Movie Review: Agneepath..is not quite the firestorm you hope for

 

The new-age Agneepath breathes fire in some sequences as well as in its performances but overall its not quite the firestorm you wish it to be. The movie has got some..no wait..one beautifully executed sub-plot but that just isn’t enough. The revised version of Vijay Dinanath Chauhan as a schemer and a shrewd operator is refreshing but unfortunately it doesn’t last very long.

This is yet another movie that firmly reinforces that if a movie doesn’t need songs, don’t force them in!! With six unnecessary songs you’ll have your head in your hands in pure frustration. The songs are all the more an issue in a movie like this because they completely finish any momentum the movie may have gathered, any intensity it may have generated as part of the last sequence. So is the case with the absolutely unnecessary melodrama and emotional nonsense put in a movie like this

Remove that, remove the songs, throw in one more sub-plot and what you have is a roughly 90-120 minutes action packed blockbuster. As it stands though, at a monstrous 177 minutes, I don’t know whether to fault the director or the editor for the pot pourri they ultimately managed in the end

Speaking about the end, don’t want to give anything away, but please don’t expect much. In fact, the movie intervals at the best possible moment so to expect anything better thereafter is a mistake

As for the acting, Sanjay Dutt looks menacing as Kancha. Unfortunately, his dialogues don’t match his looks and while they may sound as if they have great depth, since he quotes the Bhagvad Gita from time to time, they don’t really make an impact. Hritik’s scenes have quite an intensity and he looks perfect for the part. The only issue comes up when he gets into his ‘over-sincere’ + ‘over-intense’ = over-acting mode. The biggest surprise and deserving a pat on the back is the performance of Rishi Kapoor who plays his character to near perfection. I am still not sure why Priyanka Chopra is there in this movie because she hardly has a role to play and that too, she’s there in most of the frustrating melodramatic sequences

To cut a rather long story short, my final verdict is this….if you can wait and watch a version where you can skip through the songs, all the unnecessary melodrama (and maybe even the climax) then you’ll get a true glimpse at a very good movie..but if you can’t..you’ll just have to manage with the monolithic 177 minute version playing in the cinemas today

Movie Review: Coriolanus…not for all and sundry

 

What little you would have heard of this movie (if any) is that it is an adaptation of a Shakespearean play. What is important to note is that ‘adaptation’ here means that the dialogues are the same as the original play (all thou, thy intact) which means that if you are not well acquainted with Shakespeare and the English of the yore…you’d probably best avoid this kind of movie

If that is not a deterrent in itself, add to it the fact that this is a rather anachronistic modern day adaptation of the original play which means in place of flowing robes and laurel wreath you have soldier uniforms and military decorations which just don’t fit the kind of dialogues “By Juno, I shall wait for my lord and husband to return from the war… (hope you’ve got the picture by now)

If all this is a-okay with you (and I seriously can’t warn you further) then by all means you can proceed to the cinema hall to watch some great performances from Ralph Fiennes and the rest of the support cast. For a Shakespearean adaptation the execution is quite brilliant and I can’t really find anything wrong with how it was presented.

However the issues cited above were a big problem for me, personally.Add to it the less than thrilling climax and what you have is probably not the best way to spend a nice weekend. Unless you are a die-hard Shakespeare fan and then some.. I suggest you check out some of the other offerings this week