Early on in the film one of the central characters in the film mouths the dialogue “In our job we cannot afford confusion”. This line could very well have been spoken by writer-director Neeraj Pandey as viewed throughout the first half of the 160 minute film. The lengthy opening disclaimer too is understandable – after…
‘Padma_ _ ‘ seems to be the flavour of the season. Based on the true story of Coimbatore school dropout Arunachalam Murugananthan, who revolutionised the concept of making affordable sanitary pads for rural women, R. Balki’s PadMan is fictionalised enough to stray from the realms of a documentary. Lakshmikant Chauhan is a welder in Maheshwar,…
The info, or rather statistics, imparted to the viewers in the beginning attempts to assure them that they are in for a thriller. We are told that Los Angeles is the bank robbery capital of the world – every 48 minutes there is a bank heist in the City of the Angels. The film opens…
Parsee rising stars Frenaz Chipia of Gujarat and Zubin Taraporewalla of Maharashtra played brilliantly to reach the coveted round of 32 at the 79th Senior Table-Tennis Nationals held from 25 – 30 January, 2018, at Ranchi. The tournament witnessed Zubin beat arch-rival Ravindra Kotian of Maharashtra 4-0. Both Zubin and Frenaz, will soon be representing…
Come Oscar time, and the best that Hollywood has to offer is on display. After ‘There Will Be Blood’ (2007), Phantom Thread reunites director Paul Thomas Anderson and the hugely talented Daniel Day-Lewis.Confirmed bachelor Reynolds Woodcock (DDL) is a scrupulously painstaking and perfectionist couturier – sewing handmade garments for royalty, millionaires and socialites. He hires models…
The snowy locales of Himachal Pradesh is the setting for this curiously titled film, and one soon learns that it is the name of a hotel in Manali. The film opens with a person running frantically in the snow as if the devil was after him. Cut to ACP Ashwin Dixit and his wife Shikha…
That famous victory sign, the pugnacity of the man, the perennial cigar in his mouth with those protruding jowls under the bowler hat and the oratory skills which earned him the 1953 Nobel Prize for Literature, are all brought to screen via an intense portrayal of two-time British PM Winston Churchill by Gary Oldman. The…
Films of this genre normally start off sedately – the protagonist (being an ex-cop helps) working hard for a living, usually with a spouse and child (comes in handy as hostages), and losing his job – wondering how to break the news at home. So, in The Commuter we have Michael MacCauley (Liam Neeson), an…
Imagine the plight of this planet a couple of decades hence — overpopulated to the extent of being almost uninhabitable, with dwindling resources and unmanageable waste. Scientists have been confounded. But not Hollywood’s filmmakers. Director Alexander Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor seem to have found the ultimate remedy. The film opens somewhere in the future…
The bear is carnivorous, but it can also be cute and cuddly, as Paddington 2 – following up on its hugely successful earlier instalment of 2014 – tells us over a delightful and rapturous 102 minutes of fun-filled fantasy. The marmalade-loving Paddington Bear (adroitly voiced once again by the talented Ben Wishaw), is now firmly…
The film was almost ready for release when news of Kevin Spacey’s alleged sexual misconduct hit headlines and prompted the studio to beckon the 88-year-old Christopher Plummer – the oldest to win an Academy Award, at 82. The 80-year-old Ridley Scott pulled off a near miracle by refilming Spacey’s scenes (as the multi-billionaire John Paul…