MOVIE TALKIES

my name is KHAN(2010) - Hindi

2010-02-14T08:06:00.000-08:00

Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol..........

Directed By: Karan Johar

Produced By: FOX and Red Chillies and Dharma Productions

Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Storyline:

“My name is khan. Im not a terrorist”, this is what Rizwan khan wants to say to president of

USA

. His travel speaks the whole story by narrating whenever he writes into his diary. “What provoked him to speak to the president”, is the story with emotions that revolves around his wife, kid, friends, brother, religion, basic perceptions, humanity, love, autism. Basically it is not possible to write all these in this review, film viewing will give you an good feel than explaining in short. Will go with my RE-el-VIEW.

RE-el-VIEW:

After long time Karan has come out with 2 hr 45 mins drama, which is the shortest one from his creations. Karan well known for his emotional touch in the relationships that he spills into any script which makes everyone to feel for it or feel that his creation is emotional drama. May be this is the first time , karan has given emotional drama with a message. Usual script(already discussed in NewYork, Forrest Gump) with importance to relationships, neatly rewritten and makes audience to be with the characters that he portrays.

Recent times in hindi cinema, divorced mom who falls in love with a new person, which is more common and been portrayed onscreen without any hesitation. Is this the right message to the Indian society. who knows??. Kajol who is mom of single child, falls in love with SRK and both get married. Even they discuss to have intimate relationship after marriage, which is really a shit. May be karan feels this will be the right story to suit actors of age in 40 n 50’s.

In first half except songs “Tere Naina” and “Sajjda” nothing seems to be interesting, it was almost like tv soaps with too many explanations about the character Rizwan Khan and making leads to next 1 and half hrs movie. I understand this was to avoid “why” kinda of questions about the character, but this can be made short and crisp.

Second half is the part where you feel that you are in Karan’s territory, audience will experience feel of the movie with lots n lots of emotions filled drama. This part makes that you are satisfied with this movie. This is not a great story and it was good work from Karan in handling two great stars in this script. Karan managed to reach the finish line successfully.

SRK and Kajol their onscreen chemistry is still the same, too good. Anyway this script is not a typical love story where their chemistry is very rosy rosy, but still the scenes when they are together in songs are really cute. SRK acting was good enough to applaud but not too good, his acting style was like watching Tom Hanks from Forrest Gump and Vikram in Pithamagan. Kajol acting was in her typical style, everyone loves it. Only one scene where you want to applaud for her acting when she burst out in tears after losing her son. SRK oldness shows on his face and for kajol atleast it doesn’t show on her face.

Ravi K Chandran cinematography is the another silent star in this movie gives a pleasant view to the eyes of audience with his excellent work. Three songs “Tere Naina” n “Sajjda” n “Noor E Khuda” speaks for Ravi. Aerial shots in the “Noor E Khuda” song definetly will make audience to ask “Who is this cinematographer”. Ravi Rocks. Hope you do same magic in tamil films as well.

Sabu Cyril is the well known art director has done great job in bringing the hurricane hit areas in US.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and karan combination have given music in their usual trademark style, “Tere Naina” n “Sajjda” n “Noor E Khuda” songs are really good when seen onscreen.

“Worth watching for SRK, Kajol, Ravi’s cinematography and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy music.”

Naan Kadavul(2009) - Tamil

2009-02-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

Cast : Arya, Pooja, Physically challenged people and new faces.
Directed By : Bala
Produced By : Vasan visual ventures
Music : Ilayaraja

Storyline:

A father with his daughter goes to kasi in search of his son who was left there 12 years ago for his superstitious belief in his family. He finds his son Rudra(Arya) who turns to be an Agori and decides to take back to his home. Where in his village Mudhalali who runs a begging business with a lots of physically challenged people who are been tortured severely in doing it. Rudra who believes him as a god saves the physically challenged people(which includes Pooja) from the evil Mudhalali.

RE-el-VIEW :

I'm really running out of words to explain how good this movie. Till date in Tamil cinema there can't be any movie better than this and it would be really tough and challenging to make a movie like this or even better by bala.

Movie starts in kasi bringing out the spirit that exist there and moves to mallaikoyil to feel the much more better taste of the main plot and find purpose for it.

