Podcast-review - Google / Samsung
POPULAR BOLLYWOOD
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ANIMAL - MINUS 2 STARS.
Directed by - Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Starring - Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Rashmika Mandanna, Tripti Dimri
Why Watch it - Because you are a sheep and need to watch what others are watching. You can always use this movie to your advantage by using it as a barometer of how good / bad a company you keep. If people around you love this movie, either you are part of the sick or you need to distance yourself from these people who will one day turn out to be a mistake as a relationship.
Why Not - I have watched movies for 40 years and this is easily the worst movie of all times. Generally I give 1-2 stars to movies that are boring. Zero stars to movies that clearly don't make an attempt of any sorts and are proudly bad. This one is prying on a dead carcass of a society that pretends to have some morals. This does a job what Trump does for racists, give them a voice to be proud of their regressive mentality. This movie gives voice to everyone in Indian society who know they are wrong but they can have a release by watching this movie. Now they feel vindicated for their nastiness. Anyways I have done enough of a rant on my podcast so won't do it here again. The movie has no character development or a story that makes sense. This is a soft porn kink for sick fantasies of Ranbir and Vanga as one scene after other makes no sense except showing fantasies of losers who have never won anything and hence have these weird fantasy of putting everyone under their boots one day. If you need an example in one scene Ranbir rounds up 3 women including a heavily pregnant one and threatens to shoot them, I think fires around them as pregnant women's water breaks and he says just don't show any mercy kill them. Don't mistake the movie for a action movie it is series of dark fantasies of Mr Vanga.
DUNKI - 2.5 STARS.
Directed by Rajkumar Hirani
Starring - Shah Rukh Khan, Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal, Boman Irani
Why Watch It - It is a Rajkumar Hirani film. You are guaranteed that it won't be a spy thriller or a south indian style one man army movie. That is a huge relief. Story is about SRK, Tapsee and couple of friends who want to go to London for various reasons and chose to do it illegally through Dunki route that has been in news lately. If nothing at least watch Vicky Kaushal who is putting in a good performance even for this mediocre affair, but he is there only for first 30 mins.
Why Not - Film addresses a serious subject, Dunki route that millions take to illegally immigrate to western countries and in the process die or have even worse lives than their own lives at home. Unfortunately nothing is serious about this movie except the subject. Rajkumar Hirani has now entered the category of Uncle Hirani who has lost his touch and is living in 1990s and 2000s. The jokes are dated and songs look jaded. Everyone is over acting like they are in a Barjatya movie. SRK hardly tries anything anymore and just relies on making a few eye brow twisting faces on his old plasticy face. They scuttle all Dunki route stuff in 15 mins and focus on PJs driven 90s comedy about English speaking. In fact they made the illegal immigration routes a joke by making it a to and fro affair. Anyways sadly this big movie is still better than all other big movies that have come out this year.
SAM BAHADUR - 3.5 STARS.
Directed by - Meghna Gulzar
Starring - Vicky Kaushal, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sanya Malhotra
Why Watch it - Vicky Kaushal, Vicky Kaushal and Vicky Kaushal. He can transform himself into a character like no other. I was genuinely confused if this person is actually Vicky Kaushal. He transformed into Sam Bahadur. A technically well shot and well made war movie. With Meghna Gulzar you do expect it to be well made.
Why Not - When great directors like Meghna have given in to the 'New India' of making one sided war movies trying to please the authorities it is safe to say Films have also been conquered and have not remained free from oppression. Soon India will churn out movies whatever North Korea sees, about how great North Korean authorities are. The movie is predictably showing Sam Bahadur being great, never making a mistake, never in any sort of confusion or stress. Just one great man, and as the authorities would like Nehru and even Indira Gandhi are just some weaklings Sam Bahadur has to carry the load of. Historians don't need to be worried anymore. We know how to write our own history. Pak side of generals are just caricatures that don't need any development either.
MISSION RANIGANJ - 3.5 STARS.
Directed by - Tinu Suresh Desai
Starring - Akshay Kumar, Parineeti Chopra
Why Watch it - A Kaala Pathhar type of movie without the star power and drama. This stays true to being more of a documentary on an actual miners escape in Raniganj. Made on a shoe string budget with very fake sardarji getup of Akshay Kumar. The movie keeps your interest alive and has been done well. Parineeti is in the movie for 5 minutes, but she is always a reason to watch a movie.
Why Not - From the get go you know what is going to happen. Very fake one sided villains that don't have much to add. The melodrama of trapped miners and their families is very typical and boring.
