amandeepverma-53748 Reviews

Ludo (2020)

The story and the styling are out of sync

[6/10 · 17 December 2020]

Imagine if Barfi was stylized in Dark shades of colours. The atmosphere reminded of an upcoming doomsday all the time. How would have that made you feel? This is the exact problem I had with LUDO. The storyline of the movie is not about something that kids would relate to unlike in Jagga Jasoos where it was unfolding like comic book chapters and it made sense why it had a particular visual style.

Here I get that the visual style resembles the Ludo board but it doesn't suit the narrative at all. If the colours could have been more darker and subtle, the actions taken by the characters could have made the right impact.

The other problem with Ludo is the narration. There was no need for Anurag Basu and Chitragupta to tell the audience explicitly that Ludo is life and life is Ludo and beginning of the movie because it summed up the whole movie in 5 minutes of the movie's runtime, after that there is nothing left to wonder or be surprised about because you know that the randomness is corresponding to Ludo's game. Even if you know that...so what? What do I do with knowing that it's all happening like a Ludo game. It would have been interesting if there was no explicit description by Anurag Basu at the beginning of the movie. That explicit narration killed the whole movie's purpose in the very beginning.

There are 4 story lines and out of which 2 stood out as interesting to me. The one involving Rajkumar Rao and Fatima Sana Shaikh and the other was that MMS scandal one. Apart from them, the other two stories were just...I don't know, didn't excite me at all.

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016)

Weak script ruins everything!

[6/10 · 11 April 2020]

The theme of unrequited love is interesting and from someone like Karan johar, it was expected much more!

The movie has moments, typical of a Karan johar movie and it delights you, coupled with great music and Ranbir Kapoor's strong performance but those moments are very few and they get diluted in an otherwise collection of scenes that felt like was written to please the younger generation.

The major problem is the story, the Anushka and Ranbir's conflict is stretched too much and the final resolution is very underwhelming and a cliche. Also, the characters are one tone throughout the movie and by the end, you don't care about them in any way

The final nail on the coffin is Anushka's cancer, like seriously, its the most cliche plot point of Bollywood and has been used more than anything else, expected something better than this in 2016.

The movie was just badly written and could have been made a lot better if the story was a bit more thought out.

Watch it only for some good emotional scenes, awesome music, and Ranbir Kapoor's performance but despite all of these, its really tough to like this film.

Lust Stories (2018)

Karan Johar and Anurag Kashyap saved it!!

[7/10 · 10 April 2020]

When I saw the trailer, it seemed like the usual pretentious and hypocritical take of bollywood over 'modern' relationships, but it's not!

The first story is about Kalindi and Tejas, directed by Kashyap, and I found it to be the best among the all four stories. The character of Kalindi was well written and brilliantly played by Radhika Apte, and the character of Tejas was played really well by Akash thosar. Kalindi's conflicts are intriguing and keeps you hooked, I wanted to see a full film over her character actually.

The second was directed by Zoya Akhtar and it was a let down. It was not engaging for me and just felt very slow with unnecessary pauses and a hurried climax, it could have been a better story.

Same was with Dibakar Banerjee, five minutes into his story and I felt too bored to go ahead and hence I skipped it.

The last was great and really entertaining by Karan Johar. Crisp dialogues, interesting characters and interesting subject which was handled pretty well.

It's actually great that two best parts of lust stories are at the first and the last of it! Overall it's worth watching for those two parts.

Love Aaj Kal (2020)

One of the best Romantic movies ever!!

[9/10 · 22 March 2020]

I am not surprised by the amount of hate this movie received, in India we watch movies to escape reality and this movie punches you back to the not so sweet reality of love and relationships.

Imtiaz Ali is a very unique director, people who connect to him will love his movies, all of them, people who don't will hate him, there is no middle way.

Coming to this movie, Love Aaj Kal 2009 explored the theme of old love vs modern love, both from a male gaze, this one takes it from a female gaze.

It's about idealism vs realism. Veer is an idealist, he is everything that Zoe was taught all her life not to be. Zoe is too practical and somewhere in between is Raghu/Raj.

This is once again like Imtiaz's previous work which was criticized badly too is a story about love and not a love story. It's not focused over the characters and plot as such but moreover the question and doubts of romance and love that bothers the youth today.

So if you are someone looking for a fun love story, kindly avoid this film, its not fun at all, this movie will appeal to niche of niche audience who really wants to explore the meaning of love in their lives.

The performances in the movie are great especially Karthik Aryan! Sara Ali Khan is great in some scenes and really cringy in some emotional scenes.

Overall, don't judge this movie by the ratings and review around, watch it yourself and see yourself being blown away from the sheer honesty of things portrayed in the movie.

Laila Majnu (2018)

An underappreciated great piece of art!

[9/10 · 15 December 2019]

When a movie is made on a great folktale, a story which has been told infinite times in various forms, and still if the movie engages you and makes you crave for more, there has to be something exceptional about it! Laila majnu is totally Avinash Tiwary's film. He delivers and exceptional and a are performance especially in the second half when Qais becomes Majnu. The screenplay is great being set in a contemporary time of Kashmir with beautiful cinematography. Sajid Ali's direction is at par with his brother Imtiaz ali's movies. The movie gets really brilliant in Second half when Qais starts losing his patience and sanity, you can feel the frustration and agony shown by Avinash Tiwari's performance! Don't miss this one!

Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017)

A rare gem in bollywood! Not everyody can relate.

[10/10 · 30 October 2019]

When I saw this film for the first time, It had no special impact over me. It felt like any other rom com. For some reason I saw it again a year later and at that time I was going through some personal crisis myself, the whole movie's perception changed! The movie is entirely revolving around its characters and there is no story as such, maybe that's why it failed at box office. Its not about searching the ring, its about harry and sejal searching each other, Harry is a middle aged tour guide, lonely and somewhat depressed with his life and his habbits. He ran away from his home to pursue his dream of becoming singer but couldn't become one. His failures has made him bitter towards the world and himself and is lonely. He finds solace in sex and girls but deep inside he is kind hearted as well. Sejal on the other hand is a girl with serious self worth issues. A typical indian girl with overprotective family and someone who has never done things on her own maybe. She seeks freedom and validation in life to do whatever she wants, to realise her worth. Can you see the beauty of the plot? The tagline of the movie is "What you seek seeking you". Sejal wants the freedom that harry has. Harry wants to feel loved and cared again without being judged for his habbits and past. They both are seeking each other subconsciously. The ring is mere a tool or a metaphor used for both the characters looking for each other. The way both of the characters unfold each other is beautiful and its somewhat like an european cinema. The direction is typical imtiaz ali, beautiful locations, lost characters, funny setup. The songs and their use in the movie is perfect, cinematography is beautiful. SRK is perfect for a middle aged harry and so is anushka, a childish girl. Don't go for reviews, watch it to understand what a rare gem it is, for those who relate with this movie is gonna love it, for those who don't is gonna hate it for sure!