Arya is who is an agori(these people are not human, this can be meant in any sense. To know the real life of these people, check the video in youtube) and his appearance cannot be forgotten because it threatens when you come out of theatre. Arya's commitment in Naan kadavul is not just about having a long beard and hair,it's all about kind of tolerance(physically and mentally) and patience to work in kasi and do yoga asana's(standing upside down). Bala has moulded Arya as a good actor and carved a niche for him in Tamil industry which will last for long time. To be honest there is nothing much scope for Arya to showcase his acting skills in this movie when compared to Pooja but we can't takeaway his credits, its the other way he has shown his commitment with his looks and on-screen appearance which is par excellence. Rudra characterization is raw and threatening which is unusual in Tamil cinema but still this character holds the heroism of different kind. More than tamil Arya speaks Sanskrit with hard voice.

Arya's introduction in Naan kadavul with Illayaraja's background score is awesome. Amount of hard work that arya has given can be seen in each scene.

Pooja comes as a blind girl has shown excellent acting skills which is ever scene in Tamil cinema recently . Definitely she should deserve the recognition for the kind of acting she has shown and will go places from here on. She has dubbed for her own voice which is really good. After watching this movie pooja's character still stays in your memory this is because of strength of that character where bala has impressed everyone with his direction. It is entirely Bala's movie no doubt about it, each and every scene uniqueness of bala can be experienced by the audience. This man is really great . Stupendous direction,screenplay and handling of characters without the lag for a single minute in the movie with little flaws.

Mostly importantly this movie had to deal with lots of physically challenged people and these people are the supporting characters where they come till the end of the movie. Each one has shown excellent acting and credits goes to bala in handling them and bringing their talent. Comedy which is seen in this movie are done by physically challenged people this shows the kind of strain taken by bala in bringing out the characters in the screen.

Without Ilayaraja there is no Naan kadavul. Background score which is awesome and makes you feel the core content.

Arthur wilson camera really steals the show with his awesome cinematography captured in kasi and in mallaikoyil.

It would have been tough time for censor board to do their job. They have chopped many scenes which shows real character of agori(what he eats???) and dialogues. I do not know how did they give green signal for teasing nayantara openly in comedy scenes but it was enjoyable. Finally they end up in giving U/A. Naan kadavul will not be easily accepted by weak hearted people. Naan kaduval makes you feel heavy mentally at the end of the movie.

This movie is not simple , each and every scene and dialogue makes sense so people who like only commercial movie with non sense punch dialogues saying "SEE ME IN ACTION" or "IM BACK" do not watch this movie.

Hope this movie changes directors and actors/actress who follow so called commercial formula.

"Worth watching and never miss to watch in life time".

Dasavatharam(2008)-Tamil

2008-06-15T01:10:00.001-07:00

Cast: Kamal Hassan(10), Asin, Mallikha Sherawat, Napolean…….
Directed By: K.S.Ravikumar
Produced By: Oscar Films(name changed as AASCAR in this movie)
Music: Himesh Reshmaiya, Devi Sri Prasad

Storyline:
The basic storyline is that everything happening in this world has some meaning or something related to it.

So kamal has taken this storyline and he has tried to make audience believe that his story has something related to each scene but I didn’t find any meaningful relation.

Story starts in 12th century with Rangaraja Nambi character who is strong with his vaishnavite principle and not willing to go with saivas principle. Because of his strong principle he is thrown into sea along with rangaraja perumal idol.

Then story starts with Govind who is a bio-scientist in US ,his invention is misused by his boss so govind tries to save his dangerous invention from wrong hands. The story moves from US to India as govind goes in to save his bio weapon from American bad guy(kamal).And few more scenes which makes audience to come to an conclusion by relating to each scene.

RE-el-VIEW:

Kamal has taken interesting and controversial topic as the opening scene for Dasavatharam but for safer side I wouldn’t like to comment here about the interesting topic. I would put Dasavatharam as two stories , first as rangaraja nambhi character and bio-scientist character as other.At the end one scene which makes you to get hardly convinced that both stories are related. I felt first story was unnecessary for this movie. To be honest rangaraja nambhi character for the opening was satisfying.

The interesting and funny part was when kamal tries to explain his biological weapon ,no one was able to get what he was saying. He could have tried it to make simple and easily understood to the common man . Story easily moves from US to India which is not real and logical but screenplay was cleverly made so that audience forget the logic for the transition. Mallikha Sherawat glam doll was unnecessary luggage for this movie.

