Ugly(2014) movie review

'Ugly' makes for an odd viewing choice in this festive season, but that is no excuse for missing out on this dark, disgusting tale of immorality

Finally 'Ugly' is out on select movie halls across the country, and is in serious danger of being overlooked by crowd pleasers like 'PK'. But do yourself a favor. Anurag Kashyap's latest movie is very much one of the best movies  of this year.

'Ugly' deals with the disappearance of a 10 year old girl Kali (Anshika Shrivastava) from her father's car. The father is Rahul Varshney/Kapoor (Rahul Bhat) a wannabe hero who leaves her daughter in the car alone while he goes to meet his agent Chaitanya (Vineet Kumar Singh) . Kali's mother Shalini (Tejaswini Kolhapure) who has a new husband, the police chief Shoumik Bose (Ronit Roy) is an alcoholic women who is in an unhappy marriage. Siddhant (Siddhant Kapoor), Shalini's brother who is in dire need of money and Rakhi Malhotra (Surveen Chawla) a B movie actress who also happens to be Rahul's lover complete the set of players. This disappearence leads to the reveal of the ugliness present inside all of them, which is further fueled by past relationships and extreme levels of egoism.

Rahul Bhat and Vineet Kumar Singh's performances are nuanced enough that they keep us guessing till the very end

Mr.Kashyap's 'Black Friday' was excellent but held down by real life facts. No such problem arises in this fictional movie where he is free to play with character emotions without any constraints and real life limitations. But such a free hand leads to few problems. For starters, nobody has a redeeming side, everyone is out playing games on others. This make the characters mere caricatures and hard to relate to. Also, we care very little about Kali and more about who the culprit is. As a result of which the ending is shocking and grim but devoid of any emotions. Some character motivations are unexplained and stick out as sore thumbs in presence of other, more fleshed out characters. But these failures are small in front of the movie's successes. 

The cinematography is wonderful, with a gloomy color palette and like 'Black Friday', Kashyap's frequent use of close-ups provide a claustrophobic feeling which keeps the audience uncomfortable  throughout the movie. The script is excellent. The complete sequence in the police station involving Jadhav is one of the best scenes of this year.

Ronit Roy gives another strong performance as police chief Shoumik

The performances are uniformly good. Special shout-out should be given to Tejaswini Kolhapure and Ronit Roy. Ronit Roy continues the resurgence in his career with this role successfully. National award winning Marathi actor Girish Kulkarni makes his Hindi film debut portraying Inspector Jadhav and is excellent throughout.

'Ugly' is uncomfortable and not for the faint hearted. People beat each other, abuse profusely and the movie does not shy away from portraying harsh realities. It may not be as ambitious as 'Gangs of Wasseypur' and 'Black Friday' but is an oddly personal experience and an excellent end to a somewhat disappointing year in movies.

+Strong Performance

+Consistently uncomfortable

+Personal experience

--Some character motivations unclear

--No character is redeemable

88-"Excellent"

Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) movie review

Ridley Scott's biblical epic is spectacular but distant, heavy on effects but light on emotions

Ridley Scott is a terrific director.No doubt about it. The best thing about him is that his movies are spread across different genres, and not tethered to one. It is also the worst thing about him, as the quality of his films are terribly inconsistent.'Exodus' is a biblically  'inspired' film( not my word but wikipedia's) about the exodus of the Hebrews led by Moses. Even before its release it had been subjected to controversy related to its 'whitewashing'. After its release it turns out that it is the least of its numerous problems.

We start with Moses and Ramesses II preparing to plan an attack on the Hittites. Moses is Ramesses' adopted brother but they are very close to each other. One thing leads to another and suddenly Moses is exiled by Ramesses after both of them come to know about his Hebrew parentage. After some odd time jumps and CGI heavy scenes, we find Moses leading his men across Red Sea with a vengeful Ramesses behind him. The main problem with the story is that it hardly includes any character building. What did Moses felt when he came to know about his ancestors? Sadly we never know as he is busy wooing a village girl by that time. Moses is hardly likable and neither does he make his own decisions.They are in turn made by a God who surprisingly looks like a child. The scenes between them which should had been intense discussions about religion and the fine line between good and evil are instead made laughable due to this choice.

