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The rich imagination of director Shankar and the suaveness of superstar Rajinikanth worked wonders to make 2010’s ‘Robot’ an enjoyable sci-fi flick, even with a preposterous story that gave us a modern-day Frankenstein in Chitti, an android made to serve, but nonetheless turning rogue and becoming the problem itself. Its sequel, ‘2.0’, after being stuck in a post-production hell for some time, is finally here. The previous film’s thematic footing was on the possi­bility of machines taking over the human race. The follow-up adds the angle of technology destroying the natural order. There’s much to admire in ‘2.0’. Shankar crafts a visionary cine­matic design propped up with ludi­crous amount of VFX trickery. His mastery over visuals and action set pieces cast a spell and make your eyes pop. The writing is a major problem though, reeking of older Shankar films like ‘I’, ‘Nayak’ and ‘Indian’. Shankar looks at complex issues of technology and environ­ment through a myopic and sim­plistic social lens. He’s stuck in a grand narrative that instead of posing questions wants to provide all the answers.

We meet genius Indian scientist Vaseegaran (Rajinikanth) and his new android assistant Nila (Amy Jackson) as they try to figure out why all cell phones are flying away from their owners’ hands. There are speculations: This may be some alien force, or a ‘black hole’ has opened up in the space, sucking in all phones. Soon there is a nation-wide frenzy, and the government is forced to declare a state of emer­gency and mobilize the army.

Vaseegaran calls for Home Min­ister (Adil Hussain) to sanction an order to bring back Chitti (also played by Rajinikanth), who has been dismantled and kept at a high-security museum. After much reluctance, Chitti is restored and with his superhero-like powers he’s able to track down a myste­rious supernatural villain Pakshi Rajan (Akshay Kumar), who is hell bent on revenge against telecom multinationals. We are made to wait till the second half, where the origin of the villain is revealed through a tedious back-story.

Shankar has so much unpacking to do in a single movie that the bur­den falls on the audience’s head. Chitti’s projection as a superhero, the villain’s flight for vigilante jus­tice and the social commentary sprinkled everywhere are played in a cacophonic disharmony of cine­matic excess. There isn’t a particu­lar likable quality in Rajinikanth’s portrayal of the bland Vaseegaran.

Of all the scientists you may have come across in films, Vaseegaran sounds the wackiest and veers close to being a hack theorist. His arguments and explanations are pure pseudoscience. The charm of Chitti is also lost somewhere this time. (I also admit that demanding more than a one-note performance from a ‘robot’ is somewhat unreal­istic from my side). Kumar makes a powerful presence as the film’s antagonist but his character isn’t fully realized and gets lost between playing a hopeless activist and a ruthless vigilante on a killing spree.

As a spectacle of grand design, it will be hard for any Indian film in the coming days to match ‘2.0’. But director Shankar lets this spec­tacle overtake storytelling. He’s so involved in painting his frames in VFX canvas that he is detached from his characters and plotting, which needed more polishing. The film’s mesmerizing look doesn’t spill over into its screenplay to give us an involving experience.

 Who should watch it?

All the hype surrounding ‘2.0’ has turned it into an event movie. It’s then most likely to work for admirers of Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar, but not for viewers wanting an edgier sci-fi narrative with complex characters.

Movie: 2.0

Genre: SCI-FI

CAST: Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Adil Hussain

DIRECTION: Shankar

The Royal Saino Restaurant and Bar at Durbar­marg is one of the oldest establishments in the area that has stood the test of time and the change in preferences of the customers. Royal Saino is run by a business family with more than three decades of history in hospitality and the restaurant itself is a part of the glorious history of Durbar Marg, one of the poshest locations in Kathmandu. Royal Saino is a multi-cuisine restaurant offering everything from Continental to Chinese, Indian to Nepali food. It is also famous for its “Belle Mo:Mos” which have quite a reputation among locals and for­eigners alike. Check out Royal Saino’s Trip Advisor page and you’ll find people swearing by its food on the reviews section. Consistency in food through all these years and quality in service along with its multiple seating arrangements help Royal Saino maintain its legacy and thrive at a time when dozens of restaurants are opening and closing every year in and around Durbarmarg.

THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

- Royal Saino Special Roasted Duck

- Mo:Mo Platter

- Sizzler

Opening hours: 10 am - 10 pm

Location: Durbarmarg, Ktm

Cards: Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 1500

Reservations: 01-4230890

‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’, the much anticipated fol­low-up to 2012’s ‘Wreck-It Ralph’, brings back the pleasure of watching Wreck-it Ralph (voiced by John C Reilly), the arcade game villain with monstrous hands but a kind soul, and his pint sized side-kick Vanellope (voiced by Sarah Silverman), a motor race game driver. Their first adventure happened within the world of video games, as Ralph, fed up with his sorry existence as an unlikable villain, ventured to get himself a ‘medal’ that would earn him a hero-like respect. The second adventure propels Ralph and Vanellope in a strange new world of ‘the Inter­net’. Compared to the somewhat niche circle of video games, the Internet provides an extravagant otherworldly appeal, and fishes for hilarity out of relevant materi­als associated with our daily web consumption.

It all starts when the arcade, where Ralph and Vanellope exist with other fellow video game char­acters, installs a WIFI router. Ralph is pretty used to his routine video game life but Vanellope is bored to death racing the same levels of Sugar Rush over and over again. As chance would have it, their nor­malcy is threatened one day and to make things go back to normal, they get themselves into a fish-out-of-water situation by diving into the sea of unknown that is the Internet.

