View Full Version : Ashdoc's Bollywood movie reviews
Naam Shabana ( The name is Shabana ) April 2017
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYTM5Njc4MDktM2NjOC00M2E3LTkwYzgtMDdjMGNhMDE2OWMxL2ltYWdlL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjM1NjkwMDI@._V1 _.jpg
Tapsee Pannu plays Shabana Khan , who is a girl with a controversial past---she had fought back violence with violence and had to face the consequences for doing so . But the courage that she showed while confronting violence raises the interest of the country's intelligence agency , which keeps a watch on her for years because it is hoping to use her as an 'asset' to destroy the enemies of the nation . The intelligence agency's interest is further aroused by the training and expertise in martial arts that she is getting in the judo academy she attends . She is a potential fighter whose skills may come useful in defending the nation's interests .
But Shabana is unaware of this , attending college and hanging out with her friends . And happiness seems to be round the corner , with a boy studying in her college confessing his love for her . He claims that he likes her because he feels protected when he is with her because of her expertise in martial arts !!
But clearly she is destined for greater things than just protecting her boyfriend....and the opportunity to get involved in those things appears when tragedy strikes her life and she is hell bent on revenge for those who brought about the tragedy . The intelligence agency's agent ( played by Manoj Bajpayee ) strikes a quid pro quo deal with Shabana---the agency will help her take revenge on her tormentors in return for her permanent recruitment in the agency .
The first half of the movie deals with the manner in which revenge is dealt to her oppressors , but the second half is when she has to pay back the help which was given to her by the intelligence agency by fighting for the nation in foreign lands . She discovers the mindset of the agency---her hopes for getting a medal for India in international martial arts championships are belittled as a waste of life , for the agency's officers believe that the only real achievement is in saving countless innocents from attacks launched by enemies of the nation . Her every mission is supposed to be a road to death because the agency's agents are to be prepared to die in the mission .
The second half is dominated by the agency's attempt to kill an international arms dealer called Mikhail in Kuala Lampur in Malaysia , which are formidably roadblocked by his second in command Tony ( Prithviraj Sukumaran ) . It is Shabana's job to do kill Mikhail , and her boss on the mission is played by Akshay Kumar . But Akshay has let Tapsee take centre stage in every situation .
The movie has the same feel as the earlier movie from the same stable---'Baby' . The proceedings are taut and crisp , and the fights are decently choreographed . The kicks and punches seem authentic . Photography is good too and colours of the movie are decent .
The movie has songs too , and they were surprisingly good . The women dancing on those songs and prancing in the bedrooms of powerful men looked heartmeltingly beautiful . Tapsee looks deglamourised in front of them ; her job is not to look stunning but to deliver somersaulted martial arts chops on those who threaten the country .
So why is the movie called 'Naam Shabana' ? The name reminded me of the dialogue in 'A wednesday'---a film made by the same man ( Neeraj Pandey ) who has made this movie . Refusing to reveal the name of the main protagonist in that movie , a character in that movie says that he is refusing because people search for religion in a person's name . Here I will add that name also reveals the gender of the person . Here a female whose religion is made pointedly obvious gives us a patriotic high by dealing death to the nation's foes---a nice feeling indeed .
Verdict---Decent.
Three stars .
Mukti bhavan ( Salvation house ) April 2017
http://static.koimoi.com/wp-content/new-galleries/2017/04/mukti-bhawan-movie-review-0003.jpg
The town of Banaras---the heart of hinduism , on the banks of the much polluted river Ganga . But the river still gives mental peace to millions of hindus who crave for eternal salvation on it's banks . And I find cinematic peace when the camera rolls on it's wide banks capturing it's gentle flow on film . That's the reason I went to see 'Masaan' ( another movie based on the banks of the Ganges ) and I went to see this again ; to get my two hours of peace in the midst of the harsh realities of life .
The theme was appropriately philosophical for such peace of mind---Mukti bhavan ( salvation house ) , an establishment for the journey from life towards death . Such a place really exists in Banaras , but those like me who are used to living in posh hotels would forget real life peace if we had to live really there . For Mukti bhavan has the choicest of cockroaches and rats for company especially in the night . The quarters are dingy , and there is hardly any privacy .
But an old man coming to his end probably has other thoughts on his mind than comfort ; it is the journey to the other dimension that occupies his mind . Such people do come to end their days in the house of salvation in the holiest of holies on the banks of the mother Ganga . In this film Daya ( Lalit Behl ) is such a man . He gets dreams seeing which he feels that his end is near . He forces his son Rajeev ( Adil Hussain ) to take him to Mukti bhavan for the end of his days .
Rajeev has pressures of his job and the impending marriage of his daughter Sunita ( Palomi Ghosh ) , and comes only reluctantly to the bhavan with his father . Because of his pressures , back home he is an unresponsive father to his daughter and has fixed her marriage without her consent .
But as days unfold in Mukti bhavan , the father and son find time to reconnect with each other on the banks of the gently flowing Ganga . For here , inspite of lack of material comforts there is calm and peace away from the regular tensions of life . As Sunita and Rajeev's wife Lata ( Geetanjali Kulkarni ) come to meet them , the old man realises that his grand daughter is not happy with the impending marriage and advises her to follow her mind . He also tells Rajeev of his daughter's unhappiness .
Mukti bhavan is a quirky place with some quirky people . The manager Mishraji ( Anil Rastogi ) always claims that the place is full , but if he likes the guest he accommodates him or her saying that one person residing there has died thus vacating his place for the next !! Mishraji makes sure that the incoming guests eat no nonveg and have no vices , but then slyly tells the place to get intoxicants in the neighbourhood.....He always claims that a person has maximum 15 days to die here or get out , but if the 15 days are passed without dying he simply allows the guest to stay without changing the rules by changing the guest's name and identity....
A similar such guest residing there is Vimla ( Navnindra Behl ) , who is a widow who has been there for 18 years . She feels jealous of those who die quickly in Mukti bhavan while she still waits for salvation---the quirks in the film are endless , and the audience was laughing this journey to death . Daya forms a friendship with Vimla , and they begin to go on boat rides together and even sleeping side by side....was an old age romance building ? But Daya also reads meaningful poems with his son on the banks of the mighty Ganges , and the son does not want to leave it's banks until he is forced by his father....
Meanwhile his daughter has cancelled her marriage plans , but the Rajeev who has come back home is a changed man.... he does not get angry with his daughter . He even helps her learn to ride a scooter , something that he was opposed to earlier . His old father's journey to death has helped him find his sensitivity to his family again .
The film captures the sights sounds and smells of Banaras yet again after 'Masaan' already did . Photography is good , and even better are the dialogues and poems read out . Acting is at it's very best by everyone , and background score is decent---though there are no songs .
But it is an archetypal art film , and commercial film aficionados will want to give it a miss . Only watchers of off-beat films should watch it .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars .
Begum Jaan ( Madame Jaan ) April 2017
http://data1.ibtimes.co.in/cache-img-0-450/en/full/642677/1492087902_vidya-balan-begum-jaan.jpg
For Bollywood , partition of the country is an endless well from which more and more material can be drawn for making movies after movies and making more money.....well , maybe the well is now in a state of drought....for this particular attempt to cash in on partition has failed to produce a movie of any calibre....
Vidya Balan plays the lead role , but she neither looks good ( the makeup is not proper ) nor is her acting any great shakes . She plays the madame of a whorehouse which lies outside a town in Punjab . She and all her girls have the tragic backgrounds that are expected of women who land up in such a place . But their stories are listlessly presented and fail to evoke our sympathy or pathos .
But their language does invite our attention , for it is filled with gutter level obscenities . Some girls have the chutzpah to fall in love with men even in their state , and one girl ( played by Gauhar Khan ) is lucky to have found a soulmate . The other who falls in love ( played by Palllavi Sharda ) is the best looking of the lot , but falls for the wrong man ( played by Vivek Mushran ) and brings disaster on herself .
Begum Jaan ( Vidya ) is a firm and tough taskmaster who runs the establishment with an iron fist , but does have a heart that cares for the girls . The girls have begun to believe the brothel to be their house , even though the outside world hypocritically despises the establishment while also lusting for the women in it .
But the entire establishment in on the verge of being felled by a stroke of ill fortune . For the partition line between India and Pakistan has been drawn exactly through it , and in order that fencing be done the brothel has to be torn down....
To do the onerous task of tearing down the brothel come two gentlemen---one from India ( played by Ashish Vidyarthi ) and one from Pakistan ( played by Rajit Kapoor ) . But their attempts to reason with the begum to evacuate the place are rebuffed by her and her tall bodyguard and powerful dogs . She also relies on the protection that the prince ( played by Naseeruddin Shah ) of the region ( for it is a princely state ) bestows on her at the price of the choicest and newest girls being dragged to his bed .
But all protection fails in front of a momentous event such as partition , and the two gentlemen from India and Pakistan employ a rogue ( played by Chunky Pandey ) and his gang to forcefully evacuate the brothel . The climax of the movie is the only uplifting part of the film....but director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is going to be freaking mad on seeing it , for it is inspired by and copied from the same event that he was to show in his upcoming movie 'Padmavat' ; the thunder of the climax of 'Padmavat' is stolen by this climax .
Acting wise , no one was great though the girls did try to act out the free behaviour and lascivious movements of loose women . Photography is good and colours of the film are okay . Songs and music is okay but nothing special .
Verdict---Not good .
One and a half stars .
Meri pyari Bindu ( My dear Bindu ) May 2017
http://c.saavncdn.com/274/Meri-Pyaari-Bindu-Hindi-2017-500x500.jpg
This film has been marketed as a comedy film , but is more of a sentimental / nostalgic movie between a boy who dreams of a life of permanent togetherness and a girl who is totally commitment phobic and moves from one to another thing in life .
Ayushman Khurana and Parineeti Chopra ( called Bindu in the film ) are neighbours , and from childhood Ayushman is attracted to Parineeti . They become close friends and Ayushman hopes to be in a real relationship with Parineeti one day . But she moves off to different lands and flits like a bird from place to place . But they keep in touch and remain in contact despite the distances .
Parineeti's one aim in life is to become a famous singer and Ayushman is too eager to help out , trying his level best to let her get what she wants so that she would be pleased with him and become his....and for a while fortune really smiles on him as she comes to live in his city and is ready to shack up with him . But the album that she sings for flops and she rejects the marriage proposal that his and even her family make to her in behest of him .
One wonders of course whether such a girl ( who ties up with him when he is ready to help her out in singing for an album but dumps him the moment her album flops ) is really worth all the efforts that he makes to get her , especially when the efforts to get her include rejecting other women who are more ready . But our hero is in one sided love , and it is his one sided love and the sentiments and nostalgia and memories associated with it that makes the film worth watching up to some extent . Had he taken the more realistic route then there would have been no film....it would have been reality , and who goes to watch reality on the silver screen in the darkness of a theatre ? No one....
The movie begins in Kolkata and ends there , but it moves to other places in the middle . It is shown as a series of flashbacks as the hero is called back to Kolkata after a long hiatus , and his memories go back into nostalgia laden flashback mode when he encounters song recordings made by her on old cassette tapes . His memories move from childhood in the 1980s when he first saw her and slowly unfold till the present day....and he still has not forgotten her , while she has moved on in life....not a practical man , our hero....
But movies are made using different-than-real-life characters and often it is the impractical romantic people who give us our cinematic entertainment....and some aficionados of sentiment laden romance might find something to chew on in this film . Music and songs are decent and so is the background score . Colours and photography are okay too .
Both the lead actors look good and Parineeti acts the ever wild child wearing short clothes and changing boyfriends and lifestyles with aplomb . Acting is okay too from both . Nice timepass for forgetting the tensions of life for a couple of hours .
Verdict---okay .
Two and a half stars .
Sachin , a billion dreams ( June 2017 )
http://data1.ibtimes.co.in/cache-img-0-450/en/full/647893/1495880010_sachin-billion-dreams-poster.jpg
I watched this film for old times sake....today my interest in cricket is less , and time is even less for watching the sport . But I used to watch cricket on TV as I was growing up , during my college days and my youth . And for most of those years , the man my country used to ride it's hopes on in the game of cricket was Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar .
So watching the film on Sachin was a trip into the past times . And the film has been appropriately made , for it does evoke nostalgia for the bygone era .
The film begins when my world was young , for I am only a year younger than Sachin . It was his older brother Ajit who noticed the spark of talent in Sachin , and took him to the classes of coach Ramakant Achrekar in Mumbai's iconic cricketer breeding ground---Shivaji park .
The film must have given Sachin the rare chance for coming back to his roots , for today he cannot come to Shivaji park without a horde of security men . But we see Sachin talking about his early days from the very pitch he used to practice from .
The fame came at a very early age due to the record breaking partnership with Vinod Kambli , and one gets to see interviews taken with a very young Sachin still having pimples of a teenager . And from here there was no looking back .
The footage of his first test series against Pakistan is very grainy , for in those days the cameras were of state owned television . But as India liberalised it's economy in the early nineties , the the rights of showing sport were given to private TV channels . And from here on the footage of Sachin is clear and we can watch him and his sporting achievements in their full glory .
The film touches upon the highs and lows of Sachin's career and life . The footage of his matches reminds us of the time we sat in front of our TV sets viewing them . Some matches I had seen but now had forgotten . But the memories of those games were brought to life again . The joy of seeing India winning and the disappointment of seeing it losing . And once again the batting of the master....the flash of the bat and the ball racing to the boundary . The crowd shouting 'Sachin Sachin'...sheer goosebumps....
The film also touches on what we had not seen . It gives Tendulkar's personal perspective on what happened , how he felt about things . Greg Chappel ( the Australian coach of the Indian cricket team in 2007 world cup ) is the one Tendulkar seems to be most critical about . Sachin's rivalry with Azharuddin over captaincy is noted briefly . Sachin's disappointment over his removal from captaincy , and his grief over his father's death are the points where he was really low . Also when he was suffering from tennis elbow . But the lowest point in Indian cricket is something that Sachin claims to have no proof about---the match fixing scandal .
The highs---the amazing batting he did against Australia at Sharjah in 1998 , the march winning effort against Pakistan in the 2003 world cup . Sachin felt joy in other's achievements too , like when Venkatesh Prasad gave a fitting answer to Amir Sohail in the semifinal of the 1996 world cup and Rahul Dravid and V V S Laxman crafted a great partnership to win against Australia . Sachin's personal rival from Australia---leg spinner Shane Warne .
The film shows his personal life , and showcases just how much family is important to an individual's success . And Sachin got co operation from his family in bountiful amounts . His parents , his brother and his relatives stood with him in all times and situations . His wife Anjali gave up her career as doctor for his sake . Unfortunately his childhood friend Vinod Kambli probably did not get such support from his family and did not get such a good upbringing and his career drifted into nothingness , though that is not shown in the film . In fact the film ignores Kambli except in the very early stages , for today Sachin and Kambli are no longer friends .
The one dream of Sachin was to hold the world cup in his hands , but it took a long time to come . That dream was thwarted in 1996 , when India lost the semi final against Sri Lanka . Again it was thwarted in the final in 2003 , a match which Sachin calls the most important of his life . Finally it was achieved in 2011 , when the team took a victory parade with Sachin aloft their shoulders . The footage of all is to be savoured in the film .
Sachin's retirement speech forms an emotional ending to the film . He has now imposed his son Arjun with the ambition of playing cricket . Other than this imposition , Sachin has been a good father to his children . But it is his wife Anjali who is the anchor of his life . The other anchors are his mother , and God---for Sachin is a religious person whose religiosity has been brought out in the film . His personal cricket kit has photos of Sathya Sai baba .
Above all however Sachin claims to be a patriot . The nation's flag makes it's appearance on several occasions in the movie , and Sachin says that he gets goosebumps when listening to the national anthem . 'Vande mataram' makes it's appearance in the film , and the film's best song is 'Hind meri jind' .
Outside sports , what keeps Sachin ticking is friends and music and cars . And all these factors come together to keep the film ticking . Sachin's personal commentary , his wife's views , his friends' talk---all these factors give real insight into his celebrated life . Sachin says that he has lived a great life . And lucky is my generation to have watched him on TV in our life .
Verdict---Good .
Four stars .
G kutta se ( june 2017 )
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JOSoTwDpj8w/WRU9SzOy36I/AAAAAAAAiw0/MiqQi2hlMlwpzWMLL4CLr1r4hBxaUSXkQCLcB/s1600/G-Kutta-Se-1.jpg
I went to watch this movie because the critics are crowing about it , and on the other hand the jat community of Haryana is protesting against the film . Actually even on the first day of it's release there are only two shows of the movie in Mumbai , but I follow controversy like a bloodhound and went some distance to see the film because no theatre near my house is ready to screen it .
The movie is in the haryanvi language and even though english subtitles make the film understandable , the name of the movie is the first stumbling block---what does 'G kutta se' mean ? Kutta means dog . One thing I am sure about---whatever their defects are , the jats contribute majorly to the defence of the nation by enlisting in the armed forces in large numbers and it is due to their sacrifices that we live securely in our homes ; so I would go a bit soft on criticising them .
The director of the movie himself is a jat and has made the film to highlight the lowly status of women in haryana . The film shows women being subject to molestation , and above all to honour killing .
The film begins with a man molesting his cousin's wife while she is sleeping . Soon he joins with two others to steal a vehicle . After the attractive female in the vehicle is at the point of being raped by one of them , the anti hero ( played by Rajveer Singh ) of the film emerges out of the three men to prevent the rape . Amazingly , even though the female has just emerged from a horrifying almost rape situation , she quickly goes back to normal and flirts with the anti hero and cradles him in her lap . Before that also she begins to drink alcohol with her kidnappers even though she has been kidnapped and caught in a horrible situation . One wonders how much juvenile the direction of the movie can get at this point ? How is the female cool and acts brazenly in such dire circumstances ?
The movie then moves to the situation of a very young girl ( played by Rashmi Singh Somvanshi ) who performs some sexual acts with a boy of her age , but the whole thing gets filmed on mobile phone and MMS of her act starts circulating in the village . The parents' dire solution to the situation---honour killing what else . The older women of the village are not far behind the men in participating in this act of honour killing ; even they cannot think beyond honour and tradition . This act occurs in parallel to the death of the family dog at a doctor's clinic ; does the parallel death of the dog mean that the title of the movie is becoming understandable ? Does the title of the movie mean that women lead dog's lives in haryana , or die dog's deaths ?
The third situation is that of a good looking young woman ( played by Neha Chauhan ) who is genuinely in love . But her young man is more interested in her body than in love . The scenes showing them physically intimate are authentically real , and it is with this subplot that the director emerges on his own . As her love story also becomes public , real fear grips you knowing that her goose is cooked---for her family is baying for murder for the sake of family name ; all her mother's entreaties fall on deaf ears ; only her brother helps her in the circumstances . But she is a gritty woman of steel ; decides to pre empt her own murder by taking the bull by the horns and embark on some savagery of her own . Neha Chauhan's acting is most brilliant .
However the anti hero of the film played by Rajveer Singh ( the one who had prevented rape from happening in the first subplot ) now changes from a reasonable person to unreasonable....that's why I called him as anti hero rather than hero....and he destroys every hope that the character played by Neha Chauhan has for happiness by his sheer violence....the film comes to a gruesome end even though the gritty girl survives....so what happens in the end ? Well , this is a review not storytelling and some things are best left to watch for yourselves....
The film has the marks of the leftist mindset that has long controlled making of art movies in this land....and this is an art movie....the villains are typically caste hindus , the victims are either women as shown in this film or minorities . Some scenes are graphic in nature even after the censor board's cuts , and language is foul and full of obscenities . Director Rahul Dahiya has not held back in tarnishing the image of his own community , though of course his point of view will be that he is only showing the truth . Considering his great empathy for persecution of women , will he ever make a film about how girls from minorities are sold by people in their own community to rich sheikhs for carnal pleasures ? Probably not . A HA !!
Photography of the movie has some quality , especially the scene of the boy and girl on motorcycle with the train passing close behind and the wind generated by the train's speed billowing the girl's hair . Music is okay . Acting is decent in parts .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars .
A death in the Gunj ( June 2017 )
http://studiozidrream.com/wp-content/themes/wg/image.php?h=450&w=1000&src=http://studiozidrream.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/homebanner29092016_1.jpg
This english language film made by Bollywood is set in the hill station of McCluskieganj in what was then the Indian state of Bihar in the year 1979 . Now McCluskieganj is in the state of Jharkhand , after Bihar was bifurcated later . The film is set among the Anglo Indian community , that is descendants of Britishers who had married Indians .
The main striking point of the Anglo Indian community as shown in the movie is the boldness of the women , at least relative to those times . When the position of Indian women was backward in 1979 , the women are shown smoking and drinking and dancing and flirting with men and even having premarital sex in one case . They wear western clothes denied to most Indian women in those times .
The season is winter , and cold is beginning to set in McCluskieganj at least during the night . The pleasant weather and natural beauty of the surroundings gives a relaxed feel to some scenes . Like always , I want nothing to happen in such a bounty of nature . But the name of the movie and the start of the movie ( in which a dead body is being transported ) does give indication that something is about to happen .
From the name of the movie one thinks that it is a murder mystery , and the impending suspicion that a murder is going to happen does hang over the proceedings . But the movie moves in a different direction--it shows a young man called Shutu ( played by Vikrant Massey ) being harassed and made to feel small by the others in the assembled group .
Shutu is thin and has failed in his exams and has just lost his father , but receives no sympathy from most of the group except two persons . Instead he is bullied by the character played by Ranvir Shorey , who plays a prank on Shutu in what is supposed to be a planchette and even physically bruises him in a sport . The whole film has this thread , and frankly it is not pleasant to watch . Shutu becomes the centre of the film and all attention of events is focused on him in the movie .
Ironically , in the minds of the characters assembled in the movie the importance of Shutu becomes less and less as the movie progresses . In the middle of the movie he is important to a little girl called Tani . She likes his company and his reserved studious nature and hangs out with him all the time , feeling sad that others belittle him .
But soon Shutu gains the attention of the slut of the movie , played by Kalki Koechlin . She has an extra marital affair going on with Ranvir Shorey , but he soon brings his wife there . In a fit of jealousy Kalki has a brief affair with Shutu , which includes sex . She looks good in exposing clothes and skirts , and acts well . But the little girl Tani gets angry with Shutu as he begins to ignore her company in the heat of the affair with Kalki .
There are others in the movie like Gulshan Devaiah , Tanuja , Om Puri and Jim Sarbh . They as a whole form a boisterous lot , enjoying life to the full . But they make the perfidy of not realising how Shutu must be feeling .
The crisis of the movie occurs when the little girl Tani goes missing , and you think that this must be the murder....but she is found later . But in the search Shutu goes missing too , and no one misses him because Tani is found . Later Kalki too tires of him and Tani is still sore with him . Life has no meaning anymore for Shutu as the two people who gave him some importance too forget him .
The end of the movie becomes all too clear at this point , but it also seems meaningless . What does the director want to say , that people in the position of Shutu should end their lives ? That they should not try to improve or better their lowly position ? That they have no hope ? The critics are praising the film ( which is why I went to see it ) but as an ordinary person I could not make sense of the ending .
Of course , the critics may be crowing because acting by Vikrant Massey is simply superb as Shutu . Every expression on his face and body conveys how he feels . Everybody else acts well too , and the pace of the movie is leisurely . Background music is okay , but the colours of the film are not great though photography improves as the movie progresses .
Verdict---okay .
Two and a half stars .
Nestorio_Miklos
06-21-17, 04:42 PM
once i've seen an Indian movie about a couple traveling by train across India. The guy was kind of in search of a sense of life. There was this one scene of this guy drinking wine and pouring it on the cow head statue. There was no dancing or songs so i don't even know if this was Indian production. I liked it but unfortunately i dont remember the name.
Mom ( July 2017 )
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/51/Mom_2017_film_poster_1.jpg
Sridevi plays a schoolteacher named Devki Sabharwal who is popular with her students . Her step daughter Arya ( Pakistani actress Sajal Ali ) however refuses to accept her as her mom and prefers to call her as ma'am , the excuse for this being that Devki is also her teacher in school . Devki tries the best to build a mother daughter relationship with Arya but gets rebuffed every time . But Devki is still protective towards Arya and smashes the cellphone of the guy ( Mohit ) who sends porn videos to Arya to the ground .
On Valentine's day Arya goes to a party where Mohit and his buddy Charles again try to get Arya to dance with them . Angered by her rejection , the two combine with a criminal named Jagan ( played by Abhimayu Singh ) to rape and injure Arya and throw her in a ditch . Hell breaks lose in Devki's and her husband Anand's ( played by Pakistani actor Adnan Siddiqui ) life .
The court case against the rape accused totally fails to get them convicted , and Arya grows even more distant from Devki because the rapists had taunted her asking to call her mom again to save her when they raped her . Devki decides to take the law in her hands and ready to help her is a quirky detective named DK , played by who else but Nawazuddin Siddiqui .
The manner in which Devki takes revenge on all the rapists is quite interesting to watch , and keeps you really hooked on to seeing the movie . But the last on her list ( Jagan ) is too tough a cookie to crumble . Will he be able to wreak havoc in the Sabharwal family's life again ? And police officer Mathew who is handling the whole case ( played by Akshay Khanna ) , is onto her track . Will he arrest her for taking the law in her own hands or help her ?
Nawazuddin Siddiqui predictably gets the best lines to mouth in the movie , and as usual he mouths them with aplomb in his cameo . But best acting is by Sridevi , who is simply great in expressing grief over her daughter's rape or in expressing anguish over her inability to get justice for her in court . However her south Indian accent does stand out while mouthing her dialogues .
Photography of the film is simply great when it moves into the snowcapped mountains towards the climax . Never has mountains and snow been photographed more beautifully . Music is decent . Colours of the film are okay . Some of the scenes of violence and of Arya in hospital are not easy to watch .
Verdict---Good.
Three and a half stars out of five .
Shab ( Night ) July 2017
http://latestbollywoodmovie.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Shab-film-story-songs-review-copy.jpg
Shab has a lot of things going for it . Firstly , it has great background music . The songs too are definitely worth listening to again and again . Secondly , it has beautiful cinematography . Some scenes like one in which there is darkness around but lights are focused only on the faces of the protagonists , or the one in which a character slowly fades away into brightness as she passes out of the film are photographed brilliantly . Acting is good from everyone too .
Even better are the looks of the females in the film . Raveena Tandon has matured like old wine and I daresay that she looks fuller hotter and sexier than how she looked when she was younger . Her cleavage is ample and her body ampler . The other female is Arpita Chatterjee , who has a beauty of her own and looks real cute in her bob cut hair .
But the film falters on two major points . As it nears it's climax it goes nowhere , with most characters splitting up with each other rather than coming closer which would be the desired ending . The other point of course is that some of the characters are gay . While one or two gay characters would have been acceptable in the film , the number of them is four---way above the acceptable limit in a conservative country like India . Maybe that is why the audience stayed away and there was practically no one in the theatre ; the cinema patrons had probably got the gay vibes better than I had even before the film had released and not come to the cinema hall . They probably knew about the fact that director of the film Onir is gay , something that I had overlooked .
The film starts with small town boy Ashish Bisht coming to big city Delhi to become a model . But he has not lost his small town attitude and ends up only being the keep of socialite Raveena Tandon---not a bad proposition actually , considering her hotness . Her gay friend Raj Suri does give Ashish the chance to become a model , but Raveena wants to keep him for herself even though she has dalliances with other men . Ashish however falls in love with Arpita , whom he meets in a restaurant as a waitress who wears enticing clothes showing off her delicate back and her lovely armpits and her bra straps . The owner of that restaurant ( Areesz Ganddi ) is gay and has had a breakup recently with his boyfriend . In his life comes a french man ( Simon Frenay ) who has a tragic past . Arpita is a sex worker in secret , who is being stalked by one of her clients and threatened by that client's father to get out of her stalker's life . And so on and so forth...
Problem is , even though all the characters interact with each other , the intersection of their lives is mostly for the period shown in the movie and in the end they go their own separate ways . In short the film goes nowhere . There are some emotional and sentimental moments in the movie , but they do not leave a lasting impact .
The film does move at a relaxed pace , and may appeal to those who like off beat films . It is for the liberal crowd who find nothing wrong in gay relationships and have sympathy for those who are frowned upon by mainstream society , for all the characters in the film are those in whom mainstream society with find something wrong and will treat with disdain and contempt---gay men , a prostitute , a kept man of a rich woman , the rich woman who is frustrated with her husband's affairs and keeps boys . Though I like off beat films , I am not a liberal and could not empathise .
Verdict---Just about okay .
Two stars .
Lipstick under my veil ( July 2017)
The setting is the city of Bhopal , which is half Hindu and nearly half Muslim . And appropriately the movie is about the lives of four women who live in the same neighbourhood , two of whom are Hindu and two are Muslim . The lives of the Muslim ones are cloistered under the Burkha ( hijab like garment that covers from head to toe ) , but under the veil they dream of liberation.
Rihanna ( played by Plabita Borthakur ) has to go to college wearing the veil , but changes clothes in public toilets to ultra stylish dresses that she has shoplifted from malls because she cannot afford to buy them . She is a fan of Miley Cyrus and leads a dual life . In college she auditions for singing western music and manages to give fiery speeches campaigning for wearing western clothing like jeans . But at home she has to work to make Burkhas to eke out a living. She goes to a late night party and drinks alcohol and falls in love with a westernized dude , kissing him shyly .
Shireen ( played by Konkona Sen Sharma ) works as salegirl while her husband works in Saudi Arabia. But her husband does not know she works outside and being short tempered would expressly forbid it if he knew. Whenever he comes back he has rough sex with her without foreplay. She too is forced to wear the Burkha but tries to improve her life financially while her husband cheats on her with prostitutes.
Leela ( played by Aahana Kumra ) is the third female, being forced to marry one guy even if she is in a on off sexual relationship with another. She dreams off running away with her boyfriend out of Bhopal to chase her dreams. She has sex with her boyfriend in total abandon in different positions without her fiance knowing of it .
fourth is Usha aunty ( played by Ratna Pathak Shah ) , who is a fifty five year old female. She is consigned by society to live a life without sex because of her age , but has sexual attraction for her swimming coach. She phones him and has sexual conversations stroking and stimulating her body without revealing her identity.
The lives of all these females however come to a similar end ; they are caught breaking the backward rules imposed by Indian society and get punished for it and become outcasts . But as they sit together in one room ruminating over the disaster of having been caught out , they decide to laugh it away by lighting cigarettes that are forbidden by Indian society for women to smoke. It is nice to know that even in this condition they still have the fire of rebellion smouldering within them...
Even after deletion of 27 scenes by the censor board the movie has some kissing and sex scenes , leaving you wondering how much sex the director wanted to pack in the movie . But why does the movie come to an unhappy end ? In my opinion the notion of happy ending would have entailed walking into the sunset with a guy in tow , and the director was loathe to tie the women's good fortunes to a guy . The director chose to show them unhappy but rebellious still . That's probably the way the director would like women to be---free through rebellion .
The movie has been made to remind us that sex and freedom are natural rights of women as much as they are of men . And it has been umabashedly hyped as a women's movie . Acting is decent by everyone and music and photography is okay too .
Verdict---decent .
Three stars out of five
32875
Indu sarkar ( july 2017 )
http://static.koimoi.com/wp-content/new-galleries/2017/07/indu-sarkar-review-1.jpg
Indu Sarkar ( sarkar also means government ) is a cleverly connived name---ostensibly it is the name of the heroine of the movie played by Kirti Kulhari . But the game of the name is different of course . The whole movie harks back to the time of the emergency ( martial law---akin to dictatorship ) that was imposed on the country by Prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1975 , and the name 'Indu sarkar' also harks back to the time when her sycophants used to say 'Indira is India' .
Indu grows up with a stammer in a children's home , and struggles to find a mate because of her stammer even though she is beautiful . But she manages to catch the attention of Navin Sarkar ( played by Tota Roy Chowdhary ) , who is a high ranking government servant ( even high rankers were called servants during the time ) . And they get married soon . Indu is the meek wife who is totally dependent on her husband due to her stammer .
But as the emergency is launched she sees in a slum demolition drive in which innocent people are being killed and protects two children there , whom she brings home . But her husband wants her to abandon the children and does not want to hear a bad word about the emergency ( now you know the meaning of government 'servant' ) . But Indu , who has seen the horrors of the emergency at close quarters , decides to leave her husband who is clearly a part of the government machine of tyranny . She comes in contact with a group of activists who are organising people against the emergency and joins them . They are led by a Gandhi like figure , called Nanaji played by Anupam Kher .
This brings us to the villain of the movie , who is called 'chief' but his being Sanjay Gandhi ( PM Indira Gandhi's son ) is hardly disguised . In fact Neil Nitin Mukesh is near perfect in looks to Sanjay Gandhi , and his dialogues exude the same arrogance . His coterie is complete with characters who look like Kamal Nath , Jagdish Tytler and Rukhsana Sultana . When his footware falls from his feet ministers of government rush to put it back onto his feet . He spouts dialogues like 'Government of the country runs at the crack of a whip' or words to that effect .
The movie begins with a forced vasectomy ( sterlisation ) drive which was a draconian measure to reduce overpopulation of the country and was the most notorious hallmark of the emergency ; scores of young people are shown forced by the chief's minions to undergo vasectomy and therefore unable to beget children in future . Not surprisingly, 'Indira hatao indriya bachao' ( remove Indira from power and save your genitals) became a powerful election slogan among these people in the next elections .
Indu ( Kirti ) latches herself into the struggle against emergency with a commitment that surprises ; the frail sweet looking Kirti Kulhari looks too fragile for this . She looks like woman made for romance , so goodlooking she is . But Kirti has put all her acting talent to use to produce a spontaneous performance that makes the story all too believable . Her emotional speech in the end in the courtroom when she is put on trial for fighting against the government is great to hear as a case against the emergency , and her stammer has been put to good effect to make her appear so vulnerable . And in the end her husband too realises his mistake....but by that time it is too late for making good past mistakes .
The movie has decent performances all around , and background music and songs and photography are okay too . The climax in which Indu is reunited with the children she had saved in the demolition drive makes for an emotional ending .
Verdict---Good .
Three stars out of five .
Sonali cable ( 2015 )
https://my-hit.org/storage/1460168_500x800x250.jpg
This film features cute actress Rhea Chakravborty playing the role of Sonali---a girl from the Mumbai ( Bombay ) slums who dares to enter the big bad world of the TV cable operator business . Now I have seen TV cable operations owners at close quarters and all of them are guarded by sten gun welding bodyguards . So what is such a cute gal doing in the cut throat TV cable operator business , where every TV cable operator tries to encroach on other's territory leading to violence ? Well , like a typical Mumbai ( Bombay ) gal , Sonali is fiesty and fire spirited , even though she has to look enticing and inviting to the film's audience exposing a bit of flesh in navel showing and cleavage baring and tight figure hugging tops .
Hell , she's even got the right credentials for her spiritedness , for her father is a former goon who boasts of having taken part in every riot that Mumbai ( Bombay ) has ever had . And he's got a surname fitting for a goon---Tandel . And Sonali Tandel may be only undeucated , but her father has given her all the leeway to do anything she wants , including angling for the boy she loves since childhood . And that is Raghu , played by Ali Fazal . He is the local politician's ( played by Smita Jaykar ) son and has a major stake in Sonali's cable operator business . His mother cannot control his love for Sonali , and he can't bear to see his mom smoking cigarettes . Mom returns the favour by calling Sonali her daughter and therefore her son's sister , thereby declaring her opposition to the match .
Enter the big bad TV cable network owner Waghela , played by Anupam Kher . He tries every trick in the book through his slick agent to take over Sonali cable but fails , finally resorting to real violence . His goons kill Sonali's right hand man ( Played by Raghav Juyal ) who is more than like family to her , shattering her personally . Waghela's men then wean away Sonali's workers by offering higher pay , and try to shoot dead Raghu her love . But they have forgotten the old saying--hell hath no fury like woman wronged....
Sonali hatches a plan to take revenge on Waghela , but does she succeed ? Watch the movie for the answers . Meanwhile , Rhea plays a slum grown Mumbai ( Bombay ) gal perfectly . Her language from the slums is perfect . Her non ability to speak english is even more perfect . Forty become 'phourty' and fifty becomes 'phiphty' when spoken from her mouth . She is sweet and sassy and endearing . Her gang of workers from Sonali cables are a boisterous bunch from the slums ; they dance unsophisticatedly and they talk the language of the Mumbai street . But the heart of the film is Sonali as acted by Rhea Chakraborty . The whole film revolves around her .
The pace of the film does loosen up towards the end . Anupam Kher as Waghela is more like a comic book villain---more funny than menacing . Songs and background music are okay . Colours and photography and good . The drama in the film however cannot be called high octane .
Verdict---one time watch .
Two and a half stars out of five .
https://youtu.be/O0S4X3NfKuI
Gurgaon ( August 2017 )
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/img/59458059/Master.jpg
I really like the haryanvi speaking people living around the national capital region . They provide endless fodder for violent films without complaining about their depiction as violent in films , thus proving that beneath their tough exterior they may be actually tolerant at heart . So we have to experience seeing one more violent film showing their violence....but when the alternative is seeing the horrible 'When Harry met Sejal' then a cinema buff like me has no choice....
So the character played by Akshay Oberoi ( Nikki ) does not particularly care for his sister---Preet , played by Ragini Khanna . Her father ( played by Pankaj Tripathi ) may have given her a foreign education , but actually she is an adopted child . She was adopted because her father wanted to atone for taking part in a horrible ritual of burying alive of a female child in his younger days....yeah you guessed right , the director wants to say that such things are common that region . So Nikki does not like his sister Preet , especially because father has named all his properties in her name . But he is the kind of person who does not like anyone except himself anyway , judging from the unsavoury deeds that he commits even before the story kickstarts .
So what are the unsavoury deeds Nikki commits ? For starters , he does the cinematically innovative act of kidnapping the guitarist of a rock concert because he and his friends were not allowed into the rock concert . Then he takes him to a remote place and forces the guitarist to perform for himself and his gang . But after this Nikki does not release the guitarist because he is in a particularly foul mood that day...you see , he lost 1 crore rupees in a bet he laid on a cricket game and has no way of returning it back....
But all these troubles do not stop Nikki from having a thing for the foreigner female friend Preet has brought from America , and when she refuses to oblige him after he fights with someone in a disco he pours his frustration on the prostitute he visits by smacking her face right and proper....
But what to do about the fact that Nikki has to pay money back to the betting mafia ; the one crore he lost on the cricket match bet ? His dead emotionless brain invents the plan of kidnapping his own sister Preet in order to extort money from his father ; anyway she is not his sister in reality....
But as the kidnapping progresses , things go wrong as they always do in so many movies . But in this film they do go wrong in a very sinister way .
Akshay Oberoi plays the main villain with a deadpan expression of callousness on his face always ; that's the only way he can convince you that he is bad , because otherwise he is a goodlooking guy who could easily play hero....except that in this movie there is no scope for hero , for almost everyone is as bad as it gets . Preet is a tough cookie too , who doesn't crumble under strain . But she is a woman , and women are kept suppressed by these people . So ultimately she is crushed by events and by her so called brother's malevolence and by the patriarchy that exists in these parts of India .
The director has shown an orgy of betrayal in the movie along with the endemic violence . Pankaj Tripathi plays the patriarch of the nouveau rich people who have killed their own brothers for land disputes in their humble past and have since got into money due to the development of Gurgaon around Delhi , but have hardly been able to curb their primitively warlike instincts inspite of their newfound affluence . Amir Bashir plays his brother , who is brutal and merciless . Guns , pickaxes , shovels---all are used for killing both innocent and guilty people .
The colours have dark shade to them in the movie , maybe because many events take place in the dark or maybe because of the dark theme of the movie . Photography is decent , and so are the background music and the songs which are also strictly in the background ; this is not the kind of film in which the characters are going to start singing with their lips or breaking into a bhangda anyway . It's a grim thriller with twists and convolutions that keep you rooted to your seat .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars .
Buddha in a traffic jam
33298
Arunoday Singh plays a dynamic young man who has come to Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh to study in a university . He is talkative and can make speeches inspiring his peers . He has all the makings of a yuppie ; he is liberal and cool and as sophisticated as they come . His and his friends' lifestyle is as cool as it can be in India ; they dance and sing to the beat of rock music , they ( including the females ) drink and smoke and party . His female friend ( played by Akanksha Dwivedi ) is free enough to dance almost topless on the bartender's table in a lounge . So free that she act attracts the unwanted attention of the moral police , who violently interrupt the act .
But at not too long a distance from Hyderabad in the district of Bastar lives another India . The tribals living there are being crushed by both sides---by the communists who beat them up regularly for co operating with government authorities and the government authorities who humiliate them for being in cahoots with the communists . They have no hope of progress or development . Their only source of pride is their 5000 year old way of life that has not been change for 5 millenia . It is they who are focus of the film , even though it is played out mainly in the big city .
Back in the big city , Arunoday Singh takes part in a campaign called pink bra campaign against the moral police and he comes into the limelight due this . His articulate speeches against the moral policing win him admirers and he becomes a popular figure in the university . During this time he comes to the attention of a professor in the university ( played by Anupam Kher ) and his wife played by Pallavi Joshi . They run an Non Govermental Organization ( NGO ) which sells pottery made by the tribals from Bastar and the sales of the pottery are used to help raise money for the tribals' development....a worthy cause , no doubt . Along with them is Mahie Gill , who openly says to Arunoday that she is a believer in the tribals' cause. A communist sympathiser who grows close to Arunoday soon .
But the NGO runs on government grants , and the government has recently decided to cut the flow of funds to such NGOs because the money is being fuelled to the naxalites . So Anupam Kher approaches Arunoday to create a way of raising money for his NGO . Arunoday takes up the task with full gusto and soon comes up with a master plan to sell the tribals' pottery online and cut out all the middlemen , so that the money is directly transferred to the tribals for whose benefit the whole enterprise is supposed to be . But Anupam Kher develops acute discomfort at this idea , and he says that he is a professor not a businessman and his prestige as a professor will be affected if he goes into online business .
But the real reason for his refusal is different ; he is the typical communist type of professor , in cahoots with the communists and their brutal leader who is played by Gopal K Singh . Anupam goes to meet them in their hideouts , and this time when he goes there he is told that Arunoday must be killed immediately . For Arunoday's plan for helping the tribals' is too good ; it will bypass all the middlemen controlled by communists and even the government agents who are all revealed to be part of the money siphoning mafia . Arunoday has unwittingly got mixed up in all this and has brought about his own doom...or has he ? For Anupam Kher's aide Mahie Gill is not a corrupt person but a real passionate communist who genuinely cares for the tribals' cause and is appalled by this planned murder , and her personal reason for this is that she is in love with Arunoday too . Also Anupam's wife Pallavi Joshi is shocked by her husband's involvement with the communists and is prepared to help Arunoday . Together they and Arunoday hatch a plan to bring the situation to justice....
Straightway I must say that it takes courage to make such a film ; the communist type of anti nationals whom the movie villainizes have a tremendous hold on our media and culture . All reviewers panned the movie after it was released under pressure from the liberal/anti national mafia which controls our press . And the director's courage must be applauded by watching the film . For it brings out the true colours of the universities like the one Arunoday attends and their professors . They are clearly funding the communists and in cahoots with them .
I could see myself in Arunoday---a real person , a buddha like figure who believes in peace and wants to lead a liberal westernized free life . But he has peoples' good at heart and being liberal does not mean he wants to be anti national . But in this movie Buddha has been caught in a traffic jam created by elements inimical to our nation....
The movie scores on photography and colours and has decent music and songs . Acting by Arunoday is top class and Anupam Kher too excels , especially excelling in his last speech when he spells out his mad dream of naxalite revolution in the classroom . For anybody interested in politics and wanting to be in touch with contemporary issues , the film is a must see !!
Verdict---Highly Recommended .
Four stars out of five
https://youtu.be/nn3hYmgK3ek
Shubhixx
08-17-17, 04:10 AM
Hey, I liked the way you represent the whole content! Now i know much more about Indian cinema:rolleyes:;): rolleyes:
Tara---the journey of love and passion ( 2013 )
http://img.nowrunning.com/content/Movie/2013/Tara---The/bg.jpg?fbrefresh=120122647321
I saw this film because it deals with the vaghari community from Gujarat , a community which inhabits the area around my clinic and forms my patients in large numbers . Also because vaghari women are very beautiful with many having light eyes and fair skin and frankly I am attracted to them . But I never dared to ask a vaghari woman out for a date because they are mostly illiterate and lower class . Also other gujaratis have a low opinion of them and that discouraged me . The former british rulers of India topped in this vilification . They declared the vagharis to be a robber caste . The stigma has stuck . However , this very stigma has brought the art film world to showcase this film in various film festivals across the world and give it awards . The appetite of westerners is whetted by films like these showing the life of alleged robber castes from poor India .
The film shows the trials and tribulations of Tara ( played by Rekha Rana )---a feisty young woman living in a village straddling the Maharashtra Gujarat border , judging from the equal number of Marathi and gujarati characters in the film . She deeply loves her husband Baldev ( played by Rohan Shroff ) and spends many nights soaked in passion making sumptuous love on their bed . I also was dreaming of doing the same with her , considering the bare naked back she was showing throughout the film wearing backless blouses . Indeed , the whole film shows these vaghari women in backless blouses which turn up our temperature . The women selected are fair and with seemingly soft skin of their bare naked backs , and they make love with their mates with some zest .
