Movie Review: Badhai Ho

The Later’s Baby!

Badhai ho

As they say Love like Wine gets better with Age, so should the sex!  And Bam! We have rocking pregnant parents. The wonderful journey of this pregnancy is full of giggles, laughs and winks. There are no uncomfortable complications or scenes throughout the film, which makes it one of the best family time entertainment. Needless to say, there is subtle satire as well as hilarious bits of laughter. The society’s unacceptability of couples having sex, who have grown up children is tastefully ridiculed.

Badhai Ho is about lives disheveled over the pregnancy of a middle-class, middle-aged couple Jeetu (Gajraj Rao) his wife Priyamvada (Neena Gupta) living in in Lodhi Colony in Delhi with old aged typical mother (Surekha Sikri) and two grown up sons one appearing his board exams Gullar (Shardul Rana) and the other Nakul (Ayushmann Khurrana) working in an IT company having a girlfriend Renee (Sanya Malhotra) from a Delhi socialite widowed mother. The film unfolds his perspective to having pregnant Parents.

The acid-tongued mother in-law is the best acted part along with Neena Gupta and Gajraj Rao that do not deliver lecture lines but stay true to their character of this couple that has sheer chemistry even at middle age of life and can find love and solace in each other’s company. Two people who understand each other perfectly and can fit into each other’s life so well is a rarity in itself. The makers have chalked this relationship delicately and perfectly. Director Amit Sharma skillfully makes these complex characters and their entwined relationships understandable and relatable to the audience. That is a job well done!

It has everything that a typical Indian family mind set has with a mother in-law doting her son, picking up claims of incompetence in the daughter in-law. Two children who will feel embarrassed at the thought of their parents having sex with judgmental comments of the world to deal with. Add to this the drama at the wedding having the relatives with their short and bitter tongues give us the perfect masala for laughter.

The middle-class dysfunctional family with set core values ends up a perfect functional family at the end. The topic of late pregnancy and intimacy between middle-aged couples could not have been handled any better than this and when they come with messages in satire and comedy blended should not be missed.

  

Movie Review: First Man

Armstorming to Moon!

First Man

The tales of every successful and unsuccessful achiever intrigues the world over. It is simply human nature to be inquisitive about the shortcomings and struggles of those who succeed or fail in a Capital way. First Man as they rightly say is a story of Neil Armstrong the first man in the history of mankind to set foot on our Moon in 1969. The Film adaptation is based on his official Biography by James R. Hansen. At the center of all Space travel is this one thought of being there alone and lonely “What if I got there, got to the moon and couldn’t get back… I’m afraid to die alone, so far from home. And if there’s no God, then that’s really, really alone.” This sense of cosmic isolation echoes throughout a range of space movies. It now resurfaces in powerful form in First Man, Damien Chazelle’s real-life account of the 1969 moon landing, which turns a spectacular space-race adventure into a low-key study of grief.

The first scene is of Ryan Gosling playing Neil Armstrong almost skipping an experimental plane off into space finally landing it safely back. The film is all about his love for his dear daughter Karen who leaves him too soon at the age of 3 suffering from brain tumor, making him desire to leave the surly bonds of earth. when Nasa is trying to recruit trainee astronauts, he applies in hopes of a new beginning. Yet he is’nt able to wipe out Karen’s memory that haunts him throughout training and into his Apollo 11 mission – a vision of her hair running through his fingers recurring at key moments of crisis.

The direction and cinematography is so brilliant as one sees shots of Armstrong alone in the darkness of his house and same in space. Chazelle describes this tale as existing “between the moon and the kitchen sink.” he juxtaposes convincingly evoked Nasa sequences with back-garden scenes of beers and barbecues in which the moon glimmers distantly through the trees. Clare Foy who plays Janet Armstrong his wife is actually the real shine of the movie she plays the silent, smart wife-mother so well and her character is the one that struggles to keep the connection for Neil for the two worlds open as he seems to have closed the door for his family post the demise of his daughter. It is as if the space created in his heart is equivalent to the vast loneliness of space of universe and hence he is able to drift into the reality of this universal space as he feels within his heart. There are many emotional facets to Neil’s story as lots of sacrifice from other astronauts, deaths, accidents end up to finally a successful landing on the moon surface which was a huge race between USA and Russia back in those days.

