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800, Review: The numbers game
If you have not done your research already, you must be told that this film is about cricket, and, more specifically, about Mutthiah Muralitharan (also spelt Muralidaran), the SriLankan spin bowler who holds the record for taking the maximum number of wickets in Test match cricket – 800. And hence the name of the film. A biopic that dramatises and recreates his life, right from the time when he was a little kid, till the time when he retired from the game. ...
Dono, Review: Between Dono and Donot
It takes two to get married. Three into two won’t go. So how about four? That’s a no-no. No, not four persons getting married ensemble, but the bride and the groom, plus two heart-broken souls. That sounds an interesting premise. Even as the couple are preparing to exchange vows, there is a man around, who secretly loved the bride-to-be, and there is a woman, who has broken-up with an abusive and domineering boy-friend, who is around too. Nothi...
Mark Antony, Review: Mark and Tony and Telephony
Inspired by the works of Shakespeare’s prodigal cousin, Shake Speer, this assault on your senses is a tribute to the Emperors Brutius and Scissor (real names Mark and Antony). Some 40 years ago, a TV series was made in Mumbai called Indradhanush. It was the first sci-fi, time-travel serial, where a remote control has the power to transport the bearer to a time centuries ago. I should know. I played the Mafia Don villain, who uses this rem...
The Vaccine War, Review: Vaccinema
With a no brainer of a title, the docu-feature is indeed about the vaccine for Covid 19 Coronavirus, India’s first bio-science film. But what about the ‘war’? Granted that the pandemic had to be dealt with in a war-like situation, this is an exaggerated term to describe the war-footing under which Indian scientists prepared the above vaccine, and the desperate measures that some western countries adopted to deride these efforts. Their motiv...
Tumse Na Ho Payega, Review: The taste of the pudding
They have given it a negative title, which translates as You Will Not Be Able to Do it. Earlier, it was called Bas Karo Aunty (That’s Enough, Aunty). Nobody in the film says this (the title) line, and the thrust of the film is positive: that one should not take defeats and ridicule seriously, and carve a niche for oneself, as an entrepreneur. The film is based on the book How I Braved Anu Aunty and Co-Founded a Million Dollar Company,...
The Great Indian Family, Review: Pandit pop’s bhajan singing son is a Muslim
What a roundabout route it has taken to emerge as The Great Indian Family! It began with the 2010 British film The Infidel, starring Omid Djalili (the D is silent), directed by Josh Appignanesi and a cast that included South Asian sounding names like Archie Panjabi, Saamiya Nasir, James Krishna Floyd, Nabi Nasir, Mina Anwar, Amit Shah, Uzma, Ravin J. Ganatra and Niraj Naik. Five years later, we had an Indian ad...
Sukhee, Review: What’s so bad about feeling good?
If you are a woman, as typified by the protagonist in Sukhee, there’s plenty bad about feeling good. The Sukhee women want to be independent and do things that only men indulge in, at least most of them. But can they get away with such audacity? That’s a good platform for developing an attractive screenplay. Sadly, Sukhee, which means Happy, tries too many things and, in the process, dissipates the central idea. It also bring...
Sukhee, Review: What’s so bad about feeling good?
If you are a woman, as typified by the protagonist in Sukhee, there’s plenty bad about feeling good. The Sukhee women want to be independent and do things that only men indulge in, at least most of them. But can they get away with such audacity? That’s a good platform for developing an attractive screenplay. Sadly, Sukhee, which means Happy, tries too many things and, in the process, dissipates the central idea. It also bring...
Jawan, Review: Eggs on the windshield
You can be pardoned for believing that Jawan is Pathaan rebooted, if you walked in as ShahRukh Khan (SRK) is lying half-dead on a bed somewhere near the Indian border (with which country?) and a chinky medicine man is spending days, and possibly weeks, using all kinds of herbs and other local Ayurvedic medicine to revive him. It was exactly the same in Pathaan, where he was nursed back by a Pathaan tribe. Obviously, the makers thought once is not enough, ...
