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Ayushmann Khurrana and his filmmaker wife Tahira Kashyap Khurrana have prepped for their daughter Varushka's sixth birthday in the loveliest way possible. 

Since it's a quarantine birthday for little Varushka, the star parents created the birthday decor from scratch, as nothing was available in the market. In fact, this creative time turned out to be quite a bonding moment for the family of four. 

Right from creating streamers from newspapers, painting paper fans, to making a cute birthday banner for Varushka, the family did everything together. Ayushmann Khurrana also decided to entertain them by playing the guitar and piano to bring in the birthday cheer.

 

 

 

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This is a unique lockdown birthday for our 6 year old! We @ayushmannk tried our best to make it special! Sharing the joy with you ❤️ #daughter #daughtersarespecial #lockdownbirthday #recycle

A post shared by tahirakashyapkhurrana (@tahirakashyap) onApr 20, 2020 at 11:07pm PDT

Isn't that adorable?

Tahira Kashyap revealed, "We have been doing birthday preparations for the past 10 days. Since there weren't any balloons or streamers available in the market we started making some homemade decorations. There was so much joy in recycling newspapers and painting paper sheets. While I'm making six small cakes, Ayushmann is helping me organise a treasure hunt for the kids, and he is also keeping us entertained with his music. It's going to be the four of us enjoying and playing games. I've also curated a special video which has birthday wishes from her classmates and our relatives. It's going to be a special one."

Varushka turns six today and we are sure she's having an amazing birthday!

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Actor Arjun Rampal along with his family have extended a helping hand in providing PPE kits to the hospitals, doctors and nurses to help them in the fight against coronavirus. He also urged people to donate 1 uniform for these corona warriors to keep them safe and healthy.

The 47-year-old actor took to Instagram and shared a post in which he announced that the Rampal family has extended their support to MEDIQ LIFESCIENCES for providing PPE kits (made in India) in collaboration with Dr Oarsman Doshi to the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) hospital doctors and nurses.

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

I request all of you to help here. The real hero’s out there, (the doctors and nurses), the PPE. their health is in jeopardy daily, looking after ours, As unfortunately they are not equipped with the armour they need, making them sick by the corona virus. If each one of you can donate just 1 uniform for these brave hearts, it will keep your soldiers safe and healthy. Please please be generous, they need this and we will get it to them. It’s Rs. 1200 for the best suits for them, Below are the details Acc name MediQ Lifesciences Acc no 50200047998462 Ifsc code HDFC0000047 Account type Current ac Orlem, malad west branch#fightagainstcorona @doc.dd @darshan2609 #stayhome #staysafe

A post shared by Arjun (@rampal72) onApr 21, 2020 at 5:54am PDT

The 'Aankhein' actor also urged others to contribute towards helping the frontline warriors. He captioned the post as, "I request all of you to help here. The real hero's out there, (the doctors and nurses), the PPE. their health is in jeopardy daily, looking after ours, As unfortunately they are not equipped with the armour they need, making them sick by the coronavirus. If each one of you can donate just 1 uniform for these brave hearts, it will keep your soldiers safe and healthy. Please please be generous, they need this and we will get it to them. It's Rs 1200 for the best suits for them."

India's count of positive coronavirus cases reached 18,985 after 1,329 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday. Out of the total cases, 15,122 are active cases, 3,259 have been cured and discharged and one has migrated. With 44 new deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the toll stands at 603.

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Lovebirds Arbaaz Khan and Giorgia Andriani are quite active on social media and often share updates from their daily lives for their fans. Now, amid the coronavirus lockdown, Giorgia and Arbaaz are making the most of their free time and spending quality time with each other.

Recently, Giorgia, who seemed quite bored, shared a fun video in which she can be seen giving Arbaaz a clean shave! "Being a barber or being barbaric!? What say?" wrote Giorgia along with the video. The video began with a glimpse of Arbaaz resting on a couch in the balcony, which was accompanied by this description: "Dinbhar sona, complete coma."

 

 

 

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Being a barber or being barbaric!? What say? 🤷🏻‍♀ï¸Â #Quarantine #Mood #Fun #BoredInTheHouse

A post shared by Giorgia Andriani (@giorgia.andriani22) onApr 21, 2020 at 6:33am PDT

Giorgia then makes a short trip to the washroom to pick up a shaving kit. As she applies shaving cream onto Arbaaz' face, Giorgia says, "I'm just frosting... I feel like an artist." The video ends with Arbaaz's reaction to Giorgia's skills and he rates it with a thumbs up!

On the work front, Georgia will soon make her Bollywood debut with Welcome to Bajrangpur co-starring Shreyas Talpade, Sanjay Mishra, and Tigmanshu Dhulia.

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Actor Ajay Devgn on Wednesday shared a PSA for 'Aarogya Setu' app. The video featured the actor in dual roles, first as a bodyguard that acts as Setu and the second role shows the actor as himself.

The 'Tanhaji' star took to Twitter and shared the video in which he is shown exercising while Ajay who also played the role of a bodyguard and introduces himself to the actor saying, "Sir, I am your new bodyguard, Setu."

Dhanyawad @PMOIndia @narendramodi for creating a personal bodyguard for every Indian to fight COVID-19. #SetuMeraBodyguard hai aur aapka bhi.

Download @SetuAarogya now!

#IndiaFightsCoronahttps://t.co/fU7MfKfDwM pic.twitter.com/MHi7SMSTGD

— Ajay Devgn (@ajaydevgn) April 22, 2020

Ajay then says, "But I already have bodyguards." "Sir, I'm a different type of bodyguard. Only Setu can guard you against coronavirus."

"How can this save us from coronavirus," asks Devgn. Setu replies: "I can alarm you in advance about the coronavirus threat, and I also alarm you in advance if coronavirus positive person is around you."

"Sir, I also will let you know if your family has any threat from your family," he added. To which Ajay replies, "Why would my family be threatened of me?"

"Sir, if you unconsciously get in contact with a corona positive patient, I am going to alarm immediately so that you don't pass the disease to your family."

He then announced that the Government of India has recruited me as a personal bodyguard to 130 crore Indians.

At the end of the video, the 'Golmaal' star appeals to download the AarogyaSetup app, and says "Setu is my bodyguard from coronavirus, and yours too! "

Along with the video Devgn wrote, Dhanyawad @PMOIndia@narendramodi for creating a personal bodyguard for every Indian to fight COVID-19. #SetuMeraBodyguard hai aur aapka bhi. Download @SetuAarogya now! #IndiaFightsCorona https://bit.ly/AarogyaSetuAppDownload... "

AarogyaSetu app, that was launched earlier this month in a public-private partnership, enables people to themselves assess the risk for their catching the coronavirus infection. The app makes its calculations based on a person's interaction with others, using Bluetooth technology, algorithms and artificial intelligence.

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13 movies and shows based on books to watch on Disney+ Hotstar this World Book Day for free
Many of the great ideas in films and television shows come from books and inspire producers, directors, and actors to create great cinematographic projects. There's nothing better than seeing your favorite book come to life on the screen. Yet there are many gems out there, that you probably didn't know were adaptations from great books/novels. This 'World Book Day' catch these popular movies and shows that has brought your favorite books to life on Disney+ Hotstar for free.

Movies:

• Maqbool

Based on William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth', the movie is about Maqbool, who in his greed for power, murders his mentor, a fearsome don, kick-starting his countdown to doom.
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Pankaj Kapoor, Naseerudin Shah

• Aisha

In this adaptation of Jane Austen's novel 'Emma', 'Aisha' thinks she is a perfect match-maker. Despite her neighbour Arjun's warning, she continues to interfere in others' lives at the cost of her own relationships.
Cast: Sonam Kapoor,Abhay Deol, Amrita Puri, Lisa Haydon, Ira Dubey.

• 2 states

Based on Chetan Bhagat's best seller novel '2 States', North and South India come together in this chholey-bhaturey-idli-dosa romance of Punjabi Krish Malhotra and Tamilian Ananya Swaminathan, who meet at the IIM campus.
Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Alia Bhatt. Amrita Singh,Revathi, Ronit Roy

• Angoor

Angoor is a Hindi comedy film directed by Gulzar,and starring Deven Verma, Sanjeev Kumar and Moushumi Chatterjee. Adapted from Shakespeare's 'The Comedy of Errors', the story is about two pairs of identical twins, Ashok and Bahadur, who are separated at birth and later meet in adulthood, causing confusion. While one of the pairs is honest and the other is wanted by the police.
Cast: Deven Verma, Sanjeev Kumar and Moushumi Chatterjee

• Shatranj Ke Khilari

Shatranj Ke Khiladi is a Hindi drama, directed by Satyajit Ray. Based on Munshi Premchand's short story by the same name, the historical drama is set against the backdrop of the British annexation of Avadh and is about two best friends who, in their obsession for the game of chess, abandon their families.
Cast: Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Shabana Azmi and Amjad Khan

• Shala

Based on book written by Milind Bokil of the same name, Shala is a Marathi drama set in rural India of the 70's. The film is about 14-year-old Joshi who is in love with Shirodkar. His classmates Chitrya, Favdya, and Surya are facing a similar dilemma, seeking answers to the age-old question - What is love?
Cast : Anshuman Joshi, Ketaki Mategaonkar, Jitendra Joshi, Amruta Khanvilkar

• Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal

'Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal' is a Malayalam drama directed by P. Padmarajan. Sofia's stepfather fixes her marriage with his junior, also a drinking partner. When Sofia's mother accepts Solomon's proposal for Sofia, he assaults her. The movies is based on the 1986 Malayalam novel Nammukku Gramangalil Chennu Rapparkkam by K. K. Sudhakaran.
Cast: Mohanlal, Shari, Thilakan, Kaviyoor Ponamma

• Thoovanathumbikal

Based partly on P. Padmarajan's novel Udakappola, Thoovanathumbikal is a Malayalam romantic drama starring Mohanlal, Sumalatha and Parvathy. Jayakrishnan (Mohanlal) lives a dual life, one in town with his friends and the other in his village. He falls in love with two women, Clara (Sumalatha) and Radha (Parvathy), and thus begins his difficulty in deciding on a partner of the two.
Cast: Sumalatha, Mohanlal, Parvathy Jayaram

• Thanmatra

Drawn inspiration from Padmarajan's short story 'Orma', Thanmathra is a Malayalam family drama directed by Blessy. Ramesan Nair, an honest man, dreams of a happy life with his wife and a bright future for his children. When Ramesan is diagnosed with Familial Alzheimer's disease, the family is devastated, but tries to cope up with the trauma, insecurity and uncertainty.
Cast: Mohanlal, Meera Vasudevan, Arjun Lal

Shows:

• Yeh Hai Mohabbatein

Yeh Hai Mohabbatein, one of the most loved television shows, is based on the novel 'Custody' by author Manju Kapoor. The story of Raman and Ishita, brought together by destiny and their love for Ruhi, Raman's daughter from his ex-wife.
Cast: Divyanka Tripathi, Karan Patel, Ruhanika Dhawan

• Saraswatichandra

Produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali 'Saraswatichandra' is based on Govardhanram Tripathi's novel of the same name. In this classic tale of love and heartbreak, Saras and Kumud are soulmates who are repeatedly the joy of being together. Will Destiny bring them together?
Cast: Gautam Rode, Jennifer Winget, Shiny Doshi, Varun Kapoor

• Pardes Mein Hai Mera Dil

Based on Manju Kapoor's book 'The Immigrant', Pardes Mein Hai Mera Dil' is about Naina Batra and Raghav Mehra. Both are expats in a foreign country, abandoned by their loved ones. Soon, they become each other's strength.
Cast: Drishti Dhami, Arjun Bijlani, Additi Gupta, Surekha Sikri

• Malgudi Days

Malgudi Days is a Hindi family serial based on the works of R.K. Narayan. The heart-warming short stories take place in the fictitious town of South India, Malgudi, inhabited by timeless characters who go about their lives with a dash of humour and simplicity.
Cast: Master Majunath, Shankar Nag, Girish Karnad, Anant Nag, Deven Bhojan

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Shah Rukh Khan recently announced several initiatives towards coronavirus relief to support the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and the state and central governments in their fight against COVID-19. The actor has also gone a step ahead and offered his four-storey personal office to help the BMC expand their quarantine capacity, which is equipped with essentials for quarantined children, women and the elderly.

Recently, his wife Gauri Khan took to Instagram to share a glimpse of their office, which has now been converted into a quarantine facility. In the video, we can see how the private office space has been transformed into quarantine quarters. The work has been completed by Gauri's firm Gauri Khan Designs in collaboration with Meer Foundation. The video gives a glimpse into the office which is now equipped with beds placed at a safe distance from each other.

"#GauriKhanDesign‘s refurbished this office ...a quarantine zone providing essentials and services to those in need. We must stand together and stand strong in this fight against #Covid19. @meerfoundationofficial @iamsrk (sic)", wrote Gauri while sharing a video, originally shared by the Meer Foundation.

"Making space for each other. #MeerFoundation has effectively transformed the 4-storey private office building, offered by @gaurikhan and @iamsrk, into quarantine quarters under @my_bmc's guidance. In this fight, we stand together stronger than ever before," read a post on the Instagram handle of Meer Foundation.

 

 

 

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#GauriKhanDesign‘s refurbished this office ...a quarantine zone providing essentials and services to those in need. We must stand together and stand strong in this fight against #Covid19. @meerfoundationofficial @iamsrk #Repost @meerfoundationofficial ・・・ Making space for each other. #MeerFoundation has effectively transformed the 4-storey private office building, offered by @gaurikhan and @iamsrk, into quarantine quarters under @my_bmc's guidance. In this fight, we stand together stronger than ever before.

