Mid Year Review - Corona months stretch into corona Year!

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MALANG - 2.0 STARS. PG13. (LOVE STORY)



Malang - Trailer

Director: Mohit Suri

Writers: Aseem Arrora, Aniruddha Guha

Stars: Aditya Roy Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Disha Patani

I am not sure how old Mohit Suri is but it seems like life just went past him. He is getting into the age where he is not young anymore but is thinking what young people must be like. Partying over the top, tattooing over the top, dressing over the top, flexing over the top, drugs over the top, mouthing lines like - I live to die etc... over the top. You get the point. The movie is full of visuals 100s of them and everyone acting Mohit's over the top vision. The movie is not bad if he could have instead worked on relations and emotions. Aditya Roy Kapoor plays this muscle poppin criminal who was at one point a cute lover, and Anil Kapoor plays this over the top cop who used to be a good cop turned bad.

JABARIYA JODI - 3.5 STARS. G. (LOVE STORY)



Jabariya Jodi - Trailer

Director: Prashant Singh

Writers: Sanjeev k Jha (screenplay), Sanjeev k Jha (story)

Stars: Sidharth Malhotra, Parineeti Chopra, Javed Jaffrey

I don't know why, but I can't say anything bad about these 2 kids. Sidharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra - they are so cute. Just look at them... awww. I want them in more movies. For your sake I have to say the movie is not that great, but I love the way Pari says things and Sidharth ... can't act. I like everything about them. I am sorry I am a human I have flaws.

The movie is about kidnapping grooms who are asking for dowry and making them marry by force. Our hero does that for his Dad, there are complications in his relations with Mom and Dad and he is not as tough as he looks, Our Heroine is tough as they get but still may fall in love. The movie is a little old schoolish with some good one liners. I suggest to fire the makeup artist and wardrobe manager if their was any. Horrible makeup and clothes, make our hero and heroine look like they are in fancy dress competition but everything else is ok.

ANGREZI MEDIUM - 2.5 STARS. G. (DRAMA)



Angrezi Medium - Trailer

Director: Homi Adajania
Writers: Bhavesh Mandalia, Gaurav Shukla
Stars: Irrfan Khan, Radhika Madan, Kareena Kapoor

Do yourself a favor and watch the first part (Hindi Medium) again. If you insist on watching this one, then hope you don't remember the first one. This a big step down from the first one. They have tried to pack a lot of emotions in this one, Dad loves his daughter, and daughter aint gettin it, until she does. The entire plot makes little sense, so don't calculate how things can happen, just concentrate on emotions. One bright spot in the movie is Kareena Kapoor, what a fresh breeze of air, love the way she plays a cop girl with her flamboyant style.

PANGA - 3.75 STARS. G. (SPORTS)



Panga - Trailer

Director: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Writers: Nikhil Mehrotra, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Jassie Gill, Richa Chadha

A typical Kangana movie of determination against all odds. The negative and positive of the movie is that our Hero is a real character. She is an Ex-Hockey star who is unsure and at times don't know what she needs. Kangana does a good job with it and showing vulnerability in a strong character is tough to do. But that also makes the movie different, you are almost numbed into cliche ridden sports movies where the Hero is almost flawless and knows exactly what he/she wants and how to get there.  This one is different. A good one with some pretty good scenes.

BAAGHI 3 - 4.0 STARS. PG. (THRILLER)



Baaghi 3 - Trailer

Director: Ahmed Khan
Writers: Tasha Bhambra, Sparsh Khetarpal
Stars: Tiger Shroff, Riteish Deshmukh, Shraddha Kapoor

This blogger is not a fan of James Bond-ish extravagant thrillers, but I got to admit I liked the entire thing. Everything was unapologetic and outlandish and also well done.  I love stupid one liners and this one's got a lot. The action is awesome. Action + One Liners = Hit. Who cares about plot, I even forgot what it was about. Oh yea... Tiger की सटक जाती है जब उसके भाई पे बात आती है. The action is very fresh and obviously over the top. Watch it.


SHUBH MANGAL ZYADA SAAVDHAN - 4.0 STARS. PG13. (LOVE STORY)



Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan - Trailer

Director: Hitesh Kewalya
Writer: Hitesh Kewalya
Stars: Ayushmann Khurrana, Jitendra Kumar, Gajraj Rao

Finally Indian movies are moving from the phase 'look we are making movies on gay people' and ' you know what gay is?' to a movie that has gay characters. This movie makes that leap into showing a couple who is gay with no introduction, pretty good leap. Movie has a lot of good comedy too but I think  it has lot of progressive learnings without being didactic. Well presented.


