Category Archives: Adventure

Toofaan

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What is the movie about? :: There are some usual days in the big city, as Aziz Ali a.k.a. Ajju Bhai (Farhan Akhtar) is fighting in the streets – there is no hesitation for him in going on beating people mercilessly, and even getting beaten up in the process. After the fight, and after being hit on the head during the process, he goes to hospital where Dr Ananya (Mrunal Thakur) asks them to get out, as she doesn’t want to treat gangsters who keep causing trouble in the city. Soon, Ali begins to develop an interest in boxing, which seems unusual in the beginning for his friends, but he is indeed very serious about it. Even though he has the strength, and wants to keep fighting, lacks the accuracy and technique. It is the same reason why he goes on a trial without any plan, and gets beaten by perfect shots from the seemingly weaker opponent despite going strong in the initial stages. Nana Prabhu (Paresh Rawal) is the coach who makes the difference around there, and Ali hopes that he could train with him some day, and become a great boxer like Muhammed Ali.

So, what happens with the events here? :: It turns out that Nana is the father of Ananya, and after some continuous attempts, decides to take him in, much to his own surprise. But it takes a lot of time and effort to gain the next level of his attention. He has to spend most of his time fighting the lower level of boxers, and he keeps training at all times, leaving his recent life behind. He is very quick to go through the next steps, and at the state level, he is given the title “toofaan” while going through the state championships, quite an easy path to the finals. But things won’t go that easy when Nana finds out that Ananya is in love with Ali. He no longer wants to do anything with any of the two, and Ananya decides to leave their home. This brings the twist, and the later stages of life now has to be dealt in a different manner. But the journey forward won’t be easy for them, and it will make them take some desperate actions in the process, which wouldn’t provide the best results. Yet, they have to make sure that they did make a good attempt.

The defence of Toofan :: As this is a sports drama based on boxing, there is no shortage of action around here, and the fights don’t begin in the ring as far as this particular film is concerned, as the underdog, as expected, had to come from the streets. It is the kind of idea that never gets old, as everyone loves comebacks, not just of one kind, but of different styles. The pattern seems perfect here, and there is the inspirational element at work, even though too much of motivation cannot be good. The emotional moments are pretty much working, even though they are somewhat moving in an expected manner, and predictability is also there in the rest of the things – we still have our dose of inspiration, action and emotions. Some dialogues can be remembered, even though it is the trailer that has the best. The romantic side remains cute, even though often seeming like forced in here. We have watched films like Brothers, and so this one nicely holds on to similar idea with ease.

The claws of flaw :: The sports drama genre has had a lot of repetition in the past, and if you look at Malayalam film industry, there have been two, Finals and Kho Kho, which could deviate from the usual path of the sports drama movies. In comparison to these films, there is a lot of cliches in this one, and from the beginning itself, there are so many things which go on the predictable lines. The songs and dance steps also come out of nowhere, and it is time for the industry to keep them to minimum – they are not mandatory in any case. Having a movie like this without a romantic angle between the main characters was also a possibility here, and maybe that seemed to be too unusual a diversion against the safe path here. It is time that films like these go less predictable, and move out of pattern to bring a higher level of sports drama, for such an improvement is the need of the time – until then, we will adjust with this one in the usual model and hope for the better versions.

Performers of the soul :: The movie has to depend almost completely on Farhan Akhtar, as he is the one name that can bring the audience to this path to watch the flick. He has some fine moments for the audience, even though we have already seen a number of them before, in different forms. There are those happy moments and those highly emotional, sad moments. The moments in the boxing ring are indeed good ones too – those were expected though, as we have seen the trailers. The last movie I watched with him in the lead was Wazir, and that was indeed a good one – well, I haven’t been into Bollywood films much, and this is more a come back for me as a Bollywood film reviewer more than for anyone else. As his character does go for a comeback, the motivation stuff comes into the picture again. Well, sports drama has been meant for the same for a long time, and it is that spirit which Farhan Akhtar maintains here, and it is always better than rich people going on trips to Europe just because they have too much money and they can claim to reclaim their lives.

Further performers of the soul :: Paresh Rawal also does a great job as the boxing coach and trainer. Then, he is also that father figure who is to remembered in another way. As he has done many times, he does again, with emotional moments in this film. He remains completely natural in his act here. Mrunal Thakur is the usual leading lady, and goes through the romantic side that we keep seeing in similar films. She does have a lovely presence though, and plays nicely to the requirement of the movie, and there is lot of positivity brought here by her – she has the same in different stages of life. She would be even more suited for a feel-good movie, and with her face and expressions, is immensely suitable for the same kind of a film. She does remind one of Aditi Rao Hydari at some points. Vijay Raaz is the other most notable face, even though he is not there throughout the film. There are many other characters who nicely play along here, and they all become part of the whole – the signs of the same are present in the beginning itself.

How it finishes :: Toofaan adds to the long list of sports drama movies which have graced the Indian film industries, and does add some entertainment, even though there is no innovation regarding the same – we usually know what happens with the storylines of these films without thinking too much about the same. The thrills that the boxing sport provides is much more than any other, and in that way, this movie manages to come up with more, with the action background always having scope, while the emotional side comes up to add another angle here. With the release being postponed multiple times, and finally releasing in the OTT platform of Amazon Prime Video, it does have enough to keep us interested in the sports, and while the Malayalam movie Godha has us taken to the world of wrestling in a different way compared to Dangal, this one goes the boxing path, and when the sports which are less appreciated get some attention, it is always good. The first Bollywood film I watched after a long time did work for me here.

Release date: 16th July 2021 (Amazon Prime)
Running time: 161 minutes
Directed by: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Starring: Farhan Akhtar, Paresh Rawal, Mrunal Thakur, Vijay Raaz, Mohan Agashe, Hussain Dalal, Darshan Kumar, Supriya Pathak

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<— Click here to go to the previous Hindi film review.

<— Click here to go to the previous English film review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Hindi Medium

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What is the movie about? :: Raj Batra (Irrfan Khan) runs a highly successful business in Delhi, selling bridal wears, and he often likes to call himself a business tycoon. He had married his love from childhood Meeta Batra (Saba Qamar) when she had come to his small tailoring shop. Although he is rich and influential, knowing all politicians and businessmen of the area, he is a simple man, finding happiness in those simple things in life. His lack of education and the absence of knowledge in English are something which makes his wife disappointed, and she wishes to be part of the high class rather than live where they have always lived. Worried about the future of their only daughter Pia Batra (Dishita Sehgal), she wishes to have her admitted into one of the top schools in Delhi, including Prakriti School where the students are taught everything through dance and music, Suraj Valley School which nothing less than a five star hotel and Cross Road School which has a tie-up with Eton.

So, what happens next in this movie? :: But the biggest of them all is the Delhi Grammar School which has been at the top position in the school rankings for a long time. The famous politicians and business tycoons have all studied there, and everyone is sure that under the guidance of the visionary principal (Amrita Singh) who used to be a student there, the school can go only up from its position. But the school only gives admission forms to those who live nearby, within three kilometres radius. She forces him to make sure that they move out of Chandni Chowk to Vasant Vihar as the first part of trying to get admission. She is adamant that Pia will not study in a Hindi medium government school like they did, and she will speak English like no other. At their new place, they have new neighbours, but struggle to make friends with people like Aarti (Neha Dhupia) who find the new people to be of low class, not fit to be part of their high level society.

And what is to follow in this adventure for school admissions? :: To prepare their daughter as well as themselves from the upcoming interviews in the top schools, the meet up and take the advice of a consultant (Tillotama Shome) who has been training rich people and their children for a big price. But despite all these training, they are not that great at the interview, and the kid doesn’t get admission. There is the feeling that uneducated parents’ children will find it difficult to get an admission. This leads to him trying to get a seat in a top school in many other ways, including trying to bribe the principal and asking many politicians for help. But none of those ideas work, and they still keep trying, only to find that one of their employees’ child got admission in Prakriti School under Right to Education quota reserved for the people with lower income. There they find a way to get the much needed seat – make some changes in the necessary documents to find their chance. Can they succeed here in one way or the other?

The defence of Hindi Medium :: The movie’s comparison should be to Ramdhanu which is known to deal with a similar theme, and Salt Mango Tree which has remade the same movie. In comparison to Salt Mango Tree which is close to an exact adaptation, there are more differences than similarities here. Hindi Medium actually rises above the other, with a smarter adaptation of the idea. It has a girl child instead of the boy child, and has a rich family rather than the middle class one. There is also a better ending, and there is no foreigner coming to India and adapting the customs – it is a ridiculous idea in comparison to the overall theme, just like it was in Bangalore Days, for them adapting the Indian culture as the right way would only make Indians wishing to adapt theirs righteous. Hindi Medium rises above such foolishness along with the lame jokes there, and also shows the consultant in the right colour. With this one, Bollywood shows the skill and rises above the rest, and the medium is right here; feel-good it is.

The claws of flaw :: One might feel that Hindi Medium takes the simple things a little bit further than one would have thought. Some moments are surely overdone, or rather stretched further than needed. The jokes are also less in comparison even though the quality is certainly there. We can also see the glorification of poverty, even though it is a fact that being more and more rich only gets things to be worse – people getting rich just goes away from the common man’s world as well as the values which have been there for so long. There is also the focus on Hindi medium itself right from the title, when having the government school itself was enough. It would feel strange that all these are coming at a time when the government has been trying to impose Hindi in one way or the other, all over the states which have come up against the same. In an attempt to get away from English, one has to wonder if the need will soon be to escape from Hindi itself with a suicide squad.

Performers of the soul :: The one person who stands out in this movie in comparison with Salt Mango Tree is Irrfan Khan who shows a lot of balance in the way the comic side as well as the serious moments are carried on his his shoulders in the right manner. Saba Qamar also blends in, and does a wonderful job as the mother who wishes for more with the education of her child – Angels‘ own Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli’s work was more natural and emotional in Salt Mango Tree though. Deepak Dobriyal is too good in his role, and Swati Das is fine support to him. Tillotama Shome as the consultant might be the best among the smaller roles here – she is really good. Neha Dhupia is left with not much to do, with her role resembling a cameo. When you look at the cast of Salt Mango Tree, you will notice that in totality, there is more of known talent there, working towards making things better.

How it finishes :: My first thought about Hindi Medium was that it was going to be exactly Salt Mango Tree which seems to be more like the carbon copy of the 2014 Bengali family drama, Ramdhanu. But that certainly wasn’t the case, with the movie having its own ideas, and it is also better than the movie which came before that, and it does the same by quite a distance. The movies like Hindi Medium are required during these times when education has become a business – I would prefer to teach students values first, and English and Hindi later, but that wouldn’t really be possible in this world, I guess. There will also be people who will wish to steal the opportunity of others, and we will also see those people who think that speaking good English everything – but I wouldn’t consider that to be great. With communication, just understanding the point is necessary, and Hindi Medium surely has more valid points than your regular Bollywood movie. It also seems free from the terrible fans.

