A single clue is what is proffered in the middle of the film, based on the enigmatic maestro Agatha Christie’s 1934 novel by the same name. The self-proclaimed ‘greatest detective in the world’ – the fastidious and mustachioed Belgian Hercule Poirot (played by director Branagh himself) – is bound for London aboard the famed Orient […]
Directed by Bhargav Saikia and officially adapted from a short story by Ruskin Bond, The Black Cat is a quaint 20-minute short children’s fantasy film. Tom Alter, in his last screen appearance, plays the author Ruskin Bond who buys a broomstick from a curio shop. On returning home he experiences strange happenings including a neighbour […]
There’s no doubt that Vidya Balan is one of our most accomplished performers, who can emote with her eyes alone. Sulochana (Vidya Balan) affectionately called Sulu by all at home—is a housewife with a basic education. Her domineering elder twin sisters miss no opportunity to berate her, while hubby Ashok Dubey (Manav Kaul) has a […]
Who says that road trip movies are the exclusive domain of Hollywood? Prodded on by her friend to have a try at dating websites, Jaya (Malayalam actress Parvathy) pairs up with Yogi (Irrfan Khan) on a trip which takes them across Rishikesh, Rajasthan and Gangtok, culminating in a settled relationship between the two. Jaya is […]
Didn’t know moms could be so bad (wish I could have added an emoji)! Just 15 months after ‘Bad Moms’ released last year, comes this Christmas episodic film, with grandmas in tow. And what happens when they descend upon their daughters and grandchildren? Set within a span of a week, the film begins with the […]
The multifaceted and acclaimed screenwriter, photographer and director, Sooni Taraporevala’s second solo exhibition ‘Home in the City’ was hosted by Chemould Art Gallery at SoBo, till 1st November, 2017. Aptly subtitled ‘Bombay 1977 to Mumbai 2017’, the black-and-white photographs exhibited an eclectic mix of culture and communities, the elite and the populace – roadside barbers […]
Generally speaking, iconic films are not to be tampered with. The 1969 ‘Ittefaq’ ( Rajesh Khanna was still a couple of months away from being christened the new superstar) was collaborated upon by the two titans of Hindi cinema — Baldev Raj Chopra and younger brother Yash Raj. The former’s grandson Abhay Chopra has drawn […]
Kalki Koechlin’s second film within a week has the talented actress playing a committed and dutiful parent as opposed to the carefree and ebullient Jia in the eponymous ‘Jia Aur Jia.’ The film opens with Sahana Mehra (Kalki) being given the ‘good news’ by her gynaecologist, much to the former’s discomfiture. A heated argument at […]
The only reason the director might offer for this film going haywire long before the end is that it was his debut feature. The premise, although a tried and tested one, promised much more. Two girls, unknown to each other and coincidentally sharing their first name, decide to go on a road trip to Sweden. […]
Manoj Bajpayee is one of the triumvirate of our current actors- Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui being the other two- who have challenged the oft-believed perceptions of commercial films, even while making mainstream cinema their very own. Caught in the quagmire of business politics and wrongdoings, Divakar Mathur (Bajpayee) attempts to expose his partner Robin […]
History is almost always recorded by victors and vanquishers. A fragment of coincidence then that Shrabani Basu, while on a visit to the Queen’s summer home at the Isle of Wight in 2003, found a couple of objects which aroused her curiosity and heightened her interest in the subject – enough to pen it all […]