The trend of last-minute insertion of an item song — by saleable artistes — during the end credits is a fairly new phenomenon. In Fuddu, the filmmakers need not have bothered with Sunny Leone and Sharman Joshi. The opening shot of the film gives the viewers a hint of the ensuing couple of hours. 44 […]
With Queen of Katwe, Mira Nair has, as in Mississippi Masala (1991), put Uganda once more on the world map. Based on a true story, QoK is a simplistic tale of an 11-year-old who is plucked from virtual obscurity to being a global chess player. It’s 2007 in the poverty-stricken slums of Katwe, in Kampala, […]
It’s a trilingual film, produced simultaneously in Tamil (as Devi) and in Telegu (as Abhinetry). Krishna (Prabhu Deva) proposes to practically any female in his multinational company, where he works as an executive. His repeated attempts to woo modern, hep girls perpetually end in dismal failure. Resorting to marrying a village belle (Tamannaah), but embarrassed […]
If a modern-day film with a legendary folktale as the backdrop and boasting of 15 tracks qualifies as a musical, so be it. Let’s check that out later. Mirzya is purportedly based on the lines of immortal sagas such as Heer-Ranjha and Sohni-Mahiwal. Munish and Suchitra are pre-teen classmates, bonding over everything — travelling to […]
For the second year running, giving the 18th edition of the festival a boost, are the two major sponsors – Jio and Star. Opening the JIO MAMI this year to a select audience at the newly restored Opera House, will be Konkana Sen Sharma’s (debuting as director) A Death in the Gunj. Cherry-picked from film […]
Dhoni’s initials are the most famous of all cricketers’ — M S could stand for Master Strategist or Motivational Skipper. It could perhaps, also denote Mahendra Singh. A film made on one of the shrewdest tacticians the game has seen, is bound to create more than just a flutter. MSD charts the ascent of the […]
‘Days of Tafree’ — whatever that means — uh, uh, it’s supposed to mean your ‘carefree’ days, is an official remake of the 2015 Gujarati film ‘Chello Divas’ (by the same director), alluding to your last day, or days, in college. As you may have guessed, it has at the core of its story (story?), […]
Westerns have always been the precursor of the superhero genre. 113 years after the first Western ‘The Great Train Robbery’ was exhibited, this genre still has the potential to enthrall audiences, despite this film being a remake of the 1960 classic (with itself was patterned on Kurosawa’s ‘Seven Samurai’). For audiences closer to home, ‘Sholay’ […]
A second sequel, 15 years after the original is by Hollywood standards not an unduly long interval. But, perhaps it would, if the subject is romance and subject is romance and at the core of the film is a 43-year-old childless spinster. Bridget (Renee Zellweger) celebrates her 43rd birthday all by herself. But at a […]
In a country where archaic laws prevail, especially over women, and in a society where hollow traditions are hallowed, a film with a subject so bold as to tackle female emancipation has to be lauded. Set in an obscure village in Rajasthan, the film has four protagonists, all of them subjugated in various ways. There’s […]
In ‘Raaz Reboot’ we are shown a couple Shaina (Kriti Kharbanda) and Rehaan (Gaurav Arora) in Romania, in Dracula’s homeland Transylvania to be precise — an extremely noble gesture on the part of the filmmakers to forewarn us! Rehaan has chucked a job in India, one through which he could buy a house within three […]