The Shyamalan Story - Rise and Fall and traces of Rise again

The story of Indian-American director M Night Shyamalan is one of amazement and disappointment. The guy was called the next Spileberg 14 years ago, but things were not meant to be. To understand his career progress, let’s take a cricketing analogy.

Probably Not

So, there was this upcoming batsman who was highly talented. He was given a chance by selectors in an international match. And he hit 30 ball 100 in first match itself. All the balls went for either a six or a four.  He was on top of the world and got an opportunity in Test match. He was coached by international coaches. Some tried to straighten his footwork, some tried to change his grip. He again scored century in test debut, although not as flamboyant, but was soon called next Sachin. But then in next match he scored just 50, a small bump several thought. His scores in next few matches were 30, 20, 10 and 5. The selectors gave him one last match to prove his mettle, against Kenya. He scored 0. The guy who would hit six every other ball was not able to take single! People made fun of him. Called him next Vinod Kambli. He was not even selected for Ranji team. He went back to his roots. Left aside all that he learnt during international stint and practiced hard on his in-born talent. After toiling for months, he gets selected for his city team in a local match. He comes into bat late in the innings. He has gained some old confidence. He has gone back to his old style of footwork and grip. He is little worried that if he fails here he won’t get chance to play even for his society.

The first ball he faces, he hits six. He gets his mojo back.

The Visit (2015) is that six for M Night Shyamalan. We don't know if he will go on to hit another century but this is a fine return. It is not the best horror movie out there. But it is a brilliant effort from a director who has been made fun of, who had been ousted from Hollywood. The story of the movie itself is pretty simple. A single mother sends her two children to her parents’ house to spend a week with them. And as can be anyone’s guess, not all is well at grandparent’s house!

Shot in found footage format, this was not in Shyamalan’s alley but he holds well. The performance of two kids, a sister aged 15 and brother aged 13 is commendable. The sister, Becca, played by Olivia de Jonge, is an aspiring director and brings the sense to make this movie in found-footage format. She also brings some incredible skills and emotion to the movie. The emotion doesn’t always touch the cord but by the end you really want the kids to be safe. The brother, Tyler, played by Ed Oxenbould, provides comic relief, sometimes at the expense of a real scare. He likes to rap and uses the name of female singers in place of curse words. The comic timings could have been handled well. Shyamalan is still to learn the use of humor well. But the real winners are two grandparents, Nana and Pop Pop played by Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie. They play the weird, scary old couple to the tee. The movie starts out as horror movie and turns into thriller in the third act. Although they could have made the third act little longer, but at 90 minutes, movie is crisp and provides what it set out to do. The final Shyamalan twist is not of The Sixth Sense kind but it instantly jolts you. You make all the connection and immediately set yourself for the thrilling final act. It has some preachy elements where people overcome their fears of things they hate in symbolism and the need to express anger. But these does not resonates as well as director want it to.

Becca and Nana

All in all, on its own, the movie just holds up good. But this is an important movie for what it achieves outside of box office, reviews and story. It is a comeback of M Night Shyamalan.

All the Shyamalan movies are famous or infamous for their twisted endings. The first big movie of M Night Shyamalan, The Sixth Sense (1999), is amongst the most epic suspense thriller. The final reveal of that movie has inspired several movie-makers since its release but none of them got it as brilliantly as Shyamalan did. Starring Bruce Willis, that movie is a quintessential one for a movie buff and Hitchcock lovers. The next one, Unbreakable (2000), was a superhero movie before the bombardment of superhero movies by DC and Marvel. But it was a superhero movie of another kind, where the hero does not fly or shoots web or drives batmobile, but still saves people. It was the most grounded superhero movie. It has since gained cult following due to it’s such a different arc. Both the movies starred Bruce Willis in main role.

Century on the debut

His third big movie, Signs (2002) was the first one that I had watched. It was an impressive movie for me at that time. Although I didn’t like the ending and later found that no one else did. At that time no one had doubted the talent of M Night Shyamalan to churn out one suspense thriller after another. The biggest of the producers were readily agreed to pour in as much money as required by Shyamalan to take his movie to grander scale. He was called the next Spielberg by Newsweek. His writing was crisp and all original, a rarity in an industry full of remakes and sequels. He could never go wrong, everyone thought. But boy they were wrong!

The big fall

What followed were some of the most criticized movies and biggest Hollywood duds like The Village (2004), Lady in the Water (2006), The Happening (2008), The Last Airbender (2010) and it all culminated in After-Earth (2013). In After-Earth, he had probably the biggest Hollywood star of the time, Will Smith and his son playing father-son duo on screen. There was nothing that could go wrong. But still, it flopped and it flopped badly. The Hollywood closed its door on him. That’s when he went on to make The Visit (2015). Considering that his last two movies were made on budget of $130Mn and $150Mn, the modest budget of The Visit at $5Mn tells you all about producers there is to know. It was not that he lost money for producers. The Last Airbender earned $320Mn and After-Earth made $244Mn internationally. It was just that the movies were panned universally.

