The Critique

Dir: Rumy Jafry Starring: Amitabh Bachan, Emraan Hashmi, Krystle D’souza, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Annu Kapoor, Rhea Chakraborty. Dur : 2 hrs 19 mins Genre: Drama Rating : 8/10                 The trailer had me hooked. I couldn’t believe that Bollywood was finally experimenting with original storylines! But when I sat down to review the film I realized that it was a copied idea. As if that wasn’t enough, it wasn’t even a new copy at that! This film is actually based off a German Novel by Friedrich Durrenmatt titled A Dangerous Game . A Marathi version had come out way back in 1971; more recently a Kannada and Bengali adaptation were released. Nevertheless, Bollywood felt that it had to jump on the bandwagon and recycle this story.                 The film itself is quite brilliant. The idea is novel. It doesn’t have traditional B...

  Directed and Written by: Ricky Gervais Starring: Ricky Gervais, Tom Basden, Tony Way, Diane Morgan, Mandeep Dhillon Dur : About 30 mins each. The whole series is only 6 episodes long. Rating : 5/10 After Life presents itself as a comedy-drama but I didn’t find it either comedic or dramatic. There are elements of comedy and drama but not nearly in enough to term it a comedy-drama. The show came across to me as a reflection on grief. It is dark both in the nature of the theme it explores as well as in its development. Each episode is carried mostly by dialogue and very little background music. Music definitely would have helped to make the episodes more memorable and the times they do kick in (mostly at the start and end) the choice of songs are brilliant and effective. Since it is written by Ricky, the series is highly sarcastic, critical of religion and pretty matter-of-fact in its dealing with sickness, age and death. Ricky’s character goes about in hopelessness afte...

  St. Joseph: A Father after the Father’s Heart , Hyderabad: Don Bosco Publishing House, 2021, Rs. 150, pp. 240. The book is a compilation of articles from various authors writing about qualities of St. Joseph. They have used the litany of St. Joseph as an index and have put together articles on each of the invocations. All the contributors are Salesians from different parts of India but there a couple of contributors from abroad as well. The book lends itself to be a souvenir of the Year of St. Joseph that Pope Francis declared. Let me start out by commenting on the quality of production. The paper is of good quality and so is the design and layout. It is neat and has an attractive cover. Coming to the content, it gets rather repetitive but that is understandable considering that there is so little Biblical foundation for an exposition of St. Joseph. The articles often reference Pope Francis’ letter Patris Corde and extensively utilize Pope St. John Paul II’s apostolic exhort...

  In Sinu Jesus: When Heart Speaks to Heart , ISBN 978-1-62138-221-8 (E-book) Oklahoma: Angelico Press, 2016, pp. 317. The first time I heard about In Sinu Jesu was about two years ago! A priest had come to preach a recollection to my community and had chosen to share some ideas from the book as part of his reflection. Unfortunately, I was unwell at the time and completely missed it. I heard my companions gushing over how interesting the talk was and how beautiful the ideas were. Then and there, a slight fire was lit in my heart and I became curious to find out more about this interesting book. But with a scatter brain like mine, the fire was allowed to die down and I made no attempt to find the book. In December of last year, when I went home for holidays, I happened to go out for breakfast with my cousin and a young couple who are devout believers and spiritually aware people. Among other things, they brought up this book and the spirituality contained therein. Such was the im...

  Created:  Dan Fogelman Starring:  Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Sterling K. Brown, Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Sullivan, Ron Cephas Jones, Jon Huertas. Dur:  Each episode is about 45 mins. There are 18 episodes in this series. Genre:  Drama PG:  A few kisses and mildly sensual scenes. Life is chaotic. You think things are going one way when all of a sudden they start moving another way. This is one of the beauties of life – it is unpredictable. A mechanical life loses meaning pretty quickly and can become tedious but life rarely disappoints us in that regard. No matter how monotonous you try to live your life there will be something or the other that will disrupt your rhythm. This is Us is essentially a story about life. The characters are every bit human as you and me, viewers. We see our own lives reflected in their lives. We might not share a similar experience to theirs but they do not fail to speak to us ab...

