Sardar Udham Review: A portrait of a man of history and mystery

Sardar Udham Review: A portrait of a man of history and mystery

Movie Review Review

Rating:

Review By: Rahul Babu

Only often do we come across movies that leave a lasting effect on us. Bollywood has produced several so-called patriotic movies just to cash in the sentiments of people but Shoojith Sircar plays differently here. And that makes Sardar Udham a memorable yet painful experience.

Sardar Udham tells the story of a revolutionary freedom fighter who chased down and assassinated Michael O'Dwyer in London to avenge the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar. Sardar Udham isn't just made to inject patriotism in us but also to educate us about the horrific 1919 massacre and the man who shed blood to avenge it. Shoojith Sircar makes no mistakes nor does he take any fake cinematic liberties to depict Udham's life. The focused and recurring non-linear style of storytelling takes us through the journey of the fighter and the injustice the country has gone through. This film is the slowest of the slow-burning film of the director and he never rushes to any point instead tracks the incident in a steady and straight path.

The remodelling of 1930s London street and the entire pre-independent era is so meticulously constructed with utmost passion. Avik Mukhopadhyay's enigmatic frames are never out of place and the superior visuals add more horror to the incidents. I wonder how someone could make a movie so well crafted and detailed at the same time break all stereotypes. Shoojith Sircar makes sure his British characters are not mere caricatures and leaves them enough space to make their mark.

Without Vicky Kaushal, the movie is soulless, an absolute masterclass performance by the actor who fills the martyr's shoes with ease. Sardar Udham Singh was his destiny and the actor's game-changing performance is gonna attract accolades for sure. Shoojith Sircar exceptionally pulls off the horrendous massacre in the final hour that leaves us with a lump in our throat. The disturbing, gory visuals exhibit the amplitude of the crime with conviction and haunt us even after the credits roll.

I really wish they explored the Bhagath Singh episode a bit longer. For some of you the overstretched narrative might sound unsettling. But Sardar Udham is a craft you need to witness with utmost patience. This cinematic version of India's unsung hero stands top among the historical dramas made in India. Congratulations Bollywood you finally have a winner!. 

Arlina

Free Guy Review: Life's too short be a background character

Free Guy Review: Life's too short be a background character

MovieReview Review

Review By: Akash DS

Rating:

With Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds gave us a raunchy reimagining of what a superhero movie can look like, and now he's giving long-maligned video game movies new life with a Free Guy, an action-comedy full of bold fun, fan service, and a few flaws.

Reynolds is endearingly optimistic in the role of guy an oblivious NPC living in an inventive fictional video game. He was happy with his simple albeit regularly violent life in a free city before meeting Molotov girl played by Killing Eves star Jody Comer. To get the girl of his dreams guy snatches a pair of sunglasses that let him see the world as the players do, full of power-ups loot and missions. That makes for some fun call-outs to the world of video games with nods to super Mario brothers grand theft auto Fortnite and more.

Director sean levy consistently enthrals with the action in the foreground and then scores laugh by plopping random carnage in the background. There's a frequent contrast between calm and calamity that effectively establishes the wacky world of the free city while also being consistently hilarious.

Reynolds is a perfectly lucky leading man veering away from the snarky reputation he's built in recent years. In free guy, he drops all that edge to play a truly hopeless romantic. 

Guy's openness about his unapologetic glee and fear as he becomes a player in free city is as exhilarating as Reynold enthusiasm is contagious. It's the zeal of Deadpool minus the baggage and r-rated shenanigans. It all works in no small part because of Reynolds undeniable screen presence and sharp comedic timing. Unfortunately, though this movie isn't acted to free guy opens up to split its focus between a guy and the creators of his game who were at war over coding copyright. Here's where free guy moves from fun to fun blin gun surprisingly watching programmers argue about lawsuits and troubleshooting isn't all that entertaining even if Taika is cast as their obnoxious adversary.

Free Guy delivers an outrageously entertaining first hour that is stuffed with gonzo action goofy gangster power big ideas and plenty of easter eggs for lovers of movies and video games. However, in its second half, the joyful journey is derailed by a slog of a sidequest in the real world. Falling short of the potential setup. Still, Reynolds delivers riotously rollicking fun in an eye-popping imaginative environment that treats gaming like the wonderland it is. So even with its deeply wonky detour free guy is a freewheeling wild ride with playful humour and some special moves.

Arlina

Rashmi Rocket Review: Unstoppable as she races ahead with grit

Rashmi Rocket Review: Unstoppable as she races ahead with grit

Movie Review Review

Rating:

The movie provided a glimpse of showcasing an aspect that has not been covered by many sports biopics in Bollywood rather than the simplistic approach of portraying an underdog story Rashmi Rocket progresses to initially showcase a journey of an athlete and move on to shed light on the regressive controlling and binary notion that comes with gender tests.

Rashmi Rocket focuses on Rashmi played by Taapsee Pannu who grows up in Gujarat is given the nickname of Rocket due to her fast pace when she grows up and becomes a tour guide of the area she is motivated by captain Gagan Thakur played by Priyanshu Painyuli to showcase the world her gifted talent of agility and pace barking upon immediate success Rashmi met with animosity within her own team politics from influential figures that curtail her growth and finally the infamous gender test that solidifies in the minds of the public that she was not a woman within the confines of an athletic federation the court case in order to uplift her ban forms the second half of the film and how it transpires to educate the viewer and expand their thought process of what constitutes a woman be it the clothes she wears the colour of her skin the decision she makes or more importantly her testosterone levels.

