be added to our playlists.

The first hour of Thank You is funny and entertaining but after that the film is just a drag and loses its charm. What started as a comical and watchable film ends up making you wonder why did you choose to watch it in the first place? Indeed the actors weren’t bad but while watching them you wish there was a better plot, which wasn’t done over and over again. The major problem with thank you is its clichéd story that makes you want to say thank you but no thank you! – Hafsah Sarfraz

Rating – 2.5 out of 5

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 2011, Genre – Comedy/Romance, Country – India, Language – Hindi, Producer – Ronnie Screwvala, Director – Anees Bazmee, Music Director – Pritam Chakraborty, Cast – Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Celina Jaitley, Irrfan Khan, Suniel Shetty, Rimii Sen, Mallika Sherawat, Mukesh Tiwari, Ranjeet, Rakhi Vijan, Smita Jaykar, Shilpi Sharma, Vidya Balan

Tees Maar Khan (2010)

Farah Khan’s latest film is a box office hit but fails to be more than skin deep

“Acting is like chewing gum,” Tabrez Khan aka Tees Maar Khan tells his sweetheart Anya in the film. “It loses its sweetness and you want to spit it out after a while.”

He may be referring to acting in general but it aptly applies to Farah Khan’s films as well. Mindless comedy, based on Bollywood references, was refreshing in Om Shanti Om (the last film she directed) but the flavour starts to wear off in Tees Maar Khan. What begins as a joyride ends as the kind of headache that too many rides on the merry-go-round can give you.

TMK is the story of one Tabrez Khan portrayed quite decently by Akshay Kumar, conman par excellence, who steals the watch off his doctor’s wrist as soon as he is born. He grows up to be a criminal who plans a grand theft to rob billions worth of national treasures off a speeding train. The plan includes befooling unsuspecting villagers of Dhuliya Gaon and convincing them that it’s all part of a film he is directing. Key players in this plan are his three minions — Soda, Dollar and Burger — and they involve an Oscar-obsessed Bollywood actor to ensure the plan hatches successfully.

Akshay Kumar, as ‘the actor’, is the strongest character of the film and the usually sober actor is absolutely brilliant in his neurotic rendition as a crack. He goes around wearing a tee shirt that reads ‘STAR’ and reprimands his assistant/agent for mistaking Danny Boyle for Danny Dezongpa when he called him for the casting of Oscar-winning Dumbdog Millionnaire.

The film is fun, if you can stomach two hours of absurdities. And let’s be honest that most of us can. TMK is unpretentious and unhypocritical in its approach and in its honesty lies its strength. It is plain, unapologetic humour, the kind that doesn’t think twice before cracking racist jokes.

When director Day Shyamalan (as opposed to Night Shyamalan) can’t find a gora-looking man to cast as a Britisher in his film, he pulls in the albino sweeper and stuffs bubble gum in his mouth as a language barrier.

The stunning Katrina Kaif — who’s never looked better — is the quintessential Bollywood dumb blonde who knows she needs to do nothing more than look good. And that she does to perfection. “It’s better to be an item girl than a thief,” she exclaims at Tabrez but does nothing to stop him. Life is one big set for her. If the scene requires added drama, she knows that all she needs is an added layer of face powder. The hit song Sheela ki Jawani goes on to prove that she needn’t be more than a beauty to be successful heroine. It’s okay if she has the intelligence of a gnat.

The weakest thing in the film is its story, rather lack of it. Whatever its worth should be credited to the Italian film, After the Fox, which TMK is adapted from. The story also draws one to the conflict/controversy that arose between director Farah Khan and her once best friend Shahrukh Khan, who was the originally chosen protagonist. TMK screeches of a role tailor made for SRK. But apparently they fell out of each other’s graces when he kept sending the story (written by Shrish Kunder, FK’s husband) back for tweaking. It goes without saying that SRK’s contributions to the films he chooses are always priceless. He would have given it some grey matter if nothing else. Without him, it falls flat in places.

The year 2010 hasn’t been a very successful year for Indian cinema — considering the big banner releases (like Veer, Kites, Raavan, Guzaarish) that have flopped at the box office — but it has to be said that the ‘Khans’ have given it a financial boost, if nothing else. My Name is Khan pushed the year into action and while Tees Maar Khan is being thrashed by critics, it has been raking in box office moolah. As the soundtrack goes during its closing credit roll “everyone wants a happy ending.” That is exactly was Farah Khan has given in this film and critically speaking, nothing more.

Farah Khan has established a film genre of her own, one which uses Bollywood as the punch line. She will have to improvise as the comedy tends to get stale but until then she will continue to have the hit and runs: films that are box office hits but fail to run deep with the critics – — Aamna Haider Isani

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 2010, Genre – Comedy/Action/Drama, Country – India, Language – Hindi, Producer – Shirish Kunder, Akshay Kumar, Farah Khan, Director – Farah Khan, Music Director – Vishal – Shekhar, Shirish Kunder, Cast – Akshay Kumar, Akshaye Khanna, Katrina Kaif, Raghu Ram, Rajiv Laxman