Michael, 2026 - Film Review

As an ardent 𝓜𝓙 fan for years, the drop of the much-awaited music rockumentary epic exactly on my birthday month, was a too-good-to-be-true gift from life. I couldn’t have asked for more.

The film tells the story of the early years of his life, and his journey from being the star of the Jackson 5 band, controlled by his ambitious and dominating father, to being his own independent music sensation that “Rocked With You”. From being Jackson to becoming Michael. It covers the time period roughly from the late 60s to the early 80s, if that helps the chronologically minded reader. And as the movie ends, we are left hoping there will be a part 2, that covers the next phase of his life and his music.

Now, being a fan is a funny thing. Walking into the movie hall, we are already hyped up, pre-sold, love what we’re going to see, and ready to enjoy the next two odd hours of sheer magic that we know we will be a part of. Why? Because we know 𝓜𝓙, we know his stories, his music, his movements, his dance (oh his dance!!!), his genius, his talent, the skeletons “In the Closet”, the controversies, the love he had, the hate he got, the icon he was and continues to be. We’ve seen-there-done-that. We’ve listened-there-danced-that. We’ve felt-there-moved-that. In short, when it comes to 𝓜𝓙, we’ve done it all, over and over again. We “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough”.

And because we can never get enough of 𝓜𝓙, we soak it all in. We hang on to every scene, every moment, every music note he creates, every dance move he invents, every genius inspiration he has that changes the course of music industry, every obsessive perfection he seeks in every frame. We feel for him for the rough childhood and adolescence he had, driven and abused by his father. We smile with indulgence for his obstinate reluctance to grow up and stay a Peter-Pan’ish-child-at-heart. We are intrigued when he loves and connects with animals more than human beings. We applaud when he takes on the mission to help children as his main cause. We cheer for him when he finally tells his father to “Beat It”,and breaks free. And ofcourse we sing along and dance on our seats for all the music and dance and the BTS stories, that cover the period of his albums from ‘Off the Wall’ to ‘Thriller’. 

But the other side of being a fan, is that our expectations are higher and we want more. We want to know stories that we didn’t already know. We want to explore dimensions of his personality that have not been common knowledge. We want to go deeper into the rationale for the choices he made his life - both the great choices and the disastrous ones. We want to feel sides of his music creation that we’ve not felt before. We want to be moved out of our seats so much that we can’t resist the temptation of getting up and dancing. We want to see 𝓜𝓙 the person, not just 𝓜𝓙 the perfect, flawless, poor-little-do-gooder angel. We are fans, not fanatics. We know “He’s Bad, he’s bad, we know it”. We accept the imperfections in our heroes, as much as their magic. Alas, the the movie makers are not as ambitious as we, as fans, are and as a result the film settles for a sanitised, mildly superficial, instagram version of story-telling of the phenonmenon that 𝓜𝓙 actually was. He may have been the King of Pop, but his story was nothing short of rock-n-roll. And it leaves us just that tad-bit unsatisfied. Sigh. What do it. Tell em that it’s “Human Nature”.

However, for non-fans, who are probably the majority of the viewing audience now in 2026, the film hits the spot. For those who are seeing his story, his music, his genius in detail for the first time, it’s a great experience. It ticks all the boxes that an 𝓜𝓙-noob would love and get addicted to. It’s what we, as fans, felt all those years ago when we started. Just for that, the film is a 10/10 and as fans, we cheer that the 𝓜𝓙-magic is spreading more widely to a whole new (Pepsi, sic!) generation. For them, it’s a whole new “Wanna Be Starting Something” and we say ‘Welcome to the party folks’.

But fans, or no fans, what hits the ball out of the park is Jaafar Jackson. He IS Michael Jackson, through and through. His body language, his voice, his moves, his performance, his moon-walking, his emotions. It’s an absolute “Thriller” to watch him. He is the biggest part of the reason why the film works. Absolutely brilliant.

In the end, did we like the movie? Ofcourse. We LOVED the movie. We are fans. And We will always be. And whatever the level of satiation we got from the movie or didn’t, we know nothing has changed, nothing will ever change. We will continue listening to his music, dancing to his beats, feeling in our hearts “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”.

