The Namesake

I saw this movie last year when it released… I had heard a lot about the book and I did start reading it, but the lazy me decided to stop reading it and took the first opportunity to see the movie. The following is a piece I wrote after I saw the movie, adapted and changed a bit to suit this blog -

A well written book and even better made movie. Capturing the essence of the book in the two hours was surely challenging but Mira Nair did a fabulous job at narrating the book. The performances by Irfan Khan and Tabu were par excellence. I can’t say the same about Kal Penn but he did justify the role and the casting seemed perfect. There wasn’t as much in the direction of the movie as there is in the book itself…

One important mention from the music lover to the soundtrack of the movie. It had caught my attention during the movie and I was hoping they come out with an album… and it did eventually get released. And for someone like me who loves fusion – the perfect blend of Indian instruments and world music – this album is a must. A sitar or a tabla playing side by side even with trance, just makes it my kind of music. But needless to say rhythm is a must!

The album is a compilation of every possible music piece played in the movie, including the Bengali poem recited by one of the guests at Ashima’s christmas party (towards the end of the movie) and an old Geeta Dutt sung bengali song which as far as I remember is playing in the background for one of the Calcutta scenes. But tracks like Airport grief, Farewell shoke, First day in New York are amazing… they have a similar theme, same instruments are used, have similar percussions and listening to them, one might feel that they are similar, but there is a uniqueness. Nitin Sawhney has used the sitar, guitar and flute with finesse to distinguish between the grief in airport grief and the mixture of happiness and sadness in first day in New York. Other good tracks include shoes to america, the title song and the background score during the opening titles.

Reading about this movie after it was released – from reviews to general articles, I’ve realized that everyone has a lot to relate to this movie. Some of us relate to the ‘funny’ names one’s parents have given us but for the countless desi immigrants across the world, there are a lot of similarities between the lives of Ashok & Ashima and even to the life of Gogol and Sonia. Most of the first generation of immigrants (me included) relate to Irfaan Khan and Tabu whereas many of the American born kids with Indian parents might be relating to Gogol and Sonia!A chat with my cousin back home made me realize that she did not enjoy the movie as much as the hype created and I told her that I loved it coz I could relate to a lot of things – maybe reading half the book helped because the book goes so much deeper into their lives. One aspect of the movie which I noticed and appreciated was how we try to live our 'lives' in this foreign land (and shown in the bengali parties in the movie), celebrating festivals in complete fanfare (to the extent of playing holi with colors & water), having elaborate weddings, having the cricket or bollywood gup over booze or chai, only to realize that once its time to go home, we have to take our large coats, drive out in our left hand drive cars and eventually sleep on spring mattresses! I relate a lot to these small things (and people who have lived longer must obviously relate to a hundred more things) shown in the movie and are obviously an integral part of the book. But ironically one such beautiful moment in the movie was towards the end when Tabu says about how this country has become home…

21 grams...

Research says that when we die, we loose 21 grams… Dr Duncan MacDougall who conducted this research wanted to conclude that the soul has weight. Hence the title of this 2003 Sean Penn, Naomi Watts movie…

The movie captures the essence of the name of the movie very well and shows a variety of emotions. The movie has stories running parallel and three quarters into the movie they start connecting… A lot of instances in the movie hit me… like when Naomi Watts looses her husband & two daughters in an accident, the shivering Benicio Del Toro when he realises he has hit & killed someone with a truck, but again its just me

It’s a well written movie which the director has handled even better. The treatment of the movie - mixing shots from the past and present – is what keeps you gripped. I guess this treatment of a movie always adds a lot of anxiety among the audience and keeps you hooked on to your seat – waiting to see what happens next! There are some good performances by the actors but I don’t consider them extra ordinary… A scene worth mentioning is where Sean Penn is shot, few seconds before that and a few after it, one can hear the dialogues at a low volume in the background and there is a loud deafening noise which over shadows everything…

