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It is difficult to review this film because of the following reasons.
Can't call it C grade ( which it is) since it has an A list star as the hero.
Can't criticize the director because a prominent choreographer who is totally new to this action genre has been made to direct this action movie.
Can't criticize the acting because there is no scope for Salman Khan and Anil Kapoor to show their talent and there are a few washed out actors ( Daisy, Saquib and Bobby) who are not exactly known for acting skill.
The film has screeching background score and action which we have seen hundreds of times. The songs are dry and listless. The dialogue is dull and uninteresting. The actors look jaded and keep delivering their lines in a robotic fashion.
It is really surprising how around 8 lyricists and 2 music directors could not produce a song worth remembering.
Just 35 minutes into the movie I was ready to leave the theatre because I could not stand it any more. ( Later at home I caught the movie " Mukkabaaz" on TV which was superb. An unknown hero and heroine along with Jimmy Shergill and Ravi Kishan did wonders under the able direction of Anuraag Kashyap).
The redeeming feature of Race 3 ? Well if you insist, it is Anil Kapoor who does what he does best, that is play Don. ( Even he was better in Welcome).
Sorry Salman. I don't know why you associated yourself with this film.
And Remo. Please stick to choreography. You are good at it.

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Review: After 105 years of its existence , the Indian film industry has finally come up with a commercially viable female friendship film in the form of veere Di wedding. I will not say that the film is hilarious, brilliant or the work of magicians but I will say that it is brave. At the risk of sounding over the top I have to say that it is so refreshing to see women drinking, smoking and hurling cuss words at each other on screen. All of which was considered a male dominated department up until now. I never found any of it too extreme , in fact I could not even understand the films A rating. However this film is not a constant laugh riot; sure there are jokes, but not enough. The film relies heavily on Kareena Kapoor’s blank expressions to invoke laughter and after a point of time it gets a bit irksome. Out of the four titular characters I only really enjoyed Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania’s performances. Swara Bhaskar was quite incredible here. One could never imagine that this is the same actor who played the role of a mother desperately trying to make ends meet to build her child’s future in Nil Battey Sannata. Shikha Talsania is endearing. Sonam Kapoor ( or is it Sonam Kapoor Ahuja now?) is at her annoying best. She rolls her eyes throughout the 2 hours and 5 minutes of the films run time. Kareena Kapoor ( or Kareena Kapoor Khan.... God! it is so difficult to keep up with the changes in maiden names these days!) is definitely not at her best in this film. One thing I really appreciated about this movie is that it's intent is not to go all guns blazing on the opposite sex, unlike some films showing male camaraderie such as the pyaar ka punchnama franchise.
At the end of it all, Underneath all the glossy make up and sparkly clothes, Veere Di Wedding was made to bring about a change, and that it manages to do with great flamboyance.
Fun fact: Two songs appear back to back on screen after the film has ended....why though ?
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A potent story mismatched by below par performances and patchy direction, Parmaanu fails to scale the heights that it deserved but still proved to be a one time watch.

Set in 1998, its the tale of IAS Ashwath (John) and his urge to make India a nuclear state and get the tests done. He gave this idea to the then govt in 1995, but without hearing his full proof plan, the test preparations started which were unleashed by US satellites and India faced humiliation owing to which the tests were shelved. The govt changed in 1998, and new PM's new Personal Secretary Himanshu (Boman) initiatiated the proceedings and got Ashwath back on the drawing board. A technical team of engineers, security, and an ISRO official were recruited to do the needful while shielding the operation from satellites above. Ashwath and his team, aided well by Himanshu, completed the task amidst satellites, US intelligence, Pakistani spies and political threats.

Director Abhishek Sharma picked up a potential story and unplugged one of the vital cog of Indian history of achievements, but, failed to convert it into a powerful script. Anuja Sathe as wife of Ashwath failed miserably and looked out of sorts through out. Even Diana Penty looked clueless as an army officer. Barring John and Boman, hardly anyone looked seriously portraying their parts. Music has been a big let down too. But its the story that keeps the interest level going, John is virtually in every frame and thats a clever move by the director.

Moments as such the team suddenly appearing together in Pokharan without showing glimpses of their reaction at being chosen and picked for the same, dented director's vision. But the glory of achievement, raising the flag and the pic of our missile man Dr. APJ, made the audience clap and end up on a high note.

