Greater Kalesh (17 Oct 2025)

Genre: Family-dramedy

Channel: Netflix

Duration: 52 minutes

Director: Aditya Chandiok

Writer: Ritu Mago

Cast: Ahsaas Channa, Supriya Shukla, Happy Ranajit, Poojan Chhabra, Akshaya Naik and others.

Before every Christmas, Netflix is swamped with a flurry of feel good Christmas centric movies celebrating the festival cheer with myriad content wherein everything falls right in place towards the end amidst oodles of hope, faith and love.

I used to crave for similar movies around Diwali and my silent prayers got beautifully answered this year with the release of Greater Kalesh on our very own Netflix!

Plot:

"Hoping to surprise her parents and brother for Diwali, Twinkle's visit reveals unexpected tension as she attempts to rediscover what family truly means."

Analysis:

The movie starts with mess and chaos in the Greater Kailash based Handa family with issues pertaining to lies, finance, theft, non conventional romantic liaisons, a supposedly extra marital affair and the likes.

But it ends with meaningful closures, love, togetherness, revelations and true blue Diwali cheer!

Conclusion:

It's a short & sweet family flick, aptly released during the festival of lights.

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.

Mast Mein Rehne Ka (8 Dec 2023)

Genre: Comedy Drama

Channel: Amazon Prime Video

Language: Hindi

Duration: 127 minutes

Writer: Vijay Maurya, Payal Arora

Director: Vijay Maurya

Cast: Jackie Shroff, Neena Gupta, Abhishek Chauhan, Monika Panwar, Faisal Malik, Rakhi Sawant

Editing: Antara Lahiri

Cinematography: Nagaraj Rathinam

Introduction

Centred around the lives of four individuals, the movie is about the vast desert of loneliness in Mumbai - the city with an otherwise throbbing pulse, where as and when one chances upon a soothing oasis, one should recognise it and hold on to it.

A man is a slave to his circumstances and mostly the life that he leads is never really solid black or white but one or the other shade of grey, depending upon his state of - greed, debt, love, loneliness, frolic and the likes.

In his bid to make his existence wholesome, he misses out on contemplating how his actions would affect others and eventually himself.

But amidst all the humdrum every soul needs to give and receive that unique dash of compassion and sense of belonging to and from at least one person, so as to feel meaningful and keep sane.

And this much required relationship should be organic but not necessarily conventional!

Plot

Madahosh Gupta aka Nanhe (Abhishek Chauhan) is a shy and sincere tailor but new to Mumbai and it's cruel and unpredictable ways.

In spite of working hard, he incurs huge amount of debt and is compelled to perform thefts in the residences occupied by single aged people.

His only solace in life is spending time with Rani aka Rawas (Monika Panwar), the bindas and street smart beggar girl at a traffic signal.

While doing theft at an old widower of 12 years aka V. S. Kamath's (Jackie Shroff) apartment, he happens to hurt him and while doing the same at a recently Canada returned widow of 3 years aka Parkash Kaur Handa's (Neena Gupta) flat, he happens to scuffle and scare her.

Both the senior citizens meet by serendipity and form a much needed friendship so as to mend their sad and lonely hearts.

In their bid to stop an ongoing theft at a stranger's empty apartment, they hesitantly enter the same. The thief runs away but they stay back and gulp down a couple of beers and available beer snack!

Addicted to the mischievous act, they do the same repeatedly at assorted stranger's abode until they come across Nanhe trying to perform theft in one such abode, which eventually results in Nanhe getting unconscious by getting bumped on the head by Mrs. Handa who herself becomes unconsciousness while running away shit scared from the aforesaid apartment.

Both Mr. Kamath and Nanhe (post gaining consciousness) help her in getting admitted to a hospital. Mr. Kamath even foots her vast bill later on, spending almost two-third of his savings!

On the other side, Rawas who had always evaded being a hooker, gives in to the temptation of earning big bucks, so as to assist Nanhe in repaying his debt!

Watch the movie to know how both the  man-woman relationships end, where the sun of life is setting in one while rising in another!!

