Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part II 🙂

I am sharing below my pick list with short reviews of 3 Hindi movies that recently released on web channels -

1. House Arrest (15 Nov 2019)
Channel: Netflix
Genre: Comedy
Duration: 104 minutes

Short Review: Ali Fazal's self imposed house arrest results into a comedy of errors upon unwanted arrivals of a mysterious package and a nosy journalist.

It's a neat comedy displaying fine nuances of acting by Ali Fazal. He well portrays the psyche and body language of a person who is happy and occupied in the solitary confinement of his beautifully done apartment and abhors the idea of stepping outside the apartment or entertaining any guest!

Jim Sarbh is at his bohemian best and Shriya Pilgaonkar's subtle presence stands out amidst the other restless and/or loud characters.

2. Operation Parindey (28 Feb 2020)
Channel: ZEE5
Genre: Action Thriller
Duration: 50 minutes

Short Review: Based on true events, it's a short movie about a ground breaking prison escape by a dangerous terrorist and a few other prison inmates from a Punjab jail.

It shows how in reality, the police force works in coalition and nabs the escaped convicts and terrorists and compels them to divulge information.

Amit Sadh, Rahul Dev and Aakash Dahiya are the known faces here. They have acted well.

3. Maska (27 Mar 2020)
Channel: Netflix
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Duration: 111 minutes

Short Review: It's a nice, well made, light drama around a loving mother-son duo for their family legacy, the Rustom Cafe. The mother expects her grown up son to improvise it and bring back it's glory of the old days, while the son is star-eyed and desperate about his Bollywood debut. He is even ready to sell the cafe to facilitate the same!

Manisha Koirala is fantastic as the loving and lively mother. She lights up the screen in every frame that she appears. Prit Kamani, the son looks handsome and convincingly plays the part of a lost and simple hearted Parsi boy. It is his debut movie.

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part I -
http://jaimaadurga.blogspot.com/2020/03/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-i.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part III -
http://angrezipicture.blogspot.com/2020/04/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-iii.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part IV -
http://angrezipicture.blogspot.com/2020/04/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-iv.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part V -
http://jaimaadurga.blogspot.com/2020/05/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-vl.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part VI -
http://jaimaadurga.blogspot.com/2020/05/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-vi.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part I 🙂

Watched: Indian Web Series During Lockdown March 2020

Being quite an avid consumer of books of substance in the past and well crafted movies/tv series/web series in the present, the ongoing lockdown prompted me to binge watch quite a few Indian movies and web series.

I am sharing below a release datewise list of 5 such web series with a short intro and review of each. All of them are in Hindi.

1. Rangbaaz (22 Dec 2018), Rangbaaz Phirse (20 Dec 2019)
Channel: ZEE5
Genre: Action Crime Biography
Season: 1 & 2
No. of Episodes: 18
Running Time: 35 minutes

Short Review: Both the sequels depict how the political honchos push the capable youth into the world of crime and provide them protection till they are useful, but terminate them in association with the police, once they are out of their respective personal control.

The first sequel is woven around Uttar Pradesh, while the second one is woven around Rajasthan.

Saqib Saleem's performance in Rangbaaz is his best till date, while Ranvir Shorey is expectantly good. Jimmy Shergill has acted good in Rangbaaz Phirse, but Sushant Singh is simply awesome.

2. Asur (2 Mar 2020)
Channel: Voot
Genre: Mythological Thriller, Serial Murders, Dark
Season: 1
No. of Episodes: 8
Running Time: 36-61 minutes

Short Review: It's a dark thriller exploring forensic science and ancient Indian Mythology. It's kind of haunting and very well scripted.

Arshad Warsi and Barun Sobti keep you glued to the screen.

3. Bhaukaal (6 Mar 2020)
Channel: MX Player
Genre: Crime Thriller
Season: 1
No. of Episodes: 10
Running Time: 22-30 minutes

Short Review: Crime ridden land of Muzaffarnagar, ruled by two rival gangs - Shaukeen gang in the east and the Dedha brothers in the west is a suicidal place for any police officer trying to establish any law and order around the aforementioned gangsters' nefarious activities.

Mohit Raina (Lord Shiva fame) brings about fifty percent of the required change, facing a lot of threats and failures, but slowly and steadily cleaning off one of the aforesaid gangs.

