Gitima Das

It takes courage to make a film like #villagerockstars...not because it is a guerrilla film made by a one-woman film crew ....but because #RimaDas offers an honest attempt at providing a glimpse into a slice of life of a young girl who believes in her dreams inspite of all odds. It is reflective of a time gone by and in the process the audience is treated to an age of innocence, of a languid idyllic village life, of fables and moral stories, of adversity and life's hard lessons. But most of all HOPE. Its not a film for everybody. But for the patient audience and lovers of honest cinema it a visual and aural treat. Each frame is a moment frozen in time filled with lush verdant greens, scarlet sunsets, azure blues and billowing kohua bon swaying to a gentle autumnal breeze and the background score reminds of a mother's lullaby, of the pitter patter of rains, of the crickets singing at midnight and the roaring thunder of a foreboding monsoon.......

99 songs and yet not a single striking tune! what an epic failure A R Rahman ! Rahman tries to incorporate his musical genius into a new format of storytelling -celluloid but unlike musical composition screenplay is obviously not his forte. Like too many cooks spoil the broth too many characters and subplots ruin the narrative and make the film excruciating and unbearably long. The film advocates that music is the panacea to all evils right - from political corruption, socital inertia and degrading morality to substance abuse racial discrimination and patriachy. There are only two things that stood out for me during the entire duration . First was the jazz muisc portion of Shillong and the the encore battle between the drums and piano. (Ironically even though Jimi Hendrix is quite popular it is Bob Dylan who has cult status and is worshipped in Shillong with a music fest dedicated to him on his birthday) Second the art direction juxtapositing the scenic European locales with the stark jail cell where Jay is imprisioned. Stunning locales, panoramic cinematography some mind-boggling VFX and a stellar cast not withstanding; unfortunately are not enough to redeem the terribly boring cacophonic film.

DESTINY IS ALL #TheLastKingdom Not since The Tudors has a historical fiction series kept me hooked till the end of all four seasons ...edgy, well written, fascinating folklore entwined with nuggets of English history, brilliantly choreographed fight sequences (although there's an overdose of it) scenic locales and the list goes on. The cast Alexander Dreymon (Utred), David Dawson ( King Alfred) Emily Cox( Bride), Queen (Eliza Butterworth)Milly Brady ( Queen Aethelflaed) and everybody else have done a phenomenal job and do justice to the characters and remain etched in your mind ....this is definitely an underrated series equally deserving of the cult status of GOT... wonder why it has such low viewership on #Netflix or why Netflix itself doesn't promote it !