Badla (2019)

this is a mystery thriller a fun one at that, not an original script but an official adaptation of a Spanish film which i haven’t seen by the name The Invisible Guest.

the gist of the film is the interaction between a business women (Taapsee Pannu) caught for the murder of her lover and her lawyer (Amitabh Bachchan) who wants to know the truth to help defend her. so much of this film is inits dialogues that happen between the main cast as they talk in one room only for revelations to happen and flash backs to start.

the good thing i like about this film is the ability to set tone, the film never tries to underplay the thriller aspect and keep us on edge with many twist both as character development and narrative changes. Yet it falls to the feeling of something off as many a times a lot of the twist seems to aline to our ideas reducing the impact of the tension created, which left a bit of a mixed after taste for this movie.

i will plead guilty to have not seen the final twist coming, i knew something like that was gonna happen but i was way of with the execution. it feels more stupid as i was on the right track most of the film.

another helpful thing about this film was the acting, Taapsee Pannu making me root for both her escape and capture the whole film and the lawyer Amitabh Bachchan who just owns the stern old man character so well. the last time i was these two together was in another film where they acted to same role of defendant and lawyer. it is hard to even discredit the supporting cast that play out their role so well to keeps us second guessing where the story is trying to lead.

hard part of this film is the its a fun watch yet i wont go out of my way to recommend this film, only those interested in the actors or this genre check this one out.

90 movies down…………….410 to go

see you soon.

Allvida

Radio Days (1987)

charming, nostalgic and out-right simple is what i can say for this woody allen masterpiece imo.

as i sat to write this review, nah feel blog makes more sense i wanted to know how good of a film this is in allens own filmography only to shocked to find that it wasnt his best or close best by most people, which just hypes me up regards to watching his other films now.

now whatever i said doesn’t discredit the brilliance and impact of this film on me. i had been on a drought of sorts with regards to viewing films recently and found it hard to sit and watch and then write something about it leading to an misplaced hiatus again. but it cheers me up to think my return film was this spell-bounding to me.

wasn’t expecting this scene but a pleasant surprise.

if you havent watched this film, i heavily recommend for a simplicity of this film, being among the last generation that have used radio, my level of nostalgia might not be similar to that of my parents to this film yet i and many others can find the sense of charm that older times had when looked with a nostalgic lense.

the film depicts the life of a family and their interaction with in a world, with the background radio being on all times, showcasing the near universal attachment and necessity of it to everyone for their own reasons. the way the film grounds its narrative helps the story never feel to outlandish and break our attention while keeping the whimsical level above average to engage us by evoking memories.

like i mentioned earlier i am old enough to have used radio but unlike even older members of my family that remember it before the normalisation of television and internet. my clearest and most endearing memories of radio got invoked, the long road trips my family used to take in a small car filled with people talk and snacks passing hands to the background sounds of the various shows and songs on the radio that changed it tone and languages as we got out of the range of one channel to a new one. till date i remember those days yet no film about road trips have brought it out but a simple film about radio just made me so damn nostalgic even with out showcasing a road trip.

the saddest part of watching film that evoke such a film is that you inherently know that these are past memories and life has moved own and things have changed better or worse, nostalgia just pinches you whenever it subsides.

89 movies down…………….411 to go

see you soon.

goodbye

Coraline (2009)

stop-motion animation style had always been the filming techniques I felt detached to thus I never truly sat down to watch any film that had this method or if I had in past don’t remember. and As I grew up I realised how much an ignorant brat I was. the oddness I felt was the true charm something that C.G. cant imitate and hand-drawn come close yet fall short. the fact that we can feel that their characters and their motion were done meticulously in every frame and yet immerse our-self to the motions is what truly accentuates this technique, giving us a rare glimpse when the audience can understand the effort it might have taken to execute a scene.

one day as I sat and looked through top animated film list my eyes fell on Coraline, I never watched this film but had noticed its presence in a lot of list and discussion I tend to surf through. thus thought why not tackle this and see how its fare and can it ignite my interest for stop motion.

