Aakashaththinte niram

    Nice movie - reminded me of  Kim Ki Duk's 'Spring , Summer , Autumn , Winter' for the cut-off island and the maturing of the protagonist against the masterfulness of old man nedumudi venu.
     The movie was quite involving. It teaches you to drop out of the rat race and work towards service of fellow human beings. Real joy is not in grabbing stuff from others but in being of help to others.
   There is one song - I believe a baul song and it was quite appealing.

Spirit : Malayalam movie

      Saw this an hour after seeing 'Thattaththin Marayaththu'. The difference in maturity was quickly evident as was the striking cinematography.
      Set in high society, Mohanlal plays a successful TV show conductor who is chronically alcoholic.He has been extremely convincing in his performance.
    It was a very ambitious project from Ranjith. Alcoholism is a very wide spread problem in Kerala. There is a lot of potential in the subject.If he can get to some of the root causes and expose the menace in a convincing manner, he can exert influence on the society.But the movie has not lived up to such standards in content but the choice of effort was right.
     The execution is masterful for most part. However, the portion where the TV show peeps into the home of a plumber stood out ugly in the script.The plumber going for de-alcoholising does not excuse this.To make matters even worse,the hidden cam even shows the closet.From then on, the movie failed.
After showing the changed plumber, mohanlal as the show host advices his TV audience and us the cinema audience on de-alcoholism.Very un-subtle.I would be truly surprised if the movie has convinced alcoholics to de-drink - very unlikely.Nobody gets fooled here - somebody deep within you has to be fooled emotionally for you to stop drinking. Lal stopped drinking when his friend dies in his hands. The viewer faces nothing at all.
       The songs of the movie on the other hand are perfect. Excellent poetry . Excellent music. Excellent rendition. Touches you deeply and lingers on.My poet wife had mentioned Rafeeq Ahmed as a great lyricist before the movie and later we realized that the well structured complete lyrics of this movie also came from the same pen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xM_Ww6ukEE&list=PL34hFPMR7wmRVIEisgiLReHcy4wbUfg9r&feature=mh_lolz
        Cinematography is excellent too.The movie is a great watch.The high points are music , cinematography, mohanlal, short but excellent performance by Tilakan and the failure point is that I don't see the movie exerting influence on alcoholics.

Thattaththin marayaththu

   Ideally, one should have no perception of the movie before starting off watching it. But I held one - this movie is made by a very young director Vineeth Sreenivasan and hence the movie would reflect inexperience. Well, that anticipation helped. It was better than the anticipation.
    The best part of the movie was Ayesha and her beauty.  Nivin pauly has acted well and has captured the head-over-heels-in-love endearingly.

   The movie is sprinkled with songs all along and that adds to the general feel-good of the movie.In fact,  movie is all feel-goods and not much of a story.
    There were some good humor scenes too. Abdu as Vinod's friend has done a good job. The audience shared good laughs through out the movie.
   However, I am not sure how to explain such huge success that the movie has claimed. It is a soother and a nice one - good job Vineeth.

