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Pathaan (2023), where thrill trumps sense!
What a movie this was! A thriller with non-stop action, Shah Rukh Khan with a muscular and sculpted physique, breathtaking Deepika Padukone, a ruthless villain in the form of a toned John Abraham and the entire screenplay happening in locations outside India. I appreciate the director Siddharth Anand and his crew for being unapologetic for the film not having a story or being original, yet producing a dazzling entertainer. The film has elevated Bollywood to Hollywood heights in terms of its filmmaking technology, it is not easy to shoot in so many locations and such complex stunt sequences. For these reasons, mangoidiots is giving a Ripe rating to Pathaan (2023).…
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Mister Mommy (2022), an eccentric plot squandered
When I read the noticed poster of this film, Mister Mommy (2022) on Netflix I was intrigued. A male is shown with a pregnant tummy! Add to that, it was starring Genelia D’Souza, an actress I love from her early Tamil films like Sachein (2005) and Santosh Subramaniam (2008). Sadly, the actual film was a total failure, the screenplay was non-existent. It felt like the movie was being made up on the set. Gets a rotten rating on the Mangoidiots scale. Amol Kote (Riteish Deshmukh) works as a physical education trainer in a school in Britain, he is a strict disciplinarian and he inflicts the kids with near corporal punishments.…
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Laal Singh Chaddha (2022), a memorable feel-good movie
Laal Singh Chaddha (2022) is a faithful remake of the iconic Forrest Gump (1994). And Aamir Khan has done that with poise. The film gets my mangoidiots rating of Ripe for being true to the original’s soul. I went for the Tamil dubbed version and it was good. Laal Singh Chaddha is about an innocent man who believes unconditionally in the people in his life. Because of his good nature & hard work, he gets bestowed with the opportunities to help everyone around him. He loves and respects his mom, who raises him as a single mother. Next comes his friends who help him, a fellow soldier in the Indian…
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Badhaai Do (2022)
In recent years, Bollywood has been making movies based on unconventional themes. Badhaai Ho (2018) made a comedy on the embarrassing idea of motherhood at fifty’s, then Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui (2021) was bolder to feature a transwoman character as the heroine. Now, Badhaai Do (2022) explores the difficulty of being homosexual in a conservative society like India. The film had its dull moments but can be absolved for its theme, hence it gets a Ripe in our mangoidiots scale. Available on Netflix. Shardul Thakur (played by Rajkummar Rao) is a police officer in Dehradun, who hides from everyone around him that he is gay. Suman Singh (played by Bhumi Pednekar)…
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The Kashmir Files (2022)
For the last few days, the recently released film, The Kashmir Files (2022) by Director Vivek Agnihotri has been making waves across India. The movie is running houseful. These are not surprising – In India, the mention of ‘Kashmir’ always invokes an emotional response – every Indian has an opinion on what went wrong in the state and how it should be fixed. The film works as a (fictional) biography of the protagonist, but the narration was slow paced, and the screenplay was unimaginative, due to which, as a movie it fell short of what it could’ve been. Unlike what critics say, the film does display the militants’ point of…
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Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui (2021)
Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui (2021) is a recent Hindi film starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Vaani Kapoor. It is a romantic comedy, of a young bodybuilder discovering his girlfriend to be a trans woman and the resulting shock and disbelief. Director Abhishek Kapoor and Vaani Kapoor has to be appreciated for doing this taboo subject. Though there are a few Bollywood cliches, it is overall well made – I liked the style of narration – there are no victims & villains, no heroism, and no blame on fate. Watch this film to be entertained and educated too, gets a Ripe rating, and is available on Netflix. Ayushman has developed unbelievably his muscles and…
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Decoupled (TV Series)
Decoupled on Netflix is not your typical “Indian” show. It tries to follow the American comedy-drama shows template of featuring light-touch humour, with a bit of British style satirical comedy thrown in. I enjoy this mixture, as a result, I liked the show and I will give it a Raw, but it may not appeal to you. Also remember, the characters freely utter a lot of profanity and openly discuss sex, a rarity for Indian living rooms – I didn’t find the occurrences out-of-place in the episodes, and I was able to smile at most of them. The show is based on a one-line story of a rich couple with…
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Bell Bottom (2021)
Bell Bottom (2021) is about an Indian RAW agent and team rescuing a hijacked plane, starring Akshay Kumar and Vaani Kapoor. Though it was an action story with patriotic rhetoric, I liked the way it tries, not succeeding always, to stay far from superhero-like narratives. The film was fast-paced with little historic lessons and repetitive explanations. The screenplay had drawbacks, but it was entertaining and manages to get our ‘Ripe’ rating. It is available on Amazon Prime Video. It is 1984, and an Indian Airlines flight IC 691 gets hijacked and Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi, calls her core team (now known as the National Security Council) comprising of senior…
