Showing posts with label movie review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movie review. Show all posts
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Ankahee...
Saw this beautiful and intense movie today. Ankahee. Starring Amol Palekar and Deepti Naval had won a national award in 1984.
The movie quintessentially talks about the part destiny plays in our lives. How much of our life is our own and how much of it is preordained. In the movie the educated protagonist struggles to find a way out of his father’s (also an astrologer) doomed prophecy which threatens to tear his world apart. He believing his father's predictions loves one woman but marries another. The movie explores the murky space where faith transcends into superstition. Something most people struggle with. I have seen educated engineers from my college turn around when black cat crosses their path and highly qualified doctors run to the nearest astrologers to sort out their kid’s future. Like the doctor in the movie whose patient’s eminent death is predicted by the astrologer says – what is the point in living and inventing if every second of our life is writ in stone? Why bother at all?
On a parellel note the movie also delves on the existence of free will primarily through the choices the girl (whom the protaganist does not marry) makes or is forced to make. How people under the garb of duty, love, pity, guilt and other such varied emotions push people to act against their free will.
Deepti Naval delivers a stellar performance as an innocent village belle struggling with her demons. The story in itself is powerful but Deepti Naval takes it to a different level. Amol Palekar is a superb story teller but the credit of this movie goes to the writer and Deepti Naval.
The last line of the movie actually summarizes it all –
Zindagi har kadam par aadmi ka apna chunaav hai…
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Do we need to redefine why we like cinema…LSD
My love for movies grew gradually and over long period of time. While in my teens and throughout my childhood I hardly saw movies. Some old English classics which mom got for us and some movies that doordarshan showed that are the gems of Hindi cinema (but I was too young to appreciate). It was only after I moved to Bangalore and started hanging out with the “intellectuals” in IISc that I discovered cinema and international at that. Discovered Von Trier, Kielowski, Tarkowsky, Bergman etc. And then thanks to these friends who used to watch movies till wee hours of the morning in the lab instead of working on the project as they were supposed to, I saw some beautiful offbeat English cinema. And then with my ex-roommate turned psycho I stumbled onto this beautiful world of regional Indian cinema which to tell you the truth has no equal. And now with my sis I am rediscovering those gems of Hindi cinema. But all this while movies that appealed were always high on emotions, deep with several layers, actors par excellence, direction and editing that would leave you spell bound, music and lyrics that would haunt you even in your dreams.
And now it is Love, sex aur dhoka…
LSD will blow you away. You will struggle to understand why you like the movie. Is it the trashy reality of our lives or are we just giving into the baser emotion of voyeurism? Even after being flooded with the reality shows which you know are not real the movie is gripping. It’s an experiment which has been thought about and planned to the last detail. I admire the precision with which the movie is shot. The three stories connect like an Agatha Christie novel where you understand the intricacies only when the director deigns to reveal them to you. It definitely opens a whole new vista of film making. I do not need to say much about the three stories which to me are just incidental. The movie is definitely not defined by them and for all I care it could have been a cat-mouse chase. Its a smart movie that goes way beyond in an attempt to define entertainment. Watch it without any preconcieved notion.
Highly recommended.
And now it is Love, sex aur dhoka…
LSD will blow you away. You will struggle to understand why you like the movie. Is it the trashy reality of our lives or are we just giving into the baser emotion of voyeurism? Even after being flooded with the reality shows which you know are not real the movie is gripping. It’s an experiment which has been thought about and planned to the last detail. I admire the precision with which the movie is shot. The three stories connect like an Agatha Christie novel where you understand the intricacies only when the director deigns to reveal them to you. It definitely opens a whole new vista of film making. I do not need to say much about the three stories which to me are just incidental. The movie is definitely not defined by them and for all I care it could have been a cat-mouse chase. Its a smart movie that goes way beyond in an attempt to define entertainment. Watch it without any preconcieved notion.
