Bollywood Trailer Talk: SEPTEMBER 2015 – Sequels, Remakes, Youthful Originality & The Usual Objectification

Bollywood has a kind of busy month. The year end approaches and some of the biggest Bollywood blockbusters are easing themselves out of the gate. With some big names and some more surprisingly no name films out this month, it’s a mixed bag of surprised and shocks.

So without much ado, let’s take a look at what Bollywood has to offer in September 2015. Stick around to let me know which movie you’re most excited for this month.

WELCOME BACK (September 4th, 2015) 

After a successful hit in 2007 with ‘Welcome’ the entire team returns with a sequel that is the epitome of slapping a follow up to a box office success for the money. The one absence in ‘Welcome Back‘ is Akshay Kumar, being replaced by John Abraham, in another silly mad cap adventure. The trailer features the same old formulaic elements of the movie as the first film, with a different twist on the characters.

Even though the movie is a direct sequel with the same cast of characters, new characters have been written in haphazardly as relative of the originals, with only a throwaway line to explain their presence. This immediately cheapens the premise of the movie, and is another installment in the trend of sequels in Bollywood that make no sequential sense.

HERO (September 11th, 2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B5pRrXWFkI

A remake of a Bollywood movie which launches the careers of two star kids, ‘Hero’ sees a romantice love story set against a mob-police drama. The story and performance seem nothing impresive, but the directorial skill of Nikhil Advani (‘D-Day‘) makes the film a lot more impressive than at first glance.

Check out my in depth feature for ‘Hero’ the film here.

THE PERFECT GIRL – EK SIMPLE SI LOVE STORY (September 11th, 2015)

Written and Directed by Prakash Nambiar, the man responsible for the cartoon versions of Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherji in the 2004 hit ‘Hum Tum‘, he debuts his own film with ‘The Perfect Girl’. The story, featuring mostly debutants, sees an incomplete love story a couple who meet and spend the day together. Their chance encounter and the subsequent end, leaves the man in shambles for the next 14 years, until he decides to go find her and pursue his love story.

A movie that can only be described as taking every Bollywood trope and enhancing them to even more unrealistic standards, ‘The Perfect Girl’ attempts to create a believable ‘love story’ ridden with cliches (like having long hair for a man is a sign of not having his live together) and an even more fantastical concept of relationships that stretch suspension of disbelief to unimaginable limits.

KATTI BATTI (September 18th, 2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a23GO0NXOtg 

Nikhil Advani has two releases this month. After ‘Hero‘, it’s ‘Katti Batti‘, which many have commented look similar to a Bollywood remake of ‘500 Days Of Summer‘. While nothing has been confirmed regarding the nature of this movie, the Trailers and synopsis do make it sound very similar to the Marc Webb directed sleeper hit. Both male characters are architects, the story features a live in relationship between a couple, that aprubtly ends when the girl no longer wants to commit. The Trailer even begins in the same manner as the Hollywood movie, stating that ‘this isn’t a love story, and ‘Katti Batti‘ is being touted as being an ‘anti-love story’.

Similarities aside, ‘Katti Batti‘ is an important film in the career of Kangana Ranaut, who’s had a great year with movies like ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns‘, and still riding on her success from 2014’s ‘Queen‘. The actress will have a chance to prove if those were isolated flukes, or if she can be considered a fully bankable actress in Bollywood now.

MEERUTHIYA GANGSTERS (September 18th, 2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kamXBKVctrg 

From the co-writer of one of the most influencial gangster movies in Bollywood in the last decade, comes ‘Meeruthiya Gangsters‘, a story about 6 youth turned kidnappers in a small town of India. Based on reall world events, the story focuses on the real life incident of extortion from kidnapping and how it affects the lives of these 6 characters. Directed by Zeishan Quadri, who was last seen as Definite in Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur‘, which he also co-wrote.

While the Trailer seems like an odd mish mash of genres and one liners, the movie is worth a watch given the involvement of the makers and that it’s a local story directed by someone who grew up in the exact same locality as well. A low budget gangster comedy make turn out to be more interesting than first glance suggests.

MSG-2 THE MESSENGER (September 18th, 2015)

The amazing, ( I use that word loosely, and satirically) film ‘MSG’, created ripples in Bollywood for it’s loud and critically embarassing effect during release. A story that can only vaguely be described as the war of a religious leader against the perils of society, ‘MSG‘ will now have a sequel, on the same year as it’s first theatrical release, that has the same character bringing the word of God to tribals in India. Or so it seems.

It’s hard to accurately grasp the logic or intention of this movie, as it’s just a lot of scenes of dated special effects, amateur acting and even worst production values.

BHAAG JOHNNY (September 25th, 2015)

Kunal Khemu is one of those actors who are very likeable on screen, but has a hard time leading a movie on his own. This seems the case with another attempted thriller from the Bhatt camp. The movie shows a flirtatious Casanova, whose womanizing gets him in trouble after he is blackmailed into murder. The film revolves around how this Casanova’s charms may not be enough for him to get out of this one unique situation.

The Trailer isn’t clear if this is a science fiction, fantasy thriller or not. The narrative of the movie is seen to be splitting into two directions based on a choice made by Khemu’s characters, but none of the narration or dialogue provides any insight into if this is a dream sequence, or actually occuring within the story of the film. Time will tell when ‘Bhaag Johnny’ releases later this month.

CALENDER GIRLS (September 25th, 2015)

Known for his female orientated stories in film, before that concept became a trend or was even coined, Madhur Bhandarkar returns with yet another all female story, but one that seems less progressive than his usual films. Following the lives of a few regional characters from all over India who have been selected as Cover Girls for a Calender, the movie shows their lives as they are thrust into the limelight, for the good and bad that comes with it.

While most of Bhandarkar’s films follow a typical formula, ‘Calender Girls‘ seems the most unnecessaily gratuitious one of them all. The movie features mostly unknown actresses, and promises a lot more skin and sultry songs than Bhandarkar is usualy associated with. One wonders if this movie is just another attempt at mysogny under the guide of a progressive female film.

KIS KISKO PYAAR KAROON (September 25th, 2015)

Comedian Kapil Sharma debuts with his first feature film. Sadly, it’s yet another Bollywood movie that glorifies infidelity while undermining the concept of monogamy in a marriage. Sharma plays a man married to 3 different women in the same apartment building, but living on different floors, and all the apparently highlarity that ensues as a result of it. Sharma delivers strong comedic lines in the Trailer, however, the premise is a little disrespectful and undermining to be taken serious. Even more surprisingly, the film is directed by notable action and thriller directors, Abbas Mastaan.

TIMEOUT (September 25th 2015)

A fresh and innovatively endearing youth drama is what ‘Timeout’ seems to be all about. An independent film being presented by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures is written and directed by debutant writer / director Rikhil Bahadur, who seems to have a pretty good grasp on the minds of today’s youth. What’s impressive is that the film seems to be devoid of the typical Bollywood cliches of what constitutes a ‘youthful movie’, such as club songs, promiscuous teens, cheesy sex jokes and an overall gaudy vibe. ‘Timeout’ comes across as a more honest and eager look into the lives of various young kids, and the issues they have to deal with from a more realistic approach.

Definitely worth a look!

So that’s it for all the Bollywood movies releasing in September 2015. Let me know which movie you’re most excited for this month.

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