Bollywood

Love Express Subhash K Jha

Written by Subhash K Jha on June 13th, 2011

God and Subhash Ghai know, the film industry needs new talent. It is therefore heartening to see Ghai patronize newcomers. Love Express, directed by Sunny Bhambani and starring Sahil Mehta, Mannat Ravi, the film is a sadly uninspired vehicle to accommodate new talent. Everyone connected with this rather touchingly disoriented low-budget romantic comedy set in [...]

Subhash K Jha Reviews West Is West

Written by Subhash K Jha on June 10th, 2011

Starring: Om Puri, Linda Bassett, Ila Arun, Introducing Aqib Khan Directed by Andy deEmmony Rating: *** ½ Twelve years have passed since East Is East the cult British film on the blithe angst of the Asian diaspora in England. In the sequel,which let me quickly add, is a decent engaging and warm follow-up to the [...]

Kashmakash

Written by Subhash K Jha on May 22nd, 2011

Starring Prosenjit, Jishu Sengupta, Raima Sen,Riya SenDirected by Rituparno Ghosh How does one go about adapting a popular Rabindranath Tagore novel that’s filled with melodramatic coincidences without making it look like a distant cousin of a Hindi potboiler written by Gulshan Nanda rather than Tagore? Ghosh has earlier done a delicately-drawn Tagore portrait on celluloid [...]

Shagird

Written by Subhash K Jha on May 12th, 2011

Starring Nana Patekar, Mohit Ahlawat, Rimi Sen, Anurag Kashyap Written & Directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia There is this utterly delightful action sequence where Nana Patekar, playing a belligerent corrupt but effectual cop in a crime-infested small town of Uttar Pradesh run by the political mafia, barges on to a nefarious hide-out. He peeps into the [...]

Zokkomon

Written by Subhash K Jha on April 23rd, 2011

Starring: Anupam Kher, Darsheel Safary, Manjari Phadnis Directed by Satyajit Bhatkal Heartwarming performances and noble intentions do not make great cinema. This one falls short of expectations, mainly because of the poor special-effects and the failure of the plot to take off. To imagine a film about a flying hero without convincing technique to make [...]

Teen Thay Bhai

Written by Subhash K Jha on April 16th, 2011

Starring Om Puri, Deepak Dobriyal, Shreyas Talpade Directed by Mrigdeep Singh Lamba Rating: 1.5 Some comedies mean well. But they lose their way in their noble intentions. Teen Thay Bhai seems like a terrific idea for a comedy. Three brothers separated more at mirth than by birth, trying hard to keep the spirit alive. They [...]

Life Goes On

Written by Subhash K Jha on March 26th, 2011

Starring Sharmila Tagore, Girish Karnad, Om Puri, Soha Ali Khan, Mukulika Banerjee, Neerja Naik, Rez Kempton Written & Directed by Sangeeta Dutta One of the many pleasures of watching this supple evocative elegiac family saga is to see the timeless Sharmila Tagore share screen space with her real-life daughter Soha, who by the way, has [...]

Film Review: Hum Dono (in color) – Subhash K. Jha

Written by Subhash K Jha on February 5th, 2011

Abhi na jao chhod kar ke dil abhi bhara nahin…The film’s anthemic love ballad, regarded as one of the finest love songs ever composed for Hindi cinema, rings through your heart after the lengthy film is done – and let’s face it, nearly 3 hours of playing-time for a long-forgotten war saga can get tedious [...]

Subhash Jha: The lives on the streets never looked more dangerous and less glamorous in Allah ke Banday

Written by Subhash K Jha on November 26th, 2010

A feeling of foreboding and damnation builds up in the narration from the first frame itself. Here’s a gloriously gutsy film exploring the underbelly of Mumbai through the lives of two slumkids who grow up in identical circumstances but with somewhat disparate values. First-time director Faruk Kabir displays remarkable skill in creating a pastiche of [...]

Subhash Jha: “Guzaarish is a big, beautiful, dazzling, emotional movie experience”

Written by Subhash K Jha on November 19th, 2010

Breathe a sigh of relief. During a year when cacophonic crassness masquerading as comic entertainment has been sanctioned by critics and the masses, Guzaarish comes along to remind us that excellence of the highest order is alive and throbbing in our cinema. Ironically this wonderful work of art, nuanced and magical in its portrayal of [...]

