Nirvana 4 Me!

I have never been a great fan of the Star Wars Fanchisee.  However, I must admit that I have seen all the six episodes either on DVD or on Theatres, sometimes accompanying my friends, or at other times, watching these movies when I had nothing better to do.  I must also admit that the First three Star Wars trilogies (surprisingly, they are numbered as Episode 4, 5, 6), as the following editions were prequels.  If I think I am confusing anyone here, then here is the chronological list of full six episodes of Star Wars which were released prior to this 2015 edition.  (a)          Star Wars (b)          Star Wars – The Empire Strikes Back (c)           Star Wars – The Return of the Jedi (d)          Star Wars – The Phantom Menace (Episode I) (e)     ...

After the creative extravaganza of ‘The Avtar’ and the ‘Three Musketeers’, here comes another Hollywood movie, that promises a lot on the unlimited possibilities the 3D Technology and the CGI Technology offer the viewers.  Having seen, the movie, I must say, the movie has impressed me, almost as much as ‘The Avtar’ did! The Plot Based on the best selling novel by Yan Martel (not just best selling, but Man-Booker Prize Winner too), the initial part of the story is set in India, Pondicherry.  To go further,  Pi (played by Irrfan Khan)  is having a conversation with his french Author-friend and tells him how he survived 227 days on a life boat with only a Bengal Tiger (Richard Parker, the tiger is named) for company. He is also picked up by two Japanese Maritime Officials so as to investigate how the ship sank.  The Officials don’t believe his outlandish story and dismisses him.  But what exactly is Pi’ story, and that’s what the movie is all ab...

Directed by :- Dibakar Banerjee *ing : Emraan Hashmi, Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechelin, Prosenajit Chatterjee At a time when movies like Ferrari Ki Sawari and Rowdy Rathore were pulling in the crowds to the theaters, with mindless fare, Director Dibakar Banerjee tries to evoke the audiences’ grey matter with his slick and classy Shanghai .  The movie at best, can be termed as a reflection of the current state of our country.  The fictional town of ‘ BharatNagar ’ could be anywhere in India , drawing parallels with places in Orissa, Jharkhand, Chattisgargh or even Bengal .  Dibakar Banerjee sees through the state of affairs and indeed dares to speak up about the corporates-politician nexus.  The movie follows Dr Ahmadi, a social activist who is leading a people’s protest against an SEZ (Special Economic Zone) which is about to displace a huge population in a fictional town called Bharatnagar.  The SEZ is, but, projected as a for-development by the r...

Director : Sudhish Kamath Starring : Manu Narayan , Seema Rehmani In between my transit and my stay at various places in Kerala, I happened to see the movie 'GOOD NIGHT, GOOD MORNING' . It was one of those Indian English movies or rather what we simply call as NRI movies.  A noted film-critic with ‘ The Hindu ’, ‘ GOOD NIGHT, GOOD MORNING’ is Sudhish Kamath’s second movie, and as a regular reader of his movie reviews in 'The Hindu', I was naturally attracted to this second venture of his.   The title as well as the poster caught my attention and so did the synopsis, as I delved into this movie which is entirely shot in black and white. The Black and White narration seemed to be an anachronism at first, but it essentially turns out to be the movie's USP. It adds to the romanticism of the plot as only the dreamy sequences and the flashbacks are in color. The film employs the ‘Split-Screen’ narrative, where the entire story is shown happening side by side.   Plot...

Dir : James Cameron Starring : Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Signourney Weaver, Giovani Ribisi Though it may just be a quite coincidence that the world-wide release of the Movie was synchronized with the World Earth Summit of Copenhagen, 2009, the movie still made news for its technical brilliance and its 3D rendering. Avatar is an epic movie that borrows scenes and even the story-line from various other movies and incidents that happened around the world, upgraded them with brilliant 3D projection systems and delivered it on the silver screen like never before. Perhaps this is the reason for such a grand success of the movie, and the world that has been created for the movie - The Pandora - makes us to explore more of it. I would agree with the person who sat next to me at the movie hall that he felt as if he was back on earth once the movie was over. There is nothing much to mention about the story though as it is just a re-hash of so many other Hollywood movies that came and...

Dir : Peter Jackson Starring :  Kate Winslet, Melanie Lynskie Perhaps you might be wondering why I am writing a review of a movie which was released way back in 1994.  Today morning, with nothing else to do, I decided watch this movie on youtube and felt I should be writing about this (one of the most) under-rated movies ever. "Heavenly Creatures" is made by the man who directed  Lord of the Rings  trilogy -  Peter Jackson . The movie is about the famous 'Parker-Hulme Murder Case' where in Parker and Hulme, together murders Parker's mother, Peirse. Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme are two 14 year old girls played by Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey respectively. They meet in school and become fast friends immediately. They create a secret fantasy world and become obsessive about it and each other. As their friendship grow, even bordering on homosexuality, and their fantasy land Borovnia seems real to them just as the real world outside, their pare...

It is commonly believed that heroine (read women) oriented films are never a guarantee for success, especially in Bollywood.  But here is one movie that is out there to prove us all wrong.  'Dirty Picture' is a look back at the 1980's when plus-sized heroines as well as dance-girls posed as sex-sirens on the screen ensured a movies success.  The southern Starlet Silk Smitha was an undisputed queen of this crowd and this movie was a good  attempt at focusing on her life and times .  Pic Courtesy : Chitramala.in Dirty Picture is a semi-biography of sorts about this actress who used her oomph and sexuality to good measure, leaving men panting, and marking her presence in tamil movies as an instant guarantee for cash registers ringing. Vidya Balan, who is otherwise known for her non-conformist and clean image, plays the role of Reshma or just 'Silk' to good effect in this thought provoking film.  At these times, when her pee...

