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Reviews
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)
Way below expectations
As a childhood fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender definitely this series was something I was looking forward to. The OG animated show if you watch it first it'll look like a regular children's show but once you understand the layers and character arcs you'd know it's not your regular children's show but much more nuanced and layered in its approach, kids can enjoy it but adults can understand it even better. The crisped storytelling, the beautiful world build up, nuanced character arcs and beautiful life lessons for a mid 2000s show was too good for any regular cartoon or even a regular anime. Sure it does have some fillers and comedic moments, but they're good to watch including the silliness. Definitely the M Night Shyamalan live action film was outright disaster and shouldn't even be mentioned which is why I had some scepticisms from Netflix adaptation. And finally the trailer was out and boom, it turned out to be far better than Shyamalan's trash and pretty closer to the OG show hence expectations skyrocketed in positive way till the episodes came out and I was disappointed. Was it better than Shyamalan's trash? ANYDAY BY A MILE! Was it anywhere close to being as good as the OG? NOT BY A MILE!
The story this time has taken too many liberties and changed too much from the actual plot, some of it even killing the impact the original show created. The first episode itself was culmination of first 3 episodes of Nickelodeon one and pretty much killed most of the comic moments; Aang and Katara's equation seemed forced; Sokka's sexism trait was removed due to obvious fear of stupid backlash without realising he's gonna turn better by the end; Aang's escape from the ship was turned into a cowardly act and above all biggest disappointment, the Avatar State impact! Remember in OG one when Aang went to Avatar state due to the anger and emotions, it was terribly watered down here. In the animated one entire world was made aware of Avatar's return, here what happens? NOTHING! And one more question, why did they have to show the Fire Lord Sozin's attack so soon in the show? And why change Aang actually running away to make it look like he was just out for a ride? Aang running away because of responsibility was understandable because he was just a 12 year old kid and in the show it shows how Aang is vulnerable and trying to take bigger responsibility at such a small age!
If that wasn't enough wait for the forthcoming episodes. While the second episode spent unnecessarily entire hour in Kyoshi Island in which they could've dealt with many other things, the third episode changes the entire story arc and where things are going. Actually in second episode itself why Aang, Katara and Sokka have to go to Northern Water Tribes was shockingly more worse than the OG, OG one needed Aang to learn waterbending as well, here they simply just talked about impending doom being the reason, why? If that's not enough, wait till 3rd and 4th episodes in Omashu where you suddenly find Jet and Mechanist clashing with one another and Team Avatar getting entangled between them, including the Oma Shu caves and the badger mole, turned Aang-Katara love and kiss into Katara-Sokka sibling love fine thats okay. But unnecessarily Aang vs Zuko fight in Omashu in which Zuko is getting better off Aang whereas in the OG it was Aang getting better off Zuko! And Bumi, why make Bumi a sad angry old man while Bumi was so much wise and understandable yet equally eccentric and prankster! In OG Aang realising Bumi was the king was so heartfelt with Bumi imparting his lesson to Aang while in the live action Bumi is angered and unnecessarily behaves indifferent towards Aang till he gets a lesson, like seriously? And why just ruin Jet's arc so terribly? In the show Katara-Jet equation and how Sokka was being useful worked so well, why here ruin it? And then comes episode 5 and 6 where gain multiple story arcs collided, especially bringing Wan Shi Tong so soon instead of library! And Koh who should've appeared in last episode for not showing emotions, so soon? It was good to see Gyatso again but why repeat all what happened with Sokka and Katara all over? Afraid that kids will grow sooner? Fine understandable. And if that's not enough, you had to chop down numerous fillers and get to the point, okay understandable but what about main characters? Why cut down Jeong Jeong who in the OG was literally the one teaching Aang firebending? Or those episodes where Aang accidentally hurt Katara it gave so much arc to Aang and Katara learning how water bending can be used for healing? Brilliant Netflix! And the humor going completely missing! And Aang is supposed to master all 4 elements especially in OG he was learning water bending, what the hell is Aang doing here to learn waterbending? NOTHING! Literally the book 1 was named Water and why isn't Aang learning waterbending?
Although there are some positive changes as well, like the entry of Azula, Ozai and Zuko's Agni Kai scenes, Zuko and Iroh's relationship strengthened and Zuko's sacrifice for 41st division of his soldiers gets much better arc, in a positive way. Although I wished many more episodes were needed or many more arcs should've been shown instead of cutting them down. Also return of Cabbage seller, what else was needed? If the Shyamalan's movie was the bar then this is a masterpiece. The vfx, bending, costumes and cinematography was spot on, definitely how an average fan would've expected in live action, perhaps even better!
But the other major problem was the cast performances, except Gordon playing Aang, every other actor seemed mediocre and almost expressionless. Paul Sun Hyung Lee was closest Iroh can be in live action, but acting? That's a problem at times. Literally Katara's anger went missing, Sokka was also pretty expressionless unlike its animated counterpart giving too many expressions. And of course the entire show had humour just sprinkled little bit unlike in the OG where humour was present throughout which will make you chuckle.
If I rate this show as stand alone show, it is a solid 7/10 but if compared to OG it's just 3/10 and compared to Shyamalan's it is 10/10 so overall rating on my part would be 5/10. Hopefully he makers fixes the changes in forthcoming seasons and don't get carried away like the Witcher.
Indian Police Force (2024)
Outdated!
Being a childhood fan of Rohit Shetty's cinema however over the top they were, they were always fun. Sure in comedy he was no Priyadarshan or even David Dhawan, but he had compensated well with Over the top action. But what next? It's been over a decade since Singham came out and since then none of his cop films have managed to get the level of euphoria what Singham had created. Despite of this I had some expectations from IPF considering it's not a film but rather OTT series hence elongated masala action flick would excite me, and perhaps incorporation into Singham Simmba Sooryavanshi cop universe. I wondered how Rohit Shetty cinema would work on series, especially when you don't have massy action stars but more stylish yet equally classy Siddharth Malhotra alongside veterans like Shilpa Shetty and Vivek Oberoi leading the starcast. The trailer despite of average cinematography and set pieces excited me thinking Rohit Shetty has upped his game well. But to my disappointment it turned exact opposite.
IPF shouldn't have been a series in the first place, instead it should've been a film by cutting down unnecessary romance angle and keep it focused and to the point. The plot was filled with loopholes, the production value looked laughably bad and terrible, action scenes looked clearly choreographed with no feel and the performances were mediocre as well, completely out of place and the blame goes to it's direction and not the actors. The power levels in the lead officers and other police officers looked alarmingly weird, some cops beat up 3-4 terrorists at once while others get beaten up or fooled by one of the minion, like what are you exactly trying to show? Like Sooryavanshi again Good Muslims and Bad Muslims highlighted but if you have a series with more creative freedom in runtime, at least show the complexities as well instead of being surface level talk. Vivek Oberoi dying with a bullet proof vest on and long range distance was one of the weakest directed scenes in this series. Actually every scene of Vivek was cringe to watch, despite being such a fantastic actor he's lost his way big time, he still stays in 2000s or maybe the direction couldn't make it better.
Rohit Shetty either doesn't understand his audience anymore and thinks they still live in 2010s or this series is written and directed by some 15-16 year old Rohit Shetty fan. It's extremely basic and frustratingly laughable seeing how even kids can understand that's not how police or R&AW works, it's much more complex and difficult to decipher but Rohit Shetty still thinks his audience is dumb, which isn't the case anymore. It would've been better if political scenarios were highlighted in capturing the terrorists because he security system in India has upgraded big time today but doesn't seem same with IPF.
Performances wise everyone were mediocre at its best and blame goes mainly to the writing and direction department. Siddharth Malhotra was strictly average, showed great act in some scenes but failed in those scenes that required most. While he nailed his action scenes and inner monologues, but when it comes to yelling he sounded laughable in some. Shilpa Shetty was presented well and that's it about her all thanks to her terrible act, terrible action scenes which clearly looked choreographed. She is playing Tara Shetty, from Gujarat with Mumbai tapori accent, imagine how terrible it is with not more than 2 expressions. Vivek Oberoi, it makes me cringe whenever he's coming onscreen every time he opens his mouth to yell. Where is that Vivek Oberoi who gave superlative performance in Company Saathiya Shootout at Lokhandwala? Or even in Yuva Inside Edge Lucifer? Vivek is struggling big time here due to poorly written dialogues for him and even worse direction. Again he's having a Mumbaikar accent and that makes me question Rohit, does he think Delhites and Mumbaikars have same accent? He didn't even shoot a single scene in Delhi except for millions of drone shots added in here and on top of that he makes Delhi look like Mumbai. Nikitin Dheer was there on screen for good amount of time, having only 4-5 lines in 7 episodes, really? All he did was bas sirjee etc whenever Sid went in rampage mode. Mayank Tandon, the villain here was again decent at best but neither he came across menacing nor sympathetic, just a random filler romantic angle which just added unnecessary screentime in the show. Shweta Tiwari was good for whatever time she was onscreen but again adding nothing. Isha Talwar, what exactly was her job in this? She was there again as a filler romantic angle for Sid who comes only in flashbacks because her character died but what did it add here for Sid's character? Absolutely NOTHING! And why is there a need to add a romantic song in a web series! It's not a musical series like Bandish Bandit, just a regular masala web series which should've been a film! This reminds me with every coming villain in Rohit Shetty's films none of them have managed to match even 1/4th class and aura of what Prakash Raj had as Jaikant Shikre. Mukesh Rishi, glad to see him not playing a villain this time but again he didn't seem to have any depth in his character as well. The only actor who felt was given best presentation as a star and acted the best was Sharad Khelkar. Today he should've been presented as one of the big league stars and I'm upset he still isn't given his due. If Sharad Khelkar was there for longer time period he would've easily saved the series as well, but his scene stealing appearance is enough for you to like this show. But Rohit again gave him absurd scenes as well, like escaping Bangladesh intelligence officers so easily, making them look dumb and breaking the security border gate with his jeep, like WTF WAS THAT!
Now my hopes for Singham Again's quality has damped down big time, have zero hopes for the same. Rohit Shetty cinema is completely outdated, or maybe the standards Atlee set with Jawan or Vanga set with Animal will be hard to match even for Rohit Shetty, who was once regarded as best masala director of Bollywood. Hope he either retires and lives in the legacy he had created for himself or he just progresses with today's time. Going with 2 stars that too only for little amount of entertainment which this show could've provided.
Dunki (2023)
Shockingly unsatisfactory
Rajkumar Hirani, the name for me has been synonym with the league of greatest directors in the world today. With the names of Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, James Cameron, Steven Spielberg I would always add 2 more names from India- SS Rajamouli and Rajkumar Hirani, with Hirani having an edge in my books. It's extremely difficult to make a film that can appeal to class as well as mass audience, make an effective comedy and an effective drama in same film yet Hirani always delivered in Munnabhai films, 3 idiots, PK and Sanju. Now Hirani came back after 5 long years that too with India's biggest Superstar Shah Rukh Khan who's in the form of his life with monster successes Pathaan and Jawan, naturally expectations would be skyrocketed. Especially statements from Abhijat Joshi(Hirani's long time co writer), Mukesh Chhabra(Casting director), Hirani's indirect statements and SRK's claims that Dunki will be their career's greatest film. Heartbreakingly it is exactly opposite, Dunki turns out as weakest Hirani film and I'm shocked to say so Hirani didn't live upto his standards, nor is this best of SRK this year.
Dunki starts off with Taapsee Pannu coming out of the hospital, some forced comedy scenes follow and you know Raju Hirani is trying to infuse his trademark with his music, creating Laltu village and its people which made me wonder why is Raju trying to create an epic world build up which comes naturally to him. Sure there are some witty lines and jokes land really well in first half, but not entirely. Some scenes do remind you of Zero's first half as if this is an Aanand L Rai film, not Hirani one. Taapsee's Manu, Vikram Kochar's Buggu and Anil Grover's Balli all 3 are typical Hirani type characters that you would expect, and everything is taking time to build up well, till SRK's entry happens and he seems like a total misfit for this role since then. It's not just him, his character Hardy doesn't give a typical Hirani feel unlike his previous film's central characters like Munnabhai, Rancho, PK or even Sanju either they had unique thinking or themselves were in trouble. How everything blended well in previous films and how struggle to make things look natural is evident. The best funny moments in this film were the IELTS scenes, especially Boman Irani Anil Grover and very special appearance Vicky Kaushal who steals the show in first half, with another drunk and emotional rant reminding you of his performance in Masaan. The interval block of this scene is indeed shocking but doesn't come across emotional due to editing or the direction despite of Vicky's terrific performance. It was indeed sad, but not a tearful moment which it should've been.
Unlike others complaining, I somehow liked the second half of this film much better than first half as the Dunki story takes place, the journey to London through Dunki route, SRK's character now justifying why he's shown as the soldier and his chemistry with Taapsee coming out naturally. The barren land journey and deaths were indeed shocking, transports you to different world compared to the first half. And the arrival to London how satisfactory it looked only to show the life in London isn't as good as they all predicted instead it was even worse was beautifully shown, but unfortunately the obsession that Manu, Balli and Buggu had to stay in London was never touched upon well. There should've been more exploration on that part as well. The court scene kind of comes out little over the top and shockingly not good at all which could've been a highlight knowing you have SRK in the centre stage. The scene which could've blended well naturally came out forceful. Post the court scenes as the characters grew old the makeup comes across on all the characters come well, except for Hardy who's makeup goes highly overboard. Remember Vikram Rathore makeup how natural it looked? Here it looks more artificial. The second Dunki planning was cleverly written giving more Hirani touch than before as everyone returns back to their country works off well and film reaches its climax, trying too hard to give a very satisfactory end instead Taapsee's death became more abrupt and showing Illegal immigrants lives how they cross the journey and the life they live till they get legalised. Luckily this film doesn't glorify illegal immigrants well, instead it somewhat gives respect to immigrants only.
