Kerala Film Awards - 2015

 

So the latest buzz in Kerala news is the announcement of Kerala State Film awards. You know, the usual annual opportunity where the art/parallel movie movement can have a shoutout, remind others of its presence. It is very rarely that mainstream movies win these awards, and time has shown that many art movies which win these awards get lot more publicity and more patrons as a result. Every year, the recipients of these awards are congratulated and recognized for their achievement.

This year however, the general 'public' is not happy. Two of the most prestigious awards , the best actor and actress, have been awarded to two relative new-comers for their roles in fully commercial & popular movies. There are already memes and posts all over media mocking the committee's decision to fall to commercial cinema's charms and give away awards to crowd pleasers. Never mind the fact that the winners actually did do a good job, the general consensus is that there were movies with veteran actors who 'deserved' to win.

As a chronic movie skipper myself, I don't care who wins each year. But this year, I feel the awards have gone to good performances. The characters they played were believable, likeable, and convincing. Maybe the roles were custom written for them, but so too have been many such roles in the history of cinema. And whoever said commercial movies cannot have good actors ? Why should only the roles which make us cry and think win awards ? Can't the awards go to funny, bubbly and positive roles ?

For the last few years, if you check the winners list, they have gone to younger and newer actors. Last year Fahadh Faasil and Ann Augustine won them. The year before that, 2012, Prithviraj and Rima Kallingal were the winners. This is a good trend, showing that the established clichés of the industry are being broken, people are accepting convincing portrayals from younger actors.  The winning movies of this year definitely clicked with the crowd. And a state level award like this is a recognition of their work and contribution to the industry.

Terminator Genisys - worst sequel of this franchise

 

When is a Terminator movie not a Terminator movie ?

When John Connor is the bad guy !

The Terminator movies were part of my childhood, maybe it did not have the same effect the JP movies had, but there was an impact. T2's cutting edge computer generated graphics and explosions, and the whole story of a teenage boy getting his own pet re-programmed Terminator; that was so coool ! For a long time, the liquid metal robot scenes of the movie used to play in loops in television showrooms, where ever TV or entertainment was sold. The CGI scenes were also used by advertisers and even news media when they had news on next generation computers. But the best part of the story was the attachment between the boy and the machine. John Connor was a rule breaker, he used to steal money from ATMs and got into a lot of trouble. But at heart, he was actually a good guy, the leader of tomorrow. So I was really really disappointed to see John Connor playing the bad guy in the new Terminator movie. No amount of CGI can hide the fact that Genisys is a poorly conceived movie. It was all bad, the homage scenes to the first two movies, the reused dialogues. The saving grace was good old Arnie. Arnold is the only reason to watch this movie, nothing else made sense. And now I hear they are planning two more sequels.

Looks like Judgement day cannot be averted. It can only be postponed.

Inside Out - Story Telling Perfection

 

Working at Pixar must be challenging, this studio has created by far the most visually stunning and emotional computer animated movies ever. Every time they make a new movie, they are competing against themselves. No other studio comes even close to producing the refined product one comes to expect from Pixar. And so everything they produce, right down to the shorts, are must-watch. Their latest offering, Inside Out will leave you in laughing out with joy, and in tears  before the end. This is some piece of really great story telling, and its not just for the kids !

Quick question , which is the last Pixar movie you remember watching ? The one which really touched your heart ? Chances are, it was 2009's Up. That movie made viewers cry by simply rendering graphics with music, with absolutely no dialogues in some key scenes. Inside Out will be the next Pixar animation which will play with your emotions. This is a coming of age movie. Kinda. Its about the gradual, almost imperceptible demise of childhood. In the artificial world beautifully created in the movie, the premise is that there are basically five emotions controlling every one's thoughts: joy, sadness, fear, anger and disgust. Its the same for every person, and these five emotions try among them to control emotions. At a turning point in the lead character's life (Riley), something unexpected happens, joy and sadness get lost , and separated from the rest of the gang. While joy and sadness try frantically to get back, the remaining three emotions try their best to control, and Riley's life is turned upside down, or inside out.

Even with such a simple premise, Pixar is able to create a huge world with many plot points. The world building is complex, there are various characters and machines running the brain, and each one has a specific task. Even sadness, who stands out with her melancholy and who is despised by the others, has her place and importance, and no-one else can replace that. The takeaway: emotions are meant to connect people together, and that relationships are the most important things in life. After a tumultuous day with the emotions running all over the place, order is restored, and things improve, Pixar style !

Jurassic World - the best Jurassic Park sequel!

 

I just watched Jurassic World, first day, first show today here in Bangalore. With on the most un-enthusiastic and lethargic crowd I have seen. No one shouted, yelled or screamed during the movie. There was only a single kid in the audience. But that in a way, allowed me to watch the movie distraction free. This has been a 22 year wait for me ,and I think this is by-far the best sequel to the original Jurassic Park movie. It borrows a lot of ideas from the first book, and brings in lot of new ones as well. And you will best enjoy this movie if you take it as a direct sequel to the first JP, forget the two sequels which came out in the last 22 years, and you will be fine.

The movie tells us a pretty basic and simple story, I will not bother writing out the plot here as somebody already put the whole thing on Wikipedia. But the gist is that after the events of the Jurassic Park movie, Ingen had to sell everything to a new company (Masrani), and they took the next step in the business. They now have a full fledged , functioning park on the island, with 25+ species. But seeing a real life dinosaur is not terrifying anymore, so they decide to make the mistake of creating an entirely new dino species from scratch, by mixing up dna from different animals. Just when things look stabilized, the new "asset" escapes from its paddock, unleashing terror on the island when it still has 20k visitors there. When all attempts to use modern "sophisticated" technology to capture the beast proves futile, they find the only way that will still work…another dinosaur !

Oops…almost gave that away. Spoilers follow: First they try to use the trained raptor squad to hunt down the i-Rex, but then, it turns out the i-Rex also has velociraptor dna in it! They communicate, and now the raptors have a new 'alpha'. When that plan too backfires, they unleash the resident T-Rex. The T-Rex was the hero (or heroine, she is a female, remember ?) of the first movie, saving some of the lead characters from the raptors in the first movie, and here that idea is re-used. So the two rexes fight it out, with a little help from blue, the lone raptor, and then finally, mossie (the mososaurs) finishes the i-rex off.

Surprises: Having read the books and watched the previous movies like a hundred times, I thought I had become a JP expert, and could predict some parts of the story. But I was surprised by a few things:

1. Maximum Kills, maximum thrills. This is the Jurassic movie which has the highest number of deaths (both humans and dinos) on screen. Some of the gruesome kills are done offscreen, with only blood splatter for a little animation. I counted 7 humans dead, not including the entire ACU team, and many of the other dinos. While JP showed only a  4 kills ( Genarro, Nedry, Arnold, Muldoon), each one had a some focus (Arnold's death was not shown) building up to it. Here, the kills are quick and there is no build up. Except Masrani, he was shown to be someone who enjoyed watching and caring for the animals, but he pays the price of taking out the chopper without a license.
2. Nobody important dies. The central cast survives the carnage. Hoskins is the only one killed by the raptor, but he was a bad guy anyway. The two kids, Claire and Owen escape with a few bruises. I was expecting Barry, Owen's friend (sidekick), the black guy, to be killed, but is shown in the end very much alive. Which brings me to…
3. Henry Wu survives ! Again ! Henry is the only person who escaped form the incident on the original park, and then escapes again in JW, this time, with a lot of embryos and his work with him. This sets up the stage for the sequel, which I bet is gonna look stupid. In the Jurassic Park book, Henry Wu is killed by a raptor just before the novel ends, when he helps the team to try and restore power in the park. There is a part in the book were he argues that the dinos in the park are not-real, because they are engineered. And that part is now in this movie when he discusses this with Masrani.
4. JP Nostalgia : There are some clever throwbacks to the original movie. The original JP tune is re-used, when the park is introduced in the beginning, when the kids explore it. Mr DNA shows up at the visitor centre. Lowery's console at the control centre is just as sloppy as Nedry's and he is wearing a JP t-shirt ! When lost on the island, the kids find an abandoned warehouse full of stuff form the first park. They find one of those 'expensive' 3d glasses, and a working gas powered jeep (number 29) in red and white which they use to escape to the visitor centre. During the raptor chase at the visitor centre, Clair turns on a holographic device, which renders the hologram of a dilophasaurus, which jeered with its frills, distracting the raptor. And….and the red flare. Claire uses a red flare to distract the T-Rex towards the Indominus Rex !
5. Jimmy Fallon cameo: Jimmy has a cameo as the presenter during the gyrosphore trip, were they show him in his scientist suit, and the lab around him bursting into flames. Apparently, they spared no expense, just like when they used Richard Kiley in the first movie.

