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Review: Bioscope

Four different films set in one big canvas, Bioscope is a compilation of four poems interpreted by four Marathi filmmakers.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 4 out of 5

Bioscope is a compilation of four films by four directors, made into a single film. These individual films are not connected in terms of plot or characters; however, the connection between them is all the four stories are based on poems by renowned poets.

The first one is Dil-E-Nadan directed by Gajendra Ahire, based on Mirza Galib’s ghazal of the same name. It tells the story of classical singer Padma Bhushan Nirmaladevi Indori (Neena Kulkarni) and Sarangi player Miyaji (Suhas Palshikar), who make a living selling almonds. An undelivered letter from Delhi gives a possible hint for an invitation to perform almost after two years. The emotions expressed through the ghazal connects the pain of ingnomity for Nirmaladevi and Miyaji. Watch out for the sets and art direction of this film, as well as the screenplay and crisp dialogues by Gajendra Ahire. Neena Kulkarni and Suhas Palshikar are top notch in this one.

This is followed by Viju Mane’s Ek Hota Kau based on Saumitra’s poem by the same name. This one starts with Swapnil (Kushal Badrike) who is called ‘Kavala’ (due to his dark complexion) jumping from one building to another on a daily basis to catch the glimpse of his love Paakali (Spruha Joshi). Paakali likes him too, and throws hints at him, but our mechanic hero thinks he is no match for her due to his dark complexion. Several scenes show crows cawing at each other – this is a metaphor for the hero but it becomes repetitive. This film rides on Kushal’s excellent performance.

 

The third film Bail directed by Girish Mohite is based on Loknath Yashwant’s poem. Panjab (Mangesh Desai), a cotton farmer from Vidharba, comes to Mumbai to participate in a rally that’s protesting against prices given to cotton farmers. He lands up in a shopping mall and sees the prices of cotton shirts being sold – this frustrates him and he agonises over farmers not getting their dues. He stays back to work hard and earn money, so that he can clear off his debts. The end scene of this film brings a lump in the throat. I loved this take on insensitive urbanisation and pathetic conditions of our farmers today. Mangesh Desai’s performance and dialogues by Abhay Dakhane are the highlights of this film.

The final film is Mitraa, directed by Ravi Jadhav, based on Sandeep Khare’s poem and Vijay Tendulkar’s story. This one is in black and white since the plot is set in pre-Independence India. Student Saumitra (Veena Jamkar) lives in a hostel in Pune. Vinayak Joshi (Sandeep Khare) is her best friend who has romantic feelings for her, which he expresses in a letter; however, Saumitra has feelings for her roommate Urmila. Saumitra describes how she discovered at age 14 that she was different from other girls. Veena Jamkar has given a heartfelt performance and the direction is good, too.

Bioscope is a collection of different genres and human emotions woven through four different movies which are unrelated; however it keeps the audiences engaged. Don’t miss the Bioscope song sung by Raghuvir Yadav in the end credits.

(Picture courtesy marathistars.com)

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Review: Murder Mestri

An intriguing plot is somewhat waylaid by its lazy treatment, but is saved by its stellar performances and crisp dialogues.
Rating: 3 out of 5

Murder Mestri, directed by Rahul Jadhav, is the story of Prabhakar (Hrishikesh Joshi) who works as a postman in Malgaon and has a strange habit of reading other people’s letters.

Prabhakar is close to his lovable daughter Pari, whom he tells bedtime stories. One day, the villagers find that Prabhakar has been hiding many of their letters for a while (to read at his leisure) and they beat and abuse him in front of the other villagers, including his wife and daughter. Pari believes that her father is a superhero and wants him to do something great that would make her proud.

He decides to stop reading people’s letters; however he can’t resist and soon opens another letter which says that someone named Madhav Mestri in Sawantwadi will be killed by his wife. Encouraged by Pari, Prabhakar makes his journey to Sawantwadi to find and save this Mestri; however on reaching his destination, he discovers that there are three people with the name Madhav Mestri.

