30042022-LSTL-01.qxd 4/29/2022 11:47 PM Page 1 c m y b TRIBUNE Hard work Tamannaah Bhatia’s Babli Bouncer is making headlines ever since the film has gone on the floors. The actress recently pulled off an 18-hour shift to wrap a location schedule. TMS LUDHIANA | SATURDAY | 30 APRIL 2022 Action time once more Rasika set to scare! Official title of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 7 revealed H Karisma open to marriage again? Karisma Kapoor held an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session with her fans on Thursday. During the session on Instagram, the actress answered a lot of questions and spoke about her favourite things. She revealed that her favourite food was biryani and colour, black. She also answered the question about her favourite person and shared a collage of pictures of her parents, Randhir Kapoor and Babita, her kids Samaira and Kiaan, sister Kareena Kapoor Khan and her husband Saif Ali Khan, as well as kids Taimur and Jehangir. When a fan asked her if she would ever get married again, the actress answered by sharing an emoji of a confused person and wrote, ‘Depends’. Karisma was married to businessman Sanjay Kapur. The two became parents to daughter Samaira and son Kiaan. In 2014, they filed for divorce through mutual consent and got separated in 2016. Both of them have now moved on in their lives. OLLYWOOD star Tom Cruise will be returning as Ethan Hunt in the seventh installment of the Mission Impossible franchise titled Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One. Paramount Pictures revealed the official title during its Thursday presentation at CinemaCon, the annual trade show for theatre owners. Cruise, who is usually a regular presence at the convention in Las Vegas, wasn’t in attendance. He attended last year’s CinemaCon to talk up the death-defying stunts in Mission: Impossible 7 before the movie’s release date was pushed back by a year due to Covid. At that time, he was most excited about driving a motorcycle off a cliff in Norway, an antic he called ‘far and away the most dangerous thing I’ve attempted’. Audiences got a sneak preview of that anxiety-inducing moment, and more, in the high-stakes trailer, which hasn’t been made available His stunts have gotten so outrageous that everyone in the room laughed when Ethan Hunt nose dives off a cliff while on his motorcycle and then free-falls into the abyss. Audiences will be able to watch the teaser in front of Top Gun: Maverick, which hits the theatres on May 27. Though plot details for MI7 are mostly under wraps, Hunt and his team of operatives are again faced with an existential threat. The trailer was stuffed with action-packed footage, including vintage-looking trains flying off tracks, deadly emerald-coloured clouds of biochemical weapons, and plenty of brutal street combat. Along with Cruise, who once again stars as an IMF agent known to occasionally hang off airplanes and skyscrapers, MI stars Ving Rhames, Henry Czerny, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby and Frederick Schmidt. Newcomers to the franchise include Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Esai Morales, Rob Delaney, Charles Parnell, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss and Cary Elwes. Dead Reckoning, as it will presumably be called, is set to be released on June 28, 2024. — IANS KNOW THE CAST OF MI7 Along with TOm Cruise, MI stars Ving Rhames, Henry Czerny, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby and Frederick Schmidt. Newcomers to the franchise include Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Esai Morales, Rob Delaney, Charles Parnell, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss and Cary Elwes. Actress Rasika Dugal is quite excited about her upcoming show Adhura in which she has got a chance to explore the genre of horror. Adhura outlines a story set in an elite boarding school with a dark secret, which will shake up the lives of everyone connected to it. Directed by Gaurav Chawla and Ananya Banerjee, it also features Ishwak Singh. Rasika said, “It is exciting for me to experiment with a new genre. And that too supernatural horror. I am easily spooked and therefore haven’t watched any horror story at all. So this one is kind of new for me. With this script, I realised on the second day of the shoot that I couldn’t go over my lines after 5 pm if I wanted a good night’s sleep. The story is also very poignant.” It will be releasing on Amazon Prime Video. — IANS Rasika Dugal More action, less thought MOVIE REVIEWS HEROPANTI 2 Director: Ahmed Khan Cast: Tiger Shroff, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Tara Sutaria Rating: ★★★ Breath-taking locales, slick action, killer moves and rippling abs, Tiger Shroffheadlined Heropanti 2 is a popcorn entertainer let down by a jerky screenplay Mona A smooth flight RUNWAY 34 Cast: Ajay Devgn, Amitabh Bachchan, Rakul Preet Singh. Boman Irani, Angira Dhar and Aakanksha Singh Director:Ajay Devgn Rating: ★★★ Nonika Singh Aviation disasters are not so uncommon in our country, but aviation films certainly are. So when Ajay Devgn picks up an aviation drama as his third directorial outing, the subject, inspired by true events, does make for an interesting premise. There he is—Ajay Devgn holding not only the directorial baton, wearing the producer’s hat but also playing the lead! With swagger (a cigarette dangling every now and then) as well as self-boast quality in place, he is Captain Vikrant Khanna who parties the night before his