GHOOMER - 4.0 STARS
Directed by - R. Balki
Starring - Shabana Azmi, Abhishek Bachchan, Saiyami Kher, Angad Bedi
Why Watch It - Abhishek Bachchan's stylish potrayal of a drunk Ex Test bowler. The good script that gives you goose bumps. A feel good movie, that makes you believe that conquering all odds is a possibility. Saiyami plays her character well, Angad Bedi does a great supporting role. This also features in my Podcast as a contrast to Tiger 3.
Why Not - It's an off beat movie, not your main stream South Indian style drab fest with one liners and physics defying stunts.
KBKJ - 1.5 STARS
Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan - Trailer
Directed by - Farhad Samji
Starring - Salman Khan, Pooja Hegde, Venkatesh
Why Watch It - You like movies that come in the category of 'It is so bad, that it is good?' Salman's Ram Leela style long hair wig? The hilarious plot that revolves around just one thing that must have gotten stuck with Sallu bhai 'Mein kisi ka bhai aur kisi jaan hu, isliye mujhe Bhai Jaan kehte hai.' Also sallu bhai needed some bad South Indian influence so might as well put a southie villain and a southie family that sallu bhai suddenly needs to protect. What else? mmm... oh yea.. How about the incredibly low IQ songs and dances that will put any dancer or singer to shame.
Why Not - Read above.
GADAR 2 - 1.5 STARS
Directed by - Anil Sharma
Starring - Sunny Deol, Ameesha Patel, Utkarsh Sharma, Gaurav Chopra, Manish Wadhwa, Simrat Kaur
Why Watch It - You have been living under a rock and you love to hate on all minorities, especially muslims. You always wanted to watch movies with soft hatred for muslims and Pak bashing. You did not know about these movies that come out every month and have seen none of it. Then you should go watch this. Also in the climax there is a scene where Sunny papaji is yelling for 5 minutes straight for no reason. I think the dialogue writer forgot to write his lines and so he just yells one big yell forever at the villain. I would have to give it to him, if it was taken in one shot, that alaap was pretty good.
Why Not - Ameesha Aunty still thinks she needs to look pretty and plastic just like old times. She makes these faces that are hard to describe, but my guess is she is trying to look pretty. Obviously she still does not think acting is something she needs to learn. Sunny papaji has zero chemistry with her or his screen son, who is another nepo baby. This time son of the director. The plot is simple - Paki villain who yells - tumhare hindustan ko blah blah blah... and Sunny papa roars AAAAEEEEEEEE. All Indian audience run to the theater to check it out.
TIGER 3 - 2.0 STARS.
Director - Maneesh Sharma
Stars - Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Emraan Hashmi
Why Watch It - You can't miss a Sallu movie? You like Spy thrillers that have Tiger in their title? Tiger comes in for third edition of saving the country from guess who?? Yes... Pakistan! A country which is reeling under huge natural disasters and debt. The country which can hardly function on their own, but according to Bollywood Pakistan has unlimited resources and India has only one man - Tiger. It is not the worst of the 4-5 big movies that have been released this year. Let's put them together. When Pathaan came we thought nothing can be worse than this, but then we got slapped by Jawaan and later kicked by Animal, in that comparison Tiger is a great entertainer! Pathaan > Tiger 3 > Gadar 2 > Jawaan > Animal.
OMG 2 - 3.0 STARS
Directed by - Amit Rai
Starring - Akshay Kumar, Pankaj Tripathi, Yami Gautam Dhar
Why Watch it - OMG was a pretty good movie, I did not have much hope of this one, because from OMG1 to OMG 2 a lot has changed as far as freedom of making movies is concerned. I was expecting this one a Pro Pseudo Religion where God does magic tricks, unlike the OMG where god actually throws light on our stupid behavior. This one had some entertaining moments in parts and was a good attempt to put in some progressive thought regarding sex education and taboos.
Why Not - A long didactic diatribe (that's the most words I remember from my GRE word list) regarding sex education in schools. God doesn't do much and only comes in parts to just inspire a dad to fight for sex education in schools? Come on man... sorry come on God, if you had time you should have done a bigger impact.
LOST - 4.0 Stars.
Directed by - Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
Starring - Yami Gautam, Pankaj Kapur, Rahul Khanna, Neil Bhoopalam, Pia Bajpiee, Tushar Pandey
Why to Watch it - What a taut thought out script! Great execution and awesome presentation. Sometimes you get so numb seeing Hindi movies you don't realize they can make great movies. Yami Gautam one actor who takes her job sincerely and does not run after stupid high paying roles. She thrust herself in it as a investigative detective trying to find a missing person who is branded as a terrorist. She gets emotionally involved and roots for the missing person. So relatable, and Pankaj Kapur after a very long time gives us a great grand pa role to remember.