Analysis

The entire movie focuses on the lower and middle class population of Mumbai, so it mostly showcases dingy & narrow lanes, shanty abodes, congested apartments, public parks and Mumbai centric street food. 

The movie is quite real in it's pulse with interesting production design of different abodes.

The screenplay is commendable and different. The casting is good. The editing is superb. All the actors have performed well. But Jackie Shroff simply stands out. His acting is quite mature and endearing. With all her chatter and naive persona, Neena Gupta is the spark of the movie. Abhishek Chauhan has well depicted a poor soul who is torn apart by Mumbai style cruel treatment. Monika Panwar has well enacted her state of frolic, care a damn attitude and anger of being exploited.

Conclusion

Watching Mast Mein Rehne Ka was a pleasant surprise as it got released sans any buzz or promotion and turned out to be quite engaging & entertaining along with a loud and clear social message i.e. to find your oasis, hold on to it and stay happy, irrespective of the mad mayhem around.

Do watch it.

Pippa (10 Nov 2023)

Genre: War Action Drama

Channel: Amazon Prime Video

Language: Hindi

Duration: 139 minutes

Director: Raja Krishna Menon

Cast: Ishaan Khatter, Mrunal Thakur and Priyanshu Painyuli 

Woven around Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, specifically the Battle of Garibpur in 1971, Pippa is a well depicted tale of immense personal & professional growth of Captain Balram Singh Mehta (Ishaan Khatter) of India's 45 Cavalry regiment and his newly acquired expertise in manoeuvering PT-76, the Russian amphibious war tank, that floats on water like an empty ‘pippa’ (tin) of ghee and was highly instrumental in his winning the aforementioned battle.

India won the war which eventually led to the formation of East Pakistan as the new nation of Bangladesh.

Special care has been taken to just touch base with the cruelty bestowed upon the citizens of Bangladesh and Bengali nationalist forces by the Pakistan military and supporting pro-Pakistani Islamist militias called the Razakars who amongst other atrocities violated umpteenth number of girls and women and left them as bad as living dead!!

Something that totally stands out in the movie and surprisingly not much is being buzzed about is Ishaan Khattar's fluid and perfect dance sequence in the song 'Main Parwaana...'.

He dances so effortlessly, with full expressions, without missing a single beat, with crystal clear moves, that his performance seems like a beautiful symphony.

Undoubtedly, today he is one of the best dancers in Indian cinema.

The combo of A. R. Rahman (music director), Arijit Singh (singer) and Ishaan Khattar (dancer) is too good.

Overall, Pippa is a well made movie with good casting, direction, acting, production design, editing and cinematography.

Do watch it. 

The Railway Men (18 Nov 2023)

 

Genre: Historical Drama Tragedy

Channel: Netflix

Language: Hindi

Season: 1

No. of Episodes: 4

Running Time: 51-65 minutes

Writer: Aayush Gupta

Director: Shiv Rawail

Cast: Kay Kay Menon, R. Madhavan, Babil Khan, Divyenndu Sharma, Juhi Chawla

Fact:

Due to leakage of 40 tonnes of lethal methyl- isocyanate from Union Carbide, a US corporation owned pesticide factory in Bhopal on 2 Dec 1984, as per the official data, 3,800 people were instantly killed, most of whom resided in a slum located in the close proximity to the factory. The unofficial data of instant deaths was much higher!!

Till today, the city of Bhopal has not fully recovered from this tragedy.

What led to such a tragic night?

- Low safety standards maintained inside the factory.

- Inapt awareness and training of factory staff.

- The mere presence of such a high risk factory in the populated area and not the vacant outskirts.

Webseries Plot:

The 4 episodes series is primarily about the unsung heroes of Indian Railway whose honest efforts, quick action and sacrifices in ensuring (as much as they could) - the vacation of Bhopal Junction railway station, calling in relief services from all quarters and helping people in exiting Bhopal, helped save a multitude of lives.

The screen credits display the death toll figure to be 15,000!!

Two most heart wrenching scenes from the movie are -

- An infant feeding on his/her mother's breast while she is already dead!

