Movie Review – Forgotten

All twist and no substance

In my last of the Korean thrillers in the current set of Netflix films, this looked like a promising dark and unruly movie through its posters. Not being a really famous one, I thought this movie would be on the lines of ‘Chaser’ but the movie started slow, went on with the same pace for some time and after a sudden twist, it upped the tempo but couldn’t keep going on with the momentum throughout. Even though the film relies heavily on twists, not everything makes us enjoy with awe. It just looks like a template Korean film in the end.

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The film follows the story of a young man Jin-seok (Kang Ha-neul)moving to a new house along with his family. He wakes up with a start after a bad dream but immediately is at peace watching his loving family. The family is too good to be believed with a brother that he adores and a father and mother he loves. He has problems with anxiety and takes pills to counter it. After his sudden disappearance of his brother, the film changes its course. He identifies that it’s not his real family and they’re there to avenge him for a murder. Even though he doesn’t remember murdering anyone, eventually he discovers why he did. The final act where that happens is such a lull that it doesn’t show any spark.

The situation where the film happens doesn’t look like a practical one. Because its not so easy for someone to make them believe that they’re in 1997. May be shifting house is a ploy so that he’d not get information on that but one look at the neighborhood, it’d be easy to find out that its not 1997, even though he’s force fed the information. Another point is, after his brothers return, he mentions that he doesn’t remember a thing, citing it as a selective amnesia. Again, why would you use a term which your captive is affected with, especially when you’re trying to cheat him that everything is normal. These points didn’t go well for me.

When Jin discovers that he’s not 21, but is 41, it doesn’t feel like a revelation at all because we don’t see a marked difference in the environment just for that one scene. Till the point he doubts his brother of conspiracy, it was nice. When his family gets involved, the tempo slowly fades. When it becomes a case of murder and a lot of people get involved, the movie totally loses its sheen. The director should have invested in each of the twist so that we could believe it. That would have lent more authenticity to the happening. That’s what masters do. It was all too sudden here and we couldn’t connect with any of it.

Finally, at least the climax could have been made harsh instead of a depressing one because when they both die, it was only a relief rather than sadness. If the movie had ended at a point where Jin tries to confess but couldn’t because of the poison which Yoo-seok (Kim Mu-yeol) has already induced, it would have been nicer. Yoo would have been irritated because of that and that would have lent some amount of wanting for the viewers in the end at least. But the typical conclusive end to the film spoils whatever is built throughout the film.

Movie Review – Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga

Spark sans fire

I thought this film would be on the lines of ‘Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu’, like a breezy less appreciated rom com and I was fairly right. Unfortunately, I knew what the film was about and being in that part of world where such a story is still used as a twist element, the entire first half goes in finding out when we’d eventually discover that twist. But when I was about to hate the film for resorting to such cheap way to move the story, the second half builds itself into a neat film and ends reasonably well so that the movie couldn’t be outrightly hated.

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Deriving the title from one of the famous songs ever in Bollywood, it was obvious that the titular song would appear at some place or the other. But they don’t overdo it. They use it in the right place. Plus, the title gets a special meaning, thanks to the lesbian relationship. Like I said before, Indian mainstream cinema hasn’t come to a stage where we’d be able to see the intricacies between a lesbian couple but only how they deal with the world. But given the conservative way the theme was dealt with, the film does enough to make us keep interested.

Wonder why Rajkumar Rao is cast in any movie like this. First it was Queen and now this. Poor fellow, he doesn’t get to be with the heroines in both the movies. He does a decent job though, being a typical Rajkumar Rao on screen. His coy nature and his tendency to not being an alpha male works for a lesbian themed film. I wonder why Sonam Kapoor was wearing all loose-fitting dressing, may be that’s the way of de-glamourizing her and make her look as someone who would look better in a lesbian angle than from a straight person’s angle. Or may be the styling was done just for the heck of it. Not sure. But coming from a family who sells garments, the disinterest towards dressing should mean a thing for Sweety (Sonam K Ahuja). Because on the other hand, it’s CEO, Balbir Chaudhary (Anil Kapoor) looks fabulous in each and every scene.

