Lucknow Central is a film directed by Ranjit Tiwari. From the trailers itself, the film had attracted me. So I was very excited to see this film and this film impresses on various levels.

Plot: Kishan,who is wrongfully imprisoned, decides to escape prison with 4 inmates in the guise of forming a band for the prison.

Story and direction: From the very first shot, we see so much detail that is put into the film. We see how Kishan struggles to just get a CD recorded for himself and how an ardent fan of Manoj Tiwari he is (I liked Manoj Tiwari's song in the film). Then how Kishan gets disappointed because he couldn't give the CD to his idol. Also, we do get an insight to Kishan's life where he has a loving father, who supports him all the time (which is quite rare at such times and in small towns). Then we shift as to how Kishan gets imprisoned. That part looked so real. Then we shift to the Lucknow Central part. We see the CM giving orders to the IG to organize a singing competition at Lucknow Central. The kind of threat given to the IG by the CM was quite amusing. Then we see the jailer, who is cold and indifferent to prisoners and who thinks that prisoners can't be reformed. We get to see prison gangs which also looked quite real. We also get to see what family and friends go through when one gets imprisoned. And then we have the finale act of the film, that highly impressed me. But yes, the film has faults. I felt that Kishan's case wasn't given much importance. Being the main character, I felt that this part was shown with much haste. Also the NGO part. If it would have been removed, the film would have been better.

Music: In here we have multiple music directors, giving the soundtrack of the film. As much as I hate the idea of bringing in multiple people for music, this is one of the rare films where it works. I was surprised that I liked most of the songs of the film. 'Meer-E-Karwaan' and 'Rangdaari' were my most favorite tracks.

Performances: Farhan Akhtar was great as Kishan. I could connect with him in every scene of the film. Diana Penty was wasted for the good actor that she is. Deepak Dobriyal was quite good and added a good comedy element to the film. Rajesh Sharma was good. I liked Innamulhaq too. I didn't expect a nice performance from Gippy Grewal, but he impresses too. Ronit Roy was great. Ravi Kishan was also good. I liked when the makers used his signature lines in one of the scenes of the film.

Favorite Scene: The scene where Kishan is just about to be bullied by Parmi and Pandit sits beside him. Then slowly everyone of his friends support him. After that, they slowly bang the mugs on their tables. The scene impressed me a lot and told me that people must stand up if something wrong is happening.

Verdict: I see this as quite an underrated film. This film is good on various levels. Ranjit Tiwari has done an excellent job considering it is his first film.

I am giving it an 8/10.

Annabelle Creation is a film directed by David Sandberg. As I remember watching the trailer for this film, I remember getting chills. I have loved both the Conjuring Films. So I was looking forward to this film given that it is directed by the man behind Lights out. And this film satisfied me to a certain extent.

Plot: The Mullins open their home to an orphanage with horrifying results.

Story and direction: Horror to me basically is instilling the fear inside a person with the surroundings and the characters. This film hit it in the right notes for most of the part. All of the characters are greatly woven. I wonder what happened to Gary Dauberman in this part (He is the writer for the both parts of Annabelle {which I haven't seen by the way}). The bond that we see between Janice and Linda was great. And Janice being ridiculed by the other girls just because of her condition. Then we have the Mullins who are deep in sorrow because of their huge loss. Each time the doll appeared in the screen I remember having goosebumps. I also liked the way it was connected to the first film at the end. But this film is not all perfect. The first 30 or so minutes of this film basically had nothing. And a lot of those jump scares. I know that I am going for a horror film. So what's the need for these jump scares??? To prepare us that "Hey man... Something more scary is coming." But that actually removes all fear that you are supposed to feel, according to me. At times the film felt it was giving a tribute to Ouija - The Origin of Evil that came out last year.

Performances: Anthony LaPaglia and Miranda Otto were good as the Mullins'. You could see the pain in their faces because of the loss. Stephanie Sigman was OK as the Sister. Talitha Bateman and Lulu Wilson were wonderful in their roles. Lulu impressed me in Ouija (the one that was out last year). And in this she nailed her performance. I guess I can call her the "Horror Queen". Talitha was also great as Janice. The switch between Janice and Annabelle was awesome. The other girls were good too.

Favorite Scene: The scene where Linda and Janice both promise each other that they will only be adopted together, otherwise not. Their friendship is clearly seen on this scene. It also sets in motion some scenes that happen during the film and also the final act.

Verdict: Although not great as the first two installments of the Conjuring series, Annabelle: Creation is a good welcome to this series of films. Can't wait to see what else has to be explored (given the film had a post credit scene).

I am going to give it an 8/10.

Trapped is a film directed by Vikramaditya Motwane. I had heard many praises for this film. Now considering that this film is made by the man behind Udaan, I thought that this will be a masterpiece. But I would say that it's not.