Performances wise- Shockingly this is the weakest performance of Shahrukh Khan in last 20 years. I was shocked to see how is SRK struggling to act in entire first half of a Hirani film. SRK-Hirani combo is one such combo everyone anticipated for longest time, especially when SRK was first choice for Munnabhai and 3 idiots, here SRK in entire first half struggles with Punjabi accent and the character written for him was terrible to say the least. Hirani is known for making even background actors act like oscar winners, how he failed to bring best out of SRK instead brought the worst out of him! Especially look at the interval block scene and Vicky Kaushal's death scene, it was SRK who ruined it with his mediocre act and it's hard for me to say that SRK's bad acting ruined a Hirani film but it is a fact in Dunki. Although in second half he improved greatly, only because he stayed quiet most of the time. It was his expressions and body language that spoke for himself much better but whenever he opened his mouth to say some dialogues, he struggled to act and that's shocking because SRK has played Punjabi characters in the past and it all came out very well for him, this is basically SRK's Laal Singh Chadha moment. While Shahrukh Khan failed, others naturally blended well in a Hirani venture, be it Taapsee Pannu(one of her career best performance) Vikram Kochar and Anil Grover. Seems like this role was written for Sunil Grover but due to budget constraints or as he already worked with SRK in Jawan, his brother was given the role and he aced it well, especially during the IELTS interviews look out for that speech. Vikram Kochar was good as well, surprisingly doesn't come across as annoying as it could've gone. Taapsee was fantastic in this film, her acting comes across quite natural, except in the older scenes in which she looked apt but not her acting. Was wondering if Kajol was paired with SRK it could've come out much better, or maybe SRK was the misfit so Ranveer Singh might've done better job in this role(not Don 3). While rest of the actors like Boman Irani, Deven Bhojani and rest of the support cast do well, but in the first half the man who steals the show is indeed Vicky Kaushal! And this isn't surprising knowing how great of an actor he is. Vicky Kaushal deserves every best acting award this year, be it for Sam Bahadur or Dunki be it best actor and best supporting actor, this is a Vicky Kaushal year! Watch out for the drunk scene how he acts and the desperation in his eyes to go to
London, perhaps he had the most logical reason to go to London. Wish he too had little longer role in first half as well.
The music surprisingly blended better in this film, especially O Maahi and Chal Ve Watna. None of the songs seemed forceful, some might think Lut Put Gaya wasn't justified but it indeed was justified as a minor break and feel good moment. But in the end this isn't a Raju Hirani film we know of. Maybe the mistakes that Hirani had was always fixed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and together their combo worked well, here maybe VVC's absence greatly affected Raju Hirani. VVC without Hirani in 2000s and 2010s never had a single good film, always direct or indirect Hirani involvement made the quality better. But this time it was Hirani who needed VVC as the latter directed major sleeper hit 12th fail while Hirani with SRK in his top form gave an above average affair. Going with 5 stars and it's heartbreaking to see this, as an SRK fan seeing him struggle with acting but more than that seeing Hirani's film turning out like this.
Animal (2023)
Wild chaotic first half let down by mediocre second half
It's been almost a week since Animal's release and every reviewer I know instead of talking about it's storyline, script, characters, cinema all they are doing is fighting over sexism misogyny and other nonsensical points, giving bigger boost to this film. Are critics really dumb nowadays? Same happened during Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh and same is happening now, especially those who haven't watched the film but watched some clips circulating. Even Sandeep Reddy Vanga felt offended for his previous films critics hence to taunt them he added some unnecessary moments in Animal, killing the film's actual plot.
While the first half of Animal was terrific as hell, almost flawless film except some moments like RK calling Rashmika having big pelvis and she can carry babies which were used as compliments or using Anil Kapoor's lookalike to save him, but again the film knew it's absurdity and it went well with the film. Only other flaw I can say was it's BGM way too loud it kind of mutes the dialogues as well. The interval point in Animal was out and out banger and every one of us expected the film will just get better, all thanks to Vanga being in his top form. I had declared the film as best A rated film made in Bolywood, all thanks to Sandeep Reddy Vanga! The music pacing be it Chini Chini Aasa(For us Hindi speakers it was Choti si Asha), Dolby Walya(famous marathi song), Animal BGM and of course ultimate banger Arjan Vaily made people hoot. Ranbir in Animal was literally playing Kabir Singh but with guns and bigger bank balance who had a character arc even more menacing than Micheal Corleone in The Godfather. I know comparisons sounds absurd but it's not comparison because it was actually the case. We don't even know what was Ranbir's name in the film till a minute before interval came and we didn't care to notice it either despite him being in the film for entire first half made me curious about Vanga's screenplay skills even more! As much as I rave about the first half, second half takes major dip almost alarmingly mediocre which people are blind to see.
Unlike the first half banger the second half has very few fun moments instead makes you bore and facepalm more. After madness of interval block of Ranbir's character Ranvijay killed more than 300 people in his hotel, no police case or media investigation took place. Instead entire focus went on getting Ranbir treated well in which his psychological part was explored and his relation only with his wife Geethanjali played by Rashmika. The film is about father son or let's say son's love for father but Anil Kapoor was totally sidelined in second half, almost reduced to side actor. We needed more scenes of them or Ranbir's relation with his family including mother and sisters but nothing happened, instead how ill treated his wife and almost became an antagonist himself. The scenes in which he was hurting his wife by pulling her bra strap or period shaming her clearly showed Ranbir was turning into villain but people took them in a complete different way thinking it's all sexist which Ranvijay was supposed to be! Or maybe Vanga wanted to taunt his critics hence added those scenes, taking away the core of the film. While these scenes were boring, there came the much awaited character reveal- BOBBY DEOL AS ABRAR! What an entry in the song Jamal Jamaloo which is a big rage today and every shot of his was a highlight of second half. Bobby doesn't have any dialogue in Animal due to his mute character and still created a huge stir. As Bobby soars high, the dip again happens as Tripti Dimri's character was introduced. Not that she's bad actress, she's amongst my favourite after Laila Majnu, Bulbul and Qala. It's just her character was totally unneeded especially for Ranvijay to cheat on Geethanjali for Zoya(Tripti Dimri) because Ranvijay was regarded as man of Principle despite being toxic and aggressive, making me hate Ranvijay even more. Later the hickey scene, Ranvijay asking Zoya to lick his feet or the justification he gave to cheat just to protect his father were absolutely absurd. Although in the trailer I was sceptical of Rashmika's acting in the argument scene, she nailed the performance, perhaps her career best! And that's it, more absurd scenes in which Ranbir fires gun on her and they reconcile.
Finally it was Ranbir vs Bobby everyone awaited for and we all wished Bobby had more role, he would've stolen the limelight from Ranbir. Both were equally good as villains and weighed in emotions well, the point in which their disabilities were revealed an almost Martha scene happened(BVS Reference) kind of ruined the moment. Finally I was glad Ranvijay doesn't get his father's love nor his wife stayed back with him, which he deserved. And then came an unnecessary post credit scene with Abrar's brother Aziz who did plastic surgery to look like Ranbir and if you remember Rolex's massy moment from Vikram? This was even more deadly and bloodbath.
Performances needs no mention, Ranbir as an actor and as the superstar was in biggest ever. This is the first time Ranbir is portrayed as superstar and as mighty actor and he nails it both! Some of the most complicated shots and Ranbir shows he's the boss man and no one can even stand near him when he's in charge of the shot. And this is a good and hoth a bad thing, because as there's no complain in Ranbir's performance, too much of screenplay focuses on him and forgets other actors calibre. Rashmika Mandana is decent at best, as I mentioned earlier about her quarrel scene with Ranbir she did terrific job unlike shown in the trailer. While the film is about father son, how can you forget Anil Kapoor and give him a mediocre role? While in first half Anil Kapoor had damsel in distress kind of arc, in second half except for climax he had nothing to do. He could've complimented Ranbir so well yet hw didn't get chance to shine, yet he was terrific in whatever scenes he had. As I mentioned earlier, Bobby Deol could've already stolen the limelight from everyone had he got 5 more minutes. From his entry to attire to body language and expressions, Bobby Deol was true villain, who could've eaten Ranbir alive. Tripti Dimri was good in her performance but we all know what an actress she is. She didn't had to strip down naked because her talent can get her bigger opportunities. Hopefully in Animal Park she has better role and it's not just Ranbir vs Ranbir. Rest of the cast were great as well, wish Shakti Kapoor too had bigger role.
The music of Animal isn't as good as Kabir Singh, but the songs were paced very well. As much as I loved first half, double I hated the second half. Going with 4 stars.
Tiger 3 (2023)
I really wanted to like this film, but can't
The last film of Salman Khan that I truly enjoyed was Tiger Zinda Hai that too way back in 2017. Almost 6 years later, every Salman film has been horrendous with Salman putting almost zero effort or ruining even best chances for himself. Finally early this year Pathaan came and his cameo as Tiger cheered the hell out of all the fans, I got even more excited for Tiger 3 and I had expectations it's going to be total blast, especially after knowing SRK is in the film as Pathaan and even rumoured Hrithik cameo. I tried controlling my hopes before trailer but after it released I had a blast especially after long rumoured Emraan Hashmi cameo was confirmed and seemed he'd play the brains against Tiger's brute strength, paralleling Pathaan and Jim. And I watched the film with complete excitement, only to receive a mammoth level disappointment! Tiger 3 is easily it just weakest of Tiger series, but weakest of entire Spy universe!
Yes on paper the plot might look good due to geopolitical situations, but the final screenplay was totally haywire, first half focusing on the storytelling with big loopholes and mediocre dialogues like 'Ye Kanya Mardo ko ladna sikhaati' Nani Nano Nana Saand ko Laal Rang; or Emraan Hashmi's getup(onto that later); or even illogical action scenes in terms of writing especially saving much loved Gopi from Ek Tha Tiger and calling it as Mission Timepass, seriously? Revathi clearly described the location where Gopi was as a place where no one comes back alive, how the hell did Tiger saved Gopi in 10 minutes? By jumping towards Helicopter(I don't know what did they think Helicopter means). And then soon Gopi dies of injuries after revealing Zoya is working with ISI on something dangerous. Should I feel for Gopi's death or feel for Tiger as Zoya is backstabbing him?
And then entire time no elevating scene, no out of the world action scene, just random plot moving on that too mediocre one. At least Pathaan with a mediocre plot had an entertainment factor, Tiger 3 is totally missing it. And then comes real reveal about Emraan Hashmi, the Zoya backstory which was forcefully integrated having absolute zero impact in the end. After that Emraan Hashmi scenes that somewhat was set in ETT events that made absolutely no sense due to continuity errors which got Emraan Hashmi pregnant wife got killed, yes similar backstory as Jim in Pathaan, except with lesser impact. For Junior, Tiger and Zoya attempt a heist, Tiger calls his RAW friends from TZH but don't tell them why they're doing it when they were supposed to be informed later on in the interval, what sense did it make then? Absolutely NOTHING! The heist was mediocre, so was the hyped Katrina Kaif towel fight scene. Till interval I awaited some banger moment, like previous Spy films but this one had one average Salman Khan entry and that's it! As the plot was being build, interval happened?
The second half somewhat picks up pace but before that highly illogical Pathaan entry(onto that later) almost made me pull my hair, like what is going on! And then everything was about saving Pakistani PM more than the PAL codes that can destroy Indian cities, like seriously? And while another fan favourite character Karan from TZH was dying, you reveal another character Javed turning against Tiger and Zoya because he was brother of Emraan Hashmi's wife, SO WHY DID HE FIGHT ALONGSIDE TIGER AND ZOYA IN TIGER ZINDA HAI AND DID NOTHING!!? And again am I supposed to feel bad for Karan's death or feel shocked for Javed turning villain? Incoherent screenplay. Even Hassan's character in TZH was given a mediocre role and death failed to impact well enough, especially when he was like son to Tiger and Zoya. In the end it was supposed to be Emraan being brainy and powerful but somehow Salman outwits Emraan most of the time, like how? And in the end it's all about Pakistani prem to the extent played Indian National Anthem on Pakistan soil, like seriously?
This is the first time I felt bad for Salman Khan, because he actually gave his best foot forward and acted well, living upto Tiger's name. Perhaps his best performance as Tiger and easily top 10 best Salman performances. And again Salman is back in his element when it comes to action, even in emotional scenes he emoted really well. But unfortunately script lets him down. Katrina didn't give any good performance unlike the one she gave in Tiger Zinda Hai, although her end action scenes were terrific and it was clear she was the one performing her own stunts. But the real scene stealer without second thoughts was definitely Emraan Hashmi! And unfortunately that's the only thing I could say about his performance, he had no fault in acting department but his character Aatish was mediocrely written, with almost zero shining scenes unlike John Abraham as Jim was given in Pathaan or Tiger as Saurabh, or even Sajjad Delafrooz in TZH. Even the makeup on him looked weird especially by giving him grey hair you expect him to play an old character, almost zero effort in makeup department. If Emraan was given Jim level treatment with actually making him threatening or someone with high brains, he could've emerged as best Spy universe villain! Vishal Jethwa(replaced original Hassan from TZH) was good too, but as I mentioned earlier, his character dies and left with lesser impact. Revathi had almost zero importance unlike Dimple Kapadia in Pathaan. Here again Simran plays Pakistani PM and she was fine, that's it. Rest of the supporting cast, I was disappointed with their treatment. SRK cameo as Pathaan was highly nonsense and OVER THE TOP in every frame! Both SRK and Salman were defying physics, logic, sense and unnecessary added humour and plotholes, 1000 bullets go past them none of them hit the duo but they easily manage to evade bullets and their aim is too perfect for normal soldiers, like seriously? The best cameo and best scene or this film was that of Hrithik Roshan as Kabir, teasing War 2 which seems it's gonna be grittier, darker and more gruesome, something I wanted to see for a long time! Comparing the spy universes characters, I'm glad Tiger, Kabir and Pathaan are vastly different from one another, especially due to their styles. While Tiger is brute strength, The OG, matured and stylish; Kabir is hand to hand combat specialist, intelligent, team leader, no nonsense and ready to go dark path; Pathaan is the goofy, flirtatious, alpha male and street smartness. Hoping to see how War 2 shapes Kabir especially his fight with Jr NTR, then finally much hyped Tiger vs Pathaan, the ultimate Civil War/BVS battle!
For now going 4 stars especially for Salman Emraan and somewhat an attempt of trying different in spy universe, had its screenplay and dialogues were better.
Kaala Paani (2023)
Dark, Haunting, But Beautiful
Imagine someone who was the main head of comic sketches like 'Barely speaking with Urnabh' and wrote and created TVF shows mainly dealing with comedy and slice of life dramatic moments, decided to go completely dark and create one of the darkest human survival series ever, forget just being most darkest in India. Yup, this is literally coming from team of TVF, the writer Biswapati Sarkar, show runner Sameer Saxena and producer Saurabh Khanna! No wonder this isn't a TVF production but Posham Pa Pictures after the split. Kaala Paani, set in Andaman Nicobar is easily amongst the best series made in India yet.