Release date: 19th May 2017
Running time: 132 minutes
Directed by: Saket Chaudhary
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Saba Qamar, Sanjana Sanghi, Tillotama Shome, Deepak Dobriyal, Delzad Hiwale, Sumit Gulati, Swati Das, Dishita Sehgal, Angshuman Nandi, Jaspal Sharma, Vijay Kumar Dogra, Rohit Tannan, Amrita Singh, Neha Dhupia, Sushil Parwana, Rajesh Sharma, Sanjay Suri, Mallika Dua, Tanishkaa Sanghvi

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Qarib Qarib Singlle

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What is the movie about? :: Jaya Sashidharan (Parvathy), a Keralite based in the city of Mumbai, spends her time alone, both at home and at office, as she has only a few friends, and has been a widow for about ten years. After so many years of lone life, and not listening to anyone who tells her to marry or get a boyfriend, she finally decides to have a look at an online dating website at the age of thirty five. After being bombarded by so many ridiculous comments by so many men, she finally comes across Yogi (Irrfan Khan) who is interested in poetry and has his own special style, making his case very different from the rest. She is careful about him and understands that both of them are different from each other in so many ways, but decides to go with him to meet three of his ex-girlfriends so that he could understand more about him as a person.

And what is to follow in this particular adventure? :: As part of this long adventure, the two has to travel through Haridwar, Bikaner and Gangtok. But there is one particular fact about Yogi, and it is that he is a carefree person who takes no responsibility on his shoulders – he doesn’t work even after passing engineering, but has written poetry in his mother tongue, and also speaks not much of English. This leads to him missing his flight and getting on the wrong train, and creating a few other situations. Meanwhile, Jaya who has identified herself as Jayashree TK, is fluent in English, and needs everything to go as planned. At their first location itself, they do become good friends, but going past that might be a little difficult, but who knows where some paths can lead? Well, strange things do happen, especially in love and war!

The defence of Qarib Qarib Singlle :: You will find the changes in this movie as a lot refreshing, and a fine thing which is away from the usual Bollywood model. The movie feels real with its incidents and emotions, and never really jumps into that fountain of melodrama which has kept the industry buried alive in a coffin from which there was never supposed to a chance of return, and it is a situation that could be termed as a sadistic thing of terrible beauty if we take a look at things as an outsider. Yes, the fans have always enjoyed the same, as it is what they have always been trying to do, but when we are outside that thought process of becoming addicted to a celebrity who has enough strength to become a parasite on the common man, throwing nonsense and grabbing money, we want the change. Qarib Qarib Singlle is surely that divergence from the regular path, and has fun moments in its realistic world having people who come up with no wonders in love, and are good at heart, not in their muscles, clothes or freaky singing and dancing in a party or pub.

The claws of flaw :: Some people can consider Qarib Qarib Singlle to be a little slow for their liking, but thanks to the smaller length, things get better. People who want less simplicity, and go for that colourful jump mode new generation romance in a pub calling for party, can also skip this one, as the movie calls more for the combined audience of family and youth. You can actually agree to the fact that there could be more comic sequences in this flick, and the journeys to different places could have also been more beautiful with the local scenery captured further along with what all are already there. All those characters other than the two protagonists never really get to do much here, and there is no development of the background as one would expect to be there. The reason for the movie’s journey would also seem a little strange for many. More could have been thus developed with the setting itself too.

Performers of the soul :: There is no stopping Irrfan Khan, and it is a proven fact. It was a few months back that I had come across Hindi Medium, and realized that how much this man had elevated it above the Malayalam version with the same theme, Salt Mango Tree. There is something that he brings on the big screen every time, and we cannot keep ourselves away from it. While Bollywood has been bringing nonsense in the name of keeping the audience entertained with masala, he was there with movies like The Lunchbox, Talvaar and Madaari. Here, he delivers two sides of a character with ease, as the funny side as well as another side with a certain depth in his ideology, arrives safely here. With no fake image of a hero being built, he becomes the everyman character, speaking a little too much, and doing a little more than a usual person, but doing all of them with such perfection which you will find difficult to find with any superstar who depends on his or her fans to sing blind praise.

Further performers of the soul :: While Irrfan Khan’s character maintains a certain amount of mystery as we come across him only after Parvathy’s character decides to go on to meet him, the latter gets a clear personality to work with, right from the beginning. She has worked with it with such skill that one can easily understand that she is one step ahead of almost everyone with that “superstar” title on head, which all try to hold on to. Still, the question remains if Bollywood is worthy enough or at least ready to have a heroine like her, who won’t jump into that masala stuff which provides a heroine with so less to work with that she is reduced to an eye candy. Into a world which is full of “actors or actresses who are related to someone in the industry”, she thrives with her performance rather than anything else, as she did this year with the amazing upgrade to Airlift, known as Take Off, and earlier with Charlie and Ennu Ninte Moideen. Here is one Bollywood debut of quality.

How it finishes :: A long way ahead of the usual romantic flick that Bollywood has been providing us, and also racing ahead of many overrated dumb romance from many languages which got only some ridiculous party songs, pub dance and meaningless infatuation for the audience, Qarib Qarib Singlle makes a point. It shows exactly how a fine romantic feel-good movie can be made, without those unnecessary elements appreciated by a certain group of half-witted audience who should be held responsible for Bollywood having so many low quality hundred crore movies with content not worthy of even being made a short-film – such cases are better suited only for an alien world which has no scope for brain development. If you prefer movies with aversion for clothes being at the same high level as the disinclination for making something sensible, do not bother, and go back to your usual world and continue watching what you call “cool”. Sometimes, the audience becomes the villain to an industry.

Release date: 11th November 2017
Running time: 125 minutes
Directed by: Tanuja Chandra
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Parvathy, Bajrangbali Singh, Anud Singh Dhaka, Neha Dhupia, Brijendra Kala, Luke Kenny, Siddharth Menon, Pushtii Shakti, Isha Sharvani

<— Click here to go to the previous review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Trapped

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Vampire Owl: Aren’t we all trapped? Isn’t that the reality of our world?

Vampire Bat: How are you trapped? You are wandering all around.

Vampire Owl: I am talking about being trapped in this body and this world.

Vampire Bat: Oh! So, you want to be dead and meet Lady Death to be with her again.

Vampire Owl: Yes, it is kind of like that. There is that certain need which doesn’t go away.

Vampire Bat: You do no the consequences of the same, don’t you?

Vampire Owl: Will I be locked in the top floor of the vampire castle like this particular person ended up?

Vampire Bat: No, unless you make the mistake of locking yourself in. I am sure that you can get out through the keyhole, invoking your inner vampire anyway.

Vampire Owl: Dude, my vampirism is rather inside out.

Vampire Bat: Well, you have to find your true inner vampire, and it is now or never.

[Gets three cups of strong tea with Mariegold biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: Shaurya (Rajkummar Rao) is not the most popular person in the company which he works and has very less number of friends. He has problems talking about his love to Noorie (Geetanjali Thapa), but finally when he manages to do the same, they are together – now the problem remains that they need to get married before she is forced to marry someone else. But before that, he needs to find a house for them live in, and he is just not able to do that with his small salary – both of them don’t earn enough together, and can’t afford to give advance to renting a new house in the locality. There seemed to be many choices earlier, but soon, he seemed to be running out of options, and as the clock seems to be moving so fast, he is prepared to be settled with anything. It is then that he gets what he wants, and feels that this is all going to work fine, but little does he know that it is only going to mess up everything further.

So, what happens next in the movie? :: The new place that he gets to stay is a room at the top floor of an apartment which is newly built, and is at a great height. It is not used for living, as there is some legal issues with its construction, and a case is pending at the court. It stands tall in the city, with no people within and around, as only one old security guard is there to look after the whole thing, and doesn’t really care what happens. So, renting out this place seems to be too easy for the young broker (Yogendra Vikram Singh) who is only happy to gain anything from the same. So, without letting the guard know about it, he just moves in with the essential things without telling his friends or anyone at the company, even his own lover. After he falls asleep, he wakes up late next morning, and in a hurry to get to his lover, goes out, and runs back to get his mobile which he had forgotten – but he had left the key outside the door, and ends up getting locked inside.

And what is to follow with this adventure? :: He finds that his mobile is on low battery, and quickly tries to make calls, but soon the battery gets to zero power, and it turns out that there is no electricity there either. There is no water supply either, and his attempts to break the lock as well as the door itself fails. He tries shouting, but nobody hears him from that far away, and his attempts at writing down things on a cardboard box reaches nobody – even when it reaches someone, it is taken only as a prank as everyone knows that nobody lives in the flat which is plagued by a court case. As days go on, he begins to have hallucinations, and decides to take more desperate measures to ensure his own survival. But the question remains how long he can go on like this, with no chance to communicate to the outside world about his hopeless situation, which gets more and more desperate every day? There is the need to act quickly, or he is done.

The defence of Trapped :: You will find Trapped in its own divergent mode to be effective right from the first moment all these things in the flat begin. This genre is not really something that brings our movies into the confort zone, neither does it do the same for the audience, but this one seems to have got the balance here. You feel the need to get the protagonist out as much as he does for himself – being a common caught in a terrible situation, his tale connects to us better than the others. It also shows the situation in a busy city where nobody cares for the others – it is to be noted that the nobody never really cared that the protagonist was missing and didn’t care to come looking for him – it is all work and nothing else in a busy world which has so less for the common man. We have that there will be hope for more at some other times, but there is none. Rajkummar Rao is undoubtedly the star here, as he makes things better every second, starting from that door getting locked. Geetanjali Thapa has a cute and smart presence in this one when she is there.

The claws of flaw :: The movie does have its slower moments in the middle, and the beginning actually feels rather too ordinary and interesting – it takes getting locked inside an apartment to make things interesting. One also wonders why people never really noticed the fire even in the night – something like that is possible in an abandoned building, and it had to be checked for, no matter where you are – these days, people are suffering from the terrible lack of curiosity, or are they not? It also reminds us of a number of survival thrillers, and you know the names without second thoughts, as they are that good. This won’t come close to being there with them though. It is also the same reason why you would want more with this movie, with more efforts to escape, and what else can be tried differently in an effective manner. The songs are not that interesting, but they are not to focused on.

How it finishes :: When you consider how well this movie seems to have been done, one can only wonder why it doesn’t get to release here with some publicity – we know that even if it is a good movie, the cast wouldn’t matter that much – we know how some of those Bollywood superstar movies run here without much of an audience leading to shows getting cancelled again and again, finally disappearing from the theatre list in less than a week. This type of movies need to have its trailers and posters all around here, and after getting that needed attention, can get to be watched by more people. Serious survival horror has had less attention in our world, and other than Warning which was taken from the much popular Hollywood movie, there is not much being even remotely close to being known to the public. We could have always used more, and it is surely nice to have this one around here. I am sure that we are going to have more of such divergence in the future, like there was with movies like Phobia and Raman Raghav 2.0.

