Movie Review: Inside Out..is ‘joyously’ brilliant

Pixar has always been a class apart. Ever since Toy Story, they have always stood for thinking that bit extra, putting in that extra effort and using novel concepts and ideas in the movies they bring to life. While Monster Inc. was amongst the finest, its sequel didn’t delight as much and you could’ve ‘feared’ and been ‘disgusted’ that Pixar too has begun to lower its standards. With Inside Out though, there is no more room for such ‘sadness’. You can literally jump for ‘joy’ – cause they have quite simply, done it again. And how.

The concept of Inside Out isn’t hard to wrap your head around (quite literally so). However, the simplicity with which it is presented, is quite astounding. I don’t want to spoil anything for you so I am afraid I can tell you even lesser than usual. Suffice it to say that the concept and plot development will have you plenty engaged and the going only gets better as the story progresses

While it is an animation movie, this one is even lesser for the kids. There are no goofy scenes and slapstick drama. This one plays hard on the emotions – all of them. Simple lessons are shared through meaningful dialogue and a delightful story emerges. There is more of a psychological focus in the narrative and certain dialogues and scenes have a deeper root. The animation is top notch as per the Pixar standard but don’t be surprised if you don’t notice much of it. You are bound to be more keen on how such a unique concept is taken forward and everything else takes a back seat.

The voice acting is perfected to a fault. There are no big names, yet they perform their role adequately. Emotions are portrayed brilliantly by each of the character models – animation can’t really be faulted when you talk about Pixar anyways. There isn’t a single song and while the runtime is only 1 hour 45 minutes, you’ll feel you’ve spent longer in the theater having had such a wholesome experience. Barring one silly sequence towards the climax, there isn’t one thing out of place. The movie truly has a ‘personality’ of its own and ‘feels’ like a Pixar creation

I don’t watch horror movies so don’t expect a review of Insidious 3 to come up. For me, I’ve seen the movie of the week and I am pretty convinced I won’t watch a better animation movie for the remainder of this year at least. I truly hope this convinces you to go and watch it. Oh, and the quotes in this review are no accident – but to understand that you need to go out and watch the film.

Movie Review: Dil Dhadakne Do..won’t make your heart miss a beat

Much like the waves of the sea in which its cruise ship sails, there are crests and troughs to Dil Dhadakne Do. Unfortunately, the crests don’t really take your breath away and the trough bring down whatever good was done, literally with an anchor

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara had that touch of subtlety about it. In sharp contrast, Dil Dhadakne Do chooses to be over the top and boisterous. There is more than one sequence, wherein a point is made in the subtle manner it should. And then suddenly from nowhere there is a need to reinforce it with all that subtlety of a steam train. Club that with an over the top climax which leads you to wonder if Zoya is even the captain of this particular ship any more and it doesn’t add up to a memorable voyage, overall.

While suitably glossy in its visuals as well as the context of its plot, it lacks depth in its content and a story of this kind should ideally have been told at a faster pace and in shorter length. At 171 minutes Zoya takes too long to tell a predictable story. It starts off on the wrong foot, taking too long to introduce all its characters and that too with boring descriptions. Aamir Khan and the dog are a nice touch but they get too repetitive and preachy despite their good intent.

Then as the plot warms up, the dialogues take too long to be delivered and the camera lingers unnecessarily where it could’ve and should’ve easily been snappier. The humor seems forced and lacks the innocence of her previous offerings.

If the ship manages to stay afloat for its rather long journey it is in large measure due to its ensemble starcast – who all show up to the party in top form. Anil Kapoor pulls off an act with a maturity that makes you wonder why he has to do movies like Slumdog Millionaire and pander to Hollywood when he has this kind of acting capability. Shefali Shah isn’t as impressive but is equal to the task. Ranvir Singh is in his comfort role yet again and does a really impressive job. However, the real scene stealer standing tall amidst this glitterati is Priyanka Chopra. She is simply stunning in both her looks as well as her performance and lights up every frame she is in with amazing screen presence. The combination of Priyanka Chopra and Ranvir Singh is explosive and their scenes together are amongst the best.

So much so, that Anushka Sharma almost looks like a minnow amongst these stalwarts – particularly so in one dance sequence where she’s struggling to find her steps and Priyanka Chopra doesn’t miss a single one. Farhan Akhtar is completely under-utilized, let’s just leave it at that

The top notch performances make the journey seem shorter than it is and is a major boost to an otherwise average movie. The ending in particular is highly disappointing especially the ‘message’ if you can call it that – much like Finding Fanny, it makes little sense and is an unconvincing justification of the movie title. It’s a far cry from the soulful and heartwarming ending of ZNMD.

If Zoya Akhtar hadn’t shown us what she can do with ZNMD, we might still have excused all or at least, most. But given that we’ve been witness to what she is capable of, such pedestrian fare becomes disappointing. Here’s hoping her next one can truly make the heart miss a beat.