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Film Reviews

Film Review: Adipurush (2023)

STORY

Raghava rejects Shurpanakha‘s proposal which infuriates her and attempts to kill Raghava’s wife, Janaki. In retaliation, Lakshmana bleeds her nose with an arrow. Shurpanakha informs her brother Ravana. Ravana kidnaps Janaki which starts an epic war.

INTRODUCTION

Adipurush is a mythological action film based on the Sanskrit epic from ancient India called ‘Ramayana‘. Before I jump towards this cinematic disaster piece, let me give you a few insights about where this story is coming from.

Hinduism is arguably the world’s oldest religion. After four holy books of Vedas, two Sanskrit epics that together forms the Hindu mythological belief and constructs a university of faith are Mahabharata and Ramayana. And Adipurush is based on Ramayana.

A legendary poet Valmiki wrote this epic poem thousands of years ago. The poem covers Rama‘s life, his 14-year exile to the forest with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana. And then Sita’s kidnapping by Ravana that resulted in a war. And last of all, Rama’s return from exile.

Who was Rama? Rama was the prince of Ayodhya in the kingdom of Kosala. Kosala was one of the 16 realms that existed in the ancient India between 6th and 4th centuries in BCE that were collectively called “Mahajanapadas” which means great footold of people. Rama’s father was Dasharatha, the king of Kosala. He had three wives; Kausalya gave birth to Rama, Kaikeyi to Bharata, and Sumitra to twin sons Lakhsamana and Shatrughna. Bharata is the one who ruled Ayodhya when Rama was exiled.

So when Ravana kidnaps Sita to his Lanka, Rama and Lakshmana are informed about this shocking incident by Jatayu, the vulture, who tried to rescue Sita. Rama and Lakshmana seeks help from Sugriva and Bajrang Bali to raise an army against Ravana and liberate his wife from the captivity.

So readers, I have given you a lot of insight. I have shared you some bullet points of the story. So why is Adipurush a box-office disaster? Why the Indian viewers of Hindu faith have taken this film as a blasphemy? What went wrong? Almost everything.

REVIEW

See, I have read the bullet events that occurred in Ramayana and Mahabharata. And I think that Hindu mythology really gives us some interesting stories. Back in the 1990s, I happened to watch a few scenes from Ramanand Sagar‘s Ramayana that, if I am not wrong, used to be telecasted on Doordarshan. Whatever was happening in the show looked to be weird to me in those times. In my mid-teen, I was not a film critic but a typical Shah Rukh Khan fan. So, my opinion in the childhood matters the least or close to none.

But in 2023, with elite level of CGI and many technologies to ponder our unsettling surprises, I can easily envision that if Valmiki’s epic poem is given justice by its true loyalist, both Ramayana and Mahabharata will be shot with the aesthetics of a combined universes of James Cameron‘s Avatar and Peter Jackson‘s The Lord of The Rings.

But in 2023, the general audience especially of the Hindu faith are tortured to watch three hours of Adipurush which is in all sorts, outrageous and quite insulting to Hinduism. Most surprisingly, a film on Hinduism has severely messed up when Narendra Modi is the prime minister of India.

AGONIZING THE VIEWERS

Adipurush begins with a disclaimer that mentally instils the ‘Hindu’ audience to expect a volcano erupt from the presentation. It clearly states that ‘certain elements, characters, and events may have been interpreted or modified to suit the screen adaptation’. Later on, it also informs that they may have include dramatizations and fictional additions. I have always believed that if the film is based on a true story, just depict in its true nature with the highest level accuracy as possible. Because if you don’t, the film carries no purpose at all. And Adipurush is based on Hindu mythology that has become a religion to more than a billion people on the planet. So altering the story or trying to install the whole story in different aesthetics will do no good.

CASTING AND TERRIBLE PORTRAYALS

One of the massive issues with the film is an extremely enormous production budget which is ₹500–700 crore. With that budget, the film ridicules the audience with one of the worst visual effects ever paranoid. Also, with that budget, the casting and their costumes and make-ups don’t fit at all. One of the highest-paid actors in India, Prabhas, played the titular role of Rama. But more than Rama, he looked like Karna of Mahabharata. Plus, Rama sporting a moustache looked pretty odd because I think this has never happened before. Not even in animated films.

Beautiful Kriti Sanon plays Sita but by her attire, I assume she is reimagined as Sita in a modern setup. But Adipurush’s Sita also suffers from cheesy dialogues that corrupts the portrayal further. Imagine one of Sita’s responses to Ravana in Ashok Vatika is ”Ye kesa prem hay, Ravana? Mujhe koi aisi cheez do jo kuch din chale.” (What love is this, Ravana? Give me something that lasts for days).

Two more castings raised the eyebrows. One was Saif Ali Khan as Ravana and Devdatta Nage as Bajrang Bali. I dont have knowledge from what family did Ravana belong to but Adipurush’s Ravana, with his spiky hairstyle and Muslim beard, definitely comes from the house of Targaryen who instead of riding a dragon rides a gargoyle-like bat. Ravana’s original ride was called Pushpaka Vimana which was a flying chariot. So I am unsure what caused to change the ride whereas Pushpak Vimana was shown for a few seconds when Hauman flies to Sita. And then the bizarre alignment of Ravana’s heads in such an outrageous CGI. The ten heads of Ravana, if I am not wrong, always appears in one horizontal parallel. This is the first time, I see a 5×5 dramatizing of Ravana’s heads.

