ABCD 2

Director: Remo
Writers: Mayur Puri, Remo
Cast: Lauren Gottlieb, Shraddha Kapoor, Varun Dhawan
Strength: Dance Sequences, Acting  
Weakness: Story
Runtime: 154 minutes
Rating: 3/5
Plot: The story traces the journey of an Indian dance troupe, who come from the backstreets of a Mumbai suburb; their rise to fame, sudden downfall and then their heroic attempt to seek vindication by regaining their lost glory and pride.
Review: Song and dance is, needless to say, a Bollywood staple, but pure dance films are rare. Rarer still is a 3D dance film. But whatever novelty ABCD 2 delivers is only skin deep. The story it tells is as hackneyed as they come: the young protagonists, led by an inspirational dance guru (Prabhu Deva) who has a back story of his own, travel from the dark, dank school of hard knocks to the bright lights and distracting inducements of Las Vegas to bask in global glory.
All through this two-and-a-half-hour sequel to the 2013 3D hit, ABCD - Any Body Can Dance, the dance steps are dazzlingly dramatic. But that is the very least you would expect from a film helmed by a choreographer and featuring Prabhu Deva in a pivotal role.
While it might get a little cringe-worthy, it's still enjoyable in some parts. With a cast crammed with energetic guys who need no provocation to set the dance floor on fire, ABCD 2 delivers passages of stunning musical calisthenics.
Varun Dhawan is no mug at this game and he holds his own alongside the likes of Sushant Pujari, Dharmesh Yelande, Raghav Juyal, Punit Pathak and Lauren Gottlieb. The only non-dancer in the principal cast is Shraddha Kapoor, but she too melds perfectly into this cheerfully breathless world where everybody is a master twirler.
This movie is a must-watch for dance lovers. For general movie watchers, this might not be an enjoyable flick.

Reviewed By Intisab Shahriyar

MOVIE REVIEW BIG BROTHER (2015)

BIG BROTHER (2015)
Director: Shafi Uddin Shafi
Story: Saikat Nasir
Cast: Mahiya Mahi, Shipan Mitra, Ahmed Sharif, Danny Sidak
Strength: Story
Weakness: Action sequences, Acting, Special Effects
Rating: 2/5
Plot: The story centers on the character Big Brother, a female gang enforcer, who tries to change her ways after some personal experiences.
Review: The movie starts with underworld king Golden Gulzar (Ahmed Sharif) being arrested by the police because of a false case made against him by DJ, leader of his rival gang.
This is when Golden Gulzar's child, Big Brother (Mahiya Mahi) comes into action by saving his men. But normal operations for Golden Gulzar's men become difficult because of police involvement. Golden Gulzar, in order to avoid police attention, appoints one of his trustworthy members from out of town to carry out his extortions. This doesn't go well as DJ kills this man and throws him at the train tracks.
While all this is going on, Rana (Shipan Mitra) sees Big Brother, whose name is revealed to be Kajol, in action and falls in love with her. He proposes his feelings to her only to be rejected and slapped to make an example. Not taking the rejections well, he heads for the tracks to commit suicide. While there, he hears a phone ring and discovers that the phone is beside a dead body. When he picked up the phone, he was asked to pick up the extortion money. After collecting the money, he got several more calls, all of which involved money pickup. With all this money, he starts a charity for young unemployed people. Later in the film, it's shown that Kajol is not Gulzar's biological child. She originally came with her sister from Dhaka, but her sister got kidnapped by some thugs. That's when Gulzar discovered her and adopted her. When she finds her sister, she is asked by her sister to leave her current life and get married, as a last request as her sister will soon die as a result of cancer. Taking her advice, she decides to get married to Rana.
This movie is almost a typical Bangla Cinema. The premise of the movie is ok. The director also made some good calls in terms of location choosing for songs. However, some subpar performances such as Shipan Mitra's bad acting do let the movie down a bit. In all honesty, this movie's main attraction is Mahiya Mahi and not much else.

Reviewed by Abdullah Al Amin (Rubel)

Tax evasion irks Muhith

Top VAT-paying firms honoured

Representatives of top VAT-paying companies pose at an awards ceremony organised by the National Board of Revenue at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka yesterday. Photo: Star

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Only 60,000 firms pay VAT regularly out of nearly 700,000 companies that signed up to pay the tax -- a number that disappoints Finance Minister AMA Muhith.
"Do we have only 60,000 firms eligible to pay VAT? I don't think so," Muhith said at a programme to honour top VAT-paying firms yesterday.
The number of firms that should pay value-added tax should be 3-6 lakh, he said.
"We have such misfortunes in almost all areas," he said, adding that only 11 lakh people pay tax out of the country's 15 crore population.
"This is the biggest challenge for widening the tax net." Muhith told the programme where nine firms at the national level and 23 from Dhaka division were given crests and certificates.
The National Board of Revenue organised the event at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre as part of the VAT Week that began on Friday.
The revenue authority has been observing the VAT Week since 2011 to create awareness.
VAT, the second biggest source of revenue for the government after income tax, accounted for 36 percent of the total revenue of Tk 136,266 crore last fiscal year, according to provisional data.
The revenue authority aims to collect Tk 64,263 crore in VAT in the current fiscal year, a rise by 32 percent year-on-year.
Muhith said, "VAT is a good kind of tax for businesses if they maintain accounts properly."
Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the finance ministry, also expressed dissatisfaction over poor tax collection.
"We have such a culture in our country that none wants to pay tax," said Razzaque, also a former food minister.
"I had a colleague in parliament who, until 2009, did not know what TIN [taxpayer identification number] was."
He said there are many people in Dhaka who own more than half a dozen of flats but their incomes are not reflected in tax returns. Many doctors, engineers and professionals do not pay tax properly, he added.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed asked NBR officials not to harass taxpayers.
Abdul Matlub Ahmad, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, urged the government to revise the new VAT law by incorporating the recommendations placed by a review committee earlier.
Moshiur Rahman, the prime minister's economic affairs adviser, also spoke.