Revenge MAX – Dhurandhar!!

Peak detailing with the absolute pitch-perfect casting which casts a magical spell on us for nearly 8 hours with beautiful non-linear storytelling, Dhurandhar (across part 1 and 2) have provided us with a once in a generation movie that will resonate across time. 

Keeping the politics of the movie aside, just delving into the highlights of the movie. As usual, spoilers ahead!!

Highlights

Cinematography by Vikash Nowlakha and sharp editing by Shivkumar V. Panicker are precise, with various hues used to great effect, detailing the Lyari markets, the lush Punjab fields to dark and gritty night-time visualizations.

Music by Shashwat Sachdev fantastically complements each and every scene as well as feverishly reaching near the peak many times during the movie. All the remixed songs, especially the fiery ‘Aari Aari’ and melancholic ‘Jaiye Sajana’ transport you into various scenes of the movie. The ‘Ishq Jalakar (Karvaan)’ and Akshay Khanna’s ‘FA9LA’ entry track were phenomenal in the first part.

 

 

 

Casting

R. Madhavan – After having wondered so many times in the past on Madhavan’s choice of characters or movie, this movie has provided the perfect opportunity for him to show such commanding presence and with piercing dialogues that make the deepest impact on us.

Arjun Rampal – After ‘Rock On’, Arjun had lost his way quite a bit. But, boy o’boy, what a comeback it was. As the meanest of all the baddies in town, his one act even scared up the main character in the movie.

Sara Arjun – From the amazing child artist performance in ‘Deiva Thirumagal’s’ climax, Sara has showcased her acting skills and her vulnerability in an emotional scene hits you hard.

Gaurav Gera – As spy’s handler, he has had the most impact in the few scenes he came by. His character is an ode to the thousands of fearless, selfless and nameless people who serve their nation.

Rakesh Bedi – From his iconic comic roles in many roles to this character, Rakesh Bedi has shown every facial reaction that one can possibly get from an artist. But it is the climax of the movie, where he shines brilliantly and flips the script on its head.

Sanjay Dutt – For someone, who has played a character that he liked him the most, this character is most suited for Sanjay Baba. His audacious approach to real life is quite aptly mirror by reel life as well. The re-mixed ‘Thamma Thamma’ song which played up in many of his scenes was a nostalgic throwback to the yesteryears.

Akshay Khanna - From one of my favorites scenes in ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ where he explains a life-lesson to a love-spurned girl with a simplistic line, to the meanest killing machine where his aura and his presence fills every scene with anxiety, Akshay Khanna has paved his own way and method to stardom. Looking for more fantastic, iconic characters from him in his future movies.

Ranveer Singh – From a fantastic debut in my favorite ‘Band Baaja Bharat’ to many of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s creations, Ranveer has portrayed many characters. However, the last few years have not been kind of him. But as they say, hard work always pays off. His portrayal of ‘Hamza Ali Mazari’ is legendary and will be talked about for years to come. The fire that burned in his eyes and in the background during the ‘Aari Aari’ song, was truly a memorable print in time and hopefully Ranveer will provide us with amazing movies in the years to come.

Story, Story.. and Story

After lamenting across many posts, we have finally obtained a near-perfect story with so much detailing that it could generate many spin-off series by itself. Each and every character has so many shades with every plot and sub-plot leaving a deep impression upon the viewers.

The Magician

After watching ‘URI’ movie, the audience had quipped ‘How is the Josh?’. Such is the impact with URI and Dhurandhar movie series, that Adithya Dhar would be celebrated as an accomplished writer and director with only these movies, even though he is just getting started. His brilliance is in the fact that as the massive pre-climax action piece hits you in the face, the movie not only provides many twists after that, but also provides perfect closure to many characters and plots. Very eagerly waiting for the director’s magnum opus, Ashwathama, in the near future.

