Mini Review : The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)

Directed by : Aaron Sorkin

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1070874/

This is the Academy Awards of protests and as far as I am concerned it's an honor to be just nominated.

Spoilers ahead.. 

Based on the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago, 1968 that was met with protests resulting in riots from three groups, 1st was the leaders of the Students for a Democratic Society - Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp) and Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), 2nd was leaders of the Youth International Party aka Yippies - Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong) and Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and 3rd was the leader of the Mobilization to end the war in Vietnam - David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch). Then, there were Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins) and John Froines (Danny Flaherty) who had nothing to do with protests yet they were named in the trial. And there was 8th guy, Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), National Chairman of the Black Panther Party who also wasn't part of protest but got named for the obvious racist reasons. Defense Counsel was lead by William Kuntsler (Mark Rylance) along with Leonard Weinglass (Ben Shenkman).while the Federal Prosecution was lead by Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon Levitt) along with Thomas Foran (J.C MacKenzie). The story shows what happened, how the trial proceeds as you very much know with the tone of the judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella) that its more a political trial (as Abbie believes) and the result is well known in advance. 

A very quick montage kind opening sequence with brilliantly inter-cut shots on dialogues and a lovely fast background music gives us a brief idea of the 8 guys we will be watching for the entire plot. The setting then immediately moves to the courtroom drama which is very riveting. Even if you are not into politics, it will be hard for you not to enjoy every minor thing and also feel anguish at how the proceedings seem to be in favour of Federal team (represnting the U.S Govt) all the time. Infact the entire court-room tussle could easily be compared to any past event anywhere in the world where justice isn't served and manipulation of laws done by the government, or you could look no where else but India itself how various riots end up with accused getting anti-national labels while the real culprits roam free, but depends entirely what side of story you believe is true.

There's judge Hoffman right away trying to clear out he is in no way related to defendant Abbie Hoffman to which Abbie sarcastically calls him father, both Abbie and Jerry often saying 'over-ruled' to irritate Judge, many times Judge would take wrong names of defendant or a defense lawyer (says a lot about either his efficiency or his behavior), Bobby managing without a lawyer in a trial he shouldn't be part of as day by day he is ridiculed by the judge on clear racist discrimination. Eddie Redmayne is wonderful as Tom and it took me a while to even recognise him, that final scene of his you would want to just standup and applaud (wonder if it was fiction or real). Also, it was interesting to see Tom and Addie's different ideologies while been on the same side.

Mark Rylance is brilliant, be it his take on been told 'he ain't serious about the case', or his anger (which almost everyone from Defense side and us audience felt) at the Judge taking wrong calls all the time handing everyone contempt of court for disagreeing with him. Frank Langella plays his part very well even if he's not a likeable character.  Also, its been a long time since I saw Joseph Gordon Levitt in a interesting role, maybe 'The Walk' was the last.

Totally feel for what Bobby goes through entire trial and then that hardhitting scene where he gets beaten and gagged, love how Schultz reacts to it who despite been from Federal side, often shows the signs of humanity prevailing in someone in the courtroom that doesn't belong to the Defense side. Lee and John's reference to Academy awards of protests is simply hilarious and so is the lady picking calls with 'Hello Conspiracy Office'. Also, we get a nice small cameo of Michael Keaton. 

Despite my hatred against Politics, I found The Trial of the Chicago 7 as filmmaking at its best, its engaging, entertaining, politically baised, questions the morals of everyone involved, manipulation of the government going to any extent and one of best court-room dramas I have seen even with a result that's not satisfying but thats the harsh reality. Reading some reviews it suggested that movie is not entirely accurate depiction of the real incidents, even in that case the fiction elements added doesn't affect the story much to me. Do a favour and give it a watch, but be attentive, as the dialogues are never ending (not complaining) and there's a lot to process in right at start of the film! 

My Rating : 8/10 

Mini Review : Chhalaang (Amazon Prime)

Directed by : Hansal Mehta

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8983164/

Yeh jo tera fluctuation hai na, hero aur chu**** ke beech ka, kamaal ka hai bhaisaab.

