Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The Conch Bearer + The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming -Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni -

Indian. Predictable. A little preachy.


The same can be said about her novels, right?
A poor little boy is given a magical conch and has to go through lots of adventures to return it to its home in a utopian valley run by a brotherhood of monks. Accompanied by Abhaydatta, a healer monk and a street urchin girl. I found it a little tedious. The second book was much better than the first. Though the conflicts and moral dilemmas in both the books were resolved so easily. We don't empathise with the characters much and the end of the novel the only person that I could relate to was the girl who was often delegated to the back. The protagonist boy seemed a little uptight and too goody shoes for my liking.

4/10



Turbulence - Samit Basu

Hail!

Double Hail!





I have read his trilogy and loved it, now this genre bending novel with Indian super heroes and supervillians in true filmi style but realistic (does that make sense? no?) The story is fast paced, has the required moral dilemmas but doesn't sound preachy and has some cool powers. He calls it literary fiction bitten by a mutant spider. I disagree.
It's a superhero novel with a comedy sidetrack and a moral spine.
Buy it people! Buy it!
PS: I have a huge crush on his writing.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlAuvu8IYrQ

I don't understand how I missed him.

Read some more:
http://samitbasu.com/
http://temporarilysignificant.blogspot.com/2010/10/turbulence-by-samit-basu.html

Mr. Dixon Disappears - Ian Sansom

Detective silly Realism.

Part of the Mobile library mystery series. My first read and I'm guessing this is the 2'nd book. Its not exactly a murder mystery detective series. There is murder, there is mystery but the detection is non existent. The hero - a bumbling english librarian called Isreal runs a mobile library in Ireland. He lives in a chicken coop and has 'romantic' problems.  He stumbles into the suspect list then stumbles around and finally get the mystery solved and a 100,00 pounds. With a lot of help from Ted, some sort of assistant/driver.  Very urban in a rural background story. Refreshing.

6/10

The Good man Jesus and the scoundrel christ - Philip Pullman

This is a story.


Well sort of. Mr. 'atheist' Pullman has pulled another one off. His Dark Materials author (I haven't read it - yet) has divided 'the son' into Jesus and Christ. One modeled after  eastern mystics and guru's, the other one after what seems to me is Mr. Flanders from Simpsons! Christ documents and later impersonates Jesus for what will later become the church. That is the story.

It's a fast paced book with nothing extremely good except the controversy. The point of view has been debated by everybody who has pretensions of being an atheist. After seeing hindu gods being slaughtered at many a writer's altar, I wasn't too taken aback by the controversy too.

5/10

Friday, November 26, 2010

Bala Takes the Plunge - Melvin Durai

Every cliche humorously explored - to the limit.

Its starts out great, you recognise that MS done, holding a job yet attached to Indian apron strings guy immediately. Bala is one among the million slightly boring and uptight middle class single Indian men in the US. The plot is as thin as the paper the book is printed on, but the puns and chuckles keep flowing. Its great at the beginning but after some time you get irritated and then it becomes a little painful. I admire the guys talent to keep the jokes going on and on, but without some character/plot development it reads like a stand up show. And we all know those are better performed than read.

Great Observational skills and great jokes but no plot.

5/10

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Riding in Cars with Boys [Book n Movie]

Complicated, confusing, much like life.

When your 15!!
It's a bare all memoir. And like real life, it doesn't have a story that shows pure redemption. She just narrates every turn and twist on her journey from being a 15 year old mother to the imperfect present relationship with her son. You go what!! then you empathise and sometimes you feel sad knowing that one wrong decision would have taken you through the same path.

Drew Barrymore is great in the movie and sometimes a little too good. Because certain scenes in the book you don't imagine with the same gut wrenching intensity that she shows in the movie. Bad life, good book.

6/10

Monday, November 22, 2010

Piggies on the railway - Smita Jain

As refreshing as a good gossip session.
Can write, Can't fill loopholes.
She writes for movies and hindi serials - that would have usually put her into the behenji with good punch dialogue talent slot. She isn't by any means. Introducing us to Katie Kumar, a designer clad, bollywood mad, sexually liberated (what better way to show sexual liberation than an affair with a married man) PI. And where there is a PI, there is a crime and this whodunit twists and turns around Mumbai and surroundings, through lesbians, gay men, transsexuals and a groin tattoo to reach its twister ending. There are a whole lot of stuff that is unexplained. A whole lot of twists that seemed forced and a hurried ending but we forget all that in the hail of chuckles at the heroine's expense.

You will surely enjoy delving into the superficial recesses of Mumbai grime and come out feeling like you had a rambling and not too illuminating, mindless gossip session with a long lost friend. 

Take it on a long railway trip.

5/10

The Immortals of Meluha - Amish

This book has a trailer!
Shiva Shiva!!
India is emerging and we are having the luxury of looking back. Amish a finance professional from IIM (must have gotten him through the publishers doors easily)
wrote this fictional piece based a little on mythology, a little on history, a little on geography and a whole lot on the Hindu concepts of continuation, karma and duality. The marketing was unprecedented - a trailer for a book! A preview of the first chapter etc etc.A trilogy announced even before the success of the first book. It actually made me vary of the book, hence the belated reading.

Siva is a Tibetan cheif of the Guna tribe. He fulfills the legendary conditions of Neelkanth, the Mahadev who will save the kingdom of Meluha, where a democratic distribution of Somras makes everyone young and live long (how long is never mentioned) Stuff keeps happening at regular intervals to keep up the readers interest and there is not much preaching - thankfully. Some stories and characters you will recognise, others have been cleverly introduced. Plus Siva being a pothead makes him extremely endearing in my books.A few modern interpretations can also be done with terrorists attacks, water sharing etc etc.

