Ki & Ka-Film Review

Film: Ki & Ka

Director: R. Balki

Cast: Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Rajit Kapoor, Swaroop Sampat

Year: 2016

With a catchy name and having liked R. Balki's earlier three movies, Ki & Ka didn't disappoint us; however, we could not say we liked it wholeheartedly.

Plot: Kia, a marketing manager at an FMCG company aims to excel in her career and refuses to be just a supporting system to her husband. Kabir, son of a rich builder and a B-School topper wants to be a house-husband (rather artist) like his mother. They meet on a flight to Chandigarh and they hit it off immediately. After a couple of dates, they decide to get married when Kabir promises to look after the house as a house-husband. The arrangement works fine for the newly-weds.

In a sudden turn of events, Kabir's gets immense popularity and media coverage for his role as house-husband, which makes Kia insecure and jealous. From here, the relationship goes downhill. It does not take a genius to predict what happens next.

WeReflect: It is a new concept in Bollywood, although we're not sure it is the original one. We vaguely remember watching Kannada movie, Ammavra Ganda starring Shivarajkumar and Bhagyashree (Maine Pyar Kiya fame) on the same line. The concept is of the role reversal. The first and foremost, we couldn't understand why Kia is jealous of Kabir's success or popularity when it is nowhere connected to her line of profession. If it is so, it would have been justified. Kia is shown as an ambitious and determined woman who succumbs to the emotion of jealousy and insecurity so easily. In a hurry to break the stereotype, the director just backed up the theory of "women are envious and resentful". Here Kabir goes a little overboard with his progressive thinking speech and deed. The cameo of Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan is endearing, yet we are astonished and confused to know why and for what Jaya Bachchan praises Kia in a note.

It is depicted beautifully how the power dynamics lies in the hand of the bread winner and how the society as a whole looks down upon the house-wife/house-husband. There is a fight scene which is forced upon or rather film maker wanted us to believe our hero is really a macho and a gentleman.

Arjun Kapoor is quite cute and adorable as Kabir. Kareena Kapoor is alright as Kia, at least she get to do something more than just being in a 100-Crore movie club. The chemistry between them is refreshing.

The first half is pretty upbeat and swift. The downside is the the second half, which moves in a snail pace and the climax! Surely they could have come up with much better and touching end rather than the same old stupid flight scene. Nonetheless, it conveys the message of partnership in marriage and how it can flourish when both Ki & Ka appreciate each other's contribution in the institute of marriage.

Last Sacrifice-Book Review

Title: Last Sacrifice

Author: Rachelle Mead

Genre: Young adult dark fantasy

"My death will not be penciled on someone's calendar"

Rose Hathway is imprisoned for the murder of Moroi Queen, Tatiana. And if proven guilty in trial the punishment is death. Her friends manage to break the prison with her father's help. She is now on the run with Dimitri and Sidney (the alchemist from Blood Promise). Even though Rose was instructed to stay put, she couldn't keep idle while she has Queen Tatiana's letter concerning Lissa's illegitimate sister/brother. Sonya Karp (her previous teacher) is the only lead to finding out their whereabouts who is a Strigoi now. Lissa is encouraged to run for Queen's election to bid more time to prove Rose's innocence. Dashkov brothers visit Rose in dream and reluctantly she accepts them to be part of the plan. Will they be able to locate Lissa's illegitimate brother/sister?  Will Lissa and friends be able to catch the real murderer? Will Lissa be able to win the election? What is the 'Last Sacrifice' and who makes it?

WeReflect:  Last sacrifice is the sixth and last book in Vampire Academy series.  The conclusion part of any series is exciting and sad. The mixed feeling because you want to know what happens yet don't want it to end.  The writing is simple and crisp; however Dimitri-Rose-Adrian triangle continued to annoy me to no end. We knew from the beginning Adrian is a collateral damage in the Rose-Dimitry's holier-than-thou love story just like Jacob in Twilight Saga. The bond between them is non-palpable, dwindling, and almost hilarious. I was anticipating a thrilling Strigoi battle which was common in almost all five books. I was disappointed to say the least. The Whodunit part was average as is the last sacrifice.

Although I am happy about the ending, I was hoping Rose will choose a different path rather than just ordinary considering her feisty and kick-ass nature. There are so many unsettled issues left just at that, which we may hope to find in spin-off 'Bloodline' series. I think I will give it a break and pick some other books for now.

Dum Lagake Haisha-Film Review

Film: Dum Lagake Haisha

Director:  Sharat Katariya

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar, Sanjay Mishra, Sheeba Chaddha

Year: 2015

We'are very late in reviewing this amazing movie. Produced by Yash Raj Films and directed by Sharat Kataria starring Ayushman Khurrana and debutante Bhumi Pednekar.

