Starring: Taraji P Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae
Directed by: Theodore Melfi
To pee or not to pee, that’s the question. Every inspiring story has its turning point. That life-giving moment of epiphany occurs in Hidden Figures,the new praiseworthy film about racial segregation and women’s empowerment in the America of the 1960s, when Katherine Johnson(Taraji P Henson) goes out to pee.
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Now that sounds simple enough, right? But this is American in the 1960s when Black Americans, or Coloreds or Negroes as they were called back then,has to deal with a separate set of working ethics as opposed to the Whites. So when Katherine “goes out” to relieve herself she really goes out, to a place pretty much far removed from the spot at NASA where she has been assigned a place as a member of special task force.
How Katherine gets a position so denied to women and blacks is another story.
But right now it’s the pee that we must be with. The ‘Coloured Bathroom’ being a good 45 minutes away Katherine returns one wet rainy afternoon to her desk to be shouted at by her boss(Kevin Costner) who let me hasten to clarify, is not a villain.
(Spoiler ahead: there are no bad guys in this film).
And Katherine gives it back, pointing out in her pee complaint. centuries of segregation of humiliation that her people have gone through. This is a truly liberating cinematic moment and one that sets the mood for the rest of this beautified often sanitized and scrubbed-out look at racial segregation as seen in and through the lives of three spirited African American women who made a place for themselves at NASA conquering bigotry and bias.
Hidden Figures is a charming but it’s not a monumental film on racism in America in the way The Color Purple was three decades ago or the new film Moonlight is . Hidden Figures chooses to portray uncomfortable home-truths as palatable digestible soluble homilies spread out into two hours of charming characters and a detoxified depiction of racial prejudice.
Even the white characters are not bad people. Not in that awful way we saw them being in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave.Here the white characters are portrayed with latent empathy. Once they warm up to out three heroines they do just fine. Dorothy(Octavia Spencer)’s stern supervisor played by Kirsten Dunst and Katherine’s skeptical colleague played with compelling care by Jim Parsons, come around in no time at all.
And then there is the lovely Janelle Morae as Mary Jackson who snuggles up to the Judge in court to ask, ‘If a man can go into space why can’t a colored woman attend an engineering college meant for white folks?’ The Judge does what any man would do. He lets her have her way.
The half-smile that the Judge gives Mary is just the way we feel about this film. It may be guilty of cleaning out the hurt pain and ugliness. But it’s doing what is always right.
But Kevin Costner takes his symbolical repudiation of racism a bit too far when we see him break down the signboard for colored toilets .There are times when you feel there could be more tactful ways of breaking down walls.
It isn’t as if director Theodore Melfi lacks a subtle vision. This is a film that doesn’t shy away from its vision of a world where we must overlook human cruelty and bias and hope to start a new social order where segregation is magically wiped out. Hidden Figures portrays the black community as sweet, affectionate hopeful and picture-perfect.Katherine’s home life with her three lovely daughters and a doting mother , plus a suitor(played by Mahershala Ali, seen inMoonlight as well) seems like it’s out of Homes & Gardens.
Where is the pain and struggle of these incredibly spunky women who proved the colour of their skin couldn’t keep them down? Frankly, I didn’t miss the pain at all. Hidden Figures prettifies pain without diluting the theme of wrestling adversity. The film prefers to wear its heart on its sleeve rather than parade the pain and poverty of a people who were stifled by segregation.
Here in this portrait of misery in recession,we get to meet three of the most unforgettable women played by actresses who drop their vanity and get inside the skin of their characters without fear of failure.
Hidden Figures feels lightweight while saying things about the way women specially of a particular skin-tone, are treated at workplaces.Like the 3 heroines who break the shackles of their destiny to emerge triumphant this film remains happy at heart even when sadness seems constantly around the corner.

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Aamir Khan’s Sister Plays Shah Rukh’s Mother In Pathaan

Ever since Pathaan released on Wednesday, audiences have been curious to know who is the woman who plays Shah Rukh Khan’s adoptive mother in Afghanistan. The stately lady with royal looks is none other than the late producer Tahir Hussain’s daughter and Aamir Khan’s elder sister Nikhat Khan.
Nikhat has been closely associated with the film industry and has helped her father in the production of his films like Dulha Bikta Hai and Tum Mere Ho.
Nikhat has acted earlier in the Akshay Kumar starrer Mission Mangal , Ajay Devgan’s Tanhaji and in Sandh Ki Aankh(as a Maharani).
For Pathaan, it was Shah Rukh Khan who suggested Nikhat Khan should play his foster-mother in Afghanistan who names him ‘Pathaan’. It proved to be an inspired piece of casting, as audience have loved Nikhat Khan’s cameo.
It is heartwarming that all three Khan superstars are associated with Pathaan in one way or the other.
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Anurag Kashyap’s New Film Is About Love Jihad