The portrayal of Hanuman is a joke. Neither the right actor was picked nor the physique was muscular enough to hand him over the mace. Plus, the dialogues he uttered were garbage. I felt that Devdatta was trying to be a silly Hanuman. But in any case, the makers surely had a lot of muscular choices for Hanuman. Overall, the casting on that massive budget needs an inquiry. Vatsal Sheth? Sonal Chauhan?

ZERO AESTHETICS

Adipurush doesn’t have a soul for magnificence in visual artistry or storytelling. I feel director Om Raut was being extremely lazy in giving a better look at this ancient world. A viewer cannot watch and say if the aesthetics are inspired. Almost every creativity in Adipurush will remind you of something and make you convince that the makers copied. Ravana Targaryen’s Westeros has striking resemblance with Marvel‘s Asgard. The legend is that Ravana’s Lanka was made of gold. Adipurush’s Lanka is made of coal. Almost everything is coal black. Bollywood has a tendency to dark the tone in the film when the world of the antagonist has to be portrayed as hell. But there is a level. Adipurush’s Lanka is more than elite level.

Not only that but Ravana Targaryen has an army of Orcs borrowed straight from Tolkien or perhaps Peter Jackson. There are a few sequences of Ravana Targaryen riding on his bat that will remind you the flights of the Witchking of Angmar.

Ravana’s son is one of the worst characterizations in the film. Those who have watched Vatsal Sheth giving a B-grade performance of Ravana’s son but doesn’t understand his value. Let me inform you what Indrajit meant in Ramayana. My research says that this guy nearly destroyed the race of vanara when he killed 670 million Vanaras in a single day. Vanara is the race of ape-people from where Hanuman belongs. They were created by Brahma to help Rama defeat Ravana.

Another legend is that Indrajit defeated both Rama and Lakshmana not once but twice in Ramayana. Plus, no warrior possessed all the three Trimurti astras other than Indrajit. Om Raut destroyed this character by making him the Lankan speedster Indrajit Allen aka The Flash. If I am not wrong, there is no mention of Indrajit being a speedster.

The vanara king Sugriva is a shameless replica of Caesar from the Planet of the Apes trilogy. Not only that, the dramatizing of the vanaras will precisely remind you of the Bandar Log from The Jungle Book. The jaw-dropping throat slitting scene is brutal false as that never occurred in Ramayana.

There is a sequence where Rama, Lakshmana, and a few vanaras are surrounded by the army of Orcs just like before the start of the Battle of Black Gate in The Lord of the Rings. And then comes a shot of the heroes warming up for the fight exactly like the first assembling of The Avengers.

In the beginning, two universes collide when Adipurush’s Rama fights against Harry Potter‘s Dementors. Whatever those creatures were, had no part in Ramayana.

WTF IS YOUR MESSAGE???

The laziness of filmmakers is so plentiful that the most controversial dialogue of the film ‘Jali Tere Baap Ki‘ which itself is so subpar to listen is taken from a spiritual motivational speaker, Amogh Lila Prabhu. He uttered Hanuman’s entire dialogue in one of his addresses with using the word ‘Ravana’ instead of baap.

Can you imagine the sages, deities, or the most respectful figures of some mythology or faith, to whom millions or billions of people dedicate their lives or respect to its zenith, speak such cringe, low-level, or pedestrian dialogues? And in all honesty, it is not funny for people of any faith. Imagine a Christian or Jewish film being highly disrespectful and inaccurate. As a Muslim, I will not tolerate if a film is based from the times of Muhammad and instead of depicting the true soul of the story, make the joke out of it.

Om Raut wrote and directed Adipurush, Manoj Muntashir wrote the dialogues. They shamelessly defended against all the criticism. Ramayana is such an incredible story and its live-action adaptation deserved a very careful planning to transform it into a live-action. There must be inquiry about the film’s production cost because with almost zero creativity and cheap editing resulting into one of the worst VFX results from an assumed ₹500-crore budget film questions the authenticity of truth. This film is no way more than ₹50 crore at all. Perhaps, a half of this budget is Prabhas’ pay for the film.

CLOSING REMARKS

Adipurush lacks the emotional value that would show the cultural and religious significance of the Hinduism. It just doesn’t remind you of the core or some essence in which Ramayana is valued to the hearts of the viewers but a three-hour Western portfolio and re-imagination of the ancient India unsuccessfully and unfaithfully resetting that war between good and evil.

Without watching any Ramayana or related show, I can blindly tell you that Adipurush is the last thing to remember for a Hindu content and unfortunately an unforgettable project for the wrongest possible reasons. If Om Raut and Manoj Muntashir are alive, that is only because they are Hindus. There is no excuse of this insult.

Those who want to try Adipurush, at your own risk. I wasted my three hours on the film and three days working on this content as a blogger and vlogger because this is my work. But you, let me save your 173 minutes and recommend you watching a 7-minute bhajan from Swades called ‘Pal Pal Hai Bhaari‘. That has music, poetry, essence of Ram, and Sita’s devotion.

Adipurush is a cinematic disaster which is lost in translation of the scripture that is sacred to the billions.