A post shared by Gauri Khan (@gaurikhan) onApr 22, 2020 at 4:10am PDT

Apart from converting his office into a quarantine facility, Shah Rukh Khan has extended a lot of support with his group of companies. From government funds to 50,000 PPE kits, food requirements of 5,500 Mumbai families, 2,000 cooked meals to hospitals, three lakh meal kits for 10,000 people, grocery for 2,500 daily wage workers in Delhi and 100 acid attack survivors, his range of initiatives aim to spread across many segments of the society.

Several other Bollywood celebrities, too, have supported the government in their own way. Many of them, including Saif Ali Khan-Kareena Kapoor Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sara Ali Khan, Ranveer Singh-Deepika Padukone, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, and others, have pledged their contribution to the PM-CARES Fund.

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Actress Karisma Kapoor on Friday brought back some nineties nostalgia, sharing a throwback picture with Govinda, her co-star in several hits of that era including "Coolie No. 1", "Raja Babu" and "Hero No. 1".

Taking to her Instagram, Karisma posted an image in which Govinda and she posed in front of Eiffel Tower, Paris. She also asked her followers to guess the film from the image. Fans flooded her page with the reply: "Hero No. 1".

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by KK (@therealkarismakapoor) onApr 23, 2020 at 11:40pm PDT

Not only this, but Karisma also mentioned in the post that she hopes to see the world returning to normalcy soon. "Dancing around the Eiffel Tower.. hopefully those carefree days will return again very soon ..Which film is this pic from ?

#guessinggame#flashbackfriday #paris #france," she captioned the image.

On the work front, Karisma recently made her web debut with Ekta Kapoor's digital show "Mentalhood".

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Yesterday, on April 25, Vicky Kaushal took to social media to cheer a youngster who overcame the odds to battle the virus. He shared a video in which the girl (above) is seen being welcomed back home by residents and security personnel of a housing complex in Andheri. He wrote, "Like a ray of sunshine on a gloomy day, our little warrior comes back home. Welcome back champ (sic)." Kaushal stays in the same complex, which had been partially sealed by the BMC after the girl tested positive. Residents have been asked to take precautionary measures.

The video will surely make you applaud the girl and salute her spirts. Have a look at the video right here:

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

Like a ray of sunshine on a gloomy day, our little warrior comes back Home! #WelcomeBackChamp 🌟💛

A post shared by Vicky Kaushal (@vickykaushal09) onApr 24, 2020 at 9:38am PDT

The whole world has been suffering from the Coronavirus pandemic for more than a month now and we all are collectively waiting for it to get over as soon as it can. The lockdown has now been extended till May 3 and reports suggest that in Maharashtra, it is likely to be extended further. This is a tough time for all of us and we need to take safe and strict measures.

Thanks to actors like Kaushal that we are getting to know the spirits of all the survivors and how they have combated Coronavirus. There are a lot more stories like this that are waiting to be told. As far as the actor himself is concerned, he has been doing what pretty much everyone else is- Experimenting with haircuts, cooking food, cleaning the house, and uploading candid pictures and videos.

Once the lockdown is over, the actor will gear up for a lot of massive and mega-ambitious films like Takht, Ashwatthama, Sardar Udham Singh, and a film on the life of Sam Manekshaw.

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Bollywood actress Vidya Balan is elated as she's raised over 2,500 PPE kits for doctors and Rs 16 lakhs for those who are battling at the frontline to keep everyone safe from COVID-19 pandemic.

Vidya had also collaborated with celebrity shout-out platform Tring, along with Manish Mundra of Drishyam Films and photographer cum film producer Atul Kasbekar. She took to Instagram on Sunday afternoon where she shared the good news.

"I've woken up to good news this morning. We've reached 2500+ PPE kits and raised over 16 lakh in just a few hours. A big thank you to each of you who has donated and made this possible. A load of gratitude and bless you. This is truly the unity and spirit of India..." she said in the video.

Here it is:

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

Thank you very much for your generous donations from all over the world. I’m elated to share that we have raised 2500+ kits accounting over Rs.16 lakhs within few hours. A load of gratitude for helping in donating over double our initial target. The campaign will run for some more time, so if you haven’t been able to donate yet but want to help out, go to www.tring.co.in and donate whatever you can. Every single kit is helping protect a life. The #WarAgainstCovid19 continues, let’s #UniteForHumanity #StayHome #StaySafe

A post shared by Vidya Balan (@balanvidya) onApr 25, 2020 at 9:21pm PDT

Alongside the video, Vidya wrote: "Thank you very much for your generous donations from all over the world. I'm elated to share that we have raised 2500+ kits accounting over Rs 16 lakh within a few hours. A load of gratitude for helping in donating over double our initial target.” (sic)

"The campaign will run for some more time, so if you haven't been able to donate yet but want to help out, go to www.tring.co.in and donate whatever you can. Every single kit is helping protect a life. The #WarAgainstCovid19 continues, let's #UniteForHumanity #StayHome#StaySafe".

In an earlier post, the Mission Mangal star had informed that each PPE kit worth Rs 650 consists of one coverall laminated and waterproof nitrile gloves, goggles, face shields, 3-ply surgical mask, and shoe covers.

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A day after Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor explained the controversies regarding her having tested corona positive last month; the Lucknow Police pasted a notice at her house, asking her to record her statement.

Kanika Kapoor has been charged under IPC Section 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and Section 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the IPC.

Deepak Kumar Singh, ACP, Krishna Nagar said that the singer will have to come to the police station and give her a written statement. Further action will be taken after this.

On Sunday, Kanika took to Instagram to express her gratitude to the health workers who treated her. She also wrote that several stories were doing the rounds and she was fully aware and knew that some information has been misrepresented.

According to Kanika, she arrived in Mumbai on March 10 from the UK. During this time, she was scanned at the international airport. Until that time no advisory had been issued that required her to quarantine herself.

She had come to Lucknow to meet her family on March 11, when there was no scanning system for domestic flights. On March 14 and 15, Kanika went to lunch and dinner with her friends.

She pointed out that all the people she had interacted with in the UK, Mumbai, and Lucknow are healthy and their reports have also come up negative.

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Known for his chiselled frame and fitness fetish, Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan wants to decimate the last cigarette on the planet. The subject came up on Twitter after a user asked him he had a cigarette in his hand while he was standing with his sons in the balcony of his home, in a recently-posted picture shared by the actor's fanclub.

"Does @iHrithik have a cigarette in his hand or am I seeing wrong? I hope you don't @iHrithik. It makes me very very very sorry," the user wrote.

The actor replied: "I am a non-smoker. :) and if I was Krrish, first thing I'd do after eradicating this virus would be to decimate every last cigarette from this planet.

Recently, Hrithik shared some 'lockdown tips' with fans. He suggests a daily dose of vitamin D to take care of mental health even as we continue to be confined at home. Hrithik Roshan has been spending the lockdown with his ex-wife Sussanne Khan, who has temporarily moved in with him, to take care of their two sons Hrehaan and Hridhaan.

Talking about mental health, Hrithik has recently started learning piano, which he feels is "great for activating both sides of the brain".

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This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever

Sharing a doodle that said 'not all heroes wear capes,' actor Arjun Kapoor on Monday applauded the healthcare workers of the country who are fighting to combat COVID-19.

The 'Panipat' actor took to Twitter to share the doodle that featured a doctor, a nurse, and a medical staff taking care of an elderly person.

Bowing down to health workers today for their tremendous efforts to #FightCovid19! They work 24/7, through the year to deliver critical services like immunization across the country. Let’s stand #Together4Health and applaud their unwavering grit and determination! pic.twitter.com/9VkuE4kFYm

— arjunk26 (@arjunk26) April 27, 2020

The doodle was titled 'not all heroes wear capes' and an additional text on it read, 'Front-line health workers are working round the clock to keep us safe & healthy. True Heroes.'

Kapoor also urged others to stand up and applaud the healthcare workers for their unwavering determination.

"Bowing down to health workers today for their tremendous efforts to #FightCovid19! They work 24/7, through the year to deliver critical services like immunization across the country," he tweeted.

"Let's stand #Together4Health and applaud their unwavering grit and determination!" his tweet further read.

The '2 States' actor has been posting on social media to raise awareness about different issues related to the coronavirus ever since the crisis began in the country.

Kapoor has several times posted on social media asking people to not abandon their pets due to coronavirus and has also urged people to take all necessary precautions to prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus.

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We're instantly intrigued by the images of coloured burgers topped with motifs from superhero fiction, posted by a new café in Kemps Corner whose opening we spotted while on an errand. We share the image with a friend, an avid comics fan, who aptly responds, "What the hell is that?" And that's the sort of bait it takes to convince someone from Central Mumbai to come to town.

The badges around the menu

We make a trip to the newly opened Pop Culture Cafe (PCC) on a Saturday afternoon. On entering the space we feel it is a true reflection of the city's real estate crunch. With keychains and baubles put up for sale, there are four high stools — good luck if you're vertically challenged like us — and a ledge that can accommodate about three people. If you plan on bringing a big group of friends and if you love them all, invite only one and let them breathe.

The menu includes pasta, pizza, burgers, shakes and waffles — all vegetarian and named after popular movies and TV shows.

Keychains available for sale

So, we pick the Hulk smaash pasta (Rs 250), the Hogwartz pizza (Rs 350), and a watermelon cooler (Rs 170). While we try to make conversation, the soundtrack of The Dark Knight by Hans Zimmer plays in the background. And even though we are fans, the vibe is a bit too weird. While we grumble about how there is no room for a quiet bite, let alone privacy, the food is literally handed over to us from the counter a few inches behind our backs.

Hulk smaash pasta

The cooler tastes more like a party punch with no trace of watermelon. One glance at the four-cheese pizza is enough to tell you it's unappetising; one bite, and you are convinced it is. You can only taste the mozarella and cheddar, and you'll be able to find a similar and tasteful variant at local food chains for a two-digit amount. Our last hope is the pasta. While we click a picture of the dish blended in pesto sauce with mozzarella sprinkles, the staff places a piggy bank shaped like the clenched fist of the Hulk next to it (resembling our fists at the moment). Our friend has the first go, and we nervously watch him drop his spoon in disappointment. It's bland, as is the presentation. He's kind to sum up the experience as average, but we sure as hell want our money back.

Watermelon cooler

Even though the place might appeal to the die-hard fan, it doesn't do justice to its price point. And it is also situated in a building that houses a popular coffee chain, a brewery and a Neapolitan restaurant. If you happen to get lost in the narrow alleyways in search of PCC and land up at any one of these, you can thank your stars.

Coloured burgers 

AT Pop Culture Cafe, Kwality House, Kemps Corner.
TIME 12 pm to 11 pm
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BS Yeddyurappa submits his resignation as Karnataka chief minister to Governor Vajubhai Vala in Bengaluru on Saturday. Pic/PTI

At a press conference moments after BS Yeddyurappa quit as Karnataka chief minister for the third occasion in his life, this time after just two impotent days, Congress president Rahul Gandhi was asked if he would demand Governor Vajubhai Vala's resignation. Just the day before, Rahul had tweeted that Vala's decision to invite Yeddyurappa to form a government, despite being short of a majority and not having any other party's support, was "unconstitutional". Yet, with the press he was philosophical: "What's the point?" Rahul said. "Even if Governor Vala is made to go, Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi would put another puppet in his place, who will take exactly the same decisions."

Rahul repeatedly stressed the point that the RSS, through Modi, is out to destroy all institutions in India because it respects no institution other than the RSS. Modi did not behave like a democrat, he said, but like a "dictator". (Also, the Congress president referred to his BJP counterpart as "murder accused Amit Shah".)

Some Indians don't mind Modi being a dictator. They think democracy in India is too slow and needs to be speeded up. Not only is this sentiment justified by pseudo-Darwinism — so what if the poor get left behind? — it doesn't seem to bother them that subverting Constitutional niceties may backfire on them one day, when the Great Leader is replaced by someone else, perhaps another regional leader in a hurry. For now it's okay if their Governors try one thing in Manipur and Goa, and then try the opposite in Karnataka.

Rahul did not mention, however, the elephant in the room: the occupant of the highest constitutional office in the land. For much of the republic's life we have had some pretty ordinary occupants in Rashtrapati Bhawan, and one need not go far back in history to find some awful examples. Pratibha Patil was nominated by the UPA to be India's first woman president, but she was far from a leading advocate of gender-equality or even equal-pay issues during her career; her elevation was simply an exercise in tokenism —much in the way that Ram Nath Kovind's is. (Another pedestrian candidate, to my mind, was fixer and murky backroom boy Pranab Mukherjee, who in 2012 end-gamed then Congress President Sonia Gandhi into nominating him.)

President Kovind isn't even the first dalit in Rashtrapati Bhawan. The first was KR Narayanan, who unlike President Kovind, had a distinguished career as a diplomat and an academician before he became vice-president (and in 1997, president). President Kovind's achievements have been modest in the field of education; and though he was personal assistant to Prime Minister Morarji Desai, he has been a Hindutva ideologue for over a quarter of a century. The RSS considers him its man.

President Kovind isn't anywhere near the stratosphere of popularity achieved by the other NDA nominee for president, the late APJ Abdul Kalam, who succeeded Narayanan in 2002. On the contrary, President Kovind was earlier this month left looking diminished thanks to former information and broadcasting minister Smriti Irani (repeatedly the proverbial bull in Modi's china shop) who mismanaged his presentation of the National Film Awards, provoking many artistes to boycott the function. (The photos were catastrophic, showing rows of empty seats at the function.)

President KR Narayanan distinguished himself in office with a couple of correct Constitutional decisions that shocked the political establishment, because he acted impartially rather than be the government's rubber stamp. In October 1997, he returned the recommendation by then Prime Minister IK Gujral's to put UP under President's Rule. He is the only president to have refused to impose central rule (he did it again the next year), setting an important precedent for federalism.

