2022 Indian English language film about few pregnant ladies attending prenatal classes - each person in her own state of confusion, distress, anxiety and even joy. A movie for the wife, and she totally liked it! Not much in the movie actually. Just different lives, different tales all entwined by their state of pregnancy. Acting, dialog, screenplay all ok-ok. Nothing much to write about.
Rating: Average
Looking at the trailer, I never felt like watching this movie because it was filled with so much of action and violence, which is not of my liking. But the hype that this movie got and the fact that the director also directed Bahubali somehow made me watch it. And I was glad I did. There is something about Rajamouli that really woos the audience to the theatre. And this is a movie that should be watched on the big screen although I watched it on TV. The way the movie begins, how each character is portrayed, etc. is truly fantastic. Of course, in some cases, it does look like Rajnikanth-kind of fantasy scene where one man lifts a bike on his hand and wheels it around and throws it like a toy but still such scenes does not repel away the educated audience. Somewhere deep down, one feels a human can actually do that if he is sufficiently motivated. Coming to the movie itself, it reminded me of Sholay at several instances - especially the bond that was shared by the two protagonists. It was really heart-warming. The music by Keeravani is superlative in many aspects. The songs of Naatu, Naatu and Komaram Bheem gives goosebumps. The choreography of Naatu, Naatu is unfathomable. Dialog is power-packed. Setting and attire are all perfect. All in all, excellent film-making and one that tops the chart.
Rating: Must-see
Language: Telugu
Update: I came across this website and the story (and storytelling) now seems absolutely un-believ-able!!
One more movie that I stopped seeing half-way through. In fact, I didn't even watch more than half an hour. It seemed very whacky for my liking although I got the intent behind the tale - mainly being that protagonist is slightly off track and crazy. Didn't seem like my kind of movie, so stopped watching despite this being a movie inspired by true events. I guess after A Hidden Life, I am skeptical about spending even 2-3 hours on movies which are even true stories (which is my liking in general).
Language: Hindi
Rating: Average
Watched this movie only half-way through and didn't feel like watching any more. The true story & life of Charles (in itself) is fascinating & I got to know more about him after this movie but the movie itself was not something I liked very much. Perhaps because I was not able to follow it clearly. The casting seems to be good though, and the protagonist has done a good job as an excellent and charming personality.
Language: Hindi
Rating: Average
True story about Franz who refused allegiance to Nazi and paid his life for it. "What you say in your mouth and what you think in your heart are two different things. Just praise Hitler and get your life back." And he refused and lost his life, his wife and three kids. Story is depressing although heroic. Movie is very, very slow. It hardly moves. Could have been shot down in under 60 minutes as a documentary in fact. But they have done good justice to Austria and surrounding beauty all around. Very boring movie, not really worth the watch. Reading about Franz would be faster.
Rating: Average
Full kudos to Rishabh Shetty for bringing forth the local Tulu custom to the big screen and making waves on the national and international circuits. His acting in the climax is superlative. Lot of violence in the movie is not generally my forte but I guess that's what the audience wants, eh? Or is it? Be that as it may, the overall film-making is great and definitely something that is worth a watch in the theatre.
Rating: Good
Language: Kannada
Wow, what a woman! Ruth's story is incredible, and the movie is very well-made with crisp screenplay and some excellent dialog. Great casting and the actors have done justice to their respective roles. Setting up the location as per the year is as good as it can get. Definitely worth the watch for the great lady that Ruth was and the 'Radical Social Change' that she was part of.
Rating: Good
Quirky dialog. Some real hard hitting facts. Light hearted humour most scenes - from finish to end except for a few. Overall good acting, again barring a few. Pleasant location/setting arrangements. Only one song had dance and that had good choreo. Very well made film making good use of digital effects. All in all, a good romcom, and definitely worth the watch.
Rating: Good
Language: Kannada
Another one of Akshay Kumar's movie carrying a social message. After Toilet, Pad Man, etc. this one's about Dowry. The director has done great deal of good trying to bring in humor where there didn't seem to be any. The first few scenes are real jolly good ones. Not ROFL but good enough. The setting and acting and screenplay are all ok-ok but will pass. The dialog is chirpy. As expected (with the topic), there are few sad scenes but well narrated. Certain parts could have been edited and unnecessary (like the kidney ones) but anyways. Worth a watch on a lazy sunday.
Language: Hindi
Rating: Good
Wow, what a man! Nambi Narayanan is an astounding genius and many thanks to Mr Madhavan for this biopic else many of us would have lived through this life of ours without knowing about him and his greatness! Apart from the Man himself, the movie is equally good. Clean, neat and tight screenplay, professional acting from all and all-in-all a great movie-making which doesn't fail to impress. This movie (and Mr Nambi) is as good as The Imitation Game (Alan Turing) and The Man who knew Infinity (Ramanujan). Definitely a must-watch.
