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Showing posts from September, 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 from Kaml
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DOLLY KITTY AUR WOH CHAMAKTE SITAARE (2020) review

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DOLLY KITTY AUR WOH CHAMAKTE SITAARE (2020)  Directed by: Alankrita Shrivastava  Cast: Konkona Sen-Sharma, Aamir Bashir, Bhumi Pednekar, Vikrant Massey, Amol Parashar, Kubbra Sait, Master Kalp, Master Hearty, Neelima Azim, Karan Kundra, Brij Bhushan Shukla, Saurabh Chauhan.  The director’s earlier movie Lipstick under my burqa(2018) though a terrible movie still had its moments, few but memorable. But this time there’s absolutely nothing worth remembering in this horrendously directed and conceptualised desi ‘Sex and the Noida city’. Dolly is a Noida based working woman who has to keep her husband, children and boss happy, her young cousin Kitty is a 30+ virgin(a fact mentioned multiple times) working at a phone sex call centre, both women are sexually frustrated, have complicated opinions and assumptions about their sexuality, basically it’s all about sex, sex and more sex, very crude and distasteful sex quite literally.  All Male characters are depicted as sex maniacs here, there ar
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PARIWAR (2020) web-series review

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PARIWAR (2020)  Directed by- Sagar Ballary  Cast- Gajraj Rao, Vijay Raaz, Yashpal Sharma, Sadia Siddiqui, Ranvir Shorey, Abhishek Banerji, Nidhi Singh, Anurita Jha, Piyush Kumar, Kapil Tilhari, Kumar Varun, Neena Gupta (Sp.App.) Set in Allahabad/ Prayag Raj, an old man is hell bent on reuniting his wayward quarrelsome children and getting them under one roof. He tries every trick in the trade to stabilise his dysfunctional family leading to comical situations.  Ballary had a good authentically unique concept on hand, but it is ruined by too many predictable turns and quite a few over dramatic filmi sequences particularly in the last two episodes. Nevertheless it’s a decent attempt. Barring a few foul dialogues(mandatory on OTT isn’t it) it’s a decently clean family entertainer, no sex or violence not even a hint. Shot on location at Prayag Raj it has a beautiful cultural experience attached to it.  Rao delivers an impressive performance, so do Sharma and Shorey, it is Banerji who is f
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RAAT AKELI HAI (2020) review

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Raat Akeli Hai (2020)  Directed by: Honey Trehan Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Radhika Apte, Aditya Shrivastava, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Padmavati Rao, Nishant Dahiya, Shweta Tripathy, Ila Arun, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Swanand Kirkire & others.  The patriarch of a wealthy family is brutally murdered on the night of his second wedding. The usual suspects- the family members who appear indifferent and callous, an investigating officer has to crack this intriguing murder mystery while getting attracted and enamoured by the victim’s young wife/widow.  Good premise? Absolutely yes, and two powerful lead players, alas! The film maker (Trehan) is unable to utilise their talent, even the edgy concept is faltered by unnecessary dramatics. This could’ve been a tantalising suspense thriller and we in India have a paucity of good ones in this genre. The 2.29 hours long drama unfolds mostly in the dark and mostly drifts away from the main plot leaving you puzzled.  Siddiqui and Apte are always in great fo
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DECODING LADY JAYA

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DECODING LADY JAYA : the self proclaimed First Lady of Bollywood  So Jaya Bhaduri is back in the news, Bhaduri who? Okay for the ill informed millennials it’s Jaya Bachchan, hope that rings a bell. So true, Jaya ji is known more for her prestigious surname and being a mega superstars trophy wife today rather than her distinguished award winning performances in the early to mid 70’s.  Trending in news  Mrs. Bachchan created a storm in the Rajya sabha when she questioned the intent of Ravi Kishen (without naming him, wow diplomacy), by using filmy dialogues like “Jis Thali mein khaya’’ blah blah blah. So she’s back in the news, she was also in news some moths back for being the only member of the Bachchan family to have an enviable immunity to have been covid negative ! Inspiring for sure. Bollywood career  Jaya with a gold medal from the FTII, pune embarked on a Bollywood career as a leading lady with a smashing impressive debut in Guddi(1971), she continued playing strong women centri
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HOSTAGES 2 (2020) review

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HOSTAGES 2 [2020]  Director: Sudhir Mishra  Cast: Ronit Bose Roy, Kanwaljeet Singh, Divya Dutta, Dino Morea, Sachin Khurana, Amit Sial, Asheem Gulati, Mohan Kapur, Shriswara Dubey, Shibani Dandekar, Shilpa Shukla, Shweta Basu Prasad, Danish Sood, Surya Sharma, Dalip Tahil and others.  With a smooth transition from season 1 to 2, this time with a bigger canvas and multi-star cast this crime thriller is good in parts and disappoints in major portions.  Some people are held hostage in a dilapidated British era mansion by a group of kidnappers, there’s a kidnapper on a vengeful mission, alternately there is also an assassination plan being executed in a parallel storyline.  Mishra’s direction is good enough but several loose ends and multiple potholes including long really long unnecessary closeup shots and ‘silent’ stares give it a cheap Ram Gopal Varma ‘touch’. Far too many questions remain unanswered by the end of the final episode even if its not meant to be a cliffhanger.  Roy plays
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Ashram (2020) review

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AASHRAM (2020)  Directed by : Prakash Jha  Cast: Bobby Deol, Darshan Kumar, Anupriya Goenka, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Aditi Pohankar, Rajeev Siddhartha, Tushar Pandey, Tridha Chaudhary, Vikram Kochhar, Adhyayan Suman, Sachin Shroff & others.  It’s a known fact that Jha’s favourite topic is politics and add to that communal tension, caste system, sexual exploitation, etc and he can create an entertainment packed saga in a jiffy, maybe he has used all these elements in parts in his movies all these years, he gets to amalgamate all that into one single series here.  The opening scene packed with a punch quite literally shows a young girl who bludgeons her transgender hostel warden to death, two hefty men who try overpowering the girl meet the same fate as the warden. This scene sets the ball rolling, you realise it’s no sweet little story you are going to watch, it’s bound to be a blood soaked thriller.  A taur fast paced thriller, shot extensively in major parts of the culturally rich Ay
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A Suitable Boy (2020) Review

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A SUITABLE BOY (2020)  Directed by: Mira Nair and Shimit Amin  Cast: Tanya Maniktala, Ishaan Khatter, Ram Kapoor, Ranvir Shorey, Randeep Hooda, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Mahira Kakkar, Shahana Goswami, Rasika Dugal, Vivek Gomber, Shubham Saraf, Namit Das, Vinay Pathak, Vijay Varma, Sheeba Chadda, Vijay Raaz, Vivaan Shah, Danish, Geeta Aggarwal, Aamir Basheer and Tabu.  Nair, a brilliantly talented face of modern India on the international circuit adapts the popular Vikram Seth novella (one of the longest) into a six episodic series, she does well in parts and falters embarrassingly in others making it a mixed review viewing.  I fondly remember reading this beautifully woven novel in the summer of 2004, almost the entire summer considering it was a never ending reading experience( readers who’ve read this would agree), set in 1951-52 India it encapsulates the modern age Indian youth embracing new found independence, learning and discovering their political inclinations and battling the evi
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