RATING 1/10

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Film Reviews

Film Review: Salaam Venky (2022)

STORY

Sujata is a single mother and her son Venky was diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) as a child. Sick of his condition and feeling a burden on his mother for carrying him his whole life, he decides to euthanize to facilitate organ donation.

INTRODUCTION

Salaam Venky is based on the true story of Kolavennu Venkatesh who suffered from DMD and passed away in 2004 when he was 25. He was a film buff and a chess player. To depict the right story on the camera, the film based its source from a book ‘The Last Hurrah’ by Shrikant Murthy.

REVIEW

A film directed by Revathi. An impressive and talented cast led by Kajol and Vishal Jethwa. Mithoon‘s music and a film that is not only based on a true story but even based on a book. What can go wrong? Execution!!

If you want to waste a film that has a potential story, learn the art from director Revathi. It is a simple story as described above and is stretched to 136 minutes. The biggest drawback of the film is the boring melodramatic first half that led to nowhere at all. Nothing was developing from the given scenario. The screen time was constantly running on slicing Venky’s relation with people close to him and his frustrated mother not agreeing on his wish. Again, that took the entire first half.

The film literally begun to talk in the second half. The new characters were immediately introduced. The screenplay eventually approached movement and got pacy. And I felt if Revathi regretted the first half and desperately made changes just like a football coach.

Then the news media portrayal looked so artificial. There was no hard way of journalism to squeeze the debate of euthanizing. And a very off courtroom drama. As much as the plea to euthanize made rounds 20 years ago, there wasn’t much spark to offer.

Such an intense sequence of Venky’s father Karunesh was shot for hardly three minutes. This character and the legal proceedings could have easily covered a lot of screen time in the first half if the film could have shortened its length for being melodramatic. Salaam Venky, for me, was around 40 minutes long.

Kajol had nothing particular to offer, we have observed her with such performance before. It is Vishal Jethwa whose body language and facial translation for diagnosis were impressive. Aamir Khan as the ghost character stood enclosed only for Sujata. Who was he? It was cleared in the first meeting with Sujata. But with Karunesh showing disapproval in the flashback gave the viewers a precise theory. My understanding is that Aamir’s character and Sujata had an affair, unsure if Sujata was married to Karunesh. But Aamir is Venky’s father and Karunesh got to know that and quitted on them.

CLOSING REMARKS

Salaam Venky fails to execute a potential story that lacks writing and leans on more melodrama.

RATING 3.5/10

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Film Reviews

Film Review: An Action Hero (2022)

STORY

After annoying a strongman Vicky during the film shooting, the popular action film star Maanav accidentally kills him when he chases Maanav. In fear of getting caught, Maanav runs away to his home in the UK but he is unaware that Vicky’s brother Bhoora is coming to take revenge.

REVIEW

The plot line indicates that I was up for a cat-and-mouse chase and a survival action thriller. An interesting idea was pitched for a typical Ayushmann Khurrana pandemic. The first 50 minutes were the best part of the film. But the entire comical setup of a thoughtful plot devalued after that, because Maanav faces off Bhoora too early.

My opinion about the continuity of such plot is that “An Action Hero” must have been written in a way that Bhoora would make efforts searching for his head and Maanav running from him and the local police throughout the film. That would have built the intensity and their eventual face-off had captivated more interest and undivided attention. But since the writer decided to let Bhoora meet Maanav too early in the film, the question mark over Maanav’s survival become vital. Instead of killing off the character, knowing the fact naturally how furious a brother will be for the deceased, Bhoora comes to his face and wishes to go no-holds-barred. Brother, you came all over from India to Portsmouth just to fight and then kill him? Of course, it is unrealistic and the main purpose of the plot gets killed before Maanav due to such premature encounter.

There is no doubt that the action choreography, besides a couple of scenes, were above-average because Maanav is action master so performing stunts and fighting against all odds was natural. But in a given scenario, I felt it was pretty unnatural for a film star to go Die-Hard or Mission Impossible against firing bullets and going one-on-one against the trained fighters of crime.

The film’s hype is centered around two extremely different actors in Ayushmann Khurrana and Jaideep Ahlawat. But due to bad screenplay and execution, and much effort put on a comedy unsuccessfully transforming into a black comedy, Maanav-Bhoora chemistry fell flat. With an introduction of a don in the second half that made Maanav and Bhoora became tag-team, the film completely slipped from its purpose and went far from logic and reality.

CLOSING REMARKS

Some of you may criticize me finding logic in a mainstream Bollywood film. But try to understand my point. In 2015, a similar story in this very industry blended with realism and black comedy ran a full life circle due to excellent execution. And that was Badlapur. I do not demand for another Badlapur. I opine that the quality of writing a screenplay and a fitting execution could have done justice with the plot. Sadly, that is not the case.

RATING 2/10

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Film Reviews

Film Review: RK/RKay (2022)

STORY & INTRODUCTION

Bollywood is predictable for the general audience but is mysterious too if the seekers looking for a different experience get a shot on a not-so-well-known project.

Ever heard of RK/Rkay? Yes, this is a Bollywood film that was released in India last year (2022). And no, it is not some C-grade film with first-audition actors shooting on low-scale camera work. The actors in this film are Rajat Kapoor, Mallika Sherawat, Ranvir Shorey, Kubbra Sait, and Manu Rishi Chadda. My interest in this film developed when I found out that Rajat Kapoor directed the film. And I like his directional style and natural timing in black comedy. Even the stories of his films are quite divergent.

