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Release Date : December 22, 2022

123telugu.com Rating : 2.5/5

Starring: Nayanthara, Anupam Kher, Sathyaraj, Vinay, Nafisa Haniya

Director: Ashwin Saravanan

Producer: Vignesh Shivan

Music Director: Prithvi Chandrasekhar

Cinematography: Manikantan Krishnamachary

Editor: Richard Kevin

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Nayanthara is back with one more female-centric film of hers called Connect. The horror thriller has been directed by Ashwin Saravanan and has been released in Telugu today. Let’s see how it is.

Susan(Nayanthara) loses her husband(Vinai Rai) to Covid. This upsets everyone and especially Susan’s daughter Anna gets affected a lot. She tries to talk to the spirit of her dad taking the help of an external force. But in a tragic turnaround of events, an unknown spirit enters her and creates havoc in the family. How will a helpless Susan deal with this situation? Whose help does she take is the story of the film.

Plus Points:

The basic aesthetics of the film are done right. Though the film happens in just two rooms, it has been lit up well and creates a tense mood for the audience. The climax part has been handled well and the scenes where the spirit leaves the body are shown in a good way. The girl who played Anna was good in her key role.

Anupam Kher as the priest brings depth to the film with his performance. Vinay Rai was okay in his small role. Satyaraj is neat but he hams a lot in the latter part of the film. Nayanthara has done a passable job in the film. There is nothing great for her to showcase her talent but still, the film becomes watchable only because of her.

Minus Points:

Vignesh Shivan produced the film and it is hard to understand what novelty he found in the storyline. An evil spirit entering the body of a girl, and a priest coming to help her, have been showcased right from her childhood onwards.

The film has so many logical issues. Why the girl decides to talk to the spirit of her father, whose spirit actually enters her body, and what’s the back story none of this is explained properly in the film. It is more or less like a short film extended into one.

Emotion-wise, there is not much depth in the relationships. The mom feeling tense for her daughter going through hell has not been showcased well. Barring a few thrills, there is nothing new that the film showcases.

Technical Aspects:

As the film is shot only in two rooms, the camerawork needed to be top notch and it is. The BGM could have been more effective. The Telugu dubbing is fine and so were the production values.

Coming to the director Ashwin Saravanan, his last film Game Over was quite good but with this film, he chose a subject, added a star like Nayanthara, and made a one and half-hour film and sold it to the audience who do not buy his vision.

Generally, thrillers keep you hooked to know what’s the suspense behind the spirit. But here there is nothing of that sort happening. It is a plain thread executed in an unengaging manner. Ashwin divides the days of quarantine and shows thrills each. But so many scenes of panic are cut half way through irritating the audience.

On the whole, Nayanthara’s Connect is a poorly made horror thriller that has nothing new to showcase. The climax is good and Nayanthara helps the audience to sit through. But the rest of the plot, narration, and thrills are unengaging making this film a dull watch this weekend.

123telugu.com Rating: 2.5/5

Reviewed by 123telugu Team

Click Here For Telugu Review

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Connect movie review: Nayanthara’s latest is technically sound, true-blue genre film

Connect movie review: ashwin saravanan delivers breathless thrills during the nayanthara starrer but the flat end takes something away from it..

They are a picture of happy family when we meet Susan ( Nayanthara ), her husband Joseph (Vinay), and their daughter Anna aka Ammu (Haniya Nafisa) for the first time in Ashwin Saravanan’s Connect. Covid is still the stuff you only see in dystopian films, and the family is at the beach, happily making plans about the future of their music-obsessed daughter.

Like lakhs of others, the pandemic destroys the dreams of this family as it hurtles through their life. Susan and Ammu are confined to their home during the lockdown while Joseph, a doctor, toils relentlessly to help Covid patients. He succumbs to the virus, and a devastated Ammu resorts to black magic to connect with her dead dad. Things don’t go well, and she ends up being possessed by a demon. On top of that, both the mother and daughter test positive for the coronavirus , which cuts them off from the outside world.

Connect doesn’t rely much on the plot as much as it does on its technical brilliance and astounding sound design. Ashwin has had a firm resolution about staying true to the horror genre and hence doesn’t really experiment with the story. The screenplay pans out exactly how you would expect it to. However, the breathless thrills that you are served with distract from the generic story. You expect the climax to be the high point of the film, but it never builds up to a crescendo.

In a way, that doesn’t seem to be what the director was going for with Connect. Despite all of the scares and technical bravado, Connect in its essence is about Susan’s character arc. Arthur (Sathyaraj), Susan’s father, pleads with her to have some belief in God. A friend tells her to have some kind of anchor in such trying times. Her final resolve to ‘believe’ was supposed to drive home the point, but it is not clearly etched out. It’s because we don’t really see her be one big skeptic in the first place. Or even the subtle depiction of her changes is eclipsed by the conspicuous technical work of the film.

Enough ink will flow while praising the technical brilliance of Connect, and it will be in no way unwarranted. The performances of Sathyaraj and Nayanthara make the film work. Even Anupam Kher as the Father, who only takes a brief screentime, makes us feels safe. With a few more tweaks in the screenplay, Ashwin Saravanan could have easily made a film like Searching (2018) or C U Soon (2020), as Susan’s video calls are used as a narrative device, and cinematographer Manikantan excels at pulling off this gimmick.

The biggest achievement of Ashwin Saravanan’s Connect lies in how, despite being a horror film, it is in touch with reality. While it’s true that cinema is seen as an escapist medium to forget the woes of the real world, there has been a total disconnect between the existing pandemic world and that of our Tamil mainstream films. Connect, living up to its name, finally bridges that gap by empathising with the ones who suffered during the pandemic. It takes us back to the times when we were confined to the four walls of our homes, fearing a threat we couldn’t fully fathom. Undoubtedly, it is in a sense triggering to see the character go through the same ordeal as we did, but it is also in a way cathartic. Again, it is pretty amusing that of all kinds of Tamil mainstream cinema, a true-blue genre has represented the ones that are still grieving.

