New Delhi: It’s a relatively quiet week at the movies post the huge Pongal festivities and ahead of the Republic Day weekend.
Emraan Hashmi-starrer Why Cheat India directed by Soumik Sen, despite being disjointed and overstretched, manages to double up both as an expose of the problems that plague the examination system and a commentary on the failure of a generation to secure the future of the next one, says Scroll. Hashmi neatly channels his bad boy image into his character Rakesh, and continues the underplaying that he effectively displayed in the recently released Tigers.
Why Cheat India is surely not a film that aspires to build thought or alter opinion based on facts and figures, says Mumbai Mirror. It’s an unpretentious commercial entertainer packed with one-liners that unabashedly seeks whistles for validation.
72 Hours: Martyr Who Never Died starring Mukesh Tiwari and Avinash Dhyani directed by Dhyani starts off on a high note, but gradually becomes one long dialogue about a soldier and his determination to protect the Indian state from being taken over by the Chinese military, says The Times Of India. At a time when India shares a strained relationship with its immediate neighbours, the film comes across as relevant story that is killed by mediocre execution.
For the Hollywood fans, American superhero thriller Glass directed by M. Night Shyamalan starring Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Spencer Treat Clark and Charlayne Woodard doesn’t break new ground, says Los Angeles Times. While the film is an intermittent showcase for his undeniable filmmaking gifts — his meticulous attention to detail, his shivery command of technique — the movie winds up feeling less like a progression than a dead end. The trouble with Glass is that, despite a few wickedly playful touches, Shyamalan advances his ideas with his usual ponderous, po-faced earnestness, as well as a reliance on narrative sleight-of-hand that has seen far better days. Even his attempts to reset and decelerate the superhero-movie template feel like too little too late, and not just because the vastly more inventive Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse made it look so effortless by comparison.
Science fiction thriller Replicas directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff starring Keanu Reeves, Alice Eve, and Thomas Middleditch is chock-full of histrionic what-ifs that seem to hyperventilate so hard in their delivery that they don’t have enough oxygen to actually blow anyone’s mind, says Vulture. The film would be the stuff of future cult screenings if it wasn’t so boring and muddled.
Marathi drama Krutant starring Sandeep Kulkarni and Suyog Gorhe directed by Datta Bhandare is a high concept film that doesn’t work very well primarily due to the way it is structured, says Pune Mirror. Its narrative falls into independent segments considerably varying from each other in pace, genre as well as content and ultimately delivers a message too simplistic.
Several releases this week haven’t inspired any reviews yet. These include Hindi films Fraud Saiyaan and Rangeela Raja, Kannada movies Lock, Birbal and Gini Helida Kathe, Malayalam films Praana and Mikhael, Marathi family drama Ek Nirnay...Swatahacha Swatasathi, Bengali drama Shah Jahan Regency and Gujarati comedy drama Have Thase Baap Re.