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Movie Review: Ragini MMS 2

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Quite frankly the most horror inducing part of Ragini MMS 2 was the declaration at the commencement of the film that it does not promote “illegal action of girl kissing” followed by an almost fervent chant of the Hanuman Chalisa. If that did not kill expectations, the story completely butchered it.

Ragingi MMS 2 takes off from where its predecessor left us with Ragini in a mental asylum for three years now. A sleazy, failed Director Rocks is making a film, no a Horrex (Horror + Sex) on her weekend disaster and has signed adult film actress Sunny Leone for the same who greets us in the press briefing in a bath tub, wearing just red lipstick because coming to press briefings in clothes is too mainstream. Prior to the crew taking off to the haunted house, we are privy to the guy who is shooting behind the scenes roaming around alone in what is deemed by  ASI as one of the most haunted house in India at night with a handy cam and lights off. Smart chap.He jerks off in the room where Ragini and her  boyfriend had spent the night and what happens to him next was something even he could have predicted.

As the film crew now takes residence in the mansion, which looks ready to fall from the outside but the insides are like that of a four star hotel somewhere in Europe, odd things start happening to them but mostly to Sunny Leone, who has been possessed by the witch. So when she is Sunny Leone the actress she is reserved, talks only to the wannabe loner writer Satya, confesses that she is not right for the role and proves to the crew and the world that being in an adult film also requires acting skills (you go girl) but as soon as the witch takes over she drinks alcohol, makes out with almost with everybody in the house, wears the skimpiest clothes and apparently doesn’t like them much because she is off them in the next scene. Why is she doing all this? Even she doesn’t have a clue.

Throughout all this, we have glimpses of the various ghosts in the houses just casually roaming around the house being their scary self. They are still abundantly better than the secondary characters in the film namely the clueless Monali (Sandhya Mridul) who speaks bad English, wears clothes appropriate for club nights, will go to any length to impress the director and declares to make Ragini threesome. There is also another failed character Maddy, who is in love with himself and his masculinity. His only contribution to the film is to make the audience constantly cringe either with his incessant jerking off or the dreadful puns and sexual innuendos he keeps throwing around. Going overboard, you will realize is a constant theme with the film.

Logic absolutely defies the film and so does a good plot or acting for that matter. Enter another character Dr. Mira (Divya Dutt) who is a psychiatrist from New York toting around in heels, dresses and red wine and specializes in supernatural cases. She attempts to solve this mystery just by using Google, watching tapes of Ragini in reverse and using the mantras a Baba in Rishikesh had given her. Psychiatry at its best, I tell you. She also manages to reach the mansion at the exact time and location in the house when she is needed. Google map,bitches. After a great deal of struggle which is reminiscent of the  film Conjuring and flinging around of the ‘F’ word, the movie ends with the witch being released from the body of Sunny Leone. Satya and her hug each other in what looks like the beginning of a relationship and we all sigh in relief that we came out alive of this film.

Somebody now get Sunny her pants please.

imagecourtesy: indiatvnews.com

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The Great Gatsby – Movie Review

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“The Great Gatsby” follows Fitzgerald’s classical work portraying Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) as the narrator who leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz, drinking-games and sky-rocketing stocks. Chasing his dream to make it big after Yale, Nick lands next door to a mysterious, large-hearted, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, and drives across the bay for dinner at the home of his cousin, Daisy (Carey Mulligan), and her good for nothing, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich, their illusions, love and deceit with lead characters being his own cousin, her husband and his dear friend, Gatsby. As Nick bears witness, within and without of the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams, treachery, power of the rich and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles.

The movie takes you through a bumpy ride of overdone glittering parties and grandiose displays of wealth with Jay-Z music and Lana Del Ray backgrounds. You know the 2013 Great Gatsby hasn’t done justice to the 1925 Great Gatsby, when there is an overuse of the dialogue “Old Sport” and Daisy’s unreal helplessness crosses all bounds. The hopelessly optimistic Gatsby after a while begins to disappoint the modern trended generation and leads to a predictive ending.

For what it is worth, I would rate the movie a 3.5 out 5 for Tobey Maguire pulls the movie to its ending. His narration of witty life-lessons makes you walk out with a thought. The Great Gatsby definitely teaches one how to party, but fails to be a testament to the determination of the human spirit, and the reality of the American Dream.

