Informal Review

Cult cinema or what some people call cult classic is a movie that has a strong, loyal fanbase. Cult cinemas are not dependent on box office success or critically acclaimed. These type of movies changes the dynamics of cinema in future. I will give you some examples which way you can get my point more clearly. My favorite movie is The Shawshank Redemption which is the best example of cult cinema. The movie changed the perception of people. In the movie’s initial run it was a flop but after getting numerous Oscars nominations it came back into the theaters to become a success. In India, there is another perfect example of cult cinema is Andaz Apna Apna (AAA). If anyone doesn’t know then Aamir Khan and Salman Khan starrer movie was a big box office failure. What would happen if these two stars in one movie today. But after the television period, it just became one of the most streaming movies in the history of Indian Cinema. It is one of the most favorites movies on my watchlist. Eve...

Ashram is a fictional series based on true events. It takes place in a fictional 'Kashipur' which is controlled by 'Kashipur Waale Baba Nirala'. When a skeleton is found in the near jungle, a series of events take place that starts to horrify the ashram. A mad police officer is investigating the case with his own style, will he succeed in this.  Bobby Deol plays the character of 'Baba'. His character is astrange whose one side helps minority people for their justice and another side blackmails the people who resist him. His acting is good especially in calm speeches given at the time of Satsang. He is given another great performance after 'The Class Of 83' , which is reviving his career. Aditi Pohankar plays the part of a minor cast 'Pammi'. She is struggling with society, family for her career in wrestling. Her ambition takes her to the baba and it starts to take her family in it. She looked fierce on the screen as she looked on the series ...

Sadak 2 is the sequel of 1991's Sadak starring Sanjay Dutt and Pooja Bhatt . The movie revolves around the mentally unstable Aaraya who is dealing with issues with her step-mother. Taxi driver Ravi is grieving the death of his love of life Pooja. When destiny brings these two together, a unique journey kicks off.  Sanjay Dutt returns in his role of Ravi. His character is the same as the last movie who gets emotional when he sees a troubling person. His acting is good but the character development is poor. Alia Bhatt in the role of Aaraya is a poorly written character that doesn't get together in a movie. Her acting is average in bits and pieces. Aditya Roy Kapoor as a Vishal, boyfriend of Aaraya is the most predictable character after seeing a trailer. There is nothing that surprised me about his character. The highlight of the movie is the performance of Makrand Deshpande as Self-proclaimed Baba. He acted at his best.  Mahesh Bhatt returns to the director chair for this...

The movie is based on the book of Hussain Zaidi named Class Of 83:- The Punishers of Mumbai Police. It showcases the horrifying events that took place in Mumbai's early 80s. How 83 batch from Nashik Police Training Center gets caught up in this situation and changes the future of the city.  Bobby Deol plays the character of Vijay Singh who is dean of the training center. He plays a mentor figure to the trainee police. The rest of the cast is fresh. Sameer Paranjape plays Aslam Khan who is also the narrator of the movie. He is well known to the Marathi audience because of his serial "Goth". Bhupendra Jadawat plays Pramod Shukla. The character is known for point-blank shooting. Hitesh Bhojraj plays Vishnu Varde. The character is deep into law. Ninad Mahajani and Prithvik Pratap play the characters of Laxman Jadhav and Janardan Surve respectively. Their role in the movie is small but the impact is major.  Atul Sabharwal directed the movie and is a well-known writer. He fails...

The movie revolves around a husband whose wife is missing in a foreign country. Now his only chance is by going to that country and finding her on his own. The movie somehow gets lost in the middle but gets back on track towards the climax. The story is a bit cliche. The ending is happy which does not amuse me. The first half of the movie runs backward. Vidyut Jammwal as 'Sameer Choudhary' has done a good job in his new avatar. His actionability is well known to all of us but he explores his other ability in this movie yet remains a poker face in some scenes. Shivaleeka Oberoi in her 2nd movie did an average performance. She plays the character of 'Nargis' in the movie. She doesn't have much time on-screen as compared to others. Annu Kapoor steals the show in the movie. When he is on the screen he eats out all other characters surrounding him. He plays a taxi driver who is helping Sameer to find his wife. The other notable performance from the movie is of Aahana ...

