Happy New Year - Reviews & BO Thread - Page 80

Happy New Year. 179 minutes. #review

Happy New Year: A long night at the bar

We all know Farah Khan loves her escapist entertainers and, literally, her own ones as well. She packs her scenes with spot-the-reference cues, even some self-referencing ones, generously. A vault is named after the retro heist film Shaalimar, the dancer heroine is Mohini (because you know, Tezaab), there's the Chak De sattar-minute speech rehashed, the Amitabh Bachchan Mohabbatien line (Parampara, Pratishta, Anushasan), the Picture abhi baki hai mere dost' line from Om Shanti Om... And hey, Boman's named Danny... Ocean, get it?

So what happens when Bollywood tries its hand at heist? Usually, the result is Don 2 or Dhoom 2 or 3 " a wannabe Hollywood-looking film with car chases shot in foreign locations minus the logic and plausibility. Full credit to Farah Khan for not going there and for choosing to embrace the genre with all that's truly Bollywood " song, dance and drama.

So while the template is decidedly heist, the treatment is completely Bollywood. Each character is introduced one by one with their skill sets and quirks " some of these quirks and eccentricities are dumb and contrived in a trying-hard-to-be-funny way. Nandu (Abhishek Bachchan) loves to drink and throw up. Jagmohan (Sonu Sood) is hard of hearing and gets worked up if anyone says anything about his mother (this joke is used purely to orchestrate a nine-month-long comic fight sequence that is of no consequence to the film). And Danny (Boman) gets random convulsions for 30 seconds exactly and dresses like he's seven years old.

Imagine you are out with an old friend who isn't all that funny but you laugh anyway because you know he's a good guy and also because you have become used to his sense of humour. Watching Happy New Year feels exactly like that. It requires you to wear your bar mood and after that, it's not such a bad night.

Because one hour into the film, Mohini (Deepika Padukone) makes an entry and gives the film the very thing it needs. "The movement of the booty... I mean the beauty of the movement," as Charlie (Shah Rukh Khan) observes.

Happy New Year is too self-aware for its own good but thankfully, it packs in some laughs with moments of irreverence and political incorrectness. The sporting Anurag Kashyap-Vishal Dadlani cameo, or the scene where the team hacks into the results to eliminate a talented children's team called Angels, Abhishek Bachchan's snake dance (which is likely to go viral in nightclubs) or racist digs at the Korean team.

Speaking of Koreans, this is a team that rarely laughs. A dig at Korean cinema, perhaps, because what Farah is trying to say here is that dance (or by that extrapolation, art) is not about the form but about winning hearts.

There are a couple of unwarranted, contrived twists slapped on before the actual heist to infuse needless drama and Farah loses an opportunity to make her Team India understand HOW they need to dance. As if the form really doesn't matter. Surely, a street fighter has some moves that he just needs to apply to dance. Snake dance could have its own charm. And yes, even an introverted hacker nerd could have discovered dance as an outlet for his repressed emotions. Strangely, despite being a choreographer storyteller, Farah Khan has missed exploiting this opportunity to justify how these oddballs manage to dance " which is absolutely essential for us to know if we are to root for their dance and cheer them to win.

She does slightly better managing the heist part of the narrative until we find out there's a password that needs to be cracked " one that has conveniently not been changed for years, despite the fact that the guy who set the password was arrested for stealing diamonds.

But hey, if you are still in that bar mood by the time you reach the ending, chances are you will enjoy Happy New Year as much as I did.

It's a return to form for both Farah and Shah Rukh Khan though the real show stealers are Abhishek Bachchan and Deepika Padukone. Happy New Year could steal your heart if you don't use your head. When you wake up the next morning, you probably won't remember much. Except that you laughed out loud a few times for some strange reason.

Genre: Drama

Director: Farah Khan

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Boman Irani, Sonu Sood, Vivaan Shah, Jackie Shroff, Anupam Kher

Storyline: A bunch of oddballs need to steal diamonds and qualify for the world dance championship - all at the same time.

