Azamgarh #PicksAndPiques #Internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #BollywoodFilmReview #JohnsonThomas

#PicksAndPiques #Internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #BollywoodFilmReview #JohnsonThomas #TAGProductions #SaranshFilms Film: #Azamgarh #MaskTV @everyone #SanjayBhushanPatiyala #HungamaPR Cast: #PankajTripathi #AnujSharma #AmitaWalia #SusainBarar #SudarshanBhatt #AdilShekh #VivekJaitely #RamjiBali #ShrikantVerma #NareshGosai Director: #KamleshMishra Rating: * 1/2 Runtime: 90 mins

This controversial film was in the news for all the wrong reasons much like Azamgarh the district in UP now infamous as a hotbed of terrorism. Mishra’s film attempts to save the reputation of Azamgarh, which has forgotten its rich heritage of poets, academicians, and artists. Set in 1999 the film tries to expose the perception bias that the media and general public have towards a district largely populated by Muslims. Pankaj Tripathi plays the rather thankless role of a Maulvi who indoctrinates gullible youth and transforms them into jihadi terrorists. The central thread is about Aamir, a brilliant student, a topper of the state in 12th std, who joins a terrorist organization and gets involved in terrorist activities. The narrative structure here is rather threadbare and relentlessly boring, with interruptions in the form of TV grabs announcing terrorist attacks and bomb blasts in various parts of the country and naming various terrorists and organizations involved, instead of telling a plausible, eventful, and engaging story. There’s nothing much happening other than a whole lot of pronouncements on TV and otherwise. Ridden with stereotypes the narrative suddenly springs an end gambit that goes completely against the run of play ( mimicking ‘A Wednesday’). But the twist doesn’t stick. There’s no valid justification for how that could happen. Though the idea of a Muslim savior is laudable it just doesn’t ring true in this kind of a contrived setup. Religious polarisation and extremism are a bane but filmmakers need to bring more nuance and dedication to their craft in order to bring some semblance of a change. This one is better forgotten!

Chengiz #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #Internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #filmmoviedocumentaryreviews

Chengiz #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #Internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #filmmoviedocumentaryreviews #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #Internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #filmmoviedocumentaryreviews Film: #Chengiz #Hindi #Bengali Cast: #Jeet #RohitRoy #SusmitaChatterjee #ShatafFigar Writer/Director: #RajeshGanguly Rating: * * Runtime: 152 mins #LMadnani #MalayLoha #ManasGanguly #NeerajPandey #Tseries #CommuniquePR #JeetzFilmWorks @everyone

There’s is a ‘Don’ in every city and Kolkata is no different. We’ve seen most Bollywood and South stars donning the mantle and now it’s the turn of Bengali star Jeet who has partly bankrolled this effort, playing the underworld Don thirsting to wipe out his father’s ( a cop) killers. This unappealing attempt at gangster thriller revolves around the underworld in Calcutta from the 70s to the mid-90s. Supposedly Chengiz ruled the streets then and this film chronicles his life journey in an uninteresting way. There’s really nothing distinctive about this effort. It’s just run-of-the-mill passionless stuff with Jeet ( who looks like he botoxed his cheeks) having little to do other than strut around and orchestrate drug trafficking and murders. The story is done to death, and the action choreography looks stale. The film’s boring linear storytelling and very bland antagonists make it lose steam in the first 15 mins itself. The narrative is unimaginative, the pacing is slack, there’s no tension in the telling and the lead performance is so lacking in craft that it leaves you unaffected. There are no thrills and the action is sporadic and routine.

Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #Internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #filmmoviedocumentaryreviews Film: #KisiKaBhaiKisiKiJaan #SalmanKhanFilms #SpicePR #SpiceBhasha @everyone

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #Internationalfilmfestivalcircuit #filmmoviedocumentaryreviews Film: #KisiKaBhaiKisiKiJaan #SalmanKhanFilms #SpicePR #SpiceBhasha @everyone Cast: #SalmanKhan #PoojaHegde #ShehnaszGill #RohiniHattangadi #BhumikaChawla #VijendraSingh #Bhagyashree #Himaalay #AbhimanyuDasani #VenkateshDaggubati #SatishKaushik #SiddharthNigam #RaghavJuyal #JagapathiBabu #RamCharan #PalakTiwari #VinaliBhatnagar #AbhimanyuSingh Director: #FarhadSamji Rating: * Runtime: 144 mins

