Meenakshi Rao's Bollywood and Hollywood movie reviews

Cast:   Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ed Harris, Andy García Rated:   5.5/10 This catastrophic climate thriller comes with all the thunder, lightning and storm that a big screen spatial odyssey can manage in a single outing but the roller-coaster ride with an under-toned Gerard Butler comes a bit too late into the proceedings. Nevertheless, debutant director Dean Devlin, who carries the massive reputation of writing and producing mega movies like Independence Day and Godzilla, does well to keep up the stunning special effects but, in the process, somewhat forgets to lend soul to the story. Expert technician Butler rushes into space to avert a cataclysmic weather situation by fixing a spatial weather system he designed, as his bro manages ops from a state-of-the-art control room back on Earth. And as the two, and many others, take on the fast approaching tidal waves, all the action opens up to keep you interested. For a lean movie week like t...

Cast:  Richa Chaddha, Kalki Koechlin, Arslan Goni Rated:   4/10 A discovery of life, on a road trip through virgin film territory of Sweden, that too between gifted artistes Kalki Kochelin and Richa Chaddha, should have been fodder for a hit in the meaningful cinema section by all counts. But sadly, and somewhat shockingly,   Jia Aur Jia   is such a big mess that you desperately look for something, anything to save this “oh why was it made” venture. The film, meant to be a learning experience for the two ladies, loses its mind quite early in the film as the two get so doused by vodka shots and liquor trips that learning of any kind becomes the first casualty. It is sad to see a film with so much potential to make a mark through a storyline and the weighty actors propelling it, go down the drain without so much as a sensible ripple despite all the talk around life and death, romance and marriage. The direction is a big letdown even though it stretches ...

Casting : Aamir Khan, Zaira Wasim, Meher Vij Rated : 7/10 It is, indeed, a secret superstar. The film got bare minimum publicity, that too despite it being produced by the master of film marketing Aamir Khan, that too despite it being Khan’s big Diwali release, that too despite it fighting for a place with the perceived blockbuster   Golmaal Returns . That it stops you in its track is the hallmark of it being a good, meaty, meaningful & moving film. Centred around the dreams and aspirations of a small-town Muslim girl from Vadodara, who silently battles domestic violence on her doting but illiterate mother (well played Meher Vij!), you would think it to be a tad ill-timed for Diwali. But Advait Chandan’s undertoned drama is a captivating and humble film which takes your heart with its simple realism. The bone-marrow of the film is Zaira Wasim and her arresting role-play as the secret superstar. She was great in Dangal but is excellent here too. Not a shred of mak...

Casting : Ajay Devgn, Parineeti Chopra, Tabu, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Prakash Raj, Neil Nitin Mukesh Rated : 3/10 Rohit Shetty may care two hoots about opinion on his films and the cast he has assembled for the fourth edition of the   Golmaal   series may be equally irreverent, but fact is that despite some cool but infrequent one-liners, the film screams the place down with such mediocre nonsense that you feel that Shetty has lost the script. Of course being comprehensively over the top is the DNA of  Golmaal  and, of course, it is meant to be larger than the biggest buffoon you thought existed on tape, but No 4 is flat, screechy and too fixated on  bhootyapa  as Talpade says with deliberate intent to make you take notice of the proceedings in this mindless drama which will haunt for a long time after the night is over. The scene shifts from Goa to the sylvan tea estates of a never-before so well showcased and green Oot...

Cast : Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill, Satish Kaushik Soundarya Sharma, Himansh Kohli, Taaha Shah Badusha Rated : 1/10 Why on earth would one make such a film? The producer could well have donated the money to the needy this Diwali instead of paying for such a bad-cash, bad-hash, bad-grade movie on a crazy but rippleless bank heist in a Bihari stretch of general lawlessness. To mount this atrocity on an unsuspecting public as a general festival season opener is beyond shocking. The story comes to you without any rhyme or reason, build on the uninterestingly engineered chaos, spreading the irritants all around from the persona of unknown, unwanted actors and ends on a story that not even once creates an interest in the proceedings or even deigns to introduce a moment or two into the deadpan proceedings. Best to stay way. Source: Sunday Pioneer,  15 October, 2017

Cast : Judi Dench, Ali Fazal, Eddie Izzard, Adeel Akhtar, Michael Gambon Rated:   8/10 This Judy Dench special is heading straight for the Oscars, and when it does reach those hallowed precincts, it will be her eighth nomination to this top-notch recognition. Playing Queen Victoria for the second time in her long and eventful career, years after she did so with equal flair in Mrs Brown, Victoria and Abdul is a languid and platonic romance between the most unmatched characters in history – and 80 plus-year-old queen bored to death with royal life and a surprisingly polished Muslim man from Agra. Immersed completely in the British Raj’s imperial flavour of 1887, 30 years after the Sepoy Mutiny troubled the stiff upper lip, the film is un-daunting with the servility of Abdul to the queen even though Dame Dench does her best to give status and reputation to her subject who teaches her Urdu and is the teller of stories from India, a dominion she has never visited but wants...

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Padmapriya Janakiraman, Dhanish Karthik, Dinesh Prabhakar, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Neha Saxena Rated: 7/10 Saif Ali Khan as chef de cuisine is a cool dude as is this languidly laid out film more on food for thought than food itself. Despite having relationship issues, the film is a platter full of fun that a father and his estranged son have with an ex-wife as the world’s must understanding — and stunning — woman, thrown in for special effects. Between New York and Kochi, the film takes well-crafted and becoming familial flights, helmed by a totally laidback but obsessively me-myself Saif Ali Khan. He strangely sees reason when his follies are gently pointed out to him but is volatile enough to punch a customer at his NY restaurant when told that his food has become mediocre. The simplicity with which the film delves into existential issues like divorce, identity crisis, loneliness etc gives it a five-star status. Saif is the best choice for the role he...

Cast:  Tom Cruise, Sarah Wright, Domhnall Gleeson, Jayma Mays, Jesse Plemons, Lola Kirke Rated : 5/10 It’s a Tom Cruise close-up shot through and throughout the film, shot on a shaky camera to give it a true docu feel but ends up in a lot of drama fleshed over a true life story of Barry Seal. Not that all events are truthful in the film but the incorrigible rogue pilot, formerly from the TWA, is at the centre of all the scams that make America over the ages and this one leads to the murky, drug-arms-marijuana-international relations mess which ends in the infamous Iran-Contra affair. The director, with fun films like   Mrs & Mr Smith   and   The Bourne Identity,   does well to be totally focussed on Cruise all through this venture which he has called “a fun lie around a true story”. Bored to death as a TWA pilot who simulates turbulence merely for fun, and smuggles cigars on the side for some extra money for his loving wife and kids, he is pick...

Cast:  Varun Dhawan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Taapsee Pannu Rated:   4/10 David Dhawan indulges in his own make and remake as a retirement benefit but not with the same effect. For one, whether you like or not like Salman Khan, the fact is that not even the hard-trying son of David Dhawan can replicate the superstar with any kind of justice. Two, though Varun energetically tries to do the comic act to the best of his buffoonish capabilities, he is no patch on the poker-faced funniness of Sallu Bhai. Now, if you can ignore these two main vitals for the film to work, yes there is some amount of same old David Dhawan and his mastery over nonsensical kitsch in this one too. Brain is a baggage here which tends to get heavier as Dhawan and Dhawan junior try to scale new heights of the nonsensical. The recreation of songs   Tan Tana Tan   and   Onchi Hai Building   have the beat but not the heart, again thanks to Salman’s gyrations versus a much more pe...