Rajneeti (Politics)

"Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Looks like Rajneeti was fabricated in the true spirit of the Nietzschism above, because every 10 mins or so, someone in the movie is killed, by virtue of which the other gets a little mightier. So I watched Rajneeti, enticed by the melodramatic promos and of course Katrina. I liked the overall movie, however it didn't make a whole lot of sense. Intrigued by the name and an ensemble star cast, I was expecting a firework bonanza but felt a little shortchanged. A lot has been already written about how the script mirrors the legendary Godfather and is inspired by the Mahabharata; a modern day Mahabharata meets Godfather if you will. Clearly, the references to Mahabharata are powerful and tackled superbly; though they are not perfect. Every character has a gray scale which is hard to put in perspective. This occurs as the world of the Pandavas collides with the Corleones.

The movie describes power struggles among members of Pratap family, a godhead political entity. There are five major characters who go about explaining the meaning of Rajneeti throughout the movie, vividly and differently in their own words. This becomes tacky, as rehashing the same junk again and again leaves only so much to desire. The suave, intelligent king maker of Samar Pratap (Ranbeer Kapoor) is the Arjun who must further Yudhishtir (albeit, a stretch), his bro, to help him reach his political ambitions thereby avenging their family. Prithvi (Arjum Rampal) is the Yudhishtir fused with Sonny Corleone, a looser-slacker who gets in deep with the sharks and pays dearly. Samar displays tenacity, determination and courage with utmost poise to face the challenges that await him. Caught in an imbroglio surrounding his father's murder, Samar is deprived of reuniting with his girl friend in the United States and should take care of the affairs back home. Veer Pratap (Manoj Vajpai) is the nemesis who must befalled. Veer is the passive-aggressive antagonist, whose agony manifests as he is denied power, a seat that should rightfully belong to the party's heir.

Enemy of my enemy is a friend. Deserted by his father and cousins Veer finds a sturdy accomplice in Sooraj (Ajay Devgan) who detests Prithvi as much as Veer does. Turns out that Sooraj is the Karna of this complicated jungle tale who had been abandoned by Samar's mother when she bored him out of a wedlock. This is done to avoid the family shame and orchestrated by the Krishna or the Mama (Nana Patekar) who is flawless with his mannerisms and trademark style. Mama has a say in every matter; a kingpin that holds the party and the egos in place. Indu (Katrina) is the final cog in the machine, a Panchali of sorts, who gets tossed among the Prataps in a manner similar to Draupadi among the Pandavas. Indu's father promises to finance the Prataps for the general elections only if she gets to marry the chief minister elect. This sends out rip-roaring emotional repercussions, where Indu has to sacrifice her love and move along her Dharma. What happens in the end is quite predictable, cinematic theatrics notwithstanding.

Rajneeti tries to underscore the murky political landscape of middle India through some un-idealized and lawless fictional diatribe. It attempts to transcend an epic tale by fashioning a pseudo political milieu. There is drama, intensity, and suspenseful tensions surrounding the mind games that the two clans play. The camera work is quite amazing as every alternate frame has hordes of people with actors performing in the foreground. Nonetheless, there are too many character plots and only some of them have time to develop. Ranbir Kapoor's Micheal Corleone does a good job with a restrained performance, has some impressive close ups and looks sinister donning the glasses. Nana Patekar is vintage and Naseer doesn't get too much screen time, however he is impressive as a leftist trailblazer. Ajay Devgan has been sidelined a bit with Karna's slow pace, as he doesn't have much to offer as the political strategist. Rampal still looks like an Adonis, whose transformation to a country ruffian is difficult, and this wears clearly on his accent. His empty howls are a joke but he tries hard. Katrina as usual is an eye candy, she does speak loud, tries to do a Sonia, but ends up being the girl next door.

The movie tries to be rusty by punching outlandish vernacular like "Jayestha Putra" and we are left wondering, who the hell talks like that. Also the plot turns wild when everyone goes on a killing spree whenever life throws them one of its little curves. Decimation of a political family over generations is little more believable than a complete "Maqbool-level" annihilation over a 3 month period building up to some funky state election. The music is not a talking point; one folksy "Mora Piya" stands out while the disco mix looks like an orphan, playing for a little over a minute in the middle of nowhere in the movie. The level-headed direction makes up for rigid character driven performances, where the actors like Manoj and Ranbir shine. The script is tight, very few low key scenes which deal with bizarre romantic situations, but the exaggerated story makes things go a little out of proportion. It is an enjoyable movie despite a running length of 160 mins, has some good moments, but gets predictable after a while.

