Stupid 7

Stupid 7

Never judge a book by its cover,Same apply to stupid 7
Seven teenagers,with a group called stupid seven,all seven dealing with day to day life problems,mostly about generation gap,parents pressure,religious matters,drugs,dreams,negligence,discrimination,failure in studies to failure of school authorities too,Pali Bhupinder Singh managed to bring lot of matters in one film,and he successfully build the characters around,with only one or two weak elements(crush on teacher,single parent).Its his theatre backround which saved the film from going into over the top zone,since situations are over the top at times,and with not power house of talent,it could have fell flat at most of the parts,but full marks to director for taking care of every dept,but stupid 7 can never be called,punjabi cinema's answer to three idiots or taare zameen par,but at the same time stupid 7 having power to make you emotional at some scenes.Music is biggest low point of the film,with a film like this one expect to have at least one youthful number,be it energic or soulful.
Performances are taken care of,and as mentioned above full marks to director for it.Jaswinder Bhalla is at his best,quite a different role for Guggu Gill and he is perfect,Arjuna Bhalla should get more punjabi film offers,she was great in whatever she got to do,Razia Sukhbir was passable,rest of actors too played their part easily and badly as well.

Stupid 7,could have clicked with audience if promoted with better vision and surely with a better title.Considering it had small budget,it could have fetch good numbers.(i mean you are taking seven teenagers to different corners,and promoting a bad musical song,and expecting audience to watch your film,it only give the film a c grade look..promos should have been impressive.Beside that use of hindi language is bit too much(specially the dialogues between single parent n her daughter)

watch it for its Great Concept,some one liners,emotions and Jaswinder Bhalla.

Lucky Di Unlucky Story

LDUS is punjabi cinema's answer to No Entry,and I guess it says it all about the film.Not going into the details with plot,its about three married men and their single friend,getting in troubles.On paper with just base idea it may look just an ordinary concept,but thanks to great punches and one liners to funny situations,Lucky Di Unlucky Story went on high and high,with only low part of extra importance to songs(same was case with Carry On Jatta).

Full marks to all the four actors gippy,ghuggi,binu and bhalla for portraying their parts with perfection,perfect cast with perfect chemistry.The way their characters are it could have gone wrong,with felling into sleazy characterization,naughty but not dirty.Gippy might be lead,but of course it's other three actors who stands next to him and even surpass him,would be wrong to single out one and praise more than the other.

It was nice to watch sameep kang on screen after long time,his character adds extra strength to the film,Ditto about Karamjit Anmol.Surveen Chawla played her part of a routine heroine perfectly,but of course it's men's show.Other girl called Samiksha did well as well.Jacie Shroff appeared in a thankless cameo,seriously any actor from punjabi reign could have done this role,As its not upto the mark for an actor of his calibre.Roshan Prince did very good job in his small part,considering his previous work,it's his best performance.

As mentioned punjabi cinema's answer to No Entry,but while one may like to skip some parts of No Entry,Lucky Di Unlucky Story is not just one time watch,it's having repeat value,same cant be said about many Hindi comedy films,and credit goes to Sameep Kang,he and his writer(this actor who played Jacie's son) really did very good job.At same time just thinking how Sameep Ji gained so much weight,hopefully he is in good spirits...Parmatma ohna nu Chadhdiyan Kala ch rakhe.

Anhe Ghode Da Daan

Based on Gurdial Singh's novel,plus three national awards,you expect nothing less from the movie,but what appear on screen is something,killing all your expectations.Our audience is not intelligent enough to understand things,which are not shown on screen,you can't take audience for granted and expect that they will guess things and proceedings on their own.

Film is about rich landlords selling their lands,and it left daily bases poor farm labour in lurch.But no single point was mentioned that what is going on,everything is left for audience to imagine.The very first scene,whole village is in dilemma over land issues,but it made to look like as someone passed away.In the very next scene police took the old man in their jeep,I wonder why,his house is demolished,if its to spread fear among others,well I could guess,I wonder how many will be able to.
Oh than we have daughter in law coming from nowhere to meet his in laws in village,for next fifteen minutes I felt that the guy she is with,might be her husband,its only revealed when he address her as sister.What she came for in all this atmosphere of tension,and leaving soon after for city meeting a random guest and disappeared without providing much to the story.