Plot: Shaurya gets trapped in his own home without and food, water or electricity.

Story and direction: The film gives us an insight into the life of Shaurya who works in a travel office who is an introvert. The way he extends friendship to his girlfriend was some what very nice. And we see that no one gives basically a s*** as to what he is doing. Like he leaves his home, his PG friends don't even bother to ask as to why he is leaving. The we get to the main plot of the film where Shaurya gets trapped. The film here basically presents quite an unrealistic situation. We basically have no one in the building, a watchman who doesn't give a s***. a house without electricity, etc. But the struggles shown were quite real. You could connect with Shaurya. That's basically what you want from a film, to connect with your protagonist, and from that point of view the film delivers. Then we have the ending where you feel nothing has changed. In films, you basically have an arc where a character is in different places during the beginning and end of the film. But I was very disappointed of the arc not being present.

Performances: Rajkumar Rao was the star of this film. I cared for him in the entire film. He delivered a great performance. No wonder he is a National Award Winner. Geetanjali Thapa was also good for the kind of role she got.

Now since any scene didn't wow me that much, I didn't have a favorite scene in this film.

Verdict: Not one of Motwane's best, but considering the budget in which it was made he did quite a satisfactory job. If not for anything do watch this film for Rajkumar Rao. He kills it.

I am going with a 7/10.

om is a film co-written and directed by Ravi Udaywar. After seeing the trailer for the film, I was quite intrigues to watch it. But after finally watching the film I can safely say that this is one of the best performances Sridevi has given to date Plot: Devki and her family fight for justice when her daughter Arya gets raped.

Story and direction: The film has a subject that has been dealt in one of the films earlier this year. But this film is much darker and realistic as compared to the other film. Here many more issues are dealt with. The 'step' angle that was introduced in this film was shown quite nicely here. The hatred when we feel that someone tries to take some other person's place is realistically shown. Then we have the Delhi school environment that was shown so correctly. Also, I liked the name the writers chose for the protagonist: 'Devki'. This word promotes motherhood in the best way possible. This film also went on to show that no matter it's your own child or someone else's, a mother is a mother. The cinematography deserves a lot of praise. I liked the way how realistic Delhi and the snowy place was filmed. Some of the faults I felt was of the structure in the way the film was built. The structure felt quite guessable. Also I felt the ending was a bit abrupt.

Performances: Sridevi gave her career best performance in this film. I was highly impressed by her giving that I didn't like her in her previous ventures. Akshaye Khanna was also great and I consider him quite an underrated actor. Nawazuddin Siddhiqui was also good and his get up was quite awesome, Adnan Siddhiqui and Sajal Ali were good too. The rest of the supporting cast was great too.

Music: A R Rahman, I would say did a fair job in the film. It's not one of his best works but still its good. The background score had many repetitions and singing voices which irritates you. 'O Sona Tere liye' was a hummable track of this film.

Favorite Scene: The scene where Devki sees Arya in the hospital. I literally had chills in that scene. And the way Sridevi emoted was spectacular.

Verdict: Not one of the greatest films of all time, but the film is a very good watch. I had a nice time watching this film. Watch it for Sridevi's performance.

I am going with an 8/10.

Cheeni Kum is a film written and directed by R. Balki. I had this film in the back-burner for quite some time. So since I had to see something light, I decided to pick up this film. And I am much satisfied with this film.

Plot; Buddhadev, a 64 year old Chef in London falls in love with 34 year old, Neena Verma.

Story and direction: This is what I would call a love story with a twist. And I would say, although I had my doubts, but I was highly entertained by this twist. The film has quite the beautiful setting. The character of Buddha is quite a one. We see various shades of him which I liked a lot. And the characters we have surrounded around Buddha was also good. A special mention to Colgate and the way he pronounced 'Zafrani Pulao'. Then we have a mother who nags Buddha a lot and his blood cancer suffering neighbor, who is called 'Sexy' (we never get her real name in the entire film, quite an interesting thing). Then we are introduced to Neena which was a well shaped up character. Then we have Neena's father (who also doesn't have a name), which was an OK kind of character to me. Balki did a lot of hard-work on the characterization which is clearly visible in the film. I was hooked to the film in its entire duration which was due to the story. And Balki deserves a lot of credit for that. The structure of the film has been replicated in Ki and Ka (which was quite a poor film, considering Balki's caliber). But the main fault I would say for this film, that if you take off the characters there is nothing unique in the film.

Music: Ilaiyaraaja scores the film. Now considering the talent of this maestro, I would say that he did a pretty average job here. Most of the tunes have been of his previous ventures. The title track is OK but not a standout. That also can be said for the other songs in the film too.