Director : Roy Sohan Starring : Joshua Fredrick Smith ,                 Linda Arsenio ,                 Vimla Raman ,                 Rajat Kapoor ,                 Thampy Antony & others Dam-999 was called as a concept movie,  showing a dam burst, in fact, an earthquake causing a dam disaster and flooding. The setting was supposed to be  Mulla-periyar , a 100 year old dam that was awaiting its death in southern Kerala. This movie directed by  Roy Sohan , a native of the same place where the dam exists had won accolades for his documentary ‘ Dams – The lethal water bombs ’. Perhaps, that was what inspired him to go further to direct a full-length feature film, taking up the cause of his people.  But when you have to enter into a realm of commercial movies, one needs to have a lot of other ingred...

Quite like what I wrote in my earlier post, I was waiting to see  “ TheThree Musketeers ” in 3D, and indeed I did yesterday, a day after its release in India .  Ours is the fourth country in the world, after its release in Germany , Austria and Switzerland   and is set to release world-wide on 21 st Oct.  This means, I can now proudly claim that I had seen the movie much before folks in US did. The Three Musketeers is an action movie and is loosely based on Alexander Dumas' novel of the same name.  The story has been changed a lot from the original and except for the title and the names of the characters, there is little in common between the book and the movie.  The plot follows the young D'Artagnan ( Logan Lerman ) who leaves his country home to go to Paris and join the valorious Three Musketeers,  Athos ( Mathew Macfadyen ), Porthos  ( Ray Stevenson ) and Aramis ( Luke Evans ).   In the meanwhile, the Three Musketeers have been...

It was quite by chance that yesterday, while browsing TV Channels, I stopped at UTV World Movies to watch the Frech movie 'Amélie' .  I found the movie to be a classic.  Very subtle depiction and a flowing story line makes this movie indeed special. 'Amélie' is the story of simple and innocent young girl (played by Audrey Toutou of the Da Vinci Code Fame).  Amélie lives alone in Paris and works as a waitress for living. She is a young woman who lives a solitary life after her mother's death and subsequently, her father leaving the child for another woman.  Following a couple of failed romances, she now contemplates living life in the simplest way, often deriving pleasures from an imaginative and a fantasy life. The story takes a turn on the evening of 31st August 1997, when she hears the death of Princess Diana, and shocked she is, accidently drops a bottle on to the floor and accidently loosens a wall tile.  The...

Seize the Moment, My Dear Friend, yeah Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara Director : Zoya Akhtar *ing : Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Farhan Akhtar, Kalki Kochelin, Katrina Kaif and the Surprise Ingredient The long wait for the fourth of the ‘Farhan Akhtar’ Series was over. I call it a ‘series’, simply because they speak the same theme, without boring ourselves, and they follow a patter, without looking mundane. The ‘Coming-of-age’ theme, which was so central in his earlier movies like ‘Dil Chahta Hei’, ‘Lakshya’ and ‘Rock-on’ is employed here too, and so is his ‘ gang of three friends’. There is no central character or a protagonist, and all share the same screen space, never letting the other to hog the limelight. Zindagy Na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD), too, speaks the same script. A Coming-of-age story of three men, Kabir (played with nuance by Abhay Deol), Arjun (Hrithik, a treat for the eyes) and Imran (impressive and versatile, yet again). Kalki’s Natasha is engaged to Kabir and Laila (K...

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS - 2   *ing : Daniel Radcliff, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Elena Bonham Carter, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.  At the very start, let me confess : I am not a big fan of the ‘Harry Potter’ Franchise.  Neither have I seen the previous editions of the movie so earnestly, nor I have read any of those books. But when the Posters said, ”It all Ends on 7.15", the suspense of the 'End' just pulled me towards the movie. Yes, here I was, going to watch the 8th of the franchise - and the Second of the series - the Deathly Hallows - 2 (to confess again, just to make me familiar with the script, I had downloaded and watched the first part of Deathly Hallows on Friday).  The action scenes, as promised were spectacular and the special effects impressive. The 3D version may not look so colorful, but yet, if you may choose to watch it, you got to watch it on 3D.   The story begins as the Three-some, Harry Potter (always handsome Dani...

THE NEW MEN'S CHAMPION - NOVAK DJOKOVIC It was not without any reason that I wrote in my previous post , as to whether the Men's game at Wimbledon will see a new Champion or not. Yes, I wanted Novak Djokovic to win the Wimbledon, at Nadal's cost.  The reasons were many.  Firstly, my favorite Federer is no longer there in contention, and this man, Novak is in his prime form of his life, playing the best tennis.  Secondly, Novak would make the first person from his country to win Wimbledon, and last but not the least, by winning, Novak was only trying to live his childhood dream. The Wimbledon finals had all the drama of an intense tennis match, with both players playing fantastically, and I think at the end, it was Djokovic's fitness and staying power that made the difference between the two.  While Nadal attacked all along, Djokovic was contented to restrict himself mostly on the base-line, and waited for his opponent to make mistakes. And Nadal did make mistakes....