King of Spades

Behind every successful man there is a woman goes the conventional saying. Well what if we rephrased it to say, behind every successful woman there is a man! That's exactly what this movie Dangal is all about. Redefining the conventional norms associated with gender. The setting is Haryana, a state with one of the worst sex ratios in India today. Where khap panchayat is stronger than most courts or governments. Patriarchal to an extent that most villages do not have brides for their gabru jawans (young men), since most girls get killed in their mother’s wombs.  And to think that in such a society, a guy dreamt of making his daughters sporting heroes is somewhat surreal. Add to that the traditionally male dominated sport of wrestling and one might say in Haryanvi “Bawla hai key!” But then that is what defines a true wrestler. Not the daav or the wrestling move that he throws in the ring but the fights that he withstands in real life. And Mahavir Phogat is one such persona. P...

There are movies and then there are stories. The first one impresses you. The later impacts! Mr.Rajkumar Hirani, always does the later. And he does it with so much of simplicity and earnestness that only few can. Have been a fan of his craft, ever since the Munnabhai series ,which was followed by the evergreen movie 3 idiots. But what he does with Pk is something, which probably no other director would have dared to explore or even delivered. Imagine the plot- An alien lands into a country and then teaches his inhabitants a thing or two about god and religion, just as he discovers their culture.  About how one is real and the other probably man-made. Sounds crazy.Well go ahead, watch the movie to see how efficiently the master executes his craft. Right from scene one, Aamir Khan (Pk) gets into the character of the lovable alien. Absolutely harmless, he has no clue what to do, when the only one thing (a locket) that can get him back to his planet, is flicked by a human. How he...