Flawless

Rating : 7/10
Release Date : March, 2008 (India)
Time : 108 minutes
Director : Michael Radford; Writer : Edward Anderson; Music : Stephen Warbeck
Starring : Demi Moore, Michael Caine, Lambert Wilson, Joss Ackland, Shaughan Seymour

Glass ceilings can be frustrating. Especially if you’re competent and have been passed over many times.

Ask Demi Moore. She’s the first to enter the office of London Diamond and last to leave. Comes up with brilliant ideas. Solves problems of a weighty political nature. Yet, in a company which has 1200+ Managing Directors, is painfully aware that the number of female Managing Directors is zero & likely to remain that way. It’s the 60’s after all.

Michael Caine is a janitor nearing retirement. He has a limp. And an audacious scheme.

It’s a fascinating film. Unfolding slowly, setting the right environment, the right tonality, raising the right issues. Showing how problems like apartheid, the Cold War impacted big business. And the lives of Demi Moore and Michael Caine.

Is it completely believable ? Possibly with a generous helping of the right salt. An enjoyable watch.

Woman In Black

Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 17th February, 2012 (India)
Time : 95 minutes
Director : James Watkins; Writer : Jane Goldman, based on the novel by Susan Hill; Music : Marco Beltrami
Starring : Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer, Ciaran Hinds, Sophie Stuckie, Misha Handley, Jessica Raine

Daniel Radcliffe, a widower for the last four years, is still unable to come to grips with his wifes death. Even his charming four year old son is unable to bring a smile to his face. A lawyer by profession, his work is also suffering and he is sent to a village to sort out what seems to be a routine succession of a house left behind by a lady.

However, he is clearly & strangely unwelcome in the village. The house seems haunted. Kids seem to die young, by committing suicide. And it all seems to be linked to an often seen apparition of a woman in black.

Daniel Radcliffe is impressive. Having only seen the first Harry Potter, have only seen him as a kid. Here, he looks grown up but not totally. There is still a little bit of a child in him which helps him retain his endearing qualities. The story itself goes along predictable lines, scaring in bits, building tension right from the beginning.

I am not a fan of the occult. Prefer to stick with the rational, that which can be explained logically. I will struggle to explain or cope with the way this one ended. Nothing we’ve not seen before, nothing much to take away home.

Anjaana Anjaani

Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 1st October, 2010
Time : 150 minutes
Director, Co-writer : Siddharth Anand; Co-writer: Advaita Kala; Music : Vishal-Shekhar
Starring : Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra
Two strangers, a man & a woman, meet while attempting suicide. The woman believes in ‘signs’ from up above. These tell her that she needs to live for a few more days. She manages to convince the guy of the same as well and they decide to spend the next 20 odd days having fun, fulfilling their ‘bucket list’. Will they fall in love ? Or will they commit suicide ? And if you cant predict the correct end, you need serious psychiatric help !


Ranbir is charismatic. Priyanka is fun in her opening scene but then seems to taper off. Some of the gags are funny (Ranbir’s gay turn makes him a promising candidate for the next Dostana instalment), some moments iconic (Priyanka changing into shorts in the back seat of a moving car) and there are some interesting merchandising ideas (named helmets, for example).


The music and background score is v good, the scenery nice & fresh, the central premise interesting but then the rest is a silly story that is unable to hold attention, is unevenly paced, has two unreal characters doing things that are just plain unbelievable and is at least an half an hour too long !


This is one of the scripts that relies totally on star power to transform it into something barely watchable. And the producers seem to know this as on their official website, no one else apart from the lead pair are mentioned in the cast. It has its moments but too far and few in between.