Kartik Aaryan – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: We have been reviewing only a smaller number of Hindi movies.

Vampire Bat: Well, we are not that much exposed to Bollywood anymore.

Vampire Owl: Bollywood has not come up with very good movies.

Vampire Bat: If there were such movies, they would not come our theatres.

Vampire Owl: It is such a shame. They still show us dumb Bollywood movies for fans.

Vampire Bat: The so-called superstar movies will come. But they are truly dumb.

Vampire Owl: The Khans and Hritik Roshan will surely get all the screens.

Vampire Bat: Most high budget films without content will get here with more shows.

Vampire Owl: Yes, just put any Khan in there and thrown it this way.

Vampire Bat: We would have wanted Irrfan Khan to be around then.

[Gets a vegetable puffs and three cups of white tea].

What is the movie about? :: Ruhaan (Kartik Aaryan) is a fraud spiritual ghostbuster known by the name “Rooh Baba”, and pretends to be an expert in exorcising spirits and slaying demons who harass people or haunt buildings. But he is actually an opportunist who makes good use of situations and make people feel that he has done something magical and has driven away monsters. He solves problems of non-existent demons for people who always have something to hide. There would always be some mistake committed by a random person who want to put the blame on someone not complaining, and that would be the spirit of a dead person or a demon from another world creating nuisance, misplacing things, setting something on fire etc. It makes him the best-known ghostbuster in the area, and his understanding of people’s superstitions has helped him to set up an office near Howrah Bridge of Kolkata. It is then that he is approached by Rajkumari Meera (Triptii Dimri) who has proof of his activities and asks her to come with her to deal with a paranormal activity in a far away village.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: They leave for this particular place where she belongs to a royal family which has been living in a stable near their old palace because of fear of a spirit that has been living there. The fear has become so much that the whole family has decided to live through a life of poverty forever until they found Ruhaan who is believed to be a reincarnation of a dead prince who somewhat looks like him. This provides them with enough confidence to think about moving to the palace of riches, and after making it look better, hope to sell the palace. He is the only one who is supposed to open the door to a room where a spirit haunting the palace is kept locked, and he is the only one who can save them from the supernatural entity. But he is to wait till the day of Durgashtami to open it, or something worse can happen there. He has to stay there for quite some time now so that he could manage to get his share. At the same time, Ruhaan falls in love with Meera and she seems to feel the same, as he keeps raising the confidence of her family as well as the villagers.

And what more is to follow with the demons and other evil spirits in a haunted palace? :: It is then that a woman named Mallika (Vidya Balan) arrives from a firm which is specialized in restoring old mansions and artefacts. She claimed to replace another employee who had taken a long vacation. There seems to be something strange about her, and feels like too much about the palace and its history is known to her. She stays there with them to further understand the needs for restoration. It is then that another woman named Mandira (Madhuri Dixit) also reaches the palace, after another room is opened. She identifies herself as someone who has come all the way there to buy the palace. She also gives them an offer above everyone else, as she stays there. Now the question remains about what this vengeful spirit really is. One has to wonder what it really tries to achieve – is there any plan other than the ghostly murder of all the residents and the family lineage? What is the worst thing that can happen on the day of Durgashtami? With no real ghostbusters around, is there a chance to save their world?

The defence of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 :: The movie has successfully blended comedy and horror, even though the funny side could have risen even more. The visuals with the old palace and the scary elements remain the fine works around here. There is something that interests one a lot about the old buildings of Bengal, and the feeling of strong history is more in there than any other – it will surely keep us going and wishing for the location to be there for long. There is always some place for twists and some fine scares to happen around here. The fear generation gets active very early, and the atmosphere nicely supports he same. Karthik Aryan has surely added a fresh perspective and freshness to this film. Triptii Dimri does the same, and it is good to see her getting more movies, because Bollywood needs to move on as much as with Karthik Aryan, that much with the actresses around. It needs to find new talents instead of those old superstars from where there is the need the move on.

The claws of flaw :: The humour does not always work, as we often why there is an attempt being made when there is no need, as some of these surely feels forced. The template seems to be repeated, as if there are no particular new ideas to be added to an already existing world, from where this gets the strength, not focusing on innovations. The focus gets the struggle, as too many things get rolled in without justifications, and the final scenes are ridiculously emotional without the required intensity, with the purpose of the evil spirit itself lost in the process of making it appealing to each and everyone even though not perfectly. There seemed to be a feeling of need to give focus to the veteran lady superstars, even when they were never really the focus here. Their presence here seems to be just to add nostalgia and the star value, as these are roles which one of the existing characters in the palace could have done. The story seems to be a little too much deviating from its purpose. As expected, this would not do just to the original at all, with a certain struggle as there is some legacy involved.

How it finishes :: We have watched Manichitrathaazhu and the not much needed sequel called Geethanjali. I have not watched the second part of this particular Hindi series, and therefore do not have an idea how all these have been connected without Akshay Kumar. But I could feel that this particular title could stand alone from the beginning itself. It has surely tried to blend its genres well, but never does it manage to rise to the level of Stree, and it is to be remembered that Stree 2 actually released in the same year. Bollywood does seem to be doing pretty good at making horror-comedies than we had thought it could manage to do. As it depends on the skilled performers instead of both male and female superstars, it moves out of the past, and begins to think better and have some classics. The industry should know that there is a lot of young talent waiting, that too without the nepotic kids becoming weak elements in good movies, something we have witnessed in remakes of movies like Helen – there is also too many of them for the time being. It is not like you say Shazam and you learn acting all of a sudden. Let us hope that the best talents rise out of nowhere and make the industry classic.