Release date: 17th March 2017
Running time: 105 minutes
Directed by: Vikramaditya Motwane
Starring: Rajkummar Rao, Geetanjali Thapa, Yogendra Vikram Singh, Rahul Dutta , Malay Garg, Girish, Patrick Graham, Rajiv Khanna, Hawk McNab, Hardik Mehta, Rahul Patel, Anup Rupanwar, Shiladitya Sen, RN Shukla, Vivek Soni

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Noor

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Vampire Owl: The only Noor I know is from the 1997 Malayalam movie, Chandralekha.

Vampire Bat: That character was Nooruddin.

Vampire Owl: Yes, but saying the name will be like asking for a hundred rupees.

Vampire Bat: It doesn’t matter. If you get one hundred rupees, keep it.

Vampire Owl: But what would I do with human money in our realm?

Vampire Bat: Well, you can start a coin museum. We already have different kinds of museums and one more will do nicely.

Vampire Owl: That is surely not a bad idea. My zombie minions can always do with some extra business when not trying to take over the world.

Vampire Bat: Isn’t it yet proven that they can’t take over the world at all?

Vampire Owl: No, because I have taught them to be positive in their life, or rather in their undead existence.

Vampire Bat: Now I know what is going wrong with a few brainless zombies.

[Gets three cups of strong tea with Mariegold biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: Noor Roy Chaudhary (Sonakshi Sinha) is a girl in her late twenties, worried about so many things, and her weight being more than her Twitter followers is just one of them. She feels that she is the step-daughter of her father, and the cat Dimpy is the real child, as he cares a lot for the cat. She feels that there is nothing good going on in her life, as she spends most of her time in the traffic, and can’t afford anything much, with her salary being lesser than what she has been spending in the last few months – the potholes meant that she had to keep changing the tyres of her Tata Nano, and she also ends up quitting smoking to cut the costs. Her job as a journalist has her disappointed all the time, as she thinks that she is more of a joker than a journalist. She keeps sending her resume to CNN and BBC so that she could escape from the meaningless journalism which she is doing.

So, what happens next? :: Shekhar Das (Manish Chaudhary), her boss used to be a journalist whom everyone admired – all young journalists wanted to be like him. After his marriage to Lavina Kapadia (Suchitra Pillai), he had received his father-in-law’s news agency, and had settled in as the boss, and had no more courageous journalist action. It is there, at The Buzz that Noor also worked as the junior correspondent. She runs a show called Mumbai Believe it or Not which she finds to be pointless. She gets to talk to different people in the city, like someone who walks upside down and another one who never removes her helmet – she wants to do something like the problems local fishermen are facing due to a new coastal road and the problem with sewers. Also, she is worried about her weight, and doesn’t believe that any good and decent guy will fall in love with her, considering that hiring a hitman to kill someone is rather easier.

And what is to follow with this adventure? :: Her best friend in the city is Zaara Patel (Shibani Dandekar) who doesn’t listen to anyone else, and has been trying to motivate her since school days. Saad Sehgal (Kanan Gill), her other friend is now at London, and these childhood friends are all that she got. Her favourite sentence is “I hate my life”, and the maid at the place Malti (Smita Tambe) is the only other person whom she regularly talks, other than her friend and her father (MK Raina). It is then that she comes across Ayananka Banerjee (Purab Kohli) who has been a CNN reporter working in the Middle East during the wars, and the two gets close. It is then that she gets an idea about something more – an exclusive news which could turn things around for her. But will that happen, or will she remains the same and keep blaming herself for not doing it right?

The defence of Noor :: The movie goes on a realistic path, and there is nothing that goes beyond the lines drawn regarding the same. We feel the protagonist’s problems, no matter how silly they will sound, and they are possible in the case of so many people. The first half is really good, with some humour, and there are also those moments which are there to stay. The credit for the same goes to Sonakshi Sinha who makes this character work so well. Her dialogues, expressions, and the incidents in life make things go on smoothly, and we keep enjoying the light and sweet moments around. There is everything going right with this character with those scenes. If you don’t read too many reviews which keep saying that this isn’t right, and that should have been like something else, you will know that this movie is close to life as it can get – most of the blame put on this movie seems to be more due to some prejudice rather than anything else, even though the movie does have its problems. Still, there are messages, and the feel-good factor.

The claws of flaw :: Noor could have been big, and there is no doubt about that. There was scope for almost everything that could have stayed, from big thrilling moments to those big funny scenes, all contributing very well to the movie in totality. There are also those silly scenes which get rather too much of an attention. There are also those final moments, which seem to have finished the movie without trying that much – maybe there was a rush without that much of a thinking. Things get rather too comforable there, and we are left to witness the curse of the second half, which has attacked Bollywood so much, and is without any plans to stop at any time. One has to wonder why it gets a step down from the moment the first half stops. When there seems to be the chance to get deep into the bad practices in the medical field, the movie just takes one step back, and then when getting close to the bad guy, there is another step taken back – strange things happen in the second half. Then there is too much of party.

How it finishes :: One thing that Noor makes one feel is like that of the Malayalam movie Mili. There is a lot in common between the two despite having entirely different personalities. Also, in certain reviews, there have been people judging the character, without thinking about the fact that it is the role, and this is a person who has her own problems – some people are even against her thoughts, and it is not like they say that it is badly done, but coming up with the idea that it is wrong. It is a strange judgment of people when you see it. We surely have some strange people who come with their own strange ways of hating a movie. This flick is based on the novel Karachi, You’re Killing Me! by the Pakistani journalist and writer Saba Imtiaz, which was also her debut novel. She has also developed the script for this movie, and any comparison can only be done by someone who has gone through both the movie and the novel.

Release date: 21st April 2017
Running time: 116 minutes
Directed by: Sunhil Sippy
Starring: Sonakshi Sinha, Shibani Dandekar, Smita Tambe, Kanan Gill, Purab Kohli, Manish Chaudhary, Suchitra Pillai, MK Raina, Gareth Lawrence, Nikhil Khurana, Indraneel Bhattacharya, Sippora Zoutewelle, Ajita Khanna, Yulian Shchukin, Avantika Akerkar, Sunny Leone (cameo), Diljit Dosanjh (cameo), Badshah (cameo)

<— Click here to go to the previous review.

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Naam Shabana

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Vampire Owl: I know this person from Baby.

Vampire Bat: This is a spin-off prequel to that movie, and so it is no surprise that you know her.

Vampire Owl: So, this is both a spin-off and a prequel? That should mean two levels.

Vampire Bat: Yes, this one also has Ajay Singh Rajput played by Akshay Kumar, Anjali Singh Rajput played by Madhurima Tuli and Om Prakash Shukla played by Anupam Kher.

Vampire Owl: And joins Shabana Khan played by Taapsee Pannu, I see.

Vampire Bat: There is also our own Prithviraj with an evil side.

Vampire Owl: I don’t see what can be better than that.

Vampire Bat: Yes, Ivide had shown his negative shades better than any other.

Vampire Owl: And we remember that older movie with him playing the bad cop getting reformed – Vargam, I guess. I also liked him in his other Bollywood movie, Aurangzeb.

Vampire Bat: Bollywood needs a few more in their movies, just like him. I still have Memories in my head.

[Gets three cups of strong tea with Mariegold biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: Shabana Khan (Taapsee Pannu) is a college student who is also practicing Judo to take part in a number of competitions. Her mother, Farida Begum Khan (Natasha Rastogi) is in full support of her, whatever she plans to do. She doesn’t hesitate in beating up people who cause any kind of nuisance, no matter how small it is, or how meaningless the fight is. She has made herself tougher, as she had grown up watching her father beat up her mother mercilessly all the time after coming home drunk and out of his senses. On one of those days when he was attacking her mother, she had hit her father so hard on the back of his head, that he ended up dead – it had left her in the juvenile home, until coming back stronger to help her mother move forward with her life. This flashback about her is rather unknown to her new friends.

So, what happens next? :: Shabana is quite a popular girl in the college, and one of her friends, Jai (Taher Shabbir Mithaiwala) has fallen in love with her. He asks her to accompany him for dinner, and they seem to have fallen in love, but on that night, they come across some eve teasing, to which she decides to respond – the result is Jai getting killed and leaving her scarred for life. His parents blame her for the incident, and despite going to the police station almost every day, she finds no progress at all. Frustrated and without hope, one day while returning from the police station, she gets the calls of an unknown man (Manoj Bajpayee) who gives her an offer she can’t refuse. She will get her revenge against the four men, but he wants something from her in return. So, will she manage to live up to the promise on her end, and will he be able to do the same?

The defence of Naam Shabana :: A lot of reviewers who go around in Bollywood are sure to miss how good Prithviraj Sukumaran has been in this movie, and there is that tendency to figure out how much they can appreciate everyone else. The makers won’t give that much for someone of such calibre, and the reviewers will just focus more on the Bollywood stars – just like I had written earlier in the review of the short-film, Invisible Actor, that there are actors and superstars, and there are those who are good enough to become both and maintain the balance. Along with him and Taapsee, the movie has its thrilling side going. There are also some very nice action sequences, and nothing overdone in that department. There are also some nice dialogues to go with the same – some of them are actually funny, whether intentional or not. It also feels good to get an origin story, which provides more scope for a sequel.

The claws of flaw :: Some scenes in this movies are just strange – with people removing their shirts to fight, vengeance given so much importance by an intelligence wing, the villain willingly giving away his identity when there was other options considering how smart he is, choosing the rookie to do this dangerous mission when there are experienced people around, and so on. It is still good to see that such Bollywood tendencies get to be controlled up to an extent. Shabana also has rather less attention on her character than everything else about her. Some of the moments just get funny when they shouldn’t have been, and we also get so much less of the villain who should have been the highlight of this movie from the darker side. The first half of the movie, with its stretched romance, becomes the rather too long thing here too. They could have done without the songs too.

Performers of the soul :: As expected, Taapsee Pannu does provide some knockout punches here, and she suits the character really well – even when the character is not flawless, she nullifies a few bad sides. It her work in the original movie which has inspired this one, and she gets to play the girl with fire more. Everyone loved her in Pink, and this one no longer has her as a damsel in distress – she gets to make sure that her agency remains a proud one. Still, as her work in Baby was so effective in such a short time, that would be remembered more. Prithviraj Sukumaran who was seen in Malayalam movies which were different kind of thrillers, Oozham, Ezra and Tiyaan, here we have him playing the villain, and I am sure that having more of him would have helped this movie better. Akshay Kumar’s role is small, but quick and effective, while Manoj Bajpayee only gets to talk, without getting any action. Madhurima Tuli and Anupam Kher also cross over here from Baby.

