PODCAST THIS YEAR - A-TO-ZED BOLLYWOOD MOVIE REVIEW
- Dhurandhar - 2 (Hate Must Continue)
- O Romeo - pretending to be a Vishal Bhardwaj Movie
- Mardaani & 120 Bahadur - A taut thriller & A respectable war movie
- Border 2 - Is it 2 or 1?
- Do Diwaane / Tu ya Main / Bhoot Bangla / Vadh 2 - Bouquet!
- Chand Mera Dil / Assi / Dhrishyam 3 + 1 - Another multicultural bouquet
- Cocktail 2 - May feel dizzy after the movie
- Welcome to the Jungle - Death of comedy.
- Alpha - Alia is El
- Dhamaal AND Pati Patni aur wo do - One killed me, other gave me life
- Awarapan 2 / Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya / Batwara - A sandwich
- Mirzapur - The movie - Mild and bland dose.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2122382
BOLLYWOOD
VVAAN - 2.0 Stars. G.
Directed by - Deepak Kumar Mishra
Starring - Sidharth Malhotra, Tamannaah Bhatia, Anup Soni, Sunil Grover, Shweta Tiwari, Maniesh Paul
VVVAAAANNNN... yes andhvishwaas is still alive in ekta kapoor's form. The movie is called Van... maybe Wan... which means forest. many people challenged me it was Vivaan or something. I watched it so you don't have to! It is Van.
As India runs as fast as it could backwards trying to embrace any stupidity as it's 'Culture' this movie fits perfectly well within that framework. Remember 1980s movies where people pray in front of god and then a flower drops as aashirvaad and then suddenly on the other hand villain drops dead? Yea.. this one is an extended 3 hour version of the same thing. Sidharth Malhotra is logical intelligent human being and hence a problematic idiot for great Indian culture. Then at the end he becomes an Indian ... as he knows how to follow stupidity is Indianness. On the other hand Tamannaah who for no reason does an item number at the start of the movie but otherwise plays the great Indian naari who won't stop believing any garbage that can be called religion stands in water praying to Devi until his pati comes home.
PATI PATNI AUR WO DO - 4.5 STARS. G.
Pati Patni aur wo do - Trailer
Directed by - Mudassar Aziz
Starring - Ayushmann Khurrana, Wamiqa Gabbi, Sara Ali Khan, Rakul Preet Singh
This is the best comedy I have seen in last few years for sure. THIS is called comic timing. Completely stupid but still not grating on your nerves. Not many movies you laugh out loud and replay a scene. This one does that for you. Ayushmann has been good at comedy but the revelation is Rakul Preet who has done comedy before but in this one she takes it to another level. The typical confusion and chaos of comedy are all done right.
Our hero is trying to help a friend get to her lover but gets caught in various situations that threatens his own marriage. the usual running around and catching up to various stupid situations happens. The aunty who keeps thinking the wrong pair are a couple is just hilarious and her scenes are in itself good reason to watch the movie.
MIRZAPUR - THE MOVIE - 2.5 Stars. PG13.
Directed by - Gurmmeet Singh
Starring - Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal. Divyenndu, Jitendra Kumar, Ravi Kishan
It can be called Mirzapur - Light. The web series was more gory. This is an endeavor to make easy money out of the web series fame. Nothing changes same characters doing same things. Its more like a celebration of Mirzapur and how every character is great. They didn't even bother to create any creative angle or tension between any of them. After some fake tension they find a new and fresh outsider enemy to tackle in form of Ravi Kishan, who also runs through the motions to collect his paycheck.
One note of caution for Mr Ali Fazal - The guy has stopped looking human, we had hard time understanding if he was actually playing Hulk and will there be a twist in the movie when he turns into one. Mr Ali Fazal - don't kill yourself, calm down on those drugs and steroids, your neck is going to disappear in the puffed up balloon shoulder and chest. Please please... dispassionately look in the mirror and ask the question - who is this person?
AWARAPAN-2 - 2.5 Stars. PG.
Directed by - Nitin Kakkar
Starring - Emraan Hashmi, Disha Patani, Shabana Azmi, Suvinder Vicky
There used to be a bankable great star called Emraan Hashmi, that guy is slowly aging and fading away. Same problem as above, Bhatt gang sitting in living room and deciding to make easy money without doing any creative work. Picked up their half successful old movie called Awarapan and made a sequel. Emraan who clearly has no interest left in creativity is sleep walking the role.
One problem - he is old so should he save another damsel in distress? well, the creative answer is he is saving an adopted daughter with the same name as previous movie. The only good scenes in the movie are the old movie's scenes that are inserted to remind us of the older version that was released 15 years ago.
BATWARA - 3.0 Stars. PG13.
