Murder 3 (Hindi)

The Bhatt camp has off late done good business with formula movies. 'Murder' series eponymously concerns murder mystery, 'Raaz' that has something to with the supernatural and 'Jism', well the name says it all. One common factor is skin-show and songs that go on to become hits. And there's the Emraan Hashmi factor.

First time Director Vishesh Bhatt is believed to have said that their films are "succeeding backwards". True, the quality is depleting but this hasn't really affected their business. So, is this movie a game changer for Bhatt camp or not?

An official re-make of the 2011 Spanish film "La cara oculta", the film is about a successful model photographer Vikram (Randeep Hooda) who finds his girlfriend Roshni (Aditi Rao Hydari) suddenly gone missing and the events that follow thereafter. One drunken night in a bar gets Vikram close to a hostess Nisha (Sara Loren) who soon start a romance. But Vikram's house seems to have some dark secrets.

The dullest part in the movie is the first half, which seems like a series of songs with a bit of story thrown in and is exceptionally boring. At first we are told how Vikram met Roshni in Cape town, and then dealing with his romance with Nisha. The hero is shown to be living alone in a palatial home on the outskirts of Mumbai. Wondering how on earth did he manage to commute everyday in a self-driven car! Phew!

And if you can manage to sit through this for an hour, then comes the surprise! The whole story goes into a different tangent from there on. Although a bit contrived, you soon accept it and flow along with the story. As with any suspense film, you are better off not knowing it till you actually see it. Then, the problem is that, by the time the film starts to get better, it may have alas, lost its audience already.

Randeep Hooda, who looks more a goon than an actor makes a sincere attempt to act, in a role where he is brooding and mysterious. The girls on the other hand outshine him. Sara Loren, who earlier made a debut as Mona Lisa in 'Kajraa Re' with Himesh Reshammiya is here with a changed name. And there's Aditi Rao Hydari playing the kind hearted girl who leaves everything behind to travel with her lover to India.

The biggest blunder is that the set hardly looks realistic. The home, which we are made to believe that it is from the pre-independence era doesn't remotely look like one. It is difficult to describe the lacunae further without discussing the suspense. Hence, leaving it at this so that you can figure it out. But for their own good the Bhatts need to pull up thier socks rather than stay in the 'succeeding backwards' comfort zone.

Given the kind of movie that 'Murder 3' is, it is an outright verdict is difficult. If you are looking for Emraan Hashmi style sleaze and songs a la Bhatt camp style, this movie doesn't have those. If are looking for edge-of-the-seat thrills throughout, then look elsewhere. Instead, if you are willing to sit through and daydream till interval time, your immense patience would be rewarded with a watchable suspense.

Rating 4/10: A watchable suspense in the second half 

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Special Chhabbis (Hindi)

In the recent past, Akshay Kumar has mostly been seen in comic flicks, barring the odd stunt-based brain-dead crass films like Rowdy Rathore. Amidst all this, 'Special Chabbis' comes as a welcome break with director Neeraj Pandey delivering yet another gem after his much acclaimed 'A Wednesday'.

The film is inspired by the real life 1987 Tribuvandas Bhimji Zaveri Jewel heist where a middle-aged conman had posed as an Income Tax Officer staging a raid with 28 'newly recruited' officers who were told that they were doing a mock-raid as a part of their training. The thief, who called himself Monsingh disappeared with the Jewellery and was never caught. To date, this is said to be an 'unsolved mystery'.

While picturizing a single event would have looked like a documentary, the writers have added more meat to the film through events and developing each of the key characters, presenting most aspects of their lives, love interests, family, etc., Sure, the storytelling has repeated shots of people walking or driving for dramatic effect, which gets tiresome after a point. But then, the story doesn't lose pace.

The first scene shows a walk-in interview to recruit CBI Officers. Cut to flashback, Ajay Singh (Akshay Kumar), PK Sharma (Anupam Kher) along with Joginer & Iqubal are seen raiding a Minister's house in Delhi assisted by a cop Ranvir Singh (Jimmy Shergill). After they have recovered lakhs, it is revealed that the four men posing as CBI officers are actually fakes. The four soon disappear into the crowd with the loot.

Fearing loss of face, the minister refuses to lodge a complaint, much like most of their earlier victims. It is revealed that the conmen use the fear of law to loot black money whose owners would never want the public to know that they had it in the first place. Soon, the news of the loot reaches the real CBI where Wasim Khan (Manoj Bajpai) is tasked with finding them. He is helped by the now-suspended cop Ranbir Singh.

What follows is a very interesting chase across cities, peppered with the right dose of comic lines delivered at the right time. In a way, the movie reminds you of Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio starrer 'Catch Me If You Can' and the famous 'Ocean' series and packs in adequate drama. Although many Bollywood filmmakers have heist flicks before, only a rare few could get the formula right and 'Special Chabbis' is a good one!

