“Bachchhan Paandey” movie review: A pandora of disappointments
I had read somewhere that the recent Akshay Kumar starrer “Bachchhan Paandey” had failed in the box office. But filmmakers and fans alike blamed the unexpected success of “The Kashmir Files” as the reason BP could not do well in cinemas across India and abroad. Also, the IMDB rating for the 2022 Hindi-language action comedy is 7.1 out of 10. Not bad, I assumed, for a relaxed evening on Amazon Prime.
But only around 20 minutes in, I was sure I’d be getting the biggest disappointment of the year in terms of films. Directed by Farhad Samji, BP takes inspiration from two amazing films—the 2014 Tamil “Jigarthanda” which in turn was inspired by the 2006 South Korean hit “A Dirty Carnival.”
Having watched both, I’d first like to make it clear that BP does not even scale to a quarter of the greatness of its inspirations. In fact, this film makes the audience question the judgements and choices of actor Akshay Kumar and producer Sajid Nadiadwala, both successful men of Bollywood who seem to have suddenly impaired their tastes and skills.
The film begins with opening credits and background music that seems to be inspired by the OSTs for Clint Eastwood’s classic “Dollars Trilogy.” The music is not impressive but does definitely grab some attention. And that’s the only likable part of the film. The rest is just a collection of some of the worst performances in Bollywood history—both acting and production wise.
The titular character Bachchhan Paandey (Kumar) is a ruthless gangster based in Baghwa, Bihar. His exploits are not only famous in the region, but also reach the ears of Mumbai-based aspiring filmmaker Myra Devekar (Kriti Sanon). Myra has been told by her producer to find a real-life gangster as an inspiration for her movie and she travels all the way to Baghwa to research him.
Then follow a series of goof-ups and bizarre sequences as filmmakers try to humanize the cold-blooded murderer Bachchhan Paandey and make him a ‘hero’. This age-old villain-turns-hero narrative is so bluntly inserted into the film, it gets boring from the word go.
The problem with Bachchhan Paandey is, it tries too hard to emulate mainstream South Indian filmmaking where the characters are loud, colorful and atrocious. Kumar’s titular character is a stereotypical baddie who has a dramatic secret that justifies his present behavior. But the actor is never comfortable in his character. It seems obvious that the veteran actor is trying too hard to fit into a role he would have pulled off easily a decade and a half ago. Plus, his attempted Bihari accent sucks.
Talking about accents and acting, BP is one of those rare films where a bunch of celebrated actors collectively fail. Kriti Sanon is nowhere near her best. Arshad Warsi—the famous ‘Circuit’ of the Munna Bhai MBBS fame—plays Vishwakant Mhatre (Vishu), Myra’s jovial friend, sans his usual comic timing. Jacqueline Fernandez as Sophie, Bachchhan’s love interest, could have been replaced by anyone in the crew and nobody would have missed her.
The miserably writing of Bachchhan Paandey not only lets down its main characters but also causes a dent in the resumes of brilliant supporting actors like Prateik Babbar, Abhimanyu Singh, Sanjay Mishra, Seema Biswas and even the great Pankaj Tripathi who has had a good streak of hits in the near past. There is absolutely nothing interesting in any of the characters played by these actors, which is shocking. Again, there probably has not been a bigger collective failure than Bachchhan Paandey in Bollywood’s recent history.
Who should watch it?
Nobody. That’s why I am writing this review. To warn my friends and readers with Amazon Prime to skip this movie. Don’t like IMDB ratings and Akshay Kumar fans fool you into indulging in this snooze fest.
Rating: 1 star
Genre: Action comedy
Director: Farhad Samji
Actors: Akshya Kumar, Kriti Sanon, Jacqueline Fernandez
Run time: 2h 27mins
‘Metal Lords’ movie review: A lighthearted, heavy sounding movie
Too many things happened this past week. Mumbai Indians fans got one of the biggest disappointments of their lives, and so did Manchester United’s loyal followers. Two back-to-back South Indian releases sent Nepali filmmakers into a nationalist frenzy and movie theaters around the country operated for almost 24 hours with midnight and early morning (3am) shows. Among this all, we also celebrated the Nepali New Year.
