Blog | Amodini's Movie Reviews

Movie Preview : Ki & Ka (releases April 1st, 2016)

Posted on March 26, 2016 by amodini

This challenge to Hindustani “sabhyata” hits theaters April 1st. Given that this comes via R.Balki, it will actually do what it says it will, and not go the usual Bollywood way.

Posted in 2016, bollywood, Previews | Comments Off

Movie Review : Kapoor and Sons (2016)

Posted on March 20, 2016 by amodini

Rating : 4.2/5
Genre : Drama
Year : 2016
Running time : 2 hours 12 minutes
Director : Shakun Batra
Cast : Rishi Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Ratna Pathak Shah, Rajat Kapoor, Siddharth Malhotra, Fawad Khan
Kid rating: PG-13

Kapoor & Sons is, as the name suggests, about the patriarch Amarjeet Kapoor (Rishi Kapoor) and his sons, and the rest of the parivaar. There are 2 scions to this clan – the elder Harsh (Rajat Kapoor) and the younger Shashi. Harsh and his wife (Pathak Shah) aren’t quite the happily married couple, and their sons Rahul (Khan) and Arjun (Malhotra) live abroad. When Dadu is hospitalized, the grandsons make a trip back home, and all the hidden jealousies and insecurities come to the forefront. It doesn’t help that they both appear to be in love with the same girl.

Kapoor and Sons is a fine film, with heart and a story and an emotional rollercoaster of a ride. The film is well-paced so there is always something going on. The clan-members are charismatic and vivacious, especially the head, Dadu. Rishi Kapoor plays the role of affectionate, “naughty” grandfather with panache, and belts out the humorous one-liners at regular intervals. Rajat Kapooor and Ratna Pathak are Bollywood veterans with immaculate track records, and they don’t falter here either. Fawad Khan is a superb actor and he shows it in this film. Ditto for Alia Bhatt. As for Siddharth Malhotra, I could see he was really trying to emote here :).

For a Dharma Production movie, “Kapoor & Sons” was a “serious” drama, with few songs. There was little background music and I kinda missed that. The dialog filled scenes without any musical refrains in the background seemed very un-Karan-Johar-ish and gave this film an “arty” feel. The songs were just about OK.

This film shows us the emotional pull-and-tug in a family, the stuff we mask when we go into the outside world. Families have problems, and director Batra shows us the problems of this particular one. I appreciate that he does this with such empathy, building up our hopes with lovely bonding scenes like the one where the family jam together on a golden oldie. We see the issues, but we don’t fault the people; we feel for them.

Ergo, Kapoor & Sons succeeds. Go forth and watch!

Kidwise: There are references to porn (a line or two), Mandakini’s waterfall scene in “Ram Teri Ganga Maili”. A life-size cut-out of Mandakini in a drenched saree features in the film.

Posted in 2016, bollywood, directors, rating-PG13 | Comments Off

Movie Review : Titli (2015)

Posted on March 12, 2016 by amodini

Rating : 4.5/5
Genre : Drama
Year : 2015
Running time : 2 hours 7 minutes
Director : Kanu Behl
Cast : Shashank Arora, Ranvir Shorey, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Lali Behl, Prashant Singh, Amit Sial
Kid rating: R

“Titli” is the youngest son of a lower-middle class Delhi family. The elder two sons, Vikram (Shorey) and Bawla(Sial) are engaged in various violent con-schemes, car-jacking one of them. Titli is desperately trying to escape this “hellhole of a home”, but doing that will take money, money he doesn’t have. He is railroaded into marrying Neelu (Raghuvanshi), to bring a female accomplice into their gang. She, however, has her own agenda.There is a way for him and her to get what they want, but it’s going to be messy.

Shashank Arora is magnificent as Titli, the relative softie of the lot, a dour-faced young man looking for a way out. Shorey is the extremely violent eldest brother Vikram, and Amit Sial the pacifist middle brother, calming Vikram down from his rage-filled fits. Lalit Behl (the director’s own father) is the parasitic pater, seen watching tv, ingesting copious amounts of tea and lingering just long enough to make sure his wants are met. Shivani Raghuvanshi portraying Neelu steals the limelight, as the docile-looking homely bahu, who turns out not to be so pliable after all.

