Apne (2007)

This is good experience to see this type of movie,also the the macho trio-Dharamendra,Sunny and bobby together, its a good story but this type of movie is not successful in this generation.Its fit on past 60 or 70 decades. Its a nice movie on father-son, Mother-son , Husband-wife relation.if you ask me which couple is best in this movie,although there have 3 couples- Dharmendra-Kiron Kher (a very talented actress!!),Sunny Deol-Shilpa Shetty (hot beauty with extreme height),Bobby Deol-Katrina Kaif(pretty good but have language problem), I choose the Dharmendra-Kiron Kher Couple ,Old is Gold,what a chemistry between both of them,a natural acting overall..The action is good but inspired from Stallon's blockbuster 'Rocky'..nevermind..if length of the movie edited then it would be more good. Music is OK.. not more efforts by Himesh reshmia,background score is OK but sometimes its loud. In other star cast Victor banerjee,Divya Datta,Aryan Vaid,Javed Shaikh are workable.. But the excellent performance from-Jonnie Brown as luca the killing machine. Anil Sharma always make movies with Dharmendra and Sunny Deol but to see together is a nice experience. The National Champinonship is look childish..where the Final Heavyweight Championship is look like WWF. The Action hero-Sunny look old age..obviously but perform a good fight scene. Shilpa looks good and act good also..Katrina have less scope , also she have to improve her language problem and acting,same thing about bobby role ,he have comparatively less scope than Dharam and Sunny.The Main pillar of this movie is Dharam Paaji..what a stamina and performance at the stage of this age..excellent..new generation have to get inspiration from this OLD IS GOLD HE MAN!!! Anil Sharma knows very well that Indian people like Family dram with action and romance ka tadka... serve a dish,but not all dishes are good serve..Apne is like them.The story is good,star cast is good but screenplay and scripting are lower the marks.Nevermind,If you want to see a family movie with tears and punches then definitely go for movie with whole family.

Just like JJWS did not get due recognition when it was released owing to lack of publicity, Apne too falls in the same trap. There should have been promos like the father being disgraced in his hey-days and his dreams of regaining the lost glory. The non cooperation of his eldest son and the physical impaired second son, all could have made into interesting promos to give out the message that its a boxing based movie interlaced with emotions.Anyways the movie is definitely watchable. Apne has Dharamendra written all over - this should be termed as his "real" comeback movie (if you were to excuse his appearance in Metro & Hum Kaun Hain). It showcases the untapped potential of the actor who is ready for his next innings. Bobby Deol is the next one who gets lions share (was he jumping between the sets of JBJ and Apne) Sunny plays the cry-baby who gets a make-over only in the final act.The story is innovative and commendable (as said earlier, it bears strong resemblance to JJWS, only role-reversal with lots of glitz and glamour). Screenplay does get engrossing as the movie progresses.Observations:: 01. The pain and anguish of Dharamendra at the beginning of the movie seems incomprehensible. As the movie progresses the movie goes into a series of flash-backs to provide answers. Sorry but the damage is already one. Instead, the movie should have started with the flashbacks.02. Bobby miracle recovery is quite filmy. Hints should have been dropped that his brain has healed and needs a trigger. It seemed as a lame excuse when it was attempted to be justified.03. Bobby's climb to success should have been more screen-time for the audience to digest. It appears hurried.04. The penultimate 30-minutes end up being a typical Sunny Deol fare and gives an alien feel to the whole movie.05. The liver transplant at the climax is over the top. The movie should have ended with Sunny's victory.06. Jonny Brown as Luca Garcia does his part well. But too many English lines does mar the hardcore Deol fans.07. Victor Banerjee: Under-utilised and a bad choice to use his voice as narrative.08. Jawaid Sheikh - I wonder why does the Amitabh Bachchan of Lollywood vying for blink-n-miss roles. Better to serve in heaven than reign in hell? 09. Not required in the movie were Shilpa Shetty (served only to cry with hubby Sunnyji), Kiron Kher (served for melodramatic moments), Katrina Kaif, Divya Dutta & Rajendra Gupta.The boxing match sequences are well-executed. Has a few resemblances to Million Dollar Baby (narrative of Victor Banerjee?).Sports based films which generally are hit or flop... there is no middle ground. Boxing - the moment you utter the word probably only Mohammed Ali comes to the mind of Bollywood audience and the thought process ends at that. For a sports movie to work in Bollywood you either pack in a solid punch and let movie do the talking or need a big star to break this mould (SRK - Chak De...). Until then this genre needs more caving in Bollywood.PS: Its fun to see Deol sons miming the dance steps of Dharam paaji.PS(2): Amar Singh? What on earth was that!!!

If Sarkar was the best movie for Father-son duo Big B and Abhishek, then Apne is the best platform to feature the Dharmpaji-Sunny-Bobby trio. With a story that reminds you a lot about K3G, this movie does a little more effort in encouraging the Indians to shine in the international sports arena, in fact, Malaysians too should be inspired by this effort, as we have been pretty slow in that area for ages.Kiron Kher does justice as a typical punjabi mother, Katrina, was just acting, well, pretty. After Shilpa's popularity with Big Brother (UK reality show), one would expect Shilpa being showered with better roles, however, here she gets plenty of footage without substance.The story pace might seem slow at times, and lengthy that it makes you just wish that one of the characters kick the bucket as soon as possible to cut the story short. As boxers in the international level, both Bobby and Sunny have poor body, easily put to shame by the other boxers in the movie.The verdict, watch it, but with no hopes at all. The best thing about the movie is minimal songs, thankfully, because I can't stand Himesh's voice.

The film has a very warm tone of a father and his two sons. Told in the background of a-still-not-commercial-sport-in-India-boxing, Apne is a heart rending emotive display of Dharmendra to erase the blot on his sportive character.An equally good performance by Sunny and Bobby, this film is a must-watcher for family-film-people. A film for the fans of Dharmendra, surely. Lovely locations and excellent photography have helped a sensitive director Anil Sharma to direct this Deol attempt at presenting the family together for the first time. Himesh provides his usual score with the title track as unusually good-old world melody. Production values are good and the producer has spared no effort. A cut in the length of the film may help to woo another set of audience. The film will grow in terms of time to come and the producer must stand this test.