The Indian Panorama

Tag: Kunal Kapoor

  • RAAG DESH MOVIE REVIEW

    RAAG DESH MOVIE REVIEW

    CAST: Kunal Kapoor, Amit Sadh, Mohit Marwah

    DIRECTION: Tigmanshu Dhulia

    GENRE: History

    DURATION: 2 hours 17 minutes

    STORY

    Three officers of the Indian National Army are on trial for treason. An ailing lawyer must help them face the consequence of their courage.

    REVIEW

    We are living in the time of terrific national pride. If your patriotism doesn’t reflect in your attitude, your cuisine, your movie-theatre etiquette and your twitter feed, its existence is called into question. And while we jump to conclusions faster than we can say ‘India’, we often forget the people who fought actual blood-and-bullet wars (as opposed to shouting matches on news shows) to get us where we are today.

    Raag Desh takes us back to these heroes. It tells the story of Maj. Gen. Shahnawaaz Khan (Kunal Kapoor), Lt. Col. Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon (Amit Sadh) and Col. Prem Sahgal (Mohit Marwah), three officers of Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army, who put everything on the line and gathered troops to re-enter India to take down the British after the Second World War. Khan, Dhillon and Sahgal are captured and tried in court for conspiring against the British Indian Army, while their lawyer, Bhulabhai Desai (Kenneth Desai), tries to twist facts to free them of the charges.

    Writer-Director Tigmanshu Dhulia has chosen to narrate an incredibly interesting anecdote from our freedom struggle. The hard work of his four-member research team and two-member writing team is evident. Whether the story needed to be told in a non-linear fashion is debatable, but it mostly gets the point across. In a lot of ways, it educates you about the socio-political climate of the time. However, its educational quality is its bane.

    Even though Dhulia painstakingly recreates the pre independence era with researched costumes and sets, and employs multiple languages (the Japanese speak Japanese, the British speak English; no shady dubbing here) to maintain authenticity, the movie proceeds with the mechanical tone of a disinterested college professor. It gives you numbers and dates and facts and suddenly introduces relatives of the protagonists who have stories of their own.

    It’s death by information. Had the movie been freed of its half-hearted side-tracks it would have made for great infotainment. It is only half of that word now.

  • Dear Zindagi – MOVIE REVIEW

    Dear Zindagi – MOVIE REVIEW

    STORY: Kaira (Alia) is an astute cinematographer who is bohemian in her approach to life. Enter Dr Jehangir Khan (Shah Rukh), a top-notch therapist, who helps her lay her innermost demons to rest.

    dear-zindagiREVIEW: In a scene from the film, Alia who is heartbroken, bites into a green chilli. As her eyes cloud over, she looks at her best buddy Fatima (Ira Dubey) and says — “the chilli is pungent.’’ Tears, silly fears and frailties all part of the life process. So brave it we must. This kind of sums up the life lesson writer-director Gauri Shinde’s second directorial film imparts.

    But unlike her first film English Vinglish that hit the bullseye subtly, here the message is hammered. Of course some of the writing has merit. There are funny and clever one-liners. There are numerous analogies drawn to explain the innumerable relationships one encounters in today’s fast-fleeting urban life. Some of this makes you chuckle, some of it makes you cry. So far so good. However, the first half of the film meanders, making you restless. Frankly, things actually begin to look up just before intermission when SRK, without his trademark outstretched arms, makes an appearance.

    As said earlier, the protagonist played by Alia flits like a butterfly from Raghuvendra (Kunal) to Sid

    (Angad) and later to Rumi (Ali). And there is a backstory to show why she is so messed up. Honestly, her angst bites to some degree but not entirely.

    To analyse why she is the way she is, Alia makes an appointment with SRK a DD (dimaag ka doctor) in Goa. It is on his couch that she is able to voice her fears. As he meticulously picks up the pieces of her past and

    ‘pieces’ her together, the film allows the viewer too to confront some of their own anxieties. So it isn’t all in vain.

    Feisty Alia, one of the better actors of the current generation, turns in a nicely nuanced performance. And SRK in his sober-avatar possessing infinite gyaan tempts you to seek out a therapist. If you’re in the mood to do some soul-searching this weekend, this film could do it for you.

