Shaadi Ke Side Effects

Many moons from now, there will be a question asked in any number of quizzes across the country. What is the significance of the dialogue, "congratulations - its a baby girl" in Indian cinema. The answer is that it is my good friend Sudhendra Sharma's first dialogue on the silver screen. To make things better, it is a credited performance. Notice Doctor in the Delivery Room in the end credits.

Non-Stop

“If I get a script I like and the main character is described as 32 or 33 years of age, I tell my agent I’m too old for the lead and he says, 'Don’t worry, it will be changed.' And a couple of months later the same script comes back but the character is described as in his mid-fifties. That’s quite funny." – Liam Neeson

Dallas Buyers Club

Craig Borten was out of college and wondering what kind of movies he wanted to make.  Around this time is when he heard of Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey).  A man, who had been diagnosed with AIDS in 1986 and given less than a month to live.  Director Jean Marc Vallée digs out this script that was hidden away for over 20 years, to give us The Dallas Buyer’s Club.

Her

The sheer ingenuity of the concept of someone falling in love with his Operating System should be enough to draw you to watch HER.  If that is not sufficient then I am hoping that by the end of this review, you will be compelled to at least consider a watch.  Because if you don’t catch up with the movie, you are missing some really great cinema.

Highway

Before I start waxing eloquent, and deservedly so, about Highway, I would like to take this opportunity to call out 3 names that don’t feature on most sites as part of the cast of Highway.  Durgesh Kumar who plays Aadoo, Pradeep Nagar who plays Tonk and Saharsh Kumar Shukla who plays Gaurav aka Goru.

Darr @The Mall

Picture this. The screen is black. Slowly the camera starts zooming out, forming a whitish circle. In a couple of seconds, you see a familiar painting of something or someone with his mouth wide open - as wide as it can get. And then the more educated quizzers will say, "wait a second. This is Edvard Munch's SCREAM". That's the shot with which DARR @ THE MALL begins.

Pompeii

I am a Paul W S Anderson fan. I have loved the Resident Evil series and I found his treatment of Alexander Dumas’ Three Musketeers to be extremely creative.  But without his tried and test good luck charm (read Mila Jovovich) he seems to be less than average.  Pompeii is like that firecracker that is huge in size ($100 Million worth) but refuses to explode for a while.  When it finally does, you feel deprived.

The Monuments Men

In all the years of movies about World War II, we have never ever heard about The Monuments Men.  It is indeed surprising that such a wonderful story was the world’s best kept secret till September 2009 when Robert M Edsel published his book - The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History (http://www.monumentsmen.com).

Vampire Academy

Richelle Mead’s award winning fantasy series of Vampire world found its way to celluloid (or should I say digital print) last week.  The poster of the movie very proudly shows 2 gorgeous looking girls dressed in black with the words THEY SUCK AT SCHOOL prominently plastered across (http://www.imdb.com/media/rm267050240/tt1686821?ref_=tt_ov_i).

Rock Paper Dice Enter

"In our struggle for freedom, truth is the only weapon we possess," – Dalai Lama

That is the opening line of Rock Paper Dice Enter – an independent film (if I could call it that) from a bunch of people who not so predictably call themselves Rock Paper films. Unfortunately, most of the audience is left wondering about the significance of the statement and the makers probably give a sneak view into what they meant right towards the end – too sneak a view for my comfort.

You Don’t Mess With The Zohan

OK its Denis Dugan again.  And if it is Denis Dugan then the lead male has to be Adam Sandler.  So we have yet another festival of the so called slapstick.  This time around, it is set to the background of that eternal fight between 2 countries that used to live in peace for a long time – Israel and Palestine.

The Game

If I were get around to making a list of my favourite directors, David Andrew Leo Fincher would definitely be on that list without a shadow of doubt.  In his 3^rd movie (after Alien³ (1992) and Se7en (1995), Fincher comes up with yet another brilliant concept.  I remember having seen The Game around 15-16 years back to the date and I was completely blown away.

Winter’s Tale

Its Valentine’s Day (or it was yesterday :-p) and one had to expect a slew of either RomComs or Romance movies.  Surprisingly, Akiva Goldsman’s adaptation of the 1983 Mark Helprin novel, A Winter’s Tale is the only Valentine’s release that is truly targeted at all those couples who are very much in love (read louv).

