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abhimanyubishnoi
Reviews
Thar (2022)
No Thar For Old Man but almost.
Indian cinema is really starting to make content that speaks. Very layered story and screenplay.
The misses: the shock value of action scenes were missing. With that it would have been a modern classic.
Anil Kapoor has played it to the T.
Bulbbul (2020)
What was that all about?
I checked out this movie on Netflix after Twitter suddenly went gaga over this new "path bending"horror movie from a female director. 30 mins into the movie, I am wondering if it is really this bad or should I give it another 15 mins to redeem itself. I went through the whole mess of what is masquerading as a scary movie. When more emphasis is given on cinematography than story and thrills, what you get is what you have here.
Still amazed why it's rated >6 on IMDb! More amazed on how these projects get funded when you have so many great horror stories to bring on screen.
Jeete Hain Shaan Se (1988)
Johnny ka doosara naam "Current"
Super surprised to see such a low rating for what I consider a classic 80s potboiler that does the one job it's supposed to do with no hiccups - entertain you!
You don't need any other reason to watch it than the fact that it has Mithun and Govinda coming together for probably the first and only time and boy, are they fun or what?
The character of Johnny (Mithun) is a blast - Mithun at the peak of his powers, playing the Anthony Gonsalvez version of the 80s, makes an entry that should ideally start the trailer of JHSS. This is a long winded self-introduction to a bunch of goons, providing synonyms of his name in different languages ending with a punch, literally at one of the bad guys faces. That music in the background is as 80s Bollywood as one can get.
I can't summarize the movie even if I wanted to because that's not why you would want to see JHSS.
Piece of trivia to end this: Govinda's famous "chinytukle-pintukle" rap dialogue from Deewana Mastana was first used here. Tells you how much of the movie making business was improvised back then.
Enjoy the embodiment of 80s multistarer Bollywood secret sauce here. They don't make it like this any more.
Hum (1991)
This is Bollywood's 'History of Violence'
The first thing I said to myself while watching David Cronenberg's History of Violence was "Damn, this is Tiger's story told in reverse!"
Mukul Anand's Hum is a landmark film in many ways. Apart from being one of Bachchan's truly last leading men roles, it (a) gave us the item number of the decade in "Jumma Chumma" (still gets a Bollywood party going anywhere in the world), (b) brought Big B and Rajni together for the last time, (c) gave us last of the legendary Bachchan drunkard scenes, (d) brought Haryanvi into mainstream B'wood through Anupam Kher's Girdhar and (e) gave us the last truly memorable Bollywood villain in Danny's Bhaktawar (that over the top villainy is long dead). Hum is one of those guilty pleasures of childhood (VHS tapes) that actually hasn't aged so bad. The reason is that at the core of it, it's a pretty cool movie about how our past can come back to haunt us. And how families can either be destroyed or come together to fight it out.
Hum is an apt case study in good Bollywood masala entertainer genre: how to turn a completely fantastic nonserious storyline into an entertaining 3-hour long movie with an all-star cast, song and dance affair with the right amount of genuine comedy (Kader Khan, Anu Kapoor) and iconic one liners and scenes. It even had the done to death double role twist thrown into the mix and not a piece looks out of place because it's made with such frantic pace and style that you don't have time to ponder. But for me, the scene that really propels the movie beyond the usual run of the mill affair is where Bachchan gets his Tiger mojo back while inquiring about his missing sister-in-law at a bus stand. A rowdy bus driver misbehaves with him, which obviously pissed Bachchan off. But this is not normal anger. This is someone-is-going-get-hurt-real-bad level anger. He takes his glasses off and shrugs his partly grey hair in slow-motion and pulls the driver out of the bus and onto the street before tearing his uniform to shreds- all this while the Tiger leitmotif soundtrack is brought back from slumber to insane goosebumpy effects! Only Bachchan could have pulled this scene off and this is the last time he did something like this onscreen. That was 1991. History of violence ended that year.
Rockstar (2011)
Rockstar is one of those movies that start with vibrant air around it but slowly and sadly fizzles into a self-indulgent drag.
Rockstar is one of those movies that start with vibrant air around it but slowly and sadly fizzles into a self-indulgent drag. I got a feeling that the makers, primarily Imtiaz, tried to make a movie which they wanted to be remembered as an urban cult in years to come but it falls hopelessly short of that. Irrespective of the box-office returns, Rockstar will always remain an attempt that just pretended to be cult but never came close. Three prime reasons for it falling way short: One, for a love story (especially a tragic one) to work, you need a solid lead pair with great acting credentials. Rockstar, sadly, has just one good actor in Ranbir Kapoor (this could well be his best performance till date). Nargis, apart from trending on twitter and being made a butt of all jokes at the time of writing, would make Katrina Kaif look like Meryl Streep. OK fine, she wasn't that bad too, but bad enough to ruin the movie. In the hindsight, an Anushka Sharma would have done wonders to this film. Two, the 2nd half is way too incoherent, too aloof, too Kashyapesque. You don't seem to connect with the movie and u don't care after a while. Simply put, I just couldn't feel the pain and anguish of the protagonist. There are moments in the film that touch you but not enough for you to have goosebumps on seeing him tear his lungs out in 'Saada Haq'. Third, like a scourge plaguing the Hindi film industry, the script is nondescript. Well, there is none to be honest. It's a collection of sexual/asexual innuendos. A movie doesn't have a script when you cant summarize the story. High points - great visuals, out of this world music and vocals and, of course, Ranbir Kapoor. My rating 5/10.