Sat, April 12 2025

Sat, April 12 2025

Bazooka tries to mimic The Usual Suspects but fails with predictable twists and no real conflict. Despite Mammootty's style, pretentious direction and weak writing hurt the film.

The impact of Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects is so enormous and timeless that even after three decades, filmmakers are unable to escape its influence on heist thrillers. Bazooka is another attempt at creating an elusive character like Keyser Soze. The catch is that such an attempt requires several things to fall into place, including clever casting that throws the audience off track and creates red herrings. Director Deeno Dennis misses out on this, leading to a predictable twist that’s visible from the get-go. The genius of The Usual Suspects lies in how the characters become real—everyone involved in the heist has something at stake, making their downfall feel impactful. Bazooka, on the other hand, lacks any real conflict. By the end of the film, when the motive behind the gamer villain is revealed, it feels like we’ve been played by the makers.

Continue reading …

Fri, April 11 2025

For a film branded as a “gaming thriller”, ‘Bazooka’ ends up as a dull film with barely an exciting passage of play worthy of the star it is supposedly celebrating

A few late flourishes can sometimes redeem a film even though it might be hurtling downhill till that point. But, in Deeno Dennis’s directorial debut Bazooka, that supposed redemption arc comes way beyond a point where most of us would have stopped caring for the characters or the plot. It comes almost like a dessert that arrives after a tasteless main course that made your stomach feel queasy. As for the dessert, beyond the dressing on top, it turns out to be the same old under it. In Bazooka, hardly a moment passes without a background score. In a film tailor-made for the superstar’s fans, a good part of this score is dedicated to accentuating his every random movement. It begins right from the moment we see John Caesar (Mammootty) at a bus stop, reading a self-help book and waiting for a bus — inside which a good part of the film takes place. But then, ACP Benjamin Joshua (Gautham Vasudev Menon) also gets the same treatment when we first see him getting out of his car to carry out a routine vehicle check. This is not surprising in a film which survives mostly on its cosmetics.

Continue reading …

Sat, April 12 2025

Featuring a committed Viola Davis at its centre, Prime Video's action-thriller is like something that the BeerBiceps crowd would watch for geopolitical insight.

Viola Davis is an EGOT. She’s one of only 20 people in history — fewer, when you consider persons of colour — to have won at least one Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. She’s done August Wilson on the stage and screen; she went to Juilliard, like Jessica Chastain and Adam Driver. For her to star in a movie like G20 — think Air Force One, but worse — isn’t unlike Javed Akhtar waking up one morning, slipping into a crisp kurta, and deciding to script one of KRK’s rant videos. Released on Prime Video, G20 is a glorified bargain bin movie — the kind of movie for which Amazon should be paying you, and not the other way around. Davis plays POTUS Danielle Sutton, an Iraq War veteran who became famous after being photographed carrying a baby out of a bombed building. The movie doesn’t show us what happened next, but you could easily imagine Danielle being deified in the press, buying into her own myth, and deciding to run for president. America loves its celebrities, and electing Danielle into office is exactly what you’d expect from the folks who’ve voted Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump into power. We first meet Danielle as she’s disciplining her teenage daughter for giving the secret service the slip, and partying with her friends at a local bar.

Continue reading …

Thu, April 10 2025

Directed by Patricia Riggen, the political thriller allows its star, Viola Davis, to play the action hero, but its central story is flimsy.

In the new Amazon Prime Video action film, Viola Davis checked off two items in her career that most of her male contemporaries have probably done several times over theirs. G20 sees the Oscar winner as American President Danielle Sutton, who is heading an important international summit when it is hijacked by terrorists. The action thriller, directed by Patricia Riggen, doesn’t have anything new to offer. Although Davis gets the chance to save the day over and over again. Before heading to South Africa for the G20 summit, President Sutton has a mini crisis to deal with at home after her teenage daughter Serena (Marsai Martin) is caught at a party after she snuck out without her security detail. Soon, the Sutton family has bigger problems to contend with. The hotel where the G20 summit is held is taken over by terrorists who oppose the world leaders plans to end world hunger through cryptocurrency. Neither side’s plans are explained properly. Luckily, Sutton and a handful of leaders manage to escape, and soon it is a game of cat and mouse.

Continue reading …

Sat, April 12 2025

The Legend of Hanuman, which enters its sixth season this week, has consistently pushed the bar in retelling the Ramayana through animation on OTT across age groups, supplemented by its new-age visualisation, playful storytelling and impactful writing, exploring major events, the traits of each of its pivotal characters (apart from Hanuman too) with equal sincerity. The new season is about the fall of Ravan as much as the rise of Hanuman. Greed and ego get the better of Ravan. Emerging victorious over Ram is no longer his only priority, he wants the world for himself. While losing the support of Vibheeshan (and Mandodari partially), he misses being with his other brothers, sons (who’re no more) and hopes to meet them on the other side of the world.