Connect rating : 3/5

Connect director: Ashwin Saravanan

Connect cast : Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher

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Connect Review: Nayanthara Shines Bright In A Dystopian Drama That Thrives In The Dark

Connect review: the film connects with the audience in substantial ways without having to resort to the kind of in-your-face means that horror films usually foist upon the audience..

Nayanthara in Connect . (courtesy: YouTube )

Cast: Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher, Vinay Rai

Director: Ashwin Saravanan

Rating: Three stars (out of 5)

A supernatural thriller set in the time of Covid, Ashwin Saravanan's Connect has its share of jump scares as well as other genre tics. But, if you can tide over the ritualistic babble that it culminates in, it isn't one of those predictable, hackneyed horror films that merely seek to shock us out of our seats.

The screenplay, authored by the husband-wife writing team of Saravanan and Kaavya Ramkumar, alternates between the sombre and the nightmarish. The impact of the range of feelings that the film arouses is heightened significantly by the steady understated power of the lead performance by Nayanthara.

She shines bright in a dystopian drama that thrives in the dark. She uses her eyes and facial expressions rather than shrieks and squeals to convey fear and foreboding as the unknown creeps up on the sorted and unflappable woman she plays.

Connect , produced by Vignesh Sivan's Rowdy Pictures and released nationwide in Hindi a week after the original Tamil version hit the screen, weaves into its story of disease, death, divinity and the devil a complement of unsettling twitches that are triggered by a Covid-related tragedy and girl's response to it.

God and Satan are at war in a world torn asunder by sickness and sorrow. A little girl faces the brunt. A tormented woman fights to save her daughter. A grandfather offers constant advice online. An electronically connected pastor steps in to try and exorcise the evil spirit. Amid all the blather, the film stays firmly focussed on the mother-daughter relationship.

The emotional bond between the two women is thrown into complete disarray by a demonic possession. The script employs the bedevilment as a metaphor for a rampaging, devastating virus. The connect between the two is verbalised by the exorcist himself.

With its loud thuds, persistent knocks on the door, mysterious rumbles, fluttering curtains, flickering lights, eerie shadows in the dark, upturned objects, the works, the 99-minute Connect banks upon all the devices that one would expect in a horror film. Yet it manages to break away at crucial points from the practices ordinarily associated with the spooky business of peddling fear and heightening anxieties.

Connect , which reunites director Saravanan with lead actor Nayanthara after the 2015 neo-noir psychological drama Maya, examines dimensions of loss and grief through an occult phenomenon that that sets off a disquieting chain of events for a quarantining woman, Susan, and her young musician-daughter, Anna.

The pandemic and the lockdown have taken their toll on both. But the nature of the impact on the two isn't the same. The mother, to begin with, seems completely unperturbed by the crisis that hits her - and the world at large. The daughter, severely distressed, goes into a shell, an act that renders her vulnerable to a Satanic invasion.

Talking of an invasion, the possession of a human by the devil is akin in Connect to a home invasion by a hostile force from another world. Disease is a demon, and vice-versa, and it pushes Anna into an abyss from where only an exorcist can rescue her.

The two women are in separate rooms but the changes that Anna undergoes send ripples not only through the entire house in which they isolate themselves from the world and from each other, but also through the spaces that Susan's father Arthur (Sathyaraj) and a pastor-exorcist (Anupam Kher) occupy.

Connect is Saravanan's third directorial venture. He has established himself as a genre filmmaker with a distinct, novel style marked by keen empathy for women fighting off hurtful forces. In Maya, a single mother who works in ad films to make ends meet is haunted by a ghost.

In Game Over (2019), starring Taapsee Pannu, the heroine is a talented game developer grappling with PTSD, a direct consequence of a horrific rape.

In Connect , Saravanan portrays two women - one a mid-career professional in a position of authority, the other a gifted young girl looking forward to making a career as a musician. The latter's youthful hurry to branch out on her own creates friction between her and her mother, who is firm in her belief that the girl must complete her education before leaving home to pursue her dream.

Saravanan, with the aid of cinematographer Manikantan Krishnamachary, engages visuals, an interplay light and shade, skewed camera angles and movements and sound effects to conjure up an atmosphere of great unease and dread.

The film's early scenes, which are happy and filled with warmth as the family vacations in Goa, quickly give way to intimations of the dangers up ahead. The pandemic, and the lockdown that it necessitates, yanks Anna's doting dad, Dr. Joseph Benoy (Vinay Rai), away from the family because the hospital needs him to be on duty 24X7.

The characters from here on are unable to make physical contact with each other. They converse on Zoom calls. The restrictions on physical interactions inevitably lead to unnerving distancing and disorientation. The doctor can connect with his wife and child only through digital means. Anna, the youngest, is the worst affected by the sudden forced separation.

Susan and Anna are suspected to be Covid-positive. As they await their test reports, they isolate within the house while they keep in touch with the girl's grandfather. Susan and her dad soon begin to feel that something is seriously wrong with Anna. They seek help on her behalf.

Nayanthara stellar performance is supported admirably by Sathyaraj and Anupam Kher. Newcomer Haniya Nafisa, cast in the challenging role of a girl possessed, is no less impressive.

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When the confrontation between the devout and the diabolic reaches a crescendo, the pitch of the film is amped up considerably. Connect is never, however, in danger of drowning in shrillness because at all other times, the director does not budge from his controlled and muted methods to tell a story that vacillates between the real and the spectral.