Highly recommended.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
It’s Complicated…
Even before I begin this, I have a confession…I love Meryl Streep…she is easily the most beautiful actress of our times and oh boy has she aged gracefully or what…and what a wonderful actress…the ease with which she takes on the characters as if that’s what she is…it’s sheer pleasure to watch her…
And now about the movie…there is something endearing to see the old romancing…it feels like the real thing…not the “in your pants before I even met you” or “the geek the cheerleader the soccer captain triangle”…after staying together close to two decades when two people move apart how do they move on or find closure…especially when you have no just shared lives and have seen each other growing up but also have had children together…at some point in the movie Jane (Meryl Streep) says to Jack (Alec Baldwin) – we have each grown into the person we wanted to become…it would be so much easier if couples would separate after the first few years and then get back together much later in life…
Meryl Streep shares such superb chemistry with both Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin that you feel you are witnessing real life and not a story on silver screen…Even though the movie is kitsch yet it’s absolutely worth a watch…
And now about the movie…there is something endearing to see the old romancing…it feels like the real thing…not the “in your pants before I even met you” or “the geek the cheerleader the soccer captain triangle”…after staying together close to two decades when two people move apart how do they move on or find closure…especially when you have no just shared lives and have seen each other growing up but also have had children together…at some point in the movie Jane (Meryl Streep) says to Jack (Alec Baldwin) – we have each grown into the person we wanted to become…it would be so much easier if couples would separate after the first few years and then get back together much later in life…
Meryl Streep shares such superb chemistry with both Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin that you feel you are witnessing real life and not a story on silver screen…Even though the movie is kitsch yet it’s absolutely worth a watch…
Karthik Calling Karthik
I think it’s very tough to look at movies in isolation without comparing them to the world cinema one has seen and is aware of. But also sometimes given the context of a particular culture\country\industry we should look at movies in a limiting context.
Given that background if I look at KCK reducing the universe only to Bollywood (and not even the extremely vast reserves of regional cinema India has), the movie is impressive. Farhan Akhtar manages the transition from an invisible loser in life to a high flying yuppie quite well. The movie does have a suspense element which the director has successfully carried throughout the film almost till the end. You don’t realize how quickly the harmless phone transitions to an object of terror. The movie is quite crisp. And though it’s the story of the man “Karthik” the love angle with Deepika has been woven without stretching it or giving it more shades then required.
The role suits Farhan and he has played it without melodrama. Deepika on the other hand has all of two expressions in her acting repertoire. She does compensate it with the fact that she looks pleasantly gorgeous and looks good no matter what she adorns.
While the editing is crisp and almost manages nail-biting suspense at one or two places, it does have a few stereotypes. The depiction of the therapist for one is very Freudian and kitsch and could have done with some research. I wish the director had actually met a shrink and observed how she functions. Another disappointment is that I doubt if people associated with the movie even understood the details of what entails a mental disorder. What is schizophrenia or MPD? What are the symptoms? How it manifests itself in a person? I wish the script writer and the actress playing the shrink had bothered just “googling” it – it would have taken the film to a different level itself.
Given that background if I look at KCK reducing the universe only to Bollywood (and not even the extremely vast reserves of regional cinema India has), the movie is impressive. Farhan Akhtar manages the transition from an invisible loser in life to a high flying yuppie quite well. The movie does have a suspense element which the director has successfully carried throughout the film almost till the end. You don’t realize how quickly the harmless phone transitions to an object of terror. The movie is quite crisp. And though it’s the story of the man “Karthik” the love angle with Deepika has been woven without stretching it or giving it more shades then required.
The role suits Farhan and he has played it without melodrama. Deepika on the other hand has all of two expressions in her acting repertoire. She does compensate it with the fact that she looks pleasantly gorgeous and looks good no matter what she adorns.
While the editing is crisp and almost manages nail-biting suspense at one or two places, it does have a few stereotypes. The depiction of the therapist for one is very Freudian and kitsch and could have done with some research. I wish the director had actually met a shrink and observed how she functions. Another disappointment is that I doubt if people associated with the movie even understood the details of what entails a mental disorder. What is schizophrenia or MPD? What are the symptoms? How it manifests itself in a person? I wish the script writer and the actress playing the shrink had bothered just “googling” it – it would have taken the film to a different level itself.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
3 Idiots
(wrote it way back and forgot to post :))
So my friend wanted to catch a glimpse of Aamir Khan for real…and that’s how it all began…the last minute tickets…the crazy energy levels at work just waiting to leave…the mad rush to the theater…and the endless wait rushing from corner to corner to catch a glimpse…well we finally got a look and my friend almost swooned…well now that’s an exaggeration…she was superbly calm ;)
There is this genre of films which paint a picture perfect life…even the downs are better than the real life ups…and of course its happily ever after…and I shamelessly accept that I love such movies…I love spending those two hours in a dream world which has nothing whatsoever to do with reality…yeah it’s the ideal world, the utopia I want…the dream I live every waking moment of my life…
Rajkumar Hirani has done it with brilliance, once again…college days are especially happy days for almost all of us…reminds us what it was like to be young…hostels, seniors and ragging, exams and assignments, getting crazily drunk, giving it all up for friends, the pranks and crushes…you’ll love it all…supremely idealistic and unreal (after all how many are born Einstein…) but will nevertheless take you to that euphoric place where you will laugh and cry (just laugh actually) with the characters…even if for a moment the movie inspires to take you that leap towards your dream…
The best thing about this movie is the perfection…all characters are etched with brilliance down to the minutest details…it’s a pleasure to watch the chem lab experiment which did not blow up in our face and got us a straight A in school…that sums up the movie for me.
