Meenakshi Rao's Bollywood and Hollywood movie reviews

*ing: Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly and Lawrence  Fishburn Rated: 6/10 After the heartbreaking apocalypse of   Avengers finishing off in the recent Marvel outing, it is rather cathartic to watch the gentle proceedings of an everyday life depiction of the quizzical Antman and his beloved Wasp. Add to that, the crack-jackery of an ageing Michael Douglas and the rare appearance of Michelle Pfeiffer and you have the ball rolling, or should we say buzzing? Antman here takes a quantum leap into physics and its innate ability to bring a being into its molecular form of which the Antman and the Wasp, on a mission to save the world, becomes a victim of. The darling wasp capsizes into quantum space waiting for a release from her forced molecular form even as the villain helps a victimised vamp try and extract the wasp’s energy to survival. It’s a simple life story around a complicated maze of scientific fiction but ably managed and directed ...

*ing: Diljit Dosanjh, Taapsee Pannu, Angad Bedi, Siddharth Shukla Rated: 6.5/10 A biopic on a hockey player, who is neither Dhyan Chand, nor Dhanraj Pillay or Sardar Singh, needed a big heart and a bigger conviction. More so, when sporting biopics are just about becoming a genre in the otherwise song and dance drama monopolising Bollywood’s box-office obsessed sagas. So far, we have had big banners around Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Mary Kom in recent memory. Both did well at the box office. Soorma, the amazing story of a rising hockey player, whose life gets felled for more than a year by a stray bullet on a train, is intrinsically emotional and inspiring. Director Shaad Ali has kept the proceedings somewhat errantly under-toned for a story which could have been a compulsive tear-jerker. However, the gentle humour, the subtlety in relationships and the quirky situations that life pastes on the journey to growth have been used well to punctuate the story of man who literally...

*ing: Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Bob Balaban, Kunichi Nomura, Ken Watanabe, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand Rated: 5/10 The only thing that struck me throughout this roughly animated dog film was that how different and often strangely compelling the movie is. Though in the animation segment, it comes across as the first draft of drawings by a Disney or Marvel artist, without any fine-tuning, just thoughts around the characters, the story compels you inexorably. Set on a cold Japanese island, where dog hating is an administrative compulsion, propelled by mean extermination scientists, wicked gangsters, dog haters and an army of canine saturators, the poor animals are incarcerated on a cold trash island from where there is only one escape and that's slow, horrible, dog-flu infected death. A teen Samaritan, indeed, turns up on the grim island in search of his bodyguard dog Spots, but a lot has happened in the interregnum which unfolds with a l...

*ing: Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Isabela Moner, Jeffrey Donovan, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Catherine Keener Rated: 6/10 This sequel to the widely appreciated   Sicario , comes with a major pressure point — that it has to live up to the great expectations of its parental mount which, incidentally was a surprisingly high grosser in the action-thriller segment. To tackle this back-puller, ... Saldado   clothes itself in constant violence, mostly of the extreme kind, and only after that takes the refuge of the storyline which is competent and tight enough to take you through the wild, bloody terrain on which the plot unfolds. ...Saldado is a new chapter in the no-rules drug war with cartels switching to trafficking terrorists across the American border. So, the mysterious Alejandro Gillick (played to the hilt by Benicio Del Toro), whose family was murdered by a cartel kingpin, escalates the war on behalf of FBI and kidnaps the kingpin’s daughter. A whole lot happens on ...

*ing: Sylvester Stallone, Dave Bautista, Huang Xiaoming, Jaime King, Jesse Metcalfe, Wes Chatham, Titus Welliver Rated: 5/10 Last time there was a prison escape, Sly had august company — Arnie. That was way back in 2013 and it punched in an impact, what with action stalwarts like Stallone and Schwarzenegger helming the show. This time round, five years later, there is only Stallone, a much more aged version of himself. Him, and a band of fighters with no legacy. Him, and a prison which is much too high-tech to evince keen interest. The goings-on here are too puzzling to enjoy the thrill of an escape. The computer-induced mumbo-jumbo intrudes on all the fun we could have had with Sly. His players have all the skills to escape — the fitness and the muscles and all that — but not the mojo of Stallone who has a somewhat starved presence in the film. He gets into action much later, actually much into the second half by which time the viewers have had enough of the laser beamed p...