Next we got to know about riskshaw puller who is son of main Dalit Protagonist,He wander here and there in streets at his rikshaw(since there is strike of rikshawwalas).Long scenes in which characters took too long to take next step,look like as Gurwinder(dir) wanted to teach that how to tie turban,Less words,more Camera Work,it's something not attempted in punjabi films,but one can't praise just because its national award winner film or based on famous novel,coz treatment was not something it should be.Film ends with father being out of work heads for city,while his son is back to village.No Idea where is daughter in law,and no idea where daughter of the family is heading too in late night...

Anhe Ghore Da Daan could have got more attention if it was not left for imagination.Even some of Shyam Banegal's earlier films were left for audience to understand with also some long pause scenes etc,but that was some thirty fourth years back,audience is ready for experimental cinema,but not something made totally on the concept of art,failing to deliver entertainment(even its fine),but no message either.


Since family is shown as Dalit Sikh,how one of lead could be shown as lighting beedi,of course many might be smoking,but why taking such liberty to show it on screen.All actors performed well,camera work is great,and also the backround sound is perfect,it's cinematic experience,but sadly when it come to full fledged script,it failed to deliver.Earlier in past many punjabi Seriels were made on punjabi novels,and were remarkable,but as a film on this subject it just failed.Disappointing it as,but still some scenes with dialogues work very well,that too specially scenes featuring female actors,be it actress(Singh vs kaur fame tayi)'s outburst,or lead character's wife or daughter's dialogues.

Jatt Te Zameen(1989)

Punjabi Cinema already started going down by late 80s,with only Veerendra trying to uplift it with quality projects,Actors who were being hired from Bollywood,were no more interested in doing punjabi films because of terrorism.Jatt Te Zameen was last directorial project of Veerendra,as he was killed while shooting for the film.Though I was young kid,but still remember the crowd outside Sangeet Cinema(Ludhiana),when It released.Later on when out on Video Cassate,at most of family get togethers,Jatt te Zameen was played mostly.

Jatt te Zameen is about Jatt's relation with its soil and land,as the very first credit song describe(Hundi hai Zameen jind jaan Jatt di).Story moved ahead with land mafia(Yograi,Guggu,Sukhjinder) taking over land of helpless widow Sangeeta Mehta,and Veerendra and Sukhjinder Shera came to her rescue.
Jatt Te Jameen is a cult classic,with being true to its content with major aim of providing entertainment to the audience.Unlike many other punjabi films of 80s Jatt Te Zameen is not regular revenge drama.
In some ways Jatt Te Zameen was an experimental film,with Veerendra just took popular music and utilized it in film,and it became a trend to took songs from popular albums.Film had no major stars except Veerendra and Mehar Mittal.Sukhjinder Shera,Yograj and Guggu Gill etc were all new and raw at that time.Jatt te Zameen was also one of first punjabi action film,which presented its one of male lead as Sardar(before that majority of Actors in Sardar getup were shown as main lead in religios films mainly)Veerendra delivered a good performance,and took care of all dept he was involved with direction,writing and producton in the film.Sukhjinder Shera's performance is not something to rave about,but still its remarkable.I believe Jatt te Jameen is one of Guggu Gill's very first positive character,and he gave an honest performance.Yograj Singh is show stealer,with his one liner jeeta jeeta jeeta,jihne mera lahu peeta becoming very popular,and established him as villain.Actress Manpreet Kaur played lead opposite Veerendra,I m not able to find if she did any film before,as other lead Suman Dutta(punjabi singer) was credited as debut,but Kaur was not.I heard when Veerendra was shot,she was also injured,might be the reason she left films right after that,but she was excellent in her part.Suman Dutta looked beautiful and did well.Sangeeta Mehta's scenes were high point of the film,specially her scenes with Yograj Singh.Mehar Mittal was in his usual form.Jatt te Zameen might be not as popular as Veerendra's other films,but its one of his best..