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Reviews
Bulbbul (2020)
Worth a watch!
Bulbbul is beautiful in its execution, however it is still low on chills. It is a well-told story though, naturally unfolds like a myth... A folklore. Beautiful cinematography. More than the immortal evil (chudail), it is the mortal men's heinous crimes that send a shiver down your spine. Another take on toxic patriachy coming from Bollywood...rich in its treatment and ably acted... worth a watch!
Thappad (2020)
A tight slap on patriachy
Thappad by far is the most relevant movie, I have seen coming out of Indian Cinema.
Why do I say this?
Hi, I am an Indian. In India, we have grown up seeing our mothers smothering away their desires and sacrificing their lives for their children. In India, we have grown seeing that it is expected that women take charge of kitchen and nothing else. Seldom, do we ask our mothers how they feel. Seldom, do we go to the kitchen and cook for her what she loves the most... A mother is hardcoded to know what each and every person in their family loves to eat, but we forget to cook her favorite meal. When we shift focus however to the wife, well in India, she is mostly the second mother of her husband and she almost gets treated exactly the way the earlier generations of women have been treated.
That is why this is such an important movie. It is a tight slap on patriachy. It is a tight slap on the careless ways in which we demonstrate our masculinity. We are all somewhere or the other guilty of it. But we choose to ignore.
Hopefully, this opens up our eyes.
It was uncomfortable to watch but then again truth is never comfortable. It is what it is! Truth!
Please watch this.
Choked (2020)
Definitely not the Anurag, we know..but still worth the watch
When you walk into an Anurag Kashyap movie, you expect to see the true face of Human Nature, you expect to see brilliant long shots, and above all an airtight plot.
Sadly, this is not your average Anurag Kashyap movie by any stretch of imagination. This is not even close to his average.
Having said that, I Ioved the premise of this movie.
How would you like if I said that your house's choked pipeline coughing up cash everynight? Fairytale, ain't it? The Protagonist here is a bank cashier and apparently the only breadwinner of the house, while his husband is a lazy, complaining no-good.
Choked may on surface seem to be a title pointing at the Choked pipeline of protagonist's house, but there is a lot more to it as the story takes a spin when Prime Minister of India announces demonitization.
Upto this point, the movie holds it ground. However, it is the scenes post demonitization which could have been better. Also, it doesn't venture into the usual Kashyap territory, once this twist happens.. it surprisingly remains a formidable underdog story.. something which we surely don't expect from an AK movie.
Yet, there are flashes of brilliance in this tale. No one captures Bombay in lens better than Anurag Kashyap, period. He yet again manages to create a choked environment in the city quite efficiently. In terms of some characters too, his observations are worth noting, be it the pesky neighbors or the cash hungry goons or the lazy husband. The relationship between protagonist of the movie and her husband may not be the best you have seen on screen, but the naunces that Kashyap brings to the table are worth appreciating. You will see the familiar Anurag Kashyap, in a scene where both husband and wife use their son as a referee in an argument asking him to identify the liar while quarreling.
About the acting in this movie... Saiyami Kher puts in a decent performance. Her Sarita looks like an average Mumbaikar middle class woman. She is a South Indian who has acquired a maharashtrian twang and she kinds of nails it. Roshan Mathew as the lazy husband is a delight to watch although by that I mean you will surely dispise him atleast in some scene. But the show-stealer to me was Amruta Shubhash. What a performance! She gives a memorable performance as an intruding yet caring neighbour.
All and all as I said, definitely not the Anurag Kashyap, we have come to love over the years but surely a different version of him.
Gisaengchung (2019)
A jaw-dropping satire on Class Divide
Parasite is a moving essay on the class divide.
A beautiful shot movie that takes you through the struggles of a downtrodden Kim family trying to meet ends. For them, everyday is a battle for survival.
During these struggles, they come across the Park Family.. Initially you meet the naive wife, who can't pick on any lies. She gives access to one of the Kim. And one after another the Kim's systematically encroach all household activities of Park household.. Ofcourse Lies, forgery and greed are the themes running in the background...but mostly this movie is a sharp satire on Class divide..
