My Reviews: Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge, Azaan And My Friend Pinto

Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge

Using a friend's Facebook without permission (and without being caught) seems like a piece of cake. Well, if you can pardon a few cinematic-liberty-bloopers, Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge is an entertaining film (Y Films get it right with their second outing, yup now 'Youth' looks real and believeable) with some wonderful witty lines by Anvita Dutt that captures the internet-n-mobile-lingo-culture engagingly.

Saqib Salim makes an excellent debut. He has a fine comic timing and a good control over his dialogue delivery and body language. Saba Azad is excellent. These two are the talents to watch out for. Tara Dsouza is effective as the sexy girl with a heart-of-chocolate while Nishant Dahiya has an endearing appeal and an easy charm. Hackey, the guy who plays Saqib's friend is very funny.

All the songs are worth humming and the somewhat predictable tale (and a somewhat corny climax) is narrated interestingly. Cornetto and Samsung will be happy with their public-display-of-'affection'. Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge (the title is cheesy for sure) is a fun, breezy romantic comedy that's worth its ticket price. Cola will retain its fizz and Pop Corn will taste crunchy. Go for it. Star Rating: *** stars

Azaan

"We would like to have your permission to infiltrate China," a lady Interpol officer based in India says to a minister. Well, baby, wish it was so easy to infiltrate China by seeking diplomatic permissions. The bizarre idea and a conscious attempt to showcase Sachiin Joshi as an unlikely Rambo like hero fails Azaan.

The script is flawed and the pace of the film is too fast. Many questions are left unanswered and many sequences are too hurried, all in the name of making a fast paced thriller. To be fair, the film has an engaging first half. Shot beautifully, nice editing chops and a good music score are the highlights.

Many of the forein actors are impressive, Sachiin tries hard (sensibly, he speaks less as the dialogue delivery is not his forte) and looks earnest. Candice Boucher has a small role but looks stunning in traditional clothes, Ravi Kissen is unintentionally funny as the RAW agent. The foreign locations are used to showoff the scale of the film. It was definitely not required to stretch the expanse of the film so much.

Azaan is not a great film (though it pretends to be), has its howlarious bloopers in the script but its not unwatchable either. Star rating ** stars.

My Friend Pinto

Sanjay Leela Bhansali does it again! This time as a producer. Exotic lamp posts on a Mumbai road. A car catches fire in the middle of the road and silence prevails, all hunky dory, Prateik-Kalki fly high in sky caressing the clouds, rain of money causes a never ending traffic jam...My Friend Pinto.... And he is good to a fault, geeky but nice (where did we see this before....Hmmmm) and whoever he meets, ends up getting 'lucky'.

Prateik kinda smiles too much but is endearing. Kalki is hardly there while a bunch of loony bad guys in Makrand Deshpande, Amin n Karim Haji, missing-tooth-baddie make you literally search for the Exit door.

Music is hummable. Story, screenplay, dialogues and direction (what's that!) Are silly and the film bores you to Zzzzz.... After a point of time, I couldn't stand 'My Friend Pinto'. Its better that you make friends with some quality sleep this weekend rather than forced sleep in a theatre. Star Rating * 1/2 stars.
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