CRAZY RICH ASIANS

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Archie had been going on and on about wanting to watch Crazy Rich Asians and then I also heard Howie Mandel on America’s Got Talent tell us all how hilarious the movie was and the plan was made. After a delayed release in India, the three of us went to watch the show on a weekday and were pleasantly surprised to see we had company. Now there were 6 heads in the theatre.

The movie is based on a book of the same name penned by Kevin Kwan. It has Michelle Yeoh (of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha, Tomorrow Never Dies fame) in it and features an all Asian cast. This is Henry Golding’s (the male protagonist) first film.

PLOT: Rachel Chu (Constance Wu), an Economics Professor NYU is dating Nick Young (Henry Golding) unaware of the fact that Nick comes from a crazy-rich family who are real estate tycoons in Singapore. Nick has to travel to Singapore to attend his best friend’s wedding and decides to take Rachel along and introduce her to his family. Rachel comes to know about Nick’s affluent background and with the help of her Singaporean friend Goh Peik Lin (Awkwafina) tries to fit into Nick’s family. Nick’s mother, Eleanor Young (Michelle Yeoh) doesn’t hide her disdain for Rachel. She disapproves of Rachel’s background, economic status and the fact that Rachel has her roots in the US and that she is passionate about her work. To make things worse, Nick’s friends consider her a gold digger. This creates a rift between Rachel and Nick.

Will Nick’s family accept Rachel for who she is? Will Nick and Rachel work things out or will Nick choose to stay back in Singapore and join his family business?

Does the plot sound all too familiar to our Indian audience? Boy takes Girl to meet his rich family. Girl, being from a lower social stratum doesn’t meet their approval.  Girl is shunned by Boy’s family and friends and not to forget the baddie in such storylines- the mother in law.  Spoiler alert for those not familiar with such storylines – Girl then reveals her goodness by some act of benevolence, good wins over the ‘not so good’ , Boy proceeds to cheesy proposal with the blessing of his family. Boy happy, Girl happy.

As the credits rolled at the end, I questioned Archie, “How is this movie a hit? The creator of this age-old formula, our very own Bollywood, too, has stopped churning out such stories”. Archie is ‘Amreeka returned’ and well versed with their way of thinking. She tsked tsked me and said “All this is very novel to them”.  The movie is fully Bollywood ishtyle, complete with songs and Cinderella-esque makeover of the female protagonist because it’s important to look pretty. Who cares that you are a Professor at NYU.

If I were to keep the storyline aside and review the movie for what it is, I’d say the movie is average- a typical rom-com ‘time-pass’ movie. When I watched the trailer of this movie, it reminded me of Monster-in-law, which has a similar storyline. Now, that movie was HILARIOUS. The title is a misnomer. Yes, the movie does involve rich Asians, but I was expecting to see crazy toys and exorbitant splurges especially with a wedding involved in the film. On that front too it was disappointing.

Besides Michelle Yeoh, the other actor you’d recognise is Ken Jeong (Hangover). Sadly, he’s been given the role of a shady father who hits on his daughter’s friend. His role is minor and failed to evoke any laughter from the audience of 6.

Michelle, Constance, Henry and Awkwafina have acted well. However, the story was predictable, the movie not funny enough and sadly there wasn’t any vulgar display of wealth to leave us flabbergasted.

When Rachel is first introduced to Henry’s mother, Eleanor mentions that Henry’s father is out of town on a business trip. I was expecting the father to be the hero of the film (figuratively) by making an appearance towards the end, standing up to his wife and reuniting the lovers. I have been so accustomed to our films where we’ve had our sanskaari Alok Nath follow the righteous path and protect our frail women from harassment. I was wrong!

STREE- PET MEIN DARD HOGA

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An invite to view wedding photos graduated to a sleep over and culminated with a late night movie. That is how I ended up watching Stree with a crazy bunch of girls.

When I had first watched the teasers of this film, I was eagerly awaiting its release, but somehow the trailers didn’t look impressive enough. But the plan had been made and we all proceeded to Rex Theatre.

 Those from Karnataka, may be well aware of the urban legend that had people scrawling “Naale Ba (come tomorrow)” on the walls of their homes. The writing on the walls apparently warded off the evil spirit who turned back on seeing the instruction to return the next day and then the next and the next...... . This movie as stated in its poster is “based on this ridiculously true phenomenon”.

