Movie Review: Venkata in Sankata

Laughter all the way
Cast: Ramesh Arvind, Mukhyamantri Chandru, Umashree and others;
Director: Ramesh Arvind

All through my college days I would hear about the loss of quality in the Kannada cinema. I was never a big time movie watcher and hence it didn't do much to change my opinion. Now after coming to the US I actually started watching movies of all types, primarily out of boredom. Being a poor student I can't afford to do many of the cool things such as bowling, going to the movies, eating out, etc. So what is the best form of entertainment. Yes watching movies on youtube. As I watched English, and Hindi movies I decided to look for recent Kannada movies and watch them.

Yesterday I watched this notoriously hilarious Kannada movie Venkata in Sankata. Out of the 2 hr 21 minutes, if I said I laughed for 2 hrs it would not be false. The movie is completely funny and every scene has a bit of humor. Ramesh is a great actor and he has proved that he is a great director too.

The movie traces the professional life and adventures of police sub inspector Venkata whose fate always seems to be against him. His colleague somehow always seems to take credit for his actions and a frustrated Venkata is yearning to do something about it.

There is a terrorist attack in the city and Venkata is assigned the case. The way he goes about doing it and win forms the gist of the story. In between there is the heroine and few songs which add the necessary "oomph" factor to the movie. Even without these added gimmicks the movie is a good entertainer.

If you have lost hope about Kannada Cinema, watch this and I am sure you will change your opinion.

Movie Review: Singh is Kinng

A film sans logic but a great entertainer
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Javed Jaffrey, Ranvir Shorey, Sonu Sood, Om Puri, Neha Dhupia;
Director: Anees Bazmee

The wait for this highly entertaining comedy masala flick is finally over. And does the film live up to the hype and expectations it created? You bet, it does; Singh Is Kinng has all the ingredients which make it a great entertainer: generous dose of laughter; drama; emotions and of course two hot heroines. All these will surely keep you glued to the silver screen.

The medium paced film starts off the usual way. Our hero, Happy Singh (Akshay Kumar) is a simpleton who wants to help people but somehow ends up creating problems than helping. His attempts to help which turn into disasters are portrayed in a sublime manner which will leave you laughing out of your seat. The people of the village get frustrated with his antics and ask him to leave. Left with no alternative Happy and his best friend Rangeela (Om Puri) set out on an aimless sojourn.

Now the scene shifts and the spotlight is on Lakhan Singh aka Lucky (Sonu Sood), the King of the Australian underworld. Like all underworld dons Lucky also has a sidekick, Neha Dhupia and few henchmen: Javed Jaffrey, Yashpal Sharma, Kamal Chopra and Sudhanshu Pandey. Quite expectedly Happy’s journey leads him to Egypt and then to Australia where he becomes the king of underworld. During the journey he meets his lady love Sonia (Katrina Kaif) and finds warmth and affection in an elderly lady (Kirron Kher).

The action sequences of the movie are excellent and in typical Akshay style and once again he has proved that he can excel in comedy too. The timing of his funny dialogs and actions in the movie is just fine. Akshay Kumar is really the king of situational comedy and witty dialogue delivery. And of course Om Puri has also delivered a stellar performance which seamlessly blends with that of Akshay Kumar’s.

Sonu Sood too done a good job and Neha Dhupia looks sizzling and it seems like that is all there is to her. Javed Jaffrey adds some more laughter to the movie. And of course Kiron Kher in the role of an elderly lady has done a wonderful job.



As a director Aneez Bazmee has extracted great performances by everybody. Singh is Kinng will go down as another successful comedy flick in his portfolio. Ben Nott and Sanjay Gupta’s cinematography is excellent. Lilting music in the movie became a hit much before the the film was released. Pritam has done a great job in delivering numbers like Bootni Ke, Jee Karda and Teri Ore and the title track ‘Singh is King’ is catchy too.

Taking a bird’s eye view of the movie, I would say this is a must watch for all the fans of Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif. Akshay Kumar is definitely getting better at comedy, I had watched his movie Heyy Babyy and it was a great entertainer. And with Singh is Kinng Akshay Kumar has successfully created a niche for himself in the genre of comedy film heroes too. And coupled with his penchant for delivering stunning action shots, Akshay Kumar is definitely set to go places.

On the downside the movie has a pretty lame climax, I wish the director had added a punch to make the climax memorable. And then once the intermission is over the movie becomes painfully slow and boring when compared to the first part. Either ways it is a movie worth watching.

Movie Review: What Happens in Vegas

Disappointing comedy!

Title: WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS
Director: Tom Vaughan
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Ashton Kutcher, Rob Corddry, Lake Bell and Queen Latifah
Genre: Comedy, Chick flick

What happens in Vegas is one of those total fantasy movies with completely outrageous plot. The movie starts off with a jaded looking Cameron Diaz and her friends planning a surprise birthday party for her fiancé. But her fiancé has his own plans, he comes home and before she could utter one word, he dumps her. A visibly distraught Cameron Diaz decides to take a holiday in Vegas and come back rejuvenated to her job.

At Vegas she bumps into Ashton Kutcher who has been fired from his job by his own dad and is combating depression. Both of them hit off in the casinos and in drunken stupor get married. Next morning while they are still not sure how to tackle the marriage and annul it, they come by a windfall of $3 million. Now the question is who gets the money, though both of them agree to split even, the judge plays spoilsport. In the court the judge dismisses their plea for annulment and orders them to live together for six months and get marriage counseling. If they fail in their efforts then they would be granted divorce.

The judge further says that if they stay together and show that they really tried to make it work for six months, they split the money evenly. But if one can prove that the other cheated, didn’t try to make the marriage work, quit from the marriage then, he/ she gets to keep all the money. Both Jack (Ashton) and Joy (Diaz) attempt every trick in the book to mess each other’s life so that they can claim the booty. The rest of the film is how each makes life miserable for the other and in the process fall in love with each other. Their divorce plea gets passed but they reunite and decide to get married again.

Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher have delivered a good performance as bickering newly weds. Queen Latifah in her role as marriage counselor seems so out of place, even with her funny accent and seemingly authoritative postures. She needn’t have accepted such a minor role in this movie. The only merits of this movie are the numerous comedy sequences, such as when Jack removes the toilet seat because Joy tried to give him potty training. The early morning sequence when Jack pees into the kitchen sink loaded with cutlery is really gross.

The movie disappoints in several counts, first Cameron Diaz seems to have lost all her beauty. She looks skinny, tanned, dehydrated and really old; almost like Ashton’s mother. Wonder if the movie makers couldn’t afford a better make up artist or wonder if she has really become old. The screenplay is mediocre and the dialogues are just average. It is ok to watch once if you have loads of time and no other options.

I’d give it a rating of 2.5 out of five.

Check out the trailer.

Laugh too much in Australia and you could land in jail

This might sound incredulous but this what happened to one Chris Cocker in Blackburn, Australia. According to a new report on Times of India Cocker was enjoying himself watching a television comedy show on BBC and he laughed so much that he fell off the sofa. The fall created quite a flutter and the noise annoyed the neighbors who complained to the police. And guess what the police did? They promptly arrived and tried to arrest Cocker. When he refused to go with them, the cops used a pepper spray to subdue him and put him behind bars for a night.

I continue to be wonder struck by the actions of people across the world. Private space or rather private insulated-from-everything space is so important to people that they are willing to knock the doors of law enforcers if someone even makes little noise in their vicinity. I hope this kind of rules and law wont come into force in India, if it does... there wont be enough prisons to house arrested "trouble makers".

Strange are the ways of the world indeed.