As the week was heavy, I decided to watch something light, something musical, on Netflix. And what could be better for a metalhead than Netflix’s latest release “Metal Lords”? Written by D.B. Weiss, directed by Peter Sollett and featuring Tom Morello, the legendary guitarist of rock bands Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave as executive music producer, Metal Lords is a coming-of-age movie about a group of misfits who want to rule the world with their hard-hitting music. Think “School of Rock”, but in the present context and a lot heavier.
Glenwood Lake is like any other American high school. Young people from different walks of lives converge there for education. Some are popular for their sports and music choices, while others are bullied for having a different view of themselves and the world around them.
Hunter (Adrian Greensmith) is a facsimile of a high schooler from the 80s—one of the last remaining metal heroes. With long hair and donning sleeveless t-shirts with metal band prints, Hunter is a up and coming shredder who wants to rip the heads off people with his cranked tube amp and overdriven guitars.
Kevin (Jaeden Martell), Hunter’s best friend, bandmate and disciple, is a meek, young, bespectacled lad who thinks he can play drums because he does so for his school marching band to avoid physical-ed classes.
Together, Hunter and Kevin have formed SkullF$cker, a post-death metal duo. At a time when pop and RnB music rule the world as well as their high school, the duo wants to break through with their music. They see the upcoming Battle of Bands music contest in their high school as an opportunity to prove themselves.
But they’re one bass player short and through music ‘seeking and destroying’, they find Emily (Isis Hainsworth) as the perfect match, although her initiation into the band comes with a lot of trouble and changed dynamics between members. Same goes for their participation in the Battle of the Bands as the competition’s dark horse.
The storyline is not fresh. But context matters. Had this been the 80s or the early 90s, Hunter would have been the coolest kid in school with his getup and guitar skills. But the world has changed and now he’s an outcast and so are Kevin and Emily.
The context provides Metal Lords the freshness we all look for in a movie, and the film’s brevity as well as clever writing make it an entertaining watch. For those who have followed music from the past few decades, there are many musical allusions and trivia sneaked in the film’s dialogues. Like the “Didn’t I say no Yokos?,” dialogue that Hunter uses against Kevin in an argument.
Music is the film’s best part. Metal Lords’ soundtrack consist of some of the most popular metal and hard rock numbers like “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath, “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Metallica, “Painkiller” by Judas Priest, “Since I Don’t Have You” by Guns N’ Roses—and more. With Tom Morello as music producer, you can expect the film to sound like a well-cut, heavy metal album.
Who should watch it?
Metal Lords is an important film for fans of the heavier genres of music. Ardent ones will find many things to love in the movie. And even if you have little idea of metal music, the film is satisfying enough as a coming-of-age musical that takes up the lives of a group of oddball teens and their struggle to cope with the world.
Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Drama, music
Director: Peter Sollett
Actors: Isis Hainsworth, Adrian Greensmith, Jaeden Martell
Run time: 1hr 37mins
FIR movie review: Starts like a hare, ends like a tortoise
There are films you like and there are films you hate. But then, there are also movies which you love for the first half and then begin questioning your choice in the second, or vice-versa.
The Tamil-language film “FIR” on Amazon Prime had the same effect on me. You know it’s IPL season and between work and TV, I don’t really get to watch a lot of movies this time of the year. I chose the action thriller FIR because it had a compelling description on the OTT platform and I have always enjoyed the lead actor Vishnu Vishal’s works.
Vishal plays Irfan Ahmed, an engineering gold medalist struggling to find a fitting job in Chennai. He has attended a lot of interviews but has been unsuccessful each time, partly due to his religious background as implied in the story. For the time being, he is working part-time at a local perfume factory.
