Bollywood

In my years, which are vast, of movie viewing, it is rare when I visit a film lacking an ounce of legitimacy, worthiness, or a solitary redemptive attribute. “Kill”, not only falling into a cavity of pointlessness but into a cesspool of gratuitous, savage, gore: cinematography embracing stabbed, sliced throats (women are not excluded) gorging guts, splayed up close and …

Dev Patel has accomplished the pristine blending of east and west films aka Bollywood and Hollywood, remarkable on a myriad of levels. The Bollywood genre has fast-tracked in mimicry, imitation of Hollywood’s 6 pack ab heroes, following the trope of: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise vs. Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, Shah Rukh Khan. Patel with keen ingenuity follows the …

For over twenty years I have stalked the dimpled, Bollywood darling, actor Shah Rukh Khan; his reputation has infected screens worldwide, due in part to his total manifestation of characterization, his oeuvre knows no parameters: whether dandy or demon, villain or savior, his combustible, electrifying energy and the depth of his perspicacity has the power to convert even the most …

It has been some time since I have submerged myself in a Bollywood epic; and I could not have ventured into a more appropriate tale, starring one of my most cherished Bollywood Boys: Shah Rukh Khan, gone is the dimpled, oh, so loveable, enchanting boy wonder, replaced by a man to be reckoned with; his sculpted style, redolent with mettle, …

THE GOOD HOUSE &  VIKRAM VEDHA In “The Good House” Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline prove they are still at the pinnacle of their acting acuity and save the film from benign mediocrity.  Weaver depicts a successful real estate agent (Hildy “Good”), divorced from her gay husband, “Scott” (pungently depicted by David Rasche), mother of two daughters and an alcoholic, …

Robust Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn owns “Runway 34”, as director, producer and star he controls, with an iron fist, the tightly wrought scenario; based loosely on the Jet Airways Doha to Kochi flight 9w 555 on August 18th, 2015; as pilot “Captain Vikrant Khanna”, blessed with an eidetic memory, he arrogantly doffs the rules followed by lesser mortals; Devgn’s implacably …

“BALTAZAR”  Never have I grieved more for a fictional character than at the bleak conclusion of “Baltazar’s” third season; other protagonists have sequestered permanent residency in my memory vault: House, Foyle, Morse but none possess the illumination,  compelling endearment, concrete charm of “Raphael Balthazar”; Tomer Sisley’s Herculean portrait of the forensic pathologist is slathered in cunning, inimitable style, grace, insouciant …

“KGF CHAPTER 2”                 (HINDI: ENGLISH SUBTITLES)  THEATRES  Bombastically challenging is the second chapter of Robin Hood facsimile, “Rocky”, a humble boy who rises to gargantuan wealth, power and inspiration of the lower classes; Bollywood hunk, Yash, stars as the gilded gangster (generating adulation in India’s youth) and his monumental physique dominates every pungent, cacophonous moment of this action infused, bloody, …

Two explosive and extremely traumatic films based on actual events; one inadvertent and one intentional; both are viscerally challenging to watch. “The Bombardment” from its inception is shocking: an idyllic landscape in the outskirts of Copenhagen witnesses the bombing of a taxi holding three virginally beautiful women in white; a young cyclist, “Henry” (Bertram Bisgaard) rendered mute by the sight …

Years ago, a friend and I had the privilege of touring the Dharavi slum in Mumbai; staggering in its viability, actuality in its focus on poverty at its nadir, but also depicted the ingenuity of its in habitants; it was a hotbed of industry, vibrating with entrepreneurship: bakeries, cleaners, schools, with uniformed children; these inspirational exceptions eased, but did not …