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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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Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam (2023), is an unbelievably simple film!
What can good casting, attention to the smallest detail, brilliant acting and natural background score do? It can produce a wonderful film like Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam (2023). The lead actors starting with Mammootty, Ramya Pandian and Ramya Suvi were outstanding. The film gets a ripe rating. In the first fifteen minutes, we are transported to the holy town of the Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Health Vailankanni. The camera of the cinematographer Theni Eswar doesn’t miss anything in the market or the corridors of the lodge there or the eatery during a road trip. The story is about what happens when the leader of a group of devotees on…
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Kalaga Thalaivan (2022), ordinary but fast paced
This is a thriller movie that has a familiar motive and sequences, yet it was engaging. Thanks to brisk editing which keeps the story moving in high gear throughout. Arav is the antagonist and the background score is by Srikanth Deva and Arrol Corelli, who were the real heroes of the film. The film gets a Raw rating from Mangoidiots. Udhayanidhi Stalin is expressionless throughout, even in the romantic kissing scene, yet due to the screenplay his character is convincing and we root for him against the villain. He is given limited action sequences, which is a smart thing by the director Magizh Thirumeni. Kalaiyarasan and Anupama Kumar have done their…
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Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?, a miniseries that was gripping
Can a half-a-line plot make a gripping mini-series? To see one, watch the Netflix show Pepsi Where’s My Jet? It is about a twenty-year-old John Leonard in the 1990s, fighting the mighty PepsiCo to make good on their promise of rewarding a Harrier fighter jet for those who collected seven-million Pepsi points in 1995. The four-episode series was not a courtroom battle, not a thriller of corporate espionage, not of unexpected twists, yet it was interesting and made me complete over an evening. If you ask what John Leonard did was audacious, yes it was! I liked the way the director Andrew Renzi focused on the two main individuals, John Leonard…
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The Gray Man (2022), an uninspiring spy action
If I am given just a minute to think of the story for a big-budget spy movie, I am likely to come up with something uninspiring like The Gray Man (2022). The Netflix original film made with a $200 million budget was much talked about in the Indian press for Dhanush playing a role in it. It was good to see Ryan Gosling in a full-length action film after the emotional hit First Man (2018), his excellent performance keeps us sitting through this film. It gets a Raw rating. Sierra Six is an undercover CIA assassin, while on a mission he gets access to a memory card that may contain…
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Ante Sundaraniki (2022), an enjoyable romcom that ran too long
The film’s plot can’t be any less original than Ante Sundaraniki (2022), yet I enjoyed this romantic comedy thanks to a fine screenplay and good acting. Nani as Sundar Prasad and Nazriya Nazim as Leela Thomas have done their respective roles well. Joining their characters as their respective mothers are the two veteran actresses of South Indian cinema, Rohini and Nadhiya, and both were brilliant. Had the film been edited sharply and the three hours of running time tightened, I would’ve been happy to give it a Ripe rating on the Mangoidiots scale. Sundar Prasad is a Hindu boy from an orthodox middle-class brahmin family. His schoolmate is Leela, a…
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The G Word with Adam Conover was largely fun to watch
Many of us living in democracies are getting tired of our governments tackling the pressing issues of our times, like climate change, rising inequality, banking bailouts, slow pandemic response and so on. We are wondering what are the various government departments really doing? Are they just a drain on our hard-earned money paid as taxes?. Unfortunately, we the public have little understanding of the functioning of our government bodies, like the role of the regulators for food, health, medicines, banks, stock market & others. Why do they exist? Normally, we find these to be boring and we are interested to discuss elections and elected representatives, who keep us occupied by…
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Our Great National Parks (2022)
Our Great National Parks, a nature documentary blew my mind with its stunning 4K visuals, coverage of extremely hard-to-reach wildlife forests on land & water, and a well-written commentary. Complimenting these was the majestic voice of the former American President, Barack Obama. If you have a Netflix subscription and even a faint amount of curiosity about our natural world, then don’t miss this series. Without any hesitation, this one gets a Ripe from Mangoidiots. The five-part miniseries travels to the most exquisite National Parts around the world: Africa’s beaches, Japan’s islands, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Chilean Patagonia, Kenya’s Tsavo Conservation Area, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the Gunung Leuser…
