pritypoddar

Directed by Shujaat Saudagar, Bambai Meri Jaan is a 10 episodes web series with 30-50 minutes running time.

It depicts the life span of Dara Kadri (Avinash Tiwary), the D Company founder, from his childhood days till he leaves for Dubai to escape his arrest warrant by Mumbai Police.

Ismail Kadri (Kay Kay Menon), an honest and devout Mumbai cop turned gangster Haji's (Saurabh Sachdeva) accomplice turned spiritual recluse, plays his father and narrator of the series.

Kay Kay has a crucial role and he has played it brilliantly, mostly with stoic silence and one liners. His acting in the series is beautifully layered and perhaps the best of his acting career!!

The web series has multiple important characters and all have been casted wonderfully and enacted effectively. In fact their combined acting prowess has surpassed the storyline and script!

The entire series is embedded with Mumbaiya expletives and at one point the blood and gore becomes too much to handle.

Overall, the series is familiar, engaging, entertaining and well edited with top class production design.

Introduction:

Missing (2023), a screenlife mystery thriller is an anthology sequel to Searching (2018).

"Screenlife or computer screen film is a genre of visual storytelling where all the events are shown on a computer, tablet or smartphone screen."

Plot:

Los Angeles (USA) based teenager June Allen's (Storm Reid) mother Grace Allen (Nia Long) leaves for a week long trip to Cartagena (Colombia) with her boyfriend Kevin (Ken Leung).

June is supposed to receive them on their return but not only they don't arrive on the due date but also turn incommunicado, leaving June puzzled, confused and scared.

With limited money at her disposal and only her mother's lawyer friend Heather (Amy Landecker) to turn for assistance, who eventually turns up dead, June uses her smart brain and a bevy of online apps and services to finally locate her mother and in the process unravels few shocking truths about her parents.

Analysis:

It's quite amusing to follow June's trail of online actions wherein she meddles through assorted Google services like maps, e-mail etc.; goes through different chat transcripts to find clues; accesses public cameras to locate her mother's whereabouts; mobilizes the FBI attachment in to the consolate; hires Javier (Joaquim de Almeida), a Colombian gig worker for offline actions, while constantly decoding the passwords of the missing persons on different apps!!

It's quite unbelievable to witness how precisely our life movements are being recorded via our digital footprints and assorted CCTV recordings!!

It's eerie to realize how modern technology and online apps can come to your rescue even when you are confined and locked in an unknown deserted location with no cell phone at your disposal!!

Watch out the movie's climax to see it all happen.

Conclusion:

It's not a movie with glamorous star cast or pulsating action with hi-fi gizmos, but it's an intelligent movie with a reality check.

You will understand it better only if you are - computer savvy, used to working with multiple apps and screens at the same time and aware of the usual password recovery methods.

If you have not yet seen a screenlife movie, then do watch it for an altogether new experience.

You can also watch it otherwise. It's a nicely made film.

The storyline is one of the usual action thrillers, but it's a well made and crisp movie, most of which is picturized on the protagonist aka the mother aka Jennifer Lopez, who impresses to the T.

She plays a practical non-empathatic loner with superb survival techniques. Living in the shadow of her past of being in military forces and then in arms cartel, she lives all alone in an old cabin in an ice capped Alaska region and hunts animals for food.

She bears all of this hardship to stay out of radar of her two ex arms ring associates cum lovers who are presently out for her blood.

She sacrificed the joys of motherhood and agreed to put her daughter in foster care, right from birth, so that she stays safe.

However, when upon turning 12, the daughter is no more safe, the mother comes out of her seclusion and leaves no stone unturned in destroying the enemies and ensuring her child's safety, not once but twice.

Before the second attack, she even trains her daughter the survival techniques required to stay alive and safe.

The direction is crisp. The production designing is impressive. The cinematography of the vast ice capped region is beautiful.

And so is the mother-daughter bond during training and henceforth. It's different from the usual mushy ones.

