Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui - Film Review

Spoiler Alert!

The last Bollywood movie I saw on the big screen (just before the pandemic), was also an Ayushmann Khurrana one (Shubh Mangal Savdhan 2, See my review https://books-booze-boxoffice.blogspot.com/2020/02/shubh-mangal-zyada-saavdhan-film-review.html ). And no surprise that the first Bollywood movie on the big screen that I see now is also an Ayushman film. No surprise, because we know that it will be worth the haul and the effort (and should I say the health risk) since his films represent themes that are new, progressive, and at some level champion the case of social change. But also equally importantly, coming back to his films also makes us feel a return to some sense of normalcy in our lives (however temporary), where we are back to caring about higher-order issues like gender equality, and not just worrying about trying to stay alive!

Directed by the well-loved Abhishek Kapoor, Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui is very much an Ayushmann movie, with all the makings of educating and driving the cause of yet-another-topic of social change. And is true to type. His first film Vicky Donor was about bringing sperm donation into the mainstream, Dum Lagake Haisha was about building empathy towards obesity, Badhai Ho (my review http://books-booze-boxoffice.blogspot.com/2018/10/badhaai-ho-film-review.html ) argued against an ageist culture, Dream Girl (https://books-booze-boxoffice.blogspot.com/2019/09/dream-girl-film-review.html  took a light-hearted view to gender conversations, and Shubh Mangal Savdhan 2 fought for the equality for gay love. 

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui continues the gender spectrum conversation, this time dealing with the inclusion of transgender men and women in our society.

The story revolves around bodybuilder Manvinder Munjal aka Manu (Ayushmann) obsessed with winning a weightlifting championship, who falls in love with Maanvi Brar (Vaani Kapoor), a new-to-town gorgeous Zumba instructor, teaching in the same gym. The love story takes a twist when he realizes that Maanvi is a trans-girl, born Manu Brar (the same name is a cool play by the makers), converted when she was 20 years old. The rest of the story moves to first him coming to terms with his own conditioning, winning the battle between his heart and his mind. And after that, challenging society (his peers and family) towards the inevitable conclusion of ‘love is love’, irrespective of gender. 

The reason why the movie works is that we all root for the cause of gender equality. And for that, we can’t but stand up and clap for the ambition and the purpose that Ayushmann and Abhishek are driving. The cause here is about normalizing gender conversations in our hypocritical society. About bringing these out of the closet and putting them front and center of the living room. And we know, that unless it’s loud, a little over-the-top, and exaggerated, the film will not be able to land the message with a wide majority of the audience. And that’s why it’s admirable that Bollywood continues to bring these topics into mainstream cinema in a mainstream way. If the cause is normalization and inclusion, the tool that film takes is as simple as understanding and education. Everyone fears or stigmatizes what they don’t understand. And that’s really what the film is after. That if we can get over our own conditioning and our own minds, and simply understand, the reality can be quite "normal". A normal relationship with normal lives, in every physical and emotional way. Now that is a noble cause, which is why we applaud the film.

But, like with many such activist films (including the last one in Shubh Mangal), what again takes a back seat is the core reason we go to watch movies. Story-telling. 

Beyond the cause, that is repeatedly hammered down in every frame once the initial romance is over, there is little else that makes us glued to our seats. It’s clearly a movie for our minds (and perhaps our politics), but a not movie for our hearts. While we sit as an audience being preached to, we don’t feel the emotions that our main characters are going through. And this is despite Ayushmann being a really good actor, who is fully Manu the body-builder coming to terms with his not-so-normal love life. His acting prowess can be seen in his body language, which acts as much as he does. And also, despite a rich and entertaining view of the lives, the characters (Manu’s family character are hilarious) of Chandigarh city, very much a modern Indian city, with the heart of a Punjab town. Vaani Kapoor, as the central character, fails to make an impact. Perhaps a much stronger actor was needed to make the audience feel what she feels. The chemistry between Ayushmann and Vani is lukewarm at best, another reason why the conviction of the plot leaves us a bit cold. 

As a result, we are left with rooting for the cause rather than enjoying and feeling the emotions of the film. 

