‘Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal’ Movie Review: A nice outlook on women, with a vengeance, switching on the tit-for-tat mode

Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal is an interesting and intelligent attempt that makes you ruminate and understand a woman’s perspective and her wrath on seeing the heinous crimes that happen against girls.

A rock song plays in the background. You get different scenes from the capital city of India – Delhi. Street art comes into the picture as you see paintings on the walls. Glimpses of India Gate, Lotus Temple, and Humayun Tomb can be seen. You see Delhi Metro train busily helping commuters to reach their destination. The focus shifts towards a woman named Vibha (Shalini Vatsa) as she occupies a space inside ‘Women’s only’ coach. She can, then, be seen putting two cigarettes in her mouth and lighting them. As she does so, the rock music in the background intensifies.

This opening scene of Director Aditya Kripalani’s Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal – The Incessant Fear Of Rape, streaming on Netflix, has a lot to tell you. It drops you off in the Delhi city (a city that, among many things, has garnered attention for increasing crimes against women). There is a particular emphasis on ‘Women’s only’ signboard as Vibha boards train. And there’s definitely a rage of a woman felt in that two-cigarette-smoking scene.

Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal has four leading characters – Vibha, Shaila (Kritika Pande), Shagun (Sonal Joshi) and Chitra (Chitrangada Chakraborty). Shaila runs a ‘Taxi for women’ service. Due to certain circumstances, Shaila ends up picking up all three of them in her taxi by herself. All of them are strangers to each other and they randomly talk about various things. There comes a discussion on the types of feminism such as amazon, liberal, socialist, pop, radical, and feminazism (I didn’t know there are different branches of feminism honestly and it was good to be exposed). Not surprisingly, as it’s night time and they are in Delhi city, a topic on ‘women safety at night’ springs up. The talks, then, start entering into the terrain of ‘gang rape’ and the sheer brutality that the victimised women go through.

It is at this juncture the film actually starts taking a U-turn as these women start pondering over teaching a lesson to “such” men. They contemplate if brutally raping a single man would send the message across. As a matter of fact, men don’t think they can be raped at all, one of them says. Rightfully so, they conclude that it’s not that women can’t be brutal to men but they choose not to be. Co-incidentally, they encounter a man (played by Vinay Sharma) riding his motorcycle and hurling vulgar comments at them. These women wind up beating this guy and keeping him shut inside a not-in-use room for a week.

The film, then, goes on to show what these women decide to do with this man and what measures do they think should be taken against him that will prove cruel in this man’s case. You see that they force him to cook food for them, clean the floor, jeer at him, or even make him wearing almost a bikini-style outfit. The film still shows that these women recuse from actually ‘raping’ this guy and only resort to showing him the fear of inserting a rod inside his anus. Somehow, even as these women try to inflict pain and be barbaric towards him in their own way, all those scenes aren’t that powerful. You can be left wanting for more such harsh and intense inserting-the-rod sort of scenes.

There can’t be tit-for-tat instances happening without a purpose. There is a deeply rooted cause behind all that indignation shown by these women. Their suffering is etched in their memories and nothing can erase that. Shagun, a cop, recounts an event when a woman came running to the police station for help but was shot dead right there by her father and brother in front of other male cops. Vibha reminisces a forgettable past where her daughter was kidnapped right in front of her and was gang-raped. Chitra narrates a miserable event where she tackled some men twice but failed at the third instance. Even Shaila, who is running a ‘taxi for women’ service, shows her fight towards women’s safety.

