Category Archive: Action

‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’ review

This is whacky noir skating on polished madness at its best.

‘India’s Most Wanted’ review: Drama-less in Reel Life

Tracing down the real-life story of tracking down a deadly terrorist ought to have been a blood-pounding-through-the-veins affair. Director Raj Kumar Gupta, however, chooses to map this incredible story with an incredibly sanitized and staid approach, picking up pace only in the penultimate act.

‘Avengers: Endgame’ review: Loss and Spectacle

In the final instalment that closes down a sum total of 22 movies, directors Anthony Russo and Joe Russo assemble the ravaged lives of the Avengers to deliver a knock-out saga that’s high on spectacle and fan-service, but even higher on the interactions and emotional payload. Loss is immeasurable, be it for the superhero gang or its audience.

‘Captain Marvel’ review: Get Up, Dust Off

Captain Marvel must be the first superhero who faced vicious, non-alien attacks even before she made her onscreen debut. And in this Anna Boden-Ryan Fleck helmed project, there’s an element of grace and humanness, a struggle to match superhero power with emotions that aren’t always the right guiding compass. It also mirrors all that is wrong in today’s more connected, more polarized world. Even as it entertains and gets in its messaging, the movie has a far bigger battle lying ahead. No, not the ‘ Avengers: Endgame’, but the one awaiting it offscreen.

‘Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi’ review: Blaze of Glory

Kangana Ranaut is so movingly magnificent, she earns this review an extra point. In a movie not without flaws, hers is an act that’s packed with sizzling energy and ferociousness; she touches you and stuns you all at the same time. In perhaps what is fitting irony and tribute, the queen’s (Ranilaxmi’s, not Ranaut’s blockbuster movie) fight against patriarchy and society’s campy behavior is what the actress faced in real life to complete this movie, and that’s the negative energy she seems to turn around and harness to blaze ahead in this project.

‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’ review: Tailored Swift, Family Patriot

Director Aditya Dhar comes up with a slickfest of a first half that’s let down by a second half that compromises on too many fronts. But despite its malaises and tendency to take the pat route out, ‘Uri’ is worth a watch for actor Vicky Kaushal’s magnificent performance. He not only shines in the action sequences, but more importantly, shows the humane side of a trained combatant. And that, the most prestigious medal that you carry around is the one that your elders pin on you.

‘Bhavesh Joshi Superhero’ review: Second Chances

Thanks to Netflix, director Vikramaditya Motwane’s dark take on what it means to be a superhero in India, gets a deservedly new lease of life. Despite some of its obvious failings, ‘Bhavesh Joshi Superhero’ is grittily superb, where for a change the superhero is as human as the rest of us, and as vulnerable too.