jay-techie2007 Reviews

Sam Bahadur (2023)

Good Watch. Definitely deserves a web series.

[10/10 · 11 April 2024]

Very well made movie depicting the life of India's first Field Marshall, Sam Manekshaw. A must watch in order to get a high level idea of his contributions to the country. I say high level because the movie runs at a tremendous pace trying to cover as much as possible. It definitely deserves a web series.

The script and screenplay is good. When it comes to acting, the movie is, obviously, heavy lifted by Vicky Kaushal who is great and his hard work is very much visible. The rest of the cast, especially Sanya Malhotra, is good. Not sure if Fatima Sana Sheikh was a good choice for Indira Gandhi. Even the small cameo of Govind Namdeo as Sardar Patel lacked the intensity that Sardar Patel carried (they made him look more helpless than anything, especially Nehru).

A good movie overall.

Article 370 (2024)

A Must Watch - for its storytelling, background score and acting

[10/10 · 2 March 2024]

A must watch. Based on the trailer, I didn't have very high expectations but I expected it to be good, if not great. However, the storytelling, acting and background score is what you should go to watch this movie for.

The movie is heavy lifted by Yami (quite evident from the trailer itself) as well as Priya Mani. Yami has keeps proving herself as dead serious actress every single time and has a potential to carve her niche in action thrillers. She was just as amazing in Thursday as well. Priya Mani played a brilliant companion and it was great to watch her. The rest of the cast revolves around these two.

The background score is brilliant and kudos to the team as that can make or break an action thriller like this - especially the military based movie.

Storytelling is amazing. The chapterization and the naming of the chapters are spot on. The movie does a great job of connecting the events that lead up to August 5, 2019. The dialogue given to Yami explaining the core of the Kashmir problem is brilliant.

Definite watch!!!

The Kerala Story (2023)

A Must Watch to Learn Where We Fail Our Kids

[9/10 · 21 May 2023]

Quite an intense movie. Well made, though it could have been better, especially when comparing it with The Kashmir Files, Kantara or Malikappuram.

But this is a must watch to understand how we, as parents, set up our kids for failure against proselytization when they don't know well enough about our belief system, culture and traditions. In extreme cases, like the one depicted in this movie, they are gobbled up into the world of global terrorism through gradual indoctrination. It shows our blindspots and how, not having kids rooted in our culture, can lead to them getting planted elsewhere.

Good casting with some solid performances. Adah Sharma takes the movie on her shoulders and does a good job of it. The story is well paced - broken into three parts - present, immediate past, and further past - keeping the audience hooked.

Definitely to be watched!

Vikram Vedha (2017)

Good watch for the thriller fans

[8/10 · 27 December 2022]

Good watch for the thriller fans. The movie, in the beginning, is a bit slow and all over the place, except for the action sequences that have been executed very well. It picks up pace and stitches things together as they go so one needs to be patient.

The plot is good and the story is well written within the limitations of the Vikram-Vetal storyline. Although some scenes don't make sense and some of the aspects of the storyline are too convenient - and not explained at all - just left the audience to assume.

For Madhavan and Sethupathy fans, this is a treat. Both were amazing. I watched Sethupathy for the first time and it was definitely impressive.

Overall, a good watch.

Sita Ramam (2022)

Definitely Watch It - Slow to Begin but You Won't Regret

[9/10 · 17 December 2022]

The movie was recommended by my friends from South and I had heard a bit, positive reviews, on the internet. So I finally watched it on Hotstar. It has somewhat a slow pace but one can think of it as a slow cooked delicacy that's worth the patience.

The plot is amazing. The storyline is woven beautifully. The characters, at least the main ones, are well written. Mid-way it sort of reminded us of Veer-Zara but it doesn't turn out to be that. Definitely makes you emotional though.

Kudos to the performances of Dulquer Salman and Mrunal Thakur. The other actors also did great.

