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There’s no single word to describe Samriddhi Rai. She’s been a journalist, VJ, RJ, emcee, singer/songwriter, professional sportsperson, beauty pageant title holder, traveler, and vlogger. Wearing so many hats was never the plan, she says. As a kid, she did have a range of interests though and hence doing multiple things is just an expression of her personality.

For now, her focus is making music and vlogs. She knows her career graph will keep changing, but she likes to be referred to as a singer and songwriter. 

Debuting with “Biswas” in 2014, Rai went on to release a few singles including the widely popular “Ma Chahi Nepali” and then finally, in 2019, a full album “Ma Dami Chhu”. She won the national music award for Best Female Pop Vocalist the same year.

Despite her busy schedule with all the music making and travelling, Sunny Mahat of APEX managed to sneak into her itinerary for a brief conversation.

Excerpts:

What inspired you to take up music?

The fact that singing always made me so happy really pushed me to take this up as a full time career. For as long as I can remember, I have always loved the stage despite initial stage fright. I always wanted to be a performer and just had to shed my fears of a more “comfortable life or secure career” and go for it. And ‘go for it’ I did. 

What do you enjoy more? Performing live or recording in the studio?
I enjoy both thoroughly. Recording has its own challenges. You’re still in a creative mode, adding a bit of this and cancelling a bit of that, going for takes and retakes, and then mastering, and re-mastering. I love this grueling process of creation. Now performing is altogether another level of fun. You see every last face in the audience and you can see how they’re reacting to your music. It’s an exchange of energy on a mass scale. Everybody is in the moment, they’re present for you and your music, and you perform from your heart. How ecstatic is that! 

What would you like to continue doing in the music industry?
I would love to write more songs about the topics that interest me. I kind of wanted to break the pattern that pop singers only sing about love. No, we do more than that. I am deeply moved by social issues, and I champion some social causes that I have time and again infused into my songs. Somehow I also feel that I would make a good music director for movies. Sometimes when I sit alone, all kinds of “filmy” melodies come to me, which I would most likely not use in my pop albums. I would love to share that with the Nepal movie industry. Someday. 

When did it occur to you that vlogging could be a career choice?
As I mentioned earlier, nothing was planned. I thought I would be a high-profile journalist, media-type person (laughs) as I pursued media studies starting from high school. But it all ended and I just wanted to travel—both for fun and for a purpose. Turns out the ‘purpose’ factor took a stronger hold and the first season of my YouTube travel series “Sammy Adventures” snowballed into a 12-episode TV series in its second season. Then there were other vlogs done with major partnerships. And my passion turned out to be quite a cool profession. I guess, if you do things from the heart, there’s a place for you everywhere. 

Do you think there’s room for more women in the field? If yes, what do you think is holding them back?
Where there’s room for men, there is always room for women. We don’t live in the stone-age and therefore there are no gender-specific work choices anymore. But, one thing I can tell you about Nepali women is that, it’s mostly the societal molding or their family background that’s hindering them. ‘Keti bhaera dherai ghumna hudaina, keti manchhe ghar ma chhito aunu parchha.’ I don’t know why people, especially in this part of the world, are so keen on protecting a woman’s honor. Sorry, but our honor doesn’t lie in our one female body part.

You’ve been misunderstood, misquoted and misrepresented quite a few times on social media. Do you think it is because you are a successful woman or does that happen equally to everyone regardless of their gender?

Although I felt those were unfortunate events, when my words were minced to imply something other than what I intended to say, I am glad that it happened that way. Because those events actually started off conversations on crucial topics that this society really needed to talk about. My BBC Sajha Sawal controversy started off discussions on inter-caste marriage and cyber bullying. My traffic police incident was a peek into the authority’s need to curtail a woman’s personal choice of clothing.

I am a very straight-forward person. It just so happens that I am a woman. If I were a straight-forward man voicing my opinions, maybe that wouldn’t be much of a controversy. In fact, I would probably be praised for being honest and frank. However, this patriarchy-centric society wasn’t so lucky to have me as a man, and therefore any strong opinions shared by me, a woman, pricks them to the core. Unlucky, for them again, I will never refrain from talking on issues that matter, and sadly, they can do nothing to stop me. Except of course hurl at me their sexist curses through the wonderful world of social media. And I am game for it. 

