Blog | Amodini's Movie Reviews

Movie Review : Raat Akeli Hai

Posted on August 8, 2020 by amodini

Rating : 4.1/5
Genre : Mystery
Year : 2020
Running time : 2 hour 29 minutes
Director : Honey Trehan
Cast : Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Radhika Apte, Ila Arun, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Nishant Dahiya, Aditya Shrivastav, Tigmanshu Dhulia
Kid rating : PG
Podcast Review : Apple Podcasts, Spotify

Inspector Jatil Yadav (Siddiqui) of Kanpur is investigating the murder of Raghubeer Singh – a rich old man with political aspirations. On the night of his wedding to his mistress (Apte), Singh, still dressed in wedding finery, is found shot and bludgeoned to death in his own bed. As Yadav peels back the layers, he discovers that the Singh was not a much-loved man. Raghubeer Singh had a large family – siblings, nieces and nephews, but no one seems to be too upset at his death. Yadav’s search for the truth gets more difficult when he runs into powerful political roadblocks, with his own boss SSP Shukla (Dhulia) advocating caution; this is a connected family with secrets to keep.

Raat Akeli Hai comes across as true-blue murder mystery – almost like Agatha Christie’s works. Everyone’s a suspect. There are motivations galore, slumbering jealousies and distrust. The film keeps things interesting by introducing us to various personalities – it is a large household and each of the household members has had a different relationship with the dead man.

Inspector Yadav, like Poirot, has his quirks. He is a bachelor and his mother (played by the magnificent Ila Arun) is frantic to get him married – she goes around showing his photograph to random, pretty women at weddings, and thinks he looks no less than Ajay Devgan with his sunglasses on 🙂 . Yadav , meanwhile realizes he has an affinity towards Radha, Singh’s mistress-turned-newly-minted widow.

Raat Akeli Hai has an excellent star cast. There is Nawazuddin Siddiqui of course playing Jatil Yadav with such grace and ease that you can’t help feeling for the poor sod. Radhika Apte plays Radha beautifully – she is a suspect in the murder but see-saws convincingly between exuding innocence and street-smarts. Then there is Ila Arun, his nosy, pushy mom who means well. There is Shivani Raghuvanshi (we saw her in the fabulous series Made In Heaven) and Nishant Dahiya (he was one of the leads in the cute teenie-bopper romance Mujhse Fraandship Karoge). The lovely Shweta Tripathi has a smaller role as Raghubeer Singh’s daughter – you might remember her as earnest Dr. Shreya from Season 2 of Laakhon Mein Ek.

The film is an engrossing, well-paced mystery, with an engaging lead and suitably mysterious characters. I liked that the film explores the characters just enough – not too little detail, not too much, just enough to keep things interesting. Some great acting rounds off this well-done film. Director Trehan makes an excellent debut as a full-fledged director in his own right – I will look out for more of his work. Mysteries are hard to create anyway, and given that we have a drought of them in Hindi cinema (the last well-done whodunit I remember was Manorama 6 feet under) makes Raat Akeli Hai an invaluable addition.

Highly recommended.

Kidwise: Some violence, partial nudity.

Posted in 2020, All Netflix, bollywood, crime, dark, directors, drama, Hindi movies on Netflix, mystery, Netflix Recommendations, rating-PG, recommended, suspense | Comments Off

Movie Preview : Raat Akeli Hai (releases 31st July, 2020)

Posted on July 31, 2020 by amodini

All hail the whodunit!

A great cast – Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Radhika Apte, Shweta Tripathi (she was spectacular in Laakhon Mein Ek), Shivani Raghuvanshi (we’ve seen her in the marvelous Titli and Made In Heaven) among others. Honey Trehan debuts as director here after a long spell as Casting Director.

Posted in 2020, All Netflix, crime, drama, Hindi movies on Netflix, Netflix Recommendations, Previews, suspense, thriller | Comments Off

Movie Review : Kumbalangi Nights (2019)

Posted on July 26, 2020 by amodini

Rating : 4.1/5
Genre : All-In-One
Year : 2019
Running time : 2 hour 15 minutes
Director : Madhu C. Narayanan
Cast : Shane Nigam, Soubin Shahir, Anna Ben, Fahadh Faazil, Sreenath Bhasi, Matthew Thomas
Kid rating : PG

Kumbalangi Nights is about 4 brothers – Franky (Thomas), Bobby (Nigam), Boney (Bhasi) and Saji (Shahir) – in Kumbalangi, a small fishing village in Kerala. Their father is no more and their mother has left home. The brothers live in a ramshackle, half-built home on the river banks and get by with odd jobs and fishing. They don’t really get along with each other though, and there are frequent physical and verbal squabbles. However they band together to stand by Bobby when he falls in love with Baby (Anna Ben), and her family, particularly her smarmy brother-in-law (Faasil), is against the match.

