movie reviews...and more
without giving the movie away
Samir
Samir has rated 37 movies, and has posted 56 comments.
Also check out the list of wogma's top readers.
Ratings
- Thappad: Yay! Thumbs Up:
- The Sky Is Pink: Nay! Thumbs Down:
- Ittefaq: Nay! Thumbs Down: Yawn inducing
- Newton: Yay! Thumbs Up:
- Pink: Yay! Thumbs Up: Involving contemporary drama
- Madaari: Want to Watch: Wish someone else had made this movie.
- Wazir: So-So:
- Fandry: Yay! Thumbs Up:
- Airlift: So-So: Argo-fied true story
- Tamasha: Not Interested in Watching:
- Court: Yay! Thumbs Up:
- Talvar: Yay! Thumbs Up: Honest well made film
- Manjhi The Mountain Man: Nay! Thumbs Down:
- Dum Laga Ke Haisha: Yay! Thumbs Up:
- Badlapur: So-So:
- Mary Kom: So-So: Piggy-backs(pun intended) on Mary Kom's name!
- Queen: Yay! Thumbs Up: Joyful film!
- Bullett Raja: Nay! Thumbs Down: Tigmanshu loses it!
- Club 60: So-So:
- Harud: Yay! Thumbs Up: Between a rock and a hard place
- Listen...Amaya: Yay! Thumbs Up:
- Prisoners: Nay! Thumbs Down:
- John Day: Nay! Thumbs Down:
- Besharam: Not Interested in Watching:
- The Lunchbox: Yay! Thumbs Up:
- Now You See Me: So-So: Now you see me doing things I'll deny later.
- Fukrey: Nay! Thumbs Down: Poor 'Delhi Belly' wannabe
- The Conjuring: So-So:
- The Return: Yay! Thumbs Up:
- Bhaag Milkha Bhaag: Nay! Thumbs Down: If the movie didn't have Milkha's name in it, it'd go unnoticed.
- Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns: So-So:
- Gangs of Wasseypur 2: Nay! Thumbs Down:
- Bol: So-So:
- That Girl In Yellow Boots: Yay! Thumbs Up:
- Inception: Yay! Thumbs Up:
- Guzaarish: Nay! Thumbs Down:
- Peepli Live: Yay! Thumbs Up:
Great film!
My daughter, Sasha, was one of the Asst Director and researcher for this film. Haven't seen it yet.
A most tedious, syrupy, milk-a-tragedy fil
Take a fairly twisty plot. Give it the blandest treatment possible. Juggle between the flashbacks till the audience no longer cares about who-dun-what-to-whom. Very disappointing film.
What a wonderful film. And an equally wonderful review.
Sanitized and simplified yet engrossing throughout. The loose end, as it were, disturbs [comment partially delete because it gives a part of the movie away]. The girls are superb. Amitabh is less hammy than usual. Piyush Mishra is not as bad as is made out by some reviewers. Even the boys have been well selected. Overall, a very good watch.
For me, even the presence of Irrfan could not salvage this thoroughly boring film. Dialogue was mind-numbingly bad.
Predictable fare, poor handling. One could easily pick the scenes and lines that were going to be repeated in the grand denouement. Disappointing!
Good film.
Engaging film. The Iraqi Major seemed to belong to some other film. Akshay has probably never looked better.
Madcap cuteness overdose at the 30 minute mark made me switch off the DVD player.
Kafkaesque. Except that this is the reality in India. A tremendous achievement!
Very apt review. I'm a little taken aback by all the hate this movie is generating. Perhaps reading the book Aarushi will help people understand the case better.
The way Ketan Mehta has told this story,one needs the fortitude of a Dashrath Manjhi to sit through this piece of garbage. Very disappointing...an unworthy companion to the equally execrable Mangal Pandey!
A small gem of a film elevated by superb performances!
Agree with the review overall, but amongst the tremendous acting talent available in the film,unfortunately, Varun Dhawan seemed the weakest link. It was the same story with Ek Hasina Thi which was a reasonably decent film except for Urmila Matondkar who couldn't act to save her life. Wish Raghavan would choose his main protagonists more carefully.
Strictly, by-the-numbers story which is ruined by the Bhansali penchant for soap. The boxing scenes are laughably bad and freckles or not, Priyanka tests our credibility as a Manipuri girl. The climactic ECG/Boxing countdown scene is milked till it parches, and makes no sense. I still found it marginally less boring than BMB, which for me was near-unwatchable.
