london-fanboy
Joined Aug 2007
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london-fanboy's rating
Watched the movie today at Hyderabad Lit Fest.
It's the first Sindhi movie I have watched on Big screen.
And from what I recall, possibly my first completed Sindhi movie.
Actors and other crew members have done a great job.
There are a bunch of good dialogues and good songs too. Director Mr. Susheel Gajwani was present at the venue too though I couldn't attend the QA session with him.
Sindh and Sindhis need more movies made about them and I would like to believe this movie is a great step in that direction.
Mr. Gajwani has also written a book recently titled Sunrise over Valivade: Growing up in the Sindhi refugee camp in Kolhapur.
I hope he continues the good work.
It's the first Sindhi movie I have watched on Big screen.
And from what I recall, possibly my first completed Sindhi movie.
Actors and other crew members have done a great job.
There are a bunch of good dialogues and good songs too. Director Mr. Susheel Gajwani was present at the venue too though I couldn't attend the QA session with him.
Sindh and Sindhis need more movies made about them and I would like to believe this movie is a great step in that direction.
Mr. Gajwani has also written a book recently titled Sunrise over Valivade: Growing up in the Sindhi refugee camp in Kolhapur.
I hope he continues the good work.
Inspired imitation is the highest form of compliment one can pay to the creator - someone.
This is the modified quote I cooked up to say that Kaalkoot is the compliment paid by the TVF world(Arunabh Kumar, Sumit Saxena, Gopal Dutt) to Anurag Kashyap(AK) universe. To take it even backwards, AK universe originated from Ram Gopal Varma(RGV) universe with the added spices of Indian mythology.
RGV (re?)started the trend of showing realistic violence in Indian cinema - both verbal and physical - as opposed to the typically prevalent artificial violence. While RGV focused on the gangsters of Mumbai and South India, AK & associates branched out and made it more north Indian and more mythological. Gulaal, Paatal Lok, Sacred games and what not.
In parallel we have the growth of TVF - by and for engineering college kids primarily. In TVF world - protagonist and most of the characters are highly likely to be upper caste Hindus - mostly Brahmin or Baniya. And that trend continues in Kaalkoot with Vijay Varma as a Brahmin. He also dons a backpack like a college/coaching student.
That aside, it is definitely worth a watch. I enjoyed all episodes except the last. And as usual for any web series, climax is very hard to get right.
Vijay Varma for me is Irrfan Khan reincarnate. He is the closest in terms of weaving the Irrfan magic. One complaint I had with Irrfan was that he departed too early. Here are my prayers for VV's long life as I don't want to miss what he will be able to conjure up in the next decades.
Some similarities with Paatal Lok are hard to miss. There Hathoda Tyagi's sisters underwent sexual violence and were teased with "Aapne jo taang uthakar di". Here Ravi's sister underwent similar violence and teased with "ek baar bhaiya ne zabardasti li phir usne marzi se di".
Even the name "Kaalkoot" reminds me of "Chitrakoot" where Hathoda tyhai hailed from. Then there is this song "Hum kya batayein bhaiya kaisi raat Hui" which reminds me of lyrics of "Sheher" from Gulaal - "Aye ek waqt ki baat bataye, Ek waqt ki, Jab sheher hamara so gayo tho, Wo raaj gajab ki".
And then the love interest of Ravi is a female with epilepsy issues who is willing to have sex with him to "get rid of all her fears" while the love interest of Sardar Khan in Wasseypur also had epilepsy and wanted to have sex to cure it.
So I would say Kaalkoot is a crossover between TVF and AK universe - and a good one. Reminds me of another crossover going on in Bollywood right now. For me Luv Ranjan is to Kartik Aaryan what Imtiaz Ali is to Ranbir Kapoor. Recently they switched sides. Imtiaz Ali did Love Aaj Kal with Kartik and Luv Ranjan did Tu Jhoothi main makkar with Ranbir. I didn't watch the former but later was a lot of fun.
This is the modified quote I cooked up to say that Kaalkoot is the compliment paid by the TVF world(Arunabh Kumar, Sumit Saxena, Gopal Dutt) to Anurag Kashyap(AK) universe. To take it even backwards, AK universe originated from Ram Gopal Varma(RGV) universe with the added spices of Indian mythology.