Given the recent partisanship of members of the Election Commission and of the Supreme Court, and with Governor Vala's naked and shameless partiality — he disregarded recommendations by various Centre-State Commissions set up since Independence on the Governor's role in inviting a party for government formation — you need not be a rocket scientist to predict President Kovind's behaviour if the 2019 election produces a hung parliament.

Imagine a scenario where the BJP wins about 180 seats and the Congress wins about 185, or the other way around. Forget for a moment how the pre-poll and post-poll alliances shape up. Then ask yourself the question: who will President Kovind invite first to form the government? This must be weighing on the minds of Rahul Gandhi and his team. It is obvious to most of us why Modi appoints whoever he appoints to high Constitutional office — it is to do his bidding. President Kovind's critical moment in history will come when he will have to make a choice — to be another KR Narayanan, or to be another Vajubhai Vala.

Aditya Sinha's latest book, The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI, and the Illusion of Peace (HarperCollins India), written with former spychiefs AS Dulat and Asad Durrani, is out this week. He tweets @autumnshade Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

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Ben is Back

U/A: Drama
Director: Peter Hedges
Cast: Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, Courtney B. Vance, Kathryn Newton
Rating: 

A family drama that makes substance abuse look like the enemy of humanity it is, this Peter Hedges directed film dramatically shifts its moods from celebration to welcoming to fearful – all in the span of a few minutes.

When Ben(Lucas Hedges) shows up skulking around at his home driveway in a hooded wind-breaker the audience is unsure as to his antecedents. Then his mother Holly(Julia Roberts), his teenage sister Ivy(Kathryn Newton) and two half-siblings (Mia Fowler and Jakari Fraser) arrive home and we see the trepidation tinted welcome he receives. When his step-father Neal(Courtney B Vance) rushes home after receiving Ivy's urgent message, we understand there's further gravity to the situation.

Director Peter Hedges opens up his pages slowly allowing us to experience in some measure as to what the family is going through. Eventually it becomes imminently clear that Ben's return for Christmas from a rehab program he was recently inducted into, is unexpected and ill-advised.

Check out the trailer here:

While 'Ben is Back' is not exactly a dense suspense drama it draws up intensity from a construct that questions the integrity of it's lead character. Since it's a story about an addict and his struggle with addiction the question that haunts his family and himself is 'Will he use again?' He has sworn and swears again that he won't but he has lied before and given his track record should his family believe him? It's a tough ask. But then what about love, compassion and forgiveness? Can a mother really abandon her child to the vagaries of a habit that could eventually destroy him? The film deals with all these questions and more and the answers that it comes up with are neither easy nor universally applicable.

As Holly takes on the onus of keeping Ben in her sights, she uncovers secrets that test her mothering skills –throughout an increasingly harrowing day and night exposing her to an underbelly that she never opened her eyes to in the past.

There are times when the plotting seems contrived and questionable but by and large Peter Hedges does a good job plying a pathway that has hurdles at every turn. The dramatic tension though is not sharp enough and that's one of the reasons why you feel rather ambivalent about this tale. Performances are universally good though!

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Aquaman

U/A: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Director: James Wan
Cast: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Nicole Kidman
Rating: 

Aquaman - a largely underwater flight of fancy, amounts to a herculean attempt by custodian Warner Bros. to right its wonky DC cinematic universe and it's success is moderate at best. A large part of the credit should necessarily go to the charismatic Jason Momoa( ex Baybatch ) who got promoted to this leading role after showing face in 2016's Batman v. Superman : Dawn of Justice and Justice League.

This superhero saga is mostly origin story myth building through fantasy VFX, so don't expect real characters, adherence to the laws of physics or conversations beyond the monosyllabic. In this film, anything goes - even a ring(chasm) of fire in the midst of a deep blue sea and an ocean of wealth under the Saharan desert. Reality rarely pokes its ugly head into this gamey underwater universe that heralds the dawn of a new King Arthur(Momoa), a half-breed(Human-Atlantean mix) who is expected to prove his worth against the might of his firmly ensconced younger half-brother Orm(Patrick Wilson).

Aquaman's tall-tale is embellished in Royal shenanigans, incorporates themes of environment pollution and engineers a war between the water world and the land world under the pretext of righting the wrongs of a selfish civilization. The attempt here is to create an underwater 'Lord of the Rings' but without the majesty, profundity or significance of that telling.

Check out the trailer here:

Making an oblique nod to 'Splash,' the film opens with Queen Atlanna (Nicole Kidman), fleeing Atlantis, getting washed ashore at Amnesty Bay, Massachusetts, meeting solitary lighthouse keeper (Temuera Morrison), falling in love and subsequently birthing the said, Arthur and then going right back to Atlantis- the underwater city, in order to save the lives of her loved ones. Punctuating the drama is Orm's attempts to amalgamate the seven wondrous oceanic kingdoms and become undisputed Ocean master. Vulko (Willem Dafoe), Princess Mera(Amber Heard) and to a lesser extent King Nereus (Dolph Lundgren) put a spoke in his wheel, so-to-speak.

The film has some stunning imagery but most of the action feels random and incoherent. The narrative is overlong in its desire to include every embellishment possible. There are a few engaging moments but the in-between humdrum is pretty much taxing. Weighed down by its watery excesses, the narrative feels terribly labored and over-done. James Wan ( with his Horror oeuvre) was probably not the right man for this DC recreation. He makes this watery epic a kitschy showboat instead of lending it acuity and memorability. This is a story of excess but even so, it's hard to resist the charms of the lead actors, their outlandish costumes and some wondrous aqua sequences.

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Zero

U/A: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director: Anand L Rai
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, Anushka Sharma
Rating: 

For a couple of decades now, relentlessly citing exceptions like Swades (2004) and Chak De India (2007), viewers (and fans) of actor Shah Rukh Khan have often complained about how he plays SRK on screen, regardless of the script, which pretty much is designed around him playing himself, in some form or the other, anyway.

Alert to this obvious feedback, and with audiences, in general, upping its expectations, even from wholly star-driven pics—demanding a certain level of authenticity in stories regardless—you find SRK trying hard to up his own game. Which is great, of course. Raees (2017) and Fan (2016) are relatively good examples on that front. With Zero, as actor-producer, he appears to be trying a bit too hard, I suspect.

For one, this SRK film doesn't star SRK at all! He plays a Meeruthiya, uneducated 'bauna' (dwarf) Bauua Singh, obsessed with two women, almost simultaneously. Both ladies seem out of his reach. One's a fully celestial Bollywood heroine. That's Katrina Kaif. Tells you a lot about this film that she comes across as by far the most credible character around—a heart-broken drunk, dumped by a certain superstar with the surname Kapoor, who "pretends to be a misunderstood, shy type, but is actually a full-on ch*****."

Check out the trailer here:

The other woman (Anushka Sharma), strangely modeled on Stephen Hawking, in a high-tech wheelchair, her mouth contorted, wrist twisted and shaking, is a space scientist. She meets the vertically challenged dude through an odd, offline version of a matrimonial site. What she likes about him is that he can overlook her disabilities and see her as the person she is, rather than somebody one must simply sympathise with.

There is much banter between the two. This is tricky stuff. I understand that all humour is at the expense of some person/group or the other, and we mustn't get all too sensitive about such matters. But I just felt slightly discomfited throughout—mostly in anticipation of a poor joke, punching downwards, rather than one that actually occurs (expect tonnes of think pieces on the web soon though!).

As a viewer, you are rarely made to look beyond the fact that she suffers from cerebral palsy. More so, that he's about a foot shorter than usual, a man-child at the centre of this film— in his late 30s, wholly jobless bloke, blowing up his father's money. You can't tell if he's a duffer or just a dwarf. As if the two were even vaguely related. He is supposed to be a die-hard romantic. Your heart must melt for this simpleton still.

It's hard, if not impossible, to feel anything for such a parody of a person, as Zero jerkily jostles between heartland, rustic realism (Aanand L Rai's Tanu Weds Manu), and a far-out romantic fantasy, vaguely along the lines of SRK's wonderfully sorted Om Shanti Om (2007), also partly set in show-biz. You're in fact bored rather than bothered by all the travels on screen.

The only take-away is how tough it must've been to pull this off. Which is true for films of this massive scale—regardless of the emotional payoff. The VFX work, cutting down SRK's size, is by itself a work of art. And that's just a fraction of the craft and cost involved in a picture perennially on a flight of imagination—whether the penny drops, or not.

Guess it'd be impossible for filmmakers to attempt a leap of faith so high, without quite convincing themselves that they're on to a masterpiece. One hopes (for them), others feel so too. Clearly, I didn't.

Also Read: Zero Movie Interview: Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif And Anushka Sharma Reveal All

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Simmba
Director: Rohit Shetty
Actors: Ranveer Singh, Sara Ali Khan, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 

With this film, a super-star is born. Why would one risk this over-statement? Because super-stars in Bollywood, or in the Indian movie context, have remained, for decades, the most apt equivalent to Hollywood super-heroes.

They come with little or no back-story. As in the case of Simmba - being an orphan is good enough. The front-story, as it were, is neatly split between the hero, and the villain, along with a prologue, epilogue, heroine, comedian, extras, and the all-important 'takiya-kalaam' (stock refrain): "Tell me something I don't know!" The motivation, like with super-hero flicks, is rather rudimentary. Saving a girl is as good as repeatedly saving the world!

What matters is how the super-star, by sheer dint of his vigorous personality - where you can't distinguish between the actor and character - carries along an entire movie, and indeed the audience, on his strong shoulders alone.

Once the image is set, the penny drops, and while the going is good, the super-star on screen is good enough to ensure audiences in theatres. And there's got to be a reason why no star ever since the '90s, in a real sense, has been able to convincingly play this part that, I suspect, is the hardest to hit home with, anyway.

Ranveer Singh does just that. And how! Part Govinda, from Raja Babu type pictures in the '90s, part Anil Kapoor from Ram Lakhan in the '80s, but wholly holding his own in a typically Rohit Shetty action-entertainer, Singh adds tremendous credibility to a character that had begun to tire us over time.

For one, given his robust résumé (if you only compare this performance to the anti-hero Alauddin Khilji's in Padmaavat earlier this year), you know he isn't casually reprising a role, given a captive audience (that '90s super-stars had begun to). He puts in as much effort into Simmba as he might into a Bajirao Mastani, say, mastering the Marathi twang (without quite coming across as a parody of Nana Patekar); killing it softly with well-written one-liners; setting the dance floor on
fire; romancing like a dude; doing action, like a proper, desi hero!

You fall for Inspector Sangram Bhalerao (Simmba)-a cartoonish, corrupt cop, who wants to eventually right the society's wrongs-essentially, because, you fall for the stupendous Singh on steroids. Every scene works, because he does; and vice versa. The net result is a movie that, within the same space, seems better than Ajay Devgn's Singham (2011). But for the middling soundtrack, it would've been better than Salman Khan's Dabangg (2010).

Either way, what you won't go looking for is the picture's plot, based on the Telugu potboiler Temper (2015). Because you already know what to expect: Singh as a hero. Sonu Sood as a villain. Villain ke haraami brothers. Hero ki abla nari sister. And the rape, and the revenge drama, that follow.

I'm unsure if one adequately appreciates how hard, bordering on the near impossible, it is to engagingly pull off a masala-melodrama such as this. Shetty knows more than a thing or two about this timeless genre. Yet, this may well be one of his rare movies where the connoisseur and the crackling masses are most likely to seamlessly converge.

As an audience, the only way to know if a film of this sort is working (for you), is when you find yourself (sometimes guiltily, but mostly in a carefree sort of way) smiling, responding, and along with a packed theatre, reacting to shenanigans on screen-whether they entirely make sense or not ain't the point.

The script can be full of holes. You hope your brain isn't. This is how I caught this picture, with folk in the front-benches-whistling, clapping, making loud noises, and then going quiet, during dramatic sequences.

This only brings back strong memories of large single-screen cinemas - on the verge of extinction - with people on both cheap and super-expensive seats, sharing entertainment as a common, tribal experience. That's where you should go for this. As if on cue, to Ajay Devgn walks in as Singham. As does Akshay Kumar, announcing his next film cop-flick with Shetty, Sooryavanshi (2019). You might think this is meant to be a Ranveer starrer piggy-backing on '90s super-stars - inhabiting the same Marvel-like super-hero, cinematic universe. Look at him. I think it was the other way round!

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Mary Poppins Returns

U/A: Comedy, Family, Fantasy
Director: Rob Marshall
Cast: Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Angela Lansbury, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer
Rating: 

Disney drums up age-old magic by picking up the threads of an unforgettable original which had the unassailable diva Julie Andrews mesmerize way back in 1964. This time around Emily Blunt essays the all-important role of the magical nanny whose job is to put things right in the Banks’ siblings Michael(Ben Whishaw) and Jane’s (Emily Mortimer)now adult world just as she did when they were kids – with Lin-Manuel Miranda doing a Dick Van Dyke in this Rob Marshall sequel.

The setting is 1930’s London, Michael is a widower with three lovely kids and his sister Jane is an activist who appears to have lost out on love. Burdened by debt and threatened by the bank, Michael can barely keep his head up when Mary Poppins flies into their lives and makes all the difference!

Check out the trailer here:

Director Rob Marshall manages to tie-in to the original with enchanting ease - spelling forth a magical 130 minutes of music and fantasy that keeps you reminiscing while laying out an entirely fresh scenario that’s just as trippy as the original. Marshall reteams with cinematographer Dion Beebe, to give the narrative an inveigling widescreen luster, with production designer John Myhre and costume designer Sandy Powell chipping in with their nostalgia imbuing contributions. The pre-war 1930s setting is superbly presented just as the bath-time routine, excursion in the park and journey into an all-too brittle adventure, rekindle the vivacity and colorfulness of yore. It’s a wondrous amalgamation of ideas from the past and present, merging together in synchronicity of technique and wonder that is entirely enthralling.

