Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 232

Gehraiyaan – Deep Enough, But Dips In The 2nd Half

By Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

The 2022 Bollywood movie ‘Gehraiyaan’ directed by Shakun Batra promised to be a deep-dive into the intricacies of modern relationships. The makers almost deliver, except, the story is really about a woman dealing with the trappings of a dysfunctional family. And some of us can probably smell one of the the big climactic plot-twists in the very first hour of the 2 hr 28 minute runtime.

Deepika Padukone plays lead Alisha, a yoga instructor trying to launch her own fitness app, while simultaneously supporting her writer boyfriend and taking care of all the bills. She suffers from anxiety, has financial stress, an estranged father, a dead mom… so my question is – why the fuck is she not seeing a therapist & simply popping Valium pills instead? Anyway, Alisha’s boyfriend Karan (Dhairya Karwa) is best-friend’s with her first cousin Tia (Ananya Pandey), so they go on a two day vacation with Tia and her fiance. And that’s where Alisha and Zain (Siddhant Chaturvedi) find themselves attracted to each other. But what was supposed to be brief fling turns into a complicated prolonged affair, leading to tragic consequences.

One of the biggest strengths of this movie is the fluid dialogue writing. Even though viewers may not be able relate to the characters, their conversations, awkward first interactions or even heated exchanges – all sound believable. As far as the theme of infidelity is concerned, Shakun Batra doesn’t bring anything new to the table really – except for the lingo and settings. But instead, the film also dwells into how life can become a complex circle of pain for some, especially if one is unable to let go of their past. In Gehraiyaan, Alisha’s biggest fear seems to be meeting her mother’s fate – being trapped in a loveless relationship (again, why is she not seeing a therapist? and why does she not have any friends?).

Some of Alisha’s decisions as a young independent woman are questionable, and I am not talking about the infidelity. That said, Deepika Padukona perhaps delivers her career best in the film, she follows her brief and poignantly portrays an emotionally torn woman. Siddhant Chaturvedi is quite the charmer as Zain, a young real-estate entrepreneur who is ambitious, passionate and manipulative. The chemistry between the two was easy on the eyes and their intimate scenes are breezy, filled with the excitement of young love. Ananya Pandey as Tia is perfect for the role, she looks & plays the part of a rich-sweet-gullible young woman with little effort. You almost feel bad for her character in the movie. Dhairya Karwa who plays Karan is quite forgettable as Alisha’s writer boyfriend. Nasseruddin Shah in a very brief cameo as Alisha’s father is a scene-stealer, but has the right amount of screen-time necessary for his character.

The pace slows down in the second-half, and things get a little more chaotic than necessary, with multiple twists, one of which was absolutely unnecessary. However, there was one twist towards the end that does shake things up a little. But everything is wrapped up a little too conveniently by the end. Some viewers may find their interest dipping after an hour, a shorter runtime would’ve made this flick a lot more engrossing. Also, the makers keep showing sea-waves as transitions through the story, which just got funny after a point – too blatant an attempt at throwing the “gehraiyaan (deep)” metaphor on our faces.

Watch the film on Amazon Prime if you liked the trailer. It’s a 7/10 from me.

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – AbstractAF

Ep 63 – Author Balaji Vittal on Pure Evil – A Guide To Bollywood Villainy

Gehraiyaan Review – Deep Enough, But Dips In The 2nd Half

By Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

The 2022 Bollywood movie ‘Gehraiyaan’ directed by Shakun Batra promised to be a deep-dive into the intricacies of modern relationships. The makers almost deliver, except, the story is really about a woman dealing with the trappings of a dysfunctional family. And some of us can probably smell one of the the big climactic plot-twists in the very first hour of the 2 hr 28 minute runtime.

