Bholaa #PicksAndPiques #FilmMovieDocumentaryReview #JohnsonThomas #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit

#PicksAndPiques #FilmMovieDocumentaryReview #JohnsonThomas #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit #AjayDevgn #Tabu #AmalaPaul #VineetKumar #DeepakDobriyal #SanjayMishra #KiranKumar #GajrajRao #PanoramaStudios #ReliancePictures #AjayDevgnFFilms #UniversalCommunications Bollywood Film Review Johnson Thomas Gamey faux action spectacle Film: Bholaa Cast: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Amala Paul, Vineet Kumar, Deepak Dobriyal, Sanjay Mishra, Kiran Kumar, Gajraj Rao Director: Ajay Devgn Rating: * * Runtime: 144 mins

‘Bholaa’ is basically Actor-Director Ajay Devgn’s attempt to go the John Wick way - i.e to build-up legendary offensive action by way of an indestructible hero who gains his never-say-die sustenance from the channeling of Bholenath/ Lord Shiva’s powers. We’ve seen Ajay attempt that in his not-so-successful second directorial effort ‘Shivaay’ earlier. In this film he goes one step further by showing himself arise from a near dead situation, manage to convert a stone Trishul into a sharp-edged steel killer machine and use that to vanquish 70 odd villains baying for his blood. We don’t see the stone to steel conversion but the minute he plucks it out from the statue its attached to, it’s a done deed. If that’s not enough we even see a leopard shy away from confronting him and a jail bird ( Makarand Deshpande) spreading lore within the jail precinct about his indomitable courage and valor. The narrative tries really hard to frame him as a legendary anti-hero who, following an attack by some Bionic villain ( we don’t see his face) with one steel-boned fleshless hand, is incarcerated for 10 long years. That part of the narration is deliberately left hazy and unexplained. In the meantime, through several inter-cut sequences we learn that his Doctor wife (Deepika Padukone clone Amala Paul)passes away leaving behind a 9 year old orphan daughter Jyothi, who is apprehensively awaiting the very first guest who is about to come visit her. But injured IPS officer Diana Joseph ( a measured and steely Tabu) requisitions him to help her out of a jam by driving the truck carrying a full load of poisoned, unconscious cops to the hospital. All this happens after Diana makes a humongous bust, an unimaginable haul of pure uncut cocaine/narcotics and perceives a retaliatory strike from the secret network of gangs that have lost out on such pricey illegitimate riches. The Lalgang, UP Police headquarters though does not have the manpower or the firepower required to withstand such an onslaught. The opening sequence detailing that very bust was pretty much inept given that there were 3-4 jeep loads of cops following the truck on empty roads and none of them thought it fruitful to shoot at the tires. Instead we see them shooting at the moving truck and end up losing a jeep full of cops in the bargain. As you must have guessed by now, the body count keeps on steadily increasing as the narration steps into the post interval half. The opponents get viler and more deadly too. But our legend continues to stand tall with opportune help from a hi-tech howitzer like multi-cylinder automatic machine gun firing off in a continuous blast. That’s the climactic fight that takes no prisoners and leaves no villains alive. The problem area for the film is its scripting. There’s really no development to be had here other than a facile gamey one where the villains attacking the anti-hero steadily increment in multiples as the narrative reaches its climax. Even the character build-up is slap-dash. Bholaa’s character arc is literally unbelievable. The action choreography goes into slo-mo magnified mode so that every fight sequence can be seen and felt (in Imax 3D no less). But that only ends up highlighting the inadequacies within. Then there’s the cantankerous,cacophonous and hyper-loud background score that aims to shatter eardrums rather than assist in lending nuance to the story-telling. The vedic chants meant to summon up mythic powers are used strategically throughout in typical Devgn style. Thankfully, the dialogues are minimal and not exactly bombastic. Ashwathama (Dobriyal) as the demented villain is snuffed out summarily - all that build-up of angst through angular dark camerawork, menacing sounding music assists and dialogue, came to naught all too easily. After that its just a numbers game where Bholaa picks up the confiscated weapon and lets loose his barrage of bullets. The screenplay by Aamil Keeyan Khan, Ankush Singh, Sandeep Kewlani and Shriidhar Dubey is intent on making Bholaa superhuman. Aseem Bajaj's cinematography and Dharmendra Yadav’s editing does the rest. The sentiment driven track of a father meeting his orphaned daughter who he has never laid eyes on, after 10 years may draw up some sympathy but it plays out in a very contrived and obvious fashion and therefore feels smarmy. Raii Laxmi’s item dance was imminently forgettable and so was the song that accompanied it. The rest of the film has a remixed version of ‘Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai’ playing at opportune moments - a fairly good ploy employed to invoke hope but it feels rather half-hearted. The narrative appears to be replete with dodgy CGI VFX work, so even the action ( though swift and bloody) seems unreal and unbelievable. Bholaa is an official remake of the 2019 Tamil hit #Kaithi which was written and directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj. In that film Kanagaraj used his lead Karthi and his punches sparingly and with greater force - because the narrative had long stretches of build-up and tension before piling on the dread with gratifying pay-offs viz big action set-pieces. That film was also a mad action no-brainer but one could feel the adrenaline rush and thrills from the manner in which it was structured. Devgn’s film suffers in comparison. As director he tries to helm the film with his own signature style -- inter-cutting the action set-pieces with sentiment and tragedy and eventually comes off the poorer. Much of the story is left unexplained. Bholaa deviates from the Kaithi script quite significantly. The male Indian Police Service officer is replaced with a tough woman in uniform with a tragic past - meant to invoke melodrama. While Kaithi’s hero played by Karthi was very much human and fallible, Bholaa instead requisitions super-human powers at will. Where do these powers come from and how did a two-bit ruffian come to it so opportunely?.. is left unanswered. The feeling of dread mainly comes from Dobriyal’s performance which doesn’t last very long as it gets snuffed out in service of the anti-hero’s next big challenge. It’s already been announced that Karthi and Lokesh Kanagaraj are set to reunite for ‘Kaithi 2’ and Devgn from the post credit sequence featuring Abhishek Bachchan, makes it obvious that he too is looking at making a sequel. Will it be a well-deserved one?.. is the question that can only be answered by the audience reaction to this film. From the initial Ram Navami holiday returns it doesn’t appear to be going that way though! Johnsont307@gmail.com

