Sun, December 8 2024

Mon, November 4 2024

It has been 17 years since Bhool Bhulaiyaa released and introduced to the world the unforgettable mystery of Manjulika, supposedly a vengeful spirit that wandered around the halls of an ancient palace. But the appeal of the movie lay not in the scares, but the twist at the end: that Avni was not possessed at all and, in fact, there was no ghost, just superstition masking the reality of mental illness. But in the sequel, and now Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, Manjulika is no longer a psychological manifestation but a genuine spirit.

In this horror comedy movie, Kartik Aaryan returns as Ruhaan or Rooh Baba, a self-proclaimed ghostbuster. We find him swindling people out of their money by claiming to get rid of evil spirits possessing their family members or haunting their houses. However, his pretty profitable career brings him to a new case in which he comes face to face with something he is not prepared to deal with an actual, honest-to-goodness ghost.

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Mon, November 4 2024

2007 की ‘भूल भुलैया’ तो ज़रूर याद होगी आपको। तर्क की कसौटी पर कसी हुई प्रियदर्शन निर्देशित वह फिल्म एक सायक्लोजिकल सस्पैंस-थ्रिलर थी जिसे आज हम हिन्दी की क्लासिक फिल्मों में गिनते हैं। उसके 15 साल बाद आई ‘भूल भुलैया 2’ को उस फिल्म के कंधे पर सवार होकर सिर्फ और सिर्फ इसलिए बनाया गया था ताकि नोट बटोरे जा सकें। वह फिल्म पिछली वाली का सीक्वेल नहीं बल्कि उसी कड़ी की एक फ्रेंचाइज़ी फिल्म थी जिसमें मंजुलिका को भूतनी दिखा कर लोगों को डराया और कुछ मसखरे जोड़ कर लोगों को हंसाया गया था। अनीस बज़्मी के निर्देशन में आई उस फिल्म को आज हम भले ही एक सफल फिल्म कहें लेकिन थी वह एक औसत दर्जे की मसाला फिल्म ही। अब अनीस के ही निर्देशन में आई यह ‘भूल भुलैया 3’ (Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3) भी ऐसी ही है-हॉरर और कॉमेडी का मसाला लपेट कर आई एक औसत फिल्म जो कुछ पल को हंसाएगी, डराएगी, नोट बटोरेगी मगर इज़्ज़त नहीं कमा पाएगी।

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Sun, December 8 2024

Sun, December 1 2024

Suriya-Siva's film revels in its familiarity, impresses in its visuals, but leaves a lot to be desired in the execution of it all.

Five villages — each having its own behaviour, its own problems, professions, and pursuits. It might sound like Black Panther, but we’ll get there later. There is a foreign invasion that threatens to disturb the status quo of the system. There is a hero who wants to do good by his land and his people, and there are external forces that won’t let him do this simple thing that heroes have been doing from time immemorial. There is a Game of Thrones-esque setting, in not just for claiming the top spot, but also in the overall look and feel. There is a timeline jump of almost 1000 years, and the way these two timelines come together is straight out of the SS Rajamouli playbook. Amidst all these familiar tropes lies Siva’s Kanguva that revels in its familiarity, impresses in its visuals, but leaves a lot to be desired in the execution of it all.

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Sat, November 30 2024

Kanguva is a visual treat enhanced by Suriya's tremendous screen presencekanguva-7

Its ambition is sky-high. Kanguva seeks to derive power from the elements (wind, water and fire), the ambitious merger of two timelines separated by a millennium, and the immense magnetism of lead actor Suriya. Nothing wrong with that of course, but the building blocks would have come together far more effectively had the writing and treatment been more organised and coherent.

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Tue, December 3 2024

After setting the stage for a compelling crime drama thriller, Neeraj Pandey’s film loses pace and purpose

Neeraj Pandey has a knack for plucking stories from crime pages and turning them into dramatic thrillers that carry the flavour of pulp fiction sold on stalls at railway stations. Like his much loved Special 26(2013), Sikandar Ka Muqaddar exudes energy and purpose as it lays out a puzzle for us. The title is inspired by Manmohan Desai’s crime drama Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978). Some of the leaps of faith that Neeraj takes could indeed have piqued the interest of Desai whose cine universe was rooted in Kismat (1968) and Naseeb (1981) but today they come across as nothing more than a well-meant tribute to the master.

