Remembering Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron died yesterday. I could’ve said 'passed away', but Nora would understand, died is ok. Who is Nora Ephron? If Google led you to this page while you were searching about some movie or the other, you probably know who she is. If you landed here searching for "Mallu movie hot bathing scene", you would skip out of here faster than a heartbeat. You and I both know there is nothing of your interest here, the hot bath is ready for you in the next site over.

Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron, for me - the unknown non-American viewer(female),  who has physically inhabited American geography and culture for a really long time, is the intelligent laughter that stirs me amidst indistinct forgettable celebrity chatter that fills up the media ether around here. I have watched many of her movies starting from Silkwood, but have to watch all the movies she did post-2000.

Although well known as a director and script writer, my personal affection for her stems from reading her essays. Smart and sassy yet relatable to every woman, her words were witty and thought provoking at the same time. I am sad I had to use past tense in the previous line.

As I drove to work this morning, I heard one of her quotes from an earlier NPR interview, "I think it's like a lot of things about getting older — you have absolutely no imagination that this is actually going to happen to you, you think for quite a while you're going to be the only person who doesn't need reading glasses, or the only person who doesn't go through menopause… and in the end, the only person who isn't going to die. And then you suddenly are faced with whichever of those things it is, and you can't believe how unimaginative you have been about what it actually consists of."

Again her words, simple yet so wise make an impression on me. Nora’s death from leukemia is one of those few celebrity deaths that actually makes me stop in my tracks and worry about my own mortality and ponder about the vacuum left by their passing in my own intellectual future, just like that of Christopher Hitchens, Randy Pausch and Carl Sagan.

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Melancholia

In Melancholia, Lars von Trier is dealing the dope of depression as the fate of the Earth hangs in balance, under the threat of a planetary collision. Another movie where people get married for all the wrong reasons. The marriage is not the focus though the film starts with the wedding of its main character, Justine played by Kirsten Dunst and spends a fair amount of time dragging through the wedding ceremonies while adding depth to its characters. As all these events slowly proceed on the moody blue marble of ours, outside, in outer space a rogue planet Melancholia is hurtling towards the earth.

What vexes me is, why do these people have to hold a crude hand crafted loop of wire to chart Melancholia’s progress towards the earth. Don’t they have internet? We can even track Santa (a totally imaginary creature), so can’t we track Melancholia – a real planet(for the purpose of this story) in a way befitting 21st century homo sapiens rather than doing it like cavemen. The movie is not at all scientifically accurate from the inter-planetary collision perspective, which is beside the point, the planet is there to add to the magnanimity of visuals and to act as proxy for depression.

The beginning of the film with its Wager overture showcasing a tableaux of extremely slow moving images reminded me of 2001: A Space Odyssey, so does the structure of the film set in parts. The opening scenes lets you know this film is serious, it requires your hundred percent presence on the couch/ or your seat to understand it fully, not something you can watch while cooking dinner. If you are in the mood for heavy stuff and some retrospection or in the mood for art check out Melancholia.

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Limitless

Limitless is my kind of Hollywood movie. I don’t watch Hollywood movies for intellectual stimulation or art, not to see the gritty reality of life or break my teeth on cold hard facts although every once in a while Hollywood goes above and beyond its call of duty and brings out movies like Fargo, Lost in Translation, Punch Drunk Love, Melancholia, Requiem for a Dream, Full Metal Jacket etc. That is all well and good, but I don’t want Hollywood to make it a habit.

Hollywood is at its best when money, power and technology comes together with some good looking faces and a decent script. Matrix, Gladiator, Avatar, Babel, Memento, Castaway, Kill Bill(s), Forrest Gump are all examples of unsurpassed entertainment only Hollywood can provide. Limitless might not make it to the top rung of these entertainers, but it is highly watchable.And of course it has Hollywood's the other most handsome Brad.

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The Help

The Help is  a Civil Rights era chick flick, if ever there was one. By calling it a chick flick I don’t mean to demean it, I just mean that most of the characters are ladies, it tells the stories about the lives of women – black and white in the Deep South in the middle years of last century. Engrossing, in the way we all secretly cater to gossip without admitting and informative from a historical perspective.

It’s kind of unsettling to me that the most of pop fiction best sellers, which later got labeled as classics showcasing African American life are/were written by white people. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sue Monk Kidd and now Kathryn Stockett (whose novel is the basis of this movie) joins the ranks of non-black writers telling the tales of oppression and struggle of the black community with black characters in their books.

Except for Alex Haley’s Roots(a phenomenal book, thank God this Bible of African American fiction was indeed written by a black man), I cannot imagine the general public making a beeline for a single book of fiction written by an African American author at airport kiosks or at the beach. Of course there is Tony Morrison, Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurston and many other talented African-American writers, but their impact on the general public who are hard to be enticed to read serious fiction is almost nothing outside high school English classes, compared to the ones penned by white writers I mentioned in the paragraph above.

Stove, Monk Kidd, Stockett all have produced extraordinary absorbing novels, whose movie rights were probably bought long before the books hit the stands. I wish there was an African American novelist, you know I like it straight from the horse’s mouth. That said The Help is a highly watchable film, especially for women – thus my label Civil war chick flick.

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Shor in the City

Shor in the City a portmanteau movie about Mumbai with its eyes trained on the city’s under belly. It has a Mumbai noted by the absence of Parsis, Malabar Hill, Bollywood starlets and Lokhandwala complex. It is not quite Slumdog either, Krishna DK and Raj Nidimoru are in the right place – the slums. But there are no millionaires in this one, only people with dreams of making millions. Each trying to make it with  his own honest effort through guns, bribes, counterfeit products, bank robbery or other countless ways you can make a million in Mumbai.

 

The best reason to watch this movie is its assembly of actors. After a long while it was good to see Tusshar Kapoor in a different but good role. Somehow Ramakanth, the aspiring director in The Dirty Picture didn’t register with me. Another delectable find is Sendhil Ramamoorthy, US born Indian actor who is a perfect fit as an American of Indian descent trying to set up a business in India. Pitabash Tripathy as Mandook, a small time crook and Tusshar’s friend is a find.

 

Although the story line is tense, the script by Sita Menon and the director duo add touches of compassion and comedy that go with the flow. In the end it is a feel good movie which imparts a certain humanity and the sense of triumph of the good along with a couple of hummable songs.

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Sangre de mi sangre (Blood of my blood)

Sangre de mi sangre (Blood of My Blood) narrates the story of two young Mexican illegal immigrants in Nueva York locked in a battle of survival. Director Christopher Zalla’s debut venture, this Mexican story of existence, endurance and identity theft in the mean streets of New York is dark and gritty.

