Halla Bol

I like to start my reviews with the things I like about a film, so here they are-

The 2 things I liked about the film-

When Indrajeet Chanda gives the offer to Siddhu to join them at the swimming pool, the reaction of Siddhu…vow man, instead of telling him in a loud repetitive speech “you are just a kid in front of me…” he just starts to play with his cheeks the way we play with kids and leaves. Man! This was a novel way. Good acting, good use of gestures without words.

Another thing I liked was the use of Dushyant Kumar’s provocative Gazal “Ho gayi hai peer parbat si…” the gusto was good. Enjoyable!

Now what didn’t work for me:

1. Stereotypical one dimensional black and white characters- the characters of the film were outdated, the dialogues lengthy and monotonous and situations very predictable and repetitive.

Sameer Khan who is drunk with his success and has no remorse when he is insensitively hurts his wife or relatives; suddenly changes by an incident. We never know his journey. We never know why this “black and white” change was. There is no place where we see a human with his human emotions and fears. There is either a bastard who is full of his success and power and happily exploits women or we see this holy saint who can go to any length to have justice for a girl who was not related to him in any way but a momentary acquaintance.

The wife Sneha is the holly courageous woman who is against her husband when he is bad, and joins him when he is good. She is flawless, virtuous. We never see even a glimpse of her life. We don’t know if this success of her husband has affected her in any way. What does she do when he is on shootings? Does her lifestyle have also changed! Nothing!

Siddhu is the courageous bandit who turns to theatre when he sees a performance of Harishchandra. Like a God, he protects victimised people. He comes to Sameer’s rescue whenever he needs him. His speeches are long and monotonous. He talks about justice all the time, but we never see him having a drop of remorse on the life he led. He must have killed innocent people! Or was he the Robin Hood!

The villains Gayakwad, Narayan, Mr. Chadda, the caricatures of Vijay Malya and this Art of living guy (I have forgotten their names in film), the sons of Gayakwad and Mr. Chadda are absolute black people. We never see them doing any thing motivated by long plan or strategy. They are merely defending themselves against Sameer Khan throughout the film and goes out of their way for this. They are such “regular villains” that we never find them interesting or engaging. We know they ultimately are going to be defeated and we never fear for the protagonist.

1. Plot was very contrived.

The film is about an actor Sameer Khan who makes it in Bombay Film Industry the hard way. When the film starts he is at the height of his popularity. He is drunk with the illusions that his success will never last and has become promiscuous. He is not faithful to his Guru Siddhu, his father or his wife.

One night in a party he witnesses a murder of an air hostess Rashmi who had come in the party with her sister Ritu. The murderers are the sons of a politician and a business tycoon.

As his conscience is not letting him live peacefully de decides to open his mouth against the injustice. After long trials and errors the public starts to support him and the criminals have to face the consequences. The good wins, the bad is punished.

1. Third act- Most of the films fail in their third act this film also fails miserably. Till 10 minutes before the climax, see the audacity of protagonist and his struggle. We see how he is fighting alone in the world and no body is standing by him, then suddenly as if they wanted to rap it the “Awam” (Public) is awakened. They start to support him. And in climax seen as if Convocation is going on all the people involved in the case are punished. Even the people who had given wrong testimonies are punished. All bad forces are conquered by the hero.

The only question here is “Do we buy his?” I don’t know about others but this romantic story of a hero who goes out of his way to stand by a virtue and goes through the ordeals, stands by his moral and later everything lost gets restored and he gets much more, is not digestible to me.

1. The most original “Dhamaki” of Hindi Film Industry “Agali baar main puchunga nahi ki bathroom kithar hai?”

Hi,

I write movie review at www.bollywoodreviews.net

My review for hall bol is:

“Rang De Basanti” started candle protects all over the country. Something similar was expected from Halla Bol. However, its unique and can start something called as “Pee” protects. If you wonder what is this all about, you will have to watch the movie.

Oh My God! What is this? Rajkumar Santoshi, where are u lost?

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--- prashen h. kyawal

 As we all expected Rajkumar Santoshi movies to be, this movie also promises to be like one of the Inspirational story.

Yes Inspirational by motive not by execution. I have been waiting for this movie to release (As I am a big fan of RK Santoshi and Ajay Devgan), but this movie is a piece of disappointment for me. There are so many cliché attached to this movie, that it has sometimes overshadowed the message, instead of supporting it. The blame has to be put on the loose screenplay.