Street Dancer 3D - 2.0 STARS. G. (DANCE)



Street Dancer 3D - Trailer

Director: Remo D'Souza
Writer: Farhad Samji
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor, Prabhu Deva

Remo was basically a dance director and then he started making movies about Dance. FIrst was a novel thing to do in ABCD, then how much different can you go? This is the 3rd installment and hopefully the last. The dances have started looking similar, and if you have no idea ... then you always have an idea to go to london and make a movie. There is everything packed in it, rich - poor, immigrant desi - white brits, india- pak, love-breakup, friendship-cheating name it ... and you will find it. But you already know it, and it somehow does not make you sit up.

LOVE AAJ KAL - 2.0 STARS. PG. (LOVE STORY)



Love Aaj Kal 2 - Trailer

Director: Imtiaz Ali

Writer: Imtiaz Ali

Stars: Kartik Aaryan, Sara Ali Khan, Randeep Hooda

Imtiaz भाई की लाइफ में वही आया है जो एक टाइम पे SRK की लाइफ में था .... और अब सल्लू की लाइफ में है ... mid life crisis! Imtiaz uncle has become old pretty quick, but he needs to make movies of young people so he over does it every time. I think this is second movie in a row that just tries a little too hard. 

Love Stories are difficult to make in these times. This is an era of comedy, you can make a comedy and it will be received well. Love story is an old concept, you cannot make errors. Can't over or under do it. Well... at least he tries. 

The one good thing he did was to cast Randeep Hooda, this blog has always been a fan. The guy does not disappoint. Though he has a weird character that completely loses it as movie goes on, still most of it was pretty well done. Kartik Aaryan can do what he can and strictly that and nothing else. He looks and acts exactly the same .... let's say he is dharam papaji of today. You know what he will do. Sara is daughter of Amrita Singh I think... hmm... Amrita was hot in Mard! so... I can't talk bad about these kids forget it. They are young they tried their best. Sara actually put everything in the role, but the presentation made it look lame.

                                                     BUDGET MOVIES

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BULBBUL - 5 STARS. R. (DRAMA/ THRILLER / SUSPENSE)

Bulbbul - Trailer

Director: Anvita Dutt

Writer: Anvita Dutt

Stars: Tripti Dimri, Rahul Bose, Avinash Tiwary

A movie like this comes once in a 'Red' moon. When red night shows up the Kaali is alive and kickin. This is not just a thriller, or a murder mystery or a horror movie. It is not just a statement against patriarchy, it is actually a statement against the unjust system called society. 

There are characters (The husband) that the system works for, he still can't find happiness, people with mental imbalance are powerful that they can't get help because system is designed to make them powerful even though they are in need of help (brother of husband) and obviously they are one and the same physically and in a twisted way ... mentally. There are vast majority the system does not work for but most of them accept it as the system they are born with, so what do they do? they work with it, manipulate it to have small meaningless wins (older / younger bahu). There are innocent people with good intentions who can't see anything bad in the system because it is working for them (The people who say - All lives matter not just Black!) unaware of their surroundings (like younger brother). The system is complete and it goes on and on, unless a witch shows up, or you can call it Durga or Kaali but ohh she is a bad ass. What if she says I don't like it and I don't give an F. Can you deal with her?

CHAMAN BAHAAR - 2.0 STARS. PG. (LOVE STORY?)

Chaman Bahaar - Trailer

Director: Apurva Dhar Badgaiyann

Writer: Apurva Dhar Badgaiyann

Stars: Jitendra Kumar, Ritika Badiani, Bhuvan Arora

I read somewhere this movie is a 'Kabir Singh' on budget. Can't fault with that review.
Movie held lot of promise, the actors are good - A small town has a youth leader and a youth businessman and then their is youth that have nothing better to do than run after one girl. Yes the entire village runs after this girl just because she is the out of towner who is 'Modern'. So 80s India. Everything goes well, except for our main character who has to deal with all these characters as well try his own fling at her. Somehow his angle does not go well, though it is the reality but it did not gel well. Not a bad concept, but could have been better.

AXONE - 3.0 STARS. PG. (DRAMA).



