Wed, July 24 2024

Director Shankar's sequel to the 1996 hit film is an uninteresting commentary on worldly issues that are addressed in countless other films. Underneath the mess lies a promising idea, which is barely explored.

28 years ago, director Shankar and Kamal Haasan gifted ‘Indian’ to the Tamil audience, who still celebrate it like it’s their own. Almost three decades later, the film (read: corruption) still remains relevant. But, Kamal Haasan and Shankar wanted to bring back Indian thatha (grandfather) aka Senapathy to brush up on all the corrupt activities that we’ve seen so far in umpteen movies, not just in Tamil cinema but across other languages. Chitra Aravindan (Siddharth) and his three friends run a YouTube channel called ‘Barking Dogs,’ which focuses on parodies and political satire. They end their calls with ‘Let’s bark!’ (If you think this is absurd, hold your horses). After realising that their videos, despite receiving lakhs of views, had little impact on the audience, the team starts a campaign called ‘Come Back Indian.’ According to them, only Indian Thatha, aka Senapathy, could put an end to corruption.

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Sat, July 13 2024

आदरणीय हिन्दुस्तानी जी, 1996 की मई में जब आप पहली बार सिनेमा के पर्दे पर तमिल में ‘इंडियन’ और हिन्दी में ‘हिन्दुस्तानी’ बन कर आए थे तो हम दर्शकों ने आपका तहेदिल से स्वागत किया था। उस फिल्म में आप नेता जी की सेना में सिपाही थे लेकिन जब आपने आज़ाद भारत में भ्रष्टाचार का बोलबाला देखा तो आप खुद भ्रष्टाचारियों को सज़ा देने में जुट गए। आपके तरीके गैरकानूनी थे लेकिन हम लोग आपके पक्ष में थे क्योंकि आप वह काम कर रहे थे जो दरअसल सरकार को करना चाहिए था। ‘अपरिचित’ तब तक आई नहीं थी और ‘प्रहार’ के मेजर चव्हाण हमें बता गए थे कि सिपाही का काम है लड़ना, लड़ाई के मैदान भले ही बदल जाएं। उस फिल्म के अंत में अपने भ्रष्ट बेटे को मार कर आप हिन्दुस्तान से गायब होकर सिंगापुर चले गए थे। आखिरी सीन में आप हमें उम्मीद दे गए थे कि आप जल्द लौटेंगे और एक बार फिर से भ्रष्टाचारियों का विनाश करेंगे। लेकिन आपने लौटने में 28 बरस लगा दिए, क्यों…?

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Wed, July 24 2024

Taika Waititi co-created Apple TV+ series gets off to a great start, before rapidly descending into a padded mess.

In early 2019, when Apple signed Taika Waititi as creator, writer, and director on its television series adaptation of the beloved eighties kids’ movie Time Bandits, his star was on the rise. The Kiwi filmmaker had successfully transitioned from a tiny indie comedy-drama set in New Zealand to a mega-budget superhero romp part of a massive, shared world. Better yet, Waititi had reinvigorated the God of Thunder’s forgettable trilogy with Thor: Ragnarok. All the gates of Hollywood were swinging open for the writer-director. But since then, Waititi has struggled. The Hitler satire Jojo Rabbit lacked bite and was showered with more praise than it deserved. Thor: Love and Thunder and Next Goal Wins were both disasters of epic proportions.

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Wed, July 24 2024

Puneet Krishna’s series boasts of an inventive premise and standout performances but fails to make the grade, succumbing to verbose narratives and a lack of stylistic commitment

If there was an award for turning inventive premises into a drag-fest, I’m certain Indian storytellers would be contending for it. In the last decade of Indian streaming, there has been nothing more frustrating than witnessing filmmakers self-sabotage projects that could have otherwise become definitive storytelling. It’s worse than having to sit through shows that resemble a template and underwhelm in their lack of ambition and finesse. Such shows are easy to churn and easier to forget, their existence devoid of any purpose beyond existing for the sake of populating a catalogue.

