Series Analysis : Ray (Netflix)

Rather than the shorts, this is like a 4 episodic series with all around 1 hour in duration. Before I go talk on them individually, have to mention I totally loved the stories, making me wanna go back someday and read more of Satyajit Ray stories if at all they are available somewhere for common people like me. 

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14160660/

Forget Me Not 

Directed by : Srijit Mukherji (Vasan Bala - check on netflix)

Tu Computer hai, tere liye jo data hai.. mere liye woh yaadein hai.. main nahi kar sakta inko delete. 

Ipsit Nair (Ali Fazal) is a famous busy robotic businessman who takes pride in his memory always remembering all the tiniest of details about everyone he has met. And its the reason why his life turns upside down when he meets a lady who seems to know him but he can't recollect their previous meeting.  That just one memory loss, effects him to an extent that his memory starts fading in every day to day routine. Best way to describe this episode would be the 1st scene, the un-necessary time that lady takes to walk for a drink. Also, the revenge angle when revealed takes away a lot from the story. Love the scenes where Ipsit is dreaming of forgetting his child at theatre food corner, or when he can't locate his car at the parking lot. Ali Fazal is again in terrific form, I just wished they either kept it totally a case of memory loss leading to mental asylum making a lovely psychological study or the revenge angle was done in a much better way. In the end it ends up as a very average episode despite the great story. 

Bahrupiya

Directed by : Srijit Mukherji 

Hum bhi bhagwaan jaise hi hai Indrashish, hum bhi shrishti karte hai.

Indrashish Shah (Kay Kay Menon), a middle class guy who feels broken due to every person he has met in this cruel world. One day he finds his late grandmother left him with a book on make-up and prosthetics and a big sum of money which is when he realizes how he can turn around his life and also take revenge from the people who didn't treat him well. But this soon turns into an obsession,, and when you feel you are a creator i.e God, the end is always near. Another story whose adaptation and broad changes lets it down for me, had it stayed around Indrashish trying to do more than what he should and realize his mistake, it would had bigger impact and probably would had sympathised with Indrashish then. Instead he is turned firstly into a sociopath and then someone who wants to challenge God too. I did however enjoy Dibyendu Bhattacharya as Peer Baba, even if I wish this character wasn't part of story. Kay Kay Menon is again excellent, the writing just lets this one down too. Still, it was more enjoyable than the 1st episode.

Hungama Hai Kyon Barpa 

Directed by : Abhishek Chaubey 

Kisi ko ghar se nikalte hi mil gayi manzil, koi hamari tarah umar bhar safar mein raha.

Musafir Ali (Manoj Bajpayee) is travelling to Delhi from Bhopal by train and ends up meeting Aslam Baig (Gajraj Rao) sharing same coach. But Musafir soon realises how he had met Aslam before too, coincidentally in train many years back and he had stolen a very precious watch then. Its easily the best episode of the whole series. Abhishek hasn't done this kind of cinema before, he has been more into dark zone.. but how wondefully he sets the narrative here and ofcourse helped with the jugalbandi of Manoj Bajpayee and Gajraj Rao, you don't even want them to stop talking, such is their range and also the use of Urdu makes it for a great watch. Musafir constantly breaks the 4th wall, plenty of dream sequences or mirrors used to narrate his flashbacks including his rise to fame. The entire previous meet of theirs happens on what is a clock setup, even the shayaris done happens with a train setup. Train journeys always makes for fun watch for how two strangers talk and find some strange bonding. But the episode does get away from the train setting finally, and its again a delight because we meet Hakim Saab (Raghuvir Yadav) and a shopkeeper (Manoj Pahwa) who are fun in their small cameos. And I enjoyed the title track a lot too. One of my fav episodes that I may come to re-watch again in future, no complaints at all with a very fun ending and also learnt the stealing habit has a name called Kleptomania!