Ustad Hotel : Malayalam movie 2012

    The movie was a good one. Music including bgm is a high point of the movie. I think what stood out most though was Tilakan's acting. Tilakan is indeed a veteran actor. Dulqar is also very likeable with his simple charms.
    The start of the movie was interesting with Sidhique trying to get a boy child. While there were many sections of the movie that were very heart-warming, as a whole piece, somehow, there is an  incompleteness. It is fine to leave threads open.
     The movie is about a youngster trying to find his life. He pursues his dreams innocently and more or less succeeds in that. His grandfather offers him all the guidance. There is a positive interaction between Dulqar and Tilakan and you feel good as you watch him grow. There is a universal appeal in that theme - youngsters relate to it as their present, older people relate to it in their past.
      Music is definitely a high point of the movie. Appangalellam is an interesting number and the flourescent painted faces in the night is impactful in the theatre. Other songs have a heart of their own as well - vaathilil aa vaathilil , sanchari nee.
          The movie presents a lot of situations that you do not see usually. The camera work is excellent in certain sequences.Though personally, I am not a fan of Nithya Menon, I think the slow motion running sequence of Dulqar and Nithya has been excellently shot.
      The theme background of the movie is awesome.It gnaws at you all the while - there is no escaping it.
        The sequence where Tilakan talks about rain in the desert somehow impresses you deeply. The camera work is excellent here too. Some pieces talk too directly to you that you cannot express it. You need to get it from the depths where the impression is and sometimes you don't reach it.
      The movie also attempts at presenting real-life situations that people go through in their daily lives. The sequence where Jishnu complains about the food and how deeply hurt Dulqar is as he makes the dish again is a good one. The sequence is earnest and complete in itself and serves to characterize Jishnu but otherwise seems to not integrate. Or may be not,  that is how things are in real too. The prejudice against a cooking job. The lorry driver misbehaving with Dulqar in Burqa. Youth who try to live their passion in music.
         The movie talks about hunger and how millions are still starving.  This sequence is again presented well. It is a feel good movie and I might watch it again.
      I can watch it again for all the wonderful people in the movie and the endearing gentle malabari accent. Technically, we watched the first day first show of the movie. We reached 6:45 for the 6 PM show but the 6PM show had been cancelled due to lack of people. So 9PM was the show and we were there.

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Well, we did watch it again and this watch was as worthy a one, in fact a more worthwhile one. The first half is almost flawless. Varying techniques have been used in different sequences to keep the movie interesting. Humour was the highlight of the first sequence where Siddique is looking for a boy child.The second scene has a continuous sequence where between cuts, the number of sisters with him drop off one by one as they get married one after the other. Dulqar is a Europe returnee and the movie has not one scene in Europe where as the impression is well established.Through catchy music and sketch art, his life abroad is presented through the credits screen.The ego clash between Siddique and Dulqar has been carefully presented too - using mirrors to represent the egos and carefully calibrating the sound inside and outside the bathroom door. This attention to detail is also seen when Dulqar leaves taking just cash and not the gold chain or passport/credit cards from the drawer. Thereafter, the world around Usthad hotel is very well presented as well.
         However, looks like there are flaws towards the second half.The usthad hotel is repainted with enthusiasm. But thereafter, the older look of the hotel seems to have been presented again - atleast that is the impression I got and that in itself is a flaw.I think there is some lack of focus towards the end.
     We have the hotel in trouble, then we have the people fighting and getting it up. And then Dulqar gets an offer to work abroad and is about to go and then Tilakan gets a heart attack. Tilakan sends Dulqar to Chennai Chef who exposes him to hunger and his service based approach to cooking.Then he comes back and Tilakan is not there and the hotel is closed. He then takes over and the hotel becomes a huge success. Looks like some unnecessary coding has been done here.
    If I were to redesign this, I would take out the job offer abroad and the heart attack out from the equation. Tilakan can just send him to Chennai Chef as part of one of his assignments and Dulqar can decide to settle down in Ustad hotel.
   

Either ways, malayalam movie industry is so very back. Earlier I used to hope for more good malayalam movies. Now, I don't have to hope - I just have to look forward to the ones that are on the way.

Chamaram - 1980

     Following recent discussions about malayalam cinema, Bharathan stood out as being much more of an artist than Padmarajan. I also realized that there are so many movies from this great director that I have not yet seen.
   That is how I watched Chamaram on youtube two hours back.

    The start of the movie was very endearing with Johnson's 'Naadha nee varum kaalochcha kelkkuvan' and the innocent flawless beauty of Sarina Wahab. The theme score was nice too. The movie seems to have been remade so very many times that the story did not offer anything new.

