Movie Analysis : Hotel Mumbai

Directed by : Anthony Maras
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5461944/

Here at Taj.. guest is God.

Spoilers Ahead.. 


Its a movie that would be a different experience depending on if you were in Mumbai during those attacks day, or watched it unfold on TV in some other part of India, or you are a non-indian having Taj Hotel as one of the places to visit in future.  I myself been in Mumbai for almost 10 years, but in 2008 I didnt live here, ended up watching on T.V how horrendous and painful it was to see the terrorists do havoc.

Director Anthony Maras begins the movie with the boat scene on which Kasab and rest terrorists came into Mumbai, they are on a call where their boss is reminding what they have to do and basically brainwashing them which he must have done while making them join the training.  Maras builds the narrative 2 way, the arrival of the terrorists onto the Mumbai streets/cabs as you know where its heading and on other hand the head chef of Taj Hotel, Oberoi (Anupam Kher) telling the chefs and waiters how the guests are God and there shouldn't be any mistake from their sides.

You are literally waiting for the misery to start, how the happy faces at the hotel busy in their routine life will turn into 'Will I make it out alive?' There's a chilling sequence where the lady is hiding inside a closet with hands on mouth of the little kid so that he doesn't cry, and you wonder if he could die due to loss of breathe instead. Not much focus is given to the VT Station attack which is good in a way or it would had been a lot to watch. Having said that, Maras does show a nice detailed look at the attacks with good use of camera, something that Rgv's film some years back couldn't do.

We see terrorists knock on doors as room-service guys who then shoot down the guests as they open door, the lives meaning nothing to them like its a video game, you just kill the people on other side. Its very brutal and tough to watch knowing it had happened in real.

Oddly, the main leading actors don't really get enough scenes to shine through, Armie Hammer especially as the tourist american guy is totally wasted. Dev Patel also should had got few more scenes whether before or after the attacks. Nazanin Boniadi who plays wife of Armie Hammer, gives a good performance, love the scene where she tries to save herself through prayers not letting the terrorist kill her.

Hotel Mumbai mainly works because its well directed, and tries to not divert away from the main plot at anytime, it could had been lot better though if the main characters were written efficiently to make us care more about them. Definately not a easy watch and probably I won't see the movie again but its always nice to see how in such a situation there were some brave people who cared to keep others around them alive.

My Rating : 6.5/10

Movie Analysis : Frozen 2

Directed by : Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4520988/

When will you see yourself as I see you ? 

Spoilers ahead.. 

A mysterious voice leads Elsa (Idina Menzel) to find the place its coming from. Anna (Kristen Bell) isn't keen to let her sister go alone which means Olaf (Josh Gad), Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and Sven join in too. The adventure takes all of them to an enchanted forest covered with mist, as they all try to find the answers.

I personally liked the first part mainly for the bonding of the sisters, Olaf part and the music.... story wise it wasn't that special. Frozen2 very much delivers the same pattern!

Except for Kristoff musical number, everyone else was good though none as good as 'Let It Go' was.. 'Show Yourself', 'Into the unknown' and 'When I am older' were my favourite tracks.  Kristoff whole sub-plot was probably the weakest in the film. Instead I would had liked to see more of Elsa and her adventures that I felt weren't too many this time.

Totally adore Olaf character, but the best moment was when he enacts all the events of first movie. Also, when he talks about change which is basically the theme of the movie. Not much to savour in terms of emotional moments, and the story for most part is predictable including the mysterious voice everyone is after.

Even though the screenplay at some places isn't tight enough, its the great visuals that still keeps you engaged along with the Elsa-Anna scenes with the funny Olaf bringing smile on the face almost every time his character is on screen.

Frozen 2 may have its problems, and won't be my pick out of the two films.. but its still good enough to sit through for its duration of 1 hr 40 mins.

My Rating : 6/10

Movie Analysis : Pagalpanti

Directed by : Anees Bazmee
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9495690/

Tera bimaar mera dil, mera jeena hua mushkil.. 

Spoilers ahead.. 


Raj Kishore (John Abraham) is considered to bring bad luck to anyone he tries to work with.

