Rajeev Masand – movies that matter : from bollywood, hollywood and everywhere else

November 24, 2017

Best served cold

Filed under: Our FIlms — Rajeev @ 10:02 pm

November 24, 2017

Cast: Sushama Deshpande, Smita Tambe, Abhishek Banerjee, Sadiya Siddiqui, Sudhir Pandey, Sharvani Suryavanshi

Director: Devashish Makhija

Bollywood has thrown as many as four rape-revenge thrillers at us this year: KaabilMaatrMom and Bhoomi. None, however, is as decidedly unsettling as director Devashish Makhija’s Ajji.

From its very opening scene – in which an elderly woman hobbles through an open sewage behind her slum looking for her missing granddaughter – a pall of doom hangs over the film. Moments later our worst fears are confirmed.

Even more disturbing is the ‘investigation’ that follows – one that borders on perverse humiliation – during which a police officer intimidates and belittles the victim’s family, squarely dissuading them from pursuing any legal action against the perpetrator, a powerful politician’s depraved son. It’s heartbreaking but hardly surprising that the 10-year-old’s desperate parents agree to bury the matter. Her grandmother, however, will not let it go.

But Ajji is a film about more than just vigilante justice. It’s a reminder that being poor is virtually a crime in India, and that the same fundamental rights available to most, often don’t apply to the marginalized and disenfranchised. The film is as much about the sense of entitlement exercised by the rich and the influential. A point made effectively in the film’s most uncomfortable scene involving Dhavle, the film’s repulsive villain (Abhishek Banerjee) and a storefront mannequin. It’s a ghastly scene, and one that instantly suggests the harrowing ordeal the young girl has possibly endured.

I will leave out the details of the old grandmother’s diligently executed revenge plan. Except to say that it is cold, chilling, and even grotesque. Played with quiet determination by Sushama Deshpande, Ajji is no hero, but a woman who has clearly seen this scenario play out before. “Not again,” she seems to be saying to herself as she sets out to balance the scales.

I will also leave you to make up your own mind about the morality of such revenge thrillers and the messaging that they propagate.

Ajji is a tough watch. Deliberately so. It took me a long time to get the film out of my head, and while it’s potent and rattling, it’s not for the faint-hearted. I’m going with three out of five.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)Bes

Music from the heart

Filed under: Their Films — Rajeev @ 9:44 pm

November 24, 2017

Cast: Voices of Gael Garcia Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Anthony Gonzalez, Alanna Ubach

Director: Lee Unkrich

It’s the holiday season, and the makers of Pixar’s new film Coco choose an unusual backdrop to frame its plot against – the Mexican festival Dia de los Muertos, otherwise known as Day of the Dead, or the day you honor the dear departed. Ironically, it’s this morbid touch that gives the film its heart. Just as the film’s protagonist Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez) crosses over into the Land of the Dead, you feel the movie come alive.

“Coco” tells the tale of 12-year-old Miguel, born to a family of shoemakers, but who dreams of becoming a singer. This is easier hummed than done because the family has a longstanding allergy to music ever since Miguel’s great great grandfather abandoned his wife and his daughter in search of a singing career and fame.

The story is predictable, as Miguel, enraptured by Mexico’s late singing legend Ernesto De La Cruz (Benjamin Bratt), wants to follow in his footsteps. But it takes flight when the boy, by a quirk of fate, crosses over to the Land of the Dead. It is his skeletal ancestors and some splendid spirit animals that can help Miguel back home. Meanwhile, seeking out De La Cruz in this land of the dear departed, Miguel encounters a kooky musician, Hector (Gael Garcia Bernal), who is desperate for his family – back home in the land of the living – to remember him so he doesn’t fade into oblivion.

Coco is resplendent with macabre imagery, especially the gorgeous Land of the Dead – a metropolis reached by a bridge of marigold petals, and where skeletons have to pass by an airport immigration-sort of check. It’s the delicious tongue-in-cheek humor, the exotic Mexican culture, lilting songs, and heartfelt emotion that powers the film along its journey.

Pixar scores on these fronts, and frankly, because director Lee Unkrich imaginatively seasons this narrative about family with the bittersweet flavors of death. It’s a bold theme for a film that will be widely consumed by children, but it’s inoffensive, accessible stuff.

