Top 10 Bollywood Films of 2021

My yearend list of Top 10 Bollywood films of 2021!

2021 – best film viewings at home

A 2021 that I hoped, as I’m sure we all did, would surprise us… reward us… and lift us up with a return to normal. Well, it appeared to be getting to that… little sputtering starts that were quickly embraced by an eager humanity to mean an absolute triumph over the pandemic. And then, just as quickly, we were humbled back to what was the tragic new normal. The air-space opened up, and then it shut. Film festivals went from virtual to monitored attendance and back to virtual. Cinema halls opened, we had a Marvel release break records even… and then as the year drew to an end, a tentpole Bollywood release expected to set the cash registers ringing was hit by a new variant and renewed fear of theatres shutting again.

Sanjana’s review of Pushpa: The Rise

Pushpa is a long film.
It is a simple story and it is raw. Once you get used to the hero, you will enjoy his antics. His backstory tugs at our hearts. We start to empathise with him from the beginning. He has a sidekick Keshava.

Naveen on Pushpa: The Rise

It is a raw masala movie with a towering performance by Allu Arjun. Telugu cinema is now flushing alpha male heroes with “Ab apun Nahin Jhukega” attitude and put a very good raw actor and it does wonders. Pushpa is On similar lines. This might drive away several audience but there is a BIG BIG crowd starved of such movies.

Z’s Viewings

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.

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui Movie Review: Ayushman Khurrana is Superb in this Rom-Com with a Social Message!

AN JO on YARA

YARA

Mild Spoilers

‘Yara‘, based on a true story from a small town named Brenbate di Sopra in Italy is a stunning achievement in terms of capturing the rigors of a procedural wedded with the horrors of a teenage murder and sexual assault with an underlying current of sexism and power-play running around these themes like an invisible barbed wire.

Shivaay on Special OPS 1.5: A case for using sound as dialogue

SPECIAL OPS 1.5 REVIEW : A case for using sound as dialogue

The first thing that strikes you about Special Ops 1.5 is how we finally have an espionage thriller about the menacing usage of honey traps to blackmail government officials in top military and bureaucratic positions. Seldom have Indian film makers gone beyond the bearded snarling “Ji Janaab” terrorists in the on screen espionage world of late.

An Jo: ‘Veer’ Sooryavanshi

Disclaimers Out of 15, I picked top 4:

1. Major Spoilers/Disappointments
2. No intent of comparison to Hollywood or ANY claim of superior intelligence or ‘taste’. I love Suppandi
3. No intent of bringing down the morale of the Hindi film industry
4. No claim over ‘masala’ and English ‘Grammar’

When Saibal Chatterjee from NDTV, who is utterly unfit to view or understand commercial Hindi cinema, rated it a 3 on 5, I was bowled over! This was like Ray giving ‘Gunda’ a thumbs-up! Then it is decided; this is going to be a full-on blast for me! And 2 shows were immediately added yesterday in DC [there were only 2 decided for the week – ‘Sone pe Suhaaga’; 2 more shows.

Sooryavanshi Movie Review: Rohit Shetty’s Return to 80s Masala is Clunky, Cliched and Tiresome!

Naveen on Sooryavanshi

Aila Re Aila….Soorya Aila. Rohit Shetty has outdone himself with Sooryavanshi. While his past successes(Singham, Simbaa) were remakes, this is kind of stitched but yet original script.

Sooryavanshi is a movie on national integration. This is its USP.

It is Baby (minus its realism) + Holiday (minus its length) + Karma (only in its theme of national integration and climax) in one.

Now that’s some kind of stitching needed to pull it off. It is a difficult script because movies on spy, terrorists tend to be either being too realistic and hence less commercial or too commercial but less realistic.

Sooryavanshi scores in keeping its balance.

Shivaay on Sooryavanshi

Sooryavanshi Review : Ajay Devgn steals the show in this Akshay Kumar starrer

Shetty o Shetty, you’re the only one capable of transforming a crisp solid anti terrorism/sleeper cell plot into an outlandish over the top masala potboiler with larger than life hero’s, rain dancing queens and caricaturist baddies who induce more comic book relief than fear in the viewer.

