sayontan Reviews

Shabaash Mithu (2022)

Accuracy Hit for a Six

[4/10 · 22 September 2022]

Most sports biopics have a good foundation in accuracy, and then adds on a dose of drama to make the tickets sell.

In the recent past, there have been quite a few other cricket biopics - MS Dhoni, Azhar, and 83. Azhar was undiluted trash, and a deliberate attempt to cover up the wrongdoings of an admired Indian captain. But Dhoni and 83 were well-made movies, which kept the sports aspects pretty intact in terms of showing team members and the progression of matches (both movies added drama, but that had little to do with the main story).

I don't know what "Shabaash Mithu" was trying to do, but it was a great disservice to a player whose international career spanned almost 23 years (June 1999 to March 2022), and who captained India for around 18 years.

The list of inaccuracies is long, but the one that really stood out was completely omitting the fact that Mithali led India to 2 ODI World Cup finals (2005 and 2017) - this film completely eliminated one of the World Cups.

Another thing that I found extremely jarring was that the scorecards showed actual players such as Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur and Jhulan Goswami, yet these players are not portrayed by any actor in the "team" that is shown.

While Taapsee happens to be an actress whom I like, the script and story here hardly gave her anything to work with, apart from looking serious and determined. All being said, the only rating points this movie gets are due to her and Vijay Raaz.

Complete with other jingoistic aspects, this movie was a colossal waste of 156 minutes.

Start-Up (2020)

Beautiful!

[10/10 · 21 September 2021]

While Start-Up is not the first K-drama I have watched, it sure is the one I have found most enjoyable and I have ended up re-watching it several times.

So many things about this series are beautiful:

1. The setting: Until I started watching K-dramas, I had no idea that South Korea is the country with the fasted internet speeds in the world (they even mention this in "Crash Landing on You"). So, it was refreshing to see a show that makes start-ups and technology the focal point.

2. The concepts: The Hackathon episode was pure gold. It demonstrated a very practical use of a core AI concept, a "Generative Adversarial Network" (or, a "GAN"), where two AI programs written for contrasting purposes compete against each other to get better. Subsequent episodes imparted very basic pearls of wisdom that often get lost in people's quests to build shiny new things (like 92.4% accuracy with a low-powered computer being much better than 93.8% on a full-featured computer).

3. The story: While many other reviewers have have voted the series down due to the way the romance turned out, it was a non-factor for me. The makers showed beautiful character progressions across the board.

All primary characters showed great character arcs - Seo Dal-Mi (Bae Suzy) from an adventurous go-getter to a mature CEO, Han Ji-Pyeong (Kim Seon-Ho) from a blunt and outspoken critic who would do anything for one particular person to a critic still delivering the same message but with nuance, Nam Do-San (Nam Joo-Hyuk) from a brilliant but timid person to someone more self-confident in his abilities to do anything for the person he loved, and Won In-Jae / Seo In-Jae (Kang Han-Na) from a brash gold-digger to someone who recognizes the true worth of people and makes the effort to reconnect with people in her life. The character progressions were enough to justify the angle the romance took.

The supporting cast too had brilliant characters and character development - Kim Hae-Sook as the grandmother, Song Seon-Mi as the mother, the other employees of the start-up, Nam Do-San's parents etc.

4. The cast: Well, I fell in love with Bae Suzy. I mean, who wouldn't!!?? This was the first time I watched a show with her, and while I cannot understand Korean, her face conveyed the entire range of her emotions beautifully. Her vocals for the OST track "My Dear Love" were moving, to say the least. I also found Kim Seon-Ho to be a fantastic actor (on par with Yon Se-Jin from CLOY), and not just a person who lands roles by looking good. I did feel Nam Joo-Hyuk was quite stiff compared to Kim Seon-Ho (and maybe that is why there is so much hate directed at the story), but the rest of the cast pretty much nailed their roles.

5. The OST: Top marks for this one. So many of the songs are so eminently hummable that I ended up adding the OST to my music library.

All in all, this show gets full marks on multiple dimensions and joins the list for some of the most interesting shows I have seen, along with Crash Landing on You, It's OK to not be OK, and Memories of the Alhambra.

