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Reviews
Indiawaali Maa (2020)
All The Right Notes & Might Just Be Everyone's New Favorite
IndiaWaali Maa has all the ingredients to go on and become a winner for Sony and for TV in general. It might be able to perfectly blend quintessential flavors that is loved by all Indian viewes with the idea of progressive and forward storytelling. Foe now, I can certainly say that is a bang for the show to begin with - Rating **** (4/5)
What I am not ruling out however, is that IndiaWaali Maa is probably amongst the best shows I have seen recently, (judging by the premiere episode.)
The most impressive thing about IndiaWaali Maa is its subtlety. Presentations should never be about literally blurting out things to make a point and unforutunately Indian TV shows are all about that usually. It is a treat that so far, IndiaWaali Maa isn't.
Except for the LOUD title of the show, the show in itself proves all its points with great subtlety. Things like loneliness, need of family, being a quintessential "Indian" woman, the sheer maternal instincts that a woman possesses are masterfully shown in the show without actually saying it. In one scene where Kaku goes to her neighbor to ask to learn about using a smartphone, she casually starts helping her with cooking food while standing through a window, still conversing about other things. This, and several other things in the show are just outright fantastic in terms of the portrayal of emotions.
Set in Bhuj, an adorable, sweet and immensely loving Kaku (Suchita Trivedi) is living through her daily life with husband, Hasmukh (Nitesh Pandey) but her mind, soul and breath is all about her son, Rohan (Akshay Mhatre), who is living abroad with his work commitments. Straight off the bat, it is established that Kaku's life is all about constantly dying to have that one talk with her son who never calls her, and even then blindly being 'understanding' on why he doesn't' call. Her husband is the realistic one who constantly tries to make his innocent wife understand how his son will never come back at the same feeling the sadness of being a father who misses his son.
Breathe: Into the Shadows (2020)
Positives & Negatives
Negative Reviews:
Amith's character is a little bit weak when compared to Breathe 1.
The screenplay is lagging
Coming to certain lows, for those who have managed to see almost every leading and popular Indian web show might relate. The show has flashes of being in the zone where Voot Select's Asur has already dabbled with. Some of those seem a little too close to Asur and slightly towards Paatal Lok too.
There are even scenes that seem referential to The Shawshank Redemption and even Dhoom 3 to an extent (You'll know). Apart from this, some characters take a rather long time to develop and one of them is that of Saiyami Kher's Shirley.
The whole story depends on the past Happened in Avinash's life. firstly I thought elements were same as in Seven(movie) then the director comes up with Ravan's Life where he changes the whole plot
Positive Reviews:
Straight off the bat, Breathe: Into The Shadows has some really fine moments to marvel at. Be it the meticulous detailing of scenes building up to a reveal or the cinematography by S. Bharathwaaj
There is a sense of darkness in terms of the general visibility of frames where blues and grays take-over and this is masterfully done to set the tone of the show.
Great series.....Great performances.Overall an amazing roller coaster ride.Jr. B is back with a bang and Nithya Menen deserves an applause.Amit Sadh again proved his acting ability.THIS CAN'T BE MISSED
I won't call it a masterpiece coz obviously there are some flaws but still a very good watch and what a brilliant story, pacing and acting. Abhishek Bachhan proved once and for all that if he gets meaty role, he will play it to perfection. Congrats to the whole team. Amazing!
Perfect Execution & Beautiful Detailing Nithya Menon, Plabita & Amit Sadh are Too Good And Abhishek Bachchan truly an Underrated Actor His performance got me Awestruck right from the Start.. & Impressive Cinematography & Editing..However Physiological Thriller face some Loopholes in Writing.. One Of The Best Series Till Date ✌ Must Watch Rate : 4/5
Bhonsle (2018)
Negative Reviews, Positive Reviews
Bhonsle is a commendable piece of art and it rightfully portrays the message. However, if you genuinely don't like art films or you just can't bear slow paced cinema, this is definitely not your cup of tea.
The film definitely holds its flaws but it also raises a few questions which seems to hold no answers. A few scenes invoke an imbalance in the film and ruins the chemistry with the audience forcing you to skip. But, sitting through those flaws is completely worth it.
