The impending Diwali releases is ready to bring many big budget films starring popular actors to the theatres. Rajinikanth’s Annaatthe, and Enemy starring Vishal and Arya from the Tamil film industry, Dulquer Salman‘s Kurup from the Malayalam industry, and Akshay Kumar’s Sooryavanshi in Hindi will soon to hit the big screens in November.
With films such as Doctor and Love Story performing really well among the audience and giving the much-needed respite for film exhibitors to breathe a sigh of relief, a few films have continued to opt for a direct-to-OTT release like Sardar Udham, Rashmi Rocket, and the upcoming Jai Bhim.
Silverscreen India brings to you a round-up on responses to films which have released this week for you to catch up on.
Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam (SonyLIV)
Written and directed by filmmaker Senna Hegde, Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam bagged two awards at the 51st Kerala State Film Awards in the Second Best Film and Best Story categories.
The film revolves around an engagement that has to be done immediately since the groom has to go back to a job in the Middle East. The only day they find is a Monday (Thinkalazhcha), as referred to in the title. It is the second Malayalam film premiere on SonyLIV.
For Aswathy Gopalakrishnan of Silverscreen India, the film unfolds in a lower-middle-class house in Kanhangad, a region in Kerala’s northernmost district which has been lying beyond the vicinity of Malayalam cinema for a long time. She says, “Hegde and his co-writer Sreeraj Raveendran, who has also done the film’s cinematography, focus on the characters’ behaviour, verbal and non-verbal. There are plenty of endearing moments. Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam is driven by a pleasant potpourri of human interactions”.
Meanwhile, for Anna Vetticad writes for Firstpost that the “loveliness” of the film is in the way it “mines cultural and social specifics to tell a universal story”. She also praised the screenplay, which pays equal attention to all the members of the cast, while giving a 3.5 rating out of 5.
The film heaped praises for showing the regional aspect of the film, with Deepa Soman of The Times of India, calling it a “delicious feast of a story, set in the rustic Kanhangad, and it still doesn’t puzzle the viewer too much and stays true to the regional roots”.
The film has an 8.2 rating on IMDb.
Hum Do Hamare Do (Disney+ Hotstar)
The film features Rajkummar Rao and Kriti Sanon, as Dhru and Aanya, who are in love and want to get married. Dhruv, who has no family, goes out to ‘hire’ parents. The hired parents, however, have their own personal history.
Silverscreen India’s review by Aswathy Gopalakrishna states that the film is a “giant leap from the Hum Saath Saath Hain era” when she adds, “A person in Hindi cinema was nothing if he or she didn’t have a wealthy upper-caste Hindu joint family to fall back on. Although the 2021 film places a similar conventional family at the heart of an individual’s existence, it states that a perfect family is not always made of people who share blood ties or a surname”.
However, she points out that the film somewhere in midway “runs out of resources and starts to pant”, the actors breath a lease of life into the film.
Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV says that the film has a “patchy script, unimaginative direction and inconsistent performances”. He also calls it an “unfunny caper”.
“Hum Do Hamare Do is the sort of romp that depends wholly on ensuring a willing suspension of disbelief, which proves to be an unattainable goal for a screenplay that knows no better,” he adds and says that Sanon has delivered most noteworthy performance.
Writing for TOI, Hiren Kotwani highlights that the film has humourous moments and possess a commentary on projecting families “happy and united image outside while squabbling and fighting within”. He calls the film a decent watch and recommends more humour in the second half.
IMDb gives the film a 6.6 rating.
Yennanga Sir Unga Sattam (SonyLIV)
Yennanga Sir Unga Sattam is a political satire directed by debutant filmmaker Prabhu Jeyaram and backed by Sudhan Sundaram and G Jayaram under the Passion Studios banner. The film, is called a duplex film, with the runtime divided between two stories, that touches upon caste and reservation issues.
According to Ranjani Krishnakumar of Film Companion, “The film reiterates everything that progressive voices have identified as harmful for years. It concludes that poverty is the only kind of discrimination there is, which is proven to be patently untrue. It places the burden of eradicating caste on the marginalised, arguing that they should decline reservations voluntarily when they become rich”.
Dybbuk (Amazon Prime Video)
Starring Emraan Hashmi, the Hindi horror film Dybbuk released on Amazon Prime Video this week.
The film revolves around Mahi, a newly married woman, who brings an antique Jewish box into her home. When Mahi and her husband Sam begin to have paranormal experiences, they soon learn that the box is a dybbuk containing an evil spirit.
The film, written and directed by Jay K, is a remake of his Malayalam film, Ezra. Anupama Chopra of Film Companion points out that despite Dybbuk having more horror moments than Ezra, they usually do not land, “Since Ezra and Dybbuk are essentially replicas and both are available on streaming, I recommend that you watch the Malayalam original,” he writes.
Varudu Kaavalenu
Recommended
This week, Varudu Kaavalenu, a Telugu film starring Naga Shaurya, Ritu Varma, released in theatres. Mukesh Manjunath of Film Companion wrote that the Varudu Kaavalenu tries to be a film about a woman chasing her dreams while society tries to put marital obstacles in her path. However, her obstacles get cleared in an instant with the introduction of the hero.
“Ritu Varma and Naga Shaurya try to shoulder the film with charm and sincerity. Varudu Kaavalenu works in parts. Had it been tightly edited, it might have been more compelling,” reviewed The Hindu.