Nonika Singh

Many Hindi films on smuggling, aka taskaree, have delighted audiences since the days of the iconic ‘Deewar’. So what can ‘Taskaree: The Smugglers Web’ bring to the table? Coming from the stable of a brilliant director like Neeraj Pandey, who gave us the ultimate heist film ‘Special 26’, and headlined by a fine actor like Emraan Hashmi, expectations build up.

When Season One of ‘Freedom At Midnight’ — an adaptation of Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre’s book of the same name — dropped, a few naysayers had some issues with it. To counter the censure, mostly quibbles, Nikkhil Advani, the creator-director of the magnum opus on India’s freedom struggle, had declared: wait for the second part. Any misgivings about the portrayal of Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi or even Muhammad Ali Jinnah vanish like a puff of smoke. If Season One was a precursor to India’s Independence, Season Two takes you to that historic moment when India breathed free, as well as to the cataclysmic times when the horrors of Partition engulfed Punjab and Bengal. In these harrowing episodes, when humanity acquired a monstrous hue, the immortal lines of Amrita Pritam — “Ajj akhan Waris Shah nu” — echo resoundingly.

Can a film on a war hero shun jingoism? Can a film based on the 1971 war avoid thriving on an anti-Pakistan sentiment? In times when ‘Dhurandhar’ is roaring at the box office, can it dare to go in the opposite direction? Can there be a war movie that instead of exacerbating conflicts is rather calming? The answer to all these questions is a resounding ‘yes’. National Award-winning director Sriram Raghavan (for ‘Andhadhun’) not only reinvents himself by moving to a genre he is not quite known for, but also shows what a biopic and a war movie should entail.

For some time, Dharma Productions has been wearing its progressive heart and beliefs on its sleeve. That’s all very well, what more do you want from the proponents of ‘rich lives matter’? Like the typical gloss and shine signature of its cinema, it can’t quite bid adieu to its glitzy USP. Any wonder then that the storyline spends the first half in picturesque Croatia. The ‘to-die-for’ locales of the European nation on the coast of the Adriatic Sea is where love blossoms between our two lovebirds.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is back as Inspector Jatil Yadav, and in sync with his name, so is the complexity of the case he cracks in the second outing of this Honey Trehan directorial. In the very first scene, Meera (Chitrangda Singh) races out of her house frantically and drops of blood fall on her face. Scene shifts. Inspector Jatil is asked to investigate what appears to be black magic, cast on this well-heeled family.

In the mahaul of hate-mongering and venom-spewing comes a breath of fresh air. ‘The Great Shamsuddin Family’, at once delightful and incisive, knocks more than one pigeonhole we all have begun to inhabit. Baring the religious divide yet batting for harmony, here is a film whose characters are as delectable as the leitmotif of the film. As the title suggests, we meet this ‘great Shamsuddin family’. The word ‘great’ is pun-intended, hides humour in its folds, but soon reveals their ‘great’ bonding and idiosyncrasies in the everyday acts.

Is ‘Dhurandhar’ based on facts? Does it cover the incredible feats of the late martyr Major Mohit Sharma? Many ticklish questions have trailed the film ever since its trailer dropped. On the face of it, the story of Indian spy Hamza (Ranveer Singh) doesn’t appear to be a replica of Sharma’s life. The setting here is Lyari, a town in Karachi where gang wars ruled. Yes, the film starts with a factual event: the hijacking of an Indian plane. Indeed, Madhavan’s character of IB chief Ajay Sanyal looks suspiciously close to that of NSA Ajit Doval. There are a few more terror-related incidents which lend an authentic tone and tenor to this thriller.

A director, even an acclaimed one, can certainly be forgiven for refusing to move out of the mould of one of his biggest blockbusters. Expecting yet another ‘Raanjhanaa’ from Aanand L Rai would not be a grave folly, on his part and ours. But when the film, this week’s major theatrical outing ‘Tere Ishk Mein’, reminds you of more than one Bollywood film, you know it’s a misstep. Sure enough, since it stars one of India’s most talented actors, Dhanush, also the Kundan of ‘Raanjhanaa’, you know love will blaze intensely.