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“Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania”… Old wooin’, new bottle
Spoilers ahead… Is this retro season? If last week’s Lekar Hum Deewana Dil dragged the old elopement dramas into the modern day, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya updates a certain kind of romantic melodrama...
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“Kick”… The Khan’s film festival
Spoilers ahead… If the movies have taught us anything, it’s this: When you want the heroine to be seen as serious, she will be seen wearing glasses. (Refer also Padukone, Deepika in Yeh Jawaani Hai...
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“Singham Returns”… The cop runneth over
Spoilers ahead… How do you know you are in a South-style masala movie? One clue is the sound – and not just the general background score that makes it appear that a space shuttle is being launched...
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“Mardaani”… Heroine-panti
Spoilers ahead… In the opening stretch of Mardaani, the camera peers at traffic from the back seat of a car, fuzzy taillights in the distance – it’s all very verité. In the front are two men we quickly...
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“Raja Natwarlal”… Con nuggets
Spoilers ahead… Until I watched Raja Natwarlal, I never realised I had any affection for Deepak Tijori. I didn’t know he was in the film, and I caught myself smiling when he appeared in the very first...
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“Mary Kom”… Not so much a biopic as a sturdy melodrama
Spoilers ahead… Mary Kom opens with a note that says this is “based on” the boxer’s story, so we know we’re in not for the truth but for a version of the truth, shaped by the expediencies of drama. And...
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“Finding Fanny”… Lots of quirk, but little else
Spoilers ahead… I am relieved to report that Finding Fanny isn’t about the search for a pair of buttocks – not that much searching is needed in the case of Rosie (Dimple Kapadia), whose...
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“Bang Bang!”… Products, products everywhere
Spoilers ahead… I’d heard that Knight and Day was really bad, and then, long after its release, I caught it on TV and found that it was quite fun. Sidhdharth Anand’s Hindi remake, titled Bang Bang!,...
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“Haider”… Very well made, if a tad too footnote-heavy – but why ‘Hamlet’?
Spoilers ahead… It’s possible to imagine an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet without the balcony scene – not ideal, but conceivable. Julius Caeasar, too, you could probably rewrite without Mark Antony’s...
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“Tamanchey”… This crime story needed more chemistry
Spoilers ahead… Some actors you don’t have any opinion about. It isn’t about whether they’re good or bad – it’s just that they don’t have much of a presence. They blend right into the scenery. Nikhil...
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