In this year itself we've seen many terrific series coming out, be it Asur 2, Scoop, Jubilee, Farzi, Guns n Gulaab, Aspirants sequel and spin offs, now Kaala Paani. Biswapati Sarkar has taken a complete dark turn and wrote something forget from TVF guys making this, even Anurag Kashyap couldn't think of making something so depressing. The lightest and perhaps most TVF part of this series was its first episode, with some gags around and then the gags disappear and everything else gives us COVID lockdown feel, except in an island and caused due to water issues. The LHF bacteria symptoms also seemed horrifying, to the extent it freaked me out whenever someone had hiccups or even looking at water how terrifying it would be. Only major plot hole I could say was why didn't they show what would happen if the water was boiled.
Nevertheless the dark and Ominous atmosphere put everyone in terrifying situations, almost every character had a dark back story, some of the part seemed unnecessary and some characters were sidelined which too should've been avoided. Nevertheless other parts were beautifully shown, especially the Oraka Tribes and the faith they have, why they're worshipped and what happens to them in the end was truly unexpected. But what really stands out besides Andaman and Oraka tribes are the characters complexity portrayed. You could feel for some characters, despise others and some places even question for such minor actions can cause major consequences. The cinematography and setting might give some people a reference of Dark, the grounded approach and unimaginable situations for the protagonists, except unlike Dark that takes sci fi turn this one remains as grounded and humane approach as possible. Another thing that stands out is the social message, saying in the end it's the Nature and Humanity that will win over everything. Also flipping the switch analogy even gives us a choice what would we do, a bad decision or lesser bad decision. The themes were beautiful.
Performances wise almost everyone did a pitch perfect job, it was all about how characters were treated. Mona Singh was the Main Character in this series, whatever anyone says just for one episode she deserves at least best actress nomination. Yes I said one episode because she was given a Ned Stark treatment in this Kaala Paani, except it happens in first episode itself! The world was shocked seeing Ned Stark die in first season of GOT, Mona Singh's death is even more shocking killing her in first episode itself! While Mona Singh was developed as the lead, doesn't mean any other character gets side lined later on, as every other supporting characters take center stage and become the leads. If Mona Singh is Ned Stark of this show, Vikas Kumar as Santosh Savla is the Walter White to Heisenberg, except in lesser timespan even more extreme. Reason because in the start of the series Santosh was afraid of asking for water in the plane, the introvertness was relatable especially coming from my own experience or getting publicly humiliated by your own son. Just because of someone else's selfishness Santosh finds himself in worst situation possible, losses his wife Gargi(Sarika Singh another great but short performance), loses his innocence, from pure vegetarian to killing a snake just to eat its egg and then finding himself cremating his own son not as his father, the character arc went even more menacing and killed the very person who saved his children's life. While Santosh goes through the most depressing and horrifying situation, Vikas' acting was commendable as well, watch out for the scenes when he cries his heart out, or a heartfelt scene with his son Gucchu who hates being called that and prefers Parth, knowing his wife is going to die, to learning of Parth's death, to finally getting to see his daughter Kaddu and finally killing Jyotsna, the arc was deadlier than Bre Ba did. The other best written character was Sukant Goel's Chiranjeevi, how he was introduced as an extremely flawed character, even in dire situation seeking to extort money from Savla family to seeing his friend die, later learning about Oraka tribes and then his own origins and why his family dedicates their life to Oraka. While I was satisfied by his character getting complete arc, I wish there were more scenes of his and his brother Vineesh, who deserved more scenes with Jyotsna as well. Coming to Arushi Sharma as Jyotsna, definitely she had darkest backstory, some of which seemed unnecessary like divorce part or her friend dying. Maybe her leaving her profession was only sensible backstory needed because it took her only one episode to overcome her inner demons, but her saving Gucchu and Kaddu was heart wrenching as well. While it was needed for Santosh to go full breaking bad, Jyotsna shouldn't have got killed, especially when Vineesh and Ritu were depended on her and the plant later turned out to be Jyotsna's plant she had planted in childhood. The other major character was Ritu, again and unneeded backstory but her being the savior was needed as well, I'm glad Ritu who was almost overlooked and dismissed as junior was improved upon and developed better. The other antagonizing character who changed for good was definitely Amey Wagh as ACP Ketan Kamat, the Marathi police officer who seemingly had a backstory why he turned from good to evil till you realize he can never be a good person and was always villainous. Only if he hadn't bribed his way out for powerful businessmen in this the entire series hadn't had taken place, and how he was the absolute evil guy, till he learns the actual reason for the bacteria to comeback and his change of heart especially for Ritu turned him into positive guy and got himself beaten up. Finally he got his favorite masala jazz flavor was what symbolism really meant. Hated him in the start and loved him in the end. Only problem with Amey Wagh performance was it seemed way too similar to Ritiesh Deshmukh's acting if Ritiesh was young, which shouldn't be a complain but Amey should have his own identity instead of mimicking Ritiesh. Ashutosh Gowarikar, almost had no change in character arc had only one conflicting scene that was the last episode. Not much about him is needed yet his small one dimensional role was good and subtle, yet standing tall. Rajesh Khattar, another one dimensional typical rich evil business tycoon had some meaty performance in last episode when the big reveal comes just to land the helicopter how such a big pandemic broke out was unimaginable yet seemed to make sense due to how COVID came out. Sarika Singh as Gargi, Poornima Indrajith, Chinmay Mandlekar and other supporting cast having smaller roles but leave impact one important scenes
There were many performances that I might've missed to mention, especially cast from Oraka Tribes, they all were short but exceptionally well. Kaala Paani has some plot holes but it is definitely the amongst best series made this year. Going with 8/10.
Gadar 2 (2023)
LITERALLY WORST FILM I'VE EVER WATCHED!
How the hell did this pile of garbage earn 500 crores in India! This piece of s#it doesn't even deserve to earn Gadar's collections forget going beyond 500! How dumb Indian audiences were to make this film a success! How dare Indian audience make this film a success! Because of Indian Audience I've been losing my hopes in Bollywood for making such films 500 crores, or is it a BJP thing to make every Anti Pakistan film a success or was it to challenge and dethrone Pathaan because SRK already went ahead with Jawan, so what's the point? I doubt this film's collections are even real because it's literally a mockery and spoof of Gadar and adding some nostalgia elements to appease Gadar fans, but genuine fans will definitely be disappointed with this film's product. And people are calling this garbage as Hindustan Ka Asli Blockbuster? Shame on us. Shame on humanity for making this film also, making it a success and literally celebrating it is worst thing ever!
Back in 2001, Gadar had released and clashed with Lagaan, in which everyone expected Gadar will flop and Lagaan will destroy Gadar but miraculously both the films were big success, with Gadar becoming India's biggest blockbuster with highest collections and footfalls, Lagaan went on to get nominated for Oscars. But for the time both the films were made fantastic. The scale Gadar had for the time it released was fantastic, the patriotic elements works big time in Gadar and of course let's not forget the performances as well which Sunny Deol Ameesha Patel Amrish Puri and entire lead and supporting cast gave. Sure it did have flimsy over the top moments, but overall Gadar was a top notch action entertainer with fantastic emotional values. The hand pump scene although breaks all the illogical moments of Bollywood, became an iconic scene, the Hindustan Zindabaad slogans were rage at that time. Anil Sharma was a mediocre filmmaker till Gadar released and then afterwards also he just made 2 good films and both with Sunny Deol- Hero Love Story of Spy and Apne.
Now back to 2023, I tried watching the trailer of Gadar 2 and realised it's nothing but a mockery of Gadar itself and I betted this film will tank terribly. But to my utter shock this film earned over 500 crores despite of tepid reviews. I didn't want to watch the film but also didn't believe in critics reviews either because audience feedback was overwhelming. At one point I really thought I might've missed watching Gadar 2 so I waited for its Zee5 release and finally it's here, to my utter shock this is 100 times worse than I expected! Gadar was ahead of its time but this Gutter 2 is way behind Gadar as well! While Gadar portrayed Sunny as a grounded person despite of over the top strength, Gadar 2 is showing him as some 60-70 year old superhero for no reason! Gadar 2 should've been made in 1980s then it could've been better but in today's time? I thought I won't watch something as bad as KGF 2 or something as average as Pathaan that will collect more than 400 crores, but Gutter crossed everything! Yucks!
Writing, Acting, Cinematography, BGM, Editing, Shot composition, editing, VFX, name anything and Gutter has everything got it wrong! It was visible and clear that scenes showed as Pakistan was nothing but Lahore, at least Gadar showed it like Pakistan Gutter couldn't even do that! Tanks guns everything looked so fake in these new age cameras I felt like laughing on them for making this garbage. I don't even wanna delve much into this cause there was no effort in showing Lahore as Lucknow. And talking about props, just look at now handpump scene was treated here, literally made into a mockery of such a powerful scene in Gadar! If this was a spoof it would've been okay but a sequel? Didn't the director know this is nothing but an insult to the original film?
Performances wise- The only man who seems to be in his element and staying true to the original character is obviously Sunny Deol, that's because he's been playing Sunny Deol only since 80s. At once I thought with Chup Sunny will be reinventing himself but came this Gutter and he became his usual self, except unlike his previous outings where he as screaming and punching, here he's screaming more and punching less. At every second he's miss yelling around for no reason and in second half his OYE gets increasing. Alia was trolled all over for saying Shiva in every line in Brahmastra, here Sunny shouts Jeetey in every line why isn't he getting trolled? Who the hell is this Sunny Deol who doesn't deserve any trolling? Despite of all this Sunny Deol literally is the only thing that works here. Rest of the star cast were a big failure! If anyone remembers the length and depth Ameesha Patel has in Gadar along with a fantastic performance, here her character was sidelined as an extended cameo with a mediocre and uncomfortable performance. Who would think Sakina from being the actual central conflict in Gadar would be reduced to an extra? And then there's the film's actual hero and major drawback- Utkarsh Sharma as Jeetey. Remember in Gadar how he acted as the child? Everyone fell in love with him, the innocence and adorable act he had put up had won our hearts but in Gutter, his performance ruined the entire film. The entire first half it was Utkarsh who was the lead and Sunny having only 20 minutes screen time, and in that Utkarsh was outright terrible. Only good thing he had in the film was his chemistry with Sunny Deol, because while in Gadar Sunny Ameesha Utkarsh actually seemed like a family and Utkarsh Ameesha actually looked like mother son with beautiful love, here the chemistry is totally missing and looks quite flimsy and awkward. Simratt Kaur, the new addition was damsel in distress and that's it. Manish Wadhwa, the main antagonist made me miss Amrish Puri a lot! Unlike Amrish Puri who made his character menacing and vulnerable at the same time, here he's just playing an extended version of his character in Pathaan, just in more terrible way. He's a great actor and deserved better. Rest of the cast, more or less same comments.
I hate to say this, but we Indians should feel ashamed of making this film a success, shame on us! I was initially planning 2 stars, but 1 star is too much to give this overrated trash.
Jawan (2023)
LONG LIVE THE KING KHAN
Morning time I was pretty sleepy and drowsy, got up for first day first show event, expecting just a random mindless action masala with not much plot development and the moment first frame was shown, I was blown away by its visuals! And Atlee without wasting any time introduced us to the first action scene giving SRK his best ever entry and God what level of action sequences, CGI, cinematography, Shot Composition and BGM everything uplifted the film so stunningly that I lost my sleep and got hooked to the screen. That's when I knew The King is truly back with a bigger bang! Pathaan seemed like a watered down average content compared to Jawan's exhilarating intro itself only, I knew I signed myself for the best cinematic experience of this year!
Jawan easily stands out as the best of Atlee, yes this might sound controversial but it is true, it's much better than Theri and Raja Rani when it comes to production, BGM, Acting and Plot, yes even though the script might seem weakest link of this film but what else to expect from Atlee's films? Atlee really needs writers like Lokesh Kanagraj and there you have him as the best Tamil director you can get, something what title I'd give to Loki. But nevertheless Atlee has presented the fast paced 3 hour long film in a very stylish yet equally massy way that puts Pathaan to shame in every way possible, be it the action scenes, VFX, BGM, Cinematography, Strong supporting cast and what not? The only places Pathaan scores points over Jawan is the villain's writing, how John in Pathaan seemed like true formidable force here VJS seemed less of a threat and more of generic villain especially in the first half, nevertheless this seemed like the best villain Atlee has written in his career but should've been much better. Besides villain, other place where Pathaan scores over Jawan is the songs, not talking about BGM but the songs where Vishal Shekhar got it better than Anirudh when it comes to making music album. Nevertheless all this didn't seem like a problem. About the problems in plot, it was decent for a masala film but too many good arcs which could've been used for different films, maybe SRK-Nayan track could've been avoided or used as background for Chaleya song. Unfortunately lots of different things were missed.
But places where Jawan scores brownie points is the cinematography, especially in the first scene itself how SRK's entry and the action scene was presented I was blown away. Kudos to GK Vishnu! After that Rubén's editing can't be blamed due to the fast paced screenplay it seemed like lots of arc were missed. Nevertheless his editing was superb as well! Onto BGM later because that is the main thing that needs to be discussed.
