Mrinmoy Roy – Google

I started playing the later games of AC series much later after getting bored by the gameplay of AC I. Released after Unity, this AC game came with a burden of continuing with what Unity started- a good expansive world with great graphics and story. AC Syndicate was set in London. After Paris in AC Unity, London in Syndicate was as beautiful as it can be. The similarities end there only. Yes, the annoying snipers on the roofs as in Unity were finally not there (claps), but the bad thing was the story was very dull and unimaginative. Ubisoft threw few of the eminent historical personalities here and there (I liked the introduction of Arthur Conan Doyle as a character in the game). More than that, the game suffers from linearity and sexism because one couldn't continue the storyline by selecting the female protagonist even if the female protagonist was kept selected. The more harder and adventurous jobs were reserved for Jacob. The very idea of having a train as a safe house was ludicrous and however silly it would sound, I needed to say that during the first few legs of the game, I was very stupefied to find the manner to get out of the moving train in order to start a mission. With an addition of zipline that can be deployed at a will, travelling through the industrial age London by roofs was a breeze and I personally felt that the rooftop glides were the best in Syndicate than any other previous games. The game was short if one wouldn't have played the side missions (I always had maintained that the side missions were in reality a distraction and made me lose focus). One time playable game. To me, until now AC Syndicate is better than AC, AC ROGUE, AC III but worse than AC II, AC REVELATIONS, AC BROTHERHOOD, AC BLACK FLAG, AC UNITY. (yet to play ORIGINS, ODEYSSEY and VALHALLA though) N.B.: The game hid a huge pleasant surprise in the form of a glitch at the Easternmost end of the map. Having said so, the initial prospect of exploring the glitch was exciting but the interest died down because of the repetitive tasks and gameplay.

Forget the scathing reviews of few established critics in few of the English dailies, ATRANGI RE is a delectable journey on screen though it romanticises a mental disorder. The first 15 minutes belongs to Sara Ali Khan then Dhanush takes over but the two walks hand in hand all throughout the film with their stellar performance. Perhaps, Akshay is the weakest link in the film with his cherubic flamboyance role a little under written. The director Anand L. Rai created history when at the credits he started with AR Rahman as the person who made the film following with himself and Himanshu. Why not! One of the best works of ARR, the music is the soul of the film and takes the narrative forward. Oh my God! Rait Zara Si, the tune is so melodious and haunting is sure to ring in the hearts and minds of the viewers and listeners long long time. Absolutely loved this film.

Priyadarshan after a eight year long hiatus attempted a style of comedy he is known for- a controlled pandemonium. Be it Hera Pheri or De Dana Dan, the pandemonium created through a tight script and brilliant scripts and scenes made him a king of comedy. Now, why Hungama 2, why not any other name? Hungama as a movie had been a standout movie of Priyadarshan after the iconic Hera Pheri but unfortunately repeating the name have not yielded any results for Hungama 2, which to me, the worst movie Priyadarshan have made till date. This film is devoid of a good script have bad screenplay, loud acting even by experienced actors- staple actors of Priyadarshan- Paresh Rawal, Tiku Talsaniya and Rajpal Yadav. The first Hungama had situational comedy and scenarios which resulted as a cause and effect. This one is disjoint, forced and lackluster acting by both the male and female protagonist with a story that is weird as anything. A svelte Shipa could not have found a worse comeback vehicle. A huge disappoint for me as I am a huge fan of Priyadarshan. P.S.: Ashutosh Rana was superb and probably the only saving grace in this film.

Forget Hollywood, it is nowhere even near to Baby. However, it is quite fast paced. The first half of the film is actually quite good with great background score that went very well with the genre. The second half of the film is where everything the film built in the first half went downhill. The sandstorm scene, the actual climax scene seemed very weird as the hijackers left the Indian airbus on three range rovers to board a british airline plane that stood probably 4 to 5 hundred meters away and they drove like eternity till the RAW agents capture them. Vaani Kapoor is in the movie and that's it. The script didn't demand her to be doing anything except being Akshay Kumar's wife and probably place herself in some songs. In fact, with lesser screen time, Huma Quereshi had more things to do than Vaani. Why this movie is watchable because of the tight and fast paced script with absolutely no over-nationalism fervor thrown in. P.S.: Unless known, that Indira Gandhi's role was played by Lara Dutta, no body could have guessed it that wild, so good was her makeup and prosthetics.