 

One Madhav Mestri (Vikas Kadam) is recently married to Hemlata (Manasi Naik) and he is planning his honeymoon. The second Madhav Mestri (Sanjay Khapre) is the sarpanch of the village and his better half Saraswati (Kranti Redkar) while the third, Madhav Mestri (Dilip Prabhavalkar) is a doctor and Malini (Vandana Gupte) is his wife. Prabhakar writes and delivers letter to all the three Mestris, so that one of the Mestris whose life is in threat can be saved. The moment the letters are read by the three Madhav Mestris, it leads to chaos in the married lives of the three couples.

The plot is interesting but its treatment is passable, however the performances by Dilip Prabhavalkar, Hrishikesh Joshi, Kranti Redkar and Vandana Gupte take this film up several notches. Their comic timing is impeccable and the lines they speak are crisp, so if you’re looking for a good laugh riot, you could try this film out.

(Picture courtesy marathistars.com)

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Review: Shutter

A film about four people trapped by circumstances and forced to adapt to a strange situation, this one’s a must-watch.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3 out of 5

Shutter is directed by VK Prakash, who has remade his own Malayalam film by the same name. The movie starts with Pari, the oldest daughter of Jitya bhau (Sachin Khedekar) who is often away on work. Pari is rehearsing for a Super Singer Radio City competition, and her father has just returned on vacation. He is unhappy with her antics and decides to get her engaged to his friend Hemant’s son before he resumes work again.

Ekya (Amey Wagh) is an autorickshaw driver and one of Jitya’s close friends; his dearest ambition is to work outside India. Meanwhile, a struggling film director (Prakash Bare) takes Ekya’s autorickshaw and forgets to take his bag along when he alights; the bag contains a film script he is working on.

One day, Ekya, Jitya and his friends are partying in Jitya’s shop, when the two friends take a ride in Ekya’s autorickshaw to fetch liquor. At this juncture, a sex worker (Sonalee Kulkarni) enters the scene, starting a rollercoaster ride in the lives of Jitya and Ekya. A turn of events end up in the sex worker and Jitya being locked up in the shop with scarce ventilation and no food. Ekya, meanwhile, goes to fetch food for the duo and meets the film director who is still looking for his bag. At this juncture, Ekya is arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. This is the focal point of the story.

 

Sachin Khedekar and Sonalee Kulkarni essay their roles to perfection with great intensity, and are ably supported by Amey Wagh and Prakash Bare. The direction is top notch, as is the cinematography by KK Manoj. My only grouse with the film was that it should have had no songs – these only take away from the overall fast pace of the film. Overall, this is a great suspense thriller. Go watch it.

(Picture courtesy in.bookmyshow.com)

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Review: Insidious Chapter 3

Far from being scary, this film falls flat in several places and does not hold the audience’s attention for long.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 2 out of 5

Making his directorial debut with this horror film, Leigh Whannell brings Insidious Chapter 3, a prequel set a few years before the haunting of the Lambert family. The film begins with a young girl, Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott) approaching a psychic Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) for a chance to talk to her late mother Lillith (Ele Keats).

Quinn thinks that her mother has been trying to reach out to her through the world of spirits and Elise can help her through the reading. Elise refuses, however, but she agrees later. But she is not able to complete the reading, since she hears a demonic presence that threatens to kill her. She advises Quinn not to reach out to her mother on her own. Regardless of the warnings, Quinn still attempts to reach her mother which opens doors that are meant to be closed.

She starts hearing noises in the night and the next day, she notices a dark figure waving to her offstage before going onstage for an audition at the theatre academy in New York. While crossing the street, Quinn again sees the same dark figure waving to her and she stops to look, but a speeding car hits her. The accident temporarily leaves her bedridden and she is looked after by her father Sean (Dermot Mulroney); however these problems are nothing in comparison to the ones she faces when she is tortured by demons trying to get at her soul every night.

 

This film provides no chills and thrills and is not likely to stay with you once it’s over. There were just two scenes of note – onen where the demon grabs Quinn and attempts to pull her over the ledge, and the other, where the spirit of Black Bride nearly kills Elise. Curiously, there is not back story for the demon in the film, though it is a burnt victim with a breathing mask. The end of the film signals the hint of another installment coming audiences’ way; however this installment of the Insidious series falls flat when compared with its previous two fellows.