Continue reading …

Sat, April 12 2025

Some films are meant to be savoured not devoured, and no points for guessing how this film, headlined by an excellent Rangayana Raghu, should be consumed.

Agnyathavasi is the last film where you’d expect an objectifying number finding itself in the narrative. This is a slow-burn drama set in the idyllic Malnad region. This is set in the late 90s, and features an ageing inspector, a much-older retired postmaster, a lot of conversations about parenting and farming, and a murder. So it doesn’t make sense that Agnyathavasi features a song that objectifies, literally. And the object in question is a computer… the first one to arrive at the village. The way the camera caresses the curvature of the monitor, the first time it is switched on, the first time the keyboard is used… there is so much focus on the computer, which is going to change the fate of a few people. But they don’t know it yet. And the best part? We don’t either.

Continue reading …

Fri, April 11 2025

Agnyathavasi, directed by Janardhan Chikanna and co-produced by Hemanth M Rao, peels itself layer by layer. Some scenes unfurl first on screen, then in your mind, and then on screen again.

There’s an oft-repeated phrase people use after watching certain films — it is “slow.” I didn’t understand it then, I don’t understand it now. Labels help no one. Does life move in real time or at an accelerated pace? The issue of pacing strikes the audience only when they aren’t drawn into the world the director and storyteller have created. Agnyathavasi (translation: ‘a person in exile’) is a film that insists it will breathe — and wants you to breathe with it. Editor Bharath MC works his charm here. Which is why, despite generally steering clear of thrillers and jump scares, I was drawn into the film’s world — gently, like the fog and the mist of Malnad, where the story is set. The thrills here stem not from the certainty of geography, the reliance on camera angles, or music cues — though Charan Raj’s score is fabulous — but from the possibilities of the human mind.

Continue reading …

Sat, April 12 2025

Jaat leaves you with little time to pause and think and qualifies as a mass entertainer

“Yeh dhai kilo ka haath hai, is ki taakat North dekh chuka hai, ab South bhi dekhega.” The reference to Sunny Deol’s iconic dialogue is more than obvious, as is the North-South alchemy. ‘Jaat’ marks the Hindi film debut of Telugu director Gopichand Malineni and encashes upon Deol’s stardom in its inimitable southern style. Only, the actioner that builds on Deol’s ‘post Gadar 2’ starry status amplifies it many times over. Undeniably, Sunny Bhaji is once again a one-man army who can stop a vehicle with one hand and bash up dozens and dozens of muscle men; in short, do all things unimaginable, but very much possible in this Dharam-putar line of action. Instead of uprooting a hand-pump, pillars and fans become his weapons of mass destruction.

Continue reading …

Sat, April 12 2025

Sat, April 12 2025

Sat, April 12 2025

Amateur, directed by James Hawes, is a contemporary adaptation of the novel of the same name, which was previously made into a film featuring John Savage and Christopher Plummer. This spy thriller, while not groundbreaking, delivers sufficient thrills. It could easily be likened to a Jason Bourne or Jack Reacher film, but instead, we follow Charlie, the titular Amateur. Unlike James Bond, who possesses a license to kill, Charlie holds a license as a cryptographer for the CIA. With an IQ exceeding 170, he adeptly gathers and synthesizes information from diverse sources, quickly proving his exceptional skills. It is also evident that he is deeply in love with his wife, Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan), and their affection is reciprocated. However, when Sarah embarks on a business rip to London, she never returns, having been taken hostage and subsequently killed.

Continue reading …

Fri, April 11 2025

The film makes a choice not to dwell on the Israeli-Palestine conflict which looks myopic in the current context.

The 1972 Munich Olympics massacre famously featured in Steven Spielberg’s Munich (2005), where 11 Israeli athletes were taken hostage and later killed. The event became a springboard in the Eric Bana-starrer, to showcase Mossad’s efforts for retribution – through a series of assassinations. This was before actors, filmmakers called out Hollywood’s implicit Islamophobia – and the fatigue around the binary depictions of Muslims in mainstream Hollywood as dutiful or barbaric. Relatively speaking, Spielberg’s film was pretty nuanced for its time – even showcasing an argument between Bana and a Muslim character in an apartment, which they’re forced to share at one point. A lot has changed in the last two decades leading up to the release of Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5, especially with Hollywood’s apparent ambivalence around Israel’s ongoing bombing of Gaza, triggered by the October 7 attack carried out by Hamas. As much as Fehlbaum’s film would like to revel in being a single-room thriller and tackle the ethical dilemmas that the ABC team went through while observing the coverage of a tragedy, it’s simply not enough for the macro storytelling elements at play today.

Continue reading …

Fri, April 11 2025

This modest film’s most sparkling trait is its determination to bring selflessness and community back to mainstream cinema.