So my friend wanted to catch a glimpse of Aamir Khan for real…and that’s how it all began…the last minute tickets…the crazy energy levels at work just waiting to leave…the mad rush to the theater…and the endless wait rushing from corner to corner to catch a glimpse…well we finally got a look and my friend almost swooned…well now that’s an exaggeration…she was superbly calm ;)
There is this genre of films which paint a picture perfect life…even the downs are better than the real life ups…and of course its happily ever after…and I shamelessly accept that I love such movies…I love spending those two hours in a dream world which has nothing whatsoever to do with reality…yeah it’s the ideal world, the utopia I want…the dream I live every waking moment of my life…
Rajkumar Hirani has done it with brilliance, once again…college days are especially happy days for almost all of us…reminds us what it was like to be young…hostels, seniors and ragging, exams and assignments, getting crazily drunk, giving it all up for friends, the pranks and crushes…you’ll love it all…supremely idealistic and unreal (after all how many are born Einstein…) but will nevertheless take you to that euphoric place where you will laugh and cry (just laugh actually) with the characters…even if for a moment the movie inspires to take you that leap towards your dream…
The best thing about this movie is the perfection…all characters are etched with brilliance down to the minutest details…it’s a pleasure to watch the chem lab experiment which did not blow up in our face and got us a straight A in school…that sums up the movie for me.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Avatar...the movie
Avatar is a sensational visual delight which will tease your senses…free your spirit as you waltz in the open spaces with natives…your eyes will pop out in wonderment at the delightful colors of lovely ethereal plants and strange animals…you will fall in love with the athletic, fast, earthy natives – but all for five minutes…
Remember star wars and Padme Amidala, young queen of the planet Naboo, remember Lord of the Rings and Tolkien and the whole new language he created and Peter Jackson who brought to life the magnum opus…remeber Pocahontas, the last of Mohicans, Dances with the Wolves...and innumerable others...
Well if you remember all that I doubt you will want to go and see James Cameroon’s Avatar…The visuals are no doubt grandeur but severely limited in imagination, the planet Pandora reminds you of the images you conjured up in your head while reading all those numerous Enid Blyton’s books…Remember making up various fairy tale creatures in your head (…you have to give it to the dame)…maybe it’s not all James Cameroon’s fault that all he talks about in his story has already been conceived and written about by a children’s author…now I do concede that he did come up with the hugely innovative concept of mining “unobtainium” on the planet Pandora…shrewd, money minded corporate at loggerheads with humanitarian researchers and savage mercenaries…added in good measure is the fight between the good and the bad, your own specices or the aliens...
All is not all that bad though…the precious connection that the “aliens” share with nature and the reverence to the spirit or gaya or ehwya as you would call it does inspire us to go green and think about the planet…Though I must say at the risk of sounding stale the tree the natives dwelled in did remind me of “The Faraway Tree” (…remember moonface, silky and Mr. Whatshisname)…I know I know…I grew up on a healthy diet of child fantasy…
The movie evaporates between the stunning visuals and mediocre performances…you leave the theater (and remember to watch it in 3D) thinking why you braced Friday night traffic to watch the movie in a theater which supports 3D and is about 20 kms away from where you stay…Its high time that the director of this and all such movies learn that no amount of visual extravaganza can replace strongly etched out charachters and a crisp storyline...
Seriously man…you need to take the audience seriously…all of us are not nincompoops…
Remember star wars and Padme Amidala, young queen of the planet Naboo, remember Lord of the Rings and Tolkien and the whole new language he created and Peter Jackson who brought to life the magnum opus…remeber Pocahontas, the last of Mohicans, Dances with the Wolves...and innumerable others...