By the time After-Earth was to be released, the producers made sure that Shyamalan’s name does not get highlighted on posters. At one point, he wanted to make Life of Pi, but didn’t do it because he believed that if his name was attached to the movie with twist ending, people won’t come to watch it and that would be unfair to the beautiful story that it is. Such was his lost confidence.

The Visit was the welcome relief for Shyamalan. The place where he wanted to be. There were rumors that After-Earth was pseudo directed by Will Smith. It may have made Shyamalan lose confidence in himself. Therefore it was necessary that he

Split (2017)

goes to his roots and make this movie at such a small scale. He has now again roped in a big Hollywood name in James McAvoy for next movie Split (2017), where McAvoy plays a guy with 23 different personalities. The trailer looks good, but it has always looked good for Shyamalan movie! It is important for Hollywood that Shyamalan succeeds for what he can bring to table is something of Hitchcockian level and Hollywood is in dearth of good original movies. In a world of sequels, prequels, spinoffs and remakes, Shyamalan may well prove to be a breath of fresh air.

The Visit is one horror/thriller movie that I have liked in a long while. It has shown us that he has still got his powers. Split will tell us whether he still knows how to use them, whether he should be playing just in the local city tournaments or is it in him to play international ones once again.

Here is the trailer of Split:

The Joy of Watching Movies - 90s and Beyond

“15 Rupees for Balcony and 10 for Stall”

“What!! This is too much. Last time it was 10 for Balcony!”

“Yes, but sir, the songs are very good and the movie is ‘super duper hit’ across the country. There is Aamir Khan and Karishma.  Do you want tickets or not? You are holding up the queue”

“OK, 4 tickets. Balcony.”

A blockbuster

And then walking up on the long stairs for Balcony seats. Outside the theatre a big poster has been hung across the outer wall. And small colourful posters from upcoming Bollywood movies adorned the inner wall.

“Bhaiya we will surely come for this one. It has Salman Khan in double role”, me pointing towards a poster with two laughing Salmans, a surprised Karishma and another unknown actress.

What? We get to see two Salmans in one movie!

“No No, this Nana Patekar one has that song ‘Ek Machchar aadmi ko hijra bana deta hai’ from Philips top 10”, brother pointing towards another poster.

I would keep on yammering about other movie posters till we reach the door of the theatre. A man with beedi would take the pink coloured tickets, check the seat numbers and show it to us in dark theatre using a long torch. By now, I would stop yammering and start absorbing the huge screen. The screens in single screen theatres were humongous. A glee would come on my face seeing such a large screen. As we settle in, the uncomfortable wooden seats are forgotten. Perennial smell of Beedi and Maawa is forgotten. A unit test within two weeks is forgotten. A movie was going to begin and all the world’s problems can be kept outside the red neon adorned EXIT doors. Escapism in its glory.

The most sad walk we took was out of this door!

Watching movies in theatre in 90s was an accomplishment. There were no multiplexes. There were no online ticket bookings. And in small town like Veraval & Jamnagar, where I grew up, there were no more than 3 theatres in whole town. Getting tickets for a popular and successful movie, even in its 50th day of release was much of a task. And yes, the movies reached their 50th day and even 100th day unlike now where even the biggest blockbusters are not able to survive 4th week!

But what made that era beautiful was the fact that we went into the theatre without any knowledge of story that would unfold in front of us. Only the star power would bring us to the theatre. With advent of movie trailers, promotional tours and numerous interviews that the current crop of stars give before each movie, it has become very difficult to go into the theatre without any pre-conceived notion. But 90s was perfect transitional phase for movies in India. After the dark age of Indian Cinema of 80s ended, which did a great job at removing family out of movie theatres by releasing some of the most ridiculous storytelling possible and absurd action movies targeted at only male audience, 90s brought the families back to the theatre with movies like Swarg (1990) and Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994). The songs were breaking new grounds with many new music directors and singers getting opportunities. And Bollywood was getting several fresh new faces and heartthrobs.

TV advertisements for movies had just started with the release of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge (1995). DDLJ was trend setter movie in many ways, but the most underappreciated one is its use of TV as medium of advertisement. But PR/Marketing of movies was still in its infancy, so what we really got in the name of trailer was a montage of various scenes with a movie tune playing in the background. So, the only way we knew that a movie was coming, was through the numerous colourful posters pasted around city and the Philips Top 10 songs! In today’s world it would be impossible to have a whodunit masterpiece like Gupt (1997) released on Friday without getting spoiled by Saturday morning, thanks to social media. But the day we saw that movie in theatre, and the final reveal, will forever be etched as one of the best suspense thriller moment in our minds.

In those days, word of mouth publicity was the only real option for advertisement. 