At other times, there are noticeable references or things that keep you thinking about women’s troubles. There’s a scene at Vibha’s home where both Vibha and Chitra are having a nice little conversation. The camera shows a framed painting in which two women are selling fish. Then, turns over to the wall clock that says 2 o’ clock. At this moment, you see Chitra enquiring if Vibha and her mother are staying in this home all by themselves. You wonder at the analogy created by Aditya Kripalani here and the inferences you can take away from it. The camera, then, turns away and slowly captures the framed posters on walls of films like Mandi (Directed by Shyam Benegal, this tells the story of a brothel) and Arth (Directed by Mahesh Bhatt, this explores extramarital affairs). In another scene, you see framed sketches of human hands on the wall at Chitra’s place. These are the sketches made by Chitra herself and present an eerie and sorry picture of a woman’s hand that has signs of sufferings. And whenever such sad depiction comes into the picture, you can’t help but find yourself mesmerised by the beautiful use of guitar sounds in the background.

As the movie comes to a close, these four women meet at a place for drinks and celebrate together for having taught a lesson to such men (albeit through one man). They listen to news coverage on the television saying that this man has committed suicide. All four of them standstill with a discernible shock on their faces. Vibha runs back to women’s toilet and weeps (the camera puts the focus on women’s signboard here). You see that she has sunk back into gloom after all this. Perhaps the tit-for-tat was never the right option. It has seemed so initially with all that agony in her heart. Seeing the fate of that man has not given her the happiness which she thought she would get. She thought a fitting reply has been given to that man. And these women did that in their own style. The bigger picture is that, perhaps, thoughts of taking revenge against men would never even occur in women’s mind if they are not subjected to such cruelty in the first place.

Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal is an interesting and intelligent attempt that makes you ruminate and understand a woman’s perspective and her wrath on seeing the heinous crimes that happen against girls.

‘Super 30’ Movie Review: A great start and a dumb finish to an extraordinary story

‘Super 30’ starts off promisingly, turns trite after a while and ends up with an unnecessary action-thriller sequence leaving a huge dissatisfaction.

The very first thing that captivates you in Director Vikas Bahl’s Super 30 is the background score from the duo of Ajay-Atul. The alluring and tuneful composition can make you fall in love with it instantly and you will find yourself swaying involuntarily as if the sound waves have got you under their control. Super 30 begins with the romantic side of the story. As Anand Kumar (Hrithik Roshan’s exemplary performance keeps you engrossed) comes to see Ritu (Mrunal Thakur leaves her mark in a short spell), who is taking her Indian classical dance lessons, Ajay-Atul’s score in the background mesmerises you. The love angle seems to be attracting your attention as the nerdy Anand gives a love letter containing binary numbers to the ravishing Ritu.

There’s an abrupt change in the narrative as the romance, that was building up between Anand and Ritu for a brief period, gives way to the more important matter at hand – which is the struggle of Anand Kumar and his perseverance towards assisting poor children to crack the most sought after engineering entrance exam in India. But this sudden change in the plot and its failure in registering the strong bond between Anand and Ritu keeps you wanting for more and you don’t feel for their separation.

Anand Kumar, a real-life hero, on whom the movie is based, is lauded for his magnificent efforts towards bringing change, educating and preparing 30 poor kids every year for free of cost to help them get into Indian Institute of Technology. It’s the tough times that the movie focuses more upon. Written by Sanjeev Dutta, the film does engage you for the most part but loses its sheen in the second half.

There’s a constant attempt to reiterate the norm that is being followed the most in our society – “raja ka beta hi banega raja” (Only the king’s son is eligible to sit on the throne next). Instances like Anand being thrown out of the library (foreign journals are for high standard ones, says the library manager) or being asked to teach only the “premium” students who can pay huge amount of fees in return does make you understand the plight of poor people who really want to pursue education of their choice. But such instances become so repetitive in the film and that’s when you can get a bit restless.

Pankaj Tripathi and Aditya Shrivastava bring a villainous look to the characters of education minister and coaching centre head respectively. But their relevance drops significantly as the movie progresses.

