Doctor G, review: A 124-minute operation, performed by a novice G in the title could stand for ‘jee’, a suffix denoting respect, or for gynæcology. Neither is moniker material, so why title your film Doctor G? Because the protagonist is a male student of medicine and has his heart set on orthopædic studies and practice, but no seats are available in that branch of study and the only option is gynæcology. Pray, why the reluctance to study gynæcology? B...

Phone Bhoot trailer launch: Horrorlarius Ever since the audience saw the first poster of Katrina Kaif, Siddhant Chaturvedi, and Ishaan Khattar starrer Phone Bhoot, they were eagerly waiting to get more glimpses of the film. Their wait is over: the trailer of this most awaited comedy of horrors was launched on 10 October at the PVR multiplex, Juhu, Mumbai. Phone Bhoot is a title most likely chosen as a pun on the word Phone Booth, and has been in the news for some time now, because superstar ...

Prime Video’s first original film, Maja Ma, Trailer launch: Mad about Madhuri One afternoon in 1984, I was invited to the Natraj Hotel, Marine Drive, Bombay, to the release get-together of Rajshri Productions’ Abodh. My benefactor, writer-director Gobind Moonis, who had wanted to cast me as the blind boy in Dosti, had now discovered a girl with a very pretty face who had learnt kathak too. But the star of the day was Gyan Shivpuri, an actor who came with a reputation. When I trie...

Jabariya Jodi, First look: Swinging infection Jodi, literally, means a pair, in Urdu and Hindi. It also refers to husband and wife. Jabar or jabr is force, and jabariya, by extension, means forced or forcibly formed. So, we now understand the title of the upcoming film Jabariya Jodi to mean ‘Forced Couple’. As indicated above, the inference here is that the husband and wife were forced into matrimony. Nothing earth-shaking about it, in a country where thousands of such marriages t...

16th Third Eye Asian Film Festival: VII TEAFF was organised by the Asian Film Foundation and P.L. Deshpande Maharashtra Kala Academy, and co-organised by Prabhat Chitra Mandal and Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal. An annual event, it is supported by Department of Culture, Government of Maharashtra. Screenings were held at Ravindra Natya Mandir Mini Auditorium, Mumbai, which has been the venue for the last few years. In my last instalment, I covered two Marathi films. Today, we wi...

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...