Member Reviews

We get so many spam calls these days that it is hard to figure out which ones are real. Then, while driving the car, you listen to FM stations where prank calls drive the programming. Director Girish Kohli employs this odd everyday reality in this thrilling race against time. On the way to the hospital to settle a crucial deal, doctor Abhimanyu (Sohum Shah) gets a mysterious call telling him that his daughter has been kidnapped, and he has time till sunset to save her life. As Abhimanyu presses the pedal, Kohli drops red herrings on the highway. Gradually, we discover that Abhimanyu is an inadequate surgeon and a flawed father.

Reema Kagti’s Superboys of Malegaon is the kind of film that is called a crowd-pleaser in the festival circuit and a critic-seeker at the box office. Unraveling like an aesthetically charged, culturally muted performative version of Faiza Ahmad Khan’s acclaimed documentary Malegaon Ka Superman (2008), it sets out to celebrate the true story of a mofussil town’s obsession with cinema, where a wedding videographer’s vision spurs a cottage industry of spoofs of Bollywood classics. Reema and screenwriter Varun Grover expand on the hour-long documentary to explore deep-rooted fragile notions of originality, taste, and class in the realm of creativity. Unfortunately, the film suffers from the same issues that it engages with.

A guilt-ridden elderly man Rajendran confesses to a crime he had committed 40 years ago and commits suicide, recording the same on Facebook. A suspended cop Vivek is entrusted with the case which involves the discovery of skeletal remains connected to the disappearance of a young woman from the set of Mammootty’s 1985 film Kathodu Kathoram. Vivek is desperate for answers. Asif Ali is fast cementing his authority as one of the most bankable actors in modern-day Malayalam cinema. Rekhachithram is a worthy follow-up to his other recent thrillers Thalavan and Kishkindha Kaandam. Anaswara Rajan fits perfectly as a Mammootty fan girl, who aspires for a career in films, playing her part with verve, innocence and integrity.

Pia Jaisingh, from a family of lawyers, hires Arjun Mehta, a scholarship student, as a pretend boyfriend to cover a lie in her school. Despite his academic and athletic success, relationships are not his forte. As their pretense deepens, genuine feelings develop, until all hell breaks loose over a misunderstanding. How far will Pia and Arjun go to confront their inner demons and find true love? Though the film is in place to launch Ibrahim into the industry, one feels sorry for him. He is reduced to a male mannequin devoid of any personality. All he’s asked to do is to wear good clothes, show off his toned body and if possible, find time to act. Khushi Kapoor is marginally better in the film than her debut The Archies, though she clearly has a long way to go as a performer.

The unrest surrounding the oppressive Rowlatt Act culminates in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. London-educated advocate Kantilal Sahni, witnessing the carnage, loses his childhood friends Hari and Allahbaksh amidst the political chaos. Haunted by their deaths, Sahni exposes the systemic injustice of the British Raj that facilitated the massacre, while leading the Hunter Commission inquiry. Taaruk Raina, popular for his lighter roles, makes a welcome departure from his strengths, in a heavy role packed with old-fashioned drama – an arena he’s not fully comfortable with, though he delivers a sincere performance. Sahil Mehta, as the angsty journalist with firm opinions, is at ease with his portrayal and is helped by his strong screen presence.

Banwari Jha, a teacher in the remote village of Dhadakpur, is anxious to find a husband for his daughter, Roshni. Despite her relationship with childhood friend Amavaas, Roshni accepts a marriage proposal, surprisingly opting for the groom’s brother, Kuber. Kuber’s demand for a five-lakh worth motorbike as dowry sets off a chain of unexpected events. Fresh after his heartfelt performance in Laapata Ladies – Sparsh Shrivastava is back in a familiar avatar (with a few tweaks) but still manages to leave a strong imprint, thanks to his agile body language, ease with humour and drama. Gajraj Rao brings warmth to yet another fatherly role. It’s a pleasant sight to see Shivani Raghuvanshi grow with every project while staying true to the pitch of the character.

There is a quaint Christian fishing hamlet. There is a raging sea at their footsteps. The villagers haven’t gone fishing in their waters for over two decades. Every single person who has gone out to the sea has come back dead. There is a curse. There is a reasoning. There are overarching themes involving regret, retribution, and redemption. There is a romance track that, thankfully, exists in the periphery. There is a to-and-fro between timelines that moves from the 80s to the 2020s to the 2010s to the 60s to the 80s, and you know the drill. There are multiple backstories for each principal player of this story. There is a folklore. There is a fantasy element, and then… there’s a sea creature. And yet, for the longest time, GV Prakash Kumar‘s latest film, Kingston, seems to move nowhere, and this proves to be the film’s biggest undoing.

Gentlewoman starts off as a tale about a gentle woman. She wakes up. She makes coffee. She has her bath. She wears her saree. She cooks. She packs. Her husband wakes up, prays to God, and gets ready for work. He reads philosophy. On the outset, he is that perfect husband. But scratch just a couple of layers, we understand that he has made her a creature of habit. She wakes up, makes coffee, has her bath, wears her saree, cooks, packs, and also has to stand in the balcony and bid him goodbye as he leaves for work. But what does he do for her? Well, never once in the film does he do anything for her. And this is not registered by an elaborate scene, but just a simple callback that is effective and subtle. Probably why when director Joshua Sethuraman suddenly decides to get all preachy and rub our faces in the film’s ideology with verbose monologues, and random conversations that feel out of place in this world, it feels like a let-down.