Woodstock Villa Review
Film: Woodstock Villa; Cast: Sikandar, Neha Oberoi, Shakti Kapoor, Sachin Khedekar, Dayashankar Pande, Gaurav Gera, Gulshan Grover, Sanjay Dutt, Anupama Verma (Guest appearance); Director: Hansal Mehta; Rating ***
It's Sanjay Gupta again and it's again his incessant energy and nonpareil endeavour to make something different. And it's much waited Woodstock Villa which is now on screen to open up its secrets revealing layer after layer.
Film opens with the hero Sikandar kidnapping Arbaaz Khan's wife Zara Kampany (Neha Oberoi). But soon the story reveals the kidnap is a brainwork by Zara herself to know about how much her husband loves her. But that simple revelation doesn't simplify the further story woven around mainly three characters.
As soon as the kidnapping mystery gets over, Zara gets killed and the responsibility to hide the corpse away comes on Sikandar. Sikandar accomplishes his job very well and to get rid of his past he tries to go to Bangalore. But the moment he reaches airport, he comes to know that Zara is still alive. Here, the search of Zara begins. And the search ends up revealing another layer of truth that shows the Zara who is dead is the actual wife of Arbaaz and Neha Oberoi is another Zara.
The veil drops soon and it reveals that Arbaaz and Neha actually used Sikandar to remove that unfortunate lady who was impediment between Arbaaz and struggling model cum actress Neha. Story flows on and at an interesting turn Neha gets Arbaaz arrested by police for an amount of fifty lacs and runs away with Sikandar. But unfortunate to her, Sikandar plays the ultimate game and runs away with all the money leaving her as the ultimate loser.
The screenplay creates moments to bag applaud enough for the beautifully plotted scenes. But the central plot is still lost in gloom. Neha ditches Arbaaz and gets away with a mere amount of fifty lacs. Was not it easy for her to get married to Arbaaz and enjoy all his crores?
Sanjay is happy with his director and says that Hansal has well justified his job. On the other hand, Sikandar has proved his legacy of Anupam and Kiran Kher with his acting ability and excellent dialogue delivery. He has well been hyped with all PRs and media relations and the growing expectation of audience is truly satisfied with his screen presence in Woodstock Villa. Neha fits well in her character of intriguing model running behind fast luck. Gulsan Grover looks really cool in the skin of Alim Bhai. Shakti Kapoor is truly juvenile in his Punjabi character. And last but not the least, Sanjay Dutt rocks in his small spanned appearance in a rock-star look.
In a nutshell I have to admit that Sanjay Gupta has again proved his mettle and intention of creating difference on Bollywood screen. It's all now a matter of waiting to have reactions from Bollywoody audience.
Rajnee Gupta (SAMPURN)
Woodstock villa
Where shall i start…. let's start with the direction of this pathetic film. The director must have been directing some Indian TV serials before he made this one, because everything is so dramatic its makes the film look like a spoof than a thriller. The film has a lot of unnecessary transitions and weird effects that make the film look very ugly.
Talking about ugly let this film introduce a dumb.. dumb! gorilla that's just come out of the 70's. Even his character in the story gets beaten up, spat on and other people throughout are telling him off, and humiliating him. In one scene even he humiliates himself by agreeing that he should be beaten up, as he deserves a good hiding. His acting is so bad that it looks like someone tells him his lines just before they take the shot, and his personality changes throughout the movie. Also other actors are rubbed off onto his performance, like when Arbaaz is on screen his(Sikander Kher) style of character and tone of speech is emulating Arbaaz Khan. Plus every hero has some sort of charisma/charm that is evident in the real character, which moulds an actor into a super star. This guy has a repulsive flavour which won't work on any women, except for the one that he manages to dig up and cloth at the end.
The actress however is quite the opposite to this guy. Neha Uberoi is such a beautiful and i would say a talented actress. She can peform and look stunning in every shot, whether it's a **** or a serious act. I would say her acting ability is as good or probably better than Vidya Balan, especially in the kidnapping scene.
The only reason to watch this film is for the super stunning Neha Uberoi and an Awesome with capital 'A' Sanjay Dutt music video. The story is a makeup as we go thriller, as there is no real intelligence in the story, unlike Johnny Gaddaar, or Aamir the movie. I have to say although there was a lot of music the videos were nice to watch better than the film thanks to the stunning actress.
One last thing. What's up with Gulshan Grover akways talking on a mobile phone acting the same and having the same type of dialogues? Yes he is BAAAD MAAAN we get it but he should do a variety of roles, as that's where his talent lies in, for example a comedy role, or a victim in a serious drama, or a family villain such as an evil uncle or something, not always a gangster.
I give this film a 6 out of 10 just to see Neha songs and Sanjay Dutt. Oh and you'll also see the buffoon trying to act.
Reviewed By Fahad