#Outstanding – Movie Pub

Anandi Gopal (2019) – Movie Review

Extraordinary story of an ordinary couple.

Anandi Gopal is a biographical period drama Marathi film written by Karan Shrikant Sharma, and directed by Sameer Vidwans.

The film is a biopic of Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi, also referred to as the first lady doctor of India. Originally named Yamuna (before marriage), Anandi was born and raised in Kalyan, Mumbai. In 1874, As per the practice of that time, Anandi (Bhagyashree Milind ) was married at the age of nine to Gopalrao Joshi (Lalit Prabhakar), a stubborn widower, who was almost twenty years older than her. Even at that time, Gopalrao was a progressive thinker about supporting education for women. And before getting married to Anandi, the same condition he puts forward that his wife would get educated and would go to medical school. It is the rebellious and extraordinary tale of an ordinary couple of becoming victorious against all odds. Gopalrao’s consistent support and Anandi’s focus and determination for becoming the India’s first lady doctor form the rest of the film.

This film can be stated as the mother of all feminist stories ever told on-screen. The film has a really compelling and wonderful story to tell. The direction and screenplay of the film do its job of keeping the audience engaged with stunning imagery and vibrant colors. At first, I thought that what this film could have to show. But believe me, the film has dragged me completely into it from start till the end. The film’s story is very simple but has been told in a really fascinating way, with its even more beautiful and layered characters.

It feels good to watch when a film is able to deep dive into its characters and is able to convey the same to the audience. At some points, the film seems to have become slower, but which is completely fine, because at that moment it is important to show the impact of some specific situations on those characters. And it gives time for characters to breathe and gives the space for understanding their particular behavior.

Verdict : It is a must-watch film, for its content and beautiful storytelling.

Rating : 4.3/5

Check the trailer here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAS_hUTOJdY

Naal (2018) – Movie Review

Pure, innocent, and heartwarming.

Naal (Umbilical cord – in English) is a Marathi drama film co-written and directed by debutant Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti. The film is co-written and produced by Nagraj Manjule, the creator of the gem films Fandry (2013) and Sairat (2016), under his banner Aatpat Production along with Zee Studios.

The film follows the emotional world of an eight-year-old mischievous boy Chaitanya (Shrinivas Pokale). The film sets in a remote village in Maharashtra, where Chaitanya is living happily with his landlord father (Nagraj Manjule) and a loving and caring mother (Devika Daftardar). This is all that the trailer of the film has suggested that it is going to be a visually soothing and beautiful story of a small kid. The same it delivers in the first few minutes; and then what? And then something unexpected happens which turns things upside down for Chaitanya and sets him on a wonderful journey.

From start to end, the film is a stunning visual treat with interesting camera work and beautiful landscapes. Cinematographer-turned-director Sudhakar Yakkanti’s skillful efforts and magic can be seen in every shot. Along with the representation, the content of the film is simple yet powerful. While watching the film, the audience just delves into the naughty and unpredictable eight-year-old boy’s character and starts feeling the same way he feels. There are very few characters in the film, but all of their performances are very much convincing and compelling which actually drives the story forward. In particular, a little kid’s character is so well done that the dialogues and his expressions seem so true that it’ll just melt you down with joy. In the second half, the film becomes a bit slow, but director’s intention to do that is pretty much acceptable.

Verdict : A pure, innocent, and heartwarming tale. A must watch family drama film.

Rating : 4.4/5

Check the trailer here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ajhEq4HqHo

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Tumbbad (2018) – Movie Review

You shouldn’t claim everything you inherit.

Tumbbad is a historical period Fantasy horror film directed by debutant Rahi Anil Barve. Anand Gandhi, the director of Ship of Theseus (2012), serves as the co-writer, executive producer and creative director of the film.

