Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 237

Minnal Murali Review – Like A Desi Comic In Motion

A tailor in a small village in India gets struck by lightning and gains superpowers. What does he do with it? Not much. At least not in the beginning. And while that might seem disappointing to some viewers who expect DC/Marvel level stuff, what makes the 2021 Malayalam movie ‘Minnal Murali’ click for a lot of us is its inherent Indian-ness. Think about it – you are an ambitious adult, with a steady partner, supportive family and big dreams, would you drop your plans just because you woke up with super-speed and super-strength one day? Or just discreetly use your powers for personal gains? Not everyone wants the great responsibility that comes with great power. So the first time Minnal Murali takes on ‘bad guys’, it’s personal – they abused his father. And he isn’t clad in hero gear, instead he borrows a school student’s bird-costume to cover his upper-half, over his regular mundu (lungi).

Director Basil Joseph along with writers Arun Anirudhan, Justin Mathew have spun a relatable origin story of a small-town superhero, who takes his time to come of age. Set in 1990s, in a village in Kerala called Kurukkanmoola, Minnal Murali’s (Tovino Thomas) story begins on the night of a rare celestial event when tailor Jaison gets hit by lightning. Why does Jaison go by the pseudonym ‘Minnal Murali’? We get a moving back-story to that too.

From the lightning accident, to Jaison exploring his new super-powers with his adorable nephew Josemon, to finally embracing his new identity, it’s all amusing. The writers pepper the script with a lot of humor and clever little juxtapositions. For example, there’s a scene where a kid dressed as Mahatma Gandhi encourages the hero to beat up cops. In-fact the first face-off between MM and men in khakhi was brilliantly done, it feels like the scenes jumped out of the panels of a desi comic-book, with a peppy soundtrack “thee minnal” playing at the back. Spread over a ambitious 2 hours 39 minutes runtime, the film has a solid entertaining first two hours. It’s only in the last-half hour that I finally found my interest wavering.

From a self-centered selfish brat to a selfless savior, Jaison’s character sees an interesting growth. Tovino Thomas pulls off all shades of Jaison’s moods with ease. We see him as a flirty college oaf; a fashion-conscious tailor who thinks Adidas is a fake rip-off of a brand called ‘Abibas’; a vengeful ex; an emotional son; a selfish ambitious lout and finally as someone who thinks about the greater good of his hometown. But Jaison’s rise to glory is almost scuttled by the antagonist Shibu, played by actor Guru Somasundaram, who overshadows Tovin Thomas with his multi-faceted role. He reminds one of ‘Two-Face’, the villain from the Batman comics, with contrasting emotions simmering within, like Jekyll and Hyde.

Actor Femina George is the unsung hero in the movie, she plays Karate teacher Biji, who is heartbroken after her boyfriend marries somebody else, because she wasn’t willing to give up her self-defense classes. She is strong, independent, doesn’t mop around and is feisty enough to attend her ex’s wedding to feast on free biryani. My favorite however is child actor Vasisht Umesh who plays Josemon, Jaison’s nerdy bespectacled nephew, who explains his clueless uncle how superheroes roll.

While the overall tone of the film is refreshingly Indian, Basil Joseph and team have taken notes from some comic-book greats. Jason’s exploration of his powers with his tiny nephew was a lot like how Billy Batson tries to figure out his strengths in the 2019 DC film ‘Shazam’. Then there’s a bus scene that seems inspired from both Spiderman 2 and Shazam. There’s a very Magneto Vs Professor Xavier kind of fight in the end, which could’ve been better, but the action has some clean executed moves that look very cool and superman-like. All of this is accomplished with minimal VFX and a budget that doesn’t run into pages.

From the hero’s motivations, to the villain’s angst, ‘Minnal Murali’ covers it all, perhaps even stretches more than necessary into the antagonist’s life. And Guru Somasundaram is so good in his part, that you almost hope he has an happy ending, despite all his evil deeds. The climax has a story-book like ending, and leaves ample scope for sequels. It seems like India has finally found a desi super-hero whose antics have high re-watch value.