Bandish Bandits (2020– )

Not Music that is the Stuff of Legend

[7/10 · 4 September 2020]

A small nit for all folks calling this India's first series about classical music - that honour goes to a Bengali music-based thriller series, Tansener Tanpura, which was released about 6 weeks before Bandish Bandits on the Bengali network Hoichoi.

Naturally, comparisons are inevitable. Bandish Bandits wins hands down when it comes to the story and performances, and Amazon's money is well-spent on gorgeous sets and locations. The chemistry between the characters is much better fleshed out than that of Tansener Tanpura, and even love-hate relationships between characters with very little shared screen-time are done well. The lead characters deserve a good deal of praise, as do veterans such as Sheeba Chaddha.

But when it comes to music, Tansener Tanpura does a much better job of educating the viewer. Simple concepts like how various guitar riffs equate to Hindustani classical raags are beautifully explained. Here is an example of the contrast: there is a section in Bandish Bandits where the teacher is urging the student to sing Basant Bahaar. At no point is the viewer educated about what Basant is, and what Bahaar is. All that is told is that in the final product the two raags are not blending properly. In comparison, in Tansener Tanpura complex concepts are simplified for the audience, such as why raag Shree should be sung in the morning, or what the notation of raag Jog is, or what the origin of Hamsadhwani is. Lots of other nuggets about classical music and its history are dropped in there. Basically, Bandish Bandits is about singing, and Tansener Tanpura is about classical music. To me this is important, as connecting classical music with the modern is what keeps the younger generation of today interested in the classical.

Finally, the quality of music in Tansener Tanpura is a notch above; apart from a couple of songs in Bandish Bandits ("Virah" being a great example), very little is as good as the quality on offer in Tansener Tanpura ("Tomake bhalobeshe" in raag Jog, "Surey surey" in Hamsadhwani, "Baje muraliya" in Shree).

When heard in isolation, the music of Bandish Bandits is good, but there are way too many songs with a pop feel, and very little that is purely classical. And finally, in the climactic scene you have a point where it starts raining when someone sings in Malhar / Megh Malhar. You would expect the crescendo for such a song to be memorable, but that song falls flat.

But if the series gets a 7, it is mainly for the positives: Ritwik Bhowmik, the effervescent Shreya Chaudhry, the stalwarts Sheeba Chaddha, Naseeruddin Shah and Rajesh Tailang, and the incomparable Shankar Mahadevan and his song, "Virah".

Kaun? (1999)

______ is the murderer in Kaun

[10/10 · 8 February 2008]

If I was told that I was going to die soon and that there was only one Urmila movie that I could see again before I kicked the bucket, I would pick Kaun. Any day.

Back when it was released I had a tendency to watch movies only after hearing reviews from friends. This movie made such a big splash in terms of its shock value that people at that time tended to greet you with a line revealing the suspense of the movie. And even bigger spoilsports sent out emails with the subject "______ is the murderer in Kaun", obviously filling in the blank with what would take you the 90 minutes of the movie to figure out.

Having been thus spoilt several times over I went to watch Kaun - and spoiler or not, it really, really spooked me. Obviously, a movie with only 3 characters is bound to rely heavily on dialogue. To make sure that the dialogue did not get soporific there were occasional chilling scenes accompanied by a burst of brilliant background score. During those days Manoj Bajpai was basking in the success of "Satya" and it was expected that he will garner all the praise in this movie. However Urmila completely stole his thunder. This is her movie through and through. Her facial expressions towards the end ... well, you have to see the movie to experience the feeling.

So go ahead and grab a copy from your nearby rental - this is one suspense movie of RGV that should not be missed.

Rangeela (1995)

The Movie that Established 4 Film Personalities

[10/10 · 30 January 2008]

Rangeela was the movie that started a new era in Hindi movies - one where the heroines started wearing skimpy outfits without looking vulgar. Prior to this I remember shuddering at Karishma Kapoor's crass numbers in Raja Babu and Khuddar.

