India Archives – Page 12 of 17

Review: ‘Bheed,’ starring Rajkummar Rao, Bhumi Pednekar, Dia Mirza, Ashutosh Rana, Pankaj Kapur, Kritika Kamra and Aditya Shrivastav

April 5, 2023

by Carla Hay

Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar in “Bheed” (Photo courtesy of Reliance Entertainment)

Directed by Anubhav Sinha

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in Tejpura, India, in March 2020, the dramatic film “Bheed” (inspired by real events) features an all-South Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: After the Indian government shuts down its state borders during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, several working-class migrants try to go home, but caste systems play a role in who will get to cross those borders.

Culture Audience: “Bheed” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching realistic dramas about how the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns affected people in India.

Kritika Kamra in “Bheed” (Photo courtesy of Reliance Entertainment)

“Bheed” offers a realistic and sometimes alarming look at how social class structures and prejudices can affect people in a crisis. It’s a rare COVID-19 pandemic drama that isn’t crassly exploitative of this deadly pandemic. In fact, it can be argued that the movie is fairly restrained in showing all the true horrors that occurred when thousands of people in India were stranded, abused and/or killed when the Indian government ordered a 21-day shutdown of state borders within India, beginning on March 24, 2020.

Directed by Anubhav Sinha (who co-wrote the movie’s screenplay with (Saumya Tiwari and Sonali Jain), “Bheed” has fictional characters, but the scenarios in the movie are very accurate to what was shown and reported in the news media. “Bheed” means “divided crowd” in Hindi. And the divisions are mostly cast divisions. The movie was artfully filmed in black and white, as if to give this story a more timeless look and to put an emphasis on how bleak these conditions were.

“Bheed” has a central protagonist who is supposed to be the “hero” of the story, but the movie is told from various perspectives. All of the principal cast members in “Bheed” give very good performances in telling this story that can resonate among many different cultures. It’s a stark reminder of how a pandemic can bring out the best and the worst in people.

In “Bheed,” police inspector Surya Kumar Singh Tikas (played by Rajkummar Rao) has recently been promoted. And his first day in his new position just happens to be the day he is put in charge of a police checkpoint in Tejpura, India, on March 24, 2020. That was the day that the Indian government sealed state borders within, in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. It was a controversial decision because it left thousands of people stranded, with those who weren’t able to afford food, shelter and transportation suffering the most.

The pandemic lockdowns shut down several business that left working-class migrants out of a job. With no work available, many tried to go back home but were prevented from doing so at the border. These sealed borders caused traffic jams, chaos and an increase in criminal activities. Many of these migrants walked hundreds of miles foot. Nearly 9,000 people were reported killed by sleeping or passing out from exhaustion on train tracks and getting run over by trains. An untold number of people died from police brutality and other crimes.

Surya is someone who knows all too well how people from lower castes are often mistreated. His family is from a lower caste, and he admits to a few of his co-workers that his father changed the family’s last name to Singh to hide this lower-caste status. Surya is in a loving relationship with Dr. Renu Sharma (played by Bhumi Pednekar), who works at a local hospital. They are engaged to be married, but Surya knows that Renu’s father doesn’t approve of their relationship because of Surya’s lower caste. Renu’s father is pressuring her to wed someone else in an arranged marriage.

“Bheed” shows several people who come into contact with Surya in some way during the ordeals that are shown in the movie. Ramadeen “Ram” Singh (played by Aditya Shrivastav) is a nasty-tempered subordinate of Surya. Ram doesn’t even try to hide his prejudice against people who are very poor. His bad temper comes out in horrific ways through unwarranted police brutality. Surya is disgusted by Ram and his brutal tactics and stops him as often as he can. but Surya can’t be everywhere at once.

An unnamed girl who’s about 14 or 15 years old (played by Aditi Subedi) is one of the migrants who has been prevented from crossing the border. She works as a maid and sometimes sell jewelry. She is traveling with her alcoholic father (played by Omkar Das Manikpuri), who frequently steals her money to by alcohol.

This father and daughter were traveling with several other migrants who were killed when they fell asleep on train tracks. The only transportation that this father and daughter can afford is by bicycle. But in an act of desperation, the two of them make the dangerous decision to be smuggled with other migrants inside a concrete mixer.

Balram Trivedi (played by Pankaj Kapur) comes from an upper caste, and he works as a security employee who is transporting several adults and children by bus. Because of his upper caste, Balram is very arrogant and thinks the border rules should not apply to him. He tries in vain to talk the border officials to let him pass through the border. Later, when his passengers are desperate for food and water, he rejects food offered by some Muslim strangers because he erroneously blames Muslims for spreading COVID-19.

Geetanjali (played by Dia Mirza) is an affluent woman is insists on crossing the border because she wants to be with her underage daughter. Geetanjali is in a custody battle for this child with her estranged husband. And she wants to get to the daughter before her husband does. It’s not exactly a “life or death” reason, but Geetanjali feels entitled to cross the border because she’s used to getting her way. She treats her compassionate driver Kanhaiya (played by Sushil Pandey) like a lowly servant.

Vidhi Prabhakar (played by Kritika Kamra) is a TV journalist who is reporting on the scene with two camera operators: Nasir (played by Dhawal Pandey) and Raghu (played by Karan Pandit), who have very different personalities. Nasir is more likely to affected by the suffering that he sees around him, while Raghu is fascinated by it and sees it as an opportunity to get exclusive news footage. Vidhi tries to remain calm and professional, but she eventually gets angry at Raghu’s flippant attitude and scolds him about how they shouldn’t let their privileged lives be an excuse to treat the people they are reporting about as less than human.

“Bheed” shows how some of the upper-caste people try to bribe or make threats to the border patrol officer. An appropriately named pushy upper-caste man named Pushpesh (played Yogesh Pandey) tries to use the name of a family member, whom he says is a high-placed government official, as a way for the border officials to make an exception for Pushpesh. That tactic doesn’t work either. Under the command of Surya, the police officers stand their ground in not letting people through, but things inevitably get violent, as tempers flare and people get even more desperate to cross the border.

Renu is working as an emergency doctor nearby, but she occasionally sees Surya on duty when she has to arrives in an ambulance to respond to people who need emergency care. Of course, adding to the tension is the paranoia that anyone in this crowded area could be infected with COVID-19. People who cough or sneeze are treated like potential killers. “Bheed” also shows how false information quickly spreads on social media. (Facebook is given the name Fakebook in the movie.)

“Bheed” ramps up the tension in very effective ways to show how people from different backgrounds and with different agendas can react to the same crisis. And no one is really safe—not even the police officers in charge. The movie could have taken a very fake-looking turn at one point in a climactic scene. However, “Bheed” shows in no uncertain terms that that what’s in this unforgettable movie only represents a small fraction of the untold numbers of people in real life who experienced this nightmare of being stranded at the border during a deadly pandemic.

Reliance Entertainment released “Bheed” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on March 24, 2023.

Review: ‘Zwigato,’ starring Kapil Sharma and Shahana Goswami

March 30, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Zwigato”

Directed by Nandita Das

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Bhubaneswar, India, the dramatic film “Zwigato” features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A husband and wife struggle financially with part-time “gig economy” jobs after the husband loses his full-time job as a factory manager.

Culture Audience: “Zwigato” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching “slice of life” dramas about working-class people.

Shahana Goswami in “Zwigato” (Photo courtesy of Viacom18 Studios)

Within the “slice of life” format of “Zwigato,” this drama takes an unflinching and critical look at “gig economy” jobs that can cross the line into worker exploitation. Don’t expect any absurd melodrama in this realistic but somewhat meandering movie. The acting performances are admirable, even if some parts of “Zwigato” get repetitive. “Zwigato” had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.

Directed by Nandita Das (who co-wrote the “Zwigato” screenplay with Samir Patil), “Zwigato” is named after the food-delivery company that employs the movie’s male protagonist for most of the story. It’s a company that’s similar to Uber Eats, Grubhub and DoorDash, where customers order food for delivery on an app. The food deliverers then get ratings from the customers. These ratings directly affect the salaries and employee evaluations for the food deliverers.

