Tag: weekend

Dhurandhar : The Revenge

Let’s just start with a prayer to all the people who said Dhurandhar is a propaganda movie! Dhurandhar : The Revenge has a 30 second clip of PM NaMo, giving his demonetization speech. Take that!

Our show was at 10:30 pm, but thanks to all the useless Ads, it started at 11:00 pm. Most of the audience was openly exasperated and complained loudly.

If you see full house at 10:30 pm, on a weekday, for a movie like Dhurandhar, you should know the audience is serious about it’s movie and not for fun. We came to watch our fearless Dhurandhar.  I hope they refrain from wasting half an hour of our precious time.

Before anything else may divert you, let me put my two cents on the table, here goes the review.

Released On : 19th March 2026

Watched by QB on : 19th March 2026

Starring : Ranveer Singh, Arjun Rampal,  R.Madhavan,  Sanjay Dutt, Rakesh Bedi, Gaurav Gera, Yami Gautam and more

Run Time : 3 hrs 49 min

Directed By : G.O.A.T Aditya Dhar

Jaskirat Singh Rangi buys an AK-47 for his brutal rampage, (mind numbing action sequence by Ranveer Singh) killing 12 men of a high profile MLA family, which earns him a death sentence.

One detail I loved was the small town Jaskirat posing for a photo with his family. His body language shows his innocence, before he went on a killing rampage. The anguish and the change in Jaskirat seeps into the screen. We can feel his rage.

Enter Ajay Sanyal and Bansal, who recruit him into the Dhurandhar program. Jaskirat is now Hamza Ali Mazari, the babbar sher (king of beasts, the lion).

At the safe house in Afghanistan,  Jaskirat burns his family photo, the last clue of his existence and new life ahead as Hamza.

Anyway, after the death of Rehman Dakait (Akshay Khanna), the throne of Lyari  is up for grabs! Uzair Baloch is nothing compared to Rehman. Arshad Pappu becomes powerful by default.

Hamza, who is on a mission to eliminate as many terrorists as possible makes a move and Arshad Pappu is killed by Uzair Baloch, (A brutal killing here, just like the one Rehman Dakait commits in middle of the street), which lands Uzair Baloch in jail and that’s where he stays till the end. (I wondered why Hamza went soft on Uzair, but there is a reason for keeping him alive!)

Here, Hamza Ali Mazari is crowned the new Sher – e – Baloch. (This song has a little less pep than the Foos Foos song from Dhurandhar)

With the new title as King of Lyari, Hamza gets the chance to meet Bade Saab, Dawood Ibrahim. (Whoever said Emran Hashmi was playing Dawood Ibrahim needs to be reprimanded.)

Bade Saab, lives in a palatial bungalow with wires connected to him, living almost like a vegetable,  but he still has enough hatred in his veins for more terror attacks on India! He asks Hamza to prove himself worthy of Lyari throne, like his predecessors and involves him in a drug racket. (The drug addicted Punjab needs to thank Bade saab for its drug culture.)

At this point, Hamza comes close to blowing his cover, but thanks to the pick pocketer from Rae Bareli, Hamza is saved. But, SP Aslam (Sanjay Dutt) has his doubts about Hamza being an Indian spy and that seals the deal for him!

SP Aslam is eliminated. (One clean execution here!)

We come to understand the fate of a spy, once Yalina (Sara Arjun) begins to doubt Hamza. Jaskirat ‘s days as Hamza are numbered.

Meanwhile, at Dubai, Hamza is given autonomy by Ajay Sanyal, to do as he pleases and all hell breaks loose. We see unknown men gunning down terrorists,  terrorists suddenly dying from heart attacks and what not! (Salute to the unnamed and unknown masked men, who are serving the country in shadows)

Meanwhile, Omar, ASP, is after Hamza.  He relays the information to Major Iqbal (Arjun Rampal), who is shocked and frustrated.

A long drawn fight ensues, between Major Iqbal and Hamza. I, particularly love the scene where Hamza brings out a bazooka, to fire at Major Iqbal. (It is almost as beautiful as Rambha ho ho , scene from Dhurandhar!) Epic!

Major Iqbal dies and Hamza is captured!

Let me stop the story at that. The rest needs to be watched onscreen.