Connect connects with the audience in substantial ways without having to resort to the kind of in-your-face means that horror films usually foist upon the audience.

Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Anupam Kher, Vinay Rai

Ashwin Saravanan

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In a country where the government imposed a national curfew and a single mother, Nayanthara, notices eerie changes in her daughter's behaviour. On getting virtual help from a pastor played b... Read all In a country where the government imposed a national curfew and a single mother, Nayanthara, notices eerie changes in her daughter's behaviour. On getting virtual help from a pastor played by Anupam Kher who proposes an online exorcism. In a country where the government imposed a national curfew and a single mother, Nayanthara, notices eerie changes in her daughter's behaviour. On getting virtual help from a pastor played by Anupam Kher who proposes an online exorcism.

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Connect Movie Review: Delivers some chills, but misses out on a lot more

Rating: ( 2.5 / 5).

From what we’ve seen of Ashwin Saravanan, it is clear that the filmmaker doesn’t really go for the low-hanging fruits when making genre films. In his fascinating debut, Maya , the addition of the ‘movie within a movie’ trope made it all the more interesting. Similarly, in his intriguing sophomore, Game Over , the ‘you are not playing the game, you are the game’ trope made it all the more engaging. So, one can’t really be faulted for expecting his latest, Connect , to be more than just an exercise in exorcism. Although Connect starts strongly with a bright tale freefalling into the depths of darkness, courtesy of the pandemic, the film sparingly hits the high notes of the genre while just about managing past the finish line.

Director: Ashwin Saravanan

Cast: Nayanthara, Vinay Rai, Sathyaraj, Nafisa Haniya

Ashwin introduces the protagonists —a lived-in couple Susan (Nayanthara) and Joseph (Vinay Rai), their daughter Anna (Haniya Nafisa), and Susan’s father Arthur (Sathyaraj)— on a holiday, with a breezy song, which betrays a sense of melancholy. We are just a day or two ahead of the nationwide lockdown, and Joseph is a doctor who is asked to return to the hospital to take care of the never-ending crowd of patients. Tragedy strikes the family as Joseph joins the list of the many frontline workers who sacrificed their lives for the safety of the world. An already strained equation between Susan and Anna becomes even worse, and then, we start dealing with a heady mix of seances, possessions, purgations, and of course, exorcisms.

There is no doubt that the buildup to the exorcism in Connect boasts of a few effective scares. It might not be the ones that make us watch the film through our fingers, but it definitely does enough to keep us on the edge of our seats. Even though the type of scares and the timing of it too feel predictable, the usage of electronic screens allows editing transitions to be a novel affair. Whenever the screen goes to pitch black, or the internet connection goes cold and the screen starts buffering, there is a definite increase in adrenaline. Although, we have seen this style of narrative in films like Searching , and C U Soon , Ashwin and his team smartly find a way around the compact nature of the medium to give us a non-claustrophobic feeling. While this does rob us of the tension that pervades through such films, Connect tries its best to achieve this with a constant tussle between the idea of loneliness and seeking help.

Be it in Naane Varuvean earlier this year or Connect , it is interesting how therapy and not exorcism is the first step towards helping the child in trouble. What happens after therapy might not fit into the rationale of scientific thinking, but the normalisation of the treatment is a pertinent reflection of the changing times. Even the Father who comes for a diagnosis of Anna’s predicament says the illness could be one that requires therapy or one that requires a spiritual intervention. However, the film falters a lot when it comes to establishing the urgency of the possession and its after-effects. Surprisingly, Connect really works on the comedy front, and full points for mixing a few laughs amidst all those scares without becoming yet another ‘horror-comedy’ film that is churned out dime-a-dozen from Tamil cinema.

This disconnect stems from the rather stilted acceptance of Susan about the turmoil in her life after the possession of her daughter. Nayanthara plays Susan with an alarming lack of urgency that is so disconcerting. How does she not feel petrified every living moment after seeing her daughter do demonic things? How does she not feel shaken to her core after being 'chokeslammed' by her daughter? The emotional distance between us and Susan is perplexing, and it is odd that even Anna’s predicament doesn’t really move us. We are invested in the scares and not the ones who are going through literal horrors. And even the immersive cinematography (Manikantan Krishnamachary), spine-chilling music (Prithvi Chandrasekhar), and brilliant sound design doesn’t help us throw all our weight behind the travails of Susan and Anna.

Connect really feels underwhelming simply because Ashwin, and his co-writer Kaavya Ramkumar, have set the bar really high. The film is underwhelming because we have seen the beats before, and yet our heart anticipates much more. At one point, early in the film, when we see frontline workers making the ultimate sacrifice, one can’t help but think how a lot of them have been almost forgotten now by the majority. We have so adapted to the post-pandemic world that Connect almost feels like Ashwin and Kaavya reminding us of a rather grim time in the not-so-faraway past of human history. With a brief sojourn into the idea of loneliness, Connect really works in the space where it nudges us to reflect on our own lives during the pandemic. However, when it comes to the horror elements, Connect betrays a sense of superficiality. There is a considerable amount of spook, and a sense of ingenuity, for sure, but Ashwin Saravanan has raised the bar to a decent high that we don’t walk into his films just to be satisfied for a few frights, some gimmicks, and half a heart.  

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Home » Review » Connect movie review: Nayanthara's horror thriller is technically slick, but marred by regular narrative style »

Connect movie review: Nayanthara's horror thriller is technically slick, but marred by regular narrative style

The performances from actors coupled with fine technical aspects lift the movie to an extent, but its core issue is the been-there done-that feeling which stops us from immersing into the world the filmmaker has created

A still from the film

• Thinkal Menon

Last Updated: 08.24 PM, Dec 21, 2022

Story: The mother of a teenage girl goes through a hard time after the latter gets possessed by an evil spirit during the lockdown period. Upon her father's suggestion, she ropes in a veteran exorcist to bring her daughter back to normal life. The trio indulges in various rituals to save the girl through video conferencing, thanks to the travel restrictions imposed as part of COVID-19. But little did they know that the spirit is more powerful than they imagined it to be. Will they be able to withstand the onslaught unleashed by the spirit?  