Rocket Boys 2 #PicksAndPiques #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #JohnsonThomas #OTTSeriesReviews

#PicksAndPiques #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #OTTSeriesReviews @everyone Title: #RocketBoys2 Episodes: 8 (45 mins each) Rating: * * * 1/2 #EmmayEntertainment #SiddharthRoyKapur #SudhirMishra #RoyKapurFilms #Sonyliv #AvianWE Cast: #IshwakSingh #JimSarbh #ReginaCassandra #DibyenduBhattacharya #KCShankar #ArjunRadhakrishnan #CharuShankar #DigvijaySavat #AnahitaUberoi #SabaAzad #NamitDas #RahulDevShetty #MuniJha #HarsshSingh #AshmitaMeghrajani #BenedictGarret #AshokKumarBeniwal #RajitKapur Story Concept: #AbhayKoranne Screenplay/Director: #AbhayPannu Dialogues: #KauserMunir #AbhayPannu Producers: #MadhuBhojwani #MonishaAdvani DOP: #HarshvirOberai Editor: #MaahirZaveri

Spanning 3 decades of the crucial years of India’s advancement in science and space technology, this series is an invigorating thriller- with fantastic enthralling, and memorable theme music by Achint Thakker, evocative animation background during opening credits, Appropriate casting, gritty believable performances and narrative intrigue, drama, enterprise, innovation, suspense, and thrills - It’s all there in season 2 of Rocket Boys. The writing is sublime, the cinematography, editing, and CGI are gratifying, the pacing invites involvement and the smart helming keeps you engrossed throughout. This is a must-watch sequel!