The movie is a biopic of Gunjan Saxena 'First Female Indian Air Force Pilot' in combat. The movie showcases the struggle of an ambitious girl in making her dream come true. How a single girl changed the structure of the whole base but at what cost. The movie is motivating to all of us.  The backbone of the movie is Pankaj Tripathi . He plays the character of Anup Saxena, Gunjan's father. His acting is great as always. He plays every character with such ease. Janhavi Kapoor as Gunjan Saxena has done a good job. It's her 3rd movie and she gives an ordinary performance. As I expected a goosebumps moments in between her scenes but it didn't happen. Vineet Kumar Singh as Commander Dileep Singh gives a great performance. As long as he comes on the screen we start to denounce his character and that's why he succeeded in his role. Angad Bedi as a protective yet demotivating brother makes his character work in such a small screen time.  Debutant director Sharan Shar...

By Manish Surve The movie revolves around the cop who is investigating a murder in a truobled family. The victim is rich and powerful surrounded by enemies. But what motive can kill a man with everyone on the suspect list. The story keeps playing till the climax. The screenplay is well mixed with a great character building. The movie is slow paced with screen time of 2 & ½ hours .  Nawazuddin Siddiqui as 'Inspector Jatil Yadav' gives a phenomenal performance. He played the character with ease. From the movement he appears on the screen he steals the show. Radhika Apte as 'Radha' gives a great performance as always. Her character has many colours and she portrayed it greatly. The supporting cast includes some big name like Tigmanshu Dhulia, Shweta Tripathi and Aditya Shrivastava . Ila Arun creates the funny moments in the first half of the movie. The movie remarks about two reunions of the artist. First - Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Tighmanshu Dhulia reunite after t...

By Manish Surve The movie is a comedy-crime thriller. It revolves around a suitcase filled with money which goes from here to there. In this whole chaos a middle class man, a powerful politician, a nat-geo fan gangster and rowdy policeman gets messed up and things go out of control. The movie is well paced and sticks to where it is. Catchy one liners and crispy story makes this movie special.  The cast of the movie is filled with the talented artists. Kunal Khemu plays the character of a middle class man named 'Nandan Kumar'. He is filled with lots of problems financially but a heartful man.  It showcases how his life gets a turnaround when he gets a suitcase. His acting versatility is seen in this movie after playing a villionous role in 'Malang'. Gajraj Rao as 'MLA Patil' has done a great job. His acting and comedy are pretty good. He is some sort of antagonist in the movie. Vijay Raaz as a gangster 'Bala Rathore' impresses me. I am a big fan of his...

By Manish Surve The movie is a biopic of great mathematician Shakuntala Devi . The movie showcases her success of being a mathematician, astrologer and an author. It also showcases her family struggle of keeping her daughter together and with her troubling past. The effects used for maths during the movie are great. It connects us to the maths sums.  I don't have to say what character Vidya Balan is playing. You all know that. She is great as always. She is getting better and better by the time. Sanya Malhotra plays the role of Anu, daughter of Shakuntala Devi. Her acting is the highlight of the movie. Her character is the most difficult in the movie. She played it beautifully though. Her acting ability is really seen after the Dangal. Amit Sadh is having the best run of his career. This is his 3rd release and he is empressing in all his releases. Anu Menon did a splendid job in directing such a movie. She made the movie easy for all the audience by adding great humor in it. She...

 By Manish Surve 'Yaara' is the story of four friends who form a gang in the 80s named 'Chaukdi Gang'.The gang smuggles things between India and Nepal. It showcases friendship, politics and internal rivalry in a quiet way. The film moves backward in the story. The movie is a remake of French Movie 'Les Lyonnais ( A Gang Story)'. The movie picks up speed after 30 mins. The cast of the movie is star studded. Vidyut Jamwal plays 'Phagun' who is the leader of the gang. He is emotional and of course strong. It is quite surprising not seeing much of his flying stunts in the movie. Amit Sadh in the role of 'Mitwa' who is like brother to Phagun. He is childish. Vijay Verma as 'Rizwan' who is playboy and short tempered. Shruti Hassan as a love interest of Phagun doesn't get much time in the movie. Her character is underused in the movie. Sanjay Mishra gives a cameo in the movie. Tighmanshu Dulia as a director impresses but I expected ...

By Manish Surve The movie revolves around Kizie and Manny and their adventure with life and death. The storyline of the movie is different from the typical Bollywood rom-coms. The movie is a remake of 2014's 'The Fault In Our Stars' and loosely based on 2012's novel by the same name. I am not going to talk about any performances in this movie. The movie has its own emotion. The tragic event that happened is very sad and somehow it feels personal to me, maybe fault in our stars. So this is not a movie review . The movie is tribute to Sushant Singh Rajput so this review is. The feeling was different when I watched the movie. I felt the same when I watched Angrezi Medium after the demise of Irrfan Khan . This is the hardest review among all the reviews to write. The cast includes Sanjana Sanghi, Swastika Mukherjee, Sahil Vaid and Saif Ali Khan in cameo role. His cameo is one of the best cameos in Bollywood history.  Debutant director Mukesh Chhabra impresses you in h...

