Rounak Chakraborty

One of the most overhyped movies of this year. No apparent reasons are given behind how the tunnels exist, or how the people in them are connected to the people above ground. The fact that these doppelgangers managed to survive that long underground with no discernable source of water and only rabbit meat as food... simply is a ludicrous feat by itself. The biggest problem is with the film's protagonist. If she is the girl who used to be tethered underground and later forced her way up by confining the original girl underground, how is she performing her actions? By the logic presented in this movie, the tethered should only do what their counterparts on the ground are doing. Then again, if that was the case, the tethered wouldn't have come upon the ground at all, rendering the whole movie null and void. It doesn't make any sense at all, why the original Abby would start mimicking her 'shadow's actions if she is the original human. Plus, if the government really created these experiments, where the hell is the security? Not even a camera is there underground. This whole concept of tethered is not hinged well at all. The director should have been more careful. Coming to the better parts of the movie, the acting was top-notch, and so was the lighting, cinematography and sound score. The movie will take you high on the horror department, then leave you hanging and waiting for something that will never come. All in all, an okayish one-time watch. Not for serious movie-buffs or horror fans.

Tamasha is one of those movies which make you question the worth of not pursuing your dreams. Unparallelled cinematography, marvellous background scores and noteworthy songs are key points of this movie which helps to lift it to another level. Ranbir Kapoor and Dipika Padukone play their parts fabulously. One can't help but relate to them and look at the film from two perspectives which are equally powerful and passionate, even though Ranbir gets a little more screentime. What the film lacks mainly, is the emphasis on the plot's finer elements. How did Ved get close enough to Tara to love her? Why Tara, even though she understood that something was missing in Ved, pursues him further to the point of fooling both of them that they are in love? They are explored, as a person, to an extent, but their screen-relationship leaves something to be desired. As expected from Imtiaz Ali, his film never ceases to surprise with visual feasts in iconic location. However, that alone is not enough to overcome the shortcomings of the screenplay which really lacks depth. All in all, Tamasha is a great watch with less emphasis on story and plot development, and more emphasis on the characters.

A tantalising tale. Tightly knit and woven supremely to keep the suspense alive, this is a masterpiece. Excellent cinematography, background scores and outstanding screenplay are the 'Spine' of this movie. What was amiss, however, was a little better acting from some characters. Especially, the character 'Blonde' seemed completely mysterious as ever at the end of the movie, and at times, bland. It's true that the director took care to expertly shed light on each character a little at a time, and never too much or too less, which kept the suspense running. This manoeuvre although, had both good and bad consequences. It kept any character from becoming less interesting, but, it also raised a lot of questions the movie didn't care enough to answer. At the end of the movie, we know enough about some characters to determine what drove them to do what they did. Then again, some characters, we knew nothing about. The apparent protagonist character 'Blonde' is a prime example of that. What are her capabilities? What drives her? Sadly, we only see a fraction of her potentials. Maybe it would have been wise to explore each character a little more. To let the audience know about their passions and drives. Shot in only one room, the story is not multi-dimensional, but it will keep the audience hooked through-out it's course and keep wondering, what is the question? All in all, a great watch and a movie worth visiting over and over again.

The One I Love is a fantastic movie. It changes its setting well enough so that the movie never loses its inherent charm, from its beginning to its end. The movie starts with a couple trying to make their broken relationship work and see a therapist. When the therapist sends them on a weekend to a vacation house in a pleasant setting, some weird stuff starts taking place that twists the initial path taken by the movie. The mystery that unfolds slowly yet delicately keeps the audience intrigued. One point I didn't like that much about the movie, is that it conveniently chooses not to explain the inner workings of the mystery. It's a pretty well-thought-out piece of work, but it leaves a lot of questions that it doesn't answer. However, part of the movie's brilliance is in not explaining the mystery that the movie poses. We can't really ask the director to hand us the truth and the solved mystery on a silver platter, it's up to us to figure it out. Clearly, explaining the mystery would have caused a bit of loosening up in the audience. By not explaining anything, it keeps the audience on the edge and rightfully keeps the thrill alive. To sum it all up, a decent movie with decent acting, direction and cinematography. Not a must-watch, but one you can watch on your leisure and enjoy every moment of it.

Coherence is so grandly and cleverly designed, that it can easily render you 'incoherent'. Once again, this movie periodically shows that content can win over any amount of difficulties that the finance can pose. While a grand budget sci-fi film with massive grandeur can fail to impress an audience, independent low-budget films set in a common setting such as these can blow the audience out of their minds, and then some. The movie is not only a sci-fi movie. It's really not. It never goes too deep into the sci-fi theories either. Rather, it's a glimpse into how small decisions can inflict massive changes in our personalities and relationships that we otherwise hold dear. After watching the film, one can find himself questioning, what are the lengths that I would have gone to if I was in the same situation? Can a law-abiding good citizen become a murderer in moments of hazard? What are the true costs of our happiness? Are those costs worth everything, including the very sense of morality that governs us? Unsurprisingly, there's no concrete answer to that, since the realities are infinite.

I think John Green summarised his own book in one line when he said through Van Houten, "Some infinities are bigger than other infinities." To paraphrase that excellent quotation, this film is definitely one of the bigger infinities of YA movies. It sounds cheesy coming from a teenager, but, you know, this movie touches our emotions more than anything else. If you don't watch it, you'll miss out a big part of your life. Don't deny yourselves this simple yet intricate pleasure, that's not what Gus would have wanted.