Ashdoc's Bollywood movie reviews

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 .

Sanju

June 2018



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 .

Dhadak

( Heartbeat ) July 2018



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 .

Karwaan

( Caravan ) August 2018 )



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 .

Gold

( August 2018 )



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 .

Stree

( Woman ) August 2018



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 .

Laila Majnu

( September 2018 )



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 .

Manmarziyaan ( Will of the mind ) September 2018



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 )



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 .

Jalebi : The Everlasting Taste Of Love

( October 2018 )



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 .

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 .

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 .

Naal ( umbilical cord ) November 2018



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 )



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 .

Mulshi pattern ( December 2018 )



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 .

SImmba is a recent hit and successfully performed on the big screen

Uri , The Surgical Strike

( January 2019 )



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 .

The Accidental Prime Minister

( January 2019 )



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 .

Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Laga

( on seeing a girl i felt like this )




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 .

Manikarnika , The Queen Of Jhansi

( January 2019 )



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 .