Interstellar - Must watch after a quick reading of Resnick Halliday

For the students who did not opt for Science during High School, understanding Interstellar could be a bit difficult, as for the others who did not take their Physics lessons seriously. I would recommend a 30 minute Google crash course on Relativity, Black Holes and Quantum Physics before heading for this one, because this is a movie that needs to be watched if you love sci-fi, since this could end up as one of the most creative movies in this genre.

Chrsitopher Nolan always has a grand vision and it is evident in the way the entire concept has been thought of. He has the capability of taking average movie goers out of their comfort zones and make them think and comprehend concepts they normally would not.

Somewhere in the future, there has been a "crop blight" that has reduced humanity to an existence where most people understand that the earth would soon be inhabitable, signaling the end of the human race. Among them is former astronaut, scientist and engineer Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) who now leads the life of a farmer with his son, daughter and father-in-law. The daughter played admirably by Mackenzie Foy, regularly witnesses certain activities in the small library in her room and says that there is a ghost in there, which she is not afraid of, since the ghost seems to be telling her something. Initially Cooper does not take her seriously, but later realizes that that signals from the book shelves provide them some coordinates.

These coordinates lead them to a secret NASA location, with a much cut down workforce, headed by Professor Brand(Michael Caine), who is known to Cooper. Brand says that since the earth would end in a few decades, there have been missions to check other planets, where the human beings could survive. They have been guided by some "alien information" to a wormhole that takes them to these planets that orbit around a black hole. Three of these planets have been found to be potentially habitable as per signals received from astronauts that went there 10 years back. 

There is a Plan A where if a planet is actually habitable, Brand would send the entire remaining human race there, through giant space shuttles that would move through gravity, the theory for which he is working on through a complex equation involving quantum physics, gravity and the speed of light. In case Plan A does not succeed, since the equation is not solved, Plan B is to plant freezed human fetuses into the habitable planet, through surrogacy and ensure that the human race lives on.

Cooper agrees to be the pilot for the spaceship Endurance along with Brand's daughter Amelia, two robots TARS and CASE and two more scientists. They soon realize that there is a huge time dilation in these planets and a few days or even hours spent in these planets would mean many years on the earth, so they stand a chance of never being able to meet their loved ones again and worse get back to the earth when the human race is already finished, that is if they ever go back to the earth, braving the severe challenges that lay ahead. 

The rest of the movie is a gripping account of travel to these planets, through worm holes and then through a black hole fused with very real human emotions on the spacecraft and back on earth. Owing to time dilation, Cooper's daughter Murphy has grown up and become an excellent scientist and joined Brand at NASA, yearning for her father to return. The climax is especially unexpected and incredible and if one is able to understand, one would be "Physics-cally" overwhelmed. Ever imagined how a multi-dimensional space-time curve would look?

The best thing about Hollywood movies is they are not overwhelmed by a great sci-fi script, they pay equal attention to other aspects of film making, including acting and human emotions as well. The acting of the main characters is excellent, neither hyper not understated, exactly how it should be, in a dying planet, in a spacecraft and so on. The emotional bond between father and daughter, the camaraderie of the astronauts is also very well depicted. Even the characters of the witty robots CASE and TARS have been so well developed, that one feels bad when TARS has to sacrifice itself to reduce weight in the spaceship. It however connects to Cooper during the climax.

The special effects are excellent. All the scenes, the spacecraft, the scenes in outer space, inside a black hole or other planets look very real. Though they look similar to another excellent movie off late, Gravity. At times some of the concepts also sound similar to other movies I have watched in this genre. 

I felt the movie at 169 minutes running time, was a bit long for a Hollywood movie, however except a few scenes you would never feel that it has been unnecessarily stretched. If you really understand Relativity, Black Holes and Quantum mechanics, there could be many question asked. For example, we see time dilation, but why is there no mass defect at speeds of light? Or for that matter, even light cannot escape a black hole, can a space craft and human beings inside really survive?

However this much "cinematic liberty" has to be given, especially since this is a well-made movie otherwise.

I would strongly recommend watching, and give it 4 stars out of 5.

 

Haider

First things first, "Haider" is among the best till now from the multi talented Vishal Bhardwaj, if not the best. And I say this knowing fully well that he has created other gems like "Omkara", "Ishqiya" and "Maqbool".

Technical things come later, for me the movie stands apart for its intensity, narrative and extremely good performances from almost all its main characters. Kay Kay Menon who would probably end up with the likes of Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher and Om Puri by the time he hangs his boots, delivers yet another flawless performance as the antagonist.

