BEST OF BOLLYWOOD 2015 : MAGGY AWARDS

[Launch of new Maggy Reviews Domain : http://www.maggyreviews.com - This blog would be depricated from now on. Please follow the above domain. Thanks :) ]

TOP MOVIES:

First half of this year gave a scare as only few movies managed to hit the senses. But these few made their mark where a comedy Tanu Weds Manu Returns shocked everyone with its brilliance. Movies like Baby and Badlapur that showed great thriller value and managed to save that season. Although second half of the year didn’t produce a master class, but gave us a stream of well made movies consistently. Short budget movies like Masaan, Titli and Angry Indian Goddesses showered the essence of directorial and acting excellence. Salman came out of his usual avatar and actually acted in a well made IndoPak flick Bajrangi Bhaijaan. In a year of comic less movies, Pyaar ka Punchnama 2 succeeded in producing few good laughs. It’s worth mentioning master class non Hindi movies like Bahubali (Telugu) and Court (Marathi) that will not come in Bollywood cateogry but certainly shouldn’t be missed.

Here is the list of TOP 5 Movies this year:

1. Tanu Weds Manu Returns
2. Piku
3. Drishyam
4. Masaan
5. Badlapur / Baby

TOP MALE ACTING:
Unlike last year, this was the great year as far as male acting is concerned. We got many amazing acting surprises in few low budget movies. Amitabh Bachhan again defied age and delivered two wonderful performances in Piku and Shamitabh. Ranvir Shorey in Titli gave his best performance of life where as debutant Vicky Kaushal completely submerged himself in the character role in Masaan. Few honorable mentions that missed the top list would be Akshay Kumar (Baby), Kay Kay Menon (Rahasya), Deepak Dobriyal (Tanu Weds Manu Returns), Varun Dhawan (Badlapur), Ajay Devgan (Drishyam), Sanjay Mishra (Masaan) and Nawazudding Siddiqui (Bajrangi Bhaijaan & Manjhi)

Here is the list of TOP 5 Male Actors this year:

1. Ranvir Shorey (Titli)
2. Amitabh Bachhan (Piku)
3. Amitabh Bachhan (Shamitabh)
4. Vicky Kaushal (Masaan)
5. Ranveer Singh (Bajirao Mastani) / Irrfan Khan (Talvar/Piku)

TOP FEMALE ACTING:
Lately, talking about great female acting performances and Kangana Ranaut have become synonyms. Yet again, she mastered her character and showcased an incredible piece of work. Angry Indian Goddesses saved the year for female actors and gave us goddess like performances. Honorable mentions that missed the top list would be Tabu (Drishyam) and Shweta Tripathi (Masaan)

Here is the list of TOP 5 Female Actors this year:

1. Kangana Ranaut (Tanu Weds Manu Returns)
2. Sarah Jane Dias / Pavleen Gujral (Angry Indian Goddesses)
3. Kalki Koechlin (Margarita with a Straw)
4. Anushka Sharma (NH10)
5. Bhumi Pednekar (Dum Laga Ke Haisha)

TOP DIRECTION:
No beyond the limits direction scene this year. But we had a good share of decent directors this year.

Here is the list of TOP 5 Directors this year:

1. Nishikant Kamat (Drishyam)
2. Shoojit Sarkar (Piku)
3. Neeraj Pandey (Baby)
4. Imtiaz Ali (Tamasha)
5. Anand Rai (Tanu Weds Manu Returns) / Neeraj Ghaywan (Masaan)

TOP MUSIC COMPOSERS:

1. A R Rahman (Tamasha)
2. Amaal Malik / Ankit Tiwari / Meet Bros (Roy)
3. Sachin Jigar (Badlapur)
4. Amaal Malik (Ek Paheli Leela)
5. Amit Trivedi (Shaandaar)

—

Bajirao Mastani

Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Actors: Ranvir Singh, Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone

Rating: 2 / 5

Sanjay Leela Bhansali is famous for his styling and amazing movie sets. Again he comes up with some amazing setup and wonderful cinematography. This time the styling had the elegance and it made sense. Unfortunately all these amazing things lasted only few minutes from the start. Although setup remained fantastic, the movie starts poking the head at the end of first half. Warrior Bajirao converts full time to Lover Bajirao, which is the major backdrop of the movie. There's no balance maintained between the two, which irritates throughout the second half. There is a good set of wonderful dialogues where Ranvir gets the majority share.