Directed by - Rajkumar Santoshi
Based on - Jis Lahore Nai Vekhya, O Jamya E Nai by Asghar Wajahat
Starring - Sunny Deol, Preity Zinta, Shabana Azmi, Karan Deol, Ali Fazal, Abhimanyu Singh, Khushi Hajare, Kanikka Kapur, Isha Sandhir
Rajkumar Santoshi once was this blogger's favorite director bringing greatest movies in every genre - Ghayal, Damini, Andaz Apna Apna and Khakhi. Every one was a masterpiece. But now uncle has gone old so we cannot expect him to deliver at that level. He has semi-resisted from going dark in these dark times. He hasn't completely gone Hindu Nationalist insanity and kept a little bit respect. Instead like every movie nowadays his movie is based in Pakistan and Sunny papaji is somehow a Pakistani Muslim who is berating Pakistani people and giving them lectures on how they are not Muslims and need to fix their Muslim-ism... easy.. right? Obviously you cannot ever lecture to Indian Hindus telling them they don't know Hinduism. That may not go down well. But give Santoshi credit to not go completely hateful Hindu mode, as he still talks about 'bhai-chara' and 'insaniyat', alien terms for Indians. Also credit needs to be given on an ending where Sunny doesn't go complete berserk instead the society understands and comes to the rescue of the Hindu lady who is in middle of the entire thing. Maybe it was because he had no budget to shoot the climax but let's not doubt his good intentions.
DHAMAAL 4 - 1.0 Stars. G.
Directed by - Indra Kumar
Starring - Ajay Devgan, Arshad Warsi, Riteish Deshmukh, Jaaved Jaaferi, Ravi Kishan, Sanjay Mishra, Upendra Limaye, Anjali Anand, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Esha Gupta
Indra Kumar is alive, that's great, what is not great is - he thinks he still can make movies. He never made a decent movie and this one is no different. Ajay Devgan needs to watch his own movies, is there something called being ashamed of the work you do? If you find these things funny, please get yourself checked. Speech impairment, autism, height, just anything that is not funny in today's age is supposed to be funny in these movies. As I said India is the only country running backwards in full steam.
ALPHA - 3.0 Stars. PG.
Directed by - Shiv Rawail
Starring - Alia Bhatt, Sharvari, Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol
Alia, Sharvari, Anil and Bobby all are good actors, yes even Bobby has learnt how to act. Anything is possible! The movie is a pretty decent one lifted from Stranger Things concept of Ell! The greatest web series ever. Alia is kind of our lab rat Ell gone wild, bobby is the papa villain. So called Spy-verse has expanded to include Alia.
BANDAR - 4.0 Stars. PG13
Directed by - Anurag Kashyap, Sakshi Mehta
Starring - Bobby Deol, Sanya Malhotra, Sapna Pabbi, Saba Azad, Indrajith Sukumaran, Raj B. Shetty, Jitendra Joshi
Another masterpiece from Anurag Kashyap and Bobby. A gripping story of a failing actor caught in a web of a crazy fan girl who charges him with sexual abuse which makes him end up in Jail. Bobby puts a lot into his role, good job crying and emoting and getting frustrated. All other actors are top notch which makes this Bandar really come alive. In the circus of life you are the bandar if especially you are famous.
In the hindsight the movie kind of disses on the law that sides with the girl. How dare they side with the girl, hmm... 3000 years of siding with boy is a natural thing to do, if you side with the girl you suddenly are a helpless bandar. Anyways... well made and a good watch.
BABY DO DIE DO - 4.5 Stars. PG.
Directed by - Nachiket Samant
Starring - Huma Qureshi, Sikandar Kher, Chunky Panday
What a movie! The stylish take on movie making, the refreshing mast taaza way of this film makes it a top notch movie. Its an all out Huma movie, she is perfectly understated. The music is somehow fitting and things are just understated but still I find it awesome. Some people might feel it never blows up... as even the thriller is understated. There was something fresh that I liked in it including the name - baby Karmarkar is her name... baby do die do... remember the name. Baby wants revenge and she will get it.
LUST STORIES - 3 - 4.0 Stars. R.
Directed by - Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra, Vishal Bhardwaj
Starring - Radhika Apte, Konkona Sen Sharma, Vijay Varma, Abhishek Banerjee, Gurfateh Pirzada, Sana Thampi, Ali Fazal, Radhika Madan, Aditi Rao Hydari, Siddharth
With all the big names directing this third installment of Lust stories, the blog still did not expect it to be a great one. The second installment was not that great if I remember correctly. Lust is a word that can be narrowly used and portrayed but with Motwane, Kiran Rao and Shakun Batra at the helm they do knock the ball out of the park. All are different from other and they also have a different take on lust.