Dhurandhar, The Revenge (Part 2) - Film Review 2026

Three months after the first part of the Bollywood blockest-buster of all time, we are consumed by the fervour of the second part for an almost-four-hour marathon Dhurandhar-fest, which is turning out to be even a bigger blockbuster than before.

The story continues from where we left off last. With Rahman Baloch dead, Hamza (Ranveer Singh) manipulates his brother Uzair in fleeing the country, making himself the leader of the gang and of Lyari, building strong ties with the Baloch community, becoming the ‘Sher-e-Baloch’, and playing the Karachi politics to the hilt; making himself the potent puppet master of the entire crime-ISI-Government nexus, and then using his position to one-by-one destroy the inner machinery of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, finally achieving the mission that he was sent for and has been building towards for the last fifteen years. From Mission Impossible to Mission Accomplished.

Like I had written in my review of the first part (https://books-booze-boxoffice.blogspot.com/2025/12/dhurandhar-part-1-2025-film-review.html), is this an important film, yes. For all the reasons I mentioned before. Because it shows a bold new confident India that we are all proud of, because it gives importance to strategy and the mind-driven action, not just physical violence and war mongering (though there’s enough of that too), and because of Ranveer’s silent-but-violent performance. 

But, was it good storytelling as a movie? And I had said 6-7, because the Tarantino-style storytelling feels forced, the violence feels superficial, and the story feels a little too meandering and long. But I had also parked the hope that part 2 takes the storytelling much further and more impactful.

So does the second part deliver? I would say it like this.

Is it a great marketing success? 10/10. Many companies would kill to get a product launch as successful as this.

Is it a good film with great storytelling? I’d say 4-5. 

Needless to say, don’t watch this film if you haven’t watched the first part. Of course, because you won’t get the story and the characters that are in continuation of the first film. In that sense, it’s basically a 7-hour movie, broken into two parts. Like, say, Peter Jackson’s iconic Return of the King, part 1 and 2. But don’t watch this without the first part, also because the first part is the better part, and it would be a shame to only watch the lesser of the two.

In part 1, while there is an intent, a plot, a mechanism, and a careful making of the rise of Dhurandhar, part 2 just becomes about the action and the kills. It’s a classic case of the thrill of the journey towards an imagined destination, which is always more exciting than finally reaching the destination. What happens when you’ve achieved your mission? Nothing! The fore-play that part 1 delivers is not matched by the explosion that seems to be the central purpose of part 2. 

What disappoints is that what took fifteen years of patience and planning becomes an easy kill-all-the-bad-guys in one go. If it was so easy to outsmart all these goons in a few months, why the intricate, long, and painful effort? It’s like watching your favourite music artist on stage not playing what’s true to his/her art but only catering to what the audience wants to hear. No wonder the film is such a commercial success. The film shows what the audience wants to see and cheer for. Nothing wrong with that by itself, but there needs to be a balance between what the creator’s vision is and what the audience wants. Part 1 struck this balance better, with the intricate layers of Lyari politics, the frustrated patience of the Indian intelligence, and the understated violence of Hamza. And we’ve seen other movies do it as well. Meghna Gulzar’s brilliant Raazi comes to mind in the same context. Dhurandhar Part 2 shamelessly throws away all of it and delivers only the all-rage-loose “The Revenge” that the audience wants to see. That’s the reason it’s a great marketing launch of a product (understand what your consumer wants and deliver to that), but not exactly the best form of content, storytelling, or cinema. Alas, Part 2 has nothing new to offer that Part 1 already hadn’t established.  

Also, it is important to remember that this film is not a sequel. It is the second part of the same movie, the same story. It’s like Netflix dropping Stranger Things Season 5 final episodes a couple of weeks after the first set of episodes. Sequels are like seasons in the OTT world. Sequels are different chapters in the life of the story; they tell new stories of the same franchise, explore new dimensions that were not done before, discover new characters or new facets of characters, and at the heart of it are basically different from their previous stories because they come after years of the first film. That’s why sequels can get away with some repetition, lack of newness, and more of the same, because that’s what they are meant to do. Think Oceans 11, then 12, then 13. Basically, the same plot, but we still enjoy each of them for exactly that. Dhurandhar 2, however, is not a sequel. Three months is not long enough to feel nostalgic about the first part that we start enjoying more of the same. That’s where the film goes wrong. And we are left seeing nothing new or different that would move the story that started 3 months ago forward.