I would say, Rk was trying to focus on too many issue than one. Though the main issue has been finally addressed in the Movie, there are too many things already been told to the audience? The director took the entire first half to establish the characters and introducing the protagonists.

The movie has its own share of positives, definitely in the acting department everyone has done a good job. Pankaj Kapoor is the star performer, he has prove himself time and again what a brilliant actor he is. Vidya balan in a small role has done more to justified her role. And the hero Ajay Devgan, every one knows how good an actor he is.

Every movie which represents the problem persists in the society, and sends out the message to the audience has backed by a very popular (infect a powerful motivated) song or a theme (remember Chak de song). It is certainly missing in this movie. (The moment you think about “Hall bol”, immediately the song come to your mind is the song from GOAL , “Halla bola age dol, karta ja Goal pe goal”)

This kind of movie should not criticized, because of its well intended motive. But at the same time the way it has been presented can be questionable. I personally think it had been presented in a batter way. So it’s 2 out of 5 for RK Santoshi’s “Halla Bol”.

Those who follows Raj Kumar Santoshi films will be not satisfied by extermelly talented director. Halla Bol plot is very powerfull but fail to impress the cinema photography is one of the worst ever i have seen thru out the year, i am not at all impressed with sukhvider sinngh music which doesn't match according the film and totally mis-match.

Acting Wise: Ajay Degvan is totally miscast he doesn't fit to the bill.

Vidya Balan in very small role but had done it effictively but mothing to gain from this movie.
Pankaj Kapur has given 100% justice to his role, he has carried the role perfectly and suit the bill.

Darshan Zariwala is ok but he should avoid his comic sense as he lack a proper timing.

And offcourse there is also Tushar Kapoor who is doing as a guest appearence is perfect and the best part of the movie yes its true he has done his role better than ajay devgan.

OVER ALL A  LACK LUSTER MOVIE FROM RAJ KUMAR SANTOSHI.

I AM DISSAPOINTED WITH THE FILM, THERE IS NO BODY & SOUL BOTH ARE MISSING.

RESULT=A WEEK MOVIE.

IMere seene mein nahi, to tere seene mein sahi ho kahin bhi aag lekin aag jalni ..(.that was the track in the movie)
 I expected a hero clenching and unclenhing fist with bloodshot eyes and shouting dialogues as powerful as " Yeh terah kilo ka haath jab......and shoutas like " ... Chadddha............. the movie as powerful and violent as Ghayal and Damini,,but it was a dissappointment ,

the hero when was furious , urinates on the persian rug of the minister. period. a Santoshis' movie is expected of seething rage, harsh language ,fury and pounding blood.. but it lacks all,Devgan all the time was almost brooding remains silent .the movie gives a feel of Deja-vu,, the scence sometimes reminds you of other mob-fury scences.

The story is of a successful action hero , Sameer Khan( Ajay Devgan), who with others witness the murder of a girl. He choose to remain silent since the murderers was very highly placed ( reminds me of Jessica lall).The sister of the girls provoke devgan to register the complain and when he did that it was Hero against the system, The plot also have a sub plot which is integrated seamlessly ,that of Pankaj Kapoor , as a retired ( is there a term like that) and transformed Dacoit. He performs street plays and thus Halla Bol.Devgan fights and than media and public  fights for the Insaaf.It was Halla Bol.

The preamble of the movie to establish devgan as a successful Hero is till interval, Initially movie goes in the direction of Page3 , by cynic potrayal of movie industry.

Vidya balans performance is below ok as her characterisation is very poor. Her dialogue delivery reminds me of Meena Kumari.

Pankaj Kapoor is out of this world ,, he is enigmatic and dynamic.

