All is Well| Reviews

By Manjari Saxena Deputy tabloid! Editor

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It is sad to see such talent as Rishi Kapoor and Supriya Pathak Kapur " and even Abhishek Bachchan " go to waste. The waste being their film All Is Well, released on Thursday in the UAE. Touted as a "socially relevant family entertainer", here the entertainment is a far cry, despite the fact there is an item number by Sonakshi Sinha, a re-hashed '90s hit Ae Mere Humsafar (Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak) and the slightly peppy Chaar Shanivaar.

The story takes inspiration from a legendary character from Hindu mythology, Shravan Kumar. Umesh Shukla, who directed 2012's Oh My God! starring Akshay Kumar, cannot in any manner repeat the box-office returns of this film. Shukla tries to give a contemporary turn to the character Shravan, the perfect son from the epic Ramayana. He ends up creating a road trip that keeps going round and round till the viewer's head is seriously spinning, when suddenly the end is near.

Four characters; Inder (Bachchan) a young man, frustrated and angry with his father Bhalla and his life (Sorry Abhishek, there's only one Angry Young Man in Bollywood, and that's your father); a raucous The Secret-toting Nimmi (Asin) who Inder keeps thwarting and seems to have joined him only for a joyride " in one serious scene, she's seen smiling ear-to-ear in the car while emotions are running high around her " and an old, weary couple, one with bladder issues and the other who really seems like she's wondering what she's doing in this film.

Inder is angry at his father (Kapoor), who is good for nothing, and decides to move as far away as possible from him and his ill-treated mother Pammi (Kapur) to establish himself as a singer. Still frustrated, he returns home after a decade, hoping to make a monetary gain, only to find his father up to his neck in debt to the buffoon gangster Cheema (Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub).

Trying to escape Cheema, he realises his father has not only abandoned his mother to an asylum as she's suffering from Alzheimer's, he has divorced her. There's a bit of a mystery created around the fact that Pammi has been stashing away gold little by little over the years, and to get to it Bhalla needs to remarry her. (By the way, we never get to know how much she has actually put away.) But yes there is a message in the film. Bhalla apologises to Inder and Inder finally "realises" his mistakes and puts an end to the blame game between them.

And yes, The Secret does work. Think positive and it will happen " we all know that. All comes together at the end, of course. Inder comes through for his parents, establishes his music career and gets his girl too.

Miraculously, the Alzheimer's suffering Pammi is on the road to recovery (yes, Mr Shukla, you should know there's a difference between "slowing degeneration" and "recovering" from a disease such as Alzheimer's).

The music by Himesh Reshammiya, Amaal Mallik, Meet Bros Anjjan and Mithoon is really nothing to write home about. In fact it is a little jarring " yes guys, we've heard fun-filled Punjabi numbers, but these don't touch them even with a flagpole.

The only good thing about the film is it ends in two hours (phew!). All is not well with All Is Well. Watch it at your own risk. Better still, wait for one of the bigger channels to announce the world TV premiere.

Out now

Film: All Is Well

Starring: Abhishek Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor, Asin

Director: Umesh Shukla

Stars: 1 out of 5

Bollywood review: All is not well with this Abhishek Bachchan starrer

Tired humour and recycled lines do not make a movie better

A poster of the Bollywood film 'All is Well.' (Supplied)

Average Film with Weird Fun Elements making it a Nonsensical Film

It has been a long time catching up a film, which has Abhishek Bachchan in the lead role (solo). Perhaps after Game released in 2011, All Is Well, is Abhishek Bachchan solo lead role movie, which is hitting the theatres this Friday, otherwise, all these years, he had multiple star movies coming over the screens. The film is family drama comedy, which is directed by Umesh Shukla, while it is produced by the Bhushan and Krishan Kumar along with others. The film has Abhishek Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor, Asin and Supriya Pathak in the pivotal roles along with Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub in the role of Cheema in it. The film gives a social message while dealing with the thorny issue in it unlike the way we saw in Shukla's previous film OMG- Oh My God!

Plot/Story

The movie revolves around the life of dysfunctional family comprising of Rishi Kapoor (Mr. Bhalla) as family head with son Abhishek (Inder Bhalla) and his wife Supriya Pathak (Mrs. Bhalla) who is on a fun as they are being chased by a local goon called Cheema played by Zeeshan Ayyub. Both son and father have their own set of problems with each other. Amidst this journey (run), they get enough opportunity to confront with each other but at the same time, they also find time to sort out the mess between them. At the end of the day it is a journey of loads of things - fun, confusion, values and realization wherein happiness prevails at the last, thanks to Asin who plays the right part in settling down the scores between the two generations apart from being the love interest of Abhishek Bachchan.

Script Analysis

As far as script of All Is Well is concerned, it is not that complex and hence seen too straight and simple. At the time, it has not enough potential to engage the audience for a long haul. The confusion in the film created amongst the characters too often appear to be weird and at times even lack the fun element in it. The film starts with a slow pace, giving enough reasons to go for loo break. However, with increasing time of the film, it confuses the audience more and gives very less at the end, making you feel that you have simply wasted the time. In fact, it becomes difficult to assess whether the film is about journey, travel, dysfunctional family, which remains like a deep valley that intend to never meet along with the man under loads of loan pressure and several other things. Overall, the picture of the script sounds too shabby to discuss.

Star Performances

Let's start with Abhishek Bachchan. He is such an actor who lives under an immense of pressure. Thanks to the stardom he has in his own residence due to his father, hence expectation from him becomes big for the critics. However, if he get rids of this notion or liability, he is a competent actor though lags behind in many ways when one compares with his father. In no way, he seems to be similar to his father; he is distinct in many ways, right from his style, dialogue delivery, acting and other things. Now, talking about this movie, he seems to be okay, he seemed doing a good job, but when you compare to yardstick of his father, he certainly lags behind in many ways. Next comes is Rishi Kapoor for playing Mr. Bhalla the father of Abhishek Bachchan. Well, no doubt to the fact that he is an ace actor, he did his job in an excellent fashion and no one can comment on his potential and ability to play a good character and this role is again no exception. Asin has smaller space to share so not much to talk about her, she seemed okay in this film, similar is the story of Supriya Pathak. However, the latter is a competent actor and is known to play really good roles in different movies entering perfectly inside the shoes of the character. Again, this film is no exception for her as she was again incredible.

Technical Stuff

The film has the music created by Himesh Reshammiya, Mithoon and Amaal Malik along with Meet Bros. Together they were able to dominate the airwaves to a great extent. The song Chaar Shanivar in Vishal Dadlani, Badshah and Arman Malik voices have become a party number now. The other songs too are okay giving a better score to music department. The other elements, cinematography, screenplay, editing and locations remained above average and thus seem contributing some entertainment value to the film. Talking about the locations, since it's a story showcasing roads and journey, hence one can catch up some cool locations and scenes in it.

All Is Well - Last Word

The film lags behind in many ways, right from having a powerful and content rich script, to performance and other things. Yet it is called out to be Abhishek Bachchan solo release after four long years. It showcases the typical story of a dysfunctional family, which is nothing new in this industry, but it tried to tread a different path making things right at the end of the day. The director has tried to clean up the mess at the end to give a tangible message at the end, however, how much is he successful would depend the kind of response he will get in terms of occupancy over the single screens and multiplexes. So, not much to say but to call it an average film and if you go rude, you can even call it as a nonsensical film unlike how Abhishek's arrogant mother calls films of other filmmakers.

Rating - 3.5