In spite of Sweety’s love, Kuhu (Regina Cassandra) appearing for a very little time, she totally steals the show. Even though she’s not thunderous like how a VJ is for Rani. She comes across at least as a fresh spell of rain. Regina suits the role and drives the point effortlessly which Sonam struggles so hard for, during the entire first half. Rajkumar Rao doesn’t have much to do apart from being an organizer. The Balbir and Chatro (Juhi Chawla) angle too doesn’t have much firepower as Juhi Chawla continues to irritate with her overacting.

The movie is a welcome relief from taking an LGBT angle just for fun but there is still a long way to call it a LGBT film because in recent past there have been a number of films which explores the theme beautifully, which is what people would be interested to see, rather than the us vs them story.

Movie Review – Baby Driver

For the joy of cinema

Movies like these are why we watch cinema for. This is the expectation one wants to get fulfilled while watching a proper Hollywood stuff. As much as mind crunching and brain numbing films exist in the realm of Hollywood, it is movies like ‘Baby Driver’ which gives the satisfaction of spending money and watching cinema in theatres. It’s such a shame that I missed this one in theatres in spite of having such great vibes and gut feeling to watch it back then. I guess that the last time I felt so joyous watching each and every scene just for the cinematic pleasure was, ‘Fargo’. That’s like a decade back though, so that’s a pretty long time to have enjoyed a movie, whole heartedly.

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This is one of the movies where everything works. The actors, music, cinematography, editing and above all, the feel, which all the above elements culminate to produce, is so awesome that you can’t take your eyes off the screen. There are bad action films which are fun to watch like ‘Fast & Furious’ and there are good action films like ‘Mission Impossible’ series, ‘Die Hard’ series etc. But then the reason why ‘Baby Driver’ is a gem is because it gives the satisfaction of watching a hardcore Hollywood fun film which has a genuineness of art house films. Who said that art films should be slow? Art can be made even like this.

If you observe keenly it’s not a punk or a post punk film. It’s a solid present-day film. It’s no ‘Pulp Fiction’ where there the elements are crap but end result is gold. Here the elements are not intentionally made bad and molded into a classy film. It happens very much in a present-day relatable world, yet there are marks of genius everywhere. May be that’s why its so much fun and doesn’t make you think between your ears.

The film opens with a heist and the chase sequence was like wow. Baby (Ansel Elgort) makes sure that he’s glued in to music so that he can concentrate. He drives for living and lives for driving. Ansel Elgort lived the role, may be the casting director should be appreciated for having such a fine cast. Ansel Elgort looked to have been born for this role. A Tom Cruise or a Jason Statham doing the role is understandable but they’ll bring some style to it, which stands as their trademark. Here Ansel Elgort is still a kid behind the wheel, he doesn’t have a style to project, like he doesn’t make a unique statement but he’s classy. He doesn’t standout but he is unique. You know what I mean. He’s the man for the car.

And the casting wonder doesn’t stop with that, even the actress was brilliant. Deborah (Lily James) was hot, stunning and vulnerable at the same time. There were a number of femme fatales used before in cinema. But she has a distinct flavor. How well was her character written, even though we see very little of her. The rest of the actors too are splendid. Especially Kevin Spacey. Even though Doc (Kevin Spacey) is the one who manages the whole thing. It was quite a mystery as to why was Kevin Spacey cast in such an unheroic role, which looked least bit important. But he makes up for everything when he provides them the escapade. What an actor.

The whole film dreads on meticulously planned shots. Generally, in a film like this they don’t concentrate and do these things right. Whatever they do would be to please the audience and make them go hunky dory but they don’t appreciate art. Here look at the way Baby first goes to the Coffee shops with a peppy song and tumbling feet. A man who drives car like a god, dashes into so many men by just walking. That’s the amount of concentration he has. Look at the earphone scene in laundromat, the way camera swivels around the couple, as if you’ve laden your hand on a slender waist. Tamil cinema has done such shots only to show Simran’s waist. That’s the maximum creativity they had employed for such camera work. Otherwise it’d be as magnanimous as ‘Kuruvama’ scene in Ravanan. Here its so lovely, something as romantic as the record room scene in ‘Before Sunrise’.

For a pretty fast movie, there are enough scenes of other nature too. The first encounter between Baby and Deborah is as sweet as it can get. The way she flirts is like a dream for every man after a hard day at office. Point is she doesn’t sound slutty. There shows a totally genuineness in her flirting. She wouldn’t have done the same if it had not been Baby. The way she talks into the cassette is like woman of my dreams, such sensual flirting.