Robocop (2014)

Let’s face it.  Remakes are going to be part of our lives.  Organisations have rights to the movies and they are bound to maximize the opportunity.  After all, the fact that a movie is being remade is proof that it was good in the first place.  I for one, have been a huge fan of remakes.  The secret, I have found, albeit a very difficult one, is to try and purge your mind of any memories of the original.

Gunday

I was in a conversation with a good friend last night and she asked me what I thought about Gunday.  My reply to her was, “It seems like an overly done up movie with more emphasis on looking good and creating hype than focusing on quality cinema”.  Her reply to me was to go in without a bias.  I did exactly that.  But at the end of the day, my expectation was met.

Hasee Toh Phasee

There is a good looking young man who is engaged to be married an equally (if not better) good looking young woman. The two seem to be very much into each other and are really looking forward to getting married. In walks the mysterious, girl next door kinds sister who creates ripples in the still waters just by being present. Her presence is just about enough to create doubts in the mind of the groom to be.

Ya Rab

There is so much that has been spoken about Islam being a horrid religion over the years.  There are so many instances of injustice meted out of Muslims across the world that it was only a matter of time before someone stood up and made a movie that would try to communicate the other side.  That is a side that speaks about the exact interpretation of the writings in the Koran.

The Lego Movie

My first Lego set was called “Legoland” that my uncle had picked up as a present way back in the late 80s.  I cannot think of a more addictive exercise in my pre-teens.  The simplicity and the world of possibilities that a Lego set offers a young child is simply mind blowing.

Babloo Happy Hai

The description of Babloo Happy Hai online is as under

Babloo Happy Hai is a Hindi film directed by Nila Madhab Panda. It is a love story of today's youngsters, and what they think love and sex is in the times of multiplexes and fast cars. Before the film's name was "love is not mathematics"

Let me assure you that there was no mathematics involved anywhere.  There was some sex and some love thrown in but the word “directed” had very little presence.

Saving Mr. Banks

John Lee Hancock is a very choosy person.  How did I deduce that? Well, in 54 years, Hancock has made 7 movies and written 9 screenplays.  Of these 16 pieces of work, 4 overlap leaving us with a total of 12 assignments.  In a career spanning over 20 years, that’s being choosy.  But that’s also being a stickler for perfection – The Rookie, Alamo and The Blind Side are 3 of Hancock’s recent works.

Lone Survivor

Most war movies speak about how a bunch of dedicated, strong, dexterous, agile, smart officers in the American services (Army, Air Force, Navy, Seals, Marines etc.) fight against all odds to kill their enemies and win a war in the most impossible circumstances.  Petty Officer 1^st Class – Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg) – gives us the other perspective of a war.  One in which not all battles end with victory on the American side.

The Butler

One of the quiz questions in the times to come will be, “What is common to – Robin Williams, John Cussack, James Marsden, Liev Schrieber and Alan Rickman”? They all played United States Presidents in Lee Daniels’ The Butler.  Of course their roles were restricted to about 2-5 minutes of screen time but they are on the record right? But what they did miss out on was someone to play Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.  Wonder why?

The Fifth Estate

And the world of exasperating Biopics was as prevalent at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) as anywhere else.  With the amount of publicity and talk about Julian Assange over the years, one would have expected a movie that was as good as David Fincher’s Social Network.  While there is every attempt made to look like Social Network, at the end of it all, one is left wondering what could have been instead of celebrating what was.

Qissa - The Tale of a Lonely Ghost

Of 17 movies that I saw at the Mumbai International Film Festival this was the first.  Anup Singh is a Tanzanian Indian director (if it registered correctly in the Q&A after the movie) who has taken forever (the better part of the previous decade) to make this movie that centres itself around yet another unique topic.  I have gathered after my first experience at a Film Festival that the stories / concepts are just out of the world.  In many cases – just like with Qissa, the execution adds to the magic of cinema.

Le Passé (The Past) (French)

Much like I was looking forward to an experience with Gravas, Le Passé (The Past) was probably the most eagerly awaited screening for many at the Mumbai International Film Festival.  I was eager to see Asghar Farhadi in action because I had just heard so much about him after A Separation that it was impossible for me to give this one a pass.  I haven’t seen A Separation yet but I am more prepared for what is in store.