#GoodNewwz #BollywoodHindiFilmMovieReview #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas

Bollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Film: Good Newwz



Cast:Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Diljit Dosanjh, Kiara Advani, Anjana Sukhani, Tisca Chopra, adil Hussain Yukta Mookhey, Auritra Ghosh, Gulshan Grover

Director: Raj Mehta

Rating: * * 1/2

Runtime: 132 mins



After the debacle that was ‘Kalank,’ Karan Johar’s Dharma productions attempt a comedy hoping to stave the blues cause by lowly Box-office collections of the former. ‘Good Newwz’ is not all good news though. Like it is obvious from the trailer, the film is about an unforgivable error that has caught two different couples in its cross-hairs. Film journalist Deepti and Varun Batra ( Kareena and Akshay Kumar) from Mumbai, are undergoing IVF implants in order have a baby.But the Joshi’s, Doctors both (Adil Hussain and Tisca Chopra) explain to them that there’s been a mix-up in the implants. Honey and Monika Batra( Diljit and Kiara) are the loud mouth, brash, stereotypical punjabi couple from Chandigarh who have received Deepti & Varun’s implant instead. So how to sort out this mess-hap begs the question?



Looks like Karan got the genesis for this idea from his own experiences with IVF and surrogacy. So most of the technicalities are presented in detailed fashion. A lot of it feels like an informatial where the ABC of IVF is explained. Varun and Deepti’s programmed attempts to get pregnant is at least humorous in bits and pieces. Otherwise, its all too loud and unappealing. Raj Mehta, the director fails to make this an endearing or memorable comedy. The over-the-top performances( largely buffoonery) make the film seem closer to slapstick, meant-for-TV comedy rather than cinema.



The sequence at the IVF centre where the harried couples react to the unwelcome discovery is smart but beyond that there’s little in terms of intelligence here. The contrast between couples sets up for a dramatic confrontation but the treatment and the acting is such that it all seems like a big bad joke. The central idea is contrived and the sequences developed to present it are rather unconvincing. The sense of unreality is pretty much galling here. Akshay Kumar gives the impression that he has become much more comfortable in his comedy actor skin. While Akshay performs more fluidly in such sitcoms, Kareena is the only one who does well to stay within the bounds of her character. She underplays her part while the others overdo theirs. While the resultant may not be becoming for want of balance, her consanguinity and sense of character is unquestionable. Diljit and Kiara make the bad look worse with their over-the-top rambunctiousness. Like Deepti says in one of the sequences here, 'Kya Jokergiri hai yeh?'

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#Dabangg3 #BollywoodHindiFilmMovieReview #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas Rating: * *

Bollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Film: Dabangg 3



Cast: Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Nikhil Dwivedi, Saiee Manjrekar, Sonakshi Sinha,Khichcha Sudeep, Nikitin Dheer, Mahie Gill Tinnu Anand, Amole Gupte, Pankaj Tripathi, Nawab Shah, Sarfaraz Khan Director: Prabhu Devaa

Rating: * *

Runtime: 165 mins



Salman Khan’s Christmas release has all the markings of a Salman Khan extravaganza.This 3rd issue in the Dabangg series hopes to cash in on the previous two outings by presenting a familiar arch within the parameters of a past life. The narrative does not regress into ‘Punar janam’ mysticism but instead looks back on Chubul Pandey’s youthful foibles. His past love comes into the picture in a first half flashback…Pandey hasn’t yet earned his uniform and his then love , the naive Khushi (Saiee) becomes a victim of child trafficking …The trafficker is played by none other than Khichcha Sudeep aka Balli whose nefarious intentions destroy the two sweethearts young love and sets Chulbul on a redemptive path - now with uniform and married to a new sweetheart Rajjo (Sonakshi), and all set-up for a second half revenge story.



His vela brother Makkhi(Arbaaz), his mother(Dimple Kapadia) and his father ( now played by Pramod Khanna, Vinod Khanna’s lookalike brother) are the familiar characters in this rather unnecessary franchise instalment. Neither the action, the perennial swag, or the by now stale, repetitive style quotient allows for any meaningful attachment. The opening action sequence is rather drawn out and stretched thin. The rest of the action choreography is frenzied enough to give you a heavy head. The dialogues are distasteful, the songs are numerous but most of them are forgettable - Only a couple of them, Munna badnaam hua and the title track have the ability to get you grooving.



