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Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! (2015)
DBB is absolutely stunning...!!
Detective Byomkesh Bakshi!
DBB is absolutely stunning...!! It is an absolute edge-of-the-seat, mind-boggling, enticing piece of art on a movie screen...!! I daresay that 2015 is India's best movie-for-the-intelligent-class-year by far, first 'Baby' and now DBB...!! But DBB is by far, by a very long stretch, the best detective movie/whodunit to come out of Bollywood.
Ever.
And on terms of international scale, because comparisons are bound to be there, the script, direction, action and suspense in this absolute Epitome of Brilliant Indian Cinema Making, surpasses even some great movies such as the Sherlock Holmes series (with Robert Downey Jr).
The real Hero of the movie are not the actors, it is beautiful enticing City of Calcutta of 1942.
World War II is raging on the Eastern Front and Japanese Forces are trying to enter India through Burma into Calcutta. This premise sets the stage for the most amazing DBB to solve his first major case.
To reveal more would be to take away from the sheer wonder of the movie...!! I can say with pride that till date no on-screen depiction of the evil Prof Moriarty can come close to match the acting of our Neeraj Kabi playing the devil himself - Dr Anukul Guha who is the nemesis of the young Byomkesh, Young Sushant Singh Rajput as DBB is brilliant. His acting, his sincerity, his mannerisms, the continuity of his character (watch out for his half shaved look during a major scene in the movie) is just perfection personified. He's not some superhuman, with martial artist skills and great brains to match. He's a detective with Brains but he's still human. He throws up when he sees blood or a dead body too. That, we can connect with.
Anand Tiwari, who till now has been the comic relief in movies like Go Goa Gone, is amazing as the side-kick to Byomkesh in this detective caper. Swastika Mukherjee as Anguri Devi is someone to watch out for. She's got more screen-space than the other actresses and does a super job as The Woman. Meiyang Chang has a good strong role and adds his bit to the movie.
For once, forget all the stuff Hollywood may throw at you, nostalgia for some mediocre actors in fast & furious cars aside, you can't afford to miss Detective Byomkesh Bakshi...!!
Simply 10/10
Madras Cafe (2013)
Gripping & Brilliant take on the assassination of ex-PM Rajiv Gandhi
MADRAS CAFE ★★★★★★★★★☆
As a young boy I remember adoring Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. His assassination will always remain a dark spot in the history of this country and in India's efforts to bring peace on the sub-continent and in Sri Lanka's civil war through its peace keeping forces.
It forever changed the history of this nation. And the movie more than lives up to this tag line.
That said, Madras Cafe is not just a movie. It is more of a documentary on the days and events leading up to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
There are no songs. There is no item-number. It is 2 hrs & 10 minutes of nail biting history like it was never told before.
This is not an escapist movie. It is hard reality and it is blunt.
Engrossing, gripping and amazingly edited it makes you wonder what if....? And that is where it succeeds.
Shoojit Sircar succeeds in making you ask yourself what if...? He also makes you understand the age old saying that one man's revolutionary is another man's terrorist.
In the end we walked out moist eyed, saddened by one man's destiny with death and the failure of those who wanted to save that one man even in the face of the ruling Govt's opposition and traitors in their own midst.
The best and most emotionally moving scene comes in the end when a tired senior RAW agent walks into his home and his wife in tears asks why did they kill Rajiv... he was so young.
His reply is what hits you, listen to his tired voice as it chokes with suppressed emotion. The great TV Game Show Host Siddharth Basu, shows us with just one simple line what the covert operatives in this country face each night as they crawl in their beds, lives and hearts devoted to this nation.
Watch it without expectations. And John, I forgive you Shootout at Wadala... You can come home from the Madras Cafe.
The Lunchbox (2013)
A bite out of the lives of two people who have never met in the bustling City of Mumbai...
The Lunchbox ★★★★★★★★★★
How does one start writing about a movie that has been spoken and written about so much already...?!! I have rarely had writer's block but today morning this is my third attempt. So instead of writing what I should, I am just going to plainly write about an experience that was entirely mine...
The Lunchbox is actually not just a movie. Well not for me, at least.
It is a complex mirror to many of the questions that we all have in our hearts, forced to hide or forget them in the mundane routines of our daily lives.
Some are questions that we never dare ask in the open... or aloud.
Let me add that what I witnessed on the night of watching this movie was probably the greatest acting ensemble I have had the good fortune of witnessing from Indian cinema.
You are not just watching Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Nimrat Kaur, Lillet Dubey...
