The Bollywood Elephant

'Baywatch' finally hit the theatres. Baywatch stars Zac Efron as Matt Broody, Dwayne Johnson as Mitch Buchannon, Priyanka Chopra as Victoria Leeds and Alexandra Daddario as Summer Quinn in lead roles. Baywatch could have been a funnier movie but settles for an average one. Where jokes could have risen above the basic 'gross' level to a better ones, our screenplay writer Mark Swift and Damian Shannon didn't seem to care much for the same.                                                     The ensemble cast of Baywatch deliver strong performances, but had there been more meat in their characters, the movie would have gone a notch higher. Nevertheless, Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron tickle your funny bone and Priyanka Chopra as Victoria Leeds is gorgeous. Alexandra and Illfenesh provide an able support to our 3 leads.                                                The movie is based on the popular 90s show by the same name. The movie plot had potential but i

There is not much to say about Mohit Suri directed 'Half Girlfriend.' Half Girlfriend is an ode to most of the best-friend zoned lovers. Such category people are going to love Half Girlfriend which stars Arjun Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor in lead roles and super-ably supported by Vikrant Massay Rhea Chakraborty and Seema Biswas.                                                             Arjun Kapoor's portrayal of Madhav Jha is surprisingly good. His bihari accent, wretchedness are for the most time visible through his eyes! Shraddha Kapoor, who everyone thought was an upcoming actor sadly falls down to Level 0 and is unable to portray a stubborn Riya Somani. On the other hand, the supporting cast of the movie outperforms the lead cast. Vikrant Massay as Shailesh and Madhav's room mate nails his role to perfection. He makes us want a friend like him in our lives.He is literally 'the find of 2017'. Rhea Chakraborty as Anshika and Seema Biswas as Madhav's

............and cut it! Cinema and Life Take 1 complete. 15 minutes and we shoot the next and final sequence- Cinema and Life: Take 2." said the director and as usual I sat down by the busy set when I saw a young guy dying to meet the director but was forcefully being thrown back and not allowed to enter the set.                                    Looking at him I went into a flashback and began thinking about the sacrifices and the confidence people have on their kids. Certainly, not every child stops themselves from pushing themselves into a career which has no certainity. In my opinion there are 2 major fields where a person has to 'risk' some years of their life into Cinema or Sport- 2 fields where it is all down to one's luck and willingness to take risk and 'invest' their lives.                                                                                                Though, parents are very supportive of their child's dream to be in

"Life is a journey with problems to solve, lessons to learn but most of all, experiences to enjoy." "Cinema is a journey on life with all boring things cut." Life and Cinema are pretty much the same as defined above. It has always been said, "Do Not Mix Real and Reel Life" speaks volumes of the impact of Cinema in the daily lives of people.                                                                                      Sitting down on a movie set with a cup of coffee in my hand I transported myself into a different world of cinema. As a young child, all of us fascinate to be an actor but then we get a reality check. Cinema has penetrated into our livers from a very early stage of childhood until late teens when they come to terms with reality of cinema-Nepotism, Casting Couch, Star Kids etc.                                          As a child being an actor is our fascination- Camera, Lights, Stage, Applauding People, Love fascinate any p

I would like to open with the lines, "Wahi kahani phir ek baar, majnu ne liye kapde phaad macha tamasha beech bazaar." This line holds true for the clichéd romances everywhere. In Bollywood, the romantic genre has gone out of hand. There is a "formula" which seems to be followed by every Bollywood director who is into making romance.                                                           To make a romantic Bollywood "drama" follow the following steps: Step 1: Girl meets Guy. Step 2: Sparks happens and songs are required for emoting love. Step 3: There has to be a "tragedy" or a "bad guy" who shall not allow our lovebirds to be at peace. Step 4: The Guy and the tragedy come face to face , there is action and bloodshed. Step 5: A sad song re-asserting the guy and girl's love. Emotion also added to spice up. Step 6: Girl and Boy triumph the world and happily ever after. Viola! Here is a typical clichéd romance r

Before watching 'Begum Jaan', I watched the movie that inspired this remake-'Rajkahini', a Bengali movie so there are going to be mentions of it in this review too. Rajkahini and Begum Jaan, both are lead by the same director, Srijit Mukherjee. It is suprising to see that the presentation of both movies differs drastically. Rakahini was led by the bengali actor, Rituparna Sengupta, Begum Jaan is lead by the super-talented Vidya Balan.                                                         Begum Jaan is superiorly backed by the ample of power packed performances. Vidya Balan playing the titular role can just be described in one word- Phenomenal. Though at times she goes a little 'too loud' but majorly she holds the movie together. With 16 characters in the movie, everyone having their share of screen time but Gauhar Khan as Rubina, Pallavi Sharda as Gulaabo, Ila Arun as Amma and Sumit Nijhawan as Salim impress the most. Though Ashish Vidyarthi and Rajit

It has been 8 months since I came to Dublin. Since then, I seem to have grown some 'extra' fondness towards Bollywood. Over my period from September 2016 until March 2017, I have watched a lot of Bollywood movies at the theatres. The first movie that I watched after coming to Dublin was Karan Johar's 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil'. Initially, I went to buy the tickets from the box office believing that the seats I might have got could be flexible (as in to change it).                                                   Upon entering the theatre, I was dumbstruck because the movie was housefull and I believed about KJo's ability and Aishwarya's star struck presence could bring audience to the theatres even abroad. The next movie that I watched was 'Dear Zindagi' which took surprisingly turned out to be housefull on a weekday. Here I believed it was SRK's star power that brought people into theatres.