Asterix:The Mansions of the Gods

Disclaimer: So this is my first anime movie to review, hence bear with my "newbieness".

Plot: In order to wipe out the Gaulish village by any means necessary, Caesar plans to absorb the villagers into Roman culture by having an estate built next to the village to start a new Roman colony.

Humor: The main positives about this movie is its comic lines. Humor is suited both for children as well as adults too can enjoy light humor here.

Animation and Screenplay:  Animation was right up to mark to make it interesting for kids of all ages.

There was no point in the movie when your interest starts to fade away from the movie and all credit goes to the screenplay and animation.

Story-line: If you are aware with this comic strip then there’s nothing here to explain however for those who have no clue about Asterix … for them;

The movie has two sectors of the society, The Romans who are very sophisticated in their living and live a civilized way of life and The Barbarians who live in a small village.

The Roman emperor wants to eradicate this small village but the problem is the Barbarians are too strong with their magic potion to defeat.

Overall: the movie has some satirical angle to it and the director and he writers have tried to compare the plot with today's modern world for example I recall a scene where the slaves of the roman are granted freedom and then the general charges them 15 units rent to stay where their wage was 15 units exact.

Watch this movie with your kids its too much fun!

Airlift

Plot

When Iraq invades Kuwait in August, 1990, a callous Indian businessman becomes the spokesperson for more than 150,000 stranded countrymen.

Cast

·         Akshay Kumar as Ranjit Katyal ·         Nimrat Kaur as Amrita Katyal ·         Feryna Wazheir as Tasneem ·         Inaamulhaq as Major Khalaf bin Zayd ·         Lena as Deepti Jayarajan ·         Purab Kohli as Ibrahim Durrani ·         Prakash Belawadi as George Kutty ·         Kumud Mishra as Sanjiv Kohli

                                                                                                                      Source Wikipedia

Acting

Performances delivered by every actors in this movie was mediocre however Akhsay doesn’t let the movie’s graph fall.

We can surely call him the new angry young man!

This might be Akshay’s best performance so far.

Apart from him Kumud Mishra’s part of a government official was done pretty good.  

However Nimrat Kaur failed to deliver her best.

Overall 70/100 for the entire cast .

Direction

Direction here was nothing to boast about.

Neither negatives nor positives,

50/100

Dialogues

Dialogues in the film here just amazing. All the characters here well thought of.

There are some parts in the movie which will directly connect to the hearts of each and every NRIs out there for sure. However most of the key dialogues are added in the trailer.

75/100

Screenplay

Screenplay was the key component according to me which helped Akshay’s performance look so great.

There parts in the movie where you might actually get goose bumps.

As I don’t want to give any spoilers so I can’t input much about the screenplay. You need to see the movie ASAP. However the film starts to feel like a drag after a certain extent, the last 20min climax makes it even.

80/100

Editing

Editing could have been much better. Especially the 3 songs could have been deleted out completely,

The songs slowed down the pace of the movie.

Many useless filler characters were added too. They could have been avoided.

40/100

Story

Airlift is based on a real life rescue operation who is the largest of its kind.

The movie starts with Ranjeet Katyal (Akshay Kumar), an obnoxious Businessman living in Kuwait is talking about some deal with the Prince. He doesn't even consider himself as an Indian.  Later he finds out that Saddam Hussain has invaded Kuwait and now Kuwait has suddenly become a war zone.

Looking at 1 lac 70 thousand Indians Ranjeet has a change of heart and decides to save all of them when he has an option to fly out alone with his family. The entire movie is about this rescue operation, how this businessman gets all of 170000 out this hell on earth back to India.

95/100

Overall

Well you might think that Akshay Kumar has done a lot of similar kind of movies in the past 2 years but you are surely mistaken! This is a unique movie and a must watch!

70/100

  

Verdict

My rating is 4/5.

Trailer

Natsamrat

Plot
The film is a tragedy about a veteran theatre actor named Ganpat "Appa" Belwalkar (Nana Patekar) who has been an acclaimed during his heyday, garnering fame and fortune acting in plays based on various works, especially William Shakespeare's. He bequeaths all of his wealth to his children. However, in his later years, their children's ingratitude leads Appa and his wife to fall on hard times, losing their home and becoming social pariahs.

Cast

Nana Patekar as Ganpat Ramchandra Belwalkar/ Natsamrat Medha Manjrekar as Kaveri Ganpat Belwalkar Vikram Gokhale as Rambhau Mrunmayee Deshpande as Vidya Ganpat Belwalkar/Vidya Barve Ajit Parab as Makrand Ganpat Belwalkar Neha Pendse as Neha Makrand Belwalkar Sunil Barve as Mr. Barve / Vidya's husband

                                                                                                                      Source Wikipedia

Acting
Each and every member of the cast here has done a mind boggling job.
And there are no words to describe Nana's job.
Audience can feel the real Ganpat Belwalkar performing the scenes from his plays.
I looked at my right and left during the essential moments of the movie and all I could see is tears in their eyes rolling down their chins.
A 100/100 for Nana.This might be the best performance you will come across this entire year!
Overall 95/100 for the entire cast .


Direction
Mahesh Manjrekar had a pretty good idea about his method of executing this film.
There were even rumours about him to cast Mr. Bachchan for the lead part in 2012, so we assume the director has been doing his research and homework for a long time . 
75/100

Dialogues
This movie is opted from a classic Marathi play by V.V. Shirwadkar.
Dialogues are the key and the most important element in this movie!
Popular lines from Hamlet,Julius Caesar,Othello and even the Marathi monologues performed within the movie in parts by Nana were written with a spark that left the audience wishing the movie never to end.
Saying that the movie might become a little bit difficult to understand by non Maharashtrians because of its traditional language of dialogues.
So 95/100

Screenplay
The pace of the first half of the movie was a bit slow but this pace was needed to make the audience feel connected to the characters and make them understand the true depth of each character.
A 3 hour film now a days might feel too slow and stretched to some mass of audience out there but we couldn't find any spot in the movie that could have been avoided.
90/100

Editing
Editing couldn't have been better. There was not a single scene that could have been dropped out of the movie.
95/100

Story
Movie revolves around "The Natasamrat" and focuses on his life that goes from riches to rags .
The story is one that we find in about 7 out of 10 household today.
Nana , a well acclaimed play actor wins the ultimate award that a stage artist can get.
But as the time passes he finds lack of respect for him from his children and decides to move out along with his wife.
Story which sounds too straight forward has many twists and turns .
The story progresses along with Ganpat Belwalkar's life.
 each stage of his life is compared with different characters that he played during his reign as an actor.
100/100

Overall
Go watch this movie for Nana's performance and a heart touching emotional story.
  
Verdict
My rating is 4.5/5.

Trailer