But misfortune strikes---Tara's husband Baldev is contracted by Patil who is the rich man of the village to ferment an illegal concoction of alcohol , but the police arrive on the scene to arrest Baldev . A wailing Tara tries to save Baldev to no avail and the court sends him to jail for months . This gives the villain of the story ( Babanya ) the chance to prey upon Tara , and when she refuses he spreads the canard that she is pregnant with his child in order to take revenge for her slapping him .
While this is happening to Tara her neighbour Sumi's condition is worse . Her husband has also been arrested along with Baldev and her own father in law takes advantage of this to try to make her the prey of his lust . Patil also takes sexual advantage of the poverty of vaghari women---so all men are the same . When Sumi's husband comes back he takes terrible revenge on the father in law by murdering him with a pickaxe . Meanwhile famine strikes the land and the vagharis have to steal water which is scarce by force from tankers with Tara in the lead threatening the driver of the water tanker with her sharp sickle . But she is a woman with humanity---she helps an old helpless woman by giving her own jewellery .
The big catastrophe for Tara comes when her husband believes Babanya's tall claims after coming out of jail and calls a village meeting and throws out Tara from the village for becoming pregnant with Babanya's child allegedly . Tara walks out in despair and gives birth to a female child . A kind Marathi lady gives her shelter . Here she meets Kishna ( played by Ashish Saleem ) who is well read and teaches her to read , falling in love with her . But Tara rejects his proposal of marriage ; she says she has respect for him but is now disinterested by the idea of marriage due to her past experience . She still believes that a woman's place is with her first husband , but the Marathi lady tells of her own alcoholic husband who used to beat her before he died and convinces Tara of remaining alone .
But the task of removing the stigma from Tara's name remains , and a DNA test is duly called for .The test confirms that Tara's child's father is her husband Baldev . Baldev agrees to accept her back , and do they all live happily after that ?.....naah...this is art film , and art films get awards only when the women walk independent . So Tara having cleared her name kicks out the undeserving husband and walks away free of men....she starts her own handicrafts business with her Marathi mentor and becomes financially free too....
The movie is obviously poverty porn made for the west to savour with images of poverty like an old woman dying due to lack of care and kids playing in dirty clothes . Acting is juvenile . But somewhere the movie's simplicity and earnestness of the heroine touches your heart . I gained an understanding of the life of my patients ; those people whom I used to ignore after treating them became real life people for me . Tomorrow when I walk into my clinic I will know something about them . The vagharis eat nonveg food unlike other gujaratis , a fact shown in repeated chicken killing scenes in the film .
Colours and photography of the film is real good . I found it an okay watch .
Two stars out of five .
Daddy ( September 2017 )
34918
'Daddy' is the honorific given to Mumbai/Bombay's well known gangster Arun Gawli, who grew up in the now famous dagdi chawl ( stone building ) and made it and it's people his fortress .
But the movie shows him to be a reluctant gangster ; not ready to fire a gun quickly at the person he is supposed to shoot at . The leader of his gang is first Babu Reshim and then his close friend Rama Naik ; he follows their footsteps seemingly with reluctance . And they are for the first half under the shadow of Dawood ( called Maqsood in the film ) , for whom they work.
The first half is full of shootouts and blood spilling in which Arun gets slowly involved , but his voice is always humble and no aura is built around him . But he does dare to fall in love with a woman of different religion called Zubeida and she runs away from her marriage to another man to be with him . He is shown forever loyal to her with no daillances with prostitutes that are common among gangsters . And Zubeida ( played by Aishwarya Rajesh ) is his pillar of strength ; she even follows his police cavalcade when the police are transferring him from one jail to another to ensure that the police do not kill him on the way .
The police sure want to kill him ; or rather one policeman does .He is inspector Vijaykar ( played by Nishikant Kamat ) , who dreams of promotion in the police force by killing Daddy . So much so that even when he has the chance to arrest Daddy he tries to kill him . But Daddy is too smart ; he and his cohorts consistently outwit Vijaykar almost until the climax .
It is after both Babu Reshim and Rama Naik get killed that Daddy gets his place in the sun ; the others have no choice but to anoint him as leader as the two are dead . And Daddy decides to bolster his reputation ( which is not that of a bold person at all ) by incurring the enemity of the ultimate gangster---Dawood who else . Though the shooting fails to kill Dawood , it finally brings Daddy out of the D gang's shadow.
And soon politicians make a beeline for Daddy . Dawood is forced to quit India and run to Dubai , leaving Daddy to boast about remaining in India while others have fled away. But Daddy does not join any political party and instead floats his own . Rejects all offers of political alliances. And triumphs over everyone by winning elections .
But at his moment of triumph he makes his biggest mistake handing victory to the police . He kills the politician who openly rebukes him In legislative assembly for being a gangster and this gives police the chance to send him in prison for life .
Arjun Rampal has put a superbly understated performance as Arun Gawli aka Daddy , and his acting has been complemented by Aishwarya Rajesh who really brings out the strength of their marital relationship . There are only a few songs but background music is commendable. Colours are appropriate for the settings and photography is good .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five
The final exit ( September 2017 )
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKV7UElUEAAfkpq.jpg
A fashion photographer ( played by Kunaal Roy Kapoor ) lives the hedonistic life---a new woman every evening and drugs every night . It begins to affect his job and his work and his doctor gives him pills to ward off the drug habit . But a strange supernatural thing begins to happen every time he wakes up from a drug fuelled slumber ; he sees clips on his computer of a mysterious woman at his bedside every night . Later he begins to see her live on the screen of his camera every time he takes a photo , and she comes closer every time he takes a new photo giving the chills to the audience . But she does not hurt him ever and goes away every night after staring at him for endless hours leaving behind her high heeled shoes .
Later he begins to have dreams of a mysterious place high in the mountains where a damsel is in dancing pose with her lovely face hidden by clothing . He desperately yearns to go to this place , but apparently he gets to see this place only when he has dreams after taking drugs . His doctor tells him that drug fuelled dreams are remembered as reality after waking up and that is why he must give up his drug habit . So is the damsel and the place in the mountains just a creation of his drug induced stupor ? Or is it for real ?
But one day Kunaal meets a delicately beautiful maiden in exposing clothes at his photo exhibition who takes him on a ride in his vehicle and shows the route to the place of his dreams on google maps . She also tells him the story of a rishi ( saint ) who was meditating to God to achieve salvation , but a stunningly beautiful girl began to dancing around him touching him with her lovely body and aroused his senses , thus destroying his tapasya ( meditation ) . But Kunaal's vehicle crashes and he wakes up next morning with the maiden ( Ananya Sengupta ) having vanished , but the google map on his mobile phone still pointing the way to his dream destination .
So Kunaal sets on a lone ride to his destination riding his SUV at double quick pace . Just like that . No preparation or packing . And he soon leaves the city and the last vestiges of habitation to arrive in the misty mountains . Is this a real ride or a trip ?---I mean a drug fuelled one . God only knows....
But at this point I wasn't caring....the movie was moving into my favourite real life destination---the high mountains , where air is crisp and clear and the weather is cool and there are tons of breathtaking sights to see . But where was this ? Somewhere beyond the high himalayas most probably in Ladakh....or was it Sikkim or Arunachal or Bhutan , or had the chinese government given permission to shoot in Shangri la---Tibet , what else .
And the photography was stunning to say the least , of the tall mountains and the distant snow capped peaks . The stark grey beauty of the surroundings harked only to one place---Ladakh . And the cinematography was even better than that of the movie ( Three idiots ) that had made Ladakh popular among tourists . And the road that Kunaal travelled on winded through mighty mountains and alongside shimmering rivers and his vehicle stopped on bridges atop the shimmering water of those rivers . Words cannot describe the ethereal beauty of the majestic landscape that the audience was being driven on it's cinematic journey , and I am debating whether to take the long route to Ladakh and plan an actual journey to that place or to take the shorter route and visit Ladakh like Kunaal does by taking drugs at night and hoping to get a 'trip' to that majestic destination:D ....no , I am only joking about the drugs part :p .
And I never wanted this cinematic journey to end ; the cinematic traveller in me had reached his destination in the high peaks at over 4000 meters . No more patients to examine and no more movie reviews to write ; just the nirvana of low oxygen levels at these rarefied heights that may send straight to heaven....but alas !! it was not me but Kunaal who was in this heaven !! And as he proceeded he met a number of goodlooking women who troubled him , or gave him directions on where to go and how to travel . And he met men who harassed him ( like the hotel manager of the shady hotel where he checked in ) or like the man in saintly robes who gave him good advice . And the journey was of ever increasing terror . Of interacting with mysterious strangers and experiencing sinister happenings . Of evil women bedding him ( always in woman on top position ) before terrorising him or evil men hanging themselves after filling him with fear .
But at the end of this magical tour Kunaal reaches the place he had dreamt of in his dreams . A place where there are white monuments in the mighty mountains filled with mist and snow . And there she is---the damsel whose face was covered by clothing in his dreams . And her face is revealed to be that of Ananya Sengupta !! The girl who had taken him on a ride in his car from his photo exhibition !! So is it a drug fuelled fantasy or a real journey ??
And Ananya reveals the truth to him ---that she was Mohini , the damsel who danced to destroy the meditation of the saint . But as she danced , she fell in love with the saint and could not bear to see it when when the saint reduced himself to ashes to atone for the breaking of his meditation and went to the earth to live as an ordinary mortal who was no one else but Kunaal !! . And the women he met on his himalayan journey were the women he had married in his several births since he reduced himself to ashes , and now had come the time to stop being born again and join the luscious looking Mohini in eternal bliss by stopping this cycle of rebirth....
The movie had transcended from horror to thriller to philosophical to metaphysical and I was spellbound....and the reason I told almost the whole story is that sadly no one is going to watch it . The theatre was practically empty . Does anyone even know that such a movie has been released ? The songs are forgettable , but music is decent and photography and colours are heartstoppingly stunning .
Acting is not the forte of any of the actors , but the women who come to haunt Kunaal on his journey have good looks . They are played by Archana Shastry , Elena Kazan , Reyhna Malhotra , Scarlett Wilson and Divya Agarwal . The movie moves from the modern life to explore the rich ancient indian culture and philosophy as easily as it moves from the concrete jungle of the city to the mountains . And it moves as easily from being spooked by horror scenes to being enthralled by the sheer beauty of the himalayas .
Verdict---for me , it was a magical experience .
For you , only two and a half stars out of five . For you haven't got it within you to appreciate what I did---The beauty of the tall mountains what else .
Newton ( October 2017 )
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7_sYDcaIjDI/WcvOfOuyswI/AAAAAAAAAio/BWfeEXdq5-EIAyjDCqM6U65xlmW4oPyIwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/newton-teaser.jpg
This movie clearly is the off beat kind of movie tending towards art cinema . And sure enough , the cast assembled to act in the movie is the staple for art films located in the rustic parts of India . The ever present Pankaj Tripathi is there ; which movie filmed in the mofussil parts of India would be complete without him ? And we have Raghubir Yadav and Sanjay Mishra too---both adept at playing small town characters . And is Anjali Patil being groomed to become the next Smita Patil---the doyen of Indian art cinema in the 70s and 80s ? Anjali was there in 'Chakravyuh' and 'Sameer' and is again in this film---all art films .
The hero of the film is Raj kumar Rao . He plays an impossibly honest man ; refuses the proposal of a girl's family because the girl is not yet 18 even though she is ready for marriage ; is thorough in his preparation for even the most unimportant task ; asks the most naive questions to the character played by Sanjay Mishra who is teaching him to be a polling officer ; and is punctual for every job and situation . His real name is Nutan Kumar , but he changes it to 'Newton' because Nutan sounds too feminine .
He is the reserve polling officer for an election , but the assigned polling officer refuses to serve in the region allocated to him because it is Chhattisgarh---the heart of communist rebellion in India , where life and limb is not safe ; indeed the film starts with the murder of a political leader by communist rebels in that region . So Newton volunteers and is whisked by helicopter to the heart of danger---the rebel affected district of Bastar in Chhattisgarh . A jungle region where there are as many snakes and scorpions as there are communist rebels . Where it is safer to not wear a bullet proof jacket than is is to wear one because any person wearing it is thought to be a government agent and likely to be shot at be the rebels .
In fact , so dangerous is the region thought to be that the security officer of that area ( Pankaj Tripathi playing Aatma Singh ) says that it is better not to go to the actual voting site that is 8 kilometres away . But Newton is too much of a stickler to the rules and forces the whole group to go there , using his powers as presiding officer . With them also comes a school teacher named Malko ( Anjali Patil ) , who is a local who speaks hindi but also can communicate with the tribals in their language because she is one of them .
After they reach the ramshackle election booth , no one turns up for voting because the elections have no meaning for these poor tribals who are sandwiched between the security forces of the government on one side and the communist rebels on the other . Enthusiasm for bringing them to vote is awoken only when a western english speaking female journalist is coming to cover the whole event . But the police officer bringing her is disappointed that she does not have blonde hair !!
Forget western blondes ; I was hoping to see the petite Miss Malko and the honest Mr Newton strike up some kind of romance....after all , the romantic in me wanted to see some love in a film even though it is arthouse stuff . And they did strike a rapport towards the end of the film , kindling hopes for the start of a relationship ; I am keeping my fingers crossed....
But where were the expected stars of the film ?---The communists who else ? And when were they going to make their appearance ?
Sure enough , firing is heard from all sides late in the afternoon . And this forces pack up of the voting booth . But at the end of it all is a twist . And that twist really tells us as to how much of a committed person is Mr Newton to his sticking to rules and to honesty....
The film tries to be neutral but it's director's heart is with the tribals ; numerous scenes show the security forces treating the tribals with contempt , even though Aatma Singh tries to be fair to the extent possible with them . And the tribals would like their own man to present their problems in Indian capital city Delhi but his name is not in the voting list . Many twists and turns occur in the film and keep us interested , but Newton's unique reaction to each twist and turn is what makes watching of the film special .
The heart of the film lies in Rajkumar's acting as Newton ; he is so earnest in his role that he lifts the film completely . Others are all good too in their respective roles . Photography is okay , background music is decent though I remember hearing only one song , colours are okay . Above all , the people and sights and sounds and the conditions of the communist infested regions are pictured perfectly .
Verdict---four stars out of five .
Chef ( October 2017 )
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/01/Chef_-_Poster.jpg/220px-Chef_-_Poster.jpg
This movie is the official Indian remake of the American movie CHEF that was released in 2014 .
Saif Ali Khan plays a hot tempered north Indian chef named Roshan Kalra who works in a restaurant in USA . He hits a patron of the restaurant because of the patron's complaint over food and gets fired from his job . Even his past behaviour has not been fully responsible . His south Indian wife Radha Menon ( played by Padmapriya Janakiraman ) has divorced him due to this and lives with his only son Armaan ( played by Svar Kamble ) in Cochin in state of Kerala in south India .
Inspite of being the father of a young boy Roshan has not had a chance to bond with him due to his job in US , and so he takes the opportunity offered by the firing from the job to live in Cochin for a few days in his ex wife's house to reconnect with his son . The son is all too eager to bond with his dad and they go to Delhi ( which is Roshan's hometown in India ) to revive his old memories and to meet old acquaintances and too also meet Roshan's dad , who is still sore over Roshan abandoning him for the USA . Roshan tells his son of his hard struggle from poverty to achieve success and introduces him to north indian dishes as the son has been used to eating only south Indian dishes until then .
On returning to Cochin Roshan wants his wife back , but she has already got another beau named Biju ( played by Milind Soman ) who is so rich that he can afford to keep a full scale elephant along with several costly antique cars . Biju suggests along with ex wife Radha that Roshan take over a run down double decker bus that he has and convert it into a mobile restaurant . Roshan is at first appalled by the idea but soon accepts the offer because it gives him a chance to stay in India to reconnect with his son .
As Roshan assembles his team of driver Alex and Bangladeshi cook , they begin in Cochin and travel all the way to Delhi via Goa in the refurbished double decker bus . And they make and sell good tasty food all the way . The scenes of the dishes being made are torture for a foodie , especially if he or she is seating with stomach empty watching the movie---as I did till interval . Because the dishes are mouthwatering , but the same are not available around you . Intermission brought some relief as I ate food and the watching the dishes being served becomes tolerable on full stomach .
Biju's magnanimity in giving Roshan the chance to stay on in India proves to be foolish , as the chance gives the family the opportunity to reconnect and come close . In the end Radha gives in too and presumably dumps her rich lover for the sake of her son's wish to stay with his father . And Roshan's father is with them too....all's well that ends well .
But not all is well for the viewer . The film has more talk than anything happening , and all the talk bores you out . The father son bonding is okay , but the wife's change of heart back to her ex husband is not convincing . Acting is okay by everyone including the hard drinking and hard driving driver Alex and the Bangladeshi cook . Photography is good---of the backwaters of Kerala and the scenery of Goa . Colours are okay . Music is so so however and songs are forgettable .
The pace of events and the boredom of the scenes eventually tires you out . Roshan's son looks like a cute kid and Padmapriya looks good too . But the movie is not happening . Didn't like it much .
Verdict---Not good .
One and a half stars out of five .
Secret superstar ( October 2017 )
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/50/Secret_Superstar_-_Poster_3.jpg
Review has spoilers
Young Insia ( played by Zaira Wasim ) is a muslim girl growing up in Baroda ( Vadodara ) in the Indian state of Gujarat , and is the apple of the eye of her mother Najma ( played by Meher Vij ) . Mother is a liberal at heart and supports her daughter's love for singing with guitar , and even buys her a laptop by selling off her necklace so that she can upload the songs she sings on youtube .
But the life of both mother and daughter is clouded by the presence of the head of the family---Insia's father , who is not only stern but is violent and beats her mother if she dares disobey him . Though at first he seems to be supportive of Insia's education to the extent of tearing apart the strings of her guitar because she does not get enough marks in school , he turns more and more backward as the film progresses . So the songs that Insia uploads on youtube have to be with her face covered by a burkha ( hijab like garment ) because she does not want her identity to be known ; if her father came to know of it he would go once again on a rampage of violence .
Insia frankly wants her mother to divorce her father , but mother rejects this idea for the simple reason that she has nowhere to go and has no money of her own . Meanwhile Insia's voice is so melodious that she becomes a youtube sensation who sings behind the veil---the so called secret superstar . And she has a not so secret admirer in school , a boy named Chintan ( Tirth Sharma ) who loves her and whom she soon begins to love back .
Enter Shakti Kumarr ( played by Amir Khan ) , a quirky crazy music director with a taste for zany songs that match his personality....he wants secret superstar to sing for his songs . And Chintan helps Insia meet Shakti , who is so impressed that he allows the recording to be done in the melodious style Insia wants rather than his style .
But life has taken a different turn for Insia ; her father wants her to marry in Saudi Arabia to some guy , for he is shifting to that place for a new job . And in his house his word is law ; Insia's mother has no say and does not dare to oppose him for fear of provoking his terrible rage . All her liberal dreams for her daughter come crashing down as her daughter seems to be headed for marriage in Saudi Arabia . Her laptop is smashed to pieces which her younger brother tries to stitch back in a pathetic display of innocence...no more singing and no more superstardom....
But out there in Mumbai ( Bombay ) a world is waiting....a world that eagerly awaits to unveil the identity of secret superstar....where many people from Mumbai's film industry want her sing for their films....where secret superstar is nominee for best singer at an awards function....
So will Insia dare to break the veil of tradition to go on the path she chooses by revolting against her father ? Will her mother muster up the courage to go against centuries of tradition to tell her husband on his face that she does not want to go to Saudi Arabia and that she wants to divorce him ? The answer to this is predictable . But the manner in which this happens is emotionally rewarding to see . The maker of the film ( Amir Khan who else ) is a master of striking an emotional connection with the audience .
Amir Khan himself plays a comedy role with dialogues that suit his role . He has a quirky beard and a strange sense of clothing . But he does deliver the laughs . Acting by everyone is good . Meher Vij excels as the liberal mother who is trapped in tradition but is no nice that she allows her daughter one outing with her boyfriend before embarking for Saudi Arabia even at such a tender age because she thinks that it might be their last time together . Zaira Wasim looks pretty and acts well as Insia . Insia's father Farookh is played by Raj Arjun , who instills terror without appearing unduly abnormal .
Music is the strong point of the film , and the songs are very good if you like them to be melodious ; that's the way I like them at least . Colours and photography is decent enough . Critics could find many flaws in the film , especially about the lack of reason why Shakti Kumarr agrees to help Insia and about how could an obscure singer become an internet sensation in a month without powerful backing . But ordinary folks will like it , and always it is the common man's backing which helps a film get popularity . I see a winner at the box office .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five .
Rukh ( Direction ) October 2017
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Rukh_Theatrical_Poster.jpg
Manoj Bajpayee plays Diwakar---a businessman who runs a leather factory . But lately he has been out of his house for days on end , worrying his wife Nandini ( Smita Tambe ) . One day his car suddenly meets with an accident . His son Dhruv ( Adarsh Gourav ) who is only eighteen is studying in boarding school , and has to hasten home after hearing of this news . On returning he finds out that his mother has shifted to her mother's house and his house is now occupied by someone else .
Dhruv decides to find out if his father's death was really an accident , and as he investigates he begins to believe that it was murder . He begins to persistently question his father's associates and some of them begin to blurt out what was happening . His father's business partner Robin ( Kumud Mishra ) was using the leather company to launder black money for his Saudi clients , who used it to finance underworld operations . The income tax department had caught this fact and was handing over the matter to CBI ( central bureau of investigation ) . And Dhruv's father Diwakar had agreed to present all records of the company to the CBI , which would have led to Robin's arrest . Dhruv begins to believe that his father was murdered by Robin to prevent this .
As Dhruv begins to unravel the truth , he realises how much his father's real personality remained hidden from him due to his long absence from home in boarding school . Soon we learn about his own unsavoury past too . Dhruv has been sent to boarding school because of his fight with another boy whom he badly wounded and permanently maimed for life . His own personality is thus hot tempered . Soon he begins to plan revenge on Robin by fiddling with the pistol of his friend and dreaming of using it on Robin . He traces the truck driver with whose truck his father Diwakar met with an accident and threatens him with his gun .
But all through this Dhruv's mother Nandini wants him to not proceed further with his investigation . And who is the mysterious man who keeps following him in his car all the time ? Something is fishy out there....
As Robin and his cohorts try to pin the blame of the whole black money laundering operation on Diwakar in order to escape the CBI's clutches , Dhruv goes on an all out effort to resolve the mystery and clear his father's name . This leads to another fight ; this time with his father's associate Shinde , who is a hot tempered person himself . But when the truth comes out , Dhruv is left dumbfounded by what had really happened . He realises that his mother was trying to shield him from what had really happened , and the reality of life is to try to come to terms with bad news and not investigate it like some detective in a mystery thriller movie .
The movie moves at a languid pace in the first half and I was beginning to lose interest . Only in the second half does it perk up and gives a satisfactory climax . Music is the strong point of the film even though there are only two songs . Photography is okay though colours are one dimensional . Acting is okay by everyone , but Adarsh Gourav excels in his portrayal of Dhruv . Watch him as he comes to terms with his own past as he goes about the investigation of his father's death , to the point where we realise that the movie is about the cleansing of one's own faults rather than a typical suspense movie . In fact it is parallel cinema , what we lay public calls an art movie .
Verdict ---Decent .
Three stars out of five .
Aksar 2 ( Again and again---part 2 ) November 2017
http://stat2.bollywoodhungama.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Aksar-2-1.jpg
An aged heiress called Madame Khambatta ( Lilette Dubey ) likes to surround herself with handsome young men....or so says her favourite among those young men , Pat ( Gautam Rode )---the person who manages her financial affairs . But obviously she does not want young women around , who would distract those young men away from her . So it is with difficulty that Pat manages to convince Madame to keep as governess the sexy young Sheena ( Zarine Khan ) with a hefty pay packet , because he wants to bed her and lusts for her . But when her forces himself on Sheena in bed , he also says some unsavoury things about Madame Khambatta that Sheena records on audio .
Not that the other young men around Madame are any better . Both her security incharge Bachchan Singh ( Mohit Madaan ) and her lawyer ( played by cricketer Sreesanth ) also are salivating for her estate , and are waiting for her death....and are not against hastening the death by all means fair and foul . Madame's will gives an important chunk to her fave---Pat who else . But the tape in the hands of Sheena gives her the chance to blackmail Pat with the help of Bachchan Singh to change the will in their favour . But her boyfriend Ricky ( Abhinav Shukla ) is devastated that she had to sleep with Pat to get the will changed . He is not swayed even by her tearful pleas to him that she had done everything for him ; yeah he is a long lost relative of Madame Khambatta whom she had kicked out of her life .
As all the young men and Sheena fight over the future of Madame Khambatta's money and estate , a game of deadly intrigue unfolds behind the unsuspecting Madame's back . Soon it erupts into violence and attempted or actual murders . But the problem is that the game gets too complicated as the movie progresses . And in the process the audience gets bored later .
The photography is good and the settings posh and beautiful . No scenes of poverty or uncleanliness . Everything in the movie is spic and span . Only rich well dressed goodlooking people living in luxury in penthouses and resorts . Music is good and so are the songs .
Zarine Khan looks hot , if you like buxom babes . Her skin seems so fair and her flesh seems so soft and her red lipsticked lips look luscious . Her boobs are flattened by the tight dresses she wears , but they are so big that they can hardly be suppressed . She has some kissing and lovemaking scenes with Abhinav Shukla ; arches her body while kissing him .
But Zarine fails to save the film even with her skin show . And she cannot match the oomph of Udita Goswami , who had played heroine in the first edition of Aksar . The convoluted happenings towards the climax eventually tire you out .
Verdict---Not good .
One and a half stars out of five .
Hampi ( November 2017 )
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DNCzMOsVwAEV5J_.jpg
The setting of the movie is modern Hampi---the site of the ancient hindu empire of Vijaynagar ( city of victory ) . In 2009 I had spent a few pleasant days savouring the splendid archaeological remains of the once magnificent city , and the happy memories of that are what brought me to see the movie . Among the splendid ruins of the city , time seems to stand still . And that has attracted many westerners there , leading a life of free abandon which the conservative hindu people around them barely tolerate for the simple reason that the western white people are willing to spend lots of money to boost the local economy . But what brings a modern Indian girl to this place I wonder....?
Typically , the reason to come to Hampi is to escape....escape from the pain of the breaking down of the marriage of her parents that brings the character played by Sonalee Kulkarni to this place . And what better place to heal that pain than Hampi , where time stands still ; where western 'hippies' come to escape from their land and their people .
Seeing her parents' marriage leading towards divorce , Sonalee has stopped believing in love . This , inspite of being young and hip . Her female friend played by Prajakta Mali has ditched her after promising to come on this trip and so Sonalee has come here all alone . On coming , she forms a rapport with some local people like a rickshaw driver and a tribal woman . This due to her nature to let others lead the way in striking friendships . Isn't it dangerous for a lone young woman in a strange place away from home to let others lead her ?
But this trait of Sonalee to come under influence of others comes to good use in striking an instant rapport with a cool dude she meets---played by Lalit Prabhakar . As they hang around the temples and monuments of the city , he begins to talk about life and much of his talk is philosophical ; I guess Hampi brings out the philosopher in you . Together the two go rafting in moonlit night and together they bathe an elephant . They begin to flirt and Lalit asks her for a kiss....but all this is temporarily interrupted as her friend played by Prajakta Mali comes to join her on the vacation .
Prajakta is attracted to Lalit too , and asks Sonalee permission to flirt with him....and Sonalee prevaricates and blushes in giving that , this being the first sign of her having feelings for Lalit . The three then hang around the splendour of the ruins , with Lalit trying to make both jealous by flirting with white 'hippie' females that he meets . He shows them the podium where the queen of the empire used to dance , and Prajakta asks Sonalee to dance....Sonalee obliges ; the result is a song and dance . They visit the famous Vitthala temple , whose idol has been shifted to Pandharpur to escape past invaders . They admire the creativity of artisans long ago , who crafted the architecture on stone . Lalit regales the girls by anecdotes about the city .
But Lalit and Sonalee have a hot argument over the existence of true love in the world , and Lalit leaves in a huff the next day . And he is not to be found . Prajakta has to leave too , and Sonalee is left quite alone . And alone , she discovers that she has found true love . It is none other than Lalit . And she stays searching for him in every nook and corner of Hampi endlessly talking about him .
And I found myself rooting for her in her search , wanting her to find Lalit somewhere among the historical ruins . For this simple love story had made an impression on my heart . It is the way the director has simplistically projected it that you fall in love with the very simplicity of the story . And when she finally does find him , you feel caught in a wave of real emotion .
Colours and photography are good , and songs and music even better . The heroine is not conventionally beautiful due to her boy cut hair , but everyone acts well especially Lalit Prabhakar .
Verdict---Good .
Three stars out of five .
Ittefaq ( Coincidence ) November 2017
https://india2017.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Ittefaq.jpg
A famous author called Vikram Sethi ( Siddharth Malhotra ) finds his wife dead on the night his book is going to be launched and calls the police . But when the police threaten to hold him responsible for his wife's murder he escapes from there . As he is escaping in his car it overturns , and later he is found with the dead body of a lawyer named Shekhar Sinha ( Samir Sharma ) in the apartment of a woman who has come in front of a police vehicle for help---none other than the lawyer's wife Maya Sinha ( Sonakshi Sinha ) .
The presence of the same person around two deaths perplexes the police and the case is given to be solved by police officer Dev ( Akshay Khanna ) . The big problem is that both Maya and Vikram give totally different accounts of how events unfolded . As their accounts unfold before us , every part of what one tells the police is juxtaposed against the account told by the other person . At first , the story told by Maya seems to be more credible than the story told by Vikram . But both are suspects . Dev has to bring all the resources of his brain to bear to try to crack the case . This involves threatening and cajoling the two suspects to tell their version of what happened and try to find the truth from their differing accounts . Soon the story told by Vikram too seems credible and the mystery is a hard nut to crack .
The three main actors do act well in their parts . Siddharth Malhotra does look innocent in his acting and Sonakshi oozes sex appeal with her lacy short cleavage baring clothes and the lover with whom she is having an extra marital affair adds his own spice to the proceedings . Akshay Khanna is the balding police officer who acts tough with his own policemen and also the suspects .
As one person is thought to be guilty and then the other , the twists and turns predictably come into the story . And they do keep you engaged . The twist in the end does give a surprise because of the manner in which the murderer has taken advantage of a coincidence ( ittefaq ) , though I was expecting some sort of final twist to the story .
Colours and photography are decent and background music is okay . But the proceedings were too serious and one dimensional and lacked zing which gives much needed entertainment . Maybe an item song or some exciting car chase scene or fight sequence would have given the much needed zing .
Verdict---decent .
Three stars out of five .
Waarrior Savitri
http://www.zoom.lk/forums/downloads/subs/WarriorSavitri/warriorrraa.png
WAARRIOR SAVITRI is the modern version of the story of satyavan savitri. So what is they story of satyavan savitri ?
It is a story from hindu mythology . Savitri was the daughter of a king . She fell in love with Satyavan . But the astrologer told her that Satyavan would die after marriage leaving her a widow . However Savitri was too deeply in love and married Satyavan nevertheless . And Satyavan did become lifeless soon . But Savitri took the lifeless body in her arms and prayed to the god of death ( Yama ) , who comes to take a person when his time on earth is over---according to hindu mythology . And she prayed for a long time . Yama was impressed by her devotion and appeared before her . She asked for him to spare her love Satyavan . But Yama said that when a man's time was up it was up . He had to take him away to heaven or hell , according to that man's deeds on earth . But he said that Savitri could ask him any other boon and he would grant her . So Savitri asked him to let her become the mother of Satyavan's child . And Yama granted that boon without thinking . But how could Savitri become mother of Satyavan's child if he was dead ? Yama had been tricked , and he had to bring Satyavan to life and reunite Savitri with her love . For this act , Savitri has long been considered the ideal wife by hindus for thousands of years .
So on to the movie....
Niharica raizada plays the modern savitri, who has martial arts skills and hence is a warrior. She marries against the advice of her astrologer , who says her husband will die after marriage as per his horoscope .
The couple shifts to Vegas, which gives Niharica the chance for some skin show in bikinis and some kissing smooching shots with her hero in bathtub .
But he has enemies there , who want to kill him . But they hadn't reckoned with SAVITRI---the warrior. She fights them all to protect her Satya...i mean Satyavan. Karate and kung fu chops are followed by entreaties by her to Yama ( Om Puri ) to spare Satya/Satyavan. And do I even have to spell it out that she triumphs over them all....
Photography of Vegas is good and songs are decent but editing of the film is rank sloppy. So sequence of scenes looks disjointed. Acting is not great .
One star out of five .
Nice reviews. You may want to post the year the movie was made, by your movie poster, since there are quite a few with the same name.
The house next door ( november 2017 )
http://www.avatarcinemas.com/ZUploadImageFiles/ddc475e5-e725-40e0-9265-7a30345142d3.jpg
Siddharth plays a doctor named Krish who inserts electrodes in the brain to cure parkinsonism . He and Lakshmi ( Andrea Jeremiah ) are a happy couple who live in the high snowcapped mountains . The house next door has been lying empty , but soon new neighbours move in . The family has two daughters , younger Sarah and older Jenny ( Anisha Victor ) . Their father is Paul ( Atul Kulkarni ) . Jenny develops a crush on Krish which he takes sportingly , though it irritates his wife Lakshmi .
But soon strange things begin to happen to Jenny ; she jumps into a well and has to be saved by Krish . She walks to the edge of a cliff , but does not jump off . Soon she acts possessed and the doctor Suresh who is called to treat her insists on an exorcism . The exorcism scene in which the pastor ( Prakash Belavadi ) tries to remove the spirit from Jenny is probably the best pictured exorcism I have seen in a movie , outclassing even the exorcism scenes of Hollywood movies . The bodies of some the protagonists are thrown off in different directions , some hang in the air and even the crucifix turns upside down and so does the pastor .
Soon a psychic ( Avinash Raghudevan ) is called and he announces that three malevolent spirits reside in that house . Research by a police inspector reveals about a chinese family that resided in that house log ago , and a sole eyewitness to the terrible happenings long ago still alive . The eyewitness tells about the chinese man who wanted to sacrifice a girl child in order to beget a son , and was forced to kill his own daughter . Unable to bear the shock , his wife killed herself and the chinese man committed suicide by jumping into the well . It is their spirits who are haunting the house . Everyone has to abandon the house if they have to free themselves from the malignant influence . But the spirit of the chinese man will come to complete the ritual he could not complete on that day itself as it is day of the solar eclipse .
But unknown to everyone , the spirit of the chinese man has already entered the body of one of the people among the protagonists . Who is that person ? What will that person do to stop them from leaving the house ? What gruesome things are going to happen in the house ? Watch the movie for the answers .
The photography is the movie is good , of the high mountains capped with snow and lush with greenery but also of the stupendous exorcism scene and the solar eclipse . The chills and jolts come at the right places in the movie , making your hair stand on end . Background music is good and helps in the shock value of the chilling scenes by making the right noises when the jolts come . Acting is good by everyone , especially by Anisha Victor as Jenny .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five .
Bhouri ( 2016 )
https://s4.scoopwhoop.com/anj/bhouri/278904601.jpg
Bhouri ( Masha Paur ) is a beautiful 23 year old girl newly married to a 55 year old man in a rural part of India . The reason for the marriage is superstition . Her earlier 3 fiances have died due to various causes and in these rural parts she is considered as bringing bad luck , so she is has to marry a 55 year old man called Dhanua ( Raghubir Yadav ) who is the only one willing to accept her as wife . He is a labourer .
But Bhouri is so beautiful that all the men in the village begin to lust for her . The chaudhary ( headman---played by Mohan Joshi ) , the shopkeeper Baniya ( Manoj Joshi ) the labour contractor ( Mukesh Tiwari ) ,the corrupt priest ( Sitaram Panchal ) , and even the doctor ( Shakti Kapoor ) of the village---all openly lust for her . They openly and brazenly ask her husband to send her to them for sex in return for money . When he back answers them , he is thrashed . The whole village has this kind of atmosphere of sex addiction . Chaudhary has sex with a married village woman because she is poor and needs his money . Doctor gives free treatment to families in the village if their women agree to have sex with him . Only the police officer ( Aditya Pancholi ) is honest and brings to book any criminals . Two men who are chaudhary's brothers rape a girl and the police officer brings them to book by hanging them upside down and beating them . An older woman kaki ( Kunika ) tries to protect Bhouri and her husband from the sexual advances of the fivesome of baniya and chaudhary and doctor and priest and labour contractor .
Soon Bhouri's reputation of bringing bad luck to her partners seems to affect her husband too . He begins to cough violently . The doctor falsely accuses him of being HIV positive , so that he will be kicked out from the village and he can get his hands on Bhouri . But Bhouri begins to work as labourer in place of her husband and rejects all the lustful advances of predators .
One day a handsome young film maker from the city comes to film the lives of these people . But Bhouri finally loses her control and gets attracted to him and has a night of wild passion with him . The villagers who have unsuccessfully lusted for Bhouri beat the young film maker out of sheer jealousy and drive him out of the village . Her husband too forsakes her , for she is in love with the film maker .
But the film maker does not return and Bhouri who is left alone has to give in to the lust of the villagers to satisfy her monetary needs . Soon all the village men are having repeated sex with Bhouri . But many of the begin to die out and doctor's daughter who has sex with one of them is diagnosed HIV positive . Tests are done on the villagers and most of them are now HIV positive . But Bhouri's husband who was ironically falsely accused of being HIV positive turns out to be HIV negative .
So who has been spreading AIDS in the village ? In the end we find out that the film maker was HIV positive and Bhauri contracted the disease from him . And the villagers became HIV positive because of their unbridled and unprincipled lust for her . Nature has it's own ways of taking revenge for injustice....
The movie seems to have been made with India's current image as rape / lust/ sexploitation capital of the world in mind , and the shameless attempt of the film makers is to bolster that image in the eyes of the world in order to get awards . Foreigners who see the film will come out of the theatre with horrifying image of Indian men as rapists and sex addicts who shamelessly lust for even married women and openly ask their husbands to send their wives to them . Shakti Kapoor the eternal rapist of bollywood has been specially roped in to play role of sex predator , something that he is past master of playing . However , embarrassed by his atrocious role his daughter actress Shraddha Kapoor has forced him to disassociate himself from the film's publicity . But the damage to India's image has already been done . The liberal / communist lobby which backs making of these films openly encourages this self hate .
Photography is good and so is background music . Acting is good by most , if acting loudly as sex mad predators is your cup of tea . Masha Paur looks really good as Bhouri . But I was appalled by the open and brazen sex madness shown in the village .
Verdict--just about okay .
Two stars out of five .
Dashakriya ( funeral rites ) December 2017
This film is based on the novel written by Baba Bhand a few decades ago . The movie villanises the priests who perform the funeral day rites of deceased Hindus.
The setting is the holy town of Paithan which was the ancient Pratishthan ; the capital of the Satavahana dynasty that produced the famous emperor Shalivahana also known as Gautamiputra Satkarni . It is situated on the banks of the Godavari river and known as dakshin Kashi . Today it is the centre for funeral rites of dead Hindus .
The most powerful priest among the priests doing these rites is played by Manoj Joshi. He is shown always going about town with a goon cum bodybuilder behind him . Now this was a novelty for me . Which priest performing rituals goes around accompanied by thugs ? I have never seen nor heard of such priests.
But the priests do more shocking things . They openly rush like street hawkers at people who come to the bank of the river with dead bodies . And they peddle their skills at performing rites hungrily hounding the people in the hope they choose them for performing the rites . All in a shameless bid to earn money.
During performance of the rites the priests force the persons they are dealing with to cough up more money by claiming that otherwise the souls of the deceased won't be released from their bodies. And the priests come to blows with bamboo sticks over who will do the rites . Manoj Joshi grabs the maximum customers from the clutches of weaker priests who lead a hand to mouth existence.
All this leads to complaints to the head of the town , played by Dileep Prabhavalkar. He insults Manoj Joshi on an auspicious occasion and Manoj Joshi takes revenge by using strong arm tactics to grab a pie from the money of all depending on the last rites rituals for their livelihood. Yeah, all people including the barbers who shave the deceased's son's head ( a Hindu has to shave his head after his father's death) are into fleecing customers but none more than the Brahmins.
When Dileep Prabhavalkar dies in a road accident Manoj Joshi refuses to perform his dashakriya ( funeral rites ) due to the insult he suffered. Then Dileep's wife takes the extraordinary step of doing the rites at the hands of a lower caste boy called Bhanya played by Arya Adhav. He is the hero of the film and a parallel track runs about him in the movie . Bhanya has regularly watched the rites due to his job as collector of coins dropped into water during performance of the rites and knows the rites fully. This bold step of using him to perform the rites was applauded by the audience in the theatre.
The parallel track about Bhanya shows his school antics and friendship with a girl older than him who jokes about marrying him . A large disclaimer about the film not supporting child marriage begins the film due to presence of these jokes . But at the end of the film her track leads to tragedy as she dies in childbirth after marriage with another man .
Bhanya is so poor that he has to make clothes by clothing which had been on the body of the dead person. His father is a drunkard and drinking is common among even the townsfolk. One poor priest also drinks and smokes due to depression over his wife's illness even though such acts are forbidden to his caste . Bhanya dreams of using money he collects to finance his brother's sewing machine but here too Manoj Joshi's goon grabs the money.
So priests are the villains everywhere according to movie director Sandeep Patil who is from another caste . One suspects the hand of the anti priest lobby or leftist/communist lobby that is perpetually ant upper castes in making of the film .
Acting is good by everyone especially Manoj Joshi and Aryan Adhav as Bhanya . I could see the common people cheering the movie in the theatre, but showing priests who perform rituals resorting to outright thuggery and street violence is nothing short of vilifying the priest community.
Verdict----decent .
Two and a half stars out of five .3876838768
38768
Monsoon shootout ( December 2017 )
https://img.spicinemas.in/resources/images/movies/monsoon-shootout/1000x320.jpg
A newly recruited cop full of idealistic ideas is introduced to the ruthless game of police dealing with criminals when his boss Khan ( Neeraj Kabi ) kills two criminals extra judicially in what is commonly called an 'encounter killing' in Mumbai/Bombay . The new cop Adi ( Vijay Verma ) is the son of a late cop and his mother has told him of three choices in life---the idealistic path of righteousness , the practical path of compromising with your principles for gaining success , and the third middle path .
And he is rapidly called to take a decision on taking one of the three paths on his next assignment , where he chases a criminal called Shiva ( Nawazuddin Siddiqui ) to a wall beyond which lies a railway track . As Shiva is about to climb the wall and try to escape , Adi is positioned some distance behind him but in a position to shoot him . This killing too is going to be another 'encounter killing' unapproved by the courts but deemed necessary by the police in order to rid the system of criminals . The monsoon showers have opened up rather heavily drenching the situation in rain and making the potential shootout a monsoon shootout .
But at this point and position the idealist inside Adi crops up and he hesitates to kill Shiva . Instead he ponders the three paths in front of him and wonders how each path will lead to . Each scenario unfolds in front of him one by one and after each scenario the film returns to that moment in time where Adi is positioned to shoot at Shiva . The completion of the three scenarios takes up almost the entire film .
In the first idealistic scenario Adi does not shoot Shiva and is demoted to a desk job as punishment . And Shiva who is an axe welding murderer unleashes such violence that Adi has to take up a gun again to handle him . In the second practical scenario Adi shoots Shiva , but Shiva turns out to be innocent and Adi has to suffer brickbats and curses of Shiva's wife ( Tannishtha Chatterjee ) . In the third middle path Adi does not kill but injures Shiva and takes him to the court disregarding his boss Khan's orders , but Shiva tricks the courts into letting him out on bail . Shiva then kills Khan and Adi has to take bloody revenge for his boss's murder .
During the playing of the three scenarios we are introduced to other characters like Shiva's underworld boss , his girlfriend ( played by Sreejita De ) who shows off her lovely body by removing her scanty clothes and heating up our vitals on several occasions , Shiva's son who spits fire from his eyes , Khan's sleazy subordinate who lays his lecherous hands on Shiva's wife partially undressing her , Khan's and Adi's female superior in the force who is in league with politicians to get herself a promotion , and the corrupt politician himself who is in league with Shiva's gangster boss .
And in showing these characters , the dark side of Mumbai/Bombay is shown as never before . Indeed this is a decidedly unglamorous film that does not glorify the confrontations between cops and criminals but shows them in all their dirt and grime . An art film in fact . It shows a Mumbai/Bombay we don't enjoy seeing , full of seedy and disreputable characters .
In all three scenarios , Adi ultimately returns wounded to his girlfriend Anu played by Geetanjali Thapa , who is a doctor and tends to his wounds bandaging them . Both love each other and in each scenario Anu accepts Adi inspite of his wrong decisions . She is the soothing balm in the troubled mind of Adi , troubled by his indecision .
But at end of this series of events as the film has taken firm grip of our minds , the director pours cold shower on our expectations that have steadily and surely grown about the film . For taking advantage of Adi's indecision and hesitation , Shiva shoots him dead in the manner of the true dreaded murderer that he is . The director's message is that we should be clear cut about our decisions whether right or wrong and too much pondering about them may lead to disaster....
Barring the disappointment of the ending , the film is an engaging and decidedly different film . The music in the background is okay and the two songs in the film are actually good . Photography is decent and realistic and colours are authentic . Acting is decent by everyone except the main villain Nawazuddin Siddiqui whose talents are not used properly .
Verdict---decent .
Three stars out of five .