Gorgeous special effects trump everything including a good story

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         The cast list is top notch but is sadly underutilized. Actors like Ben Kingsley, Aaron Paul, John Turturro, Sigourney Weaver are wasted in minor roles. Between the two lead performances, Joel Edgerton gives a slightly better performance than Christian Bale as the cocky but ultimately pitiable Ramesses II.

The special effects are good and the movie is mildly entertaining in its own right. But it is a far cry from Ridley Scott's last sword and sandal epic 'Gladiator' which sometimes suffered from the same problems mentioned above but becomes a vastly superior film due to its strong, emotional central performance.

+ Special effects

+Sometimes stirring

-- No character development

--Wastage of talented actors

--No emotional centre

72-"Good"

Haider (2014) movie review

The Bard meets masala in this highly stylish and excellently crafted adaptation of 'Hamlet'

From the moment I saw the trailer I was hooked. It was a breath of fresh air among the nonsensical commercial movies which had occupied the Indian screens for much of 2014. I went in  the theatre anxious, I had so much expectation from this movie, will it deliver? And it did deliver, in a big way.

The setting is Kashmir, a far cry from the state we saw in 'Kashmir ki kali '. A wonderful and chilling opening sequence shows men being taken by the army ,paraded in front of a masked man. A simple nod of head is a passport to freedom, that is until the next inspection. A single pressure on the car horn means arrest and disappearence into one of the infamous prison camps. Such a fate awaited Dr. Heelal Meer (Narendra Jha), a doctor sympathetic to separatists He is arrested and his house demolished. Enter Haider (Shahid Kapoor). A student, he is disgusted to find his mother Ghazala ( Tabu) indulging in a small song and dance routine with his uncle Khurram (Kay Kay Menon). Haider goes around searching for his father till a mysterious person Roohdar (Irrfan Khan) instills one word in his brain-Revenge.

Shahid Kapoor and Tabu, performing the hard task of portraying Gertrude and Hamlet's complex relationship

Vishal Bhardwaj completes his Shakespeare trilogy after the wonderful 'Maqbool' and 'Omkara' with a blast.

The script is excellent and I particularly loved the idea of adapting the famous stage play into a song (Bismil). Songs in Indian films have seldom being used as a storytelling device, and the whole sequence plays out beautifully.

The cinematography by  Pankaj Kapoor is equally excellent. Bhardwaj focuses on close shots on the ground instead of grand cinematic view which nicely intertwines with the movie's theme. Kashmir may look beautiful and peaceful from outside but the ground reality is very much different. Regarding the  faithfulness of the movie to the original play, Vishal has craftily adapted it into the setting. The gravediggers' scene is particularly well done. Equally innovative is the transformation of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern into Salman and Salman, two ardent fans of Salman Khan. He has even added new scenes like the brilliant 'AFSPA' speech. The movie is not flawless though, it takes too much time in setting the premise and picks up steam in the second half. 

In many ways Ghazala is the protagonist of 'Haider'

All the brilliance of Shakespeare and Vishal Bhardwaj couldn't have save -ed ( I blame Arshia for this ) this movie if the performances were anything less than exemplary . And they were excellent. Shahid Kapoor is like Colin Farrell, he shines in small budget movies. After 'Kaminey' this is his best performance. Shahid, stick with Vishal, please. Kay Kay Menon is equally brilliant. Shraddha Kapoor, Sumit Kaul, Rajat Bhagat,

Lalit Parimoo provide excellent support to the main trio. 

But one lady steals all the scenes she is in. Tabu plays Ghazala as a lady torn between love for his husband, lust for his brother in law's power and affection for his son. We never know whose side she is on, and that adds to the mystique. And Irrfan Khan's cameo is one of the best I have ever seen.

The soundtrack is very good. The background score is touching, sentimental and epic in the right places. The team of Vishal Bhardwaj and Gulzar had created wonderful songs, which progress the story instead of hampering the flow, like most Bollywood songs do. 'Ao na', in particular is a wonderful mix of folk and rock and Dadlani's vocals are excellent as usual. ( 'Madaari' and now this. Vishal Dadlani is my favorite singer now)

'Haider' may not be in the crore club and neither will it defeat 'Bang Bang' in the box office. But what Vishal Bhardwaj has created will go down in history as one of the best Indian movies ever made. 'Haider' shocks us, makes us laugh, makes us cringe, makes us cheer, makes us cry, it is cinematic brilliance at its peak.

