Tag: review

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Film

Review: Dhinchak Enterprise

A good storyline and decent performances cannot save this slipshod, inconsistent film which does not do justice to the plot.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 2 out of 5

Dhinchak Enterprise, written and directed by Nishant Devidas Sapkale, is the story of Vishal Patil (Bhushan Pradhan) who works as a salesman in a company called Zarco which produces slimming tablets. He starts his own venture named Dhinchak Enterprise. The film starts with Jignesh (Khurshed Lawyer) meeting a producer (Anant Jog) at his residence to narrate an interesting story based on reality.

Vishal gets the ‘Employee of the Month’ award and Jignesh is one of his colleagues and best buddy. A new batch of trainees joins the company and Vishal gets excited since he gets Meera Tandel (Manavi Naik) to work with him; however Meera’s feelings towards him are the exact opposite. They go together for field work so that Meera can learn how to sell the products. When Vishal tries to flirt with Meera, she tells him to focus on the job at hand. But soon, the two fall in love.

 

One day, Vishal is fired from the job because he was absent from a client meeting to help a road accident victim. Vishal soon starts his own company – Dhinchak Enterprise – with help from Meera and Jignesh. But the success of the company turns everything sour.

Just before the interval, you are introduced to the formation of the new company. All the twists and turns are thrown pell mell into the story in the second half. The pace of the movie does not gel with the plot, which has been treated shoddily. Save for Bhushan Pradhan’s performance and a few funny scenes, there is very little to recommend in this film.

(Picture courtesy www.justmarathi.com)

Categories
Film

Review: The Gift

Lovers of suspense and psychological thriller stories will find themselves hooked right from start to finish of this great little film.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

At long last, a good suspense thriller has hit the theatres.

The Gift is the story of Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn Callen (Rebecca Hall), a married couple living in California. They leave Chicago and their miseries to start a new life. While purchasing things for their new home, they meet Gordo (Joel Edgerton), Simon’s former high school classmate. Simon is unable to recall Gordo from school. Gordo starts visiting the couple’s place, mostly when Simon is at work, leaving gifts such as a wine bottle, glass cleaner, koi fish.

He then invites the couple to his home. Within few minutes of their arrival, Gordo gets a phone call and he drives off saying that he will back within five minutes. In Gordo’s absence, Simon makes fun of him and explores the house with Robyn. When Gordo returns, he tells the couple that his wife left him along with children. Simon ends his friendship with Gordo and tells him to not visit their home.

 

Next day, the couple’s dog is missing and koi fish in their pond are mysteriously dead, which makes Simon suspicious of Gordo. He goes to Gordo’s home and finds out that the latter has never lived there. He then involves the police; however there is no evidence of any wrongdoing. Slowly the couple realizes that most of the things Gordo told them were untrue Robyn starts suspecting that she is not living alone in her home when Simon is at work.

The pace of the movie is well maintained by Edgerton, who is the writer and director as well. The camerawork by Eduard Grau is top notch, and sounds have been used to great effect throughout the film. The climax of the movie is well done, backed by Gordon’s mysterious gifts. Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall and Joel Edgerton deliver great performances in their respective roles.

If you like chills and thrills, this is a must-watch.

(Picture courtesy variety.com)

Categories
Film

Review: Double Seat

This week’s release is about choosing between a home in Mumbai or the idea of a family; explored in sensitive detail.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 4 out of 5

Double Seat directed by Sameer Vidwans is the story of newly married middle class couple – Amit Naik (Ankush Chaudhari) and Manjiri Naik (Mukta Barve) – who live in a small house with Amit’s parents (Vandana Gupte and Vidyadhar Joshi) and brother (Shubhankar Tawade) with the determination to buy a new home in the city.

The couple comes back from its honeymoon to their chawl based in Lalbaug, Mumbai. Manjiri works as an Insurance agent hailing from small town, living in Mumbai for the first time in her life, while Amit works in a courier company. She quickly settles into Mumbai’s pace of life and also learns how to ride a two-wheeler and catch the local trains. But the couple struggles to find privacy. There are moments when they resort to sending each other text messages to express their emotions.

