Poetic Justice

For years it has been debated if movies can actually be a medium for change in the society .There are those who believe  movies have that moral obligation towards the society and pay heed to its do's and do not's then there are those who believe movie should be a free form of expression without any shackles. I frankly dont care , i watch it as long as it lets me watch it : )

The reason i started this blog with that nonsense is because the movie i am going to write about here is made with the noble intentions of the people belonging to the 1st class of people above , I want to make it clear that i am not here to advocate the  movie for its message or social responsibility but i am here to show my respect to the sheer achievement that it is. The movie is Vedam

Vedam is the closest a telugu movie has been to visual poetry in recent times, that is not to say it has eye catchy visuals , rather the sum effect of music,dialogues,acting,direction leaves you just as moved as may be a profound poet would move an intellectual , albeit in this case we need not be intellectual , just human. A horror story is best heard from a coward , every story teller has to be sold first to the central theme and that comes across in this masterful exhibition by Krish . Krish's belief in the message is extremely deep rooted but he never gets preachy . He does what he is supposed to , tell you a story , its the conviction with which tells which makes you draw the message out of it.

Within the first fifteen minutes of the movie all the principal characters are introduced and very quickly you realize the movie is bigger than all of them and the credit for this goes to all the actors along with krish and the screen writer and editor . You never feel like any character has over stayed their welcome , infact will leave you wanting more and that is the key in managing such multiple story lines . But if there is one word that will stay with you as you leave the theater it is Human. Yes, without sounding overtly philosophical , it is this purity in its central message that gives birth to some amazing moments on screen, like the one towards the climax when Allu Arjun has a moment of truth with self while paying an amount if 39,000 stolen from an old man and his daughter in law in extreme destitute , this stretch of about 10 mins is the best acting allu arjun has done in his career till date, or the scene in which anushka playing a prostitute offers herself to a doctor in return of some medical attention to her transexual friend or the one where manoj bajpai realizes his nephew is a terrorist while he is trying to stand up for the honor of his own religion  or the one where the old silk weaver fights with all his strength and energy to hold onto a thief running away with his money . Infact I can go on and on and there is hardly a scene which doesnt deserve a mention.

Safely cliched i will say there are four pillars which help build this masterpiece , the leads Allu Arjun, Manoj Bachpai , Manchu Manoj and Anushka- baring manoj bajpai for everyone else this is easily their best performance till date, manoj bajpai doesnt make it purely because of his supreme body of work in the past. Next is the director and writer Krish , its hard to believe this is his second film and if it is any sign of things to come then we have reason to be excited . Another key player in this partnership is Keravanis music -its hard to put in words the impact his music has on the movie ,it is only to be experienced . And finally the lyricist Sirivennela seetarama sastry only one person can express his genius justifiably through words and that is himself.

Finally after almost 3 years post its release this write up has no purpose to serve as a review, and it isnt either. It is just a feeble attempt to appreciate a master piece .

A Beautiful Mind

It takes an idle mind and a jobless weekend to ponder upon and conclude , but movies are much like people . There are those whom you meet and just instantly get along with very well, there are those whom you hate from the first meet , some just plain boring you wouldn't want to meet a 2nd time and I can continue to bore you listing out all possibilities .

The point that i am coming to however is that, every now and then you meet people who don't win your attention the 1st time , but something about them hits you and you want to know more about them. Eventually something about their character just sucks your interest towards them, A Beautiful Mind is one such movie for me .

I remember the 1st time i saw this movie, or rather made an attempt. It was during my 10th class sometime and our class topper and probably the only nerd in our class back then decided on this movie on a lazy afternoon for what was then , the newly started computer movie matinees . The seemingly slow pace and boring tone got to me and i couldn't sit through more than 30 mins . But there was one striking quality about the movie or may be two actually that got registered some where in the subconscious. The movie was about smart people , nerds,geniuses and there was some honesty about Russel Crowe's acting .

