Movie Analysis : Ajeeb Dastaans (Netflix)

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14091818/

Another movie that consists of 4 shorts, benefit always is that even if it doesn't click you feel time wasn't wasted. Very much like the past films Bombay Talkies, Lust Stories, Ghost Stories etc, Ajeeb Dastaans ends up as a mix of highs and lows together. 

Spoilers ahead... 

Majnu 

Directed by : Shashank Khaitan

Hum jab bhi kuch lete hai, toh badle mein kuch dete zaroor hai. 

Babloo (Jaideep Ahlawat) gets married to Lipakshi (Fatima Sana Shaikh) but on the first night informs her that he will never be able to give her love because he likes someone else and was forced by his father into this marriage. Its been some months, and  Raj (Armaan Ralhan) who is son of Babloo's driver, offers to help Babloo in his work but his intentions are to come closer to Lipakshi who herself gets fond of him. This short would had worked better if it stayed at the revenge theme (you get that twist very late), but the gay angle is so poorly done that I didn't really bothered about the ending then. Even actor like Jaideep Ahlawat looks out of touch here, or its just a case of how poor the script was. 

Khilauna

Directed by : Raj Mehta 

Kothiya mein rehne wale kabhi apne sage nahi ho sakte.

Meenal (Nushrratt Bharuccha), a housemaid changes the place she used to work at just because the male owner there could help the electricity cut issues she was facing at her small accomodation where she lives with her lover Shushil (Abhishek Banerjee) and little sister Binny (Inayat Verma). There's a party going for the new-born and an unusual incident makes Meenal and her lover prime suspect. This one works better, yet in parts only. The theme clearly is of poor vs rich, but it also tackles bad parenting that actually results in that very shocking final scene which you probably don't wanna remember ever (almost as disgusting as the one in Kingsman 2 movie). All the actors chip in with good performances, feel there was more scope in the execution of how rich treat poor and vice-versa, which may have made that final scene making more impact. Still a decent short for me. 

Geeli Pucchi

Directed by : Neeraj Ghaywan

Tumhe apne sach ko maan lena hoga, tabhi khush reh paayogi. 

Bharti Mandal (Konkana Sen Sharma), a Dalit and discretly gay, is the only female working at this industry, she is hard-working and wants promotion for a computer desk job. But it rather goes to new recruit Priya Sharma (Aditi Rao Hydari) who is bisexual. After initial apprehensions, Bharti forms a close bond with Priya having feelings for her but only to realise with time that she can never close the caste gap and all the discriminations that comes with it. I won't say it totally lives upto the hype I heard for this short, a tad slow I felt but still is the best of the lot. What works is Konkana Sen Sharma's brilliant performance, even her walk in the male dominated workplace looks so manly like her dressing as if she has so sunk up in the job when clearly her talent says she deserves lot more. Thats what the short explores, talent is always secondary, links and your status matters the most which is why I love the casting of Aditi Rao Hydari, because she is so sweet and cute that to hate her, which her character gives reasons at places, results in very contradictory situations. Love the office birthday scene, and the final one at Priya's residence. In the end you would take Bharti's side but its tricky, you still would feel Priya was somewhat hard done. 

Ankahi 

Directed by : Kayoze Irani 

Aapke honth jhooth bol sakte hai, par aapki aankhein hamesha sach bolti hai.

Natasha's (Shefali Shah) daughter Samaira (Sara Arjun) is slowly losing her hearing ability and her husband Rohan (Tata Roy Chowdhury) isn't willing to put in efforts of learning sign language or give time to Samaira. At a art gallery, Natasha happens to meet Kabir (Manav Kaul) who is a photographer and has a hearing/speech disability. They form a great bond with use of sign language but what will happen when Kabir learns reality of Natasha being a married woman. This is a very good effort from Kayoze Irani as his directorial debut, and it helps that he has got the terrific main lead actors, Shefali and Manav, both of them engaging you in every frame they are in.. a delight together which makes me wonder if Manav should do more of romantic movies, I can recall only Tumhari Sulu last one where also I liked him. Coming back to Ankahi, the final heartbreak scene works a lot here (unlike the case in Majnu), even if I could say it was little dramatic but I will still take it. 

