I saw Udta Punjab on my birthday which may not have been the best idea. Because it's a very dark film. It's taken me some time to process it and mull it over. I'm really impressed with the film making of writer/director Abhishek Chaubey. I enjoyed his film Ishquiya, and he was also a writer on Kaminey and Omkara. This film straddles the issue of drugs in the Punjab (the title means Punjab's High or Punjab's Flying) by telling the stories of four people affected by it. Alia Bhatt is a field worker who comes across a packet of drugs from Pakistan. Shahid Kapoor is a coke addicted rapper rock star who sings about drugs. Kareena Kapoor is a saintly doctor who runs a drug clinic, hands out needles and speaks out against the drug problem. And then there's Diljit Dosanjh who plays a cop, complicit in looking the other way and taking bribes until he realizes that his younger brother is an addict. his reminded me immediately of the Hollywood film Traffic that told the story of how the Mexican drug cartels impact four people. I actually have not seen that Oscar winning film, but I did see the BBC series it was based on, Traffik which dealt with drugs from Pakistan in the UK, and it's a British politician's daughter who is the addict. The story of Traffic/Traffik and Udta Punjab are not the exact same plot, but the intention is the same -- show the impact through four different characters involved in the drug crisis in different levels. And show how the problem is very political. That is overt in Udta Punjab, and that's why the Indian Censor Board demanded 89 cuts. Read the rest of my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/06/20/udta-punjab-a-triumph-a-triumph-of-film-making-acting-and-most-importantly-over-the-censor-board/

I'm not a huge sports movie fan, but 1983 was touching and enjoyable. I also don"t know anything about cricket, but that is no hindrance in watching Nivin Pauly's love of the game. The first half of the film shows us Rameshan (Nivin Pauly) as a child obsessed by cricket. There's one TV in their small Kerala village and he and his friends are forever changed by India winning its first Cricket World Cup in 1983. They sneak away from chores and skip homework and studying for tests to play cricket together. For the rest of the review, go here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/07/03/1983-a-sweet-cricket-sports-drama-starring-nivin-pauly/

Te3n is a Hindi thriller starring Amitabh Bachchan as the grandfather of a young girl who was kidnapped and killed 8 years ago. He can"t let the unsolved case go, and visits the police station every day for an update. Vidya Balan is the police detective who tries to gently get him to move on. awazuddin Siddiqui was the police officer investigating the case 8 years ago, and botched it. He has since become a priest, and Amitabh (John) also torments him regularly about the cold case. Amitabh neglects his disabled wife, the bills and regular life in his obsession to find justice for his granddaughter. He uncovers what he believes is new evidence in the case, and gets Martin (Nawaz) to accompany him to track down more clues. Then another young child is kidnapped, and the details of the case seem to be an exact copy of the case of John (Amitabh)'s granddaughter. Vidya calls on Martin (Nawaz) to help her find the kidnapped boy. Full thoughts here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/06/11/te3n-amitabh-bachchan-as-an-obsessed-grandfather-searching-for-clues-to-a-family-tragedy/

I adored the absurd surreal film The Lobster. I missed it at Sundance, where it premiered in January. This is a love it or hate it kind of movie. I loved it, but some of the people walking out of my suburban theater HATED it. They really hated it. For me, it was just my cup of tea, and a welcome standout after a string of mediocre films I'veseen this past week. The film opens with a woman driving in the countryside in the rain. She stops her car, gets out and shoots a donkey in a field. Gets back in her car and drives away. It's never referred to again, but that sets the tone of how absurd this world is that Greek writer/director Yorges Lanthimos has created. We then first see David (Colin Farrell). His wife is breaking up their 12 year marriage for another man. And that means he has to leave immediately to be taken away to "The Hotel" to be paired up with another woman. Singles and loners are not allowed in this near future dystopian world. When David arrives at The Hotel (in County Kerry, Ireland), the manager (the always exceptional Olivia Colman) explains the rules to him. He has 45 days to find a new mate or he will be turned into an animal. He chooses a lobster, because they can live for 100 years and he's always liked the sea. "Excellent choice." He is warned that if he doesn"t find his true mate in time, he cannot couple after he is transformed if she picks another animal. "A wolf and a penguin could not couple because that would be absurd." Read the rest of my review here; https://moviemavengal.com/2016/06/12/i-loved-the-lobster-every-surreal-absurdist-minute-of-it/

Decent weepie. I know you have to boil down the essence of a book to adapt it for the screen, but I wish a bit more of the complexity of the relationship with the sister had been left in. But the opening had me going NEVILLE! Supporting players include Bates and that companion from Dr. Who as well.