My recommendation is to go for it, if you really want to know the secrecy with which the task was achieved as the research is done thoroughly but dont expect the heights of 'Madras Cafe'.

My Rating: 3/5 less

One of the trusted few to have gathered substantial reliability as a filmmaker today is Vikramaditya Motwane. The filmmaker has been credited with three cinematic accomplishments that sadly didn’t translate into any Box Office success. I as an audience who’s believed in his brand of cinema had only been hoping Motwane stayed patient. As it turns out, Bhavesh Joshi is early signs of Motwane letting his agitation get to him.

Bhavesh Joshi Superhero escalates into being something it didn’t set out to be. It starts off as something that demands your investment but doesn’t really know what to do with it later. Bhavesh, Siku and Rajat are three friends who in the sway of anti-corruption movements and heave of social media start a Youtube channel ‘Insaaf’ trusting it to be their bit for the society. While Bhavesh played by Priyanshu Painyuli is considerably invested, Siku is hanging in just for the fun of it. Some years down the line when Siku is planning his way abroad, Bhavesh is deeply devoted to expose the corrupts. A series of events quickly lead to things turning ugly and Siku who had committed himself to head abroad is now left to stay and fight the system as a virtual superhero.

Bhavesh Joshi Superhero is two different movies. The one that first introduces itself to you is a rooted yet authentic narration of how infuriating corruption can be in our routine lives. It takes us closer to understanding how we as a society have almost made peace with the gaps. The first movie evokes exactly the kind of emotions it wanted to evoke in us. Without once going overboard or unrealistic in its territory, the first half sets itself up for an unfolding of something absolutely fresh and absorbs us in the lives of its characters. While it makes us angry at the sheer audacity of officials mocking the system, it also makes us rooting for characters trying to challenge it.

And sadly enough when the film ends, you’re confused, lumbered and seemingly exhausted. A film like Bhavesh Joshi needed to rake up different emotions to establish itself as an impactful film. You will mostly find yourself trying to adjust to its perplexingly changing narrative in the second half. I was hurt to see the movie tracing shades of any other Bollywood movie with self-demonizing villains, a sacrificing lead, a waylaid girlfriend and on top of it a climax where viewers are expected to hope for the hero to not die. It hurt because that’s not what Bhavesh Joshi Superhero claimed to be and it’s certainly not what we associate Vikramaditya Motwane with.

Unlike Mukkabaaz where Anurag Kashyap trusted his story to scathe lowly vigilantes garbing under Bharat Mata Ki Jai, Motwane’s attempt to make similar exposes seems forced and at times inessential. It is then when you realize he’s trying to do a lot of things with a story that perhaps doesn’t even warrant that potential.

Bhavesh Joshi majorly falters in its casting. If a film is meant to make you live the journey through a character, you need that character to move you. Poor Harshwardhan Kapoor had a lot riding on himself in just his second film and there wasn’t much he could do with his limited range of expressions and scratchy delivery of Hindi dialogues. Flashbacking to Vineet Singh’s performance in Mukkabaaz could make you understand my point better. In a film where silence was a better communicator, Nishikant Kamath chooses to play the bad guy from 80s in a land of lawlessness. Priyanshu who plays Bhavesh is impressive. Both the corporater & the cop (I tried looking for their names) are good.

The music is good and thankfully never hampers with the flow of things. The cinematography and editing are absolutely brilliant. The chase sequence in the second half has been wonderfully executed and there should be a mention of similar such scenes handled very well. The kind of look and feel Motwane has tried to give to this product is not bad at all. Anything less convincing could have terribly derailed things but he’s held on to make you believe in the plausibility even when there was little scope.

Bhavesh Joshi Superhero isn’t a badly made film, it’s a good one at that in fact. The craft however can only be as good as its efficacy to convey what it wants to convey. Motwane had this film in plan for a long time. He even put the idea in cold box doubting its relevance in the present age. I was easily able to read his reservations while watching the movie. The film could have worked on any other day in the calendar some years ago. I also see what could have made him revive the project but it didn’t really fall in place.