Release date: 1st November 2024
Running time: 158 minutes
Directed by: Anees Bazmee
Starring: Kartik Aaryan, Vidya Balan, Madhuri Dixit, Triptii Dimri, Vijay Raaz, Rajpal Yadav, Sanjay Mishra, Ashwini Kalsekar, Rajesh Sharma, Arun Kushwah, Manish Wadhwa, Shataf Figar, Saurabh Dubey, Denzil Smith, Suresh Menon, Moumita Pal, Shivam Dubey, Surendra Thakur, Kanchan Mullick, Prantika Das, Agrim Mittal, Ajay Tiwari, Yogesh Jadhav, Rose Sardana, Swagatam Halder, Averi Singharoy, Badri Chavan, Arvind Prakash, Parineeta Borthakur

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

What is it about? :: Anshul (Kartik Aaryan), Siddharth (Sunny Singh Nijjar) and Tharun (Omkar Kapoor) are best friends who share a flat. Anshul meets Ruchika (Nushrat Bharucha) during a party, gives her his mobile number and their relationship begins. Siddharth comes across Supriya (Sonnalli Seygall) at a wedding program and immediately falls in love, hoping to get married to her as soon as possible. Tharun meets Kusum (Ishita Raj) while at the gym and with his infatuation, their love story begins. But all these three relationships don’t move forward as expected. They try to make things better, even by going to a trip to Pattaya, but the situation remains the same. It seems almost impossible to get along with each other, with a split ready for all the three couples.

The defence of Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 :: The comic side of this movie is strong as expected. The same successfully generates a lot of laughter in the theatre. Making the audience laugh a lot is not that easy, and that has been achieved, both in the case of men and women viewers. The songs are okay. The vain love based on infatuation gets the beating here, even when there is absolutely no need to bring a message here or be serious about its idea. The jokes related to online life and the struggles of Siddharth to impress the girl’s parents are the best among them. This movie only does what it is supposed to do, and if anyone wanted it to do something else which it was never planning to come up with, they can hate the movie, but bringing just one point up is more like vendetta. I agree that this could have done differently, and that would have surely improved my opinion, but this product works.

Claws of flaw :: You can see that critics have chosen to degrade this movie, but most you will see that the reason itself is one-sided and prejudiced, as it can only be found by digging the wrong way. But this movie is no big thing either. The flick actually starts with some drag, and it only gets better with the men meeting the women. All the comedy stuff won’t work that well either, and it is not applicable for everyone in the same way throughout the flick. Some dialogues were quite unnecessary, and the movie surely had better scope. The acting department is not that great either, but not much is required in this movie as the cast manages okay. You will also get less out of this movie if you have decided to thrive in the negative idea given to you by the critics, and won’t watch this as a regular movie loving human who thinks not from or in favour of any category.

Soul exploration :: I keep wondering why some critics think that this movie hates women. It makes no sense, because anything against women in this movie is from three male protagonists who are pretty much dumb (nobody needs to believe even a word they say); so if there is anything negative here, it is to be shared between both sexes. I can have problems about how men are portrayed in this movie too! Well, it is a modern take on the relationships which have no value and about those which are too hasty; it is about how decisions taken without base never last – it is also applicable both ways; you can also see a male character whose girlfriend has ditched him, and it is clear that the particular person appears as the mirror image. People are free to come up with opinions, but some people surely need to develop some tolerance – otherwise, these people might not have the right to call the political parties and religions intolerant.

Further soul exploration :: This just a story about a relationship, and not judgment. There are movies with good women and there are others with bad women; sometimes there are those which are full of bad men and otherwise good women. But if you look closely here, are these characters the kind of people who can’t exist in this world? Haven’t you seen the shades of some of them in your life? Don’t try to deny it because of your prejudice. Well, if you are looking for the same story to progress from all angles with just one movie, you are looking at the wrong place. These people who pass judgment in favour of just one side of this flick really need to think again. If they need movies which hate women, Bollywood has many of them along with another Indian flicks, and this movie here is not one of them – you will know if you remove those shades of prejudice. Nobody with sanity will let this movie define their world except for laughing at the jokes! This is never really about true preaching! No characters here are heroes to imitate either!

More of soul exploration :: If you are determined to hate this movie, and looking for points to note down, feel free to write something even before watching this movie. If you think that men in this movie are so awesome and women so bad, you need to look into your viewpoints about the good and the bad; because all that this movie has is a collection of grey characters. You don’t even feel that the women are evil in this movie if you look deeper; what you see here is a case of not finding the right person, as each human being is different. These three men found the wrong women, and they suffer for it – the men are not really angels either, and their choices were just dependent on infatuation or lust. Here is a message for you to take home even if there is none intended – don’t go for looks and don’t fall for what you feel with first looks; go for character. You got the message when there is none; happy? Now, that is a good addition.

How it finishes :: Actually, under normal circumstances, if you are looking to take a message from a full comedy movie, you are looking at the wrong place. What to expect from this movie was pretty much clear. I went for this movie thinking how terrible this would be, thanks to those critics who only saw only one side of this one. But that only helped me to once again understand why I shouldn’t go by the opinions especially when they are focusing on one particular thing which is not even the basic factor of this movie. I haven’t watched the first movie, but about Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2, I am sure that it will make the viewers laugh, and the genre here is comedy – note that down. It doesn’t have anything else, and this is not a movie to be taken seriously. If you thought that this was going to the movie with a grand love message, the problem is on your side and not with the movie makers. Use that side of brain somewhere else, as there are many serious ones and grand superstar movies which work against equality.

Release date: 16th October 2015
Running time: 136 minutes
Directed by: Luv Ranjan
Starring: Kartik Aaryan, Nushrat Bharucha, Sonalli Sehgall, Ishita Raj, Omkar Kapoor, Sunny Singh, Rumana Molla, Sharat Saxena, Manvir Singh