Tag: review

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Film

Review: Snoopy and Charlie Brown: The Peanuts Movie

Celebrating the 65th anniversary of the famous comic strip, ‘Peanuts’, this sweet film delivers a dose of nostalgia for fans.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3 out of 5

This one is for you if you love Snoopy and Charlie Brown.

The story revolves around Charlie Brown (voiced by Noah Schnapp) who develops a crush on his  new neighbour, The Little Red-Haired Girl (voiced by Francesca Capaldi) and his efforts to grab her attention. In a side story, Charlie’s loyal beagle and best friend Snoopy (voiced by Bill Melendez) discovers a typewriter and decides to write a novel about his alter-ego, The World War I Flying Ace trying to save his lover Fifi (voiced by Kristin Chenoweth) from Red Baron.

On Lucy’s (voiced by Hadley Belle Miller) advice, Charlie who is frustrated with his streak of bad luck, decides to participate in a series of new activities in the school in a hope that The Little Red-Haired Girl will notice him. Charlie participates in the school’s talent show for a magic act with Snoopy; however when his sister Sally’s (voiced by Mariel Sheets) performance goes wrong, Charlie sacrifices his own performance time for her and rescues his sister’s act with Snoopy’s help. Charlie realises that his crush likes dancing and so signs up for the school dance. While he receives praise for his dancing (which he learns from Snoopy), he slips and sets off the sprinkler system, which cut shorts his dance and all the other students ridicule him.

 

Charlie’s bad luck continues even on a book report project that he must partner his crush on. After a series of events, he walks away from fame and glory when he realises that he is being praised for someone else’s work.

Director Steve Martino keeps the film sweet and simple with the right amount of emotions and focuses on the themes of friendship and resilience. The lead characters are adorable, and it has its LOL moments. Mostly, though, it is a nostalgic ride for fans of the famous comic strip featuring two beloved characters.

(Picture courtesy www.nme.com)

Categories
Tech

Review: OnePlus X

We test the newest OnePlus phone and come away only slightly impressed. It’s a good phone for its price, though.
by Manik Kakra | @Manik_K on Twitter

We have seen quite a lot of smartphones this year that are not priced upwards of Rs 20,000 and still perform pretty well on most tasks. With the likes of Motorola, ASUS, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and a few more heating the battle up, it isn’t a bad situation for buyers. While the mid-to-high range devices are improving, what they still usually lack is premium build quality, a great camera and every feature at a reasonable price. Does the OnePlus X, priced at Rs 16,999, change that?

The looks. The OnePlus X (E1003) follows a considerably different material and design language than anything OnePlus has sold recently. The device has curved glasses on the front and the back, and is a flat slab on both sides with chamfered edges. Weighing under 140 grams and not measuring too tall, the device is not comfortable to grip as the whole body is quite slippery (you get a plastic case in the box, but you might want to get a better one that looks and feels less cheap).

With the 5-inchAMOLED on front, sensors and front-facing camera above it, and three capacitive touch keys (none of which light up), the bottom has the microUSB port surrounded by the loudspeaker and primary mic. The left panel has a three-way alert switcher (same as the OnePlus 2); the right side has SIM cards tray (nano + nano or microSD card) tactile volume and Power/ Lock keys (near the middle); and the top has secondary mic and 3.5mm headset jack. The back, sports the OnePlus logo apart from the 13 MP camera and LED flash on the top left corner.

Screen. OnePlus X is equipped with a 5-inch full HD AMOLED, which most people would find comfortable for most of their tasks. The screen is sharp, usable under sunlight and has deep rich black levels expected of an AMOLED today. The phone has the black theme selected by default for better battery and the screen does justice to it. Full HD videos and images look fine on it, but you may have to wipe the glass every now and then.

Battery. The device features a 2,525 MAh battery unit. The phone almost never lasted a full day with average to high use. With lighter usage, you can expect it to last about a day. Using a single SIM card, brightness level at 30%, don’t expect a lot from this device in terms of battery life. The phone takes a couple of hours to get fully charged.

Camera. The phone boasts a 13 MP (f/2.0) camera on the back, and here are a few sample images.

As you can see, the camera isn’t that great; images sport quite some noise and while the camera app itself is smooth and quick to capture, the results are not good. You can get some good shots with the right lighting and a still subject but the camera disappoints otherwise.

