Spoilers ahead…
If there were awards for Most Schizophrenic Director, Kabir Khan would be winning them all. After extending an olive branch to Pakistan in Bajrangi Bhaijaan, he dons war paint and drops an A-bomb in Phantom, which begins with news footage and photographs from the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. The film goes on to name Lashkar-e-Taiba, and has characters based on David Coleman Headley and Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. But what follows isn’t a grabbed-from-the-headlines thriller like Zero Dark Thirty. Phantom isn’t about what actually happened. It’s about wouldn’t-it-be-nice-if-this-happened – if, instead of merely suspending cricket matches after terror attacks on our soil, we marched into Karachi and pumped bullets into those basterds. So yes, the film is more along the lines of Inglourious Basterds. It’s a rah-rah reimagining of history based on S Hussain Zaidi’s novel Mumbai Avengers, and it begins, appropriately enough, with a breathless mutual-funds-are-subject-to type disclaimer about the places, people and events depicted here. Translation: If you could taste films, this one would be positively brackish from all the pinches of salt.
There will be finger-waggers who say this sort of eye-for-an-eyeing is irresponsible and dangerous, but Khan is careful to make his protagonist a Muslim (Daniyal Khan, played by Saif Ali Khan) – like Wisam Ahmad Kashmiri in Vishwaroopam and Wali Khan in D-Day, that other reimagining of recent history. So it doesn’t become a religious crusade anymore – rather, it’s about how Muslims are patriots too. That, I think, is a pretty important message for these times. The casting, too, gently emphasises this. The earnest young Hindu RAW officer who dreams up this revenge plan is played by Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub – and he’s wonderful, as usual. My favourite moment in the film came after Daniyal kills one of India’s enemies, and the Ayyub character hears of this and makes a fist, his face flushed with the kind of feeling that fills us when Sehwag smashes a 309 at Multan.
As a model of exposition and character-building, Phantom is fairly routine, dull even. But as a mechanical contraption, it works – sometimes brilliantly. The action scenes are smashingly staged – all in real time, without people and things sailing through the air in slo-mo. An early car chase in Chicago isn’t just about the action choreographer doing his job, the way it usually is in our films. It owes as much to the cinematographer and the editor, giving us the you-are-there feel as well as the you-are-watching-it-from-a-distance feel. After the film, I looked up the name of the editor. There were two: Aarif Sheikh and Aditya Banerjee. It figures. The big (and complex) set pieces are brilliantly pieced together. Of course, part of this is a function of the screenplay too. But the editing is what we see, all that cross-cutting between people and places. It helps that the film stays focused on the mission at hand. Daniyal gets a bit of character detailing involving estranged parents, but just a bit. They’re just part of the background. We see the father’s disappointment, the mother’s weariness – that’s all that’s needed.
The romance, too, plays out in the background. It’s obvious that Daniyal and co-conspirator Nawaz (Katrina Kaif) are drawn to each other, but they behave like the pros they have to be in this line of work. The director isn’t interested in humanising the villains either, the way Kamal Haasan did in Vishwaroopam, giving us glimpses of the family, the surroundings, the life of the villain played by Rahul Bose. The villains in Phantom are essentially dartboards – exactly what’s needed. Any more nuance and this would be a very different movie. So it’s interesting to note who Khan chooses to flesh out. The people we get to know really well, whom we are invited to sympathise with, are all Pakistani – the average Pakistani who doesn’t want war any more than the average Indian does. A cafe owner. His not-very-bright employee. A nurse. Say what you will about Phantom’s jingoism, it at least tries to make us see that there is another side, something that Manoj Kumar never did in all his East-versus-West tirades.