        The movie tells the story of a love affair between a student and his teacher.  Uncomfortable truths. Bharathan and Padmarajan have been attracted to such uncomfortable themes and present such subjects in their films.Chamaram also fits into this genre.

      Sarina Wahad and Pratap Poththan have done their parts well. Sarina stood out much more due to her beauty.

Moloch

    I had created this blog to note my immediate unedited response on watching a movie. This does not therefore serve as a review and there is every chance that a more thought out analysis of the movie would present a different perception from the initial one.


    Well , for this movie, which I watched the day before, I decided to not put in a quick unedited blog immediately. The movie is clearly the output of a very intense creative process and I did not want to risk a misrepresentation. Two days later, I am blogging this just so that I don't miss out on the chance to note the impressions before my memory fades off.


      As you can make out from the two paragraph disclaimers, I have a lot of respect for this movie. This has not been made to sell. It simply won't. The director of 22 Female Kottayam , the movie I had watched before this one had in an interview presented his confident conviction about how a movie should respect a budget and so forth. 'Moloch' is a different league.
   
     Moloch has been made because Moloch wanted itself made. A stream of consciousness that was gushing through the director , Aleksandr Sokurov just presented itself.  The cinematography was ethereal - magical. There is a perfection to it that leaves you spellbound. Think of a beautiful painting of a misty morning and you somehow get into the painting and see more of the world in the painting and all the sights as beautiful as the painting itself.That is how the cinematography was. 
    
     The subject itself is a very surprising one. As you watch the movie, a protagonist comes in who looks like Hitler. You are not sure if he really plays Hitler yet. A little later , this person is presented in a very light manner and you think it is some sort of a spoof of Hitler. Soon you realize that this is a portrayal of Hitler among people he is close to and this closeness leads to comic moments where Hitler's ideosyncracies are presented. After many such situations , Hitler's conviction in cruelty and insanity is presented with such conviction that it sends chills down your spine. The director has been extremely adept here.


     The movie is based out of Hitler's secretary's diary notes and the aspects presented are eye-opening.  The way he sits in his building and watches news reels of real war that is happening projected for him in his theater. His mad conviction towards what he is doing. When his weaknesses are presented , it is unbelievable to imagine that this idiot is such a terror. There is a vacation sequence where guarded by german soldiers Hitler and his close friends fool around.
The soldier is unable to look at Hitler's slapstick dances as this is the same man who has made his life so taut.           
      One isane man and so much devastation. This movie needs another watch for further comprehension - worth a thorough study for content and for presentation.

Malayalam Movie 22 Female Kottayam -12/May/12(Theatre)

  The first reaction on watching the movie was to come again tomorrow for another watch.
  Makes one hopeful of the plight of malayalam movies.

  Aashiq Abu and team has taken up the challenge of presenting something relevant , a burning truth of current times from your own society and your own times and has succeeded well with the challenge. It is easy to find some interesting theme if you don't restrict yourself in time and space.

 The movie felt very current unlike typical malayalam movies that seem to lag in time by 10-15 years(big traditional houses etc.)

  Having chosen the theme, looks like the team has built a story that represents their reaction to the subject. They have been very creative and impactful in their response.

  The movie pleasantly lacks irrelevant side tracks.

  A very bold movie.
  Close to unpleasant shocking realities of current times.
  Very novel and drastic subject - very convincingly presented.
  Great screenplay - you never see something that you have already expected - the plot, the situations.
  Reema Kallingal has done excellent acting. Fahad Fazl looks good in the movie.
  Loved the camera.

  Direction has been excellent - the movie is completely in Aashiq Abu's control.There were certain points in the screenplay that I believe has a risk of fizzling out bad unless expertly directed and Abu has done that.

   The changed value system of today's rich city youth and yet a certain integrity to it comes out.A never give up ness.

   Cinematography of the movie is excellent with simple uncluttered compositions and excellent lighting and hues.

Very engaging.

