MOVIE: The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
CAST: Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins
DIRECTOR: Frank Darabont
There has been extensive debate amongst IMDB regulars as to which is the best movie ever. Many suggest that the first two positions must be pre occupied by the first two parts of The Godfather whereas a large section believes that The Dark Knight is the best. Not so long ago a section started believing that The Shawshank Redemption is the best ever. They could justify it and they won. It is currently atop the prestigious IMDB top 250 list. And tell you what, it truly deserves to be there.
This is a small movie which apparently has nothing extravagant happening. A man Andy Dufresne (Robbins) is sentenced life imprisonment on charges of murdering his wife and her lover. His time in the prison forms the theme of the movie. On the other hand, Ellis Boyd(Freeman), better known as Red, has spent a long time in Shawshank prison and is a well known figure in there as h the convicts depend on him for smuggling in cigarretes, beer and other daily requirements.
The Shawshank Redemption starts off pretty nicely and as you go ahead watching it you cannot really figure out where the story is heading. But with brilliant performances, excellent screenplay and the best ever dialogues in any cinema and Darabont's careful direction, this movie keeps you pretty gripped.
As you keep approaching the end of this movie you slowly start realising whatever you felt was unnecessary or unimportant in the initial narration turns out to be marvellous machinery for the tale to entirely twist or rather jump to an unimaginable high. The beautifully crafted end portions makes The Shawshank Redemption possess one of the best ever climax in the history of cinema. Redemption means Salvation. The story mystically revolves around this word. BBC has got a list of 100 movies you should watch before you die. If I had made such a list, The Shawshank Redemption would be topping it. "Fear can hold you prisoner," reads on of the promotional taglines of this movie and it beautifully captures the essence of the movie. It would be incomplete if I do not mention the other part in that tagline. It says, "Hope can set you free!"
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
I SAW, I SANK, I AM REDEEMED!
Monday, March 2, 2009
CRUISED ON PRETTY NICELY!
CAST: Tom Cruise, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson
DIRECTOR: Bryan Singer
Cinema is a strange thing. We at times feel it should portray reality and at times fantasy. When cinemas based on real stories are made they have to be "cinematically" treated to make something intriguing and special. Even reality must be portrayed with a touch of fantasy(Slumdog Millionaire) and at times fantasy has to be treated with reality(The Dark Knight) so as to make it an interesting screen watch. Many have complained that Valkyrie fails cinematic expression. I disagree.
Apart from cinematic expression, one must also consider the maker's intention. Cristopher McQuirie in Valkyrie has a tale to tell which may not be as interesting as the World War II, but is based in close association to it. Tom Cruise plays Col. Stauffenberg who physically damages himself during his posting in the Tenth Panzer Division in Africa. He loses one of his eye, his right palm and also two fingers from the left hand.
Valkyrie is based on a true story of an attempt to assassinate the Feuher of Germany, Adolf Hitler. The screenplay and cinematography gets stronger as the story unfolds and reaches its best in the last stages. Stauffenberg associates himself with an organisation within the German Military which finds numerous ways to assassinate Hitler. Their motto is to initiate a revolutionary movement called Operation Valkyrie after the assasination of Hitler.
Hitler is a word which is today synonymous to treachery and oppression. But many historians believe he was nothing more than an eccentric disciplinarian. He was eccentric as he maddened himself with an idea of ruling the world and proving the Germans to be a superior race. He was a disciplinarian as he single handedly could resonate his idea onto a whole efficient department called Germany. His discipline could win him the world, what ruined him was his madness!
The story is not at all anticlimactic as many sections are believing and writing. The maker tells you a story and supports it with one of the best screenplays I have seen from quite sometime. The problem with Tom Cruise has been his star image. Tom Cruise the star has become much bigger than Tom Cruise the actor. People are more interested in knowing what is his status with Holmes or whether he still believes in Scientology rather than appreciating his cinematic performances. Without a doubt, Tom Cruise is one of the very bests in the world who can balance stardom and performances.
I would conclude with one of the best dialogues in the movie when Tom Cruise looks at a picture of Hitler and says, "Its time for this picture to unhung, and the man to be hung."
