Screen Test

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

There’s a lot to like about PadMan . It’s a tale of tender love between a husband and wife apart from the obvious issue that it tries to address. It’s a story of one man’s belief in himself and his propensity to take on society to ensure women are treated with as much dignity as men. It’s a rather tricky subject to tackle, but director R Balki succeeds in doing it beautifully on screen, using humour as a strong supporting cast. The start itself is captivating with a melodious song showing Akshay Kumar’s marriage to Radhika Apte in a small village in Madhya Pradesh. In the days that follow, he is aghast to know that she uses a dirty cloth instead of a sanitary pad, and that women in his home have to keep distance during their periods. He buys her a branded pad from a pharmacy, but Apte cannot see herself using such an expensive one, lest other women in the family taunt her. Kumar then decides to make one himself, but fails on multiple occasions. And despite his clean intention...

It takes one arrow that she unknowingly pierces into Shahid Kapoor’s chest for Deepika Padukone to fall in love with him and become his second wife. Sadly, even after unending moments of staring into each other’s eyes post marriage, one fails to see any chemistry between Rani Padmavati and the prince of Chittod. Blame it on Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s half-baked characters, underdeveloped roles or just the wrong casting. Padmaavat has been in the eye of a storm ever since the film was announced and more so after the trailer was out. The story of the queen committing jauhar (jumping into a fire) along with several other women rather than surrendering to Sultan Allauddin Khilji (essayed by Ranveer Singh) has been written about extensively. The film, therefore, hinged more on the depiction of the tale, rather than the story itself. Bhansali fails on both counts. It takes almost an hour for him to introduce us to the characters and come to the actual plot. By the time comes the ...

An accomplished writer who has travelled from London to Mumbai for his third book launch finds himself as the prime suspect in two murders: That of his wife, who is also the CEO of the publishing house that has brought out his recent book, and a city-based lawyer. Sidharth Malhotra is being chased by the cops on a dreary night on Marine Drive when his car topples and gives him an opportunity to escape. He ends up at Sonakshi Sinha’s house where her lawyer-husband is also murdered. The first 10-15 minutes of Ittefaq build up enough intrigue and set the tone for an engrossing murder mystery, the pace of which does not slacken even for a bit till the end.  Sidharth and Sonakshi offer conflicting versions of the events that unfolded that night to investigating officer Akshaye Khanna, who has only three days to solve the case. The depiction of what could have actually transpired prior to the murders keeps the viewer glued to the screen and involved in the case even as Khanna g...

Rarely do you come across thrillers that have you hooked from the first scene to the last. The potential that the genre offers is often underutilised and many times compromised, with add-ons like songs killing the joy of unravelling a mystery (You’d relate to this if you’ve had the misfortune of watching Jagga Jasoos earlier this year). Thankfully, Faster Fene avoids all this and ends up becoming a racy adventure thriller. Banesh Fene travels to Pune to appear for a medical entrance examination and lives with an aged writer-uncle (Dilip Prabhavalkar) there. At the exam centre, he briefly encounters another aspiring doctor and gets chatting with him. When he reads in the newspapers the following day that the boy has committed suicide, he finds it hard to believe that a certain topper would end his life abruptly. The inquisitive Fene then sets out on a mission to unearth the truth with the help of a sidekick, a lady journalist, an autorickshaw driver and guidance from his uncle...

Secret Superstar is one of the better films of 2017 because of its solid content, intriguing storytelling and top performances. What makes it particularly watchable is that a simple premise of a girl wanting to become a singer is woven around several issues plaguing our society. However, these points are so blatant and yet so understated that they are bound to move the viewers while ensuring they contemplate on the reality surrounding us. Zaira Wasim, a schoolgirl in Vadodara, is blessed with a beautiful voice that is suppressed by her authoritarian and dominating father (Raj Arun). It is her mother, fantastically essayed by Meher Vij, who gives wings to her dreams and supports her in every way that she can, even if that means risking being beaten black and blue by her husband. With a guitar and laptop, both gifted by her mother, Zaira decides to put her talent up for show on the internet. The fear of her father, however, looms large and so, she decides to hide her identit...

Conjoined twins separated at birth due to unfortunate circumstances come together after they have grown up to create a series of misadventures for each other. One's grown up poor, bold and strong and the other as a polished, harmless and weak boy in a rich family. It's a formula that has been tried in several films before. In  Judwaa 2 , the difference is that when the twins are in close proximity to each other, one reacts in the same way as the other. For instance, if one slaps a guy on his right cheek, the other will repeat the act with whoever he is with, however harmless that person is. That in essence is the premise of  Judwaa 2  and jokes are created around this for the audience to have a hearty laugh. The problem, however, is that a majority of them are so pathetic that they fail to evoke even a yawn from you. Like, Sa Re Ga Ma Amitabh Bachchan because the legend played the title role in  Paa . Besides, while the original  Judwaa  worked...

Newton , India’s entry to the Oscars, is a satirical take on the country’s electoral system. Rajkummar Rao is an upright polling officer who is deployed in a Maoist-infested territory of Chhattisgarh during the Lok Sabha elections, his maiden assignment. His ideals and principles compel him to set up a polling booth in a remote village although there are only 76 citizens who are eligible to exercise their fundamental right. Others around him unfailingly persuade him against entering a dangerous territory, but he sticks to his ground despite the odds. He believes he can change the system and mindsets even though he is told on his face that change does not happen overnight. The less-than-two-hour film makes a fine commentary on the farce surrounding the elections in some parts of the country, in this case Chhattisgarh, where people haven’t even seen an electronic voting machine before. Many are dragged to the voting centre and told about the various symbols belonging to...

To call Simran an attempt just to showcase Kangana Ranaut's acting calibre would be grossly unfair. She, of course, stands tall and elevates the film with an outstanding performance. But Simran is also a fresh, breezy tale about a headstrong woman and her quest to build an identity of her own. What works is the treatment, the relatable characters and most importantly, Kangana. A Gujarati NRI working as a housekeeping staff with a reputed hotel in Atlanta, Kangana wants to buy a house of her own mainly to distance herself from her nagging parents. They want their divorced daughter to remarry, but she is happy with the freedom she enjoys, including the joy of flirting with cute men.  A chance trip takes her to Las Vegas where the 'sin' of gambling that she commits earns her lots of money, enough to buy a house and a lot more, including fancy dresses whose price tags kept her away from them till then. It soon turns into an addiction, but the results are not alway...

Bhumi Pednekar aspires to be the runaway bride like they show in Bollywood movies. But the guy chasing her, Ayushmann Khurrana, does not muster enough courage to approach her. When he finally does, he first runs into a bear and then a peculiar problem, that of performance anxiety. Shubh Mangal Saavdhan is set during an interesting period - between engagement and marriage - during which Bhumi and Ayushmann are trying to discover their love for each other. There's plenty of that, but the lack of intimacy stands out and adds to the pressure. While Bhumi accepts Ayushmann the way he is, he feels guilty at not being able to rise to the occasion. That obviously leads to a strain in their relationship. What complicates matters is when the two families involved get to know of his problem. The film tackles an unusual subject in a hilarious way and offers several laughs with its witty and often more-than-one-meaning dialogues. Despite dealing with a peculiar issue, not once doe...