The curious case of benjamin button

    This one was an ok one for a hollywood movie. The case of a life which goes backwards.Strange and almost absurd as it is, the movie has tried to present it as a genuine case and has succeeded with that. It portrays the challenges that a man who has his body clock running backwards where as his mind runs forward faces.
      I am a little bit of a fan of Brad Pitt and I imagine him as pretty down to earth for his success. This helped me through the movie as well. Quite forgettable though.Curious, but not particularly remarkable.

Ordinary(Malayalam Movie) 2012

    This movie has evoked good interest and has had good response in Kerala. For short of the right word, Divya had expressed an 'If only we could see this movie' some time back.So when Jimmy(colleague) sent an email about the shows on Friday and Saturday, I had immediately responded enthusiastically to all in the mailing list.Also, I am currently suffering from a soccer ankle sprain that got worsened from the time I responded to the mail and the time I need to drive to the theatre.
        Tried to work out a ride from Brijesh and Binish that did not work out as Binish had some sports plans. So I limped to the car and drove to the highway. Once on the highway, set the car in cruise mode, first time for a purpose.I wanted to still rest my leg as much.So once at the theatre building, I did not want to limp and find the hall. So I drove around to choose a spot close to the hall.There were no lots - so I circled around and parked on handicapped reserved spot.While I was working out optimizations on parking , people were trickling in.Once in,  the theatre organizer tells us that tickets were sold out.Then we are told that the first row is empty but it is right next to the screen.Decision was easy as I did not want to drive back again tomorrow nor did I want us to miss the chance having worked this far.
          So Brijesh,Binish,myself and Divya sat on the first row. Actually , we had an added advantage that we could stretch our legs and rest it on the stage.Helped rest my sprained leg well.

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        So, here we were ,  half an earth rotation away from home with a hall packed with people like us - in a hall listening to a lot of malayalam comments / laughters.  The movie's first half was full of one liner quick jokes/ light romance and generally warm and friendly ambience. The story was not going anywhere for quite some time - a string of comedy dialogues. That is all we want too. The whole theatre was laughing as the movie had worked it's humour well and the theatre was full of young families.
        The second half is when the new filmmaker tried to put in some story into the movie. That is a requisite - it seems. Can there be a time when movies are made without a need for a story and is still enjoyable.In this case, story is not what drove the film. The film was driven as indicated by the title by a  setting. The setting of a KSRTC ordinary bus and associated people and humour around them. The story is what did not fit into the film.I think the right thing to do might have been to just build around the humour and just have the actors wave a friendly good bye to the audience at the end of the movie.Something like 'Ok guys - hope you enjoyed the movie. see you.. ' or something like that.
       The first half was amazing. It was a nice string of comedy sequences and has evoked the right response. Cinematography was not that great but there were some nice shots around the red and white nostalgic bus and it's saturated colors.Music is also not the high point of the movie save the catchy tune of 'Sun sun sundarathumbi..'. Biju Menon is the one who shone best in the movie followed closely by BabuRaj. Dialogue rendition by both have been excellent. As an audience,  my feedback to young aspiring filmmakers is to focus on doing the things that they relate to and really enjoy and to not to try too hard to make a drastic impact by putting in some shockers.Keeping the light mood of the movie and conveying some simple theme beautifully through the setting should have been sufficient.
         The second half had some chase scenes which felt pretty natural and yes, you are not going to predict the climax. Overall , it is a good movie to watch , for me , primarily for the humor.

The flight of the red balloon

   The movie was a very slow one.Juliette Binoche has done a great job at portraying the struggles of a mother living with her husband away. That is what stood out most for me - Binoche's acting. She has done a real fantastic job.
   The last scene of the movie was about a teacher teaching her students. The style of teaching is similar to the teaching style seen in 'The Class'. The teacher asks ten times as much questions as she herself teaches anything. A system designed to bring out the thinking rather than fill in the theory.That was very impressive - questions like 'What do you think that is? Why is the balloon red .. "
       

Who is Camus anyway(Japanese)

 A movie based on the making of a film by a group of students in an arts university .Has well brought out the campus environment and the various relationships and lives of the students.The layered approach where the story that they are filming leaves impressions on their real life.
      The movie climax is striking and represents the culmination of the overlap of life and reel life.The movie was not exactly a gripping one till the climax.

