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Reviews
Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar (2024)
Visual feast
Each frame a spectacle. Wow, the lighting, colour combination, the framing with a Kurosawaish balance, obviously accentuated by rich costmes, and jewellery. Something we are not treated by any director yet.
I resisted the urge to use the pause button umpteen times to squeeze more of the artistic pleasure. So much so, I missed the narrative.
On hindsight, Heeramandi is a hotchpotch of characters, not a single one well defined, not a single one you can relate to. Ofcourse, HM is anything but history with no Lahore in it.
Cartwright's character is horribly unrealistic. SLB's niece can't act, nor is she a looker. Only Manisha delivers
Music and dialogue match the splendor.
Dunki (2023)
Lackluster product from Hirani
Any logic in the plot? You want money, smuggling yourself to London is the only solution! Not one, but three Punjabis. Add two more. One commits suicide for a senseless cause and the other massacres a few on the way, but thanks to his truthfulness he is sent back.
Hotchpotch of old Hirani tricks. He Desperately tries to win the audience by some laughs and sentimental stuff. Almost fails in both the attempts.
Easily Sharukh's most insipid performance ever. Less said the better about Tapsi. As an old lady, even the makeup doesn't make her old, she is just a misfit. Her younger version lacks conviction even more. Her presence-rating stoops a few notches downward.
Good directors should maintain their dignity by keeping quite in preference to dishing out below-par stuff.
Animal (2023)
Watching this movie is an act of disservice to the society
Leave alone message, what is the point the makers want to convey? Smart they are, they cashed on the baser insticts of the masses and on the dormant masses hidden in the so called elite. Add the scenes and dialogues to cater to the animal in the unthinking today's gullible viewer, some attention--gripping scenes subtly plagiarised from Sorcesce Torentino movies, plenty of gore, that is Animal for you.
Leave the psychological baits, and the magnetic screen presences of the protagonist and the antagonist, only then one can see the holes in the writing.
The story is supposed to have been pivoted on the father-fixation. Given the treatment the son received from father during his teens and adulthood for that matter, the massacre-the-world-for-father is baseless and sick--so is the murderous rivalry in the family. You slit any number of throats, you get away and become more adorable hero.
Every rupee spent on watching this movie, directly and indirectly, is an instrument in polluting the contemporary human psyche.
Alas, the movie is a superhit. With a heavy heart, I expect the arrival of more horrible and tasteless movies in the horizon.
Gadar 2 (2023)
How can one stoop so low?
Out and out banking on the glories of the earlier version. No theme, no script, no dialogue, and not a single character that could act. What is there to act? Not one role is well-defined. Tara Singh and Sakina are older looking than their roles justify. The villian literally has no character. Repeating the old songs, old dialogues, and old scenes cannot pour life into a dead script.
Saddens me to note that this trash is a commercial success. With utmost perseverance, I sat through the 2hrs, 45 minutes ordeal on OTT.
I give it a three because the promotion was so good, I almost wanted to watch it in theatre. Thank God, I did not.
Hello Meera (2023)
Effort deserves appreciation
Writing a script asking audience to watch a single female character in close up for 90 mimutes requires guts and imagination. We can concede the The writer succeeded. Only set used is a car. Can't say I was glued to the seat as much as the heroine is made to glue to her driver's seat, another matter the car mostly doesn't move.
I sat through the entire movie in just three sittings, which I could not even for high budget recent Nawazuddin starrers.
The girl is watchable, but needs to improve a lot in expressions. It means director needs to improve.
Script is good, considering the constraints. Dialogues are passable too, but they did a good job of conveying the imagery of a fairly long story, enabling the producer to make an Amazon-acceptable film may be with a total cost of less than a crore. Filmmakers note, it is possible to make a watchable movie with onetenth of the cost of an average film.
Pathaan (2023)
I congratulate myself on withstanding this soporific till THE END
37y/o hitherto well-established Indian actress (or actor in the non- gender-specific, currently-in-vouge terminology, asked to and willingly reveals the last millimeter of her still juicy anatomy, as can be currently okayed by the judiciary and can be viewed by 13+ year-olds with or without parental guidance.
She can act, or she, did under better directors. Far better than Mala Sinhas and Hema Malini s.
But what she is coaxed to bring about expression-wise, dialogue delivery-wise, and the timing-wise is a parody of her earlier self. Though we condone her for the pathetic, and ill-defined creation of her Pathanic character by the story writers, the storyboard writers and the helpless, if deserving, helpless director.
