Bhor : Movie Review

Bhor (Dawn) Movie Review: Realistic To Its Core!

Image Courtesy: YouTube

 Reviewer’s Thumb Mark

“Hope begins in the dark; the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing. The dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.” – Anne Lamot

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….....

Kay Granger says, “Human rights are not a privilege granted by a few, they are a liberty entitled to all, and human rights, by definition, include the rights of all humans, those in the dawn of life, the dusk of life, or the shadows of life”. I think Bhudhini in Kamakhya Narayan Singh's Bhor’ might have taken this quote seriously without even actually having read or heard about this. 

Image Courtesy: Indiatimes.com

It is interesting to note that Bhor’s journey itself is so inspiring that every single independent filmmaker can draw hope and strength from it. This film which was heaped with praise and great reviews internationally for its fantastic and realistic portrayal of societal issues like open defecation, child marriage, women empowerment and social and economic disparity existing in Indian villages found it hard to find a cheering audience and packed theatres in its country then. The film has received critical acclaim at more than thirty film festivals. The film went on to win the best director award at the Ottawa Indian Film Festival and two awards in the Caleidoscope Indian Film Festival of Boston. After a long journey, the film has released on the OTT Platform MX Player and all of a sudden it finds itself in the limelight again for all good reasons. 

Image Courtesy:  MX player

Bhor reminds me of the film Gutrun Gutargun by Pratik Sharma and Asmita Sharma was equally a good movie highlighting women empowerment and open defecation. Gutrun Gutargun also had its challenges in getting a fair release in theatres and had to file a case for alleged copyright issues against Toilet Ek Prem Katha makers in the Jaipur High Court. Finally, Gutrun Gutargun got released on the OTT platforms like Hungama and MX Player in 2020.

Image Courtesy: MX Player

The film Bhor portrays the harsh realities of the Musahar community in Bihar and thereby opens a window to the world to experience a world of the underprivileged and their struggle for human rights. In Bihar, the word Musahar means mus + ahar  (Rat Eater) based on their traditional occupation of catching rats. The musahar community's literacy rate is minimal and in the case of women, it’s abysmal.

Image Courtesy: MX Player

Savaree Gaur as Bhudhini a school going untouchable girl is married off to a young villager Sugan (Devesh Ranjan). Devesh Ranjan and Savaree are fabulous actors. They have slipped into the skin of their characters so well that the viewer feels their innocence, hope, love, bonding, challenges and agony all through the film. Nalneesh Neel is an exceptional actor and has delivered a commendable performance as Chamku the father-in-law of Bhudhini. Chamku’s drunken stupor, language, mannerisms, acceptance of his fate as a Musahar and his docility towards his master moves us to tears and at the same time make us love this man for his honesty and bonding for his family.

Image Courtesy: MX Player

Another actor worth mentioning here is Amarendra Sharma who plays the role of Bhukan. Amarendra Sharma was also seen in the film Batla House as one of the police officers in John Abraham’s team. Amarendra Sharma is one among many talented actors who have landed in Bollywood and is all set to leave his mark here. Punya Prasun Bajpai enacts well what he is good at as a journalist. His presence as a journalist in the film adds value and credibility to his role played because of his progressive and secular track record in the media circle. Pavleen Gujral as Madamji in Bhor (The Angry Indian Goddesses actress) looks different here because of her deglamorized looks in Bhor as a village teacher.

 

Image Courtesy: MX Player

In short, Bhor is a must-watch because of its compelling social message and for Kamakhya Narayan Singh’s courage and vision to make this film his debut film. The last scene of the film hits hard for at the end of the day the underprivileged, workers, peasants and the poor are displaced, they remain a migrant or a refugee in their own country. The city gives them money but they have no worth and the village gives them open space but chain them in the casteists, patriarchal and feudal systems. Bhor is a bugle for all of us to stand for the basic human rights of the common people of our country. True nationalism is beyond religion and I believe it’s high time we realize this truth. Finally, watch Bhor on MX Player.

