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Showing posts from June, 2020

JAWAAN (2023) : review

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And finally the much hyped, much awaited Jawaan saw light of the day ! Big stars, big budget( humongous budget actually), big music composer, everything super large. But does it meet the expectations of the average viewer? No it goes not. Read on.  A decorated jawan locks horns with a criminal called Kaali, this is in 1986 ( the year movies like Aakhri Raasta released, just for reference). Kaali gets him eliminated and send the pregnant wife to jail. The baby born in jail grows up to become the hero (look alike of the father) and decides to avenge the misdeeds done to his innocent patriotic parents. Well, isn’t it a masaaledaar full on Bollywood- Tollywood drama subject ?  And then the director Atlee also borrows ideas and references from various retro movies, some idea from Sholay (1975) as the hero assembled a gang of jailed Qaidis in order to form a team to nab the villain, then there’s an entire episode borrowed from Dhartiputra (1993), and the basic theme is copy pasted ...
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NIKAAH (1982)

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NIKAAH (1982)  Directed by: B R Chopra  Cast: Raj Babbar, Salma Agha, Deepak Parasher, Asrani, Iftekhar, Yunus Parvez, Henna Kauser, Chandrashekhar and others.  IMO this is one of the rare “bold and beautiful” movies from Bollywood archives, bold doesn’t necessarily mean raging political dialogues or skin show, sometimes it’s the concept and the overall treatment of the subject that can make you sit up and take notice of the brilliance of storytelling.  “Nikaah” is the poignant tale of a young student Niloufar studying at the Osmania university, who gets married to a wealthy aristocratic Nawab Wasim. One night in a moment of anger Wasim divorces Niloufar, she later finds solace and sympathy in a poet Haider whom she gets remarried to. Wasim soon realizes his true love for Niloufar and starts persuading her to divorce Haider and remarry him as that’s traditionally acceptable by the Sharia Law. The finale belongs to Niloufar and her golden moment of expressing her fee...
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MR BOND (1992) revisited

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MR BOND (1992) Revisited  Directed by : Raj Sippy  Cast: Akshay Kumar, Sheeba, Saathi Ganguly, Dolly Minhas, Ruchika Panday, Manjeet Khullar, Poonam Dasgupta, Ram Mohan, Hussain Khan, Subbiraj, Mac Mohan, Bob Christo & Pankaj Dheer.  We know Indianised James Bond in Bollywood like Jumping Jack Jeetu and muscular Mithun in 60s, 70s and 80s who played the agent with fine aplomb and their movies were box office hits as well, but do we remember our very own Khiladi Kumar playing the undercover agent in this forgotten “strictly for adults” thriller? When a bunch of kids from wealthy families get kidnapped by an Bangkok based underworld don Dragon, an Indian undercover agent Mr. Bond is summoned to rescue the innocent lives. Loaded with generous martial arts action, lot of bloodbath, flexing muscles and ripped bodies, this thriller could well be the lowest rated action movie on IMDb. Nevertheless it’s one of those delightful trashy Bollywood capers that make a random after...
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RASBHARI (2020) a review

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RASBHARI (2020)  Directed by: Nikhil Bhat Cast: Swara Bhasker, Ayushman Saxena, Chittaranjan Tripathy, Neelu Kohli, Pradhuman Singh, Sunny Hinduja, Sunakshi Grover, Akshay Suri, Rashmi Agdekar, Diptesh Das & others.  Amazon prime video’s latest offering is an eight episodic erotica webseries set in the quiet and culturally rich small town Meerut. One fine day a supposedly voluptuous English teacher moves in the town who is rumoured to have a high sex drive. All men irrespective of age start lusting for the teacher, including the sixteen year old protagonist who’s her student.  The director Bhat has a plot that has been used and revised several times, if it’s erotica as the theme then the recent Mastram (2020) series were better and had superior production values. Most of the supporting cast are new faces except Tripathy and Kohli as the lead actor’s parents.  Casting the talented Bhasker as the sexually attractive teacher backfires, undoubtedly she’s a brilliant...
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BULBBUL (2020) a review

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BULBBUL (2020)  Directed by: Anvita Dutt  Cast: Rahul Bose, Tripti Dimri, Avinash Tiwari, Pauli Dam, Hemant Bisht, Baby Ruchi, Master Varun, Parambrata Chattopadhyay & others.  Produced by Clean Slates productions (Anushka Sharma) expectations rise high if you’ve been impressed with their earlier offering Pataal Lok(2020), sadly this is a horror short that starts well and ends disappointingly.  The story begins with a child bride married into a wealthy Thakur household, her much older husband has a mentally unstable identical twin. The story fast forwards Bees Saal Baad and the little girl grows up into a vivacious beautiful Badi Bahu. Soon there are a series of murders, men are being brutally killed and a ‘chudail’ is blamed. The youngest Thakur of the family who’s freshly London returned starts investigating the crime Sherlock style.  Director Dutt builds up a promising plot, getting audience interest and setting intriguing clues. But the extended climax ...
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AARYA (2020) review