And remember, real change in society only comes when we feel it ourselves, not because we agree with an ideology, intellectually.

All in all, a recommended watch to participate in the changing narrative of Bollywood and spread the word in our society, that desperately needs it. But don’t expect too much more than that.

Red and Ginger (Johnnie Walker Red Label) - A Highball Drink Review

Well, the blog name does says books, booze and box-office, but doesn’t look like enough booze has happened on these pages. 

Time to fix that!

Starting with talking of my recent favourite discovery that folks are calling ‘Red Ginger’.

Akin to a possible MCU superhero (think Black Widow), this one too has secret powers that only show themselves when we engage with it. Don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s just a pretty redhead. The experience reveals itself, the more we look for it.

Reminiscent of the most remembered (to me anyway!) Geri Ginger Spice Girl from the 90s, this one too brings that desirable in-your-face zing, that stands out of a crowd, where everything and everyone looks and tastes the same.

And like its namesake, the Red Ginger plant, which is a thing of beauty that needs a nuanced appreciation, this one too is not something to be taken lightly, it demands attention and commands a presence.

Welcome to the experience of Red and Ginger. 

A simple yet impactful drink, that can be ordered at your favourite bar, or easily fixed at home.

A tall glass, lots of ice, pour of Johnnie Walker Red Label, ginger ale and topped up with soda. And that’s it.

Just what you need to make an evening revibe one notch higher.

As a wine lover (check out my reviews on the Vivino app) and a beer drinker, blended Scotch whiskey has not been my go-to drink for an evening of celebration. Labelled as a drink of my father’s generation, it’s been stereotyped in a corner of the bar, that’s visited only when a drinker friend asks for it.

But 'Red Ginger’ changes all that. 

It turns the notion of a classic-but-dated drink completely on its head. 

Like the remix of a classic song that is as enjoyable as the original, Red and Ginger takes Scotch and puts it boldly in the centre of a socially charged evening. Who says whiskey is a sit-down drink! 

A great balance of complex-yet-gentle, sweet-yet-smoky taste of the original Red Label liquid, mixed with the sweet and spicy spark of fresh ginger ale, lifted by the zest of a soda, makes this the perfect drink for boys and girls looking for a grown-up social drink. 

Teeny-boppers, stay away!

For everyone, who thinks whiskey is not for me, ‘Red and Ginger’ is a great way to start.

And once that’s done, we talk about ‘Black Ginger’. 

But that’s a whole different story, for next time!

Friends: The Reunion, streaming on Zee 5 - Review

Nailed it! But strictly for fans, only.

17 years later, and the Bright-Kauffman-Crane crew along with the star-cast of the epic Friends phenomenon, once again get it right. 

#friendsreunion hits the mark, the very same mark, that made all of us super fans of the series to begin with.

The making and airing of this openly declares ‘nostalgia’ as the defining emotion of our pandemic lives. 

At a time, where we even feel nostalgic about eating a meal outside, imagine the power of an entire 2-hour ode to the one series that defined an entire generation’s sense of social self-worth and well-being. The series that gave us one of the first insider’s view of life in everyday New York, at at time when New York = America. The series that gave us an easy entry to modern urban western culture and values. The series taught us the mores of friendship and relationships. The language, and the dos and don’ts of being single adult men and women. And most of all, the series that gave us our best friends, each with their own idiosyncrasies that we all found and related to, in ourselves and in our friends. 

The format of Friends: The Reunion, is an interview hosted by James Cordon, against the background of the iconic fountain from the titles, mixed with replay and re-enactment of some of our favourite scenes and dialogues, along with re-visiting different characters, and many behind-the-scenes stories around casting, relationships and moments through the 10 seasons. Just like the original series, it has the right balance of high humour and emotions, and yet feels like it’s just natural everyday life. The actors have all obviously aged significantly, but that just reminds us of the passage of time and doesn’t take away from their connection and emotions, that comes out like a pleasant surprise. Like a reassurance to the audience, that everything’s fine, nothing has changed.