Sameer ( september 2017 )
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DG3eEpcVoAAbXDz.jpg
This is a film made with a hair brained conception of reality which is really unreal---that the various bomb blasts are sponsored by those in power ; that they keep themselves in power by sponsoring bomb blasts which forces the public to vote for them because they promise to curb those acts . But what the public does not know according to the film makers is the fact that blasts are being funded by those same politicians who rail against them in speeches . Also the public discourse over those blasts is also masterminded by the politicians themselves , as they make the media give wide publicity to the bomb blasts and thus increase their own popularity by taking an official stand against them .
So after a series of bomb blasts in Hyderabad , the police gets a tip off that the mastermind of the blasts is named Yasin Darji who is living in a college hostel in Hyderabad . The police raids the hostel to find only his room mate Sameer ( played by Zeeshan ) . He claims innocence , but the police to capture him and torture him and force him to become a mole among the militants to infiltrate their gang and capture them . His fate is to become trapped between the police and the militants whose gang he is supposed to join inspite of having nothing to do with them initially .
Openly pitted against the police is committed journalist Alia Irade ( played by Anjali Patil ) . She is into searching for missing children of riots . She is so popular among the militants for championing the cause of the underdogs that before every bomb blast she receives a message from them informing her about it , but her attempts to stop the blasts come to no avail . Curiously , the deputy chief of police is in love with Alia . Yes , Vikram Desai ( played by Subrat Dutta ) is in love with Alia. And this gives a bizzare twist to the whole saga as the person who is the sword arm of the establishment is in love with a journalist who is openly pitted against the establishment .
Meanwhile , Sameer manages to get into the house of Yasin Darji by getting close to his mother Khala ( played by Seema Biswas ) . He then manages to win the trust of the brother of Yasin , though a police officer has to lay down his life for that trust to be won .
It is in showing life in the slum in Ahmedabad where Khala lives that the director excels ; he has really captured the sights sounds and smells of that place clearly . A small time politician ( played by Alok Gagdeka ) organises street plays to inform the public in the slum of the government's misgovernance , and Khala gives Yasin's brother lectures on the foolishness of common citizens of different communities to be unable to come together . A small boy called Rocket who had a stammer is the darling of the people in the slum . A minor incident like stone thrown by Rocket and his friends is enough to almost start a mini riot . The movie was gathering steam and I was watching it it with all my attention .
Yasin's brother makes a plan for further bomb blasts in which Sameer is to take a part and the police deputy chief Vikram Desai plans to use his mole Sameer to not only stop the attacks but also capture the perpetrators . But inspite of all best laid plans , the bombs do go off and scores of innocents are killed . Only Yasin's brother is captured and put to death by Vikram .
But what did Sameer do that made the whole set up by Vikram and his police go wrong ? Why did the bomb blasts still happen even though Yasin's brother got captured and killed ? Is Sameer playing a double game of his own ? Who is he really ? Where is the original suspect Yasin Darji ? Why has he not even come into the frame ? Is Sameer himself the mysterious Yasin Darji ? I sure was hooked to the film by this point .
Since this is too small a film and hardly anyone is going to watch it , one can reveal that the movie shows that actually it is the state which is behind the bomb blasts and Sameer is their agent who perpetrates them . That the government is orchestrating the bomb blasts and the mayhem in the media that Alia Irade does too , thus giving wide publicity to the blasts that keeps the government in power by fuelling the fears of the people . In the end the militants are shown to be people scarred in riots and thus the cause for their involvement in blasts is explained . So the director would have us believe that they are the victims of the system rather than the insurgents that we thought they are .
My personal opinion is---The director sure has been smoking a special kind of weed to believe that the audience can be made to believe that the government itself sponsors the bomb blasts that regularly rock the nation .
The ending of the film where the whole premise is explained is sure a surprise at the climax . It raised my rating of the film from three stars to three and a half out of five . I had to admire the director's ingenuity in spinning out such an unbelievable yarn . It was the tallest of the tall stories I had heard in my life .
Acting is good by Zeeshan as Sameer . He has really matured into a fine actor by now . Rest are all okay for their roles . Photography is authentic rather than spectacular . Music is not great but gels with the grim situations properly .
Verdict---worth a watch .
Three and a half stars out of five .
Love games ( 2016 )
https://ontechbuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Love-Games-Movie-review.jpg
Love games is another thriller with bold sexual content from the stable of producer Mahesh Bhatt---called Vishesh films . The film centres around three pained individuals with a scarred past . All are rich with no need for striving to earn money , which gives them plenty of time to ruminate over their past and liven up their future playing love games ( what else )....
It begins with the murder by Ramona Raichand ( played by Patralekha ) of her abusive husband . Even in her childhood she has been sexually abused by her uncle . This has turned her into a woman who just has sex for pleasure with both men and women , but who does not understand love .
Her obsession for sex is Sameer Saxena ( played by Gaurav Arora ) also called Sam . He too has been scarred by his mother running away from his father with another man in his childhood . He too does not believe in love due to this . Ramona invites him for threesomes including another girl . But Sam gets bored of threesomes .
Seeing his boredom Ramona invites him to play love games , a game in which they try to have sex with the people they meet in parties....and the one who gets to be in bed first is the winner . This is as hedonistic as it gets and should be called sex games frankly . Added to this debauchery is intake of drugs . But when Sam wins by using various devious tricks Ramona pulls a gun and fires at him repeatedly though missing him . She is at least exceptionally hot tempered if not a psycho .
Sam is also a bit crazy , deliberately hurting himself by cutting his hands using sharp knives to forget the past of his mother running away . His psychiatrist asks him to find true love in order to escape from this .
And true love comes , with the entry of the third pained individual---Alisha Asthana ( Tara Alisha Berry ) , whose husband is suspicious of her loyalty and physically abuses her . Ramona asks Sam to play love games with Alisha , but Alisha who is a doctor shows Sam her patients---people who suffer real physical pain . And he realises how shallow his pain was . Life then takes a u turn for Sam and he becomes the person who Alisha runs to every time her husband beats her . And the inevitable happens---they fall in love .
But Ramona who desires Sam physically cannot bring herself to let him go to another woman completely , and she forces him to be with both women on pain of revealing about the romance to Alisha's husband . But sex games have turned into pure love for Sam and he wants to break free from Ramona's hold . And dreams of freeing Alisha from her husband's clutches .
So how does the much in love couple of Alisha and Sam manage to find togetherness after extricating themselves of their erstwhile partners ? Watch the movie for that .
The movie is worth watching for the red hot kissing and uninhibited smooching scenes that adorn it at regular intervals . The atmosphere is as modern and westernised as it gets . And the air is heady with sexual liberation and narcotics . The movie moves at a fast pace with quick twists and turns in the story . Only towards the climax does it falter . But people remember a novel's beginning and a movie's ending....and with the movie's ending being not so great you come out with only a okayish impression of the film .
Photography is good , colours are flashy , and clothes worn by the protagonists are dazzling . Background music is superb and songs are worth hearing again and again . The women look good as they should in such a movie and wear revealing clothes . Acting by everyone is decent . But why a hero ( Gaurav Arora ) who looks like cheapo from the streets ? Couldn't they find someone more presentable as male lead ?
Verdict---okay .
Two and a half stars out of five .
Padmaavat 3D ( January 2018 )
http://ste.india.com/sites/default/files/2018/01/23/655762-img2792.jpg
Two points are to be made about the film .
For one thing , the film is like a fairy tale because many events in the film seem unlikely to have happened in real life . From the king of the rajput warrior community of Chittod to have gone all the way to Sri Lanka in the 14th century in search of pearls demanded by his first wife only to fall in love with the princess Padmaavat ( who seems to be buddhist ) of that country , to him banishing a priest who goes all the way to Delhi to tell the sultan about the princess' beauty and entices him to invade Chittod to possess himself of her , and the sultan taking the king of Chittod prisoner in a lone meeting and taking him away to Delhi , to the princess Padmaavat going to Delhi to fetch the king back and conveniently being helped by the wife of the sultan---it all seems to be fantasy and legend . Of course , the story is based on a real invasion of sultan Allauddin Khilji on the great fortress of Chittod . But the way the story has been built , it has seems to have many not too real happenings .
The other thing is that the film has been made clearly to make the right wing happy . The movie eulogises the rajput warrior code of chivalry to a huge extent . The rajputs are shown to be noble warriors who never go against their principles and never back stab their enemies . Their bravery is shown to be exemplary even in face of incredible odds . Above all , the courage of their women is the stuff that legends are made of . When the rajput men are getting killed in battlefield , the women wear red dresses and leap into fire to be charred to ashes in order to prevent capture and violation of honour by enemy .
In contrast , the movie hardly shows the invading turks in a good light . Above all , their sultan Allauddin Khilji is shown having an evil gleam in his penetrating kohl lined eyes . He has been acted brilliantly by Ranveer Singh . His roar of laughter is full of fiendish cruelty and his dance is full of mad gusto . He is shown to be mean and treacherous and as crafty as hell . He chomps into pieces of meat like a barbarian and lusts for women like a debauchee . He is bisexual and has a gay lover---Malik Kafur played by Jim Sarbh .
On the other hand Maharaja Ratan Singh of Chittod is a gentleman . This gives less scope and range for acting to the person playing the role---Shahid Kapoor . Compared to Ranveer , his acting seems to be bland . Deepika Padukone pays the princess Padmaavat of Sri Lanka , who quickly upstages the first wife of Maharaja Ratan Singh to become chief queen of Chittod . Her acting becomes better with each passing frame and her last speech before jumping into fire did give me a small lump in my throat . Her beauty is mesmerising too , well worth an invasion or two on her kingdom for capturing her---for Allauddin invades Chittod again for her after she brings her husband back home .
Just like director Sanjay Leela Bhansali's earlier films , the distinguishing mark of the film is great cinematography and rich colours . Great attention seems to have been paid to the clothes of each and every person , from the plain clothes worn by soldiers to the bejewelled and embroidered clothes worn by the noble ladies and the queen . Fire plays an important role in the film ; fire in both hands of the queen of Chittod as she dances on the song 'ghoomar' , fire being drunk by the insulted priest as he is banished from Chittod , torches of fire lighting the walls of the fort of Chittod , and the great fire into which the women are led by their queen when all is lost....
The battle scenes are decent without being too spectacular , with the one to one combat scene between the two kings being good . The stomp of the horses as they gallop on the battlefield pounds the ears in dolby atmos sound . Songs and background music is okay but not memorable . 3D effects are pretty good and add to the depth and clarity of the scenes . The film does drag towards the interval because it is almost three hours long , but post interval it again holds your attention .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five .
Souten ( The other woman ) 1983
https://a10.gaanacdn.com/images/albums/51/25451/crop_480x480_25451.jpg
Set on the beautiful island of Mauritius , which has a majority of Indian descended population , the movie has an interesting and modern take on the relationship between hindu God Krishna and his chief wife Rukhmini and the other woman in their life of whom Rukhmini is constantly jealous . This is Radha , the eternal devotee of Krishna with whom he has a deep but platonic relationship . Unlike Rukhmini and Krishna who have physical relations , Krishna and Radha do not have physical relations but instead a deep love that is so legendary that they are worshipped together as if they are a couple and many times we find idols with Krishna and Radha together....but never is an idol found of Krishna and Rukhmini together . This is of course a constant source of anxiety to Krishna's chief wife Rukhmini , and the film is based on this triangle . But an interesting twist is added in the film---Radha in the film belongs to the lowest caste in Hinduism which is considered untouchable by upper castes ; that is , even touching people of her caste is considered filthy by upper castes .
So on to the story of the movie---Shyam ( another name of Krishna ) is played by Rajesh Khanna who is the Krishna of the movie , and he is a self made man who has risen from humble origins to become a successful owner of fishing ships . One day a man called Gopal ( played by Sriram Lagu ) from the untouchable caste comes to him for a job and begs him to give him the job as his daughter is not even having food to eat at home . Shyam takes him in and soon is impressed by his devotion to his work , so he makes his second in command in his venture . Gopal is so grateful to Shyam for this promotion that he daily tells about the kindness of Shyam to his beautiful daughter Radha ( played by Padmini Kolhapure ) and hearing his stories she soon falls in love with Shyam even without meeting him .
Shyam is ambitious and goes to meet the head ( Raisaheb played by Pran ) of a finance corporation to get a loan for buying more ships . Raisaheb is impressed by his plans and arranges the loan and also invites Shyam to a party , where he is introduced to Raisaheb's daughter Rukhmini with whom he develops an instant attraction . Rukhmini is stunning and stylish and fashionable and hungry for love . Inspite of opposition from her maternal uncle ( played by Prem Chopra ) and her mother , she gets married to Shyam . When Radha hears of this , she is obviously disappointed that she could not get Shyam . But she quickly adjusts to this reality and continues to love Shyam without even having met him once !! But Rukhmini detests these lower caste people and refuses to associate with Radha's father Gopal .
Being from a very rich family , Rukhmini is used to having her way and her passion for gambling brings out friction with her husband Shyam . One day she on the advice of her mother gets herself operated for not having children for a long time because she does not want to lose her figure in pregnancy . But the operation results in her becoming never capable of having children , leaving Shyam devastated . The couple begins to draw apart .
In the midst of all this , Gopal invites Shyam to his house for lunch and Shyam and Radha finally meet . Shyam is instantly drawn to Radha and he begins to meet her regularly to soothe his mind . The much in love Radha gladly obliges . One day a big ship that Shyam has purchased on the loan he got capsizes and loses all it's men and his money . Once more he goes into the arms of Radha to forget his troubles and this time she holds him in her embrace . And forces him to sleep that night in her house because a thunderstorm has made it impossible for him to move out . But there is no sex between them and the relationship remains chaste .
But Rukhmini's maternal uncle seizes the chance to claim that they ( Shyam and Radha ) slept together and rouses the jealousy of Rukhmini . Mad with jealousy , she invites Shyam and Gopal and Radha to a party where she dances with lascivious movements in exposing clothes and becomes increasingly drunk . And at the end she confronts Shyam over his relationship with Radha . Angry and frustrated over her behaviour , Shyam admits to loving Radha and in return gets slapped by Rukhmini . She runs to her father with the news and gives him a heart attack by which he dies . But she continues to love Shyam still . It is upto Radha to clear the misunderstanding and bring the couple she worships ( Shyam and Rukhmini ) together . And to do so , she plays the ultimate price....gives up her own life .
Embellished with beautiful background music and superb songs , the movie was the last triumph of the superstar of yesteryear---Rajesh Khanna . For it was his last hit as hero of a film . His then girlfriend Tina Munim played Rukhmini with aplomb and looked stunning in the latest fashionable clothes and styles . Today when the untouchables have begun to forsake the hindu religion for buddhism , it was nice to see a time when the role of hindu God Krishna's companion Radha was done by a girl shown to be of the untouchable caste in hinduism . And nobody complained . Padmini Kolhapure has done justice to that role .
Verdict---Good .
Four stars out of five .
Ek baar phir ( Just one more time ) 1980
http://www.hindilyrics.net/movie-pic/ek%20baar%20phir.jpg
The Indian star system of Bollywood in the 1970s---full of tyranny of the top film stars . Mahendar Kumar ( played by Suresh Oberoi ) plays just such a film star . He arrives late for shootings keeping his producers and directors waiting even though their precious money is on the line . Sometimes when he does not have the mood he simply skips the shooting wasting the time resources and energy that has been spent creating the movie set . Reason---he is sleeping with some woman . Producers literally have to fall at his feet and beg him to resume shooting . He forces changes in the dialogues of his films to favour himself and sometimes changes entire scenes to suit his star status . No one dare reproach him for his misbehaviour for he is the darling of the masses ; the man for whom people come to watch films .
At home Mahendar's wife Kalpana ( played by Deepti Naval ) is subject to a different kind of tyranny . She has to suffer neglect as Mahendar is away for shooting leaving her alone at home . But many times his keeping away from home for shootings is nothing but an excuse for sleeping with other women . Not that he takes much care to hide his affairs . Women lie half naked on his lap in parties in front of Kalpana and make a beeline for sleeping with him because they want roles in films through his recommendations .
Kalpana who has married him thinking how lucky she is to marry this great film star remembers with regret the carefree days of her youth where she used to frolick with her friends before marriage . She feels humiliated by Mahendar's open dalliances with other women in front of her eyes while she has to play dutiful wife dancing on his tune . But this is India in the seventies and women have to live lives hidebound by tradition . In real life too wives of film stars like Raj Kapoor and Dharmendra had to live long suffering lives where they were not allowed any freedoms while their husbands opening cavorted with other women .
One day on a shoot in London Mahendar as usual neglects Kalpana for shootings and also for other women and the thoroughly bored Kalpana is intrigued by the paintings of an Indian street painter ( played by Pradeep Verma ) called Vimal . Vimal sees her interest and asks her to pose for his painting . But rains pour in and he offers Kalpana a ride in his car . As they strike up a conversation they both realise that their common interest is painting . Kalpana had to give up painting after marriage as part of the sacrifices an Indian film star's wife had to do for her husband's household but she still dreams of painting . Vimal invites Kalpana to the painting class he learns painting at and she agrees . Her husband Mahendar is so distracted by other women that he goes for film shooting in Switzerland with his current girlfriend leaving her behind alone .
At the painting class the two are soon attracted to one another and are going out for outings in gardens . One day Kalpana visits Vimal's house and sees a nude painting of herself . She asks him if he dreams of her like that and the inevitable happens---the two bodies are drawn to each other for making love . But back at home Kalpana is riven by guilt . She after all is not a western woman but an Indian woman kept in chains of tradition and extramarital sex is taboo for women like her . She decides to break off with Vimal that very night and phones Mahendar to tell him that she wants to stay with him in Switzerland . But in the dead of the night the phone is picked up by his girlfriend . It is obvious that they are sleeping together . Sick of Mahender's philandering Kalpana decides to continue with Vimal .
However Mahendar's career receives a further boost as he gets a film in Hollywood . Overjoyed by this news Kalpana decides to give the marriage another chance and decides to accompany Mahendar to Hollywood . But Mahendar throws cold shower over her plans by refusing to take her with him . Angered by this Kalpana gets ever closer to Vimal and dreams of making love with him when her husband is making love to her . She compares the two and finds Vimal to be caring attentive and gentle to her . While the wives of real life film stars like Dharmendra and Raj Kapoor stayed with their husbands for their money Kalpana is not swayed by such considerations because she is made of sterner stuff . She wants a man who is totally for herself and Vimal is not a philanderer like her husband .
But a woman carrying an extramarital affair would have been castigated by the backward Indian society in the seventies and this fact soon weighs on Kalpana . Mahendar as a man was free to carry on his dalliances with many women but Kalpana as a woman was not free to have a single affair . She decides to cut off Vimal....but he has grown too emotionally attached to her . He asks her to meet him just one more time . Actually Mahendar wants Kalpana to come to Bombay because the members of the press are going to interview him there and he wants Kalpana by his side just for photo ops and to present the perfect picture of him as a family man . But Kalpana relents for the sake of Vimal and postpones her flight to Bombay . And she goes to meet Vimal just one last time , to say goodbye . Vimal cries in her lap like a baby and implores her to stay with him for he needs her more than her husband needs her .
Torn between the two men Kalpana is at a crossroads of life . All of a sudden things are made easier for her by a phone call from Mahendar . He is freaking mad that Kalpana had not arrived in Bombay on the day he was to be interviewed by the press and could not give fake photo ops as the perfect family man . And for this perfidy Mahendar howls like mad dog on Kalpana on phone . Thoroughly humiliated by the shouting Kalpana finally does what is right . She tells Mahendar in no uncertain terms that she is leaving him and his life for Vimal .
As Kalpana packed her belongings and went to sit beside Vimal she still was wondering whether she had done right....or so said Vinod Pande the director of the film . But that has never stopped aficionados of true romance like myself and many others from celebrating her liberation....
Background music and songs are most perfect in the film , reflecting the mood of every moment in the movie . Colours and photography are very decent . Acting is good by both Suresh Oberoi and Deepti Naval as star husband and star wife . But Pradeep Verma brings real vulnerability to his role as lover ; he seems so gentle that any woman would find it hard to break his heart .
Verdict---Good .
Four stars out of five .
Aapla manus ( Our man ) Februrary 2018
http://www.dekhnews.com/entertainment/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Aapala-Manus-Marathi-Movie.jpg
'Aapla manus' means 'our man' or rather 'our person' in this gender non discriminatory era . It is produced by Bollywood star Ajay Devgan who appears in a very small role in the end . It is his first film as producer . It unfolds as a thriller cum murder mystery but with an interesting angle about the complexities of generation gap between father on one hand and son and daughter in law on the other .
Sumeet Raghavan and Iravati Harshe play a modern couple . But their modern lifestyle has an aberration ; they live with Sumeet's father ( Nana Patekar ) like old style joint families . And the old man worries about the liberties of his daughter in law , just like old fashioned people are wont to do . He dislikes Iravati's coming late from her work and dislikes her having sent his grandson away to boarding school to get educated . He is a grumpy old man who is forever complaining about his daughter in law .
Iravati is hardly a woman who is going to be quietened by this attitude and gives back to her father in law verbally . This leads to a battle of words constantly between the two and caught in between is the son Sumeet . But one day a huge twist to this situation happens ; the father in law is found fallen from their apartment into the ground below .
Into the situation comes police officer Nagargoje , who looks uncannily like a younger and fitter version Iravati's father in law ; indeed he too is played by Nana Patekar . He accuses the couple to have instigated the old man to commit suicide . As the movie progresses the accusations change from suicide to murder charges and the murder charges move from one person to another .
So what game is Nagargoje playing ? What is his personal interest in creating twists and turns that turns the couple's life topsy turvy ? The answers are intriguing . But they are sentimental and emotional too , leaving you with a tear in the eye in the end .
The film is dominated by the formidable screen presence of Nana Patekar , and his sarcastic drawl rings throughout the movie . Without any loud dialogues , his powerful voice and acting create impact in the movie . Sumeet Raghavan and Iravati Harshe act appropriately too . Background music is decent but there are no songs . Photography and colours are okay .
The dialogues of the verbal exchanges between Nana and Iravati have been written by a talented script writer ; every sentence is dripping with sarcastic taunts at each other . Both persons have their good and bad points . But the director does take the old fashioned route ; tilts our sympathy to the old man in the climax . But that is what appeals to our sentiments....Indians are still a traditional people .
The idea of both the police officer and the old person whose case he is investigating being played by the same man does add something else to the movie . Both roles have played with aplomb by Nana Patekar . Without flamboyant drama or sensational background music , the film manages to hold attention due to it's clash of egos and lifestyles .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five .
Aiyaary ( Chameleon ) February 2018
https://13768-presscdn-0-66-pagely.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/new-galleries/2018/02/aiyaary-movie-review-1.jpg
'Aiyaary' means chameleon like---capable of changing appearance with every situation . That's what I learnt in the film . But director Neeraj Pandey is no chameleon and his films cannot change in style or appearance . His films from 'A wednesday' to 'Baby' to 'Aiyaary' are all in the same format . But it's a format that that is now running dry of new ideas from Neeraj .
Sure , the dose of high nationalism is there . The army spit and polish is there too . Scenes of crisply dressed people looking serious about their intent whether good or bad are there too . High tech gadgetry and latest guns and devices gives you expectations of a taut thriller . Hardly any scene shows the grime and poverty of India ; everyone has a exceptionally high standard of living .
But beneath the martial sounding music and high minded dialogues spouted from the mouth of the protagonists there is nothing . The manner in which the story has been presented is unduly prolonged and convoluted . A lot of unnecessary scenes shown to establish the strength of character of the heroes keep adding to the length of the film . And the film takes it's lesson of nationalism way too seriously but lacks substance .
Photography is good as always and music is patriotically good . But other than Manoj Bajpayee the others don't act well . Siddharth Malhotra looks too delicately goodlooking for a soldier . Both Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher are wasted . Rakul Preet Singh is gorgeous as eye candy . But she is a misfit for a patriotic sounding film .
Instead of what I was expecting ( tough soldiers killing enemies of the nation ) what I got to see was corruption in the army . Which is detected by a person ( Siddharth ) of a special team that is officially non existent but is for military intelligence . And he is so disillusioned by the corruption that he decides to desert the army and turn corrupt himself . But his superior ( Bajpayee ) is after him and chases him to England . But why does an arms dealer ( Anupam ) take enormous risk to help the superior ? And how come the girlfriend ( Rakul ) of the deserter get ready to give up everything and elope with him even though he has been fooling her by not even telling his real name ? Amazingly for such a clever person , his real name is revealed to her when his I card accidentally drops out of his wallet ; can it get more silly than that ? And the fact that exposure of the whole corruption hinges on the testimony of some obscure watchman ( Naseeruddin ) of a building is something that is unconvincing . Kumud Mishra the corrupt armyman looks like a buffoon rather than a villain and Adil Hussein's character looks like from Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible series of movies . Vikram Gokhale does look convincing as the upright army chief however .
The only thing that is believable about the movie is a media desperate for TRPs . But it will take a lot more than that for a film to impress me .
Verdict---Not impressed .
Two stars out of five .
Kuchh bheege alfaaz ( A few wet words ) February 2018
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/Kuchh_Bheege_Alfaaz_Official_Poster.jpg/400px-Kuchh_Bheege_Alfaaz_Official_Poster.jpg
So now we are in the era of romance through the medium of whatsapp . Though only the heroine lives in the world of social media . Reason being---she is shunned in the real world because she has a disease called leucoderma/vitiligo which creates abnormal white patches on skin due to lack of melanin pigment . Of course , that does not stop her or rather it encourages her to go on blind dates with boys where she wants to see the boy's reaction to her appearance . And the reaction is photographed on mobile camera . If the reaction is funny then the photograph is used for creating branded memes ; yes Archana ( Geetanjali Thapa ) works in a firm creating them . She has a friend called Apu ( Shrey Rai Tiwari ) who has attraction for her . And she does look good wearing tiny shorts that expose her lovely legs .
As opposed to this , the hero Alfaaz ( Zain Khan Durrani ) belongs to the old world . He is a radio jockey who mouths beautiful old world poetry on radio and has a legion of fans among whom Archana is one . But he prefers to remain incognito and has not revealed his name to his fans . His creativity has been stoked by a romantic tragedy in his past , but his present life has the shadow of sadness brought about by the tragedy over it .
And don't you think the two need each other ? The melancholy hero and the girl rejected by many but in search for love....The two are brought in contact by a misplaced phone call and Archana likes Alfaaz's thoughts ( which are remarkably like the thoughts of the radio jockey she likes ) so much that she contacts him repeatedly . But it is only when she begins to use his poetry for creating memes that he gets really interested . For the world of social media is new for him . And they soon plan a date , even though they haven't seen each other yet and she does not know that he is RJ Alfaaz .
But before the two really get together , Alfaaz will have to confront his past tragedy and discard it from his life and move into the present . And so he goes to do that ; goes to the hill station of Shimla to confront and break away from his past .
The movie is produced by leftists most probably . The heroine's mother played by Mona Ambegaonkar has a past history of having studied at a communist university and found her first husband there . And having eloped with her second husband ( heroine's father ) even though she was still married to her first . Is that what they teach you in communist universities ? No wonder I am ideologically opposed to them .
But I was not opposed to the film , which I found to be full of old world charm even though it belongs to the era of social media . Though the touch of sadness was a bit overdone and there is a sad hang to the movie . But the romantic couplets spouted by Alfaaz do compensate for that and we find ourselves rooting for the romance to happen . And when it does , you do feel happy .
Acting by Geetanjali Thapa is good but Zain Khan Durrani is not fully convincing . Others act decently , especially Mona Ambegaonkar . Background music is decent too , and photography and colours of the movie are good .
Verdict---Nice .
Three stars out of five .
Naam gum jayega ( Name will be lost ) 2005
http://repos.hungama.com/wallpaper/display%20image/1024x768%20jpeg/2823994.jpg
I recently realised that I had not reviewed any movie of the actress whom I had loved during my youth--Dia Mirza . I fell in love with her while watching the movie 'Rehna hai tere dil mey' ( Want to stay in your heart ) and went on to watch that movie several times . But I have forgotten parts of the movie by now and a review of that movie will require me to see it again---a chore too much because I have already seen it too many times years back . Not in the mood to see it again , just like I am not in the mood to fall in love with Dia again .
So I watched 'Naam gum jayega' ( Name will be lost ) , a flop movie of hers ; most of Dia's movies including RHTDM were flops . Now don't ask me why I chose to fall in love with a flop actress . Maybe because the successful ones were all booked !! I chose the movie because it is set in my favourite setting---the high mountains what else , where beauty of nature is abundant and where we Indians rush for vacation to escape the hot climate of India .
So on to the story . Aryan Srivastav and Divya are off to vacation in the mountains . But as they are driving on the winding mountain roads , they see an unconscious girl ( Dia Mirza ) lying on the road . They revive her and hear her story . She says that her name is Natasha and she fell in love with a boy named Vishal on a college hike months ago . But Vishal was not ready immediately to marry her , so she gave him six months to think about it and came back after six months to meet him . But by this time he had sold the house and the new owner was Nalini Sen . Natasha was agonised by the disappearance of Vishal and Nalini kindly agreed to allow this disturbed girl to stay to see if Vishal ever came back in search for her . But whenever Nalini was out of the house an amorous professor used to come in the house to try to force himself on her . It was to escape his clutches that she was running from the house and fell unconscious .
Aryan and Divya take Natasha back to Nalini and tell her that they are occult specialists who investigate the paranormal , but usually find that possessed people are just mentally disturbed . They feel that Natasha is similarly mentally disturbed as no one has seen the amorous professor except Natasha . Soon they track Vishal , but he says that he has never seen the girl claiming to be Natasha !! In fact , he says that his girlfriend Natasha is dead and buried . On the other hand the body of the professor is found too . So who is the girl claiming to be Natasha ? Has she murdered the professor and is living with a different identity to hide that fact ?
But everyone feels that the girl is genuinely mentally disturbed and decide to let her have what she wants---company of Vishal , but without the knowledge of his real girlfriend's death . And the girl claiming to be Natasha is really happy with Vishal near her . And as expected , real love blooms between them as Vishal develops feelings for her .
But Aryan investigates the whole matter of the professor's death . And finds out that the professor had tried to force himself on the girl in the past . So who was she ? Her real name was Geetanjali and she secretly loved Vishal , who was her friend Natasha's boyfriend . But was mentally disturbed by the professor trying to force himself on her . The professor died by another reason however , and Geetanjali is innocent . Aryan uses hypnotherapy to force Geetanjali to come to terms with the truth . And with Natasha conveniently dead in an accident and buried , it is time for Geetanjali to get united permanently with Vishal . Alls well that ends well....except for the audience .
The movie which begins as a suspense thriller soon gets bogged down in too many twists and turns and eventually turns uninteresting . Background music and songs are just about okay , but photography is better due to the sights of the pine tree covered green mountains . Acting by everyone is all right . Dia looks okay in some scenes and not so okay in some . Not as good as in RHTDM....
But critical consensus says that the movie was appreciated by the audience more than I did . Something that gladdened my heart .
Verdict---Not good .
One and a half stars out of five .
Chudail story ( Witch's story ) May 2016
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LLSb4WfgbYE/V5Ox67Zr4EI/AAAAAAAAGo0/s9-MXGk4yiskJTHGPihPHKp4O-Rme-TrACLcB/s640/Chudail%2BStory%2B2016%2B%25282%2529.jpg
http://www.india-forums.com/tellybuzz/images/uploads/214_q.jpg
The opening scene shows a car stopping on a road . A man and his friend get out to see an enticing woman with a lantern waiting for them at a distance . As the man follows her like a moth attracted to a flame , she draws him further into the jungle and then kisses him . But his friend follows in the car only to see the man dead and his eyes blackened . The sexy witch has claimed another victim....and I was hooked onto watching the movie . Because the movie raised hopes of getting to see a seductive witch entice more men into having hot sex with her and raising our temperature .
Cut to the present . A car carrying five young friends ( three young men and two young women ) gets stuck on the same road in the same jungle . They decide to go to a huge mansion in front of them for help . But are warned by a crazy old man who suddenly jumps in front of them about the witch . Dismissing him as crazy , four of them go into the house and knock the door . And lo !! The door is opened by a goodlooking woman who totally outclasses the two girls in beauty .
Unsettled by her beauty , the two girls immediately make clear that the two young men are their respective boyfriends so that she does not make a move on them . It's too late , for the two young men are already mesmerised by her beauty . But as the car is not able to move , they are forced to stay for the night in the house .
The girls broach the topic of the old crazed man warning them about her to the woman , but she says that people are prone to say such things about her because she is a lone beautiful woman living alone . But soon she entices one of the young men by appearing wet and half naked in front of him when he is exploring the house and then begins to set him against his friends . He starts acting strangely making his friends uncomfortable .
The mechanic called for repairing the car then arrives and talks of the same story of the witch who never allows anyone who enters the house to leave....and sure enough , he is killed by a pike falling on him as he prepares to go out of the house . Not so subtle in her moves is our witch is she....? Well , I was hoping that she would show the same lack of subtlety in bed with one of the young men so that I could watch and salivate at the scene of her in the heat of passion....And sure enough , she soon entices the other young man and a hot love making scene cum song is showcased in the front of us .
What about the young women ? As expected , everyone in these horror movies is doomed . The other young man left to guard the car then arrives in the house with the same story of the mad old man warning him . The sexy witch then makes the young men fight with each other over the girls by making them believe that the girls are cheating on them with each other . One of the girls then tries to escape but she is dragged by the power of the witch back into the house . One by one each of the young people is killed by the witch , who is taking revenge over society over wrongs committed by her dead husband in the bygone past . She has sex with men and then captures their souls and makes them permanent prisoners of her harem , which is full of souls of dead people left hanging .
Preeti Soni acts as the witch , and does look sexy in backless blouses which she removes to make wanton love on satin sheets with the hero---one of the young men , played by Amal Sherawat . He becomes the prize catch of the witch's harem of souls of dead men she has fuucked and discarded , but his entry in the harem comes at a price ; his girlfriend ( played by Nidhi Nautiyal ) has to be allowed to become the first woman to escape the house ever , the escape being the final act of proving his love for her even though he has succumbed to the charms of the witch . The other girl ( played by Menaka Lalwani ) is not so lucky , and neither are the other young men . This is followed by another hot song with the sexy Preeti Soni enjoying in bed with Amal Sherawat as the movie climaxes .
Acting by everyone is okay , and photography and colours are good . Background music and songs are decent . The movie rests on the sex appeal of the witch , and Preeti Soni delivers on that front very well . Some of the horror scenes are scary , but if you don't believe in ghosts like me you will find the movie more sexy than scary .
Verdict---Okay .
Two stars out of five .
Pari : not a fairy tale ( Fairy ; not a fairy tale ) March 2018
http://data1.ibtimes.co.in/cache-img-0-450/en/full/681638/1519807877_anushka-sharmas-pari.jpg
Arnab's ( Parambrata Chatterjee ) life is on the upswing . He is about to be married to the beautiful Piyali ( Ritabhari Chakraborty ) , whose warm outspoken nature seems to promise happiness after a shy withdrawn childhood that has been his lot earlier . But an accident changes his life . His father slams the car they are travelling in into a woman , who dies . The police search her house to find her daughter Rukhsana ( Anushka Sharma ) chained inside .
But the person working in the morgue sees that the dead mother is branded , and contacts the persons who he knows are into branding such entities . Those persons are led by professor Qasim , and their declared mission is to wipe out the cult of satan to which the dead woman belongs . She is a demoness whose mission is to perpetuate the cult of satan . And the professor and his group have destroyed the cult except the dead woman . Now it remains to kill the daughter , who is the last remaining demoness . The members of the cult and the professor are from Bangladesh .
However , the daughter Rukhsana sees the killers come for her and flees from the dog infested house she lives in to find refuge in the place in Kolkata where Arnab lives alone away from his parents . Sympathetic to her at first , Arnab tries to civilise her and give her some normalcy because he has seen her chained in her house . But he is unaware of her demonic propensities .
And do I even have to tell that the inevitable happens , and Rukhsana falls in love with Arnab . But what is important is that the love also makes her more human and turns her away from the demonic path that the ghost of her dead mother is urging her towards . But soon she becomes pregnant with Arnab's child . Will her mother's wish to continue the demonic cult be granted with the birth of the child , who after all will be the child of a demoness ? And what about Piyali , the fiancee of Arnab ? What is her role in all this ? Or will professor Qasim and his cohorts get to Rukhsana and destroy her before she gives birth to the child ? Watch the movie for the answers .
One must say that Anushka has taken a different role in her career with this movie , as she looks deglamourised and unattractive throughout the film . It is Piyali ( Ritabhari Chakraborty ) whose appearances I was eagerly waiting for throughout the movie , for her beauty is like a breath of fresh air in this dark and gory movie .
However the love of Rukhsana for Arnab and the transformation of her character is beautifully built up in the movie . You really feel sad for her , trapped as she is in this demonic form even though her heart is full of love . There are some real jolts of horror in the movie , but all interspersed with the sadness you feel for the souls trapped in this bizarre cult of perpetuating satan . The first half of the movie does not reveal as to who Rukhsana and her mother really are , and what is the purpose of professor Qasim to be after them . So a considerable part of the movie builds up suspense .
Parambrata Chatterjee looks vulnerable in his role as Arnab , and Rajat Kapoor looks coolly menacing as he carries out his rentless task of destruction of the cult . Photography is good , but colours are dark and surroundings dingy . Background music and songs are good .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars out of five .
SeeingisBelieving
03-06-18, 05:29 PM
I recently realised that I had not reviewed any movie of the actress whom I had loved during my youth--Dia Mirza . I fell in love with her while watching the movie 'Rehna hai tere dil mey' ( Want to stay in your heart ) and went on to watch that movie several times . But I have forgotten parts of the movie by now and a review of that movie will require me to see it again---a chore too much because I have already seen it too many times years back . Not in the mood to see it again , just like I am not in the mood to fall in love with Dia again .
I can understand where you're coming from. I think you can feel a strong connection to some films, sometimes through one actor, and it can push buttons. That happened to me recently when I saw a film after a long time with an actress who was one of my own intense crushes.
So I watched 'Naam gum jayega' ( Name will be lost ) , a flop movie of hers ; most of Dia's movies including RHTDM were flops . Now don't ask me why I chose to fall in love with a flop actress . Maybe because the successful ones were all booked !!
:laugh: – I like that.
Prateeksha ( The long wait ) 2006
https://occ-0-999-1001.1.nflxso.net/art/11ba9/814b2c90d6a505aecf3c2e381f5498ae96811ba9.jpg
This was my second attempt to review a Dia Mirza movie , and any review by me of a Dia Mirza movie is a labour of love....The movie starts awkwardly , but soon gets a grip as it progresses .
Kishen ( Jimmy Shergill ) comes from rural state of Bihar to the big city to study medicine . In the medical college he runs into Reena Brown ( Diya Mirza ) , who is a Christian and is beautiful and sophisticated and speaks english very well . She looks down upon Kishen as a rural bumpkin and the two are at loggerheads on several occasions . Reason is that Kishen speaks the hindi language in a rural style , and Reena feels that his English must be even worse . Reena has a boyfriend named John Clayton , and he is more understanding towards Kishen . But Reena tries to make her boyfriend play the game of one-upmanship with Kishen , but totally fails . In the college football game she tries to encourage John to score a goal in opposition to Kishen , but John gets injured instead letting Kishen the chance to score the goal . Reena organises a party where Kishen is not invited , but Kishen disturbs it by singing loudly outside it .
One thing that all this proves is that Kishen is talented in both sports and singing and his popularity rises in the college . Kishen pokes Reena by calling her 'memsaab' ( madam ) , thus making fun of the perceived difference between their status . When John opts out of playing Othello in a college play , it is to Kishen that everyone turns to play that role . Reena is to play Desdemona opposite Othello and detests the idea of Kishen touching her during the play . But Kishen surprises her by playing the role of Othello with aplomb and speaking perfect English while playing it . She is so impressed by his acting and his command over English that she herself touches him during the play and holds his hand in the climax .
Soon Reena and Kishen begin to hang out together and become friends . But Reena's personal life suddenly goes topsy turvy with her boyfriend John ( whom she is hoping to marry ) coming under the pressure of his father to marry Emily who has come from England . John does deeply regret not being able to marry Reena , and is hardly able to blurt out his refusal to her .
Kishen who is attracted to Reena from the start however takes to opportunity to woo her by being the person who comforts her in the midst of her heartbreak . And Reena soon turns to him to soothe her aching heart . She finds Kishen to be jovial and boisterous in nature , with passionate views on some subjects . Reena starts missing him if he does not come to the college on a day and goes searching for him to his hostel . And she takes the lead in proposing marriage to him....love is in the air again for her . The two go on dates together and dream of life in each other's arms .
The issue of their different religions does come up , but Kishen allays Reena's fears by saying that he is an atheist who does not believe in God and will not try to change her religion . They meet her father James ( Anupam Kher ) , who gives his blessings to the marriage . The couple decide to wear each other's religion's clothes for the impending court marriage . And I must say that Jimmy Shergill looks good in dark tie and suit , a far cry from the country bumpkin he started as in the movie . And Dia Mirza in saree looks simply divine....why is it that I was not in that dark tie and suit in Jimmy Shergill's shoes to serenade my darling Dia....?? why ??
But what is a movie without a twist , and the twist comes in due form with Kishen's father Pandit ( Govind Namdeo ) coming from his village to oppose the marriage . He is too conservative to accept a Christian daughter in law , and plainly tells Reena that he will cut off all relations with his son if he marries her . He says that she will be responsible for the breaking of relations between parents and son , and that no hindu will marry Kishen's sister if he marries a Christian girl . He berates Reena's father James for accepting the marriage and James decides to cut off the marriage plans . Reena comes under pressure to cut off the marriage and she has to tell Kishen that he cannot be her husband . Kishen tries to reason with her but in vain .
Devastated by all this , Kishen forsakes his family and goes away to find peace in a small town where both communities live in harmony ; Christians worship hindu saints and hindus go to Christian priests when someone is not well . He starts a clinic there and practices as a doctor . But on his table is a still a photo of Dia Mirza....uh , I mean Reena . Many years pass and one day Reena comes searching for him in a completely drunken state .
She tells him her story . After she tried to reason with her father James to agree to the marriage inspite of Kishen's father's opposition , James told her in a fit of anger that he did not want her anymore because she was brining too much trouble in his life . That she was actually not his legitimate daughter but rather his illegitimate child born of his affair with his maid , the same maid played by Zarina Wahab who had been taking care of the house all these years . The maid is hindu and he has not married her , nor has Reena been baptized . So Reena is neither hindu nor Christian . He then told the mother and daughter to get out of his life . Reena was forced to leave his house and sing in bars and nightclubs wearing exposing clothes and with patrons making advances towards her . She who was once totally against smoking and drinking had now developed habits of heavy drinking and incessant smoking to ward off depression .
But the real depression she had was of having ruined a good man's life....Kishen's who else....for she wanted to see him practice as a doctor in some big city and earn real money rather than waste his life in some small clinic in some small town . And here she is....standing in front of Kishen asking his forgiveness for ruining his life and his career and offering financial help to help him shift back to the big city , for her father James deeply regretted his treatment of his daughter at the end of his life and willed her all his estate and money .
But lo !! Reena is the one who gets helped instead . For Kishen has his own story to tell , of his sister marrying outside their caste and finally bringing his father Pandit out of his religious stupor . And the father contacting him asking to bring Reena as his daughter in law because he can't bear to not be with his son , and can't bear to see his son permanently unhappy and unmarried without Reena . And Kishen is willing to accept Reena even though she has had an unsavoury past and he is willing to be patient till she weans herself off her heavy smoking and drinking habits and does not care if she is an illegitimate child of a servant woman who does know if she is hindu or Christian....for he who was once an atheist has begun to believe in the kind of God that does not reside in temples or churches but instead resides in the hearts of true believers....and believers are those who forgive sins and serve others without caring for their faith .
True love never dies....and for Reena and Kishen , the long wait called prateeksha is truly over . And the long wait called prateeksha was over for me too , of seeing and reviewing a good film of Dia Mirza . For the climax of the movie filled me with emotion . Acting in the film was decent , and colours and photography was not bad too . Background music and songs were okay .
It was nice to see an interreligious love story come to a happy ending . Seen too many such love stories end up not so happy in real life , crushed as they were by the burden of tradition and the ancient religious codes of the land .
Verdict---Very decent .
Three stars out of five .
Fever ( 2016 )
https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.GJRGnF3iSS4-WIS3cLBdewHaKs&pid=Api
The movie starts with actor Rajeev Khandelwal walking on a mountain road in Switzerland after alighting from a bus , and actress Gauhar Khan following him in a car and offering him a ride to his destination . He recognises her and accepts the offer of a ride . But as she drives further she pushes him out of the car and he falls below the road in a valley . When he wakes up he finds himself in a hospital , where the doctor informs him that he has not been injured seriously . But he himself realises that he has lost much of his memory . He says that his name is Armin Salem and he is from Paris . But can't remember much beyond that . The doctor ( Victor Banerjee ) thinks that his patient is a good man in trouble and gives him money to survive till he regains his memory . Meanwhile he is discharged from hospital and starts staying in a hotel close by .
In the hospital and again in the hotel he finds that he is being stalked by the same woman who tried to kill him---actress Gauhar Khan . She entices him by parading in bikinis when he goes to the swimming pool and soon tries to get close to him . She promises to help him regain his memory and begins to embrace and romance him . Gauhar tells him that her name is Kavya . But does she really want him to regain his memory considering the fact that she tried to kill him earlier ?
Meanwhile Armin does get to remember something in a disjointed jumbled manner and thinks that he may have killed a woman named Rhea Wagner ( Gemma Atkinson ) and that he may have been a professional assassin before he lost memory---a contract killer . When he tells the doctor of this , the doctor plainly tells him that if this is the case then he might have been helping the wrong person and he regrets giving money to him .
