Avengers - Age of Ultron : The Bugle's Verdict

Like me, many others have been waiting to see Age Of Ultron, ever since the release of its first trailer way back in October 2014. I can say in the very least, that it has kept up to the name of its predecessor and Joss Whedon yet again presents a film which is loaded, both in its action and the philosophical quotient.

The movie leads from where Captain America : The Winter Soldier ended. After retrieving Loki’s sceptre from a Hydra base, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner find some sort of artificial intelligence within the gem on the sceptre, which they secretly implement into the Ultron program, which would protect the Earth from extra-terrestrial threats, leaving the Avengers free to deal with the ones on Earth. The program backfires, with Ultron concluding that in order to maintain stability on Earth, mankind in itself must evolve, something that requires the end of the Avengers, and the extinction of humanity as we know it.

Sounding familiar? Maybe you would compare this scenario with that of the Terminator films, with Ultron replacing Skynet. If that’s the assumption, let’s put it to rest right here. Ultron isn’t a mere megalomaniacal robot. He’s is a sentient being, who though mechanised, has all human characteristics – arrogance, humor, sarcasm, anger, fear of death, etc. Basically he’s the twisted, robotic son of Tony Stark, who made him in his own image, which can be seen in the fact that his apocalyptic plans too are a manifestation of Tony’s own confusion regarding the limits to doing what is right for the world, which could in the process destroy the very world he’s trying to protect. 

As a villain, Ultron follows almost the same battle strategy that Loki used in The Avengers – gather an army, break the Avengers and destroy cities with high population density; the only difference being that Loki had an alien army, while Ultron has an army of minions, who are all basically versions of himself, and few soldiers from Tony Stark’s iron army. He is snide, pompous, and talkative. I was rather disappointed in the character and expected a completely different personality in him. He’s supposed to instil fear and awe. Instead, he is more comical than fearsome, and even the voiceover by James Spader couldn’t provide Ultron the charisma that was required from such a character.

Action and fight scenes are excellent, and more than enough to satisfy even hardened adrenaline junkies. Special mention must be given to the Iron Man-Hulk brawl, where we get to see the Hulkbuster armor at work (No spoilers there).

The story is commendable, and just like previous films within the Avengers category, explores into the faults and shortcomings of its lead characters, and their combined efforts to overcome the same, to achieve peace and stability. Like others in its family, the film views its lead characters not as superheroes, but ordinary humans, whose specialized abilities have rendered them a god-like status, and they are hanging somewhere in between their individual selves, and the responsibility their status imposes upon them. There are various points though, where the film loses traction for a couple of minutes, like in a scene where Cap'n America is trying to stop Banner and Stark from creating the Vision, and suddenly Thor barges in out of nowhere to seize control of the situation. But Whedon gets things back on track quickly and rather smoothly, and in the overall grand presentation, these errors are considered trifles.

Two new characters are introduced – Pietro Maximoff played by Aaron Johnson, and Wanda Maximoff played by Elizabeth Olsen. They're orphans having bitter feeling for Tony Stark, as one of his missiles caused the death of their parents. As a result they join Ultron's fife. Paul Bettany moves ahead of playing the computer J.A.R.V.I.S. to playing its physical self, the Vision. Nothing needs be said in favour of the regular cast, who deliver the standard expected from their performance. Samuel L.Jackson had limited screen time, and I would have liked to see more of Nick Fury.

Verdict – The die-hard comic book fans won’t think twice before going for Avengers : Age of Ultron. Neither should you. Action-packed, yet sensible(almost), this is a true-blue Marvel studios film. Don’t miss it.

Margarita With A Straw : The Bugle's Verdict

If I could choose 4 words to describe Margarita with a straw, they’d be – bold, innocent, revolutionary and beautiful. Director Shonali Bose gives film enthusiasts a recipe so strong, so rich, that its aftertaste could be felt long after one stepped out of the theatre. 

