
Member Reviews
No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough. Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you.
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Films reviewed on this Page
Mrs (1)
Thandel (3)
The Mehta Boys (3)
Loveyapa (2)
Bada Naam Karenge (1)
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Thandel
Kirubhakar Purushothaman
News 18

Naga Chaitanya Delivers A Career-Best Performance As He And Sai Pallavi Outshine The Film
Naga Chaitanya's film is loosely based on real-life events, of 22 fishermen from Andhra Pradesh getting arrested by Pakistan’s Navy and struggling to get home.
Thandel becomes the much-needed breakthrough for Naga Chaitanya, who establishes himself as an able actor, something he has been striving for a while now. The Telugu actor plays the role of Raju, a fisherman from a coastal village in Andhra Pradesh, named Machidesam. The fishermen in the town make a living off travelling to the Gujarat coast and fishing in the treacherous waters, which borders a Pakistan-controlled region. Raju, the Thandel, the captain of the village’s fisherman, is deeply in love with Sathya (Sai Pallavi), another pillar of the film. Together the two actors make Thandel a moving love story about perseverance and aid hugely in letting go of the blemishes, that are scattered in the movie.
All 4 reviews of Thandel here
The Mehta Boys
Saibal Chatterjee
NDTV

Refreshingly Unpretentious Father-Son Drama
The heart-warming drama is enlivened by the wonderful central performances from Boman Irani and Avinash Tiwary, perfectly complemented by Shreya Chaudhry.
Self-assured is one thing that actor Boman Irani’s directorial debut, The Mehta Boys, definitely is. It is a refreshingly unpretentious father-son drama that neither strives for gratuitous pace nor looks for pronounced complexity and yet manages to be not only thought-provoking but also emotionally involving. The director is also the lead actor and co-producer of the Amazon Prime Video film but he clearly isn’t weighed down by the workload. He maintains a firm grip on a narrative centred on a 71-year-old Navsari-based man coming off the demise of his wife and his fraught relationship with his only son, an architect who flew the coop a decade ago in pursuit of a career in Mumbai. The Mehta Boys, scripted by Boman Irani and Oscar-winning screenwriter Alexander Dinelaris (Birdman), isn’t crammed with high drama, surprise twists and radical themes. It has its share of emotive highs and performative crescendos but that does not deflect it off its clean, even and realistic arc.
All 9 reviews of The Mehta Boys here
Loveyapa
Saibal Chatterjee
NDTV

Uneven, Fun, Frothy And Anything But Pointless
The movie will probably not send you into paroxysms of delight, but it is a decent enough film while it lasts.
The title of the film whimsically fuses two words from two languages - love and siyappa - to convey what it is about - a wild and wacky scenario in which unbridled, unending chaos caused by secret online entanglements sends a steady romantic liaison between two Delhi youngsters into a maddening tailspin. Loveyapa is uneven but fun, frothy but anything but pointless. It isn’t all empty talk and texting. It isn’t just words that crash into each other in Loveyapa. Two worlds and impulses - virtual and real, East and West Delhi, and male proclivities and female instincts - are posited against each other in the film. The busy crisscrossing creates its share of problems for the characters as well as the film’s makers. Eventually, for the latter, it does not go out of hand.
All 9 reviews of Loveyapa here
Thandel
Aditya Shrikrishna
(for OTT Play)
Independent Film Critic

