Mad Max: Fury Road wwww ½
Dir:  George Miller
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Rosie Huntington Whitely, Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz

Sequels are generally a tricky business, more likely to fail than not. And then when you have a case of a filmmaker returning to a beloved franchise after a passage of a decade or more the end result doesn’t necessarily live up to the expectation (Prometheus or the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace anyone?) So as much as I was a fan of the original Mad Max series (The Road Warrior being the best of the three) I kept my fingers crossed and fervently hoped that George Miller wouldn’t mess up the fourth entry in the post-apocalyptic action-adventure series that he created (and which inspired many others to follow in his wake). Happily, Miller delivers. Beyond expectations.

Mad Max: Fury Road is one wild, almost wordless, adrenaline-pumping, non-stop action extravaganza. Almost all of the action is old-fashioned non-CGI (showing up many of the big summer movies with their computer generated special effects) and it is glorious. The plot is almost beside the point but Miller and co-writers Brendan McCarthy (the comic-book artist/writer storyboarded almost every frame of the film) and Nick Lathouris conjure up a nightmarish, fevered world and their dystopian images have a hypnotic quality about them, a beauty in their ugliness. And by the end a message of hope comes through as well.

Tom Hardy isn’t quite Mel Gibson (the original Max but now too old to play the part) but he’ll do. However, it is Charlize Theron who holds centre-stage (for all its testosterone-fuelled action, it is the women who very much drive this movie, and it is this subversive element which adds another layer of bite to it) as the Imperator Furiosa, an enforcer for Immortan Joe, a power-mad dictator of a motley group of people in this arid future world, where control over water and oil gives you power. The action (which starts from frame one as Max is taken prisoner by Immortan’s men) moves into even higher gear when Furiosa strikes off on her own with a mysterious cargo hidden in her war wagon and from there it is a non-stop ride right till the end. Just hold on to your seats.

Cut to chase: Totally mad but totally magnificent.

Tanu Weds Manu Returns www ½
Dir:  Aanand Rai
Starring: Kangana Ranaut, R. Madhavan, Deepak Dobriyal, Jimmy Shergill, Rajesh Sharma, Swara Bhaskar, Mohammad Zeeshan Ayub

It’s a rare sequel that betters the original but this is one of them. Picking up four years from where the first one ended (the first TWM came out in 2011 so the characters have aged in real time) the movie gives us a hilarious (if slightly unbelievable) opening scene set in England which shows in a nutshell that "happily ever after" isn’t as easy to come by as the fairy tales and Mollywood romances tell us.

From there the action moves back to India as Tanu (Kangana Ranaut), still as high spirited, impulsive, fickle-minded and flirtatious as in the first movie, decides to take a break from her husband. Manu (R. Madhavan) follows - though not necessarily with any intention of getting back together with his wife - and promptly comes across Tanu’s lookalike Kusum alias Datto Datto is a rustic college athlete with a pixie cut, buckteeth and a heavy Haryanvi accent. But Manu is still fascinated by her – not least of all because of her resemblance to Tanu.

What follows is a series of madcap events which admittedly hinge on not so very convincing coincidences but director Aanand Rai and writer Himanshu Sharma (both were in-charge the first time around as well) manage to keep you watching because of the strength of the characterisation, some very funny dialogue and scenes, some messaging (slightly preachy but never overbearing), and some home truths about marriages and relationships. Almost all of the supporting characters from the first movie are back as well this time and almost all of them get their moment to shine (if you haven’t seen the first TWM then I suggest you check it out before watching the sequel as it’ll add to your enjoyment of the sequel - though it’s not necessary for you to do so). The acting’s good all round but Kangana Ranaut is absolutely terrific and convincing as both Tanu and Datto so the movie gets an extra half star for her performance alone. Some more awards coming her way next year, I would reckon.

Cut to chase: This comedy’s good; Kangana’s even better.

Khusro Mumtaz

Kmumtaz1@hotmail.com; Twitter: @KhusroMumtaz