 

As the days pass by, Amit tells Manjiri that it’s time to have their own home. They start their home hunt, Amit likes a house and pays a token amount for it. The couple is about to go ahead with their plans when Manjiri announces that she is pregnant. They now have to decide if they should buy the house or have a child, since they cannot afford the expense of both. This causes a rift between them.

The direction is excellent in terms of connecting the storyline realistically. The dialogues are good, too, as is the music by Jasraj, Saurabh and Hrishikesh.

Ultimately, the film rests on the performances by Ankush Chaudhari, Mukta Barve, Vandana Gupte and Vidyadhar Joshi, who are excellent in this film. Double Seat is a must-watch film for all Mumbaikars who struggle to find homes, love and meaning in the city.

(Picture courtesy www.megamarathi.com)

Categories
Film

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)

Categories
Film

Review: San Andreas

Fast paced, edgy and completely over the top, San Andreas has little to boast of apart from its visual effects.
by Ravi Shet

Within just a few seconds of the opening credits, a car crash happens and our hero Ray (Dwayne Johnson) essaying the role of search and rescue helicopter pilot at Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) arrives in a chopper along with his team to rescue the girl stuck in a car hanging in between the mountains.

After the rescue mission, Ray heads to his home to spend the weekend with his daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario). Emma (Carla Gugino) wants to divorce Ray and she has planned to move in with her affluent boyfriend Daniel (Ioan Gruffudd) along with Blake. But a major earthquake at Nevada dashes Ray’s plans for spending the weekend with Blake since his team is required for the rescue effort.

Meanwhile, Dr Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti), a seismology professor at Caltech has devised a mechanism to predict earthquakes, which involves tracking magnetic pulses. Before Dr. Hayes tells the public about the Los Angeles quake, a part of a swarm of tremors hits the town where Emma is having lunch in a restaurant in a high-rise building. Buildings start collapsing one after another like a house of cards, creating chaos and panic. Ray arrives to rescue Emma from the roof of the building in his chopper and heads straight to Blake, who has reached San Francisco with Daniel, where another quake strikes and she is trapped in a vehicle in an underground garage. She is rescued by the good looking Ben (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) and his younger brother Ollie (Art Parkinson). Blake somehow manages to contact Ray and she develops a plan with Ben and Ollie, to meet her parents.

 

A big thumbs up to the visual effects team working on this film – they have done an amazing job with the subject matter, bringing to life the destruction caused by an unrelenting earthquake. The collapsing bridges, ripped roads and crumbled buildings will make you gasp with their incredible detailing. But there is little else in the film that can be recommended. The plot is contrived, almost Bollywoodesque in its development, and somebody please tell me how an LAFD search and rescue helicopter pilot is allowed to take an official chopper to rescue his daughter, when others are looking for more immediate help in the same situation.

This one’s for Dwayne Johnson fans only.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

(Picture courtesy lottecinemavn.com.)

Categories
Tech

Review: Oppo N1 phone

We take a look at the Chinese entrant’s new phone in the Indian market and come away more than impressed.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

Oppo has entered the Indian market this calendar year, and we have seen a few other Chinese manufacturers foray into India recently. The N1 is company’s first flagship device launched here, and it has quite a few firsts. This Oppo phone has a swivelling 13 MP camera that rotates 207 degree, it also comes with an accessory called O Click (more on that later), and it also packs a touch-sensitive back panel with control capabilities. So, let’s get started with our review.

Hardware and design

N1 and O ClickThe Oppo N1 sports a 5.9-inch full HD display, and follows a similar phablet (larger phones) form factor. With a slightly curved back and rounded edges, the device does fit quite well in the hand, if you have a bit large hands, but it is, without a doubt, a bit on the large side. Many people may feel uncomfortable handling it for their day-to-day usage, but then you would have bought one already knowing its size and weight. The build quality and finish is actually pretty nice. The phone doesn’t creek or produce any weird sounds and I didn’t notice any bendable or loose parts anywhere on the body, and thanks to ceramic finish, there’re almost no fingerprints to be seen on the body. Coming to the right sidepanel, it sports the Power/ Sleep button, and volume rockers below them. On the left sidepanel, there’s only the SIM tray to be seen. On top, you have the camera module and two LED flash; while the 3.55mm headset jack and loudspeakers are placed right at the bottom.

