OTTplay Reviews Tiku Weds Sheru; Pixar's Elemental

Band, Baaja, Boredom

This is #CriticalMargin, where Ishita Sengupta gets contemplative over new Hindi films and shows. Today: Sai Kabir's Tiku Weds Sheru.

Dir: Sai Kabir

Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Stream on: Prime Video

IT is only June and Tiku Weds Sheru is already the worst Hindi film of the year. This is both a lament and a prediction…not a threat. Sai Kabir’s directorial outing is unimaginably bad, almost child-like in its insistence to not make sense. It is so abysmal on all grounds that everyone involved with it should file a defamation case against each other. There is no way they agreed to be part of the project knowing how it was going to unfold. And if they did, then they should file a defamation case against themselves. In my mind, this instance of self-harm is more worrying than the time filmmaker Karan Johar invited actor Kangana Ranaut on his talk show Koffee With Karan in 2017 only to be called out for enabling nepotism by her on national television, and later by many for six straight years.

Mentioning Ranaut was deliberate. She is the producer of Tiku Weds Sheru. There is little surprise there. On a broad level, Kabir’s film is about the impossible dreams people from smaller cities harbour when they come to Mumbai and the brutality with which the city treats them. But he is no Zoya Akhtar (no one is), and Tiku Weds Sheru is no Luck by Chance. The premise then, which encourages exploration of stardom, self-esteem, and the slippery slope of destiny, is deflated as a one-sided depiction of outsiders. But within this capacity, the film displays no curiosity to understand the variance of plight and struggle, the misfortune of birth, and the hardship of gender. Instead, it unfolds as a sluggish, often impossible-to-sit-through tragedy porn of outsiders, only to perhaps accentuate the accomplishment of the likes of Ranaut who has left no chance in the recent past to reiterate her outsiderly status in an industry populated with nepo-babies.

Pixar's Elemental Lacks The 'Soul' To Be 'Brave' From The 'Inside Out'

This is #CineFile, where our critic Rahul Desai goes beyond the obvious takes, to dissect movies and shows that are in the news.

Dir: Peter Sohn

Cast: Leah Lewis, M Athie

Playing in: Theatres

THE burden of genius is that it can only be measured against itself. Such is the predicament of Disney’s Pixar Studios, who’ve revolutionised the concept of mainstream animated storytelling over the last three decades. They’ve raised the bar so high that if any of their movies are simply ‘good’ now, they’re disappointing by virtue of not being great. Pixar is its own biggest competition today, with all-time classics like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, WALL-E, Ratatouille, Up, Brave, Inside Out and Soul on their roster. It’s why their slighter films (like The Good Dinosaur or Coco) tend to feel a tad underwhelming, despite channelling that uncanny blend of specific and universal. Elemental joins this ho-hum list. It’s sweet and predictable — and has an easy message about how chemistry, quite literally, is the cornerstone of compatibility. But there’s something about Elemental that’s almost too elemental, the sort that makes you wonder why Pixar isn’t mining the depths of elementary-my-dear-Watson-styled social commentary.

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