Culture Representation: Taking place in Hyderabad, India, the comedy film “Keedaa Cola” features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: When a con artist buys a soda bottle and finds a cockroach in the bottle, he and his best friend, who is also a scammer, decide they can make millions from extortion from the soda company, but don’t know that the planted cockroach is part of a criminal revenge plot.
Culture Audience: “Keedaa Cola” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of comedies with a lot of madcap and silly hijinks as distractions for weak storytelling.
Ravindra Vijay (in front) in “Keedaa Cola” (Photo courtesy of Suresh Productions)
“Keedaa Cola” starts off with a flimsy concept (planting a cockroach in some cola as a set-up for extortion), and the movie never quite bolsters the concept with a solid story. The comedy flails around in annoying ways with subpar acting performances. It’s the type of comedy that doesn’t to live up to its potential to be a hilarious film.
Directed by Tharun Bhascker, “Keedaa Cola” was written by Bhascker, Pranay Koppala, Shanthan Raj and Ramya Kakumanu. The movie takes place in Hyderabad, India. Best friends/con artists Vasthu (played by Chaitanya Rao Madadi) and Koushik, also known as Lancham (played by Rag Mayur), are shown in the opening scene trying and failing to do one of their con games in a courtroom. Vasthu is in a wheelchair, pretending to be disabled so he can collect money in a court case, but the case is dismissed.
At the very beginning of the film, a statement is shown on screen that says: “I wish there was another disclaimer that says greed is hazardous to your health.” It’s a hard lesson that Vasthu and Lancham will learn when they take their extortion plans to ridiculous levels. The beginning of the film also shows a scene of the cockroach in the soda bottle as the bottle is part of an assembly line.
How did the cockroach get in the bottle? That information won’t be revealed in this review, but it’s enough to say that it has to do with a murder witnessed years ago by two friends named Sikander and Bhakta Naidu (also known as Naidu Anna and nicknamed Anna), who met at a music festival when they were about 13 or 14 years old. Anna’s brother Jeevan Naidu gets involved in certain way.
Now in their 30s, Sikander (played by Vishnu Oi), Anna (played by “Keedaa Cola” director Bhascker) and Jeevan (played by Jeevan Kumar) have a connection to the bottle with the cockroach in it. They are looking for it at a convenience store where the bottle has ended up, but Vasthu has already bought the soda bottle and taken it home.
The soda is really for Vasthu’s grandfather Varadaraju (played by Brahmanandam), who loves the grape flavor of this particular soda. Lancham is there with Vasthu and Varadaraju when they see the cockroach in the bottle. After getting over their shock, Vasthu tells Lancham: “This is our lottery ticket to millions.”
The rest of “Keedaa Cola” is how these two different sets friends have different intentions for what to do about someone finding a cockroach in this soda bottle. The CEO of the soda company (played by Ravindra Vijay), who doesn’t have a name in the movie, will do whatever it takes for it not to become public that this cockroach was found in one of his company’s soda bottles. There are several battles and chase scenes with menacing thugs.
“Keedaa Cola” becomes a bit jumbled in trying to weave these two different storylines together into a cohesive plot. The backstories for Sikander, Anna and Jeevan are particularly messy and take away from the more entertaining characters of bumbling con artists Vasthy and Lancham. All of these characters are fairly hollow and merely exist for the poorly staged and hard-to-believe action scenes.
The cast members’ acting isn’t anything special, and the movie’s direction and tone are quite shrill and annoying. “Keedaa Cola” will be liked most by people who just want to see a lot of violent slapstick in fight scenes and chase scenes. It’s not the worst movie ever, but it’s not worth seeing if you want to watch a comedy that has characters with personalities that are engaging instead of annoying.
Suresh Productions released “Keedaa Cola” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on November 3, 2023.
Culture Representation: Taking in various countries in Asia and Europe, the action film “Tiger 3” features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A husband and wife, who are government spies for competing agencies, get into various problematic entanglements involving betrayals and conspiracies.
Culture Audience: “Tiger 3” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the “Tiger” movie franchise/YRF Spy Universe and movie’s headliners, but the movie is overly convoluted with almost nothing original to offer.
Katrina Kaif in “Tiger 3” (Photo courtesy of Yash Raj Films)
“Tiger 3” is the continuation of 2012’s “Ek Tha Tiger” and 2017’s “Tiger Zinda Hai,” a movie series about love partners who are also spies for the Indian government. All three movies are part of the larger YRF (Yash Raj Films) Spy Universe, which includes 2019’s “War” and 2023’s “Pathaan.” “Tiger 3” certainly has the production budget to be a big movie spectacle, with all the expected explosions and over-the-top fight scenes. It could have been a much better action film, but too much silly dialogue and too many formulaic scenarios lower the quality of the movie. It’s a globetrotting spy flick that frequently changes locations but tells the same type of revenge story.
Directed by Maneesh Sharma and written by Shridhar Raghavan, “Tiger 3” has a convoluted story that often gets unfocused. It’s not necessary to “Ek Tha Tiger” and “Tiger Zinda Hai” before seeing “Tiger 3,” but it helps if you want more information about the main characters. Seeing these previous two movies will just show that “Ek Tha Tiger” and “Tiger Zinda Hai” are better than “Tiger 3.”
The two spy spouses who are at the center of the “Tiger” movie series are Avinash “Tiger” Singh Rathore (played by Salman Khan) and Zoya (played by Katrina Kaif), who each work for different government agencies. Tiger works for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), which is the foreign intelligence agency for India. Zoya works for The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which is the largest intelligence agency for Pakistan.