The other thing we miss is that while there is a lot of blood and gore, there isn’t enough good violence. To be clear, gore is not the same as violence. What makes for a potent story is good, credible, and violence-that-you-feel. Think John Wick, think Kill Bill, think 300.There is blood and gore, but the underlying psychology and emotions makes the violence hit home in your bones.. Dhurandhar, by contrast, puts gore on the surface, and while we see it, we don’t feel it. Plus, there is a lot of random violence, which doesn’t make sense and takes away the little impact that was possible. Like why did he have to kill his old friend, who has now become a drug dealer? Why was that whole sequence/ needed at all? It doesn’t lead to anything! As a result, we clap and shout along with the action, but don’t really take anything with us when we leave the cinema hall.

However, having said that, despite all the flaws, the film is very watchable. It is predictable, but also enjoyable. One can’t help cheering for Hamza, as he finally becomes true to who he is and does what Jaskirat Singh was meant for. The first sequence of his backstory is brilliantly done and starts the film on a high. After all, we ARE part of the audience that the film is made for. We enjoy “the revenge” that he takes against the terrorist machinery of our neighbouring state, destroying them one by one, their financiers, their weaponry, their supporters, their money, their plans, and their supreme leader who is behind it all (that comes as a great reveal!). Some of the plot twists and turns, especially at the end, are worthy of a thriller movie. Full points for that.

And more than anything, what makes the film is the music and the sound throughout the storytelling. Mixing retro Bollywood with blood-fest action, and the use of sound to make the impact of the story is absolutely genius. And hits the spot. If you don’t believe me, try watching the film with your ears closed. It will not be a patch.

All in all, should you watch the film? Absolutely. It’s good fun, if you don’t mind the length of the film and the blood and the gore. But, is it great Bollywood big cinema that we hoped it would be that we will remember for a long time? Perhaps not!

 

One Battle After Another, 2025 - Film Review

One of the Oscar favourites of this year, One Battle After Another, could well be THE defining reality of our world today. Just when we thought Russia-Ukraine was an anomaly, we had Israel-Palestine. Just when we thought, two wars in the 21st century is bizarre and surreal, we had Pakistan-Afghanistan. And even before we could process that, we have Israel-US-Iran in the biggest conflict the region has seen in a very long time. One Battle After Another, indeed!

The story revolves around the operations of French75, an anti-establishment revolutionary group, in the southern border states of the US, fighting the Government’s anti-immigrant crackdown, and other neo-imperialist-capitalist nexus across the country, led by Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) and Ghetto Pat (Leonardo). After many successful revolutionary years, one wrong impulsive act, leads to the downfall of the group, with each of the members either killed or gone into hiding, hunted down by their arch nemesis, the stereo-typical white supremacist, Colonel Lockjaw (Sean Penn). As 16 years pass, and Ghetto Pat becomes Bob Ferguson (in hiding), raising his and Perfidia’s daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti), as a single dad, Colonel Lockjaw is back to hunt them down, to win the much coveted membership of the Christmas Adventures Club, the pinnacle group of White Supremacist Community, with a self-declared agenda of protecting and cleansing the country of all impurities. What unfolds is a cat and mouse tense chase, with humorous yet profound consequences for everyone involved.

One can tell why this is one of the Oscar favourites this year. It speaks perfectly to the Hollywood liberal, anti-Trump, anti-MAGA sentiment, that we’ve seen in the Academy, in the Grammy’s, and every other similar forums. And it represents the post-modern dystopian world view of America, that is increasingly the popular world view. In that sense, it’s a predictable set up. The hard right people in power are the bad guys. The left-wing fighters are the good guys. Nothing special there.

What’s special however, is the nuances that the director explores WITHIN each side. That’s where the impact of the film is really felt. 

Let’s start with the left-leaning liberal revolutionaries of the French 75. Even as they start with conviction and passion that youth have, that also fuels an adrenaline-driven sexual energy between Perfidia and Pat, a growing older and changing life stage (after they have a baby), breaks down the very ideological glue that bonded them together. Is it more important to change the world, or to raise my own child? The two of them make very different choices, and pay their respective price for it. 

