Meenakshi Rao's Bollywood and Hollywood movie reviews

Cast : Sanjay Dutt, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sidhant Gupta, Sharad Kelkar Rated : 4/10 No, not this one for a comeback Sanju baba! You needed to return with some amount of noise, positive, hilarious, becoming noise. Not as a weary and imploding father of a sexually assaulted girl exploding with a revenge drama that is engineered to make you cringe you to the core. Also, your rape and revenge drama is the third one in a row this season, after  Matr  and  Mom  on the same firmament, similar canvas and identical revenge template — hunt them down and kill them after the legal way fails. The “second rape” through the justice system is also an echo. Yes, Sanju baba rape is a dastardly crime of our society, something that needs to be axed completely. But, after your incarceration and absence from the big screens, your fans were wanting to be in happy times with you, yearning to relive memories of the Munnabhai and Circuit kinds. Not this heavy on the conscience story t...

Cast : Shraddha Kapoor, Siddhanth Kapoor, Ankur Bhatia, Rajesh Tailang Rated:   5/10 This was meant to be Shraddha Kapoor’s career-altering film based on the life and difficult times of Haseena Parkar, gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s sister who chose to stay back in Mumbai when the rest of her family escaped to foreign shores in the run-up to the Mumbai serial blasts of 1993. It’s quite obvious in the movie that Shraddha has tried her level best to render a sterling performance as Haseena, an awkwardly gaited, swollen cheeked woman who eats her words more than she speaks them out. Kohl-lined, a stereotypical Muslim woman with skin as dark as her brother Dawood Ibrahim’s deeds, Shraddha comes across as too much of a stuck-up oddity to bring in the vibes for this biopic, moulded to imperfection by director Apoorv Lakhia. Yes, anything D-company comes with the natural voyeuristic tendencies of the viewers which Lakhia tries to exploit with high production qualities and a sta...

Cast:  Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathi, Anjali Patil, Raghubir Yadav Rated:   9.5/10 Perfection is a misnomer, an impossible achievement in cinema. But young director Amit V Masurkar makes it routine in his statement-making film   Newton . Nutan turns to Newton much like reality turns to drama and drama turns to comedy in this delightfully nonchalant film on election-day in a Naxalite-infested jungle with just 76 voters. On the face of it, films restricted to a monotonous canvas, unfolding in a small room or space and playing out on minimalistic emotions about purportedly insignificant issues are genetically claustrophobic and inertia-ridden.   Newton   is all this and yet refreshingly breezy and comically insulated from even a whisk of boredom. Masurkar’s perfection also peeps through the simple chores he introduces to the film in showing the most complex and detailed process of holding elections in the tumultuous democracy that is India. He brings...

Cast:  Farhan Akhtar, Diana Penty, Gippy Grewal, Deepak Dobriyal, Ronit Roy, Inaamulhaq, Rajesh Sharma Rated:   4/10 For one, Farhan Akhtar looks like no Moradaabadi   launda.   He is much too chic and sophisticated in his body language to qualify as a small town lad. Two, the film, though inspired by a real-time jail band, fails to keep you behind bars. If the story of a jail band in the making does not inspire you, there is something inherently wrong with it. Lucknow Central is afflicted by a strange kind of insipidity even though it floats over interesting characters and a totally riveting jailor played to the hilt by Ronit Roy. Akhtar, accused of a murder he does not commit, spends two years in a jail awaiting the final verdict by the High Court. Bearing the atrocities that come with jailing, he looks unconvincing as someone who can grin and bear the baddies and beatings. Also, the main theme of the film – the making of a jail band – gets relega...

Cast:  Kangana Ranaut, Soham Shah, Esha Tewari Pande, Aneesha Joshi Rated : 6/10 If it was only about Kangana Ranaut, this would have been a top-notch film. She is near perfect, full of role and rebellion, easy to the camera, a bundle of expressions and a solid pivot. In fact, so singular is her presence in the film that you wonder why Bollywood does not have more woman-central films. However, Kangana is focussed,  Simran  is not. Kangana is riveting but  Simran  is confused. Kangana hides no shades and has many, while  Simran  gets aimless, confused and directionless after a while. It is sad that the actress and the film are poles apart. Just a little bit of a purposeful storyline would have made it a movie to be with and a tale to remember. But the director was so confident of his lead heroine that he forgot that even she would need to tell a coherent tale with the ability to build up a climax. That’s why Simran sags despite Kangana soa...