“Chhapaak,” in Hindi, is the sound of liquid splashing into something. The episode is short and the effect unknown. But a splash made by a glass full of acid resonates forever in the victim’s body, mind and soul. This sound of the corrosive liquid splashing on the faces and bodies of numerous women in India is the motif of director Meghna Gulzar’s “Chhapaak.”

In the film, Deepika Padukone—who has previously played princesses and queens and orthodox Bollywood damsels—shuns all her glamor and glitz to take up the role of the acid attack survivor turned activist “Malti”. Sans designer dresses, exorbitant film sets, trending hairstyles, makeup, voluptuous choreography, and all the stuff associated with typical Bollywood divas, Deepika is left to solely rely on her acting, supported by Gulzar’s narrative skills, in a role she will probably forever be remembered for.

Based on the life of acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal, Chhapaak centers around the 19-year-old high-schooler Malti who is attacked with acid for rejecting her pursuer. The 2005 incident in Delhi has Malti battling for years to get the culprits punished. Her struggle to fit into the society and daily routine after the incident leaves her deeply traumatized—both physically and mentally.

The film is basically about a crime and the following trials and tribulations to get the perpetrators punished. But as simple as the story sounds, writer/director Gulzar and co-writer Atika Chohan have creatively layered Chhapaak to tell representational stories of thousands of oppressed and victimized women in India. The messaging is strong, without letting the visual storytelling flounder. The film neither takes a one-way, documentary narrative, unlike “Crime Patrol” episodes, nor too many creative liberties to project Malti as a larger-than-life character, unlike in most fabricated Bollywood biographies. The storytelling is grounded, organic and helps the audience relate to the scenes and situations picturized.

Deepika starring as the only ‘star factor’ from Bollywood proves she exists in the industry as much for her acting skills as for her looks. If convincingly portraying a youthful teenager was not challenging enough, Deepika—who has been voted as among the most beautiful women in the world several times—takes on the more difficult challenge of personifying an acid attack survivor who has completely lost her facial features. Yet she skillfully blends into every scene. With a host of talented supporting actors in the film, Deepika is not an outcast but an integral part of the realistic cinema. She characterizes the naivety of a teenager, the ferocity of a fighter, and the splendor of a winner as Malti in this poignant coming-of-age story.

While Deepika takes center-stage as Malti, Vikrant Massey as “Amol,” a journalist turned activist for acid attack survivors, is a strong male character who is not glorified to befit a masculine narrative. Madhurjeet Sarghi playing “Archana Bajaj” has a much stronger presence in the film as Malti’s unrelenting lawyer but her character does not get a backstory or sub-plot of her own, which is one weakness of the film’s storytelling. A bold, assiduous and unyielding lawyer on whose arguments the whole case rests definitely deserved more script. 

Using Malti as the central character, Chhapaak sheds lights on many underlying social issues. It challenges the patriarchal Indian society where women are punished for having a voice, where the character of a victim is assassinated even as she fights for justice, and where a bottle of acid, which costs almost as much as a bottle of water, can change a woman’s life forever. But the film doesn’t make you miserable while watching it. It’s not a sob story. It only makes you more compassionate, more understanding, and more awake.

Who should watch it?

For this movie, we humbly request our readers to ignore all online audience reviews. It faces a boycott campaign in India because Deepika dared show solidarity with JNU students protesting against an attack on them by ‘unidentified’ goons. As of Jan 14, the movie’s IMDb rating fell to 4.4 following 4,000 1-star reviews. (Deepika’s punishment for having a voice).

For the unbiased audience, Chhapaak is a beautiful visual-story that highlights the vulnerability of the human body and the resiliency of the human soul. If not for Deepika, watch it for the thousands of women in India, and maybe hundreds more in Nepal, who have survived the barbarian assault and have lived to become braver, stronger and more beautiful.

Rating: 4 stars

Director: Meghna Gulzar

Actors: Deepika Padukone, Vikrant Massey, Madhurjeet Sarghi

Genre: Social Drama

Run time: 2hrs 3mins

Who should watch it?

This is one of the films we can recommend to the ‘ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages.’ Trust us, you don’t want to download the movie from the internet later and miss watching our spies in action, in 3D!

Animation/action

SPIES IN DISGUISE

CAST: Will Smith, Tom Holland, Ben MendelsohnKiara Advani

DIRECTION: Nick Bruno, Troy Quane

Length:1h 42m

“Spies in Disguise” is an all-out detective movie, with a cocky yet successful sleuth saving the world time and again, a nerdy sidekick assisting him in his quirky endeavors, a powerful villain set out to destroy the system, and all that technological jazz to help the heroes. And to make the visuals as imaginative as conceivable, this one is computer animated and in 3D.