Software and performance. The OnePlus X runs OxygenOS 2.1.3-x over Android 5.1.1. It sports Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 chipset, which was used by a lot Android OEMs for their flagship devices nearly two years back. There’s 3 GB of RAM and about 10.5 GB of storage available to the user. OnePlus’s OxygenOS is close to the look and feel of stock Android, with a few tweaks and features. There aren’t too many additions done since we last used it on the OnePlus 2. The company has stated that the phone will be updated to Android 6.0 in2016’s first quarter. Performance-wise, the OnePlus X is a satisfactory performer. Throughout my usage, I didn’t see too many app crashes or stuttering between Chrome’s tabs. While I wouldn’t say animations and general scrolling are as fluid as, say the Nexus 5X’s, it isn’t bad and definitely as good as phones in this price segment today.

It is quite clear who is this OnePlus X meant for. You can choose it if you want something that looks and feels really nice, has smooth performance and good screen. The OnePlus X sort of makes the mid-range phone segment in the Indian market better and more competitive.

(Pictures courtesy Manik Kakra)

Categories
Film

Review: Dagadi Chawl

Excellent performances and slick camera work make this film stand out, though the story and plot follow a predictable graph.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3 out of 5

Dagadi Chawl directed by debutant director Chandrakant Kanse not only focuses on gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli (known as ‘Daddy’) but also highlights the story of a common man caught in the deadly world of crime and the era of gang wars in late 90s.

The film, based in Mumbai in 1996, starts with Daddy (played by Makrand Deshpande) performing a puja at Dagadi Chawl, while his trusted henchman, Chandu Mama (Sanjay Khapre) attacks a local politician who is set to contest elections against Gawli.

Suryakant Sadashiv Shinde aka Surya (Ankush Chaudhari) who works for Daddy collects extortion money from a builder named Desai. On getting a complaint from Desai, encounter specialist Inspector Kale (Kamlesh Sawant) picks up Surya and plans to bump him off to complete a half century of encounters. However, DCP Ashfaq Khan interrupts Kale’s vehicle and demands that Surya be transferred to him.

On interrogation, Surya reveals the story of how he chanced upon a life of crime: when a group of goons harasses his girlfriend, he gets into an altercation that ends with him beating many of them up. This lands him squarely in Daddy’s crosshairs, because the goons are his boys.

This film will remind you of the gritty Satya and Vaastav, since the backdrop of the plot is quite similar. Here too, an innocent man falls prey to an unforeseen situation and ends up in the murky world of crime. Some of the scenes in the movie are predictable; however some slick camera work clubbed with a good background score and sharp editing are the positives of the film.

Ankush Chaudhari as Surya justifies his role perfectly; however Makrand Deshpande as Daddy impresses the audiences a lot more through his body language and dialogue delivery. Sanjay Khapre and Yatin Karyekar play good supporting roles. Many in the audience will also love the ‘Morya’ song played during the Ganesh Visarjan scene.

(Picture courtesy marathistars.com)

Categories
Film

Vaajlaach Paahije – Game Ki Shinema

A story that tries to highlight the sleazy side of the film world, the film fails spectacularly at every level.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 2 out of 5

As stories go, this one had the potential to be both a laugh fest and a thought-provoking critique on the ills of the movie world. However, this film does neither and is merely an excruciating watch for the audience.

Vaajlaach Paahije – Game Ki Shinema (directed by R Viraj) starts with struggling director Makarand Thokare aka Yash (Rajesh Bhosale) auditioning actors for an upcoming film. Sitting in on the auditions is Raj (Chinmay Udgirkar), a struggling actor himself. Yash and Raj are desperately looking for a producer who can finance their film. During their hunt for a producer, they meet moneybags producer Bhau Damdar (Bhalchandra Kadam), who is in the business only to get intimate with pretty girls.

Bhau agrees to finance the duo’s film on the condition that they get a beautiful heroine for it. He also hands over an advance payment to the duo so that the heroine can be brought in quickly.

 

Raj goes out to look for ‘suitable’ faces and finalises Supriya (Girija Joshi) – but Supriya has an ulterior motive up her sleeve. Pretending that she needs the role because she is poor, she also accepts that Raj is infatuated with her. Meanwhile, Yash is at his wits’ end because Bhau rejects each script he brings, before saying that he wants the film to be made on a truly terrible script, ‘Nal Damayanti – The Intimate Love Story’.

