Breath : Into the Shadows Review.

I have not seen the first season of Breath. So I might be missing some character connections, but this new season is more or less standalone.
Breath : Into the Shadows starts well enough. The first 2 or 3 episodes have a good pacing but soon the series starts to drag on. Episode after episode goes by and nothing much happens. This seems like a story meant for 6 or 8 episodes, which has been stretched over 12 episodes.
Having said that, the last episode is SUPER DUPER rushed. While scripting, do these people not plan out thing or do they shoot / edit on the fly without the script? How do so many shows end up with a super rushed last episode while the previous few episodes had nothing much going!

Let come to the plot.
In a kidnapping / crime thriller, the plot is everything. It is primary and everything else is secondary. We have seen many kidnapping drama in Hollywood and Bollywood. This starts out as one and evolves into some sort of mind game / serial killer drama, which then turns into ‘Aparichit’ somewhere towards the middle of the series.
Beyond the basic premise, the hodge podge of a plot doesn’t make a coherent series and the tone of the series is all over the place. It is nice to blend multiple genres but only if it all comes together at the end. Which this series really does not.
Also the last episode is so rushed that it seems like there is a missing 13th episode which ties up all the left over threads neatly.

Acting.
Abhishek is a competent actor who is totally miscast here just for his sheer star power. He is unable to portray the subtleties of his character. His acting is ham fisted and there is zero nuance to the whole performance. Someone, such as Manoj Bajpayee with his caliber of acting was needed here to portray the main character.
Nitya Menen plays the wife of the lead character. She is fine in her role. She isn’t given a lot to do in the series other than to act depressed. Barring the one episode where she pretends to be a lesbian to seduce a victim, the entire series only has her to fill the gaps and she doesn’t come across as a real character with real emotions. She only says or does things the script requires her to do, to progress the plot forward.
Amit Sadh as Inspector Kabir Sawant leads the investigation. I have not seen the first season so I do not know his back-story. His love interest in this season suddenly disappears over a phone call as if the director / writers forgot to write her exit and ran out of budget to film her departure. As for the inspector himself, he seems clueless in the beginning before suddenly developing Sherlock level skills and becoming super-duper smart at the end. Yet his own ongoing story of police brutality / inter departmental rivalry is suddenly abandoned in the last episode.
Saiyami Kher plays a hooker named Shirley (lol). I still have NO CLUE why she was in the series other than to provide her some form of employment. Her character does nothing, has no say in the proceedings and seems more of an abandoned side plot from a 'horny teenage coming of age' film than this series.
Hrishikesh Joshi plays Prakash Kamble, sidekick to Inspector Kabir. His own side plot is also suddenly aborted and nothing much is made of it as the episodes go by. So why did they even waste screentime on it?

Overall.
This series is such a drag that even to recommend a one time watch is a hard sell.
If you were waiting for a really well done, competent and tight crime / kidnapping thriller, this is definitely not it. The plot goes haywire, the acting is fine, but the characters are left in the lurch as the writers waste time over side plot which end up being ditched towards the end.
Rating : 5/10. Amazon really needs to get its act together and stop making shitty shows.

P.S : If you are wondering, what happened to the kidnapping plot, don’t worry, just as I have ignored it in my review, the writers of the show have also ignored it for the rest of the show.

P.P.S : If you are wondering if the plot twists are at the bare minimum, satisfying enough to see the series, the answer is NOPE. The twists make less sense than an abbas mastan flick and the logic of the entire plot is totally senseless.

Due to the Corona Virus pandemic, there was a debate whether films should wait for the theaters to open up or just release on OTT platforms…
One of the films the distributors were particularly upset about, is the film I am reviewing today.

Gulabo Sitabo.

Having seen the film, its safe to say… The Distributors were scared for no reason at all. This film would have flopped badly at the box office and taken along a lot of distributor wealth along with it…

The director Soojit Sircar has made some good films, such as Piku and Vicky Donor, he also made the snoozefest October. So I started the film with an open mind.
I started seeing it at 12:12 Am on 12th of June! But roughly 45mins into the film, I fell asleep. My wife paused the film as I slept off for the night! Today I started again after rewinding for the 5 minutes or so when I had slept off and again, roughly 40 mins after resuming the film, I slept off again!