Bottomline: Farah once again walks the line between spoof and tribute in this rather long, self-aware entertainer with enough moments to make you smile

Originally posted by: MoodyFoodie

Happy New Year: A long night at the bar

Originally posted by: tomnjerry2

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8WHx3898Gac[/YOUTUBE]

Public review !!! 😛

Originally posted by: --SH7_Sunny--

Avni agar Deepu ho bar mein toh puri night mein toh rukne ke liye tayyar hoon 😳

Finally seen HNY

Ekdum ultimate bollywood movie like srk said...It has everything...

1st half was mostly comedy and dance and few action scenes

2nd half was terrific with the indiawaale angle and the heist...the escape plan for the heist was very very well done...It was quite an intelligent escape...loved it...the last indiawaale dance is epic...literally gives u goosebumps and a proud feeling to be an indian...songs were aptly placed..although they could have cut a few songs...

SRK was actually quite good in his role...very well acted...much better than ce...DP was fantastic...loved her...abhishek,boman,sonu were fine as well...vivan was indifferent...jaggu dada acted very well in the villain role

Over all a feel good perfect family masala entertainer with many LOL moments

3.75/5 from me...

Originally posted by: tomnjerry2

HAPPY NEW YEAR Is Larger Than Life Sure Shot Blockbuster

• Movi Name :HAPPY NEW YEAR


• Release Date : Fri, 24th Oct 2014


• Rating :


• Director :Farah Khan


• Cast :Shahrukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Sonu Sood, Boman Irani, Vivaan Shah


• Studio :Red Chillies Entertainment


• Description : -

  Film has typical Bollywood masala plot plot. It tells a story of six people from diverse background who come together to perform one of the mind blowing heist. But heist is executed via a dance competition and Mohini Joshi (Deepika Padukone) trains them in dancing but she herself is very bad in English. Charlie (Shahrukh Khan) brings Nandu Bhide (Abhishek Bachchan), Jag/Jagmohan Prakash (Sonu Sood), Temthon Irani (Boman Irani) and Rohan Singh (Vivaan Shah) together for the mission in order to settle his own account with Charan Grover (Jackie Shroff). But as many would have expected, this is not the central plot. How this gang goes beyond heist and restore pride of 'Indiawaale' forms the rest of the plot.
  
  Performance-wise Shahrukh Khan is simply outstanding and in top form. He makes you laugh, anticipate, cry and go oo- la la over his physique. Watch out for pre climax sequence and high octane entry - super stardom personified! Deepika Padukone is fantastic with her super comic timings and hot glam avatar. Abhishek Bachchan is surprise package in the film as she is revelation in first half. This is his most entertaining and confident act where he sheds all inhibitions. Boman Irani is good and so is Sonu Sood though Sonu lacks expression and performance but he makes it up with screen presence and sizzling body. Vivaan is the weak link as he looks lost at places.
  
  Background music of the film is splendid and song lift the tempo. Songs might not be that popular yet but while watching film at least couple of look sure chartbuster (my favorite undoubedtly 'Indiawaale' and 'Lovely'). Script moves on fast pace but 2nd half takes time to get going. Dialogues are good and choreography is excellent. Cinematography is too good as every shot looks larger than life. Editing is uneven as few shots are repetitive. Costume and art department did their job well.
  
  But its director Farah Khan who makes a strong statement after her last forgettable outing. She delivers another Manomohan Desai style film with deadly medley of music, dance, comedy, romance and action. Though this time around she excels in screenplay department too. Film doe snot seem to be too lengthy which many would doubt due to close to 3 hour running time as it has plenty to offer in terms of characters and entertainment. And yes it has few film industry jokes and surprise elements!
  
  Go for this one if you are looking for larger than life Bollywood style romance, drama, comedy and dialoguebaazi!
• 4 stars !!!