Spoilers alert ahead. The story set in the 90s in the temple town of Haridwar. An average Joe, Prem with no qualification or talent with an overbearing father runs a cassette shop. He is a die-hard Kumar Sanu fan as he was quite a rage in the 90s. Prem is forced to marry an educated, but overweight Sandhya who aspires to be a teacher. His disinterest in marriage is palpable from the beginning and both sets of parents worry about the future of their relationship. Taking the advice of her mother, Sandhya tries to seduce Prem and couple consummates their marriage. At a function, Prem insults Sandhya in front of everybody, so she leaves him and goes to her parent's home. Being a headstrong woman she applies for divorce. But they are asked to live together for 6 months on court's order. Here again Prem is pressurized to participate in town's annual competition "Dum Lagake Haisha where husband has to carry the wife on shoulder in a race and to over come all the hurdles. Will they participate? Will they win? Will their marriage survive? Well you got to see the movie for that.

WeReflect: Ayushman Khurrana is natural as a clueless and helpless man. It is a delight to watch him emote. Sanjay Mishra as Prem's interfering father is endearing. All other characters make their presence worthwhile. But it is Bhumi Pednekar who steals the show and carries the movie on her shoulder. Her role as Sandhya is a woman of substance. She is educated and it is implied she is going to be financially independent too. That is the main reason for this alliance in the first place. She takes no-nonsense from her husband or in-laws. She knows how to take charge. Our favourite scene where she throws her brother's stuff out of her room, which was occupied by him when she moved out after marriage. She refused to believe her home is not her's anymore after marriage.

It is a breath of fresh air to come from Yash Raj films who for decades endorsed Swiss Alps, chiffon sarees, and drop-dead gorgeous heroines. It is a simple story which tackles many stereotypes effortlessly. Feminist in us is very happy to see an unconventional strong woman character on screen. It takes you back to 90's of cassettes, songs recording, VCP era. As a kid who grew in 90s we can relate to it very well. Make time for it. 

Quantico-TV Show Review

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TV Show: Quantico

Season: Season One (First Order)

Genre: Drama Thriller

Starring: Priyanka Chopra, Josh Hopkins, Jake McLaughlin, Yasmine Al Massri

We have finished watching the first order in season one of Quantico. The single most thing draw us to watch this thriller TV show is Priyanka Chopra. This is our "Desi" girl's international debut and PC must be the first Indian to lead in an American series.

WeReflect: The plot bounces back and forth, wherein at present Alex Parrish (Priyanka Chopra), a newly recruited FBI agent finds herself to be the prime suspect in the New York's Grand Central Station terror attack. This is seen as the worst terror strike since 9/11. When brought in for investigation, Alex learns that the perpetrator of bombing and framing her is one of her fellow trainees from academy, Quantico. And that is the past where Alex's fellow recruiters and other characters are introduced to us. Now running away from authorities, she has to prove her innocence and the real culprit must be brought to book.

Shelby Wyatt, a wealth heiress and Alex's best friend; Simon Asher, a Jewish who pretends to be a gay and has spent considerable amount of time in Gaza; Nimah/Raina, twins brought in by Miranda Shaw as one; Caleb Haas with connections; Ryan Booth, undercover agent and Alex's love interest; Natalie Vasquez, Alex's rival in academy are important batch-mates of Alex's.

In the academy, the first task is to find secrets about their classmates. Alas, each candidate either is related to middle east in someway or killed somebody. Alex herself killed her father in self defense and she is haunted by it. Like her, each and every character has a deep, dark, ugly past. In another task, Alex Parish is the first one to solve the case in the entire FBI history. Duh! we mean, we get it. She is super intelligent, but first in FBI history? 

The story line is far-fetched, mishmash of Bourne series and The Recruit. It is exaggerated most of the time and seriously we did not get connect to any characters. Nonetheless, the pace is pretty fast and brisk. The two things that glued us are; one it is a classic "Whodunit" and a strand of suspects tossed around, our curious self must know it; the second is Piggy Chops.

We do not belong to "typical" Priyanka Chopra fanclub; however, we applaud her success. She plays a role of intelligent, bold, smart, and kick-ass agent, which is well-thought and well-written. She easily steals the show with her energy and zeal. She gets to do a lot of steamy  scenes, which we are deprived of in her Bollywood movies. Her accent in the show made twitteraties go frenzy; but we felt she managed it pretty decently, not like our desi fake-ass accented people. She is the first South Asian Actress to win a People's Choice Award for Quantico. Clearly, this girl made her mark in both sides of Atlantic.