War (2 Oct 2019)

Genre: Action Thriller
Language: Hindi
Duration: 154 minutes

Story: Aditya Chopra, Siddharth Anand
Screenplay: Siddharth Anand, Shridhar Raghavan
Dialogue: Abbas Tyrewala

Producer: Aditya Chopra
Director: Siddharth Anand

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Vaani Kapoor, Ashtosh Rana, Keith Dallison, Anil George, Soni Razdan, Dipannita Sharma, Anupriya Goenka, Arif Zakaria, Mohit Chauhan

Music: Vishal & Shekhar, Ankit & Sanchit Balhara
Background Score: Daniel B George

Action: Paul Jennings, SeaYoung Oh, Franz Spilhaus, Parvez Shaikh
Editing: Aarif Sheikh
Cinematography: Ben Jasper

Introduction:

"War is set to be a visual spectacle for quintessential action cinema lovers as they would witness Hrithik and Tiger pull off jaw-dropping sequences as they try to beat each other."

Made with a budget of ₹ 200 Crores, the movie is a full bloom commercial fiction comprising of chiselled good looks with star swag, death defying high octane stunts and picturesque locales from 7 countries.

The Plot:

Khalid Khan (Tiger Shroff), an Indian special agent is asked to search and terminate Kabir Luthra (Hrithik Roshan), who happens to be his senior, mentor and idol. Apparently, Kabir went abroad on a mission and thereupon turned incommunicado. Noone has any idea of his whereabouts, including any proof of his return to India! But still he managed to kill a high profile government official in India. So, the usual verdict is that, Kabir has gone rogue and he needs to be terminated.

What follows is a series of flashbacks and present day scenes, wherein Khalid recalls the two missions at Morocco and Iraq, that he had participated under Kabir's leadership, wherein he proved himself to be a loyal, effective and worthy soldier in Kabir's eyes, who was earlier dubious in letting Khalid join his team, as he had personally executed Khalid's father in the past in self-defense and also because he was a traitor to the nation.

Post his second high rank killing, Kabir shares with Khalid, the name of his third target, who happens to be in Portugal. Kabir ends up killing him as well, inspite of the big fight put forward by Khalid.

In the meantime, he is also trying to nab Ilyasi, an international money launderer who lives a highly protected life in the garb of a big businessman. It is imperative to catch Ilyasi to protect India from an upcoming terrorist attack of mammoth proportions. Earlier, to get to him in Italy, he had used the services of Naina (Vaani Kapoor), a dancer and single mother, who was shot dead and the onus of taking care of her hostel residing daughter fell upon Kabir.

To get to Ilyasi, Kabir needs to find and eliminate one more traitor amongst his countrymen.

Alongside, Khalid is determined to stop Kabir from doing any more assassination and bring him back in a coffin, if required.

What follows is a series of high power chase and fight sequences, as good as a war, encompassing land, air, water, ice, bikes, ruins and the likes, between the two protagonists, followed by climax and anticlimax, till the needful is done.

Movie Analysis:

There is good acting, then there is good acting with star power, finally there is good acting with star power and full swag that doesn't look crass but absolutely pleasing to the eyes. Hrithik has achieved this totality of the celluloid screen with this movie. He has surpassed himself and brought forward all his talents and charisma, all together in a seamless harmony.

When before has a hero with tattered shirt, blood soaked and wound infested face, dirt and grime covered body, sitting on a chair with hands tied and surrounded with menacing terrorists looked adorable? Well, ladies and gentlemen our very own Duggu has managed to look the same in this movie! And lesser said about his entry scene, the disembark walk from the helicopter, the better. You need to see it to believe it.

At times, he appears like a potent mix of Brad Pitt and George Clooney! He has very well enacted the role of a highly experienced, calculative but slightly arrogant special agent.

Tiger looks equally good and dances and combats with amazing grace. As compared to Hrithik, he looks vulnerable and doe-eyed. He has also acted well.

Both of them share excellent mantor-follower chemistry on screen and perfectly complement each other. Their combined dancing prowess is quite visible in 'Jai Jai Shiv Shankar', an absolutely unnecessary but endearing song.

