Citylights (Hindi) (2014)

I have always maintained that inspiration of any kind from the West or the East is perfectly alright so long as you give credit to the original and don’t mess it up.  I don’t come from a school of thought that all cinema is good only if it is an original.  If that was the case then The Departed (Scorcese) would never have received and Academy Award.

The Raid 2 : Berandal

For those who missed out on my review of The Raid : Redemption (Serbuan Maut), here is a quick look at the 6 on 10 movie that released 2 years back – nearly to the date - http://kartikr.blogspot.in/2012/05/raid-redemption-serbuan-maut.html.  Raid was my first Indonesian movie and I loved the action.

Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi

Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi (KMKJHG) is a movie that is definitely made from the heart but will at best find itself as a complicated 6 word clue in a random Dumb Charades round of an even more random Inter Collegiate Festival.  It is way too simple a story and needed to be packaged too well for it to be a success.

Mighty Raju Rio Calling

My expectations from Indian animation as on date are next to nothing.  I had a massive backlog from the previous weeks and decided to invest my time on Tuesday, catching up with everything that I had missed.  My day began with this one.  A children’s 2D animation movie called Mighty Raju Rio Calling.

Heropanti

As per my clock, there are only 3 instances where this happens.  First at 14 minutes and 32.5 seconds.  Next at 22 minutes and 17.8 seconds.  And the third at 80 minutes and 28.3 seconds.  Of course the decimal places are for exaggeration and there would be some minor error range that you will have to pardon me for.

M3 - Midsummer Midnight Mumbai

I will begin by saying that I did not watch this movie upto the grand finale.  A personal emergency forced me to leave just as the climatic sequences of this awful piece of work was about to begin.  There were several indicators that should have kept me away from this movie that I refused to acknowledge and therefore suffered like I have on very few occasions in the past.

Kochadaiiyaan (Tamil)

Somewhere between a heavily interrupted show of Kochadaiiyaan (Tamil) @ Cinemax Sion, my good friend Varun Suresh decided to figure out what did it cost to make Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn.  Apparently the estimated spend was between $100-125 million.  It cost less than the difference in the range to make Kochadaiiyaan.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

In 6 editions of the franchise, X Men has generated $2.31 billion at the box office.  That is billion with a “buh” as Alan Harper (2.5 men) would put it.  Now the sad part is that despite this massive level of success, it is still not in the top 10 franchises of all time.  Embarassingly below the Twilight series.  With Days of Future Past, they should easily surge ahead of the silly tweenage romance.

Godzilla (2014)

I was sold with the Godzilla trailer – much as I tried to avoid watching it.  But if member serves me right I saw it before Noah @ IMAX Wadala.  The trailer was so brilliantly made that I sent a shiver up my already weak spine.  My only apprehension after the trailer was – like in many cases before – whether the trailer was the movie.  Godzilla, I am thrilled to say, had much more to offer.

The Xpose

Words fail me when I try to express my sentiments on 2 supremely contrasting examples of cinema that will make their mark on the nation today. 16th May 2014 will definitely go down in the annals of Indian History as a red letter day - and I'm not referring to the more than obvious result in the General Elections 2014. It will be remembered forever as the day a man from Gujarat took on a monster from across the seven seas.

Manjunath

One hears stories like Manjunath’s all over the place on your first posting after B-School.  But more often than not, they are urban legends.  What makes Manjunath’s story more scary or overawing is not just the fact that it is true but more to do with the fact that it could probably happen with any one of us.

Ek Hazarachi Note (Marathi)

There is a line that is delivered towards the end of this movie by its protagonist that sums up the exasperation of the poor man in this country more than anything else, “Laxmi aali tari aafat pan gheun yeti” (When the goddess of wealth decides to walk in home, she gets her own problems with her).

Khwaabb

I dream of an India where all sport is given equal importance and not just cricket.  I dream of an India where an athlete who can run fast enough to qualify for the world championship is given the proper facilities to maximize his performance.  I dream that this athlete also gets his due and is not asked to pay `1.5 lacs ($3000 approximately) after he has qualified for the world championships.

Million Dollar Arm

Am I the only person who hadn’t heard about a reality show titled Million Dollar Arm that was held by Major League Baseball to find Rinku Singh (Suraj Sharma) and Dinesh Patel (Madhur Mittal) as the first Indians to pitch in the MLB??? Well I’ll be darned!!! Because apparently I am the only person who didn’t know about this!!!

Mastram

How many times have we seen a movie that promises so much because of a superb story but fails to live upto its promise with the final product.  Mastram joins that league.  Not because it is a badly made movie in any manner.  I say this more out of disappointment for what could have been.

Hawaa Hawaai

It is official.  If there is anyone who can work with children in this part of the world it has to be one Amole Gupte.  And if it is anyone who can write stories that will single handedly double the turnover of organizations who manufacture tissue paper it has to be one Amole Gupte.

Yeh Hai Bakrapur

Janaki Vishwanathan, in her debut movie, picks 2 statements that I have always strongly believed in and don’t hesitate to repeat ad nauseum ad infinitum.  You can sell anything in India under the garb of Healthcare, Education and most importantly Religion.  The second and more important one – India is a country of literate but uneducated people.

The Lucky One

Writer Nicholas Sparks is best known for one of the most spoken about romantic movies of all time – The Notebook.  Dig deeper and you will find that the man has given you 3 block busters other than The Notebook.  All of them are full-fledged romances.  Nights in Rodanthe (2008), Message in a Bottle (1999) and Walk to Remember (2002).

Windtalkers

Most of you (my regular readers) are aware of my sentiments about Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew.  So it may come as quite a surprise to you guys when I say that I have finally found a movie in which Nicholas Cage does exactly what is expected of the role.  There may be more out there but I haven’t seen the lesser known ones.

Kya Dilli Kya Lahore

What an outstanding concept!!!! I was sold when I saw the trailer last week – and I wonder why the trailer released only a week before the movie’s release.  The story was so simple and yet when the movie unfolds, you understand that it has to do with so much more than what just meets the eye – so much to do with human emotion and behaviour. Wonderful is the word that comes to mind.

Purani Jeans

Fresh talent always spurts new ideas and gives the industry a positive momentum.  However, that is not the case when aspiring talent – more often than not in this part of the world – is terribly incompetent. Tanushri Chattrji Bassu despite the missing e and extra s is just one of those incompetent new age directors who, by means best known to them, got a lousy movie like Purani Jeans green-lighted and released.

The Amazing Spiderman 2

One of the secrets / essentials of making the sequel better than its predecessor would be to first retain the director.  Nothing spurs a director (or so I would assume) more than the desire to better her/his previous work.  Of course, this may not be a guarantee but it is definitely a key to raising the probability of success.  Marc Webb sure comes from the earlier school of thought in this part of The Amazing Spiderman.  Amazing indeed.