What I loved :

Ranveer Singh as Hamza Ali Mazari.  It is a role of a lifetime for him. When people talk about Ranveer Singh,  it will always be the talking point, B.D and A.D.(Before Dhurandhar and After Dhurandhar!) He killed it, lived it, breathed it and no one can ever take that away from him.

Rakesh Bedi as the true blue politician, Arjun Rampal as the twisted army officer, Sanjay Dutt as the brash SP, R. Madhavan as the pukka patriotic security chief  and Sara Arjun, as a hopeless wife and loyal mother of a child, too were good.

Finally,  the gripping direction and screenplay needs special mention. Take a bow!

P.S :

1. Who even manages to make 2 movies of bombastic content, in a duration of one and half year? No one! For that alone, Aditya Dhar is a GOAT.

2. The run time in no way made the movie boring. I have the habit of checking audience reaction and frankly, no one was sleepy or bored even at 3:00 am in the morning, when the movie finally ended.

3. The music and background score are good, but I loved the ones from Dhurandhar than Dhurandhar: The Revenge.

4. Just so you know, the video clip of PM Narendra Modi brought cheers from audience, just like the ones we get when a super star makes a cameo in a movie, interesting!

Overall, a not-to-miss experience.  Do watch it.

For the love of Pizza

My earliest memories of pizza are from my childhood, when my friends and I would haunt our favourite Global Bakery, order a small pizza, eat a slice each and go to our evening tutions.

When one of our friends had their birthday, we would celebrate with a pizza along with 200 ml each of Coca Cola or our desi favourite, Thumbs Up. Those were the best days, of no worries and screen-free childhood!

The nearby, Country Oven was somehow unsuccessful. Everyone preferred the Global Bakery.

Anyway, schooling was the time my love for pizza started.

Once I progressed to college, getting pizza delivered became a routine. Mid Land Bakery got most of our business. These orders grew manifold, once I began earning.

I miss those days when the Technical Division team girls had a fun lunch at the Pizza Hut and ate to our hearts content.

After marriage, when Mr.Bee and I, made Charlotte our new home, pizza had been the go-to lunch or dinner, during our lazy days.

Even though I have been in love with the Pizza, this post is not about me!

I remember my first ever pizza in Charlotte, which had nothing but mushrooms as the topping. (I hated the Mellow Mushrooms pizza, by the way. I am not a fan of mushrooms, even though they are one of the rare sources of protein for vegetarians.)

Then came the particularly soft Papa John’s pizza, who knew my heart and always sent extra pickles for this desi girl, Queen Bee! I could savour their soft pizza, thanks only to their pickles.

Then there was Vapiano Pizza, which had the best ambience and was the true Italian pizza, but I felt no connection! (Sadly, it was shut down during Covid lockdown and now the new pizzeria in it’s place is, the Bella Ciao)

The Pizza Hut pizza was good too, but could hardly conquer my taste buds.

The Fuel Pizzeria’s Garden Fresh Pizza with my all time favourite topping of Basil had me salivating like never before. Mr.Bee loved to have a Margarita Cheese Pizza. At Fuel, we ordered half and half, one half with my choice of toppings and the other half with three kinds of cheese for Mr.Bee. Sweet deal! The added advantage was of the ambience, which was friendly, but not too friendly.

Incidentally, the FUEL pizzeria was close to Mr.Bee’s office and that added to the charm. I also loved their Garlic Knots, which were my “soul” food, they made my soul happy!

The day we landed in Charlotte, we had pizza from Mellow Mushrooms, Mr.Bee got negative marks for this choice of pizza!  He didn’t know about my aversion to mushrooms. To compensate, he took me to the Fuel pizzeria for dinner and that saved his neck!

Team lunches and dinners for Mr.Bee always meant Pizza, he must have eaten more than twice of my share of pizzas, but still, this post is not about him either!

During the lockdown, the one person who missed pizza was none other than GBee. Yes, this post is about my elder munchkin and his love for the Pizza.

Thanks to lockdown and the after effects of it, we stopped eating out for a while. To satiate our demanding taste buds, we even made a pizza at home, with the head chef/ baker being Mr.Bee and the sous chef / baker being me!