PEN Movie Rating: 3.5/5

Cast: Nalneesh Neel, Savree Sri Gaur, Devesh Ranjan, Amarendra Sharma, Pavleen Gujral, Punya Prasun Bajpai, Rajeev Panday,

Genre:  Social Drama

Director: Kamakhya Narayan Singh

Creative Producer: Abhinandan Sekhri

Producer: Anjani Kumar Singh

Executive Producer: Ranjan Chauhan, Aditya Aman

Director of Photography: Jogendranath Panda

Editor: Navnita Sen

Background Music: Bapi-Tutul, Sagar Desai, Jessica Weiss

Story, Screenplay and Dialogues: Ranjan Chauhan, Kamakhya Narayan                                                               Singh, Bhasker Vishwanathan

Music Director: Gulraj Singh

Cinematography: 

Art Director: Mrinal Das, Alok Haldar

Production Companies: Gyanesh Films Production 

OTT Platform: MX Player 

Release Date: 05 February 2021

Duration: 91 Minutes

Language: Hindi

 

 

 

Drishyam 2 Movie Review

Drishyam 2 Movie Review: A Film Worth Watching!

Image Courtesy: nowrunning.com

Reviewer’s Thumb Mark

“The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin. That is his punishment.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

…………………………………………………………………………………………............

Dhrishaym 2 continues where its prequel left us thinking – “Can anyone defeat a person who is pledged to protect his family? And in the sequel too we come to know that this person can go to any extent to resist his past from haunting him and posing any threat to his family.

Jeethu Joseph is once again successful in portraying a common man’s dilemma, guilt and helplessness when he is compelled to commit a crime that he would not have even imagined in his wildest dreams to do. Jeethu Joseph deserves exceptional appreciation for his deft handling of his story not to make Georgekutty a hero of his act and also not to justify his crime. At the same time, he leaves his viewers to feel the vulnerability, pain, loss, guilt and determination of both the party. 

Image Courtesy: gulfnews.com

Drishyam 2 begins with a man running for cover from the police. Six years have passed and the jail gates are opened for this murder convict to go back to his home not knowing what other things happened in his village on that fateful night when he had murdered his brother-in-law in a drunken brawl. The village has changed and now, a fully functional police station is there quite ignorant about the mystery that lies underneath its structure. The erstwhile cable operator Georgekutty (Mohanlal) is now in a new avatar. He now owns a cinema theatre named after his wife Rani (Meena). He is busy managing the shows, collections and pursuing his newfound love to produce movies. He has a very private life with his two grown-up daughters and his God-fearing wife.

Life is not the same for Georgekutty and his family anymore, they live in constant fear of being caught, they know that they are still the talk of the town, they are cautious to strangers and the villagers enquiring about what happened on that fateful night when Varun the son of ex Inspector general of Police Anjali Prabhakar (Asha Sharath) went missing. The family silently deals with the much-traumatised elder daughter (Ansiba Hassan) and her epilepsy after the sad incident that changed their life completely. The younger one seems to have overcome the sad past and is all set to vroom into the future with her gen x friends.  Georgekutty is often found playing the role of a bridge between his traditional and over-cautious wife and his younger daughter Anu (Esther Anil). 

Image Courtesy: youthpagelive.com

The first half takes its time for momentum and is actually more of Georgekutty and the supporting characters like the abusive neighbour and his wife who is close to Rani, the murder convict who is just released and his family, Georgekutty’s an ever-loyal hotel owner and his customers, the local auto-rickshaw drivers and the local policemen who try hard to avoid the embarrassment of their failure to nab the alleged culprit Georgekutty.

The seemingly all good and peaceful atmosphere of Georgekutty’s family life changes drastically when they find the policemen knocking at his door. Did Georgekutty underestimate the newly appointed Police officer (Murali Gopi) and his team? Will Georgekutty be able to escape once again being put behind the bars? 

