The entire basis of this ill-fated love story heavily depends on the chemistry between Sonam and Shahid but it certainly wasn't of the kind that one could rave about. Sonam Kapoor appears too juvenile for the role and lacks the maturity and range to handle a character which spans a decade and demands diverse emotions. So disillusioned are you after a point that you hopelessly pray for another catastrophe to strike and thereby end your turmoil. And the sluggish story makes an attempt to push itself 'only' during these adversities. Kapur uses actual unfortunate events from communal riots to terrorist attacks as the backdrop to symbolize changing seasons of love in his coming of age love story. What you expect to be a timeless love story turns to be an endless episode in Pankaj Kapur's Mausam. Abhishek Bachchan tried too hard to be cool but he needs to 'get idea' of good scripts. The direction was mediocre and storytelling blemished with too many loose ends. Surprisingly Farhan Akhtar's dialogues only added to the corniness. It was too convoluted, clichéd, convenient and coincidental for a suspense thriller. Under the guise of an espionage thriller and a slick murder mystery, Game ended up being a formula flick driven by ancient clichéd conflicts like badle-ki-aag and jaydaad-ki-ladaai. The narrative of Game was as much inconsistent as the continuously changing geography of the plot that kept shifting from Thailand, Istanbul, India, UK to Greece. Is that what you mean by world cinema?Ĭast: Abhishek Bachchan, Kangana Ranaut, Sarah Jane Dias, Boman IraniĬoming from ever-bankable Farhan Akhtar and Delhi Belly director Abhinay Deo, Game was surprisingly a weak attempt. All it does is give a new Indian ambassador to the world - so after dabbawala, it's now the dhobi. Unfortunately the depiction of Mumbai as an additional character in the film doesn't add any new dimension to the narrative. Mumbai is predictably captured by means of ordinary people like housemaid, vegetable vendor, fisherwoman, street rat-killers to the laundryman ( dhobi) - like how it is regularly portrayed to the international audience in its underprivileged glory. Blame it to the weak chemistry of the characters or the premature culmination of the plot but the melancholy of the characters fails to move you beyond a point. However the story lacks the depth that could have added more meaning to this tangential look at the town. The long pauses, slow pacing, extended shot-taking, erratic editing and a murky look at Mumbai clearly work towards giving the film its intended artistic aura. But here it only leads to nothingness in the narrative.ĭhobi Ghat is the kind of cinema where you expect the end-credits to appear after any random scene in the concluding reels. Minimalism, as a tool, is effective when it adds merit to the medium. What would you call a film whose central characters comprise of an aspiring actor, a photographer, a painter and a videographer? 'Art' cinema! Well jokes apart and with due respect to arthouse cinema, which can be an enriching and exquisite experience, Kiran Rao's directorial debut seems like a pretentious attempt to adapt to the prerequisites of the offbeat genre. The film reeked of idealism and yet attempted to tackle a practical issue!Ĭast: Prateik, Monica Dogra, Aamir Khan, Kriti Malhotra Moreover the narrative very conveniently overlooks one of the most potent and prevalent hidden-agenda behind the quota system - the vote-bank politics of government. Not only does the film fail to offer any solution to the issue, it doesn't even illuminate interlinked concerns like the debate over the extent of reservations or the aftermath of compromise on merit. The issue and its implications were seen through the confines of the viewpoint of its principal protagonist (Amitabh Bachchan) and the narrative lacked any broader perspective on the national issue. Jha played safe by barely emphasizing anything about reservations beyond what is common knowledge. This film touched its core theme of educational reservations only partially and peripherally. With Prakash Jha's past repertoire one may reserve the right to believe that his films are social, sensible, well-researched, hard-hitting and conveys a message. Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Manoj Bajpayee, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Prateik Babbar