+ Tabu

+The performances

+The visuals

+A fitting soundtrack

+Not afraid to raise taboo points

--First half too slow

91-"Masterpiece"

Godzilla (2014) movie review

'Godzilla' is basically a cowboy film involving monsters and a decent popcorn flick

1954 's  Ishirō Honda directed 'Godzilla' was an intelligent satire of the nuclear bomb which had recently struck the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The movie inspired countless sequels and reboots including the terrible 1998 Hollywood movie directed by Ronald Emmerich. Gareth Edwards' 2014 reboot is much more similar to the Honda version than the other one but unlike the sharp (though marred by poor special effects) message the first film sent, this one is always confused about what its theme is.

Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) is the plant supervisor of the Janjira nuclear plant.After his wife's death and quarantinafication  of the plant, he becomes convinced that it was a massive cover up of a far more sinister secret.15 years later, after he is arrested for trespassing, his grown up son Ford(Aaron Taylor Johnson) who is also an explosive ordinance disposal officer in the US navy visits him in Japan.It is there when a massive creature called MUTO(Massive Unidentified Terrestial Organism) is set lose.Then another MUTO appears in Nevada,USA.Apparently they want to mate and reproduce. The MUTOs  feed on radiation and represents human damage whereas the resurfaced Godzilla is a force of nature which had returned to kill those monsters. Yes, Godzilla is a hero and just like countless other Western movie heroes he rides out to the sunset after his job is done. The script oscillates between good and average.

Despite the symbolism of the monsters, the movie is oddly devoid of any clear message. It does not help that the human characters are dull and cliched. 

Bryan Cranston and Aaron Taylor-Johnson walking down memory lane

Sadly, Ford is the star of three-fourth of the movie and Aaron maintains the same expression throughout. Bryan Cranston, who gives a powerful performance does not stay for long. Ken Watanabe and Juliette Binoche are underutilized as well.

What helps though are the visuals. 'Godzilla' is visually stunning both with and without the monsters.The monsters too, are masterfully designed. 

The movie which is suspenseful and a little spooky at the beginning fails to be engaging when the action shifts to USA. As usual soldiers try to kill a massive monster with bullets. And nobody in the movie thinks about the mass casualties that the monster battle royale leaves behind. Ford has a wife (Elizabeth Olsen) who is also a nurse and it is the relationship with her husband which is the human part of the second section of the story.It does not work due to Aaron's performance and the cliched scenes between him and his wife.

Godzilla never looked so good

Don't get me wrong, Godzilla is an enjoyable movie. Gareth Edward vowed to give us a monster movie with human elements. Up to a point he succeeds . 'Godzilla' dares to be different in the monster genre, and minor shortcomings aside is a fun movie to watch with your friends. 'Godzilla' is good, but sorry bro 'Pacific Rim' remains the best.

+ Bryan Cranston

+Awesome visuals

+Enjoyable from the beginning to the end

--Aaron Taylor-Johnson fails to harness his 'Kick-Ass'  charm

--Confused message

--Cliched character-traits

--Too many good actors wasted

77-"Good"

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) movie review

The Wolf of Wall Street is entertaining and disgusting in equal measures and is one of the best films of this year.

The Wolf of Wall Street is a black comedy based on Jordan Belfort's memoir which was adapted to a screenplay by Terence Winter. Belfort is a former stockbroker who made millions by defrauding investors with fraudulent stock sales. Martin Scorsese is no stranger in dealing with complex characters, he already did it with characters like Travis Bickle and Jake LaMotta in his two masterpieces- Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. But unlike those two films, Scorsese injects comedy like he did with Goodfellas and thus prevents the film from becoming a serious drama. Since this film is a comedy, it may look like a movie glorifying the action of the characters, but it is not. It is a satire and Scorsese takes  great care that we laugh at the actions the characters make and not laugh with them.