Fukrey 3, Trailer launch: Risqué sera sera
On an authoritative website, the word ‘Fukrey’ translates as ‘slackers’. It must be native to Delhi and its environs, as I have never come across this word anywhere else. That a Mumbai-based production house (Excel Entertainment, of Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani), bank-rolled this definitive Delhi dalliances caper, beginning with its first episode in 2013, and stayed with it for another 10 years, shows the faith the...
Ramblings of a Bandra Boy, Book release: Haps, mishaps and madcaps
Joy Bimal Roy has lived his entire, or almost entire life, in the Mumbai suburb of Bandra. The only son of venerated film producer and director Bimal Roy, his address was Godiwala Bungalow, Mount Mary Road. And living there has given him much joy, though his name ought to be spelt Jai for non-Bengalis, Joy being the Bengali way of pronouncing the more common Jai. Joy’s book, Ramblings of a Bandra Boy, was released at the...
Bambai Meri Jaan, Trailer release: Kay Kay is on a role
In the crime thriller Bambai Meri Jaan, Kay Kay Menon plays the key role of Ismail Kadri, an honest cop. Just the other day, I was chatting with a fellow journalist and we both agreed that Kay Kay’s portrayal of a victimised badminton coach in the very recent sleeper film, Love All, salvaged his reputation of playing hardened cops or intelligence officers, as a norm. He did a pretty good job, and Love All led us to believe ...
Kaala, Trailer launch: Reverse osmosis – turning white money into black
There has been an ongoing illegal operation conducted in India over many a decade: it is called the generation and circulation of ‘black money’. ‘Black money’ is unaccounted wealth, on which no tax has been paid. Most black money transactions have been conducted in cash, to avoid leaving any trace. There is no record of the amount of money that has been floating in the market, as black money....
Goldfish, Review: Without your memory, you are like a goldfish out of water
Probably used as a metaphor for the memory lapses of its central character, who is suffering from dementia, the goldfish, believed to have a memory span of three seconds, has, in fact, a rather long memory. On the website Live Science, the short-memory theory has been debunked, “In reality, goldfish (Carassius auratus) have much longer memories — spanning weeks, months and even years. And the science...
Love All, Review: Goodbye badminton, Hello badminton
No, it’s not about love as is depicted in Hindustani films. And it certainly does not propagate the noble axiom, Love All. The ‘love’ here is derived from the French, l’oeuf, which means an egg, but is pronounced very nearly like love. Since the score 0 (zero) in games like tennis and badminton is the starting point for the players, these games begin with Love All. After a dozen films on cricket, footfall, hockey, sp...
One Friday Night, Review: Cheat on wife, pay with life
Get captivated by the Pawna Lake hilly region, close to Mumbai. Watch Raveena Tandon and Milind Soman in a first time pairing. Sit back as Vidhi Chitalia enters the scene, playing the ‘other woman’, the third angle of the triangle. And go along with the flow, as One Friday Night works towards the only real twist in the tale, the climax. That is if you care for this narrative and cast. If not, don’t spend One Friday Night...
Vardi Ke Veer: Worthy of singing praise
A press conference in the Padma Ranga Chamber Music Hall of the Sri Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeetha Sabha? Why would anybody hold it there? But if you have an event coming up at the same venue, in the Sri Shanmukhananda Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Auditorium, on the 12th of August, Why not? It’s called Vardi Ke Veer (Braves in Uniform). Well known stage singer Ameya Dabli’s ADventures (clever play of his initials) outfit is putting t...
Goldfish, Trailer launch: Mind matters
Splendid Films yesterday released the trailer of their internationally acclaimed film, Goldfish, followed by a panel discussion, in association with Mpower Minds, an initiative of Aditya Birla Education Trust. Goldfish, which was shown at IFFI 2022, is set to release in India on 25th August, 2023. The event was held at Birla Centurion Business Centre, in Worli, Central Mumbai. For once, I was late. Very late. The venue was absolutely new to me and there ...