In RK/Rkay, the director RK with his crew completes a film. But while editing the film for the final cut, the leading character Mahboob Alam disappears throughout the recording of the film. Mahboob Alam is roped in real life and RK tries to convince his creation for the reshoots.

REVIEW

I have no knowledge if this plot is copied from somewhere because if this is the original work, what a spectacular idea this is! We get to view real and fiction in the same frame like hardly ever before.

The first half sets the dynamics of the plot. A kind of world is amazed to us where real humans can look at the existence of fictional characters, communicate and argue with them. The second half unfortunately bores me and things do not pace up towards the conclusion. The reason is that Rajat Kapoor was able to surprise us with the plot in the first hour but the follow up and the business end of the script couldn’t maintain the same tone. Your mood will feel more off in the continuity. The story in the second half was not at all growing or moving anywhere for some time.

But generally speaking and summing up about the film, one can make a lot of theories from RK/Rkay. One can take Mahboob Alam in the film as a metaphor or RK in state of imagination. Perhaps, the whole story was a made-up to assume if Mahboob Alam was RK himself who actually was in love with the character of Gulabo. If you notice, RK’s wife Seema inquires why he wants to make this film. She also doesn’t take much interest in the film but is sympathetic with Mahboob Alam.

The screenwriter says to RK in the editing room that he shouldn’t have acted in the film. This further presses why RK was firm to play the lead in his own direction. He often was depicted being in conversation with Gulabo in the film clips. Why did he choose the Gulabo actress Neha over other candidates in the audition who were better than her. Neha was so dumb that she didn’t even sense if she has to utter Mahboob once or twice. Was Neha’s individuality the one that resembled the love of RK’s life?

The film has a lot of artistic appeal and thoughtful creativity. I liked that opening sequence of various Mahboob Alams entering and leaving most of the doors in a colorful shot giving a noir feeling. I observed that Mahboob Alam in most of the scenes was enlightened. Perhaps, this was a reflection of hope towards RK or maybe he was dramatized as an angel or a spirit. Mahboob Alam had everyone’s attention and was naturally keeping happy besides RK himself. One of Seema’s friend in the party admits to her that this Mahboob is way better than the one she has. So this further presses that RK was a sad husband whose wife Seema was actually not his Gulabo but someone in the past or maybe in his utopia. So he gave birth to his imagination who could openly express his love for Gulabo. But gets frustrated when his creation enters his home and wins everyone.

CLOSING REMARKS

The technical aspects were excellent. The film definitely had upper hand in both costume and production designing. Although the screenplay got weak in the second half but the dialogues were natural and thoughtful especially Mahboob’s part of writing was contemplative. The performances were all average, I don’t think that was taken seriously. Only Rajat himself did a fair job. I must include how charming and beautiful Mallika Sherawat looks in the film. And she is 46!

RK/Rkay is a thoughtful film with a lot of philosophy, wit, and humor involved. Had the second half equated the first, would have been one of the best films from 2022.

RATING 6/10

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Film Reviews

Film Review: Drishyam 2 (2022)

STORY

Seven years after the Deshmukhs lost their son and couldn’t prove that the Salgaonkars were behind his killing, some efforts and developments rekindle the swollen mystery as the Salgaonkars face the heat once again.

INTRODUCTION

Drishyam is now a franchise that was born as a Malayalam film written and directed by Jeethu Joseph. It has been remade in several Indian languages. It took seven years to produce the Hindi sequel and interestingly, the original cast showed up in the sequel with no changes but additions.

REVIEW

The first film in Drishyam series met with a technical conclusion that can be considered as an open end and an ultimate conclusion at the same time. Continuing from there could have jeopardized the writing as I was unsure how possibly would the writer produce such circumstances. But guess what? That is what a writer is for. It is the beauty of the writing that can unlock any possibility. Therefore, with the highest level of satisfaction, Drishyam 2 faithfully continued and met with yet another incredible conclusion.

Between all this, the aesthetics didn’t drop. In the first half an hour, I felt that the continuity was a mistake but later on, the film proved that all that in the first thirty minutes was for a reason. Although, it took seven years to bring them back to interrogation and the court but why it took seven years to the Deshmukhs? The addition of IG police Tarun Ahlawat, who is also an old friend of Meera Deshmukh, intensifies the proceedings but again, why it took seven years? Why didn’t they took all that action on the Salgaonkars soon after how the first film ended? Perhaps they have been observing the Salgaonkars all these years and eventually dug the hole in the mystery.

With the entire story rolling towards another conclusion, the biggest curiosity was how will the film conclude now? It did met to a terrific end, in fact both the ending of the films were some mind blowing designs. But with this conclusion, the character of Vijay Salgaonkar now really raises my doubts. How is he that smart? The years-long planning to shield his family from any what-ifs needs a careful observation if Vijay is clean. I feel if Vijay has a rough background and he never got exposed. It is my theory that Vijay’s this suspicious angle has not been depicted at all. I want the writer to enlighten this.