…aur kisi ka Delusion. The star is gone. This is probably ‘the End’ of Salman Khan as a star. He looks old, wooden, and stiff as a rod, and even Antiques restorer Bhagyalaxmi (played by the lissome PYT Pooja Hegde) can’t hope to restore his mojo. His taking his shirt off act and showing off his Digitally dusted physique won't buy him any brownie points. Bashing up an innumerable number of baddies just won't do the trick anymore either. Venkatesh, Ram Charan, and Vijendra Singh devalue themselves by being in this sorry feature that looks more like a botox-induced ego-boosting show reel than a feature film. There’s no originality in the piecemeal script, the dance choreography constitutes saggy posturing, the songs are dull, the action is ludicrous and the romance sets your teeth on edge. It’s enervating having to see Salman Khan preen before the camera yet again…and it doesn’t do anything for the brand aggrandizement attempt that fails to recognize that the brand has diminished considerably in Box office terms after 6 consecutive drubbings. The dialogues are written as paeans to the star - unfortunately, going by this dumb outing, and the limp advance booking response even with Eid around the corner, it’s clear that SK has been relegated to a has been! #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #Internationalfilmfestivalcircle

Bicycle Days #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit #AshwaniShukla #AltairMedia @everyone Film: #BicycleDays Cast: #MuditGunhere #DarshitKhanwe and #SohamShah. Director: #DevyaniAnant Rating: * * Runtime: 90 mins

Confused, pointless, and rather boring, this film delineating childhood dreams and the pressures of growing up doesn’t do much to engage. As a result, there’s no attachment to be had. The characters involved and the scripting fails to give the audience something to latch on to. The helming also feels rather directionless. Growing up is definitely hard to do and more so in impoverished rural India but neither the struggle nor the positivity that follows that effort comes through here.

Shakuntalam #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit #UniversalCommunications @everyone #DilRajuProductions #SriVenkateswaraCreations #GunaaTeamworks Film: #Shaakuntalam (3D) Cast: #Samantha #DevMohan #PrakashRaj #Madhoo #KabirBedi Director: #Gunasekhar Rating: * * Runtime: 110 mins

When a director chooses to append his name to the title of the film there’s obviously a whole lot of ego involved. Ego though is not a bad thing if you have something distinctive and individualistic to show for it. The 3D depth of field and the stunning backdrops are the only aspects appreciable here though. Attempting to fit in Hindi lyrics into an original south India language song is a thankless one as always.Gunasekhar’s Shakuntalam is just a bland, uninviting recant of #Kalidasa’s mythic love story. And he sidetracks the main story with meaningless battles that fail to augment the experience in any way. Samantha doesn’t look the part, Dev Mohan doesn’t have the stature of a King, and the character sizing and CGI/VFX are so toonish that it doesn’t feel in the least bit appealing.

Pinky Beauty Parlour #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit #RomanaPR Film: #PinkyBeautyParlour Cast: #SulagnaPanigrahi #KhushbooGupta #AkshaySingh #VishwanathChatterjee #JogiMalang Director: #AkshaySingh Rating: * * 1/2 Runtime: 100 mins

The trailer was deceptively inveigling and I say this because the film just did not have the raw power of attraction that the well cut trailer suggested. A suicide is conveniently described as a murder just so that the story could get prolonged. The constant harping on skin color ( dark vs fair) makes the effort rather obvious and the attempt to decry the obsession for fair skin comes unstuck because the story-teller decides to do away with the dark skinned character. While the writer/director might have meant this as a sincere effort, it doesn’t come across as one potent enough to attract an audience. Purposely flashbacks make the narrative seem rather convoluted and unappealing.

Mrs Undercover #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit #Zee5 #JadugarFilms #KnightSkyMovies #ChaseIndia #B4UMotionPictures @everyone Film: #MrsUndercover Cast: #RadhikaApte #RajeshSharma #SumeetVyas #LaboniSarkar #ShahebChattopadhyay #BiswajeetChakraborty #AmanVerma #RoshniBhattacharya #AnganaRoy #AkshayKapoor #ManavSachdev Writer/Director: #AnushreeMehta Rating: * * Runtime: 102 mins

A sloppy, uninteresting secret agent misadventure, this one banks on contrivance and convenience to validate its lead character, a homemaker’s undercover arc. It comes across as rather silly and unbelievable - even though Radhika Apte and Rajesh Sharma do their best to squeeze out some likability from this disastrous effort. Sumeet Vyas is rather too casual to curry favor.

Gumraah #PicksAndPiques #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews

#PicksAndPiques #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #TSeries #PenIndiaLtd #Cine1Studios #MuradKhetani @everyone #UniversalCommunications Film: #Gumraah Cast: #AdityaRoyKapur #MrunalThakur #VedikaPinto #RonitRoy #NavneKaurThind Director: #VardhanKetkar Rating: * * Runtime: 150 mins

A nice concept goes awry as the official Hindi language remake of Tamil film #Thadam has neither nuance, smarts or thrills. The first half plays out in a rather tedious, flat, and uninteresting manner and by the time the ‘reveal’ is done in the second, it’s already too late to salvage interest in the whodunit with Aditya Roy Kapur looking washed out and rather gaunt in the double role envisaged to enhance the mystery and create doubt in the minds of the cops and audience. The characters are presented rather poorly with the director deliberately attempting to play hide and seek with the audience and as a result loses out on interest completely. Mrunal Thakur’s attempt at playing supercop in an ill-defined role doesn’t allow for any gratification either.