Kalyan Natarajan

Shakti stands on its own, but still worth pointing out its a remake or inspired by the Sivaji Ganesan Tamil hit in the 70s called “Thanga Padakkam” where Sivaji essays the upright police officer role …… But like I said the Hindi Shakti is legend unfortunately it was NOT a huge commercial hit because Bachchan was sooo big at that time, the paisa vasool crowd just refused to buy him anymore as a tragic hero (that he essayed often in the 70s). But nevertheless …..a legendary movie and the last hurrah for Salim-Javed-Amitabh-Vijay !!!!!!!!

Epic harrowing majestic tragic unforgettable, uplifting, inspiring, like only David Lean could make based on Pasternak’s Nobel prize winning novel that had to be smuggled out to get published. Not enough superlatives to describe this…. Obviously the book is HUGE like anything in or about Russia and even more epic - but the movie and the entire team have captured the essence in 3 hrs in pitch-perfect fashion with unforgettable cinematography and a timeless background score (thank you Maurice Jarre!). Like almost everyone else has said in the comments - it still bears repeating - they no longer make movies like this. And oh btw - this is meant to be seen in theatres on 70mm widescreen format which IMHO is way better in capturing breadth and sweep, compared to IMAX which simply looks like a big ugly square slab conveying no breadth or magnificent vistas. And course while Omar Sharif in the eponymous title role is magnificent the great Julie Christie is unforgettable and - unforgettably beautiful - and steals the show …… An epic in the truest sense of the word on par with other great epic movies of modern times - Gone with the Wind, Ben Hur, Ten Commandments, Sound of Music, Gandhi, Titanic, Gladiator ..……. - it belongs up there ……

One star each for Demi and Margaret but that’s it!!!!! You will either hate this movie (likely) or LOVE it (unlikely). I hated it. It’s dark gory depressing shocking body horror that, had it not been for the marketing with A-level stars, would be a c-grade horror movie that you can find by the dozen in any of the platforms that stream late night ancient cult horror flicks. You can also wave your hand and huff and puff about how it’s a satire on false beauty standards and how the industry is cruel to women and all that ……. But there was NOTHING APPEALING about how the movie goes all in and then doubles down on how offensively it wants to shock you with flesh & blood horror, the whole nine yards relentlessly - and boy oh boy!!!! does it go even more spectacularly off the rails in the climax !!!!! If you have NOTHING better to do then fine - otherwise skip and you would have missed nothing !!!!!!

Overrated movie undeserving of more than 2-3/5 stars ……. starts with an intriguing mystery then gives up and devolves into a regular witchcraft/zombie movie ……what a let down !!!!!! Not to mention huge plot and logic holes as well ……either that, or this is a NOT SO well disguised satire of the broken school and child welfare system and CPS and all that …..you be the judge ….. Definitely NOT A must-watch…..

Emotionally impactful nice horror movie with thankfully a happy ending, but don’t go looking for too much brains or logic in the plot. Great job by the two principal actors who are the main brother and sister characters in the movie. Great job in channeling a strong sibling relationship that overcomes great obstacles. Disturbing scenes of childhood trauma for those triggered by such things.

There is some good build up but the ending (or lack thereof) is disappointing. I guess what is more disappointing is this comes from Kathryn Bigelow of Hurt Locker and later Zero Dark Thirty fame. Imagine if Zero Dark Thirty had been a fictional movie, ending with the Seals finding no one in the Abbotabad house and the next scene - “The End” !!!! No wonder many viewers have felt let down after the ending of H. of D. - I gave it TTU on Netflix after about an hour, but after the ending reduced it to OTU. Edris Alba and Rebecca Ferguson, and all of the other actors as well, have maybe 10-15 mins each of screen time and none of their paths cross in any of the scenes so it kind of feels disjointed - as each actor only inhabits their respective silos in essentially “solo” performances with no single actor holding the entire movie together. The whole point of the movie seems to be just the tension with no good resolution for the average viewer looking for good bang for the buck - and there is literally ZERO bangs, explosions or any other kind of action in the whole movie !!!!! To wrap up - some big names, some tense moments but overall disappointing

