#TheLifesWayReviews - RAAT AKELI HAI @NetflixSA #Movie #Crime #RaatAkeliHai

Hi Friends, 

Raat Akeli Hai is the new crime drama movie which was released on Netflix on 31st July 2020 and is directed by Honey Trehan. The movie stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Radhika Apte and Ila Arun in a powerful performance which also has Shweta Tripathi, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Swanand Kirkire, Nishant Dahiya and Aditya Srivastava. 

The movie is a murder mystery of Raghuveer Singh played by Khalid Tyabji on the night of his second marriage to Radhika Apte. The whole family and relatives go quiet about the murder and bring in a small town cop Inspector Jatil Yadav to solve the case played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui. As the investigation progresses, he comes to know that he has already met Radha played by Radhika Apte as she tries to run away from her parents some 5 years ago. Around the same time, Raghuveer Singh's wife and the driver are also killed by a mercenary. 

The crime drams is really fast-paced and slowly unpacks the mystery behind the murder and the other selfish motives of all the characters one by one. Jatil Yadav falls in love with Radha as he is a bachelor whose mother played by Ila Arun always tries to find a suitable bride for him wherever she goes. The scenes between Ila Arun and Nawazuddin are really funny and the dialogues are really good.

The crime-solving capability and character of Jatil Yadav are tested as the whole system is against him and doesn't want him to solve the case as the family is against the outsider Radha who gets the share in the property due to her marriage with Raghuveer Singh. They want to put the blame on her and looking for an opportunity to throw her out of the house and may kill her on the way. The locations look really real as the movie is shot in Lucknow and Kanpur. 

The film never felt like it's limited budget release or digital platform release but made on the scale of a full feature film and rises way above the other feature film releases too in recent times. The acting of Radhika Apte and Nawazuddin Siddiqui is amazingly great and the tension building between them is great to watch. Raat Akeli Hai has a rugged and rustic look to the whole drama and it feels really real and believable. 

The movie is produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Abhishek Chaubey and written by Smita Singh and is available on Netflix to watch if you have not seen yet. This movie is 1000 times better than the last released movie of Nawazuddin named Ghoomketu on the ZEE5 digital platform. If you are a fan of Nawazuddin you should not miss this Singham style fun without beating anyone, killing anyone or any other un-necessary macho action. RATING 4/5

Cheers!!!

Contact Aashish Rai Jain at thelifesway@gmail.com or editor@thelifesway.com to send your products, launch event invites, and services to be consumed. #TheLifesWay #PhotoYatra #7YearsofTheLifesWay. Follow me on www.instagram.com/thelifesway for all travel-related photo posts and subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel too. Namaste!

#TheLifesWayReviews Ghoomketu @Zee5Africa #Ghoomketu #Zee5 #Movie #Comedy

Hi Friends,

Ghoomketu is a comedy movie starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Ila Arun, Raghuvir Yadav, Ragini Khanna, Anurag Kashyap, and various others launched on Zee 5 Online platform. The trailer did look promising but the movie has nothing in it and comedy is not there at all. The movie belongs to Ila Arun alone and if you want to see her you can definitely going to enjoy her acting. This movie looks like one of the postponed projects due to money or various other issues and looks like a compilation of students' final year project in film making. The whole movie is a personal project of Pushpendra Nath Misra where he has directed, edited, and also written lyrics of the songs. 

They have even small performances by Amitabh Bachchan, Sonakshi Sinha, Ranvir Singh, Chitrangada Singh, Nikhil Advani and Lauren Gottlieb in cameo appearances. The music is totally bad and Jasleen Royal has sung the song in her characteristics small nursery girl singing poems in 2-3 words sentence format. Overall this is a total waste of your 1hr 42 minutes and there is nothing all these big characters are able to hold to your seats. I felt so many times to leave it in between but then I wanted to review the movie so I had to take the torture myself.  Nawazuddin was also not able to bring any comedy as there is nothing in the story as he narrates the whole movie himself. He has played it similar to his other performances with just extra long hairs in this movie. 

Let's talk about the story, Ghoomketu played by Nawaz Bhai is a budding writer from a small town Mahona and leaves for Mumbai to become a writer and gives himself time of 30 days to write his story/script, etc. He gets counseling from Chief Editor of Gudgudi newspaper from his own town and is able to write 3 scripts that get lost in the end. At the end of 30 days, when his money is spent, he realizes that family is more important and he has a story of Bollywood struggle to share with his family and friends. The other characters are not grown much and Raghuvir Yadav is shown as an eager father of Ghoomketu who wants him to do something in life. His acting remains similar to a common irritated father which he has played in many TV serials. 