If the second half was partially as good as the first one, Bhavesh Joshi Superhero could have made an impact. I’m desperate to eat my words that said Vikramaditya Motwane is letting the Box Office failure of his previous releases get to him. The filmmaker is a cut above his generation, hopefully he reiterates in his next. less

Imagine days of 1971. A country like Pakistan. Which does not have cable TV. Nor the distraction of smartphone and internet. The family is joint plus has at least half a dozen servants in the home. Now the bahu walks into the house and she cries with screams which has quality of putting Vikram Bhatt’s creature or Sanjeev Kumar of Jaani Dushman to shame. No one hears her. No one has a doubt.
A man who is the son of a freedom fighter and has been a spy all his life marries his daughter to a army general/major/brigadier whatever ( because his designation keeps changing in the movie) with the sole objective of getting inside information. The daughter knows the objective of this marriage and we are treated to a proper tear jerker vidai song. Now I can understand you playing a song where the father is worried about his daughter’s safety. The daughter has got into the marriage post becoming so capable that she can shoot and throw anyone upside down who so much as touches her shoulder. Yet the director , a thinking intellectual director , treats us to a Viday song. Then we make fun of Sooraj Barjatya. Why ? at least he is honest that he makes feel good cinema . I mean a trained spy has a vidai song in mind while leaving.
Since the producer is Karan Johar people love to cry in this movie. The army brigadier cries because there are traitors in the army. Sehmat cries after every murder. She is cold blooded enough to plan a untraceable heart attack but she cries once the man is dead. She tells her trainer that mulk kea age mujhe kuch nahi dikhta yet she cries. At least Nargis in mother India cries after shooting Birju not before . In fact before the moment she very sternly warns Birju whats gonna hit him. Sehmat , a well trained spy, cries before killing and after killing. The husband also cries before taking Sehmat to task or at least trying to do that. You almost dread that in the climax the entire Pakistan army will sing kabhi alvida na kehna to Sehmat and cry.
Now I am the last one to judge cinema on logic. I love logicless cinema. My favourite cinema is the Rawdy Rathore kind. The point is the directors of these movies do not position themselves as intellectual makers either.
Sehmat is again screaming and crying once she has reached her trainer is on the way back to her country. She screams and asks her trainer why was she not treated fairly , I want tell you what her grudge is because if you are one of those blessed one who have not gone through this movie you might call it a spoiler. However every average spy knows of this unfairness the moment he or she steps on enemy territory yet the director tries to make this the climax moving scene.
Raazi is neither a out an out Naam Shabana style thriller and am actually insulting Naam Shabana by bringing it here that was an honest thriller. Raazi is also not a mohabbat ka paigam style movie from Karan Johar. It does not even have a start to end story point. The only story point is how due to Sehmat men of the family keep getting bumped off. Had this one been twenty more minutes long the womenfolk would have got wiped off too and three more howl and cry scenes of Aalia would have got added.
Long ago there was a superhit movie which a lady friend saw four times and ask/pushed me to watch it . I sat through that three hour long you cry me cry we cry style movie. Won’t name the movie. I do not wish to earn more enemies than I will earn post this article. I went back to her and asked her what did she like about the movie. She said “kitnee pyaari film hai main saari film main rotee rahi” . Guess that explains the almost 100 crores that Raazi has made. We Indians love crying.
Thank god Karan Johar and Meghna Gulzar do not make James Bond movies. They will become double the length cause bond would cry after every murder. Each time his new girlfriend would leave there would be a vidai song and in the end you would see him sitting alone on a kind of wheelchair depressed and needing medical attention. Arrgh .

