Movie Reviews and More ...

Well, I penned the below review way back in 2014, can’t remember much about this surprise box office hit except the babydoll song and a creepy dialogue ‘Mee Chetkin Naahi Mee Mazhya Mulaana Naahi Maarla’ !! Not sure if I would review this horror- sex- comedy in similar fashion today, but it’s non orgasmic pleasure revisiting an old review, Happy Halloween 🎃  Ragini MMS 2:  Director: Bhooshan Patel  Cast: Sunny Leone, Sahil Prem, Divya Datta, Parvin Dabbas, Sandhya Mridul, Annapurna, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Sonia Mehra, Anita Hasanandani, Karan Mehra and others.  The horror genre of bollywood has never generated any curiosity among the viewers but here the lead actress may drag the crowd to the theatres !  B Grade film maker Rocks (Parvin Dabbas) plans to direct a "horrex"(yeah its horror +sex) at a haunted house where the original Ragini MMS scandal took place 3 years ago. The entire cast and crew shifts to the creepy villa and the lead actress(Sunny Leone playin...

With fresh rumours about glamorous star Urmila supposed to be joining the Shiv Sena party, one wonders what’s in store for the former Bollywood star. She created a sensation joining the Congress, losing the elections, quitting the party after making sensational claims and now an apparent move to join the ruling party in Maharashtra. A brief trivia about the child star turned leading lady turned politician.  She is born in 1970, as opposed to the Wikipedia claim of 1974. Born in a maharashtrian family her parents are marathi unlike the baseless rumours claiming her father to be a Sikh and mother, a Muslim.  She began her career as a child actor and appeared in movies like Zhakol(1980), Kalyug(1981), Masoom(1983), Khuda Hafiz(1983), Bhavana(1984), Sur Sangam(1985) and others. She played a boy in Kalyug(1981).  Her stint with video films was brief but eventful, with the rise in video films in mid to late 80’s she acted in Nari Hira films like Durghatna(1987) and Kaala Sindo...

Like me there are a host of others who are die hard fans of the golden boy of golden era, Goldie aka Vijay Anand. While we grew up watching him play the curious detective Sam Dsilva in the tv series Tehkikaat(1995), he was better known for directing some timeless classics in the retro era of Bollywood when at its classiest best. As a filmmaker he was ahead of his times, progressive, innovative and far sighted. The sensitivity with which he dealt his subjects was evident on screen. Also his keen ear for good music can still be heard from the classic songs from the below five albums. He also made his heroes look as beautiful as his heroines. Revisiting five of his best movies which are my favourites forever.  GUIDE(1965): based on R K Narayan’s classic novel by the same name, this is by far one of the most authentic and beautiful adaptations of a novel, Goldie’s charismatic hold over the complex characters is enviable. The mystical relationship between a neglected wife and a wanderin...

Cast: Ali Fazal, Pankaj Tripathi, Divyendu Sharma, Shweta Tripathi, Isha Talwar, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rasika Dugal, Amit Sial, Anil George, Anjum Sharma, Rajesh Tailang, Meghana Mallik, Sheeba Chadda, Harshita Gaur, Rajesh Jais, Vijay Verma, Liliput Farooqi, and others.  After my first impressions about the much awaited and even more over hyped season 2 of MIRZAPUR it certainly deserved a afterthought review. Ten super length episodes later it’s more of an impatiently exhaustive feeling !  After a horrifyingly delicious finale in season 1 the series moves at a snail’s pace throughout except the final episode in season 2 wherein it’s in the fifth gear, but that’s too late. The entire slow paced, pseudo intellectual kind treatment this season backfires, comparisons with season 1 are inevitable, but even if we do not compare the two seasons, this time it’s quite a dull affair to view. And binge watch is strongly not recommended unless you’ve a determined extreme patience level....

