Dinesh Kamath’s column on ‘New movie-releases in Navi Mumbai’ (The Light: Swami Vivekananda, Madras Café, Jobs, Kick-Ass 2, Planes, Oops a Desi, Popat and Tasher Desh) that was published in Newsband

New movie-releases in Navi Mumbai

By Dinesh Kamath

The Light: Swami Vivekananda

The movie The Light: Swami Vivekananda is a tribute to the great Saint of India produced by Tricolor Productions on his 150th Birth Anniversary. The Movie will be released both in Hindi and English.

Directed by Tutu Sinha, the film portrays the life history of Swami Vivekananda with some told and untold stories and his journey in search of God. The music of the film has been composed by Nachiketa Chakraborty and Dr. Hari Charan Verma. The Light: Swami Vivekananda shows the transformation of the young restless child to a matured individual who sacrificed the worldly pleasures for the sake of God.

The role of Swami Vivekananda will be played by Deep Bhattacharya. The star cast also includes Gargi Roy Choudhury, Premankur Chattopadhyay, Courtney Stephens, Biswajit Chakraborty, Biswajit Chakraborty, Piyali Mitra, Archita Sahu and Sayak Chakraborty in pivotal roles.

Madras Cafe

Madras Cafe is an Indian political espionage thriller film directed by Shoojit Sircar and starring John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri and Rashi Khanna in lead roles. The film is set in the late 80s and early 1990s, during the time of Sri Lankan civil war and the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The film was earlier titled Jaffna after the northern Sri Lankan city.

The political thriller is set against the backdrop of the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The film has been titled Madras Cafe, as the plot to kill Gandhi was hatched at the cafe. Madras Cafe brings us closer to what changed the political history of India.

The film, set in India and Sri Lanka, is a political spy thriller set against backdrop of the Sri Lankan civil war. Vikram Singh (John Abraham) is an Indian Army special officer who is appointed by the intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing to conduct covert operations in Sri Lanka shortly after Indian Peace-Keeping Force was forced to withdraw. As he journeys to Sri Lanka, with the intention of disrupting a rebel group, he discovers the larger issue. There he meets a British journalist (Jaya) who wants to reveal the truth about the civil war, and in the process he uncovers a conspiracy.

The film has John Abraham as Vikram Singh, Indian army officer appointed by the Research and Analysis Wing to carry out operations in Jaffna, Nargis Fakhri as Jaya, a British war correspondent in Sri Lanka, Rashi Khanna as Ruby Singh, wife of Singh, Ajay Rathnam as Anna, a fictitious rebel group leader, closely resembling Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, Leena Maria Paul as a Tamil rebel, Tinu Menachery as a Tamil rebel, Siddharth Basu as Robin Dutt, a key bureaucrat in Research and Analysis Wing, Agnello Dias as a Sri Lankan minister, Piyush Pandey as a cabinet secretary of India and Dibang.

Jobs

Jobs is a 2013 American biographical drama film based on the life of Steve Jobs, from 1974 while a student at Reed College to the introduction of the iPod in 2001. It is directed by Joshua Michael Stern, written by Matt Whiteley, and produced by Mark Hulme. Jobs also has two cinematographers: Russell Carpenter for scenes shot in the United States and Aseem Bajaj for scenes shot in India. Steve Jobs is portrayed by Ashton Kutcher, with Josh Gad as Apple Computer's (now Apple Inc.) co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Like the man it’s about, Jobs is thin and unassuming, but keeps surprising you with ideas and innovation. The movie looks at the late Steve Jobs and the technological and cultural changes he brought about.

Kutcher’s Zen-style bemusement is front and center as the soon-to-be Apple co-founder is seen in 1971 having dropped out of college in Portland — though he still goes to classes (often barefooted). Jobs does drugs, takes a consciousness-raising trip to India and dates a woman (Abby Brammell) he says he loves but may not care about.

What Jobs, always curious about things people are working on, does care about is ideas. When he and pal Steve Wozniak (an endearing Josh Gad) get a quick gig with Atari they fix the assigned problem and then take a right turn into inspiration. After turning their attention to making a personal computer, they make one that’s a combo of a typewriter and a television.

Once their fledgling business gets investors, the hippie-ish Jobs lets others do the heavy lifting. But he’s not as spacey as he seems. After Apple moves out of his parents’ garage and into the real world, he coldheartedly blocks the guys who helped him and Woz from getting shares in the company.

As Jobs and Apple introduce the Macintosh, his antisocial behavior — present when he was at Atari — gets worse. His girlfriend gets pregnant and he denies paternity, despite tests that prove otherwise. He puts creativity ahead of profits to such a degree that the Apple board (Matthew Modine, Dermot Mulroney and J.K. Simmons play the business-suited adults) reduces Jobs to a figurehead.

He resigns, and after returning years later following corporate upheaval, he’s got lots of plans — including one for a tiny device that can play music, which is where the film wraps up, in 2001.

