Reviews

I decided to watch this movie as it was directed by Mira Nair and I am happy that I did. It is based on a real story captured in a book by the same name. While I haven't read the book, the way the movie was made, it doesn't seem the makers tried to go overboard to make to over-dramatic. The story itself is very impactful. The movie takes us to a small fishing village in Uganda and gets us acquainted with Phiona, who along with her younger brother, sells maize in the market to support her single mother, who is trying to raise her 4 kids against all odds. One day she stumbles upon a club where Robert is training kids in the game of chess. He is a part time worker, whose life was changed by chess and he wants to give these kids the same chance. His vision is also supported by his wife, who is a primary school teacher. Phiona has a natural knack for the game and the rest of the story is how she grows proficient in the game, overcoming her obstacles. While it has all the general elements associated with any other movie of showing a child fighting to overcome all the odds and come out as a winner in the end, but the way it is shown makes all the difference. The game chosen here was chess, which is a game of tactics and strategy and it takes a different kind of preparation to be better at it. Thankfully, the movie wasn't about long motivational speeches, but was rather about believing in a better future and working towards it. The biggest obstacle that was shown in off hand remarks was the need to believe that the kids belong to the big league. When they are playing a game, they often think that they can't win because they are from a marginalized background, but once they are able to believe in themselves that they can, then they do it. While most of the actors did reasonably well, I think the most impactful role was that of Phiona's mother. She was shown as a strong mother, who is righteous and keeps fighting her circumstances everyday for her children.

"The father tells her desolate daughter, that the challenges they face is not because of her willingness to pursue her dreams, it is because of the small mindedness of the society, and that should not pull them back."

I would want to watch this movie again and again just for Danish Hussain's performance as the father that silently stands as a rock beside her daughter. He says as much with his silence as he says with words. The debutante playing his daughter supports him with an equally honest performance. The bond between the two is so beautifully portrayed.

The incidents and set backs are not shown just to accentuate the struggle of the protagonist, but to highlight the closed minds of a society that thrives by stereotyping. Yes, the movie doesn't have a very high production value, but it more than makes it up with the honesty with which it conveys the message.

Contrary to the flow of the movie, the climax was probably a little over-dramatic and maybe not as impactful. However, the dance performance was very innovative and well executed.

I was excited to see this new offering from the director after watching his previous movie "Ajji". This one however, is not as impactful.

It shows another old silent protagonist, Bhonsle, a Marathi constable who has retired from the police service and is terminally ill. He lives a mundane life doing his daily chores and is trying to get an extension on his service by a couple of years. Not much is said about his life to build up his character. He is just shown as being a respectable figure amongst the residents of the chawl where he lives.

The chawl has some non-marathi dwellers and a wannabe political worker, Vilas, who wants to break away from his life as a taxi driver, tries to entice the marathi residents of the chawl to push out the non-marathi residents. He is doing this on behest of a local politician. He keeps failing in achieving his objectives through his wrongdoings.

A young bihari nurse moves into the room adjacent to Bhonsle. She and her brother slowly befriend Bhonsle by helping out Bhonsle with his ailing health. He in turn starts caring for them.

When another attempt of Vilas backfires and he ends up being humiliated, he decides to take revenge and that enrages Bhonsle to finally stop his menace.

The director generally makes short films and I think he decided to make a feature film with the script of a short film. He stretches the narrative with his long shots and has made this into an arthouse film. It could have been much more effective as a half an hour long short film.

This is an adaption of a Marathi play, but it feels more like a teleplay than an adaption. As a movie it doesn't really add anything to make full use of the medium.

The whole movie is shot within a single living room of two friends who have been living together for 25 years. Aparna as Aruna and Shabana as Dolon, are two very different personalities that stick together while still be irritated with each others ways of doing things. Dolon is the happy go lucky banker, whereas Aruna is the very conscious Sanskrit professor. Also, a frequent visitor to their home is the Subhardra played by Lillete Dubey.

As the evening infolds in that room, they discuss and talk about what they think about each other, justify themselves and accept and care for each other, no matter what. It is a beautiful watch, but probably better as a play than as a movie.

Before watching the movie I didn't know that it was based on a book. It seems to be an extraordinary story and one that keeps you engaged through out. Dhanush brings the much needed energy into the movie as the protagonist. He travels from the slums of Mumbai to Paris, falls in love with someone at the first place he visits, before being transported in a truck to London, only to be extradited in a flight to Spain, from where he escapes to reach Italy trapped in a cargo. There he becomes a millionaire, who flies off in a hot air ballon to land on a pirate ship that takes him to Libya and then from there he comes back to Paris and then back to India.

The twist and turns that make this extraordinary journey possible are not logical at times but still make the plot interesting and keeps the viewers engaged. Some parts like the romantic relationship that he pursues seem a little unconvincing, but other than that it is a fun movie, which is entertaining for most parts.