Axone - Trailer

Director: Nicholas Kharkongor
Stars: Sayani Gupta, Lin Laishram, Jimpa Bhutia

North Eastern people in India are similar to Desi immigrants in America. We speak funny, but we actually are citizens. We have our customs that look weird, we are never thought of as if we 'belong'. But we sing the mainstream songs and actually are into American culture. Same is the story of these bunch of Manipuri people living in Delhi. All they want is to cook Axone (it is actually Akhun) a dish they want to cook for a wedding. A good story of being an outsider when you are not, but it does not entertain enough.

DOORDARSHAN - 1.5 STARS. G. (DRAMA)



Doordarshan - Trailer

Director: Gagan Puri

Writer: Gagan Puri

Stars: Manu Rishi Chadha, Mahie Gill, Dolly Ahluwalia

The premise is that a grandma is in coma for 30 years and if she wakes up we need to make sure she thinks it is still the 90s and hence the title Doordarshan. The movie tries hard to pack jokes, but they are either insensitive or stupid. There are some good scenes and their are some great actors (Kids in the movie), but Grandma scenes suck. Done a little over the top. Should have stuck with just completely stupid slap stick comedy but tried to put a lot in it.

KAMYAAB - 4.0 STARS. G. (DRAMA)



Kaamyaab- Trailer

Director: Hardik Mehta
Writers: Radhika Anand, Hardik Mehta
Stars: Sanjay Mishra, Deepak Dobriyal, Sarika Singh

A movie about side characters, also called character artists, have been tried many times. Generally it is a sob story of how they are never recognized and it becomes a drag. This Sanjay Mishra starrer avoids being that. Good job. It depicts ordinary life of this film character who had a few famous scenes that people know him by. He has a pretty real relationship with his daughter which is cute. He wants to do is 500th movie and in trying to get that role he loses it. Life can give you realization anytime during the coarse of it, when it hits you.... only you know that realization because it comes as clear as water. Sanjay Mishra does a good job finding his realization in the movie.

BHOOT PART 1 - 2.0 STARS. R. (HORROR)



Bhoot Part one - Trailer

Director: Bhanu Pratap Singh
Writer: Bhanu Pratap Singh
Stars: Vicky Kaushal, Ashutosh Rana, Meher Vij

When I was searching for this movie's pic to cut and paste here, I found out there was a TV series of the same name and story in another language. The direction and presentation is pretty ordinary the only question we had was - Why would Vicky Kaushal want to do this? 

There is a ship that is haunted, and Vicky is the cop who needs to get the truth and in turn treats some of his own demons. The movie's story is not bad (obviously it was copied) but the presentation is not great.

CHOKED - 4.0 STARS. G. (THRILLER)



Choked - Trailer

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Writer: Nihit Bhave

Stars: Saiyami Kher, Roshan Mathew, Amruta Subhash

Only disappointment was Anurag Kashyap directed it. So I will kepT expecting more and more. The movie plays in subtle tones and lives under the shadows. It seems like a harmlessly jarring true life of a middle class Mumbai lady. You almost feel like you are living in the congested confines of Mumbai with Saiyami Kher. She plays it perfectly. The camera angles and the way the movie is shot you feel the bored, stressed, drab and drag of her life. Then she starts finding bundles of money. Then demonetization happens. Things go out of control but the music or the camera angles or the life remains in similar ordinary ways. Movie holds one too many cards hidden to make it a 6th sense-ish ending revealing too many too late. But then you are left thinking about the movie for way longer than you would have. Well... after the movie you realize .. yea it was an Anurag Kashyap movie.

                                                                          ARTSY

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GULABO SITABO - 4.0 STARS. G. (COMEDY)



Gulabo Sitabo - Trailer

Director: Shoojit Sircar

Writer: Juhi Chaturvedi

Stars: Amitabh Bachchan, Ayushmann Khurrana, Vijay Raaz

If you think about it, from the first to the last scene nothing really happens in the movie. But if you think about it what needs to happen anyway? 

You get to know very unique characters ever to be shown in cinema, what else you need to know? Amitabh Bachhan packs a punch in this subtle comedy playing a खूसट कमीना बुद्धा . What a performance, his pauses of kameena pan are a delight. His smile and his fall every time he thinks of profit is legendary. Ayushman supports this comedy ably with his ponch and चिन्दी चोर attitude. Both have the same brain but different age and they both will do anything that needs to be done for their selfish motive to get the haveli they are fighting for. 