And there is this 58y/o Bollywood king for a hero. Who is supposed to vicariously romance her (the Pakistani), in a venture that he purportedly laboured for three or more years, which includes building and cinematographically displaying the animal muscle he acquired possibly through a life-negating regimen and life-killing steroids.
I should grant, he does look good, and doesn't make a mockery of himself in the hotch-potch of a script, on which more than 800 crores of Indian Rupees have been spent. I wonder, how much of that amount is recovered back, despite the phenomenal hype.
The less said about the other aged, actors about their acting credentials, the better. Bobby madam, please note.
When you can't present, better be absent.
How come Abraham (51) looks good and comes off okay even in his ill-defined-role of a villain character!
We have seen umpteen more credible Cinemas involving around CIA, KGB,RAW, ISI, Mossad et al. Some of them were passingly acceptable. But this one stinks.
The virus story- I am tired of laughing at the aboriginal joke generated from many Hollywood the world is ending nonsense scripts.
Make something original guys, use your brains, rake them up as much as you can; you may, God help, prevent you from touching the absolute zero on your descent way down.
Creativity, originality, and sense of connectedness with humanity matter. And in a way, immaterial, and spiritual.
As long as you are motivated by money, you are doomed materially and spiritually.
If you get the point, money will eventually, come your way so much, you will relinquish its ownership with a relish.
Karthikeya 2 (2022)
How to cash on gullibility of sentimental audiences
While another recent Telugu movie Sitaramam is reasonably well done and deserves its success, It pains me to say Karthikeya2 becomes a money spinner without any major praiseworthy component.
The hero apart from lacking any hero material lacks the basic acting skills. The mother overacts every scene, the heroine looks good but has only two or three expressions to offer. About the attempted humor if the supporting character, the less said the better. VFX stardands are no where near today's standards.
Photography is okay, not necessarily the framing. The theme is catchy, dialogues are acceptable, but the connect between the scenes is gripping.
Even if an inferior storyline is handled by a better director and starcast, the effect vwould have been far better.
The makers hit a jackpot just because they thought of a catchy storyline.
Modern Love Hyderabad (2022)
Nagesh Kukunoor comes of age
Neat and effective. Realistic depiction of Telugu youth (Hyderabad to be more exact). Nothing vulgar, nothing flamboyant, nothing melodramatic, yet touching and characters relatable. Kukunoor maintains thread of humor consistently. Acting standards and editing standards are much above average.
Female leads in almost all the episodes are pleasant to watch, looks-wise and performance-wise.
For a change I find Telugu dialogues are distinctly clear rendered with good diction.
Good work.
Good Luck Sakhi (2022)
Waste of talents
It beats me how a talented director like Nagesh Kukkunur could come up with a disaster of a movie. One cannot relate with any character, including surprisingly young-looking Keerti Suresh, and the mechanical actor Jagapati Babu. Story line, if there is any, is full of holes. Dialogue is bad.
Finally you want us to give credence to lucky charms or not?
I congratulate myself for the patience with which I put up through the two hours of drag.
Pushpa: The Rise - Part 1 (2021)
Almost There
Pushpa the rise, unfortunately
One of the gripping movies I watched recently. "Gripping" is a generous compliment as it is basically a Telugu product. Barring a Rajmouli now and then, Andhraites never came up with a world standard work. It is a pleasant surprise that a hitherto mediocre director and a no-hero-material hero could succeed in emerging with what they actually did. It is no surprise that it clicked with the masses.
No nonsense storytelling, swift editing, reasonably good photography...it grips and you instantly relate with the protagonist. When I heard the main actor said he really worked for the role, I believed him after I saw the performance.
Lyrics by Chandra Bose and the tunes by DSP are praiseworthy. Chandra Bose, considered a midget in comparison to Veturi and Sirivennela did a great job, as he did with the same director's forgettable movie Rangasthalam. The dialogues and their rendition by the main artists and the dubbing artists is touchingly realistic. After hearing ordhodox Krishna-Guntur accents for decades in Cinema and the recent trend of comical but soothing-to-the-ear Telangana accent, it is heartening to hear genuine Rayalaseema dialect all through the movie. I do not know if the makers could bring about that unique experience in the other dubbed versions of the pic. I wish the Telugu movie makers showcase the mellifluous accent of of the North(Eastern) part of Andhra, buoyed up by the success of Pushpa.