Thandel Is A Dry & Dated Melodrama
Naga Chaitanya and Sai Pallavi starrer Thandel is the best bad film in all the oldest ways possible. Apart from Pallavi, everyone and everything is artificial including the filmmaking.
In Chandoo Mondeti’s Thandel, distance makes romance sing harder before it combusts into a residue of tears. Raju (Naga Chaitanya) and Satya (Sai Pallavi) have been together since childhood and now their love blossoms through the stray mobile tower. Raju is a seafarer, a fisherman who works the waters around Gujarat while Satya in Srikakulam looks longingly at her mobile phone to hear a syllable in his voice. He holds the phone aloft and so does she at home. He, with ocean on all sides and, she, on land but not far from the beach. We see a fisherfolk community that toils in the waters, the men away for long and the women waiting and working at home. We know that this frequent separation will not end well and as expected, Thandel doesn’t hold its cards too close to its chest. It presents everything without a facade. Raju is our regular Telugu film hero, and this is as mainstream as it gets so he is introduced romancing and fighting at the same time. The first half coasts along and nothing really happens for much of Thandel’s runtime. Physical distance gives way to emotional distance between the lovers but the way the film narrativises these events is toothless. The film places itself in melodramatic territory, the star-crossed lovers’ separation is the whole point, but the writing is flat and we never feel for any of these people. Apart from Sai Pallavi, everyone and everything is artificial including the filmmaking. It is probably forgivable to use a green screen for scenes atop a lighthouse, but Satya is staged in front of what looks like a green screen even for a scene on the terrace of her tiny dwelling. The film looks cheap and when even basic scenes are given this little attention then what to make of stormy seas where there are both fights as well as lifesaving action.
All 4 reviews of Thandel here
The Mehta Boys
Anuj Kumar
The Hindu

Boman Irani maps an intricate architecture of father-son relationship
Redolent with mood and motifs, Avinash Tiwary shines in this tender tale of grief and gratitude told with wit and vigour
Is he an adult? Is he a child? He is your father. In his first directorial venture, Boman Irani renders a keenly observed, lived experience of an urban Indian family as he finds the simple answer to the tricky question. The tension between father and son never goes out of fashion in creative space, but the expression often tilts towards one generation or the other. Boman and co-writer Alexander Dinelaris (of Birdman fame) walk the rope in this tender exploration of a jagged relationship that leaves a sobering impact. Rich in detail, redolent with melancholy, and peppered with meaningful motifs, the film caresses a raw nerve. The duo generates a dialogue between two generations without getting pedantic, without losing sight of the plot. A charming, emerging architect struggling to find his voice in the boardroom, Amay (Avinash Tiwary) returns home after the sudden demise of his mother to see his grieving father Shiv (Boman) wilt. Though grappling with loss, Shiv doesn’t seek his son’s shoulder to cry. Amay doesn’t offer it either. Like most Indian families, the two share a silent relationship that appears strained from the outside. His sister Ana (Shikha Sarup) is the link connecting the two. She wants to take her father to the US. But is the father ready to make the emotional shift? She bribes him with his favourite meal, but Shiv sees through the design.
All 9 reviews of The Mehta Boys here
Loveyapa
Bharathi Pradhan
Lehren.com

Gen Z’s Cuppa
The chaos that unfolds when a couple swaps phones and starts uncovering painful truths about each other
It takes off on a merry note. There’s a request made to the audience (in Aamir Khan’s voice) about mobile phones: do not exchange yours with anybody else. It sets the tone for freshness. Spanking new content, young first-timers in the lead, parental scoldings you haven’t heard before and sometimes, chaotic humour. These are the four elements that make writer-director Advait Chandan’s conventionally labelled ‘romantic comedy’ unconventional. It’s new age all through. Buying a new phone, payment by phone. Constant chats. They know each other’s friends, families and house layout even before stepping into each other’s domains. “Baani boo, I can’t hear you.” “Gucci, awaaz nahi aa rahi hai.” Lovebirds Baani Sharma (Khushi Kapoor) and Gaurav Sachdeva (Junaid Khan) can’t hear each other clearly, he climbing the water tank to get a connection, she raising her voice at home.
All 9 reviews of Loveyapa here
The Mehta Boys
Bharathi Pradhan
Lehren.com