Every emotion of human existence be it love, hate, revenge, guilt (which are all captured in the movie) is all worth 21 grams – coz whenever we sieze to exist all of that does not matter…

Shawshank Redemption

I like movies with positive endings, how much ever pain might have been shown in the movie, a good ending keeps the hope – that there is good around you… And this movie is about the hope, hope that a even a convict can have living in prison for 40 years (read Red a.k.a Morgan Freeman). I speak more about Red than Andy Dufresne, coz Andy is more like the ‘fiction’ and Red is more like the truth. Andy is the one whose story is more heartfelt and when he achieves freedom - and the way he achieves freedom though not completely convincing - the audience naturally reacts well to the movie. Red has a no frill character and has to beg for his freedom everytime until he is finally granted, after 40 years.

The movie travels 19 years – the term for which Andy is in prison and narrates the various hardships a prisioner goes thru, for example, homosexual inmates, strict wardens (jailors)… Apart from adding a lot of strength to the movie, the narration by Morgan Freeman which happens in the bits and pieces thru out the movie gives an emotional touch and helps you feel for these convicts. It gives us a viewpoint which is not something profound but which each one of us goes thru in our lives, in different settings – here a convict who lives in the prison for more than 50 years (almost all his life) does not know the outside world nor has the capability to survive in the changing world – as its said in the movie, the convict gets institutionalized. Like many of us who are averse to change and would not react well if our whole environment was altered, is the same a convict goes thru when he has to leave the prison and re-enter the world… And here we are not talking about a change where one migrates to a different country but a change where everything around you is different – one of the scenes Red explains that he is so used to asking for permission to take a piss that he cannot pee, unless he asks someone (his superiors) for permission.

Andy, the protagonist of the movie is a smart banker wrongly (which we realise towards the end of the movie – though there is no attempt to morally prove that he is guilty, it is understood) convicted for his wife’s murder. The movie revolves around him, Red and a bunch of other fellas… As the movie progresses slowly showing various happenings in the prison, one waits for a twist until the end and the director does give you that twist, about 90-100 mins into the movie. As I mentioned earlier, one should not question some of it because it gives us a happy ending.

As for me, I do not rate this movie as No.1 of all times, but is surely on the top of my list - more so because its an excellent story but for me a No.1 movie should have more than that - excellent acting, direction (not that this movie did not, but the story did not require all of it)

Conversations with Other Women

An excellent directorial debut by Hans Canosa… A director’s movie, good acting, scripting... And all those of you who aspire to make a movie some day, make sure you see the special features in the DVD.

Its a two character movie which as the name suggests is just a dialogue between them. The movie starts with Aaron Eckhart trying to ‘hit on’ Helena Bonham Carter at his sister’s wedding. Their harmless flirting makes you feel like it is a lonely guy and a girl away from home (she lives in UK but is in the US for the wedding) talking before they head back to a common hotel room. It’s a lot of honest discussion and heart opening talk between them which continues till the hotel room and then suddenly there is a twist in the story – I would not want to narrate it coz it will spoil it for anyone wanting to see the movie.

The movie use a unique technology - something I haven't seen before. The use of two screens thru out the movie helps the director achieve a lot of detail - to show each of the characters and their expressions at the same time, show the real world and virtual, show what the character is actually saying and thinking at the same time, past and the present...

Overall a must see for cinema lovers like me :)

Strangers

Some of the blogs which follow may be movies I have seen in the past and have blogged or written about it earlier, and now posting those to my movie blog

I love the fact that I pick up movies without knowing anything about it… No expectations lead to an unexpected good time!

The movie I picked was ‘Strangers’… an unconventional Indian movie of two strangers who meet on a train. I am not going into the details of the story, but this film showcases how Indian cinema has matured (I thought of saying improved, but this movie is no way in the league of good movies). Filmmakers are ready to experiment with new stories and different treatment for films.

