Mini Review : Pokemon Detective Pikachu and Gerald's Game (Netflix)

Pokemon Detective Pikachu
Directed by : Rob Letterman
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5884052/

I push people away and then hate them for leaving.. 

Hearing news of his dad's car crash, Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) returns back to his hometown Rhyme City where humans and pokemon's live together. Tim meets a talking pokemon, Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds voiceover) who wants to be a detective and help him find his father. In roughly 15-20 mins, Pikachu's character gets in the narrative and from thereon the film is carried through his shoulder with very witty and fun one liners or his reactions to the situations been thrown as they try to dive further into the mystery surrounding Tim's father. But I can't say same about the rest characters or the story that is quite weak and the predictable as you can easily make out who the villain is. Its the various Pokemon's intereactions that you enjoy, be it pikachu or the pokemon of Lucy Stevens (Kathryn Newton) or the one who talks through guess what I am saying game. Lucy and Tim sub-plot is very cliched, and their adventure leading to answers isn't satisfactory. Pokemon Detective Pikachu turned out to be quite underwhelming, but having said that Ryan Reynolds makes sure I atleast had a good time. Definately expected better movie from what the trailers had suggested.

My Rating : 6/10



Gerald's Game
Directed by : Mike Flanagan
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748172/

Everybody's got a littler corner in there somewhere, a button they won't admit they want pressed. Year after year, I barely gave you a glimpse of mine.

A couple Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) and Jessie (Carla Gugino) decide to go to a remote lakehouse trying to get their marriage back on track, but a tragedy happens when Gerald has a heart-attack and dies with Jessie handcuffed on bed. With no neighbours or people around, Jessie must find a way to survive and get help or let herself free of the cuffs. I liked the starting of movie, director doesn't waste time coming to the main part of story, as Jesse is all alone tied to bed, door open with a stray dog eating her dead husband and a scary 'Moonlight' figure appearing at night suggesting Jessie won't survive long with the hallucinations she was having. Her imaginary conversations with herself, her husband, and flashbacks of her father that involves child abuse makes for a interesting watch. But after a while it gets tiring, I would have liked to see some more struggle or attempts made by her to free herself, the isolation situation should had been explored more and also the scare element was less as the diversion to past with husband or father during childhood affects the screenplay. Oh but when at end she does free herself through wrist cut, that was one hell of a hard scene to watch, made me pause movie for few minutes before I could start watching rest movie again. My other biggest complain was, why did they try to give closure to 'Moonlight' story, had they ended say 10-15 mins earlier and left it to audience to guess whether he was real or unreal, it would had made the film look lot good. Carla Gugino shines in her performance, specially when she is talking to herself, also enjoyed Bruce in those conversations where he tells about human desires. An adaptation of Stephen King novel, Gerald's Game makes for a good one time watch despite the mentioned flaws.

My Rating : 5.5/10

Mini Review : Upload (AmazonPrime) and Shikara

Upload
Creator : Greg Daniels
Directed by : 

Kacie Anning/Greg Daniels/Daina Reid/Jonathan van Tulleken (2 episodes each, 2020)

Jeffrey Blitz/David Rogers (1 episode each, 2020)

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7826376/

The best days of your life could be after its over..

Spoilers ahead.. 

What if you could choose your afterlife, like options of traditional normal death or get upload where you enjoy a afterlife with all your past memories, same personality, interact with other uploaded people or even spend time with alive real people through VR technology, and can have sex through special suits, basically enjoy a whole new version of life with not much of responsibilities. Upload Season1 goes through all of that, its not really a complete adventurous or laugh ride, but quite emotional at times. Nathan (Robbie Amell) who has just died and joined the 'Lakehouse Horizon', his chosen Upload begins to explore the place and is helped by his Angel, Nora (Andy Allo) who is a supportive alive girl working as a customer helper and always shows up when someone says the word 'Angel', very much like Genie of Aladdin. The intial episodes are fun to watch as we see some wierd rules, breakfast vanishes from tables if you come late after 10am, you could change weather outside through a switch button, painting done with direct drag and drop, a dog used to intereact as therapist and a waiter having many selfversions to do various other jobs at same time. But Upload uses all this more like small breakups, main focus is mostly on the death mystery of Nathan, if it was plotted? And Nathan's equation with his girlfriend Ingrid (Allegra Edwards), who you can call is very much on path of Rosamund Pike from 'Gone Girl' watching the way she is desperate for Nathan even when he wants to break-up. My favourite part of Upload is the chemistry between Nathan and Nora, that eventually leads to lot more. But in the end, I didn't get why would Nora not know that Nathan didn't cut her off but it was his data that ended, shouldn't she be having that knowledge? Loved the cool fun sequences between Luke (Kevin Bigley) and his Angel, Aleesha (Zainab Johnson). Dylan (Rhys Slack) also provides some hilarious moments like the one where he goes to the steal market with Nathan and Luke, trying to get a hack to grow up by some years and become manly, since you never age up at Upload place. Its by no means a 'wow' kind series, but if you are looking for a quick short series that is light-hearted with some mystery and don't mind bit of Sci-fi then Upload is for you.. with the episodes mostly in range of early 30ish mins, its a easy binge and chances are you would like me stay interested to give 2nd season a go too when it arrives.

