Posts by Rammesh
The Assets (2014) – Superb view of counter espionage
All clickable links in red Genre – Real-world Spying Time: 8 Hours – 8 x 50-minute episodes Platform: YouTube – free When the Soviet Union passed into history in 1991, the Western Powers thought that all the nasty stuff that went with it also had gone into history, including the KGB,…
Read MoreOperation Valentine (2024) – Tolerable
All Clickable links in red Genre – War Movie Language – Hindi Time: 2 Hours, 10 minutes Platform: Theatrical release Considering the recent disaster Fighter (review here) , I approached this movie with absolute trepidation. The first few minutes somewhat confirmed this would be a waste of time as all the familiar tropes…
Read MoreNorsk Hydro / Operation Gunnerside – three movies
All clickable links in red What would have happened if the Nazis had developed the Atom Bomb? The results are there for us to see in the superb alternate history TV series, The Man in the High Castle, which ran for four seasons from 2015 to 2019 (and is available on Amazon Prime). Though the…
Read MoreThe Sea Wolves – 1980 – A charming true story
All Clickable links in Red Genre – War Movie (true story) Language – English Time: 2 Hours Platform: YouTube (Free) Throughout history, many nation have depended on goods carried by merchant ships trade for their daily survival. It is more accurate for island nations like Britain and Japan. Britain was almost strangled by…
Read MoreFighter (2024) – Stretcher
All Clickable links in red Genre – War Movie Language – Hindi Time: 2 Hours, 45 minutes Platform: Theatrical release It’s impossible to keep a balanced perspective while watching an Indian Film with an Armed Forces background. Rare is the film that professionally shows the Armed Forces, as most films settle for “dialogue…
Read MoreBattle of Stalingrad – Multiple films
ALL CLICKABLE LINKS IN RED The Battle of Stalingrad is considered – rightly – as one of the biggest Nazi Germany defeats and the turning points on the Eastern Front. It started in August 1942 and the last German troops surrendered on February 2, 1943. It proved once and for all that the Russians…
Read MoreAdolf Eichmann Case – two films
All clickable links in red Today, Israeli Intelligence’s reputation is in tatters, thanks to the “sudden” Gaza war. However, this was not so in the 1960s, 1970s and even 1980s, when there were many brilliant, “out of the box” operations and sudden mysterious deaths of Israel’s opponents that gave the Mossad a reputation for…
Read MoreThe Robert Hanssen Case – two films
All clickable links are in red Truth is always stranger than fiction. It is a cliché but like all good cliches it is also true. Otherwise, how do you explain that an FBI counter espionage agent, dedicated to catching Russian spies and Americans spying for Russians, was a Russian spy? For 22 years? The…
Read MoreThe Falcon and the Snowman (1985) – Superb true story
All clickable links in red Genre: Spy Story (True Story) Time: 2 Hours, 10 minutes Platform: Amazon Prime (on rent) As the adage goes, the more you try to change something, the more things remain the same. Hollywood (and Bollywood) tries to convince us that “spies” wear nice suits, drive cool cars, bed…
Read MoreThe Ultra Secret – Superb Slow Burn Films on Enigma
All clickable links in red In 1974 a book, The Ultra Secret, was published. The contents were nothing short of sensational for anyone who bought it. Lest people thought it was a joke, more documents under The Thirty-Year Rule were released on the topic. Simply put, The British were reading ALL GERMAN-CIPHERED SIGNALS, SOMETIMES IN NEAR…
Read MoreThe Navarone Films – One, a Classic. Its Follow-up Mediocre
All clickable links in red Alistair MacLean was an exceptionally successful writer who crafted a series of adventure-war-spy stories. His experience as a sailor in the “Arctic Convoys” resulted in his first – and probably his best – book, HMS Ulysses (1955). After that, there was no looking back, as many of his 1960s…
Read MoreDunki (2023) – Bittersweet
All links in red. Genre: Drama + Comedy Platform: Theatrical Release Duration: 2 Hours 35 minutes In the concluding chapters of my book on Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s films, Human Cinema, I mentioned that Rajkumar Hirani was a worthy inheritor of the Hrishida school of filmmaking, where the most serious subjects would be handled in a…
Read MoreDollar Trilogy – three superb Anti Westerns
The Western genre is as American as America, as it is about the tale of the “Westward Ho” expansion, hardships, gun battles and sheer lawlessness. The Native Americans were usually the villains and the “White Americans” were the “good guys”. In the mid-1960s, the genre started losing steam, under pressure from the overall anti-establishment feelings…
Read MoreAnek (2022) – Bold topic ….
Director: Anubhav Sinha Script: Anubhav Sinha. Seema Agarwal. Yash Keswani. Cast: Ayushman Khurrana. Andrea Kevichusa. Manoj Pahwa. J.D.Chakravarthi. Genre: Spy – action -police Story. Platform: Netflix Duration: 2 Hours 25 minutes Films about the North East are conspicuous by their absence. People from the North East are usually viewed through stereotypes in…
Read MoreSam Bahadur (2023) – Engaging yet…
Director: Meghana Gulzar Script: Meghana Gulzar. Bhavani Iyer. Shantanu Srivastava. Cast: Vicky Kaushal. Sanya Malhotra. Fatima Sana Sheikh Genre: Biography and War Drama Platform: Theatrical release Duration: 2 Hours 30 minutes A biography is always a difficult task for a filmmaker. What to show and what not to show. There is the trap…
Read MoreNapoleon (2023) – Grand yet underwhelming
Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Joaquin Phoenix. Vanessa Kirby. Rupert Everett. Tahar Rahim. Genre: Biography and War Drama Platform: Theatrical release Duration: 2 Hours 38 minutes Ridley Scott’s range of film subjects is enormous. His genres include almost all types of films. Some of his most famous films include Blade Runner and The Martian…
Read MoreWasp Network (2019) – Slow but stunning true story
Writer-Director: Oliver Assayas Cast: Penelope Cruz. Edgar Ramirez. Wagner Moura. Ana de Armas. Genre: True Spy story Platform: Netflix Duration: 2 Hours 8 minutes (All links in red are clickable links) Cuba’s and America’s history has been a very tortured one. When the USA refused to recognise Castro and his genuinely popular…
Read MorePippa (2003) – Disappointing
(All links in red are clickable links) Dir: Raja Menon Cast: Ishan Khatter. Mrunal Thakur. Priyanshu Painyuli. Abhinav Bhattacharjee. Genre: War Drama Platform: Amazon Prime There is a long disclaimer before the main movie about the film being “inspired by real events on which creative liberty has been taken”. Perhaps such disclaimers are…
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