Jennifer Lopez looks sharp, fit and realistic in combat scenes. She ably conveys controlled emotions for her daughter upon meeting and spending time with her, only after she has turned 12!!

She doesn't resort to hysteria or unnecessary dramatics or any other emotion display that is impractical for a hardened loner assassin.

Overall, the movie is a good tribute to the recently concluded Mother's Day.

I chanced upon this French crime-action-thriller on Netflix and was totally taken aback by the planning and execution of it's action scenes, though it is not a genre that I particularly enjoy.

Alban Lenoir, the co-writer & lead actor of the film looks ultra-skilled and effortless in both hand-to-hand combat and close range shooting scenes.

There is enough blood and gore in the movie, but still the movie appears realistic. Even though the body count is high, the act in itself is never glorified.

Amidst all the blazing guns and bullet wounds on his body, Alban Lenoir's Adam Franco, the protagonist turns out to be quite headstrong in protecting young children, which adds the required humanity angle to the film.

The story unfolds at a relatively slower rate, but it's never boring. Your 122 minutes are well taken care of.

It's a vampire-human love story wherein a rebellious lady vampire with a damaged tooth and underground abode falls in love with a shy dentist on the streets of Kolkata, something which is a strict no-no!!

Presence of a vampire slayer witch and her team of Cutmundoos add on to the complexity.

Full Marks For:

... Originality and intelligent desification of foreign mythology.

... Applaud worthy cinematography of old Kolkata lanes and houses.

... Good acting by the entire cast, but Adil Hussain, Tillotama Shome and Sikandar Kher simply outshine everyone.

The lead pair Tanya Maniktala and Shantanu Maheshwari share good chemistry and strong onscreen presence.

Question Mark For:

... No clarification of hero or villain. No moral message at the end of it all !!

Do watch it !!

In a country with 1+ billion population, out of which 100+ millions are tribals, we actually know so less about their life, laws created for their protection and atrocities bestowed upon them by greedy people.

The 8 episodes webseries has good plot, acting and cinematography.

I was surprised to find out that the protagonist Aditya Rawal who has fine captured the body language, expressions and fighting style of a gallant tribal is legendary actor Paresh Rawal's son!!

Clearly, the apple has not fallen far from the tree.

Apart from him, Sumeet Vyas, Patralekhaa, Ashish Vidyarthi and Dibyendu Bhattacharya will keep you glued to the screen.

It's an extremely engaging and interesting series with enough twists and turns in the plot and a fantastic climax.

The directions of both drama and action sequences are quite good.

The cinematography is also good, specially the aerial shots.

The editing is smooth.

Ha Jung-woo as the civilian businessman has acted with good balance of fear and grit. Most of his acting is depicted via thinking and contemplating in silence. He has nabbed that well. Plus, he has good star presence.

Actually, in real life, he is a superstar in his country.

Hwang Jung-min has aced the role of the smooth talking, wise and cunning drug lord who easily shifts into the role of a pious Pastor with soft demeanor but powerful oratory skills.

In real life, he is also a popular and successful star in his country.

Jo Woo-jin as the drug lord's stoic and extremely lanky right hand man with poker faced expression and amazing combat skills is quite impressive.

No wonder in real life, he is an in-demand character actor, in South Korean films and TV series.

Rest of the cast has also performed quite well. But the performances of the aforementioned three actors clearly stood out.

Dharavi Bank is woven around the ruthless and powerful modus operandi of Dharavi based underworld, which is heavily interlinked with the business world, ruling state government, opposition and police force.

As per the series, Dharavi is also the storehouse of hundreds of crores of rupees aka a private self proclaimed money bank managed by the mafia.

The main plot is corny but it's well supported by enough well connected subplots enacted by an interesting star cast.

Suniel Shetty as the icy still unforgiving underworld don Thalaivan and Vivek Oberoi as the strategic bursting with anger JCP (eventually CP) Jayant Gavaskar are quite effective and bring the required star quotient on the screen.