Ambitous and slimy, lecherous and political, highly unethical, but with an excellent gift of the gab and warmth that convinces most people, Menon got under the skin of Bhardwaj's Claudius. There are very few people who can exactly play the director's character more than him. Just think of the other characters he played, Rudra Pratap Singh(Shaurya), Dukey Bana(Gulaal), Rakesh Maria(Black Friday) and you would know. Kay Kay is the most under rated actor of Bollywood and deserves much more recognition and respect.

And one of the most under rated actresses (since non actresses have hogged the limelight) is Tabu! It is sad that Bollywood has not been able to get more from her. Her character is of a woman who slipped, but has been misunderstood a lot more, who loves her son dearly, wants everything in life, but loses all.

The myriad thoughts, the conflicts of emotions in various situations, have been flawlessly portrayed by the peerless actress. Her different gazes and face expressions in difference situations is testimony to her prowess.

Tabu and Kay Kay have given many such great performances in the past, but as far as Shahid Kapoor is concerned, this is his best performance till date.

The character is very challenging and I think his hard work and his great father's genes helped him live up to the role with aplomb. He is very clam in the first half as is the demand of the character, with some burts of anger here and there, but he just owns the second half and matches up to acting powerhouses like Menon and Tabu.

The mood swings, the acting within the acting at times, the sarcastic one liners to his mother, all are superlative. The scene at a chowk as a satire on the establishment and the dialogues with Tabu and Menon stand out.

Television actor Narendra Jha plays the important part of Shahid Kapoor's father and a doctor very effectively. Shraddha Kapoor also tries sincerely and does her best as the protagonist's love interest. I thought one of the best actors of Bollywood, Irfan, was not required to play the role of "Roohgaar", but even in a special appearance he proves his mettle. Maybe Bhardwaj cannot do without him these days.

All other actors, play their parts competently. The two Salmans, based on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of Shakespeare's Hamlet, provide comic relief in an otherwise poignant and tragic storyline.

Macbeth, Othello and now Hamlet, Vishal Bhardwaj could get a PhD on Shakespeare now! :)

The character building has to be appreciated which many directors fail to do. Things are not black and white, all of us have shades of grey and all the characters are consistent with this fact and do what seems right from each one's point of view. The script takes up the Kashmir issue and juxtaposes it with the Hamlet storyline very successfully. Like the characters, the Kashmir issue too has many points of view and lines blur when one honestly sits to decide right and wrong.

There have been many movies on Kashmir. As Indians we must support the Indian cause and our army and we do so. The Kashmir issue however in totality is very complex and as film maker one needs to capture it in its entirety, as per his honest understanding.

So when the army man says, "No terrorist dead or alive is worth my soldier's life", it is a very genuine feeling of a commanding officer, when a soldier from some part of India dies fighting terrorists in Kashmir to protect India's sovereignty. In the same way, innocent civilians who accidentally die in the cross fire of army and terrorists, or are arrested and tortured, also have their own painful stories and their families rightly feel aggrieved.

Though the Kashmir issue is only a sub plot, I think this is one movie which has been able to show things as is, without giving any judgement. Bhardwaj deserves credit for this too.

The cinematography, the picturesque Kashmir, the red blood on white snow for example, the unusual camera angles, the time given to the viewer for some of the scenes to sink in, together give the movie the look of an all time classic.

What may work against the movie though, are couple of songs at the wrong time, which were not required actually. I also felt that some sequences could have been shorter and overall the movie should have been 20 minutes shorter. We shall see whether this ends up as an all time classic.

For now, the movie gets 4.5 out of 5 from me!



 

The Chennai Express Phenomenon!

Not writing a formal review on "Chennai Express" because the movie is unbelievably crass and horrible, far worse than I thought.

Rohit Shetty is not known for making quality movies anyway, but at least his earlier movies had some form of comedy and entertainment. In this one there is not one scene that one could appreciate as real comedy and would remember. The intended humourous scenes fall flat on your face and are plain irritating. Stereotyping one community and overacting unnecessarily, really do not fall under any kind of comedy.

Shah Rukh Khan hams, overacts miserably and probably delivers his worst performance till date. After a horrible Ra One, an average Jab Tak Hai Jaan and then this one, SRK might be still earning money, but his standing as an actor and the quality of movies he stands for takes a severe beating. When he looks back, he would probably regret that with all the money and power he wielded, at this stage of his career, he could have made some real world class cinema that could have made Bollywood international in the true sense and taken Indian cinema to the next level.