The only gripe I had was that some things like Sati being called Parvati - they were two different women according to my mythology (every part of India has it's own) and other obvious skewing of mythology which doesn't go down very well with mythology loving me. (not because I'm religious and don't want it to be changed, but because the real myths are so rich and colourful that its a dangerous thing to tamper with them) The obvious references to duality - chandravanshis and suryavanshis could have been a little more subtle. A huge mass of people are not just this or that!

 Otherwise its a good read. Although I hate it when the author ends the book with a cliffhanger just because its a trilogy and he wants you to buy/read the next book. Its an underhand technique and if he had done away with a bit of the commercialness I would have liked it better.

6/10

The Kids are Allright 2010

Lesbians are normal people too.

Are they really?
Annette Benning and Julianne Moore are great. Now thats out of the way we can talk about the movie. A suburban lesbian couple both 'moms' are bringing up a boy and a girl who seem like normal teenagers (if such a thing exists, normal in teen context means not as weird as most)

The girl turns eighteen, the age which IVF kids can find out about their sperm donor dad. Mark Ruffalo as the smug, organic farmer/restaurateur  does a decent job. The rest of the movie is about how everyone in this seemingly 'normal' family interacts with the sperm donor intruder. Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson hold themselves well in front of the rest of the great cast.

The strength of this film comes from the fact that its been taken like a film about a couple. Not a lesbian couple. Heterosexuals will identify the same insecurities, hiccups and redemption in their own relationships.

PS: A sluuurpilicios chocolate delight called Yaya DaCosta.

Worth a watch.

6/10

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Get Him to the Greek 2010

Its' funny, Its not funny, It's funny.
While being raped by a dildo.
Russell Brand looks like a british rockstar, talks like british rockstar but acts like a bit of a pansy. He doesn't actually have that fuck it all charisma - he is a bit insecure [what else do you expect from a comedian]As for Jonah Hill, he is fat & pathetic looking enough to carry off the role with all our sympathy and a bit of grossed outness.

The story? Aldous Snow is one of the last remaining rockstars, who was wiped out with his last Album- African Child [After drought and war, its the third worst thing that happened to Africa] He has spiraled into drugs, drink and mayhem. All shown with notable pop culture icons including Pink, Christina Aguilera etc etc. P Diddy is Sergio, a record label head who sends Aaron (Jonah) to get Snow for a 10 year anniversary concert at the Greek Theatre. Its a nice premise, but does it deliver? Im confused. There are enough pop culture references to please the hip crowd, a few laugh out loud moments but all in all, little soul. There are enough musicians crammed in to make it watch worthy but every 5 mins the story is interrupted so that the Aaron character can puke graphically. Love is also explored on the side and mucho realistically, so that's a plus.
6/10

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Letters to Juliet 2010

A bit of a boring mushy timepass.

Estrogen overload?
I like Amanda Seyfried. Why? She looks fresh, intelligent and even though she is blonde, I don't hate her. Why she is stuck with these light movies, I don't know, maybe its the above mentioned blondness.

Back to the movie, Sophie (Amanda) is a fact checker for the New Yorker and an aspiring writer (surprise! surprise!) engaged to an immensely irritating, fake italian accented(which is deliberate) Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal), who is opening an italian restaurant. They go for a pre wedding trip to Italy, where Victor ignores her for all the suppliers for his restaurant. Sophie finally takes off by herself and finds Juliets house where lovelorn, hormone overloaded women write letters to juliet (hence the name) and self appointed secretary's of juliet answer them. Sophie finds a letter from 1976 from Claire, who leaves behind her love Lorenzo and wants to know if what she did was right. Poor abandoned Sophie writes back and Claire comes to Italy after 50 years to find her Lorenzo accompanied by a gruff with heart of gold grandson (how original) Sophie tags along and you will never guess what happens next ;)

5/10

Due Date 2010

Due Date does not deliver. Anything.

There are better ways to waste time.
Todd Phillips, 'hungover' and dehydrated out of all comic sense or timing directed this fiasco. You could have donated the money to a charity and found a better sense of achievement. Was the morning after so bad that you sent the edited out portions of the movie instead of the movie itself?

Robert Downey Jr - you are no Ironman in real life. Bad scripts and the sleepwalker method of acting will affect the movie you are in. Even if you look good enough to eat, slurp, lick and chomp down on.

Zach - You can do better. I hope.


To the foursome who wrote this movie: Being under the influence of mind altering substances, even if recommended by Julliette Lewis will make things that are not really funny seem like a multi million dollar comedy.

2/10 [2 is for the dog and the one funny joke]

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Endhiran (Robot) 2010

Defination:
Rajnikant: The bus conductor who became not just a Superstar, but a phenomenon. Combine a little bit of the do goodness of Bono, the charisma of Sean Connery, the cult status of the Beatles, the spirituality of the Dalai Lama, put it in a blender, add a moustache, some slick angular moves and you have the second biggest star in Asia and he isn't even from the much hyped Bollywood. As Lennon once said (controversially) his popularity rivals the gods.(atleast in Tamil Nadu)

Thalaivar Robo


Robot alias Endhiran is his late but  latest offering. There is no use explaining anything in usual Rajni movies but this one is different. First of all this is a Kamal Haasan movie, so there is a bit of character development and less of senseless style and punch dialogues. So to compensate here is a bit of bullet punch points outlining the highlights.