Kalki Koechlin plays Laila, a Delhi girl with cerebral palsy. For a girl with minimum motor skills, Laila is intelligent, talented and not one to let her disability get in the way of dreaming big, and achieving those dreams. Her life is a constant struggle about coming to terms with this disability, and seeking to enjoy life like the normal people. She gets admitted into the New York University, following which she relocates to the US with her mother, played by Revathy. Her life changes when she meets Khanum, played by Sayani Gupta, a blind Pakistani girl, who makes Laila challenge her orientation. From here begins Laila’s journey into exploration and rediscovery.

Kalki’s performance as Laila is phenomenal. It is a surprise how effortlessly the actress slides into the shoes of the spastic Laila. Her expressions are raw, earnest, and extremely likeable.
Revathy is at her very best as the mother, encouraging her daughter to reach the highest extent of success, at every step in her life. Her character is beautiful and endearing, in the manner that she induces the gentleness and warmth of a mother’s presence even in the viewers.

Sound mixing plays an effective part in the narrative. The use of silence and minimal sound to accentuate the depth in particular scenes was just breathtaking. Mickey McCleary provides the music composition for the film. The music, coupled with the magic of Prasoon Joshi’s lyrics, amplifies the emotion of the movie, and though there is a total of three songs, each one is memorable, especially Dusokute, a hummable rock number composed and sung by Joi Barua.  

MWAS is emotionally charged, funny, and thought-provoking in equal measure. Free-flowing, the film knows exactly what it is about, and takes the audience on a beautiful journey, while teaching a deep lesson about being open to the beauty of life and looking to greener pastures while belittling your problems and difficulties. Shonali Bose displays incredible genius, and it is evident, right from the start how truly invested she is into penning down this empowering story of a girl who won’t bow down to her physical limitations. Through the film, she breaks through various fundamental taboos of Bollywood revolving around display of sexually-charged situations, and homosexuality. Every depiction is unfettered, and reflective of the deepest facets and desires of the human being. That’s how truthful this movie is.

Verdict – Margarita with a Straw is a path-breaking movie, one which would stay in the minds of cine-goers long after they step out of watching it. Pleasant, refreshing, light and honest, this is one film that absolutely nobody will regret watching.  

Mr.X (3D) : The Bugle's Verdict

Mr.X (3D) is the latest product from the Vishesh Films banner, directed by Vikram Bhatt, the prince of horror and CGI films in India (RGV’s the king). Let’s start off by stating that yet again, Vikram Bhatt doesn’t disappoint, as in the fact that he shows no intention to make a plausible film, sticking to his professional motto that he has adopted for many of his past films - Make a film. Add a pinch of 3D. Add some Emraan Hashmi smooching action. Chuck story aside, and Voila! You’ve got the bestseller film (That’s not a motto. That’s the script of most Vikram Bhatt movies, though I’m not too sure about the bestseller bit).

Emran Hashmi plays Raghuram (not the Roadies one). He and lady love Amyra Dastur are two top-cops (Puh-leease) working for the fictional Anti Terrorism Department, in Mumbai. Disaster strikes on the eve of their wedding. Becoming a pawn in a political conspiracy, Mr.Hashmi somehow ends up at the bottom of a gutted refinery, where the radiation makes him deformed, causing his leather jacket to become part of his skin (basically you could call him Cow-Man). After a pharmaceutical scientist tries some experimental medicine on him, he receives the power of invisibility, but there’s a catch; he can only be seen in sunlight or any other form of ultraviolet light (Let’s skip the science lesson, the filmmakers did too). Now he must become Mr.X to exact revenge on the people who wronged him i.e. Arunoday Singh.

