Cinema, Karam, Kapi

Nike’s revenues for twelve months ending Feb. ‘23 was USD 50.62 Bn.  This was much higher than all its rivals put together!  Adidas’ 2022 revenue was USD 22 Bn, Reebok was USD 353 mn (was USD 1.9 Bn in 2006), PUMA was USD 8 Bn, and Converse was USD 1.9 Bn.  However, this wasn’t the way during the 1980s.  Adidas was the market leader followed by Converse, especially in the US, in the sporting segment. Basketball was becoming popular due to the greatness of the likes of Magic Johnson and others. A new talent was taking shape – Michael Jordan. He was not only inspiring scores of black kids in the US and across the world, rather an entire generation.  AIR is a movie not just about Jordan’s greatness, rather how Nike bounced up and above with its AIR sneakers and the future innovations around the iconic sportsman. The year was 1984. Nike, the underdog among the others in the fray to sponsor basketball players is in a state of dilemma. Sneaker sales are slowing down. Previous bets on players

After Drishyam 1 & 2, Director Jeethu Joseph is back with yet another mystery drama. Kooman doesn’t disappoint the skills of the much talented Jeethu. And actors from Malayalam cinema have a certain emotive expression which not only makes them stand apart and special but also makes the entire movie quite gripping. Kooman is one such. Kooman means Owl in Malayalam. There are a spate of suicide deaths in Nerpara, a border town between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Giri Shankar (Asif Ali), a police constable and a local is well-versed in finding clues and cracking cases, which often wins him acclaim from the community. However, he gets in to minor fracas with his new boss, Sub-Inspector Harilal (Baburaj) after the previous one retires. To avenge his anger, Giri gets into an act of frivolously stealing from the houses of locals. As the cases grow, the locals are agitated that the new SI is unable to find the thief. Giri continues with his “outings in the night” but to his bad luck, gets caugh

Blanco Scales is a respectable manufacturer in town. Julio Blanco (Javier Bardem) has inherited the business of making “Industrial Scales” from his father and is considered the best by his employees. He is a father, an elder brother and a well-wisher to everyone at the workplace. Except, that he is selfish, self-centred and cunning to the core. Well, this is a “fictional story” but the guy is real in blood and flesh all over the place. The Spanish language film, dubbed in English is now playing on Amazon Prime. Considered to be of a Dramedy genre – Comedy + drama (loads of it), the story moves very slowly, building the audience’s patience. But few cannot not- relate to this guy, whom we see around everywhere. The movie begins with Blanco having to let-go of one of his long serving employees, Jose. In shock at his job loss, already undergoing a painful separation with his wife with a partial custody of his kids, Jose is shattered. He even gets his kids to plead with Blanco to retain his

Ram Setu, dubbed as Adam’s Bridge is an important edifice of the epic Ramayana. Believers and followers of Sanathana Dharma do not question its existence from the time immemorial. It is the naysayers, non-believers and those of other religions who are hell bent on breaking the remnants of the bridge, so cargo vessels can pass through the Gulf of Mannar instead of taking a circuitous route around Sri Lanka. This long debated subject is the research of an ASI archaeologist in this film who goes from disbelieving the story of the bridge built by Lord Rama all the way to finding the erstwhile location of King Ravana’s palace. All within 200 mins!   Aryan Kulshreshta (Akshay Kumar) is shown digging up wealth in a box, believed to be 100s of years old in the Taliban region. Though many of his colleagues get killed by the Taliban in a massive shoot-out, he and his colleagues reach safely to tell the story of the ancient link between Afghanistan and India. His next assignment at ASI is to find

Max Barber (Robert de Niro) and his nephew Walter Creason (Zach Braff) are film producers in Hollywood. None of their films recover their investment. Max wants to make another film to set-off the losses of the previous one and the cycle continues. Reggie Fontaine (Morgan Freeman) is an influential investor who lends money to film producers like Max. But he has had enough of it with the duo and demands that this entire loan be returned, or he is going to kill them off. Max is forced by James Moore (Emile Hirsch) to give him a script which is close to the former’s heart to which he will pay him enough and more so he can cover his debts with Reggie. Reluctantly, Max decides to sell the script.   At the first day of the shoot, Frank Pierce (Patrick Muldoon) falls off the terrace of the building where the filming is planned. James has “insured” any such unfortunate outcome and hence gets paid in millions. The film is trashed, while James gets his insurance. Max decides to cancel the sale-ag