Spotlight 

Directed by : Vasan Bala

Tu yeh jo sochta hai na ki Ryan Gosling meets Elon Musk wala jo look tu achieve karega, tu nahi kar sakta.

When Vik (Harshvardhan Kapoor) arrives at a luxurious hotel for a mahurat shot of his film, he insists on getting the room where Madonna stayed. But he is shocked to learn that the room has been taken away from him because Didi (Radhika Madan), a godwoman demands the same room for same reason. The spotlight slowly keeps shifting away from Vik, and that gets him so mad. This one totally didn't work for me, and reason is straightforward, I didn't like the vision of director and where he tried to take the story with a very ridiculous ending. Its the supporting act of Roby Ghosh (Chandan Roy Sanyal) that I enjoyed the most, specially when he tells Vik he will never get the look of Ryan Gosling meets Ekon Musk, or when he tells Vik to be cool and accept the fact that people are more mad for religion than the celebrities. Also, like the scene involving Vik and Didi that comes just before the climax. I still didn't get what difference Vik's various 'Look' shoots had, I mean the final one that he nails as per everyone, was totally ditto to what he had been doing before, or was it some sort of sarcasm that I didn't pick up. Aneways, its good to see Harshvardhan go even deeper in a role that very much makes fun of him (like the small role in AK vs AK). I wish the dynamics of worshipping celebrities vs worshipping godwoman was explored deeply and in a different manner, an opportunity lost. 

So, Ray has a clear winner in form of 'Hungama Kyon Hai Bharpa', while 'Behrupiya' works in parts, 'Forget me Not' had potential but misses mark while 'Spotlight' was a total miss. 

My Rating : 5/10 

Movie Analysis : First Cow

Directed by : Kelly Reichardt

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9231040/

History isn't here yet. Its coming, but we got here early this time. Maybe this time, we can be ready for it. We can take it on our own terms.

Spoilers ahead.. 

In 1820's Oregon, a skilled cook named Cookie (John Magaro) joined a group of fur trappers but gets bullied and ridiculed. He accidentally meets a Chinese guy King-Lu (Orion Lee), and over course of time become good friends starting a small business of selling biscuits to the townspeople. But the milk for that they steal every night from the sole cow belonged to the Chief Factor (Toby Jones). Can they keep the secret or run away in time gathering enough money somewhere they could expand business? 

I have often said that slow-paced narrative very few times bother me, last time it was Blade Runner2049, and now First Cow. Though the difference this time is that I still ended up liking the movie. I understand certain films require slow pacing to set up the atmosphere, but here there are many scenes that are extended for no reason. Had they trimmed them properly, I think there was a case of this film working a hell lot more. Its only post 30 mins mark (yes you have to show that much patience) when the story actually begins to go in a direction I want it, i.e Cookie and Lu meeting for 2nd time at bar. 

From there onwards, I was totally engaged into their conversations, the pace still was slow but it was much more interesting to see their dreams, their plans, the happiness to see their 1st batch of biscuits sell out within seconds. And ofcourse the greed to earn more, taking risks knowing very well where this may lead if get caught. In a way the film talks about the choices you must take depending on the kind of situation you are in, even if its bold and risky because if successful you would get good money. Not saying that stealing was right, but they were doing it only to get themselves enough money that may help in starting something new or a hotel business which Cookie wanted. 

Lu is always the enthusiastic one out of both, while Cookie is reluctant and almost fears they are going too far with daily milk stealing. If Lu had listened for that night, maybe they both would be alive.. but its not easy let go an opportunity of easy money, besides the people were getting to eat tasty biscuits in exchange for money. One thing I didn't understand was whose house did Cookie stayed at when he got injured as when he asks he didn't get a reply, or it didn't matter and was just a random good person helping him out for few nights.

The ending tragic scene is emotional because you are rooting for both the men, you have by now got invested in their beautiful friendship that unfortunately is about to come to an end. Oh I totally like how slow this scene goes, building the tension of gun shots coming any time which don't come. But you know it happened, thanks to the opening scene of movie. 

