Blog | Amodini's Movie Reviews

Movie Review : Judgmentall Hai Kya

Posted on July 28, 2019 by amodini

Rating : 2.5/5
Genre : Thriller
Year : 2019
Running time : 1 hour 57 minutes
Director : Prakash Kovelamudi
Cast : Kangana Ranaut, Rajkumar Rao, Jimmy Shergill, Amrita Puri, Amyra Dastur
Kid rating : A, R

Kangana is Bobby, a voice-over artist with a serious wannabe-heroine vibe. She also has had a tragic past, which has led to various neuroses – she’s the very definition of eccentric, to put it mildly. When a chirpy, very-much-in-love couple move in next door, and Bobby crushes on the husband, you know that bad things are a-coming for the Mrs.

So I’m going in expecting another Kaun, but Kaun it is not. Judgmental Hai Kya is a valiant effort at the psychotic-murder-mystery genre, and it does start off well. But it wanes, and how!

Maybe I’ve had my fill of well-done English films of this genre. Maybe it is that post-intermission the film gets predictable. Maybe it is that the characters explain themselves too much, it is all laid out for you to see, no guessing required.

Ranaut and Rao do well – there is none better to play a crazy, unhinged character than Kangana – but they can’t help the poor execution. The supporting cast is good too, but alas! They can’t do much either. Director Kovelamudi can’t build the tension, or inject the required amount of nail-biting suspense into the movie. There is no sinister undercurrent, no dark presence of evil like there should be.

What is done well is portraying the schizophrenic aspects of Kangana’s life. But that trippy, smart depiction aside, Judgmental doesn’t quite cut it. The 2.5 stars are for trying.

Kidwise: Not gory, but scenes of violence involving blood and sharp objects.

Posted in 2019, bollywood, drama, New Films, rating-A, rating-R, suspense, thriller | Comments Off

Movie Preview : Mission Mangal (releases August 15th)

Posted on July 27, 2019 by amodini

Based on India’s successful launch of Mangalyaan (Mars Orbiter Mission), Mission Mangal has a great cast: Vidya Balan, Akshay Kumar, Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari (of Pink) and Sonakshi Sinha. And the trailer looks interesting!

Posted in 2019, bollywood, drama, New Films, Previews | Comments Off

Movie Review : Luka Chuppi (2019)

Posted on July 13, 2019 by amodini

Rating : 3/5
Genre : Comedy
Year : 2019
Running time : 2 hours 6 minutes
Director : Laxman Utekar
Cast : Kriti Sanon, Karthik Aryan, Vinay Pathak, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana
Kid rating : PG

Luka Chuppi stars Kriti Sanon as Rashmi, a modern girl, daughter of orthodox Hindu politician Vishnu Trivedi (the marvelous Vinay Pathak). Kartik Aryan is Vinod ‘Guddu’ Shukla, a television reporter in Mathura who works with free-spirited Rashmi, when she needs an internship and dad calls in a favor. The two fall in love, but Rashmi is unwilling to make any commitments until they test-drive the relationship. They hatch a plan to try a live-in relationship away from home, but all that can go wrong with this scheme does.

OK, so this movie turned out to be better than expected. The comedy is mostly situational, with the occasional double entendre thrown in. The plot’s pretty basic and pits the modern generation against the tradition-steeped parents, where the youngsters preach live-in and the oldies are the moral police. Except when the tables are turned, Rashmi and Co. realize how much they value the sanctity of society-ordained marriage (what!). Ergo, Luka Chuppi is not the kind of film that you take away any gyan from, because it’s pretty confused itself.

Since it is Mathura and Gwalior, director Utekar goes to town with the small-town homilies on sanskaar, the nosy neighbors, the suspicious landlord etc. The whole small-town milieu is done well and fun to watch.

The lead roles do not require too much acting; there is some dialog-baazi and lots of squirming ☺. Some romancing, song and dance. Sanon and Aryan serve adequately. It is the fabulous supporting cast that makes the film – Pathak as the self-righteous father, Alka Amin as the emotional, weepy mother, Aparshakti Khurana as Guddu’s friend and Pankaj Tripathi as the lecherous brother-in-law are all very good.

