The Ba***ds Of Bollywood (18 Sep 2025)

 

It's a 7 episodes long current age relevant spoof on Bollywood with a generous budget, superb script, good star cast and light hearted humour.

In short, it shows the early journey of a promising but hot headed outsider into the 'mayajaal' of Bollywood!

Filled with action, romance and drama, it beautifully showcases both the sides of coins (read scandals) that usually rock the film industry, like - real life romance between debutants, actors being ousted of films sans any notice, the so called movie mafia, presence and fear of underworld, actors doing advertisements of products below their dignity and the scuffles they at times get into etc.

In this OTT series, everyone has looked and acted well, but Raghav Juyal and Manoj Pahwa are a treat to watch.

Plus there are cameos of multiple bigwigs of the film industry who constantly light up the screen with their guest appearances.

Even Shah Rukh Khan has few scenes where he plays himself with expected aplomb.

The debutant director Aryan Khan has woven his first release quite meticulously and managed to keep the element of shock in the climax!

Overall, The Ba***ds Of Bollywood is a delightful watch.

The Hunt - The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case (4 Jul 2025)

 

Genre: Crime Thriller Drama

Channel: SonyLIV

Season: 1

No. of Episodes: 7

Running Time: 41-53 minutes

Based on the book Ninety Days: The True Story of the Hunt for Rajiv Gandhi's Assassins by Anirudhya Mitra, it's a factual, rooted and engaging thriller designed around the probe into our former PM Rajiv Gandhi's assassination on 21 May 1991.

Well shot parallel tracks swinging between past and present show the planning, execution and further planning by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres and sympathizers, as well as, slow and steady advancement, hurdle facing and ultimate closure of the investigation by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The series also gives a glimpse into the then complex political scenario between India and LTTE and the latter's staunch sentiment for their separate state in Sri Lanka.

Everyone has acted well. But watch out for Amit Sial's portrayal of ultra patient, strong and silent SIT head who is well versed with the system and it's surprises and remains unfazed and focus throughout the 90 days hunt of the mastermind behind the concerned assassination.

Sky Force (24 Jan 2025)

Genre: Action, Thriller, Military Drama 

Duration: 125 minutes

It's a well made patriotic movie made by  two good debutant directors (Sandeep Kewlani and Abhishek Anil Kapur), introducing a fantastic debutant actor (Veer Pahariya), well camouflaged by the mega screen presence and acting chops of a seasoned actor (Akshay Kumar).

Centred around Indo-Pskistani air war of 1965, the movie mostly comprises of death defying stunts & intelligent strategies deployed by Indian Air Force officials while flying their fighter planes and the then Wing Commander's defiant resolve to find the whereabouts (read 'for years') of one of his teammates, who did not return from Pakistan, post India's first air strike.

The movie is quite well made with it's heart in the right place and does manage to stir your patriotic emotions for the country and honest tears for martyrs and their families.

Jai Hind!

Vicky Aur Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video (11 Oct 2024)

 

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Duration: 146 minutes

First and foremost, barring the nomenclature of the film, there is nothing adult about it, neither in terms of violence nor in terms of skin show or intimacy, unless you associate the presence of Mallika Sherawat with a testosterone rush!

Mallika, the yesteryear sassy siren appears in the movie rather late but full of confidence and good continuity in wardrobe and acting. She plays the hero's sister!

Another surprise package herein is wannabe siren Shehnaaz Gill, who appears in an item number, performs well but still looks more cute than sassy, even with noteworthy weight loss and toned body.

Shot around Rishikesh, the movie is packed with rustic UP flavor woven around two middle class families, a philanthropist bhaiyaji, a photographer, a couple of cops, a thief, chor bazar and a gang of goons consisting of a lady boss and two duplicates of yesteryear hero Suniel Shetty!

Contrary to what some may have believed, the movie is not just about a simple lost and found case of intimate suhagrat CD of Rajkummar Rao and Tripti Dimri, but a complex mesh of happenings around a stolen CD that finally leads to a longer (read much longer) than required climax filled with social awareness and never ending gyan!!