Why Not - You watched Animal, Tiger 3, Gadar 2, Jawaan and liked all of them?
KANJOOS MAKHICHOOS - 3.0 STARS
Directed by - Vipul Mehta
Starring - Kunal Khemu, Shweta Tripathi, Piyush Mishra, Alka Amin, Rajiv Gupta, Raju Srivastava
Why to Watch it - It starts of as the typical slapstick mindless comedy that Kunal Khemu is good at. It is hilarious in first half but luckily turns into a much more than a straight up comedy. Kunal Khemu is kanjoos and they leave no joke regarding kanjoosi that they could find. Later he sends his parents to theerth yatra where they get lost and the movie becomes serious only to become comic again when they all have to lie about a lot of things due to money they never thought they have to repay.
Why Not - It's an okay movie, nothing special. If you have time to watch a nice time pass light movie go for it. If you skip you are not missing much either.
KHUFIYA - 3.5 STARS
Directed by - Vishal Bhardwaj
Starring - Tabu, Ali Fazal, Wamiqa Gabbi, Azmeri Haque Badhon
Why Watch It - It's a Vishal Bhardwaj movie, that's reason enough to watch it. But it maybe one of the weakest Vishal Bhardwaj movies. Still it's better than most. A spy thriller where the target is known, they know the person is spying on his own country but how to catch him, how to prove it. A different twist to a spy thriller. A very different take on it with good results. Ali fazal puts in an A+ performance, Tabu has become a regular in such roles. A lot of layers and thick plot in this tale of a spy who is on the run.
Why Not - Could have been shorter, drags on a little. Lot of side plots and long drawn scenes. It's all good though. You should watch it.
THE GREAT INDIAN FAMILY - 3.0 STARS
The Great Indian Family - Trailer
Directed by - Vijay Krishna Acharya
Starring - Vicky Kaushal, Manushi Chhillar, Manoj Pahwa. Kumud Mishra
Why Watch It - Nice typical North Indian middle class family affair with a few twists. Good to see old school values of national integration and unity in diversity themes in the movie. Vicky, this is the same Vicky that was in Sam Bahadur. Somehow this is not his forte, he is uncomfortable playing the UP Middle class Bhajan Kumar in a religious family. But he does okay job. His parents are very religious and then he finds out it is possible that he may be a Muslim. It's a good time pass entertainer.
Why Not - It does drag a little. It forces the small town life. As can be said about every movie, it can be shorter. It never reaches an emotional high that it could have and probably their was something missing in Vicky's ability to emote in emotional scenes or maybe it was the direction.
ONE FRIDAY NIGHT - 3.5 Stars.
Directed by - Manish Gupta
Starring - Raveena Tandon, Milind Soman, Vidhi Chitalia
Why Watch it - It stars Raveena!! Anyone? Oh... am the only one excited about Raveena! umm.. ok. This was an unexpectedly good plot for a movie that looked like a small budget low effort movie. A successful rich guy has a side hustle of romancing girls outside his marriage. As he tries to juggle marriage and extra marital affair that lands him in his private bungalow off the grid. But a lot of unexpected things happen and it becomes a thriller. If they got someone better than Vidhi as the third main character this could have been a scary good movie. The acting abilities were not to the par.
Why Not - Another small movie, and if you are 'Bollywood' fan who only know 5-10 movies that you care for. Then go waste your time somewhere else. If you want to put this in the background while you do dishes this is going to work.
SUKHEE - 4.0 STARS
Directed by - Sonal Joshi
Starring - Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Amit Sadh, Dilnaz Irani, Kusha Kapila, Pavleen Gujral
Why Watch It - Because it has Shilpa Shetty!! umm ... no one? OK! Another movie that was unexpectedly good. Sukhi is a home maker with a wild fiery past as a teen and college kid. Now she has no excitement in life. Love of his life also has turned out to be a typical husband material. Then she goes to a reunion and she finds herself.
Why Not - Shilpa Shetty! Only if she could emote! She wants to look young but won't put much effort in acting a La Ameesha Aunty. Amit Sadh has been good in many roles as cop but he is fish out of the water in the role of a shy lover.
PIPPA - 2.5 STARS
Directed by - Raja Krishna Menon
Starring - Ishaan Khatter, Mrunal Thakur, Priyanshu Painyuli
Why Watch It - If you are not yet bored of war movies. There are 3-4 movies about Bangladesh freedom war and how India won against Evil Pakistan. Bangladesh is just a side story. This one probably is a great attempt at sowing a story around it between 2 brothers. Both have different personality but both are soldiers. Ishaan Khatter does pretty good and Mrunal Thakur has not much to do. Good change is she is sister of these 2 brothers. A welcome change from being a love interest.