Shutter Island

Shutter Island, the latest Martin Scorsese's offering, is an impressive work of art. This one digresses from a regular Scorsese's film noir to a psychedelic drama unfolding onto itself. Without giving away spoilers I will try to be as honest as I can in scribing my findings.

The story takes place in circa 1954 beckoning to the avant-garde B-Movie productions during the cold war era. Di Caprio as a U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels, teams up with Mark Ruffalo (Chuck Aule) to investigate the disappearance of a female prisoner from a mental hospital on an island in Massachusetts. Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital is a psychiatric facility housing dangerous criminals managed by a surreptitious staff of doctors and nurses. Ben Kingsley as Dr. John Cawley, plays the menacing Hospital's chief psychiatrist and administrator with suppressed grit and wistfulness. He along with one of the hospital's top physicians, a nazi Dr. Jeremiah Naehring (played by Max Von Sydow) cast enough suspicions on the marshals to dig a little deeper into the Houdini-esque escape of the murderess. The presence of mysterious light tower and unaccounted prisoners further complicate Teddy's analysis. Whats more, there is a personal crises that Ted Daniels is impaled with. He suffers from post traumatic experiences as a war veteran and a widower who loses his wife to a violent inferno. He day dreams and hallucinates of his wife and, fountains of dead bodies, from concentration camps he helped demolish to liberate Jews.

His war history travels with him, portending him of a devilish scheme funded by the Government that might lead to the creation of the "Ghost People", the kind he had seen Germans create to exterminate their fiends. He is convinced of the wrongdoings and in one of his encounters on the Isle learns about a supposed lobotomy, an operation that tweaks the sensory nerves in the brain studying their impact on emotions like love, grief, pain and longing, inflicting unbearable pain on the operand, which could transform insane to dead or to a life, devoid of any emotions. Such aghast is the doom that anyone prescribed would have to be seriously challenged.

Scorsese shows multiple movies in a single movie. He infuses delicate back projection camera work seen in many of the Hitchcock's works, reminiscing of the "vertigo-ian" image stretching techniques. Technicalities notwithstanding, Scorsese keeps on adding layers of unwitting occurrences which seem to confound Teddy in the beginning, but as we go along, wrap around him like a cocoon. He looses his identity and the distinction between sanity and insanity becomes unclear. Unrequited with the Shutter Island and his own dilemma, Teddy fathoms deadly storms and the nightmarish woods to get a reality check that seals his fate. At a running length of over 2 hours, the movie serves quite a tale and the climax is worth the wait. Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese, together have delivered some amazing performances over the years. This one is yet another addition to the wonder that this combination is.

3 Idiots - My two cents

Wasn't much impressed with 3 Idiots. I went in with high expectations and emerged a bit let down by the loose story, over the top cheesiness and all-bow-to-thee-preacher-Rancho. The setting of a realistic college is only so much accurate with contrived scenes of urine ragging and the protagonist getting the better out of the adversaries in his very first encounter. RePsekT! The movie seemed quite unoriginal, long with preachiness done to death, and recycled jokes. It had some funny moments and chuckles along the way but some of the things were too much to handle- Its over glorification of the good and hyper demonization of the supposed evilness. Also some of the funny scenes were a bit drag and quite frankly ended up being too labored. I cannot digest the crap like Raju’s deal breaker interview where he admits committing suicide and nonchalantly refuses to change his new found “attitude” for the sake of his employers or the mammoth pregnancy climax culminating in the glorious display of engineering feat by the main man – Rancho himself, and then the dramatic realization of truth by Prof Virus (a good sequence though, but will make your brains go topsy turvy!) I would have enjoyed the movie more if it were a little shorter and had less non-sense like this. Also the story becomes quite predictable with multiple suicides and unpronounceable names like Ranchoddas and Phunsukh Wangdu. I do not mean to highlight negatives purposely, but this is precisely the reason why I am disappointed. I had wanted something really tighter and a little less cheesier from an Aamir Khan movie. College setting is a bit realistic but finding a student like Rancho is totally going overboard.