well it did and what’s more the film was dope.

the hits of the film for me had been the eccentric characters and how they were animated added to this the fact stop motion has an inherent oddity to it that gets brought out so effectively to induce a sense of unease that works wonders to the theme and story. seeing how the film is a dark fantasy horror it suits, and imagining it in other mediums would not have expressed that surreal yet uneven aspect this effectively.

as the film ended and I closed my laptop I, went to thoughts about this film and the stop motion genre as a whole, had this movie made me a believer had its preaching touched my soul. Nah nothing that major its a good film and the techniques has its definite merit, all I need to know is I enjoyed thus I am now eager to see more of this stop-motion.

88 movies down…………412 to go

see you soon

goodbye

Anand (1971)

we all suffer adversities but what truly separates the great people from the herd is the simple fact how it is handled, do we cower, face it head on, simply avoid or ignore for these great individuals show us ways to deal that we the normies dont think of at first which we think is impossible hard to do, yet their presence and stories live on to show their peers and the future generation how to truly go about it.

my favourite quote – life should be big not long…

being nearly a 50 year old well acclaimed film, i was obviously aware of the premise and story of the film even before i sat down to watch it, generally that doesn’t generate confidence in me for liking the film, yet Anand manages that for a very simple reason. it makes you love the character.

it is a testament to Rajesh Khanna to have portrayed a character that just makes us fell in love with his antic his character his innate charm. even when you know what the film is so blatantly trying to do. you can not look away or control your feeling to be similar to him have the same mentality to the hurdles of our life.

the film is a story of the titular character Anand who is suffering from a rare cancer and has few months to live, yet knowing this he demeanour that exudes happiness and excitement to the life, captivates and attracts the people he encounters. Such one encounter is with a doctor Bhaskar and the friendship that develops and how Anand influences the lives of those he meets in the few months of his remaining years.

my favourite scene of the film was when Anand after so many tries finally meets a unique personality like him, Anand always tries to mingle with random people by acting as a distant friend and referring to them as Murarilal even though he has never once meet the person before as an ice breaker. one day he sees a gentlemen walking down the street he bumps into him and uses his usual dialogue only for the person to play along with his dialogues, this out of nowhere friendship evolves in to true emotional bond between the two, showing us viewers the same charm that we as adults have forgotten, how easy it is to make friends something we as child always took for granted.

the film has a heart that is transparent to everyone that watches it and speaks to its viewers so clearly that it would be hard to say it didn’t impart or invoke any emotion within you upon experiencing it.

Anand will forever will the film that charmed into liking it, charmed me into loving it.

87 movies down…………..413 to go

see you soon

Allvida Babu Moshai

Sarkar (2005)

the film is about a Parallel government being run by the don or Sarkar (Amitabh Bachchan) of the place and turmoil that occurs when his views gets contested by his sons, leading to youngest of the sons (Abhishek Bachchan) to take up the role in his fathers place to safeguard them all.

if it sounds similar it is this film is based on the Godfather, yet its not a short for short its utilised the theme to mold it into a indigenised form, Imagine the Godfather being made in India, and incoporating the indian astetic and style to the story beats and the result would be Sarkar (Hindi for government).

the biggest pluses of this film is the cast and story line, for all intense and purposes i will never have any complains with Amitabh Bachchan and his acting, to me the surprise hit was his own son’s emergence Abhishek Bachchan his portrayal of an newbie into the business and getting hardened due to the experiences he suffers was effectively portrayed. this would be among the handful of film i actually like his acting. the plus of the story line is to incorporate a mafia story set in america into a Indian setting near seamlessly as well as introduce a political aspect to the setting which grounds the film as anything in India is Political.

the film does suffer a bit with pacing as there is a minute tangible drag in between the story beats, also being based on the famous Godfather film acts as a boon and a curse as the film progression can be guessed to a certain degree atleast it was for me.

though this film was a big hyped up watch for me, it might be this same hype that hindered my enjoyment of the film. by no means is it a bad film yet it feel eerily similar in its theme nearly reaching the same pedestal as its inspiration alas falling short. to me this film will always be that great film that misses the list.

