Perspectives and perceptions

Hello you!  It's been a really long time since I blogged. I think I have probably forgotten how to do write in the first place but sometimes when the subject matter is so strong, you can't stop, so here I am, plunging into the water all over again. Maybe this will signal my coming back from the forgotten bookmarks, or maybe it's a one-off thing, but I'm just going to let this play out as it does. :) Happy New Year to you too! :)  I got back from my holidays and my friends made a plan to go watch this movie on the first day of it's release in Singapore. Yup! It's been a while since I've done one of those. The second was they decided that it was high time I got introduced to The Projector ! In the last 1.5yrs since I've been in Singapore, I've never once been to The Projector. If you're from Bombay, think of how Gaiety-Galaxy look like as theatres compared to the flashy multiplexes and combine that with the vibe, character and aesthetic b

Spoiler Alert: I may talk about scenes from the movie. If you haven't seen the movie, one line advice, go see it. Don't do it alone unless you're the types who watches horror movies because you think they're funny. So, the movie... For some background, I'm not a horror movie person, I haven't seen The Ring or any of those movies, no, not even the Scary Movies (though my friends tell me those are not meant to be classified as "horror"). My last actual horror movie was "Bhoot" which you'd agree was more sound effects than anything substantial. My friends insisted on me watching the interview before the movie, but I thought it would be better to not psyche myself before watching the movie and so I went in with no prior knowledge of what this was about, except that there's a family who moves into a new house and that house is haunted. The movie is excellently made. And you have to know me when I say this, because I was horribly

I finally saw this movie! :) Everyone in my circle has been raving about this movie and I've been meaning to watch it for a long time, and today, with my mom in town, we finally ended up going for it! Like the many friends who faithfully kept their end of the bargain and didn't divulge anything about the movie but the fact that I must go and watch it, I find it hard to actually tell you why you must watch it! But have no fear. This review is not going to spill the beans. So what the kahaani of kahaani is you have to find out for yourself because you're not getting that here. At least not for another month till most of you have seen it and it's gone out of the theatres. The movie is set in Calcutta, and not Kolkata, because it is set in those parts of Calcutta that in my eyes can never be called anything else. Thanks to V I've got this fascination for that city and for Bengali, which basically means, I had a silly smile plastered on my face for most parts of the

Frankly I have other movies to write reviews on; After Agneepath I've seen The Descendants, Ek Mein Aur Ekk Tu and The Artist, two of which I thoroughly enjoyed and want to write good reviews for (no points for guessing!) but today's movie (the one on which this post is centered) was just sooo bad that I had to write a review on it. Even though it's past midnight and you've probably never even heard of this movie before. Anyway. Taking a deep breath. I shall proceed to tell you in not too much detail about why you should NOT ever ever watch this movie! In my hall of shame, this movie is down there with the likes of Transformers 3! I mean seriously! So, Speedy Singhs (featuring Anupam Kher, Russell Peters and Vinay Virmani) I hadn't heard of the later but he's kind of cute. But that's where it ends. Story? (Haha really? You want to know?) I'm going to try and not be so sarcastic but I so badly want to. I want to stand in front of Anupam Kher and hear so

I've been on a tremendous backlog of movie reviews having suddenly seen so many of them in quick succession! Bare with me while I attempt to jot down all that I wanted to say about these movies, however late I might be. :) So first up, Agneepath. Unfortunately I haven't seen the original or at least I don't have any memory of seeing it so I'm not going to be able to do a fair comparison of this vs that, but then again, maybe that's a bonus point for the new movie because I've gone in with no expectations and no biases. Though to state the obvious, every person I've spoken to about this movie, says that the original was better, but the remake is quite good too. Storyline? Family of three, mother, father and son living in Mandwa, a tiny village at the coast of Maharashtra. The father's a progressive masterji and runs the school in the village, encouraging the villagers to stand up for their rights and protect themselves against the general tyrannies