Directed by the debutante duo of Nick Bruno and Troy Quane, Spies in Disguise draws multiple parallels with the 007 James Bond series. Our hero Lance Sterling (Will Smith), the secret agent for H.T.U.V. (Honor, Trust, Unity and Valor) is an obnox­iously over-confident, tuxedo-clad detective who sets out to recover an attack drone from a Japanese arms dealer. Although the mission is fairly successful at the start, Sterling discovers he has been outwitted by Killian (Ben Mendelsohn), a terrorist mastermind with a bionic arm which controls an array of weaponized drones.

Then enters into the scene Wal­ter Beckett (Tom Holland), a sci­entific genius who designs gadgets for H.T.U.V. A young genius who is socially inept and a pacifist, Beckett has been termed “weird” by his col­leagues and contemporaries all his life because of his attempts to create peaceful weapons that protect and not kill—so not appropriate for a crime-fighting agency!

The two don’t quite hit it off but when Beckett’s newest discovery, the “biodynamic concealment”, is put to test accidentally by Sterling and which then turns him into a pigeon. The Sterling one-man-army is forced to unwantedly team up with Beckett and a small group of pigeons to save the day.

The plot of Spies in Disguise, although inspired heavily by hi-fi detective movies, holds a ground of its own when it comes to a unique narration. Even in its animated form, the message is subtle yet pow­erful. While most action movies demonize the ‘villain’ and glorify the ‘hero,’ Spies shows Killian in a grey area and his perspective is not entirely dismissed, unlike in many orthodox action movies. As Sterling says in a scene, the story is wrapped in a “good guy, bad guy vortex.”

Also, the ‘heroism’ surrounding violence and vengeance is dispelled. While Sterling believes in “fighting fire with fire”, Beckett—who lost his cop mother to a violent incident early in life—holds that there are no good or bad guys in the world and people are just people. This is the film’s central conflict which is expertly resolved in the end.

When it comes to performance, although the film has multiple char­acters, it is basically a Smith-Holland show. Both actors who’re giving voiceovers to their characters prove their versatility. Smith’s Sterling is aggressive, assertive and wrapped in self-gratification. Likewise, Hol­land’s Beckett is submissive, subtle, and quaint, yet when it comes to taking a stand for what he believes in, he is relentless.

With excellent performances, exciting 3D visuals and groovy back­ground score that mixes hip-hop and old school funk, the film is an entertaining package. The only let down, if we may call it that, is the length. 1hr 42mins seems long for the story and some scenes feel a bit stretched. And for an animated movie, the humor quotient is a bit low, even though the film does have its hilarious moments

A follower of Nepali music, film and tele­vision will surely have come across Asif Shah’s name, one way or the other. From singing the popular “Pahilo Maya” and half a dozen other songs with The Unity band in the 2000s, to acting in music videos like Kali Prasad’s “Insta Ko Photo”. To directing music videos, shaking a leg in the famous “Kutu Ma Kutu” song, to starring in the movie “Dui Rupaiyan” and another called “Karkash,” Shah has had a dis­tinguishable presence every­where. His popularity on tele­vision has only increased as a two-time host of the popular reality show “Nepal Idol”.

But when you ask the 39-year-old what he does for living, “I’m an ad director” comes the prompt reply. “That comes from the top of my head when someone asks me about my profession,” he adds. “Although I don’t share much on social platform about my ad films, this is what I’ve mainly been doing of late.” Shah co-owns G21 Produc­tions with his brother Asim Shah and has made hundreds of television commercials for brands including Ncell, Coke, Sprite, and Himalaya Herbals.

Shah’s TV career started in 2001 when he got selected as a presenter for a local chan­nel. “It was by fluke,” he says. “A couple of my friends were trying out and I was giving them pointers. They asked me to come along with them just for fun, and I was the one who landed the job, not them.” That interview would kickstart Shah’s almost two-decade-long career in media. “I guess my destiny pulled me in,” he says.

Within two weeks of start­ing as a presenter, Shah was also producing his own shows and directing them, while also honing his presentation skills. He went on to work with some of the biggest television channels in the country and at the same time started the G21 pro­duction house. With G21 Digital and G21 Productions—sepa­rate entities—Shah began making music videos and films as well as TVCs.

