npdeo18

Early in the film, when the policeman enter the house with the culprit, that scene instantly reminded me of the Big B starter, Khakee.

Yet the makers went ahead with a bold treatment and give a different narrative when compared to the above mentioned film. The events showcased in the film blurred along with the daily aspects of the life especially when one considers the day to day political & religious events that occurs in our surrounding.

Apart from cinematography and the above mentioned aspects regarding the film what stood out regarding the film was the performance of the actors.

The highlights being Roshan Mathews, Prithiviraj, Mammukoya & Srinda.

Had the film released in the nearest cinema audience would have cheered at the entry of Prithviraj( praise should be given for the role he enacted, perhaps after Krithyam this was his first role in Malayalam with such shades) or the sarcastic yet humorous one liners from Mammukoya.

The only drawback of the film was it's predictable second half, yet with a running time of 123 minutes, the film wards of from being a tedious watch unlike Malik.

Patriot Games is based on the famous novel of the same name written by Tom Clancy & is the sequel to 1990 film, The Hunt for the Red October in which the character of Jack Ryan is the principal protagonist and was portrayed by Alec Baldwin. In this however, Alec Baldwin is replaced by Harrison Ford.

The plot involves a PIRA terrorist's attempts to murder Ryan for killing his brother as well foiling the assassination of a influential member of Royal Family. The rest of the film showcases whether Ryan is able to thwart the assassination attempts on him & his family with help of CIA.

Before analyzing i would like to mention that despite being on my wish list I have not read the novels of this series.

When I saw Patriot Games & when I compare it with it's prequel, The Hunt for Red October, I felt this film to be more of a family action thriller (like Firewall or Air Force One), than being a conventional spy thriller like it's prequel. Despite all these drawbacks I found the film to be entertaining, akin to the action films of it's time with it's action scenes to the highlights of the film.

In term of performance i would rate the performance of Harrison Ford, Sean Bean & Anne Archer as the highlight of the film. With Harrison Ford enacting his role in saving his family and members of Royal family very well (I don't think Ford would have portrayed the same role in it's prequel with such finesse as I thought Baldwin to be better in that role) , while Sean Bean was menacing and ruthless as a villain who is hell bent on destroying Ryan, in fact I would describe his performance better than Ford's. Anne Archer enacted her role well as a supporting wife of Ryan especially when she supports her husband to join CIA after her initial inhibition. But I was disappointed with James Earl Jones's role as Ryan's boss as when compared to it's prequel his presence in this film was pretty miniscule in nature.

On the whole it's not on par with it's original, but for the lovers of action films this is an entertaining and is a good way to spend 120 minutes along with a bowl of popcorn.

In the Indian political spectrum of the late 1980s, the infamous Syed Modi case had created a huge ruckus in the national media along with the unstable coalition govt that the country had.

Chargesheet has partly been inspired from the Syed Modi Case and it happens to be the 2nd media venture based on that incident, after the Dev Anand directed Sau Crore made way back in early 90s.

In terms of technical aspects, despite being a well made series in terms of storytelling the serious is a complete disappointment as the presence of continuous flashback kept me confused till the very end with the court scenes being the highlight of the film. In terms of performance except for Shiv Pandit (who i feel was under utilized), all actors enacted their parts well with Sikandar Kher, Tridha Chaudhary, Arunoday Singh & Satish Kaushik being the highlight in terms of performance.

To date i have seen three web series produced by ZEE 5, which includes Rangbaaz, The Final Call & Chargesheet. The common thing about these web series, that i would like to point out is like Sacred Games, all the series of the platform delves between past and present in a matter of scenes. It worked well for Rangbaaz or The Final Call but the same cannot about Chargesheet considering the subject matter that the producers had. Due to which i once again mention had the execution of the serial been better like Rangbaaz we as a viewers would have got a memorable web series. Hope in the future we as viewers would get to see another memorable series like Rangbaaz