Sunil, the comedian we know since years did a good job as a menacing villian.
Cons:
Is the character of Pushpa well-defined?
He is strained, wronged, strong-mustced, burns with passion, very accomplished despite his poverty and lack of education. Comes up with the best law-defying solutions time to time, bashes people single-handedly, kills people when he feels like it, nearly kills a man when he looks at the girl hero fancies, and feels sorry he didn't bash him sufficiently enough ( because the director wants to keep up the viewers interest in the sequence)
If Pushpa is so strong a character that he quits his job at the drop of a hat, and so full of ideas that the best startup in India cannot think of, why be an instrument in denuding the only source of Red Sanders in the whole world, the sacred Tirumala Hills?
He would be and could be successful in whatever and wherever he does, he could be a cobbler and prove his point. He is shown to have enormous love for Nature!
He will most probably die in the sequel, as did God Father, Nawazuddin in Sacred Games, Walter White in Breaking Bad, but what impact it is leaving on the audience's psyche?
The makers of the movies, the likes of Anurag Kashyap, Martin Scorcesse befool the people, make millions of dollars, but subsequently lead the unsuspecting viewer into the vortex of reverse consciousness.
It is a point the social scientists may well analyse.
Eakam (2021)
Directionless
Not a single character well-defined. Below par performances. Mouthing a few high-sounding verses doesn't make a good movie. Had to see the entire length of the movie patiently just to locate something worthwhile.
Doctor Strange (2016)
What a waste of technology?
Neither the writers nor the directors know an iota of Eastern spirituality, or any spirituality for that matter. They just borrow terms like "astral" from Buddhism and Hinduism and make a incredulos amalgamation. Neither here not there. Don't overestimate the gullibility of the audiences. Use the acting abilities of the cast to better and more purposeful applications.
PK (2014)
An unimaginative exercise by an imaginative director
A NOVICE CANNOT CALL IT A SCI-FI FILM An alien representing a race far more advanced than humans capable of inter-galactic travel,inquisitive and wealthy enough to embark on the study of life on other planets sends its representative, who happens to be an absolute idiot.
The idiot is stark-naked, but wears a weird looking contraption tied to his neck by a weak golden chain no self-respecting thief would think twice to snatch. If the contraption is gone, the alien is as good as dead.
He looks exactly like a human being with a recently acquired six-pack. (AK in case you have not guessed), but is instructed by the controllers back home not to blink. AK makes an effort to do that and nearly succeeds.
The alien can learn any language by holding the hands of a female for six hours without a break. He succeeds in doing that and learns Bhojpuri from a prostitute in Rajasthan. He learns all the terms cultural, religious and the rest. He can speak fluently, the nuances and all, but lacks the common sense to understand the concept of give and take.
We did not expect a Jules Verne or an Asimov, but as science fiction movies go, Hollywood, and all ollywoods with B,T,K,M..., this is the bottom rung.
ALL ABOUT HUMOUR Almost all the situations that were designed to satiate your hunger for humour, are either inspired from hackneyed themes or blatantly copied.
If you really want to laugh, read OSHO jokes on religion,or watch OH MY GOD and the like.
IN A NUTSHELL Raj Kumar Hirani, did dish out two reasonably good movies earlier. He thinks rehashing all the elements from his popular movies is a sure way to success. The 2 wheeler, the helmet, the long-drawn out kiss,familiar music bits, the talk-shows and all.You see Parikshat Sahni, you guess all his sequences together with the dialogues.
The film, far from being original, lacks consistency of the main character. He steals money from a beggar, disobeys civic laws, knows to cheat and lie, and has a ready source for his fancy dresses-- innumerable rollicking cars wherein the couples remove all their clothes before they get down to business. He is a puritan, cheat, innocent, prophet-like,diplomatic,liar,and a buffoon rolled into one.
THE MESSAGE:Can any one please tell me?
I regret spending three hours(including the interval time) watching this much-hyped movie. Saurabh Shukla is a miscast in the role of Tapaswi.The character itself is ill-conceived, neither funny nor villainous.His assistants printout the comments about him from FB and Twitter and present him the files daily.
I still give the film 6 for few saving graces like Anushka, the obvious efforts of Amir Khan, some good scenes in roads of Belgium where the roads are all for your self, some good shots in the desert of Rajasthan.
4 out of my 6 go to the beautiful dance duet(thankfully no song) from the lead pair.Well-conceived, well-orchestrated, and well-shot.