Spot on review, Meetu. But for the predictable deus ex machina in the latter half, it would have been an indie classic. I caught it on DVD and would give it that very rating. Pity, it went largely ignored by the public and even critics.
Loved the film. One of those rare films that you watch with a happy smile. Everything gels together, perfectly!
Apt review, Meetu. Surprising that such a movie engenders so much bickering from two of your 'top commenters'! I suppose, we are living in rather intolerant times.
Farooque Sheikh and Sarika are the reason to watch this film. When they are off screen, the descent into the puerile is so palpable that you might be watching a Rohit Shetty film (almost). The other 60 plus characters are typical filmy caricatures( yes Meetu, I use the term advisedly)with tragic backgrounds which are a little too pat. The final, by the numbers, lapse into bathos is the last straw.
I wanted to like the film, but a so-so is the best that I can manage.
And yes, Sarika's monologue is superb. Almost makes the film worth watching.
Despite its many flaws, the movie managed to convey the besieged and claustrophobic existence of the common Kashmiri. Their demand for 'Azaadi' gets a new point of view after watching this film. Thanks, Pradeep, for a difficult but worthwhile watch.
Indianised and melodramatized version of 'the Verdict' for which Paul Newman lost the Oscar to Ben(Gandhi)Kingsley.
KK Menon is no Newman, nor Vikram Bhatt a Lumet.
Overall, a good story given the Bollywood treatment...ultimately pretty ordinary.
For viewers conversant with the practice of medicine, there are some howlers in the attempt to provide verisimilitude. Why can't these guys hire some experts to oversee the script?
A gem that ought to have received more critical acclaim. Your review does it justice, though. For me it was in the same class as 'The Lunchbox'. These are people you care about.
Richard Corliss of Time Magazine calls it 'a splendid opportunity wasted'. I agree. A more insipid 'thriller' is difficult to find.
A real disappointment from the director of 'Incendies'.
Very amateurishly done. Big disappointment for Naseer fans.
Saw the trailer yesterday. Perhaps, it would need the the kind of review you gave Grand Masti ( which I thoroughly approved of).
Meetu, I agree with everything in your review except the overall grading where I feel you have been unfair to this little gem of a film. Should have been 'watch it already'! But, I suppose,that's your prerogative.
'Dumb Intellectual' that I am, it's been ages since I enjoyed a more fulfilling cinematic experience.
Wonderful review. A film where characters seem to be doing stuff for the sole purpose of misleading the audience for the final reveal. Too smart for its own good! Unlike the last two 'Magic' based films 'The Prestige' and 'The Illusionist' this one doesn't induce you to take the leap of faith that is necessary to the enjoyment of such a film.
Meetu,I wish I had read your review before getting the DVD. Nothing seems to work in this try-hard insipid film. I had to fast forward repeatedly to reach the end, just because a friend had praised it highly.
The only silver lining was Richha Chaddha.
The director has made a Bollywood mainstream film. Big star cast, bombastic dialogue and tried and tested gangster movie set pieces.
Despite being a horror/scary movie fan this one had nothing new to offer. One wonders at the consistently high ratings that this film is getting on sites like imdb.
For me the wogma rating was apt.
A thoroughly engrossing thriller of the mind. The unanswered questions add to the mystique of the film. Brave review! Viewers used to cut-and -dried denouements will probably not like the film.
The boy who played Andrei died in a swimming accident not too long after the film was shot.
A biopic only in the broadest sense of the word. There is a good movie somewhere there amidst the Punjabi Yokel love story,the by-the-numbers coming of age of the athlete, the India-Pak rivalry and not to forget--the kitchen sink!
In one scene, the pilot of the plane (played by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra) says that there was someone else piloting the plane. How apt! Perhaps it was the guy who had directed 'Aks'.
Very disappointing(and tedious) fare.
A good example of how the different aspects of film-making(eg;acting, dialogue, screenplay and direction etc) can be quite good and still the finished whole may be disappointing.
One observation: the very unpredictability of most of the characters, robs the twists in the plot of its frisson.
I agree, Meetu, the comic relief in the item number was completely out of place and harked back to the 70s and 80s when Prem Chopra or Amrish Puri would play the fool around the cabaret dancer. Also the faux interview with the minister, though entertaining because of 2 good actors(Irrfan & Rajeev Gupta) flirted with the slapstick and did not really belong.
It had admittedly a few brilliant moments which were ravenously devoured by Kashyap's self indulgence and overall cacophony. Its violence/profanity commits the ultimate sin of cinema---- after benumbing you it bores you! For once, I couldn't disagree more with your review, Meetu.