The plot does have some holes – how does Rashmi turn out to be so different from her tradionalist dad and her ghungat-shrouded mother? And for all the sermonizing about how young people are forward-thinking, how does a modern gal like Rashmi forget her career aspirations the moment she dons a mangalsutra? Sexism anyone?

Luka Chuppi take on progressiveness appears gimmicky and based on the flavor of the month because it knows not what it wants, and philosophically doesn’t have a leg to stand upon. However it still works as a decent, light comedy. Quite alright for a one-time watch.

Kidwise: Pretty non-scarring.

Posted in 2019, bollywood, comedy, masala, rating-PG, romance | Comments Off

Movie Preview : Super 30 (releases July 12th, 2019)

Posted on July 6, 2019 by amodini

Super 30, based on the real life work of mathematician Anand Kumar in educating and preparing under-privileged children for the IIT JEE entrance exam, stars Hrithik Roshan and Mrunal Thakur in the lead roles.

Me thinks Hrithik too pretty to play earthy, Patna-based geek, but we shall see. Trailer looks good, with attempts to rustic-ize Hrithik’s looks.

Posted in 2019, bollywood, drama, New Films, Previews, real-life-based | Comments Off

Movie Review : Game Over (2019)

Posted on June 29, 2019 by amodini

Rating : 3.3/5
Genre : Thriller
Year : 2019
Running time : 2 hours
Director : Ashwin Saravanan
Cast : Taapsee Pannu, Vinodhini Vaidynathan, Parvathi T.
Kid rating : PG-15

Swapna (Pannu) and maid Kalamma (Vaidyanathan) live in a house in Gurugram/Gurgaon. Owing to a horrific incident in the past, Swapna suffers from PTSD and anxiety attacks. As a result she is a scared and depressed recluse and works from home as a game developer. An unusual meeting with a stranger gives her hope and she decides to fight to rebuild her life. However problems arise in the shape of a serial killer who makes her his next target.

If you’ve seen the trailer you know the storyline and predictable end: hapless girl in wheelchair battles psychotic killer. And wins. Given that, the director must build the how and why – which is, IMHO, hard. The whole genre is hard, because you have to get it just right to maintain the edge-of-seat-suspense. Keeping that in mind, Game Over is a valiant effort but does not make it into must-see territory.

Director and writer Saravanan lays the groundwork by filling us in on Swapna’s past and her day-to-day struggles at living a normal life. However her character is always at a remove and I couldn’t quite get invested in her life. There was repetition in the portrayal of her story and there wasn’t enough nuance, leaving us with unanswered questions. Harping on the same chords didn’t do much good. Taapsee is a great actress (remember Manmarziyan?) but here she veers between 2 flavors – more harried and less harried.

The film has great “creepiness” factor – 2 women alone in a rambling old house in lacking-in-infrastructure Gurgaon. There are some genuinely scary moments, and I loved the way the game-angle is built into the climax! Game Over had the potential to be a crisp, taut thriller but is let down by limp editing and a patchy storyline. The film was originally made in Telugu/Tamil and dubbed in Hindi. The dubbing was stilted, and some of the translation was weird; it felt like the translation was almost word-to-word leading to a sentence structure which a natural Hindi speaker would never construct.

Kidwise: Scary for the young ones. Violence with sharp objects and shots of beheadings.

Posted in 2019, bollywood, crime, dark, rating-PG15, suspense, thriller, women | Comments Off

Movie Review : Bharat

Posted on June 22, 2019 by amodini

Rating : 2/5
Genre : Drama
Year : 2019
Running time : 2 hours 35 minutes
Director : Abbas ali Zafar
Cast : Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Grover, Disha Patani, Tabu, Jackie Shroff, Sonali Kulkarni
Kid rating : G

Bharat has a lofty tagline – journey of a man & a nation together – but do not be misled 🙂 . I’d set a low bar for this film and it surpassed my low expectations, but not my much.

