Film Review – Fredrick

Cast: Avinash Dhyani, Tulna Butalia, Prashant Narayanan Films such as Fredrick should be included in every Film study and appreciation course – to show how a film ought not to be made. It’s touted as ‘a thrilling musical journey’; if the sole criterion of ‘musical’ is the sheer number of songs in a film, it […]

Film Review – Veerappan

With ‘Veerappan’, Ram Gopal Varma seems to be back in business after a series of duds. Voltaire’s ‘a society gets the criminal it deserves’ is artfully woven into the film’s introduction even as RGV opens the film of a juvenile delinquent settling down to an avowed life of crime, chronicling 40 years of evils of […]

Film Review – Waiting

Shorn of the usual trappings of Hindi cinema – tear–jerker dialogues and outlandish performances – ‘Waiting’ (largely in English), alluding to the time spent in waiting-rooms of hospitals and the periods consumed waiting for the recovery of your loved ones, has a refreshingly rational take on the above. Shiv Kumar (Naseeruddin Shah) is a retired […]

Film Review – Rough Book

The title may sound vague, if not misleading. It alludes to the conformist book-learning system of education in India as opposed to the knowledge gleaned in the developed countries by imparting practical learning. Santoshi Kumari (Tannishtha Chatterjee), whose motto is ‘one should celebrate failure too’, is happily married to an income-tax official i.e. till he […]

Film Review – EKK ALBELA

Biopics are a gateway to revisiting your childhood heroes. Ramchandra Chitalkar (C. Ramchandra the music director) was Bhagwan (Dada) Abhaji Palav’s alter ego. The two sons of the Maharashtrian soil combined harmoniously to give the Hindi film industry, in 1951, arguably its greatest musical sleeper hit. Ekk Albela opens in 1930 before the diminutive actor […]

Film Review – Udta Punjab

Recipe for a successful film: take a controversial subject—ensure the outdoor location is a porous state of India—sign a rockstar hero (the shorter the better) — add a diva – X, Y or Z, preferably an ex (doesn’t matter if they do not have scenes together)—sprinkle liberally coloured powder (no kitchen condiments please)—add one more […]