From the silent era in the 1940s to the not-so-silent era when the Partition of 1947 tore the nation into two, Jubilee begins its comprehensive, exhilarating journey. Echoes of the past reverberate in this researched but easygoing flight into filmic fancy. Jubilee is remarkably well shot by cinematographer Pratik Shah who hardly ever allows the storytelling to be overwhelmed by signposts and emblems of historicity.
Not to be taken too seriously, and yet seriously enough to know this is not a flight into fancy, Jubilee packs in quite a punch, resisting the temptation to get paunchy, it remains well trimmed and sinewy in its storytelling.
Prime Video’s Jubilee on OTT seems poised to keep the audiences at home. So where does that leave debutant director Vardhan Ketkar’s Gumraah? Not very far! As expected, Gumraah has opened to very poor collections, although it is not a bad film at all. The trick of enjoying Gumraah is two-pronged: go with zero expectations, and if you haven’t seen the original Tamil film Thadam, you would be hooked to the story of identical twins (told apart in the Hindi version by one of them wearing printed shirts) who meet in a police station as prime crime accuseds, unlike several recent crime thrillers that start off well and come to a deadend at the climax, Gumrah doesn’t lose it way towards the finale. It remains clearheaded and uncluttered to the end.
Despite its entertainment value, it is doubtful that Gumraah’s collections would get better over the weekend. Also, Aditya Roy Kapur in a double role is one too many for the audiences who are yet to find a relevant connect with his very urbane personality.
Ravi Teja’s Ravanasura in Telugu is yet another assembly-line action film with a screenplay so dog-eared and tattered it could be the 1990s again. And why the ear-shattering background score? Do they think the audience can be won over with shrillness? This is Ravi’s fifth release in two years. He is rapidly acquiring the reputation of being the Akshay Kumar of the South, and not in a good way.
