The Marvels: MCU Hits Rock-Bottom With This Glorified Instagram Reel |
This is #CineFile, where our critic Rahul Desai goes beyond the obvious takes, to dissect movies and shows that are in the news. |
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| | Cast: Brie Larson, Iman Vellani | | |
| THERE was a time when Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies were superhero stories with a dash of self-parody. Then they started becoming self-parodies with a dash of superhero dust. With The Marvels, though, we are in uncharted territory: It’s all parody. The pretense is over. What superheroes? This is now squarely in Youtube Content Central, where all those cool comic-book characters we’ve grown up imagining are nothing more than the punchlines of 33 MCU jokes. Fan-service is such a massive priority that fans are literally in this trillion-dollar franchise (who do you think Ms. Marvel is?) in a cloyingly cutesy Gen-Z reading of parasocial love. (The Marvels isn't on OTT yet. But other Hollywood blockbusters are. Stream them using the OTTplay Premium Jhakaas pack at Rs 199/month.) They’ve taken the Marvel Humour Syndrome — that unique sickness where, if a film dares to run for more than 11.5 seconds without a quip or visual gag or spoofy needle-drop, Disney will take Lionel Messi hostage on the moon — so far that a huge “rescue mission” in The Marvels features hundreds of cats on a spaceship swallowing all the humans and storing them in their tummies so that they can be transported safely to another planet. Holy Alice in Wonderland, what is even happening anymore? At another point, the protagonists reach a planet whose people communicate only through song (cue K-drama star cameo). I get that Christopher Nolan is technically to blame for humanising the comic-book superhero so effectively that Marvel decided to do the opposite and turn the whole thing into a tension-diffusing circus. But these are the sort of moments that belong to The Naked Gun or Scary Movie, not the source material like Top Gun or Scream. How does one take the universe-saving quests of the Avengers and all their associates seriously when everyone seems to be mocking the scale of their own adventures? How can we look at Brie Larson randomly switching between haunted/workaholic superhero and reluctant teen idol? The balance is not off, it’s OFF. |
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Vela: Shane Nigam-Sunny Wayne Face Off Doesn't Quite Pay Off |
Vela's promising buildup, save for occasional bouts of intrigue, doesn’t quite evolve satisfactorily, writes Neelima Menon. |
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| | Cast: Sunny Wayne, Shane Nigam |
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WHEN you have narratives headlining cops, it’s always a challenge to lend novelty to the proceedings. Perhaps that’s why director Syam Sasi decides to introduce a department that’s casually mentioned in cop stories — the police control room. Vela pivots on this nerve center of police operations. When rookie cop Ullas Augustine (Shane Nigam) gets a call from a man who complains of his son and friends consuming drugs, though officers are sent to the location, he suspects something amiss. Parallelly, his corrupt senior Mallikarjun (Sunny Wayne) has already done his bit, which clearly points out his unhealthy nexus with the rich and powerful. That incident sets them up against each other. There is the usual tussle between good and evil, though the power dynamics never alter. And the promising buildup, save for occasional bouts of intrigue, doesn’t quite evolve satisfactorily. |
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Ishaan Khattar's Pippa Glorifies War & India's Greatness |
This is #CriticalMargin, where Ishita Sengupta gets contemplative over new Hindi films and shows. |
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| | Cast: Ishaan Khattar, Mrunal Thakur |
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IF Raja Krishna Menon’s Pippa, a fictional retelling of India's participation in the 1971 liberation war in Bangladesh, was a person, it would be a man. More specifically, it would be a cis-het white man with such an acute saviour complex that he would take every opportunity to remind us of his role in emancipating someone. He would do it so much and so often that the primary plot of subjugation would be reduced to a footnote. If Pippa was a person, you would not like to meet him. As a film, it fares no better. On paper, Pippa is based on the 1971 Battle of Garibpur, where India fought against Pakistan in the eponymous village situated in present-day Bangladesh and emerged victorious; Menon adapts it from Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta’s book, The Burning Chaffees, where he outlined that during the war, the Pakistani resources could not compete with the Indian Army’s amphibious tanks, also known as ‘pippa’. What transpires during the runtime, however, is a one-note glorification about India, the Indian army, and — more worryingly — of war. |
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The one newsletter you need to decide what to watch on any given day. Our editors pick a show, movie, or theme for you from everything that’s streaming on OTT. |
| Each week, our editors pick one long-form, writerly piece that they think is worthy of your attention, and dice it into easily digestible bits for you to mull over. |
| In which we invite a scholar of cinema, devotee of the moving image, to write a prose poem dedicated to their poison of choice. Expect to spend an hour on this. |
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