The Bollywood Elephant

Finally Lipstick under my Burkha released in cinemas after a long battle with censor board. What Pahlaj Nihalani called "Lady Oriented" is what I call "Freedom of Expression of a Woman". But why are we recieving extreme negative and positive reactions. Lets find out!                                                                       Ratna Pathak Shah as Buaji/Rosy, Konkana Sen Sharma as Sheereen, Plabita Borthakur as Rihana and Aahana Kumra as Leela are simply outstanding in their respective roles. Their angst, frustration, that longing for freedom is evident through their eyes.  Sushant Singh, Shashank Arora and Vikrant Massey provide an able support to these terrific ladies. With performances so strong,  LUMB can alone be watched for the same.                                                                                     LUMB is an example of a movie where we see a sharp narrative co existing with an excellent sense of humour. The movie has a wa

The story opens in a hospital in Haryana, where we see Savitri (VidyaBalan) undergoing sex determination while her husband Dushyant(Manoj Bajpayee) looks towards her and says, “We have to.” Savitri pleads but in vain. “It’s a girl.” Replies the doctor. Savitri cries. Dushyant and Savitri return home and argue. The argument is so audible that their 3 year old daughter wakes up from her sleep and approaches their room. Seeing her standing at the door, Dushyant commands her to go to sleep as they continue their banter. During this banter, Dushyant pushes Savitri so hard that she hits the bed & falls down unconscious. She opens her eyes in the same hospital where she sees Dushyant smiling at her and Dushyant exclaims, “Thank u!” and leaves. Come forward Savitri’s mother, Seema(Jaya Bachchan) who tells Savitri that in order to save her life the doctors had t0 take out her foetus. Both Savitri and Seema seem to have broken down and so finally Savitri decides to file a case a

Jagga Jasoos finally released after a delay of 4 years,  but was it worth the wait?  Let's find that out. JJ is a proud attempt at musicals in Bollywood.  The movie did go haywire but does deserve applaud for its attempt.                                                               Ranbir Kapoor as the lead protagonist Jagga is outstanding. His stammering, acting,  eyes emotions are well depicted.  Saswata Chaterjee as Jagga's father does an amazing job. His act is short but effective. Katrina Kaif like always is ineffective and just a pretty face. Saurabh Shukla as ACP Sinha is amusing and entertaining. Everyone except Katrina do an excellent job.                                          The major attraction of the movie is its music. Given by Pritam,  the music is nice but at times goes a little too overboard. Songs like "Ullu ka Pattha", "Galti se Mistake" are simply amazing and foot tapping.  It's not easy to watch the movie that has 2

Sridevi's  comeback movie released this week. Mom stars Sridevi, Akshaye Khanna, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sajal Ali, Adnan Siddiqui and Abhimanyu Singh. The movie has been shot in the busy city of Delhi and also features locales of Himachal Pradesh. The movie tells us how far a mother can go for their child.                                                       Sridevi as Devki makes a stunning depiction of a mother seeking revenge. Her makeup, the expressions are a delight to watch. Nawazuddin as DK, the detective is absolutely flawless. His role as a detective is impeccable. Impeccably styled, his accent are all on point. Akshaye Khanna as the investigating officer Mathews is outstanding. Providing impeccable support to Sridevi and Nawaz he also stands out. A highly underrated actor Akshaye is. Sajal Ali as Arya delivers a standout performance. Her eyes express the grief of a rape victim. She makes the audience feel her pain. Adnan Siddiqui as Anand, the father has not much t

"Feminism is being true to yourself. In this era, 'feminism' has adopted a corrupt identity and women do not want an association with such a term. The social stigma in this age has depreciated the literal meaning of feminism. I would call myself a feminist. According to me, Indian cinema is a propagator of evils like patriarchy and therefore, helping in emancipation and empowerment of women."" These lines were said by Kalki Koechlin in an interview where she was asked to draw a line between Feminism and Women Empowerment. Her words stand true to date.                                                     Firstly, let's not confuse between Feminism and Women Empowerment.  Feminism is the advocation of equal rights for females whereas Women Empowerment is the ROAD that we take to achieve the "supposed" feminism. And just to some up what feminism is NOT.....                                                                                      

Bollywood in 2017 has given us very bad movies sans a few beautiful and good movies. Many of these beautiful movies were low on promotion and small budget, hence their box office collection and worldwide recognition is far apart. This was reflected in Bollywood's stats where out of 85 releases only 12 have been average or hit at the box office which bring the success ratio to 14.16%. much lower than last year's 22.68%.   Bollywood needs to buck up its money game especially when the much anticipated Tubelight has failed miserably on our expectations. Though surprises like Badrinath ki Dulhania, The Ghazi Attack which restored my faith in Bollywood.   In this list I am going to talk about the top 5 movies that released in this half of the year as well as the worst 3 movies of the year with a short note for the reason of my choice. *Baahubali- 2 and The Ghazi Attack will not feature in this list because they are NOT Bollywood movies.   THE WORST 3. 3. OK Jaanu: P

Tube Light is Salman Khan's 2017 Eid gift. In 2015 Salman Khan surprised us by offering Bajrangi Bhaijaan, a movie that struck the strings of our heart. 2016 was Sultan which otherwise was an average watch. Just as I thought Salman was getting better at his content game, Tubelight dropped.                                                                Salman Khan as Laxman Singh Bisht is a let down. A character where he was supposed to emote with his eyes and recreate something like BB, he somewhat fails and delivers an average performance. Sohail Khan as Bharat Singh Bisht, is surprisingly good. He essays the role with good conviction. The kid, Martin Tangu delivers the best performance. His innocence his visible through his eyes. Though he remains unmatched to Harshaali Malhotra, he does his best in his zone. Zhu Zhu, the actress makes a fair debut by all bollywood standards. The movie also features the terrific Om Puri who as usual gave a very impressive performance. S