In the beginning of “Zwigato” (which takes place in Bhubaneswar, India), Manas Singh Mahto (played by Kapil Sharma) has lost his job as a manager of a factory. Manas and his wife Pratima (played by Shahana Goswami) live with their son Kartik (played by Parjwal Sahoo), their daughter Purim (played by Yuvika Brahma) and Manas’ elderly mother Mai (played by Shantilata Padhy), who has some health problems. Kartik is about 12 or 13, while Purim is about 10 or 11. As a factory manager, Manas made enough money to support his family, while Pratima was a homemaker. However, with the loss of his job, Manas and Pratima have to scramble to find work.

The only job that Manas can find at the moment is as a Zwigato delivery person. Meanwhile, Pratima finds part-time work as a masseuse (she has previous experience) and later as a cleaner at a shopping mall. “Zwigato” shows the trials and tribulations that each spouse has adjusting to their new jobs, although the vast majority of the scenes are focused on Manas. The money that the spouses make can barely pay their bills. And as their financial problems increase, so does the strain in their marriage.

Pratima starts off optimistic that her masseuse work will be a pleasant experience. She begins with wealthy people as clients. But over time, she finds out that some of these wealthy clients are very demanding and unreasonable. At one job where she has been hired to give a young woman a massage, Pratima has some transportation problems and has to rush to get there on time. When Pratima arrives, she is told by the woman’s mother that Pratima’s services are no longer needed. Privately, the spoiled young woman told her mother to fire Pratima because Pratima looked “too sweaty.”

Manas’ problems with Zwigato have to do with unreasonable customers too. But there’s also the company-wide issue of Zwigato making their delivery people pay their own costs for transportation. Manas and the majority of the employees use gas-powered vehicles. And the cost of gas can be up to 40% of their Zwigato salaries.

The movie shows how Zwigato offers the employees an enticing solution to the gas expense problem: At an employee meeting outdoors (with a guest appearance by actress Gul Panag, playing a version of herself), she introduces an electric motorbike that the company is offering to employees—for a price. The price is more than what the average individual Zwigato employee can afford. The movie shows how the employees, including Manas, overcome that challenge.

“Zwigato” doesn’t reveal anything new or surprising about the employee issues that come from “gig economy” work. The employees are often underpaid and overworked. And because they are considered “independent contractors” by their employers, these employees are not given employee benefits such as health insurance or pensions.

Manas feels the pressure and starts to question if working for Zwigato is worth the hassle and the stress. After he gets a false complaint from a customer, the low rating leads to Manas getting temporarily suspended, and he doesn’t get the support and fair treatment that he expects from the company’s management. When he meets with a Zwigato regional executive (played by Sayani Gupta) to ask for an investigation and to reinstate his good employee rating, she is dismissive and tells Manas that he should feel grateful that the company hired him because he can be replaced by many other people who want the job.

“Zwigato” doesn’t make any particular person a “hero” or a “villain,” but the movie repeatedly shows how people can get trapped and burned out in this type of work, which tends to have high turnover. They spend so much time doing these low-paying jobs that it often becomes difficult to have the time to find better-paying jobs. And they hang on to the “gig economy” jobs out of financial necessity or desperation, while the companies they work for get rich. “Zwigato” doesn’t offer any solutions to the age-old issues of the “haves” and the “have-nots,” but it does offer a well-depicted look at a family affected by “gig economy” work, which this family did not want but was forced to take in order to survive financially.

Viacom18 Studios released “Zwigato” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on March 17, 2023.

Review: ‘Kabzaa’ (2023), starring Upendra and Kiccha Sudeepa

March 25, 2023

by Carla Hay

Upendra in “Kabzaa” (Photo courtesy of Anand Pandit Motion Pictures)

“Kabzaa” (2023)

Directed by R. Chandru

Kannada with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place from 1945 to 1973, primarily in Amarapura, India, the action film “Kabzaa” features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class, wealthy and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: A pilot in the Indian Air Force becomes entangled in gang warfare when he avenges the death of his brother.

Culture Audience: “Kabzaa” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and mind-numbing action movies that are too long.

Murali Sharma in “Kabzaa” (Photo courtesy of Anand Pandit Motion Pictures)

Completely idiotic drivel in every sense of the word, “Kabzaa” it’s just more of the same type of bloated, derivative action flick about power struggles with corrupt people, violent fight scenes, revenge plots, and some musical numbers thrown into the mix. This 134-minute onslaught of the senses is an endurance test to see how much your brain can be turned off or turned into mush by watching all of this garbage filmmaking.

Written and directed by R. Chandru, “Kabzaa” (which means “possession” in Hindi) starts off with a very sloppily edited and hastily told introduction of the main protagonists. In 1945, Tulasi Devi (played by Sudha) becomes a widow when her husband, a freedom fighter named Amareshwara, is killed by the British military. Tulasi and her young sons Sankeshwara (played by Jnan) and Arkeshwara (played by Chiru) relocate to Amarapura, India, where the this family of three work as flag sellers. Sankeshwara is older than Arkeshwara.

In 1947, India becomes an independent nation. “Kabzaa: then fast-forwards to Visakhapatnam, India, in 1960. Arkeshwara (played by Upendra) is now a successful pilot in the Indian Air Force. Sankeshwara (played by Suneel Puranik) wanted to join the Air Force too, but he sacrified his dreams so that he could help take care of their mother.

By 1971, a royal heir named Veer Bahaddur (played by Murali Sharma) has ascended to power and wants to create a new dynasty. He also wants to become the next chief minister of his state. His opponent is the incumbent chief minister Ghanshyam Pandey (played by Lakki Lakshman), who wants to hold on to his chief minister position at any cost. It sets the stage for a war between Ghanshyam and Veer that will inevitably lead to many people getting killed.

Three gangsters rule the crime world in Amarapura. Their names are Bagheera (played by Nawab Shah), Khaleed (played by M. Kamaraj) and Malik (played by John Kokken). Khaleed has a son named Sartaaj (played by Taha Shah), who is a willing accomplice to Khaleed’s crimes, including a murder spree that is intended to cause disruption to the upcoming elections. Also part of these dirty dealing is a corrupt police officer named Bhargava Bakshi (played by Kiccha Sudeepa), who is at war with some of the gangsters.

Sankeshwara kills Sartaaj for shooting an elderly woman. Out of revenge, Khaleed murders Sankeshwara in a grisly beheading. it should come as no surprise that Arkeshwara wants revenge on Khaleed. There are some predictable twists and turns to the story that reveal Arkeshwara will have more than one enemy.

During all of this madness and mayhem that takes place from 1971 to 1973, Arkeshwara courts and marries Madhumati Bahaddur (played by Shriya Saran), the “princess” daughter of Veer Bahaddur. Veer does not approve of this relationship, because he thinks that Madhumati should have a husband of a higher social status.

This disapproval leads to Madhumati becoming estranged from Veer and not being in contact with him. Madhumati and Arkeshwara have two sons together, but Veer is not in his grandsons’ lives because of the estrangement from Madhumati. Arkeshwara is still very close to his mother Tulasi, who is a loving and doting grandmother.

The murders and the revenge plots in “Kabzaa” are both bombastically over-the-top and soullessly formulaic There is really no suspense or mystery involved in who will live and who will die—although there is one particularly heinous scene of the two sons of Madhumati and Arkeshwara being set on fire, while Madhumati watches helplessly, as she’s held captive in a prison cell. This is not spoiler information, since these despicable murders of the children are already shown in the trailer for “Kabzaa.” The only spoiler information for this atrocious scene is to reveal who is responsible for these child murders.