“Tiger 3” begins in London, with a flashback to October 1999, when Zoya (played Gurket Kaur) is in her late teens or early 20s. She is shown doing kickboxing exercises with her father Rehan Nazar (played by Aamir Bashir), who works for ISI. Rehan is soon killed in an explosion. Rehan’s ISI colleague Aatish Rehman (played by Emraan Hashmi) asks Zoya if she wants to lead a normal life or follow in her father’s footsteps. Of course, viewers know what decision she makes.
“Tiger 3” then jumps to the present day to show an elaborate rescue mission sequence where Tiger is supposed to save his former handler Gopi Arya (played by Ranvir Shorey), who has been trying to get information about a planned assassination of a RAW agent named Jibran Sheikh (played by Neeraj Purohit) in Pakistan. And what a coincidence: Zoya is somehow involved in this assassination plot. (Her reason won’t be revealed in this review.)
The movie then zig zags between betrayals, kidnappings, framing for crimes and imprisonments, while the story jumps around from place to place in various countries such as India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia, and Austria. Somehow, with all this mayhem going on, and Tiger and Zoya spending very little time at home, viewers are supposed to believe that they are also attentive parents to their son Junior (played by Sartaaj Kakkar), who’s about 11 or 12 years old.
But surprise! There’s another member of the family who is introduced in “Tiger 3.” This long-lost family member is named Hassan Ali (played by Vishal Jethwa), who meets Tiger for the first time in the movie. Hassan’s relationship to Tiger is explained in the story, which just seemed to throw in the Hassan character just to add to the overstuffed plot.
One of the worst scenes in the movie is a fight between Zoya and a mysterious operative named General Zimou (played by Michelle Lee), who attack each other inside a luxury spa in Istanbul. Zoya and General Zimou are wearing nothing but towels in this fight scene. And during the most brutal parts of the fight, the towels unrealistically stay intact.
General Zimou is an unnecessary character, so this fight scene looks like it was put in the movie as an exploitative gimmick to show two women fighting while barely clothed. The male stars of “Tiger 3” would never have been asked to do this type of scene that tries to tease the audience into thinking that there will be some nudity from the brawlers during the fight. It’s all just so blatantly sexist filmmaking that treats women as sex objects.
Tiger’s supervisor is RAW chief Maithili Menon (played by Revathi), who seems to be in the movie as a useless boss, since she doesn’t know a lot of what Tiger is up to and doesn’t really help when Tiger needs her the most. The movie also does a terrible job of convincing any viewer with common sense that Zoya and Tiger, who openly live together as spouses, can continue to fool their competing government agencies that this marriage is not a conflict of interest to their jobs. Because of the movie’s ridiculous action scenes, the mediocre-to-bad acting, and flimsy plot twists, “Tiger 3” becomes mind-numbing after a while and does not earn its long-winded 156-minute total running time.
Yash Raj Films released “Tiger 3” in select U.S. cinemas on November 11, 2023, and in India on November 12, 2023.
Telugu with some language in Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in India, primarily in the 1970s, with some scenes in 1980 and the 1950s, the action film “Tiger Nageswara Rao” (loosely based on the real life of notorious thief Nageswara Rao) features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A Robin Hood-like thief, who robs from the rich so he can give to the poor, tries to avoid being captured by law enforcement.
Culture Audience: “Tiger Nageswara Rao” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, but it’s an overly long and repetitive mess of tiresome clichés.
Anupam Kher in “Tiger Nageswara Rao” (Photo courtesy of Abhishek Agarwal Arts)
Even though “Tiger Nageswara Rao” is loosely based on the real life of notorious thief Nageswara Rao, the movie is just a pathetic ripoff of stories about English folk hero Robin Hood, but without any charm and intrigue that define Robin Hood lore. This three-hour slog of hack filmmaking drags with empty stereotypes of action flicks about outlaws, revenge and betrayals. The movie’s rampant misogyny, bad acting and wretched story make this vile film a big turnoff. Avoid this bloated trash.
Directed by Vamsee (who co-wrote the horrendous “Tiger Nageswara Rao” screenplay with Srikanth Vissa), “Tiger Nageswara Rao” takes place in India, mostly in the 1970s. In the city of Chirala, the rehabilitation colony of Stuartpurnam exists for the Erukula tribe, which has a history of oppression from British conquerors. In the 1970s, Stuartpurnam is plagued with violent crimes. Local law enforcement is overwhelmed and can’t seem to reign in the worst criminals.
The movie begins on March 22, 1980. A code red alert has summoned deputy superintendent of police Vishwanath Sastry (played by Murali Sharma) to India’s Intelligence Bureau headquarters in New Delhi. One of the officials he meets with is an officer named Raghavendra Rajput (played by Anupam Kher), who tells Vishwanath that they are looking to take down Tiger Nageswara Rao (nicknamed Nagi), a corrupt politician who has a long history of being a thief.
Vishwanath says he knows who Nageswara is, because he had a run-ins with him in Chirala. The movie then flashes back to a train heist that was masterminded by Nageswara, sometime in the 1970s. The chase scenes (some of which take place on top of the moving train) have shoddy and very fake-looking visual effects.