Image Courtesy: aajtak.in

There are some heartrending moments and dialogues that happens between the two fathers – Georgekutty and Prabhakar (Siddique), the father of Varun, the last scene tugs at your heart for both the families for their loss and pain.

In short, Jeethu Joseph's Dhrishyam 2- The Resumption’ is aptly titled and lives up to the expectations of its viewers. Though the first half is a bit slow it is well compensated by the twists and dramatic turns in the second half of the film. And to sum up, I would like to quote Stephen Arroyo - “Each individual is solely responsible for his or her own actions, and every action will produce a reaction equal in every way to the suit of the action”.

PEN Movie Rating: 3.5/5

Cast: Mohanlal, Meena, Ansiba Hassan, Esther Anil, Asha Sharath, Siddique, Murali Gopi, Ajith Koothattukulam,

 Genre:  Crime Thriller

 Director: Jeethu Joseph

 Producer: Antony Perumbavoor

 Written by: Jeethu Joseph

 Music: Anil Johnson

 Cinematography: Satheesh Kurup

 Edited by: VS Vinayak

 Production Companies: Aashirvad Cinemas

 Distributor: Prime Video

 Release Date: 19 February 2021

 Duration: 153 Minutes

 Language: Malayalam

 

 

 

Movie Review: Thappad

Thappad Movie Review: A Silent Rebellion!

Image Courtesy: gstatic.com

Reviewer’s Thumb Mark

“The word love has by no means the same sense for both sexes, and this is one cause of the serious misunderstandings that divide them” – Simone de Beauvoir

Anubhav Sinha’s film ‘Thappad’ creates such an impact on you that its sound reverberates from one end of your heart to the other end of your conscience. It tugs and pulls you in all directions of your life to such an extent that your heart bleeds for all that you have done knowingly or unknowingly which might have slit the fabric of love, respect and happiness of your partner, friend, mother, sister and all those women who play a decisive role in your life.

The canvas of the film is so wide that the filmmaker takes you from the very first scene through the lives of many couples representing the different rungs of the society. They are so easily relatable that their lives’ twist and turns make you look within and at the same time make you observe your life and draw comparisons with the lives on screen. The social message slowly and steadily seeps into your heart that ‘Thappad’ is not just about the physical hurt but also about the grievous wound that you have caused to her soul.  

Image Courtesy: boxofficecollection.in

Thappad tells the story of Ammu aka Amrita Sabherwal, a homemaker in an affluent family in Delhi. Her husband Vikram (Pavail Gulati) is career-oriented and is caught up in the rat race of the corporate world. He is workaholic and leaves no stone unturned to ensure that he chases his dream so that he can become the top head of his company’s London office. And on the other side, Ammu is a happy soul taking care of her diabetic mother-in-law (Tanvi Azmi), supporting and giving her husband the required moral support in pursuing his dream, and also taking out some time to tutor a sweet little girl next door on dancing. Ammu’s routine depicts the life of any homemaker like waking up almost before the first faint sign of dawn before everyone, picking up the milk bottles and the newspaper from the doorsteps, switching off the alarm clock, waking up her husband, taking care of the medicines and regular check-up of his mother and of course not forgetting to take a photograph of the beautiful dawn with her mobile camera while she sips her warm cup of tea in the balcony. And one fine day Ammu’s life cease because of a slap; the slap becomes the beginning of her consciousness. She finds it difficult to understand the logic given to her by her dear ones that “Ek Thappad hi thoh hai’. Ammu’s awakening becomes a silent rebellion not just in her family but in every women’s life she touched.  