Also Read: Emily Blunt Got Scared With Mary Poppins Returns Offer

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The Mule
Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Bradley Cooper, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Peña, Dianne Wiest, Andy Garcia, Alison Eastwood, Taissa Farmiga, Ignacio Serricchio, Loren Dean, Eugene Cordero, Robert LaSardo
Rating:

Eighty-eight-year-old Clint Eastwood’s 37th feature has him directing and acting in a drama about an elderly man whose late-life drug running — egged on by desperate circumstances — becomes a tool for heavy rumination regarding conscience, morality, and reclamation. Nick Schenk (of Gran Torino fame) fashions this screenplay inspired by the New York Times Magazine article The Sinaloa Cartel’s 90-Year-Old Drug Mule, about a true event, written by Sam Dolnick.

The original mule was Leo Sharp, a World War II veteran and great-grandfather. But, for this film, Eastwood and Schenk take some creative liberties to present a sensibility that is more Eastwood than the real-life event would oblige. The experience delineates the nearly destitute senior Earl Stone’s (Eastwood) tryst with criminality conspired by an alienated family construct, and a flagging business. Earl was never there when he was needed by his family, ex-wife Mary (Dianne Wiest) and, especially, daughter Iris (Alison Eastwood). Their rejection of him when he runs out of money may be painful to watch, but it is fairly justified in the schema of broken relationships damaged by ego trips.

Eastwood, of course, lives the part. He fits the role, but as far as the fan-image goes, he seems frailer and less imposing than he did in his last cinema outing. But that physical deterioration doesn’t take anything away from the manner in which he has constructed this slow-burning, contemplative, engaging, humorous tale, which appears to be somewhat autobiographical in the manner in which it deals with relationships that are central to the story here.

We can see that Federal agents, led by a DEA Special Agent in charge (Laurence Fishburne), and newbie Colin Bates (Bradley Cooper), trying to nail some cartel drug runners out West, are eventually going to come across this unsuspicious drug-runner. But the film is not about that cat-and-mouse chase as much as it is about a conscience finally coming awake, and Earl making robust efforts to atone for his past mistakes.

Eastwood’s mule seems to bask in the freedom that easy money brings him, and appears to be unaware of the hellish depths that the murderous cartels would reach — and that’s precisely how the film plays out. With every film, like in this one too, Eastwood’s politics also comes out, loud-and-clear. He may be intriguing as a person, but not always politically correct as an actor-director voicing his personal world-view.

Earl’s eventual redemption also comes a little too easy, given the havoc he may have engineered by his flirting with the cartel. The tone shifts are jerky, the narrative veers to the ponderous and the experience doesn’t come across as entirely fulfilling — even though the cinematography and minimalistic appurtenances lend shadowy depth to the experience.

The supporting characters don’t get much screen-time, even though they are integral to the plotting. Eastwood hogs the show here. His apparent disconnect with the consequences relating to his actions is a hurdle that’s difficult to overcome. And that’s also because Eastwood’s image still manages to over-power his latter-life performances. As an audience, we are more likely to be distraught over his real-life physical deterioration than we are about the reel life character’s disempowerment.

Watch The Mule Trailer

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Uri: The Surgical Strike
U/A: Action, Drama
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Yami Gautam, Paresh Rawal
Director: Aditya Dhar
Rating: 

Like with several others, you may not find a single bloodthirsty, jingoistic-militaristic bone in my body. And yet, there's a scene in this film, focused on a little girl, whose father, an officer, has just died in the recent attacks on the Army base in Uri. She walks up to the casket, surrounded by soldiers in attention, at his state funeral.

The moment freezes for a second. The little child, rather unexpectedly, exults the regiment's war cry. Soldiers instantly respond. Emotions naturally heighten. It's hard not to feel a lump in your throat.

This is the sort of visceral 'josh' that the film organically excites, which makes it work, almost through and through. And yet, for a movie wholly centred on a mission and the military, it is a rare desi one—Sankalp Reddy's under-rated The Ghazi Attack (2017), being another recent exception—that never meanders from the actual minefield: Not a minute wasted on sundry peripherals, songs, love-story, and the like, that most Hindi war films (Border, LOC Kargil, Lakshya included) have had to resort to, in order to fit into a more mainstream, Bollywood format.

But, first, let's settle the apprehension that many might rightly share: Is this a propaganda picture? In so much as it places to the extreme fore the might and valour of unsung heroes of Indian Army, who risk their lives in covert operations, details of which, for reasons of state secrecy, go unreported? Sure. And that's pretty much true for all patriotic, war movies, regardless.

But, no: Is it a propaganda film for the BJP government, few months before the general elections, seeking credit for a military operation initiated/executed under its watch? Well, the magnanimous Prime Minister modeled on Narendra Modi (Rajit Kapur) is very much omnipresent. Which, going by trailers and posters of late, he's likely to be, on the big screen, over the following months, with several films based on/around him—bit like a super-hero from the Marvel/DC universe!

The PM is well represented along with his cabinet, given lookalikes of Parrikar, Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, and the hand-picked National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, played by BJP MP Paresh Rawal, as a shrewd, sharp sleuth, right at the centre of the high-table, leading the military operation from a snazzy war-room.

Check out the trailer here:

Whether this story "based on true events," liberally mixing fact with fiction, has been actively sponsored by the government or not; can tell you this, they will like what they see. Folk on the Pakistani side though come across as total 'phateechars', ever willing to sell their soul and their nation's secrets. Either way, what the endorsement from the Indian Army (its publicity wing is prominently credited) evidently earns for the pic is incredible access to top-notch military hardware, hitherto unseen in the history of Hindi films.

Supremely competent first-time director Aditya Dhar uses these weapons—sophisticated machine guns, grenades, rocket launchers, top-grade fighter aircraft—to hit home with a winning plot, over two hours, 10 minutes of stunningly shot (Mitesh Mirchandani), non-stop, military-action drama, packed with pyrotechnics that appear authentic, world-class, technically kickass.

Background score (Shashwat Sachdev) is pitch-perfect. Some of the combat sequences (Stefan Richter) are sensational. Sparks fly, quite literally; even as sentiments are firmly in place, to keep you engaged with the characters, and their emotional motivations.

Yeah, it's hard to evoke both. No better actor to lead this charge than the fully fired-up Vicky Kaushal (Raazi, Sanju, Love Per Square Foot, Manmarziyaan, Lust Stories)—bulked up like a sniper, menacingly calm as a military mind—inspiring his peers (Yami Gautam, Kriti Kulhari etc) in the film, and patrons in the theatre, with an infectious energy that is impossible to resist. Kaushal's had a phenomenal 2018. Clearly, the dream run continues.

The film is primarily set in 2016. The basic premise is known. It concerns a top-secret, low-intensity, shock-and-awe assault, or a surgical strike, on hideouts in Pak-occupied Kashmir, responsible for terror attacks across the border—more specifically, by four militants, allegedly of the group Jaish-e-Mohammed, on the Indian Army brigade headquarters in Uri, near the Line of Control, less than a fortnight before.

Very little—next to nothing—is known about these 'surgical strikes'. How does this revenge operation pan out in the picture, then? Given multiple Abbottabads being mounted, a lot like a desi Zero Dark Thirty (2012)—Katherine Bigelow's brilliant docu-drama detailing capture of Osama bin Laden. As compliments go, that's as huge as it gets. No?

Also Read: Watch video: Vicky Kaushal gives us a sneak peek into his prep for Uri

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The Second Act

U/A: Comedy, Romance
Director: Peter Segal
Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Leah Remini, Vanessa Hudgens
Rating: 

Jennifer Lopez probably fancies herself as a 'Working Girl' and that explains her producing and acting in a film that has shades of the Oscar winner mashed up with done to death romcom elements. The script credited to Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Justin Zackham transforms an uneducated, street-smart 40-year-old woman, Maya(Jennifer Lopez) into a winning corporate consultant – and to get there she jumps the truth about her background, gets a resume makeover and wins the confidence of the head honcho. The boss (Treat Williams) sets up two teams, one lead by Maya and the safer one led by his daughter, Zoe (Vanessa Hudgens). But no prizes for guessing who won that battle. The usual alienation from old friends is followed by a redemptive effort at truth-telling.

Peter Segal's Second Act tries to do too much. The impetus for Maya's cheat makeover comes from professional rejection - We meet Maya the day she loses out on a big promotion at Value Shop, because of her lack of an MBA and a dopey idiot gets it because he does. We see Maya reconciling with the daughter she gave up for adoption and then losing her again for a bit before they reconcile again. The same happens with her friends and colleagues from her former workplace. They are the ones who support and encourage her (to hilarious results sometimes). Corporate skulduggery notwithstanding there's also the romantic interest whom she failed to confide in. It's all too complicated rather than complex.

Check out the trailer here:

The few times the film manages to perk you up involves an impromptu dance with Maya leading her office nemesis (Freddie Stroma) onto the dance floor in an attempt to sideswipe his attempt to expose her. And another time you feel the passion is when she and her girlfriends (Remini, Lacreta, Dierdre Friel) do a "Push it REAL good" dancing sing along. The writing is not without its frivolous light-hearted banter but much of it is lost in the attempt to paint Maya in a gratifying light. This romcom is fairly bearable but not exactly likeable.

Also Read: Jennifer Lopez explains why she did Second Act

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The Accidental Prime Minister
U: Biography, drama
Dir: Vijay Gutte
Cast: Anupam Kher, Akshaye Khanna
Rating:

Given the imagery in the trailer, it is impossible to walk into The Accidental Prime Minister anticipating anything. The intent of its makers is evident: its strategic release, months prior to the election, solidifies its positioning as a propaganda film. Films are meant to have fodder for debate and discussion. And the topic of discussion here, I propose, is how Mayank Tewari, the writer of Newton (one of India’s most balanced political films) and Hansal Mehta (Shahid) came up with something as abhorrent as this.

Probably hoping to pitch this as India’s answer to House Of Cards (HOC), the film’s narrative is too incoherent to make a political statement, let alone start a dialogue. HOC, of course, made with tremendous gumption, never has a political bias. It merely mirrors the goings-on behind the closed doors of the White House. Based on the book by Sanjaya Baru, this movie attempts to make sense of power games in the corridors of the coveted bungalow No. 7, Race Course Road (the official residence of PMO). But there’s no escaping the fact that it can only pass as a run-down, Made In China version of HOC.

If at all the idea was to shame and embarrass the Congress party, the writing here lacks the desired punch. The onus of shaping the material lies in the hands of the director, and Vijay Gutte is visibly inept. Of course, the lofty and on-point casting of Akshaye Khanna as Baru and Anupam Kher as PM Dr Manmohan Singh, salvages the situation considerably, but there’s no saving the film from shoddy direction.

Baru’s book walks the tightrope carefully, making ground-breaking political revelations, but never reducing Dr Singh to a laughable figure. Even his worst critics would agree, Singh was a man of poise. On Gutte’s insistence (or so I would like to believe) Kher turns Singh into a mute cartoon, who deserves to be pitied. It almost feels like the makers want to mock Singh — mimic his voice, slouch his gait. Baru had carefully carved Singh as a fiercely loyal man, standing strong on his ideals; one who is manipulated by the Gandhis (Sonia and Rahul). Gutte never focuses on the vulnerable equations between Singh and the Gandhi family.

He, in fact, allows Khanna to get disturbingly Frank Underwood-ish, turning up the dark humour in every third sentence. Khanna is great at what he does, but he makes Baru seem more like a saffron loyalist, not a Congress insider. Gutte takes us through the hallmarks of the Congress government, from the nuclear deal to the 2G scam, in a news bulletin, decade roundup-sort of a fashion, creating the build up for the film’s Singham (PM Modi). Do we know how Singh felt through it all? That’s for another film. There’s enough to laugh about in this offering, but the joke here is that while Hollywood continues to make great content, we are still nitpicking and name-calling.

Watch The Accidental Prime Minister Trailer

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Why Cheat India
U/A: Drama Satire
Director: Soumik Sen
Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Shreya Dhanwanthary
Rating:

The 'curse of the second half' in Hindi pictures is simply so severe, especially when it comes to films with well-known faces, that even as I find myself really enjoying a movie, there's a radar at the back of the brain constantly cautioning one to only hope that the post-interval portions even live up to the first half — by half. If so, then as an audience, you're pretty much through.

Is this movie an exception in that regard? Well, it eventually starts descending to such levels of random, thoughtless spinning of the yarn that by the end of it you're not even too sure it's the same film that you had started with in the first place. And hell yeah, it begins really well, what with highlighting the academic strains of being a teenaged 'padhaku' kid, Sattu (the boy's so brilliantly cast), in a lower-middle class family in Lucknow, coaxed into cracking a coveted engineering entrance exam (they don't call it IIT for some reason). For, how else does the father who's invested all his money into his child's supposed dream see his pension scheme through?

The film shines much-needed light on a common Indian teenaged nightmare, as sincerely presented in stand-up comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath's rather under-rated Amazon Prime series, Laakhon Mein Ek (2018). While sticking to searing realism — getting its time-setting, the year 1998 right, down to baggy trousers, and Force 10 type sneakers — the filmmakers manage to give the hero, Emraan Hashmi, a filmy sort of entry, smartly slipping in a soothing ballad, as well. Well done!

Hashmi plays a one-man racketeer who sneaks in smart kids, with counterfeit hall tickets, to max entrance tests on behalf of rich children, sitting at home, paying their way to top colleges as a result. You sort of know where the film might be going with this. And, maybe, that's the problem. Proxy contestants at overcrowded competitive exams for key educational institutions, where even well-prepared students wait for Godot to get in, is a huge multi-crore, organised industry, involving a system wholly corrupted, from top to bottom. Technology would have plugged some of the holes already; one's unaware to what extent.

