Filmy Illusions

What happens when a bunch of truly talented artists comes together to tell the tale of some real-life heroes and sheroes? Brilliantly crafted and realistically narrated movie like Virus will be its creation, one can undoubtedly say. By far the best of Aashiq Abu’s career, Virus skilfully stages the anxiety-inducing moments of the Nipah virus outbreak that happened in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts of Kerala. Instead of over-dramatization of real events, writers Muhsin Parari, Suhas and Sharfu chose to painstakingly research the incidents and construct a script so gripping that in spite of knowing all about it, you will find yourself at the edge of your seat. Keeping the central character as Nipah, director Aashiq Abu, carefully and compassionately unfolds the plot under the masterful cinematography by Rajeev Ravi, with additional support provided by Shyju Khalid. Brilliant editing by Saiju Sreedharan and riveting music by Sushin Shyam adds the cherry on top. ...

Can Bollywood please leave the job of creating epic period dramas to the experts at the job?  Guess not. Abhishek Varman is that friend in the exam we all meet, who even after given the entire cheat sheet to a problem, messes up the answer by wasting time in the beautification and elaboration and thus ultimately misses the point. From the first song sequence of “Odhni”, Kalank explicitly starts giving you déjà vu of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s creations, but only a bad one at it. What Abhishek or Dharma productions is yet to understand is that Bhansali’s epics are the result of complete passion, intense storytelling, heightened emotions   and   most importantly surrendered madness with flamboyant backdrops. There are no stained realities in Bhansali’s world neither are there any safe surface level attempts; so if you are so obviously deciding to recreate that magic, then at least be fair to it. For me, Kalank was a visual treat, just like any Bhansali pr...

Super Deluxe is one such movie which makes it hard for a reviewer to review, not because it’s bad but since it’s so very well made that one remains speechless after the movie. I haven’t seen director Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s last outing Aaranyakandam (2011) and went in for Super Deluxe without any escalated hopes. In a phase where movie makers chose to tell almost the entire story of the movie through the trailer, Super Deluxe’s trailer kept me guessing and intrigued in so many ways and that’s the sole reason why I decided to watch the movie and trust me if I hadn’t, it would have been a huge loss. The beauty of this movie is the precision and passion with which it is created; from an intriguing trailer to intricately designed posters to a brilliantly crafted movie, Super Deluxe never disappoints you. In an era of monotonously one toned characters, Thiagarajan’s world offers an entire story and characters are presented with extreme detailing and depth. Super Deluxe cann...

                                                                       “Tu nanga hi toh aaya hai, kya ghanta lekar jaayega?” Only a handful of Bollywood movies have so far made me go W.O.W and Gully Boy took it to next level. I haven’t seen in a long while, a theatre packed with people so engrossed in the movie, reacting to it or its characters like they are also simultaneously living the story depicted. Gully Boy is indeed one of the best that Bollywood owns till date and has successfully restored my faith in the industry. A typical rags to stardom underdog story with so many narratives running parallel is an easy disaster recipe usually for Bollywood, but under Zoya’s skillful direction, powerful and layered storytelling of Reema Kagti co-written with Zoya, hard-hitting dialogues by Vijay Maury...

Down south, a few stars are stars less but god more, for their fans; it’s almost established even in North India. Two days before Petta’s release I walked into a theatre in South Delhi talking in my native language Malayalam to my friend and the security women started speaking amongst themselves, “Their superstar’s movie is out already, it’s supposed to be two days later, na?” or when I finally went for the movie today and the ticket counter person enthusiastically said, “Madam your Thalaivar’s film is super hit, its house full.” An honorary Tamilian and a die-hard fan of the language, all my life, I have always been amused as well been happy when people mistake me for a Tamilian, when I speak or by my looks, which in North India can be confusing, as for many of them STILL, all of South India culminates together in TamilNadu or as the infamous ‘Madrasi’. While that will take much longer to change I am super glad that Thalaivar is making better choices at scripts. By cho...

“Do you ever look at your life and wonder how you got there; if you made different choices, would you be happier?” On a normal day, I ask this question end number of times to myself and maybe that’s why Second Act despite being another ‘chick flick’ as they would like to call it, became so personal to me. It’s been a while since I wrote a movie review, something I really enjoyed. In spite of watching all the new releases, somehow I couldn’t word it out how it made me feel. What was stopping me? Well, the only thing stopping me was me , a little quote from which the movie draws its premise and something I really need to get my head around, still. Second Act is a breezy and heart-warming story about  Maya (Jennifer Lopez) who gave over 15 years of her life to a store but is denied higher opportunities since she had to drop out from school and doesn’t own a degree. With a birthday wish for  a world where street smart equal book smart, Maya’s life takes a turn...