Now the message of the movie is quite simple -follow your passion. This is not quite in the nature of kids growing up in middle class families across India, for a degree in Engg or medicine is a guarantee to a secure future (may be not anymore these days). Peer pressure and family drive them to a tried and tested route of college education where sometimes they fail to succeed for not doing something that they can be really good at. Its about hearing your inner voices and making your own destiny. Fair enough. The story essentially shows personal turmoils of three friends who share a dorm room while studying at one of the best engg. colleges of India and become close friends. The genius among this trio - Rancho is the protagonist who can crack exams in a heartbeat and construct flying choppers for end-semester projects to help out those in need. His other two room mates are god fearing underdogs who relish their friendships but are too weak to make their own decision for themselves. Enter Rancho, who inspires them and shows them the light - of course all this with a selfless act of an eye opener for the bourgeois. There are some genuinely funny scenes but the superhuman abilities of Rancho relegate this movie to typical Bollywoodism. The movie is technically sound with crisp editing and decent music ( not great at first to listen to but looks good with the visuals). I specially liked "Zoobi Doobi" with amazing visuals and zany choreography. Raju Hirani has done a good job with the direction, however there are so many unnecessary moving parts to the story that story telling has taken the brunt. I would consider the movie as a breezy watch, certainly not one of the best works from the Munnabhai team.

Avatar

Avatar, the most hyped Cameron offering of 2009, far exceeds its expectations. There are only certain points, in the history of movie making, where such epics as Avatar, transcend surreal objectivity and engulf breathtaking realism. A spectacular creation by a nerving sci-fi fanatic, that took a dozen of years to see the 115 page script to fruition. A mind blowing 3D extravaganza scratching minutiae of every humanoid flicker from Pandoraland, Avatar is set in a century where humans would travel across light years and dream of conquering the extraterrestrial.

The year is 2154 AD. Jack Sully a marine bound to a wheel chair is summoned to be sent, in lieu of his brother, to a moon named Pandora orbiting Polyphemus in Alpha Centauri A. His aboriginal humanoid Avatar is created by Dr Grace ( a Botanist) using a careful mix, blending his brother's DNA and the local DNA from the natives. His task : to understand the Na'vi tribe and scout the lush blue, white and violet valley for Unobtainium, a mineral worth 20 million dollars a kilo. Once Jack Sully gets "plugged in" ala Matrix's Neo, he becomes a pseudo Na'vi, an Avatar of himself, controlling his Na'vi life. After initial encounters with the untamed beasts, the Avatar falls for the Na'vi princess Neytiri, who saves his life. Neytiri epitomizes all that is good and pure, takes Jack Sully under her wings and trains him to be a part of the Omaticaya clan. Jack Sully, gains the clan's trust and also finds himself loosing in Neytiri's eyes.

As the days pass by, Jack Sully is forced to question his own loyalties and concludes to part ways with his miserable human destiny. His employers, on the other hand are eager to wipe off the tribe if diplomacy cannot be contrived. Jack Sully is asked to make a dash and appeal to the Na'vians of the corporate intentions. What follows next is an awe and jaw dropping finale of the classics of all the clashes : Humans Vs the Aliens. The 40 min long fight sequence is not just a spectacle of CGI and picture performance, it is a grandeur palate that serves up to some unreached levels of mind bending imaginations.

The done-to-the-death storyline works because Cameron infuses impetus through powerful story telling. Not once you feel disconnected to the avatars. How can you not be mesmerized by the divinity of the Hometree, the hanging mountains, the gigantic touch me nots and the firefly like synaptic structures making up every nook and cranny of Pandora? With an incredible mounting exceeding a quarter of a billion dollars, this movie is worth every cent of your dollar.

Apocalypto

Extremely enjoyed the movie from start to the end. Set at an incredible pace, this is one kickass edge of the seat thriller. Not so much with the words, the movie is set in the Mayan civilization, entrenched in blood and barbarisms of the yore. Mel Gibson does a brilliant act of pulling together so many things in a power packed explosive movie which only takes an ensemble cast of little known villagers and the Holcane Warriors. Jaguar Paw is a family man who hunts for living, until his village is plundered by the hunters of the human flesh. They must trade humans to the Mayans who would fry their hearts and sever their heads to please their Gods. Jaguar escapes his miserable destiny as he is chosen to be sacrificed on the day of an eclipse. The Sun shines again and Jaguar runs for his life from Holcane warriors. They chase him in the jungle where the jaguar overcomes his fear. The jungle is his home and the animals his saviors. He reunites with his family and returns home. This epic adventure is beautifully choreographed and masterfully shot. Split screes, stop motion images and camera jerks are as breathtaking as the picturesque locals of the jungle. Commendable work of art.

