Also known as ‘The Mumbai Siege: 4 Days of Terror’, the film attempts to recreate the ghastly, inhuman attacks on the iconic Taj Mahal hotel which claimed 166 innocent lives. The four-day siege on the Taj was just one of many such strikes, though it was the one which was the one to have captured…
The first sign of attempted comedy in the film comes when a local politician Pandya (Adil Hussain) is shown reading a motivational book on Donald Trump, while in jail. Names such as Ramesh Wadia and Arjun Sorabjee may be attributed to either intentional, or unintentional humour. Meghna (Radhika Apte) is a Public Relations officer attached…
The film would have had a higher impact and captivated audience imagination several degrees more had the statistics, which rolled out just before the end credits, been revealed during the opening stages of the film. Sample a couple – the market share of coaching classes in India is estimated at a staggering Rs. 45,000 Crores!…
Genre: Action, Drama Rating: 3/5 138 minutes Director: Aditya Dhar In the war room cabinet of a not-so-friendly neighbouring country, a kohl-lined, light-eyed, bearded gentleman (?) sardonically – in response to their dastardly operation which massacred Indian soldiers – says in Urdu, “What will they do? At the most they will ban our singers and…
Genre: Biography, Drama Rating: 2/5 108 minutes Director: Vijay Ratnakar Gutte The film could be termed a severe disappointment, or a hilarious take on the political scenario of our country from 2004-2014, which was the period when a certain, and ‘contingent’ gentleman held the office of India’s Prime Minister. It all depends on which side…
Genre: Musical, Family, Fantasy Rating: 4/5 130 minutes Director: Rob Marshall The first thing one is likely to remember of the 1964 classic ‘Mary Poppins’ are the songs, especially ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’ and the wonderfully made-up ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’. Though set in 1935, the sequel comes 54 years later. Michael Banks (Ben Winshaw), a recently widowed dad…
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Action Rating: 3/5 159 minutes Director: Rohit Shetty Let’s get one thing clear – Rohit Shetty has proved amply in the past that his films (Golmaal, Singham), like Manmohan Desai’s in the 70s, are intended to titillate the grey cells – not stimulate them; nor has he ever demonstrated any pretensions to…
‘Reach for the moon and the stars will fall in your lap,’ seems to be the philosophy followed by SRK and the people responsible for bringing the film to its title ‘Zero’. In a runtime of two-and-a-half-hours plus, Zero undergoes a series of transformations – possibly more than the number of titles thought of by the…
Genre: Drama Rating: 3.5/5 105 minutes Director: Peter Hedges The Beautiful Woman plays a dutiful mother to her wayward son Ben (Lucas Hedges) in ‘Ben is Back’, written and directed by the latter’s father Peter Hedges. It’s Yuletide, and the family consisting of Holly Burns (Julia Roberts), daughter Ivy (Kathryn Newton) — by a previous…
“So you’re a cop?” inquires a character midway through the film. As if on cue, comes the prompt reply, “No, worse – I’m a journalist.” One was left wondering whether the film was a case of investigative journalism… Based on the characters in the Millennium book series (this one being the fourth) by the late…
‘Good thoughts, good words, good deeds,’ reminds father Bomi Bulsara (Ace Bhatti) to his 20-something buck-toothed son Farrokh (Rami Malek) in their London home, the family having migrated from Zanzibar a half decade earlier. That was in 1970, working as a baggage handler at Heathrow, and in the earlier moments of the film. Cut to…