PERFORMANCES

Ajay Devgn‘s character may have developed from the first film but I am a little concerned with his own acting. In recent years, his acting has gone cold with not much facial and body language. Shriya Saran and Ishita Dutta have upgraded from their previous performance. Shriya’s panic acting was good and Ishita’s epilepsy acts were fantastic. If anyone observe, the mother-daughter pairing of Shriya Saran and Ishita Dutta looks strange as compared to the first part. Now they look sisters. In real-life, Shriya is only 8 years older than Ishita. Tabu stands tall when it is about displaying how a strong woman will respond in her angst and grief.

Akshaye Khanna, one of the most underrated Bollywood actors of all-time. As usual, never disappointing. But if you carefully observe his recent CV, since his return to acting in 2016, his characters are usually in the law enforcement. He was inspector in Mom, investigation officer in Ittefaq, advocate in Section 375, and now an IG police. I am afraid this can make him a stereotype if he keeps playing similar roles again and again. Even before 2016, he has played these roles several times.

FRANCHISE LEGACY

No matter if Drishyam is a true story or fictitious. The plot of both the films are carefully written. Because if you notice, no one between both the families and the police is wrong or negative at all. They are all right in their own ways. There is only one wrong in the entire franchise and that piece of shit is dead. The plot is a rare and unfortunate situation where both the families are forced to use their power to defend against each other. What makes Drishyam so compelling lies in the roots of writing elements that sticks to realism.

CLOSING REMARKS

The one aspect that this film deserves to have a few minutes is a courtroom drama. It was clearly visible in the last scenes, that there should have been at least ten minutes in the courtroom due to shocking proceedings.

Drishyam 2 makes a solid case of a crime-thriller. The element of suspense and smart screenplay keeps you attentive. Will there be Drishyam 3? It is another open end as well as assumingly an ultimate conclusion. Stretching further may broke the rubber band this time. But again, it is the writer’s art. Drishyam 2 is an extraordinary and a faithful sequel.

RATING 8.2/10

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Film Reviews

Film Review: Ardh (2022)

STORY

In order to feed his wife and a kid, a struggling theatre actor Shiva impersonates as a transgender and begs on the street but sticks with his aim to break into the film industry and get a mainstream role but suffers setback after setback.

REVIEW

Ardh is a ZEE5 and visibly a pretty low-budget film where the heart and soul of the plot are in the right direction as well as Rajpal Yadav‘s performance. Sadly, nothing else does a favor to the film.

The film emphasizes on Mumbai being a city of dreams that either comes true or gets broken. Shiva is one of those millions of poor individuals who wants to become an actor in the film industry. Luckily, he is a theater actor but the theater is shut down due to lack of attendance. In the screenplay, the film addresses the struggling actors suffering from nepotism and the humiliation that the actors face during their hard time in the auditions like the staff assuming if the actor was actually a water boy or a cleaner as well as denying him a chance because of his short height.

In the middle of the film, Shiva in his transgender get up is paid by an interviewee on the bus stop and is asked to pray for him. That gives an idea to Shiva to earn money by disguising himself and begging on the street. In the last phase, a rickshaw driver offers him for sex to which he refuses. I actually guessed that after failing all his chances, the film will conclude on Shiva eventually giving up on acting and settling his mind to sell his body as a transgender sex worker. This could have been one of the most tragic conclusions of any Bollywood films in recent years. But like I said before in many film reviews, Bollywood don’t know how to give a technically fitting conclusion to most of the films at all.

Not sure if the director Palash Muchhal did this on purpose but my brother Wasey noted something interesting that I didn’t. He noted that while Shiva struggles to get the role, Sonu Nigam sings the male version of the track ‘Zindagi’. By the end of the film, when Shiva gives up and reaches to his usual begging routine as a transgender, ‘Zindagi’ is now sung by Rekha Bhardwaj hence convincing the audience that the change in voice from a man to a woman is the indication that his fate has permanently turned into becoming a beggar as a transgender. Only the director can confirm if this theory is accurate but I find the theory pretty interesting for a film that stood low profile on the aesthetics.

CLOSING REMARKS

I am unsure why the film was not decently financed despite being a ZEE5 exclusive. The plot was promising but the entire execution and the direction were sub-standard. There is no life in performances, Rajpal looks like a lonely bread and butter of the film. Yes, I know Rajpal Yadav in the lead cannot guarantee a box-office success. That is not how this industry works at all. But the film also does not deserves to be produced at a low scale. ZEE5 could have done some favor with a very good plot and a struggling screenplay but didn’t.

RATING 3/10

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Film Reviews

Film Review: Chup: Revenge of the Artist (2022)

STORY

The entertainment journalists in Mumbai are haunted in the mist of terrifying clouds when a serial killer is on lose brutally killing only film critics to whom the killer finds passing dishonest film reviews. Inspector Arvind Mathur is assigned to catch him and stop the madness.

INTRODUCTION

‘Chup: Revenge of the Artist‘ is a crime thriller. Two factors propelled me to watch this film. One was that R. Balki directed it who already has entertained us in the past directing some interesting films like Cheeni Kum, Paa, and Pad Man. The other reason is that Sunny Deol starred in it. When Sunny paaji stars, the general audience understands that the film is going to be an action-packed thriller with our He-Man smashing every possible existence throughtout the universe in larger-than-life fighting sequences. But this pick surprised me. So I was interested to know how R. Balki and Sunny Deol collaborate in such an interesting plot.