Thats basically the main one line plot around which director Anees Bazmee and the writers tried to construct a 2 hr 30 mins long movie which not to my surprise fell flat right from the first firecracker sequence that tries to be funny but isn't, just like the rest of the movie.

If I had to count the number of times I laughed at the comedy scenes, then I would struggle naming 5 such instances. Pagalpanti just fails to deliver, lacks good punchlines and tries to use 'madness' to escape the fact that the film didn't deserve to be made once the writing team (whatever mood they were in while writing) got it done. Makes me wonder why don't such films ever get shelved and interesting ones usually do.

I totally felt like banging my head somewhere when in a scene out of no-where Patriotism comes out of every character, as if saying we are failing in the comedy department lets try this out to let the frustrated looking audience in theatre cheer up, well better luck next time!

Looking at the positives, there's Arshad Warsi who gets some laughs in few scenes specially that singham lion pose. Then, the glamor quotient was good, clearly both Kriti (plays a irritating dumb girl role) and Urvashi (another aatma role) were casted for that and not anything else. And Urvashi's 'Bimar Dil' (re-created version from Sridevi's 'Chaalbaaz') was actually quite likeable, guilty pleasure I guess I will call it.

When you got nothing to say about Anil Kapoor and Saurabh Shukla's performance, then that itself sums up a movie! Ileana is totally wasted in a nothing role and a very less screen-time, maybe she declined to be glamdoll like other 2 actresses and paid price (good one I would say) for it. I don't think John Abraham has ever worked for me in comedy roles, and this film proves it again.

Anees last movie Mubarakan despite how bad it looked from trailer was still a decent watch with some laughs, but with 'Pagalpanti' he has just made what could easily be his worst film (No Problem would be a close 2nd to it). He's got 'Bhool Bhullaiya 2' next, so he better get his mojo back or the angry akki fans are coming.

My Rating : 2/10

Movie Analysis : Bala

Directed by : Amar Kaushik
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9420648/

Badalna kyun hai, kyun badle .. 

Spoilers ahead.. 

Balmukund Bala Shukla (Ayushmann Khurrana) is balding prematurely and takes on every possible remedy on earth to solve the problem and lead a 'hero' kind life he used to had during school days that included mimicking actors, having girlfriends and roaming on streets with style.

Such a good concept and Ayushmann who's been on fire in last 2-3 years, with director who's last film Stree was very entertaining, and a brilliant trailer, all had me in high hopes which Bala couldn't fulfill at all.

Where did it go wrong? Hate to say it but for once Ayushmann performance didn't work for me, it just felt like a long chain of sameness coming out in the character, and the fact that after a while there's a sense of overdose of 'how to solve this hair loss problem' that it gets tiring and boring to watch.

If there's something to love in the film then its Pari Mishra (Yami Gautam) who in the best scene of the film tells why she loves the fact that her usp is her looks and she won't shy away from admitting that her looks gets her comments on social media and she dreams of marrying a good looking guy. That monologue you could totally buy it, and also it was fun watching her tik-tok sequences with Bala where they do plenty of 90's hit songs, mine favorite being Ram Lakhan's 'Tera naam liya, tujhe yaad kiya'. Oh I wish the movie's main character was Pari and we were told the story from her point of view.

On the other hand there was Latika (Bhumi Padnekar) a dark skinned girl who hates society's take on 'good looks only matters' and has constant fights with Bala who during childhood calls her 'kaali'. Now my problem isn't with what she thinks, because she is right but the fact that Bhumi was casted to play this role where in many scenes the overdose of paint made her dark skin hard to look it plus the irony that they couldn't cast a dark skinned lady for the role.. Already her character wasn't strong enough and this just made you want her scenes just end quickly. Also, I ain't much of a Bhumi admirer minus her debut film.

There are few fun moments involving the supporting cast of  Saurabh Shukla, Seema Bhargava, Javed Jaffery, and actors playing Bala's brother and Bala's grandfather.