The four main characters, which include two protagonists – Pedro(Jorge Adrian Espindola) and Juan (Armando Hernandez), the undocumented young workers who arrive in New York hidden in a truck and two supporting roles played by Jesús Ochoa and Paola Mendoza pretty much carry the film on their shoulders. It gives the audience a view of a different Brooklyn, away from the brown stones, dark, trapped spaces where souls suffocate and die, where hope is buried behind bricks only to be taken out when lives are on line. A forceful movie from a first time director, maybe a sign of things to come from him.

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Beautiful - Malayalam Movie

Beautiful reminds me a lot of Blessy’s Pranayam albeit with a younger cast. Maybe the presence of an invalid main character, three central characters – two male and one female(female actor exported from a neighboring state) creating a sort of a triangular love story and the abuse/misuse of monsoon might be the reasons. But the film is also thankfully unBlessy by the absence of one dimensional characters and over the top sentimentality.

Anoop Menon, Jayasurya and Megna Raj play the main roles in a movie about a bed-ridden billionaire in search of companionship, music and love. I also like the way supporting roles are etched out with the right amount of detail and dialog.

It is a well-executed film, story, screenplay, direction(V.K.Prakash) and acting departments have worked together to produce a well-rounded product. Though I’d not call it a path breaker(in my world, that title goes to Chappa Kurish) I hope Beautiful will be one of the forerunners who will herald a new beginning for Malayalam cinema.

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Rockstar

Many of today’s pop icons and stars are all style without much substance. Although their medium is music, the music industry too perfects the image first before it tests the sound. Susan Boyle – she of the incredible vocal chords had to fight and claw her way into a talent show in her late forties to make her mark in the music world when Spice Girls (no substance and all style) were picked out to form a music band based just on their looks and stage presence(if they could sing it’d be a bonus but it was optional) while still in their teens. Rockstar Janardhan Jakkar aka Jordan is a documentation of India’s version of such a pop icon, if we ever had one.

For this film, the requirements for the hero were - had to be born a star, with a silver-screen spoon in his mouth, should be able to rock a guitar, lip sync a tune and had to have incredible screen charisma. Given these conditions, in present day Bollywood it became very easy for director Imtiaz Ali and producer Dhillin Mehta to find their leading man. Not many choices really – either a Khan or a Kapoor. 

With most sellable and captivating Khans tending to look more like Steven Tyler and less like Elvis in his prime, they went for the hottest Kapoor on the block. Ranbir Kapoor works his charm and appeal into the skin of Jordan, the rock star. Counter balancing his rock star act is the impossibly beautiful New York based Pakistani–Czech model Nargis Fakri as Kashmir ki kali and college beauty – Heer Kaul. A semi-gori unattainable foreign export kudi is a must have accessory for a successful Bollywood movie.

A.R.Rahman’s music faithfully adheres to my hypothesis about a present day rock star, music is only secondary, the personal style of the star is the more important part. Therefore it’d be safe to say that I didn’t find the songs earth shattering although all the award shows (Apsara, Fimfare, Stardust – you name it) unanimously gave RockStar the best music director award.

Rahman is like Sachin Tendulkar, both are elephants in their own rooms, there is no way getting past them. If Rahman composes music for a major movie in any year, other music directors can kiss their award hopes goodbye. No matter how baffling a Rahman tune(more mysterious the better) is it just adds depth to audience’s musical experience and therefore deserves all the accolades that can be given in a given year.

The story is flimsy, but the script, the dialog and also the lyrics of the songs are the solid scaffolding that prop up the movie. Imtiaz Ali’s direction is also commendable. If you haven’t watched it yet, I’d say “czech it out,” there is more than one czech in the movie – the city of Prague and Nargis Fakri.

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Snehaveedu

I recently saw a clip of Prithviraj’s interview where he said Malayalam’s superstar’s Mohanlal and Mammootty should choose to act in roles that reflect their age. Unlike the majority of Malayali audience and Youtube commenters of that clip I agree one hundred percent with Prithviraj. It surely might have had M&M supporters crying for Prithviraj’s blood but it is a brave statement to make in these perilous age of AMMA, Achchan and other similar career wrecking controversies.

Snehaveedu is kind of like Mohanlal’s answer to Prithviraj.(On a side note I consider Pranchiyettan and the Saint as a movie Mammootty played his age and is one of the best characters he ever emoted on screen.) The veteran actor plays almost his age as an evergreen Gulf returnee bachelor turned entrepreneur agriculturist , Ajayan in a Palakkad village. Simple life, ordinary travails, story-book village/town, neighborly neighbors, good hearted protagonists – all classic features of a Sathyan Anthikkad movie appear without fail in Snehaveedu too.

Sheela’s Ammukutty Amma looks and sounds just like her character, Kochu Thresia from her comeback movie Manasinakkare – another Sathyan Anthikkad vehicle. In fact the core of both the movies is very much the same – a mother son relationship or a relationship along those lines. The picturesque village and affable villagers repeat themselves in both movies, only the element that introduces tension differs slightly in each.

Mohanlal does exhibit caution without going overboard as the village’s favorite bachelor. There are sub stories with Lena, Biju Menon, Innocent, KPAC Lalitha and with Padma Priya who could be nurtured as a love interest at a future date. I am glad the director didn’t let the story develop too much along that path. Debutante Rahul Pillai plays his role well, considering he is acting alongside a stalwart like Mohanlal, the teenager exudes the right amount of vulnerability and rebellion.

Snehaveedu should be a win for Sathyan Anthikkad-Mohanlal team provided the crowds do not get cross at Anthikkad for not letting our 50+ year old super star frolic around the fields with his murapennu half his age.

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Saheb Biwi aur Gangster

Old havelis where they still live out raja rani ki kahani – potent with intrigue, secrets, concubines and political games is a fascinating brew for commoners like me. Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster delivers it promise of the foibles, follies and frivolities of old money in new age of corrupt politicians and gun totting thugs somewhere from the heart of India’s cow belt.

Jimmy Shergill, Mahie Gill and Randeep Hooda give their best portraying the title characters in a film with strong performances from the supporting cast. When I first heard about this movie I thought this might be a remake of Guru Dutt’s Sahib, Biwi aur Ghulam in the lines of Shahrukh’s DevDas. But this is more like how Abhay Deol’s Dev D was to the original Devdas without making it too urbane.

IMHO the best part of the movie once you get past the film’s handsome leading men is the location. The crumbling haveli, the palace grounds, the servants quarters, the lake and the bungalow across the lake looming like a smudge. Where did they find such a beautiful location? Tigmanshu Dhulia’s direction has delivered the whole movie as one taut package. It is definitely a movie worth watching for lovers of serious cinema.