Image Courtesy: indiatoday.in

Tapsee Pannu as Ammu has given a stellar performance. She reminds you of everything that you overlooked or pushed under the proverbial rug saying that it's ok, it happens in a relationship, that’s what life is and so on and so forth. A special mention for Pavail Gulati for his thoroughly convincing performance as the loving husband as well as for playing the typical self-obsessed patriarchal male. Kumud Mishra and Ratna Pathak Shah, the two veterans win your heart as Ammu’s parents. Geetika Vidhya as the maid of Ammu who is a victim of an abusive marital relationship keeps you entertained and has given an exemplary performance. The song ‘Ek Thukda Dhoop Ke’ sums up the soul of the film beautifully through its lyrics and music.

In short, Anubhav Sinha’s Thappad after Mulk, Article 15 is a good example of how cinema can awaken the social conscience. Thappad is commendable and deserves a standing ovation for its compelling message and for its take on gender politics. It’s a movie to be watched with all the members of your family. It raises pertinent questions on the kind of relationships we have and patriarchy. Finally, Thappad is enabling beyond empowering and therefore let’s remember what Melinda Gates said – “A woman with a voice is, by definition, a strong woman”.

PEN Movie Rating: 4/5

Cast: Tapsee Pannu (Amrita Sabherwal), Pavail Gulati (Vikram), Ratna Pathak Shah, Kumud Mishra, Tanvi Azmi, Dia Mirza, Ram Kapoor, Sushil Dahiya, Nidhi Uttam, Manav Kaul, Gracy Goswami, Sandeep Yadav, Naila Grewal, Ankur Rathee, Geetika Vidhya

Genre:  Social Drama

Director: Anubhav Sinha

Producer: Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Anubhav Sinha

Written by: Anubhav Sinha, Mrunmayee Lagoo

Music: Anurag Saikia (Songs), Mangesh Dhakde (Score)

Cinematography: Soumik Mukherjee

Edited by: Yasha Ramchandani

Production Companies: Benaras Media Works, T-Series

Distributor: AA Films

Release Date: 28 February 2020

Duration: 142 Minutes

Language: Hindi

Movie Review: Love Aaj Kal 2.0

Love Aaj Kal 2.0 Movie Review: Jaane Kyun Log Pyar Karte Hain?

Image Courtesy: imdb.com

Reviewer’s Thumb Mark

“I think the perfection of love is that it’s not perfect” – Taylor Swift

Imtiaz Ali’s film ‘Love Aaj Kal’ (LAK) 2.0 wades through the troubled waters of whether to fall in love or not to. It is also a story of continual pursuit for ideal love. To tell this Imtiaz Ali shares with us two love stories parallelly – one, that has it’s origin in 1990 and the other, in the present. Raghu’s (Randeep Hooda) and Leena’s (Aarushi Sharma) love story is the embodiment of ideal and true love for Zoe (Sara Ali Khan), a career-oriented free bird. Zoe considers her career as her love because she feels her love is available for her always; when she is alone her love makes her feel complete; her love is her world. She feels falling in a committed love may kill her freedom to scale the heights in her career and therefore frets on the very thought of love but she doesn’t mind to fulfil her physical biological needs by hopping around in non-committal relationships. Whereas, Veer (Kartik Aaryan) is in search of true love – a love that is much more than physical. It’s like Veer seems to believe what William Shakespeare once said – “When I saw you, I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew it”.  

Image Courtesy: in.mashable.com

The beautiful theme of true love and the wavering mind has been fantastically portrayed umpteen times in many of Imtiaz Ali’s films before, but this time he falters, fumbles and stammers making it too complicated and messy for the audience to understand what he wants to convey. Amidst these confusion, Kartik Aaryan and Sara Ali Khan, unfortunately, fail to recreate the magic of Jai (Saif Ali Khan) and Meera (Deepika Padukone) of Love Aaj Kal 2009. The only joy to watch LAK 2.0 is Randeep Hooda and Aarushi Sharma. Randeep Hooda’s narration about his love for Aarushi Sharma is commendable and beautiful. You fall in love with the shy and timid Leena of the ’90s.