'Bala' to me is the most forgettable Ayushmann movie since 'Hawaizaada' which was a long time ago so thats a positive if any I can take away from this film apart from Yami's performance. It tries hard to give the message of 'why should we change ourselves for others, and not just love ourselves for the way we are' but sadly the route taken to this message doesn't work at all.


My Rating : 4/10 

Series Analysis : Stranger Things S1-S3 (Netflix)

Directed by : 

Matt Duffer/Ross Duffer (14 episodes each, 2016-2019)

Shawn Levy (6 episodes, 2016-2019)

Andrew Stanton (2 episodes, 2017)

Uta Briesewitz (2 episodes, 2019)

Rebecca Thomas (1 episode, 2017)

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4574334/


Spoilers ahead... 

Season 1 :

Something is coming. Something hungry for blood.

Its November 6, 1983.. at a place called Hawkins where a young boy, 'Will Byers' (Noah Schnapp) suddenly disappears leading to speculations if he is alive or not, while slowly all doubts about what happened to him leads to a government Hawkins Laboratory.  Chief 'Jim Hopper' (David Harbour) starts the search, but at the same time, Will's friends, 'Mike Wheeler' (Finn Wolfhard), 'Lucas Sinclair' (Caleb Mclaughlin) and 'Dustin Henderson' (Gaten Matarazzo) go their own way to find him and end up meeting 'Eleven' (Millie Bobby Brown) who is a mysterious girl and has a past associated with the Hawkins laboratory. While Will's mother 'Joyce Byers' (Winona Ryder) believes Will is alive and is present in a supernatural way trying to communicate from a place called 'Upside Down'.

First season takes time in getting going, took me atleast 3 episodes before I was totally involved with all characters, but one of main reason was the similar plot to 'Dark' i.e a young boy gone missing and everyone slowly discovering the sci-fi behind it. I was happy though that the similarity ended there with no time travel. 

Another reason why I was wanting to see the story pickup pace was because, there was too much of one character believes in some kind of spirit, and rest are in the 'are you out of your mind?' mode. Which is why when Will's elder brother 'Jonathan Byers' (Charlie Heaton) asks Mike's elder sister 'Nancy Wheeler' (Natalia Dyer) if the bear she saw had no face, I knew this is where series going to get the move on and there's literally no stopping from this point.

What I love about season1 is how the characters are not one-note, they are developing on with every episode even if its at a slow pace. At one stage I was thinking how cool it would be if 'Steve Harrington' (Joe Keery) would go and join Jonathan-Nancy in monster killing and it actually happens, and boy what a complicated fun scene that was when Steve out of nowhere learns existence of Demogorgan (creatures from Upside Down).

Joyce is another great character, that unlike everyone else is correct from the start and is willing to go to any extent to find her son, not caring how crazy she will look to others. 

Lovely use of 'Should I stay or Should I go' song. Also, despite not been fan of D&D (I didn't knew it even existed), the dialogues like 'Something is coming, something bad' or 'The Demogorgan, it got me', right at start of season was super writing as we are told in advance what's going to happen to this character. 

Dustin is a fun character, love his interactions with 'Mr Clarke' (Randy Havens), specially when he's getting info out whether its about how to reach Upside Down or creating the sensory thing for Eleven. The 'curiosity door' or pretending to be sad scenes were fun to watch. 

Great choice made on when to show Hopper's past story related to his daughter Sarah, pretty much got me emotional with the parallel cutting of 'breathe in, breathe out' scene. Also, the use of 'Upside Down' theme at many places was very well done, my fav being when Eleven tells Mike and his friends who Will is hiding from. 

Ending on Will still infected reminded me of Insidious Part1 where Patrick also came from a place called 'The Further' along with the spirit attached to him. Despite being slow in pace, the season picks up very well, engaging enough with some interesting characters and also keeps you interested for Season2.

Season 2 : 

Do you wanna be normal ? Do you wanna be just like everyone else ? Being a freak is the best, alright ? I am a freak!

Unlike last season, here the episodes are pacy, with good use of Halloween backdrop in initial episodes. The story of new monster 'Mindflayer' which is linked to Demogorgan, is very smart writing and there were many gem of scenes based on it.