Sanju *ing: Ranbir Kapoor, Paresh Rawal, Manisha Koirala, Dia Mirza, Vicky Kaushal, Sonam Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Jim Sarbh Rated: 7/10 In the deft hands of Rajkumar Hirani, films, characters and situations mostly flower into fun, laughter, poignance and often introspection.   Sanju , a Hirani version of a Sanjay Dutt biography, almost comes into that rarified zone of cinematic brilliance, but for a few flaws. Had it not been coy in places, trying not to depict events and Dutt’s dalliances which have been public knowledge, and had Hirani stuck to a true-life-bang-on story instead of hiding behind the tag of cinematic liberties, this one would have been a much more impactful and happening film by a director who knows his actor through and through, both at personal and professional levels. Having said that, what comes your way in Bollywood’s bad boy story — which incidentally is still evolving in his real life — is eventful and interesting if not entirely captivating. The...

Voiceovers: Craig T Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Huck Milner, Samuel L Jackson Rated: 6.5/10 When you are with the Incredibles 2, you are on a ride of no return. Fast, groovy, determined and full of never say die spirit, the super-duper family — now of five with the addition of a laser-empowered electrical toddler with hidden powers — is definitely the film of the week. Taking off from the very popular first edition 14 years ago, No 2 is no less and a lot more. Papa Incredible takes a back seat here, or should we say is forced to baby sit, while Momma Elastigirl takes on the baddies in her campaign to have the “illegals” tag removed from super gifted community of her sort. That’s of course is another thing altogether that the earnest Elastigirl is ably conned by a derisive geek (looks and sounds so much like Angelina Jolie) whose brother invites her to join and propel the campaign. The movie rolls in laughter as much as it does on action. The toddler is oh-so-cute ev...

*ing: Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, Gabriel Byrne Rated: 5/10 There are very few movies that do justice to the horror genre, especially after Hollywood started churning them out like nobody’s business. Losing the plot on the way, the directors have turned gory rather than come up with plots that can send a chill down your spine. But once in a while, it does manage to scare the jeebies out of you and the latest unholy offering, Hereditary is  adequately scary, thanks to the efforts of first-time feature filmmaker Ari Aster. Toni Collette, who plays Annie Graham — a wife, mother of two  and a miniature artist who builds replica of houses and hospitals that are not only odd and but so detailed and they are creepy. The good part is that as horrors go, this one is great filmmaking wise. Creepy, strange and horrific things happen, and continue to happen for most of the film. Also, the storyline is altogether different and one keeps wondering where t...

*ing: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rafe Spall, Justice Smith, Daniella Pineda, James Cromwell, Toby Jones Rated: 6/10 The dinosaurs are back with their innate bigness, fury, ferocity and cluck-cluck inelegance, this time in the expert hands of director JA Bayona. The Jurassic franchise, ever since it overturned the cinematic perception of big canvas, jaw-dropping cinema by bringing in these extinct species through the lens eye of Steven Spielberg, has continuously recreated itself with more action and apocalyptic leanings than the previous editions. This one, too, travels back to the scenic and remote volcanic island of Isla Nublar off the Costa Rican coast, but with a total extinction storyline that brings in a lot more emotions for the 11 species of dinosaurs who are all being left to burn up as the world stands and watches with unhesitant Government sanction. The story unravels on much the same grounds with victims, saviour, conspiracy, a grandly dirty genetic proje...

*ing : Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar, Shikha Talsania, Sumeet Vyas Rated : 8/10 This bold and beautiful womance is the first refreshing foray of Bollywood into real-time female bonding, friendships and relationships. The fact that it does so without being coy, adds to the sheen of this breezy film where everyday life of four youthful women unfolds with fun and laughter. The film comes with an adult tag and despite that there are a lots of beeps amid conversations which make it an interesting first in many ways. The sex talk flows without veneers and is still never over the top but reality stung. Many would identify, though still not acknowledge, that in their growing years they did talk similar with pals, whatever tier of cities they may have come from. Yes, there may not have been swish girlie therapy holidays at the end of it, like the Phuket binge the four friends have after Kalinidi (Kareena Kapoor Khan) breaks her very Punjabi wedding almost at t...