Ranvir Singh is the star of the show. From the word go he justifies his character and delivers an awesome performance. His potential, that was noticed from the starting, has roared this time. Priyanka Chopra beautifully portrays her innocent character. Deepika Padukone was just average, didn't really attract.

Direction looked amazing in the starting but loosening of the plot affected Bhansali's performance. I would suggest him to focus more on the story, something which he's not doing it for a long time now. His music is good and brings stability, but halts the ongoing story.

Overall, a terrific performance by Ranvir, great meaningful sets, but still a head pain.

Dilwale

Director: Rohit Shetty
Actors: Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Varun Dhawan, Kriti Sanon

Rating: 1.5 / 5

As soon as the movie starts you'll encounter a typical Rohit Shetty movie setup. Same sound scheme, presentation and nature of the cinematography. Time and again you'll notice the regular old cars bashing. Name any Rohit Shetty film and I'll have the similarities. Keeping aside this, there was no story on display. Rather I'll say there was definitely some story, but a real bad one. It looks like a saas bahu TV saga without any good moments. You'll find yourself waiting for the interval. Soon after, the struggle to sit through the movie will start.

Shahrukh Khan doesn't continue to irritate in this flick. Bearable but nothing special as expected. I'll still stay biased with Kajol. She should've chosen a better movie. Varun Dhawan gave all the laughs which can be counted on fingers. Kriti Sanon remains an unstirred sugar, as there's no reason doubting her potential.

Rohit Shetty has delivered this one without any efforts. Seems like it's time to reap some money effortlessly.

Music was average but it had all the interfering timings in the world.

Overall, a tasteless poor story that was created to reap some easy money.

Hate Story 3

Director: Vishal Pandya
Actors: Karan Singh Grover, Sharman Joshi, Zarine Khan

Rating: 2 / 5

There's an exciting movie tone that's build up from starting. Although there were little expectations from the story, a good effort was made in producing a doubt in the viewer's mind. But ultimately there was nothing much that can be appreciated. Things turned out to be very ordinary and cliché. One can say, it was a poor form of Abbas Mastan's frequent twists. Riding on vulgarity, there was nothing on that front as well. Thanks to the censor board. Second half created a suspense, again to hold viewers. But nothing was pleasing enough.

I'm not a fan of Vishal Pandya because of his previous version of this series. But he has put a decent effort in making this movie bearable. Good story would have increased the direction value. 

Zarine Khan looked really hot but her acting was hugely burnt under it. She had a bad screen presence and dialogue delivery was worse. Sharman Joshi pulled this up well and proved that his talent can never be overshadowed no matter what are the conditions. Karan Singh Grover was the best of the lot. He really surprised with his amazing body language and more than a decent acting.

Songs were very out of place and not at all framed well. Although the music was good for ears.

Overall, a hate story like a poor version of Abbas Mastan's twists where only Karan Singh Grover impressed.

Tamasha

Director: Imtiaz Ali
Actors: Ranbir Kapoor, Piyush Mishra, Deepika Padukone

Rating: 3 / 5

Movie trailer suggests a fun loving cliche love story but how can we forget it's Imtiaz Ali. It's a completely different plate in which the movie is served. Attempt is to mould a complex story into something understandable and yet present the theme that's intended. Confused ? That's exactly what you would be while watching the movie. It has a very slow but an interesting start. Slowness is maintained way too long till the interval. Although it gives a feeling that second half has a potential and should be good. Then the anticipation starts, that the movie will hit the right chords and luckily it does. Somewhere inside you something has been targeted. It's just that you have to stick patiently with the movie and it'll not disappoint you for sure.

Ranbir delivers a good performance but nothing beyond the expectations. Deepika is very average, her role itself is very average. Decent performance by other side actors but Piyush Mishra delivers a fantastic artistic performance in just 10 minutes of his role. His dialogues seals the movie theme with perfection.

Now this movie is a one man director army. Same Imtiaz style but the effort is so striking and noticeable. Whatever has been made, Imtiaz class is reflected all over. His writing abilities and thought process is amazing. Out of rating three, two goes just for Imtiaz.

There's an awesome use of background score by the director. Thanks to the great A R Rehman for awesome tunes that steadies the movie and sticks the viewer throughout. Matargashti is awesome and blends as a perfect song for this movie that you'll be humming for hours after seeing the movie.