It’s a 8/10 from me. Available to stream on Netflix.

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Listen to Episode 56 for three fun Netflix Show Recommendations

Utsukushii Kare Review – An Intriguing Tale of Love & Insecurities

Utsukushii Kare (My Beautiful Man) the 2021 Japanese series is about a 17-year-old loner who falls in love at first sight with a classmate. Directed by Sakai Mai, the show stars Hagiwara Riku as protagonist Hira Kazunari, while Yagi Yusei plays his love interest – the beautiful Kiyoi Sou.

For someone who started watching the series without even seeing the trailer, it was hard to say which way this show was heading. Hagiwara Riku as Hira is one heck of a weird chap. He is a loner, but not the “cool” types, he stammers, has very little interest in anything around him and occasionally takes photos of random things. His world spins around when he sees Kiyoi for the first time. His love/adoration/obsession with the classmate borders on stalking. Kiyoi however exploits Hira’s feelings, by bossing him around all the time. And Hira is fine by it, viewing their relationship as a sort of king-slave equation, where he is happy to serve. This outlook stems from the belief that someone as popular and beautiful as Kiyoi is way of out his league.

Hagiwara Riku is exceptional in his role. In episode one, there is a scene where he looks at a photo and says “I like you… Kiyoi” as if he is parched, exuding a desperate need of longing, tinged with a tone of defeat. It makes the viewer wonder if it’s all going to get out of hand eventually. But as the show progresses, there’s an almost brilliant reversal of plot-line. While for the first half of the series we see life through Hira’s eyes, towards the second half, we finally get Kiyoi’s perspective.

Yagi Yusei has an almost typical stock character, that of the good-looking, vain person everyone covets. But his character sees a lot of growth, and thankfully the makers don’t make everything too easy for him. Even the king has insecurities.

How the lives of these polar opposites (Hira and Kiyoi) characters converge is the heart of the series. Will they be friends, lovers or strangers in the end? The conflict comes in the form of Koyama Kazumi (Takano Akira) who adores Hira and complicates things. One wishes that Kazumi’s sub-plot could’ve been a little stronger, but there isn’t enough time for his arc.

Director Sakai Mai has made an entertaining tale that blends the madness of teenage love with the more practical realities of modern adult relationships. It’s not your typical fluffy teen romance kind of series everybody else is making, but neither does it get too dark or twisted. Everything is smoothed into an emotional climactic episode, where the leads finally confront each other and talk things out. If only they had talked before!

It’s a 8/10 from me. Watch it for the lead actors.

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Listen to Episode 56 for three fun Netflix Show Recommendations

Antlers Review – Cold, Creepy But Crams Too Much

Child abuse, crony capitalism, environmental catastrophes, evil spirits, bullying, drug addiction, alcoholism, mental health, single-parenthood, societal apathy…. the makers of the 2021 horror film ‘Antlers’ try to cram in so much into the movie, that a great story feels a little unsatisfactory by the end of it all. That said, Scott Cooper has directed a film steeped in folklore and fables that’s worthy of attention by all horror fans.

Plot overview – Something sinister happens to single-father Frank Weaver in an isolated mine, turning him into some sort of sick monster and it affects his 7-year-old son Aiden Weaver too. It’s up to 12-year-old Lucas Weaver to take care of his ‘sick’ father and brother. His teacher notices something is off with the little boy and tries to help, without realizing how dangerous the consequences are going to be.

Scott Cooper, Henry Chaisson and Nick Antosca have worked on the screenplay and have done a fantastic job with how the film looks. Set in a small town in Oregon, the setting is gorgeous, with its blue streams, forests, mountains and yet there is something dark, desolate about the place. The terrain helps build the mood for a dark horror mystery surrounding the 12-year-old Lucas and his family.

