Happy New Year - Reviews & BO Thread - Page 84

Originally posted by: Anne.Frank

Sacchi???😲
I am getting more and more impatient to watch it now...

Film: Happy New Year****
Directed by: Farah Khan
Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Sonu Sood, Boman Irani and Vivaan Shah

What it's about:

When you have a reigning superstar, a spectacular ensemble cast and a canvas as vivid as your imagination, it's indeed clever thinking to adapt the most successful plot of Bollywood and turn it into a colorful visual spectacle. Director Farah Khan does just that in one of the most awaited films of the year, and in style! It's the tried-and-tested (and also seldom gone wrong) idea - the lead protagonist putting together a team of underdogs to achieve the unthinkable. In HNY, it's Charlie (Shah Rukh Khan) who has waited eight years to seek revenge on Charan Grover (Jackie Shroff), the man responsible for the death of his father. To make it possible, he would require the help of four unusual partners-in-crime - Nandu (Abhishek Bachchan), Mohini (Deepika Padukone), Tammy (Boman Irani) and Rohan (Vivaan Shah). As if that's not tough enough, the road to Grover's destruction would need them all to win a world dancing championship! HNY is a heist film topped with a generous garnishing of dance and laced with revenge as its backdrop - entertainment doesn't get more mainstream than this.

What's Good:

This is Farah Khan's return to form - quite easily, this is her most complex script to date but she handles effortlessly. There are stereotypes (more on that later) but what's commendable is the manner in which she springs a surprise everytime the screenplay becomes a tad tiresome. The mounting is jaw-dropping - from the colorful chawls of Mumbai to the elaborate sets to the pristine skyline of Dubai. HNY is dripping with extravagance and flamboyance - in a good way. The film has the quintessential Farah Khan moments -- the lavish introductions of all characters, grand songs, the camaraderie between the actors and a touch of patriotism. And not to miss quirky Farah moments - Malaika Arora Khan's flirtatious gestures towards Sonu; the hilarious Anurag Kashyap-Vishal Dadlani track; Sajid Khan's cameo; Abhishek's stripping scene (the funniest scene in the film) and many more. Farah handles her actors brilliantly too. Shah Rukh Khan is restrained, subtle and dignified - the result is outstanding. Deepika is brave enough to play another accented character (after Chennai Express) and scores this time too. Newcomer Vivaan Shah is endearing. Abhishek Bachchan has all the highlights and the punch lines - he brings the house down every time he is on screen. Totally uninhibited and true to his character, Bachchan Junior is at his best. HNY's scene-stealer, for me (and the pack theatres I watched it in) was Abram Khan who makes his debut in the film's end credits - he got maximum applause!

What's not:

Despite having everything going for it, you wonder why they didn't fine-tune the screenplay a bit more. There are logic issues; there are sensibility issues and in a heist film, you can't have that. Fortunately for Farah, she pulls out a trick every time you begin to look at your phone screen. I wish Boman Irani would stop playing the lonesome Parsi guy - he's better than that.

What to do:

Make this Diwali even more special with Happy New Year. One of the best entertainers of 2014.

Originally posted by: -RaeesRiks-

Bhai mein stars wo sab nahi dunga...bas ek baat kahunga...FULL ON ENTERTAINER hai...har koi chote bache se buddhe tak sabi ko pasand aayegi

For me HNY is better than CE...Really enjoyed it a lot.

I went with my friends and all liked it

Some TV channel people were asking for the audience reaction ...all were like HNY will break the RECORD...ab sab chintha chodh de bas thu celebrations start kar😆

Originally posted by: -RaeesRiks-

Bhai mein stars wo sab nahi dunga...bas ek baat kahunga...FULL ON ENTERTAINER hai...har koi chote bache se buddhe tak sabi ko pasand aayegi

For me HNY is better than CE...Really enjoyed it a lot.

I went with my friends and all liked it

Some TV channel people were asking for the audience reaction ...all were like HNY will break the RECORD...ab sab chintha chodh de bas thu celebrations start kar😆

Originally posted by: LavaLips___

Exactly what i was thinking..

I found it much better than CE..Many moments were hilarious !!

Happy New Year movie review: Shah Rukh Khan-Deepika Padukone starrer is a masala entertainer that shouldn't be missed!

Finally, Farah Khan's much awaited film has hit the theatres today. And here is what we have to say about it

Shah Rukh Khan created a lot of buzz for Happy New Year. The film has finally released today. Did it impress or depress? We tell you...

What's it about: Charlie (Shah Rukh Khan) is looking to avenge the humiliation of his father who was put in a wrong spot by Grover (Jackie Shroff). Following him and tracking him for 8 years leads to the day when Grover has to protect a handful of rare diamonds. Charlie builds a team of people whom he calls Charlie's Angels to participate in World Dance Championship which will lead them to the diamonds they want to steal. Nandu Bhide (Abhishek Bachchan), Jags (Sonu Sood), Tammy (Boman Irani) and Rohan (Vivaan Shah) along with their dance teacher Mohini (Deepika Padukone) train for the championship. How a bunch of losers manage to sneak out the priceless diamonds from the world's safest locker is what the film is all about.

