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Movie Review: Ego

Many filmmakers don’t seem to have moved along with the times. How else can anyone explain a movie like Ego that damn near uses every single cinematic trope in the least appealing and original way possible? The movie is so ill-conceived that it actually makes you long for equally ridiculously titled movies like Temper, Hyper and Loafer mostly because at least many of them have some sense of…

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Movie Review: Nirdosh

I liked this film more when it was directed by Abhay Chopra, came out in 2017, starred Akshaye Khanna, Siddharth Malhotra and Sonakshi Sinha and was called Ittefaq. Directed by the duo of Subroto Paul (not the football player) and Pradeep Rangwani, Nirdosh follows police inspector Lokhande (Arbaaz Khan) as he tries to solve a murder mystery which seemingly has only one suspect, Shinaya Grover…

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Movie Review: Padmaavat

Before we get anywhere, let’s address the elephant in the room (and I’m not talking about this film’s runtime). For all their talk about misinterpreting and ruining cultural icons, we don’t see the same people burning effigies when idols of Lord Ganesha playing cricket or kicking a football or, worst of all, having a six-pack are made and sold during Ganesh Chaturthi. We as a people realize that…

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Movie Review: 12 Strong

It’s official, people – Hollywood will get as much cinematic mileage from the war on terror as it has from World War II. The stories write themselves. From poignant projects like Jarhead, The Hurt Locker and Three Kings to acting showcases like In The Valley Of Elah and Zero Dark Thirty to straight-up flag-wavy patriotic fodder in American Sniper and 13 Hours, the myriad of different stories that…

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Movie Review: Darkest Hour

In 2006, Clint Eastwood directed, produced and scored Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. The former functions as the American viewpoint of the Battle of Iwo Jima whereas the latter offers a look at the same event from Japan’s point of view. Whatever those Yanks can do, the Brits can do better – and a decade later, apparently. In 2017, director Christopher Nolan set his high-stakes,…

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Lists of 2017 - The Almost Greats of The Year

Lists of 2017 – The Almost Greats of The Year

1. Baby Driver: What The Fast and The Furious should have been 2. Baahubali – The Conclusion: Scale, magnitude, sheer epicness and for having the best scene of 2017 3. Coco – The best animated film of 2017. 4. Dhuruvangal Pathinaru: An excellently crafted thriller. 5. Glen Garry Glenross: Just listen to that dialogue. 6. Green Room: A clinic on tone and how to have a sense of space. 7. It – More…

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Movie Review: Downsizing

Pull your mud-soaked ears out and listen up you environmentalist vermin. Every waking moment of your pathetic lives and attempts at restoring the Earth to its heyday has led up to this. Take every discovery your scientists made or every bit of legislative progress your lobbyists were responsible for and shove it because liberal Hollywood is going to school you in how to save the environment. Your…

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Movie Review: Jai Simha

Ever since the day, Nandamuri Balakrishna aka Balayya Babu made a train move backwards by his “thoda kottadam” (thigh slapping), two things happened. One, he became a walking meme. Secondly, a goal of all his “mass” movies thereafter was to top that iconic moment by hook or crook. This quest has given us moments that include him jumping off a multi-storey building by using inflatable pillows to…

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Movie Review: The Post

The Washington Post has won 47 Pulitzers (six of which were won in a single year). It has received 18 Nieman Fellowships and 368 White House News Photographers’ Association awards. Indeed, “The Post” is one of the most trustworthy and revered names in the world of journalism. And the story that this movie is based on created almost irreparable damage to this institution’s reputation and…

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Movie Review: Paddington 2

A formal letter to the formal British written with a sense of formality. Please deliver this to 10 Downing Street or to the townsfolk at Big Ben or Picadilly Circus. My apologies – I’m ignorant of any real addresses, and my laziness prevents me from searching for one. To The British Sub: Stop making your talking animal movies so good. Ladies and Gentleman of jolly old England. You might be…

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Movie Review: Mukkabaaz

The lasting lesson Anurag Kashyap wants to leave you with after inviting you to absorb his most recent cinematic offering is to have you well and truly understand the difference between the words Mukkabaaz and Mukkebaaz. Kashyap is not one to dabble in vocabulary lessons for you. He sticks to his MO while choosing to craft a story using said words, and doesn’t bother spoon-feeding definitions to…

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Lists of 2017 - The Worst Films of 2017 (Technical Ineptitude)

Lists of 2017 – The Worst Films of 2017 (Technical Ineptitude)

Before we get to the list. One film deserves to stand singularly above all others as THE WORST OF THE WORST Eradane Sala 1. Angel: A man fights a winged God with no sense of humour about it. 2. Aksar 2: The first line of the film post-prologue is “How’s your sex life?” 3. B.Tech Babulu: A film whose audio channels are not in sync and that’s just the start 4. Darshakudu: Terrible lessons can’t be…

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Movie Review: Aruvi

Some time ago, I watched an interview featuring four of Bollywood’s most influential producers. Karan Johar was one of them. While discussing a varied set of topics, he lamented the use of an intermission in Indian Cinema. While most would gravitate towards his calling it in an out-dated practice, I found myself being agreeing with him when he said that having an intermission derails the…

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Movie Review: All The Money In The World

If there is one thing movies teach you about negotiating with terrorists, it is to avoid negotiating with them – as we all know, the logic is that giving in to any demands will lead to and encourage many other acts. J Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer) may have been one of the first high-profile champions of this style of thinking. In All The Money In The World, J Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer),…

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Movie Review: Insidious - The Last Key

Movie Review: Insidious – The Last Key

So let’s get this straight. The timeline of the Insidious franchise goes like this: The first Insidious is the third story in the life of its lead character Elise (Lin Shaye). Insidious Chapter 2 is the quasi-prequel/sequel to the first Insidious which acts as the fourth story in the timeline. Then the producers of the franchise seem to have thought “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, and hence we…

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Lists of 2017 - Best Movies I Watched (in alphabetical order)

Lists of 2017 – Best Movies I Watched (in alphabetical order)

1. 13th – A fascinating look into race relations 2. Aadukalam – You would never expect a film about rooster fighting to be this good. 3. Blade Runner 2049 –  A sequel that tops the original in every sense of the word. 4. CM Punk: Best In The World – Inspire yourself damn it! 5. Delhi Belly – A Bollywood Tarantino-Ritchie-Soderberg hybrid that sparkles. 6. Dunkirk – Directing, editing and musical…

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Movie Review: Jumanji - Welcome to The Jungle

Movie Review: Jumanji – Welcome to The Jungle

Now, this is the kind of movie you’re looking for when you know The Rock is leading the line. Short, loud, silly, and most importantly, fun. Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle’s primary story is concisely explained by its trailer. Four high-school students Spencer (Alex Wolff), Bethany (Madison Iseman), Anthony “Fridge” (Ser’Darius Blaine) and Martha (Morgan Turner) are sentenced to detention on a…