- A soon to be wed full decked up bride coming out of her abode into the street searching for her missing mother, only to find her entire 'baraat' along with the groom lying dead!!

Analysis:

Being the first webseries from the stable of YRF Entertainment, The Railway Men has been made with careful r&d and scripting coupled with apt casting and production design, making it a brilliant series to watch and engage in spite of the tragic massacre it entails.

Kay Kay Menon as the wise, dutiful and extremely concerned station master simply wins your heart with his yet again display of amazing acting prowess.

The actor can emote myriad of emotions sans any dialogue! Also, his continuity throughout the series is awesome.

Babil Khan plays an inexperienced loco pilot with past working experience in the Union Carbide factory with almost perfection. 

His acting is raw, fresh and honest which makes it quite appealing. He is definitely a talent to watch out for.

R. Madhavan plays the GM of the West Central Railway zone. He enters the series quite late but brings in the required clout and star power, which stays till the end.

Divyenndu Sharma plays a robber who eventually ends up as a saviour. His energy and dialect brings in the much required comic relief in the series.

Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Raghubir Yadav, Juhi Chawla Mehta, Mandira Bedi and Sunny Hinduja are other prominent actors that play assorted small but effective roles in the series and help in making it better and wholesome.

Conclusion:

Do watch The Railway Men for it's a well engineered fact based fiction and overall good cinema.

Tiger 3 (12 Nov 2023)

Genre: Action

Language: Hindi

Duration: 156 minutes

Writer: Shridhar Raghavan

Director: Maneesh Sharma 

Cast: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Emraan Hashmi, Revathi, Kumud Mishra, Danish Husain, Ranveer Shorey, Vishal Jethwa, Anant Vidhaat Sharma

Analysis:

The best bits of the movie are -

... A chase sequence atop a rocky mountain terrain of Afghanistan. 

It's innovative, quite well conceptualized and amazingly captured on the camera.

... Hand-to-hand combat scene between Katrina Kaif and a Chinese lady inside a spa while both are wrapped in just bath towels!

Both the ladies are extremely fit, toned & agile and well manage to pull off the action scene effectively without making it look vulgar at all.

... Cameo by Shah Rukh Khan when he appears out of nowhere to help escape Salman Khan from his assassination in a Pakistani prison.

Both the Khans share amazing chemistry and look fabulous performing the long action and chase sequence.

In fact, Salman Khan looks most agile and lively during this cameo scene!! Also, Shah Rukh Khan looks fabulous sporting his man-bun from 'Pathaan' (2023).

... Post-credit scene from upcoming movie War 2 featuring Hrithik Roshan.

It features Japanese style ruthless massacre by hooded Hrithik followed by a crooked smile. 

You never get to see his eyes, but can very well feel the intended chill!

The low points of the movie are -

... It's pace which appears quite sluggish at times.

... An average soundtrack. With such an amazing star cast and budget, one expects much better.

... A not so fit as required and a tad bit disinterested looking Salman Khan. Gone are the days when a hero can woo the audience merely by mouthing iconic dialogues.

... The overall direction. Spy thriller movies are clearly not Maneesh Sharma's genre.

Conclusion:

Definitely, the expected adrenaline thrill is missing, otherwise the rest of the elements are in place - amazing stat cast, big budget production design, beautifully covered locales (read Delhi, Mumbai, Istanbul, Saint Petersburg and Vienna), international style chase & action sequences and the likes.

You can still watch the movie.

Thiruchitramblam (18 Aug 2022)

Genre: Drama Comedy Romance

Channel: Amazon Prime Video 

OTT Release Date: 6 Oct 2023

Original Language: Tamil

Dubbed In: Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi

Duration: 133 minutes

Director: Mithran R. Jawahar

Cast: Dhanush, Nithya Menen, Bharathiraja, Prakash Raj, Raashii Khanna, Priya Bhavani Shankar

Music: Anirudh Ravichander

Plot:

Thiruchitrambalam is a humorous story about food delivery agent Pazham (Dhanush), his no holds barred friendship with Shobana (Nithya Menen), who lives in the same building as himself, and his unconventional but endearing relationship with his wise & witty grandfather (Bharathiraja).

