Delhi Safari - Reviews - Page 2

Indian animation is finally coming of age. Director Nikhil Advani and the team of animators at Krayon Pictures has put time, energy, passion and 3D technology into ensuring that their family entertainer is of a standard thus far not seen in India.

In this heartfelt story, a group of animals from Sanjay Gandhi National Park are trying to find a way of protecting their natural habitat under threat from urbanization, encroachment and deforestation.

A motley group led by leopard cub Yuvi (Swini Khara), Bajrangi the monkey (Govinda), Bagga the bear (Boman Irani) and a talking parrot (Akshaye Khanna) unite to take their message to the Prime Minister. Thus begins their Delhi safari. Advani and co-writers Suresh Nair and Girish Dhamija use music (one song too many), humour, adventure and conflict to convey a message of great contemporary importance.

The use of star voices, as opposed to dubbing artists, adds an interesting layer to the film and brings alive the onscreen characters.

It takes the screenplay a while to get to the point — and to Delhi, resorting to a few gimmicks along the way.

Yet for its sincerity in tackling the man vs. nature issue, for the impressive animation and 3D use, Delhi Safari is a recommended watch for adults and kids.

Rating: ***

http://businessofcinema.com/reviews/review-delhi-safari-indian-animation-is-finally-coming-of-age/52412

Animation voiced by: Govinda, Boman Irani, Urmila Matondkar, Sweeney Khara, Akhshaye Khanna, Suniel Shetty

Director: Nikhil Advani

Indian Express Rating:**1/2

A bunch of animals are off on a mission. To tell the powers-that-be in New Delhi that their forests are in mortal danger, and so are they. Cub leopard Yuvi, his feisty mom, a chatty parrot, a large bear, and a wicked monkey set off on a journey full of adventure. Nikhil Advani's 'Delhi Safari' does a great service to the animation-for-kids genre by stepping out of the tired mythological stories, and creating animals with distinctive personalities.

And all through this tale, there are bits and pieces which keep you with the plot. Yuvi (Khara) is cute and anxious, his mom (Matondkar) is properly maternal, the parrot (Khanna) is nice and 'baatooni', the 'bandar' (Govinda) is suitably 'badmaash', and Bagga the bear (Irani) is big and wise. Some of the animation, in 3D, is slick and fast-paced.

But the film, with its major nods to the 'Madagascar' series, and a few 'Lion King'-like scenes, is not madly original. It also slows down in places to include other incidental characters. It is much too dependent on Bollywood clichs : the Bandar is a loud Purabiya character, never missing an intonation but becoming flat after a while, a Rajasthani crane couple is very 'filmi' Marwari and nearly incomprehensible, and so on. And why, why do all animated animals have to sing and dance? This kind of film is fine just the way it is, why should it be burdened with 'item numbers', the biggest clich of all?

And finally, it is great to have a message in your film. But when it makes the film preachy, some of the fun is leached out. Save the environment at all cost, but keep the entertainment ticking.

shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/review-delhi-safari/1019282/2

Movie review: Delhi Safari

TAGS: Delhi Safari | Delhi Safari movie review | Nikhil Adwani | Nikhil Advanis animation film | Govinda |Akshaye Khanna | Suniel Shetty | Urmila Matondkar

Delhi Safari

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• Nikhil Advani dedicates Delhi Safari to daughter

Movie: Delhi Safari
Voices: Govinda, Akshaye Khanna, Suniel Shetty, Urmila Matondkar
Direction: Nikhil Advani
Rating:

Desi toons get a Hollywood spin this time. Nikhil Advani's animation film has been shot as a bilingual, and Hollywood actors Jason Alexander, Christopher Lloyd and Vanessa Williams have done the voiceovers for the English version.

It's a 3D spectacle and the spirited toon stars of Delhi Safari will surely regale the little ones. But when it comes to imagination, there is still time before Bollywood animation scales international heights.

Delhi Safari tries mixing the fun factor with a green message. A bunch of animals are threatened when builders start razing their forest habitat. So, Alex the parrot (voice of Akshaye Khanna), Bajrangi the monkey (Govinda), Bagga the bear (Boman Irani) and Yuvraj the leopard cub (Swini Khara) decide to stage a protest in front of Parliament.

It doesn't quite scale Madagascar heights, but the film works on a simplistic level for its target audience- children- and is a cute option for a family's evening out.

Read more at:http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/delhi-safari/1/225451.html

Movie review: Delhi Safari

Director: Nikhil Advani

Voice Cast: Swini Khara, Govinda, Akshaye Khanna, Suniel Shetty, Urmila Matondkar and Boman Irani

In India, making animation films automatically means you're making a film for kids. But times are a changing and so is the way filmmakers today think about this genre. Nikhil Advani's Delhi Safari is the perfect example of the way animation films are broadening their horizons. This 3D animation film can best be described as an entertainer with a social message. It has enough humour to please the kids and it has just the right content to allow its adult audience a long hard think.