But the leads keep pulling the film down. By now, Katrina-bashing has become a legitimate sport among serious moviegoers, whose delight in her dramatic turns matches that of a hungry crocodile that’s just discovered a swimming Sumo wrestler. She does not disappoint. She messes up the simplest lines, like: Government forces ad-vanes kar rahe hain. In order to explain that ad-vanes, they try to pass her off as a Parsi. Later, she pretends she’s in labour. The screaming isn’t hers. It’s coming from Stanislavsky. Khan is really ambitious. He gives Kaif one of those “cuckoo clock” scenes – you know, from The Third Man, where the essence of the character is distilled into a long monologue. I couldn’t watch. I suppose this scene is why the film got its U/A rating – young children should proceed with extreme caution. Worse, Kaif ends up with scenes opposite Sohaila Kapoor, who plays that Pakistani nurse as a soul wracked by unfathomable torment. Her son turned out to be a jihadi. It’s just a few scenes, but Kapoor makes us feel the love for her son and the hate for what he became and the people who made him that way. Kaif just sits across and watches blankly. She was probably thinking, Lady, you may know how to act, but I’m the one with the fat L’Oréal contract.
As for Saif, he’s playing a character drawn from the Lord Jim template, a man with a disgraced past who now tries to redeem himself. Recall how devastatingly Amitabh Bachchan played such a character in Kaala Paththar, filled with rage and self-loathing, and look at how superficial Saif is in comparison – the externalisation of all this inner roiling is manifest in a mildly furrowed forehead. You want to hand him a glass of water and a Saridon. I can’t put my finger on it – he’s not bad, exactly, but the spark is missing. There was a time I bought Saif in the unlikeliest of characters, like the one he played in Omkara. Today, he isn’t even able to sell a Happy Ending. Watching him here, I thought of Abhishek Bachchan in last week’s All Is Well. There’s probably good money in Bollywood now for someone who can help lost actors find their way again.
KEY:
- Bajrangi Bhaijaan = see here
- Mumbai Avengers = see here
- Vishwaroopam = see here
- D-Day = see here
- Government forces ad-vanes kar rahe hain = Government forces are advancing.
- jihadi = see here
- Omkara = see here
- Happy Ending = see here
Copyright ©2015 Baradwaj Rangan. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Baradwaj Rangan 
gvsafamily
August 31, 2015
Good review. I think you were kind enough to notice and mention the better aspects of the movie when compared to other critics who, it would seem, couldn’t get past the poor performance of the leads.
I know I am being predictable 🙂 but cannot resist –
How, just how does Katrina continue to bag plum roles even after a decade of painstakingly proving that she is a non-actor? Many may disagree but I thought even in hyped numbers like ‘Chikni Chameli’ and ‘Sheela…’ expression-wise she totally lacked the oomph, in spite of all other contributing factors – the raunchy clothes and choreography.
(and not to forget, sensational singing by Sunidhi/Shreya)
The propelling of Katrina to the top among the A-list heroines proves why Bollywood largely remains a hotbed of mediocrity.
And since we are talking of under/over acting, Aishwarya Rai in her latest avatar needs to be mentioned. What with the unnaturally clenched fists (in the stills) and overdose of expressions in the trailer. And to think she has been cast along side Shabana Azmi and Irrfan…
(Phew, feeling lighter now! 🙂 )
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Anu Warrier
August 31, 2015
😦 I was hoping for more. I’ve liked Saif in quite a few movies after Dil Chahta Hai, the film in which Farhan Akhtar reinvented Saif and gave us some good wine in a new-ish bottle. Similarly, Abhishek has a talent that, for some goddawful reason, he doesn’t seem to want to reveal. At least, his film choices have been abysmal. As Amitabh groaned frustratedly, he doesn’t listen to his ma or pa when it comes to script selection, and it is pretty clear to all of us, if not him, that his picker is broken when it comes to good roles.
Loved your line about the juxtaposition of Katrina with Sohaila Kapoor. (Laughed out loud at the L’Oreal reference – Katrina was probably thinking Because I’m worth it! )
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tonks
August 31, 2015
Wickedly funny thoughts on Katrina’s performance.
I’m afraid that I cannot access the recent comments with my phone in the new format. Shown as “RSS comments”, what is shown when I follow that link, is gibberish. I do not know if this is something to do with my phone, but there were no such issues in the old format. Does no one else have this problem?
