Vijayanand, Review: All Vijay, No Anand You might be pardoned for mistaking the film to be a bio-pic on the genius Hindi film director, Vijay Anand (Guide, Jewel Thief, Johnny Mera Naam). But that can only arise out of ignorance, for if you have read anything about the film or seen a poster or video, you will be aware that this is nothing like a Vijay Anand bio-pic. It is, in fact, a docu-drama about a family in Karnataka that started with the printing industry and the next generation went in...

Mili, Review: Chilly A remake it is. And an ideal vehicle to draw boundless sympathy from audiences for the lead actress, Janhvi Kapoor. For who would not root for a girl locked in a freezer chamber and subjected to temperatures of -12 degrees to -18 degrees Celsius? What if hypothermia sets in, and she freezes to death? No chance. Mili is producer Boney Kapoor’s mini Titanic tale, minus the boy, and killing her would be like committing suicide. So, once the premise of a girl battling s...

Trailer launch of 1st Marathi multilingual film Har Har Mahadev: 300 against 12,000 ZEE Studios' released the trailer of their upcoming film Har Har Mahadev on 10 October at the PVR Cinemas, Juhu, Mumbai. The film is the story of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj (King Shivaji), from the point of view of Baji Prabhu Deshpande, who was initially an opponent, but joined ranks with Shivaji later on. The trailer is trending high in the Tamil and Telugu versions. Har Har Mahadev (a battle cry among ...

Vikram Vedha, Review: Gang gang, bang bang There are only a handful of characters in Vikram Vedha who do not wield guns, swords or any ‘weapon’ they can lay their hands on. Almost all of them die. And what about those who do wield guns and makeshift weapons? They meet their fate too, except for…Rarely has a film let loose a such a fusillade of bullets, from all sorts of hand-guns as well as AK47s, as in this film. And rarely have we seen so many corpses tumble left, right a...

Chup: Revenge of the Artist, Review: Critickill analysis Film critics, run for cover! Better still, seek police protection. Take a cue from the one renowned film critic already has police protection, and comes to our press previews with an armed escort, in uniform. The reason for this shield is not known to me. But all the other reviewers are mere mortals, some senior, some junior and some newbies. Some of them are well paid, some are paid much less than what they deserve, some are well-to-do...

Trailer success meet and song launch of Major: Lookout, big fish, here comes the goldfish Three big, real BIG pictures are on the verge of release, simultaneously. Two are from the South, and one from Mumbai. Anybody who has been following release schedules will know that these three are Prithviraj from Yash Raj Films, KamalHaasan’s Vikram and a major film from Hyderabad, called, Major. I wonder whether the other two have been shown to anybody except the most selected of selective audie...

Sounds of The Kashmir Files: “Pray for all the oppressed people in the world” Royal Opera House was a surprising choice for the event. Once a landmark for big-budget film releases, it remained shut for about two decades, before it was revived, with plays and other events being held there, but no film shows. Makers of the film The Kashmir Files decided to kill two birds with one stone: reinforce their theme of oppression, persecution, brutal murders and more of Kashmiri Pandits in ...

KGF Chapter 2: Cinépolis IMAX, Seawoods, Navi Mumbai to be launched with Yash-starrer One ‘crazy’ fan, a man apparently in his late twenties, stood outside the Seawoods Grand Central in Navi (New) Mumbai, belting out dialogue from KGF 1 and expressing his absolute devotion to the lead actor, Yash. He said he had travelled all the way from Varanasi, a distance of 1,500 kms, to meet the superstar, and would not go away until he got a chance to meet Yash. This was happening on...

Minnal Murali, Review: Two bolts from the blue Minnal Murali’s première at the Mumbai Film Festival, on 16 December, was a grand affair. The venue was the recently constructed Jio World Drive in Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex, and drinks and snacks were waiting for those who arrived early. The cast and crew were present too. Viewing the film came with an embargo that no reviews should be posted before December the 24th, the day of its release directly through the streaming p...

IFFI 52, 040: Koozhangal is India’s Oscar nomination Koozhangal (Pebbles), India’s official nomination to Oscars, delineates the pain and sufferings of a child and a mother, both victims of marital abuse. “It’s a simple story told in the simplest form. And it is borrowed from my life itself. The film is based on the sufferings that my sister and her small child went through due to an alcoholic husband”, said the director of this Tamil film, Vinothraj P.S., at a ...

IFFI 52, 039: “We are just here to make honest cinema,”—Ganesh Hegde To be or not to be. The very same existential question that vexed Hamlet in Shakespeare’s timeless eponymous play is what troubles 10-year-old boy Sidda, albeit in a somewhat different avatar. Having been forced to bid adieu to the pristine beauty and serenity of his village, the young boy is confronted with the inevitability of having to choose between the chaotic and alienating hustle of the city, t...

Pushpa-The Rise – Part 1, Review: Cross your legs Having steadfastly kept away from the staple diet of Telugu dubbed in Hindi dished out on a few TV channels 24 x 7, one was not aware of what one was in for when one went to see the press preview of Pushpa at the invitation of a major, local PR agency, albeit with a notice of 11 hours. Firstly, an eponymous film, the title is an abbreviation of PushpaRaj. Pushpa, by itself, means a flower, and is feminine. You might be pardoned for recal...

IFFI 51, Goa, January 16-24, 2021, 07: South Indian component of the Indian Panorama The glad tidings for the South Indian fans is that nine remarkable and appreciated South Indian films are selected to be featured at the Indian Panorama of IFFI, in which six feature, two mainstream cinema and one non-feature will be showcased. Here is a list of selected South Indian Movies FEATURED FILMS: Safe (Malayalam) Director – Pradeep Kalipurayath Synopsis – A social activist called Ar...

The Body, Review: No soul A murder mystery that moves slickly and logically is a rarity, and The Body initially engages you on both counts. You don’t mind the apparent red herrings that it throws along the way, as you wait with bated breath to see it all unravel. There is a terrible sense of disappointment, though, for the herrings are not herrings, and, moreover, only one of them is red. The film unravels some five of the twenty knots it ties, leaving the remaining fifteen knots not un...

IFFI 50, XII: Rajinikanth to be Icon of Golden Jubilee Union (Central Government) Information & Broadcasting Minister, Prakash Javadekar, announced on November 02 that, “In recognition of his outstanding contribution to Indian cinema, during the past several decades, I am happy to announce that the award for the ‘Icon of the Golden Jubilee of IFFI 2019’ is being conferred on cine-star Shri. S. RajiniKanth”, said Javadekar. Carpenter-turned-porter-turned-bus conduc...

Badshaah Pahelwan, Review: There’s a brown wrestler in the boxing ring, tra la la la la When director of photography S. Krishna turned producer just over two years ago, vicariously, through his wife, Swapna, having directed two action genre films, he decided to make his third film in nine Indian languages. Down the line, he settled for five, with the original in his native Kannada, and dubbed versions in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. Rather ambitious of Krishna, considering the fi...