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That Girl in Yellow Boots

A very un-Indian, un-Bollywood movie, neck deep in a subject that Indian films rarely touch. Since I don't deal with spoilers in this blog I'd refrain from mentioning the subject. If you know the theme, the movie will unravel faster than you can say "Shazam". Even without any spoiler I had it figured out(did the director intend it that way?) and thus the end was less of a shocker for me than it was to Kalki Koechlin who plays the protagonist, Ruth.

Kalki has a really meaty role for an actress. She cannot help it if the film is being directed by her boyfriend-turned husband director Anurag Kashyap. The entire movie, shot in 13 days on a borrowed wallet concentrates on Ruth's personal quest for something very near and dear to her while surviving as a young white girl in the dirty underbelly of Mumbai.

There are a lot irrelevant roles. Some of these roles like that of Ruth's junkie boyfriend and the Kannada speaking Mumbai dada Chittiappa can be taken as cinematic liberties to add texture to the plot. I do not understand what Ronit Roy, who is given a scene and a sentence to speak and Rajat Kapoor - no sentences, just gets a passing glance at Ruth, walking by her by at the entrance of an apartment, are doing in the film.

Definitely a movie for mature audience. So mature that many people who lent money to make the film asked to have their names removed from the credits as they were not liberal enough to be associated with such a progressive film. The film released in non-NRI theaters in the US the same day it had its Indian release through the same US distributor, must be a first for an Indian movie?

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The Dirty Picture

If a movie could sell based on its title and its theme, then The Dirty Picture (hereafter called TDP) would explode cash registers. Box office reports prove that this hypothesis was right in TDP's case. Ekta Kapoor's trust in Milan Luthria bears fruit.

If Vidya Balan was going to apply for a job as Silk Smitha and if Ekta Kapoor was not on the interview team, Bipasha Basu would've been easily picked over Vidya. Ms.Basu would then be asked to do corrective surgery to her eyes to replace her North Eastern slant with big eyed South Indian sleepy seductiveness, for the rest she would have been a perfect fit.

If you don't really like Vidya Balan it'll definitely be worth your while to watch TDP and while you are it watch No one killed Jessica as well. Just these two movies are enough to demonstrate the range and sincerity of Vidya as an actress.

If you are a South Indian and have some prior exposure to Silk Smitha's work, please be considerate to Ekta Kapoor, she is only half South Indian and she did not really grow up with Silk Smitha, Disco Shanti or Anuradha nor did she make covers for her school note books with sizzling centerspreads of the aforementioned ladies from Nana or Cinema Express magazines.

If you are looking for knockout one liners, remember neither Silk Smitha nor Rajat Aroraa were/are particularly known for this talent. Some people with really low expectations when it comes to putting together words in a sentence may accuse this movie as having mind bending one liners, but if you ask me, old Chinese proverbs or Mark Twain bent my mind better.

If anyone is having real fun in this movie, it is Naseeruddin Shah and Emraan Hashmi. Shah is at is comic hamming best even though his is not a comic role and Hashmi can't believe his luck playing an intellectual again while sneaking away smooches aplenty.
If Tusshar Kapoor is not Ekta Kapoor's brother and Jeetendra's son he'd still be one of the nicest human beings or so his face says, but as an actor his familial connections are his only hope.

If anything, this movie will make you do a passionate search about Silk Smitha. I watched a few old Tamil interviews with people who introduced or worked with Silk, unearthed old newspaper snippets about the reports of her death and watched dreary old movies again just to catch her luster somewhere in the middle.

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Biutiful

It takes a night (sometimes more) to recover from Inarritu's films. You question your humanity, mortality, chemistry, environment, biology, sociology and other root characters that define you as a human. Your mind's eye is made to rove from Barcelona to China, from Mexico to Egypt and all those far flung places and finally when the film is over you are glad that you are where you are. The immediate effect after watching an Inarritu movie is an odd mix of relief and gratitude. Thankfully, it is not you who is suffering, it is just a movie and those faces who you saw on screen are paid actors.

Biutiful takes place in Barcelona and Javier Bardem has a role of a life time as Uxbal, a small time entrepreneur, husband, divorcee and father of two young children. The acting and the casting is so good that it is hard to believe the actors, especially the children are acting, they are so true to life.

The hallmark of Inarritu films according to me is their very palpable art. Every frame is like a living painting drawn with painstaking detail, with the play of sounds, words and faces adding to its depth. With this film Inarritu has also taken a slight deviation from his usual multi-narrative style. Although there are interwening lives, for most part the film follows Uxbal without any other parallel narrative sharing the focus. With Biutiful Inarritu proves once again that to reach out and produce art with mass appeal you do not have to use pretentious prose or affect psuedo artsiness, life itself if told in simple words and painted with the right palette can produce the greatest art of them all.

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A Better Life

The story of immigrants, displaced people searching for a better life is rich with material for making decent movie if you can find the right story. La Misma Luna and Maria Full of Grace are a couple of heart-wrenching movies where you find people South of the border giving everything up to pursue their American dream. While those two movies rode on the shoulder’s of their female protagonists, A Better Life showcases the bond between an immigrant father and his US born son.

Demian Bichir who plays the father is the life of the movie. Young Jose Julian who has the role of the son is not very far behind talented Mr.Bichir. A Better Life takes you into the slums of LA where illegal immigrants live out their own version of the City of Angels. The film also made it to the 2012 Oscar short list for the best foreign movie of 2011.

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Pranayam

Blessy won’t be making 3D any time soon. Like we care, right? Blessy’s style of moving making is one dimensional, his stories absolutely require characters not to have any depth. But then again I can’t go on my spiteful tirade against Blessy  because he at least makes movies, I am just an armchair critic.

From my armchair, actually a couch, Pranayam is one of the better Blessy movies, the credit should go to Mohanlal and Anupam Kher. Two phenomenal actors doing a remarkable job within the set one dimensional framework. Jayaprada has done okay, then again poignant female roles in Malayalam only require expertise in various degrees and categories of crying – sobbing, weeping, sniveling, moaning, bawling, whimpering, screaming, blubbing, wailing – are like the navarasas of acting skills necessary in a Malayalam actress’s repertoire. It also helps if you are a classical dancer or a Kalathilakam. 

I was wondering whether we didn’t have any homegrown actresses who could’ve replaced Jayaprada in this role. Late Srividya and Jayabharathi come to mind. They obviously didn’t make it into Blessy’s mind while he was  doing the casting.

