ChopraParth01

What do you do with your film bad to keep your audience hooked?

You add music to EVERY scene. And you know what happens after?

Your movie still remains trash.

What was bad? Wrong question. What was right would be an easier one to answer.

Probably only Vicky Kaushal's performance. No doubt Kaushal, like Ranveer Singh, is few of the many whose work alone can do all the heavy-lifting for the film. Tripti is gorgeous, yes, but ends up playing a cliché generic character for whose dreams you hardly relate to. On a script level, all she does is react to most of the events happening to her. Hardly ever does she act. Very one tone depiction.

The edit was horrendous. As the title says, it feels like this is a reel. Where's the sense of cinema, craft, pacing, rhythm? Is Production Design and Costume the only things catching Dharma's attention these days?

Saving the worst for the last, the Direction is simply bad. Reflect on what disaster you've made Anand ji.

There were many strong laugh moments, granted. But comedy is not just executed through situations. Many desperate attempts were made to induce a chuckle.

And the obsession with Past Bollywood references and Music. Good God let the past be. Pay your Screenwriters and Musicians and Lyricists well, and they will make Gold for you again, as they have done so eloquently in the past.

THINK BEFORE PRODUCTION, please.

Let's just face it, we all run away from from who we are. We don't want to face ourselves. And maybe that isn't even our fault. It just has to do with the way we are brought up. Been told to be someone, to do something, but more frequently, to not be someone and to not do something, often not understanding that 'What we do is who we are' and not the other way around.

This film is astoundingly resonant with my thoughts on being honest with oneself.

The Whale is the journey of a man who is not what the society wants or wanted him to be. Likewise for most other characters in the story; the people are just so real.

I feel like this script is exactly what the audience of 2023 needs, in a world full of 'who to be' ideas. The film is quite well written, though the idea deserves more cake than the pages themselves. While the flow is tight, some dialogues could be slightly more refined. I adore the undertone that an unhealthy relationship with food was given a psychological relevance, that is to cope up with a predicament. On a personal note as well, that is how it usually happens with myself. You feel stressed, and the first thing you want to do is either run away from food or eat too much of it, obesity inducing mostly.

Darren Aronofsky, as always, nails the job. It is indeed tough for a director to set and play the entire story in a confined space, and yet reveal something new each time about the same. Subtle camera movements, dark color tone, and Aronofsky's archetypical eerie music all add to the character's ticking time bomb situation.

An extra shoutout to the Sound Design and Music. Both of these elements put the audience in that anxiety inducing zone where 'any moment could be the last.' Also a Brilliant play with inserts and set design.

Fraser has done an electric job, from his eating mannerisms to his voice; everything is the character.

I think we do need more films like these, focussing not on loud action sequences, but on the individual story and moral dilemmas of life and who we are.

Definitely worth a watch in cinemas.