Vaashi #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit Film: #Vaashi (meaning: Persistent vow) #Malayalam Genre: Courtroom Drama Runtime: 120 mins Rating: * * * Cast: #AnuMohan #KeerthySuresh #TovinoThomas #KottayamRamesh #MayaVishwanath #Nandu #Baiju #MayaMenon #RonyDavid Director/Co-writer: #VishnuRaghav Story: #JanizChackoSimon Music: #KailasMenon Cinematography: #RobyVargheseRaj Editor:#MaheshNarayanan ArtDirection: #MaheshSridhar CostumeDesign: #DivyaGeorge #UrvasiTheatres #Netflix

A courtroom drama that exposes the schisms in the concept and perception of ‘consent’ for sex before marriage while juxtaposing that aspect with an ego and courtroom drama between two opposing lawyers who happen to be recently married to each other. While ‘Vaashi’ sloganeers on feminism that is equal for all genders (as appealed by advocate Madhavi in defense of the accused in a 375A charge) it fails to go beyond that tokenism. Nevertheless, the narrative is a neatly drawn, swiftly enacted drama that finds resolution in a courtroom rather than outside it. The courtroom arguments are rooted and deeper than the dissonance between Madhavi and her husband Public Prosecutor Ebin Mathew. Both Keerthy Suresh and Tovino Thomas perform with convincing amiability and make this half-hearted attempt more appealing than it deserves to be.

Odd Couple #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit Film: #OddCouple Rating: * Genre: Romantic/Comedy/Drama Runtime:114 mins Cast: #DivyennduSharma #SuchitraKrishnamoorthi #VijayRaaz #PranatiRaiPrakash #ManojPahwa #SumitGulati #SaharshKumarShukla #SatyakamAnand #PradeepSinghAdhikari #VinayKumar #NehaNegi #ChunmumKumar #NipramCreations #ShemarooEntertainment #PanoramaStudios #AltairMedia #AshwaniShukla #AmazonPrime Producer/Story: #PraneetVerma Director/Screenplay/Dialogue/Lyrics: #PrashantJohari Music/BackgroundScore: #JayRajeshArya Cinematography: #SrijitBasu Editor: #PrakashJha

Weird is the word. The way the screenplay and plotting play out, it feels as though the couples in this drama were out of their mind rather than forced by circumstances. The narrative is stilted, there’s nothing funny here even though this is billed as a romantic comedy and the performances by hitherto good actors come across as inept and pretentious. The writer-director is basically clutching at straws conceiving this farfetched, totally unpalatable narrative. His idea of using a registrar’s error to enforce mismatched conjugal relationships falls flat and rings totally untrue. The pity is that he couldn’t make better use of the talents he had at his disposal.

Haryana #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit Film: #Haryana Rating: * * Genre: #RomanticFamilyDramaComedy Runtime: 151 min Cast: #YashTonk #AshleshaSavant #RobbieMairh #MonicaSharma #AakarshanSingh Story, Screenplay, Dialogue, Lyrics, Direction, Co-Producer: #SandeepBaswana Cinematography: #JohnyLal Background Score/Music: #GuruDhanoa #MohitPathak Editors: #SanyukaKaza #JitendraDongare #AltairMedia #AshwaniShukla #RajaBaswanaFilms

As the title suggests this film is about 3 brothers from Haryana –the oldest Mahinder played by Yash Tonk-Supposedly in his 30’s ( but looks 50), the middle brother- Jaibeer (Robbie Mairh) is the quite, silent vindictive college boy lover type who makes restitution for his past sins and the youngest Jugnu (Aakarshan Singh) a petulant, spoilt brat, an irresponsible teen who gets his way all the time. Their parents are long gone so it’s up to Mahinder to play the father figure. And it’s not an easy task as his brothers make demands on him that no human being can possibly fulfill. But in this film, they get their wish. Sandeep Baswana manages to get his casting right with amiable performances from the three leads lending heft to the character arches, but the wayward, overindulgent narrative is a thorn in the flesh that cannot be ignored. The lack of humor and disastrous musical interludes, alienating, totally unnecessary songs and loose editing stymies the narrative momentum. It’s an exhausting and overly tedious watch.

Darlings #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit Film: #Darlings Cast: #AliaBhatt #VijayVarma #ShefaliShah #RajeshSharma #RoshanMathews #VijayMaurya #KiranKarmarkar #PoojaSwaroop #SantoshJuvekar Director: #JasmeetKReen Runtime: 134 mins Genre: #BlackComedy Rating: * * ½ #ShahRukhKhan #GauriKhan #RedChilliesEntertainmentLtd #EternalSunshine #AnilMehta #Gulzar #VishalBharadwaj #Netflix #ZeeCinema

A young lower middleclass housewife living in a chawl community suffers through domestic violence before she builds up the courage to reverse roles. The incidents here are mostly farcical derived from black humour - women are presented as dimwits ( in an attempt to garner laughs) - yet suddenly turn smart enough to turn tables on their oppressors, crime is presented as an easy option to get rid of injustice and accessories to the crime are just as easily available to do the needful. The tone jumps from serious to fanciful as the mother-daughter duo start gaining the upper hand. Director Jasmeet K Reen may not be able to sway the audience with frayed plotting but the narrative is populated with actors who can command attention with their craft and presence. That’s what makes Darlings fairly attention-grabbing. Alia, Shefali, Vijay Varma, Roshan Mathews, Rajesh Sharma, and other supporting actors are supremely efficient, likable, and convincing!