Deepika Padukone plays lead Alisha, a yoga instructor trying to launch her own fitness app, while simultaneously supporting her writer boyfriend and taking care of all the bills. She suffers from anxiety, has financial stress, an estranged father, a dead mom… so my question is – why the fuck is she not seeing a therapist & simply popping Valium pills instead? Anyway, Alisha’s boyfriend Karan (Dhairya Karwa) is best-friend’s with her first cousin Tia (Ananya Pandey), so they go on a two day vacation with Tia and her fiance. And that’s where Alisha and Zain (Siddhant Chaturvedi) find themselves attracted to each other. But what was supposed to be brief fling turns into a complicated prolonged affair, leading to tragic consequences.

One of the biggest strengths of this movie is the fluid dialogue writing. Even though viewers may not be able relate to the characters, their conversations, awkward first interactions or even heated exchanges – all sound believable. As far as the theme of infidelity is concerned, Shakun Batra doesn’t bring anything new to the table really – except for the lingo and settings. But instead, the film also dwells into how life can become a complex circle of pain for some, especially if one is unable to let go of their past. In Gehraiyaan, Alisha’s biggest fear seems to be meeting her mother’s fate – being trapped in a loveless relationship (again, why is she not seeing a therapist? and why does she not have any friends?).

Some of Alisha’s decisions as a young independent woman are questionable, and I am not talking about the infidelity. That said, Deepika Padukona perhaps delivers her career best in the film, she follows her brief and poignantly portrays an emotionally torn woman. Siddhant Chaturvedi is quite the charmer as Zain, a young real-estate entrepreneur who is ambitious, passionate and manipulative. The chemistry between the two was easy on the eyes and their intimate scenes are breezy, filled with the excitement of young love. Ananya Pandey as Tia is perfect for the role, she looks & plays the part of a rich-sweet-gullible young woman with little effort. You almost feel bad for her character in the movie. Dhairya Karwa who plays Karan is quite forgettable as Alisha’s writer boyfriend. Nasseruddin Shah in a very brief cameo as Alisha’s father is a scene-stealer, but has the right amount of screen-time necessary for his character.

The pace slows down in the second-half, and things get a little more chaotic than necessary, with multiple twists, one of which was absolutely unnecessary. However, there was one twist towards the end that does shake things up a little. But everything is wrapped up a little too conveniently by the end. Some viewers may find their interest dipping after an hour, a shorter runtime would’ve made this flick a lot more engrossing. Also, the makers keep showing sea-waves as transitions through the story, which just got funny after a point – too blatant an attempt at throwing the “gehraiyaan (deep)” metaphor on our faces.

Watch the film on Amazon Prime if you liked the trailer. It’s a 7/10 from me.

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – AbstractAF

Ep 63 – Author Balaji Vittal on Pure Evil – A Guide To Bollywood Villainy

Riverdance – Quick Movie Review

The 2021 animated film ‘Riverdance’ is only 90 minutes long, but it took me three days to finish watching the film on Netflix. While it starts with a brilliant introduction told through animated that looks like paper cut-outs in motion. But that’s only for a few minutes. And even though the animation is bright, colorful and quite nice to look at, the movie has no charm.

Directed by Eamonn Butler and Dave Rosenbaum, ‘Riverdance – The Animated Adventure’ is inspired by a theatrical show of the same name that was started in the 1990s and consists of traditional Irish music and dance. The story follows a boy called Keegan and his friend Moira, who meet mythical deer-like creatures that love dancing and are the source of their town’s rivers. While I haven’t seen the real ‘Riverdance’ dance production, the long dance scenes in the film get a little tedious to watch, because they just don’t have that human spark to them. If an adult (and I love to watch dance forms) could get bored quickly, kids are probably going to fall asleep.

Now, for some weird reason, the protagonist Keegan reminded me a lot of Chucky, the doll from the famous horror movie franchise. There aren’t a lot of similarities, but maybe that’s the biggest flaw of this flick – the lead animated characters are quite unimaginative. The jokes are all flat. And there is no stand-out character. It’s a pity, because the animation quality is pretty good and the makers did have an interesting concept at hand.

