Jit N – Google

Napoleon 2023 What was that? It was one of the films I'd been waiting for and it turned out to be among the worst disappointments... even worse than GoT Season finale. This is not a serious biopic as the trailer suggested, but from a big Hollywood film you at least expect a few spectacular battles if nothing else but Ridley Scott was not interested in that either. He was expected to become the next Abel Gance, but he discovers his inner Bollywood auteur. Everything the Corsican does is to impress that one woman who doesn't particularly care about him, as if he had no ambition of his own. There is no time to spare for actual politics or military strategy of the era in this excruciatingly long simp-fest. Almost at no point the proceedings manage to engage the audience as the screenplay keeps jumping from one event to another with minimal details about what is causing them. At least I knew what was happening but if you have never read up about that era you'll get lost. Except the two leads, none of the other characters are given any screentime although while Phoenix himself sleepwalks through one of his biggest roles while Kirby does what is required on her part. The biggest disappointment is Scott's complete lack of interest in Napoleon's most iconic campaigns. He doesn't even touch his Italian campaign, finishes the battle of Pyramids with one shot, Borodino is finished as they are shown charging on horsebacks, almost as if the producers refused to pay for the rest of the battle. The siege of Toulon and Austerlitz gets a bit more time but remember that there is an entire full-length film on Austerlitz (1960), that's how much they skipped. The only one that gets some detail is Waterloo, because that's the one that the Brits won. I think that's the main problem. British filmmakers can't be trusted with biopics of their enemies. So, what can we do now? Apparently there's a Spielberg miniseries in the pipeline. Hope that one will be better. Meanwhile I'll be boycotting anything involving Ridley Scott and David Scarpa.

Terrific work considering the systemic odds against it. I have seen the previous work by the director Tashkent Files. That one was was somewhat underwhelming after an interesting premise. However, this time Agnihotri doesn't hold back. I was surprised by the gruesome violence in the film (most of it actually happened). I thought the censor will play spoilsport but it doesn't happen in this case. The film has a clever story with intriguing characters played by excellent actors. Along with Anumpam Kher, Darshan Kumar, and Mithunda, we must give credit to Pallavi Joshi for her chilling portrayal (we all know what kind of people she's playing). I hope this one becomes a commercial success because this will encourage more such hard hitting films and will also remove the fake narrative that audience only prefer dumb entertainment.