Change Your Image
kishorekumar_62
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Da tang di gong an (2024)
Does not match the books
I have read a few Judge Dee books by van Gulik and really liked them. They are low key, understated and try to reflect the Chinese judicial system as it was centuries back. For instance, Judge Dee had no problem with deploying torture, in public, if he felt it would lead to the truth. His overriding concern was finding the truth - what really happened.
This series is nothing like that. These episodes are full of artificial high drama, loud music, and weird CGI. There is one episode where in low tide an entire gorge deep underwater is uncovered! Judge Dee rides into this gorge on a horse, confronts the bad guy and fights standard-issue Chinese-movie nonsense martial arts!. And the stories drag on and on and on. And most of the time Judge Dee seems to be simply guessing. Very disappointing indeed.
Panipat (2019)
Enjoyed the movie
After all the bad reviews I read, I waited for the movie to release on Netflix and saw it. I really enjoyed this movie.
I found the lead pair refreshing. Kriti has sparkling eyes and Arjun goes on you. By the time we got to the Mann me Shiva song, he had grown into the role of Sadashiv Rao Bhau.
I have read Uday Kulkarni's Solstice at Panipat. Hence I was able to make out that the screenplay was authentic. Those of you who know little about Marata history, you can trust this movie. The Maratas were perennially in financial difficulties. They had to hustle the Rajputs to raise money and troops. And the Rajputs did not like the Maratas too much. Abdali upset all calculations by crossing the Jamuna which was supposed to to be uncrossable. The Maratas did take along a large contingent of non-combatants along with them. Their supply lines were cut off by Abdali and the Maratas were indeed starving at Panipat. Yet they fought to the last man and died on the
battle field. In south India, we call this Veer Swarg.
CGI was terrible. But Mann me Shiva choreography was fantastic. Even the Mard Marata song was impressive. Battle scenes were impressive but there was one noticeable, shoddy discontinuity. Poor technical work.
Overall I enjoyed but that's just me, a history buff.
The Forgotten Army - Azaadi ke liye (2020)
Good effort
I really enjoyed this mini series.
It is basically a Bollywood movie in five episodes. It has drama, emotion, love and if course patriotism.
Unlike most Bollywood movies, this one is strong on getting its facts right. The fact that the British Indian Army was basically Indians. The fact that the INA was formed by Indian prisoners of war. The fact that their ranks were swelled by recruiting locals who then had to be trained. The fact that the INA went all the way to Imphal and probable never participated in the Battle of the Tennis Court. The fact that the moonsoon forced the Japs to retreat. The fact that the INA held off the British army at the Irrawaddy crossing.
All these facts are depicted in five episodes. Since I have read-up on the INA and have high regard for them and for Netaji Bose, I enjoyed these episodes immensely. If you have not read-up and know nothing about the INA, you must watch this mini series, and you can believe the historic events it refers to.
As for the love story, I enjoyed that too. Though the final scene was simply too too hard to swallow.
What I missed was that the film did not cover the INA trial in which Pandit Nehru went back to the bar to defend the INA soldiers. And the near mutiny in the British Indian Navy during the trials. They are covered in a voice over at the end of the fifth episode. They would have made for a juicy sixth episode.