If there is one complaint, it would be the climax. It’s too happy a movie to have sad ending. I could come out happy out of ‘Uncut Gems’ even though it doesn’t end on a happy note but oh baby, not ‘Baby Driver’. As practical as it sounded, wish instead of taking the key off Deborah’s hand, he could have shift sits and drove away from the police. Afterall that’s what he’s best at. But yea, it’s the feeling of making the audience want more is what makes the film an epic one and differentiated it from other Jason Statham type of movies. That’s why it didn’t end up being just a guilty pleasure movie but an ingenuine cult film.

Movie Review – Parava

Flies high with pride

What started as a not so confident exercise made me sit up and look in awe within minutes. I was super excited to watch ‘Kammatipaadam’ thinking that it would be a fun film but it was the opposite. Seeing the posters, I thought ‘Parava’ too would be on the same lines but it ended out to be one of the nicest feel good films of late. Being a fan of Soubin Shahir, I was naturally interested to watch when I got to know that it’s a film directed by him.

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‘Parava’ is not a film which one watches on purpose but a film which happens on its own. These are like typical seven pointers in IMDB which works wonderfully well and could connect to us personally. Much like ‘The Bronx Tale’. It’s not a film everyone would have watched. It’s not a film which is recommend to everyone for watching. But for someone who adores the gangster flicks, this movie could be as personal as it can get. Given that De Niro had directed it with his regular culprits, which deals with nostalgia, this really was a sweet experience. ‘Parava’ was one such movie for teenagers.

Being a big fan of no nonsensical teen age films more than coming of age ones which deals with a lot of misery and boredom, ‘Parava’ strikes the right chord from the word go. The opening story with Haseeb (Govind V. Pai) and Irshad a.k.a. “Ichappi” (Amal Shah) was done so well that it could have been a standalone film. Good that I looked at the poster which had Salman in it, I was waiting for his entry sooner or later. If I had not known it, I would have been disappointed when the track changed from the kids to the adults. Because the kids’ story was so good.

Amal Shah is a treasure trove. He had acted so well, especially by keeping his emotions in check. Also, his character was superbly written. This is closest to how I was at that age, in real life. Master everything which is unimportant in life. It also reminded me of Calvin strip. To see how passionately they follow with their interest. Their friendship was superbly written, so much so that Haseeb wishes to fail to be in Ichappi’s class so that he can be Vice Captain. Note that even if he fails, he wishes to be second fiddle and not the captain. That was so sweet of him.

Being so involved in the kids’ story, it was a moment of distraught when the story jumps to the seniors but the director keeps us glued to the screen with an interesting screenplay. Though we know that Dulquer is eventually gonna die, it doesn’t hurt us much and moves the film out of ‘feel good’ zone because his screen space is limited. He comes as a savior for all and does the role reasonably well. Amongst the friends Shane (Shane Nigam) scores the best. Even though all he does is to stay in a balcony and stare, he does it so well that we get a feel of being struck to a balcony. Such lovely acting.

Wish Soubin had not acted in this movie. He was so not made for this role. This is a first film which felt like he was over acting. Films like ‘Sudani from Nigeria’ and ‘Android Kunjappan Ver 5.25’ works best for him where it feels like he’s very much part of the environment. There is so much practicality and earthiness in his acting which makes us fall in love with his character. Even though he has to be the opposite here, it doesn’t work at all. Whereas another drug addict Sreenath Bhasi does wonders. What an actor he is. I’ve become a big fan of his recently. He has a discreet charm like Joseph Gordon Levitt, where he couldn’t be hated. Especially it feels good to not see in full length roles. He always appears in films where we want to see more of him and the film ends whenever we are with that feel. Here too he has minimal screen space but does wonders with it.

The climax with the pigeon race works reasonably well, but it’s the kids who steal the show, the romance twist was the best scene of the film. The film ends on a high with an action sequence but that’s the only thing which felt forced in an otherwise superbly made practical film.

Movie Review – Whisper of the Heart

Where the heart is at the right place

‘Whisper of the Heart’ has everything that makes it for a Miyazaki movie. A female protagonist, a heart touching story, great characters, a place land and a moving climax. It’s hard to believe that it’s not a Miyazaki film. Being a Studio Ghibli film its only natural to assume that it’s made by Miyazaki. May be for people who watch it without knowing that it’s a non-Miyazaki product would not know that its one such movie, till the end. That’s the beauty of Studio Ghibli.