The movie then further flashes back to 1956, to show Nageswara as an orphaned child at 8 years old. He became a protégé of a criminal named Gajjala Prasad (plagued by Nassar), who teaches Nageswara how to become a master thief at the age of 11. By the time he was in his 20s, Nageswara (played by Ravi Teja) was considered to be India’s biggest thief. Nageswara was also difficult to capture. Teja, who was in his mid-50s when he made “Tiger Nageswara Rao,” never looks believable as someone who is supposed to be in his 20 in this movie.
In 1971, a member of the legislative assembly named Yelamanda (played by Hareesh Peradi) supervises a auction that is held every year in Stuartpurnam. The auction, which has luxury goods, is the ideal target for a thief such as Nageswara. You can imagine what happens next. Yelamanda is one of a growing list of people who becomes an enemy of Nageswara. In addition to federal agent Rajput, there’s a local Chirala police inspector named Mouli (played by Jisshu Sengupta) who is hunting Nageswara.
Nageswara is not only greedy when it comes to money, he’s also a promiscuous lout who treats women like playthings to be used and abused. The movie shows in non-explicit ways that he thinks he’s an expert seducer of women, just because he has orgies with at least 10 women at a time. One day, while Nageswara is at an outdoor market, an attractive young woman named Sara (played by Nupur Sanon) catches his attention. It’s lust at first sight for Nageswara.
And then (get ready to cringe), this idiotic dialogue happens: Nageswara says to Sara as a pickup line: “I’m hungry.” Sara replies in a sexual double entendre, “In order to eat off my plate, one must fast for three days.”
Nageswara doesn’t like this rejection from Sara, so he hits her so hard, she falls down. A nearby police officer goes to defend Sara, but Nageswara assaults him too. The brawling that ensues consists of more phony-looking stunts. Nageswara wins the fight and walks away without getting arrested.
Nageswara isn’t done with Sara, who is engaged to be married. Nageswara shows up unannounced and uninvited at her wedding. He ruins the wedding by telling Sara that he stole her dowry money from a chest. She slaps him, but Nageswara insists that Sara will be his, as if she’s a possession, not a human being.
Sara’s fiancé backs out of the wedding when he hears the dowry has been stolen. Nageswara uses this abandonment as “proof” that the fiancé didn’t really love Sara. Nageswara also says he did Sara a favor by exposing her fiancé as a gold digger. And in this awful movie, this tactic works. Nageswara is able to romance Sara for a while.
Through a series of circumstances, Nageswara ends up marrying someone else who doesn’t excite him as much as Sara does. Her name is Mani (played by Gayatri Bhardwaj), who becomes Nageswara’s long-suffering wife. Mani knows that Nageswara doesn’t love her as much as she loves him. Nageswara and Mani have twin daughters together. (Mani gives birth in a tacky melodramatic scene.)
“Tiger Nageswara Rao” tries to depict the title character as a “noble” folk hero who wants to use the money he steals to build a factory that can provide jobs, but the movie reprehensibly excuses his abuse of women. “Tiger Nageswara Rao” is really just a violent soap opera, where Nageswara continues to steal and avoid getting captured. He’s so smug and arrogant about his crimes, there’s nothing “noble” about him.
There are some sleazy subplots thrown into the movie, such as Sara being forced into prostitution. It’s just more of this film’s woman-hating attitude on display. No one in the movie’s cast gives a good performance. They all look like they’re on auto-pilot for their characters, who have one-dimensional personalities.
There’s so much unimaginative repetition in “Tiger Nageswara Rao” (robberies, unrealistic fight scenes, Nageswara getting away), it’s truly mind-numbing and boring to watch after a while. It’s also a movie that has musical numbers that don’t fit the film’s overall tone. “Tiger Nageswara Rao” also has an obnoxiously loud music score, which seems to be a characteristic of horrendous action flicks that mistakenly think “loud music score” equals “effective music score.” There is absolutely nothing in “Tiger Nageswara” that is truly original and worth seeing, which is another way of saying that people who value their time shouldn’t see this movie at all.
Abhishek Agarwal Arts released “Tiger Nageswara Rao” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on October 20, 2023.
Culture Representation: Taking place in Mumbai, India, the action film “Jawan” has an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A prison guard hijacks a subway to get money for financially struggling farmers, and he finds out that he has a connection to a law enforcement captain who is at the scene of the crime.
Culture Audience: “Jawan” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and action movies that have secret identities as part of the plot.
Shah Rukh Khan in “Jawaan” (Photo courtesy fo Yash Raj Films)
“Jawan” uses a lot of familiar plot devices in these types of lengthy action films about revenge, corruption, and people with secrets. Some of the story’s twists could have been handled better, but the performances remain engaging. A major plot twist can be predicted by looking at certain characters in the movie.
Directed by Atlee (who co-wrote the “Jawan” screenplay with S. Ramanagirivasan), “Jawan” begins by showing a subway train being hijacked in Mumbai, India. The hijacker is named Azad (played by Shah Rukh Khan), and he is a prison guard at a women’s jail. Azad is holding the subway hostage and has six women prisoners who are helping him. He wants ₹40,000 crore as ransom for the hostages. He says he wants the money to use the money to help farmers in India.
The other main character in the story is Captain Vikram Rathore (also played by Khan), who was a special ops commando the Indian Army. Captain Rathore has a connection to Azad that is a major plot reveal that won’t be mentioned in this review. However, viewers can easily figure it out when they notice that the same actor is playing both roles.
Khan handles these dual roles with aplomb, even though it can be a little distracting when the plot twist is revealed. The movie should have shown this plot twist much later in the film. As it stands, “Jawan” has plenty of suspense in this “Robin Hood”-type of story that raises provocative questions about wealth inequality and what or if anything should be done about it.