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AARYA (2020)  Directed by: Ram Madhwani  Cast: Sushmita Sen, Vikas Kumar, Sikander Kher, Manish Chaudhary, Namit Das, Ankur Bhatia, Jayant Kripalani, Sohaila Kapur, Maya Sarao, Sugandha Garg, Flora Saini, Joy Sengupta, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Chandrachur Singh(Sp.App.) A fresh thriller web series streaming currently on hotstar, official adaptation of the Dutch thriller series Penoza(2010) which was created by Peter Bart Korthuis, “Aarya” is just like its leading lady “achchi hai par bahut lambi hai”  Set in the Royal and culturally rich Rajasthan, a wealthy entrepreneur from an elite family is murdered, while everyone is reeling under shock his widow till then a submissive housewife transforms into a revengeful lioness to track down the killer and protect her cubs who are apparently under threat. She discovers dark secrets related to her dead husband and the patriarchal family business that has more to hide than reveal.  The makers rely on dark and gloomy atmosphere cre...
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PUSHPAK (1987) REVISITED

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PUSHPAK (1987) revisited Directed by: Singeetham Srinivasa Rao  Cast: Kamal Hasan, Amala Mukherjee, Sameer Khakkar, Tinnu Anand, Vasant Kamat, Farida Jalal, K S Ramesh, Loknath, Pratap Pothhen, P L Narayanan.  “Silence is golden” they say, and a silent film like this can convey so much more than a loud violent film, agree? Way back in the 80s it must’ve been a true big experiment to make a silent film in mainstream cinema, I watched it in the mid 90s and loved it immensely, I rewatched it and loved it all the more now.  A simple uncomplicated plot centred around a young unemployed graduate who has a “chance encounter” when he spots a “filthy”(quite literally) wealthy man in an inebriated state. He switches places with the rich man and assuming his identity starts living in a posh hotel called “Pushpak” where he finds comfort, respect, happiness, food, and an unexpected romantic liaison as well. There is also a “cold blooded” contract killer on the prowl targeting the you...
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VEERANA (1988) Revisited

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VEERANA (1988) Revisited  Directed by: Ramsay Brothers  Cast: Hemant Birje, Jasmin, Sahila Chaddha, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Vijendra Ghatge, Gulshan Grover, Narendra Nath, Satish Shah, Rajesh Vivek, Vijay Arora, Tina Ghai, Rama Vij, Rajendra Nath, Baby Vaishnavi, Baby Sneha & Kamal Roy.  Very few Bollywood horror lovers might dislike this classic horror movie which had almost all the mandatory ingredients to cook a delicious Bollywood horror meal. Romance, comedy, sleaze, action, haunting melody everything in abundance !  Centered around a wealthy Thakur’s family, they face the wrath of a doomed vampire when she possesses the body of Thakur’s young daughter. After growing into a voluptuous heiress she haunts in the wilderness singing in an high pitched tone attracting random men who are found brutally murdered later-on.  Directed by the horror specialist duo Tulsi & Shyam (Ramsay Brothers) this is one of their better conceptualised movies. It’s evident th...
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City of Dreams (2019) Review

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CITY OF DREAMS (2019)  Directed by: Nagesh Kukunoor  Cast: Atul Kulkarni, Eijaz Khan, Priya Bapat, Siddharth Chandekar, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Sandeep Kulkarni, Vishwas Kini, Uday Tikekar, Flora Saini, Shilpa Tulaskar, Amrita Bagchi, Saurabh Goyal, Rishi Deshpande, Devas Dixit & others.  Watched only because it was recommended strongly by a friend, have mixed feelings about this socio political thriller webseries streaming on hotstar. Dealing with a dynastic political saga in Maharashtra it’s a fictional account of cutthroat rivalry between political competitors.  Set in Mumbai, it centres around a political family wherein patriarchy rules, when the daughter of the family rebels with her ambitions of ruling their family political party she gets no help from the men in her life, a chauvinistic father, temperamental brother and a disinterested husband. With her intellectual and grit she sets on a determined mission to prove her power, even if that involves eradicating...
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(Temporary Backup) Sankoch (1976) revisited

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SANKOCH (1976) revisited  Director- Anil Ganguly  Cast- Jeetendra, Sulakshana Pandit, Om Shivpuri, A K Hangal, Vikram, Aruna Irani, I S Johar, Jankidas, Preeti Ganguly.  Ganguly is known for his women centric path breaking movies like Kora Kagaz(1974) and Tapasya(1976) among others, Sankoch(1976) is one of his rare classic tale adapted from the 1914 published novella ‘Parineeta’ penned by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay(whose movie adaptations I’ve savoured the most during April lockdown).  The story has the fragrance of innocent blooming love, deceit, one sided silent love, regret, loyalty and the poignant heartbreak. Ganguly has beautifully woven these emotions around a pleasantly romantic storyline. The childhood sweethearts Shekhar and Lolita exchange garlands and innocently declare themselves man and wife, unknowingly to the drastically unexpected turns their love story would encounter due to an age old family ‘transaction’ between the elders. There is also the boy...
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(Temporary Backup) Raktanchal (2020) review