  Dir: Sharan Sharma Starring: Jhanvi Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Angad Bedi Dur : 1 hr 52 mins Genre: Biography Rating : 6.5/10 The film aims at depicting the tough life of India’s first lady Air Force pilot: Gunjan Saxena. Gunjan served in the Kargil War of 1999. She came from a family that had patriotic blood as her father was an Army officer. Her brother also subsequently joined the army. Gunjan, uncharacteristic of most Indian girls, dreamt of becoming a pilot from her childhood. She was very intelligent and wanted with all her being to fly a plane and rule the skies. The film flippantly portrays how a young Gunjan prepares herself to achieve her goal by wearing goggles all the time in order to protect her eyes. The film could have done without such silliness but it is tolerable. Besides the young actress playing young Gunjan is adorable. The film slightly exaggerates things in order to dramatize the story and while this adds to the drama it does not shed kind light o...

  Dir: Anu Menon Starring: Vidya Balan, Sanya Malhotra Dur : 2 hrs 7 mins Genre: Biography Rating : 9/10 I don’t know if you had heard about Shakuntala Devi. She is a national treasure. She was known as the ‘human computer’ and could calculate faster than the computer of those days! She travelled the world displaying her talent and in the bargain earned great fame and respect not only for herself but for the nation. She died in 2013. Her real story differs quite a bit from the film story but the essentials are depicted.   Shakuntala came from very humble beginnings but was blessed with prodigious math skill. Even without formal training she was able to compute in her head. Once discovered, her father nurtured her skill and used it to add to the family income by taking her to perform at shows and other events. To cut a long story short, Shakuntala goes on to become world-famous and even held a Guinneas World Record for mental arithmetic after successfully calculating ...

Created:  The Duffer Brothers Starring:  Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Cara Buono, Matthew Modine, Noah Schnapp and Joe Keery, Sadie Sink, Dacre Montgomery, Sean Astin and Paul Reiser. Dur:  Each episode is about 50 mins. There are 8 episodes in this series. The finale is just over an hour. Genre:  Thriller PG:  A few kisses and foul language. It's been a year since Season 2 hit the screens and thrilled audiences everywhere. Season 3 comes back with what you might expect in a storyline that grows with its characters: a more mature story that grows with the characters. It's a bit unnerving to see the innocent kids of the first two season suddenly turn into beautiful teens with all the problems that ordinary teens have. Somehow you would want them to remain the innocent young ones that they were but that is not how life goes. Just like in Harry Potter you have to get...

Dir: Nitesh Tiwari Starring: Sushant Singh Rajput, Shraddha Kapoor, Varun Sharma, Prateik Babbar, Tahir Bhasin, Naveen Polishetty, Tushar Pandey and Saharsh Shukla Dur : 2 hrs 23 mins Genre: Drama Rating : 6/10 PG: Foul language, drinking, smoking.   Chhichhore was the last film of Sushant released during his lifetime. Watching the film, I felt that he somehow missed the plot. The crux of the film is about not losing hope despite adversity and realizing that life is far more valuable than anything you can achieve. It’s ironic to me how a person who stars in a film that revolves around the theme of suicide can end up falling into the trap himself. I cannot bring myself to accept how someone who makes a powerful film to deter youngsters from giving up on life when faced with failure could end his own life. Anyway, coming back to the film. It is a lovely coming-of-age story that centres around the character of Aniruddh (Anni) played by Sushant who retells the story o...

Dir: Guy Ritchie Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Michelle Dockery, Jeremy Strong, Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant Dur : 1 hr 53 mins Genre: Drama (In my opinion) but IMDB calls it an Action-Comedy! Rating : 2/10 PG: Lots of foul language, smoking in nearly every scene, drugs, alcohol, violence and even an interrupted rape scene in which nothing explicit is shown. The Gentlemen opened up to great reception. I remember seeing it pop up every time I looked for latest movies. It looked good; it sounded good; its trailer was pretty good but its end product was a total let down. I don’t know where to start with trying to say what a big discouragement this film was. So I’ll start at the beginning. The film opens with an end scene that directly throws us into the thick of the plot. I confess that the opening scene kind of built up the drama that I hoped would follow. The opening scene got my attention! What followed only whetted my appetite fu...

