TAPM Review: A Tragic Accident!

The controversial movie, 'The Accidental Prime Minister' has finally hit the theatres and has Anupam Kher, Akshaye Khanna, Suzzane Bernet, Vipin Sharma, Arjun Mathur essaying major roles in the movie. It is based on the book by Sanjay Baru of the same name.

                         

                                      

Anupam Kher as the accidental prime minister, Manmohan Singh is quite underwhelming and it seems as if he is more into mimicking the former prime minister and it often turns out to be amusing than interesting. Akshaye Khanna as the media advisor Baru is absolutely fabulous and tries his best to lift an otherwise a relatively poor film. Divya Seth, Suzzane Bernet, Arjun Mathur make an appearance and do a good job.

                                             

Based on Baru's book, the movie had all the right ingredients to be a taut political thriller but is reduced to being a snoozefest documentary thanks to debutant director's Vijay Gutte poor, incoherent direction. His direction fails the movie to reach its full potential and often turns out as a flat narration. The poor dialogues and surprisingly poor writing by Hansal Mehta make the movie a disappointment. Adding to the disappointment is the poor editing but in spite of these follies, the movie is informative and Gutte's set design and working of the PMO is done with finesse. 

                           

                                              

The Accidental Prime Minister has more lows in its incoherent storytelling than highs but fails to engage a viewer due to a debutant director at the helm. Perhaps, an experienced director would have been a better choice to bring this interesting political drama to the forefront. I am going with 2.5 stars, it is a golden opportunity lost!

                                            

UTSS Review: Mission accomplished with minor casualities.

'Uri:  The Surgical Strike' is based on the covert operation carried out by the Indian army in  Pakistan occupied Kashmir, in retaliation of the Uri attacks in 2016. The movie is directed by the debutant Aditya Dhar and has Vicky Kaushal, taking the command of this war film.

                                                           

                                                

After acing in roles from Raazi, Mamnarziyaan, Vicky Kaushal yet again proves his versatility as Major Vihaan Shergill. He portrays the role to perfection and takes the film to another level. Actors Kirti Kulhari, Rajit Kapoor, Swaroop Sampat, Paresh Rawal, Yami Gautam, Mohit Raina, Mansi Parekh etc. make an appearance and do a brilliant job in their respective roles. A special mention to Mohit Raina's Major Karan Sharma that left a huge impact and he did a great job in his debut.

                                        

If a viewer knows about the end of the movie, it is entirely down to the storyteller how captivated the storyteller can keep the audience and writer-director Aditya Dhar does a really good job and keeps the viewer engaged in the 138-minute long movie. The only problem here is the screenplay, the screenplay could have been a bit tighter and the movie might have been trimmed by 5-10 minutes in the first half. There were some certain cinematic liberties that the director has taken which at times felt unnecessary. Not to forget, the fantastic background music, that just helped build tension in the movie- something that was needed.

                                         

With all said and done, Uri: The Surgical Strike, is a war film without any forced jingoism and arouses patriotism without any over the top dialogues. I am going with 3.5 stars for Uri. Do go and watch it! A watch of pride for the entire country!

                                        

P.S. We could not have asked for a better start to the year!