Z’s Viewings (Updated)

Watched Chamkila last night.

Hard to express in words but what a wonderful film.

Imtiyaz direction and flow of the film is fantastic from first frame to the last.

Dilijit is absolutely delight to watch. Would love to see him get more offers. I think he can easily slide in many low budget movies. All other cast members did well.

Rehman music is good but Kamil lyrics are awesome. All singers sang their songs well. Menu Vida Karo is a gem.

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Fighter
1st half finished.

2 stars.

Nowhere remotely near War/Pathaan.

The scale is big, lots of money spent, polished product but this is giving me Tiger3 vibes. I’ll be shocked if this gets anywhere near Pathaan total. This will not be a long run movie.

And no comparison at all with Top Gun, not even on same planet.

2nd half is better.

3.5 stars.

So 3 stars.

So 1st half is somewhat boring. Nothing like War or Pathaan where so much was going on with twist and turn.

And there’s nothing risky about this movie like how Ronald wants to keep harping on.
If it’s pak bashing, nothing that you haven’t heard before more then 20 years ago in border and gadar, i mean it’s nothing like gadar/border level. And quite frankly, Sid plays it very safe by making an outfit as the main villan and leaving pak army out of the picture.

The aerial stunts are probably somewhat similar to Top Gun part 1 which was made in 1986, about 38 years ago.
Forget about comparing it to the Top Gun part 2/Maverick. It’s laughable how some samosa critics are saying that VFX are world class.

2nd half is where it scores in some scenes and keeps it engaging. Couple emotional scenes are done well but not sure if it will connect with youth and after Monday, will be interesting to see how it holds up.

I can guarantee it that it will not get to 500 Cr in India and 100% sure that nowhere near 1000 Cr WW.

I was truly struggling with seeing it’s low collection of 20 cr day 1 and 39 cr day 2 with all the hyperbole comments from trade analysts.

But, now i understand. It did 20 cr day one because Hrithik is not as big as super star as i thought he was; and it did 39 cr day 2 because the movie is not truly running riots like how pathaan/jawan/gadar/animal did.

For Hithik sake, because i truly like him, i hope the movie does 45 Cr on Saturday and 50 Cr on Sunday.

Deepika looks great and looks good with Hrithik, well, she looks good with everyone.

Hrithik acted well, the nostril did make a comeback in this film.

I would love to see Sid make a multi hero movie in the world of Manmohan Desai. Not with this spy or army as backdrop, i mean just a regular story.

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Just back from Dunki.

First half I would give it 2.75 to 3. Lots of funny moment, some are quite good, some I found flat. The movie does bore at all in first half, it moves at very fast pace.

Second half i would give it 3.5 to 3.75. 2nd half is much better than first half.

Overall rating, 3 to 3.25

I don’t blame if someone gives this movie 3 or 4 star. But it’s not 4.5 or 5 star or it’s not 2.5 or lower like how some here wants to present.

The movie is not typical Hirani, it does have the typical hirani template of issue/message/resolution like every 15 minutes in the first half but those sequences are not that engaging.

I think the biggest negative for me is its budget. This movie budget can’t be more than 75 Cr. It doesn’t look grand or event type of film and I go to theatre only for big/event type of films so i feel little cheated out of my $9.50 ticket price. This movie looks like Ayushman Khurana budget type of film. Basically, if you take out SRK and put in Ayushman Khurana in it, this movie is like 50 cr budget movie.

The best part I liked about this movie is it really does touch a lot on what i was talking about couple days back that the life for a lot of migrants isn’t as easy once they migrate.

Everyone acted well. SRK looks dashing in old getups.

People who liked Hirani Liberal/gandhigiri sequences, or crash humor may not find this one that funny.

Overall, good one time watch. It’s not 5 stars like how some has it and it certainly isn’t lame/trash like how srk haters here wants to present. It will do more than Zero.
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Back from Jawan.

1st half 4.5 stars
2nd half 2.5 stars
Overall 3.5 stars

The IMAX where i watched, the sound system sucs. My ear drums are still hurting from constant bass.

This movie will not work with anybody else from bollywood except SRK. SRK really has that star presence and can dominate the screen no matter where he is on the screen.

As few other said, there’s a lot going in the movie but it actually doesn’t feel that bad, it keeps moving. Everything is tied together at some point in the movie and made sense of.

Everyone making bid budget film should hire Red Chillies VFX. They did an amazing job.

As many have pointed out that this is south type film so action is south type but must say each action piece is more believable than pathan.

