thedesicritic

Overview: After a long time, the Hindi film industry has brought us a true romantic drama full of real emotions and captivating characters. I really enjoyed this film, it was meant to pull on the audiences' heartstrings, and it really did its job. The performances were great by the two young leads, the music was phenomenal, and overall, it is a great watch.

Plot: The plot centres around Vaani Batra (Aneet Padda), a young woman left at the altar, and Krish Kapoor (Ahaan Panday) an upcoming musician burdened by his own inner demons. The two strike up a romance and collaborate on music together as they navigate their early careers. Tragedy strikes when Vaani is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's.

Acting: The performances are fantastic by the two leads. Ahaan Panday should be very proud of his work; I have not seen a debut this good in a long time. Every emotion was conveyed effectively and the audience really connected with his character. An exciting young actor in an era where talented male leads are in short supply. If he keeps up this level of performance and picks his projects right, there is a green field opportunity for him to become the star of Gen Z.

For Aneet Padda, this was her first major mainstream project, and she did a wonderful job. Your heart broke with hers through her journey. She was relatable in a way that not many young actresses are anymore.

Music: For a film that focusses on a musician's journey, it was so important to have good music. This movie delivered on that front in a big way. The score, soundtrack, and lyrics are fantastic. The film's title track "Saiyaara" delivers an impressive emotional climax.

Conclusion: This is one of the movies of the year. Well worth the watch, a high quality and thoughtful project. Hoping Bollywood delivers more of this level of quality moving forward.

8/10.

Overview: This was a very enjoyable film that was a bit let down by the fact that Anurag Basu chose to focus on too many storylines. The result is that instead of a deep dive into 2 or 3 paths, the audience is overloaded with a cursory glance at a number of storylines. In particular the teen romance storyline could have been completely cut, it didn't really have enough meat on it to make it a compelling plot point and that time could have been dedicated to some of the other scenarios that were unfolding.

That being said the movie had solid performances, good music, and overall was a great watch.

Plot: The film focusses on stories of love amongst a number of interconnected characters spanning Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai. It features tales of love from every stage of the human experience, from adolescence to old age, focussing on the emotions that people go through at different stages and scenarios of their lives.

Acting: This is a very strong point of the film. Actors like Anupam Kher, Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Aditya Roy Kapur, and Fatima Sana Shaikh (amongst others) put in really good performances.

Two performances stick out for contrasting reasons. On one hand, Konkona Sen Sharma is masterful in the role Kajol. She is so good there were times during the viewing that I completely forgot that I was watching a movie, it just felt like real life. On the other hand, it was clear that Sara Ali Khan was not at the level of her peers. While it was not her worst performance, I'm not sure how long the acting gig is going to last for her. She tended to stick out more, due to the quality of those around her.

Music: Music was generally good; my only complaint is that it was too often. There were times the movie needed to let the plot move forward with acting rather than a song.

Conclusion: This film is well worth the watch and is a good quality movie that sometimes is lacking in modern cinema.

7/10.

Overview: This revamp of the Jurassic Park franchise has nothing new to say, it is the same old tropes with a similar storyline and the same attempts at jump scares. Overall, I found the movie pretty boring, and it became clear as the story went on that this was just a cash grab for the studio trying to milk the last bit of life out of the franchise. The characters were interchangeable and drab, the plot holes were numerous, and it just did not capture the attention of the audience.

Additionally, they had mutant dinosaurs which I guess was the filmmakers attempt at something different, but the sight of an alien looking dinosaur was a cause to chuckle rather than feel fear.

Plot: The plot begins with the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), putting together a team of mercenaries and scientists to go to an off limits island overrun by dinosaurs in order to extract DNA. The DNA needs to be extracted from the largest air, land, and sea dinosaurs (if they included fire they could become the avatar I guess) in order to cure human heart disease. The plot doesn't really make much sense and seems shoehorned in to engage with the "scariest" dinosaurs. The mercenaries are given some random backstories that nobody really cares about because they aren't discussed in any great detail.

Amidst all this, a family attempting to sail the Atlantic gets attacked by dinosaurs and joins the team along the way. The family has no real point of being in the movie other than to provide some tugs at your heartstrings and the need for the Jurassic franchise to have a child in every movie.

Acting: The actors really didn't have much to work with in terms of scriptwriting, so they were mostly just going through the motions. Scarlett Johansson was meant to be the big star of the movie, but her character was so flat that she didn't have any time to shine in this role.

Conclusion: Throughout the movie the characters kept bringing up the point that people aren't interested in dinosaurs anymore. Maybe it is time for the studio to take their own advice and let this franchise finally go extinct.

3/10.