Epitome of marketing in 1980s

The product had to be good. The public conscience was realising the difference between good and bad storytelling and therefore writing had to be good. The songs had to be good. The cast had to be good. Production quality was increasing with each year. The movies were discussed in schools, playgrounds, offices and parties. And one would heed to their friend’s advice and take a trip to nearby cinema.

The family trip to movie theatres was like excursions. There was excitement going in. There was anticipation of watching a Sunny Deol fight scene or some Govinda-Johnny Lever amazing chemistry of comedy or atleast our favourite Shah Rukh Khan doing some romancing around! And when we returned there was so much to tell our friends. So much discussion to be held.

Still better than Khukhar Darinda (Underworld)

By late 90s, even English movies were getting full release in whole country. And it was dream come true to watch one in theatres. People used to get frightened in theatre watching Godzilla, hoping that it doesn’t jump out of the screen onto them! The advantage that English movies had over Hindi movies was that its great spectacle made people forget about its poor screenplay. The movies like Godzilla and James Bond’s The world is not enough, would bomb all over the world but get great reception in India.

The first time we heard that a ‘multiplex’ has opened in small town of Jamnagar, many innocent questions propped up. Multiplexes had many screens, and this one had 3. So, do we get to watch 3 movies at once? How do they fit 3 screens in one theatre? Can we switch to other movies in intervals? We had to find out and what better one than Lakshya. It had enough emotional tug, mix of patriotism and action sequences to keep a 13 years old kid engaged. The lavish chairs and interiors, the digital screen and sound system, the sweet aroma was far cry from what we had seen till now. Twice the normal fare of single-screens was justified.

5 star movie theatres!

Multiplexes finally brought down the curtains on low fare single screen theatres. But this multiplex era (post 90s) also brought down curtains on old school anticipation and excitement, especially for Hindi movies. With reviews coming in days before release, we decide the movie’s fate in our homes itself. The constant plugging-in done by movie stars on TV and bandwidth these movies get for promotion on reality shows and news channels becomes an event greater than the movie itself. Which movie was it for which SRK went to Salman’s Bigg Boss?

Where do we go from here? In a 1990 interview, Steven Spielberg said that it would be very difficult for movie theatres to survive 90s. As VHS caught up the American public by end of 80s and started catching up in 90s in India, it was becoming prudent that people would surely prefer watching movies in the comfort of their homes rather than watching it several miles away in a dark theatre. But re-invention is the key to survival of any technology. After single screen theatres, we have had 3D, multiplexes, and now IMAX 3D experience. These changes have infused new life in world of movie theatres whenever it was required. The kind of anticipation is not the same in multiplex era as it was in single screen era, but still the trailers get us to fill up the seats in dark theatres. Movie theatres are the place to give a large canvas to imagination of a creative lot for general public’s appetite. Hope it stays that way for long time to come.

The joy of watching movies together

The Actors we lost in Stars – Part 2 : Tom Cruise

Relevance. That is pretty much what Hollywood actors are all about. How long is one present in the industry? How many important roles are they getting? How relevant are they for the movie industry?

Most actors degrade their best works by doing mediocre roles in their later career. We have Sylvester Stallone doing movies like Expendables and Bullet to the Head, Arnold Schwarzenegger doing roles in Escape Plan and The Last stand, degrading their iconic roles in Rocky, Rambo and Terminator. Even seasoned veterans like Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are not untouched by this phenomena. Closer home, yesteryear superstars like Rajesh Khanna and Dev Anand, capped off their legendary careers with highly forgettable movies like Riyasat (2014), Wafa (2008) and Chargesheet (2011).

Not so subtle beginning

But there’s one actor who has been highly relevant and still going strong after more than 30 years in the Hollywood industry. He has outlasted many of his contemporaries since making debut in a lead role in Risky Business (1983). Tom Cruise has worked in so many genres with so many iconic directors, that it is impossible for any future movie star to have so many credible movie to their names. He has worked with directors like, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Brian De Palma, Cameron Crowe, Rob Reiner, Oliver Stone and even Ben Stiller! You don’t get to work with these directors without being a genuinely good artiste. He didn’t have an epic script always, he had great directors getting epic performances out of him.

The most well made heist scene

Since his rockstar pilot role in Top Gun (1986) as Maverick, stardom had been thrust on him. He stood up against Paul Newman in Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money (1986). For a while it was said that maybe he can only do these eccentric characters only. But time and again he proved his critics wrong by doing character roles in movies such as Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Rain man (1988) and A Few Good Men (1992). His court battle with Jack Nicolson in the finale of A Few Good Men is as classic as it gets. By mid-90s Hollywood had 2 superstars: Tom Cruise and Jim Carrey. There were many stars and many actors. There was Tom Hanks, Eddie Murphy, John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, etc. But these two were the most bankable of them all. And they both took different paths to lengthen their hold on top of pyramid. 

