The Bollywood Elephant

Bollywood loves churning out sequels every now and then. The so-called "sequels" degrade the content of the original. 'Baaghi 2' is the sequel to 2016's surprising hit 'Baaghi'.  And Baaghi 2 reaffirms my faith that Bollywood cannot come up with good sequels.                                                    The acting in the movie is downright atrocious. Tiger Shroff as Ranveer and a perfect typecast of an action hero. Disha Patani as Neha is the next Katrina Kaif. She tries a lot to act but fails at a lot of levels. Darshan Kumar, Prateik Babbar, Manoj Bajpayee, Deepak DDobriyal are entirely wasted. It is perhaps Randeep Hooda as LSD is the best and also gets the best lines of the movie.                                                 The story which has been borrowed from the south-Indian movie 'Shanam'  is somewhat interesting. But the terrible execution, terrible direction led the movie to be very confusing. It seemed as if

Finally, Rani Mukherjee is back after a long break with YRF's 'Hichki'. The movie picks up the topic of Tourette Syndrome and explores the teacher-student relationship based on this rare disease. The movie has borrowed its basic premise from the book 'Front of the class'.                             Rani Mukherjee is back and with a bang! Her portrayal of a Ms.Naina Mathur, a Tourette syndrome victim is exemplary! Shivkumar Subramanium, Rohit Saraf, Supriya and Sachin Pilagaonkar, Neeraj Kabi are an excellent support to the supremely talented Rani. The junior artists portraying the students were amazing.                                            Director Siddharth.P.Malhotra does a great job in the directing the movie. 'Hichki' suffers some hiccups majorly because of the predictable writing and the lack of character depth. Though the director keeps you engrossed in the movie with subtle dialogues, absolute school nostalgia, he fails to give us a

Raid is the biggest release of March. It stars Saurabh Shukla, Ajay Devgn and Illeana d'Cruz. Raid arrived without a lot of promotions and is perhaps the only notable watch after the blockbuster, Sonu Ki Titu Ki Sweety and the dud Pari. Let's see whether it is better to rewatch SKTKS or watch Raid.                  Ajay Devgn helms the star cast as Amay Patnaik. Though there are instances where he seems to be the Bajirao Singham's cousin from the IT department but gives a solid performance. Someone who topples Ajay is Saurabh Shukla as Rameshwar Singh 'Tauji' is beyond words to express.He is a literal show stealer. His Rameshwar's and Amay's cat and mouse game are enjoyable to watch. Illeana D'Cruz is merely reduced to a pretty damsel and has no special role. The rest of the cast do a good job in their respective role.                                          Raj Kumar Gupta's narration is spot on. He tactfully engages you in the 130-

'Pari' can be a called as a proud attempt at Horror genre in the Indian cinema.The movie has no skin show neither a cringe-worthy script, two of the most essential elements of an Indian horror movie. Pari is the third movie in Anushka Sharma's production after NH10 and Phillauri.                               It really takes a lot of effort and daring for an A-lister actor to shed her glamorous avatar and don a role like Ruksana. Anushka as Ruksana is an example of an excellent actor and it would not be wrong to say that she has delivered her career-best performance as well as 2018's best performance. Parambrata Chatterjee as Arnob is amazing and his unusual chemistry with Anushka is praiseworthy. Perhaps, Rajat Kapoor as Professor Omar is terrifying but does not have enough meat for his character. Ritabhari Chakraborty as Piyali is innocent, lovable and has good sequences to deliver.                                                Generally, a cringe-w