This time I woke up within a few minutes and managed to finish the film. I wonder how frustrated I would have been if I had paid good money to see this in theaters!
Firstly, the film is slow. VERY VERY slow. The comedy is trying to be so subtle that it is non existent, just the comedy sound track makes it through without the acting, script or dialogs having anything funny in them.

If they were trying to make an absurdist character piece, then the characters are too bland and not 3 dimensional at all. They all feel like a writer’s room character sketch done in 2 lines and dragged across an entire feature film’s length. This is like a 5 min comedy sketch that has been stretched across 2 hours.

Amitabh Sir’s acting is good, he manages to portray an old man very effectively as he himself is of a similar age. However, the entire character of Mirza is very flat. He has nothing inside other than the external quirks the writers decided to give him.

Ayushmann Khurrana plays a common man, his acting is also fine, but his character doesn’t have any good moments and the story/plot gives him no chance to shine. His character has no impact on the story or on the viewer!

The story is also non existent and pretty much nothing happens the entire film other than the above mentioned two characters bickering over a dilapidated mansion which they presently call home.

Even for the climax of the film, nothing really happens.No twist of plot or moment of understanding, which would surprise the audience or provide any sort of closure to the story.
There is no journey of the characters and both the main leads remains exactly the same by the end of the film as they were in the start of it… making the entire film completely pointless.

Since this is streaming on Prime which means effectively its free to watch if you have amazon Prime, then by all means do see this film. Its good remedy for insomnia.

Rating : 5/10. Flat Characters, non-moving story and pointless plot.

P.S: SPOILERS ALERT.
I had expected that by the end of the film, the mansion they have been bickering over would Fall apart / Get destroyed in the storm. If that were the case, the whole film would have just clicked into place. The very thing everyone covets would have been taken out of the equation, forcing the characters to take a hard look at their own frailties. The film foreshadowed the collapse of the mansion many times, but finally did not come though on it… sometimes the writers try to subvert audience expectations and manage to just make plain boring film with no head or tail.

This show literally starts with a speech about the next epidemic or pandemic… So the real world situation makes this show somehow hit home all the more.
Welcome to 12 Monkeys, an obscure show, which I can promise you, might just be the best time travel show in recent history.

12 monkeys was originally a 1995 film starring Bruce Willis. I was aware that a TV Show based on the same premise was coming out, but I waited for the show to end before seeing it. Also, during a worldwide pandemic and a nationwide lockdown, what else have I got to do…
I had zero expectations from this show. All I knew was there was an element of time travel and global pandemic involved. I will not discuss the plot of the show, as its better to experience it than be told, but this show has got to be one of the best Sci-fi shows recently despite a very minimal budget.
The acting performances are all natural and somehow the actors manage to pull off their outlandish dialogs with ease and believability. Most often-such shows get hokey very fast, but 12 Monkeys manages to keep it grounded.

Special mention for Amanda Schull playing Dr. Cassandra Railly, she is the heart and soul of the entire series. Not only is she very pretty to look at, but her acting really brings to life her character and makes us feel for her and the situation she finds herself in due to the time travel shenanigans.
Also, such shows often manage to get VERY procedural, for example 1995’s TV show ‘Sliders’ or 1989’s Famous TV show ‘Quantum Leap’. Both these shows are of the same genre as 12 Monkeys, but they manage to get very repetitive and in those shows, every episode works on its own without carrying the story forward. Not this show. Here every episode has some meaning in a larger framework and often things that happen in season 1, which can only be explained in season 3 or 4. The story keeps moving without many filler episodes meant to pad the time. It’s almost like Christopher Nolan’s Memento, where some episodes are out of context and makes sense only much later. It’s like time being seen in a skewed manner and somethings show results without the cause being evident.
Any show which forces you to think like that is brilliant in itself, but after having seen all 4 seasons in a binge, the thing that struck out to me was the ending. Often shows fail to stick the landing with the ending season or last few episodes.