*ing:  Jimmy Sheirgill, Shriya Saran, Kay Kay Menon, Pankaj Tripathi, Jackie Shroff, Mahie Gill Rated : 2/10 The Chambal ravines and their mori-mora wild west culture with guns and no roses is what this unrequired film is all about — in a sense it is about nothing but violence flowing from the barrel of the gun, a land where women are picked up, raped and killed without a blink. Jimmy Sherigill as the good boy and Kay Kay as the mean cat-eyed and kohl lined gunda do a great job in a film which will sadly have no takers. But Pankaj Tripathi as the oversexed politician with no scruples when it comes to any woman, takes the cake in the film. Unfortunately you wonder why such a film is made and what could have drawn stars like Jackie Shroff and Mahi Gill to grace this otherwise unhappening film.  Source: The Pioneer, 3 June, 2018

*ing:  Vinay Pathak, Manoj Pahwa, Dolly Ahluwalia, Seema Bhargava Rated : 5/10 Small budget movies like this one have started dotting an expanding Bollywood with their small stories, gentle humour, serious issues and contemporary themes. Khajoor Pe Atka, unfolding on the shoulders of talented actors Manoj Pahwa and Vinay Pathak, is a take on a usual middle-class family full of pulls and pushes but extreme concern and togetherness on the face of it. A brother is dying and all are called. But when the khandan gets together, rather reluctantly, a lot happens that should not. But such is life and the director does well to show it up without saving any punches. There is bromance but with unsaid property concerns in between; there is sisterly love amid the brothers’ wives but not without unhealthy competition, jealousy; there is even boredom around waiting endlessly for a patient who is refusing to die; a saga around healthcare bills and the difficult decision of pulling the plug...

*ing:  David Attenborough Rated : 8/10 BBC can seldom be faulted for their Nature series and Blue... is up there on the ladder of excellence. Narrated by Sir Richard Attenborough, atop a ship all set to explore the ocean waters and their deep from the Tropics to the Poles, the theatrical release of this upcoming TV series is interesting on many counts, including bring the harbourer of the trend of documentaries making it to cinema halls. To see this episodic series in one go as a one-and-a-half-hour movie may seem too stretched but the uninterrupted experience of brilliant camera work, a compelling narrative and amazing sights and sounds of a marine world we are yet to fully explore or know the depth of, is much like a tugging thriller. With summer holidays having begun, such docu-films should go houseful due to their high knowledge quotient which is stunningly unfolded. The underwater photography is amazing and the way fish life is explained makes this one resemble a thr...

*ing : Sumeet Vyas, Mantra, Sonnalli Seygall Rated : 4/10 Unless written and directed brilliantly, attempted comedies on urgent subjects, like a hijack in this film, either fall flat or pick up much too slowly or go way off the mark. High Jack, full of potential of a humorous film in the midst of a mismanaged hijack by novices, suffers from all the three loopholes and, thus, fails to make an impact. A non-star film, with vaguely familiar faces in the lead, High Jack starts and ends with a high that never happens and a low that never lets go. A failed DJ high in debt is carrying a drug consignment for money to save his father’s clinic  but gets stuck on the hijacked Goa to Delhi flight of an airline which is bankrupt and all set to close after this last run. Disgruntled employees hijack the plane with no experience of such acts and fall into a chaotic mess which was supposed to keep the viewer interest alive in the hall but by the time the travellers go high, the film is...

*ing:  Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, TJ Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, Jack Kesy Rated : 7/10 Flippant, funny and wantonly unapologetic about F-words and anatomy talk, Deadpool Ryan Reynolds is here in Take 2 to splatter laughs and blood in equal measure. Yes, he is funny, yes he has his signature pock marks and yes he makes a mockery of serious filmmaking — but then that’s why he is Deadpool, the anti superman who refuses to die even when he is blown to pieces, both emotionally and physically. Here with an ‘A’ certificate, Deadpool is in rogue mood —making fun of Wolverine, making fun of Canada, his friends Chromo and X-men, his foes and even his own situation. Having lost his girlfriend to a desperado, that too in the midst of super romantic progeny and baby naming talk, Deadpool tries to end his life but just can’t die. So when he falls into the “mutant children being tortured” situation, he becomes a reluctant saviour, t...

*ing : Alia Bhatt, Vicky Kaushal, Rajit Kapur, Shishir Sharma, Jaideep Ahlawat, Ashwath Bhatt, Amruta Khanvilkar, Soni Razdan Rated : 8/10 Meghna Gulzar makes a wholesome comeback with this no-nonsense gritty spy thriller which dotes on its Spartan surrounds, a virtually true tag and an absolutely real-time performance put in by Alia Bhatt. Spy thrillers always have a pull all their own, but this one is vibrantly resonant with real-time happenings that we all know about as part of our contemporary history. Set in the 1971 Bangladesh’s war of independence and adapted from Lt Commander (Retd) Harinder S Sikka’s novel Calling Sehmat, Alia (Sehmat) is sent in as a Kashmiri Muslim-Sikh girl with a family legacy for spying in Pakistan to further the cause of Indian Intelligence. It is refreshing to see an Indian Muslim from the Kashmir Valley talking of the right vatan in right earnestness, that too convincingly through a brief but happening role played out by Rajit Kapoor. But...