Thank You For Smoking

This is one beautiful crisp satire, which may even make you wanna jump in your pants. And most importantly the movie doesn't take any sides, its up to you to decide whether you wanna make a pyramid out of the cancer sticks or just light them up. The writers are the absolute masters here, who rule from the word go. And then the actors deliver those incredible in-the-face punches. Aaron Eckhart plays Nick Naylor who is a powerful speaker and gets paid for talking and "spinning off" the arguments. In his own words " Not many know what it is to be truly despised" but he always has the formula and the correct tone that manages to buy his way out. He talks smoothly and regards himself the as "Colonel Sanders" of Nicotine. Together he completes the coterie called "MOD" or merchants of death which consists of guys like him, defending guns and alcohol. The MOD meetings are to be construed as refreshing gatherings for generation of new counterpoints and to reflect on the musings of health zealots. Nick Nalyor speaks for an organization called the Academy of Tobacco Studies - the main tobacco lobby of the Big Tobacco in Washington. In order to put brakes on the widespread increase in smoking among teens, a Vermont senator (William Macy) is planning to unleash a sort of hate campaign against cigarettes by embossing skulls and bones on the cigarette packets. Nick suggests a counter action by asking the tobacco inc. to rope in Hollywood in promoting cigarettes in a cool way. Rob Lowe's cameo is explosive as an entertainment executive who suggests Nick a neat scene where Brad Pitt would blow smoke rings after a "cosmic fuck" with Catherine zeta Jones. The man impresses Nick Naylor to the point that he considers him to be someone "who could teach me so much"! All the while Nick's son Joey, who considers Nick to be some one of a kind, follows him and tries to understand the man's psyche. Nick is a caring father, and loves to pass on his wisdom, explaining differences between negotiations and arguments and why he does what he does after all. Katie Holmes is convincing as a sleazy reporter who would not hesitate to copulate for a little inside information. She fulfills the emptiness in Nick's life and gives her the warmth he needs, albeit little does he know as to how fake it is. Towards the end, Nick confronts an ordeal as he is attacked by angry hooligans, and faces the ultimate challenge of rescuing his job and life when the opportunist reporter spills the beans on their bedtime stories. But more than anything else Nick wants to win the courtroom battle for his son. The climax is just as beautifully orchestrated and commanded by Nick as he does in the beginning defending himself on a certain Joan's show. The movie goes right up on the top of my book, it is wonderful, hilarious, intelligent and kicks ass. To close, I would quote Nick again "Micheal Jordan plays ball, Charles Manson kills people, I talk."

Requiem For A Dream

One of my favorites, I am writing this review after watching this movie for the umpteenth time. Disturbing, horrifying, wicked, sick, depressing, you name it. You can reel off most of the dark adjectives that identify with the character of this movie. This is one of the few movies which is solely a director's movie. Aronofosky comes across as an intelligent and a master creator, who puts his vision on screen with incredible punch and drama. Four lives are engulfed by drugs in different ways and each of them must gruesomely meet their fatal end. Requiem tells the story of hopes and aspirations taken over by a havoc which starts as a recreational drug use. Harry and his girlfriend Marion are a playful young couple who like to live on the edge. Rebellious and wild, initially what begins as a daily fix, gradually takes over their lives. Harry's mother is an old widow and the TV is all what she has to kill time. In order to fit in a pretty dress she must loose weight and take orange, blue and red pills which spiral her down to an old junkie. Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb delivers an excellent and shocking performance. The scene where she explains Harry, her reasons to get up in the morning is one of the most emotionally intense seen I have ever seen , good enough to melt the stone hearted. Here, Harry who thought her mother's 'fix' is a TV, turns up only to find out that in fact it is something else! The movie scores exceedingly well in technical aspects of camera work, editing and cinematography. Split screens, stop motions shots, green jittery frames - are all sheer genius. The process of drug making is conceptualized with immense ingenuity and equally well shot and edited. The entire split second montage draws the viewer, as though he is the one knocking the high! The climax is sheer power. As the ending comes close the scenes shuffle more quickly and so does the tempo of the background score. Clint Mansell's theme music has become a cult. The haunting and mind numbing violin screams effectively depict the painful cravings that the protagonists feel for their fixes. The movie blows me away every time, I watch it. I would say it requires some preparation of mind, because it is extremely depressing and not a happy ending. It is a masterpiece though!

Luck By Chance

Zoya Akhtar's directorial debut is a refreshing take on behind the curtains look at Bollywood. Luck, By Chance is a crisp tale of wanna be celebrities hitting the road to the tinsel town - small town kids aspiring to be leading men and women and the struggles they face to make it big and survive. A Delhi boy with starry eyes attends acting classes and theatre in the hopes of landing into the film industry. A Bangalore girl is slogging for the perfect break for years. The boy gets lucky and through a series of fortunate events lands up with a big movie break that the girl only dreams of. And with his charming personality he entertains the leading lady and her yesteryear's diva mom, with great panache. The story underpins different layers of film making exploring various characters weaving a movie. Hyperanimated director, megalomaniac superstar, couching cast producers, crossover intelligent kinds - its all there in the great Indian movie tamasha. The feature boils down to making compromises and living with the choices that one makes. Vikram finds whatever he aims for, loosing everything en route.

