Murtaza Ali Khan, Author at The Sunday Guardian Live

Panchayat offers an alluring sneak peek into rural India

During the initial days in India the web was mainly trying to target the audiences in the big cities. But all that seems to...

Manisha’s performance is the best thing about ‘Maska’

The coronavirus outbreak seems to have changed the world in an unprecedented manner. For the first time since the advent of Internet, the human...

Neeraj Pandey’s digital debut is worth a watch

Special Ops Creator- Neeraj Pandey Cast- Kay Kay Menon, Karan Tacker, Vipul Gupta, Muzammil Ibrahim, Meher Vij, Saiyami Kher, Mir Sarwar, Parmeet Sethi, Kali Prasad Mukherjee,...

Engaging thriller with its special moments

Directed by Oni Sen, Asur is part crime thriller, part police procedural made in the vein of similar offerings in the US such as...

Politically charged and relentless in its critique

Last year, about 160 years after Victor Hugo wrote his magnum opus Les Misérables, the French filmmaker of Malian origin, Ladj Ly, came out...

Second season manages to keep one hooked

Altered Carbon has just returned with an eight-episode second season, set in the early 25th century, three decades after the events of first season....

A quintessential underdog story

Yeh Ballet Direction: Sooni Taraporevala Cast: Achintya Bose, Manish Chauhan, Jim Sarbh, Danish Husain, Vijay Maurya, Heeba Shah, Julian Sands Netflix Original Film Yeh Ballet follows the...

Entertaining but not for the frail heart

Amazon Prime Video series Hunters follows a group of Nazi hunters operating in New York during the 1970s. They have discovered that hundreds of...

Weak plot, annoying narrative confuse viewers

“Are you here for fun or peace?” asks a character to another in Mohit Suri’s Malang. It’s a question that pretty much sums up...

Seasoned cast lend credibility to the biopic

Gul Makai Direction: Amjad Khan Cast: Reem Shaikh, Divya Dutta, Atul Kulkarni, Arif Zakaria, Mukesh Rishi, Abhimanyu Singh, Pankaj Tripathi, and Chandra Shekhar Dutta At the beginning...

Dance sequences lift an otherwise faltering film

In my recent review of Om Raut’s Tanhaji, I had extensively talked about how a lot of the content these days is targeted at...

The boldest portrayal of Dracula in a long time

Dracula Direction: Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat Cast:Claes Bang, Dolly Wells, Morfydd Clark Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, the makers of Sherlock and Doctor Who, are notorious for their bold approach...

Youth-oriented motifs rule this period film

Tanhaji Direction: Om Raut Cast: Ajay Devgn, Kajol, Saif Ali Khan Big budget period war dramas are in vogue. Tanhaji is the latest in the series. The...

Ghost stories review: Element of horror comes across as a breath of fresh air

The quartet of Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap is back with yet another portmanteau film to follow up Bombay Talkies...

Here’s everything that made 2019 a memorable year for Hindi cinema

The year 2019 proved to be a rather interesting one for Hindi cinema. Over the last few years Bollywood has found itself at a...

An entertaining film backed by a good script

Good Newwz Director: Raj Mehta Cast: Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Diljit Dosanjh, Adil Hussain, Tisca Chopra Hindi cinema is going through a very interesting phase...

As dark and diabolical as any superhero series

Watchmen Director: Nicole Kassell Cast: Regina King, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Tom Mison Exactly a decade after Zack Snyder shocked everyone with a dark, satirical and dystopian take on the...

An emphatic return to form for Gowariker

Hindi cinema has had a long tradition of historical films with the name of one Sohrab Modi, often referred to as India’s Cecil B....

When the spirit of Kabir took over the ancient ghats of Benares

“Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together,” said...

A relevant film that fails to leave an impact

Hotel Mumbai Director: Anthony Maras Cast: Dev Patel, Anupam Kher, Armie Hammer The 2008 Mumbai attacks didn’t just shake the city of Mumbai but they actually sent...

Despite the weaknesses, it captures imagination

Frozen 2 Director: Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee Cast: Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff In the recent times there has been a remarkable rise in...

Social comedy that addresses important issues

Motichoor Chaknachoor Director: Debamitra Biswal Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Athiya Shetty Motichoor Chaknachoor is the latest in the series of Bollywood films set in the Hindi heartland. Bollywood...

Dharamshala film fest looks towards the future

The 8th edition of the Dharamshala International Film Festival (DIFF) was hosted in Mcleodganj from 7-10 November. This year, the festival featured films from...

11th edition of We Care International Film Fest

Apeejay Institute of Mass Communication (AIMC) organised the 11th edition of its annual We Care International Film Festival from 6-8 November 2019. The festival...

A worthy addition to the Terminator franchise

Terminator: Dark Fate Director: Tim Miller Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, Gabriel Luna, Diego Boneta Terminator 2: Judgment Day (aka T2) is...