Life changes and throws us in a disarray and we need to accept and live through it. This movie shows how decisions taken to care of loved ones end up straining the same relationships. But one needs to live through it to accept it and let the love prevail.

The movie is about 2 best friends, Rewa (Tabu) and Sia (Sushmita) who want different things from life. Rewa gets married to Dhruv (Sanjay Suri) and wants to have a child, whereas Sia wants to focus on her photography career and keeps resisting the proposal from the enchanted Saahil (Palash Sen).

Rewa is in distraught after she suffers a miscarriage and comes to know she will never be able to become a mother again. Seeing Rewa's desire to have a child, Sia volunteers to become a surrogate mother for Rewa and Dhruv's child.

As time goes by, Rewa is jealous of Sia for all the attention and support she is getting because she is bearing a child. This coupled with the strain in Sia's relationship with Saahil because of her decision to become pregnant, complicates the interpersonal relationships between the main characters.

But they all go through the period and face their own emotions as well of each others and by the time the child is born, their love and care for each other pulls them through. Rewa is more appreciative of what Sia has done for her and Sia is more appreciative of how much Saahil's love mean to her.

This is a movie with the heart at the right place. The emotions and turmoils that each of the character faces is the essence of the film. It is beautifully shot and has excellent cinematography. Even after almost 2 decades the movie doesn't look dated. Lyrics from Gulzar are great but the songs aren't very impactful, even the background music is not complimenting the storytelling style.

The sloppy editing makes it difficult for the viewer to stay engaged, but the story just about saves the day. Also the characters of Sia and Saahil seem a little inconsistent and under developed. All the actors on their end play their parts earnestly.

Sunlit Night is about a journey of an aspiring artist to the northern edge of the world where the sun never sets, even at night (during the summer months she visits).

The movie starts with an young artist Frances's work being ridiculed by three pompous critics. In the next few scenes, we see her whole life being thrown into a disarray. As she questions her future as an artist, her boyfriend dumps her. When she visits her parents home (which doesn't have much space for her and her sister), she finds out that her sister is getting married and her parents are splitting up. Also, the artist residency she was applying for has been rejected. Thus, she is has no place to stay (except for sharing an airbed with her dad in his cramped up studio). Her agent tells her that there is an opportunity to be an assistant to an artist in oblivion (she even assumed he was dead) in Norway. With nowhere else to go, she decides to take up the opportunity.

She makes the journey to Lofoten to meet the artist Nils Auermann, an artist whose work hasn't received much acclaim and he now leads a secluded life in a fish-factory converted into a place where he lives alone. He is trying make his mark by painting a whole barn yellow and get it recognized as one of the highlighted piece of art in Norway. He has a month to complete the work and it would be then inspected by the Norwegian Art Institute. He brushes of all the attempts by Frances to create a connect and tells her that there is long hours of hard work ahead of her in the coming days as this project is very important to him. Over a period of time he realizes her effort is helping him meet the deadline and despite a having very different personalities, they compliment each other well.

The barn is in a modern viking village which has a viking museum and a viking community that try to live a traditional viking life. Frances tries to explore this community and ends up meeting Yasha, a baker from US who is here for his father's burial (who wished for a traditional viking burial). As she spends the moment where he comes to term with the grief of losing his father, she realizes the how a painting captures such a strong emotion, something she has never painted.

The work at the barn is done and she is working alone at the barn the night before inspection. Yasha comes over to tell her that he is leaving the next day. They end up having a passionate night and are lying there naked when the folks from the institute come in for inspection.

Frances realizing how she messed it all up for Nils, flees from the scene and then leaves for back home without meeting Nils. When back home, she gets a mail from Nils informing her that the barn has been accepted and releases her of her guilt. In a turn of events, her parents too decide not to split.

The movie ends with her showing some paintings she did while she was in Norway, to the same critics, who now think she is making progress. As she tries to summarize her experience in Norway, she contemplates if she was running away from her life, was she running towards it, did she mess up or did she make most of it or if she got where she needed to go? She is not sure what to make of it.

The movie was beautifully pictured, capturing some wonderful landscape and the music was complimenting well and the acting was reasonably good. The screenplay was adapted from a novel and didn't do justice to the story, probably providing too little a context for viewers to associate with. It looked patchy in places as one couldn't associate why some plots were shown in much detail and other weren't explored enough, especially the relationship that Frances has with Nils and Yasha were not sufficiently developed. It's aesthetically beautiful to watch and has the heart in the right place. Just wish the screenplay was a bit more comprehensive.

This was a movie with so much potential. It had a great cast and is based on an epic achievement by the scientists at ISRO. From what I have read, the critical milestones of the project that it has captured are true and I like the way they have been simplified in a non technical way for the audience. The production value was good and scenes showing the rocket launch and satellite's journey were really good for a Bollywood movie.

Where the movie fails probably is in the bollywood style narrative. Every female character has a challenge balancing work and life, (the male only has one problem that he is a virgin), unnecessary motivational drama around funding, bringing together a motley crew and motivating them to strive towards a common goal (as if it was a sports film) and these scientists have to clean and paint their office themselves etc. Too many things in the movie that makes an appeals to our Indianess.