Vaani has a dance number 'Ghungroo' and very few scenes. Along with Hrithik, she burns ablaze the screen in the former and is passable in the latter.

Other actors including the villains, as such don't have much scenes or any scope to leave an impact. But cumulatively, they have supported the movie quite well.

The movie has been shot in 7 different countries and 15 world cities. Good cinematography of military grade carriers, aerial shots and vast expanses of lands at - Morocco, Iraq, Portugal, Italy, India, Arctic Region and Australia, keeps the movie interesting.

A total of 4 action directors, 3 foreign and 1 Indian have ensured world class chase and combat scenes throughout the movie. The action scenes of 'War' are an all encompassing cocktail of almost all the brilliant action scenes that we have come across in the recent years.

The only problem with the movie is the corny storyline and dual layers of suspenses. The first layer is predictable soon enough and by the time the second layer is unravelled, the audience has lost it's interest in the plot.

The first half of the movie is superb, but the second half feels a little lost and unnecessary elongated.

The movie has full potential to become the next franchise of the Yash Raj Films banner.

Conclusion:

Do watch the movie for the larger than life presence of forty plus Hrithik Roshan, well foiled by the youthful presence of Tiger Shroff, amidst jaw dropping action sequences and picturesque locales.

Netflix Series: Sacred Games 2 (15 Aug 2018)

Genre: Crime Thriller, Mystery

Language: Hindi

No. Of Episodes: 8

Based On Novel:  Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra

Novel Adaptation By:  Varun Grover, Dhruv Narang, Pooja Varma, Nihit Bhave

Director: Anurag Kashyap, Neeraj Ghaywan

Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Saif Ali Khan, Pankaj Tripathi, Surveen Chawla, Kalki Koechlin, Ranvir Shorey, Amruta Subhash, Neeraj Kabi, Jatin Sarna, Luke Kenny, Elnaaz Norouzi, Aamir Bashir, Anupriya Goenka, Samir Kochhar, Chittaranjan Tripathy, Saurabh Sachdeva

Theme Music & Background Score: Alokananda Dasgupta

Introduction:

Sacred Games is the first Netflix original series in India based on Vikram Chandra's 2006 novel of the same name. It's first season was released on 6 Jul 2018. Sacred Games 2 is the name of it's second season, which got released approximately a year later, on 15 Aug 2019. Both the seasons comprise of 8 episodes each.

Two forces primarily work on people in blinding them from all forms of logic and self check and turn them into zombies, who perform heinous crimes, in the garb of being righteous, on do-as-directed basis by their taskmaster(s).

These forces are greed and faith. While the first season of Sacred Games was woven around the sentiment of greed - for money and power, it's second season unravels the plottings of an apocalypse, called upon by faith!

The Plot:

"A link in their pasts leads an honest cop to a fugitive gang boss, whose cryptic warning spurs the officer on a quest to save Mumbai from cataclysm."

The first season started with the reveal of annihilation of Mumbai in the following 25 days. This reveal was made by the local, powerful and fugitive gangster, Ganesh Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) to police officer, Sartaj Singh (Saif Ali Khan), followed by the suicide of the former, in front of the latter, leaving him all alone and clueless and sending him and other government officials on a spree of unraveling layers upon layers of organized and intertwined crimes.

The second season starts with Sartaj Singh's continued search for the tool and venue of the aforesaid annihilation. It also continues with the parallel autobiography of Ganesh Gaitonde in the past mode, accompanied with his narrations in both past and present modes!

The abducted Ganesh Gaitonde eventually finds himself usurping the throne of the most powerful drug lord of Mombasa in Kenya and working under and in conjunction with Kusum Devi Yadav (Amruta Subhash), a RAW agent, who eventually gets shot in the head and becomes bed ridden and kind of brain dead for life.

A series of mish-mash involving other anti socials and ISI, intelligence agency of Pakistan, finally lead to Khanna Guruji (Pankaj Tripathi), the main planner and puppeteer of Mumbai annihilation and his right hand Batya Abelman (Kalki Koechlin).