The Help me help you scene

While showing his action skills in spy thriller Mission Impossible (1996), he was also doing a role of subtle warrior in Jerry Maguire (1996). 1996 may have been his pinnacle in the long career. On one hand we got to experience an American James Bond in his role as Ethan Hunt, on the other hand we had Jerry Maguire where Cruise was veering into the territory of Tom Hanks! Jerry Maguire was his most restrained yet combatant role. This was Tom Cruise at his best. When you see him asking Cuba Gooding Jr to “Help me help you”, you just wish him to succeed and have everything in life. He made us attach to that selfish character. He then went on to do some extra-territorial work in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and Magnolia (1999). 

In 2002 came Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report (2002), the first Tom

Futuristic. Directed by Spielberg.

Cruise movie I ever watched. Even at that time I realized difference between him and so many other action stars. He is so much professionally involved for even action movies like Minority Report and Mission Impossible series, which you didn’t get from other actors. You would never be worried about Jason Statham in Transporter series, or Matt Damon in Bourne series. But there’s something about his embroilment in his movies that it makes you cheer for him. Even at that time he was doing highly emotional movie like The Last Samurai (2003). Even his highly underrated Michael Mann’s Collateral (2004) has a stupendous performance from Cruise and a marvelous chemistry between Cruise and Jamie Foxx.

The moment that changed it all

But then, in 2005 came the turning point of his life. His appearance in Oprah Winfrey show changed his life and career for good. He was odd and seemed high for a bit, and then he jumped on the couch to express his love for Katie Holmes which was totally insane. Before that incident no one ever knew how Tom Cruise was in his personal life. He rarely gave one-on-one interviews and seldom discussed his personal life. But that one moment gave the tabloids the fodder it needed on this guy. And it destroyed his image in the eyes of his audience for a long time. Coupled with that, his support for religion of Scientology. A religion which has less thing to do with Science than even Harry Potter saga. Tom Cruise, after that incident was a peculiar and bizarre person in public eyes. Even though almost all the people who have worked with him has only good things to say. But in America, Tom Cruise is a living example of how Tabloid world can ruin a person.

This not only affected him in his personal life, but his career nosedived for a while. Even a brilliant screenplay and direction from J J Abrams couldn’t save Cruise’s tent-pole Mission Impossible 3 from being the least earner of the movie. It was more due to the fact that his off-screen persona was affecting his on-screen work. The movie was several notches higher than the previous one but still it failed at the box-office. He was never cast in a role of subtle aggressor like that of Jerry Maguire and A Few Good Men. Those roles were as perfectly portrayed by Cruise as it could have been by even the best actors of the industry.

The last great role

Although, we had Valkyrie (2008), where he played the role of Claus von Stauffenberg, who plotted to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944. As always he played his part to perfect, but it was very inconveniently ignored by audience and critics alike.

After that what we really got was one action movie after another. No doubt he was great in all of those. Knight & Day (2010), Mission Impossible 4 (2011), Jack Reacher (2012), Oblivion (2013), Edge of Tomorrow (2014) and now again Mission Impossible 5 (2015). To be fair, Tom Cruise still gives himself all in for these movies. He is one of the most hard-working actor. For the ridiculous amount of money he gets for his roles, he doesn’t let his directors down and gives intense performances every time. He does it all: the tough stunts, the smallest talk show interviews and those intense runs. He even does his own ridiculous stunts. Be it dangling from 150^th floor on Burj Al Arab or hanging on the side of Boeing as it takes off and travels at a height of 15000 feet. We are surely getting great superstar performances. But he has transformed himself into more popular and more talented version of Jason Statham.

The most insane scene of all time

But still we are missing something. We are missing a great Tom Cruise performance. We are missing a helpless rebel of Born on The Fourth of July, an indifferent but caring brother of Rain man, an adamant lawyer of A Few Good Men. We are missing a romantic Tom Cruise performance, we are missing a “You had me at hello” performance.

The most romantic scene of all time!

Is it all due to reluctance of directors to cast him in such movies or is it his own sub conscious decision? We may never know.

But in recent years the public perception of Cruise has turned little favorable even though he went through his 3^rd divorce with Katie Holmes. A small credit to this turn should go to his funny role in Tropic Thunder (2008) as Les Grossman. People were surprised to find that he has some funny bones in there. He did diverse roles earlier in his career, but has stopped taking risks in the characters he plays for last some years.

And there's a new Mission Impossible movie coming on August 7 which looks pretty incredible. Christopher McQuarry (writer of Usual Suspects) has directed it. So we can expect a strong script coupled with strong performance from Cruise. But it still is another action Cruise!

Yet another Improbable Mission!

Maybe someday he will combine with some great director again and turn a mediocre script into marvelous movie.

As a last superstar of Hollywood, who still draws in audience on his face value it will be a sad end if we remember his last relevant roles from his action and mission movies only.