The cinematography is beautiful and also the production design always making you feel this is set in early 1800s. 

Yes, the movie requires patience, way more for the early 30mins but if like me you manage it then most likely you won't be disappointed. First Cow is a beautiful movie about friendship that ends in a tragic manner with fantastic performances by both leads. 

My Rating : 7/10

Mini Review : Finding the Way Back (Amazon Prime)

Directed by : Gavin O'Connor

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8544498/

The little things add up. Lets do all the little things right. Loose ball gets us 2 points. Tip pass gets us to 4. Steal gets us another 2. Now we are at 6. Turnover out of our press gets us to 8. All this shit adds up. Every box-out, every hustle, every loose ball, every trap. Put all that shit together, all of a sudden we are pretty fucking tough to beat.

Jack Cunningham (Ben Affleck) walked away from basketball forfeiting his future despite being a high school star and certain to go big in college or even be a pro. 25 years later he gets a coaching job offer at his alma mater which he reluctantly accepts. But he is an alcohol addict now, just split recently with wife Angela (Janina Gavankar) owing to the tragedy of their son Michael passing at a young age. The question is how will Jack cope with his addiction and yet coach a team of high school boys that he is told aren't good having missed playoffs every of those 25 years.

There's two narratives going here, one is about Jack leading the boys to playoffs with right coaching, tactics and strict discipline. And the other is Jack's personal life that has fallen apart where he feels alcohol is the only way out. The basic premise in a way resembles 'Warrior', but unlike that movie, here I felt both narratives failed both seperately and together. For the basketball scenes, the growth of boys from nothing to so competitive felt rushed. Also, I wanted more intereactions between Jack and them. The alcoholic scenes are little overdone in a sense that it wasn't gripping enough to see how badly Jack was struggling with the abuse of alcohol. In short I felt a lack of emotional connect with Jack despite Ben Affleck chipping in such a good performance which is ofcourse inspired from his real life.

I did like the movie, there's some fun scenes where Jack is trying to not use foul/cuss language as one of Father Mark Whelan (Jeremy Radin) alongside the coaching team believes it will have wrong effect on the boys. Like how Jack tries to convince Brandon Durrett (Brandon Wilson) to be a leader and believe in his abilities for being best player in team. Also, way he tries to get Brandon's father to come to the games, having his own history with his father during his playing days. And the scene where Jack would fake call head Priest numerous times at the school about him not accepting the job offer, as we learn thats how he was calling Angela too before.

Finding the Way Back is a good watch, just doesn't work as much as for me I feel it should have whether it was as a sports movie or redemption in life with a second chance.

My Rating : 6/10

Movie Analysis : Toofaan (Amazon Prime)

Directed by : Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11045422/

Yeh Azzu bhai, Yeh Aziz ali.. boxer... Kya banna hai? 

Spoilers ahead... 

Aziz Ali (Farhan Akhtar), a gangster from Dongri meets Dr Ananya (Mrunal Thakur) who changes his life by making him realize he has a better choice of becoming a boxer than continue his current way of living. Coached by Nana Prabhu (Paresh Rawal), Aziz soon reaches heights of success but an incident changes his life with a ban on his boxing. Many years later, much older with an unfit body, Aziz faces the task of returning back to the boxing ring and earn the respect he lost back again.

The film follows every sports movie cliche, which was visible from the trailer itself. There's the training montage, Aziz spending time with orphan children a way to melt Ananya's heart, a very manipulative temple scene to bring Nana Prabhu closer to her grand-daughter and a competitor Prithvi out of nowhere shown in detail to tell who Aziz would be facing in the Final. I won't say Nana Prabhu's prejudice is wrong, I mean most people without a reason hold such thoughts and here he atleast had lost his wife in the blast to form that opinion and have the hatred inside. 

The Hindu-Muslim love angle gave the movie something different despite Mrunal Thakur acting her part little too over-excited way at places. Some songs are poorly forced in, and also except for title and Arjit's track are forgettable.