Taapsee manages to effortlessly go under the skin of her character and make you root for her. The dedication and hard effort she has put into building an athletic body for the role will leave you speechless, especially in the close-up views of her sprinting on the tracks. Her talent as an actor has been proven without a shadow of a doubt by her filmography and the concerns that each of them has raised. Rashmi Rocket appears to be the latest addition to the list, this time criticising the inequitable and outdated practice of gender testing on female athletes. Taapsee looks stunning during and after her medical examination in the flick. She successfully conveys Rashmi's emotions of befuddlement, fury, and helplessness, particularly in the emotional passages, with sincerity. "Kuch toot sa gaya hai andar," she says Gagan (Painyuli), and you know exactly what she means as she fights with her whole identity and existence being questioned by everyone around her.

Sadly, Amit Trivedi's music does not impress. No song, whether it's Rann Ma Kutchh, Zidd, or Ghani Cool Chori, manages to stay with you. The background soundtrack is also uninspiring, failing to raise some of the usually exciting passages. The editing, especially in the first half, might have been tighter. Aniruddha Guha's script and Kanika Dhillon's extra dialogues aren't exactly hard-hitting, but they do contain a few sparks here and there. In terms of directing, Khurana seemed to be unsure whether he intended Rashmi Rocket to be a sports picture or a courtroom drama, and it shows in the execution.

Arlina

Just Beyond Review: A Bewildering Anthology by R.L. Stine

Just Beyond Review: A Bewildering Anthology by R.L. Stine

Review Series Review

"Just Beyond," a new Disney anthology series inspired by R.L. Stine's novels, is an eight-episode anthology series that offers amazing and thought-provoking stories about a realm just beyond our own, including witches, aliens, ghosts, and parallel universes.

Each episode is absolutely distinct, with a new cast of characters and performers, making this series stand out from everything else on Disney+ thus far. Because each episode is 30 minutes long, the pacing for each tale is typically very rapid, with a brief set-up before getting directly to the primary emphasis of the storey and a climax. For the Halloween season, make them all into single bites of frightening delight.

The anthology kicks off with The Amazing Spider-Man and Gifted director Marc Webb’s short Leave Them Kids Alone, which has Mckenna Grace in the lead along with Nasim Pedrad. The segment deals with conditioning children and making them compliant to the norms, even those who stand out. A School for Difficult Children is used to tell the narrative. Due to its obvious plot and drab presentation, this is the anthology's poorest storey.

The second piece, Parents Are From Mars, Kids Are From Venus, is a jumbled, uninteresting short about two kids who discover something strange about their parents. It's also one of the two portions that has science fiction themes. Even a reference to Steven Spielberg's E.T. isn't enough to salvage this storey.

However, Which Witch, featuring a fantastic Rachel Marsh as a teenager with unusual abilities who struggles to blend in with the average crowd, kicks up the pace of the anthology. The episode is plenty of laughter and also covers important themes such as embracing one's own individuality and avoiding peer pressure.

The finest part in Just Beyond is without a doubt Standing Up For Yourself. The storey follows a bully named Trevor Larkin, whose father pretty much runs the town, and spans almost a witty but just version of Groundhog Day. Trevor's life, as well as that of the town, changes after he assaults a specially-abled adolescent at school. The episode is also the most cinematic of the eight since it is told entirely from the perspective of a bully.

The Treehouse, the last episode, is about a teen whose father died a year ago. He is sent to an other reality after lightning strikes his treehouse, where he meets his mother and father, but the only problem is that he is not their son in that realm. The moving narrative explores loss and the process of reconstructing one's life.

Stand Up For Yourself, We've Got Spirits, Yes We Do, My Monster, and Which Witch — in that order – are our best selections out of the eight. Because the episodes are under 30 minutes, it's ideal for a weekend binge or a fast viewing during your lunch break.

Arlina

Udanpirappe Review: A well-constructed family drama that needs a lot of patience to watch

Udanpirappe Review: A well-constructed family drama that needs a lot of patience to watch

Movie Review Review

Rating:

Udanpirappe is the most recent film to attempt to join the list of Tamil films that have shown a brother-sister connection. The film opens with a gang of thugs chasing Vairavan (Sasikumar), a ruffian whose life revolves around his family, through a hamlet near Pudukkottai. He gets to say a few lines about farming (which has become somewhat of a must for heroes in Tamil cinema in recent years in films set in small towns), which are backed by an outstanding background soundtrack by Imman, though it does remind us of a few of his earlier works.

As the title suggests, Udanpirappe is focused on the relationship between Vairavan (Sasikumar) and 

Maathangi (Jyothika), who had previously had unpleasant difficulties and have been separated from one another as a result of what has occurred. As they strive to solve the problems, other ones arise, and what happens next is the story's central theme.

Era. Saravanan gives the picture an old-school vibe and dives deeply into the character's emotions. The first half of the film is highly hectic, and it does not waste time establishing its characters one by one; instead, it goes with the flow and gets the ideas through about why the conflicts amongst the characters arose. However, the film has some flaws in the second half, with pacing concerns surfacing. The thrilling closing stretch, on the other hand, is guaranteed to appeal to the public and have a lasting impression.

In the film, Sasikumar gives a mature and appealing portrayal, performing everything asked of him with great conviction. The performer makes a good first impression, which works in the film's favour. Jyothika, on the other hand, is cast in a magnificent role that is a complete departure from her second innings performance. Her second-half performance is particularly noteworthy. Samuthirakani is excellent as the stern instructor, and the cast is well-led by Sija Rose and Soori.

Velraj's cinematography is excellent throughout the film, giving it a very realistic sense. Imman's music doesn't have any amazing tunes, but his re-recording works.

Where to watch : Prime Video

Arlina