Freaky Ali *

Dir:  Sohail Khan

Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Arbaaz Khan, Seema Biswas, Amy Jackson, Asif Basra, Jas Arora

Taking a cue from one of the funnier Adam Sandler films, Happy Gilmore, director/co-writer Sohail Khan (youngest brother of Salman) gives us Freaky Ali. Supposedly a comedy about  a "common-man" (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who suddenly discovers that he has a natural aptitude for the game of golf and takes on the reigning Indian golf champion, the egotistical Vikram Rathore (Jas Arora), a scion of Indian nobility. The basic premise had promise and Nawazuddin Siddiqui can pull off any role (and it is good to see him in a leading man capacity) but even with Happy Gilmore as a template, Sohail Khan completely mucks it up.

Rather than exploiting any of the comic possibilities of golf or the social hierarchies associated with it, Sohail Khan opts for simple mugging and pratfalling (coming mostly from the supporting characters) and fails even to set up the sporting situations on the golf course to get us invested in the outcome. Nawazuddin does what he can but he only has so much to play with. The other characters – Arbaaz Khan as Ali’s best friend, Seema Biswas as his adoptive mother, Asif Basra as his coach, and the fetching Amy Jackson – are decidedly undeveloped and Jas Arora is actually quite horrible, overplaying his hand at every turn.

Nawazudding Siddiqui deserves better material than this to showcase his talents.

Cut to chase: Freaky perhaps, funny no, good decidedly not.

Kmumtaz1@hotmail.com;

Twitter: @KhusroMumtaz

 

Café Society **

Dir:  Woody Allen

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Steve Carell, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Corey Stoll

A tale of two societies (Hollywood/Los Angeles and New York), two women named Veronica and a man who is in love with them both and set in the nostalgia-steeped 1930s (beautifully shot by Vittorio Storaro, Bernardo Bertolucci’s longtime cinematographer), Café Society had the basic materials to be another Woody Allen winner.

What it actually turns out to be is a very insubstantial rumination on love and loss, more of a sketch than a detailed portrait, and with hardly a classic Allen bon mot in sight to make the enterprise worthwhile. Narrated by Woody Allen himself and starring Jesse Eisenberg (as the Allen stand-in as more fidgety than usual) Café Society gives us Bobby Dorfman, a nervous young Jewish boy from New York, who hopes to make it in Hollywood with the help of his uncle Philip (Steve Carell, quite good), a powerful movie agent. After a less than promising start to his adventures out West (including a relatively amusing encounter with a Jewish hooker) Bobby starts to make some headway. He also falls in love with Veronica (Kristen Stewart), Uncle Phil’s secretary. But Veronica has a secret, forcing Bobby to return to New York where he finds himself running his gangster brother’s (Corey Stoll) café. He also meets Veronica number 2 (Blake Lively) but "Vonnie" number 1 is never far from his mind.

Allen never really develops his characters, generally portraying them in broad strokes. Indeed, Bobby’s parents are almost Jewish caricatures. Neither the expected but enjoyable jazz score nor the nostalgia nor the cinematography are enough to compensate for the underdeveloped characters and the lack of insights and witticisms.

Cut to chase: A lesser entry in the Woody Allen canon.

Rating system:  *Not on your life     ** Hardly worth the bother     ** ½ Okay for a slow afternoon only     *** Good enough for a look see     *** ½ Recommended viewing     **** Don’t miss it     **** ½ Almost perfect     ***** Perfection