I don't clearly remember when again , but i did watch this movie again. It wasn't like i was floored, to be honest i dont think i understood the movie entirely . The main thing that was left with me after the movie was Russel crowes mind blowing acting and the character of John Nash himself . The story itself was enough to make you google about John Nash. It was only during the 2nd or 3rd viewing that the genius of Ron Howard hit me . One of the classic exclamations in movie land is that oh fuck it was there all this while but i dint notice it kinda feeling . You expect it from suspense dramas, action flicks may be the sherlock holmes types . But here was this biographic drama which has tons of such moments . That was when you get totally sucked into the brilliance of its writing, its camera work ,its screen play and most importantly its dialogues .

The toughest part of making a movie about someone who hallucinates(in John Nashs case however it was more than hallucinating) is the dialogues . There is this imaginary character , what would he talk, when would he come, why would he come and more importantly how can i shield their secret from the audience . This is where the genius of the writers is on full display in A Beautiful Mind .

Spoilers Ahead
1) John Nash was never a social kid, not a choice he made but his genius and his focus made him a weird guy to hang out with . Over the years Nash seemingly had learned to live with this fact , the made peace with himself, or he thought he did . This lack but want of social acceptance manifests itself in the form of an imaginary roommate. Now you hardly notice during the movie(at least 1st time around) . How the character never mingles with others , oblivious in a way to the rest. Repear viewing also brings to forth the beauty of the dialogues of this character, that how , now that you know he is in Nash's mind, How he speaks what Nash would have liked to say

2)Nash likes being in an eclectic club, he is the kind of guy in a class who prides in knowing something the rest don't. This need of his might come across as the most immature of his other needs but again to me just follows from the need to be socially accepted . Nash's mind fulfills this need by creating another character, that of a top secret FBI agent who is working with Nash to save the US from a russian nuclear war . See Nash enjoys being part of such a group, he likes being the guardian of secret . His need to be part of unique group can also be seen in his urge to come up with some unique one of a kind idea as part of his thesis while the rest of his class has already published papers on what according to him is mundane

Apart from giving you the pleasure of deciphering the dialogues and situations of these imaginary characters, which is jolly fun i must admit, the movie also showcases one of the bravest fights in human history, one against himself and this is where Russel Crowe puts in flesh and blood into the character . What happens when you turn the most powerful brain of its times against itself. Will it survive? Will it explode? Can it gain anything without cutting its arms ? You cant help but empathize with Nash during this part of the movie and one should thank Crowe to transporting the audience to the world of Nash, to make you root for him, to want him to come over this predicament.

Enough said, watch the movie for all the good reasons. But watch it again to dig out the actual good reasons

Shaitan-Welcome to the unapologetic

Five minutes into into Shaitan you know you are in for an unusual journey and an unusual journey it is . Shaitan is one of the most confident debuts in recent time , and there have been quite a few recently. Shaitan is a sign of good times to come to Indian cinema, if only these talented directors do not go into a spree of self indulgence with weird camera angles and realize there is a story to tell.

Without revealing much of the plot, Shaitan is the story of mischief gone all wrong for 5 young rich brats. But this is just the premise , director Nambiar invests in a solid script which essentially is about how the Shaitan lurking inside seemingly normal people comes to the fore , and what we end up doing in that moment we might not necessarily vouch for anytime later.

But Shaitan is a young film and it stays so, its a stylish film, the director doesnt hesitate to break a few shackles(helps to have a producer like Anurag i guess) , the characters are not like the regular sugar sweet hindi movie young crowd who always at the end of the day seem to know whats the right thing to do.

With all the stylish aspects aside, it is one of the darkest movies to come recently too, the people in this movie are in a pickle , and no there is no white feathered angle which comes to their rescue and no serendipity which ends their misery . Infact at some level you dont want that to happen either, which isn't quite true with most hindi films is it, we want the troubled to come out unharmed and triumphs. That to me is Nambiar's success . Nambiar is also benefited an awesome background score which adds character to the canvas and for a change, isnt bombastic.

Shaitan is not without its flaws though, the 2nd half drags a bit and the director over indulges himself once in a bit. Specially when his indulgence defies the very purpose of the scene during the climax where Kalki's character (Ammy) has visions from her past about her mom. An important scene in some ways and the directors indulgence in ultra slow motion cams , bright colors and visual imagery does more harm than good.

Despite a few acceptable flaws like this, Shaitan is an enjoyable watch for all those bored of the sugar candy sweet movies and would relish a pure unapologetic expression .. Go have fun.