Asin character is just an 5% of the movie ,she has acted well for the scenes she got. Out of ten characters,CBI balram naidu character was most enjoyable part of this movie.CGI work in this movie is dominating more than the kamal’s work. CGI work was not really excellent to make you feel that this is not CGI work and I almost recognized the 90% of CGI work in this movie which is failure for their work. Even the aerial shot of Chennai and tsunami scenes were shot real but along with CGI effect it makes unreal. The worrying part of this movie was the perumal idol which is used throughout the movie is thrown,buried and few dialogues about the idol would definetly hurt religious sentiments of few people they should have taken care in presenting it.

Kamal who is known for his brilliance in acting and passion for cinema has proved again in Dasavatharam. Only one encyclopedia of cinema has put tremendous efforts to present ten characters in one movie which is too huge as the budget of the movie. His brilliance to present to each character was truelly amazing. The George bush character,granny character,scheduled tribe character are the real example of hard work for any actor to put into his role. Definetly there couldn’t be any actor to replace his position after this movie.

Songs for this movie was really excellent especially mukundha mukundha,kallai mattum kandal,oh oh sanam was unexpected tunes from Himesh. Background score by Devi Sri Prasad was awesome. Ravi varman cinematographer has worked a lot for this movie by presenting grand huge shots ,aerial shot of Chennai and 12th century part are the examples. Eventhough movie is directed by KS Ravikumar but everyone knows it’s a combined effort from both kamal and ravikumar. Interactions between three characters, two characters of kamal were executed well and they are the masterpiece of technical brilliance. Dasavatharam is overloaded with too many characters and it’s an overdose for the audience. Normally in kamal films his characters will be dominating other characters but in Dasavatharam his character recursively gets dominated by other character.

After an 3h 15mins film audience will be obsessed only with ten characters of kamal not even the story of the movie. Makeup work for granny character, bush and scheduled tribe character(I guess they have taken the reference of pushpavanam kuppuswamy) are awesome. The pain,strain and time that kamal has gone through to take these many makeups was an tremendous effort. Almost he has spent 500 hours for the makeup. The efforts which he has put for the characters make me forget about the mislinks and loopholes in this movie.

“Worth watching and must watch only for 10 characters of kamal.”

The Forbidden Kingdom(2008)-English

2008-05-17T11:16:00.000-07:00

Starring: Jackie Chan,Jet Li
Director By:Rob Minkoff

Storyline:
A teenager from south boston who is crazy about Kunfu in HongKong films.He becomes an friend of chinese old man who runs shop which rent chinese movie dvds and old man has a STAFF(nothing but a divine stick). The staff which belongs to an ancient chinese 'Monkey King' who has tremondous divine power and martial arts skills, he remains powerfull only when he has the staff. He becomes carved as stone because of his rival Jade Warlord(who is also master in martial arts)and his staff is thrown away. Old man informs to teenager that the staff should reach the right person.The teenager enters into ancient world and finds way along with Jackie Chan and Jet Li to return the staff to the right person

RE-el-VIEW:
Forbidden Kingdom is an fantasy film with action and drama. The movie is really interesting and it has two great martial arts stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Action sequences and special effects for the stunts are really good, i would say stunts in this movie are usual ones not a trendsetting stunts but still it's good to watch. This movie has little surprise to Chan fans,Chan comes as old man in the beginning part of the movie and acted well as an old man.It would not be easy to recognize the Chan as old man even Li does a double role in this movie. Forbidden Kingdom is a fantasy movie so we can't expect logic linked between the scenes and at some point in the movie it make you feel bit bored later it builds up and make you feel better. This movie has been shot in few good locations and also replicates the locations which were used in 'Flying Daggers' movie.

This movie fails to give a clear narration about how the teenager gets into the ancient chinese world and also Li's double role are not clear.If you are not worried about these two things then it's an average movie to watch.The background score of the movie is too good.

"Worth Watching for Jackie Chan and Jet Li stunts...don't expect much...it's an average movie."

Santhosh Subramaniam(2008)-Tamil

2008-05-12T10:46:00.001-07:00

Starring : Ravi,Genelia,Praskash Raj...so on.
Directed By : Raja

Produced By : AGS Entertainment
Music : Devi Sri Prasad

Storyline:
Son Who fights for his own right of choice with his father. Finally he stands strongly against his father's decision for his marriage. Then his father decides to go with his son's decision.