It perfectly hits the sweet spot for fans, who have grown up on Friends, and perhaps in the last 17 years, haven’t realised how much they’ve missed it. Not realising how much the world has changed, since the airing of the last season in 2004. World post 9/11, the 2008 recession years, death of liberalism, Trump, right-wing extremism, global warming, civil wars, terrorism, migrant crisis, social media, surveillance capitalism, e-commerce, and now the pandemic. 

After all that we’ve been through these last 17 years, #friendsreunion comes as a dose of time travel, reminding us of a time when iPhone wasn’t even invented. A time where we found out rumours about our friends by peeping into the neighbour’s window (when Phoebe finds out about Monica and Chandler by seeing them through the window of ugly-naked-man’s house). A time, when the word social meant getting together with friends at a local cafe (Central Perk). A time when being funny didn’t rely on using explicit language (Could it BE any funnier). 

A time when being inclusive wasn’t a big political statement. A time when the future was still full of possibilities. A time when we were still discovering ourselves and the world. A time when the future was not written. A time when we were all a ‘work-in-progress’, un-defined, un-formed, un-perfect. A time when everyday ups and downs were enough to keep us going from one day to the next, without any grand ambition of a glorious future. A time when these everyday moments with the people we love were all that we needed. 

A time that we forgot over the years, that we are only now being forced to see again. Sitting at home 24 x7 now, sometimes distraught with the confined lives we are living, #friendsreunion comes as a fresh breath reminder that this is what it was all about. Just being with friends and family, every day. That’s what we’ve always loved. What more do we need. 

Towards the end, they take the obvious question of ‘whether there will be another season to continue the Friends journey’. And they give the only answer that could be. Friends remains as one of the best memories of our content lives. It’s almost perfect. Re-opening anything that perfect would indeed be the worst mistake of our content lives. 

If Friends was the feel-good television that we all went to at the end of our days, all those years ago, #friendsreunion hits the exact same spot, satisfying the feel-good vibe we all very much need right now. 

17 years later, and you still gave us, the same comfort-meets-humour, wrapped in a warm hug that reminds us that it’s okay, we’re okay, all is well. Thank you Friends for all those years, and thank you for the reunion. 

Time, to re-start season 1 episode 1, for the 18th time! 

Jupiter's Legacy - TV series review, now streaming on Netflix, May 2021

Meh! 

That probably sums up the feeling after watching Season 1 of Jupiter’s Legacy, one of the new additions to Netflix, and apparently in the 'top 10’ in India right now. 

Not, that this is a new feeling. So many of the OTT series we end up watching, leave us with this feeling. It’s the feeling when on one side we feel cheated at having invested the time day after day to finish the season. While on the other side, reminding ourselves ‘what would we have done with that time anyway’, being stuck at home in a lockdown! Fair enough, says Netflix back to you. One more series, one more week passing by, moving on.

Based on the comic book series of the same name by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely, #JupitersLegacy is set in modern-day America, a world filled with superheroes and supervillains belonging to the group called Union. Born over generations, since the 1920s, when an original group of 5 ordinary men (and a woman) are gifted superpowers on a remote island after they are considered ‘worthy’, this motley of young, old, and middle-aged superheroes are fighting crime, supervillains, cosmic disasters, and their own internal feuds and politics. All this, while maintaining the “code” - the all-important set of 2 rules that they all live by, (remember the age-old superhero adage “with great power comes great responsibility”) Rule #1. They will never govern Rule#2. They will never take a life. And as the 21st-century world gets worse with every passing day, living by these codes gets harder and stokes an inner conflict within the Union. Between the traditional-and-still-the-most-powerful stalwarts (most significantly driven by their leader, the Utopian) and the others, especially the younger generation superheroes, including his own son, Brandon, the successor and the future Utopian. This becomes the central plot, along with a myriad of battles between the good and the bad guys, the emergence of an all-powerful Thanos-like villain, Blackstar, and parenting troubles all around between the super-parents and their super-children. 