My only gripe with the movie was that there were really no surprises, most of everything happened just as predicted. The whole plot unfolded pretty much as in the first movie, Owen is actually brought in to inspect the paddock of the Indominous Rex, just as the experts are brought in to inspect JP, and the creature escapes. Nearly all of the key scenes were already released out, in the form of trailers and sneak peaks. The rest of the plot came out in the form of rumours and leaked photos, thanks partly to hyper active social media, and partly due to viral marketing. The only true surprise everyone wanted to know was what eventually would happen to the I-Rex, Mossie gets it ! The parts which were weird was were Owen 'communicated' to the raptors, and Hoskins repeatedly describing scenarios to use the raptors in battle. But still, I was happy with were the story went. This opens up a lot of possibilities for the sequels. For instance, many of the flying reptiles could have escaped from the island, what happened to them ?

 

Colin Trevorrow has delivered a polished, intelligent, and crowd-pleasing would-be blockbuster.  Jurassic World accomplishes the task of being something of an original adventure within the confines of being a sequel. It has almost too many good ideas, while using the original film only when contextually appropriate. I wish the main characters were a little more refined, and I wish the film took the time to explore its subtexts beyond periodic seasoning, but that may be me wishing for a different film. The movie we got is pretty good, and Trevorrow has delivered what amounts to a best-case scenario for a novice director being handed the keys to a massive franchise.

Download the cam rip of the movie from here.

Premam

 

Filmi 'experts' would say that 'Premam' is too silly to be the name of a malayalam movie, it is too short and bland, and the word might sound a little negative as well (compared to its nobler sister 'Sneham'). Had this movie been released a decade earlier, it would not have worked, the story is too simple, there are no established actors, no superstar, and the entire crew comprises of people unknown of. But it works, and what makes it click is it's simplicity. A simple story of a malayalee boy, his two best friends, and the three loves of his life. The movie is proof that even the simplest idea can work, if executed properly, with perseverance and passion.

I saw this movie today in Bangalore, about a week after its release, and was pleasantly surprised with the results. Again, the movie fights convention, they never released the trailer, the only publicity was one of the songs, and some posters. So when people walked into theatres, they had no idea what to expect. The story is of our mallu hero George, growing up in a village in Aluva, Kerala in 2000, and how he tries to woo the love of his life at that point. Nivin Pauly excels in a role tailor made for him. He has two best buddies, always to advice & rescue him. Shambu is the more pessimistic of the lot, and Koya, the little more practical minded one. Its nice to see a Hindu, Christian and Muslim  trio of friendship here. And the three friends persist through life, they are together all the way through college, and even after that. Anyway, George faces a lot of competition from other 'roosters' in his neighbourhood and ultimately rejection, and has to move on. The movies skips to his final year in college, when George is now the brash student everyone hates , and where he unexpectedly starts to fall for his teacher, a guest lecturer in his college. But their mutual love goes unrealized as she faces an accident and loses her memory (this amnesia part is the only stereotype of this movie). The third act of the movie is in modern times, our times. George has mended he brash ways and actually runs his own coffee shop. This time, love comes calling his name again. George has to go through what we see as a third rejection again, but good things , it seems , come to those who wait. We see our hero getting married, its a happy ending and all is well.

You see the problem here ? The above condensation of the story does not do justice to the movie. At all. What stands out is the execution. Everything from the cinematography, costumes and dialogues to the awesome background music and editing, is a class apart. The cast is perfect, everybody has a role to play, and they all play believable, everyday characters. No over-the-top or artificial characters here. And the visuals, of rain and sun and flowers…oooh..too much nostalgia ! The background music complements the visuals beautifully. I could point out numerous things which the set department got right: the kids of 2000 use the trusty-rusty cycle to get around, and have to use landlines to call each other. They hang out at the local tea stall, and drink lime soda with kuskus. George uses a hero pen and actually writes down a love letter, and makes spelling mistakes too. He has to tear up everything and start from scratch again. There was no cell phone or sms back then. No internet or facebook. Kids of today would find living in those times really frustrating. And in the college timeline, which runs in 2005, there is a hint of technology. SMS over cellphones was the simplest way to get a message around. And in modern times ,the characters spend a lot of time on their smartphones. This kind of attention to detail sets this movie apart, nothing is out of place.

The makeup deserves a special mention, because we see the lead characters growing and aging through the movie, believably. The trio of actors who play the +2 school kids is the very same who play the 30+ characters at the end. And the actors too change their mannerisms to suit the age: the school characters are naive and shy, while at the other end we see them mature and confident (and stoned too, for too long). But the surprise offering of the movie is the role of Malar, the tamil guest lecturer played by the debutante tamil actress. Nobody could have seen this one coming. She does a fantastic job at playing her role convincingly, its hard to digest that it was her first (and possibly last) movie. I also like Vinay Fort's character of Vimal sir, the bumbling mumbling teacher of the college. This character is gonna live forever.

The story is an amalgamation of the love stories of many , many young couple from that period. Everybody will be able to relate to some aspect of the storyline. And the movie itself can be considered a sort of rebellion, against various stereotypes of the industry. This is a new breed of film makes who excel in in telling stories using beautiful visuals, accompanied by perfect music. Who would have thought that such a simple story played by inexperienced actors could set the box office ringing ? And if this is the vision of things to come, and things are doing in the right direction. Expecting more from this crew of youngsters.

Update(01-Jul): Looks like the dream run of this movie at the theatres will be cut short abruptly, a copy of the movie given to the censor board has been leaked online. But on the flip side, they already made a lot of money. And Nivin has got rave reviews for his acting, the people have anointed him the new superstar of Malayalam movies. Some are calling him the next Mohanlal, as his acting reminded them of Mohanlal's early career. But he is cautiously playing down the hype and maintaining that he still has a lot to learn. He pointed out that he is now 25 movies old , in just 5 years !

Baby (Bollywood Movie 2015) - Height of Wishful Thinking

 

So I watched the Bollywood movie Baby, which came out in 2015, directed by Neeraj Pandey. Neeraj's first two movies had taken the nation by storm, immediately catching viewer's attention. So this one was eagerly waited. For this first movie, he told the story of an ordinary man of India, who being fed up of the continuous terror attacks in the country, and being frustrated from the helplessness of the police and judicial system, decides to take matters in his own hands, and meticulously plans to deliver quick justice. The events in the movie unravel over the course of just one day, and from beginning to end, was an edge of the seat thriller. For his second outing, Neeraj decided to go retro, and gave us an account of a real life robbery, where the thieves posed as secret service agents and duped the actual police force. These are not the kind of movies you regularly get to watch from Bollywood.And so, poised on a hat trick, viewers were awaiting his third delivery, which came out this year, and named Baby.

