Worth A Watch

Disney's 2021 summer blockbuster Jungle Cruise is a special one, unlike most other Disney movies that later made it into rides at their theme parks, this one got its inspiration from the popular Jungle Cruise ride, complete with the boat driver and his bad, scratch that, dad jokes. It's a 2:14 hours ride through the Amazon jungle and many funny and scary bits with animals, humans, and other dangers strewn about. And of course those dad jokes. Rated PG-13, easy recommendation for a family watch with the 5+ year olds.

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra

Actors: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Edgar Ramirez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti, Veronica Falcon, Dani Rovira

Reviewers: Suhel Banerjee and Anaaya Banerjee

A semi-autobiographical movie by Nitesh Tiwari (of Dangal fame).  Looking back at the college/hostel life, the things that seemed like matters of life and death back then, and juxtaposing those with the life of the present teenaged son of the primary protagonists, who's facing a similar situation. The review was split down the middle, a bit so due to the expectations that come as a follow up to Dangal. Listen and make your own opinions.

Director: Nitesh Tiwari

Actors: Sushant Singh Rajput, Shraddha Kapoor, Varun Sharma, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Naveen Polishetty, Tushar Pandey, Prateik Babbar, Saanand Verma, Mohammad Samad

Reviewers: Suhel Banerjee, Shabeer Ahmad, Diptakirti Chaudhuri, and Tanmay Mukherjeee

A quirky, madcap comedy which had all the right ingredients, but somehow missed the knock out punch at the end. Zany throughout, and an out and out homage to Bollywood. Now streaming on Netflix.

Director: Vasan Bala

Actors: Abhimanyu Dasani, Radhika Madan, Prateek Parmar, Mahesh Manjrekar, and Gulshan Devaiah.

Reviewers: Suhel Banerjee & Shabeer Ahmad (movie enthusiasts)

This 2019 Malayalam movie shows us the lives and loves of four brothers, and a most intriguing character, more about whom in the podcast. Madhu Narayan directs this movie with much love and it shows in the glorious camerawork, aptly supported by acting chops and a quirky story with many warm moments. Worth a watch.

This 2019 German language Netflix original movie asks What do you do when you have to choose between your profession and your abuser? What do you do when your abuser is an everyday normal guy? This movie touches upon some deep, basic questions and manages to make viewers uncomfortable  throughout. Not an easy movie to watch, but an important one for sure. Worth a watch.

This 2019 Anubhav Sinha directed hard hitting movie tackles the horrors of caste still going in many rural areas of India, not that far from the shining cities. The sheer atrocities, apathy, and general evil makes for a tough, but necessary watch. Strong performances by Ayushmann Khurrana, Manoj Pahwa, Sayani Gupta, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Kumud Mishra among others. Gaurav Solanki and Anubhav Sinha are the writers of this movie which gets a solid Worth A Watch from us.

Reviewers: Diptakirti Chaudhuri, Shabeer Ahmad, and Suhel Banerjee

This is not a review but charity work of the highest order. We sat through 2 hours and 47 minutes of this [beep] so that you don't have to. But if you have had the same misfortune, or you just want to hear what it sounds like when you watch this thing, join us for a walk down torture lane.

In this episode of Worth A Watch, Shabeer, Diptakirti (@diptakirti on Twitter), and I discuss the 2019 murder mystery Badla which is now streaming globally on Netflix. One of the biggest hits of the year, this is predominantly about the accused - Naina (Taapsee Pannu) and the numero uno unbeaten through his life legal eagle - Badal Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan). The movie received a WAW (Worth A Watch) rating from all 3 of us, listen to find out what worked, what didn't, and some usual movie banter.

In this special episode, Shabeer & I are joined by two friends from the world of movies - Diptakirti Chaudhuri (@diptakirti) Bollywood Chronicler and author of 4 books on Bollywood trivia (Bollybook, Kitnay Aadmi Thay, Bioscope, and Written By Salim-Javed) and Tanmay Mukherjee (much better known as Bongpen, owner of the synonymous FB page with lakhs of followers, and recently turned award winning screenplay writer (for the 2019 Bangla movie - Mahalaya).

We spend 32 minutes talking about, as it can't qualify as a review by any means (because it doesn't deserve a review), the thing that is Thackeray. 

Listen to our rants and poor attempts at joke if you're as shocked as we are after watching it. Not biased at all.

Back after an 8 months hiatus, with a few changes based on some helpful feedback from you - (1) I now have a co-podcaster (or more) with me and (2) we will be reviewing movies that listeners will have easy access to globally on Netflix, Prime, Hotstar, HBO, and other streaming platforms.

Kicking things off with the Netflix original sci-fi, space travel,  social commentary 'See You Yesterday', and joining me is my friend and fellow movie aficionado - Shabeer Ahmad, from India. 

Feedback welcome as always,

 In this episode of Worth A Watch we review the latest racial commentary - The Hate U Give. Powerful and captivating, this is basically the 20 year old Amandla Stenberg's Starr (Carter) turn. This year has seen its fair share of movies on this subject and this one still manages to stand out and leave an impact.

 In this episode of Worth A Watch we review the latest Steve McQueen thriller/drama - Widows. This is a special episode as we have our first guest reviewer - a friend and longtime listener of the podcast - Ajay Andrews. And the movie is surely worth a watch!