My Rating : 6.5/10



Shikara
Directed by : Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10930586/

Har pal teri yaad sataati rehti hai, aati jaati har ek saans yeh kehti hai.. ek din tumse milne wapis aayunga, kya hai dil mein sab kuch tumhe batayunga.. 

Told through a span of 30 years, its about a couple, Shiv Kumar Dhar (Aadil Khan) and Shanti Dhar (Sadia Khateeb), two kashmiri pandits who have survived after been told to leave their home in 1990 along with lakhs of other kashmiri pandits. There's something about Kashmir, its locations and views that always draws you in, and I totally loved the wedding sequence with no shor sharaba kind shaadis we are accustomed to in North side of India especially. But the film touches a serious topic and yet the political angle is almost totally edited out, or the cross border terrorism. Just few clips of original footage doesn't seal the deal as I would had preferred to see all the details for someone who ain't aware of this side of history. And if the intention was to present a romantic movie on backdrop of Kashmiri Pandits incident, in that scenario too Shikara fails because the lead pair are very inconsistent in their performances, which never invokes any feelings in me like for instance the end scene in the boat or that key scene when Aadil is emotional and narrating a shayari with no background music while returning back to his home Kashmir after a long time. If you do enjoy their acting then the film will still work for you, doesn't for me!

My Rating : 4/10 

Mini Review : Street Dancer 3D and Panga

Street Dancer 3D
Directed by : Remo D'Souza
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9648672/

Dance ka rule number.1.. never be number2. 

Two rival dance groups, one from India whose leader is Sahej (Varun Dhawan) and other from Pakistan who is lead by Inayat (Shraddha Kapoor), both of them unite for a cause to help immigrants on streets reach their home by winning 'Ground Zero' named dance competition. Biggest issue for me was the overdose of dance, I understand its a dance based movie but the amount that keeps coming right at your face gets so tiring and its not like they are showing us out of the world dance moves. The India-Pakistan rival track is overdone too that eats up lot of 1st half, I did like the Kohli bit thing that both Sahej and Inayat do. Talking of the dance competition, most of the rounds I just couldn't make why this particular team won or why did the other one not win, some blame has to go to poor editing. I did enjoy the semifinals dance act though its ruined by the redone track 'Bezubaan' which doesn't work like the last two times. Finale act again was problematic, the bhangra theme just lacked that 'wow, I wanna watch this dance again' feel, however did enjoy the 'Mile Sur Mera Tumhara' track. And it was funny to see a dance competition that says it has no rules, and is looking for only crazy, does that happen in real too, if so I am glad I don't give a damn to such shows on TV. Coming to performances, Varun irritates but its his character thats kind of selfish, and the banter with Inayat kinda of bored me. Loved his anger dance during the track 'Dua Karo'. Shraddha Kapoor character was very weakly written too, I still found her good and it was also nice to see her not paired as love interest with Varun. Enjoyed Nora Fatehi dance moves in 'Lagdi Lahore Di', my favorite track from movie. Prabhu Deva wows you with nostalgia when you see him groove on 'Muqabla' which is for a change good re-created classic song. Street Dancer 3D (I saw in 2d on laptop) suffers due to lots of mentioned reasons, I would not say its a bad film still, its easily a one-time watch movie but had they worked more on the immigrant track, kept less of Ind-Pak banter, lesser dance scenes in 1st half, proper editing of competition, then we might have got the kind of dance movie it should had been.

