Movie Review: Slumdog Millionaire

After a few address changes (blog URLs) and about 50 movies, the itch to talk about a movie brings me back here...I may or may not have been missed around, and people may or may not be wanting to read what I have to say..But then, this is my blog and I can say what I want :P

And then, if people can read what Shobha De has to say, they can read me with a feeling of moral superiority...Afterall, I watched the movie in a multiplex paying 190 bucks and didn't watch it on a pirated DVD like how this celebrity columnist did...Somehow Shobha De somehow always reminds me of that Oscar Wilde remark about some people who are famous for being famous ;-)

Well...I wont get down to a movie review in the traditional sense...(The post title is to that extent misleading, since the real intention of calling it a movie review is one of driving traffic towards the blog...Search string likelihood to be factored in you see!)

You watch this movie and realise what an Oscar nomination for screenplay is all about!
I mean...three different time-slices in the lives of the lead characters woven beautifully together keeps you absorbed for the entire duration of the movie...
After all that has been said and written about this movie and the music, there is no point in trying to review either the movie or the music except maybe understand Oscar nominations backwards... (most of life itself is understood backwards anyway!)

That all the three different actors who play the role of the lead character Jamaal Mallik seem to make a perfect fit is beyond doubt.. Its tough to not fall in love with any of the three actors who play Jamaal Mallik....and before you start thinking otherwise, let me assert my orientation in admitting to finding Freida Pinto to be "refreshingly beautiful"...as refreshing, and I am extremely apolegetic to both for this comparison...Freida Pinto is as refreshingly beautiful as Prachi Desai who debuted in "Rock On!" last year...
After watching people like Prachi Desai and Freida Pinto, or Dev Patel and Farhaan Akhtar for that matter, the average movie goers have to reassure themselves that life is not all that boringly cruel, and not all the time!

Wokay...so...no movie reviewing or spoiling here...Except that I have to (in the interest of anyone accidentally or incidentally reading this post!) say that

1. Fame Cinemas, South City Mall Kolkata has great leg-space: one reason to watch movies there!
2. Please watch the English version - no heavy Brit or American accents, so no worries for the average Indian English speaking "junta"...
3. Moviemarks (extending Bookmarks, and hullo! this is my original idea which dawned upon me when travelling in the rickety buses of Kolkata) -
Moviemarks (personal of course!) are -

a) "Dont worry about her, she will be fine. " - This line is actually in Hindi - "Woh theek rahengi"..Beautiful piece of advice to anyone in a situation like that!
b) "So what?" This one shocked my system enough to change from slouch to sit up. I hope you don't miss this line, although I am sure you will miss it if you don't empathise with Jamaal or Latika...
c) " I thought we will meet only in..." Man! Touching...Hope all love stories end happily despite such thoughts!...

I am reasonably sure that the post in general and the Moviemarks in particular dint spoil it for you! If I am wrong, do tell me I spoilt it for you and we can watch this movie again and revisit all the thought-points of the movie and compare notes ;-)

Oh yeah! Forgot to mention this..You come outta the movie hall and then you realise that there was unnecessary newsprint and TV talk about India being portrayed in a particular manner..Its a movie after all man!

Super Sunday - "Happy Days" (Telugu; no review)

This Sunday should have been exhausting really...But it wasnt exhausting one bit! Dont get me wrong.,It wasnt a lazy Sunday...A sunday when you leave home at 9 am and return at 10 30 pm is anything but lazy!
Come to think of it...this was the first time we were all having Buffet breakfast at this restaurant..We ve been living here all these years and never been to this restaurant for the buffet breakfast although we were only 3 kms away! I guess Better late than never ...And better here for breakfast than wherever!
You have all the SOuth Indian delicacies for breakfast..Idli, vada, Pongal, Khaara baath, Kesari baath, Shavige(noodles), Masala and other dosas, Rotti, fruits, juice...and all of this for only Rs. 60...Man! Why dont we have more Sundays in a week? ;-) Or why does Kamath Bugle Rock have buffet breakfast only on SUndays???
Later this morning...I meet this kid..He is a kid alrite! Anyone who is 8 years younger is..if he isnt a kid, you're probably a kid yourself! ;-)
So..the only thing I have in common with this kid is my name ;-)
Sharp...sharp is an understatement...I know I wud be making a note of his email Id in the very first minute of talking to him...After all..this next generation..I need to know how they think...and man! they think..I first need to know how to think...and then try and know how they think what they think ;-)

So...with more driving around town with a younger cousin around..he is also a kid alrite! With more driving around town and checking out houses and people, I thought I would be closing the day with this movie in the evening..
Happy Days..a Telugu movie..neat, sweet college story...More than anything else, a clean Telugu family movie!
Definitely a must watch if you know Telugu...After all you dont get to, often...
We all return, and just when I was about to retire, I get a call from 2 others who missed out on the dinner last evening..These guys actually kinda knew me more/better/worse (take your pick!)
So, we chat away for 1.5 hours or so...A CCD after 4.5 months! They ve even changed the menu...They no longer have the Ethiopian Qahwah or the Columbian Quest...I settle for an "Aztec"...Thank god, with some friends you can philosophise even over coffee...I mean...all sober and still philosophise!
One of us comes across as less emotional...Not too many other apparent/noticeable changes...I am not sure if I should thank God..One has to thank someone only when one knows whom to thank and why, if at all!
So...."come across"...and "noticeable changes"..Remember! Lifes not too unkind...the truth...the plain and simple truth..never really simple..and almost never plain! But then, dont we all change...every moment? Howsoever little? ;-) :-D

Movie review : Dus Kahaaniyaa.