If you haven't heard as much about this underworld, one should legitimately blame the news media for it — particularly in the case of the 2013 Vyapam (Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board) Scam, for instance, where close to 40 people, most of them whistleblowers, have mysteriously died, while the investigations are still on (or not quite) —but largely under-reported in the mainstream press.

And I thought this is what the film could be about — unearthing an earth-shaking scandal that should ideally knock you off your head. But, no, this is a film that attempts to combine strong commentary on the education/examination system, with a high-paced, heist thriller, with belaboured twists and turns, while trying to balance all of it with the urban slickness and high-life that Hashmi's inevitably romantically inclined, unscrupulous characters aspire for, and achieve, in his typical capers.

Watch Why Cheat India Trailer

So whatever fault you may find in the film possibly exists in the story/script to start with. And perhaps the reason is Hashmi himself, for he can't help but get on the big screen with strong baggage of the sort of flicks that have made him the star he is. The audience is obviously to blame for it, and the fact that Hashmi remains still an under-rated actor, because he is hardly commercially lauded for parts where he wholly goes off the beaten path — Dibakar Banerjee's Shanghai (2012), I'm told, tanked; Danis Tanovic's Tigers (2018) went straight to OTT (Zee 5), both being his career's best works.

And so he goes back to being himself: the trademarked flawed hero, who eventually justifies his wily actions as a natural outcome of a multiple-choice, rote-learning system that gives very few kids a choice beyond acing it to get ahead. How a scamster like his character is the solution still, and not the issue, is beyond me. Have to say though, what the audience will empathise with is the fact that far too few fine courses/colleges exist for far too many desi children: a progressively massive problem staring us in the face and an even uglier future. This affects everyone. To be fair, the government is just as clueless on how to deal with it as this totally confusing 'pop-con' pic.

Also read: Emraan Hashmi: Change of Cheat India title is illogical, ridiculous

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Replicas
U/A: Crime, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Director: Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Thomas Middleditch, Alice Eve, John Ortiz, Emjay Anthony
Rating: 

The bland, expressionless Keanu Reeves as a scientist is a hard sell for even the most gifted filmmaker so one can't understand why he was chosen to lead the cast as an obsessive scientist wanting to clone his family back to life after a drowning accident. And that's not the only bad choice here. The story itself never develops beyond the perfunctory -allowing for quick jump forwards into sci-fi territory that doesn't appear conclusive in the least. The script appears to be written by novices who have little idea about the subject matter. Neither the Director, the tech team nor the cast seem to believe in this story. So they all appear to be playing a game of make-believe that only they enjoy. For the viewer the experience is sheer tedium.

Playing God in a high tech world is not a new concept but the treatment, tone and momentum must be good enough to gain attachment and believability. There's no such thing here. At no point are we ensnared by Will Foster's (Keanu Reeves) need to bring back his family from the dead. Neither his guilt nor his love for them are established here. And his corralling of his lab partner Ed (Thomas Middleditch) for support, is also not believable in the least. The talk of neural maps, synthetic brain, algorithms and consciousness sounds like mumbo-jumbo in such an unbelievable set-up – even when it's done in a futuristic facility called Bionyne.

Check out the trailer here:

When Will persuades his friend Ed to dispose the bodies of his dead family members it sounds insane and when he pretends to be his kids and responds to text messages from their friends it becomes all the more ridiculous. We never see his grief or experience his pain. And that's also because Keanu Reeves doesn't go beyond harried and lost in terms of expression. Both writer Chad St. John and director Jeffrey Nachmanoff don't appear to have figured out what exactly they wanted to convey here. They just run with the tide and make a mess of it. There's no style or mood to hold this sort of idea through. Nachmanoff hits the bland and straightforward route – on e that leaves the audience totally distended and discontent. This is the kind of hare-brained unbelievable stuff you wouldn't waste your hard-earned money on!

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Glass

U/A: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Sarah Paulson, Bruce Willis, James McAvoy
Rating: 

Shyamalan’s earliest films (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs) were brilliant, they intrigued, shocked and entertained all at the same time. The same cannot be said about the films that came later. The big budget ones especially were all jumbled up and schlocky. It felt as though the director never really achieved his vision. ‘Glass’ is a far better effort in terms of visual context but it fails on cohesion and lucidity – especially in the third act dominated by Shyamalan’s signature twists.

Glass, a sort of sequel to both Unbreakable and Split, spends its two hours plus without a strong story to tell. It is every bit as inconceivable and snaky a film as his worst but it still has a psychological depth that could have amounted to much more - if only the director had been a little more focussed. There’s so much he is wanting to say that it all gets lost in the confusion and incoherence brought on by a lack of emphasis.

Glass opens with Dunn(Willis) tracking down Split's villain, Kevin Wendell Crumb aka 'The Horde' (James McAvoy), a serial killer suffering from multiple personality disorder who has been preying on girls in the Philadelphia area. After some visceral action Dunn and Crumb are captured and taken to a secret wing of a psychiatric hospital also housing Mister Glass(Jackson) – to be studied by Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), a psychiatrist obsessed with decoding the phenomenon of men who believe themselves to possess the powers of comic book characters.

Check out the trailer here:

This is an indie film (in partnership with Blumhouse)with no big studio backing it so there are budget constraints which Shyamalan could have overcome by running a tighter ship. Shyamalan manages to get close to poignant and memorable but the third act(rather threadbare) pulls you off that track all the way through. The twists don’t make much sense and in fact renders the entire work rather directionless.

The build-up is pretty good even though the action is all visual, internalised and verbose but the third and final act fails to make something out of that. The director and DP Michael Gioulakis manage to compose some fascinating and striking visual mayhem but it doesn’t amount to anything powerful. If you followed ‘Unbreakable’ and ‘Split’ then there is a chance that you might cotton on to Shyamalan’s wavelength but for a large part of the audience this is going to be a film without a strong sense of purpose.

James McAvoy is simply the best thing about this movie. His enthusiasm and effort in playing out multiple personalities is extraordinary. Jackson wakes up from his stupor a little late and loses out on creating an impact while Willis looks on strategically- the thing he does best I guess. This is at best a baffling and inconsistent exercise in cinema!

Also Read: James McAvoy on Glass co-star Bruce Willis: He is most chilled dude

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Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi
U/A: Biography
Director: Krishna Jagarlamudi, Kangana Ranaut
Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Danny Denzongpa, Ankita Lokhande
Rating:

As a film, this might seem a bit too ultra-patriotic/nationalistic for the fact that it's set in the mid 1800s, when the idea of India itself wasn't as concrete, let alone the concept of "Swarajya" (used here often), which was first popularly coined by Lokmanya Tilak, only born in 1856. The film itself though, right in its opening disclaimer, washes its hands of any pretense towards complete, uncontestable historical accuracy, which is only for the better. Helps you view it as a fabulous legend/fable first.

Be that as it may, the fact that the Indian Revolt/Rebellion of 1857, that began with the Sepoy mutiny, with Mangal Pandey firing the first shot, is widely considered the First War of Indian Independence, among Indians, can't be denied either. At the centre of this piece though, with absolutely no other players even in the periphery, understandably, is Rani Lakshmibai, born Manikarnika, a bibliophile 'brahmin' girl, raised by the Peshwa as a warrior, who eventually takes over as the Queen of Jhansi (currently in Uttar Pradesh). Yes, this is a big-budget, wholly star-driven, action-packed, period picture. Except the star is female, which is rare enough. Even if you consider Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmaavat (or Padmavati), where Deepika Padukone played the eponymous character all right, but the film focused on Ranveer Singh as the antagonist Alauddin Khilji far more. Speaking of which, this is the sort of passion project that Bhansali, as master of magnificence (Padmaavat, Bajirao Mastani, Ram-Leela), has excelled in to a point that subsequently similar works, by most other craftsmen, are likely to somewhat pale in contrast. And so while the inspirations here are obvious, it might be unfair to compare still. This holds just as true for any allusion to SS Rajamouli's astoundingly massive Baahubali, given that the screenwriter (Vijayendra Prasad) is the same.

For, the story here has to be enjoyed for its own worth. It relates to a legend that pretty much remains unsurpassed in Indian history—of a woman, who lost her husband, the king, and her little son, the heir, giving way to the British to take over her kingdom, with help of locals (as they almost always did), and a 'doctrine of lapse', which applied to heirless princely states.

Instead of wallowing in widowhood, as per tradition, the Queen got on the white horse-back, and led a full-frontal attack against the mighty British, all by herself, holding fort until the point that she could, and then creating alliances, organizing her brigade, to go at the Brits all over again. Her valour is a common, modern metaphor. You see a fearless woman, and inevitably go: "Aa gayi Jhansi ki Rani!"

Frankly, as a public figure from Bombay films, I can't imagine anybody as naturally earning that sobriquet as Kangana Ranaut. Dainty but fierce, Ranaut plays Rani Lakshmibai with the ferocity that suits her character best. She leads the charge not just as an actor, but also as director, the baton she took over midway through the making of this film. One can't help but conjecture if there are really two separate movies here, given that two directors were helming it at different times.

Well, there are two huge battle sequences in the picture. And one could argue that the second one, the climax, in its tone and shot-taking, looks considerably different from the first. But then, that could just be me as audience noticing, because consciously searching. Either way, there is nothing to hugely fault this film on technical competence, and indeed the scale at which it's been mounted.

Watch Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi Trailer

The sets are grand. Extras, both Brits and desis, fill up the screen. War scenes look reasonably authentic. Mortal combats appear real. Riding through the artillery lined-up on either end is Manikarnika with her sword, the ultimate symbol of female power, from around the time that feminism as a word had only but been coined (in the West). It is an aspect that's thankfully quite dialed -down here. You can see it. You don't need to be incessantly told.

We've all read about Rani Lakshmibai in middle-school history. But we remember her best from the Allahabadi poet Subhadra Kumari Chauhan's long poem with the famous descriptor, 'Bundele har bole ki muh, humne suni kahani thi. Khoob ladi mardani, who toh Jhansi wali Rani thi.' A genuine, soul-stirring tribute to her phenomenal heroism can at best hope to come close to Chauhan's immortal lines. Yes, this one does.

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Thackeray
U/A: Biopic
Dir: Abhijit Panse
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Amrita Rao
Rating:

Rather than a biopic, Nawazuddin Siddiqui's Thackeray tends to become a hagiography that doesn't offer an insight into the larger-than-life personality that was Balasaheb Thackeray. If you've wondered what lay beneath this powerful leader, or how he rose when the odds were against him, be warned this film doesn't answer those questions. Which is not to say it doesn't work.

Director Abhijit Panse's offering is an interesting drama for those who don't know much about Thackeray. The protagonist's journey from being a cartoonist at a newspaper to becoming a ruthless leader, insistent on the progress of the Marathi manoos, is captured well. But is this movie an image makeover exercise for the party, which is at loggerheads with its long-time ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections this year? It definitely feels so. Interestingly, while the film starts with a disclaimer which reads that the makers don't support violence in any manner, they haven't shied away from showing Thackeray as someone who was in favour of using violence as a means to instill peace.

The film opens with the leader's trial in a Lucknow court as he is being questioned about his role in the demolition of Babri Masjid. When he is asked about his supporters tearing down the mosque, he replies, "Nahi, nahi. Toda nahi, saaf kiya." The film then travels between Thackeray's past — stylishly shot in black and white — and the courtroom where he has to justify his deeds and decisions.

From the rise of the angry Marathi consciousness against the dominant South Indians in Mumbai to the killing of Krishna Desai, a member of the Communist Party, to Thackeray supporting the Emergency because he believes that the country would finally be disciplined — various chapters present the protagonist as a tyrant.

The problem, however, lies in the most important chapter — the '93 Bombay riots. The film skims over the matter, and shows it as a conspiracy to kill Thackeray rather than people avenging the post-Babri riots, as is popular knowledge. The storyline then leaps to the bomb blasts that shook the city, and unsurprisingly, Thackeray and the Shiv Sena, rather than being depicted as the instigators of the communal riots, are shown as the city's saviours.

Siddiqui is riveting as Thackeray. It is his terrific performance that makes you invested in the film even when it trudges down a predictable path. But he falters with his voice; he can't match the deep baritone of his subject. Amrita Rao is convincing as Meena Thackeray. The movie ends with the victory of the Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in the 1995 state elections; the makers also use the opportunity here to announce the sequel. Produced by Shiv Sena Member of Parliament Sanjay Raut, the film barely goes beyond being the audio-visual version of Sena's official newspaper.

Watch Thackeray Trailer

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Mary Queen Of Scots

U/A: Biography, Drama, History
Director: Josie Rourke
Cast: Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Deborah Woll, Jay Ellis, Tyler Labine
Rating: 

Director Josie Rourke and writer Beau Willimon's attempt to give two warring Queens, the widowed Mary Queen Of Scots (Saoirse Ronan) and Queen Elizabeth I (Margot Robbie) of England, a larger voice in their historic confrontation, makes for fairly compelling viewing. This is a tapestry of discontent woven with a rare female gaze and allows for greater involvement in the royal proceedings.

Mary, following untimely widowhood, returns to her native Scotland to assume her throne. Her half-brother James Moray (James McArdle) is not enthused and his peace-keeping allegiance to the Protestant regime in England may have well become meaningless. Mary's cousin, Elizabeth I, monarch of England is also wary of Mary's far more valid claim to her own throne. So the intrigue and betrayals begin. And it's the men on both sides who play out the deceit in bloody fashion.

Check out the trailer here:

This is largely a biopic on Mary, Queen of Scots beginning with her return to the throne, subsequent precipitous marriages, the power struggle with her brother and several other aspirants to the throne and eventually her tragic death on the orders of her cousin. So there's more than enough drama to be had. Unfortunately, clarity is not a strong point here. Framed largely as per the version put forward by John Guy's biography of the Queen, the film has some controversial moments but fails to concretize the reasoning for her eventual beheading.

