Wake Up Sid Movie Review

Ranbir Kapoor has delivered a hit this year with the movie Wake up sid. Its a beatiful movie directed by Ayan Mukherjee. Ranbir Kapoor comes up with a neat, simple and believable performance. When most actors would have been happy to establish their standing in Bollywood with a quintessential romantic hero role, Ranbir is anything but a hero here.
There are five things that make “Wake Up Sid” a delightful affair. It has a constant flow throughout; no over the top or understated drama; no ultra emotional strangulation of audiences; absolutely no yuppie cool dude act; and last but not the least, this is an original and refreshing story.This is where young director Ayan Mukerji’s writing comes in handy because unlike a conventional movie, he doesn’t just bring a turnaround in Sid’s character by throwing a song to bring in that ‘overnight transformation’.
The supporting cast fits in well too. The young man who plays Rishi (Namit Das – last seen in “The President Is Coming” as Ramesh) is just effortless. Kashmira Shah, in her four-scenes act, is a pleasant surprise while Rahul Khanna is decent in the limited footage.

While “Wake Up Sid” would of course raise Ranbir’s stock in months to come, it would be noticed in a major way for Mukerji’s script sense and direction. He makes the kind of debut that made Farhan Akhtar hot property after “Dil Chahta Hai”.
The film is technically top notch. The cinematography (Anil Mehta), music (Shankar Ehsaan Loy) and background score mesh together well to create an engaging story told without much flashiness by the director. The supporting performances by Anupam Kher and Supriya Pathak (Sid’s parents) and a cameo by Rahul Khanna (Aisha’s jazz crazy boss) are spot on.

Unspooling at a leisurely pace, ‘Wake Up Sid’ is a heart-warming film that leaves you in a wistful mood.
Our Rating : 7/10

Rocket Singh Movie Review

Ranbir Kapoor is in a high this year with back to back successive hits being generated from him. His latest movie rocket Singh is also an other success from this newbie. Harpreet Singh Bedi (Ranbir Kapoor) passes out his graduation with embarrassing marks. The less ambitious Harpreet unlike his friends doesn’t go in for higher education but opts for a Salesman’s job. He joins AYS, a computer selling firm which has a very demanding boss, Sunil Puri (Manish Choudhary) and an extremely rude and no-nonsense immediate boss, Nitin Rathore. With his competitive colleagues leaving no opportunity to poke fun of the earnest rookie, Harpreet lands in trouble with his seniors over his first client visit itself.

Insulted and demoted, Harpreet then hits upon an idea to start his own parallel business naming his firm Rocket Sales. He gradually ropes in all the key staff members of his own office making them equal profit partners and soon becomes a big business threat to AYS. The rapidly sliding company’s sliding sales figures rattle Puri. What happens to Harpreet and his Rocket Sales team after Puri tries to find who his major competitor is, forms the rest of the film.

The Chak De India writer – director team of Jaideep Sahani and Shimit Amin have delivered yet another remarkable film. Taking situations straight out of real life with kind of characters you and me would have encountered in our daily life and added with some terrific performances, Rocket Singh is undoubtedly one of 2009’s best films. The Sardar character of Ranbir doesn’t appear like gimmick and in fact he hardly speaks a Sardar’s lingo. Just like Chak De, the perfect casting of the ensemble cast (mostly unknown actors) is yet another master stroke by writer-director duo. In fact each of the film’s principle characters have got their ‘one moment’. The film gets straight to the point as in the 10th minute itself as Ranbir begins his innings as a Salesman. Day to day office politics and bitching was never captured so perfectly in any Hindi film before. The film is laced with some really well penned dialogues (Customer ke naam mein hi likha hota hai ‘mar’, Risk to Spiderman bhi leta hai…tum to ek Salesman ho) which evoke guffaws as well as applause at places, the conversation between Ranbir and his boss in the climax being the high point. Salim-Suleiman’s music is apt for the setting and there are no lip-sync numbers.

With this film, Ranbir has cemented his position as a star actor who has the ability to carry a solo film on his shoulders. Manish Choudhary, often seen in TV ads, playing Ranbir’s smirky boss is a great find. The actor with the handle bar moustache playing Nitin Rathore is yet another amazing discovery. His body language and attitude has turned out just perfect. Gauhar Khan playing Ranbir’s fiery office telephone operator is very impressive. Shazahn who plays Ranbir’s client turned girl friend suits the part. D. Santosh and Mukesh Bhatt as Ranbir’s colleagues are excellent too.

Rocket Singh is one film, that Yash Raj Films will definitely be proud to have produced under their banner. Do not miss this film as it actually delivers more than it promises.

Rocket Singh has the ability to inspire millions of our country’s youngsters.

Our Rating : 7/10