  • Meeheeh Black Sheep! The Villian Rajni! Rajnikanth makes the best villain with a manic glitter in his eyes and the painted slightly freakish slab of make up on his face. (Think Heath Ledgers Joker with a less arthritic make up artist)
  • Introducing sci fi/ fantasy to the Indian Junta. We have so many engineers and so few sci fi movies. 
  • The scientist Rajni taking a back seat and not even beating up the big fat shirtless guy who messes with his girlfriend ( who messes with the big fat shirtless guy first)
  • 61 year old man doing stuff even 30 year olds will not find the energy to.
  • Graphics! Graphics! Graphics! Oru Rajni sonna naan nooru Rajni kamipen! ( You tell me one Rajni and I will show you a hundred!)
  • The way the graphics were intelligently used. Big but not unbelievable. 
  • 1 zzigabyte! ehehehehe.
Then there were the letdowns

  • Aishwarya Rai's make up in some scenes, get her a mirror or an eye check up for god's sake!
  • Kilimanjaro song. Sue the director, choreographer, make up artist and stylist for defacing some of the prettiest ancient monuments.
  • The comedy track? if there was one.
  • AR Rahman, you sent the wrong cd. These aren't the songs we heard during the audio release. These sound like rough cuts!! (or was it the theatre audio systems fault?)





Monday, September 27, 2010

Wall Street. Money never sleeps 2010

The original Wall Street and Gordon Gekko created a cult around stock broking. People wanted to get into finance specifically for all the wrong reasons portrayed in the film (money, power, sex) The excess of the late 80's has continued unabated and recently we all payed the price for that greed. The story starts when Gekko gets out of prison and the world has changed (or has it) the bulky mobile phone illustrates just how out of touch he is supposed to be. But Gekko being Gekko writes a books and predicts the market crash. A very green, miscast Shia Lebeouf [ god knows why he is cast again and again by big directors] is in love with Gekko's daughter and in awe of Gekko himself. Lots of the usual crap about the crash is hurled around and Carey Mulligan as Gekko's daughter and voice of conscience (she edits a leftist website called Frozen Truth) trembles her lips, not very convincingly for atleast 20 mins in the movie. 


[spoiler]


Winnie Gekko and up and coming stockbroker Jake are in looouuuu. Jake works under Lou Zabel(briliantly portrayed by Frank Langella) and specialises in green tech. He is trying for funds for a laser fusion project which he thinks is the next big thing.  Lou has made a few bad decisions (the ones all big banks in the US made recently) and the bank is on the brink of collapse due to some rumours spread by Bretton James (a sleepwalking Josh Brolin). Lou gives a huge bonus to Jake and tells him to enjoy life while he can. Jake believing blindly in his mentor and the bank, uses up all the money to buy its stock and an engagement ring. The bank crashes. Lou commits suicide by dramatically jumping in front of a train before eating a packet of Lays (good product placement?) Jake wants revenge and spreads rumours about Bretton's bank Churchills something (supposed to be Lehman?) causing some loss. Bretton is impressed and invites him to join his green tech department. A few token chinese clients are also present (one talks like he has a serious Bharatnatyam fetish) Meanwhile he also gets in touch with Gekko to help Winnie get over the bitterness she has towards her father and also because he is in awe of Gekko. He starts getting advice from him, and we all know what happens to people who follow Gekko's advice. They take their revenge on Bretton. Winnie gets pregnant. A few scenes later, where the US market crash and the governments role is played out, Jake realises all the acting and tears and advice were given so that Winnie would sign over the 100 million Gekko had placed in her name in Switzerland (where else?) She reneged when her brother committed suicide, for which she blames Gekko.  Jake and Winnie break up.


The writer for the original movie was Stanley Weiser, he wrote a script and then pulled out, to our great loss. We would have been spared the sight of a sonogram as a plot driver. Jake actually plays it to Gekko to entice him to give the money back (he wants to use it to fund his fusion lasers) We should be a little thankful though that he doesn't fall for it immediately. He uses the money to make a few more billions and then gives the original amount back to the simpering thankful couple. Though the recent movie's writer Allan Loeb is supposed to be a licensed stockbroker, it doesn't have a single original thought. Except maybe the juxtaposition of the market graph with the New York and London skylines. 


6/10

Monday, September 20, 2010

The Ghost by Robert Harris 2007

The Iraq war is a plot driver in the book and just like in that war, shock and awe tactics have been used in the book to gasp inducing effect! It is a wonder how the author was able to avoid any slander charges.

The thinly veiled fantastical plot based in reality:
The book is narrated by a unnamed ghostwriter known for his services to rock & football stars. He is hired to replace a dead ghostwriter who was writing the memoirs of Adam Lang, the charismatic but empty (I can't think of any other description) ex british prime minister. The Ex PM has a huge contract from a publishing house for his memoirs. He is also facing some flak for his role in the Iraq war. Things hot up by the time our ghostwriter reaches Martha's Vineyard where the Lang's are staying during a US speaking tour and questions are raised about the previous ghostwriters seemingly 'accidental' death.
[ spoiler]
It is a thinly veiled description of Tony Blair and the "secret role" attributed to Cherie Blair is preposterous. Lang is charged with war crimes on evidence given by a former foreign secretary. (again thinly based on reality) Mr. Ghostwriter meanwhile sleeps with Mrs. Lang, then investigates a bit and stumbles upon a CIA operative (guess guess) with clues from Lang's Cambridge past. Unfortunately Lang is murdered/bombed and the shock tactics come into play in the final paragraph which reveals that the manuscript we are reading was to be published after the ghostwriters death. An ending used before but not for such a contemporary plot.

PS: Robert Harris was a political editor so the book reads right. He has contributed to and supported the Blair government.