Armin remembers Rhea Wagner further in front of Kavya and says that even though his assignment was to kill Rhea , he fell in love with her beauty instead and went on to have an affair with her . At this point we are treated to some red hot love making scenes between Armin and Rhea and boy!!....Gemma Atkinson does really look beautiful and hot with a lovely pink body and superb silky skin . And Armin fell so deeply in love with Rhea that he dropped the idea of killing her and confessed his real identity to her instead . She threatened to go to the police with the truth and in desperation Armin had to kill her to stop her from doing so .
But when he goes to Rhea's place , she is not only alive but says that no affair took place between the two and he had met her only once and later sent her some emails . That his real name is not Armin and he is a writer who writes suspense thriller novels . Meanwhile Armin returns to his room to find a woman murdered there . But Kavya helps him dispose off the body . But Armin is now confused as to whether he is Armin or Karan and wonders why Kavya is helping him .
It is on a car ride with Kavya that he remembers the earlier car ride in which he was attempted to be killed by Kavya and finally everything comes back to him . He is Karan , a writer and Armin is just a character from his novel . He is no contract killer but the contract killer Armin was an identity he picked up after he lost his memory as he could remember only that identity from his novel . And that Kavya is not herself but his wife Pooja . When he confronts Pooja / Kavya with this fact , she admits that she is his wife Pooja . That she left everything including her job for marrying him , but her obsessive love for him began to stifle Karan and he decided to break off from her . But she followed him and in a fit of rage tried to push him into the valley . But when Karan woke up in hospital she could see that he had lost his memory . Pooja felt that she could regain his love in this new condition and hence was helping him . But the girlfriend who he was shacked up with after leaving Pooja had followed him to his hospital and when Pooja saw her she murdered the girlfriend so that she would not come in between them again---the woman whose body was dumped in Karan's hotel room was his girlfriend .
Pooja now beseeches Karan to come back to her , and says that she has the courage to love someone who does not love back . That all's fair in love , and such quotations are made true by people like her who even murder for true love . But Karan can't bring himself to love a killer and once again Pooja pushes him off the car , but this time only onto the road . She sacrifices her life by deliberately colliding with an oncoming truck because she can't bear to be without Karan .
Among all these events I found myself falling in love with Pooja....where are these women who are ready to do and die for love ? I have never found one in real life . If I ever found one I would forsake the world and be off with her in a jiffy !!
Even though no sensational events occur in the movie , the director has kept the suspense running in the movie . We can't figure out what Armin/Karan is going to remember next . The end comes as a genuine surprise , even though some dialogues by Pooja in the movie do give hint that she is a woman desperate in love . Photography of Switzerland is absolutely breathtaking and is given additional lustre by the superb colours of the movie . Songs are really worth humming and background music is nice too . Acting is decent by everyone without being too spectacular . And everyone looks good ; Rajeev Khandelwal as Karan , Gauhar Khan as Pooja and Gemma Atkinson as Rhea . In fact it seems that all actors and actresses in this movie have been chosen for their good looks .
Having completed this review , I am going to be off in search for someone like Pooja for myself . Someone high on the fever of love....that is what the title of the movie meant , isn't it ?
Verdict---Very decent .
Three stars out of five .
Bezubaan ishq ( Voiceless love ) 2015
http://dekhnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/BEZUBAAN-ISHQ-movie-review.jpg
The movie is set among the mercantile community from the state of Gujarat , many of whom are settled in India's financial capital Mumbai and also overseas.
The movie shows two girls who are opposites , and their opposite personalities are paradoxical . While Suhani ( Mugdha Godse ) lives in Mumbai , she is a westernised free bird who parties in discos regularly , and drinks alcohol with abandon . Whenever some guy tries to get fast with her due to her uninhibited nature and exposing clothes , her guardian angel is her friend Swagat ( Nishant ) who saves her in the nick of time and fiercely guards her .
On the other hand Suhani's cousin Rumzhum ( Sneha Ullal ) is into Indian tradition even though she based in London . She is totally understanding by nature and homely , a total contrast to the outgoing Suhani .
But when Suhani throws a tantrum too many , she is diagnosed with a severe personality disorder . The doctor says that the only solution to her problem is marriage . And who else to marry but her guardian angel Swagat , who is son of her father's friend .
So Rumzhum and her father ( played by Sachin Khedekar ) come down to Mumbai for the wedding , as the father is brother of Suhani's father ( played by Darshan Jariwala ) . But before the nuptials , they organise a vacation to the Indian state of Rajasthan which is full of palaces and forts .
On the vacation Swagat and Rumzhum are thrown in each other's company , and begin to have feelings for each other . This is typical of Bollywood films where the Indian traditional female is preferred over the westernised female . Soon the feelings grow intense and reach full scale love . The lovers burn with the intense burning of those who love but can't be together . Reason---Suhani's personality disorder . She has made clear to Swagat that she will kill herself if she even suspects that he is having something to do with another female , and a girl with her psychological problems is very likely to carry out her threat .
So both Rumzhum and Swagat have to keep quiet over their love for fear of hurting Suhani , and this leads to some emotional scenes whenever they get the chance to meet secretly . Soon Suhani suspects something and goes to commit suicide , and is saved only because she swoons at the last moment . From this moment on , Rumzhum and Swagat have to take extreme care to hide their love . For if Suhani kills herself , her death will be blamed on them.
But why should they waste their lives for someone else ? Why can't they come together like they want to be ? The matter vexes them for long , but in the end they decide to keep away from each other permanently for sake of the extended family's happiness .
During this period , a transformation has taken over Suhani . She no longer parties late night and no longer drinks , and has started wearing Indian traditional clothes like saree , though with the backless blouse showing off her sumptuous back . She has grown more serious in nature and is quieter in nature . A storm is building ; it is the calm before the storm....
One night just before the wedding , Suhani holds Swagat tightly in her arms and cries and says that she will never allow any other woman to take him away from her while she is alive . It is also Rumzhum's birthday and Suhani gives her a gift that she asks Rumzhum to open only next day on the wedding day .
When Rumzhum opens the gift the next morning , she finds a letter from Suhani . Suhani has written in the letter that she has realised Rumzhum's love for Swagat and has gifted him to her as a birthday gift . And because she has sworn that she would never allow another woman to be with Swagat while she is alive , she has decided to end her own life....
As everyone rushes to Suhani's room , she is found dead having cut her veins and lying in a pool of blood . And having done so , her sacrifice has totally upstaged the romance between Rumzhum and Swagat . Because the person who does the act of acceptance of reality is always greater than those who cannot face it . Mugdha Godse's acting also goes one better than anyone else's in this period .
The movie will be liked by women and men will find it corny . Because women have a greater empathy for emotion and love . The emotions are enhanced by some fine emotional songs and good background music . Colours are good and photography is excellent . Acting is okay by everyone .
Sneha Ullal is the lookalike of Bollywood beauty Aishwarya Rai , but goes on to increase in weight as the movie progresses . Mugdha Godse is slimmer and fitter . Nishant just looks like an immature boy .
Verdict---Okay .
Two and a half stars out of five .
Hate story part 4 ( March 2018 )
http://ste.india.com/sites/default/files/2018/03/05/665480-hate-story-4-a.jpg
Two brothers are heirs to a businessman's empire in London . Aryan Khurana ( Vivan Bhatena ) is the older brother , who is happily married to the sultry Rishma ( Ihana Dhillon ) . Rajveer ( Karan Wahi ) is the younger brother . But their lives are affected by the appearance of the sexy hot Tasha ( Urvashi Rautela ) , who stirs up the hormones of them both . But as the unmarried one , younger Rajveer is the one who has the right to try to get her . And he does , or does he ? For the girl is not what she seems to be and is upto some nasty games of her own....
But is Urvashi Rautela worth all the trouble ? Yes , she is . She has soft big round boobs that part to show ample cleavage in any low cut dress . And she has large fleshy thighs to complement that . And she has worn the right kind of exposing clothes to show off that figure . Ihana Dhillon tries to compete with all this and partly succeeds because she is good at exposing too .
But the problem is , the movie is not the erotic thriller one may have expected from the promos . It is basically a revenge thriller , and has many twists and turns whirling the situation . The two brothers get caught in those twists and turns because they are not good people themselves . They have done some unsavoury things in the past and the past is now coming to catch up with them .
Colours are decent in the movie and photography can be rated as good . Background music and songs are decent too . Acting be everyone is good . What the movie lacks is some thing interesting happening every now and then . The unfolding events fail to hold our interest and seem clichéd .
The 'Hate story' series of movies is based on the premise of a 'hell hath no fury like a woman wronged' and show a woman deeply wronged in the past by men and taking deadly revenge in the midst of hot sex scenes . This movie is no different . But the hot scenes and revenge scenes lack fire . The kind of fire that actress Paoli Dam showed in the first movie of this series . Mere goodlooking women and men and posh sets do not make a good movie . Towards the climax the movie is like an action thriller but even the action lacks fire . Urvashi Rautela is a good find but she will have to search for a better movie for launch of her career then 'Hate story part four' .
Verdict---Okay .
Two stars out of five .
Room the mystery ( 2014 )
https://images.desimartini.com/media/main/movie_poster_detail/340a2c00-7ece-42df-a1fe-be133852c535.jpg
This is a small budget horror film with small time actors whom I had never heard of . But colours and photography is good and location is decent . No songs are there but background music is okay . Acting by everyone is okay too .
Kunal ( Atif Jamil ) is the son of a rich politician . He forces his friends including two hot females to come to his dad's posh resort like house outside the city for partying . They agree only reluctantly , but once there they are happy to see such a posh house and start to drink and have fun . The two females are in sexy exposing clothes and their dance arouses the two watchmen who have access to CCTV footage in the guard house ; they talk about how money can buy the attention of hot babes that people in their lowly position can only dream of . One couple soon starts to do hot smooching with the male on top of the female , giving us the hots .
Meanwhile nearby the house a police officer has been called to the site of a hit and run accident , and remembers his own wife killed in such an accident . At the same time a woman comes to the house where the party is going on claiming that her car engine has failed and asking for refuge for the night . She joins the partying people in their room .
However strange things have been already happening in the party . The lights had gone out and one of the girls was being smooched in the darkness . But as the lights came on , she realised that both boys were away from her . So who smooched her in the darkness ?? The ghost has made it's first entry , that too in style . Soon the lights go out again and one guy gets slapped in the darkness . When lights come on everyone is far away from him . So who slapped him ?....the evil spirit has made it's second impact .
But soon the happenings become more sinister and every time the lights go out something bad happens . When they come on , everyone starts blaming the sinister happenings on Kunal . Soon people start getting murdered when the lights go out and when they come on the body is lying on the floor . The desperate group tries to escape from the room but the doors are all locked . So what is the mystery of the room ?
Meanwhile the watchman is seeing the happenings on CCTV and also sees the image of a ghost on his screen . Panicking , he calls the police officer . The police officer and his assistant try to open the door of the mysterious room from outside but to no avail . The watchman is convinced that the evil spirit is going to kill all inside the room and the policemen later have to agree with this .
Finally the spirit manifests itself when all but Kunal have been killed . It is the woman who took refuge for the night . She was killed by Kunal and his friends in a drunken hit and run accident years ago and has returned to take revenge . But Kunal confesses his crime to the police officer on phone and she spares him .
But when the accident is shown in flashback there were only the guys in the car which collided killing the woman . Then why did she kill the two girls ? The director did not feel need to clear that one out....
Verdict---Just about okay .
Two stars out of five .
3 storeys ( march 2018 )
http://cpadmin.b4uaflam.com/uploads/B4U_plus/movies/site_image/1665_849x305.jpg
3 storeys is a movie set in Mumbai's ubiquitous chawl system . A chawl is a building that has two room dwellings that open out into a common balcony that spans the entire front of the floor . Mostly lower middle class people stay there and chawls are a hotchpotch of people from different communities staying together . The movie shows 3 stories of 3 families staying on three storeys of the chawl .
The first story is that of Flory Mendonca , a woman who has lost her son and husband long ago and wants to sell her dwelling in the chawl . But she wants to sell at four times the actual value of the dwelling , and hence gets no buyer . But one day a young man ( played by Pulkit Samrat ) comes to buy it and gets ready to buy at the excessive high price . After the deal he asks about her son and his father and learns about how they died . But as the conversation proceeds we are in for a real shock . It's best not to reveal what lies in store for the viewer , but the shock gave a real punch in the face .
The second story is of Varsha Atre ( Masumeh Makhija ) , who is a marathi lady having an alcoholic husband who beats her though he behaves well with their son . One day she makes friends with a newly arrived lady who invites her to her home in the chawl . But as the newly arrived lady tells her about her husband ( played by Sharman Joshi ) , old memories tumble out and Varsha finds herself confronted by her past....
The third story is about love between a young boy and girl of different religions . But as they elope due to the opposition of their parents , they are confronted by a cruel truth about their past that shatters their love story apart....
While this is going on , the attention of all men in the chawl is on the attention seeker of the chawl ( played by Richa Chaddha ) who struts about in backless blouses and with belly chain strapped around her belly having dalliances with men . She is the one who is narrating us all these stories , but when the truth about her is revealed by her we have sympathy for her .
As old secrets tumble out and persons are forced to come face to face with past mistakes , we realise that every building has stories to tell . Of love , of longing , of bad things happening and good tidings coming . It is important that we are listening to a good story teller who makes the stories of ordinary human beings spicier than reality . And in this movie , we are listening to a good story teller .
Background music is good and songs are better . Photography is decent and colours are okay . Acting is decent by everyone . But the movie is for those who like off beat movies and not who like run of the mill entertainers .
Verdict---decent .
Three stars out of five .
Girlfriend ( 2004 )
https://i2.wp.com/bestoftheyear.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Girlfriend.jpg?fit=400%2C577&ssl=1
The release of this lesbian movie was opposed by the right wing parties and when I went to the theatre where it was supposed to be shown , I and the mod babes who had assembled to see the movie had to return home disappointed ; screening of the movie was not allowed at least in my hometown Mumbai/Bombay . It was later released on youtube .
The movie shows two girls living together in Goa---Tanya ( Isha Koppikar ) and Sapna ( Amrita Arora ) . They have been childhood buddies . Tanya has physical attraction for Sapna and plainly lusts for her body . She is the 'man' in the twosome and does all the things men do , especially protecting Sapna from men---I mean the real ones . Sapna is not totally unaware of the attraction but seems to brush it aside from her mind . She is more of a 'straight' female and lives happily under protection of Tanya .
One day in a nightclub a guy named Rahul ( Ashish Chaudhary ) takes up a liking for Sapna and dances with her pretending to be gay , but soon drops the gay act and admits his attraction for her . Sapna is outwardly reluctant but soon succumbs to his pressure , and they start dating together . When Tanya comes to know of this she starts warning Sapna about the ways of men---of dropping women like hot potatoes when they have had their fun . When this does not work , she strikes a bet with Sapna that Rahul with drop her soon . She tries to entice Rahul in bed herself so that it can be proved that he is a two timer , but that ploy fails ; Rahul rejects her advances .
When Rahul and Sapna plan a vacation together , Tanya forces the two to make her join it and thus spoils their romantic outing . Rahul has one solution to this---he thinks that Tanya needs a man for herself and tries to play matchmaker between his male friend and Tanya . But Tanya rejects the friend's advances with a sharp kick on his back ; she is an expert kickboxer who has fought in roadside duels and won them against men . But this arouses Rahul's suspicions . He keeps a watch on the two girls and sees Tanya caressing Sapna in her sleep . Next day he threatens to call his relationship with Sapna off and asks her if she is also a lesbian . Sapna tells of her one time sex with Tanya years ago under influence of drugs and alcohol , but denies being a regular lesbian and begs Rahul to continue the relationship . He agrees .
Next night however Tanya has sex again with Sapna after heavily drugging her , and Rahul begins to thinking of ways of weaning Sapna off Tanya . He decides to make Sapna stay with his mother , but Tanya really has fever on hearing this news and Sapna has to stay . Soon heated exchanges of words begin between Rahul and Tanya whenever they meet . Tanya's possessiveness for Sapna reaches unbearable limits and she tries to kill Rahul by attacking him in a mask . But he survives and refuses to identify the attacker to the police . Reason---both he and his friend who had been attacked when he had made advances feel ashamed to admit that they were not able to tackle a woman physically .
When Rahul again makes plans to date Sapna again , they are expertly foiled by Tanya . Rahul follows them and again sees Tanya caressing a drunk Sapna in a discotheque . Next day he confronts Sapna and calls off the relationship . He warns her that Tanya will never allow her to date a man and have a family and children . That she is a lesbian and loves Sapna madly and is in complete control of her life .
But Sapna discovers she is too deeply in love with Rahul to stop seeing him and grieves his absence . Tanya tries all tricks to hold on to Sapna but fails . In sheer desperation Tanya goes to Rahul's house to kill him with a knife . But Sapna follows her and her intervention saves his life . In the ensuing fight it is Tanya who is killed . Both Rahul and Sapna are sad even though Tanya tried to kill Rahul , for she was a true lover who loved Sapna deeply . They go regularly to Tanya's grave to place flowers on it ; so was Tanya a Christian for her to be buried in a grave ?
And I was sad too for Tanya's death , for she looked so hot in the movie that she didn't deserve to die pining for a girl but deserved a man's caresses....mine , to be precise:D....yeah Isha Koppikar looks hot in love making scenes that are repeatedly shown in the movie , ooohing and aaahing and making moaning sounds....and she moves so boldly in bed and looked so ravishing making love in top position , and I don't mind woman on top position:D She looked equally sexy wearing hot pants and gyrating in nightclubs in miniskirts . Amrita Arora looks decent as Sapna and also has some body exposure and sensuous dances . Ashish Chaudhary looks like a cool dude .
Songs are decent and background music is even better . Photography of Goa's sun kissed beaches and the blue sea all around is top class and makes the movie a visual treat . Acting is decent by everyone . The movie however will not be liked by the LGBT community for it shows the lesbian to be a villain . Furthermore , Tanya has been shown to have turned lesbian not due to internal sexual desires but due to her past experiences ; she was regularly beaten by her dad and sexually abused by a man in childhood , thus making her hate men . The LGBT community may think this to be the wrong way to show a lesbian .
Verdict ---okay .
Two and a half stars out of five .
A scandall ( 2016 )
http://akamai.vidz.zeecdn.com/ozee/music/a-scandall-teaser/listing-image-medium.jpg?v=1466579155
The film is set in beautiful setting of the himalayan hill station of Nainital , a great location for photography of a lake surrounded by green tree covered mountains . Here arrive four friends from a film institute in Delhi in search of a topic for filming a film . They are Koya (Reeth Mazumder), Vidhu (Johny Baweja), Prabal (Puru Chibber), Asmi (Vasundhara Kaul) . It is Koya who has given the idea that has brought them here .
Koya's uncle Manav ( Manav Kaul ) has recently lost his only daughter Kuhu to drowning in the Nainital lake . After this he has started claiming that he can make contact with his dead daughter and can feel her presence around him . The four friends feel that this paranormal experience should be filmed by them . So they arrange a planchette in which the dead Kuhu's spirit really arrives and they can feel it .
But Manav's psychiatrist says that Manav is a manic depressive and that he is seeing only hallucinations . Also that Manav has developed a habit of cybersex recently . To film all this the four put cameras in hidden positions everywhere without Manav's and his wife knowledge . Also they have a flying helicopter camera to record in night .
Manav's wife ( Tanvi Vyas ) says that after the accident Manav has not had sex with her . But the helicopter camera shows Manav indulging in sadomasochism during cybersex . Also he forces his wife to participate in sadomasochism . His wife later confesses that she has seen Manav having sadomasochism with another girl recently .
All these revelations force Koya to ask her boyfriend Vidhu to stop the filming because it is having a deleterious effect on her uncle and his wife . But Vidhu sees the chance of a good film in the making and refuses to stop . Angered by this Koya forcibly climbs on top of Prabal to kiss him in order to take revenge on Vidhu and make him jealous . This in turn makes Prabal's girlfriend Asmi jealous and she berates Prabal for this .
But soon Manav too molests Koya like a possessed man . This drives Vidhu to anger . All of a sudden we are treated to a hot sensuous song and dance between Koya and Vidhu . That is what I was watching the film for anyway . Later the whole group minus Manav meet a person ( Vatsaal Raja ) who does seances , and he is able to uncork the truth of the whole matter from Koya . Yeah , it is Koya who is at the heart of the mystery . Just like she is the heart of the film .
But before the mystery is solved , we are treated to one more sexy song and dance featuring Koya . Reet Mazumder does look hot gyrating on these songs in exposing clothes . And the film is part suspense mystery and part chicksploitation flick for sex maniacs courtesy Reet and her hot kissing scenes and her body exposure .
So what is the mystery ? Actually Koya ( Reet ) has had a boyfriend who was into sadomasochism with her during sex . But he started to prey on little Kuhu too , and Koya had to kill him for attempting paedophilia . But after his death his evil spirit now has entered Manav's body and that is why Manav has developed the habit of kinky cybersex and sadomasochism with his wife . So Koya has to kill Manav too , and then she kills herself for hiding this for so long . End of story .
The photography of naturally beautiful Nainital is good , and background music and songs are good too . Acting however is below par and editing of scenes is horrible . Sequence of one scene after another seems disjointed and the two sexy songs appear out of nowhere in between scenes . The idea behind making the film had some real promise but it has not been filmed properly at all .
Verdict---Bad .
One and a half star out of five .
Baaghi 2 ( Rebel part 2 )
http://bollyworm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Tiger-Shroff-Baaghi-2-Bollyworm.jpg
Ranveer Pratap Singh also known as Ronnie ( Tiger Shroff ) is a captain in the Indian army . The opening shots establish his nationalistic credentials by showing him tying a Kashmiri separatist to the front of his jeep and driving through a crowd of stone pelters just like the Indian army did recently . But soon it is matters of the heart that attract his attention more .
His ex girlfriend Neha ( Disha Patani ) has called him to help her search for her kidnapped daughter , remembering him after 4 years . As Ronnie remembers their romance , he gets emotional due to nostalgia . Neha had married another guy ( Shekhar ) because it was the last wish of her dying father , but it was only her father's deteriorating condition that had brought her back to him from her planned elopement and marriage with Ronnie . Ronnie had promised to be for her whenever she needed him , and he takes leave to go to Goa to help Neha get back her daughter .
But as the movie progresses , Ronnie cannot find evidence of the existence of Neha's daughter . In fact the opinion of several people whom he meets is that the daughter never existed but rather she is a figment of Neha's imagination . That Neha is suffering from the after effects of an incident where her car was hijacked by goons who beat her as she tried to fight back , and she is imagining the existence of an unborn daughter after waking up from unconsciousness brought about by the beating .
So what is the truth of the matter ? As Ronnie confronts Neha with what he has been hearing and this leads to catastrophic consequences , the baaghi ( rebel ) within him is unleashed . And this leads to some action sequences deep within the heart of the villain's lair in the dense jungle . Ronnie dons a Rambo like avtar and unleashes a storm of bullets firing machine guns from both hands . And deals with armed helicopters and hundreds of armed men alone by using his martial arts skills .
So do we have another Sylvester Stallone in the making ? No we don't . The action sequences are good for some on the spot entertainment but lack the punch and the raw emotion that made the Rambo series such a big hit . Disha Patani looks good and so delicate and lovely . Randeep Hooda plays a Punjabi cop who dons the looks of a hippie . Manoj Bajpai plays the local Goa cop . Prateik Babbar plays a drug addict . Darshan Kumar plays Neha's husband Shekhar . Shifuji Bharadwaj plays Ronnie's superior in the army with the usual bluff and bluster . Deepak Dobriyal plays a good guy who helps Ronnie and gives up his life in doing so . Acting by all these people is okay but no one is really good .
The songs are better barring the 'ek do teen' number of which Jacqueline Fernandez tries to ape the old dance by Madhuri Dixit on the same number but fails . Background music is good . Photography and colours are decent . The director does manage to give us an emotional climax however and it is the emotion that triumphs over the action , thus ending the movie on a high and improving it's rating to decent rating .
Verdict---Two and a half stars out of five .
Strangers ( 2007 )
http://www.iphotoscrap.com/Image/715/1297151262-m.jpg
Two strangers meet in a train in England . They strike up a conversation after realising that they are both Indians by descent . Both have been living in England for quite a long time . They are travelling in business class , so the compartment is most comfortable . They are Rahul ( Jimmy Shergill ) and Sanjeev Rai ( Kay Kay Menon ) . As they begin to unravel themselves , they begin to tell each other their life stories . And one thing stands out in their life stories---they are both unhappy due to their wives .
Rahul is a flop writer who had a romantic beginning to his relationship with his wife Preeti ( Nandana Sen ) . But as his writings began to flop and his and his wife's plans to have a baby began to peter out due to their dire financial position , their marriage began to fail . Preeti began to date strangers making Rahul increasingly frustrated and jealous .
On the other hand Sanjeev is being driven round the bend due to his wife Nandini's ( Sonali Kulkarni ) crazed obsession with her son's death , something that she cannot turn away from even though their son has been dead for long . And Sanjeev comes up with a deadly plan in the train---that of the two killing each other's wives so that both the men are rid of their troublesome relationships . Because they are strangers no one will know who killed their respective wives .
But their is a twist to the plot and another twist . The first twist is that Sanjeev has no intentions of killing Preeti , for he is having a passionate affair with her . The whole journey has been planned and tickets booked so that he travels with Preeti's husband Rahul in the same compartment and provokes Rahul to murder his ( Sanjeev's ) troublesome wife Nandini . That will allow Sanjeev and Preeti to be together with Sanjeev's wife Nandini conveniently dead and Rahul behind bars for Nandini's murder .
However there is another twist to the tale ; Rahul has been keeping tabs on his wife Preeti and knows about the plot to trap him . And he decides to take revenge on Preeti . Instead of killing Sanjeev's wife , he kills his own wife Preeti . And leaves Preeti's lover Sanjeev devastated .
Colours are rich and the hence the look of the movie is beautiful as the train rolls on in the english countryside . Photography is very good too . As the train rolls in the english countryside the two main protagonists tell each other their stories which come out in flashbacks . Rahul knowing about the love affair of Sanjeev and Preeti comes out in flashbacks only . No songs are there but background music is good .
Acting wise Jimmy Shergill scores over everyone else as Rahul . He looks good too with yellowed dishevelled hair . His wife Preeti is played by Nandana Sen who looks good too . Kay Kay Menon is good as usual . Sonali Kulkarni as Sanjeev's ( Kay Kay Menon ) wife has a smaller role than the other three .
But editing of sequence of scenes was not good and some scenes looked disjointed from each other . This reduced enjoyment of the film . Still it is different film with a different ending which comes as a surprise . However more drama should have been created at the climax which looks bland inspite of the shocker in the end .
Verdict---okay .
Two stars out of five .
SeeingisBelieving
04-05-18, 05:55 PM
The movie however will not be liked by the LGBT community for it shows the lesbian to be a villain.
I suppose it would depend on whether her villainy is correlated to being a lesbian. I've seen several films with similar themes and I never felt that to be the case. The ones that are fresh in my mind being Prey (1977) and Richard's Things (1980) but Butterfly Kiss (1995) also.
Raat aur din ( Night and day ) 1967
https://img.hindilinks4u.to/2009/10/Raat-Aur-Din-19671-206x300.jpg
This a black and white film . Nargis plays a hindu housewife named Varuna who turns into a free spirited Christian woman who smokes and drinks and goes to nightclubs at night . In her nightly Christian avtar she is called Peggy and has a suitor played by Feroze Khan . Her hindu avtar Varuna's husband is played by Pradeep Kumar . Actually she has multiple personality disorder due to an accident which killed her mother in childhood and was blamed on her . She had admired a Christian friend named Peggy as a child and had secret attraction for Peggy's westernised glamorous lifestyle . That attraction manifests itself at night when the multiple personality disorder temporarily changes her personality . In the end it is proved that the accident that killed her mother was not Varuna's fault . She is cured of her MPD and regains her confidence . Good songs enhance the movie watching experience .
Good movie .
Half girlfriend ( 2017 )
https://politicalpunch.com/file/2017/04/Half-Girlfriend-new-poster.jpg
Arjun Kapoor arrives from the eternal rustic place shown in Bollywood movies---the rural state of Bihar what else---and he comes to Indian capital city Delhi to study in a college full of the high brow crowd . Coming from this rustic place as he is , his English is not good . But he impresses Shraddha Kapoor who is another student , by helping her with her basketball skills . She comes from a rich family and wears chic clothes exposing her lovely body and Arjun naturally gets attracted to her .
Arjun asks Shraddha out for a movie and she agrees provided he does not treat it as a date but as a friendly outing . But when Arjun tries to get close to her she does not respond . However she does remain his friend . Part of the reason for this is that Arjun is a genuinely nice guy . But why does a rich girl coming from the high class society have to get even friendly with Arjun , who comes from a totally different background ? The reason is that Shraddha's father is abusive and beats her mother , and hence she has no peace of mind in her house . She rather gets peace of mind singing alone in the college auditorium and by getting wet in rain that cools her body and mind .
But the latest thing that cools Shraddha's mind is Arjun's rustic company and his simple nature , and hence she hangs out with him giving thrust to his hopes of a real relationship developing between them . One day she gets emotional and kisses him on his lips . She invites him for her birthday celebration in her posh house . But here the stark contrast between their classes is all too apparent to Arjun and he questions her about the nature of their relationship . She replies that she is his half girlfriend . When he returns back to college his friends say that half girlfriend means that she is going to use him and drop him , and she is playing with his emotions as he is in love with her .
His friends push Arjun to try to have sex with Shraddha and one day in his hostel room he tries to get close to her and she responds , but when he tries to make love she pushes him away . There is a heated argument between the two and in a fit of anger Arjun pushes Shraddha and she falls . He quickly apologises but Shraddha ends the relationship . The next time she talks to him , she has fixed her marriage to somebody else and invites Arjun to her wedding . Arjun is heartbroken and he goes back to his village in Bihar to try to forget Shraddha . He devotes his time to get girls educated in his village and wants to build a school where girls can be educated along with boys , because the pressing problem of Bihar is the lack of interest that parents show to send girls to school there .
But an year later he comes to the capital city of Bihar called Patna for getting a loan passed by the Bill Gates foundation for schooling for girls , and he is confronted by Shraddha's presence . Once more his feelings for her are aroused and he takes her help in getting the loan passed . He asks her to come visit his village and Shraddha readily agrees . At his village Arjun's mother gets introduced to Shraddha . She asks her as to what happened to Shraddha's marriage , and Shraddha replies that she got divorced within a few months of marriage . Arjun's mother , who comes from a very conservation part of India then wonders aloud as to how long a girl who left her husband so fast would stay with her son . Incensed by this , Shraddha leaves the next day telling Arjun that she has cancer and does not have long to live . But she also leaves a letter saying that she loves him .
Arjun goes to Shraddha's house in Delhi to get her back for himself , but her mother tells him that she has disappeared for months . Arjun then remembers that Shraddha's wish was to sing in a bar in New York before she died , and he flies to New York to live in a friend's place . He is sure that Shraddha has taken up a job in some bar in New York , and like a man madly in love he searches for her from bar to bar in vain . His friend tries to fix him up with another girl , but Arjun remains passionately in love with Shraddha .
To be honest I was impressed with the mad passion of Arjun's love for Shraddha and his quest for getting his love ; Arjun Kapoor's acting does turn one notch higher as he remains devoted to the memory of Shraddha....yes memory , for now it is a long time since her blood cancer diagnosis and surely she must have died....
But behold the truth of the saying that fortune favours the brave and luck favours the most persistent !! One day Arjun does find Shraddha singing in a bar in New York....she is fit and fine and she had lied to him about dying due to cancer , for she wanted him to forget herself because of his conservative mother's opposition to her bachelor son's marriage to a divorcee . But his long journey to find her convinces her of his real and true love for her , and she finally agrees to marry him and comes with him to settle in his village . If love is a pilgrimage and his lover is God for Arjun , the pilgrim has found his destination . It's been a long and difficult journey but it has been worth it .
The movie too is worth spending your prescious time watching it for more than two hours , because you too might get impressed like me with Arjun's zeal for love . Acting by everyone is good and the movie has some sentimental and emotional scenes . Colours are good and photography makes a backward place like Bihar look green and attractive . Background music is decent and songs are decent too . Shraddha Kapoor looks lovely as usual .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars out of five .
October ( April 2018 )
http://static.koimoi.com/wp-content/new-galleries/2018/04/october-movie-review-1.jpg
Varun Dhawan plays Dan , which is short for Danish Walia . He is doing internship for getting a diploma in hotel management in a five star hotel in Indian capital city Delhi . He is hot tempered and somewhat rude and over talkative , even with his superiors . In short , he is different . And that difference makes a lot of difference in his attitude to what happens next....
At a party in which his peers are drinking together , one of his female class mates named Shiuli ( Banita Sandhu ) sits on a balcony and falls down thirty feet after losing her balance . She is so badly injured that even if she recovers she won't ever be walking again . And even recovery is doubtful . But Dan is told that she was asking for him just before she fell , and something snaps in his mind ; he begins to go daily to the hospital in which Shiuli is admitted and begins to help her family in taking care of her .
Actually Shiuli was not Dan's girlfriend or even his friend . She was just a colleague . Yet why does Dan get so involved with her hospitalisation ? The director never tells us the answer and we are left wondering in till the end....the only explanation is that Dan is different .
But astonishingly , an emotional bond is created between Dan and Shiuli due to his taking care of her . It is not expressed through words because Shiuli never recovers enough to speak a full sentence . Rather it is expressed through eyes and tears . Somewhere there is a hint of love....and that's what a person goes to a movie in search of doesn't he ? At least I do .
Meanwhile Dan has become an indispensable part of Shiuli's family as they struggle to take care of her . They never ask as to why he is doing what he is doing , but others do . His mother and his other colleagues are questioning his motives for helping out Shiuli's family , but soon begin to co operate with him seeing the sheer intensity of his commitment to helping Shiuli recover .
But Dan has not been regular to training in the hotel , and his superiors are questioning his commitment to his work . Soon he is kicked out from training . His immediate superior in whose bad books Dan had always been , has now developed a respect for Dan's devotion to Shiuli and gets him a job in another town . But Shiuli shows a severe reaction to his departure and he has to quit his job and come back .
Much of the movie shows the hospital atmosphere and is not easy to watch a patient lying in hospital . But as the movie progresses we become more used to the proceedings and watch with increasing empathy as Dan takes care of Shiuli .
Shiuli means night jasmine flowers , which are a favourite of Shiuli . She used to collect them from childhood , and Dan had seen her collect them in the hotel gardens . He collects and keeps them near Shiuli in her early stages in hospital in hope that she would wake up on smelling their fragrance . These flowers blossom in October , and that is why the movie has got the name .
Finally Shiuli passes away leaving Dan free to lead his life . The same hotel that had removed him takes him back for training probably out of sheer respect for the care and devotion he showed for Shiuli , though why he was taken back is not expressly shown . Like much of the movie , what is happening is left unspoken....
This decidedly an offbeat film that won't appeal to the regular Bollywood film buff , and aficionados of masala movies are advised to stay away from it . But for an off beat film lover , the movie grows on you . You begin to slowly like it and it makes an emotional impact only later . I am one of them....
Background music is decent and colours and photography are decent . Acting is good by everyone , including Shiuli's mother played by Geetanjali Rao .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars out of five .
KeyserCorleone
04-18-18, 12:48 PM
I still need to explore Indian cinema.
Omerta ( May 2018 )
https://st1.latestly.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Omerta-movie-poster-release-date-784x441.png
Review has spoilers
'Omerta' is a strange name for a film on a terrorist , for it is the code of silence and non co operation with authorities of the Sicilian criminal fraternity . The film's main protagonist is Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh , and 'Omerta' rhymes with Omar which is part of the main character's name . Maybe that's why the name was chosen for the film .
Omar was a person of pakistani descent raised in Britain , and was an educated man . His father wanted him to lead a normal life of a civilian , and was bitterly opposed to his radicalisation---something that is brought out in several scenes in the film . Even the neighbourhood maulana ( religious figure ) who was a radical himself , thought that Omar was used to too much luxury to lead the tough life of a jehadi because it is filled with too many privations .
But the scenes shown on television of the war in Bosnia and sufferings of muslims there made Omar choose the path of jehad in order to counter the atrocities that were supposedly being committed on muslims everywhere . Here too he was subject to taunts that he was a softy who had lived too much of the luxurious life in Britain to go on the path of jehad , but Omar showed what a hard individual he really was by savagely beating the person who taunted him .
In fact his education brought him to special attention of the notorious ISI ( inter services intelligence ) that is the spy agency of pakistan and masterminds the training of jehadis . Omar was picked to be future leader of jehad because according to one of the pakistani masterminds of terrorism it is the educated jehadi who instils real fear in his opponents minds rather than an illiterate one .
In pakistan Omar was introduced to every pakistani jehadi's favourite obsession which is Kashmir ( what else ) and his focus turned from Bosnia to Kashmir and the much hyped ( much exaggerated in pakistan at least ) so called sufferings of the kashmiris at the hands of the Indian army . And his attention turned to India .
The training in the jehad factory or rather terrorist training camp shows a scene of a terrorist jumping down from a cliff to his death just to show his readiness to follow his masters' commands , and as he falls everyone erupts in the war cry 'Allah-hu-Akbar' . After his training is complete Omar is sent to Indian capital city Delhi to commit jehad against India .
Here he uses a hindu name , but at a routine road checking the Delhi police recognise him for what he is and call him a ' mullah' . But naive westerners are fooled by his sophistication as he slickly uses his western upbringing to become friends with westerners---two british and one czech male and one american female . And kidnaps them and holds them hostage . But the Indian authorities catch him and put him in jail . He is hung upside down and beaten up .
But what follows is the most shameful episode for India as a nation . Actually it is quite clear that Omar is an pakistani ISI agent . Why is he allowed to live and not put to death by India ? Instead his father is allowed to meet him and he brings a lawyer who tries to extradite him as he is a British citizen . Omar even tries to radicalise the Indian muslim lawyer by asking him if he is happy in India but is rebuffed by the lawyer who says he is very happy . Then an Indian jet is hijacked and the pakistan backed terrorists who hijacked it demand that Omar be released along with others in order to let the hijacked passengers be let free . The Indian government releases Omar and Omar arrives in triumph in Pakistan to be paraded on the shoulders of other terrorists to the cries of 'Allah-hu-Akbar' .
Omar becomes a hero in pakistan and gets married to a pakistani lady . He openly boasts about being part of the pakistani establishment now and his house is guarded by security personnel . Another good point---the film does not shy away from admitting that a large part of the nation of pakistan supports terrorism and does take the usual bollywood hypocritical line that pakistan also equally suffers from terrorism as India . Women of good families are ready to marry terrorists like Omar and one scene has a character saying the Omar will become a hero for millions of muslims .
9/11 occurs ; the twin towers of the world trade centre of New York are shown falling , and Omar's name is linked to the plot . Pakistani authorities assure Omar that he will be put on trial in Pakistan only , but his wife is afraid for him .
The kidnapping and killing of American journalist Daniel Pearl is probably the highlight of the film and will interest westerners . Daniel is out in search of story on 9/11 , but asks too many questions and that too recklessly . The ISI wants him silenced before he publishes his story . And the man they turn to do it is Omar . Omar entices Daniel with the hope of getting him to meet some man named Geelani , but holds him hostage . Omar taunts Daniel for being a jew and his people killing muslims in Palestine and torturing pakistanis in Guantanamo bay prison . When Daniel tries to escape he is killed brutally with a knife by Omar himself . The killing is not shown as it is too brutal but the sound effects of the knife attacking the victim repeatedly give it's brutality away as does the blood spattered face of Omar at the end of the scene . Omar is currently in jail for this . But he is unrelenting ; smiles and waves to his followers whenever he is in front of cameras .
Rajkumar Rao has acted the role of Omar quite well . The movie does not show his upbringing at all . It moves at a quick pace with no songs and minimum fuss . Photography and background music is all good though the colours are little bleak due to the dark subject of the film . The film does not glorify Omar and hence is realistic .
Verdict---Good .
Four stars out of five .
SeeingisBelieving
05-06-18, 05:17 PM
I still need to explore Indian cinema.
My experience of it is non-existent :frustrated:.
MovieMad16
05-07-18, 09:06 AM
Dear Zindagi ( Dear Life ) December 2016
http://www.thebetterindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/DZ-1.jpg
Alia Bhatt plays a cinematographer in the film industry . Her career is in Mumbai but she is from Goa . Her problem is that she moves from relationship to relationship but shirks away from commitment because of past psychological issues .
Alia really likes Kunal Kapoor and he proposes to her , but because of her issues she misses the bus---she rejects him , and by the time she realises her mistake it is too late . This and problems with the landlord of the house she stays in force her to shift back to Goa , where her parents try to fix her match with various boys without success because her personal issues are with them . But by chance she meets Shah Rukh Khan who is a psychologist . He helps her deal with her past and look at life with a new perspective . He changes her relationship with her parents as she begins to look at them in a new light . Many of her therapy sessions with Shah Rukh occur in the outdoors , and even those in the indoors mesmerise Alia so much that she again falls in love....
Acting is nice by everyone , especially by Alia , SRK and her best friend ( Yashaswini Dayama ) . Because of the semi westernised settings many of the dialogues are in hinglish ( mixture of hindi and english ) . It is the kind of movie that will be liked more by women , though men won't mind sitting with them too...
Songs and music is decent and photography is okay . Alia looks cute in short clothes . SRK looks mature and wizened with a beard . Some of the conversations between Alia and SRK are endearing and the moments of bonding with Yashaswini are really cuddly .
All in all , a decent movie . I will give three stars out of five . Women will give more .
I saw this film recently. My first Bollywood film. I'll give it a big review on my thread later, but I will say I enjoyed it very much. Alia Bhatt is really gorgeous.
Ek paheli ( A mystery ) 1971
https://i2.cinestaan.com/image-bank/1500-1500/25001-26000/25284.jpg
Dr Sudhir ( Feroz Khan ) arrives in Goa after completing his education in a foreign country to take over his dead father's business . He goes to buy a piano for his house . Here he meets a beautiful girl named Maria ( Tanuja ) , who says she would not permit anyone but him to play the piano . When he has paid the money and he goes back to the place where Maria was standing , but she has disappeared . When Sudhir keeps a house warming party , he asks a lady to play the piano but she suddenly collapses and dies while playing it .
One night Sudhir wakes up to see Maria play the piano , but his servant comes with choice words for the noise waking him in the night . By the time Sudhir has quietened the servant , Maria has disappeared . Next day while riding a boat Sudhir sees Maria on a graveyard on a hill . Sudhir rushes to meet her and she is looking so stunning in attractive skirt that he confesses that he loves her . But Maria says that even though she has the same feelings for him she is in a situation from where she cannot unite with him . She also complains about his servant using choice words because he was woken and says that she will not forgive him . When Sudhir goes back home the servant is dead .
The situation is now complicated by Sudhir's father's friend Shankarlal ( Madan Puri ) trying to pin the blame of the two deaths in the house on Sudhir , so that he can take over the father's business after Sudhir is in police custody . But Sudhir's loyal assistants foil the plan . So Shankarlal hatches another plan to kill Sudhir .
Meanwhile Sudhir meets Maria again and she shows him her house in which no one is there . Her hands are so cold . While coming back he is stabbed in the back and awakes in hospital . But is told that there was no stabbing and his car had an accident . He tells Shankarlal of his meetings with Maria in the graveyard .
Shankarlal decides to murder Sudhir when he goes to meet Maria because the graveyard is a lonely place where no one else is there . But Shankarlal is shocked to see a third person there---who else but Maria , and has to change his plans . He hatches another plan to murder Sudhir with the help on another woman who has a resemblance to Maria . The plan is to make her look like Maria and entice Sudhir , and kill him on a lonely railway track by making hi follow her there . But Sudhir's assistants ( played by Rajendranath and Tun Tun ) are too loyal and they foil the plan again and get Shankerlal arrested by the police officer ( played by Sanjeev Kumar ) .
Sudhir goes to meet Maria in the girls college run by a convent , where she has told him she studies . But learns there that Maria was a student who had committed suicide decades ago because her father had sold her only solace---the piano , which he needed to sell to finance his drinking . The same piano that stands in Sudhir's house .
Now the truth dawns on Sudhir , as why Maria meets him only in a graveyard and why her hands are so cold . Why she kills anyone who plays her piano ( like the woman who dies playing it in the house warming party ) or kills the person who gets angry that she disturbed him by playing the piano---like the servant who complained about being woken in the night . She is the ghost of the young woman who died decades ago . A beautiful spirit that has been so hurt in the past that it is capable of murdering people .
But then why does the spirit of the beautiful Maria favour him with her loving companionship and allow only him to play her piano ? Sudhir goes to the graveyard to find out . However he does not see Maria at her usual place , but at some distance calling him to join her . Sudhir rushes to join only to realise too late that he has been enticed to the edge of a cliff . And before he can recover he has been pushed over....he dies after falling off the cliff and getting his head smashed as he falls hundreds of feet below ; the spirit of Maria has killed another victim .
But the story does not end there....Sudhir gets the answers to his questions only after he dies . The reason why Maria favoured him was love . Yes , it was a spirit in need of love and companionship and had selected Sudhir to fall in love . And Maria killed Sudhir because she wanted him to become a spirit like herself and love her and be with her always and forever....in the end she wakes him up from his death slumber and embraces him and holds him in her arms . The two are finally united for all times to come....
