#MrX #HindiBollywoodFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas #Rating: * *

#MrX #HindiBollywoodFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas #Rating: * *

#PicksAndPiques/SnippetFilmReview 17thApril2015/#JohnsonThomas

 

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#PicksAndPiques/SnippetFilmReview17thApril2015/#JohnsonThomas

 

#MrX (Hindi) Rating: * * plying the #MrIndia trick but without any thrills or excitement. Quite a bizarre mix of intrigue, romance and puckered investigation.   #VikramBhatt #MukeshBhatt #EmraanHashmi #VisheshFilms #FoxStarFilms  #AmryaDastur #ArunodaySingh #HemanshuMestry

 

#Best #Court(Marathi/Hindi/Gujrati/English) Rating: * * * *  Topical contentious issues woven into a simple yet stirring narrative framed by punctuating irony. Excellent gritty realistic performances and sterling direction makes you sit up and take notice. #ChaitanyaTamhane and #VivekGomber are guys to watch out for...Get Courting fast! #ParullGossain #ChaitanyaTamhane #VivekGomber #RamKondilkar

 

#Best #MargaritaWithAStraw( Hindi/English) Rating: * * * It’s got a one point agenda –to humanize the differently abled( most specifically those affected by cerebral palsy). With not much of a story to tell, the film does it by showing the central character indulging in sexual acts. Despite the implausibility and disbelief that evokes there’s more than ample moments to affect and involve you. Performances are the key here.  #SpicePR #ShonaliBose #NileshManiyar #KalkiKoechlin #SayaniGupta #Revathy #Viacom18 #Lakhotia #IshanTalkies

 

#NanakShahFakir(Hindi) Rating: * * ½ Pious and respectful of GuruNanakji’s preachings, this biopic on one of the pre-eminent Gurus of the Sikh faith, has the production values,  orchestral score,scale and dimensions to be epical but the lethargic and compromised treatment doesn’t allow for any great involvement. #RenukaGuptaPR #GurbaniMediaPvtLtd #AAFilmsNationwide

 

#NH8RoadToNidhivan(Hindi) Rating: * ½  Using a found footage template , the wrong way, this horror flick is shaky, dark(minimal lighting), implausible and incoherent. Repetitive dialogues and hyperventilating performances don’t lend any grip either. #WhiteLion #RomanaRaz #MunindraGupta #MGFilms #GarageProductions #NiharikaJha

 

#EkAdbhutDakshinaGurudakshina(Hindi) Rating: * * A meandering social drama pitting love & betrayal against duty, this one prolongs the agony through unnecessary subplots and silly dialogues. #HimanshuJhunjhunwala #DwaparPromoters #MoonwalkProductions  #GirishKarnad #RupaGanguly #RajeevPillai #SulagnaPanigrahi #RajeshShrinagarpure #AayushPhadnis #EshaanPhadnis

 

#TheWaterDiviner(English) Rating: * * ½  A fantasy woven around the #WorldWarI #BattleForGalipoli, this film flashes back and forth from past to present in a time fudge that leaves you largely unsettled and disinterested. Well intentioned but laborious!  #HardlyAnonymous #RusselCrowe #OlgaKurylenko #YilmazErdogan #CemYilmaz #JaiCourtney #RyanCorr #BenOToole #JamesFraser

 

Hindi film review

Johnson Thomas

Facile trickery!

Film: Mr X

Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Amrya Dastur, Arunoday Singh

Director: Vikram Bhatt

Rating: * *

Lame tricks take centre-stage in this familial(read Bhatts’) attempt to grab back the Box-office leverage after a series of woebegone flops.

After a string of lackluster movies that failed to create any ripples at the Box-office, Vikram Bhatt gets back into the saddle with a Mr India wannabe, top-lining cousin Emraan Hashmi with uncle Mukesh Bhatt as producer.

This romantic thriller opens with anti-terrorist experts Raghu (Hashmi) and Simi (Dastur) setting out an escape plan for a busload of terrified passengers held to ransom by a gun-wielding terrorist. The opening sequence reminiscent of ‘Speed’ gets executed rather quickly and we are transported into the next phase of the movie.

The two ATD operatives quickly enough, gun down the suicide-bomber and usher the hostages out of the bus. A wounded man is left behind in the bus and the righteous Raghu, putting his life on the line, leaves his colleague/lover to detonate the bomb while he gets into action trying to save the life of the wounded survivor.

That dramatic beginning notwithstanding, the narrative flares into romantic interludes that emblazons the love between the two operatives.  But Raghu’s involvement in a nasty conspiracy where he’s forced to commit a crime at gun point by chief goon  (Arunoday Singh) puts the brakes on that. A chemical explosion in a refinery meant to kill him flops because Raghu’s close friend administers a blue liquid that makes him invisible. The special effects transformation doesn’t have the ‘Hollowman’ finesse.

There’s opportunity for him thereafter to get into his vanishing act- as he has been administered some obscure blue liquid that helps him stay invisible for as long as he needs to bring to book the perpetrators of a politician’s assassination and several other incidents revealed later in the narrative.

This of course truncates the burgeoning love between the two operatives and Simi turns into a shrew of the highest order, overnight - Almost fuming fire and brimstone in every frame she is in, thereafter. Until Mr X deigns to visit and showers’ her with his love- albeit as an invisible man.

    

The story is a little too oft-kilter what with the convoluted plotting, low-on-quality special effects and unexplained and implausible sci-fi elements. Tanmay, the famed internet funny-bone is reduced to playing a geek while Arunoday Singh, who probably is exercising another lifeline in his slow-burn career as actor, rarely hits the venomous notes required of him. With Emraan Hashmi on board, there has to be smooching and it’s done here too but with an invisible Hashmi and a puckered-lipped Dastur. There’s also a copious display of new-found Hashmi brawn but it’s not all that becoming either. Hashmi tries hard to make this flaky fantasy stick but the rest of the cast don’t have the restraint or the skill to provide him with the required support. Vikram Bhatt’s ham-handed helming doesn’t allow for any great thrills either.

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