But when the factory owners decide to scale up and ask Irfan to join full-time, he agrees. Irfan then heads to Hyderabad to buy chemicals for the perfume. Around the same time, the National Intelligence Agency is frantically searching for a most-wanted terrorist called Abu Bakkar Abdullah who is suspected of planning an attack on Chennai.
Curious coincidences lead Irfan—a Muslim chemical engineer—to fall victim to stereotyping and racial profiling as he becomes an accused of a bombing in Hyderabad. A frenzy of allegations from the NIA and also the media lead everyone to believe that Irfan is actually Abu Bakkar Abdullah—the terrorist. With the shrewd Ajay Dewan (Gautham Menon), the National Security Advisor, leading the case, Irfan has nowhere to run or hide. Now is Irfan really a terrorist or just an innocent engineer, is the question the rest of the plot tries to answer.
Written and directed by Manu Anand, FIR opens like a romping thriller. You know the ones that keep you hooked to the story till the very end? The road that leads to Irfan’s incarceration is carefully laid, with the introduction of a lot of characters with potential. Like Irfan’s lawyer friend Prathana Raman (Manjima Mohan), who is initially projected as a strong-headed lawyer fighting for justice. But as the film progresses, she loses significance and hides somewhere in the shadows, just like a few other characters who could have contributed more to the story.
FIR promises a lot of entertainment at the start but fails to keep up the momentum in the second half. The film—carefully disguised as a mind-boggling action thriller—turns out to be just another wheel to the Hindu-Muslim propaganda machine we have seen so much in Indian cinema. While promising a unique storyline, FIR ends up repeating the age-old formula of stereotyping the Muslim community and how they fight against it. The ‘good Muslim, bad Muslim’ storytelling of Indian cinema has been so overused it now bears no cinematic significance.
Apparently a ‘sleeper hit’ in the box office, Arul Vincent’s sharp cinematography and Prasanna GK’s precise editing could be the film’s saviors. They maintain the film’s pace even when the plot tries to drag it down. The lethargic storytelling is made bearable by these behind-the-scenes heroes.
On the screen, it’s all Vishnu Vishal. In the lead role that gets most of the screen time, Vishal is fluent and convincing. As a happy-go-lucky young engineer who suddenly becomes India’s most wanted man, Vishal takes on the transition without losing focus on his character’s origin and growth. Sloppy writing in the end waters down Vishal’s potential but what we see still impresses.
Who should watch it?
FIR starts like one of those intelligent South Indian movies but ends like a no-brainer. So you can enjoy the best of both worlds, or not. Anyway, the film is not utterly boring and if you have nothing else to do, cinephiles with low expectations might enjoy this.
Rating: 2 stars
Genre: Action thriller
Actors: Vishnu Vishal, Gautham Menon, Manjima Mohan
Director: Manu Ananda
Run time: 2hr 36mins
‘The Adam Project’ movie review: A confusing, confounding sci-fi adventure
“The Adam Project” on Netflix has an amazing ensemble cast. It’s basically Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) meets Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) meets Elektra (Jennifer Garner) meets Gsciamor (Zoe Saldaña). So we have a star cast that’s been a part of some of the highest grossing Hollywood movies, getting together for this science-fiction adventure directed by Shawn Levy.
Like most Hollywood movies based on time travel, The Adam Project starts with an overused trope—a dystopian future and the devastation of mankind. (Maybe that’s where the current Russia-Ukraine war is leading us to as well.) So it’s Earth 2050. The opening scenes show fighter pilot Adam Reed (Reynolds) trying to fly back to 2018 on his time-jet, while being shot at by a bunch of enemy jets. He wants to find his wife Laura (Saldaña) who was left back in the past after a failed mission.
