Action Jackson Review By Martin D’Souza, Glamsham Editorial

Xavier is a Don who operates from Bangkok. He is bald, has one false eye and controls his empire with help from the cops and administration. He has a ‘killer’ team who wear orange suits. If they cannot kill, they get killed; rather kicked out from the topmost floor of a tower by his sister Marina.

Now Marina has taken a fancy for AJ, Xavier’s right hand man, who rescues her from a dozen goons. She wants him, he does not want her. She vows to get him. Xavier, her brother, decides he will help her get him, even though he is married.

That’s the Bangkok part of the story, which we are told after the interval. Before that we are dealing with Vishy, a crook with a good heart. Khushi takes a fancy for him after she sees him in his underpants in the change room of a mall. Later, she bumps into him in a public latrine at a petrol pump. After both these instances she gets lucky. She now believes he is her lucky charm and starts following him. Soon she is in love with him and he with her.

Suddenly, Xavier receives a message that AJ is in Mumbai. He speaks with the local cops and tries to kill him. The cops run after Vishy. Vishy runs into a hospital, and AJ is captured. Both AJ and Vishy are perplexed at the turn of events, so are we. But, to be honest, by then, we have no option but to sit and watch the vengeance being wreaked on the screen without any reason. Suddenly you have Vishy dancing with Khushi and AJ doing the same with his wife.

Wait, I forgot to mention the best scene here. AJ’s wife is seriously injured. She is pregnant; he flies her to India and after five surgeries in five months, the last one being that of the spine, she delivers a baby boy!

Sorry to be going back to the taklya, Xavier (Anand Raj). Just being bald, with one false eye and a silly grin does not mean you are as menacing as Shetty, the yesteryear villain. This Xavier can be best described as a moron who does not even remember his sister’s name when she is going up in flames. He keeps hyper-ventilating ”Maria, Maria.” And speaking of Marina (Manasvi Mamgai), she tries too hard to be sexy and vicious, ending up as a mannequin.

Khushi (Sonakshi Sinha) is still in her Chinta ta chita chita mode. She needs to do more with her talent. Yami Gautam on the other hand is just a caricature. In one scene, when she is being chased by Xavier’s goons, she telephones AJ and tells him. He asks her, ”Kaise dikhte hai?” she replies, ”Saab ne orange suit pehna hai!” She survives massive hammering, even after recovering! Made of steel this girl!

Kunaal Roy Kapoor is made a buffoon of. He is either farting, eating or mouthing silly lines.

As for Ajay Devgn, he goes through this mindless script and direction with the conviction of a committed player. He dances, fights, emotes and jokes around with style, never once giving you the impression that he is part of this nonsensical farce. He is in a zone of his own. His fans are in for a crazy time. They will have AJ and Vishy to choose from!

To hell with commitment or appointment; this one is pure punishment.

It has been the year of celebrity weddings, with superstars such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and George Clooney all tying the knot.

However, it is Kim Kardashian and Kanye West that can say they are this year’s most ‘liked’ couple – on Instagram at least – as Kim’s snap of their Florence wedding has been named the most popular of the social media app.

The social media app revealed that the May wedding’s intimate image at 16th-century Fort Belvedere gained a staggering 2.4 million likes – the highest amount of 2014 and also the most since the picture-sharing app launched over four years ago.

ndian actress Freida Pinto, who rose to fame with Oscar-winner ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, says the feminism advocates gender equality but is largely misconstrued as an anti-male concept. The 30-year-old actress says feminism is the need of the hour as gender bias is a sad reality today. “Feminism to me is equality. There is no man over woman and vice versa. Feminism is a very misconstrued and misunderstood topic.

“As soon as we say feminism, it does not mean all men should become subordinate and women should be the ones who rule the world. The only way we can have a progressive and successful country or world is when men and women treat each other as equals,” Freida told PTI. The young star says though men and women have different roles to play, they should complement each other rather than outdoing one another.

“There are certain roles that men play and others that women play. Our reproductive organs are different and clearly there is a reason why women carry the baby but that does not mean the man cannot help out with the caring of the child. “Father is as much a nurturer as the mother. I grew up with that equality so I can say people who understand feminism understand that men and women are equal but have different roles to play,” she said.