Rapidly axed trees and dwindling animal numbers are two of India's biggest ecological challenges today. Credit to Nikhil Advani that he conveys this confined to news reports and government files message in a fun way. It ensures the right kind of message reaches the audience and they understand it too. The unique part of this film is that it tells that sensitive story through animal characters.

The story kick starts into motion when humans encroach upon the jungles in an attempt to construct new buildings. In the process they rob the fauna of their natural habitat and they also end up killing Sultan the leopard. All this as the humans set up a promotional board that asks settlers to come live in harmony with nature. That the story conveys this irony is good, but the execution is far from credible. Nevertheless, the animals headed by the resolve of Sultan's young son Yuvraj, decide to take their problem of encroachment to the Parliament in Delhi. In order to be able to communicate with the humans, they seek the help a pet parrot and make him a spokesperson.

Yuvraj's party includes his mother, a bear, a monkey etc. These animals have been voiced by popular Bollywood stars like Urmila Matondkar, Boman Irani, Govinda and Suniel Shetty. You might think it adds value to the film but its effect is the exact opposite. Advani would have done better to hire regular voice over artistes, because the familiarity with the voices of B-town stars robs the animal characters of their original charm and makes them seem like the actors voicing them. For example, the monkey is voiced by Govinda. The primate is supposed to be loud-mouthed and over confident an exact template of the countless roles we've seen Govinda play in David Dhawan films.

Not just that, Advani's stuffed the film with innumerable songs like a regular three-hour Bollywood feature. It makes the narrative less effective, distracting the viewer from the more important and engrossing story of the film. The film also meanders into unnecessary plot developments with wolves and honey bees. You can see these developments are included to create entertaining situations targeted at a young audience. While these sequences are funny, they don't add to the story.

The 3D is nothing to write home about either. But the CGI detailing on the animals is fantastic. That the story holds weight also works in favour of the film. If only Advani had not strayed from the social subject and made a tighter and breezier film. Watch this with your kids and you're guaranteed smiles all the way.

http://www.filmfare.com/reviews/movie-review-delhi-safari-1515.html

Cast: Cary Elwes, Christopher Lloyd, Vanessa Williams

Director: Nikhil Advani

There are more than a few lessons nicely woven into the plot of Delhi Safari, but thankfully this 3D animation film from director Nikhil Advani never talks down to its young audience, or beats them on the head with its overarching message of wildlife and environmental preservation. At a crisp 95 minutes, the film is an enjoyable and entertaining adventure, despite never achieving Pixar-level greatness.

A young leopard cub, Yuvi (voiced by Swini Khara), motivates a group of animals to head to the Capital to protest against the takedown of their wildlife reserve, after their leader, and his father, Sultan (Sunil Shetty), is killed by redevelopers constructing a residential complex in its place. Bajrangi the chimpanzee (Govinda), Bagga the bear (Boman Irani), and Yuvi's protective mum Begum (Urmila Matondkar) enlist the help of a domesticated talking parrot, Alex (Akshaye Khanna), as they head Delhi-wards to get their plea heard. But it's a bumpy journey ahead as Bajrangi and Alex repeatedly get into scuffles, and the group encounters all manner of obstacles along the way.

Featuring a gallery of well-etched characters, Delhi Safari benefits from snappy writing and some solid voice work, particularly by Govinda, Akshaye Khanna and Boman Irani, who infuse real personality into their respective beasts. Govinda's manic senapati monkey is the scene-stealer here with his Bhojpuri-laced dialogues, his devious plotting against Alex, and his interactions with his two cowardly sidekicks. Akshaye Khanna too, appears to be having fun with the part of Alex, who can't understand why these animals would seek freedom and independence instead of enjoying the luxurious lifestyle of a kept pet. Boman Irani delivers plenty laughs as the posh bear who speaks in an Anglicized accent, and lands some of the film's best one-liners.

Like so many Hollywood animation films, Delhi Safari is packed with clever pop cultural references and particularly film jokes. But there's no escape from cultural stereotyping, you discover, as our group of desperate animals encounters a community of Garba-obsessed flamingoes as they're passing through Kutch. It's all done affectionately, though, stopping just short of caricature.

The film's best scene is an Indiana Jones-style set piece in which our protagonists are chased through a quarry by a swarm of angry bees who assume different shapes, like that shoal of fish in Finding Nemo. On the flip side, too many songs stretch the film's narrative pointlessly, and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's score is serviceable at best. The animation itself is good, superior to many Indian animation features, but much bigger budgets may be required to achieve the texture and the detail one sees in films like Ratatouille and Madagascar.

You might overlook the one glaring hole in the film's premise, a result of film logic clashing with 'real logic' – Why did the animals need to recruit a 'talking' parrot to convey their problem to the humans, when they speak the same language, and just as eloquently as the parrot?

Despite these quibbles, the film works on account of its charming characters and some hilarious dialogue. I'm going with three out of five for director Nikhil Advani's Delhi Safari. Take your kids for this one, chances are both of you will come out smiling.

Rating: 3 / 5

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/delhi-safari-review-the-3d-animation-never-talks-down-to-its-young-audience/301303-47-84.html