It’s Christmas time, so makes a lot of connect to watch movies which have been made for the season! This one is on Amazon Prime and wouldn’t let you down for sure. Hayley Taylor (Cora Kirk) and Hubert James Hughes (Asa Butterfield) are classmates and are departing by train to their respective family homes. The couple seem to be deeply entrenched in love and seem to already miss each other’s absence. In a sudden last minute decision, they alight from their respective trains and board the other one’s train. Each one wishes to surprise the other by coming to the other’s place for Christmas. Sounds a bit odd, as ideally they would wish to reunite with their families for the holidays. Alas, both have done the same thing, so they are going to be travelling solo, without each other!  When they arrive at their respective destinations, they figure out they did not travel with the other. Hayley manages to walk all the way, finding Hubert’s house, only to be accosted by a gunman who assumes her t

If you know an Entrepreneur or know one, then it’s quite easy to relate to this film. In the last scene, the wife of the protagonists says “ Stop ”… even as he tries to make yet another escapade. It’s one thing to be a self-made professional or a first-gen Entrepreneur, but it’s equally important to know when and where to stop. The Nest is all about this. Rory O’Hara (Jude Law) is married to Allison (Carrie Coon), an American and they live a middle class New York city life. Benjamin (Charlie Shotwell) is their son together while Samantha (Oona Roche) is Allisson’s teenage daughter from her first marriage. Allison teaches horse riding and is extremely passionate about her horses, especially Richmond, the black beauty. Rory makes her morning coffee daily and one day announces that they should move back to Britain, where he hails from. He has an offer to join his former employer though Allison is uncomfortable with the idea as he has shown no success in trying with his entrepreneurial ide

21 hours is a slick thriller who’s screenplay is set in 21 hours time. A lonely wife to a supposedly gay husband wants to move out of the relationship and the household. In a chain if events, she gets killed. Who triggered the bullet, find Investigative Cop Srikanth (Dhananjaya).  Madhuri Menon (Durga Krishna) is married to Renjith Menon (Sudev Nair) and fight almost every other day. Her Mother in-law keeps teasing her that she is yet to deliver a baby but Madhuri feels to shy that there is no physical relationship between the couple. Fed up of the feud, one fine day, she simply walks out of the house and accosts her former Ex and now friend Vishal Nair (Rahul Madhav). She informs her parents what she has done while her father Girish Nair (Dinesh Babu) requests his an old acquaintance Joe Machado (Ravikumar Rao) to help her in the mess. Joe connects with a Minister (Dinesh Mangaluru) who in turn connects him with someone else. And all this happens late on that fateful night. Early next

Who is a better actor – Vikram or Dhruv Vikram? While the question itself is silly, the film makes me wonder. Perhaps, it's all in the genes. Dhruv shines as much as his father in this crime drama and proves to be the most promising among the star kids who have hit the silver screens in the past decade. While no comparisons with others, he certainly stands out after an impressive performance in Aditya Verma. Mahaan, Gandhi Mahaan (Vikram) is a school teacher with a small family and lives a typical 80s and 90s life in Tamil Nadu. As a child, he was skinned by his father Mohandoss (Adukalam Naren) for playing cards with friends. As a staunch Gandhian himself, the namesake’s father takes an oath from his son beating him black and blue that he will lead the live of Mahatma Gandhi as a Mahaan. Years later, he is settled with his wife Nachi (Simran) and son Dadabhai Naoriji (Dhruv) and lives a typical middle class mundane life running errands and as a doting husband cum father. When his