Performances wise- IT IS AN SRK SHOW ALL THE WAY! SRK in Jawan literally overshadows entire star cast with his powerhouse performance, be it acting, screen presence, energy, action sequences SRK towers over everyone! That brings me a question, is there any kind of character left that SRK can't preform? For villainous role you have Darr; for comedy you have Badshah; for romance, well he is King of Romance; for Stylish action you have Don franchise; for experimental performance you have Fan; for intense role you have Swades; for complex character you have MNIK; for arthouse film you have Paheli and amongst all this of anything was remaining that was a massy character and SRK here pulls off that as well! But as SRK soars highest in this film, let's not forget other performers as well. Nayanthara the Lady Superstar did a fine job as well, especially in the action scenes outside hospital she was the best thing to watch, till SRK again comes onscreen and steals the limelight from her despite of a mask put on. Nayan deserves much better written characters, Jawan could've shown that well unfortunately it somewhere got lost. Vijay Sethupathi, the Makkal Selvan could've easily been worthy opponent to SRK, if only his character was better written. But it is Atlee, who doesn't have that well written characters in his movies, despite of that this was his best villain and VJS pulled it off well, especially in the second half when his younger portions were there and of course in the pre climax and climax scenes his face off with SRK himself. The comical side of the villain was fun to watch and VJS pulled it off expectedly well. While I dislike how VJS is typecasted as the villain in recent films or more like a gangster, be it in Master, Uppena, Vikram and more others, he still manages to give different variations in all of them. The only annoying thing in his performance was his accent, that seemed to be a hinderance in his act which wasn't needed. Deepika Padukone in a 20 minute special appearance again gives a superlative performance, almost overshadowing Nayan as the lead actress. Her arc be it fun one with SRK or the emotional mother's arc was well done, the jail scenes showed her acting prowess and how she can be shown so well when she gets an author backed characters to pull off. The girl squad- Priyamani, Sanya Malhotra, Sanjeeta Bhattacharya, Girija Oak, Lehar Khan and Aaliyah Querishi were the USP as well, everyone did fantastic job in their respective act although I still felt more could've been utilised, especially from Priyamani and Sanya Malhotra as they were indeed the biggest stars amongst the girl squad. I was glad Family Man reference was used in showing Priyamani her onscreen Family Man daughter, I wished her arc wasn't cut off so soon. Besides Riddhi Dogra, Sunil Grover and rest of the supporting cast were spot on in their performance as well, only wish better makeup was done for Riddhi Dogra or another actress was cast for older Kaveri Amma(Swades reference was well used). Sanjay Dutt in a special appearance was good as hell, a surprise cameo no one really expected! We all thought it's gonna be Thalapathy Vijay but this wasn't bad either! If anything goes by post credits, Sanjay Dutt in Jawan 2 can be a double bonanza that needs to be utilised well! But again Atlee and his open ended cliffhangers hopefully comes to an end. And now, the performance that actually stole the show even from Shah Rukh Khan himself, the interval banger and easily greatest performance in a massy role in past decade of Bollywood- NONE OTHER THAN SRK HIMSELF AS VIKRAM RATHORE! While the younger SRK was the best thing in the film till the interval block appeared because from that point, it's the older SRK who steals the limelight. The performance, the presentation, the swag, aura and name anything that's needed in a massy character and Vikram Rathore had it all! If you think Ravi Teja or Akshay Kumar are the best Vikram Rathore with best interval blocks, wait till you see SRK as Vikram Rathore how he appears and overshadows himself! Baap of Bollywood's massy characters and this doesn't come from any Bollywood director, but Tamil director Atlee! Kudos to Atlee for giving Bollywood its best interval block!
And now the 4th pillar again, Anirudh himself! He's already a rock star in Kollywood, from Rajnikanth to Kamal Hassan to Dhanush to Vijay, everyone in Tamil wanted Anirudh. This is the first time Bollywood audience for affiliated with Anirudh and boy he has done wonders in BGM, maybe the songs could've been better as they sound so good in theatres not on cellphones. Anirudh, you deserve the title of Rockstar of India, at this age he's the most demanded musician and that's how it should be for him! More Anirudh music in Bollywood please!
Overall, I do have some criticisms for Jawan as I had mentioned, going with 7/10 as the real review, but 2 stars only for SHAH RUKH KHAN! If anyone still has problems with SRK, wait for Dunki everything will be solved.
Riverdale (2017)
Finally The End!
Riverdale, as the name suggests isn't just about Archies from where the show is loosely based on, instead it is a show about the town Riverdale. What also set Riverdale and Archies apart was the tone, while Archies was light hearted show with coming of age rom com elements, Riverdale is literally teenage drama, with every season having different genre. It sounds really cool on paper, but that's it. Onscreen everything after season 1 Riverdale created total mess!
Literally started going downhill worn every season, literally if I had to remember any good episode after season 1 it'll be tough to remember, yet I can say handful of 10 episodes only would be my favourite in entire Riverdale run, but that too would sound more like obliging on the makers. Imagine having good 10-11 episodes out of first 13 episodes and then having at the most 10 good episodes out of 124 episodes, even in that I'd say most of it cover in season 2 itself while from Season 3-7 I actually liked only 3 episodes, imagine how terrible this show is! And despite of its bizarreness and mediocrely over the top arcs, I still watched it only because of some characters that I genuinely liked- particularly Jughead, Cheryl, Fred Andrews(RIP Luke Perry) and FP Jones. Besides most of the characters were either one dimensional, or they were annoying. Imagine the show being named Archies and Archie is literally one of the most boring character being uplifted only because of his looks. KJ Apa did a really good job, so did other actors be it Lili Reinhart Camilla Mendes Cole Sprouse Madelaine Petsch but with the mediocre plot, over the top scenes and hammy dialogues they were given they couldn't rise well above the script. I really wanted to like Lili Reinhart as Betty because her acting was really good, but again her Betty was much more annoying after season 1, even in season 1 the Dark Betty part was cringe to watch. Camilla Mendes as Veronica was perhaps the closest to the comics counterpart in terms of looks, but again poor plot treatments ruined it for her.
And this is one major blunder that the show runners made throughout, while trying to focus on too many characters they literally forget most of the side characters who had their moments in the series and are totally forgotten, heck even the main characters; previous arcs seemed to be totally forgotten by the makers, be it Archie forgetting he was a musician and a football player and literally became a Boxer, Army officer and then construction worker, a superhero and what not stupidity kept on. Betty too, first wanted to be a journalist and have her own newspaper magazine going in Riverdale High, then some porn camera with her fake brother Chic, then Sisters of Quiet Mercy, her being the most intelligent in Riverdale and all this eventually lead up to her being an FBI Agent and being ripped off from Clarice from Silence of the Lamb, like seriously? And finally what? She became a superheroine! Veronica literally had least character development doing nothing but business every time, someone betrays her she betrays someone her fight against her father and affairs with particularly Archie and Reggie and of that's not enough the so called 'reboot' season of Riverdale got her ended up with Jughead. Even though Jughead is my favourite character and Cole Sprouse did a really good job nailing Jughead, almost stealing the show from everyone in first 2 seasons, his character too went did bizarre actions, like in season 1 end joining Serpents and then becoming Serpent leader in second season after almost dying! Then suddenly police training, joining some weird school and then the time jump giving him super powers of reading minds, and then upgrading to creating portals in the end reboot season back to square one.
And what's worse that happens in Riverdale is the bizarre 'special' 5 episodes of parallel universe Rivervale, easily the cringiest of the show till they decided to make entire season 6 cringe with superpower stuff going on! And then making almost everyone gays lesbians went way too overboard, only Kevin-Moose and Cheryl-Toni seemed organic rest everything seemed over the top! And first season looked good for it's grounded approach, every other following season treating us with 'musicals' ruined the Riverdale vibe and leaning suddenly towards Archie comics with 'dark edgy' approach ruining other stuff!
My overall review for all the seasons
Season 1- A good Whodunit Murder Mystery garbed in the world of teenage drama, Jughead is the show stealer solid 9/10
Season 2- Some psycho thriller serial killer story on loose with fight for town against tyranny running parallel, WTF is going on but still good 6/10
Season 3- What the hell is this G&G game and Cult stuff going on with Hiram Lodge on top of that, still characters are addictive 4/10
Season 4- Where's the plot? Where's the real threat? Only Jughead story going on seems something worth. 3/10 that too for the Season 4 1st episode beautifully written and shot giving a heartfelt tribute to Luke Perry. And am I supposed to consider the pre time jump era in season 5 or season 4 due to COVID that ruined some continuity, or else I'd say even the 'last episode' of Season 4 was good as well, heartbreaking to see Bughead and Varchie breakup.
Season 5- Finally the 25+ teens are no more teens but actual adults, yet no change in their characters. No actual threat except Hiram and Thank God he is the only threat. I like Tabitha and Betty is just getting worse after betraying Jughead yet no one cares? 2/10 and I'm being LENIENT HERE!
Rivervale- WTF? What the hell is going on? Anything random stuff with no sense going on? Parallel universe? Multiverse? Just because MCU opened their own doesn't mean you guys should do the same! And it took 100 episodes for this Jason Blossom to talk? 0/10! Worst fillers ever!
Season 6- Back to Riverdale, worst follow up ever! A teenage drama show and turned into random superpower nonsense? And then there's some supervillain too? And there's crossovers with Sabrina which was ignored for last couple of seasons? I wish this was a spin-off and not season 6, hence just 1/10!
Season 7- Everything was a reboot with original cast returning, what's the point of now trying to make it as Archies? And everything would've been much better if it was at least Archie or only Riverdale, the balance between both messed up entire season 7, a total filler season! And in the midst of all, only Reggie had good character change compared to his previous cringe character arc. This is better than previous seasons but just not Riverdale! But the last episode of Old Betty remembering her past, that's a good arc hence points given there. 3.5/10.
Finally I'm glad this series has come to an end, hopefully next time Archies comics is adapted better with no dark approach, just Archies.
Bholaa (2023)
How can you ruin an already perfect script with 10 times bigger scale?
The biggest drawback of Bholaa was that it wasn't directed by Lokesh Kanagraj! Loki himself was very much needed when it comes to at least as a producer or consultant, Ajay Devgn taking everything on himself from writing to direction and that's where Ajay always falls down. Ajay as a director has chances of matching Steven Spielberg George Lucas, SS Rajamouli and James Cameron in terms of grandeur, only 2 things are stopping him from doing so- Good writers and Ajay himself acting in it. The first half of Runway 34 proved what a great director he can be, even in Bholaa most of the police station scenes were fantastically directed when Ajay Devgn wasn't in them. That's where Ajay failed, neither in direction he managed to touch Loki nor in acting he could come near Karthi.
Difference between Kaithi and Bholaa is the scale. Kaithi had a simple plot in a very complex world, Bholaa's plot was bigger than the complex world building that's what sets both Kaithi and Bholaa apart. Also second thing that set both Kaithi and Bholaa apart was the nuances that Kaithi had shown in a subtle way yet clear subtexts, Bholaa was on the face for almost all the time and that is a complain. Kaithi also had very grounded, realistic yet over the top and out of the box action scenes while Bholaa had everything thing way too over the top and cringiest action choreography. Dilli in Kaithi was an underdog and had a pretty mysterious character yet we could feel he's just a mere pawn in a bigger world that is setup that we got to know in Vikram how big the world building is and how bigger it will get, while in Bholaa, the titular character was bigger than the entire film and somehow he was always shown as a superhuman. If only they had shown he isn't exactly a human that would've been much better than whatever the hell they splattered here. Why was there a need for an item song to show how Ashwatthama is while in Kaithi Anbu was shown almost similar, except less psychotic. And another mistake is Lokesh Kanagraj didn't reveal he's gonna set up future instalments for Kaithi, except for a subtle hint regarding Adaikalam knowing Dilli, while in Bholaa one of the most terrifying villain Nithari died of heart attack only by learning it was Bholaa who overpowered them, then Abhishek's cameo indicating the clash will happen which means Ajay expected Bholaa to be a success. That's where everything fell apart. Also every character seemed animated and that shouldn't be a complain but the treatment of Bholaa turned out to be the reason why Bholaa failed against Kaithi. While Makrand Deshpande was narrating about Bholaa everyone expected Bholaa will be one of the most notorious monster but in his backstory Bhola was shown as a simple goon who fell in love and wife died, with him serving sentence in prison. Dilli wasn't shown such a fearing guy unlike Bholaa hence story went complete haywire.
Performances wise as I said Ajay was neither close to Loki in direction nor close to Karthi in acting, except in the scenes where he was talking to or talking about his daughter. Tabu can be given credit as her entry scene and what followed aftermath I can say her character was not just better written than Bejoy that Narain portrayed in both Kaithi and Vikram but even her aching was good enough. Vineet Singh as Nithari promised to be the biggest menace but fell flat and major potential royally wasted by getting him die only because he met Bholaa, unlike Adaikalam who was shown as a bigger threat till he was watered down in Vikram by showing Rolex as someone bigger that had come easily compared to Nithari and Abhishek's android character(coming to that soon). Sanjay Mishra was good as Angad, almost matching Napoleon in Kaithi as well. But what turned out to be the best performance from Bholaa was also big disappointment for me- Deepak Dobriyal as Ashwatthama or Ashu. Deepak gave the best performance, but he was nowhere close to again Arjun Das as Anbu. Arjun Das was straight a gangster while Deepak gave psychotic approach and seemed to come out hammy. Nevertheless he was the best performer in the film and Ajay indeed directed those scenes as the best.
Also the climax of Kaithi and Bholaa makes it clear why Bholaa failed. Kaithi's night scene about machine gun was whistle worthy while Bholaa's scene was outright disappointment by making it a day shot. Actually it was the first scene of Dilli's entry scene from Jeep and him eating Biryani was what made Kaithi a paisa vasool but Bholaa replacing it with roasted chicken ruined it completely just look at the difference in cinematography, direction, BGM and performance. In Kaithi it looked like a prisoner actually craving for Biryani after getting his freedom while in Bholaa Ajay Devgn looked like he was just hungry beggar.
Even the BGM, didn't expect Ravi Basrur to give such a mediocre BGM, but now his work is getting quite repetitive. Going with 4 stars for its scale and attempt, but compared fo Kaithi, BIG ZERO!
Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan (2023)
Whom to abuse?
Salman Khan is done and dusted with himself yet somehow his fans find a reason to make this arrogant so called actor a success. How the hell did this pile of garbage earn 100 crores when this thing is not even worth spending a ticket prize of 1990s film! But again, dumb fanbases in India is the reason why this guy is such a big success. At one pint even I was unfortunately one of them but while I have understood, some people are yet to mature and grow up. I still enjoy some of Salman Khan films like Dabangg Ready Ek Tha Tiger Tiger Zinda Hai and films like Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Sultan are iconic, but this one... I better not say how terrible this is. And this time who was the director? Of course the ja the legend my favourite target Farhad Samji himself! Imagine how deadly this duo would be when they collab, this is the result!
Sultan was peak Salman Khan film, afterwards came a mediocre yet out of the box for Salman named Tubelight, which was as I said mediocre at best but glad Salman tried something out of the box, but that was it. Afterwards came Tiger Zinda Hai and that was last of Salman film that I was thoroughly entertained. But then came Race 3, one do the worst film of this century and I thought Salman wouldn't go down from this, Bharat was slight improvement yet mediocre at its best. But then came another debacle named Dabnagg 3, followed by abomination named Radhe and although Antim was great improvement, again it was less of Salman and more of Aayush Sharma film. Now comes a film directed by legendary Farhad Samji, known for Houseful 4 Bachchan Pandey and writing Baaghi 3, Laxmii, Coolie no 1, Cirkus and now this abomination! I bet there was a discussion between Salman and Samji what should they do to see how far can audience face the torture and guess what, audience is literally ready to go and face the torture only to make this film a success? WOW! Kudos to Indian audiences.
Plot- What plot? Forget it watch Veeram and find parallels with that film and Salman's real life, you got the plot.