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Raktanchal (2020)  Director- Ritam Shrivastava  Cast- Nikiten Dheer, KrantiPrakash Jha, Chittaranjan Tripathy, Soundarya, Vikram Kochhar, Daya Shanker Panday, Krishna Bisht, Ronjini Chakraborty, Basu Soni, Pramod Pathak, Rajesh Dubey.  Right from the onset we can guess the inspiration for this gangwar webseries, it has to be the cult classic Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), high on violence, replete with choicest Hindi expletives it’s also got a good storyline.  Set in UP, the basic plot centres around two warring gangs, one led by the egoistic cold blooded Waseem Khan(Dheer) and the other by a simpleton turned gangster Vijay Singh(Jha), their mutual hatred for each other multiplies the dead body count where the two try outdoing each other notwithstanding innocent lives getting butchered in the bargain.  Direction is first rate, Shrivastava stays clear of making it another Mirzapur(2018) but the overdose of foul language and graphic violence could’ve been toned a bit...
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सरकारनामा (1998) revisited

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SARKARNAMA (1998) Revisited  Director : Shrabani Deodhar  Cast: Yeshwant Dutt, Dileep Prabhawalkar, Ajinkya Deo, Ashwini Bhave, Jagdish Patankar, Milind Gunaji, Nandu Madhav, Upendra Limaye, Makarand Anaspure, Shrikant Moghe, Prateeksha Lonkar, Makarand Anaspure, Yatin Karyekar, Sachin Pandit & Sukanya Kulkarni.  Today, this movie would appear so relevant, when we are in the midst of political nexus, corruption at its peak and opportunistic political mafia milking money at the cost of innocent public lives. In the 90s it would’ve appeared like a typical fiction based political drama, but today it’s a realistic depiction of what dirty politics is all about.  Deodhar’s socio political thriller can be a reference point for beginners wanting to explore this genre in Indian cinema. For a woman filmmaker to make this bold movie in 1998 is quite an achievement. The story exposes the dual faced stigma that engulfs the political scenario in Maharashtra in the late 90s, a...
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Police Public (1990) Revisited

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POLICE PUBLIC (1990) revisited  Director: Esmayeel Shroff Cast: Raaj Kumar, Naseeruddin Shah, Kabir Bedi, Poonam Dhillon, Raj Kiran, Arbaaz Ali, Shikha Swaroop, A K Hangal, Vijay Aidasani, Prem Chopra, Ajit Vachchani, Reema Lagoo, Ila Arun, Tej Sapru, Sudhir Dalvi, Rakesh Bedi, Mahavir Shah, Sargam(Sp.App.), Disco Shanthi (Sp.App.) Now Shroff belongs to the category of filmmakers whose work I find either extremely delightful or terribly trashy, something like Raj N. Sippy. This 30 year old murder mystery thankfully belongs to the former category atleast in my opinion.  The plot revolves around the mysterious death of a young woman who is part of an politically inclined influential wealthy family on a chilling hill station. While the in-laws dismiss it off as an freak accident, the “witnesses” claim it was suicide, but the investigating CBI officer firmly believes it was a murder! An explosive thrilling investigation follows to track the murderer.  The film was promoted a...
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Pallavi AnuPallavi (1983) revisited

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PALLAVI ANUPALLAVI (1983) Revisited  Directed by: Mani Rathnam  Cast: Lakshmi, Anil Kapoor, Kiran Vairale, Suresh Hebbalikar, Vikram, Master Rohit, M Vasudeo Rao, Sunder Raj.  Rathnam is credited with some of the most remarkable pathbreaking movies in our country ranging from romance to patriotism, terrorism to thrillers. Yet his debut movie never really finds a place amongst his best works, no idea why. Maybe he outdid himself in his subsequent directions. Nevertheless his first directed venture still looks fresh, contemporary and so bold for a 80s movie.  Rathnam had this special quality of portraying human relations with utmost sensitivity and relatable emotions. The character Vijay(Kapoor in his earliest acting roles) is so well defined, being in love with his vivacious girlfriend he falls hopelessly in love with an older woman who’s separated and has a son. The dilemma faced by Vijay is brilliantly conveyed by Rathnam, for a debut director this was brilliance a...
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Choked (2020) review

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Choked (2020)/ Netflix  Directed by: Anurag Kashyap  Cast: Saiyami Kher, Roshan Mathew, Upendra Limaye, Tushar Dalvi, Amruta Subhash, Milind Pathak, Rajashree Deshpande and others.  Movies on the OTT platform are definitely making waves in the lockdown phase, while some make you cringe,there are others that make you get up and applaud the efforts! “Choked” is so relevant, gripping and interesting that you can’t help but empathise with the lead player.  The story has its roots firmly gripped into the lower middle class family of a bank teller (Kher) who is burdened by her responsibility as the sole bread earner feeding her jobless husband, his debts and their kid. She suddenly discovers a source of unlimited cash in her small one room kitchen flat. The happiness is cut short when “demonetisation” is introduced immediately, what next?  Kashyap very skilfully delivers a brilliantly directed and conceptualised drama, difficult to categorise it into any genre but co...
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