If paradoxes are par for the course in Bollywood, here’s a freshly baked one: Emran Hashmi’s Ungli is like the Aamir Khan-starrer Rang De Basanti, except that it so totally isn’t.

On a superficial level, the similarities between the two films are in your face: Like the 2006 starrer, Ungli too has a force of young vigilantes who set out to clean the system, and with it the country, of evil, corrupt and morally bankrupt people in positions of power. Like RDB, the foursome is woken out of their careless slumber after they lose a friend to the ways of the world. So, okay you know what happens next: the friends are sucked into a vortex of corruption, and they have to eventually tread on the wrong side of law to get their friend some semblance of justice.

Trouble is, Ungli has only this, and only this much, common with RDB. Everything else about this apology of a ‘coming-of-age celebration’ of India’s youngsters falls flat on its face, and it is definitely not going anywhere.

Let’s put it thus: Even if we were to ignore the acting skills (or the complete lack of it) of everybody who claims to be an actor in this film, there is just no way you could live peacefully with the cliched, irritating dialogues in the film. Ungli is a torture, to say the least, and you certainly deserve a better deal on how to spend your 90 minutes. Sample this Emraan Hashmi gem when he tries  to cheer up a despondent and depressed Sanjay Dutt. “Ansuon se sirf whisky dilute hoti hai.” Got that! Want more?

The only thing funny in this film is, perhaps, Kangana Ranaut’s accent. It sure will make you giggle from time to time.

So here’s what Ungli is all about. For the first 20 minutes, you don’t get to hear anything other than that weird word: Ungli. It’s irritating, to put it mildly. Randeep Hooda, Neil Bhoopalam, Kangana Ranaut and Angad Bedi are a group of young vigilantes who have taken it upon themselves to rid the society of malevolent characters like a corrupt government officer, an overcharging autorickshaw driver, bribe-taking traffic constables and even a selfish politician. They kidnap these men to teach them a lesson in ways that would remind you a lot of Saw, with all the videotaping and ‘do that or we will kill you’ vibes (nothing that graphic and sinister though).

Their modus operandi? When they are done dealing with their victims, they send the videos of the entire punishment session to all the news channels with a personalised message.

Of course, the police goes berserk and the commissioner (nice to see Raza Murad after so long) assign the task to Sanjay Dutt who in turn takes help from Emraan Hashmi, another police office who is sort of a misfit in the ‘khakee wardi.’

Hashmi gains the trust of the vigilantes and is then faced with the inevitable choice: should he turn them in or continue with them in their noble task?

So,  does Ungli have even one redeeming factor? Actually, it has one. The only way you can enjoy this mindless film is by looking at the fun side of the ‘witty punishments’ the vigilante foursome unleashes on its victims. Ah yes, even the dialogues: They are so miserable that you just cannot the miss their fun side.

Related News

• Jayaram to grace IFFI’s closing ceremony
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• Shah Rukh is ‘king’ of Bollywood: Salman
• Bachchan clan, SRK, Bollywood fire-up Kolkata film fest’s opening
• Noted Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai wishes to work with Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh and Aamir Khan if he takes up an Indian project in future.

  The 56-year-old filmmaker thinks the Hindi film industry is a pool of talent.

  “I think there is loads of talent in Bollywood and I am a big fan of Bollywood films. Bollywood films are full of fun. If times allow me or projects are there I would like to work with people like Shah Rukh Khan or Aamir Khan. I feel working with them would be very nice,” Kar-wai told PTI in an exclusive interview at IFFI.

  Kar-wai, who is considered as the pioneer of new wave cinema in China, is being honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award on the concluding day of International Film Festival of India here today. His latest film ‘The Grandmaster’ will close the festival.

  The director call himself a great admirer of Satayjit Ray’s film and is in tune with the latest work being done in Indian cinema.

  “I am a great admirer of Satyajit Ray and I have watched many of his films. I follow Bollywood films and recently I have seen an Indian film called ‘The Lunchbox’. The movie is very nice. I heard he (Ritesh Batra) is a first time director, but I think he is a very promising talent,” he said.

