This movie has an intriguing premise that pits a God against a self-proclaimed Godman.
It has its moments which shine brilliantly. But, those are few and far between; for the most part, it fumbles to hold our attention as it wavers wildly between getting too serious or too silly for its own good.
Nayantara continues to dazzle and gets the Amman role just right. RJ Balaji is competent as an actor, but falls short as a director (co-directed with NJ Saravanan).
What could have been a sharp satire slips into something that is just so-so.
This biopic is inspired by the life of Captain Gopinath and recounts the struggles faced by him to realise his dream of making the common man fly at an affordable cost by establishing a low cost airlines.
Director Sudha Kongara is no stranger to the realm of the triumph of underdog. Her impressive debut, Irudhi Suttru which was set in the world of professional women boxers belonged to the same template. Her narrative here is fairly predictable, loaded with genre cliches, "mass" scenes to service the star and packs very little to set it apart except for the character of Bommi (Aparna Balamurali - a revelation) and her dynamic with Maaran (Suriya).
The film benefits greatly from the exceptional performances from the ever reliable Suriya, Aparna Balamurali who holds her own in a spunky role. GV Prakash Kumar has embellished the narrative with a memorable album filled with superbly penned songs set to catchy tunes.
While the predictable narrative with some noticeable lag in the latter portions and the synthetic massy moments apply brakes to the narrative, the movie remains eminently watchable. It is by far, the best Tamil flick to find direct OTT release till date and cruises along like a turbo-prop in delivering a value-for-money viewing experience.
Alas, it could have easily been a Dreamliner and soared much higher.
The ten part web series directed by Hansal Mehta is easily the best I've seen yet among Indian shows.
Based on a book by Sucheta Dalal and Debashish Sahu, this balanced narrative is well acted especially from the lead Pratik Gandhi who lives the role and ably supported by Shreya Dhanwantry, Rajat Kapoor, Anant Mahadevan, Satish Kaushik who are excellently in their own parts;
The title track from Achint Thakkar is catchy and hooks you immediately; the episodes clock along crisply at a healthy momentum and the series also benefits immensely by staying true to the Gujju roots of its lead characters.
This Tamil anthology mini web series consists of 4 episodes directed by noted Tamil directors - Vignesh Sivan, Gautam Vasudev Menon, Vetrimaaran and Sudha Kongara.
Each episode narrates a story that revolves around the common theme of violent sins related to honour and identity which is associated with the usual elements of caste, class and gender. There are also subtle connecting threads that run across these episodes.
Expectedly, the material is dark and except for the episode directed by Vignesh Sivan featuring dark sarcastic humour, the mood remains grim, intense and frequently, tense.
The ensemble cast featuring Anjali (looking fresh, in a dual role), Kalki, GVM, Simran, Prakash Raj, Sai Pallavi, Shantanu and Kalidas are impressive and along with the supporting cast provide neat performances.
On the flip side, the stories tend to trod a predictable path and the melodrama is often amped up. Nevertheless, the predictability does not pare down the impact significantly, thanks to the handling and the melodramatic parts too serve a similar purpose.
In all, this is an admirable beginning that augurs well for the Tamil webseries space.
In Tenet, Nolan has borrowed several template elements from the universe of James Bond - dapper spies trying to save the world from total annihilation by megalomaniac super-villains, astounding action set pieces in exotic locations, tongue-in-cheek humour and not to forget - the damsel in distress to be rescued. Into this mix, Nolan injects his favourite narrative concoction of reality bending time inversion which sees people and objects moving forward and backward in time simultaneously.
While complex stories re-arranging the notions of reality and time are par for the course in most Nolan flicks, with Tenet, he seems to have outdone himself. The narrative demands one to be fully immersed into its inversion mechanics and to the details that are densely packed in each frame. Nevertheless, it is highly likely that most of us might have to depend on repeated viewings along with the explainers on the web if one wishes to make clear sense of the proceedings.
As with any Nolan movie, the staging of the entire movie is expectedly grand with Hoytema's magnificent cinematography and pulsating score from first time collaborator Ludwig Göransson (no Hans Zimmer). However, it is Nolan's writing that is under-cooked here. especially the portion involving Debicki seeking to escape with her son from the clutches of abusive arms-dealer husband Branagh. Consequently, we are not interested enough in their fates and how the same gets entangled with the mission of our protagonist. The long talkie portions - which are strangely muffled - where the characters try to explain stuff to one another does not help either and dial down the momentum of the rest of the narrative.
