Anubhav Gupta

The film begins with the interrogation of Shalini/Fatima Ba ( Adah Sharma ) by the Afghanistan authority, who has escaped after being captive in an ISIS hideout for a year. The film then goes into flashbacks, where she narrates her story of how she ended up in the ISIS base in the Afghanistan-Turkey-Syria border. The story goes back to when Shalini joined a nursing medical college in a district of Kerala and meet Geetanjali (Siddhi Idnani) and Nimah (Yogita Bihani), and another Muslim classmate Asifa (Sonia Balani), who soon starts her plan to brainwash the three girls and recruit them for ISIS. Sudipto went raw with his content this time and gave some hard-hitting, and strong dialogue. When Shalini is informed that she can't get her phone back as Sharia law doesn't allow women to keep a phone with themselves, she responds with logic and says, 'Jab Sharia law bana tha, tab phone nahi the', and the narrative follows many such scenes, which left the audience smile and clap in the theatre. The narrative also shows how the fear of Allah is fed to the girls with scripted attacks, fake love angles, and sexual intimacy with an aim to impregnate the women so that they can be taken to Syria at an ISIS base. Amid the dark elements and a couple of cruel rape scenes, the makers also a glimpse of the culture and beauty of Kerala. However, the film is based on half-truths and is based on a few statistics. However, when it comes to hard evidence, we all go empty-handed. It's a good debatable topic but the real truth is what we all want to know. Well, the film will make you all Google the real story. So, Good Luck with that!

Sidharth Malhotra in kurta pyjama, with kohl-rimmed eyes, plays an R&AW agent in Pakistan who marries an innocent girl and using her as a cover in his mission to expose a nuclear facility. Mission Majnu boasts of a winner plot that's high on patriotism and heroic deeds. It is emotional, engaging and exciting. But, the experience is marred by too many easy coincidences and loopholes that are hard to ignore. Ahead of Republic Day, Director Shantanu Bagchi pays a tribute to all heroes who don't wear a uniform and sacrifice their lives for their motherland. However, the story, jointly written by Aseem Arrora, Sumit Batheja and Parveez Shaikh, falters at several places and doesn't let Mission Majnu hit hard.

It was painful to watch such a disaster movie.

Abhishek Sharma's Ram Setu was made at a time when emotions run high whenever a matter of religion is raised, so obviously, the film would steer clear of any controversy. It would be no spoiler to mention that by the end of the film, an atheist has a change of heart. Aryan Kulshreshtha (Akshay Kumar in unflattering get-up) kicks off the film with an episode in Afghanistan, which has no connection with the rest of the film. He joins an international team of archeologists assigned to find traces of the Bamiyan Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban. It is perhaps a roundabout way of stressing that only uncivilised Islamic fundamentalists would wreck a heritage site. The words 'dharohar' and 'sanskriti' are bandied about in all seriousness, which sound phoney in a film as superficial as Ram Setu! Back in India, against his wife's (Nushrratt Bharuccha) advice, he expresses the unpopular opinion that the Ramayana was literature, not history, and has his face blackened by protesters. When he also loses his government job, a shipping tycoon Indrakant (Nasser) hires him to research the Ram Setu and prove that it was a natural formation, not man-made. Indrakant wants to destroy Ram Setu and clear a sea route, which has caused protests and a case in the Supreme Court. In Indrakant's well-equipped floating lab, there are a few other scientists in attendance, including Sandra from Goa (Jacqueline Fernandez, cast just for shrieks and reaction shots), who use the latest technology to date samples from the mostly submerged Ram Setu. When Aryan finds a floating rock, and is convinced that it was man-made, Indrakant's goons try to kill them. Suddenly, a Sri Lankan tour guide AP (Satya Dev Kancharana) turns up to take Aryan and Sandra to his country, where the now converted archaeologist decides that since there are in Ravana's land, why not prove his existence, which would automatically prove that Rama existed too and built the Setu. The resourceful AP, who can manage everything from satellite phones to ancient maps in the midst of a civil war, takes them on a scenic ride to discover Ravana's Lanka. Nobody wonders why over the centuries, the secret tunnels and buried chambers were never found, when they were there in plain sight! Akshay Kumar's choice of films is getting to be increasingly bizarre, though this one would have been tough for anyone to carry off. Logic is not the film's strong point, and it takes the audience's credulity for granted. Sharma, with Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi's inputs, aims somewhere between the effect of Dan Brown's novels and Indiana Jones adventures, but falls far short. If the science is simplistic, the VFX is just about passable. People don't particularly care about the garnishing, if the plot is engaging, but Ram Setu is just silly and boring. There is just one interesting bit at the end when AP's presence is explained, and had the film been able to blend mythology, belief and interpretation in this manner all through, it would have redeemed itself.