If you have the subscription to Zee5, you can watch the movie for some of the comedy scenes which will make you laugh but the overall torture will make you kill yourself. The overall project is just released to keep the online platform occupied and social media channels buzzing to get some traffic to their website. RATING 1/5

Sawubona!

Contact Aashish Rai Jain at thelifesway@gmail.com or editor@thelifesway.com to send your products, launch event invites, and services to be consumed. #TheLifesWay #PhotoYatra #7YearsofTheLifesWay. Follow me on www.instagram.com/thelifesway for all travel-related photo posts. Namaste!

#TheLifesWayReviews - Sacred Games Season 2 @NetflixSA TV Series #Mystery #Drama #SacredGames2

Hi Friends, 

Sacred Games Season 1 really made the Indian TV Series market look great and worthy of making an investment by many of the producers, directors and OTT content providers and Video On Demand services. People came to know about the series via word of mouth and social media channels were flooded with clips and memes. I was not aware of the series last year and didn't have Netflix connection at that time so watched the same a little later when everyone around me has already watched it. 

This time the story was different as I had a working Netflix connection gratefully provided by the brand for 6 months which will end soon and on the Independence Day of India 15th August 12am IST, the show's 8 episodes were made available to the subscribed public. I only started watching the season on Thursday evening after work and watched the first 5 episodes till my eyes got closed. I downloaded the rest 3 episodes in the Netflix app to watch on Friday evening and finished the same till dinner time. 

I really loved that the Croatia Ashram is none other than the Freedom Park in Pretoria, South Africa which is visible from the National Highway whenever I drive towards the city. Now I will definitely make a visit to this historical museum. Also, I could relate as my neighbors met the cast esp Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Pankaj, and Kalki when they were traveling by Ethiopian Airlines on their way to Pretoria and Pankaj Tripathi was sitting in the general category airplane seats only whereas others were in Business Class. 

Season 2 starts with the same mystery which kept us hanging at the end of Season 1 and all the episodes throughout out the series. Now with the 16 episodes, you can actually binge the whole series once again to check out what happened when. The second season is more ruthless in terms of killings and actions showcased on the series. Some scenes are really disturbing and I had to make my way through them without any judgments and thoughts.

Season 2 brings in some new characters as the show brings in the twists and turns provided by Guruji and a brief into his life too. Also, Kenya is the new platform to work for Gaitonde as he leaves Bombay in the last season after attacked by Issa. This season is full of new characters and many of them live a short life of 2-3 episodes in this season. The scientist in the last scene was the funniest as she kept using the random pattern as if the bomb is her mobile phone pattern without any knowledge. Do watch the Sacred Games Season 2 and I hope that you won't want to see the next seasons as it's not as great as the first one and it's going on the path of LOST TV series.

Acting-wise, this is fully Pankaj Tripathi's show along with Nawazuddin performances and Kalki has some dialogues in between in broken Hindi. The best new characters in Season 2 is Saxena Ji from Bhabhi Ji Ghar pe hai fame (Saanand Verma) who played a Kenyan Gujrati trader whom Gaitonde made into a local don on the ask of Kusum Devi Yadav an Indian Intelligence Agent played by Amruta Subhash in search of Shahid Khan played by Ranvir Shorey. Malcolm doesn't look so dangerous as in Season 1 and Surveen Chawla played her character of Jojo nicely. Overall, Sacred Games Season 2 can also be called as Once Upon A Time in The Life of - - - and they give you stories of each character introduced in this as well as the previous season. 

Cheers!!!

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#TheLifesWayReviews - THACKERAY - #Movie #Drama @NetflixSA #Bollywood #Biography #TrueEvents

Hi Friends, 

The movie is based on the life of Political Leader and founder of Shiv Sena - Balasaheb Thackeray. He is considered to be the most loved and respected leader in Maharashtra and India. His journey spans a long journey from a Cartoonist in an English newspaper to finding himself resolving problems of all the Marathi Manus and building and joining them together to fight against the discriminations faced by the people in the city of Mumbai. He builds his people's strength in terms of technology, education, and skills so that they can get good jobs and become entrepreneurs too even if they have to sell Vada Pav to make them self-dependent. The movie is really inspiring and Nawazuddin Siddiqui played the role of Balasheb with great finesse. His wife Meena Tai is played by Amrita Rao and she does justice to her role. 