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Mon, December 2 2024

चलो-चलो इक फिल्म बनाएं, नाम कैची-सा ढूंढ के लाएं, हीरों की चोरी करवाएं, चोर के पीछे पुलिस दौड़ाएं, चूहे-बिल्ली का खेल दिखाएं, अंत में एक ट्विस्ट ले आएं, पब्लिक को मूरख मान जबरन अपनी थ्योरी पकड़ाएं, चलो-चलो इक फिल्म बनाएं। सोच कर ही रोंगटे हरकत में आने लगते हैं कि नीरज पांडेय जैसे थ्रिलर बनाने में उस्ताद समझे जाने वाले निर्देशक की फिल्म में 50-60 करोड़ के हीरे चोरी होंगे, शक तीन लोगों पर जाएगा, अपनी मूल वृत्ति यानी इंस्टिंक्ट पर हद से ज़्यादा गुमान करने वाला एक पुलिस अफसर आकर केस सुलझाएगा लेकिन इस काम में 15 साल बीत जाएंगे और फिर एक ऐसा ट्विस्ट आएगा कि बस…!

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Sat, November 30 2024

It packs into its runtime of nearly two and a half hours are all perfectly in order until the makers seek to turn the clock back so much that the whole contraption is on the brink of collapsing in an ungainly heap.

Think up a character. Name him Sikandar. He may or may not master of his destiny. Pit the clean-cut guy against a dogged lawman determined to control the man’s muqaddar. Lo and behold, you have a handy title that harks back to a 1978 Amitabh Bachchan megahit with which this Netflix film has nothing to do.

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Mon, December 2 2024

With so much care going into the elevation of the titular character played by Shivarajkumar, it is slightly disappointing that Narthan rushes through the last act

There can be no debate that the black dhoti and black shirt-wearing Shivarajkumar sitting on a wooden chair placed on an arid land is one of the more iconic images of recent Kannada cinema. It exuded silent power, and as always, the superstar knew that the greatest of style statements lies in its simplicity. The character of Bhairathi Ranagal from Mufti has since attained cult status for showcasing Shivarajkumar in a grounded yet gory avatar that beautifully balanced his stature, stardom, and age. So, when director Narthan, who made Mufti, decided to film a prequel to show the origin of Bhairathi Ranagal in the film titled Bhairathi Ranagal, one couldn’t help but be intrigued.

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Sat, November 16 2024

The film, set against the background of iron mining, crafts its own path, cleverly bypassing any comparison to a recent blockbuster franchise that revolves around gold mining.

The trick with a prequel is that you have to impress viewers who have watched the original film, and those who are new to its cinematic world. So, first, a round of congratulations to director Narthan, who charmed in 2017 with his debut Mufti, and now with its prequel Bhairathi Ranagal, starring Shiva Rajkumar, Rahul Bose, Rukmini Vasanth and Chhaya Singh, among others.

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Fri, November 15 2024

Bhairathi Ranagal is an origin story that explores the transformation of an ordinary man into a feared leader.

Shivarajkumar’s portrayal of Bhairathi Ranagal in the 2017 movie Mufti was a monumental success. His iconic look—featuring coloured khadi vestis and shirts—became a trendsetter, even inspiring Nandamuri Balakrishna’s style in Veera Simha Reddy. It’s no surprise that the filmmakers were tempted to delve deeper into the character and cater to the audience’s appetite for more. After all, the market rarely gets it wrong, right? Fast forward seven years and director Narthan brings us Bhairathi Ranagal, the origin story of this beloved character.

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Sun, December 1 2024

Varun Tej is the epicentre of this sprawling saga that wants to be a lot but ends up becoming a middling shadow of what it could have been

A young boy comes to a new city. The city is unkind to him and his mother. He makes a promise that the city will know of his name… soon. A few years later, he goes on to make such a big name that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is forced to intervene. Then, the antagonists and the system decide to take on the one man who wanted to rule it all. This is the story of KGF. Incidentally, this is also the story of Varun Tej’s latest film, Matka.