Cheers to my movie-buff friend, Surendar, for accompanying me on this marathon movie journey. If you have a lot of time to watch, get ready to be blown away with ‘God Father’ like movie series which has quite literally redefined Indian’s movie watching experience. Do share your thoughts on it.

With Love!! – TRULY!!

While cribbing about the decline in quality of recently released Tamil movies, we come across a very well written and perfectly casted movie in ‘With Love’. Directed by Madhan, the movie has Abishan Jeevinth (of Tourist Family fame), Anaswara Rajan, Saravanan and others.

Spoilers Ahead!!

 

Highlights

Music by Sean Roldan is soothing to our ears and plays a beautiful backdrop to carrying the breezy movie on its shoulders.

Cinematography by Shreyaas Krishna and Editing by Suresh Kumar was crisp and seamlessly carried forward the movie. The close-up on each of the actors truly brough out the best of emotions.

Supporting actors like Kavya Anil, Harish and others have done a fantastic job of supporting the movie with pitch-perfect emotions especially with Saravanan as the Chemistry teacher explaining what happened with an incident later in the movie with the enlightning advice to not judge anyone harshly too quickly.

Abishan Jeevinth had fantastically directed Tourist Family, which was a complex portrayal of human emotions, strongly highlighting the goodness of human nature. His foray into acting is no less spectacular with him giving his absolute best in every frame.

Anaswara Rajan has truly transformed into the character of the social media influencer, Monisha. From a free-flowing student characterization to a subdued but famous influencer wanting attention but not demanding it, as well as standing up for her rights, she has literally grown into the character. Wishing to see more such powerful women-oriented roles from the gen-z actors.

But the true highlight of the movie has been the director of the movie, Madhan who has crafted it meticulously and cast with such precision that no character feels out of place or forced. Delving seamlessly into past and present with differing perspectives of two individuals requires quite an understanding of human emotions and the director has come up with trumps in it.

 

If you wish to re-visit your school memories with fondness and unwind with a breezy lighthearted rom-com, ‘With Love’ definitely should be on your list this weekend. Do share your thoughts if you have seen the movie.

Boom-Raah!!

After a generation of fiery fast bowlers like Ambrose, Walsh, Mcgrath, Gillespie, Wasim, Waqar, Alan Donald, Dale Steyn and swing specialists Anderson and Broad, who make a batsman, sway, swivel, sweat and smell the leather all the time, we have once-in-a generation bowler, who can absolutely bowl any type ball at any point of time. 

Starting his career a decade back, he has broken open every format of the game, Tests, ODIs and T20s and made opposition fear and plan against him. With 500+ international wickets, Bumrah has been the backbone of Indian cricket for the last decade.

Many Test and One-Day Internationals brilliance aside, here is a look at two of his feats in most recent T20 World Cups.

 

T20 World Cup 2024

Having scored just at run-a-ball on a sluggish New York drop-in pitch, all our friends in our community gathered to cheer for the Indian team to defend this low total. Bumrah’s 3 crucial wickets including Babar and Rizwan broke open the game and helped India defend this super modest total.

With our friends gathered one more time and peering through a small mobile phone in a different setting, we watched as India had to defend 30 runs in as many balls. What gave us absolute comfort was the fact that Bumrah still had to bowl 12 balls out of the 30. And save us indeed he did, as he bowled a superb 16^th over with a wicket and a run to strangulate the Proteas batting line up and set up an absolute fire-cracker of a win with all of us screaming our throats out.

T20 World Cup 2026

With India having blasted a 250+ score, it only seemed like a formality that we would win the semi-final against England yesterday. But an absolute screamer of an innings from centurion Jacob Bethell nearly tilted the favor in favor of the Brits. The most crucial part of the game came in 18^th over of the England innings when they had to score nearly 50 runs from 18 balls. With Bumrah bowling unplayable pin-point Yorkers and low-ball full tosses, the English batsman very cleverly played safe against Bumrah and thereby choked themselves with too much to get from the final overs.

