June 4, 2016

Waiting: Movie Review

The decisions that happen as people wait for their loved ones who are battling their odds of survival are beautifully sketched out. Should she let the doctors operate on her comatose husband? What if he dies on the table? What if he lives but in a vegetative state? Everyone around seems to be so unhelpful. The snippets of conversations between Shiv and Tara are ever so natural and spontaneous.“Do people dream when they are in coma?” Tara asks Shiv and then adds, “He better be dreaming about me.”

January 16, 2016

Wazir – Movie Review

The story of Wazir is supposed to have been brewing in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s mind for the past several years. When Chopra met his writer Abhijat Joshi in 1994, he told him about the idea of setting a thriller around two chess players.

August 9, 2015

Do Disclaimers Work

There are two kinds of films. Some begin with a disclaimer that says “All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.” Is it better to say that the film was inspired by real events?

August 2, 2015

Masaan

There are two parallel stories that run through the film Masaan (the colloquial term for Shamshaan or a burning ghat). They are studies in contrast. The first protagonist Devi (played by Richa Chadha) is a girl who is seeking a release from the clutches of a greedy cop and from being judged because of a personal choice she made.The other story belongs to Deepak Choudhary (played brilliantly by Vicky Kaushal) is set on the famous Harishchandra Ghat of Banaras. The son of the dom (the people who cremate the dead) wants to escape the chains that his being born in that family limits him to. He dreams of being an engineer and stumbles upon love.

May 31, 2015

Tanu Weds Manu Returns: Movie Review

Tanu Weds Manu 2 scores not for the storyline which is fairly over the top but the dialog really connects with the audience. Four years of marital life has done what marriage often does to couples. Manu (played by Madhavan) has fattened up like a sacrificial lamb and the four years of marriage have left no zing in the relationship. That seemed so realistic especially because Madhavan's emotions remained visible under his adipose tissues. That verbal sparring session resonates with the audience and the film goes off to a rocking start.

May 14, 2015

Piku: Movie Review

Piku is an endearing tale of a young lady in her thirties who looks after her seventy year old father who is a hypochondriac. Very specifically he is obsessed with his "morning ablutions"... What makes it so watchable is the ordinariness of the story.