PLOT: A small village in India is haunted by an angry spirit (Stree) who returns every year during the time of a festival to abduct the men at night, leaving their clothes behind. To protect themselves from her, the villagers have “O Stree, kal aana (Oh woman, come tomorrow)” written on their walls.

Vicky (Rajkummar Rao), a non believer of this myth is the local tailor who falls in love with a mysterious woman (Shraddha Kapoor) who comes to the village once a year during the period of The Festival. The woman requests Vicky to stitch a special lehenga for her and in the process, also requests him to collect a random selection of items like the hair from a white cat, eyeball of a lizard, nail from a rooster’s claw etc. (I may have gotten some of these items wrong). Strange things begin to happen after Vicky meets this woman, whose name he doesn’t even know. Vicky’s friends suspect this woman to be Stree. Vicky’s friend gets abducted and Vicky too has begun to have his suspicions on this elusive woman.

Vicky, with the help of his friends, takes it upon himself to find his missing friend and to protect his village from Stree.

Is this mysterious woman, Stree herself? Why does Stree haunt this village and abduct only the men? Will Vicky be able to save his village from Stree? Will the villagers have to continue writing on their walls?

Archie, there you go. I haven’t divulged too many details in the plot else it would end up with spoilers.

The genre of this movie is Horror-Comedy. We forced T to watch this movie with us saying it would be comical and not scary. The film is scary (not for the faint hearted) but these scenes are almost always followed by a comical scene that slows down your fast beating heart.

Rajkummar is his usual brilliant self and is supported by a wonderful cast of actors. The dialogues are hilarious (though I would presume, at times a bit difficult for the non-Hindi speaking folks to follow). If not jumping from our seats in fright, the scenes have us rolling in laughter. Probably the first in this genre of Bollywood films that combined Horror with Comedy and I applaud the Director (Amar Kaushik) for not reducing the film to a mere slapstick comedy in an attempt to appeal to the masses. (Know any other Bollywood films that fall in this genre? Please mention them in the comments section below). Speaking of which, Archie felt the presence of the “Item Number” unnecessary but Shugu and I thought otherwise.

The film is also a satire on the Indian society and its treatment of women and manages to convey a social message without coming across as preachy.

The ending was a bit disappointing as I felt the movie ended on a cliff-hanger. Aali and I wracked our brains and came up with an alternate ending that would have been perfect but I now read that a sequel is in the making. If that is the case, the ending makes sense.

Do watch this film even if you don’t like watching Horror films!

PETER RABBIT : HOP TO IT!

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Ever since Skip’s holidays have begun, I’ve been religiously checking the BookMyShow site, awaiting the release of movies for kids. I had also seen the trailer of this film and couldn’t wait to take Skip for this movie. This is a live action movie (a film that has animated as well as real actors in it. Eg: Stuart Little). I asked my mother to come along for this movie.

This movie is being screened in P[XL]. Last year PVR launched the P[XL] screens in theatres that feature extra large wall to wall screens with ultra- high resolution and a Dolby Atmos enabled surround sound system.

This was our first movie in a P [XL] and I was pretty excited about it. Mother was still recovering from her first time in my car with me driving it and Skip was busy announcing to the audience the kind of popcorn he wanted.

I love live-action films and as expected I loved this movie too.

The film is based on the popular children’s book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, written and beautifully illustrated by Beatrix Potter.

The film revolves around the antics of Peter (James Corden) and his sidekicks- his triplet sisters – Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and their cousin Benjamin whose sole purpose is to get their hands (paws) on the vegetables grown in Mr. Joe McGregor’s (Sam Neill) garden. Mr. McGregor is a malicious old man who doesn’t want to share his vegetables and has cordoned off his garden from the surrounding wildlife. He is also responsible for having orphaned these bunnies. Peter has taken it upon himself to reclaim the vegetable garden that he believes rightfully belongs to him and his other animal friends.

McGregor’s neighour, Bea (Rose Byrne) has a quaint little cottage where she paints abstract pictures as well as pictures of these rabbits. She looks after these rabbits and the rabbits look up to her as their mother.

