Movie Review Manikarnika : The Queen of Jhansi

One True Queen with Substance!

Manikarnika : The Queen of Jhansi

So much of our history is full of Courage and Heroics, which can be made into legendary films. Manikarnika is one of those Legendary films. We all have read about The Queen of Jhansi and know that she was the pioneer to sprout the idea of a free One complete  Bharat Varsha. Her courage and connect to the people at large made her the legend known as “Jhansi Ki Rani.”  A true Queen a rear Jewel in the Indian freedom fight with all the mettle of a fearless Warrior, Governor, Strategist and above all a True Leader. Manikarnika is all about this one True Queen with substance, hence you will see her occupy almost all the frames of the movie. I have no complaints as it is absolutely well deserved.

I don’t think any debutant director would have picked up a historical representation and portrayal of larger than life Hero like The Queen of Jhansi. Kangna Ranut gets full marks for directing along side Krish Jagarlamudi known for his work in Telugu Cinema.  Technically the war scenes and sword fight sequences are exceptionally perfected. However, the emotional side of the queen and her early life incidences require missing finesse. The initial sword tutorial sessions seem unfitting on Kangna who plays Manikarnika. But she pretty much makes up for them in the second half whereby she excels every move with extreme resilience and rigor making her credible for a warrior queen who has been playing with swords and horses since childhood. Every dilemma, emotion and helplessness of the situation that transforms into this courage that comes from within her, are these intense expressions of eyes, Kangna almost gives you goosebumps. The Patriotism that makes every woman in Jhansi fight for her queen is a voice that can shake the Himalayan ranges. Kangna playing this warrior queen is the ultimate tribute well given. Manikarnika may have well been dramatized and parts of other characters been reduced, but it’s purpose to show the life, choices, mental and physical strength of a woman with forward thinking, will give you an experience of history coming alive in front of your eyes. The dampener is the scripting for East India company whereby they have hardly any dialogues to deliver other than the few short ones on repeat mode.  The gruesomeness has been purposefully kept low. However, one can imagine the real intensity of these wars.

We should be watching Manikarnika along with our children, as this tale should replace fairy tales. Our children ought to know, what real courage and being fearless means? In today’s world where petty issues become the deciding factors for governance, and hashtags rule. The reality of what it real means to stand for something right and making hard choices needs to be reminded. I am glad that creative arts allow and make space for Manikarnika to remain immortal and our privileged generation to inspire and course correct. I never give stars to any movie in my review but I would give Manikarnika : The Queen of Jhansi 4 stars out of 5 for the fact to have been made. It will be a shame for any Indian anywhere in the world to ever miss an opportunity to watch it. The review would be incomplete without the mention of the end that left me feeling and thinking “Khub ladi Mardani woh to Jhansi wali Rani.” Jai Hind!

Movie Review : Bumblebee

Rumble of Emotions!

Bumblebee

Who isn’t a sucker for Blue round Iris full of vivid Emotions? We all have treated our gadgets, cars, vehicles etc with lot of love and emotion. If ever they returned the favor? Who wouldn’t love to see their car’s mechanical face with big, blue eyes full of emotion reflecting the same love you hold for it? This prequel part of Transformers is all about the emotional connection and chemistry between a teenage girl and the first Transformer that landed on earth and how B-127 became Bumblebee.

Travis Knight the Oscar Nominated director for best Animation film sets the emotional tone for Bumblebee. The look and every shot of emotion is captured and executed to perfection. According to me this exceeds expectation to be the best among all the Transformer movies so far. Bumblebee will definitely give us the vibe of revisiting ET. We will learn why exactly the transformers landed on the planet earth and their planetary history reminds us of the Alien Superman and the destruction of its planet Krypton. Bumblebee is flawless synchronization among Emotions, Comedy and Action giving you a wholesome package and satisfaction of watching a complete movie the way it should be. It is all in the details. The story of Bumblebee the movie is set in the 80’s San Francisco where B-127 crash lands in the middle of military exercise led by secretive government agency and its commander Jack Burns (John Cena). Followed by the arrival of a deception pursuer intent on destroying Bumblebee, threatens to tip the movie over into the series of overindulgent action set pieces. Bumblebee escapes, and ends up losing its memory and ability of speech turns into a Beetle. Later a teenage girl Charlie played by (Hailee Steinfeld) from a dysfunctional American family mourning her father’s death finds it among car wreckage. She wanted a car that her mother couldn’t afford so she decides to repair the Beetle the way her father had taught her to.  Comically B-127 reveals itself that makes both Charlie and Bumblebee afraid of each other, only later to help each other emotionally as both try to adopt. In the process what entails are a series of hilarious, emotional and comic instances similar to that of ET. Knight has served the audience a gleeful movie with wit, warmth and whole bunch of heart. It’s a skillful shaping of what’s essentially a coming of age story for both Charlie and Bumblebee.

