Film Review: Sarkar 3

Film Review: Sarkar 3

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…

Film Review: Colossal

Film Review: Colossal

An inveterate alcoholic, Gloria (Anne Hathaway) — the once professional, now-fired blogger — gets kicked out of her live-in boyfriend Tim’s (Dan Stevens) pad for her all-night drinking bouts, and er, a little bit of lying. Heading back to her parents’ unused home in New Jersey she chances upon her old classmate Oscar (Jason Sudeikis)…

Film Review: Naam Shabana

Film Review: Naam Shabana

The phenomenal success of the 2015 Neeraj Pandey directed ‘Baby’ (oh yes, it was Akshay Kumar’s baby back then) undoubtedly inspired him to write ‘Naam Shabana’, a prequel to explain the female protagonist’s entry into the faceless agency that looks after the country’s security. Shabana, a martial arts champion, lives with her mother Farida (Natasha…

Film Review: Poorna

Film Review: Poorna

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,…

Film Review: The Founder

Film Review: The Founder

Welcome to the American world of corporate take-overs, welcome to the land of inked contracts, cheesy hand-shake agreements, milkshakes and burgers. Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) is a struggling traveling proprietor-cum-salesman from Illinois, touring towns, attempting to sell his five-spindled milkshake machine and getting doors slammed in his face – well, most of the time. And…

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…