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Feb 28, 2005

If 9/11 did anything good, it was to free Afganistan from the clutches of Taliban. A forgotten country, a forgotten people finally got the attention they deserved from a world that had turned blind eyes to their fate till then.

Osama is brilliant, poignant and earthy. It'll tug at your heartstrings long after you had finished watching the movie. You'll thank your lucky stars for not being born in Afganistan of the eighties and the nineties, especially if you are a female. From the director Siddiq Barmak, comes Osama, his first film, about a 12 year old girl who disguises as a boy in Taliban infested Afganistan, which is a mortal sin and if found out the girl would be stoned to death. All the actors in the movie had no previous acting experience and were hand picked by the director at various places in Afganistan. Watch it, inform and educate your minds, thats the least we can do to the survivors of the cruel and atrocious Taliban regime.

Feb 26, 2005

Todo el Poder or Gimme the Power is a Spanish movie by Fernando Sarinana set in Mexico city. A jobless videographer upset by the extent of crime in Mexico city goes on a crusade against, which is very much like a toned down Bollywood movie on a similar theme starring Akshay Kumar. To me, technically it looks like a TV serial, like 24 or CSI, maybe it is the lighting, camera or maybe it is the script or maybe all of it.

Feb 25, 2005

It might have been a very topical and relevant movie in 1967, the year which it came out. Starring Sidney Poitier, Katherine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy, it is the story of a day in the life of a rich liberal couple in the late sixties San Francisco whose daughter brings home a black man, she'd like to marry. Katherine Houghton, who is actually Katherine Hepburn's niece plays her daughter in the film.

The movie is like a history lesson, albeit an engaging one, about the people and the racial prejudices that plagued the United States before the seventies. I understand why Sidney Poitier is a great actor. Spencer Tracy died two week after the filming of this movie, so his long and powerful monologue at the end of the movie is a fitting tribute to the great actor he was.

Feb 23, 2005

If you are irritated by the antics of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie on their numerous reality shows or shopping outings, this one is for you.

Coming from the Wayans brothers, White Chicks are actually black cops posing as white heiresses to foil a kidnapping plot. It is a mindless comedy which you can laugh the whole way through and a zillion times better than Anchorman(which by the way almost breaks your ribs by merciless poking to produce a laugh)which is another comedy I saw recently.

Feb 21, 2005

Feb 19, 2005

One of the most original and unpredictable movies to come out of Hollywood in the recent times. All credit to the debutante director, Vadim Perelman.

House of Sand and Fog pits an immigrant Iranian family against a San Francisco resident who loses her house to the county due to the non-payment of some faux tax. Jennifer Connelly plays the lady who is evicted by the county, a situation partly due to her irresponsible life and negligence. Col.Behrani and his Iranian family buy the house from the county at dirt cheap price. Behrani is played by Ben Kingsley.

To start with, it is an amazing story(thanks to the writer of the novel from which the film was adapted, Andre Dubus III), which keeps the pace steady with the right amount of tension and great character development. Then the choice of characters or the actors who played the characters have been excellent. Ben Kingsley as the tough Iranian colonel justifies his Oscar nomination for the Best Actor. Jennifer Connelly and Shohreh Aghdashloo fortify the film with their strong screen presences. A thought provoking movie, a rare occurance in main stream media, a must watch.

Feb 16, 2005

This documentary proves the powers of the internet, more specifically the powers of owning a domain name related to a notorious organization as WTO(gatt.org). Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano are two computer dudes who own a website http://www.gatt.org/ which imitated the original WTO site in form and layout, except that the content they delivered was/is intended to educate the readers about the real motives of WTO and the real meaning of globalization.

The tagline of the film goes, "changing the world one prank at a time." True to the word, when Andy and Mike start getting invitations to talk at seminars and lectures, from people who think they are the real WTO representatives and they make use of the opportunity to bring to light the not-so-noble services WTO delivers to developing nations, through their(Andy & Mike's) entertaining lectures and hilarious props.

The Yes Men is a crusade by a group of people against the evil practices of World Trade Organization in a satirical way so that the real sting is delivered in a sugar coating of humor, but they wish you to know the sting is there nevertheless and it is getting sharper. Yo, citizens of the developing world, this one is for you.

Feb 14, 2005

Martin Scorcese and Robert De Niro is a potent combination that will withstand the ravages of time, as Taxi Driver proves. I saw this 1976 film for the first time yesterday and it is relevant and powerful as it might have been back then.

A disarmingly young De Niro plays a Newyork cabbie, Travis Bickle, the God's own lonely man, one of the many anonymous faces that populate New York city. He's a sleepless Vietnam vet, unstable and looking for company in the city's underbelly. Paul Schrader, the script writer in an interview in 'The Making of Taxi Driver' says that Travis Bickle reflected his own lonely disoriented existence at the time and De Niro plays the role to perfection.

