Sumeet_Pradhan

Kathal is a satirical social commentry that allusions to social ills like casteism, patriarchy and messed up priorities of administration.

The plot is about theft of two jackfruits from a MLA's bungalow that gets linked to kidnapping of a lower caste girl and how a lady police inspector with her team handles the case.

The plot is well intended and is grounded but issue with the movie is that it is too inconsistent. The initial part of the movie is little too farcical with a loud BGM and some over the top acting by police and reporters, especially in the scene where the police arrives at MLA house. Thankfully, the middle portion gets back on track before the climax "fight" again turning too comical.

Scenes involving Vijay Raaz and the MLA family is perhaps the best thing about the movie. The part about police team led by Sanya Malhotra is somewhat inconsistent with some scenes even reminding of the TV serial FIR. Rajpal Yadav is occasionally too loud while Raghuveer Yadav in his cameo is just about okay.

Overall a decent movie intended for direct to OTT release.

We as audience often accuse movies for stereotyping things and yet we ourselves expect stereotypical movies. Just because the story has a "chudail" element associate with it, it ought not be a horror movie. Bulbbul is not a horror movie (in the usual sense) and if you are planning to watch it because of its horror genre, you would be disappointed. Netflix too has to take some blame because the trailer gives a wrong impression about the movie's genre.

Bulbbul is a movie set in late 19th century Bengal. The story is about a girl who is married into a rich Thakur family as a child, her ordeals as the "badi bahu" of the mansion and how she reacts to it. In parallel, there is a story about a supposed chudail in the forest nearby who is blamed for series of murders occurring around the mansion. No prize guessing the link between the two. As mentioned in the beginning, the story is less about horror element. It is more of a feminist commentary on the patriarchal society.

Tripti Dimri has a very mystical screen presence, expressing a lot though her smiles and eyes. (Though her dialogue delivery is not tested much here). The sets and cinematography are aptly vibrant (without being vulgarly overdone) with lots of colour hues. The narrative is engaging enough with three different timeline running intermixed with each other. But the problem is with the climax.

Such a story would typically three options as climax: 1) A "real" world ending that does away with supernatural element, 2) An ending that reasserts the supernatural elements of the movie, or 3) An ambiguous ending that leaves it to interpretation of the audience. This movies has gone forward with one of the extreme case but unfortunately the treatment is more like that of the other extreme. Perhaps the makers felt that the sympathy for the concerned protagonist needs to be reasserted. Moreover, the climax appears a bit rushed.

I wish I could had given it a higher rating but the climax let it down.

I found this movie to be one of the weakest by Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

It starts on a promising note. The infatuation of school girls with movie stars is aptly captured with Jaya Bhaduri nailing it as a bubbly teenage girl. The scene where the girls meet Dharamendra for the first time is done well.

Unfortunately, the movie loses steam in the second half when the story shifts to Bombay. Since the script uses real life movie stars as part of the story, it has the onus of being politically correct to depict all the film personalities as perfect idealizations. After a point, the preoccupation of script with flattering of the stars derails the narrative.

This is a decade old movie which was relatively unknown until it recently (sept 2019) got released on Netflix India. The lead pair of Rajit Kapur and Manish Koirala made me watch it over a weekend but left me quite underwhelmed.

Deepti Naval has been a good actress and moreover has acted in some wonderful movies. But her directorial venture doesn't match it up. The whole idea of making this movie appears very cliched. To make a "meaningful movie", the standard recipe is followed: story should be about a love song to life; make one character gay, another prostitute, and another quadriplegic; add some old hindi song nostalgia; some lamenting about decadence of art due to commercialization; and so on. Nothing wrong with any of these ingredients as long as they coherently gel with each other and create a good narrative. Unfortunately, the script and direction fails to achieve any such coherence in this case. Many of the artifacts seem affected. You have a random balloon filled auto-rickshaw appearing every now and then, the lead pair abruptly starts to sing old songs, then there is this nth instance of someone feeling the raindrops through a window. These are by no mean badly done in the movie but there is nothing new in them which has not been done before. From acting perspective, Manisha Koirala is little inconsistent in her act especially if you set high expectation standard to being with. Others including Rajit Kapur are okay, mostly because the direction and script do not demand much. With character of Kapur being a poet, one would expect some good poetry and lyrics thrown in (especially with so many good lyricists in the credit roll). But there is just one song which is repeated all through the movie and may stick to your memory. Overall, strictly an average movie which you may not regret watching. But, on the other side, you won't miss much if you skip it.