PS: “Last Superstar? But Robert Downey Jr is a more bankable superstar” - The Judge (2014), his only solo original movie in recent years couldn’t gross $100 million worldwide ($83 Million). Tom Cruie’s least grossing original movie in last 10 years is World War 2 drama-thriller Valkyrie ($200 Million). So that's why: The Last Superstar.

The Actors we lost in Stars – Part 1 : Ajay Devgan

It was year 2002, an era of local cables on television. Dish TVs were not born in India yet and internet was in its infancy. The friendly local cable provided with enough channels to fulfill our thirst of drama serials, music channels and Indian cricket matches. On top of that, they showed us latest movies in the same week of their release on their local movie channels. 

In Jamnagar, we had Jay Cable and on one such Saturday night it was showing the latest Ajay Devgan and Akshay Khanna starrer Deewangee. Me and my brother watched it for nearly 30 minutes and just as we were going to switch off the television out of boredom, a stammering and reluctant Ajay Devgan on-screen transformed into a violent and cunning personality as he had multiple personality disorder in the story. It was an epic act which made us both his fan for life. This was the first time we were watching a film of so many suspense and thrills (after Gupt (1997), of course).

Here's that scene:

Those searing eyes. National Award worthy!

The same year Ajay Devgan came up with stellar performance in Legend of Bhagat Singh for which he won National Award for Best Actor. But the movie which made me really venerate him was Company (2002). It is the best underworld crimes movie in my book. And what made it so remarkable was the acting of Ajay Devgan. The intensity, the dialogue delivery and those deep eyes of Ajay Devgan would have got him a nomination in Oscars if the movie was released in America. Although he is the only actor amongst current A-Listers to bag 2 National Awards.
In fact, when you go back to late 90s he did remarkable acts in Kachche Dhaage(1999) and Zakhm (1998), latter of which got him National Award. One can only wonder after watching Zakhm, why Mahesh Bhatt left direction. But that's story for another day.

The next few years in mid-2000s were some of the best ‘acting’ years of Ajay Devgan. He was a strong SP Amit Kumar in Gangajal (2003), he was vulnerable and forlorn Manoj in Raincoat (2004) and lost king in Omkara (2006).

After 2006 we rarely got to see the real intensity of Ajay Devgan in movies. 

The last great Underworld movie

He is far superior actor than gets credit for, especially in dark roles. It was rumored that the director of Khakee, Rajkumar Santoshi made Ajay Devgan wear shades in most of the scenes so that his intense eyes don’t steal thunder from Amitabh’s angry old man act.

He started trying his hands at comedy. He didn’t seem to realise that he is not a natural comic actor like Akshay Kumar as many of his movies did ran successfully due to multiple cast and lame but comic storyline. Case in point: Golmaal (2006). A great comedy movie it was but not due to the comic chops of Devgan but that of Rohit Shetty, Arshad Warsi and Sharman Joshi.

The last great act!

After that came the era of run-of-the-mill action movies borne out of Salman starrer Wanted (2009). With that Ajay Devgan became Ajay Devgn and he couldn’t resist being a part of this wagon and did Singham (2011) and Singham Returns (2014). He would go on to do slapstick action comedy drama convoluted plots for the sake of money assosciated with this temporary genre of recent era. These movies would play on the star status of A-list actors and provide the viewer anything but a decent plot!

To be fair he did few movies like Once Upon a Time in Mumbai (2010), Aakrosh (2010) and Satyagraha (2013), where he was his former self again with powerful and impactful roles. Flashes of brilliance. But for every Sooraj Kumar of Rajneeti (2010) to get hopes high there is Jassi of Son of Sardar (2012) to get you disappointed.

So, did we lose Ajay Devgn, the actor to Ajay Devgn, the superstar?

Not the reason we fell in love
with Ajay Devgn

Not everything is Mr. Devgn’s fault. Even the audience rejected movies like Aakrosh and U me aur Hum (2008) where he gave some sincere performances. And chose to spend their money and whistles not once but twice for Bajirao Singham which only made him sign more and more Himmatwalas and Son of Sardars.

Please just stop with these movies

All hopes are still not lost for the actor we had fall in love with as the incredible failure of Action Jackson (absurdity screeni-fied) and Himmatwala (non-sense personified) might have jolted him to think over it.

And with a movie like Drishyam coming at the end of July, we may see return of the intensity of Ajay Devgn’s eyes in movies. Incidentally, Drishyam is all about visions that Ajay Devgn sees through a particular medium. I can only reveal it has one hell of a story if only director is able to present it well. Let’s not do with Drishyam what we did with Aakrosh where we killed a pretty decent movie because Ajay Devgn was not killing his villains after tearing his shirt.

Here's the trailer for the latest movie Drishyam

Here’s hoping to return of serious, menacing Ajay Devgan to screen.

PS: Years later I came across Primal Fear (1996) starring Edward Norton and Richard Gere. Deewangee was heavily ‘inspired’ by it. And Edward Norton got a nomination at Oscars for same role portrayed by Ajay Devgan in Deewangee. I saw both and I still feel Ajay was better.

