Aligarh, Revenant the focus of a busy week in movies

New Delhi: It’s a fairly busy week at the movies.

Hansal Mehta’s biographical drama Aligarh, starring Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao, is based on the life of Aligarh Muslim University professor Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, who lost his job because of his sexual orientation and died under mysterious circumstances. The film shines with authenticity and emotional heft, says The Indian Express, and leaves you thinking. Bajpayee gives us a sensitive portrait of a man trying to deal with pain and humiliation with dignity, while Rao’s youthful ebullience is an effective counter. Read more here

NDTV calls the movie in equal parts “a powerful character study, an incisive social commentary, a tragedy of harrowing proportions and a cautionary parable about a society rife with contradictions”. Mehta strips the tragic true story of all overt sentimentality and fills it with genuine, unsettling emotion. Both Bajpayee and Rao are fantastic. Read more here

Bollywood Diaries directed by K.D. Satyam and featuring Raima Sen, Salim Diwan and Ashish Vidyarthi is a well-acted, unnerving film about Bollywood aspirations, says Catch News. The director cuts between three disparate worlds but each is equally passionate. The film thrives on terrific performances and music. Read more here

Comedy film Tere Bin Laden Dead or Alive, directed by Abhishek Sharma, a sequel to the 2010 film Tere Bin Laden, starring Manish Paul, Pradyuman Singh and Piyush Mishra desperately strains for laughs and is too convoluted to make sense, says Scroll.in. The political satire seems lifted from a college play and most performances are over-the-top and unimpressive. Read more here

For Hollywood fans, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Oscar-nominated film The Revenant, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, comes to India this week. Rolling Stone mentions that the film is brutal but so relentlessly raw that you get to experience the power of cinema. You feel the actors’ pain and see DiCaprio deliver a performance where he tests himself and is eager for challenges. That is something you can’t miss. Read more here

Cinemablend agrees the film is punishing, visceral, grisly and utterly captivating. A powerful revenge story that not everyone can endure, the technically impressive tale is laden with complex and fascinating performances. Read more here

There is a second Academy Award-nominated title- director Todd Haynes’ Carol, starring Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara and Sarah Paulson, which casts a beguiling spell, says The Washington Post. The carefully crafted script uses codes and signals to convey the most essential stuff of life and the director makes sure you’re drawn into the leads’ desires and feelings. Both Blanchett and Mara are outstanding. Read more here

The film tells a scandalously unconventional love story, says The New York Times, but is at once ardent and analytical, cerebral and swooning, a study in human magnetism, in the physics and optics of eros. With sparse dialogue and restrained drama, Haynes directs a period film almost fetishistically precise in its recreation of the look and sound of the past. Read more here

American fantasy film Gods of Egypt, directed by Alex Proyas and starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Brenton Thwaites and Chadwick Boseman, looks and feels like a video game come to life, says Yahoo News. It might not have the grand, epic scope that other mythological movies have, but it also doesn’t burden itself with unnecessary angst and pain. Instead, the film focuses on the fun and fantastical aspects of Egyptian mythology, giving a modern take on the Egyptian gods. Read more here

In the south, Telugu action-thriller Yamapasham, directed by Shakti S. Rajan and starring Jayam Ravi and Lakshmi Menon, is the first zombie film in the language, says Tollytrendz. A dubbed version of the Tamil movie Miruthan, the film works because of its performances and technical finesse. Read more here

Marathi film Babanchi Shala, starring Sayaji Shinde and Aishwarya Narkar and directed by R.Viraj, is uneven and illogical despite good intentions, says Pune Mirror. The principal flaw with the screenplay is the lack of character detailing and not even an actor like Sayaji Shinde can save things. Read more here

Marathi drama Ticha Umbartha, starring Chinmay Mandlekar, Tejaswini Pandit and Jyothi Chandekar and directed by Pradeep Ghonsikar, is borrowed from a Marathi play and looks like one too, says Zee Talkies. Despite noble intentions, there isn’t much impact on the audience. The women do a superb job though. Read more here

Several films this week haven’t inspired any reviews yet. These include Hindi movies 1982- A Love Marriage, Dhara 302, Love Shagun and Rhythm; Tamil films Nayyapudai and Aarathu Sinam; Malayalam thriller Vettah; Kannada romantic film Krishna Rukku; Punjabi film Sant Te Sipahi and Pakistani romantic thriller Bachaana.