Better watch Bommarillu(Telugu)

RE-el-VIEW:
This will be my shortest review and there is nothing much to say about this movie not because of the story but the way they presented in tamil which showcased not even 1% of creativity. Eventhough they say it's a remake why wouldn't the makers of the movie never thought of giving better version than telugu.In telugu it was neatly made and it would be tough to give a better version than telugu atleast theyshould have tried. Most craziest part in making this movie is that director never compromised even the costumes of Genelia and locations which were used in Bomarillu. I know they bought copyrights for the movie from telugu producer even the costumes too?????.

Bommarillu was really good movie in telugu which we get once in a while from the telugu movie makers.Raja has made sure not to spoil the telugu version so he has made exact copy by not taking risk,it's really a safe policy to be successfull director.SS can be appreciated for santhanam jokes and few good locations shot for the songs.

"It's not worth watching Santhosh Subramaniam if you are very much satisfied with Bommarillu."

SIVAJI(2007)-Tamil

2007-07-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

Starring : RAJNIKANTH,Shreya,Vivek,Suman...guest apperance Nayantara,Raghuvaran

Directed by : Shankar

Produced by : AVM Productions

Music by : A R Rahman

Storyline:

Typical rajni-shankar storyline. A 'Gentleman==Sivaji' from US who decides to help society by providing free education and constructing hospitals but his dream is not fulfilled because of corruption existing in government system and also largly influenced business tycoon Suman.As usual hero loses all his money in the first half of the story and regains his position and cleans the corruption in second half of the story with pace and twist.Shreya comes in first half and in between for dance numbers.

RE-el-VIEW:

'SIVAJI-THE BOSS'...'RAJNI THE BOSS'....'THE BOSS'.These were the headlines flashing almost in all news channels before sivaji got to hit theatres.This hype was much because of rajni-shankar-arrahman combination,offcourse they are the biggies in film industry and it's the Superstar Rajni's film. Sivaji had essential ingrediants to have an huge hype because of big budget (around 40 crores estimated ) and new looks of rajni appearing more younger than ever and never in any of his films.Finally sivaji had hit theatres with 600 prints all over world living to the hype that it had before the release.

'Rajni' makes an silent entry into the film with not much of special effects or with glamourous mass song which is disappointingto rajni fanatics.Sivaji who is well earned software architect returns to india with COOL hairstyle then he proceeds to get his dream project to be done for the sake of the society.Suman initially who seems to be sivaji's friend later he squeezes sivaji's plan and money for the sake of his own business and makes sivaji to walk on streets [scene which is common in muthu where his friend asks rajni toleave his home----and in padaiyappa where rajni's family was sent out of their own home---same old scenes].Suman gives an one rupee coin to rajni asking him to beg but our superstar uses one rupee coin efficently for the revenge.

Rajni always a superstar yet to remain for long years who appears in sivaji with charming presence in acting.First half of the movie moves at a normal speed and in second half of the movie moves beyond the speed limit.Rajini in first half is 'fun'-'loving' boss and in second half 'reformer' becomes 'terror' with a 'force'.Rajni's hairstyle looks different in both half of the movie which gives a different feel to the audience. Shreya does typical rajni movie heroine job,she looks good in songs and few scenes and she would have done much more better in lipsinking.Vivek almost comes in 50% of the movie along with rajni,he has given tremendous comedy scenes and punch dialogues.Suman looks a different villain in this movie with his appearance.

Much talked in this movie is the way rajni looks,this movie has brought old looks of rajni in 80's which is a huge treat to rajni fans.Shankar had used all his creative technics and technology to make rajni more younger offcourse rajni is the king of STYLES. Shankar has used one line usual simple known story for making powerful perfect rajni entertainer with no logic.Shankar's sivaji is a heavily packed container with loads of rajni stuffs and he has proven again as a successful director by making box office hit movie.Eventhough his scripts are usual but he brings out different feel for each movie which is never seen before. In sivaji shankar's creativity has gone to an extreme in making rajni look younger,he made rajni to look like an european in few scenes and song.For that they have worked on 6500frames matching rajni's skin tone with european girl skin tone.

After mudhalvan cinematographer K.V.Anand has worked in sivaji with shankar,the credits for making rajni younger and colorful is definetly for anand. Art director thottatharani has brought huge expensive dome and colloseum sets to look more real and colorful.Stunts by Peter hein can be appreciated only to some extent because too many special effects and not even able to get a view of single kick. Another superstar who has worked behind the screen with his musical scores is A R Rahman.The musical score that hehas made for suman entry ,rajni entry in second half and for mottaboss really awesome.

