Akira Movie Review
Sonakshi Sinha is an eye-catching action star and director-turned-actor Anurag Kashyap evil incarnate in A R Murugadoss’ intriguingly titled Akira. Both pull off their roles with astonishing aplomb. The film as a whole is, however, patchy. Its facile genre sleights – rogue cops, wronged innocents and bloody confrontations – hit home only sporadically. Despite pitchforking a […]
‘A Flying Jatt’: A Bonafide Desi Super-Entertainer
It isn’t a bird. It isn’t a plane. And it’s definitely not Superman. Why must the desi superhero behave like a country cousin of his Hollywood counterpart? Remo d’Souza, who makes indigenous films based on western concepts such as the dance-competition genre which he made into “ABCD” (it was actually ‘Ka Kha Ga Gha’), here turns […]
UnIndian film review: This side, that side
A cross-cultural romance comes with its own tropes. A successful one manages to break free while acknowledging the need for said conventions. UnIndian does quite well on that count; it’s familiar enough and yet manages to please. So there’s Will Henderson (Brett Lee), a true-blue Aussie who teaches a bunch of rookies the rules of […]
Pretham movie review: Jayasurya excels in this horror film without chills
Renjith Shankar’s movie Pretham, supposedly a horror comedy, keeps you waiting for a twist which never comes. What you get instead is a pretty ordinary climax, which is neither memorable nor scary. Thanks to Jayasurya’s character John Don Bosco, the movie is engaging in parts though. The actor again proves his versatility as he plays […]
Chauthi Koot Movie Review
Gurvinder Singh’s Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction) has already attained the status of a cinematic milestone. Last year, it became the first-ever Punjabi-language feature to break into the Cannes Film Festival’s official selection. No Indian entry in the past decade has arguably been more deserving of that nod. Opening in multiplexes with English subtitles this Friday, Chauthi Koot, […]
Budhia Singh – Born to Run Movie Review
A Bollywood sports film is usually an awkward creature. It tends to be a loud, lumbering beast prone to melodramatic flab and excessive deification. Mercifully, first-time writer-director Soumendra Padhi’s Budhia Singh – Born to Run isn’t one. It is neither average Bollywood fare nor is it just another sports-themed potboiler designed to magnify the heroics of an […]
The Legend of Michael Mishra Movie Review
STORY: Michael Misra (Arshad Warsi) aka Bhaiyyaji is a Bihari tailor-turned-kidnapper who falls in love with Varsa Sukla (Aditi Rao Hydari), a wannabe actress from Patna. He sheds his criminal image for her and becomes a good man but can his transformation bring the two together? REVIEW: While there have been reports of the film facing protests […]
Dishoom Movie Review
A star Indian batsman is kidnapped 36 hours ahead of a make-or-break match. The external affairs ministry in Delhi rushes a badass cop to a place “somewhere in the Middle East” to lead the manhunt to find both the missing cricketer and the mysterious captor. Sounds super exciting? On paper, it does. It definitely is […]
Kabali Catches Houston by Storm
By Vanshika Vipin HOUSTON: Houston saw some action from a frenzied crowd, last week. The occasion was the release of Kabali, the latest film starring the SuperStar Rajnikant. Die-hard Thalaiva fans had queued outside theatres to watch their beloved larger-than-life star. To many, Rajnikant is not just an actor or a SuperStar; he is a […]
Rajini leaves the Khans behind: Kabali is the biggest opener of all times
Toppling the three Khans of Bollywood, Rajinikanth emerged as the winner on Saturday when the makers of Kabali announced that the film had made an opening collection of Rs 250 crore in the domestic market alone. With figures like that, Kabali is now the all-time biggest opener in India. Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Happy New Year […]
Madaari review: It’s a guide on how to spoil a film despite perfect ingredients
If you have a good story and a bunch of talented actors, you can make a good movie, right? Wrong. Despite a well-intentioned and intriguing story on vigilante justice and actors like Irrfan Khan and Jimmy Shergill, Madaari comes across as a rather vague, stretched and cliched film. is Madaari begins with Irrfan Khan’s voiceover […]
America Welcomes ‘Rustom’ Akshay Kumar!
NEW YORK: Akshay Kumar and ZEE Studios unveiled the trailer and the first song of his movie ‘Rustom’. During this event Akshay Kumar, who plays the role of a Parsi naval officer Rustom Pavri in his upcoming film, met and had lunch with the Parsi community of America and Canada. During the event, the community […]
Great Grand Masti movie review: This offensively unfunny, grating thing’s not a film
Those who have been following the escapades of the ‘Masti’ boys will know that they have been stuck in a limbo: between ‘biwis’ who will not put out and other women who are dying to, between pills that stiffen male private parts and receptacles to insert said parts into, between… I could go on, but […]
Shorgul Movie Review
STORY : In Maliabad (a small town in Uttar Pradesh), a local politician’s son Raghu falls in love with a Muslim girl named Zainab. She is engaged to a boy from her community but Raghu can’t help but harbour feelings for her. This unrequited love story ends in bloodshed. The local politicos use the isolated incident […]
The Star Promoter Brushes with Fame @ IIFA-2016
By Vanshika Vipin HOUSTON: Rajender Singh, a notable bigwig amongst the Bollywood fraternity is also a household name in Houston. What started with a humble beginning in Rajasthan, India, catapulted him to the position of a reputable magnate in the entertainment industry. As the President of Star Promotions Inc., Rajender considers himself fortunate to have […]
Dhanak Movie Review
A film that believes – and artfully coaxes the audience to believe – in miracles, Nagesh Kukunoor’s bewitching Dhanak is itself a full-blown marvel. It’s like a dazzling flash in the sky that lights up everything around it and soaks you instantly in its warmth. This sparkling little gem deftly darts back and forth between disarming simplicity […]
Udta Punjab Movie Review
Abhishek Chaubey’s Udta Punjab is littered with standout scenes, but none matches the sledgehammer impact of the climax. Sudden, quick on the draw and stunningly to the point, it brings the curtains down on a profane, dystopic vision of a state that was once India’s bread basket but is today burdened with a whole slew of problems, […]
Housefull 3 Movie Review
Like its central premise – three desperate drifters out to marry a trio of wealthy sisters weave their way in and out of trouble – Housefull 3 is painfully hackneyed and sickeningly silly. But for a slapstick comedy that makes no bones about its lowbrow intentions, being trite and stupid is part of the game. […]
Sarbjit Movie Review
STORY: Indian Sarbjit is wrongfully imprisoned in a Pakistani jail – can his sister Dalbir have him freed? REVIEW: Straight away, Sarbjit is Randeep Hooda’s triumph. In 1990, a simple Punjabi farmer Sarbjit (Randeep) drunkenly wanders across the India-Pakistan border – a milestone in a field – merrily singing ‘Jai Jai Shiv Shankar’, suddenly captured and tossed into Pakistani […]
Azhar Movie Review
STORY: A disclaimer at the start says that it is not a biopic on the life of one of the most celebrated and controversial Indian cricket captains Mohammad Azharuddin(Emraan). So the makers hoodwink you submission that it is not a biopic. But one has also to be blind, not to be able to see the similarities […]
