Ritvik narang

Welcome back Mr Hirani. I say that not only because he’s back after 5 years but also because the last two films of his really didn’t do it for me. Sanju was fine with a stellar performance by Ranbir Kapoor and a boring second half and Pk was just straight up annoying as hell with Aamir khans overacting and a tonally bland script. Dunki feels like the kind of raju Hirani cinema of the 2000s in all the best ways. I had a grin on my face for nearly three hours and in typical Hirani fashion the movie will test your will in holding back tears. It is a wonderfully sad journey from start to finish and the captain of the ship this around happens to be SRK. This is a dream come true and as SRK has proven this year it’s that there’s virtually nothing that he cant do. If the script is as sharp and witty as this film then SRK will give the performance of a lifetime and Hardy is already becoming one of my favourite characters of his entire 30+ year career. Alongside him is taapsee pannu who breaks the mold of female characters having almost little to do in Hirani films in the past and actually feeling like the main protagonist in multiple instances. Her character is what sets off this journey and she gives a noteworthy performance for the ages. The other supporting cast also do a fantastic job of bringing the whole crew together. And then there’s Vicky kaushal and what’s there to say about him that hasn’t already been said. Despite being only in the first half of the film, I have never seen a cameo performance steal the show quite like he did in this movie. Alongside SRK, Ranbir and the deols, Vicky kaushal proved in 2023 that his versatility and finesse is something to be feared because this man’s work knows no limit and in the coming years his career is something I am most anticipated to see where it lands. And at last the music of this has that hirani level of sophistication and simplicity that I just love so much. The song lutt putt Gaya has been stuck in my head for weeks and hearing it on the big screen has just burned it into my brain at this point. I was sceptical about this film especially since the marketing for this didn’t really impress me all that much, but Rajkumar hirani has completely made me eat my words and I couldn’t be more glad to do so.

Police dramas are a dime a dozen these days in the Indian OTT landscape and Pataal Lok is another one of those. The story is very average and the themes of communal violence and political conspiracy are very paper thin with no depth and just feel like someone added them in to make the show seem very progressive even though it relies on a very dated approach to this subject matter which I can’t entirely blame the show for since this is the type of storytelling that has been standard in Indian cinema for decades now. Where this show shines the brightest though is in its characters and in particular Inspector Hathi ram chaudhary played by Jaideep Alhawat. His character is debatably the most authentic and versatile cop character in an Indian drama we’ve ever seen and he commands this show with the power of thors hammer. Neeraj kabi as Sanjeev Mehra also standouts as a daring yet conniving anchor who makes a lot of valid points but doesn’t realise his own flaws and biases. Also can’t forget the character of Vishal Tyagi played by Abhishek Banerjee who doesn’t have a lot of screen time, but whatever there is he absolutely steals the spotlight every time. There is also Imran Ansari played by Ishwak Singh of rocket boys fame and he was completely wasted here. It’s ironic how in one of the scenes in this show someone tells Ansari when’s he going for an Interview to become an IPS officer that he’ll be selected simply to fill a quota of Muslims and other minorities when his character in the show literally feels like that with having no other purpose but just to showcase a Muslim character and making the critics rave about it based on his inclusion. It feels very disingenuous and I wish they could’ve done more with Ansari’s character as Ishwak Singh is more than capable of delivering top notch performance as seen in Rocket boys. All in all as a police drama it feels very similar to other ones we’ve seen and plays it rather safe while simultaneously throwing something shocking in your face just to make it feel “Dark”, but it’s characters, in particular Hathi ram chaudhary, make it stand out and worth watching.

Outer wilds has blown my mind in a million different pieces and I cannot recommend it enough to every single person. It is the only game I have ever played where exploration is a key part of the game and genuinely feels rewarding.

Battle royale genre I thought had overstayed its welcome and it was gonna fade into obscurity I imagined, but mediatonic and devolved digital invigorated new life into by making a game that is not only something practically everyone on this planet could pick and play from the get go without needing to get puzzled with complicated controls, but also a game that is fun for everyone. A quote from the legendary satoru iwata "Above all, video games are meant to be just one thing: fun for everyone" perfectly sums this game up. From kids to teens to adults to the elderly, anyone can play fall guys and everyone will have a smile on their face. That is something only very few games have ever accomplished and for that alone the developers deserve to be applauded.

Either there's a subtle message in this movie that I didn't get or this movie was indeed obnoxious and boring as hell. This is a first for me, but I have never seen a film where not one character was relatable or even likeable in any way. I have seen worse films, but even in those there's usually one good character somewhere in them. A movie about adolescence shouldn't necessarily have likebale characters, but you should be able to relate to them in someway. Movies like boyhood, edge of seventeen and perks of being a wallflower are all coming of age films which I really enjoy and also connect with in someway. In lady bird, it feels as if I'm watching a sitcom in movie form because everyone is so overly dramatic and cartoonish that it's impossible to take them seriously. The movie doesn't make you connect with anyone and it doesn't make you root for the protagonist because she isn't real. She is a character from a sitcom or a caricaturish version of a high school student, but she in no way is relatable at all. I don't know what Greta gerwig was trying with this movie, but if she actually believes teenagers behave like this then she either never went to school or was in cram. I know this is a movie and it's supposed to be fictional, but when the whole point of your film is about going through adolescence, you should know better than anyone how that works and that a bunch of loud unnecessary arguments doesn't make a good movie.

If I had to choose my ten favourite movies of the 70s, enter the dragon is most definitely gonna be on it. I loved Bruce lee films as a child, but enter the dragon was something special. Overtime, my love for it has grown significantly and I now understand the significance it had on martial arts film or just films in general. This was Bruce Lee’s final completed film before his tragic demise, the man definitely went out with a bang. Raking in a whopping $90 million dollars at the global box office, there’s a reason why audience flocked to the theatres to watch this magnum opus. It doesn’t have the strongest story or the greatest acting, it’s the martial arts that take this movie to new grounds. The realistic depiction of martial arts made this movie stand out from the crowd. It felt like watching an actual tournament. I can’t appreciate this movie enough. Bruce lee maybe gone, but his legacy will forever live.

I didn’t thought the open world game genre could actually be great again after countless number of games just repeating the same thing over and over again. Red dead redemption is a game I never enjoyed. The game looked very dull and the gameplay just didn’t click with me, so when I heard about RDR2, I wasn’t at all interested in it. Recently thought I bought on sale to see if all the hype this game gets is justified or not. I love all the GTA games, but I gotta say I’ve never felt this good playing a Rockstar game or hell even an open world game before in my life ever. Of all the countless open world games claiming how “alive” their world is, never has a game felt this open and this alive before. You take one look at it and you feel it, you feel the world and you soak it in as much as you can. Gone are the drab grays of the original, the vibrancy makes the world pop out. The gameplay feel just as good(if not better). Gunplay is phenomenal, from the pistol to the rifles to the bow, they all feel great to use.