Technical aspects- Nothing, absolutely nothing just Salman reflecting his life onscreen about brothers, former flame, getting self appraisals, does some random action, weird dance moves and the film is over. World is going backwards. Race 3 earned big despite of being disastrous and again this garbage is earning despite of being bigger disaster. That's Salman Khan for you, now let's come to Farhad Samji and his dialogues- OCD ka gaali mat do, Homo lekin inki girlfriends hai, Gundamenani ke aage gunda GUNDA(delivery of Salman was even worse), Jab kisi Non Violent aadmi ke peeche violent aadmi ho uske aage bohot violent aadmi hona zaroori(WTF am I saying I have no idea but this is legit dialogue), and above all, whatever is going on end with dum, Vande Mataram(not a patriotic film, but add patriotism genre to get more audience). Year 2023 post pandemic and these are the dialogues. I'm afraid for Hera Pheri terribly.
Performances- Salman does his best in doing pathetic acting. His films standards as well as his acting standards have been falling down with every film. As much as I enjoyed watching him in Pathaan, in this film I'm equally fed up whenever he comes onscreen. His first half looks was heavily inspired by SRK in Pathaan, except SRK actually grew that long hair unlike Salman who wore a fake wig and looked terrible, as terrible as the film's first half was be it in acting, action scenes and every other aspect. Salman was crap, what about other star cast? Pooja Hegde was fine in some scenes while in others terribly overacting. Raghav Jhuyal(Dancer), Siddharth Nigam(Tiktoker and TV actor), Jassi Gill(Punjabi star), Shehnaaz Gill(Bigg Boss contestant), Palak Tiwari(Nepo girl), unknown actress who's name isn't even mentioned in many places all were either wasted or don't exist at all, just there as fillers or used as props. They all got themselves used because they behave like Salman's pets and that is where they're losing their self respect. Now I've got nothing with them, but why Venkatesh Daggubati and Jagapathi Babu? Why they acted in this trash and got themselves royally wasted? Venky Mama had a character almost better developed than Nassar had in Veeram(only thing they got better in remake) and his acting was also actually good which is unsurprising but again Farhad Samji decided to butcher his character for Salman to shine and even in that he failed again! Besides Venky Mama only other actor who did well was definitely Jagapathi Babu, he was menacing although had weird scenes to do like killing someone with mosquito coil but JB was menacing and quite frighting as well, till Samji showed his mastery in ruining his character as well in the end suddenly making him positive guy and getting killed by film's actual villain and guess who is it? Farhad already used up a Bollywood Star, a South Star, a Punjabi, a Pan India actress, a dancer, a tiktoker, a bigg boss star, a nepo star, a south villain and what else left to show... an athlete of course! Hence they hired a boxer to play actual villain of this film Vijender Singh! And what a God awful performance he showcased, God awful action scenes he had especially with Salman Khan I got confused what the hell was going on terrible acting terrible choreography terribly rendered scenes terrible CGI terrible dialogue delivery anything left to criticise? And then the way Salman kills Vijender it looked like a sex scene going on, what in the universe was that? Salman getting Bhagyashree was pure nostalgia bait and with the music of Mere Ang Mein and Salman reunion with Bhagya was definitely heartfelt only on papers because Veeram also had similar backstory but Salman knows how to cash on the moment for his fans while Samji knows how to terribly handle that part as well. Bhumika Chawla's addition to it ruined the Tere Naam moment that could've been possible, I wish there was something for Tere Naam fans as well or left nothing as Bhumika Chawla literally had nothing to do in this film!
Music- All songs were pathetic except Naiyo Lagda and that too got ruined thanks to Salman's dance like lunges. But 8 songs in a film and all of them pathetic, shows how terrible this film was. Let's dance chotu motu was easily the worst thing that happened in music industry and not surprised approved by the man himself Salman Khan! Ravi Basrur's BGM now becomes repetitive. In Antim Basrur's music was the main MVP and uplifted that film but here even his music can't do anything to God awful script and direction. Giving this film even 1 stars is crime, yet crossing 100 crores. Wondering who deserves abuse here, Salman Khan, Farhad Samji or the audience making this a hit? Just a request to Salman stop taking at least your fans for granted, and request to Farhad STOP MAKING FILMS!
Laal Singh Chaddha (2022)
Seriously Aamir?
The biggest USP Forrest Gump had was Tom Hanks and that is exactly the reason why LSC failed. The other reasons obviously being scattered screenplay and not using brains while remaking Forrest Gump, but wherever they used at some places I did feel it had big potential of being better than original, but even in that everything got ruined. Music, cinematography, BGM, performances of all(except Aamir) were fantastic, but that's it. The first 30 minutes that showed young Laal and young Rupa were absolutely heartwarming and even thee performances were as per required, almost matching the children who acted in OG.
Screenplay- The film was going little smooth and sweet, till Aamir and Kareena grew and things went complete haywire. The army recruitment and army scenes were easily the most disastrous part of the film, followed by Rupa Corporate foundation and scenes afterwards and Laal running around entire country were pathetic as hell! Indian Army had never compromised in physical and mental strength of any of their soldier, how the hell did Laal Singh Chadha get recruited? In Forrest Gump part was direct reference to Project 100,000 where Defence Secretary McNamara had recruited 100,000 soldiers who had failed to meet physical and mental standards of the army and that was highly controversial project at that point... Indian Army had never done anything as such. And what's worse changing the shrimps idea to underwear and literally selling underwear in the army was even more disastrous idea! How the hell did Aamir even approve of this? Has he completely lost it? And then biggest and most pathetic change from Forrest Gump to LSC was changing Lieutenant Dan to some terrorist Mohammad Paaji. Okay, Aamir saved him that's alright, but then Mohammad somehow escaped the hospital and lived all by himself, then suddenly had some money to travel places and afterwards gave idea to change Underwear brand name from Bala to Rupa(because it's girl's name and it'll earn, seriously?) and what not stupidity? And then he got super rich, Indian Army couldn't recognise him? And later he easily managed to escape to Pakistan even after having his picture on Times Magazine? How stupid have you all shown Indian Army and Indian Government as? And Laal too even after being famous he ran for 4 years across India and people couldn't recognise him? In Forrest Gump time there wasn't much social media hence once famous now forgotten is obvious, what about in LSC when at that time it had gotten much better? While entire film was derailing, last half an hour of the film which is literally lifted shot by shot from Forrest Gump saved it little bit, although still fell far behind.
Performances(Best to Worst): Easily the best performance in the film was by Mona Singh. The emotions she showed, the emotional connect with young Laal everything about Mona was fantastic, almost getting better than Sally Field was in Forrest Gump. Next best performance comes from Naga Chaitanya, despite of heavy accent and underwhelming character compared to Bubba, Chay holds his own as Bala and this was surprising as I've never been really big fan of Chay as an actor, but this is easily amongst his best performance, definitely not better than Ye Maaya Chesave or Manam Majili still great. Unfortunately his character talking too much about chaddi banyan just goes overboard and we don't see genuine friendship between Laal and Bala as we had seen between Forrest and Buba. Even his death didn't turn out as emotional as Buba's death scene, all thanks to Mohammad Paaji shift that ruined everything. Heck even the tribute given to Bala's death was far underwhelming, kind of insulting to Bala as changing the company's name from Bala to Rupa is somewhat in insult to Bala's legacy that Laal created for and that too name is changed because Rupa is a girl's name? Seriously? Coming to next great performer was Manav Vij as Mohammad and that was much better than whatever he did in Prithviraj still his character ruined major film progress. Not his fault, Manav held his own much better than most of the actors who shared screen with him(which was only one actor Aamir). Kareena Kapoor had more screen presence than Robin Wright had in Forrest Gump and it was somewhat likeable as well, maybe not better written character as Jenny. Nevertheless Kareena held her own although not as good as Hafsa Ashraf(the child who played young Rupa) who acted far better. SRK playing younger version of himself was major highlight of the film, perhaps handled even better than Forrest Gump's Elvis presence. SRK even in a cameo steals the Thunder and makes everyone hoot for him. Now I'm coming to the worst performer, and this was one easily the most heartbreaking one... Aamir Khan as Laal Singh Chadda. I still can't believe how bad and pathetic performance Aamir gave, easily he was the worst thing that happened in the film. His younger appearance looked completely animated, acting was even loud, chaotic and behaving like mixture of PK and Samar in Dhoom 3(that was pathetic and this is super pathetic). It hurts to say Aamir acting so bad, forget comparing to Tom Hanks' performance, he couldn't even match his own previous film's great performances that he had given. This is easily his worst performance ever. When Aamir was supposed to look innocent, he looked creepy and disgusting. His wide eye performance was even worse to look at. The only time he managed to give decent performance was when he turned Sardar, but still by the time film derailed and tanked. Heck even the child Ahmad Ibn Umar played better Laal than Aamir himself. I wished Aamir had copied him instead of aping Tom Hanks, instead it all became big crossfire.
Screenplay surprisingly written by Atul Kulkarni was pathetic. Not saying Atul Kulkarni would've written good or bad, but he's a pure artist hence I expected him to at least have sensibilities in scripts. I guess he needs to stick to being an actor and not writer. Going only with 3 stars, because some scenes I did like and performances of most cast, except Aamir himself.
Brahmastra Part One: Shiva (2022)
Fantastic attempt, that's it!
Everything about this film was absolutely fantastic, be it the vfx(surprisingly looked good in theatres), direction, the plot build up leading to Astraverse, BGM, Music and some extent even performances were fantastic, but major letdown in this film was it's Screenplay and Dialogues and that's exactly what the main aspect of this film was! Upsetting how bad the screenplay and dialogues shaped up ruining one of the most potentially powerful film turning into average affair.
I've waited for Brahmastra ever since it was announced, the way Ayan Mukherjee showed concept arts, his passion towards this project and how much he seemed passionate towards Brahmastra almost made me believe he's taking things to next level. My only skepticism was how Ayan Mukherjee who previously made slice of life rom coms like Wake Up Sid and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani(both are amongst my favorites) shift towards completely different genre and take things notch higher with such a huge scale. Turns out the world building of aayam Mukherjee was the best part of this film, and his success seemed like our own personal success the way it seemed to be shaping up. But while the canvas and appearance was absolutely fantastic, the main soul of every film was complete letdown.
There was absolutely no need of Alia Bhatt's character the way how this film was being shaped up. 'The power of love' was badly executed and worst aspect of this film was its romantic subplot which was incorporated poorly yet it kept increasing till it almost sidelined the main plot that is the biggest disadvantage of the film. And what's ironical that Ayan Mukherjee known to have mastered romantic subplots has failed miserably in this. Either romantic angle wasn't needed or could've been written better had Alia also had some astra powers instead of just shouting Shiva around. Heck even the cameos in this film were better written than Alia's characters. What's worse is the dialogues, felt too cheesy and unintentionally funny audience were literally laughing in serious and so called 'heart touching moments' of the film. This could've easily been MCU meets Harry Potter meets Star Wars meets Percy Jackson incorporated well with Indian Mythology/History. Unfortunately the backstories of almost every character turned out to be better written than the main screenplay itself and that's disappointing. Ayan should've finished all the arc in first part itself instead of leaving things for second part. Nevertheless I'm happy finally the film delivered where it had intended to deliver.
Performances: I expected Ranbir to act fantastically in this film, could've easily uplifted the film well enough. Turns out his performance in Shamshera was far better than the act he put up here, not his fault the story required more vfx than just performances in his character. He did seem uncomfortable in several scenes, although he did well in romantic and dramatic ones but failed in the scenes where he had to scream or behave like lunatic. Alia Bhatt's character was easily the most annoying and unbelievably written character ever. Even her performance seemed loud and hammy, almost making me laugh at her. Shocking how Alia who's easily amongst best actress of India had to stoop this low. It's even worse than Sadak 2 I'd say. Hoping she stays away from Karan Johar who forcibly adds her in all this to make her look like Goddess and ends up ruining her career. Coming to better performers now- The Shehenshah of Bollywood Amitabh Bachchan appears in the second half of Brahmastra and tries to uplift the most boring scenes as possible. His character arc again seemed questionable thanks to poor screenplay and dialogues nevertheless he rose above poor script. Unfortunately his character was easily one of the most forgotten arc again. Akkineni Nagarjuna despite of being marketed as one of the leads unfortunately had a very short role, almost an extended cameo and yet he overshadowed everyone who shared screen with him, who were mainly Ranbir and Alia. Mouni Roy was the antagonist in this film and had one more of the best written characters and she justified it well enough. She was easily amongst the show stealers in the film, just wished her screen presence was more than Ranbir and Alia. Dimple Kapadia was royally wasted given just one dialogue and 2-3 scenes that too for 10 seconds each, come on don't leave it for the sequel should've given a better arc to Dimple Kapadia she's a legend in her own way! And why cast Deepika Padukone just for 8 second silhouette shots? Just to talk about her backstory? Then might as well given a better arc for her as well at that time only! Deepika's backstory as Amrita seemed more interesting than the main plot as I said earlier, royally wasted another big star. Now coming to the best performer of Brahmastra, the main highlight of the film and gigantic star cameo- SHAH RUKH KHAN! SRK was just there staring and jumping around, given awful dialogues and yet he somehow stole the limelight from Ranbir and other stars. He was there for good 15-20 minutes and in those scenes he justified his arc and fantastic performance well! Just hoping SRK isn't killed in the film really or dead forever, instead brought back to life along with Nagarjuna in someway. Scientist Mohan Bhargav(yup the same name SRK is given as it was in Swades in which Ayan Mukherjee was the assistant director) deserves to come back for part 3 and along with Ranbir, Nagarjuna and Amitabh Bachchan can fight the ultimate villain of Astraverse Dev(hoping it's played by another gigantic star) that'll be the biggest film of India ever, only if part 1 is successful enough to churn out part 2 and part 2 turns better and not get buried under love story.
Again I'd say this film deserved much better with screenplay and dialogues. I really hope Ayan Mukherjee understands all this and creates better for next. Going with 6 stars, 5 for the movie itself one extra for SRK only! Also release the music album soon please, the unreleased songs turns out to be better than already released songs and that is an insult in marketing as well!
Shamshera (2022)
Has YRF lost it completely?
Looks like the Bollywood industry is draining down faster than I expected, with YRF being the first production company to witness a huge fall. They've given 5 back to back disasters and their best one being a film with Arjun and Parineeti whereas their previous ones with Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Sonu Sood, Sanjay Dutt and now Ranbir Kapoor all became complete disasters. There needs to be a separate article about YRF giving back to back disasters.
Shamshera was another disaster, a very mediocre comeback for Ranbir Kapoor which no one wanted it to be like this. Didn't expect Karan Malhotra to create such a chaotic mess in the name of such huge spectacle, or is it YRF thing to ruin talents again? Till date I find Agneepath remake as one amongst the best remakes to be made and I still find Brothers(Warrior remake) to be highly underrated film. Maybe this time in an attempt to make 'original film' Karan Malhotra lost his track completely and made this mess. This clearly looked like mashup of Baahubali KGF Lagaan and all it turned out to be Thugs of Hindostan 2.