Action Replayy

Written by Subhash K Jha on November 8th, 2010

It is the season to be jolly. And boy oh boy,if it’s a festive fiesta of flamboyant filminess that you’re looking for, then Action Replayy is your one-stop masti mela. It’s is a feisty feast, as splashy in colour and mood as it’s tangy in flavour and fervour. Serving up its delectable back-to-the-future core idea [...]

Subhash K Jha: “For Real is an elegantly crafted piece of cinema”

Written by Subhash K Jha on September 15th, 2010

And quietly slips the night into a tortured morning-time light. While watching the muffled muted voices looking for a way to express themselves in the well-ordered sparkling-clean environment of a upper middleclass household in Delhi in For Real, we often feel a sense of smothered compulsion waiting to be liberated. And how liberating is the [...]

Subhash Jha: “The Film Emotional Atyachar is a wicked and wacky road movie”

Written by Subhash K Jha on September 5th, 2010

Every character in debutant director Akshay Shere’s savage, funny, bitter, and violent ode to the road movie wants money. Sometimes they also crave sex. For example there’s this incidental character (the film has drug dealers, racketeers, and criminals crawling out of every frame) who’s force-doped by Ravi Kissen (very at-home playing the revved-up psycho). The [...]

Subhash K Jha: “Antardwand avoids the easy road to realism”

Written by Subhash K Jha on August 31st, 2010

Set in the mythic killing fields of rural Bihar where nothing works, except the law of the lawless Antardwand takes the firm and gripping route to expose a hinterland-headline: the kidnapping of marriageable boys by desperate fathers of wannabe brides. This was a prevalent malpractice in Bihar until some years ago. Not so much anymore. [...]

The performances make Brick Lane a film worth a look – Subhash K Jha

Written by Subhash K Jha on May 29th, 2010

Arranged marriages are almost always compromised arrangements. They require tremendous compromises and determination on the part of the less disgruntled partner in a marriage. We saw two empathetic male spouses played by Ajay Devgn and Shah Rukh Khan in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, respectively. In Brick Lane Satish [...]

Subhash K Jha: Bumm Bumm Bole doesn’t forget to be an entertaining story

Written by Subhash K Jha on May 17th, 2010

Majid Majidi’s Children Of Heaven comes down to earth in an endearing spiral of the spellbinding and the sensitive. Let’s not get unnecessarily and unjustly nostalgic about the original Iranian film. This remake, done up in shades of terrorism in the idyllic North-east (region unspecified) is so lyrically lush in its visuals and so gently [...]

Subhash K Jha reviews Hai Marjawaan

Written by Subhash K Jha on May 12th, 2010

As Shakespeare said in another context, this is a grave matter. Gurinder Chadha’s new…er, ghoulish comedy (for the want of better terminology) is also a gravy matter. Ghouls rise from the dead and mess around with ladels of curries and gravies in what could easily be termed the most messy climax of desi-gone-ballistic-firangi cinema. By [...]

Subhash K Jha: Badmaash Company is a film that is too smart for its own good

Written by Subhash K Jha on May 8th, 2010

There’s a longish sequence in an American eatery in the second-half of this deeply flawed and yet refreshingly cool urbane casual and yet highly cinematic work where Shahid Kapoor’s Karan, by now on the road to seemingly irredeemable moral degeneration is told by his partner, played by newcomer Vir Das, that he wants out. The [...]

Subhash K Jha: You will find some uncomfortable answers in City Of Gold

Written by Subhash K Jha on April 28th, 2010

Move aside. There is no room for artifice in Mahesh Manjrekar’s latest work. A raw, guttural, gritty, intense, edgy, mordant and finally devastating look at the world of the damaged and the ravaged, City Of Gold is as powerful in portraying a bereft working class as Molly Maguires was about Irish mine-workers. Except for the [...]

Subhash K Jha: In Phoonk 2 you wonder what the fuss is about

Written by Subhash K Jha on April 18th, 2010

In one of his multitudinous interviews to promote this intended shiver giver Ram Gopal Varma said the scariest film he had seen in recent times was Karan Johar’s Kabhie Alvida Na Kehna. Now that’s a scary thought. Because Johar’s film didn’t belong to the horror genre. Phoonk 2 does. And it is definitely NOT the [...]

Subhash K Jha: The style behind Paathshaala is in its inner conviction

Written by Subhash K Jha on April 18th, 2010

If a piece of cinema ever had its heart in the right place, this is it. Don’t let the sluggish pace, the absence of stylish shots and flamboyant frames fool you into believing that this is a film with no style. The style behind Paathshaala is in its inner conviction. The obvious artlessness of presentation [...]