Yash Raj Films released “Jawan” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on September 7, 2023.
Culture Representation: Taking place in Iraq and in India in 2014, the action film “Akelli” has an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: An Indian woman is kidnapped by ISIS terrorists in Iraq and must fight to survive.
Culture Audience: “Akelli” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and tacky “women in peril” movies.
Tsahi Halevi in “Akelli” (Photo courtesy of Reliance Entertainment/Zee Studios)
“Akelli” is such a relentlessly moronic film, it almost seems like a parody of bad movies, except this awful action flick takes itself way too seriously. The airplane scene toward the end is one of the worst. “Akelli” is just a pile-on of bad dialogue and one unrealistic scenario after another.
Directed by Pranay Meshram, “Akelli” was written by Meshram, Gunjan Saxena and Ayush Tiwari. The movie takes place in 2014 and begins by showing garment factory worker Jyoti Arora (played by Nushrratt Bharuccha), who is a native of India, with other women from the factory being herded like cattle in Mosul, Iraq. The women are being kidnapped by ISIS terrorists, who want to abuse the women and force them to take part in terrorist activities.
How did Jyoti end up in this awful situation? “Akelli” (which means “alone” in Hindi) has flashbacks to show the events that led up to this kidnapping. Six months before the kidnapping, Jyoti (a bachelorette with no children) living in Punjab India, and working an airport employee whose job was to direct planes on the tarmac. However, Jyoti gets fired when she interferes in a fight between an elderly co-worker named Devendra Suri (played by Nand Chopra) and an aggressive passenger.
Jyoti goes to an employment agency and asks supervisor Ranjit Chawla (played by Rajesh Jais) for help in finding a job. Ranjit tells her about a “temporary” job working in a garment factory for one month. The pay is ₹80,000 for the month, which would be about $1,296 in U.S. dollars in 2014. The catch is that the job is in Mosul, Iraq.
Ranjit says the employer will pay for all the travel expenses. Jyoti is desperate for money, so she accepts this job offer. Jyoti’s mother thinks it’s a bad idea. Jyoti’s young niece Mahi (played by Mannat Duggal) also doesn’t want Jyoti to go, because it would mean that Jyoti would miss Mahi’s birthday.
Jyoti goes to Iraq and finds out that the garment factory job is a “sweatshop” situation with long hours. The workers who have arrived from India have their passports confiscated by factory supervisor Noor Bano (played by Shivani Sopori), who turns out to be a hellish boss. Shortly after arriving in Iraq, there’s word that the Oman capital of Muscat will soon be invaded, and all Indian citizens must evacuate territories where there is active ISIS terrorism.
Jyoti hears from employment agency supervisor Ranjit that a plane ticket has been sent for her to go back to India. She asks Noor about it, but Noor says she hasn’t heard anything about a plane ticket for Jyoti. (Noor is lying, or course.) With no money and with her passport confiscated, Jyoti is stuck in Iran. And then the kidnapping happens.
The rest of “Akelli” shows many melodramatic and increasingly silly ways that Jyoti fights to survive. There’s also some sexual violence depicted in the film. Jyoti is told that she has to be the “wife” of a terrorist soldier named Afra (played by Munisa Halmanova), who rapes her. Afra’s cruel ISIS commander is Wahab (played by Amir Boutrous), who has an even more ruthless ISIS commander named Assad (played by Tsahi Halevi), who notices that Jyoti is more courageous than the average kidnapping victim.
“Akelli” is almost offensive to real-life kidnapping victims in how it presents this survival story, especially a scene near the end when Akelli takes a big risk on a plane that would surely get her killed in real life. The acting performances in the movie aren’t very good. There’s also a lot of manufactured suspense, while many of the fight scenes look too phony. “Akelli” seems to have no self-awareness of how horrible it is. This lack of self-awareness makes a bad movie look worse.
Reliance Entertainment/Zee Studios released “Akelli” in U.S. cinemas and in India on August 25, 2023.
Culture Representation: Taking place mostly in 1996, in the fictional city of Kotha, India, the action film “King of Kotha” has an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Two former best friends battle each other for control of a drug empire in Kotha.
Culture Audience: “King of Kotha” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and don’t mind watching messy and nonsensical movies about drug dealers.
Prasanna in “King of Kotha” (Photo courtesy of Zee Studios)
“King of Kotha” is nothing more than a semi-convoluted soap opera about feuding drug dealers. There’s nothing really original in this soulless tale that shows the expected betrayals, revenge plots, and violence. The musical numbers look very misplaced.
Directed by Abhilash Joshiy (his feature-film debut) and written by Abhilash N. Chandran, “King of Kotha” takes place in the fictional city of Kotha, India. The movie’s timeline is mostly in 1996, but there’s a significant flashback to 1986. The movie tries to do too much with a very weak story.
“King of Kotha” begins in 1996, with the arrival of circle inspector (CI) Shahul Hassan (played by Prasanna), who has been transferred to Kotha, which is a city with a major drug problem. The current drug lord of Kotha is Kannan Bhai (played by Shabeer Kallarakkal), who has been in a longtime feud with his former best friend Raju Madrassi (played Dulquer Salmaan) over control of the drug trade in Kotha. Shahual gets the backstory on this feud, which is shown in the movie as a flashback.
The feud has been going on for 10 years and involves friends, family members, and lovers. There’s also an awkward subplot about Raju and his gang being part of a soccer team called Winner Kotha. The movie has a lot of heinous violence that just becomes mindless after a while. None of the acting is good.