Goodluck Jerry #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit

Goodluck Jerry #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit Film: #GoodluckJerry Genre: Crime /Comedy Runtime: 120 mins Rating: * * ½ Cast: #Abhimanue #DeepakDobriyal #JaswantSinghDalal #JahnviKapoor #DeepakDobriyal #MitaVashisht #MohanKamboj #AvarBrar #SushantSingh #SahilMehta #SandeepNayak Director: #SiddharthSengupta Producers: #SubaskaranAllirajah #AanandLRai #MahaveerJain. Story & Screenplay: #NelsonDilipkumar #PankajMatta #RaindropMedia #LycaProductions #ColourYellowProductions #Disney #Hotstar

The remake of the Tamil film '#KolamavuKokila' (which starred #Nayanthara and was a decent money-spinner at the Box-Office), gets an OTT release. Obviously, considering the star cast (Jahnvi has no real draw at the Box-office and the rest of the cast are character artists and newbies who we’ve hardly heard of leave alone seen) and helming by a debutant director, it was a smart choice. Attempting to remake a dark crime comedy with a new setting and a different lingo has its own limitations. The writers do a fairly good job of rooting it in a Punjabi-Bihari milieu but the story and plotting doesn’t quite work up a storm, as desired. The narrative should have been plot driven rather than character driven especially since Jahnvi as the central player Jerry aka Jaya has little to offer as an actress other than a patented vulnerability that we see in all her performances. She has yet to develop a range as an actress - which she will undoubtedly do over time. Jerry’s reason for becoming a drug courier after her stint as a masseuse in a massage parlour because her mother has lung cancer isn’t convincing. And the entire group of motley hanger-ons and three women family going all-out to out-do the drug runners doesn’t make sense at all. The plotting and treatment is at fault. There’s hardly any humour to be had even though the supporting cast do a valiant job to shore-up this iffy crime comedy.

V R / Vikrant Rona #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit Film: #VikrantRona / #VR Genre: #HorrorActionAdventureDrama Cast: #NeethaAshok #NirupBhandari #KichchaSudeep #RavishankarGowda #JacquelineFernandez Director: #AnupBhandari Writers: #AnupBhandari #JohnMahendran #SSRajamouli #SalmanKhan #ZeeStudios #KichchaProductions #ShaliniArtsProductions Rating: * * 1/2 Runtime: 139 mins

This big-budget action, horror, a period film with fancy sets, absurd ideation, and a marketing boost from SS Rajamouli and Salman Khan, has been released Pan India dubbed in multiple regional languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, German, Russian, English, Arabic and Mandarin in addition to Kannada. The film delves into superstition and mystery before finding a heroic resolution for the death of children and several other murders that take place in a remote village policed by Vikrant Rona. The narrative is clichéd and fanciful – relying on deliberate confusion to criss-cross the paranormal and real. You might get a rise out of the spiffy tech on display here but the narrative is slow, etched with stylized acting, and lacks tension. The horror sequences have no follow through so there’s not much to fear here. It’s only the cinematography, FX, and production design that lends the film some gravitas.

Ek Villain Returns #PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit

#PicksAndPiques #JohnsonThomas #FilmMovieDocumentaryReviews #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit Film: #EkVillainReturns Rating: * ½ Cast: #DishaPatani #ArjunKapoor #JohnAbraham #TaraSutaria #RiteshDeshmukh #JDChakravarthy #ShaadRandhawa #KarishmaSharma #BharatDhabolkar #PankajRajput #ShanuKumar Director: #MohitSuri BackgroundScore: #RajuSingh #RaindropMedia #BalajiTelefilmsPvtLtd #TSeries #ShobhaKapoor #EktaaKapoor #BhushanKumar #Spotify

Another serial killer with a twisted self-rationalization in this ‘Ek Villain’ returning franchise installment - but this time it’s ridiculous, half-baked, altogether facile, pea-brained and entirely obvious trickery. Warped, perverse, and sick characterizations abound here. The script revels in throwing up psychopaths and sociopaths while anointing them as heroes and villains as per convenience. Throwing up obvious red herrings appears to be Mohit Suri’s treasured trick so he uses it quite liberally here and consequently loses the plot entirely. It’s really torturous having to sit through absurd rationalizations justifying the utter depravity on display here. Customer ratings, smiley masks, hoodies, and twisted and materialistic love are some of the tools he uses to fashion his silly cover-up of an entirely debauched mindset. Even the music has nothing likable to recommend it. Why would anyone go to see this sorry sequel just to hear the theme song ‘Teri Galiyan’ replayed time and again?