All of the dialogue in “Kabzaa” is vapid. The acting is mediocre-to-bad. The action scenes are unoriginal. And it’s completely misguided to have cheerful musical numbers dropped in the parts of this very darkly violent film. Just when you think you’ve had enough of seeing all of these hollow characters, the movie ends with a cliffhanger that indicates the “Kabzaa” filmmakers intend to make a sequel to this train-wreck film. You have been warned.

Anand Pandit Motion Pictures released “Kabzaa” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on March 17, 2023.

Review: ‘Selfiee,’ starring Akshay Kumar and Emraan Hashmi

March 1, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Selfiee”

Directed by Raj Mehta

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in Bhopal, India, the comedy film “Selfiee” (a remake of the 2019 Malayalam-language movie “Driving Licence”) features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A motor vehicle inspector and his 10-year-old son are avid fans of a movie star, but the inspector’s admiration for this celebrity turns to disillusionment and hatred after the two men end up in a bitter public feud.

Culture Audience: “Selfiee” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and the “Driving Licence” movie, but this remake is a long-winded letdown that lacks the charm of the original movie.

Pictured in front, from left to right: Mahesh Thakur, Akshay Kumar and Meghna Malik in “Selfiee” (Photo courtesy of Star Studios)

For a comedy that’s nearly two-and-a-half hours, “Selfiee” takes way too long to have nothing interesting to say. Emraan Hashmi puts in a good effort to make his character believable. The other cast members just exist in a dull movie with silly gimmicks. “Selfiee” is a remake of the 2019 Malayalam-language movie “Driving Licence,” which is far superior to “Selfiee” in every way.

Directed by Raj Mehta and written by Rishabh Sharma, “Selfiee” takes place primarily in Bhopal, India. It’s where motor vehicle inspector Om Prakash Aggarwal (played by Hashmi), who is called Prakash, lives and works. Prakash and his 10-year-old son Gabbu (played by Neev Ahuja) are avid fans of movie star Vijay Kumar (played by Akshay Kumar), a swaggering celebrity who has millions of admirers. Prakash’s wife Minty Aggarwal (played by Nushrratt Bharuccha) thinks that the fan worship that Prakash and Gabbu have for Vijay is foolish and a waste of time. Minty prefers another movie star named Suraj Diwan (played by Abhimanyu Singh), who started out in the movie business around the same time as Vijay.

Vijay and Suraj used to be roommates before they were famous. However, after becoming celebrities, the careers of Vijay and Suraj went in completely opposite directions. Vijay’s career has soared to the greatest of heights, while Suraj’s career has declined to the point where he is now a has-been who’s doing low-quality movies because he needs the money. Suraj, who is very jealous of his rival Vijay, consults with a psychic named Tara (played by Kusha Kapila) for a tarot card reading to see if his luck or Vijay’s luck will change. Tara tells Suraj that the tarot cards predict that Vijay will have bad luck soon.

It just so happens that Vijay has arrived in Bhopal with great fanfare, because he’s filming scenes for his next movie in Bhopal. These are the final scenes to be filmed for his movie. When Prakash and Gabbu find out that Vijay will be in Bhopal, they rush to the area where Vijay’s helicopter is landing. Several members of the media are also there.

Among a crowd of thousands of cheering and excited fans, Prakash and Gabbu desperately try to get Vijay’s attention as Vijay’s car drives by them. The dream of this father and son is to meet Vijay and get a selfie photo taken with this movie star. Of course, Prakash and Gabbu are just one of numerous fans in the crowd who want the same thing. Vijay is too far away for him to notice Prakash and Gabbu.

When Vijay arrives in Bhopal, he is warmly greeted by Vimla Tiwari (played by Meghna Malik), a somewhat flaky employee who has been hired to be Vijay’s assistant during his stay in Bhopal. Her job is to get Vijay whatever he wants and make sure that his life runs as smoothly as possible while he’s in the city. Vijay is an automobile enthusiast who makes several action movies where he has to race cars and do a lot of other driving.

Vijay has recently found out that his driver’s license has been expired for months, and he’s annoyed that the license renewal wasn’t taken care of by someone who works for him. Vimla has been tasked to quietly get the license renewed in Bhopal without Vijay having to take the required license renewal tests. Vimla goes to the regional transport office where Prakash works, and he happens to be the inspector on duty who takes this request.

Normally, Prakash is an ethical inspector who wouldn’t break the rules. But when he finds out that this special treatment would be a personal favor to Vijay, Prakash agrees to “bend the rules” for Vijay, on the condition that Vijay personally visit the office so that Prakash and Gabbu can meet Vijay and get a selfie photo with him. Vimla says she’ll see what she can do about this request, but she won’t make any guarantees.

Vimla goes to Vijay with this request. Vijay and his sycophantic personal assistant Naveen (played by Mahesh Thakur) look up Prakash on social media and see that he is a die-hard fan of Vijay. When Vijay sees that Prakash is a loyal admirer, Vijay figures that this trip to the regional transport office will go smoothly, because he’ll be easily able to convince Prakash to do what Vijay wants Prakash to do in getting the driver’s license renewed.

Vijay show up at the regional transport office, but he’s surprised and outraged to see that this visit won’t be private after all. His arrival was leaked in advance to the media, which quickly spread the news. By the time that Vijay gets to the office, it’s a chaotic scene with thousands of fans, as well as members of the media, gathered in the hope of seeing Vijay.

To make matters worse, Prakash had put up a banner in the office corridor to welcome Vijay, who sees this banner and automatically assumes it was Prakash who leaked the information about Vijay’s visit. Prakash, Gabbu and several of the office employees are eagerly waiting in a room for Vijay to arrive. But instead of it being a positive experience for everyone, the situation quickly turns into an ugly mess.

Vijay storms into the office and yells at Prakash for telling the media about Vijay’s visit. Vijay calls Prakash an “opportunist” who just wants to use this meeting to become famous. Prakash wanted to give Vijay a wrapped gift, but Vijay takes the gift and throws it angrily on the floor. It’s a humiliating experience for Prakash, who is visibily embarrassed, emotionally hurt and shocked. The rejection makes Prakash and Gabbu tearful and upset.

Meanwhile, the media and other people find out that Vijay had gone to the office to try to renew his driver’s license without taking the required tests. Several people in the media express outrage that Vijay was expecting special treatment. Prakash sees all the negative publicity that Vijay is getting and uses it as an opportunity to get revenge on Vijay. Prakash begins giving media interviews saying that Vijay tried to get Prakash to break the rules for Vijay, but Prakash lies to the media and says that he refused.

Prakash is made to look like the hero in the media’s coverage of this story, while Vijay is made to look like the villain. Several people in the media and the general public also call Vijay a hypocrite because he had been starring in a public service campaign about road safety while he had secretly been driving for months without a valid driver’s license. An incensed Vijay decides to get revenge on Prakash. And so begins a feud between the two men that escalates to ridiculous proportions.

There are some complications to Vijay’s revenge plot. First, he’s under a lot of pressure to finish this movie on time and without going over the movie’s budget. The movie’s producer Sunil Awasthi (played by Sushil Bonthiyal) begs Vijay to get his driver’s license renewed so that the movie can be finished. The final scenes to be filmed for the movie require that Vijay do a lot of driving. Sunil tells Vijay that if the movie isn’t finished on time, the movie will miss its target release date, and Sunil will lose his entire investment in the film.

Second, Vijay and his glamorous wife Naina (played by Diana Penty), who frequently travels with him, are expecting a baby (their first child) via a surrogate, who is in New York City. Vijay and Naina have kept this information very private. Only a few people in their inner circle know. The baby was due the following month. However, certain things happen that cause Vijay and Naina to want to go to New York City during the dates that Vijay is supposed to finish filming his movie.

Third, some hoodlums attack Prakash and his family by throwing rocks through the windows of the family’s house. Gabbu gets a head injury in the attack and is rushed to a hospital for treatment. (This violent incident is shown in the movie’s trailer.) The crime occurred shortly after Vijay and Prakash had an argument over the phone. Prakash assumes that Vijay ordered the attack, so Prakash holds a press conference to publicly accuse Vijay of being the mastermind.

