Ek Villain Returns, Review: V for Villain, Q for Qiran What do you call a serial killer? An Assistant Commissioner of Police, at a public forum, shows a picture of Rakesh Mahadkar, the serial killer in Ek Villain (2014), calls him “A “Villain,” as if Archimedes’ spirit has entered his body and he actually wanted to say “Eureka!” That does not mean that the new serial killer will get caught in the next few seconds. No way. It will be six months before he is ...

Attack-Part 1, Review: Dawn of a new Ira Ira is the new Artificial Intelligence set-up, inspired by Alexa, that is implanted in a soldier who has been paralysed as a result of a bullet wound, converting him into a cyborg. That concept was milked over years in Hollywood films like The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Genisys (2015), and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). Then there was the Universal Soldier series, Universal...

Batla House, Review: Policeman with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Distinguishing one police thriller from another is becoming an increasingly difficult task. He is part of an incident/encounter that results in deaths of alleged criminals. The officer’s marital life is disrupted due to his erratic working hours and heavy post-traumatic stress. Having had enough, the wife threatens to leave him. The incident creates controversy and he runs afoul of the powers that be. Most of his higher-...

Romeo Akbar Walter (RAW), Review: Uncooked meal, raw deal Espionage, as a film genre, is more than 84 years old. A master, no less than Alfred Hitchcock himself, made The 39 Steps in 1935. So it is baffling that a spy thriller, made in 2017-18, is oblivious of the rudimentary ingredients entailed to engross audiences. Ennui and crawling pace are anathema to a spy story. When the yard-sticks are James Bond and even John Le Carré, a shoddy script, amateurishly executed, stands no chance ...

Satyameva Jayate, Review: Blood-letting, blood curdling, blood-bath with pyre power Milap Milan Zaveri declared in a press interview a week ago that he will never make a sex comedy again, after the disastrous Mastizaade. “I would like to make films which have drama, action and heroism. I want to make heroic films.” The first station on this journey towards his goal is Satyameva Jayate (Only Truth Be Victorious), a heroic film, or, more accurately, another vigilante pot-boiler with...

Parmanu—The Story of Pokhran, Review: More fission, less fusion India has carried out several nuclear (parmanu is Hindi for nuclear) tests since 1975. Yet, the 1998 experiments in the desert land of Pokharan, near Jaisalmer, have remained the talk of the nation. These were the tests that put India squarely in the nuclear power league. Records of such defence-related activities are usually classified. Unless the makers of Parmanu-The Story of Pokharan, have been allowed privileged access...

Rocky Handsome, Review: Rocky terrain, bumpy ride Okay, so John Abraham is a handsome hunk with codename. Rocky...Handsome...does that justify the title? Read on. John is great at action and decides to cash in on his forté yet again in another remake, with remake veteran director Nishikant Kamat. Remember John’s earlier home production called Force, remake of a Tamil film? This time, the team looks to the Far East, and settles for the gut-wrenching, bullet spraying, bone-crushing...