Naked feet tiptoeing on a path covered in the sand through deserted supermarkets and forests. ‘A quiet place’ is literal in all sense and builds on the relationship between sound and survival.
The setup is eerie. A family of five left in a world absent of other human survivors. The pretext might seem like old story new package, but what follows is aberrant.
Are you the kinds who indulge in travel shopping with equal or higher enthusiasm than the travel planning itself? Me too! It does indeed require a lot of ‘make or break ‘kind of decision making on what goes into that backpack/suitcase.
My favourite companion while travelling is a sleek and trendy sling bag with just the right amount of essentials, which include- Passport holder, wallet, sunscreen and sunglasses.
So when Urby offered this sleek as hell, adorable little-personalised wallet, it was an absolute joy to use it!
Set in the times where income tax evaders were popular for stashing cash and gold in the most frugal but innovative ways, RAID is based on the true event of one such longest running incident against a powerful businessman of Lucknow. Continue reading
The opening frame has Sanjay Chaturvedi (Vicky Kaushal) standing on top of his modest railway quarter terrace, as a portrait of a fairly ambitious millennial, visualising his superpowers through a middle-class lens. This frame to start with is a beautiful balance of dreams and absurd pursuits of reality that are to follow.
The story begins with a promise to embrace reality. Sanjay is a Software Engineer in a bank, Karina D’Souza (Angira Dhar) works in the loan department of the same bank. Both belong to middle-class backgrounds, fighting the day-to-day drudgery of space restrictions in Mumbai.
They both come from culturally opposite households. One from a ramshackle Christian house, in which plaster keeps falling precisely on top of someone’s head, while rest of the place is kept looking like a nice pastel backdrop. The other from a box like a conglomerate of kitchen, hall and bedroom where new guests take over an inmate’s bed every other day. The narrative is filled with plenty of believable characters, peppered with honest quirks keeping the first half’s charm top notch.
In the second half, the Director chooses to hold up the Bollywood wand turn every aspiration into reality in the blink of an eye. This removing of struggle from a Mumbaikar’s life is where the story starts to lose its spell. The realization of dreams moves very fast without the pace in the narrative as such. The shift of focus from ‘square foot’ to ‘love’ is also sudden and misses to maintain the momentum of the first half. There is no gradual love, but there are instances of rickshaw and local train romance that attempt to compensate for the lack of reality. Owing to the talented actors, the chemistry comes naturally despite lack of any build up. Vicky Kaushal and Angira Dhar make for a delightful pair, keeping us interested in their lives, despite the forced Mumbai-ness.
What works brilliantly though, is the stellar cast. Pathak sisters together are a riot to watch. Ratna Pathak as Mrs. Blossom is so effortlessly accurate with her Bandra-Christian lingo. ‘Kanpuriya’ Supriya Pathak and Raghubir Yadav light up the screen with their innocent middle-class act. They are all stubborn yet forward-looking and accommodating like most Mumbai parents. These three together and little moments of joy are half the reason for Love per Square foot’s magic!
Undoubtedly it is some refreshing writing and overall a likeable watch. Only if it’s heart would have stayed in the non-Bollywood Mumbai, the emotions could have soared higher.
In the era of Netflix and binge-watching, we have many a web series and short films on all possible ‘taboo’ subjects (including periods) that commercial cinema still shies away from. Hence the spirit and intent of Padman are worthy of applaud. Of course, you need a powerful star to bring this subject forth and a ton of marketing gimmicks to justify the empowerment and liberation part of the message. But sadly that alone cannot guarantee a good cinematic experience. Continue reading
Starting with some two screen full of disclaimers, the pretext commotion to the melodrama that is about to begin is exponentially higher than what the actual 3 hours of cinematic extravaganza will offer you. Despite that, here is an unpoliticized looking at Padmaavat in a way we hope it was meant.
For Euro trip first-timers, our itinerary was rather heavily bent towards countryside exploration than the usual tourist bustling destinations.
This inclination led to our internet discovery of Giethoorn – a place that can be only be described as a Dream!
Gorgeous thatched –roof farmhouses sitting amid fairytale gardens connected by small canals. The picture is almost unreal to imagine for a city dweller. Located only a few hours away from Amsterdam, we had this on the top of our ‘must-visit’ places in the Netherlands. The pictures hardly do only some justice to this idyllic village but are compelling enough for Geithoorn to make way to your bucket list.
Hindi cinema, no matter how advanced and westernized today, still remains to be highly inspired by the early 70s and 80s. Look at just the number of rehashed stories and songs, remakes in the last year and all of them being received with applause. One such name, which is remembered fondly in the industry as someone who gave some of the most iconic movies of all times. The legendary producer-director, Nasir Hussain has given Indian audiences hit after hit. The man known to be the founder of the Indian masala film did not just set a trend but paved a path for commercial Indian cinema as it stands today. With movies like Yaadon Ki Baaraat, Teesri Manzil, Hum Kisise Kum Nahin or even his magnum opus Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, this visionary producer-director used the formula of great music + high impact drama + star power to catapult his movies to become major box-office successes and winning him the title of ‘Musical Entertainer’.
A name that spells India loud and clear, and offers you exactly that without any clichés.
What looks like a highbrow art house from the outside, +91 is a beautiful bringing together of everything Indian. The owners Vipul Shah and Bipin Grewal have travelled through the flavourful kitchens of India, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, and have brought forth a delectable spread that represents the food culture of the country.
If only it wasn’t called ‘inspired by true incidents’ our appetite for irrationality would have been more welcoming than it already is. This sequel to Ek Tha Tiger brings back our hero RAW agent who’s been hiding somewhere in the Alps, only more bloated. If you are still recovering from Tubelight, the opening scene rejects all your doubts about his ‘Tiger’ like qualities, supported by action and blatant dialogues. Not to mention, this intro makes for a good take on Salman’s wildlife fondness.