The bar is set so low here that the narrative looks like a meteor shower took out the very semblance of established movie mechanics here. Based on a story and screenplay also credited to Salman Khan himself alongside Prabhu Devaa, Aloke Upadhya with dialogues by Dilip Shukla and Aloke Upadhyay, Dabangg 3 makes other substandard Salman Khan films look really good in retrospect. Everything feels so flimsy and facile here that there’s no impact that’s worth remembering. Even the digging up of a surly past does little to lend character to Chulbul Pandey who continues to appear vaccuous and inconsistent as always. The crass humour is belittling, the representation of docile, naive, love interest is belittling even though Chulbul’s tackling of the issue of girl trafficking is meant to be the cause celebre here.The rather long and irredeemable runtime takes the mickey out of any enjoyment to be had here.



The narrative is slap-dash rather than coherence inducing and Salman’s action stunts look too fake to curry any favor even with fans. There’s also a major issue in having a fictional cop indulge in brutality at a time when Cop brutality in real-life has become a major problem in a multi-cultural democracy like India. Salman has become as slow as Sanjay Dutt is today and it will be a relief to see him play his age from here on. There’s certainly no room for another Chulbul Pandey outing unless its a reboot with a younger more agile and invested actor.



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#Panipat #BollywoodHindiFilmMovieReview #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas Rating: * * *

Bollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

A soft-focussed Historical



Film: Panipat

Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Kriti Sanon, Suhasini Mulay, Mohnish Bahl,Padmini Kolhapure, Zeenat Aman, Sahil Salathia, Abhishek Nigam, Ravindra Mahajani, Gashmeer Mahajani, Nawab Shah, Mantra, Vineeta Mahesh, Krutika Deo, Shyam Mashalkar, Dishyant Wagh

Director: Ashutosh Gowariker

Rating: * * *

Runtime: 173 mins





According to Bollywood grown historians ( and we've seen it in almost every mainstream hostorical presented on the big screen in recent times ) every battle brought to screen is about unifying India and propogating the pop-patriotic sentiment - even if it be something that took place way before India ( as we know it today) was designated a country (1947). Panipat, the film, is Ashutosh Gowarker's unique way of adding more fuel to that ideal. Otherwise why else would he be glorifying a battle that the Marathas lost way back in 1761 and to add insult to injury, in modern times, is referenced in Management circles as ‘’Panipat Syndrome‘’ a lexicon that incdicates lack of decisive action, preparedness and strategic thinking by Indian leaders - based on the defeat of the Marathas by the Afghans at the Third battle of Panipat.



So this film is basically about romanticising a foolhardy tragedy. For those who want to remain brainless, this film is a panacea of sorts because Gowarikar does his best to present his Bollywoodised version of this page out of the history textbooks, with far more energising sentiment and valoriousness than it deserves. And we should not forget the fact that most of these battles in Ancient India were fought for individual territory and to prevent foreign marauders from exploiting the subcontinent's natural resources - not for unifying India nor were they connected to the freedom struggle. Such individual incidents may have had a cascading effect that might have gathered steam over time to culminate into the freedom movement, though.



Panaprastha, now known as Panipat(currently located in Haryana) was historic even before the Third Battle of Panipat was fought on 14 January 1761 between the Maratha Empire and the Afghan and Baloch invaders. The city , currently famous as "City of Weavers" and a global centre for recycling textiles, has had a tumultous past over centuries. In 1526 the Turko-Mongol warlord Babur defeated Ibrahim Lodhi, the Afghan Sultan of Delhi, at the first battle of Panipat to begin the establishment of Mughal rule in the .Northern Indian subcontinent. The Second Battle of Panipat was fought in 1556 where Emperor Akbar defeated Hem Chandra Vikramaditya, King of Delhi.