After being done with half the film, I pretty much fast-forwarded the rest of it. Skip this one if you are looking for a fun entertaining movie to watch.

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – AbstractAF

Ep 66: 5 Things That Keep ‘All Of Us Are Dead’ Alive

10 Book Reviews Under 10 Minutes #12thEdition

We are back with another edition of ’10 Book Reviews under 10 Minutes’ for our podcast. So if you aren’t into reading long book reviews, listen to episode 67, where we quickly look at some diverse titles. And this time around, they are all graphic novels, except for one. So if you aren’t into reading long books either, definitely check the list out out.

Titles reviewed are as follows –

Sebastian O/The Mystery Play – Grant MorrisonThe Girl From The Sea – Molly Knox OstertagHedy Lamarr – William Roy and Sylavain Dorange.Algeria Is Beautiful Like America – Olivia Burton and Mahi GrandGirl Town – Carolyn NowaThe Dire Days of Willowweep Manor – Shaenon K. GarrityThe Tea Dragon Society – Kay O’NeillThe Tea Dragon Festival – Kay O’NeillWhat To Do When I’m Gone – Hallie Bateman and Suzy HopkinsPure Evil – Balaji Vittal

Do subscribe to the channel. Episode below.

Murderbot Diaries – Book Series Review

Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells – Review by @arcana_reads

I wish some characters could be torn off pages and dropped into reality. Quite a selfish take, considering Murderbot wouldn’t like it one bit. Murderbot is well, a robot, which has hacked its governor module – a program that makes it obey its overlords aka humans.

After becoming the master of its actions, Murderbot realised something that takes some of us humans 35 years (and a pandemic) to comprehend. That complete freedom from societal bonds is best utilised by…. consuming media. Constantly. Always. That’s it.

The basic premise of the series is if AI is truly “intelligent” and coldly logical – do you really believe that after seeing us humans gloriously fuck up everything we touch, they will want to rule… US???? Like, why? Why would an intelligent and logical system look at its new-found freedom and immediately decide “wow lemme kill me some humans”?

Martha Wells’ Murderbot is probably the first logical and sane robot I’ve ever read. Anyway, I digress. Wells has released six books till date – most of them quite short and easy to race through. The first book (All Systems Red) is a novella – which is the perfect springboard to launch a series, IMHO. All series should start with a novella. Authors, please take note.

None of the books end on a cliffhanger and at least till book 5 they continue as a series. Book 6 (Fugitive Telemetry) feels a bit like a standalone novel (and equally fun to read).

Book 2 (Artifical Condition) is my favorite. The sarcastic, dry-humored banter between the aptly-named ART and Murderbot is fun. The most engaging part of the entire series is Murderbot’s take on humanity – relationships, emotions, daily life, essentials.. everything. But I’m also worried that more it comes closer to the dark side (aka adopts humanity), it might get boring.

Wrapping this up on a happy note because Goodreads indicates there are three more books in the offing. Definitely recommend!

Rating (for all six books) : 5/5

This book review is by @arcana_reads (Click to follow on Instagram)

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – Abstract AF

Ep 64 – Why ‘Diary of a Bad Year’ Was Bad Reading Experience

Andre The Giant – Graphic Novel Review

Just something about the cover of ‘Andre The Giant’ by Brandon Easton & Denis Medri intrigued me a lot. Maybe it was the school-girl memories of watching wrestling matches with my younger brother that it triggered. Although we’ve never seen Andre in action in the ring. Heck, my brother wasn’t even born when the wrestling icon died. Anyway, that didn’t stop me from hitting download button on the e-book version of biographical graphic novel, but it took me months before finally getting to reading it. Because I wasn’t sure if I’d like it. But to my surprise, it turned out to be interesting enough for a non-stop reading session.

