Film Review - Tevar

The Tevaring Inferno

Film: Tevar

Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Manoj Bajpayee

Directed by: Amit Ravindernath Sharma

Duration: 2 hrs 37 mins

Rating: * 1 / 2 

Just about everything about Tevar is outdated and above everything else, it is the story. A good guy saving the heroine who is on the run from goons is so passé making you wonder why on earth this film was made in the first place. It is a big budget production and considerable money has been blown on lavish décor. In fact the electricity used to light up the sets itself could easily finance a couple of Indie films.

Not even a fraction of the moolah has been spent on writing a decent story, there are clichés after clichés and you don’t have to be a Bollywood aficionado to predict what is coming next. This is an old fashioned 80’s kind of movies with over the top scenes, lots of songs and a considerable long running length which leaves you exasperated by the end. 

Set in Agra, Pintu (Arjun Kapoor) is a young smug who is also an ace kabaddi player. This is one of those films where the hero doesn’t sit inside a bus to make a journey, he stands on it to show what a brash he is. After all, as he says, he is a Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Salman all rolled in one.

Meanwhile there is a damsel in distress, a Mathura girl Radhika (Sonakshi Sinha) is on the run because the Home Ministers brother (Manoj Bajpayee) is forcibly trying to rescue her. No prizes for guessing who saves her from the clutches, but it is all so very contrived that you are least interested in the proceedings.

There is a fair bit of jaw and breaking violence in the film and at some point even you start feeling the pain - in one scene, the hero ties a big stone to a rope and swings it around hammering the bad guys. 

This is a remake of the Telugu film Okkadu (2003) and this strange and inexplicable fascination for South Indian action films continues.

Some scenes have flair but on the whole the ratio of what you like and what you despise is very poor.  On the acting front, Arjun Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha are passable, there is nothing much to write about them. Manoj Bajpayee is the only silver lining in this otherwise dark cloud, he plays the villain with absolute conviction. In fact, it is more fun watching him than anyone else in the film.

Avoid getting burnt in this Tevaring inferno.

Published in The Navhind Times on 11th January 2015

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Film Review - Taken 3

Taken Aback

Film: Taken 3

Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace

Directed by: Olivier Megatron

Duration: 1 hr 51 mins

Rating:  *  * 

Much like many other Hollywood franchises, Taken is the type where if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Luckily, there are only 3 in this franchise and supposedly this is going to be the end, or so the tag line says. 

The first installment back in 2008 was quite entertaining but Taken 2 (2013) was no great shakes and this one sits at the bottom of it all. 

Liam Neeson plays Bryan Mills an ex-secret agent who doesn’t look like one but he still is a one man army. There are no kidnappings this time but it’s his ex-wife (Famke Janssen) who is murdered and the blame is pinned on Mills who manages to escape from the authorities and wants to prove his innocence. As usual, a cop (Forest Whitaker) is in hot pursuit and there is the Russian mafia angle to the story. Maggie Grace plays Mills daughter and he is hell-bent on protecting her no matter what.

The whole film runs on autopilot mode. Co-written by Luc Besson, it operates in the been-there- done-that mode.  More often than not, in such films, there are some action sequences that give you some of your money’s worth but there is nothing that stands out in Taken 3. In fact the fast cutting during the action scenes is more like a Michael Bay film. 

Liam Neeson is eminently likable in whatever he does and being a top actor that he is, he even pulls off an action film like this. But otherwise Taken 3 has very little going in its favor. In a way am glad that  “It ends here” 

Published in The Navhind Times on 11th January 2015
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Film Review - Unbroken

Of Guts And Glory

Film: Unbroken

Cast: Jack O’Connell, Domhnall Gleeson, Takamasa Ishihara

Directed by: Angelina Jolie

Duration: 2 hrs 17 mins

Rating: *  *  *

The story of a former Olympian ending up as a prisoner of war is an interesting premise to begin with – not many have heard of Louis Zamperini, the son of an Italian immigrant who represented America before WW II broke out and he landed in the army. Instead of running on the race track, he was aboard fighter planes trying to defeat the Japanese.

After her debut feature In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011), Angelina Jolie returns as a director and being a glamorous actress, one has a few notions to shed before you can reconcile with the fact that she does have a knack for direction. The screen play that bears the name of the Coen Brothers as co-writers, is slightly elongated and you don’t expect anything short of the best when the two brothers are involved and it is only fair to say this is mediocre by their standards. 

Based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand, the film opens with a bang – an air raid across the Pacific where Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) and his buddies are dropping bombs in a fighter plane.  You are on the edge of the seat when the action unfolds as the bay door doesn’t shut and they have to come out of a tricky situation. 

 In flashbacks, we are told about Zamperini’s childhood, he was a rather difficult kid to deal with till his brother spots the potential in him as a runner. He went on to represent USA at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and even though he didn’t win any medals there, he was noticed by everyone for putting up a close fight. 