86 movies down…………414 to go

see you soon

alllvida.

Samba (2004)

A movie that is in my sooo bad its good list, a generic masala film of the early 2000’s.

its basically a story about a guy Samba (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) who wants education to be the priority of his village and for that requires a quarry for stone for the school, and is hindered by the antagonist (Prakash Raj). thus he basically goes on a killing spree.

i don’t need to go into the details to diss this movie, it itself those that spectacularly, odd character dialogues, the female lead had the photo of the protagonist from the start even loved him yet didn’t realise him when he was in front of her, yup that checks out, the protagonist does a random 4th wall break moment to preach the viewers on education and an abrupt change in tone from action romance to comedy into the 3rd act

the coolest part of the film was a small scene where Samba takes the goons head and places it in front of the car tire and drives on……yes it’s morbid but till this point, I was laughing of all the silly dialogues and sequences of fights and the story. when this came on I had to stop and replay just to be sure of what happened and thus for making me replay a scene in this film I award it my 2nd favourite scene of the film. now you might ask whats my favourite

in the climax of the film samba has to fight off the goons and Pasupathi (the main villain Prakash Raj) while his nephew is hung on a tree branch with a firecracker style bomb with the string on fire it matters of moments before the bomb explodes what is Samba to do to save his family, well obviously ask the boy to Pee on the string to extinguish it and Voile the film ends with the final punch and boy save. After all the fights, Tone shifts, Cringy dialogues the film went through it was the perfect summation that it ended this way……Peeing saves the day.

honestly, I had given up on this movie and thought to stop watching first 20 min of the movie and thought to go see IMDb just in case this is an old-time good movie that might just get better down the line, and surprise it wasn’t this just strengthen my argument to stop. then you ask why I completed the movie well its all thanks to the review this movie has on IMDb. which gave the movie 10 stars and called it

Best concept and best purification values by Kodali Nani anna
khaleeluddin (IMDb reviewer)

85 movies down………..415 to go.

see you soon

veedkolu (telugu goodbye)

Maari 2 (2018)

around a year or two back i had watched a film the prequel to the one i m reviewing here called Maari a Tamil Action comedy masala film, which was more entertaining than i thought. packed with one-liners action sequences and cliques beats yet the whole film gets carried by the charisma of the lead Dhanush. the small local don who’s antics and fight against the cops was the basic premise.

all in all it was a good one-time watch movie that had no reason for sequel, and then i found this Maari 2, it has a sequel so might as well jump into it. it was a pleasant watch a similar one time watch like its predecessor yet, i will cut to the chase i didn’t like it.

even though the film wasn’t my taste, the Don look was really good imo.

the film had its moments but lacks the charm and charisma the 1st had though Dhanush does bring it up a watchable amount. this film also takes a much or heart-felt and emotional approach compared to the 1st one. and that is my main issue with the film this shift felt brought drastic changes to the character that was there initially and changed the tone of the film. whereas the 1st one was more light-hearted and funny, the second feels like imitating the comedy tone while being mediocre.

the film overall feels like a script that could work by itself but got pasted with the name Maari to increase the sale of tickets, which to me is the worst manner of sequel making as it disrespects the initial movie. my advice to the future viewers is not to watch this one especially you liked the !st part.