A presenter and producer inter­ested in music directing music videos is only nat­ural. But Shah’s ad-making inter­ests came from the inspiration he drew from TVCs when young. “I remember watch­ing a TVC of an Indian product called Savlon. It was simple, subtle, and brought home the point, and at the same time I knew it was not a high bud­get production. I real­ized creativity matters more than big budget in TVCs.” Shah’s love for TVCs over actual programs inspired him to start a career in ad-filmmaking.

As for his Nepal Idol stint, Shah says that it was an offer he could not resist. He was offered a chance to host the second sea­son of the interna­tional franchise when he was on a hiatus from the screen, and he decided to take it. Asked if the time dedicated to Nepal Idol hampered his other pro­fessions, he replies in the negative. “It helped me, in fact,” Shah says. “It was about time I made it back to the small screen, and with Nepal Idol’s popularity, peo­ple started recognizing me more. My clients, agencies and even the celebrities I endorsed for my ads started recog­nizing me more.”

Shah is all praise for the Nepal Idol franchise, and claims AP1 televi­sion’s endeavors brought about a revolution in Nepali television. “Nepal Idol came at a time when the TV audience was dwindling and people watched Nepali channels just for news,” he says. “It proved that if TVs had good content, people would still watch it. This had a positive impact on the whole indus­try and locally produced shows started scaling up.”

Although he doesn’t want to call himself a singer, Shah’s love for music has also resulted him in continuing his passion. He has recently released “Bato Biraye”, which is already a hit, with a million views on YouTube. “I will continue with Nepal Idol as long as it remains my passion and for now, we are also plan­ning to expand G21 Digital’s scope,” he says. “We will start operating like an inter­national record label and give artists and musicians more platforms to showcase their music.”

The story of “Good Newwz” has parallel cinema written all over it. It could have been a great plot for a serious, dark and thought-provoking film about the suffering of couples who cannot conceive naturally. But give this story to Karan Johar and his team of flamboyant producers, and you get ‘Good Newwz’ starring the money-making machine of Bollywood Akshay Kumar along with Kareena Kapoor Khan, Diljit Dosanjh, and Kiara Advani. 

Two couples—Honey and Monika Batra (Diljit and Kiara) and Varun and Deepti Batra (Akshay and Kareena)—are married for six and seven years respectively. Both are childless, and not for the want of trying. The two Punjabi families face immense social pressure to have children. Given their biological problems, their only option is in-vitro fertilizations (IVF). Not acquainted with each other before, they are forced to meet at the hospital because of a huge mix-up caused by their same surnames. 

This leads to all the confusion and the ruckus that ensues, and how the couples deal with the problems surrounding the big mishap is what the plot is all about. Written by Jyoti Kapoor and directed by debutant Raj Mehta, GN is an entertaining package of humor, emotions, and foot-tapping Punjabi music. It is a family movie that will make you smile, chuckle, giggle, and maybe cry a little too. 

GN’s story basically addresses the growing issue of infertility among couples owing to lifestyles and other biological factors. Science has progressed enough to help them artificially conceive and that’s what Dr Joshi (Adil Hussain) says, translated, “Helping parents make babies is an art.” 

The filmmakers take a witty approach to story-telling, making it an enjoyable comedy where IVF is explained in the simplest terms and the social pressure of being childless is perfectly illustrated. The physical and mental exertions that women go through during pregnancy as well as the less talked about psychological struggles of a father are also shown convincingly. All with a tasty bit of wit and humor. GN unfolds so rapidly that you’re entertained for the whole 2hrs 12min of the film, which is not short by any means. 

Besides the on-point writing and direction, individual performances of the actors add to the already strong script. Akshay proves again why he’s the most bankable actor in the industry. From action films to senseless comedies to social dramas to inspiring biopics, he does it all with equal finesse and box-office success. In GN, Akshay’s Varun is a straightforward, no-nonsense husband who comes across as insensitive at times. But he is also a loving husband and a witty person whose coping mechanism is humor. With almost 200 commercial movies under his belt, Akshay plays his part with an ease that makes one feel that might well be Varun in real life.

Kareena as Deepti, making a comeback after a brief hiatus, is an equal match for Akshay. As a nagging wife whose biological clock is ticking and who desperately wants to conceive, Deepti is strong-headed, bossy and focused on achieving her goal. Where Kareena as Deepti specially excels is in emotions. She has matchless in the movie when it comes to dramatic scenes and she keeps the audience gripped at all times about Deepti’s fate.

