The brutal killing of Australian Graham Staines, along with his two young sons Philip (10) and Timothy (6) in Odisha, allegedly at the behest of a political party and because of forced conversions and those done through inducements, had rocked the nation — and caused a backlash worldwide — back in 1999. Two decades later, first-time […]
Going… going… gone! It’s literally a hair-raising experience when the departing substance refers to a female’s tresses, which, in some cultures and societies, is her most treasured asset. ‘Gone Kesh’ is a bold subject, especially when one realises that an almost two-hour film is woven around such a delicate subject. Enakshi Dasgupta (Shweta Tripathi), who lives […]
For cinegoers of another generation, ‘Junglee’ is reminiscent of the 1961 and 1971 classics (Junglee and Haathi Mere Saathi) of two yesteryear superstars. But Vidyut Jammwal is neither Shammi Kapoor nor Rajesh Khanna and Sameer Uddin is neither Shankar-Jaikishen nor Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Having got the basic equation out of the way, let’s have a look at […]
“Tum log humsey better hotey toh tum hamaarey ghulaam nahi hotey,” says gora British army officer, Lawrence (Edward Sonnenblick) to his subordinate Havaldar Ishar Singh (Akshay Kumar). And this, after the Havaldar demonstrated raw courage in the face of extreme danger, by jumping to the rescue of an Afghan woman about to be beheaded as […]
When sports journalists try their hands at directing films based on their vocation, much is expected – especially when the sport is one which the nation breathes and eats 24/7. To begin with, the title of the film, which alludes to the distance between stumps to stumps, is a tad misleading. Ron Sen (TV actor […]
There is little likelihood of the regular Indian movie buff having watched a 2016 Spanish film, whose English translation was ‘The Invisible Guest’. Sujoy Ghosh (director of the Kahaani films and producer of Te3n), known for his penchant for mystery and thriller films, has adapted Oriol Paulo’s Spanish film, but with a gender role reversal. […]
‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and multiple lives for one’, seems to be the motto of ‘Cold Pursuit’, a remake of Moland’s 2014 ‘In Order of Disappearance’ – a motif cleverly crafted during the film’s closing credits. Eye-catching cinematography, a body count which one loses track of halfway through the […]
Six-and-a-half decades after Sohrab Modi’s technicolor epic but commercially disastrous ‘Jhansi ki Rani’ hit the screens, comes a modern-day version with Kangana Ranaut in the lead of Manikarnika (Manu). The common runtime of 148 minutes could be a mere coincidence though. The story begins in 1828 in Varanasi where great fame is predicted for a […]
Shiv Sena founder, Bal Thackeray, was the de facto ruler of Maharashtra from 1966 till he passed away in 2012. Written and directed by Abhijit Panse, from a story by Thackeray’s trusted lieutenant, Sanjay Raut, the eponymous film covers his life from 1961 to 1995. Working as a cartoonist with the Free Press Journal, the […]
Also known as ‘The Mumbai Siege: 4 Days of Terror’, the film attempts to recreate the ghastly, inhuman attacks on the iconic Taj Mahal hotel which claimed 166 innocent lives. The four-day siege on the Taj was just one of many such strikes, though it was the one which was the one to have captured […]
The first sign of attempted comedy in the film comes when a local politician Pandya (Adil Hussain) is shown reading a motivational book on Donald Trump, while in jail. Names such as Ramesh Wadia and Arjun Sorabjee may be attributed to either intentional, or unintentional humour. Meghna (Radhika Apte) is a Public Relations officer attached […]