A slice of film is also about Pazham's interesting turncoat of emotions with his strict father, Inspector Neelakandan (Prakash Raj).

Otherwise, the movie is about Pazham's one sided feelings for a couple of girls which soon enough get rejected and disillusion him till he realizes that Shobana is the one!!

But does Shobana shares the same feelings? Will they both eventually unite?

Watch the movie to satiate your all such queries.

Analysis:

Dhanush has expectantly enacted like a seasoned actor. Whether he is expressing child like glee or disappointment or releasing pent up anger or bashing up baddies, he has managed to do it all within his character. 

Nithya Menen simply lights up the screen whenever she is in the frame. She has well matched Dhanush's juvenile vibe.

Also, they share good onscreen chemistry.

Bharatjiraja is endearing as Dhanush's grandfather, partner-in-crime and middleman between him and his father!

Prakash Raj has quite well enacted his initial role of a strict but grieving father and eventual role of a dependent and supportive father.

The background score and music are soothing.

Conclusion:

Overall, it's a sweet & funny film about genuine childhood friendship & innocent love between two trusting simpletons.

You will enjoy watching this clean movie with child-like glee!!

Miss Shetty Mr Polishetty (7 Sep 2023)

 

Genre: Drama Comedy Romance
Duration: 147 minutes

Director: Mahesh Babu Pachigolla

Cast: Anushka Shetty, Naveen Polishetty

Phoebic of love & commitment, a London based no-nonsense, superbly talented and lovely lady master chef strives to be a single mother at 30, without marriage via IUI treatment aka artificial insemination from an appropriate donor sans any emotional angle or further connection with him!

While engrossed in the selection process, a mutual vibe develops between her and a 25 years old Hyderabad based rookie but effective stand-up comedian, which she blatantly denies to both him and herself and travels far off to stay in anonymity post getting pregnant with his sperm donation.

Distance makes the heart grow fonder and by the time she is ready for delivery while battling the entire pregnancy period alone, she admits her feelings and yearning for him, at least to herself.

Will the two eventually meet? If yes, then how?

Watch the simple, clean, funny, beautifully picturized and sweet movie on Netflix to find out!

Khufiya (5 Oct 2023)

Genre: Spy Thriller

Channel: Netflix

Language: Hindi

Duration: 157 minutes

Writer: Rohan Narula, Vishal Bhardwaj

Director: Vishal Bhardwaj

Cast: Tabu, Ali Fazal, Wamiqa Gabbi, Shataf Figar, Ashish Vidyarthi, Atul Kulkarni, Azmeri Haque Badhon, Navnindra Behl

Introduction:

Khufiya is based on the book Escape to Nowhere, penned by Amar Bhushan, a former R&AW official.

R&AW stands for the Research and Analysis Wing. It is the foreign intelligence agency of India.

The movie is timed around 2004, the post Kargil War period when spy agencies of India and Pakistan were working full time, trying to influence the election results of a neighboring country.

Plot:

The movie starts with the assassination of agent Hina Rehman (Azmeri Haque Badhon), a fresh Bangladeshi recruit and love interest of sharp senior R&AW operative Krishna Mehra aka KM (Tabu), at the hands of Brigadier Mirza (Shataf Figar), who was supposed to get killed by Heena as per the ongoing Project Octopus!

Being hundred percent sure that Heena's identity reveal is caused by an in-house mole, KM sniffs out her junior but efficient operative Ravi Mohan (Ali Fazal) and puts him and his life-loving cherubic wife Charu Mohan (Wamiqa Gabbi) under constant surveillance.

Eventually it's revealed that, in spite of signing the nuclear deal with India and being it's ally, CIA - the United States' international intelligence service, turns out to be the one puppeteering Ravi!

And working in cahoots with him is not his wife but aged mother Lalita Mohan (Navnindra Behl)!!

Just before KM could put in action Ravi's formal arrest, he gets wind of him being exposed. 

In a quick succession of actions, he packs his bags, kills a couple of nearby planted R&AW agents and flies off to South Dakota (USA) along with his kid son and mother.