Review: Ashwin Saravanan's penchant for horror stories needs no introduction. The filmmaker has teamed up with Nayanthara for Connect for the second time after the successful flick Maya. Their reunion was more than enough for cinephiles to get excited and the promo videos escalated the hype to the next level.  

As if this isn't enough, he announced that the movie with a run time of around 100 minutes will not have an interval, keeping in mind the genre of the film and the experience they felt people should go through. As expected, it has moments that one expects from the director. But is that adequate enough to keep the viewers engaged?

Connect begins with a happy four-member family involving Susan (Nayanthara), husband Joseph Benoy (Vinay Rai), daughter Anna (Haniya Nafisa) and father Arthur Samuel (Sathyaraj). What keeps the family united and happy is Anna's chirpiness and music. The teenage girl aspires to study music abroad, but her mother asks her to wait for a couple of years more.

Susan's life suddenly turns topsy-turvy after Joseph succumbs to COVID-19. She finds it tough to manage her depressed daughter, though she has support from her father. But little did she expect that the worst is yet to come. Anna gets possessed by an evil spirit after which they seek the help of Father Augustine (Anupam Kher), an exorcist, who comes up with a plan to perform rituals through video conferencing owing to lockdown restrictions.

The storyline is pretty much familiar to those who are exposed to horror flicks from across the world. The earnest performances from actors coupled with fine technical aspects lift the movie to an extent. One element which appears novel in the film is the manner in which an exorcist performs ceremonies through virtual meeting.

Manikandan Krishnamachari's visuals stand out owing to the depth it offers in crucial sequences. The colour tone, lighting pattern and the whole setting deserves praise for the spooky ambience it brings to the table. Nayanthara is earnest as a concerned mother, a doting daughter and a disheartened wife. Anupam Kher makes his presence felt in a brief, but dedicated role. Sathyaraj, Vinay and Haniya, too, are impressive in their respective characters.  

However, what lets the movie down, despite its shorter run time, is the predictable nature of the screenplay which offers nothing new. It looks like makers were keen to tick all the boxes we come across in regular horror movies - a happy family which succumbs to tension after spirit possession, an expert brought on board to evict the demon, and the stress-inducing third act - these are all done-to-death elements, and hence, the audience who expect something out-of-the-box gets disappointed.

We feel tense during the sequences in which the protagonist struggles to establish connection with the exorcist and her father during virtual meetings because of which the movie might have been aptly titled "Connect". Though this has been justified, the death of a prominent character in the film and the backstory of the spirit are left unexplored.

The core issue of the screenplay is the been-there done-that feeling which stops us from immersing in the world the filmmaker has created with effective technical details.

Verdict: The performances of lead actors save this run-of-the-mill horror film which has nothing new to offer in terms of story.

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'Connect' review: This Nayanthara-starrer scares all right

Connect is Nayanthara's second film after Maya with director Ashwin Saravanan

Connect begins by a beach, as waves crash the shore. Somebody is strumming a guitar, and a girl – Ammu aka Anna, played by Haniya Nafisa – is heard humming a tune. Meen kannadi thottikkul thedum oar kadale vazhava meaning 'life for a fish who is searching for the ocean inside an aquarium'.

As she sings, her parents Susan, played by Nayanthara, and Joseph Benoy, played by Vinay Rai, talk about her going to the London Trinity College to learn music. Her father and mother disagree. Joseph, a doctor, gets a call from the hospital and gets to work. It is the Covid outbreak and Joseph works 24x7, without going back home. He begins treating Covid patients. Susan and Ammu get confined inside the four walls of their house. The three connect through Zoom and online calls. Susan’s father Arthur Samuel, played by Sathyaraj, too connects with them over the phone. Soon, Joseph dies of Covid. Ammu who is attached to her father, becomes distraught. To overcome her loneliness, she tries to reach out to him through an ouija board. Whether she meets her father, what happens to Ammu and how does Susan deal with it all, forms the rest of the story.

Nayanthara is once again at her best in delivering whatever the director wanted. The fear in her eyes - sometimes as she looks for her daughter in a dark room, or when she turns the cross that is upside down, or when she prays while being terrified – is palpable. While it is her second film after Maya with director Ashwin Saravanan, for the latter it is his fourth - three of which have been horror flicks. Connect often gets scary, thanks especially to Nafisa's brilliant portrayal of Ammu.

Most of the shots are in dark rooms, the only light coming from the candles.

With the film revolving around the three characters, in the backdrop of the lockdown, 99 minutes might seem long.

Film: Connect

Language: Tamil

Director: Ashwin Saravanan

Cast: Nayanthara, Anupam Kher, Sathyaraj and others

Rating: 3/5

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Home » Reviews » South Indian Movie Reviews

Connect Movie Review: Nayanthara Leads A Good Experiment With Idea & Technique But Suffers A Draught Of Emotions

One cannot ignore how predictable it becomes in parts..

Star Cast: Nayanthara, Haniya Nafisa, Sathya Raj, Anupam Kher, Vinay Rai & ensemble.

Director: Ashwin Saravanan

What’s Good: The idea of the movie and the world it decides to set it into. Also, how technically sound it is.

What’s Bad: It chooses to only scratch the surface and suffocates in its own constraints.

Loo Break: Nothing so bad that it puts you off till a point you ignore. But you can if it can’t wait because there are predictable bits too.