Imtiaz Ali plays safe by keeping the same storyline LAK 2009 but had no other choice but to fiddle with the locations and situations. Instead of London, it’s Udaipur now and instead of Rishi Kapoor it’s Randeep Hooda who strikes a chord with Sara Ali Khan to go and pursue her true love. The camaraderie of Rishi Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan is missing here between Raghu and Zoe.

Image Courtesy: himdirush.com

Imtiaz Ali’s attempt to put the old wine in the new bottle did what Jesus Christ cautioned people from not to do – as the new wine will split the leather skin of the flask and spill the new wine. Here too, LAK 2.0 spills into too many forced of emotions, outbursts, confusions, and unnecessary talks on ideal and not so ideal love.

Kartik Aaryan and Sara Ali Khan tried hard to keep the audience engaged and entertained but unfortunately the harder they tried the more the audience yawned. The music of Lak 2.0 is in no match to 2009 LAK’s foot-tapping music which was highly appreciated and loved.

In short, if you are a fan of Imtiaz Ali’s films then go and revisit Tamasha, Love Aaj Kal 2009, Laila Majnu, Jab We Met, Highway, Rockstar but avoid Lak 2.0. I feel Imtiaz Ali should take a break now from telling stories of true love versus confused love, career versus love etc. We love you Imtiaz Ali, so please give us something new in the near future. Finally, ‘Love Aaj Ka Ho Ya Kal Ka’ I would like to quote Maya Angelou – “Love recognises no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at it’s destination full of hope”.

PEN Movie Rating: 1.5/5

Cast: Romance/Drama

Director: Imtiaz Ali

Producer: Dinesh Vijan, Imtiaz Ali

Written by: Imtiaz Ali

Music: Pritam (Songs), Ishaan Chhabra (Score)

Cinematography: Amit Roy

Edited by: Aarti Bajaj

Production Companies: Maddock Films, Window Seat Films, Reliance Entertainment

Distributor: Pen Marudhar Entertainment

Release Date: 14 February 2020

Duration: 141 Minutes

Language: Hindi

  

  

Made in China Movie Review

‘Made in China’ Movie Review:

 A Hilarious Entrepreneurial Journey!

Image Courtesy: koimoi.com

Reviewer’s Thumb Mark

"You have to see failure as the beginning and the middle, but never entertain it as an end” – Jessica Herrin

Made in China’s Raghuvir Mehta in short Raghu (Rajkummar Rao) is a young man who is not ready to quit even after thirteen failed endeavours until he becomes a successful businessman. He is continuously discouraged and taunted because of consistent failure in all his endeavours by his wealthy and pompous uncle Vhinde Bhai (Manoj Joshi) and his cousin (Sumeet Vyas) who is a xerox copy of his father. Raghu had tried his luck on everything from selling Nepali carpets, Eggs of Emu, Chappathi maker and to what not; as the proverb goes – “Just when the caterpillar thought, the world was over, it became a butterfly” Raghu didn’t even imagine in his wildest dream that his visit to China would turn out to be a new beginning clubbed with lots of unprecedented twists and turns.

Vhinde Bhai forcibly sent Raghu along with Devraj to China for a business presentation, thinking that he will learn some skills from his brother and make the Mehtas proud. But things don’t work as planned and his cousin is outrightly rejected by a Gujarati business genius Tanmay Shah (Paresh Rawal) in the first business meeting itself. As Devraj walks out of the meeting, the business wizard strikes a chord with Raghu and tells him that he has a bright future and invites him for a party. Raghu gets bowled over by his business acumen when he sees  Tanmay Shah selling the Gujarati delicacy Thepela to a bunch of his foreigner friends so effortlessly. Charged by his experience in China, Raghu returns with two things with him – one, a magic soup that works as an aphrodisiac to enhance virility and two, the guru mantra given to him by Mr Shah that ‘Customers are fools’.

