Meenakshi Rao's Bollywood and Hollywood movie reviews

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Mackenzie Foy, Michael Sheen, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, Nikki Reed, Jackson Hale, Kellan Lutz At: PVR & others Rated: 4.5/10 Well, the best thing about  Breaking Dawn Part II  is that the saga is over — over for good. That is, if Stephenie Meyer does not get compulsively greedy and gives in to a one last one from her in the  Twilight  series — the same story but from Edward Cullen’s point of view, not Bella’s, this time. The trailors looked good, the fire in Bella’s eyes seemed to make up for the lack of colour in her personality otherwise; the expanse of snow-ridden heights were captivating — but all that was in the trailer. The movie is a disappointment on many counts. It fails to hold on to your interest as the romance between Bella and Edward is a pale shadow of its former self. Even the antics that could have livened up the newborn vampire in Bella are merely customary. Their daughter lo...

Starrimg: Irrfan Khan, Suraj Sharma, Tabu, Adil Hussain, Gerard Depardieu Ang Lee’s  Life of Pi  is a stunning masterpiece on many levels, an unusual story told in a manner defying known standards of imagination. First and foremost, it is an unprecedented visual treat, the likes of which will be rarest of rare in Hollywood’s future too. Second, though no less importantly, it stuns you with a compelling screenplay on a book that most bigwigs in Hollywood, including Lee himself, flicked aside saying it was a subject impossible to put on screen. It is an adventure story with so many thrilling twists and turns that the slowness of the proceedings does not even once makes its presence felt, not even when most of the film pans out on a boat with a boy and tiger in the middle of an ocean. And just when you settle down thinking it is an adventure fantasy, the filmmaker forces you to introspect on many a profound question. While he is doing so, he also gives you a new look ...

Starring: Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif, Anushka Sharma At: PVR & others Rated: 7/10 It is an unreal romance, seemingly illogical, somewhat unreasonable and a tad regressive too. It is not top of the line Yash Chopra either. And considering that the crescendo wizard AR Rahman made the music, you can call it muted. Gulzar, too, has written much better lyrics than he does for Jab Tak Hai Jaan. So the obvious conclusion would be that this is an unusually flat one from the House of YRF. An aged swan song by the one and only king of romance Yash Chopra — a little bit of everything, yet not really anything. But wait. If you rush to conclusions, you will go absolutely wrong. For, the truth is that despite a varying degree of all the above hometruths put together,  Jab Tak Hai Jaan  is strangely gripping, a slow and steady winner that rings in old-world romance after a long gap — clean, intense, unpretentious and completely engaging despite the strange promises it makes to ...

Starring: Ajay Devgn, Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay Dutt, Juhi Chawla At: PVR & others Rated: 5.5/10 Well, all these  sardars ki to satak li . But  mainu ki?   Assi  to was merely accompanying these brawny  pind tey  sons of  sardard  for all the meat masala on offer — meat on their  chaudi chhaatis  with dancing nipples and  masala  in their unending  peg ke baad  duels. As I said,  mainu ki  even if bodies, tractors, bikes and cars are flying out of the screen every other minute and mostly without reason.  Mainu ki  if the exaggeration is slightly higher than the sardars’ sense of self importance.  Mainu ki  if the  badey  sardar ji  prefers to postpone his  shaadi  for 25 years because he wants to kill before he chills! Mainu ki  if I am made to get high on a Patiala peg of a Rohit Shetty-Priyadarshan-David Dhawan-Dabangg-type cocktail of une...

Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana Starring: Kunal Kapoor, Huma Qureshi, Rajesh Sharma At: Delite Diamond & others Rated: 7/10 Don’t go by the glazed look into nothingness that Vinod Nagpal manages to maintain wonderfully throughout the movie. For, that does not signify the movie at all. This is no zombie film emerging from the  sarson ke khet  and the  dhabhas  alongside. Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana  is also not an over the top take on a small family living in a small village. It is a delicate balance between a dash of muted humour and even more muted pithies on a family member gone astray — and back. The film, though built on a very slight subject, pans out beautifully, replete as it is with moments that keep you interested. Everything in this movie is gentle and souffle light — be it the arresting role of a Punjabi  kudi  played by an arresting Huma Qureshi, or Kunal Kapoor’s lean mean unscrupulous character. The endearing...

Skyfall Starring: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes At: PVR  Rated: 5/10 This one is anything but Bond — starkly, painfully and bewilderingly so — that too in its golden jubilee year!   Yes Mr Bond, you are 50, but who in his right frame of mind would like to shed his carefully built up, delightful identity so totally so as to make your creator turn in his grave? And what kind of Bond will want to give up his gizmos, his continental flings, his breath-taking action stunts and, not the least of all, his gorgeous women and cars to take to unexplained sentimentality and a loser’s resignation of all things good and happening?  Please tell me Mr Bond, what kind of Bond audience will like you to declare yourself dead and live in the anonymity of an alcoholic haze somewhere unknown and unsung merely because your boss asked your colleague to take the first shot knowing fully well that you are the ultimate escape artist?  And what kind of Bond ...