The movie is written and directed by Abhijit Panse and is made in Marathi and Hindi. The movie was released on the 93rd birth anniversary on 23rd January 2019 and is now available on Netflix too. Do watch the same and get insights into the life of Balasaheb's life and struggle in 139 min. I am sure there will be another sequel to the movie as this movie ends at the place where you want to know more of his life and what happens to Shiv Sena party on the National level.

The movie shows the interaction of Balashaeb with Sharad Pawar, Morarji Desai, Indira Gandhi, George Fernandes, Manohar Joshi, Krishna Desai, and various other political leaders. His stand during the Emergency period and his decision to create a Hindu party after getting stabbed in the back by the other religions. I can surely say after watching this movie, he is one of the most courageous and fierce leaders who worked and lived only for the upliftment and unity of his people.

Do watch the movie produced by Viacom18 Motion Pictures, Carnival Motion Pictures and Raut'ers Entertainment and music by Rohan-Rohan and Sandeep Shirodkar. The song's lyrics are written by Dr. Sunil Jogi, Manoj Yadav and Manndar Cholkar with background score by Amar Mohile.

Cheers!!!

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Movie Review - Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015)

Hi Guys,

Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) is an emotional drama with a purpose directed by Kabir Khan and produced by Salman Khan and Rockline Venkatesh. This is the first film under the banner of Salman Khan Films (SKF). The movie is about a guy played by Salman Khan from a small town who is a Lord Hanuman devotee. He sees very less success in everything he does in his life but then also continues with his child like innocence and pure heart. Somehow his life gets crossed with a 6 year old girl played by Harshaali Malhotra who can't speak and who came to Delhi for a religious trip with her mother from Pakistan and misses her train. 

It's a process now for Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi aka Bajrangi to find out the details and whereabouts of the girl as he gets to know her more with each passing day. The flashback shows the long story between Bajrangi and Rasika played by amazingly beautiful Kareena Kapoor Khan. She looked gorgeous in all her scenes but has very less role to play in the second half of the movie. The romantic song "Tu Chahiye" which is sang by Atif Aslam has been shot very nicely and this is the first time, he has sang for Salman Khan. All the songs of the movie are really great to listen and cinematographically great. I really loved Adnan Sami in a Qawwali - "Bhar do Jholi Meri" during the climax of the movie.

The story shows a lot about the perceptions that we create in our minds by the difference of religion, caste and countries. Salman Khan has played that very well as his role as a devotee of Bajrang Bali and how others around him also has the similar thinking pattern. Some of the great scenes are those when he starts breaking the same due to his growing love and care for Munni. Harshaali has great divine face and smile and when she cries, I am sure everyone will cry with her. She is awesome in all her scenes and Salman Khan has played his role superbly and this is the first time you will see him in an non-macho role. There are some fighting sequences but that also are shown to keep it minimized in the whole movie. 

The first part of the movie builds up the story as Bajrangi tries to identifies the girl and his own life story. The second part is the defining moment as he starts his journey to Pakistan to take Munni to her parents. The journey starts and is soon joined with  none other than a Pakistani press reporter played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui. It's only when he joins the team, the travel and related fun starts. He is simply superb as he takes the center stage and steers the movie through various parts of the travel towards the final destination and meeting different kinds of people as they hide from the police and authorities. He is a versatile actor and no movie is complete without him whatever character he plays these days. I am sure that he will pick up the Best Supporting Actor (Male) this year at the Filmfare awards.

 

There has been some disconnections and missing context in the movie in the first part. The editor could have taken some 10-15 min out and made the movie more interesting but nonetheless the Bajrangi Bhaijaan is definitely a heart-warming story which will bring a lot of peace and hope in the hearts of every Indian and Pakistani residents around the world. A must watch with all your family and you will be entertained for sure and keep your handkerchiefs ready for both tears of sorrow, joys and laughter. The last ten minutes requires it the most and no matter how harder you try to stop tears, they will simply not stop flowing! Kudos to Kabir Khan who has created a movie to cherish forever and more when "Aaj ki Party" song will be added to the movie.

The movie released in Ster-Kinekor on 17th July and book your tickets now.

Cheers!!!

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