TASTE THIS THUNDER!
MOVIE: Tropic Thunder(2008)
CAST: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black, Tom Cruise
DIRECTOR: Ben Stiller
The lead is played by Ben Stiller who plays a falling superstar Tugg Speedman. He is also credited for the direction and screenplay of this movie. Tropic Thunder is about a movie being filmed called Tropic Thunder and is a thunder of comedy. This movie which happens to be a spoof of numerous Hollywood movies is much more than just a spoof. It very beautifully captures the comedy of the serious hollywood war movies. Robert Downey Jr, plays superstar Kirk Lazarus.Downey was nominated in the supporting actor category in the Academy awards for this role. Jack Black is Jeff Portnoy. Along with them two more upcomming stars are shooting for a war movie called Tropic Thunder. I would not like to reveal much about the movie as the beauty lies in watching it and not narrating it. I assure you if you are a hollywood regular, you are going to laugh it out.
Tom Cruise plays a studio head and plays a fascinating cameo gripping the audience with his never before seen look and fascinating usage of the F word. So these actors are working on this high budget movie based on a book written by a brave fighter of the Vietnam war. In this pursuit, they go through hardship, anxiety, disgust, fear and we, the audience go through storms of humor.
The movie also showcases the importance of the Oscar awards in the life of the Hollywood stars. How struggling actors "scorching" in the heat of failure regain their importance in the industry by "simply jacking" an Oscar is beautifully expressed. Tropic Thunder seems to be a comedy but infact it speaks the truth of the Hollywood industry to a great extent. It ends with a rare solo hip shaking number where you can see Tom Cruise do some highly entertaining things. The make up in this movie was brilliant too. You wont recognise Robert Downey Jr, if the director wouldnt have shown his two looks. The performance by both Downey and Ben Stiller deserve acolades. For me Stiller leaves a more promising mark, may be thats because he is the director of this comic thunder!
Friday, February 20, 2009
DELI-BERATELY SPOILED
MOVIE: Delhi 6
DIRECTOR: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
CAST: Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor and others
The movie lacked conviction of thoughts. Anyone who watches the movie can understand the makers intention but cannot see it happening on screen. That is where Delhi 6 fails miserably. Abhishek Bachchan is a half hindu-half muslim who returns from America to Delhi along with his grandmom. The depiction of his character’s whereabouts is vague like most of the other characters in the movie. He has just come to drop his grandmom home and would go back to USA until he finds his roots here.
Sonam Kapoor is the typical Delhi girl. High dreams, high thinking, but supressed under old thoughts of elders. She does not have much to do in the movie other than falling in love with the protagonist and then attempting an elope to Mumbai. And the love story is another aspect which is mysteriously unexplained.
Mehra moves from topic to topic, character to character, trying too hard to prove something and sadly he ended up proving nothing. In this long pursuit to prove something he picks up issues like corrupt police, caste system, Hindu Muslim Rivalry, fighting brothers, superstition, lack of knowledge of common people, media menace and the list goes on…..but he deals with neither of them with conviction. And all these events become a discrete and random arrangement of scenes rather than a movie.
The first half is more like a music video compilation of Rehman’s good enough songs which do not contribute much to the basic plot. In the second half you realise there is no basic plot. As I told earlier, Mehra has tried too hard to prove a point and in that pursuit he has used many characters and none of them got their due respect(screen time) in this movie. Waheeda Rehman plays Abhishek's grandmom, Rishi Kapoor plays an uncle, Prem Chopra a moneylender jeweller, Divya Dutta plays a lower caste kachrewaali, Atul Kulkarni just roams around doing nothing, Om Puri and Pawan Malhotra play the fighting brothers, Supriya Pathak plays Om Puri’s wife, Vijay Raaz plays a corrupt cop, Cyrus Sahukar plays an immoral photographer, and so on…..
After the Raam Leela analogy got exhausted, Mehra shifts his tale to the Monkeyman menace which you might have heard of on TV. The common people call it a Kaala Bandar and end up thinking that Abhishek is the Kaala Bandar. The movie tries to be many things, but ends up being trash and a completely haphazard arrangement of sensitive tales.