Epilogue---I am too willing to be pushed off a cliff if the spirit which pushes me is of a beautiful young woman in love with me and wants my permanent companionship . But , only goodlooking female spirits should apply for this august task:D:D
Acting by everyone is okay and so is photography . Both hero and heroine look good and so young . Songs are decent and background music is appropriately mysterious .
Verdict---decent .
Three out of five stars .
Raazi ( All too ready ) May 2018
https://images.news18.com/ibnlive/uploads/2018/04/raazi.jpg
Raazi is the true story of an Indian female spy who was deliberately married to a Pakistani army man in order to gain military secrets of Pakistan and succeeded in getting vital information about the movement of a Pakistani submarine named Ghazi during the Indo pak war of 1971 . This helped the Indian armed forces counter it's attack .
The big thing about this female spy was that she was a muslim , and that too kashmiri muslim to boot . That itself makes the topic worthy of a film . Her name was Sehmat and is played by Alia Bhatt .
Sehmat's father is spying for India in Pakistan . He belongs to a family of freedom fighters . But he is dying due to cancer and wants to keep the legacy of his patriotism alive . So he selects his daughter Sehmat to carry on the family tradition of spying for India in Pakistan .
This is a life defining decision for Sehmat . She does not merely have to go to Pakistan but she has to live there . Above all , she has to marry a pakistani and to literally sleep with him . And to top it all , she has to give birth to his half pakistani son....
In the midst of all this , Sehmat has to spy on vital documents that contain secrets of pakistani military and pass them to Indian agents . To deal with potential danger , she is trained in physical combat and trained to kill people by Indian intelligence . She has to carry the required equipment for espionage to her marital home .
The film's big concession to filminess is the love story of Sehmat with her pakistani husband played by Vicky Kaushal . He is shown to be a real gentleman and that is too filmy . He refuses to sleep with her until she really falls in love with him and is too nice to her , even when she has been caught spying for arch enemy India . Does not sound like a real character to me . Certainly his oh so nice character has been built up to bring about a romantic angle to the film .
In fact the film shows all pakistanis in the household that Sehmat is married into to be nice people , and one sees the hand of the liberal lobby behind this . The liberals would like us to believe that across the border live nice people without a trace of hate for us in their minds . Inspite of being a pakistani military family , no one among them has really anything bad to say about India in the film . No repetitions of Bhutto's language of thousand year war against India and no mention of jehad . In fact when Sehmat's husband comes to know that she likes hindustani classical music , he brings records of that for her to listen . To a nationalist like me , the whole atmosphere built up in the house of Sehmat's in laws sounds too fake and pakistani appeasing . Pakistanis are jehad crazed barbarians with fanatical hatred for India and that should have been brought out in the film to stay close to reality .
Of course , one person who does not really gel with Sehmat is the family servant Abdul ( Rafiq Zakaria ) . He is the one who finds out about her being a spy and Sehmat has to kill him by crushing him under a truck . Then her own brother in law comes close to finding out the truth and Sehmat dispatches him by hitting him with a poisoned tip of an umbrella . She has a team of Indian spies helping her in pakistan and they help in the second killing . After that she has to live normally with her sister in law whose husband she has just killed , and all this takes a toll on her especially the brutal manner in which she has to kill Abdul .
Finally her cover is blown off and Indian agents try spirit her away . But complications occur and they have to kill innocent people and are ready to kill even her herself , so that she is not caught alive . In the midst of all this , she is confronted by her husband with the truth . But he shows grudging respect for the fact that she is doing all this for her nation India !! No trace of hatred for her inspite of her betrayal of his love !! Way too filmy man and way too liberal !! Such people exist only in films and not real life .
In the end Sehmat is disgusted by the behaviour of the Indian agents in killing innocents including trying to kill her , and does not really appreciate her Indian handler's well meant words that in this sort of confrontation it is winning the war by hook or crook that is more important and not individuals like herself or others who got killed . She gets disenchanted from the whole spy business and becomes lonely and depressed . But the pakistani secrets she gave prove vital for India's war effort , and her son joins the Indian military .
Alia Bhatt is a wonderful actress who brings about every emotion of the character of Sehmat all too well . Background music is good and photography is decent . There are many unknown people who have done countless secret missions with great personal suffering and sacrifice for the country without getting recognition for it and the film will make us remember them all .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five .
Sins ( 2005 )
https://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BZWJlZTg1YTctNDdiZS00YWQ5LWEwMjgtNDkxMTQ1YjQyZDQ4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzA3MDU4MTk@._V1_.jpg
'Sins' movie is based on a real life story of an Indian catholic priest involved in a sexual relationship with a girl . The movie was opposed by the christian community of India as they thought that the portrayal would give a bad name to catholic priests in particular and christians in general . The movie as well as the real life story happened in the southern state of Kerala , which had a large number of christians in the 80s when the story happened . Today the christians in Kerala are dwindling somewhat in numbers .
Father William ( Shiney Ahuja ) begins as a kind priest who helps a girl named Rosemary ( Seema Rahmani ) whose bicycle has broken down to reach her exam centre . She is studying to be a nurse . The girl develops a friendship with him and asks him to help her learn driving a car . Once when she has to push the car stuck in a ditch , she gets dirt on her clothes . She has to remove the clothes in the priest's house and he gets to see her lovely back and body half naked . Urged by uncontrollable lust , William embraces her and takes her to his bed for making love and she responds to his overtures . What we get to see is a love making scene with topless half nudity of Seema Rahmani---the actress playing Rosemary , that gives you the hots . There are other such scenes of love making in half naked form in the film and boy , they do give you the hots .
Soon a sexual relationship develops between William and Rosemary , and her brother and her mother do not object . In fact they want financial favours in lieu of Rosemary's sexual favours for the father . Years pass . But the whole thing becomes well known and Rosemary's reputation is tarred . India is a conservative society and a girl in an unholy relationship with a catholic priest is shunned . People throw her out of gatherings of respectable people and she is greatly disturbed by this .
At first William is disturbed by his own sinful behaviour and repeatedly goes to confess his sins to another priest in disguise . He also does repentance for his sins as prescribed by the priest . But soon lust overtakes him and he becomes unrepentant . Rosemary wants him to marry her by leaving the catholic order so that she gains respectability and is not shunned by society any more . He starts dilly dallying on this point of marriage .
The matter soon escalates when William is about to be promoted to Vicar , which will make him a powerful person . He refuses Rosemary's entreaties to marry her as it will ruin his career . She realises that he has become a selfish person and is disgusted . To mollify her William marries her off to Graham ( Nitesh Pande ) , who is a person indebted to him by some past favour . But Graham and Rosemary are forbidden by William to come close . Rosemary has to remain William's woman and his only according to him .
But Graham and Rosemary soon develop an emotional connection , and they would like to be together as a real man and wife . But Father William employs goons to keep a watch on them and intimidate Rosemary into remaining loyal to him . He becomes increasingly violent and beats and kicks her into submission . Amazingly , the entire local catholic establishment does not censure him for his unethical behaviour . Speaks volumes about the rot in the establishment .
Graham however meets Rosemary in the dead of the night and they make passionate love . The scene is beautifully pictured with emotional music and remains a romantic memory of love making from the movie . I liked the movie best at the point of the scene .
Soon Graham hatches a plan to help Rosemary escape to Bombay---as the city of Mumbai was known at that time . And they escape out of William's clutches seemingly . But her mother naively tells William about the spot where Rosemary used to go alone to reflect on herself . That spot is on a lonely stretch near the sea and has a cross . Rosemary also spent some romantic moments with Graham there . Rosemary used to pray to the cross , which shows that even an alleged heretic like her who was in an unholy sexual relationship with a priest needs God to form a spiritual connection . Even sinners need the almighty....
One day when Rosemary's mother ( played by Uttara Baokar ) is alone at the spot , William surprises her there and brutally kills her by strangling her with his bare hands . His transformation as villain is complete . Meanwhile Rosemary is pregnant with Graham's child and is on top of her happiness in Bombay . The news of her mother's death brings her happiness crashing down and she and Graham have to come back to Kerala . She meets William , who repeatedly kicks her in the abdomen and punches her till she begs for mercy on her unborn child and William then allows her to go .
Rosemary contacts the police because she is suspicious that William killed her mother and the police begin to gather evidence about the murder . The church authorities in Quilon are informed and the noose is being tightened around William's neck . Police guards are posed to protect Rosemary as William is hell bent on revenge for this . But one day tragedy strikes ; William's goons get past the police guards and murder Rosemary by knives .
William is doomed by his acts ; doomed by his uncontrollable lust for Rosemary and his open venture into a life of sin . His sins have caught up with him . He is captured by police and condemned to death by the court , and he unrepentantly tells Graham before his hanging that he killed Rosemary because he loved her and wanted to punish her for her disloyalty . But her forgets that Rosemary wanted to marry him and his own desire to stick to his position in the church was what turned her to the arms of another man .
The light eyed and able bodied Shiney Ahuja doesn't look like a priest , to be honest . He looks like a hero of a film rather than a villain . He later was accused of rape in real life by his maid . Wonder if his role in this film had some mental effect on him....??
Acting and photography is good , and the film is in english language throughout . Seema Rahmani is not goodlooking but her sensuous lovemaking scenes do give you the hots .
Verdict---decent .
Three stars out of five .
MovieMad16
05-18-18, 08:13 PM
Raazi ( All too ready ) May 2018
https://images.news18.com/ibnlive/uploads/2018/04/raazi.jpg
Raazi is the true story of an Indian female spy who was deliberately married to a Pakistani army man in order to gain military secrets of Pakistan and succeeded in getting vital information about the movement of a Pakistani submarine named Ghazi during the Indo pak war of 1971 . This helped the Indian armed forces counter it's attack .
The big thing about this female spy was that she was a muslim , and that too kashmiri muslim to boot . That itself makes the topic worthy of a film . Her name was Sehmat and is played by Alia Bhatt .
Sehmat's father is spying for India in Pakistan . He belongs to a family of freedom fighters . But he is dying due to cancer and wants to keep the legacy of his patriotism alive . So he selects his daughter Sehmat to carry on the family tradition of spying for India in Pakistan .
This is a life defining decision for Sehmat . She does not merely have to go to Pakistan but she has to live there . Above all , she has to marry a pakistani and to literally sleep with him . And to top it all , she has to give birth to his half pakistani son....
In the midst of all this , Sehmat has to spy on vital documents that contain secrets of pakistani military and pass them to Indian agents . To deal with potential danger , she is trained in physical combat and trained to kill people by Indian intelligence . She has to carry the required equipment for espionage to her marital home .
The film's big concession to filminess is the love story of Sehmat with her pakistani husband played by Vicky Kaushal . He is shown to be a real gentleman and that is too filmy . He refuses to sleep with her until she really falls in love with him and is too nice to her , even when she has been caught spying for arch enemy India . Does not sound like a real character to me . Certainly his oh so nice character has been built up to bring about a romantic angle to the film .
In fact the film shows all pakistanis in the household that Sehmat is married into to be nice people , and one sees the hand of the liberal lobby behind this . The liberals would like us to believe that across the border live nice people without a trace of hate for us in their minds . Inspite of being a pakistani military family , no one among them has really anything bad to say about India in the film . No repetitions of Bhutto's language of thousand year war against India and no mention of jehad . In fact when Sehmat's husband comes to know that she likes hindustani classical music , he brings records of that for her to listen . To a nationalist like me , the whole atmosphere built up in the house of Sehmat's in laws sounds too fake and pakistani appeasing . Pakistanis are jehad crazed barbarians with fanatical hatred for India and that should have been brought out in the film to stay close to reality .
Of course , one person who does not really gel with Sehmat is the family servant Abdul ( Rafiq Zakaria ) . He is the one who finds out about her being a spy and Sehmat has to kill him by crushing him under a truck . Then her own brother in law comes close to finding out the truth and Sehmat dispatches him by hitting him with a poisoned tip of an umbrella . She has a team of Indian spies helping her in pakistan and they help in the second killing . After that she has to live normally with her sister in law whose husband she has just killed , and all this takes a toll on her especially the brutal manner in which she has to kill Abdul .
Finally her cover is blown off and Indian agents try spirit her away . But complications occur and they have to kill innocent people and are ready to kill even her herself , so that she is not caught alive . In the midst of all this , she is confronted by her husband with the truth . But he shows grudging respect for the fact that she is doing all this for her nation India !! No trace of hatred for her inspite of her betrayal of his love !! Way too filmy man and way too liberal !! Such people exist only in films and not real life .
In the end Sehmat is disgusted by the behaviour of the Indian agents in killing innocents including trying to kill her , and does not really appreciate her Indian handler's well meant words that in this sort of confrontation it is winning the war by hook or crook that is more important and not individuals like herself or others who got killed . She gets disenchanted from the whole spy business and becomes lonely and depressed . But the pakistani secrets she gave prove vital for India's war effort , and her son joins the Indian military .
Alia Bhatt is a wonderful actress who brings about every emotion of the character of Sehmat all too well . Background music is good and photography is decent . There are many unknown people who have done countless secret missions with great personal suffering and sacrifice for the country without getting recognition for it and the film will make us remember them all .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five .
Saw this last weekend and really enjoyed it. I think I was the only white person in a very packed cinema so...yeah, that was an experience.
It was interesting to read your opinion on how they potrayed the Pakistani's as too nice. I don't know much about the conflict at all, so it'd be interesting to learn more about what happened.
And I agree, Alia Bhatt is wonderful in this film.She's been my main ticket into the world of Bollywood, and I hope to expand onto other films soon after.
Reading your thread is a good idea on what is good and not so good.
Reading your thread is a good idea on what is good and not so good.
Thanks for the appreciation mate :)
Tum bin ( Without you ) 2001
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ay3jhynjcos/TQZPIC3BZJI/AAAAAAAABeg/NKdSdusN-Hc/s1600/Tumbin%2B2.jpg
Priyanshu Chatterjee plays Shekhar Malhotra , a successful MBA in India . One day at a party he is introduced to Amar Shah ( Raquesh Vashisth ) , who is owner of Shah industries in Canada . The two strike up an instant friendship . But that very night Amar is killed when he comes under Shekhar's vehicle , even though the accident is not Shekhar's mistake as he had to suddenly swerve the car to avoid a small girl who had run onto the road after her dog . Shekhar stops to see if anything can be done to save Amar , but suddenly Amar's mobile phone rings . Shekhar picks up the call to hear the voice of Pia ( Sandali Sinha ) , who is Amar's fiancee and is heard singing a romantic couplet thinking that Amar has picked up the call . But Shekhar's friend forces him to run from the spot to avoid arrest . A policeman named D'mello later comes to the spot and vows to arrest the person who caused the accident .
Back home the memory of the voice of the fiancee on phone repeatedly reminds Shekhar of the fact that Amar must be having near and dear ones in Canada , who must be waiting for him and must have been devastated due to the loss . A caring person like him cannot bear to live with the guilt of having taken away someone in the prime of youth from his relatives . So Shekhar goes to Canada to confess his perfidy to them and try to arrange help for them if he can .
On reaching Amar's house in Canada Shekhar sees Amar's dad and confesses his role in the accident to the dad . But someone else comes in the room and tells him that the dad has lost his voice and is in shock temporarily due to his son's loss and cannot comprehend anything . Shekhar does not have the courage to admit his perfidy again to others in the house and retreats from there .
Shekhar soon finds out that Amar's business called Shah industries is failing due to Amar's death and his fiancee Pia is desperately trying to save the business . Shekhar meets her and offers his help for free claiming that Amar had offered him a job in his business when he had met him in India , and he would like to help out in their bad times . Pia is reluctant but allows him to work for no pay in memory of Amar's promise .
Soon Shekhar shows his skills in business and the company begins to revive . Pia is impressed by his abilities and so is the rest of the Shah family . Shekhar becomes an indispensable part of Shah industries and soon begins to frequent the Shah household . His easygoing nature endears him to everyone and he strikes a friendship with Amar's young sister to the point that she begins to feel him to be a replacement for her lost brother .
And Pia ? She and Shekhar are always together to run the business and she begins to like Shekhar . She misses him whenever he is not in the office and this fact is noticed by everyone . Soon her well wishers are after her to strike up a relationship with Shekhar and even the Shah family approves of the idea .
Into this situation comes another young man named Abhi ( Himanshu Malik ) , who promises a bailout that will catapult Shah industries to new heights . He is far richer than them and is also personally interested in marrying Pia . But Shekhar feels that the bailout will make Shah industries lose it's independence , or maybe he is also in love with Pia and Abhi's interest in Pia irks him ? But Pia decides to accept the offer of both the bailout and the marriage in order to take her fiance Amar's dream which is Shah industries to great heights .
When Shekhar comes to know of Pia's decision he decides to walk out of her life and her business and go back to India , but this is to the chagrin of Amar's family and Amar's sister who have begun to feel Shekhar to be an indispensable part of their lives . And when Pia sees Shekhar gone then his true value is realised by her ; she cannot live without him as she is in love....
But as Shekhar begins to board the plane which will carry him to India , the police officer who has vowed to capture the person who caused Amar's accident comes to arrest him . So how will Pia and the Shah family come to terms with the fact that the person they have come to think of as their own was actually the one who killed their beloved Amar ? Will Pia ever have the same feelings for Shekhar after this revelation ?
Relax you all....love will find a way ; that's the motto of the film . And love does find a way , with Amar's father finally opening his mouth and admitting that Shekhar had confessed his perfidy to him on the first day of his arrival in Canada and that he has forgiven Shekhar because he believes that it was not Shekhar's fault in the accident . Shekhar and Pia are destined to live life together , but only after a few more twists and turns along the way .
The film is embellished with superb background music and good songs that enhance our viewing pleasure , and great photography of snowbound Canada makes it a visual treat . The heroine Sandali Sinha and all three of her suitors are all good looking and act appropriately . Filled with many emotional scenes and fine music accompanying those scenes , the film is a must see for aficionados for romance .
Verdict---Good .
Four stars out of five .
Angrezi Mein Kehte Hain
May 2018
http://www.theenglishpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Angrezi-Mein-Kehte-Hai_640x427.jpg
This is a story of people living in the small town of Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges river . They live a simple no frills middle class existence . The husband Yashwant Batra ( Sanjay Mishra ) is a no nonsense person who dominates his wife and does not allow her to do a money earning job outside home . He works in the post office and provides the basic necessities to his family and feels that this much is enough . His wife comes from a higher class than him and has somewhat taller ambitions about lifestyle than him . And those ambitions include more care and attention and love from him---which is not forthcoming . Yashwant feels humiliated at the household functions of his wife's family due to their difference in class and is reluctant to go there .
But the wife named Kiran ( Ekavali Khanna ) is nice and adjustable and has adjusted with this arrangement for 24 years without complaining too much . The couple have daughter named Preeti ( Shivani Raghuvanshi ) , who feels her mother's discomfort and is more rebellious . She is in love with a neighbouring boy called Jugnu ( Anshuman Jha ) who her father dislikes maybe because he has the looks of a loafer from the streets of Banaras . Father feels that he can get a better match for his daughter .
Matters come to a head when father arbitrarily decides the marriage of his daughter without consulting her or her mother and the daughter breaks out into open rebellion by secretly marrying the boy she loves . When her father slaps her for this , she openly chides him for not treating her mother properly for years and says she does not want this kind of life . As the verbal confrontation grows more intense , Yashwant asks his wife to leave him for good . She is shocked but agrees to go if her daughter is married by proper rituals to the boy she loves . Yashwant agrees and the daughter is married again by the parents to Jugnu , the boy she loves .
After the wedding when Kiran prepares to leave , Yashwant does not stop her and she goes to her brother's house . Jugnu's father gets her a job in a college as lecturer and she likes it there . But Yashwant is secretly missing his wife . His daughter , her husband and father in law put pressure on him to woo back his wife . This leads to some corny situations where Yashwant sends roses to the wrong female lecturer by mistake and gets beaten up .
Kiran's brother sends her to a foreign country to start a new life , but she misses her husband there and sends him letters there . Yashwant responds and they have correspondence by letters in which matters are settled between them . Kiran decides to come back and asks for Yashwant to receive her at the airport to take her home .
Meanwhile Yashwant comes into contact with a man ( played by Pankaj Tripathi ) who is trying to save his sick wife's life and cares for her in hospital . He desperately tries to keep the romance in their marriage alive even these circumstances . As Yashwant sees the man's wife die before his eyes , he realises the value of what he had and what he lost . He decides to change himself to suit his wife's tastes . He decides to become more adjustable and flexible and modern and caring and loving and attentive to his wife's concerns .
When his wife lands back in India , it is changed husband she sees . And his daughter and son in law are thrilled to see this . As his scooter takes off with his wife , better days are ahead for this middle aged couple .
It is a simple story and very simply shown on screen , but somewhere there is an endearing quality that you like . This could be the story of normal people who are unlike screen heroes who have larger than life love stories . It could be the story of you and me and countless ordinary people .
Background music and songs are decent and photography is okay . Acting is good by everyone .
Verdict---Decent .
3
Parmanu
( Atomic bomb ) June 2018
44944
Parmanu is the story describing how India dramatically declared itself as a full fledged nuclear power on the world stage by testing 5 nuclear bombs in 1998 , surprising the whole world . Eventually India's nuclear weapon status was legitimized by a nuclear deal with the USA , which proves the hindi maxim 'duniya jhukti hai , bas jhukane wala chahiye' which means 'the world will bend for you , if you have someone with the will to make it bend for you' . In this case the 'someone' was India's prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee , and the team of scientists which carried out the tests was led by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam .
The story begins with an IAS officer Ashwat Raina ( John Abraham ) suggesting in a high level government meeting that in response to China testing it's 43rd nuclear bomb , India must respond by testing it's own nuclear bomb . This is in 1995 . Against scepticism by others , this plan is implemented by the government but without Ashwat's involvement . Ashwat had chalked out an elaborate plan to avoid the watch of American satellites , but that is disregarded . So the preparations for testing come to the notice of American satellites in space and America raises a hue and cry about the impending tests , due to which they are aborted . Ashwat is suspended from his job and is forced to retire to the hill station of Mussourie .
But in 1998 a new nationalistic government led by the BJP comes to power , and Ashwat is reassigned to the job of leading a team to test nuclear bombs in Pokhran in the desert state of Rajasthan close to Pakistan . His main contact with the PMO is Himanshu Shukla ( Boman Irani ) who is principal secretary to the PM . Ashwat selects a team of military professionals and scientists who are given code names from the hindu epic Mahabharata .
The biggest challenge in front of the team is to make preparations for the nuclear tests without the americans knowing about them . So they have to work in times when the American satellites are not watching them---known as blind spots . Before the satellites see them , the team and the military personnel assigned to them have to cover their tracks . The preparations go on for several days , so this has to be done repeatedly---a challenging task indeed . Sand storms in the desert create their own problems which have to be dealt with .
The other challenge is to avoid being detected by American and Pakistani spies at Pokhran . Here the director takes the cinematic liberty of making the Pakistani spy interfere in Ashwat's personal life by making his wife ( played by Anuja Sathe ) suspect that he is having an affair with a female member of his team ( played by Diana Penty ) . Needless to say , this is all fiction though it does heighten the entertainment quotient of the film . A totally filmy fight is shown between Ashwat and the Pakistani spy . None of this really happened in real life and is shown for increasing the drama in the film .
The last part of the film is like a race against time . The americans are closing on to the reality through the spies and the satellites are putting an ever increasing watch on the Pokhran test site . As the americans come to realise that a nuclear test is imminent , the Indians have to speedily put into action the mechanism for exploding the bombs . Thus the climax of the film is almost a nail biting thriller . Just before the americans put the stops , India manages to explode nukes that shatter the sands of the uninhabited desert and send shockwaves throughout politico-military establishments across the globe . A new nuclear power has been born....
As the Indian flag flies tall in the aftermath of the tests near the test site and the soldiers stand to salute it , you cannot but feel a sense of pride and thrill of patriotism . The emotional music score does heighten your feelings at this point .
Acting is good by everyone and so is the background music . Songs are good too , though they are mostly in the background . Photography is decent and so are the colours .
The movie will be understood mostly by the educated audience and is not for the masses . It is of course a must see for all nationalists of whom I am one .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Veere di wedding ( Wedding of my bestie ) June 2018
Four bold modern sassy female friends meet again reigniting memories of their school days . And even in those days they had been bold , wearing miniskirts to school and creating mayhem on the campus .
And why should not they be bold ? Their confidence and uninhibited behaviour is backed by real money which their families possess . Yeah , all of them belong to rich families and can do things which middle class girls can only dream of .
Kareena Kapoor is in a live in relationship with her boyfriend , but one day her boyfriend proposes to her and she is forced to accept because she doesn't want to hurt him . But she is not at all comfortable with the relatives of her boyfriend that she has to now adjust with as part of the impending marriage . She was happy with the live in relationship and cannot bear the overweening affection being poured on her by her in laws . Reason---she has not lived with a happy family as she comes from a broken home . As the marriage rituals are on and cause her increasing discomfort , she takes the excuse of her boyfriend making a snide remark at her to call off the marriage .
Sonam Kapoor is desperate to get married . She was in a major relationship with a boy since young age but that didn't work out . Now during the marriage of Kareena she tries to kiss a guy she wants to marry . But he shoos her off , and on the rebound she sleeps with a guy angling for her whose name even she does not know .
Sakshi Talsania has run off with her white lover to get married and has a kid with him whom she adores . But the kid and her increasing weight put brakes on her sex life . Her father has never forgiven her for her elopement with a white man and is not on talking terms with her though she wants to reconnect with him .
Swara Bhaskar is on course to get divorced from her husband with whom she has major issues . The highlight of the movie is her masturbation scene , in which she masturbates after a fight with her husband and he walks in just as she is reaching orgasm . She wears the most sexy clothes in the movie and has a reputation among the aunties in her neighbourhood .
These women go to Phuket to forget their troubles and have a whale of a time swimming and partying there . They wear exposing clothes and use swear words and discuss intimate details that women can discuss only with their closest buddies . But behind all the boldness they are vulnerable women in need to connect with the people they have left behind and the people they love . So do they ? Watch the movie for that....
All four women look good and dress even better . Acting is good too and colours and photography of the movie are nice . Songs and background music is a major plus point of the film and enjoyment of the film is enhanced by it . The movie is focused on the four girls and hence the actors chosen for playing their love interests are unknown actors . So the four actresses get to dominate the movie .
Beneath all the lack of inhibitions , all four are shown to be nice girls . If you go with an open mind not to get overly concerned by the boldness in the film like the masturbation scene , the movie is fun to be enjoyed and also to get sentimental as there are some emotions in the end .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five .
45184
Sanju
June 2018
http://stz.india.com/sites/default/files/styles/zeebiz_850x478/public/2018/06/28/43468-sanju-poster.jpg?itok=ZC-U9AhC
Sanju , the film on Bollywood film star Sanjay Dutt , touches upon two of the three controversies for which he is famous or rather notorious . One of them is his drug addiction , and the film shows in a no holds barred brutally honest manner as to how much he was addicted to drugs and upto what extent he went into the morass of drugs . The second controversy is obviously something that the film exonerates him from , for the film has been made with Dutt's co operation and tells his version of the story . That is the charge of terrorism . The film admits that he had received three AK 56 automatic rifles from the underworld , but claims that he had asked for them because his father was receiving death threats from unknown people due to his work of supplying relief material to muslims in riot affects areas of Mumbai . The film totally rejects that Sanjay had anything to do with the bomb blasts that rocked Mumbai in the same period .
The third controversy however is something that the film totally shirks from , and that is because Sanjay has no excuse for his unspeakable behaviour in it . And that is his callous treatment of his first wife Richa Sharma , whom he abandoned even though she needed him most when she had cancer . The daughter that he had with her named Trishala is not mentioned at all , and also left out is his second wife Rhea Pillai .
What is mentioned are the 308 women he bedded and what is shown is the gujarati speaking girlfriend resembling his one time love Tina Munim . Again , no mention of Madhuri Dixit who was on the verge of marriage with him when he got arrested under terrorist and disruptive activities act ( TADA ) . The one person who dominates the later part of the movie's proceedings is his current wife Manyata , who is played well by Dia Mirza .
Ranbir Kapoor plays Sanjay Dutt , and he plays his role well like the good actor that he is . Sanjay's mannerisms and his lingo is well copied by him as if it is the deadly Dutt who himself is acting out his younger self .
Two main things about Sanjay Dutt which were not known to me were brought out in the movie . For one , because of hobnobbing with the underworld far too much of the time , Dutt's lingo in real life is also of the underworld type . The other fact is that Sanjay Dutt hates the press and the media with real zest due to their hand in creating his notorious image .
Paresh Rawal plays Sanjay's father Sunil Dutt well and Manisha Koirala plays his mother Nargis nicely too , but this nice lady dies due to cancer while Sanjay is newly hooked onto drugs sold to Sanjay by a drugs peddler pretending to be Sanjay's friend---played by Jim Sarbh . Sanjay's lifelong friend is played by Vicky Kaushal , and he stays with him through thick and thin . They drift apart due to Dutt's suspected role in terrorism , but the film shows Dutt successfully proving to his friend that he was innocent of those charges thus reuniting with his friend---which essentially gives a nice emotional climax to the movie . The author of Sanjay's purported autobiography is played by Anushka Sharma and she has a role in bringing the two friends together again .
Of course , Sanjay admits that he is a bad boy and is frank about his life and his mistakes in the earlier part of the movie . Acting by Ranbir Kapoor makes Sanjay an endearing personality to be watched in the movie inspite of his misdemeanours . His travails due to drug addiction and his stint in jail all make for some raw watching of some tough situations .
Background music and photography wise , the movie is good and so are it's colours . I was hooked and entertained for a considerable part of the movie .
Verdict---Good .
4
Dhadak
( Heartbeat ) July 2018
https://images.mapsofindia.com/my-india/2018/07/Dhadak1.jpg
The much awaited hindi language remake of the superhit Marathi language movie 'Sairat' ( wild ) is here , and even though it is not as great as the original it still manages to give a decent performance . Of course , it does not have the authenticity of 'Sairat' . 'Sairat' was situated in the rural countryside and gave an authentic rural flavour to the happenings . This movie is situated in the more urban territory of the city of Udaipur in the north Indian state of Rajasthan and does not have the different rural feel of 'Sairat' ; that is , different for us city folks at least .
There are two things in which the movie scores over 'Sairat' .
Though it is about caste differences , it mentions the heroine's family as only upper caste and the hero's family as lower caste and does not mark any particular caste for vilification . 'Sairat' on the other hand unnecessarily vilified a particular upper hindu caste . Also 'Sairat' was clearly a political movie which showed the lower hindu caste boy being helped by his muslim friend , thus asking for a lower hindu caste-muslim political alliance . This movie on the other hand is not a political movie and is more about romance daring to defy caste barriers but without bringing too much caste politics into it .
The other thing in which this movie scores over 'Sairat' is in the climax scene in which the eloped lowers are subject to a honour killing , which is shocking even to a person who expects it having seen the Marathi movie before and even more gruesome than 'Sairat' even though it is roughly similar .
Ishan Khattar as the hero and Janhvi Kapoor as heroine are not as good as the original cast of the Marathi movie---Akash Thosar and Rinku Rajguru . But that is because of comparing with the best . Without comparison with anyone , their performance is okay .
The sidekick of the hero who is shown to be a midget does not pack a comedy punch equal to the sidekick of the hero from the original movie . Ashutosh Rana plays main villain as father of the heroine and has an imposing presence .
Though basically the same story as the Marathi language original , this movie gives more scope for showing the difficulties that couples who elope have to face alone without the support of parents in a strange city . But the iconic scene of the hero jumping into the well that the girls are bathing in has not been created with the same flourish as in the original movie .
Music is roughly same as the original movie and photography is okay but not as great as the Marathi language movie .
Verdict---Decent .
3
Karwaan
( Caravan ) August 2018 )
http://www.snehasallapam.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=19326&d=1534359451
This film is like a breath of fresh air that I was waiting to inhale ; it is a journey that truly reaches it's destination in more ways than one .
Dulquer Salman plays Avinash---a brooding young man who learns that his father has just died in an accident on a pilgrimage , and that he has received the wrong body . His father's body has gone to another city , and he has to go all the way there to exchange it with the body of the woman that he has mistakenly received . His friend Shaukat ( Irrfan Khan ) decides to help him by driving his van carrying the woman's body all the way from Bangalore to Kochi . On the way they also have to pick up the dead woman's granddaughter Tanya ( Mithila Palkar ) who studies at the hill station of Ooty . The karwaan ( caravan ) is getting some steam as the three join...
Two is company but three is crowd , especially if the third is a female who is free and westernised and liberated ; the conservative Shaukat disapproves of the exposing clothes of Tanya and the oh so stifled personality of Avinash is appalled that the unmarried Tanya has to carry out a pregnancy test on the way . Besides this fact , both men are carrying the baggage of problematic relationships with their respective fathers with them . But as the karwaan proceeds , it is the talkative and friendly personality of Tanya that helps Avinash come to terms with the his differences with his father . And Shaukat---he meets another female who helps him to come to terms with his past .
As the karwaan moves from Bangalore to Ooty to Kochi , it is moving in scenic countryside of the green tree topped mountains . That is what I had come to see the movie for anyway . And the cinematographer doesn't disappoint , providing breathtaking photography of the mountains of Ooty and tea estates and mist in those mountains . And continues to show us shots of deer grazing in forests and resorts set in the backwaters of Kerala . But I got more than the superb photography of nature that I had come to see the movie for . For as the movie progresses , it gives us insights into life and tells us how to handle wrong decisions taken in the past .
And the past does come to catch up with the three , in more ways than one . While Shaukat has to confront criminals searching for him , Avinash gets to meet a woman he loved in years of yore . Mixed with all these situations is the effervescent personality of Tanya . By the time they have reached Kochi , the three have formed a bond . And the journey has changed the two men's life .
The whole movie is non serious and Irrfan keeps the audiences' spirits alive by cracking some real jokes and creating some funny situations with a dead pan expression on his face . Dulquer plays a serious person with repressed feelings . Mithila Palkar is pure joie de verve in her acting . All three act well . The language used in the movie is partly hindi and partly English . Due to this anglicisation of language it will be more appreciated by the educated crowd than the masses . Dulquer speaks decent hindi for an actor of a non hindi speaking state . The film marks the Bollywood debut of this keralite actor .
Music and songs form an important part of the movie and they are really good . Suffice to say that I will be repeatedly hearing the songs of this movie long after I have finished watching it . Above all it is a film that moves along breezily with comedy situations but does not finish without filling you with emotion . That's what makes for a perfect film .
Verdict---Nice , real nice .
4
Gold
( August 2018 )
https://resize.indiatvnews.com/en/centered/newbucket/715_431/2018/08/download-3-1534216721.jpg
Akshay Kumar has become a master of tuning up the patriotic instincts of the audience . I remember watching the movie 'kabhi khushi kabhi gam' in 2001 in a theatre in Mumbai . In the movie Shah Rukh Khan's and Kajol's son is shown singing India's national anthem 'jana gana mana' in London . But no one in the audience stood up . Today before watching the movie ' Gold' the audience had already stood up for the national anthem once , because the national anthem is compulsorily played in theatres nowadays before the movie starts at least in my part of India . Yet as India is shown winning the gold medal in field hockey in the 1948 London Olympics and the national anthem of India is shown being played in the stadium , the whole audience spontaneously stood up a second time . The India of 2018 is different from the India of 2001....or maybe an Akshay Kumar movie evokes a different feeling from a Karan Johar movie....
Yeah , the movie is about newly independent India's first gold medal in Olympics , in the game of field hockey . Akshay Kumar plays Tapan Das , a Bengali who forgets his drinks only when the game of hockey is mentioned . He has seen the indian team win under British tutelage in the Berlin Olympics in 1936 to the chagrin of Hitler ( no less ) , and dreams of an independent India winning the gold again . But as India becomes independent , it is partitioned and many players either go to Pakistan or settle abroad . The team the Tapan has painstakingly built from scratch is dissolved in the flames of post partition riots when the team's prospective captain has to flee to Pakistan . Tapan returns to his drinks .
It is Samrat ( Kunal Kapoor ) the captain of the 1936 Olympics team who wakes Tapan from his drunken slumber by a promise to coach the team himself , something that he had rejected earlier . But Tapan also has to convince the financer ( Mr Wadia ) of the Hockey team to release the funds from his kitty for preparation of the team , against the advice of Mr Wadia's aide who is constantly at loggerheads with Tapan .
And Tapan and Samrat also have to weld the players and their differing personalities into a team and a winning combination . While one player ( acted by Amit Sadh ) who is son of a rich landlord does not brook any interference in his game and tries to reach the goal himself without teamwork , his counterpart is a sikh called Himmat Singh who has streak of anger within himself . When Tapan tries to keep Himmat away from matches to use as a trump card in the later stages of the tournament , Himmat's anger explodes in a fight that threatens to derail the indian team effort .
The British are shown to be the main rivals for winning the gold medal as the finals are played against them , while the Indians and Pakistanis cheer each other on in typical Bollywood style which seems far from reality . But the film does entertain inspite of this .
Akshay Kumar overacts in my opinion , but his wife is good . She is played by Mouni Roy wearing backless blouses and midriff showing saris . Photography and colours are okay . But the songs are loud and with Akshay Kumar dancing in a garish manner . Background music is decent however , and as I already said the film climaxes with 'jana gana mana' . Enough to give a patriot sheer goosebumps .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Stree
( Woman ) August 2018
https://images1.livehindustan.com/uploadimage/library/2018/09/02/16_9/16_9_1/stree_Box_Office_Collection_1535866485.jpg
The setting is the town of Chanderi . Every year during the festive season it is reputed to be visited by a female spirit known as stree . She entices any lone young man by her enchanting voice from behind and takes him away when he turns round , leaving only his clothes behind . This terrifies the townsfolk so much that they write 'o stree kal aana' ( o woman come tomorrow ) on their houses , something that is supposed to ward off the female ghost for the night . If anyone does not write this on his house , he is picked off by the ghost .
But Vicky ( Rajkummar Rao ) does not believe this legend and deliberately pisses on the words written outside a party of his friends , thus making it a target of attack by stree who takes away one of the men who are partying . This finally convinces him and his two friends about the truth of the legend .
About this same period , Vicky is visited by a beautiful female ( Shraddha Kapoor ) who mesmerizes him with her stunning looks . She makes friends with him and they hang out in evenings . But she says she comes only in the festive season and she never comes inside the temple , even though the temple is the focus of festivities in the festive season . She asks him for material which is fit only for black magic , but Vicky is under the spell of her beauty and readily agrees .
Not so about Vicky's two friends . They are soon convinced after a series of happenings that this mysterious girl with mesmerizing beauty who comes only during the same festive season when stree visits but never enters the temple of God ( evil spirits don't dare to go in front of God ) is no one but stree herself . But then the mysterious girl ( she never tells her name in the movie , adding to the mystery ) meets them and their suspicions subside .
The four visit a person ( Pankaj Tripathi ) who claims to have researched about stree and find a book with him which gives some idea about stree . They learn about who stree was and why she is doing what she is doing . They search out the author of the book ( Vijay Raaz ) who tells about the person who can counter stree .
As the plan to counter stree unfolds , the mysterious girl helps them along all the way . And when stree is finally in their grasp , she asks stree to be killed . But when it is time to say goodbye , then she does something that rekindles suspicions that she is stree herself . But one thing is clear . By the time the whole saga is over the townsfolk have come to respect women , something that they didn't do in the past .
So what really is the character played by Shraddha Kapoor ? Is she a person who hunts spirits or is she stree herself ? What was her aim in coming to this town to help Vicky and his friends ? Why has she selected Vicky for her task ? Watch the movie for the answers .
The movie is fine blend of mystery and horror and comedy . Yes , the proceedings are in comedy style and several incidents give you the laughs . Interspersed are sudden doses of horror that do give you scares , especially when stree is preying on her targets . Mystery lies in the character played by Shraddha Kapoor , and the climax leaves you wondering who she really was....
Both the characters of Vicky's friends ( played by Aparshakti Khurrana and Abhishek Banerjee ) are funny and keep you in splits during the proceedings . Rajkummar Rao acts his usual bumbling mumbling self . Pankaj Tripathi remains a master of playing a small townsman . Shraddha Kapoor looks divine .
Background music is good and creates real fear when stree is about to appear . Photography and colours are okay . Nora Fatehi is slim and curvy in her item song . The ingredients are good but you don't get the impression of having seen a great movie . But it is definitely a decent watch .
Verdict---Decent .
3
Laila Majnu
( September 2018 )
http://images.catchnews.com/upload/2018/09/07/LailaMajnuReview_131479_730x419-m.jpg
This the 2018 version of the tragic persian love story of Laila Majnu set in Kashmir , and it is made by noted film maker Imtiaz Ali .
Laila is played by Tripti Dimri who is as beautiful as she is bad . She is a flirt who kisses tissue paper and throws the paper with her lips marked in lip stick on it for her following admirers to kiss . And the boy she likes is even badder . He is Qais ( Avinash Tiwari ) who drinks , takes drugs and has already made a girl pregnant forcing her to commit suicide .
But Laila is hungry for love of the adventurous kind . So secret rendezvous in isolated places are arranged and soon lead to open romance in Qais' SUV . But her bad boy is son of political enemy ( Benjamin Geelani ) of her father ( Parmeet Sethi ) . So even though Qais manages to cajole his father to come with a marriage proposal to Laila's father , he rejects it .
So Qais himself arrives to Laila's house unannounced and insults him , resulting in an angry Laila vowing to marry her cousin ( Mir Sarwar ) instead of Qais . The dejected Qais goes away to a foreign land and comes back only to attend his father's funeral .
By this time Laila's marriage to her husband is breaking apart due to his drunkenness . Too late she and her family realise their mistake in not marrying Qais , and Qais too realises that he cannot live without her . But even though her husband gets killed in a drunken fit of jealousy , the years of waiting have taken a toll on Qais .
Qais goes mad and becomes Majnu , the mad lover of Laila . He drifts into insanity that even the grief stricken Laila cannot bring him out of . She dies due to grief and Majnu lies insane and bleeding on her grave .
Ironically , the movie and the hero's acting and the photography of the beauty of Kashmir get better only when the movie moves into sadness due to Majnu's drift into insanity . The first half of the movie is only okayish , but later the hero's acting gets better as he looks more gaunt and thin and bearded and goes steadily mad . He begins to imagine that Laila is with him and talks to himself , interrupts people's prayers leading to a mob stoning and bleeding him , and people collect around him to listen to his raving and ranting .
The photography too gets better at this point , with great shots of Kashmir's green tree topped mountains and it's swift flowing rivers and flocks of sheep and plains full of snow . The background music and songs improve in quality and are good . Sadly by this time it is too late to save the movie , which cannot save the baggage of it's insipid first half . In the first half the proceedings lack zing and you don't get convinced about the passion of Laila Majnu's love . It takes a bout of madness by Majnu to get you convinced . By this time it is too late to save the epic love story of the two star crossed lovers ; the love story dies unconsummated .
Verdict--- Okay .
2
Manmarziyaan ( Will of the mind ) September 2018
https://trendytiding.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/marmarziyaan.png
This movie is set in Punjab state among sikh people of Amritsar . Rumi ( Taapsee Pannu ) is in a no holds barred physical relationship with Vicky ( Vicky Kaushal ) . But the country they live in is conservative India and Rumi's reputation is taking a beating among her townsfolk . Her family asks her to get married to Vicky , but Vicky is not ready to get married so soon . He is a wannabe DJ who dreams of cutting his own album one day .
So Rumi gives him the ultimatum to either come to her home to ask for her hand in marriage or to scram off from her life permanently . But Vicky does neither ; he keeps on vowing eternal love for Rumi but is not responsible enough for marriage . And Rumi too loves Vicky or rather lusts for his body and cannot leave him . Whenever she tries to leave him , Vicky sends messages on her smartphone and she cannot tear herself apart from him . They try to elope but Vicky forgets to bring his wallet containing money , thus proving his immaturity and they have to go back to their respective houses .
So life cannot go on only on a heady cocktail of lust and sex . It requires people to be in steady relationships with each other , and Rumi's family convinces her to marry Robbie ( Abhishek Bachchan ) rather than the commitment phobic Vicky .
Enter the liberal who has lived in the liberal west . Robbie who has come to marry after having lived in a western country for many years knows about Rumi's torrid bedroom sessions with Vicky and in fact finds her hot and wants to marry her and her only . The fact that she has a lover is immaterial for him and he hopes to win her heart . But even though Robbie and Rumi get married , Rumi cannot forget Vicky nor can Vicky forget Rumi .
So the erstwhile lovers continue to pine for each other and they have sex even after she is married to another man . But as days pass by and Rumi starts living with Robbie , she finds him more mature and responsible and gentle . And she begins to like him . But he does not have the fire and passion that she and Vicky shared , and her mind begins to oscillate among the two men .
And Robbie...how long is he going to stretch his liberalism and try to win his wife's heart when she cannot deny that she still dreams of her lover when Robbie is making love to her ? So what will happen to the love triangle ? Whom will Rumi choose or will Robbie dump her even before she has a chance to choose ? Watch the movie for the answers .
Taapsee Pannu plays a free spirited vivacious woman very well and brings real zing into her acting . Vicky Kaushal brings fire and real passion into his acting . Abhishek Bachchan's role is to be a more sedate personality .
The language spoken in the movie is partly punjabi and some dialogues are difficult to understand for a non punjabi like me . But it is not difficult to understand the flow of the story . Songs in the movie are excellent and worth humming for weeks , even though they are partly in punjabi too and their words are not easy to understand . Background music is good . Photography is decent .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars out of five .