Image Courtesy: hindustantimes.com

Raghu armed with his newfound potent product ‘The Magic Soup' does exactly what Mandy Hale has aptly pointed out – “There is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others”. Raghu collaborates with Dr Vardhi (Boman Irani) a sexologist who was shunted out of Bhutan for his controversial sex awareness program he pursued there, which made him finally restrict himself to a small clinic in Ahmedabad treating patients who occasionally visited him. What follows is a team handpicked by both of them to manufacture, promote and sell 'The Magic Soup'.

The above-mentioned story is not enough to gauge what happens next because Raghu’s entrepreneurial journey is full of potholes that he needs to be careful off and pursue his journey to leave a mark as a successful businessman.  One needs to watch this movie to know whether he becomes successful in keeping the customers, his wife, his uncle, cousin and the Indian and Chinese government fools for long.  It is also interesting to know how he got allegedly linked to the murder of a Chinese General in Ahmedabad who got killed by helping himself with a bowl of 'The Magic Soup'.

Image Courtesy: indiatoday.in

Mikhil Musale, the maker of the national award-winning Gujarati film ‘Wrong Side Raju’, has co-written and directed the film Made in China. He starts off the film as a murder thriller and slowly like a  chameleon changes the story's  focuses on the journey of an overly ambitious young man’s entrepreneurial struggle and then suddenly slips into a sex awareness program where he speaks volumes on how Indians shy away from speaking the word Sex in public and how virility for many is ‘Power’. Amidst all these the filmmaker finds pleasure in spouting some below the belt humour which is very funny. The role of Gajraj Rao as Abhay Chopra, a motivational trainer is half baked and fails to do justice to such a talented actor. Mouni Roy (Rukmini) is full of Oomph and it seems that she is there unfortunately for that only. She as the better half of Raghu is in no way match to his simplicity as a Gujrati guy and even falls short of having a Gujrati accent. Her reaction to his newfound business venture is contrary to the character she portrays.  Rukmini is bold, open, ready to explore and talk without any inhibition on taboo topics like sexual satisfaction, orgasm and share a drink with her husband outside but can't take her husband selling performance enhancement products without her knowledge and feels that he has fallen from grace as a person. 

In short, Made in China is at least better than Shilpi Dasgupta’s ‘Khandaani Shafahkana, but fails to tell a story well on a serious topic humorously.   You can still watch this film but with zero expectations. Go for Rajkummar Rao and the show stealer Boman Irani as Dr Vardhi, the 70-year-old sexologist. Maybe you may walk out of the theatre realizing that you are being fooled as a customer by many every day, if so, Jaago Grahak Jaago.

Life Connoisseur Movie Rating: 2.5/5

Cast: Rajkummar Rao (Raghuvir Mehta), Mouni Roy (Rukmini Mehta), Boman Irani (Dr Vardhi), Amyra Dastur (Roopa), Paresh Rawal (Tanmay Shah), Gajraj Rao (Chopra), Sumeet Vyas (Devraj), Manj Joshi (Vhinde Bhai), Amit Bimrot (Ravi Panchal), Chittaranjan Tripathy and Abhishek Banerjee (CBI Officers)

Genre: Comedy Drama

Director: Mikhil Musale

Producers: Dinesh Vijan, Sharada Karki Jalota

Written by: Niren Bhatt, Karan Vyas (Dialogues)

Based on the book: Made in China by Parinda Joshi

Story by: Mikhil Musale, Niren Bhatt, Karan Vyas, Parinda Joshi

Music by: Sachin-Jigar

Background Score: John Stewart Eduri

Cinematography: Anuj Rakesh Dhawan

Edited by: Manan Ashwin Mehta

Production Company: Maddock Films, Jio Studios

Distributor: AA Films

Release Date: 25 October 2019

Duration: 128 Minutes

Language: Hindi

Super 30 : Movie Review

'Super 30': The Story of Ekalavyas!

Image Courtesy: cinetalkers.com

Reviewer’s Thumb Mark

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all" -- Aristotle

The 155 minutes long film 'Super 30' takes you through a journey of modern-day Ekalavaya who triumphed upon adversities and has become a beacon of hope for all those who are fighting to pull down the walls of conventional educational systems and methodologies that are only affordable and accessible to the privileged.