Case for point is, How I met Your mother, Game OF Thrones and lots of other shows which have a really horrible or rushed ending. Thankfully, the show runners worked their magic and this show has a satisfactory ending, which works extremely well and enhances the entire show rather than diminishing it. I cannot explain how rare that it, to have a satisfying ending which is not rushed and done to perfection. It’s for this reason, I will highly recommend this show.

Rating : 9/10. This is one of the best Time travel Sci-Fi shows ever done.

Overall : The episodes keep the story moving forward without becoming procedural or repetitive, it’s a narrative driven plotline which takes us for a wild ride. Highly recommended.

If only someone could make some kickass action movies for us to enjoy during the lockdown!
Well, its seems our prayers have been answered. Netflix’s Extraction is out now, this is our review!
If this movie had come out in 1990s this would have been an action blockbuster. But this is the era of streaming and there is no way to gauge the quality of a film other than to see it or read reviews before hand.
Extraction is an old school action flick with new age techniques. The team behind the film is also responsible for Captain America Winter soldier, civil war, infinity war and endgame. With such a crew, the action is top notch, with shades of winter solider type camera work and kinetic movement. This could have been a Marvel movie quite easily.
The acting is adequate and Chris Hemsworth shows off his tragic Lethal Weapon Mel Gibson side… He is brooding, grieving and has a death wish. Randeep Hooda plays the kidnapped child’s guardian and he is really good in the film.
In between the action, there are some character building scenes which drag a bit, but overall the film flows pretty well and doesn’t lag too much. The story and plot is very simple, a Indian drug lord’s son has been kidnapped by his Bangladeshi rival and a team of mercenaries have been brought in to extract the child.
Plot wise I felt the film rather flowed like Terminator 2. That might be a strange comparison, but if you see the film, you will realize why I said so.
There is a 11 or 15 mins non stop one take action scene which is the highlight of the film. Though the ending climax fight is also good, the one take is the thing people will be talking about, something like what they achieved with Raid 2 but a bit more.
So if you are bored and want to see a full fledged action film on streaming, this is the right film for you!

Rating : 7.5/10 for being a solid action flick with great camera work.

I really like historical films. But due to budget and bad direction, Bollywood is not known for many good historical epics. Tanhaji’s trailers were decent but the CGI looked bad and I wasn’t sold on the film.

Come Thursday, I felt the urge to see the film. The selling point for me was that I couldn’t see it in 3D when it comes to streaming! The hall was more than half-full so Friday First Day First Show it was!

Right at the beginning, it was clear that a LOT of care and attention had gone into the 3D aspect of the film. It wasn’t a throwaway addition at the last moment. Every shot since the beginning look AMAZING in 3D. Compared to a recent Hollywood mega huge budget Star Wars Episode 9 whose 3D was beyond terrible, this movie surprised it at how well it was using the 3D space!

Moving on from the 3D part, the film itself starts very strong. The opening shows glimpses of Tanhaji’s childhood and then an establishing fight to show his warrior prowess. I will not detail any more of the plot but I will say that when I saw the trailers… I was extremely skeptical as to how they will turn a siege of a fort into a 2.5 hours effective screenplay and film.
My concerns were totally unfounded. The film flows rather well, the pace never lets up and right till the end, the film manages to hold your attention.

Coming to the acting, Bollywood generally tends to OVERDO historical films (Mughal-e-Azam, Askhoka etc.) But the acting in the film is VERY natural. Ajay Devgn plays Tanhaji effortlessly and sells the character without much problem. Sharad Kelkar is amazing as Shivaji Maharaj. His pose and grandeur in portraying the most famous of the Marathas is both royal and commanding. On the other side, the threat is shown as a Mughal version of the death star, that is a huge canon about to devastate the Maratha capital. This threat is what setups and sells the rest of the plot and drives the action.

Good conflict is only as good as the villain. Without a strong villain, the hero’s actions are pointless. Saif is brilliant as Udaybhan Rathod. He is in charge of the aforementioned death star level canon. Every single one of his actions, mannerisms is just a treat to watch. He overshadows and overpowers Ajay Devgn’s performance and that is by design. Without a threatening and over powering villain, what will the heroes strive against?