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MANK
August 31, 2015
Brangan, that was fun. Especially the Katrina kaif takedown.
Reg: Kala patthar, yeah that was one of bachchan’s best performances. So intense and so cool. Unfortunately the film wasn’t that good. It required a more technically competent director than yash chopra to pull it off. Ramesh sippy would have made a great film out of it.
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MANK
August 31, 2015
Many may disagree but I thought even in hyped numbers like ‘Chikni Chameli’ and ‘Sheela…’ expression-wise she totally lacked the oomph
Oh I absolutely agree. She just looked like she was doing PT exercises. in contrast just watch goddess madhuri dixit swinging to the beat in dhak dhak or ek do teen. Just the expressions on her face and how it complements her body movements just awesome. She conveys the sheer joy of dancing and makes the most difficult steps look so easy. In Katrina’s case, its exactly the opposite. she conveys the pressure of a heavy job she has to do to earn a living
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An Jo
August 31, 2015
I quite liked Phantom and am not sure what all the negativity is about. The BEST thing about it is it doesn’t have SALMAN KHAN [or actually any star; I mention Salman since Kabir works with him]. It then gives the makers some leeway into THINKING about other aspects of movie-making. With a below-average actor but a humongous star like Salman Khan, there is always the bait of ‘circling’ around the star. With Saif, there is none of the challenges! He is neither an above-average actor nor – obviously – a star. So Saif’s Daniyal Khan passes off quite well within the parameters of Phantom. It gels quite well with the basic plot – fetch an internet/face-book/twitter-dead Indian Army soldier cursed to anonymity and get him to join an outlandish plot – on paper at least – of bringing covert justice to the perpetrators of attacks on Bombay [there is a smart scene where even a terrorist like Hafeez Saeed’s character is shown twitter-feeding his rally! And in contrast, you have just one internet piece on a disgraced Indian soldier (quite liked the throw-back to Amitabh’s disgraced character in KAALA PATTHAR though). [By the way, this fellow with a moniker of ‘Harris’ Saeed is supposed to be some Professor in the eyes of ISI – you can quite well imagine where he got his ‘Professor’-ship from.]
Kabir Khan pleasantly surprised me with this: Mainly because he keeps his focus throughout. He doesn’t ‘meander’ onto by-lanes like he did with the utterly stupid NEW YORK [only Nawazuddin’s CRASH-inspired patrol-cop humiliation scene saved the film for me] and the pathetic ETT. ETT completely went off-line with ‘Salman Khan’, the star, taking over and the ‘love-story’ between Salman and Katrina taking precedence over ‘spy-antics.’ [Kabir should have watched Redford’s SPY GAMES at least 10 times before even attempting ETT]. Throughout PHANTOM, the slowly bubbling romance between Saif’s Daniyal and Kaif’s Nawaz is relegated to its rightful place – the back-log. That works big-time for the film, and more so in the TITANIC-ESQUE finale. It is cut-to-the-core for the screen-play writers in this movie. The running time is completely devoted to the ‘business’ of eliminating covertly the master-minds of 26/11 Bombay attacks. Very logically then, any ‘tender’ moments or feelings between Daniyal and Nawaz are just fleeting moments brought forth when they are walloping in loneliness in front of the fire-place.
The quest to regain respect – not jingoism— takes Daniyal to London to elimate Abu; to Chicago to eliminate Headley [the only most-wanted character NOT with a false moniker in the movie]; to Beirut to eliminate Qureshi; and finally to Pakistan itself to eliminate Saeed and Ummavi. He is aided by Dark Waters [another convenient moniker to the US’s pet BLACKWATER] security consultant Nawaz [Katrina] in his quest. Of course she is in only because of the pounds [and I mean the English currency] she is getting. Somewhere down the line the mission becomes a part of her too owing to her Parsi roots and thus to the ‘chai’ at or in-front-of Taj at Appolo Bunder (you see, in Bombay, you just cannot separate the Parsis from Taj!).
