Vicky Kaushal's Chhaava Is Overzealous & Thundering, But Exhaustingly Repetitive
| A historical biopic is a tricky genre to pull off, especially in India where blind worship is often disguised as reverence. There is no nuance to boast about in Chhaava , and that is its biggest flaw, Swetha Ramakrishnan reviews.
| | | | | Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Rashmika Mandanna, Akshaye Khanna | | | | IF WARS COULD BE WON by merely screaming, Chhaava would be the biggest winner of Bollywood, courtesy a howling Vicky Kaushal who doesn’t miss one opportunity to deliver a roaring, face-trembling shriek. And they keep coming, one after another, passion and intensity intact. But soon enough, the shrieks begin to merge into one, and you can’t tell the difference between the several war scenes in the film. At the end of the 161-minute runtime, Chhaava feels like a loop. This loop starts with flashback shots of a scared little boy running amok trying to find comfort and protection of his parents; the little boy is Sambhaji Bhosle, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s son. As an adult (Vicky Kaushal), he’s now brave, noble, ferocious and undefeatable, and we are shown this through various war set-pieces that start off feeling innovative and immersive but eventually feel exhausting to follow. There’s only so much shouting-fighting-face-trembling one can palate in three hours. But the loop continues, much to our chagrin. | | | Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy Is A Charming, Nostalgic Film Perfect For Valentine’s Weekend
| Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy is a classic romantic comedy that will make you nostalgic for a time when Hollywood was doling out movies like these by the dozen (the good ol’ early 2000s).
| | | | | Cast: Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Leo Woodall | | | | WE ARE NOW LIVING IN A WORLD where Bridget Jones (the eternally single and chaotic protagonist of a well-loved book and movie series) is a widow and mother to two children. We are now living in a world where her ex-lover and universal f-boi, Daniel (Hugh Grant) is now a best friend, who occasionally babysits her kids — no strings attached — while she gets to have a night off. Nothing hanky panky. Pure, platonic friendship: who’d have thought? We are now living in a world where Renee Zellweger can have her hair loosely tied in the most atrociously messy manner throughout the runtime of the film, and even the most uptight of viewers will find the power to ignore it in order to give way for the charming rom-com to unfold. Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy starts with establishing the death of Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) and Bridget (Zellweger) a widow. She struggles to rise above the bare minimum of the parenting-existing axis. Her worries are now helicopter moms in her kids’ school, and how to make it one evening without completely losing her marbles at the overwhelming thought of being a single parent for the rest of her life. She’s grown up from the time she wore a bunny costume to an uptight elite party, but not too much, because she still has her moments. Daniel and her have struck a great friendship, her kids are finally settled in the rhythm of their lives and all her friends are coaxing her to put herself out there: it has been four years since Mark died. — SR | | | Dhoom Dhaam: Yami Gautam Dhar & Pratik Gandhi Are Wasted In This Trip To Nowhere
| Dhoom Dhaam proves through its existence that the OTT platforms have become more of a dumping ground for middling films that have nowhere else to go or, in the spirit of the film, run, writes Ishita Sengupta.
| | | | | Cast: Yami Gautam Dhar, Pratik Gandhi | | | | RISHAB SETH's Dhoom Dhaam , a silly film that unfolds across one night, is made on vibes. There is no other way to explain it. Here is what might have happened. The filmmaker envisioned certain scenes and scored them to a catchy tune in his head. And then he got so immersed in the execution that he forgot to make any effort to connect them, causing the outing to resemble a disjointed deadbeat of an endeavour that lights up, ever so lightly, with hilarity. But the feeling is so transient that you forget about it till it comes back again. Not ironic that for a film about a couple on the run, Dhoom Dhaam makes you play catch up with your own emotions. None of this was necessary. The premise is inventive, almost a clutter-breaker amidst the slews of remakes and adaptations that we are finding ourselves in. It starts with a hastily arranged marriage of a shy Gujarati man Veer Poddar (Pratik Gandhi) and a conventional girl from Mumbai Koyal Chadda (Yami Gautam Dhar). They are nervous during the first night. They have reasons to be. Overbearing relatives made it impossible for them to even talk and the courtship period was as good as absent. But as they sit on the bed together, both coy and eager, a knock on the door upturns their lives. Two men barge in wanting what they call “Charlie” and thus begins a cat-and-mouse chase game through the night. | | | Captain America: Brave New World Is Yet Another Exercise In MCU Capitalist Greed
| Captain America: Brave New World is the cinematic equivalent of a drunken Hulk, a clumsy green supersoldier frothing with rage, grunting and running in all directions without any sense of purpose, Rahul Desai reviews .
| | | | | Cast: Anthony Mackie, Harrison Ford, Danny Ramirez | | | | I HAVEN'T WATCHED ENOUGH MCU MOVIES to declare that Captain America: Brave New World is the worst of them. But I’ve watched enough movies in general to declare that Captain America: Brave New World is an unnecessary film. It added nothing to my life for two hours, and I suspect it adds next to nothing to the lives of rampant superhero fans who miss the Avengers but secretly don’t because they know that there’s no such thing as dying in this giant mess of an anything-goes multiverse. One can argue that many Marvel movies and shows in the last decade have been cash-grabbing blobs of bad. This one goes a step further – it’s the cinematic equivalent of a drunken Hulk, a clumsy green supersoldier frothing with rage, grunting and running in all directions without any sense of purpose. It has zero personality, feels like Winter Soldier on sleeping pills, and unfolds like an endless trailer of AI-generated plot with a dash of smug MCU tension-diffusing humour. It’s such a toxic alpha-male trait — to get emotional and then make a joke about getting emotional. | | | The one newsletter you need to decide what to watch on any given day. Our editors pick a show, movie, or theme for you from everything that’s streaming on OTT. | | Each week, our editors pick one long-form, writerly piece that they think is worthy of your attention, and dice it into easily digestible bits for you to mull over. | | In which we invite a scholar of cinema, devotee of the moving image, to write a prose poem dedicated to their poison of choice. Expect to spend an hour on this. | | | Hindustan Media Ventures Limited,
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