PPS: It has been made into a movie by none other than Roman Polanski starring Ewan McGregor. Mr. Harris seems to love controversial figures.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Dabaang 2010

Now that the song "Munni badnaam hui.....zandu balm hui.."is under litigation, I fear one of the very few reasons to watch this movie is also going to disappear. The song is catchy and so it Malaika Arora's luscious behind. Directed by Abhinav Kashyap (Anurag's younger brother, in talent too) and produced by Arbaaz Khan, this movie makes maximum use of Salman Khan's persona and minimum use of logic. Which would have been good if it was an out and out spoof, but the director/writer couldn't make up his mind.



The movie begins with the hero and his brother's childhood. Hero Chulbul Pandey (Salman) and his mother (Dimple Kapadia) live with his stepfather (Vinod Khanna) and step brother Makhi (Arbaaz Khan) Chulbul hates his step family with good reason and grows up to be Robinhood Pandey - a policeman with a heart of gold and fists of iron. Lots of Bhojpuri references, fights and dialogues follow. Sonakshi Sinha appears in between as the love interest potter girl and Mahesh Manjrekar plays her drunk father. All the characters are cut out from the normal bollywood milieu.

[Spoiler]

The movie follows a not very convoluted plot, Pandey catches a dacoit and takes the money. The dacoit is working for the local political gunda (Sonu Sood) who is not very liked by the main political honcho (Anupam Kher) whose assistant is the heroine's polio afflicted brother. (take a breath) Makhi steals the money that Pandey had got from the dacoit to marry his love (Mahi Gill), their mom dies, Pandey is thrown out of the house, Makhi goes ahead and prepares for his wedding with the stolen money, Pandey asks heroine to marry him, she says she can't cos she has to look after drunkard father.Pandey advices father to make daughter agree or move out of the way, father commits suicide, Heroine isn't resentful at all and cuts the funeral short to walk out with Pandey. Makhi's wedding is arranged, Pandey crashes the wedding and gets married himself. Makhi's wedding is cancelled. The political gunda wants his money and revenge against Pandey, he burns the step father's mill down and the step father has a heart attack, Makhi goes to goon for help, Goon uses him to bomb the honcho down, heroines brother is also killed. Makhi is then asked to kill Pandey. He can't so he goes to Pandey and spills the beans and then goes back to the villain (why? nobody knows) and is informed that the goon actually killed his mother while looking for the money. The showdown begins.

The only good part of the movie begins now. The director throws away all pretense and makes it a full fledged masala pow wow with shirt tearing flexed muscles, slow motion punches, bullets, explosions and blood that would make Quentin Tarantino proud. After the fight fest, everybody becomes friends and lives happily ever after. Apart from the continent sized plot holes and confusion, the only other mystery is how this movie became such a hit.

3/10

Friday, September 17, 2010

Dark City 1998

    
Sci Fi drama with Keifer Sutherland, Jennifer Conolly and Rufus Sewell that looks more like a noir thriller from the 50's than a sci fi film. Had heard a whole hoard of good reviews so decided to watch it when it cam on TV. 





It looks like the 50's, it sounds like the 50's - at night. The city is in perpetual darkness and everybody goes about their business not seeming to care except at 12, when they all fall asleep and the city changes- literally. Buildings melt and mould into each other, other rise and then everything is back to normal again. A man awakes in this city (Murdoch) who has lost all his memory (and his clothes). He is contacted by a mysterious Dr.(Sutherland) who warns him to run from the strangers. Surprise, surprise they are aliens experimenting with humans. These aliens have taken up human bodies and know how to manipulate matter with their minds but apparently are dying out. The secret of sustaining their species lies in the human brain/mind. The mysterious Murdoch is the only one immune to their ways and also has their powers! Its a nice plot but somehow I wasn't pulled into the story. There are better alien/ monster /Telepathy movies out there.

5/10





Boss (alias) Bhaskaran 2010

The trailer is a laugh riot, the best scenes are found there. There are a few other gems interspersed in the movie that follows Boss( Arya) a lazy, jobless bum who falls in love with Chandrika (Nayanthara) and wants to marry her and be 'kept' by her. She is also coincidentally his sister in law's younger sister. The typical plot involving the useless guy becoming rich to convince his to be in laws rises a little above average with the comic twists, mostly revolving around the hilarious Santhanam. His comic timing is impeccable! Like all Tamil comedians, he came, he saw, he peaked and now I hope he doesn't start coming in every Tamil movie released and then burning out into 'double entrende's' and 'propping the hero's ego' roles. Arya's character does not evoke any sort of empathy. Whether it is intentional or not, it doesn't do any justice to the story. He is insensitive, callous and unsympathetic yet for some obscure reason, everyone in the movie roots for him. Or the director/writer decided that since it was a comedy, you did not have to give any depth of character to the hero, his callousness can just serve as fodder for the humour. Nayanthara is at her artificial best. Time to get married/ reveal you are married and sit at home darling or go for roles that require that sort of 'glamour'.

There are references to old movies galore (another Tamil cinema trend) and a few relatable scenes. Obviously the ending is happy, but then it has a funny kid of deviation(I will not spoil it for you), which in parts seems like the director (Ramesh of SMS fame) didn't know what to do with the final scene. All in all a brainless time pass.

5/10

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Inception 2010

If Christopher Nolan was there next to me when the movie ended, the same movie that ended with others going 'whoa!!' I would have slapped him. Hard. I like movies with resolution if not then atleast a debatable resolution. Not and ending where we go 'whoa!!' and not in an entirely good way too. Not that I did not like the movie, it was superb, but the ending was like the oldest trick in the entire book. Yes, you heard me right, the hallowed Christopher Nolan used the most abused trick in the book!

