Tag Archives: Baby

Naam Shabana Movie Review: Bringing Up Baby

When it comes to spoon-feeding audiences, mainstream Bollywood is way ahead of the curve, and there are occasions where this tendency of the industry to test the patience with unnecessary exposition can be downright offensive. Therefore it was a rather pleasant surprise in Baby, when the audience anticipating a roaring rampage of rescue from Akshay Kumar ended up witness to a subverted trope where the supposed damsel in distress played by Taapsee Pannu ends up beating the daylights out of the crook they are pursuing. So it was a pleasant surprise when the prequel to Baby, exploring the origins of Taapsee’s character, Shabana, was announced. But is Shabana’s journey from schoolgirl to spy a worthy tale?Continue reading “Naam Shabana Movie Review: Bringing Up Baby”

Top 10 Bollywood Films of 2015

Let me start the post with the disclaimer that I haven’t seen some of the acclaimed films of 2015. The most prominent ones among them are Titli, Manjhi, Drishyam,Maragarita with a Straw and Court (though I am told that the last one is mostly in Marathi). On the other hand, I have purposefully kept BAAHUBALI away from this list because the Hindi version is primarily a dubbed one. So, my post may suffer from the problem of exclusion. At the same time, it’s a highly personal choice and in no way reflects the true merit of any film.Continue reading “Top 10 Bollywood Films of 2015”

Bollywood Movies 2015: The Year End List

2015 was arguably a good year for Hindi Cinema. Though there might not have been any landmark movies, but there were many brave attempts and I am sure a few of them will live long enough to be discussed on forums like these.One can never possibly compile the year’s best list. A movie, like love, is an extremely subjective experience. So I won’t say this is my list of year’s best films,but rather list of 10 films that engaged me sufficiently and a few of them left an impact deep enough to mull over them for days in a row.Continue reading “Bollywood Movies 2015: The Year End List”

Box-Office Analysis: Lessons from TWMR and Piku Success Stories

The Hindi film industry can’t hide its excitement. Almost like a young girl going out on her first official date with her childhood crush. The buzz in Mumbai is that ‘Acche Din’ are finally here and there’s now no looking back at what has been a disastrous, to put it in polite words, first few months of 2015 at the box office. With not a single ‘Super Hit’, forget about Blockbusters, and hardly a couple of clean ‘Hits’ in the Jan-May period, the industry was clearly looking down the barrel in terms of business and revenue. But, with Tanu Weds Manu Returns (TWMR) getting a phenomenal response from the audiences all across the country, we are all set to witness the first Blockbuster of 2015. Yes, you read it right. That elusive blockbuster is finally off the block!Continue reading “Box-Office Analysis: Lessons from TWMR and Piku Success Stories”

Gabbar Is Back Hindi Movie Review: Flawed Yet Enjoyable

After unleashing the atrocity called Rowdy Rathore (a remake of the Telugu superhit Vikramarkudu) more than 2 years ago, Akshay Kumar and ‘Producer’ Sanjay Leela Bhansali reunite for Gabbar Is Back – a remake of the Tamil movie Ramanna directed by A.R Murugadoss and starring Vijaykanth.

Aditya (Akshay Kumar) a college professor kidnaps and kills corrupt Government officials under the pseudo name ‘Gabbar’. This soon pits him against an old enemy Digvijay Patil (Suman Talwar) and has an honest constable Sadhuram (Sunil Grover) and a CBI officer (Jaideep Ahlawat) hot on his trail.Continue reading “Gabbar Is Back Hindi Movie Review: Flawed Yet Enjoyable”

Baby Movie Review: No child’s play, this!

The one admirable quality about Neeraj Pandey is that he is consistent. What his movies lack in nuance, and grit, they more than make up for it with a solid script and performances. He may aim to be Bollywood’s Katherine Bigelow or Paul Greengrass, but somehow he’s managed to be to this decade what Subhash Ghai was to the 80s and Rajkumar Santoshi was to the 90s. A storyteller, who can spin out a yarn that may seem implausible, but doesn’t insult your intelligence. Baby continues this tradition of his.Continue reading “Baby Movie Review: No child’s play, this!”