I would suggest Sivaji is a must watch film not only for diehard rajni fans it's also for all movie goers and i would alsosay that never expect logic and story just enjoy shankar-rajni extragavanzha.The production value of sivaji and the way it's doin business right now would bring remarkable change in kollywood.Eventhough it doesnt have extraORDINARY story but techinally sivaji is EXTRAORDINARY film.

Mottaboss entry is definely rocking,what a high electric performance-excellent.Atlast mottaboss steals the show.

"Worth watching MOTTABOSS...never miss mottaboss...chumma adhirum"

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

2007-06-06T21:33:00.000-07:00

Spider-Man was released in 2002 to much fan fare and excitement. One of the biggest movies of that year, it couldn't help but create a sequel which was just as popular if not more so. Spider-Man became the latest of a series of movie sequels where ticket sales were driven up by excitement over every planned sequel. Spider-Man 3, rumored to be the last in the series, will most likely make as much, if not more, than the last movie, which was, in my opinion, excellent.

However, the problem that movie series face is that eventually the series will run out of creativity and direction. Spider-Man 3 is the latest series to end not so much with a bang but with a whimper. Directors and writers can only carry an idea so far before any series becomes dry. Villains, CGI and special effects overall do not entertain if there is no solid story or plot. Spider-Man 3 shows what happens when too much is placed on eye candy and nothing truly substantial.
Spider-Man 3 opens up with the exact opposite of Spider-Man 2. Peter Parker (Toby Maguire) is enjoying the fame that Spider-Man now enjoys from New York as well as high grades at university. Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), however, is finding her acting dreams tarnished after being removed from play. Her jealousy over Peter's fame as Spider-Man only makes it worse as Peter begins to let such fame go to his head.

Harry Osborn (James Franco) plans his revenge against Peter and eventually confronts him as the New Goblin in a blurry CGI battle that ends with Harry losing his short-term memory and his hatred for Peter. Peter himself takes advantage of this and even though he saves Harry's life he has no plans on reminding him of the past hatred Harry had for him. It almost seems, for a moment, as if his old friend from high school has suddenly returned.

In the background is the rise of Sandman, aka Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), a petty criminal who finds himself altered after suddenly finding himself within the realm of a particle accelerator experiment. Driven to find money that would cure his daughter, Flint is later discovered to be the man responsible for the death of Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) and thus drives Peter on a mission of to avenge his uncle's death. Discovering that Flint now has powers of his own makes that mission even more difficult.

As if there wasn't enough conflict already, the arrival of a strange meteor releases an alien life form that later adheres to Peter during his sleep. Peter finds both his powers, and personality, changed by the life form as he goes from a mild mannered individual (as Peter Parker) and a hero (as Spder-Man) to one who is more emotionally driven and aggressive in almost every way. Peter's later rejection of the alien leads to it's takeover of Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) who was once a rival at the Daily Bugle until Peter exposes a series of false pictures that ends his short lived journalist career. Using the hatred he has for Peter, the alien transforms Eddie into Venom (although this name is never mentioned in the movie) who, as all comic book fans of Spider-Man will know, is perhaps the most famous of all Spider-Man villains and one who many wished to see in this movie.

Spider-Man 3 tries to get all of these sub-plots to end in a quick and nice way. Often, the sequences feel rushed and they lack the tension and drama that the last two Spider-Man movies had. Peter bounces from one conflict to the next but there is no real satisfactory ending to them. Sandman gives the sob story about his sick daughter before Peter forgives him for his uncle's death, Harry dies after a melodramatic scene that was almost amusing in it's absurdity, and Venom is only in the last half hour in the movie before his death which makes me ask why he was even included. These characters have so much depth built into them that the climax is a huge let down, where we have no real answer to the conflicts that had been created.

With great power comes great responsibility. But with a powerless storyline, It becomes my responsibility to sadly give this movie a quiet thumbs down.

P.S. : The humor by Bruce Campbell and J.K. Simmons is worth mentioning. These were the only parts of the movie that came as a surprise. The rest of the movie was pretty predictable.

PARUTHIVEERAN(2007) - Tamil

2007-03-04T03:38:00.000-08:00

Starring : Karthi, Priyamani…..too many characters

Directed by : Ameer

Produced by : Studio Green

Music by : Yuvan Shankar Raja

Storyline:

Muthazagu(Priyamani) and Veeran(Karthi) from paruthiyur who know each other from childhood which happens to be a puppy love later when they grow up its one side love from muthazagu later becomes two side love. Veeran who is known for his notorious acts in his village decides to marry her and ends up in tragedy.