With so many supers in one series, one would have expected at least some good action, if not a good story. But the series disappoints in both. There is some action here and there, and a semblance of a story. But between problem children and tracing the origins of their power in the 1920s, the series loses its bearing. The series is not able to get its point of view right. It is very American in its sensibility, but it’s neither the collective-patriotic-American-Marvel nor the individualistic-dark-American-DC and without an overall point of view on life, it fails to connect with the audience. The loose narrative around trying to live by the morals and a code, in a world that increasingly doesn’t have a place for it, is poorly delivered and fails to lift the story-telling. The actors deliver average performances, themselves struggling to be convinced about their characters. 

As the fumbling scenes get to the season-ending-climax of a cliff-hanger, we are left with a big fat “meh”

Unfortunately, the only legacy that this series leaves behind, is our all-precious TV remote, which numbly reaches out to browse for the next series that we’re willing to give our not-so-precious time to. 

Nomadland, 2020 - Film Review, now streaming on Hotstar

The popular explanation for the origins of the word “movie” is that it’s a short form for ‘moving picture’. In short, a picture that moves. Also by extension then, a movie by definition is something that “moves you”. 

If so, #Nomadland is for sure, one masterpiece of a “movie”. 

Watch this beautiful poetry of a film that moves you from the first scene to the last, as the protagonist Fern (Francis McDormand) herself moves from one place to another, along with her moving “home” - her prized and only possession, where she now belongs, her van.

I wish I could have seen this movie in the theatres because that’s where it’s meant to be seen, and heard, and felt. 

A movie that invites you into a world that, just like Fern, you didn’t know could exist, but that soon becomes the only world that could possibly exist. A world that becomes a counterpoint to the one which we modern-day urbanites call normal. In that sense, Nomadland challenges “Normal-land” and forces us to ask the question, what’s normal about modern-day urban living, anyway. The Verve 90s classic Bitter-sweet symphony ringing in my ears “Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, that's life… Tryna make ends meet, you're a slave to money then you die”. A world we have created that binds us to our possessions, things we buy and consume, till they are over, starting the cycle of buying and consuming all over again, and again. Till these things consume us and we leave them behind, once it’s time to say goodbye. 

What if we broke this cycle while we still have life left in us, while we still can. What if we gave up these ‘things’ in our life that hold us back, bog us down, trap us into believing that they give us happiness. Will we experience true freedom then? Can we experience this liberation during our lifetime, before the end? Before it’s too late? Hasn’t this what the pandemic really taught us. To stop. To pause. To step back. "It really is enough", says the wise old bat flying away in the sky. 

It really isn’t normal-land, my dear fellow human beings. 

Welcome to Nomadland, where being “house-less” doesn’t mean the same as being “home-less”.

Based on real events detailed out in the non-fiction book of the same name by Jessica Bruder, Nomadland gets it right with its almost-documentary style telling of the story of Fern, and her life after she loses everything when the town she has lived all her life shuts down, as the biggest corporation of the city goes under. Losing her husband and her city, she is forced to set out in a van-turned-into-home around America, where she meets like-minded people, makes friends, and discovers a whole new way of living, where the word ‘settling down’ takes the new meaning of ‘moving on'. 

While the film shows a mirror to our times, it equally opens a window to another choice of life. That’s the beauty of this movie. Of the window, that when you open becomes a door of possibilities, of seeing what the world and people could be, and perhaps should be. In that, contrary to what it might seem at first, the oscar-winning Normadland is an optimistic movie, a feel-good movie, a movie with hope, a movie with life.

As always (and once again winning the oscar) Francis McDormand does a fabulous job of portraying her complex character, vulnerable-yet-proud, independent yet craving someone in her life, missing her past but ready for her future, anxious about letting go, yet knowing that that is her truth, anchored by the love for her now-dead husband yet happy to be free of that very anchor that held her back. We see Fern grow through the course of the film, finding her way of life, the life that she never knew was hers to live, and yet a life that somehow she always knew was hers to live. The beautiful turning point in the film is when she commits to her new life after she rejects her wanderer-friend’s offer to stay with him in his comfortable, idyllic country home.

Well deserved Oscar for Chloe Zhao, the director, who manages to create the fine balance between real-life documentary and storytelling with deep emotions. The soul-moving music by composer, Ludovico Einaudi, lifts the film and completes this emotional experience powerfully. 