Why Not - It's another war movie beating up on Pakistan. Pippa is a tank that was used in the war and hence the name in case you were wondering and wanted to watch it because of that. The quality of showing the conflicts is pretty good and has some good war situations but no impact or emotion in this one.
THANK YOU FOR COMING - 3.0 STARS
Thank You For Coming - Trailer
Directed by - Karan Boolani
Starring - Bhumi Pednekar, Shehnaaz Gill, Dolly Singh, Kusha Kapila, Shibani Bedi
Why Watch It - In case you want to watch a movie talk a lot about orgasm and girls obsessing about sex then go for it. A mod shod take on Bhumi's search for sex and orgasm and boy friends. Girl friends talk to each other and are each other's besties as they talk about how to get Bhumi the right guy and sex or both. Later it becomes kind of a thriller.
Why Not - If you want to watch a movie about girl friends I would suggest Sukhi. But this may be your cup of tea. Bhumi doesn't fit the role, she over plays it and just is not right. Others are okay too, but everything looks a little forced but I won't be surprised if some girls love it.
APURVA - 4.0 STARS
Directed by - Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
Starring - Tara Sutaria
Why Watch it - Spoiler alert! The last dialogue uff... 'By The Way - My name is Dante!' (From count of Monte Cristo). What the heck am I talking about? I had read this thriller novel when I was a teenager and in the end he reveals himself as Dante. Anyways, the point is Tara Sutaria is abducted by 3 goons and it is her story of survival. One of the goon keeps calling him Pinky (due to her pink dress) and then she delivers the line - 'Mera naam Apurva hai' and smashes his head. I loved the movie especially how a bumbling idiot of an actor like Tara can become a good actor in a movie if you give her something to do. I remember she was in one of those Race 3 type of movies and now she is here doing action and throwing some shade at the goons.
Why Not - It's a small movie but has great star cast of goons. In total there are not more than 10 characters in the movie. That may or may not make you like it. It's a thriller and you may not be in the mood for a thriller.
THE ARCHIES - 2.0 Stars
Directed by - Zoya Akhtar
Starring - Agastya Nanda, Khushi Kapoor, Suhana Khan. Vedang Raina, Mihir Ahuja, Aditi "Dot" Saigal, Yuvraj Menda
Why Watch it - In case you were the 0.00035% of Indian kids in 80s-90s who read Archies comics sure go ahead and give it a try. I had no clue what was going on until my wife told me what Jug head is and what Archies problem is in the comic. The movie is slow and is made like a comic book. The story does pick up a little bit in the middle but I don't think it had enough to be made into a movie.
Why Not - If I ask you what was your childhood comic and you say - Chacha Chaudhry, don't watch it. The problem is with the inception of the movie, Zoya was brought up rich in mumbai but she should be thinking what the heck Archies means to her audience? Every scene has this tinge of comic and trying to create a perfect scene by changing the Riverdale town into indian context, so much attention to detail for what? That script is not movie material! Plus she got all the Nepo babies to get some attention. I don't mind them but they don't have anything to work with. Agastya is good but Suhana and Khushi are just okay. After so many years Big Hindi movies called 'Bollywood' still remains a cottage industry with 10-20 families knitting their stuff. If you want quality go to Hindi movies and not just Bollywood.
DHAK DHAK - 3.5 STARS.
Directed by - Tarun Dudeja
Starring - Ratna Pathak Shah, Dia Mirza, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sanjana Sanghi
Why Watch It - Another 'Girl Friends' movie. 3 women from different backgrounds and age group band together to go on a Bike ride to Leh. On the way they have lot of stories to tell us. Nice cute movie with quite a lot of different angles to each character.
Why Not - It is predictable, lot of stories does not mean very creative and different way of telling those stories. Emotional high is never achieved, we don't get pulled into feeling deeply for a character. The depth is lacking, acting is ordinary too.
WEB SERIES
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HASMUKH - 4.0 STARS.
Genre - Crime/ Dark comedy
Directed by - Nikhil Gonsalves
Starring - Vir Das, Ranvir Shorey, Manoj Pahwa
Why Watch It - It is an old web series we watched now. Vir Das is a goo comedian and when he matches with Ranvir Shorey it is becomes double the fun. This series is a definition of dark comedy, brilliantly scripted and perfectly played especially by Ranvir Shorey! A comedian who can't muster courage to eclipse his mentor, who stutters in front of audience finds a way to become a fearless awesome funny comedian. The catch is - he needs to murder someone before every show!
Why Not - It's an old series. It gets slow after the initial blast of creativity and they struggle to end it in a proper way.