Baby is the code name of a top secret elite Indian agency operating at the highest level of discretion. Its kinda IMF , with only Indians as agents. Just reading this one line would tell you the contradiction hidden in there. The movie tells the accounts of the last mission (well, not exactly last) of the team of …just four agents, who go an international wild goose chase to bring back an terrorist who jumped prison. The whole planning and execution of the team's missions is top notch, the agents are always on time, they never miss a shot, they use top grade fire arms, and don't suffer any causalities, and enjoy the support of the ruling government. Also the team knows that if they are caught or compromised, their government would disavow them. Its a hollywood movie, with lots of Indian masala, and one romantic song sequence added for good measure. The movie was shot in various middle eastern locations, and there are some nice scenes and tightly edited fight sequences. But somehow, it manages to NOT stay with you when you finish watching.

It is all wishful thinking. Kaaash. If our country actually had a top secret agency like this one, we could have seen far lesser terrorist attacks in the country. I just couldn't digest the scenes where the politicians give their full support to the team, without any thoughts of effects on their international relations. It the kind of movie which gives you a shot of patriotism in the arm when you watch it, but in the end, you have to return to reality. But I am sure no other director could have thought up and made this movie this good ever.

So if you want an Indianized Agent Ethan Hunt for a desi IMF, this is your movie.  Just after watching it, I found that the trailer of Mission Impossible's fifth movie has just landed on youtube.

Gadget Goodies From He's Just Not That Into You

 

Conor Is a BB Boy

The loveable real estate agent Conor (Kevin Connolly) used his black BlackBerry Pearl for both business and pleasure.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros

Gigi Rocked Modern and Vintage

I was lovin' Gigi's (Ginnifer Goodwin's) choice of telephones. By day she rocked the pink retro hand held, and by night, she was all about — what appeared to be — a LG Lotus. Who can forget the bathroom scene when she called Alex for guy advice?

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros

Ben Is a BlackBerry Bad Boy

Ben, played by Bradley Cooper, was both naughty and nice in the movie. And what else did he drag into his escapades besides women? His BlackBerry Curve.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros

Janine Flipped Out With the BB 8220

I couldn't exactly make out Janine's cell phone, but it did closely resemble a BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 — one smokin' hot phone!

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros

Alex Is a Total Gadget Guy

If we weren't watching Alex play Xbox 360 and PS2 games with friends on his big flatscreen TV, we were keeping track of his hilarious back-and-forth phone conversations with Gigi on his Motorola MOTO W755.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros

Mary Goes High-Tech

Drew Barrymore's character Mary, was so up in arms about technology the entire movie, yet she was the most "connected" out of anyone. If she wasn't MySpacing dates on her iMac, she was texting and chatting on her red BlackBerry Curve!

Interstellar - Science and Fiction

 

Spoiler : (Biggest shocker for me:) Matt Damon’s character scientist/explorer Prof Mann is a negative role in the movie. It is his treachery which kick-starts the  third act of the movie. I didn’t see that coming, never expected Damon's 'small' role to have such a huge impact.

I watched this movie yesterday evening with my wife at a theatre in Bangalore, and I enjoyed it, though not thoroughly. I have been following this movie eagerly, ever since it was announced in 2009. When I heard the screenplay had been leaked, I scrounged the interweb for a copy, and read through. This version was before the Nolan's where involved, and I put this up on my blog so I could share the link with some like minded close friends. In a way , I am glad a big bulk of the original had been removed, the  whole part of the Chinese station, and two blackholes instead of one in the movie…but even the final trimmed version had excess baggage. Too much to explain in even 3 hours running time.

Enough has been said of the science of Interstellar, with experts and novices on both sides debating if the story holds credibility. I have no new thoughts on the matter, as physic and math were not my stronger subjects anyway. Nolan never made movies which where easy to understand, each one of his movies required careful rewinding and rewatching in order to fully grasp, except maybe for 2002's Insomnia. His movies are drenched with science fiction , gadgets and hero-improvising-at-the-last-moment, they are definitely not for the commoner. But here, I felt the movie was stretched too much, over space and time. Interstellar is not a movie about space travel, it is a movie about time travel. And relativity. And the director's vision that love is a fifth (or is it sixth?) dimension ,which can span across space and time. It is a beautiful work of art, and sound. I am sure the second and third acts were shot completely in a green screen, except the icy planet scene, which was shot at Svínafellsjökull glacier.

So here is the story: Prof Brand Senior wants to save the human species. He asks Cooper to take his daughter Amelia Brand and team on a  space mission to find another planet which can sustain life, so that humanity can populate it and continue. The assumption is that he can find a way to transport millions of humans over space-time to the new planet , after travelling back and forth through a wormhole. This he calls plan  A. And like any brilliant scientist, he has a plan B too. Plan B: In the highly unlikely event that the explorers cannot travel back via the blackhole, they drop a population bomb. They are to carry millions of fertilized eggs with them, which they will incubate..and reproduce via surrogates…and grown on the new planet, so that some part of the human species will live and flourish, but not the existing population alive on earth. Exactly how these eggs will be used is not fully explained, it was not in the original script either. But this ridiculous plan is just a failsafe, he assures them, by the time the mission returns, he would have solved the grand equation and found a way to travel both ways easily.

On his deathbed, he reveals to Murphy Cooper, that there never was a plan A. It would never have worked. The only way for humanity to continue was to populate the new planet with the fertilized eggs. There was no return journey possible. But he greatly under-estimated his pilot Cooper, and his fatherly affection to his children, and his gut determination to get back home. Cooper finds a way to survive the long journey, sends a message home to his daughter, thereby providing Murphy with the quantum data to solve Brand's equation completely, and by the time Cooper is found by earthlings again, his age by earth time is 120 years. What felt like days and hours for him in space time was decades back home. He meets his daughter on her deathbed, and then leaves on a final adventure to find Amelia Brand, who has by this time found an earth-like planet capable of sustaining humanity and life.

Review: Interstellar is not Nolan's best work. It lacks cohesiveness, and the polish seen with his previous works. The movie starts slow, too much time is spent on earth, establishing his family background and current condition on earth. I guess that part was to emphasize that his son Tom was not academically inclined, while his daughter Murphy is brilliant and tom-boyish (tom-boyish means , like Tom, right?). But again, too much time there, by the time the mission is launched and the first spectacle is put-up, (travel through the wormhole), we are nearing the halfway mark. During the launch process, the craft never contacts NASA ! So now we have a trained NASA pilot and some scientists in the spacecraft, but instead of sticking to scientific jargon, as one expects them, they revert to casual everyday talking in layman's terms. Romilly explains to Cooper how a wormhole works using a paper and pencil trick we first saw in the 1997 movie Event Horizon, which is not required because Cooper is a engineering wizard and a bookworm(remember his library back home ? and the original copy of a textbook which Murphy's school no longer follows?). All the scenes in outer space have no sound, accurate , because sound cannot travel in space. But by blanking out the sound it felt disconnected from the rest of the movie which had loud organs and synthesizer music. When they land on the first planet, which is too close to a blackhole, we see daylight there. But surely, it can't have daylight, because the planet is in orbit around a blackhole, and light cannot escape from a blackhole, right ? The gravity levels on the planet where one hour on the surface equals seven years elsewhere would crush all human life. The astronauts would also be squished and “spaghettified” by their proximity to a black hole.The robots TARS and CASE are robots, but they speak with undeniable sarcasm like humans. And even in an ultramodern spacejet, Cooper decides to fly manually to save fuel, even with all the computing power available to him. Surely the computer could have calculated the most fuel efficient path to the planet ? When Cooper and Amelia get back to Endurance, Romilly is there and has waited 23 years for them to return. How can a human wait 23 years locked up in a zero gravity environment, alone ? With no other human to talk to ? And the same question to Mann, alone on this frozen planet, locked up for decades. Anyway, Manns' first reaction on being awakened and seeing another human face was priceless, few actors could have pulled it off. Edmund's planet had better data, but they go to Mann's planet, because he was still transmitting. They just found out the Miller was still transmitting only because of the gravity distortion due to the blackhole, but Miller is already dead. Caution anyone ?