My Rating : 4.5/10



Panga
Directed by : Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8983166/

Kabaddi mein raid karna, theek ladke ke rishte ko thukraane jaisa hota hai.. 

Its about a forgotten Indian kabaddi champion, Jaya Nigam Sachdeva (Kangana Ranaut), currently married to Prashant Sachdeva (Jassie Gill) and mother of son, Aditya (Yagya Bhasin), who decides at age of 32 that she wants to make a comeback to the sports. Like her earlier movies, director presents the narrative in a light entertaining mood. We get to see Jaya as a caring mother who also works at the ticket counter of Railways for whom she used to play once in the kabaddi team. There are many such real life examples, where comeback at late age happens, and that too successful ones, few examples are even mentioned in film when Aditya is trying to convince his dad to ask her mom to give it a try. There's even a hilarious song which is completely opposite of 'Haanikarak Bapu' from Dangal, as here its the son making her mom daily wake early and do jog/exercises/follow diet plan to get back into the shape. Its the kabaddi portions that lets the movie down, as it appears that they kept focus more on Jaya's perspective and doing so they do succeed in me rooting for Jaya, the mother in the kababbi final tournament but Jaya, the kabaddi player ends up been just a one moment glory which felt more filmy than real. The whole track of Prashant and Aditya struggling to cope with Jaya away at training place could had been skipped totally, and same with the routine montage of training for a big sports event. The kabaddi team captain having problems with Jaya also felt very forced to add un-necessary drama. I am clearly on different page than what director wanted to show, and I am not even a fan of Kabaddi but thats just how it was, I never felt those emotions you feel for a player/team winning the final in other sports films. What mostly works is the family drama, and the dilemna/worry Jaya always has about her family when deciding to give Kabaddi another chance. Coming to performances, everyone was good, Richa Chadha shines in supporting act and I enjoyed that dialogue reference she makes about Kabaddi tackles to arrange marriage proposals. Kangana Ranaut is in super form, which I felt missing in some of her last few films. Neena Gupta is sweet and lovely in small role. Yagya Bhasin is adorable and gives some of best moments in the film. Panga is most likely gonna entertain and make you happy, maybe motivate you too in someway, but it surely misses the mark for me.

My Rating : 6/10 

Mini Review : Angrezi Medium and Baaghi 3

Angrezi Medium
Directed by : Homi Adajania
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8907986/

Aadmi ka sapna toot jaata hai na, toh aadmi khatam ho jaata hai.

Champak Bansal (Irrfan Khan) will leave no stone unturned to get his daughter Tarika Bansal (Radhika Madan) get admission in a good university of London is the basic premise of Angrezi Medium. There are some lovely moments in starting portions of movie when Champak tries to convince Tarika to study in India only, a scene where he tries to see if she would cheat when handing the exam paper or when he is happy that she got 85% knowing that means she won't have to go to London before the phone call of principal spoils the fun for him. He basically plays a dad that wants to make her daughter happy but doesn't want her to go far away from him either, the kind of confused state he himself says he always has been since childhood. The drunk scene where Tarika tries to cover it up by blaming it back on her dad was very funny. Unfortunately the light fun moments come in way too many gaps, something that wasn't the case with 'Hindi Medium'. What really lets down the film is there are too many sub-plots that make no sense or the drama just never engages you. For instance, the court-room sequence over the shop name dispute, Ranvir Shorey that suddenly comes then vanishes and then returns in narrative, the daily midnight daaru talks and conflict involving Manu Rishi Chaddha. Deepak Dobriyal and Tillotama Shome who were main highlight of last movie, looks so pale in comparison here. Even Dimple Kapadia-Kareena Kapoor feel wasted except for that one scene at the dining table. Pankaj Tripathi is funny in his single scene cameo. Very much like 'Jawani Jaanemann', the father-daughter relationship is left unexplored, rather we get bits of Tarika's new lifestyle or a non-funny Pakistan cricketers name angle. I specially would have wanted more out of Radhika Madan's character who is such a fine actor. Still a decent film but since its the last film of Irrfan Khan, you would have wished it was better than what we get. Having said that, the last shot of Irrfan with his smiling face out of car window, may just get you emotional.

My Rating : 6/10



Baaghi 3
Directed by : Ahmed Khan
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8366590/

Mujhpe aati toh main chorh deta hoon, mere bhai pe aati toh main phod deta hoon.

