RIFLE RANGE BOY

Darbar (2019) Are we living lives that are so unfulfilling? Are we trapped in a quagmire of hopelessness and pessimism that destined us to be forever confined in a sticky web of doom and gloom? Are we resigned to the fact we are too intellectually bankrupt to lift ourselves up by our bootstraps? Are we waiting for that imaginary knight in shining armour to magically hoist us out of our rabbit hole of melancholy? Is it possible? Or are we imagining another realm where all our aches, pains and attachments would be magically dismantled?  Perhaps we had fought our fights and had given up. All the power and wealth of the powers that be have disarmed us from the shield of resilience. We have crumbled and wilted to pressure. We are numbed to our addiction to our devices that have sapped our juices to think. Maybe it is not a new phenomenon. For ages, we of the human race have suffered under the tyranny of dictators and power-hungry madmen. And we have seen saviours in the...

I (ஐ, Tamil; 2015) Many recommended that I should watch this Kollywood outing which they say is different from the usual fare. I disagree. Throughout the film, I had the recurrent déjà vu that I had seen this and that. This 49 year old hero (Vikram aka John Kennedy Victor aka Chiyaan), is saying that he is no push over and appears with body toned and muscle contours chiselled out to perfection and have no qualms of exhibiting it. Nevertheless, his age shows in the form of crow feet and peri-orbital wrinkles. Just like his previous outing (Anniyan comes to mind), he acts as a deformed hunched back (ala Notre Dam) with neurofibromatosis-like papules. And the plot of vengeance involving calculated and varied manner of getting is so overdone. Perhaps the youngsters who throng cinemas again and again and burn the ticket collections must be mesmerised with the gaudy display of props, display of the female and male anatomy, the elaborate preparation of set dances with various motif...

Interview (2014) Perhaps it was all just a stunt to catch everybody's fancy. The alleged hacking of a giant and threat of war and all. Anyway, what do you expect when a leader of a sovereign nation is ridiculed? Most Hollywood films would only make characters that resemble a leader of a small helpless nation, not point blank the very same name. Sitting through the 1.5 hour of the movie which would make 'Austin Powers' seen as a classic, I realised that it not even worth the film it is printed on. The jokes are not funny with frequent use of explicit foul superlatives and adjective and 'in your face' sexual jokes which are not sexual innuendoes but descriptive pornographic gestures. Over at the story department, it is nothing much. Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producer Aaron Rapoport (Seth Rogen) are proud of their brainless TV show which features interview of worthless importance. Not surprisingly, it is a runaway hit in its ratings and is even liked by N...