Alappuzha Gymkhana Is A Crisis Of Misplaced Confidence
| Khalid Rahman’s film operates in that peculiar age where nothing appears serious, everything is bound in levity, and life is what one makes of it. Aditya Shrikrishna reviews.
| | | | | Cast: Naslen K Gafoor, Lukman Avaran, Ganapathi, Anagha Ravi | | | | THEY SAY ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE , but sometimes misplaced confidence can go a long way. It is a gift. It might come across as awkward or arrogant or both. It might make one look like an asshole or, worse, foolish. Sometimes the audacity is rewarding, and the reckless abandon can often lead to a hard fall. The very definition of misplaced is such that one cannot predict its outcome or reception. But it is indeed a gift, and goes a long way. It reveals that there was an attempt. That someone took a shot. That no matter what Yoda says, there is always a try. One didn’t simply walk away quietly. One refused submission. Four boys huddle together next to lush fields of Alleppey and check their exam results. They expect to fail, but it is fine; they pour some toddy into a glass and vow to take it in their stead and party no matter what the results spit out. This is how Khalid Rahman’s Alappuzha Gymkhana begins. Right away, we meet these boys who have a preternatural ability to conjure confidence and hope. There is no reason or logic behind it, there is no way in this universe that their life in the immediate future is not screwed but they summon the kind of courage that is possible only during blinkered teenage years. Jojo Johnson (Naslen ) does most of the talking. He is the kind who talks his way through jitters and doubts. He and his friends choose boxing and sports quota as a shortcut to college admission. When he tells his mother about the district-level competition coming up, she does something worse than waving it away. Jojo becomes comically livid. In a serious tone, he calls her pathetic and says that she should encourage when good things happen. Rahman’s writing and staging combine with Naslen’s straight-faced sarcasm to produce a moment both melancholic and joyful. He wants his mother to partake in his and his friends’ well of confidence, but unfortunately, she is too worldly wise for that. | | | Chhorii 2 Is A Painfully Literal Take On Feminism
| Chhorii 2 is so obvious in its badness that it makes dismissing it a lesser problem. The real horror? A third part in the works — and Nushrratt Bharuccha's painfully grating return, writes Ishita Sengupta .
| | | | | Cast: Nushrratt Bharuccha, Soha Ali Khan, Gashmeer Mahajani | | Streaming on: Prime Video | | | IF THERE IS A PERFECT AUDIENCE for a horror film, I’d like to believe it is me. This is not false bravado but an honest confession. Bring in someone with green eyes, throw in a jump scare, pull someone from under the bed, and you will see me scream my lungs out. I am always scared and always jumpy. I am the reason that other people, those not scared in the least, are rattled because I make my fear everyone’s business. And yet, Vishal Furia’s Chhorii 2 , Vishal Furia’s sequel to his 2021 film, left me disinterested, unscared and, worse, bored. In the last couple of years, there has been a resurgence of the horror genre, except that the effect is softened by comedy. Horror comedy, the consequent hybrid result, has in turn evolved into a commercial goldmine. The context is important because Furia does not give in despite obvious temptations. He remains admirably focused and crafts Chhorii 2 in the same world as Chhorii. Except even the latter, a remake of his 2017 Marathi film Lapachhapi , was not effective to begin with. | | | In Jaat, Sunny Deol Mistakes Rage For A Character Arc
| This masala film has Sunny Deol doing exactly what he’s been doing all these years — with no attempt to reinvent, subvert, or surprise. | | | | | Cast: Sunny Deol, Randeep Hooda, Regina Cassandra, Saiyami Kher | | | | WHEN YOU ARE A FILM CRITIC , the principal aspect of the job is to show up. It does not matter if one had a fight with their partner the previous night, or that maybe, there are ill parents in the scenario. If a film releases, one turns up. While this urgency is true for most jobs, the difference in this case is the surrender it demands. Unlike being at an office where plugging in headphones is an acceptable sulking option, theaters allow none of the indulgence. One is required to be objective and acknowledge fictional characters with severity as if they were real people.
This isn’t a complaint and, truth be told, there are upsides to it. For instance, my parents have been unwell for a while, and between calling them and meeting deadlines, my brow has been perpetually furrowed with concern. I have been thinking about the brutality of time and the many big and little ways in which it affects the people we love. Then I sat for Gopichand Malineni’s Jaat , and my worries were suspended for a while. Time, at least in some cases, appears to stand still. — IS | | | 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. | | | Hindustan Media Ventures Limited,
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