Posts

Manikarnika - An unmissable spectacle

Image
A lone woman leads a fight against archaic thoughts and customs, as well as a mighty force with the best weapons at their disposal. Rani Laxmibai’s contribution to India’s freedom struggle is a lot more than the valour she displayed on the battlefield in the 1857 revolt against the East India Company. She mobilised ordinary people in her kingdom and instilled in them values of self-respect and belief while motivating them to fight for Independence. Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi narrates this extraordinary tale of a feisty woman with actor Kangana Ranaut playing the lead. The film starts by showing the queen’s journey from a young girl with sword-fighting and horse-riding skills to an assertive woman who knows what she wants. It establishes the traits that separate her from the rest even as her tender side quickly gives way to maturity at a young age. The transformation is seamless. Ranaut looks gorgeous in every frame even though some songs appear unnecessary. Neverthele...

Uri: The Surgical Strike - An intense action drama

Image
Making a film about a crucial, covert operation involving the armed forces can be a tricky affair. It’s easy to get carried away and rile up emotions in the name of patriotism. Uri: The Surgical Strike avoids doing exactly that and that is what works for the film. It’s a slick action drama that sticks to the plot of the 2016 surgical strikes in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and has the viewers invested in the secrecy surrounding the attacks. Vicky Kaushal leads the strikes after his brother-in-law dies in a terrorist attack from perpetrators from across the border. There’s an emotional family drama prior to this that does hold up the pace of the story, but once the focus shifts to the action and planning, you can’t take your eyes off screen. One automatically roots for the soldiers who carry out a daring operation in the middle of the night and return with zero casualties. The wonderfully-shot action sequences, especially in the second half, add to the adrenaline rush...

Dhadak - An insult to Sairat

Image
Some movies are best left untouched. Sairat is one of them.   Dhadak is such a sorry remake of the terrific Marathi film that it does not even deserve a review. The lead actors are a misfit, the screenplay bereft of moments that leave any sort of impact and the music a poor copy of the original with laughable lyrics. The chemistry between the actors is non-existent and the core issue of caste and economic conflict, which plays out so beautifully in the original, is only a passing reference.  All that Dhadak does is give credence to a certain actor’s views on nepotism. It’s a showreel for the lead actress who has been presented with designer clothes and proper makeup, a far cry from the rough-but-opinionated Archie of Sairat . The lead actor shows promise, but cannot match up to the raw innocence of Parshya in Nagraj Manjule’s blockbuster.  As much as the makers deny that it is a remake (they've used the word adaptation) of Sairat , Dhadak tries to co...

Sanju - A one-dimensional PR stunt

Image
Newspaper articles can be written with an angle. Books can take sides. And movies can be made with a slant. Sanju clearly has one: That everyone else, but the actor is responsible for his misdeeds. What the film tells us is that his drug addiction was because of the wrong company that he kept, keeping an AK-47 rifle (given to him by terrorist Abu Salem) in his car was to protect his family which was being threatened (although his father continued to do community work in the open) and his jail term and subsequent vilification was because of a vicious media trial.  There’s nothing wrong in making a movie trying to clean up the image of one of Indian cinema’s controversial personalities. But it has to be done with adequate depth and conviction. Rajkumar Hirani – believed to be one of the finest filmmakers of our times – falls woefully short on these fronts. And by using clichéd lines like ‘ kuch toh log kahenge ’ to refer to the adverse public opinion about the actor, he dil...

Hichki - Let's do the cha cha cha for Rani

Image
Rani Mukerji prefers to be a part-time animator till the time she gets a job as a school teacher. That, however, is an uphill task given the fact that she suffers from Tourette syndrome – a neurological condition which results in her making some peculiar sounds like cha cha cha , often in the middle of completing a sentence. Her application has been rejected by several institutes and her father, too, is unsympathetic to her disorder. A reputed school in which she had studied offers her a post mid-term because no teacher is able to handle the class that she has been assigned to look after. The Right to Education Act compels the school to enrol students from the lower strata of society for whom the institute is more a place for recreation than to study. Rani latches on to the opportunity with the belief that she can be the torchbearer of change. A rival professor, played by Neeraj Kabi, has no hopes whatsoever and challenges Rani to prove him wrong. Unsurprisingly, it’s ba...

Gulabjaam - As delicious as it can get

Image
Maharashtrians, by nature, aren’t entrepreneurial. They’d rather have a comfortable job that brings in a regular monthly income. So, if someone from the community who is employed with a bank in London decides to quit with the aim of starting his own restaurant, all hell is certain to break loose. Sidharth Chandekar is that 27-year-old youngster in Sachin Kundalkar’s latest Marathi film,  Gulabjaam . What aggravates his agony is that he is coaxed into getting engaged to his childhood friend during his visit to Mumbai, although this was never on the agenda. Frustrated at the way his life is going, he runs away to Pune instead of taking a flight to London, without informing his family, to learn cooking. He is an expert in making delicious non-vegetarian dishes, but he wants to be a master in churning out authentic Maharashtrian food that his restaurant would offer. Here, he comes across Sonali Kulkarni, who supplies  dabbas  on a daily basis to working professional...

Aiyaari - A well-intentioned film with promise

Image
Two upright officers – Manoj Bajpayee and Sidharth Malhotra – of the Indian Army are at loggerheads with each other after viewing corruption in the armed forces differently. The latter turns rogue, resulting in the former going against his protégé before he lets out some secrets. Both were inducted into a special unit by the Army chief for their competence, but are now under the scanner due to various developments that take place.  Neeraj Pandey’s Aiyaari is a well-intentioned film with good performances by its star cast. Like some of his previous movies, this too is a hard-hitting commentary on the ugly reality at various levels, including in the government and the Army. This one, in particular, focuses on the nefarious dealings while striking arms deals, the Uri attack as well as the Adarsh scam. The problem, however, in tackling so many issues is that it does not focus on any one aggressively. It meanders and touches upon various aspects, thereby affecting the flow and pa...