Mast mein rehne ka (मस्त में रहने का)

​"Mast mein rehne ka (मस्त में रहने का)"

Watched Hindi film "Mast mein rehne ka (मस्त में रहने का)". 

This film is directed by Vijay Maurya. Produced by Vijay Maurya and Payal Arora. Written by Vijay Maurya and Payal Arora. Cinematography by Nagraj Rathinam. Music by Anurag Saikia, Shailendra Barve, Kaam Bhaari. The film stars Jackie Shroff, Nina Gupta, Abhishek Chauhan, Monika Panwar, Rakhi Sawant. This film was released in 2023. It runs for abou 2 hours 7 min. I watched in on Amazon Prime on 10th Dec 2023 with Aditi.

Jackie is a retired lonely soul. Nina has returned from Canada where her son and his family resides. Both are lonely. Abhishek is a tailor who has come to Mumbai to make a fortune but loses his job. He becomes a part time thief. He steals from both. He also strikes friendship with Monika who begs at the signal.

Things begin to improve and then start to go haywire in the lives of these four protagonists. It comes to the point of breaking to eventually end well.

Jackie plays a role that is out of his character. He does well. Nina is a breath of fresh air. Monika shows a lot of potential. She shows large variations of her character effortlessly. I expect her to establish herself as good actress. Abhishek, while trying to show his goofiness looks like an idiot.

This movie is basically about humans, trust in humans and the basic good nature of humans. A lot of movie happens in dark. The pace is slow. A little more pace would have improved the experience.

Positives: Protagonists. 

Negatives: Pace.

Watch if you have time.

The lost city

​"The lost city"

Watched English movie "The lost city". 

Direction: Adam Née, Aron Née. Story: Seth Gordon. Produced by Sandra Bullock and others. Cinematography Jonathan Sela. Music by Pinar Toprak. It features Sandra Bullock, Daniel Radcliff, Channing Tatum, Brad Pitt, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Oscar Nũnez, Patti Harrison, Hector Anibal, Thomas Forbes. The movie was released in 2022 and runs for about 1 hour 52 minutes. I watched it on Netflix with Aditi on 5th Dec 2023.

Sandra is a novelist who lost interest in everything after her husband dies. Protagonists of her novel are a female doctor and her macho friend. A real life macho model (Dash) is used on book cover. One day after her new book launch, she is kidnapped by Daniel because she is the only one who can decipher an ancient language that will reveal the location of the lost city and lead him to fire crown, a crown that is expected to be priceless. Dash ropes in Brad to rescue her.

It’s an action movie. Action choreography is good but the actions are short on imagination. Most of the movie is shot on an island. It’s stunning, beautiful and cinematography is good. 

Sandra appears ill and still can’t act. Brad has a cameo and is wasted unnecessarily. Channing is good. Daniel plays a comic villain but doesn’t look like a villain. Others play supporting roles.

The protagonists of her novel appear to be lifted from Andy McDermott’s characters (Nina Wilde and Eddie Chase).

This movie earned 3 times the production cost. So it can be called a success.

Positives: Locations and cinematography. 

Negatives: Story, weak characters.  

Not a must watch.

Operation Mayfair

​"Operation Mayfair"

Watched Hindi movie "Operation Mayfair". 

This movie is directed by Sudipto Sarkar. Produced by Sushanto Sarkar, Sarbari Sikdar. Written by: Anthony Khatchaturian and Sudipto Sarkar. Cinematography: Santonio Terzio. Music: Savvy Gupta. The film stars Jimmy Shergill, Hritiqa Chheber, Anjali Sharma, Vedika Dutt, Antara Banerjee, Brain Lawrence & Ankur Bhatia . The movie runs for 1 hours 47 minutes and was released in April 2023. I watched the movie on Zee5 with Aditi on 28th Jul 2023.

Jimmy was a police officer in London but left the force to become professor and lives a sedentary life. A murder is committed. The modus operandi is similar to the case Jimmy was investigating before he left. He is called back as a consultant. The investigation starts. 

Although this is a serial killer movie the identity of the killer is not a mystery. Audience knows who the killer is. Movie is about how investigators find it.

Rather than focusing on investigation, director unnecessarily veers into side plots of Jimmy’s equation with his wife, his ex girlfriend, his strange relationship with his boss who was once his protege. It looks like the identity of murder is discovered by fluke and not by meticulous investigation and deduction.

At the end you remain unsatisfied. Neither mystery quota, nor masala quota, nor emotional quota and not acting quota is fulfilled. Jimmy is stiff and looks tired. Ankur Bhatia impresses but his character lacks depth. Others are ok.

Positives: Umm….

Negatives: As stated above.

Give it a miss.

A deadly invitation

​"A deadly invitation"

Watched English version of Mexican movie "A deadly invitation". 

This film is directed by J.M. Cravioto. Written by Javier Durán Pérez, Anton Goenechea, Carmen Posadas. Produced by Erik Barmac and others . Music by Esperanza de Valesco. Cinematography Diego Tenorio. The film stars  Stephanie Cayo, Regina Blandon, Maribel Verdu, Aaron Diaz, Manolo Cardona, Jose Maria de Tavera, Helena Rojo, Juan Pablo de Santiago. The film runs for about 1 hours 32 minutes and was released in May 20xx. I watched it on Netflix on 13th Oct 2023.

Eccentric millionaire Olivia sends her half sister Agatha, and a group of old acquaintances, a mysterious invitation for a weekend on her yacht, where they will discover the true motive behind this invitation. There is an unexpected death. Agatha and a rookie policeman investigate.