Though nothing exceptional, Deepika Padukone tries her best and does deliver in her role of a Tamil girl, to an extent. The other actors, Deepika's "Don" father, rowdy cousins, fiance, are well cast, but they become a part of the terrible cacophony masquerading as cinema. The cinematography is good and Shetty is very good in showing long convoys of cars and then blowing them up!

Having said this there are two things we need to consider.

The first point is Shah Rukh Khan's business model.

So marketing and hype renders quality and content of cinema optional and unnecessary. The reviews are amazingly guarded during the first week and though no one says the movie is a class apart for obvious reasons, they also do not say that movie is pure garbage. By this time the marketing, the long Eid weekend among other things, ensures an earning of 150 crores at the box office. After the film has earned, the reviews now are pretty scathing.

So SRK's network and strategy has to be appreciated from a purely business point of view and he cannot be really blamed if it works for him.

The second point is on the Indian movie goer and his choice of films.

I can understand different people may like different genres and kinds of movies, all directors cannot be Satyajit Rays and some movies would be made just for entertainment and/or comedy. So for me "Munnabhai" was an example of pure entertainment and "Hera Pheri" was pure comedy. Does the Indian audience really not understand the difference between these and horrible cinema like Chennai Express?

How can Indians pay 150 crores for a movie like this, while quality cinema routinely bombs at the box office?  The saving grace is that movies like "Paan Singh Tomar", "Kahaani" and "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag" are also doing well, so there is some hope. The ideal situation would be when these movies make much more money than mindless movies like Chennai Express, but for that, the Indian movie goer has to mature big time!

I can be accused of being "cinematically snobbish" and then one can say something like "If the people accept something, it is good and successful." However the same logic is given by Indian politicians, after all it is again the people who choose them too, but can we be really be proud of the people who run our nation?

The larger problem is that success of movies like these, redefines the definition of "good cinema", so other film makers would follow this model since it is much easier to make a movie without a good script, direction and quality acting. So we can expect much more garbage to flow out of Bollywood.

So while India would remain a nation of corrupt politicians, it would also maintain its status of being a nation that makes the most movies, but very few that can take on the best in the world.

Movie Review: The Lunchbox - Simply Brilliant!

A movie with Irfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, arguably the two best actors in contemporary Bollywood, is a must watch. There would be lots of critical acclaim for the actors and rightly so, but let me first speak of writer-director Ritesh Batra, whose name I had not heard before.

At a time when directors are raking in millions by successfully diluting the collective IQ of the nation to below 50, Batra deserves rich applauds for daring to make a movie in a style probably Satyajit Ray would have appreciated, focussing on the actual things that make for good cinema. A good story, perfect real life characterization, great acting, direction, cinematography, captivating camera angles capturing real life, among other things.

Saajan Fernandes(Irfan) is a boring, mundane but efficient government employee, nearing retirement, who has nothing exciting coming up in life. His wife is long dead, he has no kids and lives alone. Irfan has completely become the character. No one can say he is the same Irfan Khan who played Pan Singh Tomar that got him the national award. Just think of a routine, old government employee, they way they talk, the way they behave, almost lifeless at times, Irfan gets all this perfectly right. The scene where he buys a painting, where he explains that he is an old man, where he tries to hide a letter, are worth savouring. It is very interesting to watch the subtle changes in his behaviour, when something "interesting" does happen in his life.

He gets a dabba(lunchbox) from a hotel, through the dabbawalahs of Mumbai. In real life it has been extrapolated through live examples, that the dabbawalahs probably make one mistake in 6 million deliveries. However such a mistake forms the crux of this beautiful story. A dabba reaches Fernandes, made by a housewife Ila(Nimrat Kaur) and hence starts an unusual relationship through small letters in the lunchbox, where they share their experiences, insecurities and hopes in life. This would make one nostalgic of a bygone era where love and relationships did happen through letters!

Nimrat Kaur as Ila is absolutely brilliant, not sure why we do not get to see more of these actors. She plays the role of a housewife to perfection, the way she cooks and tastes the food, the mannerisms, the way she washes clothes and her attempts to impress her insensitive husband, her hopelessness, are all spot on.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui has probably got nothing wrong, since he started acting. He has proved time and again, that if you know your acting, you do not need a background, godfather, looks, dance, action, but just brilliant acting. Here he proves his mettle again, scene by scene, against an exceptional Irfan. An irritating trainee Aslam, who is supposed to replace Fernandes, displaying dignified sycophancy, Siddique again delivers with his expressions and dialogue delivery. The scene where he speaks out to Irfan for not training him, the scene where he expects the latter to offer lunch just through expressions or the one where he requests him to be his guardian, stand out.