Almost the entire movie happens in someone's mind. Cobb (Leonardo di Caprio) and his team are corporate(mostly) thieves, they enter minds and steals thoughts. The breaking in is done during the dream state by experts who enter the dream and construct a world that is familiar to the dreamer and then seek out the secret they are after, usually hidden in a physical location in the dream world. Cobb is on the run and is given a chance to remedy that with a very specialised mission. Instead of stealing an idea, to implant an idea in someone's brain. A thing that has never been done before (or so we think) The visuals are breathtaking, the science seemingly possible, the acting is taut. We are slowly but surely drawn into the dream world or is the real world?

Now coming again to the slapping part, I know that it was imperative to the story, I know it was the best ending you can give a story like that. I know it was thought provoking, but I hoped it ended in a way that made it easier for me (brain laziness to be blamed)

7/10

The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus 2009

Heath Ledger...every movie buff I know would be heaving a small sigh for that lost talent. Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Firth did too. With clever twists in the story, they took on the role that Heath could not complete due to his death (what better excuse, if I may sound a little uncaring, but again we see the actors worth through his characters, excluding the tabloid crazy side of the public that is)

Written and Directed by Terry Gilliam is attraction enough plus the cast including a very sweet Andrew Garfield as a very sweet young man who works as a busker for the Imaginarium run by Dr. Parnassus, played by Christopher Plummer and a very strange yet alluring Lily Cole as Valentina, his daughter.

The three together with Verne Troyer (which respectable road carnival does not boast of a midget?) travel across London(?) to attract people into the Imaginarium(actually the Dr's mind where dreams come true), with dismal results. Flashback tells us that the Dr. had made a deal with the devil that 20 people would resist temptation in the imaginarium or he would give him his child in 16 years. All in return for youth, to woo his love. Valentina's 16'th birthday is approaching and they haven't got a single soul when they rescue Tony, a man with a questionable past,hanging by the neck, under a bridge. He turns their operation around but at what cost?

The movie is loud, convoluted and full of references, just like the dream sequences it portrays. Some of the scenes look like they come straight out of a painting. (later I discovered they were inspired by paintings) All in all, along with the sympathy that it arouses whenever you see Heath Ledger on screen, it is a decent watch.

6/10

Monday, September 13, 2010

The Reader 2008

Nicole Kidman was going to play this role but apparently did not, due to her pregnancy. Thank God and her reproductive system! Because Kate Winslet breathed such life into this role that even though she is a Nazi in the movie(that one word contains loathing fit for centuries) doing her 'job' we are drawn to her and even at times sympathise. The storyline and direction should also be given its due credit, because it managed to paint such an unbiased picture, letting the audience make all the judgements (all Indian media- take note) Playing perfect foil to Kate's Hanna was David Kross as the young Micheal. If only we had more young actors who had even half as much grasp of the craft  as this young man had. Actually looking back, everyone was cast brilliantly.

The story takes us from a summer romance between a young german boy and an older woman to the war crime court rooms of post WW2 Germany and finally to the deep echoes of past actions that reverberate during the present. It is not a tale of redemption or absolution because this story closely follows real life. Rather it is a complex exercise dealing with what the young Michael exclaims in his Law class after a particular gruesome testimony about the holocaust "We are trying to understand!"

The plot is not hard to determine, even at the beginning of the movie, we understand the why's before Michael does but yet you will be riveted to the slow unveiling of Hanna and her motives, her life and its repercussions mirrored in Michael's life. A precious movie.

8/10

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Peepli [live] 2010

The hoopla surrounding Aamir Khan sometimes has adverse effects. Every loud news channel turns louder about the impending release and you are inundated with repeated clips and sound bytes. But this time, unusually I must say, the hype was warranted. The only downside I could think of was that the calculated brilliance and charisma of the producer overshadowed the actual talent of Anusha Rizvi, the director. Set in Mukhya Pradesh and centred around a poverty stricken farmer family with two brothers. The older one smart, the younger one, not so much, his sharp tongued wife, sharper tongued mother, kids and a few goats. Satire rules the story with the driving plot centered around the government policy of "rewarding" the family of farmers who commit suicide. But thrown in are other barbs like the various government policies named after dead prime ministers that as is hilariously shown, do not always work. Every character is brilliantly caricatured yet seem so real. I was especially taken by Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Rakesh, a local journalist and the conscience pointer in the story. Of course the main characters of Budhia and Natha played by the always brilliant Raghubir Yadav and the much celebrated Omkar Das Manikpuri also deserve to be mentioned for their brilliance. They absorbed the audience into their plight. An audience that was watching this slice of rural India from an air conditioned multiplex theatre in a metro where hunger is understood only by the upper middle class women on a diet and farming is a distant concept. They laughed along (so did I), were disturbed by some of the messages, agreed with most of the accusations against our system and walked out shaking their heads and saying "someone should do something" while throwing the plastic coffee cup or water bottle out of the car window , "our system is so corrupt" while paying the traffic policeman outside a 100 rupees instead of the fine for talking on the mobile phone, explaining the movie to a colleague or even going back to a nice cup of tea prepared by the 11 year old girl from their village.  After all, living in the city, you cannot do much about farmer suicides. 


8/10





Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Madaraspattinam 2010

Period movies in Tamil cinema are few and far between. The ones that did come were not even worth a second glance (bushy mustaches, cardboard crowns, jute togas and earrings) This movie is a refreshing change, attention has been given to detail. Including a nice touch with an antique flight tag on a piece of luggage. The story is set in the backdrop of the independence struggle and independence day. (this part was predicatble) but atleast it didn't overpower the love story which is the actual plot of the movie.

