Meenakshi Rao's Bollywood and Hollywood movie reviews

Django unchained   * Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L Jackson Rating: 8.5/10 Django Unchained unchains a whole lot of shock and awe, and very surprisingly despite its unHollywood length of 2 hours 45 minutes, absolutely stuns you with all its spurty violence, its human emotions in sub-human conditions and with such a nagging story of American slavery that it might just account for worldwide embarrassment for the Americans, much like the Germans under the Nazi era. Writer director Quentin Tarantino is at his best here in telling a tale of a Black slave and his White bounty hunter friend who buys him so that he could eventually earn his freedom by identifying three brothers White wanted for serial killings and robberies.  That’s just the facade which hides in it a bundle of explosive energy and situations which throw up characters so weighty that you are unable to decide who the lead is. It’s Tarantino’s singular mastery...

Jack the giant slayer Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Eleanor Tomlinson, Stanley Tucci, Ian McShane, Bill Nighy, Ewan McGregor Rated: 5/10 This is another kind of Jack and, well, quite another kind of beanstalk. Yes, it goes up to high heavens with the speed of a rocket once the bean spilling happens, but it is not a door to heaven — but hell — that it touches. There’s a princess too, who does what most princesses do on Hollywood screen all the time — trying to run away from the solitary grandeur they are caged in and look for adventure, mostly with the help of a down to Earth, most unsuitable commoner! Then there are these giants meant to scare you but all they manage to do is to make you cringe in revulsion. No, it is not about their size so much as it is about their unclean existence. You have a twin head with teeth up to their gills in yellow filth! That’s the common part of these unexplained monsters who have centuries ago been banished somewhere between heaven and earth. Th...

Jolly LLB Starring: Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani, Amrita Rao Rated: 7/10 The problem, you could say, with this film is that it gives away all of its punches in its pre-release promos. There is not a single one that they save for the movie so don’t go looking for them.   But still this one scores as a jolly good take on the judicial mess we as a nation live in and — most probably will continue to live in. Out of the funny punches likes “appeal  ko  apple” and “prosecution  ko  prostitution” which Jolly LLB writes in a PIL, the film is an engaging satire on the state of Indian courts, the plight of justice seeker, the jobless existence of most lawyers and the glamour that the few successful ones ride on. Besides, Arshad Warsi who stumbles upon one case which makes his life for good, and the extremely slick top criminal lawyer in Boman Irani, the showstopper of this film is Saurabh Shukla who plays the judge — harried with the out of court deals, frustrate...

The Master Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams Rated: 6.5/10 Beautifully picturised, strangely hypnotic but extremely original film  The Master  examines cult dynamics of the 50s-era. Film-making artistry aside, writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s picture hits home as a period-perfect examination of a perpetually recurring truth. Andersonbrings cult behaviour into fascinating focus by examining the bond between two characters portrayed by extraordinary actors: The accidental, alcoholic seeker Freddie Quill, played by Joaquin Phoenix, and the suave, all-American swami Lancaster Dodd, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. While the narrative can be extremely hard to grasp, Anderson’s script is nonetheless crafted with an exactness and authority that assures depth and reward for those willing to dig deep. The movie is sectioned into three acts, each headlined by a recurring image of water (at times churning violently, at times flowing s...

Mere Dad Ki Maruti Starring: Ram Kapoor, Saqib Saleem, Rhea Chakraborty, Prabal Panjabi, Ravi Kishan Rated: 6/10 Ram Kapoor is not the main character of this film. But then, neither is anyone else. Yet, this sitcom has a Punjabi charm all its own. There are one-liners aplenty, most of them managing to make you laugh; there is a situation that is more bizarre than bizarre can — that too makes you laugh; there is a girl who takes the cake in bimbettism and there is a boy who, fortunately has a friend with one funny bone too many. For those who chant  Bade Achhey Lagte Hain  for Kapoor, well, he does better than most small screen stars who are made to sleep through the movie, giggling nervously at their big screen presence. More often than not, these stars, all good actors in their own right, get sidelined by film directors who ignore their portfolio of work and use them in their movies merely to cash in on their small screen popularity. In  Mere Dad Ki Maruti , K...

3G Starring: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Sonal Chauhan, Mrinalini Sharma Rated: 4/10 It’s a scream alright — but of a misplaced, frustrating, unhappening and largely disjointed horror film. Caught in such a web of mismatched sequence of events, Neil Nitin Mukesh looks lost despite trying to unleash his histrionic acumen. Yes, phone horror has happened a long time back on Hollywood screens but it has largely been about bad review movies. 3G, on the other hand, tries to come with a slick packaging, perhaps in a bid to plug the loopholes of a knee-jerk storyline in which the start seems to have no connect with the end and by the end of it all, you are thinking more about Neil’s slurpy kisses (all tongue in mouth ones) than about the  reasons to scream. It’s a desperate job he does in this one and perhaps it might just show him the way towards his right calling — a baddie in action films. Source: The Sunday Pioneer, 17 March 2013