Starring: Blake Lively
Directed by: Jaume Collette-Serra
Rating: *** ½
The raves that you’ve been reading for this small Summer hit are not all well-earned. True to its title The Shallowsmakes a fairly shallow lunge at thrills. It lacks the profound tragic resonances of other survival dramas such as Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours where a man had his hand stuck in a rock during a lonely mountaineering expedition.
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The very attractive Blake Lively plays a bikini-clad female avatar of James Franco’s character in Boyle’s masterpiece 127 Hours. The bikini, of course, is incidental in The Shallows.Although the entire film is situated on the deceptively tranquil azure stretches of waters ,this is the other side of the Baywatch culture where the sea and the beach are pretexts for bikini parades.
To his credit Spanish director Jaume Collette-Sara avoids overdoing the gore quotient. Steven Spielberg’s 1975 trendsetting sea-borne thriller Jaws , the mother of all waterborne survival dramas, began with a woman’s leg being bitten off. It shocked audiences, yes. But it also set the pace for all survival dramas during the last 30 years where the matter of escaping near-death has always been measured against the volume of violence that can be put on screen without revolting the audiences’ sensibilities.
The Shallows keeps the gore at a low ebb and yet the thrills are at an incredibly high altitude. Indeed this is a stunningly beautiful film with the oceans looking inviting enough to risk a shark bite.
Blake Lively plays Nancy Adams an obstinate lonely surfer who heads into the waters on her own even after her Dad’s warning.
Lesson for all modern strong-willed girls: good girls don’t disobey dads specially when it comes to heading into danger in a bikini.
Lively gives her character a sense of feisty terror . The minute she is stranded on a rock just yards away from the shore to avoid a shark attack, she takes charge of her character’s growing panic not allowing the sense of dread to spill into hysteria. It’s a measured but credible performance athletic, emotional, gutsy and aesthetic.
Lively is heroic without seeming like a superwoman.She is brave yet vulnerable. Placed in a more socially relevant film the character would be considered immensely empowered. Here she fights no cause except her own basic survival and still seems splendidly heroic.
The same goes for the film. The taut narrative stays afloat without resorting to scary gimmicks or simulated terror.The cinematography by Falvio Martinez Labiano is the life and breath of the brief and gripping drama.The visuals are a rich but tempered tapestry of blue blue and more blue, and then some red, for dread.
So there we have it. A cleverly constructed survival thriller with no room for humbug. Most of the time it’s just our heroic heroine and an injured seagull stranded on a rock that serves as a haven against the horror in the waters.
This is Life Of Pi with Pi in bikini and the tiger transforming into a bird.
Incidentally Nancy repairs the bird’s injured wing by fixing it like a dislocated human shoulder . We see Robinson Crusoe doing the same in this week’s other non-Indian release . Manifestly, marooned endangered heroes seeking solace in friends with dislocated wings is the flavour of the season.

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Jamuna Had A Love-Hate Relationship With Bollywood

Veteran Telugu actress Jamuna who passed away on Friday, shared an uneasy relationship with the Hindi film industry.She did eleven Hindi films including the iconic Milan in 1967 where Jamuna agreed to play the second lead, or the supporting role if you will, to Nutan.
Jamuna as Gauri was the Other Woman who craved for the hero Sunil Dutt’s attention whereas he had eyes and devotion only for Nutan. In later years Aruna Irani played a similar role in Caravan.
In Milan Jamuna was not keen to do a supporting role. Producer L V Prasad tempted her with three chartbusting songs. Besides, Jamuna had played the same role in Mooga Manasulu, the Telugu original of Milan. But it was the songs composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal which convinced Jamuna to take up the second lead in Milan.
While Nutan had no solo songs in Milan, she did have the chartbuster duet Sawan ka mahina . Jamuna on the other hand, had two splendid Lata Mangeshkar solos: Tohey saawariya naahin khabariya and the magnificent Ghazal Aaj dil pe koi zor chalta nahin.Not only these, Jamuna also had a hit duet with Mukesh based on her character Gauri: Bol Gauri bol tera kaun piya.
But then, fate intervened. After the film released one of Jamuna’s solos, the poignant and memorable Aaj dil pe koi zor chalta nahin was snipped out of the film.
Here is what happened: the Ghazal , one of Lataji’s all-time greats, was very much a part of Milan when it released on 17 March 1967. But then it was seen to hamper the flow of the film and edited out. The beautiful song occurred right after intermission. Producer Prasad, a shrewd filmmaker, got to know that audiences prolonged their loo breaks as there was a song after the break. Hence the sacrifice of a seriously sonorous melody.
Jamuna hardly did Hindi films after Milan. Her last Bollywood appearance was in Raj Kumar Kohli’s Raj Tilak where she was lost in a multistarrer as the royal queen.
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Karan Johar Moves Alia Song From Switzerland To Kashmir