Since Ravi was adamant to take Charu along and she was adamant to stay patriotic and stay back, to expedite the running, Ravi's mother hits Charu on the head with a big torch and even shoots her with a hand pistol!

Luckily KM and her team arrive on time and rush her for medical aid.

Past six months, Charu contacts KM and requests her to aid her in getting back her son in lieu of re-igniting the cold trail.

See the movie to find out how they - help each other to scoop out Ravi & family, let Charu win their trust and stay with them and eventually assassinate Brigadier Mirza, thereby bringing a closure to Project Octopus and KM's personal revenge!!

Analysis:

Primarily helmed by three women - Tabu (prime role), Wamiqa Gabbi (secondary role but more screen time) and Azmeri Haque Badhon (prime character in a miniscule role) and a man - Ali Fazal (meaty role performed with an overdose of good acting), Khufiya is an engrossing espionage tale with occasional thrills.

The director Vishal Bhardwaj has successfully created the required vibe of intrigue and double-cross with silent espionage in full bloom aka tailing, breaking & entering, planting cameras, long & silent monitor watching, exchange of object into multiple hands and the likes.

All of the aforementioned ladies are a treat to watch. 

It's amusing to see Wamiqa solo dancing to ’70s Bollywood songs, even in her lingerie and rolling & smoking a doobie when no one is around!

But her actions don't take forward the story in any manner and you miss the presence of lady-boss Tabu and wish there was a little more of bullish Azmeri in the movie.

Khufiya has sufficient quota of good parent son bondage. The one between Ravi & his mother, the one between Charu & her son and the one between KM's ex husband Shashank Mehra (Atul Kulkarni) and their teenage son - all of them have a distinct flavor and have been depicted beautifully.

Surprisingly, the movie has mentions of ISI, the Pakistani intelligence agency but their active operation is not shown as such. Rather, there are few scenes featuring CIA officials, which come across as plain vanilla and quite rushed!

The climax scene with rogan josh on the dining table occupied by entities from three nations with the danger of life looming above their heads is quite effective.

Conclusion:

Khufiya is not exactly a thriller but it has a lovely ensemble cast and inimitable Vishal Bhardwaj brand of direction.

You can watch it.

Aakhri Sach (25 Aug - 22 Sep 2023)

Genre: Crime Mystery Thriller

Channel: Disney+ Hotstar

Language: Hindi

Season: 1

No. of Episodes: 6

Running Time: 31-50 minutes

Writer: Saurav Dey

Director: Robbie Grewal

Cast: Tamannaah Bhatia, Abhishek Banerjee, Shivin Narang, Sanjiv Chopra

One fine morning, all the 11 members of Rajawat family are found hanging dead with no sign of struggle, except for the old mother who is found dead near her bed with signs of struggle!!

Tamannaah Bhatia plays the diligent Inspector Anya Swaroop who solves this multiple layered extremely confusing heart wrenching case, while fighting her personal mental trauma.

The series is little spooky but quite well enacted and presented.

It keeps you hooked and wondering till the end.

Do watch it.

Jaane Jaan (21 Sep 2023)

 

Genre: Crime Thriller Drama

Channel: Netflix

Language: Hindi

Duration: 139 minutes

Writer: Sujoy Ghosh, Raj Vasant, Keigo Higashino

Director: Sujoy Ghosh

Cast: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat, Vijay Varma, Saurabh Sachdeva, Naisha Khanna, Karma Takapa, Lin Laishram

Introduction: 

Jaane Jaan is an adroit adaptation of Keigo Higashino's crime novel The Devotion of Suspect X (2005).

Plot:

Settled in the scenic and silent hill town Kalimpong, Maya D' Souza (Kareena Kapoor Khan) is a single mother and a hands-on cafe owner.

Around 14 years back she ran off from the clutches of her sinful & abusive husband and cop Ajit Mhatre (Saurabh Sachdeva) who has somehow located her whereabouts and intimidates her by visiting both her cafe and home.

In the past, Ajit - the perennial money monger had manipulated his wife to be a pole dancer and now wishes to do the same to his new found daughter Tara (Naisha Khanna)!

