POPULAR BOLLYWOOD
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Kabir Singh - 3.75 Stars. (Romance) R.
Director: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Stars: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Soham Majumdar
Kabir Singh - Trailer
I was told it is a very controversial film with liberals up in arms about regressive nature of the content. Actually I did not find the movie worth the controversy.The controversial moments were actually boring and the movie was cliched to start with. It shows the violent love of 80s and passes that as love. Being a gunda is cool. Making decisions for the girl is cool and a desirable girl is the one that is under confident scared and should have no opinion. She should act like damsel in distress all the time. Acting helpless and bechaari is the key. Well all these concepts were a staple of yesteryear films. We all think the society changed since then, but success of 80s style movies show that majority still supports these ideas. So you think it is movie's problem? No, movies don't make a society, it just mirrors it. So calm down. I give the movie a clean chit.
First half is boring and cliched and second one gets interesting and actually entertaining. Shahid does a great job being Kabir Singh. The love story has some great music which is a must for all Love Stories. Kabir Singh's character is very well defined, he is eccentric and crazy. Actually because of his temper he loses his love, his job and everything. So even though he slaps the girl (and Girl slaps him back many times) he is the one who suffers due to his eccentricity. So I am cool with it. Actually in some ways it is a comedy if you think about it that a Gunda, druggy, chain smoker,sex addict, Anger addict hero of ours is also genius, surgeon, doctor. I mean he is everything! Director said sir let's make him everything just everything in one, never done before. Yes! It's pretty entertaining movie. Watch it.
Director: Rohit Jugraj
Stars: Diljit Dosanjh, Kriti Sanon, Varun Sharma
Arjun Patiala - Trailer
It had some creativity about it. They did try a new concept, I will give them that. It was not a regular run of the mill movie. It is about a movie being narrated to a producer. The movie has a very comical and cartoonish take on the story which is funny and goofy. Kriti and Diljit don't add much to the movie, they don't jell well and that is a let down. Varun Sharma the great chucha is good in the movie. He does make the movie fun to watch. Watch it for him. It is a love story of a cop who goes to a small town and gets entangled with 5 villains he needs to get rid of to clean the town of crime. But the entire treatment of the movie is funny and goofy so it's not an actual serious cop drama.
SOTY 2 - 2.5 Stars. Romance / Drama. PG.
Director: Punit Malhotra
Stars: Tiger Shroff, Tara Sutaria, Ananya Panday
Student Of The Year- 2 - Trailer
The film started in negative territory, I was like this is going to be worst film I ever saw, but actually second half picks up and is quite interesting and saves this movie from being a disaster. That is if you reach second half. The frilly colorful high school of 90s continues in this movie. If High School kids watch this movie they may stop going to school just to prove they are not going to a school like Tiger is attending in this movie. The movie has Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai and Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander all in one. No, don't even thing there will be anything new. Dancing, prancing girls acting extra stupid. Rich Kids being extra mean and extra rude. Poor Kids being extra 'bechaare' and you know the rest. Still the love story is pretty interesting if you reach there. I will advice liberal use of Fast Forward button. Finish it in an hour or so.
Super 30 - 4.0 Stars. Drama / Thriller. G.
Super 30 - Trailer
Director: Vikas Bahl
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, Mrunal Thakur, Nandish Singh
Mrunal Thakur is find of the movie, what an actor and she looks cute. Hritik tries hard to fit the role of a dalit. His greek god looks don't make him a natural low caste poor genius. The movie is about a real life hero who trains dalit students for IIT. Obviously with cinematic liberties taken to make the climax interesting. Great idea! who would have thought of making this story into a movie! Also the plight of half the India is now being shown in popular movies which makes this year a good year for movies.
Bharat - 2.0 Stars. Drama. G.
Bharat - Trailer
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Stars: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Grover
Salman was never an actor but now he has dropped all pretense of being one too. He has stopped putting in the minimum effort he used to put. You know .... what's the point when it's not actually needed. So he mouths lines the same mundane way and his body won't move and he goes on and on and on making movies. He has finally reached the stage where SRK has been for sometime. Now the movies don't work and he has to make weird kind of different movies that don't work.
The movie is about someone called Mr Bharat who has stories from Independence to present day and he tells you anecdotes of his life in each decade. Actually the story idea is pretty fresh and creative but somehow Sallu single handedly kills it. But when there is nothing to cheer and everything feels depressing life throws at you something that was unexpected! Katrina has suddenly become an actor!! Yes, second movie in a row she has been out acting a Khan! Katrina Kaif ladies and gentlemen has decided to act and oh yea she is good at it. Watch it for her.
India's Most Wanted - 1.5 Stars. Thriller. G.
India's Most Wanted - Trailer
Director: Raj Kumar Gupta
Stars: Arjun Kapoor, Sudev Nair, Rajesh Sharma
Just because India has suddenly transformed into this right wing jingoistic Israel, doesn't mean you make Arjun Kapoor into a RAW Agent. Come on guys, any actor you find on the street you just make them into a patriotic agent wanting to do anything for the country!! Arjun looks like he just came out of bed and was told to say lines and later was told that he was supposed to act like a undercover agent. He looked over sized in Nepal, how is that incognito! The movie is about a team of agents who are obviously not given any power or resources but they have a boss who believes in them and these guys are so patriotic they still carry out the mission. Man.. haven't we seen enough of these so called real life stories??