But Adam accidentally crash-lands in 2022, where he meets his younger self (Walker Scobell). The 12-year-old Adam has just lost his father Louis Reed (Ruffalo) and is struggling to cope with the situation alongside his mother Ellie (Garner). Adam is soon followed into 2022 by Maya Sorian (Catherine Ann Keener), the scientist behind time travel who has taken over the world in the future.
Maya wants to take Adam back with her, while Adam, with the help of the younger Adam, plans to get to 2018 so that they can destroy time travel altogether and save the world. A struggle ensues between the two colliding parties as the rest of the characters get pulled into the battle.
The story of The Adam Project unfolds in multiple time-streams. While it is not difficult to keep up with the film’s timelines, someone who’s watched many time travel movies will feel like this particular movie sort of redefines the time travel paradoxes. Although there are explanations behind its time travel theories, they are hardly convincing. It was quite difficult to wrap my head around a timeline where three Adams exist at the same time. Or how inconsequential each encounter between people of different timelines was to the future.
The time travel paradox is not the only thing that does not sit well in the film. Its intended audience also seems unclear. The Adam Project wriggles somewhere between a family movie and an out-and-out action adventure flick. At times it wants the young Adam to become the hero of the movie while in some other scenes, he’s just a helpless kid who needs protection from adults, even if that adult is his own future self.
The 12-year-old Adam is also pictured as physically weak, small for his age and with the gift of the gab that lands him in trouble with school bullies. His transformation into the 2050 Adam, an excellent pilot and a great fighter who can take on a bunch of enemies with breaking sweat, is never explained, leaving the audience with too many unanswered questions.
There are many such flaws right through the film’s 1hr 46mins length and the audience never gets to breathe and let things sink in. When things get slow, they’re just slow without the intensity that would make them interesting. It is indeed strange to think that a movie with an instantly recognizable action adventure lineup would cast them in half-baked roles. Talent goes painfully wasted in The Adam Project.
The film has its moments though, with Reynolds getting a lot of screen time along with his young co-actor. Their interactions are the highlights of the film while the rest of the cast is just there to fill in slots. The visual effects, for a film of this genre, are also average and not worth wasting a paragraph on.
Who should watch it?
The Adam Project is mindless if you don’t think about it too much. Then the film becomes a decently paced action-adventure that could impress the audience of this genre. There’s also a bit of family drama embedded if that’s what you prefer.
Rating: 2.5 stars
Genre: Action/adventure
Director: Shawn Levy
Actors: Ryan Reynolds, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner
Run time: 1hr 46mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE8HIsIrq4o
‘Jalsa’ movie review: A battle of truths and untold lies
As an actor, Vidya Balan has always been impressive. She has been a powerhouse in Bollywood, performing a host of (mostly unconventional) roles. So it is bothersome that her latest film has not been promoted enough to be easily accessible to her fans. I still cannot get over how “Jalsa,” an Amazon Prime movie, did not make it into my virtual ecosystem till a week after its release.
Anyways, Jalsa is a Hindi-language thriller with Balan in the lead as Maya Menon—a strong-headed, hard-hitting journalist known for her honesty and integrity. She hosts a TV show called “Face The Truth,” where she, as an evangelist of truth, mercilessly grills uncouth politicians and public servants.
Maya is also a hands-on single mother to Ayush, who has cerebral palsy.
At home, Maya has Rukshana (Shefali Shah) as a trusted maid and caretaker for Ayush. Rukshana has an excellent relationship with Ayush, who is around the same age as her own son. She is caring and protective while also maintaining a cordial relationship with Maya and her mother, Rukmini (Rohini Hattangadi), who lives with them.
All is going well for Maya both at home and work when one day a late-night drive back from the office causes a drowsy Maya to hit someone with her speeding car. Maya runs from the crime scene that night, only to find that the incident will follow her, carrying the potential to destroy both her personal and professional life. How the bastion of truth then deals with a secret that haunts her and those close to her is what Jalsa is about.
