This week's top movie reviews, from OTTplay's critics
Indian 2 Is A Misguided Attempt At A Spectacle, That Fails Spectacularly |
Indian 2 is patchwork filmmaking, where everything is an extension of an already bad idea. Aditya Shrikrishna writes. |
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| Cast: Kamal Haasan, Siddharth |
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AFTER MORE THAN 30 YEARS, it is common knowledge that Shankar lacks nuance and is prone to exaggeration. All his success is despite those shortcomings and occasionally because of them. But it is still funny to see just how over the top he can get. Watching his latest film, Indian 2 — the sequel to 1996’s Indian — what caught my eyes (or rather, burnt itself onto my retinas) is how the ultra-rich, billionaire businessmen are presented. They have gold basements the size of museums with gold toilets. One wears necklaces and chains with embellishments too huge for his chest. Another’s pastime is floating in zero gravity. Meanwhile, SJ Suryah’s version drives an expensive car inside his house that resembles the interior of a pinball machine. It is not just a hyperbole; it is caricaturish and unsophisticated. (Stream top-rated movies and shows across platforms and languages, using the OTTplay Premium Jhakaas pack, for just Rs 249/month.) But maybe, that is the point. It makes us wonder who really lives like that even when we know that people with that kind of wealth do exist. Then my mind wandered to the tacky wedding celebrations of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant, streamed on news channels and via Instagram Reels, even as this film hit the theatres — just as exaggerated a power move. It didn’t make these moments in the film ring true, it just made them ironic and therefore funnier as to how Shankar could top this orchestrated reality television too. |
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Sarfira: Akshay Kumar's Soorarai Pottru Remake Is A Crashing Bore |
Kumar’s presence is a problem in Sarfira but it is not the only one, writes Ishita Sengupta |
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AKSHAY KUMAR IS STRUGGLING. The actor, known for being bankable, has not had a successful film since Rohit Shetty’s pandemic-delayed Sooryavanshi. That was four years ago, and although there was OMG 2 (2023) in the interim, the narrative remains unchanged given that the Amit Rai feature was dually headlined by actor Pankaj Tripathi, who arguably had the meatier role. This is a problem but the bigger issue lies in reckoning with the fact that the joy of watching the actor has diminished. It could be his long, uninspired and self-serious nationalistic stint or the indifference he wears on his face as he goes about the proceedings, but one derives little delight from watching the actor on screen. Nowhere is it more evident than in his latest work, Sarfira. |
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Fly Me To The Moon: A Surprisingly Enjoyable Tryst With The Stars |
Fly Me To The Moon playfully weaves the decades-old ‘hoax’ moon landing into its plot, daring the viewer to enjoy its audacity. Rahul Desai writes. |
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| Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Woody Harrelson |
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IT'S 1969. The United States of America is in a space race with the Soviet Union. Former President John F Kennedy promised to put a man on the moon. The average citizen is not pleased with the billions being spent on this programme. They’d rather the government address real issues: unemployment, a flagging economy, soldiers dying in the Vietnam War. But NASA needs this win. Not just to justify federal funding or repair their public image, but because they’ve already lost some of their own to this cause. The Apollo 11 mission must succeed – politically, personally and culturally. An achievement like this would distract people from a nation in strife, much like the movies do. Except it won’t be fiction…or will it? |
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Nic Cage Is Superlative, But Longlegs Falls Short On The Spook Quotient |
If not for its miscalculations, Longlegs could have been the kind of horror movie that lingers in the mind. Prahlad Srihari reviews. |
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| Cast: Nicolas Cage, Maika Monroe |
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THERE IS A SENSE OF SOMETHING ALWAYS LURKING just outside the frame in Longlegs, the new horror film from Osgood Perkins. Dread grows into a sinking feeling of a predatory presence waiting at the edge of perceptible reality. The offscreen space forces the imagination to fill in the gaps. When the camera pans leisurely in the dark of night, the eyes go searching for a silhouette, a clue, even a barely distinct shadow so the evil at least has a form. There is an odd relief in knowing the monster isn’t some disembodied evil preying from the shadows. Daylight brings its own horrors. When the sun is out, it is easy to get lured into a false sense of security. Wide shots make those in the crosshairs feel naked against potential threats. There is no hiding, no escape. |
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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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