Titli is a dark film, filled with lowlifes, but I do feel for the characters. What gets me is the abject wretchedness of the whole thing. There is no straight and easy road; crime is the natural alternative. They don’t know any better than violence, and their way of life is a spiral downwards, stripping them of basic compassion and empathy along the way. Basic survival is the big concern, the niceties of life put paid to by the every-day brutality. Each character reeks of helpless rage, and you can’t be anything but transfixed as the drama unfolds on screen.

Titli is one unpredictable ride. I will say that it ends on a hopeful note, which is great; I like movies that show that even after being buffeted by unforgiving circumstances, the conscience survives.

Kidwise: Some scenes in this film are pretty gory (the hammer used as a weapon) and bloody – it was hard to watch. Not for a younger audience at all.

Posted in 2016, bollywood, crime, directors, drama, rating-A, rating-R, recommended | 1 Comment

Movie Preview : Kapoor & Sons (releases March 18th, 2016)

Posted on March 5, 2016 by amodini

Dharma Productions touts it as a “dramedy with soul”. One can always hope, I suppose.

Regardless, Kapoor and Sons should be an entertainer, ablaze the way it is with star power. Rishi Kapoor, Rajat Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Ratna Pathak Shah, Alia Bhatt. AND Fawad Khan. Need I say more?

Posted in 2016, bollywood, directors, Previews | 1 Comment

Movie Review : Neerja (2016)

Posted on February 27, 2016 by amodini

Rating : 4.5/5
Genre : Drama/Bio-pic
Year : 2016
Running time : 1 hour 42 minutes
Director : Ram Madhvani
Cast : Shabana Azmi, Sonam Kapoor, Tikku
Kid rating: PG-13

Neerja is based on the real-life story of courageous airflight purser Neerja Bhanot, who helped rescue most of the passengers aboard her hijacked plane. She died in the process.

This happened in 1986, the pre-internet era, when the news was gleaned via newspapers and emails had yet to replace the handwritten letter. I was a child then, and I don’t have clear memories of this incident although it must have been all over the newspapers. After seeing the film, I’m amazed that it took so long to make a movie on this brave young woman!

There are no unexpected twists and turns in this film, because we know of Neerja’s story, but I was taken quite by surprise at the excellent quality of the film. Neerja is so realistic. The film starts off showing Neerja’s middle-class neighborhood, and her loving family. I identified with their life. In her parents I saw shades of mine. In one of the scenes, her brother teases her, saying she looks like “such an aunty”, a typical brotherly thing to say.

The impact of the film comes from its portrayal of events in gritty detail. There’s Neerja herself, of course, but then there are also her flight crew, the pilots and the stewardesses, the passengers. Each of them is humanized, and given a personality (as much of that as possible). The film details out Neerja’s personality as a good person, who’s had a traumatic past (a marriage), but is surrounded by loving family and looking forward to a hopeful future. To see it cut short so tragically, is immensely saddening. I wept buckets.

Neerja has a magnificent cast, with Shabana Azmi leading. As Neerja’s mother Rama, she is superb. Neerja is her lamb, her precious daughter, and she showers her with love. When news of the hijacking filters in, she is dumbstruck, for a few seconds too dazed to know what she is doing. Also Sonam, whom I’ve always thought a fine actress, is really very good here.

This is an incredible film. Do go see.

Posted in 2016, bollywood, directors, drama, rating-PG13, real-life-based, recommended, thriller, women | Comments Off

Movie Review : Wazir (2016)

Posted on February 6, 2016 by amodini

Rating : 3.5/5
Genre : Drama/Mystery/Thriller
Year : 2016
Running time : 1 hour 42 minutes
Director : Bejoy Nambiar
Cast : Amitabh Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar, Aditi Rao Haideri, Manav Kaul
Kid rating: PG-13

It is hard giving this film only a 3.5 stars, but that is what it deserves. Know that I’d expected a lot from Wazir given that it comes from Bejoy Nambiar and via Vidhu Vinod Chopra. And while it is good in places, it falters on its basic premise – and that my dears, is a big no-no.