Rarely have I gone and seen a movie on the first day of its release. By chance yesterday it was MI4. To give me the benefit of doubt, I haven't seen the previous movies but I'm guessing that shouldn't make my review biased. On the whole, I felt the movie was a lot of brawn and no brain. And the action was great, but I didn't come out feeling wow. First of all, my expectations were dashed when I booked tickets for an Imax screen, expecting a 3D experience! :P Clearly I didn't read the poster too well. That apart, the movie was fast-paced, kept you hooked, had some punchy dialogues here and there, and around average acting from everyone else. Tom Cruise was good, I mean he was great, but somehow my response was more on the lines of, 'At this age, he's doing this stunts, that's a WOW' Maybe I'm being scathing, maybe I'm being overcritical, maybe you would like it, but I was not so happy. The underlying plot without revealing much is that Tom

Sitting at home, watching a great fun movie on a lazy Saturday, what could be better? Perfect life. Today I saw Chillar Party. So many months after it had released and boy what a movie! Absolutely loved it. A fun, light-hearted (though the amount of tears I shed are contrary to that), kiddy movie with a sweet purpose. It was like watching Stanley Ka Dabba only it was a lot more fun. :) Bunch of kids with nicknames staying together in a colony get introduced to a new kid who's come to wash their parents' cars. Only, this kid has brought man's best friend along with him, bhidu , an amiable stray. The kids whose team is called 'chillar party' begin to view this intrusion as precisely that and proceed to being mean to him. When one of their pranks go a little too far, they feel guilty for their mistakes, and they apologize. After that, the team has a new member, Fatka. Together they play, and they win many battles. Whether the battles were to make the kids realize the

After the first two movies, I guess I had some high expectations. Big mistake. The second movie was obviously an exception. Sequels never work. (Except when they're in the form of HP or LOTR, except in both those cases, the story was already laid out! So it wasn't so much the director's thought process that made it work, anyways, will try not to digress) This movie seems like a product of a late night drinking session amongst some buddies, okay let's throw in some autobots that we have, let's bring back megatron, lets throw out megan fox, and replace her with someone, okay now that sam's done with college, we must show some progress, okay let's make him jobless. oh and where are his parents? let's send them on a tour and have them stop by for a drink! Hmm... so what should the story be? Ah, Independence Day was a success years ago, let's try and recreate that! I mean seriously, what was this movie?! Ideally it doesn't even deserve space on my

My close friend warned me not to see this movie alone, she knew it would get to me in some weird way and I was stupid not to follow her advice. If you have any iota of self-doubt, if you have any streak in you of a perfectionist, don't watch this movie alone. Very few movies manage to leap out of the characters, out of the story and get to you. They grip you like nothing ever has, and they just sort of hurt you for real. This movie does precisely that. The movie starts in a dream that Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) has. She's playing the white swan. Nina is a ballerina in a dance company. Her mother, a failed ballerina herself, drives her daughter relentlessly in the hopes of having her life her own dreams. Ballet, is a dance form that requires years and years of effort and because of this, it requires not just physical strength from the dancers, but instead immense emotional and mental strength. To be able to stand on your toes might be easy, but to stand all the pressure, th

So thanks to some prodding from my friend Shri, I decided to go watch this movie today. I'm not upset I did, but I'm certainly not happy. It was sort of like watching Love, Sex aur Dhokha in a way. Graphic, very close to reality, and loud. The movie begins with Anurag Kashyap saying that it's a just a movie and that he doesn't support the use of drugs, drinking and driving and that it's a fictional story which is debatable because like Dev D he used an actual incident as one of the pivotal moments in the movie, in this case the moment is when 5 kids high on coke, drinks, and generally on life, speed across town and in one of the turns end up killing two people who were on a scooter. They were driving a Hummer. Anyways, to come back to the timeline of things, the movie begins by shocking you. I know I've watched a number of movies which involve sequences of kisses in front of my parents / relatives without flinching. But I would not be able to watch this movi