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Shizuku Tsukishima is a girl in her early teens who’s a book worm and notices that a boy had borrowed almost every book that she takes to read. Even though generic, for that age it’s a sweet thing to happen. What the film flawlessly achieves is the mood that it sets for a teenage romance. And how it distinguishes itself from the corny ones out there. Shizuku too is a respectable figure who deserves instant respect. Such a lovable girl she is. Loved the passion she has and admire the director’s touch in making her character like that.

During a chance encounter she goes to an interesting antique shop, thanks to the grumpy cat she meets on train. Her life changes post that where she finds all the more reason to be passionate. The very detailing of the shop is brilliant and how in the film there are so many stories within stories. Also, the family chemistry too was something noteworthy.

The film goes a little lengthy and loses its focus towards the end but that’s how summer romances are. The film brings a mix of everything through it. The part where she writes the story gets bleak. It’s not pretty clear as to what she thinks and writes. We are more worried about the outer world where she lives in, than the dream world because the outer world is more interesting. Even though ‘Whisper of the Heart’ wasn’t fantabulous for me, it felt like a sweet summer time watch which worked even on a cold day.

Movie Review – She’s Gotta Have It

A raw and bleak portrait

I always have a soft corner for a well-known director’s debut movie. Watching the debut movie of a man who’s well known is an exercise by itself and that especially works if you have watched most of his works. It doubly works if you are a fan of his. Like that, ‘Blood Simple’, ‘Following’, ‘The Straight Story’ and all worked wonders for me. Even though technically ‘She’s Gotta Have It’ is not a debut movie of Spike Lee, it still could be considered in the same category because his debut movie is actually a student film and this movie had all the characteristics of a debut movie.

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It’s a role reversal film where Nola (Tracy Camilla Johns) plays a typical playgirl. She juggles between he polite and well-meaning Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks), the self-obsessed model Greer Childs (John Canada Terrell), and the immature, motor-mouthed Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee). Each are irritating on their own way, so she had problem in committing to one of them. On the contrary, Nola is a bundle of charm, who lights up the screen just through the smile. She could be one of the black women who effortlessly brings joy on screen.

It’s good to notice Spike Lee’s vision right from the first. He makes movies which talks about the rights of people and makes it properly. As a film, it didn’t work much but the thought process was lovely. That clarity of thought is what distinguishes him from other filmmakers who make similar films. Even if it is propogandist, it isn’t shoved to the throat. You don’t have believe in his psychology to like his movies. Recently ‘BlacKkKlansman’ was such a gem that it’s impossible to hate. Not only for the content but for the making as well.

Next to Tracy, Spike Lee is excellent as Mars, he’s funny as well. He easily could have passed as a standalone protagonist in any other movie. But again, shows Spike Lee’s maturity in making use of a character in a strong movie. Even though I’m all game for independent films, for some reason I feel distant with independent films. I don’t feel the closeness the feature films attribute to. May be because its not made to please anyone, and that includes me too.

Movie Review – Putham Pudhu Kaalai

What starts like a loveable lockdown romance ends up being a numbing corona tale

The theme is lockdown and there are five films about it, the number of mentions of lockdown and corona would be a nice exercise to do while watching the short films because almost every film has a mention of it, a number of times. As if we haven’t heard the news and read the newspapers enough, the terms are annoying to the core. And given the limitations, all filmmakers try really hard to do something worthwhile where some end up successful and some end up desperate but everyone end up doing literal tales with very little cinematic value.

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Let’s look at each of the films, one by one.

Ilamai Idho Idho

The first film is generally a make or break film when it comes to an anthology. So, it has to be carefully selected so that it sets the mood right plus the other films has to be better than the first one, otherwise audience will easily lose interest. ‘Ilamai Idho Idho’ works for its curiosity and terrific cast. Even though Kalidas and Kalyani are cute as a young couple, it’s the seasoned campaigners Jayaram and Urvashi who steal the show. At first when they transformed to young self, I was disappointed because it felt like an insult to old age, to employ young people to act them out but the mix and match of cast worked well as a whole.