Creator: Jason George Starring: Jan Bijvoet, Nabil Mallat, Pauline Etienne, Laurent Capelluto, Stefano Cassetti, Vincent Londez, Regnia Bikkinina, Alba Bellugi, Babetida Sadjo, Mehmet Kurtulus and Ksawery Szlenkier Duration: One Season. Six episodes. Each about 40 mins. Into the Night  is Netflix's first original Belgian series. It kept popping up in the recommendations and its brevity attracted my attention. The series is shot mostly in French with occasional dialogues in Russian, Dutch and English. I tried changing the language setting to English but preferred to watch it in the original. The subtitles are more than enough to follow the dialogues. I realized that watching in the original language makes a world of difference for it brings one closer to the characters in a way that a dubbed voice cannot.  I thoroughly enjoyed the series. Despite its simple premise, the series which is based on a novel called The Old Axaloti  by Jacek Dukaj unfolds dramatical...

Money Heist (Spanish original: La Casa de Papel) [2017] Created: Alex Pina Starring: Ursula Corbero, Alvaro Morte, Itziar Ituno, Pedro Alonso, Paco Tous, Alba Flores, Miguel Herran, Jaime Lorente, Esther Acebo, Darko Peric and Enrique Arce. Dur: The first season is broken into 2 parts. The first part has 9 episodes while the second part has 8 episodes. Each episode is about 45-55 mins. For me, Netflix has been a name until recently. I have watched some of Netflix's shows but not on Netflix directly. The present lockdown offered me an opportunity to get in touch with Netflix firsthand. Thanks to my sister's subscription and the availability of a streaming device I finally exposed myself to the addictive world of Netflix. Thus far, my experience has been very rewarding and satisfying. The only problem I face is that Netflix does not allow you to watch at higher speeds. While this appears to have a good reason, a person like me who lives on a time-constrained schedule and ...

Chetan Bhagat , One Indian Girl , New Delhi: Rupa Publications 2016, pp. 272, Rs. 176. Chetan Bhagat has made a name for himself on the Indian literary scene with his novels. Some of them have even succeeded in feeding famished Bollywood with adventures that provided a refreshing change from mainstream storylines. Bollywood's chronic 'borrow and steal' policy has ensured that Chetan becomes a household name in India. Despite the poor literacy of our country, Chetan's books have become bestsellers read by millions. While all this is nice and heart-warming, it sadly but naturally leads to the point where whatever Chetan writes sells immaterial of quality. It is my opinion that One Indian Girl  suffers from this exact bias. I am a fan of Chetan Bhagat. His initial novels were thrilling, fresh and interesting. But once fame caught up, I detected a downward slip in quality and content. His last couple of novels have been rather poor. Revolution 2020  marked the beginnin...

Confession #1: Maps is one my favourite Maroon 5 songs. Confession #2: I am not a big fan of covers. I enjoy the original tracks. But every once in a while you come across a cover that is better than the original. This is something very interesting and great about music - there are so many different ways of doing it. Take, for instance, a song; a song can be sung in different styles or the music could make a difference; adding or subtracting an instrument can bring out a different sound and thus give the song a whole new vibe. This is what I love about music. Caleb and Kelsey have made a number of covers. I haven't heard them all. Frankly, I haven't heard 98% of them! I chanced upon this cover they made on the song Maps . My first impression was that it was well done. The voices blended beautifully. The video opened up well but then just got boring. Firstly, because it was repetitive and secondly because it lacked direction and creativity. What captured my attention, h...

Dir: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman Dur: 1 hr 57 mins Genre: Animation Rating: 9/10 WOW! Yes, that’s not just what I felt when I watched the film, it’s what I’m feeling even now as I sit and write this review. This is definitely the best animated film I have ever seen. The graphics are incredible. The story is brilliantly woven together despite the colliding universes and the blend of emotional and comic-like storytelling is simply fantastic. The directors deserve more than their fair share of credit for envisioning this project and seeing it through to such a beautiful ending. I’m glad this film won an Oscar; it deserves the fame and appreciation it receives. For a superhero film, this was a novel storyline since even though there is an overlap of universes in the comics it hasn’t really made it to the silver screen. So, this didn’t only make this project novel it also made it incredibly challenging. However, the directors and their team have done a com...