I’m going with three-and-a-half out of five for Coco; the film’s beautiful ideas of death and beyond will linger with you, long after you’ve left the cinema.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)

Slow train

Filed under: Their Films — Rajeev @ 9:36 pm

November 24, 2017

Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Leslie Odom Jr, Derek Jacobi, Olivia Colman, Lucy Boynton, Tom Bateman

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Kenneth Branagh’s film version of Agatha Christie’s classic 1934 novel is a lavish but plodding affair. Murder on the Orient Express is directed by Branagh, and also stars the veteran Shakespearean actor as Hercule Poirot, the iconic Belgian detective character who featured in several of the author’s stories.

This one is set on the famed Orient Express that’s barreling across Europe with a disparate bunch of travelers, including an art dealer (Johnny Depp), his private secretary (Josh Gad), an American widow (Michelle Pfeiffer), a Russian princess (Judi Dench), a governess (Daisy Ridley), a devout missionary (Penelope Cruz), and a handful of others, among them Poirot himself. After the train is stopped by a rockslide on the tracks during a snowstorm, one of the passengers is found stabbed to death in his locked compartment. Of course it’s up to Poirot to interrogate the dozen or so strangers to figure out who did it.

The film is crammed with stars, and yet the biggest attention-grabber is Branagh’s oversized mustache that more or less wraps itself around the front of his face. It’s incredibly distracting, and along with his clunky accent, reduces Poirot to a caricature. Branagh also fashions the detective as something of an action hero, giving him a gun, and more than one chase scene. Fans of the book, prepare to be outraged.

The film is extraordinary to look at, boasting exquisite production design, flashy camerawork, gorgeous costumes, and staggeringly beautiful European landscapes. But it’s let down by a script that feels dated and verbose, and unmistakably flat. There’s way too much talking, and not enough sleuthing, leaving the viewer easily bored.

I’m going with two and a half out of five for Murder on the Orient Express. It’s a bloated but underwhelming adaptation that feels as creaky as the train’s wheels. Such a shame.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)

November 17, 2017

She can do!

Filed under: Our FIlms — Rajeev @ 11:28 pm

November 17, 2017

Cast: Vidya Balan, Manav Kaul, Neha Dhupia, Vijay Maurya, Malishka Mendonsa

Director: Suresh Triveni

Delivering a knockout performance as a middle-class housewife whose life changes when she becomes the host of a late night radio show, Vidya Balan is the beating heart of Tumhari Sulu.

Sulu is a force of nature in a cotton sari, a happy-go-lucky homemaker with a ‘can-do’ spirit; the sort of woman who’s determined to grab more from life. Unwilling to be weighed down by her domestic duties, or shamed for the fact that she’s a “12th class fail”, Sulu will take a shot at anything. “Main kar sakti hai,” she says and charges full steam ahead, coming in second in a lemon-and-spoon race for school parents, winning home appliances in random contests, and dreaming up ambitious business plans that she’s convinced she can make a success of.

Vidya imbues Sulu with innocence, naiveté, vulnerability, and an infectious optimism. Sulu loves being a mother and a wife, but that look on her face each time she spots her airhostess neighbors is telling of her dreams and ambitions. She’s complemented nicely by Manav Kaul who plays her loving husband Ashok, himself stuck in a dead-end job, but consistently supportive of her need to fly. It is her unshakable confidence that drives her to badger a radio station boss (Neha Dhupia) into giving her a late night call-in show.

It’s a winning premise, and the film’s writer-director, ad-man Suresh Triveni, creates a world that is instantly recognizable, giving us characters and scenarios that feel authentic. Some of the best scenes involve Sulu’s disapproving older twin sisters who constantly berate her for flitting from one hobby to another, while stressing that they hold ‘respectable’ bank jobs themselves. Just watch how they react in horror to the news that she chats with lonely callers in the night in the name of a job.

Triveni astutely captures the beats of middle-class life in suburban Mumbai through little scenes between Sulu and Ashok. In a lovely throwaway moment she complains that he never puts on the air-conditioning in their car.

Post intermission, however, the script begins to flounder. The conflicts feel forced and manufactured, particularly a subplot involving their son and his troubles at school. There is potential to dig deeper and ask prickly but important questions about patriarchy, ego, equality in a marriage, and male pride. But the makers have little interest in exploring uncomfortable territory, preferring instead to resolve conflicts quickly and painlessly. As a result, Tumhari Sulu is warm, and light, and funny, but it’s missing heft.

The supporting cast – including Neha Dhupia, and particularly Vijay Maurya as Sulu’s producer Pankaj – is in good form. Manav Kaul is especially strong, bringing so many shades to his role as an inherently decent man and encouraging spouse who finds himself in a conflicting situation.

But Tumhari Sulu belongs to its leading lady, and Vidya Balan is so good in it, she glosses over many of the script problems and gives us a protagonist so compelling it’s hard not to succumb to her charm.

