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7 Khoon Maaf (2011)
Priyanka great. Movie as a whole not so bad
I went to watch 7 Khoon Maaf today. I had been waiting for this movie for quite some time. Based on the short-story by Ruskin Bond's short story "Susanna's Seven Husbands", starring Priyanka Chopra (as Susanna) was enough to get me excited. Susanna, who leaves behind a trail of dead husbands.
Movie was good, not great. But since it is not a clichéd overdone love stories it was fun to watch something different for a change. Before I go and tell you about what I didn't like about the movie, Priyanka Chopa has indeed done an amazing job as Susanna and that it premiered in 61st Berlin International Film Festival, which I think is a big deal.
First half hour of the movie, I was wondering if it was a bad joke. The nightmare of sitting through another "Whats your Rashee" was daunting. But as the movie progresses, it did turn into something amazing. Though I was never too engrossed in the movie or brooded for Susanna or her husbands, it was a good watch. Oh! And now I know what a black comedy is.
For all the moviegoers, I would say go watch it, it is watchable. For those who want something more, it is not worth it.
Tron (1982)
A reminder of an age gone by
Tron is a reminder of an age gone by; today's Hollywood is a hallmark of amazing CGI to create "real" real world scenarios. On the contrary Tron uses more traditional techniques and real world elements to generate a virtual world, that of inside a computer.
This is a movie for those who at some point in life shared an undying excitement for pong, pac-man and upright cabins of arcade games. Inspired by animation techniques of MAGI and the gaming excitement of Pong, director Steve Lisberger had a vision of integrating the two and bringing the spectacular of video games and computer visuals to silver screen.
Tron is a story of a game designer/ hacker Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) who is cheated by an ambitious ENCOM programmer named Ed Dillinger (David Warner) who locks Flynn out of the system and presents Flynn's work as his own. To prove Ed Dillinger's wrong doing Flynn tries to hack into the ENCOM mainframe to find evidence of Dillinger's wrongdoing, but his program, Clu, is caught and erased by the Master Control Program (MCP).
MCP is this big-fat AI antagonist who thinks "it" can do thing "900 to 1200 times better than any human." and decided to take on Pentagon. Meanwhile, Alan a.k.a TRON (Bruce Boxleitner) and his girlfriend, Dr. Lora Baines a.k.a Yori (Cindy Morgan), friends of Flynn sneak him into ENCOM's laser laboratory, where he forge access to mainframe. Lora, who has been developing a method of digitizing real objects into the computer, sets Flynn down at her terminal in the laser lab. As Flynn attempts to break into the system, he is confronted by the MCP, who takes control of the laser and digitizes Flynn into the ENCOM mainframe. Flynn finds himself in the digital world, where Programs resemble their human creators, the Users. Here Sark, a MCPs minion forces the captured programs in a gladiator combat till they are eliminated.
Tron is almost wholly a technological movie, of a computer world where programs make themselves romantic and display human nature; first of its kind with many to follow in its footsteps.
"It's exciting, it's fun, and it's just what video-game fans and anyone with a spirit of adventure will love—despite plot weaknesses."
The English Patient (1996)
An epic of life, death, love, sensuality and war.
The English Patient grabbed nine Oscars (including the Best Picture), along with three other nominations in 1997. Need I say more that this is a must watch. A word of caution this is not your regular movie; it is slow, steady, poetic and slightly on the classical side (if you get my drift).
The movie open with an aircraft shot down somewhere in Sahara Desert. The pilot, Count Laszlo Almasy (Ralph Fiennes), survives with some serious burns and very little recollection of the past, and is rescued by a Bedouin. Turned over to the Canadian medical unit stationed in Italy, with nothing to go on (due to serious burns and amnesia) he is named "English Patient".
Hana (Juliette Binoche), a nurse in the unit takes care of him. Realizing that "English Patient" is slowly dying, Hana manages to persuade here superior to care for him alone in an abandoned villa, until he succumbs to inevitable.
It is not too late they are accompanied by- a mysterious, crippled war veteran named Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe), who has a hidden agenda, and a pair of bomb experts, the British Sgt. Hardy (Kevin Whately) and his Sikh superior, Kip (Naveen Andrews).