*ing : Tony Leung, Bai Baihe, Jing Boran, Li Yuchun, Tony Yang Rated : 5/10 The exams have just finished so this children’s adventure film is rightly timed, even though a tad underrated as far as animated-human sagas go. The monster, a six-limbed cute puppy which resembles a rounded carrot with big watery eyes and an impish look, is as cute as his human parents who come with high family hang-ups which compel then to go for a hunt of their adopted monster child whom they had given up apparently for its own benefit. There is a lot of mumbo jumbo in this dubbed Chinese film but the bigness of anything Chinese comes across in its landscape, aerial shots of green cliffs and milky rivers through which the story passes. The film is a neither here nor there children’s film which does not flesh out on anything in particular — be it the plot, the story, the dialogues, the action or the humour. And yet, for a lean week, everything fits into each other in this low-brow monster hunt...

*ing: Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor, Jimit Trivedi Rated: 7/10 Both Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor are obviously having a wanton blast in this one; Amitabh in his continued journey into roles curated for him, and Rishi ensconced in the glory and success of his eventful second innings. Together on screen after 27 years, the two veterans parent the film by young director Umesh Shukla, as a 102-year-zesty father and his stuck-up, hung-up 75-year-old son living two very separate and yet entwined lives in an old-world bungalow that you would die to own. Shukla does well to balance the innate pathos and humour of the situation in the film through a revved up screenplay adapted from the famous Gujarati play of the same name. Both the veterans are impeccable, Rishi more so as a bemoaning father and raging son. However, the uniqueness of the situation on which the film has been constructed needed more humour than it splashes. Not that it, in any way, is sad, slow or ennui-ri...

*ing: Rajkummar Rao, Happy Ranajit, Rajesh Tailang, Rupinder Nagra, Keval Arora, Timothy Ryan Hickernell, Kallirroi Tziafeta, Harmeet Singh Sawhney Rated: 5/10 Omar Sheikh, the terrorist who was behind 26/11 and the man who cunningly brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war, you would think would be someone who would stoke passions to such an extent that a cut and dry film on him would sound and look misplaced. Omerta , a loose biopic of this Pakistan-based top terrorist who was one of the three men freed in a hijack deal during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s regime, gives an uncomfortably placid account of how an LSE aspirant from an upmarket London household gets into the terror network, trains in PoK and unleashes big-time events in India and Pakistan, thereby giving America a bed of thorns. But why he chooses India as his target when he should have been on a Bosnian chant is one of the things Hansal Mehta fails to explain, alongside an undercooked childhood story an...

*ing: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Chadwick Boseman, Zoe Saldana, Josh Brolin, Chris Pratt Rated: 9/10 What the Groot! This can’t be happening! This ain’t happening! But then, Que Sera Sera... When two years ago, Captain America: Civil War ripped the superheroes party apart without a premise, the Marvel horizon started looking dark, grim and fatally crisis-driven, panning out to the audience in a shocking manner the fact that even incredible superheroes can be human, vain and divisive. Just when the rude shock of this realisation was somewhat wearing off, in came Avengers: Infinity War. The grimness snowballed into sheer trauma, shock and awe, all put into one. Not that the scale of the canvas was reduced or action lost any impact or the heroes were not there in full attendance to entertain their loyal fans. They were all there and added quantity, almost all of them — from the enigmat...

*ing: Rahul Bhat, Richa Chadda, Aditi Rao Hydari, Saurabh Shukla, Vineet Kumar Singh, Dilip Tahil, Anurag Kashyap Rated: 7/10 If there is Devdas, Hamlet and Sudhir Mishra embedded in the film, would it not mean that there are lofty ambitions that the movie and its maker savour? Daas Dev is built up wantonly on these there distinctly different pillars and tries to find a balance despite the vast distance of genres that it straddles and moulds. The delightful thing about the film, however, is that it does not take these names in vain and using “inspirational value” from all the three concocts a syrupy political thriller that is high on energy, engaging and never out of sequence. That is Mishra’s cinematic acumen but also the over-confidence of pulling it through at play. Having said that, the old world and simplistic Sharat Chandra may turn in his grave at this interpretation of his superhero of doom Devdas who has, incidentally, seen close to 15 incarnations on the Indian s...

