Missing Person

A harried and heavily pregnant Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) arrives in Kolkata on the eve of the Pujas, and around the second anniversary of an attack on the Kolkata Metro. The mission – to find Arnab Bagchi – a husband who has gone missing since arriving in Kolkata on an assignment. The search for the techie husband proves pretty elusive – neither the National Data Centre, nor the police, seem to be able to unearth any meaningful leads. Vidya keeps at her mission – with the help of one police officer Satyaki (Parambrata Chatterjee) – in Kahaani - a movie that is mildly memorable for two reasons. Firstly, the movie shows more vignettes of Kolkata life than any Hindi movie that I can remember for quite a while. Second, true to the thriller genre, nothing in the movie is quite what it seems and the movie succeeds at the genuine element of surprise

13.5/20

No Hunger

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) offers herself as a tribute to save her sister Primrose (Willow Shields) - and the Girl on Fire makes up in spunk what she lacks in battle training. As her personality manages to curry favor - albeit grudging - with Sponsors - Katniss steps into The Hunger Games - well rated, but perhaps with not the best of odds. Was skeptical at entry about a film adaptation of a teen novel, but was a good watch till the interval, i.e., the anticipatory build-up to the games. Not so the Hunger Games themselves. Contrived and brutal, and not quite Death Race, the movie version is a decent adaptation of a story about children slaughtering each other – and that, unfortunately, in the end reckoning, is rather tasteless

10/20

Work of Art

The much-awarded The Artist uses an age-old medium to convey a rather pertinent protest – the silent movie becomes the canvas for the protest of silent-era movie star George Valentin’s (Jean Dujardin) protest against the talkies. Even as his career falls apart, and protégé Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) rises from strength to strength, it is not Valentin’s irasciable temper and fickle willpower that will be any aid to a comeback. It is, rather, the acts of kindness unforgotten, and a butler – Clifton (James Cromwell) and a dog – that keeps The Artist going. And the great George Valentin finds his way to a new calling, while the audience is quite delighted at the unexpected successful usage of an age-old medium

14.5/20

Greek Gods

Immortals is the story of Theseus (Henry Cavill), born of a peasant mother, but of such strength and resolution that Zeus (Luke Evans) himself believes that the Gods should not intervene in the affairs of men, to save Theseus and the Hellenics, because Theseus alone is capable enough to lead his people. Pitted against Theseus and the Hellenics is the evil Hyperion (Mickey Rourke), with his hordes that show no mercy as they search for the Epirus Bow in their quest to unleash the Titans upon the Gods. With much action drawn straight from Greek Mythology, the story centres around Theseus and the virgin oracle Phaedra (Freida Pinto) and their battle against the evil hordes of Hyperion, who stand steadfast in the way of the latter’s quest to free the wrong half of the Immortals

13/20

The John

It seems that in the age of special effects, we, the humble viewers, are consigned to a life of hackneyed scripts, boring characters, and stereotypical morality plays, even as the director and producer have fun with, well, special effects. Its been a while since I actually got a headache from watching a movie (due respect to Edgar Rice Burroughs, he just ran into a veritable onslaught of similar movies). On to the storyline. John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), an American Civil War Confederate General, is mysteriously transported to Mars. Lo and behold, we are cast into a Civil War in Mars (!) wherein the intrepid John Carter, on account of his sublime jumping skills, finds a leadership role in leading the planet’s good guys, notably the people of Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) against the evil hordes of Matai Shang (Mark Strong). Some of the pioneers of the science fiction genre need to be given an honorable burial, instead of being inflicted upon unsuspecting viewers

9/20

All the Time in the World

In the Orwellian In Time, people stop ageing at 25 – and post that, need to use time as the new currency, for consumption or for continued existence. While in the decrepit ghetto, inflation and daily-wage earning means that running out of time – i.e., dying – is a common occurrence, in other Time Zones, notably New Greenwich, the residents have an abundance of time at hand, in excess of hundreds of years. Enter protagonist Will Salas (Justin Timberlake), and a chance encounter with one tired Henry Hamilton (Matt Bomer) in the ghetto, where the latter voluntarily hands Will a hundred years and then some. Will makes the journey to New Greenwich, pursued by the Timekeepers, led by the assiduous Jaeger (Collins Pennie). Will makes his way to the Weis family, and strikes up an unlikely bond with the daughter of the family - Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried) - in the fight for restoring justice in the world. We are not meant to live forever. Indeed

14/20