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Fri, July 19 2024

Fri, July 19 2024

एक लड़की है सयानी-सी। एक दिन एक लड़के से वो मिलती है-बिस्तर में। कुछ देर बाद उसका एक्स-पति आता है। वह उससे भी मिल लेती है-बिस्तर में। अगले महीने आती है यह बैड न्यूज़ कि वह मां बनने वाली है और बच्चे का बाप उन दोनों में से कोई एक नहीं बल्कि दोनों ही हैं। मेडिकल साईंस का यह करिश्मा करोड़ों में एक बार होता है, लेकिन असंभव नहीं है। अब दोनों बापों में ठन जाती है कि बच्चा असल में किसके पास रहेगा। इस ठनाठनी में दोनों बार-बार भिड़ते हैं और उनकी हरकतें देख कर दर्शक हंसते हैं। इस फिल्म की लगभग पूरी कहानी इसके ट्रेलर में खोली जा चुकी है। वैसे भी यह कोई सस्पैंस फिल्म तो है नहीं। सो, ऐसी फिल्मों में कहानी से ज़्यादा कहानी का ट्रीटमैंट देखा जाता है। और चूंकि यह एक अलग किस्म का सब्जैक्ट है-थोड़ा टैबू सा, थोड़ा हटके वाला, तो हमारे फिल्मकार अक्सर ऐसे विषयों पर कॉमेडी का आवरण चढ़ा कर उन्हें परोसते हैं। फिर चाहे वह ‘बधाई हो’ जैसी फिल्म हो या फिर लगभग ऐसी ही ‘गुड न्यूज़’ जिसमें दिखाया गया था कि कृत्रिम गर्भाधान कराने पहुंचे दो जोड़ों में से क्लिनिक वालों की गलती से एक के स्पर्म दूसरे की बीवी को और दूसरे के स्पर्म पहले की बीवी को दे दिए जाते हैं। वह फिल्म हंसते-गुदगुदाते और अंत में इमोशनल करते हुए अपनी बात कह रही थी और इस फिल्म में भी वही तरीका इस्तेमाल किया गया है।

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Sun, July 14 2024

The latest series by Rajkumar Gupta of ‘No One Killed Jessica’ fame, starring Riteish Deshmukh, seems more intent on exaggerating an underdog story than developing an intelligent thriller

In this post-Covid world, the timing of Pill – an eight-episode examination of the malpractices of Big Indian Pharma that end up endangering human lives — could not be more timely. Just a few months ago, AstraZeneca, the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company, admitted that Covishield, its Covid vaccine, can cause side-effects such as blood clots, low platelet counts, and neurological deficits. If that’s not worrying enough, AstraZeneca is already facing a class action lawsuit in the UK that accuses its vaccine of causing deaths. So far, 51 cases have been filed against the multinational giant. That is to say, for a country that has survived the pandemic and come out on the other side only to discover the long-term side-effects of the vaccines on our bodies, such a show exists as cinematic retribution.

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Thu, July 11 2024

Wed, July 10 2024

Inspired by The Hangover, the new Indian Netflix movie fails its title and attempted genre.

Early into Wild Wild Punjab—the new Indian Netflix original movie—a line of dialogue lays bare the film’s inspiration: The Hangover trilogy. It’s not implied, mind you. One of the film’s four lead characters namechecks the high-grossing franchise as a comedic reference. Except Wild Wild Punjab doesn’t stop at acknowledging its existence. It liberally borrows several subplots from The Hangover, including stealing a police vehicle, being chased by gangsters, and drunkenly marrying a random woman. But Wild Wild Punjab—directed by feature debutant Simarpreet Singh and written by Harman Wadala and Sandeep Jain—displays zero understanding of good comedic filmmaking.

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Thu, July 4 2024

The Netflix film starring Varun Sharma, Sunny Singh and others is a blur of ham-fisted hi-jinks and inane humour

It was evident, even before Varun Sharma clambered onto the roof of a car, unfastened his fly and shot out a tall projectile of piss, that Wild Wild Punjab was not a serious film. But is it even that wild? The aforementioned scene is probably the looniest thing that happens — a nod, perhaps, to Fukrey 3, which had an entire pee-based plotline dedicated to Sharma. The rest of Simarpreet Singh’s film is oddly strained and docile, a blur of ham-fisted hi-jinks and inane one-liners. “Respect, dude,” someone tells Sharma’s character, a compliment I cannot extend to the film.

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Fri, July 5 2024

Afraid of evolving, the overlong third season of Mirzapur doesn’t know how to best utilise its principal characters, let alone the giant ensemble at its disposal.

