When Hari Got Married

This is going to be a very difficult one to write.  While I love this genre of cinema i.e. The Documentary, writing about the story can be completed in one line, in this case – The story of the wedding of a Taxi Driver in a village of Himachal Pradesh.  Well, I have to write more, so I am going to give it a shot and hope that it comes out as a well written article and not a meek attempt.

The Frozen Ground

The posters claimed with a lot of conviction that this is the best serial killer movie since Se7en.  A wise man once said, “Never judge a movie by its poster” – I am quite certain he was a victim of many an experience like The Frozen Ground.  I was looking forward to a serial killer movie that would blow my pants off for a really long time.  But it will take much more than TFG to displace the likes of Se7en.

We're the Millers

When you think of the comedy genre of late, you would come up with a word that is used to describe activities that may exceed boundaries of common sense.  In case you are still wondering about what I am talking about, the word would be "slapstick".  And that is exactly what I expected from “We’re The Millers” when I walked in to the hall.  Surprisingly, I was in for much better than what I expected.

The Light: Swami Vivekananda

Utpal Sinha is a newbie director.  There is nothing that I could find about him on the web.  Whether it was the case before “The Light : Swami Vivekanand” or after the movie is worth looking into.  It is quite possible that there are enough people incensed with Sinha’s attempt at glorifying one Narendranath Datta.  So bad was the movie that a group of hardcore followers decided to erase his existence from the web.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

Judith Rumelt aka Cassandra Clare is best known for The Mortal Instruments Series of books that has been apparently very well received out west over the past 5-7 years.  But what does Cassandra Clare go through when the book goes onto the silver screen and the movie makers come to her with a dime a dozen changes.  I guess that’s a problem that most authors come up with and hence the term “True to the book”.

Satyagraha

It was only a matter of time before someone had to take inspiration from Anna Hazare for a movie.  If someone had told me that Prakash Jha would be that somebody, I would not have been the least bit surprised.  I have been a keen follower of Jha’s work and more importantly, I have been eagerly waiting for him to show the intensity and straight forwardness that he did with “Gangajal”.

Tasher Desh

Rabindranath Tagore’s Tasher Desh (Land of Cards) was a simple story of a land which is so rooted into silly rules that they refuse to see life as something that needs to be celebrated.  Tagore’s aim (and this is my interpretation) was to ask people to challenge the status quo both in their own lives and that of the population in general.  Something that people have written about for generations in a variety of ways.

Spiando Marina / The Smile of The Fox

If Marina Valdez (Debora Caprioglio) had any idea of the impact she was to make on a bunch of teenagers with raging hormones somewhere in South Maharashtra, she would have put in more heart and soul into the role.  The Smile of the Fox (Spiando Marina) is a B grade movie from over 20 years back that a lot of my batchmates saw with great relish when we were half as old or young as what we are today.

Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara!

When I first saw the trailer of “Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaraa!”, the A was just A and not Ay.  There was no “!”.  It was “again” and not “Dobaraa”.  Surely there were some consultations held behind closed doors to make so many changes to the name.  A pity it didn’t work out too well.  They could have well saved the numerology fees.

Madras Café (Hindi 2013)

I think I had my typewriting class on the 22^nd May 1991 around 9 am.  I was eager to attend because I was struggling to get the hang of it.  But when I stepped out of home (and I hadn’t read the newspaper that morning) I was greeted by empty streets.  I walked all the way to the station only to be greeted by silence.  It was only about 20 minutes later when I got back home that I realized what had happened less than 12 hours back.

Those who were around at that time know what I am talking about.  Those who weren’t, can look into their history books because it was one of the darkest days in the history of this country.  I would have expected Shoojit Sircar (fresh off the success of Vicky Donor) to have done more justice to a man who was arguably the harbinger of change into this country.  Sadly, he turns it into yet another mockery.

A Major in the Indian Army, Vikram Singh (John Abraham) is roped in for a covert operation in Sri Lanka as part of the RAW.  His mission is to infiltrate the rebel army and cause a rift in the line of power so that the rebels can self destruct.  He lands up doing everything but that.  He also gets caught in the bargain and is saved, only to go back pretending as a news reporter – in Sircar’s world, all this is a walk in the park.

He also, happens to meet an international Indian journalist Maya Sahni (Nargis Fakhri) who is dressed like Maddy Bowen in Blood Diamond but shows a bit more cleavage through her maroon wife beater vest.  She also happens to speak only in English (Thank God!!!) but for some reason Vikram speaks to her in Hindi only.  There is no justification given for the same but as I said, it happens in Sircar’s world.

Of course, in Sircar's world, RAW Agents dress up in jazzy denim and speak in Hindi and don’t get caught in the bargain either.  In Sircar’s world, things of utmost importance cannot be spoken over the phone but can wait for 2 days when Maya will travel from London to Delhi.  In Sircar’s world, Tamil refugees coincidentally have developed a Malayalam accent.  Of course.  Cochin is closer than Chennai.

Horrible editing, disastrous work with the sound, dialogues that inspire no confidence and a script / story that is absolutely baseless ensure that Sircar’s follow up to Vicky Donor is just about short of a disaster.  To his credit, he at least pays attention to some details to recreate props from 1991 such as VHS Tapes, manual telephone exchanges, green screen computers and dot matrix printers.