This was a movie that was the turning point for 4 major film personalities:

1. Ram Gopal Verma: He was a pretty good director with movies like Shiva in his repertoire, but Rangeela was the movie that really made people sit up and take notice. Subsequently RGV delivered several movies of style and substance, though he did generate some stinkers.

2. A. R. Rehman: OK, this is an unfair statement. Rehman entered the major league with his very first score in Roja. But Rangeela was his first score for a Hindi movie. And what a success it was! It had several foot-tapping numbers, a lot of which are popular even today.

3. Aamir Khan: I became a big fan of Aamir when I watched Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander. I later watched some of his earlier movies and really loved his performances. But his performance in Rangeela was mind-blowing. The ease with which he slipped into the "Munna" persona was really praiseworthy and marked a turning point in his career. Hereon he started picking up roles with more nuances and challenges and became a veritable hit as an actor and the industry started referring to him as a "perfectionist".

4. Urmilla: Oh Urmilla! I remember watching the trailers of this movie and thinking, "This movie will survive on the lack of Urmilla's clothes". It probably did, but while watching the movie not once was I thinking about what she was wearing. Prior to Rangeela it was customary for Hindi film heroines to dress up in a manner that did not offend Indian sensibilities. Actresses like Karishma Kapoor and Mamta Kulkarni were frowned upon and in general considered B-grade actresses. Urmilla blew the theory out of the water with this film and overnight established herself as a sensation after quite an indifferent start to her career (I am discounting Masoom, which she did as a child actress). Several of her scenes are referred to even today in reverent terms, albeit in a comical manner: Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Khan referred to the "Banian on a beach" while MC'ing for the Filmfare Awards in 2004, nearly 10 years after the movie. Urmilla in subsequent movies has proved that she can do a lot more than look sexy.

Does the movie have flaws? I would be surprised if it didn't. It stretched the limits of believability a bit thin and some songs didn't need to be present. But I am not complaining. For a ticket price of Rs. 15 those days, it was great value for money. And thanks for boosting four personalities who have, since, been a source for high-value and high-class entertainment!

Om Shanti Om (2007)

All cool boys switch your brains off and sing... Om Shanti Om

[6/10 · 9 January 2008]

This is one interesting movie. The first half is very good and entertaining - complete with spoofs (where the characters are aware that they are spoofing) and humorous moments and good performances. A lot of scenes stand out: 1. The Filmfare scene - this was outstanding. The best part was Shahrukh spoofing himself (the "Rahul - Naam to suna hoga" line in Switzerland / Scotland in every movie that he acts). All the little tidbits here made this scene memorable. 2. The Manoj Kumar scene - I haven't laughed so much since Hera Pheri / Hungama / Something About Mary. 3. The "Yenna Rascala" scene - Tamilians please excuse the spelling there, if I have got it wrong. 4. Kiron Kher asking "Overacting zyada ho gaya?" after hamming the way people used to say their dialogues in dramatic moments of the 70's movies (particularly reminiscent of Nirupa Roy) 5. "Dhoom Tana" - Nice song, well presented, but somehow seemed ripped off the "Woh Ladkhi Hai Kahan" concept of "Dil Chahta Hai".

The second half, however, is rather bad. Here it becomes a mix of two movies - Madhumati (for the reincarnation and the ghost) and Karz (for the reincarnation and the way the story unfolds). Unfortunately in its attempt to get serious and stay funny at the same time, it falls a bit flat. You are repeatedly reminded of the older classics and the comparison makes this movie awkward. I believe that if the movie had tried to stay humorous and use the seriousness angle sparingly (the way Farah Khan had done in "Main Hoon Naa") it might have made it better. As things stood, I got bored of the second half pretty soon.

Piecewise: Acting: 1. I am not a fan of SRK. I used to be a very big fan during his earlier movies but the slew of movies with him playing Raj / Rahul kind of roles put me off. I however have tremendous admiration for the fact that he is such a big box office draw. Even in bland roles he manages to inject the SRK factor and the movie clicks. This movie is the same - he is good in the moments that demand levity. 2. Deepika - good as Shanti (or when she is trying to be Shanti), not as Sandy. But yes, she is a looker. 3. Others - Shreyas was pretty good. I haven't seen Dor, so this was the first movie in which I saw him talking. Kiron Kher was her usual self. Arjun Rampal somehow did not gel well with me as the baddie.