RE –el –VIEW:

This is the second release from Studio Green production(actor surya the producer) after ‘Silendru Oru kadhal’. This time too they failed to have a blockbuster, eventhough both the movies was not a crap but the screenplay jumps out of the track when it reaches towards the end. Ameer who is well known for his previous film ‘Ram’ disappoints the audience in ‘Paruthiveeran’. This happens when a filmmaker decides to make a different movie after a big success might go wrong because the subject he chooses which is beyond the scope of his style of film making.

Ameer has made a movie which is 30% Gud(comedy,village lifestyle,lively characters), 20% Bad(SCREENPLAY), 50%Worst (CLIMAX). Ameer has followed the footsteps of bharathiraja to make Paruthiveeran. Ameer has tried to bring whole new experience for the audience but struggles with the narration and ameer can be appreciated only for his efforts that he has put into this type of movie. In recent years after ‘Virumandi’ yet another film with violent village subject, Virumandi was different.Usually in these type of subjects for example ’16 vayathinile’ ,’Virumandi’, 'Paruthiveran’ have a common scene that leads towards the climax, the scene where heroine is molested for various reasons then the story ends. Same format is followed here with extreme level of cruelity at the end. What made ameer to have such unnecessary scenes, if he decides to have such scenes for completion then he could have dealt with gentle narration. Because of last 20 mins climax, audience forget few good memories of the movie. Each and every character in this movie brings you live experience at the same time because of too many characters it’s noisy and confusing too.

At last few good things about the movie atleast for the money that I have spent for this movie. This is the Karthi’s first film but you may not know until someone tells you, excellent performance. He has lived in this character and surprises the audience who is a MS graduate from US(fashion statement for an actor) which is unexpected. Priyamani has also proved with her acting skills and the voice modulation was good. Ramji cinematographer has done the fair job. Yuvan Shankar Raja has done excellent job in background score, definetly ilaiyaraja’s material.

‘”Worth to Skip last 20 mins”

COMING SOON

2007-02-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

SOON THE WHOLE GALAXY WILL GET NEWS ABOUT THE ONE AND ONLY THALA.THALA POLA VARUMA.

The Prestige (US 2006 & India 2007)

2007-02-22T22:43:00.000-08:00

“Every great magic trick consists of three acts. The first act is called "The Pledge"; The magician shows you something ordinary, but of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn"; The magician makes his ordinary some thing do something extraordinary. Now if you're looking for the secret... you won't find it, that's why there's a third act called, "The Prestige"; this is the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you've never seen before. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it because you're not really looking. You don't really want to know the secret...”

“You want to be fooled.”
- Cutter (Michael Caine) - excerpt from the movie

Since his inspired debut film 'Memento', British director Christopher Nolan has consistently delivered on the promise and potential he displayed in abundance with his first feature. After last years bold re-imagining of 'Batman Begins', he delivers this audacious and dark character driven thriller which delves into the murky magical practices of two aspiring magicians and fierce rivals in Victorian London. The result is a film of dizzying brilliance.

After a daring stunt involving both magicians tragically goes awry, the two men, Robert (Jackman) and Alfred (Bale) acrimoniously part company, with Robert accusing his former accomplice of a serious crime. Neither is deterred by the tragedy, and both separately pursue careers as magicians but with a difficult obstacle to overcome to find success – each other. The two become one another’s bitter nemeses, stooping to ever more devious and cruel attempts to sabotage the others stage show and reputation. As their mutual hatred intensifies, so does their determination to outwit the other, leading them to find evermore enigmatic methods which could potentially bring fame and success to the one, whilst devastating the others career and life.