The director duo of Phil John­ston and Rich Moore are highly creative in bringing Internet to life. They distill the complexity of building a landscape of virtual reality by giving it humanistic char­acter strokes. They give feelings to pop-ups, search engines and viruses—and touch trickier terri­tory like the ‘dark web’ with a light hearted treatment. The screenplay mashes up many genres but comes out clean as a well thought out character journey for both Ralph and Vanellope. Ralph Breaks the Internet is in equal parts a road movie, a fish-out-of-water movie and a buddy movie.

Apart from the main cast, some new characters that impress are Yesss (voiced by Taraji P Hen­son), the head algorithm of a viral video content sharing site called BuzzTube, and Shank (voiced by Gal Gadot), a player in a rac­ing game called Slaughter Race. Yesss catapults Ralph’s internet popularity by turning him into memes and making him do reac­tion videos. And Shank takes over as Vanellope’s new BFF, putting her friendship with Ralph in jeopardy.

The plot may have been designed to throw our central characters in a wild goose chase but the thematic fabric of Ralph Breaks the Internet focuses on the dynamics of their friendship. In the classic animated film style, the movie is aptly able to sell the idea that relationships change over time and sometimes the best thing to do is not to latch on to things you love the most but to let them go.

This film is lush, bright and mostly nostalgic, and right up along the likes of ‘The Incredi­bles’ and ‘Inside Out’ in delivering emotional punches. It is on-the-nose with all the in-house Disney jokes but it gets away by treating these sequences as self-parody instead of self-promotion. The feel good nature and the ease with which the characters evoke empathy make it a family enter­tainer that shouldn’t be missed at any cost

 Who should watch it?

‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ guarantees a fun time for parents and kids alike. You don’t need to know anything about the first movie to enjoy this second movie in the Wreck-it Ralph universe. It’s the kind of animated flick that hits home its moral message without being sugary or overtly simplistic.

RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET

GENRE: Animation

CAST: John C Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot, Taraji P Henson

DIRECTION: Rich Moore, Phil Johnston

It is the ultimate joy to watch the story unfold against the backdrop of the famous soundtracks of Queen’s major hits

BIOPIC

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

CAST: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy

DIRECTION: Bryan Singer

Who should watch it?

Bohemian Rhapsody is tailor made for the fans of Queen. They will definitely take this film as a celebration and tribute to the band.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is an expensively produced, stu­dio-backed biopic about Fred­die Mercury, the legendary Brit­ish musician who led one of the most iconic Rock bands of all time, Queen. Biopics, or the based-on-real-life films, by their nature, have received bad repute over the years for their episodic narratives that try to say so much about their sub­jects they end up saying little. Bohe­mian Rhapsody doesn’t break free of its genre dimensions but to call it “another band movie” would be a grave disservice to the film. Within its template storytelling it shelters an emotional core that effectively exposes the musical genius’s chaotic relation with his own roots, sexual­ity and fame. Mercury is played by American actor Rami Malek. The actor sinks his teeth deep into Mercury’s char­acter, giving us a fully lived-in per­formance. The film opens with the shot of Mercury waking up from a deep slumber and then psyching himself to perform at the 1985 Live- Aid Concert. As he makes his way to the stage, we magically travel back to the 1970 London, where a young Farrokh Bulsara rebels against his conservative Parsi immigrant family to pursue a bolder dream of music. En route, he befriends Roger May (Gwilym Lee) and Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) to form a band that performs at college pubs, and begins a roman­tic relationship with Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton). Much to his par­ents’ disapproval, Farrokh Bulsara changes his name to Freddie Mer­cury. Gradually Freddie becomes the force to push his other band mates to think big. They self-finance their first album that catapults them into mainstream pop music and lands them in America to much acclaim.

As far as Queen’s musical jour­ney is concerned, it feels way too regular. There’s the conflict among the group’s band members once they amass fame and fortune—the debate of whether to make passion­ate music or to be a formulaic sell­out—and the unwanted attacks from scandal-hungry media. Then again, hiding in these layers of familiarity are some powerfully interwoven moments.

One of them is the birthday scene where Freddie sits around with his band members and family. The fam­ily is meeting Freddie’s friends for the first time, so they are excited to talk about their rich Zoroastrian her­itage and their life before London. But Freddie continuously tries to change the topic, saying “No look­ing back, only forward”. A sense of Freddie not wanting to let his roots define him hauntingly mopes over this scene. We are left thinking: Was he so ashamed of his origins that he wanted to put a blanket over it? The answer to this is given when years later he purposefully injects “Bis­millah” in the lyrics of their most popular song Bohemian Rhapsody. A subtle hat tip that assures us he’s finally embraced his heritage.

The film refuses to take the spot­light away from Freddie Mercury and rarely focuses on the lives of other Queen members. It’s no sur­prise they feel underwritten and sometimes operate only to make the front-man look good. The film’s other weakness is it tries to string together a narrative jumping from one event to the other at lightning speed. But the ultimate joy of Bohe­mian Rhapsody is to watch the unfolding of the story orchestrated with the soundtrack of Queen’s major hits. The behind-the-scenes give us little nuggets about the cre­ative process of the band. Similarly, the concert sequences succeed in building an atmosphere of energy and nostalgia.

I wouldn’t say the film will age well. But for the time being, despite being formulaic, it is a movie that captures the spirit of Freddie Mer­cury and his music.