Player-of-the-match Sanju Samson’s words rang true, when he mentioned that the true POTM should have been Bumrah, who with great cricketing intelligence and exceptional executional skills single-handedly won India the match. 

Jasprit Bumrah, is just not a bowler, he is a game-changer. Do join me in wishing him and India all the best in the finals against New Zealand on Sunday. 

GOATs of Tennis!!

When you have two tennis stars in their absolute prime (Federer and Nadal), how do you march past them and become one of the GOATs yourself with the most number of titles, just ask Novak Djokovic. Having nicknamed the ‘Joker’ for his playful antics, Novak has come a long way to lead the pack with nearly a quarter of a century of grand slams.

Highlights of Novak’s Career

Record 10 time winner of Australian Open to go with his 24 Grand Slams.

Record 428 weeks as No.1 tennis player with 8 end of year No.1 rankings.

Only person to complete Career Golden Masters and triple Career Grand Slam with my favorite: an absolute comeback from 2 sets behind in French Open against Tsipitas in 2021.

 

 

 

It would be a dis-service if one does not mention the other two modern greats in Novak’s company.

Highlights of Nadal’s Career.

22 time Grand Slam winner with a record 14 French Open titles.

‘King of Clay’ had at point in time won 81 matches without losing a game.

Highlights of Fedex Express

20 time Grand Slam winner with a record 8 time Wimbledon Titles.

‘King of Grass Court’ also has a record of 103 WTA titles to his name.

At one point in time, it looked like the Australian Open would be taken effortlessly by Djokovic, the French Open by Nadal and Wimbeldon belonged to Federer (loved the silkiness of Federer’s backhand shots down the line) and all of them were challenging each other for the US Open. Such was the stamina and geniuses of these three athletes that the world stood up in awe and applause. With Alcaraz and Sinner showing signs of the same brilliance of these GOATs, tennis is well served for the next decade.

With yesterday’s 5 set endurance match, Novak is one step closer to winning his favorite Grand Slam one more time. Wishing him and Alcaraz all the best for the finals on Sunday!!

EKO!! – Tables Turned.

As I finished up my last movie post and discussed it with my friends, a unanimous must-watch movie emerged from our group. ‘EKO’ directed by Dinjith Ayyathan, hosting some very fine actors, is trending on social media for all the right reasons and has gained widespread popularity. Eko serves as the third and final installment of Bahul Ramesh's Animal Trilogy, following Kishkindha Kaandam (2024) and Kerala Crime Files 2 (2025).

Spoilers Ahead!!

Highlights

Bahul Ramesh has beautifully captured a very mountainous terrain and lakeside house in all its glory brilliantly utilizing the fog to add an eerie layer to an unpredictable storyline. His writing is crisp and each dialogue or a scene needs to be carefully attended to understand the storyline.

Music by Mujeeb Majeed is fantastically mystical and forebodes the narrative of each scene. Even the silence in each of the scenes adds a layer of mystery to the narrative.

Sandeep Pradeep, Vineeth, Narain, Saurabh Sachdeva, Binu Pappu and Biana Momin have all given their absolute best with my favorite being Biana Momin for the emotions delivered through her eyes. Looking forward to the next part of the movie, if there is one.

Director ‘Dinjith Ayyathan’ has done a wonderful job of creating a visual slow-burn entertainer with quite an unexpected climax twist that turns the story on its head. The performance eked out from the silent stars, the dogs, is very commendable.

Questions Galore.

Will there be a second part for this fantastic movie?

If yes, will Kuriachan emerge from hiding/holding place by deceiving his guards? In fact, is he actually hiding the mountainous terrain or under their home?

Will the Malaysian dog-breeder, make a re-entry in the movie, to find his ‘Soyi’ and ask for forgiveness?

Will the 2nd movie have a climax face-off between Kuriachan and his disciple and Mlaathi Lady and her husband?

