Cinema Paradiso- All about Cinema: January 2015

Saturday, January 31, 2015

#Rahasya #HindiBollywoodFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas #Rating: * * 1/2

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#Picks&Piques/SnippetFilmReview30thJan2015/#JohnsonThomas

#Hawaizaada(Hindi) Rating: * * Farcical ‘flight’ of fancy, a historical period(1800’s) drama/fantasy in retro-fitted plumes, with overdone, frivolous and inappropriate ‘Barfi’ like songs, soundtrack and ‘Chaplinesque’ treatment and a runtime that stretches far beyond the bearable. Cluttered Production Design and weird styling gives the impression that the film is peddling an antique store filled with items of indiscriminate periodicity. There’s also little evidence of any science behind this ‘flight’ to nowhere! #AyushmanKhurana #PallaviSharda #MithunChakravarthy #RelianceEntertainment #TrilogicDigitalMediaLtd #FilmFarmers #VibhuVirendraPuri #VishalGurmani #SpicePR

#Rahasya(Hindi) Rating: * * ½ A murder mystery/crime thriller fashioned around the Arushi murder case-but transported to a Mumbai setting. It’s a whodunit that wanders way beyond the plausible. Far too many red-herrings and all-too convenient assumptions, act as spoilers. With zero tension there’s not much of an experience to be had here. And the stereotypical behavior exhibited by the cops and CBI investigator puts paid to any expectations of realism per se! Really, there’s no secret worth unraveling here. #Viacom18MotionPictures #UVIFilmProductions #AshishVidyarthi #TiscaChopra #ManishGupta #KayKayMenon #AshwiniKalsekar #RaindropPR #MonicaVimalMaluka

#ChalGuruHoJaaShuru(Hindi) Rating: * It’s about Godmen running amok and then getting a taste of their own medicine. Absolutely inane and unbearable. There’s really no chance that you will get a rise out of this one. #HimanshuPR #DwaparPR #ManojSharma #HemantPandey #TikkuTalsania #BrijendraKala #ManishTewari #VrajeshHirjee

#Khamoshiyan(Hindi) Rating: * * A manipulative seductress aiming to capture the soul of men, the story appears to be something that came out of those shabby sex novellas and the treatment is equally ritualistic and voyeuristic. A concerted advertorial campaign can do little to raise this unexciting attempt to arouse mass carnality- to the level of intellectual satisfaction or worth #VikramBhatt #MukeshBhatt #MahashBhatt #GurmeetChoudhary #AliFazal #VisheshFilms #FoxStarStudios #KaranDarra #SapnaPabbi #MukeshBhatt #FoxStarStudios

#SeventhSon(English/3D) Rating: * * ½ Splendorous action can only make this passé fare just a little likeable. The 3D effects and depth make the CGI animatronics exciting enough but the mythical legend bit has been done to death so many times over that it just doesn’t raise any new excitement ! #MoesArt #UniversalPictures #JascintoFernandes #JeffBridges #JulianneMoor,#BenBarnes #AliciaVikander #OliviaWilliams #KitHarington #SergeiBodrov

#Birdman(English) Rating: * * *1/2 Silly , Manic, incredulously credible take on self-absorption and ego-trips of actors on stage. It’s ironic, satirical and completely weird-much like actors are perceived to be. And that’s the beauty of it! #AlejandroGonzalezInarrittu #ParagDesai #FoxStar #UniversalCommunications #MichaelKeaton #EmmaStone #EdwardNorton #NaomiWatts, #LindsayDuncan #AndreaRiseborough #AmyRyan #ZachGalifianakis

#Foxcatcher(English) Rating: * * * * A chillingly told docudrama about John du Pont, the schizophrenic millionaire who infamously shot and killed his friend and Olympic Gold Medal wrestler Dave Schultz. Moneyball's Benett Miller does the helming in a steady slow to chill mode. Once the dramatics erupts it achieves shocking effects! Amazing performances from Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo and Steve Carell

#ChanningTatum #SteveCarell #MarkRuffalo #BenettMiller #SiennaMiller #SonyPictureClassics #HardlyAnonymous

Hindi Film review

Johnson Thomas

Not much of a Secret!

Film: Rahasya

Cast: Ashish Vidyarthi, Kay Kay Menon, Tisca Chopra, Ashwini Kalsekar

Director: Manish Gupta

Rating: * * ½

Manish (Stoneman Murders) Gupta, once RGV’s closest collaborator, now independent director, fashions yet another of those quasi crime thrillers that he has cottoned on to since his erstwhile RGV days. ‘Rahasya’ liberally borrows from the true life murder mystery of ‘Arushi Talwar’ whose parents were perceived guilty in the media trial that followed while intransigencies in the evidence gathering by the Police and CBI came in for a lot of flak.