Other known and impressive artists are Abhimamyu Singh, Siddhanth Kapoor and Bidita Nag. Usage of rustic abusive language is to the optimum.

4. Mentalhood (11 Mar 2020)
Channel: ZEE5 & ALT Balaji
Genre: Drama
Season: 1
No. of Episodes: 10
Running Time: 18-23 minutes

Short Review: It depicts the roller coaster ride of five urban mothers and one single father, all of whose kids study in an upscale and swank Mumbai school. They all appear different but somewhere share the same trials, turbulations, happiness, confusion, dilemma and guilt conscience of parenting.

Karishma Kapoor, Sandhya Mridul, Shilpa Shukla, Shruti Seth, Tillotama Shome, and Dino Morea are a treat to watch. In fact, Karishma has kind of singularly shouldered the entire series.

5. Special Ops (17 Mar 2020)
Channel: Hotstar
Genre: Espionage Thriller
Season: 1
No. of Episodes: 8
Running Time: 44-55 minutes

Short Review: An engaging espionage thriller, constantly shuffling between flash back and present time, to show the years long tedious process involved in locating and nabbing a dangerous terrorist, responsible for masterminding the Indian Parliament attack in 2001, followed by 5 subsequent attacks all over India.

Watch it for the stellar performance by Kay Kay Menon.

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part II -
http://jaimaadurga.blogspot.com/2020/03/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-ii.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part III -
http://angrezipicture.blogspot.com/2020/04/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-iii.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part IV -
http://angrezipicture.blogspot.com/2020/04/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-iv.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part V -
http://jaimaadurga.blogspot.com/2020/05/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-vl.html?m=1

Binge Watch Suggestion List - Part VI -
http://jaimaadurga.blogspot.com/2020/05/binge-watch-suggestion-list-part-vi.html?m=1

Amazon Prime Video TV Series: Afsos (Feb 2020)

Genre: Black Comedy Thriller
Language: Hindi
No. of Episodes: 8

Writer: Dibya Chatterjee, Anirban Dasgupta, Sourav Ghosh
Director: Anubhuti Kashyap

Cast: Gulshan Devaiah, Anjali Patil, Heeba Shah, Robin Das, Aakash Dahiya, Jamie Alter, Shyam Bhimsaria, Sulagna Panigrahi, Ratnabali Bhattacharjee, Danish Sait

Music: Neel Adhikari
Casting: Parag Mehta
Editing: Prerna Saigal

Introduction:

This series is about suicide attempts, assassinations, quest for 'amrit' and 'amar' aka the elixir of life and the immortal respextively.

Plot:

'Afsos' is a totally out of the box TV series which opens with the scenes wherein -

- the protagonist Nakul (Gulshan Devaiah) is hell bent on committing suicide and attempts the same repeatedly in vain!

- a foreign scientist Dr. Goldfish (Jamie Alter) is conducting a seminar on immortality and ways to achieve it.

- one fine morning, all the sadhus of a remote ashram in Uttarakhand are found shot dead, barring Fokatiya Baba (Robin Das), who has supposedly ran away to Mumbai with the 'amrit' potion, which was rumoured to have been present inside the ashram!

The ashram massacre happens the very next day of a media publishing about the 'amrit' present therein and Ayesha Mirani (Sulagna Panigrahi), the concerned lady reported is lambasted by her boss for such an irresponsible and superstitious publishing. She is asked to stop pursuing the fictionary 'amrit' trail and follow another story about an operational suicide service, run by Maria Gomes (Ratnabali Bhattacharjee), that professionally assists people in committing suicides, both by motivation, as well as, assassination!

This same squad has been recruited by Nakul to fulfil his desire of dying and the contract of his assassination has been given to Upadhyay (Heeba Shah), a no nonsense hitwoman who leaves no stone unturned to finish her job at hand and is immune to collateral damages involved.

However, Nakul's shrink Dr. Shloka's (Anjali Patil) expression of love towards himself motivates him to cancel the aforementioned contract. After some tussle, though Maria agrees to do the required cancellation, but Upadhyay is hell bent on killing Nakul and that too with an added vengeance because in continuation with his trait of failed suicide attempts, he keeps on dodging Upadhyay's bullets.