Munyurangabo(Rwanda)

     A very good movie about the violence in Rwanda presented without any violence.The movie made me want to see more of movies from the african subcontinent but I could not find any in the library today.The documentary feel is beautifully present in the movie all through out.
      Very real and down-to-earth people.The children acted very well.There was a striking piece of poetry in the movie too.There were many memorable scenes in the movie - the father scolding the son for being away from home for 3 years or so and not fulfilling his responsibilities , the mother saving the food for the son saying "There is no food but there is food for you".
      Seemingly a very slow movie, but offers a lot of content - very close to life. Two boys drink together and the first one tells the other one that he can take his cow. When the father learns of the son's plan to murder his friend's father's killer , the father gets angry and beats him black and blue. That scene has been taken with so much originality that you might think it is from a news footage.
      The movie has encouraged me to explore on the subject of violence in Rwanda.

Schindler's List

A prejudice interfered with the movie but the movie fought through well and won. The prejudice was that this is a pro-Jew movie made by a Jew and potentially falsifying in Jew favor.

Admiration for the man Schindler is what remains the strongest.A man can live on various and very different planes and can switch between these lives as easily as it is to tune your radio from 98.3FM to 94.3FM.Typically, you always sit on one station but you can switch when you are moved to.Schindler was moved from using Jews as cheap labor to spending money and saving their lives by the sights he saw around of the atrocities against the Jews.

It is a very unique story. I have noted this earlier too but reality is often much much more compelling than fiction.

It is a saga movie.Presents a number of testing real life situations.Excellent cinematography.The end of the movie shows the real Schindler Jews - like Che's friend appears in the end of 'The MotorCycle Diaries'. Still moved by the man Oskar Schindler.Salute you Herr Schindler.

The man of the year - Portugese - 2006

I don't remember ever seeing a Portugese movie.That is the reason I picked this movie.I would recommend Ram Gopal Varma to watch this movie.He can take a few pieces from this one to mix into his collection and build his next masala bollywood movie.

It is a fair movie but not that great. Takes you through a world of crime through a simpleton protagonist - a softie who goes from foolish to drastic to gory to scheming.It has been a week since I watched it.I still have some of the scenes running through my mind.

The movie does do it's presentation pretty well but you have seen other movies like this one earlier and hence don't feel that good after watching this one.

Shathraj Ke Khilari (Satyajit Ray)

This one is a subdued political satire presenting the incapacity of the Indian kings that led to British overpowering India.The movie presents the cold and ambitious British strategies in sharp contrast with the silly and emotional outlook of the Indian kings.Indian kings focus on art and beauty.Unfortunately, at the same time, British were strategizing.

For a Ray film, the movie did not offer anywhere near what 'Pather Panchali' offered. The movie did not grasp me. But since I gave it attention, I could enjoy the masterful direction and the beautiful cinematography.

Sometimes your reception is not in synch with what the movie is presenting. The movie is a very good one but it did not touch me as much.

Volver(2005) By Almodovar

Somehow, I had a prejudice that this movie is not that good and I had stalled picking this up from the library for long.

Having seen so many movies over the past few years, it is a pleasant surprise when a movie presents you something totally fresh. This movie presented that surprise.When you watch a magic show, you want to be fooled.This movie fools you happy.

Almodovar presents complex emotional plots usually.Here he has done the same thing but has added a very surprising dimension to the emotional plot.The movie seems to start off with characterizations and representation of the family, the relationships and then something major happens that can easily pass off as the central thread of the movie.We follow this thread in earnest.Meanwhile, other hazy threads are presented which you keep in your secondary cache.