The chemistry between the lead couple is average. Better chemistry is prevalent between Mallika Sherawat and Vijay Raaj, who plays the senior cop.

Throughout the movie, the lead cast and a bevy of popular character artists try to bring in frequent laughs, some of their punches result in laughter while some fall flat.

The aforementioned seasoned artists are - Vijay Raaz, Rakesh Bedi, Archana Puran Singh, Tiku Talsania, Ashwini Kalsekar, Mukesh Tiwari, Mast Ali, Ishtiyak Khan and Mubeen Saudagar.

The cinematography by Aseem Mishra is good.

Look out for the item number that appears with the credit rolls at the end of the movie. For a change, herein the hero in his brand new avatar with designer beard & hair, gym trainer body and effortless dancing looks meatier than the heroine!

A few minutes before that, the Indian pop singer Daler Mehndi also appears in a song & dance number!

On the whole, the movie is a decent time pass, a good effort by the director, Raaj Shaandilyaa.

Stree 2: Sarkate Ka Aatank (14 Aug 2024)

Genre: Comedy Horror

Duration: 149 minutes

While the prequel Stree (2018) was about the terror of 'Stree' amongst the menfolk of Chanderi, the sequel Stree 2: Sarkate Ka Aatank is about the terror of 'Sarkata' amongst the womenfolk of the same village!

Again the good hearted and simpleton Vicky (Rajkumar Rao) is bestowed with the task to fight the supernatural and terminate the terror, along with his buddies Rudra Bhaiya (Pankaj Tripathi), Bittu (Aparshakti Khurana), Jana (Abhishek Banerjee) and his mysterious sweetheart (Shraddha Kapoor), who finally reveals her identity towards the end of the movie.

Ably carrying forward the legacy of it's prequel, the movie is a heady mix of good comedy with some well placed puns, horror (not really), sharp editing and good acting by all the actors of the lead cast, as well as, the ones who made guest appearances (Akshay Kumar, Varun Dhawan and Tamannaah Bhatia).

All the scary entities of the Maddock Supernatural Universe are showcased or at least mentioned in the movie along with the reveal about the next one in the pipeline!

The climax is well penned, but it could have been shot better.

Overall, the film is a good watch.

Panchayat 3 (28 May 2024)

While the first two seasons were like a new love which was confused in a new arena, trying to find it's standing and undergoing a plethora of bitter-sweet experiences but overall having sweet fun, in the third season that love has matured, is now deep rooted with a solid sense of belonging and finally awakening to the hard facts of life around!!

Panchayat 3 is all about a flurry of  incidents and accidents that take place at Phulera village before the panchayat elections wherein Pradhan ji aka Brij Bhushan Dubey's (Raghubir Yadav) core opponent inside the village is Bhushan (Durgesh Kumar) and outside is Vidhayak ji aka Chandrakishore Singh (Pankaj Jha), who plot & scheme in multiple ways to soil his name, so that he loses the upcoming election.

This keeps Pradhan and his team fully occupied wherein they resort to a series of rustic style out of the box thinking and succeed in failing all the mal efforts of the aforementioned duo.

Amidst all this, deep sorrow struck and utterly lost Upa-Pradhan aka Prahlad Pandey (Faisal Malik) whose son achieved martyrdom while serving the army (shown in season 2), recovers step by step from alcoholism and depression in a very organic manner, eventually turning into a selfless and stoic being.

Plus there is sweet & clean budding romance between Abhishek Tripathi aka Sachiv ji (Jitendra Kumar) and Pradhan ji's daughter Rinki (Sanvikaa), sans any kind of touching or even proposal. They know about each other's feelings and try to meet & spend time in each other's company, not directly but under various pretexts!

As usual, Raghubir Yadav as Pradhan (actually Pradhan-Pati) is a treat to watch with his signature dialogue delivery and comic body language. Faisal Malik has shown his full acting chops giving Prahlad an altogether new respective identity. Durgesh Kumar has well portrayed his grey shades and kept the series interesting. The rest of the cast has also performed expectantly well.