Now folks might try to ‘uncover’ loop-holes in the plot and what not. Yes you might wonder at some convenient contrivances adopted by the plot. But this is NO greater than the ‘glossed-over’ plot-holes in many of the Hollywood flicks at least. This ain’t exactly TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY or even CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR. This is merely MISSION IMPOSSIBLE just wrench-worked with a wee-bit more realism. Coming to sophistication, there is really not much!! And not needed either. I mean here, you are dealing with a country’s administration that has the audacity to claim that Ajmal didn’t belong to Pakistan since his name didn’t show up in their data-base! Right I never realized India and Pakistan have such strong bio-metrics cross-check. You have some-one like Zaid Hamid [ a ‘security-consultant’ – go figure] who claimed that Ajmal was a RAW Hindu named Amar Singh—[I distinctly remember in 2008 thanking God that he didn’t name him Manmohan Singh – that would have been quite weird; not because he would have named India’s PM as a terrorist but because, quite frankly, I – and by extension, I am assuming almost the whole of India at that point in time – was quite skeptical of associating ‘activities’ with Manmohan]— just looking at the CCTVs and pointing out a ‘red’ dhaaga – yes that eternal indicator of a Hindu terrorist – on his wrist. Man, what eyes! Who actually needs a face-recognition software when you have such eyes?
Where Kabir fails in this endeavor is in the finale where the narrative suddenly takes a completely masala turn. This just doesn’t gel with the narrative laid out thus far. Even a fantastic actor like Zeeshan isn’t able to salvage a scene where he convinces the Indian Navy to enter Pakistani waters! [Kabir still tries his wit there by going ‘below’ Pakistani waters and not ‘above’ Pakistani waters]. If rhetoric will be what drives policies of these two nations, only God or whoever substitutes for him can save them. I have to admit, though, that Zeeshan’s reactions and the cycle chai-walla’s scene distributing free chai in front of the Taj on the anniversary of the attacks and on learning that the perpetrators have been brought to justice did have me well up. I admit I KNEW I was being manipulated but it sure was hard to resist.
After my ‘logical’ sense possessed me, I realized this might be the BEST way to attack plastic-brains like Shobaa De— or even The Goddess of ONLY words like Roy— who calls herself a ’Mumbaikar’ but brought in class/status into a horrific event claiming that TAJ was being given undue importance since the terrorists were killing ‘rich’ people. Here you have a road-side chai-wallah distributing chai right in front of the ‘rich’ people’s hotel since he too is affected by what happened at the Taj. No class there eh Shobaa?
One of the characters that really left a lasting-impression on me was Suhaila Kapoor’s Amina Bi. What a dignified presence and performance! As a lonesome mother who lost her son to the proxy wars, this is a fine, fine performance. She is never playing to the gallery and never under-playing either: A very fine balance indeed. Katrina seems to have hit the recidivist-syndrome with this movie. She lapses into bad acting so often that one’s memory goes back to her BOOM days. She looks beautiful indeed. But that’s like saying the sky is blue. Saif is adequate. As mentioned before, his lack of stardom works quite well for the movie. And to his credit, he does have his ‘mannerisms’ restrained. Zeeshan’s role could have been played by anyone.
Make no mistake; this movie is NOTHING MORE than an average Indian’s wet-dream. And it should not be construed as anything more. This is just a symptom of the proxy wars engaged by Pakistan. This is just the Hindi film industry’s milking of the situation – just as Hollywood milked the Cold-war scenario for decades. It might fail on many other levels, but it works as an entertainer. And that’s what worked for me.