Gowariker's Panipat, based on the third battle, is no 300 and neither does it come close to being a 'Braveheart' - which it could have all -too-easily emulated. The original histirical account states that The Maratha Empire led by Sadashivrao Bhau Peshwa (essayed by Arjun Kapoor in this film) with Dattaji shinde's help and the Afghans led by Ahmadshah Abdali ( played by Sanjay Dutt) supported by Najib-ud-Daula(Mantra) and Shuja-ud-Daula (Kunal Kapoor) fought for territory with the 110,000 heavily armed Afghan soldiers emerging victorious against 75000 marathas and 100,000 hapless pilgrims. The casualties on both sides were so heavy ( around 100000 soldiers perished in battle) that The Afghans, as a strategy to recoup and regroup, chose to retreat to Afghanistan rather than face a constant thorn in the flesh in the form of a hostile northern India.



The script by Chandrashekhar Dhavalikar, Ranjeet Bahadur, Aditya Rawal and Ashutosh Gowariker with conveniently contrived and unrealistic dialogues by Ashok Chakradhar envisages a greater role for the women of those times - be it Padmini Kolhapure's Gopika Bai, Zeenat Aman's Sakina Begum or Kriti Sanon's Savitri bai. In fact Sanon's Savitribai gets to utter the most ringing dialogues and become much more central to the plotting. She is the sutradhar and her Savitri bai ( with agile shifts into Marathi lingo) resonates in the collective mind much more than Arjun Kapoor's Sadashivrao. That's as much to do with the all-too-convenient writing as it has to do with Sanon's charming screen presence and fairly ingratiating performance. Ajun Kapoor's Sadashivrao is imbued with a strong personality but his inability to imbibe the marathi spirit and make it stick, makes the character look pompous and the performance, unrefined. Sanjay Dutt'sAhmad Shah Abdali is so weighed down by finery and regalia that he fails to rise to the occasion and raise the pitch, even in battle. The song and dance, even though vicerally and aurally entertaining, do a disservice to the integrity of such a monumental effort. The background score by Ajay-Atul is not distinctive enough to lend authenticity or be memorable either.



The most significant and interesting aspect of this film are its costumes, battle formations, fight sequences, camerawork, sound and production design. C. K. Muraleedharan's camerawork gives us a birds-eye view that is enormously majestic and awe inspiring.Steven Bernard's editing aims to limit the tedium of a never-ending serenade of thrusts and parrys but a 173 mins runtime filled with routine machinations is definitely not magnum opus material. While Gowariker's film, no doubt a monumental effort, is successful in maintaining Maratha pride, it fails to present the historic event with an entirely objective, gritty, realistic and unbiased lens.



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#YehSaaliAashiqui #BollywoodFilmMovieReview #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas Rating: * * *

Bollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Impressively Twisty & Thrilling Debut Vehicle







Film: Yeh Saali Aashiqui

Cast: Vardhan Puri, Shivaleeka Oberoi, Ruslaan Mumtaz

Director: Cherag Ruparel

Rating: * * *

Runtime: 138 mins

A family production, this Amrish Puri films’ effort for the grandson (Vardhan Puri, who has been gifted the lead here) of the famed International actor, is an awe-striking surprise. Forget the nepotism involved and the trite-romance indicating title, this film will make you rethink on all those damaging stereotypes heaped on the small-budget mainstream film.

The narrative starts off rather hesitantly with well-off orphan Sahil Oberoi (Vardhan) striking up an amour with fellow classmate Mitee Deora(Shivaleeka Oberoi), at a Hotel Management Institute. They claim to be in love but then Mitee is caught red-handed in compromising situations and Sahil is left reeling. Won’t go further into this intriguing story because that would be telling too much but needless to say Director Cherag Ruparel has fashioned a thriller that twists and turns and twists again and again before playing out the final reveal. The plotting could have been sharper in the first half but one can’t quibble about that when the eventual resultant is a shocker. Ruparel engages us with a play on light and colors, suggesting darkness in a seemingly unthreatening realm of romance.

The actors grow in confidence as the story takes form and the helming gets more and more assured as the theme of romance expands into vengeance and counter-response. The influences and references ( Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and many others) are obvious but that doesn’t take anything away from the overall enjoyment. Despite the negative shades apparent in the two lead characters you get totally hooked and want to know what’s going to happen next. And it’s largely to the credit of the actors, the director, smart scripting and dialogues, thumping background score and some energy giving songs, that this film grows on you strongly enough to leave you impressed. Havaa Banke, Sanki and Bewaqoofi are songs that impress, resonate with emotions that lift-up the narrative as the telling solidifies into something substantial - even though far-fetched. Vardhan and Shivaleeka pull off amazing debut performances here and make this film far more intriguing and engaging than it might have hoped to be.

