BackFilm wrap: Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari shine in Big B-starrer ‘Pink’
Besides the Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury's courtroom drama, there's romantic period drama 'The Light Between Oceans' and survival horror thriller 'The Shallows' for Hollywood fans
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New Delhi: Director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s courtroom drama Pink starring Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang and Amitabh Bachchan, perhaps called thus because the colour is girly, subverts it and turns it on its head, says The Indian Express.
In its best bits, the film blazes, its call-to-arms radiating outwards and forcing us to acknowledge uncomfortable truths.
It has something to say, and says it with courage and conviction. Read more
India Today agrees the film has the trappings of a thriller to keep the audience guessing about the outcome every minute, while simultaneously engaging them in a conversation about contemporary society.
The screenplay is among the best-written ones of 2016 so far, it is taut, does not beat around the bush and waste time in exposition. Pannu is excellent, but more so is Kirti Kulhari. Read more
For the Hollywood fans, romantic period drama The Light Between Oceans directed by Derek Cianfrance starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander comes to India this week. Variety magazine says the sombre period romantic weeper is daring enough to go to dark places. Cianfrance tells a very different kind of story — stately and nicely dressed, slightly removed in time, rooted in a quieter rapture. Yet, the bond of love leads to something inexorable in its darkness.
At this point, it might seem an overstatement to compare Cianfrance to, say, Ingmar Bergman but it’s no exaggeration to say that the two are kindred spirits. Read more
According to Vulture.com, the movie ends up seeming like an inchoate hybrid of melodrama and psychodrama. The material is already melodramatic — the characters are at the mercy of seismic forces — and Cianfrance’s direction comes off as wildly overwrought. Read more
American survival horror thriller The Shallows directed by Jaume Collet-Serra starring Blake Lively looks virtually indistinguishable from a slick, high-end commercial, says Variety magazine. The film remains mostly an exercise in pure cinema, wherein action drives the narrative and audiences are expected to extrapolate the lead’s thoughts by watching how she handles any given situation.
In the final stretch, logic snaps like the rusty chains holding the beach’s lone buoy in place, though there’s no denying that the movie is more exciting when Lively is in the water than hiding out on that bit of reef, talking to a seagull. Read more
Rolling Stone is slightly more impressed, saying that the summer-movie nail-biter gets its jolting job done. A lot of it is patently ridiculous. But Collet-Serra and Lively show no mercy in hooking us with the B-movie tension. And we bite. Read more
Belgian-French 3D computer-animated adventure comedy Robinson Crusoe directed by Vincent Kesteloot and Ben Stassen is pretty to look at, with its skies and ocean, calm or stormy, and it has a driving soundtrack, says The New York Times. But the story lacks that extra layer of complexity and meaning that parents can appreciate. Read more
Washington Post is even less impressed with the kid-friendly take on Daniel Defoe’s classic saying it could serve as a master class in what not to do. There are a few bright points. Some of the animation is quite lovely, and one action sequence in particular, which unfolds inside tunnels along a cliff, rivals the most thrilling live-action car chases. But a few minutes of excitement can’t compensate for an hour and a half of unimaginative storytelling and dull characters. Read more
In the south, Malayalam film Oru Muthassi Gadha starring Vineeth Sreenivasan and Aparna Balamurali directed by Jude Anthany Joseph is a feel good family entertainer, says manoramaonline.com. Though the story revolves around aged people and moves towards a predictable climax, it offers freshness in its treatment. Anthany adds bits and pieces of surprises and moments of excitement in between to keep the tempo up. Read more
Several releases this week haven’t elicited nay reviews yet. These include director Vikram Bhatt’s horror film Raaz Reboot starring Emraan Hashmi and Kriti Kharbanda, Tamil horror thriller Sadhuram 2, Telugu romantic film Nirmala Convent and Marathi films Yaari Dosti and Photocopy.
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