11112023-LSTL-01.qxd 11/10/2023 10:17 PM Page 1 c m y b ILAIYARAAJA BIOPIC ON WAY Legendary music composer Ilaiyaraaja, who has delivered some iconic soundtracks in Indian cinema like Nayakan, Sadma and others, will soon be featured in a biopic. Tamil superstar Dhanush will be portraying Ilaiyaraaja on screen. TRIBUNE Life Dream role Actress Mrunal Thakur, who is part of the film Pippa, says her character has been given a well-defined arc, challenging the traditional gender norms seen in war dramas. LUDHIANA | SATURDAY | 11 NOVEMBER 2023 PHOTOS: PTI Nothing much to Marvel at! THE MARVELS Cast: Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, Zawe Ashton, Park Seo-jun, Samuel L. Jackson, Lashana Lynch, Mohan Kapur, Zenobia Shroff, Saagar Shaikh Director: Nia DaCosta Rating: ★★ Johnson Thomas The Marvels, a follow-up to Captain Marvel, co-scripted and directed by former podcaster Nia Dacosta, is the latest offering from the Marvel cinematic universe. The film feels rather discontinuous and all over the place. It is, in fact, the closest you could come to a comic-book experience. Don’t know if that was intended though. Given the previous cinematic overtures from the Marvel Universe, this film feels like a poor cousin. Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), a beaming-eyed Pakistani-American teenage mutant ninja fangirl, who also imagines herself part of a team with her idol, Carol Latest outing of The Marvels is goofy at times, but a little too flimsy to be memorable Danvers, aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) is zapped into a spaceship, where she takes the place of Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), a superhero astronaut, while Carol, finds herself in the Khan family living room, fighting off a Kree soldier. Carol, Monica and Kamala keep interchanging positions all through the movie, making room for pure bedlam. The plot seems a little confused, and underdeveloped, and there are story threads that just don’t carry through. Even the underlying themes are not presented in an invigorating or memorable fashion. While the trio is out to save the world, The Krees are looking to reignite their sun and save their planet from extinction. So, there’s no clear-cut good and bad here. The so-called villain, Dar- Benn, played by Zawe Ashton, does not have much to do. We don’t see much character development. The characters don’t assume life-ordeath expressions even when the situations demand them to. Nothing registers really. We don’t even see any moral struggles that we’ve come to expect from traditional Marvel superheroes. Captain Marvel does hint at it, but it’s all lost in the splashy action. The leaps in tone, and episodic nature of the narrative with flashbacks thrown in, feel jarring. It’s also quite hard to take the film seriously when Captain Marvel can power through everything and yet struggles to fend off foot soldiers from Kree. The idea of the power swaps was cool, but their execution left a lot to be desired. Nia DaCosta choreographs some of the fight scenes definitively, but the overall VFX does feel substandard for the cinematic universe. The quirky and annoying humour may seem goofy, but the side quests that emerge as the narrative plays along do not make much sense. The writing is not too strong and the direction manages to create a few exciting moments, enough to signify this as a bearable mess. This is a film written, helmed and fronted by women. Even the villain is female. So, the point-of-view is different from the testosterone-fueled male gaze we’ve been fortified on. Nick Fury played by Samuel L Jackson doesn’t have much to contribute here. The trio of women fronting this show does have engaging chemistry. Brie Larson and Teyonah Parris do well to stay focused within this chaotic narrative, but it’s really Iman Vellani who steals the show with her earnest fangirl moments and fresh vivacity. Diwali dhamaka! Ananya Panday, Aditya Roy Kapur and others ooze glam at Sara Ali Khan’s Diwali party Rumoured couple Ananya Panday and actor Aditya Roy Kapur, among others, attended a Diwali party hosted by Sara Ali Khan on Thursday. After attending a store launch event in New York City, Ananya Panday arrived with Orhan Awatramani (Orry) at Sara’s residence. She looked gorgeous in a shimmery blouse teamed with sharara pants and a matching shrug. Just after she arrived, her rumoured boyfriend, actor Aditya Roy Kapur, also reached the venue. He was dressed in a maroon kurta and black pyjama. Several clips and images from