84 movies down……….416 to go

see you soon

Piriyavitai (Tamil goodbye)

Maayavan (2017)

another one of my YouTube random movie selection that was surprisingly good, the only reason I selected it was the thumbnail was interesting (yes, got click baited). A Tamil Sci-fi Crime movie that stars Sundeep Kishan as out protagonist Kumaran a police officer, who stumbles across a peculiar case where random murders by different individuals yet having the same modus operandi.

the movie is a rare sight in the Indian movie industry where Sci-fi is something that gets low exposure and even when given executed poorly, yet exceptions do exist and I am glad this one was such a case. the prime theme of the movie is the concept of immortality that is achieved due to the advancement of technology and science and how in the hand of wrong individuals it is a power that is scary.

the film does a good job mixing the sci-fi element into a crime thriller, and gets into the thick of it, from the start, keeping the tension high. The direction of the film is also focused and try to keep the viewer on the scene at hand and progresses the story.

my only issue with the film as a whole was its ending more precisely the small epilogue-ish scene, the fact that it cuts to the 20 years ahead, though it acted as a manner in which Kumaran escaped the cruel fate. To me it is just a hollow easy way out that was chosen by the writers if it wasn’t so the ending would have been the scene with Kumaran shooting The army officer and his love interest. that ending would have left a stronger impact as well as played better the internal theme of the movie about the rapid advancement of technology that is gonna help human achieve immortality.

83 movies down…………417 to go

see you soon

Piriyavitai (Tamil goodbye)

Dhammu (2012)

another one of the masala films, unfortunately not a good one.

the story is about a orphan (N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) that decides to get adopted by a Rich family so that he can marry his love interest (Trisha Krishnan) who herself is a rich heiress. the trouble comes when the adopted family has a serious and deadly rivalry with a equally powerful family of the region, thus being a heir of the family he has to take on the responsibility of this blood feud. as the story progresses we also get to know that the protagonist was all along the actual heir of the family who was sent to the city to safeguard him from the blood feud by the family.

this film utilises a very common action film troupe through out its run time, high paced action sequences one after another and coupled with shock twist through out the story beats to create a film that is high on action but low on substance.

like most film of this sort the story is weak by nature, to me this was extenuated by the fact that the writers decided to make the protagonist the real heir of the family removing the initial orphan status he had, this bugs me because before this it felt our guy was a good person that gets incorporated into the family gaining their acceptance as well as admiration but now its so that he is the part since beginning, and thus it is mostly his bloodright to have them this part also is done so forced just to give a personal reasoning to the final boss fight.

the fact that i dont once mention or try to remember the main guy’s name should tell ya how much the movie meant to me.

82 movie down……..418 to go

see you soon

veedkolu (telugu goodbye)

Junga (2018)

Every once in a while its good to just watch a random no sense/non sense flick just to remove agiesty or tension to just shut down your brain. thus going through the random movie suggestion on YouTube i selected Junga. an outright genuine South-Indian Masala film mix matching nearly every genre into one film.

the story initial is about a Bus-conductor who gets to know he is a child of a 2nd generation don, who’s antics lead to family losing all the movie they had, thus to get back a theater that belongs to his mother, the protagonist Junga (Vijay Sethupathi) walks down the path of a Cheapskate Don to save enough money. from here on the movie escalates into kidnapping of the Daughter of the man who now owns the theater. from there further escalating further into involving international crime syndicates.

honestly loved his don look but alas it wasn’t a serious movie to utilize this

the main charm of the film initially was the semi meta nature and self aware humour which by no means is done perfect its still done better than many i have watched. and my favourite sequence was the flashback scene where Junga gets to know his ancestry and the type of eccentric Don father and Grandfather he had. the sequence is showcased using animation as well as the mother’s dialogues which to me just was funny as it broke down the stupidity of the generally shown South Indian don movie troupes of tooo many cars and members for one kill.

the looks comes of a comical Don troupe film for the first half having some good jokes and scenes but as the film extends to the second half there build up this palpable feeling that the film is loosing touch with itself and trying various beats to keep itself stable which backfires as the second half feels forced and compared to its initial half less interesting. the whole kidnapping plot thread felt generic and extended than required also during this time the meta-charm that was built up prior is forgotten. but the weakest point the movie is by far its ending that is so blindly forced that for me it felt out of place.

this movie is that is best watchable with 1/3rd of it being good while the rest 2/3rd is mere “meh” at best.

81 movie down……..419 to go

see you soon.

POITUVAREN (tamil goodbye)