Given the visual wonders modern special effects can produce, it’s a surprise that this, a film based around the theme of magic, isn’t a whiz-pop, fast pace CGI bonanza. The Prestige is something far more interesting: a medium burn, intelligent piece of work, powered by a captivating character struggle, with a cleverly constructed, confounding narrative that is spellbindingly intriguing throughout, before building to a dazzling and spectacularly twisted climax. The bold tricks pulled off by the two magicians, are overshadowed by the astounding and dumbfounding conjuring conducted by Nolan behind the lens. The director cunningly draws your attention to the cold and callous game of one-up-man-ship the two leads are engaged in; all the time concealing the assured sleight of hand direction and ultra shrewd plot turns going on in the highly sophisticated narrative. The plot undergoes more shuffles than a veteran magician’s lucky deck o’ cards, constantly shifting and morphing to perplex the audience; plot turns and story development come shrouded in mystery - veiled in secrecy, leaving you uncertain as to the true origins of the pairs magical methods - as well as doubtful as to which one of the two has the upper hand. It’s an exciting, suspenseful style that remains ambivalent until the sucker punch finale. The music throughout the movie mesmerizes the very soul and the song that begins when the credits begin to roll seems so correct, that I’m sure anyone who enjoyed this movie would be humming it for days.

Nolan’s ambition is complemented by the two leads who make the character driven plot so deeply engaging. Both Jackman and Bale give their characters multifaceted personas, remaining mesmerizing and fascinating on screen figures. Jackman - burying the horrible memories of Van Helsing – is on career best form. Robert, an American, is the more charismatic of the two magicians, and Jackman initially charms, before revealing the sinister obsessive tendencies and torment behind the onstage showmanship. Bale supplies an earthy, roguish, quintessentially British charm, disguising the characters calculated persona - as well as the bravado of his act - under a detached nonchalant demeanour. Come the final third, when the plot explodes with dramatics, the two characters have been realised with so many layers that you simply are no longer able to work out their capabilities or predict their actions – just like all good magicians. Original and inventive throughout, Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige surpasses all expectations. You’ll be transfixed by the dangerous games played by the two central characters, riveted by the outstanding performances, bewildered by Nolan’s tricky, daring and imaginative plotting and, when all is finally revealed, smacked by a tense and sensational finale.

NOTE : This is a wonderful movie, but to understand it, you have to listen to the dialogue carefully. Otherwise, you might be scratching your head in the end.

RATING : 8.5/10
SPEND OR SAVE : SPEND (FOR ALL)

(The Spend or Save tag is a suggestion for all moviegoers to either spend their money on a ticket or save the money for a better movie. If the movie is to be seen by only a specific set of people who like such movies, then we mention SPEND(specific set of people). Here, I have mentioned SPEND (FOR ALL) meaning all of you should watch this movie.)

BABEL(2007) - English

2007-02-22T02:38:00.000-08:00

Anyone expecting any kind of fast action and racy sequences might as well stay out of the movie. Neverthless its a good and a meaningful movie that would appeal to your senses. Its the story of four different set of characters, at four different places speaking four different languages. First there is this man at a Morrocan desert who buys a rifle to protect his goats. His son accidentally shoots an American tourist vacationing at Morraco. The injured tourist and her husband are taken to the nearby village to get the lady cured. The kids of the American couple are left at San Diego to be taken care by their Mexican care-taker. The care-taker has to leave to mexico to attend her son's wedding. Knowing quite well that their parents would not be coming for a few more days, the care-taker leaves to mexico with the kids. Right at the other end of the earth, at Japan, a young deaf and mute girl craves for some human contact while her widower father tries hard to communicate with her.

so moves the movie, going forth from one story to another. A connection between all the four stories is established and with all the characters experiencing grief in the form of lonliness, lonliness and more of lonliness. The care-taker faces problems while reentering the American border from Mexico with her nephew and the two kids. The police search and chase the Morrocan gun owner and his two kids and finally kills one while trying to catch them. The American couple have no words for each other while the lady is recovering from her injury in a small one roomed house with no facilities. The japanese father is being searched by the police in connection with the gun that was sold to the Morrocan man. The media blows the news of the gun shot out of proportion and declares it a terrorist attack. The entanglement of all the four stories reach an all time high as the story culminates.

The movie has got amazing performances by the lead artists. A surprisingly good performance comes from Brad Pitt, who plays the role of the American father. cate Blanchett as the American mother is just about good. The best performances though come from Adriana Barraza, playing the role of the Mexican care-taker and Rinko Kikuchi, playing the role of the young japanese girl. The scenes in which Adriana wanders with the kids and the scenes in which she is interrogated have come out wonderfully, thanks to Adriana's mindblowing performance. Rinko Kikuchi also carries her role as the deaf and mute girl brilliantly and her eyes speak volumes.