There are moments where it can get hard to control your emotions and hold back your tears. The father-son relationship is the best thing about the movie. The excitement in Anand’s father (played by Virendra Saxena), while riding his bicycle and carrying the letter containing mathematical theory solved by his son, is palpable. There’s discernible care for his son seen as he first combs his hair and then combs Anand’s while on their way to ask for help with money. It’s heart-wrenching to see a father’s utter disappointment and dejectedness in his failure of arranging money in time for his son’s education. And then there is this display of hopeful faces of a young boy working in a manhole or a young girl being helped by her mother to escape from the grabs of a drunk father. It makes it difficult for you to see the poor conditions they live in but having dreams of becoming a nuclear scientist or a biotech engineer. Also, Anand’s incessant struggle in bringing food on the table for his students worries you.

It’s wonderful to see how Anand incorporates real-life scenarios to teach his students. He also mentions how the rich people are getting to enjoy all the privileges. He further says that it’s about time that the “hakdaar” (entitled person) gets to reap the benefits and they will have to take a huge “chhalaang” (leap) to get ahead in life. Who knew this will pan out so bad? The movie winds up trying a big cinematic experience with some dumb goons being intelligently tackled by these poor kids. Only that it doesn’t work at all. Super 30 starts off promisingly, turns trite after a while and ends up with an unnecessary action-thriller sequence leaving a huge dissatisfaction.

‘Sindhubaadh’ Movie Review: An uninteresting tale that goes hither and thither

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Sindhubaadh remains a humdrum film throughout that juggles between different things and ends up reaching nowhere.

Thiru (Vijay Sethupathi) and his young sidekick Super (Surya Vijay Sethupathi) have escaped from the grabs of goons. They look weary and start contemplating what to do next. They see a multi-floor building and Thiru decides to enter it. It sounds comedic as Super, who is very tired, enquires Thiru why are they going inside this building. Thiru responds saying that he does not know himself and would think about it later. As you sit through a long drawn-out story like Sindhubaadh, moments like this can seem chucklesome. Such moments can strangely seem similar to the way film meanders to get to its most important phase.

Director S. U. Arun Kumar’s Sindhubaadh is a story of Thiru (He gets a fake passport made for himself where his name is changed to Sindhubaadh) travelling all the way from India to Thailand to rescue his wife, Venba (Anjali), who has been captured by men running illegal organ trafficking business. Before the film actually gets to the organ trafficking part, which is the only phase where you feel engrossed in the film, it seems like drifting away with so many uninteresting additions and long running time (You might as well enjoy a sigh of relief as the intermission is declared on the screen).

Thiru’s hearing loss problem and Venba’s natural tendency to talk louder is a nicely thought-out scenario. Since the romance between these characters never really blossoms, this so-called scenario doesn’t work wonders. If at all anything can pleasantly surprise you in Thiru-Venba phase is a scene at the airport where Thiru has come to see Venba off. Suddenly, when she bends down, he ties a yellow thread around her neck that makes them a husband and a wife as per Hindu culture.

The tricks played by Thiru in his pursuit of winning the heart of Venba are supposed to be adding a funnier touch to the film (But, are they really?). Speaking of poor execution of comedy sequences, there is no escaping more of such annoying scenes that try too hard to make you laugh (For instance, the hackneyed depiction of the scenes where Thiru tells made-up stories to a guy. All you would be doing is watching with a blank countenance).

There’s a character played by Vivek Prasanna who is searching for his daughter. You see glimpses of this character developing into something serious. But he just keeps popping up every now and then and finds no real relevance in the movie, and hence, won’t make you feel for his loss.

There are even futile attempts to infuse “mass” elements (as is done in almost every masala films in Tamil cinema). You get to see how the film tries very hard to make Vijay Sethupathi look all powerful and glorious. For instance, in a scene, Thiru is fighting against some guys to protect Super. While doing so, he is casually talking to Super and even mocks a villain. Such scenes try to bring in the feeling of quirkiness and also show the protagonist in a heroic light. Neither of them works out. And then there’s a villain character whose duel with Thiru is underwhelming.