fter the searing Malayalam gangster film Kammati Paadam, I wanted something lighter to watch. Someone had recommended to me Athadu as their favorite Mahesh Babu film and it's free on Youtube with subtitles. (Love you Telugu Cinema industry for doing that!). Athadu evidently means simply "He". athadu 2 It starts super violent. A young street kid murders someone, and then joins a gang. And then we see the now grown up Mahesh and there is more violence. I despaired at first as it was all this violence and blood " I"d had plenty of that with Kammati Paadam. Mahesh is Nandu, a killer " a stone cold hitman, and Sonu Sood is his getaway driver. He's hired to stage an almost assassination of a politician, and is double crossed and chased for the murder. During his escape on a train, an innocent person is killed. And he takes on that victim's identity, as the victim Pardhu was on his way to reunite with long lost family who hadn"t seen him in over a decade. Pardhu had been orphaned and his grandfather and family had been searching for him. Mahesh arrives in the village, and is welcomed as the prodigal son returned. No one had seen Pardhu since he was a child, so they just say, "My you'vegrown tall!" and the like. Nasser plays the grandfather, and Trisha Krishnan is Poori, Pardhu's cousin. Mahesh lays low and stays at the rural family compound for over a month. You can tell he's never had a normal family life and that this is all new to him. And that's when I realized, that this was going to totally be my catnip trope " killer disarmed by love and family!! With a heaping helping of taking on an identity and trying to blend into a family. It's like Witness crossed with The Professional crossed with Sommersby! (In a good way.) Read the rest of my review: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/06/05/athadu-killer-disarmed-by-love-and-affection-my-total-catnip/

U Turn is a Kannada language supernatural suspense thriller written and directed by Pawan Kumar. Pawan Kumar blew me away with his amazing low budget Kannada film Lucia. Lucia had twist after twist and I never knew what was going to happen next. U turn starts upside down. Literally. We see the divider of a road, and the camera travels along it, but upside down as the opening credits roll. Then the camera does a u-turn and continue to travel the urban highway. Throughout the film there are "U's sprinkled around, both in the visual framing of shots, and horseshoe knockers on doors, etc. Shraddha Srinath, the star of the film, is introduced to us in a really clever way. Rachana (Srinath) is riding in a rickshaw with her mother, and through their arguing we learn that she's single, that her mother is pressuring her to marry, that her family is going away on a trip, and thus she will be alone. It's a really clever bit of writing. She draws the rickshaw driver into the argument, showing us a bit of her moxie and personality. Full review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/06/11/u-turn-shraddha-srinath-and-roger-narayan-shine-in-pawan-kumars-kannada-supernatural-thriller/

Kammatti Paadam is a gangster epic. This film has a lot of depth and meat to it. Dulquer Salmaan was amazing. I'm admiring his choices of films and roles this past year. He's breaking into new ground and showing his acting chops outside the charming romantic lead type. The poster shows him present day as a salt and pepper haired 42 year old security guard living in Mumbai. (Yes, we see him doing security for a Bollywood film doing a street shoot!) Just a touch of gray to his hair and mustache. And I think he must have gained weight for the role. He just looked more like his father Mammootty than ever with that substantial thick mustache. ` I looked up during the interval who the director is - Rajeev Ravi. He's only directed a few Malayalam films, but he's worked extensively as a cinematographer in Bollywood, with Anurag Kashyap especially. He was cinematographer on Bombay Velvet, Gangs of Wasseypur, Dev D, etc. And key in Malayalam cinema, he was cinematographer for Classmates. There were some really interesting shots -- into plate glass windows, some shaky handheld work during action scenes, etc. It just was visually interesting and not all straight forward shooting as we sometimes see in Indian film. Read more of my review here: https://moviemavengal.com/2016/06/03/kammatti-paadam-dulquer-salmaan-is-the-star-in-this-gripping-gangster-movie-but-vinayakan-and-manikandan-steal-the-show/

I now feel like I have to go back and thank each of those people who recommended this. So good and so interesting! I so enjoyed the roller coaster ride. The director's next film, U-Turn, is evidently about to come out. Lucia got rave tweets from Irrfan Khan and Anurag Kashyap tweeted ""My birthday gift to myself would be lucia...""

The film has sweetness, and a very filmi romance while also being a near Matrix level psychological -- which world is real kind of sci-fi plot. This is an Indian film where the script is truly king. It is quite the story -- certainly not like anything else in Indian film, and yet, with the dual role, so very filmi at the same time!