This leads to fierce protest from Maya. One thing leads to another and Ajit gets killed by Maya with some help from their daughter!!

Naren or Teacher (Jaideep Ahlawat), Maya's next door neighbour is a maths genius and school teacher who silently admires her since her arrival in their building!

He offers to help her get rid of the dead body and instructs her on preventive actions so that Ajit's murder is never traced back to her.

However, arrival of charming and dedicated Inspector Karan Anand (Vijay Varma) from Mumbai, changes everything.

Though he visited Kalimpong searching Ajit for an in-house police matter, he eventually gets embroiled into solving his murder and his prime suspect is the deceased's estranged wife Maya!!

Karan and Naren happen to be FTII graduates and friends from the same batch and are well aware of each other's grey matter and modus operandi.

A cat and mouse game ensues, wherein Karan uses his charm and grit to connect murder clues to Maya, while Naren uses his sharp mind and logic to mislead him on a different path!

See the movie to see who ultimately wins and how.

Analysis:

The movie has enough twists to keep it interesting, but it's kind of disjointed as a complete product, so the required adrenalin rush is missing.

All the lead artists and side artists have performed quite well, but Jaideep Ahlawat has simply surpassed himself and introduced an altogether new style of silent acting with occasional mischievous glint. He comes across as a sharp brained gentle giant!

It's heart warming to see Kareena Kapoor Khan experimenting with method acting and non-glamorous role, which she manages with aplomb, though at times her ire seems over acting and the required chemistry between the mother-daughter duo is missing.

Relatively better sense of empathy can be sensed between Naren and one of his students who constantly challenges him for a coin trick game!

However, with enough close-up shots, Kareena brings ample star power and beauty to the movie. 

She is a dream to watch when she sings the classic title track in a karaoke bar.

Vijay Varma has cakewalked his role with easy charm and smile. His character lacks depth, but that is not his doing.

Conclusion:

Jaane Jaan is an intelligent thriller with good acting and tight screenplay. It's engaging but don't expect any edge-of-the-seat moment.

Do watch it and ponder how the entire storyline could have been depicted better!!

Avinash Tiwary Is Reigning Supreme In Both Sep 2023 Crime Thriller Web Series!!! 🙂

The first one is Bambai Meri Jaan (14 Sep 2023) on Amazon Prime Video and the second one is Kaala (15 Sep 2023) on Disney+ Hotstar.

Playing the chief protagonist in both the web series, he effectively portrays the role of a dreaded gangster in the first one and a committed Intelligence Bureau official in the latter.

Directed by Shujaat Saudagar, Bambai Meri Jaan is a 10 episodes web series with 30-50 minutes running time. 

It depicts the life span of Dara Kadri (Avinash Tiwary), the D Company founder, from his childhood days till he leaves for Dubai to escape his arrest warrant by Mumbai Police. 

Ismail Kadri (Kay Kay Menon), an honest and devout Mumbai cop turned gangster Haji's (Saurabh Sachdeva) accomplice turned spiritual recluse, plays his father and narrator of the series. 

Kay Kay has a crucial role and he has played it brilliantly, mostly with stoic silence and one liners. His acting in the series is beautifully layered and perhaps the best of his acting career!!

The web series has multiple important characters and all have been casted wonderfully and enacted effectively. In fact their combined acting prowess has surpassed the storyline and script!

The entire series is embedded with Mumbaiya expletives and at one point the blood and gore becomes too much to handle.

Overall, the series is familiar, engaging, entertaining and well edited with top class production design.

Directed by Bejoy Nambiar, Kaala is an 8 episodes web series with 45 minutes running time.

It delves deep into the not much familiar territory of reverse-hawala carried out by billionaire Naman Arya (Taher Shabbir) and  meticulously investigated by IB officer Ritwik Mukherjee (Avinash Tiwary) and his team and eventually officials from other government organizations, like - CBI, BSF and State Police.

Rohan Vinod Mehra well plays Subhendu Mukherjee aka Adinath Bagchi aka Ritwik's father and BSF officer turned revenge seeker and eventually the secret informer of his son!

