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Mirzapur: The Movie – Bhaukaal, Now In 70mm Ambition

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Kaleen Bhaiya rules Mirzapur, and his influence reaches state and national politics. So who rules the cinema hall? Sadly, the clock. Gurmmeet Singh directs, from a screenplay by Puneet Krishna. The film runs 3 hours and 17 minutes. Even gangsters need an interval from the plot. The story? A suspected drug deal between Kaleen and Babban, the rising Pandit brothers, and tension between Kaleen and his son Munna. The action hops between Mirzapur and Jaisalmer. The same old throne, with a desert backdrop. Kaleen Bhaiya (Pankaj Tripathi) is still the calm that frightens. He is as menacing as in the earlier seasons. One raised eyebrow does more damage than ten bullets. Guddu Pandit (Ali Fazal) carries the film's weight, and his strained bond with his father (Rajesh Tailang) gives it heart. Munna (Divyenndu) walks back in and draws the biggest cheers. Was there ever any doubt? Babban Babua (Ravi Kishan) is the fresh menace. Babloo (Jitendra Kumar) takes over from Vikrant Massey, and M...
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Ramayanam on Screen: Magnificent Canvas, Missing Valmiki

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Ramayanam: Part 1 is a feast for the eyes. Yet for those raised on Sage Valmiki's verses, certain scenes make us pause. The film opens with Ravana and his family being wrongly ruled over by the Devatas. Valmiki never wrote this. Ravana is also called an Asura, though he was a Rakshasa.  Asuras and Rakshasas are different races, and blurring them blurs the line between Dharma and Adharma. Ravana begins his deep penance without a janeu, the sacred thread. When he returns, he wears one. I wonder if the sacred thread ceremony was performed inside the tree! For the record, Ravaya’s father was a Brahmin and mother was a Kshatriya clan, though Rakshasas. When asking Brahma for his boon, Ravana leaves out the common human, whom he considered unworthy of mention. He then attacks Indra and Airavata. Once Indra is weaponless, Ravana tells him to inform Vishnu that his future is bleak.  Valmiki says nothing of the sort. Indra is then shown swimming through deep water to find Vishnu, an...
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Ramayanam: Why One Story Needed One Lakh Shlokas

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We all know the Ramayana. Ravana captured Sita, Rama killed Ravana and rescued her. Simple. Straightforward.  So why did Sage Valmiki write one lakh shlokas to convey a one-liner?  Because devatas and asuras live within each one of us.  Valmiki needed thousands of words, hundreds of anecdotes and small stories to show that the path of Dharma leads not just to victory but to the divine feet of the Almighty. Ramayana is not mythology. A myth is an untrue event that people believe.  Ramayanam is an Ithihasa, an event that truly happened, written by one who watched it unfold. Namit Malhotra's Ramayana is a grand attempt to bring that Ithihasa to the screen. The visuals are grand, the storyline grander, and it travels across languages and countries. Rama (Ranbir Kapoor) carries the burden of restraint, the hardest thing to show on screen.  Sita (Sai Pallavi) brings quiet strength and grace.  Ravan (Yash) is cast as a scholar-king, not a caricature.  Han...
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