The Quint

Failing that, to do justice to the bare basics beats of a thriller, it simply demands that it not be dull.

New villain crops up every few years to mess with the family

by Suchin Mehrotra

It's also a deeply unsettling, uncomfortable film to sit through. Not because of its themes, its brutal violence or its 'monstrous' villains. But because this is a shrill, blurry, barely coherent movie that's a strong contender for the year's worst Hindi film.

by Suchin Mehrotra

David Dhawan’s Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai has a ratio problem. The ratio of unsurprisingly unapologetic silliness and low-hanging fruit stupidity to ‘funny’ or even mildly tolerable gags and ‘jokes’ is way off.

by Pratikshya Mishra

As a one-off set piece in a historical epic, perhaps it works, but for a viewer expecting to get even the simplest of glimpses into war-time strategy, it’s disappointing. The set pieces of this guerilla warfare are more impressive in their execution but appear disjointed because we have no idea of how or why they came to be. And that’s because the film isn’t interested in painting a story, it’s interested in the reverence of a ruler and that doesn’t make for an interesting film. There’s a clear hesitation to actually delve into the life of its subject and that’s why, the more the film tries to tell you this story in its way, the less inclined you are to trust it.

But Sahay is careful not to transform rural Jharkhand into an idyllic neverland. He pays tribute to his characters’ grounded knowledge systems, and to the struggles of their lives. Nehma lives separately from her husband Ritesh (Vikas Gupta), with whom she had an inter-caste Dhuku marriage, a traditional practice where the couple live together in a relationship akin to matrimony, without the legal sanction of marriage. But now their relationship has fractured and Nehma has moved out with both their children. To keep custody of them, she must have a regular job—hence the AI centre. In a society steeped in stigma, Nehma’s daughter suffers for her mother’s choices. Ridhima Singh’s performance as Dhaanu is very true to a twelve-year-old’s rebellion against her mother’s life.

by Suchin Mehrotra

How are all these characters related to each other

by Pratikshya Mishra

Speaking of Badhaai Do, Pednekar is a breath of fresh air in Mere Husband Ki Biwi. A brilliant actress, she brings an infectious energy to the screen that acts the same way the brief instances of comedy do – it distracts you from the rest. And for this film, that much is enough. She only falters when she tries to push herself to fit the film’s over-the-top tone. But Prabhleen is, hands down, the film’s most intriguing character and it helps that Pednekar does her best to create the empathy for her character that the writing fails to do.

The problem, however, is that this central love story is never fully convincing. Bambba and Lakshya share chemistry for sure, but Khan—who has co-written the series with Bilal Siddiqi and Manav Chauhan—does not give us many scenes of them actually in love.

by Pratikshya Mishra

At some point while watching Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, I felt my eyelids getting heavier – had I perhaps not slept enough? That would’ve been my first hypothesis if it was any other film but with this film, the answer was clear – the ‘action entertainer’ was just boring. Honestly, an action film doesn’t always need a lot going for it – the thrill of watching well-crafted action on a big screen is enough for a film to be an enjoyable experience but this film feels like you’re watching the same films you’ve watched before. Not only that, you’re also somehow watching them all at once.

by Pratikshya Mishra

Ishq Vishk Rebound is not a horrible movie – it has some of its better moments. There are times when the dialogues get an unexpected laugh out of you even as they remind you how inconsistent the writing has been. The songs, even though not memorable, are enough to get you tapping your feet to the rhythm (that doesn’t intentionally sound like a Katy Perry lyric I promise you). The camerawork, however, uses way too many close-ups, all the time. It’s one of the reasons why the ‘design’ becomes very obvious – you can almost see the filmmaking happen which isn’t the best look for this particular film.

by Pratikshya Mishra

That is both the film’s win and pitfall. Chopra, with films like Parinda, Khamosh, and 1942: A Love Story, is no stranger to ‘cinema’ and he has the means to simply build a massive set if he so pleases. While the film accurately captures that aspect of his work in 12th Fail, the look into his anxieties about the film feels comparatively superficial. The shift from ‘Nobody believed in this film’ to ‘Director saab will handle it’ doesn’t happen as seamlessly as it should because a nuanced study of the man behind the camera feels absent. While Chopra’s quick wit and Rangarajan Ramabadran’s (aka Ranga) ingenuity are fascinating to watch on screen, you can’t stop seeking something more complex. This documentary doesn’t have place for ‘interviews’; instead it stays in the ‘creative’ as long as possible, with voiceovers leading the audience through the narrative.

The biggest issue with Stree 2, however, is the VFX. Sarkata stands for toxic masculinity and the dire consequences of leaving something like that unchecked and that is quite a menacing evil but the VFX makes him feel almost cartoon-ish. Understandably, Stree 2 is meant to be a movie for all ages but the ‘cartoon’ quality comes from the VFX being shabby rather than feeling intentional. As a result, the sequel simply isn’t as scary as the original which is a pity because switching the sex of the antagonist in the themes that Stree operates with should’ve had the opposite effect. Stree 2 is still immensely watchable and is a theatre viewing experience I have missed – go with friends, go with family.

by Pratikshya Mishra

Alas, the film’s music is nothing to write home about. The duo, Anurag Kashyap and Amit Trivedi, have earlier created unusual and exceptional soundtracks before but fail to make a mark this time.

But the film feels lackluster, hardly doing justice to its premise.

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