Film Review: Haraamkhor

Film Review: Haraamkhor

Released with barely an ado, Haraamkhor is the story of 15-year-old Sandhya (Shweta Tripathi), a small town schoolgirl infatuated with her school teacher Shyam (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), even as 12-year-old Kamal (Irfan Khan) secretly pines for Sandhya. Goading him on is his confidant Minto (Mohammed Samad). Writer-Director Shlok Sharma, in his debut feature film — one…

Film Review: Allied

Film Review: Allied

French Morocco, 1942. Casablanca to be precise. And that could only mean WWII. A Royal Canadian intelligence officer Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) finds himself paired as the husband of French Resistance fighter Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard), with the German Ambassador Hobar (August Diehl) to Casablanca being their target. Mission assassination accomplished, their pretence at being…

Film Review: Dangal

Film Review: Dangal

Think wrestling, and the late Dara Singh comes willy-nilly to mind. Aamir Khan was born in the year India’s most famous wrestler made the eponymous Rustom-e-Hind (1965), a title he was bestowed with 11 years earlier. No wonder then that the punctilious and given-to-precise-details actor was fated to make, and star in, a film on…

Film Review: Befikre

Film Review: Befikre

Those who entered the auditorium a few seconds late would be forgiven for presuming that they were watching a documentary on ‘The Art of Kissing’ — thank you, Mr. Pahlaj Nihalani! A half century after ‘An Evening in Paris’ (1967), and against the backdrop of the sights and sounds of Paris, comes a musical rom-com…

Film Review: Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

Film Review: Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

Forget the much hyped and touted technology of (the faster) 120 frames per second in acclaimed director Ang Lee’s latest film. It’s not so much about the Iraqi War as it is about relationships — on and off the battlefield. It’s 2004. Private Billy Lynn (Debutant Joe Alwyn) seems unaffected by the adulation he’s received…