Spoilers ahead..

Mahinder Hooda/Montu (Rajkumar Rao) is a PTI at the same government school he got passed from and got the job through his father (Satish Kaushik). He has no interest in teaching but all that changes when a new Computers teacher, Neelima (Nushrat Bharucha) joins the school and he falls for her instantly. When everything is going fine, the school principal Usha Gehlot (Ila Arun) suddenly hires a new much better qualified PTI, Singh (Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub) that doesn't go well with Montu resulting in a competition between both involving 3 sports taking school students, the one who wins keeps the job. 

First half mostly focusses on Montu's laidback daily life with a surprise scene involving exposing couples that hangout on Valentine's day with the reason of 'western influence' should be stopped. That is where the story changes because one of the couple Monty harasses turns out to be Neelima's parents. But that's the only violent/grey side of Montu we get to see as the film rather wants to focus on what importance Sports education plays in students life, or atleast thats what it was intending to do going by that 20 plus sports personalities names Montu takes in his final speech. 

There are many entertaining moments, most of them coming in the 1st half, whether its the take of Montu why he prefers half pants, taking Neelima to a ring shop, Montu's mother getting angry at been called aunty by Shukla, mention of games like Ludo, Pithu, Temple Run when Montu tries to understand how much his selected students are capable of, and the emotional scene where Montu tells his father how he has always left something in the middle in the past because he felt he couldn't do it. 

The moment narrative shifts to the competition between Montu and Singh, the film derails rapidly. Two bizarre sequences, one involving Montu using dogs to put students in danger just to find who is the fastest runner and to make it worse, its used later in relay competition through loudspeaker because our dear student will win when the dog's sound is put in his ears, whatever that was! And then there's Neelima and Montu's father going to students homes to blackmail their parents into sending students at the competition. 

The usual cliches are there with a training montage, a motivational song. But all that has worked still in past, specially if you look up in last few years with Nitish Tiwari's 'Dangal' and 'Chhicchore'. Maybe Hansal Mehta just failed at making the sports competition look interesting enough rather been boringly predictable. 

Funnily, I have to admit, I was expecting at the end Singh to turn out as brother of Neelima and it been a plan she formed to change Montu. Nushrat Bharucha in a way controls men again (Luv Ranjan being the writer you know) but not directly this time. Its a likeable character as she is bringing positive change in Montu but it was bit of hard to understand why she would be close to Montu, then be with Singh and then again change sides. 

The transformation of Montu happens bit too rapidly too, and so does the way his team of nerds that end up winning against a much better team. It is like you are told that a team like UAE is given one month training and suddenly they will beat Australia/India at a World Cup tournament. But this is something that has been done a lot in past sports films too, maybe the fantasy side of it makes the writers go mad because the reality is always different. 

Rajkumar Rao and Saurabh Shukla are in great form, their scenes together are really fun to watch. Ila Arun is lovely in her supporting act, while Satish Kaushik despite been a little preachy at times is enjoyable specially his over-excitedness at ground while watching matches. Jatin Sarna gets wasted in halwai role. Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub is effective but if only those sports sequences were engaging enough. 

Chhalaang works more as an entertainer in parts but it could had been lot more fun.

My Rating : 5.5/10

Mini Review : Enola Holmes (Netflix)

Directed by : Harry Bradbeer

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7846844/

The choice is always yours. Whatever society may claim, it can't control you.

On the morning of her 16th birthday, Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) wakes up to a surprise that her mother Eudoria Holmes (Helena Bonham Carter) has gone missing leaving behind few clues, maybe she wants to be found out. Enola who has been brought up in very different manner by her mother, now has to face her brothers Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill) and Mycroft Holmes (Sam Claflin) who are eager to send Enola to a finishing school for proper young ladies, more of a institution that converts young ladies into robots for men. But Enola runs away to London trying to find her missing mother and solve the mystery behind her disappearance, and on the way she falls into another mystery surrounding a young runaway Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge) she meets on the train who is unaware of a dangerous conspiracy he's involved in. 

