debasree banerjee

Reviews and other content aren't verified by Google

Profound and exciting, this thriller is for those who want to watch meaningful series. On the other hand, the character development could have been better thought of. Adila is the one who the audience will surely root for, because she is the one well-thought of character. Omar should have been more mature, and the bad guy should have had bit of more motivation, than merely money. Amuldena's death was absolutely unnecessary, but the ending is strong. Nothing else could have been as practical as what has been shown.

This is man's tale of existence, life, beauty, love and spiritualism. It shows how everything is existent through a number of stories, and nothing can be defined by a single attribute. The demons and angels of human existence are nothing but one's ability to perceive of those things as ugly or beautiful. Then this play also touches the sensitive theme of beauty being much beyond fairness of face. Gurudev Tagore truly was a philosopher and spiritualist, and much ahead of his time.

S1 is brilliant; each episode deepening the mystery. Yoann Blanc as Detective Peeters is the best thing to look forward to. Jasmina Douieb as the doctor entrusted to his psychological evaluation is the second best thing after Blanc himself. The rest of cast and crew deftly deliver their parts, the story itself has harkening turns and twists to match the variety of characters, and their individual background. Heiderfeld, the small Belgian town quickly looks like a complex mélange of deep and dark secrets. Guillaume Kerbusch delivers Sebastian Drummer with an ease that instantly makes the audience fall in love with him. Anybody going in for a wonderful mystery series should watch this one!

Thomas Jane gives us glimpses of Nicholson's Jack Torrance from the cinematic adaptation of another Stephen King novel, 'The Shining'. It was wonderful, with Jane underplaying his part with elan, compared to Jack Nicholson who got the chance to deliver Torrance more dramatically. The classic tale of guilt and associated emotional turbulence, the story couldn't have been better crafted. After all, a man who killed his wife in cold blood, shouldn't be punished any other way. Dylan as Henry is far too charismatic for a 1922 farmland lad, but he acts so well that the little incongruence may be overlooked. Molly playing Arlette is the quintessential snobbish farmer's wife, who thinks her banal existence is way beneath her stature. The rats are frightening, the backdrop just perfect for a macabre tale of this capacity. All in all, 1922 has more reasons to watch it than not and Thomas Jane is certainly one of them.

Abhay Deol does it yet again! The subtlety with which he 'under'plays Shantanu, and leads us through a very 'Un'Indian plot, is overwhelming. The script could have been written better, better edited and a lot of other things could have been better. But if we as a nation, have learnt to move beyond mundane dramas and 'coming of age' stories, and yet steer clear of something as extravagant as Robot or Ra-One, we're almost there. On the verge of self-discovery as moviemeakers and audiences. Those looking for logic, and a lot of it, would certainly feel discomfited by several holes in the story, but then, we don't apply our common logic to ghost stories, because they defy our logcal reasoning. So, why ponder on a series that throws at us something like 'time travel'? The effort is great, some logistic lacking was there, especially in creating the 1984 Calcutta. Otherwise, it's a great and entertaining watch. Pankaj Kapur, Piyush Mishra, Rajesh Sharma, Ritika Anand and Sashwati Guha Thakurta, and others contributed to the entirety in their own ways. So, given some free time, go for this!

Classics remain so irrespective of the times in which they are read. 'The Old Man and the Sea' is a reflection of Hemingway's own experience, punctuated by his 'saudade' for his Spanish roots. Drawn hugely from his own life, this book changed the course of his own reputation as an author of 'serious' measures, and also altered the history of literature, so much so that critics who had earlier refused giving Hemingway a place among their own mantle of great authors, began re-considering and reviewing his works, and even placing him alongside William Faulkner and Herman Melville! On a philosophical level, Santiago represents the undefeated human spirit, that yearns for achieving more, and ends up feeling lost for his spoils of war. The spirit can be crushed but it rises again, as jinxed one's life may seem. The carcass of the enormous marlin being devoured by the sharks en-route to land, is symbolic of every success, that we leave behind when we die, but the people neverthless realizing their folly, upon finding the huge fish skeleton, represents the society's recognition of a human being for his works, even after they are gone. This is one book to be read and stored in the portmanteau of lifetime belongings, only to be extracted and read again during difficult times.

Harrowingly dark, humorously terrifying and unrealistically real, Joker is about one Arthur Fleck whose medical conditions mixed with an unhappy revelation of his parentage, sends him on a downward spiral of murderous rage. I know, that's one too many adjectives in a single sentence, but was the simplest I could think of. It doesn't matter whether the film leaves behind a gaping hole for the audience by keeping it ambiguous about Fleck's real parentage, what matters is that it addresses a key note. That of a common man who has to deal with penury, loss of job, bullying, neglect, abuse and mockery. Joker is the collective rage of humankind laughing away at the world's woes, in the Joker's signature style. The decadence of the society juxtaposed against the gradual disintegration of Fleck's mental conditon, is but an apt comparison of today's times, that loves to pin the blame of violence on someone like the Joker, never bothering to find the roots... Joker is mindblowing and reflective....

This is a reasonably good neo-noir movie, with an ensemble cast of characters. Some editing might hae helped make it more mature, some dialogues could have been written better. But overall, the storyline is perfect, and although the brilliant Radhika Apte struggled with her role, balancing the fine line between appeqring vulnerable and too confident, the others are quite spot on. Shweta Tripathi may have been given some more screen time, and a few cameos could have been put to better use. But overall, this movie has surpassed any others released this year.

'The Fault in our Stars' by John Greene was a great book, and a popular film has already been made on it. Still, Dil Bechara is for those people who want to feel an innocent love story, like we had in yesteryears. The added advantage is the thread of thought and ideals we're left to ponder on, after we're over with the movie. Manny's spirit and real-life Sushant's spirit are comparable on so many levels. The incredible gusto for life and invincible enthusiasm to celebrate the moments we've been given... That's what counts. It doesn't matter whether one dies young or old, gets murdered or commits suicide, or dies of a heart attack or simply of old age, what really counts is what they've done in the infintesimally small period of time, to leave behind an indelible mark on the fabric of space-time continuum. This movie should also be celebrated as the signing off work of a great person we lost quite early on. The love and conviction with which Sushant lived and did things, should permeate down to even our most banal activities. That'd be our way of respecting him, and of course, the visuals and songs in the film are great too. So is Sanjana, whose freshness helps lend an amount of feel-good credibility to the script, many of us already knew.