Some of the scenes are unneccesarily lengthy. The scenes keep running while you wait for something to happen, but nothing does. These scenes could have been edited which could have shortened this long movie. The scenes keep shifting from one place to another abruptly giving the whole movie as such an unended feeling. There are so many languages spoken in this movie like japaneese, Morrancon Language, Spanish, a little of english. There is this sign language too to be understood. Eventhough including so many languages provide the movie with authenticity there is a greater amount of confusion in the minds of the audience. The movie is definitely not like Crash which had a greater impact. Eventhough comparrisons with Crash seems unneccesary, halway down watching the movie, one is bound to feel the similarities to Crash, or moreover the influences of crash. The scene with the Mexicans and the border patrol reminds us of the scene with Matt Dillon and Thandie Newton in Crash and the scene also seems like a stereotype eventhough true.

The movie is handled really well technically. The background music, which is mostly the work of one guitar jells with the movie eventhough it lacks grandeur. The cinematography is handled excellently with the camera moving from one landscape to another with ease. The screenplay swifts between stories leaving scenes abruptly unended but it looks like its been done deliberately to give the movie a different kind of a feel. The director, Alejandro Gonsalez Inarritu has taken a lot of efforts to give us a good movie but he just misses it somewhere but still its a good movie to watch and to reflect at after you finish watching.

GURU(2007)-HINDI

2007-02-19T09:52:00.000-08:00

Starring : Abhishek Bachchan , Aishwariya Rai , Mithun Chakraborty ,

Madhavan ,Vidya Balan ,Mallika Sherawat

Directed by : Mani Ratnam

Produced by : Madras Talkies

Music by : A.R.Rahman

Storyline:

Guru Kant Desai, simply called as Guru [Abhishek Bachchan], belonged to a small village called Idhar situated in Gujarat who strives for great success, against the more conservative wishes of his father and many that he meets. He starts his journey from a modest village in Gujarat to Bombay and makes his dreams come true by being a business tycoon. Nanaji(mithun chakarborhy) who runs the newspaper becomes the well wisher to gurubhai later journalist Shyam saxena(Madhavan) and Nanaji expose the irregularities in functioning style of guru. As usual Guru fights for his shareholders against the odds.

RE –el –VIEW:

This time mani ratnam has come out with a biopic( but mani says no) under his own production house with elite group of technicians. The movie starts in idhar village where gurubhai decides to go for a job in turkey.
Offcourse there is a song in turkey because this is the first time mani had decided to shoot in abroad, for his rememberence he had got the song which is an Hot item number(yeah Mallikaah) . Then the movie travels with aishwariya’s introduction then to Bombay where gurubhai steps into his dream of becoming business tycoon with aishwariya’s dowry as capital investment. No movie can be without villains here villain in the form of gurubhai’s well wisher mithun and journalist as madhavan. At the end hero wins the race by passing through the hurdles.

This is exactly the mani ratnam film who shows to the audience the quality in film making. There are different categories of film which makes everyone to enjoy but only some films makes u feel proud ,satisfied and realise that this is worth for ticket money, Guru belongs to this category. The mani has done the movie in his own style with his passion for cinema. This movie definetly brings out new subject that is not seen in Indian cinema as core subject. Guru makes u feel proud and motivates for an aspiring entrepreneur. Whenever gurubhai says “Banna chahte ho Hindusthan ki sabse badi company” and "Banna chahte ho DUNIYA ki sabse badi company" really motivating and our cinema needs this type of movies. Mani has not made great film because of few loop holes in screenplay but he has tried his best to give a gud film. Abhishek bachchan has done pretty decent job in this movie, mani has worked a lot in his character to show the changes in abhishek’s body language in ages. Even abhishek bachchan would be satisfied with his performance because of hard work that he has put in this character(extra 30 kilos in weight). Aishwariya rai was asked to accompany abhishek , no work was given to her. Madhavan looks good by shedding his fats and same vidyabalan has no job in this movie she has been asked to sit in wheelchair. Mani found difficulty in placing songs ,in first 20 minutes there are two songs. First part of the movie is good but second part fails to meet with pace. Climax is good

After ‘Bombay’ film mani has joined hands with rajiv menon and rajiv has done excellent job in this movie. Rajiv has brought different color tones in this movie. Art direction is excellent ,streets of Bombay were good. Here comes another hero A R Rahman, he has done the execellent work in re-recording and in songs. AR has given melody ,few foot tapping numbers and the song “jaage hain” is great .AR again proves to everyone that he is the master.

“Worth watching”…never miss this film