After the Indian film industry experienced a slump in film openings, there have been several online releases, or their makers have announced new dates for release. Films like Gehraiyaan and Mahaan, for example, are all set to stream directly on Amazon Prime Video. Subsequently, other big-budget films such as RRR, Valimai, and Radhe Shyam, among others, have postponed their releases.
Recently, the Karnataka government has allowed for cinema halls and theatres to function at a full capacity.
Silverscreen India brings to you a compilation of reviews of films, which have had both theatrical and online releases:
The Aakash Bhatia-directorial, featuring actors Taapsee Pannu, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, and Shreya Dhanwanthary, among others, is the Hindi remake of the 1998 German film, Run Lola Run.
The film revolves around Savi (Taapsee Pannu), an athlete, whose promising career abruptly ended, due to an accident. At the beginning of the film, she finds herself in a situation where she has to race against time to save the life of her boyfriend Satya (Tahir Raj Bhasin).
Aswathy Gopalakrishnan of Silverscreen India, calls the film unique, but says that it strays more than it should.
“Savi, who has just fifty minutes in hand, runs across Goa, refusing to look for vehicular transportation. On the way, she must untangle problems that she is indirectly connected to. While one can understand Bhatia’s decision to situate his film away from the sense of urgency and building of tension Run Lola Run was founded on, an excess of narrative elements undoes the film altogether,” she writes.
For Anupama Chopra, of Film Companion, Looop Lapeta struggles to achieve the same buoyancy as Run Lola Run, which she calls “a shot of movie-adrenalin.”
“Mostly because Aakash and co-writers Vinay Chhawal, Ketan Pedgaonkar and Arnav Vepa Nanduri add too much to it, starting with a backstory for Savi,” mentions Chopra. She added that the writing further failed to match the wit or inventiveness of the visuals.
For Anna MM Vetticad, of Firstpost, Looop Lapeta is as as much an intelligent adaptation as it is a remake of a cult film.
Both Gopalakrishnan and Vetticad also pointed out the parallel that the film drew with Hindu mythology, and called it a clever theme to bridge the gap between the German film and India.
For its mixed review, Looop Lapeta has a fairly low IMDb rating of 5.1.
Still from Veerame Vaagai Soodhum
Directed by debutante Thu Pa Saravanan, Veerame Vaagai Soodhum stars actor Vishal, alongside Yogi Babu, Dimple Hayathi, and Babu Raj, among others.
Calling the film an “emotional action thriller,” the filmmaker, in an earlier conversation with Silverscreen India, said that Vishal plays the role of an aspiring police officer in it. “The film centres around an incident that affects the protagonist, who is a simpleton. It is about his journey. Vishal plays a person awaiting his results after writing the exam to be a police official,” he mentioned.
For Ashameera Aiyappan, of Firstpost, even though the film asks a relevant question and tries to do something new, it does not let go of its dated cliches. Aiyappan uses examples to reiterate this notion;
Despite the film being about the common man, Vishal’s character is hyped up. “So the premise of a ‘common man’ fighting back feels like a farce. The actual common people in this film, only seem to be waiting for the Hero’s arrival,” she writes.
Secondly, while on one hand, the women in the film prove to be significant to the narrative, the critic points out instances of sexualising the same women (in this case, Hayathi), so as to appease the hero.
Recommended
Srivatsan S, of The Hindu, writes, “…the film does not have a spine to hold your attention for three hours and comes across as a culmination of masala moments from previous films. And these “mass” moments aren’t new, aren’t effective or big enough.” He calls the writing awful and scattered.
For him, the portrayal of women in the film is rather ‘tokenistic’, and seem to be present “to accentuate the high points for the hero.”
However, contrary to the critics’ reviews, the film has an IMDb rating of 9.2.