Raees is purportedly made on the life of liquor baron Abdul Latif — who had amassed a fortune dealing in liquor in dry Gujarat — although the film’s disclaimer declares it as a work of fiction. Set in the late 70s and 80s in Fatehpur, Gujarat, Raees Alam (SRK) is a myopic school-going boy whose…
The title of the film has been taken from a song in ‘Hate Story-3’, which was also directed by Vishal Pandya. But that’s not the only liberty he has taken. He has mutilated — ‘remixed’ being the official term in the industry — at least two iconic songs (‘Pal pal dil ke saath’ and ‘Aise…
‘For the love of money is the root of all evil’. Aman (Ranvir Shorey) is an unethical real estate broker (now, was the adjective really necessary?) married to Vidya (Neha Dhupia), a news producer in a TV channel. Their love lives are sedate and unexciting and debutant director Bhardwaj does well to depict a materialistic…
It’s the age of reality shows and selfies, and in ‘Nerve’ we have a young adult flick to challenge the most bizarre reality show. Venus, aka Vee (Emma Roberts, niece of Julia Roberts) is an introverted high school teenager who is rejected by her crush JP. On the rebound, and aided by her friend Sidney…
Director Abrar and first-time producer PS Chhatwal’s ‘Dongri Ka Raja’ has no pretensions as to which genre it belongs. Anyone familiar with the topography of Dongri would know its relevance, with its birthplace of gangsters and hoodlums, and its proximity to the docks. Beginning with a deafening background score, the film shows snapshots of the…
The intense chemistry between Nirmal Kumar (Irrfan Khan) and young lad Rohan Goswami (Vishesh Bansal) paves the way for a – not exactly thrilling, but – fascinating film. Nirmal ingeniously kidnaps Rohan, the son of the Home Minister and demands to identify the perpetrators of the man-made calamity which snuffed out the life of his…
Not every film acknowledges the Chief Minister of the state. The small rustic town of Baliya in Uttar Pradesh, is the setting for the lives of four youth of the locality, to intersect. Suraj (Karan Mahavar) has developed a fixation for the sassy Jyoti (Aradhana Jagota); Kadambri (Aditya Kumar) is in the family business of…
Based on the 2013 Muzzafarnagar riots, the film is upon us finally. Reportedly banned in parts of UP, Shorgul is the story of a Hindu boy Raghu in love with a Muslim girl Zainab (debutante Suha Gezen), who breaks into a toothy smile whenever the camera is focused on her. For good measure, we have…
Though the film is peppered with piquant humour, the wittiest portion of the film is before it even begins. After proffering the viewer copious information and statistics on Raman Raghav, the serial killer of the 60s, comes the audacious disclaimer – ‘This film is not about him’. But let that not be a criterion of…