I’m going with three out of five.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)

 

Justice served

Filed under: Their Films — Rajeev @ 11:15 pm

November 17, 2017

Cast: Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Ciaran Hinds, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, Jeremy Irons

Director: Zack Snyder

Justice League, which marks the much-awaited team-up of ultimate DC superheroes Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg, is both more coherent and a good deal more fun than Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But ‘fun’ isn’t a word anyone would use to describe that film, whose grim, dark, humorless tone made it a slog to get through – a superhero slog, if you like.

The new film feels like a course correction in many ways. It’s decidedly lighter, both in tone and flab. And the emphasis is clearly on establishing a clutch of fan-favorite characters from the comics and watching them work together as a unit. To that end, director Zack Snyder (with help from Joss Whedon, who finished the film after Snyder stepped back due to a family tragedy) has delivered a reasonably enjoyable romp, but one that isn’t without its problems.

Chief among those problems is an underwhelming villain. In the comics, Steppenwolf is the epitome of evil from Apokolips; a feared figure, eight-feet tall. In the film, however, he’s reduced to something that looks like a cross between a warrior and a horned goat, an entirely CGI creation that evokes none of the intended dread. He’s the latest in DC’s lineup of disappointing bad guys after Doomsday in Batman v Superman, Enchantress in Suicide Squad, and Ares in Wonder Woman.

The film’s plot is set into motion when Steppenwolf and his army of wasp-like alien creatures show up in search of three mysterious Mother Boxes. “The boxes don’t contain power,” someone helpfully points out, “they are power”. Suffice to say Steppenwolf is seeking the boxes to wipe out the planet.

Meanwhile, with Superman dead and the Earth vulnerable to all manner of attacks, Batman reaches out to Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman and the pair set out to recruit a trio of new teammates to join their planet-protecting mission. That’s where Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg come in.

Not surprisingly, Justice League is most enjoyable when it’s focused on the group as they bicker and bond and ditch their personal baggage to ultimately work together. It’s these scenes that infuse the film with humor, and in some cases emotional depth. It’s what keeps you invested in these characters.

And boy, what a bunch of characters they are! Ezra Miller practically steals the film as lightning fast nerdy teenager Barry Allen aka The Flash, who’s just thrilled to be invited to the big boys’ table. Jason Momoa owns the part of Arthur Curry, the hunky, amphibious hero with an attitude aka Aquaman, who, in one of the film’s cheekiest scenes, reveals more than he intended to in a rare moment of candidness. And then there’s Victor Stone aka Cyborg, played with genuine feeling by Ray Fisher as a deeply conflicted young fella that a freak accident has turned into a half man-half machine.

It’s a good thing the characters work, because the plot is wafer thin and relies too heavily on rusty tropes. There are some good standout moments, but the action on the whole isn’t particularly memorable, and the climax is the same old mess of mind-scrambling CGI nonsense. Too often the film feels patchy and disjointed, and at the cost of repeating myself I’ll say the villain is just a crushing disappointment and never feels like a credible threat.

Yet it’s the uncharacteristically light tone, the steady stream of one-liners, a crisp running time just shy of two hours, and dependable turns by Gal Gadot, still terrific as Wonder Woman, and a more relaxed Ben Affleck as Batman, that save the film from sinking under its own weight. There’s also a big reveal that you’ll probably see coming from a mile away, that just brought a big smile to my face.

Justice League isn’t perfect. But for a movie whose sole purpose is to endear us to new characters and establish a team, it fares perfectly well. I’m going with three out of five. There’s enough to enjoy on this bumpy ride.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)

November 10, 2017

Romance, on the road

Filed under: Our FIlms — Rajeev @ 10:31 pm

November 10, 2017

Cast: Irrfan Khan, Parvathy, Neha Dhupia, Brijendra Kala

Director: Tanuja Chandra

Qarib Qarib Singlle, starring Irrfan Khan and Parvathy, revisits that familiar premise of a romance kindled over a road trip. To be fair though, it’s done with some degree of flair and much levity. Featuring a winning performance from its leading man, the film corroborates the popularly held view that just about anything is considerably improved by the presence of Irrfan in it.

He’s a real hoot as Yogi, a 40-year-old bachelor and self-styled Urdu poet, who has a story for every occasion, and always ready with a quip. He’s the sort of chap that takes a little getting used to.

Jaya (Parvathy) has been married before, but it’s been a while since she was with someone romantically. So long, in fact, that her friends joke she might turn into a virgin again. Reluctantly she signs up with an online dating site through which she meets Yogi. Unsure what to make of him, she treads carefully, but subsequently agrees to travel with him to visit three of his ex-girlfriends, whom he’s convinced continue to pine for him.

