Rangbaaz Phir Se on ZEE 5: Gangster saga shifts to Rajasthan Season 2 of the web-series goes live on December 20, after a highly successful Season 1, which was launched almost exactly a year ago, on December 22, 2018. It topped viewership ratings for ZEE5, and a sequel was logically due for the flagship franchise. The nine episodes of Rangbaaz 1 starred Saqib Saleem, Ranvir Shorey, Tigmanshu Dhulia and Ravi Kishan. Rangbaaz was a ZEE5 original, a crime thriller, set against the rustic backdro...

Article 15, Review: Beatings, gang-rapes, murder and other factual fiction Part III, Fundamental Rights, Rights to Equity, Article 15, of the Indian Constitution, declares that, ‘The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.’ It further proclaims that citizens too shall not discriminate against each other on these bases, and specifies the areas with regard to which there cannot be any discriminati...

Thugs of Hindostan, Review: Where are the thugs? In the Hindostan of the early 1800s, as in most countries at any time in history, there were thugs. India, as Hindostan came to be called by the British, had an exactly similar term for these gentlemen, only the t in thug was hardened to sound like tug. Our story begins in 1795, when one small kingdom dared to withstand the marauding East India Company forces, led by John Clive. There is one solitary thug in the film, who has an ambivalent att...

Sameer, Review by Siraj Syed: State of terror Bomb blasts, attributed to extremist groups, have occurred in India time and again, particularly in the last 25 years, causing several deaths and injuries every time. In most cases, the accused and the sentenced men both belong to India’s minority community of Muslims, which fact has fuelled false beliefs that all bomb blasts are the work of Muslims, and that almost all, if not all Muslims are terrorists. Sameer chooses this sensitive theme,...

Siraj Syed reviews Raees: Contentious content, alias “Don’t call me Battery” Ra.One did it. Don 2 had done it. Raees, wherein he plays a Don once more, adds to his raeesy. Superstar ShahRukh Khan must be a happy man these days, heading in the right direction, hitting the road to Hitsville.Touted as the block-buster of the year, Raees, about a small-time bootlegger who wrangles his way to the top and becomes not only raees (Urdu for ‘rich’) but filthy rich, has no...

Phantom, Review: RAW-hide Rambo Saif Ali Khan comes in for Salman, Katrina stays put, so do the London locales and the secret agent assassin theme, as director Kabir Khan tries to go one up on his last outing in the genre, Ek Tha Tiger (2012). He has claimed that Tiger was unrealistic, whereas Phantom is close to reality. That claim is highly debatable. Phantom is indeed inspired by real and devastating, events that wreaked terror in Mumbai, in November 2008, killing 167 persons. That does ma...