The Intern

Movie Review (English)

Robert De Niro is one of the few actors who is a guarantee to a worthwhile 2 hours or more watching the silver screen. And I have never been let down. So when The Intern comes along, I have no choice but to go. Anne Hathaway is another actor difficult to ignore. I enjoy the magic she brings to the screen. 

Being of an past the thirties, I found this start-up world, inhabited by today's youngsters a little intimidating. Seeing Ben Whittaker (De Niro) take up a job as an intern after retirement  in a start-up firm dealing in e-commerce was a gutsy thing to do. Loved his perspective of the world and the way he conducts his life.

With a personality like him around, Jules (Hathaway), the founder of the company, is bound to have found her North. And mind you she has the driven CEO syndrome, the guilty mother and wife syndrome and OCD. 

Simply enjoyed the relationship between the two. 

If you want to feel "All's well with the world", then go watch The Intern. You will not regret it!!

Thank you Nancy Meyer. Though sometimes, too much on the plate might just make one lose appetite.

Drishyam

Movie review (Hindi)

Frankly I am a little wary of watching remakes. They generally turn out to be duds when compared to the original. But thank goodness, in Drishyam's case, this was not so. I saw the movie because I had heard of the excellent film made in Malayalam and am happy I saw it. 

 The trailers of the movie are very misleading, as far as the story is concerned. Vijay (Ajay Devgn) will go to any extent to save his family from disintegrating. A death and then the ways to avoid detection. How? Through movies of course!! Vijay owns a cable service company and loves watching movies through the night in his office, his phone off the hook. (That's not advisable...). So all his education comes from watching movies. He is after all class 4 fail. The twists and turns keep the audience engaged as does the performances of Tabu and Ajay. 

Good to see an engaging Hindi movie after a long time. When Ajay Devgn decides to perform, he is one of the best. Thanks Jeethu Joseph for the excredible story!

Tanu Weds Manu Returns

Movie Review (Hindi)

First there was Tanu Weds Manu which regaled the audience with a fresh story and great actors. Then, because of its success, came the sequel, Tanu Weds Manu Returns... Wonder who named it this way??? 

Whatever the reason for the name, the movie had the same characters as in the first one, thankfully. So here's a marriage which was conducted with a lot of filmi drama and now hibernates in the cold, both literally and metaphorically. It's the London winter where Manu (R Mahadevan) and Tanu (Kangana Ranaut) live. So bored is Tanu with Manu that she does not turn a hair when her hubby is put into a mental asylum, apparently for torturing his wife. I love the unconventionality of the entire episode. 

While Manu is among the mad brethren, Tanu returns home and behaves like a traditional vamp in Hindi films would!! Taking bike rides with a neighbour, meeting up with her ex-fiance, Raja Awasthi, (Jimmy Shergill) !! 

So once divorce proceedings are underway, Manu, out of the asylum and back in India, falls in love again, but wait, the girl studies in college and is a spitting image of Tanu. So, does he fall in love with Tanu again? Our new Tanu is named Datto who speaks impeccable Haryanvi. Next the audience moves to Haryana and marriage. The last phera of the marriage is about to make them man and wife, when Datto asks one last time if Manu is ready to go through with this. No, our hero isn't. Much better to be sent to the asylum than marry someone who is a better version of his ex-wife, I guess. 

What a filmy ending! But a great watch. Anand L. Rai, you do have courage, being the director. Take a bow, Kangana, for the twin roles so different from each other and Madhavan for being a whiny, weepy and mopey film hero and winning the audience over. 

Dil Dhadakne Do

Movie Review (Hindi)

When I saw the Zoya Akhtar movie, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, I was elated. I really enjoyed it. I was a part of the journey that the three friends embarked upon. This, for me,was the winning point of the movie. 

And this precisely, according to me, is the losing point of Dil Dhadakne Do. 

I just could not be a part of the ultra rich class. I was dissociated for the entire length of the movie, expecting every moment to be pulled into that world, but alas! That made the film a loooong and tedious one.

I loved Pluto. Thank you Zoya and Reema for that master stroke. Little nuggets of interesting info on the main characters and on human beings in general coming from a dog-- full of humour.  The other redeeming factor of the movie - the sizzling cast. This at least made sure that the audience would not return disappointed.

Yes, the movie dealt with gender bias, patriarchy, social snobbery, sibling love, finding oneself, etc, etc. All of these would have worked wonderfully if the cast wasn't in the middle of the ocean in a cruise liner in a temporary setting. Too many people, too much confusion and nothing worthwhile happening.

Already looking forward to another good movie from you, Zoya...

Piku

Movie Review (Hindi)

I enjoy movies directed by Shoojit Sircar. Especially because he teams up with an excellent scriptwriter, Juhi Chaturvedi, and voila! an excellent movie is created.

Piku has an interesting story and well defined characters. I have always appreciated Irrfan Khan's acting abilities. I find Amitabh Bachchan getting better with age. But the surprise package is Deepika Padukone. She was so much at ease, getting into the skin of Piku, that I really felt sorry for her and annoyed with her dad.

The humour built around the digestive tract was beyond compare and the toilet seat sitting on top of the car is something I am not likely to forget in a hurry. The last shot of Mr Bachchan touring Kolkata was a delight as was the huge ancestral house where the last scenes were shot.

But the movie is all about the journey from Delhi to Kolkata, Bhaskar Banerjee's (Amitabh) perception of life as it changes and Rana's (Irrfan) exasperation and growing fondness for Piku.

Looking forward to more such quirky though true to life stories...

Margarita With a Straw

Movie Review (Hindi)

This is a fairly simple coming of age story of a college going girl. Only tiny hitch -- she suffers from cerebral palsy. Now that tiny hitch is what makes the movie worth watching. Good thing I had read about Kalki Koechlin or I would want to know, since when did Bollywood audition young girls with cerebral palsy for roles in mainstream cinema. Whether this is mainstream is another question.

Director Shonali Bose has handled the actors so sensitively that every act seemed to evoke an emotional response. I asked myself, how many times have I given a thought to the real needs of  a person suffering from cerebral palsy? Answer - Never. That certainly does not mean they don't have a life as real as mine or that they are too mired with their disability.

I was really surprised that the censor board members for once decided to act like adults. Love the fact that young actors take the plunge with unorthodox roles. Both Kalki as Laila and Sayani as Khanum seemed quite comfortable in their roles as partners. Revathi who plays Kalki's mother is excellent as a loving parent, an angry parent, a forgiving and dying parent, all in one movie.

Here's to more Margaritas with or without straws!!

Movie Review (Hindi)

Byomkesh Bakshi

First, we must remember that the protagonist is a character fairly well known as a Bengali detective. He was quite famous in the forties. 

Second, many other directors have brought him to life with various degrees of success. 

Third, this edition was directed by Dibakar Banerjee.

The film opens into Calcutta of the 1940s with World War II happening in the background. The Japanese are next door trying to gain a foothold here. The British are the masters. The Chinese are smuggling in opium with impunity. The poor Indian might even forget he is in his own motherland. Very skillfully, the movie gets the audience into this milieu and then suddenly, as if in a fast moving roller coaster ride, we zip and zap through so many events and characters and violence and gore that it is hard to breathe. It is hard to dwell on what is going on in the detective’s mind. So, by the end of it, I was almost thankful that it ended. Just like Byomkesh himself, I too, am queasy about too much blood flowing all over.

But, however the director tried to portray his detective and tell his story, Sushant Singh Rajput came away with top honours.