Okay so I've been on a rom-com movie watching spree lately. I have these mood swings in which I can't stand to watch anything non-fictional. I love watching happy endings and feeling all mushy-mushy. So I had this movie and hadn't seen it till now. I read up some reviews on IMDB and it sounded like my kind of a movie. The movie transcends through time and is told in a very beautiful fashion. About the lives of two lovers who meet when they were 17-18 and talks about how their lives span out. Allie Hamilton, beautifully essayed by Rachel McAdams, is the only daughter of a millionaire who comes to the town of Seabrook to spend her summer break. Noah, played by Ryan Gosling, is a worker at the local log factory. He happens to see Allie at the carnival night and finds himself immediately attracted to her. He pursues her and finally wins her over by getting her to agree on going out with him. He shows her what it is to be really free, to do things because you want to do the

I'd had this movie for many months and for some reason it never seemed like the right time to watch it. Today, after having a lazy day... It seemed like the right time to watch a musical. What a beautiful movie! I'm kind of disappointed that it was over so soon. For those who haven't seen it, here's what it is all about. The movie is based on the book by Margaret Landon, Anna and the King of Siam which was later turned into a successful Broadway musical which ran for some 4000+ shows and a movie, which is The King and I. There have been many versions of this movie and I saw the 1956 one with Deborrah Kerr and Yul Brynner. The movie opens with the arrival of an englishwoman Anna Leonowens (Deborrah Kerr) and her son Louis to the land of Siam, now Thailand in the city of Bangkok. She has been appointed by the king to tutor the royal children in a scientific and secular education in which the tutors before her had failed. She's shown to be a beautiful, strong woman

Yes I'm one of those people who hadn't seen this movie up until today! My roommate gave me the movie to watch just today... and I saw it! What a movie! I've always loved movies which take the base of sports to convey something more than just sportsman spirit... Like one of my all time favorites is Remember the Titans. Another favorite is The Miracle. This movie brought to light so many things that I wasn't aware about before... It made me go back to Wiki and read up on Nelson Mandela, on the Apartheid, on the struggles, the massacres and the growth of that nation. They've gone through so much in the last two decades, it's amazing! Morgan Freeman has won my respect and admiration all over again. He's such a perfect actor for almost all roles. But in today's movie he was the best. He fit the bill. He was inspirational. The time when Matt Damon walks into the prison at Robben Island, it was so moving to see the kind of circumstances in which he spent 18

Today thanks a friend of mine I watched this beautiful animated movie Waltz with Bashir and what an amazingly well made movie. It's set in the times of the Lebanon Civil War and the Sabra and Shatila massacre . Directed by Ari Folman it's actually his true story. The characters in the movie are real people with whom Ari fought in the war. It talks about the post trauma disorder in a way because of the kind of memories that have been left on the characters in Ari's life. Depicted with animations which are more like comic strips and the use of dark colors, the mood of the film is very dark. It starts with one friend who comes to Ari talking about the nightmares he's been having and how they're related to the kind of things he'd done while being out at war. That sets the ball rolling in Ari's head where he's trying to piece together his role in the massacre, because although he has images of that, he does not recall anything to do with that day. He then t

For the first time I had not read about this movie before going to see it, had not searched for it on google, no research on IMDB, nothing. I was as blank, as a canvas. And what a painting the movie left on me when it was over, literally and otherwise. Bombay, my city, my home, has never looked so intense and so deep before. There was the chaos that I've grown up with, but there was this depth that I have failed to appreciate and to recognize. Maybe one of the most beautiful things that has been said about this movie is said by its producer, and actor, Aamir Khan, "The movie is like an artistic painting on celluloid" And that's it. That is how beautiful this movie is. If you're someone who appreciates photography, who loves the play of colors, the confluence of ideas and poetry, this movie will touch you. It's almost like an art film yet not. It's a very different genre of film, and it got under my skin. I'll attempt to be less vague about it and give