Overall, Ajeeb Dastaans has 2 winners for me, Geeli Pucchi and Ankahi, both full of great performances, with former having an interesting theme and latter more of routine romance done in a nice way. Majnu was a total miss, while Khilauna has some likeable portions. 

My Rating : 6/10 

Series Analysis : JL50 (SonyLiv)

Directed by : Shailender Vyas (4 episodes)

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7441984/

You see, America mein ho toh phenomena, possibilities pe research. Lekin hamare hindustan mein ho toh only one 'Story'. Hamara problem kya hai Shantanu, hamare desh mein Hindu, Muslim, Mandir, Masjid, Politics, Andhvishwaas se upar hum log kabhi uthte hi nahi... Agar humhe akaash mein kuch dikhayi de jaaye toh hum do haath jodh lete hai aur usse bhagwaan maan lete hai.. question nahi karte, we don't ask Why, What, How.. Never.

Spoilers ahead... 

CBI officer Shantanu (Abhay Deol) along with his colleague Gaurango (Rajesh Sharma) reaches a village of Lava in West Bengal. Expecting to find the missing plane that was carrying some important politicians, Shantanu is shocked to learn that it is instead a different plane JL50 that crashed near the village, and more so its a plane that took off 35 years ago. Is it some kind of staging done by ABA (Azaad Bengal Association) or are we talking time-travel here? 

Time-Travel in last few years has really gone up on me as something exciting, first it was Avengers Endgame and then the superb Dark series. JL50 unfortunately is neither entertaining as the former, and nor detailed like the latter. Yet you have to applaud for the honest attempt and the fact that its just a 4 episode series so despite the flaws you would end up watching it in a go. 

Two major issues I had was, firstly the characters aren't developed enough, there's too little time spent on Shantanu's back life, why his marriage fell apart, and then the time-travel when it does come is way too late. Also, the entire scenario where Shantanu tries to change the events going back in time, felt hurried and not exciting enough to me. The sci-fi effects aren't good but that could be low budget thing. 

Love the scene where Professor Subroto Das (Pankaj Kapur) talks about why we Indians won't believe something unique can be invented by our own people, there's a genuine true frustration felt in those words. Pankaj Kapur is easily the best performer in the series, a reason why his sudden change in final episode didn't go well with me, maybe I wanted him to stay a positive character but still its a good twist. Abhay Deol was expectedly good, a tad overstretched maybe when it comes to 'I don't believe time-travel is possible', otherwise you enjoy his act or the revelation when he learns how Bihu Ghosh (Ritika Anand) is related to him. Again, not proper character development made this scene not having that much impact as it otherwise would had. 

Rajesh Sharma is fun, only character who is all the time wanting Shantanu to believe its definately a time-travel. Piyush Mishra strangely was too hammy, and rest cast didn't quite work for me specially Ritika. 

Even though I found the attempt to connect time-travel with Hindu Mythology little odd with the narrative of show, I liked that small part specially how propaganda is used by big leaders like Hitler shown or a certain person from our own country these days. The climax where Shantanu doesn't burn the papers properly was a clear case of very lazy writing, when you know how not only his life or people he knows will get affected but the country could suffer, why would he be so silly and stupid!

Some fun moments definately includes when Shantanu offers 10rs Coin in the time-travel to a bus conductor of 1984, it was really hilarious to see him being told 'nakli paisa deta hai'. The songs are used well as backdrop, though none of them has 'listen again' appeal to it. 

JL 50 I feel had the potential to be much more, let down in many departments, yet being a 4 episode series, you can still give it a chance. 

My Rating : 5.5/10 

Series Analysis : Haunted Season 3 (Netflix)

Directed by : Jan Pavlacky

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9077192/

The house is hungry. The house demands blood. 