Jitin Gulati as Balwant Singh is the surprise package of the series and completely mesmerizes with his layered acting as and how his persona undergoes major transformations in the series!

Here again, the casting is impressive (read Hiten Tejwani, Mita Vashisht, Shakti Kapoor etc.) and almost everyone has performed well.

The expectant blood and gore is present, but it's designed on familiar grounds and always in control.

Unusual but deep father-son relationships form the crux of both the web series.

While both of them travel the deep, dark alleys of underworld, thankfully both the series are intelligently infused with small patches of comic relief and mild romance.

You will enjoy binge watching them both!! 

Haddi (7 Sep 2023)

 

Genre: Crime Drama

Channel: ZEE5 

Duration: 134 minutes

Writer: Adamya Bhalla, Akshat Ajay Sharma

Director: Akshat Ajay Sharma

Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Anurag Kashyap, Saurabh Sachdeva, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Ila Arun, Vipin Sharma

Till almost a decade and a half back, whatever representation of gay characters I saw in a Hindi movie was always comical and kind of ridiculous.

While everyone around guffawed at their scenes, I was always confused and not really comfortable because -

a. not much info was available on the subject.

b. I have always believed that all forms of existence have a serious and compassionate side. No one can be born to be just laughed at!

Fortunately, sometime around 2009, I watched Sean Penn starrer Milk on a movie channel on Tata Sky, wherein he brilliantly portrayed Harvey Milk, the groundbreaking gay politician. 

Later on, he also won an Oscar for Milk.

Merely watching his performance rested so many of my queries and I wondered when will Hindi movies produce something like this.

To everyone's surprise, it was the spate of the concerned webseries that attacked the Indian celluloid with full gutso around 2016, thanks to the absence of vigilant censor on the OTT platform.

They showed and continue to show much more direct, detailed and logical content encompassing the lives of LGBTQIA+ community. However, very few of them are Indian productions.

Haddi is one such rare Indian OTT movie that dares to go deep into the life and emotions of a transgender women, played amazingly by Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

As and when required, he appears a weak & tender woman or an indifferent passerby or a cold blooded killing machine!!

He has handled all his scenes with adroit and poise.

However, the problem lies with the storyline which is based on underworld activity, revenge and retribution, which makes the movie quite grotesque to watch and confuses the identity of transgender people.

The movie does not provide any sort of distinction between transgenders, cross-dressers and others.

In short, the movie lacks the depth & layering required to handle such an unexplored subject amidst such a complex violent setting.

You can still watch Haddi for good attempt & toil, impactful make-up & styling and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

Blind (7 Jul 2033)

Genre: Crime, Thriller

Channel: JioCinema

Director: Shome Makhija

Cast: Sonam Ahuja Kapoor, Purab Kohli, Vinay Pathak, Lillete Dubey, Shubham Saraf

Duration: 124 minutes

Plot:

Gia Singh (Sonam Kapoor Ahuja), a blind ex-cop escapes the clutches of The Driver (Purab Kohli), a sadistic kidnapper, tormentor & killer, by narrow margin and finally brings him to justice

A policeman (Vinay Pathak) and an eye witness (Shubham Saraf) help her in her endeavor.

Analysis:

- Sonam Kapoor Ahuja has good presence as a scrubbed clean, lean and tall protagonist. Her acting is mediocre.

- Purab Kohli has managed to scratch the surface of appearing & acting villainous. But still he has a long way to go.

- The movie is half baked leaving a lot to your imagination and ponder!!

You are left with questions like -

Exactly what past experiences made The Driver a psychopath kidnapper and killer? 

Exactly how does he tortures the kidnapped girls?

Why Gia Singh never shows any warmth or gratitude to the orphanage head (Lilette Dubey) who brought her up like a daughter and still cares like one?

Why Gia Singh is a bit too much sarcastic about God?

How a blind and jobless Gia Singh affords a big squeaky clean apartment and a dog?

When the setting is of Glasgow in UK, how come all the concerned characters are Indian - the victim, the villain, the witness and even the cop!!

Overall, it's an average movie.