Diljit as the stereotypical, loud-mouthed, kind-hearted sardaar straight outta Chandigarh is the most lovable character in the movie. Like Varun, Diljit’s Honey is oblivious to emotions and even insults, and he can easily make people laugh at him. Varun is a ‘solid character’ and Diljit manages to personify him with brilliance. Coming from the Punjabi movie industry, Diljit’s trysts in Bollywood has finally given him the success he can be proud of.

With so many talented actors, Kiara, also a central character in the movie, is underwhelming. Coming from the success of last year’s “Kabir Singh”, where she played the shy and indecipherable Preeti, Kiara as “Monika” in GN can’t seem to match the energy of her co-actors. She is neither hilarious enough in humorous scenes nor emotionally capable of holding together her character in the dramatic bits. 

The fast-paced and outright hilarious film in the first half gets a little slower and melodramatic in the second. But that is excusable, given the seriousness of the matter at hand. The emotional scenes are not too draining and, in fact, enjoyable because of Kareena. 

Who should watch it?

The film is entirely about spams, oops, sperms and ovaries. There’s a lot of talk about reproductive organs (not only the genitals) and copulation but no cringy double meaning jokes and sexualized representations. So nothing to make a Nepali family watching it together feel awkward. We highly recommend this movie, and a little PSA—when you meet that newly married couple again and feel like asking them about “good news”, please don’t! 

Rating: 4 stars

Run time: 2hrs 12mins

Director: Raj Mehta

Actors: Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor Khana, Diljit Dosanjh, Kiara Advani 

Genre: Comedy/Drama

The first question I ask him is the question he hates the most, but still keeps getting asked. “I’ve never liked talking about my age,” musician Jyoti Ghimire says, “makes me feel old.” But being nice to me as we go back a long way, he offers a hint: “I retired from government service a couple of years ago, so now you can guess.”

That’s how talking to Jyoti Ghimire is. He doesn’t com­mand respect because of his seniority. He doesn’t seek admiration because he’s a few generations older than many musicians today. With him, everyone is friends and age is just a number in official doc­uments. “The only thing that hints of my age is my balding head. Otherwise, playing gui­tar for 3 to 4 hours a day keeps my youth intact,” Ghimire adds with a laugh.

Ghmire is a singer, song­writer and guitarist who has been playing music for almost four decades, and his musical journey is still finding new ave­nues. With an unaccounted number of concerts around the country and abroad, and almost 200 recordings with various artists, Ghimire still pursues music, learning new things every day and evolving. “From bhajans to the blues, I have played and still play everything,” he says.

Born and brought up in Kathmandu, the sounds of the guitar in Bollywood music is what first drew Ghimire to the instrument. He spent hours listening to music by RD Burman and the likes, trying to figure out the guitar parts. “Then I was introduced to English songs and things took a different turn,” says Ghi­mire while recalling the first English tune he learnt—“El Condor Pasa (If I Could)” by Simon and Garfunkel.

And then, Deep Purple happened! When Ghimire first listened to the iconic rock group, he not only drew inspiration from them, but decided to take up music seri­ously. “You can’t imagine the number of times I rewound and forwarded cassette tapes to learn their music,” he says. In the late 70s when technology was limited and internet unavailable, tape recorders and cassette play­ers were the starting musi­cian’s only friends, adds Ghimire. He says he listened to Deep Purple’s “Highway Star” thousands of times to learn it by ear.

But with no knowledge of the instrument whatsoever, Ghimire resorted to learning guitar by carefully observing other guitarists play live. “I used to go to gigs and watch my seniors play the songs I knew. I picked up a lot that way,” he says.

Basically self-taught, Ghi­mire’s first show was on 10 March 1983. He remembers the exact date from a con­cert flyer he has preserved of his debut performance. Then began his career as a professional guitarist, cover­ing Western music in which­ever small venues that had live music at the time. He worked with multiple bands including Kathmandu Katz, Grandslam, Legend and then Prism, which still exists.

“Then I realized there was more money to be made play­ing with Nepali pop artists and also began working with them in the studio, and as a backing guitarist for live shows,” adds Ghimire. He went to work with the likes of Phatteman and Deep Shrestha to Sanjeep Pradhan and Nima Rumba, recording and playing live with them. His guitar-work can be heard prominently in Pradhan’s “Deurali ko Chau­tari” and Shrestha’s “Ma ta Dur Dekhi Aaye.”