Spoilers ahead.. 

Ronnie (Tiger Shroff) travels to Syria to find his brother Vikram (Riteish Deshmukh) who got kidnapped while on his assignment as a inspector to catch terrorist Abu Jalal (Jameel Khoury). When you see the start of movie, the bits of Ronnie as a kid, the kind of fake acting you can clearly see through, that is how the entire movie pans out. As grown-up now, Ronnie is always saving Vikram whenever he is in trouble, and yet its Vikram who becomes a cop when insisted by Ronnie. Its like sending your own brother in hell, knowing one day he will have to fight himself and probably die. But then thats how this script of film is, we do in climax get a scene where Vikram gets superpowers and kills Abu Jalal. The first scene of movie shows Ronnie shouting in pain name of Vikram suggesting maybe he got killed before we go into flashback. That was one well directed shot because I did buy into it, and later when the truth of that scene was revealed, I wanted to see if Vikram does eventually die in the climax or not. That was my only bit of interest in the whole film, and for a moment when they try to show Ronnie dead at the end, I thought damn they took a big leap of faith but nah, there Ronnie gets up and finished Abu Jalal totally. The action scenes are total ridiculous, not one scene I can label as even decent. Vijay Varma in a small cameo and Jaideep Ahlawat are only saviours in terms of acting in the movie. Background theme is good but its old one only and one can hear it on youtube rather. This was already a very average franchise from the 1st movie and its only getting worse with every new film that comes out. And I fear for Tiger Shroff who is teaming up again with same director for his Heropanti2 whose poster was rip-off from John Wick. Nothing more to say for a film that is guranteed to feature in my worst movies of 2020 list..

My Rating : 1.5/10 

Mini Review : Sex Education Season2 (Netflix)

Creator : Laurie Nunn
Directed by : 

Ben Taylor (4 episodes, 2020)

Sophie Goodhart/Alice Seabright (2 episodes each, 2020)

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7767422/

I was so caught up in trying to do the right thing. I lost track of what that actually is. Its you. Its always been you. 


Spoilers ahead... 

Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield) tries to explore his new relationship with Ola Nyman (Patricia Allison) while still continuing the sex clinic secretly at the high school with Maeve Wiley (Emma Mackey). Meanwhile, Maeve still got feelings for Otis that she didn't tell him, as she deals with her drug addict mom and a new neighbour Isaac (George Robinson). Things are about to get absurd when Otis learns his mom Jean Milburn (Gillian Anderson) is dating his girlfriend's dad Jakob Nyman (Mikael Persbrandt). And there's Otis best friend Eric Effiong (Ncuti Gatwa) who learns that the new guy at school, Rahim (Sami Outalbali) has fallen for him but Eric is confused since he can't forget Adam Groff (Connor Swindells). Also, there is Aimee Gibbs (Aimee Lou Wood) who goes through a sexual assault on bus that starts affecting her daily life. While Jackson Marchetti (Kedar Williams-Stirling) struggles to cope with the pressure put on by his moms and recovering from Maeve's heartbreak as he finds a good friend in Viv Odesanya (Chinenye Ezeudu).

Sooo much is going on in this rom-com series that has sex education as backdrop. For me 1st season was very fun despite it having many cliche or typical romantic moments. They start with Otis having erect problems, which is fun and good that they don't really overdo it, quickly moving to how Otis is constantly struggling to take relation with Ola to next level in terms of sex. You very well know its matter of time before Otis is back with Maeve.

I quite loved the Jackson track, how he finds a new alternative career choice with help of Viv. Also, I like Jean-Jakob together so it was kind of sad to see Jean let him go away though there's definately the scope they might be back next season. With Eric's plot I believe in what Otis says to him that loving a guy like Adam who bullied him for many years is a very odd thing. Many times I feel for Adam but then its hard to say if he has really changed. With Rahim, I have same opinion as Eric's mom had, you could just see Eric was never himself and tried too hard to be someone else. Quite a complicated plot involving these three, as Rahim said in the end to Eric.. that Adam may hold his hand but may not catch him. Have to wait and watch.