The phone’s 5.9-inch full HD IPS display, which dominates the front, is crisp to look at. The colours come out vibrant, and it is decent for outdoor usage. Viewing angles are good, and there isn’t any loss while viewing HD videos or playing graphic intensive games on it. While the PPI count may not be the highest out there, it is definitely a good screen.

Camera

The 13 MP f/2.0 camera with two LED flash and swivelling mechanism in place is certainly one of the USPs of this device. You can rotate the camera to use it has the front-facing camera, or just adjust its angle as per the subject of your photo. The rotating module is fitted well and doesn’t give any problems. The company says it has been tested for 1,00,000 rotations. The camera takes sharp and very nice photos. I got well-contrasted and clear photos pretty much every time.

The only time you feel that the camera could have done better is when used in low-light or indoors, when you get some noise. And because it doubles up as the front-facing camera, you get higher quality video calls and selfies (if you’re into them). Also the camera app is very nice and simple to use. The settings options are clear and there’s a lot to choose from. All in all, this camera is one of the best things about the phone, delivering good shots majority of times.

Audio quality and battery

The in-ear audio quality is clear, though it could have been a bit on the louder side. Use your third-party headset and then the phone delivers. Call quality is very good, and I didn’t notice any abnormal or strange network reception issues throughout my usage of the phone.

The N1 comes packed with 3,100 mAh battery, and it lasted me a full day on a single charge, like, 8 out of 10 times. I was less and less worried about the battery life the more number of days I used the device, meaning its battery is not bad at all. The usage mainly includes lots of Emails, Twitter, a few videos and games, one or two calls and a bit of Web.

O Touch

The phone is also equipped with something called O Touch. Basically, there’s a small square on the back that has is touch-sensitive, and you can scroll the screen using your finger OPpo N1_ (2)on the O Touch area. It works but not very neatly and accurately; not something you would use frequently.

O Click is a fancy accessory that you get along with the phone. It can be paired with the phine via Bluetooth – and can be used to do a few things. You can, using the available settings options, use it to click a photo on clicking the O Click; program it to alert you when the phone is away (pre-specified distance) from your O Click.

Software and performance

Running on Android 4.2.2 with the company’s own ColorOS, the Oppo N1 has hardly any stock Android feel and design intact. ColorOS is quite different and looks nothing similar to stock Android. With three Home screens in place by default, you also get a separate screen for Camera. When you plug in your headset jack, you automatically get another screen with Music player widget in place. There are few added Settings options to like here. It allows you to choose from your network carrier’s logo or name on the notification; you can add custom gestures to a separate notification centre, which can be pulled down from either left or right hand top side of the screen (conventional notification centre from the rest of the screen’s top). Notification centre gives you a lot of options to select from, including an ‘End All’ option, which ends Sync, WiFi, etc, just about every connectivity option, except voice calling.

Under the hood, there is a Snapdragon 600 SoC (1.7 GHz quad-core processor and Adreno 320 GPU), along with 2 GB of RAM. The phone, with its ColorOS, runs smoothly and doesn’t lag in almost any department.  Apps run and open without any glitch and you get a very buttery, responsive experience. It comes in 16 GB storage option for Indian customers (around 9.5 GB of available storage space) with no expandable microSD storage option.

Another USP of the device is that it’s the first phone to be officially available on CyanogenMod. Any user, whether using this ColorOS model, can flash CyanogenMod on the device without havin to worry about losing the phone’s official warranty. CyanogenMod is one of the most popular custom ROMs in the Android community. You can flash it using the stock recovery in place. If any of you would like to know, the latest stable CyanogenMod for the phone runs very wel and supports O Click to be used with the device. And going back to the original ColorOS firmware is also a convenient thing to do. PS: Try a custom ROM only if you’re familiar with this stuf about flashing and moding before.

Concluding the review, the Oppo N1 is indeed a step in the right direction from the company to foray its business in the Indian market. Two things, I think, are very much required for the company to make their mark in the Indian market today – price according to the available devices and what their own devices offer, and try to provide software and firmware upgrades to their existing phones, which could give them an edge over some of the other players. The N1 is one of the recommended devices to use for camera, watching videos and just about every general use from your phone for people who prefer smartphones with larger screens, and gives the company a solid start in the Indian market.

Will you try out this device? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

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