By INFORMAL REVIEW Kadakh is a film directed by Rajat Kapoor and the lead characters are played by Ranvir Shorey and Mansi Multani who are playing a couple named Sunl and Malti. Sunil has an extramarital affair and the woman's husband finds out. He comes to sunils house and commits suicide. The casting is spot on and each and every character nails the role, but the movie still feels a bit too stretched. The story had so much potential and the casting was great too, but the writing and direction was disappointing. The supporting cast includes some very big names like Manoj Pahwa, Rajat Kapoor, Kalki Koechiln etc.   The movie has so many layers but despite everything the film doesn't do justice to the initial buildup. The initial 15 mins and the last 15 minutes are the most exiting parts of the movie, but other than that the movie doesn't do much the expectation is raised as each supporting character enters the house. It’s a  film which i only 90 minutes long so its w...

By Manish Surve The movie revolves around an adult girl named Bhanupriya who is a virgin. The movie's plot revolves around how she is desperate to lose her virginity and her friends are trying to help her . The family drama, same old dashing boy in girl's life and a nerd who is behind the girl but never gets her. The movie is a disaster. It is one of those movies which have only cringe content to sell. The acting, writing and direction is at their worst. From the start to end it is a disappointing movie. Urvashi Rautela in the title role of Bhanupriya gives an average performance. She tried to give her best but failed miserably. Bigg Boss fame Gautam Gulati in the role of Shartiya who can do anything for a bet. He is the same old Bollywood's character who is dashing with his bunch of friends and trying to win a girl. Archana Puran Singh as Bhanupriya's mother totally irritates you on screen. I don't know why her character is even in the movie. Rajiv Gupta as fat...

By Manish Surve Bhonsle is the story of a retired police havaldar who is living in a chawl and trying to extend his service in the police. The main topic of the movie is the issue of migrants in Mumbai. The movie showcases the daily life struggle of middle class people. The subject of the movie is like balancing on the wire. If you go a little bit here or there you might end up hurting someone. And we will give this to the writer and director that they have handled it very well. The movie showed equal mistakes from both sides and tried to look even. The movie is slow paced but the silence is the best emotion of the movie. Manoj Bajpayee plays the title role of Bhonsle. He is a lonely, quiet and value oriented person. Santosh Juvekar plays the character of Vilas who is a self-made politician and a flag bearer for locals. The most surprising performance in the movie is of Ipshita Chakraborty Singh as Sita. She is down to earth and caring in nature. She is an independent and hard working ...

By Manish Surve The movie revolves around a curious, young lawyer who is investigating a series of murders in their village which is committed by a CHUDAIL as per villagers. The movie is set in early 19th century. It showcases how he decodes the mystery and an untold love story which eventually ends. The movie picks up the speed within 10 minutes and doesn't make you wait. The movie's cast is mainly bengali with big names. Avinash Tiwary as a young lawyer named 'Satya' gives good performances with his dialogue delivery and performance. Tripti Dimri in the main role 'Bulbbul' who is Badi Thakur nails the role especially in the first half with her expressions. The supporting cast is very talented with big names. Paoli Dam as a sister-in-law of Bulbbul gives a great performance in the second half and stuns you with her acting. After a while Rahul Bose got a role which suited him. He is playing the double role of. Parambata Chattopadhyay makes a comeback after Kahaa...

The movie revolves around two warring people Mirza and Baankey who are played by Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann Khurrana. The movie showcases the bittersweet relation between these two and their war on a HAVELI. The movie picks up speed after the first hour. The movie keeps you on your toes till the very end.  Amitabh Bachchan as a Landlord 'Mirza' gives great performance with his catchy one liners and his unique walk. His makeup and prosthetics seem too much which differentiates the character from the reality. Amitabh Bachchan carries the movie from the very beginning. Ayushmann Khurrana as a Tenet 'Baakey' gives a good performance but not as impressive as his previous movies. Vijay Raaz and Brijendra Kala in the role of Government Officer and Lawyer respectively have done a commendable job. The standout performance of the film is of Srishti Shrivastava as a sister of Baankey. She looks fierce and confident. Her dialogue delivery is also great along with her facial exp...