Sahiba Chawdhary
[email protected] 

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Movie Review: Go Goa Gone

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Film – Go Goa Gone
Starring – Vir Das, Kunal Khemu, Saif Ali Khan, Pooja Gupta, Anand Tiwary
Director – Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK

Go Goa Gone finds three hip young dudes in the throes of a quarter life crisis, facing extreme situations with more derring-do than smarts. Vir Das plays Luv, the typical lovesick, bad-boy trying to go good, but vows to live life on the wild side after getting dumped by his girlfriend, who entails on the vacation of a lifetime to Goa with his pothead and self-proclaimed casanova friend Hardik (Kunal Khemu), and uptight goody-two-shoes, Bunny (Anand Tiwari).

Go Goa Gone’s charming young cast and fresh premise has driven the film to earn positive word of mouth among urban audiences in India and overseas, suggesting lively returns for producer and co-star Saif Ali Khan, who plays the hilariously intimidating desi turned Russian zombie killer, Boris. ‘I keel dead people!’, he snarls.

The directors rely on smart writing and a genre awareness that ensures it isn’t another illogical blood-and-gore thriller. Go Goa Gone is neither a Night of the Living Dead nor a Shaun of the Dead; neither a generic horror film nor an overt parody. It is a fairly conventional slacker comedy. In simpler words, a watered-down Delhi Belly.

The soundtrack of the movie keeps you engaged and makes you want to try to focus, whereas the pretty, post- F.A.L.T.U Pooja Gupta provides you with enough eye-candy to survive through the bad graphics and zombie killing. Post-interval, the film does a zombie on us — it becomes dead, lumbering and tedious. The plot drags on to strangely sober zombies who were obviously chosen as cast from one of the Baga Beach rave parties itself.

The stoner jokes, sexual innuendos and gore keep the audience entertained, and the cast does a mighty fine job of portraying the characters. Overall, Go Goa Gone is a gloriously trippy ride.

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Bombay Talkies – Ajeeb Dastan Hain Yeh

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100 years of song and dance, technicolour expressions and the classic Bollywoody Maa came to their age. New stamps were released by the government and hordes of desi actors landed up on Cannes’ shores, finally with some half-baked reason of representing the century old Indian film industry to get their 15 seconds of limelight. In all of these, the irony fell on the 100 year old dame of the industry itself. It would have been expected that the industry of million films would churn out at least a few dozen to celebrate the century, but no. Its most visible face internationally, Bollywood, came out with only one and in aapna filmy language, it was hugely thanda.

Divided into four short films directed by four very different directors, Bombay Talkies starts with Karan Johar’s ‘Ajeeb Dastan Hain Yeh’. Gayatri and Dev are a very good looking couple who for some reason don’t have enough sex. Avinash is Gayatri’s young gay colleague who happens to ascertain using his superior gaydar that Dev is gay. No reason is offered as to why he goes out of his way to act all creepy with his office bestie’s husband. Johar leaves a lot of loose ends untied and all of the characters flat. They never get explored enough and given the time constraints Johar had, it is understandable, given the fact that the average runtime of his films is 2 Kumbh Melas and all the episodes of ‘Kyunki Sans Bhi kabhi Bahu Thi’ put together. Talking about acting, while Rani played the bored wife to the T, the parts showing her in her “highflying working woman” avatar felt phoney. Randeep Hooda looked and acted his character well, the silence of his words and intensity of his stare going well with the role he was playing. Saqib Saleem looked as if he was trying too hard to act his part convincingly and was much pleasant in his debut film.Bombay Talkies POSTER_0

Nothing about the film was ‘ajeeb’, if we don’t limit our understanding of the word ‘ajeeb’ to only the very superficial treatment of the theme of homosexuality and female sexuality. Yes, female sexuality because for me, the segment may deal more visibly with the sexuality of the two men in the story but the woman’s sexuality is given ample, if not enough, screen time too. The intentions might have been in the right places and placing this particular segment at the first certainly points to the more progressiveness of the film makers, but it falls flat on the execution. Playing with one stereotype after another, Johar shows an unhappy couple, a sassy gay friend and the very clichéd moment of realisation for the husband. What happened in the west in decades past is only peeping in here now and Bollywood in its 100th year should have shown more maturity.