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#Commando3 #BollywoodFilmMovieReview #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas Rating: * *

Bollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Not even steam left in this disappointing franchise instalment







Film: Commando 3

Cast: Vidyut Jamval, Adah Sharma, Angira Dhar, Gulshan Devaiah, Feryna Wazeir, Rajesh Tailang, Vicky Kadian, Abhilash Chaudhary, Sumeet Thakur, Mark Bennington, Atharva Vishwakarma

Director: Aditya Datt

Rating: * *

Runtime: 133 mins

Vipul Amrutlal Shah, Reliance Entertainment and Motion Picture Capital’s attempt to resurrect the success of Commando with this new franchise instalment, is rather uninspired and tame. Even with lead player Vidyut Jamwal’s phenomenal athleticism on show, this film fails to lift off –leave alone fly. The narrative has ace intelligence officer Karanveer Singh Dogra (Vidyut Jamwal) put to right some sexist, school-girl molesting akhada wrestlers before being called out to London to chase a mysterious terrorist head honcho (Gulshan Devaiah in studied scene stealing form) who has designs on Indian lives during the densely peopled Dussehra/Navratri festivities. Karan is first tasked with unveiling the face behind the cover-up and then has to prevent the multiple attacks from happening with help and support from a fellow agent Bhavna (Adah Sharma sporting a dumb look and an unbecoming hyderabadi accent) and British Intelligence Officers Mallika and Armaan( represented by Angira Dhar and Sumeet Thakur).

The script tries to incorporate too many elements of terrorism and misleading indoctrination, has a silly unviable romantic track and makes the entire run of action, chases and fights seem laboured and unwieldy. Some scenes are terrifyingly brutal but the inconsistency in the telling loosens their impact. The jingoistic nationalism on display here doesn't lift-up the dull, lifeless narrative either. This immediate sequel to Commando 2: The Black Money Trail, is rather insipid. Shot largely in England, the film has some well executed stunts but the tempo and pacing required for an adrenaline rush is sorely missing. The dialogues sound silly and performances are also quite inadequate, made more so by intimate close-ups of vacuous expressions.And Vidyut's penchant to adjust his head-bun before every fight looks ridiculous. A faster, sharper edit and a subtle, more elevating background score might have saved this film from being the dead bore that it is!

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#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #HollywoodFilmMovieReview #HotelMumbai #English #Hindi

Hollywood Film Review

Johnson Thomas

A searing, quasi-fictional, testament of triumph over catastrophe









Film: Hotel Mumbai

Cast: Dev Patel, Nazanin Boniadi, Armie Hammer, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Anupam Kher, Amandeep Singh, Jason Isaacs, Suhail Nayyar, Vipin Sharma, Alex Pinder, Natasha Bordizzo, Yash Trivedi Director: Anthony Maras

Writer: John Collee, Anthony Maras

Rating: * * * ½

Runtime: 125 min.

This film is a dramatic recreation of the act of real-life terrorism that struck Mumbai on 26/11, 2008 in the series of pre-planned, co-ordinated attacks in several locations in and around the Indian Financial capital, Mumbai. Director Anthony Maras and co-scriptwriter John Collee locates the major portion of the story in and around the Taj Mahal Palace fictionalising the account of personal tragedies replete with disaster-action movie treatment, in order to provide the bulwark for their gritty and wonderfully shot production. Reportedly, Maras and co-writer John Collee, interviewed survivors and witnesses of the three-day ordeal before sitting down to fashion this fairly reliable and relatable account. It’s one of the most horrifying events of the 21st century, yet, and the ethics and timing behind such a representation may be debatable but there’s no denying the strong resonance this film will have in the subcontinent. The way Maras plays it, the film is bound to bring back traumatic memories of a collective nightmare best forgotten (for the victims).

