Voice: Red-Jason Sudeikis, Chuck-Josh Gad, Bomb- Danny McBride, Matilda- Maya Rudolph, Leonard- Bill Hader, Mighty Eagle- Peter Winklage Even birds of disparate feathers flock together – that, probably, is the only message sent out in this app-inspired animated film by the two debutant directors. Red, who’s supposed to be a bird with a questionable temperament, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Though the film is peppered with piquant humour, the wittiest portion of the film is before it even begins. After proffering the viewer copious information and statistics on Raman Raghav, the serial killer of the 60s, comes the audacious disclaimer – ‘This film is not about him’. But let that not be a criterion of […]
A successful prequel is never a certainty for the fate of its subsequent films. Firstly, the title is a bit of a misnomer. The film is all about a young blue tang fish Dory (Ellen De Generes) with a short-term-memory loss syndrome, who gets separated from her parents. The trials–and tribulations-of the adorable Dory while […]
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 […]
Macau is the setting for the quartet of the most celebrated magicians and ace illusionists to perform their stupefying feats in front of an encouraging audience. Danny Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg) is the leader of the group, The Horsemen, which includes Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), Lula May (Lizzy Caplan) and Merritt Mckinney (Woodey Harrelson in a […]
There’s something alluring about Hollywood, and it is not restricted to just us mortals. In the course of their teachings, Paramahansa Yogananda (the subject of this bio-documentary) went there in the 1920s, Meher Baba visited it in 1932. Both these hallowed men count among their followers hundreds of Zoroastrians. In 1920, at the age of […]
Movies starring relentless and ruthless martial arts artists do not necessarily translate into riveting films. In his seventh outing as director, Deepak Tijori makes an honest effort at adapting the successful 2011 Korean ‘Always’, but sadly lets the script fall prey to the dictates of Bollywood. A fortuitous meeting between a visually impaired Jenny Mathias […]