Performances: Assembling some of the powerhouses of Bollywood, is a thing that highly paid off in this film. Amitabh Bachchan was fantabulous as Buddha. He played all the different shades of his character with ease. He always reminds me why he is considered a legend. Tabu was also great in her role of Neena. Paresh Rawal was also good as Neena's Gandhian father. Zohra Sehgal proved that age is just a number. Same goes for Swini Khara who delivered a fine performance.

Favorite Scene: It would be the scene just before the ending of the film where Buddha goes to a pole near Qutab Minar to fulfill one of his wishes and his mother helps him in doing so. After fulfilling a wish something quite bad happens and he goes again to the pole, but in vain. Amitabh Bachchan displayed varied emotions in this scene and the switch was fantastic.

Verdict: Although not the best film of Amitabh Bachchan, I would say it's a decent watch. I was highly entertained throughout the film.

I am going with an 8/10.

Stanley ka Dabba is a film written and directed by Amole Gupte. I never felt the need actually to see this film as I didn't feel much attracted to the subject before. But after seeing the film, I can say that I was overjoyed. These films go out to prove that stories with good content still do exist in Bollywood.

Plot: The story of a Hindi Teacher who scolds a child for not bringing his own tiffin.

Story and direction: The film doesn't start out with that much interesting scene. It paces very slowly to introduce us to the world of Stanley, our protagonist. But as it catches up I remember being hooked to this film. I myself have studied in a Christian school in Mumbai for 8 years of my life. So I could very easily relate to the school environment portrayed in the movie. The Christian schools have mostly English speaking teachers. I laud Amole for bringing that fact in the teachers of this film. Also, each time a tiffin used to open in any scene, my mouth watered. The climactic revelation also shocked me for almost 5 minutes. That was just like someone punched me in the face. But still there are some flaws in this film. The film's camera work wasn't that great. It sometimes looked that a documentary was being shot and there are so many shots where the focus is on someone's face i.e. no wide angle shots. Also, it looked like in some scenes that Amole Gupte was trying to replicate Taare Zameen Par. If he had treated this film different than that film, I would have been more happier.

Performances: Partho Gupte stole the whole movie. The innocence that his character portrayed was perfect. No wonder he got a special mention in the National Awards that year. Amole Gupte was also good as the Hindi teacher (He is just named 'Khadoos'). He can safely be called the villain of the film. Divya Dutta was also good as Rosy. Rahul Singh was perfect as the Christian principal of the school. All the kids in supporting cast were also just right.

Music: The songs for this film are mostly situation related. 'Dabba' by Sukhwinder Singh was my track of the film. The rest were just OK.

Favorite Scene: The scene where Stanley brings up a science project to the teacher and she immediately rejects it stating it's not related to the course and a bit expensive. This scene highlighted to me the problem of our education system right away. We don't want children to think out of the box.

Verdict: This film affected me a lot in a whole other dimension. Watch this film for Partho Gupte. He is one hell of a child artist.

I am going to go with an 8.5/10

Blade Runner 2049 is a film directed by Denis Villeneuve. I had watched the 1982 film in January and remember loving the film. It was a different kind of sci-fi film that I had seen. Watching the teasers and the trailers also excited me a lot but I had a certain fear for this version. But all of that went away as the first shot came in.

Plot: In 2049, LAPD Blade Runner K discovers some truths regarding replicants that lead him to Rick Deckard.

Story and direction: The fear I had that this film would commercialize every thing that made the 1982 film so distinct was all removed as I saw the opening shot of this film. This film is dark and not pleasant in any way. The production design was so authentic. I could go on with that. The VFX for this film were so seamless. I felt so associated with the characters of this film. Normally for an R rated film which involves quite a lot of violence the blood is normally CG-ed which takes off your experience. But this film didn't do that considering it had quite a budget for it ($150 million).Camera Work is top notch. All the scenes are filmed with so much perfection that it was difficult to differentiate whether it was filmed on set or natural environment. The score - Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch - deserve a clap from my side. To integrate Vangelis' wonderful score of the film that was famous in 1982 along with an existing modern score is not an easy task. And finally, the story. Bringing Hampton Fancher (the original writer) along with Micheal Green (Logan) was a great job done. The themes that are dealt in this film are very rich and deep. Many people would be having the issue of connecting with the film being 163 minutes long. But the story was so much engrossing that I couldn't take off my eyes from the screen for a minute. Denis Villeneuve has assembled such a talented crew, so how it's possible that this film will not be top notch!!!! I happen to watch this film in 3D (my first R Rated film in this format). And it was an other worldly experience for me. The fault for this film is very minute for me, Harrison Ford. I hated the amount of screen time he got for this film. If you put a person on a poster, put him for the right amount in the film too!!!!!! Performances: Ryan Gosling stealed the show for me. His performance as K, was fabulous. I could get associated with his character in the film. Harrison Ford shined through his role considering the screen time he got. Jared Leto was quite the character. His eyes (the white contact lenses) got me chills. Ana De Armas was also good as Joi. Robin Wright was also great as the Lieutenant. Sylvia Hoeks was ruthless in her role and carried it effortlessly. It was good to see Edward James Olmos too. A special mention to Dave Bautista. I saw him for the first time in that kind of role and I was impressed.

