My Review : Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi

Prelude :

Btw how many of you know or were aware about the actual facts of Rani Laxmibai ? Frankly speaking, I knew nothing about her except the fact that once upon time there was Queen of Jhansi who was brave and fought fearlessly carrying her child on her back. Full stop.

The legend of Jhansi’s Rani Laxmibai is immortalised in Subhadra Kumari Chauhan’s poem Khoob Ladi Mardani Woh Toh Jhansiwali Rani Thi and Vrindvan Lal Verma’s novel of the same name ( I have read none)

Finally based on K V Vijayendra Prasad, the father of the talented Director SS Rajamouli (writer of Baahubali, Bajrangi Bhaijaan)  a feature film on one of the leading figures of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 has been made and released but..Rani Laxmibai deserved a better tribute….let me explain to you why ?

Sadly, the 2 and a half hour-minute  film fails to give The Queen of Jhansi’s character  more shades and ends up becoming few pages from a history book.

Synopsis :

Introduced by Mr Amitabh Bachchan’s baritone voce talks about Manikarnika, who is born in a Marathi Brahmin family in Varanasi in 1828 and talking about her key traits as she aims her tame a fierce tiger.

Dixitji played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda spots her in all the qualities required of the maharani of his princely state around which the men of East India Company are planning to seize it.

Manikarnika gets married to Gangadhar Rao played by our very own Jisshu Sengupta, the Maharaj of Jhansi, is more inclined towards arts and  wears choodiyan (bangles) as a mark of his shameful weakness for failing to confront the Brits.

His cousin, Sadashi played by the super talented Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub has joined hands with angrez in-order to dethrone Gangadhar Rao.

Post intermission, General Hugh Rose played by Richard Keep is specially summoned to fight her and capture Jhansi. But fortunately get very terrified and taken aback by Laxmibai’s strength and bravery.

Rest of the story talks about how Laxmi Bai fights the British fearlessly.

Technical :

The writing could have been better as it lacked depth and fluidity.

Significant characters from history are mercilessy sidelined into mere side characters example like Danny Denzongpa’s Ghulam Ghaus Khan and Atul Kulkarni’s Tantiya Tope to focus unabashedly on Kangana Ranaut,

Debutant Ankita Lokhande’s Jhalkaribai gets the least screen time and space in comparison to all.

Manikarnika suffers from lazy writing, sloppy dialogues, tacky visual effects and cliched caricaturing of the English ( Bollywood seriously needs to redefine their British villains)

Directed by Ranaut and Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi, Manikarnika tries its best to achieve the simplistic effort to salute the legendary queen, but feels too long and lacks freshness. Though there  are several sword fight, battle scenes in Manikarnika that are choreographed beautifully.

The USP of the film is Kangana and only Kangana, the actor shines all through the entire film. She proves that she is a ‘One man Army; and needs no big banners or Male super stars to support her.

Overall, Manikarnika devoted very little in any other character except that of Rani Laxmi Bai, they are used as props — to establish the superiority of Rani Laxmi Bai. It sounds impressive that Kangana Ranaut has directed Manikarnika, along with Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi.. a good start as a first effort.

Verdict :

If you’re a Kangana Ranaut fan, Manikarnika is the film for you…or wait for the digital viewing.

 

 

My Review : Why Cheat India ?

So, Finally my brother’s favourite actor, ‘The Serial Kisser’s latest film ‘Why Cheat India’ released the previous day and after sitting though the 2 hour long film, I can only say.

‘Why Emraan Hashmi’ ?  ‘Why Cheat us’ ?

Emraan Hashmi starrer ‘Why Cheat India’ was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated movies of the year. The film recently made headlines when it changed its title from ‘Cheat India‘ to ‘Why Cheat India’ ?

The trailer of this much-awaited film did raise the excitement level of all the fans but Alas…. ( There should be an award for the best promo editor lolz)

This is not the first time, a big banner backed film starring a reputed actor is so shoddy, disjointed and badly executed…and I am super pissed on how such films are allowed to even get a decent release through out the nation.

I always thought ‘Emraan’ is a sensible actor and have liked his previous flicks…but his last few releases have compelled me to change my opinion about him.

Premise :

Rakesh Singh played by Emraan Hashmi runs an education scams to flourish in the country. He enrols bright students and makes them write proxy exams for students who are unable to pass and then, helps them procure a fake degree.

This story revolves around one such boy, Sattu played by Snigdhadeep Chatterjee,  who dreams of a better life, and in turn, falls prey to Rakesh’s dubious plan.

Why Cheat India talks about the complexities of the education system of India, where innocent students and their desperate parents fall into the nexus of corruption and cheating, to secure a seat in their dream college.

An opportunistic Rakesh Singh aka Rocky uses his gift of the gap and traps the potential students and lures them to a world of corruption by offering them pots of money. He uses academic toppers to write papers on behalf of other weak students and exploits several other loopholes at the college examination level and also gives a brief insight about the plethora of malpractices that currently killing our education system.

Technical :

The film is not as interesting as it sounds or lives up to its energetic trailer. Right from the first scene, the film fails to capture  your attention or successfully keeps you glued through out.

Director Soumik Sen very shoddily executes the film and makes it look like a very amateur effort. The film not only lacks a smart script but also great visuals and decent performances.