What works brilliantly are the exhilarating action set pieces which are deeply embedded in those excruciatingly difficult-to-fathom sequences. The performances across the board are good to great. Leading from the front in a neo-Bond-esque avatar is John David Washington who carries the entire movie convincingly as "the protagonist" and along with Robert Pattinson, makes a fine tag team oozing suave and bromance. The supporting cast consisting of radiant Elizabeth Debicki, elegant Dimple Kapadia, Kenneth Branagh embodying malignant menace and the ever dependable Michael Caine making his mark in a single sequence deliver competent performances.
With Tenet, Nolan reinforces his place as an ace auteur awing us with his audacious artistry and mastery over the medium as he redefines the big screen blitz with his spectacular show. He captivates you with his superlative craft and in equal measure, confounds you with his complex plot lines from an enigmatic narrative. Tenet begins with an extraordinary sequence at an opera venue. After watching the movie, one gets a feeling that perhaps Tenet is Nolan's operatic self- indulgence - his attempted magnum opus which seeks to blend the genres of spy thrillers with his own reality bending time travel sagas.
What you make off Tenet would depend on what you expect from Nolan. If you are fine with just mind blowing big screen experience in a breathtaking action saga, you might be getting a good bargain and possibly, enough bang for your buck. On the other hand, if you are a fan who seeks your action movies to be engaging at an emotional level too, you might find it a tad underwhelming - a spellbinding spectacle sans the sinews of affective sentiments - and a bit exhausting too.
There was never any doubt that Nolan is among the modern greats and Tenet is indeed a brilliant feat. Alas, if only it could've been more felt.
For his second directorial, writer-director Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, The Social Network and many more notable screenwriting credits) has marshalled an ensemble cast for an engaging courtroom drama. The movie chronicles an infamous trial from the late 1960s when the Nixon administration and its new Attorney General prosecuted eight persons belonging to different anti-Vietnam war and civil rights groups on charges of conspiracy for causing bloody riots in Chicago during the Democratic National convention in 1968.
While it is purportedly recreation of a dark episode in the history of American democracy, it brings into stark relief on how it continues to represent the present days. The timing is curious as the chaos and paranoia that were prevalent then find an eerie resonance today as a highly polarized America heads into what promises to be a momentous, messy and one of its most divisive elections.
The writing is superlative as Sorkin dives into the thick of action from the word go and energizes the narrative with his trademark sharp cuts, electric exchanges between a bunch of memorable characters that we would love / loathe in equal vigour. He dials up the rhetoric, keeps the proceedings gripping by crisply inter-cutting the courtroom scenes with scenes from the fateful day of the riots to sustain the suspense. The unfolding drama is layered as it captures the multiple competing cross currents of war and peace, democracy and disorder, racism, calls for rebellion and righteous opposition in the face of unrelenting force of powers that be.
The stellar cast that includes top-of-the-shelf talents including Michael Keaton, Joseph Gordon Leavitt, Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Rylance, Eddie Redmayne, Frank Langella and Yahya Abdul Matteen II and the performances are terrific across the board as they sink their teeth into these colourful characters that shine brilliantly even in crowded scenes.
This might be a story from another era of stormy unrest on how corrupt and unbridled state power aided by complicit pliant institutions could corrode a democracy by choking the fundamental right of citizens to express dissent. Yet, almost half a century later, it presents a grim reflection of our own times as this movie underlines for us. As liberal democracy finds itself dire straits, not just in America, but in several countries across the world, it is curious case of history repeating itself. Is it a tragedy or farce...? That is a zillion dollar question abegging an answer.
This documentary digs deep into the bottomless digital pit called social media and through lucid accounts from tech insiders, illuminates the existential threat it poses to humanity.
Contrary to popularly held notions, the menace of social media does not stop merely at seeing users accessing free content as products to be monetized through advertisements. In a mad rush to maximize profits, the AI engines at the heart of these social media apps continuously hack the users' psyche through machine-learning enabled manipulative algorithms that are highly effective.
The gullible user base - which includes each one of us - is pushed down a treacherous precipice into a vicious cycle of extended engagement with an endless stream of similarly toned, curated content - thereby creating and reinforcing disruptive biases, polarizing communities, eroding mutual trust, destabilizing democracies, augmenting the armory of autocrats and corroding common grounds for harmonious co-existence.
I wish this becomes a mandatory watch for everyone engaging with social media and should be pinned right on top of our daily news feed from every app that we use.
Do yourself a favour and watch it before you take your next dive into your Facebook or Pinterest or WhatsApp or Instagram or Twitter, etc.
This could well be the best 90-odd minutes you spend this weekend. It holds the potential to alter the rest of your life for the better and heal humanity from a self inflicted digital cancer from the spectre called social media.
A MUST WATCH !!
RATING - 4/5
PS - The Social Dilemma is currently streaming on Netflix.
