The Bollywood Elephant

8 years after 'Double Dhamaal', Indra Kumar is back after ruining one of his movies with sequels (Masti) to ruining his iconic movie 'Dhamaal' by remaking it as 'Total Dhamaal'. Tells the plot, pretty much? No. It further ruins the plot of 'Dhamaal' that includes names like Anil Kapoor-Madhuri Dixit, Ajay Devgn, Pritosh Chakraborty, Javed Jaffrey, Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani, Sanjay Mishra. Even if one is not looking for logic, this movie fails the brainless entertainer category as well. Promoted as a 'Stress buster' and 'Family Entertainer' this movie fails to reach either of these 2 tags.                                             Whats Good:   The Anil-Madhuri Pair:  The coming back of this couple as Mrs and Mr. Patel, a constantly nagging couple on the verge of divorce is one of the best things of the movie. A Few Laughs:  The other thing it manages is to give a few genuine laughs. Ajay Devgn's Comic Timing: Needless to s

Let me begin by saying it was TOTALLY worth the hype and wait! Zoya Akhtar has time and again proved that she is literally the BEST filmmaker we have today! The way she presents us the underdog story through poetry and emotions is absolutely stunning and she definitely knows how to craft a 'hard, brilliant, riveting, intriguing cinema. The movie is inspired by the life of rappers Divine and Naezy.                                            What's Good:    Acting: Ranveer, Alia, Sheeba Chadha, Vijay Raaz, Vijay Verma, Amruta Subhash, debutant Siddhant Chaturvedi are absolutely riveting and play a huge role to keep the audience invested. The story, Dialogues, Screenplay, and Direction: Zoya and Reema's story and screenplay are absolutely watertight and liberating at the same moment. Each scene pumps energy into the audience because of the amazing camerawork and screenplay and is also able to make a comment on 'follow your passion' in a practical way, as we

'The most unexpected romance of the year' hit theatres finally and gave us a reason to cheer! The Rajkummar Rao and Sonam Kapoor starrer 'ELKDTAL' hit the theatres among a lot of fanfare and promotions. Promoted with #Let_Love_Be, the movie explored an altogether new dimension of romance which has never been explored in Indian cinema. Directed by debutant Shelly Chopra Dhar, the movie is simple, adorable and conveys it messages without going over the top or saying it out loud.                                                  What's Good: The Performances- Right from Rajkummar Rao until Regina Cassandra the casting is pitch perfect and packs a powerful punch. The Story and Screenplay: Ghazal Dhaliwal's writing deserves applause for the subject it brings to the table powered with Dhar's direction and Screenplay. The Dialogues: The dialogues are amazing and stay with you long after the movie is over. Technicalities: Supremely edited, well executed.

The controversial movie, 'The Accidental Prime Minister' has finally hit the theatres and has Anupam Kher, Akshaye Khanna, Suzzane Bernet, Vipin Sharma, Arjun Mathur essaying major roles in the movie. It is based on the book by Sanjay Baru of the same name.                                                                   Anupam Kher as the accidental prime minister, Manmohan Singh is quite underwhelming and it seems as if he is more into mimicking the former prime minister and it often turns out to be amusing than interesting. Akshaye Khanna as the media advisor Baru is absolutely fabulous and tries his best to lift an otherwise a relatively poor film. Divya Seth, Suzzane Bernet, Arjun Mathur make an appearance and do a good job.                                               Based on Baru's book, the movie had all the right ingredients to be a taut political thriller but is reduced to being a snoozefest documentary thanks to debutant director's Vijay

'Uri:  The Surgical Strike' is based on the covert operation carried out by the Indian army in  Pakistan occupied Kashmir, in retaliation of the Uri attacks in 2016. The movie is directed by the debutant Aditya Dhar and has Vicky Kaushal, taking the command of this war film.                                                                                                               After acing in roles from Raazi, Mamnarziyaan, Vicky Kaushal yet again proves his versatility as Major Vihaan Shergill. He portrays the role to perfection and takes the film to another level. Actors Kirti Kulhari, Rajit Kapoor, Swaroop Sampat, Paresh Rawal, Yami Gautam, Mohit Raina, Mansi Parekh etc. make an appearance and do a brilliant job in their respective roles. A special mention to Mohit Raina's Major Karan Sharma that left a huge impact and he did a great job in his debut.                                          If a viewer knows about the end of the movie, it is entir

2018 has been an interesting year for the film industry around the world. With some major banners falling below expectations and small banners springing up surprises. The net revenue of Bollywood has grown from $116.8 billion in 2017 to $132.8 billion in 2018. In a first, there was a failure of domination of the Khans at the box office that was surpassed by Khurana, Rao and Kaushal aka Talents and Story. Like it is, if there are good films, there are bad films.                             Before discussing the good films, here are 5 films that disappointed me the most: 5.) Namaste England: Regressive, Demeaning and Poorly Acted and Directed.                                                             4.) Welcome to New York: Still figuring out what they wanted to deliver.                                                                3.) Race 3: Anything and everything happening.                                                         2.) Thugs of Hindostan: Childi

The much-awaited mammoth '2.0' finally hit the theatres with superstar Rajnikanth reprising his role of the human-robot Chitti and with Akshay Kumar and Amy Jackson joining him in this time!                                               Rajnikanth as Vasigaran/Chitti/Chitti 2.0 does full justice to his roles as the human robot. He and his expressions are spot-on!! Akshay Kumar as the antagonist Pakshi  Rajan is menacing but does not have enough meat for his role. Amy Jackson plays the role of the pretty damsel really well as Nila. And it is an out and out Rajni movie.                                                           Shanker delivers us ' Rajni brand of entertainment' after Robot. Though his screenplay, the story is weak but his direction is good and offers a strong message as well. The VFX is top-notch and really makes the movie look an absolute delight. However, the over the top emotional quotient, forced social message do some damage to the second ha