Some may argue that the film surely has a moral dilemma angle to it. One, that it makes heroes out of conmen. But the other argument would be that the people they robbed were bad anyway. The weakest link is probably the love track which rather delays the film, and some repeated footage that could've been avoided.

On acting, the best among them is Anupam Kher who plays the greedy old man, which is closely followed by a predictably good performer in Manoj Bajpai and Akshay Kumar demonstrating that he hasn't forgotten acting. Kajal Aggarwal, as Akshay Kumar's love interest, at best is a pretty distraction and hardly has much to do. Jimmy Shergill as the cop and Divya Dutta who plays his assistant perfectly fit their roles too.

The single biggest achievement in the film, is its production design: portrayal of 1980's India with traffic free roads, no cell phones, no modern cars, etc. And this had to be repeated for all the cities that the story is depicted in. The best of such scenes is an overhead shot of Delhi's Connaught Place which zooms down to Manoj Bajpai riding a scooter. There are some other scenes that are tacky, but can be pardoned.

Take my advice and don't wait for it to come on TV. With tons of advertisements to interrupt the show, the chase drama would lose its charm. For all the good screenplay, intelligent dialog, occasional humor and some twists, make sure that you don't miss 'Special Chabbis', what many believe is the Indian answer to Ocean's series!

Rating 8/10: Heist movies have come of age in Bollywood!

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Shootout at Wadala (Hindi)

Sanjay Gupta and Balaji Telefilms are back with another Shootout. After their 2007 film that was based on an incident of 1991 that took place in Lokhandwala, this time, they portray the 1982 killing of gangster Manya Surve. An incident which is known as the first ever 'encounter' by Mumbai Police, which triggered a series of them.

Based on the book 'Dongri to Dubai', the film tries to bridge between fiction and real life incidents and attempts to make it as real as possible. However, barring the lead character, the rest of the names have been changed for obvious reasons! Also, since the title itself reveals what the movie is all about, there is no suspense there.

The story starts off with a scene in Kirti College, Mumbai where a studious Manohar Surve (John Abraham) is writing his exam paper and refuses to show his paper to his girlfriend and classmate Vidya (Kangana Ranaut), thus establishing him as an honest-to-the-core character. He is keen to avoid the murky past of his father and his step-brother and seeks to make an honest living after completing his studies.

However, a freak incident changes it all and Manya is falsely implicated in a murder case along with his step-brother who actually committed it. With dreams shattered, and a hard time in prison, he bulks up, learns to fight and Manohar turns into Manya. While serving his sentence, he teams up with a fellow convict Sheikh Munir (Tusshar Kapoor) and the duo stage an escape after having done time of around nine years.

Manya returns to the Mumbai and seeks employment with the Haksar brothers Zubair (Manoj Bajpai) and Dilawar (Sonu Sood) who are seen as a challenging force to the Pathans. When he is denied entry, Manya decides to form his own gang and challenge them to the supremacy towards proclaiming himself as the 'Baap' of the city.

On the side, his love tale also evolves, since Vidya is now a widow and the couple rekindle their romance. And this eventually proves to be his Achillies heel when a cop Afaaque Baaghran (Anil Kapoor) along with his colleagues Tambat (Ronit Roy) and Shinde (Mahesh Manjerekar) chooses to eliminate Surve and his likes.

The movie attempts to portray the dark days of Mumbai when gangs ran the show and how an innocent college lad turned into a fearsome goon, thanks to the pathetic justice delivery mechanism and the corrupt establishment. The story shows how cops wait on the sidelines as one gang tries to eliminate the other. And when it comes to picking a target for an encounter, they obviously pick the easier one.

What stands out in the film are some good performances. John Abraham looks the part as the goon who was once held the title of 'Mumbai Shree' as a professional Bodybuilder and delivers an honest performance. Manoj Bajpai does well as usual while Sonu Sood delivers a powerful performance. Anil Kapoor is good enough too.

Among other actors, Kangana Ranaut readily fits the bill of the 70's and 80's look and acts reasonably well. Tusshar Kapoor does ok and his character does bring out occasional laughs. Shakti Kapoor's son Siddhant makes his debut as one of Manya's gangsters. Bollywood's noted yesteryear villain Ranjeet, who was last seen in Housefull 2, makes an appearance as Bhaskar Dada, who has a skirmish with Manya.

The songs aren't memorable, except that they are played repeated on television. The oft repeated ones are its three item numbers, one each by Sunny Leone in 'Laila', Priyanka Chopra in 'Babli Badmaash' and Sophie Chaudhary in 'Aala Re Aala'. Well well, no prizes for guessing which of these three is better!

Verdict: When a movie has good acting and item songs, and yes, dialog loaded with swear words, there is a tendency of such movies to gravitate towards mass appeal. Nonetheless, for all that it offers, 'Shootout at Wadala' is a decent watch. But, those of you who detest gory violence are better off staying away.

Rating 6/10: Typical gangster tale, for mass entertainment

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