Danish Ali (Akhtar) is an earnest policeman who is recovering from the loss of a loved one. Almost somnolent with grief, Danish meets wheel-chair bound teacher Omkarnath Dhar (Bachchan), who has also gone through a similar tragedy. They become friends, and when Dhar becomes the target of a stealthy enemy, Danish resolves to protect him. In the storyline, there is also a mix of politics, terrorism, and the threat of greater evil.

Wazir began well, so the first half is pretty tight. There is intensity to the scenes, and there was promise that this film would indeed deliver the goods. When all is explained at the end, the story looks amateurish, the premise a little too unbelievable – like it was written by someone not using all his God-given grey cells. And that’s my biggest problem with this movie. Were that Wazir’s story had legs to stand upon, this could easily have been one of the best films of the year.

I cannot fault Nambiar in his direction. Wazir is well-paced and builds up nicely. It also excels, mostly, in depicting its characters. Akhtar is marvelous as the dutiful cop, driven by guilt and grief. Hydari plays his katahak dancer wife, and she does well in the screen time she has – shades of beauty, and grief intermittent. Bachchan is generally a good actor, except in roles where he lets the Bachchan persona overwhelm the on-screen character. Unfortunately for us, this is one of those times. Last but not the least, I must mention Neil Nitin Mukesh who impresses even in his short role.

There is also great music here. “Tere Bin” is exquisitely picturized – all nostalgia and slow-mo, but that’s not surprising since Nambiar does do well at these (remember Khoya Khoya Chand?) Then there is Tu Mere Paas. Also Atrangi Yaari, sung by Bachchan and Akhtar themselves.

Kidwise: Some scenes of violence and mass gunfire, and the film is pervaded on the whole by an aura of gloom and doom. Kids are shown in danger, being threatened.

Posted in action, bollywood, directors, drama, mystery, rating-PG13, suspense, thriller | 2 Comments

Movie Preview : Fitoor (releases 12 Feb 2016)

Posted on January 30, 2016 by amodini

Watching the trailer, I thought Tabu’s character reminded me of a fictional character – Miss Havisham. And indeed, looking this up on Wikipedia, I see that this is an adaptation of Charles Dickens’s “Great Expectations”. With a director like Abhishek Kapoor (Kai Po Che, Rock On) and stars like Katrina Kaif and Aditya Roy Kapur (fairly new, but pretty ripped 🙂 ), hopefully this will be a good one.

Posted in 2016, bollywood, book to film, Previews, romance | 1 Comment

Movie Review : Airlift (2016)

Posted on January 24, 2016 by amodini

Rating : 3/5
Genre : Drama
Year : 2015
Running time : 2 hours 10 minutes
Director : Raja Menon
Cast : Akshay Kumar, Nimrat Kaur, Purab Kohli, Kumud Mishra, Prakash Belwadi
Kid rating: PG-13

Watching Airlift, I am reminded of how a director can make or break a film. In this case, it is the latter, because for all its hype, Airlift is a shoddy piece of work. Going in for the film, I had high hopes, because all the hype was so positive. I smelled a rat, when smack-dab in almost the first scene I was treated to the film’s (thankfully) only item-number.

The story is based on the real-life evacuation of 170,000 Indians caught in Kuwait, after the Iraqi invasion. The movie’s fictional protagonist Ranjit Katiyal is a rough amalgamation of the two real men who helped engineer the evacuation. In the film, Katiyal (Akshay Kumar), an Indian with strong roots in Kuwait, is caught unawares as Iraqi tanks move into Kuwait and things go from bad to worse with alarming speed. Instead of quickly evacuating with his family, Katiyal instead stays back and assumes responsibility for the safety of Indian families in Kuwait. Nimrat Kaur plays his haltingly supportive wife Amrita.

