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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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DIAL D FOR DETECTIVE: rewind to Doordarshan part 2

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Revisiting the good old days of Doordarshan yet again, when it wasn’t exactly a boring cousin of the satellite channels like ZeeTv or mtv. One genre that has intrigued viewers over the years is suspense murder mysteries. With a common base of a chilling murder committed and then a detective is summoned to investigate. Sometimes it’s the detective who coincidentally ends up being at the place of the crime, convenient isn’t it? But that’s what crime genre lovers have loved all these years. From Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot to our very own Byomkesh Bakshi and the hot selling detective novels featuring Kaala Pahad and Dhananjay, we’ve had an amazing range of entertaining investigators, here’s a quick revisit to five detective serials from the golden days of Doordarshan.   KARAMCHAND (1985)  Termed and credited as India’s first detective series on television, though I’m unsure if it’s true, but certainly an engaging and thrilling series. With generous humour added to give it...
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QUBOOL HAI 2.0 : Review

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Directed by: Glen Barreto and Ankush Mohla Streaming on : zee5  Cast: Surbhi Jyoti, Karan Singh Grover, Mandira Bedi, Arif Zakaria, Lilette Dubey, Waqar Sheikh, Shalini Kapoor, Saurabh Raj Jain, Ashwin Mushran, Priyal Gor and others.  There was I believe a TV show by this title that aired on zeetv and was hugely popular. This is a web-series version with a fresh outlook and apparently a new storyline with a larger budget and bigger canvas.   The story though uninteresting gets a fresh and novel treatment thanks to the directors Glen and Ankush (I remember their forte was the crime and supernatural genre in the 90s), this is more like a Muslim social getting a makeover of crime, national integration and mystery.  A handsome sharp shooter from India, Assad (Grover) meets a Pakistani runaway bride Zoya (Jyoti) in Siberia and they fall hopelessly in love with each other. Now they are on the run together being chased by Zoya’s rejected groom and his allies. How they land...
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A SIMPLE MURDER (2021) Review

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A SIMPLE MURDER (2020) directed by Sachin Pathak  Cast- Mohammed Z Ayub, Amit Sial, Sushant Singh, Priya Anand, Ayaaz Khan, Gopal Dutt, Vikram Kochhar, Yashpal Sharma and others.  Warning: In case you cannot comprehend black comedies you need to skip this, this is an out and out black or as they call it nowadays dark comedy. So the proceedings may be undigestible for certain viewers. Streaming on Sonyliv  The story is infused with comical coincidences including mice that create humorous errors leading to complicated yet entertaining repercussions. A young guy high on debt is erroneously assigned the deadly job of assassinating a politician’s daughter who has eloped with a Muslim boyfriend. He ends up killing the wrong girl, the victim’s partner is a retired contract killer who’s now on a mission to nab the killer, and wait there are some more interesting characters. The young man’s wife is cheating on him with her virile boss who in turn was having a scandalous affair wi...
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SCAM 1992 (2020) : Review

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Scam 1992(2020) directed by Hansal Mehta  Cast: Pratik Gandhi, Rajat Kapoor, Satish Kaushik, Ananth Mahadevan, Shreya Dhanwantari, Shadaab Khan, Nikhil Dwivedi, Mamik Harmeet, K K Raina, Lalit Parimoo, and others.  Ten episodes long , averaging 52 minutes each episode, what would be your reaction at the end? Exhausted? Not in this case. It’s a fulfilling experience to relish these longish episodes and feel hungry for more after it ends. By far the most perfect web series made in India.  Adapted from the book “The Scam” authored by renowned journalist Sucheta Dalal, it’s a biographical account of one of the most intriguing and influential personalities in the history of Indian financial scams, Harshad Mehta! Chronicling his rise from a chawl to high rise Bombay lifestyle, it showcases the intricate details of how he as a common man with an uncommon grit and intellectual manipulated the stock market in the 80s and early 90s leading to the expose of the infamous scam 1992....
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ARANYER DIN RATRI(1970): Classic revisited

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Directed by: Satyajit Ray  Cast: Sharmila Tagore, Kaberi Bose, Simi Garewal, Soumitra Chatterjee, Rabi Ghosh,  Subhendu Chatterjee,  Shamit Bhanja, Pahadi Sanyal, Premashish Sen, Dibyendu Chatterjee, Samar Nag and Aparna Sen. If I’m asked to name just one movie directed by THE Ray as my personal favorite then the title keeps changing depending on my mood, it varies from Nayak(1965) to Ganashatru(1989), sometimes it’s Mahanagar(1963) and most of the times I name Charulata(1964), but such is Ray’s cinematic appeal that it’s difficult to select just one! Right now depending on my mood it’s his classic tale Aranyer Din Ratri(1970), a timeless classic that somehow never fades or gets old.  Four young men in the ir late 20s and 30s from Calcutta set out on a weekend Escapade out in the wilderness, they bribe the housekeeper at a Dak Bangla to get rooms and embark on exploring the woods and a virgin village. Here each of these men is different from the other, though bonde...
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UNPAUSED(2020) review

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Directed by: Raj/DK, Nikhil Advani, Tanishta Chatterjee, Avinash Arun and Nitya Mehra.  Cast: Gulshan Devaiah, Saiyami Kher, Richa Chadda, Sumit Vyas, Ishwak Singh, Lilette Dubey, Rinku Rajguru, Abhishek Banerji, Geetika Ohlyan, Master Pallas, Ratna Pathak Shah, Shardul Bharadwaj.  The dreaded corona virus and the unexpected lockdown! Nobody escaped it this year, nobody really saw it coming, and the human race is still discovering the nectar vaccine. ‘Unpaused’ is an anthology series comprising five shorts based on the pandemic lockdown theme, the characters therein are battling the dilemma and insecurities erupted during the lockdown.  Glitch - set in a futuristic set up in 2032 when scientists are still struggling to find the vaccine, though technologically the world has advanced and we see an “hypo” and a covid warrior warming up to each other on a virtual date! Things take an U-turn once tragedy strikes and their relationship needs an reinvention. Worth watching for D...
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One Hit Wonders #1

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Ever wondered how some debutants reached their zenith of success and popularity overnight are suddenly crashed down ? It’s still a mystery, sometimes it’s just luck as they may have been a fluke or a case of bad career decisions, an attitude does matter, when your head gets swollen with unmanageable success the next step us professional harakiri.  In the first segment of fallen stars who are referred to as one hit wonders we look at five leading men who tasted overnight success only to be dissolved into oblivion thereafter.  Kumar Gaurav: son of the legendary jubilee Kumar (Rajendra Kumar) Manoj Tuli rechristened Kumar Gaurav reached the top league with his debut Love Story(1981) and was adjudged the next best thing owing to his chocolate boy looks and growing popularity amongst the 80s youth. But subsequent releases like Lovers(1982), Teri Kasam(1982), Romance(1982), Star(1982), All Rounder(1984), and others bombed badly pushing him into the unreliable non star bracket withi...
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