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Showing posts with the label crime

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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THE FAMILY MAN S2(2021) review

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Streaming on : Amazon prime video (9 episodes)  Directed by: Raj-DK and Suparn Varma  Cast: Manoj Bajpaye, Priyamani, Sharib Hashmi, Shahab Ali, Samantha Akkineni, Ashlesha Thakur, Vedant Sinha, Sharad Kelkar, Dalip Tahil, Darshan Kumar, Aritro R Banerjee, Anand Sami, Ravindra Vijay, Rajesh Balachandiran, Devadarshini, Udayabhanu Maheshwaran, Sunny Hinduja and Seema Biswas.  And just when you feel the level of Indian web series is stooping low, arrives the second season of Family Man, it was good in 2019, it’s much much better this time. Wonder how the director trio made a series so full of excitement and intrigue without a single “dull” moment. There are so many things happening, everything at fast speed, so many characters involved, yet there’s not an iota of confusion or mismanagement here, kudos to the team for a clear winner.  While the first season dealt with Pakistani cum Kerala based terrorist activities , this time the focus shifts to Sri Lankan terrorists ...
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ASUR(2020) : No spoiler review

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ASUR (2020) directed by Oni Sen  Cast: Arshad Warsi, Barun Sobti, Riddhi Dogra, Anupriya Goenka, Sharib Hashmi, Pawan Chopra, Amey Wagh, Gaurav Arora, Vishesh Bansal, Deepak Qazir, Nishank Verma, Sunil Raghuvanshi, Kailash Pal, Ekta Tiwari, and others.  Bingo! If one sits through the seven episodes of this web-series you’ll get the feeling it’s a masterpiece in Indian history of crime thrillers, perfect blending of science and mythology! Beautifully delved deep into the mystical world of ancient myth and connected with forensic science. And then you watch the finale and feel like shaking up the makers and ask why the hell did you end it like this? Yup, the climax is a major let down.   Set in present day Delhi it’s a gripping edge of the seat tale of a psychopath serial killer on a murderous streak who seems to be killing victims at random leaving behind the ‘Asur’ mask to take undue credit for the crime committed. Two forensic officers from the CBI team try solving the ...
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CRIMINAL JUSTICE 2(2020): review

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Directed by- Rohan Sippy  Cast- Pankaj Tripathy, Kirti Kulhari, Ashish Vidyarthi, Deepti Naval, Mita Vasishtha, Anupriya Goenka, Pankaj Saraswat, Shilpa Shukla, Vibhawari Deshpande, Kalyani Mulay, & others  Currently streaming on Disney hotstar, the second season of criminal justice just about manages to pass muster, comparatively season one was a little more thrilling.  The premise is that of an alleged cold blooded murder. A high profile lawyer is found brutally stabbed in his bedroom, the prime suspect being his psychologically depressed wife. A courtroom drama ensues revealing dirty, dark secrets of the window dressed posh lifestyles of the wealthy and famous. Is the accused acting depressed? What exactly happened that fateful night? Defense lawyers (Tripathy and Goenka) try their sincere best to expose the bitter truth.  Sippy is in fine form in his direction, if this was meant to be only a courtroom drama then he gets brownie points but considering it’s an...
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DELHI CRIME(2019):Review

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Directed by: Richie Mehta  Cast: Shefali Shah,Rajesh Tailang,Adil Hussain, Vinod Sharawat,Jaya Bhattacharya,Rasika Dugal, Yashaswini,Denzil Smith,Anurag Arora, Siddharth Bharadwaj,Gopal Dutt,Sanjay Bishnoi, Akash Dahiya,Mridul Sharma & others.  For those (like me) who hadn’t watched this web series until it won the prestigious Emmy award, it was more like a trigger to whet the appetite and arouse curiosity to find out what exactly made it win big ? Must agree, it was well deserved.  Based on the real life crime committed in Delhi where a young boy and girl were robbed and abused in a moving bus and the girl was gang raped and brutally tortured, a case that made headlines and evoked public outrage. This web-series is without a doubt the best cinematic representation of the horrifying crime.  Mehta’s brilliant direction ensures the series gets a realistic depiction and do not wither away into the documentary mode. For a crime that involved rape and torture the dire...
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