PS PS: Aakrosh is also a copy of Mississippi Burning (1988). Ajay Devgn has a tendency to work in remakes of Classic Hollywood movies for unknowing Indian crowds.

Psst Psst: Drishyam is also a remake of Tamil and Malayalam movie starring Kamal Hassan and Mohanlal. I would urge you to watch the Tamil version to watch the master of cinema Kamal Hassan at play and also for its riveting story. And then watch Drishyam on 31st July to watch mesmeric Ajay Devgn at play.

Tanu Weds Manu Returns Review

Seldom does a sequel surpasses its original in terms of content and screenplay. But Tanu Weds Manu Returns is a perfect sequel to adorable Tanu Weds Manu. It breaks new grounds in narratives and casting. Not only all the elements of the movie-making are in full swing but all the actors are in their elements.

The best Bollywood sequel ever?

It starts exactly where the previous one ended. To put things in perspective here’s some spoilers of Tanu Weds Manu-1. In the previous movie, a rebellious Tanu (Kangana) chooses Manu (Madhavan) over Raja Awashti (Jimmy Shergill) in a fluctuating third act of the movie. And we had both Manu and Raja coming in for the marriage with their respective baraats! But it all ended well with Raja conceding defeat and letting Tanu wed Manu.

In the first act we are re-introduced to unruly and a defiant Tanu, who after 4 years of marriage makes Manu mad enough to get him admitted to a mental asylum in UK. After that story returns to India and things start moving pretty fast. While Tanu is enjoying her rebellion life in Kanpur, Manu falls for a Kangana lookalike, Kusum (Kangana lookalike). We are introduced to some new characters and re-introduced to old characters with more depth. The first half of movie is pretty tight with impeccable direction and screenplay. Second half to some extent is flawless except for some brief moments where it slows for emotional overture. While it is really about Tanu and Manu searching within themselves for love and despair. It is the story of people around them which makes this movie a faultless sequel. The great thing about part-1 was its dialogue and that legacy is not only maintained but improved upon in the sequel.

Battle for a good sequel is half won when all the characters from previous movie return for the sequel. What is more fascinating is that the new characters are seamlessly bonded with this movie and seizes the important moments of the movie. This movie is an ensemble of all the under-valued actors of the Bollywood. If any actor of the underrated society was missing in the last movie, they were added here in the form of Chintu (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) and Kusum’s brother (Rajesh Sharma). There is also another actress who plays the role of Kusum, Manu’s new love interest who captures your mind with her beautiful accented Haryanvi and incredible determination. I have been told that she is also played by Kanagana Ranaut but I still cannot believe it. The research is on. She infuses fresh breath to Manu’s life and this movie. Her harayanvi accent is a work of proficiency.

The two actresses - Kangana Ranaut and
her lookalike who is yet unknown

While Madhavan comes good as self-restrained yet perennially confused Manu, it is Kanagana’s Tanu who stretches deep into her character from her last movie. But the real scene stealer is Kusum played by Kanaga Ranaut lookalike! You want her to be in more scenes and with more dialogues. Jimmy Shergill has an extended role in this movie and completely dominates each scene that he is in. He has been given some of the best one-liners in the movie. But the way he delivers it stands out. He really is the most understated actor of Bollywood at this moment. The brilliance of Jimmy Shergill has been overlooked since the days of Haasil.

Dipak Dobriyal and R Madhavan - a testimony to undervaluation

Dipak Dobriyal as always shines most amongst the supporting cast. Like Jimmy Shergill he has also been given some incredible dialogues and plays his role perfect as the comic side-kick of the actor reminiscing of the 90s when it was routine that lead actor had some great comic-relief side-kick/friend. Also Zeeshan as budding lawyer is to look out for. He will be seen in some great movies next year.

Anand L Rai has made a masterclass movie and should be praised without any hesitations. He has redefined the genre of Romantic Comedy with this movie. He is doing some great work and better movies are to follow.

The songs in the movie never become hindrance to story. In fact the picturisation of all the songs are pretty spot on. You would like to download its video and watch it again and again, it is that beautiful, especially Banno Tera Swagger and Ghani Bawri.

After watching this movie, the only thing that will disrupt you is the question- Did we just watch the best sequel ever made in Bollywood?

9/10 – Banno’s swagger is indeed sexy, eye catching and a must watch. Don’t miss this movie!

Fast and Furious 7 Review

I have told this several times and will say it again, any movie which knows what it is and sets out to do the same without trying to be something more will always be a good movie. This series had graduated from guilty-pleasure to mindless-fun in 2011 with Fast Five. And here they never tried to be preachy and never got over the top on sentiments but still gave one of the most adrenaline filled action flick and an emotional sendoffs to one of their actor. An ode actually.

