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!