If you thought the giant Anaconda was the largest serpent or that the blue whale was the largest living mammal, you need to brush up on your GK – but after watching Godzilla 2. Returning to the big screen after a gap of five years, Godzilla (from the Japanese ‘Gojira’ opens with a recap from […]
Author: Hoshang K. Katrak
Film Review: Rocketman
When one considers that a young piano-playing prodigy (Mathew Illesley) grows up to be a millionaire by 25, and that four per cent of all record sales were attributed to Elton John, one has a fair amount of idea of the subject. The grown-up Elton John (now played by Taron Egerton), born Reginald Dwight, is […]
Film Review – ALADDIN
‘No, no, no singing. It’s been a long day’, says the father (Will Smith) to his two children on the boat. That he promptly breaks into a song is a different matter and one which follows the Disney trend for the ensuing couple of hours. Borrowed from ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ – ‘Aladdin and […]
Film Review – PM NARENDRA MODI
There is no doubt that his recent – successive and overwhelming – victory notwithstanding, Narendra Damodardas Modi has been, inarguably the most charismatic leader the country has witnessed in the last two decades. Omung Kumar, who already has two biographies (Mary Kom, Sarbjit) under his belt was perhaps best qualified to helm this particular venture. This […]
Film Review: A DOG’S JOURNEY
The tears may not flow as copiously as they did while watching the prequel ‘A Dog’s Purpose’ a couple of years ago, but be prepared, this one too is a weepie. The journey picks up from where Purpose trailed off – Ethan (Dennis Quaid) and Hannah’s (Marg Helgenberger) granddaughter’s (CJ) bonding with their dog Bailey […]
Film Review: De De Pyar De
The opening moments of the film set the tone for the entire first half – a hottie stripper in London makes an unannounced appearance at a bachelor’s party, where, it seems, half the junior artistes of the British film industry are hired! The lass, Ayesha (Rakul Preet Singh) – all of 26 years – whose […]
A DOG’S WAY HOME
Just a tip: a couple – make that a handful – of tissues always come in handy when watching films on destitute quadrupeds. Based on the book by W Bruce Cameron, who’s also written ‘A Dog’s Journey’ (due out later this year) – the follow-up to his immensely successful ‘A Dog’s Purpose’ (2017) – it […]
Film Review: AVENGERS: ENDGAME
When Dr. Strange utters ‘We’re in the endgame now’, in the closing stages of Infinity War (2018), it’s possible that a few viewers would have guessed the title of this, the 22nd in the series. Directors Anthony and Joe Russo along with previous collaborators, have attempted a closure of sorts in this three-hour epic. The backstory […]
Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai
Firstly, classics – and this one claims to be an official remake of the 1980 Saeed Mirza original – are to be left well alone. Secondly, one wonders why this has been tagged as the ‘official remake’. There are few, if any, similarities – the essence of the two films being the angst and the […]
THE TASHKENT FILES
Fifty-three years may not be a long time to reopen a case involving the — mysterious, no doubt — death of India’s second Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. That he was grossly underestimated and has been almost obliterated from public memory is borne out with the film repeatedly reminding us that though he too was […]
Film Review: ROMEO, AKBAR, WALTER
No prizes for guessing why, but films on politics, national fervour and patriotism seem to be the flavour of the season, and the rule rather than the exception. RAW (Research and Analysis Wing), the abbreviation of the film’s title, begins with black-and-white frames of an agent being brutally tortured in an ISI detention cell. Mercifully, […]