Aan Tiwari honoured with Best Child Actor award for Baal ShivReviews
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Review: 'Sufiyum Sujatayum': Of plastic passions
"Sufiyum Sujatayum" tries to cover up its lack of an engrossing plot with lots of striking asides. There is a liberal sprinkle of Sufi vibes all over the spread, in a bid to set up a mystical milieu.
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Review: 'Hanna 2': Predictable but packs a punch
"Hanna" season one had started off with a couple of hitches last year. There was the obvious comparison it drew with "Hanna" the movie of 2011. Then there was Esme Creed-Miles, Hanna of the series, fending against constant weighing up with Saoirse Ronan, the simply incomparable Hanna of big screen.
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Review: 'Rasbhari': Well intended but half baked
"Rasbhari" tries to be erotic and edifying at the same time. The idea is to set up a quirky, coming-of-age drama in smalltown India buoyed by sexual fantasy. Layered within is a subtext that teases with the paranormal, in a bid to leave a broader comment on the societal urge to scuttle a woman's sexuality.
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Review: 'Bhonsle': Manoj Bajpayee reaffirms his class
The first is a Ganpati idol with the trademark trunk yet to be attached to its frame, which the camera captures right at the start. It is the onset of Ganesh Chaturthi in Mumbai, and the rather incomplete image of a deity so overwhelmingly worshipped in the city almost defines desecration of humanity, a notion the film goes on to underline.
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Review: 'Bulbbul': Allegory of horror
Why must women wear toe rings? Little Bulbbul asks her aunt. "So that they can be kept under control," the aunt replies. "What is control?" the girl whispers innocently, as the aunt carries Bulbbul in her arms to her wedding mandap, to be married off to a rich landlord decades older.
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Review: 'Wasp Network' underwhelms despite classy cast
You have here a film billed as a thriller, based on a captivating slice of modern political history. It flaunts Penelope Cruz, Edgar Ramirez, Gael Garcia Bernal, Ana de Armas and Wagner Moura (whew!).
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Review: '7500': Usual plot, unusual impact
So what is new about yet another hijack drama? You know the drill, right -- a bunch of guys try taking over a plane and there will be a hero on board who will fight the odds. "7500" sticks to all of that, as well as every other genre formula loyally, start to end.
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Review: 'Penguin': Lost in confusion
"Penguin" is enchanting in its look and feel, perhaps to offset the grizzly plot that lies at its core. The film starts off looking like an unusual psychological thriller, but soon enough becomes a very basic serial killer story rooted in not-so-unusual motives.
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Review: 'Chaman Bahaar': Heartland whiff
Debutant writer-director Apurva Dhar Badgaiyann's effort harks back to the way tele-films used to be made for Doordarshan once upon a time. "Chaman Bahaar" unfolds at an unhurried pace to narrate a story of old-world simplicity -- a trait personified by the film's hero Jitendra Kumar with understated ease.
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Review: 'Arya': Sushmita Sen props lazy crime drama
"Aarya" starts off with a couple of advantages. It marks the return of Sushmita Sen, a fact that has helped the show pump up hype over the past weeks. Secondly, there proven core content at hand. The show is based on the Dutch series "Penoza", which saw a whopping run of five seasons, and which has already inspired an American rehash, "Red Widow".
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Review: 'The Casino': Don't bet on it
This is precisely the sort of show that makes a case against OTT culture. It is almost as if all the gaudy glitz that cinema chucked out a while back, and the cliches that were beginning to look stale even on television, have found a new low-budget address for rehash on digital platform.
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Review: 'Axone': Humour with a quiet comment
Nicholas Kharkongor's film talks of racial discrimination that people of the Northeast face in mainland India, but never loses its sense of humour as it gets going.
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Review: 'Gulabo Sitabo': Satire served with Lakhnavi wit
First thing, "Gulabo Sitabo" is positioned as a comedy but the film would not fulfil definition of the genre in the traditional Bollywood sense. This is not first day-first show LOL stuff, and it would seem a prudent move to launch this refined whiff on OTT.
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Review: 'Chippa': The small film they forgot to promote
Sunny plays Chippa, a streetsmart 10-year-old in Kolkata, who stays and works on the pavements with his samosa-seller grand-aunt (Mala Mukherjee).
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Review: 'The Last Days Of American Crime': Gore and bore
The idiom of French action filmmaker Olivier Megaton has normally been about stylish ultra-violence underlined by streetsmart swagger, which probably bears influence of his past in graffiti art.
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Review: 'Choked: Paisa Bolta Hai' works for its cast
Anurag Kashyap's new directorial is quite unlike anything he has attempted before. The trademark grim filmmaking is missing, and the filmmaker has opted for the lighter idiom of satire this time.
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Review: 'Chintu Ka Birthday': Small film, big surprise
Chintu is six and it is his birthday. There are balloons and festoons all around in the house. Daddy has promised cake, though ‘daadi' would love it if he had kheer. His best friends will be there, too. Chintu understands today is his day. He is the special one.
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Review: "Space Force": Satire struggles to lift off
"Space Force" stretches itself to 10 episodes, which is an awful lot of runtime for a story that just wants to put some American "boots on the moon".
