When I first saw the film’s trailer, I expected the film to be as
serious & epic as Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight”. Alas! The trailer was
rather misleading. Man Of Steel is a half-great movie: meaning the first half,
which primarily focusses on: (a) The ‘origin’ part of Kal-El/Superman(Henry
Cavill); (b)The enmity between Jor-El(Russel Crowe) and Zod(Michael Shannon)
and (c) How Superman adapts to planet Earth. It includes a well-choreographed
ship-rescue scene. On the contrary, the second-half of the film is sheer
spectacle at the cost of resonance. There is little substance supporting the
wonderfully executed CGI-based action sequences and splendid lead performances.
The messed-up screenplay too is a major culprit worth mentioning. It’s a
restrained rip-off from Christopher Reeves’ Superman-II(1980) where the
antagonist General Zod confronts ‘Earthlings’ and their loyal saviour Superman.
The mildly-disappointing climactic battle between them bears a striking
similarity to the showdown that Thor and Loki engaged in the film THOR and the
brilliant Edward Norton-Tim Roth face-off in THE INCREDIBLE HULK. What I sorely
missed in MAN OF STEEL was the pleasure of Superman’s day-to-day crime-fighting
existence and the diabolic presence of his most dangerous nemesis Lex Luthor,
which was marginally compensated by the presence of the charming Amy Adams(Lois
Lane). I sincerely hope the sequel covers all these flaws to make it a more
enjoyable experience for us. My Verdict: A heart-breaking 6/10
PANCHAYAT, a web-series currently being streamed at Prime Video, can aptly be described as an honest attempt to create a modern-day reincarnation of the classic TV Show MALGUDI DAYS (based on the works of R.K.Narayan) and is reminiscent of Shyam Benegal’s critically acclaimed film WELCOME TO SAJJANPUR (starring Shreyas Talpade). PANCHAYAT is the story of an engineering graduate Abhishek Tripathi, played by Jitendra Kumar (Humorously Yours, Kota Factory), who reluctantly joins as the Secretary of a panchayat office in a remote village of Uttar Pradesh on the insistence of his best friend (played by OTT sensation Biswapati Sarkar), who believed that his unique grassroots level experience would increase his chances to crack his IIM interview. Biswapati comically consoles him by saying that it would give him a chance to be the Mohan Bhargava of Phulera village. The lead character’s frustrations and how he adjusts with the difficult village life is the common thread that joins
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