The invites are Don Carlos - recent ex husband of Olivia, a doctor and businessman. Sonia - ex business partner. Sonia’s boyfriend Naram - the Yoga teacher. Olivia’s ex boyfriend Cary - the actor. Figue - a Doctor who works for Carlos. Gustavo - the caretaker, servant and friend who has one eye. Ms. Christina, head of the house. Agatha - the step sister. Everyone has a reason to love or hate Olivia.

It’s a whodunit mystery. Everyone seems to have a motive and opportunity. The murder happens in between the jurisdiction of two police stations. Agatha is not a professional investigator but she perseveres and solves the mystery.

Positives: Suspense retained.

Negatives: A bit constrained on yacht.

Good one time watch. 

The Killer

​"The Killer"

Watched English movie "The Killer". 

This film is directed by David Fincher. Screenplay by Andrew Kevin Walker . Produced by William Doyal. Cinematography by Eric Messerschmidt. The film stars Michael Fassbender, Tulsa Swinton, Charles Parnell, Sala Baker, Kerry O’Malley, Arliss Howard. The film runs for about 2 hours and was released in 2023. I watched it on Netflix on 18th Nov 2023. 

A killer misses his target and fails to kill the target. There is no excuse for such a mistake. There’s an attack on his girlfriend. He survives because he is delayed. He decided to hit back. 

It’s a revenge movie but he doesn’t go through till the end. Why? It’s about a killer, an assassin, guns, weapons and killings. With all this paraphernalia, the story is expected to have a break neck speed. If not, at least fast pace. Alas! That’s not to be. The movie is slow, very slow.

What was the director trying to convey? A pure revenge movie? It’s not. Because revenge is not complete. If it was about being professional and not taking things personally, it’s not that either.

Positives: None.

Negatives: Confused director and audience.

AVOID.

Jawan (जवान)

​"Jawan (जवान)"

Watched Hindi movie "Jawan (जवान)". 

This film is directed by Atlee. Story by Atlee. Produced by Gauri Khan and Gaurav Verma. Music by Anirudh Ravichander. Cinematography G. K. Vishnu. The film features Shahrukh Khan, Nayantara, Sanya Malhotra, Ashlesha Thakur, Leher Khan, Girija Oak, Sanjeeda Bhattacharya, Aliyah Kureshi, Vijay Sethupathi, Sanjay Dutt and Deepika Padukone play cameos. The film runs for about 2 hour 50 minutes and was released in 2023. I watched it on Netflix on 3rd Nov 2023. 

North east India. Villagers find Shahrukh floating in river, grievously injured. Villagers cure him. Village is attacked, the man saves them. 30 years later, young Shahrukh is a Jailer. He and six of his female inmates make daredevil attacks, get money from government through negotiator Nayantara and distribute to poor.  Nobody’s knows who they are.

Shahrukh plays Jawan. Nayanatara plays the negotiator. Sanya Malhotra, Ashlesha Thakur, Leher Khan, Girija Oak, Sanjeeda Bhattacharya, Aliyah Kureshi play his inmate accomplices. Vijay Sethupathi plays the villain and Sanjay Dutt and Deepika Padukone play cameos.

Shahrukh acts like Shahrukh, not the jailer or Jawan. Deepika impresses.  Vijay is OK. The female accomplices are good. Sanjay’s acting is ok, character is bad. 

The story is flimsy. It lacks substance. Things just happen. It traverses a very predictable line. No surprises there. Nayanatara is a negotiator but she also participated in action, raids criminals, basically does everything. The idea of committing daredevil Robin Hood type crimes from the protection of jail is a good idea. But the semi crazy character of Vijay, Character of Shahrukh who has lost memory and his friends send the story into a tail spin. Having an Arsenal in jail is simply incredulous. Character of Sanjay is also caricature like.

This movie recovered four times its production cost. It was a super hit. But I didn’t find it worth being a super hit.

Positives: Deepika. 

Negatives: Story. 

Dimag ka dahi. Give it a miss.

Jaane Jaan (जाने जान)

​"Jaane Jaan (जाने जान)"

Watched Hindi movie 'Jaane Jaan (जाने जान)'. 

This film is directed by Sujoy Ghosh. Produced by Jay Shewakramani and others. Written by Sujoy Ghosh. Music by Sachin-Jigar. Cinematography by Avik Mukhopadhyay. The film stars Kareena Kapoor, Jaideep Ahalawat, Vijay Varma, Naisha Khanna, Saurabh Sachdeva, Lin Laishram, Uditi Singh, Karma Takapa, Shyam Gopal. The film runs for almost 2 hours 19 minutes and was released in 2023. I watched it on Netflix on 14th Nov 2023. 

Kareena, a single mom, lives in Kalimpong. Jaydeep, a maths teacher, likes her but can’t say to her. He is also unattractive. One day a man comes to Kareena’s eatery. She is terrified. The man is her ex husband. He comes to her home, things happen, Kareena kills him. Jaydeep offers to help. Vijay, a police officer, comes to Kalimpong looking for the dead man. He also happens to be Vijay’s classmate from college days.

Although the story is slow, it keeps the audience interested. Thanks to Jaydeep and Vijay. Backdrop of Kalimpong is a welcome change. It makes things a little exotic. Kalimpong is beautiful.

Kareena acts ok and looks good only in one scene. Jaydeep is good. He has underplayed the character very well. Vijay plays the nosy police officer well.

I was left with a couple of questions. What jurisdiction does a police officer from Mumbai have in Kalimpong? At least he should have shown as CBI officer. What happened to the body? Why sacrifice when it was possible to do without?

This movie is based on a book called ‘The devotion of suspect X’ by Keigo Higashino. I haven’t read the book, so can’t say how true it is to the book.

Positives: Jaydeep. Direction.

Negatives: Slow pace.

Recommend watching.