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Akhilan
August 31, 2015
Anupama Chopra in her review of Bang Bang if I my memory serves me right, summed up Katrina perfectly: ‘she’s like a beautiful piece of deadwood – absolutely inert’, or something to that effect… 🙂 She just doesn’t have the ‘ACT’ in actress I’m afraid. She’s gorgeous, and apparently works really hard, but ‘acting’ is an inherent talent. Either you have it or you don’t and it’s safe to say that despite being in the industry for close to a decade, she doesn’t… I guess what makes it even more glaring in her case is that she still doesn’t have a firm command of the language… But hey at least she’s not as unbearable as say a Hansika… In comparison to her, Katrina would look like the Meryl Streep of Indian cinema…!! 😀
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Prasad
August 31, 2015
“She does not disappoint. She messes up the simplest lines, like: Government forces ad-vanes kar rahe hain. In order to explain that ad-vanes, they try to pass her off as a Parsi. ‘
Can’t stop laughing! We all know she doesn’t have single acting bone in her but what is even more frustrating is the complete disregard for learning the language (hindi) which is probably her bread and butter. The accent of actors (South Indian actors) was discussed in another blog but bollywood is equally worse. Kartina is an living example of that. Even Abhishek has a problem with labored accent when it comes to hindi …. his “thum” sounds like “Tum” Delhi 6 is a classic example.
For Saif… not sure what to say. I don’t think any of the top directors will team up with him again… he needs to settle with Farah and her brother maybe with probably humshakals 2,3 or whatever.
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Rahini David
August 31, 2015
BR: Please put the Recent Comments section back.
Thanks.
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Madhu
August 31, 2015
@tonks: Use the ‘…’ button right above the RSS feed section. I was confused too, about where the recent comments got lost. 😀 It is right there, just hiding behind that ‘…’ button.
@BR: Please, please, can that recent comments section be expanded by default? It is difficult to keep using that button every time. It collapses after navigating to one of the recent comments and to access another comment, we need to expand it again. It is a pain! Aside this, it is a great layout.
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prasun
August 31, 2015
Schizophrenia is not the same as Multiple Personality Disorder.
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tonks
August 31, 2015
Got it Madhu! Thank you!!! 😀
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Anuja Chandramouli
August 31, 2015
Damn it, I thought Saif had the makings of a fine actor after Dil Chahta Hai, Omkara, Hum Tum and even Parineeta. It is too bad he got stuck in a rut and doesn’t seem inclined to extricate himself. Why should he? He continues to rake in the moolah and gets all those brand endorsements with the missus. Why bother with honing his craft? Perhaps it was all those awards for best actor in a comedic role….
As for BR’s deliciously wicked take on the female lead, it was like watching our friendly film critic/author make like Wolverine – unleash those retractable claws and get all medieval on the Kat’s bony butt!
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Srinivas R
August 31, 2015
Second all those comments on Katrina’s dancing in Chikni Chameli. It was like watching someone running the treadmill. Godawful.
P.S. wanting to vent about it for a while now.. 🙂
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Rahul
August 31, 2015
Off topic: BR, have you seen Inherent Vice? Whatever I have read of it, it seems like a reviewers gold mine.
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venky
August 31, 2015
“Most Schizophrenic Director”? I haven’t seen the movie. Neither do I plan to. But, I am curious at this choice of word. Quite an unusual choice, having known you through your works. Do you imply that a director’s work should only veer towards a certain POV, so that in the end, we are able to happily cook our views into one single wholesome meal, taking in all the breadcrumbs from previous movies together? Could you care to elaborate?
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Anuja Chandramouli
August 31, 2015
I second Rahini David.
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vijay
August 31, 2015
The likes of Hansika’s “success” can be attributed to what I call D.D.S- (the great) Dravidian depravation syndrome. Idhula Vandhaarai vaazhavaikkum thamizhagam’nu punch dialogue vera
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Apu
August 31, 2015
An Jo: Though I did not like ETT, it was never touted as a spy movie anyway. Didn’t the tagline say “love story of a spy” or something to that effect? It is a different thing altogether that due to the woodenness of the good-looking leads, and the fact that Katrina used a body double for the action scenes, the action scenes were a lot more bearable than the trying-hard-to-be-substantial-but-remaining-cute romantic interactions.