But what got to me most was the ending, the closure, or lack of. The part where Cooper falls into the blackhole into a tesseract, which connects to their library back home, and how Cooper communicates via gravity….it is the most stunning set pieces in Interstellar, with reality-bending visuals reminiscent of Inception. But it's also a ridiculously contrived cop-out twist, illogical, incoherent and profoundly unscientific. I know that the original script didn't have any of this gibberish. There, Cooper loads the quantum data onto a probe and sends the probe back to earth, which is the probe Cooper and family find at the start. That was so much more better. There was a question of matter travelling back, but at least there was nothing supernatural about it.

 

My best part in the movie would be after the explosion on Endurance, when Cooper tries to dock his ranger onto the Endurance. The graphics, sound ..it was all perfect, and had us audience tightly hugging our seats and holding our breath. Of course we knew Cooper would dock the ship, but the build-up to it was spectacular.

 

 

Point of Interest: The probe Cooper finds at the start of the movie is from India ! It was supposedly from Delhi Mission Control. Clearly India has made giant leaps as a space superpower, but by the time they do it, the planet is dying !

Tailpiece: I am going back to my favourite space travel movie: Apollo 13. Again, the movie was ahead of its time, but it was simple and concise. And long shelf life too. I have already watched it some 50-something times. And time to revisit.

Ohm Shanthi Oshaana

 

I had missed this movie a the theatre when it was released. So I caught up when the DVD came out. And boy, had fun watching it and reminiscing  of the good old days. It is a fresh , nice , simple movie, with it’s heart in the right place, and nothing vulgar. The story of the girl falling for and pursuing the boy has been told many times, but here there was a certain freshness to it.

In the movie’s first scene, when baby Pooja is born, and the good doctor is informed that it is a boy, an interrupting person in the room congratulates him. “Having a boy baby is much better than a girl baby”, he says, and proceeds to support it with some of his points. Doctor Mathew looks heavenwards and says “Praise the Lord !”

Then the nurse arrives and informs him , saying she had made a mistake. And the baby is a girl, not a boy. The stranger who had earlier congratulated him, now gets up and walks away.  Doctor Mathew looks heavenwards and says “Praise the Lord again !”

A simple , but important message, to love the girl child. From this point , the movie talks of only one thing- Girl Power ! Kudos for the makers to take time to weave this into the very first scene.

Easter Eggs Galore :

The main character and narrator of the movie, Pooja Mathew, played innocently by Nazriya, is born in 1983, the year I was born. And throughout the movie, the story makes numerous tributes to many things of that era. It was a fun going back in time, and here is the list I could point out.:

1. Year 1999. The grown-up Pooja is introduced in mega-serial announcement style. These mega-serials began as a boon to the otherwise entertainment drained Indian TV viewers, but is now the bane of the idiot box. Many mega-serials run for many years with a crazy twisting story line which made no sense.
2. Again, the introductory scene, various pictures in Pooja’s room point to things which were cool that time.  A scene drawing from Spadikam, the Mohanlal starrer, which gave the superstar the image of a goonda with a heart of gold, and fetched him a state award.
3. Rambo. In the 90’s the only place you could see a six pack was in a hollywood movie. Rambo established Sylvester Stallone as the action star to watch out for, and youngsters repeatedly rewatched the series just to see him flex his muscles and arrow down copters. Even today, I watch it when it is on TV. There is also a picture of Clint Eastwood, the original cowboy of Hollywood.
4. On Doctor Mathew’s table is a cassette player, and a copy of  World Book. Before the internet, the World Book encyclopaedia was our only way to gather diverse information. And the trusty cassette player was the gadget every youngster wanted. Before the CDs came down.
5. Complan. The complan boy and complan girl was one of the most successful and common ads on TV back then. It made stars of both the young models.
6. Niram. The 1999 Mayalayam campus hit movie Niram was talk of the town when it came out, and re-introduced the chocolate hero. When you watch the movie today, you could see the crappy direction, and crappy acting, unimaginative songs, and severe lack of story and coherence. But back then, people just swooned at the cute story of the young couple in love.
7. Pooja sees the Hero Honda CBZ in the movie, and gets one for herself. The  CBZ was the first muscle/sport bike to be introduced in India. Before the introduction of the CBZ, the Indian motorcycle market trend was towards fuel efficient, small capacity motorcycles (that formed the 80–125 cc class). Bigger motorcycles with higher capacity virtually did not exist (except for Enfield Bullet). The launch and success of Hero Honda CBZ in 1999 showed that there was demand for performance bikes. Other Indian motor companies would soon follow the trend and bring in high performance bikes of their own.
8. Pooja’s class goes on a tour to Veegaland , which was the first amusement park of Kerala. It soon became the preferred holiday destination of Malayalees of all ages, specially school and college trips. But the huge rid pipes of the park are as dirty today as shown in the movie !
9. Pooja’s father gifts her a new Nokia 3310 ! For many of us (at least for me!) , this was our first mobile phone. Kerala was one of the first states to launch mobile connection services, as early as 1995, cell-phones were becoming available in the market. But the call rates where highly consumer-unfriendly. In some of the usage plans, the rate of outgoing calls was 12 Rs/- per minute, while incoming calls were charges Rs 7/- per minute ! Of course, this meant that calls from unrecognized numbers where not answered :-) . In order to save on costs, many of us began to develop a system of codes using missed calls, 1 missed call meant something, 2 short missed calls meant urgent… Those who had landlines where given missed calls repeatedly so that they would call back landline  to cell phone, landline rates where still cheaper and often free for some minutes.Bigger and better cell-phones were brought to Kerala from the Gelf , and the market had limited options. The Nokia 3310 turned out to be a consumer favourite, it was small, it’s battery ran for 2 days, and the interface was extremely simple and easy to use. The ring tone composer on the device was a crowd favourite, because unlike modern smart phones, this was probably the only way to customize your phone – by getting/composing and playing the latest songs as phone ringtones.
10. More bikes ! David Kanjaany drives a Yamahaa RX 100, the cheaper 100 CC bike of boys of that age. While Giri arrives on his loud and inefficent , but sturdy Enfield Bullet.
11. Karate ! Before Keanu Reeves popularized Kung Fu in the Matrix movies, Karate was the number one marital art style taught and practised. People used to go to such Karate classes, some organized in schools too, preferring the imported art over Kerala’s own traditional art of Kalaripayattu.
12. Shakhtimaan plays on the TV at Pooja’s home. Shakhitmaan was India’s first TV superhero, (the first Superhero was of couse, Mr India, in the movies), playing every Sunday. When Shaktimaan first aired on Doordarshan, there were a lot of controversy created as children set themselves on fire or jumped off buildings hoping that Shaktimaan would save them.About 400 episodes were telecast before it finally lost its charm.
13. Video libraries. Pooja and gang go to a video cassette library and ask for Spadikam, and is told that Velliyettan has come in. Giri comes in and borrows the casette of Enter the Dragon, the Bruce Lee karate classic. Till the end of the 90s, these casette libraries were the place to get the latest movies, in every language. These casettes could be overwritten, so the library owners would just record a newer movie when they get a master copy.
14. Pooja hums the tune Cheppadikunje, from the Malayalam dub of The Jungle Book TV animation. The song, and the show was loved ones from the age.