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One more case of the original (Baghi) being better than the sequel ( Baghi 2). This time with a different director Ahmed Khan who has been successful as a choreographer earlier.( Kick) but it may still be relevant because action and fight scenes are actually choreographed to near perfection before picturisation.
The film itself is a rehash of all things seen earlier with our Rambo like hero Tiger Shroff who is a captain in the Indian army engaging in stunts for which he is popular.
The plot is about a young lady Disha Patani whose infant daughter gets kidnapped and who calls out to her ex boyfriend Indian Army captain (Tiger Shroff) to recover the little girl. Tiger's attempts at finding the little girl take him to Goa where he gets involved with drug addicts and shady policemen. The climax is similar to a Rambo movie where Tiger's mentor( his senior in the army) comes to warn Tiger's adversaries not to mess with him else he will finish them all. This is followed by an action packed climax which is bound to thrill fans of Tiger. As Tiger demolishes dozens of men one by one ,at one point his adversaries call out to their boss that " he is unstoppable."A good touch.
There is some attempt by the director to include suspense, drama and sentiments in the proceedings but it falls flat mainly due the amateurish acting of the lead couple. As long as Tiger shows his 6 pack and Disha is acting coy, things are fine but the serious scenes lack credibility. A popular dance by Madhuri Dixit ( Ek , do , teen) redone by Jacqueline Fernandez is presented in a pedestrian manner.
Actingwise Tiger with a military haircut has been made as some kind of Rambo and he does his task well. He is still somewhat shaky in the serious scenes and he has miles to go before he can be called an accomplished performer.
Disha Patani is called upon to look coy and cute and she does it well. She is also convincing as the mother in distress.
The film has an assortment of characters like Manoj Bajpayee as the DIG, a hippy cop Randeep Hooda called LSD who wears braids and who keeps taking selfies, drug addict who harasses the heroine played by Prateik Babbar and hero's good friend (automobile mechanic) Deepak Dobrial.

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There are not many movies based on incidents. There is an old saying says that dog biting man is not news but man biting dog makes a good news item. Raids on wealthy people may not be big news but in this case a small time income tax sleuth takes on a wealthy politician and ruthlessly carries out a long duration raid( Almost 72 hours). He does not halt the raid even when the PM intervenes since he does not believe in the telephone conversation and wants a written instructions by fax. Needless to say this written instruction never comes.
The film is based on a true incident where a highly duty conscious IT officer Amay Patnaik ( Ajay Devgn) with his group decides to raid the premises of a wealthy powerful politician Rameshwar Singh (Saurab Shukla) after getting a tip off from reliable sources.
The film shows the extended raid itself and the aftermath in the form of an exciting climax. The house is turned upside down and every nook and corner is searched including the puja room and the well. It is then that Ajay gets a tip from an internal unknown source to look into certain specific areas of the house and he gets what he is looking for. There is an exciting climax but I can't mention more from spoiler point of view.
The film shows the process and technalities of conducting a raid in great detail and it is interesting for the common audience. The clash between the raider and the raided is shown well with the help of some powerful acting and dialogue. Director RajKumar Gupta sets up a good pace and has controlled the movie at most places but has allowed it to fall to ridiculous levels at places like when wife ( Illeana) brings food for the entire raiding party. It is inconceivable how the IT officer's wife would know where the raid is being conducted.
The plus point of the film are the powerful performances of Ajay Devgn and Saurab Shukla. The sharp cutting dialogue is very effective. As someone from the family has let him down Saurab Shukla says " Ravan ko Ram ne nahin Vibhishan ne mara tha ". Illeana as the wife is wasted in an ill written role. The music in the background is just passable.

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Hindi films have been getting bolder in the last few years in respect of dealing with matters considered a taboo in India. It all started with the subject of sperm donation in a film called " Vicky donor".This was followed by "Toilet ek prem katha" on the subject of open defecation and then another film on erectile dysfunction was made.
The film under review deals with the issue of menstrual health and it is a biopic on Arunachalam Muruganan who was instrumental in the discovery of a low cost sanitary pad for women.
The story starts with the marriage of young Akshay Kumar with Radhika Apte in a village. Very soon Akshay is aghast at the use of dirty cloth by his wife during her menstrual periods.
Since branded pads from a shop are costly he fabricates one with cotton .But to know the feedback of his product, he is naive enough to approach ladies of the village and is stupid enough to give the pad to a young girl at the dead of the night. (Sonam tells him later in the film that he should have sought the help of a lady friend to obtain feedback on his fabricated pad instead of doing it himself. All this he does because his young wife refuses to wear his sanitary pad and give him the much wanted feedback.
He is misunderstood by family and village community in his bold endeavours and is forced to leave his village. He moves from the village to the town to Delhi and then finally to USA. He continues in his efforts single handedly and manages to manufacture a pad manufacturing machine in the face of obstacles and adversities and which gets him national and international recognition. Here he is helped by a young lady Sonam Kapoor who is an MBA working for an NGO. Both develop a soft corner for each other and fall in love but their affair is short-lived because Sonam clearly sees that there is no future for a relationship with a married man.
A fairly engaging film not without its flaws. Luckily the film remains entertaining and falls short of becoming a docudrama which would have made it boring. Dirctor R Balki gives the film gives the film a leisurely pace and the narrative chugs along. Akshay gives a spirited performance as the impatient and relentless young man obsessed with his task at hand that is to provide an effective and cheap sanitary pad for all women.
The climax finds him speaking to an audience at the United Nations, USA in broken English. He speaks about his trials and tribulations, his financial problems, and his initial failures. In favour of women he says that women are not effective for around 60 days a year and their menstrual health needs to be looked after if they are to remain productive durig this period. He also tells his audience that if men were to bleed to that extent like females, they in all probability would die. We also learn that only 12% of women use sanitary pads and the remaining make do with different unhygenic methods. Hence Akshay's aim is to provide all women with a sanitary pad at Rs 2. less