Dream Girl 2, Trailer launch: Meet Ayushwomann, the body behind the voice
Meeting Dream Girl 2 was not easy. In fact, it was 3 times as difficult as one would have imagined. First hurdle was the location hunt, as the invitation just said Meta Office, BKC. BKC is a huge settlement, and it took us (me and my friend Prasad Sovani, who had come down from Pune) a while to locate the venue, though we still managed to arrive on time. Secondly, we had to wait about 45 minutes to get identity badges a...
Made in Heaven, Season 2: "Marriages are made in heaven, so are thunder and lightning"
Although the quote comes from Clint Eastwood, you can say it again, for this is Season 2. And unlike most marriages in real life, on OTT you get a second chance, to revisit heaven. After a successful Season 1 (2019), the team from Excel Media and Entertainment, and Tiger Baby Films, is back, with Season 2. Many characters are retained, and a few are added, to make these marriages work, I presume, ...
Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani, Review: All rhyme, no reason
When a film tries too hard to please too many viewers, it shows. When it has too many stars, including stars of yesteryear, predictably, its length grows. When the maker goes back three generations and sets one chunk of the story in 1978, the public knows. When a layman at a bus-stop on a rainy night tells you lots about a film he has not seen because, perhaps, he has seen the trailer and read stuff about the movie, you know that&rs...
Bharateeyans-The New Blood, Review: Overboard, gored, bored
Preminchukundam Raa, Premante Idera, Kalisundam Raa, Eeswar (2002 film), Lahiri Lahirilo, Sardukupodaam Randi, Nagaram Nidrapotunna Vela and Sakhiya. These are not the names of the characters or cast of Bharateeyans-The New Blood, but the names of films written by Deena Raj, collaborating with Dr. Shankar Naidu Adsumilli, a well-known surgeon based in the USA. Deena Raj teams with Naidu again for his directorial debut, at age 53, Bha...
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Review: Eureka-boom
A whole new bunch of actors and three different time zones are what you get when you dial-up destiny and visit your chosen cinema-hall to watch Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. It is hard to believe that neither Steven Spielberg nor George Lucas wrote or directed the movie, which is the last hurrah for the whip-cracking archaeologist who was first dug-up by Hollywood in 1981. Spielberg directed the first four outings, based larg...
Amazon Prime Video's Adhura trailer launch: First half, second half
“We have surfed the horror genre, and though I, personally, am a bit scared of scary content, the genre has a huge following. So, when EMMAY Entertainment approached us with a proposal for making a full-blown horror series, I thought we should venture into it.” That was Aparna Purohit, Head of India Originals Content at Amazon Prime Video, speaking at the trailer launch of Adhura, held on the 28th June, late e...
72 Hoorain: Untouched, heavenly virgins, 72 of them; go, have a blast!
That is what the title of this film means. It is derived from the preaching of some misguided Muslim religious leaders, who brain-wash impressionable Kashmiri youth into becoming terrorists, and set-off bomb-blasts, in the hope that 72 hoorain will be waiting for them in the hereafter. It is not a documentary, but claims to be inspired by true incidents. The makers describe it as a tale that delves into the depths of the h...
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About Siraj Syed
 Syed Siraj
(Siraj Associates)
Siraj Syed is a film-critic since 1970 and a Former President of the Freelance Film Journalists' Combine of India.
He is the India Correspondent of FilmFestivals.com and a member of FIPRESCI, the international Federation of Film Critics, Munich, Germany
Siraj Syed has contributed over 1,015 articles on cinema, international film festivals, conventions, exhibitions, etc., most recently, at IFFI (Goa), MIFF (Mumbai), MFF/MAMI (Mumbai) and CommunicAsia (Singapore). He often edits film festival daily bulletins.
He is also an actor and a dubbing artiste. Further, he has been teaching media, acting and dubbing at over 30 institutes in India and Singapore, since 1984.
Bandra West, Mumbai India View my profileSend me a message
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