Movie Review: Iron Man 3

So here I am sitting on my couch trying to figure out about a film named Iron Man 3 and the bell rings. And as I answer the door who do I find on the other side?

It’s none other than the great, the genius… Iron Ma.. no wait.. you.. you are not Iron Man.. you look like some piece of crap from the junkyard.. Holy shit.. you are..

“I am Steel. From the 1997 film..?”

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

And I snap out of my sleep! I am still on my couch. I look around and nothing has happened.

“It was a dream.. It was just a dream..  efffinnn clichés!”

Iron Man 3 as the name suggests is the third installment to the Iron Man franchise.

Directed by Shane Black, the film has some “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” humor which is certainly quite refreshing to watch. But is it better than the previous installments?

Well not exactly.

Robert Downy Jr. plays the multimillionaire Tony Stark who this time around faces a threat named Mandarin (terrifically played by Ben Kingsley) who looks like a Chinese version of Bin Laden with a British accent.

Having seen Iron Man 1,2 and The Avengers, my expectations were sky high on this one but sadly this film does not deliver.

Don’t take me wrong here. It has some good enjoyable moments throughout but it’s the lack-luster story and a ‘Joker’-ish villan named Aldrick Killian(played by Guy Pearce) with his team of uninteresting and exploding zombies that really suck the life out of this film.

The visual effects overall are fantastic though. Especially a terrific flight sequence where Iron Man saves eleven people falling off an airplane. But the effects are pretty much what you would expect them to be by now.

Apparently it’s RDJ and his hilarious conversations with Jarvis, with Pepper and with a kid who looked like he dropped in straight from a 'Home Alone' film, that kept me awake till the end, which is not what I was expecting from a film that promised to be so much more.

And about that twist. Oh wait! Don’t worry! I’m not going to reveal it! But here’s a thing. For better or worse, this movie had one of the most deceptive trailers you could ever imagine.

Conclusion: It’s certainly a good film but also an overrated ‘Marvel’. ;)

Movie Review: Ek Thi Daayan

What would your reaction be when a movie starts off with a disclaimer saying ‘it does not intend to stereotype women as witches’ and the whole crowd goes “ha ha ha ha ha”

The story about witches and witchcraft is not new to Bollywood. Movies in past have explored this genre so much that it’s a done to death concept (did I use the word ‘death’?)

So after a flurry of Vikram Bhatt horror flops 1920, Raaz and so on, here comes Ek Thi Daayan a super natural thriller directed by Kannan Iyer and written by Vishal Bharadwaj who explores the world of daayans and pishaches.

Emran Hashmi plays a famous magician named Bobo ( by the way what kind of a person names his son Bobo for christ sake!) who is also referred to as ‘Bobo the Baffler’ by his fans. All’s well and good until he starts hallucinating ‘chipkalees’ and ‘dead bodies’.

He undergoes hypnosis and discovers that in his childhood, he was terrorized by a woman named Diana, played by Konkona Sen Sharma(creepy as hell!).

Young Bobo (superbly acted by Vishesh Tiwari), is convinced that the women who has become his widowed fathers recent love interest is actually a witch trying to kill him or his sister.

Genuinely scary and intriguing, this portion of the film is an extended flashback sequence that plays out well and manages to keep you on the edge of the seat. The intrigue along with some jump-out-of-your-seat moments build up the story nicely till the interval. And then all ‘hell’ breaks loose (I mean that in a very bad way).

Post interval the movie goes down-hill when it starts going down the commercial lane.

So there is a Shaadi dance number where Bobo, his wife, the psychiatrist, the father from the church all dance to a tune “Totey Ud gaye”! And if you think that’s ridiculous wait until you watch the hilarious climax which involves a fist fight between daayans and pishaches. The post interval part murders the entire concept.

The film hams it up badly here but relies on its actors to rise above their roles. And in all fairness they do deliver. Emraan Hashmi as the magician is good and Huma Qureshi does well too. Kalki Koechlin has nothing much to do here.

But it’s the ever-dependable Konkana Sen Sharma who gives a chilling performance. It’s a difficult task for any actress to say lines like “Bobo, me arahi hun..!” and still look scary. With her big black eyes and little nuances in her ‘daaiyan mannerism’ she is truly intriguing. She’s so good in her role that if I was a little kid watching this film, I would run away from any women whose name is Diana.

Conclusion: Starts off like an A-grade horror flick and ends like a C-grade one it’s worth a try if you are very eager to dive into it.