While Maras’ narrative touches briefly on the Pakistan protected terrorists’ (belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba jihadi group) arrival by boat and subsequent spreading out to different locations in South Mumbai, mercilessly wreaking havoc and carnage in their wake, the intimate rendering of those disturbing events are mostly relegated to the Taj as the camera follows about a dozen characters from different backgrounds who find themselves trapped in various parts of the immense building when the shootings begin. As the militants (Amandeep Singh, Suhail Nayyar, Yash Trivedi, Gaurav Paswala), armed and remorseless, continue their deadly assault on the hotel, a brave chef Hemant Oberoi (Anupam Kher) and a lowly steward Arjun (Dev Patel) decide to risk their own lives to try and protect the frightened guests - an assortment of nationalities including a debauched former Russian Military man Vasili ( Jason Isaacs ) and an inter-racial couple, American Architect David(Armie Hammer) and Middle-eastern Heiress Zahra ( Nazanin Boniadi) with a baby and Nanny, Sally (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) in tow.

Maras’ film plays true regarding the inadequacies of the security forces and the administration who found themselves at a loss when faced with the sheer audacity and scale of the bloody and blistering assault. Maras steers clear of any overt political or social commentary. To score well on his ‘triumph over adversity construct’, he deftly builds up the tempo and tension as the assault culminates in bloody bodies and ruthless, callous destruction (in the totally misguided name of religion). The violence is cold-blooded but Maras cuts away to help make the visuals less gruesome. Even so, it’s a tough watch. The film, inspired by a documentary, “Surviving Mumbai,” relays those terrifying moments from the vantage points of largely composite characters, guests and staff members of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, one of two luxury hotels the terrorists targeted, and where more than 30 died during the siege. Even though the individual stories are largely fictional we get to feel the pain of those terrifying moments that eventually left an entire city feeling violated and traumatised. Production Design is on the mark. The exteriors of the Taj are the real deal but even the interiors ( Studio set & Digitised) look and feel acutely real. Maras’ uniquely calibrated skillset (he even throws in some absurdist humour on the part of terrorists), Nick Remy’s deft, realistic, all-encompassing, desaturated camerawork, smart editing with Peter McNulty’s help and an effectively modulated background score generate an agonising, shocking and ravaging experience. Despite its generic elements, “Hotel Mumbai” makes for a troubling assignation – just as it should!
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#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieReview #KD #Tamil #EnglishSubtitles #KaruppaDurai

Tamil Film ( with English subtitles) Review

Johnson Thomas

Fairly heart-warming dramedy



Film: KD (Karuppu Durai) Cast: Mu Ramaswamy, Nagavishal, Yog Japee, Geneshan Kaliamoorthy, Guna Babu, Pari, Jawaharlal Director: Madhumita Sundararaman

Rating: * * *

Runtime: 120 mins

Madhimita Sundaraman’s Karuppu Durai is a sentiment heavy drama that starts off with a family deliberating on the next course of action regarding their comatose father. While most of the extended family veer towards euthanasia as an option, the youngest, a daughter, vehemently opposes it. KD as it’s shortened title goes, gets to its bucket list concept by having it’s protagonist go through a 3 month long coma before waking up one fine day and finding out that his beleaguered family are more than just ready to euthanize him.

KD( Mu Ramaswamy) wakes up all hale and hearty, stealthily leaves his ungrateful family and embarks on a journey where he befriends an orphan, Kutty(Nagavishal) brought up in a temple, in which he seeks refuge. The narrative then delineates how the two who start off as abrasive to each other, become fast friends to the extent that the young lad begins to feel a filial connection that emboldens him to try and fulfil the old man’s unfulfilled wishes.

For a narrative that begins with visuals of a comatose man possibly in the throes of dying (accompanied by his satire inducing voiceover dialogue) the plotting gets lively and energised as the story moves along. The lead characters gather likeability and affection along the way to a rather contrived yet stirring climactic moment. The scene at the railway station brings back fond memories of the Kamal Hassan –Sridevi starrer Sadma – so even though KD and Kutty’s eventual separation doesn’t evoke ‘Sadma’ like sentiments, it does make us empathise with their plight. This is a fairly heart-warming experience even if not a particularly enlightening one!

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