An Jo on Sardar Udham Singh

On Sardar Udham Singh; and Sircar’s vicious tricks with his audience…

Major spoilers

The initial texts that precede the start of this movie are in themselves a revelation as to what, and especially how, Sircar is willing and taunting the audience to rise up to the challenge of an uneven movie: History is dirty and muddled up isn’t it? Why would I make a ‘clean’ movie out of it? The ‘cleaner’ text, he reveals as a matter-of-fact; now the dirtier truths, he just drops it almost as a disclaimer.

No Time To Die Movie Review — Goodbye, Mr. Craig! You will be sorely missed…

It’s not a perfect film and has its flaws, mainly an under-developed villain and some moments full of bloat towards the end, but overall, it’s a solid Bond film made with a specific purpose in mind — to bid farewell to Daniel Craig. And it serves its purpose well enough, despite not being a timeless classic like Casino Royale or Skyfall.

An Jo on ‘No Time to Die’

Mild Spoilers

The irony of the title isn’t lost as one connects it to the finale in ‘No Time To Die’; the last movie in which Craig plays 007, ever since revolutionizing the Bond series with the best in Craig’s series, ‘Casino Royale,’  closely followed by ‘Skyfall.’ However, the rest of the movie would fall into the ‘trying-to-be’ mold and doesn’t spectacularly succeed. It has neither the smartness of ‘Casino Royale’ in balancing and fleshing out, bit-by-bit, Bond getting hooked onto emotions, nor the bold walk towards maternal feelings and the weird sibling rivalry that Bardem has with Craig. [“Orphans make the best spies,” says M to Craig in ‘Skyfall’ when he asks her why she selected him.]

Shivaay on Shershaah

Perhaps the best thing the viewers would usually do while tuning in to watch Shershaah is to have minimalistic expectation, considering the fact that its a Siddharth Malhotra starrer from a Dharma Production. Even though you know this is a film that celebrates one of India’s bravest war heroes, you cannot really have much expectation from the Siddharth-Karan Jo pair. Or can you? This is where hiring a director like veteran Vishnuvardhan (a relative unknown in Bollywood circles) ends up being a blessing in disguise and a mini masterstroke.

Shivaay on The Empire

In one line, its the kind of show that oscillates between the engaging to the boring in equal measure.

The show begins with Emperor Babur narrating his rise to fame and the event preceding the first battle of Panipat. For a show that marketed itself as an adaptation of the great 1526 AD battle, it takes far too much of time and too many episodes to get down to the battle. Babur’s character lacks depth (doesn’t help that Kunal Kapoor plays it half heartedly with mediocre dialogue delivery). If the show is anything to go by, the beginning of the Mughal Era in Hindustan was by sheer fate and there’s almost nothing about Babur that appears brave or smart enough for him to have conquered Hindustan. Where the show excels however is the character development of its leading ladies. Shabana Azmi is excellent as the ruthless manipulative yet iron willed Esan Dawlat (Babur’s maternal grand mom) while Drishti Dhami sheds her soap opera image to give a graceful performance as Babur’s sword wielding shrewd & brave sister Khanzada.

An Jo on BELL BOTTOM

Bell Bottom is one heck of a ride

‘BELL BOTTOM’, the first Hindi film to be released in theaters since the lock-down, is quite an interesting film; which also includes the part the Akshay Kumar is the first actor to take the bullet for the suffering industry by releasing it in theaters knowing fully well that it could end up a very, very risky decision, and of course, I think it has ended up like that going by the BO results. However, I am glad that someone took the risk, and hopefully, it paves the path for further risky adventures.
Read rest from here

An Jo on Shershaah

I must say I didn’t expect but I quite liked the movie! Of course, it is a hagiography. The film is nothing but a pictorial version of news clippings and readings that one has been exposed to. There is no ‘psychological’ depth here when considering the thought behind Vikram Batra the person and the one exposed in media and swallowed and regurgitated by people.