Now, I am glad that this is not the usual ghisa-pita film; it actually has a story with some sense. Its got some good actors and some parts of the film, like the scenes depicting the bureaucracy in Delhi, are indeed done believably. That’s the good part. However there’s a lot to counter that good with. The writing and screenplay are poor and the pace loses steam. The film’s scenes are juxtaposed together without much finesse, so the narrative doesn’t exactly flow.

Airlift’s characters are shallowly etched – Ranjit’s character changes from streetsmart businessman to semi-deshbhakt, and that transition is depicted in awkward, black-and-white strokes. Akshay who can turn out decent performances in the hands of a good director, isn’t able to play Katiyal’s character with nuance. Even Nimrat who is a fine, fine actress (have you seen The LunchBox?), is reduced to looking like a newbie actress, flailing about trying to find her footing. For these many things to go wrong, I have to blame the director.

As I said, there is some good in Airlift, and Purab Kohli and Kumud Mishra are much of it – 2 actors who persevere in spite of the director’s amateurishness. The music is pretty good too.

So, weighing all the pros and cons: pro: good attempt, con: shoddy film-making, my verdict is that this is an average film, nothing to go rushing to the theater for. Given its overt jingoism and the hype, this will be on television soon :-). Curl up at home and wait for it.

Kidwise: Airlift does depict war-scenes, so tanks, gunfire and people getting slaughtered, and soldiers pawing women. It is pretty un-believably done, but it might scare the kiddos. Proceed with caution.

Posted in 2016, bio-pic, bollywood, drama, rating-PG13, real-life-based | Comments Off

Movie Review : Talvar

Posted on December 11, 2015 by amodini

Rating : 3.7/5
Genre : Drama
Year : 2015
Running time : 2 hours 35 minutes
Director : Meghna Gulzar
Cast : Konkona Sen Sharma, Neeraj Kabi, Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Sohum Shah, Prakash Belwadi, Sumit Gulati
Kid rating: PG-15

Talvar is based upon the real-life murder case of 14 year old Arushi Talwar, whose parents, Dr. Nupur and Rajesh Talwar were sentenced to life imprisonment. The film takes us into the story from the beginning , right after the murder is found. Then the local police are brought in and proceed to royally botch up the case. Amidst uproar in the media, CDI Investigator Ashwin Kumar takes over. What he finds out turns the case on its head.

This real-life case was a pretty grotesque one, and the film doesn’t shy away from details. However, credit to the makers in keeping this film strongly focussed on the story, and keeping away from the sordidness, which in less capable hands would probably have crept in to the film.

The film presents its mounting evidence in a very credible fashion and goes into quite a bit of detail regarding the investigation. All is logically presented, and it clarifies many details which were not correctly reported/garbled by the regular news media. I have no trouble believing the immense corruption and apathy that is depicted in the film. The policemen in the film are rude, uncouth and discourteous, besides being inept. It doesn’t come as a surprise when they concoct up an atrocious tale of “loose moral character” and “honor killing” to affirm their shaky theories; when it comes to women, everything simply must be about honor (#sarcasm). What is astounding is that in real life, the parents actually got convicted and sentenced based on these questionable theories!

At no time does the narrative feel forced or pushy. It does not make up our minds for us; instead it presents the facts and lets us make our own minds up. Of course, this could not have been done without the excellent cast. Besides Sen-Sharma and Kabi, who play the parents in a stellar fashion, there is also Khan, whom I need say nothing about; such is his reputation. Even the smaller roles are executed to perfection by actors like Sumit Gulati (as compounder Kanhaiya) and Sohum Shah (ACP Vedant Mishra).

Gulzar has directed a couple of films before this, none have been anything to write home about. She does well here, although I’m sure Vishal Bharadwaj’s genius (and writing) had beneficial effects on the film.

Kidwise: Owing to the topic, this is by no means an easy film to watch. While I’m rating this as acceptable for 15+, please exercise caution – this could be fairly disturbing for a younger audience.