Posts

Showing posts with the label Netflix

JAWAAN (2023) : review

-
Image
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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

JAWAAN (2023) : review

-
Image
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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

AJEEB DAASTAANS(2021): review

-
Image
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 c...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE SERPENT (2021) : Review

-
Image
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 c...
Post a Comment
Read more

PAGGLAIT(2021) review

-
Image
Directed by: Umesh Bist  Streaming on : Netflix  Cast: Sanya Malhotra, Ashutosh Rana, Aasif Khan, Rajesh Tailang, Raghuvir Yadav, Nakul R Sahadev, Jameel Khan, Sheeba Chadda, Meghana Mallik, Ananya Khare, Chetan Sharma, Shruti Sharma, Sharib Hashmi (Sp.App), Sayani Gupta(Sp.App) Surprise of surprises!! A Netflix original collaboration with Balaji Telefilms with no sex, no obscenity, no foul language !!! Are we dreaming ?  A simple uncomplicated story about an unexpected death of a young newly married man in an upper middle class household. The death shatters the family members and several relatives flock the house to be a part of the thirteen day funeral rituals/ rites. What surprises everyone is the young widow has no grief to express and is herself unable to accept the fact that she’s not sorrowful about the untimely demise of her husband of five months ! Leading to several situational comical proceedings the movie also highlights feminism in its brightest form.  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

BOMBAY BEGUMS: review

-
Image
Directed by: Bornila Chatterji and Alankrita Shrivastava  Streaming on : Netflix India Cast: Pooja Bhatt, Shahana Goswami, Amruta Subhash, Plabita Borthakur, Aadhya Anand, Manish Chaudhary, Vivek Gomber, Rahul Bose, Danish Hussain, Imaad Shah, Sanghmitra Hitaishi, Neel Raj Dewan, Nauheed Cyrusi, Ekavalli Khanna, Prashant Singh, Rituraj Singh, Rio Kapadia, and others.  Never judge a book by its cover or so they say, though the teasers and posters of Bombay begums could well give it a leftover Four more Shots Please vibe, it’s not that bad. Leaving the now out of steam feminazi brigade this show certainly had some high points particularly the handling of a sensitive subject like sexual exploitation at work place (not new on the celluloid but better dealt with here).  The director duo had a good strong storyline but except the sexual harassment episode there’s nothing else extraordinaire about this web-series and that’s such a let down.   Set very obviously in the big b...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Girl on the Train(2021): No spoiler review

-
Image
The Girl on the train (2021) directed by Ribhu Dasgupta Cast: Parineeti Chopra, Kirti Kulhari, Avinash Tiwary, Aditi Rao Hydari and Tota Roy Chowdhary.  So how does one ruin a best selling novel in its Indian cinematic adaptation? Hmm let me think, the direction is first rate, the screenplay-editing- technically everything is fine then how? Simple, just cast an incompetent artist in the titular role, goal accomplished. Story ruined, perfect case of imperfect casting. Can you imagine Neetu Singh as Umrao Jaan or Jaya Bhaduri in Satyam Shivam Sundaram or maybe Sonam Kapoor in Tumhari Sulu? Add Miss Chopra to that list.  The story is full of intrigue, for any mystery genre lover this is without a doubt a scrumptious buffet spread to binge on. A young woman battling alcoholism and amnesia along with recent miscarriage, divorce and an in active job finds solace in an voyeuristic obsession that turns complicated after an unexpected murder!  Now she has to not only prove her ow...
Post a Comment
Read more

BEECHAM HOUSE - Web Series Review

-
Image
BEECHAM HOUSE(2019) Netflix  Directed by: Gurinder Chadha  Cast: Tom Bateman, Dakota Richards, Pallavi Sharda, Gregory Fittousi, Leo Suter, Lesley Nicol, Vivek Kalra, Roshan Seth, Bessie Carter, Tisca Chopra, Arunoday Singh, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Advait Kottary, Marc Warren, Denzil Smith, Amer Patel, Trupti Khamker and Lara Dutta.  An original television series which was broadcasted on London television in 2019 and American broadcasting in 2020 has been streaming as web-series on Netflix. Set in the 19th century at the peak of British Raj in India the story unfolds in a mansion in Delhi owned by a former east India company soldier John Beecham.  Beecham is the protagonist here, there’s a streak of patriotism that generates in him when he witnesses mass destruction of Indian tribes by his company. There are personal issues as well, he falls in love with and gets married to a Rajasthani princess who gives birth to his child who in turn is the heir to a kingdom at Kalyan....
Post a Comment
Read more

THE WHITE TIGER (2021): review

-
Image
Directed by: Ramin Bahrani  Cast: Adarsh Gaurav, Priyanka Chopra, Rajkumar Rao,  Nalneesh Neel, Mahesh Manjrekar, Swaroop Sampath, Kamlesh Gill, Vijay Maurya, Master Vedant, Ram Diwakar and others  Incredible India ! That’s what you want to show to the world and what do you end up showing ? The filth, the grossly disgusted dirty slums, scavengers and slum dwellers? That’s the Indian bioscope that can earn you brownie points when displayed at international level, exactly what you see in this Netflix original film.  Balram is a jolly villager from the remotest village (dirtiest) in some corner of India, he’s ambitious and a viciously smooth operator. He makes his way into the household of a wealthy corrupt man and procures the job of his America returned son’s driver. Everything goes smoothly until a tragic incident that changes the entire discourse of his life!  If you’ve read the novella you’ll realise that some positive elements have been scrapped out in the mo...
Post a Comment
Read more

TRIBHANGA(2021): review

-
Image
Directed by: Renuka Shahane  Cast: Kajol, Tanvi Azmi, Kanwaljeet Singh, Mithila Palkar, Vaibhav Tatwawadi, Kunal Roy Kapur, Manav Gohil, and others  After watching TRIBHANGA there are two things I liked most about it, one the crisp length of just 1 hour 35 mins and secondly the supremely talented yet criminally underrated Tanvi Azmi.  Shahane’s directorial venture focuses on a dysfunctional family with three generations of women, when the oldest slips into coma the story moves into an emotional roller coaster journey wherein the characters reminisce the past, the bittersweet memories and bond over unbreakable womanhood.  Good concept? Certainly yes. And to give Shahane due credit she shows a spark in the director’s seat and one can expect far better and polished work from her in the near future, as for TRIBHANGA it’s a good opportunity lost. Shahane seems to have been an incessant hurry to wind up the project, the relationships between the characters don’t get deepe...
Post a Comment
Read more