the bash circulated online in which Ananya and Aditya were seen holding each other’s hands. The two also reportedly visited Maldives recently to celebrate Ananya’s 25th birthday. Apart from Ananya and Aditya, filmmaker Karan Johar attended the party in his colourful printed kurta pyjama. — ANI It’s official Nicki regrets plastic surgery Political innings? Hollywood star Dwayne Johnson approached to run for the White House Hollywood star Dwayne Johnson has been approached by political parties to run in the next US election. The wrestler-turnedactor had previously discussed the prospect of entering the political arena, and Johnson has now revealed that he was approached by political parties about making a run for the White House. During an appearance on the What Now? with Trevor Noah podcast, Johnson shared: “At the end of 2022, representatives of various parties visited me and asked if I was going to run, and if I could run.” In 2021, a poll revealed that almost half of Americans would support the star if he decided to run for the presidency! The 51-year-old actor has admitted to being flattered by the support and said he was ‘really honoured’ by the result of the poll. He shared: “That was an interesting poll that happened and I was really moved by that. I was really blown away and I was really honoured.” Meanwhile, the Hollywood star suggested in 2021 that he could run for the White House in a bid to bring the country together. — IANS Singer-songwriter Nicki Minaj has regrets about some of her plastic surgery decisions. “I guarantee you, if you change anything on your body and do anything surgical and all this, you’re going to — more than likely, not definitely, more than likely — look back one day and say, ‘I was fine just the way I was’,” she said. The 40-year-old rapper confessed her regrets on Thursday’s episode of The RunThrough with Vogue podcast. Nicki told podcast hosts Chioma Nnadi and Chloe Malle, “That’s what happened to me. I could not believe even some of the photos that I didn’t love.” During the interview, Nicki immediately told the co-hosts that she prefers not to look at older photos of herself ‘because I didn’t like the way I looked’. “I didn’t like being skinny…It was a lot of things,” she continued. And when I look back at myself now, I literally was like, ‘Oh, I’m about to look like that girl again’. “The reason why I wasn’t able to look back at my old photos was I didn’t like the way I looked physically,” Nicki added. — IANS Alizeh-starrer Farrey heads to the 54th International Film Festival of India Into the deep ocean Jason Momoa’s Deep Rising to premiere in India Hollywood star Jason Momoa’s highly acclaimed film Deep Rising will be making its official Indian premiere at the All Living Things Environmental Film Festival 2023 (ALT EFF). The festival, which focuses on themes of environment, sustainability and climate change, now in its fourth edition, will take place from December 1 to 10 and feature more than 60 films, including international and Indian features, shorts, student films and animated movies. Deep Rising, narrated and produced by Momoa, and directed by Matthieu Ritz, is a real-life documentary that delves into the fate of the planet’s last untouched wilderness — the deep ocean. The film sheds light on the imminent threat faced by the deep ocean due to a secretive organisation’s plans to allow massive extraction of seabed metals to address the world’s energy crisis. Deep Rising showcases the vital relationship between the deep ocean and sustaining life on Earth. — IANS c m y b The upcoming film Farrey, which stars Alizeh, Zeyn Shaw, Sahil Mehta, Prasanna Bisht, Ronit B Roy and Juhi Babbar Soni in pivotal roles, has been picked for an official screening for the upcoming 54th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI). IFFI is set to be held in Goa from November 20 to 28. Farrey has been directed by Soumendra Padhi, and written by Abhishek Yadav and Padhi. The film delves into the complex world of academic deception, where a scholarship recipient, the orphaned genius Niyati, becomes unwittingly entangled in a high-stakes cheating racket orchestrated by her affluent peers. Talking about the film’s screening at IFFI, Bollywood superstar Salman Khan said, “I am happy that Farrey is being screened at IFFI. I have some fond memories of IFFI over the years and with Farrey making it to the esteemed panel it feels like a full circle. I wish the entire team all the very best.” Farrey is set to release in theatres on November 24. — IANS