The songs in the film are a bit redundant but they move the plot along, so that is a relief.
Coming to the main part of this historical epic. The action scenes. In the trailer, they looked a bit funny, but in the movie with 3D and proper sound, the action works really well. Finally, someone in Bollywood has managed to get close to Baahubali levels in action direction.

The ending fight scene is on another level. Bordering between a Marvel comic book style and Baahubali’s action, the scene is breath-taking. The audience went mad at the end of this scene. Very well directed and executed.

Overall :
This film is a necessary watch in theatres. The 3D is amazing, the action works very well. All the very fake liking CGI looks pretty good in 3D, though the horses and animals are still a bit digital, its forgivable as the budget of this film would be very less as compared to Hollywood epics. The story plot and acting are all well done. For fans of action and historical film this is a huge and rare treat. So to conclude, congratulations Bollywood for finally getting it just right! A rare moment, much appreciated by a film fan!

Rating : 8/10. Excellent and very strong entry into the historical action epic genre.

Ahh, after Bombay Talkies, the hum drum ‘Lust Stories’… We now have ‘Ghost Stories’.
Perhaps a more appropriate title would have been ‘Paranormal Stories’, but Indians only understand the word Ghost. Which encompasses it all for us, werewolves, zombies, witches be what it may, they are all Ghosts…
With this we get the Zoya Akhtar ‘Ghost Story’. This short is an exercise in trying not be cliché. Trying VERY hard not to give that jump scare. They spend so much time in setting up a fake sort of non scare that the final reveal is flat and frankly boring. Janhvi Kapoor is a VERY bad actress and it shows. She cannot keep the story focussed on her try as she might, her troubles and life do not seem real, just a screenwriters version of a difficult life.
Rating: 5.5/10 for The Nurse
Then we get the worst short film in this compilation. Maybe Anurag Sir should spend less time quitting and rejoining twitter and more time on his film making skills. I wonder how he managed to make some really good films. The shit he makes now cannot be called film making, but of an exercise in trying to copy Darren Aronofsky… The BIRD story is painfully boring, doesn’t make any sense and somehow tries too many idea and does not progress enough at the same time. I had to take a 2 day break after seeing this one so that my mood would change. That’s how bad this segment is.
Rating: 0/10. No rating deserved for the Bird.
After a 2 day break, I resumed with Dibaker’s segment. Some actors in his team have compared his work to that of Satyajit Rays. If my late father had been alive, he would have sought out such people and given them a stern talking to… Ray is on a completely different league that no modern Indian film maker can hope to reach up to. That aside, this segment is full of allegory and insinuation. None of which makes sense till the last scene. Normally I LOVE stories which are nonsensical until the end reveal, but this one was WAY over done. The only positive is that I atleast understood the allegory as compared to Anurag Sir’s segment whose themes melted my brain (temporarily).
The rich and poor divide is explored in this segment but no stretch of the imagination does this qualify as a ‘Ghost’ story.
Rating : 6/10.
Then we come down to the segment by Karan Johar. Even in Lust stories, I found his story to be the most properly directed. Same for this one. Though the story is super weak and lame, it is quite decently directed and manages to convey the emotions and the concept well. It’s not very good by any means but it’s still a huge improvement to the first 2 segments. This just proves that despite his antics, Johar is a solid director. The story of a dead Grandma and her over obsessed Grandson is a cliché one but since the entire film is not that great, this one gets a pass.
Rating : 6/10. Ok to see once. Has some funny meta moments.

Overall : If this is the best Indian Directors can achieve, that speaks volumes about how really talented Indians haven’t gotten the chance to come behind or ahead of the camera.
This ‘Ghost Stories’ is skip able at best. Its eye wateringly boring. Its not campy or goofy, takes itself way too seriously and not worth a watch at all.

After Last weeks disappointment with Star Wars Episode 9, it seems strange that the Mandalorian Season 1 was EVERYTHING Star Wars used to be…

Mandalorian is available on Disney+ which means Not viewable to Indian audiences without a (cough cough) VPN or Torrents. But still, I managed to see the whole Season 1.