In the Pines

Hannah had a abusive mother and when she was a teenager she moved to a friend's place who then helped her reach to Drew for work. She soon fell in relationship with him and moved to his house as live in where strange incidents started occuring. 

First of all, the narrator is very irritating herself and then there are two others who are over-reacting to her story. I mean these three made me not believe one bit of the story as true. Yet the story is interesting, clever use of 'My girl, my girl, don't lie to me' track and its never told if the serial killer killed that girl because she cheated on him or it was just a track he liked to sing. Again there is a stupid scene where Drew doesn't wanna leave the house as he believes he can channel the negative energy that is trapped and angry to somewhere peaceful. I am like, who are you Drew, why trying to be a hero, just mind your business and save yours and Hannah's life. Aneways, looking at the standard of this show, In the Pines is pretty decent watch. 

Haunted by Henry 

Wyatt as a young boy was haunted along with his sister at the house of Henry Croft. As he remembers those times, a house that had just hatred for him and his family. 

This one has better narrators minus the unwanted 'lights out' moment. But the narration again effects the main story, it does have good horror effects including few jump scares. This is much believable to be a true story, with a ghost that just doesn't want any tenant to live at his place and will either scare them to death or make them leave. 

Gift of Evil 

Emily on her 16th birthday gets a gift from her godmother, a musical box with her name engraved on it. Little does she know, that its some old box from a girl also named Emily who was murdered and now will haunt her. 

This was parts comical, parts wierd and parts watchable. When you see the 1st scene how the little girl Emily dies, you think maybe this one will be about the revenge from the guys who for no reasons (nothing is told) kill her. So, was a little disappointment to see the story go where she rather haunts an innocent girl. The Swan Lake theme played in musical box is nice, the boyfriend angle felt rushed entering Emily life and very quickly leaving too. And no logic why for 10 months she would go totally hidden. Overall, I didn't much enjoy, or found it scary.

The Witch behind the Wall

Brandy as a young girl shifts to a new rented place with her siblings and mother, only to find that the room upstairs wasn't safe because the wall was linked to the house where a very mean old lady lived.

Finally a different story, based on witch and sort of black magic. Works for most parts, except the 'get out of my house' dialogue which is the only time she talked in the episode. Out of all her ways of scaring the family, the table fan one got to me because many times I think of what if I feel asleep with it so close to me and my hand gets stuck inside. One other hiccup in story was, why would all the siblings one by one wait to get a experience of what that old lady is doing, rather than straightaway sleep in the ground floor, aneways maybe this is bit of nitpicking. This is a nice episode, probably best so far. 

Demon Cat

Alicia, a teenager, moves in with her brother and mother to a rented house after living most of her life in a mobile place before. Unfortunately, a demon cat awaits her in this new house. 

My most disliked episode so far. Starts with a very gross scene involving some cat ritual. Then, there's a very hard to see ankles breaking scene and we also go bollywood with a practioner helping Alicia escape death in hospital as he removes the demon cat spirit from the house. The cat scenes itself are gross too with it looking like some very odd creature. Only positive I can say about this story was that for a change its the mother who experiences odd things happening in house before it happens with rest family. And yea, definately not a true story by any means for me. 

Sins of my Father

Christian's father becomes effected by the spirit of Antichrist and goes jail for murdering his grandma. Years later, Christian having recovered from the shaky childhood, is at Yale University and he sees the history repeat as he too becomes Antichrist. 

I couldn't understand why Christian father all of a sudden becomes anti-god, there's just nothing shown as a reason behind it. And then same happens with Christian. Did I miss something? Scare wise it works more on the level how scary it would be for people around Christian father or later Christian, rather than us as viewers feeling terrified. Decent episode, just the reasoning would had made it work better for me. 

So, new season of Haunted again had same issues, funnily enough many of the stories would had worked if only they get done with the unwanted narration style, infact voiceovers ain't needed too. All episodes are 20ish mins long mostly which is a blessing and also a reason why I keep coming back to this series that I know will never work for me. 

My Rating : 3.5/10 

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