Then there’s the sanctity of the ideology and what it takes to break it. As revolutionaries, how far are they willing to go, before they cave in. We are deeply distressed (an emotion that sustains throughout the film) when see how easily Perfidia, as the most passionate leader of the group, breaks and gives into the Colonel Lockjaw, the consequences of which are borne by everyone for the rest of the film. What happens to the true believers of the cause, when the leaders themselves betray them. Who are they fighting anymore? And why?

The commentary on the inner workings of a revolutionary organisation is done hilariously well, symbolised by Pat’s phone conversation with the new Gen Z members of the French 75, not being able to remember his secret code to get help in finding his abducted daughter, just because he’s older, not in practice, and drunk and drugged out of his mind. They may have a cause to fight for, but like any other organisation, they are dealing with the same challenges of protocol and Gen Z workforce! Brilliant!

And yet, the film shows hope for organisations and groups with a liberal ideology. Symbolised by Sergio (the brilliant Benicio Del Toro), the karate sensei for Willa, and leader of an underground immigrant community in the city, who provides blind and unflinching support to Pat for his mission, just because of the work and the legend he was 16 years ago, as part of the French 75. 

Now, let’s take the hard right white supremacist side, symbolised by two very different factions. On one side, there’s the Christmas Adventures Club, a group that reminds us of many such groups we’ve heard of. A secret membership-by-appointment only, self-appointed protectors of purity and white culture in America. Just like their cause, there is no black or grey in their mission. You’re either pure or not. And any impurity needs to be gotten rid of.

But on the other side, there are aspiring members, like Colonel Lockjaw (Sean Penn hits it out of the park with this character), who would do anything, including killing his own daughter, to be in this club. Only that he is not as strong and racist as he would like to be. And in trying his entire life to live up to his own ideology, comes his greatest achievements and his biggest downfall. Not as straightforward to be hard right, either, when you are a human being too!

And that’s perhaps the underlying reality that connects the two fighting factions. The human frailty. The human emotions. The human fragility. The human flaws. Our own human-ness is a great leveller. How can our ideologies trump that? We all want to protect our children, we all want to survive, we all want to fuck, we all want to succeed, we all want to love, we all want to be loved. And that will stay on and continue for much longer, beyond any other pursuit, ideological or otherwise.

And that’s how the movie segways towards the ending. An ending that is in the present-continuous, as a work in progress, as a continuing story of life, that will never end. We will continue to struggle, to fight, to hope, to be anxious, to chase beliefs and dreams of building a better world, to balance between our ideals and our everyday mundane realities, to make choices in favour of one or the other and living with the consequences of those choices, till the next milestone of making the next choice comes along. 

Moving from One Battle After Another.

The Impossible Fortune, Thursday Murder Club Book 5 - Book Review

 

The fifth book in the series, and I once again stuck to the tradition of January month being the month for the #ThursdayMurderClub

The Impossible Fortune plot revolves around the disappearance of Joyce’s new son-in-law’s best friend, Nick, after he seeks Elizabeth’s help to protect him from people trying to kill him; followed by the brutal death-by-bombing of Nick’s business partner Holly, all linked to a an ‘impossible bit-coin fortune’ that they both hold keys to. As our famous four step into action to solve the case, we get our usual fix of Elizabeth’s feisty leadership of the clan, Joyce’s endearing tea and warmth, Ibrahim’s objective analytical approach and Ron’s cowboy swagger. Along with the supporting ensemble of characters we’ve grown to know and love. Chris and Donna from the police. Joanna, Joyce’s independent and very-millennial daughter. Jason, Ron’s stud son. And of course Bogdan, the reliable Friday-man for Elizabeth and the others. All of it intermingling with the joy and drama of their own personal lives: Elizabeth’s grieving state of mind, Joyce’s mooning over her daughter’s newly married life and son-in-law Paul; Ron’s struggles with his fast-ageing body clashing with his role as the family patriarch; and the subtle-but-potently portrayed, Ibrahim’s loneliness.

I must say, after the first book, this might be the most enjoyable novel in the series. It almost felt like after finishing 4 successful books in the series, the author is finally free to explore and write in an easy flow, going where the characters and the story took him, without having to try too hard to solve a murder, or make meaning where none exists. This allows the story to breathe and for each of the characters that we’ve known for so long, to just be and respond to the situations they are thrown in… a lot like real life.