The film is a commendable piece of art and it rightfully portrays the message. However, if you genuinely don't like art films or you just can't bear slow paced cinema, this is definitely not your cup of tea. But, for a change you could definitely try to make an exception for a unique film.
Aarya (2020)
Review
The series starts off with showcasing the life of Aarya who is a loving wife, dotting mother, a caring daughter and a sister and a fitness enthusiast. The first few minutes of the series will dwell you into the life of Aarya and her family and will give you every reason to engage yourself in this crime thriller. As we move further into the series, each character breaks into it's own part be it Aarya's parents who are separated, her bride-to-be sister or her loving husband (Tej Sareen) who is dealing with his own problems with regards to his illegal business activities.
However, what will jeopardize Aarya's life and till what extent will the robust woman go to protect her family will form the crux of the storyline. Tej who is a complete family man at home gets mixed up with wrong people while dealing with illegal medications along with his other two partners, Jawahar (Namit Das) and Sangram (Ankur Bhatia). Aarya urges her husband to stop the illegal activies but what will happen next will turn her life upside down. Sushmita Sen will portray the role of a powerful, determined and explosive wife, daughter and mother, who will go to any lengths for the sake of her family and to unveil the truth.
Penguin (2020)
Some chills and many cheats in this underwhelming emotional thriller Times Of India
Review: In the opening scene of Penguin, a kid walks towards a statue in the woods even as his pet cautions him with his barks. As he nears the imposing statue, a person wearing a Charlie Chaplin mask steps from behind it, and in one swift move, slashes the kid. The murderer then picks up the body and walks into a lake, and for a few seconds all that we see is the striking visual of a yellow umbrella submerging into a grey lake. With this frightful stretch, director Eashvar Karthic sets the mood of his film quite effectively.
We are then introduced to Rhythm (Keerthy Suresh), a pregnant woman, still carrying the guilt of letting down her son, Ajay, who has been missing for six years. The incident has reshaped her life, destroying her marriage to Raghu (Linga), but also leading her to her present husband Gautham (Madhampatty Rangaraj). Everyone, including the police, believes the boy to be dead, but Rhythm will not hear anything of it. On a whim, and against the advice of her doctor, she goes to the lake where the boy went missing, and by a quirk of fate, she manages to find Ajay (Master Advaith) even while trying to avoid a masked killer. But where was the boy all these years, and who had kidnapped him?
Eashvar Karthic provides us the answers in this emotional thriller that might be underwhelming compared to recent serial killer thrillers like Ratsasan or Psycho, but isn't a total letdown, especially for a first film. Part of its success is due to the convincing performance of Keerthy Suresh, which brings out the vulnerability and the strength in this character. When a character remarks at how she caught him off guard despite being pregnant, she retorts with a whistle-worthy line, "I'm pregnant not brain damaged".
The first half is fairly engaging and some scenes are creepy enough to genuinely give us the chills. These mainly involve the boy Ajay, and Master Advaith captures the freaky aspect of this character pretty well, and keeps us guessing as to what this kid might do next. At times, the way he stares recalls Harvey Spencer Stephens's portrayal of Damein in Omen. He also gets a terrific moment in the intermission point. But it is mainly Kharthik Phalani's visuals and
Santhosh Narayanan's score that set the eerie mood.
But the writing isn't first-rate. Rather than create suspense in an organic manner, exploiting the oddity of the situation, the director resorts to providing cheap (cheat) thrills in the form of dream sequences and gratuitous violence that only makes us squirm. He also gives us one of the frustrating must-haves of the genre - of a character putting themselves in danger knowing fully well that they could wait and seek help.
And both the way the supporting cast is written and the performances are a letdown. At one point, Karthic tries to plant a seed of doubt in our minds about Rhythm's husbands, but this line isn't fleshed out well for us to make us look at these characters with suspicion. The actors playing these roles, too, disappoint - while Linga seems a bit over the top, Madhampatty Rangaraj struggles with even the basic expressions that we hardly see Gautham as a real threat.
The third act is a mess, as, in the name of twist, we get not one but two revelations (a crucial interrogation scene feels quite amateurish), with both providing not-so-satisfactory explanations for the events that we had witnessed. Equally clumsy is the effort to prop up motherhood in the end with awkward lines like "Amma oru attitude". It only comes across as a bad T-shirt quote.