Ek Villian : A story of many villains and one miss goody shoes

My Rating:

If someone had asked me to summarize the movie in a mathematical formula this is what I would have written. Ek Villain = Ghajni - Short term memory loss + (Raju ba gaya gentleman/10). There you get it, that is the gist.

The story starts with a barbie like looking heroine with unnatural exuberance and equally unnatural expressions and dialogue delivery.  Everything about this girl is very plastic. So that way Shradhha K is a complete barbie. And then drops in the brooding angry young man (Siddarth M), with a oh-so-painful past who beats people to pulp and kills some of them for no reason but manages to look dishy while doing it. And being the hero, heroine they do the obligatory falling in love thing. Everything is very very typical bollywood masala formula till here.

The movie introduces it's uniqueness with the entry of the next character played by Ritesh Deshmukh. His character sketch and how he carries the story forward is what makes this movie worth watching and make it earn what is left of the 2.5 stars I gave it.

The movie has it's share of crude violence, hitting and killing. So if you have hopes of seeing a rose tinted , lovey dovey movie then you can save your time and money now itself. It doth have it's share of limited, the usually unrealistic romance but you cannot call this a love story. Music is excellent and makes up a little for grossing you out with blood and gory. Overall I would say go watch the movie if you have nothing better to do or see.

How to train your dragon 2: The journey from Theta to Alpha

My Rating:

 If you liked the part 1 of this movie then there is nothing that will stop you from liking this. If you did not see it then please do yourself a favor and see it before seeing this one.

The story continues 5 years from where it left off from the part 1. Co-incidentally the same number of actual man years have passed in the real world also. Hiccup and toothless pickup from where they left off and go on to discover the unknown. In this journey of the unknown Hiccup does find much more than he bargained for, he finds a villain hunting and terrorizing the dragons( speak of terrorizing the terrorizers, am I sounding like a certain member of Bush family here?). He finds an island of protected dragons, he finds his mother and he finds himself and his purpose in life mostly in that order. There are some amazing twists, some unexpected turns, human and dragon battles and awesome graphics that go with it. There is also some real funny humour squeezed in here and there giving comic relief when and where it is really needed.

It starts slow and nice in the beginning and picks up the pace as it goes forward like all movies should. I liked everything about this movie expect the age of the characters seemed a little off. You have 20+ year olds looking and behaving like what a 15-16 yr old should be like. But we had that problem in the last one also.  So there goes the half point. Overall one of the best cartoon movies and very very adult watchable. Something a family with kids can enjoy as a family.

Edge of tomorrow: An edge that goes round and round

My Rating:

When the movie first starts you start wondering how long you will have to endure this madness and then you have your first twist. It starts getting interesting from here. It is difficult to write anything about the movie without giving away this twist, but let us say the movie feels like you are playing a game. A violent one with heavy duty killing machines, big time blasts, weird creatures and what not.

A game which takes you through the same sequences and gives you lives. Naturally a gamer is all the more wiser after he has lost a life, and he gets wiser with each turn and finally begins to strategize once he gets familiar with the turn of events in the game. And like all games and movies it has to end somewhere.

Overall it is a good one time watch and if you don't nurse any prejudices against Tom Cruise, which I must say is a rare quality to come by these days, you may actually feel he did good. If you liked inception and if you are into games with lives then you have hit jackpot.

NOAH: Movie review: An atlernative and a much gorier version of the original story.

My Rating:

This is the story of the original Noah, yeah the one with the arc and all with a much more violent twist. I will get to the good parts first. It has amazing cinematography. Add to this beautiful locales with historically accurate costume design, convincing cast and acting, you have in this all the workings of wanna-be award winning English movie.

They have taken the original Noah story and have tried to super impose some inter tribe fighting a.k.a lot of cutting, chopping, killing and just dying into the drama. There is some realism in terms of timelines to build an Arc that size, it's structural design and how in name of God they managed to keep that many animals in control. The en-masse entry of birds and animals, the sudden spurt of forests, the begining of the flood etc make for very eye pleasing cinema.

It also has a theory on the turn of events that led to the final incident and some justification to why Noah who is supposed to be 'oh-so-good' let the rest of the humanity perish. Surely not every other person other than N and his family could be reeking of evil. The topic of incest which is key for continuation for human race with the current story line keeps haunting you if you try to use your brain a little. I suggest you don't. I watched the movie with my 10 yr old son and I am really grateful he decided to not use much of his and ask me this question. All in all I would say it is watchable if you have a kid who is into this kind of super human stuff and you also get free tickets in the middle of a weekday.

Movie Review: Queen : The Queen of hearts

My Rating:    

The movie starts with a homely marriage scene with a background voice of the female protagonist's thoughts. It just takes those first few minutes to convince you that this is one story which is going to be taken right out of a person's real life. No unrealistic Karan Johar/Bharjatia marriage setting(seriously how many people in India have a house that looks like a palace), no extreme romantic moments in snow covered mountains with hero in a suit and heroine in a thin nylon sari (Note to the Chopras: No one wears suits on a Swiss holiday and unless the heroine dies from pneumonia later, please make her wear realistic clothes). There is a immediate connect between you and Rani(Kangana Ranaut).

The story that begins with marriage prep, a quick and cowardly cancellation by the groom followed by very convincing and realistic reaction by the girls family members in such a situation. What follows and how Rani handles this situation is what forms the crux of the story. Rani or Queen takes you on a journey of self realisation, a realisation of how the world is so different from the tunnel visioned one that we live in, how people of all castes, creed, race, geography get into all kinds of problems and deal with it. By the end of her journey Queen emerges a much more evolved person and leaves the audience with a even better feel good factor.

This is NOT a chick flick, and not a "women oriented movie" as is touted by some. Bad things that happened to Rani can happen to anyone and what a human being feels under those circumstances can be common to any gender. In this story that human being happens to be a woman, that is all there to the woman in it. Kanaga and the director deserve a standing ovation for an outstanding job done on their parts. The review is 2 weeks late but if you have not watched this movie you have missed one of the best entertainers.