The film depicts a mythological goddess who blessed the universe with food and gold, the things go wrong when her first-born son ‘Hastar’ steals gold from her, and when he goes for food all gods curse him. The film sets in Tumbbad, where it revolves around the consequences when humans build a temple for ‘Hastar’ from the greed of gold. The story of the film spans across three generations of a Brahmin family. Vinayak (Sohum Shah) is at the center of the story who has inherited the cursed hidden wealth beneath the ancestral mansion in Tumbbad.

At the core, the film talks about the consequences of endless human greed. Even before the movie starts, the famous tagline by Mahatma Gandhi is displayed on a screen, “The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.”, which gives a fair idea about the film’s subject, but it shows that in a very fresh and inventive way. The film has so many things to serve like elements of horror, fantasy stories of mythological demon god, and well woven real-world message.

Atmospherically the film is surprisingly impressive, and every on-screen imagery is astonishing. The production design of the film is remarkable, no set pieces seem fake. The visual effects look so real and are at its best as compared to any Indian film. The camera work is splendid, some moments are shot with hand-held camera which actually feels real. The background music and songs lifts up the overall movie watching experience. The performance by Sohum Shah is flawless and very much convincing as a greedy protagonist. Some of the moments in the film really scary including some graphical violence.

One more thing, before the film starts, the film shows their sincere thanks to Anurag Kashyap and Rajkumar Hirani, not so sure about their contribution to this film, but it definitely boosts the audience for the ambitious and incredible story they’re going to witness.

Verdict : A surprising treat for horror and monster movie lovers, that too with great story and performances.

Rating : 4/5

Click here for trailer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN75MPxgvX8

Love Sonia (2018) – Movie Review

Reality hits hard.

Love Sonia is a drama film directed by Tabrez Noorani and produced by David Womark. The film is based on the real events, focusing on the dark and the dangerous world of international sex trafficking.

The film starts in a drought-ridden remote village in the state of Maharashtra, where it revolves around two loving sisters Sonia (Mrunal Thakur) and Preeti (Riya Sisodiya), belonging to the poor farmer family of four. The things go from bad to worse when their helpless and debt-ridden father Shiva (Adil Hussain) sells Preeti to the local landlord and money lender Baldev Singh (Anupam Kher). The harrowing tale of Sonia starts when she follows Preeti in the hope of rescuing her but becomes trapped in the flesh trade herself. Rest of the film follows Sonia in the city of Mumbai, the financial capital of India, and from there crawls worldwide.

First of all, this is not the usual entertainer film, it is the nerve-racking drama that progresses gracefully which makes the audience more and more uncomfortable at every step. The audience can literally feel the tormenting phases of Sonia’s journey. The story is slow burning at some places but the drama keeps it alive. Along with cast mentioned above the film also features Manoj Bajpayee as Faizal, a ruthless don running the brothel in Mumbai, Freida Pinto as Rashmi, Sai Tamhankar as Anjali, Rajkummar Rao as Manish, Richa Chadda as Madhuri, Demi Moore as Selma, and Mark Duplass. Apart from the hard-hitting story, by looking at the ensemble of this brilliant cast, two things can be surely promised, a gripping drama and outstanding performances.

Verdict : For witnessing the bunch of outstanding performances and taking near look at the dark world of sex trafficking, this film is a must watch.

Rating : 3.9/5

Check trailer here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhTTF13Fhug

Mulk (2018) – Movie Review

Freedom. Equality. Fraternity.

Mulk (Country – in English) is a drama film written and directed by Anubhav Sinha who is mostly known for his directorial films Tum Bin (2001) and Ra.One (2011). The film stars Rishi Kapoor and Taapsee Pannu in lead roles.

The film sets in Benaras and revolves around a Muslim family(Don’t want to mention these words, but yes, the film is about this only), who are living in harmony in their neighborhood without any communal conflicts. Not so long into the film, the family gets trapped in the dark controversy of law when one of the family members commits the terrible act of terrorism in the name of ‘Jihad’. Now, as being the head of the family, Murad Ali Mohammad (Rishi Kapoor) and his daughter-in-law Aarti Mohammad (Taapsee Pannu) must take the responsibility on their shoulders to reclaim lost honor of the family.

