#CelluloidCritic

Critic - No. 196 Director : Jeethu Joseph Produced by: Aashirvad Cinemas Casts: Mohanlal, Meena, Ansiba Hassan, Esther Anil, Aasha Sarath, Siddique Language: Malayalam Genre: Drama, Romance Music: Anil Johnson  SYNOPSIS:  Drishyam 2 kicks off from where the sequel left off - ‘The perfect crime', has a key eyewitness now and it gives a redirection to the Varun Prabhakar missing-case investigation that has left the cops red-faced 6 years ago. REVIEW: It is always a gamble when you attempt to recreate an intricate murder mystery, especially when you working with the same case. In the paper, one would have thought that it is almost impossible to bring in the same engagement level as the top-notch predecessor. However, Jeethu Joseph has trashed all these pre talks with another engaging tale of Georgekutty. Georgekutty (Mohanlal) is now a theatre owner and being a film fanatic, he dreams of making a film based on a story he has written. His daughters Anju and Anumol (Ansiba and Esthe

Critic - No. 195 Director : Tharun Bhascker, Nadhini Reddy, Nag Ashwin, Sankalp Reddy Produced by: RSVP Movies, Flying Unicorn Entertainment Casts: Lakshmi Manchu, Saanve Megghana, Abhay Bethiganti, Amala Paul, Ashwin Kakumanu, Jagapathi Bab u, Shruti Haasan, Sanjith Hegde, Satyadev Kancharana, Eesha Rebba, Srinivas Avasarala Language: Telugu Genre: Drama, Romance Music: Vivek Sagar   SYNOPSIS:  From secrets and lies to jealousy and control, four stories in this anthology film explore darker, deceptive sides of love.   REVIEW: Hindi cinema had Lust Stories and Ghost Stories , Tamil cinema had Paava Kadhaigal and Putham Pudhu Kaalai, and finally, Telugu cinema ventures out to the anthology space where various directors tell short stories based on a similar thematic note with Pitta Kathalu. It is interesting to see some strong commercial directors taking an attempt in creating short stories which set out to deal with complex emotions and characters.  Let’s take a dive into each stor

Critic - No. 194 Director : Rohena Gera Produced by: Platoon One Films Casts: Tilotama Shome, Vivek Gomber Language: Hindi, English Genre: Drama, Romance   SYNOPSIS:  An optimistic and determined young widow, Ratna (Tilotama) from a remote village, starts a new job as a live-in maid for the cynical son of a wealthy family, Ashwin (Vivek) who had just called off his wedding. They form an attraction towards each other that develops into a forbidden relationship.    REVIEW: The film’s spine is simple - a servant and a rich young man fall into a complicated relationship that acts against the social norms. However, what director Gera offers us in return are the multi-layered, complex characters that make us root for their fears, excitement, and of course romance. In the starting few scenes, we get to know Ratna quite quickly that her main objective is to save money for her younger sister who aspires to be a fashion designer accompanying a dream to have a tailor shop as well.  Both the lea

Critic - No. 193 Director : Ramin Bahrani Produced by: Lava Media, ARRAY, Noruz Films Casts: Adarsh Gourav, Priyanka Chopra, Rajkummar Rao Language: English, Hindi Genre: Drama   SYNOPSIS:  An ambitious Indian driver uses his wit to escape from poverty and rise to the top.   REVIEW: Adapted from the 2008 bestseller and Booker prize winner (by Aravind Adiga), Rahmin Bahrani injects it with terrific storytelling energy in visual form.  The White Tiger is a capitalist fable told from the perspective of Balram (Adarsh Gourav), a poor, lower-caste Bihari hired as a driver for an abroad-returned couple, the film is also a play on the idea of the selfless servant, a trope popularised by Indian pop-culture, in particular Hindi cinema. While in most films, it is shown that domestic workers are thrown into living in an enclosed limbo, The White Tiger penetrates the stereotypical story bubble deeper, revealing that in an unbalanced society, it’s easier to take away options from the oppressed t