POPULAR BOLLYWOOD
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PAGGLAIT - 5 Stars. (PG13)
Director - Umesh Bist
Stars - Sanya Malhotra, Sayani Gupta, Sheeba Chaddha
What a movie! Love it. How many stories can you tell within a simple sombre 12 days after a death? Answer is hundreds. Sanya gets a great movie to anchor, the movie revolves around how she loses her husband within 5 months of marriage and how the entire world crashes.... or does it?
The funny thing about the world is Death is not the finale, it is just part of the fabric of life. Death happens and like any other twist in life, like winning a lottery, changing where you live, or any other major event; death also throws a few twist for every character that is left on earth to deal with this new reality. A few are grieving, a few are hurting, a few are scheming, a few are trying new ways to survive and our main character Sanya is trying to find herself first time in her life!
INDOO KI JAWANI - 3.5 Stars. (R)
Director - Abir Sengupta
Stars - Kiara Advani, Aditya Seal, Rakesh Bedi
The one who steals the show is Indoo's friend who has all the advice in life. She is one of those friends who has not experienced much but still their confidence is never the problem. When distributing advice, especially about sex and love and everything in between they just knwo-it-all! The girl is awesome and takes the cake.
This is a rare Sex comedy, the genre rarely shows up in hindi movies. Indoo is wanting to experience some love / sex and everything else that life throws at her. She is stuck with a lousy boy friend, love life is going nowhere, sex life is a non starter. She is trying her best to navigate neighborhood's cheap uncles and their sons who are constantly trying to get her. If that was not enough she gets stuck with a terrorist, or is he just a Pakistani? Is their a difference? The movie kind of loses it's identity mid way, it does not stick to it's genre and start getting into clichés and tries to bring in India-Pakistan a little too much into the central theme of things. It is a good attempt but falters into mediocrity towards the end.
THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN - 4.0 Stars. (PG13)
Director - Ribhu Dasgupta
Stars - Aditi Rao Hydari, Parineeti Chopra, Kirti Kulhari
The Girl on the Train - Trailer
I like Parineeti, if I am biased it's ok. It's my blog. At risk of being called a sexist I will go ahead and call Parineeti the female Bachchan. Parineeti pulls her bachchanesque drunk presence on screen with style. She has style oozing from her, drunk, heartbroken but more importantly in heroic style. The black gothic makeup.... the demeanor. Maybe it was not very realistic but it worked for me.
I have seen the original 'Girl on the Train' and maybe that was more gripping and a story better told, but this one was not shoddy by any means. This was not a movie that is easy to remake in Hindi. It still is a taut suspense thriller with lot of twists. A good one time watch.
AK Vs AK - 4.5Stars. (R)
Director - Vikramaditya Motwane
Stars - Anil Kapoor, Anurag Kashyap, Sonam Kapoor
Technically it was a movie from last year, but I forgot to cover it. This is not a movie you don't write about, that's blasphemy. The GOAT of originality and creativity Mr Anurag Kashyap is at the helm himself (Actually it is Vikramaditya Motwane, but I still credit AK). Just like the movie 'Bombay Rose', you don't have a reference to deal with this movie. It is so new that it's review should happen in 'Nature' magazine. It is reality mixed with role-play mixed with real things but in a tightly bound story. It did not make sense... right? Yea.. that's the point.
For good 30 minutes you are disturbed by what you are watching. Actually I remained disturbed even after the movie was over. The movie is about real Anurag Kashyap who goes crazy against real Anil Kapoor in a fictitious fight for supremacy with all the real life characters from their lives. Anil Kapoor actually gives a great performance at (whatever zillion years) this age he is at and still refuses to age. Again disturbingly Anurag Kashyap tells him how he will give a performance of his life because in reality he is looking for his real daughter Sonam Kapoor who allegedly has been kidnapped. Unexpectedly the entire show is stolen by a gem of an actor called 'Harshvardhan Kapoor' his cameo is hilarious. Only weak link probably is Anurag Kashyap the actor but without him the movie cannot be.
THE WHITE TIGER - 4.5 Stars. (R)
Director - Ramin Bahrani
Stars - Adarsh Gourav, Rajkummar Rao, Priyanka Chopra
The chicken coop behavior (chicken watching the slaughter one by one but still not trying to escape but patiently waiting for there turn), which is why our unjust and imperfect society continues to exist. Why will the 'have-nots' who have no chance at anything decent in life just revolt! Isn't that is very natural reaction? If 'haves' are stripped of the 'privileges' one day they will be in shock and fight back. But the designs of society for 1000s of years have created very strong barricades and we as humans accept it, maybe genetically coded in us by now.
What if one guy decides to not be the chicken but be a "White Tiger"? Can you root for a white tiger? It sounds easy to root for a 'have not' until you find out it's not that easy to root for his cause either. Another beautiful presentation that delves in the shades of grey.