The movie is amazing artistically - great work by the art director. The backgrounds, the locations, the costumes - a treat to watch. They could have speed up the movie a bit - that's the only improvement I think was needed.

But otherwise a great watch!!

Kantara (2022)

Absolutely Mind-Blowing!!!

[10/10 · 14 December 2022]

Absolutely mind-blowing. Rishabh Shetty has produced a gem that's every penny worth watching in a theater. I watched the Hindi dubbed version of it.

The story is quite gripping and although the movie is 2.5 hours, it doesn't feel like. Especially the way it respects the Hindu culture, unapologetically, is brilliant.

The action sequences are great. Especially when I compare it with Baahubali, they're as clean as that was. With such a small budget, it's commendable that the team was able to manage such clean VFX. I also compare it with a more recent PS1 where the action sequences were not that well executed in terms of VFX.

The cast was totally new to me but great job.

One thing I particularly liked about the dubbing was that they left out certain dialogs, the one by Deiv, undubbed which was a brilliant move. It gave much more authenticity to the movie and helped keep the impact of those moments on the watching experience intact. That was key, especially in the climax.

Talking about the climax, man - that was ABSOLUTELY MIND-BLOWING!!! Kudos to the team for the amazing ending. More than paisa vasool.

Overall, A MUST WATCH.

Drishyam 2 (2022)

Great watch!

[9/10 · 14 December 2022]

Drishyam 1 had set the high expectations from this one and it doesn't disappoint for the most part.

The storyline is great. The way they've brought the turns and twists keep you hooked. Some things do looked a bit stretched, in terms of imagination, but still a good plot and execution.

The cast is pretty much the same, except the addition of Akshay Khanna. Very similar, amazing, performances from the repeat cast. They could have gone with someone better than Akshay Khanna, like Boman Irani or Raj Kumar Rao. AK struggles with expressions and doesn't seem to be contributing to lift the movie.

Overall, it is still a good watch, especially if you have been a Drishyam fan.

Ponniyin Selvan: Part I (2022)

Underwhelming

[5/10 · 3 November 2022]

Okay, so I'm reviewing this keeping in mind two things: 1) Being a Mani Ratnam movie I had a certain level of expectations from the movie, 2) I watched the Hindi dubbed version of the movie.

Although it's commendable that Mani Ratnam touched upon the topic that had been long overlooked by the mainstream movie industry in India, I feel the movie didn't do justice. Perhaps the book has done a way better job.

To begin with, the flow of the story wasn't smooth. Abrupt sequences. The action sequences could have been neat - especially when I compare it with something like Baahubali, RRR or even the recent Kantara which had much neater finish in fight/war sequences. One can easily see the difference.

The casting could have been better. Aishwarya Rai, playing the character of Nandini which appears to be a very key one, seems very out of place. And the one guy who knows good acting, Prakash Raj, doesn't have much screen time.

Another thing which was absurd was this weird fight between the Shaivites and Vaishnavites which doesn't really make sense. From what I know there was friction between Buddhism and Jainism and the rest but the one between Shaivism and Vaishnavism seems out of place - maybe I'm wrong but that's what it seems.

The background score is good but unnecessary loud at some places. It ends up creating noise instead of increasing the impact of what's happening on the screen.

What I liked about the movie was the overall plot but apart from that, it requires much better effort. Hopefully the second part will be better.

RRR (2022)

WATCH IT..WATCH IT...WATCH IT!!!

[10/10 · 15 July 2022]

I have watched this movie a couple of times now on Netflix (wasn't able to watch it in theaters) and can't get enough of it.

Just when I thought it can't get better than Baahubali, the director S S Rajamouli comes up with another masterpiece - RRR!

The story, the actors, the dance numbers, the pacing, the creativity behind scenes, the action - everything has been a top notch. This movie has definitely taken Indian cinema to the next level and the benchmark has been set to be a real tough one. Bollywood can't even dream to match it.

