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.                                           ...

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 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.                                ...

'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. ...

'Sonu Ki Titu Ki Sweety' is this week's release and has 'Pyaar Ka Punchnama' cast of Nushrat Bharucha, Kartik Aaryan, Sunny Singh in the leads and revolves around an 'upgraded' idea that marriages in India are not only between 2 families but also best friends.                                 Kartik Aaryan as the saviour Sonu is the rightful show stealer. His accent, panache and his chemistry with Sunny Singh aka Titu is excellent and better than Titu's with his fiance Sweety played by Nushrat Bharucha. She plays her part well which is more or less an 'upgrade' from the PKP series. The man in question, Sunny Singh aka Titu, gives an honest performance. His performance could've been better. Alok Nath as Ghasite, Virender Saxena as Lalu and Ishita Sharma as Pihu are excellent beyond words. Their comic timings are brilliant and ensure that you run out of breath due to laughter.       ...

Aiyaary means 'Treachery'. 'A Wednesday' director Neeraj Pandey helms this venture his shapeshifting has cost him a well-intentioned film named  'Aiyaary' and he, Siddharth Malhotra and a sub-plotted story are responsible for it.                                                           How can a director after working with actors like Akshay Kumar, Rana Daggubatti, Taapsee Pannu resolve to work with Siddharth Malhotra as the lead protagonist? He is such an expressionless actor that he fails to justice to Major Jai Bakshi.The only plus point he has is that he looks like a soldier. He also 'Lae Dooba' his chemistry with Rakul Preet aka Sonia, who practically had no role in the movie. It was only Manoj Bajpayee, Kumud Mishra and Naseeruddin Shah out of the ensemble cast who pulled this movie. Seasoned actors like Adil H...

Talking about Taboo topics are finally coming in fashion to Bollywood! Padman focuses on the life of a social activist Arunachalam who invented low-cost sanitary napkins for women. The movie does deliver its message but sadly misses the emotional rooting that could have been possible.                                As depicted in this poster, Radhika Apte leads the cast as Gayatri, Lakshmi's wife. Her emotions, acting are all on point. Akshay Kumar as Lakshmi is delightful to watch but sometimes misses the skin of his character.  The rest of the cast do an outstanding role in their parts. With such amazing performances, there was Sonam Kapoor's performance as Pari that was pathetic and bashed up the movie in the acting department. Her performance can easily go down as One of the worst performances of the year already. Even her costume, make-up was equally disappointing as her performance....