Movie review- Agent Vinod

First Kahaani, and now Agent Vinod. It is very rare to see two really good Bollywood movies back to back. Though I wouldn’t put AV in Kahaani’s league, I must say I was pleasantly surprised after watching AV. Bollywood seems to have really come of age. Gone are the days when crime-thrillers would involve a slightly paunchy romantic hero, a heroine, and a lethargic villain who’d keep on saying funnily, ‘Mona, kahaan hai sona?’ We hadn’t got any real reviews from the usual movie-goers in our neighborhood about AV, despite repeated digging onto people who’d gone to see it first-day-first-show.  So, last night we went with our fingers crossed. A quarter an hour into the movie and I could make out why weren’t there any reviews. The movie is unusually fast-paced with more twists and turns than there would be in a fun-fair maze. It is not a movie for the casual movie-goer who loves his popcorn more than a few hundred missed frames; it is not for the ones who prefer to catch up with the local gossip with the person in the next seat. This movie needs to be watched without blinking. Once the track gets lost, it becomes really frustrating trying to put the loose ends together. My wife carried in a really large tray of junk food after the interval ten minutes into the second half and I wasn’t surprised to know from her after the movie that she slept thru most of it. That was after I brushed away her ‘what did I miss’ question a couple of times.

Agent Vinod , played by Saif, is a RAW spy trailing a fifty million dollar transaction in Morocco, allegedly by some traitors within RAW itself. The trail leads him to a plot for bombing Delhi with a nuclear bomb, with an aim to trigger off a third world war like situation. In trying to bust the plot, the movie goes thru several African and Middle-East countries, and there is an apparent stark connection with our not-so-friendly neighbor Pakistan, and the usual suspects LET etc.  Kareena Kapoor, who plays Erum Parveen Bilal, is a Pakistani, with a past history of being involved in terrorist bombings in London and elsewhere.   Through the movie she either seems to be on Saif’s side or on the terrorist’s side. However, Saif seems to trust her with his heart despite overt back-stabbing by her a couple of times. So, the essence of watching the movie is finding out on whose side Kareena really is, and who the real perpetrators of the planned bombing are, and whether the bombing really happens. There isn’t much to write about the plot itself without revealing the meaty part but I can only say that the whole movie is full of action; and the another thing that touches one’s heart is the love-hate chemistry between the two lead actors.  Though there are some unbelievable scenes where AV survives fighting tens of machine-gun totting goons with just a pistol, the action scenes don’t really seems preposterous. Though the movie immediately reminds the audience of a James Bond flick, this desi version is bereft of high-flying gadgets, a do-all wrist-watch, fantastically paced cars, planes, and the works. So, all this really make it palatable.

Technically, the movie seems flawless- impeccable direction, cinematography, editing etc. Performances are flawless too- Saif the one time chocolate hero fits well into AV’s character and delivers well. Kareena has done her part really well, too. She has left behind her ‘size zero’ and appears quite plump. In fact she looks quite ‘voluptuous’, if you know what I mean ;).  An aging Prem Chopra makes a comeback in the role of a Moroccan feudal lord. There is a horde of other characters but with small, small roles, like the one by Ram Kapoor- the famed TV actor. But they all have done a good job.

I really don’t really concentrate on the tracks while watching a movie, unless the song has a real catchy tune. So, last night I could notice only ‘Dil muft ka’ picturized on Kareena and another equally voluptuous female, not just for its catchy tune ;).

My rating: 3 on 5

Movie review- KAHAANI

Disclaimer: Though Kahaani is a suspense-thriller, this review does not give away anything by the way of clincher/suspense/mystery…so go ahead and read this review without the fear of losing out on the pleasure of watching it first-hand, and also to know why you should not miss this one for anything.

After a long, long time Bollywood has succeeded in giving us a true thriller. A spell-binding, don’t-dare-to-take-a-loo-break kind of story that makes you sit on the edge of your seat through its two odd hours of screening time.

Vidya Balan, playing her namesake Vidya Bagchi, and getting constantly irritated by people pronouncing her name as ‘Bidya’ in Kolkota, where she lands from London for the first time in her life trying to search for her missing husband Arnab Bagchi, who had supposedly left London about a month ago on a company assignment, but suddenly disappears fifteen days ago (Vidya suddenly stops receiving his calls/mails/texts). Vidya is six months pregnant (But looks 12 months pregnant with an oversized belly- unless she is harboring quintuplets in her womb!). What baffles her, along with the police, who are genuinely trying to help her in locating her husband, is the fact that no one has apparently ever heard of, or seen an Arnab Bagchi! She locates the cheap guest house where her husband has alleged to have stayed, but the staff there doesn’t recall anyone by the name Arnab Bagchi. Nor do the hotel records say anything about the guy. She then visits the offices where Arnab had alleged having assignment at- The National Data Centre (NDC). Here too, the story is the same- No one has ever heard of an Arnab Bagchi! However, from a photograph that Vidya is carrying of a freshly married herself and Arnab, a senior staff member, going by the name of Agnes, at the NDC finds eerie similarity between the faces of Arnab and one Milan Damji, also an ex-employee of NDC. But as soon as Agnes attempts to dig into Milan Damji by the way of company records, she gets killed! The rest of the movie sees murders of two more people for the same reason- deepening the mystery to unimaginable levels! What happens to Arnab Bagchi? Who is Milan Damji? Why are the people trying to locate Milan Damji getting murdered? Is Vidya able to finally find her husband? For answers to all these very valid and mystifying questions, go and watch the movie ASAP!

There are many other reasons that make this one a must-watch. For the starters, apart from Vidya Balan, and another familiar face from Hindi cinema / TV, the rest of the cast is new to Bollywood. They probably belong to Tollywood, but all of them have given a stellar performance. Every actor seems to fit perfectly into his/her character, including the toad-like, smiling, dyspnoeic and lethargic murderer (there’s no suspense here- all this guy does thru the movie is kill people from the word go). Vidya Balan has done her part extremely well, and all credit to the director Sujoy Ghosh for a flawless job. The cinematography is excellent and one gets the feel of being in Kolkata even if one has never been there at all.

Like all thriller movies, this one too is song-less, except for a track, ‘Ekla cholo re’ which plays in the backdrop of Durga Pooja celebrations in the city. Well, I can say nothing more without running the risk of revealing even the gist of the suspense so I’ll stop here with an advice to go and see this one- more so if you love suspense-thrillers (I don’t know if the comparison is justified, but I was reminded of the Bourne series of movies while watching this one- Yes, it is that good!). And yes, don’t try to make any guesses- you won’t get it! :) :) 

My rating (maybe because I’m a fan of thriller stuff)- 4.5 on 5