At the halfway stage, the viewer may just be left wondering which subplot Akshat Ghildial’s screenplay would lay more emphasis on – the romance and impending marriage of Nakul (Ayushmann Khurrana) with office-colleague Renee (Sanya Malhotra), or the one involving Nakul’s parents. But, by then, the story had done enough for the viewer to guess, […]
Genre: Drama Rating: 1.5/5 142 minutes Director: Vipul Shah Arjun Kapoor’s droopy eyelids and drowsy demeanour might not be the only reasons the viewer would have snoozed halfway through the film. No fewer than eight jarring songs have been sadistically inserted as timely alarms, lest the paying viewer enjoy his slumber. Fittingly, the film opens […]
When William A. Wellman wrote the story for the first ‘A Star is Born’ (1937) and won the Oscar for his efforts, little would he have envisaged that three remakes would follow – in 1954, 1976 and 2018. The most recent, and an almost faithful adaptation of the 1976 version, has Lady Gaga (born Stefani […]
Genre: Thriller, Comedy, Mystery Rating: 4/5 140 minutes Director: Sriram Raghavan The mystery/thriller genre in Hindi films has been largely under-utilised and barely exploited, save for the odd ones such as B R Chopra’s ‘Hamraaz’ or ‘Ittefaq’. But even in these, the suspense unfolded in the dying (pun intended) moments of the films. Officially inspired […]
Genre: Action, Thriller Rating: 1.5/5 104 minutes Director: Pierre Morel The title, which is grossly misleading, refers to the flavour of the ice-cream Carly (Cailey Flemina) was about to have on her tenth birthday when she and her parents were mowed down by the gun-toting hoodlums of druglord Diego Garcia (Juan Pablo Raba). While Carly […]
Genre: Drama, Comedy Rating: 3/5 136 minutes Director: Vishal Bhardwaj Vishal Bhardwaj has always been known to do the unexpected – in a typical deviation, this time he lays focus in the hinterland of Rajasthan. Adapted from a six-page story, ‘Do Behnein’ by Charan Singh Pathik in which two sisters Champa ‘Badki’ (Radhika Madan in an impressive […]
For those unfamiliar with the subject – Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955) was a prolific storywriter who supplemented his earnings by penning film scripts. His writings could be acerbic and vitriolic, but more of that latter. Biographies are generally arduous to navigate, leaving the filmmaker with a tough choice – whom to appease – the paying […]
Genre: Drama, Crime Rating: 2.5/5 130 minutes Director: Sanjib Dey It’s been widely publicised as India’s first multilingual film — English, Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Manipuri and Nagamese — in English subtitles wherever necessary. ‘lll Smoking Barrels’ is an anthology of three stories, all based in ‘Far East India’ but disparate — by director Sanjib Dey, […]
Genre: Action, Thriller Rating: 3/5 123 minutes Director: Antoine Fuqua There would have apparently been a strong enough reason for Denzel Washington to have assented to do his first ever sequel — four years after ‘The Equalizer’ which was based upon the TV series of the 80s. He reprises his role of Robert McCall, a […]
One of the first films to showcase (pun unintended) the plight of brothels and their inmates was ‘Mandi’ (1983). The dusky Mrunal Thakur, making her debut in Hindi films in the eponymous ‘Love Sonia’, has shades of the late Smita Patil, who essayed Zeenat in Shyam Benegal’s 1983 classic. Noorani’s directorial feature debut goes several […]
Genre: Drama, Romance, Comedy Rating: 3/5 157 minutes Director: Anurag Kashyap Whatever Punjabis do, it’s not only without inhibition but with a great deal of spontaneity. If ‘Udta Punjab’ (2016) showcased the rampant drug menace in the state, ‘Manmarziyaan’, Anurag Kashyap’s latest — a romantic comedy — has dollops of free-spirited, licentious and overt passion. […]