Suddenly one of these threads assume mammoth proportions like the story of the worm in the apple that grows into a snake and killed the king.Once this hazy thread erects, the rest of the movie shrinks into oblivion and revolves around this axis..You realize that the main thread that you were following so far is just an offshoot of this one.

The movie presents so many surprising things all through the movie and finally the movie makes complete sense of all these.There are no gimmicks in the movie. It is such a long drama and presents a lot of everyday situations but I was never bored all through the movie.This beats 'Hawaii,Oslo' to be the best movie I have watched so far this year.

Hawaii,Oslo - Norwegian

The best movie I have seen this year so far. This one was a very special , a very unique ethereal experience. I can feel my head cool and relaxed due to the blood flowing inside I guess. The movie was at the same intriguing , spiritual , hopeful , emotional.The script has as much content to extract five six movies out and I am surprised I don't see many awards linked to this movie on the DVD cover.

It is about people placed in very very delicate situations and then things turning over magically. There is a father whose new-born son would die in a few hours as he is incapable of sustaining without the umbilical chord.The solution is to create an umbilical chord and fix back and the doctors have written off as impossible. The father does not give up and holds the straw of a private clinic operation at the huge cost of 900,000 Kronas that he cannot manage and he sells off everything and is about to attempt a bank robbery when another character in the movie robs the bank just before.The most joyous moment for me was when he sits dejected and one of the robber brothers, who runs away from the robbery .... edited to not reveal one of the many suspenses that the movie offers

There is Leon who runs whenever he is not sure what to do next. The first scene of the movie is a dream that Jiddar(Leon's friend) sees and whatever he sees tends to be true. So he gets worried and tries to prevent the mishaps. The story goes through various situations where incident after incident, things turn positive and starts to move more and more away from the dream until the end when the first scene is repeated as it is. The movie is brilliantly engineered and has a lot of beauty to it.

Lot of troubled lives trapped in cities. I would think that lot of the trouble would go off if people live together. A lady takes pills to suicide and is saved by a note message that one of her sons who has not seen each her in eleven years sends through a paper-girl. There is the plot of the robber brother who is given parole to meet Leon on his birthday.I started off by seeing this as a sweet gesture where as quickly a deep plan unfolds.

The movie is rich. In story , in emotion , in acting , in direction - perfect control and an awesome awesome ride.

The Bandit Queen

Having seen a number of Bandit movies, this one offered the true story of 'Phoolan Devi' but there was not a lot of new content. The movie does not work too well actually. Phoolan kills 24 innocent thakurs out of hatred for two thakurs and finally has to surrender due to heavy police attention. When Phoolan surrenders, the crowd cheers but why?

The movie does not show Phoolan doing a lot for the people. Phoolan belongs to Mallah community and that is perhaps the reason for the support as I presume the Mallah community is quite big.

The movie also shows Phoolan' s hatred for her husband but does not convince us why there should be such deep hatred.

There are minimal scenes of Phoolan's bandit action too. The movie might have restricted itself to the notes from Phoolan's jail diary which in itself might have been incomplete. Well, that is something that the movie maker needs to handle and complete.I think I liked 'Paan Singh Tomaar' better which was a more complete portrayal.

Absurdistan

I had picked up this one just because I did not have time to choose one and just pulled whatever I could get my hands on. What I was looking forward was absurdities like in Borat. Yes , there were lot of absurdities in the movie. The theme is about women denying sex till the men solve the water problem in the village.

It was light watching for most, however towards the end of the movie , the movie completed it's story and that too pretty well.A pipeline that brings water to the village has a missing piece. When the pipe is fixed, the water comes but the man who fixes it would fall into the water and drown. This is solved by tipping a huge rock that blocks the water.

A light fun movie.