Full cast. For One.Last.Time

When The Fast and The Furious movie came out in 2001, no one in their wildest dream had thought that 14 years later we will be seeing its seventh and the most amazing part. Although Fast and Furious series was conceived to be run of the mill thriller movie at that time, it became much more than that since its fifth installment in 2011. The best part of this series is that they have been able to top their previous installments with each sequel.

This new movie opens with the news of Han’s death which we had witnessed in 2006 sequel Tokyo Drift. At that time it was considered a spin-off although now the producers have been able to seamlessly orient it with the current installment. Now we have Jason Statham joining the high octane cast as Deckard Shaw, brother of Owen Shaw, villain of Furious 6. He is out there to get revenge from the ‘family’ of Dominic Torreto (Vin Diesel). He has killed Hans and hell-bent to kill others. There’s also a convoluted subplot of Kurt Russel trying to acquire some God-like technology but has the story ever been strong suit for F&F series.

This time director James Wan took the reins from Justin Lin who had directed 4 previous installments. And he brings his own set of skills to work. Movie is still very stylish but the characters were little under-used in some case and not explained enough in some others. But it can be argued that this was one of the most difficult movie to make and therefore there was not enough flair. With the untimely death of Paul Walker, the movie had to go several re-writes and re-shoots. Therefore pointing out flaws in plot would be cruel. Although props to the director for visiting characters and events from each of the last 6 movies and blending it all in one.

By this time Vin Diesel can play Dominic Torreto in his sleeps. He, along with Paul Walker, are the spine of these sequel of movies. It is heartbreakingly sad that we won’t be able to see more of Paul Walker in these movies or in any. And the characters in the movie don’t held themselves back from giving him a perfect send-off. By the time he died, not even half of the movie was shot. It is an achievement that they could still come out with full movie within a year. I was told that they had used shots of Paul’s brother and CGI to complete his role but you wouldn't tell the difference as it is done faultlessly.

Roman and Tez at what they do best.
Mindless humour and crazy 90s dialogues

Other members of ‘Family’ like Roman, Letti and Tez did their job without any fuss bringing comic relief at all the times without being dumb. Over the decade or so all these actors have developed a rapport and therefore each laugh, anger and fear is felt genuine. One of the strong points of the movie is that they have abrasive one-liners of 90s in proper amount, not more not less than what was required.

Rock literally kept screen on fire

The only real flaw of the movie was not using Dwayne The Rock Johnson more. When he is on screen he sets it on fire. Every scene that he is in, he wins those scenes.  His fight with Jason Statham and bromance with Vin Diesel are all equally good. I also had the privilege of watching the movie with a passionate but learned full house audience. So when The Rock gives the rock-bottom to Jason Statham there were woos all around. Rock, Diesel and Jason Statham, these three bald heroes have mastered the art of action movies over period of time and they are in their top form here.

The 3D is very ordinary, nothing will be missed if you watch the movie in 2D. These kind of movies are shot in 2D and later converted to 3D, therefore there is nothing extraordinary in it.

The hair-less heroes of
hair raising action sequences

As for the most important ingredient of this series: Action Sequences. There is one set piece after another with just enough breathing space between the sequences. This is an escapist cinema. There will be no realistic approach to the action sequences. It’s like the producers are saying on our faces: “You can have your Bourne and Bond actions, I will have my cars flying from planes”. You will be awed, overwhelmed and then overawed by the scene after scene of action they pull off. Cars flying from plane, cars jumping off cliff, cars jumping from one tower to another then another. And by the end of it you will be adrenalized. 

Still, the most beautiful sequence comes at the end where they give a beautiful farewell to beloved Paul Walker. If you have watched these series in real time over last 14 years, like me, you may get lump in your throat watching him one last time in his one last turn as Brian.

If not for anything else, watch it for this man

Although the movie is poised to earn over a billion, I wish they end it here because the higher you go the harder you fall. Can’t see them topping this one.

This movie is everything you love about the series: Cars, Fights, Fighting cars, hot girls, 90s one liners, Rock, Diesel. And a charming finale to Paul Walker’s last act.

8/10- For sticking to the core.

Interstellar Review

“With great power comes great responsibility” – this Uncle Ben quote can’t be more true for anyone other than Christopher Nolan. With the talent that he possesses in terms of narrative, direction and screenplay, it is very difficult to expect something that is not mind boggling.

Interstellar is incredible, spectacular and thought-provoking. It is one of those rare genre which deals with science and space without sounding like a documentary and manages to keep us on the edge of our seat.

Story of Mankind, Space, Science, Love and Mankind

The story begins in the futuristic America, at a time when there is dust storm everywhere and Corns are the only farm that could sustain this environment. Earth is facing certain extinction, and Indian Drones are flying over America. So it comes down to Cooper, a failed space-pilot, to steer the spaceship Endurance, leaving behind his notorious son and lovely daughter to save the world by searching for new planets in other galaxies to inhabit. Sounds American yet? Well that’s the only ‘True American Hero’ moment of the movie. As the five of them- Cooper, Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway), two other scientists (the ones who usually die in these sort of adventures) and a highly intelligent box-like humanized robot TARS leave the earth for a Wormhole situated near Saturn, they have 2 plans.