Although shot in color, characerization is typical Blessy – black and white with no greys. In the white corner we have the three main characters – Anupam Kher, Jayaprada and Mohanlal along with Anoop Menon as Anupam Kher’s son and there is the girl who plays Anoop Menon’s daughter. Every other significant character is in the black corner, all of them qualify as outright demons with little or no understanding of human condition besides theirs. 

While the movie tugs at the heartstrings occasionally, all that tugging was precipitated by the cinematic liberty taken by Blessy by creating the characters in black corner who are devoid of any greys. My favorite hippie era poet singer, the sounds of Leonard Cohen haunts this movie, so does Blessy’s personal philosophical injections via Mohanlal’s dialogs. Digital butterflies and birds show up at strategic scenes a la M.Mukandan Velliankalu and dragon flies (ref: The Legend of Khasak.)

Inspite of all this I am immensely glad Blessy is making progress – Kaazcha and Tanmatra were tortures, Calcutta News was forgettable, Palunku was actually watcheable, Bhramaram was okay if you take it as a pyscho-social thriller and now we have Pranayam which compared to his first two movies could be deemed a classic. Worth watching, while you are at it try those 3D glasses to get some depth.

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The Company Men

The Company Men is like Lifetime or Hallmark movie for men. Lifetime or Hallmark movies are not what are called cinematic classics, they often showcase B-movie actors or actors-wannabes. But usually if you find yourself accidentally watching one of these movies you realize they are quite entertaining despite the lack of star power, CGI and money because they deal with  current topics like a headlining abduction or a heart wrenching tale of a mother’s fight for her son’s life. The bottom line is audience can relate to them. Same with The Company Men though it has A-list stars in its credits.

The Company Men has Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner and Chris Cooper as working men facing job loss and financial insecurity. It is the only feature film that I’ve come across that showcases the 2008-2010 recession as it main theme. Every working (wo)man who held a job, lost a job or precariously held on to a job or had someone they know laid off should be able to relate to this film without much effort. Couple that with some powerful performances – esp. Chris Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones and direction that keeps everything in check – that makes a genuinely watchable movie.

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Tokyo Sonata

All the awards it won had puffed up my expectations about Tokyo Sonata. It is an interesting, ordinary film, about the life of a nuclear family in Japan. It can viewed as an effective socio-cultural commentary about urban life in Japan at the turn of twenty first century. 

The actors have been honest in their portrayals, the characters are well thought out and executed. Although set in Japan this can be a story that can happen anywhere, we are just viewing it through a Japanese lens (hehe aren’t all lenses originally Japanese – Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji…)

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Reservation Road

Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo are the reason I wanted to watch this movie in the first place. Both are good character actors and if they are together in a movie it had to be interesting. Reservation Road tackles a delicate and explosive human issue and pits these two fine actors on two sides of the fence.

Somehow the depiction of the crucial incident which leads these two men to cross their paths didn’t make enough impact on me as it should have. Moreover Jennifer Connelly’s role and her dialogs fell short of the grieving mother she portrayed. The tension between the men is tangible, with one living the life of a deer in the headlights(the pursued) and the other bursting forth with the rage of the pursuer.

It is an interesting movie to watch without expectations and then let yourself be amazed by the performances of the two main actors.

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Ladies vs Ricky Bahl

It had an interesting title, looked as if there were a tad too many ladies in it for my liking, better keep that for later – that was my initial thought when I first heard about this movie. Then Parineeti Chopra and Screen Awards night happened. The clips they showed at Screen Awards where Parineeti won the best female debut of the year presented Ladies vs Ricky Behl as a sort of dark, gritty independent flick for which people usually win acting awards. Nothing like the Yashraj films lively rom-com(or con) it turned out to be.

It must be one of the films Anushka Sharma and Ranveer Singh had to do for their film contract with Yashraj Films (3 films?) Anushka sure seems to have talent and Yashraj Films has made a wise choice investing in her, considering her earlier films – Rab ne Bana di Jodi and Band Baja Baraat were hits at the box-office.

In Ladies vs.., the ones who steal the show are the ladies. Three rather unknown faces - Dipannita Sharma, Aditi Sharma and Parineeti Chopra are the life of the movie. All three of them have exceled in their roles, but it is Parineeti who takes the cake as the fiesty and fun loving loud mouth Dimple Chaddha. Infact so much so that as a viewer I find it a bit disappointing that Ranveer Singh’s character fell for Ishika(Anushka) after a couple of meetings and not for Dimple.

The story of a set of ladies trying to outsmart a con man is contemporary. Script and camera keep in tune with the times and the theme. You can blame it for predictability, but then again this is not Tarantino, we are watching a Bollywood movie dressed for commercial success. Incredibly cool songs(very Punjabi-sh beats), the kind that will make you thump your foot on the gas, zoom past like a flash of light while being thankful to some invisible force that bestowed you with life so that you could enjoy this music. Good work, Salim-Sulaiman! Some may not find it as appealing as Band Baja Baraat, but I like it because the acting credits are spread out over a wider group of actors and not just Anushka and Ranveer. All in all, a good entertainer.

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Never Let Me Go

This is a movie that never could be American. An American would never sit back and take it, as cliched as it may sound, it is true. Never Let Me Go is an English film that can only be made in a non-Hollywood place where they speak English, which makes the prime choice for such a location – England. 

Is it Orwellian? Not really, because beyond the limits of the special boarding school called Hilsham, which is the focus of the movie, free society exists. The unpersons or persons without a future only exist within similar such boarding schools. The color scheme and the mood is subdued in browns and beiges, tinted with a pervasive sense of melancholy.

The most obvious question a viewer will ask at the end of the movie is, why don’t they try to escape? Maybe the best answer comes from the author of the novel that the movie is based on, Kazuo Ishiguro in an interview about Never Let Me Go explains that he meant the lives of the donor children (the children who are brought up in these special boarding schools) as a metaphor of our lives, as to reflect on why we accept death as the end and do not try to escape it.

There is no rebellion against fate anywhere in the story, only weak requests that fizzle our before they begin. It is a difficult story to capture in film, it is a better fit as novel where you can explore words and allegories, chew upon the its and your existential cud. On screen, when you watch characters play out these doomed roles, you want to exhort them not to sit back and take it. 

But the script(Alex Garland), actors, director(Mark Romanek) and the art has worked together to bring a challenging narrative to a beautifully made film. Who would’ve thought to cast Keira Knightley in a dark role with black bangs to match? Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield fits the bill as film's subdued and hapless protagonists. The children who portrayed the characters in their childhood are just as good as the adult actors. A touching and dark movie.