A man was lynched while being forced to chant "Jai Shree Ram". An IPS officer who raised his voice against the most powerful man of the country was convicted in a 30-year custody death case. A terror accused became lawmaker after getting an overwhelming vote share in election). These are the few news stories around the time Netflix released its series Leila. In a country of 13 billion people, maybe it is a sampling bias to report these few handful selective stories. But if we don't raise concerns about them now, it can spiral out of control within few years.

Leila is about such a possible dystopian Indian society of future. It is story about a mother in search of her daughter who was taken away from her just because she is a "mixed" child (Hindu mother and Muslim father). Only the first season is so far released which takes the story only to about half way.

Leila is an engaging watch with its tight script. Those who are living in India can easily relate with the socio-political scenario that has been exaggerated in the futuristic dystopian society shown in the series. Be it "bal Joshi" or separate lifts for maids or extreme air pollution, these things are already happening in the country. The cast, especially Huma Qureshi and Akash Khurana (so far not credited in IMDb) has done a good acting job. The depth provided to each of the characters by the script also helps. Technically, BGM and DoP are well done (Something which is now a given for Netflix India). On the negative side, the special effects are quite mediocre. And there is some inconsistency in the direction style (maybe because of multiple directors). But these are just minor distractions that can be ignored.

Overall, a good, different kind of Indian TV watch. I hope season 2 doesn't get blocked by the government. (And don't go by the rating. The "hate" ratings just vindicate the concerns that this series raises)

Long back, this movie came on Doordarshan. As a kid, I was keen to watch this movie just because there is a song in this movie that narrates the story of Snow White. Unfortunately, the powercuts of early 90s made sure that I never get to watch it on DD. Years later, I found it on Amazon Prime.

The movie is supposed to be a suspense thriller. The movie opens with Dharmendra as a police officer and Waheeda Rehman as his girlfriend. Waheeda is supposed to inherit a fortune but also has an uncle as a caretaker. There is some insurance policy angle to the relationship as well. The uncle dies mysteriously and Waheeda is the main suspect. And so goes the story.

There are too many distractions in the story (which was typical of old hindi movies); be it the mediocre songs, the parallel comedy track involving Johny Walker and the romantic scenes between the leads. Waheeda appears quite disinterested in her role. Her character is supposed to have some grey shades, especially craving for wealth. But it never comes out that way. And in the song about Snow White, she is completely overshadowed by Helen's dancing skills.

The scenes around the uncle's death and funeral are relatively well shot with some urgency to have a tighter suspense plot but, after that, the plot just falls away. The climax is supposed to have some shock value but, for modern audience, it offers no novelty. And then, there are just too many plot holes and unexplained stuffs that makes this movie further dull.

As mentioned earlier, the songs too are mediocre. All in all, a totally avoidable movie.

Horror/supernatural genre in Hindi cinema is mostly full of horrible stupidity. Apart from a rare 'Raat' or '13B', the only other thing worth mentioning is the B-ness of Ramsay movies. But this year (2018), we have 3 different movies in this genre worth mentioning. I haven't yet watched Stree but have heard nice things about it. Ghoul was a bit of disappointment but still miles ahead of horrible stupidity. The third one is Tumbbad.

Tumbbad is more of a parable genre (if such a genre exists) with some horror element thrown in. The story is like the ones we used to hear from our grandparents or read in Chandamama. It is about a family, their greed and their association with Hastar, a demon-god and his cursed treasure. A period story, it starts in 1918 and ends sometimes after 1947, mostly following the life of Vinayak (Sohum Shah), a son of the mentioned family.

