FILMY BOLI

               Darlings Film Review By Manya Malhotra Cast :   Alia Bhatt, Vijay Verma, Shefali Shah, Roshan Mathew, Rajesh Sharma, Vijay Maurya Director:   Jasmeet K. Reen   Review :   Darlings is co-written by writer-director Jasmeet K Reen and Parveez Sheikh, who has films like Queen to his writing credits. It stars powerhouse performers like Alia Bhatt, Shefali Shah, and Vijay Verma — and is also Bhatt’s maiden film as a producer. Clearly, the expectations with this one are very high— and yet it still manages to make an impact.  Darling s tells the story of Badrunissa who suffers physical and psychological abuse at the hands of her husband before one day finally deciding to retaliate.  Make no mistake, Darlings is not an easy film to watch. It is infuriating but also determinedly terrifying. It lets you breathe but is also dangerously unsettling.    The first half of the film is the hardest to watch. It tested my patience to the point where I was almost ready to give up on watc

  The Princess Switch: Switched Again Romantic Comedy  2.5  Cast : Vanessa Hudgens, Sam Palladio, Nick Sagar, Suanne Braun, Ricky Norwood Director : Mike Rohl Story : Princess Stacy and Duchess Margaret switch places again but unbeknownst to them, Margret’s cousin, Lady Fiona has a few tricks up her sleeve as well. Review : The release of Netflix Christmas movies has become a yearly tradition, and it seems, so has the presence of the affable Vanessa Hudgens in these films. The Princess Switch: Switched Again is a harebrained and frankly rather unnecessary sequel to what could best be described as a superficial ‘The Prince and the Pauper’-esque first installment. Before we dive into Netflix’s latest way to spread Christmas cheer, we are presented with a helpful recap of the first film in the franchise that plays out exactly as if we were reading a greeting card. Princess Stacy (played by Hudgens) thinks that Queen-to-be, Duchess Margaret (also played by Hu

Three Years Of Filmy Boli                 Being a movie buff, I have always enjoyed watching films and reading their reviews. Reading the autobiographical account of a prolific Indian filmmaker’s life in 2017 inspired me to pen down my first ever film review by combining my love for cinema and writing. That was three years ago , and today my blog filmy boli consists of over 40 movie reviews! As filmy boli turns three today I am grateful to everyone who read my blog, shared its link and commented. Thank you for all the love!  On a day very special to me, it is fitting that I post the review of a film that has been extremely special to me and that I had been waiting for ever since it was announced! Read to find out what makes it so special! Little Women                ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson, Laura Dern ,Timothée Chalamet, Eliza Scanlen, Meryl Streep. Director: Greta Gerwig Story: Set in the 1800’s this film tells the story of

Housefull 4 2.5 Comedy Cast: Akshay Kumar, Riteish  Deshmukh, Kriti Sanon, Bobby Deol, Kriti Kharbanda , Pooja Hegde, Johnny Lever, Chunky Pandey  Director: Farhad Samji Story: Harry   recalls everything from his past life in 1419, where the love story of three couples remained unfinished. The couples are reincarnated in 2019, but this time their pairs are mixed up. Can Harry reunite everyone with their correct partners? Review: The re-incarnation theme  has been attempted before in Bollywood. Housefull 4 is unique because it complements this theme with comedy. The Housefull franchise is synonymous with a mad Premise, a bunch of buffoonish characters and the city of London. As Expected Housefull 4  is no stranger to the above mentioned ingredients. The first half of the film is surprisingly pleasant. It has quite a few wacky one-liners that will tickle your funny bone. Some foot tapping numbers and dazzling visuals add to the viewing experience.  Apart from one particu

Joker                 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️           Thriller Cast:   Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen Director:  Todd Phillips  Story:   The film tells the origin story of The Joker. Arthur Fleck aspires to be a stand up comedian but he is constantly dealt bad  hands that eventually drive him over the edge Description Description Review:  J oker is dark, it is gritty, it is graphic and if you are willing to sit through it all it is an immersive movie-watching experience. The film traces the origin of one of the most infamous super villains in comic book history. The Joker ( Arthur Fleck) is a complicated character and the film is in no hurry to reveal these complexities of its lead character to us. The story takes a good two hours to unravel Arthur’s character layer by layer, occasionally drawing from instances of his past to help both Arthur and the audience connect the dots.          D irector Todd Philips has no qualms about making his aud