  Sporting his trademark black shades, Kar-wai said his connection with India is not new as he has been here earlier.
  I want to work with Shah Rukh, Aamir: Wong Kar-wai

  “I have been to India many times. I even shot a commercial film in India. But this is my first visit to Goa. We were almost for an hour in the city to have dinner last night. Goa is a very young and vibrant place, seems like people are having lot of fun here,” said the director, who looked perturbed by the humid weather of the beach state.

  Kar-wai feels the Lifetime Achievement award has come too early in his career.

  “First of all it’s a great honour. But it is also a big surprise as it came to me a little bit early. That means I would need lot more knowledge to deserve this,” he said.

  With China being the focus country for the ongoing festival, Kar-wai said both the nations (India and China) have many things in common.

  “Both the countries have one of the oldest civilisations in this continent. Each country is very active in the film industry. We have many things in common,” he said, adding, “The bilateral pact signed between both the nations will encourage more active collaboration between filmmakers from both the sides.

   

The 41-year-old decided to sponsor cleft-lip and cleft-palate surgery for 100 kids through her own charity organisation, in association with the NGO, Smile Train.

“Aishwarya sponsored cleft surgery of about 100 kids. As today marks the 20th anniversary of her becoming the second Indian to have won the Miss World pageant, she will meet these kids who have got their smiles back now,” said a source, adding, “What better way to celebrate the day than by putting smiles on these faces.”

Before Aishwarya, Reita F Powell was the first Indian to win the Miss World crown (in 1966), and after her, it was actor Priyanka Chopra (in 2000).

– See more at: http://www.bollywood.com/celebrities/aishwarya-rai/news/20-years-ash-still-glam-diva#sthash.xb89rBnG.dpuf

Who’s who of the Hindi film industry got together for an evening of fashion and glamour at the Hello Hall of Fame Awards 2014. From Sonam Kapoor to Sonakshi Sinha, Fawad Khan to Abhishek Bachchan, one spotted most of the well-known names of the Tinsel Town coming together for this year’s edition of the awards.

While actresses like Kareena Kapoor Khan and Sonam Kapoor stuck to the western route, Nandana Sen was spotted in a saree – much like her Rang Rasiya avatar. Nita Ambani also paid a visit to the event. Among the others who had made it to the occasion are Arjun Kapoor, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sonakshi Sinha, Ankita Lokhande, Sophie Choudry, Manish Malhotra and so on. Tennis ace Sania Mirza, too, was spotted at the awards.

The nation is awaiting to see Sonakshi Sinha and Arjun Kapoor together. The duo will be seen in their upcoming film Tevar directed by Amit Sharma. The film has created a tremendous buzz already courtesy their ‘Tevariffic’ motion poster and promotional stints. The team has released two new posters today and boy do we need to watch out for Sona and Arjun’s attitude!In the first poster, the couple’s much talked about chemistry speaks volumes where Arjun looks his raw scruffy and macho self, being the protective munda to a dainty damsel in his arms, being played by Sona. In the second poster, the film’s campaign motto “Tevar Dekh” is personified in its true sense by the lead couple, where they are seen running, hand in hand with all the ‘tevar‘ they have to show off.

Lisa Haydon is grabbing eye balls in her upcoming film THE SHAUKEENS which also stars Anupam Kher, Annu Kapoor and Piyush Mishra in the lead.

Since the film revolves around the lives of three old men, who are keen to have fun and are leching on a woman, we ask Lisa whether this movie will act as a boost to the increasing sexual crime, and she clarifies, “That was the only concern for all of us as actors that we need to make this work and not make it come out as being vulgar, cheap or offensive to anybody in any way.”

She added further, “But again when you are working with actors like Piyush ji, Annu ji and Anupam ji, you need to rest assured because they are very knowledgeable and they too have thought about their characters. I also contemplated about my character and when you have a good team working together with an intention to make a good and clean comedy, you work towards it every single day.”

Directed by Abhishek Sharma and produced by Ashvin Varde, THE SHAUKEENS releases on November 7, 2014.