Music: Excellent. There is no denying this.

Story: average.

Entertainment: Good.

Overall: 6/10

Bodyline (1984)

For the Quintessential Sports Lover

[10/10 · 4 July 2006]

As a seven-year old just beginning to learn cricket I had just heard the name Don Bradman from my father, being referred as the best batsman ever. Naturally, when the show "Bodyline" started airing in India in 1985/1986, I was excited since I would get to see how prolific Bradman was. I loved the series then, but could never locate it later on reruns or recorded media. Luckily a couple of weeks back I came across an Australian website selling DVDs of the series.

Watching the series in a new light more than 20 years after I saw it for the first time was a great experience. Having acquired a good knowledge of both, the game's history and the rules provided me a fresh perspective. And the verdict? The series is brilliant!

I did believe it over-dramatised events to an extent. There were also minor historical inaccuracies and omissions:

1. Not having a mention of George Duckworth (the English wicketkeeper) being the person who observed the uncertainties in Bradman's stance while facing fast bowling on a wet wicket (attributing it to Larwood instead).

2. Not showing the Notts captain Arthur Carr providing inputs regarding the leg theory approach and rehearsing it with Larwood and Voce in English county cricket (rather showing Douglas Jardine doing all the planning himself).

3. Showing Douglas Jardine as an upright and politically correct person not given to using terms questioning his opponents' parentage (but he actually encouraged his teammates to refer to Bradman as "the little bastard").

4. Bert Oldfield was hit by Larwood on the head while Larwood was not bowling Bodyline, contrary to what the series shows. Moreover the hit was due to a deflection from Oldfield's bat. Oldfield in fact claimed "My own fault" later.

But I am nitpicking. The series is all about showing how and why one of the most vilified cricket strategies came into being. It focuses on Douglas Jardine's drive to get the Ashes back in England and shows that he would not stop at any point as long as he was within the rules.

Contrary to what a few other reviewers on this site have written, I found the representation of the events quite unbiased. Over-dramatisation is a part of the representation of any sporting event on-screen and there is no loss of flavour to "Bodyline" for that. If anything, it was charitable to Douglas Jardine. He is always shown as being in awe of Bradman's batting abilities and the main reason for his tactics comes off as an overwhelming desire to win the Ashes, rather than harbouring racist feelings and hatred towards Australia.

Other players are shown in honest light too - Larwood and Voce obeying their captain's orders to the letter, Pataudi quitting when things were going against the concepts of fair play, Woodfull refusing to employ similar tactics both out of choice and necessity (his team did not have bowlers of Larwood's ability), and so on.

All in all, this is a great watch. If you are a cricket lover then you should definitely see it. And if you are a fan of any kind of sports, then this series shows you to what extent it is possible to go to stop a champion.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

Good in parts, bad in parts, but needs to be watched!

[11 July 2004]

What I liked most about the movie was its ending. Harry zooming on his Firebolt and appearing really happy was, in my opinion, a different, but good ending. And just prior to the ending were some disappointing parts. Like the part where Peter Pettigrew is seen on the Marauders' Map, the complete absence of the concept of the Marauders, the Firebolt coming in pretty late into the movie, the werewolf looking like something that I could swat away with a tennis racquet, no Cho Chang :-) ... I could go on.

But then when I sit to analyse the good parts, I see a lot more of them - the handling of the dementors and the Patronus charm, the slick handling of the time turner related scenes, the very realistic Buckbeak, the funny way with which the whomping willow was handled, lots of good effects, improved acting in general.

While Cuaron has done a really good job of explaining concepts like the time turner to a viewer not familiar with the books, at some places you do wish that he had handled things better. Not mentioning facts like who Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs really are can really leave some viewers in a lurch.

But on the whole I felt the movie was handled very well. Giving the movie a sinister touch only gears up the viewers for what is to come in future movies (as is the case with the books). I would definitely recommend the movie to any person who loves Harry Potter - it is worth seeing.