Meenakshi Rao's Bollywood and Hollywood movie reviews

Starring : Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Douglas Rated:  5.5/10 This is no Avengers though there is a run-in between the Ant-man and one of the Avengers to keep you interested in the strain of thought and, of course, the Marvel comics chain. You would have preferred to go into this film with a lot more action than it lets out but the overwhelming feeling you walk away with long after the film ends is the fact that the director and the special effects team do manage to deliver a punch with this miniature man’s big action saga. Michael Douglas as the harbinger of the ant-man technology and the owner of a mighty tech empire (now ousted from it by his daughter) gives the film a tight togetherness and holds it well despite there being no familiar big heroes from the Marvel clan. This Marvel character is the size of an inch but deadly than deadlier. It can be used for warfare, to penetrate into molecular holes and be used for all kinds of ...

Starring:  Richa Chadda, Vicky Kaushal, Sanjay Mishra Rated:  8/10 This is no fun movie about the Banaras which we have seen in Bollywood through ages but with tinted glasses of either foreign tourism or as a heavy on the heart town of death and pyres.  Having said that, this one too is about death (Masaan means death) and  kriya-karam  ghats but it is thrown at you with a strange cushion of life happening just as it does alongside the end of a journey. It is the wanton realism of the films that takes it over and above all the other filmmakers who have centred around Kashi to tell you their stories, be it of romance or otherwise.  But  Masaan  packs a punch by showing you Kashi and the Kashi wallahs  exactly as they are and as they live their life. Nothing is dressed up or underdone. Everything is apt and to the point. This, however, does not make Masaan a cut and dry kind of docu-drama around Varanasi. With Richa Chadha as the Kash...

Starring: Sir Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Hiroyuki Sanada, Milo Parker Rated: 7/10 This is not the Sherlock Holmes you may have grown up with. He is not young, far from cocky or even self-assured though some of his dry humour does manage to save itself from all the wrinkling of a 93-year-old Mr Holmes. Battling the rigours of age and distinct memory losses (he keeps writing the names of people around him on his shirt sleeve lest he forgets), this very old Mr Holmes delves into something Sherlock Holmes never has — his own emotional state. This brings him to lend his thoughts to his last case of a woman who kills herself which happened 30 years ago but has haunted him ever since. The reason? His emotions for once soared over his logic. The age and the overwhelming wrinkles of this 93-year-old hero played to perfection by Ian McClean, however, do not come in the way of him, shaping the case of this film alongside retirement memories, bee-keeping, relationship building and attem...

Staring:  Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Harshaali Malhotra, Om Puri, Sharat Saxena Rated:  6/10 Here comes aman ki asha, Sallu bhai style. Actually not really, really Sallu style but definitely aman ki asha all the way. And  Bajrangi Bhaijaan  (Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi) just in case you are looking for synonyms for Hanumanji) smiles though this cross-border film on a dream that has lived alongside the depressing reality of India, Pakistan relations. Now, as we all know, our Sallu Bhai has been on a trot with NGO kind of movies. From  Jai Ho to Kick  and now  Bajrangi Bhaijaan  — the beleaguered star has been churning out movies which are away from the chawanni chhaap stamp of success that has Sallu Bhai wringing in the cash registers, as always. But un-Sallu does not really mean a bad film, it only means a different one from Salman Khan. In this one, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and his two-bit role as a Pakistani TV journo is a...

Starring:  Sunny Deol, Kangana Ranaut, Manoj Joshi, Reema Lagoo, Prem Chopra Rated:  4/10 You can understand why Kangana Ranaut threw a fit about the release of this four-year-old movie. Over this period, she has grown in stature as a heroine hundred folds. She has bagged top awards, she has propelled heroine oriented cinema and she has crafted a high pedestal stay in Bollywood. When she did this light — and I would say a stretched — romance with the aged Sunny Deol, she was still struggling in Bollywood with two-bit or fluffy roles which she would not have minded doing then. In  ILNY , she sports a blondish, seventies hairdo, lives in New York and has nothing much to do except cry into the camera. Deol, too, hams his way through the film which is so low budget that it refuses to step out of one flat in New York and perhaps the same one redecorated to take you to Chicago! The romance too has no moments and the falling in love bit also doesn’t ring true. Deol l...

Starring:  Amy Winehouse, family and friends Rated:  9.5/10 When Amy was 14, she had no addictions but music, specifically jazz. Born with a gifted voice and what her mother felt was a mind all her own, Amy grew up — and died — disastrously after reaching heights of affection, affliction, fame, obsessions and finally a relationship which drew her into the arms of death at a very young age of 27. Almost everybody except for her two friends and the ex-manager really cared for her the way they should have and the self-abuse, alcoholism, hounding media, doomed marriage, crack cocaine, alcohol and bulimia just got together too tightly around her for her to have any real chance of survival. When the British jazz singer died in her flat in 2013, she sat on a pile of six Grammy’s but a much bigger pile of the rubbish of life and fame she had gathered around herself quite as inexorably as she had gathered music around her. Celebrated documentary filmmaker Asif Kapadia captures ...

Staring : Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld, Brittany Snow, Skylar Astin Rated : 5/10 When you dangle atop the biggest stage in America and inadvertently show your open butt (due to a wardrobe malfunction) to the President and the First Lady, there’s little that can save your amateur singers group from scorn, tumble and threatened existence. And that’s what happens to America’s sweetheart group of performing girls one fine night, turning their world literally upside down, thanks to the weight issues of their lead acrobat singer from Australia. The film is all about their journey through troubled times and heavy odds which goes through the prospect of winning the ultimate global competition in Copenhagen only for survival. This sequel, however, is far from becoming the runaway hit that the original was, thanks to an inept script, lack of situations, no pace and all the song and dance not being peppy enough. Source: Sunday Pioneer, 5 July 2015

Staring : Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, JK Simmons Rated : 6/10 Arnie baba  is back and in a mould that he loves best on screen — as a machine which helps him dispense with the cumbersome job of displaying any emotions. As Terminator, originally a killing machine, Schwarzenegger is at his best though this time round, he is more ‘Pops’ and less Terminator and is allowed to show a flicker of emotion by showing off his teeth in what what you could call a mechanical smile. He also has flesh all over his nuts and bolts which hurts, bleeds and burns up too. Officiated to nurture and protect Sarah Conor in the past while the future sorts itself out and her son in the 2029 time zone sends back a troubleshooter to 1984 to save his future mother, ‘Pops’ Arnie fulfills his job as he mechanically bumps off the real Terminator (also sent in from the future by Skynet to kill Sarah). Yes, all this past and future and present continuous tenses in the f...

  Staring : Ronit Roy, Arshad Warsi, Amit SadhAditi Rao Hydari   Rated : 6/10   Smearing a serious issue with comic situations and characters can be a messy game, often ridiculous and sometimes counter productive. So, to say that Guddu Rangeela tackles the khaps and honour killings with comic relief is sure to put you off. But to director Subhash Kapoor’s credit, for most the film, the balance is near perfect.   At the same time, this comedy-social issue mix serves a complex purpose for him — it manages to steer him away from the inevitable preachiness which would otherwise have burdened a movie on such kind and it also gives his audience the breathing space to traverse through the killing fields of Haryana where women are owned, disowned and killed by father, brothers, husbands — and of course khaps — at the drop of an emotion.   Kapoor’s caper unfolds in one such village area of Haryana where the opening song sung by the kohl-lined Arshad (...