Cut to the present, along with two other survivors, he ends up in the middle of the ocean in the dinghy after their plane crashes. The survival story takes over and we have seen such segments before so there is hardly any novel element there. Jolie sufficiently manages to engross you in their ordeal and Zamperini’s never say die attitude. It continues in the third and final act as well but to a lesser degree when he is taken to a prison camp which already has a bunch of Americans and is singled out for special treatment by a rather brutal corporal (Takamasa Ishihara, a well known singer -songwriter). His fascination for the athlete is intriguing, there is some kind of an admiration there but all some deep hatred as well. At one point, he lines up all the prisoners to punch Zamperini in his face. 

It is in the last and final lap that the film stumbles a bit – after all, there is only so much of prisoners camp incidents that you can take, not because of the violence but because it gets routine. Jolie perhaps wanted to highlight the fact the how in-human mortals become during war and the point is well taken. 

Zamperini’s story is inspirational in many ways – not only for his spirit (he was forced to hold a log of wood on his head, if he drops it, he’ll be shot) but also for what he did afterwards, he forgave everyone for their misdeeds. But this is just mentioned in the title cards at the end.

Technically, the film is quite accomplished with names like Roger Deakins behind the camera and Alexandre Desplat as the music composer. It also is a big breakthrough for the lead actor Jack O’Connoll who with his good looks also makes a positive  impact. All in all, Unbroken is not deeply but reasonably satisfying. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 4th Jan 2015

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Film Review -The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death

Back in Black

Film: The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death

Cast: Phoebe Fox, Jeremy Irvine, Helen McCrory

Directed by: Tom Harper

Duration: 1 hr 38 mins

Rating: *  * 1 / 2

Susan Hills popular ghost story The Woman in Black was adapted as a film in 2011 and since it was a commercial success the sequel has followed suit. Apart from the economics, I don’t see any reason why this film was made, it is not a terrible sequel but there isn’t a great deal to write home about either.

The original film starred Daniel Radcliffe and since his character dies at the end he is not in this film although the chance of bringing him back as a ghost couldn’t have been ruled out.

The film is set during WWII and people of Crythin Gifford have left the village. Barring the ghost and an old caretaker, there is no one there. With the war in full swing , children are rescued and sent to more safer places. In this case, they don’t find any better place than the rather eerie village. Eve Parkins (Phoebe Fox) is a kind hearted teacher and the headmistress (Helen McCrory) is rather strict lady. With a handful of kids in tow they land in the old haunted Eel Marsh mansion.

The first target for the ghoul is a young boy Edward, who doesn’t speak and slowly the evil starts spreading around. Ms. Parkins also has a suitor in the form of a fighter pilot who is the only other resident in that part of the world.  

As it had to be, the young teacher also becomes a target of the haunted spirit and it all comes to an end with the expected explanations.

Angel of Death has the occasional spark but for many parts it is just dull. At no point is enough interested evoked in the characters, including the ghost. Luckily, the director has restrained himself from overdoing the standard tropes seen in horror films. Relative newcomer Phoebe Fox as the leading lady has put up a good show but otherwise this ghost business is average fare.

Published in The Navhind Times on 4th Jan 2015

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Film Review - Lokmanya: Ek Yugpurush

Freedom Struggle 

Film: Lokmanya : Ek Yugpurush (Marathi with English subtitles)

Cast: Subodh Bhave, Chinmay Mandlekar, Sameer Vidwans
Directed by: Om Raut
Duration: 2 hrs 25 mins
Rating:  * *  

When it comes to biopics, you want to applaud the effort put in by film makers when they tell an inspirational story. But going by the evidence of biopics in Indian cinema, it is an uphill task to make a film that will rightly capture the spirit of what these idols stood for. Director Om Raut’s effort to shed light on Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak life is a sincere and noble effort but sadly it doesn’t translate into a film that will do justice to the life and the thoughts of the great man. 

There are some inspiring moments but there are is a bit of melodrama as well and there is no point in stylizing such content – for instance we see Lokmanya Tilak running in slow motion at least thrice in the film. Such stylization is best left for commercial potboilers and not for a man who gave all his life for the freedom struggle and to reform the society.

Many of his contributions are well known, his advocacy of Swaraj, the Swadeshi movement, public celebrations of festivals like Ganesh Chathurthi, Kesari the news paper and in the field of education.  Plus his role in the shaping the freedom struggle has also been highlighted in school history books. 

The film is told cutting between the past and the present, a journalist (Chinmay Mandlekar) is inspired by the life of Tilak after reading about him, a la Rang De Basanti.  The leaders life is recounted through various incidents that occurred during his life time, his friendship with Gopal Ganesh Agarkar (Sameer Vidwans) with whom he shared the same ideology to begin with but then split later right to the bubonic plague that struck Pune in 1896 to his six year imprisonment in Mandalay, the film covers it all.

But the narrative is faulty. At times it is a bit all over the place and doesn’t stick a particular thread. Also the fusion of the past and present doesn’t really amalgamate well and looks artificial. 

The highlight is Subodh Bhave who is excels in the lead role. It is his effort that has adds considerable value to the film, which, though it tells an important story cinematically it leaves a lot to be desired. But it remains an important story all the same. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 4th Jan 2015

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