Dabangg

Director: Abhinav Kashyap

Producer: Arbaaz Khan, Mallaika Arora Khan, Dhillin Mehta

Story: Dilip Shukla, Abhinav Kashyap 

Music: Sajid-Wajid

Cinematography: Mahesh Limayes

Editor: Pranav Dhiwar

Release Date: 10 September 2010

Dabbang, dabbang, dabbang.. in reality is nothing but The Bang of Salman Khan. A complete masala movie filled with Salman Khan. Dabbang is an Eid gift by the director and producer to all Salman fans. After Wanted the expectations from Salman had increased and as always he has not disappointed his fans at all. But one can always say that the feel of wanted was not repeated. Wanted was very unpredictable at places and it really got you thinking about what would happen next, but that is not the case with Dabangg.. It was more or less predictable. I was personally impressed to see a certain grey shade that was given to Salman's character which made the movie interesting and worth watching.

Dabangg can actually be addressed as a true Salman movie and has kept in mind the needs of Salman fans. You have the stunts, the powerful dialogue, the removing of shirt, the typical dances and a lot more Salman moves just for you. Dabangg is a typical masala movie which has a hero, a villain, a family becoming a victim, the brothers feud and then their love, father giving preference to one son and all other elements are present in Dabbang.  

The story of yesteryears and the tone of the present times, Dabbang is a right royal mix of the two generations. Chulbul Robinhood Pandey(Salman Khan)and Makhanlal Pandey aka Makkhi(Arbaaz Khan) are half brothers. Vinod Khanna and Dimple Kapadia play the parents. Chulbul is ill treated by his step father right from childhood and grows up to hate both his father and half brother. Chulbul becomes a police inspector and works in his own brutal style, while Arbaaz is just the useless son who happens to fall in love with Mahi Gill and wishes to marry her. Mahi happens to be the daughter of a school teacher and is not very affluent. Vinod Khanna wants Arbaaz to get married to a rich girl so that they can pay off their debts. Sonakshi Sinha is the other heroine who is actually the show stealer. She is a poor potter who lives with a drunkard for a father, Mahesh Manjrekar and whose brother suffers from polio and works for the the politician, Anupam Kher. Salman falls for Sonakshi at first sight and eventually gets round to marrying her. Having talked about all the good people, we need to set our eyes on the villain, Chedi Singh(Sonu Sood). Chulbul Pandey causes all kinds of problems to Cheddi Singh’s illicit business eventually getting into his bad books. Due to this Cheddi Singh uses the rift between the two brothers to his advantage and causes Arbaaz to work against Salman. Towards the end of course, this being a typical hindi movie, the rifts are sorted out, the villain is killed and all ends well.

This is my personal favorite part for the review. Highlights of this movie. Obviously the songs of Dabangg are at the top. What with Munni badnaam hui topping the charts and increasing the sales of Zandu balm thanks to that beautiful line "Main Zandu Balm hui Darling tere liye". Tere mast mast yeh nain, the romantic number has actually got everyone humming. This song is now being used to propose the girls too. After a long time we have typical item songs too which are catchy and do not sound vulgar either. The background guitar score that was played whenever Salman made an entry was amazing. 


 The dialogues of the movie are all powerful with a little funny side attached to it. Obviously made for Salman you can say. Each dialogue was delivered in an amazing manner with the best possible expressions. I guess it is a combined effort of the director and actor for this amazing performance. The dark shades attached to Salman's character made you think if he was a good cop or a bad one and it was not revealed till the last. 

Sonakshi for a new comer has done a fabulous job. Mahi Gill though with a small role is very good. Arbaaz could have been used in a much better way. Sallu obviously stole the show. Sonu Sood was a good villain though I felt he could have been used in a better way. His performance seemed dull and boring to watch and moreover you dint feel as if he were a villain.  Also the small thin mustache of Salman Khan in this movie has become a famous style statement with the youngsters. So if in any case you have nothing better to do and you are in for some mindless entertainment, Dabbang just does the work for you. This entertainer gets a thumbs up from entire India I guess. Stats recently show that Dabbang has broken the opening day collection for 3 Idiots(13 crores). The first weekend collection happens to be around 48 crores.

My Name Is Khan...

Director: Karan Johar

Producer: Hiroo Yash Johar and Gauri Khan

Story: Shibani Bhatia

Dialogues: Shibani Bhatija and Niranjan Iyengar

Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Cinematography: Ravi K. Chandran

Editor: Deepa Bhatia

Tagline: An ordinary man, An extraordinary journey...FOR LOVE

Released on: 12th February, 2010

 

What happens when Karan Johar, Shahrukh Khan and Kajol meet- Magic. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam are the best examples of this. Yet again the trio met and create history with My Name is Khan. The genre is still the same romance and drama with a slight difference. KJo has touched the post 9/11 issue and treated it with simplicity and sensitivity.

In this movie Rizwan Khan (Shahrukh Khan) suffers from Aspeger’s syndrome from his childhood which causes hindrance in his social interactions. Till his mother (Zarina Wahab) is alive she tries every possible way so that Rizwan maintains a normal life and gets educated, in the process neglecting the younger child Zakir(Jimmy Shergill). After his mother’s death, Rizwan moves in with his US based brother Zakir where he works for Zakir’s company as a door to door salesman.  On one of his visit, Rizwan happens to meet Mandira(Kajol) and he falls for her and wishes to marry her. Mandira is a single mother who eventually after a lot of efforts from Rizwan’s side falls in love with him and finally they get married. The world seemed a beautiful place for them. But life is not always bed of roses. Post 9/11 everything in their life changed. The entire world looked suspiciously at Asians and specially Muslims. The racists destroyed their world and the happiness in it when their son Sam became a victim. While Mandira is trying to cope with her grief and trying to avenge her son’s death, Rizwan sets off on a journey to win back his wife and their world. He is faced with the task of not only winning back love but to tell the world that being a Muslim does not mean that he is a terrorist. His entire journey to meet the president of United States is filled with a taste of love, hatred, across cultures, communities and amazing incidents where he is helped by one and all. 

Shahrukh and Kajol were as usual brilliant in this movie. What is amazing is that every person in this movie performed in a brilliant manner thus making this movie a complete package. Entertainment was obviously provided but with a message. The dialogues “My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist” when said by every single person in the movie was very touching. Also when Kajol says “ Agar Sam Rathore hota to woh aj zinda hota, woh Khan tha isiliye mar gaya” shows how the entire situation of her son’s death made her regret her own decision of marrying a Muslim. The songs were utterly beautiful. Tere Naina and Sajda were chart toppers even before the release of the movie. Noor-e-Khuda has awesome lyrics which are not only meaningful but hummable. Overall the movie gets thumbs up. A must watch movie.

The subject and way it was treated both appealed to people. It touched them, made them laugh, cry, feel and finally smile. Karan Johar deserves every kind of applause for making such a huge hit.