Gisteller

JOHN WICK – 2      Rating- (3.5/5) Cast : Keanu Reeves, Ruby Rose, Common, Ricardo Scamarcio, Ian McShane Lance Reddick, John Leguizamo Director : Chad Stahelski Review by  Zulfiqar The headshots’ savvy gun-slinger cum assassin is back again roaming on the streets of crime piling up the head count as he observes some long forgotten but rejuvenated contract. Momentarily dipping in the solitude of retirement, after the retribution of his dead puppy (a token for his healing grief by his deceased spouse), he resurfaces when a ‘marker’ is thrust upon him. the man who does this is not an immediate heir of Italian mafia family and who in the past has done a favor to the master assassin. Honoring the blood pact, though reluctantly, Wick readies himself for walking along the streets of mystic crime armored with a myriad set of arsenal shooting on live targets and globe-trotting while doing so. This time his mission takes him to Rome where the coron...

Jolly LLB 2  (2017)  – rating (4/5) Cast : Akshay Kumar, Saurabh Shukla, Annu Kapoor, Kumud Mishra, Huma Qureshi, Sayani Gupta, Sanjay Mishra, Rajiv Gupta Director : Subhash Kapoor Review by  Zulfiqar On the heels of the well handled out court procedural in last year’s ‘Pink’, comes ‘Jolly LLB 2’, which has just the right theme and narrative power of the court and its judicial undergoings, albeit a little bit on the lighter note. But at the end carves out a larger picture of a serious issue. Indian cinema after the advent of Anurag Kashyap and Vishal Bharadwaj had gone the right way in adhering to the everyday scenarios of people with the beautiful backdrop of real life, both in atmospheric and aesthetic sense. ‘Jolly LLB 2’ gains a lot in staying true to the nativity of ‘pan-chewing’ Lakhnawi milieu with cluttered traffic and middle class sensibilities of cordial neighbors and hearty give-and-takes of friends. Director Subhash Kapoor, who has a string...

The Hateful Eight (2015)  – 3.5/5 Cast : Kurt Russell, Samuel L Jackson, Tim Roth, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Madsen, Demian Bichir, Bruce Dern, Walton Goggins Director : Quentin Tarantino Review by  Zulfiqar Quentin Tarantino’s ‘hateful eight’ is a confused genre of cinema which leaves the viewer undecided regarding his inference of the characters and their motives behind the happenings. Quentin Tarantino, a legendary filmmaker of shuffled screenplays and long intriguing verbal exchanges, doesn’t give either of his defining traits, the usual treatment he generally dishes with a very panache-laden hand. Even then because of the cohesive script and crisp depiction of the characters and the events, ‘hateful eight’ manages to go as a passable thriller, if you resort to not aspire for the usual artisanship of the auteur filmmaker. The movie starts post-civil war era, with a bounty hunter, John Ruth (Kurt Russell), who is on the move in a stagecoach with his late...

Sherlock Holmes (2009) Rating – 4/5 Cast : Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Kelly Reilly, Eddie Marsan Directed by Guy Ritchie Review by  Zulfiqar              Watson is finding hard to lodge with his best friend and uncanny sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. Not just because of the weird ways, Holmes employs to solve the cases, but because Watson nuptials are in the offing and it is the time to take the next turn for a more ordered life. These are the times, when ‘Sherlock Holmes’ story opens in the Doyle’s medieval England. Watson is aspiring get order in his life, at this instance in the form of a woman, sensible and beautiful Mary Morstan. But boys will be boys. Holmes throws subtle tantrums like a neglected child, but then he will come around. In the mean time, he will try to deviate Watson with the newest and groundbreaking case of Lord Blackwood, who rises from the grave and wants t...

Sherlock Holmes : a game of shadows (2011)         Rating (4/5) Cast : Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Kelly Reilly, Jared Harris, Rachel McAdams, Stephen Fry, Naomi Rapace, Eddie Marsan Directed by Guy Ritchie Review by Zulfiqar Holmes fears come true in ‘game of shadows’, when Watson is the groom-to-be and the famous sleuth tries to show his reluctance as much as he can while he bids adieu to his comrade-in-arms. He throws a spurious and spoilt stag party, while his brother Mycroft (Stephen Fry) guffaws with his own set of intellectual jousting. Sherlock takes Watson in a completely physical and mental disarray to the latter’s wedding and look how he gathers an adventurous kick as he ruins the new couple’s honeymoon. But this is all in good spirit and best nature as Downey Jr and Jude Law show their warmth in their characters to imbue the same in the terrific bro-mance chemistry between the literary pair. It is the easiness with ...

Ida (2013)  - Polish Cast : Agata Kulessza, Agata Trzebuchowska Directed by Pawel Pawlikowski Review by Zulfiqar – (rating 4/5)             Before being christened into her sisterhood at the nunnery, Ida is informed of the presence of an old relative. She seeks out her aunt (mother’s sister) and is learnt that she is jewish by birth and her parents along with her cousin (aunt’s son) were executed during the genocide. Ida takes the journey with her aunt to find out about the perpetrators.             Set in the post-holocaust Poland, ‘Ida’ is a representation of two characters, who are diametrically opposite in their characterizations. Ida’s aunt wants retribution for her son’s end. While Ida just is hanging around for curiosity about her past. But she is more concerned about her faith. The thing that she has a living relative sinks very slowly for her. And...