Starts off like you expect a Holmes based detective case solving story, but soon it becomes something different entirely. We here are shown how Enola tries to suddenly enter the real world, and not only search for her mother, but also find herself growing in the new dangerous and tough situations she faces on her own and then there's a little romantic angle with mysterious Tewkesbury. This storyline maybe would work for teenage audience, but for others like me it was a disappointment and not really much to enjoy. 

It also didn't help that Henry Cavill felt awfully miscasted as Sherlock almost like he had no personality, that witty one liners or the 'sociopath' attitude (was there very slightly), all of which previously we had enjoyed in Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey Jr's versions. Then we get a  fictionalised different version of Mycroft which was a headache to watch for the kind of anti-feminist he is. It was a major disappointment as I was looking forward to Sam Claflin's act. When he was trying to control Enola and she runs off, I felt thank god they didn't go that route, only to return to same narrative much later on, grr! 

Even if I ignore these problems as in anycase its Enola and Twekesbury who get more screentime, issue is both sub-plots of mother disappearance and why people want Tewkesbury dead, leads to not so interesting adventures which is what Holmes world should consist of. The movie may have worked better if they didn't try to do too much, and stuck with just mother's motives, explore more of her feminism angle and Enola's attempts to find her mother, while outdoing Sherlock. The whole Tewkesbury plot just spoils the narrative and it just becomes more of neither here and nor there. 

I have not seen Millie Bobby Brown in anything else than 'Stranger Things' and she was fun to watch, liked those 4th wall dialogues she would often do (not overdone thankfully), and she had a nice cute chemistry going with Louis Partridge.

Enola Holmes doesn't work for me mainly because it's more of a fictional different take of Sherlock's little sister, not the kind I was expecting from the trailer.  Just about watchable but have to manage some cringeworthy sequences on the way. 

My Rating : 5/10 

Mini Review : I Care a Lot (Netflix)

Directed by : J Blakeson

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9893250/

There are two types of people in this world. Those that take and those that get took. Lions and lambs. My name is Marla Grayson and I am no lamb. I am a fucking lioness. 

Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike) is a professional court appointed guardian for many elderly wards in past but she with her partner/girlfriend Fran (Eiza Gonzalez) are in reality conning the judge by using false medical reports with help of Dr Amos (Alicia Witt) and Sam Rice (Damian Young) whose facility is used to put the new wards at. Having been right up her game, Marla next chooses Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest) who appears to be very wealthy, has no heirs and offlate was in touch with Dr Amos. But things turn wild when its learned Jennifer isn't what she looked like, and has got connections with Russian Mafia as Marla tries to get out of this unwanted mess.

The way film starts, voiceover of Marla with her back of head shown, it always felt like we were re-watching 'Gone Girl' (trailer had the same vibe too) with similar tone and style minus the nervy background music. Its fun watching how Marla is easily getting her way, sending normal old people into care centers with proper legal methods. But if you think of same scenario happening in real, then its scary to think how easily someone in your family could end up for no fault of theirs at a place not meant for them.

Rosamund Pike seems to be enjoying the role, you can just feel that with the way she performs, smiles, stares or gives the look of 'you can't win against me' even at a stage in film where she is on verge of death. And Eiza Gonzalez is also a delight to watch as her partner and lover, last saw her in 'Baby Driver'. 

Its two places where the film falls apart, one being the reality check as it often goes in over the top fiction, whether its how easily Marla tricks all old people never getting caught, with the judge or police never getting any hint of the fraud. Also, how the hell did Marla escape when been heavily drugged and alcohol inserted, still not drown, unless you wanna tell me those Russian thugs used poor quality of drugs and alcohol.. Even getting the security guards down felt unreal. But I am willing to totally ignore these basic flaws, its the whole Roman Lunyov (Peter Dinklage) vs Marla Grayson angle that didn't felt engaging enough. I would had liked more of Jenniffer, her attempts to escape or Roman trying some other methods to get her out. There was a scope of lot more of dark comedy that way.