RETRO BOLLYWOOD HALLOWEEN : with Halloween fever round the corner, revisiting five retro horror movies from the Ramsay house that deserve a reviewing.  Guest House (1980): set in a chilling hill station with a spooky guest house at its premise, there’s a chopped hand on a killing spree that keeps the cops on a hot trail. The murder count keeps increasing and the lead hero joins the investigation. Chilling, mysterious and deadly! Ramsay’s in their great form, with veteran Premnath lending his ‘hand’ along with Vijendra Ghatge and the voluptuous Padmini Kapila adding some spark. Bappi Lahiri added some melodious non disco music to the horror proceedings.  Cast/ Vijendra Ghatge, Prem Kishen, Padmini Kapila, Premnath, Madhu Kapoor, Komilla Virk, Narendranath, Neelam Mehra & others.  Hotel (1981): what happens when a group of selfish builders build an hotel on a cemetery? The spirits rise and how ! The hotel gets haunted and the occupants run for their lives, with appari...

GANGSTER’s MOLLS : shortcut to fame?  Do we hear of the underworld nexus in Bollywood these days? Not much, unless the screaming out of his lungs Arnab Goswami occasionally blaming dreaded don Dawood Ibrahim for sushant singh rajputs death ! That’s like an occasional instance.  There was a time when Bollywood starlets got embroiled into the dirty world of gangsters, from 1972-2002 thirty years and seven beautiful Bollywood damsels were linked to horrifying underworld gangsters, here’s a brief recollection of the ‘seven wonders’  Sona : almost everyone knew about the infamous Haji Mastan’s infatuation for the late actor Madhubala, now there were far too many admirers then and even today. So it wasn’t a surprise when he fell head over heels in love with a budding starlet Sona who’d an uncanny resemblance to the late Venus of Indian cinema. Sona’s only notable film was Kachche Dhaage(1973) and the affair and subsequent nikaah with Mastaan put a permanent end to her acting c...

MIRZAPUR 2 (2020)  Directed by: Gurmeet Singh and Mihir Desai  Cast: Ali Fazal, Pankaj Tripathi, Divyendu, Shweta Tripathi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rasika Dugal, Rajesh Tailang, Vijay Verma, Amit Sial, Shahnawaz Pradhan, Sheeba Chadda, Meghana Mallik, Anjum Sharma and others.  When the season one aired two year ago it was novel, shocking by conservative Indian standards, viewers were still getting accustomed to the uncensored, dark side of the ott platform, web-series in particular. Mirzapur2 suffers from the same disability as Sacred games2, over exposure of content. We’ve already seen it all, so what more can they provide?  Unfortunately season 2 relies unapologetically on the strong premise of previous season, there’s nothing new to offer, the original content or any shockers we expect are missing, though it’s only on basis of first impressions and first two episodes alone, the spark is missing. With Guddu, Golu and Sharad burning with the desire of revenge, and th...

DRUGS, LIES AND BOLLYWOOD After the suspicious death of a celebrated young star, a Pandora’s box got opened reluctantly though. Drugs turned out to be the most abused word found circulating on media channels. While some blame Bollywood there were others who preferred shielding the image by claiming Thali mein chhed karte ho blah blah blah.  Though eminent film stars turned politicians Jaya Bhaduri and Ravi Kissen were at loggerheads over the issue with the former claiming there is no drug nexus in Bollywood and the latter defending that there was no drug issue earlier and it’s only started now. I disagree with both. Bollywood has been dirtied by the drug invasion long ago, most specifically would be 70’s. There’s no record prior to that. If you read the late Protima Bedi’s tell all autobiography she’s boldly mentioned how she along with her then husband Kabir Bedi and a bunch of friends including Bollywood stars would go to their shack on the Juhu beach and smoke weed.  In 19...

25 years of DDLJ - what worked in its favour ?  When you think of DDLJ what appeals most is it’s freshness, romance filled with dew drops, typically mills and boon girl meets boy cliche, melodious music and rich production values( where else would you as a viewer get a free Europe tour other than YashRaj banner?) Twenty five years and the film lives on. Fresh as ever, it became the biggest blockbuster of 1995 and is still amongst the top ten all time blockbusters of Bollywood. And it catered to the privileged nri section as well. Producer Yash Chopra and his debutant son Aditya Chopra relied primarily on freshness, the locations ( London, Punjab) looked fresh and romantic as ever. The idea of filming half the movie abroad and post interval in India also gave it that wonderful fusion feeling that was so appealing for the mid 90’s.  Casting Shahrukh helped. He had consolidated his number one position by then and was the proverbial heartthrob among college goers, even the older ...

