Nautanki Saala

Boring. Slow. Directionless. These are some of the keywords that sums it all up for Nautanki Saala. A director-actor Ram played by Ayushman is going on fine with his life when he comes across Mandar played by Kunal Roy Kapur, a random person trying to commit suicide on some Mumbai road. As depicted, Ram is an extremely nice person with a heart of gold but has the habit of lying too as an actor. This lands him into a lot of trouble with his personal life as he tried to help out Mandar to get hold of his life again.

 

The storyline is quite flat with no twists or surprises or thrills. The only thing that could have saved it would have been a flawless screenplay to bring life with some funny highs and one liners at regular basis or I should say at every damn moment possible. But a rather poor screenplay results in almost no flare whatsoever. There were moments but they were so few and so shortlived that they didn't help a bit. Rohan Sippy seemed to have no clue whatsoever on how to progress and even how to wrap it up. Aayushman and Kunal Roy Kapur did fine with their parts while Pooja Salvi was highly forgettable and had some sort of fixed expressions for most of her scenes.

 

Music was the only saving grace apart from a few good one liners that bring small smiles amidst highly boring proceedings. A very skippable movie.

 

Overall verdict: 3.5/10

Commando - A One Man Army

Two words that defines this movie - Vidyut Jamwal. This is like a career boost for this man who may not look like he has all those acting skills but has all the potential to be termed as the bollywood's new "Khiladi". Yes, he can surely don he cap Akshay Kumar has over all these years. I would say he has set the level so high that we will have to see how many more such guys do exist that could do all those stunts as well as act enough to be mentioned as actors.

But its not only Vidyut that carries the whole burden of the hollow script and poor screenplay. The baddie Jaideep Ahlawat turns out to be the most entertaining character of the movie and plays his character to the bone. Pooja Chopra looked stunning at times and equally straight faced at others but turned out looking cute and carefree as the character was meant to be alas with bit of overacting in parts. Script was never meant to be the driving force for the movie. A girl trying to save herself from the baddies and running away from home suddenly gets into the path of a Commando who has somehow managed to escape from Chinese prison after a year long of extreme torture. The flaws in the storyline are endless and can be written in lengths if I start noting them down. So a big zero for that. Direction was pretty average as well. The director didn't knew what and what not to show and for how long. That brings the editing into the loophole as well. There was no reason to add certain scenes to the final reel like the one where the girl is about to run away from home and the flashback with her parents is portrayed.

 

Now the positives. Music was lively and something that you can hum for a while. The song "Saawan Bairi" does capture your mind for a much longer time though and is quite catchy. But whats best about the song is its cinematography. The usage of Phantom cameras is exceptional and spell bounds you. The locations used for the movie are amazingly scenic and have been captured very well from several angles. The same holds true for the biggest positive of this flick: ACTION. The stunts were breathtaking and were equally well shot from every angle possible. And the fact that apart from the cliff drop, all stunts were performed by Vidyut himself without the use of any ropes or attachments make your jaw fall flat at times. The awesomeness of the action sequences kind of overshadows everything else and makes the movie watchable.

 

Overall a must watch for the first ever Hollywood level stunts performed and executed so flawlessly by an Vidyut Jamwal and to an extent also for the real badass baddie Jaideep Ahlawat.

 

Verdict: 5/10