Child actor Jeremy T. Thomas as the pale, thin Lucas keeps you worried about the boy’s character. Thomas looks like a lost helpless child, burdened with a terrible secret and scarred with terrible visual memories. He copes by drawing ominous pictures of what’s happening to him in a notebook. That’s how his teacher Julia Meadows (Keri Russell) begins to sense maybe the boy is having trouble at home. While Russell does her brief quiet well, her character is given a traumatic past, which gets a lot more space than necessary. The story tries to connect the adult Julia Meadows with the troubled Lucas, two characters with an unhappy childhood. It’s an awkwardly forged relationship.

The climax is quite typical and leaves more unanswered questions than viewers would like. If only we could have gotten a little more on the creature “Wendigo”, that monster in the film, it could’ve been more satisfactory. The makers do give us a brief explanation of how the creature has its roots in Native American beliefs. But some later developments leave you wanting more insight.

Antlers does work quite well as a spooky horror movie. It could’ve been better. It’s a 6/10 from me.

10 Book Reviews Under 10 Minutes #11thEdition

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 62, where we quickly look at some diverse titles, including some comics/graphic novels.

The titles in this edition are as follows
1. ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’ by Brian Selznick
2. Lucky Penny’ by Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota
3. Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
4. Jerusalem by Guy Delisle
5. Love by Pablo Neruda
6. Lola – A Ghost Story by J Torres and ELbert Or
7. Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L Holm
8. Still life by Anoushka Khan
9. The Dark Room by RK Narayan
10. A Thing Called Truth by Iolanda Zanfardino and Elisa Romboli

Listen in and subscribe to the channel on YouTube

Anonymously Yours Review – Surprisingly Fun!

The teen Spanish film ‘Anonymously Yours’ (Anomima) by Netflix is probably more fun than the ‘To All The Boys…’ trilogy. That needed to be said first off, lest you lose interest and not read the whole thing. Just so you know that this is a good chick flick to watch on the weekend. The story is simple, the teens a little more relatable and their life doesn’t have big screen drama and cliches.

Directed by Maria Torres, written by Alexandro Aldrete and Daniela Gomez, the script steers away from the classic ‘opposites attract’ and gives viewers a pair where both the girl and boy are nerds and unpopular. It starts off a little slow, but then the pace picks up and stays at an entertaining level, without dipping much.

Plot overview – When Valeria receives a text from an unknown guy, the two begin to chat without revealing who they are, deciding to remain anonymous. The two start crushing on each other, without realizing that they are classmates and meet on a regular basis at school. Anybody who has ever been on chat sites or even dating sites for that matter, would understand the skepticism of two smart kids not wanting to divulge any personal details about each other. Annie Cabello and Ralf Poderoso as the lead pair are adorable, their chemistry lights up the screen and captures the essence of young love well. The strength of the script lies in the fact that both characters aren’t lovelorn teens. Instead, they are goal-oriented youngsters who have priorities in life apart from mooning over their crush.

Since the setting is in a private school, it is implied that most kids are rich, which gives the makers the excuse to pepper the film with absurdly lavish teen parties. Alex however is from a humble family, raised by a single mother and is at the fancy school on scholarship. But the class/wealth divide between Alex and Valeria is never brought up or made a cause of concern, which was a refreshing change. Both set of parents are more obsessed with what their kid is going to pursue after school, and care very little for who they are dating, as long as their future plans aren’t getting derailed.

The climax is measured, even though you can see what’s going to happen from miles away. But the makers don’t go the cliche route of most teen rom-com and revealing what they do different would make it a big spoiler. So let’s just say, there’s no cheesy drama.

It’s a 7.5/10 from me.

‘The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor’ Quick Review – Cray Cray!

Okay, maybe nobody says ‘cray cray’ anymore, but it’s still a fun term to define crazy stuff. Like the graphic novel ‘The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor’ by Shaenon K. Garrity and Christopher J. Baldwin.

The cover deceives you into thinking its some sort of gothic-horror story, with vampires and beasts, but hell no. Instead, there’s some inception level stuff going on, in-fact, inception was perhaps easier to understand, but definitely not as light and funny as this graphic novel.