This show is pure gold! Its good enough budget wise to compete with big screen offering, but it is not too lavish and indulgent that it leaves the story behind to service the visual effects.
The show is basically a western set in space with a lot of western and Japanese movie / serial tropes included.
The episodes are not always plot driven and most of the episodes are standalone adventures. That did not bother me, although I LOVE plot driven episodes / series a lot. Even the filler episodes are very well done and for me the point of the show was to see the adventures of the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda…
Now coming to the child aka Baby Yoda… this character is an instant hit. He (or she?) has all the charm of Yoda with additional super cuteness added into the mix. However, the child aka baby yoda as the internet is calling it, is not just a McGuffin. It’s a real character, which serves the story and forms a bond with the other characters.

Other smaller roles are very well done, especially Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed from Rocky) as the bounty hunters leader, Gina Carano as former Shock Trooper… these characters add a lot to this tale but they do not go overboard with them by making them hyper emotional or agenda driven. They are simply people existing who are caught up in the story.

The series is directed by 4 different directors and they all do an amazing job. There isn’t one single episode that I disliked much, though Episode 2 did drag a bit for me…
Rating: Season 1 is at-least a 9.5/10 for me. This is the Star Wars at its best.

How I wish they would let this team drive the future Star Wars films. They really understand this universe and are not actively trying to drive away the fans.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Film Review :

Ever since 2017’s The Last Jedi, Disney and Lucas Film have been on a back foot. They tried to blame misogynistic fans for not whole-heartedly loving their powerful female characters, but even they knew that the fault was in the film itself.

So Star Wars Episode 9 is an apology tour, full of fan moments and more apologies for the previous films goof up. For me, JJ Abrams is a competent enough director whose love for McGuffins and the mystery box overshadows the story. He has had the same issue in Star Terk, Mission Impossible 3 AND The Force Awaken. McGuffins means, the main characters will run around trying to find something seemingly important, but in the end, it will be nothing but an excuse to show action and adventure.

But Star Wars had evolved past that by Episode 3 which was entirely plot-driven without any McGuffins. This new Star Wars Trilogy, never had a good enough plot to invoke any emotional reaction from me as an audience. I do not care for the First Order’s destruction as they seem like a bunch of buffoons. The resistance exists solely for plot purposes.
Coming to the movie itself. Since JJ is a half-decent director, he has managed to make a film on the same level as The Force Awakens. It’s not an atrocity but doesn’t rise to any level of greatness (Such as Avengers Infinity War/Endgame).

The plotline has a VERY boring first half which goes nowhere and then the second-half tries to tie up a lot of loose ends. Some familiar faces and voices are in the film, which makes it a bit more nostalgic… in fact, the entire film is a nostalgia tour. If you have not paid attention to movies 4 through 8, then most of these callbacks would be lost on you.

It pains me to write such a short review for a Star Wars film, but seriously nothing much happens plot-wise except in the last 30 mins of the film. Rest is all just exposition. Not to mention Kylo and Rey’s story almost made me snore big time.

They also retconned all of The Last Jedi’s big criticisms, from the Holdo Light Jump Scene to Kylo Telling Rey her parents were nobodies right down to Luke’s Lightsaber being broken… all these have been retconned. It’s like Episode 8 didn’t even happen.

The big villain of the film is the Emperor Palpatine who is revealed in the trailers. This was supposed to be Snoke until he was killed off like a moron in Episode 8. So the Emperor is back despite Vader’s sacrifice. Making episode 4-5-6 completely pointless. So thanks Star Wars. I will pretend that Star Wars was from Episode 1 through 6.

There are a few good scenes, they manage to send off Princess Leia with dignity and will not upset the fans. Some of the ending climax scenes are good. But for me, I am jaded with this New Trilogy of mediocre films.

Rating: 6/10. Finish this if you are a Star Wars fan. I am no longer a fan of Disney Star Wars. However, the old movies will always be special for me.


P.S: The Sad part is… this film copies plot elements from the final Harry Potter films! I mean come on!