You can't really keep interest of a viewer with same 'hero will find motive, train hard, make mistake, get the glory back with a comeback'  - this formula is overdone now. That is one of main reasons I felt surprised why would Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra want to make this movie. 

Even if the movie was trimmed by 30 so mins, it would had made very little difference to me. While the 1st act felt very regular bollywood drama, 2nd act felt rushed specially the life after the ban went by too quickly.

Farhan Akhtar shines in the act, mainly the Aziz Ali the boxer, while in the Azzu bhai he was so-so for me. Commendable effort in the transformation he did for the role unfortunately the movie isn't good enough to remember his act like say Vineet for Mukkabaaz or Aamir in Dangal. Paresh Rawal I felt needed to be given more dialogues at the boxing matches, that might had made atleast the bouts enjoyable which despite been shot well didn't work for me. Vijay Raaz is wasted in a nothing role, while Darshan Kumaar felt comical in that semi-final revenge bout as the judge.

I felt invested mostly in the romantic track of Farhan-Mrunal and the final bout of State Championships was the only one that was well executed. Overall,  Toofaan is an average movie that just lacked in the writing department and asked too much from the actors to deliver in the end. 

P.S - A wierd positive was from food scene as I learnt Vanilla ice-cream and Gajar ka halwa is a good combo. Thank you, will try soon to confirm!

My Rating : 5/10 

Movie Analysis : Mumbai Saga (Amazon Prime)

Directed by : Sanjay Gupta

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10483386/

Agar tumhare paas woh Dubai wala hai na, toh mere paas Dadar wala hai. 

Spoilers ahead...

Loosely based on real life Amartya Rao (John Abraham) who from a lower middle class status rises up to become a famous gangster taking over the areas Gaitonde (Amole Gupte) rules, thereby having the control over Mumbai becoming Bhau's (Mahesh Manjrekar) main man. Encounter specialist Savarkar (Emraan Hashmi) takes it upon himself to finish the chapter of Amartya Rao. 

Off-late most of the gangster (real or fiction) based hindi movies follows a similar template, lots of punchlines, many one to one fight sequences, item number and eventually cop triumphs over the criminal. Almost all of these films lack one thing, no connection between the events, same happens in Mumbai Saga, there are few seeti maro kind dialogues delivered by leads or even other cast, Amartya vs Savarkar fight scenes specially the well edited washroom one but none of these make any impact because the characters aren't layered. No work is done on any of them because the story just moves in one note which is Amartya has to become the top gangster and then Savarkar has to kill him. Infact it felt funny how Savarkar character out of blue gets introduced after more than half film is gone and starts killing Amartya's men one by one. We know nothing about Savarkar's past life, even his motive to earn money by killing Amartya is challenged by his own long Singham kind speech making you wonder did he change his stance and become a police officer who is bound by the duty or was he faking it earlier. You never would find the answers because the writing team didn't bother. 

The only plus point apart from Emraan Hashmi's acting (its hard to not like him even in a bad film) was that the loud screeching dialogue scenes we saw in trailer were thankfully the only ones in the film too, so we do get saved from that torture. However, the use of slow motion and extreme close ups is done in excess, no respite on that front. 

I would even have loved some backdrop on why Bombay became Mumbai, with Bhau who clearly was playing Thackeray in here. Aneways, Sanjay Gupta just wanted to show non-stop action and even have a character of Seema (Kajal Aggarwal), girlfriend of Amartya who would in whole story support him in every violent act. Even the brotherly act of Amartya and Arjun (Pratiek Babbar, I almost struggled to recognise him) didn't work because again you didn't bother to develop these characters. Amole Gupte seemed to be enjoying his performance which felt like an extension of Bhope Bhau from Kaminey. And there's a blink and miss scene involving Sunil Shetty, no idea why they needed him for this scene. 