Forseeing legal hassles the setting has been changed but by and large the case and the end result remains the same. It’s a whodunit but without the smarts of an Agatha Christie mystery crime thriller. Since the story is familiar there cannot be much of a mystery either. The Writer-Director Manish Gupta transports the crime to a Mumbai suburb replete with relationship troubles, stereotypical Police excesses and the usual formulaic lure – but minus the song and dance, thankfully.

The film opens with the maid Freny Fernandes(Ashwini Kalsekar) going about her chores in the early hours of the morning and cutting to Dr. Aarti Mahajan(Tisca Chopra) returning from Pune in a call cab while her husband Dr Sachin Mahajan(Ashish Vidyarthi) wakes up to the shocking news that his teenage daughter Ayesha Mahajan( Sakshi Sem)has been murdered in the room next door while he was asleep. The Police are called in and the crime scene is being locked-in when the mother Aarti arrives. What follows thereafter is a wild goose’s chase trying to establish everyone connected as the murderer and finally arriving at a conclusion that just doesn’t appear plausible to the telling.

The interrogation and investigation sequences are typical of Bollywood , showing the cops behaving roguishly and exercising excessive methods to garner confessions of complicity. The lack of frills is welcoming though. Even Manish Gupta’s spare takes allow for some straight-forward connect. Unfortunately it’s the characterizations that comes across as false. And the fact that the secret is out in the first frame itself- makes the experience less than thrilling. The Director strives hard for realism but cannot seem to shed the trappings of his own previous experiences with Bollywoodian stereotypes. This is a sincere effort no doubt but not one that provides either thrills or mystery. The involvement of a CBI officer Sunil Paraskar (Kay Kay Menon) who has his own relationship issues to contend with, does add some complexity but the manner in which he arrives at the many conclusions leading to the capturing of the true killer , leaves you in doubt about the entire run of play. The spare treatment is welcome but the lack of intensity and tension are galling. Not much grip in this ‘attempted’ murder thriller!

johnsont307@gmail.com

#Hawaizaada #HindiBollywoodFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas Rating: * *

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#ChanningTatum #SteveCarell #MarkRuffalo #BenettMiller #SiennaMiller #SonyPictureClassics #HardlyAnonymous

Hindi Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Height of Fancy!

Film: Hawaizaada

Cast: Ayushman Khurana, Pallavi Sharda, Mithun Chakravarthy, Jayant Kripalani, Natasha Sinha, Naman Jain

Director: Vibhu Virendra Puri

Rating: * *

Shivkar Talpade( Ayushman Khurana)’s exploits as the first human to fly an unmanned aircraft decades before the Wright brothers may have some veracity but the way this film, which in-a-way is a sort of a biopic, plays out, there’s absolutely no way any thinking individual would believe in that impossibility. In fact one even wonders why Shivkar Talpade is being credited with the flight when all the work and the meticulous drawings as shown in the film , are done by Shastriji(Mithun Chakravarthy) a mad scientist who purportedly used the Vedas and Puranas to support his belief in the ability of human beings to exploit the skies with ‘flight.’

Throughout the film Shivkar Bapuji Talpade a.k.a Shivvy is portrayed as a dim-witted individual given to childish mannerisms and immature antics. He is even said to have failed the 4^th standard 8 times(And this is supposedly in early 1800’s). So by the time he exhibits his mechanic-like abilities with a rare aero-dynamism it’s already too late and unconvincing. The guy prances about in designer wear, crinkling his nose and flashing his droopy eyes while singing songs every odd minute and falling instantly in love with the beauteous whore Sitara Devi(Pallavi Sharda)– and we are expected to take him seriously!

Director Vibhu Virender Puri (also credited with the screenplay & dialogues) clearly doesn’t have any objective in mind other than creating a mishmash of formulaic elements with a rarified flourish and exuberance they don’t necessarily deserve. The production design, sets (Subrato Chakraborty, Amit Ray),styling, costumes are so obviously mismatched that they look like they came out of an indiscriminate selection from a bountiful antique store. Cinematographer Savita Singh goes glossy in her efforts to give us a beautiful blue tinged picture but there rarely is any connect with that uncommon imagery. In fact everything looks so much fake and farcical that at no point do we get to believing in this amateurish take on what could have well translated into a momentous historical that could have validated that far-reaching invention.

The story could well have been better handled with a much more solid script and due reverential treatment- instead we have a wishy-washy romance with glossy overtures and reprobate posturing before the final take-off. The ‘Barfi’ like treatment given to the narrative trivializes the effort further. Ayushman Khurana’s exaggerated Chaplinesque effort also appears terribly inappropriate. He is likeable enough though and does well to croon a ghazal with effective pathos. Pallavi Sharda , the ‘Besharam’ heroine looks pretty but out-of-place.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be much ground for this unsubstantiated claim( at least not in this movie). The story about two Indians who made the first flight, is now likely to go down as a big joke. Even the extended runtime doesn’t allow for any attachment. Such is the returns from this trivialising pursuit!

johnsont307@gmail.com