Leech #PicksAndPiques #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews

#PicksAndPiques #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews Film: #Leech #MaskTV Cast: #SanamZeeya #AbhikBenazir #VishalSingh #VedPrakash #SanjuDhirhe #HrithikLamba #AlkaAmin #AtulSrivastava #MirSarwar #ShrishtiGautam #AmitSrivastava #Radhika Writer: #AbhikBenazir DOP:#AshokPanda Producer: #AnjuBhatt #ChiranjeeviBhatt Music: #BapiBhattacharya Director/Editor: #AnilRamchandraSharma @everyone CoDirector: #PabitraDas Rating: * * Runtime: 130 mins

#TAGProductions #ColossalFilms #BenazirProductions #IAmAnEyeFilms #SanjayBhushanPatialaPR A Psychological horror, this film focuses on mental, emotional, and psychological states to frighten, disturb and unsettle its audience. The mysterious disappearance of characters and mentally unstable leads with disturbed psychological states lend heft to the narrative but the English dialogues are badly written and the sleepy pace might just let you doze off - but when you awake it's bound to be from a nightmare. The visuals of blood-sucking, bone-crunching humans are so abhorrent they can put you off your routine. The disturbing dark subject matter might have been more potent if the scripting had gone through several redrafts. Even so, it's still a very unpleasant, unsettling, and disturbing watch!

Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway #PicksAndPiques #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews

#PicksAndPiques #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews Film: #MrsChatterjeeVsNorway Cast: #RaniMukherjee #JimSarbh #AnirbanBhattacharya Director: #AshimaChibber @everyone #Enmayentertainment #NikhilAdvani Rating: * * * Runtime: 134 mins

A conveniently scripted story (based on true incidents) of a mother fighting to regain custody of her two kids from the child welfare authorities of Norway, this film has Rani giving her heart and soul to the portrayal of the anguished mother but the melodramatic turn and character arc meant to make her seem holier than thou, is a little hard to stomach. Co-scripted by Ashima, #RahulHanda and #SameerSatija the narrative is hell-bent on presenting the offense as a cultural difference with corrupt child welfare authorities' chancy misrepresentation for financial gain rather than bad parenting issues. The mother’s fight is largely against the child welfare authorities. Given the piecemeal manner in which this story is presented, I am sure there is much more than meets the eye here. This is a major problem with biopics in Bollywood - wanting to present an acceptable stereotypical facade rather than the real deal!

Jhini Bini Chadariya #PicksAndPiques #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews

#PicksAndPiques #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews Film: #JhiniBiniChadariya (#TheBrittleThread) @everyone #SohoHouse #HardhyaanFilms #VedaFilmFactory Cast: #MuzaffarKhan, #SivanSpector, #MeghaMathur, #SyedIqbalAhmed, #RoopaChaurasiya, #UtkarshSrivastava, #NishantKumar #ShwetaNagar Writer/Director: #RiteshSharma Rating: * * * 1/ 2 Runtime: 97 mins

Ritesh Sharma's debut feature ‘The Brittle Thread’ brilliantly captures the acute loneliness of a riot victim, a Muslim, living in Varanasi, the hotbed of Hindu-Muslim conflict following the Babri Masid Demolition. The ongoing years following that dastardly incident have only vitiated the atmosphere further. The festering wounds of distrust and cumulative hate have set the city prided for its spiritualism aflame. Innocents, both Hindu and Muslim have fallen victim to inhumanity being unleashed, masked as parochialism, toxic patriarchy, and fake sentiment-driven Islamophobia. Sharma’s narrative lens basically observes the fate of a couple of individuals - Shahdab, a traditional Muslim saree weaver, and Rani, a street dancer caring for her deaf daughter, who live out their stories of tragedy, despair and hope amidst subversive and oppressing right-wing nationalism. The intimacy and connection between disparate humans are brought out beautifully through realistic portrayals and evocative use of light, shadow, and color. The violence, though suggestive, is hard-hitting, and the drama, though unfolding from an unemotional distance, is lacerating. Mob justice, minority oppression, and the predatory male gaze take crippling hits in this depiction. This is definitely a not-to-be-missed experience!

