Ulidavaru Kandanthe

Hmm, had seen these kind of movies over a decade ago. 11:14, Crash, Cidade de deus, to name a few. But this one was kind of slower, could've edited a bit more and reduced about 30 minutes. Lots of scenes were taken in slow-motion. But nevertheless, a catchy story of intertwined individuals and some good dialog at times. Too much of weed, alcohol, smoking shown - could've reduced but I guess it was to show the angle of 'mafia'. Setting being Udupi & Malpe made it interesting with local culture shown in great detail. Plus certain scenes shown in very different way - like the first fight scene was more like Batman fight sequences. Nice to see a Kannada movie on similar lines of international genre...
Rating: Good

Total Dhamaal

Felt like watching slapstick, no-brainer, wholehearted comedy movie and came across this - & it fit the bill perfectly. Excellent settings, locations & to an extent, even casting. But the award should go to the Dialog. Astoundingly hilarious & rib-tickling. Pretty much all near-death experiences are captured - falling from a building, from a hanging pillar off a crane, sky-diving, crossing a flooding a river and thereon to falling over a waterfall, almost getting hit by a train, driving over a buckling bridge, flying in a helicopter fitted with a ceiling fan(!) & then falling from it while it burned mid-air, getting bitten by vultures in a desert, getting run-down by a car on fire, driving over a cliff, avoiding a head-on collision with a truck, etc. - extremely humorously portrayed & the list goes on and on until the director feels enough is enough, and suddenly it is the climax scene. The idea, of course, is from the English movie Rat Race (which was inspired from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World) but with Indian masala added to it. All in all, had a great laugh for a lazy Sunday rainy afternoon. Kudos to the crew for churning out a great entertainer. Note how a 4.4/10 on IMDB can actually rate high on HMDB - it is all about when you see what kind of a movie & how! 😉
Rating: Good

RangiTaranga

Wow, what a movie! Its been really long since I started a movie blog like that, isn't it?! The last time was Dec 2016! This one is right up there amongst the all time greats - like Barfi, Lucia, etc. Story is great, makes the audience think in one direction while the story moves in another. Scene one starts off in the middle, hence adds more confusion to the tale - almost making the audience to see the movie once more as soon as it ends because the jigsaws start falling into place one after the other until the very end. It starts off like a scary movie with ghosts and horror scenes, and then a sniff of mystery comes in with a touch of crime. Not much of humor nor a full-blow romance but then that is not the essence of this movie. Because this one is meant to be a thriller. And so it stays till the very end. Great casting, superb location, awesome direction and fantastic story-telling. Definitely must-see! The only sad thing personally was although this is a Kannada movie, I had to see in Hindi-dubbed version 😞