Mumbai Saga is a very tiring watch in the end, more so because there are tiny places where it works and entertains too only to be totally let down by the characters as you just don't care for them.

My Rating : 4/10 

Movies Analysis : The Half of It (Netflix)

Directed by : Alice Wu

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9683478/

Love is messy and horrible and selfish... and bold.

Spoilers ahead.. 

Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), a shy introvert Chinese American high school girl reluctantly begins to help out a jock, Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer) who loves a popular girl of the class Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire) through letters. But Paul ain't aware, Ellie herself has got feelings for Aster. 

Even though its a different kind of love triangle with gay angle involved, the premise still gives feels of a cliched routine rom-com but that isn't the case, we get a really good enjoyable movie. Lovely animation story at starting credits to pull you in instantly and then Ellie Chu's narration throughout with her daily routine life and the unusual friendship that develops with Paul. They both make for a great pair, both helping out each other on what they don't know about wooing a girl. 

There are  fun moments when Paul gets impatient and Ellie finds ways to rescue situation everytime, specially the dining scene where Aster and Paul talk to each other through text despite sitting in front of each other, with Paul pretending texting which is ofcourse done by Ellie watching from outside in car knowing Paul is gonna mess up. 

The use of various quotes like chapters of movie is done well too including the final quote with Ellie's own take on 'Love'. And I loved that 'Ek Villain' scene where Ellie is making remarks on how guy's speed always matches with a running train. How Paul tries to do same and fails at end scene was funny too. I also loved every scene of Paul hanging out with Ellie's father. And Paul helping out Ellie first in dress choice for the school stage act and then later on guiding her to sing the song with guitar when the piano was ruined by some of her daily bullying gang.

Leah Lewis and Daniel Diemer are both perfectly casted and deliver great performances. Alexxis Lemire adds to the glamour and isn't limited to it as she gets plenty of scenes to shine mostly in the 2nd half of the movie. Specially enjoy the scene where she spends a day with Ellie. Also, all the scenes with Paul are awkwardly (in a comical way since Paul struggles to talk) fun to watch.

The ending is good in a way it doesn't try to say everything will work out, rather gives hope of it might. That guy who Aster is been forced to marry was the only one that irritates throughout the movie, but its tolerable as he gets very minimal screentime.  

The Half of It is definately worth a watch, a rom-com that rarely goes the cliche route, some interesting thoughts and emotional at times. More than the love, its the friendship between Ellie and Paul that stands out bringing a smile on your face. 

My Rating : 7/10

Mini Review : His House (Netflix)

Directed by : Remi Weekes

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8508734/

Many of us, we end up in places we never thought we would be.. but I think that's life trying to show you what kind of man you are. 

Spoilers ahead.. 

A refugee Sudanese couple, Bol Majur (Sope Dirisu) and Rial Majur (Wunmi Mosaku) who lost their daughter an year ago while crossing the sea, gets a probabational asylum to live in Britain on some very strict conditions that involves them not working and not leaving their house as they adjust into the new community. But they are unaware there's something else that lives in their new house with them. 

Starts on a good note, and for a good amount of time I thought maybe its another racism angle where that haunted house was given so the couple's life becomes dreadful. Was more of a love-hate kind movie, that talks about immigration and guilt leading to demons and finally redemption. The creature based horror doesn't appeal to me, so that was a minus and also I felt the final half was too dramatic.

Horror elements was well filled in though, even the jump scares were well executed. Also, liked how we see Bol trying to adjust and change to new setting, while Rial is rooted to her own culture, leading to conflicts. Some nice dark comedy involving Bol-Rial and the guy, Mark Essworth (Matt Smith) who is caretaker of the house. 

I just never felt satisfied with the revelation of main story, or maybe I was never in the same wavelength to what director wanted to show off here. If you like the twist about the story that leads to the ghosts in the house then you may enjoy the movie, for me that didn't work. 

Still a decent one time watch movie. 

My Rating : 5/10