On the other hand, to investigate the mass massacre of Uttarakhand sadhus, the local inspector of that region, Bir Singh (Aakash Dahiya) arrives in Mumbai to nab Fokatiya Baba.

Alongside, Dr. Goldfish and his team of musclemen also arrive in Mumbai in pursuit of amrit.

As if all the aforesaid pursuits were not enough, both Fokatiya Baba and Dr. Goldfish are also in pursuit of a one and only immortal person on Earth, the 'amar' entity who holds the unique power to immortalize someone else other than himself!

How all the aforementioned personalities cross each other while pursuing their independent pursuits and how their personal stories get inter connected is for yours to watch.

Analysis:

It's a very well made series with good script, casting, direction, acting, background score and editing.

All the actors look the part and have performed well, but Gulshan Devaiah is a treat to watch. Using minimum dialogues and few solid expressions, he has amazingly portrayed the character of the suicide seeking lad, who has absolutely no will to live or fear to die.

Ratnabali Bhattacharjee, as the practical businesswoman who provides suicide assistance without batting an eyelid, but also loves her kid daughter and is against collateral damage is an interesting study.

In this series, people get killed every now and then, both intentionally and unintentionally, but fail to give any tug to your heart strings. May be, that's how the series' creators intended them to be.

Conclusion:

It's an engaging and taut thriller with no edge of the seat drama but an altogether different thought process.

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.

Padmaavat (25 Jan 2018)

Cast: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Aditi Rao Hydari, Raza Murad, Jim Sarbh, Anupriya Goenka

Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali   

Music: Sanchit Balhara, Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Screenplay: Prakash Kapadia, Sanjay Leela Bhansali   

Dialogue: Prakash Kapadia

Costume Design: Ajay, Maxima Basu, Harpreet Rimple, Chandrakant Sonawane

Duration: 164 minutes

Introduction:

‘Padmavat’ is an epic poem by Sufi poet Malik Muhammad Jayasi which surfaced around mid 16th century and centred around early 14th century tale of Sultan Alauddin Khilji, Maharawal Ratan Singh and his second wife Padmavati.

‘Padmaavat’ is the current age cinematic adaptation of the aforesaid poem by Bollywood director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, made with a lot of opulence and clear disclaimer that its scenes may or may not depict the actual history.

The Plot:

In the movie, the quest for beads to please his first wife Nagmati (Anupriya Goenka) leads the ruler of Mewar, Maharawal Ratan Singh (Shahid Kapoor), to the kingdom of Singhal, wherein in the forest, he gets struck by their pricess Padmavati’s (Deepika Padukone) arrow and both of them get struck by the cupid’s arrow, which results into Padmavati’s arrival into Chittor’s fort as the second wife of Ratan Singh.

Padmavati happens to be a lady of great beauty, intellect and courage. She is also well versed with warfare tactics. Allured by her charisma, the king’s Guru and advisor commits the grave mistake of peeping into one of her private moments with the king, gets caught and is exiled from the kingdom.

Alauddin Khilji (Ranveer Singh) is the all powerful, vile, greedy, oversexed, ruthless and nasty Sultan of Delhi, who has acquired his throne by murdering Jalaluddin Khilji (Raza Murad), who was his predecessor, uncle and father-in-law! He is married to Jalaluddin’s alluring and naive daughter Mehrunissa (Aditi Rao Hydari). He is constantly shadowed by equally mean and ruthless Malik Kafur, who is his slave cum confidant cum toy boy. Alauddin Khilji lives with the belief that anything exquisite and/or precious simply belongs to him.

Playing on this characteristic of Alauddin, the revengeful and exiled Guru manages to get his attention by murmuring verses of Padmavati’s exquisite beauty in his ears. Eventually, the Sultan plans to seize the Chittor fort and obtain Padmavati. Thus, he marches with a big army to the fringes of the aforesaid fort.

But the fort is extremely well built with strong and high walls and long passages. It is impossible to break into it.