Joh Jeeta Wohi Sikandar

One of the bollywood classics where the underdog gets away winning. Masterful direction, supported by superb music by Jatin Lalit, this movie is about a teenage school boy's romance and his larger than life dreams. He is a looser at school with no real aim in life. But seeing his elder brother in shambles, he comes of age to pull off a sensational victory that culminates in an adrenaline pumping cycle race. Aamir Khan does a fantastic job with his acting, mannerisms and body language. I remember when I watched it first time, I was so excited that all I wanted to do was to race on bikes! I have seen it countless times and every time I watch it, it feels like new. A must watch movie, highly recommended!

300

There is something about the voice of Gerard Butler, who as the King Leonidas commandeers his troupe of 300 at the hot gates. Also, the heavy bass in the narrator's voice adds an incredible punch to the period drama, painting a surreal imagery of the grotesque dark ages. With blood smearing all over the screen as the swords slash the God King's men, some may argue that CGI effects are an overkill. I thoroughly enjoyed the camera work, and sleek graphic jerks that painted the screen red. It was a style statement that was different and catchy and depicted the gory fight sequences in paramount sophistication. Finally, the heavy metal bellowing in the background perfectly jells with the world that director strives to create.

Taare Zameen Par

The perfectionist completely thrashed most of the run of the mill crap of 2007 with this incredible masterpiece. Simple and drop dead shrewd. The methodical actor achieves brilliant levels of film making with simple scripting, camera work and soothing music. A lot of movies have been made on similar sensitive subjects but none of them have been this moving and effective in drawing you to the point where you actually empathize with the child. Aamir manages to strike the right chord, never going over the board.

Lost In Translation

A beautiful feature. Lost in Translation is the story of two strangers who connect by chance. They have similar emptiness in their lives and don't quite feel like home in Tokyo.
Bob Harris, an actor by profession is facing a mid-life crises, whose marriage has lost that zing, Charlotte is a young wife of a busy photographer, who yearns for the human contact. The two loners become friends in Tokyo and share each other's lives. He gives her the attention and cheesy lines, she gives him the company- someone he can talk to. The movie illustrates how the meaning of life changes from person to person and from time to time in one's life. What does life 'translate' to you? How much have you gained and lost? How far have you come? Did you get what you set out for? The answers to questions similar like these translate into the meaning of life for us, which clearly are lost in translation as we stand doing our life's time. Masterfully written and directed by Sofia Capola this drama is deftly embroidered with the culture shocks the American protagonists face in the Asian city. Highly recommended!

Babel

Actors emote very realistically without flashy histrionics, and evoke genuine empathy from the audience. This movie is in parts and weaves different stories together leading to a common thread. Camera work is amazing, feels like its almost a docu-drama. The bone of contention here is that every human being is related as every one of us experiences some form of pain. The individual stories could have been more tightly scripted and I felt some scenes , like the mexican wedding were a bit longer. The emotional grief of the deaf girl, the distance between the American couple, the confusion of the shepherds of Morocco and the dilemma of Mexican nanny, are all indirectly connected in a matter of fact-ly way which is inconsequential to the individual storylines. However their agonies sort of stand out, which make them part of the universal human bond.

Fargo

Fantastic dark humor complimented by an amazing soundtrack. I can hear it over and over again and not get tired of it. None of the actors were really huge at that time, and their low profile naturally made them a perfect fit for the characters. Macy as a dumbo, Jerry Lundergard is simply great. Also the accent of Frances McDormand embellishes the true and depressive Fargo cold.

Hostel II

I was pleasantly surprised by the movie, as I was expecting the regular in your face kind of horror. After watching the movie, my friends and I went on to watch the special features on the DVD! I have never done this before for any of the movies that I have rented in the recent present. I havent watched Hostel - I, so obviously I havent seen the best going by the popular reviews. Well first of all what impressed me was the gradual build up leading to the gore. While that lasted only for the first half, the movie relegated to the usual torture and sadism after all that was there to know was revealed. Even then the gore was kept to a minimum, but I liked the general vibe of the movie. After watching this I have a strong desire to rent Hostel I and cannibal holocaust.