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Showing posts from April, 2021

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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HIS STORY(2021): review

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Directed by: Prashant Bhagia  Streaming on : zee5  Cast: Priyamani, Satyadeep Misra, Mrinal Dutt, Nikhil Bhatia, Mikhail Gandhi, Rajeev Kumar, Parinita Seth, Anmol Kajani, Charu Shanker, Rheanne Tejani.  Surprisingly, the otherwise intolerable Alt Balaji (Ekta Kapoor) has been coming out with some decent stuff these days, breaking out of the Saas Bahus and Gandi Baats she’s exploring some good subjects being handled sensitively. Hmm.  So the story is actually about two men in love with each other in a homophobic world, but the lead actress has played her part so well that she manages to convince you that it’s actually ‘her story’ and not ‘his story’, seriously that’s how good actress Priyamani is in this role. A working woman, chef by profession who’s been in a happy marriage(or so she thinks) of twenty years with a wealthy entrepreneur suddenly one fateful evening finds her husband smooching a young guy in the car! Soon she comes to know the guy is her husband’s boyfriend. Now what? 
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THE TATTOO MURDERS(2021): review

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Directed by: Shrawan Kumar Tiwary  Streaming on: Disney Hotstar  Cast: Meera Chopra, Tanuj Virwani, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Anang Desai, Anupam Shyam, Varun Joshi, Chirag Trivedi, Falguni Rajni, Priyanka Khatri, Virender Panday, Mehool Desai, Aman Singh Vohra, Vimmi Bhatt and others.  A series of murders startle the city that never sleeps, the victims are prostitutes from the infamous and hugely popular kamathipura area. A young officer (Chopra) who is battling psychological issues is assigned the duty to nab the cold blooded serial killer. The only clue available is a scorpion tattoo affixed on each victim. Helped by a supportive subordinate and a local flesh trader, the officer pursues this difficult mission that has its roots in Kolkata finally leading to a bloody climax in Mumbai.  Decent storyline, no overcrowding of events, well placed flashbacks (though recurrent) are few factors that make this suspense series watchable and tolerable as well. The low points are some of the cast m
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AJEEB DAASTAANS(2021): review

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Directors: Neeraj Ghaywan, Kayoze Irani, Shashank Khaitan & Raj Mehta  Streaming on : Netflix  An anthology series with four shorts from the house of Dharmatic productions helmed by Karan Johar and company. It’s like continuing with the tradition of Lust stories, Ghost stories etc, these are like twist stories exploring unconventional human relationships with an unexpected bittersweet twist at the end.  MAJNU In an affluent family live an incompatible couple who haven’t consummated their royal marriage for over three years, the wife longs for attention & love. One fine day a young boy enters their lives & is employed as a finance manager for their business. Things get awry when both the husband & wife get hopelessly & sexually drawn towards him.  Can be termed a black comedy, it’s got these subtle comical undertones & thanks to a brilliant actor like Jaideep Ahlawat it’s thoroughly enjoyable. Armaan Rahlan exudes machismo and that’s perfect casting while the ot
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THE SERPENT (2021) : Review

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Directed by: Hans Herbots & Tom Shankland  Streaming on : Netflix  Cast: Tahar Rahim, Billy Howle, Jenna Coleman, Ellie Bamber, Mathilde Warnier, Tim McInnerny, Amesh Ederaweera, Fabian Frankel, Darshan Zariwala, Aly Khan, Stacy Martin, Pravesh Rana, Baby Meghan Jeremiah & others.  The sensational murderous journey of the notorious serial killer Charles Sobhraj is brilliantly executed in this delightfully directed web series. There have been several documented series and documentaries specially on bbc in the past chronicling Sobhraj’s intriguing crime story and even a forgettable Bollywood movie made five or six years ago but this series takes the cake and how!  In the mid 70s in Bangkok a young backpacker Dutch couple goes mysteriously missing and their charred dead bodies are found days later. A Dutch diplomat gets ethically engrossed in solving the mystery and soon gets entangled in a larger than life(or deadly) crime syndicate controlled by a notorious criminal Charles Sob
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The Rise & Fall of Mamta Kulkarni