The romantic duet in Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani which was to be shot in Switzerland and which was delayed due to the film’s leading lady Alia Bhatt’s motherhood, is now being relocated to Kashmir.
Purely out of the love for new mom Alia.
Says a source in the know, “Karan loves Alia like his own daughter. He would do anything for her. He postponed the release of Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani as the love duet could not be shot before Alia’s maternity leave. Karan had decided to shoot the song in Switzerland after Alia’s maternity love. But now he has relocated the song to Kashmir as Alia doesn’t want to leave her baby girl behind for long stretches.”
And as Karan Johar argued, snow is snow. How does it matter whether it is Switzerland or Kashmir?
This song would be Karan Johar’s tribute to his idol Yash Chopra. Alia would be dressed in chiffon sarees while Ranveer, for a change, would be seen in formals.
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Bobby Deol’s Switchover To Villainous Roles

After Prakash Jha’s webseries Ashram where Bobby played a sleazy godman, and Love Hostel where he was a ruthless assassin, he is playing the villain to Ranbir Kapoor in Sandeep Vanga’s Animal.
Bobby says it is not conscious career decision to play negative characters but a conscious decision to play interesting characters. “ I don’t look at characters as positive or negative.When I watch films there is always one character that stays with you. I want to play that character.”
Prakash Jha’s Ashram proved a gamechanger for Bobby. He admits finding challenging roles is tough. “I am trying. I am doing Sandeep Vanga’s Animal with Ranbir Kapoor , Parineeti Chopra. Then I am doing the family film Apne 2 which I am very excited about.”
In an earlier interview with this writer Bobby spoke about his long absence from screen before Prakash Jha’s Ashram. “My fans would ask why I wasn’t being seen on the screen.And I couldn’t tell them it was because I wasn’t getting good roles. But my fans stood by me. They gave me the strength to keep looking for the right roles. Thankfully I found the roles I liked. My new films have given me some new fans. I am thankful I am still here. Yeah , I am in a good space right now.”
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Undekhi A Dark Compelling Thriller Set In The Heartland

Undekhi the forthcoming webseries from Applause Entertainment and Sony LIV which starts streaming from July 10, looks like the kind of thriller that won’t let us rest easy until we see the last episode. It is mounted with a stress on growing pressure.
One promo shows a rotund cop investigating a gruesome murder in a dense tribal area.The other promo shows a politician gunning down a dancer on stage in front of the public and the press.
Wild West comes to the North. Undekhi is a thriller set in Manali, Himachal created for Applause by Siddharth Sengupta. It’s a gripping story that sees Harsh Chhaya making an impressive comeback as a drunk Papaji in a super-rich amoral Punjabi family. And Surya Sharma (Prince from Hostages) really shines as Rinku , the main bad guy and Papaji’s nephew. It’s got a terrific cast of other characters, many of whom we all recognize as names .
The talented Harsh Chhaya makes a debut of sorts on the digital medium with Undekhi.
Says Harsh, “I have never played anything so wild and mad. I am looking forward to Undekhi, hope it works for the audience too.This is a debut in a sense that this is the first one I shot for the OTT platform.But the other two I shot for after this was streamed before this one Out Of Love and Rangbaaz, Phir Se.
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