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Reviews
Shivaay (2016)
Pack of action, lack of direction
Pack of action, lack of direction. A father's saga to protect his abducted daughter. Analytically, action is too loosely coupled with the drama part of the movie. Avoiding much spoiler, there was possibly no need to showcase a mountaineer's action for this commonplace story considering, 'Taken' in Hollywood and 'Mardani' in Bollywood. It's not copy-pasted though in that sense. Well, good job Actor-AjayDevgan, once again you successfully protected your family after 'Drishyam' :). But Director-Devgan, better luck next time. Please try to correlate the action with emotion and drama especially when all are high in a story. 6-star for breath-taking action-sequences on beautiful mountains.
Udta Punjab (2016)
A praiseworthy representation of the dark side of Panjab and its socioeconomic degeneration by uncontrolled absorption of drugs
Udta Panjab: Say it Director Abhisek Chaubey's dark Panjab and its socioeconomic degeneration by uncontrolled absorption of 'chitta' (colloquial for cocaine) and 'gora' (heroin). An unquestionably commendable effort by the director (and writer) Chaubey. However, the part after the interval falls bit short in story to meet the expectation that it built in its first-half-counterpart.
Overall, commendable performance by all the superstars.... Alia Bhatt is extraordinary as a drug-victim labor class girl. Sahid Kapoor, although commendable, being a teetotaler in reality sometimes seems to overplay the addicted pop star (Comparing to Hollywood's 'Requiem of Dream', etc.). Kareena Kapoor, Diljeet Singh and Sateesh Kaushik are adept in their characters.
X: Past Is Present (2015)
A heady, philosophical mix of different perspective of relationship in a delicious form from 11 individuals.... Must accolade the novel collaborative effort if not the movie
A movie that traces the life of a movie-maker (named K) who made a movie on his movie- like life with multiple relationships .... Clichéd???? But, when the movie is a collaborative effort from 11 different directors contributing to the same storyline (Unlike 'Das Kahaniya', etc.), and Rajat Kapoor (as K) tells the story in a flash-back setup in his own style the result becomes a heady, philosophical yet delicious mix.... Avoiding the controversy of being it a good or bad or average film, Kudos to all the directors for such an experiment....
While depicting their (all the directors) own perspective of love, sex, and relationships, Director Pratim Das Gupta possibly made the most commendable effort in his part called '8 to 8' where K stayed in the same rented apartment with a girl but at different time. Thus could not meet despite of having a mutual-feelings for each-other's reminiscing activities... Possibly impossible, but anyone can cherish the story in an old-NorthCalcutta-setup and striking performance by Ranadeep Bose (a Young K) and Parno Mitra.... After all love is not only about distance but about time also...
The worst one came from none other than Q (Qaushiq Mukherjee, director of 'Gaandu', 'Tasher Desh', etc.) as expected, where Rii (Rituparna, the only heroine Q can get nowadays) plays possibly a role of a sinister woman.... The presentation was possibly so "out-of-the-box" no one with an average IQ can get it
Nil Battey Sannata (2015)
Simply Excellent
A movie with an excellent positive vibe for the Indian lower middle class.... The mainstay of the movie is the effort of a matric-failed-mother aspiring for her daughter.... Possibly it's the first movie made in a setup of Agra without showing Tajmahal as the symbol of aspiration/achievement 🙂 :D.... On the contrary, the entire middle-class-premise is so well maintained, and the characters are so realistic that anyone will like it.... In sum, An elegant showcase by debutant director Ashwini Iyer Tiwari....
However, the main attraction of the movie is none other than Swara Bhaskar.... After the adorable daughter in 'Listen Amaya', Bhaskar is definitely at her best as the aspiring mother.... Undoubtedly, you can keep her right after Kalki Koechlin (for 'DevD' and 'Margaritta with a Straw') for what is conventionally called a character-actor...
Traffic (2016)
Entertaining and satisfactory.
An ordinary Bollywood-policier to cherish some ordinary Indians' extraordinary spirit and sentiment. Avoiding many spoilers, the mainstay of the movie is a driving of 150-KMs managing Indian traffic in 2-and-half hours to deliver a heart from its donor to the receiver. With some obvious predictable playing-to-the-gallery, the movie is overall entertaining and satisfactory. Credit goes to Manoj Bajpayee (A constable and the chauffeur) and Jimi Sheirgill (the police-commissioner). Bengali sentiment can be touched with the appearances of Prasenjit Chatterjee and Parambrata Chatterjee. And finally, Director Rajesh Raman Pillai, a (luke)warm welcome to Mumbai after Kerala.