Sure it’s an improbable scenario, but co-writer and director Tanuja Chandra creates authentic, charming leads that aren’t hard to connect with. These are real people, adults with life experience, past relationships, and a mature worldview. They’re a joy to spend time with as they journey to Varanasi, then on to Jaipur and Gangtok, all along the way revealing more of themselves to us and to each other. There are laughs, there is squabbling, there are charming conversations about food, and a running joke about him falling asleep mid-conversation on the phone.

The film benefits enormously from crackling dialogue by Gazal Dhaliwal, and Irrfan’s gift for delivering lines as if he came up with them in the moment. He’s in excellent form, playing Yogi both as a relentless joker, and when required as a man with considerable depth. It’s one of his loosest, most relaxed performances.

He’s complemented nicely by Parvathy, who plays Jaya as messy, complex, and occasionally selfish. It’s a refreshing change from your average Hindi film heroine, and Parvathy invests her with an irresistible Everywoman quality. The few occasions that the film pushes her to play ‘cutesy’ don’t ring true, and a long scene in which she becomes unhinged and insecure while high on sleeping pills is excruciating to witness.

Nevertheless, these are minor speedbumps. The film employs honesty and humor to make important observations about letting go of the past and about making a real connection with someone. Yogi and Jaya won my heart, and I wouldn’t have minded spending more time in their company. I’m going with three out of five for Qarib Qarib Singlle. Give it a chance.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)

Mothers from hell!

Filed under: Their Films — Rajeev @ 10:30 pm

November 10, 2017

Cast: Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines, Susan Sarandon, Justin Hartley, Jay Hernandez

Director: Jon Lucas and Scott Moore

What’s more disturbing than the idea of three young moms behaving irresponsibly?

Well, you’re about to find out in A Bad Moms Christmas. This hit-and-miss sequel to last year’s bawdy comedy Bad Moms reunites best friends Amy (Mila Kunis), Kiki (Kristen Bell), and Carla (Kathryn Hahn), while introducing us to each of their overbearing mothers who drop in on them over the holiday weekend.

Amy’s mother (Christine Baranski) is a dominating diva who doesn’t miss any opportunity to take a swipe at her daughter. Kiki’s mom (Cheryl Hines) is clingy to the point of obsession, getting the same haircut as her daughter, demanding to be her best friend, and buying the house next door to be closer to her. And then there’s Susan Sarandon playing Carla’s mom, a hard-drinking, doobie-smoking rock-n-roller who only shows up when she’s broke and needs a handout.

Written (and directed) by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore aka two men – and not just any two men, but the two men behind The Hangover – this film tries to find the sweet spot between crassness and comedy, frequently mistaking one for the other.

Unlike the earlier film, which gave its trio of leading ladies all the room to flex their comic chops, this sequel gives the older generation a chance to monopolize the naughty laughs. After opening with a lazy expositional voiceover to establish the stress of Christmas on mothers, the film hits its stride with the arrival of the Senior Moms.

They’re all three at the top of their game, but Baranski is in especially good form as the icy, disapproving control freak whose running joke about forgetting the existence of her daughter’s boyfriend are some of the film’s best bits.

There are some awkward laughs to be had from the surprisingly tender romance between Hahn’s character, who works at a spa, and a male stripper (Justin Hartley) who shows up to have his…umm…privates waxed.

Still, aside from some inspired portions, A Bad Moms Christmas feels formulaic and safe, and never as over-the-top as this kind of sequel needs to be. These moms may be bad, but they needed to be ‘badder’ for this film to truly fly. I’m going with two-and-a-half out of five.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)

November 3, 2017

He says, she says!

Filed under: Our FIlms,Their Films — Rajeev @ 10:42 pm

November 03, 2017

Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Sonakshi Sinha, Akshaye Khanna

Director: Abhay Chopra

Watching Ittefaq, you’re instantly reminded just how good an actor Akshaye Khanna is. He plays an inscrutable police officer investigating a complex double murder, and although the film isn’t perfect, Khanna remains dependably brilliant.

His character Dev Verma is the film’s most interesting figure, easily the smartest one in the room. Khanna plays him with furrowed brow and urgent gait, and the film’s writers give him some of the best lines. But more on him later.

First-time director Abhay Chopra borrows the film’s title and a few broad ideas from Yash Chopra’s claustrophobic 1969 thriller starring Rajesh Khanna and Nanda, which unfolded over a single night and largely in one location. But the new film is its own thing. This is a whodunit with two suspects and various possibilities.

