Lest the viewer forget what the film is all about, the opening words – ‘definition of an aphrodisiac’ also serve to reassure that he is in the right auditorium. Raghuvir Rao (Rajkumar Rao) is an enterprising but unsuccessful entrepreneur. In the hope of turning his business around, his cousin, Devraj (Sumeet Vyas) takes him on […]
“Once… uh, twice upon a time …”, is the line uttered in the opening frames, perhaps referring to the fact that this is supposed to be a sequel five years down the line. Maleficent is Fairy Godmother (Angelina Jolie – her third film in five years) to Aurora, Queen of the Moors (Elle Fanning), who […]
“I never argue, I explain,” is just one of the many one-liners veteran actress Maggie Smith, as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, gets to deliver in this reprisal of the hit British TV series, which aired in Britain from 2010 to 2015. It’s 1927, and what begins as a simple story of King George […]
‘P se P, F se F’ refers to Article 15 of our Constitution, which enshrine clauses pertaining to ‘discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste and sex’, much as the recent ‘Section 375’ which referred to IPC’s section on sexual assault. ‘Based on continuing true stories’, is what we are informed. Sooraj Mali (debutant Bhavesh […]
Sifting through 500 hours of archival footage – most of it not seen before – Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia, has constructed a lively and obsessive documentary about the world’s best-known footballer of the 80s. The film begins when SSC Napoli, a little-known football club in Italy, welcomes their newest recruit, 23-year-old Maradona on 5 July, […]
“For my whole life, I didn’t know if I even really existed,” – the reader would be forgiven if even a glimmer of likeness was to be found with similarly titled films! Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) is a part-time clown, part-time stand-up comedian, with minimal success in the latter vocation, but who’s grown up idolising […]
When a horde of scantily clad women descend (literally!) upon a guy, it could mean one of two things – either the guy is extremely good looking or well-heeled and gullible. ‘Hustlers’, scripted and directed by Lorene Scafaria, who had chanced upon an article by Jessica Pressler in the New York Magazine, lays bare the […]
The mythical creature Yeti finds itself injured and lost on the rooftop of Shanghai-based, teenager Yi (voiced by Chloe Bennet), a violin player who does odd jobs to save up for a holiday trip. Yi, along with her young friends Jin (voice of Tenzing Norgay) and the playful Peng (voice of Albert Tsai) name it […]
It took the intervening three films for First Blood to transform into Last Blood. And the generation gap is as much pronounced when Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal) tells her foster-father, John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone, of course), “Nobody writes letters any more.” Gabrielle drives from their ranch in Arizona to Mexico, when she receives a tip-off that […]
“It’s true – the rich are different,” these words are uttered at one point in the film. Little would Grace (Samara Weaving), brought up as a foster child, have imagined that her wedding night excitement could extend to desperately attempting to save her life from her in-laws, with her husband Alex (Mark O’Brien) being a […]
“Never fall in love with the law”, warns senior criminal lawyer Tarun Saluja (Akshaye Khanna) while delivering a guest lecture to law students. This scene quickly turns to a film set where well-known but domineering director Rohan Khurana (Rahul Bhatt) is at work. Jump to his residence where assistant costume designer Anjali Damle (Meera Chopra) […]