Mix movies like Hollowman, the Punisher and some of Ghalib’s secret stash of Urdu poetry that he never desired anyone to hear, and you get Mr.X. The film is never able to decide whether it’s a thriller, or a supernatural thriller, or a vigilante film, or a trip to the asylum. There’s a continuous struggle between science and religion trying to explain the bizarreness of Mr.X and his even more bizarre persona, which each trying to one-up the other by putting forth all their expendable knowledge, irrelevant to the point of concern, for the viewers to choose from, be it random chemical explanations or shlokas from the Bhagawad Gita.

The special effects, CGI and green-screening are just terrible. The invisibility and transition effects though, were pulled off quite neatly . It’s really strange why the rest of the movie had SFX from a late 80’s movie.

Principal photography is extremely shaky, with scenes frequently jumping between Mumbai and random foreign locations. In fact, the only discernible portion of Mumbai is seen in the window of the ATD headquarters, which shows it to be opposite the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

   

Emraan Hashmi does an okay job. He brings nothing new to the table. Pleasant to the eye, and not too hard on the ears, he is just himself, which is not his fault actually, as it is precisely what his current films have him doing. Amyra Dastur is a live-action Barbie doll – thin, plastic and just there to add to the film’s wardrobe... AND she loves smelling Emraan Hashmi. That’s all there is to her description.

Tanmay Bhat, from All India Bakchod, recently in the news for the infamous Roast, plays Mr.X’s loyal sidekick. In my opinion he should really be sticking to YouTube videos in the future.

Verdict – Gather your buddies on a Saturday, bring out the beer, the snacks, and have a good time. If not that you could read your favourite book. Or you could go see a movie. Unless it’s Mr.X. Anything is better than Mr.X.

 

Broken Horses : The Bugle's Verdict

With Broken Horses, ace director and producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra tries to sink his feet into Hollywood. Having fully steered the venture; producing, directing and co-writing it with Abhijat Joshi, Chopra tries to instil the emotional quotient from his Bollywood hits into American Wild West culture. Let’s see if the effort was up to it.

For those familiar with Chopra’s cult classic, Parinda, Broken Horses is essentially its scene by scene remake, with a minor twist to the climax. The comparative casting is as follows-

• Julius Hench – Vincent D’Onofrio (Nana Patekar)
• Buddy Heckum – Chris Marquette (Jackie Shroff)
• Jakey Heckum – Anton Yelchin (Anil Kapoor)
• Vittoria - Maria Valverde (Madhuri Dixit)

For those who haven’t seen Parinda, here is some background – A man, in order to support his younger brother in life, starts working for a gangster, who won’t let him go at any cost. When the younger brother comes to know, he joins the ranks too, but to destroy the organisation from within, and get his brother out of the gangster’s clutches.

Coming out after watching Broken Horses, if we were sure about one thing, it was that the film lacks ambition, which is evident in the very fact that the producer literally remade his own film, frame by frame. The weight of this statement doesn’t diminish easily, whatever number of times it may be said. Nonetheless, the film doesn’t disappoint, as it provides exactly what one expected from the director: an emotionally fuelled story about love, sacrifice and family. The story gets a western facelift, and though a bit of a drag, and left somewhat unexplained at times, it manages to provide ample thrills and gun-slinging drama, and keep the audience occupied in anxiousness. The backdrop of the movie has been done nicely, setting it near the US-Mexico border, giving it an eerie, dangerous feel, that puts up the correct atmosphere for the mystery, manipulation and suspense the film is shrouded in.

Acting skills weren’t a big contributor in this venture. Anton Yelchin, in the lead, comes off as a fused bulb. His performance is dull, and he seems to be just pulling it along for the heck of it. His on-screen romance with Maria Valverde also seems one-sided, with the actress doing good in the role of Vittoria, the doting fiancee, and Yelchin just wanting to get it over with, collect his paycheck and go home. Chris Marquette is, if not exemplary, appreciable in the shoes of Buddy Heckum, the somewhat mentally handicapped brother, manipulated into becoming a hitman to support his younger brother. D’Onofrio looks good as the mob boss Julius Hench. Though his performance seems somewhat theatrical and overdone at times, he does considerable justice to the character.