Ghimire’s career as a singer/ songwriter began much later though. “I was not a singer actually but I did some back­ing vocals with the bands and as I progressed, I decide to make some of my own music,” he says. Ghimire’s debut album “Dordee” released in 2001 propelled him as a singer with the songs “Maski Maski” and “Baljhiyo Feri” becom­ing instant hits. He followed the album with “Evolution” in 2004 featuring the songs “Nashalu Timro Ankhaile” and “Anjaan Timi”, both of which are now classics.

Although he comes from a time when the radio and television were the only source of new Nepali music, Ghimire has now adapted to the changing platforms for sharing music and continues to release singles on YouTube and various other internet media. “Timi Aiayinau,” his latest release, is already win­ning praises from fellow musi­cians and listeners alike.

For now, Ghimire wants to play live music and write his own songs. No more studio sessions for other compos­ers, he says. “I plan to re-re­lease some of my old songs that didn’t get much expo­sure and also a few new sin­gles,” he says. “Who knows? I could come up with another album too.”

Ghimire is also the Anna­purna Celebrity for the month of Poush. You can listen to Radio Annapurna 94.0 for pro­grams featuring him.

When you go to a Punjabi dhaba for some grub, you don’t expect to be served champagne and caviar. Parathas and lassi maybe, but no fancy stuff. That’s the kind of expectation you take with you when you go to watch a Salman Khan movie, that too one directed by Prabhu Deva.

Continuing in his role as “Chulbul Pandey” that began with “Dabang” (2010), Khan in “Dabang 3” is the same vigilante policeman who hails himself as “Robinhood Pandey” for the extra-judicial justice he metes out. Problematic as his character might be legally, one cannot deny that Chulbul Pandey is one of the most loved cop characters in the history of Bollywood.

A dacoit in the middle of a robbery rubs a lamp, hoping that a genie would appear. But then enters our hero who disarms them all while dodging hundreds of bullets with his dancing skills. That’s how Chulbul is introduced and that’s what the audience expects for the entire 2hrs 43mins. And people seemed to enjoy every moment of the elongated movie. A win for the Khan Brothers, but not a big one.

Dabang 3 is a Bollywood masala movie packed with absurdities. With the actor/choreographer turned director Prabhu Deva donning the director’s hat, the film only gets wilder. Forget what you studied in your physics class and forgo your logic and only then can you enjoy Dabang 3.

In this movie, we’re taken back in time for an ‘origin story’ of Chulbul Pandey. The trailer itself is a tell-tale so without the fear of giving out a spoiler, we can openly hint that a tragedy befalls a young man which forever changes his life. “Dhaakad Pandey” becomes Chulbul, and why he becomes a cop is an obvious guess.

But despite having nothing for a story, the writing is clever enough to incorporate bits and pieces from the previous two Dabangs to give the audience something to think about, identify and recall. We’re shown the origins of Chulbul’s memorable dialogues from the previous movies and how he picked up the style of hanging his sunglasses on the back of his collar.

Dabang 3 also revives some characters from the franchise and manages to replace the late actor Vinod Khanna who played Chulbul’s father with a convincing lookalike. The 21-year-old actress Saiee Manjrekar debuts opposite the 53-year-old Salman Khan as “Khusi”, the center figure around which the tragedy revolves. Sonakshi Sinha, who debuted in the same franchise in 2010, retains her role as “Rajjo”, Chulbul’s wife. While Sinha was brilliant in her debut role and bagged half-a-dozen ‘100 crore club’ roles consequently, there’s nothing to write about Manjrekar besides the customary “better luck next time.”

But as much as it takes from the previous Dabangs, D3 serves nowhere near the entertainment value they did. Yes, the film is partly enjoyable and doesn’t get boring despite its length, but this one fails to clear the high storytelling bars raised by the first two installments.

There’s a lot of forced humor. Many comic scenes could have been cut out to make the storytelling compact. Also, the dialogues are out of whack with the flow. The most underwhelming part of the movie though is the music. Sajid-Wajid cannot recreate the magic of the first Dabang.