Andhadhun
( Amok ) October 2018 )
http://www.freepressjournal.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/AndhaDhun-Poster.jpg
The hindi language word 'Andhadhun' means running amok , but to me it had another meaning---'andha' means blind and 'dhun' means tune , so to me it meant 'tune of a blind man' . For the leading actor plays some delectable piano tunes , and piano music is the high point of this movie . Ayushmann Khurana plays Akash , who is a pianist by profession and pretends to the world that he is blind but actually is not completely blind .
One day Akash comes into contact with the sexy young Sophie ( Radhika Apte ) and soon they are in a physical relationship . Sophie wears exposing clothes on her slim svelte body that give you the hots .
But one day Akash is invited by a retired actor named Pramod Sinha ( Anil Dhawan ) to play piano in his house as wedding anniversary surprise for his wife Simi ( Tabu ) . But after he enters the house and settles down to play piano , he sees a murdered body....
From here on starts the thriller part of the movie that was going smoothly until now , in fact so smoothly that I wish it had remained that way without the murder or the thriller part coming at all . For once the thriller unfolds , there are way too many twists and turns and in the end they seem to be too much .
The movie does keep you wondering what will happen next , and includes many characters like a crooked doctor ( played by Zakir Hussain ) , a crooked police officer ( Manav Vij ) , and a pesky neighbourhood kid who is forever testing whether Akash is really blind or not .
What I liked was the songs and the background music , and that kept me interested . Photography is decent and so are the colours . Acting is good by everyone .
Tabu is the second half of her forties , but she still looks desirable with well rounded curves and cleavage and I found her competing with the younger Radhika Apte and winning the competition in my mind at least .
So the movie has some ingredients of a good watchable movie , but meanders into too many twists that leaves you a bit exasperated .
Verdict---Decent .
3
Jalebi : The Everlasting Taste Of Love
( October 2018 )
http://moviespanga.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Jalebi-2018-movie-.png
Rhea Chakraborty plays Aisha Pradhan , a woman author whose heartbreak and subsequent pain has given greater depth to her creativity and made her a famous writer . But inside she still pines for her long lost love and cries burying her head in her father's chest .
One day she sets on a train journey from Mumbai to Delhi and is confronted by the sight of the wife and daughter of the man she loved and lost sitting in front of her on the opposite seat . And she begins to remember with grief and nostalgia the time she was married to Dev ( Varun Mitra ) .
As the movie moves into flashback mode , we see Aisha coming with her group of friends to Delhi in some past time for sightseeing and coming into contact with Dev who is their tour guide . He introduces her to jalebi , a sweetmeat for which Delhi is famous . Aisha is young and romantic and full of dreams of love . She falls for the charms of the unassuming Dev and takes the lead in proposing a relationship . She looks hot in clothes that expose her body , but I am not going to describe that in detail for I am in a emotional mood after seeing this movie .
Soon they get married and Aisha moves in Dev's house in old Delhi . But the marriage has been done by a couple high on hormones , and the reality of life is different . For after marriage the differences in their upbringing and lifestyle become apparent . Aisha has been brought up in a westernised manner and she openly drinks and smokes and goes to discotheques . And even though Dev is ready to adjust with this lifestyle , his conservative traditional mom isn't .
And above all the worldview of Aisha and Dev is different . Dev does not want to leave his old Delhi mansion where his family had come as refugees due to partition , while on the other hand Aisha dreams of living in a posh high rise . Dev does not have time for travelling outside the city , while Aisha dreams of travelling far and wide . Dev and his mom are happy when Aisha announces that she is pregnant , while Aisha wants to abort the child as she feels she is too young for the responsibility ( abortions are legally allowed in India under a remarkable clause called 'failure of contraception' in it's laws ) .
But as Aisha grows heavily pregnant , she becomes emotionally attached to the coming child whose name has already been decided by her and Dev as a combination of Dev and Aisha---Disha . But she suffers a miscarriage and blames it on the stress she had due Dev's mom constantly objecting to her westernised lifestyle . On the other hand Dev's mom raises hell and says that the miscarriage occurred due to dancing in discotheques even when pregnant .
Her mind roiled by this turmoil , Aisha decides to leave Delhi and return to Mumbai away from Dev . But Dev's sister plays peacemaker and brings Mom and Dev to Mumbai to bring the marriage back on track . It is decided that the couple will go for vacation to Kashmir and try to resolve their differences . But even though Aisha flies from Mumbai to Kashmir , she does not find Dev there .
And she never sees him again....until this day when he joins his wife and child by boarding the train on a later station . And Aisha has to hide her tears so that the wife does not come to know....
As Aisha tries to have a normal conversation with Dev's beautiful wife Anu ( Digangana Suryavanshi ) , she learns that the name of their daughter is Disha !! Then why did Dev leave her all these years ago , when he obviously still idolised his exwife and named his daughter as she would have wanted it ??!!
By the end of the journey , Aisha has all the answers from Dev with permission from his wife . He left her because he realised that she had tremendous creative potential and was destined to make it big . But if she remained married to him , his conservative Indian household would hold her back . He wanted to see her flying high , and was ready to sacrifice his love for that . He reads her novels and is proud that she is so famous .
And at the end of the journey , Aisha leaves a satisfied woman . For Dev has never stopped loving her ever . Just like she never stopped loving him . Fittingly , her next novel is named after the sweetmeat that Dev introduced her to in Delhi . It is named 'Jalebi---the everlasting taste of love'....
And at the end of the movie , I was satisfied too . For it has wonderful songs that are truly hummable and has good background music . Colours are good and so is the photography . Acting by everyone is most appropriate . The movie is worth watching for a sentimental experience .
Verdict---Good .
4
Kaashi---in search of Ganga ( October 2018 )
Ashdoc's favourite cinematic haunt---the mofussil towns of the backward states of Uttar Pradesh ( UP ) and Bihar , and I was not going to miss a chance of seeing them again on celluloid .
The movie begins with Devina ( Aishwarya Devan ) who is a journalist coming to the holy town of Benaras in UP to cover it , and striking a friendship with Kaashi Chaudhary ( Sharman Joshi ) . He is a small town guy and she is an urban sophisticate . She says that she does not mind the difference in their standard because she is lonely in life with no family and begins to hang out with him . He introduces her to his family and she quickly becomes part of their regular routine . One thing leads to another and soon she takes the lead in taking him to bed .
But one day Devina comes to Kaashi and tells him that his sister Ganga is missing and they frantically search for her . The two meet Ganga's college principal and she says that no such student is in the college . But a girl says that she is Ganga's classmate and that Ganga was in love with the son of a prominent man and she got pregnant with his child . Ever since that she has gone missing .
Kaashi's world turns upside down and he goes and threatens Balwant Pandey the man whose son allegedly made his sister pregnant . Soon Devina takes him to the police who ask him to identify a dead body which has clothes given by Devina to Ganga but has disfigured face . Kaashi believes that the body is of Ganga .
Mad with rage , Kaashi searches for Balwant's son Abimanyu Pandey who he believes was responsible for the pregnancy and death of his beloved sister and murders him . But in the subsequent trial after the disposition of witnesses the judge comes to the conclusion that no such person as Ganga existed and Kaashi is a mentally disturbed person who lives in make believe world . But Kaashi believes that Balwant Pandey has bribed the judge and attacks and kills Pandey in court .
So what is the truth ? And who is Devina after whose coming in his life all these things suddenly happened ? The answers are in the movie .
The movie begins as a straightforward revenge thriller that later metamorphoses into a suspense whodunit , and turns interesting in the later part of the second half . Background music is good and songs are sentimental and pleasing to hear . Acting by everyone is appropriate . Colours are darkish however and photography is okay .
The movie does show what I wanted to see---the life of Benaras with religious rituals on the banks of the holy Ganges with lanterns lighted and prayers sung .
Verdict---Okay .
Two and a half stars out of five .
49450
Ani... Dr Kashinath Ghanekar ( November 2018 )
The title of this movie means 'And Dr Kashinath Ghanekar' . The significance of the 'and' in the beginning of the title is that it was Dr Kashinath Ghanekar who started the trend of adding the name of the biggest star last rather than first when the names of the actors in a movie rolled out . He is claimed by the movie to be India's first superstar , before the term was made popular by Bollywood . He was an actor who acted in plays and only later moved into films .
Frankly I did not know much about him as he was a star in the sixties and early seventies ; that is before I was born . I have seen only two movies of him---'garambicha bapu' ( bapu from village of garambi ) and 'maratha tituka melavava' ( assemble the Marathas together ) . Only this film on his life made me realise his popularity .
He is shown to be a dentist who is mad for acting in plays on stage to the extent that he frequents to stand in queues hoping to be casted in them . His wife is a gynaecologist who at first disapproves of his zeal for acting but later agrees to it as a way of overcoming disappointment for not having a child .
He finally impresses directors by his acting and gets the role of Shivaji's son Sambhaji in a play . Success crowns the play and he gets offer of acting in 'ashrunchi zali phule' ( tears became flowers ) made by the person who becomes his lifelong friend---prabhakar panshikar ( played by Prasad Oak ) . His style of playing a rebellious college student and his mannerisms actract the college going youth who come flocking to plays which were formerly a haunt of middle aged people . And a superstar is born .
But his own father never appreciates this and this hurts him terribly . His own eccentric behaviour results in his expulsion from the play , but the movie makes the valid point that he wouldn't have become a star if he wasn't eccentric .
He then gets to work in films and acqires a mass following . His fan following is legion and one of them is actress Sulochana's ( played by Sonali Kulkarni ) daughter Kanchan ( played by Vaidehi Parshurami ) , who is much younger than him . She falls in love with him and her mother has to put restrictions on her . But she refuses to marry anyone else and finally succeeds in marrying him . His first wife has no choice but to accept the relationship and divorce him . She remarries another person later .
But Kashinath is increasingly into drink and his life is not prolonged far after the birth of his daughter . He dies just as his old play is about to be revived .
Subodh Bhave has acted as lead actor well and made an unaware later generation of spectators like me aware of the legendary status of Dr Kashinath Ghanekar . Also I became aware of his rivalry with another doctor actor---Dr Sriram Lagu . Dr Sriram Lagu was from the so called intellectual brigade . But Kashinath repeatedly clashed with him and showed who was more popular by barging in places where Lagu was present to show how masses immediately made a beeline for him leaving Lagu alone . Of course , Lagu lasted longer than Kashinath and is still alive today . He did so probably because he was not eccentric and therefore less prone to excessive drinking . But for the same reason he could never become a darling of the masses like Kashinath and did not have qualities of a star . Sumeet Raghavan has acted him decently .
Photography and background music of the movie is decent enough and colours are okay . Some of the scenes of Kashinath's films are enacted again and that will pull those who lived in his era into nostalgia .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five .
49576
Naal ( umbilical cord ) November 2018
https://marathimovieworld.com/images/Naal-Marathi-Film-Poster.jpg
This movie is about the other side of India that people like me living in big cities don't think about or rather don't want to think about , but nowadays are forced to confront due to the genius of film maker Nagraj Manjule the maker of 'Sairat' . This is the real India , the rural India .
So at a long distance from urban regions is a small village . To reach it one has to travel first by train . Then by bus to a point where travel is possible only by bullock cart . The bullock cart then travels across a parched region which is stark yellow due to the arid soil and then it crosses a river . Then comes the village where live the main characters of the film .
Here lives the hero of the film---a small boy called Chetya , played by Srinivas Pokale . He lives a carefree existence among his friends going to the rural school by auto rickshaw . But one day his carefree life is shattered by the revelation that his mother is not his real mother but rather he has been adopted by his parents .
Chetya's world is turned upside down and he is desperate to meet his real mother , the one who gave him birth . And he refuses to call his adopted mother as mother but rather starts calling her by name . One must admire the acting at this point by his mother , played by Devika Daftardar . Every expression on her face conveys the pain she must be feeling as her adopted son goes farther and farther away from her . His adopted father is played by Nagraj Manjule himself , but he has not tried to hog the limelight .
The various attempts by Chetya to meet his real mother are something to watch , and acting by the cute innocent boy of barely 5 years of age is a treat to behold . Also good is acting by his friend older to him in age , the bad boy of the village who is always in trouble with the law . The little girl who is Chetya's friend acts too sweet , and once more I was left wondering how could the director squeeze out acting from kids on seeing her sad expression when Chetya admits to her that he is going to go far from the village to meet his real mother and stay with his mother never to come back....
Once again I was confronted with the hallmark of Nagraj Manjule's films---the life of rural India . Shots of things I had ignored , like milking buffaloes and drinking fresh milk taken directly from their udders ( no dilution with water here ) now I was being forced to see . Going for morning ablutions in the fields with water utensil called lota in hand , and setting traps for hunting animals in the deep jungle---I had only heard of this . Seeing the birth of a the calf of a buffalo and watching it standing first time on it's feet and cradling it in one's arms and feeling it's soft skin---I had never done this .
But the calf dies trapped in one of the traps set to trap wild animals as it roams out of the village , and the grief of it's mother buffalo is such that she refuses to give any milk anymore . And it parallels the grief felt by Chetya's mother as he refuses to acknowledge her as his mother anymore .
What brings Chetya back to his senses is his meeting with his real mother ; she refuses to even look at him . Having given him to another woman , she gives respect to that woman's exclusive right over him and does not show any tenderness towards her son . The umbilical cord once broken is forever broken....one is left wondering what she must be feeling forced to ignore her own son .
Though there are no songs , the movie has good background music and decent photography of village and rural life . English subtitles make it easy to be watched by everyone .
Verdict---Good .
Four stars out of five .
Kedarnath
( December 2018 )
https://st1.bollywoodlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/kedarnath-movie-reviews-3.jpg
Set in the backdrop of devastating floods in the himalayas where the shrine of Kedarnath is situated , this film showcases an inter religious love story between Mandakini ''Mukku'' Mishra ( played by Sara Ali Khan) and Mansoor Khan ( played by Sushant Singh Rajput ) .
Mukku has a massive chip on her shoulder because a suitor has rejected the girl he was first engaged to---her sister , and chosen her for marriage . Her father ( played by Nitish Bharadwaj ) has forced her to accept , but she has a powerful rebellious streak within her that seeks revenge on her prospective husband who seems ready to force this relationship on her despite her opposition .
The person she chooses to romance in order to defy her fiance and society is neither of her religion nor her class . Mansoor is a porter who carries pilgrims on his back up the trek going to Kedarnath temple high up the mountain . So Mukku takes the lead in advancing the relationship and soon falls really in love.
Predictably , all hell breaks loose as Mukku's parents and her fiance ( played by Nishant Dahiya ) come to know about the love story and Mansoor is beaten by the fiance's friends . But it seems this act has incurred the wrath of Lord Shiva whose worshipper was Mansoor despite his different religion , and a different kind of hell breaks loose as the heavens explode in fury and torrential rains bring disaster on the whole region by totally flooding it .
The devastating floods and the fury unleashed by the flooding water have been well pictured in the movie, and overall photography of the snowcapped himalayas is beautiful with superb shots of roads and rivers and streams winding through the high mountains .
Sara Ali Khan looks good and pretty much like a slimmer and more delicate version of her mother Amrita Singh . She acts in the same fiesty style of her mother . Sushant Singh Rajput is not convincing enough . Worse , he is outclassed in both in the acting and the looks department by the person playing his rival---the tall and strapping Nishant Dahiya .
Background music is decent and I liked the songs . Those who are frowning upon an inter religious love story will get some cold comfort as the love story does not get consummated ; Mansoor sacrifices himself saving others including Mukku and her father from Floods .
Verdict---decent .
3
Mulshi pattern ( December 2018 )
https://images.moviebuff.com/3a7d8f25-1d87-46c5-bbd4-9663ac372ec8
Review tells the full story of the movie
This movie gets it's name from the region of Mulshi adjoining the city of Pune . As Pune grows rentlessly into it's hinterland , former farms that are near it in Mulshi get bought by builders to build tall buildings increasing the size of the ever expanding city . But what about the farmers who are forced to sell their lands to make way for skyscrapers ? The money they get by selling their land is soon finished and they are forced to live a hand to mouth existence .
The story is of Rahul ( Om Bhutkar ) , a young man whose father ( played by Mohan Joshi ) was once Patil ( headman ) of a village in Mulshi taluka . All the glory of being a headman is lost after the village comes under redevelopment , and father is forced to become watchman of one of the buildings that has sprung up on the acquired land . One day he makes a mistake due to which he is humiliated and beaten and removed from his job . His family is forced to leave the area to settle in Pune working as coolies heaving huge loads on their backs.
His son Rahul is full of fire however and vows revenge on those who humiliated his father . He takes a path of crime and hitches up with a local Don ( played by Pravin Tarde ) and soon becomes his henchman . Rahul proves to be devious however and kills his godfather to become Don himself . He is full of fury and the manner of his killings is barbaric---using sharp weapons to literally cut up his opponents .
Soon all builders fear Rahul and he and his goons terrorise anyone attempting to buy land for building tall buildings in Mulshi . He takes terrible revenge on anyone who crosses his path and have humiliated his father in the past .
However his father refuses to acknowledge his son's new found status and his mother removes him from his house because they do not find any satisfaction in the violent path taken by their son . This though his father still has to work as coolie . His divorced sister cannot get married due to her brother's reputation and hitches up with a rich man as his kept woman . Rahul also loves a girl ( played by Malvika Gaikwad ) who loves him back but her father ( played by Mahesh Manjrekar ) does not approve of the relationship because Rahul's life is in constant danger and his daughter could become a widow if she marries him . All this causes great grief to Rahul and vexes him greatly .
What gives him greater grief is the appointment in Pune of a new police officer played by Upendra Limaye . The new officer incites rival gangs against each other and coolly watches as they kill each other . In the end Rahul realises his mistake in taking up the wrong path and wants to confess and surrender to the police . But it is too late as a boy with a past grievance against him who had joined his gang and won Rahul's trust kills him at point blank range .
The movie is full of violence and is not for the family crowd . But for those with a yen for violence it is a veritable minefield yielding rich rewards . The highlight of the film is hard hitting dialogues and sharp exchanges of words in true action film style . Acting , cinematography , background music and songs are okay .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars out of five .
shaunak27
01-09-19, 04:21 AM
SImmba is a recent hit and successfully performed on the big screen
Uri , The Surgical Strike
( January 2019 )
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZmM4Y2EyMWYtMTUxMS00MzljLTg0NmYtZDVlZTdjNDIxZDQ4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjIxNzAyNzc@._V1_.jpg
Based on real events that occurred in the year 2016 , this movie shows Pakistani terrorists launching a terror attack on an Indian army camp in Uri in Kashmir . The attack on sleeping Indian soldiers catches the Indian army by surprise , killing many of them . While India pretends to be ruminating over what to do , actually Prime minister Narendra Modi has given the order for retaliation in form of a surgical strike into Pakistan occupied Kashmir . The surgical strike is successful , killing scores of Pakistani terrorists in surprise attack . The movie shows a partly real and partly fictionalised version of the events .
The fiction lies in Bollywood tale of the hero Major Vihan Singh Shergill ( played by Vicky Kaushal ) losing his brother in law Major Karan Kashyap ( played by Mohit Raina ) in the Uri terror attack , and volunteering for the surgical strike to take revenge . He then successfully takes a team of commandos across the line of control to kill Pakistani terrorists in their living quarters in Pakistan occupied Kashmir . As he had promised , he kills the terrorists by entering their very homes . This is of course like a typical Bollywood revenge story .
But the major difference from other Bollywood revenge stories is that both the Uri terror attack and the retaliatory surgical strike actually happened . The movie does show the actual manner in which the Uri terrorists must have infiltrated the Indian army camp and killed Indian soldiers . And the retaliatory Indian surgical strike is the main event of the movie , for which I and the audience had come to the theatre .
The movie is successful in creating the grief of the families of those who lost their sons in the Uri terror attack . And the desire for revenge . The surgical strike is filmed brilliantly , and unfolds like an action thriller . Except the fact that the emotions are real and you do not feel detached from the events in the movie like you feel for a normal action thriller . This is your country's soldiers taking just revenge for their brothers in arms killed and hence you feel deeply connected with the movie .
The fighting has been shown well , with automatic rifles blazing and grenades exploding at regular intervals . The grenades explode creating yellow flames and the bullets hit hard sending the Pakistani terrorists to their deaths . Knives are used to sever body parts , and at times the fighting becomes physical combat . Meanwhile Bofors artillery guns keep the Pakistanis busy on the border by regular shelling . Indian troops are transported to attack by helicopters painted in Pakistani colours . The Pakistani terrorists' living quarters are booby trapped by grenades , and getting past them is a tricky task . But Major Vihan takes his men past the obstacles to annihilate the terrorists and brings Indian soldiers back to Indian territory without losing a single man , just as he had promised .
The film has war cries and patriotic chants , and they serve to heighten the drama of the movie . But there is no excessive jingoism . Paresh Raval plays a character like national security adviser Ajit Doval and he is in overall charge of the operation . Rajat Kapoor plays PM Modi . They have some tense moments as they wait in the command centre masterminding the operation . The movie has some women characters like Yami Gautam playing an intelligence agent , and Kirti Kulhari playing the pilot who flies the helicopter that takes the men back to Indian territory .
Colours of the movie are decent , and background music and songs are decent too . Acting is good by everyone . Cinematography is good , especially of the surgical strike . The movie will be appreciated by all nationalists and patriots .
Verdict---Good .
4
The Accidental Prime Minister
( January 2019 )
https://img.timesnownews.com/story/1547287204-Untitled_design_68.jpg?d=600x450
This film is on Dr Manmohan Singh , who was selected by Congress to be it's Prime minister in 2004 because Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi could not become PM because of her Italian origin . He is played by Anupam Kher , who is shown to be forever in a position of humble submission with his hands leaning forward and having a very weak voice and meek demeanour . His acting is okay . The film is from the point of view of his media adviser Sanjaya Baru , who is played with panache by Vinod Khanna's son Akshay Khanna .
In his first term Dr Singh acts with his own mind and puts all his prestige behind the nuclear deal with the USA which will legitimise India's nuclear weapons . The left parties on whose support the Congress is in power refuse to ratify the deal , which could lead to collapse of the government if they refuse to support it in parliament . But Dr Singh stakes his all on the deal and refuses to call off the deal , believing the deal to be a game changer for India in the world . He strikes a good rapport with US President George Bush , who is ready to legitimise India's nuclear weapons . And Dr Singh's persistence pays off as the Samajwadi party supports the deal after it's leaders talk to President Abdul Kalam who is a man of science , and the deal is ratified in Parliament .
Around this period comes the death of former PM Narsimha Rao , but the Congress refuses to honour the dead leader's legacy in Delhi and tells his family to do that in Hyderabad where Rao had no connections . This disappoints Dr Singh , who feels that Rao was a great man and deserved to be honoured . However the successful nuclear deal has raised his popularity in the country , and the Congress party wins second time in elections . The whole country is agog with the slogan 'Singh is King' . But the party has a cynical plan to dump the blame of defeat on Dr Singh if it loses and give credit of the victory on Rahul Gandhi .
In the second term , Singh is shown to be losing his steam as the Congress is reeling with accusations of scams . He keeps quiet as the party tries to deflect the blame on him , thus showing his weakness . Sanjaya Baru writes the book 'The accidental Prime minister' on Singh , but the book sees no sales at first . But a strong denial of the book's facts by the Prime minster's office in press conference gives it the much needed publicity and the book's sales soar . But the facts exposed in the book lead to breakdown of the relationship between Singh and Sanjaya . Singh vows to never stand for election again . His party loses the elections anyway .
Acting wise , photography and colours wise , background music wise and songs wise I found the movie a decent watch for people interested in politics.
Verdict---Decent .
3
Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Laga
( on seeing a girl i felt like this )
https://i10.dainikbhaskar.com/thumbnails/730x548/web2images/www.bhaskar.com/2019/02/02/ek_ladki_ko_dekha_to_aisa.jpg
Rajkumar Rao plays an aspiring theatre director , who falls in love with a girl played by Sonam Kapoor in a chance encounter in Delhi . He chases her all the way to her town in Punjab called Moga . Here he encounters the opposition of her family headed by her father played by Anil Kapoor . Reason---Rajkumar Rao plays a muslim and the girl's family is not ready to accept him due to religious differences .
But Sahir Mirza ( Rajkumar Rao ) believes that Sweety ( Sonam Kapoor ) is in love with him and tries to woo her . What he does not know is a secret that shakes him when it is revealed to him ; Sweety is a lesbian and she loves another girl played by Regina Cassandra .
Sahir however decides to unite Sweety with her lover and stays on in Moga to make her family accept her relationship with another girl . So does he succeed ? The answer is obvious , for the film is a handiwork of the liberal lobby .
The film's attempts at convincing the townsfolk of Moga of the need to accept lesbian/gay relationships are unconvincing and would not work in real life . However the film does make an emotional pitch to the viewer to accept these kind of relationships and the audience which was sniggering at first did go somewhat quiet towards the end .
Acting wise the movie is decent enough and background music and songs are decent . Photography is okay . Actually in my opinion it is best to simply ignore LGBTs without harassing them , but the Bollywood which is filled with many gay people is bent on giving them publicity .
Verdict---Okay .
2.5
Manikarnika , The Queen Of Jhansi
( January 2019 )
https://img.timesnownews.com/story/1545108885-WhatsApp_Image_2018-12-18_at_7.jpg?d=600x450
The movie is about the Queen of Jhansi called Rani Lakshmibai , who became famous for revolting against and fighting the British rulers in the mutiny of 1857 , called by nationalists as the 1857 war of independence .
She is played by Kangana Ranaut , who looks simply divine right from the start wearing the clothes of traditional hindu unmarried girls but with a filmy flair . She is born in a Marathi brahman family in Bithur , where she is brought up by the Peshwa of the Maratha empire as a girl skilled in arts of war . But the Peshwa has been stripped of all his powers by the British and granted a jagir in Bithur . She is fondly called Manu by her friends , which is short for her name Manikarnika .
One day a person called Dixitji ( Kulbhushan Kharbanda ) from the Maratha ruled state of Jhansi sees her wounding a tiger with an arrow and is impressed . He asks for her hand in marriage for the ruler of Jhansi , Gangadhar Rao ( Jisshu Sengupta ) . After marriage , her mother in law tries to put restrictions on her but her husband allows her freedom . She rides a horse fast like the wind and fights sword battles with three people at a time . Her name is changed to Lakshmibai according to the hindu custom of changing a woman's name after marriage .
But the son born to her dies and so does her husband , but not before she is able to adopt a son she names after her original son Damodar Rao . This disappoints the claimant to the throne called Sadashiv , played by Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub . He is in league with the British who cast covetous eyes on Jhansi .
However Rani Lakshmibai refuses to play docile widow and cut her hair as demanded by custom . She banishes her conservative mother in law to Kashi instead . She sits on the throne with Damodar Rao as heir . She is helped by Jhalkaribai ( Ankita Lokhande ) and Ghaus Khan ( Danny Denzongpa ) . She even trains women with weapons to defend her kingdom .
But the shadow of the British empire is over Jhansi , and Sadashiv is deviously plotting to get the throne for himself along with them . Soon war breaks out and becomes intermingled in the 1857 mutiny . The British lay siege to Jhansi and after a brave fight the Queen has to escape with the help of Jhalkaribai who poses as the Rani in order to fool the British , and also with the help of Ghaus Khan who lays down his life .
The Rani joins other mutineers like Tatya Tope ( Atul Kulkarni ) and captures the mighty fortress of Gwalior by appealing to the patriotism of it's guarding soldiers . The British led by General Hugh Rose ( Richard Keep ) attack Gwalior which is valiantly defended by Rani Lakshmibai who has to painfully leave her adopted son behind , and she dies a heroic death on the battlefield .
The movie has been superbly photographed , with grand palaces and mighty forts shown in all their grandeur . The life of royalty in those days is shown in all it's finery . Kangana Ranaut look beautiful and the atmosphere around her is rich with magnificent colour . The battles and sieges are well photographed too , with the orange flames of cannons interspersed with the yellow flames of torches which light the forts' bastions at night . The march of the soldiers both Indian and British , and the charge of their horsemen is well shown . The blood reddened face of the Rani as she fights her final battle is inspiring . All in all the movie is an imposing spectacle .
Hindu nationalists will be enthused that the hindi spoken in the movie is pure and urdu words that lace other hindi movies are not much spoken . Hindu culture and symbols abound ; the British officer once wakes from a dream in which he has seen the Rani in the form of goddess Kali , and when the Rani dies she dies in flames that turn into the shape of OM . And when the Indian cavalry charges , their flags form a sea of saffron .
Kangana Ranaut acts well as the Queen inspired by patriotism for the motherland , and is assisted ably by other actors . Background music and songs are decent enough .
Verdict---Good .
4
Thackeray
( January 2019 )
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS8aHBkcexszTj5sH4VaPI7GdLBBOl164AXnfTwyyecrK0bjSE2
Balasaheb Thackeray ( Bal Keshav Thackeray ) is a personality for whom Mumbaikar Marathis have a special place in the heart , and I being a Mumbaikar Marathi feel the same . Where would the Mumbaikar Marathis be without the Thackerays….? Balasaheb's father Prabodankar Thackeray was prominent in the samyukta Maharashtra ( united Maharashtra ) movement that brought Bombay into Maharashtra , and Balasaheb changed the city's name to Mumbai...need I say more ?
The movie begins with Balasaheb working for Free press journal as cartoonist , but he is made to realise by his fellow Marathi colleague that other than them no one else is Marathi in that office inspite of it being in the capital of Maharashtra . His attitude to express himself freely by cartoons is tried to be curbed by his boss but Balasaheb frees himself from the job in typical Thackeray style ; he presents a cartoon showing himself kicking his boss on the backside to his boss....
As Balasaheb roams the streets of Mumbai , he realises that everywhere the Marathi manoos is being squeezed out by non Marathis . He decides to start a magazine to bring the marathis together for getting their due rights in Mumbai , but money for that is found from a money lender only after some search because many do not believe that Balasaheb's magazine could work . However Balasaheb's fiery writings become popular among Mumbaikar Marathis and Balasaheb becomes well known .
Many Marathis begin to come to Balasaheb with their grievances and Balasaheb advocates the path of violent agitation to get them their jobs in places where he feels non marathis are unjustly grabbing them . He feels that if made aware of injustices incurred on them , the Marathi people are fighters and this fighting potential can be utilised to get them their rights . As his popularity grows , the time has come to start a proper organisation to fight for their demands . But his father says that it should not be called an organisation but rather a 'sena' ( army ) , and so is born the Shiv Sena in honour of Shivaji the legendary medieval Maratha warrior king .
The Shiv Sena's first targets are south Indians and Thackeray coins the slogan 'pungi bajao , lungi hatao' . Shiv Sena takes the path of violent agitation attacking south Indians . But Shiv Sena's real opponent is deputy PM Morarji Desai , the same person who had violently opposed his father's 'samyukta Maharashtra' agitation to bring Mumbai into Maharashtra earlier . One can say he is the villain of the movie if anybody is . He comes to Mumbai and orders his car to drive on Shiv sainiks protesting to bring Belgaum into Maharashtra from Karnataka , thus killing the Shiv sainiks . The incident turns Thackeray away from the path of peaceful negotiations , and anyone opposing intake of Marathis into jobs receives a slap on his face as the manager of Air India discovers on opposing him .
When Indira Gandhi imposes emergency on India , there is pressure on Thackeray to merge his party into Congress , but Thackeray refuses even though his party is likely to be banned . But Indira Gandhi comes to Mumbai and a meeting is arranged between them . Thackeray counters her charges of regionalism by saying that whenever he hails , he hails the nation first and his state only later by hailing 'Jai Hind !! Jai Maharashtra !!' His party is struck off the banning list .
But when Indira loses power , the winner of the election is his arch enemy Morarji Desai whose Janata party storms to power . Morarji encourages his party workers to throw stones on Sena Bhawan , the iconic headquarters of the Shiv Sena . But Thackeray is now aware of a new problem on the horizon . Muslim boys celebrate on Pakistan's victories in cricket matches and cricket is a game very close to Balasaheb's heart....he at first tries to build bridges with the muslim community by organising meetings in their mohallas , but the riots in Bhiwandi outside Mumbai convince him that these people are not ready to change their ways .
Balasaheb decides to turn to Hindu nationalism and coins the slogan 'garv sey kaho hum Hindu hai' ( say proudly that we are Hindus ) . When Pakistani cricketer Javed Miandad comes with Indian cricketer Dilip Vengsarkar to ask for cricketing ties to be restored between the two countries , Balasaheb rejects the idea saying he cannot forget the Indian soldiers dying on the border . His sainiks pour inflammables on the pitch of Wankhede stadium putting paid to any idea of India and Pakistan playing each other .
He proudly acknowledges in court that his boys had a hand destroying the babri masjid , telling the lawyer that hindus believe that Lord Ram was born in the same place which was desecrated by foreign invader Babar who was born in Uzbekistan . As muslims take revenge for this by burning Radhabai chawl in Mumbai , Shiv sainiks start a full scale riot . But the riot has been kind of sidelined in the movie , as the violence has been only hinted at by scenes of Shiv sainiks having police co operation in them being shown but the actual riot is not shown .
Retribution for the riots is taken by the muslim mafia by bomb blasts in Mumbai , and Thackeray's life is under threat . But he refuses to remain home under police protection and undertakes a whirlwind tour of Maharashtra , coming to power in the state in subsequent elections . The movie ends at this high point in Thackeray's political career .
The movie in undoubtedly dominated by Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Bal Thackeray , and the movie heavily depends on his splendid acting skills just like the Shiv Sena depended on Balasaheb . And he delivers with aplomb . His wife Meenatai Thackeray is played by Amrita Rao , and she brings out how Meenatai was so important in stabilizing Balasaheb's household by her serene acting . Rajesh Khera effectively brings out the contemptuous attitude of Morarji Desai by his performance .
Background music is good and effectively dramatic in intense situations Colours and photography are decent . Dialogues have been written well and their timing in the movie is good .
Verdict---Decent .
3
Gully Boy
( February 2019 )
https://data1.ibtimes.co.in/en/full/706256/ranveer-singh-alia-bhatt-gully-boy.jpg
Gully boy charts the rise of a young man named Murad ( Ranveer Singh ) who lives in the slums of Dharavi in Mumbai to becoming a rap artist . He belongs to a typical muslim family from the slums ; his life is one of despair , the despair increased by the fact that his father brings another woman as wife and leaves his mother shattered .
Murad's only happy moments are the time he spends with his girlfriend Safeena ( Alia Bhatt ) and the time he listens to rap music on his mobile phone . But a rap artist called MC Sher a.k.a. Shrikant ( Siddhant Chaturvedi ) takes him under his wing and he begins to enthral audiences on youtube .
But the journey to big time success is mined with pitfalls . His father throws him and his mother out of their house , he has to take part in a criminal gang to earn money , and he is enticed into sex by another woman ( Kalki Koechlin ) which results in breakup with his girlfriend .
The background he comes from is totally opposite to the kind of life he dreams of , but luckily he has the kind of support from friends which make his arrival possible . Ranveer Singh plays his role in an understated manner , and it is left to Alia Bhatt to be feisty and aggressive . She beats up any girls daring to entice her boyfriend , as the character played by Kalki discovers to her chagrin . The smooching scenes between Alia and Ranveer and between Kalki and Ranveer are good .
The atmosphere of the slums of Dharavi has been well created , and the lingo is of the slums . The hall mark of the film are some real mean rap songs with fiery wording which is full of aggro , are downright disrespectful to the opposite person , and have been very cleverly written . For the first time I became a fan of rap music , a form of music I was not interested in earlier .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Badla
( Retribution ) March 2019
https://img.timesnownews.com/story/1552014256-Badla-Movie-New-Poster.png?d=600x450
Taapsee Pannu plays Naina Sethi , a young goodlooking married businesswoman who has won the businesswoman of the year award . But she is cheating on her husband and her lover gets killed when he is with her . The police suspect her of the murder and her lawyer hires Badal Gupta who is the best in the legal profession to save her in court .
But Amitabh Bachchan acting as Badal Gupta arrives three hours too early to meet Naina for the first time , and I instantly suspected that he was not Badal Gupta at all but someone impersonating him . With this suspicion in mind it was easy to surmise that he must have been sent to find out the truth from Naina and that only meant one thing---that she was the culprit .
So was my suspicion true ? Watch the movie for that....For me the whole watching experience had the heavy overhang of thinking that Naina was spilling out the beans to the wrong man. The story as told by Naina to the character played by Amitabh is full of twists and turns and keeps you hooked to the edge of the seat .
There are no songs in this suspense thriller and background music is decent . Photography is good , especially of Britain in conditions of winter and of lakes in dense forests and snowbound hotels . Colours are decent too . Acting is good , both by Taapsee Pannu and of course by Amitabh who is redoubtable .
Verdict---Decent .
3
Phir Ussi Mod Par---Talaq
( Back to square one---divorce ) March 2019
https://rajexpress.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/phir-usi-mod-par.jpg
This muslim social takes us back to the era of the nineties when movies used to be embellished with several songs . And the songs in this movie are wonderfully old fashioned , melodious and filled with old world charm . And the actors of the movie are from the nineties too , who used to be regulars on television in the early era of satellite TV . But the topic is current , and it is the issue of triple talaq that has gone to courts and made headlines .
Ruby ( Kanika Bajpai ) falls in love with her childhood friend Shahid Khan ( Parmeet Sethi ) and the two get secretly married . She becomes pregnant with his child , but his father Zahid ( Govind Namdeo ) refuses to accept her as his daughter in law because she is not equal to them in status . Zahid forces his son to give instant triple talaq to Ruby and marry another woman . His goons beat up Ruby and try to kill her . But the daughter born to his son Shahid and his wife is blind , and the superstitious Zahid comes to believe that this has happened because of his sins . But it is too late for regret as Ruby has found solace in another man , a kind man ( played by Kanwaljeet Singh ) named Rashid....
Rashid's mother and a fanatical maulavi however have major objections to the marriage between a pregnant Ruby and Rashid , and Rashid's conservative mother agrees to accept Ruby as her daugher in law only after she has given birth to the child because it is unlawful to marry a pregnant woman in islam . The maulavi is another matter however . He lusts for other young women in the neighbourhood and thus come into clash with the fiesty Ruby who gives him a trashing . His goons burn down Rashid's dairy in revenge and Rashid dies in grief . Ruby is left to fend alone for herself , but she raises her son among all the vicissitudes of fortune to become a well educated young man .
But Ruby's son too follows the path of his real father Shahid and decides to give triple talaq to his wife and marry another woman . So Ruby is brought to face the same problem of triple talaq that had ruined her life and threatens to ruin her daughter in law's life too . But times have changed and the issue of triple talaq has been raised in the corridors of justice . Ruby decides to fight against her son in court to give justice to her daughter in law , and once again is brought face to face with her past as the judge of the case is none other than her son's father Shahid....
So will Ruby win the fight that has her pitched against the religious fundamentalists who do not even want a woman to give testimony in court ? What justice will judge Shahid give to his own biological son's wife ? Watch the movie for the answers .
The movie does succeed in raising the issue of triple talaq in an emotional and impassioned manner . Kanika Bajpai acts well , looking attractive in romantic scenes and suitably distressed in moments of grief . The melodious songs and music brings you back to the era when music was king . The acting is old world and so is the pace of the movie . The movie scores in sentiment and you are left yearning for the times of yore....
The film was the brainchild of Lekh Tandon the director of vintage movies whose influence is to be felt everywhere in the film , from songs to music to acting to the choice of actors . And the influence has done much good to the movie . Judging from the reactions of muslims on the internet , they have been left fuming at the depiction of some fundamentalists in the movie . And their ally the liberal lobby has predictably given bad reviews to the film . Actually the film is better than what they say and was a resounding success at the Berlin film festival .
Verdict---Decent .
3
Photograph
( March 2019 )
https://in.bookmyshow.com/entertainment/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Photograph-Film-Review_960x540.jpg
Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays Rafi , a photographer who takes instant photos of people at gateway of India . He is under pressure from his grandmother ( Farrukh Jaffar ) to get married , and grandmother has stopped taking all her medicines because he is not getting married . One day he takes a photo of a shy girl named Miloni Shah at the gateway of India , but she disappears without taking the photograph from him .
The photograph of Miloni ( Sanya Malhotra ) remains with him , and he uses it to tell his grandmother that it is of a girl he is going to marry . He names her Noorie based on an old hindi film song , but grandmother wants to meet the girl .
Rafi sees Miloni's photo again , and this time it adorns the billboard advertisement of the class she attends for her CA exams as she is topper in class . Rafi tracks her down and requests her to pretend to be his fiancee Noorie just for appearances in front of his grandmother .
Astonishingly , Miloni agrees . Reason--she has been stifled all her life by her parents and older sister who have taken all her decisions for her , and she wants to hang out with a lower class man from another religion as an act of rebellion against her existence . The other reason--she has always been seen as plain jane by all her peers and family , and the photograph that Rafi took has made her look so beautiful that she passes it on to her other classmates to see....
But don't expect loud histrionics or dramatic developments in this act of rebellion . This is offbeat cinema and things happen at a relaxed pace . That's the way I like it , and the movie was making me as comfortable as possible in my cushy seat .
As Miloni meets the grandmother , she forms a bond with her and soon begins to like going out with Rafi to small tea stalls and run down cinemas showing old films . Rafi tries to do the best he can to impress Miloni ; searches for an old soft drink called campa cola which has been out of production for a long time just because Miloni has nostalgic affection for it and wants to enjoy the drink .
Rafi and Miloni take taxi rides together and his grandmother is so impressed that she gifts an old treasured piece of jewellery to Miloni . She asks Rafi to put his arm around Miloni's shoulder and Miloni is only to happy to oblige....and while all this is happening Miloni's gujarati middle class family is oblivious to everything . They make plans to marry her to a US settled boy .
However not everyone is blind and Miloni's maid ( Geetanjali Kulkarni ) becomes aware of her affair with Rafi , and her class tutor ( Jim Sarbh ) confronts her on her non attendance to his class which has happened due to her clandestine meetings with Rafi . At some point the whole thing is going to explode into confrontation and loud drama and histrionics are going to happen .
Or are they ? For both Rafi and Miloni play non confrontational characters , and they are acutely aware that their difference in class is too great to be bridged . But why not make hay while the sun shines and keep meeting and rebelling quietly as long as possible . For Miloni , the time spent with Rafi would be the only time she was herself in the well ordered life arranged by her parents . At some point the whole thing would have to stop but it would give them the memory of a lifetime to cherish .
The life and hustle bustle of Mumbai is too well photographed in the movie , and I never wanted the movie to come to an end because I was getting into a cozy mood in the smooth flow of the film . The acting by both the lead characters is just perfect and so is acting by the grandmother who puts charm in her role . Background music is decent but there are no new songs , only old melodies from a bygone era .
The movie will be appreciated only by those with a yen for offbeat and art cinema . It has been made by the maker of 'Lunchbox' and those who liked the earlier film may appreciate it .
Verdict---Decent .
3
Kesari
( orange colour of saffron ) March 2019
http://www.bollywoodbee.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Kesari.jpeg
The movie is based on the battle of Saragarhi fought in 1897 , in which only 21 sikh soldiers of the 36th sikh regiment from British indian army chose to fight more than 10000 invading pathan tribals in defence of the fort they guarded . All 21 sikh soldiers died defending the fort , killing hundreds of marauding pathan irregulars before they were overrun .
Akshay Kumar plays hawildar Ishar Singh , who is commandant of the fort . He has been sent there because he disobeyed a direct order by his superior British officer to not interfere in the beheading of a pathan woman who was going to be killed because she had left her husband with whom she had been forcibly married . Ishar Singh saves the woman from being punished by the pathan tribal laws and angers the religious leader of the pathans . He declares jehad to avenge the insult to his authority . The whole situation regarding the pathan woman seems to be fictitious and not recorded history ; it seems to have been added to add colour to the story in an act of cinematic liberty .
Ishar Singh has been repeatedly insulted by his superior British officer that Indians are slaves because they are weak , so when the pathans attack the fort he claims to his soldiers that he has orders to evacuate the fort . They all refuse this as an insult to their profession , and choose to fight . This liberates them from British yoke in his eyes , for they have chosen to disobey orders . He then dons the kesari ( saffron ) turban signalling his steely will to sacrifice his life and prepares to fight . Before all this he has to discipline the men when he newly arrives to take command , because they are a disorderly bunch . This leads to some comic situations and some laughs . Ishar fondly remembers his wife ( Parineeti Chopra ) again and again as he is doing his job and there are some imagined moments of tenderness between them . Needless to say , all this is cinematic liberty taken by the director to add a touch of patriotism and romance to the situation . Luckily the kesari ( saffron ) turban is donned by a sikh in this case ; if it had been donned by a hindu the whole liberal/leftist lobby would have been up in arms against the movie !!!!!
The actual battle is well shown in the movie . The religious leader of pathans kills the woman who had brought on the confrontation by his sword in full view of the Sikhs . Hordes of pathans waving their flags and chanting their war cries attack the fort of saragarhi . They honk their war horns and beat their war drums . In response Ishar Singh beats his own drum and the Sikhs cry their own war cry---'Jo bole so Nihaal , Sat Sri Akal !!' They clash with rifles and guns and explosives till the final reckoning by hand to hand combat . When the sikh soldiers have finally laid down their lives taking scores of pathans with them , you do feel real emotion .
The movie has only one or two songs , which are good . Overall background music is good and so is photography . The colours are stark due to the stark landscape of the rugged north west frontier province . Acting is decent by everyone .
Verdict---Good .
4
The Rodent
03-24-19, 11:22 AM
Hey Ash, I don't rep as often as I should on your reviews, but... daft question, do you know how to do the MoFo Popcorn ratings?
