Move over Batman, Spiderman, Superman—-! In the DC comics, Wonder Woman is of Greek nationality. In this, the first female superhero film in 12 years and the first to be directed by a female director, the protagonist is the gorgeous Jewish, Israeli–born Gal Gadot (Fast and Furious, Batman v. Superman : Dawn of Justice). It’s […]
Ostensibly Manisha Koirala’s comeback film — after her doughty and victorious fight with the big C — Dear Maya is about love, languishing and loneliness. The film begins with shots of 15-year-olds Ana (Madiha Imam) and Ira (Shreya Singh Chaudhry) in Loreta Convent, Shimla, reading aloud an amorous passage from a romance novel. Ana has […]
Adapted from the TV series Baywatch, which premiered in 1989 and aired throughout the 90s through to 2001, Baywatch the movie, in alliterative language may be described as having sun, sand, surf, swimsuits, skin but no sex, and well, certainly not sleazy. With such an overt title and especially with its television predecessor, one barely […]
Following in the footsteps of her mother Aparna Sen, Konkana has crafted (written and directed) an immensely watchable debut film. McCluskiegang, four decades ago, was a prosperous town in Bihar (now Jharkhand) with a sizeable number of Anglo-Indians. In the Christmas holidays of 1978, Nandu (Gulshan Devaih) along with his wife Bonnie (Tillotama Shome) and […]
In the 1st Division inter-club table tennis league held from 15th-18th May, 2017, under the Mumbai City District TT Association, Parsee Gymkhana (PG) – represented by Zubin Taraporewalla, Arzan Khambatta, Rayomand Marolia, Sarosh Shroff and Hoshang Katrak – played exceptionally to retain their First Division spot. After outplaying MLWB ‘E’ and CCI on the first […]
The fifth and latest in the Pirates franchise coming six years after the last is also the shortest in terms of running time. It’s back to the familiar premise as the perpetually sozzled—obviously on Caribbean rum—Capt. Jack Sparrow (Johny Depp, on familiar territory) is shown botching up a bank robbery attempt : he’s found asleep […]
A walk down memory lane will reveal that not so long ago (a half-century or so), Kashmir was the preferred location for – and synonymous with – Hindi romantic films. Shammi Kapoor’s Junglee, Kashmir Ki Kali, Jaanwar, and younger brother Shashi’s Jab Jab Phool Khile are some of the films that come immediately to mind. […]
Explorers are a restless, transient tribe of people; they seldom pay heed to reason, relying on their own impulses and acting accordingly. David Grann’s 2009 real-life book (based on his 2005 article on the same and published in the New Yorker magazine) on the explorer Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) has now been translated onto the […]
The average Indian’s twin obsessions (pun intended) are cricket and cinema. In making the docu-drama ‘Sachin’, director James Erskine certainly holds the perfect curriculum vitae, having made films on the world’s three greatest sports — Football (‘One Night in Turin’, ‘Shooting for Socrates’), Tennis (‘Billie Jean King’) and yes, even Cricket (‘From the Ashes’, of […]
The Sense of an Ending, based on Julian Barnes’ Booker Prize winning 2011 novel and adapted for the big screen by debutant Nick Payne, is all about a lonely septuagenarian Anthony Webster (Jim Broadbent)— retired, divorced and running an antiquated camera shop – trying to come to terms with his Cambridge University ex-flame, a good […]
Loosely inspired by the Bengali Ramdhanu and the Malayalam Salt Mango Tree, Hindi Medium mirrors the agony and woes parents endure while securing admission for their kids in schools. Chaudhary, in his third feature after Pyaar (and Shaadi) Ke Side Effects, has crafted a delightful and light-hearted comedy which expounds on the trials and tribulations […]