Goldfish, Review:  Without your memory, you are like a goldfish out of water Probably used as a metaphor for the memory lapses of its central character, who is suffering from dementia, the goldfish, believed to have a memory span of three seconds, has, in fact, a rather long memory. On the website Live Science, the short-memory theory has been debunked, “In reality, goldfish (Carassius auratus) have much longer memories — spanning weeks, months and even years. And the science...

8 am Metro, Review: One train, many tracks Firstly, it is not about a train. Secondly, the journey of the lead characters changes so many tracks that it ultimately derails, and it takes a long-drawn climax to get it back on track. Even then, it ends on half a track. And yet there is something about 8 am Metro that is endearing and fresh. Coming not too long after Pierre Filmon’s French film, In Between Two Trains/Long Time No See (2019), it is likely to have been inspired by the French ...

Amazon Prime Video’s Jubilee: A celebration of the golden era of Hindustani cinema When a director like Vikramaditya Motwane charts new territory in the shape of a 10-episode web series, with lip-sync songs, something he has never done before, there is high curiosity value. It’s called Jubilee and the trailer was launched at Four Seasons Hotel, Mahalakshmi, Mumbai, on Friday afternoon. Starting just 30 minutes after the scheduled time, the proceedings ended within an hour, which i...

Shimla Mirchi, Review: Chilly? Don't be silly! Several highs dot the career graph of director Ramesh Sippy, right from his debut in 1971 as a 24 year-old, with the remake of A Man and a Woman (Claude Lelouch, France, 1966) under the title, Andaz. Crests include Seeta Aur Geeta, Sholay and Buniyaad (TV series), relative high points were reached with Saagar and Shakti, and troughs bogged him down when he attempted Shaan, Bhrashtachar, Akayla and Zamaana Diwana. Completed 19 years after Zama...

Raaz Reboot: Exorcise in futility When the best things in a horror/supernatural film are its songs, it does not augur well. A few days before the release of Raaz Reboot (they use that in the title? I thought ‘reboot’ was a word copyrighted to journalists and IT whiz kids!) the Bhatt threesome—brothers Mahesh and Mukesh and protege Vikram—announced that Raaz 4 (now, that sounds better) would be the last instalment in the series. Foresight for sure. Raaz (Hindi/Urdu for ...

Phantom, Review: RAW-hide Rambo Saif Ali Khan comes in for Salman, Katrina stays put, so do the London locales and the secret agent assassin theme, as director Kabir Khan tries to go one up on his last outing in the genre, Ek Tha Tiger (2012). He has claimed that Tiger was unrealistic, whereas Phantom is close to reality. That claim is highly debatable. Phantom is indeed inspired by real and devastating, events that wreaked terror in Mumbai, in November 2008, killing 167 persons. That does ma...

Invitation to a first look Saturday evening, four days after my return from Singapore. A call on my mobile phone. Some young woman said she was calling from Spice Bhasha. No, not a restaurant chain nor a spice manufacturer, but the non-English focus public relations firm, Spice PR. Line was unclear, so I requested her to send the details of the event she was inviting me to by SMS. Nothing came till Sunday night. And then I got it. An ‘iftaar’ (meaning breaking of the 16-hour total...