Well if you remember all that I doubt you will want to go and see James Cameroon’s Avatar…The visuals are no doubt grandeur but severely limited in imagination, the planet Pandora reminds you of the images you conjured up in your head while reading all those numerous Enid Blyton’s books…Remember making up various fairy tale creatures in your head (…you have to give it to the dame)…maybe it’s not all James Cameroon’s fault that all he talks about in his story has already been conceived and written about by a children’s author…now I do concede that he did come up with the hugely innovative concept of mining “unobtainium” on the planet Pandora…shrewd, money minded corporate at loggerheads with humanitarian researchers and savage mercenaries…added in good measure is the fight between the good and the bad, your own specices or the aliens...
All is not all that bad though…the precious connection that the “aliens” share with nature and the reverence to the spirit or gaya or ehwya as you would call it does inspire us to go green and think about the planet…Though I must say at the risk of sounding stale the tree the natives dwelled in did remind me of “The Faraway Tree” (…remember moonface, silky and Mr. Whatshisname)…I know I know…I grew up on a healthy diet of child fantasy…
The movie evaporates between the stunning visuals and mediocre performances…you leave the theater (and remember to watch it in 3D) thinking why you braced Friday night traffic to watch the movie in a theater which supports 3D and is about 20 kms away from where you stay…Its high time that the director of this and all such movies learn that no amount of visual extravaganza can replace strongly etched out charachters and a crisp storyline...
Seriously man…you need to take the audience seriously…all of us are not nincompoops…
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Long overdue…A movie flowing in frames…
I had written this ages ago...don't know why never posted it...anyways here it is now...
As I go about some of my fav blogs and see every one of them writing about Dev-D…I am engulfed with guilt of not penning my thoughts…
If there was ever any hype for any movie for me, it was Dev-D…having close to heart people closely associated with this movie…having heard awesome comments about the script, music, about the movie…I was just dying to see it…
I had heard the music long before the movie was released…the songs in themselves are addictive and psychedelic…so much so that I have heard the songs over and over again…and there is a song for every mood and (you discover later in the movie) for every character…the songs have so much of character in them that they tell a story even when you haven’t seen the movie…”hadh se behad hadh kar di”…need I say more…
The movie is radical in more ways than one…I will begin with the adaptation…having read the original book…having seen innumerable Hindi and Bengali movies on the subject, I still could not have predicted the characters in the movie…they have been adapted with such brilliance and honesty…things, feelings which are there, which we experience but hypocritical as we are, we don’t accept…I was amazed that the director could portray them with such panache….be it paro who is so in touch with her sexuality…or dev who is unapologetic about his addictions and way of life or chanda who discovers life and freedom behind a mask…there are multiple layers to every character…
For the first time I felt the Indian cinema broke the shackles of the plot and ventured into the actual realm of film making…it reminds you of Ingmar Bergman in “Through a Glass Darkly” or Alfred Hitchcock in “I Confess” (I know I repeat these way too often :) ) or Lars von Trier with his “Dancer in the Dark” or “Europa”…
The brilliance is in the making of the movie…the way the movie moved between frames for me flowing seamlessly was awesome…and the fact that the music was so much a part of the movie that you never realize that there are close to 18 songs there…there are scenes which are executed with no nonsense…all I know is that if I have to tell about the movie to someone I will just show some of these frames to them…
One must applaud the actors…Abhay Deol who could have easily let the role slip into that of a “pathetic sex addict cum drunkard and loser” brilliantly manages to internalize the character and deliver a performance par excellence and Kalki for the rendition of Chanda without guilt, with complete awareness of self, without being bogged down with stale morality and judgment…
Overall for me the movie brings o life what was missing from Indian cinema…
As I go about some of my fav blogs and see every one of them writing about Dev-D…I am engulfed with guilt of not penning my thoughts…
If there was ever any hype for any movie for me, it was Dev-D…having close to heart people closely associated with this movie…having heard awesome comments about the script, music, about the movie…I was just dying to see it…
I had heard the music long before the movie was released…the songs in themselves are addictive and psychedelic…so much so that I have heard the songs over and over again…and there is a song for every mood and (you discover later in the movie) for every character…the songs have so much of character in them that they tell a story even when you haven’t seen the movie…”hadh se behad hadh kar di”…need I say more…