Guruji plans to bring back Satyug i.e. the era of honesty and truth, by terminating the ongoing era of Kalyug i.e. the era of animosity and crime, in a planned step-by-step method, which involves annihilation of most of the world's population and recall of the Satyug era with a protected and selected set of Guruji's followers who will be following the lifestyle teachings of Guruji, which also advocates free sex and and eating of bland food and a customized narcotic!

To bring about the aforementioned annihilation, Guruji's modus operandi is to act as catalyst between two warring nations. To start with, it would be India and Pakistan. The idea herein is to motivate and assist Pakistan based terrorist, Shahid Khan (Ranvir Shorey) to plant and activate a nuclear bomb in Mumbai, which would kill lakhs of Kalyug infected Mumbaikars at one go.

Also, it would incite India to meat out a similar attack in Pakistan, which would result in similar casualties on the latter's soil. This action-reaction chain would continue and aggravate with each passing day.

Eventually, other warring nations like North Korea-South Korea and Israel-Palestine will be brought into this apocalyptic fold, and so on and so forth, till the whole world would turn against each other and self destruct itself!

Sartaj Singh in his obsession to solve the case ends up into the bad books of his superiors, joins Guruji's ashram and even gets addicted to Guruji's customized narcotic capsules. Feeling all alone, beaten and tired, he wishes and requests his ex-wife Megha Singh (Snupriya Goenka) to return back to him in vain, but still carries on his solitary pursue. He also finds out the link between Ganesh Gaitonde and himself.

Government officials, like Inspector Majid Ali Khan (Aamir Bashir), ACIO Markand (Samir Kochhar) and others carry on the aforementioned same pursue, using the relatively conservative methods.

Finally, Sartaj Singh and his peers are able to find out and locate the tool of annihilation, which happens to be a nuclear bomb with the capacity of eradicating around eight lakhs people at one go!

See the series to know what follows next.

Series Analysis:

As mentioned above, the entire series is depicted in both past and present modes, via Ganesh Gaitonde and Sartaj Singh and life around him respectively. Alongside, the series comprises of dreams, nightmares and illusions, brought upon by fear, guilt and effect of narcotics.

As compared to the first season, the intensity of crass language and vividness of copulation scenes, whatever few are there, is much less. Also, unlike the first season, there is no nudity.

However expletives like m*#$@c*# and g*#*u are used extensively in all kinds of situations, more like catchphrases than abusives. These words are mouthed by characters - out of camaraderie, as customary greeting, as rebuke, as reference and even when they are thinking alone.

The storyline is relatively new and the display of the series of sequences is quite interesting.

Cast Analysis:

Without an iota of doubt, Nawazuddin Siddiqui comes out as an extremely seasoned actor and if we combine both the series and if it is permitted, then he is surely the 'baap of copulation scenes' of Indian screen. As per the demand of such scenes, he effortlessly instills within them, the facial expressions emitting - hate, habit, love, indifference, punishment, addiction and appreciation!

Saif Ali Khan looks fitter and more in control than he looked in the first season. Also, the states of mental desperation and  pain of withdrawal symptoms of narcotics are well enacted by him.

Though not present in the first season, Pankaj Tripathi emerges as a complete surprise package in this season. Already well appreciated for his perfect portrayals of roles of pimp, politician, gang lord etc. and immaculate dialogue deliveries in assorted dialects in Bollywood movies, Pankj Tripathi herein, for the first time is seen sans any beard or moustache. He has well played the character of a cool, calm and soft spoken Guru, who speaks chaste Hindi and in the name of Pankaj Aasan, copulates in a pond, with one or other of his favorite disciples, irrespective of his/her gender!

Rest of the cast has also performed quite well, specially Amruta Subhash, who looks quite effective in her brain dead scenes.

Conclusion:

Sacred Games 2 is a well made series with - relatively new screenplay, amazing acting and sleek editing. It's an all encompassing display of lives of assorted people whose lives happen to be interlinked within the premises of the storyline.

Unlike season one, it is global in it's approach.