The movie begins with Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) explaining to us (breaking the fourth wall, the same as Ray Liotta does at the end of 'Goodfellas') about his high octane life. Then suddenly, in true Scorsese fashion we are taken years back, when a jobless Jordan starts building his fraud empire with the help of  Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill). We follow him as he changes from a quiet, brilliant stockbrocker to a scheming, greedy, brilliant emperor. He meets, falls in love and eventually marries Naomi Lapaglia (Margot Robbie) but like everything in his life the marriage ends with a bang. Complicating problems are an FBI Agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler) and Belfort's own overconfidence and drug problems. As much as the movie is entertaining, it feels too long. Scorsese should have edited it more (The same problem could be found with 'The Gangs of New York'). Thus some scenes feel unnecessary and awkward, and this drags the movie down a bit.

Jonah Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio give powerful performances in every scene 

It can be said that 'The Wolf of Wall Street' is much different from other Scorsese films( Actually 'American Hustle' is more like his other films). It is his most colorful film yet after the drabness of 'The Departed', moody noir cinematography of 'Shutter Island' and the CGI influenced magical color palette of 'Hugo'. Martin Scorsese directs this movie with great energy and momentum and follows Belfort's life as it soars, flies and crashes. But this is not a movie about justice being served, it is more about the success which Belfort achieves and the insane partying and debauchery at the top.

DiCaprio and his band of mad stockbrokers show off their weird dancing skills

Kudos should be given to the performances given by the cast members. Leonardo DiCaprio is increasingly becoming the best actor for biopics( Howard Hughes, J.Edgar Hoover) and is pitch perfect. He plays his character with exaggeration and loudness, which perfectly blends in with the mad world the director has created around him. Give the man a Oscar, he has been snubbed many times (He was not even nominated for 'Django Unchained'!!). Jonah Hill is as incredible as he was in his oscar nominated performance in 'Moneyball'. Margot Robbie is a newcomer but she is excellent as Belfort's trophy wife, Naomi. There are a number of smaller characters all excellently performed by actors like Rob Reiner and Jon Bernthal. But the best acting apart from Caprio's was done by Matthew McConaughey, who absolutely ruled in his cameo(And introduced us to the catchy anthem).

'The Wolf of Wall Street' is Scorsese's best film since 'The Departed' and that is saying a lot. Only Scorsese can direct a movie like this, a one which which is filled to the brim with energy.

+DiCaprio's best performance yet

+Energetic script

+Wonderful cast

+Successfully avoids being tagged as a parody

--Some more editing should have been done

88-"Excellent"

American Hustle is flawed but don't get me wrong, it is one of the best movies this year

David O. Russell's movies are about characters. They rarely have a story and are more about character interactions. In his latest movie based on the real life FBI sting operation, he unites the actors of 'The Fighter' and 'Silver Linings Playbook' in one of the best ensemble casts in movie history.

Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) is a bald, fat con man.He meets Sydney Prosser(Amy Adams) and immediately falls in love with her. With her false identity as wealthy aristocrat Lady Edith Greensly, their loan scams became bigger and profiteer. That is, until they were arrested by FBI Agent Richard DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) in a sting operation.Richard forces them to work for him in exchange of releasing them. The story follows them  trying to implicate the Camden city mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner). Complicating problems is Irving's wife Rosalyn(Jennifer Lawrence), an unpredictable force of nature, who yearns to get involved in Irving's life but makes life harder for him in doing so. The movie is very entertaining, though the plot is a little weak and too long. The best part is that we are never sure who is conning whom.

Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams in one of the best performance of their lives

Russel has taken not one but many leaves out of Scorsese's book.The background narration provided by Irving and Sydney is so much similar to Henry Hill's and his wife's in 'Goodfellas'. His characters are unpredictable, the dialogues memorable and his swooping camera shots are too Scorsese like. But he makes sure to infuse his own brand of  film making.  Like Christian Bale in 'Fighter' and Jennifer Lawrence in 'Silver Linings Playbook', this film is filled with super energetic characters like Richard and motormouths like Rosalyn. 

The costumes are terrific and the soundtrack awesome, and really transports you to 1978.