Watch or Not?: I would suggest waiting for its OTT release since you aren’t missing anything big if you miss it in the theatres.

Language: Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam & Hindi (with subtitles).

Available On: In Theatres Near You.

Runtime: 105 Minutes

A mother (Nayanthara) and her daughter (Haniya) are tested positive for COVID-19 after the demise of her husband. In Quarantine the daughter decides to summon her father’s spirit to talk to him and ends up opening a gate for a demon instead. A ghost and the quarantine become a deadly match quite literally.

Connect Movie Review: Script Analysis

Going forward as we live in the post-pandemic world with its effect still feeling strong (God this feels like talking about the Thanos Blip), it is going to be an interesting thing to see how filmmakers see it and how they weave stories around it while reflecting on the time we as a collective went through. Few weeks ago Madhur Bhandarkar released his take with India Lockdown , an unfiltered yet confused take on the phase. Now comes in Connect, a whole new idea and one that has a lot of mettle.

Written by Ramkumar Kaavya and Ashwin Saravanan, Connect is a story so fresh that you can relate to it because most of us have been imprisoned in our own houses in the past two years. Now, what if one of the members was possessed by a spirit and there is no way you can get out of the house? There is a whole lot of substance and power in this idea which the two even partially explore.

The biggest hurdle is to create a perspective. Who exactly is watching this unfold in a house with two participants? So the makers take the Searching or C U Soon route where the majority of the movie takes place through Zoom calls. So the person on the other side of the call is your window into the world. The movie is technically very sound. It uses every possible thing about the Zoom ecosystem to create intrigue. Be it the recording, the buffers that the network creates, or even the noise that it quickly catches. One can see the efforts.

Talking about the haunting part of it might take away the fun. But one cannot ignore how predictable it becomes when it solely gets into that space. This draws your attention to the lack of emotions. For a story about a parent about to lose their child has no emphasis on it or doesn’t let that angle breathe at all. Rather there is a melodramatic scene that lands nowhere followed by an exorcism attempt that we have seen in multiple films. Even the world-building beyond the conflict is weak because it appears like done to just fill a void and give the characters an identity.

Connect Movie Review: Star Performance

Nayanthara is very invested in telling this story and the fact that she is craving some new experiences is evident with the fact that this is much different than her latest outings. The actor tries her level best to make this character work but the aforementioned emotional draught affects her arc too.

Haniya Nafisa plays the possessed daughter is amazing for a debutant. She manages to irk you and even scare you a bit with her few out of the blue. Sathya Raj adds a whole lot of melodrama to the film which does feel like a misfit at points.

Anupam Kher’s performance though is the weakest of the lot. It feels like he was hired the same day he shot because he is literally reading everything out of a paper kept behind the camera. At least it looks like that. He never becomes the character.

Connect Movie Review: Direction, Music

Ashwin Saravanan does walk into this one with a very ambitious vision and one can see it through how he envisions and plots the entire narrative. But only the main conflict will never land well if the world is not built as a whole and with the same conviction.

DOP Manikantan Krishnamachary does have a tough job in hand and he does it well to an extent that idea of watching the film through screens lands well. The background score is apt and good.

Connect Movie Review: The Last Word

Connect is a great idea that deserved much more than just good technique.

Connect Trailer

Connect releases on 22nd December, 2022.

Share with us your experience of watching Connect.

For more recommendations, read our Ammu Movie Review here.

Must Read: Naane Varuvean Movie Review: Dhanush Starrer Neither Promises Nor Delivers, Just Exists With No Purpose

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Will the new Bridget Jones movie finally shed the weight obsession?

New film slated to be released in 2025 with renée zellweger back in title role.

Social Sharing

It's been over 20 years since Bridget Jones, weighing 136 pounds, insisted she was fat on the silver screen.

The classic 2001 romantic comedy Bridget Jones's Diary,  starring Renée Zellweger in the title role, captivated a generation of movie-goers. Bridget was awkward, self-deprecating, single, had messy friends, embarrassing parents, an even more embarrassing love life and was — as she told us before the opening credits even started to roll — fat.

"I suddenly realized that unless something changed soon, I was going to live a life where my major relationship was with a bottle of wine and I'd finally die fat and alone," Zellweger says, sitting in rumpled pyjamas, drinking vodka and smoking a cigarette, as the song All By Myself blasts in the background.

It was funny. It was dark. And as  many fans  have since pointed out , for a generation of women, it was, ultimately,  damaging . 

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"I was 13 when I first watched this film, and I weighed at least a stone more than that. I remember feeling a hot flush of panic and disgust when I realized this, and silently vowed to stick to my diet better," body confidence advocate Alex Light wrote in a viral 2020 Instagram post .

She's describing the moment Bridget writes her weight, 136 pounds — just over 9.5 stone in U.K. measurement — in her diary. 

As in the books by Helen Fielding, Bridget frequently records her weight in her diary and is continuously referred to as overweight throughout the first two films. In the third, where she's pregnant, her mother reacts to the news by saying, "Wonderful, we thought you'd just got all fat again."

Meanwhile, Zellweger's own weight was the repeated subject of scrutiny by media as she famously gained 30 pounds twice for Bridget Jones's Diary and 2004's  Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. In Bridget Jones's Baby, the fact that the actor didn't gain weight made headlines . (In the 2016 movie, Bridget says she has finally achieved her "perfect weight.")

Now, 23 years after the first film was released, there's a fourth movie in the works , which according to reports will reprise Zellweger in the title role and be released on Valentine's Day 2025. But as excitement builds about  Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy , many fans of the beloved series want to know: will the fat-shaming finally stop?

"I'm not entirely optimistic," said Shana MacDonald, an associate professor in communication arts at the University of Waterloo who studies pop culture, social media and feminist politics.