A major inconvenience

This one was an ok movie about a soccer player who loves and takes care of his mother and brothers. A shy nice guy. He falls in love with the mother of a friend(player from another team).

His love interferes with his family and soccer earlier. Later soccer interferes with his love.He struggles to find a balance. Meanwhile the friend finds out. His own mother has a history of an affair with an Arab. The friend smashes his expensive car. The friend is upset about him having an affair with his mother and he tries to justify saying that everyone has the right. The friend insults him referring to his mother's Arab affair.

The fight ends him in Jail. This is similar again to 'Jaffa'. In Jaffa , the boy kills her brother over a fight and the girl has to confront the situation. Here , the boy kills her son. We are not shown how the woman deals with it.

Everyone in the movie seem like good real people. It is probably important to exercise discipline in one's life and if you just let your heart take you places, you will become a good movie subject but not necessarily lead a peaceful easy life.

Le Ceremonia(Claude Chabrol)

This was a masterful movie. I could relate the treatment with the earlier Chabrol movie - Masques. The movie starts off with very everyday sequences of a maid being hired into a very rich family. A postoffice worker befriends the maid and they start doing crazy things.

For reasons of economic frustration and envy, the post office girl and the maid starts off with pranks and ends with shooting the family. The lower class is frustrated and hates the more well-off higher class. That is a truth that can arise unanticipated.

The shooting scene was completely shocking. What did I find masterful? The way the movie starts off on a very everyday theme and suddenly assumes mammoth proportions and keeping the integrity. The way the movie brings out an uncomfortable overlooked truth - the truth of class hatred. The ending of the movie where the postal clerk picks up a tape recorder where the family was recording a ceremony and also ends up recording the shootout. The clerk gets killed , the cops arrive, find the tape, plays it while the maid walks out in the night. When the movie credits are being shown, the cop is playing the tape and the maid is trying to escape without being conspicuous.I don't think I have seen that kind of a scene earlier - there is a mastery to it.

4 months 3 weeks 2 days

This was again an excellent movie. A very stark look at unpleasant realities. Similar in treatment with the movie 'Jaffa'. It looks like this kind of style is seen a lot in 'Cannes' movies. The ending was striking too - an abrupt ending which gives you the feeling that when you see a simple everyday scene of two girls at a restaurant table , they might be at the end of as horrendous story as this one or whatever else.

It is not an everyday theme. Again based out of real situation. Reality is much much more creative than what an imagination can bring about. This held true here too. Reality happens like that - too spontaneous for perfection. If someone is imagining a story, he needs to think/ tends to think about ifs and buts and loses the spontaneity in the process.

I liked the way the movie presents so many details that are not really relevant to the movie. Till about half an hour of the movie, you don't even know what the movie is about. That is how life is too, while you are struggling with your cancer , the person sitting in the bus next to you is worried sick about how to arrange money for his daughter's wedding and a young couple somewhere else is in trance.

So you see a lot of this and that and suddenly the story grips you. It is a romanian film and you don't know the sensibilities of Romanians. You don't know how a romanian takes this kind of a situation. So you are always playing the guessing game. There is a dinner scene in the movie where ten people or so are having a dinner at her boyfriend's mother's dinner party as she is disconnected with other deeper troubles. It is a long scene and is very impressive. You sense her discomfort to a disturbing extent.

You have no pattern to follow that you can say that earlier since this happened, now this would happen etc. You have seen very very insignificant things happening suddenly and you have also been sprung with huge surprises - so you don't know what comes next and it is not in terms of suspense. You are completely involved in the movie all along and you are concerned about the protagonist.The use of sound is impactful too - so many things have been conveyed through excellent use of sound.

Motor Cycle Diaries

Based on 'Che Guevera's' youth before he became 'Che' , it is a tale of a man's becoming. It is a portrayal of real events. I still have a lump on my throat from the emotion in the movie. I think the indigenous people are the one most affected by the current scheme of things which is hugely based on education-based skills developed for industries.The indigenous with minimal education has little scope in such a context.

