Official Thread ••• Naam Shabana ••• Taapasee Pannu ✫ PrithviRaj ✫ Akshay Kumar ✫ Shivam nair ✫ 25 cr - 6 Days

Naam Shabana Review: As Good As Baby, Naam Shabana Grips You!

For a superstar who gallantly steps back to let the female hero of this gripping-from-the-word- go thriller, take centrestage it is ratherunchivalrous of Akshay Kumar to be billed in the end-titles before the awesome Tapsee Pannu.

She rules the bustling intrigue-filled universe of this film.

After Pink Tapsee , God bless her scintillating soul, is again in startling form as Shabana Khan an ordinary girl with extraordinary resilience who, when pushed into a corner, hits back. Hits back really hard.

The thing about Tapsee is, she is never caught acting.I could only see this steel-willed imperturbable spunky girl on screen. Shabana is seen to live in a crowded Muslim locality of Delhi, shot by cameramanSudhir Palsane with rigorous authenticity. As Shabana strides across the screen with a confidence that comes from a place opposite to emotional/economic security we sometimes catch passersby staring at her. This could be gawkers looking at Tapsee. Or Shabana’s neighbours watching her in admiration.

Naam Shabana takes the risk of exposing itself to crowds. A lot of the gripping narrative unfolds on crowded streets . Director Shivum Nair cuts the scenes in motions of anguished urgency where we at once sense the protagonist’s need to avenge the wrongs done to her in the past and in the immediate here-and-now.

Naam Shabana constantly runs on two levels. The backstory to the espionage drama is bolstered by the heroine’s constant wrestle with her conscience. Shabana wants to let us into her feelings. But the minute we accept her invitation, she clams up.Tapsee plays this introvert with a compelling combination of reticence and transparency.

It is a remarkable performance . But then this is a remarkable film. The two halves of the narrative are almost like two different films, both equally irresistible. But constructed under differing circumstances. The first half is devoted to building a relationship for the loner heroine with a boy(Taher Mithaiwala) who won’t take no for an answer, and then dismantling her hope for love . The second-half constructs a brisk bracing spy thriller with Malayalam star PrithviRaj pitching in a gritty menacing turn as a nasty international villain.It is here that the action explodes on the screen with optimum impact.

It all comes together in ways that are both unexpected and satisfying with Manoj Bajpai playing the mouthpiece of a faceless governmental organization that recruits spunky fearless youngsters to fight battles that cannot be fought legally . I wish the scenes featuringBajapai and Pannu were fleshed out with more fury and lesssardonicism.In what could possibly be the most revealing dialogue on the Islamic identity in times of terrorism,Bajpai explains to Tapsee’sShabana Khan how her Muslim identity can be helpful in infiltrating restricted areas of counter-constitutional activity.

The scenes are cleverly written and Akshay Kumar’s extended cameo is a sure-shot crowdpleaser. The film also has some savagely funnymoments . At one point when that very fine actor Zakir Hussain is spying on a bikini-clad woman while holding back his urge to pee, he exclaims his organ has grown “confused”.

Providentially Naam Shabana, for all its intricate twists and turns, remains almost entirely bereft of any confusion. It is a lucid and tightly-wound piece of cinema with a central performance that is pitch –perfect and freed of gimmicky shots at militant feminism.I wish director Shivum Nair who reveals such an explosive flair for fusing personal and political statements would have avoided the club songs that come on at points where we can almost hear the makers telling one another, ‘Yahan pe thoda relief daal do.”

But there is no need. Naam Shabana is a film of rude awakening, reminding us how much maturity in vision treatment execution and the performances a film can achieve provided it stops looking for reasons to make audiences happy.Watching this film is a joy, although nothing really happy happens to Shabana. We are just happy that she can fight her own battles even when the odds are stacked skyhighagainst her.

(Preview show already over)

 

Movie Review: Naam Shabana
Review by Bollywood Hungama News Network

This year, Bollywood has seen a number of sequels release at the box-office. However, this week’s release NAAM SHABANA is not a sequel, but a prequel to the hit film BABY. Will NAAM SHABANA live upto the expectations at the box-office or not, let’s analyse.

NAAM SHABANA is a thriller that mirrors the private life of a secret agent and the drama and action that is associated with it. The film starts off with broad daylight murders of two secret agents. This is followed by the introduction of the ‘tit-for-tat’ natured Shabana Khan (Taapsee Pannu), who lives with her mother in the bylanes of Mumbai. Upon the insistence of her boyfriend Jai (Taher Shabbir Mithaiwala), Shabana reveals her disturbed past life wherein she was jailed by the juvenile court for killing her alcoholic and abusive father. One day, when Shabana becomes a victim of eve-teasing by handful of ‘well connected’ guys, Jai gets killed in the bargain. After knowing that the police is deliberately delaying the case to protect Jai’s killers, a frustrated Shabana gets an uncalled for help from Ranveer (Manoj Bajpayee), who promises to help her but on one condition that she joins the agency (RAW). The story then shifts to the rich locales of Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), where resides Tony aka Michael (Prithviraj Sukumaran), the undisputed king of nefarious activities like arms supply, drugs and flesh trade. It is here Shabana meets Ajay Singh Rajput (Akshay Kumar) and Om Prakash Shukla (Anupam Kher) to help her in the mission. What was the deal that Ranveer had struck with Shabana, does she become successful in avenging the death of her boyfriend, what was the reason for which Shabana gets transported to Malaysia and in what way Ajay Singh Rajput and Om Prakash Shukla help her on foreign shores is what forms the rest of the film.