Very much like Steve in S1, it took me time to like the new characters, i.e  'Max Mayfield' (Sadie Sink) and specially her stepbrother, 'Billy Hargove' (Dacre Montgomery), who was irritating to watch. Its still an interesting character that shows off the kind of parenting he got from his dad being the reason behind his abusive behavior towards Max. Chemistry between Lucas-Max is great, and also fun watching how Dustin keeps trying to impress Max through wierd ways. 

There's one major hiccup, which is the entire 'The Lost Sister' episode. The initial introduction of 'Eight'/'Kali' (Linnea Berthelsen) with which the season begins was thrilling because you felt maybe Kali would have a important role to play, then we get nothing at all for next 5 episodes. Finally, they decide to show a whole episode on Kali at such a poor time because the ending of previous episode has most of main characters at Hawkins Lab in a death kind situation. This totally ruins that effect, plus the significance of Kali episode is only that it makes Eleven finally return back to Mike and Hopper to help them out, which she could had done without going to meet Kali. The only takeaway from the episode was the reveal of 'Dr Brenner'/'Papa' (Matthew Modine) being still alive.

Even though Hopper-Eleven plot gets little boring at places, I like the parallel it draws with how Papa treated Eleven at the Lab, and despite being not allowed to go anywhere, Hopper's intentions all the time is to keep Eleven safe. I didn't understand though how Hopper came to know Eleven was alive, or was he keeping those Eggos intentionally there to let Eleven reveal herself ?

Heartbreaking moment ofcourse was watching Bob Newby (Sean Astin) die, it just looked like happening all the time when he decides to help Joyce find Hopper. I was just hoping Eleven would just reach in time and save him but guess you gotta kill few characters as part of getting 'oh no' reactions from us. Why did he have to breathe for a moment, just go out of the door and be fully safe first, sigh! I love his car scene with Will, where he tells his childhood story of being scared of someone. How Will listens to his advice to not run away, and thinking it would help him, it rather ends 

up doing the total opposite as the shadow monster/virus gets hold of Will's body.

One of the key moment of the entire series happens this season when Steve goes to Nancy place mumbling to himself to say sorry to her and then telling himself what the hell I am sorry for, and ends up meeting Dustin which is start of their extremely lovable bonding. 

Love the scene where Joyce does the crazy yet essential thing, making rooms of her house look like a map with all the drawings she uses from Will who is trying to tell everything he can see (a condition he has got now) ever since he returned back from the 'Upside Down'. She did something similar in 1st season too, that time it was the use of bulbs to communicate with Will. Also, great use of Morse Code too, felt like checking what messages Will was saying in S1 with those bulb blinking. The music used in the scene also slightly reminded me of 'The Things' theme whose direct mention they actually had in S1 when Mr Clarke is watching the movie with his wife at home.

Another great addition to the cast, is Murray Bauman (Brett Gelman), who even in the few scenes he gets, shows off his good comic timing. Dr Sam Owens (Paul Reiser) is a tricky new character, you are just never sure for most part if he is really on the side of Joyce-Hopper, or he is another one out of Brenner's camp. 

Nice to see Nancy and Jonathan together, whether it lasts for long or Steve comes into picture again is the question. I didn't like Mike's constant disapproval to not have Max part of the group, specially when he never thought same way about Eleven who was rather more dangerous as a stranger. I do however enjoy how Mike always acts smart, knowing what trouble is approaching like the whole 'The Spy' angle, same for whole group though, which is why its fun to watch this series. 

I can't make up my mind if I liked this season more or not, there are days I will choose S1 and then there will be days when I go with S2. 

From next season, I want Will not to suffer anymore and probably Billy character to become more likeable. Maybe little about Dr Brenner too, how did he survive when we were clearly shown he was attacked by Demogorgan in S1. 

Season 3 : 

Make mistakes, learn from them, and when life hurts you, because it will, remember the hurt. The hurt is good. It means you are out of that cave. 

Expected this season to be high on struggle when it comes to beating the monster. And there's no disappointment in that regards even though I will admit this version of Mind Flayer (human/rat flesh melting) was very gross and tough to watch of all the monsters so far. The inspiration clearly was 'The Things' and  a direct reference too happens in this season in a very awkward 'Coke' advertisement scene.