Overall, it's a semi-interesting but engaging series with some nerve wrecking scenes and good cinematography of wide mesh of over populated narrow by lanes of Dharavi, one of the world's largest slums.

Considering the total content, the series name is slightly misleading. Also, the series lacks the required depth. It could have been made much better.

We definitely look forward to a better Season 2.

Woven around the antecedence of the Second Kashmir War in 1965, Mukhbir is a well made spy thriller depicting the natural metamorphosis of a street smart Indian small timer into a seasoned and ruthless spy with some beautiful glimpses of the then life & culture in Pakistan.

The 8 episodes series is solemnly focused on the intelligence, trivialities and reflex action involved in the complex & dangerous game of international spying. It does not focus much on the blood and gore aspect of the aforementioned war.

Do watch this adaptation of Maloy Dhar's novel, 'Mission to Kashmir: An Intelligent Agent in Pakistan'.

The protagonist Zain Khan Durrani has clearly stolen the show.

Set in Silaspura, a remote town in Rajasthan which is deeply rooted in occult practices and an age old staunch belief of not disturbing or exploring an existing mine, the series is entwined with the presence of a visiting IAS officer; employees and miners of a mining company; the village police, head, priest, sects and commoners and a spate of gruesome murders!!

The main plot has well defined and ably conjoined subplots.

The casting is impressive and everyone has performed quite well.

The series is fearsome and engaging and apt for a binge watch, albeit not during night hours and definitely not with kids.

It has good suspense and climax.

It's a mad mayhem with enough fear, agony and aggression and still manages to appear logical!!

If you like the Victorian era elegance and attires, the hints of romance during long walks into a forest or by a beach, the articulate English tea and dinner tables with some soulful quotes and poetries thrown in between, sans any nudity, brutality, conmanship or even overwhelming drama, then do watch this feel-good movie in the safe and cosy confines of your home.

It is based on the novel 'Persuasion' by Jane Austen where Anne Elliott (Dakota Johnson), the protagonist constantly breaks the fourth wall by interacting with the audience.

The plot centres around a titular British family who believes in titular associations (read marriages).

Anne breaks off with Frederick Wentworth (Cosmo Jarvis), her true love, due to her family's strong stance of marrying into similar titular families, only to meet him again after a gap of 7 years when he is a rich and distinguished sailor (read Captain) with high prospects of becoming an Admiral and her father has mounted debts due to his blind spendings !!

For sure, both Anne and Frederick are oblivious to titles and riches and nurse a pining heart for each other.

But will they be able to bury their past and re-unite? Will her family be practical enough to oblige their re-union?

As if the aforesaid dilemmas were not enough, their meet coincides with the emergence of a new suitor in each of their lives!

Will their hearts flutter for fresh love which is absolutely free from the complexities of past baggage?

Watch the movie to know it all.

My friends and myself watched this film on a lazy afternoon with a pot of Jasmine tea, cheese cream topped red velvet cupcakes and a couple of finger sandwiches and absolutely loved the total experience, specially Dakota Johnson's presence and performance.

'When in Rome, Do as the Romans do', What say?

This family comedy drama raises and well depicts & discusses the burning social issue of a great number of couples going for separation and divorce, irrespective of their age, type of marriage and reason (read infidelity, ambition etc.).

But in the movie, perhaps to keep the entertainment quotient soaring, all this is presented hidden into the pomp and splendour of pre-functions of a Punjabi marriage, which is sadly all about designer clothes, dance and swag but lacks soul and depth.

In spite of A-listers couples like Anil Kapoor-Neetu Singh and Varun Dhawan-Kiara Advani, the movie lacks the required energy and direction!

Centred around local football enthusiasts and a local tournament, this sports drama is infused with cute amateur love and magic (no pun intended).

With few good comic lines thrown here and there, it's a family flick well enacted by Jitendra Kumar, Jaaved Jaffrey, Manoj Joshi and team.

Intrigued with crime and suspense, thankfully the movie is more about investigation than gruesome detailing.

