Daniel Dafoe’s 1719 influential novel — by the same name — has undergone a sea-change (pun intended) in the 297 years since it was published. Kesteloot’s film gives Dafoe’s beloved tale a new dimension — a 3D one. Crusoe (voice of Yuri Lowenthal) gets marooned after escaping a shipful of buccaneers. Stepping on an island…
‘Wrong Side Raju’ is partly based on the 2013 BMW hit-and-run case in Ahmedabad, involving Vismay Shah. Simpleton Raju Bhambani (Pratik Gandhi) is a driver in the country’s biggest law firm, whose owner Amitabh Shah (Asif Basra) shares a tempestuous relationship with his son Tanmay (British-born Kavi Shastri — last seen in ‘Neerja’, as the…
Sully is a vivid portrayal of the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ as it was called when Capt. Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger and his First Officer Jeff Skiles heroically landed an Airbus 320 in the icy waters of the Hudson River on 15 January 2009. Failure of both the engines after the plane struck a flock of…
Question 1: What if you had the power to look into your future 15 years, or say, even 30 years hence, especially if you were getting married to your childhood sweetheart? Director Nitya Mehra, after having assisted several top-notch directors such as Ang Lee and Mira Nair, turns independent with a seldom explored subject –…
There’s nothing a man cannot do, once he accepts the fact that there is no God’ — so goes the tagline of the film. Stephen Lang plays a blind Iraqi-war veteran living alone with his ferocious dog in an abandoned neighbourhood in Detroit. Three youths Rocky (Jane Levy), her boyfriend Money (Daniel Zovatto) and their friend…
Firstly, the title — it forewarns you of the couple of hours you would be spending if you decide to watch the film. Hackneyed gags, gorgeous gals and goons galore make up the bulk of the running time of YTTMHG. Mohan and Mann (Jimmy Sheirgill) are identical twins, separated at birth. (No, they’ll never stop…
The genre of a film is foretold by its actor. The English Jason Statham, one of the best known and highly paid stars of the action screen, reprises his 2011 Mechanic role, that of an assassin in this sequel five years later. Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) is living a life in near anonymity in Rio,…
When the Chairperson of the Censor Board Pahlaj Nihalani endorses a film, the industry is all ears. ‘A Flying Jatt will create history and remind the viewer of (the 1975 sleeper hit) Jai Santoshi Maa’, the great man opines. But then, Nihalani forgets that history comes in various hues and disparate shapes and sizes. And…
The film is out, and so are the reviews and the verdict. While the critics’ reviews have been mixed, audience reactions in general have been encouraging. That the film is based on the celebrated Nanavati case was never in doubt. While the actual events of the late 50s and the early 60s had political undertones…
Originally planned to be titled ‘Dolly Lahore Mein’, ‘Happy Bhag Jayegi’ is a carefree, nonchalant film which promises much but fails to go the distance. Harpreet ‘Happy’ Kaur (Diana Penty) is a feisty and plucky bride-to-be who decides to play the vanishing trick on her wedding day in Amritsar. Jumping into a truck laden with…
The only category left unexplored by the Filmfare folks is that of ‘Best Casting Director’. With Akshay Kumar in the eponymous Rustom, based on the celebrated Nanavati case of 1959, this lacuna should hopefully be addressed. But first things first. The film, ‘suggested by actual events’, bears striking resemblances to the incidents of the 1959…