You are watching the tired, broken, lonely Mr Fernandes (his first name is a wonderful revelation) played so wonderfully by Irrfan that you will see all this in his face like it was being read to you. This performance is way up there...! And writing this brings tears to my eyes, if you really love the art of cinema as deeply as some of us do... I could write much more but that would take away from the brilliance of his performance.
Shaikh played by Nawaz, the orphan who has made it in life on his own, who is to replace the soon to be retired Fernandes in his office, and who will move you to tears with his smiles and his eyes. His outlook at life, his loyalty for Fernandes will move you. Nawaz was always a great actor. But with The Lunchbox he actually goes beyond just acting. There is this line he says, "Meri maa kaha karti thi..."... When it hits you, you will only say to yourself - AMAZING...!! and Ila... the woman who wants only to be recognized by her husband. No one else. Her entire life is her husband and her child. And how she has been driven by an unappreciative cheating husband into becoming a nobody, just another face in this city of millions... Her life forces her to ask the question, "Does a woman, married with a child, unloved, deserve a second chance?" Nimrat, if this is her first movie I don't know what she will do by her 10th...
Somewhere Ila's mother comes in for a few minutes (Lillete Dubey, you surprise me each time...!) and says things that will shock you with their harsh truth. But said so simply that you will realize that this is how most relations end up eventually....
There is Mrs Deshpande, who you will never see. But you will hear her words, saying so much so simply.
There are the Dabbawalas of Mumbai, studied by Harvard, appreciated by the 'England Ka Raja' (Prince Charles would be mighty pleased...) who are probably the most complex and almost flawless delivery system in the world working without any modern technology. Their simple lives and routines will touch your soul if you have ever been to Mumbai and witnessed their magic...
There is the City of Mumbai. With its teeming millions, its trains and buses and its autos, an island city bursting at the seams. With its bustling life, its office-goers and workers filled with daily routine, beautiful old bunglows, its roads at night that never sleep, its narrow streets filled with life, its veins with ambition. It is indeed the City of Mumbai that holds the movie together. If you have been to Mumbai, you will feel all these emotions and more...
And there is Life itself and second chances. The Lunchbox is all about second chances.
There are two kinds of people who will walk out of the theater. One who will yawn and say nice things movie about the movie without really grasping the true essence of this masterpiece. They will post a new status on whats app, face-book or twitter. But not really peek into the heart of the characters and feel...
And then there are those few who believe that there is still more to life...
Those who will want to believe that the Dabbawalas of Mumbai worked their magic once again...
That life is indeed about second chances. And that the Art of Cinema has risen to levels like never before with this masterpiece.
They will feel what I felt.
Agneepath (1990)
There are movies, and then there's Agneepath
How does one start to describe the best movie of someone whom one considers the best actor in the world? The world.
Agneepath is without doubt, the best, and I mean THE BEST performance of Shri Amitabh Bachchan's illustrious career.
The angst, the anger, the frustration, the pain, it simply speaks from HIS EYES. Watch his eyes in every scene, they speak such volumes which even the dialogues fail to encompass. I've seen Amitabh-ji speak so much with only his eyes in BLACK as well. And it's a lesson on what acting is all about, what cinema itself is all about when one actor rises beyond everything and everyone else, as if inspired by God himself, to deliver a performance that is so true, so great, so beyond words, that it's worthy of every single award made for acting...
Two-three scenes that are a study in acting: The intro scene when Amitabh states his full name, 'Vijay Dinanath Chavan' and his knowledge of his appointment with 'death'.
The scene where he pulls himself out of the water and walks to meet his nemesis Kancha Cheena, the flashbacks of him pulling his father's dead body as a child, and again the haunting look in his eyes...
The final scene when he runs through the fire...
And above all, and I'd like to state that I'm a movie addict - I love movies, cinema, Godfather, Scarface, Where Eagles Dare, Guns of Navarone, Two Minutes Warning, Good Bad Ugly, Scent of a Woman, Taxi-driver, Ronin, Sholay, Trishul, Shakti, Zanjeer, Deewar, Don, Chuck De India, Lagaan, Ghayal, Damini, Terminator 2, Aliens, Titanic, Batman Begins, Dark Knight, Avatar, Ghajini, Memento, Athadu, Kick, Jackie Chan movies, Bruce Lee movies, it's all so mixed up cause I love film making, love the art itself...
