paglacholakha Reviews

Undekhi (2020– )

Season 1 was great, Season 2, well---

[7/10 · 28 March 2022]

There was so much in Season 1 that made the show great.

1. A character/characters to root for 2. Relatable situations 3. The wittiness of DSP Ghosh 4. A fantastic track on which the whole season moved

Sadly, none of that could be seen this season.

Quite disappointed actually.

Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

A series of terrible decisions, and not just by the living

[4/10 · 29 June 2019]

I am not entirely sure what was happenning throughout the film. So the protagonist girl knows ghosts exist, she knows she is in a house filled with supernatural stuff, yet when music suddenly starts to play in a different room, she isnt concerned at all. She casually goes there to turn the music off. But in horror movies, we know these things happen, this movie was different because the stupidity the ghosts showed.

1. Ghosts could turn the lights of an entire house off but escapes the moments our protagonist flashes a flashlight on their faces. 2. A particular spirit or something in a wedding dress is so powerful that a cross would turn upside down and fall off a wall when she passes by, but when she is about to attack our protagonist, all she does is hold the cross up and she escapes.

There are many such things these ghosts do which makes you wonder, really, I am supposed to be scared of them??

We have an exorcism that happens via a recorded video. Really, that is all it takes, a video recording?

There is a scene where some says "We are trapped". I thought, so what, big deal. These ghosts are doing nothing to you. All they are doing is switching lights on and off, turning music on and off, turning TV on and off, sometimes throwing coins at you. Most of the time, they are just standing there.

The ghosts would do something then wait 5 mins to do the next thing. As if after every action, their stamina runs out and they have to wait for the stamina to revive.

Its just absurd and frustrating.

Badla (2019)

Freaking brilliant

[9/10 · 9 March 2019]

This movie is hands down brilliant. Saying anything about it will be a spoiler, but I can say one thing, it's nothing anyone could have foreseen.

Will have to watch The Invisible Guest now, to see if which one is better, bit without a doubt, this film is hands down brilliant.

Yudh (2014)

Great buildup , but failed to finish

[8/10 · 22 September 2014]

The build up was amazing. There was a constant question of who is doing it and why. There were many random characters who didn't seem random after a few episodes. Every dots starts to connect, and whatever feelings of 'Why was this necessary' you have seems to vanish and every past scene starts to make sense.

This has been the trend up to the final few episodes. Here things starts going downhill. The finale was a complete disaster, I mean complete. The director wanted a powerful climax, understood, but what we got was an extremely slow motion action sequence, so slow that even the 300 action sequences will look like Bullet train. 1 or 2 moments in slo- mo is understandable, but the entire action sequence? That is just YAWWWWN.

Also, in the finale, I feel the director forgot that the man fighting is a 60+ someone with a neural disease, and Amitabh Bacchan, the super star, took over. Also, when Yudh was fighting, Taruni looked very much at ease even in her predicament.

Had it been a normal daily soap, we wouldn't even pay attention to those things, but the director had done a fantastic job in detailing, so, these slight mistakes looked very big, like, 'glaring at your face' big.

Also, there were many loose ends, maybe a build up for season 2.

Performance wise, everybody was top notch. I really liked Ahana Kumra (Taruni). She is such a natural actress, I might go a little overboard, but in many scenes with Big B, I felt she overshadowed her. Zakhir Hussain as the ever loyal friend, Pavail Gulati as the son and Mona as Secretary was outstanding. But some of the actors were highly underused. Nawazuddin and K K Menon were given blink and you miss roles. Maybe we will get to see more of K K in season 2, I really hope so, because, frankly speaking, he is the only character in the show who had nothing to do with the story.

Anyways, hope season 2 comes soon, and will be a cracker. My vote, 8/10.

24: India (I) (2013–2016)

Amazing for Indian standard, but needs some work done

[8/10 · 12 May 2014]

To start it, let me be very clear here. I am a huge huge huuuuge fan of the original 24 series. It's the show that made me addicted to American seasons. I was super excited when I heard Anil Kapoor was remaking it for the Indian audience, and extremely happy that he pulled it off with style. Yes, 24 is a show India can be proud of. In the era of the same old crappy daily soaps, and reality TV every now and then, 24 was like a breath of fresh air. Anil Kapoor and his team got everything almost right, yes, I said ALMOST. There are a few things that I did not like. 1. First of all, I did not like the flash back. That is wastage of time. A narration would have been sufficient, or maybe a video of the past would have been more appropriate, but a flash back really spoils the real time feel. 2. They failed to manage the real time perfectly. Everyone may or may not notice it, but I, having seen the original, was kind of fussy about it. There were many occasions when the show pauses at a scene for a break, and then resumes from that very scene. Please note, in this format, time keeps moving even during the break. So, if the show pauses at say 11:45 AM and resumes at 11:50 AM, how is it possible that nothing happened in those 5 minutes, and the show restarted from exactly where it left off. Also, in the last episode, there was a time jump. We saw Anil enter the elevator, and maybe 1 or 2 seconds later, he was on the highway driving a car. How did he get there so fast. 3. The extras needs a little more training. The scene where Anil gets kidnapped by Ravindran's guys, there were a few commandos there as Anil's backup. The way they hopped around making unnecessary noise, that was one of the stupidest moments of the show. These commandos were supposed to be the best ATU had, and this is how they perform an operation. Come on.

But these are very minor mistakes which I am sure will be rectified in the future seasons. As for Anil Kapoor and team, thanks a lot. Can't wait for season 2.