*ing : Abhay Deol, Patralekhaa, Reshma Khan Rated : 6/10 Iconic Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi’s inaugural Bollywood film was the centrepoint of discussions at the International Film Festival of India this year. A theatrical release of the film may not create the same waves for a number of reasons, the first being its parallel cinema makeover. Set in the bad lanes of crime-ridden Mumbai slums, Beyond The Clouds is expectedly seeped in poverty, crime, angst, sexual harassment, exploitation and all those emotional realities that visit any slum dweller. For one, Majidi’s Spartan sense of cinema encases this aspect with minimum fuss but maximum impact. The unkempt, tousled haired Ishaan at the centre of this journey through life is apt, intense and a perfect fit of the character he plays. A hustler who is learning to live in the mean streets of the slum, indulging in petty crime. For end of day solace, he does turn to his loving elder sister who tries her best to keep him...

*ing: Abhay Deol, Patralekhaa, Reshma Khan Rated: 5/10 The last spooky comedy the Indian audience enjoyed was Go, Goa Gone in which the Over The Top Saif Ali  Khan had quite a romp. Ever since, there has been little to cheer about in this genre which, incidentally, is full of potential. Nanu Ki Janu amply proves that you can have quite a laugh when the spirits are moving around. Much like the main protagonist Abhay Deol the movie, too, is a rare one. It is hilarious but in parts. It is fun, but in parts. It was, indeed, full of possibilities which it fails to exploit to the hilt. But then when was it that we had a full-blooded hearty comedy coming out of the Bollywood coffers? Not that one can remember, so this attempted one comes across as a scatter-brained, meandering, sometimes directionless but funny nevertheless film which could have been oh so better. Abhay Deol as an aspiring goonda with a band of sidekicks does well, as always. He is a master of two-bit roles b...

*ing:  Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Malin Akerman, Jake Lacy, Jeffrey Dean Morgan Rated : 8/10 The gorilla is back — this time as an albino with blue eyes, huge, more than ever before; funny more than ever before; buddy types more than ever before. And thus, interesting, more than ever before! Helming the gorilla in shape, size and humour is an equally big (by human standards) Dwayne Johnson and his amicable animal instincts. As the primatologist maintaining an animal sanctuary of mostly rescued primates, life is fun for him without the girls and the parties. All he wants is a bond with the gorilla families and their well-being and life takes care of itself. Till, of course, a genetic remodelling experiment falls straight from space and infects his animals into becoming big, fierce, destructive, unreasonable and regenerative monsters on a rampage. The film is fun, fast paced and, above all, smashingly humorous.  The crude and sexist humour between the gorilla (...

*ing : Varun Dhawan, Banita Sandhu Rated : 6/10 October is a good and thoughtful movie which sadly few will watch or enjoy. Director Soojit Sarkar and writer Juhi Chaturvedi have come up with gems, all more extra than ordinary. This one, too, is in the same category. October skillfully makes a virtue of monotony on screen. Sarkar makes it interesting enough for you to sit through a staccato office-to-hospital-to-office-to-hospital movie weaving a moving romance where there is none. Varun Dhawan as the well meaning but lazy hotel management student trying to shirk work with regularity is in a very different role in this one. No buffoonery, no OTT characterisation, no comic relief, nothing to denote the David Dhawan type of screen persona. Just a regular guy who lives a regular life, so regular that he is not even madly in love with the girl who’s medical condition he gets obsessed with, spending days and nights in hospital after she falls from the third floor of the ho...

*ing: Bella Thorne, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Rob Riggle, Quinn Shephard Rated: 7/10 Romance has gone out of the system of cinema and if it comes visiting once in a while, it is twisted, post modern and mostly unromantic. There were times when the month of February the Hollywood would essentially come up with a groovy romance which you would await eagerly. Not anymore. First, our film-makers do not have romantic inclinations. Second, the complexities of life irritatingly creep into a story making it complex and boring and even stressful, at times. So when a sweet and simple old world film comes along in which there are two youngster totally focussed on love, with no intricate sub-plots coming along, you settle down after initial surprise. The same goes for Midnight Sun where the girl suffers from a one in a million disease which entails that the sunrays never touch her. She lives her life behind special windows and comes alive only at night. The boy is someone she rom...