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The controversy  Circa 1993, the popular gossip magazine stardust splashed a young starlet posing topless on its cover. Whispers turned into loud catcalls, everyone within and outside the Bollywood industry was talking about the bold and upcoming Mamta Kulkarni who dared to cover her bare assets with her delicate arms. She became an overnight star and flooded with film offers from A list producers.  Kulkarni belonged to a middle class maharashtrian Brahmin family and had indulged in small time modelling assignments in early 90s. She even acted in a B grade movie called Mera Dil Tere Liye(1992) which bombed badly and went unnoticed. So the sensational cover on stardust did wonders for Mamta that her debut movie couldn’t.  The rise and stardom  She had a string of box office hits like Tiranga(1993), Aashiq Awara(1993), Waqt Hamara Hai(1993), Bhookamp(1993), Betaaj Badshah(1994), Sabse Bada Khiladi(1995) and the blockbuster Karan Arjun(1995) which was the second highest grossing movie th
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THE BIG BULL(2021) : review

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Directed by: Kookie Gulati  Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Ileana Dcruz, Samir Soni, Sohum Shah, Shishir Sharma, Saurabh Shukla, Ram Kapoor, Supriya Pathak, Nikita Dutta, Mahesh Manjrekar and others.  Streaming on : Disney hotstar  Well, the timing is all wrong. Last year in the midst of the horrendous pandemic lockdown we were treated to a perfectly conceptualised web series called Scam 1992( 2020) that streamed on sonyliv, that was almost flawless if you ignore some minuscule minor errors, and now we have a full fledged movie based on the same storyline, or facts. Frankly, even if we try to erase scam 1992 out of our brain we will still find The Big Bull (2021) terribly miscalculated and badly executed.  While the web series very boldly named names including that of a former prime minister of our nation, the film plays its considerably safe but not sound. No names are exposed, everything is given a fictional dressing, worse the lead character played by Junior Bachchan which is very obviou
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10 Slice of Life 70’s Bollywood Classics

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70s era ushered in a new wave of middle of the road cinema which focussed on slice of life events and occurrence that would be highly relatable to the audiences, not only during the 70s but viewers watching them during the television telecasts would also lap up such offbeat movies. Revisiting and listing top ten favourites from the Slice of Life Genre of 70s Bollywood, brief and quick synopsis.  Buddha Mil Gaya (1971) directed by the principal of offbeat cinema Hrishikesh Mukherji lovingly called Hrishida was a comical suspense musical. R.D. Burman’s music was soulful, can you forget Raat Kali Ek Khwab Mei Aayi(Kishore)? With the ever jovial Om Prakash portraying the intriguing Buddha who’s connected to a series of cold blooded murders and the fresh cast of Navin Nishchol, Deven Verma & Archana, this may not be a blockbuster but it’s certainly a fun watch.  Considered a cult classic that paved way for realistic middle of the road films Rajnigandha (1974) is like a fresh fragrant
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FILMFARE HOW FAIR? Part 2

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Filmfare does it again ! Yet again they prove how unfair and biased they are. At times they claim they are awarding only those who are popular among the viewers as it’s supposed to be a popular film award and then they also claim they award the worthy irrespective of the fate of the film at the box office. Phew! Such hypocrisy. After their last awards in 2019 which was a clean sweep for the very undeserving Gully Boy where even Alia Bhatt got awarded for a guest appearance, they are back with their pan masala chhap tradition to award the unworthy again.  Considering the horrible pandemic and the unexpected lockdown due to which movies were theatrically released only till March 2020 and thereafter only on ott the Filmfare committee could’ve well clubbed 2020 with 2021, but then paisa bolta hai and Vimal pan masala paisa daalta hai so the grand glittering awards ceremony has to take place.  There are the deserving winners, like the late Irrfan winning best actor that’s so deserving. A t
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