I had gone to a relatively cheap single screen theatre, Plaza. The crowd there was not very great either. After the movie got over, a bunch of desi dudes started teasing each other saying, “Aila, kaala bandar, tu kaala bandar…” Sad it is, but truly speaking, this is what Mehra and his Delhi 6 deserve…
Thursday, February 19, 2009
HERE'S A MAN
CAST: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Faran Tahir
DIRECTOR: John Favreu
RATING: 
Downey plays a genius of robotic engineering who also is a genius at coming up with pick up lines which tickle any female onto his bed. He is Tony Stark, the genius who with his amazing engineering skills has revolutionized weapon making and his incorporation, Stark Industries does it for the good of mankind and the good of America. Amidst all the girls who have one night stands with him, stands firmly his secretary, Pepper Pots(Paltrow), who shares a rather special relationship with Stark. The dynamics of the portrayal of this relationship is the high point of the movie.
Downey goes to Afghanistan to demonstrate a new missile he has invented to the US troops out there. As always, the writer has been too pro-American in the writing and the story has been politically very correct with respect to America, which often means that it is a deviation from the realities. It is something like the Golden Globe sensation, Slumdog Millionaire; no Indian can isprove that such things don't happen, but no American can prove that such things happen either!!
That apart, Stark is abducted by an Afghan terrorist group where he is asked to make the same missile for them. The movie goes on to reveal that the second incommand to Stark, Obadiah Stane is a traitor and supplies Stark Industries weapons to these terrorists. It is unclear as to why the terrorists chose to abduct Stark instead of using Stane to supply them the missile they wanted.
Stark in the pretext of making them the missile, makes a computer operated iron suite which he uses to fight out the terrorists and makes an escape. Later on he develops this suite to become , Iron Man.
The special effects in this movie are superior to The Dark Knight and are without a doubt one of the all time bests. Apart from the screenplay and the direction, its more of Downey's cheesy acting which keeps an audience gripped. The background score is appropriately good and keeps up the momentum of the movie.
I always have believed that the scope in making a superhero movie is tremendous. It just requires a good imaginative writer and a rich producer who has faith in the writer's imagination. Iron Man seems to have both. This movie was more of the Birth of Iron Man, and the sequel has been announced for 2010. All I can say is, Robert Downey, we are waiting for the Iron packed experience.....
Friday, February 13, 2009
BILLU WAS BHAYANKAR
FILM: Billu
DIRECTOR: Priyadarshan
CAST: Irrfan Khan, Lara Dutta, Shahrukh Khan
RATING: 
Self obsession has been a term much associated with SRK and this movie is a true example of this associated trait. I am pretty sure that the person who will enjoy this movie the most in the world is SRK himself. And that is because he has so far, in his numerous roles, played what the public loves him to transform into. But here in Billu he plays what he likes himself to be; a super-superstar with loads of attention, power and fan following along with modesty, humility and morality. His self obsession, as I said, is clearly reflected in this movie and the fact that he is the producer himself, he has left no stone unturned to promote and celebrate himself. Sadly, the whole movie is more like a self celebration rather than a movie itself. The song Ae Aa O, though a treat for SRK lovers as it takes you through a journey of his lustrous career, is a proof of this self celebration.
The story is based in a fictional village called Budbuda. Billu is a barber(should I use the word?) in this village and is not a very successful one at that. Lot of controversy was created about the fact that the word "barber" must be removed from the movie and stuff, but the true fact is that his being a barber had nothing much to do with the plot at all. It had no real relevance if he was not a barber but a doodhwaala. SRK plays Saahir Khan who choses Budbuda to shoot the climax of his latest movie. It is not clear why. Anyways, with the entry of Saahir in the village, the village lightens up and its like a festival all over Budbuda. These moments of the public excitement have been well captured by the director and can be considered as the high point of the movie.