The book starts off with a poignant foreword by Robin Christensen Roussinmoff, the daughter of Andre ‘the giant’, who barely got any time with her father. And then we dive into the life of a boy who grew up too soon, and was pushed into a heady life of fame, alcohol and professional wrestling. Andre was only 20 when he was ‘discovered’ and trained into a man who would eventually become the biggest names in the world of wrestling. And despite having zero interest in the subject, I was drawn into the graphic novel, which is brilliantly illustrated by Denis Medri.

Andre’s career as a wrestler started at time when it was barely popular among the masses, so along with his rise as a star, we also see the history of professional wrestling unfold. It’s amusing to see how a ‘sport’ that’s clearly stage-managed, became a billion-dollar industry. So we obviously get a little story of Vince McMahon, the brains behind WWE, in the book too.

The biggest strength of this graphic novel is how it humanizes a larger-than-life figure, a man who knew his life was perhaps on a timer (he suffered from Acromegaly and was informed by doctor he didn’t have long to live), yet, he was dedicated to wrestling throughout his short-life, a profession he equals to the art of theater. Writer Brandon Easton together with artist Denis Medri spins a biographical story that is insightful, peppered with lots of anecdotal events, some funny, some not so funny, but interesting nonetheless.

Pick this book if you are a graphic novel enthusiast. It’s a 4/5 from me.

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – AbstractAF

Ep 66: 5 Things Keeping ‘All Of Us Are Dead’ Alive In Netflix Top 10

Shyam Singha Roy: Revists an age old trope with elegance

By Munish Rathore

Candid admission: I haven’t seen a lot of Telugu films. The ones I have, I haven’t been very impressed with, but my love for period dramas and Sai Pallavi drove me to give this one a shot, and might I say, I wasn’t disappointed. In fact I was very pleased!

The movie is a well-made masala entertainer. It has two love stories that unfold in different eras, a small but decent portion of courtroom sequences, and grandeur and scale; it draws on the rich and vibrant culture of Bengal, and has some stunning Telugu song and dance sequences. A potboiler, in short.

The film is about an aspiring Telugu director who gets embroiled in a copyright tussle, charged with stealing a dead Bengali author’s work. He is put behind bars for ripping-off a story from a language he can’t read or understand. As the case reaches the court, a series of twists and turns lead to the revelation that (dramatic pause) this director is actually the reincarnation of the author. That brings down the curtains on the first half of the film.

The second half of the films is set in the 60s, where Shyam Singha Roy- played by Nani- is a revolutionary, upper-caste hero who fights societal ills to the chagrin of his own family and village elders. Hoping to make a mark in the world, he decides to leave for Calcutta, but the night he is supposed to scoot, he finds himself in a temple complex mesmerized by Sai Pallavi who plays Maitreyi/ Rosie performing an awe-inspiring dance sequence. Sai Pallavi is a Devdasi who is confined to the courtyards of a temple complex, held hostage by an evil Pujari.

What follows is a budding romance between Nani and Pallavi, who manages to sneak out during the nights. These nocturnal excursions are craftfully created. Each night a little more stunning than the previous. Sai has very few dialogues but her expressions and her moves speak louder than words. The cinematography of these sequences is beautiful and shows how good scenes can be shot even with very little lighting and practically no dialogues.

The film would have been perfect had it not slid down the slope of the knight-in-shining-armour-rescuing-the-damsel-in-distress trope. But I guess the hero has to showcase his heroics for the audience to lap it up, especially when it comes to films that are meant for the masses. The end seems a bit stretched but even that redeems itself with an older Sai Pallavi veing discovered by our young director-reincarnation of Sai Pallavi. As one of my friends put it, ‘that scene has a separate fan-base’, but Sai Pallavi simping aside, the film has a decent amount of merit for one watch.

You can stream the film on Netflix.

