THE STORYTELLER

By Avik Basak Have you ever watched a war film, where you felt you were right there on the battlefield with the soldiers and felt the same sense of uncertainty that they are going through on the screen? You may have but what Christopher Nolan’s latest, Dunkirk provides you with is truly a unique experience. A tale of time bending struggle from the perspective of different characters in different situations, weaved through a common notion of survival make this one of the best movies ever made in the genre. It opens in the French commune of Dunkirk and recounts the events of Operation Dynamo that resulted in one of the biggest military evacuations in the history of mankind. Nolan fills the story with characters who have no or little back stories yet somehow make the audience care for what happens to them. The most beautiful thing about the movie is that it is set in the moment and is about the people who were actually out there facing annihilation. It does not feature ...

By Avik Basak It has been a long wait since Anurag Basu and Ranbir Kapoor’s debut production, Jagga Jasoos was announced and many were even questioning if the project was shelved. Anyways, this dream project of Basu finally found its way into the theatres last weekend and the long wait would have been justified if they could have brought us a sensational end product, which unfortunately is not the case here. That does not mean it is a bad movie; Jagga Jasoos is light, breezy and provides you with a feel good experience but at the same time is flawed, a bit sloppy and overlong at nearly 2 hours and 42 minutes. It chronicles the story of a young boy, Jagga, who has the natural talent of solving mysteries, and his search for his missing foster father who is connected to a big conspiracy. Jagga stammers while speaking and instead likes to sing his lines, a trade he has learned from his old man, hence opening the scope of making the film a musical. The movie works ve...

By Avik Basak Whether he admits it or not, Christopher Nolan has always wanted to direct a James Bond film. The British-American filmmaker has been a fan of the franchise for a long time and has always said that he would only direct a Bond film if the franchise truly needed him. Now, when he is indeed in talks with the Bond producers (according to the latest reports), it is high time that he steps into the shoes of Sam Mendes to helm the twenty-fifth instalment in this longest running franchise. So, let’s take a look at the five valid reasons why Nolan “needs” to be behind the camera for the next outing of the British spy. The Character Needs Reinvention It is confirmed by the reports surfaced recently that Daniel Craig is indeed returning to fulfil his five-movie contract and will be seen as 007 in the next Bond movie, hence it is unlikely to see someone like Tom Hiddleston or Tom Hardy in the character to give it a much-needed freshness. Still, if Nolan gets ...

By Avik Basak Since Marvel’s deal with Sony, I heard many people say, “How many more reboots will we need before we get a Spidey movie, which will bring the truest version of the wall-crawler to the big screen?” It is a very genuine question since both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield failed to hit the right balance between humour and goofiness that is needed for the character. While Garfield was a little too cool, Maguire always used to make me feel sorry for his bad luck. Well, those are in the past now as Spider-Man swings home to the studio, which is named after his original makers. Like they did when then brought most of their characters to the big screen, Marvel Studios were expected to give our “friendly neighbourhood hero” the movie he deserved and boy, they pulled it off with utmost effortlessness. Powered by a team of six writers and the vision of lesser-known director Jon Watts, Spider-Man: Homecoming is the Spider-Man movie we always wanted to se...