anirudh-khandal Reviews

The Son (I) (2022)

Moves one to the core

[10/10 · 2 June 2023]

Parenting is a thin line and human emotions cannot be understood only by love. A beautiful portrayal of how life influences oneself, how the past teaches one yet the lesson might not be the right one.

I read a quote attributed to Charles Wandsworth "By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong." Although this feature is titled "The Son", it is more about the father.

The post credit roll message about suicide and the effects on people around a person is moving.

The movie is an impeccable work of art, the music, the acting, the lighting, the camera work, the direction, the screenplay, the story all were brilliant and although the end was obvious but the manner it was portrayed was haunting.

The pre end credits To Gabriel was intriguing and further highlights Zeller's attempt to educate the audience about mental health.

Chup (2022)

For the love of Vasanth Kumar Shivshankar Padukone aka Guru Dutt sahab

[8/10 · 29 November 2022]

Biases first I love guru dutt to the core, Amitabh Bachchan and Sunny Deol.

An extra Mark for the love of craft of Guru Dutt. In the opening credits when his name was mentioned I knew I would be judging this one harshly.

I love saga of sorts with good thriller quotient and love for cinema. The S. D. Burman and O P Nayyar music reminiscence was a welcome pleasure.

The movie has a good message about the harshnesss of some professions like movie criticism how important and unimportant they are and if compromised how they can ruin the pleasure of an audience.

Although I am fond of the work of Mr Sunny Deol and have been looking for his work since Ghayal returns, I feel he was underplayed and underutilized. His character is called Aravind and the Tamil actor who starred in Roza would have been a perfect choice for this role.

Halfway through the movie I felt it was too R Balki like similar to Shamitabh and only later I discovered it was his directorial.

The movie is great and has all the elements you want from a guru dutt tribute from music to lights to story. The presence of stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Pooja Bhatt only add to the brilliance.

Dulqueer Salman is finally finding footing in Hindi cinema and hope we see more of him.

Disappointed with Sunny Paaji being toned down. He is too big an actor to waste in such mediocrity. Hope his next release Baap alongside Jackie Shroff, Sanjay Dutt and Mithun Chakraborty do justice to his onscreen persona.

Laal Singh Chaddha (2022)

Spoiler:An extra rating point simply for the VFX team.

[8/10 · 18 October 2022]

Spoiler: An extra rating point simply for the VFX team. Almost every scene of Aamir and SRK's cameo is recreated so efficiently by the VFX to make them appear atleast 30 years younger.

The negative publicity by a section of internet users did have the effect on the movie's success, but slowly audience are discovering this good attempt with the OTT release.

The Indian adaptation is very well crafted and connected well through major political, sports and entertainment events since 1975 India.

The movie almost makes one believe that it is more factual and less fiction be it SRK's dance step or owner of Rupa under garment corporation.

Some goofs can be ignored like India won '83 world cup on 25 June, a normally hot summer evening in northern India, which was shown with people wearing winter clothing.

Overall a good watch with family. It is even more joyful and less predictable if someone has not watched Forrest Gump.

Mr. Atul Kulkarni definitely deserves a praise for writing adaptation in his first attempt.

Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (2019)

Much needed for Indian audience

[8/10 · 1 February 2019]

A subject which has been curtailed and often been ridiculed has been showcased with full responsibility, maturity, sensibility, sincerely and with Love. In the subversive Indian society which has been hypocrite in a sense since the colonial era, it was necessary that a commercial movie starring some A-Listers and big production house along with some peppy music and light intelligent humor was honestly presented. As someone who understands the challenges of curtailed freedom and moral policing in Indian society, one's heart will only be grateful for this work.

Thugs of Hindostan (2018)

Nice production design and background score

[6/10 · 5 January 2019]

Indian audience have never been kind to an ambitious period drama ever since Mughal e Azam. TOH could have been way better but considering it was made to lure the masses, it did not lack the content as advertised by many negative views. This project had great detail to production design and background score was gripping. Fatima could have done better and dialogues could have been more impactful. Even with these shortfalls the movie is worth a decent watch and should not have been penned so horribly.

Rangbaaz (2018–2022)

Brave attempt

[8/10 · 3 January 2019]

A good drama inspired from real incidents, however on closer watch there are many production flaws like use of cellphones in early 90s in India. The dialogues could have been better and feel recreated from some mafia movies. Noteworthy performance by Mr Tigmanshu Dhupia and Mr Ranvir Sorry. Saqib and Ahana looked good in their character but were not convincing. The use of derogatory remarks, cuss words and smoking scenes seem forced. Characters names were kept very close to real. An alternative watch is Arshad Warsi's Sehar. Icing would have been a cameo from the real Suhaib Iliyasi.

Talvar (2015)

Hard hitting reality in the face

[10/10 · 6 October 2015]

The negligence and corruption, with the pre-judicial nature of the Indian masses, is captured quite extensively in this. The diversity in dialects and accents shown is also a good contrast for the stereotype Indian movies.

A good performance by all the actors, and sarcastic humor adds icing to the cake. Although Media played a big role in publicizing this sad event, the movie gives a bold and contrasting summary of how things happened.

When Oliver Stone's JFK released back in 1991, the result was many public archives were made public. If this movie, or should I call piece of cinema, could also bring a similar effect such that media could separate itself from a criminal case, maybe justice would be served better.

A neutral venue to carry out this case, was not provided to those found guilty and also the proceedings of law was circumstantial. Maybe those indicted were not guilty and the real guilty are still free? This question haunts and will continue to bother anyone who will follow this case.