POPULAR BOLLYWOOD -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GINNY WEDS SUNNY - 4.0 Stars. (G)
Director: Puneet Khanna
Stars: Yami Gautam, Vikrant Massey, Ayesha Raza
Ginny Weds Sunny - Trailer
Remember those yash chopra days? Those Karan Johar movies? Big Musical Love Stories those are the source of something that got called 'Bollywood Movie'. When you say "Bollywood" that's what you mean, that's why when you ask people to watch a hindi movie, they are thinking of Karan Johar movie. Well here it is, Ginny and Sunny take you back to that golden era of Bollywood. A big musical Love story with drama, comedy, romance and everything in between. The surprise is they also made it work, after many years I see a movie that could actually make the formula work! Yami and Vikrant fit the role perfectly. Enjoy it, but don't expect a lot.
LUDO - 3.5 Stars. (PG13)
Director: Anurag Basu
Stars: Pankaj Tripathi, Abhishek Bachchan, Rajkummar Rao
The movie has 4 stories intertwined together, always a difficult project to do. Anurag Basu is an accomplished director and he handles it well, but I still wanted more of him. There was an unnecessary angle of himself trying to be a narrator slash philosopher, might work in a skit not in a movie. Also the stories took a long time to become interesting, I would say brilliance of Rajkummar Rao saved this movie, he is in top form and he is playing is favorite character of a loser who is in love. He loves these ordinary characters and makes them his own. What an actor! He cries while he is dancing, and still making us laugh. He has lot of moments in the movie, and then Abhishek has a scene that he shows why he is such a good actor and was wasted in the movie. Rest of the caste just do their job but don't stand out. Stories are pretty ok, and the last hour is when all the fun starts and the movie actually comes into it's own. Movie's music is catchy and gives it a character. A good one but may have been over hyped.
CHHALAANG - 3.5 Stars. (G)
Director: Hansal Mehta
Stars: Rajkummar Rao, Nushrat Bharucha, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub
Chhalaang - Trailer
Another Rajkummar Rao movie and another dependable performance from him. He is fast becoming the guy whose face is good enough to guarantee a decent outing. This is a pretty low budget movie about .... guess what? Yes, a 'loser' a favorite character for Rajkummar to play. A good for nothing small town guy who becomes a PT teacher at school. Then as happens to all losers a girl enters their lives and demands things need to change or else... Another PT teacher shows up and things become spicy. A good light watch.
LAXMI - 0 Stars. (PG13)
Directors: Lawrence Raghavendra
Stars: Akshay Kumar, Kiara Advani, Sharad Kelkar
Well it does not take a genius to find from a poster that movie cannot be a 5 star! But it takes you to watch the entire thing to find out how it feels to watch a Zero Starrer. Oh... man.. it was painful. A man who busts myth about ghosts eventually becomes one! If you are a die hard Akshay fan and still insist on watching this shit show... go ahead be my guest.
The only reason the movie was in news was because BJP wanted to remind their hindus to stay mad just in case you have started thinking of any other thing except 'hindus are being insulted'. Keep up the good work of staying dumb. I am not sure why it was not an insult to God when a firecracker was named "Laxmi Bomb" but it is an insult because a film is named as is. But o well... I don't understand a lot of things.
TORBAAZ - 2.0 Stars. (PG)
Director: Girish Malik
Stars: Sanjay Dutt, Nargis Fakhri, Rahul Dev
Netflix invests in lot of bad movies, this is one of them. There has been this trend where all the yester year big names are cast in movies to sell the movie, but the movie itself has no quality. These actors probably sign to get some money and these movies at least get name recognition.
Torbaaz is a movie about an Army doctor who used to live in Afghanistan and after he loses everything he ends up going back to help a few kids learn cricket and more. The plot itself is not very exciting and treatment is even duller. The movie is confused about what it is all about! Is it a terrorist saga which has been done too many times, is it about kids finding a father figure in war torn region? Is it about a man looking for meaning of life through kids? Is it sports movie about cricket? The entire climax is about a cricket. I think they want to pack everything but end up losing it all.