Touted to be one of the cult classics of the seventies, Taxi Driver lives up to its promise. In addition to De Niro, a fourteen year old Jodie Foster and Harvey Kietal play small but important roles. Martin Scorcese's directorial style in this movie has spawned copies ever since. A classic, thru' and thru'.

Feb 13, 2005

For an avid blogger like me, Garden State is like a blog turned in to a movie. Zach Braff, the novice director-actor-writer of this movie is very much the blogger who blogs about the daily nuances of his life.

Zach Braff manages to get hold of a cameraman, some producers, Natalie Portman, Joe Pesci after a long struggle to get Hollywood notice him and finally when it does we have the Garden State. It is witty in places, kind of slow moving and 'hauntingly' close to real life. I'd not call it a great movie, but it is good to see that Hollywood is opening up to the geeks ;-)

Feb 12, 2005

The Truth is one of the better films made by Shaji Kailas ,starring Mammootty as the police investigator from Delhi who takes over the murder case of the CM of Kerala. Shaji Kailas has directed all his films glorifying the lone fighter of a cop, I think it is time Kerala Police Dept. conferred an honorary IPS upon him. Whatever it be, had it not been his films the people of Kerala would be largely unaware of the dealings of their corrupt rulers and the names of the big players in the drama which goes by the name of Kerala politics.

Feb 11, 2005

Feb 9, 2005

Through Hulchul, Priyadarsan - the visiting director(much akin to a visitin prof. giving a guest lecture) has presented Bollywood with a revamped version of the Malayalam hit of the mid-90s, Godfather. The film stars Akshaye Khanna and Kareena Kapoor in the leading roles and they deliver commendable performances. The role of the Godfather is played by the veteran actor, Amrish Puri, in one of his last major roles, before he passed away last month.

For me, it is Arshad Warsi who stole the show. The man is a natural comedian. Amrish Puri stands the ground with his stern and majestic presence as the patriarch, another actor worth mentioning is comedian and character actor,Paresh Rawal. It was good to see actresses Lakshmi and Farah, after a long absence from the silver screen.

Priyadarshan's direction calls for a lot of primary colors in the frame, bold reds, greens and blues and the shot usually has a very shallow depth of field, maybe to hide the fact most of his films are shot in studio settings. Starting from his first ventures in Bollywood like Muskurahat and Gardish, this latest one too has the indelible Priyadarshan stamp. It does evoke genuine laughter at places and has used a different kind of masala than what is served on the usual Bollywood thali.

Feb 8, 2005

If I am asked to pick a director from Hollywood, just one, the one I like the most, I'd pick Clint Eastwood. His latest offering Million Dollar Baby starring Hilary Swank is a gritty tale of a female boxer. Eastwood himself plays the main male lead in the film as the experienced trainer, Frankie Dunn.

Photography is remniscent of Eastwood's last movie(the one he directed before this), Mystic River, dark, grainy, closeups with ample play of shadows. As a director this film shows yet another stage of maturing of Eastwood, from the westerns of his early days which culminated in the masterpiece,The Unforgiven, to the crime dramas of his later stage like Blood Work and Mystic River and the romances like The Bridges of Madison County and The Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil(which in a way is a crime drama too), in Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood, the director takes on the gritty realities of life in an intense character drama. I wish he was getting younger, so we would have an endless string of movies from this talented director-actor.

Hilary Swank has lived the life of the boxer, Maggie Fitzgerald. One of the most dedicated and true actresses to come out of Hollywood in the recent past, Swank put on 20 lbs of muscle and trained boxing to play the part. The film does not rely on an epic story but rather on the struggles, triumphs and tribulations of its characters, their fights in the ordinary world. Morgan Freeman plays an important supporting role. It is one of the few serious movies to come out of Hollywood in the recent years which has an indie-quality to it, but is a perfect piece of work nevertheless. Only someone like Clint Eastwood, experienced, talented and with a strong foothold and a voice in Hollywood can make such a gem of a movie.

Feb 7, 2005

Raincoat is like a play, the set hardly changes more than thrice throughout the movie, the number of characters is five, no more no less and it relies heavily on character development and realization.

The characters themselves have fitted snuggly in to their parts. Ajay Devgan as the unemployed guy, who comes to Calcutta seeking the help of his friends to set up a business,has acted extremely well. He has a past and the leading lady of his past drama, now lives in Calcutta, married to a rich man, her role is played by Aishwarya Rai. This is one of the few films where you can see Aishwarya free of her onscreen mannerisms and appears almost believable. Inspired from the O.Henry story, the Gift of the Magi, director Rituparno Ghosh has a slow moving, a very not-so Bollywood movie for the people fed high on a diet of drama and emotions, wonder how it fared at the box-office. My final opinion, a good movie for a rainy day.