I watched Kumbalangi Nights because it came up in my recommendations on Prime, it has a high rating on IMDB, and it stars Fahadh Faasil who was also in Bangalore Days. It is very different from that movie and starts off a tad slow – which builds atmosphere and you get to see what the characters and their lives really are like – but still.

Patience is rewarded though because the film build beautifully with some finely-done, feeling-infused scenes. The pace is easy-going and the film flows from moment to moment naturally, and you begin to care about the characters – not just Bobby who’s trying his best to be with Baby – but all the brothers, each of whom has his own sets of issues to work through. The end is unpredictable and offers a resolution I didn’t see coming.

The acting is fabulous and the setting and the characters feel real. Fantastic writing, and some superb cinematography round off this lovely film. I’m not really familiar with Malayalam music but the film’s music was melodious and pleasing. Kumbalangi Nights is one of those charming, almost lyrical films which you remember long after watching it for it’s spirit and affability and all the good emotions you associate with love and family.

Kidwise: Clean. Some violence shown on screen.

Posted in 2019, Amazon Prime Video Recommendations, coming of age, drama, family-friendly, feel-good, Hindi movies on Amazon Prime, malayalam, rating-PG, recommended, romance | Comments Off

Series Review : Indian Matchmaking (Season 1)

Posted on July 20, 2020 by amodini

Rating : 4.2/5
Genre : Contemporary
Year : 2020
Episodes : 8
Running time : 35 minutes (per episode)
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Director : Smriti Mundhra
Cast : Sima Taparia
Kid rating : G

The big fat Indian wedding has been immortalized in many, many Bollywood films. A lot of them are love stories which end up with band-baaja-baarat – colorful, vibrant, energetic shaadis with music, dancing and good food; a natural crowd-puller and great for the TRPs. Recently Amazon Prime cashed in on this phenomena with the very successful (and non-reality) “Made In Heaven” – about 2 wedding planners planning expensive weddings for the richie-rich (where is Season 2 btw?). So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we now have Netflix streaming a reality show based on the arranged marriage.

It goes thusly – Sima Taparia is a matchmaker traipsing across India and the US meeting “girls” and “boys” and gathering “biodatas”. After meeting her clients and their mummies and daddies Sima suggests potential matches – girl and boy meet, and if it clicks there is the shehnai etc. If not, no harm done, Sima simply offers more options, and we move on.

Weddings are nice and all, but the real oomph of the show comes from the matrimony-seeking candidates. Director Mundhra does a great job of bringing out personalities, and luckily there are a couple of folks we can root for. It is also interesting to see the reactions and views of all the folks surrounding the candidates – the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins etc – because in true-blue desi fashion everyone’s involved in choosing the one.

The show is very realistic – this is actually how it is. Every one really does want a tall, fair and slim girl, as Taparia comments wryly. You get a good dose of patriarchal desi mores. There’s independent-minded Ankita who’s having a hard time netting a good one – and is told by the matchmaker that she needs to be “flexible” and ready for “compromise”. And then there’s Akshay who has several women and their families vying for the match even though he says “My mom is literally what I want to be looking at in my wife.”

Twitter is abuzz and there are already memes galore about Indian Matchmaking. It is a hit, as it should be. It is engrossing, slick and well-made, and offers up reality with a dollop of good humor. I loved the HGTV – House Hunters style requirement listings for the desired candidate 🙂 bulleted and everything! I wish that Indian Matchmaking had taken some of the stories to completion instead of just hinting at marital bliss, but possibly we’ll get closure in the future seasons.

Highly recommended.

Posted in 2020, directors, family-friendly, humor, Netflix Recommendations, rating-G, real-life-based, recommended, touchy-feely, WhaTWON, women | Comments Off

What To Watch on Netflix and Prime Video – Edition #37

Posted on July 11, 2020 by amodini

– Bulbbul (Netflix, 1 hour 34 minutes, Tripti Dimri, Rahul Bose)

What’s with Anushka Sharma and the supernatural 🙂 ? After producing and acting in Pari, Sharma returns with Bulbbul, a historical tale featuring a chudail (witch).