Over a period of many months, one thing leads to another. Seasons change and festivals come and go. Cases of betrayal, bravery and loss of human lives happen on both the sides. Finally, with both of their armies facing each other, a dual match happens between Ratan Singh and Alauddin Khilji. Both happen to be a strong opponent to each other. Only when Ratan Singh is about to win the fight, Malik Kafur breaks the protocol of honour and assassinates him by striking him with multiple arrows, which gives way to a mega fight between both the armies.

The fatal news reaches the Chittor fort and like a the then true Rajput woman, Rani Padmavati decides to burn herself in the holy pyre, rather than falling into the hands of her husband’s murderer. Led by Padmavati, a big Jauhar (self-immolation) is performed by a big group of ladies, even the pregnant ones!

Inches away from his actual victory, the Sultan is left shocked, jaded and dumbfounded at this mega display of Rajput loyalty and sacrifice.

About The Movie:

The movie is a typical display of director Sanjay Leela Bhansali styled showmanship. Enough r&d and adaptations have been done to design the sets and costumes pertaining to the late 13th and early 14th century’s royal courts, apparels and lifestyles of - Khiljis in modern day Afghanistan and Delhi (India), Rajputs in Mewar (Rajasthan,India) and Singhal in modern day Sri Lanka. Both opulence and minute detailing in the afore mentioned efforts are quite impressive.

As a text book chapter in school or via folklores by mouth, most of us have come across the tale of Padmavati’s Jauhar. Resultantly, without judging the act of Jauhar as right or wrong, there is this curiosity of viewing the cinematic adaptation of the same.

Hued in multi shades and designs of red traditional ghagra-choli, coupled with a strong display of the firm resolve of Rajput women along with the showcase of their united attempt to stop Alauddin from reaching Padmavati, their beloved queen, the build up of the Jauhar scene is quite powerful, but a tad bit too long. Also, the actual burning of the Jauhar performing women is left to the audience’s imagination. Perhaps the makers of the movie did not want to glorify an act which will not be considered righteous in present India.

Some scenes in the movie seem unnecessary, while some bear a strong resemblance to the famous scenes of earlier Bollywood hits. Like - Shahid and Deepika holding the big chandelier or jhoomar with its sturdy rope, like Salman and Aishwarya in ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’, or, the angry women of Chittor fort holding in twosomes a big piece of cloth from both sides, filled with hot chunks of coal and throwing them off on the villainous Sultan, one after the other, like the oppressed women of the spice factory in ‘Mirch Masala’, wherein, they threw red chilli powder.

However, some scenes in the movie are quite impactful. Like – Alauddin coming out with the Mongolian war head’s head on a staff, from the sandstorm caused by the quick gallop of Mongolian army’s fighting horses, or, comical display of his insecurity while dining for the first time with Ratan Singh at Chittor fort, wherein he switches their food plates thrice!

The movie has a total of six songs, out of which ‘Ghoomar’ is most effective, both audibly and visually. Background score and cinematography are good. Some of the dialogues mouthed by
Ranveer and Shahid are clap worthy.

I saw the 3D version of the movie, which seemed a mistake. The human characters looked too lean and at places they resembled like cardboard cut outs. Also, the 3D glasses resulted in a thin black veil in front of the eyes and everything on the celluloid appeared a shade darker.

It’s better to watch the 2D version of the movie, to fully enjoy the Rajasthan centric riot of colours and workmanship, that is on display in most of the scenes.

About The Crew:

Ranveer Singh has played Alauddin with a lot of homework and impact. He has successfully looked and acted the part. His penetrating and ruthless eye gaze from kohl lined eyes will stay in your memory for a considerable period. Still, he did not appear as villainous as Mogambo (Mr. India) or Shakal (Shaan), the other two iconic villains of the Indian screen. His voice modulation is not same throughout the movie. The imposed semi baritone that he has worked upon is effective, but is missing in few scenes.

Deepika Padukone sways through the movie like a dream. Clad in assorted Rajasthani ghagra-cholis, mouthing the wise dialogues where necessary, or simply expressing through teary and fiery eyes, she mostly looks like an extension of her Mastani character from Bajirao Mastani, but lights up the screen all the same.

Shahid Kapoor is well chiselled and displays good baritone in a couple of scenes. But in the same frame as Deepika or Ranveer, he looks kind of short and small. Though he is a good actor, but he has not well suited the role of Ratan Singh. Also, there is no chemistry between him and Deepika. Perhaps, Ranbir Kapoor would have better suited this role.