There are a lot of surprise elements in this movie and it does catch you off-guard.
Especially, when the old caretaker (who btw has been removed by the Kim's through careful planning) , requests to enter the house for a very hideous purpose.
The architecture of the house itself is beautiful. The stairs are used to good effects. Director conveys a lot through the different stairs and windows in this little tale.. also no tiny detail in this movie is there by chance, it is there for a purpose.. which is what makes this movie even more interesting... It is like an artwork, which on surface might just be telling one story but inside... It holds a lot... So it is basically, on the viewer, what he/she makes of it.
Wonderful watch.
P.S - As an indian watching a Korean movie, the language is tad distracting but still with subtitles, it is a comfortable watch.
Paatal Lok (2020)
Engaging, Thoughtful and Visceral
The real hero in this series is the story. Beautifully captured by competent directors, the storyline goes deep into the integral flaws of humans. So much so that, at one point in time, you find the dogs in the show better than the humans.
If you let the first two episodes by, and try and absorb the tone of this pitch dark thriller, you would see what all it unearths. There is a brutal take on communal violence, castism... Many times in the story I felt so safe being in the neighborhood that I live in as the one which we don't know and the one which gets showcased here is totally a harsh environment.
As a police procedural drama too , it is clinical.
There are certain characters although not thoroughly admirable, nonetheless are so succinctly created and even more beautifully portrayed. I especially liked the characters of Hathi Ram and his young protege. The juxtaposition of different religions and how inadvertently, we treat others who are not like us, is so deftly portrayed.
Jaideep Ahlawat is just too good. If you felt Saif was awesome in Sacred Games , but Manoj Bajpayee outplayed Saif with his brand of cop... Then you must watch Ahlawat.. for me his performance is just right there with Manoj Bajpayee's performance in The Family Man.
Give it a go as it surely doesn't disappoint.
Judgementall Hai Kya (2019)
Are you being Judgemental?
Are you judging, a deranged, psychotic woman? Can you take such a woman's word on its face value? that is the question this movie posed to its audiences.
Judgemental Hai Kya is a movie of contrasts. It displays immensely witty, delightfully twisted writing in first half. It has some wow moments in the first half. Special mention to brilliant detailing and the painstaking effort taken behind character development. Plot linearly explores the possibilities a deranged mind can lead to.
However, the movie's writing becomes lazy in the second half. Plot becomes moody and confuses you about its directions. Climax though seems fairly predictable. It almost seems that at the very end, director fails to take the bold step and gives audiences what they want! In that way movie lessens its impact.
Contrasting styles too in both the halves.. The storytelling element though is fun in the first half. The scene-within-a-scene sort of screenplay where Bobby, a dubbing artist imagines herself as the characters she has been dubbing for is refreshing. While in the second half storytelling relies on metaphors and doesn't have anything as brilliant to hold on to. Writers make some very rash choices in terms of character progressions. The deduction too seems like an afterthought. There is a point where the movie could just have slipped into absurdity. There is also a point in the second half where I felt the movie could have chosen a different path to its finale, with the Ramayana connections and with the introduction of Jimmy Shergill's character. However it sticks to what it set out for and doesn't quite go all out in the madness phase.
Kangana Ranaut is top-notch. Her performance betters most of her previous outings. She plays this character the way only she can play. Rajkumar Rao is deviously charming in this performance. He has an edgy role which he helms with fenesse. Special shout out to Hussain Dalal, he is terrific in his part.
All an all, not one of the smoothest or easy to watch movie. But recommended nonetheless as you don't often get to see such movies in Hindi cinema.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Glorious Movie tho
Just as Aldo the Apache says, " Utvich, This may just be my masterpiece" , Mr. Tarantino somewhere sitting with his assistant maybe saying,"This movie, may just be my masterpiece".
Absolutely funny...delightfully violent and trademark Tarantino screenplay... What fun this movie is!
List of memorable things
Brad Pitt's twang
Fassbender's class
Dread of Stiglitz
Horror of the bear
Revenge of Shoshana
And Absolute mastery of Mr.Christoph Waltz
Loved it!