If you put them into the actual review, and tag the review when you post it, the Mods can add your reviews to the MoFo Reviews section and they'll go into the site's official page with your rating.
You do some really cool work in here, I'd hate to see it get glossed over by not being included in the official pages.
The Rodent
03-24-19, 11:28 AM
Just in case:
0[*/rating]
[rating]0.5[*/rating]
[rating]1[*/rating]
[rating]1.5[*/rating]
[rating]2[*/rating]
[rating]2.5[*/rating]
[rating]3[*/rating]
[rating]3.5[*/rating]
[rating]4[*/rating]
[rating]4.5[*/rating]
[rating]5[*/rating]
Just remove the * in that [*/rating] bracket and they turn into:
[rating]0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Yes I do the popcorn rating in my English movie review thread . I will have to discuss with the admin/mods if Bollywood movies are also acceptable to them in their reviews section .
The Rodent
03-24-19, 11:44 AM
Yes I do the popcorn rating in my English movie review thread . I will have to discuss with the admin/mods if Bollywood movies are also acceptable to them in their reviews section .
Don't see why they wouldn't be accepted, buddy. Yoda ... sort something out for Ash? His reviews are pretty solid.
Be a shame to not have them in MoFo's pages.
Don't see why they wouldn't be accepted, buddy. Yoda ... sort something out for Ash? His reviews are pretty solid.
Be a shame to not have them in MoFo's pages.
Thanks for the appreciation mate !! Praise like this keeps me going !!
If our data source (www.themoviedb.com) has them, absolutely. And we particularly like/want to tag movies that other users aren't usually reviewing, so that'd be great.
The Rodent
03-24-19, 12:24 PM
I think you two have 18 pages of data to go through then :laugh: (mwahahaha)
Citizen Rules
03-24-19, 12:25 PM
I think you two have 18 pages of data to go through then :laugh: (mwahahaha) Ha, I just now tried to check out how many reviews Ash has, a lot! Maybe 150 or so that could be popcorn rated and tagged for official review submission. The more the better:)
I think you two have 18 pages of data to go through then :laugh: (mwahahaha)
I will have to format them properly for getting tagged as reviews .
Citizen Rules
03-24-19, 12:28 PM
Ash, you might want to look for broken photo links and fix them while you're doing the popcorn ratings. I noticed a lot of my old reviews have missing photos, I'm slowly working on fixing that.
The Rodent
03-24-19, 12:30 PM
I gave up on the broken photobucket links on my thread tbh. I got like, 90,000 broken links to fix. Think I did about 14 image,s then gave up.
IMGUR is the way forward now if it makes any difference.
Citizen Rules
03-24-19, 12:32 PM
I gave up on the broken photobucket links on my thread tbh. I got like, 90,000 broken links to fix. Think I did about 14 image,s then gave up.
IMGUR is the way forward now if it makes any difference.I have an IMGUR account, but learned long ago the easiest photo hosting is MoFo:)
The Rodent
03-24-19, 12:33 PM
Bleh, I've still yet to figure the MoFo system :D
well , i have started flagging reviews here . it's a mammoth task and i am going backwards from last so that the latest movies get flagged first . mods/admin---are you listening ?
Citizen Rules
03-26-19, 02:00 PM
well , i have started flagging reviews here . it's a mammoth task and i am going backwards from last so that the latest movies get flagged first . mods/admin---are you listening ? :up: Tactius is the mod who does the reviews and makes them official. Sometimes it might take 48 hours before they get logged in, but he always gets the job done! Glad to see you doing this Ash.
as i again read my earliest reviews and then my latest reviews , i realise my style of reviewing has changed over the years . my earliest reviews were informal , but now i write formal reviews . but somewhere in that formality , the zing of my early writing has been lost . just writing as i noticed this fact now .
Citizen Rules
03-26-19, 02:11 PM
as i again read my earliest reviews and then my latest reviews , i realise my style of reviewing has changed over the years . my earliest reviews were informal , but now i write formal reviews . but somewhere in that formality , the zing of my early writing has been lost . just writing as i noticed this fact now . You know, I've noticed the same thing when I go back and read my first reviews compared to my latest ones. And keeping the 'zing' is hard to do for me too.
Notebook
http://gagbrag.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Untitled2.png
Zaheer Iqbal plays Kabir Kaul , a young Kashmiri pandit who had been forced out of Kashmir valley in childhood by separatists . He had joined the Indian army on growing up , but a tragic incident involving the death of a young Kashmiri boy made him leave the army . His father used to run a school in Kashmir before being forced out , but both his house and his school were protected by his Kashmiri friend . Now the caretaker of his house is getting old and calls him back to take over the house and the school .
After reaching Kashmir Kabir realises that the school is located in the middle of a remote lake and can be reached only by boat . No facilities are available , but what is striking is the beauty of the place . He gathers students to again come to school and comes to know that previously they had been under the tutorship of a Kashmiri female teacher , Firdaus ( Pranutan Bahl ) . And he discovers the notebook left by Firdaus in which she had penned her thoughts . As he daily reads the notebook he comes to know the personality of Firdaus through the book and the thoughts penned in it . As he reads more he begins to fall in love with Firdaus without having met her even once .
Kabir soon manages to win the heart of his students by his affable nature . He reads in Firdaus' book that one of her students was forbidden by his father to study as he wanted him to become a gun toting separatist . Kabir meets his mother in the father's absence and convinces her to send the boy back to school , just as Firdaus had wanted . But his own performance as a teacher has not been up to the mark and Kashmir administration decides to remove him and he leaves to join a course of learning how to teach . But not before he has penned his own thoughts and his own experiences in the remaining pages of Firdaus' notebook . And admitted his love for her in writing .
Firdaus has been forced by her boyfriend to quit her job in the school , but since then her marriage plans with him have evaporated due to his cheating . Kashmir authorities give her the chance to replace Kabir as teacher in the school and she is only to happy to do so . On reaching the island school she sees the notebook and is shocked by the confession of love written by someone she has never met in her life . However as days pass by she reads the experiences penned by Kabir and his copying of all that she had done there and begins to like his personality . As she reads what he had done in the school and sees the affection that the school kids have for him , she begins to fall in love with Kabir .
The novel idea of two people loving each other only on reading each other's thoughts but without meeting each other even once was intriguing to say the least . And the beauty of the Kashmir photographed so well and with a decent musical score was making me fall in love with the film . So do the two lovers get to meet each other at all ? Watch the movie for the answers .
The harsh reality of militancy in Kashmir forms a distant backdrop for the film and comes to confrontation only in the climactic scene of the film . And gets solved in a manner that aficionados of poetic justice would approve . Acting is decent by everyone without being spectacular . The film is a poetic way of drilling a simple lesson into Kashmiri minds---just drop the gun .
Verdict---Super .
4.5
Romeo Akbar Walter
https://i2.cinestaan.com/image-bank/1500-1500/143001-144000/143431.jpg
This is an espionage thriller set during India's moment of triumph---the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. John Abraham plays Romeo Ali , son of a veteran of the 1962 war against China . Though he is a banker by profession , his father's patriotic reputation means that he is under the scanner for recruitment in RAW ( research and analysis wing ) the spy agency of India . He is duly tested and is found physically fit , so he is tasked with spying in Pakistan for India . His name there becomes Akbar Malik .
His task in Pakistan is to attain the trust of a Pakistani arms dealer and through that trust get information about a bombing raid which is going to be conducted by Pakistan on Bangladeshi liberation fighters backed by India in east Pakistan . This is a film , so typically he has a love interest played by Mouni Roy . He has several RAW agents helping him , some being Pakistani .
While being recruited for RAW , the head of RAW played by Jackie Shroff tells him that any instruction that is passed on to him even verbally will be in vague language and he has to learn to decipher the real meaning behind it . This becomes mighty important as the climax approaches , as it seems RAW has abandoned him by washing hands off him verbally and he is forced to become turncoat and work for Pakistan .
Even before this , his sojourn in Pakistan is not easy because a tall and strapping Pakistani ISI ( spy agency ) agent played by Sikander Kher has become suspicious of him and arrests him and tortures him . In the end he becomes Walter Khan who works for Pakistan's ISI . Or does he ? Watch the movie for the answer .
The movie pays tribute to the many RAW agents who have sacrificed not only their life but also their identity in service of the nation , by fully becoming part of the enemy's establishment . They have cut off ties not only with their birth country but also their near and dear ones forever just like Romeo/Akbar/Walter has cut off with his beloved mother . The only time they can salute their birth country's flag is when they are alone . They will never be named or honoured by their motherland for fear of their identities being exposed . They are the ultimate patriots....
The movie moves at a slow and languid pace and you have to be patient to get to the high of nationalism that you have been waiting for , for it is only towards the climax that the movie delivers that . Background music and songs are decent and acting by everyone is most appropriate for the situations . Colours and photography are only okay but nothing special . The movie is for die hard aficionados of spy thrillers and for military buffs . Others may find the pace of the film a tad too slow and picking up speed only towards the end , and be a little disappointed . A lot of cinematic liberty has been taken in certain situations , but that is only to be expected as it is just a film .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
The Tashkent Files
April 2019
https://cdn.bollywoodmdb.com/resource/image1/5a7d59ee65993_the-tashkent-files-is-vivek-agnihotri-s-major-step-to-show-the-tragic-death-of-lal-bahadur-shastri.jpg
In 1965 , after the successful Indian resistance to Pakistani aggression a conference was organised in Tashkent in the erstwhile Soviet Union to broker peace between the two rivals . After the conference Indian prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri suddenly died and the reason officially given was heart attack as he had already suffered twice due to it . But his sudden death in midst of peace conference in a foreign country after war has led to conspiracy theories that his death was not natural .
Cut to the present day . Shweta Basu Prasad plays Raagini Phule , a young attractive female journalist . One day she receives a phone call and some documents asking her to re investigate the death of Shastri . She gets approval of her boss and her story about Shastri's death being suspicious gets headlined in the newspaper she works for . Due to the resultant publicity , a committee is formed to reexamine the facts behind Shastri's death . It is headed by Tripathi , a politician played by Mithun Chakraborty .
Raagini presents some facts saying that the death of Shastri was not natural , and arguments and fights soon break out between members of the committee . Some members are adamant that nothing unnatural happened with Shastri while others are sure that there was some foul play . Raagini goes to Tashkent where she meets a former spy who gives her some facts raising suspicions about the death .
Back home Raagini is stalked and threatened by people not wanting her to discuss more about the death . This makes her even more determined to unmask the truth about the death . She makes presentations in which former journalists of that era and Shastri's son Anil say that they are suspicious about the death . Raagini quotes former KGB spies who say India was awash with KGB spies after Shastri's death , and that both CIA and KGB tried to buy politicians during the post Shastri era . She says that the one person who could have stopped this total buyout of the country's political system due to his utter integrity was Shastri . Here was a politician who had changed his surname because he did not believe in the caste system and because that surname told his caste . He had driven around in a car taken on government loan because he was utterly non corrupt therefore could not afford his own car .
Raagini says that after Shastri's demise India came into the Soviet orbit and the word socialist was added to it's constitution when all opposition leaders were in jail . The death of Shastri also benefited the Nehru Gandhi family and Shastri could have stopped all this . Hence he was put out of the way by those who benefited by his death---both the foreign power and Indian politicians . As she goes on proving this , her tone grows more emotional and she seems to be losing control maybe because of the tremendous pressure and stress she is under after her face is blackened by a mob .
At the end of the movie she realises who had sent her the documents and made the phone call to her to raise the issue of Shastri's suspicious death . The person tells her that he did it to get political advantage over his rivals , and that such things have to be done to gain power for without power in hand nothing can be done for people's benefit . So it is obvious from the people targeted by the movie ( the opposition who else ) that the movie has been made with the ruling party's blessing in such a way that will benefit the ruling party . At least one has to give full marks to the director for being unabashed about his intentions at a time when the country is in national election mode .
Acting , background music and songs , photography and colours are all okay . The ruling party's fans will cheer the movie while the opposition supporters will fume , what else....
Verdict---Okay .
2.5
Kaagar
( Rebirth ) April 2019
https://cdn1.marathistars.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Kaagar-Rinku-Rajguru.jpg
The movie is set in the political heartland of Maharashtra---the sugarcane growing region of western Maharashtra . Many of the scenes occur among fields of sugarcane crops---the budding romance and lovemaking of the hero and heroine , political murder , and hiding of murderer among tall canes of sugar . The dialect spoken in the movie is rural Marathi which is the forte of Rinku Rajguru , the lead actress of 'Sairat' movie fame .
The small town of Virainagar is setting to political rivalry between two politicians---Abasaheb ( Suhas Palshikar ) and Bhayyasaheb ( Shantanu Gangane ) . Abasaheb represents the old political hierarchy who has manipulated the sugarcane factory that is economic mainstay of the town to his own benefit but to the detriment of the townsfolk's interests . Bhayyasaheb is tall and strapping and is the challenger to Abasaheb .
The advisor to Bhayyasaheb is Guruji ( Shashank Shende ) who dreams of bringing political revolution in the town . He has big dreams for his daughter named Rani ( Rinku Rajguru ) to become a leader of the masses . But his dreams are ground to dust by Rani , who falls in love with Guruji's right hand hot tempered strongman Yuvaraj ( Shubhankar Tawde ) and wants to settle down in holy matrimony with him .
But guruji is hell bent on making his daughter a political leader and not a housewife , and weaves a web of intrigue that sets Rani on a path of political popularity that she cannot shake off even if she wants to . He takes advantage of an ancient blood feud between Yuvaraj and Abasaheb to engineer bloody death in such a manner that Yuvaraj is out of the way and so is Bhayyasaheb , thus opening the way for his daughter Rani to have no choice but to become a rising political star as successor to Bhayyasaheb .
In the end Guruji achieves his aim....or does he ? For he has to contend with the passion of a woman in love---his daughter Rani who else . And she cannot dream of a future without Yuvaraj by her side , nor does she want to rest until Bhayyasaheb's murderers are brought to justice . And the whole saga leads to her rebirth ( Kaagar ) in more ways than one . Just how ? Watch the movie for that....
The first half is the love story of Yuvaraj and Rani in the backdrop of political conspiracies in small town Maharashtra . It is Shubhankar Tawde as Yuvaraj who dominates that part with his broad shoulders and strong arms giving him punching power against political rivals . The second half shows effortless blossoming of Rani from college going girl to a mature adult . And Rinku Rajguru has done justice to that role while Yuvaraj goes from confident young man to quivering youngster who gets caught in a web of deceit and assassination spun by Guruji .
The scenes of Yuvaraj and Rani being forced to flee gangs unleashed on them by Guruji remind one of the elopement scenes of 'Sairat' , and the ending scenes of the movie are even more 'Sairat' like . Acting by everyone is appropriate for their roles and background music and songs are okay . Photography is decent and colours are okay too . The movie does succeed in creating the flavour of rural Maharashtra upto some extent .
Verdict---Very decent .
3
Blank
May 2019
https://images.indianexpress.com/2019/05/blank-review-1200.jpg
Maybe the image of Sunny Deol fighting muslim terrorists in an action thriller could help boost his image for elections . After all , he is standing for elections in Gurdaspur on a nationalist ( BJP ) ticket and the movie has been released at the right time . He plays Mumbai ATS ( anti terrorism squad ) head SS Dewan , who is so scrupulously honest that he refuses to bail out his own son when the son gets caught in a drug raid .
But the people Dewan is against are extremely committed muslim terrorists who want to wage jehad against India and it is not easy to deal with such a threat . The movie does show honestly how small muslim boys are encouraged to become suicide bombers by promises of paradise made to them by radical islamic preachers . Cries of jehad rent the air as they vow to wage eternal war against India .
One such boy caught by Mumbai ATS is Hanif ( Karan Kapadia ) and he has turned into a unique suicide bomber ; he has a suicide bomb directly connected to his heartbeat in such a way that it will explode when his heartbeat stops . So the challenge is to keep him alive till he is taken to an uninhabited location where he can be killed without loss of other lives . But his jehadi mentors are after him to save him , and Dewan does not know another deadly fact about the bomb . Also there is someone working in ATS who is in league with the islamic terrorists and who keeps them one step ahead of Dewan .
So will Dewan be able to prevent the jehadis from bomb blasting Mumbai one more time ? The movie gives some interesting answers to that . I went to see Sunny Deol's famous temper erupt into a burst of anger and was rewarded on a couple of occasions . The movie does show some action scenes of ATS officers storming underground cells of jehadis and full scale fighting between jehadis and the officers . Bursts of automatic rifles and explosions of bombs rent the air . The movie is too sophisticated for Sunny's 'dhai kilo ka haat' ( two and a half kilo forehand ) to be used too much ; we have to make do with Sunny firing guns . But there is enough action to keep an action movie aficionado happy , and enough jehadis being sent to hell to keep a nationalist happy .
Background music and songs and acting and colours and photography is all decent enough . And there is a twist in the end to make things even better . Sunny is older than his 'Ghayal' and 'Gadar' days but he still has some firepower . Ishiita Dutta is good as his lovely female assistant , and Karanvir Sharma is able as his other associate in fighting terrorists . Karan Kapadia is impressive as Hanif and his acting steals the show .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Student Of The Year Part 2
( May 2019 )
https://cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/styles/story_page/public/2019/04/11/89531-soty.jpg?itok=wvalttEK
Student of the year part 2 has a similar setting like part one---a posh college looking like something from a foreign country with westernised crowd and westernised lingo. Ordinary words like 'change' are to be upgraded to words like 'evolve' . The girls are wearing very short skirts and the guys' fave hangout is the local nightclub .
Into this rarefied setting comes an outsider---a poor boy on a sports scholarship who is looking to try to hook up again with his girlfriend Mridula ( Tara Sutaria ) who has changed her name to Mia after she got admission to this college and who tries to avoid him . The boy is Rohan Sachdev ( Tiger Shroff ) . He gets into trouble with the college trustee's daughter Shreya ( Ananya Pandey ) who is a big prankster and who targets him .
Shreya's brother Manav ( Aditya Seal ) acts nice at first and takes Rohan under his wing , only to discover that Rohan has too much talent to remain just his sidekick . Rohan challenges Manav both in sports and in dance . And then emerges the dark side of Manav . And also emerges the vulnerable side of the big prankster Shreya , who falls for Rohan's gentlemanliness like a ton of bricks .
The problem with the budding romances is---no one is sure whom to love . Mia/Mridula's attraction oscillates between Manav and Rohan . And Rohan's love oscillates between Shreya and Mridula . But Manav's hate is not oscillating . He is sure whom to hate---Rohan . And has Rohan rusticated from the college using his father's influence as trustee . Rohan has to go back to the poorer college he once studied at and the poor friends he once had .
But it is those poor friends who stand by him when he decides to take revenge on Manav by beating him in sports---the dignity cup , which is the inter collegiate sports competition in which Manav has led his college to be winner in the past . Problem is , there is no heart in the mouth moment as the rivals lock horns in the dignity cup . The ending in which there can be only one obvious winner ( good always triumphs over evil doesn't it ) is as tepid as it gets .
What is more interesting is the oscillation of the would be lovers unsure of whom to love , but having decent chemistry with each other . While the movie does not provide the zing when the protagonists are in confrontational mode , it does give us some interesting moments when the same people are grappling with problems of love . So the movie does have a good build up to it's plot for some time with some good looking girls and boys ( even the villain is good looking ) interacting and dancing and singing .
Acting and choreography and background music is okay . Colours and photography and fight scenes are okay too . Songs are decent . If your expectations are not weighed down by comparisons with part one then the movie is a one time watch .
Verdict---Decent .
3
India's Most Wanted
https://cdn.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/styles/full/public/2019/05/23/827459-813492-arjun-kapoor-indias-most-wanted.jpg
This movie is based on the capture of dreaded islamic terrorist Yasin Bhatkal , who was involved in bomb blasts in cities like Pune , Hyderabad , Ahmedabad and Delhi . It shows how real heroes who capture terrorists are ordinary people who are afraid of their wives and mothers , a far cry from the slick chiselled bodied heroes who fight terrorists in films . The film is an attempt to give these unsung patriots their due . Yasin is referred to as Yusuf in the movie , played by Sudev Nair .
The movie opens with a powerful blast in German bakery in the city of Pune . And the whole movie is interspersed with blasts like this . And after every blast , the villain Yusuf talks in his mind about kafirs ( infidel non muslims ) and jannat ( paradise ) , to which he expects to go after dispatching the kafirs with bombs . Islamic music rings in the background , making clear islam's connection with terrorism . This is exactly what has caught the goat of left / liberal movie reviewers , who have given bad ratings to the film . But actually this is an under rated film . Not bad competition to the film on PM Narendra Modi that has been released simultaneously .
The hero of the movie is IB ( Intelligence bureau ) operative Prabhat Kapoor , who comes in contact with a source in Nepal . That source is a muslim guy who is taking a grave risk to give lead to Yusuf's whereabouts in Nepal . Prabhat patches together a team to go and capture Yusuf , but the permission to capture him does not come from the high command nor does any money . Never mind , the team decides to disregard orders and nab the terrorist anyway , and they pool in their own money to go get him . If they fail , their careers could be in the line for disobeying orders to not go . Is this madness ? Some would call it patriotism .
While they are on the move , we get to see some breathtaking photography of Nepal . Winding rivers among green tree topped mountains and roads winding along the rivers crossing a river or two give chance for some superb cinematography . There are no stunts or action scenes or big chases . That is what real life nabbing of terrorists is all about . As realistic as it gets . But when it comes to co operation from Nepalese officers , there is disappointment . Some of them form an obstacle to the task , raising guns on the Indian team instead .
There are also the Pakistani operatives of it's intelligence agency ISI active in Nepal , and they come to know through their sources that the Indian team has come to nab Yusuf . And the Pakistanis are much better armed than the pistols that the Indians carry . They carry automatic rifles . Also they have complete permission from their higher ups to prevent Yusuf's capture by use of violence and murder if necessary . On the other hand the Nepalese raise hell with Indian higher ups and Indian higher authorities explode in fury and try to force the team to abort the mission . Remember these were Congress party ruled times and the government was {censored} footed about handling islamic terror . But a India sympathetic Nepalese officer blocks the Pakistani team , and the confrontation between the Indians and Pakistanis does not explode into violence---all realism here and no unnecessary thrills .
Yusuf Played by Sudev Nair is a mysterious figure throughout much of the movie and only his light eyes are seen though the mask hiding his face . When captured , he knows his fate and does not resist much ; this is no action movie . But smiles and talks menacingly . He uses the pseudonym Shah Rukh many times , leading to the frisking and searching of Indian film star Shah Rukh Khan on US airports many times . Arjun Kapoor looks overweight but his acting is decent . Colours and background music and songs are decent . And when the source who led them to Yusuf gets to see the terrorist for himself he waives off half his fee for leading them to him ; some muslims are ready to co operate against terror and the Indian team has a muslim operative too . The film is not about religion bashing , but it is clear about it's patriotism too . The national song 'Vande Mataram' rings loud and clear as the movie ends .
Verdict---Very decent .
3
PM Narendra Modi
https://in.bookmyshow.com/entertainment/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/PM-modi_960x540.jpg
This movie is without question made for self promotion , and the election commission had to bar the release of the movie until the elections were over to prevent the movie from influencing the voters . It twists history in such a way that many events in India's history happen with Narendra Modi as their pivot , and he inevitably triumphs in them . Now that it has been released after the elections , the movie has turned out to be a celebration of his resounding success in the elections rather than an attempt to win over the voters .
The movie begins with Modi selling tea in childhood to help his father make ends meet , while his mother washes utensils in people's households to help his father financially . Watching the scenes made me realize why Modi cried when he met Mark Zuckerberg ; reaching such a powerful position where he got to meet powerful people from being a simple tea seller whose mother literally was a servant in people's homes was something worth getting emotional about .
He is shown to be patriotic from childhood and salutes the national flag whenever he sees it . Offers free tea to soldiers of the army and eavesdrops on every conversation made by elders about the situation on the frontiers when the country is at war with China . He comes under the influence of a RSS ( right wing organisation ) functionary called Inamdar who offers him a path of joining RSS . But at this point Modi dreams of being an ascetic and his parents are worried about him going astray . So they fix his marriage . He is shown refusing to get married though actually he got married but abandoned the woman who still remains his official wife . Point to be noted is that he remains amazingly popular among women even after doing this .
So Modi really becomes an ascetic living in the himalayas wearing saffron ( colour of hinduism ) clothes in snowbound conditions . His guru however asks him to do something for his countrymen by joining politics and he goes back to his home state Gujarat to Inamdar , the RSS functionary who warmly welcomes him into the fold of the RSS . When RSS men are imprisoned by the government and few are to be found to lead a march against the government , Modi shows his resourcefulness by inviting people to claim money looted by the government from them and rousing them with a fiery speech . From here there is no looking back .
As then PM Indira Gandhi declares an emergency which is a threat to democracy , Modi is shown to throw leaflets into the press conference she has organised to explain her reasons to the foreign press . Those leaflets tell the truth about bamboozling of democracy in India , severely embarrassing the PM . The whole episode seems to be fictitious . As democracy is re established , the formation of the BJP party from which Modi is PM now brings a new political chapter in Modi's life ; from a worker of the RSS he has now become a politician of the BJP . But he continues his work by building canals of water for parched regions of Gujarat after seeing it's women struggle to bring water to their homes in metal pots carried on their heads . The women vote for BJP praising Modi's work and his vote winning ability is seen .
However the chief minister of Gujarat is not happy with the increasing popularity of Modi who he sees as a rival and he forces the head of the BJP to send him away from Gujarat to national capital Delhi . But Modi comes back to help during an earthquake in Gujarat and party high command makes him chief minister . After this happens the most controversial event in his political career---what I call the post Godhra riots , after muslim goons burn alive nearly sixty hindus in a train at the railway station of Godhra . Hindus in Gujarat take terrible revenge by killing muslims in retaliation , and Modi has been held to be the leading the retaliation . As expected , the movie whitewashes Modi's role in the retaliation by showing him trying to control the riots he probably didn't attempt to control in real life .
The United States was influenced to cancel his visa as punishment for Modi's role in the riots , and the influencer is shown to a fictitious businessman named Aditya Reddy ( Prashant Narayanan ) who had tried to bribe Modi earlier . Modi is shown rebuffing him by telling him that nor will he get bribed himself nor will he allow him to bribe others . Modi wows to one day come to USA in triumph later , and it is now part of history that the US was forced eat humble pie and invite him to the country after he became PM of India .
Modi invites industrialist Ratan Tata ( Boman Irani ) to build cars in Gujarat , cutting the red tape for which India is notorious and makes his image as a business friendly politician . Aditya Reddy then corrupts a media personality played by Darshan Kumar to malign Modi's image , but Modi is shown to turn tables and beat him in a televised interview . The stage is set for him becoming PM .
Among the politicians , I found the actresses playing former PM Indira Gandhi and the actress playing leader of Congress party Sonia Gandhi to be looking exactly like the real life persons . Atal Bihari Vajpayee acts exactly like the real person , while LK Advani and Mulrli Manohar Joshi are good too . Vivek Oberoi does not try to copy Modi , though he tries to speak hindi language with a gujarati accent .
Pakistan is Modi's rival in the later part of the film , and it is shown sending it's soldiers ( not terrorists but actual armymen ) to kill Modi . Needless to say , Modi faces the situation with the courage of a lion with a 56 inch chest that he has been lionized to have . More time is spent on his handling of the terror attack by Pakistan backed terrorists in the hindu temple of Akhardham than his handling of post Godhra riots , thus attempting to enhance his image as master in tackling terror .
Modi calls India as Hindustan throughout the film , thus making no bones as to his commitment to hindu nationalism . Photography of the film is good and so is background music . Indeed the movie is sweet music to his millions of admirers across the globe , and has been made to celebrate their admiration . If you are a bhakt ( devotee ) of Modi , watching the movie is a must . I am not one of these devotees , but I found the film entertaining enough to engage my full attention for 2 and a quarter hours .
Verdict---Decent.
3
Game Over
55046
Tapsee Pannu plays a young woman named Swapna who is dealing with the effects of a bad incident in her past. She has repeated panic attacks due to memories of the incident . Taking care of her is her loyal companion Kalamma ( Vinodhini Vaidyanathan ) . Also Swapna is unknowingly in contact with the spirit of a young woman who died due to cancer , and that contact is due to a remarkable coincidence .
Swapna is shocked on learning of the coincidence that led her in contact with the spirit , and the mother of the young woman who died due to cancer has to be invited to calm her down. The mother tells Swapna of the brave fight her daughter gave to her disease . Around the same time young women are being stalked and killed by dreaded a serial killer . As the serial killer makes Swapna and Kalamma his next targets , it is the memory of the courage that the dead young woman showed in fighting cancer that gives courage to Swapna to fight the serial killer hell bent on taking her life .
The movie has several scenes where you don't know if it is dream or reality for Swapna , and the dreams give her insight into what is going to happen . A couple of scenes are really chilling , and keep you at the edge of your seat . Later the film becomes more thriller than horror as the killers close in on their quarry and there is some blood spilled . Background music and photography is decent enough , and the film's colours are okay .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Kabir Singh
http://static.sify.com/cms/image/kabir-singh-review-tgvkFHegejjff.jpg
'Kabir Singh' has Shahid Kapoor in title role . He plays a house surgeon who has been a topper in medical college . But he suffers from a streak of uncontrollable temper . At the slightest provocation he goes on a spree of violence . And typical to his personality , he falls in love with a girl named Preeti Sikka ( Kiara Advani ) like a man possessed . Luckily for him , the girl reciprocates his feelings . One wonders what would happen if she did not . Would he take her by force ? Not beyond him to do such a thing .
But her family especially her father is not amused . Because the girl is of different religion . Even though Preeti admits to her parents as to have slept with Kabir several times ( also many kisses and smooches are showcased ) , she is prohibited by her father to marry Kabir . Kabir is physically assaulted by Preeti's father and thrown out of their house . Typical to his personality , Kabir goes on a spree of self destruction . Drinks and takes drugs thus ruining his career .
I had problems understanding some things in the movie . Kabir is shown to be the bully of the college , and while Shahid looks young and fit he hardly has a body menacing enough to intimidate others . Shahid has tried to compensate for this by acting with real passion and has succeeded in his quest to look aggressive . But why is his friend Shiva ( Soham Majumdar ) so fiercely loyal to someone who is almost psychotic , has a drug problem and an alcohol problem ? Such friends like Shiva are to be seen only in movies and don't exist in real life . Most importantly , why does Preeti fall in love with the violent college bully who smokes incessantly , urinates anywhere , beats up people , hurts even himself by using a knife on his private parts which ooze blood after he self inflicts a would on them ? We are forced to ignore such unbelievable behavior because it's just a movie what else .
The movie goes on too long for nearly three hours , and soon we are tired of Kabir's over drinking , over smoking , his overseeing a surgery even though he is drunk and has taken drugs and falls unconscious during the surgery , and his continual obsession with Preeti even though she is married to another man and is seemingly out of reach . When we have just given up on the movie , there is a twist of fortune . At the end of the dark tunnel , there is a glow of light . And that does bring back the spark in the movie .
Kiara Advani plays a meek submissive girl at the start who hardly opens up her mouth for some time in the movie , and then suddenly starts speaking and showing inexplicable passion for the crazy Kabir . Acting by others is good too . But acting wise the movie is dominated by Shahid . Colours photography etc are okay . Songs and background music is good . The movie can be enjoyed for the zany unreal madness displayed by Shahid Kapoor on screen .
Verdict--- Decent .
3
https://www.scoopwhoop.com/entertainment/scenes-that-show-kabir-singh-is-problematic/?ref=social&type=fb&b=0
The above movie has been slammed by some critics .
Article 15
June 2019
https://www.deccanherald.com/sites/dh/files/styles/article_detail/public/article_images/2019/06/26/file75xyhi2k4vs1rgypa4p-1561549550.jpg?itok=FYT6xE4R
'Article 15' is an archetypal leftist movie decrying the dominance of upper castes on lower castes in Hinduism . The movie tries to project that upper caste dominance over lower castes is the biggest problem facing India , forgetting that the nation has other problems like Kashmir rebellion , infiltration from Bangladesh , threat from Pakistan and China etc . How many more movies are the leftists going to make on caste injustice rehashing the same topic repeatedly ? No point in discussing that , considering the leftist hold on media and film making .
So Ayushmann Khurrana plays a police commissioner named Ayan Ranjan appointed to Lalgaon in the state of Uttar Pradesh . Of course , the setting of Uttar Pradesh for the movie is deliberate because it is that state and the state of Bihar that caste conflict is most . Setting the movie in other parts of the country where caste conflict is less would go against the leftists' aim to paint India as a country ridden with caste war .
As Ayan approaches Lalgaon and wants to buy a mineral water bottle from a lower caste person , he is told by other policemen that they do not drink water sold by lower castes . Thus from the very start of the movie it's primary focus on establishing India as a country with tyranny of upper over lower castes is clear.
As Ayan reaches the town , he soon learns of disappearance of three lower caste girls . Later two of them are found gruesomely hanging dead from a tree . Ayan launches a search for finding the third . But the whole investigation is not digestible to other police officers who try to dissuade him from going deeper into the details of the case .The upper caste hierarchy of the town forces the police to arrest the fathers of the killed girls for honour killing them on suspicion of the girls being lesbian . Pressure comes from politicians who have Ayan suspended so he does not probe further into the case .
But Ayan is the hero of the film and he is shown to be so upright that he continues the investigation nevertheless . He is aided by the female doctor who performs the post mortem on the bodies of the girls who were hanged and whom Ayan encourages to tell the truth , that the post mortem reveals that the girls were gang raped before being killed .
The lower castes have their leader in hiding who is played by Mohammad Zeeshan Ayub , and he too is killed by the upper caste nexus of police and politicians . It is up to Ayan to deliver justice to the lower castes , and like a typical Bollywood hero he delivers it with aplomb .
The movie is replete with scenes where upper castes tyrannize lower castes , like the scene in which lower caste men are flogged for having entered a hindu temple . Upper castes refuse to do the demeaning work of lower castes , like cleaning drains etc . Ayan has to ask his staff as to what is the caste of each of them and is so disgusted by their casteist attitude that he hurls obscenities in English that they cannot understand and leads to some funny situations . He is asked by his superiors to give up thinking in English and think in the hindi language so that he can understand the culture of his country better . And the culture of his country is to uphold the centuries old control of the upper castes . When the culprit is finally caught he retraites the same thing and says he did the horrific crimes to teach the lower castes to stay in their lower station in life . All this is of course in contravention of article 15 of the Indian constitution that promises equality to all citizens in all spheres of life , hence the title of the movie .
Who is going to tell these leftists that the upper castes did not rule India for much of the past thousand years and that they were equally at the receiving end of injustice perpetrated by Turkish , Mughal and British conquerors ? And what about the system of reservations for lower castes in every field that has shunted the upper castes out of all opportunities to get education or a government job ? The upper castes do not vote for the leftists and hence they do not care !
Manoj Pahwa acts in his usual manner as the upper caste police officer who has taken part in a horrific crime and Kumud Mishra acts better as the lower caste police officer who has risen up in the ranks . Ayushmann acts okay in his role . He is shown having a leftist/liberal wife who stays away from him and talks only on phone with him , but is impressed and comes to stay with him in the end because of the justice he is delivering .
Photography of the film is okay . The background music creates a rolling sound whenever something dramatic is going to happen . Colours of the movie are darkish in hue in tune with the dark theme of the film .
Verdict---Okay .
2
Hame Tumse Pyaar Kitna
How much do I love you ( July 2019 )
https://navbharattimes.indiatimes.com/img/70085897/Master.jpg
Priya Banerjee plays Ananya Tripathi , who is a successful novelist writing novels about love and longing . Needless to say , she is goodlooking . Sameer Kochar plays Ranvir Dhillon , her fiance . Ananya also teaches in a college and here she has many male admirers among her students . Not surprising , considering the fact that she wears miniskirts and cleavage baring tops while teaching . Even I fell in love....he he .
But two admirers among her students are particularly pesky . One is the son of a local politician and openly asks sexual favours from her . The other is the anti hero of the film , Dhruv played by Karanvir Bohra . He is obsessively in love with Ananya and imagines that she loves him back . But all hell breaks loose when she rejects him ; he resorts to direct violence not only against her but also against her fiance and her other admirer and those who try to warn him off . Dhruv sets on a killing spree and murders those whom he thinks come in between him and Ananya . And the movie also loses control and veers off mark .
The first half is decent , with Anaya coming in Dhruv's dreams and looking attractive in his imaginary romantic settings . Colours of the movie are superb and photography is excellent , making the movie a visual treat especially because it is set in the scenic setting of the hill station of Manali in the snow capped mountains of the Himalayas . Songs and background music is good too and melodious . But the movie worsens as it progresses and by the time it climaxes it has gone bad . Acting is okay by everyone but nothing special.
Verdict---Not good .
1.5
Judgementall Hai Kya
( Are you judgemental ) July 2019
https://images.abplive.in/index.php?url=https://static.abplive.in/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/07/25161039/unnamed-file.jpg&dimension=720:0&action=resize
This film was actually to be titled 'Mental hai kya ' ( Are you mental ) , but the word mental was thought to be derogatory towards those with mental problems . So mental became judgemental .
Bobby ( Kangana Ranaut ) has had a traumatic childhood which left her with acute psychosis . Into this life comes Keshav ( Rajkumar Rao ) as her tenant and Bobby develops physical attraction for him . But with him also comes his hot wife Reema ( Amyra Dastur ) and Bobby is soon spying on the couple . She discovers that Keshav has habits which he has hidden from his wife , and soon an incident occurs which convinces her that Keshav is going to kill Reema . One day Reema really gets killed and Bobby rushes to the police convinced he killed his wife . But Keshav has another take on this . He says that Bobby was obsessed with him and killed Reema because voices in her head told her to kill Reema . That she herself does not know what she did due to her psychosis . However the police shut the case as accidental death .
Later Keshav comes into Bobby's life again and he has another wife---played by Amrita Puri . Again a cat and mouse game develops between Keshav and Bobby , with Bobby trying to convince the wife that Keshav is going to kill her also and Keshav countering that it is Bobby who is a threat to his wife's life . So who is the murderer ? Watch the movie for the answer .
Bobby's profession is that of a dubbing artiste , and she has the hobby of getting herself photographed by a professional photographer who takes photos of models . The first half of the movie has some quirky situations with Bobby having a boyfriend whom she uses for doing her daily chores but never gives him what every man needs---sex what else . But in the second half the identity of the murderer becomes clear before it is actually revealed . So the fun is somewhat spoiled . Kangana acts well and so does Rajkumar Rao . The movie is full of different colours and is decently photographed . Music and songs are not so great however .
Verdict---Okay .
2.5
Batla House
( August 2019 )
https://www.glamsham.com/Uploads/article/batla-house-20190814100621253.jpg
'Batla house' movie which is inspired by true events is a must watch , especially for John Abraham's speech at the end against those who act as spokespersons for a particular religion ; a speech that had the audience in the cinema hall that I was sitting in break into spontaneous applause . In this film John finally breaks his mold as only 'action Abraham' and delivers a terrific acting performance too .
In 2008 as bomb blasts rock Delhi city , police officer Sanjay Kumar ( John Abraham ) and his team get information about a module of terrorist group Indian mujahdeen hiding at Batla house in Jamia nagar in Delhi . Sanjay and his assistant KK ( Ravi Kishen ) and their team storm the hideout and kill the terrorists except one , but KK gets killed in the process . But co religionists of the terrorists and self proclaimed secular politicians raise hell that the encounter was fake and innocent students belonging to one particular community were killed .
At the same time Sanjay is facing multiple problems . His relationship with his wife ( played by Mrunal Thakur ) is breaking down and his wife's relation with her co workers and bosses is strained because she works as TV anchor at the very media house that wants to raise hell over the Batla encounter . He is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder due to the bullets he faced in the encounter and he repeatedly has visions of a terrorist gunning him down . Self proclaimed secularists and members of the terrorists' community raise protests against Sanjay and his team wherever they go .
But the movie shows how Sanjay with the help of his loyal and understanding wife fights against all the odds and proves himself and his team not guilty of fake encounters in court . The courtroom drama towards the climax shows engaging repartees between Sanjay and the opponents' lawyer as each tries to prove his case , and gives John a real chance to showcase his acting talent . But he still stays true to his 'action Abraham' image as his mind recreates in the courtroom the various actionpacked situations that arose in getting to the terrorists and actually shooting them down . And we get to watch a gripping thriller in motion . In my opinion the most gripping part is when Sanjay and his team go into minority populated Nizampur in the state of Uttar Pradesh to catch a terrorist and find themselves surrounded and their vehicle literally lifted above the ground by members of the terrorists' community openly protecting the terrorist . The sheer power of the numbers of the people protecting the terrorist puts fear in you .
The movie has all the elements of a good action emotion movie---hard hitting dialogues interspersed with the boom of guns and the whirlwind of hot chases between police and terrorists . And above all there is a dignified patriotism which is not loud or chest thumping but directly appeals to your heart . Background music is decent and so are the one or two songs . Photography is good and colours are okay too . Acting is good by all protagonists and goes a long way in making the movie a class in itself .
Verdict---Good .
4
Haqeeqat ( True story ) 1964
https://i0.wp.com/bestoftheyear.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/haqeeqat-1964.jpg?fit=400%2C533&ssl=1
Directed by Chetan Anand who was the doyen of war movies in Bollywood , this black and white movie is set in the himalayan region of Ladakh during the Indo-Chinese war of 1962 . For a war movie made at a time when soldiers were exclusively men , the movie focuses inordinately on women . For the thoughts of the soldiers guarding the inhospitable wastes of the Himalayas invariably turned towards their women in these remote regions where there was nothing else to occupy the mind .
So one soldier is waiting for a letter from the woman whom he was to marry , but who rejected him when she realised that he would be off on duty for a long time after marriage with no chance to remain with her . Another soldier dreams of his wife in her bridal dress . Another is unmarried but remembers his sisters in law , who are waiting for their husbands who are also in the army . Another waits for gifts from his wife and gets a gift of soil from her to plant flowers in the region where no blade of grass grows---the description of the region they are guarding in PM Nehru's words .
But the hero of the film Captain Bahadur Singh ( Dharmendra ) has found love in Ladakh itself ; he is in a relationship with a ladakhi girl named Angmo ( Priya Rajvansh ) and gets permission from his mother to marry her . He is son of the commanding officer of the soldiers stationed there . His immediate superior Major Ranjit Singh is played by Balraj Sahni . Director Chetan Anand's brother Vijay Anand plays Major Pratap Singh .
But war clouds are on the horizon as chinese soldiers daily berate them from their side by loudspeakers that the territory they are standing on is chinese territory and since Indians and chinese are brothers , the Indians should vacate it !! The commanding Indian major has to convince his own soldiers that it is their own land that they are protecting . That because India has no tradition of invading other country's lands , it would scarcely guard a land where not a blade of grass grows if it was not it's own . Ladakhi civilians including Angmo however are co operative and willingly take training in firing rifles from Indian soldiers to protect their region from the chinese . Angmo's small brother dreams of joining the army when he grows up and Bahadur personally gives him training , using the opportunity to meet Angmo .
One day real war begins as chinese troops begin bombarding Indian positions . Intelligence is that the chinese vastly outnumber the Indians and the commanding brigadier ( Bahadur's father ) orders a retreat . But the soldiers flatly refuse . Retreat would be loss of honour for them and they would not be able to show their faces to the very women they dream of when they return home . So they stay put in their positions and fight .
Soon the chinese attack using human wave tactics , but the Indian soldiers vow to kill 20 for each Indian killed . They pour machine gun fire onto the onrushing chinese and make good their vow . However they run out of bullets and the chinese are endless . So they are forced to retreat . Major Ranjit Singh then hatches a plan . They vacate the post behind them also and allow the chinese to come to take it too . But what the chinese do not know is that the post is surrounded by Indians at vantage points and that they are walking in a trap . They are mown down .
Ranjit plans to now take back the lost Indian position but brigadier warns him on radio that intelligence reports say that a vast chinese force is now coming to take revenge . Orders a retreat . This even though it would mean abandoning his son Bahadur who is at another nearby post and cannot be contacted . So reluctantly Ranjit and his soldiers start to come back but in the himalayas distances are vast . The soldiers almost get lost in the icy wastes and only Ranjit's determination brings them to another army camp . Here he meets Angmo , and believing her lover Bahadur to be dead Ranjit asks to marry her . She refuses as she loves only one man---Bahadur.
Meanwhile the Brigadier contacts Ranjit with both good and bad news . Bahadur is alive at his post with only one soldier with him , and he is the only hope of trying to stop a huge chinese force coming to invade the camp where Ranjit and his soldiers are lying in half wounded condition . Angmo and her brother decide to go to fight alongside Bahadur but Angmo gets caught by chinese soldiers on the way . Her brother reaches Bahadur with the orders to fight the oncoming chinese . Bahadur and his aide get ready with their light machine guns to fight one last battle .
However Angmo who has been captured by the chinese is tortured and violated by them as she refuses to spy for them . She is then abandoned by them as they prepare to attack Bahadur's position . She treks upto that position and takes the gun of Bahadur's comrade who has been killed in the fighting to help Bahadur fight his final battle . They both die fighting but their gallant rearguard action has delayed the chinese sufficiently so that the Indian soldiers can be evacuated from their camp to safety .
The final scene and the song after it 'now the nation is in your ( soldiers' ) hands' brought me to tears and is certainly the high point of the film . Reportedly PM Nehru cried too when the song's singer Lata Mangeshkar sang it live in front of him . But there are other good scenes in the film like the Major saying to his soldiers who are lost in the snowy himalayas during their retreat and given up for dead by their superiors , that retreating alive after all their bullets are finished is not loss of honour but rather signals a will to live to fight the enemy another day .