The movie is radical in more ways than one…I will begin with the adaptation…having read the original book…having seen innumerable Hindi and Bengali movies on the subject, I still could not have predicted the characters in the movie…they have been adapted with such brilliance and honesty…things, feelings which are there, which we experience but hypocritical as we are, we don’t accept…I was amazed that the director could portray them with such panache….be it paro who is so in touch with her sexuality…or dev who is unapologetic about his addictions and way of life or chanda who discovers life and freedom behind a mask…there are multiple layers to every character…
For the first time I felt the Indian cinema broke the shackles of the plot and ventured into the actual realm of film making…it reminds you of Ingmar Bergman in “Through a Glass Darkly” or Alfred Hitchcock in “I Confess” (I know I repeat these way too often :) ) or Lars von Trier with his “Dancer in the Dark” or “Europa”…
The brilliance is in the making of the movie…the way the movie moved between frames for me flowing seamlessly was awesome…and the fact that the music was so much a part of the movie that you never realize that there are close to 18 songs there…there are scenes which are executed with no nonsense…all I know is that if I have to tell about the movie to someone I will just show some of these frames to them…
One must applaud the actors…Abhay Deol who could have easily let the role slip into that of a “pathetic sex addict cum drunkard and loser” brilliantly manages to internalize the character and deliver a performance par excellence and Kalki for the rendition of Chanda without guilt, with complete awareness of self, without being bogged down with stale morality and judgment…
Overall for me the movie brings o life what was missing from Indian cinema…
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Fight club...
I had of course heard about the movie before. And was told from one and all that its some sort of a cult movie…now I have a thing against generalizations like that, a movie can be a master piece for its script, superlative performances, editing, direction, visual appeal etc. but I don’t really understand this phenomenon called “cult”.
So last weekend I had a chance to watch the movie…I was quite skeptic…not sure what to expect…having seen Ed Norton in other roles I was at least hopeful from his performance and Brad Pitt can quite manage to act at times apart from just looking good on screen…
The movie was gripping from the very first scene…you don’t want to stray for even a moment lest you miss some important tidbit…the director and the editors don’t digress from the theme for even a second and the movie does not drag anywhere…when the realization of what has happened sinks in it is almost a “Eureka” moment for the audience…and you feel absurdly surprised and silly at the same time…like you feel after reading a Agatha Christie…the clues were there in front of you all the time…you just never pieced them together…Needless to say the performances were easily the best I have ever seen…even the role of the maniacal “Marla Singer” was performed flawlessly by Helena Bonham Carter…it had to be given the fact that the character of Marla is what ties the lives of Tyler and Jack…Ed Norton has played the quintessential yuppie who lives a cataloged life where days and nights merge without any meaning and each moment is similar to the other…Tyler Durden, on the other hand (played by Brad Pitt) is a man with a mission…who seemingly has realized the burden of consumerization that we carry and has broken free from it and now wants to free the world…reminded me of “Sam Lowry” played by Jonathan Pryce in the movie “Brazil”…the movie peaks with the twist that actually leaves you breathless…
All in all a brilliant movie not just for the script but the treatment and the performances…A must watch.
So last weekend I had a chance to watch the movie…I was quite skeptic…not sure what to expect…having seen Ed Norton in other roles I was at least hopeful from his performance and Brad Pitt can quite manage to act at times apart from just looking good on screen…
The movie was gripping from the very first scene…you don’t want to stray for even a moment lest you miss some important tidbit…the director and the editors don’t digress from the theme for even a second and the movie does not drag anywhere…when the realization of what has happened sinks in it is almost a “Eureka” moment for the audience…and you feel absurdly surprised and silly at the same time…like you feel after reading a Agatha Christie…the clues were there in front of you all the time…you just never pieced them together…Needless to say the performances were easily the best I have ever seen…even the role of the maniacal “Marla Singer” was performed flawlessly by Helena Bonham Carter…it had to be given the fact that the character of Marla is what ties the lives of Tyler and Jack…Ed Norton has played the quintessential yuppie who lives a cataloged life where days and nights merge without any meaning and each moment is similar to the other…Tyler Durden, on the other hand (played by Brad Pitt) is a man with a mission…who seemingly has realized the burden of consumerization that we carry and has broken free from it and now wants to free the world…reminded me of “Sam Lowry” played by Jonathan Pryce in the movie “Brazil”…the movie peaks with the twist that actually leaves you breathless…
All in all a brilliant movie not just for the script but the treatment and the performances…A must watch.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)