The storyline swings to-and-fro between past and present, through dreams and waking flashbacks as Laszlo's memory slowly return. Constant flip-flops between late-'30s and early- '40s, reveal Laszlo to be a part of a British map-making effort of Sahara under the banner of Royal Geographical Society. It's then that he meets Katharine Clifton (Kristin Scott Thomas), the wife of a fellow pilot (Colin Firth) who is helping with the project. Laszlo and Katharine fall for each other, and so to forbidden tale of love starts.
It sure throbs of melodrama; I would rather like to call it classical. In its defence, it is a well-crafted story brought to screen with great care by British playwright and director Anthony Minghella and based on the prize-winning novel by Michael Ondaatje, that serves up the love of Almasy and Katharinein a way that is simultaneously epic and intimate.
The one flaw in The English Patient- The "modern-day" scenes with Almasy awaiting death aren't as nearly as involving as the flashback sequences. Characters of Hana and Kip aren't fully-realized, though they are on sideline, the scenes that take place in this time frame, some of which are quite lengthy, seem unwanted interruptions.
The English Patient is an epic of life, death, love, sensuality and war. It is heartbreakingly poetic, wonderfully directed, keen importance to detail, and contrast of pain and pleasure. It is a sort of love story that seem rare these days.
Avatar (2009)
Treat yourself... a must watch in IMAX
Terminator, Titanic, these are the names everyone have heard of. What do they have in common with Avatar? An avangard director by the name of James Cameron. This was my first IMAX 3D experience and this turned out to be a visual extravaganza. In recent past, Hollywood has produced some stunning movies in the genre, and we knew something great is coming, and this movie shows how far we have come; this is what we had been waiting for. This is the benchmark of the 21st century action-adventure-sci-fi experience. The movie is about Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic marine, who travels 4.4 light years to come to Pandora, under the banner of Avatar program. Pandora a lush green, low gravity moon of Polyphemus, inhabited by hominoid race called Na'vi. A Na'vi is nine feet tall, have bones reinforced by naturally occurring carbon fibre, have bioluminescent blue skin, big eyes, small ears and a tail. They live in harmony with nature and worship a mother goddess called Eywa. Members of Avatar program have successfully genetically engineered human-na'vi hybrid knows "Avatar", that can be remotely controlled. Jake's mission is to infiltrate the Na'vi camp, gather Intel and reconcile a treaty with them to move their camp, which happen to be resting on large deposit of "unobtanium", the reason for humans to come to Pandora. Failing to convince the Na'vi's and simultaneously falling in love with them, their culture and a Na'vi name Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña). When Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), decides to go all weapons free on Na'vi population, Jake sides with Na'vi's to give them an edge in the "battle of bows and arrows against gunships". The visual effects in the movie are truly groundbreaking. The movie is interesting, entertaining, emotional, and action packed; an overall awesome performance. Animation, characterization of Na'vi and other Pandora creatures are by far the best I have seen. A must watch. Treat yourself by watching it in IMAX 3D.
Broken Windows (2008)
Real and Insightful
Three days, four women, life altering decisions which could affect rest of their lives.
Broken Windows is a drama featuring four women Sara (Larisa Oleynik), Katie (Sarah Thompson as), Amy (Jennifer Hall) and Beth (Sara Jane Nash), who are at different places of life but equally dissatisfied. Director Tony Hickman explores about waking up in the middle of life and craving change. The four stories come together at the birthday party of a deceased grandfather, where all the drama unfolds and reveals the story of their discontent.
The movie is "real"; it is about the nuances of life; about grief, discontent, hurt and the burden that people carry in themselves and the way it shapes them.
The film has done a wondrous job being an independent film. The whole crew from writer, director to actors, everyone has done an amazing job; the ordinarily of the film sets it par with real life, topped with an equally strong performances by characters. The background music, the muffling acoustic is a beautiful choice. I loved the In Light of Recent News by The Outline.
Corri English, Devon Gummersall, Jonathan Murphy, Jason Winston Georg, Michael Gross, Kyle Brandt complete the movie with equally impressive performance.
The movie is adorable. It is not a typical box office flick; it has the element of realness that may make it look ordinary and tedious. Hence I won't recommend it to everybody but those who like insightful and rather straightforward, "real", element in a drama.
The Kite Runner (2007)
Spellbinding
I haven't read the book yet, so don't judge me. I know a book is always better then the movie. The movie is perfect in every sense, the story, the script, the acting, and the cinematography.