You got to love how the story starts – with the girl saving a boy! The protagonist Haley is a huge fan of gothic romance novels; on a gloomy night, she saves a man from drowning, but wakes up in a stately manor, with a strict housekeeper. At first it seems like she has traveled back in time, but turns out she slipped into a different multiverse – a ‘pocket universe’, which is at danger of getting consumed by evil, and can put Haley’s world in jeopardy too. So it’s up to our protagonist and three brothers who inhabit the manor to fix things.

The illustrations by Christopher J/ Baldwin are splashy, cute, colorful, with Haley being the stand-out character. She has expressive eyes that will charm a lot of readers, with an impish attitude that is more on the adorable side than annoying. Author Shaenon K. Garrity tries to turn the gothic romance novel on its head, by giving us a very traditional gothic setting, but the story spans multiple-universes, aliens and some stuff that sort of go over my head.

‘The Dire Days of Willowweep Manor’ might not be for everybody, but could be the perfect pick for those looking for a quick quirky read with sci-fi elements but old sentiments. It’s a 4/5 from me.

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Listen to Episode 48 – Three Underrated Graphic Memoirs To Read

Bunty aur Babli 2 Review: Only people conned are the viewers

Some 16 years ago, I saw Bunty aur Babli with a dozen family members in a single screen theater in a non-descript town in Bihar. The speakers were blaring, the audience noisy and the screen blurry, but through the madness of it all, I thoroughly enjoyed the story of two small-town con-artists. It was this fond memory I hoped to rekindle when I decided watch the sequel. I was really looking forward to it. But alas!

If there is one thing Indian filmmakers should learn, it is to let good franchises be. Do not make a Sarkar 2, do not make a Love Aaj Kal 2, do not make even a Raaz 2-3-4 for that matter. Bunty aur Babli 2, sadly, is the latest addition to this long list of tanked sequels. It is a great example of how a seemingly perfect cast can’t hold together a film with a flawed script.

We see the OG Bunty aur Babli, having denounced their ways making the most they can out of their small-town life, while a new set of con-couple takes on their monicker and dupes sleazy uncles of their money by promising them a sexcapade. Are you serious? Duping old uncles should be last thing sassy, young and good-looking people should be doing. This is 2021. Such a plot-line would probably have made sense in 2000s, two decades later, this whole idea is dated and stinks of laziness.

The next heist is a rip-off of ‘Taj Mahal for sale’ idea from the first film. And the one after that too borrows heavily from the predecessor. However, it is when all the heists are done, do the Rani-Saif duo enter to con the Siddharth-Sharvari coupling to rob them off their money.

What follows is a long and painful turn of events that are best left unmentioned. From the gaudy clothes to the cheap-ass locations, to the absolutely unnecessary couple fights, nothing in the film makes one sit upright and take note. A few witty dialogues here and there are the only things that keep one awake through the snooze-fest this film is.

Also- what is up with the songs? The first movie boasts of an album that is still relevant over a decade later and then comes this one which feels like it’s stuck in the 70s. No pump, no energy, no romance. I could go on and on but I feel that would be a waste too.

If you liked the first Bunty and Babli, do not, I repeat, do not watch this film. Even the brilliant actors can’t help but betray you.

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 – Abstract AF

Listen to Episode 59 for 9 great animated film recommendations.

Don’t Breathe 2 Review – Blind Anti-Hero Back With A Bloodier Chapter

“Can we not watch this, I don’t think I want to see something so intense,” I said out loud, 20 minutes into ‘Don’t Breathe 2’, after suggesting we watch it on Netflix in the first place. But we did finish it in one go. Directed by Rodo Sayagues, it has Stephen Lang reprising his role as the killer blind man we all saw in the 2016 thriller ‘Don’t Breathe’. The movie was scarier than most horror films that came out that year, and the sequel is just as good. Almost.

Plot overview – A navy veteran trains his adopted daughter in survival skills and keeps the family isolated by home-schooling the girl. Things get out of hand when a band of men intrude into their house and attempt to kidnap the girl.