Feb 6, 2005

Mondo is a little boy living off the streets in Nice, France. Like most of the movies which focus on li'l children (Valentin, Bachehe Aasman, Badnoake Safed, Kolya) this one too focus on the instant affection, we, adults feel for the unattainable innocence and poetry of childhood. Mondo touches the lives of some people and disappears, they wait for him knowing very well that the touch of innocence was transient and it'd never return.

Feb 5, 2005

This is a high end version of the usual memory-loss movies Hollywood excel in (the recent ones being Bourne Identity series, Memento etc etc). Except that being a Charlie Kaufman story and memory loss being deliberate, Eternal Sunshine.. is tailor made for the intellectual, it does away with the racy element of amnesiac thrillers and is a love story instead.

The film stars Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet as the two lovers, who selectively erase out their memories of each other (because neither of them benefited much from the affair and things were not looking up for them) with the help of an organization which specializes in selective memory erasure. Jim Carrey doesn't indulge in X-treme gymnastic contortions of his face muscles unlike in his usual movies and for a change does well in a serious role. Kate Winslet, is nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for this role! I cannot remember where she acted, though I have nightmarish visions of her electric blue and agent orange hair colors.

The concept of memory erasure is picturized in an intriguing way, that is the only significant feature I can remember about the movie. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, is mainstream Hollywood trying to go artsy, but I'd say, do what you do best guys - morphing and computer animation, nobody can beat you there.

Feb 4, 2005

Shrek 2 carries forward the fairytale-with-a-twist idea which was first introduced in the original Shrek movie. Ok they are just trying to cash in on the success of the original, but if you liked the first movie for Shrek and his bride, you'll like this movie for the Puss in Boots - Antonio Banderas lends voice to the funny feline character in this sequel where Shrek and princess Fiona visit their royal inlaws.(Seems like it is inlaw season in Hollywood, with Fockers and Shrek2 and all that)

Feb 3, 2005

Jack Black is the soul of rock in this movie, he's such a natural at comedy. As a rocker chucked out of his band by his team mates and looking for work, Black lands the job(by deceit, ofcourse) as a substitute teacher at a prep school. The soundtrack of the movie could be a great preparatory lesson in rock. The movie is clean entertainment and Jack Black will give you your money's worth.
Kaazcha is supposedly one of the best Malayalam films that has come out in recent past. If this is the best, I am saddened by the state of the Malayalam movie industry. Kaazcha is directed by the newcomer, Blessy, who had served as assistant director to prominent Malayalam directors.

Maybe I have seen too many foreign movies, that I have become extremely sensitive to what is called serious cinema. But I could not find anything remarkable about Kaazcha except for its story and Mammootty's acting which is free flowing as always. The script, in a sense has lended mediocrity to the story which had all the potentials of being converted in to a decent film. Malayalam movie makers still don't know how to mold good child actors, with their cliched notions and unnatural dubbing they spoil the naturality of their roles. The story is revolutionary in the sense that it focus on a current issue and its impact on a small family. A little boy who had escaped Gujarat Earthquake of 2001 somehow reaches Kerala as a beggar and is rescued by a film operator, played by Mammotty. I have heard that Blessy is going to remake this movie in Tamil and instead of the earthquake he's going to film the story of a boy who escapes the tsunami.

Nowadays whatever comes out in Malayalam is stereotypical - either it is a comedy where things get really messed up and resolve in to an all-is-well-that-ends-well end or a love story aping Bollywood, but falling woefully short or a social commentary like this one with noble intentions but a script to spoil the soup.

Feb 1, 2005

What is Page 3? In a newspaper, thats where the celebrities, their parties, their gossips and their photos hang out and the first step towards celebrity-dom is to make sure your head shows up in some corner in some photo on Page 3.

Page 3 is an alternative Hindi movie about a page three journalist, played by Konkana Sen Sharma whose job is to cover the parties of Mumbai glamor gods. Although Page 3 does not restrict itself to one party(it even covers funerals), it reminds me of the 1984 Govind Nihalani film, Party. Both movies have the same intention, to strip the glitter of the face of the glitterati and reveal their true nature. In Nihalani's Party, this revelations takes places thru' the conversations and the characters of a single party, whereas in Page 3, you follow Konkana to various parties, you live her life and that of her flatmates and arrive at the same conclusion - life is a bitch. Not a bad movie at all, one which relies on the content more and less on the technical aspects like cinematography or editing.
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