Overall, a director's class that needs patience. It'll surely hit some chord, somewhere inside you.

Pyaar ka Punchnama 2

Director: Luv Ranjan
Actors: Omkar Kapoor, Kartik Aryan, Sunny, Nushrat, Sonali, Ishita

Rating: 3 / 5

Everyone is aware of the movie flavor as first part saw a good success among youth. Although my first reaction towards the first part wasn't that good, it was always great to relish few awesome moments that the movie had. Fortunately, the case was different for this one. Movie is consistently enjoyable and specially the first half leaves a good commanding impact. It has great starting dialogues that never fades. It consistently gives amazing moments at-least for the first half although second half also works according to the theme. Script writing is apt, specially the epic dialogue by Kartik Aryan that repeats again. Double sized dialogue this time and trust me, triple mazaa. Film reduces its sheen in the second half but for this theme, they have made a good cut.

Surprisingly acting shines throughout. New actors have nailed the timings and screen presence in the movie. Girls haven't left any mark but all the boys were just amazing. Omkar Kapoor out of all deserves a special mention here. His performance throughout was perfect.

Luv Ranjan who has considerably improved from his last two ventures, does a good job here. He has appropriately directed the movie and has taken good care of cinematography.

Music by Hitesh Sonik is a turn off this time but that doesn't affect the movie at all.

Overall, great acting, good script and certainly double the mazaa from the earlier one.

Talvar

Director: Meghna Gulzar
Actors: Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Konkana Sen Sharma, Neeraj Kabi

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Most moving part of the movie is when you realize that whatever you know has been shown in the first ten minutes only. That's how it's justifiable that it was so important to bring this story to everyone. A lot of hard work has been done for showing the fine grains of this plot. Around 50% of the movie is what no one is aware of and that's how all false perceptions were developed in these years. I'm sure the perspective towards this case and its family will completely change after this. Known fact about weak policing has been showcased in a very good way. Although we have great police officers but they constitute very few and are present only in the top level. Sympathy to girl and his family will again rise in the minds. Now the best part comes when all these details are shown in a beautiful cinematic way. Perfect kudos to the storywriter and producer Vishal Bharadwaj for putting great efforts in bringing this forward wonderfully.

Meghna Gulzar is back after many years and she showed that the trusted potential in her was not incorrect. Rising above all, this was the ultimate directorial venture. Nothing rises above the effort that is seen in her work. Although a lot of credit share also goes to the veteran editor Sreekar Prasad. Their partnership did the real wonders in this flick.

Acting of all the actors were above average where no one really blasted the screen. Irrfan was certainly better than all as he portrayed his usual amazing skills.

Overall, a directorial treat where great efforts have been put to portray the fine grains of this plot.

Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon

Director: Abbas Mastan
Actors: Kapil Sharma, Kunal Roy Kapur, Elli Avram

Rating: 2.5 / 5

The film gives a jibe of a stupid comedy and it certainly is. But there's a difference. It has a stupid story but a decent comedy. Plot is utterly foolish but the focus here is only on comedy punches. It has many good humor lines that somehow supersede the foolishness. Biggest flaw here is that lot of times it was tried to create a serious environment. That was a blunder and went horrible with the movie flow. Worse part is that these things are bound to end in a sentimental way. That was the case here as well that brought the film down. Interestingly it ended again with very good humor and again I'll not take anything away from the scriptwriter as far as the comedy punches are concerned.

Kapil Sharma played his character very well and did a decent job. Rising above all was Kunal Roy Kapur who nailed his full screen presence. He was perfect throughout and never left his character. Other actors including four girls were ok and fortunately no one was bad.

Abbas Mastan doing this kind of movie was a surprise. They were very clear what they were making and their motive of showing only comedy was visible. I'll suggest them to put some sense and story in future if they really want to continue this genre.

Music was one of the biggest hurdles and turn off here.

Overall, a good comic flick with focus only on humor and nothing else.