    
15. David Kanjaany opens an Internet Cafe in the village. Internet arrived in India end of 90s, and internet cafes opened up all over the country, where people could pay and use computers to use the service. The charge were also high, some charge upto 70 Rupees per hour. Today, internet rates have plummeted in the country , and it has become cheap and affordable on smartphones.
16. Doctory Mathews drives an old Contessa Classic. It was a popular car in the 60, but was a dinosaur in the 90s.
17. That Prathikaranam show was hilarious. It used to be the weekly audience-channel interaction program of Doordarshan. The anchors where actual DD employees, and the Nirma ad , was overplayed on TV.
18. The spooky Manichitrathaazhu theme plays when Pooja asks for permission to go out from her father. Apart from being the highest grossing Malayalam film of the year 1993, Manichitrathazhu is considered as one of the best thrillers ever made in India as well as one of the best Malayalam films ever made. The Vidamaatte ! was iconic , and fetched Shobana the National Award for Best Actress. Although the movie was cheaply remade into 6 languages, none of the remakes had the aura and spookiness of the original, which did not use any computer graphics or VFX, and relied entirely on set design and background music and lighting to show its mysterious spookiness.
19. Hrithik Roshan’s entry into Hindi movies, and the hit song from Kaho Na Pyaar Hain. This was the movie which was full of cliches, but the audience lapped it all up, turning him into a superstar with his very first movie. And our generation began drooling over his body..:-)
20. The Dil Chahtha Hain song plays on Pooja’s TV. DCH released only one year later than KNPH. It was another iconic trendsetter movie which even won a Award for its debutant director.
21. The entrance coaching bit was funny, and the class and teacher was modelled on the PC Thomas’s entrance coaching centre in Thrissur. Many of us lost our money and countless days lost in his strict classes, and some of the really gifted ones even got good ranks ! Just to clarify, I never attended his classes, and spent my weekends programming away on my own PC.
22. The cassettes in the video library are replaced by CDs. The new medium promised better picture and sound quality, but soon ended up promoting video piracy because they could be easily copied onto computers.
23. Kozhikode is described beautifully, it has a culture of its own. And a timeless charm. The year is 2004. And a lot of things happened in the preceding four years. MadhuMohan stopped his serials. Veerappan is killed. The 2004 Tsunami hit India too, and affected millions of lives, and the word Tsunami entered Malayalam lexicon.
24. It is said that “Every Facebook user has had a dark past. Orkut !” Before Facebook, Indian youngsters where hooked onto Orkut, the social netwoking service launched by google in 2004. Orkut could show you who all visited your profile, so it was common for boys to lurk around and try to make as many orkut-girl-friends as possible. But after numerous scraps and spams, users got bored of it and abandoned ship to move to Facebook. On June 30, 2014, Google announced it will be closing Orkut on September 30, 2014.
25. Pooja uses a ThinkPad laptop, the design of that lines of laptops has not changed till this day, even after IBM sold Thinkpad to Lenovo.
26. The boring Doordarshan song plays in Pooja’s classroom, it has been a standard tune to denote boring situations.
27. The Classmates song plays and movie is talked about. The movie itself only came out in 2006, but it was a box office hit and has a cult following.
28. Rajamanikkyam poster in Pooja’s home. Man, I hated that movie, but everyone else loved it.
29. For some reason, Dr Mathews is reading Vanitha !

 

My only rant about this movie, Dr Mathews. Nicely played by Ranji Panikker, this father is by far the most carefree father I have seen, in movie or real life. He does not worry when his teenage daughter leaves home often, or notices the sudden changes in her mannerisms. He is not at all concerned when the grown up Pooja leaves and arrives home at odd hours, even 12 in the night. He gifts her a cell phone in high school and is not worried if it might be misused. And when he finally knows about her affair, is so cool about it, he welcomes them whole heartedly without thinking of the possible problems of this relation to his family and community. I have seen some dads who are casual to their children, bug Dr Mathews is lost in his own world, and is a lazy and careless dad.

How Jurassic Park III Could Have Been Better

 

 

When Jurassic Park hit the theaters in 1993, it caused a revolution in CGI filmmaking because for the first time we had what appeared to be living creatures created entirely digitally–also, those creatures were dinosaurs!  It went on to be the highest grossing movie of all time (the third time a film directed by Steven Spielberg was to hold such an honor).  Naturally, a sequel was in order, so Spielberg loosely based The Lost World: Jurassic Park on the novel by Michael Crichton.  The follow-up made a ton of money, though was met with mixed critical response.  It’s not surprising that Spielberg decided to pass on directing the third film and instead took a producing role, allowing Joe Johnston to helm the new adventure.

While the first film was science fiction horror, the second attempted to deal with themes such as “hunters vs. gatherers” (while providing more humans for the dinos to eat).  Jurassic Park III, however, was straight-up adventure.  It was a sparse, fast-paced story about Alan Grant being suckered into flying to Isla Sorna (site B from The Lost World) in order to rescue a boy who was stranded on the dinosaur-infected island.  With a running time of 92 minutes, it was only 3/4 of the length of the previous entries in the series and left most of the audience yearning for the magic of the original.

It seems that Jurassic Park III (oddly named since there was technically no Jurassic Park II) suffered the curse of the third film in a trilogy.  Despite having a screenplay re-written by Oscar-winners Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, the story was too slight to have much of an impact and featured far too many problems to be enjoyable.  That’s not to say that the entire movie was a failure; in fact the dinosaurs were perhaps the most realistic yet, including a redesigned velociraptor with feathers and odd colorings and a very cool spinosaurus that made a T-rex seem like a puppy dog.  Several scenes were quite effective, such as the “bird cage” scene with pteranodons, the raptor attack in the lab, and the spino tracking the heroes through the river while the phone it ate rings.  Johnston handled the action and the effects well, but was saddled with an inferior screenplay.  The frustrating thing is that it didn’t need to be this way–with a few changes, this could have been a great popcorn movie.

Alan Grant

Sam Neill’s character, paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, was the heart of the first movie.  He was a “digger” who found himself “extinct” in the face of genetically cloned living dinosaurs.  While planning his future with his co-worker and apparent lover Dr. Ellie Sattler, he makes it plain that he doesn’t want children–but in the course of the story has to be a surrogate father to two kids while crossing the island where dangerous beasts have escaped their pens.  Spielberg explored his common theme of broken families and missing fathers through these characters, wrapping it up nicely in the final scene where the exhausted kids are cuddled up with him in the helicopter flying them to safety while a bemused Ellie looks on.

Grant was not featured in The Lost World in favor of Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm taking over as the lead (also proving to be a largely MIA father).  With the third film, Grant returned as the protagonist, but was given very little to do.  His presence almost seemed like an after-thought.  We’re introduced to him visiting Ellie, now married to another man with a 3-year-old son, and then quickly we see him giving a boring lecture where he does not want to acknowledge the fact that there are once again live dinosaurs on the planet.  He’s then conned into leading an aerial tour of Isla Sorna (an island he never stepped foot on) for a supposedly rich couple, only learning when it’s too late that they are neither wealthy nor still a couple, but rather they are looking for their son who went missing on the island.  Grant then spends the rest of the movie running around trying to keep everyone alive, a function that mostly wastes his knowledge of the animals hunting them.

The first mistake is how the writers dealt with Grant several years after the events in Jurassic Park.  For him to think that anyone would be interested in hearing about fossilized bones and theories of dinosaur behavior when there are living examples of these creatures in existence is ludicrous.  Yet he naively gives a speech and refuses to even acknowledge his experience on Isla Nebular.  It wouldn’t be in his character to profit off of tragedy, but he is self-defeating to not even discuss his adventures, even in a clinical manner.  Wouldn’t his lectures be so much more interesting if he compared what the theories based on fossils told him compared to what he saw in real life?