As always, the joy of this book too, is not in the murder mystery (although is is a nice reveal at the end), but in the journey that the characters take to get there. There are multiple enjoyable little moments all through the story, that make you smile, laugh, despair, cry and get that warm glow inside your heart. In that sense, the real story in the book is about life and what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans… and oh, while trying to solve a murder mystery. The crime, then, just becomes a common goal that brings all these people together, not really the reason for the novel.

Further, being the fifth book in the series, our septuagenarians are older and closer to mortality, and the theme of an ageing body conflicting with a youthfully-alive spirit is palpable and extremely touching, but in a light-hearted way.

Finally, one of the strong suits of Osman’s storytelling is his ability to build very real and human characters. This book once again, introduces, many new characters like the nerdy-golden-hearted-nice guy Paul, the-meticulous-paranoid-businessman Nick, the WYSIWYG-Holly, the priveleged-but-tortured Lord Townes, and the gay-ruthless-mobster Davey Noakes, all of them critical to the story, and each of them as real and endearing as our favourite four.

And the book also gives new dimensions to older characters that we’ve always seen, but not really gotten to know yet. Like Joyce’s daughter Joanna, who shows up as equally feisty standing up to Elizabeth, gaining her respect. Or the earlier novel’s villain drug dealer Connie, who grows a conscience with all of Ibrahim’s counselling.

If you’ve been following the series, then I’d say this one is a no-brainer to pick up, and an absolute delight, turning the pages, immersing in this wonderful world of Cooper’s Chase, in the suburbs of London, feeling like comfort food, like a nice cup of tea everyday. If you’ve not been following the series, then I’d say pick up book 1 first, skip 2 and 3, and jump into books 4 and 5.

Until next January, by which time, book 6 should be out…

Ghost-Eye, Amitav Ghosh, 2025

After a long wait, Amitav Ghosh returns with his next fiction novel, that takes forward some of the themes he has been talking about in his last few non fiction works. Climate, environment, local ecosystems and what it will really take to restore and rehabilitate our planet, that is on an irreversible path towards destruction. 

If you’ve not been following his work, I highly recommend reading The Nutmeg’s Curse (my review here https://books-booze-boxoffice.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-nutmegs-curse-parables-for-planet.html) that forms the primary thesis of his thinking. It’s a mind-blowingly insightful take on why our world environment is in the mess that it is, and therefore what it will take to fix it, and why it’s not going to be as easy as doing COPs or carbon credit or carbon tax, or EVs!

Ghost-eye, in a way, is the ‘fiction’ version of the same central idea. The idea that it is centuries of Western imperialism, anchored in political-industrial-capitalist power, which has systematically and cold-heartedly exploited our natural and human capital over time. And it has become so much a natural way of life, that no one really ‘sees it’ as the culprit. And that’s why it’s not going to be easy to dismantle, because this is the only way the world knows how to work. And yet there is hope in countries like India and in ecosystems like the villages and the forests of Sundarban, which still show a glimpse into an alternate reality, an alternate way of life. A life that is anchored on our biological and human connection to nature, and our inherent and intuitive connection to our past and our roots. Who was it that said ‘Never mistake development for progress’.

The story in this novel revolves around re-incarnation, the presence of the spirit-world, the position of men and women (the 'ghost-eyes') with special abilities to connect and even benefit from the spirit world, and all of it intricately tied up around the deeply delicious and soulful Bengali cuisine, centered around (of course) fish. In typical Ghosh style, the story moves across space - between New York, Calcutta and Sudarbans - as well as across time - from 1960s to the COVID era of early 2020s. For all of us Amitav Ghosh fans, it hits the spot in giving us the fix we haven’t had in a while. 

The genius of the book, is in the central idea, for which we can’t cheer loudly enough. It’s one of those ideas that makes you want to imbibe and champion to everyone in the world. It’s so simple and intuitive and as Indians, we get it because we feel it everyday. Everyday we microwave our food before eating, everyday we order food from outside instead of cooking ourselves at home, everyday we eat grains and vegetables that are imported. Read this book for that.

But, if you’re not an Amitav Ghosh fan, then this is not the best book to pick up to enjoy his writing. The story-telling of the novel leaves much to be desired, and is not one of his better work. It meanders a bit, the conversations sometimes feel forced and preachy, and the overall plot and the ending, while surprising, feels a bit trying too hard at times. To enjoy his fiction, there are others I would suggest, especially his early work like Shadow LInes, Hungry Tide, etc. Read those for the story telling.