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Movie Review: Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola

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Set in a hamlet called ‘Mandola Gaaon’, district Rohtak- Haryana; the movie Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola is a satirical take on many socio- economic issues that plague rural and urban India equally. Going in with first impressions, one must take note that the promos for this movie are a tad bit misleading. Take a look at any promo or poster and the movie comes across as just another Bollywood flick that would lack any intellectual appeal. We were glad to find out first hand that the movie is much, much more than that. Vishal Bharadwaj, the man behind movies like Omkara, Maqbool etc has tried hard and in most ways succeeded in amalgamating conventional Bollywood style of narrative with much more serious and far reaching issues.

The major theme all through the movie is one which many villages in India currently face and we town- dwellers are blissfully ignorant of. Harry Mandola (Pankaj Kapoor) wants the State Government led by Chaudhari Devi (Shabana Azmi) to declare Mandola Gaaon as a Special Economic Zone for his own profit motives. Chaudhari Devi also wants to get Harry’s daughter Bijlee (Anushka Sharma) married to her rather moronic son Baadal (Arya Babbar). Hukkum Singh Matru played by Imran Khan is Harry Mandola’s driver for namesake. In reality, one notices how Matru means much more than a lowly servant to Harry and his daughter. It gets better as Matru rises up as the leader of the farmers in their protest against Harry. Scene after scene, more layers of Matru’s personality emerge and if it weren’t for Imran’s shoddy acting, the role of Matru could have solely taken the spotlight.

From the very beginning, one simply falls prey to the captivating performance of Pankaj Kapoor who plays the role of industrialist Harry Mandola, after whom Mandola Gaaon is named. The very timbre of his voice, his slurry speech, his antics and his choicest words of abuse will keep one captivated till the very end. Bijlee Mandola, Harry’s spoilt, eccentric daughter who does everything over the top, BUT being a Bollywood female character, has an unnaturally soft heart for her role. Anushka Sharma seemed to be cut out for this role, she was stern when she had to be, loving when she had to be and filmy when she wasn’t being stern or loving. Shabanma Azmi gave a very strong and relatable performance for her role as a corrupt politician in power. Her devious dialogues, expressions, and well thought out strategies cement her role as the antagonist and one nods in agreement to her similarity to real life political figures. Matru’s friends, one of whom is a Eunuch and the other a blind boy, played notable supporting roles. Both have done a very commendable job, especially the blind boy who performs in the most brazen way and sends one on a laughing spree.

The script makes many intellectual jokes and satirical comments and does not always rely on slapstick. The element of Communism comes through very clearly and is an eye-opener for many. The music is another thing that makes sailing from scene to scene or switches of mood easier. Well of course, there is a lot of the usual Bollywood thumka’s but many songs have an underlying African beat and sometimes even a hint of the good western music comes through.

Getting to the things that weren’t so easy to go down. Many scenes have the typical unrealistic Bollywood touch to them. In addition, the climax is a rather slow build up and it is a little over done. These two elements might have been put in place to draw the average Indian cinema lover into the film. The comedy in the script while in many places is crafted well, in others is just unnecessary. The actors also fail to sport a decent enough Haryanvi accent, something that goes against the bucolic feel of the movie.

All in all the good, bad, and Imran Khan negate each other out and what is left is a movie that deals with serious issues at ease and is a ray of hope for good scripting in Bollywood. Also, do look out for the pink buffalo, all you Matrus who plan to watch this package of infotainment!

Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola deserves 3 out of 5 beats!

 

Anugrah Gopinath
[email protected] 

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Movie Review – The Hobbit

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Movie – The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Director – Peter jackson

Music – Howard Shore

Rating – 4/5

Afficianados of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (LOTR) series mostly would have been familiar with the prequel to the events of that series which are chonicled in The Hobbit, the tale of Bilbo Baggins’ journey to ‘there and back again’. For them, and for those who find themselves hearing of it just about now, Peter Jackson’s cinematic adaptation of Tolkien’s earliest work, presents an enthralling 169 minutes of Middle-Earth fantasia, a compelling watch for hobbits and men alike.

The Hobbit follows Bilbo Baggins (the uncle of Frodo, hero of the  LOTR franchise) as he is taken, most unwillingly so, aboard the Dwarves’ expedition to the Lonely Mountain to recover their home and treasure form the terrible fire-breathing dragon, Smaug. Gandalf, the pyrotechnics expert and wizard of fame, handpicks Bilbo as the official burglar for the team of the Dwarves, who are led by their prince Thorin and it remains to be seen whether the timid and reclusive hobbit will make himself of use for them, or be a liability, and whether the Dwarves, a most exclusive race among  themselves will accept him into their fold.