Aditi Rao Hydari looks luminous and plays a submissive wife. However, her star quotient is considerably less than the aforementioned three actors.

Jim Sarbh is the surprise package of the movie. Not much was ever heard about Malik Kafur in folklores, nor publicised before the movie release. But, Jim has quite well played the complex character of a ruthless and cunning slave cum toy boy who also loved his Sultan.

Rest of the cast is also good.

Conclusion:

The movie is a celebration of Rajput valour, honour and loyalty. You can surely watch it for once. But, it’s not a cult movie.

To end on a lighter note, a message to all the married women i.e. if your husband ever looses or gifts away his precious ‘motiyon ki mala’ or necklace of beads, you dare not ask him to cross the seven seas to obtain another set of similar beads! God only knows what it will ultimately lead to! (Chuckle)

Maacher Jhol (18 Aug 2017)

Cast: Ritwick Chakraborty, Paoli Dam, Mamata Shankar, Sauraseni Maitra, Arjun Chakraborty, Kaya Blocksage

Director: Pratim D. Gupta

Music: Anupam Roy

Language: Bengali and French

Duration: 108 minutes

Introduction:

Bengali and French folks share their common love for food, romance, art, culture and an easy paced life style in general, which more or less sums up the plot and background setting of 'Maacher Jhol', which is woven mostly around food and shot aptly in Kolkata and Paris.

The Plot:

Kolkata boy, Devdatto aka Dev D (Ritwick Chakraborty) is an acclaimed Masterchef who owns and runs a 2 Michelin Star restaurant in Paris. He is in a live-in relationship with Simone aka Sim (Kaya Blocksage), a French ballerina who cannot cook to save her life, but loves Dev D enough to propose him with a ring.

A sudden phone call compels Dev D to instantly visit Kolkata, along with the clogged up memories of his past life in the City of Joy, the city which he had abandoned around thirteen years back and never bothered to look back.

The aforesaid phone call was made by his Mashi (mother's sister), so as to inform him the hospitalization of his mother (Mamata Shankar), who had suffered a seizure.

While in Kolkata, Dev D is required to put up in a five star hotel as he has been on no-talking terms with his strict and stubborn father, ever since he had left for Paris, empty handed but full of determination and dreams.

It goes without saying that the Chefs of the afore mentioned hotel are thrilled to have him amongst them. He jolly well reciprocates their feeling by sharing some words of wisdom and organizing a cooking competition between them.

Alongside, he is constantly irked by the presence of Palash (Arjun Chakraborty), a young journalist from a local publishing. Palash is in dire need to get Dev D's interview, so as to save his job. But Dev D is in no mood to give any.

When Dev D visits his mother in the hospital, she expresses her wish to taste Maacher Jhol, a fish and gravy based Bengali delicacy. She expects him to cook it himself, following the same recipe that he had used years back to cook a nice Maacher Jhol for her.

In the hospital's waiting area, Dev D also meets Sreela (Paoli Dam), his separated wife, whom he had simply chosen to abandon for no proper rhyme or reason, when he had departed for Paris. Now she stays alone in her paternal home and practices the profession of teaching, but keeps good relationship with her in-laws.

Dev D's mother is diagnosed with a complex case of brain tumor, which is required to be operated soon enough. The concerned operation is quite risky.

To fulfill his mother's food desire, Dev D gangs up with Maggi (Sauraseni Maitra), the brightest and winning Chef of the afore mentioned hotel. Together they brainstorm, visit local markets and cook sumptuous Maacher Jhol four days in a row, because though Dev D's mother enjoys her daily dose of Maacher Jhol, well presented by her son, she never gives him the green signal of getting that exact old taste that she has been seeking. It's only on the fourth day i.e. on the eve of her life threatening operation, that she confesses to him, that she got the desired taste on the very first day itself, but wanted him to experiment enough to create an altogether new and brilliant recipe of Maacher Jhol!

All through the times, while Dev D was experimenting with his Maacher Jhol recipe and dissuading the romantic advances of impressive Maggi, he was also giving interview to Palash (yes, he finally consented) and reminiscing about his past life, relations and state of suffocation as an engineer who aspired to do something big and different. This reminiscing helps him in gaining some long pending closures in his life.