(Picture courtesy trrdatfiltz.890m.com)

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Film

Review: Welcome Zindagi

A fresh look at many current happenings in society, the film gives the message of hope to the broken hearted.
by Ravi Shet

Welcome Zindagi directed by Umesh Ghadge is a remake of the Bengali film, Hemlock Society. The film starts with a discussion on love and relationships followed by a song (featuring Prashant Damle (Prashant) in a club. Meera (Amruta Khanvilkar), a fan of Prashant who never misses his shows is also shown in the same frame enjoying the moment.

Meera is a journalist by profession, who catches her fiancé cheating on her just 10 days before her wedding. She is already feeling lonely and ignored since her father, Dr Rajwade (Vivek Lagoo) has remarried after her mother’s death. On top of everything else, she hears that her boss is about to fire her from her job. Cornered in every possible way, she decides to end her life. For this, she meets her father and asks him for a prescription of sleeping pills on the pretext that she isn’t sleeping well. She thinks overdosing on sleeping pills will be a quick way out.

But at the moment she attempts to consume the pills, somebody rings her doorbell. That somebody turns out to be Anand Prabhu (Swwapnil Joshi). He enters the house and sees the bottle of sleeping pills, which he promptly flushes out. However, Anand does not tell her not to end her life – instead, he advises her to do it in a systematic way.

 

It turns out that Anand is the founder of Happy Ending Society, an organisation that believes every individual has a right to decide his or her destiny. He convinces Meera to enroll in three-day ‘suicide camp’ which will teach her many ways in which to end her life systematically. Convinced by his proposal, she leaves with him for the camp.

The pace of the movie is well maintained and the dialogues are crisp. There are few good cameos by Bharati Achrekar, Mahesh Manjrekar and Mohan Agashe; however the film truly belongs to the lead pair. This film is recommended for family viewing – it is humorous but sympathetic of all the issues we face in our lives, and gives hope to all those going through problems.

Rating: 3 out of 5

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Film

Review: Spy

An unusual action heroine on a mission to tail a deadly target –an interesting premise falls flat in the execution.
by Ravi Shet

Writer-director Paul Feig presents the action-comedy secret agent film Spy with Melissa McCarthy (Susan Cooper) playing the pivotal role. Susan is a desk-bound CIA analyst helping her partner Agent Bradley Fine (Jude Law) on a secret mission to Varna, Bulgaria to find a suitcase nuke bomb. She is connected with Bradley through his earpiece and watches via satellite from the CIA office in the United States, where you see bats and rats all over the office.

Bradley accidently kills his target – Boyanov – without finding the suitcase nuke bomb. The CIA sends Bradley to break into Boyanov’s daughter Rayna Boyanov’s (Rose Byrne) house to where the bomb could be. Before killing Bradley, Rayna reveals that she knows the identities of all the CIA’s agents and whoever follows her will be dealt with in the same way.

Susan volunteers to become a field agent and gets approval from her boss Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney) on the condition of a track and report mission; however Agent Rick Ford (Jason Statham) dislikes Susan’s interference in his territory and follows her everywhere. Susan travels to Paris to spy on De Luca (Bobby Cannavale), Rayna’s contact. One of the De Luca’s men along with Lia (Nagris Fakhri), the Bollywood presence in this film, changes Rick’s bag for a bomb; however Susan saves Rick’s life and also kills the man in a hilarious way – before throwing up on his dead body. Susan then follows Rayna to Rome where she successfully prevents her assassination in a casino and also gains Rayna’s trust.

 

Despite its funny action premise and some stellar performances, this film falls flat due to excessive dialogue and slapstick in between the scenes, especially in the scenes between Melissa McCarthy and Rose Bryne. However, Jason Statham’s character keeps the audience engaged, particularly in his scenes with Melissa. The film would have benefited from a shorter length and less talk.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

(Picture courtesy

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