RGV (re?)started the trend of showing realistic violence in Indian cinema - both verbal and physical - as opposed to the typically prevalent artificial violence. While RGV focused on the gangsters of Mumbai and South India, AK & associates branched out and made it more north Indian and more mythological. Gulaal, Paatal Lok, Sacred games and what not.
In parallel we have the growth of TVF - by and for engineering college kids primarily. In TVF world - protagonist and most of the characters are highly likely to be upper caste Hindus - mostly Brahmin or Baniya. And that trend continues in Kaalkoot with Vijay Varma as a Brahmin. He also dons a backpack like a college/coaching student.
That aside, it is definitely worth a watch. I enjoyed all episodes except the last. And as usual for any web series, climax is very hard to get right.
Vijay Varma for me is Irrfan Khan reincarnate. He is the closest in terms of weaving the Irrfan magic. One complaint I had with Irrfan was that he departed too early. Here are my prayers for VV's long life as I don't want to miss what he will be able to conjure up in the next decades.
Some similarities with Paatal Lok are hard to miss. There Hathoda Tyagi's sisters underwent sexual violence and were teased with "Aapne jo taang uthakar di". Here Ravi's sister underwent similar violence and teased with "ek baar bhaiya ne zabardasti li phir usne marzi se di".
Even the name "Kaalkoot" reminds me of "Chitrakoot" where Hathoda tyhai hailed from. Then there is this song "Hum kya batayein bhaiya kaisi raat Hui" which reminds me of lyrics of "Sheher" from Gulaal - "Aye ek waqt ki baat bataye, Ek waqt ki, Jab sheher hamara so gayo tho, Wo raaj gajab ki".
And then the love interest of Ravi is a female with epilepsy issues who is willing to have sex with him to "get rid of all her fears" while the love interest of Sardar Khan in Wasseypur also had epilepsy and wanted to have sex to cure it.
So I would say Kaalkoot is a crossover between TVF and AK universe - and a good one. Reminds me of another crossover going on in Bollywood right now. For me Luv Ranjan is to Kartik Aaryan what Imtiaz Ali is to Ranbir Kapoor. Recently they switched sides. Imtiaz Ali did Love Aaj Kal with Kartik and Luv Ranjan did Tu Jhoothi main makkar with Ranbir. I didn't watch the former but later was a lot of fun.
When I went to watch Akira, I wanted an action movie better than Tiger Shroff's Baghi. I consider Baghi to be one of the best action movies of Bollywood of all time. And Baghi didn't even have a relatable story. Nor does Tiger Shroff a regular Indian by any measure. But he makes up for it with his exemplary action sequences.
In Akira, we had a highly relatable story. A girl from small town India moves to Mumbai. With an irritating sister-in-law and meek brother who brought her home with his mother only to take care of his child. Sonakshi Sinha has also got the perfect looks and build for the part. It's impossible not to feel for Akira. All the time I wanted her to beat the bad guys black and blue with her bare hands until they die. Which eventually happens but there is too little action to keep one engaged. In the process too many pains are inflicted on Akira. When I watch an action movie I would rather have something like Taken. The good guy should remain mostly unscathed while killing the bad ones. Here Akira almost dies and becomes a mental patient. Really sad.
An action movie should give you 10x more highs than the lows. Here it's the opposite. Mostly you are feeling sad and depressed with occasional wins.
In Akira, we had a highly relatable story. A girl from small town India moves to Mumbai. With an irritating sister-in-law and meek brother who brought her home with his mother only to take care of his child. Sonakshi Sinha has also got the perfect looks and build for the part. It's impossible not to feel for Akira. All the time I wanted her to beat the bad guys black and blue with her bare hands until they die. Which eventually happens but there is too little action to keep one engaged. In the process too many pains are inflicted on Akira. When I watch an action movie I would rather have something like Taken. The good guy should remain mostly unscathed while killing the bad ones. Here Akira almost dies and becomes a mental patient. Really sad.
An action movie should give you 10x more highs than the lows. Here it's the opposite. Mostly you are feeling sad and depressed with occasional wins.