Kick-Ass 2

Kick-Ass 2 is a 2013 British-American superhero comedy film based on the comic book of the same name and Hit-Girl, both by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr., and is the sequel to the 2010 film Kick-Ass. The film was written and directed by Jeff Wadlow and co-produced by Matthew Vaughn, who directed the first film.

This latest film sees KickAss' antics from the first flick inspiring a new wave of costumed, but ordinary, superheroes. However, for Kick Ass aka Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) himself, life's got rather quiet and humdrum. He's hung up the green and yellow unitard and is concentrating on life as a high school student. Likewise with Chloe Grace Moretz's Hit Girl. She's trying to be part of school as well.

But the reality is the pair of them are bored silly with a normal life and crave the ultra violence of the vigilante world.

Hit Girl's determined to stick with the quieter life and deal with Mean Girls style bullies at school, but when Kick Ass meets up with the sadistic ex-Mafia enforcer Colonel Stars and Stripes (an electric Jim Carrey), he becomes part of a team called Justice Forever.

Just round the corner though is Christopher Mintz-Plasse's bondage wearing super-villain, The Mother F***er, who's determined to avenge his father's death at the hands of Kick Ass, putting them on a collision course.

Planes

Planes is a 2013 American 3D computer-animated adventure sports comedy film produced by DisneyToon Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is a spin-off of Pixar's Cars franchise and the first film in a planned Planes trilogy.

It's a Disney film, though not from the Pixar stable. Planes is really exactly the same as Cars, but with wings: a family animation about cute vehicles with big eyes racing each other. Dane Cook voices Dusty Crophopper, the humble little crop-dusting plane who dreams of making it big as a superstar racing plane, if such a thing can be said, strictly speaking, to exist. The only problem is that poor Dusty suffers from a fear of heights. There is the expected nasty villain and the mandatory grumpy oldster who agrees to mentor our plucky underdog hero. It's an amiable enough entertainment, gentle and good-natured.

Ooops a Desi

Ooops a Desi is a Hindi Fast-Paced Thriller, Action film directed by Jenner Jose. The film features Buali Shah, Adnan Khalid, Pragathi Yadhati and Gideon Samson as main characters.

Ooops a Desi is about Indians (Desi) living in the USA on an invalid immigration status. The movie opens to a busy downtown street (in New York city). The passing pedestrians notice something very alarming. It’s a Desi (Indian) holding a visible sign. Sign states “BOMB here!!!”. Soon we are taken to the story that occurred before this incident. The guy with the Bomb Sign (Xavier), along with Dev, does odd jobs because of their illegal immigration status in the USA. They have their own troubled past that is preventing them from returning to India. The roller-coaster begins when AJ, their room-mate is mysteriously abducted to which Sonia is a witness. Because of their illegal status, Dev and Xavier along with Sonia have no option but to take matters in their own hands.

Music Directors of the film are GUFY, Gaurav H. Singh, Hardik Dave, Divyajeet Sahoo, Saurabh Malhotra and Bharat Hans.

Singers are GUFY, Hardik Dave, Bharat Hans and Suryaveer Hooja.

Lyrics are by Deepak Agrawal, Leeladhar Dhote, Divyajeet Sahoo, Gaurav H. Singh and Hardik Dave.

Popat

Popat is a Marathi film produced by Mirah Entertainment Pvt. Ltd and Citrus Check Inns, directed by Satish Rajwade, written by Satish Rajwade.

The cast of the film includes Atul Kulkarni, Siddharth Menon, Ketan Pawar, Amey Wagh, Anita Date, Neha Shitole and Megha Ghadge. Music is by Avinash-Vishwajeet. It’s a comedy film.

After the super success of Premachi Goshta, director Satish Rajwade is back with Popat. The film is about four friends (Atul Kulkarni, Siddharth Menon, Ketan Pawar and Amey Wagh) and their hilarious encounters while making a movie.

Tasher Desh

Tasher Desh (English: The Land of Cards) is a 2012 Bengali fantasy film directed by Q. The film has been described as a "trippy adaptation" of the Rabindrath Tagore's namesake play. It features Soumyak Kanti DeBiswas, Anubrata Basu, Tillotama Shome, Rii, Joyraj Bhattacharjee, Tinu Verghese, and Immaduddin Shah in the lead roles.

The film is in the form of a story-teller wanting to tell a story. The story he tells mingles between his own story and that of a queen and her son banished to a palace where they lead a life of luxury and decadence. An oracle whispers the secret words to the prince and he leaves the palace with his friend, the merchant’s son. Their boat sinks and they arrive at the land of cards where the inhabitant cards are governed by a military regime. The prince and his friend get caught and bring about a change in the women cards with music and prophecies of love. The woman cards revolt. The king who banished them surrenders and the prince finds the meaning of life.

The film has English sub-titles.