Jai Santoshi Maa(1975) revisited  Little known facts related to the sleeper hit Jai Santoshi Maa(1975) being revisited during the auspicious occasion of Navratri.  Made on a shoestring budget with almost unknown actors the movie made a net adjusted profit of ₹5 crore at that time 1975-76. Calculate the equivalent as on today.  This small budget mythological family drama was released on 15- August 1975 the same day as Sholay.  That year the movie ranked second as the highest grossing blockbuster after Sholay.  It leaped ahead in terms of profit and overall business accumulated as compared to big budget movies like Dharmatma, Deewar, Sanyasi, Do Jhoot and Pratigya that year.  Produced by moneybags Sathram Rohara, he laughed all the way to the cash counters making bumper profit.  The music was a chartbuster that year and is still played at NavRatri Utsav and DUSSEHRA. Composed by C Arjun the songs were sung by Lata Mangeshkar’s under-utilised little sist...

MIDNIGHT’s CHILDREN by Deepa Mehta Cast: Satya Bhabha, Siddhartha Suryanarayan, Shriya Saran, Ronit Roy, Shahana Goswami, Shabana Azmi, Seema Biswas, Anupam Kher, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Soha Ali Khan, Rahul Bose, Neha Mahajan, Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak, Rajat Kapoor and others.  Unsure if this movie had a theatrical release in my country( when internationally released in 2012-13) but it certainly makes Mira Nair’s A Suitable Boy(2020) look like a classic. Mehta has failed in every aspect of this cinematic adaptation of a great novel.  It is claimed that the writer Salman Rushdie was really proud of this adaptation, really? Why? It’s bizarre and disjointed, a complete cold blooded murder of cinematic liberty. Specially the second half that zooms like Rajdhani Express with no halts.  While the novel dealt with human emotions, the dilemma of a young adult in post independent India, his tribulations, self discovery etc. Here it goes to another level, more like a desperate a...

FILMFARE- HOW ‘FAIR’?  Early this year just before the lockdown crisis, there was hue and cry over the Filmfare awards held in Assam wherein majority of the trophies were swept by the movie Gully Boy(2019). Agreed it’s an individualistic decision and opinion about liking or disliking a movie but how does one react when a senseless rap like ‘Tu nanga hi to aaya hai nanga hi jaaega’ wins best lyrics and a cameo by Alia Bhatt gets the coveted best actress award. Not fair no? If you think Filmfare has played dirty only now then you are wrong or misinformed. We don’t need to check recent decades but it dates back to 1970 when awards were rigged. Filmfare awards started in 1953 and are considered the oldest and ahem most respected awards in our country. But they ain’t fair always, check Rishi Kapoor’s honest confession In his autobiography Khullam Khulla where he admits that the best actor award he won for Bobby(1973) was infact bought by paying thousands of rupees at that time. He hims...

HIGH (2020)  Directed by: Nikhil Rao  Cast: Akshay Oberoi, Ranvir Shorey, Mrinmayee Godbole, Prakash Belwadi, Kunal Naik, Shweta Basu Prasad, Padmavati Rao, Mantramugdh, Nakul Bhalla, Veerendra Saxena, and others  Brilliant ! If this thrilling web series has to be described in one word it’s brilliant. Totally high on ‘substance’ quite literally though, it tends to intoxicate you with its freshness and innovative conceptualisation.  A group of doctors discover a drug which they aptly name ‘magic’, a former junkie assists them in marketing it amongst the targeted audience, now there’s more to this drug than just being a ‘drug’, so there are Two Drug Mafias hunting for it, a grey haired CEO of a pharma company sends her henchman to hunt, and an ambitious journalist also gets intrigued by its ‘magic’.  It’s more about the unique and evenly paced treatment by the director that makes ‘High’ stand out from rest of the web series these days. There’s thrill, there are s...