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Sun, November 17 2024

Director Karuna Kumar’s Telugu film ‘Matka’ scores in its attention to the period setting but falls way short of leveraging its potential to be a soaring drama

How does a business venture that does not require much investment work, a character wonders in director Karuna Kumar’s Telugu film Matka. We sell hope and buy people’s trust, explains the protagonist (Varun Tej as Vasu) whose character is inspired by gambler Ratan Khatri, also known as the ‘matka’ king. His statement and the scenes on a train that precede it, showing the potential for gambling and how it can turn ordinary citizens into addicts, perk up an otherwise predictable narrative.

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Sun, December 1 2024

In more ways than one, this is more a movie than a documentary because everything is staged to too much perfection, and turns into something real very rarely, but is beautiful when it does

It isn’t easy being a film star in India. There is no sense of privacy for a public figure — Everything is criticised, scrutinised, commented upon, and dissected. In a world where your every move has to be carefully calculated, can you actually find a moment of honesty? Can you actually find your own cosy corner that allows you to be what you really want to be? After watching the 80-odd minutes of Netflix’s Nayanthara – Beyond the Fairytale, it is clear that the ‘Lady Superstar’ found her cosy corner at the centre of her world in Vignesh Shivan, and everything in this documentary leads to that moment… That moment where Nayanthara can look into the camera and say, “I feel like I don’t need anything else anymore.”

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Sat, November 30 2024

The tale begins of course with her birth into the family of an Indian Air Force officer and his homemaker-wife (whose role in Nayanthara's life is repeatedly emphasised).

In an industry overwhelmingly dominated by men, Nayanthara is a rarity. A “lady superstar” who earned her spurs the hard way and went on to upend many an established showbiz norm, she has over the years fronted numerous big South Indian films that have ridden on her crowd-pulling prowess. This self-produced Netflix documentary seeks to capture the rise and rise of Nayanthara in the face of several reverses. It isn’t an objective account but, notwithstanding the limitations of its format, Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale is entertaining and insightful.

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Tue, November 19 2024

Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairy Tale celebrates the superstar’s rise from humble beginnings to cinematic stardom.

On Nayanthara’s 40th birthday, Netflix unveiled a documentary series, Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairy Tale, chronicling her journey in the film industry. The series opens with her disappointment over not securing permission to hold her dream wedding at the Tirupati temple and transitions to her eventual wedding at a picturesque beachside glasshouse, attended by the who’s who of Indian cinema.

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Sun, December 1 2024

The Karthick Naren film, headlined by Atharvaa, Sarath Kumar and Rahman, builds everything to a technicolour explosion of emotions, only to end up as a gentle nudge in black and white

The first one hour of Nirangal Moondru sets the stage for an epic showdown. The lives of three and a half men meet at a crucial juncture — One needs an answer, one needs a resolution, one needs a reason, and one needs a rational explanation. It is wonderful how every single person’s needs seems to be intertwined with the actions of the others. There is a wonderful build-up to the phenomenon of cause and effect. Even if it all unravels pretty soon, the first hour is fascinating.

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Sat, November 30 2024

Atharvaa, Sarathkumar and Rahman headline an imperfect yet intriguing tale on parenthood, lost causes and redemption

‘Technicolour’ seems to be the word of the week when it comes to the releases this Friday. If The Colours Within and Wicked from two different corners of the world are technicolour spectacles, director Karthick Naren’s latest outing, Nirangal Moondru, not only makes for an addition to that list but also treats the three-color process as a metaphor for the men who populate its vibrant world.

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Sat, November 30 2024

Should you watch Sarathkumar's new film? Find out here.

By now, plasticity has become a sort of director Karthick Naren’s style. A sense of juvenility creeps in with the premise and setups of the director, despite a fairly decent execution and technical competence. A sample of such contrived writing comes even at the beginning of the first act when one of the protagonists, Sri (Dushyanth Jayaprakash), argues with his parents to let him own a mobile phone. The deliberation to establish that the character doesn’t have a cell phone is to thwart the audience from finding any logical loopholes. The problem with such writing renders Nirangal Moondru staged and artificial, distancing the audience from the characters and their stakes.

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Sun, December 1 2024

While director Sakthi Chidambaram asks us to not question the logic, it would have been better if more time was spent in structuring the narrative instead of throwing one random scene after another.