Love Jihad, whatever that means, is the theme of Anurag Kashyap’s new film Almost Pyaar With D J Mohabbat.
Debutant Karan Mehta plays a Muslim boy in an intense relationship with Alaya F who plays a Hindu girl.Kashyap has spared the audience none of the ugliness that such a relationship generates among social-media bouncers, the self-styled guardian of morality .
In the hardhitting powerful and pertinent film a bigot is heard commenting snidely, “These people first talk about Mohabbat. Then they talk about Mohammed.”
Happily and surprisingly, the Central Board Of Film Certification gave the film a ‘UA’ certificate with no cuts: a rare non-‘A’ film of Kashyap.
So far Kashyap and his team have kept the Love Jihad part of the plot out of all media interaction.
But the cat is now out of the bag.
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Samantha Ruth Prabhu to Star Alongside Varun Dhawan in Prime Video’s Indian Original Series , Samantha Speaks

Samantha Ruth Prabhu will be starring alongside Varun Dhawan in the Indian installment of the Citadel universe, the global-event series from Prime Video and the Russo Brothers’ AGBO. The untitled Citadel series based out of India is being helmed by renowned creator duo Raj & DK (Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK), who are the showrunners and directors.
The local installment is written by Sita R. Menon, along with Raj & DK. The streaming service also confirmed that the production is currently underway in Mumbai. After this, the unit will head to North India and then onwards to international locales like Serbia and South Africa.
Richard Madden (Bodyguard) and Priyanka Chopra Jonas will star in the first-to-launch series within the Citadel universe, which comes from the Russo Brothers’ AGBO along with David Weil (Hunters) and is set to premiere in 2023. Alongside Madden and Chopra Jonas, the first-to-launch Citadel series will also feature Stanley Tucci (The Hunger Games saga). Additional local-language Citadel productions are also in the works, including an Italian Original series starring Matilda De Angelis (The Undoing).
Speaking on her participation in The Citadel franchise for the first time,Samantha says, “When Prime Video and Raj & DK approached me with this project, I decided to take it up in a heartbeat! After working with this team on The Family Man, it is homecoming for me.The Citadel universe, the interconnected storylines between the productions across the globe, and most importantly, the script of the Indian installment really excited me.”
Samantha says she is looking forward to working with Varun Dhawan . “I am thrilled to be a part of this brilliant universe conceptualised by the Russo Brothers. I am also looking forward to be working with Varun for the first time, on this project. He is someone who is full of life and cheer when you’re around him.”
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Bollywood’s Achche Din Have Come

All you doomsday prophets, the booms-day profits are here. Pathaan has opened the floodgates again for Bollywood’s bumper bonanza at the boxoffice.And now there is only the achche din ahead for Hindi cinema.
In the next two months there are three sureshot blockbusters coming up, beginning with Shehzada. An astute devilishly impish adaptation of Allu Arjun’s 2020 Telugu blockbuster Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo.The super-popular Kartik Aaryan gives his own spin to the character. This performance will take Kartik to the next level of stardom. Kartik’s version of Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo is radically different from its Telugu version. Shehzada takes the core idea of the Telugu original and turns it into a something completely different. Kartik’s co-star in Shehzada is Kriti Sanon with whom he earlier shared superhit space in Lukka Chuppi.
Then there is Luv Ranjan’s ravishing rom-com Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar. The director’s male viewpoint on the chaos of love relationships crests to a comic high in his latest. Ranjan for the first time, collaborates with Ranbir Kapoor for the first time collaborates with Shraddha Kapoor who badly needs a hit.This film should do the trick. The winsome lead pair tries to do one another in a game of Luv This is Luv Ranjan’s Hum…Aapke Hain Con. Ranjan has in the past used the romcom space to entertain his audience to the hilt, he says this time the stakes are different. It is not something we’ve seen before.
Finally it is Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani. Karan Johar’s first directorial in six years(not counting the one segment each in Ghost Stories and Lust Stories). This time he has assembled a dream star-cast of Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Ranveer Singh and the boxoffice darling(s) Alia Bhatt. But trust me, this one is not about assembling stars into a complacent plot. The writing in this zany Romeo & Juliet is so crisp and engrossing, the experience is likely to be the visual version of a multi-flavour icrecream cone. Colour, choler and karma collide in this tragic-comic love story . Let the box office dhamaka begin from the house of Dharma.
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