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Christian Brothers

In tough economic times a paisa vasool movie is a blessing for the audience. Paisa vasool is desi way of saying, ‘to get bang for your buck’. Movies that fall into this category give you a chance to see all the major heroes in one place and will be also be a veritable avial showcasing comedy, tragedy, songs, romance, hot babes, cool cars, reunions, breakups, action, reaction and whatever else you could ask for in a 2.5-3 hour package. You purchase a ticket to watch a movie and come out feeling like you’ve watched 5 movies for the price of one. The producer is pleased and the audience satiated and Christian Brothers avial clinches number #1 spot at the box office.

Mohanlal (who else can play a Mumbai underworld don in Malayalam cinema) is the foundation of this movie’s brotherhood. Mohanlal has the copyright of don roles from the early nineties ever since he became the good boy turned goonda in Kireedom and moved to Mumbai in Adhipan and came back to Kerala in His Highness Abdullah. Too bad that Mammootty missed that boat. 

Dileep is the other brother and he fields all the comedy balls and Suresh Gopi is the brother(-in-law) who like Mohanlal has a copyright on a certain type of hero -  the police officer who swallowed an English dictionary. (Isn’t it time we awarded a honorary IPS to Suresh Gopi like Lt.Col title conferred to Mohanlal by the Indian Army (122nd Infantry Battalion)?) Sharat Kumar, the manliest of actors from Tamil in the 50-60 age group is imported to be Mohanlal's buddy.An interesting face that flickered by was Vivekandan, the actor who played the teen lead in 1990 movie - Kshanakkathu, as one of Mohanlal's sidekicks.

Saikumar is the father who created these brothers and the entire Christian brotherhood is often challenged by another set of brothers from a different mother, this one led by Biju Menon and fathered by Vijayaraghavan. Mother figures are non existent, no wonder the boys are running wild. Female actors are all damsels in distress waiting to be rescued by the appropriate Christian brother. In fact cars and guns play more important roles than ladies in this movie. This is our very own Guns, Gems(of actors) and Steel, for your daily dose of the aforementioned three items watch this movie in installments.

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Shutter Island

Shutter Island is a little late for me, Memento, Requiem for a Dream, Mulholland Drive, Inception and a handful other movies whose names I don’t remember have already taken the viewers down the path of alternate realities played out inside character’s heads. If you are the analyzing type, this is one movie whose real meaning you can dissect to death after multiple viewings.

Dennis Lehane is one of my favorite writers of casual fiction. I loved his Mystic River and remember eagerly waiting for the film version when I heard Clint Eastwood was directing it. I have not read this work of his – Shutter Island but if Mystic River (the book) is anything to go by Shutter Island the movie has been glammed up a bit into a Hollywood script under Martin Scorcese. Of course when a movie is set in or before 1950s, the leading man can be no one else but Leanardo Di Caprio, the real Benjamin Button of Hollywood who is perpetually stuck in a screen time somewhere between the Great Depression(‘30s) and the Great Prosperity(‘50s)

This time he is stuck for real in an island penitentiary/mental asylum called Shutter Island as US Marshal Teddy Daniels investigating a mysterious disappearance of a female inmate. That is just the start. Things get murkier and stormier as the film progresses. But somehow from the very beginning I had the feeling that Mark Ruffalo was acting. Another reason to doubt the story was, did Scorsese have the guts to cast Ben Kingsley, the man who played Gandhi, in a negative role?

All that said, Shutter Island has an interesting story, the director has delivered it as a tight almost waterproof package, although the movie's predominant element is water. There are metaphors, allegories and symbols placed through out the movie left for audience's interpretation including the famous last line that Di Caprio's character utters at the end of the movie, throwing a monkey wrench into the already confused machinery of audience's mind.

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Madrasapattinam

As a topophiliac I am partial toward movies with place name titles. Changes in geography shaped and reshaped under the wheels of time interest me to no end.  Madrasapattinam made me look at the origins of the so-called authentic Tamil name, Chennai which became Madras’s official name in 1996. Wikipedia says Madrasapatinam and Chennapatinam were two different but nearby places. Madrasapattinam was a fishing hamlet near Portuguese fort St. George and Chennapattinam was the settlement which sprang up near the fort. Both their histories go back to 15^th century. Between the two how did the administration decide which one was more original? 

Madrasapattinam, the movie, favors Madrasapattinam over Chennapattanam. It is sort of like Tamilian’s Titanic cleverly adapted for pre-independence era Madras. There are telltale signs of Titanic strewn through out the movie starting with an old lady, a necklace, the old lady’s grand daughter, flash back to a doomed and fleeting love story and a handsome self sacrificing hero who never gets old. Unlike Titanic – the movie, Madrasapatinam was created to ride the box-office waves, not to sink without a trace. It has romance of the most forbidden kind – gori mem falling for a dark skinned dhobi, in the backdrop of the simmering Indian freedom struggle almost nearing its date of fruition.

Arya and Amy Jackson play the roles of lovers separated by class, race and political tensions. One of the positives about this movie is we do not have Indians in crusty pancake makeup and blond wigs playing the role of the British. Although 19th century British dialogs sound Dickensian, viewers’ misery due to this strait-jacketed language is restricted to a few opening scenes.

The city of Madras plays itself. The director had me in his pocket when he showed the transformation of Coovum river from a scenic serene waterway to a narrow channel between trash heaps in the present day Chennai. CGI, though not seamless as historic Hollywood movies, is definitely better than Salman Khan’s Veer a period piece from Bollywood from the same year, with more money and CGI.

Madrasapattinam has a lot of flaws in the script and story department if you go at it with a magnifying glass. Most of the public who spend money to watch this movie in Chennai’s cinema halls won’t be having such a glass in their possession. This is a dreamy movie for the underdog, about someone who attained the unattainable, with a strong thread of love and related emotions binding it together. The movie's success at the box office is a proof that Indian audience always fall for that time tested trick.

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Boss Engira Bhaskaran

Jamshad Cethirakath aka Arya – a Malayali from Trikkaripur(Kerala) brought up in Chennai with Diana Kurian aka Nayantara – a Malayali from Kottayam(Kerala) brought up in Gujarat and Kerala, both find stardom in Tollywood and join hands as hero and heroine in the 2010 super hit Boss Engira Bhaskaran. 

It was touted as Nayantara’s comeback hit and breakthrough commercial hit for Arya. With all this Mallu pride overflowing in the first paragraph it should be self evident that this review is written by a Malayali whose distinction is that I have not watched many Tamil movies. But I have been trying to correct this drawback this last week by multi-threading a few Arya and Dhanush movies.