Some good new additions again, with Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke) and Dr Alexei (Alec Utgoff) standing out. Robin has amazing chemistry with Steve and also would make for a great pairing with Nancy, given her very sharp mind. Alexei on the other hand provides some fun moments, and you do feel bad when he dies, even if it doesn't have same impact like say Bob had. 

It did took me a rewatch of the season to like it, the main issue still remains which is the handling of the Russian starcourt plot. The comic tone puts me off a lot because being trapped in that lift and then trying to find a way out, the situation calls for a desperation and when eventually they would manage to escape without dying it would had made for a great watch. Also, it makes the entire Russians look so silly, as if their army can't even deal with kids. Good thing is, this is just a sub-plot so I tried to dismiss off as much as I could using the famous 'keep your brains away' theory. Also, I totally disliked the Nancy workplace harassment mainly because by now she has become one of bad-ass characters always ready to take the lead and win against monster, so to watch her obeying others orders felt very odd to me.

The Hopper-Eleven-Mike situation is fun, at times it does irritate but overall I enjoyed specially the song 'Hopper' happily hums to, think it was the same song in S2 too when he and Eleven were cleaning the house. Max bonding with Eleven is great to watch, and also I liked what they did with Billy because it was one of very unlikeable characters and in the end you feel for him in his vain effort to defeat the monster but bought the much needed time to save Eleven.

Dustin is again fun to watch, and the addition of Erica Sinclair (Priah Ferguson), Lucas's sister to the gang provides some good sarcastic fun moments. Hopper-Joyce story expectedly develops well, they make for a great pair, infact personally I prefer them over the much hyped Mike-Eleven pairing. It was good to see Will not suffer this time around, and I could somehow connect to how he felt being sidelined by Mike and group because not everyone likes to grow up fast, Will probably wants to still keep playing the silly D&D games all the time. 

The finale was very good and so were the last 2 episodes leading to it, even the song Dustin sings at a very precarious situation made me laugh despite it being silly. The whole idea of Eleven not strong enough to fight off a stronger monster was very well executed, also leading to a question 'why did she start losing her powers?' 

The final teasing scene is again spot on, brilliant use of 'Upside Down' track to reveal how we maybe getting parallel monster stories, one in Russia and other in Hawkins. I also enjoyed the use of 'Rats remix version' too, which is used first during the cinema blackout and then the field where Dustin is taking gang to talk to his girlfriend Suzie. No mention of Dr Brenner in this season was a surprise and also no part of Kali, maybe we would more on that in Season4.

Overall, this season had flaws but its the power of strong characters that kept me not get bored at any moment.   

My Rating : 7.5/10 

Movie Analysis : Ford v Ferrari

Directed by : James Mangold
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1950186/

Look out there. Out there is the perfect lap. You see it?
I think so.
Most people can't. 

Spoilers ahead..


Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), an american car designer who once was a well known race-car driver is hired to get Ford company the kind of sports cars which could win them races against Ferrari, but he has to face the various challenges that includes getting Ken Miles (Christian Bale) as the main driver, but the biggest headache is to handle the constant interference by the Ford executives.

I am not into cars or racing at all, and yet 'Rush' was a film that I loved a lot. 'Ford v Ferrari' may not have reached that same level but there was a lot to like in the movie for me apart from learning about some racing history being another biopic.

What I totally enjoyed was the breathtaking racing scenes, the noise of the cars, gear change and the strategy used to win the races.. and great performances by Matt Damon and specially Christian Bale who once again looked completely the part of his character of Ken Miles. We get to see how slowly but gradually friendship between Shelby and Miles blossom, and to be honest I would had liked more scenes between them.

Miles and Shelby fighting like kids while Miles wife quietly sits and watches them, Miles telling his son about the perfect lap and how most racers ain't aware of it, Shelby locking out Ford executive so that he could give a test run himself of the new built car to Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) and Miles being told to slow down when he actually does the fastest lap of his career were some of the best moments in the movie.