“Selfiee” could have had many clever things to say about the roles that the media and celebrity worship play in people’s perceptions of public figures. However, the movie just dumbs everything down to make it into a bombastic and not-very-believable dispute between two very stubborn and immature people. Vijay comes across a smug and egotistical bully who is much worse than Prakash, but Prakash was the one who made this feud public by lying to the media about the circumstances over Vijay’s driver license renewal.

“Selfiee” has some references to how the media, for better or worse, can shape a celebrity’s public image. However, the movie would have had more substance and been more insightful if it also included some awareness of how Prakash and Vijay were both being used by the media, which fanned the flames of this feud. “Selfiee” ignores the bigger picture of the co-dependent relationship between celebrity worship and media coverage. Instead, “Selfiee” over-relies on a lot of lazy and unimaginative slapstick comedy.

The performances in “Selfiee” are on par with the movie’s uneven screenplay and direction, which are frequently very maudlin and sometimes downright terrible. Kumar doesn’t do anything in the movie that’s very special in playing movie star Vijay, while Hashmi gives a more nuanced performance in depicting Prakash as a “regular guy” who gets caught up in something that he did not expect. The last 15 minutes of the film are the absolute worst, turning what could have been a memorable satire into a mush of cloying garbage.

Star Studios released “Selfiee” in select U.S. cinemas on February 24, 2023.

Review: ‘Vaathi,’ starring Dhanush, Samuthirakani and Samyuktha

February 25, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Vaathi”

Directed by Venky Atluri

Tamil and Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in India, mostly in the 1990s, the dramatic film “Vaathi” features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: After a greedy businessman manipulates the educational system so that schoolteachers from government-run schools are sent to his private school system, a dedicated teacher goes against the rules to teach students who can’t afford a private education.

Culture Audience: “Vaathi” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching movies about inspirational schoolteachers, even if some of the scenarios are very exaggerated for dramatic purposes.

Samuthirakani and Dhanush in “Vaathi” (Photo courtesy of Sithara Entertainments)

[Editor’s note: “Vaathi” was filmed in the languages of Tamil and Telugu. The Tamil title of the movie is “Vaathi,” while the Telugu title of the movie is “Sir.” A few of the movie’s characters have different names, depending on the language. This reviewer saw the movie in the Tamil language, so the review will have the characters names that were in the Tamil version of the movie.]

“Vaathi” tells a sentimental story that takes a searing look at how the debate over government-funded education versus private education in India affects those who are financially disadvantaged. The movie shows how one person can make a positive difference. With a total running time of 148 minutes, the movie is a little too long, and there are some unnecessary and unrealistic action fight scenes, but the movie’s overall message and how the story is told is mostly watchable and entertaining.

Written and directed by Venky Atluri, “Vaathi” takes place mostly in the 1990s, but the movie begins in the early 2020s. Three guys in their late teens have traveled from Vellore to visit a district collector. They find out that his name is A. M. Kumar (played by Sumanth), who has a story to tell these teenagers. (In the Telugu version of the movie, this character’s name is A. S. Murthy.) A.M. Kumar has a photo hanging up on the wall of an influential schoolteacher, who has become somewhat of legend in A.M.’s small hometown village of Sozhavaram. (In the Telugu version of the movie, A.S. Murthy’s hometown is Siripuram.)

The movie then flashes back to the 1990s, to show the story from the perspective of this schoolteacher. In the Tamil version of the movie, his name is Bala Balamurugan. In the Telugu version of the movie, his name is Bala Gangadhar Thilak. (Dhanush has the role of Bala.) Bala is passionate about teaching and has a strong belief that education should be a right, not a privilege reserved only for those who can afford it.

A brief introduction in “Vaathi” explains that in 1990, the privatization of much of India’s economy led to many government-run schools being shut down and more schools becoming privately owned businesses. Teachers at these shuttered government schools were often transferred to the private schools, with the transferred teachers often making less money than what they were paid working for government-run schools. Meanwhile, depending on the area, private schools raise their tuitions, making education available only to those who can afford it.

The poorest of the poor can’t afford to pay any tuition for education. It’s an inequality that Bala finds very hard to accept. He becomes a teacher who is transferred from a government-run school to a private high school that is part of the Thirupathi Teaching Center, which is owned by a ruthless and greedy businessman named Thirupathi (played by Samuthirakani), who has an elitist and disrespectful attitude toward people who are working-class and poor. (In the Telugu version of the movie, the corrupt businessman’s name is Tripathi.)

Bala (who teaches mathematics) arrives at the school with two male co-workers who are also his friends: Prakash Reddy (played by Sha Ra), who is a physics teacher, has a friendly and easygoing personality. Karthik (played Hyper Aadi), who is a chemistry teacher, has a socially awkward and goofy personality. One of the first people they meet at this school is a pretty woman named Meenakshi (played by Samyuktha), who is a biology teacher.

All three men are immediately attracted to Meenakshi. The movie wastes some time with the three pals arguing about who will get to date her, even though it’s obvious to viewers which one of the friends will end up with Meenakshi. Karthik bungles his attempts to court her when he makes a pass at her that Meenakshi thinks is offensive. Karthik makes a sheepish apology and says this pass was just a “romantic gesture.”

One of the students at the school is named Muthu (played by Ken Karunas), whose parents tragically committed suicide. Muthu wears a leg brace and is often teased or bullied by other students about it. As a result, Muthu often has low self-esteem. Bala takes an interest in helping Muthu in many ways, including boosting Muthu’s confidence.

Bala spends a lot of time trying to convince the low-income villagers to send their underage children to this school. He gets a lot of resistance from the villagers who need their children to work for money instead of getting a school education. The children of low-income villagers who go to the school get treated as inferior by the students from families with higher incomes. Bala notices this discrimination and he figures out a way to stop it in his classroom.

But there’s a big problem looming: Thirupathi wants to raise the school’s tuition. And he doesn’t care if many people in the village won’t be able to afford this higher tuition. Bala gets in many conflicts with Thirupathi over this tuition increase, because Bala knows that many of the school’s students will have to drop out.

The school’s headmaster Thanigachalam (played by Tanikella Bharani) is at the mercy of Thirupathi. The village president (played P. Sai Kumar) also can’t do much to about Thirupathi and seems to be intimidated by this money-hungry businessman. Bala is the only one who seems to be standing up to Thirupathi the most and advocating for the children to get an affordable education.

Thirupathi won’t back down from the tuition increase. Bala knows that he is about to be fired, so he takes matters into his own hands and quits to start his own free “school” for the students who can’t afford Thirupathi’s tuition. Bala’s “school” is really just an outdoor gathering of students underneath a makeshift shelter outside of the village’s border.

Of course, Thirupathi doesn’t like Bala’s act of resistance one bit. He sends several thugs to cause some damage to the makeshift school and physically assault Bala. (None of this is spoiler information, since it’s shown in the movie’s trailer.) It starts a “war” between Bala and Thirupathi, with the students siding with Bala.

Most of “Vaathi” is about the conflicts between Bala and Thirupathi, but there’s also some romance, as Bala and Meenakshi become closer. She starts to fall in love with him after she sees how he treats all of his students with compassion and fairness. Bala is the type of teacher who leads by example.

“Vaathi” is filled to the brim with positive messages about how important education and good teachers are, but the movie sometimes goes overboard in making Bala look too good to be true. In his over-the-top fight scenes, he turns into a skilled action here who can take on and often defeat several men at once. He is almost saint-like as a teacher. Even when he is captured and tortured (already revealed in the movie’s trailer), he looks like a martyr.

However, the movie makes Bala more human when he has some moments of doubt and insecurity. He often gets advice from his supportive father (played by Aadukalam Naren), who’s a taxi driver. When Thirupathi goes on a derogatory rant to Bala about people who are poor or lower-middle-class, Bala says he comes from a lower-middle-class family and is proud of it. Thirupathi stammers a little and tries to backtrack from his insulting comments, but it’s obvious that he’s embarrassed that Bala has called him out for being a bigot.