I can relate to Alfredo(Che)'s longing to have one united south america - his all encompassing approach towards everyone in the south america as his own people. He is not saying that from his philosophical thinking , he is telling it from his heart. His earnestness is so moving. I also admire his honesty and boldness. He is so soft at heart but at the same time very very bold and very very honest.

There is saathvik advice that says you need to work to find out your life's mission and then live it. We know how Che has lived. Motor cycle diaries shows the homework.I don't really know what to write - I just know that I still have the lump on my throat.May be I should mention the scene where Che swims across the river from the section where the doctors stay to the section where the leprosy patients stay because having finished his birthday celebrations from the doctors' camp , he wanted to do the same from the patients' camp and on the same night as well and he has to swim the width of the river and he is allergic to water.

That is one important piece - the inspiration part of it. This movie is very inspiring. It inspires you to follow your heart. It creates a longing in you. A life based out of passion - not based out of work schedules. Che was from a well-to-do background and he had a loving family with him too. He decides to sacrifice these for the greater good and the things that he wanted to do. He went around , saw things , did not like injustices around, had the balls to act against them and plunged himself completely into this mission. That is what he did, may be, somewhere along the line, he might have made mistakes.

Kahaani(2012) Theatre

I know why this film was named Kahaani. First they wrote a story, then they said given this Kahani, let us write a Kahani around this Kahani and then another Kahani around the Kahani around Kahani. They decided to call the movie also 'Kahaani'.

What struck most was the love of Calcutta that the film maker has. Looks like he has done an independent shoot of the city's charms and has edited and mixed these later into the scenes as fillers. This aspect is very striking and has a lasting impact.

The final story line is interesting too but I know that the excitement that the movie offered is going to soon become pointless. I am much less excited about the movie now than 2 hours back when I walked out of the theatre. Calcutta and the plot was very good. The film fails at integrating the emotions into the movie. Here and there, pieces of emotions like seeds in an orange that you are better off spitting out.For current times mainstream cinema, it is an excellent movie though.

Film also fails in it's characterizations to a big extent where people portrayed as kingpins do the dumbest things.

It is definitely worth a one time theatre watch. You don't lose your money for sure. Yes, some things might not work very well with you but lots of things will. The 'EkLa Chalo Re' rendering by Shri Amitabh Bachchan is a great ending to the movie and reinforces the film maker's passion for Calcutta.That is the strongest thread in the movie and I have been to Calcutta just once and in my schooldays.

Jaffa - 2009

The realism. The complexity of the plot and inspite of the complexity, the movie had good integrity. Amazing acting. Sat through rooted to my seat as if I was watching a thriller and I can't even remember which thriller.

The love. Most of the characters are very mature and portray largeness of heart. Inspite, there are certain differences that you just can't break. These get built into the psyche purely based on your circumstance. The racial hostility between a jew and an arab makes sense to a jew and an arab but not to an indian.

The actors. There were so many actors who have done excellent excellent work. The Arab, the nonchalance with which he performs, he almost looks like he strayed into the camera field without knowing. The way he comes out of jail and his expression changes as he sees his brothers. None of the theatrics, just a smile. The father has done a great job. The mother. The sister. The brother - every one. To me, there is no actor in the movie except may be the Arab's mother and sister.

The direction is excellent too. I think most of the movie is shot in low lighting. The setting is also very dry. The movie felt so real, It could pass off as a documentary.However, there were challenging shots for actors to perform too. It was great story telling - uncomplicated technique. The viewer is given full time to appreciate the situation. It is not like those hollywood movies where one whacky dialogue you miss , you miss the plot and then you go back and admire - oh what a tricky way to convey. Nonsense. This one was direct. Dil Se.

You can feel the warmth of the relationships inspite of the fact that no elaborate situation has been built artificially to convey this.