Since it’s an experience movie, not a plot movie, watch it when you have that mind-space at home, and let the movie take over. Not one to watch while multi-tasking on your phone on social media!

In that sense, a perfect Covid era film that takes social distancing to a whole new level, as Fern distances herself from many things of the world, and gets closest to the one thing that matters the most, herself. 

Roohi, Netflix 2021- Movie Review

Remember Stree. Forget it.

Remember the scare. Forget that too.

Remember the laughs. Forget it, almost.

And most of all, remember the point of view. Forget it completely!

I remember ending my review of Stree  (https://books-booze-boxoffice.blogspot.com/2018/09/stree-2018-movie-review.html) saying can’t wait to see the next one from the makers (Maddock films). Well, three years later, we’ve seen it and forgotten it.

Any second film always runs the risk of comparison with the first and usually disappoints. But, Roohi disappoints as a standalone film too. In many ways, it has no story connection to the first, and in that, it had the potential of writing something completely new and exciting. While still sticking to the unique genre of horror-comedy, that it created with Stree.  

The story is once again set in a small town, as a canvas for an unequal world for women. This time portrayed with an extreme situation of women being kidnapped and forced to marry a groom, based on the latter’s whim. In this assignment, protagonists Bhawra (Rajkumar Rao) and Kattanni (Varun Sharma) kidnap Roohi (Janhvi Kapoor), holding her captive till the forced wedding. Very soon the reality that innocent-eyed timid Roohi is possessed by a marriage-obsessed witch (a ‘mudiyapairi) takes the story towards a series of supposed-to-be funny scenes of the two abductors falling in love with the two different sides of her Jekyll-and-Hyde portrayal, and eventually leading towards a confusing climax between un-doing the possession and Roohi’s inner fight with her tormentor. 

What worked with Stree was an entertaining horror-comedy film that had a feminist point of view. The problem with Roohi is it’s neither entertaining nor has a point of view, even though the scene is set perfectly with bride-abduction as a base to tell a feminist story. While the dialogues (that were also the highlight of Stree) are funny and keep their rustic appeal, they fail to save the movie from fumbling from one scene to another, without any direction. At some point, you feel the story is about not discriminating based on a stereotypical view of beauty when we see Kattani falling in love with a possessed and disfigured Roohi. But that passes. Then you feel the story is about a point of view on marriage and its exaggerated role in our society. That passes too. Then you feel that it’s about women’s independence and not needing a man to live a happy life. And then, you finally give up. 

Both Rajkumar Rao and Varun Sharma do a great job of performing their characters, but the story disappoints them.

What is surprising is that director Hardik Mehta, writer of the acclaimed Pataalok series, is not able to pull through this story. Though he does a brilliant job of showcasing small-town India and its aspirations (clearly his strength area and perhaps the only reason to watch this film), he is not able to weave it as part of an engaging story. Maybe the story disappointed a gifted director too? 

All in all, yet-another-OTT-Covid-time-release that disappoints. Thankfully, it’s a movie, that you can switch off after 2 hours, and not an endless barrage of seasons and episodes. 

Now, that’s something to like about this film!

 

Pagglait, 2021, Netflix - Movie Review

The days of looking forward to watching the latest in a movie hall increasingly feel like a distant memory. Was that a dream? Or is this now, one?

Call me old school, but watching the new Friday release on TV is not the same experience. 

Call me an optimist, because I am still waiting to go back to the theatres to watch cinema the way it is meant to be.

In the meantime, we settle into our rooms and catch the latest in our shorts and pyjamas. 

We’ve been bowled over for a while now, by the ability of the new crop of TV series on various OTT platforms to tell unique, bold, meaningful stories. Stories we’ve not seen before. Imagination we’ve not been exposed to. Visualisation we’ve not experienced. Be it international content or Indian. 

What is new and great to see (maybe the glass half-full of our year in lockdown?) is how mainstream cinema (aka Bollywood) is going down the same path. In many ways, it’s the perfect meeting of cinema with OTT, that liberates moviemakers from the shackles of ‘perceived commercial success’ to tell stories in the way they would like to. This bout of creative exploration - both quantity of it (so many films like these) and quality of it - is really very very welcome.