Misses the bull’s-eye because of bad casting

Dangal’s unprecedented success has given rise to several cinematic offshoots in the recent years such as Pataakha, Chorriyan Chhoron Se Kam Nahi Hoti, Mukkabaaz,...

Engaging film about a pressing social issue

P Se Pyaar F Se Faraar Director: Monoj Tiwari Starring: Bhavesh Kumar, Anuja Jha, Jimmy Sheirgill, Kumud Mishra Manoj Tiwari’s P Se Pyaar F Se Faraar...

A badly executed but well-intentioned film

The Sky Is Pink Director: Shonali Bose Starring: Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Zaira Wasim Shonali Bose’s The Sky Is Pink marks Priyanka Chopra’s return...

World-renowned festival of folk music to open in Jodhpur on 10 October

The Jodhpur RIFF (a.k.a. the Rajasthan International Folk Festival) is entering its 13th year in 2019. This year’s edition of the festival is scheduled...

War is entertaining and worth every penny

War Director: Siddharth Anand Starring: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Vaani Kapoor, Soni Razdan and Anupriya Goenka War revolves around Indian soldiers who carry covert missions in order to...

Innovative spy thriller, nuanced performances

The Family Man Director: Krishna DK and Raj Nidimoru Starring: Manoj Bajpayee, Priyanami and Sharib Hashmi Towards the latter part of the Amazon Prime Video espionage series The...

Zoya Factor takes too many cinematic liberties

Abhishek Sharma’s The Zoya Factor is based on Anuja Chauhan’s 2008 novel of the same name that tells the story of a girl who...

Finally, a well-researched commercial film

Towards the end of Section 375, a female lawyer tells her mentor, “Sir, I don’t think that the justice was served.” The senior lawyer...

Abandons realism for melodrama

Writer-director Nitesh Tiwari is currently one of the best filmmakers working in Hindi cinema. The IIT Bombay Alumnus gave up on a successful career...

A little-known gem of world cinema from Egypt

The Arabic word “Yomeddine” means Judgment Day. In Islam, Christianity and some other religions, it is believed that the life on earth is merely...

Does a decent job at telling a compelling tale

On 5 November 2013, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched a space probe to undertake a 298-day transit to Mars as part of...

Purposeless screenplay and lacklustre direction

Thanks to the recent success of films set in the Hindi heartland, Bollywood filmmakers these days are very keen on making more such films....

Clichéd plot with engaging action sequences

Having already perpetuated the idea of film sequels and prequels, Hollywood is now fast embracing spinoffs as a means to further expand the popular...

A frenetic tale about troubled people

Seeing the great English actor Laurence Olivier on stage someone once said that Olivier had so much energy that the stage could not contain...

Engaging tale and realistic performances

These days the commercial Hindi filmmakers are consciously focusing on stories based in the Hindi heartland. The diaspora is no longer the primary target...

A well-made film that loses focus in the second half

Whenever we talk about the nation builders we usually tend to underestimate the pivotal role played by the teachers. Vikas Bahl’s Super 30 attempts...

A homage to the cinema of John Carpenter

After two successful seasons, Netflix has come out with the third season of the science fiction horror series Stranger Things. Written and directed by...

Not an entertainer but still quite watchable

Anubhav Sinha’s Article 15 tells the story of a police officer’s fight against the society and the system amidst widespread inequality and prejudice. It stars Ayushmann...

A global event celebrating the fresh food revolution

The first ever Fresh India Show— a two-day event with over 300 participants, ranging from farmers and industrialists to entrepreneurs and policymakers, from all...

Clichéd, rhetorical and momentarily chilling

The Blair Witch Project (1999), a 1999 American supernatural horror film, started a new trend in horror movies—the found-footage technique wherein a part of...

Many memorable moments and amazing action

X-Men: Dark Phoenix is set in the 1990s and revolves around one of Professor X’s favorite most students Jean Grey who is gifted with...

Gets mired in clichés and loses focus

There is a scene in Zaigham Imam’s Nakkash wherein a Muslim craftsman, who does engravings in Hindu temples in Benares, is forced to take...

Convoluted plot, the narrative fails to flow

Back in the ’70s and ’80s Indian filmmaker Ravikant Nagaich was known for making a series of spy thrillers. In the recent times films...

Delivers an important social message

When it comes to the sex ratio the state of Haryana finds itself at the bottom of the list. And yet over the years...

Inconsistent visuals but impressive overall

The popularity of Chhota Bheem among kids is well known. It all started with the television series created by Rajiv Chilaka which premiered on...

Transforming policy to convert India into Bharat

How North Korea is benefiting from the war in Ukraine

BJP anticipates hattrick in Hardoi, locals waiting for development

Murtaza Ali Khan

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