Better things in the film were far and few in between. Yuvan Shankar Raja’s amazing background score came as a beacon of light in an otherwise stodgy screenplay. Anjali as Venba, too, was fantastic and has put her heart and soul into this character (Venba’s agony can be felt as she is held tight by some men and forcefully dragged along the floor). You see few good attempts to highlight patriarchy (The father of Venba coerces her into marrying a man who he thinks is the right fit and even goes on to beat her before Thiru stops him) and women empowerment (Thiru motivates a woman to not sit at home no matter what and go out for work). Otherwise, Sindhubaadh remains a humdrum film throughout that juggles between different things and ends up reaching nowhere.

‘Game Over’ Movie Review: A jaw-dropping and heart-stopping thriller

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The horrors that you get to experience in Game Over are on a whole new high. Such an arresting act by Taapsee Pannu!

Swapna (an immensely powerful performance from Taapsee Pannu for the protagonist) is sharing her experience of fear and breathlessness, that she had inside a dark room, to a Doctor. While she does so, the camera steadily, slowly and quietly enters the room moving from right to left. In another scene, on the outside, Kalamma (Vinodhini Vaidyanathan), Swapna’s caretaker, can be seen from the window grills to be hanging the clothes out to dry. The camera, which is inside the room, leisurely moves towards the window producing an eerie feeling out of normal activity. And, in another instance, a close shot captures the lighting of a thick candle. Then there’s a slow-motion sequence in black-and-white where Swapna looks jovial while getting inked. During this, there’s a close shot of ink being dropped in a glass of water that gets slowly spread around and mixed up. Sometimes, inside a dimly-lit room, the camera cautiously moves towards a door creating a strange feeling. You also listen to the creak of a swing chair, as the camera ploddingly goes towards it, outside the house.

A. Vasanth’s cinematography is the very first thing that stands out as the film gives you glimpses of different elements of the story. Perhaps this is not anywhere close to the brilliant camera work of Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma. But it is definitely among the greatest works in Indian cinema. It just presented Director Ashwin Saravanan’s Game Over in a different light altogether. Of course, Ashwin’s vision is a big factor too. It’s not just the stupendous camera work that excites you but also how important these detailed shots turn out to be as the movie progresses.

The core of the narrative in Game Over is about incidents of some unknown men taking videos of women while torturing them, beheading them and then burning their headless body. One of those women in the film, who ends up being the target of these men, is Swapna. The film does not dwell too much on this character’s life. We take a gander at her past life where she is seen to have been kept in captivity inside a dark room and being tortured. This agonising incident is etched in her memory so much so that she finds herself in a state of terrible uneasiness when she encounters darkness inside a room. The tattoo, that she has on one of her forearms, resembling a video game controller, as she is a game freak, turn out to be a memorial tattoo that contains the ashes of a dead woman. Towards the intermission, the film can make you feel a bit of restlessness as Swapna’s fear of dark room and being a victim of torture (that never gets elaborated but only shown briefly) may seem repetitive and dragged a little. Even the tattoo is used as something that can add sentimental value to the film (The dead woman’s mother comes to see Swapna and have a feel of the memorial tattoo as it contains ashes of her daughter but it doesn’t move you because the focus was never really on building the story of this dead woman character).

Ashwin decides to finish off the first half of the movie with a message on the screen that says, “Game On”. Well, it literally means ‘What if life is a game’ (You will understand why when you see it). It’s the post-interval part that keeps you on the edge of the seat with your eyes popping out and mouth wide open in fearfulness. Every detailed camera shot that you saw in the first half will start finding meaning in the second half. There’s a headless body sitting in the swing chair. The head cut off from the body is thrown at the window. Swapna’s fear of darkness comes to the fore and this time with even more intensity. Men, all covered up in a black outfit, carrying daggers, don’t just sit on the couch and give a villainous look but also slit the throat instantly. The thick candle shown earlier comes into play as well as it, along with a flammable oil, is used for setting fire on one of these men and burn them.

