The last time a film was made on vasectomy was four decades ago. The maverick comedian I. S. Johar had made one of his famed spoofs on the male sterilisation programme, only to see its release delayed till the Emergency ended. Now, on the heels of ‘Shubh Mangal Saavdhan’ (based on erectile dysfunction) comes this […]
Author: Hoshang K. Katrak
Review: IT
Kids have always held a fascination for clowns. In celebrated author Stephen King’s 1986 novel, serialised in 1990 and now adapted for the big screen by Argentinian director Andy Muschietti; Pennywise, the Dancing Clown is a macabre supernatural who awakens every 27 years to prey on children. It’s October 1983 and seven-year-old Georgie (Jackson Scott) is […]
Review: Daddy
The title card at the beginning declares the film to be based on a true story. With the Gandhi cap, the prosthetically altered nose, the manner of speech and the intense look, there was going to be little doubt that it wouldn’t be a biopic. But the moot point is – how much of the […]
Review: BAADSHAHO
It seems the action directors (too many to enumerate) and John Stewart Eduri, who conducted the background music score, had a deal in place : whenever one of them was off duty, the other would take his place. So we have fistcuffs by the dozen and/or a ear-splitting background score, lest you fall asleep. And […]
Review: Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
It’s not just the title that is alliterative: with bounteous babes, bullets and Biharis– though not necessarily in that order– in good measure, Kushan Nandy’s ‘Babumoshai Bandookbaaz’ can lay claim to being a tolerably worthy, albeit milder successor to Anurag Kashyap’s 2012 ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’. Contract killer Babu Bihari (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) has no compunctions about […]
Review: The Hitman’s Bodyguard
‘The Hitman’s Bodyguard’ resembles the buddy films of the late 80s and early 90s — apart form the fact that the word ‘mother—–r’ is overused. The VFX too belongs to that era and to a large extent so does the script. The film starts with an AAA-rated bodyguard Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) failing to protect […]
Sai International Marathon in Shirdi
Sai Baba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi Mahanagar Palika, MTDC and Champ Endurance have joined hands to organise a first-of-its-kind ‘Sai International Marathon’ in Shirdi on 15th October this year, to commemorate the 100th year of the globally revered saint, Sai Baba, who took samadhi on 15th October, 1918. At a press conference held earlier this month, […]
TOILET: EK PREM KATHA
To begin with, the title as well as the subject matter of the film is risqué, at best. In tackling this bold and gritty subject, Akshay Kumar seems to have temporarily forsaken his superstar aura and dauntlessly dived into a subject the current PM holds dear to his heart — Swachh Bharat campaign. Keshav (Akshay), […]
Atomic Blonde
‘Atomic Blonde’ — the title apparently borrowed from the song Blondie by the group Atomic– is an out-and-out one woman show. Its 1989, before the Berlin wall is set to come crumbling down. MI6 undercover agent Lorraine Broughton (Charlize Theron) is sent to Berlin for a two-fold reason—to probe the death of an MI6 agent […]
Review: Gurgaon
The first few minutes of the film gives you a sneak peak of North Indian culture, real estate wheeler-dealers, gender-bias, sibling rivalry, and more. First-time director Shanker Raman (cinematographer of ‘Peepli Live’, ‘Rocky Handsome’), clearly influenced by the neo-noir films of Anurag Kashyap, has helmed the quizzically titled Gurgaon – showcasing its fanciful malls, buzzing […]
Review: Jab Harry Met Sejal
Any film of Shah Rukh Khan romancing in Europe must inevitably fall in the shadow of that incorrigible romantic Yash Chopra’s ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’ — 22 years ago. In Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’, the director spouts the same tale (Jab We Met) of the girl severing her betrothal and marrying another. A […]