Cinema, Karam, Kapi

Good Intent, Slack Script A bridge collapses in Visargaon and children die. Sandhya Yadav (Parineeti Chopra), a reporter with the Mumbai news channel Azaad Bharati, rushes to cover it with her cameraman Vinod Sharma (Deven Bhojani). Shiva kaka (Amol Palekar), a villager whose son died in sand mining, points them to the real story: an illegal sand mafia. Debutant director Dhruv Tripathi, who co-wrote the film with Mihir Jadhav, picks a subject Indian cinema rarely touches. Sand is called "brown gold" here, and the film makes you see why. At 1 hour 56 minutes, it moves briskly. Sandhya is fearless and hungry for the truth, and Parineeti plays her with conviction. Vinod is the pragmatic anchor, and the warmth between the two is the best thing in the film. The newsroom politics are its sharpest idea. Vidur (Adil Hussain), Editor-in-Chief of Azaad Bharati, represents the spirit of journalism and is the most dependable presence on screen.  Shyam (Shekhar Suman), the channel owner, ...

A Second Look at the Common Man I watched Unnaipol Oruvan again, start to finish, and it holds up remarkably well on Subin Tv, a new cable tv channel on Jio Tv. The film’s produced by UTV and Rajkamal doesn’t have a digital presence for reasons best known to the producers.  The film is a remake of the Hindi hit A Wednesday , set across a single tense day in Chennai. An unnamed man places bags at the Central railway station, a shopping mall and an Anna Salai police station. He then calls the Commissioner and says five bombs are set to explode within four hours. His demand is to release four terrorists in custody, or the city pays. This is where the film turns clever.  The caller never wants them freed. He wants them gone. They were arrested years ago, and he has watched courts and governments treat such men with patience while ordinary citizens pay in blood. His logic is simple and chilling: terrorism is instant, so justice and safety must be instant too. The bombs are a blu...