The film discusses the very sensitive and important topic in India, which is a Hindu-Muslim communal conflict. And yes, the film brilliantly handles the topic and tries to put in it in a simpler way possible, which can be understood by a common man. Along with it, the film also penetrates the prejudiced thinking of a common man towards an act of terrorism. The film keeps on questioning the false beliefs which are very common among us regarding terrorism, communal and religious conflicts, casteism etc, and the film firmly talks about the true definition of terrorism, which is clearly not related to particular community or religion (every responsible common man should think about). The philosophy and the idea on which the film is based, it is excellent.

The cinematography of the film is very understated and looks real. At some places, there’re shaky camera movements, but those are OK. The background score lifts up the thrill component of the film and serves just right. The characters are very well portrayed, kudos to the team, and each of their performances is outstanding, which make an audience feel for them. What a brilliant cast, the actors who can talk with their eyes; along with leads, Ashutosh Rana as the prosecution lawyer Santosh Anand, Prateik Babbar as Shahid Mohammed, Rajat Kapoor as Danish Javed, Kumud Mishra as Judge, Manoj Pahwa as Bilaal Mohammed, and seeing this brilliant cast on-screen is worth having experience.

Verdict : Every thoughtful, understanding and responsible person should watch this without any single biased thought. A brilliant drama film which talks on the sensitive and solid topic.

Rating : 4.2

Check trailer here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MjC30zo1KA

Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran (2018) – Movie Review

Heroic and Patriotic.

Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran (Parmanu – Atom in English) is a period action drama film directed by Abhishek Sharma. The film stars John Abraham in a lead role, who has also produced the same.

The film is based on the nuclear bomb test explosions conducted by the Indian Army at Pokhran, Rajasthan in 1998. The film starts in the era when America and the other countries have already become a superpower with the possession of nuclear bombs. America, who had been a superpower for many years, and now are trying to have a grab on the warfare happening across the world by deploying ‘eye in the sky’ in the form of satellites. And now, it’s a high time for India to be a superpower by conducting nuclear test explosions, and that too by maintaining the secrecy of this operation.

The story depicted in the film is one of the most important events in the Indian history and the people who made this event possible. In the running time of this film, practically it is not possible to include all the little details of the operation, but makers have successfully accommodated the significant aspects and delivered a gripping drama film. It has a flavor of the documentary film, but the engaging storyline and compelling performances by characters made the film thrilling and entertaining at the same time. The only problem with the film is its bombarded background sound, which felt unnecessary and overloaded at some situations, which overtakes the drama and does not let it breathe.

Verdict : Overall it’s a really good, proud, and patriotic film to watch. Go for it.

Rating : 4/5

An Epic Journey of MCU to Infinity War

Destiny still arrives…

It’s been a decade that Marvel Cinematic Universe has been around entertaining the fans worldwide through its superhero adventure stories based on Marvel comics and character created by Stan Lee. And now, MCU has reached the point where all these stories are going for an epic crossover, where mightiest superheroes will assemble once for an all to fight the battle against greatest villain universe has ever seen.

Over the period of ten years, MCU has established many superhero origin stories in the same universe. The MCU had kickstarted with Iron Man (2008), which came out on May 2nd, 2008. The script was not completely finished when filming began, since the filmmakers were more focused on the story and the action, even the makers were not sure about what they were doing, despite all these difficulties Jon Favreau, the director of the film has pulled off everything so brilliantly, that eventually had laid the foundation of what MCU today is. The casting of Robert Downey Jr. as TonyStark/Iron Man was considered very risky for the project because of his past but Jon Favreau commented: “The best and worst moments of Robert’s life have been in the public eye. He had to find an inner balance to overcome obstacles that went far beyond his career. That’s Tony Stark. Robert brings a depth that goes beyond a comic book character having trouble in high school, or can’t get the girl.”, and today we see Robert Downey Jr. as the biggest star of MCU who has ignited the never-ending flame of incredible filmography.