However, these are, as I would say, ‘first world problems’ (sic!). Few things come close to curling up with an Amitav Ghosh book at the end of a day. And this one is no exception. I’m glad this became my first book to start 2026 with. I hope you pick it up too and form your own point of view. 

Stranger Things, Season 5, Netflix, 2025

Nearly a decade of Netflix’s most popular and long lasting series, Stranger Things comes to a grand finale, with the final season closing out, at last, the Upside Down frenzy we’ve been living in, as a fantastical escape from an otherwise tumultuous last 9 years we’ve all had IRL. Nothing has come close to this level of involved excitement since the Avengers x MCU ended.

Apart from wrapping up the entire franchise, Season 5 more specifically concludes the story of Season 4, that introduced the evil Vecna, as the puppet master of everything that’s been happening in Hawkins since the beginning. After suffering defeat at the end of S4, he returns both as Vecna and as Henry with a bigger plan for destroying human kind, not just from the Upside Down, but from another world in another dimension (the Abyss), by once again kidnapping and preying on the minds of impressionable and weak children. The intrepid gang from Hawkins, led by our favourite teenagers, once again unite and hatch multiple ideas to foil Vecna’s plans, with an attempt to save the world, while simultaneously battling death and near-death situations, suffering losses and pain, while battling their own inner demons, emotions and growing up.

Enough has been said about how disappointing  the much-anticipated and highly hyped last episode of Season 5 was.  All I’ll say about that is, there’s no way it could have lived up to the hype. Nothing really can. But objectively, was the much awaited final battle against Vecna underwhelming? Yes, for sure! For all its faults, what the Avengers End Game (2019) got superbly right was the final war against Thanos and his army. In fact, across Infinity War (2018) and Endgame, we were deeply satisfied with the fights, the action, and the revenge. Stranger Things Season 5 definitely mis-played this. And granted there is no excuse for it, given how tuned in Netflix and everyone is to the audience expectations through social media. They must have known what the audience was looking for. And to get that wrong is a big miss.

(And on a side-bar, for all of us James Cameron nerds, what a waste of Sarah Connor, I mean Dr. Kay!) 

However, and this is the classic battle of perspectives - short term vs. Long term. Is this one thing or one episode bad enough to take away from the entire Season? After having blown our minds in Season 4, with Vecna as the source-code of everything, Season 5 takes it to a logical conclusion on what Vecna’s ultimate mission is, bending our minds further, re-positioning the Upside Down from ‘another dimension’ to actually a ‘worm-hole’, re-positioning the role of a larger number of children in the whole mix, and even re-positioning Will and Vecna themselves in the roles they play in the whole narrative. In that sense, Season 5 continues the legacy of new twists, turns and concepts in the narrative, that we have come to expect from Stranger Things.

Season 5 also continues the other core strength of this franchise, which is about building characters and the relationships between them. Season 1 gave us the first set of characters - Will, Mike, El, Dustin, Lucas, Steve, Jonathan, Nancy, Joyce and Hopper. Season 2 gave us Kali, Max, Bob, Billy and a transformed Steve, with a new unexpected friendship with Dustin. Season 3  gave us Robin, Smirnoff, and Murray. Season 4, apart from Henry, gives us new relationships, Joyce and Hopper getting together, Nancy and Jonathan’s weakening relationship, Lucas and Max’s strengthening bond; Will and Robin’s sexuality, separation of friends that come together, Eddie and the Hellfire gang, Nancy’s fiercely brave and independent streak. Season 5 then continues this streak, with new characters in Holly (Mike and Nancy’s little sister who is now a pre-teen) and Dipshit Derek (my favourite character from Season 5), new bonds between Will and Robin, transformation of Will’s character into a stronger-yet-vulnerable adolescent, and so on.

In fact, this is perhaps the most important reason why one episode or even an entire Season is not enough to erode our decade-long “relationship” with the franchise. We know and love these people from Hawkins, as if they are our own. We know Hopper can’t let El go, because of the pain he’s suffered on losing his first daughter to disease, that he still blames himself for. We can feel Joyce’s helplessness at not being able to help her children, even as she fights the guilt she bears for not being around for her kids more. We cry with Will, when he feels alone and weak, because he is still in the closet and doesn’t even know what the closet is all about. We strengthen with the power of connection that Max and Lucas share that will save them both. We are brave and courageous with Nancy to kick any bad-ass that comes in front of us. We lament with Dustin as he loses his best friend Eddie (actually) and Steve (emotionally) and cheer when they get back together again. And we kind of get Mike and El’s romance too (okay may be that’s a stretch!). 