Plot: Literally ripped off Baahubali terribly. The only good plot points of the film was Ranbir Kapoor's Shamshera arc which could've been used as Flashback but screenplay got done with all of it within less than 30 minutes, leaving nothing to be explored for the film's best character that was Shamshera. Instead a son was born who was initially conceived as weaker version of Shamshera and suddenly crossed his father without any emotional depth or uplifting moment. Ranbir Kapoor as Bali was nothing but Ranbir Kapoor playing himself in the film without much depth while Shamshera was what Ranbir should've been in entire film. Another good angle the film tried exploring was caste fight that unfortunately vanished into thin air. None of the supporting characters were even remotely impactful as Shamshera was, or even as good as Bali and Shudh Singh as all of them fell flat completely.
Performances: This was Ranbir Kapoor comeback vehicle and the dedication onscreen he showed was highly commendable! Ranbir did fantastic job as Shamshera which was out of the box for Ranbir, but as Bali he became his usual onscreen self and that's not a big complain because Ranbir was decent in it as well. After playing Sanjay Dutt in Sanju, Ranbir had a worthy opponent in Sanjay Dutt himself as Shudh Singh who was second best thing about the film. Although Sanjay Dutt did go over the top and slightly repetitive yet he somehow stood out amongst the cast as well. I wish were was an actual fight between Shamshera and Shudh Singh to make Bali vs Shudh Singh more impactful, instead things got messier and crow sh#t(literally). Besides Ranbir and Sanjay literally none of the actors were worth remembering! Vaani Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla, Ronit. Roy literally everyone were forgettable all thanks to poor script and worse treatment.
When queen's crown could've been robbed by Bali all alone why was there a need to rob other royal families? Just so that they can drag the plot? And everytime Bali fell in Trouble a Crow appeared to save things, really? And who designed clothes for Vaani Kapoor? She was half Katrina in Thugs and half modern day Bollywood diva, like WTF? Also not even a single uplifting music, no goosebumps moment and at times the Shamshera Bali resemblance was nowhere noticed by any person except Saurabh Shukla's character. Why? Why even cast Ranbir as both when one of them could've been different actor altogether?
YRF needs to uplift their game and be what they used to be once upon a time, or else they'll quickly get finished and with them entire Bollywood will drown. Going with 3 stars for its Ranbir Sanjay and the caste angle shown besides this film was chaotic mess that could've been better but got worse by the minute. Hoping Pathan and Tiger 3 can save YRF in the future.
Vikram (2022)
This isn't a film, THIS IS A DRUG
Till date I've watched the film more than 5-6 times, twice in theatres and rest on Disney+Hotstar and yet I'm not over this drug, the addiction level to this film is damn high! I guess I need to write a review about this film which will calm me down well!
The moment I heard about this film my excitement level reached sky limits not only because it was a Kamal Hassan comeback film that too directed by my new favourite director Lokesh Kanagraj but also because the film also starred 2 of my favourite actors in India- Fahadh Faasil and Vijay Sethupathi. I watched the trailer and that immediately intrigued me what the plot will be all about, hence I went to theatres without any friend of family member of mine and watched the movie with few people around as here in Hindi belt very few knew about Vikram releasing, all thanks to absolute garbage film Samrat Prithviraj taking over the screens. And I was blown away within few minutes of the film, it was literally a follow up to Loki's previous blockbuster Kaithi? Why was this kept a secret from the audience? Lokesh Kanagraj already established a cinematic verse with Kaithi and continued with Vikram yet no one knew about it? That was a complain I had but who cared in Hindi belt what was going on, I wished Vikram had same level of marketing that Baahubali series, RRR and KGF 2 had and same hype around audience in Mumbai.
Plot: Within first few minutes of the film Kamal Hassan's character supposedly died and Fahadh Faasil starts his investigation around series of deaths and that keeps you hooked completely. I was blown away by the fact that Fahadh had dubbed for his own voice in Hindi, didn't know he spoke Hindi that well. Now I really hope to see him in some Bollywood film, not in side role but a lead role that'll justify his talent. As the story unfolds very little references to Kaithi was shown in the film, but the Hindi dubbing part pretty much annoyed me as in Kaithi they changed the characters' name from Bejoy to Arjun or Dili to Shiva but in Vikram they retained the OG names instead of dubbing them as well, why would those dubbing studios or dubbing directors do that!? They retained OG names from Kaithi in Vikram but decided to change Vijay Sethupathi's name from Sanhdanam to Chandan? Now in the future what am I supposed to call Karthi, Narain, Sethupathi Arjun Das or Harish Uthaman in future movies, their dubbed names or OG names? The continuity can't be blamed on Lokesh Kanagraj because it's fault with Hindi distributors how they ruin the fun. But that was easily avoided by first time viewers as no one had any idea about Kaithi in my theatre hence I took the enjoyment in the narrative, how the investigation unfolded, one by one every interesting character was introduced with Faasil leading the film from the front while Vijay Sethupathi seemed to be having a supporting role although his entry was whistle worthy, perhaps the best entry in the film unlike many heroes having lean or 6 pack abs shirtless entry, here the Makkal Selvan appeared bare body with flabs coming out and seemingly enjoyed the film like nobody else had done. That was the evil entry! And as the film reached interval point, VJS and FaFa were as excited and shocked as us audience when The Universal Hero appeared onscreen after a kickass action. And fro, that point Kamal Hassan took over the film and what followed was madness and mayhem presented by the mad genius Lokesh Kanagraj, how Vikram and his team fights out the drug cartel led by Chandan(VJS) with Amar(FaFa) joining the fight after taking a backseat.
Performances: Before I get to the trinity of acting prowess I'd like to talk more about support cast. The one who stole the show with only one scene- Vasanthi as Agent Tina! The action she did, with fork knives spoons and tried her best to save Vikram's family was whistle worthy! That scene alone made me hoot for the film every time I watched it! Agent Tina was easily the best support character in this film. The very next best supporting role came from Maya S Krishnan as the escort. Those scenes were hilarious and brought the house down, well supported by Anirudh's BGM(I'll come to that part soon!) Chemban Vinod Jose did well as Police Chief who was surprisingly one of the antagonist of this film, besides other Agents, Chandan's men, Narain as Inspector Bejoy and other Vikram's team members did well as per their part with Jabir Sadiq emerging as another highlight due to the fear he brought in cutting leg, especially during Kamal Hassan time.
Now I'll come to the lead performers- FaFa was the main man in first half. It became out and out Fahadh Faasil show in first half of Vikram and in some scenes even overshadowed the Ulaga Nayagan in his own film! He didn't have any quirks like VJS and Kamal Hassan did but stood tall in his performance leading the film well and kept us hook only through his acting. If anyone asks me who is the best actor of India in today's generation I won't say Ranbir, Ranveer, Vicky Kaushal or Ayushmann Khurrana, the name is one and only Fahadh Faasil! While FaFa lead the first half well, VJS brought the house down with his screen presence itself. Despite playing another villain he gave new dimension in his performance, this time the entry scene, his own take as contemporary hero till the villainous avatar took his place and the fear he showed humbled his character well enough which had too many shades and performer like VJS was surely gonna nail it! He's the Makkal Selvan The People's Own Treasure! Now I've talked about my favourite stars, let's talk about their favourite- The Universal Hero, The Ulaga Nayagan, The Kamal Hassan! He's 60+, almost 70 year old man and he was the Vikram he carried from his old film of same name, same character and same swag! Kamal Hassan in second half is what this film truly is all about! My dad and mom used to be big KH fans and I never had cared about him but after Vikram I'm eagerly dying to see his other films in Tamil as well, not just the old Hindi ones that I've watched. He's easily amongst the best actors in the world, imagine putting Al Pacino and Sylvester Stallone into one roll, yup that's who Kamal Hassan is! And while these 3 weren't enough, here comes the screaming cameo of Rolex Bhai, SURIYA! It was well teased earlier Suriya is going to have a cameo in this film, just not what I had expected! I thought it'll be some starry cameo or for the sake of audience, but instead it became an uproar of him playing the ultimate antagonist of Lokesh Cinematic Universe, bringing Kaithi and Vikram rolled into one big universe Lokesh Kanagraj created! If Ironman(Karthi as Dilli) is already in this mess, Captain America(Kamal Hassan) and Thor(FaFa) already dealt with Loki(VJS) than now they're ready to face the ultimate Thanos(Suriya) in the madness created by the Lokesh Kanagraj himself! Can't wait to see how the universe unfolds, especially the battle of brothers- Karthi vs Suriya!
While the 3 pillars above are covered up well enough, we cannot forget the fourth pillar of this film- Aniruddh! The BGM provided for almost every character and every situation is as addictive as a drug and uplifts the film well! The Vikram remixed, VJS entry and fight scenes, Amar's own music, the Escort BGM(how smartly that was used needs unanimous hoots) and of course the Rolex Music as cherry on cake, amongst all of them Once Upon A Time There Lived A Ghost emerges as my favourite! I've made sure even my family watches this film again and again and they did, totally love it as hell! The scene in which KH FaFa and VJS were facing each other is easily amongst the best face off in Indian film industry ever! Just wished a proper face off between Amar and Chandan, but Vikram was enough for Chandan to face! Going with all 10 stars, only wished Hindi dubbing was as good if not better than RRR KGF films.
Ek Villain Returns (2022)
Another day, another Bollywood crap.
Bollywood is literally dying with every release. I had high hopes with Shamshera and that turned into complete disappointment and now Ek Villain Returns was expected to be below average with good twist and turns instead became absolute horrible with extreme predictable twists and highly mediocre direction, what's even more shocking it came from Mohit Suri! A film starring square of pathetic actors was already a red flag that too sequel to one of my favourite guilty pleasure movie Ek Villain being seemingly ruined by I had utmost faith in Mohit Suri. Turns out he was the biggest villain of this film with outright crap direction and pathetic performances from the cast.
Plot: First half belonged to Arjun-Tara plot with little bit of John-Disha while second half belonged to John-Disha plot with little bit of Arjun-Tara and it's pretty hard to tell which one was worse, yet John-Disha's track seemed little more believable and more realistic compared to Arjun-Tara. Every scene in this film defied human logic in every possible way not only in terms of physics but how humans behave, how police officers used as mere distraction and what not! Anyone remembers Interval point of Ek Villain where Sid-Riteish face off took place? That scene was little over the top but the way both the actors emoted their feelings, especially the way how Riteish was getting bashed up by Sid was absolutely intense and a treat to watch! The way Riteish had got beaten up and how he performed in that scene made everyone cheer loud and root for Riteish in the most positive way! But here, suddenly Arjun-John got empty metro and started fighting in one of the most unrealistic action scene of all time. And in that scene it was all revealed John was the killer of the girls not Arjun which seemed easily predictable the way film was being shaped up. Mohit Suri needs to stay away from action completely, Malang's weakest point was its action and same is the case with this film, except EVR has worse things like cringe dialogues and performances.
Performances: Here's the biggest plot twist in this film- Everyone expected Arjun Kapoor to be the biggest drawback of this film with him emerging as worst performer but the opposite happened. Arjun turned out to be the best performer in this film, not because he was exceptional or even decent but John, Disha and Tara acted so bad that Arjun looked better than all 3. When the focus was on Arjun he gave his usual mediocre performance and Disha seemed to be having upper hand but it was the second half where he emerged better than the 3 especially with his performance in climax which was supposed to be about focused more on John's acting. Coming to John, his acting is getting worse by every film he's doing. Here again except body flexing serial killer, a taxi driver and zookeeper (surprisingly he looked like some rich businessman in his acting and body language which made it all too unintentionally funny). He had one decent action scene that was in car where he was abducted and fought all his kidnappers seemingly killing them like Disha asked him to do so(not kidding, watch out the film if you don't trust me). But besides that in the second half his and Disha's scenes turned highly absurd and way too cheesy and creepy it made me feel vomiting on the screen and if all that wasn't enough, check the climax how cringe and disastrous act John gave, Arjun Kapoor overshadowed him completely and that's big insult to John Abraham who was earlier in category of below average and not highly mediocre like Arjun. Coming to Disha Patani, while her performance seemed slightly better amongst the cast despite of having 5 minute role before interval, her post interval larger scenes turned into absolute cringe show, behaving like a seductress and lusty skimpily cladded hooker(I'm not kidding, she was made into a pornstar with no nudity) and behaved way too dramatic and abnormally that it was highly predictable that Disha was already killed by John and he started hallucinating her everywhere in which Disha used to John to kill the girls. That twist seemed to be way to predictable for me, somehow others couldn't predict it well. At first I thought John killed Disha in rage but the way how they showed John killing Disha was laughably bad and funniest scene I've come across in Bollywood this year which wasn't supposed to be funny. And finally a character with least depth- Tara Sutaria. Tara literally had zero depth in the film except for her backstory with her father and then all of a sudden protecting Arjun Kapoor who had earlier ruined her image just made no sense in the film then she was supposed to be killed by John but John didn't kill her God knows why only later deciding to kill her when Arjun knew whether she was alive or dead... does it makes sense? Exactly! These 4 had slightly decent character development ruined by pathetic dialogues and even worse performances(except Arjun who just gave bad performance) while other supporting cast did slightly better job with horribly written characters, especially JD Chakravarty. He deserves respect that dude was literally the Satya and how Bollywood is treating him? While Shaad Randhawa(continuing from prequel), Karishma Sharma and others were as good as forgotten. Surprisingly the best performance came from none other than Riteish Deshmukh! Not that he wasn't better than the above cast, but his character which was supposed to be dead suddenly came alive and with one line(the OG shikayat ka mauka dialogue from Ek Villain) he stole the show within 10 seconds of his screen presence in the film. I was wondering how did he survive while his character was supposed to be dead, then I remembered n this film John Abraham was supposedly attacked by badly CGI'd tiger and yet survived it, so why not Riteish?
Music: While Ek Villain had almost every song memorable and masterpieces, the sequel has not even a single song worth remembering for longer period, maybe Dil is hummable. Heck even Malang had better songs than this. One always expected good direction, performances and music from Mohit Suri irrespective of its final plot here Mohit failed in every department.
