Meenakshi Rao's Bollywood and Hollywood movie reviews

Cast : Ben Foster, Chris O'Dowd, Guillaume Canet, Jesse Plemons,  Lee Pace Rated: 7/10 This week it is all about Hollywood waxing eloquent on sporting icons — one, an African-American achiever in times that were definitely anti-Black, and another, a White American idol who fought cancer to become a cycling icon. One was never acknowledged by his Government despite being a clean winner of four Olympic Golds and the other, so feted by America that it was unimaginable, till he falls from grace due to systemic doping despite never testing positive to enhancement drugs. So, one is heart-warming and the other heartbreaking. The Program shows up the biggest cheating plan in the world of sport through fallen idol Lance Armstrong who won the Tour de France a record seven times. For decades he ran the biggest, most audacious and organised doping programme to have ever tainted the sport of cycling. He almost got away, till he got greedy and decided to return to the track after walking...

Cast : Chiwetel Ejiofor, Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie & Kate Winslet  Rated: 5/10 Crime, mafia, dirty cops and a 999 (officer down) call plan this one has it all alongside a stunning starcast and yet, it fails to bring out the bigness of the occasion. It is a complex crime-thriller which is slow and so extremely American (despite the Russian goons holding the strings of the story) that sometimes it gets too much to understand what’s exactly going on. A Russian mafiosi is behind bars and two dirty cops are engaged by his wife to carry out a heist in a bank to bring out a box that could help in the release of the gangster. Then there’s another plan and another job that this gangster’s pretty able wife (a bony Kate Winslet is very hard to recognise) helms pretty well. So a mafiosi’s thoroughly insensitive and ruthless wife, a joint-smoking detective, a good cop, bad cops and a kidnapped (is he really kidnapped?) son of a bad cop make for this film which may have the p...

Cast : Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Eli Goree, Shanice Banton Rated: 8/10 In those 10 seconds, it is not about Black or White. It is only about fast or slow,” Jesse Owens says. But the era in which he competed as an athlete at the highest level was only about Black and White. America was entirely racist and so was the rest of the world. And yet, a Black man from the Bronx did the impossible. This story of achievement could not have been better told than through this brilliant movie by Stephen Hopkins, restraint at all levels being its most major feat. When Jesse Owens ran the track, the World War II was impending, thanks to Hitler’s pogrom. The Berlin Olympics were in doldrums with the American Olympic Association largely wanting to boycott the games in protest against Hitler’s anti-semitic policies. Back home on home turf too, the problem was that America’s best athlete — Owens — was Black, and a largely racist America was queasy about that too. In fact, so racist that des...

Race Cast : Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Eli Goree, Shanice Banton Rated: 8/10 In those 10 seconds, it is not about Black or White. It is only about fast or slow,” Jesse Owens says. But the era in which he competed as an athlete at the highest level was only about Black and White. America was entirely racist and so was the rest of the world. And yet, a Black man from the Bronx did the impossible. This story of achievement could not have been better told than through this brilliant movie by Stephen Hopkins, restraint at all levels being its most major feat. When Jesse Owens ran the track, the World War II was impending, thanks to Hitler’s pogrom. The Berlin Olympics were in doldrums with the American Olympic Association largely wanting to boycott the games in protest against Hitler’s anti-semitic policies. Back home on home turf too, the problem was that America’s best athlete — Owens — was Black, and a largely racist America was queasy about that too. In fact, so racist t...

Cast:  Jason Bateman, Ginnifer Goodwin, Shakira Rated:  7/10 It’s pretty animated when it comes to a cute as a bunny storyline and not at all dumb as a bunny caper. The animal kingdom here is in a civilised age where only the nude beaches are for clothe less animals. There’s a police force, a mayor, bullet trains and a happening urban city called Zootopia which powers this beautifully drawn animation film but what’s really great is the unhurried but well punctuated storyline. A woman bunny has dreams of big man’s world entry and wants to enter the police force. She does but only to be consigned to becoming a “meter maid” challaning vehicles parked wrongly. Till, she gets the case of her life and excels in the chase alongside a foxy, well, fox. Together the two script a rollercoster that is engaging and enchanting. Disney seldom faults with its animations and this one is up there in the becoming dream world. The colour scheme, the drawings, the characterisations — n...

Cast:  Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Angela Bassett Rated:  6/10 All conspiracy theory enthusiasts — here’s your bread and butter and jam and cake and the rest of it all. Olympus may not have fallen this time but London certainly has — and how! It’s Prime Minister has died in sleep and all the Heads of States are in attendance at the State funeral. And then everything blows up, many are killed, cops are compromised and even the top espionage agency is unable to fathom the extent of the infiltration and grand terror operation. Enter Gerard Butler as Presidential monitor who has the onerous job of protecting the President and the pride of America on a ground where there’s no one to trust and nowhere to be safe. The antics are all played to the gallery on known lines. A lot of fire and fury of the main terrorist (this time the world’s most wanted arms dealer on a revenge plan after his family is blown up at a wedding in Lahore), the most organised operat...

Cast:  Priyanka Chopra, Prakash Jha, Manav Kaul, Rahul Bhat, Murli Sharma Rated:  7/10 Prakash Jha is back — and with his favourite subject, with himself on the screen for the first time and a title that relives his peak of glory with  Gangaajal  and Ajay Devgn. In a way, it is similar — police-public relationship, the politico-criminal nexus and the badlands of Bihar. Only, this time, it is not the cops who have gone berserk but the public. From the Bhagalpur blindings which Jha took up in  Gangaajal , to  Jai Gangaajal  where the police is convulsing under the weight of its ruthless political masters, nothing really has changed with the police force. It was functioning in extreme stress back then and it is doing the same now. Jha, with this one, merely chronicles the change for worse, the frustration of the men in uniform, the inherent corruption, the deceit and the treachery and everything else that pleads for emergent police reforms. As a...