Coming from a lady director, the eye for details is amazing, the spoon in the bowl and wet towel on bed are like every household’s melodrama, which one a woman can note. May be for an upper middle-class person with maids to support for every need, this might look cute. But for an average individual, they’d know how annoying these things can get. After the drama, the film ends on a happy note too. Well begun is half done.

Avarum Naanum – Avalum Naanum

The titles, voice over, a delayed heroine entry, English speaking people. You know you’re in for a GVM retreat. Thankfully its not a love story but a story between a grandad and his granddaughter which is done in the same romantic way as how Jessie meets Karthik. Needless to say, M. S. Bhaskar is excellent, for a change, as an educated urban scientist and Ritu Varma as an IT employee, who from a recent hangover of ‘Oru Manam’ looks all the more fabulous as a GVM heroine.

Of all the shorts, this one feels the least desperate, even though there are a lot of mentions of mask and corona. There is an overtly dramatic scene between them both, where the subject is excellent but dialogues were written very poorly, a trademark GVM mistake. Thanks to the cast, they make the scene work. I loved the idea of how a man feels for her daughter’s loss of passion, it’s a great subject which GVM has touched upon but it doesn’t carry on with the same flow. Like any other GVM film, more than the film, we end up loving the heroine and her costumes.

Coffee, Anyone?

The film’s downfall starts from here. A tale of sisters, something which should have had a Jane Austen flair, falls flat because of over enthusiasm of real-life sisters, Anu Hassan and Suhasini Maniratnam, through acting and directing, respectively. Obviously Suhasini has directed because whoever came up with the idea, discussed with their peers and decided to do a lockdown film, it’s not that they hunted for talents. So, this is a pretty bleak subject. An ailing mother whom we first think has corona but thankfully not, her three daughters, one of whom had born late and a father who takes care of wife.

The film is about hope but its as hopeless as it could get, the subject is like how a teenager would write short story, there is absolutely no surprise. There is no logic but only magic but the magic doesn’t work because its like seeing the age-old act for the umpteenth time. If the GVM movie was literal in narrative, this film is literal right from the title. The climax with the granny holding a cup of filter kaapi lokes like a more irritating version of Ashwagandha, Athi Madhuram mixed 3 roses tea ad.

Reunion

Seriously, what was even tried here. It has Andrea who’s hot as hell and wears great gym wears at home and even sings an awesome English song but that’s that. Of all, this looked like the most pointless film. Like a film of an old man who so wanted to prove that he is young. It was a reunion of sorts where a singer meets doctor who has crush on her. There are drugs, biryani and adidas thrown in. Poor Gurucharan C, apart from singing that Ooh la la la song, there isn’t one scene he looked comfortable. Especially going near Andrea, he had a constant fear like a high school student trying to talk to a pretty girl. The climax where he says that the poem is for her, is a point which the audience would have decoded even before the script was written.

Miracle

This would have been a film which most people had eagerly waited for. The film starts with trademark Karthik Subbaraj shots, music and pun. Wonder how Bobby Simha acts so well when it comes to his movies. He was effortlessly funny in this film too but the show stealer would definitely be his friend, Sharath Ravi, who was terrific with his comedy timing. But that’s that. It’s not a film by filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj but only by a short filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj. The film would qualify as one of the films made by contestants but not by a maestro. He’d have easily made this film during his Nalaya Iyakunar days, who knows maybe it’s one of the films he had in mind during those days but couldn’t make. So, he had made it this time with better production value. Except for the scene where the tyre rolls with “Oru kili uruguthu” background, there wasn’t anything funny. But it’s a troupe which has been beaten to death by now, so it fails even in that aspect.

So, my rating of the short film would be almost of the same order it appears on screen.

Reunion < Coffee, Anyone? < Miracle < Avarum Naanum – Avalum Naanum < Ilamai Idho Idho

Movie Review – Time to Hunt

Time to snooze

After watching a couple of great Korean films, ‘Time to Hunt’ was a disaster. Beginning with a plan for heist, I thought that’s what the film was all about but the heist happens only for five minutes. Post that its just a one vs three hunt on road. The heist was too easy to happy and the hunt was too boring to see. Together it ended up being a snooze fest, only to be got up by the noise, or may I say, music, of bullets, because that’s the only thing which chimed with the rhyme of the film. Otherwise it was a blatant disaster.