In season 3, Mirzapur wishes to place an even bigger emphasis on the world outside of it. As a feud between two clans ratchets up, a meeting of all the gangsters of Purvanchal—the easternmost section of the state of Uttar Pradesh—is called more than once. They bicker, they whine, but they have no real voice, no real say in the matter. A mediator warns the two parties not to escalate violence and vows that larger powers will come down on them heavily. But it’s all talk. Mirzapur isn’t willing to follow through as it’s only the protagonists who matter. Everyone else is simply window dressing. They feel like plastic, as do those who work for the feuding clans. Its larger world is irrelevant. Mirzapur is a macro show that has no interest in the micro.

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Thu, July 4 2024

Fawad Khan and Sanam Saeed star in this feverishly artful series by British-Pakistani director Asim Abbasi

“The past is not dead. It’s not even past,” wrote William Faulkner. Everything in Barzakh — images, ideas, sounds — responds to that famously Faulknerian sentiment. The title refers to a kind of limbo, an earthly purgatory, where the dead move amidst the living. The six-part series has been shot in the ravishing Hunza Valley, in Northern Pakistan, and is drenched in a despairing, deciduous beauty. Characters converse in pseudo-spiritualistic fragments and heartsick hokum (and also do shrooms). Mountains, as usual, hold the key to everything. Watching the series, I found myself nervously wondering if, across the border, the director Imtiaz Ali was paying attention. What if he feels a little bested, and takes it up as a challenge?

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Thu, June 27 2024

The jodi of Diljit Dosanjh and Neeru Bajwa lock horns once again in the romantic comedy and come up with quite an entertainer.

Diljit Dosanjh and Neeru Bajwa’s Jatt & Juliet 3 does what Punjabi cinema does best — delights audiences with nutty situations, punchy one-liners, and dollops of humour, which makes for an enjoyable family entertainer. Bringing back the Diljit Dosanjh and Neeru Bajwa jodi, the beloved franchise is now helmed by writer-director Jagdeep Sidhu, who has taken over the reins from Anurag Singh, and has collaborated with Dosanjh on Sher Bagga (2022) and Shadaa (2019) previously. Fateh Singh (Diljit Dosanjh) and Pooja (Neeru Bajwa) are police constables, but she is his senior. Both have their own selfish reasons for wanting to get married to each other and deceive the other about their true intentions. However, things don’t pan out as planned and threaten to spin out of control when Jasmin Bajwa (Daisy) enters the picture. She is wanted for committing fraud and Pooja and Fateh are sent to London to bring her back. In the midst of it all, Fateh is solely concerned about money and spins a yarn for both Daisy and Pooja.

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Thu, June 20 2024

Like a forlorn Jeetu Bhaiya, the Netflix series stumbles its way through a befuddling (potential) final season.

Kota Factory has never lived up to its title. The name suggests a grim look at the dystopian reality of teenagers in their formative years transported to a town in the middle of nowhere for a single mindless pursuit. Instead—over 10 episodes across two seasons—we’ve been treated to a sentimental and meandering look at the life of students. Kota Factory isn’t in black-and-white because it’s drained of life. It’s in black-and-white because the creators, themselves former IITians, are nostalgic for the past. The third—and what feels like the final—season wants to course correct. It wants to brush up on lessons it has ignored so far. But it has no idea how to communicate any of it. Everything is too literal or spelt out.

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Thu, June 20 2024

In its third and potentially final season, Kota Factory seems to be responding to past criticism. We discuss the show’s sudden bout of self-reflection, and the confused manner in which it examines the harsh realities of towns like Kota and the industries they service. We also talk about its aversion to human moments, and why the handful of them this season stand out. Later in the episode, we wonder why the show remains watchable on a very fundamental level, even though it often makes the same storytelling mistakes that it used to.

Sun, June 16 2024

Dibakar Banerjee is going to have to make two good movies to compensate for whatever hellish assault on the senses Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2 was. We discuss the film’s muddled social commentary, the frustration oozing out of every frame, and the general incoherence of the arguments. We also compare LSD2’s aesthetic and thematic shortfalls, especially when compared to Banerjee’s past work, while wondering why he couldn’t find room for any self-reflection.