The opening scenes show a scenario where a young husband (Irrfan Khan) makes an early entry home to find his wife (Kirti Kulhari) in bed with another man ( Arunodaya Singh). In a normal case there would be a few options for the husband, that is to shoot dead the lover or wife or both and then run or surrender. This movie develops another unusual plot where the husband who is under heavy debts of EMI for home ,car etc sees an opportunity for making some money and decides to blackmail the lover. However this doesn't work out as simple as that and leads to a series of blackmails by all the involved persons. Complications follow and murders take place and the movie takes the form of a black comedy.
Director Abhinav Deo maintains the style of "Delhi belly" combining crime with humour to create quirky situations. He also runs a parallel track with Omi Vaidya planning some eccentric sales promotion of toilet paper of which Irrfan is in charge. This leads to some hillarious situations.
Sample some hilariously bizarre situations created in the film. Where does a private investigator meet his client? Once bang in the middle of a cremation and once at a marriage reception. The sales promoter of toilet paper gets water supply of the city cut so that citizens are forced to buy his toilet paper next morning. Where does the husband go for flowers to give his wife ? To the cemetery. Another scene of quirkiness. Masturbating in the toilet in front of a lady's photo ( including boss's wife).

The second half of the film is a merry madhouse with almost each character blackmailing the other for some money. Needless to say the viewer is kept sufficiently engaged as he watches these crazy developments. There is a turn or twist every 15 minutes since all characters get roped in the serial blackmail with common feelings of lust and greed. Its a fun ride all the way with no questions asked. less

The man ---- A young man called Sonu ( Kartik Aaryan)
His status---- He is the best friend forever to another young man called Titu ( Sunny Singh)
His mission--- To break up the engagement of Titu with girlfriend Sweety ( Nushrat Bharucha)
Reason--- He thinks Sweety is too perfect a girl and there is something wrong somewhere which he can't put his finger on.
This is the wafer thin plot on which director Luv Ranjan ( of Pyar ka panchnama fame) has based his film and turned out a super entertainer which will appeal to the masses.
Some of us may remember the English movie " My best friend's wedding " where the heroine tries her best to prevent the marriage of her boyfriend and adopts all kinds of tricks to do so. This movie has a similar script except that it is the story of two boys who are childhood bosom friends. One of them Sonu(Kartik Aaryan) is convinced that the girl Sweety(Nusharat Bharicha) going to marry his best friend forever Titu( Sunny Singh) is just not right for him. Why? As per Sonu she is too perfect in all aspects and there are some loose ends not clear now. He also strongly feels that a perfect woman is a myth.( An idea carried forward from Pyar ka punchnama)
The film has almost everything which the average audience wants like exotic locales, romantic scenes, comedy, dance, wedding scenes, bhangra, disco etc etc. The two young men and the heroine are attractive and go through their scenes in style. Tha heroine particularly has a plastic smile and catwalks most of the time but its OK in this movie.They are helped by some good dialogue which sustains the interest level. Some location shooting at Amsterdam is done stylishly. Some surprise bit of comedy comes from actors Aloknath and Virendra Saxena who have been given hep characters which are in direct contrast with their image. It is definitely amusing. Imagine Aloknath saying "jeete raho"when a girl in bikini touches his feet. The film has its funny moments and rakes up the issue of friendship vs love. Due to its resemblance with pyar ka panchnama it is being called pyar ka panchnama 3 by some people. Also it is being called misogynistic but it is not so. less