With a better Director and a better script, this film talking about the corruption of the education system, could have been a hard-hitting and a memorable film. But Why Cheat India turns out to be a very half baked and a disappointing film, which never quite understands which issue it would like to highlight. I got very confused half way through out the film and failed to understand the actual message the film wanted to impart.

The weak script is stretched over two hours, as it goes from engineering-medicine into MBA, turning  the whole film farcical.

The climax is quite a twist but will fail to lift the rest of the film.

The dialogues were pretty silly and stupid while the cinematography by ‘Alphonso Roy’ was sloppy.

‘Why Cheat India’ is Emraan Hasmi’s worst film after ‘Raja Natwarlal’

Performances :

Emraan Hashmi’s performance as the confident Rakesh is convincing as the actor pulls it off in every frame with confidence and ease. Though his intro scene in the movie theatre was very badly written and asinine.

Debutant Shreya Dhanwanthary is the best part of the film…I am surely crushing on her big time.

Rest of the performances were just about average…all the other sporting star cast were unknown and fails to add any input to the film.

A special mention goes to ‘Snighdhadeep Chatterjee’, who played Sattu for his great effort.

Verdict :

The story and concept of Why Cheat India holds a lot of potential and meat, and if the execution was the sharper and better, this ‘Emraan Hashmi’ starrer could have passed with distinction.

Unfortunately, the film fails and I strongly don’t recommended it. 

My Review : Uri : The Surgical Strike

Prelude : ( FYI)

The 2016 Uri attack was an attack by four heavily armed militants on 18 September 2016, near the town of Uri in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. It was reported as “the deadliest attack on security forces in Kashmir in two decades”.

The militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed was blamed by India of being involved in the planning and execution of the attack.

 At the time of the attack, the Kashmir Valley region was at the center of unrest

At around 5:30 a.m. on 18 September, four militants attacked an Indian Army brigade headquarters in Uri, near the Line of Control in a pre-dawn ambush. They were said to have lobbed 17 grenades in three minutes.19 army personnel were killed during the attack. An additional 80-100 soldiers were reported to have been injured. A gun battle ensued lasting six hours, in which all four militants were killed.

Combing operations continued to flush out additional terrorists thought to be alive.

Most of the soldiers killed were from the 10th battalion, Dogra Regiment (10 Dogra) and 6th battalion, Bihar Regiment (6 Bihar).

 One of the injured soldiers succumbed to his injuries on 19 September at R&R Hospital in New Delhi, followed by another soldier on 24 September, bringing the death toll to 18.

The casualties were primarily believed to have occurred as a result of non-fire retardant transition tents.

This was the time of a troops shift, whereby troops from 6 Bihar were replacing troops from 10 Dogra. The incoming troops were housed in tents, which are normally avoided in sensitive areas around the LOC like Uri. The attackers snuck into the camp, breaching heavy security and seemed to know exactly where to strike.

Seven of the personnel killed were support staff, including cooks and barbers.

 

 

Synopsis :

Uri :  ‘The Surgical Strikes recounts the dramatic story of the secret  Indian Army’s surgical strikes on Pakistan Occupied Kashmir as a retaliation for the Uri attack and the personal toll this mission of revenge takes on the team and the man who leads it.

Technical :

It’s a film about the danger of knee-jerk emotional responses by apparently ‘responsible’ states in times of crisis, about a cycle of violence propagated by a refusal to explore options beyond taking an eye-for-an-eye-style approach.

It’s about how applying a good vs evil narrative to a difficult story, and treating a severely complicated situation like it’s a straightforward one, necessarily only complicates the picture further. How very timely.

Uri: The Surgical Strike isn’t a film you’d have expected a director like Aditya Dhar to make keeping his previous works into consideration. But, I must say that Aditya Dhar has done a great job in recreating the horrific event taken place 3 years ago.

With his latest film, “Uri: The Surgical Strike,” Director Aditya Dhar forgoes the emotional bullying and pop thrills that come so easily to him to tell the story of a campaign of vengeance that the Indian Army purportedly brought against Pakistani terrorists in the wake of the 2016 Uri Attacks.

It also showcases as unsparingly brutal look at a couple of dead bodies stacked on top oif each other.

“Uri” is by far the toughest film of the director’s career and the most anguished.

The film’s title suggests that this is the story of what happened at URI on September 2016, and it is, though only in part. Most of the action — and if nothing else, this nail-biter is a full-on action movie — takes place in the immediate aftermath of Uri, after 19 Indian army soldiers were murdered by members of a Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist group.

The film has deep love for India, and contains a heartfelt moment when a young female child is shown crying before her father’s dead body.

The film’s most exciting moments are in the details of the planned attacks by the Indian Attack.

Eagle shaped drones are used to spy on the terrorists are planted…there is a moment of Hitchcockian suspense when the team waits for the enemies to come out from their hideout.

Cinematography and the sound design are top notch and will keep you glued till the end.

Performances :

Vicky Kaushal is bloody convincing as an army officer and does a swell job. Yami Gautam and Kirti Kulhari are simply brilliant in their respective roles.

Paresh Rawal as the National Security Adviser is bang on.

All other performances by the supporting star cast  Mohit Raina, Manasi Parekh, Rakesh Bedi etc are well cast.

As a thriller, ”Uri is an efficient, absorbing, effective. As an ethical argument, it is haunting. And its questions are not only for Indian or any nation that believes it must compromise its values to defend them.

Verdict :

Overall, Uri the film, offers a clear, simple warning: that responding with violence alone only leads to further violence. A Must Watch.