Rakesh Mehar
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Past articles by Rakesh:
Karwaan: Dulquer and Irrfan try hard, but this road film falls short of heartwarming
Early in Karwaan, we’re introduced to Dulquer Salmaan, in his Bollywood debut, as Avinash Rajpurohit. Avinash is handsome, genial and ever so bored of the rut of the beaten path, but is not quite sure what to do about it. So, in the grand tradition of road movies everywhere, fate pushes him off on a picturesque journey through the backroads of Ooty and Kerala. → Read More
‘6ne Maili’ review: This thriller starts strong, but runs out of fuel
What’s going on with our protagonist’s phone and the constant stream of messages that he never talks about? Why does everyone along the way look so suspicious? What’s with all the tense looks everyone’s exchanging? Going by all the questions that pop into one’s mind in the opening half hour of 6ne Maili, it’s easy to see that the film is doing a more than competent job of → Read More
‘Semma Botha Aagathey’ review: Neither funny nor thrilling enough
Double crosses can be beautiful things. Put together a set of characters, each with a desperate need to look after their own interests, and all with contradictory motives that pull in different directions, and you could get a fascinating tale that ensnares you from the get go. → Read More
'Amma I Love You' review: Too much mother sentiment, too little originality
What if all the money in the world couldn’t buy you the one thing you need? Would you be able to walk away from all that wealth for the sake of that one unattainable wish? → Read More
‘Buckaasuura’ review: This Kannada morality tale is too much of a strange brew
In its loosest sense, Buckaasuura is inspired by the 1997 Hollywood film The Devil’s Advocate starring Keanu Reeves and Al Pacino. For anyone who remembers the Hollywood original and curses me for revealing such a major plot spoiler, you can relax. The sheer strangeness of the Kannada remake means that you can only spot the inspiration if you look very hard and very closely. → Read More
‘Krishna Tulasi’ review: This romantic drama is a heartwarming tale about love and blindness
Stories about persons with disability are generally a troubling prospect in Sandalwood. More often than not, audiences are served up a tale dripping with pity and condescension, as the disabled protagonists work simply as a mirror for the faults of the able-bodied characters around them. Thankfully, while Krishna Tulasi can’t entirely escape from the trope of disabled persons with hearts of… → Read More
‘Attempt to Murder’ review: This crime thriller is rough around the edges but engaging
It isn’t often that you get an innovative but no-frills crime thriller in Sandalwood. So, there is enough in the first half of Attempt to Murder to pique one’s interest. → Read More
'Seizer' review: Mediocre action plot, made worse by the execution
Even turning a formulaic masala plot into a competent action entertainer takes a lot of work. While that fact might not register while watching most standard Sandalwood blockbusters, it hits home when you see a release like Seizer. → Read More
'Heegondhu Dina' review: This ambitious Kannada film deserves a watch for sheer audacity
Heegondhu Dina is a film that everyone should watch simply for the audacity of the experiment. In a scenario where so little thought goes into writing a film outside of its formulaic fights, songs and comedy scenes, this exciting Kannada film heads in the opposite direction. → Read More
‘Gultoo’ review: This unusual thriller is a rare find in Kannada cinema
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s likely that questions about Aadhaar have loomed large in your life lately, thanks to the ongoing court hearings and messages regarding mandatory linking that inundated us all till recently. But even in times like this, it comes as a bit of a surprise to see Sandalwood pick up on the topic of Aadhaar and data theft so quickly. → Read More
‘Rajaratha’ review: An exciting plot full of romance and political drama ends up a bumpy ride
There’s a bus ride to Chennai where the girl might finally fall in love with the boy who’s loved her for years. But as the bus trundles its way down the highways, there are scam-tainted politicians conniving with regionalist goons to incite trouble with a neighbouring state so that the media forgets about scams in the heat of riots. Will love blossom or will hate triumph? → Read More
‘#O Premave’ review: This Kannada romance is an excruciating mess of sexist clichés
You would think that in 2018, with gender a hot topic of discussion all around the world, at least the worst stereotypes about men and women might disappear from Kannada cinema. Unfortunately, while love letters may have given way to WhatsApp messages and Facebook, the clichés from the 1980s refuse to go away. The latest egregious example of this tendency is #O Premave. Directed by and starring… → Read More
‘Keni’ review: This earnest film on water scarcity promises much, but delivers little drama
Having just lost her husband in a tragic set of circumstances, Indira (Jaya Prada) returns to his ancestral home in the village of Puliyanmalai to find a way to rebuild her life. But fate has more in store, as the desperately drought-stricken village on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border has only one possible source of drinking water – an old well on Indira’s property. In a cruel twist, however, a… → Read More
'Tagaru' review: This Shivrajkumar formula cop film is saved by its jumbled storyline
There’s a blood-soaked arm hanging out the side of an autorickshaw, a couple of young rowdies who are starting to resent the godfather who brought them into the business, several gangsters hacked or shot to death, and a woman who’s been kidnapped but doesn’t seem to mind it all that much. What’s the story behind all of this and what does Shivarajkumar have to do with it? → Read More
'Naachiyaar' review: This Jyothika cop film needed more than just good intentions
If there’s one road to hell paved with good intentions, it is the rabbit hole that Tamil cinema climbs into whenever it tries to make a strong statement about rape or sexual violence. Going one step forward and two steps back this week is director Bala’s Naachiyaar. The film deserves the spotlight for the kind of characters it focuses on. Centred around a woman, and keeping a realistic but… → Read More
‘Prema Baraha’ review: This mediocre film fails to capitalise on its Kargil backdrop
Prema Baraha ostensibly tells the tale of two journalists from rival news organisations forced to work together as they cover the Kargil conflict. But really, other than for the fact that all the characters keep mentioning Kargil, there’s nothing to give us a sense of what exactly these “intrepid TV reporters” are covering. → Read More
‘Savarakathi’ review: This Mysskin-style comic thriller is a hilarious ride
If you’ve always wondered what a Mysskin film might feel like without the sometimes very disturbing violence, Savarakathi is definitely the film for you. Though he wrote this film, Mysskin hands over the directorial reins to his brother GR Adithyaa and steps in front of the camera himself as one of lead characters. The result is a surprisingly funny, though not perfect, comedy. → Read More
‘Kanaka’ review: A commercial potboiler written just for Duniya Vijay fans
If there’s one thing that star vehicles in Kannada cinema can always rely on, it is family sentiment. The selfless son, ready to sacrifice everything for family members who little recognise his unceasing love for them, remains one of the most popular characters in Sandalwood. And truckloads of Kannadiga pride seem to complete the rest of the formula. → Read More
'Nimir' review: A watchable remake that falls short of the subtle original
There are a fair few virtues one can ascribe to director Priyadarshan; but subtlety is not one of them. Which is why it’s a bit of a letdown for Tamil audiences that the veteran comedy director takes the helm on the remake of a film as delicately endearing as Maheshinte Prathikaram. The result is Nimir, starring Udayanidhi Stalin, which tries faithfully to capture the magic of the Malayalam… → Read More
‘Sketch’ review: Minus its bizarre ending, this action flick works for Vikram fans
If you’ve ever sat through a Kollywood potboiler and fervently wished that, just once, the director would change the formula just a little bit, Vikram’s Sketch should serve as fair warning. In what is otherwise a completely paint-by-numbers masala entertainer, the last 10 minutes suddenly throw up a surprise twist and social message all rolled into one. And that pushes what should have been a… → Read More