“King of Kotha” piles plot twist on top of plot twist, until it becomes a jumbled, unrealistic mess. To make matters worse in this bombastic film, almost all of the characters are unlikable and unrelatable. Avoid this abomination at all costs.
Zee Studios released “King of Kotha” in U.S. cinemas and in India on August 25, 2023.
Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in India, the dramatic film “Ghoomer” has a predominantly Indian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A promising young cricket player strives to make a comeback after an accident leaves her right arm amputated.
Culture Audience: “Ghoomer” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching inspirational sports dramas.
Abhishek Bachchan in “Ghoomer” (Photo courtesy of Pen Marudhar Entertainment)
“Ghoomer” drags on for a little too long and has some familiar clichés that are often found in movies about sports underdogs. However, the performances of Saiyami Kher and Abhishek Bachchan are impactful. The cricket matches are also thrilling to watch.
Directed by R. Balki, “Ghoomer” was co-written by Balki, Rahul Sengupta and Rishi Virmani. The movie takes place in India and centers on the relationship between a young cricket player named Anina “Ani” Dixit (played by Kher) for the national women’s cricket team in India and her coach Padam “Paddy” Singh Sodhi (played by Bachchan), who trains her after she experiences a devastating car accident that leaves her right arm amputated.
The movie’s title comes from the “ghoomer” sports move that Ani must learn that becomes on her road to recovery. A great deal of the movie involves the trial and tribulations of Ani’s difficult rehabilitation. She has moments of complete despair but also moments of triumph. Complicating matters is Paddy is battling an alcohol addiction while he is training Ani.
Yes, it’s a big sports movie stereotype when the coach involved in a comeback training has a drinking problem or other similar personal problems. However, “Ghoomer” handles this stereotype capably in showing that Anu and Paddy must help each other during this difficult time in their lives. “Ghoomer” has some heart-wrenching moments, but the movie ultimately fulfills its purpose of being a feel-good story.
Pen Marudhar Entertainment released “Ghoomer” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on August 18, 2023.
Pankaj Tripathi and Yami Gautam Dharin in “OMG 2” (Photo courtesy of Viacom18 Studios)
“OMG 2”
Directed by Amit Rai
Hindi with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in Mahakaal, India, the comedy/drama film “OMG 2” has an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: After his teenage son gets in trouble for masturbating in a bathroom stall at his school, his father sues the school district to teach sex education in the school.
Culture Audience: “OMG 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and comedy/dramas that tackle sensitive social issues.
Akshay Kumar in “OMG 2” (Photo courtesy of Viacom18 Studios)
“OMG 2” stumbles a bit in the last third of the movie with a very clumsily staged plot development. However, this memorable drama has a timely message about sex education in schools that shows both sides of the issue in a compelling courtroom setting.
Written and directed by Amit Rai, “OMG 2” takes place in Mahakaal, India. It takes a while before movie gets to the trial that is at the heart of the story. Before then, viewers see what caused this legal dispute.
Vivek (played by Aarush Varma) is a teenager in high school who is curious about sex. Hs current worry is that his penis is too small. He’s so gullible that he gets scammed into buying pills that he is told will make his penis larger.
One day, Vivek ends up going in a bathroom stall at the school to see if his penis has gotten larger. He ends up masturbating in the stall. Vivek is horrified to learn that someone recorded a video of him masturbating, and the video has gone viral. Vivek goes on a downward spiral.
Through a series of events, Vivek’s religious father Kanti Sharan Mudgal (played by Pankaj Tripathi) blames the school for not giving enough counseling or protection for Vivek for this violation of privacy and for not teaching sex education in the school. Vivek ends up suing the school district to have sex education classes in the school.
Akshay Kumar has a very awkward-looking role in the movie as Lord Shiva’s messenger, in what are supposed to be scenes that are very comedic or overly sentimental. This role seems forced, just so Kumar could be in the movie. Despite some flaws in the story, the best part of “OMG 2” when it shows the trial, which has some amusing scenes when Kanti clashes with defense attorney Kamini Mahesh (played by Yami Gautam Dhar), who is feisty about her politically conservative opinions. This trial doesn’t just put the school district up for judgment but also society’s attitudes about teaching teenagers about sex.
Viacom18 Studios released “OMG 2” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on August 11, 2023.
Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in 1971, in India and in Pakistan, the action film “Gadar 2” (a sequel to the 2001 film “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha”) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: During Pakistan’s “Crush India” campaign, a Pakistani military leader decides to get revenge on the Indian man whom he blames for killing 40 of his soldiers in 1954, and the Indian man’s adult son also gets caught up in the vendetta.
Culture Audience: “Gadar 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the film’s headliners and the movie “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha,” but “Gadar 2” is yet another example of a sequel that is vastly inferior to the original movie.
Sunny Deol, Ameesha Patel and Utkarsh Sharma in “Gadar 2” (Photo courtesy of Zee Studios)
“Gadar 2” is a disappointing mess that offers nothing clever to this saga. This sequel to the 2001 film “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha” is proof that waiting several years to make a sequel doesn’t mean that the filmmakers can think of any good ideas for that sequel. The first “Gadar” movie (which took place from 1947 to 1954) was a romance about two people from feuding nations (India and Pakistan), who fell in love with each other, despite disapproval from almost everyone around them. “Gadar 2” is just another mindless action flick about a family caught up in a revenge plot.