Gulshan Devaiah performs expectantly well as the CBI officer. Equipped with a small role, Kunaal Roy Kapur enters late into the movie, but ably brings in his own brand of star power.

Most of it is a courtroom drama concerning an emergency flight landing.

Both the lead actors - Ajay Devgn and Amitabh Bachchan are expectantly effective, the former in his silence & nonchalance and the latter in his aggression & chaste Hindi.

But after seeing Top Gun: Maverick (27 May 2022), you do miss that sense of easy understanding of technicality of the flying machine involved.

A thought provoking movie about civil unrest aka demand of a separate nation by two major groups in the north-east, their internal clashes plus clashes with the government forces, spy network and central government's effort to successfully derive a peaceful understanding sans any division.

The wound is much deeper and complex than it seems. The healers do want to bandage the surface to limit the contagion but don't actually care about the cure !!

Tricky situation, eh?

So, what happens? Everybody acts as per their personal understanding of the situation and power to solve it !!

This is prone to create a mess and abundance of collateral damage.

As per the storyline, Tom Cruise here is not 'the man' on the mission, but a test pilot (read super pilot) who trains a batch of recent graduates for a special and dangerous assignment.

Given the fact that the protagonist here is an aging star (almost sixty) and reduced to playing a trainer and not the 'man of the mission', many of us (including me) got the impression that the movie would be sans the Tom Cruise magic (read death defying stunts) and more of an encashment of his brand as the last hurrah.

But please get rid of all such notions, as it's an out and out Tom Cruise movie, made very intelligently with proper business acumen and amazing special effects. Also, not once does the star appears old or jaded.

Herein, he is a maestro of supersonic fighter jets who can test them to record breaking speed and manoeuvre them like a toy with impeccable strategy to meet the concerned mission's need.

Alongside, he also teaches his unconventional albeit highly effective flying methods to a new batch of military graduates bursting with youth, super confidence and passion to do something out of the ordinary.

And he battles the ghosts of his past and rekindles an old flame.

As an exceptional dancer makes the toughest of steps appear like a child's play, the combo of good direction, acting, cinematography and special effects in the movie, ably simplifies the world of supersonic jets, their architecture & manipulation and their limitation on different terrains and altitudes !!

Everything is easily understandable and this is no mean feat.

You will find the movie thrilling & entertaining and around midway, you will start predicting it's end, but it will surprise you with an interesting climax.

In spite of woven around a top class military assignment, the movie is not gruesome to watch, as the bullet and bomb firing scenes are more on the lines of a hi-tech video game.

Also, it's a family entertainer with no nudity or intimate scene.

Top Gun Maverick is a 'Tom Cruise Special' giddy cocktail of - adrenalin rush, emotions and nostalgia, which needs to be watched in a theatre for full entertainment of the senses.

Please don't wait for it's OTT release.

Last but not the least, though the movie is a sequel of Top Gun (1986), a huge commercial hit by Tom Cruise and team, it can be watched as an independent film.

After enjoying the recently released Panchayat Season 2 on Amazon Prime Video, watching Nirmal Pathak Ki Ghar Wapsi on SonyLiv is like reading earlier from the safe and feel good worlds of Pinki & Chacha Chowdhury and now shifting to equally fair and good but complex and closer to real life world of Panchtantra !!

'Nirmal Pathak Ki Ghar Wapsi is a story of a young man who is on a journey to find his roots.'

He returns to his native village Buxar in Bihar, 24 years after his father took his 3 years old self with himself to a city life.

His return is not only to his ultra old fashioned but beautiful roots, but also to his silent and dutiful mother who is leading a life away from her husband and kid with silent remorse but pride of being the 'woman of the house'.

Watch the series for rustic craziness and humor. Also, watch it to get re-introduced to open and accepted violation of human rights and law & order in the non developed villages of our country.

But most of all, watch it for the superb, strong and silent acting of Alka Amin, the aforementioned mother. Her eyes speak volumes.

The series will appear slow at times. But it's desi dialect and lovely cinematography of lush green fields will keep you entertained.

