Article 15 - Anubhav Sinha weaves a gripping thriller on caste discrimination that is raw , brutal , unflinching and bold .

Men martyred at the borders are outnumbered by the men who die cleaning the sewers. No one mourns for them.

Anubhav Sinha's Article 15 hits you with the harsh ground reality and discrimination the so called lower caste people experience in their  day to day life and asks some questions that are either forgotten or usually left unanswered .

Article 15 is never an easy watch and it shows how privy and shielded we are from the stark reality of the living standards of majority of the Indian populace.

Anubhav Sinha once again proves that he's one of the very few who can bravely take a script championing the abandoned strata of society which bollywood easily forgets and weaves a intricate story inundated with interesting and stark characters , like his previous venture Mulk.

Ayushman khurana as Ayan Ranjan , a foreign educated upper caste  who gets into IPS for his father's wishes gets posted to the village of Lalgon ,UP and is literally dragged in knee deep mud when he investigates the hanging of two young girls. Ewan Muligan's camera is the 'salt in the soup'- the opening sequence of a bunch of policemen chit chatting about how to untie the knot amid the grieve strucken villagers over the girls hanging in the early morning fog filled fields and the manual scavenging scenes showcase the exemplary work contributed by him to the narrative.

The film is filled with some amazing potrayals,Manoj Pahwa plays a cop who empathises more with the stray dogs than the lower caste villagers, a rebel fighting for their rights but branded as a terrorist ,his love life and their dilemma between their beliefs and the lack of time spent with each other adds to the charm.

 We can't but appreciate the director's subtle art of showing that evil isn't something alien but it's something prevailing among us and it shows a mirror to us with many questions that only we can answer .

Karwaan -A supposed journey of finding yourself amid death

A road movie , in all essence is about finding yourself amidst the journey. Here , the lives of three people from different walks of life , with their own baggages are made to travel together and they take us on a journey through different cities with no vested purpose  and connected storyline but any way delivers what it started out in the last 15 mins ,which feels  superfluous.

Dulqer Salman in his Hindi debut plays Avinash,  a  dejected , unhappy IT employee with serious father issues. Bollywood would be surprised ro find a hero who doesn't flex his status whenever one gets a chance. Hope he lands good roles . 

Irrfan Khan plays Shaukat,a Garage owner with a penchant to spew lines straight from a Sufi play or a Rumi couplet.Mithila Palkar who plays Tanya ,debuts as a college going  milennial hip girl.

Avinash's father and Tanya's grandmother died on a pilgrimage tour and the company mixes their coffins.Now Avinash along with his friend Shaukat tries to retrieve his father's body .This is the pretext of the story and they take you on a journey from Bangalore to Ooty ,Kottayam and Cochin . 

The character sketches are too shallow for us to be drawn to them and the film hurries scene by scene  , changing locations relying only on DQ and Irfan's dialogues and underplays . And it doesn't suffice to hold our interest .

The writers must have dozed off on a bus while writing the story ! That can be the only explanation when a film with actors who can light up the screen with just their presence ends up as a fizzled attempt while taking the lively road trip route.

Extraction 2020 -Cliched action story with impressive stunt sequences

Another Western movie trying to cash in on the Desi canvas.The Netflix action entertainer produced by Chris Hemsworth and The Russo Brothers and directed by Sam Hargave ,the stunt coordinator of the Avengers.

The son of an incarcerated Indian drug lord(a very brief role by Pankaj Tirupathi) is kidnapped by his Bangladeshi counterpart (Priyanshu Painyuli) for a hefty ransom.Tyler Rake , a mercenary is hired to rescue him from Dhaka and what ensues is a chase within the dusky ,yellow filtered streets of Dhaka. 

The action is raw , bloody and well laid out and  the characters move from one action set piece to another with an increasing body count and countless bullets and explosions. Randeep Hooda dons his hat as an Ex-RAW agent well and Golshifteh Farahani as the contract manager , gets to add to the barrage of bodies and also manages to blow a helicopter in the process.Cool.

The backdrop and choreography in the stunt between Chris Hemsworth and Randeep Hooda evinces some pretty sequences.

I always wonder how all the protagonists manages to hit the bull's eye with a single shot but others with a slew of weapons can't even land a single shot to the body.

And like all their western counterparts it brands Bangladesh as a third world country with child labour, Teens wielding guns , the country's army under control of a drug king pin and all it takes is a white man to set everything in it's place.

6 Underground 2019 - A botched Action film worth to be forgotten

Mix a handful of Bam ,boom , a lot of cuss words , some one liners ,  supposed emotional scenes and Ryan Reynolds and the end product - 6 Underground ,Michael Bays' directorial debut for Netflix.

First scene.

Florence , Italy. A team of 6 Vigilante squad members  who had faked third own deaths and are trying to save the world,  is chased by the Mafia of a dreadful Turgistan Dictator. Flashy cars ,a window rattling chase ,tires screeching ,  bullets whizzing only for their driver team member, nicknamed 6 to end up dead.

Cut.

The remaining 'Ghosts' vigilante squad mourns the loss of their member and they fade into the sunset.

They recruit Seven , for their team of 6 and stage a Coup in Turgistan and all ends well for her oppressed people and for us, depressed viewers.

The writers were too busy with the script even to name them One , Two ,Three, Four , Five ,Six and Seven !
Guys, Really ?

We can only thank our stars that The Professor refused to lend Tokyo and Denver  . Yeah I'm talking about the hyped Promo by Netflix with the Money Heist's Professor and One !

Tis what you get when a director is lost in the sequels of his previous films and is held only by them, more like a straw holding a bushel of corn.Michael Bay , don't let it be your Armageddon !

So 6 Underground - that is where you'll end up after watching,  6 ft underground , buried , dead.

Tunnel 2017 - A time travel thriller with unique characters and twists.

Our job is not only to catch the culprits but also to save people's lives. 

It follows the story of  a detective who folllows the trail of a serial killer 30 years  into the future and teams up with the detectives in that period in bringing him to justice. 

That is what this korean crime thriller is all about.
Wonder What's with the thrillers and korea? Be it the likes of Memories of Murder,  Oldboy, The chaser etc and also the recent Academy award winning The Paraiste, korea has so much to offer.

Shin Yong-hwi has directed this with the sheer brillance of a script from Lee Eun-mi. Just watched  the 16 Episodes in one go.

The concept of time travel, knitted along the storyline is refreshing like a sugar cube to Coffee, enhancing it flavor.

Choi Jin-hyuk plays Park Gwang-ho, the detective who desperately tries to catch the culprit. The character of Lee Yoo-Young as Professor Shin Jae-yi stands out as she goes about the character study and backgrounds of the criminals and she does fairly good in adding to the credibility of the character.

I would be spoiling the pleasure if i talk about the antagonist.

Not all people hide in the darkness, some hide in plain sight. 

Cast Trailer :

Your views and comments are always welcome.