Agneepath Review

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Woah. At least one film knows what Bollywood masala is. Not Telugu masala. Bollywood masala. Ghajini, Wanted, Ra.One, Ready and Singham were either direct remakes or imitators of films like Endhiran, Pokiri and Ghajini. While I thoroughly enjoyed all of these, barring the downright awful Bodyguard, I didn't absolutely love them. Dabangg seemed to be the only "original" one.

One thing is becoming certain, violence is coming back to the Hindi cinema screen. While the end of the 90s and most of the 2000s were dominated by the Khans who did their chocolate boy films and ruled Bollywood with romantic sagas or family weepies. With Agneepath, violence has returned and is here to stay.

The Descendants Review

Rating: 9.5 out of 10


The pace of the film is akin to its setting. The film flows like the waves. Taking its time to reach the shore. . . And then repeat. This rippling motion is just one of the small things that show how wonderfully this film was made.

Oscar Nominations 2012 (with my thoughts)

BEST PICTURE

"The Artist"
"The Descendants"
"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"
"The Help"
"Hugo"
"Midnight in Paris"
"Moneyball"
"The Tree of Life"
"War Horse"


BEST DIRECTOR

Michel Hazanavicius, "The Artist"
Alexander Payne, "The Descendants"
Martin Scorsese, "Hugo"
Woody Allen, "Midnight in Paris"
Terrence Malick, "The Tree of Life"

Oscar Nominations Predictions By An Outsider

The Oscar nominations for the films released in 2011 will be out on 24th January 2012. Here are my predictions:

BEST PICTURE

The Artist
Hugo
The Descendants
Midnight in Paris
The Help
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
War Horse
Moneyball

Filmfare Nominations 2012

Best Film

Delhi Belly
Don 2
No One Killed Jessica
Rockstar
The Dirty Picture
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

Top 5 Guilty Pleasures of 2011

In a few years I'm going to approach Bollywood as the factory of guilty pleasures. With most of the stars ditching good storytelling and opting to please the masses, it seems it's only downhill from here. But who says you can't enjoy the ride even when you are aware of the impending doom? One aspect where Indian cinema has the edge over Hollywood cinema is the bad films are better here. Come on. Who says that's not a thing? Take New Year's Eve for example. You definitely don't have fun watching that one. But I'm sure even the most elitist audience in India secretly enjoyed a rom-com in this list. The Green Hornet was a bad superhero film. I know an Indian film this year, which is probably worse but I had fun watching it. The Change-Up was a dirty comedy and a bad film. Yes, there is a raunchy comedy in this list which I actually ended up enjoying.

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