We get to meet Mary's ladies-in-waiting, her attempts to solidify her claims to the throne of England, her fight with the clergy who are largely protestant, her brother James' attempts to undercut her authority, John Knox's(David Tenant) outrage at having to know-tow to a female ruler and Elizabeth's helplessness and insecurity in having to deal with a more beautiful, younger claimant to her monarchy. Most of the narrative gives vent to Mary's life story but towards the end the focus shifts to Elizabeth's, thus creating a dichotomy that is a little difficult to empathize with. This filmed drama is largely faithful to the established record, has authentic fashionably period costuming and make-up and intensely committed performances from the two leads as well as their co-actors in crucial roles. So it's a vividly engaging experience even if not an entirely lucid one!

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The Escape Room

U/A: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Director: Adam Robitel
Cast: Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Deborah Woll, Jay Ellis, Tyler Labine
Rating: 

These so-called 'live' reality game movies occupy a sub-genre of their own and Hollywood has been churning out quite a few of them following the Young Adult's obsessive fixation with material that encompasses it in entirety. But they are not all as thrilling or compelling as the first few that made it to hit franchise levels.

'Escape Room' is basically a set-up to get rid of six nondescript lone survivors through a series of life-threatening puzzles designed to test their survival instincts. And why pray does that have to happen? There's not much explanation here for that. Just swim with the tide, is all they ask. Unfortunately, it's not that easy for the audience because the viewer has to constantly suppress the disbelief that springs up every time the participants go through haranguing moments that willy-nilly put their lives in peril.

Check out the trailer here:

This is a far more perilous version of the more recent spurt of high-risk Telly games and since we don't get to know or understand the participants' motives (other than the 10,000 dollar prize money) it's difficult to empathize or find a reason to pay attention to their trauma. The writers also use some uninteresting physics theory to justify the random six players' participation in a largely predictable schema of disjointed thrills. They are made to go from intense heat to intense cold, then to a gas chamber, a space crusher and a few more vicarious routines before the winner can be decided.

While the production design is vivid, there's not much holding it together. Nik Dodani as nerd Danny, Jason Ellis as irritating yuppie Jason, Tyler Labine as trucker Mike, Deborah Ann Wolf as the tough, capable war vet Amanda, Logan Miller as a young alcoholic Ben and Taylor Russell as a withdrawn college student Zoey put in imminently indistinct, forgettable performances. The writing is largely formulaic too and the helming lacks serious edge. There's really nothing here to hold your attention for the near 100 min runtime.

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Alita: Battle Angel
U/A: Action, Adventure
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Cast: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali
Rating: 

This film, which has Robert Rodriguez and James Cameron working together with Peter Jackson's visual effects, has wonders never experienced before in cinema. The film may have taken a long while (twenty years) coming to screen, but the end result is fantastic enough to keep you asking for more. A manga-based action thriller, James Cameron's $200 million-worth, long cherished dream is aimed at young adults seeking fresher pastures from that of The Hunger Games variety and hopes to make it to bigger box-office returns than that sub-genre hit-starter.

Cameron started on the cinematic adaptation of Yukito Kishiro's original manga comics way back in the late 1990s, (much before Avatar), but the phenomenal success of Avatar had him relinquishing directorial control to Rodriguez while holding firm as screenwriter (with Jon Landau and Laeta Kalogridis) and producer.

The resultant kick-ass cyberpunk adventure may not be as original as he imagined it, but it has certainly got all the chops to make it to a long-term fan-following on its own.

The filmed adventure is set 500 years from now, in Iron city - a junkyard that is a wasteland for the flying citadel of Zalem. The city is peopled with AI controlled cyborgs mingling with real humans in a community so tech-spangled that it's hard to decipher one from the other. Kindly Doctor Dyson Ido (Christoph Waltz) reconfigures a former robot superweapon and rechristens her Alita (Rosa Salazar), after his own daughter. I do, who moonlights as a hunter-warrior, tries to protect the young Alita, but her mind has memories of a past that keeps haunting her present. She even develops a crush on handsome robo-junk dealer Hugo (Keean Johnson) and eventually ends up becoming the super weapon she once was.

The plotting here is a little too jumbled up, ensnared as it is in creating set-piece thrills and out-of-this-world experiences. Stereotype characters and genre tropes make the engagement less than wondrous. The tech-specs are certainly the best we've seen in a long time, the IMAX imagery is splendid and beguiling and the vivid expressions of the actors make it feel all the more real and intimately experiential.

Watch the trailer of Alita: Battle Angel

Even though Salazar is the most riveting and fascinating of characters, she does feel a little artificial at times. The CGI blends in effortlessly with digitally morphed motion-capture performance, but the artifice can be felt - too strongly at times. The array of side characters also feels like old hat killing the originality of the experience and allowing déjà-vu to creep in. Even so, there's no belittling this explosive cutting-edge adventure that takes cinema thrills to never-seen-before heights!

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The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
Dir: Mike Mitchell
Cast: Chris Pratt, Tiffany Haddish
Rate: 

The Lego universe gets a sequel intended to keep the young fans happily engaged, but the film fails to come close to being entertaining, even if we whittle down expectations and limit them to their target audience.

The novelty that the first Lego movie had going for it, has, of course, worn off. First-off, the script by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Raphael Bob-Waksberg goes intergalactic in its attempt to give Lego Batman a life-partner. Their resulting union is meant to spread the message of peace and love in the universe. That's a place where no Batman sequel has gone before, and therefore, seems a little too contrarian and far-fetched to stomach. Even the threat to Bricksburg by Lego Duplo invaders from outer space, seems like a marketing gimmick rather than a believable story idea.

The usual characters Emmet (Chris Pratt) and Lucy (Elizabeth Banks) end up having to confront an alter ego that appears more sinister and powerful than it seems at first glance. The belief that kids from kindergarten and pre-primary school will relate to this sort of story ideation is preposterous. That they make it all link to everyday family friction may seem commendable, but the consequent labelling is not something to be proud of.

The ideation here is musty, the characters are no longer likeable, and the story is too tortuous to be considered engaging. Garishly coloured animation, sentimental live-action montages meant to connect the dots, and musical numbers (including a not so catchy, Catchy Song) make it all the more off-putting. There's over-abundance of elements here, which makes the experience jarring for the senses. The puns being bandied (including Ourmomageddon) about are silly and patronising.

The stray humour sputters to life in intermittent gurgles, but it's too little to be entertaining. This sequel reeks of commercialisation, and there are no two ways about that!

Check out The Lego Movie 2 trailer here:

Also read: Fun facts about The Lego Movie 2 we bet you didn't know 

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Gully Boy
U/A: Drama
Director: Zoya Akhtar
Cast: Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Siddhant Chaturvedi
Ratings: 

What does it take to so gently bottle up an overflowing volcano like Ranveer Singh, into a completely subdued bloke like Murad? Who is yet someone with such seething anger within, wholly internalised, that you can almost sense his brain inhaling life and surroundings, and exhaling potent words of poetry, in response? It's the script/story, Gully Boy, of course.

Kya bolta hai, bhaay! Lead actor Singh, like this newspaper, grew up in the city this film is set in. He's perhaps, for the first time, playing a character so close to home, and yet so far. For it's also a city that so perennially lives in the cross-section of classes, that all it takes for you to see Bombay and Mumbai at once, is to draw your curtains wide, from any point in the bustling metropolis.

Singh's leading man Murad operates from right at that casual intersection - a college-going temp driver during day (or night), and an amateur rapper, 24x7. There's, on the one hand, plush interiors of high-rise Bombay. And, on the other, stuffy squalor of the city's lower-deck (worthy of poverty tourism), shot by Jay Oza, in a natural gold-dust palette - almost like a dream.

Around these two natural extremes, and with several layers between, Gully Boy is foremost a befitting tribute to Bombay - among very few places in the world where popular art has traditionally existed as possible exit-route for someone born into rags, or resigned to fate/naseeb.

A lot of the times, it's taken a full chawl/slum to raise a star (lyricist, composer, actor, name it). Besides, Internet has made showbiz redundant, making it possible for anyone to pole-vault into stardom, with growing hits, likes, and shares on social media - a fact that was equally well tackled, around a Baroda girl, in Advait Chandan's recent Secret Superstar (2017). And it's the same Internet providing access to inspirations, worldwide.

This is in that sense a global story with a Mumbai heart - totally bereft of any obvious, on-screen self-awareness. Only fair that it should come from director Zoya Akhtar (Luck By Chance, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara) who, if I'm not mistaken, first developed deep interest in filmmaking through Mira Nair's iconic Salaam Bombay! (1988).

Not one to make gender distinctions among directors, or indeed actors (talent's talent, of course), but I do feel it is Akhtar's deft touch that allows for the female lead character (25-year-old Alia Bhatt: astoundingly amazing, almost as always), and her life's story and insecurities, to take root, and equally flower within a film that is essentially centred on two Mumbai, local, raapchik Rap artistes.

And there's as much to be said about the fact that while the film entirely belongs to Singh, it's his co-rapper (brilliant debutant Siddhant Chaturvedi), who gets to walk around with all the swag instead. It's the interplay between the main and minor characters, spot-on twang, dialogues (by Vijay Maurya), and indeed a superb play-list (put together by Ankur Tewari) that truly makes this movie, the food of love - at 155 minutes, very much a long main course, too.

Maybe because I watched Gully Boy among an altogether Mumbai audience, or perhaps it would the same anywhere: Never have I observed folk at a press preview periodically break into loud claps during key dramatic sequences, especially given that the scenes have been quite subtly staged, in fact. This is a new kind of 'Angry Young Man' movie, in effect - seamlessly merging sub-culture with pop mainstream.

Also Read: From Scarlet Macaw to Unicorn - Ranveer Singh's flora and fauna inspired clothes are hilarious

People in my hall, or indeed outside it, would have first heard about a booming, Mumbai Rap/Hip-hop underground scene, with open-mic nights, and proper gigs at venues like Anti-social (also referenced in the pic), only a few years ago. It's almost at the same time that stand-up comedies in the city began to draw totally untested, raw greenhorns concentrating on the all-important self-expression - or content (which can't be taught) - and then, delivery (which can be learnt).

Rap, or Rhythm and Poetry, you can tell, similarly opens lines of (a very visceral form of) communication - between heartfelt (often antsy) words, thumping beats, and the crowds that instantly relate to both.

This film, as per its opening slate, is a "shout-out" to budding Mumbai stars Naezy (Naved Sheikh) and Divine (Vivian Fernandes). Their story, and of desi rap itself, is still unfolding, as we speak. When it's written in hindsight, I'm pretty sure, this film will be considered, the high-point, if not the turning point, for the genre, after all!

Also Read: Exclusive: Naezy on Gully Boy: People are looking at us like we're pioneers of Indian hip hop

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The Wife
Director: Bjorn Runge
Cast: Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce, Christian Slater
Rating: 

The two lead performances are what make The Wife so special. In this unsettling drama - an adaptation of the 2003 Meg Wolitzer novel by Jane Anderson - Glenn Close plays Joan, the wife of a Nobel Prize-winning writer Joseph Castleman (Jonathan Pryce).

Directed by Bjorn Runge, The Wife opens in 1992 when Joe and Joan Castleman, in their Connecticut home, are trying to fall asleep when they get a call from the Nobel academy, informing them of the prize. It's their moment of triumph after 40 years of struggle with the written word, in which Joan, supposedly, has played a largely complementary role. Of course, there are flashbacks that hint at her own phenomenal ability to write prose, stifled by a marriage that demands she subjugate her talents to a life of reflected glory in a period (late '50s and early '60s), where women writers were not given the importance they command today.

There's no great suspense or mystery powering this tale of a breakdown that spirals into tragedy at the crowning moment of an author's accomplishments. In fact, Runge doesn't appear to be as interested in developing the suspense as he is in showcasing the unravelling of a suppressed human mind.

Close literally steals the thunder with her role as the devoted wife of a celebrated novelist. She is the keeper of his deepest, darkest secret; a stunningly nuanced expressionism that is more than likely to take your breath away. The restraint and modulation she brings to the role are simply phenomenal. It's a performance that is deservedly walking away with a slew of awards.

Pryce is no mean performer either. His role may not garner much sympathy, but his act complements that of Close so well that you begin to believe in their togetherness.

The Wife is a little compact and contrived, given its novel origins. The attempt to complicate matters for the Castlemans by showcasing their troubled relationship with their budding novelist son, David, seems passé. Also, Joan's seething frustrations don't seem completely justified, even whilst considering the period they take wings in. While the movie is not a great piece of work, the lead artistes definitely are worthy contenders for the awards.

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Total Dhamaal
U: Action, Adventure, Comedy
Director: Indra Kumar
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Arshad Warsi, Jaaved Jaaferi, Riteish Deshmukh, Sanjay Mishra
Rating: 

The first thing you notice about this Hindi film (or at least I did) is that it plays with English subtitles. Not that most need it; but great relief, nonetheless. For I had returned from the same Mumbai theatre only the evening before, within the first minute of a Malayalam film (a heavily recommended Kumbalangi Nights), having realised that the pic had no English subs, and people were laughing at jokes (presumably), that I couldn't access.

Would Total Dhamaal, in a language you didn't understand, be watchable still? Technically there is hardly a plot/story. So you'll follow what's going on, regardless. But this is the sort of deliberately-sasta, kaam chalau comedy that works on simplest set-ups, and pay-offs - or punch-lines - that you ought to be in sync with. Some jokes work - at a pure comic timing level. Several don't. But that's really what you walked in for. For the record, the first Dhamaal (2007) had entered theatres hot on the heels of the fab Golmaal (2006), with Arshad Warsi common to both - making the former seem like pretty much a sequel to the latter. Modelled along the lines of the Spencer Tracy epic It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), Dhamaal actually had a lot of dhamaal going for it.