A clear classic case of a movie where you wanna root for the bad person, and it helps when she is paired against another bad person. The ending was little cliched, but then thats the only justice you could had given to all the people that suffered due to her which we don't see much in movie because we wanna be kept in awe of Marla's character. 

I Care a Lot is a decent watch, specially first 30 mins.. Rosamund Pike keeps you interested till the end even when the screenplay begins to drop down into the territory you wish it didn't go. 

My Rating : 5.5/10 

Mini Review : Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Netflix)

Directed by : George C. Wolfe

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10514222/

You don't sing to feel better. You sing because that's a way of understanding life. 

Adaptation of an August Wilson play, with the story revolving around the legendary singer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) known as 'Mother of the Blues' and her band of musicians including a very ambitious horn player, Levee (Chadwick Boseman)  as they assemble for a recording session one afternoon, set in 1920's Chicago. 

Very much get the feel of watching a play, with most of the settings limited to a room and many monologues. The constant banter among the musicians in the band, each telling a dark tale they were part of or knew about. Levee's childhood story version monologue specially makes you feel sorry for him and just maybe side with him after feeling he is on a very tightrope way he would be behaving like he would be a big thing one day and not respecting others. 

Ma Rainey is another complex character, at first you feel she is showing the shades of a famous singer, until you learn the reason behind it, with her wanting to make sure the whites never end up ruling how she can behave. That makes for some interesting scenes involving Ma and the white management that wants the recording done badly. 

A very dialogue heavy movie that does lot of character study on almost all the musicians in the band, and then how it leads to a very dark hard-hitting ending which you can see coming amidst the rising tension during all the never ending banter. It does felt little monotonous at times and lengthy despite been just 1h30mins in duration. Though, at same time I won't deny I was very much engaged in most of the banter that was going on, or the moments when Ma would dominate over the white management. Also, there's the racism and prejudices that comes with it since its set in an very old era. 

Maybe little more story about Ma before they shifted to this recording session could had added that something extra that I felt was missing in the movie. 

Viola Davis as expected shines, despite her not having that much dialogues to begin with, her conversation about what music is to her and the coca-cola scene were my favs. Sadly, its the last movie of Chadwick Boseman, and how good he is in this, specially the scene where he narrates what happened when he was 8 yr old, or his enthusiasm after having bought new shoes. 

Among the rest band, Cutler (Colman Domingo), Toledo (Glynn Turman) and Slow Drag (Michael Potts), each were fun to watch, whether its their reactions to how foolish Levee would often sound or their own dark secrets they share with time.

'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' is a good watch for all the performances, bit restrictive on the plot nevertheless I still felt fully invested barring some places. And always good to know about some history I ain't aware of, though many may remember this movie for Chadwick Boseman, being his last one and he does deliver too. 

My Rating : 6.5/10 

Mini Review : Coolie No.1 (Amazon Prime)

Directed by : David Dhawan

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10280276/

Inka pyaar download ho raha hai Sir, inke pyar ki file ko delete karke time khoti mat karo please

Pandit Jai Kishen (Javed Jaffrey) wants to teach lesson to a very arrogant businessman from Goa, Jeffrey Rozario (Paresh Rawal) who wants a rich son-in-law for his daughter Sarah Rozario (Sara Ali Khan), someone who would use a chopper/plane to go buying groceries (yea just one eg of the never ending exaggeration). Pandit accidentally meets Raju Coolie (Varun Dhawan) who co-incidentally falls in love with Sarah just after getting a look of her photo, and rest story is predictable. 

I have seen Govinda version in bits and pieces only, it was a guilty pleasure despite having same story that is very odd but it was Govinda-Karishma pairing and Kader Khan with their comic timings and lets say not cringeworthy dialogues that made it a good timepass watch. 