The film is Bharat’s life story, told in flashback. Now an old man and a grandfather, Bharat still grapples with well-muscled thugs and reminisces about his tumultuous life. As an 8-year-old, he travels from Pakistan to India during Partition, losing track of his sister and father along the way, His remaining family manage to safely make their way to the home of his bua (father’s sister). There they settle and Bharat strives to make good the promise made to his father before they are separated – a promise to keep his family together.

Bharat’s story is based on the Korean film “Ode to my father”. It’s kinda Forest-Gumpish, where the protagonist progresses through life’s many challenges. Initially I had no idea that this was a Korean-film-spinoff, and as the film progressed and you were able to discern a pattern I was surprised that director Zafar had managed to cobble together this rather high-brow angle; he directed Sultan, which was decidedly earthy.

While the concept is good, it is well beyond the directorial prowess of Zafar, hence the poor execution. The film has been Bollywood-ized to add in nonsensical melodrama, and the logic is questionable (like I never got why Bharat couldn’t get married). The costumes and the language don’t quite fit with the era so that takes away from the “authenticity” feel.

Each event is portrayed in great detail – which would have been fine if it was a nuanced portrayal. However with Zafar’s relatively ham-handed approach, realism is out the window, Bharat becomes this all-in-one, can-do, always right, Bollywoodian superhero – very far from the everyman that he should have been, and I can’t really feel for his larger-than-life persona.

Salman as Bharat is like Salman in any other movie. Katrina who plays his love interest, Kumud, has been de-glamorized with curly, unkempt hair and glasses and does a decent job, although her dialog delivery needs work – it is so monotonous. Sunil Grover is Vilayati, Bharat’s life-long friend and sidekick. Disha Patani – whom you might remember from M.S.Dhoni – is statuesque and impressive when she is dancing, not so impressive when she is not. Also, she has very little impact on the story, so not much to work with. Everyone else – Tabu et. al. has bit roles.

The music is so-so. And the movie is long – could have been easily shortened by an hour. Bharat overall, is a little weaker than average; temper expectations accordingly if you go see this one.

Kidwise: Clean. Imbued with sexist stereotypes (but then what’s new?)

Posted in 2019, bollywood, historical, korean, rating-G, remake | Comments Off

Movie Preview : Kabir Singh (releases 21st June 2019)

Posted on June 15, 2019 by amodini

The trailer looks a little disturbing. But Kabir Singh should be promising given that this is Shahid Kapoor, who can act, and director Sandeep Reddy Vanga, who helmed the original Telugu move “Arjun Reddy” on which this film is based. Also starring – the lovely Kiara Advani, who was pretty promising in Lust Stories.

Posted in 2019, bollywood, drama, New Films, Previews, remake, romance | Comments Off

Movie Review : Student Of The Year 2

Posted on June 8, 2019 by amodini

Rating : 1/5
Genre : Drama
Year : 2019
Running time : 2 hours 26 minutes
Director : Punit Malhotra
Cast : Tiger Shroff, Tara Sutaria, Ananya Pandey
Kid rating : PG-13

Karan Johar’s films may not always make logical sense, but they are generally good entertainment and one goes in with that expectation. So Student of the Year 2 was a massive disappointment – it wasn’t just bad, it was terrible.

Rohan Sachdev (Shroff), a middleclass kid is secretly a wannabe. He wants to hang with the cool kids in private St. Teresa’s but when he gets the old heave-ho from that crowd, resolves to stick to his roots and get back at them. Ergo, he needs to win the “Student of the Year” title from arch rival rich kid Manav Randhawa.

So, classic underdog story; you’d think it’d be easy to take it home. Apparently not. The film’s scripting, screenplay and execution is pretty ghastly. I hadn’t expected the sun and the moon from director Malhotra (I have watched “I Hate Luv Storys”) but this was off the charts. And not in a good way.

The characters in the film are unpleasant and have about as much depth as a puddle. Also look at that film poster above – it is truly vacuous. Is life really that great, or are the threesome on something? Unfortunately their attempts at acting don’t help either.

I haven’t seen Tiger Shroff’s films before this, and I will not ever again. His acting abilities border on the non-existent. Also apparently once a Flying Jat, always a Flying Jat – that explains the ridiculous slo-mo flying antics during kabaddi games. The 2 girls are long, leggy and lithe. Newcomer Ananya Pandey shows some spark, and might do well given a decent script. Tara Sutaria is quite pretty but she is no Alia.