But there is no other aspect that makes any sense.  Nothing is logical or sensibly arranged.  It was as if, “I have tried my hand at comedy, it worked.  So let me try my hand at a Political Espionage Drama revolving around the assassination of one of our most preferred Prime Ministers.  It should work.  No”?

No comments on the performances but I wasn’t expecting anything great.  John Abraham is sincere as always but this is as much as he can deliver.  Nargis Fakhri thankfully doesn’t have too much of screen time.  Siddhartha Basu & Piyush Pandey appear lost more often than not.  Disappointed, both with the effort and a wasted opportunity to tell a story that most of India would have been eager to know about.  4 on 10.

Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA9EF75Xc-8

Planes

I am always a skeptic when it comes to a new director handling a big banner movie.  More from a perspective of hope.  Hope that the underdog doesn’t fail.  And if the movie is an animation one then a lot of you already know my sentiments.  It hasn’t been a great year for the genre till TURBO came along and blew our pants off.  Well, I would have expected nothing less than this response from Disney.

Kick Ass 2

3 years back we saw Nicholas Cage playing the role of what I can only describe as “civilian superhero”.  Big Daddy passed on and left the mantle of protecting the city with his daughter Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) and protégé (in a manner of speaking) – Kick Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).  Well, the two have now gotten into their teens but the job of protecting the city has kind of taken a back seat.

Jobs

Steve Wozniak says that he was extremely disappointed to see the end product i.e. Jobs.  Now there are several different schools of thought that are on line but I for one seem to be more inclined towards Shri Wozniak’s assessment of the situation.  What he says for sure is that Ashton Kutcher could replicate the mannerisms very well.  On that point I am not sure whether I can agree or not.

Bajatey Raho

When you have Ranvir Shorey and Vinay Pathak in a movie, you can be reasonably sure that the acting department has been taken care of.  You would be right this time around as well.  This duo has been entertaining us for over a decade and with Bajatey Raho they continue their good work.  To make things better we have some other great actors as well who make the journey even more easy.

B. A. Pass

A bit of research on the net and you are informed through Wikipedia that B A Pass is classified as a “neo noir” movie.  Translated it means “New Black”.  Click on the link below to understand what this means - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_noir.  Some aspects would include a conflicted antihero, Nihilistic Moral systems, Low key Lighting, unusual camera placement and striking use of light and shadow.

Rabba Main Kya Karoon

There is a gentleman by the name of Amrit Sagar who is apparently a National Award winner for something to do with cinema in 1971.  I refuse to believe that he is the same person who has directed Rabba Main Kya Karoon.  There have been several gaffes at the National Awards for certain.  However, I am certain that the brains behind the awards could not have lost it to give anything to a director of Amrit’s caliber.

Zambezia

There is great Animation (Turbo) and there is good animation (Epic) and there is just about average animation.  Zambezia is unfortunately part of the last of the 3.  Just about average. Sometimes, I guess movie houses get it right by not releasing a movie in this part of the world.  But then, why go through the effort in the middle of year after the release? I wonder.

The Conjuring

I envy James Wan.  He is all of 36 years of age – maybe a few months older.  And he already has given the world quite a few successful movies.  To mention one, there is Saw which was a commercial success but I didn’t quite like it more because of the gore and not because it was badly made.  He has already signed up for Fast & Furious 7 and after watching The Conjuring, I think he will improve on the franchise (at lease I hope so).

R.I.P.D.

At first it was Tommy Lee Jones & Will Smith who took us through 3 movies where they save us all from the “Scum of the Earth”.  Apparently there are people out there who believe that despite the success of the franchise, there is space for yet another bunch of guys who can save the earth from aliens… or should I say, the Undead.  In this case, they are cornily called, “DEADDOES”.

Wolverine

For starters, this is not a prequel to X Men.  That part was covered by X Men Origins : Wolverine directed by Gavin Hood. It starred Live Schreiber and of course Hugh Jackman.  It is in fact based on a limited edition comic series by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller (300).

Chennai Express

Someday, I am going to give up wondering about the reasons for audiences laughing at attempted humour on screen when actually, the joke is on them.  I am only tempted even more to make it a subject of my thesis (whenever I get to it).  I was not just flummoxed but downright exasperated to see the reaction in the hall to Chennai Express. I hope the audience realizes someday that quality cinema is their right.

Ship of Theseus

Add another director to the list of those from this part of the world who have the capability of attaining fame globally.  Anand Gandhi.  To get a flavor of what Gandhi has done in the past, check out these 2 links here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVAokeqQuFM (part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIYJePEnvUY (part 2)

Turbo

The Snail is fast

The Snail is fast

The Snail is fast, fast, fast, fast, fast
Just one of the songs created exclusively to promote Turbo the superfast snail

White House Down

There are bad movies and there are bad movies.  And if that is not sufficient then there are even more horrible movies.  What gets to your nerves is when otherwise excellent directors such as Roland Emmerich suddenly decide to tell you that you were wrong about them all this while.

Red 2

I just realized a few minutes ago that I haven’t published my review of Red.  I would have thought that I had seen the movie after I started putting down my thoughts in cyberspace but I guess it would have been a little before that.  Red was an action movie par excellence.  Standard espionage story but great dialogues and fabulous performances.