The Family Star

One of the most brain dead idiotic movies with the most crazy and psychotic characters as protagonists of 2024. Gowardhan is a gaslighting egotistical misogynist who emotionally tortures everyone around him. Indu is even more weird, she lets all this happen with 0 self respect and dignity. He blames everything on everyone around him, while acting like he's always right and infallible. The cringe and frankly disgusting ways in which he bahaves and the fact that she just watches on tolerating everything and apparently unconditionally loves him is so baffling, I just cringed throughout the movie. What a waste of time and energy. There are 0 characters in this movie that are remotely normal.

This movie is a hot mess wrapped in a pretty package. It's like they threw a bunch of stuff at the wall, hoping something would stick, but ended up with a jumble of silly, bad and stale bits that don't quite gel together. The screenplay is a roller coaster, but not the fun kind. You may get a few moments of laughter, but then you're plunged into scenes so ridiculous or dull you'll wonder if the script was written during a group brainstorm where no ideas were turned down, no matter how nonsensical. The whole vibe of the film feels like it's stuck in a time warp, clinging to an old-school approach that's more yawn-inducing than nostalgic. And, boy, could they have shaved off some runtime. It drags like a lecture that could've been an email. Vijay's shines in bits and pieces, but even his charm can't fully distract from the chaos. Mrunal is not really matching up with Vijay, and her performance feels as if she's stuck on repeat, recycling the same handful of expressions we've seen in her last few outings. The rest of the cast? They're just there, doing their thing, not making things worse but not adding much either. On the technical front, they've splurged. Cinematography, sets, costumes - all top-notch, making you wish the story and direction had received half that attention. Background score gives you headache and the songs make for a good time to check your phone or go for a snack. Honestly, unless you've been hyped up by all the marketing or feel the unbearable peer pressure from your mates who can't resist jumping on every movie bandwagon, give this one a miss. It's not worth the sit-through, unless you enjoy critiquing every aspect or need background noise while doing something actually interesting.