First things first, I have read and re-read all the Harry Potter books ever since they were written and almost know them by-heart! :P I have seen only the first movie of the series and after being terribly disappointed didn't feel the need/urge to go for any other after... There. Now having said this, this movie was really good. So for starters, I had issues with the book. The 7th book was the most disappointing in which I felt like there was no reason or purpose behind all the killing. Yes, she did tie most (or actually all) loose ends, but it seemed like she did it because she didn't know what else to do. I read that book in about 3 hours and for me the book really needs to grip you, like you shouldn't want to put it down, it should engulf you... but the fact that the book didn't manage to grip me till the last chapter or so when the story actually begins to unravel is pathetic... anyways. The movie is based on the book (duh!) So I pretty much knew the story well so

Last night I was in a movie-watching mood. Having got many movies on my laptop which I've never seen before, I decided to take the plunge and watch this movie. My friend had titled it 'If Only - Revoltingly Romantic', obviously instead of that being a deterrent, it became a reason for me to see the movie. In the beginning I felt like the movie was going nowhere. But in the second half, as expected, I got terribly emotional and there was this huge void inside me, almost as though I'd lost someone I loved... The movie speaks about the million things that we experience in our lives everyday. Things we take for granted at times, and people whose love we don't appreciate. I know I'm being overtly simplistic in my perspective and biased because I liked the movie, but to me a movie is a message and that movie definitely conveyed a strong message to me. That of appreciation, acceptance and love. Throughout the movie in the first half, the girl is doing so many things to

Yes a lot of people told me not to go for this movie, but I decided to go anyways! :) So. The movie. The plot is basically laid out within the first five minutes. Two strangers coincidentally meet at the G.Washington bridge in NY because both of them are about to commit suicide. However, fate has something else in mind. So their repeated attempts to suicide keep failing. They then make a pact to die some 20 days later and during that time they want to fulfill their 'Do before I die list'. I'd say they could've done a LOT more even with this concept in mind. It didn't have to be so superficial and simplistic. He has severed ties with his family, friends and become business-minded. When he loses it all in the stock market crash, he has nothing left to live for and hence decides to die. She was in love with this person for years together, and when she finds out that he cheated on her, she's shattered and hence doesn't want to live. This was too silly for a plo

I had downloaded this movie from a friend of mine, thinking it's the movie which I now is called 'A Lot Like Love'!! :) Anyways, I watched it... Very basic plot, lots of couples all over the place, primarily in England, but also in France and America. Hugh Grant is the Prime Minister of Britain, and weirdly has no backbone until someone tries to get fresh with one of his personal aides seemingly unaware of his presence! Liam Neeson is a step-dad grieving for the loss of his wife, but manages to strike a great rapport with his step-son, helping him to win over the love of his life (even though he's just 11!) And the other stories are just way too boring. The thing is, a movie should be an experience, it must take you through a journey... It cannot narrate something that you didn't want to watch, or didn't like watching, and expect you to come out of it smiling. Especially for something as romantic as a holiday love movie. It's precisely because of movies lik

Yes I finally did go and see the much talked about movie. And I didn't say a word. Not a single word during the entire movie, in spite of the fact that I had gone with three good friends of mine. I cringed, I moved, I expressed emotions on my face, but I didn't bat an eyelid! What a movie! What an idea, and what a depiction! Simply superb! I have never come out of a movie with a hangover of thoughts, I have never had a headache because I've thought and concentrated so much... There is imagination, and there's science. This was the actual depiction of scientific imagination. It was sculpted and timed to perfection and everything was in the perfect measures. Without divulging into details, I'm going to try and simplify the story to what it was. So you have a central character, Cobb played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who is an extractor. Employed by huge corporates for the ultimate espionage, to steal ideas from the subconscious minds of people. He's given a chance to