Tumbbad is an ambitious film, beautiful to watch and engaging enough that keep lingering in your mind for days. But somewhere you would also feel underwhelmed. There are few rough and unpolished edges to it and you would feel that the makers were not able to translate all their tall ambitions into the screen. The middle part of the movie can leave you slightly unsatisfied. The first chapter is probably the best part of the movies. The eeriness, suspense and the looming uncertainty is almost perfectly done. One scene is worth mentioning here where two kids try to feed their other worldly grandmother: the camera work, the music, the acting of the kids; almost everything is in sync. Special mention for the camerawork. Most of the scenes are like a painting on the screen. If 'Ship of Theseus' reminded you of Tarkovsky's movies, the same feeling will continue here. Especially the first chapter where few scenes will remind you of 'The Mirror' and 'Andrei Rublev'.

As mentioned earlier, the middle two chapters are a bit of a let-down. The script goes a little astray. How much I wished that the life of Vinayak would become a reflection of Hastar's cursed life but instead the decadence and debauchery was passed over mostly in a single song. The British officer side story was unnecessary. Instead the focus could had been more on the family. The direction and camerawork too become inconsistent. The loud devilish laugh of Vinayak when he goes back to his grandmother is overdone. The shaky camera, strange camera angles and excessive use of out-of-focus shots becomes tiresome.

Luckily, the movie comes back to track in the final chapter once the character of Vinayak's son is introduced. The ending is somewhat predictable. But then the best about a story is not about the story itself but how it is told. And Tumbbad overall does a good job.

SRK and FK are back after MHN with another somewhat spoofy, so-called 'masala' movie. Inspired by Karz, it's a reincarnation movie. The first half depicts the budding love-story whereas the 2nd half is more of a revenge drama.

SRK and co. are quite audacious that the movie is an out and out masala movie (whatever that means) with little or no logic whatsoever. At one point of the movie, a director boasts that he has placed three camera, one from Ray's angle, one from Bimal Roy's and the third from Guru Dutt's angle. The producer quips back to use a Desai angle, that would help the most. Ouch!! But the fact remains that even if you claim that you are deliberately overacting that doesn't help your dismal histrionics, even if you claim that you are copying past movies to pay them 'tribute' that doesn't hide the lack of creativity, even if you take the excuse that bollywood movies generally lack logic that doesn't hide the fact that your movies in certain parts is still illogical. Then there is the much talked about Filmfare award scene. Nicely done but I feel the spoofs coming on TV are at times much better even though they don't have any stars spoofing themselves.

Coming to the brighter side of the movie, Deepika Padukone looks great! (though the girl playing Dolly has better cleavage). Special effects are very well done especially the song in which some older movie scenes are seamlessly merged. The music is decent with one or two good songs. And of course there are many-many stars making guest appearances through out the movie.

On the whole, I would certainly not recommend to spend 200-300 bucks to catch it in a theater. Catch it on a rented DVD or wait for the TV release.

The title 'matrubhoomi' is an apt satirical name from this hard-hitting movie on female infanticide.

The movie is based on a fictional, futuristic rural area in India where there is a dearth of fairer sex. The story revolves around Kalki, one of the very few surviving young women and her ordeals in such a dysfunctional society.

Tulip Joshi has delivered a very restraint performance. Her suppressed character doesn't speak much but does have a lot to say. Joshi with her subtle facial expression has done that with total perfection. She could had ruined it easily by giving a loud shrieking/screaming act.The director is also to be given credit for it.In an era when some actress' 'Charlie Chaplin' act is winning all accolades, its unfortunate that this wonderful performance went unnoticed..The rest of the cast has also done a good job. The first time director Manish Jha has done a remarkable.He never gets carried and not allowed the movie to go loud at any instance.The innovative script is quite gripping and never goes astray. The rustic look of rural India is very realistically captured in the camera. On the negative side, one may feel that the violent developments towards the end of the movie was bit overdone but then its difficult to predict how lowly man can go under extreme conditions.

Another good point is that the extreme sexual violence is implied but not graphical.Overall a good, hard-hitting, must watch movie though certain sections of audience may not identify with the movie because of its gloomy, 'not so feel good' nature.