The Zoya Factor            ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Romantic Comedy Cast : Sonam K Ahuja, Dulquer Salman, Sikandar Kher, Sanjay Kapoor, Angad Bedi Director : Abhishek Sharma  Story : Zoya Solanki becomes the lucky charm of The Indian Cricket team and even starts a budding romance with skipper , Nikhil Khoda. Trouble ensues when Zoya gets more than what she bargained for. Review : Sonam K Ahuja has already established herself as bollywood’s  go- to actress for playing goofy characters. After The Zoya Factor she will now also be known for bringing ‘exotic’ actors (Fawad Khan and now Dulquer Salman) to the Hindi film industry.  In our country, there is only one thing that unites all  religions, genders and “castes” and that is superstitions. The Zoya Factor,  based on a book written by Anuja Chauhan by the same name , takes a dig on the superstitious nature of us Indians. The film never does anything more or less than that. It is not made with the aim to send out some sort of a social mes

Kabir Singh                        Drama, Romance  Cast : Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Soham Majumdar, Arjan Bajwa, Nikita Dutta, Suresh Oberoi Director : Sandeep Reddy Vanga Story : Kabir falls madly in love with Preeti and when they can’t be together he goes on the path of self destruction. Review :   Early on in the film, Kabir spots a girl (Preeti) walking on campus and he declares to the whole college that she is his girl (‘ woh meri bandi hai’ to be exact) and that no other guy should come near her. The girl is oblivious to this. Later on, encountering her, Kabir promptly goes and kisses her on the cheek and his rationale for that is that no one saw them. (Charming guy!) The girl is just standing there, mute she doesn’t utter a single word.  There is no problem in portraying flawed characters on-screen those are the kind of characters the audience enjoys watching. It is the way these characters are portrayed that becomes problematic. When Kabir falls into the tra

Judgementall Hai Kya    2.5 Thriller Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Rajkumar Rao, Amyra Dastur, Amrita Puri, Jimmy Sheirgill  Director:   Prakash Kovelamudi Story: Bobby becomes overly obsessed with her new tenant, Keshav. All hell breaks lose when Keshav’s wife is found dead. Review: Judgementall Hai kya is one complicated film. It drives you in circles and leaves you feeling dizzy by the end of it.  Most of the weight of the film lies on the reliable shoulders of Kangana Ranaut. She plays Bobby, a character diagnosed with acute psychosis. She imagines people and situations in her head and we see the film through her perspective. Naturally, she is an unreliable narrator. The first 30 minutes of Judgementall hai Kya are extremely bizarre and the film has undertones of bizarre right till the end. You have to be patient as it unravels itself layer by layer. The good thing about Judgementall Hai Kya is that it keeps the suspense element intact, you are left guessing who the culpr

Spider-Man: Far From Home       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Fantasy, Comedy   Cast: Tom Holland, Jake Gyllenhaal, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, John Favreau, Samuel L. Jackson, Marisa Tomei, Cobie Smulders Director: Jon Watts Story:   Peter Parker must step up and fight against the forces trying to disrupt peace in his world.  Review: Spider-Man Far From Home is set eight months after the events of Endgame. So a lot of the questions running through your mind after you witnessed that roller coaster of a film are answered here. The  once, friendly neighbourhood Spider- man has now moved away from  the comforts of his locality to the beautiful Venice with a bunch of his classmates.  Infused with Marvel’s trademark wacky humour, Spider- man far from home makes for an entertaining watch. There is enough happening in this film to keep you thoroughly engrossed. Peter Parker wants to take a break from all the “superhero stuff” and go on his class trip, hopefully proposing  to a girl he likes in