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Fastey Fasaate - NA. Drama. PG.
Director: Amit Agarwal
Stars: Bijay Anand, Vishwa Mohan Badola, Arpit Chaudhary
Faste Fasaatey - trailer
OK I think I watched this movie. But I watched the trailer again and I don't remember it at all. I guess either I have to write reviews as I watch them or shut this effort completely. Maybe I watched and dozed off? Anyway... I am in no mood to watch it again.
Hum Chaar -2.0 Stars. Romance/ Drama. PG.
Hum Chaar - Trailer
Director: Abhishek Dixit
Stars: Prit Kamani, Simran Sharma, Anshuman Malhotra
I think this a movie from Rajshree. Yes they are still at it. I don't think anyone retires in this field. It is a story about friends who are in colleges that are only imagined in director's brain. The friends grow up and ..... I think I never finished the movie.
Game Over - 4.0 Stars.Thriller. R.
Director: Ashwin Saravanan
Stars: Taapsee Pannu, Vinodhini Vaidynathan, Parvathi T.
Game Over - Trailer
Did I tell you Taapsee is an awesome actor? Yea I think I did ... like a few times before. She makes this taut thriller a taut thriller. The movie is about a girl who has to kill her inner and some outside demons to live and survive whatever life throws at her. Past horrific incidences bog her down, she can't go out in public. Victims end up being blamed and are persecuted in this society. It is a pretty fresh movie, which has many endings at the same time. The moral of the story is ... fight fight fight, we all need to fight. When the movie got over I wanted to fight... no matter what comes.
Jaoon kahan bata e dil - (NETFLIX) - 1.5 Stars. Drama. PG.
Director - Aadish Keluskar
Starring - Khushboo Upadhyay, Rohit Kokate
Jaoon Kahan Bata e Dil - Trailer
The story of a couple who are spending an evening together. It is pretty good concept but after a while they get on your nerves as they continue in their typical manner of discussion. They fight they break up they fall in love everything in a few hours. The man is kind of gross and sometimes makes you wonder what is wrong with him. Anyway... I would have liked if it was more a movie than just 100 words per minute of talking.
Chausar Firangi - Trailer
Director: Sandeep Pandey
Stars: Prateek Pachori, Rekha Mishra, Anudeep Singh
Movie is about 2 friends and one night. The difference is the kids actually look like people who are from streets and not actors. It is a well made movie about friends who try to do some adventure and end up tangled in a huge political problem. It was ok, I think only I can watch and enjoy such movies.
ARTSY
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Article 15 - 5.0 Stars. Drama / Thriller. R.
Article 15 - Trailer
Director: Anubhav Sinha
Stars: Ayushmann Khurrana, Nassar, Manoj Pahwa
When Anurag Kashyap tweeted about this movie. I got excited about it. Even after high expectations the movie delivered. Second 5 star in a row from this special guy named Anubhav Sinha (After Mulk). What a movie! I never thought this kid Ayushman Khurrana could do what he did. He puts everything in it, what a performance.
The invisible people of hinduism which are more than half of the population are barely humans. We see them but we don't. The movie beautifully depicts them as 'in logon mein' and then our Hero booms - Kaun hein yeh log? kaun hai? ... uff beautiful. The line stuck with me for days. Another one that I still remember is - Ayushman asks about everyone's jaat and they get into details on who is what jaat how they stack up in the heirarchy and who is untouchable, who is above who, who can drink water from whom. It is hilarious and sad at the same time. Wow... this is our culture and this is 2019 and it is not in some village it is everywhere. The moment 'yeh log' try to actually become 'log' and don't stay in their lane we will become a monster,why are we as humans so cruel...
Movie is about a new Cop who comes to town to investigate dalit girl's disappearance and he finds out no one cares. I mean No one.
Director: Aijaz Khan
Stars: Talha Arshad Reshi, Vikas Kumar, Rasika Dugal
Hamid - Trailer
Another great movie in artsy section for this Quarter. Maybe I am becoming a artsy kind of blogger, it has been easy to tag them artsy and then talk my heart out and not worry about you guys criticizing me for making you watch a bad movie. I tried to start this movie many times and did not go past a few minutes. Sometimes you don't want to be depressed, then one day you have the mood to watch something special.
Hamid is a story of a Kashmiri Boy and how life treats him just because he is born in a war torn region. It also depicts perspective of a sensitive soldier who's job is to crack down on innocent people to keep them in their 'lane'. The movie is also about a Mom / wife's life in most militarized region of the world where it is common place for people to go missing due to Military excesses. At the end of it all, my heart was so heavy that I felt depressed for few days and I couldn't go to sleep that night. Now do you want this out of a movie? Only if you are a liberal / feel for minority only then you have these reactions otherwise it is another boring movie about Kashmir. The kid playing Hamid has a great sweet Kashmiri accent that you cannot get enough of, his Mom played by the great Rasika Duggal just packs a punch in this awesome performance.
Rakkosh - 0 Stars. Drama. R.
Directors: Abhijit Kokate, Srivinay Salian
Stars: Priyanka Bose, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Sanjay Mishra
The movie is about a mental asylum. People in their are hallucinating and acting like patients used to act in 80s movies. I could not watch it and stopped it. I lasted 10 mins into it. Let me know if anyone watched it.