When NAAM SHABANA’s promos were released, even though it gave the viewers few flashes of its sequel BABY, it became successful in establishing its own identity. However, when it comes to the film, it is the writing that plays a bit of a spoilsport. The film’s screenplay (Neeraj Pandey) is such that the first and the second half come across as two different films altogether. So as a viewer, one doesn’t see much of a connect between the pre and post interval parts. In addition to that, the film’s screenplay fails to create that edge of the seat thrill that one expects from a film like this. Besides, NAAM SHABANA also has some jarring loopholes and cinematic liberties for which one can only blame Neeraj’s writing.

After having directed films like AHISTA AHISTA, MAHARATHI and BHAAG JOHNNY, a film like NAAM SHABANA was a very promising project from the director. Shivam Nair surely does a decent job in directing the thriller film but it’s the weak and disjointed screenplay that acts as a spoilsport. As mentioned earlier, the film enjoys a lot of cinematic liberties. The final ‘execution plan’ shown in the film comes across as extremely convenient. It just does not have any kind of shocking or thrilling or surprise element, which one expects from a film of this genre. As the film progresses into the second half, it starts becoming very predictable. All of this just does not take away the fact that, as compared to his earlier films, Shivam Nair has improved by leaps and bounds as a filmmaker with NAAM SHABANA.

The film’s first half wins you over completely. Those who have seen BABY will see many of the situations being simply recreated and repeated in NAAM SHABANA. If that wasn’t enough, the songs also act as spoilsport at regular intervals. The film does have its own set of flaws and shortcoming in the form of the film’s villain giving out his masterplan to the protagonists without much ado.

As for the performances, it’s the immaculate and spotless performance of Taapsee Pannu who steals the show. Taapsee Pannu, who impressed one and all with her performance in PINK, does a brilliant job once again in NAAM SHABANA. Be it emotional or action scenes, Tapsee shows how talented she is. It won’t be wrong to say that her portrayal of a headstrong and confident girl in the film comes across as one of her finest performances till date. She is followed by the brilliant performance by the extremely versatile Manoj Bajpayee, who, as always, delivers what was expected of him. The veteran actor Virendra Saxena is as impressive as the rest of the film’s characters like Anupam Kher and Danny Dengongpa. The shocking aspect of the film is that Akshay Kumar, who is one of the biggest and most talented stars in the country does get much to do in the film due to its limited script. His character at times looks forced into the film’s narrative. Even though he gets credited as a ‘special appearance’ in the film’s credits, one does feel that his character appears for quite a long time in the second half. After having made his debut as a hero in AIYYAA (with Rani Mukerji), the southern star Prithviraj Sukumaran did AURANGZEB in 2013. After a gap of 3 years, he returns to Bollywood with a negative character in NAAM SHABANA. He remains extremely true to his character and his role requirement to look menacing in the film.

The film’s music (Rochak Kohli, Meet Bros) is average with no chartbuster tracks to boast about. On the other hand, the film’s background score (Sanjoy Chaudhury) is decent, which is in sync with the film’s narrative. The film’s action (Cyril Raffaelli, Abbas Ali Mughal) is decent.

The film's cinematography (Sudheer Palsane) is praiseworthy. The way in which he has shot the bylanes of Mumbai is really worth a mention. The film's editing (Praveen Kathikuloth) is decent.

On the whole, NAAM SHABANA is a well-made thriller with two contrasting storylines in the film’s two halves playing the spoilsport. However, given the strong brand value of BABY, decent interest quotient and lack of opposition at the Box-Office, will work out to be a huge advantage for the film. At the Box-Office, it will do decent to good business.

- See more at: http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movie/naam-shabana/critic-review/#sthash.SYVa5m2z.dpuf

 

Umair Sandhu‏ @sandhumerry
Saw #NaamShabana at UAE Censor Board ! A Seat Edge Thriller with Power Packed Performances, Terrific Story, Action Stunts & Direction.

 

Deepshikha DDeshmukh‏Verified account @honeybhagnani 2h2 hours ago


Just watched #NaamShabana sooo sooooo proud of @taapsee What a powerful performer &@akshaykumar @AnupamPkher top notch as always #GoWatch