Kiran Rao's segment is an out and out thriller, a little out there but most engaging and thrilling as it switches from girl being taken for a ride to boys being played. Motwane's segment on couple swap is as weird as all Motwane stuff gets and is engaging and has a great ending, Shakun Batra's divorce proceeding is interesting and Vishal's period piece is okay.
HAI JAWANI TO ISHQ HONA HAI - 1.0 Stars. G.
Hai Jawaani Toh Ishq Hona Hai - Trailer
Directed by - David Dhawan
Starring - Varun Dhawan, Mrunal Thakur, Pooja Hegde
Just like Indra Kumar, good new is David Dhawan is alive, bad news is he still wanted to make one last movie. Good news is it is his last movie! The bad news is he still made this one. Varun Dhawan who promised and then nose dived into garbage has done his worst, we hope so. All the Govinda movies combined mix them up and keep churning out scenes randomly about trying to keep 2 girls happy and having Govinda .. ohh.. i mean Varun in the middle. Only good thing was the old 90s Govinda songs playing in the background.
EK DIN - 3.5 Stars. G.
Directed by - Sunil Pandey
Based on - One Day by Banjong Pisanthanakun
Starring - Sai Pallavi, Junaid Khan
Aamir's son is doing an Aamir in one way, his movies are interesting. He does not know how to act but the choice of movies are good. Ek Din is a great ott movie a typical small budget cute love story. A nerdy sweet guy wanting the flashy girl in his workplace. They all go on a trip and the 'one day' something happens out of magic. He cares he is genuine but does that matter to the flashy gal? A nice sweet love story that I never expected this movie to be.
On the other hand the movie doesn't ask the basic question just because you are flashy, popular and beautiful in a societal sense are you worth someone who is actually nice? O well... we are not going into boring details, the movie won't go into that boring stuff. Its a good cute movie you watch on a Wednesday evening.
MEIN WAPAS AAUNGA - 2.5 Stars. PG13
Directed by Imtiaz Ali
Starring - Naseeruddin Shah, Diljit Dosanjh, Sharvari, Vedang Raina, Banita Sandhu
Overhyped that doesn't deliver. A very Imtiaz Ali kind of self indulgence. People obsessed with partition and it's stories may like it but it doesn't make any sense. A sikh guy loving a muslim girl anyways did not have any hope whether partition happened or not. So living in this fantasy that partition made it worse is something indigestible. At 90 the guy is dying and somehow has hallucinations of partition days and wants to go back to check on his love. That is okay, but to act on that information and involving 2 countries and go and actually check on the entire thing is ridiculous. Also the dying man getting all the emotions and energy to talk to his grand son Diljit is kinda out of control. I don't see the poem in this supposed poetic love story.
The only reason the movie is of note is the thespian Naseer can still emote, the guy is a skilled genius and makes us feel for that old man he is playing. Everything else... mmm.. it's okay.
GANDHARI - 2.5 Stars. PG.
Directed by - Devashish Makhija
Starring - Taapsee Pannu, Ishwak Singh, Chhaya Kadam, Swastika Mukherjee, Mita Vashisht
The biggest problem for this one is the name itself. Someone really wanted to name a film Gandhari, it didn't matter how we get to there. So they just 'thooosed' the plot with a few minutes when she goes blind and wants to wear a 'Patti' on her eyes. The search for her missing daughter had nothing to do with it. They probably wanted to make it worse to look for her daughter, well look is gone so now she has to un-look but still look. You know what I mean. It felt forced but who cares, it's a Netflix movie it's okay.
Another problem is these women oriented movies are trying to look like Men dominated movies. Why can't you be a character who happens to be a women, but these known female leads all want a movie that they are superhero in. Why can't you just be the Hero of the movie. I will fight and I will solve and I will be the victim and I will serve the justice .... then why would we not watch all these male dominated garbage served to us? Because of all that hyper super-star driven movie, the emotions even though the actors try their best don't come through and we don't ever get involved in their struggles. Also the problem is this girl trafficking is like the favorite crime for all of the Bollywood, they are obsessed with it.
Anyways, after criticizing it for 2 paragraphs I would say it is not a bad movie, the actors are good, Ishwak and Taapsee put all their might into it, others including villains do a decent job.
DAADI KI SHAADI - 2.0 Stars. G.