But mind you, the amusement factor in Panchayat 3 is considerably less than the last two series because as I have mentioned in the beginning, the love is no more new found, it has matured and the practicalities have started pouring in, including violence and body harm!

The series is 8 episodes long with the time duration of 35-51 minutes and is still a fine example of Indian story telling.

Patna Shuklla (29 Mar 2024)

Genre: Socio-Legal Drama

Channel: Disney+ Hotstar

Language: Hindi

Duration: 125 minutes

Director: Vivek Budakoti, Rajendra Tiwari (Dialect Coach)

Cast: Raveena Tandon, Satish Kaushik, Manav Vij, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Anushka Kaushik, Jatin Goswami

Introduction:

Patna Shuklla is a simple well enacted socio-legal drama. 

It's a non-preachy tale of judicial fight against marksheet scam sans any mega twist & turns or deflation from the original matter, quite well enacted by Raveena Tandon and others.

Plot:

Tanvi Shukla (Raveena Tandon) is a lawyer in the lower court, mostly known for and applauded for her cooking than her profession, till she decides to lock horns with Raghubir Singh (Jatin Goswami), a well connected and powerful election candidate, to get justice for Rinki Kumari (Anushka Kaushik), the daughter of a poor rickshaw driver.

Rinki is a victim of marksheet scam at Patna based Vihar University, where in spite of performing quite well in her final year of college, she is declared as fail in her marksheet!

She is super sure of some error in her papers checking and is hell bent to get her papers re-checked as her poor father can definitely not afford an additional year of college fees and without a proper college degree her future would be bleak.

She needs to start earning as soon as possible. 

Upon taking her case, Tanvi realises that  convincing the university authorities to do the same is next to impossible as the scam racket runs quite high inside the university administration, who retaliate by appointing Neelkanth Mishra (Chandan Roy Sanyal), quite a senior lawyer to fight the aforementioned simple case!

To pressurize Tanvi to drop the case, she and her family are subjected to assorted threats and administrative pressures by Raghubir and the active government.

Her honest and gentleman husband Siddharth Shukla (Manav Vij) who happens to be a government employee is falsely embroiled in a scam and removed from active duty, her house is partially damaged by a bulldozer sans any prior notice and all the dust caused by this destruction aggravates her son's asthma who is required to be hospitalized at the middle of the night!!

As if all this is not enough, Tanvi is required to face a demon from her past, which kind of causes her breakdown and robs her of her desired identity!

But steely determined to bring justice in Rinki's life and well supported & motivated in her endeavour by her husband, she manages to do the impossible, with her hardwork, sacrifice, true belief and last but not the least the fearless and right verdict given by Judge Arun Kumar Jha (Satish Kaushik), who though looks quite a roly-poly desi simpleton but cannot be taken for granted.

Her steadfast fight against the deep rooted corruption garners her the title Patna Shuklla.

Analysis:

Clad in simple & smart handloom sarees with well coordinated three quarter sleeve blouses and minimalistic jewellery, Raveena Tandon throughout looks svelte and has given a subtle but powerful performance well using her kohl-lined eyes and deep stares.

Late Satish Kaushik looks endearing as a tired and soon to be retired judge with comic body language but oodles of experience. His pursuit of balance in everything is hilarious.

Manav Vij looks stoic & supportive and quite well compliments the restless energy of Raveena Tandon.

All the others have also acted well.

Confusion:

With the surname Shukla and location Patna, why is Raveena Tandon sporting shakha and pola bangles like a Bengali bou di along with a Maharashtrian style mangalsutra round her neck throughout the movie?

Is it a debacle of the costume department or she is supposedly representing the pan India women's fight for the right and dressed in accordance?

Also her husband looks pure Punjabi. Well, Manav Vij is an established Punjabi actor, but there should have been some effort taken to make him look and talk like a Bihari babu.

Conclusion:

Patna Shuklla is a relatively low budget straightforward movie sans any significant music numbers, dance, romance, violence or nudity.

The movie is not really entertaining but not even boring. 

Raveena Tandon and Late Satish Kaushik manage to keep you glued to the screen.