A very interesting and intriguing intellectual and philosophical journey but …… as a movie it’s over-rated. Bunch of nerdy folks - professors, researchers etc - sit around trying to intellectually challenge the premise that one of them is actually 10s of thousands of years old !!!! Very good as a speculative what-if brain journey but movie is pretty much all dialogue ….a one-act mini play. As expected the ending is deliberately left to the the audience to draw their own conclusions. Take it or leave it ……so in my opinion maybe 5 or 6 out of 10 but no way does it merit all the folks going overboard over this as a movie. These things are best read in book form to quietly and thoughtfully ponder, and not on film. Sorry didn’t covert me ……I found it 50-50

Jaws remains a quintessential example (pardon the pun one of the character names!!!) of an evergreen classic. Endless theses have been written on how it ignited the summer blockbuster genre, how it did for sharks what Jurassic Park (20 years later) would do for dinos etc etc - all of which are true. After an umpteenth viewing recently I was delighted to discover yet another angle that struck me about the film. The first half of the movie is, say, a creature horror thriller etc - but the second half is an absolute rip-roaring sea adventure, in the classic mold of “adventure stories for boys” that used to be popular back in the 50s, 60s 70s etc…. It is Spielberg’s tribute in many ways - not just to that classic genre but also to a heady mix of Moby Dick, Treasure Island, Tintin, and other mysteries and thrillers set on the high seas. Robert Shaw’s character of Quint is a delightful mix of Captain Ahab from Moby Dick and Long John Silver from Treasure Island. To this potent mix add the unforgettable shots of long sandy lonely coastlines, lighthouses, the glimmering sparkling quiet yet mysterious ocean at night in which who knows what monsters lurk, and the sense of mystery about the ocean is complete. (One of the best sequences in Jaws is Quint regaling Brody and Hooper about his World War II ocean adventure and shark terror story related to the USS Indianapolis) This boys’ adventure theme is an absolute straight line that one can sense animating a great many Spelberg’s works - from Jaws to Close Encounters, through Indiana Jones, ET, Jurassic Park, Tintin etc….. This same spirit animates two of Satyajit Ray’s most loved movies - Sonar Kella and Joy Baba Felunath - both Feluda movies. There have been great geniuses in world cinema in every age but only Spielberg who has been able to combine cinematic genius with extraordinary commercial success on an unbelievable scale - without sacrificing the artistic sense of mystery, wonder, excitement and high adventure that are an intrinsic part of so many of his movies. Truly one of the greatest intellects and forces in world cinema …..no one comes close in this regard….with Jaws capturing so much of what is quintessential Spielberg……

Legend. The perfect Hindi masala action romance comedy thriller. And the opening train heist scene shot LIVE, still one of the best ever in cinematic history. Every cast & crew member at the peak of their careers. It made Gabbar Singh synonymous with Villainy and turned Amjad Khan into an overnight all-India sensation. And of course it shot Bachchan into superstardom, even though his was not the main role. The script and dialogue - all of it - was memorized start to finish by children who came of age with Sholay…… and became part of daily colloquialisms. Who can ever forget iconic lines like “Kyon Thakur? Ab tak jinda ho??” Not to mention the permanent classic “kitne aadmi……….?” Very few if any other Indian movie comes even close as a total package. I was fortunate to watch this in theaters in true 70mm format as it was meant to be seen. No further reviews needed. Just watch it. 🙏🙏🙏

Effective but really grim movie, about an extremely dark time in Europe during the Nazi occupation. It’s about the assassination of the Nazi butcher Heydrich by Czech resistance heroes, and its bloody aftermath - on which many books and other movies too have been made, the most famous being Operation Daybreak in the 70s. This movie packs some star power as well (Cillian Murphy, Jamie Dornan, Charlotte Le Bon etc) but they never overwhelm or distract from the central story. Hard-hitting and haunting piece of history that will stay with you for a long time.