Netflix is the Official dumping grounds for Bollywood. Latest in this garbage pile is Drive by Dharma productions. As the promos indicated, this so called ‘film’ is pure and unadulterated crap.
It has a decent star cast, Sushant Singh Rajput, Jacqueline Fernandez Boman Irani and Pankaj Tripathi. But the acting is horrible, the direction seems to be done by a 5 year with attention issues. The film’s editing and look is terrible. It’s a wanna be Fast and Furious meets Oceans 11 type of film. But it fails hard in every single aspect.

The best (sarcasm) part of the film is the amazing top notch VFX which look straight out of a 90’s doordarshan show like Captain Vyom or Shaktiman. This is 2019 guys, not 1989! Geez!
The cars look comical and the CGI is not just fake its unbelievable. I have lost all respect for Netflix for putting up such a film on its site.

The plot... It involves a bunch of bad actors trying to make a shitty film... that's the plot of the film. Even sushant's acting is terrible in this. No one is even trying!

Rating : 1/10. Go see Race 3! Or Players! Those are really bad but still feel like a properly made movie! This is a joke vomited out in the name of entertainment.

Siddharth Anand (Director): Forget Bang Bang! We are going for WAR!
Aditya Chopra (Producer): What do you want to go-to WAR with?
Director: EVERYTHING. Namely Brain Cells.
Producer: What action scenes will be there?
Director: YES…

War Film Review.

I saw a good film last week. Joker. I didn’t want to see another film for a while, that’s how profound that film was... But Will Smith is on this Friday, so I guess I had to see War now. Primarily I saw this film because I am a Hrithik Roshan fan. I see all of his films. Even the boring ones. (Guzaarish anyone?)
The good news is… if you are a Hrithik fan, then THIS is the film for you. He has 3 or 4 cool entry shots. The 2nd and main one is shot in such a way that you better believe that the Director, producer, the DOP and the Camera man are absolutely in love with Hrithik. The camera fawns over his muscles and the rough sunglasses look. I could hear the ladies squealing with joy at his entry. So… yeah. It’s that kind of film. Characters walk slowly, with cool music in the background. Wowie…
The plot is WAY too convoluted to even try and explain. All I can say is that… this is like a love child of Mission Impossible 2 to 6, James Bond (The world is not enough), Don (2006), Fast and Furious 8 and for good measure, Face Off.

Whew! That’s a LOT of inspiration to be taken. I am not saying they copied, they just added ALL the main action elements of those films into this one film. However, the question will be, is the film watchable, is it enjoyable?

Well again good news. It is a pretty decent blockbuster action film. The CGI is ok this time around and the unlike Dhoom 3 where they mistook random stuff happening on screen for action scenes, this film legit HAS actions scenes. LOTS of them. In fact they are never ending. I listed all the films they went on and drew inspiration from... The film is one crazy action scene after the other.

Sound Like I am dissing on the film too much. However, the fact is, I enjoyed the film despite its convoluted plot full of twists worth of M. Night Shyamalan. Hrithik is Solid in his role of a Traitor Ex Indian Agent gone Rogue and Tiger is also pretty good as the former student who wants to beat his master and prove himself. The characters of these two are built pretty well until the final twist comes and nothing makes sense anymore. However, who cares, it’s been an entertaining ride while it lasted.
This director previous film Bang Bang which was a direct remake of Knight and Day (another Tom Cruise film) was just about average. Almost non watchable. It seems he has taken those criticisms to heart and has genuinely tried to make a better film. Unlike that film, characters in this film are seen getting hurt and having bandages and scars etc. even though it’s over the top, they try to keep it somewhat believable. People limp away from fights and don’t break into a dance afterwards.
Speaking of which, there are only 2 songs and both of them feel extremely forced. But you CANNOT have a Hrithik film with Tiger and NOT have them dance together! That’s a crime. So they dance together. But the plot at the time doesn’t have them fighting, so it’s ok.

All in all, I enjoyed the film and it’s over the top action scenes and if you have the hankering for a spy flick with lots of spy stuff, insane action and love story between Hrithik and Tiger… This is the film for you.
(No seriously, Tiger’s character actually says he LOVES Hrithik’s character at one point of time.)

Rating: 6/10. Entertaining if you do-not use your logic. For a REAL spy flick, wait for Nolan’s Tenet.