Arya and Amy Jackson did a great job with understated performances that seemed possible. The story of a british girl falling in love with a washerman/ wrestler was handled with a lot of tlc. The background of a freedom struggle didn't overpower the performances, though a few scenes were unnecessary.

The star of the movie was Madras in all its pre independence glory. Everybody played their part well and it was touching to see the dedication to the Late Cochin Hanifa at the beginning of the movie. The only performance that was out of place was the older Amy who seemed too wooden. The villain of the piece (the sadistic british officer of course) also didn't seem too taken by his character, but I don't blame him. The convoluted sadistic death sentences carried out would have been more at home in a Bond movie rather than a period piece. All in All worth a watch.

6/10

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Australia 2008

Nicole Kidman is a study in contrast, an elegant woman in real life, who turned to plastic surgery. Whose earlier works were warm and beautiful now turned ice princess. Australia, Baz Luhrmann's epic flop wouldn't have been such a flop if it was made a few decades ago and maybe for a few million dollars less. The story is typical of that era. The shots are sweeping, the characters are typical, the hero is heroic and the bad guys are bad guys through and through. I kind of enjoyed it except for the fact that most of the time, the screen was filled with Nicole Kidman's artificially plumped up lips and forehead.(sometimes it was really freaky, especially when she tried expressions that involved some sort of botox inhibited muscles to work) Hugh Jackman was yum yum yum and the kid was cute. But again too many cliches and too little substance made this movie a so so weekday night timepass instead of the soaring epic it was meant to be.

Story: English aristocratic lady comes to Australia and the property left by her dead husband, meets bad guys who want her land. Some "how bad it was for the aborigines scenes" come in between. Meets macho cattle guy who helps her, they do some romantic stuff, save the day and a cute aborigine kid a few times and among typical "mysterious brown/black people voodoo stuff" let him go. Being an Indian and having every "mysterious brown/black people voodoo stuff"  attributed to us. [snakes, poisons, curses, tantra, yoga, kundalinis and chakras and even the art of living :)] I think it was a little typical and not very well portrayed.  
6/10

Monday, July 19, 2010

Karl Aaj aur Kal, Cyrus Broacha [2010]

First and foremost, if you do not know Cyrus Broacha and his brand of comedy, you may not enjoy the book as much as I did.

Anybody who grew up in the 90's in Mumbai (no this is not the beginning of one of those chain mails and facebook notes) will relate to the first few pages of the book. It describes the childhood and college hood of the protagonists/best friends Karl and Kunal. The characters or rather caricatures are spot on, although they seem to be written by an attention deficit 10 year old and the story keeps jumping around and about and through some weird ramblings. But if you read with Cyrus in mind, all of it suddenly seems to make enough nonsense to be termed as hilarious. There were some paragraphs where i wanted to laugh out loud but had to do the 'jerking silent holding in laugh' (I was at Colombo airport and coming from Tamil Nadu,  i didn't want to give them an excuse) with tears streaming down my face. I annoyed a whole lot of people and scared a lot more. The meanderings of Karl and Kunal through life and the changes in fortune and fame they go through are interspersed with real life characters and places with a comic twist, so we have Pearl Padamsee who 'discovers' the two. We have Prahlad Kakkar too. Some incidents, me thinks follows Cyrus's own life. Bollywood, politics and even the pleasure of digging noses is delved into :) There is a bit of Mumbai snobbishness and a whole lot of tongue in cheek - a little too much, come to think of it. The acknowledgments and the preface all fall under this category.

    All in all for those who like "mokkai" jokes or pj's and 'groan out loud' jokes will enjoy the book. All the rest - stay away!

8/10

Monday, July 5, 2010

The Silent Raga -Ameen Merchant (2008)

Janaki Asgar, the name says it all. This story of an orthodox Tamil Brahmin, agraharam girl from Sripuram, marrying a Muslim Bollywood hero (yes, you read it right!) reads like the name of the book. A slow drawn tune carried through one of my favourite cities (chennai, in case your wondering). The novel follows a non linear narrative, going back and forth between the early life and the current one of our heroine.

Explanations are few and far between, the journey from Janaki - the housebound brahmin girl to Janaki Asgar, wife of bollywood actor and Veena exponent is drawn out, played with, tuned carefully and often left to the imagination. Each character is so well thought out, their lives so well plotted and revealed in tiny nuggets at a time, that you empathise even with the lowliest of them. From the lascivious Gayathri Chitti as the stepmotherly aunt to the grudge holding sister Mallika and even the gossip mongering neighbour, everyone is painted in tiny revealing strokes that ultimately leave you with a believable, whole and very human picture. And to make a very sexist comment, I had a hard time believing that a man had written this, and a non brahmin to boot. The smell, taste and atmosphere of an agraharam are so beautifully brought out, that at times I could catch a whiff of the fried potatoes and the crunch of dried vathals. For that itself, Ameen Merchant has been placed on my list of beautiful writers. This apart from the fact that he describes Chennai in a manner I wish, I had - Not with too much emotion, but with a fond familiarity and a feeling of home.

Now for the little flies in the pure Brahmin ointment. The non linear style sometimes seemed to hiccup along. Most of the actions of the current Janaki Asgar seemed rushed, not like the slow but interesting untangling of the young one. The novel is on the longer side, but a bit more could have been done at the end. The reader is left a little breathless and flustered, like a slow melody suddenly ending in a clash of cymbals and then silence.

6/10

Monday, June 28, 2010

A Team (2010)

Do you remember those old hindi/english movies of the 80's and early 90's where everything was blown up, but nobody died and there was huge dose of humour to go along with the dynamite? A Team takes you back to those days. When men were dirty and crass, women were beautiful and bitchy and there was a "twist ending" but the heroes always saved the day!  Again the movie is inspired by a series that ran during the 80's ( me thinks) so full fledged masala, action, drama, comedy, tragedy can be expected.