The Dabang franchise banks on its item numbers and romantic songs to get the audience talking about the film. But there’s nothing in D3 to uphold that legacy. To make matters worse, the filmmakers include way too many songs in the already stretched-out movie. The recreated “Munna Badnaam Hua” doesn’t have the same groove “Munni” did, and will probably not be the most played song at Indian weddings.

While Salman Khan is his usual self in the movie, South Indian actor Sudeep playing Chulbul’s arch nemesis “Bali Singh” is the best performer. Singh is the most brutal villain in the whole franchise. He is cruel, unrelenting and shrewd. Sudeep, despite his limited Hindi, manages to give the character the viciousness it demands.

Who should watch it?

Any Salman fan would love this film. Also, this is meant for the audience who love illogical potboilers and there’s nothing wrong with us feeding our guilty pleasures once a while, right?

Rating: 2.5 stars

Genre: Action

Run time: 2h 43m

Director: Prabhu Deva

Actors: Salman Khan, Sudeep, Sonakshi Sinha

Shivani Shivaji Roy (Rani Mukerji), the Senior Inspector from the Crime Branch, Mumbai in “Mardaani” (2014) is now a Superintendent of Police stationed at Kota, Rajasthan in “Mardaani 2”. But even with the promotion and additional authority, Roy’s battle to prove herself as a female IPS officer continues in the male-dominated police force. While she fought and brought an organized nexus of human traffickers to justice in the previous installment, Roy in the latest release meets more than her match in the conniving and ruthless murderer “Sunny” (Vishal Jethwa.)

A mutilated dead body of a young girl “Jessica” is found in an abandoned construction site in Kota. Police investigation finds she has been repeatedly raped and tortured. Roy’s further inquiry into the murder reveals a chain of kidnappings, rapes and killings that are somewhat interlinked—and all point to a single suspect. With some of her own officers ranged against her—just because she is a woman—and pitted against a psychologically disturbed but extremely intelligent criminal, who also enjoys an extent of political protection, the deck is stacked against Roy.

The mind games between Roy and Sunny make for the meat of the movie. While Roy is as fearless and determined as she was in Mumbai, her nemesis Sunny, who also holds a personal grudge against the police officer, is always a step ahead of her.

Produced by Yash Raj Films, Mardaani 2 is written and directed by Gopi Puthran, also the writer and assistant director of the first installment. Despite taking the director’s seat for the first time, Puthran shows amazing maturity and is brilliantly by the production team. Mardaani 2—a mainstream release in Bollywood—breaks so many conventions it gives off the vibe of a low- budget, high-spirited independent film. 

For one, a film on a sensitive topic like violence against women and inbred sexism in Indian society does nothing to glamorize the women in it. There is no objectification whatsoever, no extravagant ‘creative liberties’ taken to project a larger-than-life hero in Roy and no heroic male character on whose shoulder our protagonist has to rest her. Sans peppy item numbers and even promotional songs, as the team believed they did not fit the film’s narrative, Mardaani 2 banks more on strong writing, capable actors and diligent production. The maturity level of the filmmakers is highlighted by the fact that even in sequences which could have ended with the culprit being lynched or ‘encountered’ by a cheering mob, filmmakers resist this easy temptation.

The smart screenplay and witty dialogues befit the actors, especially Mukerji and Jethwa, both of whom give stellar performances. Even after a pregnancy-induced hiatus, Mukerji proves she is still the best pick for Roy’s character. Mukerji as Roy is bold, caring, and ferocious. And the best part of Roy is, the filmmakers have not tried to emulate the male action heroes of Bollywood. She’s a fighter all right, but her battles are won by patience, perseverance, and intellect.

Playing the most important role in the film, the youngster Jethwa is impressive. With the ability to change identity and blend into the crowd, Sunny is a dangerous villain and Jethwa perfectly captures the poisonous evil in him. Sunny in brought up in a society where a woman needs to be punished for speaking out, and raping her is the best form of punishment in his reckoning. With that mentality, a childhood trauma and asthma, Jethwa carries Sunny’s multi-layered character with aplomb.

Who should watch it?

This is a must-watch. Not only does it destroy the misconceptions about women in our patriarchal society. It also puts a woman in a position where she can make a difference, on her own. Roy’s character is nothing sort of inspirational and the many messages that the film gives are on point and well explained. We recommend you watch the first Mardaani too if you haven’t.

Rating: ****

Director: Gopi Puthran

Actors: Rani Mukerji, Vishal Jethwa

Time: 1hrs 45mins

Genre: Thriller