In a country like India, Che Guevera's quotes becomes more relevant - "A country that does not know how to read and write is easy to deceive."  Vikas Bahl's film Super 30 is inspirational and is based on a real-life hero called Anand Kumar and his educational program 'Super 30'.

Image Courtesy: jagran.com

The film draws parallels with the epic drama 'Mahabharata' and its mystical characters like Dronacharya - the Guru and his blue-eyed disciple Arjun, towards whom he evidently had a bias. Without naming Ekalavya, the film questions the decision of Drona to coach only the privileged (The Royal Blood) and negate the right of Ekalavya (The Under Privileged) to learn archery. The film slowly pans on to our educational system which has been commercialized by pro-rich policies which have resulted into mushrooming of innumerable coaching institutes and educational firms claiming to guarantee 100% success and state of the art infrastructure at a heavy price. Most of the students who end up here are children of those parents who have set high goals for their children and pay through the nose. There are many more hapless parents who end up going for educational loans or even mortgaging their hard-earned assets.

Anand Kumar's life itself is a living example of how his father, a postman, had to run from pillar to post to get his son go to Harvard after receiving a scholarship offer letter based on his piece of work that got published in a foreign scientific journal. Unfortunately, they both failed miserably to gather the required amount to see him off to his dream university.

Image Courtesy: hindirush.com

The impeccable Hrithik Roshan as Anand Kumar effortlessly strikes a chord with you as a teacher on a mission. He is hard to resist and is a powerhouse who inspires you to stand up for your right to educate and live a life of respect and regard. There is a dialogue by him on his hospital bed when he says ' Bahuth hogaya padai, abh hai ladne ki baari' ( You have done enough studies, now it's time to fight) that leaves you charged and touched. The story is heart-wrenching at the same time a great lesson that reminds us of the much-quoted Mexican Proverb - "They tried to bury us. They didn't realize we were seeds".

Sreekar Prasad's deft editing, Anay Goswamy's cinematography, and Ajay-Atul's music keep you hooked to the film. Vikas Bahl had earned a brownie point by directing this movie and proving his mettle once again as a director. Hope he finds and engages himself more in making meaningful movies rather getting embroiled in controversies, scandals, accusations and Me too. One needs to understand that talents are rare and therefore, the world can't afford to lose them.

In short, the film 'Super 30' is a must-watch for all those who are not only just the fans of Hrithik but also for them who want to see and believe that there are people on a mission who really want to see this world changed. So let's go and watch the movie and celebrate their failures and triumphs together.

Let's carry home what Anand Kumar says on-screen - "Apne liye khoob chikna sadak banaye... Hummare raah mai itna bada bada gadda khodiye lekin yehi vo sabse badi galti kardiye... humko saala challang marna seekha diye"  (They made beautiful roads for themselves and made potholes all the way for us... this is their biggest mistake that they have done because by doing so, they made us learn how to leap ahead!).

Life Connoisseur Movie Rating: 4/5

Cast: Hrithik Roshan (Anand Kumar), Mrunal Thakur (Ritu Rashmi, Anand's love interest), Virendra Saxena (Anand's father), Nandish Singh (Anand's brother), Pankaj Tripathi (Minister), Aditya Shrivastava (Lallan Singh), Amit Sadh (Journalist Raghunath)

Genre: Biography, Drama

Director: Vikas Bahl

Producers: Phantom Films, Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, Reliance Entertainment

Written by: Sanjeev Dutta

Based on: Life of Anand Kumar

Music by: Ajay-Atul

Cinematography: Anay Goswamy

Edited by: A Sreekar Prasad

Production Company: Phantom Films, Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, Reliance Entertainment, HRX Films

Distributor: Reliance Entertainment, PVR Pictures

Release Date: 12 July 2019

Duration: 155 Minutes

Language: Hindi