My thoughts on Kangana starrer Simran

And I thought Queen was the best Kangana has got!

This flick is totally hers. She ruled it. All the drama about Kangana-Hrithik controversy saga that shrouded the movie actually should have been avoided. The movie has the potential to succeed on its own.

Hansal Mehta’s refreshingly fresh plot revolves around the life of 30-year old divorcee Praful Patel (A.K.A Praf ) who works as a hotel maid (oops housekeeping department ) to save up enough money for buying her dream house so that she can move out of her over-bearing father’s house. Twist arrives when she is invited by her cousin to Las Vegas for her bachelorette party ( read her last fling with her ex-boyfriend) and gets addicted to gambling. After a first day of beginner’s luck , she ends up getting addicted and losing all her life-savings.  She then falls into the trap of private money-lenders . what ensues is falling into the world of bank robberies and the world of crimes.

The movie touches upon a lot of poignant issues. It gives us a picture of the lives of the typical Indian immigrants in US who didn.t quite live up to the “American dream”. It is the opposite of your typical Karan Johar movie families . The character of Praf makes you love her even when she is on a morally shakeable ground. She is an independent woman who just wants to fly. She nailed the knack of speaking English with a subtle touch of Gujarati accent . Miss Anushka Sharma – you should take tips from Kangana on how not to stereotype a Gujju accent.

But apart from giving all due credit to Kangana, the movie falters in other areas. The supporting cast cannot shine or even make their presence felt with Kangana in the frame. Hence, it makes the viewer feel disconnected and disinvested in anything apart from Kangana ! This movie is worth a one-time watch just for the sake of seeing Kangana’s in-the-skin acting .

My review of Whiplash

It can be best described as a battleground of music. It was totally intense and thrilling. I never imagined that I would be chewing my nails while watching a movie about musicians. Teller plays the character of Andrew Neiman, a musical prodigy who is taken under the wing of ace music conductor Terence Fletcher ( Simmons). What ensues is totally a gripping tale of how a musical prodigy transitions into a total PRO!

While J K Simmon’s unconventional training methods are a little scary ( I mean he threw a fucking chair at the poor guy !) , but he acts flawlessly. The scene where he slaps his pupils for not getting the exact tempo he desires was absolutely breath-taking. We all believe that the world of music is this soothing universe where the calm and composed thrive. But this movie introduces us to a world that has the same amount of stress as any other job in this world. The movie was able to successfully give me an epiphany - pushing someone to their breaking point just so they could achieve greatness. That last scene where the teacher and student smile at each other was actually a smile of utter contentment!

J K Simmons truly deserved that Oscar. The man is one brave actor. He makes you empathize with his not-so-lovely character. He is fierce and totally unstoppable. He pushes Teller’s character right to the edge and completely toys with him. But what absolutely floored me was Teller’s character. He gives the exact amount of expressions – not more, not less. His performance deserved more recognitions and appraisals.

And this movie actually gave me some insight into the music world. I had the misconception that some great music legends were child prodigies and would have had an easy time making it big. But the amount of practice and stress that goes into the job is insurmountable. But what I realized is that only at your breaking point, can you truly achieve what is called as greatness. You can rise above your inhibitions, break free every bondage that ties you and truly FLY!