Ever since, Golmaal has turned into a four-part, money-spinning franchise (or as Devgn calls it, his "retirement plan"). As have similar all-star comedies from the time - Housefull (the fourth instalment is on its way), Kya Kool Hain Hum (in the screwball, sex-com space), Masti (there've been three so far - directed by Indra Kumar, as well).

This is the third in the Dhamaal series, and as a ride, perhaps mainly intended for kids, if you consider the amount of slapstick (instead of adult) humour, stereotyped 'Madrasi', Bihari, Gujju kinda gags, and tonnes of fine VFX paraphernalia - collapsing bridge, rickety helicopter, cute animals bumbling around in the farm, folk either hanging or flying off ledges… This is besides a lot of self-referential Bollywood one-liners that appear as stuck in time as, of course, the picture itself.

And so the password to open a door is 'one-two ka four; four-two ka one' as Lakhan, or Anil Kapoor, jumps off a wall. 'Ek do teen' as in the Madhuri Dixit Nene song is referred to, since Dixit is in the movie, along with Kapoor. Rohit Shetty is summoned in a line while cars fly. Ajay Devgn is of course the dude. His sidekick, Sanjay Mishra, whose refrain, "Dhondu, just chill," made him a superstar with Shetty's All The Best (2010), a similar mad-cap comedy, gets, "Bro," a new takia-kalaam here.

But my favourite guys in this movie have got to be Adi, and his man-child partner Manav (Arshad Warsi, Jaaved Jaaferi). Glad they've survived the franchise's original line-up (the only ones to, besides the perennial ensemble-com favourite, Riteish Deshmukh).

The entire lot is after a Rs 50 crore booty. All they know is that it's kept at a zoo. And with presumably someone called OK, which is what you must feel like - never mind what happens in the movie thereafter. Anything I say about this expectedly total dumb maal, should be construed as boring old me, coming in the way of your heightened, harebrained entertainment. Already have; read no further!

Also Read: Exclusive: Ajay Devgn on Total Dhamaal: It's very difficult to make people laugh

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2019 Oscar Nominated Short Films
U/A: Action, documentary
Director: Reyka Zehtabchi, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Marianne Farley, Jeremy Comte, Vincente Lambe, Guy Nattivi
Ratings: 

This anthology film features five Oscar-nominated short films each in the Live Action category and one short documentary set in India. The live action line-up includes Madre, Fauve, Marguerite, Detainment, and Skin.

The documentary film Period. End of Sentence by Reyka Zehtabchi from the USA, tells the story of women, in a rural village just outside of Delhi, fighting the deeply rooted stigma of menstruation in India. It's factual, hard-hitting and exposes India's hinterland underbelly that puts premium on dogmatic tradition and self-defeating old school beliefs.

Stills from Detainment

Madre (Mother), a stirring short from Spain directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, has a single mother enveloped in a living nightmare - having to deal with her seven-year-old son, who tells her he can't find his father who he was vacationing within the French Basque Country. The film is a taut, frightening thriller that grips you till the end.

Marguerite, the short from Canada, by Marianne Farley, opens up locked-up memories through an evolving friendship between an ageing woman and her nurse, thus allowing her a sort of redemption from all the hurt and guilt accumulated over long lonely years. It's a human story that allows emotions to creep in steadily and eventually makes the precarious journey through memory lane a fulfilling one.

Fauve, another Canadian short, by Jeremy Comte, deals with an innocent, seemingly harmless power game between two boys that eventually turns scary. It's a stirring indictment on the brash, confrontational, competitive arrogance that has enveloped every aspect of young life today.

The most shocking of the lot are, of course, Detainment and Skin. Vincent Lambe's Detainment, a short from Ireland, based on the James Bulger case - for which two 10-year-old boys are detained by police under suspicion of abducting and murdering a toddler. It's a gruesome and harrowing tale told through interview transcripts of the case and the tension-ridden treatment is bound to leave you disturbed and despondent.

Skin, a short from the USA by Guy Nattiv, spins a horrific drama that has its origins in racial incrimination. A black man smiles at a 10-year-old boy in a small supermarket in a blue-collar town, and all hell breaks loose. This one's a blinder about how conditioning rules the way we think and behave even in such harmless, innocuous moments.

This entire package is a delightful showcase of talent and diversity and therefore, rightfully enshrined in the nominations for the best and worthiest shorts of 2018. They are definitely winners!

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Isn't It Romantic
U/A: Romantic comedy
Director: Todd Strauss-Schulson
Cast: Rebel Wilson, Adam DeVine, Liam Hemsworth, Priyanka Chopra Jonas
Ratings: 

How fresh can a rom-com be? Well, at least, Rebel Wilson attempts to lend a fresh perspective to the genre with Isn't It Romantic. It's interesting to witness how the film's writers have parodied the commercial prism through which love is depicted on celluloid.

Wilson plays Natalie, a closeted rom-com lover who wears the irreverent 'Love-is-bulls**t' veil to hide her softer side. After suffering a head injury from being mugged, she wakes up in an alternate universe - one that is straight out of a rom-com where the roses are brighter, her apartment resembles the enviable houses that are featured in glossies and she, too, is a peachier version of herself. Even her dog is less mischievous and better groomed.

But instead of being delighted at the situation, Natalie feels suffocated with the perfection around her. With its sharp writing, the film gets across the larger message that love isn't all peaches and cream in real life.

You can play spot-the-rom-com too -there are several references to major hits like Pretty Woman (1990) and La La Land (2016). The comedy offers more than its share of fun moments; my favourite is the scene where Blake (Liam Hemsworth) walks out of the shower and it is suggested that Natalie had spent the night with him. But like in the movies, the steamy details are snipped - a deliberate play on the inherent need to keep the rom-coms clean, never upping the passion despite it being an integral part of romance. The writers' ability to question the romanticism around happily-ever-after without letting the grime of cynicism seep in, is commendable.

Wilson does a top notch job of headlining a cast of fine actors - Liam Hemsworth, Adam DeVine and our very own Priyanka Chopra Jonas. For the desis, the last song and dance sequence will be a brutal reminder that we haven't seen her in a Bollywood film in four years. This dose of mush attack is strongly recommended; at least, it doesn't let you lose sight of logic in the face of love.

Watch trailer:

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Luka Chuppi
U/A: Romance, comedy
Dir: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Kriti Sanon, Kartik Aaryan, Pankaj Tripathi
Ratings: 

If you ever needed a better proof of the fact that most 'star-actors' (especially the new-age ones) are inevitably over-rated, given that the success of their characters, or indeed their films, depends so much on the script: Well, here is one.

This picture stars Kartik Aaryan, lately anointed the rising star among millennials, largely on the back of three super-hit rom-coms in a row - Pyaar Ka Punchnama (2011), its sequel (2015), and Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety (2018) - by the same director (Luv Ranjan).

Social media, and of course the usual entertainment portals, have been fired up ever since, capturing his newly captive mass-base. He walks into a picture of a similar genre, with hardly a story, let alone a screenplay, and you can watch the same actor, looking dumbfounded, fumbling all over the frickin' place - much like his film.
Which is about a girl, with a stock-expression (Kriti Sanon), taking stock of her young-adult life. She isn't quite ready to get married. But doesn't mind being with the guy she's just about met. She decides to live-in. For? 20-odd days, pretending to be married, in another town - sounds like a long vacation to me!

Either way, it's a logical step for a modern couple to take. Not for the characters in this movie, who live in seriously moronic times. Local news channels have gone berserk over, "Desh mein naya system aaya hai" - referring to an epidemic called live-in relationships! Goons, with the heroine's dad lording over them, are at every nook and corner, whacking/harassing couples over an inescapable pandemic. A top Khan Bollywood superstar has been boycotted/trolled nationwide for moving in with his girlfriend!

The hero-heroine in this pic play news reporters - continuously covering this earth-shattering story. Those behind the writing of this ultra-filmy picture were obviously born in PVR/Fun Republic. What happens next? Honestly, absolutely nothing. Or rather nothing that you may like to know, since the couple is still very much together, and their families seem okay with them being so forever. Eh?

This is supposed to be a comedy, exploring a perceived taboo, set in small-town India. Which, as a movie, is just the reverse from a decade and half ago, when Bollywood films just had to be set abroad, in order to do well - think Salaam Namaste (2005), also about a couple (Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta) living in, but in Melbourne!

Writer Javed Akhtar, astute cultural observer, ascribes this shift towards small towns as a fairly settled, secure, migrant Indian middle-class finding solace in its roots or where it came from. Given a massive string of commercial successes, emanating from stories from Meerut, Agra, Kota, Lucknow, Kanpur and the like, a formula is bound to set in.

This picture is placed in Mathura and Gwalior. An ensemble cast of rustic faces, dressed down, attempt some semi-rural humour, with odd, local mannerisms, and 'horny uncle' sex jokes. There is mention of caste and religion for the realism.

In walks Pankaj Tripathi, giving you a glimpse of how a performer can still rise above poor material - but only that much. Forget the audience, just wondering why/how they managed to chipkao this non-script on an actor, who's seriously in top form right now. Anyhoo, that's probably another story.

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Captain Marvel
U/A: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Cast: Brie Larson, Samuel Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, DeWanda Wise, Samuel L. Jackson
Rating: 

Brie Larson's entry into the Marvel superhero fold as the titular hero in Captain Marvel is not the 'Wonder' we expected. Though Captain Marvel is the first Marvel Studios film to be built around a female superhero, it comes minus the savoir-faire that gave Marvel productions its high brand value over the years. There are two directors, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck at work here, alongside several writers including Nicole Perlman, Anna Boden, Geneva Robertson-dworet, Meg LeFauve, Ryan Fleck, Jac Schaeffer, Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch. And it does feel like too many cooks have literally subdued the vivacity and nihilistic exuberance unique to the comic book cinema superhero universe.

The Captain Marvel female counterpart first appeared in comic books in 1977 but the real inspiration for this film comes from Kelly Sue DeConnick's series, beginning in 2012, that featured the alter ego of Carol Danvers.

Check out Captain Marvel trailer here:

While the experience of this film is not exactly unfavourable, the narrative never really takes off into the stratosphere even though it has a storyline that has Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) straddle a galactic war between two alien races. The narrative is a little jumbled up and the eventual aim to launch her into the Avengers team becomes a little too obvious even as the non-linear plotting is laid out with convoluted reasoning. Danvers' is with the Air Force, but she is also the eponymous warrior on behalf of Starforce, an intergalactic fighting squad committed to battling the fiendish, shape-shifting Skrulls. As the film opens we see her being tutored by her mentor, Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), leader of the intergalactic military force of the Kree. Danvers is shown as uncertain about her past and as the narrative trudges along things get a little too murky and distorted for comfort. Danvers may go from cosmic to earthbound (C-53) in the fraction of a second and then back up into the skies again but for the viewer, this is not much of a roller-coaster thrill ride. The action is set in the '90's, the storytelling is obligatory at best, none of the characters stay on in your mind after the movie is done and the writing and direction lacks definition and seems a little too obviously patched-up towards a grander purpose.

Brie Larson tries hard to instil humour into the role but there's only so much she can achieve in a jumbled-up universe. She is solid if not exciting and that's the mainstay of this film – if at all it can be considered to have one!

Also Read: Captain Marvel reviews: Here's what the critics are saying

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Kesari
U/A: Drama History
Director: Anurag Singh
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Parineeti Chopra
Rating:

First off, this might well be actor Akshay Kumar's finest performance ever. And this has much to do with an earthy, true-blue, proud Punjabiness that he exudes in his natural persona that translates so seamlessly on to the big screen; him fitting into the get-up like a glove, as Havildar Ishar Singh, a die-hard, hatta-katta soldier with a sharp disc on his huge turban, belonging to what the British deemed the 'martial race'—born to fight and protect, for community, and honour.

And that's tall compliment for a superstar, currently at the brightest phase of his career, who for years since he made his debut was condescendingly dismissed as woodwork—chiefly for the kind of work he starred in, of course.

Kumar, lesser known as Rajiv Bhatia, over the past few years, has upped his game to a point that you can't tell one character of his from the next (his last outing was as the iPhone sensation, Pakshi Rajan, in 2.0), naturally generating curiosity in ways that Aamir Khan has been capable of. Surely there are other contenders too, but hardly as prolific.

That said, you know where this film is coming from: 1897, Battle of Saragarhi, fought between Sikh soldiers under the British, and Afghan/Pashtun tribesmen from North West Frontier Province, or what's now the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan.

What's more important for the viewer to figure/gauge/understand is where this film is going—mainly towards mainstream, mass-belt audiences in Punjab/North, naturally inclined towards manic action films, exhibiting bravado of a community that has enough history to prove for it.

The director is most loved for massive Punjabi hits like Jatt And Juliet, and its sequel. Frankly, Sunny Deol is the only other actor I can think of who could so easily have pulled off this rustic 'gadarness' with gusto. The younger lot doesn't quite cut it in that sense. And Kumar has a cred that precedes his presence. Here he does to Sikh pride through dialogue-heavy, relatively over-the-top, period action-drama, what he attempted in Singh Is Kinng (2008) through comedy, with considerable success.

The key is the story of course. But the downer, the script/screenplay, probably naturally flows from there as well. For how do you spin off an entire feature from what's essentially a merciless, brutal battle between two groups, where the side you're on (the Sikhs) has no stake in the system?

They're minor soldiers. Their bravado is deliriously captivating, yes. You can see it. You can feel it. But the battle can't be the whole film. Well it is already half of it, with scenes leading up to the big moment essentially checking off boxes for issues that the film wants to perfunctorily highlight: caste, religion, colonialism, slavery. What you seek is simply what you get; no more, no less.