Jurassic World Dominion (2022)

Good Entertainer. The franchise is losing steam though.

[7/10 · 9 July 2022]

It seems like they're running out of ideas to make new movies in the franchise.

The movie itself is a good entertainer with very well directed thrill sequences like the chases and human interactions with the mighty predators. In that sense, it a very good watch.

What one may be disappointed with is the story line as there is hardly anything novel to offer. They tried to cash in the following of Sam Neill and Laura Dern but that doesn't help beyond a point.

I would still recommend it to watch for the execution brilliance of whatever they had on their plate.

Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)

Funny At Many Places But Weak

[6/10 · 8 July 2022]

Probably one of the weakest movies in the franchise. Minions, by themselves, have been funny and it has always been a laugh riot watching them.

However, this one has some dull moments and some "what the hell??" ones too. One knows that animation movies like these can show practically anything but this one goes a little overboard with "anything".

Also, cliched portrayal of the Asian community, which was seen in the trailer as well, can become very irritating.

Overall, a decent movie but could have been much better.

Rocketry: The Nambi Effect (2022)

Need More Such Movies - Watch It In Theatres - Don't Wait for OTT

[10/10 · 8 July 2022]

I really doubt if anyone could have done more justice to the topic than R Madhavan himself. He has poured his heart in the movie.

The movie, based on real events, leaves a sense of guilt and disgust with oneself, if you are an Indian, about the way we have treated our heroes. It's very sad to see India has paid such a huge price due to greed of certain individuals.

The emotion of Nambi Sir and the grief his family has gone through - has been beautifully captured which leaves you a little stunned/shocked.

The cast has done a phenomenal job. Kudos to them.

Definitely watch it in THEATRE.

LOL - Hasse Toh Phasse (2021– )

Good watch

[8/10 · 10 April 2022]

We had watched the Canadian version of the show which had almost same format. But we felt the Indian version was definitely better than the Canadian counterpart.

To begin with - amazing hosts. One can't ask for better - Boman Irani and Arshad Warsi.

The contestants were great - many of them we heard for the first time. But the key difference was that the comedy was better and the activity was a lot. Compare that to the Canadian version where there were many silent moments. Here, they were all charged up and constantly doing something.

Aadar Malik was a find for us. Gaurav Gera was hands-down brilliant!

Definitely to be watched.

Forrest Gump (1994)

Definitely one of the best movies ever made in Hollywood!

[10/10 · 14 January 2022]

I am not sure how Tom Hanks does what he does on screen. I am not even sure how to describe what he does on the screen. Forrest Gump was a difficult character to play, let alone project it with such brilliance on the screen. However, it's hard to imagine any other actor able to do so.

Forrest Gump takes you to the journey of an unique character who has his own unique impression of the world around him. Fortunately, he manages to find more friends than bullies around him, but the life is still challenging in its own ways for him.

While it a long movie, the script has made justice to the length of the movie. The coverage of some of the major events in the US history at that time, adds a different flavor to the storyline.

Definitely one of the best movies ever made in Hollywood!

The Big Short (2015)

One of the All Time Best Movies!

[10/10 · 14 January 2022]

Definite watch. The Big Short runs four parallel stories of folks in the US financial market realizing the disaster building up, which somehow others are either ignoring or are just not able to see.

The story goes into the root of the problem as well as different ways in which it was trying to manifest itself but the world, especially the Wall Street, was simply ignoring it because they were making money out of it.

With a casting like Christian Bale, Steve Carell., Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt, there is very little you can go wrong in terms of performances. The story is well narrated.

Great watch!!

Caliphate (2020)

Great watch!!

[9/10 · 14 January 2022]

Great watch. The series talks about the issue of youth radicalization, in this case by ISIS, in Europe which is often swept under the rug out of fear of being called "bigot".

The series highlights how the propaganda is used on the impressionable, emotional and sensitive minds of the high-school and college youngsters and make them believe things that don't exist. While some realize their mistake, when it is often late, others just never realize it.