COOLIE NO 1 - Negative 1. (PG13)
Director: David Dhawan
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Sara Ali Khan, Naushaad Abbas
Sorry I am not supposed to review it, because this is the film that after 15 minutes of viewing I decided to stop watching out of protest. Now I am not an activist type of movie watcher but this brought so many negativity in me that I was willing to go against anyone. I got so mad that I could not sleep for a couple of hours. How can you disrespect your audience like that? Well... I know you can, because audience probably want the same thing again and again so they deserve it. But still!! you call yourself a movie creator!! come on David Dhawan just go and never again come out from where ever you came out to make this one. Your talented kid does not need you, don't make him look like a complete idiot. I did not know why in the first place your movies worked, except for cheap people identified with them, and classy people thought it was their responsibility to like them otherwise they will be proven to be snooty. Whatever I saw of this, it was same crap again, why don't you re-release the same old movie again? This is 2020 you still think people with speech impairment and stutter should be made fun of? Get a life!
TAISH - 4.0 Stars. (R)
Director: Bejoy Nambiar
Stars: Jim Sarbh, Harshvardhan Rane, Pulkit Samrat
Taish - Trailer
Pulkit Samrat is the guy from Fukrey, man did he work on trying to look different and remove himself from that type cast he has gotten into! Good Job, he works really hard to brood and look like a disturbed loving brother whose heart is at the right place but his deeds are not. The movie has a feel of high tense big screen drama! Bigger than life. The fights, the anger, the setting. The punjabi is a little too heavy to understand of the gangsta family but otherwise movie is pretty fun to watch. It is about 2 families the gangsta family has it's own problems and the business family have it's separate set of problems and both families collide. It is high action, gory, bloody, drama.
BUDGET MOVIES
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KAALI KHUHI - 3.0 Stars. (PG13)
Director: Terrie Samundra
Stars: Shabana Azmi, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Satyadeep Misra
Kaali Khuhi-Trailer
The movie is about girl infanticide and a spirit that has taken a village hostage. A family comes back to be on sick grandma's side and find themselves in a lot of trouble past and present. They may or may not have anything to do with it, but they are in it. Their daughter is in thick of it, can she understand what the spirit is all about?
The movie has good intentions but as all hindi movie do, the movie just does not flow. It has more ebbs than flows, it has no pace. Shabana is wasted for once, the girls do a good job, but the director could have done better. Good story, good intention but too slow.
SERIOUS MEN - 4.0 Stars. (PG)
Director: Sudhir Mishra
Stars: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Nassar, Aakshath Das
Serious Men - Trailer
What a concept, how creative people have become with stories. Maybe it is taken from a book. Story of a dalit man who has had enough with these 'smart' upper castes, he decides to make sure his kid becomes a 'whiz kid', by hook ... or by crook. This is not an innocent fight against justice of a dalit. It has a lot of realism in it, and the reason it becomes exciting and actually sometimes annoying. A good one and Yes Nawazuddin is back, he has finally started doing variety after getting stuck in gangster mode.
SAB KUSHAL MANGAL - 2.5 Stars. (G)
Director: Karan Vishwanath Kashyap
Stars: Akshaye Khanna, Priyaank Sharma, Riva Kishan
Sab Kushal Mangal - Trailer
Probably someone produced the movie who wanted the lead couple to have a movie and hence the uncle also decided to cast a 'known name' in Akshaye Khanna. The leads are ok actors but no way they can carry a film. Akshaye on the other hand has always been a pretty good actor and he does his part of being a villain / comedian. That's the only bright spot in the movie though. Akshaye forces couples to get married but trying to force a couple he falls for the girl and the comedy... or so called comedy starts. If you got absolutely nothing to do, you can put it in the background while doing dishes.
HALAHAL - 2.5 stars. (PG)
Director: Randeep Jha
Stars: Barun Sobti, Manu Rishi Chadha, Sachin Khedekar
Barun Sobti used to be the TV heart throb few years ago. Then he disappeared after a couple of duds. Now he is back as detective / inspector looking to solve a case for a Dad who's daughter has been murdered or was it a suicide? He plays this sleazy, corrupt detective who stumbles on to the case and now suddenly has a change of heart. The movie is pretty good though it gets hampered being a movie on a shoe string budget. Barun also is just ok, and never looks himself in his fake moustache and never gives a look of authenticity. The movie delves into corruption, politicians and scheming, all the masala. Not a bad one, you can give it a try.