Vidya Balan's character is good with some interesting dialogues, other support decently but probably Akshay Kumar was not really convincing. There wasn't an effort to create a character for him. It was simply Akshay Kumar leading the MOM project on screen. Coming from Amit Trivedi, the music was okish.

While if it is a comedy , then its pretty dark, if its drama, then it lacks emotions what it looks like it more of a tragedy.

The movie focuses on a Trophy wife, Jasmine, who was swept of her feet by Hal, a successful businessman 9 years older than him. She leaves her education and becomes the charming wife of the manipulative businessman who is making his way up, bending the rules. She is the admired socialite of his elite social circle in New York, hosting the best of the parties, knowing the who's who. She has confined herself to this world and her role in it. Her husband has been consistently been cheating on her and she has always assumed everything was fine. When she is told by a friend about it, she confronts Hal and to punish him, decides to ruin him by informing the authorities about the wrong ways of Hal's business. While Hal is arrested and commits suicide in prison, in the aftermath she is left penniless too . Having no place to stay she decides to come down to her working class sister who lives in San Francisco. She makes an effort to rebuild her life, but her efforts go vain. The movie tries to entertain through supposed drama and comedy, as we follow her journey in San Francisco.

While the main character played by Cate with a lot of conviction, everything else around her lacks depth. While you want to feel for her character, the situations helping to move the story ahead is a little shabby. Due credit to the screenplay as it does well to tell the story through flashbacks and present moments in Jasmine's life.

This is a wonderful story of a relationship that blossoms between a man, Adrian suffering from OCD and a woman, Grace, suffering from Muliple Personality Disorder. We follow the lives of these two to see how they face various situations caused by their conditions. Nothing melodramatic about it, just shown as normally as they normally would have to deal with things. They have both lost hope of having a fulfilling relationship in their lives, but develop a friendship with each other.

The narrative beautifully intertwines their individual life journeys and the conversations are wonderfully executed. It is a wonderful journey to follow their conversations, as they both have the patience to listen and understand each other, in a world that fails to. They develop a deep caring for each other and help out each other to deal with their own situations and in the process do things that they thought were beyond their abilities. And thus the power of love prevails and they live happily ever after. :P

The production quality is not that great, but is decent for an indie. While the narrative of the film revolves around mental illness and abuse, the director makes an effort to keep the mood light, ambience bright and colorful and the music uplifting. While it is a little overdone at times, but still doesn't take away much from the wonderful narrative.

Smoke is a series about the drug mafia in Goa. While clear in it's intent and approach, it's stretches a tad too long and fails to leave a strong impression.

The show starts with a good pace, introducing various characters and setting the context. The business of supplying drugs is expanded and the challenges the drug lords are facing is exposed. ACP R.I. Pereira is brought in to clean up the trade. Though after that the focus shifts from the business to the characters. Lots of logical loop holes as the series heads towards the conclusion. The characters are not laid out in a relatable manner and thus it is difficult to be engaged to the narrative.

There are some unnecessary twists and turn to keep the interest of the audience, but the script does a really bad job of keeping the plot moving. Gulshan does a good job in his portrayal as a bihari con, imported into the murky world of drugs trade in Goa. Prakash Belawade as bhau leaves an impression. Neil Bhoopalam does the best that he could in the given scenario. Tom Alter doesn't quite look convincing as the drug lord Moshe. Kalki and Mandira are just wasted with wasteful characters. Jim Sarbh and Neil do a good job in taking the series to a logical but predictable closure. The only character that is consistent and reasonable through out the series is that of the CM of Goa who is shown to have a serious and clear intent of making Goa drug free.

Bollywood is a dream factory. For most parts it meats out obnoxious sequences far away from life, just to help its audience realize on screen, what if.

Rakhee Sandilya's Ribbon on the other hand tries to mirror life in its minute details. a young couple ( Kalki as Sahana & Sumeet as Karan) who are ambitious about their career and aspire for a picture perfect life, go through the turmoils of life.

They haven't planned for a baby (as they have other financial responsibilities to take care of) but Sahana gets pregnant, they are not sure how to react to it, but trust on each others support to raise a family. Sahana gets demoted when she joins back after childbirth and has to leave her job because of bad treatment. Karan has to find other alternatives to make ends meet and takes up an opportunity in another city, coming back home only on weekends. As they find solutions to manage something, a new challenge crops up. As the world seems to fall apart they still find each others support. But how much can the ribbon binding them really stretch. Things really snap when they find out that their child had been molested. They really need to find strength in themselves and in each other to get through this.

It is a beautiful narrative, devoid of any overtly melodramatic moments, trying to aptly portray the busy career-oriented couples of today. What really makes it work though is the excellent performance of the actors. It is not an entertainer, but a slice of life in the real sense.