The execution is quite good. Great watch!

Fauda (2015–2022)

Brilliant Thriller

[10/10 · 14 January 2022]

We have watched it a couple of times now, in English, and it's always thrilling every single time. This was the first Israeli web series we watched and have watched a few more but nothing matches this.

While the acting is not brilliant but the story line moves fast and always some or the other action happening. I personally loved the character of Captain Ayyub (Gabi).

Awaiting Season 4 now.

Definitely to be watched!

Decoupled (2021– )

R Madhavan carries the entire series on his shoulders

[7/10 · 14 January 2022]

When we watched it for the first time, even though it had some good punches, it didn't really inspire to us to watch through it. Especially, the urban-elite set up is almost becoming cringe these days.

However, the rave reviews on social media made us give it another shot. I wouldn't say it was totally worth it, but it is still better than we expected - especially R Madhavan carries the entire series on his shoulders.

While the story is pretty okay, it is the punches and certain scenes, especially the ones with the driver, played by Mukesh S Bhatt, that make the series a good watch. Many people opined that the series goes in as an equal opportunity offender in terms of politically incorrect jokes, which I don't really agree with.

While you are not missing something amazing if you don't watch it, it's also not a waste of time. Good entertainment.

Aranyak (2021– )

Great suspense+thriller

[10/10 · 14 January 2022]

We watched it in just one sitting. Brilliantly executed and with top notch actors, gripping story and a great suspense, it was definitely worth the nightout!

With so many characters at play, the director had a challenging job which was done very well and used it to his advantage as the suspicion moved from one character to other every couple of minutes. It took some time to get a hang of things since so many characters kept coming in but the story settles gradually.

Definitely recommended if someone is looking for a great suspense+thriller web series.

The Silence of Swastika (2021)

The Truth Has Been Told..... The World Needs to Listen Now

[10/10 · 14 January 2022]

Mind-blowing research and a very well made documentary. If someone doesn't know, they would never be able to figure that this is AKTK's first documentary. The kind of content that can put big studios to shame.

While I have known a lot about the history of Swastika and Hakenkreuz through various sources, there is a lot more new information that AKTK has disclosed is this one.

I hope they soon come up with the English version of the documentary since the non-Hindu audience, especially the White Westerners, need to know and acknowledge this.

Definitely to be watched.

Modern Family (2009–2020)

Mind blowing comedy. The best part - end monologues.

[10/10 · 5 January 2021]

It's very difficult for me to rate this anything below or above Friends and BBT but MF has been an absolute blast to watch - every single episode. Pritchett's have been anything but a conventional family and the amount of heterogeneity of family members makes the show way more amazing. Besides the usual situational comedy, dialogs and so on - the idea of using quick-look-at-the-camera has been one of the main highlights and elevates the humor level of the show. And more importantly, the cast has been pretty much spot on every single time with that. But the show has been more than just the comedy. The short monologues at the end (sometimes in the beginning as well) have been really thoughtful and I can actually note them down to make a diary out of it. It's a very refreshing form of comedy - very unique - and sets a high benchmark for the future shows.

Dhunki (2019)

Refreshing!! Great story, screenplay, acting and direction

[10/10 · 31 August 2019]

Just when you think it can't get better, Gujarati movies keep surprising you!

Story, screenplay, acting, direction - Dhunki scores a perfect 10 🙌 across!!

It's a story of aspiring entrepreneurs, played by Pratik Gandhi and Deeksha Joshi, who are tired of their thankless and unfulfilling IT jobs and want to aspire big. It's a story about their struggles to make their venture successful and how it has been affecting their personal life and family goals.

I particularly liked the work of the dialog writers. The conversations sound very real - just like how normal people talk. The writers have taken liberty to have contemporary vocabulary - Gujlish if one may say.

