Just finished watching #Chhaava,numbed ! This is an epic beyond all epics. #VickyKaushal is the new No.1. five stars

Watching #Chhaava...epic stunning!

Stop inflicting talentless industry kids on the audience

Just saw Himesh Reshmmiya in #BadassRaviKumar it will take civilization centuries to get over this

Just saw #Loveyapa soooo sooooo much fun and so frigging relevant

It is sad too see a young promising filmmaker getting carried away with all the excessive praise for her monstrously overrated film.Sometimes,all we imagine as light is just an illusion

#Deva in one word Brilliant

By the time the divine voice of Lataji comes on at the end,I was watching #Skyforce through a teary eyed blur.Dare anyone to emerge unmoved. @akshaykumar back in form.4 stars

Watching #SkyForce ....exhilarating

#MonkeyMan, Any Wick Way  You Can…. Dev Patel’s  Senseless Bloodbath Is In Bad Taste Rating: * 1/2   There  is no telling about tastes. Dev Patel’s senseless  bloodbath Monkey Man(Dev plans a Hanuman avatar)  has been nominated for a BAFTA award in the Outstanding Debut as  director  category. Sobhita Dhulipala  who has a role as commodious as  Jacqueline Fernandez in Fateh, is very happy.   I am happy for her.  But  not quite in the waltzy mode  over the  film. Watching Dev Patel’s much-extolled directorial debut , rightly banned in India  and from Netflix where  it was  scheduled  for  streaming, is a painful  experience. The stylized relentless violence, with stunt  passages  choreographed  like the opposite of a  ballet,are sickening in  their selfimportant gratuitousness. But  I would forgive  the endless pointless carnage—to each his own John Wick, I guess—were  it not for the  strange uncalled-for references  to Hindu  mythology that keep popping  up with nagging regularity all through the  sanguinary excursion, as if to remind us that there is a deep connection between  religion and violence in India. Well, perhaps there is. Infuriatingly, Monkey Man lacks the  cultural and  emotional perspective the wherewithal and the  gravitas,  to  make any sense  of that intricate connection between religion and violence. In the absence of erudition, the narrative looks stagey  stilted and self consciously stylized  with the frames  soaked in  blood-red.  At heart(not sure  if it has won) Monkey Man  is  a mother-son story: an aggravated  amped up avatar  of  Amitabh Bachchan’s Deewaar, perhaps. But what  was intense  in Bachchan  is purely comicbook aggression of the most melodramatic  strain  in Dev Patel’s vision . The portions  showing Patel as a  child with his chirpy mother(Adithi Kalkunte) are  so airy and stagey  in  tone, they look  like  a spoof  of all the  maa-laadla potboilers that  have ever been  made in  India.   It is  not very  clear—nothing is, not with almost every  frame soaked in  blood—why the  mother keeps drilling Hanuman  stories into her  little son’s  head.Monkey Man/Kid(Patel) takes  the  Hanuman analogy  a  little too seriously. At one  point in the lumbering story Patel’s Kid actually  fantasizes(?)  about ripping  open his chest, a  la Bajrangbali, to express his  anger and come to terms with his mother’s  savage death. Everyone is  angry in Monkey Man, 24/7.  None more so than Sikandar Kher who as  the brutal villain seems  to be  everywhere that Patel’s Hanuman  goes, including the loo, a venue lately for  staged  stylized violence in cinema. Kher’s corrupt cop Rana Singh is a direct descendant of Paresh Rawal in Rahul Rawail’s Dacait without the  underlining humour to bolster the brutality. Humour, most unintentional, props up when table maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain  plays the Tabla in one corner  of  the screen as  Dev Patel’s Human Man/Kid(he also calls himself  Bobby at some  point, the aliases flatter to deceive) practices his  boxing on  the  other end of the screen while  a bunch eunuchs ogle  and scream in delight. Would Mr Patel please explain the  connection between the  boxing practice, table playing  and eunuchs? Zakir Hussain looks amused and lost.He has been in better movies.   Correct me if I am wrong, but all of this seems like  selling Indian exotica to the West. What is  specially dismaying is  that  the  script(Dev Patel ,Paul Angunawela ,John Collee) is pureBollywood Masala, steamed up to  an unbearable  level of aggressive  energy, masquerading as  something deeper . Dev Patel, playing the  double role of director and leading man gives himself  a variety of avatars: he is  the vengeful son and the brutal boxer at an underground fighting club where  he  fights to  lose for money. He  is also a dog lover at  some point.And  a  champion  of  the minorities.Jai Ho!Quite  an all-rounder. Dev Patel is the Indian  John Wick with Hanuman’s  DNA.