Finally, the sequence before the interval, perhaps the best masala sequence since long long time.

As far as box office is concerned, I’m not sure if this will have the same legs as Pathaan due to it being too south type. Yes, KGF2 worked but that’s just one example and no reference point of Hindi belt accepting south type of movie with Bollywood actor.

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Watched The Romantics past couple night.

SPOILERS…

Best part for me was few second scenes of Yash Chopra marriage.
How Aditya Chopra was a better dancer than Hrithik when they were kids and having friendly dance competition at parties.
How Aditya visualized and built the YRF Production House.

And all this talk about nepotism, how does a son of one of biggest director in Hindi cinema, partial owner of biggest movie production house in India has no acting career? Uday Chopra could have been shoved down our throat with the production house they have but yet Adi/YRF didn’t do that. This shows that nepotism doesn’t work unless you’re truly talented and accepted by the PAYING AUDIENCE.
It also shows how serious/true Adi/YRF.
Adi explains it very well in the series.

This was all filmed prior to Pathaan but was interesting to see how SRK talks about that he thought Adi was coming with action film offer instead he came with DDLJ script. SRK wanted to so seriously do action film and it’s there in video from 28 years ago. SRK kind of forced the action sequence in DDLJ climax.

Wonder what his career would have been had he covered romance and action genre from 28 years ago.
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12/11/2021

Old Henry – Redox – A western that is well made. Enjoyed a western after long time. It seems slow at time but never gets boring. There’s a sweet surprise at the end.

Sooryavanshi – NetFlix – An okay entertainer but didn’t quite enjoy it as much as other shetty films including Singham and Simbaa. I did have little issue with undertone message of the film that every muslim is a suspect. look at every muslim with suspicion. Also, why did that paki need to settle/married with hindu women? wouldn’t being married to muslim be lot easier where he can practise his religion openly? 14 years and the women never saw his private parts? But again, undertone message of lovejhad.
I don’t about you guys but one should be able to easily tell that a person is not from region, let alone country. I can easily tell someone who is from Gujarat, Maharastra, south india, etc. I can’t tell difference within south indians but someone who is from south india, i’m sure they can tell difference between someone who is from kerala and someone who is from andhra prades.
I can even tell difference between within gujaratis because there’s a tone and accent difference based on which part of gujarat you’re from.
At the same time, Shetty did really go out of his way to have so many formula driven scenes of showing that muslims are okay, even paki muslims. the scene where Ranveer talks about crickters/artist is creative and well delivered message.
My wife and son really enjoyed the movie a lot.
By the way, Akshay looked very old in this movie. I mean did you see his whole face and neck, skin lose like of 70 year old man. He needs to add some fat to his body.
Surprisingly, i think Kat did her role very well.

Money Heist Season 5, First 5 episodes – NetFlix – It’s good but didn’t satisfy like the previous 4 season. Hearing good things about the 2nd part. Not sure when i’ll have time to get to it. Past 1 month has been crazy between work, business, family events and so on.

Some of the movies/shows lined up to watch:
Arya season 2, Money Heist, Bob Biswas

Theatre watching, if time permits:
RRR, Matrix

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1) Mirzapur 1 and 2: Loved 1st season, 2nd season dragged little bit. The guy playing Munna is a hoot, loved him in every scene. Tripathi and Faisal does very well in their role too. Many may not like Anurag Kashyap but his GOW has paved ways for many films/shows in the same line.

2) Roohi: Turned it off after 10 minutes. I may be the only here who thinks Rajkumar Rao is overrated. He seems same in every movie and very hard to hear his dialogues. I did like him in Ludo.

3) Tumbaad: What a freaking film. My good ness, thoroughly enjoyed every frame of it. I hope this director sticks to his element and gives us many excellent film like this and not get caught up in big budget film and starts compromising his film making.

4) Tandav: Enjoyed this one a lot too. Saif and Dimple are very good in it. I think the one I watched is edited version. Didn’t see some of the dialogues that were circulating on social media.

5) Panchaayat: Another very good series. Acting by all actors is superb. Love the rustic setting. Hope there is season 2.

6) Drishyaam 2: I had watched Ajay Devgan Drishyam, had not watch the mohanlal. After watching him in Drishyam 2, now I want to watch part 1. Makes ajay devgan acting look very ordinary. I perospersonallyk devgan is very over rated too. He has that confused glazed look in most scenes which many people considers good acting. It was amazing to see how much depth mohanlal was adding in every scene by not saying much but his facial expression were saying so much.