How it finishes :: Naam Shabana is a movie which could have done better with more focus on its antagonist, and a more consistent character development of our protagonist. If you don’t go for this one with the expectations high considering Baby, you are surely not going to be disappointed – it is that one which automatically let the expectations go high, and the makers seem to have thought that this would bring the money. They could have made more money with better focus on Prithviraj, but here, they have taken rather too much time for even Taapsee’s training to begin. Still, Naam Shabana is another thriller that works, and even without the name of Baby attached to it, there is more to the tale. Maybe the stand-alone feeling will give the flick even more strength. You can only watch this one and come up with your own opinion, and the need for another movie in the franchise.

Release date: 31st March 2017
Running time: 147 minutes
Directed by: Shivam Nair
Starring: Taapsee Pannu, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Manoj Bajpayee, Akshay Kumar, Danny Denzongpa, Madhurima Tuli, Anupam Kher, Murali Sharma, Zakir Hussain, Bhuvan Arora, Taher Shabbir Mithaiwala, Natasha Rastogi, Manav Vij, Mohan Kapoor, Elli Avram, Shibani Dandekar, Virendra Saxena, Aparna Upadhyay

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Udta Punjab

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Vampire Owl: I know a few humans who thought that they would never get to watch this movie.

Vampire Bat: There are humans who think that they will never get to see a vampire, but here we are, able to appear whenever we wish to.

Vampire Owl: I heard that they had a problem with censor board.

Vampire Bat: We should be thankful that the movies about the great deeds of Uncle Dracula are not given to them for certification.

Vampire Owl: You mean to say that the great imperial vampire video was uncensored?

Vampire Bat: Yes, you easily get that from the violence.

Vampire Owl: You mean to say that it is violence – what you see in the video feels rather natural than anything else.

Vampire Bat: It is more natural to humans than us, but they censor it, you know.

Vampire Owl: They are so afraid of the inherent evil in them.

Vampire Bat: Yes, and they blame everyone other than them for the same.

[Gets three cups of English tea with special snacks].

What is the movie about? :: The movie tells the tale of four people people in the state of Punjab, a Punjabi musician named Tejinder Singh (Shahid Kapoor), an unnamed Bihari migrant working at a farm known only by the name Bauria (Alia Bhatt), an inspector in the Punjab police department named Sartaj Singh (Diljit Dosanjh), and a doctor who is also a social activist named Preet Sahni (Kareena Kapoor), whose lives get connected to each other due to the smuggling of drugs into the state. Sartaj’s brother Balli Singh (Prabhjyot Singh) is one of those drug addicts who ends up in the hospital, and it turns out that the police officer had almost no idea about his brother using drugs. He is treated by Preet who hopes to bring him back to normal life, through her rehabilitation cenre. At the same time, she tells Sartaj that the drug menace has become too much and the police department is not taking action about the same.

So, what happens next? :: As Sartaj decides to get deep into the drug problem, Tejinder, who is known by the name Tommy Singh, and as Gabru among his fans, is leading a rather clueless life outside the world of music. Throwing parties all the time, and keeping on consuming cocaine, he has no control over his life. His fans are not that different either, as they follow his example, having no responsibility, and trying to be like him. As Tommy takes this troubled path, he ends up in jail, and there he meets his fans inspired by him ending up in prison just like him. Sartaj is also the one to arrest Tommy, and is influenced by Preet to do something against the drug problem which threatens to turn the state into a situation similar to Mexico. He decides that it is time that he does something about this problem against which nobody even dares to talk or take action.

And, what is to follow next in the adventure? :: As this girl known by the name Bauria wanders around in the farm where she is working, she ends up finding a packet. She understands that it is some kind of drug, as her landlord uses agriculture to hide his dealing with drugs. The girl, who had her dreams of playing national level hockey for the nation shattered, decides to sell this, and get some money. But she doesn’t know trouble she is getting herself into, as she is captured by a gang of drug dealers who sexually abuse her, and keep her locked in their farmhouse. It is then that a reformed Tommy decides to take responsibility to change the world, and Sartaj as well as Preet gets further in gathering information about the drug problem and the people behind the same. But with so many powerful people including police and politicians having their hands in the same, can anyone bring a change?

The defence of Udta Punjab :: There is sincerity about this movie, and we are put face to face against an evil which needs to be stopped as soon as possible. The best thing about the movie is that it never glorifies drug abuse – there was the movie Spirit against alcohol, which began with the glorification of the same only to end up with a message against the same as it strived towards the finish. But Udta Punjab begins and ends with the same idea shown on the screen, and chooses the right path. At the same time, we once again notice that it is Alia Bhatt who steals the show with that kind of a character which is to stay with us for long, unlike what she has been doing with ridiculous romantic flicks like Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya and Shaandar, or some half-cooked story like Dear Zindagi. Here she scores by playing the role of a commoner going through the struggle, and we know how good she can be, from Highway. Shahid Kapoor, at the same time, seems to live in this role, which is too good to watch. Diljit Dosanjh, whom most of us are seeing for the first time on the screen, has a controlled and memorable performance in store for us here. Kareena Kapoor, compared to the rest, has lesser to do, but remains the big presence.

The claws of flaw :: You will feel that the movie does go too slow in the middle, and it also takes a little too much in the beginning to get going, having you as a doubtful one in the beginning. The movie could have used its tale in a more effective way so that nothing is lost in the middle. There is rather too much of ups and downs in this movie, which could have kept itself at a certain level instead of coming down when not expected. A lot of people are also going to feel the essence of a documentary in this one, as there are no real heroes in this one, but common people who struggle against an evil which threatens to destroy our world – not really the usual Bollywood-ish kind of thing, is it? Well, it also seems to be forced to add a little bit of a romantic side to its main characters, and maybe the inspiration for the same is nothing more than knowing that we still have the Bollywood fans to please and gather support so that the one hundred crore mark could be reached. The seemingly funny side is also as a little bit too strange at times to be called funny.

How it finishes :: Udta Punjab is the movie that you can’t ignore, no matter what you think about it – it is also difficult to end up not appreciating this effort which seems so genuine right from the beginning itself. There is a certain amount of honesty here that we will end up appreciating – even when there is chance, the movie doesn’t pretend to be what it is not. It is surely a lesson, something for the new generation who is taking the easy path out with alcohol and drugs; the question will be whether they will learn enough from the movie to stop being addicted or if they will continue to fall into addiction. No matter what the youth decides, it is up to everyone to unite against the drug menace, and also spread the word against this kind of silent terror which has more strength than any direct act of terrorism to destroy our world as well as what goes beyond the same.

PS: Do watch the movie of the week, Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum.

Release date: 17th June 2016
Running time: 149 minutes
Directed by: Abhishek Chaubey
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor, Diljit Dosanjh, Satish Kaushik, Suhail Nayyar, Prabhjyot Singh, Harpreet Singh, Manav Vij, Avinash Kumar

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Neerja

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Vampire Owl: So, we get to watch the movie which is known as the best of Sonam Kapoor.

Vampire Bat: And the movie which managed to be the Best Feature Film in Hindi for the year at 64th National Film Awards.

Vampire Owl: Her movies before this one happens to be Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Dolly Ki Doli and Khoobsurat, right?

Vampire Bat: It is indeed a scary list. But we should look beyond them as humans are unpredictable in many ways.

Vampire Owl: The last time I trusted one of them, I lost a feather. It was a pre-historic feather which Doctor Frankenstein attached to me.

Vampire Bat: Come on, Bewakoofiyaan which came before these movies was quite an okay movie.

Vampire Owl: I don’t even think about that kind of movies.

Vampire Bat: Don’t tell me that you don’t have the feeling that this could be good or even more than that.

Vampire Owl: I have no feelings about some movies; I just watch as if right out a coffin sleep.

Vampire Bat: Well, lets just watch this one then.

[Gets three cups of Ceylon tea with Arrowroot biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: The movie tells the tale of Neerja Bhanot (Sonam Kapoor) who is in her early twenties, living with her family and having a normal life. She used to be a model, and is now performing the duties of a flight attendant in Pan American World Airways, of which her mother Rama Bhanot (Shabana Azmi) doesn’t have that much of an opinion. The company which was largest international air carrier in the United States from 1927 until 1991 has her assigned to Pan American Flight 73 which started from the Sahar International Airport in Mumbai, going through Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, as well as Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt, until finally reaching John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. For the same, she is taken to the airport by her friend Jaideep (Shekhar Ravjiani) who has feelings for her. But there is a past that haunts her, and has kept her away from relationships.

And what is the flashback all about? :: There was that unhappy arranged marriage of her, to Naresh (Kavi Shastri), a man working in Qatar, who had abused her over the dowry and her lack of expertise in doing household work, especially in cooking for him – he is particularly angry at her for him having to spend his money to buy food from outside and expects her to keep good and tasty food ready each and every day when he returns from work. But it doesn’t satisfy him despite her trying so hard. In the end, she returns home and takes up modelling again. Naresh sends a letter from the Middle East, accusing her of not good at looking after home, and asks her not to return without more money. Devastated, she decides never to return to him, supported by her family members. She finds a job as a flight attendant with Pan American World Airways at the same time, and decides to be happy, remaining the big fan of fan of actor Rajesh Khanna, frequently using the quotes from his films as goes through her simple life.

So, what happens next? :: As the flight reaches Karachi from Mumbai, four members of the Abu Nidal terrorist organisation, Libyan sponsored and based out of Palestine, murders the guards, and enters the airplane with guns, grenades and other explosives. Dressed as security guards, they make it through rather easily and keeps everyone at gunpoint. As the hijackers were not aware that the cockpit of this particular flight, Boeing 747 is upstairs, Neerja gets enough time to alert the three American pilots who quickly escapes through the overhead hatch, making their way to the terminal, despite the terrorists keeping on firing at them. This meant that the flight could no longer take off, and the four terrorists, Khalil (Jim Sarbh), Fahad (Vikrant Singta), Safirini (Abrar Zahoor) and Mansoor (Ali Baldiwala) were left in the airplane with their plan already becoming not that effective. But they are determined to kill any number of people if no pilot was sent to the plane – they would start by those holding American passports; who all will survive this unleashing of terror?

The defence of Neerja :: The tale of the courageous lady who saved the lives of 359 people from the clutches of Libyan-sponsored Palestinian terrorists is nothing less than inspiring a long salute from the bottom of the heart, and the courage displayed will inspire more. The movie also makes us sad and depressed about the ongoing acts of terrorism, but makes us believe that there is someone like her who becomes the light. Sonam Kapoor deserves the appreciation for the work that she has done here, coming from some of those terrible movies which gave her not much to work on. But Sonam has brought her best ever performance here, and it is something that will ask for the appreciation, and we shall provide her the same for living through the life of this young lady who died saving lives. She seems to fit in this role better than the rest of the roles in her career, and a lot of Bollywood actresses could have messed this up by overacting, or messed the whole thing up adding unnecessary elements, but here, the leading actress as well as the director keeps things in control. Yes, this one goes realistic.