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Santosh Kumar T K
August 31, 2015
“The earnest young Hindu RAW officer who dreams up this revenge plan is played by Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub”…
somehow reminded me of Eric Bana from Spielberg mama’s Munich (2005)! 🙂
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Supertramp
September 1, 2015
As for Saif, he’s playing a character drawn from the Lord Jim template, a man with a disgraced past who now tries to redeem himself. Recall how devastatingly Amitabh Bachchan played such a character in Kaala Paththar, filled with rage and self-loathing, and look at how superficial Saif is in comparison – the externalisation of all this inner roiling is manifest in a mildly furrowed forehead.
This reminded me of the recent malayalam film “Ivide” where Prithviraj plays a character with survival guilt and I thought it was unlike any characters that I have seen in a long time in Indian cinema. And my first thought was you would like to check it out. Available on Dvd and other options.
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Arun
September 1, 2015
I thought Hansika was pretty decent in Engeyum Kaadhal… now she is just coasting along or hamming her roles.
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Arun
September 1, 2015
I thought of warning you not to watch the movie. I felt somewhat disappointed coming out of theater. Such a “Above Average” film but a bit boring and pedestrian. Cannot locate any good thrills here apart from David Headley death. IMO, popular critics like Rajeev Masand have correctly rubbished this film. I really wish this film to be AVERAGE grosser so that Kabir Learns a lesson of making engaging screenplay or atleast learns to respect the paying audience. This is really much inferior to Bajranji Bhaijaan in terms of screenplay.
In Anjathey film climax, there is a scene where Kripa tells” Naan sakadai la vizhundhuthenu sollu (I have fallen into sewage)”. The meaning is of falling into bad ways. Here Kabir Khan has fallen into a rut after the incredible Bajranji Bhaijaan. There are some moments where Phantom has its heart in the right place or offers some cheap thrills. But thats it. I cried after watching Phantom. The reason being that not only that Saif died at the end but also because the film damaged my mood. This is the second film to do that after Dhanush’s rotten film 3. I have always watched slightly mediocre/rotten films like Dabangg 2, Happy New Year, Kick. While I did not like these films much,they did not torment as much as Phantom did. Phantom tortured me a bit and I can never forget this film.
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Anuj
September 1, 2015
@Apu : “Love story of a spy” was the tagline for Sunny paaji’s utterly hilarious garbage called “Hero” :D. ETT never had any such taglines.
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Anuj
September 1, 2015
Phantom is just another random masala movie minus the songs. Its got good locations & fantastic action sequences but unfortunately, I’d rather have had the film-maker create a fictional story (something similar t Neeraj Pandey’s crisp and well edited BABY) than take a real life horrific incident like the 26/11 as its premise. Read my review on :
http://thesimplemoviereviewer.blogspot.in/2015/08/phantom-review-regular-masala.html
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gvsafamily
September 1, 2015
@vijay
Another sample of Dravidian generosity, “stiff” competition to Katrina in the ‘exercises’ and expressions department (and needless to say, in spoiling good, catchy tunes) 😀
If we can tolerate him, we can tolerate anyone.
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PN
September 1, 2015
“… ‘acting’ is an inherent talent. Either you have it or you don’t …”
This is a mistaken view. Acting involves an earnest beleif in the character you are playing- in his motivations, his ideals, his beliefs- some people take time to do this- so they wear the clothes of the person and live like the person to get into the “character”, for some others its natural and instant- these are called spontaneous actors, but the main thing required here is looking at the world from another person’s point of view, and that requires an earnestness, an arrogance that is learnt. And that can be un-learnt just as easily.
The existence of Saif should prove this whole thing wrong. Look at where he was even in the movies of my childhood like Main Khiladi Tu Anari and Dillagi, he always seemed earnest and like he “WANT”ed to to do this right, and then he got the pitch absolutely perfect for a bit in movies like Omkara and Love Aaj Kal etc, but he got complacent again and now he no longer seems to care about the acting part because he’s raking in the money anyway.