#Pagglait being the new kid on the block, in this world of "OTT Cinema" (that is, ironically, anything but OTT!)

And director-writer Umesh Bist puts out a good fare.

Pagglait is the story of a newly married-and-widowed young woman, Sandhya (Sanya Malhotra) who, through the course of the 13 days of death ceremony rituals and family chaos and politics, eventually finds herself. It’s a simple story, but told with a lot of heart, that strikes a chord with the viewer.

The strength of the film comes from the building of its characters and their relationships with each other. It’s not a linear story of one protagonist and her relations with all the other characters. But a story where the other characters have clear emotions between themselves as well, that run independently of the main story of the protagonist. This is the real beauty of the film. We see all these different people in the extended family and see their perspectives and their stories too. While the main story runs with Sandhya, we equally enjoy the story of the others in the family. 

Shivendra (Ashutosh Rana), as the dead son’s father and Usha (Sheeba Chaddha) as the mother, simultaneously trying to grieve their sudden loss while managing the home affairs of ceremonies and guests is heart-wrenching. We can feel what they are going through, even as they are not able to admit their own feelings to each other, while trying to face this ultimate truth of life (which, ironically, is death). Tayyaji (Raghubir Yadav), as the super-traditional almost-cold-hearted master of all ceremonies fiercely protecting the interest of family and customs, at the cost of anything and everything. Alok (Chetan Sharma), as the younger brother, reluctantly doing the ceremonies as the next of kin, while secretly nurturing a crush on his widowed bhabhi. Nazia (Shruti Sharma), as Sandhya’s best friend, tolerating the borderline religious discrimination of the household while still fiercely loyal to Sandhya and her family. Then an ensemble of relatives, including Sandhya’s parents, various chachas and buas, neighbours and friends, each with their own parallel stories, that make the film feel real and human. Even Aakanksha (Sayani Gupta) as the ex-girlfriend of the deceased, playing an important role in Sandhya’s journey, brings as much to the protagonist as much as telling her own back-story, in just a few scenes. And of course Sandhya’s own story of coming to grip with the sudden start and end of a 5-month marriage, trying to understand the situation by understanding her husband who she knew only for a short while. And through it all understanding her own self.

If telling these multiple parallel stories into one story, is the strength of the film, not sticking to it till the end is probably the main fault of the film. As the film comes closer to the end, we see the richness of these multiple narratives fading away, and all merging into once again the trap of the "only thing that matters is the heroine's story". It felt like Umesh Bist got tired of trying to keep up with his own vision and decided to simplify it into the only resolution that was easy. 

In many ways, Sandhya’s journey is reminiscent of Rani’s journey in Queen (2014), where after being rudely dumped on her wedding day, she goes through the journey of finding herself and her life. Pagglait is an equally beautiful journey. Whereas Rani took a journey outside across Paris and Amsterdam to find her inner self, Sandhya takes the journey inside within the walls of her home and the streets of her city. But while Rani’s journey was always a solo one, Sandhya’s journey is a collective one, which includes the members of her family. And this is the part that Pagglait misses in resolving for us. This is the part that leaves us a little un-fulfilled as we pick the remote and exit from the Netflix app (as opposed to walking out of the theatre).

But, in the larger scheme of things, it’s a small fault to place with the film. And overall the film stays with you as one of the better movies we’ve seen recently. The performance of the cast is excellent. Even Sanya Malhotra is not as irritating as her other previous (and recent films) and delivers an understated, manageable performance.

All in all, a great start from Umesh Bist, who seems a promising new director, with a really good first (almost) film of significance. Umesh, hope you keep at telling these stories and fine-tuning your craft to keep getting better and giving us more of these human stories. It reminded me of another gifted director, Imtiaz Ali (for a very different genre of course) and his first (almost) film Jab We Met, which we loved but felt something missing. And how he later went on to perfect his craft with his subsequent films. May you find and complete your craft as well, Umesh. We will be looking forward to your next one.

Wonder Woman 1984 - Film Review

 

Torn between “How to waste a great franchise” and “Yet-another-movie-sequel-gone-wrong”, I walked out feeling disappointed from the one and only (and therefore much awaited) superhero movie of 2020. 