Pop Kaun? #PicksAndPiques #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #OTTSeriesReviews

#PicksAndPiques #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #OTTSeriesReviews #DisneyHotstar #Thinkinkcommunications Title: #PopKaun (Series1/ 6 eps - 25 to 45 mins each) @everyone Cast: #KunalKhemu #RajpalYadav #SatishKaushik #JohnnyLever #RajpalYadav #ChunkyPanday #SaurabhShukla #NupurSanon Director: #FarhadSamji Rating: *

“Ek baap ke bahut bette hote hain but yahaan par Ek bete ke bahot baap dikhenge” - with such a tagline what can one hope from this travesty of a wannabe comedy? A whole bunch of comediennes who have proven themselves over the years on the Big and Small screens is found wanting here. The timing is terrible, the acting is atrocious and the script doesn’t exist. Don’t know what they were thinking when #DisneyHotstar green-lighted this project? Or did they merely take it on a commission basis? Well, there’s really no creativity in the storytelling, what’s meant to be a send-up plays out in a ludicrous fashion. There are really no laughs to be had. It’s sad that a creative guy like Kunal Khemu is reduced to doing such a woebegone series. It’s doubly a pity that the late Satish Kaushik’s last outing had to be such a forgettable one! Frankly, no one comes out smelling like roses here.

Pop Kaun? #PicksAndPiques #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #OTTSeriesReviews

#PicksAndPiques #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #OTTSeriesReviews #DisneyHotstar #Thinkinkcommunications Title: #PopKaun (Series1/ 6 eps - 25 to 45 mins each) @everyone Cast: #KunalKhemu #RajpalYadav #SatishKaushik #JohnnyLever #RajpalYadav #ChunkyPanday #SaurabhShukla #NupurSanon Director: #FarhadSamji Rating: *

“Ek baap ke bahut bette hote hain but yahaan par Ek bete ke bahot baap dikhenge” - with such a tagline what can one hope from this travesty of a wannabe comedy? A whole bunch of comediennes who have proven themselves over the years on the Big and Small screens is found wanting here. The timing is terrible, the acting is atrocious and the script doesn’t exist. Don’t know what they were thinking when #DisneyHotstar green-lighted this project? Or did they merely take it on a commission basis? Well, there’s really no creativity in the storytelling, what’s meant to be a send-up plays out in a ludicrous fashion. There are really no laughs to be had. It’s sad that a creative guy like Kunal Khemu is reduced to doing such a woebegone series. It’s doubly a pity that the late Satish Kaushik’s last outing had to be such a forgettable one! Frankly, no one comes out smelling like roses here.

Zwigato #picksandpiques #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit #JohnsonThomas

#picksandpiques #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #internationalFilmFestivalCircuit #JohnsonThomas Bollywood Film Review Johnson Thomas A poignant ode to middle class struggles Film: Zwigato Cast: Kapil Sharma, Shahana Goswami Director: Nandita Das Rating: * * * Runtime: 105 mins

Set in Bhubaneshwar, during the post pandemic period, Nandita Das’s film navigates through a middle class family’s resilient efforts to eke out a living at a time when most people were shunted out of their jobs. Manas( Kapil Sharma), who loses his job as a floor manager at a factory, and stayed unemployed for several months, takes up a gig as a delivery guy for a food delivery app ‘Zwigato.’ With an ailing mother, a wife and two kids to feed, there’s obviously not much savings left. The delivery job has an incentive based payment structure and everything is done through the app. Manas, being a fossil in terms of technology takes the help and advice of his kids to get cracking at a bonus based return but the app defeats him at every turn. His wife Pratima (Shahana Goswami), a homemaker is also attempting to find a secondary source of income by doing odd jobs and enrolling as cleaning staff at a mall.Throughout the narrative there are references to a govt scheme that represents hope for people struggling to gain employment. But the scheme is like a elusive dream. Manas too falls prey to fake news and sets out in search for this potential silver lining.

The narrative unpretentiously and subtly plays out the travails of the family as they make all efforts to adjust and adapt to the new reality precipitated by poor governance and trigger happy decision making by the authorities. Das’s narrative unaffectedly focuses on the resilience and fortitude that the family displays during these trying times. As the stresses of post-pandemic gig work start to take a toll on Manas, he is forced to put aside his old-fashioned patriarchal ideas and make room for class and hierarchical changes that it brings about in his life.

