Film: Band Baaja Baaraat (U)
Cast: Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma
Director: Maneesh Sharma

Rating: *** & half

Jisse vyapaar karo, usse kabhi na pyaar karo is the rule of business that Shruti Kakkad (Sharma) swears by. She’s a feisty Punjabi kudi, focused yet realistic about her plans of making a career out of planning weddings, armed with a scrapbook of marriage themes, some experience, and dreams of her future venture.

Now meet Bittoo Sharma, bhukkad, lazy, and aimless. The two poles come together to set up Shaadi Mubaarak, a wedding planning agency, in partnership. What follows is a ball of a time they have organising weddings, from taking care of guests to food, decoration, lighting, sound, and whatnot. One wedding after the other and Shaadi Mubaarak breaks into the wedding planning scene in Delhi.

Predictably, the twist in the tale comes when Shruti’s ‘binness’ rule goes for a toss as she falls in love with Bittoo. The dip in the narrative also comes with the twist in Band Baaja Baaraat.

Debutant director Sharma’s writing is crisp and the story is vibrant and colourful. It successfully carries the Yash Raj tinge of romance and drama against the backdrop of the big fat Indian wedding. The dialogues (by Habib Faisal, who directed and wrote the dialogues for family comedy Do Dooni Chaar) are sharp and conversational. Delhiites will particularly relate to the lingo and the flashy weddings, a status symbol among many North Indians.

Newcomer Singh is impressively confident and effortlessly good at his job. Watch out for this Yash Raj find. Anushka Sharma is comfortable in her skin and carries off the rough-and-tough girl’s part with ease. The lead pair is comfortable and their chemistry striking.

The music is loud, like most other things in Band Baaja Baarat but the peppy tracks could well qualify as wedding staples this season. Notable among the lot are Ainvayi Ainvayi and the title track Band Baaja Baaraat.

Wedding planners Bittoo and Shruti are set with their preparations to welcome you at the nearest theatre. Don’t miss this vibrant spectacle that celebrates the great Indian wedding.

No Problem

 No Problem
                      starr : Sunjay Dutt,Sunil Shetty,Akshay Khanna,Anil Kapoor,Paresh Rawail & Shakti Kapoor.

Direction: Anees Bazmee

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 2hours 18 mintue

Critic Rating: Three star

Story: Take two petty crooks (Sanjay Dutt and Akshaye Khanna), a mean gangster and his moll (Suniel Shetty and Neetu Chandra), a bumbling cop and his schizophrenic wife (Anil Kapoor and Sushmita Sen), a bimbette on the beach (Kangana Ranaut), a bank heist and a puppet in the hands of all these people (Paresh Rawal) and shake them all together in madcap measure...End result: a bunch of clueless people hunting for a cachet of stolen diamonds and relentlessly stepping on each other's toes.

Movie Review: Anees Bazmee is fast donning the mantle of the comedy king in commercial Bollywood. Having delivered big laugh riots like Singh is Kinng, Welcome and No Entry, Bazmee seems to be spinning box office magic in a style reminiscent of David Dhawan's oeuvre during the 1990s. There's a similar incoherence and a method in his madness as he spins implausible yarns that have just one objective. They want to tickle your funny bone, any which way, even if means throwing reason and logic out of the window. But hey, when did the desi box office ever bother about inanities like sense and sensibility.

So go ahead and have a blast with a film that celebrates chaos and hopes to be the stress buster you have been looking for after a hectic twenty-tenner. And yes, don't forget your crispies because this one's meant to pop the corn with its crazy characters and its cornball humour. Leading the brat pack is Anil Kapoor who tries a desi Pink Panther with his foolish cop act. He may have the responsibility of nabbing all the criminals running around in sylvan South Africa, but rest assured his handcuffs -- meant for the bad guys -- are always going to hang loose on his hips and the bullets in his gun will never meet their target. Small wonder then, hardcore robber Marco (Suniel Shetty) can barely stifle a yawn when the bumbling officer announces his arrival. But his foolishness elicits the best response from his wife, Sushmita Sen, who is torn between loving her husband or killing him for his stupidity. Her murderous bouts are the high point of the film, as are Paresh Rawal's attempts to set things right by setting them all wrong. Both Sanjay Dutt and Akshaye Khanna too seem to get their comic timing right as the goon buddys who are out to make a fast buck. Sadly, Kangana Ranaut's attempts to re-fashion her image from girl interrupted to giggly-headed beauty queen don't seem to have an edge.

The film does seem to be roughly edited in places and could do with some nips and tucks. Even the music (Sajid Wajid, Pritam, Anand Raj Anand) doesn't have the chartbuster flavour of the Singh is Kinng audio track. But rest assured, No Problem will make you forget your problems, provided you are willing to get goofy and give up your quest for meaning in masala .

 

 

No Problem