The amazing music by Ron Ethan Yohann gives a boost to thrilling sequences in the film. The film is, one might say, India’s answer to Jordon Peele’s Get Out. The horrors that you get to experience in Game Over is on a whole new high, just like Get Out, but it also comes at a price. Like Get Out, amidst the shockers and thrillers, you may feel some of the elements not fully developed and left half-baked. But you won’t be thinking about all that after such an arresting act by Taapsee Pannu and heart-stopping experience that you get while watching this film.

‘NGK’ Movie Review: An unnatural and mind-numbing film

Screen Shot 2019-06-08 at 5.08.07 PM — Source: Sony Music South | Youtube

A guy says in a different context in NGK that something weird is happening and that they have not given any information so far. Well, weirdly enough, the movie stayed true to this dialogue.

There’s a greenish background and Nandha Gopala Kumaran aka Kumaran (played by Suriya) keeps staring at the camera, placed very close to his face, with a blank expression. This brief scene comes twice in NGK (Once at the beginning and secondly soon after the intermission). There’s a high possibility that, while tolerating this stodgy film, you may be able to correlate with these brief instances. You will be ending up watching the entire movie with the same blank countenance and can think of the dark surroundings of your cinema hall same as that greenish background.

Only the premise passed the test of patience as Kumaran, drenched in rain, climbs up the pipes and enters the house in a bid to surprise his wife Geetha (Sai Pallavi), talks to his mother about how working in a corporate company is stressful and unhealthy, and gloriously describes the peaceful life of being a farmer and doing organic farming. Soon after this interesting premise, Director Selvaraghavan offers a feast of mind-numbing sequences in NGK (It was shocking to witness such a film from the director of brilliant films like Mayakkam Enna).

Kumaran, who is a social activist, gets threatened for doing good deeds. He is advised by an old guy to get into actual politics as it would give him the power and authority that he needs to do good to people. And so he does. He joins a political party, starts from cleaning the toilet and eventually becomes the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Well, this does ring a bell if you are apprised of Tamil Nadu politics and will remind you of known persons from the political circle. And there are more references like this. It didn’t seem to mean anything other than just a stupid trial of being relevant with the real-world politics.

The movie feels unnatural in all its essence. The actors seem to be expressing exorbitantly. (The sheer annoyance that Sai Pallavi as the wife of Kumaran creates is too much to endure). Rakul Preet Singh, who plays the Vanathi character, doesn’t seem relevant (But hey! She gets to shake a leg with Suriya in an unnecessarily included song). There are forced inclusions of fight sequences involving Kumaran (Probably an attempt to give you a feeling of an adrenaline rush). Even Kumaran, who sort of turns psychotic in the latter half, looks irksome.

I am not sure what the movie really tried to say in all its oddities. As a matter of fact, it caused such restlessness that I didn’t bother knowing what this movie was all about and somehow managed to sit through the whole movie. One thing that really stood out was the amazing background score from Yuvan Shankar Raja. Otherwise, there is a dialogue in the film that fitted well with the kind of experience it offers and the ultimate thought it leaves you with. A guy says in a different context in NGK that something weird is happening and that they have not given any information so far. Well, weirdly enough, the movie stayed true to this dialogue.

‘Bharat’ Movie Review: A film that tries too hard but fails to ignite any emotion

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Either the film tries too hard in some cases to move you or shows nothing at all in other cases hoping that little exposure is enough to bring out emotions in us.

Directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, Bharat (Salman Khan) is the name of the main character and the movie itself. As the movie begins, we see Bharat in grey hair and grey beard. This is the year 2010. He is almost 70-year-old. His voice can be heard in the background saying that we, as an audience, must be thinking that the story of this old guy would be uninteresting. But he assures that what we are about to witness is the story of his “rangeen zindagi” (colourful life). It was great to hear that sort of assurance but I didn’t allow myself to set high hopes solely on the basis of this.