The claws of flaw :: Neerja, when you look at it as a movie, doesn’t have that much depth to the proceedings. It is all dependent on Sonam Kapoor, and the rest are just there to support her and make sure that she gets more and more chances to do better. We can also see what might be an attempt not to get further into detail, as there is not much talked about the background of the hijacking, and also about how the terrorists decided on this path, as well as a background check on them. There is not much in the music to go for either. The terrorists are also not that much interesting, but that should be more about them also being custom made to fit in, rather than become the people that they have been or should have been. You will also find that there are moments when Sonam Kapoor misses out, but they will be forgotten as they are too minute to notice. In the end, the movie should have also focused more on her being the inspiration rather than focusing on the sadness, for Neerja as well as the flight attendants have all achieved something that anyone related to them could be proud of.

How it finishes :: The biographical movies as well as flicks inspired by real events have been the strong point of Bollywood for some time, even as mindless movies do get to one hundred crore of box-office collection with ease. You know how well Airlift and Rustom turned out to be, no matter how much fiction was added. As a biopic based on the life of someone who who saved life at the cost of her own, and on the one who became the youngest recipient of India’s highest peacetime award for bravery, who was also the first woman to receive the same, this is a movie worth even more. In the year 2004, the Indian Postal Service released a stamp in memory of her. Pakistan government also presented her with Tamgha-e-Insaaniyat, for showing incredible human kindness. These are the kind of tales which should become movies more, so that people can believe that humanity is not without hope, and that there is still chance for redemption of mankind. Movies on such good, brave, men and women will always inspire us to do something great, which we at some point had thought to be impossible. Lets hope that we will be delivered from evil.

Release date: 19th February 2016
Running time: 121 minutes
Directed by: Ram Madhvani
Starring: Sonam Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Yogendra Tiku, Shekhar Ravjiani, Kavi Shastri, Sadh Orhan, Vikrant Singta, Jim Sarbh, Abrar Zahoor, Ali Baldiwala, Kavi Shastri, Bobby Arora, Edward Sonnenblick, Arnold Malek, Waqar Khan, Nikhil Sangha, Arjun Aneja, Sushil Tyagi, Ismail Mohammed Mirza, Andy von Eich, Meghana Kaushik, Eisha Chopra, Sunanda Wong, Anjali Khurana, Shashi Bhushan, Aarush Rana, Shaurya Chopra, Vishwendra Singh, Chandra Thakur, Manya Chopra, Prashant Guptha, Asha Joshi, Alex Kozyrev, Ikhlaque Khan

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Dangal

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Vampire Owl: I am not that much into wrestling these days. Even though I do wrestle my own demons every day.

Vampire Bat: It is not that much of a wrestling if you look at it from another person’s perspective.

Vampire Owl: But they are good. They even breathe fire once in a week.

Vampire Bat: Why do they breathe fire inside your mind? Can’t they do it at better places?

Vampire Owl: They are my personal demons. They should wrestle at my place only.

Vampire Bat: You should ask Doctor Frankenstein to get a mind projector so that we all can know how the wrestling competition goes.

Vampire Owl: It should be banned in the castle due to the violence involved, so no Frankenstein.

Vampire Bat: You surely got a violent mind there.

Vampire Owl: What can I do? It is in my blood because I drank the elixir of violence during our expedition to the Northern Kingdoms.

Vampire Bat: You should understand that the right thing to drink is the elixir of life. This is a banned drink.

[Gets three cups of strong tea with Mariegold biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: Mahavir Singh Phogat (Aamir Khan) is a former wrestler and a national champion who lives in Balali, a village in Haryana. Despite being a very good wrestler who was better than most of the others around, he had to choose a fruitful job and leave the sport because his father asked him to do the same. But he still remembers the sport, and can beat almost every local champion – his love for wrestling is something that stays, and seems to be something which is forever. Now he does have a good job, but he is not satisfied with his achievements which doesn’t involve what he was so good at. When his wife Daya Shobha Kaur (Sakshi Tanwar) gets pregnant, he declares that his unborn son is going to win the medal for the nation. The superstitious villagers come up with many ideas which would make sure that the child born will be male and not female, and Mahavir awaits the birth of the son who will make him proud.

So, what happens next? :: But things don’t go as planned, as despite trying different strange ideas brought by the village’s residents, Mahavir ends up having one girl after the other, making the total number as four. This leads to him having no more hope about the same, and goes on concentrating on his job as well as household activities. Geeta Phogat (Fatima Sana Shaikh) and Babita Kumari (Sanya Malhotra) are his eldest daughters, who get to live into his dreams, after they beat up the boys who make fun of them. As he realises that a medal is a medal and gold is gold, no matter whoever brings that, he begins training them hard. The girls have to start working hard early in the morning, and even has to cut their hair short, which bothers them in the beginning – they begs him to let them live their life like the other children, but ends up doing what he wants them to do, as he leaves them with no other choice.

And, what is to follow next in the adventure? :: It is the beginning of an adventure which will go and on, getting Mahavir closer and closer to his dreams through his two girls. The time when the girls were wrestling and defeating boys is over, as Geeta goes on to win the junior championships at the state and then the national level, finally getting to capture the national senior championship. It meant that she had to go to the National Sports Academy in Patiala to train with other girls from all around India for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. This changes things, as the coach at the academy, Pramod Kadam (Girish Kulkarni) doesn’t want Mahavir to influence Geeta anymore, and works hard to make sure that only his own methods are correct, and in no way will Geeta do according her father’s methods. Geeta gives in and follows her coach, as well as the other girls, spending their time eating fast food, watching silly romantic movies and having all kinds of fun. Deviating from the ways of her father, can Geeta make it big without her father, or will she find a way to balance everything on her way to gold?

The defence of Dangal :: Dangal is one of those sports drama movies which will save all the other sports from the evil onslaught of cricket which threatens to destroy each and every other sport in India. The Malayalam movie Godha also tries to do the same, as wrestling gets more than one movie to try and do the same. This is also relevant in the times when gender inequality, female foeticide and child marriage don’t intend to stop completely; it becomes even more relevant considering the part of India where this occurs. This is certainly bigger than Lagaan, not just because this is supporting an attention-seeking sport, but also because that inherent foolishness in that flick doesn’t show its head here; the superiority in comparison to M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story is rather clear. For Aamir Khan, this should be one of his best performances too – he earlier had PK, and now he has this one, and not another Dhoom, which is indeed nice. When so many actors are playing safe, we have to appreciate the experimenting the man has been doing with not just his acting, but also the physique. Then there is the patriotic feeling, and we are left with the need for more gold of the nation.

The claws of flaw :: You will find that this movie is so much about the trainer rather than the wrestlers, despite the fact that the girls do some nice job. It is rather strange to see the progress of things here, as the tale here is also rather predictable. The idea of a father making his daughters do only what he wants them to do, doesn’t seem to be that good an idea in every case, and one has to wonder what would have happened if the training had failed – all things are nice when they are successful. Then there is Bollywood, bringing some melodrama with father’s love, as it has a history of bringing parents’ love to the next level of tears – with such a nice beginning, the emotions running around just misses the grip. The movie is also too lengthy, and has its slow moments which pull the flick right back. The climax is predictable, with the last minute win, with a memory of something from the father – it is where the realistic take will have only second place to the emotional addition of low level thrills.

How it finishes :: We already know how good Bollywood is with biographical drama, and there are so many examples of the same, from Neerja to the more fictionalised Rustom and Airlift which was even more acclaimed. It is more like the genre that saves Bollywood from the usual, repetitive stuff that it usually comes up with, adding some superstar to it. Dangal is no different, as it gets its strong emotional side to work in favour of the idea, and tells the tale of two sisters, Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari who go on to win medals at the Commonwealth Games, and their father Mahavir Singh Phogat who trains them. Dangal is very much successful in making the drama work, making it the highest grossing Indian movie of all-time, and also boasts of a great record overseas, especially in China. Well, most of the Bollywood movies go one way, and Dangal chooses another path, and among those movies which go the right way, this one is the flick that made the most impact. For more twisted of such divergent paths, there are Phobia and Raman Raghav 2.0.

Release date: 23rd December 2016
Running time: 161 minutes
Directed by: Nitesh Tiwari
Starring: Aamir Khan, Sakshi Tanwar, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sanya Malhotra, Zaira Wasim, Suhani Bhatnagar, Aparshakti Khurana, Ritwik Sahore, Vivan Bhatena, Kaustubh Pile, Girish Kulkarni, Shishir Sharma, Meenu Prajapati, Badrul Islam

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Phobia

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Vampire Owl: I hope that she doesn’t have vampirophobia. I really hope that she doesn’t.

Vampire Bat: I believe that the exact term for the same is sanguivoriphobia.

Vampire Owl: What? Who on Earth comes up with such strange names? Who even gets that at first attempt?

Vampire Bat: Well, they call it the fear for blood eaters.

Vampire Owl: How can someone actually eat blood? And we are vegetarian vampires; we have suitable replacements instead.

Vampire Bat: It doesn’t count. Humans are masters of generalisation, and they create opinions based on that.

Vampire Owl: We should have a phobia of them instead – unless they are all dead.

Vampire Bat: You are in no position to call an event which causes human extinction. They have to cause their own downfall.

Vampire Owl: It is something that I have always believed in.

Vampire Bat: Just make sure that Wonder Woman won’t murder you after naming you Ares, the God of War.

[Gets three cups of special tea with Tiger biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: Mehak Deo (Radhika Apte), a talented artist who is quite popular with her friends, attends almost every party in the town, becoming more of the popular girl in the city. But after being molested by a taxi driver on a terrible night, she develops the worst of agoraphobia, which keeps her away from public places and large groups, as she keeps herself inside the house and mostly in her room. Living in the same house as her sister Anusha (Nivedita Bhattacharya), it gets worse for everyone, as her actions remain more and more uncontrollable and unbearable for all. With the eccentric and unpredictable nature affecting Anusha’s little kid too, they all feel done with helping her, because it seems to be of no use, and Mehak herself doesn’t want to be treated, staying inside home without making an attempt to go out for months.

So, what happens next? :: Shaan (Satyadeep Mishra), Mehak’s good friend decides to help her, and gets her to an apartment which is empty for now after its previous occupant decided to move away. He hopes that this change, and life alone will be better for her, and she will start longing to meet people after this. At the new place, she seems to have some visions, and she feels that there is something sinister about these particular visions. She has two neighbours there with whom she gets to talk often, one of them being Nikki (Yashaswini Dayama), who is a graduate student who lives on the flat on the right, while on the left side, there lives Manu (Ankur Vikal) who had anger management issues and is using laughter to fight the same. The latter used to be in a relationship with a woman called Jiah Khurana (Amrit Bagchi) who had left the place.