Overall, “Vaathi” has acting that ranges from mediocre to above-average. The movie sometimes gets repetitious and a little dull. But aside from the phony-looking action scenes, there’s much about “Bala” that rings true when it comes to the battles that teachers have to experience when they want to educate underprivileged students who are being prevented from having the same access and resources as more privileged students. “Vaathi” is ultimately a love letter to underpaid and dedicated teachers who persist and make a positive impact on their students’ lives, despite the challenges and odds stacked against these teachers.

Sithara Entertainments released “Vaathi” (also titled “Sir”) in select U.S. cinemas and in India on February 17, 2023.

Review: ‘Amigos’ (2023), starring Nandamuri Kalyan Ram

February 18, 2023

by Carla Hay

Nandamuri Kalyan Ram in “Amigos” (Photo courtesy of Mythri Movie Makers)

“Amigos” (2023)

Directed by Rajendra Reddy

Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in India, the action film “Amigos” features a predominantly Indian cast of characters (with some black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: After a man meets two of his biologically unrelated look-alikes, he finds out that one of them is a notorious criminal who is a fugitive from authorities.

Culture Audience: “Amigos” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching far-fetched action movies where everything is repetitive and predictable.

Nandamuri Kalyan Ram and Ashika Ranganath in “Amigos” (Photo courtesy of Mythri Movie Makers)

An action movie about unrelated look-alikes and mistaken identities usually has only two characters with this problem. “Amigos” has three characters who are unrelated look-alikes, which just makes this muddled story become increasingly doltish. And with a total running time of 137 minutes, “Amigos” is just too long for a movie with a very thin and silly plot.

“Amigos” is the feature-film debut of writer/director Rajendra Reddy, who copies so many other Bollywood action films in having the same soundtrack-blaring tone as characters have simple-minded conversations and go from one ridiculous scenario to the next, with some musical numbers thrown into the mix. “Amigos” is just more of the same mind-numbing regurgitation about doppelganger misadventures, with the only novelty being that it’s about three look-alikes instead of the usual two. The movie could have done a lot of interesting things with this concept. Instead, it’s just mindless mush that drags on until the very predictable end.

In “Amigos” (which takes place in various cities in India), a “regular guy” named Siddharth (played by Nandamuri Kalyan Ram), nicknamed Siddhu, works with his uncle (played by Brahmaji) in a family-owned land development business based in Hyderabad, India. Siddhu finds out about a popular website called GetDoppel.com, where people can find their biologically unrelated look-alikes. The movie has montages showing that it’s become a fad for people to post social media photos and videos of people meeting their look-alikes from around the world. Siddhu soon gets caught up in this fad, for better or worse.

The “better” part happens when he meets two men on GetDoppel.com who look exactly like him (except for their hairstyles and how they dress) but all three men have very different personalities from each other. Manjunath Hegde (also played by Ram) is a nerdy and brilliant software engineer/computer programmer from the city of Bangalore. Michael (also played by Ram), who likes to wear sunglasses and habitually smokes cigarettes, is a mysterious “tough guy” from the city of Kolkata. All three men meet in person in Goa and become fast friends.

The movie takes an awfully long time in showing montages of Siddhu, Manjunath and Michael going on adventurous trips together. While Siddhu and Manjunath tell each other that they feel like they are brothers, Michael isn’t as open about his feelings. He remains a little more emotionally guarded than the other two newfound pals. “Amigos” does a terrible job of creating suspense, because it’s obvious that Michael has secrets that he’s trying to hide.

“Amigos” spends a lot of time time on a subplot about how the three look-alikes use their physical resemblances to help Siddhu court a hard-to-please love interest named Ishika (played by Ashika Ranganath), who has a specific list of what she wants in a potential husband. Siddhu fulfills only part of her list of requirements. And so, Siddhu asks his look-alike new best friends to pretend to be him whenever he needs to impress Ishika in a specific way.

Ishika wants a highly intelligent man (which is where Manjunath comes in handy) and a man with great physical strength and bravado, which is where Michael is helpful. The Siddhu look-alikes pretend to be Siddhu when Ishika gives various tests to see if “Siddhu” meets her requirements. It’s really an idiotic scheme to deceive Ishika this way because Siddhu can only keep up the charade for a limited period of time, since his look-alikes can’t always be around to pretend to be him.

The “worse” part of this doppelganger get-together comes when Siddhu and Manjunath find out that Michael is really a ruthless arms dealer named Bipin Roy, who is a fugitive from the National Investigation Agency (NIA). (This isn’t spoiler information, because this real identity is revealed in the movie’s trailer.) And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why he wanted to meet Siddhu and Manjunath: This criminal wants to steal their identities.

“Amigos” has these characters in chase scene after chase scene that don’t really further the story but just make the plot more tangled and ridiculous. The fight scenes aren’t believable at all. Some of the visual effects are adequate, but the rest of the visual effects are downright awful, because the cast members are obviously acting in front of a screen, not a real location.

Although he plays three different men in “Amigos,” Ram is mostly watchable as Siddhu. He portrays Manjunath in a bland and generic way. His depiction of Michael/Bipin is very cringeworthy as an over-the-top villain, including a very fake-sounding deep voice. The portrayal of Michael/Bipin is so terrible, viewers might be more likely to laugh at this character than feel like this character is menacing.

All of the other cast members give mediocre-to-bad performances, although Brahmaji seems to be doing the best he can in his comic relief role as Siddhu’s uncle. “Amigos” has the expected betrayals and fight scenes that all lead up to a very underwhelming and unimaginative ending. If “Amigos” were a baseball game, the mishandling of the “three look-alike friends” concept is not only fumbling the ball, but it’s also a complete “three strikes and you’re out” failure.

Mythri Movie Makers released “Amigos” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on February 10, 2023.

Review: ‘Dada’ (2023), starring Kavin and Aparna Das

February 17, 2023

by Carla Hay

Kavin in “Dada” (Photo courtesy of Red Giant Movies)

“Dada” (2023)

Directed by Ganesh K. Babu

Tamil with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Chennai, India, the dramatic film “Dada” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two unmarried college students, who are dating each other, have their lives changed when she becomes pregnant and gives birth, and he ends up raising the child alone as a single father after she disappears from his life.

Culture Audience: “Dada” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching a melodramatic and rambling story of single parenthood with a lot of far-fetched storylines resembling a soap opera.

Aparna Das, Pradeep Antony and Kavin in “Dada” (Photo courtesy of Red Giant Movies)

The long-winded and sappy drama “Dada” is supposed to be about a single father being the only caretaker for his son for the first four years of the son’s life. But the movie spends too much time showing his job problems and not enough father-son bonding. This sloppily edited movie is also too bloated: It has a total running time of 133 minutes, when the story could have easily been told in 90 minutes or less.

“Dada” is the feature-film debut of writer/director Ganesy K. Babu, who made this movie look more like a very padded mini-series with a lot of unnecessary filler. “Dada” takes place over a four-year period, mostly in Chennai, India, where the movie was filmed. In the beginning of the movie, a young couple in their early 20s are cuddling together in bed in an apartment, while they hear the sounds of another couple arguing in a nearby apartment.

The couple’s names are Manikandan “Mani” Thambi (played by Kavin) and Sindhu (played by Aparna Das), and they seem to be blissfully in love. Sindhu and Mani are both classmates at the same unnamed university, where they are in their final year before graduating. The movie never says what Manu and Sindhu are studying at the university. It’s an example of how this overly long movie still skimps on some important details.

Things take a drastic turn in this romance when Sindhu finds out that she is pregnant. Mani wants her to have an abortion, but she refuses. To get away for a while, until they figure out how to tell their families about the pregnancy, Mani and Sindhu hide out at the house of a male friend of Mani’s named Anna. However, Sindhu’s parents report her missing and think that she might have been kidnapped by Mani, because Sindhu’s parents don’t particularly like or trust Mani.