Dir: Bryan Singer Starring: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joe Mazzello Dur: 2 hrs 14 mins Genre: Biopic Rating: 6/10  The film released to worldwide acclaim. It made quite an impact and is regarded as one of the biggest box office successes of all time for a biopic. Personally, I wasn’t at all impressed with the film. Critics praised Rami for his depiction of Freddie but I wasn’t too happy. Perhaps, it’s just prejudice. I imagine Freddie to by quite flamboyant and out-there. Rami tries his best but for me, there is some kind of lacuna in his performance. The best part of the film is definitely the music. There is nothing to beat it. The film also drew a lot of criticism for its historical inaccuracies. Something that doesn’t digest very well considering that the film is supposed to be a biopic. Unless you liked the music of Queen and are interested in a little background, you probably might not enjoy this film. The drama is quite drab. The dial...

Dir: Tabrez Noorani Starring: Mrunal Thakur, Richa Chadda, Freida Pinto, Manoj Bajpayee, Rajkumar Rao Dur: 2 hrs Genre: Drama Rating: 7/10  India is one of the hotbeds of human trafficking and prostitution. I can’t really remember a film that documented the horror quite as well as this (from Bollywood, that is). Mardaani (2016) was pretty good but it focused on the cat-and-mouse chase between heroine cop and evil mastermind. Love Sonia doesn’t bother much with villainizing people. It gets straight to the issues of human trafficking, prostitution and the most deplorable, buying and selling girls like commodities. Set in a remote village of Maharashtra, the film quickly changes the address to Mumbai which is made out to be the red zone. The story takes off from Mumbai, reaches Bangkok, proceeds to the United States and then comes back full circle. The film packs a big load of stars each delivering sterling performances. The highlight, however, hands down is Richa. ...

Dir: Sriram Raghavan Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Radhika Apte and Tabu Dur: 2 hrs 18 mins Genre: Black Comedy Crime Thriller Rating: 3/10 I watched this film on good recommendations. It was hailed as one of the best films of 2018. The mystery surrounding the film went well with the mystery that was actually the film itself. I learnt a hard lesson after watching this film and that is not to go by what other’s say about a film. Given Bollywood’s film making standards, I should not have been surprised. Yet, I found myself pleasantly surprised at the end product. Andadhun tells a complex tale of blindness in a world that is not blind even though it appears so. Confused? Well then, watching the film is not going to make it any better. This film is a classical example of postmodern film-making. It is replete with ample plot twists that don’t allow you to settle into its tricky narrative. Just when you think you have it all figured out, a new twist emerges and challe...

Created by: Steven Lilien Starring: Brendan Hall, Violett Beane, Javicia Leslie, Suraj Sharma and Joe Morton. Dur: 13 episodes 45 mins each Genre: Comedy-Drama Rating: 9/10 One of the best coming-of-age stories told in serial form. I absolutely loved every bit of it. First of all, it’s told from the perspective of a young adult who is struggling with ideas of God, faith and religion. He starts out as an avowed atheist but begins to experience a change when an extraordinary event rocks his world — God friends him on Facebook. When I say ‘friends’ I literally mean it.   Like God makes an account and uses it to get in touch with Miles, the lead protagonist, and influence his life. The serial makes a number of bold choices. It makes use of a number of sensitive issues to get across a point. Atheism, homosexuality and priesthood are all significant players in the development of the story. Also, the very choice of lead characters. As you can see in the poster, you ...

David Rice , Shattered Vows: Priests who Leave , New York: Triumph Books, 1992, ISBN 0-8007-3037-2, pp. 280, $10. David Rice was born in Northern Ireland and was ordained a Dominican in 1958. He left the priesthood in 1977 to marry. He has worked as a journalist all his life and was an editor and award-winning syndicated columnist in the U.S. during the 1970s. Having undergone the experience of ‘leaving the ordained ministry,’ Rice is in a good position to make this presentation about the sad and troubling, yet awfully sensitive and pressing issue. The book is written in true journalistic style, without jumping to conclusions and backing up claims with significant evidence. One can take his word for truth since he has personally travelled thousands of miles across the globe, visiting, interviewing and even living with ‘priest who left’ besides those who had troubles but didn’t leave. His travels have taken him to places like U.S., Britain, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Germany, F...