And, what is to follow next in the adventure? :: It turns out that Jiah was living in the same apartment in which Mahek is living right now. Knowing that the girl had disappeared without telling anyone, and that there is no clue of where she is, Mahek begins to feel that there is a big mystery behind the same. She comes up with the idea that an angry Manu had killed Jiah and has hidden her body in his apartment. Mehak also feels that her visions are from Jiah’s spirit which is trying to tell her something about the demise. Shaan feels that this is all part of her disease, and that she is having so many hallucinations. Her psychiatrist (Faezeh Jalali) also confirms that Mahek’s condition is worsening every day, and there is not much that can be done unless she is taken to a mental asylum. But Nikki is curious, and decides to help Mehak in finding the truth behind the missing girl. Now the question remains about what really is the truth here.

The defence of Phobia :: There is one thing about which you can be cent percent sure, and it is that Phobia won’t be like any other movie which you have seen in Bollywood, and in psychological horror, it explores more territories, and most of these areas are divergent. The story is nicely presented right from the beginning, and it keeps you wondering what is happening, and what is to follow. The visuals nicely match the overall mood of the movie, and there are some scenes which are particularly great and deserves our attention. Radhika Apte is once again too good, as you would expect her to be – she is that kind of an actress who has more in store for us than anyone from Bollywood, and it is a fact that you just can’t ignore. There are moments from her which you are going to remember for so long. The next one to make the impact is Yashaswini Dayama who keep the curious college girl act going on very nicely.

The claws of flaw :: One can say without doubt that Phobia is not a movie for everyone; I am sure that it might have already been established by many others in one way or the other which randomly talking about the flick. There are also logic flaws in this movie, and her living alone in the flat is nothing less than strange, and having a knife near her when she goes into the virtual reality is rather comfortable. The way in which the mystery is finally solved is also rather strange, when it could have taken a rather direct approach. The climax had potential to be something more, and for some reason, it chooses not to live up to the fantastic build-up in the first half, and finish the movie on a high. The audience is left clueless on a lot of occasions, and more scary moments could have been built regarding the neighbour and other residents of the apartments. When you have an apartment where someone with a mental problem living alone, there is always scope for more.

How it finishes :: Phobia demands that you take things differently, and get your thinking procedure to go another way, which has almost no relation with a regular Bollywood movie; all that those movies are, this movie is not. It is where movies like Phobia and Raman Raghav 2.0 scores, and it is also what we strive to have. Otherwise, Bollywood can only focus on biopics, and tales inspired from real life incidents like Neerja, Rustom and Airlift, which they need to keep the ship sailing in the right direction. It is during such times that this movie does go against the flow, and what we can do is to appreciate the effort and watch this movie without second thoughts about how it will make us feel, and how well it can relate when we haven’t watched similar movies before.

Release date: 27th May 2016
Running time: 99 minutes
Directed by: Pavan Kirpalani
Starring: Radhika Apte, Yashaswini Dayama, Satyadeep Mishra, Ankur Vikal, Nivedita Bhattacharya, Amrita Bagchi, Faezeh Jalali, Salone Mehta, Arush Nand, Dinyar Tirandaz, Amit Kumar Pandey, Malhar Goenka

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Jolly LLB 2

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Vampire Owl: I know this Jolly fellow. He was so jolly.

Vampire Bat: It is not that Jolly, but this one can be quite jolly too.

Vampire Owl: So, we have a sequel which has another Jolly, who is also a jolly fellow.

Vampire Bat: Yes, instead of Jagdish Tyagi, we have Jagdishwar Mishra. But we call them both Jolly.

Vampire Owl: That explains the change of cast. But then, this won’t be a real sequel.

Vampire Bat: Yes, but this is the second story of a Jolly, and it is just that it is another Jolly.

Vampire Owl: This is rather confusing with two of them being called the same name, despite having different names.

Vampire Bat: Well, this movie actually happens after the first, and we get a mention about the first movie by the character of the judge.

Vampire Owl: It would have still be nice if at least one person of the two was called Jaggu.

Vampire Bat: Well, these humans have a strange way of naming people again and again.

[Gets three cups of special tea with Tiger biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: Jagdishwar Mishra a.k.a. Jolly (Akshay Kumar) is a lawyer who wishes to make it big as a lawyer, but with his chances a long way away, works as an assistant to one of the most famous lawyers of Lucknow, Rizvi Sahab (Ram Gopal Bajaj) at Lucknow. Jolly is not considered as a lawyer who can go the distance, as he is the son of the man hailing from Kanpur who was only an assistant for his whole career, and Jolly himself doesn’t have his own chamber even after trying so hard. A pregnant lady, Hina Siddiqui (Sayani Gupta) spends most of his time in and around court area, trying to convince any of the well-known lawyers to take up the case of his husband. She begs Jolly to make his senior lawyer to accept her case. With the need there to get two lakhs for the final payment of his chamber, Jolly lies to her that the senior lawyer has agreed to take her case, and a sum of two lakhs need to be paid as soon as possible, to which she agrees.

So, what happens next? :: After getting the money from her, Jolly inaugurates his new chamber on the day of Holi in style with his wife Pushpa Pandey (Huma Qureshi) and the rest of his well-wishers. But Hina who finds out about the same, reaches there and creates a scene. Jolly tells her that he intended to return the money after this was done, but she tells him that he should have also rejected her appeal, as everyone else, instead of cheating her – she returns home and commits suicide. Everyone including his own father blames Jolly for causing the death of a pregnant woman. Jolly is unable to sleep or think properly with Hina’s death in his mind. With the help of his friend and lawyer Birbal (Rajiv Gupta), he decides to filed a public interest litigation to get justice for Hina and her husband, something which was to be his biggest challenge in life.

And, what is to follow next in the adventure? :: Jolly understands that the case about Hina’s husband Iqbal Qasim (Manav Kaul) was regarding his fake encounter by Police Inspector Suryaveer Singh (Kumud Mishra) on the very next day after their wedding, which brought him promotion. Iqbal was arrested by the police under the suspicion that he was an Islamic terrorist who reached the place from Jammu and Kashmir, and the same was confirmed later, and he is supposed to have shot a police constable while trying to escape, and the cop had died in the hospital later. The truth though, is that Suryaveer just shot him to make the encounter look more genuine, and by mistake he had ended up dead. Worried that he was going to land in big trouble, Suryaveer then hires his good friend and Lucknow’s best lawyer Pramod Mathur (Annu Kapoor), to take up his case, also paying fifty lakhs for the same. Can Jolly go against all odds to win the case and bring justice?

The defence of Jolly LLB 2 :: It is not that easy to work well with court-room drama movies and make them work, especially as things tend to get dull with the setting at the same place, and people tending to repeat the same thing again and again, but Jolly LLB 2, just like its predecessor, manages to be entertaining in more than one way. Well, the scenes inside the court are the best moments of the movie without doubt. We are so interested in knowing what happens by the end of the movie, that we find it difficult to move from the seat. The movie balances the comic side with the edge of the seat moments really well, and we get to see Akshay Kumar doing an amazing job as the protagonist who struggles to make it big. Saurabh Shukla brings the fun in between, and Sayani Gupta makes a heavy impact even with those lesser number of scenes. Huma Qureshi’s work is limited, but she does fine when she is there.

The claws of flaw :: There is the presence of those unnecessary songs and dance sequences which seem to make hardly any impact. The movie is also not without its ups and downs, and gets to the next level only later in the first half. There should also be questions about the way the truth is brought to light in this one, and you will also feel that some sequences are brought to us in such a way that the purpose is more to take melodrama higher rather than anything else. We feel that the innocence and simplicity of the first movie is not that much there in this one – we know how much that movie had raised the expectations so well. The audience also wonders if all of these, or at least most of these is actually possible inside a court. I am sure that this movie could have had many more interesting moments with some more divergence too. Also Huma Qureshi and Sayani Gupta could have been there for more.

How it finishes :: Jolly LLB 2 can be considered as good a movie as its predecessor when we have a look at it as a whole. Last year, Akshay Kumar had Airlift and Rustom to do the job for him after Baby and Brothers while going back longer, and this year, it is Jolly LLB 2 so far. There is also something to think about with this one, as one wonders how significant is the common man when facing the rich and the influential, for everyone don’t keep getting the saviours in time. Jolly LLB 2 could be the best Bollywood movies of the year for many people, and is sure to be in the top ten for almost everyone who watches movies regularly. There have been similar interesting movies in Malayalam too with Yes Your Honour starring Sreenivasan and the next level of the same was the Suresh Gopi starrer Melvilasom – all these are the kind of movies which could be watched together for some good quality court-room drama.

Release date: 10th February 2017
Running time: 137 minutes
Directed by: Subhash Kapoor
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Huma Qureshi, Sayani Gupta, Annu Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla, Kaustubh Pile, Manav Kaul, Kumud Mishra, Inaamulhaq, Sanjay Mishra, Vinod Nagpal, Brijendra Kala, Avijit Dutt, Rajiv Gupta, Sunil Kumar Palwal, Shubhangi Latkar, Ram Gopal Bajaj

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Pink

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Vampire Owl: You know, Lady Death was very much interested in this colour.

Vampire Bat: Why is she interested in colours, when she has been colour-blind since her resurrection from the other world?

Vampire Owl: There are just rumours regarding the same, as she was referring to this movie.

Vampire Bat: You mean to say that the news about this movie had reached the land of the dead?

Vampire Owl: Yes, the land of the dead as well as the land of the undead.

Vampire Bat: It is quite an achievement for a human movie.

Vampire Owl: Except for those movies in which vampires are shown to be bad.

Vampire Bat: Almost all of them think that vampires are bad because they don’t understand our culture.

Vampire Owl: They instantly hate anything and everything that they can’t understand.

Vampire Bat: It is quite natural for a race which has fought each other for so long.

[Gets three cups of Ceylon tea with Arrowroot biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: The movie tells the tale of three indepdendent women, Minal Arora (Taapsee Pannu), Falak Ali (Kirti Kulhari) and Andrea Tariang (Andrea Tariang), working hard and self-sufficient, living in South Delhi. While Minal and her family are from Delhi itself, Falak is from Uttar Pradesh and Andrea from Meghalaya. They go through a happy life with their little moments of fun, and care for each other, but things quickly take a twist, with people looking at them in a rather strange way. Their landlord is asked to get the three girls out of his home, and when he doesn’t do the same he is attacked by two young men who reminds him of the same. Andrea sees that she is being stalked by unknown people and Falak ends up losing her job; Minal gets it even worse, as a flashback goes to what had happened a few days ago.

So, what happens next? :: The flashback incident involves Raunak Anand (Raashul Tandon), Vishwajyoti Ghosh (Tushar Pandey) and Rajveer Singh (Angad Bedi) who had met the three girls at a rock concert. Rajveer was hit on the head with a bottle by Minal which left him in a hospital, and that had put his friend Ankit Malhotra (Vijay Verma) on a revenge trail, causing a lot of trouble for the girls. This person who has decided to teach the girls the worst lesson possible, will not stop at anything, as the boys are quite rich and powerful, with influence among politicians as well as the police. Troubled with all which have been going through, the girls still refuse to complaint, but Minal, despite all the warnings about what could happen if she approaches the police, goes to the police station. The result is that she is kidnapped and molested by the men who are after her.

