Cinema, Karam, Kapi

Good Heart, Familiar Script Nate Wilcox (Nate Bargatze) sells Toyotas, and he is very good at it. He has won Salesman of the Year several times, and the dealership still throws him a party each time. For him, the maths is simple: he earns, and Katie does everything else. Katie (Mandy Moore) runs the house like a military operation. She knows who needs toiletries, who needs food and who will not touch vegetables. She handles the tantrums, does every school drop-off and keeps three daughters on schedule, all by herself. Nate never sees any of it. Then comes her own big moment.  Katie has built the Star Minder, an invention she first made for her daughters. She takes it to Shark Tank and lands a deal.  A financial backer comes on board, and production begins in South Korea, two weeks away. Nate takes leave and steps into her shoes.  The three girls are where the film truly lives. Gracie (Stella Grace Fitzgerald), a Gen Z teenager, is old enough to read the situation. With Mu...

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Debutant Rajesh Karna turns that law of physics into a law of karma, and builds a Telugu thriller on it. The film opens in Zuluk, Sikkim, in 2026. David (Srinivas Avasarala) is reading a book titled Newton's 3rd Law. Its pages mirror real events from 1999 Hyderabad, and the film takes us back there. In 1999, Jyothi (Neha Pathan) hears of her husband's death and dies soon after in a road accident. Her little daughter Shravya (Abhinayana) is left orphaned. Neha also plays the grown Shravya, so one face carries both the loss and its echo. It is smart casting. Then Vinay (Trinadh Varma), an engineering student, falls from a rooftop at night. Inspector Vasudev (Sumanth) smells murder. His probe takes in Vinay's parents, Gangadhar (Ravi Varma) and Parvathi (Shelly N Kumar), a suspicious friend, Karthik (Gowtham Pandit), and finally the ruthless smuggler Stephen Mercury (Jagapathi Babu). How does a college boy land in the underwo...

What happens in the island, stays in the island. Perhaps not, if it is the death (rather, murder) of someone on the eve of a high profile wedding! Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy) is one of the closest friends of bride to be Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson). She is getting married to Benji Winbury (Billy Howie), the second son of Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman) and Tag Winbury (Live Schriber).  Greer is a prolific author and has several books to her credit, while her latest one is awaiting a launch right after the wedding is over. She is not happy with her son’s choice of bride, as Amelia doesn’t match the “class” of her clan, and hence always looks down upon her.  Tag is a chilled out husband of a popular persona, that is his wife. He makes it appear that their wedding is just the kind of story people love to believe. The media makes a celebration of their relationship, calling Greer and Tag “ The Perfect Couple ”.  Though, they are exactly the opposite in real life. Tag is...

The Police force of India tries its best to reign in on the rowdies and the anti-social elements to ensure peace is upheld all the time. Though policing is a state-specific department, Indian Police Service (IPS) is governed through the Central Ministry, directly under the Ministry of Home. Some of the notorious goondas and culprits have largely arisen from specific cities. And Mumbai is no exception. While one wouldn’t say the city tops (with the most number of such elements), the city’s crime scene has always been on top, especially for film makers. Murshid is one such subject, depicting the behind the scenes of what happens in the lives of such rowdy elements. Two men deployed by Farid (Zakir Hussain) are to exchange money for drugs with the men of an operator who has a Talibani background and is based in Dubai. While exchanging the “goods”, one of the men shoot 3 members of the other group and tries to escape with the booty – money and drugs while the other guy rushes to the office...

Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is among the most coveted departments in the Government of India where one gets to explore the world, even as their negotiating with one another foreign country’s office either in India or where they are posted. From responding to SOS messages on social media platforms to ensuring the top brass of governance know what / how to respond on crucial matters, the life of an IFS staffer is excruciating.   In the Hindi language movie Ulajh (meaning Entangled), Jahnvi Kapoor does full justice to her role as a newbie IFS officer – from the first screen till the end.  Initially posted in Nepal, Suhana Bhatia (Jahnvi) is the daughter of IFS Officer Dhanraj Bhatia (Adil Hussain) gets posted in the UK. Her father is not happy, even as she occupies a senior office at such a young role and that the media is constantly assessing her abilities, giver her lineage. Her grandfather was an IFS officer too, according to the story.  Once in London, Suhana befriends ...

A sitting Chief Minister, running a party that is 50 years old, has to face trial over a case that is at least 17 years old. His daughter, son in-law and a political advisor are all looking to fill his large shoes, while the main Opposition party is busy trying to bring down the party in power.  A political drama unveils in Director Vasanthabalan’s political thriller “Thalaimai Seyalagam”. With a wide ensemble of actors, the Director has taken the liberty to craft a piece of work that is captivating and engaging enough for one to finish the entire web series in one go.  In deep interior Jharkhand, a woman is punished brutally, to which she takes revenge. The Director skilfully doesn’t reveal who she is until the climax. How I wish he never did, and continued with Season 2 of the web series.  Cut to Chennai, there is a lot of buzz at the house of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Arunachalam (Kishore). He is about to travel to a small town in Andhra Pradesh where the Hon’b...

I am not a big fan of reading, writing or even discussing about the Naxal movement in India. On one extreme, they are (till date) gunning down their enemies – from upper caste leaders / personalities to those in power & bureaucracy including Politicians, Police and Forces. On the other, their claim of displaying their angst against the establishment for want of bringing about a change – I wonder, if the Western way of doing things has found results in India.   The Web series of the title on Sony Liv is a fictitious account of what happened on 13 Nov. 2005, when a huge group of rebels thronged the District Jail in Jehanabad in South Bihar. They freed their fellow comrades who were housed there, in a daring attempt of prison break-in, kidnapped a few leaders of the upper caste Ranvir Sena and sent a strong message to the State and Central Governments of their might in full public display. This whole incident happened late in the night and almost no civilian were attacked or injur...

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...

What happens when you know nothing about an interesting start-up business and still go ahead and attempt doing it, guessing some angel will help you succeed? The film shows how and why it may not work all the time! Otis is a playboy living in Nairobi and has trouble inheriting his family business. He flirts with many girls and ends up dumping each one of them, time and again. He is also a father to his daughter but his ex-wife has moved on in life. He is pitching his business idea to a potential Investor Dele but the latter is not convinced if Otis is trustworthy. His partner Khalid is also not sure of Otis’ acts and doesn’t trust him much. That’s when Otis proposes to Dele to allow him organise his wedding in a grand manner in Kenya. After much reluctance, Otis and his fiancé agree to this.  However, Otis has no clue whether he can pull this off by his own, so he invites his friends Richard & his girlfriend Celine, TK, Judy and Khalid to the Kenyan resort a few days before the...