Bhaskaran otherwise known as Boss(Arya) amongst his friends and family is a happy go lucky unemployed youth living in Kumbhakonam. A lot of middle class Tamil film-goers will be able to identify with his story and the surroundings. Arya’s natural comic timing and strong support on the comedy front from Santhanam makes the movie a laughter-fest from start to finish. In this they are aided by a humurous and unexpectedly sound script. Even the supporting characters have engaging dialogs, except for Nayantara’s ‘pardon’, which was a tad irritating but it was afterall intended to annoy Boss.

Boss Engira Bhaskaran is funny romcom perfect for lazy afternoons. Even the villians are cast in a witty mold. There are not many lessons to take home except to take life light-heartedly like Boss.

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Top Malayalam Movies of 2011

2011 was a milestone year for the discerning Malayali movie-goer, one who was tortured years on end with too many Dubais, Naatturajavus, Christian and Uppukandam Brothers. It goes without saying that I consider myself belonging to this category. This was the year I finally found some contemporary Malayalam films I can recommend to my film-buff friends (non-Indian and therefore non-Malayali) and did not have to go into hiding after the recommendation for fear of losing their friendship.

2011 was also the year when Malayalam cinema woke up and sniffed a new formula  and started playing with it – integrated multi narrative track, already perfected by Alejandro Inarritu, Wong Kar-wai and David Lynch, so there are plenty of places of draw 'inspiration' from. In the process of learning there were some misfires like The Train and The Metro, but some like Traffic and City of God hit the target.

Another surprise winner of 2011 is the non-superstar, in the line of Times Person of the Year – Protestor,  Malayalam cinema’s star of the year was not Mohanlal, Mammootty , Prithviraj or Dileep, (or not even Suresh Gopi,) it was the dependable second benchers, the reliable middle-of-the-pack actors like Lal, Jayasurya, Shweta Menon, Kunchako Boban, Indrajith, Asif Ali, Salim Kumar, Reema Kallingal, Indrajith, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Remya Nambishan, Fahad Fazil and Samvrutha Sunil who took the cake this last year. Also worth mentioning is the new crop of movie-makers who were instrumental in bringing a paradigm shift in the way we make movies in Kerala – Lijo Jose Pellissery, Samir Thahir, Aashiq Abu, Listin Stephen, Bobby n Sanjay, Rajesh Pillai and the like.

On to movies, my five favorite films of the year in no particular order,

Salt N Pepper (Woohoo! Malayalam has its first real…..Read more)

City of God (The end is the beginning is the end as….Read more)

Chappa Kurish (Chappa Kurish - Kochi speak for heads or tails, whatever the outcome of this coin flip…Read more)

Beautiful has shades of compassion and comraderie and gives Anoop Menon an opportunity to sling a guitar on his back and walk/ride the streets, which movie star has not dreamed of playing such a James Dean-ish character. Jayasurya as a paralysed millionaire with a  love for life gets to emote with his eyes and flirtatious talk. It is an interesting movie and yet another one which pays tribute to Malayali male’s endless fascination with that ageless Padmarajan classic – Thoovanathumbikal.(Read more)

 Indian Rupee has a good story and tight script. Though more laudable is the fact that it is the one and only movie which keeps Prithviraj (barely) in the ship that sailed from Kerala’s movie ocean in the second decade of twenty first century bearing the flag of new promise and hope. Prithvi is on the verge of becoming a latter day Mohanlal (not the Mohanlal of Nadodikkaattu but the Mohanlal of Natturajavu), if not for rare movies like Indian Rupee.

Also rans : 

Gaddama : (Women in flight (no, not Amelia Earhart), escaping their wretched existence make...  Read more )

Traffic: Probably the most commercially successful multi-narrative movie of 2011, it not only is technically sound but has drama and melodrama to top it off. Read more

Adaminte Makan Abu: A typical festival circuit movie, Malayalam budhi-jeevi(intellectual) directors have been churning out since the fifties and sixties, because third world poverty and desperation sells, tugs the heart strings of movie intelligensia at Cannes and Berlin and Toronto helping to bring home an award or two. Salim Kumar and Zarina Wahab have faithfully executed their roles as an aging couple waiting to go on a pilgrimage to Haj and the rest is textbook award movie stuff.

Pranayam, maybe.

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Dr Love

If you are in a mood for a semi-decent campus movie of recent origin in Malayalam, Dr-Love might be worth looking into. The movie has no super stars or so says Kunchako Boban, the only star in the movie. Considering his advanced age and receding hair line, the film makers gave him a very important role in college canteen, which is where you’ll find aging movie Malayalam movie stars who just can’t get enough of college life even if they have sired grandkids of college-going age. College Kumaran Lalettan is the prime representative of this species. Compared to that Kunchako could easily pass off as a PhD scholar at SB College, Changanassery.

 But Kunchako’s character – Vinayachandran is not into studying to gain a doctoral degree. Vinayachandran, a struggling writer manages to get a Dr prefix by offering consultations on love and romance, thus becoming everyone’s darling Dr.Love. 

The most convincing apsect of this movie is all college kids look like college kids. Sudheesh and Idavela Babu have been given a rest and their roles given to real youngsters like Bhagat, Hemant, Vidya Unni, Ananya, Manikuttan and others. Since just helping a few love lorn teens is not going to sustain the image of Dr.Love forever, the film makers introduce a cliched and predictable twist in the form of Bhavana in the second half. Thankfully the movie gets over before it twists itself into a knot.

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Filmstar

Filmstar – another movie about movie industry, for a change this time we have a different set of movie stars than what we got to watch Udayanaanu Tharam or Katha Parayumbole.  Infact it is like Katha Parayumbole without a solid katha(story)/script and some politics of the red kind thrown in for the masala(spice.)

Kalabhavan Mani plays superstar SuryaKiran and Dileep is a down and out commoner turned script writer Nandhagopan. In the age of terse texting it is hard to believe that vacuous scripts like this will sell. Did it?

My hand on TV remote’s forward button did get any rest while watching this movie, maybe you should take it as a sign.

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Chappa Kurish

Chappa Kurish (Kochi speak for heads or tails), whatever the outcome of this coin flip was for its producer, is a definite winner in my book. With a mere 65 lakhs investment(you won’t be able to buy an apartment in Kochi for that amount), I am pretty sure Listin Stephen did get more than his money back.

Samir Thahir, cinematographer turned director has created a technical poem of a movie(if there ever was one) using Canon 7D.

Red One (Yakshiyum Njanum, Unnaipol Oruvan), Canon 7D – digital is surely making inroads into our movie industry. For Malayalam film industry where Indian Rupee is still a scarce commodity, producers will possibly get to spend the money they saved by switching to digital in other much needed areas. 