  • Konkona Sen Sharma wins top honour at Mumbai Film Fest

    Konkona Sen Sharma wins top honour at Mumbai Film Fest

    Mumbai, Oct 27 – Actress Konkona Sen Sharma was feted with the Mastercards Best Indian female filmmaker award for her debut directorial venture “A Death in the Gunj” at the closing ceremony of the 18th Jio MAMI Mumbai International Film Festival.

    The drama thriller was also the opening film of the eight-day long festival.

    Oxfam India – Best Film on Gender Equality was awarded to “Lipstick Under My Burkha”.

    The Alankrita Shrivastava directed film stars Konkona along with Ratna Pathak, Aahana Kumar and others.

    In India Gold category, the top prize, called Golden Gateway, went to “Lady of the Lake”. Its makers will receive Rs 25 lakh as cash prize.

    While, the Silver Gateway went to “The Narrow Path”, helmed by Satish and Santosh Babusenan. They will be given Rs 15 lakh.

    The Special jury prize went to “The Hidden Corner”, which has been directed by Aichemh Jai Dohutia.

    In the International competition category, the special jury prize went to “Everything else” by Nataloa Almada, while “Diamond Island” received the Golden Gateway award.

    “Godless”, helmed by Ralitza Petrov, got the Silver Gateway prize.

    The Dimensions Mumbai section gave away awards– Golden Gateway for “Mumbai Mahuwa” by Santosh Kamble, Silver Gateway for “Ajeeb Dastan Hai Yeh” and Special mention for “Bombai”.

    “The Salesman” by Asghar Farhadi won the Audience choice award.

    American drama film “Manchester by the Sea”, directed by Kenneth Lonergan, closed the fest, which screened 175 movies, including features, documentaries and shorts from 54 countries.

    The event, which took place at Rang Mandir, Bandra, saw the presence of Bollywood celebrities, including Kabir Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Richa Chadha, Zoya Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Neha Dhupia, Kunal Kapoor, Anurag Kashyap, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sonam Kapoorm Shakun Batra and Ayan Mukherjee.

  • Movie Review: Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana

    Movie Review: Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana

    Cast: Kunal Kapoor, Huma Qureshi, Rajesh Sharma, Vinod Nagpal, Dolly Ahluwalia
    Direction: Sameer Sharma
    Genre: Comedy
    Duration: 2 hours 10 minutes
    STORY: On-the-run from the London mafia, Omi returns to his ancestral village – a place he’d flown from with his grandad’s money and grander ‘London Dreams’. Will Omi be able to hide his failures while chasing love, and the lost recipe of the infamous dish, ‘Chicken Khurana’? MOVIE REVIEW: One plate Chicken Khurana coming up. Everyone’s welcome to dig in. Pure vegetarians, hard-core nonveggies and others. Because, this dish is more a slice of life, than a chicken drumstick, really. So bite into it (with a pinch of salt, of course).

    A decade after fleeing to the Punjus’ very own phoren land, UK, Omi Khurana (Kunal Kapoor) returns home to Lalton village, Punjab, only for selfish reasons. A UK gangster wants his ‘pound’ of flesh (Omi owes him big moolah) and the only way to ‘chicken’ out of this mess is to run home to the rest of the Khuranas (he ‘makes no bones’ about being a good-for-nothing, loser). His homecoming is met with mixed reactions, while some are overwhelmed, like cousin Jeet (Rahul Bagga) and maa-like-chachi, the rest like the curious chachu and bhooka Titu Mama (Rajesh Sharma) don’t break into a bhangra routine immediately.

    The head-of-the-house, Daarji (Vinod Nagpal), has lost his memory, and with it the family has lost its biggest secret – his trademark Chicken Khurana recipe, which was the hottest item on their dhaba menu. Everyone remembers the taste, but no one has cracked the secret ingredient. Hungry for more, read on. Omi’s plan to swindle money off his family goes kaput, and in the meanwhile luv-shuv steams with doctorani Harman (Huma Qureshi), and with zero culinary skills he’s on a new mission to rediscover the lost recipe, reopen the family dhaba, and reawaken his other senses (of love and life).

    A lot of interesting characters blend into this mix: a half-crack Mama (Rajesh Sharma) who lives to eat ‘Chicken Khurana’ once again, Jeet who’s spineless and confused, Daarji who believes that a kala kaua is his long-gone dead wife, and the as-holyas- hep, buaji (Dolly Ahluwalia)who preaches and ‘pots’ with as much gusto.