In my opinion: Don't watch. (You will do yourself a favor)
Shandaar is a movie that if you do not go and watch you will actually do yourself a favor.
You become the company you keep, this is true for the 'once upon a time' talented film makers Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, who happen to be the producers for this epic movie along with the 'expected' producer for such movies, Mr. Karan Johar!
The director of the movie is again a very celebrated and someone who successfully won everyone's heart with QUEEN, Mr. Vikas Bahl. This movie is all set to break the trust of the audience from talents and name. I added the name of Vikas Bahl in the list of sensible directors like Raju Hirani, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and more such whose movies i wait to watch. Mr. Behl after Shandaar is definitely out of it for me. Like people seldom compare two brothers and say, "Ye dono sagey bhai hain" similarly i am forced to question, "Queen and Shandaar are from the same director and writer ??"
Story of the film is as sad as i sound this moment. The story revolves around 'a plus size' punjabi bride (Sanah Kapoor) and eight and 'a half pack of abs' sindhi groom(Vikas Verma) and their abnormal families. Both the families are bankrupt but want to become each others relatives to make their business positions in the market stable. Amidst all this chaos is an adopted / illegal child of Pankaj Kapoor and bride's sister Alia . A Bohemian character who is far from the real world, suffers from insomnia and is waiting for the man with whom she can 'sleep'. Comes the wedding planner Jaginder Joginder (Shahid Kapoor) who suffers from the same problem and both end up 'sleeping together' happily ever after in the end.
There i go! I have told you the story but i will be amazed if you weren't aware of it yet.
It was a happy surprise to see Sushma seth in the role of the matriarch of the Arora clan. Pankaj kapoor as the helpless son and a doting father is as usual splendid. The chemistry between Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt is fresh but falters. The best part of the movie is debutante Sanah Kapoor. As a plus size bride she is beautiful, cute,bubbly and a natural performer. Her short act during climax is one of the high points of this movie.
Gulaabo and Shandaar (title track) are two songs that will be heard for a while.
The movie is not about destination wedding, nor about family clashes, its not even a love story, nor about the problems faced by a beautiful girl because of her size, infact i am still trying to join the dots and understand what is it about.
Festival, weekend, party time, those days of the year when friends and family get together. In such a beautiful atmosphere, Don't ruin it all by watching Shandaar.
TALVAR
In My Opinion : A MUST MUST WATCH !
'Dharma rakshati rakshitaha'. It means that Dharma upholds and protects those who abide by and uphold Dharma itself.
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| Aarushi Talwar |
Not only Mahatma Gandhi or Lal Bahadur Shastri but each and everyone who fought for free India, must be shifting in their graves at the sight of India's current Law and Order situation. Its ROTTEN !
I am not going to be a judge here but a murder case as gruesome as "Aarushi Talwar's " the way it was handled by our Law enforcement agencies is simply ridiculous.
And what's more ridiculous in our country is that we as citizens believe in sensationalism offered to us by journalists who are megalomaniacs and pass on the judgement even before investigation and we take their word for it. In Talwar case this was what was reported and believed :
INDIA TV : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYs4xO-544o
SANSANI : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mHeAcM8STw
TIMES NOW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQZbX3uUgis
Whereas the actual journalism is passe for us, this was no where shown to the common people;
TEHELKA : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf6bxQoOM_Y
Short Documentary : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM3WhFa98pA
TALVAR is no documentary, its a movie that tries to put sense in one's brain.
Talvar is a movie that reminds one of Rashomon with its multiple view point treatment of the case. it is based on the 2008 Noida Double Murder, where 14-year-old Aarushi Talwar, was found dead in her home with her throat slit along with family’s servant Hemraj's dead body which was recovered later from the terrace. This became the prominent case more after the incompetent investigation conducted by the U.P Police declared that the girl’s parents, Dr. Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar, conducted an “honour killing” of their daughter after finding her in a compromising position with the servant. Eventually the Talwars were convicted and are in prison.
‘Talvar’ has been produced and written by Vishal Bhardwaj and directed by the talented Meghna Gulzar. Yes, she is back after her 8 years hiatus. And what a come back, must say !She has treated the details of the case excellently and showed the multiple angles offered to us by CBI and Police. This is a thriller that keeps you gripped to your seats and even makes you laugh near the end in one segment just for the way its treated.
Gajraj Rao as the paan-chewing Inspector Dhaniram and the manner he handles the murder location and does not even seal it well, shows the way Police in India handles many such cases and the way media reacts to it is even better.
Meghna Gulzar has changed all the original names of the characters and that allows her to play freely but no where does she deter and tries to make the movie commercial. She very smartly changed names but kept the title as Talvar and provided a reference to the title with the sword in the hands of Law. Talvar as a movie is the truth or more so the versions of the truth, by all of them, and leaves it to us to believe what we want
The role of Aarushi's parents is performed by Konkona Sen Sharma and Neeraj Kabi. Nothing much needs to be said about Ms. Sen Sharma's performance as for Neeraj Kabi, he essayed his role well but the best performance of all of them comes from IRRFAN who plays the role of Arun Kumar name changed to Ashwin Kumar , Chief officer,C.D.I (Yes, they have changed the name of the agency too)
The moment Irrfan come on screen, he owns it. Not for one second he lets the tempo fall, he keeps the excitement on and make the viewer crave for more. Irrfan as Ashwini is the most detailed character of Vishal's screenplay. He has a back story, a wife who is desperate to get a divorce from him, a work that keeps him tired all through and colleagues who stab him in his back to rise up.All of it beautifully portrayed by this Gem of an actor.
