ChinmayC Blog

Rohit Shetty’s directorial abilities are at stake, as far as the supposed OTT version of his famed police franchise is concerned. The first and the best movie of the franchise continues to remain to be Singham (2011); even though the Singham sequels and other movies like Simmba (2018) and Suryavanshi (2021) are fairly gripping and absorbing. But Indian Police Force-Season 1 (IPF)  that release on Amazon Prime Video recently is not. Obviously, the ebullient director has not properly concentrated on developing the plot and the script. His favorite scenes of cars crashing and blasting in air, punchy fights and elaborate gun-fights and chases are all there; but he should’ve understood that such scenes, though very well shot, do not create the desired effect on the small screen as these do on the big screens of PVRs, INOXs, Cinepolis’s and so on. Even if we overlook this particular aspect, we’re in for further disappointment as the action drama unfolds. There’s just no suspense in the...

The Web Series Hush Hush Season 1 started streaming on Prime Video from the 22 nd of September 2022. It has at least three very important reasons for being watched eagerly by a lot of viewers. First, filmmaker Tanuja Chandra whose intense flick Dushman (1998) is still remembered by movie fans features as one of the directors and producers in a clearly women-oriented story with mostly women in the crew too. Second, the cast is tremendously interesting and exciting with two of the most beloved babes of Bollywood since the eighties Juhi Chawla and Ayesha Jhulka coming back/appearing on the OTT Platform for the first time, and joined by the immensely talented Soha Ali Khan , Shahana Goswami , Kritika Kamra and Karishma Tanna . Third, the story begins on a very taut and promising note, seemingly doing justice for a mature series in the Suspense genre . But unfortunately, that lasts only till the third episode, and then, rather inexplicably, the storytelling breaks up and meanders to...

Based on my lifelong experience as a rather discerning and somewhat fastidious movie buff I beg to offer here a few of my rather bovine (no necessarily offending anyone) observations about movie watching. You may or may not agree with these which is quite natural, movie watching being kinda of subjective entertainment. You can also choose the near-absent option of putting your views too here in a way to enrich or annihilate my observations. My observations here dwell on characteristics that adversely affect the viewing pleasure which are more important, because the absence of those acts on the positive side. Ø   In quite a few movies I fervently expect something to happen at some point of the narration, and if that takes too long a time or doesn’t happen at all I get impatient and immediately try confirming again the genre of the film. Most often, I find Suspense as the one. Well, heady kind of suspense that! This phenomenon mostly happens in Hollywood productions where the filmma...

I had the misfortune of going for a movie in 2019 in a big theatre before the Pandemic put a stop to it, titled Pagalpanti (Madness) and was nearly driven mad. It was not my fault as the movie was having a lot of superstars and we went particularly because of Anil Kapoor . But now, after watching the new movie Heropanti-2 (heroism or hero antics) the previous movie seemed to have at least some kind of a method. The question arises then as to why I’ve made the mistake again! Well, firstly it was streaming free where I can ruthlessly go forward at will. And most importantly because I love the kid Tiger Shroff , son of my beloved Jackie Shroff , and ironically, Heropanti (2014) was Tiger’s debut film where his athletic and gymnastic skills plus his lithe, dancing and almost flying body were noticed. I watched only parts of that film some of which seemed a bit sensible, giving Tiger some scope to showcase his acting skills too, perhaps because it was a remake of a Telugu film . Of cours...

The law enforcers, the police and other related agencies, wield immense power to utilize it for the protection and the betterment of the common people if they want to do so. But unfortunately, such powers are more often misused and so, we keep on hearing stories about police corruption from the petty level of taking bribes on any pretext to the highest level of politician-criminal-underworld nexus. This is a global phenomenon, not just limited to more prone countries like India. Such is the impact of police corruption in society that thousands of fictions in terms of thrillers written or movies or television series have been made all over the world since decades. In most commercial films in India, we see police personnel portrayed as horrendously brazen and sadistic characters. In the US and the West through the franchises of James Bond , Mission Impossible and The Bourne Identity among others we invariably confront a traitorous bad cop within the system. I cannot possibly mention v...

An out and out formulaic Bollywood movie ‘ Bachchan Paandey ’ has been theatrically released all over India on 18 th March 2022 and then Amazon Prime Video started streaming it from 15 th April. The movie’s release has been pending since December 2020 due to various reasons including the pandemic. ‘Bachchan Paandey’ is produced Sajid Nadiadwala of the famed filmmaking house of the Nadiadwala that is celebrating 70 years of filmmaking and is directed   by Farhad Samji . The film is reportedly a remake of the Tamil movie ‘ Jigarthanda ’ (2014) and also supposedly inspired by the South Korean flick ‘ A Dirty Carnival ’ (2006). The hero or the antihero or the protagonist or the antagonist, whatever you may decipher after watching the movie, of the movie is the immensely popular action - comedy hero Akshay Kumar with the female lead played by the new generation heroine Kriti Sanon . Popular comedian and character actor Arshad Warsi also plays a key role and Jacqueline Fern...

The Amazon original movie ‘ Sharmaji Namkeen ’ (Savory Mr. Sharma) that released on Prime Video on 31 st March 2022 is all about one of the greatest actors of Bollywood —the lovable romantic hero since the seventies who started graduating to endearing and at times intense performances in character roles since the 2000s— Rishi Kapoor . The movie actually reminds us how dearly we miss the stalwart who passed away on 30 th April, 2020. Rishi Kapoor after being cast in the titular role in this movie and shooting started accordingly fell seriously ill. He had to undergo prolonged treatment in the US. Movie director Hitesh Bhatia and the producers waited for him to get well and return to the shoots. It was just impossible to replace him. His tremendous actor-son Ranbir Kapoor said how eager too was his father to complete the film. Rishi Kapoor did get well, returned to India by the end of 2019 and the shooting schedule started anew from December. Sadly, it was short lived. The superstar f...

Thanks perhaps to the conditional benevolence of the OTT streaming platforms some filmmakers, ostensibly under the pretense of being serious creators, get the rare opportunity to indulge in their experiments or otherwise while always managing to rope in talented actors to create a pre-release hype about their ‘darkly serious dram/thriller’ movies. They always prefer to choose female-centric themes or stories with female protagonists/antagonists, and most of them deliver their favorite ‘emancipation of women’ templates by making the ‘swear-word liberalism’ gender-neutral. They get the much-needed support too from similar or like-minded souls of the mainstream media who praise the movies to the heavens. Fortunately, the Amazon original movie ‘ Jalsa ’ that released on Prime Video on 18 th March, 2022, is totally free of that ‘liberalism’ while still sticking to the female-centric theme with three major roles of women protagonists/antagonists in the movie given to the immensely talente...