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.