Reviews

Loved the movie which keeps the spirit of humanity throughout. Acting is good but Amir is sometimes bordering on clowning a bit, could have toned down his dumb act a bit. All else is good. Definitely worth a see.

Casteism is the deadliest bane of our indian society. And we must eradicate it. This is the very relevant message from the film. As a film it works well to an extent. Could have been more gripping. The movie is not a straight documentary nad nor a thriller. Difficult to meet the balance. The mood is gritty and glommy. Lots of fogs in the cinematography. Either morning fogs or evening. Slightly grey and bluish hard and dusty scenes. One common scene in reality has people gasping, that's of a cleaner going down in the drain of scums through a manhole and reappearing. The dramatic music enhances the eerie feelings. Some dialogues are incisive and shakes your beliefs and many things which took it for granted in life. The scenario js based on few real life incidents of recent times which shook the moral fibre of the whole country. But did we take any decisive action after that? That's where we have to shake our incumbency and move forward. Society should be the same for every body. Too many layers were introduced very fast and none were properly explored to give you a rounded picture. May be it's not possible logically. But I felt that we werr just given a glimpse only of the real drama of society. The Nishad angle, lowest castes, Bhim sena, mainline politics intertwining with the underworld of underprivileged and untouchables, also the mix of mainline media and booming social media etc. Many of us haven't been to the rural settings of UP-Bihar-MP-Odisa-AP-Maharshtra belt and lived a city life. Which has it's own different sets of existential issues. But in that belt, the additional casteist rules just blow you away. Even the shadows of a lower caste can't fall upon the higher one, forget about food and touching. And each of the castes have their own hierarchies among themselves. The film explores the impact of these whole conundrum upon a newly appointed IPS officer, with a multinational background and how he tries to trigger a casteless justice against the traditional heavy handed machinery of the socio-political juggernaut of the erstwhile stakeholders, but staying within the justice system. Initially he gets a shock ,but he recovers fast and stays one step ahead with his modern ideas. He has this strong humane approach which helps him reaching out to his subordinates. Two teenagers were found abducted and hung on the trees after his arrival to a north indian rural police station and the third one is still missing. He talks with his human-rights activist girlfriend and swings into action. His pro-higher caste assistant tries to scuttle the probe but ultimately he uses both diplomacy and hard nosed action to defeat the local political undercurrent and bring the underground lower caste leaders as his allies to give justice. He listens to the grievances of he poor and lower caste and they start believing in him. There are nuanced jokes like discussing castes while eating together. They hit home. Ayushman khurrana does well as the titular character but has less of physicality in his acting, which probably is less suitable for the role. He does embody the role of a western educated slightly nerdy, reader of The discovery of India, perfectly. His girlfriend's character seemed a bit imposed upon, and looks too much of a fancy dressed theoretical facebook warrior type character. Only at the end, when disclosing a deep secret to the teenage helper girl, she provides a required presence. Otherwise her role is used as a Person talking to him/herself, as seen in the yesteryear's Folk-theatre/Jatrapala, as in Vivek/Soul. Sayani gupta with her large deep eyes which says a lot without talking much ,leaves an impression. She is strong and educated to an extent, but has her priorities right. The bubbly young girl who cooks for the new Upper officer of Police , was charming and natural. Stands for the pure heart. Zeeshan is always a strong and reliable performer. Suits the role of an educated resistance leader. Police subordinates were done perfectly. I was impressed by the actor in the role of the local political leader, Anshu. Reminded of the great Raghuvaran in the film Shiva of 1990. Same nonchalance and ice cool languid physical presence. Here is no single villain in the film. It's the criminalization of the society in the name of caste, political gains and taking all these inhuman attitudes as part of the same game of keeping balance, which is shocking. We must get out of these collective apathy. As I said, this is a good movie. Not a great movie. But stirs our essence of the soul and in 2019, we should do something about it.