And ya last but definitely not the least, dont miss the action sequence of the decade just post interval, brilliantly shot with a very good remix version of Khoya Khoya Chand.

Inception.... Nolan doesnt need your subconcious mind to plant his idea

"Christopher Nolan is a genius", you will read/hear this more in the coming couple of weeks at least in India which with amount of rhetoric pumped into everyday life as news and status updates on social networking sites is a considerable acheivement.
Nolan is a genius, agreed, for me not so much for the story that Inception is but for the story teller that he is . Intelligence is different from a genius in that a super stud scientist can always make a movie given you teach him the basic technicalities involved, intelligence can prosper in every field by virtue of the rules established in that field.
Nolans greatness lies in the fact that despite what his High IQ sheet may say he never forgets he is a story teller, he isnt one of those nerdy directors whose excitement dies ones the Idea loses its charm, Nolan knows his success is not so much in coming up a nerdy script , which with a bit of google and a group of super smart people probably any one can, he knows his success lies in creating a human story out of that idea and getting every one sucked into the plot irrespective of his/her IQ , ENTERTAIN them.
Nolan implants sign boards at every level of his script which are easier to follow than the traffic signals, his characters are not complex-these could have been half baked characters in any other script but this one , even Dicaprios monologue never deviates from the main plot , if anything is quintessential understanding the scientifc part of the script.
With Inception Nolan has achieved what probably Matrix failed too, at least when it was 1st released, claps in india at the end of the show :) .

The whistler blower and his accomplice

Prelude

I have always despised myself for being 'vocabularily' handicapped, many times, job interviews, writing essays to forward your Masters applications, wanting to impress a good looking and english speaking girl, many times. I hated that part of me, so much so that now, even if there was a pill to correct this and make you 'shakespearingly verbose' I wouldn't probably take it because that would mean i am not bad it anymore and i don't know how not to be bad at it anymore and live. But in most of the above situations i was alright( not so good with girls yet though :) ) ,and by that i mean i got used to it, every new interview, essay , seemed like just another misfiring needed from my riffle, and i started getting good at misfiring,but it is when i watch a really good movie, i feel like writing down what i loved about the movie, there is this supreme urge to record what all i observed in it, about the characters in the movie, how i might have understood the underlying meaning of a scene , a dialogue, a character, a caricature,in fact i want to do all these only to document the rush of blood for myself , i don't know why but this excites me, and it feels really bad whenever you feel handicapped in doing what excites you , its like loving football on a wheelchair. Fear of failure, as it so often does, has dared me of even thinking about it .

Well, here goes another failure-

Movie : The Insider

I am a big fan of character based movies, i can watch a movie with only two characters in it as long as these two characters, within the boundaries of human psychological,physical,emotional capabilities, have done something extraordinary or as long as the director helps me believe that these two characters can exist, as long as at some level i feel that with whatever information he gave me , if it was ever possible, i could recreate these two people.For me the best directors are those who make the audience watch the movie more in their heads than on the screen. Frost and Nixon is one such movie, Schindler's list, 12 Angry men, pursuit of happiness,catch me if you can,aviator,forrest gump, a beautiful life . Its not a simple thing to do, to create a human character all on your own- as you can see most of the above movies are based on real life characters. Michael Mann has done this to perfection in this 1999 release-'The Insider'. It is inspired by the real life ordeal of two men Jeffrey Wigand and Lowell Bergmen in bringing to forth a truth.
With Wigand(played as if he always was Wigand by Russel Crowe) and Bergmen( Al Pachino-does his usual ) Mann gives us enough flesh and blood to create these two people in our head in their entirety. The premise of the movie is no brainer, and also a topic of contemporary interest, but these two masters take the drama to the basic of roots of human emotion with such perfection that you tend to forget all the strings attached, they make you believe that this story could have happened to any one fighting a system, some one in India fighting the local bureaucracy , a communist fighting the capitalist system or vice versa. This is the kind of movie that will make you google about the characters in it, see if they are real, watch their youtube videos, try and see who makes a better wigand-Crowe or Wigand himself.