Chappa Kurish is supposedly a lift-off of a Korean flim, Handphone. I haven’t seen the Korean one but from its synopsis and reviews it looks to me as if the copy was better than the original. Thank your luck, Malayalis! Like many movies of the recent past(Mammootty starrer The Train for one), cell phone plays the leading role and it is not just any cell phone, it is the special one with an I prefix. Mac and its brand placement has it eyes on the right prize – the nouveau  I-nternet enabled I-billion of I-ndia. Blackberry and Android try harder and come up with more candy and icecream, Indian sweet tooth is legendary.

Trying to steal I-balls from the I-phone are our two leading men – Fahadh Faasil(Arjun) and Vineeth Sreenivasan(Ansari). It is essentially a guy vs guy over a cell phone story with some girls in the background. Both the guys have played it to perfection. Aiding them in this endeavor is the simple and genuine feeling script which had lots of opportunities to go overboard but conducts itself with restraint.

From Kaiyethum Doorathu(2002) to Chappa Kurish(2011) via Kerala Kafe and Tournament – Fahadh Faasil has done quite the impossible – a long invisible absence followed by a reinvention of a comeback.

Rex Vijayan (guitarist of rock band Avial) has composed very contemporary background music to go with the mood of the movie. Remya Nambeeshan who plays the most prominent  female character – Soniya fulfils her role with an understated ease. Other low-key but strong performances come from  Jinu Joseph as Arjun’s Man Friday and Suni Thrissur as the manager of the grocery mart where Ansari .

The attention to details – starting off with one of the most beautiful love scenes ever filmed in Malayalam, leading to the naked vulnerability of Arjun when he learns what he has lost and the dark, gritty and realistic fight finale which ends with the protagonists sitting facing each other – two sides of the same coin, make Chappa Kurish a primer for later day(as in post 2010) Malayalam movies.

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Karyasthan

Karyasthan is the on-screen version of Malayalam soaps. Where else, except in Malayalam TV serial land will you find big joint families still in existence, ready to put on a show at moment’s notice, armed and ready with copious amount of pancake make up, layers of lipstick and draped in heavy silk saris even at 1am at night.

Considering the unsatiated hunger of Malayali audience for such masterpieces of familial theatrics and histrionics, I should say, Dileep made a wise and safe choice for his 100^th film. He is the misplaced family scion faking as a manager(Karyasthan) to bring together two feuding families and working to regain his father’s lost status.

The story is forgettable, but be assured, like a zombie it’ll come back in the next couple of months with a different hero belonging to a joint family(prestigious nevertheless) with a different name. Provided the hero is a super star, Malayali audience will embrace the zombie yet again with open arms with all the charm that they should’ve reserved for their own pennukaanal.

There is a host of supporting characters to provide for essential elements of a family drama like pride, arrogance, evil, superiority, helplessness(only female characters),benevolence(father/mother figures), mass appeal & courage(hero’s essential attributes),  stupidity, ignorance(the last two translate as comedy). Actors who were fortunate enough to be be cast in these supporting roles were Madhu, G.K.Pillai, Janardhanan, Sidhiq, Ganesan, Biju Menon, Lena, Suraj, Salim Kumar, Jagathy and umpteen others.

If this zombie has not caught you yet, stay that way.

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Inspirational Songs : Tamil, Malayalam & Hindi

Almost a year ago, I compiled a list of inspirational /motivational songs in this blog. Though all of these were in English that post shows up as one of the top results in Google if you search for Tamil inspirational songs and a lot of people seem to be searching for inspiration in Tamil.

If you are seeking uplifting Tamil songs I am not the best person to provide an answer. But one Tamil song has been making rounds in our house(and probably every South Indian household with an internet connection) for the past week. It is one of the most viewed songs in YouTube this past month, with 15 million views and counting, you know what I am talking about – Why this Kolaveri Kolaveri Di. Way to go Dhanush, Aishwarya and Anirudh Ravichander. It is from the movie 3 starring Dhanush and Shruti Hassan.

From Tamil onto Malayalam - one of the most difficult languages to write rock songs and my native language. When I saw Vineet Sreenivasan’s Malarvadi Arts Club, the closing scenes of the movie feature ‘supposedly’ a rock song. At that time I had wonderedand wished out loud that Vineet should’ve let Avial – the first real rock band to come out of Mallu land to compose and perform that song instead of the insipid piece that was in the movie. It looks like some film maker had the same idea as me (and a million others, I am sure.) Salt N Pepper one of the really watchable movies of 2011 hands the screen over to Avial and their musical extravaganza to provide a rocking end to the film. Performed by Avial for Salt n Pepper, here’s Aanakallan. Rock on, Malayalis!

With Tamil and Malayalam covered, how can I ignore Bollywood? Everyone might have an opinion about Ra-One and I have an opinion about his Chammak Challo. With music by Vishal Shekhar and sung by Akon, aimed to rope in a global audience, Chammak Challo is guarenteed to sizzle you. For added entertainment watch the video instead of just the audio, Bollywood as you know is all about color, emotions and music, it has to be enjoyed as a combo package and Chammak Challo will not disappoint.

That's inspiration X 3, in three Indian languages - Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi, take your pick.

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Salt N Pepper

Woohoo! Malayalam has its first real food-porn film. We did not have Babette's Feast, Ratatouille, Julie & Julia or Chocalat but we now have Salt n Pepper.

For a film that is path breaker of its genre  Salt N Pepper  has managed to set high standards to anyone attempting a food-centered film in the future.  At the same time, it has remained a high grosser appealing to different sections of 'discerning' Malayali populace.

Lal, the lead actor in the role of an officer in the State Archeology department(in the pic: wearing blue shirt on the left) whose passion in life is food,  looks like he had his kattan chaya(or kaappi) in the morning and walked right into the set, into the movie and into your life. Shweta Menon has carved a niche for herself in Malayalam with hitherto non-existent roles being  written for her considering her talent and ‘advanced age’, which is a good sign for all actresses in Malayalam film industry. Shweta is in her mid thirties in an industry where it is the norm for actresses of that age to play mother or mother-in-law roles for our forever young fifty and sixty year old super stars. Asif Ali(in the pic: sporting neon green jacket) – the easy going, probably the one of the best in the new crop youngsters in Malluwood has a role that suits his style. 

 The actor who hits a gold mine with this movie is none of the above, it is Baburaj(in the pic: guy in the center murdering the chicken) who has appeared in umpteen Malayalam movies as the quintessential bad guy. Baburaj plays Babu the bachelor, hanuman-devotee super-chef with a personality to match. As an actor, this movie has to be a milestone, giving him a new image to explore.

