Gunday review:

Rebels/ outlaws made for some classic films in the 70s - Deewaar, Sholay, Kaala Patthar, Laawaris to name a few. These movies worked primarily due to the brooding intensity and swag of Mr. Amitabh Bachchan plus his cracking on-screen camaraderie with co-stars like Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna etc.

Gunday has its plot and intent right. Its a classic 70s set up. But then.. neither is Ranveer Singh an Amitabh nor is Arjun Kapoor a Dharmendra or Vinod to pull off this kinda no brainer actioner. Priyanka Chopra,in various state of undress, has little scope to perform in her half baked role. Finally, Gunday doesn't even pass muster as an ode to 70s Bollywood. Skip it.

Regards, Sumeet Nadkarni.

Once again a movie that was worth waiting as everything about it was superb. For me it was the ultimate action movie to see Arjun Kapoor of Ishaqzaade fame who has that intensity in his eyes and Ranveer Singh in an excellent phase of his career with Irrfan Khan who always selects his roles in movies according to the script. Add to all these the superb music of Sohail Sen, who has pulled off a brilliant musical album.

Set in 1971, Calcutta, two childhood friends Vikram & Bala fighting the odds where they were separated from each other in 1971 Bangladesh liberation, and then gradually developing to local Gundeys as usual blaming the system and law for the same. The movie starts off in grand style with the enthusiastic Jashn-e-Ishqa which is shot lavishly. Priyanka Chopra also had an interesting introduction where she bumped into both the male leads in a gents toilet in a hilarious conversation which may sparkle some laughs. And also a beautiful scene in the fish market where some old songs were playing in the background was a good one. Irrfan Khan was casted as a superbly intelligent cop who was given the duty to bring Vikram and Bala to terms. But he relied more on other factors to break Vikram & Bala's unity rather than his intelligence, helplessly, which can't be disclosed as it will reveal the twist of the plot.

The major problem with "Gunday" is haphazard writing with some predictable twists which we have seen regularly. The characters were written in such idiotic style they never had a feel of themselves in the story. Both the Gundays were just busy showing their romancing skills with Priyanka and between themselves which lacked the spark.

I mean to say you will not fear them as Gundays they were more so like jokers. Remember a scene in Gangs Of Wasseypur where the character Faisal Khan cut off the head of his friend and hung it outside his house to invoke fear in the minds of people and to show that he has arrived.That was a different master class movie after all and this is a commercial one but no instances of cruelty was shown by the Gundays, so that we could believe that they are the real Gundays.

Irrfan Khan in a short role has done the best work as usual but it is still hard to understand why did he signed the movie as he is very selective in his approach? In the climax scene where he asks Arjun Kapoor to surrender really the direction couldn't even spare him from looking awful.

The story never grips you as an audience and therefore the movie appears long and boring. Direction by Ali Abbas Zaffar is extremely ordinary, and shall compete with Vijay Krishna Acharya's Dhoom 3 for the worst direction. Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor have some sort of chemistry between them but that is not enough for a 2hr 34minute long movie. Also add to it a disgusting scene where Priyanka Chopra dances in front of the single screen theater to Sridevi's Mr India movie song which invokes a fight between Arjun Kapoor and one of the side actors.

Gunday had everything in it's favor a superb promo, foot tapping music, excellent star cast, solid dialogs but it unfortunately suffered with it's messy direction.Tons and tons of slow motion action scenes makes you restless in your seats.

I wonder the fabulous dialogs would have worked like a magical spell if only the movie had some substance in it. This movie could have been so much better if at all some research had been done in making a better scripted film, but that was not the case. Dialogues like these would create some whistles, clapping and superb song sequences will make a time pass but that does not even make the movie an average watch. Go in with standard expectation yet there is a chance you may come out disappointed, and of course that will depend on your personal choices.. Irrespective of what the movie is but Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh both have acted well and surely to look out for in the near future..

Just like the title said. Are we sucker for entertainment only? Do we have any appreciation for the past or history? I don't think so. Why is that? This film humiliated the history of Bangladeshi Liberation War. Yet people from India who actually watched movie they failed to notice it or even if they did chose to ignore it. We don't care about true history. We care more about how the background or choreography etc was.

Under the entertainment banner lots of movies are bending the history the way they like it or the way they think viewers will like it.This movie is a blazing example of that.

Because of fabricating history to please the mass for business purpose I am giving this movie 1/10.