The novel experiment of using the recognizable voice of Bharti Achrekar as the Aunty upstairs also comes off very well. Lillete Dubey as Ila's mother has just two scenes, but does very well in the second, emphasizing the vacuum and hopelessness at a certain stage of life and how we realize things were not exactly what we thought, when they happen. 

The unusual camera angles, the attention to details,(example, the clear and crisp sound of an unfolding paper), the excellent research done on the dabbawalahs of Mumbai and the subtle nuances of a common man's life a Mumbai, in the packed buses, local trains and offices, dogged and romanticizing at the same time, have been done skilfully. All these underline the fact that the movie has been made painstakingly, with the attitude of a perfectionist. Life does not have a perfect ending, everything would not fit in logically, but we still need to hope and do the best we can to be happy, the movie seems to say this the end.

On the downside, I did not find anything glaring or worth mentioning. However since we are also catering to an internet and Whatsapp generation, that wants things very fast, the pace of the movie could have been slightly faster especially during the first half. But that could have diluted a few things that cinema connoisseurs would enjoy, so I guess this one should be watched for the craft of film making.

Such movies need to be watched simply for the reason that the Indian audience also needs to watch some real cinema. Otherwise no one would make these kind of movies that may not fetch 200 crores, but would live forever as classics and masterpieces. They need to seen because we need to have more of real actors like Irfan, Nimrat and Nawazuddin in India and directors who can at least come close to someone like Satyajit Ray.

They need to be seen so that we can proudly say that yes we make such movies too!

4.5 out of 5 stars for this one!




 

Movie Review - Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, please book your tickets immediately!

Some stories need to be told.

Many people know the Olympic heartbreak of India's greatest runner, but people need to know the tough circumstances and situations in life, braving which this man became the Milkha Singh we know. Suffering partition, to being a wagon breaker and being jailed, to joining the army, losing in love and becoming a champion.

The way such a story is told is very important and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra deserves a standing ovation to have done this with utmost brilliance, with a classy script penned by the very talented Prasoon Joshi. The movie did not focus only on Milkha's running. The core of course is that, but it is very skillfully wrapped around the pangs of partition, human relations, choices in life, nostalgia and fighting one's own demons.

The cinematography perfectly capture the haunting memories of partition, the competitive spirit of the training and the races, the complete essence of those times.
Like life, the movie has humour, pain, love, competition, defeat and victory, a real biopic in the true sense.

Farhan Akhtar is unbelievable in the movie. We often hear that actors need to "get into the character" of the role they are portraying, something many of our superstars are often unable to do. Here Farhan Akhtar just becomes Milkha Singh, he took his soul. The Sikh mannerisms, accent, style, attitude, everything is spot on! One would not find a strain of the characters he portrayed in Rock On or Zindagi Na Milega Dobara. However the most amazing part is the way he has built his body and the way he ran in the movie. The ones who have followed people like Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis and Usain Bolt would say he ran just like a real top class athlete would. The technique, coordination of hands and legs, falling over the finishing line, flawless! Brilliant director, singer and now roles like this, the junior Akhtar surely would end up as one of the most talented Bollywood has ever seen.

I would be surprised if he does not get a national award for this performance, he has trumped someone like Irfan in Pan Singh Tomar. So some other actor would really have to work out of his skin to beat this performance and we have very few "actors" anyway!
Farhan is backed by a brilliant choice of other actors and their performances, for the other roles. Divya Dutta as Milkha's elder sister is impeccable, her expressions sometimes leave a lump in the throat. Espcially the scene where Milkha comes in wearing the Indian blazer. Pawan Malhotra is always perfect in his roles since his days in Nukkad, so it is no surprise that he adds pure value as Milkha's first coach.

Prakash Raj as Milkha's South Indian commander in the army, does well as usual and brings in some humour quotient. Yograj Singh as Milkha's national coach may not have the acting prowess of the other actors, but he did fine too. Maybe the tough ways he trained his son Yuvraj to be a champion in real life, helped him in the role. Sonam Kapoor has very few dialogues, but her scenes as Milkha's love interest are nice and bring back an air of innocent loves from the days gone by.

Most other actors, even in smaller roles, the kid Milkha, his massacred family in Punjab, his friends in differents part of life do their small parts very well, so again credit to the director.

