Dinesh Kamath’s column ‘New movies released in Navi Mumbai’ (Sanju, Escape Plan 2 and Uncle Drew) that was published in Newsband

New movies released in Navi Mumbai

By Dinesh Kamath

Sanju

Sanju is a 2018 Indian biographical film directed by Rajkumar Hirani and written by Hirani and Abhijat Joshi. It was jointly produced by Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra under the banners Rajkumar Hirani Films and Vinod Chopra Films respectively. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor as Indian actor Sanjay Dutt, in various stages of his life. Sanju has Manisha Koirala, Paresh Rawal, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Jim Sarbh and Anushka Sharma play pivotal roles.

In a conversation with Hirani, Dutt shared anecdotes from his life, which the former found intriguing and prompted him to make a film based on Dutt's life. It was titled Sanju after the nickname Dutt's mother Nargis used to call him.

The film follows Sanjay Dutt (Ranbir Kapoor) in different stages of his life. Sanju is a biopic of the controversial life of actor Sanjay Dutt: his film career, jail sentence and personal life. What makes Dutt’s story compelling is his struggle with drug addiction, failed marriages and imprisonment. The movie takes you to a journey of laughter, tears, joy, melody and human relations.

The film has Ranbir Kapoor as Sanjay "Sanju" Dutt, Paresh Rawal as Sunil Dutt, Sanju's father, Manisha Koirala as Nargis, Sanju's mother, Dia Mirza as Manyata Dutt, Sanju's wife, Sonam Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Anushka Sharma as a biographer, Karishma Tanna as Madhuri Dixit, Jim Sarbh as Salman Khan, Tabu in a cameo appearance as herself, Boman Irani in a special appearance as himself, Sayaji Shinde as Don, Mahesh Manjrekar as himself, Arshad Warsi as himself (cameo), Sanjay Dutt as himself (end credits) and Aditi Gautam as Priya Dutt, Sanju's sister.

The film's soundtrack features songs composed by A. R. Rahman, Rohan-Rohan and Vikram Montrose while lyrics are written by Shekhar Astitwa, Puneet Sharma, Rohan Gokhale. The film score is composed by Sanjay Wandrekar and Atul Raninga. The film has songs like "Main Badhiya Tu Bhi Badhiya" sung by Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan, "Kar Har Maidaan Fateh" by Sukhwinder Singh and Shreya Ghoshal and "Ruby Ruby" by Shashwat Singh and Poorvi Koutish.

Escape Plan 2

Escape Plan 2: Hades is an action film directed by Steven C. Miller. It is the sequel to the 2013 film Escape Plan and features Sylvester Stallone and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson reprising their roles from the first film, with Dave Bautista, Huang Xiaoming, Jaime King, Jesse Metcalfe, Titus Welliver, and Wes Chatham joining the cast.

Ray Breslin and his elite team of security specialists are trained in the art of breaking people out of the world's most impenetrable prisons. When one of Ray's trusted operatives, Shu Ren, is kidnapped and disappears inside Hades, the most elaborate prison ever built, Ray assembles a team to assist in the rescue. To put it in other words, Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone), one of the world's foremost authorities on structural security, agrees to take on one last job: breaking out of an ultra-secret, high-tech facility called The Tomb. Deceived and wrongly imprisoned, Ray must recruit fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to help devise a daring, nearly impossible plan to escape from the most protected and fortified prison ever built.

The film has Sylvester Stallone as Ray Breslin, Dave Bautista as Trent DeRosa, Huang Xiaoming as Shu Ren, Jaime King as Abigail Ross, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson as Hush, Jesse Metcalfe as Luke Walken, Wes Chatham as Jaspar Kimbral and Titus Welliver as Gregor Faust (“The Zookeeper”).

Uncle Drew

Uncle Drew is an American sports comedy film directed by Charles Stone III and written by Jay Longino. It stars Kyrie Irving as the title character from his Pepsi Max advertisements that started in 2012, along with former NBA players Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Webber, Reggie Miller, and Nate Robinson and former WNBA player Lisa Leslie. Lil Rel Howery, Tiffany Haddish, Erica Ash, J. B. Smoove, Mike Epps, and Nick Kroll also star.

After draining his life savings to enter a team in the Rucker Classic street ball tournament in Harlem, Dax (LilRel Howery) is dealt a series of unfortunate setbacks, including losing his team to his longtime rival (Nick Kroll). Desperate to win the tournament and the cash prize, Dax stumbles upon the man, the myth, the legend Uncle Drew (Kyrie Irving) and convinces him to return to the court one more time. The two men embark on a road trip to round up Drew's old basketball squad (Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Webber, Reggie Miller, Nate Robinson, and Lisa Leslie) and prove that a group of septuagenarians can still win the big one.

The film has Kyrie Irving as Uncle Drew, a streetball legend, Lil Rel Howery as Dax, a streetball team manager, Ashton Tyler as Young Dax, Shaquille O'Neal as Big Fella, Uncle Drew's former teammate who now runs a martial-arts dojo, Chris Webber as Preacher, Uncle Drew's former teammate who is now a church minister, Reggie Miller as Lights, Uncle Drew's former teammate who presently seems to be legally blind, Nate Robinson as Boots, Uncle Drew's former teammate who now lives in a retirement home, Lisa Leslie as Betty Lou, Preacher's wife, Erica Ash as Maya, JB Smoove as Angelo, Mike Epps as Louis, Tiffany Haddish as Jess, Nick Kroll as Mookie, Dax's longtime rival and Aaron Gordon as Casper, a streetball player Mookie steals from Dax. Making cameo appearances as themselves are Sal Masekela, John Calipari, Jon Hammond, Scoop Jackson, Pee Wee Kirkland, Earl Monroe, Chris Mullin, Bill Walton, George Gervin, Steve Nash, David Robinson, Jerry West, Dikembe Mutombo and NeNe Leakes.