The performances have been brilliant, especially by Pratik Gandhi. The chemistry between Pratik Gandhi and Kaushambi Bhatt was probably one of the most underrated strong point of the movie. The character of Vishal Shah would remind you of Rahul Bose in Dil Dhadakne Do, but with a much better performance.

Music is minimal but very much relevant to the story and melodious.

Definitely watch it!!

Golmaal Again (2017)

Rohit Shetty sticks to the formula - good entertainment value, no novelty

[6/10 · 2 November 2017]

This franchise has been sailing purely on the entertainment value and this time, the director himself clarified not to use any brains. And coming from the horses mouth, it cannot be false. And he wasn't. From the entertainment point of view, Golmaal Again scores good but don't expect any novelty. The signature finger bending by Ajay Devgn, the overly used fight scenes, colorful cars - Rohit Shetty hasn't moved an inch.

Story (7/10): All the lead characters are orphan and grew up in an orphanage founded by Ramdas. However, as they grow older (teenage) their internal tussle make them leave orphanage and part into two groups - Gopal (Ajay Devgn) and Laxman (Shreyas Talpade) are together while Madhav (Arshad Warsi), Laxman (Kunal Khemu) and Lucky (Tushar Kapoor) form another group. However, the untimely death of Ramdas and the efforts of one of the teachers, Anna Matthews (Tabu), brings the group together to resolve the mystery behind what exactly happened in the orphanage and who is responsible for Jamnadas' passing away. While the plot is quite compelling, the story had a lot of distractions and unnecessary characters to take the focus off the story. The comedy was largely crude and repetitive - essentially suggesting very less effort on writing a good screenplay, except in patches where the punches came really well.

Acting (4/10): Of all the cast, only Tabu seemed to have taken the movie seriously in terms of acting. Although she had less burden in terms of comedy, she lived up to her reputation. With the movie boasts of other good actors like Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Mishra, Sachin Khedekar and Prakash Raj, none of them have been given compelling scenes, except perhaps Ajay Devgn - being the lead. The movie does end up asking a lot in terms of acting and comic timing.

Direction (6/10): Rohit Shetty hasn't swayed even the slightest from the formula. He repeated the characters from the earlier movies of the franchise and made a kind of an unnecessary reunion which became irritating in a way. Some of the scenes are inexplicable and totally incoherent with the story - for example, Prakash Raj's dance and Nana Patekar's cameo. Where he excelled was leveraging the location, art direction and his forte, cars! Visually, the movie has been well made. Also, some of the intense scenes, especially towards the end of the movie, have been shot really well.

Overall (6/10): You won't miss anything if you don't watch it. It's a good movie to check out if one is looking for a light comedy. Also, for Rohit Shetty fans, it is definitely one of the well made ones among the franchise - with a good story.

Secret Superstar (2017)

Best Movie of 2017!!

[10/10 · 1 November 2017]

It is definitely the best movie of the year. While it did great in almost all the departments, what I particularly liked about the story was that every supporting character was given a chance/scene which made the character indispensable - indicating a very well thought through script, without compromising on the entertainment value.

Story (10/10): Insia is a talented musician/singer in a middle-class family in Baroda who aspires that the entire world listens to her voice - and she has everything to realize that dream. However, it is not that easy to do that in a conservative patriarchal family where girls are only meant to be married off as soon as they hit puberty. Her mother understands her dreams very well but is also aware of the ground realities and somehow tries to balance both ends. However, there is as much she can do. Determined to change her destiny, Insia takes the responsibility on herself to make sure her dreams come true. With the help of YouTube and an unlikely fan/friend and the notorious music composer Shakti Kumar, she sets off on a journey to realize her dreams. The story is very well written and every supporting character has been connected to Insia in a very unique way. I loved the portrayal of Najma (Insia's mother) which projected the everyday struggles of Indian housewives, especially against a non-supportive husband - balanced off with the innocent playfulness that comes out in patches as girls, in conservative Indian households, hardly ever get a chance to enjoy their childhood. What I loved in particular, was that every supporting character has been given sketched out in a way to play a very key role in her journey - making the character indispensable. Ensuring non-redundancy isn't something Indian writers have been known for. This is one of the best written scripts recently.

