Archive for the 'Reviews' Category

Page 2 of 22

Haunted 3D—The Review

Published on May 7, 2011 in Reviews. 64 Comments

[This review has spoilers. Be warned. Be very warned.]

It was a few months ago that I realized that I have totally lost the stomach for today’s mainstream commercial Bollywood. I remember the exact moment when I “turned”—-  25 minutes into the assault on the senses that is  “Tees Mar Khan”.  “No more” I told myself  ” Am too old for this shit.” A line has been crossed and as the tag-line for the Emran Hashmi thriller “The Train” goes “Some lines should not be crossed.” [Yes I have seen that too]. So I stayed off Hindi movies (with some exceptions like “Dhobi Ghat”) using the time saved to revise my next book—”The Mine.” [publisher: Westland]

Continue reading ‘Haunted 3D—The Review’

Dhobi Ghat—the Review

Published on January 31, 2011 in Reviews. 63 Comments

As the end credits of “Dhobi Ghat” rolled, I felt……. happy.

For two reasons.

One was on seeing an A-lister taking a risk with his brand-name, headlining something that was unapologetically “niche”, with Kiran Rao the director, not once, pandering to the dictats of popular taste. This I believe is worth congratulating considering Aamir Khan’s contemporaries (they shall remain nameless) who lack the courage to step outside their commercially successful zones for even a wee bit.

Even more importantly, after a long time, I could say that a Hindi movie left me satisfied.

Continue reading ‘Dhobi Ghat—the Review’

Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey—the Review

Published on December 5, 2010 in Reviews. 203 Comments

Our freedom struggle has many great stories that need to be told, stories of courage, heroism and supreme sacrifice. I have always been frustrated by how the Hindi film industry, while looking to copy-paste Hollywood and Korean flicks, choose to turn their faces away from the rich material that lies hidden in the pages of our own history.

Two people whose lives I have always felt would be great material for rousing biopics are women freedom fighters. One is Matangini Hazra, a 73 year old woman who led the non-violent march to the Tamluk police station. Despite being shot, she still kept walking till she died still holding the Indian flag, an act that inspired the great Tamluk rebellion which led to large swathes of Midnapore district becoming independent of the British (till Mahatma Gandhi made them stop the struggle). And the other is Pritilata Waddedar. A brilliant scholar and feminist who wrote a famous letter asking for women to be a more intrinsic part of the freedom movement, she walked into Pahartali European Club (a place closed to brown-skins and dogs) guns blazing and after a pitched battle, cornered and running out of ammo, committed suicide at the age of 21.

Continue reading ‘Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey—the Review’

Masters of Horror— Part 2

Published on November 4, 2010 in Reviews. 57 Comments

[Warning: This discussion of Pyasa Haiwaan contains shocking language that I assure you is taken from the movie. Those below the age of 18 and those with tender sensibilities are requested to not proceed further.]

Kanti Shah, the legendary director of Loha and perhaps the greatest movie ever Gunda, needs no introduction combining in himself the cynical vision of Kubrick with the romanticism of Spielberg, the angst of Bergmann with the humanism of Kurosawa. It is natural though that after Loha and Gunda, his other works have received considerably less attention—after all, the sun does blot out the stars even though the stars are, once you think about it, suns too.

Continue reading ‘Masters of Horror— Part 2′

The Ten Best Horror Movies

Published on October 28, 2010 in Reviews. 60 Comments

With Halloween round the corner and me working on my horror-suspense novel “The Mine”,  I thought this would be as good a time as any to make a Top 10 List of my favorite horror movies. Plus with Rakhi Ka Insaaf and Arundhati Roy in the news and a consequent mass hysteria regarding  shrinking genitals in the air , what indeed could be more appropriate? So here without further ado, is my Top 10 list of horror movies (Actually 11 because I just could not prune this list), in chronological order.

Continue reading ‘The Ten Best Horror Movies’