Katti Batti

Director: Nikhil Advani
Actors: Kangana Ranaut, Imran Khan

Rating: 2 / 5

Excitement was all spread when movie was promoted using Kangana's flavor. An intended romantic comedy that falls on most of the stairs and never able to climb. It has an average start where all characters just manage to hold you. Unfortunately comedy was tried in most scenes but laughing on even the best joke was hard. Although a slight good part was that you'll not cry at the worst joke. The big problem was the second half where it was unnecessary stretched towards the end without any fun. Head-scratching moment comes when you just think it's done and a twist in the tale merely to ensure happy ending extends it for another 20 minutes.

Kangana's screen presence is one of the few bearable things that make you sit throughout the length of the movie. She gave whatever she can deliver. It's just that the script and director didn't have anything for her. Imran was as usual irritating and incapable of pulling anything off. Other characters are not even worth mentioning although they delivered an average performance.

Nikhil Advani once again shows that his priority is not the content but the looks of the whole movie setup. He again failed to concentrate on the better part of the directorial responsibilities.

Music was below average and not mind scorching.

Overall, a bad cliché script that wastes Kangana's charm.

Welcome Back

Director: Anees Bazmee
Actors: Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, Paresh Rawal, John Abraham, Dimple Kapadia, Shruti Hasan, Naseeruddin Shah, Shiney Ahuja

Rating: 2.5 / 5

Earlier Welcome that didn't get very well with me initially, over the time it rose up to entertain with good amount of funny moments that it had. That made some expectations and excitement for this sequel. Movie starts with almost the same theme as earlier but never feels repetitive. A good amount of hard work is done by the dialogue writer to ensure good funny bones with same ingredients as before. You'll get a feeling that you are being served a different drink in the same bottle. Although the drink tastes same but fortunately it tastes good. It has many good punches but no bad ones. Sometimes the rhythm becomes less funny but still gives a good time pass.
Worst part was the ending. Very religiously they stuck to the earlier theme of having a bad ending as well. If ending would have been shortened and improvised upon, smiles would have been wider.

Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor and Paresh Rawal once again picked the whole movie on their shoulders. All three characters had some good dialogues that they made awesome by their amazing dialogue deliveries. John was not much in his character and Shruti was very bad. Others are not worth mentioning.

After sting of bad movies for so many years, Anees Bazmee came up with something better this time. Hard work was seen but still he needs to pull up his socks to get things right.

Music was very poor and didn't get along with anything in the movie. First part had many good song sequences.

Overall, a good comedy sting with good dialogues by good actors.

Drishyam

Director: Nishikant Kamat
Actors: Kamlesh Sawant, Ajay Devgan, Tabu, Shriya Saran

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Movie develops well from the start and has few coincidences. But they are used perfectly throughout. Crux of the movie is its script that is almost developed flawlessly. Even when you think that script has shown every thing, it extracts few more awesome spices from within and presents it's brilliance. Cinematography shines from the start and consistently wonders all through. First half shows good thrilling intensity that makes the viewers want more from the second half. Fortunately, the second part shows much more than expected. Ending of a movie of such kind is very important and that was only scaring me at the end. But it was done very diligently and suited well. As per as the remake phenomenon is there (movie is remade from Malayalam Drishyam), I would love to see these kinds of remakes instead of silly commercial ones.

Both Tabu and Ajay Devgan were spot on in their part. Although main focus was completely on the theme and not on the stars at all but it was very important to play these characters well. Rising above all was Kamlesh Sawant (Inspector Gaitonde) who nailed the performance that was supposedly the most important role and character in the movie. We have seen him before in few good short roles but this was a comparatively bigger responsibility in which he succeeded. Few other characters were good and fit well with the flow.

Nishikant Kamat is well known to direct good high intense movies and he used his skill perfectly in this venture. He did full direction justice required for this remake. Certainly he puts a good amount of appreciable effort.

It reminds me of a similar 2010 movie gem 'Right Ya Wrong' which many people are not aware of. Not inspired of-course but both these movies are definitely a must watch.

Overall, an astonishing script supported with great cinematography and direction.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan

Director: Kabir Khan
Actors: Salman Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Kareena Kapoor

Rating: 3 / 5

Movie gave a right impression right from the word go. From starting, the cinematography and the movie flow was very soothing and never went out of stream. It's really hard to believe that Salman's movie will be based on content. Hence it takes time for a viewer and consistent effort from director to believe it. Fortunately, this movie does all. Kept its movie theme intact and didn't fall into the trap of silly commercialization. Although crowd still goes mad when Sallu enters or shows his style. The movie had its limitations such as over extension of the story towards the end of second half, despite it maintained a decent pace.
Many scenes were over-engineered but the sentiments were always preserved in a correct way. It showed a good angle of Indo Pak love relationship without any foolish sentiments. 