Verdict – Considering the team behind the movie, one would expect much more from this one. Nevertheless, Broken Horses will make an acceptable Saturday night outing for the more gourmet cinema fans. 

Dharam Sankat Mein : The Bugle's Verdict

Save your money, time and sanity and stay away from this farce. Stay a mile away from the theatre screening this movie, for good measure. Words cannot begin to describe the excruciating routine we had to go through to present you with this first-hand review for the Paresh Rawal-starrer, Dharam Sankat Mein.

The name of the movie is a play on the name of the main character, Dharam Pal Trivedi. A non-religious Hindu Brahmin, discovers in his late mother’s belongings an adoption certificate that reveals that he was actually born to Muslim parents. In trying to meet his biological father, he is made to accept Muslim ways, and side-by-side he is made to rediscover his Hindu values to impress his son’s would-be father-in-law.

An official remake of the British comedy, The Infidel, the film is practically the unintended sequel to OMG! Oh My God, with many of the redundant religious and social questions being derived from the film, as well as picking up key character descriptions from PK. What we are yet to figure out, is why veteran players like Rawal, Annu Kapoor, and Naseeruddin Shah have been making such terrible decisions lately, regarding the choice of script. Naseer’s last film, Dirty Politics, was also a box-office disaster. In this film he plays a businessman baba, who has created a separate cult of Hindu followers under his name. The character is unimpressive, hideously unfunny, lacking in substance, and if anything at all, a waste of the actor’s worth.  

The story is torturous, predictable and had us wishing we left before the interval. The film tries to cover so many points, all at one time, that it fails to take a firm stand that could have been its unique point. Director Fuwad Khan, who was also the cinematographer for The Wednesday made a noble effort with DSM, but failed to provide some innovative food for thought. Like I said earlier, the film brings nothing new or impressive to the forefront that hasn’t already been done by the likes of OMG or PK. In fact, the only saving grace for this disaster that is in league with legends such as Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag, was Paresh Rawal, our prime motivation to witness this disaster, whose casually effective performance kept viewers waiting till the end credits, which is a BIG sacrifice from their end.

Verdict – Enduring Dharam Sankat Mein is a challenge, one whose winner deserves a standing ovation at the next Republic Day parade. Watch at your own risk. 

Detective Byomkesh Bakshy : The Bugle's Verdict

Dibakar Banerjee had taken up the task of capturing Sharadindu Bandhopadhyay’s popular Bengali detective on the silver screen. The venture has materialised into Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! The Bugle would like to declare that with this one, the ace has outshone himself, with style.

The year is 1943. The city is Calcutta, and British India is reeling under the effects of World War II. A young Bihari-Bengali student (Bakshy) is approached by a man to investigate his father’s disappearance. Little does he know about the events that are about to unfold, and the world he is about to get involved in – one which involves deceit, espionage, Chinese mafia, and a drug lord’s sinister plans to make Calcutta, the opium-capital of the contemporary world.

It's really a wonder that such a film came out from the Yash Raj banner, who are known for their romantic dramas, and of late, youth comedies. Dibakar has come up with acclaimed films such as Khosla ka Ghosla and Oye Lucky Lucky Oye. He has always shown great control over the narratives and the structure of his films, which were primarily comedies. With this film, he has explored new territory, and gone on to achieve immense mastery over the neo-noir genre too. The depiction of imperial Calcutta, with its dark, morbid streets, the atmosphere of perpetual war tension, and the frequent air bomb raids, set a perfect mood of suspense and anarchy. Add to that the modern Gothic background score, and you get the perfect setup of dystopia and conspiracy. The plot is very well-conceived, with unexpected twists at every passing minute. One must be glued the entire time, because if even one point of interest is missed, you might be having quite the hard time understanding the film. You know how it felt like while watching Inception 2-3 times to finally grasp the plot fully.