‘Zwigato’ holds a mirror to society pointing out the frailities of the gig economy and exposing its effects on the lower middle class who have hopped on to it for a ‘survival’ daily wage. This is a class of people who have huge numbers but no voice as they are too busy struggling to survive. Das also touches upon the side effects of digitisation showing us how we as a society turn a blind eye to the struggles of the lower middle class. The narrative suffers from a rather lax pace and lack of tension. By focusing on a single family’s travails Das inadvertently makes this an exclusive tale instead of an inclusive one. The camerawork is fitting and performances are earnest and believable though. Johnsont307@gmail.com

Secrets of Love #picksandpiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit

#picksandpiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit @everyone Film: #SecretsOfLove (#Hindi) #AltairMedia #AshwaniShukla #PramelKrantiFilms Platform: #MXPLAYER Cast: #RaviKishan, #VivekMishra, #JayeshKapoor, Rating: * * Runtime: 125 Min Producer: #VELJIGALA Director: #RiteshSKumar Story: #VishalCHHADBA Screenplay & dialogue & Lyrics: #RahulKumarShukla Music: #AshishDonald Cinematography: #BADALMANI Editor: #AnandARam

An unauthorised( because the main character here is referred to as Ajneesh) biopic on the much maligned guru of love, Acharya Rajneesh, this film follows the high-points of his life from his birth to his death. Unfortunately, its not presented with any great understanding of his version of spirituality. The narrative is rather glib and unaccomplished and his important preaching(s) are overlooked in favor of trivial ones. The charismatic and gifted speaker who could put his point across to people from all cultures and win them over as disciples, is presented with a tokenism that fails to befit his stature as a leader of a worldwide new spiritual political revolutionary movement. The narrative goes from amateurish theatrics to a relative calm before its desultory dip in cut-paste, stagey melodrama. Vivek Anand Mishra as Rajneesh during his teens to his forties, does fairly well in conveying a spiritual calm befitting a guru. The Cinematography manages to highlight some symbolic totems but the measure of his greatness/or not doesn’t come through at all!

Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar #picksandpiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit

#picksandpiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit @everyone Film: #TuJhoothiMainMakkaar #SpicePR #LuvRanjanFilms #LuvRanjan #TSeries Cast: #RanbirKapoor #ShraddhaKapoor #AnubhavSinghBassi #DimpleKapadia #BoneyKapoor #HasleenKaur #InayatVerma #MonicaChaudhary #RajeshJais #AyeshaRazaMishra #KarthikAryan #NushrattBharuccha Director: #LuvRanjan Writer: #RahulMody Rating: * * Runtime: 143 mins Music (Songs): #Pritam Backgroundscore: #HiteshSonik #YashRajFilms

Luv Ranjan’s latest, a romcom shot largely in Spain and Mauritius looks inviting but the core is confused and rather dysfunctional. The script tries to marry an independent career oriented girl who dislikes living in a joint family with that of a business oriented joint family loving guy but that’s not the only problem…The guy also happens to be in the side business of breaking up couples. Don’t know what sense that makes for a successful Mercedes dealership and real estate family biz owner? The dialogues sound meaningless given that each character tries to weigh down every conversation with gibberish sounding breathless monologues. The central conflict feels contrived, the songs save for two numbers are imminently forgettable, the performances feel over the top and the direction, too wayward to make sense. The climactic airport sequence is too ludicrous for words. Shraddha Kapoor looks rather miscast in the role of a career girl and Ranbir Kapoor, though he is earnest in his moves, fails to light up the screen dramatically. Dimple Kapadia gets to slap everyone and the rest of the cast do the loud Punjabi family quirks fairly well enough. Anubhav Singh Bassi as the friend is fairly good in what is expected of him. The cinematography is lustrous and colorful though. At almost two and a half hours, the runtime puts a heavy strain on your senses.

The Broken Table #picksandpiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit

#picksandpiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #internationalfilmfestivalcircuit @everyone Film: #TheBrokenTable Cast: #NaseeruddinShah #RasikaDuggal #ManyuuDoshi #GauriNalawade #NylaMasood #IshaanKunte #AjitRanjan Director: #ChintanSarda Rating: * * * Runtime: 24 mins #RoyalStagBarrelSelectLargeShortFilms @everyone

A profound short that shows us how preconceived perceptions color our judgments about ourselves and others, this film by Chintan Sarda is heartfelt and evocative. Simple story about a freshly minted caregiver Deepti (Rasika Duggal), a troubled soul grappling with PCOD issues, who comes to take care of an Alzheimer’s patient (Naseeruddin Shah) and leaves enlightened, aware and more confident about her own self-worth. Its an absorbing story about love, loss and remembrance with a ‘reveal’ that is ingenious!