Just watched #Emergency. ..oustanding.best biopic on any Indian politician...another National award for #KanganaRanaut.4 stars

The  Family Is In Shock Needs Space,” Close Friend Reacts To  Robbery Attempt As details of the utterly  shocking and brutal  attack on  #SaifAliKhan at his  high-security home in Mumbai�� are filtering in, there are  only two  certainties that we can count on at the moment: that Saif’s life is  not endangered, and that nobody is safe. A  close friend of  the couple woke up groggy to the news and was  still attempting to process  the enormity of the  trauma.  “The one  thing  I can tell you at this  moment is  that Saif is out of danger. The stab wounds have providentially  not  damaged  his vitals. Kareena and the kids are  unhurt physically. But the family is in a state of shock. You can imagine the  extent  of their  shock  at the damage  caused by breach  of security.Given the circumstances it is highly insensitive  of the  media  to call up every member  of the family  non-stop. Please  give them  some  space  to come to terms  with the  trauma.”    Saif’s  mother Sharmila  Tagore is  flying in later today. Ironically Saif and  I  had spoken  about the security of his  home  some time  ago when the invasive aggression of the paparazzi had reached an unbearable  crest. Said Saif, “We  understand it(the paps)are doing their job. But when they enter my home compound that’s clicking it too close. Luckily,  we are in a high security home so the family  is safe.” Not safe  enough, Saif.

Watching @NetflixIndia #TheRoshans blockbuster family blockbuster documentary composer Roshan Nagrath,truly the Baap of the family

#Goldfish, Deepti,  Kalki Do A Brilliant Bratty Breakout Boribunder Version  Of  Bergman Goldfish Starring Deepti Naval,  Kalki Koechlin ,Rajit Kapoor,Bharti Patel Directed Pushan Kripalani On Amazon Prime  Video Rating: ***  Why  does the  well-qualified  Kalki Koechlin always  play such surly actors? She  plays  characters who will always  find a way to make  herself unhappy. She  doesn’t  disappoint, although  it doesn’t help much that she looks nothing like Deepti Naval’s daughter in Goldfish, an oddly satisfying  films about fractured  lives looking for  some kind of  closure. Since the  film is  set  in  London(though not  shot  with any touristic flourishes), the Indian characters don’t have to behave like they would if they were placed in the same  situation  back home. This is  not to say that they are not shackled by their cultural  heritage. But I am pretty  sure the mother  and  daughter, played with powerful predilection by Naval  and Koechlin would never be allowed to behave the way do were they in Ludhiana. At one point Deepti Naval’s Sadhana even tells her daughter Anamika(Koechlin) that  they’ve hated one another forever. All the  bile, classical  Hindustani thumris  and ghazals play with selfconscious  eloquence  in the  background.  I didn’t mind them at all. But I wish the songs  and were less pretentious….songs of Lata Mangeshkar connecting  Sadhana to her past  would have made  much  more sense and given the  character a  far stronger cultural validation.  Minor quibbles  aside,  there is  so much to admire in Goldfish: the  absence of  a formal, or for that matter ,  any background  music, for one. This is a radical departure from the norm in Hindi cinema  where  the  emotions  are  spoonfed  through the  music. In  this case, the  dramatic tension between the two women grows organically.Really, these women don’t need an impetus to be nasty  to one another. With  Bergmanesque fury they tear  into one another’s  selfesteem leaving  no room for niceties.Both Naval and Koechlin give off their best, imbuing their characters  with  a ravaged  scrupulosity.  I  was especially surprised by Naval in some  scenes where she  hit notes that  I’ve never seen her hit before.The  supporting cast could have done  with some fleshing out.The mother-daughter’s suburban neighbors  seem tokenisms rather  than real people: the  long-standing South Indian friend(Bharati Patel, more dhokla than  idli, but we shall let it be), the mother’s secret admirer Ashwin  Raina(Rajit Kapoor), etc. I was most intrigued  by the girl Tilly(played  by the lovely Shanaya Raafat) who keeps  tabs  on Anamika’s mother in her absence. She seems  to have some sort of  a love-hated relationship with  Sadhana  and Ananya.Sketchily  imagined ,Tilly is  one of the many unanswered questions  in a film that favours silence  to  conversation.  Fragile but forceful, Goldfish is  a  mother-daughter two-hander where  other characters are placed in the shadows.Not that  they aren’t needed.They just don’t  have a place in  the forefront  on the pained-ting where the disgruntled  daughter and  mother , stroke by stroke, battle it out  until the sudden reconciliation at  the  end.

#MissYou, Siddharth’s  Script Sense  Slumps To  An All-Time Low  Is this some kind of a  mid-career  crisis? What has happened to  Siddharth?  Not too long ago, he was one of Tamil cinema bright spots. He chose his  projects well, and he plunged  into them  judiciously. Apart  from Chittha  all his  recent films Mahasmudram, Takkar, Indian 2  have proven themselves boxoffice  bummers.  Siddharth’s latest Miss You is  an abomination. The writing is so ridiculous,I wonder what Siddharth was  thinking while listening to the script. Or was he narrated one thing and did he shoot another? No rational actor would plunge into this trainwreck knowingly. Every dramatic punctuation in  the  storytelling lands with a  thud . I would hate to subject anyone to  this experience unless he or she is keen to suffer for sins committed in the past life. The film casts Siddharth, surprisingly lacklustre  but then maybe not so surprisingly considering the script is a witless mess,as Vasu a  man who keeps running  into  Subbulaxmi(Ashika Ranganath) in public places. They altercate, they  growl at each other, they finally get  married  as the girl’s father has a cancerous tumour.    However the tumour just turns out to be rumour. Papa  lives, the marriage dies…the ordeal ends? Far from  it!  There is  much more to come from where that came  from. In the second-half Vasu loses his memory and falls in  love with  the same woman he  hated in the  first half.  The  screenplay groans  under the weight of absurdities.Sample this: Vasu meets Bobby(Karunakaran)  and  decides to impulsively accompany his new best friend to Bengaluru. Who in his right mind who do something so  foolish even in a corny  potboiler which this one most  assuredly  is. The  film is cut with the bluntest of knives, with one  episode  hurtling into another  without a moment  of respite. While the principal performances  are stilted  to the point of being embarrassing, the  supporting cast only adds to the cretinous  chaos. Miss You is well worth  missing.