THE POWER - 3.5 Stars.(PG 13)
Director - Mahesh Manjrekar
Stars - Vidyut Jammwal, Shruti Haasan, Salil Ankola
2 things - 1) Vidyut is the best fighter in Bollywood 2) Mahesh Manjrekar is not a good director. Both these things are present in this movie, but I will give it a thumbs up, maybe Majrekar did not do a shoddy job this time and their were enough fights by Vidyut to keep things from getting boring. A typical gangster drama with a new twist of lovers hating each other. Like any good drama there is no clear black and white... and shades of grey are always good for a movie.
SHAADI KE PATASEY - 1.5 Stars. (PG)
Director - Shahid Kazmi
Stars - Arjun Manhas, Tariq Imtyaz, Mushtaq Ali
KAAGAZ - 3.0 Stars. (PG)
Director - Satish Kaushik
Stars - Pankaj Tripathi, Monal Gajjar, Satish Kaushik
Pankaj Tripathi has become 'Kader Khan' of today's movies. There was a time no movie was complete without Kader khan, I think pankaj Tripathi has crossed that threshold, he is now playing the lead in movies and web series. Good for him, but I find him a mediocre actor who excelled in comedy. Due to his success he can demand whatever and he will get. Beyond comedy I have not seen him as a great villain, or father, or a lawyer. He plays every role the same, but nothing succeeds like success. So no matter what he does, will be applauded.
The movie has an interesting premise, in 1990s there was a time when live people were recorded as dead by corrupt officials and then people had to prove that they are not dead. A man even fought an election against Rajiv Gandhi to prove he is alive. The story is of that man. Pankaj Tripathi was not the right person to play this complex character, he does not have a skill of Nawazuddin Siddiqui to make you cry, laugh or empathize with you. He sleep walks through his role and the movie drags with him.
NAMASTE WAHALA - 0 Stars. (PG)
Director - Hamisha Daryani Ahuja
Stars - Ini Dima Okojie, Ruslaan Mumtaz, Richard Mofe-Damijo
There is nothing better than a line given by one of my family member - If Namaste Wahala is trending as top 10 on Netflix this Pandemic has to end now. This is another atrociously bad movie created somewhere in Africa. Someone has seen lot of bollywood 80-90s movies and want to copy all the scenes in an African love story. Ridiculous! Netflix need to be sued for letting this on their platform.
ZINDAGI IN SHORT - 4.5 Stars. (PG13)
Directors - Vinay Chhawal, Tahira Kashyap, Vijayeta Kumar
Stars - Aisha Ahmed, Akash Dabas, Deepak Dobriyal
How many good films can we take in a quarter? Another masterpiece with 7 fabulous stories. I think 4 of them were just awesome presentations that were a knock out of the park. The creativity in these stories, the freshness in direction and boldness in presentation is just something we wouldn't have believed a decade ago. If you want to watch a few go with Chhajju ke dahi bhalle, Pinni, Nano sa Phobia, and Sleeping partner. All have a completely different aspect of Zindagi and a fresh treatment that you will enjoy.
BAWRI CHHORI - 4.0 Stars. (PG13)
Director - Akhilesh Jaiswal
Stars - Sagar Arya, Amerjit Deu, Apurva Gondalia
BOMBAY ROSE - 5 Stars. (G)
Director - Gitanjali Rao
Stars - Cyli Khare, Amit Deondi, Gargi Shitole
How do you rate a movie that has no reference? I have seen nothing like this before! Did you see how many artists were involved in painting this masterpiece? Wait and see the credits at the end. Haunting and beautiful music plays in the background, the story unfolds with each screen shot like a painting. The movie shifting between desires of the mind vs the reality as it shifts from olden times to reality! Just a work of genius that I feel very small to even talk about. You need to relax, sit back and enjoy this ride. Don't expect things to happen, just enjoy paintings after painting unfurl in front of you. Notice the details the beauty and ahh... the music. The movie covers a lot of things from a poor girl's struggles of raising a family by herself, to a beautiful inter religion love story, to friendship and empathy. Gitanjali Rao... you are a genius.
SIR - 4.5 Stars. (PG)
Director - Rohena Gera
Starring - Tillotama Shome, Vivek Gomber
India is booming with these new generation of writers and directors spoiling us with these masterpieces, slicing dicing life like we have never seen before in Hindi movies, what's not to love? Just be happy and enjoy them one treat at a time.
The movie is a complex tale of a house help and a US return 'upper middle class' guy who is struggling to fit into his role in society. The confusion boils over the well barricaded barriers created by society for 5000 years. What follows is a beautiful presentation on how far can a flight of fancy actually fly.
BOMBAY BEGUMS - 1 Star. (R)
Creator - Alankrita Shrivastava
Stars - Pooja Bhatt, Shahana Goswami, Amruta Subhash
Sorry, one of those cases where I only saw one episode and passed my judgment. So take it for whatever it is worth. This is a huge disappointment. Greats like Alankrita making a ostentatious dud like this is pretty depressing. Everything about this web series is aping American shows that only deal in shocking you every few minutes. No real soul to this series. When people decide to make something saying - let's make this big huge show about women at different places in society and then it will be mega serial with shocks and more shocks for the audience. From CEO to a hooker everyone is very skilled at evil and are ruthless... and blah blah blah... please stay away from it.