While it seemed implausible at first that Jackson could make a nearly three hour-long movie while still covering effectively only the first six chapters of the book, in his bid to make three full length movies out of only a 300 page novel, this first installment in Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy pans out as a very well structured film. With the constant action occurring throughout, there is no dull moment, nor does the entire movie seem forcefully elongated. In addition to Tolkien’s own ingenuity, the director has lent the movie generous dollops of his own ingenuity by creating new and parallel storylines and a certain authenticity to the battles in the tale, which in the novel seem to read as juvenile.

This brillanct example of directorial intervention is further embellished by the convincing performances of Ian McKellen as Gandalf, a character to which he has lent expert performances over four movies now. Martin Freeman as the bumbling, timid, constantly bemused, yet guileful in his role as a burglar makes an impressive first appearance in the series of movies revolving around Middle-Earth. Richard Armitage, as Thorin, the leader of Dwarves puts in a comprehensive execution of his role, charismatic and confident. Howard Shore, who already gave us the award-winning music for the LOTR series once again is spectacular, providing the exact strain of music as every scene demands individually.

By way of summing up, we suggest that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the perfect film to watch to sign of 2012 on a high, with the promise of a 2013 that promises much to us by way of cinema lurking right around the corner.

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Skyfall-Review

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To make a film that is part of a well-loved franchise is always an unenviable task. Most people hate you for trying, and very few are ever satisfied. Sam Mendes single-handedly defeats all those stereotypes with Skyfall.

The first thing that strikes the viewer, as one is walking out of the hall, is the attention paid to character and story, which is completely unlike the large number of Bond movies which have often looked like a string of put-together set pieces to showcase a tuxedoed agent.

The 007 agent is introduced as someone whose best days are all behind him, aging, vulnerable and off his game – something driven home by the Adele opening track. Unlike most Bond movies which focused solely on the agent’s single-handed achievements along with the ‘attraction’ factor added by the concept of a ‘Bond girl’, the movie looks more like an ensemble piece with M as the co-lead in most parts of the narrative, supported ably by Ralph Fiennes and Naomie Harris.

The villain constructed by Javier Bardem, is described by Total Film’s Neil Smith as “is that rarest of creations: a cyber-terrorist who genuinely terrifies.” Nothing is more frightening than a completely unhinged villain, and the film makes full use of the character to depict the changing scenario of villainy and heroism, along with sources of information.

The antidote and the poison to all that is, every thing that can change anything can all be done with a single flick of a keystroke. Or perhaps, just an idea. The twenty-third film which marks fifty years of the Bond franchise does justice to all these landmarks and leaves us with far more than aesthetic fantasies. It leaves us with a narrative of a man who has been in a ruthless profession for too long.

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English Vinglish – Review

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The movie English Vinglish surely marks a stellar comeback of veteran actress Sridevi. The plot revolves around an issue that may not have achieved a great magnitude in the world, but still bothers many nevertheless. Living in a world, where speaking is English is a “necessity” than show off , the movie displays the effect of that “necessity” on a non- English speaking person.

The movie unfolds by characterizing Shashi (Sridevi). A quintessential middle class woman, whose world revolves around her children and husband. She alone, looks after the house, listens to her children and husband nag her about not knowing English, and that silently eats up her self confidence and respect.

She is then invited to Manhattan, to assist in the wedding of her sister’s daughter. The house of Manu (the sister) is more comforting, where Manu and Radha (Shashi’s niece) are seen as strong pillars of emotional support. After a particularly humiliating incident in a restaurant in Manhattan that was largely attributed to her not knowing English, Shashi decided to join English speaking classes, without telling anyone.

The classes become a source of happiness for Shashi, simultaneously boosting her self confidence. A relatively unimportant sub plot of a love story between a classmate and Shashi also enters the play here. In the end, it is finally shown that Shashi earns her certificate of English speaking , with distinction, and gives a speech in English in her niece’s wedding, thereby re-inculcating the lost respect in the minds of her children and husband.

The movie very correctly depicts the mental state of an average middle class married lady, and how little things in life assume great importance. For example, Shashi had decided to make marriage sweets herself, in her niece’s marriage.  In an unfortunate turn of events, she drops and spoils those sweets. And that was the day of her final exam in English. Shashi decided to make the sweets again rather than go to the English class.