It was kinda of irritating watching the way director of Special Vehicles Ford, Leo Beebe (Josh Lucas) made that controversial decision to ask Miles slow down knowing that way Ford will have 3 racers on the podium. It was a real incident and I wonder how the fans of Miles must have felt during that 24 hours 1966 Le Mans race. I didn't even knew a event existed then (not sure if it does now) which lasts whole 24 hours. Did Shelby really steal those stopwatches or threw that nut making Ferrari guys doubt if was their driver's car? It did make for a great viewing even if it was fiction.

I felt scenes after Miles death were underplayed, there was a scope of more emotions involved in there.

Ford v Ferrari will most likely keep you engaged and involved in whats happening even if you aren't into racing and cars. Yes, there are some cliches involved, but they very much get overshadowed by the performances, direction and a story that you may not know much about until now.


My Rating : 6.5/10

Movie Analysis : Doctor Sleep

Directed by : Mike Flanagan
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5606664/

I don't know about the magic. I always called it 'the shining'. 

Spoilers ahead..


First thing, I don't love 'The Shining', while watching it few months back I strongly felt the character of Jack Nicholson should had been developed properly before going into the mad isolated zone and yet at times he would try to help his family but gone too far away to do so. While googling I did find out that the book of Stephen King actually shows him the way I wanted. Kubrick's direction and Jack's performance still made it a very good watch though minus the problems I mentioned.

Coming to Doctor Sleep, went in with less expectations as the trailers didn't quite suggest it would be good. But, it indeed was pretty good if you don't mind slow moving first 30-40 mins.

The story revolves around Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) who has grown up far away from that dreadful one year spent at Overlook Hotel. He gets a job at a nursing home where he uses his 'shining' powers to help people die with comfort in their last breath where he is aided by a cat that can tell whose time has come. Abra Stone, a young girl (Kyliegh Curran) communicates with Dan through her own 'shining' powers and then meets him one day telling what awful thing she saw and how she wants his help. It all leads up to the cult 'The True Knot' who uses the steam that the children with 'shining' powers produce when torturing them to death and thereby help themselves remain immortal. Dan has to save Abra and himself from this cult, and it all eventually connects with Overlook Hotel.

Movie begins with that super haunting background score in opening credits from 'The Shining' before we dive into some scenes of young Dan who is still haunted by the event that happened at Overlook Hotel, and gets help where he is told a way to shut those spirits trying to reach him locked inside the boxes of his brain. Its clear right then, this scene would play a key role in the finale.

We jump to the grown up Dan, it takes a while to get used to his life, and the narration is done in slow pace probably in sync with how his life was going nowhere until he got that job at nursing home and started to feel a happy change. Things do speed up when 'The True Knot' get to know about Abra stone as it becomes a battle between them before Dan joins in.

I was amazed to know that 'Rose the Hat' was played by Rebecca Ferguson, maybe something to do with my aging eyes or did she look and sound different in the movie.. whatever it is she just lifts up the movie to another level with her super acting in a very negative role. Ewan McGregor also provides the character of Dan, the kind of vulnerability or you can say not at ease with himself with the kind of childhood he had. And that gives the movie a great finale even though its the predictable part of movie including a extended nostalgia scene where Dan explores the entire Outlook Hotel remembering that one year he spent here when he was young.

And boy the goosebumps I got when Dan tells Abra they have to drive to the Outlook Hotel to win against 'Rose The Hat', and starts that background score again, and happy that it was a long sequence just as it deserved to be with some brilliant captured extreme wide shot visuals.

It may sound odd, but to me Doctor Sleep works more than 'The Shining', its hardly a horror movie as you get around 2-3 scenes that aims to scare you, mostly it pans out as a drama thriller and it was very engaging till the end. I don't know if there's any possibility of a further movie in this franchise with the ending they had it may not happen or maybe a prequel would be nice as long as the director is same because he certainly has become one of the director's whose future films/series I would be looking forward to.

Kind of under-rated movie, Doctor Sleep is going by the buzz..for me its  one of the best of 2019.. slow in parts but if you are patient then most likely you would end up liking it atleast.


My Rating : 7/10