Music is a strong point of the film and even better are dialogues which are full of the rationale for bravery and patriotism . Acting is good too , and some scenes are full of pathos like soldiers dying remembering their women and their widowed women collecting their now useless jewellery ( traditional hindu widows do not wear gold or jewels ) to donate for the war effort . However a scene of a soldier's skin coming out with his socks on removing them after days of continuous marching makes for some unseemingly if realistic viewing . Ladakh looks bleak in black and white and even bleaker with the bodies of dead Indian soldiers . The film is a brutal reminder that arms are the mainstay of peace and if a nation fails to plan for it's defense then it is planning to fail in protecting itself .
Verdict---Good .
Four stars out of five .
Section 375
57289
A prominent film director named Rohan Khurana ( Rahul Bhat ) is accused of rape by an assistant of his film's costume maker . He pleads not guilty to the charges and hires an expensive lawyer named Tarun Saluja ( Akshaye Khanna ) to fight his case . The victim Anjali Dangle's ( Meera Chopra ) case is being handled by lawyer Hiral Gandhi ( Richa Chadda ) .
Tarun changes the testimony of his defendant to admitting that he had consensual sex with Anjali , that he was using his power and position in the film industry to get Anjali assignments for costume designing in return for sexual favours . But Anjali wanted a real relationship with him and when he refused she took revenge by charging him with rape . This destroys Rohan's relationship with his wife but gives him a chance to prove himself innocent .
Tarun then asks Anjali to come to the witness box and totally tears apart her rape accusations by showing how she made injuries on herself . So much so that her lawyer Hiral Gandhi herself is convinced that Rohan is innocent . But the judgement according to section 375 of the Indian penal code by the judges is that Rohan is guilty . So what was the point of the movie ? To prove how section 375 can be misused by jilted women to falsely implicate men in rape charges ?
The best part of the film is the arguments and counter arguments brilliantly presented by both sides in court , the best part being Tarun proving with statistics that India is not the rape capital of the world . The medical examination of the victim and the procedure of how police handle rape cases is also illuminated upon . In the end you do feel for the accused but that's how the legal system works .
Acting is good by everyone and colours photography background music is all okay .Some of the arguments in court are partly in English while some dialogues in the film are in the Marathi language as the victim and the police and one of the judges are shown to have Marathi as their mother tongue . It can be watched by the thinking audience , but one senses a lack of clear direction as to what was the point of the movie in the end .
Verdict---Decent .
3
Kaun kitney paani mein ( How deep is the water you are in ? ) 2015
57589
I was attracted to this film due to the presence of the seductive Radhika Apte , who was in the flower of her youth when this film was being made . Also I was intrigued by the film's setting---Odisha , a state I have once visited years ago but which rarely makes it's appearance in hindi films . The rustic setting of the film attracted me too . After all , it is the real India that I was seeing .
The only fear was the film going down the familiar path of vilifying my religion in the name of political correctness , and taking an increasingly dark tone as it approaches it's topic . Fortunately that was not the case . The film does show caste differences , but it tries to showcase the whole thing in a light hearted manner that partly succeeds in reducing the tension in some situations .
The film begins with the king of a former kingdom in Odisha still lording over the lower castes even after the loss of his power . Lower caste people have to bend their back for him to climb on their bodies in order to seat in his vehicle . But his daughter does the grave perfidy of falling in love with a lower caste man and the king kills them both , also banishing the lower castes to a village at a lower level in altitude .
Decades pass and the king is gone and his son is now king ( Saurabh Shukla ) . All his former grandeur is gone and he even has to put on false mustaches to show false bravado . Reason---due to climate change his village has no water and is parched . In frustration he tries to sell it but there are no takers for a parched village . And the tables are turned and the lower castes have plenty of water in their village due to far sighted building of a lake where water collects easily due to lower altitude of the village . The leader of the village is Kharu pehelwan ( Gulshan Grover ) who royally hates the king but has an enticing daughter---Paro ( Radhika Apte ) , the reason I was watching the film .
And I was waiting for Paro to fall in love with the king's son ; he had to have one to get the story moving….And the prince duly makes his appearance being played by Kunal Kapoor . His father encourages the romance to get water pipeline from the lower village , but tells his son to fool Paro and dump her after getting the pipeline with promises of marriage .
But best laid plans do go awry don't they....especially in films where the passion called romance exists . The prince really falls in love with the character of Paro played by Radhika Apte , invoking jealousy within my heart for I wanted to possess myself of her in vain . And all hell breaks loose with both castes once more on the warpath .
So is it 'Qayamat se Qayamat tak' redux ? Watch the movie for the answer . There are some other funny characters in the film , like the prostitute who takes her fees in bags of water ( such is scarcity of water ) and the priest who grows marijuana in his backyard and the weaver who is secretly building his own tunnel to bring much need water and the village goddess whose temple becomes the centre of attention in the climax .
Amidst all this , what gave me enormous satisfaction was the fact that the lower castes never gave up on their religion even in moments of humiliation ; that they continued to follow hindu traditions to the fullest . Colours photography acting background music and songs are all okay . Also okay is the film , taking on an art topic in a light hearted manner .
Verdict---Okay .
Two and a half stars out of fiveOdisha , a state I have once visited years ago but which rarely makes it's appearance in hindi films . The rustic setting of the film attracted me too . After all , it is the real India that I was seeing .
The only fear was the film going down the familiar path of vilifying my religion in the name of political correctness , and taking an increasingly dark tone as it approaches it's topic . Fortunately that was not the case . The film does show caste differences , but it tries to showcase the whole thing in a light hearted manner that partly succeeds in reducing the tension in some situations .
The film begins with the king of a former kingdom in Odisha still lording over the lower castes even after the loss of his power . Lower caste people have to bend their back for him to climb on their bodies in order to seat in his vehicle . But his daughter does the grave perfidy of falling in love with a lower caste man and the king kills them both , also banishing the lower castes to a village at a lower level in altitude .
Decades pass and the king is gone and his son is now king ( Saurabh Shukla ) . All his former grandeur is gone and he even has to put on false mustaches to show false bravado . Reason---due to climate change his village has no water and is parched . In frustration he tries to sell it but there are no takers for a parched village . And the tables are turned and the lower castes have plenty of water in their village due to far sighted building of a lake where water collects easily due to lower altitude of the village . The leader of the village is Kharu pehelwan ( Gulshan Grover ) who royally hates the king but has an enticing daughter---Paro ( Radhika Apte ) , the reason I was watching the film .
And I was waiting for Paro to fall in love with the king's son ; he had to have one to get the story moving….And the prince duly makes his appearance being played by Kunal Kapoor . His father encourages the romance to get water pipeline from the lower village , but tells his son to fool Paro and dump her after getting the pipeline with promises of marriage .
But best laid plans do go awry don't they....especially in films where the passion called romance exists . The prince really falls in love with the character of Paro played by Radhika Apte , invoking jealousy within my heart for I wanted to possess myself of her in vain . And all hell breaks loose with both castes once more on the warpath .
So is it 'Qayamat se Qayamat tak' redux ? Watch the movie for the answer . There are some other funny characters in the film , like the prostitute who takes her fees in bags of water ( such is scarcity of water ) and the priest who grows marijuana in his backyard and the weaver who is secretly building his own tunnel to bring much need water and the village goddess whose temple becomes the centre of attention in the climax .
Amidst all this , what gave me enormous satisfaction was the fact that the lower castes never gave up on their religion even in moments of humiliation ; that they continued to follow hindu traditions to the fullest . Colours photography acting background music and songs are all okay . Also okay is the film , taking on an art topic in a light hearted manner .
Verdict---Okay .
Two and a half stars out of five .
P Se Pyaar F Se Farraar
P stands for pyaar ( love ) F stands for farraar ( elopement )
( October 2019 )
57852
Review has spoilers
The film was set in my favourite setting---the mofussil towns in the state of Uttar Pradesh , a ripe place for breeding caste conflict that makes for watchable movies if you have my taste....and this time it is Mathura , the birthplace of Hindu God Krishna whose ancient romance with eternal devotee Radha is stuff of legends....so much so that I saw that people greet each other with the words 'Radhe Radhe' when they meet each other in the movie .
But the modern world is a different place , and Kumud Mishra plays regional upper caste strongman Omveer Singh whose main task is to kill any couple which is inter religious ; even the girl is not spared but is butchered by himself . But what to do when his own daughter Jhanvi falls in love and elopes with a lower caste boy right under his very nose ? Erupt in violence what else....
Omveer's brother is the calm minded Rajveer ( Jimmy Shergill ) , who tries to bring some sanity to the situation . He chases Jhanvi and her lover Sooraj Mali ( Bhavesh Kumar ) up and down across the region and upto capital city Delhi , only to stumble upon the obstacle presented by Sooraj's relative Rajesh ( Girish Kulkarni ) who outwits him and helps the couple escape . And it is the older actors who provide the acting performances really rather than the juvenile couple in love .
The caste conflict is well shown in the movie in it's ideal setting of north India . The rivalries of upper with lower castes and the selfishness of politicians of both castes is well brought out . The movie does not fail to pay tribute in a scene to the original movie that is it's inspiration and that seems to be inspiring an entire genre of movies---the iconic 'Sairat' what else . But the tribute to 'Sairat' also means the movie is headed only one way---to a tragic end .
And the tragic end is a result of Omveer keeping an army of vigilantes who kill anyone who crosses the line of caste or religion for love ; they are hardly going to keep quiet if their leader's daughter is going to elope with a boy outside caste . As the vigilantes plan to make an example of Jhanvi by gang raping her before killing her , it is her own uncle Rajveer who has to kill her and her lover to save them from a fate worse than death....
The romance of Jhanvi with her boyfriend is well developed and so is their elopement , and the whole movie is interspersed with some melodious songs that enhance the viewing experience . Photography and colours are most decent and so is the background music . But the tragic climax put me in pathos even as it elevated the movie .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Hirkani ( October 2019 )
58030
Set in the time after Shivaji maharaj was coronated as King , the movie is on the legend of a woman who went down a very steep cliff off the fort of Raigad ( Shivaji's capital ) because the gates of the fort had been closed as they always were by sunset but she wanted to nurse her infant which was in a village below . There is no record of such a feat in the historical records of Shivaji , but a bastion called Hirkani buruj stands at the spot where she allegedly went down from the fort . It is named after the woman , whose name was Hirkani .
Heera ( Sonali Kulkarni ) is a simple woman living in a village at the foot of fortress Raigad , who has an infant child and a tall strong and strapping husband called Jeeva ( Amit Khedekar ) working in Shivaji's spy department . On the festival of kojagiri pournima she remains in the fort too long and the gates are shut as per rules at sundown . But eager to nurse her infant which is in the village below , she decides to climb down a steep cliff . On the way down which is nearly vertically down , she nearly loses her life as she slides down fast repeatedly hurting herself and gets slithered by a snake onto her body , As Shivaji's soldiers realise someone is going downwards , they feel that she could be an enemy agent . They throw boulders and flaming objects at her which narrowly miss her .
Finally when she reaches down , she finds her house being stalked by a wolf that has tormented her village . Using the technique taught by her husband she spears the wolf and kills it . Meanwhile the news reaches Shivaji himself and next day his soldiers take her back to fort for questioning . He asks her to prove herself by repeating the feat , but she admits that with the infant safe in her arms and not in the village below she cannot dare repeat the feat . Shivaji is convinced by her truthfulness and honours her and names her infant as Jhunjhar Rao , hoping that he will grow up to be a fighter for Swaraj like his father . The place where she scales down has a bastion built in her real name---Hirkani .
Sonali Kulkarni puts up an authentic performance as a mother worried for her child , and Amit Khedekar looks every inch a Maratha warrior fighting for swaraj . Colours and photography wise the movie scores and background music and songs are okay .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars out of five .
Bypass Road
58208
Vikram Kapoor ( Neil Nitin Mukesh ) is a rich fashion designer with a posh bungalow in Alibagh near Mumbai . Tragedy strikes as he meets an accident while driving on bypass road at the same time a model named Sarah Braganza ( Shama Sikander ) whom he has been dating gets killed . He is on wheelchair after this but police suspect him of having killed the model . But his father ( Rajit Kapoor ) supports him and he is taken care of by his loyal servant kaka .
He has a frosty relation with his step mother Romila ( Gul Panag ) , who is having an affair with another man . But his problems increase when someone repeatedly tries to murder him in his house . He and the police officer Roy ( Manish Chaudhari ) begin to suspect the fiance of the killed model named Jimmy ( Taher Shabbir ) . Vikram's only solace is the woman who is in love with him---Radhika ( Adah Sharma } , but he tries to reject her love thinking that she is only taking pity on him because of his condition .
But the game hots up as a masked man comes to kill him and Vikram decides to fight back . This leads to many twists and turns in the story and some action packed scenes . Problem is that there are twists and turns too many . You keep on wondering as the onus of villainy keeps on shifting from person to person and the plot gets over stretched .
The movie showcases the life of the rich and famous---their jet set lifestyle , their chic clothes and stunningly beautified women ( beautified by the clothes they wear ) , their parties and their money . Neil Nitin Mukesh is naturally handsome with pink complexion and brown beard , and both Adah Sharma and Shama Sikander look mouthwateringly beautiful .
Background music is just about okay , but photography and colours are top class . Acting is okay . Maybe cutting out a few twists in the plot would have helped .
Verdict---Okay .
2
FATTESHIKAST
58481
The era is the second half of the seventeenth century. Aurangzeb has become Mughal emperor and has begun to set his eyes on the deccan , for here is the rising power of the grand rebel---Shivaji Maharaj ( Chinmay Mandlekar ) . To contain the rising power of Shivaji , Aurangzeb sends his maternal uncle Shaista Khan ( Anup Soni ) with a large army to unleash terror on Maharashtra . Shaista Khan's troops occupy Pune where Shivaji grew up and the khan makes Shivaji's Lal Mahal his abode along with his begums .
As Marathi people are dragged roped together as prisoners and slaves and their houses and farms are set afire after orgies of murder , the pressure is on Shivaji to retaliate against this tyranny . In this he has one trump card . Lal Mahal is where he grew up and he knows it's secret passages inside out . He is safe in his fortress hideout in the Sahyadri mountains , but he yearns to free his people from the Mughal yoke .
Shivaji first sends his trusted spies to find out where the guards are in Lal Mahal and the time of change of guard . His spy chief Bahirji Naik ( Harish Dudhade ) sends a female spy named Kesar ( Mrunmayee Deshpande ) to make friends with Shaista Khan's son's wife Rai Bagan sahiba ( Trupti Todarmal ) and thus gain entry into the harem and find out details of guarding etc . She has other male spies helping her pretending to be muslims . She is suspected to be a spy on several occasions but escapes capture as no proof is found . At grave risk to her life she still stays in the harem .
After due information is gathered , Shivaji gathers select troops for what the film makers have trumpeted as India's first surgical strike . Shivaji personally leads his men and they manage to slip into Lal Mahal for attacking the khan . Shaista is woken from his sleep to find Shivaji's men creating havoc in his residence . Shivaji attacks Shaista in dead of night and in the fight that breaks out cuts off three fingers of his hand himself . But other Mughal guards have woken up and the wounded Shaista clings on to his life . As Mughal soldiers chase a troupe of flaming torches they discover the torches have been attached to horns of animals . Shivaji and his soldiers have escaped after killing many Mughal soldiers .
As Shivaji returns back to his fortress to be welcomed by his mother Jijabai ( Mrunal Kulkarni ) and worried wife Soyrabai , there are tears in the eyes of Kesar for her king has returned safe from one more expedition that adds to his growing legend . The growing legend credits Shivaji with magical powers due to his sudden entry into heavily guarded residence of Shaista and the Khan vacates Pune in fear of those powers .
Acting is good by all actors and colours and photography is good too . The bhagwa jhenda ( saffron flag ) flies tall and mighty in many scenes , and background music and songs are decent too .
Verdict---Good .
Three and a half stars out of five .
Girlz ( november 2019 )
58607
Ankita Lande plays Mati , a girl living in Kolhapur who feels stifled by her conservative mother's strict upbringing . She is not allowed to wear the short clothes she wants to wear , not allowed to poke out her bra out of her top and not even allowed to wear sunglasses after her mother catches her sex chatting with a boy on smartphone . The smartphone is whisked from her hands and replaced by an ordinary mobile phone . Mati's social media accounts are blocked by her mother ( Devika Daftardar ) and her ambition to travel far and wide is nipped in the bud .
But Mati makes friends with a boy ( Parth Bhalerao ) in college who tricks her mother into allowing her to go to Goa on a solo trip . But the mother keeps constant watch by regularly phoning and asking the lady hotel manager in Goa to keep an eye on her daughter . However Mati meets Maggie/Margaret ( Ketaki Narayan ) in her hotel , and dreams of wearing the hot and sexy clothes that Maggie wears . Also she meets Rumi , who is constantly reminiscing of the boy she once loved and lost---Aditya...but only after Aditya has had slept with her .
Rumi however is nothing compared to Maggie , who sleeps with numerous men and is a free bird . As the three hang out in Goa soaking in the nightlife , dancing in discotheques , partaking in adventure sports and lazying on beaches , Mati more and more wants to live the life Maggie lives . One day Maggie encourages her to wear nothing but a bikini on a beach and Rumi uploads the photos on social media .
But Mati's mother explodes in fury on seeing the photos and recalls her back , slapping her hard and curtailing her freedoms . However Maggie keeps on phoning her and one day Mati runs off back to Goa leaving her parents worried . She Maggie and Rumi paint the town red , drinking till they puke and uploading videos of that on social media .
But actually all is not well in Maggie's life and she comes from a broken household . The free life that she leads is a facade , and it is upto Mati to bring her to her senses and reunite Maggie to her father . Then the three girls teach a lesson to Rumi's ex Aditya , who is off to marry another girl . All this makes Mati realise the importance of remaining with her own family , and she returns home a bit tamed by her experience . Her understanding father helps her and her mother reconcile with each other .
The first half of the movie is full of fun and jokes and frolic , and the photography of Goa is really nice . Background music and songs are decent too . Second half is serious and the mood is a bit sombre . Acting is decent by everyone and comedy by Parth Bhalerao who plays Mati's friend . Ketaki Narayan looks really enticing as Maggie wearing sexy clothes and smoking pot in style .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars out of five .
Panipat
58901
The movie showcases the third battle of Panipat , which was fought between the forces of the Indian Maratha empire led by general Sadashivraobhau and the afghan troops led by their king Ahmad Shah Abdali in the mid eighteenth century . Abdali had come to loot India several times before , but this time he was confronted by the marathas .
Sadashivraobhau was the cousin of the peshwa ( prime minister ) of the marathas , and he is played by Arjun Kapoor . He is popularly called bhau . He is reluctant to get married , but is constantly wooed by Parvatibai who is a practitioner of herbal medicine, played by Kriti Sanon . Their love story has been well built up , and Kriti has produced the best performance in the movie acting wise and she really stands out .
Also well brought out are the jealousies in the peshwa's court , where the peshwa's wife is uncomfortable with bhau's growing stature . But after he defeats the ruler of Hyderabad ( neighboring kingdom ) in the battle of udgir , bhau's position becomes too big to ignore and attempts to sideline him to other duties come to a naught when Abdali invades India and his henchman Najib ud daula kills a maratha general . Bhau is elected general of the army that is sent north .
Bhau has great reliance on the artillery that he has acquired by bringing to his side Ibrahim Khan Gardi , the commander of the Hyderabad forces. They are huge cannons capable of smashing fortifications and prove their use in the coming campaign by destroying bastions of Delhi and Kunjpura . As the army moves north Bhau stiches a host of alliances . But they unravel as the battle comes close , especially with maharaja Suraj Mal . Also the ruler of awadh in north India joins Abdali and Najib over appeals of common religion . And bhau's co religionist kings in north India prove traitors at the last moment . That is why the movie has the suffix---the great betrayal .
The moves and countermoves of the rival forces and the chase up and down opposite sides of the yamuna river because it is flooded due to excessive rains and cannot be crossed ; all has been well picturised . Ultimately it comes to battle at panipat in today's haryana . Abdali is played by Sanjay Dutt and menacing music is played wherever he makes his appearance . But Arjun Kapoor is more effective as Bhau .
The battle has been shown in some detail and I liked the way in which it has been picturised . There are some good fighting scenes and aficionados of war movies will appreciate them . The boom of cannon balls , the clash of gleaming swords , the firing of muskets , the throwing of spears at enemy troops and the marksmanship of archers is shown well . Some cinematic liberty has been taken but that is expected .
The sight of maratha royals dancing and singing is there ; it is now expected from bollywood , though in real life warriors and their wives don't dance . The movie has some grandeur in scenes of the peshwa's court and in the rich clothes and tents of maratha royals . The saffron colour of hinduism makes it's appearance in flags and turbans of the soldiers . Their is even a fictional meeting between the heavily bearded Abdali and bhau , though in real life they never met .
The battle results in defeat for the maratha forces and slaughter of it's chiefs and many soldiers , but the movie says that Abdali lost so many soldiers that he admitted in a letter to the peshwa that bhau was the finest warrior that he ever fought . The movie shows a crestfallen Abdali never invading India again , something that is not fully true . He did invade the province of Punjab in India again , but was gradually driven out by the Punjabis who benefitted from the losses he suffered in the great battle .The marathas marched on Delhi again within ten years and captured it , so they recovered from the defeat .
Photography is good and colours of the movie are very decent . Songs and background music is decent too , and so is the acting by everyone . As a marathi I must appreciate the history of my people being brought to the silver screen by Bollywood in finery and colours .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Pati Patni Aur Woh
( Husband Wife And She )
58958
The film is based on the iconic 70's movie of the same name , which was based on a husband's philandering and it's effects on both wife and girlfriend.
Kartik Aryaan plays a small town boy living in Kanpur . He is liberal enough to not mind a wife who has had a relationship before , but who promises to give him lifelong companionship---played by Bhumi Pednekar.
The wife aspires to live in big city Delhi , and constantly taunts her husband about this . But one day a modern girl from Delhi comes to Kanpur for some work---played by Ananya Pandey . Husband starts getting attracted to her and flirts with her . Tells her some false story about his wife having an affair due to which he is unhappy and wins her sympathy. The girl takes him to big city Delhi and they dance in discos and she wants to go the full extent with him . But he balks at the last moment remembering his wife .
But wife has got wind of the affair and gets drunk with her old flame. The in laws on both sides get involved and so does a boy who is attracted to the wife and sends her love letters, leading to a lot of funny confusion. The husband's only help to get back his wife is his loyal friend played by Aparshakti Khurana .
Husband feels that he has not crossed the limit with the big city girl, having stopped at the brink of crossing it . But what about the big city girl who is in love with him ? Will she allow him to successfully reunite with his wife? And most importantly, will his wife forgive?
The movie has some comic situations in the first half and some emotional stuff in the later part of the second half . All of which is engaging to watch.
Acting wise the movie has good performances overall. Bhumi Pednekar looks good in backless blouses and Ananya Pandey looks glamorous in western clothes. Background music and songs are okay and photography and colours are okay too . Will keep you interested for a couple of hours giving light entertainment.
Verdict---Decent
3
Tanhaji , the unsung warrior
The movie shows Ajay Devgan play Tanaji Malusare , the Maratha warrior who was instrumental in the recapture of the fort of Kondhana from the Mughals by the forces of Shivaji maharaj .
However , the history of what actually happened has been considerably changed in the movie . The entire movie has considerable fiction though some touch with what had really happened has been barely maintained somehow .
The one major plus point of the movie is that it gives publicity to Tanaji Malusare in regions of India outside Maharashtra in a similar manner in which the movie 'Bajirao Mastani' gave publicity to Bajirao . Thus warriors popular in Maharashtra but little known outside it now have become known outside Maharashtra . This has been helped by the tremendous box office success of both movies .
The fort of kondhana was defended for the Mughals by it's Rajput commander Udaybhan , who was nothing but a soldier doing his job in real life . But in the movie the character of Udaybhan has been raised to the status of a villain by the acting of Saif Ali Khan . He has kidnapped a Rajput widow with whom he was in love before her marriage and she and her brother play a part in helping Maratha forces capture the fort by keeping Udaybhan distracted---all completely fictional and no such Rajput widow ever existed .
Amazingly , in the movie Tanaji makes a trip to the fort even before he actually captures it---needless to say , all this is completely fictional . Also completely fictional is the huge cannon called 'naagin' ( female cobra ) which Udaybhan has towed to the fort and has pointed towards Shivaji's capital Rajgad .
The character played by Shivaji is relatively sidelined in the movie ; his mother Jijabai has relatively more prominence . The movie is dominated by the rivalry between the character played by Ajay Devgan ( Tanaji called Tanhaji in the movie ) and the character played by Saif Ali Khan ( Udaybhan Rathod ) . Saif hardly looks like a Rajput warrior . His clothes are almost completely black like a muslim warrior .
Kajol plays Tanaji's wife and she looks and acts nicely . Acting by Ajay Devgan and Saif Ali Khan in their respective roles is decent without being spectacular . Colours and photography are decent while songs and background music are okay . The film has some well directed action scenes of fighting between the opposing forces .
As a hindu nationalist I liked the prominence given to the bhagwa jhenda ( saffron flag ) of Hinduism in the movie . Inspite of all the changes made by the movie makers to the real story of the capture of kondhana , the movie was entertaining enough for me to forgive the radical changes made to the history I had heard since childhood .
Verdict---Decent .
Three stars out of five .
Shikara ( Houseboat )
60261
'Shikara' movie is a beautiful love story full of old world charm....of two nice good looking people getting united in holy matrimony and living the rest of their lives in love with each other....of caring for each other and never leaving each other till death does them part....of sharing the joys and heartbreaks together....but sadly today's generation may not want to see it in that way , because it is set against the backdrop of a long running conflict that has torn such emotions from the hearts of those on either side of the conflict .
Needless to say it is another movie on Kashmir , the war torn region that arouses strong passions everywhere in the subcontinent ; passions that do not allow space for softer emotions like love . Yet a film maker of Kashmiri origin ( Vidhu Vinod Chopra ) has tried to make a love story stand tall in the midst of conflict .
Kashmiri pandits ( hindus ) Shiv Kumar Dhar ( Aadil Khan ) and Shanti Sapru ( Sadia ) fall in love during shooting of a film in Kashmir and get married with the help of their muslim friend Lateef Lone ( Faisal Simon ) who is himself in love with a hindu girl named Arti . They build a lovely house called shikara ( named after a type of houseboat that is used for sailing in Kashmir's lakes ) and dream of a future together . But as the muslims of Kashmir get radicalised and many of them start making trips to Rawalpindi in Pakistan , the whole future of Kashmiri pandits comes under a cloud .
The couple are warned by their milkman that muslims are eyeing their house to be taken over from them , and this should have warned them about the impending kickout of hindus from Kashmir . But the naive couple remain in their own world and blindly trust their muslim neighbours' claims that they will protect them even after hit lists of hindus are posted on street corners . Their friend Lateef has already got radicalised after his father got shot by government forces during elections and has joined Pakistan backed terrorists . Lateef warns the couple to sell their house while they are getting a good price and leave . But the couple do not think about selling their house even decades after they have been forced out , such is their old fashioned longing for their heritage .
This brings us to the exodus of the Kashmiri pandits from Kashmir . Certainly the movie is most effective in showing the atmosphere of fear and terror in which the community was forced to leave . The sadness of leaving one's own land , the misery of living in squalid refugee camps , the callous attitude of officials in charge of resettling them is all well shown . One particularly troubling scene shows hungry refugees running after a truck desperate for the meagre amount of eatables being distributed to them . In the first half such scenes make the movie certainly gripping .
But in the second half the movie becomes more of a love story rather than a real account of what Kashmiri pandits had to endure . The violence unleashed against the community is not really shown and the movie then becomes typical Bollywood emotional fare about how the couple never gets communally affected against any religion even after what they have gone through and how the hero still remains attached faithfully to the memory of his muslim friend even after Lateef admits to have mistakenly killed the hindu girl he loved in the midst of his involvement in terrorism .
The heroine's name Shanti was also the name of the director's mother who never was able to return to her homeland after being evicted from it , and you have to watch the movie with the mindset that the director wanted to make a endearing and enduring love story set in backdrop of Kashmir in order to enjoy the movie . I changed my mindset accordingly and was able to enjoy the movie . Others with a harsher reading of the situation may not be able to enjoy it .
The pain of having lost their homeland is writ large on the faces of the lead pair throughout the movie , and their acting is sincere and their endurance in the midst of despair is heartbreaking . Songs and background music are good and help in making the film an emotional journey . Photography and colours are okay . But those wanting a less emotion tinted and more reality based version of the truth to be shown on screen will be disappointed . It will however appeal to those with a yen for timeless romance in times of adversity .
Verdict---Nice .
3.5
Love Aaj Kal
( Love nowadays )
60864
Review has spoilers
Directed by Imtiaz Ali , the movie follows Imtiaz's now familiar philosophy of following your heart and not getting bogged down by practical matters like career and money . The trick is of course to make it likable once again and the movie does deliver on that thing .
So Sara Ali Khan plays a hip modern girl who goes to discotheques and is ready for a one night stand with Karthik Aryan whom she meets there . But Karthik turns out to be a weirdo who refuses at the last moment because he does not want a one night physical relationship with her but wants her to fall in love with him . Are the girl's and boy's roles getting reversed here ?
Soon Karthik begins following Sara and it does irritate her initially , until she comes to know that he has chosen her to be the one for his entire life but wants her only when she gets out of her mode of impermanent relationships and is ready to settle with him forever . Gradually she is at ease with Karthik but is not ready to give up on her dreams of being a big event manager .
However she begins to hear the story of a older man ( Randeep Hooda ) she is friends with , of coming from a small town where he fell in love with a girl and was caught by the conservative small town folk with the girl . The girl was to be packed off to another city to be kept away from him , but he boarded her train giving up his career as medical student just to be with her . And Sara is so mesmerised by tale of the romance that she begins to date the man who is in love with her and has tears when she finally falls in love with Karthik as she has overcome what she was afraid of---commitment . Her mother is not happy as she wants her to concentrate on her job but Sara is in love.
But one day Sara discovers Randeep with another woman who is not the woman he had followed for love. He admits that his story was incomplete and that he outgrew his small town love on discovering physical relationships in big city and this shatters Sara's world of true love . She breaks off from Karthik on the brink of getting hitched with him and makes it big in her career .
But one night she is abandoned by her then boyfriend in the middle of the street and it is Karthik who comes to rescue her in her drunken state . And Sara once again wants to make love to him....and Karthik again refuses because she is not ready for commitment . He really loves her and is ready to wait till she is really in love with him again . But he is off to the mountains for work and may not see her ever again .
What to do....? Sara rushes again to Randeep to hear the last part of his story and learns that one day he grew tired of physical relationships and went back searching for his original lady love . And found out that she was pregnant and in a relationship with another man . Randeep had lost his love forever.....and he does not want to same to happen to Sara....What to do again ? Time to rush to the mountains where Karthik is staying in a quest for lifelong love .
Sara Ali Khan looks mouth watering exposing her lovely fair body in stylish clothes and I have become her fan . Karthik Aryan in contrast has been given a half shaven look and that makes him look as if he hasn't bathed in a number of days . He is quite a looker himself but the director probably wanted him to look different having quirky thinking on love and romance . Yeah , what seems quirky to men are exactly director Imtiaz Ali's own thoughts . Needless to say , they will be liked by women . Maybe women should make a beeline to romance Imtiaz instead of Karthik . Question is , will he practice in real life what he preaches on celluloid ?
Background music is good and melodious songs effortlessly blend into the film to create an atmosphere of undying romance . And I found myself engrossed in watching the film . Photography and colours are okay. Throughout the movie watching experience I found relaxation and contentment . Why isn't real life like that ?
Verdict---Good .
3.5
Malang
67705
This was the last movie I saw in theatre before lockdown has closed cinema halls in India , but I did not get time to post my review at that point .
For starters , Malang means vagabond . So it is in Goa that two vagabonds meet ; where else do vagabonds abound in India anyway....? One is male , Adwait---played by Aditya Roy Kapoor , and the other is female---Sara , played Disha Patani . And they hang out taking drugs and dancing in rave parties in Goa and making love . Both have come to Goa in search of the free life , but a violent incident teaches them the value of life , of belonging , at the exact point when Sara is pregnant and planning to abort the child . And she drops the plan and wants to become a mother . After initial reluctance , Adwait decides to accept his impending fatherhood .
But fate has other plans in store for them in the form of a rampaging cop ( Rodrigues played by Kunal Khemu ) with an impotency problem who kills anyone who finds out that he is impotent , as Sara does . And he kills her without mercy , converting Adwait into a desperado vowing revenge . The task of stopping him is upto Agashe ( Anil Kapoor ) , a cop who terrorizes gone case criminals after snorting drugs himself to forget the killing of his daughter by a drug peddling criminal....the film is awash in drugs .
The film has several scenes of violence and drugs , and soothing relief is given from those by the romantic scenes of Sara and Adwait together . Not only does Disha Patani who plays Sara have a stunning body which is exposed in short clothes and bikinis , but that is complemented by Aditya Roy Kapoor who plays Adwait with his toned muscles ; they certainly make a good couple .
The songs are really hummable and background music is nice , while photography is good . Acting is good by everyone and the lead pair has terrific chemistry . The scenes of the two dancing and romancing come as flashbacks in memories of Adwait interspersed in the drug fuelled violence , and I liked the film best in those scenes . And because of those scenes , I liked the film too .
Verdict---Good .
3.5
WrinkledMind
09-09-20, 04:58 PM
ashdoc regarding Shikara, have you read Pandita's book 'Our Moon has Blood Clots'?
I thought the movie was a massively watered down version of the book. The book is pretty brutal in its description of how badly Kashmiri Muslims treated the Kashmiri Hindus. And how they were motivated by religion. I failed to see that in the movie. And worse was seeing Pandita himself being involved with this project. Almost felt like a sellout.
Is Love Enough ? Sir
68966
Finally the lockdown which was imposed in March is being eased in Mumbai and I was able to be back to where I feel I belong....in the seat of a movie theater watching a movie...
This is an art movie/parallel cinema . The movie is about the chemistry between an upper class guy named Ashwin played by Vivek Gomber and his maid named Ratna played by Tillotama Shome .
He has just lost his brother to a fatal disease and also had his impending wedding canceled , making him kind of depressed . He lives alone in a bachelor pad in Mumbai . Ratna agrees to be his in house maid because she is a widow who wants to escape the drudgery of life in a village in interior Maharashtra . This despite what people may say about a lone woman living with a single young man in his house .
But as they live together an empathy develops in Ratna's mind for Ashwin as she feels for his depressed state . She tries to cheer him up by telling him about how she herself dealt with her husband's death . She buys him a shirt for his birthday and he surprisingly wears it . He takes her side when she is scolded by his female friend in a house party .
Ratna discovers that she has developed feelings for Ashwin when she sees a female coming out of Ashwin's bedroom presumably after a one night stand and feels jealous . But the first hint of trouble is when Ashwin starts reciprocating her feelings and gives her a sewing machine as gift . She wants to be independent and has tried to learn sewing at a tailor only to find out that he wants to use her for helping out not to teach her anything .
Finally Ashwin kisses her one day and Ratna reciprocates even though she knows that class differences will not allow them to be together . He asks her to come with him for a date but she realizes that people would notice their class difference ; she cannot even speak English which is his regular language . The movie is in three languages---Hindi spoken by people in the building , English spoken by Ashwin and his friends and marathi by Ratna and another maid who is is her friend played by Geetanjali Kulkarni . Ratna then agrees to come to the terrace with Ashwin where he tries to convince her to stop calling him 'Sir' as she normally addresses and start calling him by his name . She refuses ; the class differences between an illiterate servant and an English speaking elite person are beginning to gnaw at her now .
As Ashwin's friends get wind of the attraction between the two and so do other servants in the building , Ratna is distressed . A woman can lose her reputation quickly if she goes a little bit astray among the lower class people she comes from and she is acutely aware of this . She shifts away from the building to another place and decides not to ever meet Ashwin again .
But she gets a chance to learn fashion designing which is her dream and realizes that it is Ashwin's influence that has given her the admission to the fashion designing course . Finally she does talk to him on phone and calls him by his name , dropping the 'Sir' for the first time and presumably forever . That ends the movie on a cheery note , but the question remains---Is love enough ? Will it be able to transcend their class barrier ? The movie does not further explore that .
The acting performances are good , especially by Tillotama Shome as Ratna who shows every emotion of a suppressed person wanting to exhale . Vivek Gomber is good too as an awkward young man going through a rough patch and finding a soul mate unexpectedly .
Background music is appropriate for the situations though there are no songs obviously as it is parallel cinema . Photography and colours are decent enough .
Ultimately the relationship between the protagonists is probably not really going to develop as class differences are too much I guess . He is not even middle class but directly upper class and she is from the lower classes . The stifling rules of her village are many and even though he repeatedly tells her that she can break them as she is now living in the big city she is ultimately bound to her upbringing . Her struggle to get her sister educated enough to be able to make something of herself in the big city is well brought out too . But mere love is not enough for there are practical realities to wade through....
Verdict---Very decent .
3
The Kashmir Files
87467
Darshan Kumar plays Krishna , who is a kashmiri pandit living in mainland India like all kashmiri pundits do....they have been forced away from their homeland decades ago with no return in sight for now . But the death of his grandfather forces him to go to his native state after a long time . His grandfather pandit pushkarnath ( played by anupam kher whose father's name in real life was also pandit pushkarnath -- director Vivek ranjan agnihotri chose the name as tribute to anupam's father ) wanted his ashes to be immersed in his homeland Kashmir and Krishna has to return to there for that .*
For Krishna it becomes a life changing journey , because in Kashmir he comes face to face with the truth that has been hidden from him all these years . The truth is of how his parents had been killed by Muslim terrorists and the reason for him being shielded from it is the sheer horror attached to it due to the gruesome nature of the murders . For it is in Kashmir that he gets to meet his grandfather's friends who show him the files which tell the reality of how kashmiri pundits were murdered for being non Muslim in a land newly plagued by jihad---probably that's why the movie is named the Kashmir Files .*
The friends have gathered to pay last respects to Krishna's departed grandfather* , and as conversations proceed into past memories the horror of what happened to hindus during that terrible period comes before us in flashbacks . How Muslim neighbors turned into enemies and how the state failed to protect hindus is brought out as the grandfather's friends discuss and spar and ultimately end up in a physical fight over the pusillanimous role of television in those times , a television controlled by the government that refuses let Indian public know about the reality .*
The friends are played by mithun Chakraborty who plays an ias officer , by puneet issar who plays the former police chief , by Prakash belawadi who plays a doctor and by Atul Shrivastava who plays the much maligned television presenter who is forced to hide the truth in his presentations . It is through their reminisces that we see the past in action , of horrifying images of kashmiri hindu men hanged by terrorists and their former Muslim acquaintances preying upon their women .*
But why is Krishna forced to confront the truth ?* Because in mainland India he has got into company of urban naxals ( a term made famous by Vivek agnihotri himself in his film 'buddha in a traffic jam' ) led by radhika menon played by Vivek's wife pallavi joshi . And they have turned Krishna into a zombie whose thoughts are controlled by them directing him to hate his own country and his own religion . He has been sent to contact a Muslim terrorist ( Farooq ahmed dar played by chinmay mandlekar ) by his mentors . Krishna has to be brought out of his crazy ideas very fast and the only way to do it is by telling him the truth about how his parents had been murdered by the very terrorist he is supposed to contact .*
As Krishna returned his college campus to lecture his urban naxal mentors about what he had seen in Kashmir and began to talk about how Kashmir when it was hindu majority was the most advanced place during that time and how Muslim invaders had torn apart that greatness to smithereens and was thus trying to change their views , I began to wonder if the director was once again over indulging in his favorite topic of urban naxalism instead of concentrating on Kashmir . But I was wrong . The director once again sharply makes us focus on Kashmir through a terrible climax . The last scene is the killer punch of the movie .*
The horrifying tribulations of the kashmiri pandits are all too well brought out in the movie . Of being murdered and raped and driven from their land , of bad conditions in refugee camps , of failing hopes of returning to their homeland , of trying to preserve their culture away from home , of selfish politicians turning a blind eye to their sufferings .
Acting wise , performances are top class--by anupam kher who has put heart and soul in this movie as he is a kashmiri pandit himself , by pallavi joshi as the scheming professor responsible for Krishna's brainwashing , and by chinmay mandlekar as Farooq ahmed dar , the chilling terrorist was doesn't bat an eyelid while sawing a live kashmiri woman in half and force feeding her with rice spattered by her butchered husband's blood . Yes such scenes are in the film . It not for the faint hearted .*
There are no songs but music is appropriate for the occasions and photography is decent . I would recommend it as compulsory watch for all patriotic Indians .
On a side note , the movie has a scene in which kashmiri pandits mention the help Balasaheb Thackeray gave to kashmiri pandit refugees by giving them quotas in education and asked other states to do the same . As a marathi person I felt proud....
4.5
WrinkledMind
06-18-22, 05:54 AM
Kashmir Files is an important movie, even though it was made by a poor filmmaker. And, yes, Agnihotri almost ruins it with the unnecessary JNU drama. Still the subject ensures that this turned out to be a decent flick. It's a necessary watch, even if it's hard to watch.
Not surprised to see that the movie was attacked by the left cabal in India, for whom we Hindus can never be victims.
Hopefully someone now makes a movie on the Moplah genocide and Direct Action Day. Too many people in our country don't know about genocides committed on Hindus.
The Kerala Story
92644
Every dog has his day....after being treated like dogs by the congress and the communists and bollywood hindus are finally having their day under the BJP government....and some brave movie makers are having a field day exposing the true face of terror ; this is the second movie after the kashmir files that shows the real face of the jehadis .
The movie starts with the leading character of the film ( Shalini Unnikrishnan played by Adah Sharma ) being interrogated in an afghan jail where she tells her harrowing tale of being a sex slave of the ISIS ; I really liked the way she says 'sex-a slave-a' in keralite accent inspite of being a North Indian showing how well she had tried to get into the skin of her character by learning to speak hindi in keralite accent .
The movie is partly in flashbacks as she narrates her story of having a nice life till youth in the beauty of God's own country ( Kerala ) full of lush greenary and joining a nursing college . But the entry into the college is with sinister music as the walls are full of jehadi propaganda asking for removal of Kashmir from India . This sinister music follows everywhere in the film whenever some devious jehadi plot is being concocted .
In the college she meets her hostel mates Geetanjali ( Siddhi Idnani ) who is hindu but is atheist due her communist parents , Nimah ( Yogita Bihani ) who is a practicing Christian , and Asifa ( Sonia Balani ) who is muslim . It is Asifa who is the jehadi , and she introduces the girls to muslim boys who practice love jehad , the targeted entrapment of non muslim girls in love and later physical relation with the plan of their conversion to islam in mind . In rest of the country the conversion to islam is the final goal . But in Kerala the final goal is to indoctrinate and brainwash the girls using not only verbal propaganda but also narcotic drugs and send them to ISIS in Islamic lands as sex slaves of jehadis--The Kerala story .
The plans to bring them into the jehadi fold are elaborate to say the least--from regular verbal bombardment about the alleged helplessness of non muslim Gods ( the Christian girl is told how God is helpless to allow his son Jesus to die a painful death nailed to a cross and the hindu girls are told how Lord Shiva is helpless as he has to carry the lifeless body of his wife to various corners of India ) to arranging molestation of the girls so that their western attire can be blamed for attracting unwanted male attention and they can be convinced to wear hijab . The girls are impregnated and their nude photos are threatened to be made viral on social media to blackmail them to join the ISIS . Later the daughter of communist parents rightly blames her communist father in front of photos of Lenin for not teaching her about hindu customs and tradition due to his belief in the atheist teachings of communism , a fact that made her vulnerable to accept Asifa's attacks on Hinduism as reality , a reality which makes her spit on her own father as he is lying in hospital due to heart attack when he is shocked that she has converted to islam ; she has been told to spit on her father as he is an infidel....
Shocking as the above scene is , there is worse in store for us viewers as Shalini is moved to Afghanistan where her mobile phone is snatched from her for being a woman ; women are killed routinely by jehadis for having mobile phones as it is forbidden by their laws for women to have mobiles and their hands are cut for using lipstick . These gory scenes are actually shown and are not for the fainthearted . Shalini is raped repeatedly by the man who has brought her to Afghanistan after the boy who impregnated her and forced her to convert to islam disappeared and she had to marry this man in order to have a legal father for her unborn child which is soon snatched away from her....finally Shalini who has been given the name Fatima attempts escape from this hell and lands into her interrogators who promise to help her .
Meanwhile the Christian girl Nimah does complain to the Indian police talking about the ticking time bomb of Kerala 's increasing islamisation and involvement of keralite muslims in terrorist attacks in foreign lands . The movie ends with some videos of the girls' parents in real life talking about the real life stories of the girls .
The acing by all actors was genuine and all have played their roles with authenticity , whether as innocent girls trapped in the web of jehadis or as violent men taught to treat women as expendible commodities for jehad . Music is sinister on many occasions but that can't be helped as the movie is on a sinister topic . There are no songs but I wasn't in the mood to hear any songs in the hell that the movie created . Violent scenes really start as the movie moves to ISIS controlled territory and are interspersed by jehadis firing their kalashnikov guns in the air even if they are not killing anybody though they spend most of their time in killing mode anyway .
Verdict--Good .
3.5
vBulletin® v3.8.0, Copyright ©2000-2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.