Ek Villain Returns, Review: V for Villain, Q for Qiran What do you call a serial killer? An Assistant Commissioner of Police, at a public forum, shows a picture of Rakesh Mahadkar, the serial killer in Ek Villain (2014), calls him “A “Villain,” as if Archimedes’ spirit has entered his body and he actually wanted to say “Eureka!” That does not mean that the new serial killer will get caught in the next few seconds. No way. It will be six months before he is ...

Heropanti 2, Review: A bullet in his bum Denizens of Mumbai and environs might not need the meaning explained, but this is an international portal, and an explanation is in order. The title comes from two words, hero, which needs no translation, and panti, which does. Most probably, it is derived from panthi, which mean traveller. Panthi easily becomes panti, the combination with hero standing for one who follows the hero’s, or heroics’, path. Lead actor Tiger Shroff took a walk a...

Heropanti 2: Tiger does not roar, but croons, courtesy A.R. Rahman Young, macho, human weapon and dazzling dancer Tiger Shroff has sung a song in his latest film, Heropanti 2, titles Miss Hairaan. Is that taking you by surprise and making you hairan? It shouldn’t, because this is not the first time that Tiger has ventured into musical territory. Jai Hemant ‘Tiger’ Shroff has lent his voice to a handful of tracks, including Casanova and Vande Mataram, which got very popular a...

Marjavaan, Review: Monica, harmonica, loyalty, penalty, cute, mute, swords, words Umpteenth reworking of the Godfather theme, albeit with a couple of new angles, Marjaavaan is definitely not a film to die for. Old songs are recycled, the religious divide is milked, fights are conceived as moves of dance choruses and a violently doomed love story is thrown in to add to the misery of the lead couple. See it only if you like to feast yourself on blood and gore, tragedy and heartbreak. Translate...

Aladdin, Review: Aladdindeed Believe it or not, Aladdin is a one-in-a-thousand-and-one story, part of The Thousand and One Nights (also called The Arabian Nights), stories narrated by a queen called Scheherazade, at bedtime, without revealing the end, to save herself from being killed by her husband, the murderous sadist who kills all his wives the day after he marries each one of them. Disney made an animated version in 1992, and here comes their live action CGI, musical avatar, directed and...

Student of the Year-2, Review: Kya baddi kya baddi Kya baddi Karan Johar, what was the earth-shaking supersonic idea that made you cash in on the ‘The biggest franchise of Bollywood’ (imdb’s words, not mine) and redraw the Archie-Betty-Veronica isosceles triangle for the umpteenth time, after you yourself had milked it silica gel dry exactly 20 years ago, as Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (185 minutes), and launch a pomp-romp-stomp-clomp-chomp-whomp called Student of the Year 2 (mercifu...