Pradyun Chakravarty

4/ 5 * A movie worth watching. Less drama, more issue driven. The stark and horrific realities of our country-side & the villages are brought to the picture effectively. The Issue around which the movie revolves is Casteism, and the discrimination and the violence that is meted out to the perceived lower caste citizens of the country, infinetely since ages now. It is a reminder that India is not all that developed than what is purported in the mainstream media. That people continue to live among their groups where discrimination and caste loyalties are pro-active. The dehumanization of manual scavengers and people from certain caste groups, who are only meant to do the un-dignified or the so-called low caste work, is also portrayed very well in the movie. City- born & bred Indians, who are distant from the happenings and unaware of the daily tumult perpetrated on the people from certain castes, would find this movie dis-comforting, hard to digest and unreal. But this is what India is in the 21st century. A paradoxical reality.

Game of Thrones fans can remain forever divided on whether Season 8 deserves an applause or a re-write, but for me it is definitely the former. Season 8 is the perfect conclusion to this epic saga of greed, power, lust and the human condition. The makers could not have done it any better. Shades and layers of good, of what different people consider right and wrong, a survivors tale, machiavellian designs and so much more. Happy that the series is concluded with an un-expected but a realistic climax. Thank you for this journey.

5/10 * "Not Up To The Expectations" Sicario(2015) was a unique masterpiece of tightly synchronised action scenes and a very gripping storyline, this one, Sicario: day of soldado, tries to build on the first one but fails miserably in consolidating itself together. Only thing worth mentioning were the sceneic camera shots of some mexican landscapes and a, somewhat much needed, refreshing character of Isabella Moner among the otherwise stale characters and situations continued from the first movie (Sicario 2015). Benecio del toro's previous portrayl of vengeance-at-any-cost and ruthlessness & efficiency of Josh Brolin's character were all mellowed down to show a sense of conscience and humaneness in them. This might not go down well with the people who have already watched the first film and liked the ruthlessly driven characters of Brolin and Del toro. In many ways, through this movie, the makers have tried to repeat the critical acclaim of the first movie while also trying to garner wide popularity among different audiences, which Sicario (2015) was not able to much enjoy. Sad, as 'Sicario' could have been developed as a class-apart movie franchise. But, still I keep my hopes for the next in line of this series.

Highly over-rated! Except for a quick cameo of Jon bernthal and some decent acting by Jamie Foxx, this movie really just sucks. Trying to portray Ansel Elgort, the lead, as an uber-hip, good guy with serious driving skills who gets caught-in-a-bind by his criminal and sometimes insane colleagues is just cliched and lazy writing. Overall did not deserve more than 5 out of 10 rating.

The best movie I have seen in recent times. The action is bloody ruthless! It clearly deserves an 8* rating.