Yes we didn’t deserve that shooting star called Parveen Babi. The humiliation, turmoil, discrimination she was subjected to when alive and the glorified assassination she's melted out after death she never deserved it. Only if someone could have had some empathy for that soul things may have been different.  Babi a well educated westernised young girl started modelling in 1970 and soon caught the eye of Bollywood film makers, after a dismal debut she reached superstardom when paired with the then reigning superstar Amitabh in several box office hits including Majboor(1975), Deewar(1975), Amar Akbar Anthony(1977), Kaala Pathhar(1979), Suhaag(1979), Kaalia(1981), Khuddar(1982) and many others. In 1976 she appeared on the cover of the prestigious TIME magazine, a first for any Indian celebrity. Inspite of acting in author backed roles in movies like Rang Birangi(1983) all she was talked about, or worse gossiped about was her sex drive, non religious eating habits, boyfriends, and her...

There must surely be a really long list of artists in Bollywood who are termed underrated and under-utilised. One such actor is yesteryear’s sex symbol and more commonly known as Kamal Hasan’s ex Sarika ! It’s so unfortunate she’s labelled either of those two undeserving tags. Not that being referred to as a sex symbol is bad, but then she was much more than that.  Sarika was born in 1960 in a maharashtrian ‘Thakur’ family. Apparently the ‘father’ was conspicuous by his absence hence she was pushed into earning bread and butter at the age of six. When girls her age played with dolls, Sarika did the studio rounds as ‘Moppet Suraj’ mostly playing a little boy. From 1967-1975 through her transition from a child to a teenager she acted in notable films like Humraaz (1967), Aashirwad(1969), Khushboo(1975) and became a leading lady at 16 with Geet Gata Chal(1976) a surprise hit. Unfortunately her succeeding lead roles didn’t set the box office on fire, she was cast in a dozen disasters ...

GONE WITH THE WIND ? Shailendra Singh  ‘Main shayar to nahi magar aye haseen’ remember this soulful melody from Raj Kapoor’s teenage romantic blockbuster Bobby(1973)? Now we do remember Rishi Kapoor’s chocolatey image in this song but what’s about the distinctly unique vocals of the young singer Shailendra? Forgotten ?  Shailendra turned 68 on 4th October this year, an almost forgotten into oblivion playback singer from the yesteryear’s, one has to really try hard to recollect about him. Shailendra a strapping young aspirant in the early 70’s with dreams of becoming a Bollywood actor had a complete turn of fate when chosen to playback for debutant Rishi Kapoor in Bobby(1973). Getting the golden opportunity to sing for a RK banner was a never seen dream come true for someone who was aspiring to act in front of the camera rather than play ‘back’. In Bobby(1973) he sang hits like Main Shayar To Nahi, Na Maange Sona Chandi, Chaabi Kho Jaae, and others.  Thereafter Shailendra...

MASABA MASABA (2020)  Directed by : Sonam Nair  Cast: MASABA Gupta, Neil Bhoopalam, Satyadeep Mishra, Neena Gupta, Pooja Bedi, Suchitra Pillai, Tanuj Virwani, Malavika Mohanan, Kiara Advani(Sp.App), Mithila Palkar(Sp.App) and others.  ‘Slice of life’ Yes, ‘Chick flick’ No not exactly. This six episodic Web-series is a fictional account of the day to day lifestyle of fashion designer and celebrity stylist MASABA Gupta. In a span of just about a decade she’s got a brand label in her name and has designed for celebrities like Kareena Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor.  The series follows the situational comical outcomes of MASABA’s daily life hacks, her social media addiction, dealing with a separation, a fashion show fiasco, tussle with her mother and many more. Thankfully it’s not an over the top account, there are occasional potholes but considering the duration it’s quite a smooth journey.  MASABA has a natural flair for acting, not sure if this is her debut, but she’s q...