Some research pieces, some opinions

Gangubai Kathiawadi Only saw Gangubai Kathiawadi as I wanted to see Alia's performance in it. Overall: Alia's performance merely good. Definitely not national award winning worthy, not even close. Poor film, would not recommend to watch. 4/10. No spoilers in the details Note that I am sympathetic to the plight of sex workers and possible arguments for legalization, but I am not for glorification or moralization of it. Details:  Alia was good to very good in some aspects, misfit  in couple of aspects. Starts off well,but performance is a little inconsistent. Doesn't look street toughened. Looks too young. Overall nothing more than good. National Award winning? LOL, not even remotely close. The film glamourizes prostitution, subtly in some ways, overtly in others. Still somewhat bearable till the speech at the end. The speech glorifying prostitution is just beyond shameless and shit. With no one responding back and in fact people shown cheering, it becomes worse. The film glo...

Manichitrathazhu  Manichitrathazhu (The ornate lock) released in 1993 is a Malayalam classic film. Bhool Bhulaiyaa and Apthamitra were remakes of this. I wanted to watch the original with subtitles. So I did. Very good psychological thriller film, must watch. 8.5/10, I'd say. Details (no spoilers) Positives: 1. A film well ahead of its times with respect to handling of psychology. 2. Great acting from Shobhana as Ganga. No wonder Shobhana won the National Award for this performance. The climax scene in particular is telling. Vidya Balan is a great actress, but her performance in climax scene of Bhool Bhulaiyaa doesn't hold a candle to Shobhana's in the original. Vidya was convincing enough, but you could see her trying hard. But Shobhana truly embodied the character in that climax scene. 3. Great acting from Mohanlal as Dr.Sunny and very good acting from others. 4. Interesting storyline 5. Good music and some nice comedy Negatives : 1. The line between tantra and psychology...

Sapta Saagardaache Ello Side A Watched Sapta Saagardaache Ello Side A on OTT. Disappointed compared to the reviews I had heard. I'd say 6.25/10. Definitely not a top notch movie as made out to be.  Positives : some pretty good acting pretty good chemistry between the leads Manu(Rakshith Shetty) and Priya(Rukmini Vasanth) some hard hitting reality good support cast, though not remarkable Negatives : feels like a drag of misery way too many logical flaws or stupid stuff. feels like done to drag out the misery at times or not well thought out. either way, big big -ve. . Main male character Manu being such a fool and doesn't do anything significant to redeem himself. I simply couldn't or cannot root for him Other negatives including  with expansion of logical flaws or stupid stuff below with spoilers. 1. For such a big decision, without even asking the advice of any well-wisher, Manu accepts to take the blame of accident for money for fulfilling Priya's dream. He only tel...