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somak-mukherjee
Reviews
Sardar Udham (2021)
Inspiring and haunting. One of the best of the year.
The biopic follows Indian revolutionary Udham Singh's journey from the aftermath of the horrifying Jallianwala Bagh Massacre to him assassinating it's perpetrator Michael O. Dwyer to his capture and death. The writers Ritesh Shah and Shubhendu Bhattacharya have created a non-linear screenplay that goes back and forth several times from the present to the past, while this worked to a large extent, it's perhaps a bit overused to being exhausting after a point. Technically the movie is almost flawless, rarely have I seen such exemplary cinematography and production design in a bollywood movie that is neither grand or over the top but just accurate, and that's absolutely what was needed here. Shantanu Moitra's score is beautiful and haunting at times. Shoojit Sircar the Captain of the ship yet again delivers, but perhaps the ship's main engine is the wonder boy Vicky Kaushal, who delivers his career best performance yet, he literally breathes life into a character that many of us were unaware of. Irrfan was supposed to play this role, and I'm sure he is somewhere there very proud of both Vicky and Shoojit. In the end would just like to salute the spirit of Udham Singh, may his fight for freedom and justice inspire us present generation to make a change. Inquilab Zindabad!
Kill Dil (2014)
Had expectations but returned highly disappointed.
Frankly speaking, I went to watch this film only for Govinda as I wanted to watch him in a new avatar after many years. The trailers looked good so I had expectations from it, but what turned out was a complete mess of a movie. Govinda, undoubtedly the most powerful actor of the film was made to sit on a rooftop for most parts of the film by the director and growl orders to his henchmen played by Ranveer and Ali Zafar and crack lame jokes with them. While he may have given his full effort to make himself look menacing as Bhaiyaji, the director Shaad Ali wasted it by his poor direction. The director has tried to give the movie a 'Tarantino movie' feel but has given no attention to the story which is a very poorly written one. I am not a fan of Ranveer Singh, but his performance in this movie is good and has given it much needed energy. Parineeti Chopra is wasted in a role of a social worker with only one thing to do, that is party hard and drink harder. Ali Zafar mostly keeps quiet throughout which is a good thing. Except for the title track no other song is great which starts playing on after every 10-15 minutes. I gave Kill Dil 4 stars because of 1.Govinda, 2.Ranveer's effort, 3.the title track, 4.Gulzar's lyrics. Otherwise it's boring and lazy.
Buno Haansh (2014)
Thrilling movie with some great performances.
I had read Samaresh Majumdar's novel Buno Haansh before watching the movie, so i had expectations from it, but i was a bit hesitant as i did not trust Dev's dialog delivery and acting, but i am happy to say he has pulled off a difficult role brilliantly, he was not perfect but was much much better than his previous movies and has acted really well in this one looking innocent and confused as Amol, the main character. It will surely be one of the highlights of his career and he has the potential. Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury has made a detailed movie with a soul, keeping the thrill elements intact. All the other characters are perfectly cast but Sudipta Chakraborty's act is the standout. The background score and music by Shantanu Moitra are great as always. Buno Haansh and Dev's act is surely one of the best this year.