Meenakshi Rao's Bollywood and Hollywood movie reviews

Staring : Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Richard Kind, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Kaitlyn Dias, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan   Rated : 5/10   No, it’s not really a children’s movie even though it is a great animation film with imagination.Not many animation films rely too much on imagination and kind of concentrate on the visuals, the characterisation and the fairytale on display more. Inside Out is different that way.   It has a huge bent on imagination and the story itself has a novelty value. It’s about a growing girl’s emotions having a face and mannerisms and them deciding how she would behave, feel and act through the day. So we have Madam Disgust, Mr Anger, Miss Joy, Miss Sadness, Mr Imaginary Friend, Miss Familytime and so forth.   And all of these characters, or should we say emoticons, are quite true to their mood swings. Anger is red hot, disgust is smirky, joy is bubbly, sad is lonesome and teary eyed and the imaginary friend is ...

Staring : Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell, Lin Shaye, Hayley Kiyoko Rated : 7/10 Insidious it is but not as strongly as 1 & 2 were even though the much haunted Lambert family rests in peace this time.But that does not take away from the yelping spookiness of this one, what with an angelic teenager longing to connect with her dead mother actually draws out the darkest of the dark from Netherland. Quinn Brenner is haunted and how so eerily at that! The man who cannot breathe gets her, almost kills her in an accident that lays her off from school with broken limbs and a forced bedrest in her room where the spirit is having a free run of drawing every inch of life —and fear — from the poor schoolgirl. The heebie jeebies are well constructed  into the dim-lit apartment block and its absolutely scary corridors though to say it is the ambience that constructs the fear factor entirely would be too simplistic and untrue. As Quinn tries to conta...

Starring:  Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi, Rajkummar Rao Rated:  4/10 Such a waste, such a huge waste — of the three mega actors, of a relationship story, of a ditty on our constricting social mores, on the music and of the storyline. Why and how director Mohit Suri could have gone wrong on such a huge mount is bewildering. Written by none other than Mahesh Bhatt, you feel all the more let down as you sit through this dialogue-heavy drama which resembles more the melodrama of a generation or two gone by than a representation of a society or a generation of today. A single working mother can’t think of ending her marriage to an abusive man despite him having gone away from her life five years ago. A rich country hopping hospitality tycoon can’t stop crying over a lost relationship or running wild for the smell of a particular lily. A husband ends up on the loony fringe because he can’t let his wife go — not because he loves her but because he possesses her! The story revo...

Jurassic World Starring:  Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D'Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Omar Sy, Irrfan Khan Rated:  7/10 There is something about the original  Jurassic Park  that I have not been able to get over. Back then in 1993, such huge computer oriented dinosaurs were unheard of and unseen and Spielberg brought them into this world as alive as they were 65,000 years ago when they were real beings. Since then many have recreated them for the big screen but with minimal impact, and Spielberg never attempted to direct them again. In the 2015 re-incarnation, the dinos have acquired many dimensions not to mention lots of teeth — technological teeth and even more technological mumbo-jumbo. So in  Jurassic World , the T-Rexes, the raptors, the  tyrannosauruses and the those flying giants pterosaurs —they are all test tube babies lab born and bred to be bigger and fiercer monsters with no social instincts. “They are meant to sca...

Humari adhuri kahani Starring:  Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi, Rajkummar Rao Rated:  4/10 Such a waste, such a huge waste — of the three mega actors, of a relationship story, of a ditty on our constricting social mores, on the music and of the storyline. Why and how director Mohit Suri could have gone wrong on such a huge mount is bewildering. Written by none other than Mahesh Bhatt, you feel all the more let down as you sit through this dialogue-heavy drama which resembles more the melodrama of a generation or two gone by than a representation of a society or a generation of today. A single working mother can’t think of ending her marriage to an abusive man despite him having gone away from her life five years ago. A rich country hopping hospitality tycoon can’t stop crying over a lost relationship or running wild for the smell of a particular lily. A husband ends up on the loony fringe because he can’t let his wife go — not because he loves her but because he possesse...

Starring:  Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Priyanka Chopra, Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, Farhan Akhtar, Rahul Bose, Zarina Wahab Rated:  6/10 Zoya Akhtar is fast becoming the travel specialist of Bollywood — at least on screen — someone like Yash Chopra though in a modern, somewhat snappish romantic mould. Since the days of Zindagi  Na Milegi Dobara , she has seasoned her art of making her movies travel the world and Dil Dhadakne Do is cast on the ethereal waters of Mediterranean Greece. Like the Chopras, this one too is picture perfect, a visual treat and an enhanced show of chic not just in relationships but in clothes, personality propulsion and in treating the characters and their stories in the rarified atmosphere of envied richness. In  Zindagi...  that worked wonders — the road trip through Spain, the untapped locales, the modernisms in the characters, the tomatino festival, the bullfights, the colour, the wine and the romance of Spain. In  Di...

Starring:  Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Kathy Baker, Amanda Crew, Harrison Ford, Ellen Burstyn Rated:  8/10 This one is the stunning movie of the week, a must see for its sheer concept. It is a film in which Harrison Ford is a sidekick and yet there are no moments that you may regret, drag over or even prefer to not live. And that’s because of the novelty of the storyline, its beautiful execution and the skillful direction in which the director is not daunted by the slowness of the proceedings. Spanning a lifetime from 1906 to 2013 — a mega period of 107 years built up through the main protagonist and her “condition” which doesn’t allow her to age come what may, the film gathers a gamut of emotions, situations and flashbacks which keep you engaged all through the film. Adaline in a picture perfect beauty whose youthfulness is immortal. Born in San Fransisco in the 1900s, she grows up to love an engineer, marry him and then lose him to an accident. And then she ha...