As for the characters - Liam Neeson as Colonel Hannibal brings the necessary "madness with a suave gravity" Bradley Cooper is Face, the casanova, Jessica Beil is cute, but not very bitchy as Capt Sosa and Baracus played by Quinton Jackson, finds Gandhi, non violence and facial hair in between and then losses it all :). The background is Iraq and Saddam is mentioned a few hundred times (still?!)

[spoiler] The team is assigned a covert operation to get back some dollar engraving plates that were lost. Its actually (and obviously) a set up and they are sent off to prison. [spoiler end] How they get out, clear their name and smash the bad boys to oblivion forms the rest of the movie. There were enough explosions to keep my husband happy and just enough brains in the plot to keep everybody interested without taking away from the sheer masalafication!
  
7/10

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Raavanan 2010

 Mani Ratnam's latest promises a lot and delivers nothing. Touted to be a "different take" on the Ramayana, it just ends up being half baked idea of a movie that could have been much more. Take away the breathtaking cinematography, the soulful Rahman music and all you will be left with are stilted dialogues, some constipated acting by Aishwarya Rai (now with a famous add on - Bachan) and a whole host of talented actors looking lost because they don't have enough material to work with. The storyline is non existent, most characters appear out of nowhere and then disappear, even the main characters are not fleshed out. They just do certain things without motivation or a background explanation. Ramayana is a complex story with so much scope to work on, Mani just skimmed over it superficially and made a humongous mess. [spoiler alert]Veera's sister is raped and tortured by the cops. What has Veera done? We don't have a clue apart from the introduction voice over saying that Veera helps those that need it. He then kidnaps the SP's (A surprisingly good Prithviraj) wife (Aishwarya) and then can't kill her because she is brave. (I have no other way of explaining it. This is how it was clumsily explained in the movie) A few more gorgeous but empty scenes later, the husband - a trigger happy cop is introduced. Now we cannot have Ramayan without Hanuman, so Karthik is wasted in a 2 min role that looks like patchwork. Prabhu is also wasted in a side role that requires so little work, its almost an insult. And not to forget the talk of the moment - Ranjeetha in a non speaking, sidelined, what the hell is she required for role. Btw she appeared on screen and the crowd burst out into claps and whistles for the first and last time.

Mani has tried the non linear narrative to disastrous effect. It was like he watched a few brilliant non linear narrative foreign movies on UTV and then decided he had to do it - after he shot the movie. The editing is horrible. There is no other way to describe it. Amitabh Bachan was right for once in his famous assessment. Mani Ratnam took too much on himself, shooting two languages simultaneously and it shows. Vikram is the only one who comes out looking relatively ok, he does his best with whatever little was on offer.
Mani the story teller has failed miserably this time.
4/10

Friday, June 18, 2010

Mary and Max 2008

This is an existential Australian masterpiece. Clay Animation with adult themes. Mary an 8 year old kid in Waverly, Australia comes from a dysfunctional family (father never present, mother drunk). She finds Max's address from an address book in the post office where her mother is in one of her "borrowing" sprees. She writes to him and it is the beginning of a troubled but beautiful friendship that causes a few nervous breakdowns, drunken binges and thesis papers among others.

This gorgeous gem of a movie is certainly not for happy, springy people. In shades of brown (Mary's favourite colour) and gray, each sequence unfolds painstakingly and with such depth and irreverence that you feel drawn into a world where you know everything is not perfect, but it is beautiful in its own ugly way. Each humiliation and every bump in the pathetic characters lives is shown with a black humour and in a surprising but cute choice of children's book language. It is under comedy on imdb.com, but I wonder how many people will be able to appreciate the dark, sarcastic, pessimistic humour. A little overworked and preachy at times, I would definitely put it under drama. A nice movie for those philosophy book buffs and a for movie buffs, it an interesting interplay between a dramatic script and animation.

7/10

Monday, June 14, 2010

Okuribito (Departures) Japan 2008

The orchestra where our protagonist - a cello player played has been disbanded. He realises he is not talented enough to continue as cello player but not before he has spent a few million on a new cello. At this point we are drawn in by the story. He encounters a live octopus, sells his cello and moves with his wife to the countryside into a cafe/house his mom left for him when she died. He is broke and has an irritating wife who keeps smiling (he doesn't think so, but I do) A chance ad leads to a job cleaning, decorating and encoffining dead people (yes I know, you have to be dead to be encoffined - a word I learnt from the subtitles :)) This gives the script a chance to go into dead body humour, heart wrenching sobbing etc etc.
The plight of lonely old women, shunning of people who handle dead bodies, lost fathers and scarred childhoods is all handled in between scenes of the hero playing cello in the green japanese countryside with geese and flowers for company. (Very DDLJ)

I'm not saying it was a bad movie, apart from the wife, everybody else did a decent job. There are a few funny and a few touching scenes and overall it is a sweet movie. The rituals shown are really fascinating and among the best portions of the movie. And maybe if had not won an Oscar for best foreign language film, I might have been a little less harsh in judging it.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Invictus 2009

Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon and Clint Eastwood. The names are enough for a great rating, but somehow it all doesn't come together as easily as I expected. Morgan Freeman gives one of the best performances of his life. Even though he physically doesn't resemble Mandela much, the spirit was there. Matt Damon didn't have much to do but look inspired or look dejected. The rest of the cast also does a good job especially Tony Kgoroge who acts as the head of Mandela's personal security. But somehow the wow! factor is missing. It seems Clintwood sleepwalked through this movie. Everything is in place but the magic is missing.