Also, the movie ends on a very good note, that when you love yourself , everything around you becomes sweeter, and when you are not able to embrace your identity , everything that is associated with you becomes aversive. This is shown in Shashi’s behavior, when in the airlines, on her way back to India, she deliberately asks for a Hindi newspaper, and chooses not to read an English one, thereby accepting her identity and being comfortable in it.

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Smiley all the way

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Director : Tomas Alfredson

Cast : Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciarán Hinds

Rating : 4/5

The career of Gary Oldman – frequently cited as the finest actor working today never to have been nominated for an Oscar – is something of a mystery. In the 1980s, he appeared in British films as disparate as Sid and Nancy, Prick Up Your Ears and The Firm, and rivalled Daniel Day-Lewis for versatility. A move to Hollywood in the early 90s did nothing to stop his curiosity and desire to play a huge range of roles, which included, from 1990 – 1994  Lee Harvey Oswald, Beethoven, Dracula, Rosencrantz and, most wonderfully of all, Norman Stansfield in Luc Besson’s Leon, a linen-suited corrupt cop to end all corrupt cops.

Then, around the mid-90s, something appeared to change. The films became more about the fee and less about the performance. He was still good value as flamboyant villains in the likes of Air Force One and The Fifth Element, and contributed interesting shadings to a Republican senator in The Contender, but an element of vitality was missing.

With the honourable exceptions of his excellent James Gordon in the Batman films, and his noble Sirius Black in the Harry Potter series (works that he has candidly described as ‘the least amount of work for the most amount of money), his work in the past decade has been negligible. You haven’t heard of most of the films he’s made, because they snuck onto the shelves, straight to DVD, as if ashamed. Apparently this is due to his desire to raise two young children by himself, as a single father. While personally commendable, the world has been waiting for a performance by Oldman that reminds the world of this fine actor’s immense talent.

Now, at last, we have one. Tomas Alfredson’s brilliant adaptation of John le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy novel succeeds on pretty much every level, but the first thing that we must be thankful for is that it rehabilitates one of the greatest British actors of the past quarter century.

In 1973, Control(John Hurt), the head of British Intelligence (“the Circus”), sends agent Jim Prideaux(Mark Strong) to Budapest to meet a Hungarian general who wishes to sell information. The operation is blown: fleeing, Prideaux is shot in the back by Soviet intelligence. Amid the international incident that follows, Control and his right-hand man George Smiley(Gary Oldman) are forced into retirement. Control, already ill, dies soon afterwards.

Percy Alleline(Toby Jones) becomes the new Chief of the Circus, with Bill Haydon(Colin Firth) as his deputy and Roy Bland and Toby Esterhase as close allies. They have established their status by delivering apparently high-grade Soviet intelligence material, code named “Witchcraft”, about which both Control and Smiley were suspicious. Alleline shares Witchcraft material with the Americans, obtaining valuable US intelligence in exchange.

Smiley is brought out of retirement by Oliver Lacon, the civil servant in charge of intelligence, to investigate an allegation by agent Ricki Tarr(Tom Hardy) that there is a long-term ‘mole’ in the upper echelon of British Intelligence.

The codenames of the five senior officers under suspicion are derived from the English children’s rhyme “Tinker, Tailor”:

Tinker, Tailor,

Soldier, Sailor,

Rich Man, Poor Man,

Beggar Man, Thief.

With silver hair, thick-rimmed glasses, and a brilliant, analytical mind, Oldman’s Smiley is as much great detective as he is super-spy – a feeling reinforced by the casting of Benedict Cumberbatch as his Dr Watson, Peter Guillam, and the unseen presence of Karla, his Russian nemesis. Interestingly, Benedict Cumberbatch’s most acclaimed role is that in the popular BBC TV-series, Sherlock. His performance in the movie is, perhaps, among the strongest – a great feat to achieve when cast alongside such big names.

Alfredson was also very much the right man for the job. Building on the success of his superb vampire film Let The Right One In, he creates a paranoid, anxious milieu in which everyone smokes, nobody can be trusted and where everyone – friends, lovers, colleagues – ends up betraying everyone else, almost as a reflexive action.  Alberto Iglesias’ music does a lot to set the right mood for each scene.