In Iron Man post-credit scene, the fans were teased with the appearance of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., who approached Tony Stark for an Avengers initiative, and that’s where seeds for this greater universe were sowed. In the same year of 2008, along with Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk (2008) was also released, and in this film also Tony Stark has made an appearance in the post-credit scene, which again hinted the crossover of superhero films in the near future.

Iron Man was Marvel Studios’ first self-financed movie but then in 2009, The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment for USD $4 billion. After this acquisition, the studio has not stopped yet and has delivered 18 in the saga out of planned 22 films. Avengers: Infinity War is going to be the 19th film in this chronology. MCU has defined the solid style of interconnected filmmaking where different stories are running in the shared universe and concluding together in the end. The MCU has maintained their timeline of events happening in different films pretty well apart from the Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) which had some incorrect timeline as confirmed by Joe Russo in his latest interview.

Iron Man serves as the perfect start to the MCU and is surely the best origin story ever put to screen for a comic book character. After the success of Iron Man, the next milestone was The Avengers (2012) and before that MCU introduced the new superheroes through films like Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and Thor (2011), which assembled the core Avengers team. Making the team of Avengers alive on the silver screen was one of the most ambitious projects MCU had ever done in past. If we call Iron Man as the foundation, then The Avengers surely can be called as the backbone of this shared universe. The Avengers grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide and became the third-highest-grossing film during its theatrical run—as well as the highest-grossing film of Marvel production till present day. And all the credit for its success goes to Joss Whedon who has co-written and directed the film, which ultimately fetched him a chance to direct Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).

MCU’s all the planned 22 films are cleverly divided across three different phases. The chronological order of these films is as follows :
Phase One: Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2011), Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012).
Phase Two: Iron Man 3 (2013), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Ant-Man (2015).
Phase Three: Captain America: Civil War (2016), Doctor Strange (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), Untitled Avengers Movie (2019).

In the first phase, MCU introduced all the characters through their standalone films and kickstarted the Avengers saga. Going forward, in the second phase, they not only introduced some more new characters and films having their roots connected but also discovered some deeper aspects of the existing members of the Avengers. Now, in the third phase, all the separate threads from previous films are coming together and are forming a big picture.

Along with mightiest superheroes, every MCU film has portrayed equally or more powerful villains – the villains which would act as the most important arcs in defining who the superhero really is. In the 1st phase, Loki played the villain character and threatened the Earth’s very freedom, which eventually united the Avengers. In the 2nd phase, Avengers faced the catastrophe in the form of Ultron, the AI program, which made the Avengers think about the meaning of their own existence. And Now, in the finale of the 3rd phase, the Avengers are going to face Thanos, the mad titan, who has an obsession with balancing the universe by wiping out half of its population. And in this quest, Thanos is trying to get a hand on all the Six Infinity Stones, which are appeared in the previous Marvel films and are located at different places. All powerful Thanos was first spotted in the post-credit scene of The Avengers(2012), and later, in the post-credit scene of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), since then he was pulling all the strings from background, but now, in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), he is going to get things done by himself.

It is the first time in the cinematic history when 22 superheroes are going to assemble against one powerful villain, and this is gonna be truly epic. So mark the date, 27th April, and be a part of this never seen before cinematic experience.

In every phase, MCU has evolved spectacularly, in terms of storytelling, technological advancements, mesmerizing visual effects. MCU films not only talk about superheroes and villains but also emphasize on emotional drifts of its characters, which enables the audience to root for them. It also talks about family, friends, and relationships which eventually makes it more human. Like any other films, even some MCU films are flawed, either in storytelling, or weaker script, or underdeveloped characters, despite all these factors, and as MCU is seen as a whole, every MCU film has its own fan base and has earned a place in the popular culture. Today, MCU has become the successful and highest grossing movie franchise of all time and gonna remain there for a very long time.