Secondly, why were he and Ellie no longer together?  Their single scene together barely touched upon their relationship, alluding to the fact that they were now merely friends or colleagues.  These two had been planning a future together, both professionally and romantically!  Did the events in the first movie tear them apart?  Did they just realize that they weren’t right for each other?  Did his insistence on pursuing fossils rather than live animals cause a rift between them?  It would have been nice for the movie to provide some answers as well as conflict.  Did Grant have any regrets for breaking up with Ellie?  She’s moved on to an apparently happy life with a husband and child while maintaining her career, while Grant is a relic in his own time.  He never wanted children and she did (another possible source of their separation), and both got exactly what they wanted–but is he happy with that decision?  Perhaps he could have seen the missed opportunity in her child.  This and his downward career spiral could cause him to be at a rather bleak part in his life, but this is not explored in the film other than a sense of melancholy that undermines the adventurous tone of the movie.

As an alternative, the movie could shown the two characters married (happily or otherwise).  With him being called back into action, how would he react to be separated from his wife and child now that he’s adjusted to the role of father?  This could be especially poignant given that he must rescue another couple’s child.  Even keeping Grant single without any kids, he could look at the missing boy as a means to make up for not being the father of Ellie’s child like he should have been.  He was a surrogate father once and missed his chance at being one for real.  The decision to go after the boy could have been driven by this inner need in him, which would have been a lot stronger than what was actually on screen.

Speaking of which, Grant doesn’t even know about the missing boy until he’s stranded on the island.  Why?  A primary rule of storytelling is that the protagonist drives the story.  As it is, Grant is just along for the ride, being misled by the boy’s parents in order to get him to agree to one thing while plotting something completely different.  Why couldn’t they have just been up front with him and pleaded to his sense of decency?  This would have given him inner conflict–there’s no way he would return to Jurassic Park or its Site B under normal circumstances, but a lost child would play upon his conscience.  In making the decision to go in search of him, that puts him in the story’s driver’s seat rather than being there just because he happened to have been in the first film.

Not only would this strengthen his character, but he would then be able to call the shots through the rest of the story.  Rather than be hapless (and helpless) survivors of a plane crash, Grant and the other characters would have started with a solid plan, albeit one that would fall apart and need to be improvised along the way.  This would give them solid hurdles to overcome that would be organic to the story and not forced upon them simply because the film needed an action scene here and there.

Finally, Grant needs to grow through the course of the movie, something that doesn’t currently happen.  In the first movie, he learns to be a father figure, though by the third film he has regressed as if that change in him never happened.  Does he need to relearn that lesson all over again?  That would be redundant.  Perhaps he needs to mature so that he’s ready to take on the responsibility of being a husband and father–something that was lacking in him that drove Ellie away.  Or if he is married to Ellie and is the father of her little boy, maybe he’s still not dealing with the situation, and this new adventure gives him a new perspective on his life.  After all, what if it was his own son that was missing on an island filled with vicious dinosaurs?

Ellie Sattler

Why bring Laura Dern back only for a one-scene cameo?  Especially since she doesn’t do anything in that scene except establish the fact that her character has moved on with her life without Alan Grant?  Her character, palebotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler, was a tough, resourceful heroine in the first film.  In this one, she is relegated to the role of deus ex machina, sending in the Marines to rescue Grant and company off screen.  There’s a joke where Grant uses a satellite phone and contacts Ellie’s little boy, who watchesBarney while Grant is being threatened by a real, non-purple dinosaur.  Ellie presumably gets to the phone in time to hear screams and somehow puts the pieces together to call for help.  Why couldn’t we see her being resourceful once again and urgently trying to get the U.S. military to respond?  That would have been great conflict to contrast with what the characters on the island were going for.  It also would have created suspense rather than just have a surprise ending where the heroes get saved out of the blue.

The Bickering Ex-Spouses

William H. Macy and Téa Leoni play Paul and Amanda Kirby, separated parents of Trevor Morgan’s Erik Kirby, who was para-sailing with Amanda’s boyfriend near Isla Sorna when disaster struck and left him stranded to fend for himself on the island.  At first, the Kirbys pretend to be wealthy business owners wanting a unique vacation and convince Alan Grant to give them a guided tour of the island in hopes of spotting some dinosaurs.  However, they also hire mercenaries to help defend themselves against the beasts when they land on the island–which they do only after one of the mercenaries knock Grant unconscious.  Paul and Amanda spend the rest of the movie arguing loudly and quite annoyingly.  In fact, Amanda proves to be the most shrill film character since Kate Capshaw’s Willie Scott in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

As was mentioned before, why couldn’t they have been upfront with Grant about their real purpose?  The sneaky shenanigans do nothing to advance the story other than make Grant look like a weak protagonist.  Once their subterfuge is discovered in Act 2, it’s pretty much dropped from the plot.  They’re used to develop the theme of the broken family that is a common denominator in this series; that’s fine, but it’s handled in a clunky manner.  The script treats high-volumed bickering as character development, and all too quickly the estranged couple finds themselves back together.  In fact, when they find the skeletal remains of Amanda’s boyfriend, she reacts with an hysterical scream–not for the boyfriend, but for her son.  It’s as if the boyfriend was inconsequential.  At least Erik could take care of himself, something that cannot be said for the parents.

The Mercenaries

 

The first Jurassic Park featured the game warden, Muldoon, who carried a powerful looking gun but was still bested by the raptors.  In The Lost World, his character was one-upped by Pete Postlethwaite’s big game hunter Roland Tembo, whose desire was to bag a T-rex.  In fact, he brought along a whole team of wranglers who ended up as a moveable dinosaur feast.  It only makes sense that Jurassic Park III would take this type of role to the next level with a team of mercenaries–though if the definition of “team” is two generic tough guys led by the weaselly little Mr. Udesky (Michael Jeter in one of his last screen roles before succumbing to AIDS).

Having the team leader be the complete opposite of the rugged gunsman that the first two films featured was a nice twist; it’s just too bad that the firepower featured in an early scene was never used.  Also, the two mercenaries were only in the movie long enough to be eaten shortly after the plane carrying the heroes landed.  Perhaps the filmmakers thought this was ironic, but in reality it robbed the movie the potential to have some awesome action scenes involving these characters and their weapons.  It’s not that they were killed that’s the problem, it’s just that they’re dispatched so quickly.  Maybe the movie could have had at least one more mercenary that survived the initial attack in order to last a little way into the plot.

Additionally, Udesky is barely developed as a character and is merely used as the bait in a trap the raptors set for the others.  This was actually a brilliant idea, but since we knew little to nothing about the guy, it was hard to care about his fate.  The movie would have been so much richer if this scene were put off until later into the story and allow him to show his worth (or lack thereof).  The slimy lawyer in the first film had more screen time, and his death was very satisfying!

The Running Time and the Ending

To say this film feels rushed is an understatement.  Probably in response to The Lost World taking 45 minutes to gear up for some action, Jurassic Park III wastes little time in getting to Isla Sorna and putting the characters in danger.  But as stated before, this robs the movie from any character development, rendering them merely action figures to be moved around in the admittedly effective set pieces.  It can be argued that these films were never heavy on deep character analysis, but at least there was motivation for their actions (beyond, of course, the Kirbys wanting to rescue their son).  A lot of the problem is the fact that this movie is very short.  Why did the filmmakers feel the need to make it barely an hour and a half long?  It feels like the Cliff Notes version of a story and could have easily been fleshed out to be a full two hours long and still be exciting.  Screenwriters Payne and Taylor know how to craft character-driven stories, so it’s inexplicable that they ended up doing the exact opposite here.