MacDonald notes there's been a shift in a younger generation toward body positivity, inclusivity and neutrality, but that Hollywood — and the general population's reaction to Hollywood movies that do push the needle — isn't quite there yet. She points to the recent remaking of Mean Girls as an example, where actress Reneé Rapp was criticized for her body . 

"We have this regressive conversation happening where we're seeing the casting of women who have much more fulsome, healthy figures in main roles, and getting massive backlash for that," MacDonald said.

The 'heroin chic' ideal

The original Bridget Jones movies came out during a complex time that media scholars refer to as  peak post-feminist cinema , MacDonald explained.

Around the turn of the millennium, TV shows like Sex and the City and Ally McBeal  embraced female empowerment, but within a relationship to capitalism and consumption. And part of that was a very specific standard of weight and femininity, she said. 

"We were working through the idealization of 'heroin chic.' There was a really explicit emphasis on a deeply skinny idealization of femininity," MacDonald said. 

Today, a younger generation of women is pushing for a healthier body image , valuing a body's abilities and a person's non-physical characteristic more than appearance. People call out body shaming on TikTok  and embrace self love . Major clothing brands such as Joe Fresh and Gap  use more models who are plus-sized or have limb differences, although it's worth noting the fashion industry has been accused of " fat-washing " or " curve-washing " to give off the illusion of being inclusive.

But the ideal in Hollywood has barely budged, according to a 2022 report by The Representation Project , which found only 6.7 per cent of characters in the decade's most popular films were fat, and none of them were in lead roles. The report's authors note that they use the word fat "because it's not an insult." 

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They also found that fat characters are more likely to be portrayed as funny or "stupid."

"This finding reinforces the common 'Comic Relief' trope of fat people in media," the report noted.

'Perfectly normal weight'

Zellweger, for her part, has been critical about the focus on Bridget's weight. In a 2016 interview with Today about the third movie and Bridget's appearance,   Zellweger said, "I never thought she had a weight issue."

The same year, she told Vogue magazine she never understood the scrutiny of her own weight gain to play the role.

"Bridget is a perfectly normal weight and I've never understood why it matters so much," she said. "No male actor would get such scrutiny if he did the same thing for a role."

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But for some who grew up loving the 2001 rom-com heroine, Bridget's obsession with her weight was harmful.

Writer Sophie Vershbow wrote in a 2021 essay in Vogue that the 2001 movie came out when she was 11 "and just learning that hating your body was a normal part of being a woman."

"How many times had I watched this movie as a teenager and internalized that my body needed fixing, too?

The careers of actors like Amy Schumer and Rebel Wilson show how our culture is still fixated on women's bodies in Hollywood.

In February, around the time season two of her show Life and Beth  was released, Schumer was criticized for having a puffy face  (she later explained she has a hormonal disorder ).

Meanwhile, Wilson, who often played the role of the funny friend in movies such as Pitch Perfect, has been widely praised for losing 80 pounds .

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MacDonald, with the University of Waterloo, says the recent resurgence of Hallmark-style romantic comedies doesn't make her hopeful that attitudes are shifting in the right direction. These films lean in to that same early-2000s post-feminist narrative, she explained, with the same attractive and thin leading characters.

But MacDonald also sees an exciting opportunity with the new Bridget Jones movie, which is based on Helen Fielding's third book where Bridget is a single mom in her 50s: the experience of menopause.

"In a perfect world that will be integrated into the conversation."

Helen Fielding brings Bridget Jones back with Mad About the Boy

About the author.

Senior writer and editor

Natalie Stechyson is a senior writer and editor at CBC News. She's worked in newsrooms across the country, including the Globe and Mail, Postmedia News, Calgary Herald and Brunswick News. Before joining CBC News, she was the Parents editor at HuffPost Canada, where she won a silver Canadian Online Publishing Award.

• బాబు నా.. జగన్ నా? ఎవరిని నమ్ముతారు?
• ఇక కొన్నాళ్లు సినిమాలకు విరామం
• వారంలో 3 సినిమాలు సైన్ చేసిన హీరోయిన్
• రూ.3 కోట్ల సైబర్ మోసం.. వెనక్కు రాని డబ్బు
• లై డిటెక్టర్ కు రెడీ అంటున్న కేటీఆర్!

• అనకాపల్లి వైసీపీ ఎంపీ సీటులో భారీ మార్పు?
• వారం గడిచింది.. ఇక కష్టమే
• 10 సర్వేల్లో 9 జగన్ వైపే
• మళ్లీ వివాదాస్పద వ్యాఖ్యలు చేసిన హీరోయిన్
• పిఠాపురంలో జ‌న‌సేన ర్యాగింగ్‌.. వ‌ర్మ‌లో అంత‌ర్మ‌థ‌నం!

• తెలుగు

The Family Star Review: Star Doesn't Twinkle

Movie: The Family Star Rating: 2.25/5 Banner: SVC Cast: Vijay Deverakonda, Mrunal Thakur, Vennela Kishore, Jagapathi Babu, Rohini Hattangadi, Achyuth Kumar, Vasuki, Ravi Prakash, and others Music Director: Gopi Sundar DOP: KU Mohanan Editor: Marthand Venkatesh Production Designer:   A.S. Prakash Producers: Raju- Sirish Story, screenplay, dialogues and Direction: Parasuram Release Date: April 05, 2024

Vijay Deverakonda and director Parasuram Petla reunited after a gap of over five years following their successful collaboration in the blockbuster film "Geetha Govindam".

The hype and promotions were good. Has the film truly met the expectations and have the duo been able to recreate their previous magic?

Story: Govardhan (Vijay Deverakonda), a middle-class young man, has many family and financial responsibilities to handle because his two brothers and their children rely on him. He is an architect who works for a small firm in Hyderabad.