At the heart of this pic is the fact that 21 soldiers of a Sikh regiment held fort, carried on what was self-admittedly a suicide mission, against an army of over 10,000 tribesmen attacking them one fine day. Could this be a case-study on tactical warfare? How else did the Sikhs survive even more than a second? Or were the Afghans/Pashtun soldiers completely daft to suffer huge casualties still? Was there unlimited ammo at Saragarhi, or was the opposing side marching in with seriously primitive weapons?

Watch Kesari Trailer

The statistics are staggering. This explains why this film has been made and can be loved for that moment in military records alone. And which is why there is already a movie on the same episode on Netflix (with Mukul Dev; haven't seen yet), and another one that director Rajkumar Santoshi is currently shooting still.

Maybe there's more to the battle. Or maybe this in-your-face, goose-bumpy ride—heartwarming, because its history; and hysterical, because it's that kinda movie—is just the best one can do. Well, either way, this works alright.

Also read: Sikhs dress up in saffron hues to watch Akshay Kumar-starrer Kesari

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Dumbo
U/A: Family, Fantasy
Cast: Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 

Disney's attempt to lend more darkness and quirks to this live-action remake of its 1941 animated classic about a baby elephant whose ears double as wings, Dumbo, pays off with loads of cuteness but the director Tim Burton's signature strangeness is missing. Burton's craft is more simplistic here - even though the film is a sort of circus fantasia with all the aspects of an imagination running wild.

The owner of a struggling circus, Max Medici(Danny De Vito) enlists a man(Colin Farrell) and his two children to care for a new born elephant that can fly. Of course, the contretemps are not merely about a flying elephant but also about those opportunistic times when diabolical people sought to make their fortunes off the sweat of lesser mortals.

Check out the trailer here:

With Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito on the same page here, one would have expected something more whimsical and intriguing but this production doesn't quite fit the bill. Burton's attempts to stuff up the visuals with a surrounding darkness doesn't set flight to the imagination. Ehren Kruger's screenplay is inconsistent and chaotic. Character development is uneven so even the leads don't come across as engaging. Burton's attempts to give vein to the freakish performer doesn't have much impact because the plotting is quite wayward. Even the presence of snake charmer Pramesh Singh (Roshan Seth) and the resident circus "mermaid," Miss Atlantis (Sharon Rooney), who strums a ukulele by the fireside and sings "Baby Mine," feels out of place in this extravaganza that lacks connect and soul!

Also Read: Disney's 'Dumbo' will take you to new heights

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Notebook
U/A: Romance
Dir: Nitin Kakkar
Cast: Zaheer Iqbal, Pranutan Bahl
Ratings: 

I, for one, am not of the belief that remakes are a bad thing. If made well, they can stand their ground and even shine, in some cases, better than the original. Given that Notebook is directed by Nitin Kakkar (the man behind the luminous gem Filmistaan), I had a fair share of expectations, despite the underwhelming trailer. Kakkar's powerful storytelling in the unassuming Filmistaan played in my mind as I walked in to watch Notebook, an adaptation of the Thai film, The Teacher's Diary that released in 2014.

It's not a good sign when, in a love story, children steal your heart over the lead pair. Individually, both debutants Zaheer Iqbal and Pranutan Bahl sparkle, but they meet only at the fag end of the film. Kakkar draws out adequate performances from both, playing to their strengths, using the naivety of the novices to build on some screen charm. But with so much solo heavy lifting and a wobbly screenplay in tow, Kakkar delivers far short of what he is capable of.

Watch the trailer here:

As a plus, the film uses the picturesque settings of Kashmir, blending it with good music. The story, much like the original, traces the unlikely love life of Firdaus (Bahl) and Kabir (Iqbal). She leaves behind a notebook full of sketches and doodles; he is her replacement in a school where they teach. The notebook becomes a source of hope for Kabir, who connects deeply with her over the pages. She is an unusual teacher in an abusive relationship. As Kabir struggles to bond with the children, the notebook comes handy. The rest of the film paves the way to their final interaction.

Kakkar remains faithful to the original design, transporting his viewers into a world of innocence. It is concerning that the director never delves deep into the problems of the state, bringing forth its elements for a pure cosmetic use. A child with a fundamentalist father is a needless addition to the plot. Kabir's former job as a soldier, and his Kashmiri pandit background, also do little to add to the larger plot. It's a balanced view, but not a bold one; too simplistically handled, which is unlike Kakkar's risque style.

Watch it for the adorable kids, and if you are excited about star children in general, Pranutan is a good deal as a first timer.

Also Read: Notebook celeb review: Bollywood unanimously touts the film as a sweet and genuine

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No Fathers In Kashmir
U/A: Drama
Dir: Ashvin Kumar
Cast: Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Soni Razdan, Zara La Peta
Ratings: 

So grim and unnatural are the goings-on in Kashmir, that it's almost hard to find yourself not questioning the films that claim to mirror the realities in the Valley. Ashvin Kumar's No Fathers In Kashmir is empathetic in its approach, but critiques the militarisation in the state. Kumar narrates the story through the eyes of Noor, a teenager oblivious to the situation in the Valley.

Like those of her kind, she continues to showcase her life on social media, ever so often posing with a terrorist because... Well, why not? Unaware of the repercussions of her actions, Noor eventually stumbles upon some harsh truths pertaining to her family. Her father, Basheer was picked up by the Army, and never returned. The more she delves into the details, the more the skeletons she finds in the closet - literally!

Kumar uses Noor's naïvety to explore the plot from the perspective of a third person, elucidating how Kashmir's normal is actually bizarre, claustrophobic and heartbreakingly inhuman. At the crux of the film is an innocent love story involving Noor and Majid, who bond over their unfortunate but common fate as both their fathers were taken away by the Army.

Lucidly shot, and wonderfully executed, the film seems to evade the point that it attempts to make at first, but is more aligned post-interval. Shots involving the goings-on in interrogation rooms, graves that see militants dumped in masses, and the common sighting of stray dogs roaming around with severed parts of the human body, successfully invoke the fear that the makers desire. It's a matter that should most certainly be discussed in mainstream media.

To drive home this point, Kumar successfully highlights the effects of the situation on children when he showcases one kid elaborating on the difference between a terrorist and a militant, to his friend, and attempts to state how those perceived as enemies of the state, have clarity of intention in their heart. The actors are perfect, especially the children.

Kumar's film, however, isn't without loopholes. But you are willing to let them pass because the film makes a brave point - no one deserves to be woken up in the midst of the night by the resounding noise of bullets. Can this be rectified? The film makes an earnest plea, urging us to do our best.

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Shazam!
U/A: Action, Adventure, Comedy
Director: David F. Sandberg
Cast: Zachary Levi, Michelle Borth, Djimon Hounsou, Mark Strong
Rating: 

Moving from dark and foreboding (Batman, Batman Vs Superman, Suicide Squad) to bright, frothy and fun (Wonder Woman, Aquaman) and now Shazam!, DC Comics appears to have gotten a lead on its entreaty. This film based on a lesser known comic book, in which Zachary Levi plays Billy Batson a.k.a Shazam, a superhero who is actually a 14-year-old boy magically transformed by uttering the titular incantation, is kid-friendly, has a strong jocular vein and advocates family values at a time when families are breaking apart because of selfish, individualised pursuits.

Watch the Shazam! trailer here: 

Directed by David F. Sandberg, Shazam!, is an origin story of the titular character as well as the villain, Dr Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong). The villain, in fact, is first shown as a little boy bullied and blamed for all calamities that befall, by his older brother and domineering father. So when he believes and actualises in taking control of the dark powers of the Seven Deadly Sins, you still empathise with his need to prove himself worthy. It's only when he pursues Shazam that we get conflicted and confused about whom to root for. More so because Shazam, being just a kid and forced to play in the adult league, takes a long time getting a handle on himself, his powers and eventually coming into his own.

Billy Batson's own history comes into play to swing empathy to his side. Separated from his unwed, teen mother at a carnival and subsequently sent to a series of Philadelphia foster homes - from which he continually runs away, he eventually winds up with an extended foster family of five, including disabled Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), who walks with the aid of a crutch and is obsessed with all things superhero. With Freddy as the wonder-struck side-kick, the duo embarks on theatrical antics that are delightfully fantastic.

The battles between Shazam and Dr Sivana don't amount to much other than CGI driven plot mechanics. The CGI incarnations of the seven deadly sins and those highlighting the powers of Shazam and his siblings never get distinctive enough to keep us hooked. The rather long 131 mins runtime also takes a toll on the overall enjoyment. Despite the negatives, this film manages to drum up anticipation and leave a smile on your face after the end credits!

Also read: Zachary Levi roped in for The Marvelous Mrs Maisel

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Romeo Akbar Walter
U/A: Action
Director: Robbie Grewal
Cast: John Abraham, Mouni Roy, Jackie Shroff
Ratings:

John Abraham's latest nation-in-peril movie is set against the backdrop of the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Releasing nearly a year after Raazi, this one suffers from an acute hangover of the Alia Bhatt-film. It even ends with a song that seems inspired (read blatantly copied from Ae Watan…).

Romeo Akbar Walter (RAW) has a confusing structure, is supported by a blaring background score, and lacks both the smarts and the menace of being a good espionage thriller. The problem here lies with director Robbie Grewal (also director of Aloo Chaat, Mera Pehla Pehla Pyaar, and Samay), who botches his own script.

Given the twists and turns, the film comes across as a convoluted and tedious mess. For a major portion of the film, you find yourself trying to decipher where it is leading. In order to fit the sub-plots, the script is stretched to a point that you stop caring. The first part revolves around Romeo's (Abraham) induction into the task force and imbibing the nuances of Akbar as he enters Pakistan. What could have been an interesting depiction, is reduced to a clichéd montage of training. In the second half, our super-spy hero is in pursuit of getting details of the Pakistani Army which threatens to set a bomb in a part of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

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The sequence is shot so casually that it makes you wonder if walking on the streets of Pakistan while trying to gather sensitive information, is a cakewalk. The attempt to create a sense of urgency and intrigue are undermined by the lack of coherence. The film manages to pick up the pace in the second half, but by then, it is too late to salvage the situation.

Also Read: Romeo Akbar Walter director shoots across the country in 46 days

The screenplay moves at a snail's pace and is devoid of tension. The unnecessary inclusion of a love story between Romeo and Parul (Mouni Roy) makes it further lethargic. That's not all, amidst the supposed high-tension situation, a lovemaking scene seems like a desperate attempt to titillate the audience.

Grewal tries to bank on the emotional side of Romeo as he remembers his mother. The scene is almost an ode to Darsheel Safary from Taare Zameen Par (2007). It comes across as pretentious and dreary. It seems, the director hoped to present the film as a complete package, and failed miserably. Had he stuck to the narrative of a spy, the outcome would have been very different.

Sikander Kher is the only one who has attempted to salvage the film. Jackie Shroff as the director of Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) sails by. Abraham's deadpan expressions are a hindrance but he somehow manages to hold his ground. And Roy should stick to doing Naagin instead of a gratuitous role like this. As for RAW, YAW(n).

Also Read: John Abraham: RAW: Romeo Akbar Walter isn't a jingoistic, flag-saluting film

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Five Feet Apart
U/A: Drama romance
Director: Justin Baldoni
Cast: Cole Sprouse, Haley Lu Richardson
Ratings: 

Justin Baldoni's film latches on to cystic fibrosis (CF) for its cause, and makes two teens go through the motions of suffering from the disease to develop its romance and effect. CF is a disease that makes its victim struggle for every breath. Those suffering from it rarely survive beyond the age of 10. So, of course, go ahead and blame advances in modern medicine for allowing the two protagonists to live on as teenagers.

They obviously can't risk any infection, and more so from the disease's fellow-sufferers, who are considered high-risk. At all times, they are meant to be separated by latex gloves; no touching, and six feet between them, at all times. The villain here is the disease; not parents or society.

The first rule to be violated is that of the distance. It conveniently becomes five feet, at the heroine's suggestion. Though the film's main premise is about keeping the protagonists interested and engaged in each other, despite their restrictions, it takes plenty of liberties while trying to establish their connect. They even break away from the hospital's restrictions and risking death when heading on a freakish date in snowy conditions. While they cavort in the snow with no care, viewers hold their breath watching their tragedy unfold amidst compulsive melodrama.

Stella (Haley Lu Richardson) treats the hospital as her second home. She is aware of her disease, stays strictly within her regimen, and looks forward to extending her life (through a lung transplant that offers her five years) while carrying the hope that a new cure may be developed. Her best friend Poe (Moises Arias) is back in the hospital and has his own relationship problems to grapple with. Will (Cole Sprouse), another teenage CF patient, receives an experimental drug to take care of his B-cepacia infection. While Stella is hyper-cooperative with those treating her, Poe and Will cope differently. Will, a cynic and rebel, is persuaded by Stella to keep up with his regimen. Of course, you know where this is going to end, but Baldoni lays on a few surprises along the way.

The director may have gotten his inspiration for this film from his documentary titled My Last Days, about the terminally ill. Reportedly, screenwriters Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis developed it further while Rachel Lippincott churned it into a best-selling novel later. Baldoni kick-starts the narrative with no-nonsense flair, zooming in on Stella and her friends as they party before she must return to her dreaded hospital routine.

Baldoni and cinematographer Frank G DeMarco keep the narrative bright and cosy, straying away from medical restrictions to chart a course that has the young hopefuls straining at every bit. The production design makes the setting look luxurious; unlike regular hospital set-ups. The actors are amiable; able enough to gather empathy without going heavy-duty about their woes. This is a genre flick meant to ply on your sympathies and does the job efficiently.

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