The pitch perfect cast

But what mainly makes this movie awesome are the performances. Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper are excellent actors and are wonderful in this film. Amy Adams successfully prevents her character from being cliched. And bravo Jennifer Lawrence. She is one of the best actresses now and I am really excited for the next movie she stars in. Jeremy Renner makes us feel sympathy for his character, even though he is the antagonist. And I was really bowled over by the 'Boardwalk Empire' guys- Shea Whigham and Jack Huston. They were excellent. And of course we had that cameo by Robert De Niro. I don't know about you, but when I saw him in the dark room, I had goosebumps on me.

American Hustle, with its wild characters, natural comedy and frantic pacing is one of the best movies of 2013.

+Excellent cast

+Wonderful use of costumes and music

+Widely entertaining

--Plot is a bit thin

--A little long

87-"Excellent"

Mishawr Rawhoshyo(2013)review

Mishawr Rawhoshyo is an excellent tribute to Sunil Gangopadhyay and a must watch in this festive season

I remember coming back from my last semester examination, excited, and running to my bed where I would always find the latest 'pujobarshikhi' (Special puja edition) of  'Anandamela'. 'Kakababu' stories were always the first  ones I would read. In a magazine fiilled with detective stories, they were refreshingly different. Kakababu is an unique character. He is a cripple walking on crutches, but this does not stop him from scaling Everest or fighting terrorists. He is is a person with  strong  will and confidence and is a wonderful creation of Sunil Gangopadhyay. Sadly,the great author passed away last year and the absence of  a Kakababu story in this year's edition was glaring. Fortunately, Srijit Mukherjee's film was released this puja, ensuring that this year does not remain 'Kakababu'-free.

I am not a great fan of Srijit's work.His films were great but always lacked something. For example, 'Baishe Shrabon' had a great twist and excellent central performance but too simple a plot which disappointed me a lot. His films are filled with grand, sweeping camera shots; colourful characters and excellent music which effectively masked their shortcomings. So how does 'Mishawr Rawhoshyo' fare?

It is one of the most enjoyable films I have seen. Prosenjit Chatterjee is almost perfect as Raja Roychowdhury /Kakababu. Though he had a tough time expelling his characteristic drawl and attitude.

The result is a Kakababu who is more 'Prosenjit' than 'Kakababu'. Aryann Bhowmik  made a good Shontu. Rajit Kapoor, Swastika Mukherjee,  Neel Mukherjee( excellent as always) ,Barun Chanda, Rajesh Sharma, Tridha Choudhury, everyone played their roles with utmost sincerity. Indraneil Sengupta however gives the best performance of this film. He plays the complex, layered character of Hani Alkadi, a rebel ( a fantastic creation of Mr.Gangopadhyay) with great aplomb.

Kakababu and Shontu sharing a smile

   Not everything is perfect though. This film is full of experiments. Some are great ( The fighting scene in the hotel  interspersed with original text from the story is a great touch which sadly was not repeated in the climactic fighting scene) .Some are odd( Split screens in an important scene in the first half which totally destroyed the moment). Srijit also uses odd camera angles( taking a page out of RGV's book,lets hope he never stoops down to that level) which fortunately cease post interval. I also did not understand the reason for a song about Delhi(which is actually a good song) and was more confused as to why there was no song about Egypt as the later is the more important place in the movie.The scene about the police chasing Hani Alkadi was also confusing and poorly executed.

There are few songs (which is a very good thing for films like this) and they are usually good(Especially 'Kakababu's song')

Story-wise, it is a perfect adaptation. Srijit hardly deviates from the original plot(except for modernization of the characters-Kakababu tweeting was a great addition).He must be applauded for making a 'complete' film-complete with budding romance, humour, action, humane moments and the great thing is that none of these were forced into the film and came naturally.The great locale (Egypt looks beautiful) and the high budget surely helped though!

Egypt looks great!!!

People reading the review may be surprised to know that this movie is one of my favorites. Why so?

Because the negative points are too small to damage the film and most people would not even notice these points.They are the reasons why 'Mishawr Rawhoshyo' is not a classic, but an excellent film and a fitting tribute to one of  India's best authors.Never have I been so much excited for the next film in the series, which will surely come.Go and watch it.It is great..

+Well acted

+Hani Alkadi is a compelling character

+Faithful adaptation

+'Complete' film

+Some nice touches

--And some touches that didn't work

--Some minor inconsistencies and plot holes

"76"-Good