On the outside, Jalsa might be a thriller, but the film is mostly about the struggles of two mothers—one educated, wealthy and powerful; the other uneducated, poor and powerless. The only similarity between them is the passion with which they love and care for their young ones.
The two actors in their respective roles put up stunning performances. Balan has had a flourishing career in Bollywood so far and in Jalsa, she successfully reinforces her class. On the other hand, Shah’s performance makes you question why she has not been given more lead roles in the past. The actor just shows how worthy she is of a good script and a strong character.
Co-written and directed by Suresh Triveni, Jalsa has its glorious moments: those panic-inducing, tear-jerking scenes. Saurabh Goswami’s cinematography captures the very essence of the panic, havoc and dilemma the film requires. One particular scene where Maya drives away from the accident scene with a slightly cracked windscreen stands out for its effective simplicity.
But in trying to add intensity and rouse the audience, the writers introduce a few subplots and a host of other half-baked characters while taking away screen time from the main story and characters. Certain characters appear promising, but then end up barely contributing to the storyline. This also elongates the film length as it crosses the two-hour mark with its deliberately slow place. Revising the script and cutting unwanted corners could have saved the film around half an hour of screen time, reducing production cost and also making it more interesting.
Still, Jalsa is a gritty thriller that invokes multiple feelings—mainly empathy. Embedded into its storyline are undertones of class divide, victim-blaming and systemic corruption. The central theme of truth and its many faces are well supported by these undertones and give the audience many things to reflect upon.
Who should watch it?
Jalsa tells you nothing new—it just repeats stories we have heard or read before with a more in-depth look at the characters behind them. But in doing so, it also forces us to question the very existence and of the ‘truth’ of everyday life. This makes it a compelling film that most of the audiences who prefer thriller dramas will enjoy.
Rating: 3.5 stars
Genre: Thriller/drama
Director: Suresh Triveni
Actors: Vidya Balan, Shefali Shah
Screen time: 2hrs 3mins
“Richard Jewell” movie review: When the media misleads
‘Trial by media’ is not a new concept. In today’s digital age, technology has turned each one of us with the internet and smartphones/devices into sources of information. Microblogging sites have empowered us to tell our own stories. But for the same reason most of us end up telling others’ stories—without verifying facts, without understanding the truth. In Nepal, ‘Trial by media’ is a rampant problem, with most of our social media users falling for false information. At the same time, our voyeuristic nature leads us to pry into the lives of everyone, famous or not.
Recently released on Netflix, “Richard Jewell” is a movie that tells the story of a man whose life is forever changed by one case of misreporting. Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser)—the lead character—is a young man who aspires for a career in law enforcement. From being an office supply clerk to a security guard, Jewell keeps switching jobs to get closer to his goal of becoming a police officer.
One such stint as a security guard lands Jewell at the Centennial Park in Atlanta, where the 1996 Olympic Games are being held. In one of his shifts, Jewell notices a suspicious package under a bench and quickly informs police officers on site. Explosives experts soon arrive and declare the package a bomb. A quick evacuation of the people near the periphery follows, with Jewell playing a significant part in it. And although the bomb explodes, many lives are saved because of Jewell’s quick thinking and decision-making.
The next day, Jewell is an American hero. He is all over the newspapers, television and radio, even getting offers for an autobiography. But he hardly gets to revel in his newfound fame. FBI agent Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm), who is also on duty at the time of the bomb blast, profiles Jewell as a “white, male, wannabe police officer.” The profile and Jewell’s history of desperately wanting to get into the police turn him into a suspect instead.
The FBI’s investigation in itself would not have been very harmful for Jewell. But then a local journalist Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde) of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution manages to unscrupulously extract information on him from agent Shaw. Her news article brands Jewell a terrorist. From then, Jewell and his mother Bobi (Kathy Bates), with whom he still lives, find their privacy violated. They become the center of investigation from the FBI and face a trial conducted by media houses and their reporters. How Jewell, with the help of his friend and attorney Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell), fights against the FBI, the media and the people in general makes up the rest of the film.