One under-whelming anti-climax episode is not going to change that, is it?

Season 5 also closes out one important angle, according to me. And that is a point of view or a larger perspective that the narrative has been chasing across five seasons. And this is in the area of creating a more inclusive and a connected society, that treats the differences and diversity between people as a means of cohesion rather than a cause to fragment, that doesn’t reject the relatively less fortunate and ‘weaker’ people, but instead helps them transform into areas of strength towards the benefit of the larger cause. From Will the Weak, to, Will the Wise. From the beginning Stranger Things gives agency to kids rather than adults. It’s the kids who are leading, plotting, kicking ass and saving the day. The adults are just enablers. And even in the kids, it’s not the stars and the achievers of Hawkins school, but the freaks and the outcasts that are making things happen. Even within adults, Joyce, Hopper, Murray, Bob, are all people on the outer-skirts of socially accepted citizenry. Will and all the kids that are picked on by Vecna (as explained by himself) are those children that are weak and vulnerable and in some sense outcasts by the mainstream. 

Further, throughout all the seasons, all the action and success and glory that happens is never an outcome of one person’s effort. Everyone in the casting has a role to play towards the larger common purpose of defeating Vecna. Each of them, a unique character, and different from each other, but each of them contributes in some way or the other. Even Erica (Lucas’s precocious little sister) and Mr Clarke’s (the school science teacher) play their part in the whole thing. No one is left out. Everyone has respect. And everyone matters. No job is big or small. No one has the main character energy. They all play their part. And they all play as a team. And if this wasn’t sufficiently clear all this while, Dustin nails it in his valedictorian speech at the end, as they graduate as the Class of 1989.

And finally, while many have criticised the over-emo-drama in the last hour of the final episode, it was necessary to have done that. It was the final ending of the decade long franchise. The series owed it to its fans to have a proper closure of emotions and relationships between the different characters. Killing Vecna and saving the world, while critical, was not the only deliverable of Stranger Things. A little bit of nostalgia for the time gone by, and giving us a clear direction on how the lives of each of the characters would go in the future, including the future of the game Dungeons and Dragons, that started it all, was an important ending in itself.

In the end, we say a big THANK YOU to Netflix and to Duffer Brothers for creating a whopper of a franchise when none existed just a decade ago. Not an easy feat in a day and age, where all popular content is just re-makes or sequels of old franchises. Thank you for the beautifully human and nuanced characters, including Vecna. Thank you for giving agency to the children, who will save us all in the future. Thank you for the relationships and emotions between a myriad set of characters. Thank you for the spooks, the chills, the action and the shock-n-awe. Thank you for the Upside Down (I still prefer it by itself without the wormhole angle, TBH). Thank you for a whole new imagination. And thank you for the whole 1980s nostalgia trip.  

Can’t wait for what you create next, Duffer Brothers. Will be waiting for it.. 

Dhurandhar (Part 1), 2025 - Film Review

From the maker of the previous super hit nationalist war movie, Uri (2019), director Aditya Dhar, comes the next big-screen big-action, nationalist sentiment-generating 3.5 hours magnum opus, Dhurandhar (part 1).   

The film is the story of Indian intelligence conceptualising a long and patient strategy of planting an undercover spy deep in the crime-politics-ISI nexus of Pakistan, with a view to bringing intelligence, as well as slowly destroying over time, the very source-code of terrorism. After being frustrated for years, at the lack of political will against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, Dhurandhar, played by Ranveer Singh, a convicted prisoner, is trained to be this agent. Starting by entering the Lyari gang in Karachi, he goes on to climb the mafia ladder, infiltrating its politics, and getting to become a central figure in the crime nexus, ready to change the game in part 2, due to release in March 2026.

Judging by the box office success of the film, it is no surprise to see that the film is delivering the goods. It’s been a while since we’ve had a patriotic movie, that makes our neighbours on the West the most evil villains, takes the collective anger we feel as a society towards so many things within the country, and channels it towards something external. And of course, not-so-subtly reminding us of the ineffective Government we’ve had in the past, and how great our current leaders are. Of course, we all love to hate, and nothing like a feeling of catharsis, as we come together to beat up a common enemy. 

