[otw_shortcode_info_box border_style=”bordered” css_class=”boxed”]The 18th edition of Mumbai Film Festival kicked off with delegates, media and filmmakers from all over the world assembling at one or the other of the seven venues spread across the city. Our film critic Hoshang K. Katrak reports.[/otw_shortcode_info_box] Dog Days (China, 95 min); Dir. – Jordan Schiele: An Abba-type Chinese song…
The film, which is told in flashback by Ranbir Kapoor, opens with a tribute to the Indian armed forces. Karan Johar’s forte as a director has been the romantic genre and in ADHM, he doesn’t disappoint. Ayan (Ranbir) and his garrulous girlfriend’s (Lisa Haydon) breakup leads the former to team up with Alizeh (Anushka) who’s…
The last five minutes perhaps symbolizes the major part of the film. We’ll discuss it later. Stunts and action run in Ajay Devgn’s blood — his father Veeru Devgan was a ‘thrills’ director. Celebrating 25 years in films (Phool Aur Kaante, 1991), AD releases his second directorial venture — his first, ‘U, Me Aur Hum’…
Picked up by a sneery sheriff and his deputy from a cafeteria, hauled into the slammer and breaking free with military-precision impunity, Jack Reacher (Tom Cruise) flexes his muscles and uses both his fists to telling effect. Jack Reacher 2 is an out-and-out action thriller, with the opening scenes bearing faint resemblance to Rambo: First…
The amusing title is apparently inspired from the song in ‘Waris’ (1969), which had newcomers as actors. The similarity between the two films ends there. Brought up by an uncle and aunt, Kunwar Aditya Pratap Singh (Sharad Malhotra) is from an erstwhile royal family. His palace is home to spooky ghosts and eerie goings-on, family…
31 October 1984 was a dark and black-lettered day in the annals of Indian history. The film is Director Patil’s effort to recreate an episode emanating in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi’s assass-ination by her two Sikh bodyguards on that day. As Devender Singh (Vir Das), his wife Tejinder (Soha Ali Khan) along with their…
‘What you don’t see can’t hurt you’, would be an apt tagline for the film. A Hitchcock-sounding title is bound to arouse more than a little curiosity. Based on the 2015 novel by the same name — the fastest selling adult-novel in history — by Paula Hawkins, the film has the alcoholic and depressed Rachel…
After ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and ‘Angels & Demons’, this one’s sure to be a damper. In ‘Da Vinci’, Robert Langdon traced Christ’s lineage, in ‘Angels’ he exposed the sinister ongoings in the Vatican. In this third sequel, art historian and cryptologist Langdon (Tom Hanks) aided by a trail of clues tied to the 13th…
A film which was held up by the censors for close to 3 years due to the profligacy of its profanity is bound to be a head-turner. For one not used to the old Delhi or North Indian rural ‘tapori’ language, this film may be a revelation, or fill one with a sense of revulsion…
The trend of last-minute insertion of an item song — by saleable artistes — during the end credits is a fairly new phenomenon. In Fuddu, the filmmakers need not have bothered with Sunny Leone and Sharman Joshi. The opening shot of the film gives the viewers a hint of the ensuing couple of hours. 44…
With Queen of Katwe, Mira Nair has, as in Mississippi Masala (1991), put Uganda once more on the world map. Based on a true story, QoK is a simplistic tale of an 11-year-old who is plucked from virtual obscurity to being a global chess player. It’s 2007 in the poverty-stricken slums of Katwe, in Kampala,…