The filmmakers portrayal of Bumblebee as the mid-‘60s Volkswagen Beetle may seem like a strange choice, but this model was the character’s original configuration in early stages of the Transformers timeline before morphing into the more muscular Chevrolet Camaro in later movies.  Knight adequately incorporates the Beetle’s familiar, friendly shape into both rowdy action sequences and the more emotional dramatic scenes to form Bumblebee’s immediately recognizable secondary character.

But Bumblebee’s generally warm demeanor isn’t the prequel’s only appealing upgrade. Where earlier Transformer Movies often objectified its female characters, Bumblebee gives us a young woman who’s smart, vulnerable and nuanced. Some of the strokes in the story are stiff and the awkward shift into action pieces can be shaky but Bumblebee has such obvious fondness for its characters that those shortcomings can mostly be put aside. Who Knew underneath all mechanics and action this franchise cultivated a little heart?

Movie Review : Simmba

The Rise of Super Hero Cops!

Simmba

Indian Cinema has always been big on cop capabilities. Relentless, Dashing, Aviator flaunting non-cape crusaders are the Indian Cops. Rohit Shetty the Director with Simmba adds a “tadka” personality to this Super Hero cop who is little over the edge, bad boy, with a crazy bone among obvious traits like strong in action sequence, can deliver a “kadak” punch, emotional enough to care, and gives “tagda” speech.

Simmba a signature style Rohit Shetty film that has all the masala in it. Yet you are left with a question to Mr. Shetty where are the Cars flying scenes? Which is what Rohit Shetty loves showing in most of his movies. Personally, I was really looking forward to the car wreckage. May be the budget didn’t permit him this time. One is sure to find good hearty laugh and emotional drama with minimal super strong action sequence to give it the masala movie viewing experience. Ranveer Singh Played as Sangram Bhalerao Aka Simmba an orphan, is a corrupt ACP always creating opportunities to extract more and in style, as a funny quirky, singing, dancing, cheerful bad boy making his way into your hearts. He also has his typical lines that he delivers so perfectly like “Tell me something I don’t know” “Jey mala mahit nahin tey sanga”. There is no bigger delight than watching him in the first half and laughing at the sheer fun vibe that is Simmba.

Simmba through his good connections with the minister gets transferred to Mirmar Police station known to be a gold mine for corrupt officers. This is where he meets Sarah Ali Khan (Shagun) who plays his love interest. She is  the daughter of an encounter specialist Father. She is now an orphan running a catering service that supplies lunch dabbas to the cops at the Miramar police station. Like most movies where the hero is made to look larger than life the heroine has very little to do than to dress well, sing and dance.

The chemistry however is between Simmba and Ashutosh Rana (Nityanand Mohile) the head constable who is a lone non-corrupt hawaldar at Miramar Police station. They banter like the married couple each trying to influence the other with their theory on becoming corrupt. Mohile keeps refusing to honor his grade and pushes him to become righteous with his police duty. 

Aakruti Dave is a medical Student that teaches children in the evening outside the church in goa. Simmba considers her to be his little sister. The story changes when she dies of rape in pursuit of evidence that children were being used to transport drugs.This is when Simmba turns to likes of Singham  and stands up against the rapist brothers of  a drug mafia Villain (Durva Ranade) played by Sonu Sood. The entire second half is about him rising to the occasion getting justice for the father and doing the right for the greater good of the society. The real Singham that is Ajay Devgan specially appears to show how it’s done. He is the state appointed in charge for investigation of encountered Ranade Brothers by Simmba; suspects of rape and Murder of Aakruti. You will not want to miss out on this action sequence where Singham pulls out Simmba from a tough situation with Durva Ranade . In all it’s the making of the Cop super heroes in all its glory doing the right, and standing by the right. There are bouts of emotional drama to show how a corrupt cop turns into doing right. These scenes can make you count seconds to just get it over with. Emotional Drama is definitely a weakling in the story and not a strong forte of Rohit Shetty in an otherwise a pretty power packed film. There isn’t a dull moment in the entire first half for which this movie shouldn’t at all be missed and second half for Ajay Devgan.