COMEDY COUPLE - 4.5 Stars. (PG13)
Director: Nachiket Samant
Stars: Saqib Saleem, Shweta Basu Prasad, Pooja Bedi
Saqib and Shweta are not just a comedy couple they take us through a great journey of ups and downs, fun and stress, and lots of comedy. What a nice sweet movie, perfect to sit late at night and relax, sit back and enjoy a complete movie. The parents, friends, situations all make you smile and the lies, and confusion of relationship makes you stressed but not a lot.
Movie is about a couple who do stand up comedy as a couple are in a live in relationship. Do they get together, stay as it is, separate and breakup? How much lying is good? How Cow urine is good for you? How dirty can a friend live and survive? All questions get answered. Watch it!
BAHUT HUA SAMMAAN - 3.0 Stars. (R)
Director: Ashish R. Shukla
Stars: Sanjay Mishra, Ram Kapoor, Raghav Juyal
This Hotstar movie does not look like you should touch but it's pretty good movie. It has a lot of comedy and some scenes are laugh out loud kind. Sanjay Mishra is generally a dependable side actor but amazingly he carries the entire enterprise.Ram Kapoor is villain is ok, Raghav and the other kid are pretty good too.
The movie is about 2 college kids who want to rob a bank and they take consultation from their senior... well more like 40 years senior Sanja Mishra. Things get complicated. The movie also stands out as one of those brave movies who against the current political establishment in India.
DARBAAN - 4.0 Stars. (PG)
Director: Bipin Nadkarni
Stars: Sharib Hashmi, Sharad Kelkar, Mukesh Ramani
After I saw the horror show called Collie Number 1 I frantically looked for another movie to watch and started 'Darbaan' based on a story by Rabindranath Tagore. O what a relief, the movie had a story the actors were not making faces like baffoons. Anyway ... I should even compare. A beautiful story about a person who thinks himself as the caretaker of his master's kid. He is the ultimate "Nanny". Remember the old school mentality of staying with one company and dedicated to one owner for a lifetime? Yea.. thats the kind of guy he is. He wants to do it generation to generation, same thing, he is born to serve his master. But then tragedy falls on him and he never recovers, or can he? It's difficult to stomach the ending because of the generation gap between Tagore and us, but a beautiful tale of a darbaan played to perfection by Sharib Hashmi.
UNPAUSED - 4.5 Stars. (R)
Directors - Nikkhil Advani, Avinash Arun, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Krishna D.K, Nitya Mehra, Raj Nidimoru
Actors - Various.
At the end of the year watch one more time how 2020 was different than rest of the years. 5 beautiful stories about 2020 corona times. First one is about a germ freak who is scared and living in isolation in 2030 because the virus still there! Second is about an executive who wants to commit suicide, third is about daily wage laborer who has lost his job but has found a place to live, 4th a beautiful story of 2 ladies one in her 20s and the other in her 60s who find something common and come closer to share their lives during lockdown, and last and the most beautiful is the poetry weaved by Ratna Pathak and Shardul Bharadwaj. A story of a senior citizen living alone and a rickshaw driver who is missing his family during lockdown. The distrust turns into trust and then more, oh what a beautifully presented story, if you eyes are not moist after this go get your heart checked maybe you lost it somewhere. Great directors and writers and actors come together to give us these 5 stories in unpaused - A must watch.
WEB SERIES
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BHAAG BEANIE BHAAG - 4.0 Stars. (PG)
Creators: Ravi Patel, Neel Shah
Stars: Swara Bhaskar, Aditya Belnekar, Varun Thakur
Bhaag Beanie Bhaag- Trailer
These new age mini series are just perfect, they are not long to discourage you and they have enough topical things going that make you stay interested. Actors are good, writing is good. There is no out of control drama, it is just a nice little story about Beanie who wants to be a stand up comedian and has her trials. It seems stand up comedy is something new that has popped up in India, a lot of movies have that as the backdrop. Here it is utilized really well. A lot of good relationships develop with Beanie, starting with her parents, her fiancé, her awkward friend and then with that guy who has shown up from US! All relationships are funny but also deep, and her fling with the US guy is very entertaining. A good show.
