If you have been watching the superhero movies for the last few years, its highly likely that you worship Heath Ledger, as I do, for his portrayal of The Joker in Nolan’s masterpiece ‘The Dark Knight’. After he rightfully got his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor; for being the Clown Price of Crime; it seemed…
Joker | Review | Joaquin Phoenix | Robert De Niro
Joseph Campbell broke down the Hero’s journey into seventeen stages that can be broadly classified into – Departure, Initiation and Return. His narrative pattern succinctly described the journey where : “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder; fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory…
Indie Film of the Month : Aslam Ka Dost | Review
2014 gave us the ultimate and literal coming-of-age movie ‘Boyhood’, where Richard Linklater’s ethos of leisurely story-telling resonated with audiences across age groups and people in theatres relaxed in their recliner seats, sipped their cold drink calmly and let Linklater indulge in his narration of a localised vision of streetwise random, as he told a…
Mindhunter – Season 2 | Review
David Fincher’s Netflix adaptation is based on John Douglas and Mark Olshaker’s seminal true-crime book Mindhunter: Inside FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit which provided a never-before-seen insight into the creation of FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) in the 70s. This was a time when psychological profiling of criminals was unheard of and the concept of…
Patriotism in Bollywood
It was 6 months after Mahatma Gandhi had started the Quit India Movement and promulgated a nation wide non-violent campaign against the Britishers. In Bombay, lyricist Kavi Pradeep was working on a song for the new movie “Kismet” which was to star Ashok Kumar. Although the movie was about a small time pick pocket and…
The Dil Chahta Hai generation | 18 years of Akash, Sameer & Sid
“The only time a group of friends successfully executed a Goa plan without anyone backing out was in Dil Chahta Hai” — Anonymous Indian (unconfirmed) On August 10, 2001 Farhan Akhtar presented us with a cult classic about bromance, complicated relationships and the undefiled freshness of three disparate characters whose camaraderie binds them together. When…
Whitney Cummings : Can I touch it? | Netflix
It is not everyday that you see a Sex Robot on stage. In hindsight though, we should have seen that cumming (I just had to 😉 ). In her fourth taping for Netflix, Whitney Cummings touches upon all topics considered tendentious these days and uses her acuity and sharp comic timing to deliver a taut…
Subliminal Symbolism in Bollywood | Kanika Dhillon | Judgementall Hai Kya | Manmarziyaan
Subliminal symbolism and understated allegories in Bollywood are rare and hardly ever utilised. We still mollycoddle the audience with too much information and in the process stretch out the narrative. Sriram Raghavan who gave us the masterpiece ‘Andhadhun’ last year, says,” I trust my movie grammar and understanding. That ‘ok, this is obvious. We don’t…
The Boys – Season 1 : Subverting the Superhero Myth | Review
If you looked at the etymology of the word ‘hero’, you’d be hard-pressed to find even a single negative attribute that would define the word. Heroes are supposed to be these unnatural humans who were outliers, incorruptible and essentially good. Superheroes, all the more so. Even with powers with which they can clutch the world…
Virus and the art of Medical Thrillers | Review
Even as Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old Environmental Activist, warns us about our foreboding future – “But I don’t want your hope, I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic, I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act, I want you to…
What else am I bingeing on | Netflix, MX Player, Hoichoi, Voot
Secret Obsession : (Streaming on Netflix) The movie’s fate and eventual likeability hinges on the climatic reveal. For obvious reasons we will abstain from divulging any details, but let me tell you this, the title is a giveaway. Secret Obsession has nothing noteworthy in terms of plot buildout. It takes a beaten to death route…
Super Deluxe is not just a story-telling masterpiece but a visual treat as well
It unsettles me to think that had Anurag Kashyap not tweeted about Super Deluxe, many of us would have averted our gaze and it would flown under our snob-nosed glares that has been conditioned to disavow regional cinema. Before you take offence, I do know that there is still a faction of cinephiles who are…
