Blog Posts by Kunal Guha

It's a game!

Directed by Abhinay Deo

Rating: 0.5 *

Each time Bollywood tries to ape the west, it twists its ankle and trips over a puddle of poop, face-first. And Game is such a poop-drenched, wannabe-whodunit thriller that on watching, you might want to find out who's done this movie, why and couldn't he just light a bonfire with the disposable money used to produce it?

The movie begins as billionaire Kabir Malhotra (Anupam Kher) invites an odd mix of people from across the globe to visit his personal Greek island of Samos for a chance to enrich their sorry lives. As the recipients scan their letters, the name Samos pops up often and can spark a sudden craving for the savoury snack (Samosa!). A tip: keep munchies accessible.

Anyway, the lucky invitees include, drug-lord cum club-owner from Turkey, Neil Menon (Abhishek Bachchan), who's suited, booted, wears designer shades and beats people to pulp, usually when they

Saif in action

Directed by Sriram Raghavan

Rating: *

The best way to diffuse a bum is through butt crunches. Unless one is referring to the Hinglisized word for a bomb. And the much-awaited dhamaka that this thriller hoped to detonate at the box office might just be diffused once you read this review.  Despite miraculous leaps in production values, spy thrillers in Bollywood end up looking like Chinese equivalents of western products. And here, the characters are even stereotyped to the extent of detectives wearing trench coats and moles being obvious, shifty-eyed and literally uncomfortable in their own skin. So let’s just say foreign locales, weapons to annihilate the world, designer suits and not-so-excruciating interrogations don’t cumulatively justify ‘Agent Vinod’ as a thrilling movie-watching experience.

RAW agent Vinod (Saif Ali Khan) divides his screen time between being questioned (when he is captured) and playing

The Dhishoom! Hall of Fame

While films like Tezz and Agent Vinod promise slick action, filmi fights have been characterized by crude dhishooming. Here's a tribute

Girl getting teased by roadside mavaalis, boy surfaces out of thin air to sock their winds out. And nothing avenges father’s honour more than bashing up his killer to pulp. And while today our hero manages to leap across buildings and swing through canyons thanks to technological leaps, we still have low-gravity kicks, punches that propel bodies into mid-air ballets and cars walking on two feet. So it is heartwarming to learn that somethings never change. Here’s a fist-up for the great dhishooms of Bollywood. Wham!

Talwaar ki dhaar

Nahin Chodunga!