Mani and Sindhu find out that she’s mistakenly been reported missing in a possible kidnapping. And so, Sindhu and Mani sheepishly come forward at the police station, where their worried parents have gathered. And that’s when Sindhu tells everyone that she’s pregnant. It’s awkward. And it’s very contrived for this movie.

Mani’s parents and Sindhu’s parents are very upset by this pregnancy news. Sindhu’s parents are even more disturbed because they believe that Sindhu’s unwed pregnancy has brought shame on their family. With their parents putting a lot of guilt and pressure on them, Mani and Sindhu, who were close to breaking up, now decide to stay together and try to make their relationship work.

Even if Mani and Sindhu wanted to get married to each other, they can’t afford it right now. Mani has a part-time job that can barely pay rent anywhere. At first, Mani and Sindhu decide to stay with Anna in his bachelor house, but he has too many guys over for all-night partying on a regular basis. Sindhu can’t take the noise and chaos in this house any more, so she and Mani move into a small, dumpy apartment. Mani and Sindhu continue to disagree over things, but they seem committed to staying together and possibly getting married after their baby is born.

Another turning point in the relationship happens after Sindhu gives birth to a healthy baby boy, who is named Adithya—a name that the couple picked out before the baby was born. But shortly after giving birth in a hospital, Sindhu walks out of the hospital and never comes back. A shocked Mani is told by hospital employees that Sindhu was not impaired mentally or physically when she left, and that she definitely abandoned the baby. Over the next few days, Mani and his family members try to find Sindhu, but they hear that Sindhu has moved away and does not want Mani to contact her. That was quick.

First-time father Mani tries to raise the baby as a single parent. And even though he gets some help from his mother (played by Aishwariyaa Bhaskaran) and his younger brother (played by Arvind Ezhilarasan), Mani feels overwhelmed, since he is trying to juggle taking care of a baby, his part-time job and his school responsibilities. Mani’s father (played by K. Bhagyaraj) isn’t very sympathetic, because he thinks Mani was irresponsible for having a child out of wedlock when Mani can’t even afford to take care of a family on his own.

All of this pressure becomes too much for Mani. He starts to resent the baby for being a “burden” on his life. And so, one night, Mani gets in a taxi with Adithya, because Mani is going to anonymously give the baby to an orphanage.

Mani lies to the orphanage employees, by saying that he found this infant abandoned on the street. When the employees ask Mani to wait for the police to take his name and his statement about how he found the baby, Mani panics and sneaks out of the building by pretending to use the restroom. Mani then leaves in the same taxi.

But guilt-ridden Mani changes his mind. He has the taxi driver take him back to the orphanage, just a few minutes after Mani left. Mani arrives at the orphanage to find a couple about to take the baby for an adoption. That was quick. Too quick, considering the orphanage never bothered to find out where this baby’s biological parents are and if the biological parents would want this baby to be adopted.

The movie then has this cheesy scene filmed in slow-motion, as tearjerking, dramatic music blares from the movie’s soundtrack, drowning out whatever Mani says to convince the orphanage employees that he’s the baby’s father and he wants to keep the baby. Mani is seen tearfully taking the baby out of the arms of the prospective adoptive mother. It all looks so fake and tacky.

“Dada” then rushes through a four-year montage of Mani being a devoted single father to Adithya, who is an adorable, obedient and playful child. Viewers see in this montage that Mani spent most of those years struggling financially, because he apparently had to drop out of the university and had to take low-paying jobs that don’t require a college degree. By the time Adithya is 4 years old (in other words, old enough to know if his father can afford or not afford the toys that Adithya wants), Mani decides it’s time to make a big change in his lifestyle and get the type of job that will give him a higher income and more stability.

And so begins the most tedious and rambling part of the movie, which becomes less about Mani spending quality time with Adithya and more about his struggles to fit in with the corporate culture at a vacuum sales company named Lazard, where he gets a job as a sales representative. Within a short period of time, Mani gets promoted and leads a small team that learns to respect him. What doesn’t go as smoothly is Mani’s relationship with his boss Gokul (played by VTV Ganesh), who constantly questions Mani’s intelligence and skills on the job.

But this wouldn’t be a phony-looking, soap-opera-ish movie without a big bombshell: Sindhu unexpectedly comes back into Mani’s life. This isn’t spoiler information because the movie’s publicity and marketing materials show that Mani and Sindhu are in contact with each other after Mani starts his job at Lazard. Mani is forced to interact with Sindhu on a regular basis for job-related reasons in the biggest “coincidence” that you can think of for this unimaginative movie.

That doesn’t mean that Mani will let Sindhu back into his heart so easily. He hasn’t forgiven her for abandoning him and Adithya, so Mani pretends that Adithya doesn’t exist when he has to talk to Sindhu, because he doesn’t want her to know anything about their son. It’s a very flimsy plot development, because several of Mani’s co-workers know that he is a doting single father, so it’s highly unlikely Sindhu would not hear about it. When Sindhu and Mani talk to each other, Sindhu doesn’t mention Adithya either, which Mani assumes is proof that she’s a cold-hearted and irresponsible mother.

In between the unrealistic secret-keeping in this very dysfunctional family situation, “Dada” is interrupted by some musical numbers performed by the cast members. The song lyrics are filled with more of the movie’s triteness, but the dancing is fairly entertaining. It’s too bad that the “Dada” filmmakers put more effort into these musical numbers than in crafting a realistic story.

The acting in this movie is serviceable, but undermined by the terribly hokey screenplay that’s like a fairy tale instead of a realistic portrayal of parenthood. The film editing is amateurish in how it sometimes lingers too long in unnecessary scenes, and then it choppily transitions to other scenes by leaving big gaps in the story. “Dada” goes off the deep end into implausibility toward the end of the movie, which throws in a “surprise” plot twist that is very manipulative and overcalculated to erase all the previous conflicts that were shoved in viewers’ faces for almost the entire movie.

Red Giant Movies released “Dada” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on February 10, 2023.

Review: ‘Vaalvi,’ starring Swapnil Joshi, Anita Date-Kelkar, Subodh Bhave and Shivani Surve

February 17, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Vaalvi”

Directed by Paresh Mokashi

Marathi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in India, from December 30, 2020, to January 1, 2021, the comedy/drama film “Vaalvi” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A married man and his mistress scheme up a plot to kill his wife in a fake suicide pact, but their conspiracy does not go as planned.

Culture Audience: “Vaalvi” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching thrillers with plot twists and don’t mind if the story gets increasingly stupid.

Swapnil Joshi and Shivani Surve in “Vaalvi” (Photo courtesy of Zee Studios)

The comedic thriller “Vaalvi” starts off with an intriguing concept about a murder conspiracy. However, it’s ruined by the film’s idiotic second half that relies too much on gimmick gags and unfunny jokes about driving around with a corpse in plain view. The movie has a very uneven tone, as if the filmmakers couldn’t decide how to balance wacky comedy with serious drama. The first half of “Vaalvi” attempts to be realistic and cleverly constructed, while the second half just becomes a mishmash of ill-conceived slapstick scenes.

Directed by Paresh Mokashi (who co-wrote the “Vaalvi” screenplay with producer Madhugandha Kulkarni), “Vaalvi” (which means “termite” in Marathi) should be given some credit for its ambitions to be an entertaining and twist-filled comedy/drama. However, the ideas in the movie are undercut by repetitive and unoriginal scenes. Some scenes in “Vaalvi” might remind viewers of the 1989 American dark comedy “Weekend at Bernie’s,” a movie about two people who bring a corpse with them to public places and pretend that the dead person is still alive.

“Vaalvi” (which takes place over three days) begins by introducing the love triangle that’s becomes the reason for a murder plot. It’s December 30, 2020, in an unnamed city in India. Aniket (played by Swapnil Joshi), whose job is never mentioned in the movie, is unhappily married to a depressed homemaker named Avani (played by Anita Date-Kelkar), who turns 36 years old on this date. Aniket has been having a secret affair with a dentist named Devika (played by Shivani Surve), and they plan to be together by murdering Avani.

