Movie Review: Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

The best and the worst thing about this movie is its title. At its best, it is catchy and generates curiosity in viewers. But after watching it, we realize that it is just a regular "Cinderella" theme movie with everything "Western" replaced by "Chinese". To be honest, the title of the film should have been "Crazy Rich Chinese" since there is nothing else "Asian" in this movie. 

It is important to know that the movie is based on a novel of the same title, published in year 2013.

The plot is very simple, a regular girl and a super-rich boy fall in love and once the boy takes her to meet his family, she is subjected to humiliation and manipulation. By the end, she gives up and returns, but then, in a twist, the boy's family allows him to pursue her; and hence the movie ends in a typical "boy gets the girl" fashion. It is easy to see that the unequal marriage's survival is still questionable in the long term, but the film industry wants to keep viewers in a "fairy tale" world where stories end after a boy and girl marry, and now they do not even write "and they lived happily ever after" since we all know how convenient it sounds. 

The movie heavily relies on the acting and charisma of actor Henry Golding. Henry was born to a British father and Malaysian mother. The actress Constance Wu gets the most limelight in the movie though and does her job well but there is nothing extraordinary in her performance. There are several side characters in their small side stories, but everything in this movie looks like "stolen" from other movies made on Cinderella type marriage theme. 

As a final verdict, watching this movie is like watching a medley of two dozen other movies on similar theme. If one loves China, then it is a definitely a must-watch; because in the end, its glorification is the only takeaway from this movie. 

- Rahul 

Movies: Shikara Review

I read the review of movie 'Shikara' on Rediff. It mentions that the movie "questions" the "politics" around Kashmiri Pandit's exile in 1990. It questions the genuineness of other Hindus who support KPs and are sad and angry with (Cong party) govt for why it did not protect KPs.

It kind of mentions that most people who support Kashmiri Pandits cause on "social media" are plain trolls who have "never met a KP" and never seen a "refugee camp". This is such a negative and skeptical view of the reality.

Quote: 'Sir, he has never seen a Kashmiri Pandit'. That's the note on which Shikara concludes.

Well, I have known many KPs from my college days. And I know about KP's refugee camp in Pune; our office colleagues used to go there to donate food items.

It seems this movie is a kind of "propaganda" film; which will do more harm to the KP community than benefit. I read that Vidhu Vinod Chopra is a Kashmiri himself. Perhaps he wanted to make a movie on Kashmir to satisfy his inner demons. But he did not have the guts to show truth.

To some extent Shikara is then like the movie Aarakshan (2011) which was supposed to be a movie on anti-reservation movement but became a rant against coaching centers. It was made by Prakash Jha who comes from the community which suffered due to caste quota. And hence Aarakshan became such a disappointment; despite having big stars like AB, Manoj Bajpayee, etc (and it flopped on Box Office too). Therefore, due to the dishonest work by movie makers, Shikara too seems to be going to be a flop.

It was better if movie-makers did not make such movies on sensitive topics which mock the subjects and ridicule people who genuinely believe in a cause.

I will of course not watch it.

- Rahul