The biggest fallacy is that age does anything to a character of a human being. When judging others we keep bringing up age but that is just a number. He is a kid and look what he is doing, now replace that with any age.... he is a teen, adult, old person, whatever... it has no meaning. A person is a person, and if he is selfish then he is.

THE LIFT BOY - 3.75 STARS. G. (DRAMA)



The Lift Boy - Trailer

Director: Jonathan Augustin
Writers: Jonathan Augustin, Ashish P. Verma
Stars: Moin Khan, Nyla Masood, Saagar Kale

The kid has talent, Moin plays a good Lift Boy. Dad is a Lift boy and does everything so the kid does not end up like him. An hospital visit for Dad forces the kid to take over as a Lift Boy. Things happe in lift including some beautiful life revelations for this kid. A pretty good low budget movie you can watch with low expectations.

WEB SERIES

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AARYA - Watch if dire need to kill time. 



Aarya - Trailer

Creators: Ram Madhvani, Sandeep Modi
Stars: Sushmita Sen, Jagdish Rajpurohit, Manish Chaudhary

Sushmita Sen has a drag in her voice, that is too typical for an actor. She needs to work on it. She has a very typical way of saying things, that sometimes comes in the way of the narration. I am not sure if you will feel the same maybe it is me. This is the first TV series I am reviewing and I am not sure how to do it. I do not watch TV series as a principle, too much time needs to be invested and I don't want to give my time to a 12 hr movie! But COVID has made us do things that we never expected so here I am watching all sorts of TV series. I rate them harsher than the movies due to time investment, It asks you to waste your double digits hours instead of a couple.

Aarya lacks soul, it is wannabe great series but it is clearly trying too hard. It is not bad, obviously I finished it, I generally leave them after an episode, so it is watchable but it disappoints too. Let me state the biggest flaw - WHY would you take Chandrachur Singh if you did not need him? WHY? Till the last episode we couldn't get over the fact that Chandrachur Singh was brought in and then not used.

Story is about a business family who has lot of secrets and a gangster's drugs go missing creating a lot of problems for this rich business family. Everything falls on Aarya (Sushmita Sen) to navigate the business world and kids to safety. Can she do it? Actors don't rise above the script but stay with it doing a good job but nothing out of the ordinary. The kids were annoying and their angle was unnecessary and overdone. Teens are not just into sex and drugs. They can be just regular humans too. A white character doing Gita shloks in his music, teen making art on her walls adds to the wannabe part of the web series.

PANCHAYAT - MUST WATCH



Panchayat - Trailer

Stars: Jitendra Kumar, Raghuvir Yadav, Chandan Roy

If you are old enough to remember Nukkad and Hum Log TV serials of 80s? It is from the similar treatment that Panchayat is born. I can't believe someone had the courage and imagination and skill to make it. A classic sit back relax and enjoy the ride TV series of yore. No American web series stress of complication, no shocking twists every minute or at end of each episode begging you to watch the next. No greed to compete with the last series. Just plain simple story of a city youth who is forced to do a job in Village Panchayat. Set up of a village could have a lot of pitfalls in narration like looking down or looking up on Village life etc... none of that. The characters are real and they remain in character from the first to last episode. Just pure gold.

PAATAL LOK - MUST WATCH



Paatal Lok - Trailer

Creator: Sudip Sharma
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Neeraj Kabi, Abhishek Banerjee

I heard this is a Anushka Sharma Production, it seems like whatever Anushka touches becomes awesome. I sometimes wonder what did she see in Virat? Uncouth foul mouthed superstar, she on the other hand is beacon of liberal values and pushing boundaries of liberal dialogue alive in a country like India in 2020!

The show follows a case that a cop has been given. Unlike other web series where the protagonist cops are cool and smart, our cop is a regular employee who is as real as a character from Panchayat. There are Lot of similarities to Khakee an awesome Bachchan movie where he plays a upright cop defeated by system who is looking for one case one last hurrah to make it all worth it. Paatal Lok develops each and every character, their are no cardboard cliche characters. All the criminals nabbed before they could complete mission of killing a high profile TV journalist have very real lives well developed and beautifully portrayed. So is the Journalist and his wife. There are some unforgettable scenes of how subtle racism affects everything, the way minorities are treated. 

Anyway this is a show that comes once in a blue moon and just mesmerizes you, don't expect a thriller or suspense though it has both but that is not what it is about. Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh has just knocked it out of the park with a brilliant portrayal of a frustrated Cop and his assistant Junior Cop albeit Muslim.