What's hot: While many would say it's the performances, I would beg to differ and say it's the camera work that is completely brilliant in the movie. A big kudos to the Director of Photography Manush Nandan and his entire camera team for that mind blowing cinematography. And now the performances. SRK's screen presence comes as a great relief, he carries the film on his shoulders with ease. Deepika does more than just being a pretty face and looking lovely'. Though her screen time isn't a lot, the actress has done a terrific job and proves that she can fit in any role. Abhishek is certainly the dark horse in this film. There are times when he definitely steals away all the limelight from his co-actors. Boman brings in his wicked humor and is immensely endearing in his role. Though a lot of the antics, Farah made him do were weird, Irani pulls them off with grace. Sonu, with a combination of acting and physique is good. Vivaan wasn't as much a misfit as one would have thought. He is good and blends in smoothly with the rest of the cast.

What's not: Farah Khan keeps the story simple indeed. It's neatly written but the problem is that there are too many things happening in the film. I wish Farah had restricted the film to her forte, which is dance. The film repeatedly uses gay characters and is quite homphobic in some scenes. Why would anyone do that in 2014 is still a puzzle! Vishal-Shekhar's music doesn't have any standout tracks except Lovely. There are certain illogical scenes in the film, which we don't want to reveal right now, but then it's a Farah Khan movie. You always expect that.

What to do? Happy New Year will make ridiculous amount of money at the ticket window. In a time where logic and reason are slayed for saleable entertainment, HNY comes across as a winner in the genre it happily conforms to.

Originally posted by: -RaeesRiks-

Haan ji

bas koi oscar winning movie ke umeed se mat jana dekhne...ITs a Entertainer

Happy New Year review: This SRK starrer is like Ocean's 11 re-written by baboons

by Mihir Fadnavis

Masala entertainment movie making lesson number 1: if you cast Shah Rukh Khan in your movie, it will eventually make money, no matter how stupid, tiresome and humorless it is. Case number 157: Happy New Year, aka the new Farah Khan Vanity Project for the lowest of the lowest common denominator audience.

There are hundreds of ways in which a movie could disinterest you, although few films come as close to scaling the peak of boredom as Happy New Year does. This is a film that exists for no other reason but to parade the astonishing star power of its hero to the aam janta. Intelligence and quality don't matter. Sure, there have been worse desi films this year, but none have treated its audience in such a casually dismissive fashion. The movie looks and feels like a home video project that was intended for appreciation by precisely two people in the entire universe - Farah and Shah Rukh Khan.

I was about an hour into Happy New Year before I started wondering what the heck it was about. It seemed to be about Charlie (SRK) planning a heist against a magnate (Jackie Shroff) with his friends to avenge his dead dad. But then, for some reason, they participate in a dance competition that's supposed to be a front for the heist. This ridiculous contrivance could only be present because Farah Khan wanted some closure on her career before she became a filmmaker.

Diamonds, a safe, an underground tunnel, a hacker, a getaway plan - it sounds like the right ingredients, but all of it is so incredibly idiotic and illogical that Happy New Year feels like Ocean's 11 re-written by baboons. There are a couple of fascinating things: Anupam Kher, who plays Charlie's father is credited not as a special appearance, but as an "Emotional Appearance". Charlie is named Charlie only because he can call his henchmen Angels'. Even the iconic water fountain shot in Oceans 11 is reused here, probably to rub it in our faces.

That's pretty much it. Set aside the astonishingly stupid plot, and all we're left with is an unending series of self-referential jokes on SRK's earlier movies. When Charlie is about to lose a boxing match he says, "Badi badi matches mein choti choti cheez hoti rehti hai." When Charlie has to instill confidence into someone, he says, "Main hoon na." It's so blatant and lazy it feels like you're listening to a microphone planted under the bar stool of one of the stars on an off night.

There are other people in the cast, but this movie is only about SRK. The others don't even get a chance to get a word in edgeways. One feels for Abhishek Bachchan, who's given two roles and yet less screen time than Sonu Sood and his chest. Speaking of which, the male torso is displayed to a fetishist level here, beginning from SRK's unintentionally hilarious intro: the man rises from the ground topless, dripping with wet mud. A hose pipe fires water on his body in slow-mo, and we zoom in on his left nipple, zoom out and zoom in on the right, then zoom out again. Kind of like in Batman and Robin.

How Farah Khan, who gave us hints of good satire in Om Shanti Om got sucked down into this vortex of ineptitude is anyone's guess, but Happy New Year is uncommonly stupid and tacky enough to make Sallu's heist film Kick look as complex as Memento. Deepika Padukone once again has a weird accent, but is the least unlikable aspect of the movie, even though her character is an affront to depiction of women in cinema.

There are only a few things worse than Happy New Year, like

A) Vivaan Shah wasting his skills on fluff like this,

B) An Anurag Kashyap-Vishal Dadlani sex tape.

The latter actually exists in the movie. Kashyap also later appears in the film applauding the heroic heroes in the movie - it's an unsubtle attempt by Farah Khan to proclaim once and for all that commercial cinema will always enslave indie. My reaction to this echoes Bachchan's character quirk in the movie - violent, non-stop vomiting.