Bulbbul is about an hour and a half of well-done, nicely layered drama about Bulbbul, a girl married off as a child-bride into the wealthy home of a zamindar. Her much older husband (Rahul Bose, whom I last remember from Dil Dhadakne Do) loves her but wants the now young, lovely, lissome Bulbul (Tripti Dimri) to focus solely on him. Poor Bulbbul!

– Axone (Netflix, 1 hour 36 minutes, Sayani Gupta, Vinay Pathak)

Upasana (Sayani Gupta, of Article 15 fame) and Chambi want to throw a party for their friend Minam’s wedding, complete with the cooking of the traditional Axone pork stew. The problem is that the stew has an unpleasant smell and will definitely cause problems with the landlady of their New Delhi apartment (played by the marvelous Dolly Ahluwalia).

While Axone has some comedic elements and is touted as a comedy in the teaser below, its strength is in the thoughtful portrayal of life for folks from the north-eastern states. There is the subtle and the overt racism they face, the casually dropped “hindi-chini bhai-bhai”, the constant othering “tum jaise log” and the overt violence. Axone ends on a happy note, ultimately focussing on the unity amid the diversity and the innate goodness of people.

– Choked (Netflix, 1 hour 54 minutes, Saiyami Kher, Amruta Subhash)

Saiyami Kher and Amruta Subhash (of Gully Boy fame) star in Anurag Kashyap’s tense thriller about a young working woman who finds an unexpected income source.

Kher, who debuted in the unfortunate Mirzya opposite Harshvardhan Kapoor, is transformed here as the relatively non-glamorous Sarita Pillai, a middle-class married bank employee with an unemployed husband Sushant (Roshan Matthew). Always strapped for cash and hounded by her husband’s creditors, Sarita takes the money when it appears (literally) before her. After all, who will find out?

Choked has an unpredictable storyline, some very nice acting, but still manages to appear desultory – and that for a Kashyap film. From Kashyap, I’d expected more oomph, drums thrumming, a tight build-up to the explosive climax, but Kashyap underdoes it. So the film is an interesting watch, if a little insipid.

Posted in 2020, All Netflix, Amazon Prime Video Recommendations, bollywood, directors, drama, Hindi movies on Amazon Prime, Hindi movies on Netflix, horror, humor, lists, mini-reviews, mystery, Netflix Recommendations, period film, quirky, social issues, suspense | Comments Off

Movie Preview : Shakuntala Devi (releases July 31st, 2020)

Posted on July 5, 2020 by amodini

Shakuntala Devi will premiere on Amazon Prime on the 31st of July. The film is directed by Anu Menon and stars Vidya Balan, Amit Sadh and Sanya Malhotra (whom we saw in Badhaai Ho).

Director Menon also helmed Waiting (availabale on Netflix currently) starring Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki Koechlin. Honestly, Waiting was no great shakes; hopefully Menon does better with Shakuntala Devi.

Posted in 2020, bollywood, drama, Hindi movies on Amazon Prime, New Bollywood Movies, New Films, Previews, women | Comments Off

Movie Review : Gulabo Sitabo (2020)

Posted on June 13, 2020 by amodini

Rating : 2.8/5
Genre : Drama
Year : 2020
Running time : 2 hours 4 minutes
Director : Shoojit Sircar
Cast : Amitabh Bachchan, Ayushmann Khurana, Vijay Raaz, Brijendra Kala, Srishti Srivastav, Farrukh Jaffer
Kid rating : PG

Gulabo Sitabo was highly anticipated given that we are stuck indoors, the movie theaters are closed, and there aren’t any new Hindi films releasing. So the release of this film on Prime was wonderful – or at least that’s what I thought until I’d seen it :). Not that I wish it were any different; I hope many more films start releasing on streaming platforms.

Anyway, Gulabo Sitabo is about 2 hours long and has Amitabh as old, doddering Mirza Chunnan Nawab, landlord of Fatima Mahal, a similarly old, decrepit haveli in Lucknow. There are 5 families renting rooms at the haveli, with Baanke (Ayushman Khurana) and his family paying the lowest rent – a measly Rs 30 per month. Mirza and Baankey are forever at odds with each other – the former wishes to increase rent or evict Baanke and his family, and the latter is just as adamant at not giving an inch. When one of their altercations involves a police complaint, other predators get a whiff of the matter. The haveli does stand on prime land.