Overall: Ek Villain, being remake of I Saw The Devil was no masterpiece but the innocent love story of Sid-Shraddha garbed in the dark world of Sid was too pure and heart wrenching to watch along with show stealing performance of Riteish Deshmukh who shocked, surprised and made everyone root for him throughout despite some absurd scenes. Riteish's line 'Fikar Mat Kijiye, Aapko Shikayat Ka Mauka Nahi Milega' still haunts everyone and is as iconic as today when we talk about Ek Villain. The sequel has cringe and TikTok type dialogues all over, 'Rating zaroor dijiyega' catchphrase by John was too cringe and laughable along with erotism added into the mix ruined the prequel completely. Going with 2 stars, one for its somewhat decent screenplay and slightly novel idea and one for Riteish Deshmukh's 10 second whistle worthy cameo.
Samrat Prithviraj (2022)
Why RF?
Ever since the demise of legendary Yash Chopra, YRF too has been dwindling down completely with more failures than successes. It's difficult to decide which film was a bigger disaster for YRF, Thugs or this? Samrat Prithviraj isn't a tribute to our Legendary King, but more or less a complete insult to him. This film is even worse than Akshay's previous Bachchan Pandey, Laxmii or Houseful 4 at least those films were intended to be absolute craps, why a film on such a huge scale based on respected Samrat of India got such a terrible treatment? Pathetic vfx, pathetic dialogues and zero acting skills? Didn't expect this from the man who brought us Chanakya television series, Chandraprakash Dwivedi. It looks more like random average routine film with some B grade actors(except Sanjay Dutt and Sonu Sood) and B grade script and direction. Just look at the war scenes how badly they were executed, not a single goosebumps moment, not a single emotional depth moment, even the chemistry amongst the leads seemed too awkward as hell!
Akshay Kumar looked like mixture of Rowdy Rathore and Bala from Houseful 4, unintentionally giving comedy performance especially during war sequences everything looked too fake on him. At times I felt like laughing seeing Akshay giving a stone performance. Someone younger or more energetic should've acted in this film, not Akshay Kumar even his war cry also looked laughable and caricaturish, heck even the moustache couldn't be grown by him that too looked fake as hell! Manushi Chillar was absolutely miscasted or terribly directed. Imagine Miss World playing a princess how she should look and how she was looking, yuck! The chemistry Akshay and Manushi shared also looked too awkward, due to the age gap they literally looked like father and daughter. Manav Vij being such a great actor and what did he do here? Sleepwalk everywhere as if he was asked to just do nothing and get lost. That's another terrible performance coming from great actor and so was Ashutosh Rana's performance, loud and chaotic again another caricature. Sakshi Tanwar looked younger than Akshay Kumar and playing Manushi's mother, terrible case of miscasting again! The only two actors who looked the parts well were Sanjay Dutt and Sonu Sood. Even the camaraderie they shared was the best amongst all, even better than Akshay and Manushi should've had. Unfortunately Sanjay Dutt was killed off too soon and Sonu Sood was given a very monotone arc, nevertheless they were the real performers and looked perfect for the film. Sanjay Dutt did go little loud but that's bearable while Sonu Sood underplayed better. Still if you remove Sanjay Dutt and Sonu Sood from the film, even 1 star would be too difficult to give.
Now talk about the direction, everything looked too FILMY FAKE CARICATURE IN BLOCK CAPITAL LETTERS! This is what happens when 18 years of research gets done in 45 days of shoot! Akshay Kumar should stick to his routine comedies and deshbhakti or social dramas and not some period drama of large scale where less than 50 days of shoot will get things done! YRF spent 300 crores on this making this period drama into mockery? Just look how terribly choreographed war scenes were, how terrible performances all the actors gave(except Sanjay and Sonu) how terrible casting looked and how pathetic vfx were. Can't comment on the climax as that's completely distorted from original sources provided but that too was terribly shot and directed! Not hearing good things about Shamshera as well hence wondering is the end of YRF near? Can Pathan and Tiger 3 save them? I doubt so. Going with 1 star only and only for Sanjay Dutt and Sonu Sood.
Sooryavanshi (2021)
A greatly missed opportunity, yet delivers few passable moments
Hindi Film Industry is basically a finished industry due to its nepotism controversies, drug cartel business, rise of OTT cinema and double delays of theatre re opening. It only could've been a film of huge scale like Sooryavnshi that could pull audience to the theatres and Rohit Shetty successfully achieved in giving wholesome entertainment, but as a Rohit Shetty fan one question arises, was it really his best? Could he have made it better? Answer is very much yes, he knows his audience but at times misses several opportunities to create pure mass whistle worthy moments in Sooryavanshi. Sooryavanshi was supposed to be cheap level of Avengers feel film, instead turned out to be worse than Singham and as a matter of fact even Simmba solely due to its several illogical moments and unnecessary comedy which were straight unfunny.
Sooryavnshi had several positive aspects like fast paced screenplay, going straight to the point, a flawed lead character Sooryavanshi(Akshay Kumar) forgetting his name constantly, performances of the villains- Jackie Shroff(Thanos to the Copvengers), Kumud Mishra, Abhimanyu Singh, Nikitin Dheer, Gulshan Grover and Late Asif Basra. But none of the villains could match the performance of Prakash Raj as Jaikant Shikre was in Singham, till date he's the best villain Rohit Shetty has introduced and Singham remains the best film in the franchise because of Jaikant Shikre. Another aspect what Sooryavanshi missed was lack of supporting characters, like in Singham we had Gotya, Kelkar, Savalkar, Shiva and several others or even in Simmba as Tawade, Aakruti, Mohile etc, Sooryavanshi had all of them missing. Even the humour in Sooryavanshi was felt scattered all over unlike Singham and Simmba. The dialogues by Farhad Samji needs no comments here, it was as rubbish as his other works has been and he's hands down the worst writer/director to ever exist in Bollywood. Also the Hindu Muslim angle was too much emphasised moving away from engaging plot, in one or two instances whatever they had shown were better off instead of showing it again and again. The entries of Ranveer and Ajay were over exaggerated expectedly but afterwards it was non stop blast, with highly illogical scenes being shown again and again making it accidentally funny.
Performances wise Akshay Kumar often seemed overshadowed by other actors onscreen, despite of being Sooryavanshi movie it didn't seem like anything revolving around Sooryavnshi instead looked like Akshay Kumar from Hera Pheri was asked to act as Akshay from Baby and it became complete misfire. Katrina Kaif as always acts pathetically, only stands out in dance and even here forget matching Raveena in Tip Tip Barsa, she couldn't match herself in Galey Lag Jaa song. Other support cast as said were wasted royally, none of them leaving any impact. Ranveer Singh in his special appearance was highly irritating and on nerves, his performance in Simmba was far better than whatever hamfest he shown here, almost made me throw stones on the screen whenever he opened his mouth. Ajay Devgan's entry as always was super over the top and every scene including Ajay was way too unrealistic, almost making him invincible superhero. Even in the climax I questioned myself is this Akshay Kumar film or an Ajay Devgan film, leaving Singham 3 hint could've been cool idea if it revolved more on Sooryavanshi and not Singham in the end. If you're having Akshay(Ironman) Ajay(Captain America) and Ranveer(Spider-Man) in your Copverse(MCU) then there should've been equally formidable Thanos who could have stature to crush all 3 together. Certainly Jackie Shroff shouldn't have been casted, instead a bigger star someone like Amitabh Bachchan would've made the 3 look like ants. Hoping Jackie Shroff gets better treatment in the next instalment of Copverse to fight the 3 together instead of getting crushed by Singham single handedly. Overall hats off to Rohit Shetty for bringing Bollywood audience back to theatres but not expecting any other Bollywood film to do the same unless the film is on stature of Sooryavnshi, perhaps Pathan and Tiger 3 or even 83 could do some help till then RIP Bollywood.
Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar (2021)
Good but...
Was never intending to watch this film in theatres due to obvious reasons, hence awaited for its OTT release. This film has highly mediocre actors like Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra but also one major reason to watch the film- Dibakar Banerjee.
SPF was meant only for OTT release and it's pretty decent affair as well, not bad at all but one of the weakest of Dibakar Banerjee, perhaps the weakest maybe due to its delays which didn't really meet upto its mark what Dibakar Banerjee had intended. The themes, script, cinematography, performances everything seemed as to how it should've been conveyed yet didn't look like something missed for the audience. Dibakar Banerjee surely has had much better films in the past like Oye Lucky Lucky Oye Khosla ka Ghosla Shanghai and my own favourite Detective Byomkesh Bakshy. The script takes too long time for audience to understand what's going on, the opening scenes start with a bang but later on it just becomes a bland affair, going through an average pace, sometimes too boring sometimes does get interesting. Maybe it needed a better pacing which Varun Grover couldn't capitalise it well.
Performances wise Arjun Kapoor kind of disappointed with his act as I expected him to act horribly but he acted quite well! Unfortunately this film was shot much before Namastey England and that was the film which lead to downfall of Arjun Kapoor following consecutive mediocre performances. Hoping this film's release and reviews brings him back to his good form. Parineeti Chopra too came back in her real acting form, yet she did go overboard in some scenes but she was pretty fine overall. Hoping she continues her this form throughout in the future. The real performers were Panchayat couple Raghubir Yadav and Neena Gupta back with their knockout performances as well as our Hathiram Jaideep Ahlawat. Other side characters acted as per the requirement, after all its a Dibakar Banerjee film.
While this remains one of the best of Arjun and Parineeti but worst of Dibakar Banerjee as well. Hoping Dibakar would bounce back soon, heck it's not that bad also Dibakar Banerjee will definitely make better films in the future like he did in his Ghost Stories segment. Going with 6/10 for something different.
Bhuj: The Pride of India (2021)
Seriously?
If a film like Shershaah made on lesser budget and almost failed actor Siddharth Malhotra can give such a brilliant and fantastic visual appeal through performances VFX cinematography action choreography and every masala a Bollywood film requires, how the hell a film like Bhuj with bigger budget, bigger stakes and even bigger cast with most of the actors in top notch form give such a pathetic cringe fest? If Shershaah is best war film in today's time, Bhuj is the worst war film to have ever existed! I'd call this as Gadhe part 2, at least Gadhe already had pathetic script this film had such a powerful and awe inspiring story which could've been as good as that of Shershaah but became hot mess due to pathetic screenplay, editing, direction, performances, action and above all VFX!
The screenplay of this film was so bad, it just made a powerful history into buffoonery show. The opening scene looked so funny I knew where it's going, but it turned worse minute by minute. The VFX shots were so bad it looks like 90s video games graphics were used, even random YouTubers with 100 times lesser fees would've given better VFX than whatever the hell happened here! Forget about planes, bombs, CGI animals even human beings and body guns looked fake here! The editing, what was going on exactly? From Ajay's story to Sanjay Dutt Sharad Khelkar Ammy Virk Sonakshi Sinha Nora Fatehi I mean who's story are we following? NONE! Everything was scattered all over nothing seemed important. The action sequences, was it a realistic war film riding on hammy dialogues or some masala film with bad VFX shots or superhero film? Ajay Devgn becoming Captain America to Sanjay Dutt leaping heights like Krrish or Ammy Virk becoming Indestructible man, GOSH! A TV serial director known for doing Ekta Kapoor type low budget series was handed such a project and all he did was make circus out of it all.
Performances wise, this was perhaps worst acting by Ajay Devgn in army/police/government agent role. This was literally tailor made character for Ajay but shocking to say someone like AJ badly acting with no emotions, body stiffness and what not? His opening scene itself looked like some random junior artist appearing onscreen to becoming Captain America using some food plate to stop bullets? Wait till I get to Sanjay Dutt, he was literally shown as some Hercules type Godly powers, who can leap to places jumping on tanks from trenches to killing 100-200 Pakistani soldiers with random axe(surprisingly known of the soldiers had gun to kill Dutt) or participating in wars with no helmet no bullet proof vest just random rifle while other Indian soldiers needed every equipments. Sanjay Dutt truly needs one good film post his prison release, all he got till now have been bad films and one good biopic, hoping KGF 2 and Prithviraj redeems it all for him. Sharad Khelkar was only one with realistic character arc and perhaps best acting amongst the lot, still this remains one of his weakest performance in recent times. He deserved much better, heck even he had much better entry than AJ or Sanjay in this film. Ammy Virk had too OP character with all his scenes being pathetic like literally plane getting crash landed but emerging out as if nothing happened and goes home playing with his daughter instead of reporting about his existence. Despite of rubbish scenes and pathetic dialogue delivery, he remains second best behind Sharad. Let's come to the women- Nora Fatehi was total disaster in terms of casting as well as acting, absolutely pathetic! She was supposed to be like cheap version of Alia Bhatt in Raazi but turned into joke due to her accent performance and cringe character arc. Glad she dies within 15 minutes of screen time but enters Sonakshi Sinha to carry forward bad acting. Her entry scene is with badly CGI'd cheetah and cow, later all she does is overacting in every scene. Bhuj was supposed to be all about 300 women helping rebuilding Bhuj airbase which was sidelined again to just 10 minutes!
Nowadays Bollywood films have become business in the name of patriotism! South Indian films are making Pan India movies, Bollywood going to remake them or their biggest hits come from regional directors like Om Raut Vishnuvardhan Sandeep Vanga Reddy. Giving 1 star only and only for Bhuj story, otherwise this film deserved ZERO.
Shershaah (2021)
Surprisingly F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C
Wasn't expecting much from a Siddharth Malhotra starrer due to his previous box office records, but this was exactly opposite of what I'd expected! After disastrous Gunjan Saxena and Janhvi's pathetic act Dharma productions did redeem itself to very well, this was definitely one of the best war/patriotic/biopic film to have come out in recent times.
As we all know the story of Captain Vikram Batra's life, this film translates it onscreen very well. Be it his time on field, in romantic avatar or Kargil War Shershaah neither drags things out, nor does it rush it too soon instead follows the pace very well. And the biggest risk factor about this film was casting of Siddharth Malhotra, not only he gave he redeemed himself well but also gave his career best performance in his career best film! Hoping to see more of Sid in future, he's definitely bounced back compared to his other student fellows(Varun and Alia with 2-3 consecutive disasters). While Sid was definitely carrying the film on his shoulder, shouldn't ignore the support cast at all. Kiara Advani too supported the film beautifully, her chemistry with Sid was heart warming and didn't seem forced at all. Shiv Pandit, Nikitin Dheer, Anil Charanjeet, Sahil Vaid and Raj Arun all of them did equally fantastic job! My only complain remained was I wished to see more of Vishal Batra(Siddharth again in guest role and narrator) to give more insights into love of both the twins, sadly it was used only in childhood days.
The best thing besides Sid's performance was its pacing, direction, screenplay, VFX shots, action sequences everything just looked pitch perfect! Despite of having some usual cliches like over the top patriotic dialogues the way how they were delivered was equally realistic. And just when I thought Bollywood directors are getting better, I realised it was directed by Vishnuvardhan, a Tamil director known for Tamil films like Billa etc, this might as well be even his best as I haven't seen his other work yet. I really wished this film was a theatrical release and not an OTT presentation, imagining this film releasing in theatres already gives goosebumps! Going with 9 stars as not every film is perfect.