Well, just get few facts straight! No body, I mean, no body can replace or recreate Govinda, not even the very energetic Varun Dhawan in his papa's remodelled 90's vehicle. The film turns out to be a spoof of the whole 90's David Dhawan type of comedy. Adding to the woes is the pathetic acting of Sara Ali Khan who unfortunately does not have neither the gift of expression and dialogue delivery techniques of either parents. Sad to see great actors totally ruined in the casting where every frame one will be reminded of the Kader Khan, the better father than Paresh Rawal, Shakti Kapoor, the far better Govardhan than Rajpal Yadav, even, Johny Lever is being reduced to a very ordinary carucaturish role as a police officer. Perhaps, Javed Jaffrey is the only one who does a good job in the role as a marriage broker originally played by Shadashiv Amrapurkar. Very loud, garish with bad screenplay and dialogues with outrageous scenes, this is a Varun Dhawan remake endeavor that even Varun will perhaps regret. To give the readers an extent of the mindlessness a brief description of an action scene- Varun Dhawan in order to save a child from a running train jumps on the train from the overbridge, runs to the front of the train from the roof and jumps in front of the speeding train and pick the child and moves the child away from the tracks and the train.

Well, at a first watch, MIMI would have passed off as a good family entertainer with substantial dosage of sentiments sprinkled with few humor moments having low key but unexpectedly beautiful songs thrown in between. There is no excessive melodrama in the film and that provides a more passable experience than what the story initially suggested. The concept of surrogacy is a taboo in a conservative society of India, and the director handled the matter quite lightly and that was where the film failed. While Sanon delivered a power packed performance, her best performance till date, I believe, it was the story that put MIMI down. In a small Rajasthan town, presence of a white skinned, blond haired child of an unmarried woman, is very hard to pass off in India. Manoj Pahwa and Supriya Pathak as Sanon's parents turned out to be surprisingly too progressive even for an urban setup, but they acted their part well. The director, chose an easy way out to mitigate the hardships and taboo and problems of surrogacy in India by either diluting the scenes with humor or melodrama. Even illogical was to find that Pankaj Tripathi when confronted by his wife and mother after discovering his whereabouts, they were never seen again in the later part of the movie and Tripathi was still seen along with Sanon's family. The director in one song tried to justify the acceptance of Tripathi's action by his wife by showing one frame in a song where Tripathi's wife is shown crying with emotion as the child trudged and walked with baby steps. Even outrageous was the climax when in a true Bollywood style where 'maa ki mamta' had to win. In short, the story is where the film fails even when the cast delivered a smooth rich viewing pleasure.

The dowry system has been presented in this film in a lighter and 'funny' note in the first half which later became a point of seriousness in the plot. However, never in the film this is strongly protested as Vibha who acted as the mother of Nawazuddin continues throughout the film to make herself clear of the effectiveness of the dowry in her family's life and even one point of time briefly mentions the caste prejudices also. What the other actors in the scene do? They look at each other with a look of credulity in their faces and that's it. Even Nawazuddin is made to make himself clear that he will not take the dowry in meek voice in front of his father-in-law away from his mother's ears lest that his mother gets offended. This apart, the film could have been beautiful, if not a for very shallow script and very shocking takes on the society like jibes for selecting a 'moti' woman for marriage, ridicule the prospective groom. Athiya looks beautiful and her mannerisms have been fun to watch. Apart from very small occurrences of stiffness, she does it fine. Actually, it's Nawazuddin, who could have salvaged the movie bit chooses not to do so by lazy acting, forceful stammers as if burdening himself as someone told to desperately fit in the romantic hero's role. After watching the movie, I feel that this movie shouldn't have Nawaj at all, ultimately prompting me to say- bad casting choice. Actually, it is Karuna Pandey, as Athiya's unmarried 'mausi' who steals the show and the times when Athiya and Karuna are together on screen, those are the brightest times. A very forgetful cinema.