The Lost World ended its Act 2 with a rescue from the island and proceeded into its third act with taking a T-rex (and its baby) to San Diego.  A lot of criticism was given to this movie for tacking on a Godzilla-like climax with the Tyrannosaur running loose through the city, but it was vastly different from the first film and it completed the theme of letting animals live free that ran through the film.  Jurassic Park III ended at the same point that The Lost World geared up for its climax, with a surprise rescue by the Marines.  As stated earlier, it’s implied that Ellie Sattler called in the cavalry while off screen, but that’s a cheat.  Alan Grant is the protagonist, yet not only did he not cause the plot to happen, he didn’t resolve the conflict either.  Sure, he gave the eggs back to the raptors, but he and his companions surely would have been eaten regardless until the comically huge beach assualt saved them at the last minute.  Granted, Grant and his original companions were saved in a similar manner by a T-rex, allowing them to simply run out of the building, but that at least felt somewhat organic to the plot (after all, the T-rex had a habit of showing up out of nowhere to chow down on unsuspecting animals).  The ending to Jurassic Park III is a cheat.  It makes the characters completely helpless and ineffectual–ultimately, everything they went through was meaningless.  The first two films had a point, but this one was pointless.  The characters ran around the island, being chased by the dinosaurs, and then were rescued.  The end.  No, no, no–they needed to provide the means for their own escape.

Bangalore Days - Rocks like the city !

 

Watched the much awaited Malayalam multi-starrer movie Bangalore Days yesterday. And loved every bit of it. Here is another movie where the story and characters are the real driving force. Writer-Director  Anjali Menon sure does know how to create convincing characters. And boy, can she write ! There are few writers out there who can create and juggle so many characters  and still tie up all the loose ends together in a neat knot. If you are a Mallu, aged less than…maybe   40 years….then run to your nearest theatre and watch it !! Hurry !

 

Bangalore Days tells the story of three cousins, very much close to each other, even if their families don’t gell well, who travel to the big city for different reasons, and end up discovering each other and themselves all over again. It is a story of love, and hope, and everything in between. Don’t go by the movie name, the story & the characters are so good, that they could have very well named the movie Kochi Days, or Trivandrum Days…and it would still have worked. But there is something about this big grand city that attracts youngsters (and older ones too, apparently) , and the truly metropolitan environment means you meet people you hardly run into anywhere else. There is something for everyone here, I am sure each cinema goer will be able to relate to at least one of the many people depicted on screen.

The story is narrated by Kuttan (Nivin Pauly), who is a stereotype young Malayalee software engineer. Many stereotypes will be broken in this movie..even Kuttan’s. Kuttan has just landed a plush software engineer’s job out of Kerala, but is a homesick country man at hear. He runs home first chance he gets, and is clearly in love with his home and the green country side. He introduces us to his two cousins, who have different personalities, but the three of them are one happy bunch. Divya (Nazriya, in her most mature role so far) has just completed her graduation, and has MBA plans, but that goes out of the window when her family decides to get her married to a successful MBA manager,because her horoscope says so. She will have to relocate to Bangalore city, setting the stage for the story and the movie-name. The third wheel of this brat pack is Arjun (Dulquar), who is a born rule breaker, and loves his cousins, and loves to hate everyone else. He is a school drop-out , which means  he is tagged un-successful in life, but is most carefree, and manages to live on his own as a bike mechanic & racer. After Divya’s marriage, the cousins find reasons and move to Bangalore just so they can hang out together. Halfway through the movie, at the interval, their lives have changed; all three of them face problems in their lives. And then , in the second act, they all find their way back, magically.

Lets start with Kuttan. He is excited to move to the big city, but is not ready for the long office hours waiting for him. He also has a culture crash of sorts, his naadan (countryside) ideologies in harsh contrast with the new city life. He wants to marry a typical village belle, but meets and falls for the most unlikely candidate; Meenakshi an air-hostess he bumps into (Isha Talwar) on his first plane journey. He changes himself, for her, and starts dreaming of love..but his dreams come crashing when she runs back to an ex-boyfriend. Back home, his always ill father, has run away, lured by spirituality and faith, and he now has to take care of his mother, whom he reluctantly brings to Bangalore. Turns out, his father did not run away for God, but was actually running away from Kuttan’s mother. Its all not bad for him, as he finally understands the contrasting nature of his people, and renews his life with new hopes, after packing his mom to US to his elder sister.

Arjun is facing an identity crisis of his own, he is hot tempered and rude, and shuts everyone out, the only people he opens up to are his cousins. Backstory reveals that his parents are divorced, and that he ran away from school. He finds solace in the voice of an RJ in the city, who inspire him positively. When he finally meets her (Parvati) he sees someone who has lost more than himself, but has learnt to forget, and take life head-on. She is disabled from the waste below. He is reluctant to make the first move, as she is clearly setting out for a better life, with a university course abroad. She too hesitates, scared to fall for him who clearly has second thoughts. Eventually, he musters the courage to ask her to stay back, with the support of his family and biker friends.

But the track I liked best was Divya’ and Das’s , their married life, the turmoil and the way they overcame them. Divya , the extrovert, bubbly and highly optimistic little girl is excited to be married, and to move to Bangalore. She settles at once to her new life, enjoying the luxurious lifestyle , with her cousins for company. But her husband Das (Fahad Fazil) is a polar opposite, a corporate henchman, forever typing on his laptop, or travelling abroad for his work. He lives a strictly controlled life, and despises changes. He also has a past he is reluctant to talk about, and this is turned into a surprise twist in the their story towards the end. It turns out, Das used to be a champion motocross bike racer named Shiva, and was madly in love with Natasha (Nithya Menen, no dialogues for her). Natasha dies in a bike accident while Das was driving, and he has never come to forgive himself for his mistake, believing he killed her. Natasha’s parents hold him responsible, and he still mourns for her, turning one of his rooms into a sanctum-sanctorum for their memories. All this is revealed when Arjun joins Shiva’s earlier biking team. This twist was a pleasant surprise , not only did it add colour to Das’s dull life, but the backstory explained why he is they way he is. Divya decides not to run away, but to help Das come to terms with his past, even going as far to meet Natasha’s parents and speaking for him. Das finally lets go, and embraces his new life. This part reminded me of the character  Aditya Shroff from Rock On, who too has a bitter past, and has turned from Rock singer to a serious boring investment banker. Even there, it is his wife Sakshi, who helps him come back to love and life.

Apart from these main tracks, there are also many other characters in the movie, like Kuttan’s and Divya’s parents, extended relatives, and Divy’a neighbours from her flat, a bunch of colourful and relatable folk.

What stood out :

1. Background music. The visuals are eye-catching for sure, but the BGM adds a second layer of perspective, lots of guitar, violin and pianos, specially the bike scenes…oooh. Kudos to Gopi Sundar, from Kuttan’s hilarious theme-BGM to Arjun’s electric guitar theme, to he sure knows how to immerse the audience.  The songs rock too ! (searching for torrent)
2. Visuals..a cool and dry Bangalore, without the traffic and pollution. I dream of the Bangalore depicted in the city, where you can ride your four-wheeler care freely, but alas..that world exists only in movies.
3. My favourite scene: Divya helping Das cope. The BGM and visuals in these scenes were dream like.
4. The final race. The last 10 minutes shows Arjun competing in the motocross race, it was both poetic and exhilarating, the music, the editing..everything top notch. Picture perfect.
5. Disability. Sarah plays a paraplegic , and has difficulty moving around the city in her motorised wheelchair. There is a scene where Arjun jumps on the road to stop a bus for her. Disabled people face such transport problems everyday in our country, yet there is very much being done for them.
6. Natasha dies in a bike accident. I am all for safe driving. Road accidents kill  hundreds of people in our country every day. I hope this scene convinces people to ride safer on roads.

 

Anjali Menon has hit gold third time in  a row (or fourth, if you count Kerala Cafe). Three times lucky ? Naah, it three times hard work and persistence. Thank you for a lovely movie, Anjali.

Mr Peabody and Sherman …. history rocks !

 

Just finished watching the DreamWorks animation movie Mr Peabody and Sherman. For once, it is a fun ride through history, and the movie rocks ! The story of the highly intelligent dog adopting a orphan boy was a little disturbing at first. But the story rewinds through various important points in recorded human history, and all the characters , the puns and modern references add oodles of fun. It was also nice to see how far humans have travelled from ancient Egypt to present time.