#Loveyapa :  The  Trailer Tickles The  Phoney Bone  Junaid  and Khushi are up to some phoney business.  It’s all about swapping phones. The  trailer  of director Advait Chandan’s Loveyapa produced by  the enterprising Madhu Mantena of Phantom Films,  looks  like the Valentine’s day treat that the  love doctors  ordered.  The  film works on  a devious tongue-in-cheek  premise:  the girl’s father(played  by the ever reliable Ashutosh Rana) asks the lovebirds to swap their phones  for a day.  Beware of  what your phone contains! It could  destroy your life. This sobering  wisdom  comes  in  handy in the  phone-exchange programme . The trailer shows  the couple bickering over the  content  of  each other’s phone, some  of it is  unmistakably  hilarious.For bicker or for worse. When  Khushi Kapoor wonders  how  Junaid Khan  behaves  so properly with her  after browsing  bilge  on his  phone, Junaid retorts, “It is  BECAUSE  I  browse through that  bilge I  am able to behave so properly with you.”   The young couple  seem to have  a lot of fun with their mutual bantering. The chemistry  between  Khushi  and  Junaid  is  based on acrimony rather than  compatibility. We could say their chemistry  is generated  from their  lack of chemistry. The trailer  of  Loveyapa strongly suggests couples  should stay away from one another’s phone. There is  a noticeable naughtiness  and nuttiness   about the  presentation . The film promises to be   fun ride with more slurp than  slop.

With #PritishNandy,entertainment journalism is dead.What we have is media outlets with space on sale with no respect for cinema or its history...just information gleaned from social media about which star is wearing what and blowing kisses to whom ,and regurgitated ad is cannibalized information even journalism?

‘@ApplauseSocial’s #Black Warrant on @NetflixIndia is the liberating prison story that we always wanted to see.****

#Fateh Showcases Sonu Sood’s  Calm Carnage Compulsions Rating: *** 1/2  Cool  as a cucumber, Sonu Sood mows down scores  of adversaries—one wouldn’t call them opponents  as  they don’t stand a chance—in the sleekly stirring  Fateh. Sonu Sood’s  directorial debut brings out  a  silent violent  side of the director-leading man’s  personality.  Outwardly Fateh is a  tranquil godfearing peace-loving Gandhian from Moga….   Okay, cancel Gandhian. Fateh  doesn’t believe  in turning the other cheek: he  believes in making his enemies shriek.When a  girl Nimrit goes missing,  Sonu Sood’s Fateh sets  off to  find the villains. The blood splattered  landscape offers interminable bouts of  trigger  rage.  We are  not told much about the hero’s antecedents  except that he loves chai, and offers  the  villains some before bashing the daylights  out of them. At the  end of one more round of relentless rampaging  ,our hero Fateh(I like this  guy!)  mumbles, “You  should have accepted my chai offer.” Tea hee hee.  The wry poker-faced humour acquired from  John Wick , sits well on Sonu Sood. He is at once the saviour and the slasher, violence with a purpose, if you please. The rampant  action sequences are shot  in a tone of  imminent cataclysm: these goons have to die , and let’s have some fun with gun…that’s the effectual tone assumed by the this simple film of one man setting right the prevalent  scourge of cyber crime. There is an air of  pleasant placidity  hovering  just beneath the humid violence. Though the  carnage  tends to careen dangerously  towards excess, Sonu Sood’s  calm aggression beings  an aura of audited  acumen to  what could easily have turned into a maelstrom of mayhem.  Well-edited  and with a keen on the clock , Sonu Sood’s directorial  debut knows where to  stop. Making his war  on  cybercrime somewhat spiced up are the villains.Vijay Raaz and  Naseeruddin Shah have a blast with their nasty parts. There is a  side  villain a Chinese  who gobbles noodles constantly. “Be careful with that,” Naseer(who for reasons unknown, is seen in  black Hawai chappals  all through)  warns the  gobbler.  In the  very next sequence  Vijay Raaz stabs the gobbler with his steel chopsticks . Villains as  blood brothers in  more ways than one.

Watching #Fateh...absolutely arresting action...Is Sonu Sood the best action hero of our cinema?