Cast:  Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Halle Berry, Elton John, Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges Rated:   5/10 Let’s face it bros — the Kingsmen were pretty awesome tailors back in 2014. In 2017, there are several creases in their suits as they fight, chase and even get blasted by the totally becoming but deranged villainess who engineers a global “sudden death” of substance abusers across the world. Despite all the action and the suggested comedy, despite the pace and the noise, despite the familiarity and the computerised foes, there are only three high points in the film — Elton John who is flamboyant with his altered sexuality and is seen to be having a blast as a prisoner of a drug baroness. Then there is Julianne Moore as the totally impressive lady who can put you through a shredding machine, make a meat matty out of your innards and serve it to her employee in a test of trust! She has computerised dogs to guard her installation somewher...

Cast : Dylan O'Brien, Michael Keaton, Sanaa Lathan, Shiva Negar, Taylor Kitsch Rated:   6/10 When it comes to good spy thriller action movies, only a few good ones stand out and   American Assassin   is one of those rarities Directed by Michael Cuesta and based on Vince Flynn's 2010 novel carrying the same name, the film centres around a huge amount of action, thrilling sequences in cars, with guns and around athletically celestial men doing their jobs with a keenness that takes you in for a time. Dylan O’Brien anchors the film as its central character and does a good job of helming emotional as well as action sequences.  As modern action goes, this one too is an unbelievably brutal and fast-paced, no-nonsense blood pincher in its bid to play to the gallery. Overstatement, then, is one blip on its canvas which keeps moving from action to action without a comma or a pause. Call it both good and bad. Go if you are an action junkie. Source: Sunday Pioneer, 1...

Cast:  Rishi Kapoor, Paresh Rawal, Vir Das, Payal Ghosh, Prem Chopra Rated : 2/10 Paresh Rawal was not enough. Neither was an OTT Rishi Kapoor for this film to start making any kind of sense in any kind of genre. If it is a comedy-drama, it neither makes you laugh or gets you into the proceedings panning out in a Gujju colony in Mumbai where non-vegetarian, alcohol and loud music is not allowed – neither are Punjabis. But a garrulous Kapoor walks in nevertheless with his familial entourage in papaji Prem Chopra “Prem   naam hai mera , Prem Tandon”, a   Punjab da puttar   in Vir Das and a wife who   gives Punjabiyat bindass-ity a   complex. Too much cartooning, too little lines make this one a boring, irritatingly restful comedy with no head, body or tale. Rawal tries as much with his undertones as Kapoor with his on-a-crescendo debauchery which is annoyingly meaningful. Really need Patiala pegs to get over this constant hangover. But th...

Cast :  Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar, Brijendra Kala, Seema Pahwa, Shubhankar Tripathi, Anshul Chauhan, Anmol Bajaj Rated:  6.5/10 Not all  Dilliwali  movies high on local ambience, dialect and culture are entirely alluring, or, enduring enough for a two-hour feature film. Though the subject of  Shubh Mangal Saavdhan  is new and has been euphemistically referred to as a “gents problem”, and despite the refreshing presence of Bhumi Pednekar and Ayushmann Khurrana, there is a lot of stretching towards the end, and by the time the couple finally does it, and that, mind you, happens just like that making you wonder what the fuss was all about in the first place? When Khurrana and Bhumi meet online, propose and accept the marriage proposal from each other, little do they know that there is trouble brewing between the sheets. Trying to make out when the parents are away, Khurrana’s performance anxiety gets intensified by the stress oozing ...

Cast:  Ajay Devgn, Ileana D'Cruz, Emraan Hashmi, Esha Gupta, Vidyut Jammwal, Sanjay Mishra, Sharad Kelkar, Sunny Leone Rated:  4/10 A thriller without thrill is a killer without business.  Baadshaho  comes in this “insipid drama” category despite being star-botoxed with Ajay Devgn trying to make his presence felt with brooding eyes and deadpan dialogues. Ileana D’ Cruz as the scheming Maharani Geetanjali being hounded into an emergency-crowded jail amid the sand-dunes of interior Rajasthan tries hard to create moments in the film but goes down fighting the inanity alongside Devgn and his  yaar dost  like the much tattooed Emraan Hashmi and the always arresting Sanjay Mishra. The presence of a Sanjay Gandhi like figure named “Sanjeev” heckling the maharani and using the Army to settle personal scores makes the film even more frivolous despite its high production qualities. Vidyut Jammwal as the Army commando is a tuxedo washout, much like the...