On a personal front, Salt N Pepper is more attractive to me because it showcases my home city - Thiruvananthapuram and its more likeable parts like the Rajaveedhi from Kawdiar to Vellayambalam, the new underpass at Palayam, Napier Museum  and other familiar landmarks.

The opening and closing segments of the film are entertaining and innovative. Various famous restaurants and foods in Kerala are featured as the opening credits role in, which sets your lip smacking for the movie to begin. Once the whole fare is served – which was indeed a feast par excellence- we have the Malayali rock band Avial (coincidentally ‘avial’ is the name of a Kerala vegetable dish usually served with rice) signing off with foot thumping song, Aanakallan.

 Ashiq Abu has directed an irresistible hit, a delightful entertainer.

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Mujhse Fraandship Karoge

If I am not mistaken(which I often am) Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge is Bollywood’s first movie directly based on Facebook social networking interactions.  Starring four youngsters, set in a modern day fictional campus director Nupur Asthana manages to keep our attention on a much rehashed plot through a fast and fashionable story line.

Saqib Saleem and Saba Azad play the lead pair with  Nishant Dahiya, Tara D'Souzah who have strong supporting roles. It is a easy breezy campus flick if you are in mood for one. It is good to see old war horses like Yash Raj films moving with the times, promoting young directors and contemporary ideas.

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City of God (Malayalam movie)

The end is the beginning is the end as Smashing Pumpkins had it figured out, on behalf of Batman. City of God, the newest movie from Lijo Jose Pellissery lives by this rule. I have decided to craft this review in the same vein – results first, facts later. I liked City of God, one of the better movies to come out of Malayalam in the recent past, Prithviraj’s superman act could’ve been toned down a bit. Well, you can’t have it all, right?

Multi narrative tracks are the flavor of the season in Malluwood. City of God joins Traffic, The Train and The Metro in an ever lengthening list, which I am sure is only in its infancy. I am expecting to see the list mature into a full-fledged Godzilla at the end of this decade. 

City of God is comparable to its Brazilian namesake in that the favelas of Rio are replaced by the cheris (slums) of Kochi and both are multi narrative films portraying the chaotic lives of a bustling, breathing third world metropolis. But I find the story structure more similar to another multi narrative film – Crash, where everything begins and ends with a road accident and the viewers are taken down different threads at the same time to be led back to the beginning in the backdrop of the City of Angels (LA.)

Prithviraj as Jyothilal, a high profile bodyguard/hitman/buddy of young industrialist Sony(model turned actor Vinod Pillai) has been bestowed with a fist and physique to deliver dialog, so he broods a lot and talks less. Reema Kallingal has juicy role as an actress under duress. She delivers a good performance talking in her own voice, literally without any dubbing artists to share her success. So does Shweta Menon  in a short but strong role. Indrajith lands a winner again with Swarnavelu,  a happy go lucky Tamil laborer and we get to see a very different Parvathy (debutante in Notebook) in her comeback to Malayalam as a migrant laborer with a lot of dark grease makeup.

Lijo Jose Pellissery, the director has created an interesting, true-to-life movie, esp. when compared to other movies of the same genre, maybe that's why it didn't set the box office ablaze. Despite its obvious Hollywood and international 'inspirations', it is one of watchable new movies(not for kids though.)

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Shaitaan

Shaitan is like an Indian tribute to Tarantino. It is an A-list film in terms of technical quality with fast paced camera and editing keeping in track with it.  Running around trees when boys and girls meet of the traditional Indian past has been completely abandoned in favor of cruising around in a gas guzzling Hummer.  ‘Bade baap ke bigade hue aulaad’ (Hindi for rich spoilt brats) form one team of actors led by Kalki Koelchen and other talented new comers. 

On the other front we have the locals, everyday Indian and public servant policemen led by Rajeev Khandelval. It's a good long while after Aamir, Mr.Khandelwal. It was good to see Nikhil Chinnappa in a non-VJ/RJ/DJ role. Pawan Malhotra has an interesting role too. 

In the audio segment, Shaitaan has an awesome remix of Khoya Khoya Chand. IMHO this is the first time a modern remix is as good or better than the original classic(from Kala Bazaar sung by Mohammed Rafi.) Produced by Mikey McCleary and sung by Suman Shridhar it jives well with the spirit and pace of the movie.

From the production house of Anurag Kashyap, directed by debutante director Bejoy Menon who comes from the Mani Ratnam line of movies Shaitan is a slick movie to watch. If you are an adrenaline junkie even when you are couch-prone and watching a movie this might be a good choice.

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Three Kings

If there is a category called self depracating comedy movies or what I’d call a contemporary version of slapstick humor, Three Kings will fall into that group.  When a movie knows it is not trying to sell a moral but only some cheap laughs and the audience knows that the movie knows, all that its creators have to do to make it successful is to bring on the laughter. 

Three Kings is a happy go lucky movie with characters to match. Indrajith, Kunchako Boban and Jayasurya are three kings without a kingdom, in search of a lost treasure. To help them in this quest we have three damsels – Samvruta Sunil, Ann Augustin and Sandhya. The movie tries to be funny and nothing else and succeeds for the most part, except when the humor becomes too slapsticky.

Just make sure not exercise your brain at any time while watching the movie.

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Goodbye Solo

Goodbye Solo is a film festival circuit movie  - produced cheap with lofty ambitions starring talented but not big name actors and zero CGI. You’ll like it better if you like the way people from Africa speak English – I like it, the way they talk sound to me like if there was a big-hearted way of  speaking English their way would be it.

        

Solo is an immigrant cab driver in NC and just as I’d have guessed from his accent and place of birth(Senegal) a guy with a generous heart. He befriends an old guy, William who hires his cab once, though William doesn’t care much about Solo’s friendship as he is intent on turning his back on everything including life and the relationships it brings with it.

Nothing much happens, can be used by someone who is interested in studying the art of movie making.

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The Adjustment Bureau

Philip K.Dick's stories are becoming more relevant as years pass or Hollywood seems to think so. The latest one of Dick's fictional contributions to roll down the California movie conveyor belt is The Adjustment Bureau.

Any futurologist, by which I mean anyone who has ever read their own daily horoscope in a newspaper will find this new class of movies interesting to say the least. If it features Matt Damon, the super flexible man of all trades, the movie is sure to find easy doors to dollars. Doors, by the way are important elements in this film.

The movie starts out with an up and coming young politician, played by Damon caught in an election scandal and has to quit running for whatever political office he was running for. But that's really not the film is all about and you don't want any spoilers, right?

The subject of the movie requires a technical perfection only Hollywood bucks can buy and they do the task as is expected. The Adjustment Bureau is a good watch for anyone who likes romantic sci-fi, Matt Damon or Philip K.Dick or all of those.

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