The story, supposed to be suspense, is not that much of suspense but grips until the interval. The pace of the movie could have been increased to make it a shorter and a lot more gripping. Some good performances by Kay Kay Menon, Sonali Kulkarni (in a special appearance) and Nandana Sen. Nandana Sen does not have a lot of acting talent but plays her role well. Filmmakers need to find a substitute for Jimmy Shergill, because his roles are such which can be played by anybody - be it Bas Ek Pal, Delhi Heights!

In retrospect, I was satisfied with the attempt at movie making, unlike few I saw in the past, Speed, No Smoking, Dil Dosti etc (I may blog on this one, coz it was a MOVIE GONE COMPLETELY WRONG)

Bourne Ultimatum

I love the Ishaans of celluloid and I even like the Jason Bournes…

This movie is obviously in the genre of bond movies sans the sci-fi ness. But as I was seeing the movie, there was something about the story which wasn’t up-to date / contemporary… And to my surprise the series of Bourne books were written by Robert Ludlum in the 70s with Bourne Ultimatum in 1980. Also some more internet search and I understand the obvious - the book is different from the movie, right from the first part Bourne Identity.

But that apart, the movie is fast and well paced like a 007 movie. There isn’t one moment in the movie where the camera wasn’t moving. I liked the style of the shooting where the camera keeps moving even when two people are talking face to face, the angle, the dimensions, everything – it creates an anxious feeling and I guess the intent is to keep the audience hooked on to the characters and what the director wants to show, without deviating attention to the surroundings – this is completely my theory and I may have to research some more to fortify it.

Other than been a gripping entertainer for 2 hours, there isn’t anything else to the movie. Its for someone who likes spy, CIA, KGB movies… and I think since there are fewer such movies being made now-a-days, the one’s which are made surely get a good response.

Taare Zameen Par

A child with dyslexia, a smarter older brother who is not a bully but encourages his younger brother, a mother who loves her child immensely but sometimes is irritated by the trouble he gives her, the father who works long hours to earn bread for the family and wants to make winners out of his sons – the characters in this movie are so well written…. Read on… The father’s refusal to accept that his kid has some disability, the mother who gets emotional and the first thing that comes to her mind when the kid is being sent to boarding is that ‘he has never been away from me’, the elder brother who comes home saying ‘his drama practice got cancelled’ and the next day morning is shown leaving with a tennis racket – just to show the bright, all-rounder brother, the introduction of a fellow female teacher of Aamir who is the medium by which Aamir can reach his views to the audience – is some of the excellence in the script and direction of this movie.

A good story handled even better by debutant director Aamir Khan – we have heard so much about this ace actor and his indulgence in scripts and sometimes interference in direction while acting in a movie, it seems that all of it has paid off when he decided to direct. At first when I read that Aamir decided to side-track Amole Gupte (the writer and creative director of the movie – but essentially the brain child of the movie) to direct the movie, it sounded like a typical Aamir Khan who decided that since he was putting in the money, things had to go his way… but he surprised me with his excellent direction.

The movie has touched upon so many issues at once – every child is special, every parent trying to live their dream thru the child, the sad state of affairs of our education system, the need for parents to let their kids know that you are there (the basic display of emotion) make this movie a must see. Without taking away credit from the story, the treatment and the emotions packed in this movie, complete the movie and make it such a treat to watch. And of course the movie could not be what it is without the fabulous performances by Darsheel – he is simply outstanding, Tisca Chopra (though she speaks little, her eyes and face convey so much emotion), the father (I have not been able to google his real name), Yohan, the elder brother¸ Tanay Chheda, the handicapped bench friend of Ishaan. I think all the other actors have played their roles so well that Aamir’s performance does not seem worth a mention – he is a great actor and this wasn’t a biggest challenge for him.

One last mention to the well placed songs of the movie – good music by Shankar, Loy, Ehsaan and even better lyrics by Prasoon Joshi.