“Mili” is a capable 2022 Hindi remake of the 2019 Malayalam film “Helen,” which are both dramas about a young woman who accidentally gets trapped in a restaurant’s freezer room. “Mili” takes its time to get to the suspenseful part of the movie, but it’s worth the wait. The acting performances are very good, while the movie’s editing and musical score skillfully increase the tension. “Mili” is the type of film where viewers will probably be able to predict how everything is going to end, but the movie has enough twists and turns to keep audiences on edge to see what will happen next. Directed by Mathukutty Xavier and written by Ritesh Shah, “Mili” takes place in Dehradun, India, where 24-year-old Mili Naudiyal (played by Janhvi Kapoor) lives with her widower father Niranjan Naudiyal (played by Manoj Pahwa), who works as an insurance agent. (“Mili” was actually filmed in Dehradun and Mumbai.) Mili is an only child who is a graduate of nursing school. She works part-time as a cashier at a fast-food restaurant named Doon’s Kitchen (which is located inside a shopping mall), and she attends International English Language Testing System (IELTS) classes. Mili is learning English because she wants move to Canada, where she plans to continue her nursing training and find a job as a nurse. In the beginning of the movie, Mili has already made up her mind to move to Canada, where nurses are paid a much higher salary than what Mili could earn as a nurse in India. Niranjan is not happy about Mili’s decision to move to another country so far away, but there’s nothing he can really do about it. Mili says if she stayed in India, she wouldn’t earn enough money to get herself out of her student loan debt in a reasonable period of time. Mili’s mother died when Mili was a very young child, and her father has not remarried. And so, Mili has spent most of her life living in a household with just herself and her father. Mili and Niranjan have a very close and loving father/daughter relationship overall. The only things they disagree about are where Mili will live (her father wants her to live close to him in India) and Niranjan’s habit of smoking cigarettes. Mili sternly lectures him that he needs to quit smoking for his health, but Niranjan sometimes sneaks in some smoking when he thinks Mili won’t find out. Mili has been keeping her own secret from Niranjan that will put their relationship to the test: Mili has been dating a guy who’s unemployed, has a history of violence, and is from a different caste. His name is Sameer Kumar (played by Sunny Kaushal), and he’s about 10 years older than Mili. Sameer and Mili met at a hospital where she worked when Sameer was admitted to the hospital for injuries he sustained during a fight. Mili hasn’t told her father about Sameer because she knows that her father wouldn’t approve of her dating Sameer. Mili and Sameer’s relationship has been turbulent with arguments that don’t turn violent, but it’s implied that these arguments are emotionally hurtful enough that Mili is on the verge of breaking up with Sameer. In the beginning of the movie, Sameer begs Mili to forgive him for something that he did that happened before this story takes place. Mili refuses to forgive Sameer and doesn’t really want to talk to him.

Total waste of time. I don't know what the movie maker was trying to convey with that lip piercing. As it is, Sonakshi is a sub standard actress. The piercing kills the character completely

I don't find any relevance. Totally money wasted..

The Taapsee Pannu-starrer comes off too choppy and muddled. It’s hard to keep track of the many things happening in the time zones the movie slips in and out of.

RAKSHA BANDHAN is the story of a brother and his four sisters. Kedarnath (Akshay Kumar) runs Prem Lata Chaat Bhandar, a chaat shop in Chandni Chowk, Delhi. He has four younger sisters – Gayatri (Sadia Khateeb), Saraswati (Sahejmeen Kaur), Laxmi (Smrithi Srikanth) and Durga (Deepika Khanna). Kedarnath’s mother died when all five siblings were very young. She had made him promise that he’ll get his sisters married and only then will he tie the knot. Kedarnath is in love with Sapna (Bhumi Pednekar), his neighbour, since childhood. She is desperate to marry him, but he asks her to wait till he can get his sisters married and arrange for their dowry. Sapna’s father Hari Shankar (Neeraj Sood), however, is not ready to wait as he feels that to have an unwed daughter at home, especially when she’s of marriageable age, is not acceptable. He gives Kedarnath six months' notice to get all his four sisters married and then tie the knot with Sapna. If he fails to do so, he’ll fix Sapna’s marriage elsewhere. A desperate Kedarnath approaches Shanoo ji (Seema Pahwa), an expert marriage planner. She asks him to pay Rs. 18 lakhs for the marriage of Gayatri, which will cover her fees and also the sister’s dowry expenses. Kedarnath mortgages his shop to raise money. Gayatri’s marriage is fixed. Meanwhile, Hari Prasad runs out of patience and starts looking for a suitable match for Sapna. On the other hand, Kedarnath is now worried about how he’ll raise funds for the marriage of his other three sisters. Himanshu Sharma and Kanika Dhillon's story seems a bit outdated as it reminds one of the social films of the yesteryears. However, one can’t deny that dowry is a burning issue even today. As a result, it comes across as relatable and has the potential to touch viewers’ hearts. Himanshu Sharma and Kanika Dhillon's screenplay is engaging. A lot takes place in the film and the writers ensure that the viewers get their dose of humour and emotions in every sequence. Sadly, there are a few loose ends to be tied and the writers should have done something about it. Himanshu Sharma and Kanika Dhillon's dialogues enhance the comic quotient. However, it gets quite acidic in a crucial scene in the second half.

You will be disappointed after watching this.