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The Prestige (US 2006 & India 2007)

“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

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

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