NEW DELHI: It’s a tough fight between Hollywood and Bollywood in theatres this week.
Crime thriller Badla directed by Sujoy Ghosh starring Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu is an interesting, engaging, intriguing and taut ride, says an early review by Times Now. The background score is good, the cinematography is beautiful and the editing is sharp. Dialogues are good and there is a tinge of humour in it, especially those spoken by Bachchan's character.
For the Hollywood fans, American superhero film Captain Marvel directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn and Djimon Hounsou comes to India this week. The film is in the unenviable position of having to introduce a new character to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, lay out her origin story, tie her in with the current MCU timeline, create backstories for several previously established characters, and set up even more significant elements for Avengers: Endgame, says The Verge. But Captain Marvel mostly bears the weight of those expectations. It rises to the occasion with strong performances and with its directors’ willingness to slow down and take their story seriously, balancing humor, action, and exposition in a carefully calibrated package.
This is an engaging and sometimes engagingly odd superhero action movie, a weirdly nonlinear mashup of past and present, memories and present experience, Earth and non-Earth action, says The Guardian. Larson has the natural body language of a superhero: that mixture of innocence and insouciance, that continuous clear-eyed idealism and indignation combined with unreflective battle-readiness, all the things that give MCU films their addictive quality. But the film could have set a clearer, more central story for Captain Marvel’s emergence on to the stage, and in subsequent films – if she isn’t simply to get lost in the ensemble mix – there should be more of Larson’s own wit and style and, indeed, plausible mastery of martial arts. In any case, Captain Marvel is an entertaining new part of the saga.
Several releases this week haven’t inspired any reviews yet. These include Hindi films Ye Suhaagraat Impossible and Is She Raju?, Tamil movies Sathru, Pottu, Kabilavasthu and Boomerang, Telugu films Love Game, Bottu and Maro Adugu Marpu Kosam, Bengali family drama Mukherjee Dar Bou, Marathi comedy drama Ti And Ti and Marathi action thriller Rocky.