Why doesn’t Aniket divorce Avani instead? Avani doesn’t believe in divorce. She’s already told Aniket that she would never agree to a divorce and would put up a big legal fight if he ever tries to divorce her. Aniket has decided it will be less expensive and much easier for him if he kills Avani instead.

Aniket and Avani have been married for 14 years and have no children. Avani says being childless is one of the reasons why she feels worthless. She’s been in therapy with a psychiatrist named Anshuman (played by Subodh Bhave), who has prescribed anti-depressant medication to Avani.

Anshuman (who isn’t seen until much later in the movie) is the only person in Avani’s life who will listen to her problems. She’s grown emotionally attached to Anshuman. If Avani has fallen in love with her psychiatrist, Aniket doesn’t seem to notice or care. Avani is so lonely, her only companions at home are termites, which she names and treats as little pets. It’s a habit that Aniket finds very annoying and kind of disgusting.

In the beginning of “Vaalvi,” Aniket and Devika are discussing their murder scheme in detail because they plan to kill Avani the next day, on December 31, 2020. Aniket, who controls all of the finances for himself and Avani, plans to lie to Avani, by telling her on her birthday (on December 30, 2020) that because he was unable to pay off their debts, they have lost all of their money and ownership of their bungalow house. Another lie that he plans to tell Avani is that all of their furniture and other belongings will be repossessed the next day.

In reality, Aniket is not financially broke. Unbeknownst to Avani, he hired a moving company and told the movers that everything needed to be moved out of the house and put into storage because he is renovating his house. Aniket’s mistress Devika knows about this lie too, because it’s all part of the murder conspiracy.

The plan is that depressed Avani will be so distraught over losing the house and all of the couple’s possessions, she will want to commit suicide. It’s shown in the movie’s flashbacks that, over time, Aniket was planting the idea of a double-suicide pact in Avani’s head, because he knew she was already depressed. Avani has been open to the idea, but Aniket wants something to happen (such Avani thinking that the couple is financially ruined) to push her over the edge and go through with the double-suicide pact.

Aniket will pretend to want to commit suicide with her at the same time, after everything has been moved out of the house. And they will each write their own suicide note that says they made the decision to kill themselves of their own free will. Aniket has the two pistols that they will each use for this “suicide pact.” The black gun he will give to Avani will be loaded, while the silver gun he will have in his hand will have no bullets in it.

Aniket and Devika discuss this plan in her private office of the clinic where Devika works. According to their plan, when Avani shoots and kills herself, Aniket will pretend to shoot his unloaded gun on himself and then leave the crime scene and eat the fake suicide note that he wrote (to destroy the evidence), but leave behind Anika’s suicide note that she wrote. The plan is for the couple’s housekeeper to arrive for her scheduled work shift and find Avani’s dead body and Avani’s suicide note.

In order to establish an alibi, Aniket will go to Devika’s clinic for a scheduled appointment. While in her back office, he will disguise himself as a food delivery person, go out a back window, and drive a scooter (wearing a helmet to disguise his face) to his house. He will then go to the house and pretend that he’s a food delivery person when Avani answers the door. He will tell gullible Avani that he’s disguised himself to hide from debt collectors.

Once inside the house, he will urge Avani to go ahead with their double-suicide pact. Aniket will then leave the house disguised as the food delivery person, and secretly go to the back office at Devika’s clinic. Aniket and Devika will then pretend to the investigators and everyone else that Aniket was at Devika’s clinic the entire time that Avani was in the house and shot herself.

It’s an elaborate plan that could easily fall apart because of many variables. Devika is the more likely one in this devious infidelity couple to ask the “what if” questions about what they should do if anything goes wrong with the plan. Aniket is over-confident and brushes off any concerns, What if Avani changes her mind about commiting suicide? Aniket says he will just shoot her himself and make it look like a suicide. (It’s easier said than done.)

On December 30, 2020 (Avani’s 36th birthday), Aniket goes home that evening to see Avani literally throwing a pity party for herself. She’s ordered a birthday cake for herself, and she’s getting drunk, because she’s feeling sad about not having any children. Her birthday is about to get worse when Aniket tells her that they’ve lost everything and that their house will be cleared out by repossessors the next day. Avani is predictably devastated, and she agrees that she and Aniket should commit suicide together when the house is empty.

On December 31, 2020, Aniket and Devika start off the day thinking that they have the perfect murder plan. But, of course, this movie wouldn’t exist if things if went according to their plan. Without giving away any spoiler details, it’s enough to say that when Aniket arrives back at his house disguised as a delivery person, Avani doesn’t answer the door. When he goes inside anyway, Aniket finds Avani apparently passed out on the floor, with a prescription bottle next to her.

Here’s where the movie’s plot goes off the rails: Aniket, in all of his stupidity, doesn’t check to see if Avani is dead or not. He makes a decision that alters the course of the story and is the catalyst for the rest of the silly shenanigans that happen for the rest of the movie. And most of it is the plot misstep of certain people taking a corpse in public and pretending that the corpse is a living person.

The people who decide to pretend that a corpse is still alive could have easily hidden the corpse. Instead, they drive around with the dead body sitting up in the back seat of a car, with plenty of witnesses who ask about this silent passenger, thereby ruining the timeline that the deceivers hoped to establish to cover up the disappearance of this person. It’s one of many reasons why the ludicrous plot of “Vaalvi” is fundamentally flawed and doesn’t hold up under any logical scrutiny.

One of the most moronic things about “Vaalvi’ is that even with all the careful planning that Aniket and Devika think that they had for this murder, Aniket doesn’t use gloves after making a crucial decision to pick up Avani’s suicide note and leave it at the crime scene. Devika is worried about Aniket’s fingerprints being on other damning evidence, but he explains that since he lives in the house too, it would be normal for his fingerprints to be on this evidence. It doesn’t explain his fingerprints on the suicide note, if he wants people to think that he was somewhere else when Avani committed “suicide.”

“Vaalvi” expects viewers to overlook the movie’s many plot holes, which might be easier to take if the movie actually fulfilled its intention to be hilarious. Much of “Vaalvi” just becomes painful to watch because it becomes increasingly unrealistic, while the cast members start to become more over-the-top and shrill with their performances. The end of the “Vaalvi” is nothing but a big, lazy plot hole that buries the movie in a mindless pit of absurdity that cannot redeem this disappointing dud.

Zee Studios released “Vaalvi” in select U.S. cinemas on February 10, 2023. The movie was released in India on January 13, 2023.

Review: ‘Michael’ (2023), starring Sundeep Kishan, Vijay Sethupathi, Divyansha Kaushik, Gautham Vasudev Menon and Varun Sandesh

February 10, 2023

by Carla Hay

Sundeep Kishan in “Michael” (Photo courtesy of Karan C Productions and Sree Venkateswara Cinemas)

“Michael” (2023)

Directed by Ranjit Jeyakodi

Telugu with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in early 1990s and briefly in the 1980s, primarily in the Indian cities of Bombay and Delhi, the action film “Michael” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class, wealthy and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: An orphan who was adopted by a crime boss grows up to be a thug innvolved the boss’ revenge schmes and murder sprees, while secrets and lies affect people’s motives.

Culture Audience: “Michael” will appeal primarily to people who want to watch a lot of gruesome and gratituous violence in a movie that doesn’t have anything of quality to offer.

Gautham Vasudev Menon (center) in “Michael” (Photo courtesy of Karan C Productions and Sree Venkateswara Cinemas)

“Michael” is yet another mindless action flick about gangs and other people who are out for revenge. The story is a narrative mess, the fight scenes are unrealistic, and the acting is terrible. And with a total running time of 155 minutes, this flimsy story is dragged out for too long and quickly wears out its welcome with a lot of bloody and empty violence until the movie’s very predictable end.