The true story of Richard Jewell is based on the 1997 Vanity Fair article “American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell” and the 2019 book “The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle” by Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen. The film is produced and directed by the legend Clint Eastwood who manages to tell the eponymous hero-turned-villain’s story with the earnestness and grit he’s known for.
Richard Jewell takes the story of a wronged individual and places him at the center of attention. In the process the audience also gets to look at the accused as a human being. The titular character Jewell has his own flaws and vices. But is that reason enough for the media to brand him a demon? His story shows how an individual can easily become powerless against dishonest journalists and people’s biases.
Who should watch it?
Richard Jewell is a film that repeats the story of Jewell and makes the audience aware of the repercussions of giving into every bit of media information. Media can be biased; they can be wrong. So it’s the responsibility of every individual to crosscheck information without passing a quick judgment on anyone. My friends in the media as well as all those who frequently use social media to disseminate information must watch this film.
Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Biography/drama
Director: Clint Eastwood
Actors: Paul Walter Hauser, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell
Run time: 2hrs 11mins
‘Mahaan’ movie review: This is what a blockbuster looks like
I’ve said it a few before, and I’ll repeat: if you love watching South Indian films, you should get out of the YouTube bubble and get subscriptions to a couple of OTT platforms. Watching Hindi dubbed versions of Tamil or Telugu films is like eating momo with mayonnaise and barbecue sauce—you just don’t get the authentic flavor. And Amazon Prime—which has plenty of South India movies in all regional languages—is not very expensive to get either.
Anyways, this week I watched “Mahaan” (transl. “The Great Man”), a Tamil-language action thriller starring Vikram. Most of you may remember Vikram from the 2015 thriller “I”, which was one of the first movies to break out among the Nepali audience and get them hooked to South Indian cinema. It’s popularity, followed by back-to-back action movies from Vikram, earned him a name in Nepal.
Going back to the movie, Mahaan is about Gandhi Mahaan (Vikram), the prodigal son in a family of freedom fighters and devout Gandhians. Starting in flashbacks, the film tells of how Gandhi Mahaan as a teenager in 1968 brought disgrace to his family by drinking and playing cards with the local boys. Fast-forward to 1996 and Gandhi is a schoolteacher living a clean life with his wife Nachi (Simra) and son Dada (Druv Vikram)—free from the ‘sins’ of gambling and drinking.
Then, on his 40th birthday, Gandhi meets a beggar who tells him how boring and mundane his life so far has been and that only five percent of people in the world get to live the way they want to. Influenced by the beggar’s words, Gandhi goes on a drinking spree and ends up at a gambling den owned by Sathyavan (Bobby Simha), his childhood friend and also the father of his former student Rocky (Sanath).
With his mathematical skills, Gandhi makes a killing at the den and ends up partying all night with Sathyavan and Rocky. But that fateful night changes everything for him and his family and sends Gandhi into the criminal world, the repercussions of which will hit him years later.
Told over a span of almost 50 years, Mahaan’s storyline has enough twists to turn it into a 10-episode series. From Gandhi’s childhood to his old age, the film shows him in different lights under different circumstances, making him a hero, an anti-hero and a villain. The screenplay moves fast, but still strongly connects the multitudes of dots in the film’s story, and the cinematography is typical South India—giving the audience some never-seen-before POVs. Karthik Subbaraj’s writing and direction are the film’s strongest aspects.
To pull off a movie with such strong writing and direction, the actors must be onboard with the production team. In this case, Vikram again proves why he is such a big name in South Indian cinema. From playing a 40-year-old school-teacher and a family man to transitioning into a criminal kingpin, Vikram never leaves his character and justifies Gandhi’s every move.
Bobby Simha—who’s not exactly been given a superstar status but never fails to impress—as Sathyavan, matches Vikram’s prowess in the movie as his close friend and partner in crime. Much younger than Vikram in real life, Simha comes to the screen with a high level of maturity to match his senior co-star’s intense presence. Together, the duo takes away much attention from other characters.