The whole story is like an intricate chess match, every move, every agent – every information piece is as vital as the opponents’ next move. So intensely cerebral that one wishes at so many moments that they had the option to rewind and hear the dialogues once more.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is definitely worth a watch(and so much more) but like  the massive stickers in the film’s elevator keep reminding us, ‘mind your head’.

 

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“Elementary, my dear Watson?”

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Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

MOVIE REVIEW

CAST: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Jared Harris, Noomi Rapace, Stephen Fry with Rachel McAdams

RATING: 4/5

The much awaited sequel to the 2009 flick Sherlock Holmes hits the screen, once again giving to us Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes, the most famous fictional detective world over and his faithful sidekick, the war-wounded Dr John Watson, brought to life by Jude Law. This edition follows on from where the previous movie ended, i.e. by bringing into foray the criminal mastermind of Professor James Moriarty, enacted craftily by Jared Harris.

The background is shown to be teeming with tensions between, as Sherlock’s elder brother Mycroft (Stephen Fry) puts it diplomatically “two countries who shall not be named but who speak the languages French and German.” Into this political upheaval steps Professor Moriarty who simply wants to make money out of creating firstly the demand and following it with the supply of arms and machinery to the alliance groups between which a war seems inevitable. The plot unwinds through the damp, morbid looking London streets to a brilliantly lit Paris onto the drop-dead beautiful sceneries of Switzerland, as Holmes and his gang must match their wits against an equally formidable opponent, Professor Moriarty in a bid to foil his plans to spark off a world war for pure monetary gains.

Before we comment further on this film, we must acknowledge and raise the top of our hats (if wearing one) to the pure, unadulterated visual appeal of this movie. Guy Ritchie, literally, goes all guns ablaze and firing on all cylinders, from the word go. The much-loved fight sequences from the previous instalment in this series are but enhanced here. The pre-planned punches-jabs-kicks salvo-ed with panache by RDJ here, are shot in further slow motion, with crystal clear HD effects that are oh-so-appealing to the eye. The brawl sequences too are smartly executed and one cannot help but envy the talents of such a man as Sherlock is shown to be. Add to this his foresight, his acute sense of timing and Robert Downey Jr.’s incorrigible sardonic wit; you have in his embodiment of Holmes a very lovable character. Jude Law also is found here in his element and assiduously walks along with RDJ as a highly loyal sidekick.

Rachel McAdams as the enchanting Irene Adler gets but a cameo in this edition, but one may further be disappointed with Noomi Rapace, the female partner-in-adventure to the dynamic duo of Holmes and Watson. Jared Harris as James Moriarty seems a tad less fearsome than he is made out to be in the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, especially if one considers that Brad Pitt was rumoured to be playing the role of Holmes’s nemesis. Stephen Fry, in what little role has been allotted to him, makes you grin if not laugh with his enactment of the laidback elder brother Mycroft Holmes, enjoying his undisclosed job in the foreign ministry of Britain, walking around naked in his villa at the top of one or the other mountain in the Swiss region.

The movie might seem a tad stretched through the first half, but be not mistaken, movie-goer! The second half more than makes up for the gradual build-up in the preceding one hour. The absolutely mesmerising train fight sets the tone for all the other scenes brimming with action that unravel in the second half; as the plot thickens, the guns get bigger and the games of shadow truly begins.

However, there are a few concerns one might be bothered about. Guy Ritchie in his fervour seems to have reinvented the age-old character of Sherlock Holmes of 221B Baker Street a bit too much for the liking of one who has religiously read all the stories of Sir Arthur. The agitated, nicotine smoking, statesman-like figure, who had dazzling powers of deduction and the incredible capability to coherently organise his findings into solutions for the most baffling of cases, is now transformed into a trigger-happy, brawny figure with much more developed sense of humour than was allowed to him by his creator. Perhaps a handful of this and a handful of that might have led to a better result, more mixed, more evolved albeit not totally different, Sherlock Holmes.

But overall, this movie is certainly one that can give your new year a jump start and is one which will give literal meaning to the phrase “new year bash”, what with all the bashing up of bombers, snipers, criminal masterminds and un-noted others.

So watch it, definitely maybe. For the action, for Robert Downey Jr., for Sherlock Holmes – the much-adored sleuth and for the superbly thrilling climax that the movie offers to you.

And that’s, to quote the last words of the movie which indeed seem to promise a third instalment in this franchise, “The End?”

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