Watching ‘Moonlight’, one could be forgiven for presuming that the film was shot in Africa – the locales, the penury and the privative conditions of the principal characters in the film being adequate affirmation. The film portrays Chiron’s life in three stages – as a 10-year-old boy, as a teenager and finally as an adult. […]
The colour of the skin and the power of the human ‘computer’ are the mainstay of Hidden Figures, directed and co-written by Theodore Melfi and based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly. The film opens in 1926 in West Virginia, in an era and place when racism and segregation were prevalent in the US. […]
The 2014 prequel ended with John Wick a widower and losing his puppy to the Russian assassins. Barely five days after the eventful first film, director Stahelski (who was a stuntman in Reeves’ Matrix Trilogy), unleashes a wave of some spectacular, and some all too predictable action scenes in John Wick : Chapter 2. Santino’s […]
A well-intentioned plot, some none-too-brilliant casting and more than a few gauche movements are what make up The Space Between Us, a film set in the near future. Innovative entrepreneur Nathaniel Shepherd (British veteran Gary Oldman) brings to fruition his long-cherished dream of setting up a human colony in neighbouring planet Mars. The only hiccup […]
Akshay Kumar’s voice during the opening disclaimer, that the film is not based on any actual incident, is in total contrast to the 2013 Jolly LL.B. which portrayed the celebrated hit-and-run case in Delhi. The sequel, clearly devised to bank on Akshay’s star-power, has protagonist Jagdishwar Mishra aka Jolly (Akshay) as the 15th legal assistant […]
It’s the stuff legends are made of. Though the origins of the Great Wall of China can be traced to prehistoric times, its main portions were erected barely five to six centuries ago to defend against human invaders. Veteran director Yimou Zhang, best known for directing the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing […]
Apart from the lure of lucre, there seems to be little reason for studios investing in the time and effort of sci-fi based fantasy films. In this six instalment — set almost immediately after Retribution — of the video game series, protagonist Alice (Milla Javovich) discovers that an antidote to the T-virus lies hidden in […]
If filmmakers had their way, history would be rewritten over and over again. But first, public awareness: a) Add comedy to the genre mentioned above — banal and unwitting comedy. b) There is no yoga, just yo-yo insanity which brings uncontrolled, unintended guffaws to the viewer. The first eight minutes of the film depicts a […]
Doshipura in UP is the setting for this Muslim social drama. Middle-aged Raza (Danish Hussain) lives with his bedridden father and extended family. He harbours a guilt – his sister Zahara (Neelima Azeem) had to flee India and settle in Pakistan. A failed marriage and years later, she comes visiting to India. Like scores of […]
Director Sanjay Gupta has always shown a penchant for adapting, or taking inspiration from foreign films — his first directorial venture Aatish (1994) was based on the Hong Kong film ‘A Better Tomorrow’ (1986). Eight years later he remade Tarantino’s cult ‘Reservoir Dogs’ into the hugely successful ‘Kaante’. Now comes ‘Kaabil’ — part ‘Blind Fury’ […]
Raees is purportedly made on the life of liquor baron Abdul Latif — who had amassed a fortune dealing in liquor in dry Gujarat — although the film’s disclaimer declares it as a work of fiction. Set in the late 70s and 80s in Fatehpur, Gujarat, Raees Alam (SRK) is a myopic school-going boy whose […]