Gulabo Sitabo is a strange title for a film. It does not mean anything in isolation. However, it is catchy enough to pique some interest in an otherwise drab looking film. As the opening credits roll, we see a puppeteer showcasing his twin puppets, “Gulabo fights, Sitabo fights,” The quarrel […]
Read Time : 11 Minutes
‘Bunty Aur Babli’: High on Energy, Chemistry, and Delicious Bollywood Spice
Released in Summer 2005, it is a mystery how a Hindi feature like Shaad Ali Sahgal’s Bunty Aur Babli would become a major commercial success. Small town stories might be the toast of the town on this date but the early 2000s were known for NRI themes and urban coming-of-age […]
Read Time : 7 Minutes
‘Maska’ review – Manisha Koirala spreads sunshine in a syrupy film about a Parsi boy
There are films that examine ambitions and asks us to follow them with all our might. They confidently sell The Alchemist philosophy, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” Clearly, fantasies do have a strong selling point. Those narratives talk about lives that […]
Read Time : 6 Minutes
‘Baaghi 3’ review – Tiger Shroff defying physics and logic for world peace is a recipe nobody asked for
Let me put it in simple terms. All external artifices aside, Baaghi 3 is the most well-intentioned Hindi film of the year, so far. Clearly, if Panga had a heart of gold, this Tiger Shroff film has one handcrafted in platinum. Naysayers may allege the makers for their kindergarten level […]
Read Time : 12 Minutes
‘Thappad’ review – Taapsee-starrer tells us to re-evaluate the way we treat women
By now, we are all aware that Anubhav Sinha’s Thappad has its turning point in a despicable act of impulse. A young man slaps his wife. As it rightly turns out, the film is not singularly about a slap that provokes a woman to ask her way out of the […]
Read Time : 9 Minutes
“Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan”… High on empathy, low on entertainment!
India is not yet ready for a Call Me By Your Name where queer folks would express love with gay abandon. But the country has also walked past the grotesque Dostana phase which shamelessly treated the LGBTQIA community as second-hand citizens. We are certainly over the insensitivity of Chanthupottu and […]
Read Time : 9 Minutes
“Love Aaj Kal”… Jab ‘oblivious writing’ met ‘atrocious acting’!
What happens when a filmmaker becomes vastly distant from the ways of the world? We witnessed this phenomenon hit Aditya Chopra hard when he attempted to showcase things that he perceived to be the actual issues of today’s youth in his 2016 caper Befikre. The stakes are even higher for […]
Read Time : 5 Minutes
“Malang” is a dark, stylized revenge saga with no beating heart…
According to Mohit Suri’s Malang, this world is a bad, bad place to be in. The planet is grim, stylish and also filled with good-looking, mysterious people. The leads, as is the trend, are not shown to have family ties but are having the time of their lives in Goa’s […]
Read Time : 6 Minutes
“Jawaani Jaaneman”… An ageing man-child and accidental parenthood!
Director Nitin Kakkar’s Jawaani Jaaneman offers a distinctive scenario as far as man-woman relationships in Hindi films are concerned. It reimagines numerous stereotypical romantic comedy junctures – the meet-cute, the misunderstandings, the commitment phobia, the guilt trips and even a hurried ride to the station before she leaves forever. It’s […]
Read Time : 6 Minutes
“Panga”… A sportswoman’s comeback story perked up by endearing characters!
The biggest win from Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s Panga is Adi, the school-going son of ex-National Kabaddi team captain Jaya (Kangana Ranaut) and her diabetic-sweet husband Prashant (Jassie Gill). Played with tremendous flair by the winsome Yagya Bhasin, the young actor makes us wish how the film was entirely visualized through […]