Frost Melts With Warmth
The Mehta Boys is a family drama that delves into the relationship between a father and son, highlighting the growth and misunderstandings that come with it.
Boman Irani just enriched his resume, adding to his impressive repertoire of performances, a sterling debut as writer-director. Strained father-son relationships have consistently provided fodder to Hindi cinema. From the Dilip Kumar-Amitabh Bachchan cop-son drama of Ramesh Sippy’s Shakti to the violently successful Anil Kapoor-Ranbir stand-off in Animal, the stress comes in different forms. Boman Irani’s contribution to this troubled bond birthed at home, is hot chocolate comforting. The loss of his wife of many years spells emotional upheaval on multiple fronts for retired typing school owner and teacher Shiv Mehta (Boman Irani). He has to respect the pact he’d made with his wife that the partner who outlives the other would move to America to stay with daughter Anu (Puja Sarup). It’s a wrench for him to bid goodbye to their home in Navsari, Gujarat. To the memorabilia and to memories, his gully cricket with little boys, his Gavaskar-signed bat, his manual typewriter.
All 9 reviews of The Mehta Boys here
Thandel
Avinash Ramachandran
Indian Express

Naga Chaitanya, Sai Pallavi shoulder a layered romance but get bogged down by superficial drama
When the film focusses on the ups and downs of Sai Pallavi-Naga Chaitanya relationship, it sails quite smoothly, but the moment the film enters the murky waters of Pakistan, Thandel turns into a heroic tale of unlikely heroes, whose sorrow gets lost in the heroism
We’ve always heard that distance makes heart grow fonder. But very rarely is this showcased with as much pining and soul as Chandoo Mondeti does in Thandel. With the ever-dependable Sai Pallavi playing Sathya and a highly efficient Naga Chaitanya playing Raju, Chandoo weaves a tale of romance that blossoms over the cracks in voices, the fragrance of a worn shirt, and the wind caressing a flag tied to a lighthouse. The elements are the witness to this love story that finds itself thriving in the analog even during the digital era. It is beautiful how Sathya even looks at Raju. There is a wonderful mix of reverence, romance, exasperation, and a weird sense of contentment that she exudes in her eyes whenever she is around Raju, who wonderfully showcases vulnerability that can only be seen in a heartfelt romance. As long as Thandel focusses on the ups and downs of this relationship, it sails quite smoothly. But the moment the film enters the murky waters of Pakistan, Thandel throws restraint to the wind, and turn into a heroic tale of unlikely heroes, whose sorrow gets lost in the heroism.
All 4 reviews of Thandel here
Bada Naam Karenge
Sonal Pandya
Times Now, Zoom

Rajshri's OTT Debut Takes Aim At Modern Romance, Remains Old-Fashioned
Rajshri Productions and filmmaker Sooraj Barjatya venture into the world of streaming with this promising but muddled love story.
We don’t usually see love stories on film or OTT much these days, so our eyes were peeled for Rajshri Production’s Bada Naam Karenge. The ambitious SonyLIV series unfolds like a feature film rather than a series. It’s easy to get invested in the romance between Surbhi (Ayesha Kaduskar) and Rishabh (Ritik Ghanshani) in a story set in Madhya Pradesh. But once we get to the heart of the matter, Bada Naam Karenge becomes jumbled under the weight of so many characters and remains a bit dated. The romance features two families: the wealthy Rathis of Ratlam and the middle-class Guptas of Ujjain. A possible rishta is floated between Rishabh Rathi and Surbhi Gupta. As the families explore their union through an arranged marriage, the audience learns about a hidden secret between the two. Will Rishabh and Surbhi get together, or will the expectations of their families get in the way? The story and screenplay of Bada Naam Karenge has been penned by S Manasvi. Vidit Tripathi has also helped out with the screenplay and co-written the dialogues. Moving to the past and returning to the present, the initial batch of episodes holds promise as the young couple’s story goes from enemies to lovers. Once the large cast of supporting players gets involved, it feels too behind the times. The main conflict between the two families also gets dragged out over the last few episodes, only to be quickly resolved over a big emotional scene.