Sidharth Malhotra plays Vikram Sethi, a bestselling author who’s on the run after being accused of killing his wife. He ends up at the home of Maya (Sonakshi Sinha), and the same night her husband is also killed. Dev is brought in to get to the bottom of things and to dig for the truth from their vastly different versions of what went on in that flat that night.

It’s an interesting premise but the script lacks urgency and the makers fail to build enough tension. As the story unravels, the chinks in the writing become apparent, and multiple coincidences pile up. Sidharth is sincere and conveys vulnerability when he’s pleading innocence or embracing defeat. Sonakshi, however, is strictly one-note, and makes it hard for you to care for Maya because the writers give her so little to work with, and because she invests so little in her.

 

Well, good thing there’s also Akshaye Khanna. Whether it’s chiding junior officers for making tea at a crime scene, or throwing a look that instantly straightens out a colleague who’s got carried away by a witness’ hospitality, his Dev is the film’s most fully realized character, and one of those rare movie cops that feels authentic.

Ittefaq is crisp at 107 minutes, but not particularly brisk. It’s well shot and skillfully executed, but the big climatic twist is entirely unconvincing. I’m going with two-and-a-half out of five.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)

Good God!

Filed under: Their Films — Rajeev @ 10:37 pm

November 03, 2017

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Idris Elba, Anthony Hopkins, Karl Urban

Director: Taika Waititi

At a crucial point in Thor: Ragnarok, plotting an escape from a bizarre faraway planet, our Asgardian God of Thunder, played by Chris Hemsworth, and two allies debate the possibility of a safe getaway through Devil’s Anus.

You heard that right.

Except you probably never thought you’d hear that in a Marvel movie. One that doesn’t star Ryan Reynolds or Chris Pratt anyway.

Thor: Ragnarok isn’t merely the funniest film in the Marvel canon; it’s the loosey-goosey nature of the humor that truly makes it one of a kind. The tone is established early on…in the film’s opening scene in fact, where Thor, trapped in a cage and dangling before a volcanic lava-resembling villain, coolly asks his captor to wait until he stops spinning to continue with his end-of-the-world threats.

Another running joke involves Thor discussing whom he likes more out of The Hulk and his mild-mannered alter ego Bruce Banner…depending on which one of the two he’s discussing it with. There are throwaway lines about Loki’s betrayals as a kid, a really cool cameo by an A-lister in addition to fleeting appearances from other Avengers, and plenty laugh-out-loud moments.

New Zealand director Taika Waititi – whose credits include the flat-out brilliant vampire spoof What We Do in the Shadows – is responsible for the film’s wacked out comedic tone, and especially for giving it a distinct voice and personality. That’s true in literal terms too, in the shape of Korg, a scene-stealing, walking-talking pile of rocks that Waititi himself ‘plays’.

But frankly the irreverent humor and the bold, candy-colored visual aesthetic can’t hide the fact that the plot is kind of weak and all over the place. After establishing the combative relationship between Thor and his backstabbing adoptive brother Loki in the two previous stand-alone films, Thor: Ragnarok introduces our hero to the evil sister he never knew he had.

Say hello to Hela, the Goddess of Death (Cate Blanchett), who is determined to bring Ragnarok, which basically means total destruction, down on Asgard. It’s up to Thor to stop her, but for the most part of the film he’s imprisoned on a distant planet named Sakaar, where a cheerful tyrant known as the Grandmaster (a terrific Jeff Goldblum) forces Thor into a gladiator-style duel with his “old friend from work”, The Hulk.

The best bits, not surprisingly, include the hilarious bickering between Thor and The Hulk about who’s the strongest Avenger among other things. For the first time since he took the role, Mark Ruffalo really gets to have fun with the Big Green Guy, while giving us just enough of Banner too. Underused in this outing sadly is the always dependable Tom Hiddleston as God of Mischief Loki, and it feels as if some of his screentime might have been crunched to accommodate a new character, the badass Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson).

Blanchett, who’s kitted out in a black catsuit, goth makeup, and an impressive head of horns, appears to be having a jolly good time playing bad, and is especially entertaining when she’s doling out her deadpan sarcasm.

The film’s last act succumbs to the usual CGI mayhem, but Waititi smartly intersperses the explosions with some laughs and never lets it become a slog. Hemsworth is in particularly good form, the humor giving his character a whole new unexplored dimension to build on in future films.

The unavoidable trappings of the genre notwithstanding, Thor: Ragnarok is a whole barrel of fun. I’m going with four out of five.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)

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