Munish Rathore

Munish Rathore is a full-time journalist,
part-time dreamer and an aspiring writer. In
his free time he can be seen curled up in front
of the TV bawling over the latest tear-jerker.

instagram.com/munishrathore/

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – AbstractAF

Ep 66: 5 Things Keeping ‘All Of Us Are Dead’ Alive In Netflix Top 10

Looop Lapeta Review – Slows Down Before The Loop Begins

By Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)

Aaakash Bhatia and team pick give interesting desi touches to the 1998 German time-loop thriller ‘Run Lola Run’ in the 2022 Netflix remake “Looop Lapeta”, but is that enough? Tapsi Pannu plays athlete Savi, who has to save her ‘useless boyfriend’ Satya (Tahir Raj Bhasin) from getting killed by his boss for bungling up a major money deal. Luckily for her, just when things get out of hand, she gets a miraculous second chance.

One of the first things that hit you as a viewer is the camera-work, it keeps moving a lot, and is probably supposed to be ‘artsy’, but is annoying. Had they shaken it a little more, viewers would faint from a dizzying spell. And the setting up to the big time-loop takes too long, it comes at a point where you’d expect the film to be almost over, but in an unpleasant surprise – you realize almost 3/4ths of the story is still left!

Okay, let’s talk actors. Tapsi Pannu looks convincing as the athlete Savi, she is fit AF, all the training for ‘Rashmi Rocket’ has come in handy for this film. Tahir Raj Bhasin as Satya, a pothead who loves gambling, reminds one of Uday Chopra from ‘Dhoom’ because of the way he is styled, and well, because of his silly character too. However, to his credit, Bhasin nails his part as the clueless but cute man-child. K.C. Shankar gets to play Savi’s widower dad Atul Borkar and has a refreshingly progressive part.

The pace of the film is all over the place, in most movies you either have a strong first-half or second-half, in ‘Loop Lapeta’, the scenes keep flitting between amusing, absurd and drab. There’s a sub-plot about two dumb brothers Appu-Jhappu plotting a robbery which was largely irritating, with juvenile jokes that only kids would find funny. But this movie has a 16+ rating. Oh, and the brothers seemed straight out of the popular 5-star chocolate’s ‘Ramesh-Suresh’ ad. That duo is bearable in a 10-second-ad, repeating that formula for a long feature was a bad idea.

In-fact, throughout the film, makers either intentionally or unwittingly parody a lot of famous scenes/characters. There was another annoying sub-plot about a woman who is set to get married to a random dude instead of her boyfriend. She gives a impassioned monologue about her quandary, like Kartik Aryan from ‘Pyaar Ka Punchanama’, but it’s not entertaining. A nice little original element was how the makers draw a parallel to Savi’s life with an Indian mythological story, so viewers get a quick modern re-telling of a ‘Amar Chitra Katha’.

The run-time could’ve been chopped off by at-least 20-25 minutes and ‘Loop Lapeta’ could’ve been a fantastic thriller. But instead we get repetitive montages of Savi & Satya’s cutesy couple moments show in flashbacks, and a lot of slow useless sequences that are supposed to be funny, but only serve to drag the pace further down. One of the dominant themes of the story is how a lot of things in life are inter-connected, small actions by Savi change her life drastically. To drive home the point of this ‘butterfly effect’, there is a literal gigantic shiny butterfly (too evidently fake) that makes a cameo in the movie, which was plain ridiculous.

“Looop Lapeta” will not impress movie enthusiasts who are used to watching experimental thrillers. I remember seeing the trailer for the first time and it reminded me of the super fun 2020 time-loop romantic comedy “Palm Springs“. The 2022 flick kind of pales in comparison as far as both the romance and comedy factors are concerned. It’s a 5/10 from me.