It is easy to forget the what we have lost because of Hindi cinema’s tilt towards the right. Initially a mouthpiece for secular values in a post-Partition India, the film industry soon became an emblem for the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb (culture). It was the place where a Muslim man would become a newly-independent India’s first superstar, where dialogues in Urdu, Khariboli and Hindi would invent a new concoction of Hindustani, which would trickle down into everyday parlance. It’s only in the movies where the three biggest stars of their time would get separated at birth into homes of different religions, only to reunite and take down the villain in the climax. Sure, some part of it was an echo of popular sentiment, and carried a whiff of opportunism. But the tragedy of our new-age Hindi cinema is how it’s eviscerated even performative niceness in favour of unbridled, authentic hate.

Continue reading …

Sat, March 15 2025

Fri, March 14 2025

Avinash Das’s tribute to the spirit of India makes a timely and touching statement

Sometimes, the timing of a film’s release makes it special. A few years back, Inn Galiyon Main would have been dubbed dated for repeating the obvious. Today, its theme is here and now. Mostly, social values inform a film, but sometimes, a social churn leads to a creative outpouring. At a time when festivals and cricket matches have become a stick to browbeat a community, Inn Galiyon Main celebrates Holi and Eid at a space where Hanuman and Rahman Gali coalesce in Lucknow. An ode to the syncretic culture that has almost been reduced to a slur in hate-filled narratives on social media, the film exposes the divisive politics fuelled by cheap data with a poetic parable.

Continue reading …

Fri, April 11 2025

Created by Jonathan Tropper, the dramedy features an aimless Jon Hamm who goes from finance man to thief.

Your Friends and Neighbors really wants you to feel bad about Jon Hamm’s Andrew Cooper, a suburban family man who loses it all and resorts to stealing from the wealthy neighbourhood. But the deeper trouble Coop lands himself in, the harder it becomes to worry about his easily avoidable problems. Hamm gives Coop some depth as he struggles after life post-divorce. However, creator Jonathan Tropper’s dark comedy tiptoes around certain issues while giving the protagonist opportunities to keep behaving badly. The Apple TV+ series deviates midway with a big twist that leadens the narrative even further. After 18 years of marriage, newly divorced Coop (Hamm) finds himself adrift from his wife, Mel (Amanda Peet), and teenagers in more ways than one. He resents his friend Nick (Mark Tallman), who is now dating Mel. To make matters worse, he is fired from his job as a hedge fund manager. Living in a wealthy community and taking care of his family, who have expensive taste, gets worrisome too. Coop also takes his sister Ali (Lena Hall), who is struggling with mental health issues. So what does Coop do? He begins to steal from his friends and neighbours to fund his lifestyle. Coop manages to stay under the radar for a bit and even picks up a partner. Until, however, the house of cards that he’s erected around himself begins to come down.

Continue reading …

Thu, April 10 2025

Bhaskar and Siddhu Jonnalagadda’s action-comedy portrays a rebel with a sense of humour who tries to save the nation, and falters miserably

In the Telugu film Jack, written and directed by Bhaskar of Bommarillu fame, there is a recurring reference to how the protagonist, Jack, aka Pablo Neruda (played by Siddhu Jonnalagadda), was rejected by 24 coaches in his childhood for being an overenthusiastic child who lacked the discipline to train in any sport or art form. Perhaps the number 24 is a nod to the 24 crafts of cinema — we will never know. The story follows this misfit, who, with an uncanny sense of humour, positions himself as a self-appointed agent operating parallel to RAW (Research and Analysis Wing), determined to foil a terror plot. If the premise sounds unconvincing, the narrative unfolds in a way that makes it even harder to buy into. The title Jack, a metaphor for ‘jack of all trades’, leans heavily on its lead actor’s charisma and comic timing to sell an erratic character. Siddhu shoulders the film, delivering one-liners with flair and embodying both the angst and ambition of his role. But it is in vain, as the script remains flawed.

Continue reading …

Thu, April 10 2025

Thu, April 10 2025

Like Grey's Anatomy but worse, Netflix's new medical drama wants to be progressive, but finds itself resorting to regressive tropes with Ekta Kapoor-like discipline.

Contrary to what Hussain Dalal might have you believe, there is an art to writing bad television. A bad show owns its contrivances instead of making excuses for them; a bad show embraces its heightened drama without pretending that it wants to be taken seriously. It scoffs in the face of concepts such as internal logic and organic character development. It chooses twists over tact, and chaos over narrative control. But what makes a bad show good? It all boils down to an indescribable self-awareness. And while Netflix’s medical drama Pulse checks all the above boxes — it’s trash TV of the topmost order — it never fully commits to the cause. Pulse is bad in the traditional sense of the word, in that it’s utterly incoherent, laughably plotted, and contains such a shocking depiction of sexual harassment that you might momentarily be confused into thinking that Bollywood was somehow involved. Incidentally, Pulse happens to be star Willa Fitzgerald’s second anti-feminist project in a row, after the thriller film Strange Darling. Directed by JT Mollner, Strange Darling seemingly took offence at the indisputable fact that the serial killer genre is dominated by men. “Are you saying women can’t be serial killers?” the movie seemed to ask. “How dare you; now watch this.”

Continue reading …