The movie is especially remarkable owing to the equally remarkable performances of its well-picked cast, and we refer in particular to Neeraj Kabi. For those who don’t know him, he’s the monk from Ship of Theseus. He has proved himself to be one of the most skilled character actors, Bollywood can boast of at present. His portrayal of the multifaceted Dr.Guha, actually left us gasping for breath, and short for words. Sushant Singh Rajput also gels in very comfortably in the shoes of Byomkesh Bakshy and has a commanding screen presence. He maintains a correct balance of intelligence and childish curiosity, while portraying a meticulous man, who has exceptional deduction skills, out on a quest he doesn’t fully comprehend yet.

The music utilised in the film is unconventional and creative. The blend of the imperial setting, with modern punk-rock and grunge music, is an experience that has never been witnessed before in a work of Indian cinema.

If one is a fan of Tintin comics, it can be easily observed that the movie picks up many plot points from his fifth book, The Blue Lotus.  

Verdict - Like a slow-cooked stew, the neo-noir film is a well-prepared recipe, marinating in the glorious work of it’s talented cast, the rich contemporary setting, and the modern Gothic music, leaving viewers hungry for some more Byomkesh Bakshy. We anticipate a sequel in the works.

Furious 7 : The Bugle's Verdict

Fast and Furious 7. The name in itself evokes a flurry of expectations. It’s the end of a saga, one which inspired many to indulge in some really rash driving and ignore the “Stunts performed by professionals” warning. If expectation is something that propels you to see this movie, do yourself a favour and ditch this one. We don’t know about fast, but this surely left us feeling furious.

The film begins, showing Dom and Brian, settling into their dream life, believing all their troubles to be over. The latter, maybe not so much. He misses the action his old life has him used to. The Rock is pushing papers at the DSS, when Jason Statham enters the story, as Deckard Shaw, the “Big, Bad Brother” of Owen Shaw, the previous movie’s antagonist, out to seek revenge for little bro’s death. In Statham, we see a dangerous, trained assassin, who still believes he must stand by his brother’s side, even in death. In Statham, we see Dom’s dark reflection, a man whose code in life is family.

Sadly though, Jason Statham’s role is more like an extended guest appearance. This is a guy who has come out of years of hiding, just to kill these people, but funnily enough, it’s the other way round. The Toretto gang concocts a plan, with – hold on – Kurt Russell (that’s right), to use some uber-advanced surveillance technology and lead Shaw out into a trap, before he can get to them. This leads to Shaw having a maximum of 15 minutes screen-time, and it’s rather disappointing, because personally, Jason Statham was one of the reasons many were excited about this film, hoping for something along the lines of a “Transporter- Fast and Furious Showdown”.

The story is still likable, but not without its flaws. Even though it follows a format similar to that of Furious 6, it is able to keep the audience hooked on. It’s especially commendable, how in ending the series, the makers of the film connected it to its roots in “The Fast and the Furious”.

The stunts however, were a different story altogether. One thing we wish to point out is, Dom loves to fly. And he loves to do it in cars. Maybe he got tired of the plain old roads, and thought he should be exploring new horizons, because in the movie he flew off a cliff (into a ravine), out of a plane, into a helicopter, from one building to another, and from there to another building!! Basically, if it’s got seats and a steering wheel, Dom flies it. In the first or second instance, such a gimmick feels thrilling – it’s an action movie, for crying out loud. But after repeated flight lessons, things can get quite tedious.

For fellow Indian fans, Ali Fazal (Joy Lobo from 3 Idiots) also makes a guest appearance as a Mid-Eastern mechanic.

Verdict – For the late Paul Walker’s last ride, this movie didn’t do justice to his legacy, and if anything, it was ornamental, just like Dwayne Johnson, though in ending Walker received a proper emotional farewell.  The die-hard fanboy crowd  might still endure it, but for all others, it is advised that you tread with caution.