Gulabo Sitabo is a quaint tale – almost like a slightly more complicated and contemporized Aesop’s fable. Even though the film mainly features Mirza and Baanke, the most interesting characters were the Begum (Mirza’s wife) played magnificently by Jaffer and the feisty Guddo (Baanke’s younger sister) beautifully portrayed by Shrivastava – we also saw her as Albina in Gully Boy. Amitabh, as Mirza, does well, although he in inconsistent. He has a large, bulbous prosthetic nose, wrinkled skin and a stooped walk. The stoop is sometimes more, sometimes less. Still, his character is the one I feel most sympathy for, alone and almost friendless. Ayushman is fantastic as always as paunchy, uneducated shop-keeper Baanke, trying to keep his household of mother and sisters happy.

The haveli is old and grimy but still looks gorgeous – the cinematography and the saturated hues are spectacular. The film does the milieu thing well – the characters, locales and language seems realistic. It is humorous in places, flat in others. It is also very, very slow-paced – its biggest downfall. Its got sympathetic characters but their plight and/or anguish is not portrayed well. We feel for them, but not that much. As a result the film is just about alright, and never rises above that. Gulabo Sitabo does have a great cast – Khurana, Vijay Raaz, Brijendra Kala and Srishti Srivastava and much of the credit for the film’s even middling rating goes to them.

Gulabo Sitabo is about average. Shoojit Sircar cannot make this film light up with the spark of say, a Piku.

Kidwise: Clean. Sexual situations are implied, not shown on-screen.

Posted in 2020, bollywood, directors, drama, family-friendly, Hindi movies on Amazon Prime, rating-PG, watchable | Comments Off

Movie Review : Mulk (2018)

Posted on June 6, 2020 by amodini

Rating : 4/5
Genre : Drama
Year : 2018
Running time : 2 hours 20 minutes
Director : Anubhav Sinha
Cast : Rishi Kapoor, Manoj Pahwa, Neena Gupta, Rajat Kapoor, Prateik Babbar, Kumud Mishra, Prachi Desai
Kid rating : PG-13

Retired lawyer Murad Ali Muhammed (Kapoor) lives in a joint household with his and his brother’s families. He is well-liked and respected in his Varanasi neighborhood but all that changes when his nephew Shahid (Babbar) is accused of terrorism and the entire family is suspected of aiding and abetting him.

Mulk quickly transforms into a courtroom battle where Murad comes out of retirement to defend his brother Bilal who is the main accused. However when the public prosecutor names Murad as accused too, his Hindu daughter-in-law Aarti (Pannu) must take on the onerous task of proving his innocence.

Mulk is a moving tale and raise important questions. It questions religious prejudice, and the “Us vs Them” mentality. When the public prosecutor frames his argument to blame the entire Muslim community in lieu of tangible evidence, Murad and Aarti must come up with ways to counteract his assertions and prove Murad’s love for his Hindu-majority country.

Rishi Kapoor portrays real anguish in some of his scenes as he underscores Murad’s right to live in his secular country and practice his religion as a peace-loving citizen. Pannu shoulders the bulk of the film’s seconds-half as the lone Hindu family member, aghast to see her peace-loving family accused of heinous intentions. Manoj Pahwa, often relegated to comedy in films is very good in his serious role as Murad’s younger brother Bilaal, and like always it is a treat to watch Neena Gupta on screen. Kumud Mishra, even his his small, understated role as Judge Harish Madhok, shines delivering wry remarks and witticisms.

Director Sinha tackles hard subjects in his films (Article 15, Thappad) and Mulk is no different, although it is not his finest work by any measure. It is a little disappointing to see the ham-handedness of the courtroom scenes, where Ashutosh Rana, an accomplished actor, plays a perpetually smirking zealot who trots out over-the-top theatrics with his (dumb) arguments. Still Mulk is an important film, and a must-watch.

Kidwise: Some depictions of violence.

Posted in 2018, bollywood, directors, drama, rating-PG13, recommended | Comments Off

What To Watch On Netflix and Prime Video – Edition #36

Posted on May 30, 2020 by amodini

– Safe (Netflix, Series)

A British TV series created by author Harlan Coben, Safe is about widower Dr. Tom Delaney who’s 16 year old daughter Jenny suddenly goes missing. While searching for her Tom uncovers many surprising secrets of so-called friends. Caught up in a web of lives, he isn’t quite sure whom to trust.