Let’s quickly recap ‘Don’t Breathe’ to get a better grip on the sequel – Three friends break into the house of a blind old man to steal money, expecting it to be an easy heist. But they find themselves trapped in the house with a dangerous owner who gives them hell. To make things worse, they further incur his wrath by causing the death of a pregnant woman who was being held captive in the house. The blind man claims the woman had caused his daughter’s death, so he impregnated her through artificial insemination, to make her bear him another child. A twisted revenge and a heist gone horribly wrong. That’s what the story is about. It ends with a cliffhanger – only one thief survives, after managing to fatally injure the old man, but she discovers on the news that he is alive and has been taken to the hospital.

Let’s get back to ‘Don’t Breathe 2’ now. Did we really need another movie with the old man going through a similar ordeal? Intruders breaking into his house, not for his money, but for the girl he is raising. How terrible can one’s fortune be? To experience home intrusion not once but twice! Writers Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues create a character that’s a strong anti-hero, a protagonist you cannot decide how to feel for. You are torn between thinking ‘this dude deserves all the shit that happens to him, karma bitch’ and ‘c’mon give the old man a break!’.

The pace is pitch-perfect, keeping you on the edge of your seat once the intrusion begins. You never know who is going to hit/kill who. There’s a lot of violence, gore and jump scares better than most horror movies. The only thing unrealistic about the film is just how hardy Stephen Lang’s blind old man is. He is like a human terminator on steroids. No matter how much you injure him, he stands back up, like a super-human. Some of the action sequences are great.

There is a pretty good twist towards the climax, and just like the 2016 flick, there are no good guys in this one either. For a few minutes the pace slackens at the end, to give way for some emotional moments that doesn’t fit well with the rest of the plot, yet gives the movie a much needed human touch that some viewers would seek.

‘Don’t Breathe 2’ is a morally grey film that keeps you entertained, even though some parts are way too exaggerated. There’s lots of blood and gore, not the ‘Saw’ movies kind, but enough to make those with low tolerance for violence hit the pause button plenty. So be warned.

It’s a 7/10 from me.

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Listen to – 15 Freaky Facts About The Case ‘Conjuring 3’ Is Based On

Decoupled Review – Why I Stopped After Episode 1

By its very Netflix description, ‘Decoupled’ doesn’t pretend to be anything that it isn’t – the makers spell out it’s about a privileged rich couple going through a divorce and bizarre things happen along the way. Created by Manu Joseph, the series stars Madhavan and Surveen Chawla as the lead pair. “A misanthropic writer and his startup-founder wife juggle their impending divorce with the absurdities and annoyances of life in their affluent world…” reads the synopsis.

Problem is, the show itself gets absurd, but in an annoying way. The first few minutes are fun, the slow resentful banter between a couple that’s planning on getting separated elicit chuckles. Madhavan plays Arya Iyer, a best-selling author, second only to Chetan Bhagat (who plays himself in a cameo) in India, and seems to have a lot of issues. Surveen Chawla is his businesswoman Punjabi wife Shruti Sharma Iyer, who doesn’t get much screen-time, at least in the first episode. Maybe the show gets better, and I did try seeing a few minutes of the second episode too, but they makers try so hard to be ‘woke’, that it’s cringe-y, boring and irritating.

And now to spoilers from just the first episode to explain why exactly the show wasn’t enjoyable.

The story starts with Arya and Shruti going to a book-club reading. Shruti is pulling in a favor from her soon to be ex-author-husband for an investor who wants to surprise his reader wife. We soon start seeing what a pretentious asshole Arya is, which is fine, but the character is not written well. Let me break down the ‘trying too hard to be cool’ scenes down into points –