The scenes of the space travel and moon landing are brilliantly picturized and will remind us of the movie Gravity, but First Man is more than a sci-fi movie, and lot about the struggle for the project to work successfully and lives involved with it. I will recommend to watch the film for the story of Neil Armstrong who I felt was lucky to have had succeeded over many others to successfully complete the first human Lunar mission.

Movie Review: Venom

Poison Cravings!

Venom

Why the world does not need a venom spewing alien superhero? Simply because this named Venom does not spew no venom! Duh! What were the makers thinking? Literally, logically why name an alien “Venom” that isn’t poisonous and rather feeds on other species? I mean look at the poster swirly and pointy tongue, far too many sharp teeth and eyes that make the letter "V", that is it. The creature looks more like the Alien from the movie “Alien Vs Predator.” The makers really wanted to play around with the concept of Good can be Evil, Evil can be Good so they created this illogical version of a superhero stemming out of the monstrous alien. They should have just shown the good-looking Tom Hardy as is and we would have accepted him as super hero and would have been happy watching him. With absence in logic to begin with Venom falls in the category of comedy movies to entertain yourself this year.

Few far fetched witty dialogues, page after page of borrowed action sequence and least bit of originality, the only thing that feels right is watching an alien as parasite hosted by Tom Hardy bounce around each other and their conversations in the head.

The lack of hope and love for humanity is the concept that has ruled in Hollywood for more than a decade now. They can’t do without  showing aliens living among  humans, so now they want to show aliens that dwell within humans. One would expect power packed, mind-boggling action sequences. All you will get are  the car and bike chases, which I found illogical as the Venom the alien was much faster on its own so why put him on any vehicle? There aren’t super fights between the good and the bad alien and this one fight only breaks out at the very end for a very short period. The alien says that he has started to like this human (Tom Hardy) but why the alien chose him and killed the other hosts is blurry and unclear. There are more questions than answers. The makers really need to visit how they want to unfold this story because I do anticipate a sequel.   

Venom with no venom can spew hilarious moments and Tom Hardy can bring across self-humor delightfully. It is a good time pass and you would come out of the hall happy and laughing.  I would recommend it for things to watch over the weekend after a bad week.

  

Movie Review: Andhadhun

Eccentric Connections!

Andhadhun

Frenzied tendencies or simply bold dark sides, whichever way you try to construe this saga it only keeps mind baffling. It's not a light watch but a guess what happens next kind of watch. You will wonder what would you do if placed in these situations. Will there ever be a dull moment? Nope! Andhadhun is truly the director’s artistic genius of his craft. Director Sriram Raghvan has his very peculiar style of storytelling that amalgamates music to the eccentric crimes in the movie. It is all a stylish display to your eyes.

Andhadhun has all its characters showing out their eccentric dark side when met with desperate situations. One keeps wondering of the actions we would take while facing circumstances if placed in the similar situation. Andhadhun is definitely not for light viewing though there are circumstantial humor bouts, the movie will still give you the heavy weight feeling. One is compelled to wonder the negative shades that humans can display in absence of choice and to survive under the most dreadful circumstances. The thriller with murders with not so much mystery is a clear entertainer. Every single shot is tightly choreographed to provide that perfect masala, yet it seems so easy and shocking at the same time.

The first half rolls on to us, it’s a fun enjoyable ride one after the other. The plot changes quite a bit in the second half with angles totally different. Every single character performance is perfect out of the text book so as to say, however the real deal is Tabu. I am mesmerized by her sheer ability to bring alive any shade the character wants to take. We surely need to see her more in our movies. Andhadhun definitely revolves around Akash played by Ayushmann Khurrana as this is his story and all the events that affect him. Radhika Apte has made her acting quite stereo type and is visible through out her roles.  

The retro songs along with pieces of Beethoven to showcase the most twisted parts is brilliant, it’s a different class altogether by Sriram Raghvan. When every single aspect of the story telling is going well there is hardly any reason left to not watch this saga. The end of the plot is left upon the audience to infer, so really it’s up to us on how twisted we want it to be. Watch Andhadhun for its dhun!