The Bollywood Elephant

 Dibakar Banerjee's 'Sandeep and Pinky Faraar' finally released after a 3-year delay. The movie opens with a random guy making a certain misogynistic comment and does it with so subtlety that it all makes sense towards the end of this movie. The movie talks about the gender imbalances and stereotypes with so subtlety that leaves you thinking after the movie ends. 'Sandeep and Pinky Faraar' is directed by Dibakar Banerjee and stars the amazing Neena Gupta, Raghubir Yada who ably support the revelation of an actor Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor have turned out in this mind-boggling drama laced with dark humor, a great story, and disturbing visuals.                                               What's Good:  Acting: OMG! I cannot just begin how amazing of an actor Parineeti is. She literally owns the movie as Sandeep Kaur. Her performance is phenomenal. Arjun too is supremely amazing! It is truly said that every actor is a great actor just needs the right direct

 This week, apart from an abomination called Radhe greeted us, Netflix brought Neena Gupta, Rakul Preet Singh, John Abraham, Aditi Rao Hydari, Kumud Mishra, and Arjun Kapoor together in a family-drama backed by John as the producer and debutant Kaashvie Gulati directing it. Apart from bringing a mature take on India Pakistan relations, the movie brought forward the concept of Home Relocation.                                 What's Good:  Acting: Neena Gupta shines as the grumpy Sardar through and through. Surprisingly, Arjun Kapoor does a great job as Amreek whereas Rakul is phenomenal and flashes of her character from 'De De Pyaar De' come in at times. John,  Aditi, Soni, Kumud, provide an excellent support to our 2 dynamic leads. Music:  The music by Gulraj Singh and Tanishq Bagchi are amazing with the recreated 'Jee Nee Karda' being the best. Concept, Story and Screenplay: The story and screenplay by Kaashvie and Anuja Chauhan is simply unique and brilliant. Tech

The Blue Dragon Film Awards of Korea, The Filmfare Awards of India, the BAFTAs of the UK, the AACTA Awards of Australia, the Canadian Guild Awards, the European Film Awards are all sort-after awards across the world but the award season is always incomplete without the awards presented by the Academy of Motion Picture and Sciences, or commonly as we know, the Oscars. The Academy Awards are due for the 25th of April and here is the Bollywood Elephant predicting the winners of the 93rd Academy Awards after inferring the results from 18 Award Shows. The Bollywood Elephant presents 2 categories of "Should Win" vs "Likely to Win" for all major categories.                                                                Best Production Design: Should Win: Mank Likely to Win: Mank Costume Design: Should Win: Emma Likely to Win: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom  Cinematography (One of the toughest split): Should Win: Nomadland  Likely to Win: Man Animated Feature: Should Win: Sou

 This week Netflix gifted us with Ashutosh Rana and Sanya Malhotra starrer,' Pagglait'. Pagglait boasts about a spectacular cast that includes names like Sheeba Chadha, Ashutosh Rana, Raghubir Yadav, Shruti Sharma, Meghana Malik, Rajesh Tailang among others. Oscar Winner Guneet Monga produces this heartwarming, moody, and moving piece of visual art directed by the first-time director, Umesh Bisht.                                                             Sanya Malhotra is in absolute top form but it is the haunting performance of Ashutosh Rana as the grieving father that stayed with me long after the movie ended. The rest of the cast is ever-dependable with the credentials involved. The story by Umesh Bisht keeps story organic and very grounded. Arijit's debut as a composer is great just that at times, reduces the impact of some scenes. Umesh keeps the narrative straight and simple and that what drives the charm of this movie. The technical aspects of the movie are great

  As previously mentioned in my post on the movie 'Tribhanga', Netflix is continuously churning out some phenomenal body of work, and this week it is 'The White Tiger' based on the Booker Prize-winning book of the same name written by Aravind Adiga. The movie stars Rajkummar Rao, Priyanka Chopra Jones, Adarsh Gourav, and Vijay Maurya in prominent roles! It is written and directed for the screen by Ramin Bahrani.                                               There is so much to speak about the amazing work the actors have done on this film. Adarsh Gourav and his filmography have always been fascinating to me when he started off his career in a Manoj Bajpayee film called 'Rukh', he was destined for staying in cinema. He owns each and every frame he is in(except the ones with RR) and commands your attention. In particular, when he confronts a beggar. His consideration among 'potential' nominees for Golden Globe Best Actor is a testament to his prowess. Rajk

2021 has begun on an extremely interesting and amazing note for our entertainment industry. In a span of 15 days the entertainment industry has gifted us with some great content like Nailpolish (Zee5), Ram Prasad ki Tehrvi, Gullak Season 2 (Sony Liv), and now the streak continues with Tribhanga (Netflix). The movie stars Kajol, Tanvi Azmi, Mithila Palkar in the lead roles, and the men Kunal Roy Kapoor, Manav Gohil, Vivek Tattwaadi, Kanwaljit Singh among others. It is directed by Renuka Shahane who is better known as Madhuri Dixit's elder sister in Hum Aapke Hain Koun! \                                              Whats's Good:  Acting:  The performances by each and every actor is phenomenal. They embrace their characters with so much conviction that one cannot distinguish between the reel and real characters. Story and Direction:  The story is beautiful and intricately told by Renuka Shahane! Her directions evoke the right emotions at the right time and you cannot help but get

 This year has been tough for the movies and everyone associated with cinema. In 2020, a total of 27 notable releases came out in theatres, and approximately 35 movies released on OTT platforms like  Netflix, Prime Video, Hotstar, etc. Considering the dull and gloomy 2020 has been, the Bollywood Elephant has decided to only focus on the positives and the best films and series 2020 has offered!                                               First, we pick the best actors, music, dialogues, singers, story, screenplay, direction, and finally my Top 5 films of the year! FILMS: Best Actor (Male):  This year it was really tough to pick 1 when one is spoilt for choices. However solely based on this man's phenomenal performance as Aaloo and the entry scene in particular sealed the deal for me to pick him as the performer of the year (male). Rajkummar Rao yet again proved how effortlessly he transforms from Aaloo in Ludo to Montu sir in Chhalaang! I wish he gets his due at the box-office so