An engaging 1.36 hrs movie with kick-ass action by Elsa Pataky who single handedly saves country from 16 simultaneous missile attacks !!!

A sleek movie with good set design and editing.

In the series, Madhuri Dixit has the maximum screen time and close shots and she has aced it all with her inherent beauty, dignity and grace. She has well adopted the new style of acting and is expectantly wonderful in dance numbers.

Her wardrobe is fantastic. She adorns it all with perfection sans any skin show or in-your-face botox.

All the other actors have also performed well, but Manav Kaul has clearly scored above all. His acting has well defined layers. His character appears kind of besotted and in love with Ankita, but his real self never looks intimidated by Madhuri. Whether it's exuberance or nervous anticipation or despair, he has portrayed it all beautifully.

Conclusion: If you are a Madhuri Dixit fan, do watch the series. If you are not, you can still watch it as in spite of the missing thrill, it's engaging. The diva keeps you hooked to the screen.

3 reasons to watch Love Hostel:

• It's crisp with good editing. You are thoroughly engaged and contemplate what will happen next.

The duration of the movie is just 1 hour 40 minutes.

• Good acting by all the lead characters i.e. Vikrant Massey, Sanya Malhotra and Bobby Deol, the former two play the lovebirds who elope and marry via intercaste registry and the latter plays the hired killer in search of them to perform honour killing.

However, Bobby Deol is more effective with his get-up and body language. The moment he speaks, his familiar glint in the eyes and mild smile takes over and clashes with his role of a cold blooded assassin.

• For such a movie, shifting the backdrop from Uttar Pradesh to not much cinematically explored Haryana seems a fresh change. The dialect, dressing and dialogues are interesting to observe.

This is Shanker Raman, the director's second film. Incidentally, his debut movie Gurgaon was also Haryana based.

3 reasons to skip Love Hostel:

• Mindless bloodshed of one and all and unnecessary collateral damage.

• Glimpse of many things but pursual of none.

The movie depicts - lawlessness in a Haryana based town along with it's corrupt and locally powerful lady MLA and police officers, primitive culture of condemning and honour killing of couples from different castes or same sex, trapping and arresting of a simpleton with false charges of being a terrorist, forcing a youth to do unlawful activity, a government run and police protected safe home for married couples fearing honour killing and a self proclaimed vigilante doing cold blooded honor killing, both at will and upon hiring.

But the movie doesn't probe deep into any of the aforementioned topics.

• Vanilla ending. All that built up yields to nothing!

It's a thriller with beautiful frames and few comic moments, best of which are brought by Anant Joshi who plays the protagonist Tahir Raj Bhasin's best friend.

The series is both innocent and gruesome in it's approach and at times the scenes appear unnecessarily lengthy.

Shefali Shah and Kirti Kulhari are the lead protagonists and the mentor-protégé doctor duo of the series. Both have been styled well and have put forward quite good performances.

However, Shefali Shah seems to have overdone it a bit, both in terms of wardrobe and acting, fulfilling more of her desire of becoming a sensuous Bollywood heroine rather than sticking to her character in the series.

Others have also performed well.

Further better performance is expected from Ram Kapoor.

It's one of those series that is beautiful and pleasant in all the frames. Throughout the series the aforementioned four sisters compete against each other in games supposedly designed around 'navras' (nine basic emotions) which mostly appear uninteresting and poorly scripted.

The movie has two acting stalwarts - Naseeruddin Shah and Raghubir Yadav, out of which the latter has definitely scored above the former!

Amongst the sisters, Soha Ali Khan has performed the best.

It is the third film in 'The Princess Switch' series, featuring Vanessa Hudgens in triple role like it's prequel.

But herein, even Fiona shows her humane side.

It's not easy to skillfully play triple role in a movie while maintaining clear distinction between all the three roles, but Vanessa manages to do that.

In fact in some scenes, Margaret and Stacy are required to play Fiona and even that distinction is clear!

It's a happy movie with high dose of fashion.