Bollywood

Salman Khan, long-reigning Bollywood Beauty Boy, at fifty-three, stars as “Bharat”  (referencing a legendary King), an eight-year-old boy, separated from his father and sister in 1947 during India and Pakistan’s partition; multitudes were traumatized, tortured, bifurcated by this unholy division; what could, should have been a compelling tale, is nothing more than a monumental, pneumatic, testament to Khan’s ego; covering …

Director Raj Kumar Gupta’s history lesson lionizes unheralded, contemporary intelligence officers who captured Yasin Bhatkal (Founder of India’s Mujahideen, terrorist organization) in Pakistan on August 13, 2013. The feat claims remarkability because five men, led by Prabhat Kapoor (Arjun Kapoor, no relation) entered Pakistan, weaponless not witless, tracked, cornered, captured the culprit and escaped without harm; the intensity is not …

Mahatma Gandhi soulfully believed “the future of India lies in its villages”, invisible in “Photograph”, director Ritesh Batra (“Lunchbox”) achingly, hauntingly, throughout the film, references the poignancy, simplicity, pains, banes of rural existence; yearly, millions of young men and women flood major Indian cities, live in squalor, sending their negligible rupees back to their bereft families. “Rafi” (sublimely subtle, Nawazuddin …

Director Abhishek Varman’s ravishing epic, highlighting a triangular love affair in Lahore, Pakistan before the 1947 partition from India, scores with its whimsically wonderful cinematography, elaborate, exultant chorography and staggeringly sensational performances: Varun Dhawan, “Zafar” with well-oiled, pneumatic pectorals, is the illegitimate offspring (Kalank) of a Muslim/Hindu assignation who woos “Roop” (naively, pungently sensitive Alia Bhatt) in an arranged marriage …

Bollywood’s hunky heartthrob John Abraham (“Force” films) dons three nom du plumes for this spy thriller revolving around the 1971 Indo-Pakistani war (12/3/71-12/16/71)  resulting in the birth of Bangladesh; Abraham is introduced as a droll banker “Romeo” who substitutes his income as an impersonator; he is recruited by RAW’s (Research And Analysis Wing) Chief “Shrikani Rau” (Jackie Shroff at his …

Bollywood strokes its historical conflicts with iconic reverence, immense spectacle, lionization of its heroes, spectacular cinematography plus gifts adulation and exaggerated license, especially in India’s march towards doffing the shackles of British domination (“Gandhi”, “Mangal Pandey”,”Padmaavat”); “Kesari” vibrantly speaks to the “Battle of Saragarhi” between Sikh soldiers of the British Indian Army and Afghan Pashtun tribesmen; the film concentrates on …

If you have seen “The Invisible Guest” 2016’s Spanish version of the same theme you will not be shocked by “Badla’s thrilling conclusion; except for switching the gender of the protagonists, this is a consummate clone,  every bit as titillating; starring, in his finest role in years Amitabh Bachchan as “Badla Gupta” a lawyer hired to defend “Naina Sethi” (remarkable …

Incredible story, splayed across the screen, the entire spectrum of India’s predilections, intransigent traditions, contemporary culture; miraculously, even if you have never graced this remarkable, multi-faceted country, “Gully Boy” brilliantly, presciently, metaphorically, gifts viewers a redolent insight into the real India; director Zoya Akhtar stunningly, visually portrays in 2 1/2 hours what authors Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Jhumpa Lahiri, Vikram …

Bollywood reveres and perpetually energizes its myths, gods, heroes and heroines, ancient and contemporary; their films pulsate, stun and elucidate audiences, Eastern and Western. The Ramayan and Mahabharata through centuries of repetition, still hypnotically enchant viewers; the movie versions keep the stories, myths, warring factions vibrantly alive. An epic film featuring  “Asoka, The Great”, ruler of India’s subcontinent (268-232 BCE) …

Rape. On December 12th, 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was gang raped by six men and later died of her injuries. In the same year approximately 25,000 rapes occurred, most offenders, known by their victims; there is a lethal disparity between those charged and convicted.  “Simmba”, directed by Rohit Shetty is a valiant slap at the nefarious perpetrators, prosecutors, and …