Adam's dad Michael Groff (Alistair Petrie) is probably most irritating character of show, good to see him told to take break, I would either want nothing of him in next season or some kind of change happening in him. Aimee Gibbs was fun to watch again, she kind of reminds me of Phoebe from Friends, the way she talks or behaves sometimes. That play on Romeo-Juliet take I would say I would never ever wanna see it again, which I am hoping was the intention behind the way its shot, as its the point of view of Lily Iglehart (Tanya Reynolds) who plays a very wierd student at school. Songs mostly are well used, love 'Sexy boy' when a dirty talk leads to sex between two teachers or the emotional romantic 'Mystery of love' that fits both Jean's story and Eric remembering  Adam. 'Bashed Out' and 'Thank You For The Offer' were my other favourite tracks.

This season had very less of Otis-Maeve together, and the bitter ending of that stupid Issaac (I just can't control anger towards him) makes me wonder if we might have to wait another whole season to see them unite. Because there might be a track of Otis and Ruby Matthews (Mimi Keene) develop thanks to the way Otis handles the party he throws going full drunk and saying shitty things. 

From gays to lesbians to bisexual to pansexual to asexual, this season covered all of that, along with the therapist advices on sexual problems, but Sexual Education yet is a teenager based rom-com that delivers on many levels and has many stories to bind together still in future. I don't think I can seperately rate both seasons, so its very much on same wavelength.  Please please, surprise me with Isaac admitted his mistake or Maeve somehow knowing about it rather than making us watch them get into any kind of relation!

My Rating : 7.5/10 

Mini Review : Special Ops (Hotstar) and Panchayat (AmazonPrime)

Special Ops
Creator : Neeraj Pandey
Directed by : 

Neeraj Pandey (5 episodes, 2020), Shivam Nair (4 episodes, 2020)

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11854694/

Hamari agency mein hum kahaani aur misaal.. dono bahut accha banate hai. 

Spoilers ahead .. 

Himmat Singh (Kay Kay Menon) from RAW has been in search of the mastermind terrorist Ikhlaq Khan behind the 2001 Parliament attacks for about 19 years now. He has placed some of his agents throughout the world and has a feeling that he is getting closer and closer to catching Ikhlaq, a name many believe is just a theory and not real. Kay Kay Menon whether he plays the on-field agent in the backstory or how he handles his agents in present day situation, he is just spectacular in his performance, even engaging in the scenes that are dull or stretching to limits. And Vinay Pathak in supporting role is effective too. Same goes for Sajjad Delafrooz who plays Hafiz Ali to perfection, though it would give a dejavu of his character from Tiger Zinda Hai, just a bit. There are times when I did think Hafiz is Ikhlaq only but they did play out the narrative around him well enough to keep you guessing till late end. What spoils the series is the 'finance' interrogation that two guys do with Himmat which is used as narration to introduce the backstory to us. For me it was tiring to watch it, despite having share of laughs in between, the director could easily had used either voiceover of Himmat or some other way of narrating the past 19 years. And it doesn't help with none of the agents getting a decent backstory to get more involved with their enthusiasm to give their life for this secret mission. Karan Tacker was very inconsistent for me playing the role of Farooq Ali, somewhat miscasted, could easily had been better if his role was swapped with Vipul Gupta, who played Bala and had much lesser screentime but felt was a much better actor. Also, Sonya (Sana Khaan) track was pretty boring for me.  I like how various real events like Parliament Attack, 26/11,  mention of Osama, Srinagar Attack etc are used and its executed in a believable way so it doesn't really matter if they have fictionalised certain things in the entire show. The finale was a major let-down, expected better way of catching Ikhlaq Khan, was funny that his guys took so much time to reveal Farooq's real identity. And what happened to that insane guy at the function, when entire focus is just on Sadia Qureshi (Divya Dutta) who gives message of 'people who are hurt and get brainwashed could still find a way of doing the right thing in the end rather than more destruction'. Pretty good series despite all the problems I had, pretty much like FamilyMan, this is a series dominated by one actor, which is Kay Kay Menon in this case.

My Rating : 7/10



Panchayat
Creator : TVF
Directed by : Deepak Kumar Mishra (8 episodes, 2020)
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12004706/

Swades ka 'Mohan Bhargav' banne ka mauka mil raha hai tujhe.. 