I am only so much knowledged to understand what goes on behind the camera, but for me if i do not think of the director even once while i am watching the movie( and not because i don't know his name :)) and want to know what all other movies did he direct after watching the movie-means he just made a splendid movie. The music is amazingly complimentary to the visuals- as it is supposed to be.

The story is in the movie, the synopsis on imdb among others.

I enjoyed it.

PS: A review is just another opinion-you cant be wrong,you cant be right, you only have an opinion.

Change isnt all that good after all

Its been long, long since my last blog, much longer than the 9 months (Feb 2009-Nov 2009) it almost feels like a different person . My last blog was during my graduation days when i was nurturing the dreams of going to US for Ms in Chemical Engineering. My last blog was when i had a plan, i could tell where would i be and what would i be doing 10 yrs from then , my last blog was when people predicted it would take atleast 3-4 years for the world economy would recover,my last blog was when it was easier to download porn, a lot has changed, sucked into the corporate dirt life , sensex shows erratic but positive signs of recovery,MS in US dream fading away slowly and a new dream taking birth gradually,. Those who know me might know what all has changed ,those who dont, just remember a lot has changed.

but i guess change is constant in life isnt it ? or is it , how come one mans every heart beat resonates in billions of people-like it has been for the last 20 years , how come one mans success is still the success of a billion people-like it has been for the last 20 years, how come no amount of success,compliments,money -no matter how hard they try- serve has surrogate food to satiate a mans hunger to Win - for 20 years, how is it that for long many talents have come and gone from the team but none of them could half win as much of admiration from opposition as this man has,How is it that man of such stature still faces endless criticism for giving his team mates work for their pay.... I gave up on blogging, i realised my patience and concentration levels are not qualified for regular blogging. I am now, only because i am still in the hangover of witnessing one of the best ODI innings every by any soul who walked on the 22 yards surface , and i wanted to salute that ONE MAN who hasnt changed, who brings a different dimension all together to the old adage " Change is good " , some people are so good that change is bad for them and they need to be able enough to guard the whole universe whose working principle itself is Change. I wanted to pay my tributes to my childhood hero , and again childhood has passed but the hero still continues to be the childhood hero for the majority of the nation. Change is good,but not with Sachin . I am going to hazard an exaggerated generalization- Tendulkar is probably the Single most admired adored and respected person in this nation-across all creeds and religion...Heres to the reason why i watch cricket " SAACHIN SAACHIN"

Blog

Its been around 6 months since i blogged,not because i dint want to ,just the Indian in me holds me back from starting anything unless you are really sure it is going to be the best of its kind, that people should always like what i write and hence i should write for people to like it . Sick of all this i have decided that it is time for "Change" as the rest of the world is vying. I am writing this cuz i really wanted to , i promised myself that i wudnt care if most of you who read will even feel the topic to be of any intellectual value or if the writing is crispy and funny , so let me see how well do i stick to it .


My 1st movie review( by this i dont really mean a critical analysis, just my experience of watching it)
1)Luck by chance- Unlucky by choice.
Why did i choose this movie ? by chance.
Was it any good?
It is not a movie you will like if you chose to not think or atleast be aware of the bollywood beyond what we see on the screen, which is not a bad choice with most movies, but not this one, cuz the moment you make that choice the movie is painstakingly slow,with the most predictable story line ,which to my surprise hasnt been made into a movie till now, with not much of song and dance either with a not so beautiful heroine and a hero who doesnt really fit the character he plays and hence makes it diff to relate to. I dont really think a lot when i go for a movie, atleast not when that is my second movie on the trot, i am not much aware of the bollywood beyond what i see on the screen either, so i dint get the jokes which required me to think, and forget abuot the ones which were hidden under the carpet and were meant for those under the carpet(read bollywood enthuists). So any other day i would have liked it . Its not that bad, i would advice watch it once it is on DVD or on the NET. Two actors make the movie worth watch only for their performances if not for anything else- Konkana Sen and Rishi Kapoor, watch it for them, the fact that Konkana isnt really a stunner looks wise i think always works in her favour heh she doesnt really has to worry about how she looks, all the shot requires is her to show the right emotion. The music is good and it has same real nice camera work but only in parts.

And because we are always crazy about numbers , i would rate it 2.5/5.
Watch it on DVD or a really good theater with good seats or atleast some color around to stare at.