Aiyaary- View From the Balcony

Manoj Bajpayee is a fine actor. Rakul Preet Singh (apparently starred in a few Telugu films) looks nice and acts well in her part. Siddharth Malhotra- well, I am not a big fan of his, but he's adequate for the role.

Overall, the movie is a good watch if you like the Spy Vs. Spy genre. Here, it is also linked to the Adarsh Housing scam though the disclaimer proclaims otherwise.The story is decent, and keeps you guessing in quite a few scenes. Naseeruddin Shah has a small but significant role.

Somehow, the leading lady reminded me of Poonam Dhillon in her young days. She looks and acts a bit like her- or maybe I have a need for glasses :)

Ok, without giving the story away, this is all I can say. It has the feel of a Neeraj Pande film (A Wednesday). Nicely shot scenes of foreign locales. The snowy ones in India too.

Ittefaq- Film Review

It's a nice word, ittefaq (coincidence). It's also used in a favourite song of mine, Zindagi ittefaq hai  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVxCAwqONcI  but this is about the film, a songless suspense film. It is a remake, with some changes, of a film by the same name starring Rajesh Khanna and Nanda. It is abot two murders, that seem linked to one suspect initially, and then a second. The theories and the suspects' stories are built around some coincidences.

An author is found with a dead man in circumstances that suggest he is the killer. His wife has also been found killed at home, on the evening of a book launch of his new book. The dead man's wife also becomes a suspect after she is found to have lied about some of her extra-curricular activities. S who is the real killer is what the inspector has to find out.

No spoilers, but the inspector Akshaye Khanna has acted well. So has Sonakshi, and others are adequate. Siddhath Malhotra I have always found wooden, and so he continues to be. Nothing great, but watchable for the twists in the tale. We have had live cases going this way and that recently, so it is contextually relevant as a plot, maybe.