It is the year Mandela is elected as the President of South Africa, apartheid has been abolished but the wounds still run deep. The economy is not in a good condition, nor is the country. While he should have concentrated on more worthy "presidential" duties, Mandela chooses to encourage the Springbrooks - South Africa's much hated symbol of the apartheid, an Afrikaaner rugby team with just one whitewashed african to win the Rugby World Cup for the new South Africa. Glimpses of how Mandela works, his sad family life at that point and the loyalty he inspired are very well portrayed. The Springbrooks led by Matt Damon are at first resistant but soon fall in line with Mandela's "Human calculation"

If you want to watch a feel good movie that is based on an inspiring true life story, this is for you. But forget about any Clintwood magic in this one.

6/10

Friday, January 29, 2010

Goa

You have a string of great ideas that you would put in a movie, but no story. So you string these great ideas and jokes together and in between place some songs and a half baked story and voila! You have Goa. I like Venkat Prabhu and he did an ok job with his screenplay's till now (Chennai 28 & saroja) but this time around, he should have hired a good screen writer and a very good editor. I love the irreverence with which he treats certain scenes. A few examples - the statutory warning against smoking changed a teeny bit to hilarious results. The usual introductory aarthi of the amman where the prayer is for rain, well being of all and ofcourse that the movie should do well in b & c centres :) A song with Premji giving a "Tamil Nadu"( a map) to the foreign girl and ofcourse one of the couples in the movie is a bit unusual (hehe I wont spoil the fun)

The Story:
Three guys from a very isolated village near Madurai or Theni. Jai is the wannabe NRI with some great lines, Premji is the guy given to the temple - saamikannu in a hilarious role and the third guy (i forgot his name) is the village casanova. The movie follows their adventures or rather misadventures. And after all the misadventures the movie has had, I was hoping they would have put in some more effort to atleast edit it well and provide a strong story line.May be they thought the publicity (although bad) was good enough. Anyways its supported by the funny scenes and a nice follow up at the ending, though the second half of the movie looks like a mish mash of clips from different movies.

Some of the jokes are great, though most of them have been stretched to almost breaking point. Premgi as usual provides the comic - er relief and Sampath!! I'm not going to give away the suspense but he blew me away! From the adorable macho villain in Saroja to...well, just the opposite! The women provide adequate support, with Pia looking great, a foreign girl who does her stuff and Sneha looking trim and doing a pretty good job.

A 5/10

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Two States, Chetan Bhagat

Frankly speaking I do not understand the hype surrounding Mr IIT Bhagat and his books. Plus there was the film fiasco.(The movie was far better than the book could ever aspire to be) The first one succeeded because he took advantage of the IIT craze that has overtaken the nation. The following books showed that not only was he a bad writer, but one with absolutely no imagination at all. I almost cried over the time I had lost reading one night at the call centre. So when two states came out, I refused to even consider reading it. But then one red coloured copy (i love red) lay on my library desk with no takers, so decided to give in. It was ok, like a blog written by an IIM (yes we know you went to all these prestigious colleges Mr Bhagat) friend. A masterpiece of literature or even a good novel it was not.

It talks about the love story of two people from different states as the imaginative title suggests. They fall in love, the family doesn't. To give him fair credit, he has shown faults of both communities equally and has brought in some interesting conflicts. Apart from that its just a glorified diary.

So I reached the conclusion, when it comes to recounting bits of his life with a little bit of masala added Mr Bhagat does a good enough job. Just as most of us with a working knowledge of English and some spare time can.  When it comes to using his imagination, Mr IIT/IIM fails miserably. All said and done, he markets (or is marketed) aggressively and hopefully does not represent the young and upcoming writers of this generation in India. Because if he does, it falls into the same trap that our newspapers, tv channels etc are into - Dumbing down everything.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Rocket Singh Salesman of the year

Ranbir Kapoor is a supposedly a straightforward sardar who wants to be a salesman. He gets a job in AYS, a computer supplying and servicing company. The first day he meets his boss Nithin, a hard boiled saleas man who has every trick in the book and some that are not in the book or anywhere else for that matter. He shows the trainee the ropes. We are also introduced to Prem Chopra as Ranbir's grandfather who excels in this movie otherwise populated by youngsters. Singh is sent to a client by himself a few days later and the client asks for a bribe. Now this is the most common thing in India and I found it hard to believe how naive  the character was. Apart from refusing outright, he writes a complaint and drops it in the company's complaint box. As is expected he is ostracized in office and asked to cold call till his training period is over, which is kind of wierd because the training period is when you can be fired without a notice. Anyway the siren receptionist feels sorry for him and gives him the number of customer who had sent an enquiry.

During the course of the sale he discovers that the computers can be assembled at a fraction of the cost of the branded ones (something im sure even a 10'th standard kid can tell you) and so sells the client( two pretty girls) the computer he assembles with the help of the office tech support( always on porn sites and never sleeps) Now the story so far was good, from here the scriptwriters who repeatedly paint the hero as a guy with high morals make him run an illegitimate business with stolen clients (The explanation given is that they are clients who are dissatisfied with AYS. But it is a list and its stealing.)The hero has no qualms about using office time, but keeps a list of amenities used so that he can pay his boss back. These idiosyncracies ruin the movie. Your main protagonist never gives bribes but is willing to commit fraud. A half hearted attempt to show him being humiliated and hence his actions are given, but fails to prop the story. If only that had been taken care of, the movie would have not been like reading a horrendous piece of misleading philosophy (eg Ayn Rand).

The hero obviously wins the day, but the message gets diluted. 5/10.