Front Row: The Paradise Pulse Movie Review

Film: Happy New Year (Indian)

Director: Farah Khan

Main Cast: Shah Rukh Khan (Charlie), Deepika Padukone (Mohini), Abhishek Bachchan (Nandu/Vicky), Boman Irani (Tammy), Sonu Sood (Jag), Vivaan Shah (Rohan), Jackie Shroff (Charan) and Anupam Kher (Manohar).

Genre: Action, Comedy, Romance

Running Time: 179 minutes

Language Release: Hindi, Tamil, Telegu

In this World, there are two kinds of people: winners and losers.” So says King Khan in his newest offer out of Bollywood, Happy New Year. It is a reflective, family movie that crosses genres of action, comedy, romance and the signature genre for all Indian movies, drama; a quite captivating film that marries well with the glorious landscape of glamorous Dubai.

With a bumper opening day of 44.97 crore, it stands as the second highest grossing film of 2014 next to Salman Khan’s ‘Kick.’ Happy New Year features Shah Rukh Khan as the anti-villain, Deepika Padukone as the dancing dolly, Abhishek Bachchan as the snake dancing drunkard, Sonu Sood as the semi deaf soldier, Boman Irani as the 'stud muffin', Vivaan Shah as the 'hacker God' and Jackie Shroff as the 'smartman,' H ead of security. Directed by Farah Khan, it was distributed by Yash Raj Films for Divali 2014. A team of six losers win the love of millions in their quest to pull off the grandest diamond heist ever. How? By entering the World Dance Championship. Their USP? They are the worst dancers everrr!

The plot revolves around Charlie and his pursuit of sweet revenge for his father Manohar. His first partner in crime is lunatic Jag who just can’t seem to follow instructions. They then reunite with chick magnet Tammy whose mother thinks he is good for nothing. Adding to this Bollywood Brady bunch is Nandu who never disappoints when asked and even not asked to throw up. The baby of the bunch is Rohan who has a better chance with an online game than a girl. Maharashtrian Mohini is the Kohinoor of the team who dreams of being respected as a dancer. With all their powers combined they become……Team Indiaaaaaa!

Tammy, and you would approve, is surely the ‘winner’ amongst the ‘losers.’ He proved that age is just a number for real performers. His lisp, man purse and cute shorts made him undeniably adorable (coupled with the fact that he has a regular physique, yet managed to be a star on stage).

This is Farah Khan’s third movie starring King Khan and she seems to like working with him. Based on their history (Main Hoon Na and Om Shanti Om), she tends to unfold her scripts with action, often injecting comedy and romance, thus making the anti-villain and villain quite lovable. The opening scene that introduces SRK is no less Bollywood than we expect. An illegal, intense, muddy kickboxing scene that threatens the player’s life but wait...there is time for slow motion and extreme close up shots which highlighted SRK’s newly attained eight pack and, for his fab abs to glisten (I can imagine Farah saying, “Throw ah bucket of water on him!” “And ah next bucket!”)....what appear to be two fire hoses spraying in unison. Moments like these - Bollyments - are definitely priceless. Ladies, you will love King Khan’s performance!

The idea of theft was intriguing and the method was definitely brilliant but Bollywood can surely step out with more originality. Parts of the film reminded me of a few good Hollywood scenes. At times the plot seemed predictable, but then it would take an inventive turn. In regard to editing, the scenes flowed seamlessly and applause must be given to the realistic, computer generated graphics.

The theatrical costuming was eye-catching. For losers they had some pretty awesome outfits and I did wonder how they afforded them (since they were all jobless) but details aside, the colour scheme, outlandish collection, elaborate styles and perfect make up assured its audience of ingenious, Indian artistry. You were transported to locations and you can see the beauty and feel the moods of the film. The Indiawaale gang were madly energetic in their performances.

Considering another insignia of Bollywood films, the soundtrack offers a compilation of modern voices – Arijit Singh, Kanika Kapoor, Neeti Mohan and Mika Singh among others. Composed by Vishal and Shekhar, the album appears to be youth oriented, with upbeat and groovy rhythms.

Each song and set design was visually stunning and kudos must be given to costume designer Manish Malhotra for the blend of fluorescent, out of the box creativity and stylish yet germane settings. This fusion related to the plot rather than appeared as window dressing that is nonsensically placed to ‘make up time’ in the film production. For instance, ‘Manwa Laage’ brought softness to Charlie’s character and revealed a dual persona for Mohini that showed she is more than bar dancer deep - “Haaro toh haaro, ijjat mat utaaro.” (‘Ijjat’ being the respect she seeks).

“Breath taking colours…..simply beautiful……comic relief…..lavish”…….these were some of the views expressed by Trinidadians who I bombarded after the film. If you are a SRK enthusiast, then you’ll love him more in this film; if you can sit for three hours, then the comic timing will rejuvenate your happy hormones; or if you’re a movie junkie (like myself), then this collection will add to your movie experience.

Happy New Year in November and December!

Paradise Pulse Front Row Rating 8/10