Coming to this new version, where do I start.. the opening credits of animation where Amitabh Bachchan asks 'tumhare paas kya hai, and little Raju replies 'mere paas maa nahi hai' as the train left with his mom on it. The annoyance at usage of film references started here. I personally enjoy how Sridhar Raghavan uses them so wonderfully in his films, but in this case David Dhawan is literally forcing them at our face with instances of Raju Coolie doing mimicry of many celebs time and again, to an extent that the fake twin character (oh that was so well done by Govinda), here uses Mithun voice to make him differ from the other brother. 

The sillyness doesn't end there, Sarah is shown dumb to fall in love with what looks like a very wierd rich guy, Jeffrey only talks in 'heaven on the docks man etc', Varun Dhawan's overacting to sell his over the top character, Sara Ali Khan struggling in her acting once again specially when she cries, out of no where there's a scene involving deaf kid on railway track with everyone shouting and not willing to help because script says Raju Coolie will do a heroic stunt to save, and the usual stammering/overweight guys made fun of to get laughs.  

I can recall only one time I got laugh when Jeffrey says he ain't pizza delivery guy to Sarah. I am not sure why David Dhawan doesn't understand that it was Govinda that made his films work, and not the script.. he just gonna keep ruining films with his son like this.

Leaving asides the 'husn hai suhana' track, that too for the song and not the poor choreography or vulgar dance steps, and 2-3 possible decent moments, there was nothing I enjoyed in this movie. 

My Rating : 2/10 

Mini Review : The Girl On The Train (Netflix)

Directed by : Ribhu Dasgupta 

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8907992

Lekin best time ka ek problem hai, woh jaldi gujar jaata hai..

Spoilers ahead..

Mira Kapoor (Parineeti Chopra), a recent divorcee on her daily commute watches a girl from train, Nusrat John (Aditi Rao Hydari) and gets obsessed with a little bit of jealousy wondering how can someone appear so happy with a loving partner/husband. Nusrat happens to live some kms away only from Shekhar Kapoor (Avinash Tiwary) ex-husband of Mira, who now lives with Anjali (Natasha Benton). Mira, an alcoholic and suffering from short term amnesia since suffering from a car accident gets very angry when one day she sees something unusual from train about Nusrat. The next day Nusrat is found missing, and question is whether Mira is related to it in anyway or there's more to the story then we know. 

I have not read the novel, but did see English version which had Emily Blunt in lead and I had totally enjoyed her act even though the movie was just decent. The Hindi version has been changed around quite a lot with a totally new climax, and to be honest all the changes felt silly and downgrades the movie lot more. 

For instance, the focus here goes totally on whodunit and it does succeed in that as its not always clear who would had killed Nusrat. But the screenplay is too loose to keep you engaged, which is why I felt it was a wrong choice, and should had stuck to character study of all 3 ladies, Mira, Nusrat and Anjali, how they are inter-connected and their relations with psychiatrist making you feel sorry for all 3 of them. I so much missed that awkward and chilling sequence at the end where Mira and Anjali would had felt trapped inside house after learning reality of Shekhar, rather we get a one on one scene of Mira and Shekhar with a flasbhack which was meh. 

If there was something to change then it should had been more screen-time for Shekhar's character but unfortunately that doesn't happen, infact it was easy to read Shekhar wasn't what he pretends to be but that could be because I already knew the story. 

What seriously irritated me most was the Bagga family angle involving the cop Dalbir Kaur Bagga (Kirti Kulhari), this addition to the story felt so bollywoodlike and hilarious to watch in ofcourse unintentional way. 

For me to enjoy this film from the point of view of director, it needed tight editing with no requirement of those final two forced songs into narrative and also I wasn't particularly satisfied with Parineeti's act specially in the drunk scenes. Aditi is very much wasted like Avinash, and Natasha Benton role is reduced entirely to ofcourse give more weightage to Kirti Kulhari's unwanted revenge angle. 

Its not a torture as many people have labelled it, a watchable movie for most parts, but if I have to prefer a version, I would pick English one, though most likely novel should be the best pick to go with looking at how flawed both film versions are. 

My Rating : 4.5/10