Posts by Rammesh
The 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…
Read MoreTora Tora Tora (1970) – A Classic
Dir: Richard Fleisher. Kinji Fukasaku. Toshio Masuda Cast: Martin Balsam. Jason Robards. Multiple Stars. (All clickable links are in red) When 9/11 happened, many, including US President George Bush Junior, said that it was Pearl Harbor of the 21st century. The comparison may only have been for the devastating surprise attack on December 7, 1941.…
Read MoreKillers of the Flower Moon (2023) – Superb drama
Dir: Martin Scorsese Cast: Robert de Niro. Leonardo di Caprio. Lily Gladstone. Nothing needs to be said about Martin Scorsese’s track record. In the guise of thrillers, period dramas or crime sagas, Scorsese always held a mirror to American society and, at times, presented the “zeitgeist” of that era. Almost all his films still…
Read MoreReptile (2023) – Slow burn predictable
Dir: Grant Singer Cast: Benicio del Toro. Alicia Silverstone. Justin Timberlake. Eric Bogosian. The Netflix algorithm keeps pushing films at you based on your “past viewing history”. As if it almost had a mind of its own (AI, anyone?). I have willingly ignored some movies, and others rouse my curiosity to check whether my…
Read MoreThe Iron Curtain (1946) – Cold War’s absorbing beginning
Dir: William Wellman Screenplay – Milton Krims – based on Igor Gouzenko’s story Cast: Dana Andrews. Gene Tierney Popular legends about spies -outside the Bond-MI-Bourne domain-are usually of a dedicated man, deep inside the enemy/ target country’s system, quietly collecting information for one’s own country. But sometimes, the simple soldier or the unimportant file…
Read MoreKhufiya (2023) – Slow, refreshing and engaging
Music and Director: Vishal Bhardwaj Screenplay – Vishal Bhardwaj, Rohan Narula – based on Amar Bhushan’s story Cast: Tabu, Ali Fazal, Wamiqa Gabbi, Azmeri Haque Badhon, Navnindra Behl, Ashish Vidyarthi (All links are in Blue) Using a mole, Heena Rehman, code-named Octopus (Azmeri Haque Badhon), an Indian operation to “neutralise” the Bangladeshi “Jihadi” defence…
Read MoreNotorious (1946) – A romantic spy story.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock Writer: Ben Hecht Cast: Cary Grant. Ingrid Bergman. Claude Rains. Alfred Hitchcock was often referred to as the Master of Suspense. He was a supreme Auteur, the man whose personal stamp on the human condition was visible in every frame, scene and dialogue in his works. Every frame in his films…
Read MoreDev Anand – Forever an Icon
Today Dev Anand’s centenary celebrations have been kicked off across India. Fans across India, including me, are going wild. The festivities include screening four restored films: CID, Jewel Thief, Guide, and Johny Mera Naam. These four films span 20 years of cinematic life, creating generations of fans. Always considered a style icon, it is perhaps…
Read MoreThe Battle of Britain – 1969 – Accurate and entertaining
Director: Guy Hamilton Producer: Harry Saltzman Script: James Kennaway. Wilfred Greatorex A common legend among the British is the trope of a “small bunch of British men against the might of the ugly bad …….. ” . In the blanks, you can insert Africans (Zulu and Khartoum), Pathans and Indians (Gunga Din, The Bengal Lancers),…
Read MoreSeventeen Moments of Spring (1973) – Excellent
Story : Yulian (Julian) Semyonov Direction : Tatyana Lioznova Cast : Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Most of us are used to spy stories where Western Heroes set out to slay the evil Soviet Empire and save the Western Way of life. The Spy fiction genre has its rules in that the Western characters are usually the…
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