But, then what was I expecting? It is (was!) 2020, after all. 

It’s not like the rest of the year lived up to our expectations! 

Why put this burden of hope from a movie, right?

Wrong!

That’s exactly why!

A superhero movie coming at the end of a year like this carries a huge responsibility, whether the movie likes it or not.

To give us hope of the victory of good over evil. To entertain and make us feel good. To make us believe in the impossible and bedazzle us with the possibilities of human imagination.

Unfortunately, #WonderWoman1984 fails at all of the above. 

It fails at giving us a clear narrative of good over evil, because of its convoluted (though well-intentioned) plot of fighting the evil within ourselves, of our own selfish desires. We get the point the film was trying to make in a difficult year like 2020, where we have realised that the real evil in the world IS mankind and it’s insatiable greed. Greed, that has created a dystopian world, including zoonotic disease like COVID-19. But, it is done in a very complex and unconvincing manner that leaves us a bit cold and disconnected. And yes, #WW84  wordplay (wonder woman or 'world war' is not lost on us. Clever, but uninspiring!)

Equally importantly, every superhero film imagines the evil embodied in a villain. For example, Thanos in the Avengers is a great example of the Malthusian correction of human’s ever-expanding and devastating footprint in the world. 

But in imagining the evil of human desire in the form of a villain, Maxwell Lord, who grants any wish (but taking something in return), the storyline fails to make an engaging villain and therefore misses an engrossing good-over-evil narrative entirely.

The film also fails at entertaining and leaving us with feel-good moments, that we all desperately needed this year. Apart from the opening flashback sequence of Wonder Woman as a child fighting in the Amazonian competition, we miss the good-old-fashioned superhero ass-kicking action. There is too much talking, un-impressive special effects, not enough dishoom-dishoom, and an attempt at emotional storytelling that falls flat. As a result, we neither see the action we want nor the emotions. 

There is a lot of time spent in establishing new characters like Barbara (played by Christen Wiig, seen before in many films including the last Ghostbuster all-women film),  Maxwell Lord (of popular TV fame in Game of Thrones and Narcos), and the re-incarnation of Steve Trevor (Wonder Woman’s love, played again by Chris Pine, whom the lockdown clearly has not treated well), all of whom are narrow, superficial, stereotyped, caricaturist and unrelatable, and distract from an already confused and weak story-telling. Gal Gadot still shines and brings the frames alive with her presence (in fact, literally at the end with her new golden armour suit), but is not enough to save the film.

The film also fails at bedazzling us with impossible imagination. There is nothing new here to see. Set in 1984 (what’s with Hollywood’s obsession with the 80s!), we see the sites and sounds of an 80s America, that we’ve seen so many times before that it has lost any kind of nostalgia or flashback value. If we want to see the 80s done well, we have Stranger Things on Netflix, thank you very much. There is nothing new in the stunts or the superpowers from Wonder Woman. In fact, after facing villains of gigantic powers in the first WW movie, and in Justice League, the nemesis here feel so small and petty, that it takes away all joy one feels in a movie like this. The scene where she is being all-heroic catching some petty thieves in a mall, with her lasso and super leaps, just makes us want to cry. Is this what Wonder Woman has come to?

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, Wonder Woman 1984 fails at doing the one thing that it was most applauded for in the first film in 2017. The first real only-woman superhero movie of our generation. The same director Patty Jenkins, had a vision, which made its mark with the previous film. The idea of “Because only a woman can save a world destroyed by man” was both timely and impactful. See my short review at https://books-booze-boxoffice.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-mans-world-has-not-delivered.html But this idea is missing entirely in this sequel, despite the potential with two supposedly strong female characters. Barbara's reason to turn evil is that she wants attention and that too in a high-school sorority way! Depressing!

Alas, it saddens me to say that there was neither enough ‘wonder’ nor enough ‘woman’ in this sequel-gone-wrong that has wasted a great franchise.

If you’re planning to get back to the theatre (again?), I suggest watching Tenet a second time. It’s both essential and much more rewarding!

Happy New Year Everyone. To 2021 and beyond!