Now a village rumour spreads like fire that Billu and Saahir are long time friends. This rumour and its spreading has a huge effect on Billu's life and causes him lots of problems. A frugal money lender wants Billu to arrange a lunch with him and Saahir. A flop kavi wants him to bring Saahir to read his poems. Billu's children want him to take them to Saahir and the school principal wants Saahir to come to their school for their Annual Day.
Most of the shooting which was shown in the village were things which could have been much more easily shot in a city studio or a set. And if you want little trees and open land and a village scene you can always shoot in Karjat rather than travel all the way to the Hindi heartland. These basic flaws question the plot of the movie heavily. The non stop appearance of music videos makes the movie loud and noisy and that too unnecessarily.
Also amidst the self celebration of SRK, Irrfan's strong portrayal of Billu gets faded. With a weak second half, there is no beauty left in the climax also. If you follow Priyan's work you would find that all his movies have a strong initial plot and along with that he has an end in his mind. To bring that initial plot to the climax, he twists the tale to all possible means and spoils the show in the end. Flicks like Chupke Chupke and Malaamal Weekly are great examples of this. Unfortunately, Billu will also be known as such a movie. SRK's shoulder has to get operated on the 16th and the success of Billu would have been the best pain killer for him. While I cannot assure that it would be the case, I also pray that he gets well soon and starts making litte more meaningful cinema.
Friday, February 6, 2009
A ROCKING EMOSANAL ATYACHAAR!!!
DIRECTOR: Anurag Kashyap
CAST: Abhay Deol, Mahie Gill, Kalki Koechlin
RATING:
"A characterless loser" describes the character of Devdas best in Sarat Chandra's 1917 novel. Yet he has been played by the best Indian actors numerous times in big budget films. Most of the films did not really tamper the essence of the ethnic backdrop in the original story, but yes, they did change a little of the story to accomodate it as a commercial cinema. The best example of this being Paro and Chandramukhi dancing together for Dola Re in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's version...
This movie is not based in 1917. This is a new age sexed up version of the Devdas. The story is very similar to the original though but the elements have been inspired by flicks like Requiem Of A Dream and Trainspotting. Anurag Kashyap's No Smoking was a pain in the head for most because at the end of two hours, no one knew what was going on. But No Smoking is a brilliant movie and so is Kashyap's latest, Dev.D
Mahie plays Paro. She likes Dev(Abhay Deol) from childhood. Dev is now in London and is in touch with Paro through internet chats. One day Dev asks Paro to upload a naked picture of hers. She does it. Dev reacts to this sight by instantly hitting out a vodka shot and tells her on phone, "Paro, I am coming!!"
Kalki plays Leni. Leni is a school girl whose MMS scandal ruins her life and in pursuit of little space in life, she comes down to A-grade prostitution in Delhi. During the sequencing of these two stories of Paro and Leni (who becomes Chandramukhi in her trade), the story line touches many realities which exist in today's world. It seems little unreal when the people on the screen have only sex on their mind. But the truth is, for some people, it is true...
Kashyap's screenplay and direction comes as a charm and makes the movie intriguing. What makes it further intriguing is Rajeev Ravi's cinematography filled with expressive and appropriate shades making each still a photographic wonder. And finally, what makes it the most intriguing is Amit Trivedi's music and background score. There are 18 songs in this movie and all belong to a genre, not ventured much by any Indian music director.
What I am prompted to do after this movie, is make a documentary titled The Evolution of Deol Little. From Manorama Six Feet Under to Oye Lucky Lucky Oye to Dev.D, Abhay has proved that he is the best Deol and smartest as well. He knew he would fail if he followed his father's or his brothers' footsteps. He has made his own way, his own fan following and yes, I am his fan too!! And I am a bigger fan after knowing that he is the man behind this weird concept of the film.
In one of the scenes Dev asks Leni, "How old are you?" She replies,"Old enough to be in bed with you." Sex surely is a cocktail; very attractive and very intoxicating as well. This film wins because, though sexed up, it has got heart in it. It has got lust, but somewhere you can find love and truth in here. One best example of heart is when Paro after married to someone else tells Dev, " You are incapable of loving someone else. You are so much into you that you love only yourself. I suggest you marry this mirror over here. Even the bathroom's mirror would do!"