Forget Dharmatma; forget Dayavan. Sarkar 3 is the closest to The Godfather you’ll get to see — in terms of dialogues, the sepia-coloured frames, the subplots, or even the grating and rasping voice of the Don (one could be forgiven for wondering whether subtitles would be needed). The Bal Thakarey inspired character Subhash Nagre’s (Amitabh…
What can you say of a Holocaust film where most of the tender moments and emotional scenes are not of the Holocaust or the prisoners sent off to execution camps, but of the zoo animals who share an intimate, warm and almost human relationship with their caretakers! Dr. Jan Zabinski (Johan Heldenbergh) and his wife…
What can we say of a film which has a great scope storywise, hits all the right notes in the beginning, reminds you of one of the greatest blockbusters of all times (DDLJ), and whose supporting cast has three of our most talented actors – Saurabh Shukla, Sanjay Misra and Darshan Jariwala, but regrettably still…
When one has a premonition that death is imminent, there is bound to be consternation. And when the person happens to be a 77-year-old, there could be some amusing moments too. Septuagenarian Daya (Lalit Behl) wakes up one morning to harry his son Rajiv (Adil Hussain) into accompanying him to Benaras in order to spend…
Adapted from W. Bruce Cameron’s 2010 novel — with a few changes — A Dog’s Purpose is a charming, and at times, sentimental tale of a dog’s life and his purpose on earth, vis-à-vis humans. Narrated by the dog Bailey (voice of Josh Gad) the film starts off with a young Red Retriever being adopted…
At 13 years, one is just about old enough to learn about the Himalayas, notably its tallest peak Mount Everest. On 25 May 2014, Malavath Poorna, the impoverished daughter of poor and illiterate Adivasi village-folk in Telengana, became the youngest female to ascend the famed peak. In his second directorial effort (Everybody Says I’m Fine,…
Phillauri is the story of a friendly but confused ghost and age-old traditions, peppered quite liberally with Punjabi folk songs. Kannan (Suraj Sharma – Life of Pi) is a Canada-returned Punjabi boy due to marry his childhood sweetheart Anu (a comely Mehreen Kaur Pirzada in her first Hindi film). But as the disinterested Kannan is…
Coming exactly 60 years after the iconic women-centric Mother India, Anarkali of Aarah – starring Swara Bhaskar – tells the story of a rural folk dancer Anar(kali) of Aarah village in Bihar. Anarkali (Bhaskar) is the feisty and plucky lead singer of a troupe which specialises in entertaining locals with bawdy folk songs. Though the…
Sequels have their own quirky way of exacting interest from potential viewers, especially if the earlier film has been more than a moderate success. Three years after Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania starring Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan hit the screen, comes the second in the franchise, though not a sequel with the lead pair unchanged….
Largely based on the graphic novel ‘Old Man Logan’ by Mark Millar and ‘X-23: Innocence Lost’ by Craig Kyle, Logan is the tenth and final instalment of the X-Men series, which premiered in 2000. It is also the last of the three Wolverine films which debuted in 2009. Set in 2029, barely a dozen years…
Three hours into the race and thirty minutes into the film, a series of explosions rocked the site (near the finish line) of Boston Marathon on 15 April, 2013 — the third Monday of the month — traditionally celebrated as Patriots Day in that part of the US. Mark Wahlberg is Sgt. Tommy Saunders of…