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The setting of the film is dystopian, making us wonder why. Maybe they wanted to negate the extra cost needed for the extras and also to not worry about the logic because in a dystopian world no one worries about who kills whom. So, the setting is convenient for them and they blast away in the entire film. I’d have been happy if they had at least stuck to the action genre completely where all guns go blazing but trying to bring in the emotions in between spoils the flavor of the film. Also, the whole gunman episode was too lengthy for the liking.

The film starts with two friends welcoming a third one from prison, who supposedly had been behind the bars due to a jewelry job gone wrong. Upon his releases, he realizes that the already dystopian world had got dystoped further in those three years. I’m not sure whether to laugh for the ignorance or get irritated by it. Anyways they lose their cycle shop, currency and what not. So, with the help of “friends” from jail, they try to make another robbery, this time from a gambling zone. Booyah!

Swiftly they collect some guns and do the robbery, which was one of the worst I’ve seen on screen. Because there is nothing thrilling in it. The actual story of the movie is how an assassin hunts these three amateurs (fuckin’ amateurs as one of the guards at gambling house call them). In reality, these three don’t have a chance. Wish the assassin, Han (Park Hae-soo) had killed them in their very first meet. At least the feature film would have been a short film and worked at least for the shock value. But he gives them a Rajnish reprise so that he can hunt them slowly and enjoy the exercise. Maybe it was enjoyable for him but definitely not for us.

The director cleverly uses the climatic conditions so that he can keep a check on production values. Almost everything is hazy, thanks to the weather, so we don’t how much dystopian the world is. On top of it, Jun-seok (Lee Je-hoon) keeps telling about how he’d enjoy the sun shine in Taiwan, which is more irritating. I thought I’d at least get to see some good locales in some time but that doesn’t happen too.

Every situation in the movie is too convenient to occur. His release from the jail, the heist, their shop, the hospital with staffs when the three friends enter and hospital with no staffs when the assassin enters, a room to relax in an abandoned flat, no worry about food, fuel or shelter or even ammo. Just when Jun was about to die, the other gang enters, deus ex machina with a huge caps lock. The smile in the face of the assassin should have either been satisfying if we had rooted him or at least disappointing if we had rooted for Jun but it only annoys because it’s a film we wish gets over by some means.

Worse of all is the climax, Han is supposedly not dead even after repeated wounds because he’s a man who’d not die before his job gets done. So, what does Jun do, he practices with the guns and plastic bottles in a private beach, dreams about his friends and takes a trip back to his place to avenge his friend’s death. Seriously, part two for this shit?

Movie Review – Eeda

Of love and morbidity

‘Eeda’ takes an ambitious route for a love story. Only after reading the wiki link, I got to know that it’s a modern take on Romeo and Juliet. Even otherwise, the story is very familiar where people become pawns for others political motives. But the good thing about the movie is how practical it was. Also, the flow of the movie felt really similar to ‘Annayum Rasoolum’ with same amout of love and morbidity. May be thanks to the crescendo in the end, I wasn’t as bored as ‘Annayum Rasoolum’ while watching ‘Eeda’, still the new gen slow movies don’t work as much as the old Malayalam slow movies like a ‘Yavanika’ or a ‘Mathilukal’.

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Even though I say that it didn’t work I couldn’t dismiss the film as something I didn’t like completely. It was average at its best. I’ve always been a fan of Shane Nigam. But here I liked Nimisha Sajayan’s acting very much. She reminded me of the Teju Belwadi from ‘Gantumoote’. Even the film had a pace similar to ‘Gantumoote’ but ‘Gantumoote’ was epic ness overloaded. Here more than half the film didn’t feel like it had any motive. May be that’s the way of showing practicality in cinema according to its director B. Ajith Kumar. But it didn’t work. A film this practical need not be seen.

The film opens with a bandh around the region they both reside. By chance encounter they both meet initially. Anand (Shane Nigam) drops Aishwarya (Nimisha Sajayan) to her place during the bandh. Accidentally he encounters left wing protesters from whom he had to escape in order to drop Aishwarya to her aunts’ place. They accidentally meet another time and in their Bangalore stint, fall in love with each other. But Anand hailing from right wing party’s family and Aishwarya from left wing party’s family, face a lot of uncertainty for the future.