flight from Dubai to Cochin. Is that a signal for impending disaster? Before he steps into the plane, we learn of his ace pilot skills and his photographic memory. How the two will come in handy when the imminent writ on the wall will unfold is what the exciting first half has in store for you. Devgn the director is in control and builds a sense of trepidation step by step and there Be it Ajay Devgn’s acting-directing skills or the plot, there is enough tension to keep you engaged. Despite the verbal pomposity in the second half, this fare scores on many fronts is more than one heart in your mouth moment. Be it through the glimpses of passengers on board or what goes on in the cockpit; there is enough tension to keep you engaged. And it’s not just passengers who brace for the landing impact, so do we, holding our breath before the expected outcome. While cinephiles might be tempted to draw comparisons with Tom Hanks-starrer Sully, Runway 34 actually takes a cue from a real life flight the Jet Airways Doha to Kochi flight, which had a narrow escape on August 18, 2015, due to inclement weather and lack of visibility. The cinematic experience is well simulated, no small thanks to cinematographer Aseem Bajaj and of course VFX effects. The directorial reins are well held and the first half is taut, keeps you on tenterhooks. But post the intermission, the narrative steers it in a different direction. It does not quite nosedive completely, yet prevents the film from being a runaway success. Surprising, for the second half entails the grand entry of Big B. Amitabh Bachchan as Narayan Vedant, no-nonsense head of AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau) is incharge of an enquiry against the star pilot. He is both bombastic and effective, as the officer whose antipathy towards incompetence is more than evident. ‘Incompetence breeds incompetence’, he spews loftily and utters many a technical jargon in shudh Hindi and translates it for the anglicized, the not so Hindi bhaashi (no pun intended.) The enquiry proceedings despite such dramatic flourishes and more, including a polygraph test, does not lead to an adrenaline rush and is let down by verbal pomposity. Actors Rakul Preet Singh as co-pilot Tanya Albuquerque and Devgn in particular, however, give good account of themselves. The writing (by Sandeep Kewlani and Aamil Keeyan Khan), however, is clearly in Devgn’s favour and the twist in the end about where lies the truth further enhances his heroic image. Understated and stylish at the same time, he makes us root for his character. Watch the film to know how human factor can trigger or prevent an aviation mishap. The cinematic factors at play here lead the film towards a smooth landing. c m y b Babloo is back, and has gone international in the second outing of Heropanti. The story for this one begins on foreign shores, where Babloo, with a code name of Plumber, dials CBI in his home country after his cover is blown. On one side is the promise of new life in exchange for saving the country and on the other the lure of money; what would our hero choose? Well, Babloo joins hands with a maverick magician Mr Laila (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), whose tentacles are spread across China, Egypt and Russia. Launching a programme Pulse, the menacing Laila intends to rob every Indian of money on March 31. In comes the gangster’s sister, the rich girl Inaaya and the stereotypical mother in Amrita Singh. And the action, dance and romance ensues. How our hero changes gears from bad to good and what comes in way takes the narrative forward, taking one along on a trip across the world, breathtaking locales, slick action and foot-tapping music. Tiger Shroff is our super action hero, he looks and works the part. Envious body, action stunts and dance moves, he’s a complete package and his dedication to his craft is admirable. Tara Sutaria fits the format of leading lady of masala entertainer—tall and slender, a bimbette dressed to the T. Only her obscenity-spewing avatar is hard to stomach. Amrita Singh is the over the top melodramatic mom doing chaar dham yatra for the safety of her newfound bhola bhala son. Nawazuddin Siddiqui shines as lipstick-wielding, nailpaint-loving Laila. The action by Ram Chella and Lakshman Chella is spectacular; Tiger is equally at ease atop a train and a bicycle, as during his gravity defying stunts and hand-to-hand combats. The sequences are choreographed beautifully; cars swirling and Tiger moving effortlessly between them, courtesy choreographerturned-director Ahmed Khan. Beautiful locales, opulent sets and fancy cars, the production value of this film is high. The music is by AR Rahman; Dafa Kar and Whistle Baja 2.0 are peppy numbers. Tiger Shroff’s debut number Miss Hairan fits the film’s bill, and since it’s an Eid release, there is an essential Sufiana track titled Jalwanuma. Flashy neons to sharp suits, Tiger and Tara are dressed well. What doesn’t work, however, is the jerky narrative. While one sure isn’t looking for a believable plot, the narrative spread across different countries and time don’t really come together. At two hours 22 minutes, the film is a tad too long. Dialogues aimed at being mass pleasers—Bablu dhoondande se nahi kismat se milta hai, Mere honthon par kya fungus lagi hai—to Laila’s shayari don’t really cut the ice; double entendre dialogues are cringe-worthy. Tiger’s skill and dedication is to the point, all he needs is a strong screenplay for the superb action star in him to soar.