Back‘Maze Runner’, ‘Bleeding Steel’ make up dull movie week, ‘Padmaavat’ still rules box office
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Padmaavat' continues to storm the box office, while Akshay Kumar's 'Padman' is still a week away from release
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New Delhi: Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat continues to storm the box office, while Akshay Kumar’s Padman is still a week away from release. That makes it a relatively dull Friday for new offerings in movie theatres.
Director Remy Kohli’s amateurish handling of the subject in Kuldip Patwal: I Didn’t Do It, starring Deepak Dobriyal and Raima Sen, and his inability to ensure a smoothly paced narrative ensure that the movie is a trudge from start to finish, says Scroll. The courtroom scenes are particularly egregious, in no small measure because of Sen’s hamminess and Gulshan Devaiah’s severely distracting false moustache. Dobriyal tries to breathe life into his frustrated common man, but his efforts are as successful as the movie itself.
A straight and simple story is told by Kohli in a jumbled up, non-linear manner, inspired as he seems by international cinema, says The Hindu. Unfortunately, he has clearly been unable to assimilate in his head as it just doesn’t reflect in his work. If a half-baked script, sketchy situations and vague characters were not enough, the film is also marked by clutter and disarray in the telling. There’s a lot of issue-pandering as well, be it about caste, reservation, unemployment, corruption or medical and health facilities. All of which merely scratch the surface.
For Hollywood fans, American dystopian science fiction action film Maze Runner: The Death Cure, directed by Wes Ball stars Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Dexter Darden comes to India this week. The film draws its sci-fi tropes from everything from Blade Runner to The Road Warrior to 28 Days Later to Final Fantasy VII, says Vulture, but at teen-movie scale, where there’s a ceiling to the violence and the cursing, and there’s something delightfully accessible about it all. The young cast gives great face, and there’s always some emotional teen to root for in the midst of Ball’s numerous, seemingly never-ending action set pieces.
Chinese science fiction cyberpunk thriller Bleeding Steel, directed by Leo Zhang and starring Jackie Chan, features all the zesty fights, slick effects and goofy slapstick one expects from a Jackie Chan family movie, says Variety magazine, while glossy production values, a snappy beat and composer Peng Fei’s deafening score mimic that of a Hollywood movie, though the film’s corny cyberpunk pastiche appeals exclusively to kids.
American historical drama Phantom Thread, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps, does gothic romance in prestige Brit picture style, eliciting a worthy final performance from Day-Lewis that’s admirably matched by newcomer Krieps, says Empire magazine. Krieps is a real find: a virtual unknown who can hold her own opposite a titan like Day-Lewis in a movie which, for the most part, is an intense, chamber-piece two-hander.
In the south, Telugu film Touch Chesi Chudu, directed by Vikram Sirikonda and starring Ravi Teja, Raashi Khanna and Seerat Kapoor, is marked by a predictable first half with routine romance and comedy, says Mirchi 9. What’s worse is that there is no solace in the second half as well.
Telugu romantic film Chalo, starring Naga Shourya and Rashmika Mandanna and directed by Venky Kudumula, has an enjoyable first half but the second half is fairly dull, says The Hans India. A one-time watch, the major complaint would be the amateurish handling of the plot.
Several releases this week haven’t inspired any reviews yet. These include Tamil adventure comedy Oru Nalla Naal Paathu Solren, Tamil romantic thriller Yemaali, Tamil comedy drama Visiri, Tamil drama Padai Veeran, Telugu horror thriller HBD- Hacked By Devil, Kannada films Aa Ondu Dina, Devrantha Manushya, Manjari, Raja Simha, Jantar Mantar and Sanjeeva, and Marathi film Yuntum.
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