I am overjoyed to see that one of my childhood heroes has so lovingly to a genre which expands his histrionic capabilities. When you hear of JCVD, you do not expect a Noir. I never thought that he could do this. This european movie, probably Belgian/french, his native languages, is dark, gritty, brooding and tense. I didn't understand the ?french parts interspersed between the english parts. But I could follow the flow. It would have been lovely to understand the nuances of the language though. The bouncer/Lukas, is a nightclub bouncer , now in dire straits. He needs to keep up his daughter's education and lookin after properly as his wife isn't alive any more. His phone has only one number in list- his daughter's. Unfortunately he is forced to take up a bouncer's job, under a boss who prints counterfeit currency. The police agents blackmail him to be a snitch. Finally his mission succeeded but the ending is open ended. I presume to believe that he is alive. There are lots of close ups to show the lines of experience in JCVD's face. Deep furrows telling untold stories of pain, suffering but also of fights. Weary eyes carrying on for the one love of his life-his daughter, a sweet kid, she understands and respects her father for the sacrifices he made and the effort he is giving for her. And her thoughts keep JC going through this umrewarding life. The machinations of the agents force him to hoodwink his boss, who trusts him. The action sequences are few but always as per the requirement of the screenplay. Less dialogues. JCVD talks very less. Emotive eyes and actions. The violence is real life. No blockbuster sound and unbelievable effects. A grey and bluish tone throughout which matches the storyline, which is not original but executed with panache. We have all gone or going through these emotions at the wrong end of our ages, but we still have to soldier on. We feel the same pain in his eyes. It can happen to us. May be not the actions, but in other ways. The mode is same. A truly noir gem.

Unexpectedly enthralling for me. Eventhough there were lots of unexplained leads and short lead-ups in the begining. The Aliens are seen in few scenes, they stay below the ground and control the humans by collaborating legislators. The city of chicago is almost under siege. The resistance network has been working through advertisements in the newspapers. They want to destroy the aliens through one broad stroke. We just don't know what it is. All throughout the movie we are progressing towards that one final apocalypse. The mystery lies in understanding that. Gabriel is probably the main protagonist here , through whose eyes we start the movie and progress to some extent. Dark composition of the society. Everybody is oppressed. Some notes are passed over secretly and by birds, like in middle ages. The goal is to remain below the radar of the collaborators. Everybody is under observation. Some guys want to have a short burst of running away, they believe they can go beyond the purview of the aliens. But the saner ones are against that. They create a farrago of a scheme which even the close ones of the characters do not know. A senior collaborating security detective is helping Gabriel, sometimes we find he tracks him to apparently foil his efforts too. That way he catches the elder brother of Gabriel , who is a sort of hero to the other young resistance leaders by being the first one to break away. He is still living and in the hierarchy of the fight back. We are given lots of red herrings. Majority of the characters are seen as set-pieces , and the whole scene moves towards some grand scheme. Finally there is a tremendous twist which may not be understood immediately or in one view. The music is eerie. It creates an evironment of blue and grey alongwith the cinematography. There is tremendous emotional force in the people of the city to break out but hey are under tremendous pressure and controlled. The insectoid aliens are innovative. Watch it. It will give you a different perspective.

The 3rd Seagal movie. I liked the first two quite a lot. He looked fresh and energetic and most importantly not fat. His actions looked forceful. Started with him leaving his job and coming to stay with his sister. But he naturally got involved in a gang-rivalry and his niece gets shot at. His family was marked for death. Lots of voodoo mannerisms and symbolic dark magic thrown in here. He swears vengeance and directs all his wrath towards the Jamaican kingpins. When he beats them to the pulp in America, he follows them back to Jamaica and beats them again. Different types of kills, tortures and violence takes place. At the end one fellow apparently was killed and gets born again and gets killed again. Alls well at the end. No need to go deep in the screenplay and logic behind all these actions. If you are in the mood of extreme violence, then you may spend 90 mins of super actions, but of course from 1990.