The Kite Runner is a 2007 Academy Award-nominated film directed by Marc Forster based on the novel of the same name by Khaled Hosseini.
The movie tells story of Amir (Zekiria Ebrahimi), who has grown up in the comfortable, cultured home of his secular, militantly anti-mullah father, Baba (the marvelous Iranian actor Homayoun Ershadi) who are Pashtun, part of the ruling elite. Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada), son of family servant Ali, is of Hazara community. The two young friends may be servant and master, but inseparable. They together form a Kite flying team in which Hassan is the Kite Runner and hence the name of the movie.
The movie starts with all grow up Amir (Khalid Abdalla), who is now a novelist in San Francisco, year 2001, having fled Afghanistan with his father after the Soviet invasion. He is a man haunted by his past and movie shifts back to 1978 before Kabul was disclaimed by Russians or by Taliban, to the story of young friends and how they are driven apart.
The movie portrays two versions of Kabul, the happy and ravaged, portraying the damage done by Russian Invasion and Taliban rule.
"The Kite Runner" isn't subtle, but it allows us to see a country and a culture from the inside. A country that we mainly know glimpses of headline and news. The Afghan scenes are played in Dari, not English. It is a great movie and touches many subtle issues; only a mighty tough viewer could fail to be moved.
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008)
Not bad at all!
It had been a long since I have seen a Hindi movie in theater, or seen a Hindi movie at all. I am not outright fan of Bollywood, but it does have its charm that Hollywood movies don't. Thanks to my mom and sister for taking to this not so great but OK movie, which does change my views about "going down the ditch" Bollywood scenario. On the whole, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is very desi at heart with a strong start and an equally strong emotional end. But more is expected from Aditya Chopra. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is no Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, it's not Mohabatein either. But it is a movie with healthy humor. The movie is set on the backdrop of Amritsar. Surinder (Shah Rukh Khan), a simple, clean-hearted, honest man working for Punjab Power, leads an average work-class life, but the moment he sets his eyes on Taani (Anushka Sharma), his life undergoes a change. She's flamboyant, fun-loving, and vivacious, unlike Surinder. Unforeseen circumstances bring them together. Taani goes to learn dancing and then wants to participate in its dance competition, a reality show called "Dancing Jodi". Surinder wants to make his wife happy so he allows her to join. He then, with the help of his childhood friend Balwinder Khosla 'Bobby' (Vinay Pathak), metamorphoses into an alternate persona, named Raj who is a quick witted, outspoken, smart, dashing, fun loving person who fortunately becomes Taani's partner in the competition. And what then, like all Hindi movies they live happily ever after. The movie is not so strong with respect to plot, story or even screenplay but I did enjoy a good laugh. The funda of Hindi movies is simple just sit back relax and let the movie happen and don't think about it much. It is worth mentioning that to mention you see a different Shah Rukh Khan in this movie. He is very much involved in the character of Surinder that he makes it so effortless. Shah Rukh Khan delivers a excellent performance, and shows us why he is the best with a lot of change. It was nice to see him do some unusual and unparallel role. The lovely newcomer, Anushka Sharma, come out a very confident and promising star for the future. Having debuts with Mega Stars like Shah Rukh Khan may be the new formula Hollywood is trying after success of Deepika Padukone. As per me the "Shah Rukh Khan fights a sumo wrestler" scene, was a mess (if not a disaster), either it has to be funny or sad - it can't be both, and in this case it was neither. How many times does Surinder need to tearfully mention that he loves Taani an awful lot? And how many times does he have to do this - in the hair salon? The film skipping like a scratched record at times and becomes repetitive. The movie is plain with no crescendo, climax or movement of any kind. And not to forget Hindi movies are all about songs indeed and the movie does deliver a few good songs like Haule Haule, and upbeat song Dance Pe Chance. The item song Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte was not great but OK, reminded me of "Dani California" by Red Hot Chili Peppers, (if you don't agree with me, don't crucify me) it gets repetitive with the same lyrics repeating over and over again. It's a tribute to Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, and Rishi Kapoor. The song does contain lyrics from and allusions to some fantastic songs from the 1950s through 1980s. It would be a fun exercise to try to identify them. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi really should be one of the better comedies of the year. I certainly hope it is. Regardless, at least it'll have lovely newcomer Anushka Sharma in wardrobe I'm most attracted to!