I’m just amazed that a film this pathetic made it all the way to the screens without anyone sounding the alarm. You’d think they’d watch it themselves before inflicting it upon the unsuspecting public.

Do keep away (that takes care of my good deed for the day).

Kidwise: Clean. But why oh why would you do this to a poor child?

Posted in 2019, bollywood, cringe-worthy, drama, juvenile, rating-PG13, underdog angle | Comments Off

Movie Review : De De Pyaar De (2019)

Posted on June 2, 2019 by amodini

Rating : 2/5
Genre : Comedy
Year : 2019
Running time : 2 hours 40 minutes
Director : Akiv Ali
Cast : Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Rakul Preet Singh, Alok Nath, Jimmy Shergill
Kid rating : PG-13

The bare bones: 50 year old London-based venture capitalist Ashish (Devgn) falls in love with 26 year old bartender/engineer Ayesha (Singh). He decides to introduce his new girlfriend to his estranged family and travels to Kulu-Manali where his ex-wife Manju (Tabu) runs the family resort. Confusion and chaos reign on arrival.

De De Pyar De is supposed to be a comedy, and I will admit that some of the jokes do land. But let me also say, that this kind of comedy makes me want to douse myself in a vat of feminism. The first couple of scenes gave me pause but the first half also gave me hope – the romance is nicely done. But then the twosome go home to family and the saga of perceived male victimhood begins.

Given that this is a Luv Ranjan production (he of Pyar ka Punchnama, Sonu ke Titu ki Sweety fame), I’d expected the misogyny to be omnipresent. But then you see some of the “depth”-laden scenes and you wonder to yourself – has Ranjan seen the light? Was one wrong about him all along? But as the veiled misogyny rises to the surface you realize – no, he hasn’t seen the light. One was quite right about him after all. De De Pyar De appears to be forward-thinking but its regressive notions are very much present.

The second half of “De De Pyar De” pits younger, prettier Ayesha against the mature, graceful first wife with metaphors about aging cars and ghar ki dal. The macho man in the middle cowers and squawks intermittently but mostly watches the proceedings.

Ranjan’s films seems to have a very lax standard for the bechara aadmi. In De De Pyar De’s first few scenes we are told that our hero is a principled man – he wouldn’t have sex with a drunk woman. Low bar that! After his divorce, Ashish has been out of his kids lives for years – no good reason presented as to why. Astonishingly no one but his daughter seems to have a problem with that. When he cheats on the woman in his life, he portrays it to said woman as an act of kindness towards another human being in her hour of need (pun intended).Despite all this caddishness the women are falling for him like nine pins. Wonders never cease.

Ashish’s parents live with his wife and seem to consider him at fault – which calls for a good eye-roll. Because, pop-quiz: Which parental unit actually sides with the daughter-in-law post-divorce? Answer: Not an Indian one. Stuff like this makes me want to categorize this film as a fantasy – a Ram-Rajya fantasy where the man (and his parents) are all saints being put upon by warring women fighting for a piece of the saintliness.

While I’ve always liked Devgn he isn’t too choosy with his roles. Tabu gives this film a touch of class, and Rakul Preet Singh is impressive as Ayesha. Jimmy Shergill is but a husk of his former self – the man deserves better than this eccentric side-hero wala gig. Really, I quite like the actors; just not the film.

Brave this fantasy at your own risk.

Kidwise: The tone of the film is problematic but younger kids may not catch that.

Posted in 2019, bollywood, comedy, cringe-worthy, masala, rating-PG13 | Comments Off

Movie Preview : Student Of The Year 2 (releases May 10th, 2019)

Posted on May 6, 2019 by amodini

Remember Student of the Year 1? Well, here’s edition #2! This one stars Tiger Shroff, yes he of the only dancing, no-acting school :). Also 2 new heroines make their debut – Tara Sutaria and Ananya Pandey (Chunky Pandey’s daughter). The movie looks packed to the brim with masala, but seems fun. Also has a very lovely remix version of “Yeh Jawaani”.