Atanu Mukherjee’s Rukh opens with a peculiar disclaimer which says the principal photography was completed before November 2016. For once I wondered if there is a popular Pakistani cast member. Later we are shown a bagful of 1000 rupee notes and the picture gets clear. In what could have been […]
Read Time : 8 Minutes
‘Villain’ review – Mohanlal triumphs in an insipid film built on one-liners
“There’s nothing as unnatural as one man taking another’s life,” blares the hero more than once in B. Unnikrishnan’s magnum opus Villain. Before you could dissect his words here, we are quickly reminded of how the film has its shaky foundation on a foolscap sheet of philosophical one-liners. A commercial […]
Read Time : 10 Minutes
Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Jab We Met’ – A ‘Khuli Tijori’ of Life Lessons
Imtiaz Ali’s Jab We Met is a modest film. Modest in terms of its expectations from us, the viewers. You can easily munch a bag of popcorn and watch it away to glory – be it at 4 am in the morning or post a horrible day at work. You […]
Read Time : 7 Minutes
“Golmaal Again” – This Rohit Shetty franchise should have aged better!
Every time I get home after watching one of those underwhelming remake or a franchise film in Hindi, the thought looms large about their very existence. If trade numbers are the only basis for analysis, it is alarming how about 80% of Hindi language films that minted money in 2017 […]
Read Time : 6 Minutes
“Secret Superstar” is a necessary film, though not necessarily great!
As I was stepping out of the suburban Mumbai theatre after a late night show of Secret Superstar, I spotted a burqa-clad lady in the aisle. When I reached the parking lot, I saw another. Both had their faces covered and I don’t remember the last time I noticed women […]
Read Time : 8 Minutes
Top 10 Picks from Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2017…
Mumbai city’s much-loved Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival has come to an end. This year at its 19th edition, the festival attracted film buffs and fraternity members as always. The Mumbai Film Festival, as certain delegates would vouch for, is different from other Government-run festivals in India. The organizers – […]
Read Time : 6 Minutes
‘Apostasy’ review – a distressing portrait of family ties and rigid orthodoxy
Jehova’s Witnesses – One Christian denomination that’s been generating curiosity in me for long. Even in India where Christianity is a minority and Witnesses even fewer in number, it has always intrigued me on how they indulged in door-to-door preaching and pamphlet distribution, both of which involved pretty direct religious […]
Read Time : 5 Minutes
‘Redoubtable’ review – a stylish retro piece that Godardians will lap up instantly
Michel Hazanavicius’s Redoubtable is manna from heaven for Jean-Luc Godard fanboys. Be it the lead character Godard’s somewhat toxic rebellion or his own erroneous ideas about a Marxist society, the film spectacle the transitional years in the veteran filmmaker’s life. Set amidst the New Wave Movement that took place in […]
Read Time : 5 Minutes
‘Summer 1993’ review – Carla Simón’s debut drenches you in a sea of emotions
Do you remember those discreet overheard conversations from childhood? Some were hard to sink in. And there are others that remain entrenched for a lifetime. You weren’t the intended recipient in the first place. Then again, how would a child govern his/her own perceptions? Debutante director Carla Simón’s autobiographical Summer […]
Read Time : 4 Minutes
‘Daha’ review – Growing up in times of diminishing human worth
Minor protagonists don’t have it very easy in cinema. Particularly if the film demands them to wipe off their lovable cinematic foibles, the actors tend to goof up (probably) in absence of conceivable references. As a matter of fact, it is not easy for us to hold our collective sighs […]