After McGregor’s sudden demise, his nephew, Thomas (Domhnall Gleeson) takes over the house and the vegetable garden. Thomas who has recently been kicked out of his job, plans on selling the house and setting up his own toy store in London. He is a cleanliness freak and like his Uncle, considers the rabbits as vermin who ought to be kept far, far away from the house. While he’s setting up the place for the prospective purchasers, Thomas falls in love with Bea and she too begins to have feelings for him much to the annoyance of Peter. The movie then continues with Peter and Thomas trying to rid each other from that place while at the same time maintaining a farce of friendship in front of Bea. A major disaster strikes that has Bea and Thomas split. Thomas has the house sold and Bea looks to move away from the place.

Will Bea and Thomas reunite? Will Peter and Thomas reconcile their differences? Will Bea move away from her place? Will the rabbits have a burrow to live in?

If not for anything else, please do watch the movie for the bunnies. They are so cute and adorable in their little jackets. Mother and I kept patting Skip on his head and pulling his cheeks much to his annoyance (he’s not to be disturbed when he’s busy separating his cheese popcorn from the caramel).

The cinematography is amazing. The P[XL] enhanced the visual effects. Though the movie is not shot in 3D, the visuals appeared larger than life and the Dual 4K projection system has the picture appear in high definition and crystal clear.

The visual storytelling is good. The antics of the rabbits and the other animals keep you entertained and the scenes of altercation between Thomas and the rabbits are hilarious. This story also has many life lessons thrown in – Do not eat junk food, be environmental friendly, everyone has character flaws- accept them as they are ...

The background music and songs sung by the sparrows are peppy and keeps with the pace of the film.

 The movie is light hearted and like cartoon films, all scenes are made to appear comical. So if you don’t mind a little loud acting and ‘over the top’ reactions, I would recommend you go watch this movie. The movie shall definitely appeal to kids and adults alike.

Hichki- A Hiccup in Life?

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Rani Mukherjee had been one of my favourite actors during the time I had favourites in the industry. I had been eagerly waiting to watch her comeback film, Hichki and let me break the suspense, I wasn’t disappointed.

I promptly opened Wikipedia to get the names of the characters (I always forget the names of characters) and read that the “film is inspired from an American film, Front of the Class based on a book of the same name” which isn’t surprising considering Tourette Syndrome isn’t well-known in India. The first time I heard about this syndrome was while watching Boston legal with the introduction of the character, Jerry Espenson who suffers from Asperger’s and Tourette’s Syndrome.

In Naina’s (character portrayed by Rani) words, it is a neurological condition that occurs due to dysfunction in certain areas of the brain that causes involuntary tics, repeating words or shouting.

Films like these, that seek to bring social awareness about physical or mental conditions (Taare Zameen Par) or that portray current social problems (Padman) are also a welcome change irrespective of whether they do well at the Box Office or not.

Hichki is the story of Naina Mathur (Rani Mukherjee), a vivacious and free-spirited woman who has Tourette’s Syndrome. This Syndrome causes her to involuntarily burst into tics and repeat/shout out words. The film shows confusion, antipathy and sometimes mockery reflected on the faces of those who come in contact with her.  As a result of which, despite being a double B.Ed and MSc. Graduate, she has remained unemployed for almost 5 years until she finally gets a call mid-term to teach at her alma mater, much to the consternation of Wadia Sir (Neeraj Kabi), the science teacher of Standard IX ‘A’.

She has been assigned to teach Standard IX ‘F’ that has only 14 students who are purportedly from the bottom of the barrel, having found a place in this prestigious institution due to the Government imposed Right to Education Act. Shunned by the ‘gora-chitta’ Prefect badge toting IX ‘A’ students and the bourgeoisie Wadia sir, this group of glue-sniffing, beedi-smoking, gambling delinquents have taken it upon themselves to have their new teacher quit within a week of her joining.

Naina’s determination to stick to her job and to educate these underprivileged children and her unconventional methods of teaching thaws the animosity that the children have towards her. Naina is challenged by the Principal and Wadia sir to ensure a hundred percent result in the final exams if she wants to retain her job. Naina identifies the ability each student has and encourages them to battle their limitations.

But things are not all smooth sailing for Naina and her students. A fit of anger that results in one of her students destroying a science model made by the ‘A’ section students has the ‘F’ section students suspended from school. All is not well in Naina’s personal life either where her estranged father returns only to lower her self-esteem.

Will Naina’s students pass the exams with flying colours and earn the Prefect Badge or will they be thrown out of school for cheating in exams? Will Naina earn her father’s respect? Will she continue teaching at the school?