Yet, without doubt, without a single doubt, the one scene that stands out in my head in all my 33 years of loving English, Hindi, Marathi & Telugu movies is the one single scene in this movie, when Amitabh turns to his bosses and says, ''Tumhara hamara ladayi mein jeet iska (gun) nahin, iska (destiny) hoga...'' Look at his EYES. Just look at them... That is the ULTIMATE scene by ANY actor in my book of all time. If you don't believe me, watch Slumdog Millionaire and you'll see this very scene shown at the most crucial point in the movie...
Amitabh is p.e.r.f.e.c.t. in this movie. Better than Scarface?? Even Al Pacino would sit back and wonder what inspired Bachchan-saab to achieve such greatness in this movie...
9/10, and only because this is Amitabh-ji's best movie till date.
3 Idiots (2009)
Best Movie of 2009! Aamir Khan reigns Supreme!!
We saw a sneak preview of 3 Idiots last night at Globus Cinema in Bandra, Mumbai.
Brilliant. Simply, brilliant.
Simple but articulate story telling laced with lots of humour and lessons from life. A wonderful experience to watch as every single actor from Sharman, Madhavan, Boman, Kareena & Aamir deliver probably the best performance in a movie this year.
Sharman & Madhavan start off on a journey to seek out their friend Rancho. Together they were the 3 Idiots in college. And they take us the viewers with them on this beautiful journey with such warmth, panache, humour and love, that we don't want the journey to end.
Sharman really shows why he's one actor to watch out for. His acting genes come through in every single scene. He's perfect in his role. Sharman, you rock!
Madhavan as the guy who's chasing his father's dreams rather than his own is wonderful. The character who learns to laugh at life and it's ironies thanks to his friend Rancho. Madhavan shows his humorous side brilliantly savoring every scene and making it a pleasure to watch. His narration of the movie is very good.
Boman Irani is probably the one actor we take most for granted just because he's so brilliant! His characterization of the control-crazy, hyper-active, hyper-competitive, almost dictator-ish, college principal, is beyond words. He plays it so so well, that you love to hate him. He's that Good.
Kareena comes through in this movie as one of the finest actresses we have. No one else could have played her part and also looked so beautiful at the same time.
And now take it from a hard core Amitabh Bachchan fan, Aamir Khan is the best actor in town today after AB. Period.
His range is phenomenal and his characterization of 'Rancho' in this movie is positively brilliant. The small mannerisms, the walk, the smile, the attitude, the brilliance of a young person who's not restricted by the educational system, his positive attitude towards every thing in life, it's Rancho you are looking at. Not Aamir.
Aamir's ability to transform himself convincingly from the super-huge well-built temporary amnesia patient on a revenge spree in Ghajini to this whacked out college student, which is half the age he played in last movie shows his prowess as a master actor to transcend age barriers to play almost every role in the book.
This is THE best movie of 2009. Aamir again reigns supreme. Thank you Raju Hirani & Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
Cliché word, but I have to use it - FANTASTIC !! 10/10
P.S. Don't forget to say 'Aal Izz Well'
Karma (1986)
Awesome Patriotic Movie. A Masala Masterpiece...
There are very few Hindi Masala movies in the 80's that really stand out even 20 years later. I happened to catch a re-run on TV just today and realized that even 23 yrs later, this movie is a masterpiece...
Subhash Ghai delivers in almost every department. Be is direction, script writing, editing, songs, dialogues or action, he excels everywhere.
I was never really fond of Dilip Kumar-ji, being a hard core Amitabh Bachchan fan, but I do have to admit that he is simply superb in this movie. And to balance the scales on the other side is an excellent performance by Anupam Kher as the evil Dr. Dang. Even his side-kick Shakti Kapoor and others do their job well of being the evil guys we love to hate.
Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff and Naseeruddin Shah are fantastic in their individual roles and together as a team of prisoners on death row recruited by Dilip-saab to fight for their country in exchange for pardons. Naseeruddin Shah particularly stands out in his performance as Khairu-bhai the cold blooded killer with a soft heart.
Nutan-ji emotes without dialogues and her solid performance is still a study for actresses today. Sridevi and Poonam Dhillon are good in their roles as the female leads.
One performance always gets overlooked and that is of Dara Singh as Dharma. A large man with an ever larger screen presence, he is simply too good in his role as Dilip Saab's faithful aide. Many forget his contribution to Karma and other movies alike.
Last but not the least, the movie's theme song 'Mera Karma tu...' is a benchmark even today for patriotic songs. Even one line played on the radio is enough to fill the heart of every Indian with patriotic fervor. I remember listening to this in the US many years back and all the Indians in the room had a tear in their eye...
Brilliant Masala Movie of the 80's!!