Sardar Ka Grandson (2021)
Lost each and every opportunity!
Sardar ka Grandson could've actually been a good film, had they used some brains into making this film. The idea of house shifting is quite novel, but shifting it from Lahore to Amritsar? All this is possible only in countries with wider roads that too with specialised truck, but again this is a Bollywood film logic will be dead in every space! This film is a cluster of Kapoor and Sons, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Gadar and some Bollywood rom coms(Sounds weird? But it's true). The screenplay direction everything was scattered with all the loose ends suddenly getting lost. Starts off differently, continues in different space and ends weirdly, but somewhat convincing due to Neena Gupta's performance(we need her in more and more films!)
Story starts with typical Bollywood rom com in USA, then starts getting loud punjabi angle with touch of Kapoor and Sons, later on Gadar love story and moves ahead with Bajrangi Bhaijaan type India Pakistan story of love, house shifting being the core. It should've either been love story set in two different times, or simply shown how the hell did the house actually reached India in such narrow roads, but rather made cluster of everything, in the end ruined chance. The screenplay was too loose, lousy, irritating in the name of humour in some scenes while in other scenes it was decently enjoyable but nothing else! Music is either plain mediocre or lifted from old songs like always zero creativity. One of the writer of this film had written Zoya Factor, hence it makes sense how writing of this film can be.
Performances wise the Neena Gupta ji stole the show. Despite of having over the top character and bad prosthetics, her presence was the best thing about this film, from her expressions, voice, body language no doubt Neena Gupta was the soul of Sardar ka Grandson. She reminded me of Late Rishi Kapoor's character in Kapoor and Sons yet almost matched the performance Late RK gave, just wished she had better makeup team and script to make this film a worthwhile. Besides Neena Gupta it was Aditi Rao Hydari portraying younger version of same character with complete finesse. There was problem in her accents, but she was lovely in her performance as well, unfortunately her role was too short used only in flashbacks. I wish this was a pure family rom com about two generations. Now coming to film's actual lead, ARJUN KAPOOR! He is a plain bad actor, there's no second thought about it but still somehow gets more and more films to work on, WHY? I understand he must be a good natured boy, but that doesn't mean he should act more in films or just learn acting and work! Till 2 States everyone thought Arjun will be next big thing but that film was also released more than half a decade back, why should we watch Arjun Kapoor more because of that? You have better actors like Rajkummar Rao Amit Sadh Ayushmann Vicky Kaushal Jeetu Bhaiya Naveen Kasturia Sunny Hinduja and should I name more? Please don't make another incident like Sushant Singh Rajput, you all need to honour him not mock his soul! Arjun Kapoor was well supported by Rakul Preet in bad acting, she too has literally limited expressions even though no match for Arjun in mediocrity. Kanwaljeet Singh Soni Razdan Kumud Mishra every other actors were royally wasted in this lot. And the so called star cameo of John Abraham was even worse, no effort in accent despite of being Punjabi his accent sounded like random Mumbaikar, even worse get up. Except for one small action sequence which was unneeded, John Abraham was another waste, but being a producer he wanted footage for himself as well.
Bollywood has successfully ruined its image, scattered into pieces. Out of 100-200 films hardly 1-2 are watchable these days besides all others are garbage. Going with 3 stars only for Neena Gupta and Aditi Rao Hydari, besides Arjun Kapoor and gang made sure this film is a complete disaster, or perhaps the film's script was changed to make it bad because of Arjun's entry into the film.
Ludo (2020)
Oh Bauji, Oh beta ji
Ludo is easily in top 10 best film of 2020, the perfect cinematography, brilliant character arcs, script comparable to Ludo game, performances of the cast and music blending with it, Ludo has everything a perfect script would want, except at times it does become too chaotic but yet cannot remove it from my mind. Bow to you Anurag Basu, welcome back!
Anurag Basu has been quite an underrated Bollywood director. With his films like Murder Barfi Gangster and Kites he's proven he has what a great storyteller needs. Even Jagga Jasoos could've been a brilliant film had delays and unnecessary script changes weren't there. Luckily Ludo gave him complete creative freedom and he excelled it well as pee required, without censorship and perfect OTT release, perhaps it would've failed in theatrical run but OTT made sure it's a success in best way possible.
Cinematography of Anurag Basu and Rajesh Shukla Is the main USP of this film, how cinematography is used to define the colours of Ludo is commendable. The 4 colours representing 4 stories in which all the stories and how amongst them 3 reaches it's final spot while one of them remains behind is exactly how Ludo game is, kudos to Basu for the same. TBH all the stories deserved their own 2 hours long film, perhaps a series itself could've made this into a masterpiece. The track of Bittu-Mini(Red) remains my favourite, really wished the story itself had separate film for itself, it had lot more to explore and give us. Rahul-Sheeja(Blue) track was my second favourite, the innocent love story trapped within chaotic world, quite a relatable content. It could've been much darker and soulful had it received it's own film as well. Akash-Shruti(Yellow) track was a quirky one like a typical comedy and it too deserved its own film, perhaps a road trip comic caper would've made it fun watch. Alu-Pinky(Green) was unfortunately weakest link of the lot either deserved a better story or could've remained avoided one. And coming to Sattu Bhaiya(Dice), his own move and everything changed well, wished more of him in the film.
Performances wise undoubtedly Pankaj Tripathi was the main man, in his typical gangster show but more of comedic one this time. Pankaj Tripathi is Bollywood's own God gift and fortunately he isn't lost in the competition but rather giving hard times to others. God forbid but we don't want Pankaj Tripathi to lose his position in Bollywood, or else it'll get destroyed instantly! But as Pankaj Tripathi soars high, it doesn't mean other cast members get overshadowed here. Closely next to him is ever dependable Rajkummar Rao, the best actor of today's generation! Give him whatever role you wanna give, he'll excel it with success. You may or may not like his film but he's always been giving his best shot, irrespective of how badly written script or his character is and even here despite of receiving a bad story arc compared to others, Raj lifts it very well given his naturally blessed acting skills. Coming to Abhishek Bachchan, now I've started to believe he's even better than his own father when it comes to acting. He's always been abused, cursed and mocked for his bad acting skills and to some extent I agree he was a weak actor and didn't get good script ever, but now Abhishek is getting better and better especially after Manmarziyaan and Breathe into the shadows, with more complex roles than his father ever did. His track remains the best of the lot here, especially when he unites with his onscreen daughter tears roll down your eyes and his death makes you cry even more. Hoping to see more of Abhishek Bachchan in the future. Aditya Roy Kapur remains in his usual self with not much improvement and kudos to Anurag Basu to utilise Aditya in his full potential. Although we've seen how ARK can perform well in Kalank and Malang, we've never got to see anything new from him besides his usual happy go lucky self, hope Bollywood utilises his potential well in the future. Rohit Suresh Saraf is the rising star here! At this age he's already excelling will in given Bollywood films he's worked in, hoping to see a solo lead role of Rohit as he deserves the success, cheers to the rising star. Ishtiyak Khan was great in his role too, hoping to see him soar high like Pankaj Tripathi instead of getting side roles only, fingers crossed!
While the men have done great job, women aren't lagging behind at all. Inayat Verma was the best actress, perhaps best acting of the lot. Her sweetness and innocence wins over you instantly, especially her track is quite relatable in today's time. Her chemistry with Abhishek would make you want for her more. Sanya Malhotra is another star in making, her chemistry with ARK was another highlight, in which she overshadows Aditya despite being junior to him in experience. After Dangal Pataka and Photograph, another brilliant performance by Sanya and hoping to see more of her in future, perhaps in solo lead. Pearle Manney... she was really beautiful and acted very gracefully, her chemistry with Rohit was another highlight. Only issue was she got very less dialogues or else she could've overshadowed most of the star cast here. Fatima Sana Shaikh has given her weakest performance, she deserved a better role and better acting. While in Dangal and Thugs she had almost matched Aamir here her Dangal co-star(Sanya Malhotra) is taking over her, hope she improves upon in the future. Shalini Vatsa was also great in her role, her short yet sweet chemistry with Pankaj Tripathi would want you long for more. Asha Negi was wasted badly in an uninspiring role, hoped she gets better role in the future of Bollywood.
Kudos to Basu for making Ludo possible, just wished it to be little longer in episodic format instead of series. Except the climax did become chaotic and loud, which kinda messes most of the part. Giving 7/10 as the climax kinda messes everything or else a 9 would've been perfect for this film
Laxmii (2020)
Bas karo Farhad Samji!
Farhad Samji! is literally downgrading himself as a writer day by day, or maybe NCB needs to raid his place for the amount of drugs he must be taking before penning down dunk all over! Laxmii(Bomb) is another epic disaster of high level which 2020 has been providing every time. God knows how Farhad Samji is still getting to write films and how people are even approving such trash, what's worse audience loving it more and more. Houseful 4 was disaster, Baaghi 3 was even worse and Laxmii turns even worse here!
Remaking Kanchana itself was a disastrous idea as it wasn't a masterpiece either except it did give a good message about treating transgenders and LGBTQ people with respect while Laxmii gave same message while mocking them at the same time. Although I'm not really concerned about Hinduphobic content all the time even if I find it problematic, here Hinduism was mocked openly making it into a joke especially by someone like Akshay Kumar who has always respected every religion here he's making joke out of it, like seriously? What was the point of naming his character Asif if original one was Raghav? Why Pandit couldn't remove the spirit but Maulvi did? And what about Baba Baba Vaishnavi ka Dhaba or Sabka Time Aayega Inka time aayega all that rubbish? Laxman was removed from by his family but not some Ramu kaka but Abdul Chacha nurtured her and named her Laxmii(Most of it was in Kanchana itself but not openly mocking Hinduism unlike Laxmii). Jokes were literally sexist, cringeworthy, homophobic(ironically), songs were even worse(except Bam Bhole which wasn't originally this film's) and performances were even worse by all except Sharad Kelkar. Seriously the makers gave plot number '6' to the land where a transgender ghost existed, like WTF! Farhad Samji what the hell were you thinking while 'symbolically' highlighting 6 for ghost of transgender? How the hell did Raghav Lawrence did agree to this? Or is it as always producers like Tushar Kapoor and Shabana Khan added their 'creative' influence to ruin it whereas Lawrence could've made it better than Kanchana also.
Performances wise this can be Akshay Kumar's career worst and best performance, maybe not career's but in past decade it is. As Asif Akshay was just boring and often overshadowed by everyone around(including Kiara) while in second half his effeminate act was horribly cringeworthy in which he hammed every scene. Only in Bam Bhole song and climax portion as Laxmi Akshay showed his class act but it became too late by then. Kiara Advani, though decent as an actress was given zero scope to act here, badly written(perhaps more like a prop) character just added as a filler. In Kanchana Raghav and Raai had decently written characters and performances again in Laxmii I smell Farhad Samji's job. Rajesh Sharma and Manu Rishi Chaddha who're of almost similar age as Akshay are literally playing father son and son in law respectively, like seriously! This isn't some YouTube sketch or Kapil Sharma Show where same age people be shown as father son! I bet Akshay must be older than both right now! Ayesha Raza and Ashwini Kalsekar hammed badly here, actually each and every actor here have hammed badly, trying to compete who's worse actor despite of all of them being respected for their profession. The only saving grace in this hot mess was Sharad Kelkar, wished to see more of him in the film as his part was the only good thing about this trash. In fact in climax he should've been there as well alongside Akshay like in the original but Akshay seemed to be insecure about his co actors like always which is why Akshay didn't let Sharad act in the climax.
The animation and VFX used in Laxmii doesn't seemed to be even slight improvement from Kanchana at all, instead it's even worse here. 9 years back Kanchana had bad animation and VFX due to budget constraints yet it was an entertaining one at that time, now Kanchana seems more like mediocre work except for its message and performances by the cast then but Laxmii instead of upgrading it downgrades even worse! Going 1 star only for Sharad Kelkar besides this film is a complete trash all thanks to God of horrible writing Farhad Samji!
Khuda Haafiz (2020)
MEET VIDYUT JAMMWAL THE ACTOR!
Khuda Hafiz has a really straight and simple story same as in Taken Shivaay Baaghi series and many more routine films but what really makes this film a standout is the screenplay how realistic it's shown, the camera angles which shows uniqueness and performances of each and every actor. Farukh Kabir has returns fo direction after Allah Ke Bandey after 10 years of hiatus and yet he delivers the perfect punch this film requires. MIND YOU MANY CRITICS WILL BASH THIS FILM FOR NO REASON DON'T BELIEVE THEM WATCH THIS FILM FOR THE WAY IT'S SHOWN!
The best thing about Khuda Hafiz is VIDYUT JAMMWAL IN NEVER SEEN BEFORE AVATAR! We've seen Vidyut Jammwal as an action hero, India's answer to Jackie Chan, Tony Ja Scott Adkins and many more except Vidyut has never shown any rawness in his act and has been monotonous in every film like Tiger Shroff(Only reason why Tiger is accepted is because he's a starkid). But here Vidyut isn't some fighter man but a rather very simple going man. Mind you guys, even though Vidyut doesn't get to perform his superficial action he has shown his talent in acting and how he shuts each and every critics' mouth is worth watching here! Now Bollywood needs to open their eyes and see the Actof Vidyut Jammwal and tell their Tiger Shroff to at least perform 1% of acting how Vidyut has done here! Shivaleeka Oberoi doesn't get much scope to perform in acting here but her presence makes you fall in love with her. Annu Kapoor got one of the most complex character to perform and with his experience he shows why he's another acting school of India. His character could've gone caricaturish but hi subtlety proves who he his. Shiv Pandit excels perfectly and shows his shades of grey with perfect subtlety and his out and out cunning role with utmost perfection. Aahana Kumra's accent was too thick and heavy but in her action part she does it rightly. Nawab Shah was perfectly frightening.
Action sequences unlike previous Vidyut Jammwal films are perfectly realistic with Vidyut actually making us feel he's helpless and how he shows his simplicity in action. This time Vidyut gets beaten up badly and we can see the emotions in his face which makes us believe this isn't Vidyut Jammwal but an actual helpless husband trying to find and save his wife. After Dil Bechara and Lootcase it seems Disney+Hotstar has acquired rights of all the good films (Sadak 2 seems to be complete disaster though) Go for this one guys, Vidyut Jammwal rocks here! For me this film is 8/10 plus one extra for newly invented Jammwal!