Movie Review: Not all that Bad - maash Company

Genre: Action/ Crime/ Comedy
Starring: Shahid Kapur, Anushka Sharma, Meiyang Chang and Vir Das

I know this review comes in late but for those of you who have avoided this movie, based on the blasting it got from the critics (read Masand, Anuradha and Co.), I do believe that the movie's not all that bad as they've made it sound.

What's really done this movie in, is the way it has been publicised. I think the teasers and trailers before the movie gave the wrong idea and expectations were sky high before people walked into the movie hall. When one reads the tagline say 'They did all the wrong things....the right way!!' the images the mind conjures up are those of an Ocean-like crew (read Oceans 11) who's got it all figured out and is able to pull off smart heists and get away with it all. On that count, the movie certainly doesn't deliver.Far from it...

Its your average movie with a simple plot line..a boy genius who comes up with an idea to make money by using loopholes in the system and is able to pull it off with the help of his close friends. Once the idea works they replicate the same idea over and over again to make a lot of money...until the success goes to the boy-genius's head and he starts considering himself better and bigger than his friends..its not a novel plot line but it has been executed stylishly and in a manner where u don't impatiently look at the watch and wonder how much of this you would need to endure further..the first half passes in quite a breeze and though the second half tends to drag a tad too long, the movie has its heart in the right place. The transformation of the boy-genius (played by Shahid Kapoor) from a sincere yet ambitious lad to an arrogant and rude guy is nicely done. Each of the characters in the story are well crafted and given adequate screen time to be understood by the audience. The heist itself though is not highly convincing and seems a little too easy to pull off. One disappointing factor is that there are no major twists and turns as the story develops which is characteristic of such heist movies. Another disappointment is the practical absence of humor (another critical ingredient of such movies) other than one scene in the beginning which is guaranteed to have you burst out laughing.

Decent performance by Shahid Kapoor who takes up most of the screen time and the supporting actors also play their part well. All in all a fairly watchable film but strictly a one-time watch