This 8 episode series (approx 45 minutes each) is fast paced, suspenseful and keeps you hooked.

– Unorthodox (Netflix, Series)

Esther Shapiro, a young woman of the orthodox Hasidic Jewish community, in New York, flees to Berlin, hoping to leave her past behind. The Hasidic community is distraught and appalled at Esther’s willful disappearance, and dispatches Yanky, her husband of 1 year, and his street-smart cousin Moishe to find and bring her back. Esther, though, has other ideas.

This poignant, 4 episode series is based on author Deborah Feldman’s book about leaving the Hasidic sect.

– Ladies Up (Netflix, Comedy Special)

This hour long special features 4 female comics: Prashasti Singh (whom you might remember from Comicstan), Kaneez Surka (who was a judge on Comicstaan), Nivedita Prakasam and Supriya Joshi. All bring their unique perspectives on comedy from the female point of view. I like Prashasti’s set the most (thought she was pretty promising even on Comicstaan), then Nivedita’s, Kaneez and Supriya.

We should have more of these!

Posted in 2020, All Netflix, drama, english, humor, mini-reviews, Netflix Recommendations, recommended, suspense, WhaTWON, women | Comments Off

Series Review : Paatal Lok (Season 1)

Posted on May 24, 2020 by amodini

Rating : 4.2/5
Genre : Mystery/Suspense
Year : 2020
Episodes : 9
Running time : 45 minutes (per episode)
Streaming Platform: Amazon Prime
Directors : Prosit Roy, Avinash Arun
Cast : Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Gul Panag, Neeraj Kabi, Abhishek Banerjee, Niharika Lyra Dutt, Swastika Mukherjee, Rajesh Sharma, Anup Jalota
Kid rating : R, A

Inspector Hathi Ram Chaudhary (Ahlawat) lands a big case – a rare thing for him, since his career has stagnated at the Outer Jamuna Par police station, forever mired in the petty crimes of what he calls “Paatal Lok” (Hell/The Underworld), while his sycophantic juniors rise to higher positions. You feel for the poor sod.

Determined to make this the case that will garner him the promotions, Hathi Ram leaves no stone unturned in the investigation. Even as he is making headway, the case is yanked from him and handed over to the CBI, and he is suspended over a minor incident. It all looks pretty suspicious and Hathi Ram, inspite of dire warnings and threats, can’t let go.

Paatal Lok is a first-class mystery, red-herrings everywhere. It’s well-made, features an underdog as the hero, a great cast and some fantastic story-telling. Although there are many characters and many different threads which come together to make this story, kudos to the directors for keeping everything clear and coherent. Paatal Lok is very well-layered, new facts come to light as the layers unravel. I especially liked how various bits and pieces fit together in an almost flashback like fashion – we might see a fragment of a scene before and it seems innocuous then, but the narrative winds back to it later giving it a whole new significance. The series is beautifully paced; the suspense is constant and keeps you hooked.

Paatal Lok has it’s milieu down pat – it feels realistic and authentic. Via Hathi Ram’s investigations and his deep dives into criminal pasts, it weaves into its story the various ills of Indian society – the caste system, religious violence and bias, classism, corruption, sexism and the poor treatment of women. It doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable depictions either – there is gory violence (think hammers), rape, and paedophilia; the portrayal is brutal and often, very sudden.

The series is what it is because of it’s two main characters – Chaudhry and Ansari – very different people, but both striving to rise above their upbringing and social environment to do the right thing. Jaideep Ahlawat is fabulous as Chaudhry. It is wonderful to see actors like Ahlawat finally get prime-time roles – and we probably have the advent of Netflix and Amazon Prime to thank for that. I remember Ahlawat ‘s good work in Gangs of Wasseypur and Raazi but he truly comes into his own as the harried, put-upon, under-appreciated cop who won’t give up. Ishwak Singh is another find. As Imran Ansari,the well-educated English-speaking junior Inspector he is the perfect foil to Ahlawat’s gruff-mannered Haryanvi Chaudhry.

The husband and I breezed through the addictive first season of Paatal Lok in one sitting, breaking only for food and the bathroom. A very well-spent Saturday. May there be many more!

Kidwise: Depictions of bloody violence, rape, sexual situations and nudity.