Bhau is excited about meeting the girl for the film, but there is a shock in store when Yash and Supriya turn out to be siblings. By this time, Yash has decided to make a film on the sly without their producer knowing about it, and also to save his sister from Bhau’s clutches.

R Viraj has tried hard to bring Dada Kondke’s style of cinema back with this film, however he fails miserably at the attempt. Bhalchandra Kadam delivers a good performance as a filthy producer. Apart from some funny moments, the film falls flat in every possible way. Also, the innuendo in the dialogues is forced and completely unfunny.

(Picture courtesy starblockbuster.com)

Categories
Film

Review: Dholki

A man who produces dholki notes with his bare hands? This film has an interesting story marred by boring execution.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Dholki, directed by Raju and Vishal Desai, is a comedy drama set in a village in Maharashtra. The film starts with a bhajan in a temple where villagers from different sections have come together. Lalya (Siddharth Jadhav) who has come with his mother (Jyoti Chandekar) is seen sleeping in the temple premises; however villagers rouse him. He prays to God and tells to forgive the villagers, since they have awakened him and God. Lalya is a lazy man, often referred to as ‘Kumbhakaran’ by the villagers; however he is also honest and straightforward. His mother tells the villagers that he has no job at hand, so she doesn’t mind if he sleeps all the time.

Wealthy Patil (Sayaji Shinde) of the village tries to get Lalya a job in the school. The head master of the school tells Lalya to produce his education certificate so that he can give him a job. While searching for the certificate at his home, he accidentally finds a dholki that belonged to his late father. Initially, he is puzzled to see the dholki, however he enjoys playing it. On hearing the sound, his mother intervenes and makes him promise never to touch it again.

 

After this, Lalya becomes aware of a special power in his hands – when he hits a surface, one can hear a dholki play in lavani style. On his mother’s advice, he starts practicing on the dholki for bhajans; however the moment his hands touch it, the dholki produces lavani notes. At this juncture, the good looking Lalibai (Manasi Naik) who owns a tamasha group is impressed by Lalya’s talent and gets him to join their shows.

The first half of the film is paced well, but the second half falls flat. Redeeming factors are the music by Tubby Parikh and cinematography by Rahul Jadhav. Siddharth Jadhav does an excellent job and carries the film on his shoulders. Other than these, there is little to recommend in this film.

(Picture courtesy www.marathidhamaal.com)

Categories
Film

Review: Kaun Kitney Paani Mein

An excellent premise – the concept of ‘water wars’ in the near future – is waylaid by lazy, inconsistent storytelling.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Kaun Kitney Paani Mein, directed by Nila Madhab Panda, is a satire based on the issue of water scarcity and how the power equation shifts with it. Set in Odisha, the audiences are introduced to two villages – Upri and Bairi – having a history of shared differences and which are separated by a wall.

Upri is a village housing wealthy people, while’s Bairi residents are poor. Most of the latter have been working for the former. However, a massive drought hits the area and this changes the power equation between the two villages. Upri has exhausted its water sources and does not have an alternative, while Bairi has been using its water wisely and also creating storage facilities for it.

 

In Upri, the once well-to-do Braj Singh Deo (Saurabh Shukla), the raja of the village is now penniless, however, he still has a servant who helps him dress and adjust his fake moustache. He wants to sell his drought-affected village, but there are no takers because there is no water there. Meanwhile, Bairi is prospering under aspiring politician Kharu Pahelwan (Gulshan Grover) where the land is fertile and where there is a good supply of water. Braj Singh Deo devises a plan to get hold of the water from Bairi which involves his son Raj (Kunal Kapoor) trapping Paro (Radhika Apte), daughter of Kharu Phelwan, in love.

The first half of the film is a bit boring, but the pace picks up in the second half. With an excellent premise, director Panda injects the story with humour and empathy. The dialogues by Rahul Singh are top notch, as are a few stray scenes, most of which feature Saurabh Shukla, who carries his character very well. Radhika Apte and Gulshan Grover are good, too. This is a one-time watch only, especially for its performances and the wonderfully choreographed ‘Rangapati’.

(Picture courtesy www.ibnlive.com)

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