A story about engineering graduate Abhishek (Jitendra Kumar) who joins Phulera village of Uttar Pradesh as Secretary/Gram Sachiv of a Panchayat Office. We get to see the journey of Abhishek who finds the place difficult to live and wants to pass CAT exam to get better salary job in some city As his friend in starting scene says to him 'Swades ka Mohan Bhargav banne ka mauka mil raha hai', its fun watching how most of times Abhishek struggles adjusting in this different kind of lifestyle he hadn't been to before or so it seems by the looks of it. Been myself pretty much like that, and the fact that its a short series with episodes mostly lasting 25-30 mins, its fun to watch with the mood mostly light and comical throughout. 'Chakke Wali Kursi' and 'Computer Nahi Monitor' were my favorite episodes, some episodes do go slow but I still ended up liking most of them. That scene where the person tells he mistakenly stole monitor thinking it was TV is hilarious and so is the conversation between Abhishek and Vikas/GramSahayak (Chandan Roy) when they go at the haunted tree in the night. The political angle isn't explored too much which is good. Love how the bonding develops between Abhishek and Brij Bhushan Dubey/Pradhan Pati (Raghuvir Yadav). Performances wise, enjoyed everyone, Raghuvir Yadav, Jitendra Kumar, Neena Gupta, but the pick of the series was Chandan Roy for me, he made me laugh many times and looked so effortless in his act. Would love to see another similar kind of short fun season.

Rating : 7/10

Mini Review : Repulsion and Contagion

Repulsion
Directed by : Roman Polanski
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059646/

We must get this crack mended.

Carol Ledoux (Catherine Deneuve), a manicurist at a beauty salon lives a strange kind of life. She hardly talks especially feels uncomfortable when a guy approaches her and even at work many times is lost in her own thoughts. She lives with her sister, Helen (Yvonne Furneaux) sharing same apartment and often is seen getting irritated by Helen's boyfriend Michael (Ian Hendry) who often stays the night invading her personal space. Then, there's this guy Collin (John Fraser), always chasing Carol seeking a date and much more from her. None of them are aware what actually Carol is going through, the kind of fear and hallucinations she has that is only getting worse. This is my first Roman Polanski film, and to be honest the experience wasn't great. I expected a lot better film, and I know some believe its a masterpiece but I felt Carol's character was under-written to really care about and it doesn't help that the guys she murders were kind of creepy or atleast you can't call them good guys. There's no background shown except for the final shot of her picture when she was young which either means someone from her family did something bad or she was like that even then. There's some long tiring scenes of Carol, either walking on road, or at the apartment roaming from one room to other. I don't mind sitting through a slow pace first half but it has to lead to something interesting. Yes there are some great scenes, the one where Carol hears footsteps and is scared to death or the guys who try to rape her which was ofcourse the hallucinations she was going through. Even the landlord scene is directed very well, as a viewer you know his fate quite early. Catherine Deneuve act is pretty good. But it didn't have the kind of impact say someone like Norman Bates in Pyscho had on me. Polanski could had easily done more on the madness angle either through backstory or maybe show how Carol went with a guy who wasn't trying to just get in bed with her. Repulsion got some admirable shot sequences and very good cinematography, but not enough to make me watch the movie again...

My Rating : 4/10



Contagion
Directed by : Steven Soderbergh
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/

Somewhere in the world, the wrong pig met up with the wrong bat.

Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) is at Airport, returning home from a business trip but you can sense she is ill, maybe just some flu. She dies after back home, and so does her son on the very same day leaving the husband Mitch Emhoff (Matt Damon) clueless. We slowly see more people dying due to illness before it is learned that some kind of virus has spread and is the reason behind this. Director Steven Soderbergh from the very first scene lets the camera pan to the things Beth is touching or eating, even the credit card she gives to get tickets. He does same with infected people touching door knob or such things which matters, as that will pass on to non-infected people. We get to see the struggle of common people, the chaos that happens when situation goes out of control, the constant effort of doctors and CDC trying to find a cure, and also some idiots among public or the system like a journalist trying to make money out of the pandemic. Basically Soderbergh touches almost everything one would notice happening in such times, how Mitch's daughter feels irritated that she can't see her boyfriend anymore or go out of house, or the urge of a particular community that wants to be ahead of the line when the vaccine arrives. I don't know how it would have felt watching Contagion in 2011, but in 2020 when the Covid thing is going on, its very relatable, you feel like slapping that chef in final scene who was irresponsible to have not washed hands before coming out to take selfie with Beth. I felt Contagion could had gone more complex or explored the political angle but I am assuming Soderbergh probably wanted to keep it a bit simple giving us insight of how different humans react in such disaster.

My Rating : 6/10