Parched, Banjo, Bridget Jones's Baby, Thodari: Know your releases
Know this week's releases better before you decide what to watch!
Bollywood Films
Parched
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What's it about: Leena Yadav's Parched, produced by Ajay Devgn, just had its premiere at TIFF 2016, and has been gathering much steam. A story of repressed sexuality and abuse towards women, set in a drought affected village in India, sees Surveen Chawla, Radhika Apte, Tannishtha Chatterjee coming together on screen.
Who's in it: Surveen Chawla, Radhika Apte, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Adil Hussain, Sayani Gupta, Leher Khan.
What may work for it: With Pink getting rave response, the whole country is finally talking about social issues pertaining to women. Parched should hit people in gut on that front.
Banjo
What's it about: A musical/action/drama film, Banjo revolves around a DJ who visits India to discover a local Banjo player who teaches her a lot about the country. The film seems to a high-intensity celebration of all things India.
Who's in it: Ritiesh Deshmukh, Nargis Fakhri
What may work for it: The music and the rustic, local flavour
Hollywood Films
Bridget Jones’s Baby
What it’s about: The third and final film in the Bridget Jones series brings you the aftermath of Mark Darcy and Bridget Jones’ romance. They have broken up, and Bridget is trying to move on with her life by dating a new guy, Jack. Things are starting to look bright when Bridget realizes she is pregnant and has to figure out who the father is.
Who’s in it: Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey and Gemma Jones.
Why it may work: The film is a continuation of Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy’s love story which started out as an ode to Pride and Prejudice. Bridget Jones trumped as an out and out box-office hit in the pre-internet era, so this one is worth a watch for the sake of nostalgia and continuity.
Bridget Jones’s Baby is directed by Sharon Maguire.
The Magnificent Seven
What it’s about: The film that took the Toronto International Film Festival by storm is all set to grace our silver screens. Set in the 1870s, the town of Rose Creek is under the siege of the industrialist Bartholomew Bogue.
The residents enlist the help of seven outlaws, a bounty hunter Sam Chisolm, a gambler Josh Faraday, a sharpshooter Goodnight Robicheaux, a tracker Jack Horne, an assassin Billy Rocks, a Mexican outlaw Vasquez, and a Comanche warrior Red Harvest, to protect them while they prepare for the anticipated violent confrontation.
Who’s in it: Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, Haley Bennett and Peter Sarsgaard.
Why it may work: The film is inspired from Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai which is one of the most iconic films of all time. The star cast of Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and Denzel Washington is always a plus.
The Magnificent Seven is directed by Antoine Fuqua.
Storks
What it’s about: The animated Warner Brother film is a modern take on the tale of storks delivering babies. A stork named Junior and a red headed orphan named Tulip work for a stork delivery company Cornerstone. Their dedication to the job takes them on a journey with a lost baby to find its parents before it is too late.
Who’s in it: The voices of Andy Samberg, Kelsey Grammar and Jennifer Aniston.
Why it may work: The fact that it is a feel good animated film and it has a powerful voice-over cast of Andy Samberg, Kelsey Grammar and Jennifer Aniston.
Storks is co-directed by Nicholas Stoller and Doug Sweetland.
South Indian films
Days of Tafree
What it's about: An official remake of the 2015 Gujarati film, Chhello Divas, this film revolves around the lives of seven friends. It explores the lives of these youngsters as they go through some highs and lows of their relationships, love and compassion, reach the end of their college days and begin a new life.
Who's in it: Yash Soni, Ansh Bagri, Sanchay Goswami, Sarabjeet Bindra, Nimisha Mehta, Kinjal Rajpriya and Anuradha Mukherjee
What may work for it: The film is directed by Krishnadev Yagnik, who had also directed the Gujarati original. The Gujarati film was a great success raking upto Rs. 17 crore. Also teenage comedies generally become a rage among the youngsters.
Kannada:
Danger Zone
What's it about: A horror film, it narrates what happens when a group of youngsters come across a ‘danger zone’ while on a trip.
Who's in it: Roop Shetty, Ramya
What may work for it: Going by the trailer, nothing. The film will need some heavenly miracle if it has to work. The film is nowhere close to scary, and is plagued by horrible VFX.
Sipayi
What's it about: Directed by debutant Rajath Mayee, the film narrates the story of a reporter who takes to violence to save the society from a certain evil.
Who's in it: Siddharth, Sruthi Hariharan and Sanchari Vijay
What may work for it: Mayee has previously assisted Pawan Kumar on the popular film Lucia.
Tamil:
Aandavan Kattalai
What's it about: The comedy-drama film explores the troubles faced by a person when he changes his name on the advice of a broker.
Who's in it: Vijay Sethupathi, Ritika Singh, Nassar
What may work for it: The film is directed by Manikandan of Kaaka Muttai and Kuttrame Thandanai fame.
Thodari
What's it about: Set in the backdrop of a love story between a railway pantry worker and a film make up artist, the film narrates the hijack of a train by a group of terrorists who plan to kidnap a minister travelling in it. The film is dubbed in Telugu as Rail.
Who's in it: Dhanush, Keerthy Suresh
What may work for it: Dhanush's presence in a film itself increases the star value of a film. But here he's said to even indulge in some high-voltage action sequence.
Telugu
Majnu
What's it about: Directed by Virinchi Varma, Majnu is a romantic comedy-drama film. The film narrates the love story of an assistant director Aditya with 2 women while he is in the process of writing a romantic comedy story.
Who's in it: Nani, Anu Emmanuel, Priya Shri
What may work for it: Varma has previously directed the popular film Uyyala Jampala. Nani, from Makkhi fame, has already delivered three hits this year.
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