Acting (10/10): It is amazing how Aamir Khan seem to have a talent to pull off anything and everything. He does have a very strong presence in the movie but has never tried to overshadow the lead character, Zaira Wasim. Zaira's hard work is very much apparent in the movie and makes us forget Dangal that released less than a year ago. She definitely has a long way to go. Meher Vij has been into many movies but this is the one, probably for which, she will be remembered. The find of the movie is Tirth Sharma who was very impressive in the character of Chintan - an innocent teen, secretly in love with Insia and trying everything under the sun to help her achieve her dreams. He added the much needed sweetness to the movie.

Direction (10/10): Advait Chandan impresses a lot in his directorial debut with a very balanced story, no unnecessary melodrama and above all making every single lead character relevant instead of focusing only on Zaira Wasim and Aamir Khan. His portrayal of domestic violence (both, physical and mental) is very realistic and compels audience to feel for Najma. He ensured that the movie doesn't slip into a "sad" zone by balancing it with the humor of Shakti Kumar's character - which is the large part of movie's entertainment value.

Overall (10/10): Great watch - definitely. The best of 2017 so far and I doubt, based on the line up right now, if anything will beat this movie.

Chef (2017)

Good plot and the overall story, but the direction and poor casting almost kills the movie

[6/10 · 9 October 2017]

Decent effort but you wouldn't miss anything if you haven't watched it. Chef suffers a lot in terms of direction, with an otherwise strong plot. Music was perhaps the strongest point of the movie - especially "Shugal Laga Le" (not "sugar laga le") by Raghu Dixit is to be watched out.

Story (7/10): Chef is a rags-to-riches story of Chef Roshan Kalra who starts off from Chandni Chowk to make it big in NYC restaurant and 3 Michelin stars. However, as the success gets into his head, his downfall starts and soon he finds himself out of work and away from the family he ignored for so long due to his career. As he tries to make peace with his unemployed life, he, reluctantly, takes this as an opportunity to bond with his son in India and also rediscover the old Roshan Kalra by going back to his roots where it all started and get his mojo back. It was a great plot but the story/screenplay screws up things very badly. Too many things were left to audience's imagination as the writer doesn't spend much time in building the background for the protagonists' downfall or the inexplicable chemistry between him and his ex-wife. The second half of the story is much better written, however it is still not enough to compensate from the confusion the first half creates.

Acting (6/10): With no big names the department didn't have much to offer. Even after more than two decades in the industry Saif doesn't have a reputation to shoulder a movie on his own and this movie doesn't change that. However, he still does a good job - especially with respect to the character - picking up the knife skills to the least. Padmapriya was too flat faced across scenes to generate any emotions. Svar Kamble, playing Chef's son, was good to watch taking a good amount of load in terms of acting. Dhanish Karthik plays a good supporting role to Saif. Cameo of Milind Soman was good and refreshing, so was that of Raghu Dixit.

Direction (6/10): The class that Raja Menon showed in Airlift was completely missing here. In total contradiction, he spent very little time in building a background for the story. The downfall of the chef just didn't seem convincing and trying to replicate Gordon Ramsay through Saif Ali Khan was just a wishful thinking. Raja could have done a little more to build a good and convincing chef instead of just showing him making pasta all the time - the only other two things his chef made in the movie was a chutney and his invention called Rottza. His chemistry with his ex-wife is weirdly portrayed - although the good part is that the movie doesn't show divorce in a bad light conveying that two understanding adults can separate on good terms too. The dance sequence shown between the two was amazing to watch.

Overall (6/10): I loved the plot and the overall story, but the direction and poor casting almost kills the movie. If you give it a skip, won't matter.