This last is the stage that Katrina has been in permanently- work hard to learn dance, be punctual, and look good- that is all she thinks acting involves. (though I have seen glimpses of earnestness in movies like Mere Brother Ki Dulhan and Rajneeti- probably credit goes to the directors who weren’t over-awed by her beauty and actually made her work)
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Rahini David
September 1, 2015
This layout is killing me. In my mobile, I am to expand that little button to show the Recent Comments but not in IE.
BR: Please sympathise 😦
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Neena
September 1, 2015
“Khan is careful to make his protagonist a Muslim… So it doesn’t become a religious crusade anymore – rather, it’s about how Muslims are patriots too. That, I think, is a pretty important message for these times”.
Hasn’t Bollywood always had the ‘good muslim’ trope, as does any jingoistic patriot/government/politician? The problem with Pak-bashing or Indian cultural fundamentalism hasn’t been that there is a clear divide between followers of faiths, but that there are certain norms to be ‘Indian’ and those who do not follow those ‘roots’ – in terms of gender, patriotism, caste, whatever, will be suspect.
The film may be just an entertainer (haven’t watched it) and not any more offensive than American spy movies whose heroes worked against national enemies of a certain kind. But, attributing a positive ‘message’ to it?
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chhote saab
September 1, 2015
@ Arun – How about a spoiler alert ?
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chhote saab
September 1, 2015
Brangan, I’m impressed that you not only mentioned Sehwag’s innings but also the exact score and place. !
Katrina’s L’Oreal comment is hilarious and spot on.
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Madhu
September 1, 2015
@Rahini: You use IE! 😮
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tonks
September 1, 2015
I like it that the “categories” is prominantly displayed. Its very easy with this format to select and read old posts that are sorted into neat categories. I do not remember the old format being this user friendly regarding this. I’m on an old -post spree now :).
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Rahini David
September 1, 2015
Madhu: yep. My browser related troubles are long. Ie8 to be very specific.
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Rahul
September 1, 2015
People who use IE 8 deserve no sympathy.
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Di
September 1, 2015
“Watching him here, I thought of Abhishek Bachchan in last week’s All Is Well. There’s probably good money in Bollywood now for someone who can help lost actors find their way again.”
loloz. Reading the review, initially I felt you loved it till I got to the actor/acting part. And this one is gem
“I couldn’t watch. I suppose this scene is why the film got its U/A rating – young children should proceed with extreme caution.”
Baddy, though I like your reviews/writing, for this one, I do prefer Ann Jo’s review/writing over yours 😦
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Iswarya
September 2, 2015
gvsafamily: Gosh, that was a perfect pick. 😀 And yeah, he totally ruined that song for me, for I’d only listened to its audio before. Actually, I didn’t remember him as being this wooden from say, Karagattakaran, and here he just wins it hands-down. He looked like he could be a 4th std. kid reluctantly reciting Thirukural at a competition fearing punishment from the classteacher if he omitted a word or two. The actress beside him looked like she really believed in all the preposterous things she was made to do, but this sad MGR-wannabe just… killed it!
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Ravi K
September 2, 2015
Every Katrina Kaif “performance” is a demonstration of the Kuleshov Effect:
http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/kuleshov-effect.html
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Moss (@geekylinner)
September 6, 2015
Offtopic:
BR, any plans to watch Double Barrel? Would LOVE to hear your views on DB.
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Arun
September 9, 2015
The last 20 mins -> post-2k captain would have been proud. Can’t believe how till that story by Katrina before D-Day, the movie’s pace was superbly maintained (would even call it terrific) but post that, the pace/dialogues/actions etc. were so all over the place that it was almost like KK didn’t know how to end the movie. For example, the titanic nod was cheesy but was a good setup for what followed and I bought it. But the old man needing to say his story while giving the chai? No need at all there. He sees her tears, he smiles and gives the tea while she asks for one more. Felt would have been more succinct and poignant.
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