Subscribe to our podcast on YouTube by the same name – AbstractAF

Ep 66: 5 Things Keeping ‘All Of Us Are Dead’ Alive In Netflix Top 10

Gangubai Kathiawadi Trailer Review – Eh…

Time for some dissent amidst all the praise actor Alia Bhatt is getting for her acting in the trailer of “Gangubai Kathiawadi”, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. I had a deep scowl on my face throughout the trailer. Okay, except for the part where Alia asks someone if he thinks she eats poop. That was weirdly funny for reasons that has nothing to do with the film. Anyway…

The baby-faced Alia Bhatt as a prostitute turned hardened-pimp is not quite convincing, and her accent is pretty awkward. Only the brief flashback scenes of Bhatt as a young innocent girl pushed into the flesh trade, are the ones that stir up emotions of empathy in the viewer. You feel a sense of despair, as a helpless Alia is propped against a wall, made to gesture provocatively to invite prospective customers to exploit her body. But the rest of the trailer is standard Bollywood theatrics.

You have a victim-to-hero lead in Alia, some smart-alecky scenes that are barely funny (like Alia telling a north-eastern looking dentist if he intends to put entire China in her mouth when he keeps asking her to open her mouth wider), a Sangharsh like transgender villain (played by Vijay Raaz) and then out of nowhere you have Gangubai’s mentor Karim Lala (Ajay Devgn) appearing into the scene.

Most of Alia’s scenes look like she is dressed up for play, than a historic biopic of a woman who was known as the ‘Madam of Kamathipura’, the red-light district of Mumbai. Perhaps an older actor, somebody in their mid-thirties or early 40s would’ve done more justice to the role. And it’s not like there is a dearth of older actors in the industry.

While it’s too early to judge the film by the trailer, Gangubai Kathaiwadi doesn’t look very promising. And if they picked the best scenes and dialogues for the teaser, then I have my doubts about this Bhansali production.

5 Things Keeping ‘All Of Us Are Dead’ Alive In Netflix Top 10

After the phenomenal success of ‘Squid Games’, folks at Netflix saw through the fact that Korean actors and dystopian stories are a hit with viewers. So enter zombie-series ‘All of Us Are Dead’, that’s set in a Korean High School and is winning fans all over the world. In-fact, it’s been on the number 1. spot in India for a few days.

So what makes this zombie-series click with the audience? Let’s look at five reasons (you can skip to the video at the bottom if you’d rather watch than read) –

The High-School setting – Most of the drama unfolds in Hyosan high-school, which is ground for the zombie outbreak. This is an interesting change from the usual settings in the genre. Here the focus is on how a bunch of teenagers try to survive as the adults in their world pretty much abandon them. Genesis of the Virus – There is a detailed back story of how the virus was made. A former pharmaceutical employee turned science teacher creates the unpredictable virus that quickly mutates and manifests in different ways. Throughout the 12-episodes, we see glimpses of how/why he made the virus, and then attempted to make an antidote. Multiple side-stories – The series doesn’t just focus on the high-school students trying to stay alive, but there are multiple interesting sub-plots that serve as refreshing breaks from the main story. You have a firefighter trying to get to the school to save his daughter. There’s a funny little story about a ‘live-streamer’ who comes to the zombie affected district to find out if flesh eating monsters have really taken over the land. So viewers have more characters to root for. For example, supporting-actor Lee Eun Seam who plays Mi Jin, has become a quick fan favorite. Sub-plot on how Military tackles the situation – In most apocalypse-themed content, we get very superficial glimpses of how officials handle the situation, and in many cases – a zombie outbreak leads to the quick and complete collapse of government machinery. But in ‘All Of Us Are Dead’, there is an interesting sub-plot depicting the Korean military’s investigation into the outbreak, and their efforts to contain it.It has just the right amount of comedy – It’s not as serious and gripping as “The Walking Dead” or “Train To Busan”, but each episode is interspersed with enough comic moments to lighten up the mood now and then. There’s a hilarious character called Dae So in the main student survivor group who keeps things cheery. A sub-plot about a dashing and brave cop stuck with a timid/coward younger cop also offers some quick laughs. Overall, it’s a good blend of comedy with all the blood, gore and zombies.