Written and directed by Ranjit Jeyakodi, “Michael” does nothing clever or truly original, since it rips off ideas that have been in much better films. The movie (which take place in India, mostly in the early 1990s) tells a sloppily made story about an orphan who was unofficially adopted by a crime boss and has grown up to be a leading enforcer in his adoptive father’s gang. It should come as no surprise that secrets from certain characters’ past lives end up being revealed as a plot twist, although viewers who’ve seen enough of these types of unimaginative movies can easily predict this plot twist.

The title character in “Michael” is a swaggering thug (played by Sundeep Kishan), who has a mysterious past. In the early 1980s, Michael was adopted as an orphaned adolescent by a Bombay-based crime boss named Gurunath (played by Gautham Vasudev Menon), who has taught Michael everything that Michael knows about how to be a ruthless criminal. Michael has become Gurunath’s most trusted and most powerful enforcer.

However, not everyone in this crime family is a fan of Michael. Gurunath and his wife Charulatha (played by Anasuya Bharadwaj) have a biological son named Amarnath (Varun Sandesh ), who’s about the same age as Michael. Charulatha and Amarnath seem to resent Michael and treat him like an interloper in the family. Amarnath is predictably jealous of Michael because Gurunath respects Michael more than he respects Amarnath. Michael will most likely be named the successor to Gurunath’s crime operations.

Michael’s loyalty to Gurunath will be tested when Gurunath orders Michael to go to Delhi to kill two people: another crime boss named Rathan (played by Anish Kuruvilla) and Rathan’s seductive daughter Theera (played by Divyansha Kaushik), who doesn’t do much in the movie except pout, act sexy, and do some awkwardly place song-and-dance numbers. Gurunath wants Rathan and Theera to be murdered as revenge, because some of Rathan’s goons kidnapped Michael and stabbed Gurunath.

The movie never shows how, but Michael escapes from this kidnapping. (It’s an example of the movie’s awful screenwriting.) The next thing that viewers see is Michael taking a huge slab of boned meat and going into a nightclub and assaulting people with this slab of meat. He then uses weapons and his fists to assault more people. Many of the men being attacked work with gangster RK (played by R. K. Mama), who is an associate of Gurunath and who is also in the nightclub. RK warns Michael: “Michael, the day I come back will be your death day.”

Before Michael gets sent on the murder mission, Gurunath warns Michael not to be seduced by Theera. This is an example of some of the terrible dialogue in the movie: Gurunath tells Michael that female spiders kill male spiders after mating with them. “Women do the same things,” Gurunath adds. “We just don’t see it.” As soon as Gurunath makes this misogynistic statement, you just know that Michael will be seduced by Theera.

Michael starts off by stalking Theera, who ends up getting a car ride from Michael and tells him that she knows that he’s been following her. Theera asks Michael to stop the car so that she can get some ice cream from a street vendor. Then she smirks and tells Michael: “I like to slap before I kiss … You’re not the only person I’m kissing. You want to sleep with me, no? You’re not my type. I’m warning you: Don’t fall in love with me.”

Be prepared for more mind-numbing and idiotic scenes like that, because “Michael” is full of them. There’s a subplot about Michael getting protection from an unnamed operative (played by Vijay Sethupathi) and his wife (played by Varalaxmi Sarathkumar), who have clues to Michael’s murky past. Michael also has a faithful sidekick named Swami (played by Ayyappa P. Sharma), who is kind of useless and isn’t in the movie as much as people might think he should be.

“Michael” is nothing more than bombastic and ludicrous fight scenes cobbled together, with a few musical numbers thrown in to make the movie even more erratic. All of the characters don’t have any real substance and just go through the motions. The action scenes are beyond stupid and just further lower the quality of this already low-quality movie. The ending of “Michael” makes it obvious that the filmmakers would like to make a sequel to this atrocity, which should be avoided if viewers care about preserving some of their own brain cells.

Karan C Productions and Sree Venkateswara Cinemas released “Michael” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on February 3, 2023.

Review: ‘Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh,’ starring Deepak Antani and Chinmay Mandlekar

February 2, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh”

Directed by Rajkumar Santoshi

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1948, primarily in New Delhi, India, the dramatic film “Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: In a story that revises history, political revolutionary Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (also known as Mahatma Gandhi), a preacher of non-violence, survives an assassination attempt by Hindu nationalist Nathuram Vinayak Godse, and the two men have ongoing political debates about how much power Hindus should have in India.

Culture Audience: “Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching a ridiculous story that insults the legacy of a beloved historical figure.

Deepak Antani in “Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh” (Photo courtesy of PVR Pictures)

“Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh” is a fictional drama in every sense of the word, because the movie completely rewrites history about Indian political revolutionary Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (also known as Mahatma Gandhi) to turn it into something that looks like an ill-conceived fairy tale. Although the movie’s intentions might have been good, it’s a bizarre and revisionist fantasy that insults Gandhi and makes his assassin look like a misunderstood fanatic who could easily manipulate Gandhi. Perhaps the best thing that can be said about this movie is that at least the actor playing Gandhi resembles him.

Written and directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, “Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh” (which means “Gandhi Godse – A War” in Hindi) takes place in 1948, mainly in the Indian capital city of New Delhi. In real life, Gandhi (who preached tolerance of other cultures and non-violence) was assassinated by a gun shooting on January 30, 1948, at the age of 78. Gandhi’s murderer was Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a Hindu nationalist who believed that only Hindus should have power in India. Godse, who was found guilty in a trial, was executed by hanging on November 15, 1949.

In “Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh,” Gandhi (played by Deepak Antani) is shot by Godse (played by Chinmay Mandlekar) in public in January 1948, but Godse survives the assassination. Godse, who has a particular hatred of Pakistanis, then launches a public smear campaign against Gandhi, in order to make Gandhi look like a traitor to India. The two men meet up under various circumstances to have political debates in public and in private. That’s the flimsy concept of this very misguided film.

It’s a fundamentally flawed concept, because Godse faces no real punishment for trying to kill Gandhi. The movie makes it look like Godse was let out of jail in a matter of a few months. “Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh” never shows Godse on trial or entering a “guilty” or “not guilty” plea to attempted murder charges in a courtroom. This careless disregard in ignoring any realistic legal consequences for this assassination attempt is enough to ruin the movie.

It gets worse. “Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh” also has an unnecessary subplot about a young couple meeting Gandhi when he was in a hospital recovering from his gunshot wounds. The couple’s names are Sushma (played by Tanisha Santoshi) and her boyfriend Naren (played by Anuj Saini), who teaches English at a local college. Sushma and Naren plan to get married, and they want Gandhi’s blessing.

The storyline with Sushma and Naren is nothing but filler to stretch out the movie and have a few sappy singing scenes. The romance between Sushma and Naren is as boring as can be and really adds nothing to the movie. It’s all contrived so that there’s a conflict when Godse finds out that Gandhi does not approve of Sushma and Naren getting married. Godse’s thoughts on this romance is used as a reason for Godse to have more resentment toward Gandhi. Yes, this part of the movie is as bad as it sounds.

All of the acting performances in “Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh” range from mediocre to terrible, just like the dialogue and scenarios in the movie. Real-life political figures Jawaharlal Nehru (played by Pawan Chopra) and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (played by Ghanshyam Srivastav) are portrayed as hollow and generic. “Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh” wants to promote the idea that Gandhi and Godse could have had a “frenemy” relationship. In the movie, it all looks like a tacky soap opera.

“Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh” is filled with ridiculous and unrealistic scenarios that truly insult the intelligence of viewers. Even people who might not know anything about Gandhi can see how moronic everything is in this train wreck of a movie. The “debates” between Gandhi and Godse are very repetitive and lack anything than can be considered clever. And to top it all off, the ending of “Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh” is absolutely heinous and just confirms that this garbage movie is completely irredeemable.

PVR Pictures released “Gandhi Godse – Ek Yudh” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on Janaury 26, 2023.