For the betterment of everyone, the concerned operation is successful and an evolved Dev D returns back to his anxious and waiting French beloved, with a newly established sense of commitment, which was earlier absent.

About the movie:

The movie is easy on the mind and quite well made. Both Bengali and French sensibilities are well captured and casting is done in tandem with the roles. If you notice, then with his lean frame, beard and mild mannerisms, Ritwick Chakraborty actually looks like a walking-talking French Chef!

All the characters have been intelligently kept deglamorized, thereby enabling the impeccably curated food shots to garner the required focus. Be it the pouring of oil in the 'kadha/kadhai' or wok, or dicing of vegetables, or even pouring of ginger paste in the hot oil, each scene is well shot, beautifully capturing the colors, freshness and bounce of each vegetable and other food items. Every time the protagonist serves Maacher Jhol to his mother in the hospital, a different style of plating is used, nothing complex, but elegant and doable. In fact once the movie ends, Ritwick actually teaches his perfected recipe of Maacher Jhol to the movie audience!

The movie also celebrates the cause of women empowerment, specially via Sreela, who has been playing single parent to her son and though her heart misses a beat upon seeing her separated husband after more than a decade, she neither seeks child support or union with him. In fact, she never even informed him about the presence of their child! Upon Dev D's argument over his right to be informed about his son, she aptly answers him back that his mere contribution of sperms do not exactly give him any such right to proclaim! She further asks him to grant her divorce and not bestow Sim with the same fate that he bestowed upon her years ago!

Also, when there is a feud between Dev D and his father, whether or not to operate the lady of the house and Dev D shares this dilemma with Sreela, she simply advises him to ask the lady in question because it is after all her life and she is the rightful person to decide the amount of risk she is willing to take for it!

A drunk monologue by Dev D, in front of his father, wherein he unabashedly pours out all of his suppressed feelings and condemnations towards him, is quite hilarious.

Thankfully, the movie is devoid of the usual song and dance routine. The music of the film comprises of three tracks, which are more of background scores and quite situational. The track 'Je Tore Pagol Bawle' is very well sung by Saheb Chattopadhyay. It's lyrics are by Rabindranath Thakur. The song beautifully ends with the last four lines sung in French. The other two songs are also nice.

Reviewing an exotic dish is not equivalent to cooking up a similar one. Similarly, reviewing a movie is much easier a task than making one. Rarely it happens that, an acclaimed movie critic is able to create magic on celluloid. But with 'Maacher Jhol', his fourth movie, Pratim D. Gupta, the popular movie critic has managed to create the fine balance between both the mainstream and parallel cinema!

The entire movie is accompanied with English subtitles.

About the crew:

As mentioned above, Ritwick Chakraborty is just perfect in his avatar of a Paris based Kolkatan, who dons the hat of a Masterchef. He is secure and subtle in his dialogue delivery, quite indulgent in the cooking scenes and very impressive in the drunk scene. Paoli Dam has few scenes and that too sans any glitz and glamour. But she beautifully holds her own in simple cotton sarees and silent glances. Her confrontation monologue with Ritwick is quite iconic. Sauraseni Maitra has a glint in her eyes which goes in tandem with her portrayal of a Chef with aspirations. She brings in the much needed vibrance to the screen. Mamata Shankar is wonderful with her different shades of maternal projections, all carried on while lying and sitting on a hospital bed! Arjun Chakraborty and Kaya Blocksage come across as honest and genuinely concerned well wishers of the protagonist. Rest of the cast has also acted well.

Conclusion:

All in all, 'Maacher Jhol' is an honest, clean and beautiful movie, shot with international style of film making, wherein, while recalling and perfecting his Maacher Jhol recipe, the protagonist also recalls his past life and ties it's loose ends. Finally, both the dish and the cook evolve as something/someone altogether new and better.

Last but not the least, when Dev D visits Sreela for consultation, at Narayana School in Rajarhat and requests her to step out with him for a brief moment for some important discussion, in the very next scene the duo are seen sitting in Paris Cafe, which though has four outlets in Kolkata, but none of them are in the Rajarhat area!

Was it an overlook by the production team or simply branding overriding the content?