And, what is to follow next in the tale that goes deep? :: Minal is shocked, but doesn’t have the time to think or react, as she is arrested by the police on the very next day, as she is accused of prostitution as well as attempting to murder Rajveer. Andrea and Falak remain rather clueless about what to do in the police station, and at home, they find Deepak Sehgal (Amitabh Bachchan), their neighbor at their door. He helps them and even decides to take up their case, returnning back to his life as a criminal lawyer years later. He had left his job due to declining mental health and also because of his wife Sara (Mamta Shankar) being bed-ridden. In the court, he would have to face Rajveer’s lawyer, a younger and healthier Prashant Mehra (Piyush Mishra) who would go to any length to show his loyalty for the money which received as fees. So, where does the fate of the girls stand?

The defence of Pink :: The movie smartly chooses not show the incidents until the credits show up – it is a nice move to establish the idea that “no means no”, which is rather the one thing that gets the focus because we are there without getting much of an idea about how things really happened. It helps us to come to a viewpoint without taking sides, and it is the smart way to proceed. Pink is the kind of movie that is needed, for it shows how much of a hypocrite the society aspires to be. It has different rules for the boys and the girls, rich and the poor and also for people from one part of the nation and those from some other area. The movie shows how difficult it is to get rid of those prejudices, no matter how smart and educated you are. The movie’s biggest asset in establishing its ideas is Amitabh Bachchan, who is so good that you feel the need to clap again and again – you saw his grief in TE3N already, and this one once again shows the determination in grief that powers his character to become more than what the lawyer has been. The girls are all good, just playing to the need, raising the level so much at some scenes in the court.

The claws of flaw :: The movie before the courtroom drama begins, doesn’t manage to be that interesting, with the whole thing taking so much of time to get going. Maybe things could have been made more tense in the first half to keep one feel the tension. People would also feel not that happy with Amitabh Bachchan being there to save the girls – but you will have to admit that it is him who takes it to the next level as far as performances are concerned. Also, the talk about the girl being from North East, is not taken that much further, maybe because the cultural identity is a little bit less important, just as the fact that the men in question as just too rich an influential – these two things come into the picture and just disappears, but needed better mention here. There is another question which should have been raised in this movie – “Why should anyone drink at all?” It could have been great if the message should have also been against alcohol consumption, rather than having things as okay if everyone is allowed to drink. There is even more that Pink could have achieved, but it chooses to finish with just one message that takes off.

How it finishes :: The big thing about Pink is that, the movie is surely what you call the giant leap – something which has been very much difficult for Bollywood which has been caught in repetitions for such a long time; it might be the only thing that is repeated, with consistency in repetition like no other. Pink not only makes the giant leap, as it also gets to the other end with ease. The movie which was widely appreciated by both the common audience as well as the critics, and had also the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues – it is good to watch this movie and understand why there is so much appreciation going around. When people say that Pink is the kind of movie that everyone needs to watch, they are surely not wrong. It is the kind of movie that not just Bollywood needs to save its face, but it is also the one that the society needs – it is bigger than what would be the biggest cinematic experience we have for a society which needs its lessons regularly.

PS: There are three movies for this Eid, Role Models, Oru Cinemakkaran and Avarude Raavukal – do check the reviews on the same.

Release date: 16th September 2016
Running time: 136 minutes
Directed by: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Andrea Tariang, Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Angad Bedi, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Piyush Mishra, Mamata Shankar, Arjun Chakrabarty, Mamta Malik, Dibang, Tushar Pandey, Raashul Tandon

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Raman Raghav 2.0

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What is the movie about? :: The movie makes it clear that it is not about Raman Raghav a.k.a. Psycho Raman who was a famous serial killer, who unleashed terror in the city of Mumbai in the 1960s. About fifteen years later, another serial killer named Ramanna (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who seems to follow the same kind of methods, starts his work in the same city. His way of operating is rather strange, and the police has not much clue about what his operations are. His list of victims only get longer, and it also includes Ramanna’s own sister, Lakshmi (Amruta Subhash) who is living with her husband (Ashok Lokhande) and their only son. She reluctantly lets him stay and cooks him food, only to get into an argument with the family. She leaves the place and comes back to take their money as well as kill them all one after the other.

So, what happens next? :: Ramanna is not the kind of person who has any kind of remorse for his actions, and he is surely not the kind of man who thinks twice about what he is to do. He is the worst kind of serial killer whom one could have on their trail. Even after being caught by the police and questioned, there is nothing that comes out of him, and he even escapes with the help of some local boys, thanks to the natural acting that comes to him. ACP Raghavan Singh (Vicky Kaushal) is in charge of the investigation, and has no real clue until finding the photo of Ramanna on the scene of crime, where Ramanna had murdered his sister. He figures out that the man whom they had apprehended a few days earlier has some kind of connection with these brutal murders which have been happening all around the city, keeping the residents terrified.

And, what is to follow next in this tale of terror in the streets? :: Even as he puts a tough cop act all the time, and seems to be righteous cop looking after criminal when someone looks from outside, Raghavan Singh is a a troubled person in his mind, having an unparalleled addiction to drugs, and has an even more terrible anger management issue. He is in a relationship with Smrutika Naidu (Sobhita Dhulipala) at whose place she is staying. It is another terrible relationship that they are having, with him forcing her to have more than one abortion after she keeps getting pregnant as he has his way as he likes. He also has no shame in beating her, but she stays faithful to him, and refuses to go home even after her family hopes for her return. Raghavan gets obsessed with catching Ramanna to such an extent that his issues deepen, and Ramanna at the same time, keeps an eye on the investigating officer – where does this game end?

The defence of Raman Raghav 2.0 :: The dark and terrifying avatar is given more and more life as the movie progresses, and then there is the other side which gets rather scarier. You feel the power of darkness in this movie, and there is so much of energy throughout the flick, thanks to the two main performers. It successfully makes you depressed and leaves you disturbing, with not much hope in the world of chaos. Humanity is surely capable of terrible things, and a lot of these capabilities are there right from the beginning, and are further powered by upbringing and the society. We keep wondering what is to happen next, and we are always interested to know how it all ends, or reach a new beginning. It takes only one serial killer to inspire more, and lets hope that Ramanna becomes our Hannibal to bring more of such movies which can prove to be even better. The final twist is something that breathes life like no other.

The claws of flaw :: There is no doubt that we had expected more from a movie like Raman Raghav 2.0 with its cast and the people who are the helm. We feel that a certain amount of hollowness do exist at times, and this one isn’t that much focused on what we would have been hoping to see with a police officer after a serial killer – this one has almost nothing about the investigation about the murderer. More focus could have been on the characters, and they could have had origin tales, even at the cost of the movie going longer – there are some parts of the movie which could have been cut down to provide space for more of the tale. This kind of movies should have more action, thrilling sequences and deeper story-line which should make us wish to remember the tale more than once; but the focus of Raman Raghav 2.0 seems to be rather a little too much divergent. Then there is the violence – nobody is a role model here.

Performers of the soul :: There is Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vicky Kaushal doing a fantastic job in this movie, which surely keeps things going strong. We keep wondering when we will see more of them with movies which get the wider release here. If it was more about the former in the beginning, the latter of Masaan fame takes it to the next level in the second half towards the end. You will also notice Sobhita Dhulipala and Amruta Subhash, as two actresses who brings some great performances in two of the best sequences of the movie. The one thing about Bollywood is that these names which are not regularly talked about as superstars are the real actors and acting stars – I really hope that their movies get release in every theatre here rather than those which brings the crowd; if I was running a theatre, I would run a special show for sure, no matter how much of box-office collection such movies are to bring.

How it finishes :: The movie leaves one with the message that everyone has the tendency to be bad, or rather evil, as it is the inherent evil in man which has more certainty to it than anything else. It is the situation that brings the worst out of people, whether they are branded good or bad. The hopeless state of humanity is directly or indirectly reflected in this movie, which struggles to find goodness which seems to fade away further and further as the flick progresses, and by the end of this, we have lost almost all hope in mankind – it is the ultimate truth, right? We do our best, and still we live in a society which is all about money and power, and the need for it as well as the possession of it, will only turn more people against each other. Evil is so easy, right? Being good is so difficult, especially with a new generation caught inside more than one kind of addiction. Raman Raghav 2.0 has that kind of protagonists, and we know that there is a good chance that we are all going to die an early, terrible death considering where the world is going.

Release date: 24th June 2016
Running time: 127 minutes
Directed by: Anurag Kashyap
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vicky Kaushal, Sobhita Dhulipala, Amruta Subhash, Vipin Sharma, Ashok Lokhande, Harssh A. Singh, Anuschka Sawhney, Hitesh Dave, Rajesh Jais, Kalidas Parthitan, Rhea Pagar, Arun Singh

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Rustom

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Vampire Owl: I have always loved those Akshay Kumar movies, not just now, but also during the early times of Khiladi.

Vampire Bat: Everyone loves Khiladi, or at least those earlier ones in the franchise.

Vampire Owl: Then, Baby, Brothers and Airlift in the last two years – it is too good.

Vampire Bat: I have heard people say that Rustom is even bigger than the rest.

Vampire Owl: What? Are you sure that you are sure about it?

Vampire Bat: You mean to ask that I am twice sure about the same?

Vampire Owl: Are you saying it because Akshay Kumar won the National Film Award for Best Actor for this particular movie?

Vampire Bat: No, the quality of this movie was already established.

Vampire Owl: Then, I would watch this one this midnight.

Vampire Bat: I don’t see why not.

[Gets three cups of special tea with Tiger biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: During the 1950s, an Indian Navy Officer named Rustom Pavri (Akshay Kumar), fell in love with, and is happily married to the beautiful young lady, Cynthia Pavri (Ileana D’Cruz). But it doesn’t go that smoothly as he discovers her affair with his friend and a very rich and influential playboy, Vikram Makhija (Arjan Bajwa), while returning from his deputation in the ship. Their servant Jamnabai (Usha Nadkarni) tells him that she hasn’t been home since yesterday, and has no idea when she will return. An angry and frustrated Rustom finds Vikram’s intense love letters to his wife, and also finds them together at Vikram’s place, much to his dismay. When Cynthia finally arrives home, Vikram shows her the letters and doesn’t let her explain. Instead, he storms out of the place, gets a pistol from the ship’s arms and ammunition, and makes a trunk call to Defense Secretary K. M. Bakshi (Kanwaljit Singh).

So, what happens next? :: Bhanabhai (Deepak Gheewala), Vikram’s servant hears three gunshots and goes to see him at his room, only to find his master dead in a pool of blood, with Rustom standing on the side with a gun. Rustom who walks out of there, surrenders at the local police station, to Inspector Vincent Lobo (Pawan Malhotra) who gets charge of the investigation of this particular murder. Vikram’s sister Priti Makhija (Esha Gupta) who is a very influential woman, with even bigger contacts than her brother, wants to have death sentence for Rustom, for which she is ready to do anything in her power. The biggest of punishments is the only thing that can make her any satisfaction, as she promises to make the man who killed her only brother, suffer the worst fate. Erich Billimoria (Kumud Mishra), the editor-in-chief of the local newspaper decides to help Rustom as he is part of the community, by continously bringing sympathetic news about him through his writings.