Everyone delivered an average acting performance with Salman and Nawazuddin slightly above the rest. There were few good Pakistani scenes involving Nawaz in which he nailed most of it. Neither Salman showed his standard stupidity nor the movie tried to structure like that.

Quite experienced with Hindu-Muslim and Indo-Pak relationships, Kabir Khan made a good use of it. Direction was consistently good and effort was noticeable. He made sure movie doesn't loose its plot and becomes lovable.

Music was avoidable and anyways made no impact either ways.

Overall, movie with good sentiments that never looses its plot.

ABCD 2

Director: Remo
Actors: Shradhha Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, Lauren Gottileb, Prabhudeva

Rating: 2.5 / 5

Whatever appraises this movie deserves, it's only because of dance. It comes up again with breath taking dances that mesmerizes totally. Apart from that, story this time trails behind what was there in first part. A below average script that struggles to buck up throughout. Effort was not put to build the content, rather was done to inculcate the dance performances somehow. This led to inconsistencies and sync up issues. Although dance, the heart of the movie was preserved that brought a decent go to movie watch.

All actors were average and repetitive. Nothing beyond the basic attempt.

Remo did a true heart job that is appreciable. That's only accepted from him and he delivers best what he can.

Music was also below average.

Overall, great dances but nothing else.

PS: Sorry for the delay, was in cycling expedition in Bhutan :)

Hamari Adhuri Kahani

Director: Mohit Suri
Actors: Rajkummar Rao, Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi

Rating: 2 / 5

Title and the first look clearly suggested that the movie will be full of emotional drama. Barring few minutes, unfortunately this was true and sadly it was just Ashiqui 2 changing clothes. It had a good inaugural strong effect which disappears too soon once the movie enters the crying phase. The movie is relatively slow and the content quickly loses its sheen. Filled with lame romance, just somehow it manages not to irritate you.

There was an initial burst of amazing screen presence by Rajkummar Rao and Vidya Balan that immediately faded away when Emraan's character entered. Although I'm a fan of Emraan Hashmi but the movie was good whenever he wasn't there. It was Rajkummar Rao who nailed it in his small role. His part was different from the emotional saga and he played brilliantly. I would have loved to see a story revolving around Rajkummar and Vidya with their strong roles that was certainly possible. Vidya definitely didn't suit in this role. She was just reminding me of Ashiqui 2's Shradhha Kapoor.

Mohit Suri is just trying to reap benefits with his same old formula. He definitely needs to buck up and start putting efforts to show something meaningful in a different way.

Music was below average and brought nothing to benefit the movie.

Overall, lame romantic story where only few Rajkummar Rao's minutes entertained.

Dil Dhadakne Do

Director: Zoya Akhtar
Actors: Dog, Shefali Shah, Ranveer Singh, Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Anushka Sharma

Rating: 2.5 / 5

Despite of boasting a great star-cast, I didn't find the trailer very impressive. Had the feeling that the movie might not have much to offer but was optimistic because of the brand that it was offering. Although the production quality is good, but somehow it gives a feeling of a TV series. May be the way it is directed gives that impression. Sadly, movie's story also follows the same route. It's a full on drama that so many times gave me a feeling that I'm watching a Saas Bahu saga on my idiot box. Moreover the story was slow and didn't have good content. There were few interesting dialogs but nowhere near to pick the movie up. Still it had few lovely occasions that brought the amazing feel of Zindagi na Milegi Dobara. Another good part was that it had a nice cheerful ending that also proved that the title was apt.

Among all the big leads, it was Shefali Shah rising above everyone. She had many emotional variations to offer which she acted brilliantly. All other actors were above average and did their best according to the script. Not to forget the amazing dialogs and acting by the dog. I know it's the scriptwriter and director who should be appreciated for this.

After an amazing stint with Zindagi na milegi dobara, Zoya Akhtar didn't put much effort in this. She took things for granted and expected that people will like the same movie aura again and again. Instead, this turned out to be a bad outing.

Shankar Mahadevan also went the same way as Zoya and delivered just an average music.

Overall, a full on drama movie that should be released in the form of TV Series.