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Polar (2019)
Overrated !!
Dark, Gory, Cold and Picturesque, but not with a good storyline and definitely a bit slow given the material that's for the audience in there. The action is okay, but not that good to rate it more than 6/10.
And, from where did the movie makers get the info. That people in India burn the widow along with the dead husband? Co'mmon guys, stop reading colonial fairy tales about India and present that as a fact about the country in a movie that's made in 2019. May be, before forming an opinion about a country, it's better to visit the country than bluffing about it !!
Sherni (2021)
Highly overrated & Waste of Time
Watched this movie after seeing the hype on social media about how great this movie is, but honestly it dissapoints. Don't have much to say for this movie as it lacks substance to it. Desperately tries to pack pseudo-feminism with wild life conservation, which doesn't do justice to the latter.
On the entertainment front, it's slow, boring, repetitive, and finally ends in a dud. IDK why ppl, on an avg., have rated it more than 7. IMHO, it shouldn't get more than 5/10. It's a complete waste of time. Better to watch documentaries of National parks than this movie.
Baazaar (2018)
Tries to deliver a punch but fails horribly
Acting wise this is a good movie. But acting isn't everything that makes a movie worth watching and getting entertained. The plot is filled with numerous loopholes, tries to do so many things at one time and character development is not so good. On top of that, the movie is trying to set subtle narratives and stereotypes about certain communities, which doesn't make it an honest attempt to just entertain the audience. It's a formula in Bollywood to pack sociopolitical, religious or communal narratives with movies that's just meant for entertainment, and lo and behold, they don't disappoint you here. A mature audience, however, isn't entertained by this, rather is distracted, which is what one feels after watching this movie.
To summarize it's a loosely bound, distracting and not so entertaining piece of work that tries to tell you so many things but hardly makes anything loud enough for you to listen !!
One Day: Justice Delivered (2019)
Banal & Hyperbolic
The same old Bollywood cliche about one man against the system, how one particular community is always at the receiving end and how politicians are at the root of all terrorist activities in a country. On top of that add a pathetic and completely hyperbolic ending and a Crime Branch investigator who looks more like a cheerleader than a police personnel, I mean seriously?
Com'on Bollywood, aren't you tired of trying the same trick over & over again? I don't know about the audience in general, but IMO this movie was a serious piece of joke !!
Apocalypto (2006)
An attempt to justify colonisation
Cinematically this movie is a brilliant piece of art. But, historically and ideologically this is so wrong as it tries to float a narrative mostly used by colonizers to enslave native lands i.e., "if your (the natives) own people can do bad things to you and you are somehow okay with that, so should be you when we plunder your lands and enslave you". This movie very inaccurately portrays Mayans as killing fellow Mayans to please their Gods and then cleverly tries to create a false equivalence between these "top of the food chain Mayans" with the European colonizers. This is an insidious attempt to justify colonization and whitewash the evils of colonization by gaslighting the victims. An unsuspecting viewer might be enthralled by the cinematography and the screenplay, but a victim of colonization will only be aghast with the treacherous narrative that lays hidden thereof.
Jallikattu (2019)
Negatively Stereotypes Local Culture
The movie is good if you don't know the backdrop around which it is set. For an indie movie (something which is first of its kind in India) the cinematography, plot and acting looks fine behind a rustic setting. However, since the movie sends out certain message(s) and links up to the actual Tamil Nadu (TN) festival of Jallikattu, one can raise eyebrows about a no. of issues.
Firstly, associating the name Jallikattu with animal slaughter is misleading and gives the impression that the makers are deliberately trying to malign the TN festival of Jallikattu which has nothing to do with animal slaughter or parading animals to kill them eventually for meat. This is negative stereotyping of local Indian culture which is unexpected from the makers who happens to hail from South India.
Secondly, the movie is centered around the theme of "chasing a buffalo for meat" which sends the signal that people in Kerala (Indian state where the story unfolds in the movie) are voracious meat-eaters and reduces their eating habits to exclusive meat-eating. It appears from the movie that Keralites are only worried about what to eat during the entire day and are everyday just planning for that from morning to evening, which is of course not the reality. Again, this appears to be an insidious attack on local culture under the pretext of cinematic liberty and creative thinking.
Lastly, the exaggerated display of violence and peoples' obsession for killing the buffalo, especially towards the end, reaches a disproportionate amount and doesn't fit into the setting of this movie and it gives the impression that this theme is forced into the movie. The end feels like an anti-climax instead of climax and fails to deliver the message that "there is a devil lurking inside every man" in a cinematic way.
The above POV in watching the movie is important as it displays indigenous culture, which warrants some responsible movie-making which the makers conspicuously fail to deliver. This view becomes more important as the movie is India's entry into this year's Oscar and no Indian will ever want to negatively portray their society that brings bad name for our culture in world arena.