The music and background score of Shankar Ehsaan Loy pep up the movie, though I felt we could have done with couple songs less, since this is anyway a long movie. The movie could have been a bit shorter, notwithstanding it is a biopic, especially in the first half. In case they decide to send this one for the awards, this needs to be trimmed a bit.

However this takes nothing away from the best cinema of 2013 as of now.

4.5 stars for this classic!

Movie Review: Goynaar Baksho - Quality Bangla cinema raising its head

In music there is a term called the "Thehrao" of the voice, that lets the sur stay alive in the vocal chords for a few seconds(or milliseconds) and provides the ears musical bliss and a sense of perfection. Directors like Aparna Sen have that "Thehrao" in the craft of film making, that is bliss for the senses. The beauty and the simplicity of the Post Independent Bengal, the poetry and the music apt for the scenes, the hypocrisy of the society, the arrogance and uselessness of the "Zamindars", the symbolic sequences, everything is brought out very well in an efficient screenplay.

Moushumi Chatterjee as the slightly wicked, expletive-spouting, yet tragic and overall good at heart "Pishima" is simply wonderful. Those who remember her as the glamorous heroine of yesteryears would be surprised! Konkona as the meek but determined wife is very good too. Though in some "stammering scenes" it looked like she was "acting", otherwise she does proper justice to the role. Saswata Chatterjee(now famous as "Bob Biswas" of Kahaani) adds to the humour quotient and plays the role of the "inefficient husband towards redemption" very well. The rest of cast does well too, though I felt a couple good actors were a bit wasted.

While the first half is simply brilliant, what does not work in the second is trying to bring in too many issues and trying to sew them together around the story. The plot could have been left alone with its simplicity without bringing in 1971 and Mukhti Bahani, among other things. Also I doubt whether a girl in a small town in Bengal would drive a scooter in the early 70s or for that matter whether a "child widow" from the pre Independence era, could so openly approach a labour to satisfy the needs of her youth. Debatable, but cinematic liberty given!

Bongs must watch this, connoisseurs of good cinema should watch too, it has sub titles.

3.75 out of 5 stars!
 

Movie Review - Bombay Talkies - Encouraging experimental cinema

Four directors, four short movies, slices of human life, showing the impact of Bollywood on people. So Bombay Talkies is a tribute to Bollywood and what these movies mean to Indians from different backgrounds and social groups. No unnecessary glitter or item songs, all four directors tried honest and realistic cinema.

In the first, Karan Johar tries something completely different from what he has done till now and succeeds very well. This is the best treatment of gay issues I have seen in Bollywood as of now. Randeep Hooda, Saquib Salem and Rani Mukherjee, all three are brilliant, still Rani would take the cake. One wonders if Johar had been this brave throughout his career, he could have belted out some classics, instead of meaningless candy floss love stories.

The second by Dibakar Banerjee is the best. If one honestly checks the variety of roles Nawazuddin Siddiqui has played with aplomb, one would have to concede that he has been the best actor of Bollywood during the past 2 years or so and definitely among the top 3 actors currently. Please note I am saying, "actor" and not "star". The latter group could receive acting lessons from him. The mundane life of an aspiring actor, his daughter and wife for whom he is a hero, his pet Emu who would give eggs one day, perhaps symbolic of his immaterialized dreams and ambition, his confusions and what happens when one day by accident he gets to act with a real star!
Banerjee's direction has shades of Satyajit Ray, on whose short story the film has been based.

The third one by Zoya Akhtar explores the pressures parents put kids into and the stereotypes that run through our society. A sensitive one, again acted very well by a child, but gets a bit slow in between. How the kid who does not want to play football but dance like "Shiela", who idolizes Katrina Kaif and how he finds a way to chase his dreams, forms a overall very good story. Zoya, like Karan has to be applauded for the choice of subject and direction.

In the last one, Anurag Kashyap also breaks his mould and makes the most "Bollywoodish" movie of the four, though sprinkled with real life like sequences, that is a characteristic of all his movies. How a simple man from Allahabad follows family tradition and puts in so much effort and pain to get home made "murabba" tasted by Amitabh Bachhan, so that his father could live longer! Vineet Kumar Singh has fine acting skills and brings in simplicity and humour together very well. The scene where he meets Big B, while the latter's dialogues play in the background, is my favourite from the entire movie.

The movie ends with a not so great song, but the ensemble of stars does impress!

3.25 stars out of 5!