The movie is loosely based on the live of great nukkad drama founder Safdar hashmi.. guys i had seen him and his nukkad natak, to watch their drama is really an intense and powerful experience ,, but alas this movie lacks that charisma

The background score is very impressive and adds little aag to the scences

P.S: i know devgan loves scotch on the rocks.. but why to show all the time in the movie ( was it to give a macho image??)

overall rating 2.5, more fit a case for skipping the movie... i found that movie made too many references to too many things here and there... sometimes they looked childish, sometimes out of place, sometimes stuffed forcefully in movie... i had a similar feeling watching traffic signal... the movie tries to be sincere but at best it could only try that...

the movie is about a nukkad natak actor ajay who wants to be a movie star... pankaj kapur is his guru... vidya balan plays his love interest... he gets a chance to work in movies and is bigtime hit... but this changes his outlook and character... pankaj kapur leaves him and so do his parents... vidya and his relations also go bad... then one fine day he witnesses a murder in a high profile party (jessica lal anyone?)... and that changes his life, it haunts him initially and then he decides to go all against the standard politicians and business tycoons... he loses the court case but wins it through halla-bol from aam janta and help from his guru... a generation awakens but this time by halla bol and not candle light marchs... and definitely not as good as RDB...

overall acting wise, pankaj kapur is just awesome...  the way he delivers dialogues and his portrayal of the character, he is just too good, but has too little screen space... ajay has done decent job, vidya and rest of the cast is okay... the politician (darshan jariwala) and business tycoon (some idiot) are irritating... the over the board digging of actors endorsing brands is childish... music is okayish at best... raj kumar santoshi has failed to deliver what makes a national award winner this time... too bad for him, even worse for his and ajay's fans :-)...

my take, reasonably avoidable :-)... 

A powerfull performances by the cast like Ajay Devagan and Pankaj kapoor not to forget Vidya Ballan is worth watching. Raj Kumar Santoshi is a very tallanted director and it shows in the movie with strong story line backing the movie.definitely it will be a good movie to watch for those who wants something different and sensible.

the movie was superb but the acting was unforgattable this is a story carrying a gr8 message.

every one should must watch it.

Well, to be frank, this movie has pleased me as well as disappointed me. I don't know what Raj Kumar Santoshi was thinking while writing this movie, but he has certainly forgotten a few things in the first half. The depiction of the film industry and the functioning of politics just doesn't click. Casting couches are already shown in various places, so it's stupid to show them again. Politics, power, public and money go hand-in-hand. Does anyone need to tell us this? Frankly, Santoshi has just wasted the first half.

The movie actualy starts from the scene where Ashfaq a.k.a. Sameer (Ajay Devgan) remembers his past, his street plays, his real acting, his guru- Sidhu (Pankaj Kapur). After that scene, Santoshi doesn't look back. It's clearly a mob-stirrer from there. If you are not awakened after watching such scenes, then you are not a human. You are just a dead body, a money-earning machine.

The story goes like this: Sameer Khan a.k.a. Ashfaqullah Khan ( Ajay) is a small-town-actor-turned-top-rated-action-hero. He attends a party, where he sees a murder being commited (Resemblence to Jessica Lall murder case is very intentional ). He first stays quite as he does not want to tarnish the name he has earnt after struggling so much. It's very true. If you have earned something by working hard and toiling day and night for it, you wouldn't to lose it in a jiffy. But, after realising his duty as a public figure and some very powerful speech by Sidhu( Pankaj Kapur), he jumps into the arena against a politician and a liquir baron, whose sons have commited the crime. At first, he loses the case as an insider from the police is helping the criminals. But then, after help from Sidhu, he stages a street play and awakens the masses. What follows is sensation. Fight sequences, dialogues, drama and what not. Truly a film which deserves a National Award.

Pankaj Kapur essays one of the finest written roles in history. His dialogues are hard-hitting and his presence, very inspiring. " Agar khud ke badan pe chot lage to jaanvar bhi chillata hai, insaan woh hai jo doosron ke kaam aaye" is a line which has truly inspired me. Ajay Devgan essays his role perfectly. His performance in the second half reminds me of Sunny Deol's performance in Ghayal (another Santoshi film, a bench-mark for Hindi Cinema). Vidya Balan makes her presence felt in the film. She's got just one powerful dialogue, " He's (Ashfaq) got balls. He's got courage. Woh ek aisi ladki ki ladai lad raha hai jise woh jaanta tak nahi..."

The script makes scathing remarks on the Khans- Aamir, Salman and Shahrukh. But that's called 'Creative Freedom' something for which SRK is rallying now-a-days. Santoshi does an awe-some job in the second half, but disappoints in the first half. But whatever happens, please do continue making such movies, Santoshi sir.

And now the most important thing........

I LOVE YOU, VIDYA BALAN.... 

 hi i m dhavalkhunt.

i saw this movie before i came in u.s.a.

i love this movie.

here when i feel confuse, alonness, I see this movie.

it gives me spirit to face difficulties.