Directed by - Ashish R Mohan
Starring - Neetu Kapoor, Kapil Sharma, Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, Sadia Khateeb, R. Sarathkumar
Very tacky, disjointed, TV serial-ish old school of a movie. Kapil Sharma who can't act joins others who similarly can't act. So this is a bunch of non-actors making a cute family movie. I am told Riddhima Kapoor is daughter of Neetu Kapoor and hence joins this movie as another great non-actor. Some old school folks may like the movie but then the movie is about Daadi ki shaadi so that may put them off. A family affair with a familiar very Indian topic about how kids are stupid and non-grateful to the great parents. Who on their part are childish and need lot of attention, having skipped any maturity that could have come there way in form of life lessons. Obviously the great Indian culture only talks about how kids should put up with any childish stupidity the parents do. That mostly means giving old people lot of attention.
KARTAVYA - 2.5 Stars. PG.
Directed by - Pulkit
Starring - Saif Ali Khan, Rasika Dugal, Sanjay Mishra, Zakir Hussain
Saif still shows up here and there. Maybe he misses doing movies once in a while. I mean I also play cricket and show up once in a while to random stuff. It's okay. He still is okay as an actor. Rasika is awesome no matter what she does. It is a now "formulaic" cop drama that had peaked during Kohra and paatal lok web series. This one doesn't give you any novelty but goes on in a predictable format.
THE GREAT GRAND SUPERHERO - 4.0 Stars.
The Great Grand Superhero - trailer
Directed by - Manish Saini
Starring - Jackie Shroff, Mihir Godbole
Jackie dada does these small budget movies and none of them is bad, in fact all of them are awesome 4+ stars. remember .. thaat mein jeene ka, mast mein rehne ka, marne se darne ka nahi.. the rap song from movie.... ummm.. most probably with the same name - mast mein rehne ka.
Jackie comes back with another awesome one. He is grand dad super hero of this kid who makes up a lot of stories on how his grand-dad is a super hero who fights Aliens. Are there really aliens he fights? is it all a joke? Or is it both.
The scenes of kids remind us of Stranger things and ET... bunch of kids trying to solve a mystery. Beautiful and cute movie about the kids and the grand dad. If you still have some love left in your heart you might like this cute movie. If not go back to watching Dhurandhar for your dead heart.
BABITA SINGH REPORTING - 4.0 Stars. PG.
Babita Singh Reporting - Trailer
Directed by - Ambiecka Pandit
Starring - Nimisha Sajayan, Rajesh Kumar, Barun Sobti, Anshumaan Pushkar, Sunita Rajwar, Rajat Dahiya, Kuldeep Sareen
Whenever you see a female director you know the product is not going to be bad. I know it's a very sexist take but should be done for the minority women directors. They probably don't get to direct just cuz... they probably need to prove their craft. It shows. Babita Singh our protagonist is probably the very miniscule if not the only protagonist who is not sexy and beautiful in standard sense of the words. She is a regular police woman. Not the flashy ones we see dime a dozen in form of Kareena, bebo, and all other Bollywood female actors who decide... mmm I wanna be a cop in a web series. Babita is different. Barun Sobti impresses by playing a loser who can't string together a few words but expresses a lot.
Babita comes back to her home town to see her childhood friend in a bad state, who later gets killed in the process. Babita even though not appreciated for anything, not for looks, not as a cop nor as a women, wife or family person... can't let go the fact that her childhood friend died. No he was not the sweet heart, no there was no extra-marital affair... nothing just a childhood friend. HOW rare is this? our corrupt mind is craving for... ohhh why would anyone want to find truth... must be more to it... either someone's revenge for a father's killing needs to be added, or a childhood love angle needs to be added... but no.. our director and actors stick to... hey! why did he die for no reason! AND no.. I am only caring for him because I do. beautiful!
WEB SERIES
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ADARSH BAAL VIDYALAYA - 5 Stars. G.
Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya - Trailer
Genre - Comedy Drama
Created by - Biswapati Sarkar, Sameer Saxena
Directed by - Himank Gaur
Starring - Kay Kay Menon, Archana Puran Singh, Naveen Kasturia, Abhimanyu Singh
Greatest web series in last few years. Hilarious to the core. Makes you actually laugh out loud and makes you choke up and cry on a drop of a hat. Beautiful and cute. Love everything about it.
Kay kay Menon the great actor he is, transitions himself into a bumbling mismanaging but pure at heart Principal of a government school. He has his personal life goals mixed with his Baal Vidyalaya goals and the series of drama comedy starts. Abhimanyu Singh finally gets a role of a life time, removed from stereo type of being a baddy, in this one he is a strict teacher with a soft side and he does it beautifully, hilariously and emotionally. Then there is Naveen Kasturia the guy from 'Aspirants' the TVF guy, and he as a liberal minded counsellor who has a teenage daughter in the school. He takes the cake with his struggles with his daughter and his liberal mindset of making things right in every aspect. Hilarious and again making us choke up at the same time. Few of the scenes live with you long after the show is over.
GRAM CHIKITSALAY -2 - 3.5 Stars. G.
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