Bharat is based on a South Korean film Ode to my father. I haven’t seen this South Korean film. So, there’s no room for any kind of comparison between the two movies. The story of Bharat takes us back to the year 1947 when the imminent partition of India and Pakistan was on the cards. Bharat is a young kid and is living in Lahore (Pakistan). To escape the indiscriminate killings on the basis of one’s religion, Bharat’s father (played by Jackie Shroff) takes his family to join the throng of people boarding the train to leave for India. Amidst the crowd, Bharat’s father and one of his sisters fail to board the train. Bharat and his family start living in one of their relative’s home in Delhi (India) and look after their provision store. So, this store becomes dear to Bharat. From thereon, the film shows what Bharat does to look after his family, his constant remembrances of his father and his sister who left behind, the efforts taken to reunite with them and how he tries to keep the provision store from being taken down by the potential builders who are keen on bringing a shopping mall instead.

The film tries to score on nationalistic sentiments. A kid says that even though he is a Muslim, he migrated from Pakistan to India as he considers India as his home nation. Someone greets “As-Salaam-Alaikum” and gets “Ram Ram” in return (to show the secularism and unity in India). In one scene, Bharat randomly starts singing National Anthem of India and the whole audience inside the theatre naturally stood up as a mark of respect followed by the chants of ‘“Bharat Mata Ki Jai’” (Long Live Mother India!). In fact, Bharat character is shown as the embodiment of people of India.

Vilayati, which means foreigner, is the name of a character who is also a close friend of Bharat. Vilayati is Muslim. (Is that a deliberate attempt to show the current environment in India where Muslims are seen as foreigners by a number of Indians and are sometimes even threatened to go back to Pakistan?). This Vilayati character is funnier at his best. He plays the iconic snake game on his mobile phone with a constant murmuring of “khaja.. khaja” (eat! eat!). He is jokingly said to be and shown as a lookalike of Nehru. After a futile attempt of lifting a heavy bag, he throws his hands up and acts as if finally having lifted it when, in reality, Bharat is the one holding it. As a matter of fact, the hilarity produced by this Vilayati character was a lot better than the annoying and forced comedy of Pirates-of-Somalia-dancing-to-the-tunes-of-Bollywood scene.

Radha (Disha Patani) is irrelevant in the film (Except that she is a part of ‘Slow Motion’ track, composed by Vishal-Shekhar, which is one of the decent songs in this film). She is glamorous and shown to have some sort of bonding with Bharat. But it is so transient and never registers well. So, as Bharat moves on with his life and parts ways with Radha, it does not make you root for them to be together. Kumud (Katrina Kaif) is in a live-in relationship with Bharat and that too with the approval of Bharat’s mother. Katrina Kaif’s bad acting, failure to render comic lines, and romantic relationship with Bharat that never blossomed further aggravated the scenes involving her.

There’s even an advertisement for a television channel and done as if it is part of the story. Anyway, this becomes even more irksome when a prolonged phase of the reunion of Indians and Pakistanis is shown. It gets so tiring and trite as this phase never ignites the emotion inside you. This ultimately leads to the inevitable reunion of Bharat and his lost sister.

As is customary, Salman flaunts his well-built body as he pulls a number of injured men using a trolley. It doesn’t even matter whether this Bharat character is 70 years old or not as he fights with such power and strength against a number of men trying to assault him while riding their motorbikes.

You do understand Bharat’s sentiment of not parting ways with the provision store but the emphasis put on it is so less that you never really feel Bharat’s emotions. Also, the banal portrayal of the family reunion, which is too long, doesn’t help it either. Either the film tries too hard in some cases to move you or shows nothing at all in other cases hoping that little exposure is enough to bring out emotions in us. Unlike Bharat’s promise that he makes early on, the film turns out to be colourless and wearisome.

‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’ Movie Review: A fantastic action film that exhibits a sheer mastery over death

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Revel in the gruesomeness, strength, guts, and the sheer mastery over death that the film exhibits. Keanu Reeves is a master at work.