Favorite Scene: I guess the scene where Deckard hits K in a dance bar that's fully vacant and stops suddenly saying that the Elvis Presley song that is playing is favorite. We too have a Elvis Presley hologram. This scene got many laughs from my side. And was a standout because it was the only of the few comic scenes in the entire film that was dark.

Verdict: If you loved Blade Runner and you love the sci-fi genre, this film is a must watch. This film goes out to prove that having right ingredients makes the film a masterpiece. It's very sad to see an audience not going to such a film (considering the box office results).

I am going to go with a 9.5/10.

Jumanji is a film directed by Joe Johnston based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg. Now I wasn't quite excited to see the films considering the reviews. But I did enjoy Zathura, the spiritual sequel to this film so I deiced to give it a go. And to my surprise I was quite entertained by the film.

Plot: Judy and Peter play a board game to some disastrous results.

Story and direction: The film opens up with 2 children from 1869 burying something and saying that whoever opens this up may God be with them. I mean this scene was basically not necessary. The film could have opened from 1969 with our protagonist Alan Parrish. We see Alan's world where he is bullied a lot and hides in his father's shoe factory. There we are introduced to Carl who I think was not necessary for the film in the first place. Then we see Alan taking the Jumanji game to his home and opening it. in the meanwhile, we see Alan's parents deciding to send him to boarding school to which he objects and decides never to talk to them again. Then Alan and Sarah begin to play the game when Alan gets sucked into it and Sarah getting scared runs for her life. Then the film takes a 26 year leap, where we are introduced to 2 new characters Peter and Judy, who have been given a quite nice back story. They open up the game and while they playing Alan comes out of it. Then we are taken on a joyride where the try to finish the game with a now grown Sarah. Now the thing that felt awful in the film was the CGI. It felt like you were watching some big patches of imagery that were just pasted onto the screen. Then I guess the Van Pelt character. He was just too laughable for me. And was wasted a lot. And finally, the revised 1995 version wherein some things were not explained rightly, according to me.

Performances: Robin Williams made me remember that why I will be remembering him as a great actor. His comic timing was spot on. RIP Sir Williams. Bonnie Hunt was also great as Sarah. Kirsten Dunst was a great child artist in the film. So as Bradley Pierce.

Favorite Scene: The scene where Alan pops up to save Peter and Judy from a lion and his joy that he has returned home after 26 years of being trapped in the game. Robin Williams just acted so great in this scene.

Verdict: Although with some misses, Jumanji is a very much watchable film. I enjoyed my time with this movie.

I am going with a 7.5/10

Wind River is a film written and directed by Taylor Sheridan. I remember watching his previously written ventures Sicario and Hell and High Water, but those two didn't give a blow to me. This film does and in the most realistic way possible. I saw the film with not much expectations but I after watching it I have a certain respect for this film.

Plot: Jane and Cory try to find out the killer of a Native American teenager whose body is found on ice.

Story and direction: The film starts off with a very good poem about meadows. Although I thought that this was just done to get the groove of the film going on, it's somewhat later that I realized the reason for that poem. As the film progresses and we are introduced to our characters and the main crux of the story, we see the inner pain some characters have gone through. The backstory given to these characters is quite emotional. I could resonate with the kind of sadness they are facing. And then we get to see government regulations that restrict people to certain extent. That thing was quite beautifully shown. That wasn't forced as done in normal films. As for faults, I did find the final act to be quiet rushed and left quite open ended. But that's just me being a bit nit picky.

Performances: Jeremy Renner was the show-stealer in this film for me. As his character Cory enters the film, you could see the anguish and guilt on his face. Elizabeth Olsen was also good which I didn't expect from her. Her character of being introduced to some new things in her society was great. And she emoted the character to the T. The rest of the supporting characters were great too.

Favorite Scene: It would be the scene where Cory tries to comfort Martin about his daughter's loss as Cory had also lost her own daughter too. And the thing that he said about the good news and bad news were actually the ones that affected me a lot. Also immediately after Martin tells Cory to find the person who did this to her daughter. There you can see a father's anguish and pain.

Verdict: Beware, that this film is not for the faint hearted. This film has some very disturbing things that his you very hard. The film is extremely dark. Hats off to Taylor and team for pulling off a gutsy subject like this.

I am going to go with a 9/10.