“Yeh Dil Maange more” was a popular tagline of a Cola-drink brand in the 90s. And the same was also used by Capt. Vikram Batra of our Indian Army who fought from the front during the Kargil War which Pakistan waged against India and lost miserably. Vikram and many other Indian soldiers martyred their lives to ensure India captured P 4875, one of the top peaks in the Himalayas which could give access to the enemies to enter and capture an important route and region of Jammu & Kashmir. The move, which was instigated by none other than the former Pakistan President and Army Chief Pervez Musharaff was dealt with a severe blow by the then Indian Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Defence Minister Mr. George Fernandes. India lost over 500 soldiers but made a statement to our loving neighbour that we shall not be shied away by such war threats and mongering. It is to our record that Bharath – our country, has never waged a war against any kingdom or country in the past 2,000

Betrayal is the worst outcome a human can take. It pains. It makes you feel weak. It makes you feel numb. And most importantly, makes you feel so dumb and helpless that one actually gave themself in to the plot, most often unknowingly. Jolt is all about a woman’s betrayal. Lindy Lewis (Kate Beckinsale) grows up as a normal kid. But over time, takes over her parent’s characteristics and grows up aggressive. At one stage, she is termed “harmful” for the society and is sent to a special school to tame her mind. Sadly, it doesn’t help. She goes through medical treatment, where the medics get harmed by her tantrums. She’s sent to join and train at the Forces, where she ends up hurting even the most skilled personnel. She’s put in lock and key but her aggressive nature makes her the most vulnerable at her tipping point and she gets unexpected energies which cannot be controlled by iron and chains. Finally, Dr. Ivan Munchin (Stanley Tucci) finds a solution for her sake. She’s wrapped up with

Huma Qureshi said in an interview to a popular publication recently that she thinks it’s a waste of time to read each comment on her social pages! Well, she may have said it in a different tone altogether but what a 180* turn this is from the days of yore when the artists of yesteryears not only read (or asked someone to read) letters sent to them by their fans, they’d also reply back to most of them, some with gifts and courtesies. I honestly wonder if Huma would have said this if she is not as big a star she is today, thanks to her fans and the fraternity. Not that she has had successful commercial hits, especially with the BO disaster that Kaala alongside Superstar Rajinikanth that was. Well, to each her own. War of Likes is a film somewhat in the same lines, focussing on the lives and mentality of the millennials who believe their social score and public visibility quotient summarise their popularity among their friends and family. The number of followers on platforms such as Inst

I simply happened to see the Trailer and was fascinated with the mere thought of listening to a Bengali family’s tales for over 2 hours and decided to watch the film. Having worked in the sweet city, having mishit doi and a kathi roll for dinner with my mere savings for a year, I felt at ease living in the city of join 20 years back. I have made some friends for life and still in touch with many but have never seen a full-fledged movie ever. This was the chance. And in less than 1 year, my colleagues at work ensured I learnt conversational Bangla. So the movie’s trailer was intriguing enough for me to catch up last Sunday.  Switzerland – yes, that’s the movie name is about a family of four, a couple and their two little daughters who dream of travelling to the European country. Rumi (Rukmini Maitra) is a school teacher in downtown Kolkata and teaches Geography. Shibu (Abir Chatterjee)  is a salesman at a Mahindra dealership and has a love marriage, the bride being from a very rich fami

We cannot erase our past, but we can ensure we erase our future so it doesn’t erase our past. Yeah. Read again. And again. If you can get what I’m saying, well, then that’s Tent for you. Tenet was the first big budget outing that will be remembered for being released worldwide in theatres even as the Covid-19 pandemic shook the world all through 2020. Be glad that there is no direct or indirect connect to China. For Christopher Nolan is known to intertwine not just screenplay but also multiple geographies in his films.  In Tenet, he has stuck to just 7 countries (or geographies) including Denmark, Estonia, Italy, Norway, the UK and the US as well as amchi- Mumbai displaying a brave bungee jumping act among others in Mumbai in an Antillia-like structure. Later, they gatecrash a part of Oslo Airport with a Cargo Airliner with minimum destruction to the structure (ser, perhaps!).  Tenet is fantastically (and fanatically written and conceptualised) by Nolan, someone who has always belted m