Student Of The Year 2                     3 Romance, Drama Cast: Tiger Shroff, Ananya Pandey, Tara Sutaria, Aditya Seal Director: Punit Malhotra Story: A small town boy moves into the city’s top college to win over his childhood sweetheart and ends up discovering himself, while competing for the coveted student of the year trophy. Review: So we are back to the glitzy world of Saint Teresa, where academics takes a back seat and literally everything else is in focus. Student Of The Year 2 is set in the same college that its preceding film was, but the similarities end here. The whole concept of Student Of The Year has been changed this time around and now it involves a sporting competition between eight rival colleges with an absolute lack of female participation. The makers try to make up for this by ensuring that the students coach is female but that is hardly any redemption. Since this is a Tiger Shroff film you have reason enough to expect doses of action and a bu

Avengers: Endgame (Spoiler- Free Review) 4.5 Fantasy, Action, Adventure  Cast:   Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Karen Gillan, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Josh Brolin, Paul Rudd, Don Cheadle  Director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo Story: The remaining avengers come together to reverse the actions of the mighty Thanos and restore order in the universe .                                                                                                   Review: Remember my last review where I said that wait for a week and watch Avengers: Endgame instead? Aren’t you glad that you did! We were first transported to the MCU in 2008 and 22 films and 11 years later, we are just not ready to leave. This is not a film, this is a festival, a kind that has not been seen before and probably will not be seen again. You will laugh, you will cry, you will be forced to cheer louder then you ever thought you could while you witness all kinds of awesome i

Celebrating 2 Years Of Filmy Boli Today, my blog completes 2 years and I am so grateful to everyone who commented on , shared the link of and read my posts. I want to celebrate this day by doing what I love doing, writing reviews! What better way to celebrate than to review a film I have been looking forward to ever since it was announced, did it live up to my expectations? Read to find out. Kalank                   2.5 Drama Cast : Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Sonakshi Sinha, Kunal Khemu, Sanjay Dutt Director : Abhishek Varman Story :   Set in pre- partition India, Kalank tells the tale of two star- crossed lovers and their tryst with destiny. Review :  In Kalank, director Abhishek Varman and production designer Amrita Mahal paints a delicious world with lavish sets ranging from resplendent buildings to sparkling lakes and the characters donning dazzling and carefully colour coordinated costumes. Visually, it cannot get grander

Isn’t It Romantic                                     Fantasy, Comedy  3 Cast : Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam Devine, Priyanka Chopra Jonas Director: Todd Strauss- Schulson Story : Natalie who has grown up to despise romantic comedies hits her head and wakes up in a world where her whole life starts playing out like a romantic comedy film. Review : Firstly I want to say that I know this film has not released in India but since the promo looked interesting and it starred India’s new brand ambassador in hollywood, Priyanka Chopra I gave it a shot. The reason why Isn’t It Romantic is a refreshing watch is because it is a spoof on romantic comedies which intentionally turns into a romantic comedy in itself. The film takes a dig at all the cliches in every romantic comedy film ever and also reminds us why we love them so much. Rebel Wilson plays the super cynical, classic misfit who’s worst nightmare comes true when she gets transported into an alternate universe wh

Lukka Chuppi            3 Comedy Cast : Kartik Aaryan, Kriti Sanon, Pankaj Tripathi, Alka Amin, Aparshakti Khurrana Director : Laxman Utekar Story : A girl and boy, who are in love decide to enter into a secret live in relationship but soon their families find out about them and misunderstand their relationship to be marriage. Review : Lukka chuppi is set in the small towns of Mathura and Gwalior. The girl and boy meet and two minutes later, they fall madly in love ( to be fair there was a song in between.) So the first half of the movie is just not funny, it tries, really tries and perhaps that’s why it fails. It failed to evoke any kind of reaction from me besides sheer exasperation and made me wonder why I decided to waste my time on this absolutely corny attempt at comedy. It is boring, trying and frankly kind of random.  Don’t worry, the film is not a complete let down. The second half is surprisingly pleasant, and truly does have some hysterical one liners.