Mumbai Meri Jaan – 4/5

Sorry for a late review of this movie. I saw this movie last week but finally got some time to sit and give my 50 cents on the movie. I couldn’t miss writing a review for this one, for this is the story of the city I fell in love with two years back.

Mumbai Meri Jaan as the title suggests presents spirit of Mumbai in true sense. The plot of the movie is on mentality and life of people belonging to different segments of society in Mumbai city pre and post 11th July, 2006 local train serial bomb blasts.

It is a simple movie which makes strong argument about lot of issues in the Indian society. Movie deals with some major issues like corruption, life security, media over hype and religious and class problems beautifully. The best part of the movie is the message of harmony and self realization it sends to the audience. The director has done a brilliant job at story telling.

You will get to see brilliant performances from all the actors in the movie. Main characters in the movie are Paresh Rawal (Tukkaram Patil) a retiring policeman, Irfan Khan (Thomas) a South Indian chaiwala, Kay Kay Menon (Suresh) an unsuccessful computer dealer, R Madhavan (Nikhil Agarwal) a well to do employee of multinational firm, Soha Ali Khan (Rupali Joshi) a news channel reporter and Vijay Maurya (Sunil Kadam) a policeman.

There are multiple scenes in the movie which will have strong impact on you. To mention a few, the scene with Paresh Rawal having a post lunch conversation with Vijay Maurya about incapability of the police to support law and justice in all conditions, shooting of television report on life of Soha Ali Khan after death of her fiancé in local train bomb blasts, retirement speech by Paresh Rawal, insult of Irfan Khan at a perfume store in the Mall, Paresh Rawal’s advice to KK Menon in the police van and the minute silence maintained as a tribute to victims of local bomb blast will leave you thinking for good.

A must watch movie for everyone. You will definite have something positive to take back from the movie.

Sarkar Raj – 3.5/5 (No Spoilers)

Looks like Ramu’s back into action after series of pathetic films. Sarkar Raj which is a sequel to Sarkar makes a mark and definitely won’t go unnoticed from the theatres like many of Ram Gopal Verma’s recent films.

The Story continues from last movie and there are no abrupt changes made. Abhishek Bachan ‘Shankar Nagre’ takes over the control from his dad ‘Sarkar’ aka ‘Subhas Nagre’ who I guess all of you‘ll know is played by whom? Plot is almost similar to Sarkar that is Parallel Government of Sarkar running the actual government and taking decision on its own and executing them without fear or permission of anyone else to benefit the common man of Mumbai and Maharastra.

Aishwarya Rai Bachan plays character called ‘Ankita’ who is daughter and business partner of International Businessman ‘Mike Rajan’ owner of Sheppard Power Plant played by Victor Banerjee. They are interested in starting a large power plant project in Maharastra. This project is initially opposed by Sarkar but is reconsidered on Shankar’s (Abhishek) request, who mentions long term benefit of this project for the people and state.

Shanker and Ankita go to the rural areas of Maharastra to campaign for the same. They face opposition from ‘Sanjay Somji’ (Rajesh Shringapure) upcoming leader in rural Maharastra. Politics and power involved in starting the project and hidden motives behind this is the story told in Sarkar Raj.

There are some unexpected twists which makes two hours fifteen minutes worth watching. Draw back of the movie I feel are some unwanted emotional scenes. In a movie which speaks about power they really look weak. That was the plus of Sarkar, there was no unwanted “dramae bazzi”. But good thing is these scenes are not drag and movie doesn’t loose the flow. Last minutes of the movie steal the show and climax is a surprise.

There are songs but they played as part of the background score. ‘Govinda Govinda’ tune continues to stay and has great effect on the background score. Best part no unwanted item song, no place for that.

Sarkar Raj has been filmed really well and you will see some great acting. Dilip Prabawalkar, Govind Namdeo and Sayaji Shinde are awesome. All Bachan’s do great job too. Of course I don’t need to mention that Ash continues to look extremely beautiful as ever.

All in all a nice movie to watch.