Nwoakes Reviews

Andhadhun (2018)

The Man Who Knew...

[9/10 · 3 November 2018]

It's difficult to write a review of a suspense film like this without giving away details. It's best enjoyed with a clean slate. One thing is sure, it's entertaining and suspenseful. The second half is as good as the first half.

Ayushman Khurana has an impressive list of films already in his career. This time moves away from familiar territories. The result is spectacular.

Tabu is superb in a role not many could have played with that ease.

S. Raghavan delivers yet again.

Young Sheldon (2017–2024)

So Far So Good

[9/10 · 2 November 2018]

My review is about Season 1 only.

It takes an episode or two to get used to the tempo of old Texas but once you get going it's a fun (and educational) series to watch. It's consistent with The Big Bang Theory. Performances are outstanding from everyone.

If you like Sheldon's character in The Big Bang Theory, you'd love this too. It also explains the story behind Sheldon's contempt towards geology. Every episode is worth watching from the first season.

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

The Best Tarantino film after 2000

[10/10 · 2 November 2018]

It's incredible how Tarantino's cinema has become an institution, a genre in itself. My favourite films of his are from the 90s, though I loved Kill Bill (more because of action than the screenplay and characters) but with this one he is bang on.

Performances are excellent from everyone, especially from Brad Pitt and Christopher Waltz. What I love the most about it is that it takes a real-world history situation and fictionalise it by showing us alternative history.

It's an unmitigated assault on Nazism and Fascism.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Timeless, Priceless

[10/10 · 2 November 2018]

It's a perfect action-adventure, with elements of fantasy. The best part is the coming together of Sean Connery and Harrison Ford. One is a field agent and the other is strictly an academician.

Some films are timeless. This is one of them. No modern adventure film comes close to this.

Daas Dev (2018)

An unflattering imitation of Dev D.

[3/10 · 2 November 2018]

Dev D was a memorable film. Daas Dev tries to continue in that spirit but comes across as a cheap imitation. Fifteen years ago Sudhir Mishra was a good film maker. Now he's just deteriorated into a self-pitying, overbearing, pompous bore.

Husband Material (2018)

It's not love, it's a propaganda

[4/10 · 2 November 2018]

It's apparent that Anurag Kashyap's groupies have been lobbying to mandate forced arranged marriages for a while. It's sad that how lack of commercial success has made once-daredevil director, a free-thinker like Anurag Kashyap opt for a propaganda like this.

To all those who have been calling it the biggest breakthrough in feminism need to realise that true feminism comes from freedom.

So, they give the deadline to marry her boyfriend or she'd be forced to marry Robbie (Abhishek Bachchan). Wow. That's the film's idea of women's empowerment. She's a young girl, in her early 20s. It's not that she's on the verge of menopause that they have to make her marry in rush. Why not give her more time? Why not let her make her own choices? It's understandable that he boyfriend is not a marriage material. Why not let time to heal the situation? Why force her marry at a gun point and then call it the most feminist Indian film ever?

Robbie goes on to marry her despite the fact that he had blatantly refused to marry him. He still takes the "gamble". Rest of the film is a redundant drag.

On the positive side, performances are spectacular from Abhishek Bachchan and Vicky Kaushal. Tapsee Pannu is okay but she's getting repetitive with similar characters. The only Anurag Kashyap's trademarks are shown during the songs that are filmed beautifully.

Other than it's just a misleading propaganda.

Veere Di Wedding (2018)

A faux-feminist film that shows no respect towards women

[1/10 · 2 November 2018]

This movie claims to take a giant leap towards female empowerment in cinema, but in truth it's as regressive has some of the misogynistic movies of the 80s and 90s where a woman's sole purpose in life was to get married and procreate.

One of the characters, played by Kareena Kapoor, is called a coward by her friend (Swara Bhaskar) for being scared of marriage, when Swara herself had got into a loveless marriage of convenience, only to get divorced soon and thereby making her ex-husband's life as well as her own life pathetic. But she's shamelessly defended and hailed as a brave lady.

Moreover the voice-over by one of the mothers is cringeworthy. This film preaches dependence and glorifies peer-pressure. It teaches women to constantly justify themselves or their choices to their friends. It teaches burdening others with your problems, when nobody can better understand your issues other than yourself. It indoctrinates a culture of dependence.

They also shamelessly glorify the Indian tendency to spend exorbitantly on weddings, even when you cannot afford to do so. That's the sick culture this movie preaches.

Don't be fooled by the outwardly feminist coating. It's just a sham to lure modern audience into this highly regressive propaganda. It's shown as a high-minded "chick flick", a hip take on female bonding: but it shows no respect towards women.

It just deteriorates into a cheap pastiche of idiotic lives.

True empowerment doesn't come from blindly following others. True empowerment comes from freedom of choice.

Desh Drohi (2008)

A laugh riot for wrong reasons

[1/10 · 3 June 2014]

This is one hell of laugh riot mainly because of the hero's ineptness. The idea of bad acting can be subjective but this highly incompetent wussy's bad acting is universal truth. Even the kindest of people will get sadistic pleasure whenever he gets beaten in the movie.

There is nothing to write home about this abomination apart from the moralistic idea, just the idea. But the screenplay, direction and acting are laughably incompetent.

Gracy Singh seems to be on an ordeal of exploring austere side of life: from being in all-time great movies like Lagaan and Munnabhai MBBS to being the love interest of a good-for-nothing character, played by a good-for-nothing actor.

Dhoom 3 (2013)

An honest appraisal of an honest attempt at filmmaking

[9/10 · 27 May 2014]

Sometimes in cinema it is difficult to live up to hype. However, Dhoom 3 exceeds all expectations by packing a solid punch. The start was excellent and emotional, propped up by great performances from Jackie Shroff and Sidharth Nigam, the kid who plays young Aamir. YRF were indeed fortunate to find a kid who is not only a gymnast but a talented actor. I thought the cruel bank guy was good in his small part. He should've got a longer part. After the hasty Iqbal (Jackie) commits suicide, his son decides to take revenge. He targets the bank using his circus tricks and incredible gymnastics.

As good as Aamir acts, he gets a very good script here that gets the best out of him. The "dhoom" scenes i.e. the chases are awesome. Modern cameras and VFX effects make them even better.

Aamir's acting gets better and better as the story progresses. This is one one hell of a job by Aamir, on par with his best works.

*****SPOILERS AHEAD*****

To be frank, ACP Jai Dixit has become a liability since Dhoom 2 because his character makes things redundant. Since Dhoom 2 had a happy ending, his pesky interruptions didn't matter. But in Dhoom 3 the ending is sad, just because they had to give leverage to his character. Alas! they miss out on many tricks. Sahir's mastery and the twists around his characters are so good that he could have easily toppled Jai. Alas! Jai's character needs face saving because he's supposed to be one of the principal characters. He comes across as a big time nuisance.

The whole angle about Jai called by US police to help them is hard to fathom. But we understand it's "dhoom" and some level of cinematic liberty has to be taken to involve a story like this in Chicago because it's hard to visualize this story on the streets of India.