The Bollywood Elephant

2018 has been a very successful and surprising year for Bollywood. From surprising money spinners to surprising flops, the audience has finally been able to give an indication that they would like to appreciate content driven cinemas more, over Salman Khan type of cinema.                                         Before we begin discussing the best Bollywood offered, let's have a look at Bollywood's worst: 3.)  Welcome to New York : Still figuring out what this movie was about.                                                         2.) Baaghi 2 : Calamity of a movie.                                               1.) Race 3 : The grief of witnessing this movie on the silver screen is beyond words.                                                     Where these movies were mind-numbing, there were quite a lot of good movies that came out of Bollywood in this half of 2018. They are(in order of preference): 5.) Sonu ke Titu ki Sweety : Consistently hi

I'll begin by saying that it would be a lie if I said that Rajkumar Hirani directed 'Sanju' is a good movie. In fact, it is an Impeccable movie! let's review this Ranbir Kapoor starrer 'Sanju' supposedly based on the life of the yesteryear superstar Sanjay Dutt. In fact, 'Sanju' is less a story about Sanjay Dutt and more a celebration of a Mother-Son and Father-Son bond.                                                         Ranbir Kapoor is pitch-perfect in his portrayal of Sanjay Dutt. He adopts the mannerisms of Sanjay Dutt to utmost perfection and you don't see Ranbir Kapoor onscreen. Instead, you get the real Sanjay Dutt living in Kapoor's body. Apart from him, it is Vicky Kaushal's Kamli and Manisha Koirala's Nargis that stood out from the rest ensemble cast of Paresh Rawal, Dia Mirza, Jim Sarbh Anushka Sharma Karishma Tanna, Boman Irani who just like Ranbir Kapoor live the roles of the characters they are portraying. Nee

Before anything, I would like to say "It is not always about the destination but the journey you take to get there." This statement holds quite true for this week's #I_am_not_a_chick_flick Veere Di Wedding. You know where the film is headed but despite this, you want to invest yourself in this journey of these 4 friends who seek out for happiness and joy.                                   Out of the 4 Veeres, it is Swara Bhaskar's Sakshi who rocks it with her earnest performance and excellently portrays her role of an ill-mouthed rich girl. Following her is Kalindi Puri aka Kareena who makes a 'take notice' comeback to the film industry!!  Then comes our Meera played by Shikha Talsania who keeps the flow of Swara's Sakshi going and plays the role of a loud-mouthed Punjabi girl as well. Sadly but true, Mrs Ahuja's Avni, a matrimonial lawyer is the weakest link in the acting department. At times, Avni goes a little overboard in her expressions

Everything needs to be done in a rush. In a hurry always. Stop! Admire things around you and realize what love is.  That is what Varun Dhawan, Banita Sandhu starrer October is all about.                                                                                                          Varun Dhawan as Dan/Danish Walia is an absolute delight. He rightly marks why he is called "Sir Varun Dhawan" (no sarcasm). It is his best performance ever. Banita Sandhu as Shiuli let's her big beautiful eyes do all the talking. She makes an impressive debut in Bollywood. Gitanjali Rao as Shiuli's mother is outstanding. Her angst,  trauma is so visible onscreen. The rest of the supporting cast right from Manjeet to the ICU nurse is amazing. The movie is perfect in the acting department.                                          The 'Piku'duo, director Shoojit Sircar, and writer Juhi Chaturvedi give us something which is simply amazing. The simplicity

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-