Indu (Mrunal Thakur), a student at Hyderabad Central University, rents the upper portion of his home and quickly becomes close to the entire family.

Govardhan and Indu start to like each other. As Govardhan prepares to propose to her, he learns that she rented the house and became close to his family for the sake of her project.

Shocked by the news, Govardhan vows to teach her a lesson and accepts a new position at a large corporation run by an industrialist (Jagapathi Babu). As soon as he starts this new work, he encounters another twist.

The rest of the story is about Govardhan and Indu overcoming their misunderstandings.

Artistes’ Performances: Vijay Deverakonda delivers a credible performance, conveying a range of emotions including stinginess, aggression, and simplicity. Vijay Deverakonda also gets to do three fights (two of which are superfluous), although he generally plays a simple middle-class youngster. While his performance is spotless, his characterisation lacks strength.

Mrunal Thakur doesn’t get much scope. Her role and sequences with Vijay Deverakonda in the first half are entertaining, but she plays little role in the second half other than maintaining a solemn expression throughout.

Jagapathi Babu has very minimal screen presence.

Among the other actors, Rohini Hattangadi's performance as grandma lends value to the proceedings. There are numerous actors in the film, including Vennela Kishore and Achyuth Kumar of 'Kantara' fame, but none of them make a significant effect.

Technical Excellence: Gopi Sundar's songs worked well. Two songs, "Nandanandana" and "Kalyani Vacha Vachaaa," are both catchy to hear, although we only see the former in the film, while the latter is used after the end credits. The remaining tracks provide little value.

Veteran cinematographer KU Mohanan has provided lush frames to this family film with his distinct style.

Parasuram Petla is noted for writing humorous scenarios and emotive dialogues. However, he has failed in comedy this time, and the emotional dialogues are more preachy.

The film has an excessively long length and plodding narrative; the editing should have been sharper. The production's design and values are classy.

Highlights: Vijay Deverakonda Interval bang

Drawback: Cliched screenplay Lack of entertainment Lengthy runtime for thin story Times Square scene and total US sequences

Analysis Director Parasuram Petla is noted for narrating stories in an entertaining manner. His films, like Trivikram's, are centered on family drama and fun moments, with dialogues dominating the show. The combination was great in "Geetha Govindam," but he failed miserably in "Family Star." Director Parasuram Petla has run out of ideas, as evidenced by "Sarkaru Vaari Paata," and "Family Star" further proves that.

By the end of the film, you question what Parasuram was trying to convey with this story: 'the man' who will go to any length for his family, or the standard 'Geeetha Govindam' template of hero and heroine trying to clear their misunderstandings about each other.

The film opens with Vijay Deverakonda's story as a family man who accepts all burdens. There is a character played by Ravi Prakash, the protagonist's brother, who was preparing for civil services examinations but failed and turned to drinking. This track is similar to Chiranjeevi's "Gang Leader". But the explanation presented for the gap between Ravi Prakash and Vijay Deverakonda is ridiculous.

Despite the fact that nothing happens in the first half and the film moves slowly, Vijay Deverakonda's screen presence and Mrunal's love track keep the audience engaged. In addition, the interval twist is extremely interesting. This sequence is the highlight of the entire movie.

But the film entirely loses track once Vijay Deverakonda and Mrunal leave for the United States. The entire proceedings in the United States are totally boring. The Times Square sequence in which some women mistake him for a male prostitute is cringe-worthy.

The second half is a cliched stuff with the hero and heroine attempting to clear up any misunderstandings. Even these segments would have been enjoyable if Parasuram had told them in an interesting manner. His primary strength as a director is comedy. But there isn't a single scene that makes you chuckle.

Furthermore, the runtime is too lengthy. As a writer Parasuram excelled only in the second part of the first half until interval. Rest of all is contrived, forced and mundane.

It is also a criminal waste to use the song "Kalyani Vacha Vachaa" after the film has ended.

Overall, despite Vijay Deverakonda's credible performance and pleasant interval bang, "Family Star" suffers from a slow-paced narration, a lack of emotional depth and lack of entertainment. If this film had been made in a concise style and featured comedy, it would have been a decent watch. Or else it would have been elaborated to make it as a TV serial. At the end of this 2 hour 45 minute ride, it provides little entertainment and more dullness.

Bottom Line: Lengthy Journey

Find Your Calm: Destress Your Life

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Michael Douglas stars as a flirty Ben Franklin in this Apple TV+ series

David Bianculli

Franklin is worth watching — not only for what it reveals about how the U.S. won independence from England then – but also about the complexities of war, and international politics now.

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. The fight for American independence has inspired many dramatic treatments, from the Broadway musicals "1776" and "Hamilton" to the TV miniseries "George Washington" and "John Adams." Now, Apple TV+ adds to that specific historical subgenre with an eight-part miniseries called "Franklin." It's about Benjamin Franklin's multiyear visit to France in hopes of persuading that country's leaders to side with the American colonies in their rebellion against England. Starring in the title role as Benjamin Franklin is Michael Douglas. Our TV critic David Bianculli has this review.

DAVID BIANCULLI, BYLINE: This new eight-part miniseries is based on the book "A Great Improvisation" by Stacy Schiff and begins its story in December 1776. The fight against the British isn't going well. After a recent battlefield defeat, the number of soldiers in the Continental Army is dwindling, and supplies and morale are even lower. The commander in chief of the Armed Forces, General George Washington, writes to Congress, I think the game is pretty near up. It's at that time that Benjamin Franklin is dispatched to France on a secret mission to enlist the French as allies against the British. Franklin lands in a small boat in the dead of night, then rides towards Paris in a carriage accompanied by his grandson Temple Franklin, played by Noah Jupe from "A Quiet Place." Michael Douglas, as the elder Franklin, wastes no time at all establishing his reserved yet quietly confident approach to the role.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FRANKLIN")

MICHAEL DOUGLAS: (As Benjamin Franklin) For a young man's instruction, Paris is the only city - much to indulge the senses but also engage the intellect.

