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Deepak Raj
- India
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Deepak posted a review for Serious Men (2020) in Movies
Serious Men is an entertaining, well-made film that tells the story of Ayyan Mani, a Dalit man who resents being invisible, and when he is seen he is subjected to daily humiliations, lucrative offers to convert, vote-bank politics. The film’s plot is about a desperate man’s desperate attempts to make sure his child, born in a pool of fraud by a hotel’s poolside, amounts to something. Except that the seemingly sweet, benign story of Serious Men, which is rooted in reality, is ring-fenced by a worldview that is seriously anti-Dalit.While the film is sympathetic to men like Mani, it sets out to teach him a lesson. Merit, Serious Men says, is everything, it’s the great equalizer, and not opportunity. This karmic cycle of misdemeanours and comeuppance only sucks Mani into its orbit, not similarly fraudulent upper caste men.Serious Men, based on a novel of the same title by Manu Joseph, opens with the posturing of an impatient, serious man who frowns and growls at the world. It seems to be in his way as he is rushing about doing very important things. Astro-physicist Aravind Acharya (Nassar) acts as if he’s on emergency duty to save the world with his discovery of alien microbes. They hold answers to humankind’s profound questions, he believes, and is in the pursuit of another round of government funding for his spatial explorations.Everyone around Acharya defers to him, assuming that what sounds like gibberish to them are words of wisdom, for he is a man of greater knowledge, superior intellect and with a plan. But Ayyan Mani (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a dalit Tamilian, sees through Acharya and intently watches how he fakes his way through the world. Mani is Acharya’s clerk, a la Massey Sahib, and is summoned to be shouted at for doing or not doing something, often just for being. Throughout the film Mani addresses us directly, sharing with us what it means to be invisible, how IQ is not connected to social status or caste, how posturing is power, all the while picking up Acharya’s small gestures that stitch together a VIP identity. It includes Acharya leaning and whispering into a female assistant’s ears during meetings. Mani watches how others worship at this altar of bullshit, and he wants a piece of it. He too wants to be like them, the serious men. And with people lower than him in stature, cunning and gumption, Mani tries out the same urgent, intemperate demeanour, complete with nonsensical chatter, irritability and fancy neck-ties. It works. But it’s too late for Mani. So all his hopes are pinned on his child. Oja (Indira Tiwari), Mani’s wife, is oblivious to his project. Adi (Aakshath Das) seems like a bright kid who is shy and hard of hearing. A convent school rejects him at first. But when, a few years later, Adi is a hailed as a genius in the dalit chawl, called “Abdul Kalam”, the school admits him. In class, Adi often gazes out of the window, and when the teacher asks him what he’s thinking, he talks of photosynthesis for humans, about the “arrow of time”, and when probed further, he snaps, “I can’t deal with primitive minds like you”. Enter a father-daughter politician duo — Keshav (Sanjay Narvekar) and Anuja Dhavre (Shweta Basu Prasad) — who, impressed by his scientific knowledge and the awe he inspires in the dalit chawl, pick on Adi, and recruit him. They have an agenda. A high-rise housing complex where Mani’s dingy, rat-infested chawl squats.Mani, who often uses his caste to get his way, is more than willing. And all goes as per plan till the day when, Sayani, Adi’s schoolfriend, is being thrashed by her mother for doing badly in an exam and lying about it. Mani’s plan and Adi’s formidable reputation begin to unravel. Exam papers were bought, and there were a father’s instructive susurrations into his son’s ears. As Mani’s life begins to spiral out of control, affecting Adi the most, he turns his sights on his boss, Acharya. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is an exceptional actor who is able to convey the machinations of his character’s mind even while holding still. As a desperate father on a dogged pursuit of his and his son’s life amounting to something, he and little Aakshath Das hold the film together and are supported by a very strong ensemble of actors, including Indira Tiwari, Nassar, Sanjay Narvekar and Shweta Basu Prasad.
- Acting, Story, Visuals
- Direction
Deepak posted a review for Zombie Army 4: Dead War in Games
It may feel overall familiar, but Zombie Army 4 does manage to separate itself from the already sizable horde of cooperative zombie shooters in a few enjoyable ways. For starters, the story is delightfully absurd, with occult forces bringing the Nazi army back from the dead, seemingly from the literal bowels of Hell. Its roughly eight-hour campaign ends with a ridiculous and surprising final confrontation that is worth seeing unspoiled. A simplified Horde mode exists as well, if you just want to stick to one location and see how many waves you can take on while experimenting with different weapons. I prefer the variety and forward momentum of playing the full campaign, but Horde offers plenty of opportunity for intense shootouts and last-second victories.The alternate-WW2 setting is disgusting and full of gore, but in a creative way where I was eager to see what I would be fighting next. I enjoyed confronting powerful enemies like flamethrower zombies with explosive gas tanks on their backs, zombie Nazi generals whose hearts must be removed in order to prevent them from spawning more enemies, and bosses like tanks that reveal giant ribcages when their armored sides are blown off. And it's made all the more exciting by an excellent soundtrack that feels like it comes straight out of the 1985 George A. Romero zombie film classic, Day of the Dead – my only complaint about the music being I wish it were mixed louder and piped in more often.There’s a little more to it than running and gunning because the way you shoot zombies encourages you to confront the walking dead in a more nuanced way: Getting a certain number of kills unlocks special abilities, like overpowered sniper shots or hyper-fast shotgun reloading, but you also get a chance to recover health by pulling off up-close kills. Killing a certain number of zombies from a distance to earn the right to run in and recover some health adds a layer of strategic dismemberment to the mindless slaughter.On top of that, there’s clearly some Doom inspiration here that helps keep the action moving, with certain zombies offering up ammo, grenades, or health packs if you stomp them after they’ve been defeated. This led to some great moments where I recovered from being cornered by taking out a huge wave, healed myself with up-close fatalities, and then stomped enemies on the ground to recover ammo before rushing toward the next objective. Where it had seemed like I was done for just moments earlier, I found myself maxed out and ready for whatever came next without so much as an ammo cache pitstop.The layouts of Zombie Army 4’s eight levels (and the smaller, final confrontation) are designed well and do a good job of contextualizing why you need to make it from point A to point B beyond basic survival. Sometimes you’re exploring an abandoned zoo, other times you’re getting fuel for a boat so it can make its way down a canal, or you’re gathering up pieces of a bomb to combine at the end of the stage. The levels don’t look radically different, but they all have interesting layouts that are fun to explore and are creepy and unsettling in their own way. The objectives are simple enough where you and your friends will never be confused about what to do next, but interesting and varied enough that it doesn’t quite feel like you’re always doing the same thing. There are never moments where co-op play is required – you could easily play through solo if that’s how you roll – but the more players join the action the higher the difficulty automatically scales and the more important teamwork becomes.
- Controls, Story, Graphics
- Gameplay