Directed by Anil Sharma and written by Shaktimaan Talwar (who, respectively, directed and wrote “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha”), “Gadar 2” also brings back several of the principal cast members who were in “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha.” (“Ek Prem Katha” means “love story” in Hindi.) The events in “Gadar 2” take place primarily in 1971, during Pakistan’s “Crush India” campaign. The movie’s story occurs in India and in Pakistan. The beginning of “Gadar 2” has some introductory scenes as a summary of what took place in “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha.”
In “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha,” Indian Hindu truck driver Tara Singh (played by Sunny Deol) fell in love with a Pakistani Muslim former college classmate named Sakeena “Sakku” Ali (played by Ameesha Patel) during the Partition of India in 1947, when India and Pakistan were in deadly conflicts with each other. Tara and Sakina got married and had a son named Charanjeet “Jeete” Singh (played by Utkarsh Sharma), who was abut 6 years old at the end of the “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha.” Deol, Patel and Sharma all reprise these roles in “Gadar 2.”
In “Gadar 2,” Jeete is now about 23 years old. He lives with his parents in an unnamed city in India. Jeete has been having problems. Much to his parents’ dismay, Jeete has been truant from college. He wants to drop out of college and do something else with his life, but he hasn’t figured out what that is yet. Jeete gets into arguments with his parents, who worry about what the future might hold for aimless Jeete.
Meanwhile, a Pakistani major general named Hamid Iqbal (played by Manish Wadhwa) is plotting to get revenge on Tara, because he blames Tara for 40 of his men getting killed during events that happened in “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha.” In case that information isn’t clear, Major General Iqbal repeats it several times in the movie, because the filmmakers must think viewers are idiots for not getting this information the first few times it was mentioned. Major General Iqbal is the same person who murdered Tara’s father, so Tara has his own reason to get revenge on this corrupt military official.
Major General Iqbal finds out that Tara and Sakina are living with Jeete in India. It’s around the same time that Tara mysteriously disappears. Tara’s family believes he might have been kidnapped and is being held captive in Pakistan. Sakina meets with an Indian lieutenant colonel named Devendra Rawat (played by Gaurav Chopra) to ask for his help in finding Tara. Lieutenant Colonel Rawat warns Sakina that another major Indian-Pakistani conflict is coming.
Against Sakina’s wishes, Jeete sneaks out of the house with a plan to find Tara in Pakistan. Jeete uses a fake passport to cross the border into Pakistan, but he is very nervous when he is questioned about his nationality and loyalties by a Pakistani border agent. Someone who notices Jeete from a distance is Major Anwar Ali (played by Abrar Zahoor), a Pakistani assistant sub-inspector who knows that Jeete is Tara’s son.
Jeete and Major Ali make brief eye contact and look at each other, as if they both know about Jeete’s lies to cross the border. Jeete crosses the border and quickly disappears into the crowd before Major Ali can apprehend him. It isn’t long before Major Ali alerts his colleagues to tell them that Jeete is in Pakistan.
Jeete was wrong about Tara being held captive in Pakistan. Tara has been in India all along. Tara comes home after being missing for a few days. And when Tara finds out that Jeete is looking for him in Pakistan, Tara becomes furious and then alarmed. And you know what that means: Tara goes to Pakistan to find Jeete. And he steps right back into enemy territory, where Major General Iqbal is waiting for him.
None of this is spoiler information, since the trailer for “Gadar 2” gives away about 90% of the plot for this substandard film. Patel, who had a prominent role as Sakina in “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha,” is reduced to being a stereotypical “worried wife at home” supporting role in “Gadar 2.” The movie becomes a father-son rescue/revenge story that is poorly staged amid the idiotic plot.
“Gadar 2” also copies the romance story from “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha.” During the time that Jeete is in Pakistan, he meets and falls in love with a Pakistani woman named Muskaan (played by Simrat Kaur), who finds out that Jeete is really an Indian citizen when he tells her the reason why he entered Pakistan with a false name and fake passport. And so, “Gadar 2” rehashes the “forbidden love” storyline that was in “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha.” The acting performances in “Gadar 2” are not impressive.
One of the worst things about “Gadar 2” is how the movie drags on and on with one ridiculous scenario after another. In fight scenes, there are plenty of chances for Major General Iqbal to immedately kill Tara and/or Jeete, but instead he just sneers and taunts. And then later, Major General Iqbal tells his men how much he wants to kill this Tara and Jeete. Tara is able to fight off dozens of armed soldiers with just a sledgehammer, his signature weapon. Yes, it’s that type of movie.
“Gadar 2” might satisfy viewers who are looking for bombastic and shallow entertainment to pass the time. (And it’s a lot of time, because this very noisy but empty movie is 150 minutes long, which is too long for its very flimsy plot.) Anyone who is expecting this sequel to have an interesting story needs to look elsewhere. There was a 22-year-gap between the releases of “Gadar: Ek Prem Katha” and “Gadar 2.” Was it worth the wait? Absolutely not.
Zee Studios released “Gadar 2” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on August 11, 2023.
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed cities in India, the romantic comedy/drama film “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani” features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A wealthy heir and a TV news/talk show host, who have very different personalities from each other, begin dating each other and have ups and downs in their relationship, especially each one agrees to live with the other’s family for three months before getting married.
Culture Audience: “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching romantic comedy/dramas that are sometimes over-the-top but have overall good stories with capable acting.