The answers are predictable and so is the movie but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Rani Mukerjee is her usual brilliant self and so are the rest of the cast. A special mention to the students who have so brilliantly portrayed the role of, “adolescents angry at the whole world for their dire circumstances”. There are quite a few tear-jerking moments thrown in, you will need that handkerchief.  Like any typical Yash Raj Film, the background score is dramatic and loud and builds up the “suspense” even though you know exactly what’s going to happen next. I love movies with a feel-good factor and this is definitely one of those. At the end of the movie, as the credits rolled in, P and I looked at each other, smiled and nodded our heads in approval.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Review

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Just as much as I love reading books, I enjoy watching movies too. It’s a gene inherited from my parents.  

Now, besides watching movies in the theatres, I record movies on my set-top box and watch it at night, within the comfortable confines of our living room.

I have new found company for animated films in my five year old, Skip (Though, I really think he comes just for the popcorn). I record movies for Skip as well and he has now slowly graduated to watching non-animated children’s films like Home Alone, Baby’s Day Out, Dunston Checks In, Zathura etc. I recently made him watch Jumanji (Part 1) on TV and he seemed to like it.

And what do you know! Part 2 had hit the theatres. I wasn’t even aware of a sequel until I heard it on the radio. I screeched in delight and looked around in the car at the other passengers. My parents had suddenly something very important to discuss and my husband began avoiding eye contact. Skip looked at me and said “we’ll go driving”. Please note that I have recently started driving and shall do another post reviewing the Alto K10 automatic car.

I LOVED (still do) Jumanji. I couldn’t wait to watch the sequel and dish it. Sequels rarely match up to the original. We went to a nondescript mall closest to our house that had the most convenient timing, post lunch. Not expecting a jam packed theatre, I decided to book tickets at the counter. Bad decision, as the only seats available was at the first row.

I was a bit disappointed thinking Skip would have to strain his neck, looking up at the screen, the whole time. We grabbed our 3D glasses. Skip wasn’t pleased with his small “baby glasses”.  Since we’d just had lunch, I had to pull the drooling 5 year old away from the popcorn counter with the promise of cheese popcorn during the “intermission”.  The couple walking towards our seat was wondering why I was giving them dirty looks. They plonked themselves next to us with their gigantic tub of popcorn! (Exaggerated eye-roll)

Skip is very loud in theatres. He waits for the theatre to quieten before he can make his proclamation to the public. “I am very very hungry, you haven’t given me anything to eat” said Skip looking at our neighbours’ popcorn.  Thankfully, the screen lit up and the trailers of the upcoming films began. It started off with the Akshay Kumar starrer ‘Padman’. The audience drowned in laughter, the trailer was funny. Skip waited for his moment and loudly asked, “This is not a Batman, this is a Padman, but what is a Pad?” Everyone burst out laughing again. Skip was pleased and with that he forgot his popcorn.

REVIEW BEGINS HERE:  The movie begins with a kid inserting a cartridge into a video game console and my heart sank a little.  I have no patience for spotty high school kids and how dare they change the game from a board game to a video game. Are all these millennials too cool for board games!

The movie proceeds with four high school kids being sucked into the game’s setting into the world of Jumanji where they don on their respective video game avatars. This is where Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson makes his entry which was met with a lot of hoots and cat calls in the theatre and a “Why are you screaming now” from Skip.  The four characters are then enlisted to return the jewel, ‘Jaguar’s eye’ to a gigantic rocky Jaguar statue. The movie follows their journey from their entry into the game all the way up till the statue. The path is trodden with hurdles thrown in by Russel Van Pelt, a hunter, who wants the jewel for himself in order to be able to control the animals of Jumanji. Each player has three lives, losing all of which would mean death. This is a typical action-adventure film and it reminded me of a light hearted version of Hunger Games.

The 3D effects are superb and the effect was much more pronounced being in the first row. The movie is HILARIOUS, the actors are funny especially Jack Black and Kevin Hart.  The five year old had his eyebrows up and mouth wide open so I am presuming he enjoyed it too. At the risk of sounding unfaithful to Robin Williams, Dwayne did an excellent job as the protagonist, Dr. Smolder Bravestone.

Yes, I would record this movie when it comes on TV and watch it again.