The Bollywood Elephant

This week Bollywood had 2 major releases: The Rajkummar Rao-Shraddha Kapoor starrer 'Stree' and the Deols' Yamla Pagla Deewana Phir Se'.  I decided to watch the former and so here are my thoughts the Dinesh Vijan production, "Stree" starring an unusual pair of Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor.                                                 Leading the show is the ever-reliable Rajkummar Rao as Vicky who effortlessly pulls off the role of 'Manish Malhotra of Chanderi'. His comic timing is spot on and brilliant even better than Bareilly ki Barfi. On the other hand, Shraddha Kapoor surprises with her acting skills in this one as the mystery girl. Her chemistry with Rajkummar Rao is palpable. Adding to the fun are Aparshakti Khurana as Bittu, Abhishek Banerjee as Dana and Pankaj Tripathi as Rudra are once again amazing and brilliant. They just simply add more to this madcap ride.                                                       Bas

Amidst a plethora of releases this week, 'Mulk, a small budget release of Anubhav Sinha starring Rishi Kapoor, Taapsee Pannu and Ashutosh Rana in the lead roles. The movie deals with some relevant questions about humanity and gets you thinking as you leave the cinema.            With powerhouse performers like Rishi Kapoor as Murad Ali Mohammad, Taapsee as Aarti Mohammad, Ashutosh  Rana as Santosh, all of them outperform each other and are absolutely impeccable. They are ably supported by an eccentric Neena Gupta as the matriarch, Prachee Pandya as Choti Tabassum, Manoj Pahwa as Bilal Mohammad, Kumud Mishra as judge and Rajat Kapoor as Danish Javed all of whom do a terrific job. In this ensemble cast, Manoj Pahwa's performance deserves a special mention. He literally outshone everyone.                                          The script is the real winner of Mulk. Anubhav Sinha takes a little time to build this story and has some fidgeting camerawork but then

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