REVIEW

Almost forty minutes in the film, I felt the story was running in haste. The scenes were short and the dust of investigation was not settling. When you make a crime investigative film, the first forty minutes are the storyteller’s borrowed time to build an interesting crime case to the audience.

The dialogues are surprisingly boring. The leads towards the case are interesting but I just cannot feel myself flowing towards the screenplay because Balki’s direction throughout the film is ordinary.

The love angle of Danny and Nila is unusual due to their mutual interests but boring start of their knowing each other because of unnatural coincidences.

The film falls flat in the second half. Despite having so much potential to give a better conclusion of the case, the quality writing was terribly missing. And one major reason for a disappointing continuity was the revelation of the culprit in the first half of the film. The nature of the case and the whole screenplay pretty much gave an impression to me and surely to everyone who watched the film that Chup will be a suspense crime-thriller with our jaws dropping out in the final scenes. But in the first hour, the makers of the film gave us no chills to guess the person in quest and drop some obvious hints that led to disappointment.

And then average performances. I got to see Pooja Bhatt in a film in ages. Her character looked promising but had not much contribution due to extremely less screen presence. Sunny Deol was okay but Dulquer Salmaan as the maniac in the hunt was disappointing. He is a good actor but this role was not his. That craziness of cutting people and spreading their blood as an art, you need a special romance in those psycho eyes. And that was missing in Dulquer Salmaan. If I was the director of this film, I would have picked either Ranveer Singh or Rajkummar Rao.

The film also suffers from plotholes and I had to question if Balki really was directing all this. There is a mistake in two same murder sequences with the lady feeding her cat where at the same angle, we see the killer walking out from behind but in the previous sequence, the killer wasn’t. Whereas the camera angle was same.

Danny throws Nila from the third or fourth floor of the building and believe it or not, Nila survives with blood on her face. She was thrown on the path, on the hard surface. How come she survived with her head visibly hit on the path with that force? Even Arvind Mathur jumped from that height and dropped down with a leg injury. How come Danny not hear a wheel cart on the rail track coming towards them?

GURU DUTT

Chup is an obvious and ardent tribute to the legendary filmmaker, Guru Dutt. The sound that is repeatedly used in the background, the old songs, and a few scenes in the film especially the studio scene are all the prestigious references of Guru Dutt’s cinematic artistry. Shaping a villainous character’s origins inspired from Guru Dutt’s real-life melancholy over a failure of his film is the biggest plus of the film. I liked the idea where I need to look at Guru Dutt’s angle, what if he had turned a killer of all the people who disliked his cult classic ‘Kaaghaz Ke Phool‘?

CLOSING REMARKS

The story of Chup is easily one of the best of 2022 Bollywood but a failure to give justice through direction and screenplay.

RATINGS 4/10

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Film Reviews

Film Review: Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva (2022)

STORY

Shiva and Isha fall in love at first sight and during their kesariyapa, Isha learns that Shiva has supernatural powers and some force is foretelling him that some evil powers are going to destroy their universe. But Shiva can rescue if he finds out where his powers came from.

INTRODUCTION

Brahmāstra is director Ayan Mukherji‘s brain temple and as per Ranbir Kapoor, Ayan has spent six years of his life in shaping the project into an outstanding story. I was personally interested to watch this epic for a couple of years. Because I sensed potential and growth in the plot. When the first trailer arrived, I realized I was right.

Another point that build my interest for the film was that in 2017, producer Karan Johar had already planned to turn Brahmāstra into a fantasy trilogy that indicates how much efforts were made for nurturing this project. Bollywood industry doesn’t reveal such magnitude of planning for producing a film. And that too a fantasy genre where Bollywood compromises over the visual effects that surely will never match to the outer world. But guys! the times they are a-Changin’. If you observe some mega projects, you will see the visual effects do are striking the chords. After the success of the first part of Brahmāstra, Ayan has now announced that the second part is coming in 2026! We are still three years away from the happening!

ASTRAVERSE

Brahmāstra is the first chapter of the cinematic universe that is now officially called ‘Astraverse’. So what is Astra? Astra is a celestial weapon created by the Lord and presided over by a specific Deity. That Deity must have the required knowledge about the astra. So when that Deity properly invokes, the astra becomes functional resulting in deep consequences. Astras have their significance in Hindu mythology as many astras were summoned by deities involved in the books of Ramayana and Mahabharata.

So Ayan coined an idea that by knowing the significance of the power of astras, why not apply the mythological elements of the ancient India in the modern state to fight against the evil powers and shape it into a cinematic universe?

REVIEW

When you watch Brahmāstra, you will get a different vibe about the story and you will start growing with the film but after roughly 38 minutes. Yes, the existence of a stereotypical content is a distraction and no one can fix that in India. It is a three-hour film and several times I opine that a film can be concluded in 90 minutes. But this is an exceptional case. Because first it is a fantasy and then a mega project concluding in three films. So a lot has to be detailed.

When it comes to detailing in long breathing, the origins of the main characters, Shiva and Isha, were not touched. I am fine with that due to the fact that they are some ordinary people with nothing special in the background. But Shiva’s mother was briefed only because that mattered in the plot. Ayan emphasized on Shiva’s character development which worked slowly in the middle of the film.