Aamir Bashir, Anjali Anand, Ranveer Singh and Kshitee Jog in “Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani” (Photo courtesy of Viacom18 Studios)
At first glance, “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani” (which is Hindi for “the love story of Rocky and Rani”) seems like a formulaic Bollywood romantic comedy/drama, with elaborate musical numbers and the expected conflicts and reconciliations in a movie that goes on for more than 150 minutes. (The total running time of “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani” is 168 minutes.) “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani” has elements of a stereotypical romantic comedy/drama, but there’s also some clever satire, as well as plenty of interesting commentary about society’s gender role restrictions. The movie’s production design and cinematography are visual treats.
Directed by Karan Johar, “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani” takes place in unnamed cities in India and is an “opposites attract” love story. Ishita Moitra, Shashank Khaitan and Sumit Roy co-wrote the “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani” screenplay. It’s not the best romantic movie you could see in a year, but “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani” has enough appealing qualities to be entertaining for people who want to see a love story on a grand scale. It’s a very glamorous-looking movie with a lot of down-to-earth issues that are often difficult for people to discuss.
In “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani,” Rocky Randhawa (played by Ranveer Singh) is a wealthy heir to a successful confection company called Dhanlakshmi Sweets. He is from a Punjabi family whom he describes in the beginning of the movie as “Crazy Rich Indians.” Rocky, who is in his 30s, isn’t what anyone would call an “intellectual.” He also doesn’t do much with his life. He’s not considered smart enough to run the family business.
Rocky lives in a household with three generations of people. His family is very conservative and believes in traditional Indian ways, such as they expect Rocky to have an arranged marriage, not a marriage where he chooses his own spouse out of love. Rocky’s snobby grandmother Dhanalakshmi Randhawa (played by Jaya Bachchan) founded the business that made the family’s fortune. She takes pride in the fact that the recipe for the company’s most popular sweet is a well-kept secret.
Dhanalakshmi is married to Kanwal Lund (played by Dharmendra), who uses a wheelchair and has a brain injury, which are the results of an accident where he fell down some stairs. Kanwal has lost a lot of his memory and motor skills because of his brain injury. It’s later revealed that Dhanalakshmi and Kanwal’s marriage has been loveless for quite some time, even before his accident, but they’ve stayed together out of tradition.
Rocky’s parents have very different personalities and a fairly unhappy marriage. Rocky’s father, who is the son of Kanwal and Dhanalakshmi, is Tijori Randhawa (played by Aamir Bashir), a domineering and stern businessman who is currently the leader of Dhanlakshmi Sweets. Tijori’s wife is the passive and timid Punam Randhawa (played by Kshitee Jog), who has had a long-suppressed desire to become a singer.
Rocky has a younger sister in her 20s named Gayatri “Golu” Randhawa (played by Anjali Anand), an insecure bachelorette who has a talent for being a financial manager, but Tijori discourages Golu and Punam from having careers. Tijori believes that a woman’s only roles in life should be as a wife and a mother. Punam and Golu are plus-sized women, so Tijori sometimes insults his wife and daughter about their weight and body sizes.
Meanwhile, independent-minded career woman Rani Chatterjee (played by Alia Bhatt) has a completely different family from Rocky’s family. Rani grew up in a liberal and progessive Bengali family, and her parents are happily married. Rani, who is an only child and in her late 20s, is a famous TV news/talk show host. She’s very intelligent, opinionated, and assertive. When she interviews people, Rani is a fearless truth seeker who has a low tolerance for dishonesty.
An early scene in the movie shows Rani in a combative interview with a sexist politician named Minister Alok Pradhan (played by Akashdeep Sabir), who is very dismissive of a high-profile rape case that has recently been in the news. He has a victim-blaming attitude toward the female victim. Rani berates him about his misogyny during this live TV interview.
After the interview, Rani’s best friend/co-worker Somen Mitra (played by Namit Das) nervously scolds her about how she talked to this high-ranking politician: “You’ll get us taken off the air,” Somen frets. Rani doesn’t care, and she doesn’t doubt her abilities as a journalist. She wears her outspoken, truth-seeking style like a badge of honor.
Just like Rocky’s living situation, Rani also lives in a three-generation household. Her widowed grandmother Jamini Chatterjee (played by Shabana Azmi) is very opinionated and is a romantic at heart. Jamini’s son Chandon Chatterjee (played by Rota Roy Chowdhury), who is Rani’s laid-back father, is a professional Kathak dancer who teaches Kathak dance classes, mostly to children and women. Rani’s mother/Chandon’s wife Anjali Chatterjee (played by Churni Ganguly) is an English professor who is a stickler for people having the correct grammar and spelling.
Near the beginning of “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani,” Randhawa family is attending a prestigious business ceremony where Tijori is getting an award. During this ceremony, Rocky’s grandfather Kanwal mistakes a female stranger named Mona Sen (played by Sheeba) for being a woman named Jamini. It’s an embarrassing incident because Kanwal approaches Mona by calling her Jamini and starts kissing her as if he’s her lover. Kanwal’s family offers a profuse apology to the surprised Mona, who accepts the apology when it’s explained that Kanwal has a brain injury.
However, Rocky is very curious to know who Jamini is and why his grandfather acted in this amorous way to someone whom Kanwal thought was Jamini. Rocky and his goofy best friend/trainer Vicky (played by Abhinav Sharma) do some research on the Internet. The only clues they have are Jamini’s name and Kanwal’s ramblings about Shimla Coffee House in the year 1978. Kanwal has also been repeating this sentence out loud: “When will the red color leave me?” Viewers will later find out what he means by that statement.