Who should watch it?
Mahaan is a commercial movie. If you’re not well acquainted with mainstream South Indian cinema, you may not connect with it or with this review. The praises heaped on the story, screenplay, acting and direction are all based on the fact that this movie was made with one and only one purpose—to entertain. And entertain it will all those who have enjoyed Tamil blockbusters before.
Rating: 3.5 stars
Genre: Action thriller
Actors: Vikram, Bobby Simha, Simran Bagga
Director: Karthik Subbaraj
Run time: 2hrs 43mins
‘The Fame Game’ series review: When even Madhuri Dixit underwhelms
For someone introduced to Bollywood in the 90s, Madhuri Dixit is a quintessential figure and a benchmark for acting and artistry. Known for her unmatchable dancing skills and easy expressions, Dixit sizzled the screens from the late 80s to early 2000s. She was the ultimate star, a heartthrob who had young boys and men swooning over her. As an artist too Dixit enticed some of the biggest Bollywood producers to cast her, winning the love and support of critics and fans alike.
But had it not been for Netflix (or OTT platforms in general), we would probably have never seen her make a comeback in a lead role, as she does in the new TV series “The Fame Game.” Created by Sri Rao, directed by Bejoy Nambiar and Karishma Kohli, and produced under the Dharmatic Entertainment banner, The Fame Game is a Hindi-language thriller that marks the comeback of Dixit and also her once co-star Sanjay Kapoor.
Dixit plays Anamika Anand, an aging Bollywood star struggling to maintain her glamorous image and stay relevant. Her husband Nikhil More (Sanjay Kapoor) is her manager and film producer who is trying to squeeze the most out of her career before it dries up. Anamika is a revered movie star. At home though, she struggles with an introverted daughter, a suicidal son, and a husband who both mentally and physically abuses her.
When her co-star and former lover Manish Khanna (Manav Kaul) comes back into her life, Anamika sees some hope at the end of the dark tunnel. But one day, she just vanishes into thin air from her home. There’s no ransom call or threat and as her family, friends and the police frantically search for her, various truths about her dark life and dysfunctional family surface. The investigating officer Shobha Trivedi (Rajshri Deshpande) is led into a wild goose chase, with the plot getting thicker and thicker.
The Fame Game is a thriller that can be enjoyed with the family, with little of sexual innuendos, gimmicks and physical violence. The screenplay and direction keep the series entertaining throughout. But the series does have flaws. An air of mediocrity hangs around the whole production: The Fame Game is never boring but then it would be a stretch to call it an out-and-out entertainer either.
Dixit has starred in over five dozen films, with a good percentage of them becoming box office hits, but her comeback in The Fame Game feels rusty. While I showered praises for Dixit at the beginning of this review, now comes the difficult part of criticizing her performance. As the main protagonist, Dixit gets plenty of time and opportunity to own the screen, but her performance is inconsistent. In some scenes, she is spectacular, while she looks lost in others. Maybe it is the long hiatus, or transitioning from films to multi-episode series is not sitting well with the actor.
And it is not only Dixit who fails to impress. None of her co-stars stands out. Yesteryears actor Sanjay Kapoor, who has not had a particularly successful acting career, demands a little attention, but that’s probably because expectations do not burden him. The rest of the cast will need to step up their game if there is to be a second season.
Who should watch it?
The acting in The Fame Game is mediocre. Still, writing and direction offer some compensation. If you can enjoy a suspense-thriller without being too distracted by the underwhelming acting, The Fame Game is a good time-pass. And remember, good or bad, it’s Madhuari Dixit we are talking about.
Rating: 2.5 stars
Actors: Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Kapoor, Manav Kaul
Director: Bejoy Nambiar, Karishma Kohli
Genre: Thriller
Run time: 6hrs approx.
