Leo, Review: The hyena trapper’s identity crisis When a film from the South is set in Himachal Pradesh, there must be a good reason. And when the same film has Sanjay Dutt in a pivotal role, you look forward to some exciting moments. There are indeed such moments in Leo. The problem is that it tries to roll three stories in one joint (a large chunk of the film deals with cigarette manufacturing). The film is redeemed by an inspired performance by ‘Thalapathy’ Vijay, his seco...

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...

Lakadbaggha, Review: Hyena in a dog’s world Considering the amount of footage devoted to dogs, Lakadbaggha (Hyena) is more a dog film than a hyena flick. The first and only hyena you see is late in the second half of the film. But, to be fair, that hyena is in sharp focus as the film moves towards its climax. Besides a thought-provoking insight into the world of dogs, the film gives us some raw, bare handed, martial arts, in the krav maga style of combat, which originated in Israel. It ...

Trailer launch of Lakadbaggha: Hyenas, dogs and animal vigilantes For many, the meaning of the word lakadbaggha was discovered yesterday, when they attended the trailer launch of the eponymous film at Cinépolis, Fun Republic, Link Road, Andheri, Mumbai. It means hyena. And I bet no Indian film has been made with this title, before this. It is produced by First Ray Films, the production unit headed by actor Anshuman Jha. In an amazing co-incidence, a film called Kuttey (meaning ‘d...

Puranjay Khanna’s debut book of poems, Second Star, released on his birthday For many a literate person, reading was a lifeline throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. With the world on pause, many found themselves reading more than ever. While pandemic led to increased readership, it also gave rise to many writers. One among them is a young lad, Puranjay Khanna, whose debut book, titled Second Star got released yesterday, in the presence of renowned dignitaries, at the Taj Land’s End H...

Prithvi Festival 2019: Untitled 1, Review--Poison, its forms, uses and doses As a Big Brother is Watching state, the concept was explored by George Orwell in 1948. He called it ‘1984’, by merely reversing the last two digits of the year he wrote the book in, and placing it 36 years into the future. Playwright Annie Zaidi sets Untitled1 in the present, or the very near future, with the same concept: An authoritarian state that wants to control what people say, hear, watch, write, r...

Photograph, Review: Ode dear If only vignettes and mosaics could add up to a good script, Photograph would look refreshingly different. If improvised dialogue and incomplete scenes could substitute for a coherent narrative, Photograph would find its place in the album of memorable cinema. Forlornly, though, Ritesh Batra’s Photograph unpeels itself like the layers of an onion, offering emptiness at the end of the exercise, instead of discovery and resonance. Arriving with a sumptuous tr...

Baazaar, Review: Insighter trading Allahabad (now renamed Prayagraj) boy Rizwan Ahmed idolises stock market wolf Shakun Kothari and aims to become a billionaire tycoon like his hero. Baazaar then moves on to detail how unscrupulous and manipulative, even corrupt, Kothari is, and how all this impacts the small-town boy who has a sister to marry, and to live up to the expectations of an honest father who has just retired. Get ready for an insight into the world of stocks and shares, insider tra...