Rating: Must-see
Language: Hindi
The comedy continues from F2. What humorous dialog! Some scenes are absolutely ROFL. Not a moment of bore. Again, like most movies of this genre, seem too filmy to be true but one has to go with the flow and ignore the brain for 3 hours! This reminded me of many David Dhawan's movies which I used to enjoy as a kid. And the kid in me made me enjoy this one too, whole-heartedly! Full kudos to script-writer, director and all the staff for a great entertainer! Waiting for F4!!
Rating: Must-see (not really, but whatever!)
Language: Telugu
A well-thought-out comedy. Along similar lines of Ikkat but whereas there it was divorce, here it is marriage. Simple yet very nice. Dialog is great. A few of the scenes are ROFL. Pretty flawless direction and screenplay. Wholesome entertainer.
Rating: Good
Language: Telugu
Well, this movie caused a lot of stir in the nation, and more so via whatsapp! And that prompted me to see this although I was warned it was extremely gruesome. So, let me admit, I was prepared. But then, when I watched the movie, it seemed too mild indeed. Perhaps because my expectation was set too high or because I have seen far worse war movies where hands were getting ripped out, rats going in and out of bomb-blown-out-dead-bodies, etc.. But I guess, the gruesomeness and evil-ry depicted in this movie was a strongish dose for the bourgeois. Anyways. Well-made movie indeed, keeps it taut - shuttles between past and present. At times, it seemed more like a documentary of few old friends reminiscing about their historic true-story past. An excellent method of putting history back into frontlines is via a well-made movie and that is exactly what the director has done here. Lot of research has gone into this, lot of good debates, who's oppressed, who's not, etc. And that's what I liked about it. At the very beginning, the movie is dedicated to those who are oppressed. Very well-put indeed. At one point of time or other, pretty much every sect has gone through that, I guess.
Rating: Good
Language: Hindi
Full of double meanings and metaphorical references to the unspoken stuff of life. Something for which Jaggesh became very famous for, and I guess that is the reason why he was casted for this movie. The only reason, and the only reason, why I saw this movie was because the credits at the beginning of the movie was very creative and innovative, much like Malayalam movies. Unfortunately the movie was downright pathetic. Some of the scenes were absolutely yucky and some were ok-dokey. But the tale in itself has no stuff in it. Waste of time.
Rating: Pathetic.
Language: Kannada
Absolutely unbelievable tale. Just unthinkable that this can be a 'true story'. A corker of a movie from Steven Spielberg, and Tom Hanks is superlative in his role. Full marks for narration, setting (1950s), screenplay and 'international' dialog. Watch it to believe it!
Rating: Must see
Found this to be a very insightful drama. Superb acting by Deepika & Ranbir. Tale itself is very well narrated and in fact very spiritual in nature. This is more of a musical movie where some parts of the story are depicted via songs, so the musician and lyricist have to be superlative, and they do not let you down. Direction is good.
Rating: Good
Language: Hindi
Stopped watching this movie midway through. Perhaps saw about 55 minutes. Although movie-making seemed ok-dokey, the tale seemed too whacky. I guess it was meant to be comical but I didn't find it so. Direction seemed very thin. Dialog especially with the foreigners was rib-tickling. Not sure if rest of the movie could have turned my views.
Rating: Average
Language: Hindi
A typical Indian family drama. A typical Pune family. All four characters play a significant role - father, mother, son, daughter-in-law. Slight humor here and there. Not much of grief and tragedies. No major twists and turns yet not a bore. Clean acting by one and all. Easy-going narration. Low budget, hence not much glamour - either in settings or locations. No songs, dance sequences, etc. Worth a watch.
Rating: Good
Language: Marathi
Based on India's Cricket World Cup victory of 1983, this movie brings back to life what transpired almost 3 decades ago. Very well made indeed, especially re-creating the grounds like how it was back then which is so different from current era. Ranveer has portrayed the character of Kapil very well and even better is Jiiva who has portrayed Kris Srikkanth who had a persona of his own. While watching the movie, one almost feels as if we are living through the 1983 world cup! Reminded me of Dhoni movie as well.
Rating: Good
Language: Hindi
A dark movie (which we usually avoid) but felt like watching due to all the publicity. Its ok. Narration, dialog, settings, locations, screenplay and movie-making is all very professional and no mistakes. Very adult-ish content shown due to the nature of the tale. All the actors have done great justice to their respective roles and acted superbly. Watchable.