And, what is to follow next in the adventure? :: The community itself tries to help him by bringing a reputed lawyer for him, but he decides to fight his case all by himself. He is even offered better facilities by the navy, which he also refuses. Meanwhile, his senior officer at the Navy, Rear Admiral Prashant Kamat (Parmeet Sethi) sends two people to find certain documents at his home, which they fail to do, as nothing like that is present there. Enraged by this, Rustom brings other plans for his fellow officers, and at the same time, pleads not guilty when in front of the Judge Patel (Anang Desai). Public Prosecutor Lakshman Khangani (Sachin Khedekar) is confident that he would win the case despite the newspaper siding with Rustom which leads to the public being with him. His confidence only increases with Rustom fighting the case by himself. But is there something more in Rustom’s mind which he doesn’t know about? Is he good enough to win the case without any help?

The defence of Rustom :: The movie’s biggest asset, without doubt is Akshay Kumar, and there is no doubt about how good he is – he has gone through three thrilling flicks, Baby, Brothers and Airlift, his performance in the first one being as good as his work here. Ileana D’Cruz is also very good, and we see everything working in favour of this movie. The supporting cast does the job very well, including Pawan Malhotra and Kumud Mishra who deserves the special mention. The thrills are present all the time, and we have twists coming through. How things take the u-turn more than one is worth watching again and again. We also have some nice humour in between. The songs are also to be loved, and heard again. There is also a dose of patriotism in this one. And this one is smart, and so, you will need the brain to work to get through this movie, and not the heart which is reserved for your favourite celebrities. Well, Rustom is the kind of movies that could replace those unrealistic movies from Bollywood very often, and it is the main reason why this entertaining ride which goes through a realistic side is more important than any of those overrated pathetic movies that get rather too popular.

The claws of flaw :: Rustom has a rather slow first half as it seems to be peacefully moving towards the interval, and we keep wondering where this tale that focuses on adultery will lead, but it is all to change later, as you would witness. One might also feel that there is a little too much righteousness added to the main character, and fictionalised events only help in making the protagonist even a better person, as the newspapers in the movie did too. Maybe, this movie could have gone deeper to explore the rather darker areas, and might have been able to deal with the emotional side in a more personal way too. The movie is also too much focused on one character, when there could have been bigger portraits of more interesting characters, who are around him. One also wonders why the hero is always in his uniform – is it how things work when a military officer is arrested? Well, we don’t know much about the same, and so can’t comment on it. Maybe a tale on the real incident without fiction will also come to the big screen some day, but in the end, how can we know the exact truth?

How it finishes :: Rustom is the kind of movie which gets unexpectedly strong, and when you least expect it to happen, the movie is firing from all cylinders. Inspired by a court case in 1959 about Naval Commander Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati was tried for the murder of Prem Ahuja, the alleged lover of his wife Sylvia – known as K. M. Nanavati vs State of Maharashtra, and with a highly fictionalised account of the incidents and what surrounds the same, Rustom shows how well things can work out with some good creativity, and a fine cast to go with the same. The incident is also known to have inspired the 1973 movie Achanak as well as the 1963 flick Yeh Rastey Hain Pyar Ke. But now, we have Rustom to remember related to incident rather than any other. Akshay Kumar also received the National Film Award for Best Actor at the 64th National Film Awards which were announced on the seventh of April this year – there is so much good talked about this movie, and you need to watch it at some point.

PS: Despicable Me 3 and Cars 3 attract the families this week.

Release date: 12th August 2016
Running time: 148 minutes
Directed by: Tinu Suresh Desai
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Ileana D’Cruz, Esha Gupta, Arjan Bajwa, Pavan Malhotra, Kumud Mishra, Usha Nadkarni, Sachin Khedekar, Anang Desai, Parmeet Sethi, Indraneel Bhattacharya, Kanwaljit Singh, Brijendra Kala, Gireesh Sahadev, Abhay Kulkarni, Varun Verma, Sammanika Singh, Deepak Gheewala, Ishteyak Khan, Naman Jain, Subhashis Chakraborty, Vipul K. Rawal, Suresh Sippy, Rajesh S. Khatri, Samir Shah, Haresh Khatri, Nagraj Manjule, Mohit Satyanand

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Kahaani 2

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Vampire Owl: But I haven’t watched the first Kahaani.

Vampire Bat: Neither did I watch that flick. It is not necessary to get into this one.

Vampire Owl: You mean to say that this is not really a sequel even though it qualifies as one.

Vampire Bat: Yes, there is no real continuation of the tale here. This is more like Story One and Story Two, as is Kahaani One and Kahaani Two.

Vampire Owl: So both Vidyas in the movie are not the same even as both outside the movie are the same.

Vampire Bat: Yes, just Vidya Balan is the same. Otherwise, in the movie, there are Vidya Venkatesan Bagchi and Vidya Sinha as characters.

Vampire Owl: It makes a total of three Vidyas, two inside the movies and one outside.

Vampire Bat: That is certainly not relevant. We are in no need to be talking about these simple human names.

Vampire Owl: Yes, why can’t they choose interesting names, like The Great Vampire Owl?

Vampire Bat: You don’t have “Great” as a prefix. And yes, humans are not vampires or owls.

[Gets three cups of lemon tea with 50-50 biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: Vidya Sinha (Vidya Balan) takes care of her teenage daughter Minnie (Tunisha Sharma) who is paralysed from the waist down. She has a nurse (Soma Adhikari) taking care of the girl when she goes to work. Vidya hopes to make enough money to go to the United States of America, and get her the best treatment so that she could walk again. Despite Vidya’s concern about her daughter, Minnie is happy with her life, and feels the she has nothing to worry about, being content with her present with her mother. Things seem to go on normally, but one morning, the nurse just doesn’t come, and she can’t get her on phone either. She is worried to leave Minnie alone, but the happy girl asks her to go, telling her than she can handle things until the nurse arrives – she might be on the train which should be why they are not able to get her on phone. Vidya finally decides to leave, asking her neighbour to keep an eye on her daughter.

So, what happens next? :: But when she returns home, she is shocked to find out that Minnie is missing, and there is no clue about what had happened around. Earlier, when she called home, she had managed to talk to the nurse who had told her that she is there. But when she calls at the nurse’s number, it she tells her that she never came to the house because Vidya had told her not to come on the day. Her neighbour also tells her that he was told by her that the nurse had come, and so he could stop checking. It is then that she gets an anonymous call which asks her to arrive at a certain location if she is to find her daughter alive. There is also some reference to the past which scares her into running out – all tensed and frightened, she gets hit by a car and ends up in the hospital in a coma. The nursing home where she is admitted is run by Dr. Maity (Pradip Mukherjee) who asks the Police officer Inderjeet Singh (Arjun Rampal) who is on the case to speed up things as the medical bill only gets costlier and costlier.

And, what is to follow next in the adventure? :: Inderjeet keeps searching for clues about the lady in the hospital, and finds something interesting in her diary. Meanwhile, Inderjeet’s senior officer who is after a woman named Durga, Pranab Halder (Kharaj Mukherjee), tells him that a certain lady is wanted for a certain kidnapping and murder case – the photo of the wanted woman looks exactly like the lady in the hospital. But Inderjeet doesn’t reveal the similarities between Vidya and Durga, and decides that he has to discover things all by himself. He understands that both the women are one, and are known by the name Durga Rani Singh who worked as a clerk in a school in Kalimpong. After having a terrible childhood, she seems to have a better youth, and is in love with her good friend, Arun (Tota Roychoudhury) who is working in publishing. But, something from her childhood repeats once again in front of her, and she can’t be silent about it – but what she will decide to will have consequences? What is her past all about, and what is happening to her present? What will happen to her future?

The defence of Kahaani 2 :: The movie keeps us trying to figure out the twist which is to come up, and we find the thrilling moments in between – the suspense is maintained, and we are kept unsure about who is right and who is wrong, and above all, who really is the protagonist? The first of the movie is actually done without providing us any chance to complain, as we are taken into a world which has too many secrets, and we are drawn into this mystery which is to be solved in one way or the other. Vidya Balan is just so good in this visually good movie too, and handles the whole thing with so much of skill. We would want her to return if there is a Kahaani 3 too, as she is sure to get hold of proceedings with ease in this kind of a movie. Arjun Rampal provides with some nice support, and he really suits this character, which has balance, being a usual cop with usual family and usual problems. There is also a nice message in store here along with the strong emotional side, about which more talked is to reveal a little too much of the plot as spoiler.

The claws of flaw :: The second half, with the curse that Indian movies, especially the Bollywood ones have, except for the final reveal that brings the twist, is not that much thrilling as the first half, and we would have expected the weaker section of the tale to the be covered better. Those who are awaiting the continuation of the first story are also going to be disappointed, because we hear this tale as another one. Sometimes, we just feel that the movie is getting short with its logic. There is a little too much focus on making the protagonist a superhero, despite getting hit by a car so hard that she had earlier gone into a comma – things get too easy for her, and even with outside help, this is just too convenient for the lady. When you start a movie so well, there is the need to make things better by the end, but the need for the same is not that much reflected here. A few things in the movie are also predictable, and it is quite a bad situation for any thriller movie.

How it finishes :: There are going to be comparisons with the first movie, and it does seem that it had become more popular than this one, but I wouldn’t comment on the same as I didn’t watch the first flick. Also this one is not a direct sequel to the previous movie – well, as Kahaani 2 is a stand-alone movie, it could always come up with something different, and when we look into it, things are rather interesting, and it never ceases to be the same. It does keep us guessing for what is to come next, and even when things are slow, it is never boring. It is nice of Bollywood to have had some nice thrillers in the year, from Wazir to TE3N and this one, as all of these had something special in them, and it is better to have movies like these represent the industry rather than those irritating romantic comedies which keep coming again and again as if there is a certain machine producing the same. Thrillers which are close to the common man’s life is in need more.

PS: Meanwhile, this week’s releases, Cars 3 and Despicable Me 3 has the family audience interested.

Release date: 2nd December 2016
Running time: 128 minutes
Directed by: Sujoy Ghosh
Starring: Vidya Balan, Arjun Rampal, Tunisha Sharma, Naisha Khanna, Manini Chadha, Jugal Hansraj, Amba Sanyal, Kharaj Mukherjee, Tota Roychoudhury, Koushik Sen, Pradip Chakrabarty, Nitya Ganguli, Pradip Mukherjee, Ardhendu Banerjee, Biswajit Chakraborty, Gargi Bharadwaj, Soma Adhikari, Haridas Chatterjee, Sarthak Dey Sarkar

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.