BUDGET

Brahmāstra is produced at a gigantic budget of around ₹450 crore out of which ₹150 crore is spend on VFX. And after watching this film, I can declare by all means that I have never watched a Bollywood film in my life with such a high command on the visual effects. From a typical Bollywood standard, visual effects are the most compelling portion of their cinematic presentation. Especially, from the second half when picturising the world of Brahmānsh (Āshram), a secret society. Knowing the supernatural school requires more VFX work, the result is fabulous. Especially in the track ‘Deva, Deva‘, you will get a different feeling like never before. The whole proceeding in the song was outstanding. The element of passion, joy, and wielding of power is well-picturized.

CASTING

The other means of costing in the production budget that much is also due to a star-studded line-up of actors involved in the project. Starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, Brahmāstra has a supporting cast of Amitabh Bachchan, Dimple Kapadia, and Nagarjuna. Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone have important cameos too.

Coming back on Ranbir and Alia, they were in relationship when Brahmāstra was filming, and newly married when released. Knowing that they were in love, it made their on-screen chemistry more natural, faithful, and more dedicating. But I must say that Ayan could have made their relationship building more natural in several ways. We are squeezed with Bollywood’s eternal romantic artistry that a boy and a girl have to fall in love at first sight and pace that up gradually.

HOW COME?

Some commonsense were also compromised in the continuity. How come no one happen to catch Mohan Bhargav in the open sky with his astra? The news went viral about his death the next day. How come no camera caught the sight or a CCTV footage checked what happened that fateful night? 

Shiva and Isha travel Varanasi to save someone’s life. Knowing the fact that the killers are arriving soon, they or Ayan Mukherji preferred to do Kesariya first. The song ended with Shiva’s hand firing in the water. How come no one nearby noticed that at all?

Isha, throughout the film, is a larger-than-life character. She came from London, met Shiva and fell in love. And realized that Shiva was a different being. Next day, she decided to trust his supernatural explanation and go with him to Varanasi and stop a guy to be killed. Her mind and body settled for such showdown, just like that. Alia Bhatt usually selects the films where her character has substance. This time she was just a typical heroine who will stand for her hero in any given situation and give him the center stage for all heroism. The dialogues could have been better but were cringy and flat.

RETURN OF THE SCIENTIST

An innovative method was used for Brahmāstra’s story that is continuing an established character of a certain film which is not at all connected. Shah Rukh’s famous character of the NASA scientist Mohan Bhargav from Swades was revived in Brahmāstra. Mohan is shown that after returning to India, he wielded supernatural power. Although, it was quite an interesting idea but Mohan no way reminded me of Swades thanks to Shah Rukh’s stereotypical performance that vastly distinguished from his original version of Mohan. There was a staggering difference in executing both roles. How did Ayan reprise Mohan Bhargav? Both Swades and Brahmāstra are financed by different production companies. The one common factor that bridges the film is Ayan himself. He co.wrote the script and assisted Swades’ director Ashutosh Gowariker. Perhaps the latter has something to do with it.

CLOSING REMARKS

I want to appreciate Ayan Mukherji for believing his instinct and working on his creativity. Spending six years of life over a thought deserves better prospects. With all the mainstream elements surrendering the film’s main motive, I will say that Brahmāstra has still managed carrying to success on the shoulders of an interesting plot, magnificent VFX, and impressive sound work. Without a doubt, Brahmāstra is the promising beginning to an exciting universe.

RATINGS 6.5/10

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Film Reviews

Film Review: Freddy (2022)

STORY

Freddy has lived a disturbed life after witnessing the horrible deaths of his parents. He is a popular dentist in his society but socially a very shy individual who is seeking a soulmate but failing. He finally finds one, Kainaaz, but is married to an alcoholic and violent husband Rustom. Freddy plans to free her from him but in doing so, he meets shocking consequences.

REVIEW

Freddy is a psychological thriller by Shashanka Ghosh. This has to be his first serious film since Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II and I must say that the gritty element of Freddy is quite impressive. I like the aesthetics and the way the film settles the plot and continues to grow. I felt I was watching a very different Hindi film that opposes Bollywood’s usual method of stereotypical storytelling. The background score is not distracting, no lame comedy, and the songs are utilized at the right time.

The way the story kept developing and making it look interesting, the direction was on Sriram Raghavan‘s level. Plus Kartik Aaryan and Alaya F gave splendid performances. Kartik’s body language of a socially awkward man was sublime. This surely has to be Karthik’s best performance of his career. Alaya’s character switching to an utmost shock shows that she holds a lot of promise in the coming years if she picks the right roles. The whole facial and mental performance changed after the revelation.

The director successfully develops the characters and the plot’s purpose at the half. I wanted the same spark in the second half. The thrill was there, but I felt that somewhere the writing faded while trying to reach a conclusion. I am saying this because I was getting bored in the second half with a series of acts of revenge over each other on repeat mode. There was nothing left to show us besides that.

Although the film looks so impressive, Freddy carries massive problems in writing. There are so many plotholes that raise a lot of questions that make the story inaccurate and question the continuity. In the beginning, Freddy does surgery on Kainaaz and tries to kiss her in the operation theatre. The scene meets with no disciplinary issue on Freddy and I wonder if there is no camera monitoring such a sensitive situation in the room.

Freddy goes to Kainaaz’s restaurant. Her friend Raymond, the restaurant’s chef, spits in his drink and smacks him. He could have closed the restaurant over these multiple acts by registering the case against him.