Rocky and Vicky find out through their Internet research tha Jamini is a retired woman who happens to be the grandmother of famous TV host Rani. Rocky and Vicky show up unannounced at the TV network where Rani works. Rocky and Vicky introduce themselves to her and tell them that they think Rocky’s grandfather Kanwal and Rani’s grandmother Jamini had some kind of connection from the past.
Rani is skeptical, but Rocky gives her his contact information, just in case. Rocky, who knows that Kanwal is ailing and unhappy, thinks it would be a good idea if Kanwal could see Jamini again to cheer Kanwa up. Rani doesn’t take this request seriously at all. She thinks that Rocky and Vicky are just two clownish fans who barged into her workplace because they wanted to meet her. When Rocky and Vicky leave, Rani starts laughing.
But later, when Vicky is having dinner with her family, she tells the story of what happened to her at work that day. As soon as she mentions the name Kanwal, Rani’s grandmother Jamini looks like she just saw a ghost. Privately, Jamini takes Rani aside and tells her a secret that Jamini has had for years: In 1978, Jamini and Kanwal had a brief but passionate love affair while they were married to other people.
Kanwal and Jamini decided to end their secret affair so as not to ruin their respective marriages. The former lovers have not seen or spoken to each other since then. Jamini says that Kanwal was the love of her life. Rani knows that Jamini has been sad and lonely lately, so she decides she’s going to help Rocky to arrange a reunion for Jamini and Kanwal.
Some viewers might have a problem with this part of the movie, because Kanwal (even though he’s in an unhappy marriage) is still married. Are these two grandkids trying to encourage infidelity? “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani” makes it look like the intentions of Rocky and Rani are to give Kanwal (who is unlikely to be sexually active) one last chance at happiness. In the process of reuniting their grandparents Kanwal and Jamini (who are thrilled to see each other again), a romance develops between Rocky and Rani.
But as expected in a romantic drama, things don’t go smoothly for the main couple. Rocky and Roni have sizzling chemistry together, but the differences in their intelligence causes some conflicts. Rani is the type of person who is well-read and very knowledgeable about a wide variety of subjects. Rocky doesn’t like to read, he’s clueless about current events, and he wouldn’t be able to identify major historical figures if he tried.
There’s a comical scene in the movie where Rocky meets Rani’s parents at the Chatterjee home, and he mistakes a portrait painting of poet/artist Rabindranath Tagorean for being a grandfather of Rani’s family. Rocky often has poor grammar, which doesn’t impress Rani’s English professor mother at all. Rani’s parents are also concerned that even though Rocky is wealthy and doesn’t need to work, he doesn’t seem to be doing much with his life.
Rocky’s father Tijori and Rocky’s grandmother Dhanalakshmi disapprove of Rani because she’s an outspoken feminist. They think she’s a terrible match for Rocky, who is still being pressured to have an arranged marriage. Rocky’s mother Punam and Rocky’s sister Golu approve of Rani but are too afraid to really admit it out loud to Tijori and Dhanalakshmi. Rani encourages Punam and Golu to have more self-confidence.
Rocky and Rani are very much in love. Rocky wants to marry Rani as soon as possible, but she doesn’t want that type of commitment. Rani also has concerns about the differences between their respective families. A long stretch of the movie is about Rani not even wanting to admit that her relationship with Rocky is more than a fling.
When Rocky keeps pushing the issue of marriage, Rani comes up with this idea: For three months, Rocky should live with her family, while she lives with Rocky’s family. Rani says that at the end of this three-month period, if they can tolerate each other’s families, then Rocky and Rani should get married. This is the part of the movie that has some predictability, but there are also a few surprises.
It’s easy to see that Rani’s feminism is hard to accept by certain members of Rocky’s family. Rani isn’t the only person in her family who expierences sexism. Her father Chandon is ridiculed by certain members of Rocky’s family because they think Chandon’s Kathak dance job is too “effeminate” for a man. Rani also inherited some of her intellectual elitism from her mother. Rani has some trouble getting past the fact that Rocky will never be knowledgeable about many things that Rani cares about.
Of course, there are breakups and makeups in “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani.” The long-lost romance of Kanwal and Jamini serves as a reminder to Rocky and Rani about what can happen when the “love of your life” gets away. The music-video-styled song-and-dance numbers range from highly energetic for the fast and midtempo songs to competely mushy and soap opera-like for the ballads. However, after the movie is over, it’ll be hard to get the movie’s ballad theme song “Tum Kya Mile” (sung by Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal) out of your head. “Tum Kya Mile” means “what did you get” in Hindi.
“Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani” also has the benefit of a talented cast giving mostly believable performances. Bhatt as Rani and Azmi as Jamini are the two standouts because they are compelling in the range of emotions that they express in this movie. Rani is someone who is very commitment-phobic and seems to want to run away from romantic love when it’s right in front of her. Jamini wants nothing more than to have romantic love and commitment in her life, but it’s elusive because her soul mate is married to someone else and has a faulty memory.
“Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani” doesn’t pretend to have all the answers about love. It’s debatable if Rocky and Rani ultimately would be a good match in a long-term marriage. But what will resonate with many viewers is the movie’s message of true love being a precious gift that should be cherished, and true love is about accepting loved ones for who they are. It’s a message wrapped up in a very familiar Bollywood movie package, but the story and performances have enough unique charm to make “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani” a memorable viewing experience.
Viacom18 Studios released “Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on July 28, 2023.
