Meenakshi Rao's Bollywood and Hollywood movie reviews

*ing: Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Radhika Apte, Sudhir Pandey, Maya Alagh, Amitabh Bachchan Rated: 7/10 It is a difficult and uncomfortable subject to make a film on, that too a full length feature, and even if you are above the stigma situation escorting the good old pad stuck in the nether part of a woman’s anatomy, it still makes you a bit shifty to see it on the big, bold screen. So, the film on a sanitary napkin maker is not an everyday kind of film to make and in that context, Akshay Kumar’s latest in issue-raising cinema is laudable. So, is the real link to the story which encases the extraordinary journey of Arunachalam Muruganantham who was shunned by one and all — even his wife — for his obsession to make an affordable and hygienic sanitary napkin (and a sanitary napkin making machine) for primarily rural women. Akshay, who obviously plays Muruganantham, is brilliant and the focal point of a film more on the man than his obsession. Emerging unscathed from the ...

Cast:  Akshay Kumar, Bhumi Pednekar, Anupam Kher, Divyendu Sharma, Sana Khan Rated : 8/10 Earthy, real, contemporary and fun — Akshay Kumar helms a largely entertaining film on an issue that is pan-India, serious, in focus and long pending, not to mention, one of the star campaigns launched by the Modi Government. From railway tracks in concrete urban jungles, to open fields in the countryside, horrifying incidents have long been happening, more horrifying than the mindsets of the people propelling them.  Toilet: Ek Prem Katha  keeps a tight hold on the jocular vein to throw-up national issues like religious regression, patriarchy, corruption, social taboo, crime against women, feudal mindsets and a mass angst against any kind of sanitation drives that may upset a population’s ageold societal more. The film is a gem because it treads the razor edge of laughing at but not laughing about the social evil of open toilets. It is a very serious crime and healt...