When Raymond beats Freddy at Kainaaz’s residence, the police show up and take both Raymond and Kainaaz. The police notice Freddy in blood and stand there listening to Kainaaz. In such cases, the police immediately rescue while sensing physical violence and perhaps calls an ambulance. Instead, the police are asking Freddy if he wants to complain and advise him to call if they cause any trouble. What rubbish?

Kainaaz’s husband is murdered and Raymond immediately begins to live with her. How could the police not suspect that they can be responsible for the crime? How can Kainaaz and Raymond begin to live together so soon in the first place?

I am confused by a scene when Freddy buries a turtle box. When did Freddy get his turtle when it was already taken from his residence?

CLOSING REMARKS

Freddy at least ends on a better note but during the series of acts of revenge, I felt that the police investigation missed many important scenes. The film lifts by its aesthetics, direction, Kartik, and Alaya. I must admit that I enjoyed the whole development no matter how many plotholes messed up the story. Freddy must have been better in the second half.

RATING: 6.5/10

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Film Reviews

Film Review: Uunchai (2022)

STORY

Lifelong friends Amit, Om, and Javed decide to take a trek to the Everest Base Camp when their close friend Bhupen passes away.

INTRODUCTION

Uunchai is an emotional drama and a journey towards a mark where travelers seek the meaning of life. Four old friends visibly in their late 60s and 70s meeting, parting, singing, dancing, and enjoying whatever is left in their life. Uunchai is about a burning desire that one has longed to fulfill for ages. Uunchai is about learning and tolerating from a generational gap. Uunchai is about holding hands, bringing back memories, and hugs. Uunchai is about climbing. Uunchai is about lost love.

REVIEW

The biggest plus of the film is the story. To my heavy surprise, Bollywood is very limited in basing its films on friendships. And here, Uunchai talks about old-age friendships. The audience deserves to get attention through thoughtful plots.

Another plus is the ensemble casting of senior actors. The friendship quartet was Amitabh Bachchan, Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, and Danny Denzongpa. The female leads were Neena Gupta and Sarika; and Nafisa Ali in a cameo. Parineeti Chopra played an important supporting role.

I refuse to believe that the film is directed by Sooraj R. Barjatya. His filmmaking aesthetics for Uunchai are completely different from what he presented to the audience in his previous films. Maybe someone else directed Uunchai under his name or maybe he has learned with time that if he has to survive and make successful films amongst the current crop of excellent directors, then he has to change the directional techniques. I say this because Bollywood history is full of disappointing comebacks.

With such an impressive plot and fabulous casting, Uunchai could have been one of the best films of 2022. But one negative factor declined this film from achieving that purpose – length! This film is almost a three-hour film. So what to blame when the length becomes the issue? Indeed, screenwriting! It was a simple plot but the screenplay was massively stretched on the journey to Everest and then on the climbing.

Technically, stretching on the climbing was acceptable because trekking to Mount Everest for their friend was actually the core of the story. It is their journey in the middle portion of the film that bought a lot of time. Lying to Javed’s wife, then taking her on the journey to be dropped at the daughter’s house. When things do not work then consider meeting Om’s family and then drop her. And then another arc of taking a lady during the journey who turns out to be Bhupen’s lost love, Mala.

To my calculation, all these developments took 50 minutes of the film. Not saying that Sooraj Barjatya should have avoided all this but he could have shortened this journey length. Let’s say 20 minutes instead of 50 and a few more minutes from the whole climbing part of the film. And then the film picturized a lot of songs. The film at stretch could have been a 120-minute film, absolutely not 170.

The second half had a lot of plotholes and raised a lot of questions. Why would the local villagers cross the bridge when they observe that the climbers are already struggling to cross it? How did the tour guide allow Amit to continue the journey after knowing what he suffers from? Amit is given oxygen when he collapses again. I was wondering, why was he not using it while trying to reach it in the first place.

UUNCHAI MUST HAVE BEEN NON-LINEAR

I think Uunchai should have been a non-linear film. The reason is that Sooraj Barjatya was firm to stretch on the friendship but the problem is that Bhupen’s character died within half an hour. So there was no growth in such a friendship quartet and at the time of Bhupen’s death, the real impact of sentiments fall flat. It would have been an extraordinary direction of film running with two different timelines concluding over Bhupen’s death in one parallel and throwing his ashes on the base camp in the other parallel. 

CLOSING REMARKS

Uunchai sustains Rajshri Productions‘ long hold on traditional and culturally influenced family values. Here, the film focused more on friendship. I think this film is for all ages and in the development of the continuity, it emotionally relates to us somehow. You can absolutely watch this along with your family.

In a world full of stories and incidents, things with you happen for a reason. Bhupen bought the tickets for trekking but died. His friends paid their final respect and went on an emotional and spiritual journey. And during this journey, until reaching that mark, they came across a lot of things in life that taught them a lot. Had Bhupen not died perhaps Amit would never happen to speak to his wife, Om would never consider a change in business nor would he ever realized how many grudges his relatives were holding for him, Javed and his wife would have never understood their daughter’s domestic situation, Amit would have never understood the value of his books, Mala would never get the second chance, and last of all Bhupen’s friends would have never realized his obsession with Mount Everest and the girl he loved the most.

So, friends, things happen for a reason.

RATINGS: 7/10

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