At the book club, the sole male reader of the club asks Arya to meet his teen son who is a fan. Arya recoils in disgust when the boy puts forth his hand for a handshake. Now my first instinct as a viewer was to assume Arya is a germophobe. But nope. He claims he has “a policy of not shaking hands with teen boys”. It’s easy to understand where the joke is going, but the prudish father insists that the author explain. It gets not too funny by then. Arya dashes off from the book club because he has a flight in one hour. I assume the rich author has a chartered flight to himself, since he is chilling at a book club with a plane to catch in the next 60 minutes. Or is just too laid-back and optimistic (which is clearly not the case). Anyway… he reaches the airport 40 minutes before the flight. Luckily for him there is only a small line to get in and a CISF personnel is doing the regular job of checking tickets and identity proofs of passengers. Now Aarya spots the man scratching his pants near the groin area and gets disgusted, then creates a scene when it’s his turn. But he goes on a nonsensical tangent of ‘how do you know my ticket is real?’ and that ‘the government is wasting your time making you do this boring job’. A bunch of uncles get riled up, accuse Aarya of insulting a ‘jawan’ doing his duty and brand the author ‘anti-national’. And things go out of hand…. So are the makers trying to tell us that this rich author, who has to catch a flight for an important meeting in the next 40 minutes, has never been to an airport before? And if this man has such a problem with people putting their hands in problematic places, why doesn’t he just carry a fucking sanitizer? Also, there is definitely no traces of a pandemic going on, because nobody is in masks. But even before the pandemic happened, a lot of people (including me and most of my friends, who aren’t even South Mumbai/Delhi rich) did carry sanitizers. Now, Arya was catching that flight to have a meeting with Netflix bosses, who express interest in buying the rights of his books to make a series or whatever. But because of the scene he creates at the airport, he is immediately put on a ‘no-fly’ list. That no-fly list decision literally takes place in 10 minutes and makes no sense. I get that the makers are trying to show just how sensitive and unreasonable Indians can get over things, but it doesn’t land a punch if the protagonist is a sensitive jackass too. Now, instead of shitting bricks and calling the Netflix guys that he cannot make it to the meeting, the first thing Aarya does is call his wife up, to set up a dinner date. Someone lost track of the script for a bit? Okay then…. The dinner date is at a super fancy Vietnamese restaurant. There’s a pretty girl at the entrance greeting guests with ‘Xin chao’, which is ‘hello’ in Vietnamese. Aarya asks her if she is from Mizoram and she says ‘No, from Meghalaya’. Then Aarya asks her if she feels bad that the owners have put her up in a costume, making her pretend like she is from Vietnam. Umm…. hello asshole, you thought she is from Mizoram and then you are trying to make the poor girl feel bad about her job? Why even go to a fancy Vietnamese restaurant in India? The hypocrisy, the assholery, it’s tiring to watch. Not entertaining. And things only keep getting more annoying. Or should I say Aarya. No wonder the wife wants a divorce. Oh and everybody who seems to know them also happens to be at the same restaurant. The prudish father from the book club who also happens to be Aarya’s neighbour. And Chetan Bhagat, Aarya’s biggest rival.

I could go on… there are 2-3 more points to whine about, but let’s call it quits. Not going to finish watching the show, doesn’t seem worth my time. Netflix has too many other shows I could check out and then there are multiple books waiting on my shelf to read.

Watch it at your own peril. Maybe it does get better.

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Listen to Episode 59 for 9 great animated film recommendations.

Gender Fluid

Episode 61 of Abstract AF’s podcast is poetry themed. Ruminations on gender-fluidity, as more and more people choose to discard the traditional pronouns of ‘he’ and ‘she’.

Listen in and do subscribe to the channel on YouTube.

Here’s the text of the poem –

She said, she had first declared she wanted to be he
Later he said, maybe he didn’t want to be he or she
So he and she had a ‘he versus she’ talk
And then they finally settled for ‘they’
For sometimes he was she
And sometimes she was he
So if you said ‘he’ then she would feel hurt
And if you said ‘she’ then he would feel hurt
So to live in peace, they settled for ‘they’
And yet there are days, when ‘they’ doesn’t cut it
When they want to be only he
And he only wants to be she
Or then there are those very many moments
Where he and she is a little bit of both she and he
So for the majority of their day, they settle for ‘they’
At ease with their many faces that are but the same
And as for me, I only call them by their beloved name

Sneha Jaiswal