Plan A is to find an inhabitable planet amongst the three they have identified and with the help of Professor Brand’s (Michael Cain) unsolved and highly complex equation they could bring all the world’s population to that planet. Sounds too ambitious for even a movie like this (And guess what?).

Plan B is to use fertilized embryo to start new human species on the other world if everything else fails.

After reaching the wormhole, the visual spectacle of this movie starts and with that our highly engaging class of physics. Nolan takes us through the Theory of Relativity, the ultimate singularity in Black Hole and the fourth and fifth dimensions. It might become too heavy for a casual viewer but the cinematography and the screenplay never lets you down. Another character who keeps you on the edge of the seat is the Music. Hans Zimmer has created some beautiful soundtrack and this one’s no less.

In terms of Acting, Matthew McConaughey is having a time of his life this year. He played a brilliant Cooper. Emotional, yet assertive. Rash, but wise. He manages to showcase his love for his daughter with genuine touch. And also managed to remain calm in tense situation without looking too heroic.

"What?? My daughter played Bella and Edward's daughter?
I need to get off this planet." 

Jessica Chastain as Cooper’s daughter Murphy is also a strong character but it’s nothing new for her to play a strong smart woman. It’s the 10 year old version of her played by Mackenzie Foy, who catches our attention with a beautifully put performance. It is very astounding to think that Mackenzie Foy played the role of Bella and Edward’s daughter in Twilight series and it has not yet diminished her brain, let alone her acting skills!!

Anne Hathaway as Amelia Brand was a sole letdown in this amazing cast. It’s nothing to do with acting skills of Anne but more to do with characterization of Amelia Brand. She starts out as no non-sense biologist and then it is revealed that she has come to this voyage for the hope of finding her lost love. That’s a real bummer.

Dr. Brand played by Michael Caine is, as in most Christopher Nolan Movies, the voice of reason and intelligence. He is the father of Amelia Brand and also the head of the operations. He has his own secrets and reasons for this mission to take place. He also has some of the best dialogues in the movie.

*Spoiler Alert*

There’s a guest appearance by Matt Damon playing Dr. Mann. And just like his surname he plays a character that is fallible and betrays the team. But 30 years of cryogenic sleep could do that to anyone! But Damon manages to play a coward so well even though being fearless in movies is his forte.

*Spoiler Alert Finished*

The most interesting thing about the movie was that the cinematography and music complemented each other very well. There’s a sequence in the middle of movie where Captain Cooper had to dock his shuttle at very high speed and rotation which was categorized as Impossible by their robot CASE. But still Cooper tries to dock it. The sequence starts with very miniscule music but by the end it will have reached its crescendo and your heart will have reached yours. Even though we know that Cooper won’t fail but still the music does its job and have us in sweat.

Also, the movie requires a pretty higher than average intelligence to follow it. Having read ‘Brief History of Time’ and ‘Theory of Relativity’ by Einstein, I could say that movie makes more sense the more you understand other dimensions, black holes, gravity and relativity. And it’s not that the casual viewers have been totally isolated, as some good examples in the movie are created to make us understand the science of it all. Even with all this going around, it manages to keep a good humor level, a trait of Christopher Nolan movies, through the two robots CASE and TARS.

In terms of story there are many flaws, not expected from Nolan. Editing could have been done better. It will definitely be compared to likes of Inception and Prestige. And it lacks the moments of genuine awe of those two. There are some exhilarating moments but the pace was slow in the starting. We need to be patient to let Christopher Nolan weave his magic on screen.

But, as with all his movies, Nolan showcases his flair in the final act. The ending was remarkable and disappointing at the same time. Don’t blink and don’t whisper as you might miss one of the most charming end.

*Spoiler Alert*

Remarkable because even though I had a pretty good guess that Cooper was the ghost in Murphy’s room, I could never have imagined it being shown in other dimensions. Or why Cooper was chosen for this inter-dimensional voyage.

Disappointing because, Cooper was meeting his daughter after so long time and so many things that he went through. And his daughter who missed him so much was meeting him after literally 120 years and there was no love to be found as she shoved him away to go and find Amelie! Maybe Nolan is not that good at showing relationships.

*Spoiler Alert Finished*

Any one of these movies in one's CV could make a director great.
He has all four of them.

In the end, watch the movie not for the science behind it, or the great space backdrops, or the incredible talent of Hans Zimmer, but for the genius of Christopher Nolan. In the years to come he will have joined likes of Scorsese, Spielberg and Kubrick, if he already hasn’t.

And yes I am a Christopher Nolan fan and this might be a pretty biased review.

9/10 – Minus 1 for not being as awesome as Inception or Prestige, as we expect him to be.