Rating: Lies somewhere between Watchable and Good
(Scale = Avoidable/Watchable/Good/Very Good/Must Watch)

This is not your regular Bollywood flick.
Watching a movie on the day of the release, without waiting to hear or read reviews is an experiment no less.
And when the movie is in itself an experiment (10 stories and 6 directors), expectations did not bias my movie watching experience.

I don't want to compare the movie with Darna Manaa Hain or more recently, Life in a Metro...The former had 6 horror stories, some of them rather comical...and the latter was more like a compressed K serial telecast on Star Plus (I particularly associate this teleserial "Swaabhimaan" with this latter one).

Why I really don't want to compare Dus Kahaaniya with the previous two, is that, in my opinion, Dus Kahaaniya is really going to be enjoyable for those amongst us who have a short attention span. For those amongst who have little or no patience for the song and dance routines of the typical Bollywood flick, Dus Kahaaniya seems to cater to our tastes - a movie should be more about the plots or stories or even acting, rather than revolving around mistaken and nonsensical notions of romance etc.,

Barring 2-3 stories, Dus Kahaaniya is really worth watching, of course with the consideration that this is a movie experiment...
The stories are good..not really gripping or thrilling, but they do manage to hold your attention for the entire length..howsoever short..

The movie has probably failed to fully capitalise on great actors like Nana Patekar, Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Sanjay Datt, Manoj Bajpai, and 6 directors!
But having said that, some consideration should also be given to the fact that each story plays out for about 10 minutes on an average, and it is really difficult for both the directors and actors to pack in really powerful performances, irrespective of their potential.

Given that my last watched movie was "Dhan dhana dhan goal" , I might be tempted to rate this as "Very Good"...but then, in a conscious and conscientious effort towards being objective about an opinion, I guess I will have to rate this movie as being between "Watchable" and "Good"...and if allowed to take sides, suggest that the movie is much more than just "Watchable" and closer to "Good"..

And given that I was watching the movie at a single screen 5 minutes away from home;and that 3 tickets cost as much one normally pays for a single ticket at a multiplex, I am certainly not doing a "cost-benefit" analysis...After all..what are holidays for! :-)

P.S: I have consciously avoided giving any of the plots or details away in this review. So, please don't review my movie review saying that I really haven't told you much about the movie!

Movie review: Goal."Dhan dhana dhan goal".

Actually, I don't even want to review this movie!
I am doing it for exactly some of the 'reverse justification" rationale I use for blogging...

So...here goes:

Rating : Between "avoidable" and "go ahead, watch it you moron!" ;-)

I don't know why I watched the movie really....Little Sister only asked me if I would come along..with her friends to watch the movie...I wouldn't even have to bother about the tickets..
And given that it was a multiplex located close to ReallyNice, my old office (name disguised for obvious reasons!)...I agreed....I could negotiate to leave early and spend some time at the consulting office where I had worked for 22 months!

Why am I not talking about the movie?

Coz, I didn't like it one bit...I could have spent more time at the office, with people continuing to gape and look at me with awe, about how I have lost a lot of weight and some hair!
Man! I felt like a celebrity! I guess this was the closest to being a celebrity I will ever be ;-)

Movie review: Aa dinagalu (Kannada movie)

Thanks mom for watching this ahead of me and reviewing it for me, Dad and Little Sister.

Rating : Must watch (if you know Kannada)

This is not “just another” Kannada movie…I will leave this “just another” qualifier comfortably vague…I don’t even want to think about elaborating what most Kannada movies are like…So, let me just get on with reviewing this movie..

This movie, is set in the Bangalore of 1980s and centres around the dons of those years…For a movie centred around rowdyism, extortion and crime, it has been made very well…It doesn’t have “in your face” sort of violence that puts most of us educated, urban mortals off…And it is exactly this that why I liked the movie on the whole. Apart from this, it has been very carefully shot (The screenplay is by Girish Karnad, so no wonder! And just in case you haven’t heard of Girish Karnad earlier, he is a playwright and has won the Jnanpith, Padmashri and Padmabhushan awards) Any critic would not miss to appreciate certain things about the way the movie is shot….Set in the 1980’s, it must have really been painstakingly shot..Apart from resurrecting the Yezdis and Rajdoots for the movie, a lot of care must have been taken while shooting….You cant afford to show the Pulsars and Victors or the Honda Citys or other cars on Bangalore’s roads! They ve even taken the pains to resurrect old analog phones where the dialing had to be done without push buttons! The long cigarettes (veteran fellow viewers point this to me!) used to be fashionable those days and the screenplay and direction is that detailed!

There are only two songs in the movie, and both are good….The movie has a sub-story with a romantic angle to it, fitted very well into the movie, not distasteful a single bit…so much so that I almost repented not having been in my twenties during the 80s! May be I could have met my dad and befriended him somewhere down the line! Not that Dad and I aren’t friendly now….But I guess Dad and I would have influenced each other much much more if we were peers! ;-)

Coming back to the movie, the music is by Illaiyaraja…another reason to like the movie!

And finally, its based on a true story…the movie has been made based on part 1 of a three part Kannada book called “Daadagiriya dinagalu” which translates to “Days of rowdyism”..

In all….a fresh and refreshingly good Kannada movie in a looooooong time! A must watch for those who have even a passing acquaintance with Kannada….