Inside a public library, at the beginning of the movie, John Wick (played exceedingly well by an intense and fierce Keanu Reeves, maybe even more than what he displayed in the first two chapters) is looking for a book in a shelf. He finds the one he was looking for and opens it. There is a photograph of his wife, some coins and a Jesus Christ cross locket inside this hardback book. He takes an emotional look at the photo and keeps it back at the same place. You can’t have an extended period of silence and calmness in a John Wick film series. So, a guy attacks John. The same book comes handy for John to kill that guy as it makes for an eye-popping fight sequence. But John can’t rely on things like a book to get the better of all those who are looking to attack him. He, in a scene, rightfully says that he needs “guns… lots of guns”. And he does use an awful lot of them in addition to daggers in this film. He, of course, shows some acrobatic fighting style as well.

Director Chad Stahelski’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is much better than Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 for obvious reasons. There is no antagonist character he is after. He is fighting goons all alone with some help that he gets from a few people. The First Chapter had a weak villain in Viggo (Michael Nyqvist). I watched the First Chapter again and I was largely unimpressed by this character as it hardly had any impact. The Second Chapter had a promising start to the villain character as Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo Scamarcio) sets John’s house on fire but this too faded away eventually. On the contrary, there is no dedicated antagonist character involved in Chapter 3 and no unnecessary and uninteresting hero-villain duel. There are men and women sent out with the task of killing John Wick. We get to see what John does best – “Hunt”.

We know what John Wick is capable of. We have already seen him inserting a pencil inside a man’s ear in the Second Chapter. So, seeing him using a book in this film to kill a guy was not surprising. He, also, just doesn’t shoot someone with his gun. He keeps his gun close to the attacker’s head and shoots him multiple times that sort of leads to ‘head explosion’. In fact, such scenes occur so much so that I, for a moment, forgot the persons getting killed are ‘humans’ as I loved the way John Wick goes about doing everything.

The First and Second Chapters of this film series established a unique style for itself. We get a fantastic bird’s eye view of skyscrapers and roads below at night time. The character of John Wick is registered in our minds as being someone with an immense amount of “audacity”. He is also said to be “a man of focus, commitment and sheer will”. As a matter of fact, there is always a style quotient about him. He drives a stylish-looking Ford Mustang car. A room full of cash in church gets engulfed in flames behind him as he walks casually. In Chapter 3, the style and the brutality get combined and multiplied.

While the First Chapter had a story, a grudge and a motive behind all the killings, the Second Chapter seemed to be ‘story-deficient’. What worked in both films were the action sequences involving John Wick. Therefore, Director Chad Stahelski strikes the right chord in the Third Chapter by infusing plenty of truculent action sequences. It’s difficult to know which one’s real and which one’s done through VFX as you get so absorbed by amazingly filmed scenes. A special mention must be given to three particular realistic sequences involving – the room full of daggers, the motorcycle chase, and the fight against the assassin, Zero (Mark Dacascos). The fun element associated with the fight against Zero and his men is something to watch out for.

Marcus (Willem Dafoe) shoots from a distance to save John Wick in the First Chapter (An interesting plot twist that surprised many of us). There is Winston (Ian McShane), in Chapter 3, who pulls the trigger of his gun to leave us in shock. Sofia (Halle Berry) and her two ferocious dogs, fighting alongside John Wick, is a mind-boggling addition. Even Charon (Lance Reddick), who keeps a serious expression and gives an intelligent perception about him in his brief appearances, comes in support of John Wick and shoots down foes.

As it all started with the killing of his dog, which gave him a “semblance of hope” and was not just a puppy to him, John Wick’s affection towards dogs kept on going in the Second Chapter as he adopted another very obedient dog that also features in this film.

The film has ended on the promise of yet another outing. Until then, it’s time to revel in the gruesomeness, strength, guts, and the sheer mastery over death that the film exhibits. Keanu Reeves is a master at work.