The film is on and off till then, the practicality works at certain point and doesn’t at certain point. The whole exercise was not something which we could watch with eagerness but I’d not go as far as to say that its slow. The film gathers momentum once the revenge drama starts, the parts where Anand gets framed were thrilling enough but, in the end, it was all generic and lacked passion. The only good thing was the ending where the couple walk out with devil may care attitude, with the same news repeating in the background like scene one.

Positives of the film is that it takes a center stand where it doesn’t support any party. Also, the adventures were not animated. The love, break up and even violence was as practical as it could get. The tension was palpable but not really something which blows the lid, it was like how people like us would feel in the house. The expressions too were minimal, that’s where Nimisha scored. She’s not the ideal idea of a heroine but she does a really good job in the film. Some of the scenes in the second half had zero makeup I believe. Her rift with family in the second half of the film was the best part of the entire movie. Even though a supposedly strong movie, somehow, it’s another movie I couldn’t connect, like ‘Annayum Rasoolum’, so it didn’t leave a lasting impression on me.

Movie Review – Raat Akeli Hai

A solid slow burn

‘Raat Akeli Hai’ is pure joy. Anything which has Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte gives cinematic seriousness to the film. Because they’re the actors who mean business. And them together would mean multi million business. Not money wise but emotion wise. Even a normal script gets elevated due to their screen presence. When something like ‘Raat Akeli Hai’ comes up, it reaches new heights. A tremendous script which looks like it’s made for Netflix, thanks to the subject, which is an icing on cake for OTT genre. Similar to ‘Bulbbul’, ‘Raat Akeli Hai’ too is an achievement in its specific genre.

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The movie strikes right from scene one where an accident and a murder happens. The setting of it is beautiful. Like how movies like ‘Tumbad’ and ‘Lootera’ evoke instant respect, ‘Raat Akeli Hai’ too does the same. The setting of the killing and the disposition of the body followed by the injury is so beautifully made that it makes us sit up erect and look forward to the what’s going to happen. The movie then goes to present mode where we see a grandma, Sarita Kumari (Ila Arun) searching bride for Inspector Jatil Yadav (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), who gets rejected for being dark. But she thinks that with Ray Ban and police attire, he looks no lesser than Ajay Devgan. To match up the looks he makes sure to use Fair and Lovely. Anyways Nawazuddin looks uber smart in the police uniform and jacket.

Even though the first scene looks barely necessary and feels like a scene which was introduced to break the ice, look how beautifully it evolves. First, she searches bride for her son, who gets rejected, then he in turn rejects the girl for dressing shabbily, post that, her mother takes the feminist angle and tells his son that girls are not like that anymore. The whole angle shifts from an irritating grandmother to an new gen grandmother. Plus, in most of the posters, Radhika Apte would have been in bridal wear, making us feel that he’d get to her in the immediate scene. The director teases us for her intro.  And the intro happens with her in bridal makeup. In fact, marks of her bridal make up remains almost till the end, so it’s like a cue that they both will eventually get together.

Only Radhika Apte can look so effortlessly sexy. Be it bridal wear, old salwar or a bad saree, she’s effortlessly sexy. I guess I put up this line in every review of mine for the movies in which she had acted. Even though she doesn’t have a full-fledged role, she exhibits charm in every scene of hers. In the last scene just for a split second she laughs while turning back, that she does so very well. Those minute details are what makes her a great actor.

Initially when I started the movie, I thought the length would be a hindrance because the new gen movies are not more than two hours nowadays. If its beyond it, either they’re boring or something which needs that much time to evolve. I was of the opinion that being a thriller, may be the director would have self-indulged more than necessary but I was wrong. The director knew what he was doing. He wanted to make a movie which keeps us at the edge of the seat but not through gimmicks. He wanted to make a proper mood piece, which he achieves. The film works cinematically as well as through story too.

For most of the thrillers, it’s the twist which matters, once you know it, there is nothing to see in the film but ‘Raat Akeli Hai’ would work even if you know the twist because the way it unwraps itself layer by layer is beautiful. Plus, it’s a relief to see a brave policeman who doesn’t face a family threat or a life threat. I’d have been pissed if anything had happened to Jatil’s grandma. In fact, I was irritated when poor Chunni (Riya Shukla) dies. Also, it was immediately evident as to who would have killed her. But in the film, it takes its sweet own time to reveal. Killing Chunni was an obvious thing to do, wish they could have avoided that needless twist. That one and the chase sequence to kill Jatil were the only needless scenes in an otherwise flawless movie.