Some years back there was an English movie called " To sir with love" about the travails of a black teacher in a US school as he handles a group of unruly teenagers. After initial adjustments he finally wins them over and changes their lives.
This film treads a similar path and is about a young lady teacher Naina( Rani Mukherjee) afflicted with a neurological disorder called Tourette syndrome due to which she lets out shrieks and unusual sounds periodically and which gets worse when she gets stressed.( Hence the title hichki which means hiccup in Hindi). Naina is determined to be a teacher and keeps applying to various schools but due to her problem she doesn't make it everytime.
After many unsuccessful attempts to land in a teacher's job she finally gets one in a school but the condition is that she must teach a group of economically challenged (slum) kids. As the school principal ruefully mentions that thanks to a "right to education"they have to take in this group of teenagers from the neighbourhood slums and were looking for a suitable teacher.
The film tackles the age old problem of how the teacher must make studies more interesting and practically oriented rather than encouraging rote learning. Towards achieving this, Naina takes the students outdoors demonstrating principles of physics and chemistry with everyday objects much to the discomfort and jealousy of other teachers. There is also a clash between the better off students of another section and Naina's students which results in the suspension of Naina's entire class.
The viewer gets the feeling that the subject could have been handled much better though Rani Mukherjee's acting is commendable and there are some really touching scenes. To make Rani look good the vice Principal has been made to look like a tyrant.There is a parallel plot of Rani's strained relationship with her father who warms up later as the misunderstandings disappear.
Rani Mukherjee is very impressive in the role of the enthusiastic though constantly hicupping lady teacher out to make a career in teaching and who successfully transforms her mischievous students into disciplined ones. She is very convincing as she argues her case with the principal. She carries the film on her shoulders.
The film leaves us with a message asking us to pursue our ambitions overcoming personal handicaps and adversities. less

Two veterans Amitabh Bachhan and Rishi Kapoor get together in a movie after a long time ( Remember the song "chal mere bhai tere haath jodta hoon" ). Director Umesh Shukla director of the highly entertaining "OMG", gets hold of another Gujarati play which has an energetic 102 year old man (AB) teaching some life's lessons to his grumpy 75 year old son( Rishi Kapoor). The battle of wits is superbly played out by these two stalwarts helped by some sparkling dialogue and funny situations.
The plot is about 102 year old AB whose mental age is of a 26 year old young man and who is fast talking fast thinking as compared to his sober, serious son Rishi Kapoor who lives a simple but regimented life and hardly smiles. AB is fascinated with life and wants to live longer than a Chinese man who is 118 year old and who holds the world record. He keeps the chinese man's life size cutout in his room.(We learn that Rishi has a married son in US and there is hardly any communication with him but that is another story).
AB is not happy with the serious demeanour of his son RK and wants to convert him. He tells Rishi his son that he has decided to send him to an old age home. When Rishi refuses, he blackmails his son into performing a number of tasks if he wants to avoid going to an old age home. These are a series of heartwarming and amusing incidents which are not being mentioned here since they may act as spoilers.
A USP of this film is that though the film's main characters are 75 plus and there is no heroine or any other prominent character, it is still likely to appeal to all age groups due to its universal nature encompassing emotions, comedy, melodrama, human values etc. There are no usual box office trappings.It is one of the films which the whole family can watch together.
There are a couple of messages in the film. One is that there is a need to be cheerful and happy at all times despite the adversities. Another is that we need to look for happiness in the smaller things in llife.
A few old songs have been used to good effect like " waqt be kiya kya haseen sitam, tum rahe na tum, hum rahe na hum" from Guru Dutt's classic " Kaagaz ke phool". The credit titles are done very tastefully and bring in the mood of the film.
The story,screenplay and dialogues are excellent and there is a certain novelty which can be seen. The dialogue is sparkling and frothy in the first half and emotional and touching in the second half. Director Umesh Shukla has done a wonderful job and deserves praise for his handling of the script and the actors.
A flaw in the film? Not exactly but I found that the 102 year old was shown a little too energetic but then again I haven't seen too many 102 year olds.
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