There has been a legitimate paucity of quality comedy films this year in Tamil cinema. So, when Sakthi Chidambaram, a veteran of this genre, even if his recent films were just a shadow of his form in the mid 2000s, closes the year with Jolly O Gymkhana, a comedy, it is okay to have your hopes up. But the filmmaker starts off by introducing Yogi Babu as Father Martin Luther King, and makes him walk out of the toilet and say lines like “Unakku life problem, enakku piles problem.” You think that is bad? It gets worse with him telling Madonna Sebastian’s Bhavani that he can’t help her sleeping problem because he is suffering from a sitting problem. You think that is worse? Bhavani, who narrates her backstory, says, “Kadhaiyoda moolathulerndhu kelunga (Listen to the story from the core)” and of course, Yogi Babu replies, “Already moolam dhaan ma prachana (My you-know-what is already sore).” And we are just five minutes into Jolly O Gymkhana.

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Sun, December 1 2024

In this Virumaandi meets Vada Chennai narrative, it is the characters and their effective portrayal that ensures the film doesn't crash and burn in the tepid final act.

Prison films are tough to crack, but the allure of this genre is understandable. It is essentially a chamber drama where every character is unpredictable, and the audience is tuned to expect them to get violent at any time. These characters are ticking time bombs, and the setting allows the writers to explore the human psyche and deliver a solid character-driven drama. With this base in place, one can add the required flavours like romance, sentiment, revenge, and even comedy, and a prison film will have the space for it all. What really matters is the proportion of each, and for the longest time in Sorgavaasal, debutant director Sidharth Vishwanath, along with his co-writers Tamizh Prabha and Ashwin Ravichandran, get it right. However, despite perfectly building a Virumaandi meets Vada Chennai narrative to a crescendo, they falter at the end. But the characters, and its effective portrayal, ensure Sorgavaasal escapes without crashing and burning.

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Sat, November 30 2024

Despite its familiar beats, the film’s gripping narrative and powerful performances make it an effective film.

“The funny thing is… on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook, “Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) says with his sarcastic wit which leaves Red (Morgan Freeman) cackling in one of many incredible scenes of The Shawshank Redemption. Pathiban (RJ Balaji) says almost the same lines in Sorgavaasal but no one’s laughing here, because Sorgavaasal is a bleak world with no room for such humour. Here things are bloody and violent, and unlike the Hollywood classic, there’s no room for home in the pessimistic world of Sorgavaasal.

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Sat, November 30 2024

Director and co-writer Sidharth Viswanathan relies on the strong performances of the cast and the writing to keep this prison drama accessible and mainstream

There couldn’t have been a more fitting title for the film that Sorgavaasal has turned out to be. When translated, it could be read as “At Heaven’s Gate”. This isn’t merely ironic, given how almost the entire film is set within the walls of a high-security prison. But the idea of being at arms length from heaven, as close as you are far, gives Sorgavaasal the illusion of it taking place in some sort of a purgatory. For some inmates, this idea of heaven is the day they’re released back into the outside world. For others, the exit sign points only towards death. But then there’s the third kind, like the man they all lovingly call ‘Cooker’ (Balaji Sakthivel), whose belief falls somewhere in between. When Parthi (RJ Balaji, as never seen before) cooks a delicious meal for the inmates, he asks Cooker why this isn’t the norm. Cooker replies, “If you start enjoying the food you’re being served here, you will feel no need to leave.”

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Sat, November 30 2024

Auliʻi Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson’s latest outing, ‘Moana 2’, with its underwhelming story and lack of emotional punch, puts itself several nautical miles behind its much-celebrated predecessor

Moana is back for another adventure! Whether that’s even necessary is a different question considering the first film, which came out eight years ago, was one of Walt Disney Animation films’ best outings of all time and a well-rounded product on its own. Our titular hero became a wayfinder, turned buddies with the demigod Maui by retrieving his fishhook and in due course, took her fellow Motunui people back into the sea as voyagers like how their ancestors once were. Moana 2 puts our heroes back in the open ocean on a new adventure that makes us wonder what’s the sea creature equivalent of a cash cow.

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Sat, November 30 2024

Sat, November 30 2024

Hitting all the right notes, the film laments the undermining of a civilisational tapestry that thrives on diversity

The Siddis, a community unrepresented in Indian cinema, is under the spotlight in Rhythm of Dammam, an exceptionally evocative, visually arresting film written and directed by Kerala-born, New York-based Jayan Cherian. The film premiered this week at the 55th International Film Festival of India in Goa. It is now headed to the International Competition line-up of the upcoming 29th International Film Festival of Kerala.

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