Once GBee saw that we were making him a pizza, he was excited and I don’t remember how we made him sit for full 45 minutes, till it was done.

He was so excited, he rushed outside to the main gate, as soon as he heard the gate open. He shouted at the top of his voice about pizza being made at home. Sadly, the visitors were confused and were in too deep a conversation to even respond to the kiddo.

GBee sharing his happiness with random strangers!

Since we didn’t have an oven good enough to bake a sinful pizza, we made it with desi jugaad. That weekend had been memorable.

Before and After – Homemade pizza

Credit goes to Mr.Bee for the tasty pizza. Guess who loved it the most?  GBee.

Although, he picked out every piece of vegetables on the pizza and piled it onto my plate, he still loved it! If only he ate it with all the vegetables, he would have been a bigger pizza fan!

Some day I would love to go to Italy and try the pizza there, probably made by a nonna . Does anyone have similar dream?

P.S :

1. Down the line, when we wanted to feed GBee to some sandwiches, we would bluff that they were just mini-pizza and he would believe us and eat them. Now, he is old enough to recognize the bluffs.

2. KBee, surprisingly doesn’t like pizza. We always order garlic bread for him to eat. Our choice of pizzeria in Hyderabad is the Pompeii. (The pizza is to die for!)

3. Before our flight to India, when we were finally returning home, Mr.Bee and I ate at the Fuel Pizza, one last time.

Do Not Disturb – Review

On my good days, I can complete a novel of 350 or less pages in a day. But if the story is not engaging and if it’s a week day, which involves picking up and dropping off the kids at their schools, I can finish off a novel in two days, in style!

Luckily, I started this one on a Saturday and by night fall, I was ready to review it. So here goes the review….

Review:

Written By : Freida McFadden

Published On : Self Published in 2021

Read By Queen Bee On : 19 th October 2025

 

Do Not Disturb, rightly starts with Quinn Alexander, who doesn’t want to be disturbed!

Why?

Because she is busy washing off the blood on her hands. She had just killed her husband Derek Alexander!

Turns out Derek is a giant A**!

Although, Quinn’s ex boyfriend, a cop, Scott Dwyer is at her main door, investigationg the neighbour’s complaint, she manages to send him off, without raising his suspicion.

All the while, the dead body is in the kitchen, blimey!

Quinn could have just used the self defense theory to get out of the murder rap, but she doesn’t.

She is mighty scared and the best idea she comes up with is to run away! (Running away is a clear cut sign of guilt, any reader of crime thrillers and murder mysteries knows it.)

The story would have ended after a couple of pages, if Quinn had just surrendered to the police, showed him the bruises on her neck and proved the abuse, but nope.

Bumbling and painfully amateurish, she manages to reach a dilapidated motel called The Baxter Motel, all the while leaving enough clues for anyone to follow her. Turns out, she has always been lucky, but smart, she is not.

From this instance, the novel turns into a thriller, even reminding me of the classic Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock, which I had watched, as a teen. (Take a bow, Mr.Hitchcock. It is an unforgettable movie, made in 1960, but is still relevant. More on that later.)

We meet Nick Baxter, the owner of the motel, who has an invalid wife, Rosalie, who was once a celebrated chef, but now, she just sits by the window and spies on her husband, through a binoculars.

Then there are other characters like Claudia, elder sister to Quinn; Rob, her husband, who is a plumber. A psychic, who is a permanent guest at the motel etc.

We also get to know the back story of the motel owner and his wife. (I felt the backstory could have been a little short. It completely diverted me from the MC, Quinn.)

Incidentally, the Baxter Motel is infamous for the murder of one of its guest, Christina Marsh. (Two years prior to the current story line.)

Just as Quinn decides to run away from the motel, she is stabbed…

What will happen to her?

Is the motel owner guilty of crime?

Who stabbed Quinn?

Who killed Christina Marsh?

Who is Derek Alexander’s mysterious girlfriend?

All the questions are answered at the end. Some of them may surprise you and some may not!

P.S:

1. The novel is worth a read, probably one of the writer’s initial works. I, for one, loved being reminded of the Psycho. Go ahead and watch it, now! The movie is unforgettable.

2. It is the second novel of Freida, where the ex – boyfriend is a cop!

Till the next post, bubye.

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