A Thursday, Review: For whom the mobile rings Make a hostage-taker your protagonist, pit her against the country’s police force and even the Prime Minister, cash-in on the title of a rivetting thriller called A Wednesday (2008), moving it a day further, create the ambience of a cat and mouse game in the thriller genre, and you have A Thursday. While the idea of holding hostages and making demands from the police force are common factors, this latter day ‘avtaar’, in which t...

Bala, Review: Haireditory and dark humour Two films in rapid succession about hair loss are about as rare as a new lock of hair sprouting on a bald pate. Whereas Ujda Chaman had the relatively unknown Sunny Singh Nijjar and Maanvi Gagroo playing the lead roles, Bala has National Award winning (shared) actor Ayushmann Khurrana, and by now well established actresses Bhumi Pednekar and Yami Gautam. Time has come when insider jokes, vulgar dialogue, mimicry and stand-up comedy are expected from K...

Badlapur—Don’t Miss the Beginning, Review: Some things are missing Funny line for a name. It is okay as a tag-line, but to make it part of the name? Did somebody object to the title Badlapur, and was the tag-line merged into the title to overcome that objection? Last December, a film titled Badlapur Boys was released in India, so there sure is some confusion. That one took its name from a fictional village in North India, and was about the game of kabaddi. Here, the name comes fro...