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Showing posts with the label suspense

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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30 YEARS OF KHILADI (1992)

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Revisiting The suspense musical thriller Khiladi (1992) as it completes thirty years of its theatrical release date today.  KHILADI (1992) ~~~~rewatched  Directed by: Abbas-Mustan  Cast: Akshay Kumar, Ayesha Jhulka, Shakti Kapoor, Deepak Tijori, Johnny Lever, Dinyar Contractor, Anant Mahadevan, Harpal Singh, Sanjeev Chitre, Sabeeha, Beena Banerjee, Kunika, Guddi Maruti, Tinnu Anand, Sharat Saxena, Amrutlal Patel & Prem Chopra.   This enjoyable suspense thriller was playing on tv yesterday and it just doesn’t get old, it’s so 90s. So what worked in its favour? It had a stale storyline, an unknown lead hero, the director duo and music composer duo were non entities, so what worked? The “freshness” is what u believe.  Four young college going fun loving friends play a prank that goes awfully and fatally wrong! A murder that needs to be investigated and the real killer should be nabbed before the innocent youngsters get caught in a web of mystery. A similar stor...
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CHAKRAVYUH : Review

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Directed by: Sajit Warrier  Streaming on : mx player  Cast: Prateik Babbar, Ashish Vidyarthi, Simran Kaur Mundi, Gopal Dutt, Shiv Pandit, Urvashi Sardhara, Anjali Shivaraman, Ayesha Kanga, Twinkle Tshering, Ruhi Singh, Rajesh Khera, Rohan Joshi and others.  If successful this series could turn into a franchise chronicling the adventures of inspector Virkar( Babbar). This particular season deals with cyber crime and sex racket. And how Virkar with his intelligence and wits unravels the mystery. That’s what we are made to believe.  There are a series of serial killings in Mumbai that give sleepless nights to the crime bureau. The beefed up inspector Virkar is assigned the responsibility to track down the serial killer. The victims are all young teenagers, it starts with the brutal murder of a young boy where he’s castrated and stabbed to death. Then another boy is murdered brutally and his eyeballs are sucked out of their sockets. The third victim is a young girl murd...
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UNDEKHI: Review

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Directed by: Ashish Shukla  Cast: Harsh Chhaya, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Abhishek Chauhan, Surya Sharma, Anchal Singh, Ayn Zoya, Sayandeep Sengupta, Ankur Rathee, Apeksha Porwal, Uttam Halder, Shivangi Singh, Bikramjeet Kanwarpal, and others.  Streaming on SonyLiv (Rated 18+) If “gripping” had a face that would be these series, a dark, dirty face of crime, deceit and politics. How an influential political clout and impotent puppets in the law can help criminals get away with murder, quite literally.  Set in picturesque Manali (breathtakingly gorgeous cinematography by Murzi Pagdiwala), the backdrop is of a big fat Indian wedding in an high end resort enveloped by the chilling snow and sensuous mountains on all sides. Things get out of Hand when the groom’s father in an inebriated state shoots a performing dancer in the head, the murder is recorded by the wedding videographer. Soon the murderer’s loyal henchmen are on a wild dog hunt to bump off the videographer and the vic...
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The Girl on the Train(2021): No spoiler review

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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...
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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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DRISHYAM 2 (2021) Review

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DRISHYAM 2 (2021) directed by: Jeetu Joseph Cast: Mohanlal, Meena, Siddiqui, Asha Sarath, Ansiba, Esther, Murali Gopi, Dinesh Prabhakar, Anjali Nair, Joy Mathew, Ajith Kothhatukulum, Anish Menon, Antony Premabavur, Ganesh Kumar & others.  The prequel was remade in multiple languages and a major hit almost in all, the Hindi version even resulted in hilarious memes at that time, this sequel is by far one of the best executed thriller scoring high in impeccably perfect continuity.  Malayalam cinema has certainly spread its creative wings and risen much above its other counterparts in the country by delving Deep into complex subjects specially in the mystery genre. While Drishyam had an super impressive crime premise, the sequel deals with the aftermath, the story progresses six years further dealing with the undercover investigation hunting the missing boy’s body/skeleton and the investigating officer’s relentless trials to put Georgekutty (Mohanlal) behind the bars.  ...
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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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Flashback# Retro Bollywood Suspense Dramas

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Some retro Bollywood classics deserve a revisit/ rewatch specially on a lonesome afternoon, revisiting five suspense drama films from the bygone era with that classic Bollywood touché  Bees saal baad(1962 ) by Biren Nag  Biswajeet Chatterji, Waheeda Rehman, Madan Puri and Manmohan Krishna.  When you watch it you’ll realise it’s inspired from the west, no points for guessing the original but the Hindi remake has its plus points. A series of murders take place during chilling nights in a village, the beautiful Biswajeet Chatterji visits the crime scene only to be pursued murderously by the killer. The Lata  Mangeshkar haunting melody ‘Kahin Deep Jale’ only added more intrigue to the mystery factor. This thriller turned out to be the highest grossing blockbuster of that year.  Woh kaun thi(1964) by Raj Khosla  Manoj Kumar, Sadhana, Praveen Choudhary and Prem Chopra.  A young man driving through a rainy stormy night attends to a lady in white who asks for...
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BETAAL (2020) review

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BETAAL (2020)  Directed by: Patrick Graham and Nikhil Mahajan  Cast: Vineet Kumar, Ahana Kumra, Jitendra Joshi, Jatin Goswami, Suchitra Pillai, Siddharth Menon, Manjiri, Ankur Vikal, Pawan Singh, Akhilesh Unnithan, Ratan Nag, Baby Syna, Savita Bajaj, Meenal Kapoor and Richard Dillane.  Picture this- one fine day, or preferably at night you discover that your immediate boss has turned into a bloodthirsty zombie, how would you react? The lead actor faces this uncomfortably dangerous situation in this horror webseries.  A special squad is assigned inorder to evacuate a village, unknowingly they end up reactivating a battalion of British zombies who ruled that location centuries ago. Thereafter begins a blood soaked violent battle between the living and the dead, with survival of the fittest.  The director is known for his earlier horror attempt Ghoul(2018) which didn’t quite cut the ice with viewers, with Betaal he tries mixing age old Indian myth with a contempora...
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