Rating: Good
Language: Hindi
The movie started off nice but tapered off in the end. A very typical story of a girl in college I guess who gets followed by a number of guys and how she is torn between handling them all. Very well narrated. And of course, the "naturalistic" acting always draws me to Malayalam movies. Good dialog, good set of characters.
Rating: Good
The lightheartedness continues from the prequel. Nice and clean movie, once again. Quite a few rib-tickling dialog & scenes. Cinematography is amazing and locations are awesome. Also nice to see the same set of characters. Some scenes could easily be predicted, and not much twist and turn either. Watchable.
Rating: Good
Language: Kannada
Well, I realized that one shouldn't always take tips from newspapers to watch movies. Such high adjectives were used for this movie that I thought it will be a must-watch. But alas, this turned out to be barely watchable. Story revolves around Personality Disorder which is now a common theme I guess. First time I heard/read about it in the 90s, I was fascinated but now it doesn't add that glitter any more. Editing could be much better. I still do not know why the judge's family had to be portrayed so much. It has no meaning to the main tale. Also no one asks about Charu Raina's missing body. For this movie, tale is everything, but it has many loop holes. Acting, location, characterization, etc. is all average, and so is direction. And, hence, so is my rating.
Rating: Average
Language: Hindi
Well, I thought this will be a really good movie but it bordered pathetic. Absolutely nothing in it. Very thin humor. Almost humorless humor. Most scenes were in slow-motion, so I could easily fast forward by 10 seconds every other minute and didn't lose much. Too much non-Kannada used, so for elderly Kannadigas who don't know any other language, they cannot follow this much. Seriously expected much better than this from Danish.
Rating: Average
Language: Kannada
From the trailer, I knew this was a triangle love story and not 100% keen to watch but gave company to wifey anyways. However there is a twist. They have made it light-hearted and at times, it is indeed funny. For that, credit does go to the director. Songs and dance sequences were good. Dialog was not very hard-hitting but had weight. There is a spiritual element as well about burning your past to enjoy the present, which wholly makes sense. Acting is ok by Dhanush but Sara has done very well indeed. Tale is relevant I guess since I have heard many such cases in other fiction books. Casting, screenplay, cinematography are all above above average.
Rating: Good
This one's a ROFL. Much more laugh-ier than the prequel. Some really crazy scenes. Reminded me once more of Scary Movie and other weird-and-yucky-yet-laughy movies that I used to watch about 2 decades ago. Nothing great, not boring just plain American way of life at all levels - school, college, middle-age, old-age, etc. portrayed as a comedy although at times it is downright disgusting.
Rating: Good
A light-hearted, feel-good kind of 'Time-pass' movie that you'd want to see. Just five friends from school who spend the long weekend together on lake house along with their families. The usual dirty & lewd American jokes/scenes but it is not overloaded with it. There is a bunch of nice family scenes, kids playing, stuff as well. Nice and simple narration, good location, small-ish tale and good casting/characterizations. Watchable.
Rating: Good
Well. Talk about putting real life into reels at real-time especially at a point in your life when you are at crossroads. Wonder how they did it. But forget the how - the way they have done it is superlative in all aspects. The background score, the animations, the narration style, the simple yet poignant points of view from the parents, etc. Although pitched as a documentary, it might as well be a movie where the main actors are the directors, with no script. Private life made public. (Cuddalore in) India & Germany is both portrayed very well.
Rating: Good
Language: German/English/Tamil
The same scenes tend to get boring but the underlying emotions starting to come to surface are portrayed by those repetitive scenes. Hence, in a way, the direction is to be applauded albeit the risk of audience tending to get bored. Superlative acting, dialog & characterization and great portrayal of the female downtrodden-ness in the orthodox Indian families. Only one major song with amazing dance sequence. Mixing the tale with the Sabarimala politics is a simple yet nice garnishing. Rated as U but definitely not in my opinion.
Rating: Good
Language: Malayalam
This one's downright crazy movie made by someone who has nice (and weird) sense of humor & who does whatever one wants to do and publish it publicly. Check out the scene about 'Tell me about it' with the bar-tender - the director takes the audience for a ride there, and one wonders if the movie is even real! The tale itself is simple but it is the narration that makes the movie enchanting. I guess there are a lot of spoofs but I don't have much idea about the originals, hence could not relate them. Very akin to Scary Movie and Airplane! genre, and hence watch it with that mindset.
Rating: Good
Not a great movie to start a new year. Genre being Comedy, there was hardly any unless one goes ROFL seeing grandparents becoming intimate. Tale is insanely focused on the sexual part of marriage and sounds ridiculous for folks from Eastern part of the world who are more into renunciation stage at that age but the Western folks still want to live like 16 at 60. But the crux of the tale apart, movie-making is excellent: direction, casting, acting, dialog, setting, etc. is all top class.
Rating: Average
