LOFER : Movie Review

Typical masala entertainers are the hot properties for the Bhojpuri cinema industry these days. Produced by Monika Sinha and Sanjay Sinha and directed by Ravi Sinha, LOFER is the new addition to the list. The film boasts of an impressive star cast Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirahua’, Pakhi Hegde, Monalisa and Awadhesh Mishra. Does the movie justify the talents of such an impressive and much talked about team? Does it make the audience satisfied when they leave the cinema halls?

LOFER is the story of Arjun Singh(Dinesh Lal Yadav), her wife(Monalisa) and her two children who make a happy family together. Mahendra Singh (Awadhesh Mishra) and his son Virendra Singh are the two relatives of Arjun who have an eye on the money and properties of Arjun. The story takes a turn when Pooja is killed by the hooligans sent by Mahendra Singh. Now enters Disco Rani(Pakhi Hegde), who is a spy of Mahendra Singh in Arjun’s house, but slowly turns into Arjun’s loyal owing to the love shared between her and the two kids. Agitated by Rani’s turnover, Mahendra Singh gets Arjun killed and now intends to kill the kids. There enters Shankar (Dinesh Lal Yadav), look alike of Arjun who is then contracted to save the kids and Rani. But when he comes to know the truth, he agrees to save the kids without any money. How he succeeds in saving the kids forms the rest of the story.

The movie sets itself quite impressively in the first 15 minutes of the start. The confrontation between Nirahua and Awadhesh is very strongly presented and makes the audience excited with the going on. But, the pace of the movie slackens afterwards and the attention is drawn more towards the songs and comedy. The first 35 minutes of the movie consist of 4 songs, which hardly make the story to proceed. But the second hour of the movie engages the audience again with the murder of Monalisa and the entry of Pakhi to the home. In fact, the scenes after Pakhi enters the screen take the movie to a new high and the post interval part is highly anticipitated. The post interval part starts off well and with the introduction of Arjun’s look alike, the movie goes impressively. The scene where Nirahua copies Amitabh Bachhan of Amar Akbar Anthony, is humorous and will be appreciated.

The movie’s main drawback lies in its length. The first half is really long drawn and affects adversely to the pace of this 2.45 hrs long movie. The movie could have been done without two or three songs, for the sake of its pace. The “Gajodhar Bhayya” scenes are entertaining but they really have no connection with the movie.

Direction-wise, Ravi Sinha looks a little bit confused as how to go along with the script, as the script seems to be a concatenation of some hindi movies, to be said mildly. The cinematography is not quite up to the mark. Music by Rajesh Rajneesh is hummable. “Ae ram ji” and “Pyar Kare” are pick of the lot. Choreography is routine, though it must be said that choreography of the song “Kothariya Mein” was awful.

Acting wise, Dinesh Lal Yadav is good while playing the role of Shankar, the look alike. He looks convincing while playing the role of the lofer, and his part of dialogues in the second half will bring the house down. Pakhi Hegde is the show stealer, to say the least. Playing the role which had some grey shades, she performs beautifully. Her confrontations with Awadhesh Mishra in the first half deserve special mention. Monalisa does not have a full fledged role but she does well to play her part. Awadhesh Mishra suffers mainly due to sloppy characterization though he delivers well. But he must take care that he does not repeat himself. The rest of the cast are strictly okay. It will be a pleasant experience to watch Durga Prasad Mazumdar DADA and Rajkumar R. Pandey sharing the screen with Nirahua for a while.

On the whole, LOFER is the masala entertainer that will provide entertainment to the audience in bits and spurts. The length of the movie is a major hurdle in its going on. As per box office, the movie has got to a good initial owing to the star quotient of Nirahua and Pakhi Hegde, but its prospects will narrow down as the week progress and moreover, new Bhojpuri movies are in the line to be released.

Aakhiri Rasta : Movie review

A still from Akhiri Rasta (Dinesh Lal Yadav)

Produced by KS Saibaba and directed by G.Subbarao, Aakhiri Rasta is the first movie released in 2011. Starring some big names like Dinesh Lal Yadav, Pakkhi Hegde, Monalisa and Rinku Ghosh, there is a lot to be expected from this movie. But does this film really deliver?

The story of the film revolves around Deva who works as a bodyguard to Raghuveer Singh, who has rivalry with Bhagwan Dada who has an eye on his wealth. Deva is supposed to save her granddaughter Rani from Bhagwaan Dada and in series of events, arrogant Rani Falls in love with him. There is also Bindu, the maid of the house who also loves Deva. 

One day, Raghuveer and Rani come to know about the identity of Deva and about his past, when he shots Sadhu Shukla in a market. Deva happens to be a police officer who had lost his wife owing to the rivalry between him and Sadhu Shukla. He left his brother(who is also the head of the village) and sister in law so that he could find some peace and forget her wife. How Deva manages to rescue Raghuveer, Rani, his brother and sister in law from the hands of Bhagwan Dada forms the crux of the story.

The story moves at a very slow pace in the first half, and the scenes between Dinesh and Monalisa are too forgettable. In fact these scenes have nothing to do with the story and have been shot just to intimate the audience. Previously, we used to have double meaning dialogues and other stuffs which the makers used to woo the audience but this time around, there is no such shyness. If you are trying to make a family entertainer suitable for all ages, this is not the right stuff. In fact, these scenes will only encourage the people who are trying to prove that there is vulgarity in Bhojpuri movies. 

Post-interval, there are plenty of entertaining scenes which makes the audience glued to their seats. However, it must be said that post interval portions are long drawn and should have been edited to make the pace brisk.

Frankly speaking, the script has nothing new to offer. It has no novelty whatsoever. In fact it proves the fact that was anticipated while watching the promos of this movie; the movie is a south Indian movie remake and has not been developed as per the Bhojpuri taste. 

Dinesh Lal Yadav impresses. He gets ample chances to showcase his talent and he fulfills the expectations. Pakkhi Hegde is natural, though she overacts in some scenes. Rinku Ghosh is the best of the lot. She proves herself a worthy actress. Monalisa gets the most absurd role in the movie. It's hard to guess why she accepted this role. She is in the movie only for the skin show and titillation. 

Manoj Tiger entertains. In fact, scenes which involve him and Gautam Raju, are the most entertaining part of the movie. Satyaprakash tries hard to look like an evil villain but he hardly impresses. P.D.Raj irritates. 

Direction (G.Subbarao) is ok, though there was a lot expected. Just like the script, the music (Rajesh –Rajneesh) offers no novelty. It's a bag of same old tunes which have been used umpteen numbers of times. Action (Venkat) is good. Editing should have been tighter.

On the whole, Aakhiri Rasta is a movie that delivers less than what was expected from this movie. Yes, there are enjoyable moments in the movie but those are simply not enough to entertain the audience in this 2 hours 50 minutes long movie. Business-wise, the movie has opened to full houses owing to the face value and will finally prove beneficial for the distributors.