With a stunning climax and many more questions swirling, I can’t wait to find out if there is a sequel to this brilliant film-making attempt. If you have the patience to wait for a wonderful story to unfold, the two hours of the movie are worth your time.

Andhra King Taluka!!

Sometimes life plans a pleasant surprise at the most unexpected moment. What started as a 5 or a 10 minute filler watch turned into a fun filled few hours. ‘Andhra King Taluka’ directed by ‘Mahesh Babu P’ hosts Upendra, Ram Potheneni and Bhagyashri Borse and takes you on a roller-coaster ride of mass, emotions and the long-forgotten virtue of movies – to entertain.

1^st Half – Highlights

Cinematography by Siddhartha Nuni and George C. Williams captures each mood beautifully, with my favorite being the scene on the top of the carousel. Editing by A. Sreekar Prasad is super crisp and does not disturb the flow of the movie.

It takes a large heart to accept a second fiddle and Upendra has done justice to his role as a fading star.

Bhagyashri Borse has done much more than the regular ‘damsel in distress’ role and having loved her performance in Kantha, only wish her future movies reflect her true potential.

‘Andhra King’, in this movie’s context, Ram Pothineni was quite a revelation. His mass sequences, dance steps, pause in moments of anxiety and ultimately make believe a difficult storyline highlights his great potential. Wishing him the best for his future movies.

However, it was the song ‘Chinni Gundelo’ by Vivek–Mervin that got me to watch the movie in the first place. Hope to hear more such melodies from the talented music director duo.

 

 

 

 

2^nd Half – Rant

Directors unfortunately write up the first half and move the second half along in hopes that the audience will eventually groove up to it. Unfortunately this movie meanders along predictable lines so much that a beautiful and inspiring climax is put to shade.

What-If Analysis!!

What-if, the second half started by dwelling more stories for Ram Pothineni’s childhood struggles, his village’s struggles to get basic facilities completed and goes back and forth with current and past timelines. The hero watching the old Mahalakshmi theatre being built like his make-shift theatre would have been a great visual to watch.

As with many movies nowadays, the movie entertains magnificently in the first half just to leave you earning for more in the second. But if you have a couple of hours to spend to be entertained, this may be the movie for you. 

White Walker – Vecna Parellels!!

When two other-worldly entities are supposedly wronged by human race and are out to take revenge, we get a cocktail of emotions too powerful to ignore. In this fight to assume supremacy, we have got two amazing web-series, Game of Thrones (GOT) and Stranger Things enthralling us with amazing visuals, attention to minute details, connecting all the dots and an epic finish.

GOT

Set in the mid-century similar to Northern Europe, GOT explores fiefdoms, gory battles and explores the themes of loyalty, friendship, compassion, envious back-stabbing followed by revenge. Each of the characters have had a beautiful emotional arc to them: Hodor, Sam, Stark kids, Cersei and her family, Daenerys and most importantly; ‘little finger’ who dies by his own method: over-smartness along with mystical Dragons.

The highlight however, are the relentless White-walkers, whose leader wronged by the forest people tries to change the equation of the living versus the dead.
 
Stranger Things
Stranger Things, though set up in a slightly different context with an experimentation on opening up a portal, ‘Upside Down’ with imaginable consequences is in a way similar to GOT. Each of the characters, including all the kids (with my favorite Will and Eleven) have a life-story of their own with Vecna coming out there to destroy their world as they know it, quite similar to White Walker’s plan.

LOTR

Even though the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie series is a touch different from both the above mentioned series, it was and is my favorite movie series with quite a similar good over evil story line with many amazing battles with mystical creatures and beautiful characterizations with the ever present ‘eye’ providing us with a strong enemy to fight against.

With GOT ending on a much unexpected whimper, it is most expected that ‘Stranger Things’ (with many fan theories swirling) will perhaps want to finish this amazing series on a fantastic finish with 4 more episodes to go. If there is any other series that shades in resemblence to the above mentioned ones, drop in a comment.