NOAH JUPE: (As Temple Franklin) I thought I was meant to help you.

DOUGLAS: (As Benjamin Franklin) No doubt you will, somehow or another.

JUPE: (As Temple Franklin) How long must we stay?

DOUGLAS: (As Benjamin Franklin) Until we win France through our side and secure our independence - or we are hanged.

JUPE: (As Temple Franklin) Is there a third choice?

DOUGLAS: (As Benjamin Franklin) I suppose there's always treason.

BIANCULLI: As the Franklins are fighting for liberty, it should be noted that, as with virtually all historical dramas, there are some liberties taken in the retelling of this fact-based story. When the real Ben Franklin made his trip to France, for example, he was accompanied by two grandsons, not one. But paring down the story and the cast makes for a clearer generational and personal conflict. The grandfather Franklin speaks softly, chooses his words carefully and disguises his true intentions in every conversation. The grandson, not so much. And their two differing clashing personalities are clear from the start. From the very first contact Ben Franklin makes, taking his grandson to meet Edwin Bancroft (ph), a friend whom Ben hopes will provide some sort of entree into the French court. Bancroft is played by Daniel Mays.

DOUGLAS: (As Benjamin Franklin) The Congress has sent me here to elicit France in our war against England.

DANIEL MAYS: (As Edward Bancroft) Oh, no wonder your guts are twisted.

DOUGLAS: (As Benjamin Franklin) As an unofficial emissary, I cannot approach their side directly.

MAYS: (As Edward Bancroft) You're looking for a go between.

DOUGLAS: (As Benjamin Franklin) Someone well placed at court.

MAYS: (As Edward Bancroft) Well, I have some patience of influence.

DOUGLAS: (As Benjamin Franklin) See? I told you we could rely on Mr. Bancroft.

MAYS: (As Edward Bancroft) Whether they can be persuaded to oblige themselves.

DOUGLAS: (As Benjamin Franklin) I'll do the persuading. An introduction will suffice.

MAYS: (As Edward Bancroft) America's situation, it's not ideal.

DOUGLAS: (As Benjamin Franklin) I count the loss of New York as nothing. Armies merely regrouping by springing another 80,000 trained men. And the deeper the British press into the continent, the worse they will fare.

MAYS: (As Edward Bancroft) You concur in this opinion, Master Temple?

JUPE: (As Temple Franklin) Respectfully, sir, we are outmanned, outgunned and outspent. There are many who side with the enemy, including some I, at least, hold dear.

DOUGLAS: (As Benjamin Franklin) Remind me to instruct you in the usefulness of the well-timed lie.

MAYS: (As Edward Bancroft) Does he speak the truth?

DOUGLAS: (As Benjamin Franklin) Unless the French court provides us with men, money and arms, the United States will end before it has begun.

BIANCULLI: "Franklin" is written by Kirk Ellis, whose credits include the "John Adams" miniseries, and Howard Korder, who, like "Franklin" director Timothy Van Patten, worked on a period piece set in a much more recent period, "Boardwalk Empire." Together, they balance both sides of the scale just right. There are lavishly staged and photographed scenes of the powdered wig French aristocracy attending operas and having opulent dinners, but there also are dimly lit intimate scenes with two people whispering of intrigue. Sometimes those hushed conversations are political, and sometimes they're more of a seduction, because Ben Franklin was a bit of a rogue and a flirt. A side of the role that Michael Douglas of "Fatal Attraction" fame nails effortlessly, as when he first meets a woman to whom he's clearly drawn.

DOUGLAS: (As Benjamin Franklin) Benjamin Franklin, ma'am. Lay to the printing trade from the city of Philadelphia.

LUDIVINE SAGNIER: (As Anne-Louise Brillon de Jouy) Anne-Louise Brillon de Jouy of Passy.

DOUGLAS: (As Benjamin Franklin, speaking French).

BIANCULLI: The sexual distractions in this drama are amusing and quite varied. Ben Franklin is invited to play cards with Marie Antoinette, the French queen, while his inexperienced grandson is escorted to a French brothel. But it's the political flirtations that are the true spine of this "Franklin" miniseries. Like the movies "Lincoln" and "Jefferson In Paris," "Franklin" is about the long, compromising path to a particular goal - the large setbacks, the small triumphs and the perseverance that make victory possible. And finally, there's the context of this centuries-old story as it applies to our time. Ben Franklin is branded as an insurrectionist. There are high-level government debates about whether and how to fund a country that's at war with a repressive enemy, and there's talk about the rebellious Tea Party and what constitutes a true patriot. All in all, "Franklin" is worth watching not only for what it reveals about how the United States won independence from England then but also about the complexities of war and international politics now.

GROSS: David Bianculli is professor of television studies at Rowan University. He reviewed the new miniseries "Franklin," starring Michael Douglas. It begins Friday on Apple TV+.

Tomorrow on FRESH AIR, we'll talk about the great Serengeti land grab. Our guest will be Atlantic staff writer Stephanie McCrummen. Her new article is about how Gulf princes, wealthy tourists and conservation groups are displacing the Maasai - cattle-herding tribespeople - from their grazing lands in Northern Tanzania. I hope you'll join us.

(SOUNDBITE OF ADAM BIRNBAUM'S "PRELUDE IN DB MAJOR")

GROSS: To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews. Follow us on Instagram at @nprfreshair. FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salit, Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi and Joel Wolfram. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. Our co-host is Tonya Mosley. I'm Terry Gross.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

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