But, it would be too short sighted to leave Dhurandhar at that. Because there are two aspects of the movie that are worth digging into. 

Is it an important film? Yes.

Is it good storytelling as a movie? 6-7

First, it is an important film because it is completely different from the nationalistic-patriotic movies we’ve seen in the last few years. The films of the past have anchored the plot around war, especially around the border. The heroes are the soldiers and the people sacrificing their lives in the frontline for their motherland. The celebration is that of execution and action, and if anything the bureaucracy is painted as a hindrance to getting things done. The agency, as a result, is given to the body and the physicality of making things happen. It is muscular, it is power, it is a show of strength and aggression and passion and testosterone and adrenaline, the heady cocktail which delivers the goods at the end, and leads to the happy ending. 

Dhurandhar, by contrast, does the exact opposite. The agency, is given, not to the body, but to the mind. The strength is in the strategy, that has a long term view, which ruthlessly overlooks the short term losses. The power lies in the patience, to keep at it, one day at a time, moving slowly towards the end goal, walking, not running. The muscular physical strength exists but it is metaphorically hidden behind the Pathan suits worn by the characters, not overtly displayed in Hrithik-SRK-style. The heroes are the intelligence agents and the people who are thinking and planning and plotting towards a vision of victory. Restraint is a virtue, and violence is a carefully used weapon, not an always-on mode.

The other critical reason why Dhurandhar is an important film, is because it is a manifestation of the new confident India that we are all pleasantly surprised to see emerging, (even though at times we wonder if we’re getting this right). Unlike the previous patriotic films, where India was always a victim-under-dog that fights back for revenge and justice, in Dhurandhar, India takes destiny under its control, and turns a crisis into an opportunity towards creating a new sub-contintent order, once and for all. India is no longer the ‘bechara’ in this new world, but an equal, sovereign, powerful State that is writing its own future. This gives us a very fresh and different kind of patriotic fervour that we’ve not had before. And for that we cheer and applaud the film, and as citizens of this amazing country, gives us the pride and the belief that we all need and desire.

But, now coming to the story-telling that we also need and desire from a big film of this stature. And here, I would say, we are left wanting.

The attempt at telling a Tarantino-style Chapter approach to the story is clever, but doesn’t really make an impact, since the story is quite linear, and while the maker might feel that he’s being clever in not revealing Dhurandhar’s true purpose till later, as an audience we know it from the first scene when Hamza enters the Pakistan border from Afghanistan. 

The attempt at creating a John Wick-style raw blood and gore action is appreciated, but comes across as forced and unconvincing due to the actors, their body language and the lack of a consistent underlying violent under-current. There’s just too much talking and emotions, and drama for the violence to really stand out. If you want to a good Bollywood blood fest, then I highly recommend watching Kill (https://books-booze-boxoffice.blogspot.com/2025/02/kill-2023-movie-review.html).

The story-telling, while it keeps us engaged in the moment on everything that’s happening, feels a little frustratingly meandering, as we get to the latter half of the film, making us wonder why did we spend so much time engaging with the inner emotions and dealings of Rahmat Dakait and Azad Pappu, and the Baloch movement, and the intricate layers of Lyari politics. The story goes so deep into the inner workings of Karachi machinery, that we lose sight of the India purpose and emotion.

The saving grace is of course, Ranveer Singh. He is brilliant as always. The sheer menacing strength of his body, that is restrained by his even stronger mind. The anger against the enemy and the passion for his country, that is reflected only through his eyes. The power of his blows and punches that he delivers as convincingly as the hits he himself receives. The understated, patient, potent, effective Dhurandhar, could be no one else than Ranveer. And he hits it out of the park. Watch the film, if nothing else, just to watch him perform.

All in all, an enjoyable and watchable film, but with lots of unfulfilled potential. Here’s hoping that the second part picks up on the story-telling aspect of the film, so we can look back and see Dhurandhar, the complete film as one of those disruptive movies that stir us enough to be in our memories for a long time, and not just a flash in the pan that we saw, liked somewhat and then moved on. The possibilities exists. Aditya Dhar, over to you.