Tabu plays a cameo as Irrfan's wife who wants to get divorced as she feels he has no time left for family. She has a negligible role but whatever little she had she has performed is TABU. The song from Gulzar Sahab's movie Ijazat, "Mera kuch samaan" used as a background between Tabu and Irrfan's phone conversation shows beautifully the plight of a separating couple without saying much.
Even the supporting actors are beautifully crafted. Sohum Shah whom we last saw in Ship Of Thesus here plays Ashwin Kumar’s assistant and later the backstabber Vedant does his job well. Atul Kumar essays the role of a Hindi speaking CBI officer who plays the onscreen role of AGL KAUL. he is the man to whom the case is transferred once Ashwin is shunted out of the case, and what he does is change the whole course and makes a mockery out of the case.
One of the best scenes of Talvar is a sequence near the end in which two investigating teams sit across a table as the CHIEF of the Intelligence agency asks both the team to debate and put their respective points across. And the entire, 'Dharam Pracharak Aasan' theory by the second team is hilarious and the counter questions to them by Irrfan make the situation even more funny. FYI, Dharam PARACHARAK Aasan stands for Missionary Position, which is what the second investigating team believes Aarushi aka Shruti and the servant were in when Dr. Talvar or Tandon in the movie saw them.
Music is given by the Producer of the movie himself, Vishal Bharadwaj being the master of creating the dark, intense music provides a brilliant background score and songs that help the narrative. Rekha bharadwaj 's voice is soothing yet haunting.
That is all the movie review is about.
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Now let me just brief you up with the three different theories that were put by three teams on the table.
For U.P Police it was an open and shut case since the beginning. Within days of the murders, the UP Police had stated that they had solved the case. Inspector-General of Police Gurdarshan Singh called a press conference and declared it an "honour killing". "Both father and daughter had poor character." According to them, 14-year old Aarushi and the family's domestic help Hemraj, were caught in a “compromising” position by Dr. Talvar, who then hit Aarushi and Hemraj with a rod, slit their throats leaving them to die. Then created the murder scene at home.
Then the case was transferred to CBI and after investigation another press conference happened, "There is no substantial evidence against the Talwars. Krishna misled us." Arun Kumar, CBI joint director, began with these lines. His team inspected the Talwars flat using polylight, for tracing blood or semen that was not visible to the naked eye.
"There's no sign of dragging a body to the terrace," he added. In Aarushi's room, there was no blood or DNA of Hemraj. Some sound tests were conducted and they revealed that nothing could be heard in the Talwars bedroom with the ACs on. Nupur and Rajesh were wearing the same clothes the night before and morning after, even when they are accused of a DOUBLE MURDER ,the question that arises is, How did they do all that? Killed Aarushi, dragged Hemraj's body to the terrace, cleaned Aarushi's room, all of this without as little as one drop or mark of blood anywhere on their clothes . And cleaning up of crime scene was done with the permission of the Noida police, and Dr. talvar or wife never asked for it. It was their relatives who did.
But by September 2009, Arun Kumar was removed from the case. A new CBI team took over, based in Dehradun and Lucknow, with AGL Kaul as the investigating officer. Within 15 days, critical changes appeared in the case: From post-mortem evidence, new weapon of offence, and cleaning up of crime scene. Finally CBI filed a closure report, naming Dr. Talvar as the main suspect, but unable to prove it: "Critical gaps in circumstantial evidence", "absence of clear-cut motive" and "incomplete understanding of sequence of events".
So, simply on the basis of Circumstantial evidence, the couple is serving a life imprisonment sentence !
The three domestic workers, however, were left clean chit. The Talwars filed a protest petition, challenging each finding of the report and asking for further investigation. The consequence? Charges are framed against the Talwars and Nupur, who was not accused before, now becomes one.
Two set of families,the three servants and Talwars both were questioned by CBI. Servant's get benefit of doubt but Talwars don't.. Why? Just because they claim they are poor and belong to the weaker section of the society, and that itself adds politics to the case . There is nothing that absolves Krishna, yet no one wants to look at that angle. Everyone in the Talwar household was asleep by 11.30, crime happened between half past midnight to 4 am. Dr. Talwar has no alibi for that time as his entire family was asleep.
The investigating team under AGL KAUL has made some stupid remarks, such as Dr, Talwar drank whiskey before slitting throat (Even the most experienced criminals cannot do that, definitely a parent after killing daughter can't ), the router kept switching on and off that proves their was someone awake in the house (The router can keep rebooting itself if its faulty, even some electrical issue can force this activity, maybe the plug behind the router was loose or sparking.) I can go on and give logical reasons to all their absurd theories but my point is Why shouldn't TALWARS be given benefit of doubt ?
Their court case is due for hearing next month in Allahabad High Court.
The lines below are from the diary maintained by Dr. Rajesh Talwar:
"18 Dec, 2013: This is the 25th year of our marriage and we will celebrate 25 years on the 19th of January. Could anybody imagine where we would be on our 25th anniversary? No Aaru, no house, no clinic, no money, and sitting in jail for something we haven't done."