Favourite parts? : Agamemmon: “I did not see that coming !”. Beethoven playing the dance video game…and “hey Einstein..cross the road !”

7th Day - Good Thriller

 

Watched the new Malayalam Movie 7th Day at a Multiplex in Bangalore. The media has been going on and on about Prithviraj playing a cop’s role again. You will be pleasantly surprised when you watch the final suspense revealed at the climax of the movie.

There are  lots of twists and surprises in the story. The cast is full of new comers, all of them with little acting experience. But for a change, it was good to see that everyone has done a good job when it came to playing their roles on screen.

The screenplay is good. The direction, better. But I felt the real hero of the movie was the cinematorgraphy, by Sujith Vaasudev. The camera moves in ways different from what you usually expect. There is a lot of aesthetically captured scenes, and lots of slow motion captures as well. I specially liked the scenes on top of the waterfall, during the actual crime was in progress.

Slick packaging. And good background music & score to accompany. This movie stands out.

Wolf of Wall Street - Worst movie I watched in 2014

 

Yesterday,  I watched the torrent DVD rip of the Oscar nominated movie – The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. And by far, this is the worst movie I sat down for this year.

Maybe it was because I did not agree with the morality of the story depicted. Or maybe it was the huge amount of profanity and nudity shown on screen. But nothing positive stood out.

Crap story.

Crap acting.

Crap direction.

Leo was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for this movie ? For what ? All he does is grab nude girls and mouth profanity. And he was not even playing a mafia or drug lord. Any Hollywood A-lister idiot could have done that.

Thank God Leo did not win Best Actor , and Martin did not win Best director for this movie. Cause they are not worth it. The whole thing is one long ad for hookers and drugs.

 

 

I still think Leo’s best acting, was in Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can. And I still watch Martin’s Departed.

Manjadikuru

 

Now usually, I steer clear of the so-called Award movies; these are the art-house movies, which win awards at various national and international film festivals. These movies are usually preachy, and made for the hard core movie aficionados. They don’t cater to the masses, and most of them do not receive promotions or support from mass viewers.

But every now and then, there comes a movie which does win awards, but for the right reasons. There is something genuinely fresh or new about it, you watch it, and are surprised how such a well made sweet labor of love went unnoticed. This happened to me yesterday, when I watched Manjadikuru, the debut movie of Writer-Director Anjali Menon.

I had heard about this movie earlier, but could not get a good print to watch it, but somehow tumbled on the youtube playlist somebody had uploaded. And I ended up watching the commercial release completely online (the wonders of modern technology).

And my verdict ? It’s a keeper ! If you are from Kerala, and grew up in the 70s/80s/90s, you got to watch this. I don’t think the current teenage generation will enjoy this simple story of relationships and memories the same way we grownups would. I cursed myself for not watching it earlier.

Manjadikuru refers the bright red seeds found very commonly in ancestral homes in Kerala. They are collected by kids for their color, but are not used in food preparations. Many consider them a useless plant, as neither it’s fruit/seeds nor flower is edible. Kids growing up in towns and cities today will not be able to relate to them, but the generation before, like me, have a nostalgic attachment to them.

The entire story of the movie is set in the past, though the exact time is not specified, it is somewhere in the 1980s. In the narrator’s own words, it was when life was much more simpler, before cellphones, before facebook, and before reality shows and tv serials. I guess the viewer is allowed to set whatever time period he wants to to enjoy the movie.

The central character of the movie is Vicky, the 11 year old son of a gulf malayalee couple, who come home to their ancestral home in Kerala to spend 16 days there. And these few days leave him with a lifetime of memories to cherish and learn from. Vicky and family are summoned home to attend the funeral of Vicky’s grandfather (played by Thilakan), the patriarchal head of the family. The whole joint family of uncles and aunts and cousins and distant relatives also are summoned to the funeral. The whole tharavad (ancestral home) is full of people, who have united for the common cause of the funeral, but who have their own problems within themselves and against each other. Vicky feels lost among this cacophony, and his legs are pulled by his cousin Kannan and his kid sister Manikutti. But the small trio of young ones create a small fun filled world of their own, free from grown-up problems.

 

After the funeral, whole join family is eager to know of the partition of property, and specifically, how will own the  big ancestral home itself.  The grandfather left a legal will, and there is a lawyer who is about the read it, but the grandmother of the family tells everyone to wait for 16 more days for the will to be read. After a death in a family, the family members traditionally observer 16 days of mourning, which ends in prayers for the departing soul on the 16th day, and a hoisted lunch. This is called the pathinaaradiyantharam, and is held 16 days after the death in the family.

Eager to know of the details of the property division, everyone agrees to wait for 16 more days in the home. This gives Vicky and his gang 16 more days to spend together in the country side, which is what the movie is all about. Vicky learns so much in those few days, of life & death, rich & poor, love & hate in addition to a little swimming . The entire movie is pictured in the lush green countryside of a small village in Kerala, during the onset of summer.

The first thing which stands out, is the casting. Every character is splendidly cast, from the grandfather , right down the little kids, and Roja, the Tamil child servant the family employs. The characters are not that colorful, but are believable and relatable. If you have a bunch of relatives in Kerala (or anywhere else, for that matter), you would have come across such characters.

There is the eldest son (played by late vetran Murali, in his last role) who, after having become a naxalite at one point, discovered religion, and became a sanyasi, after tarnishing the family name. Later , he would confess to his mother and he wore the religious colors as a form of protection, because he was scared for his life.

There is the younger son Raghu (Rahman), who has shifted from the family home and is living in a smaller house in the same land property. There is a case between him and his late father regarding the separating wall. He is the only child who stayed back in the countryside to look after his parents, while everyone else went abroad or away in search of better life. But according to the remaining family members, Raghu did not leave, because he had no where to go, and ended up becoming nothing in life. He and his wife are the parents of the mischievous Kannan and Manikuttee.

There is middle daughter Sujatha (Urvashi), mother of Vicky, who chose to marry a Gulf employed Hari, because she wanted a better life for herself and her family. It is revealed later that she was once in love with someone in the village, but decided to marry a better employed and settled Hari, following her head instead of her heart. She is constantly bickering to everyone, even to her son.

There is the younger daughter Ammu, who is married a government official in Delhi. To outsiders, hers looks like a perfect happy marriage, but her husband (Jagathy) is very unhappy with her, and overworks her at home too. Their teenage daughter having been brought up in the city, hates village life , and wants to run back home. She is having an affair with another distant relative ,a teenage boy.

The youngest daughter , Sudha, is married to someone in the US, and is visibly pregnant. Her husband has not accompanied her, apparently due to his work, but it may also be due to already developed cracks in her  marriage. A few years abroad has already transformed her to life’s luxuries; the others are already jealous of her comfortable US lifestyle.

And then there are …the kids. The crown jewels of the set. The three kids who try to enjoy life and the countryside the most are absolute gems ! They first face off, the friction between Gulf educated , well to do Vicky, and the relatively unfortunate Kannan and Manikutty made very visible. Vicky is humble, keeps to himself, and adheres strictly to being neat and tidy. But he is kind at heart, and ready to share his toys and many chocolates as well. The entire movie is narrated by grown up Vicky, so it is his point of view, that we get to see.

Kannan and Manikuttee, on the other hand, grew up in the village. They are smart, mischievous, and talk a loot. Kannan has most of the smartest dialogues among them. And he is also the protective elder brother to his kid sister. His pre-conceived notions about Vicky and the Gulf malayalee lifestyle breaks down fast, when he starts bonding with the every generous Vicky. In the final scenes of th movie, you can see their heart break when Vicky has to return to Gulf, with chances that they may never ever meet each other once the property gets divided.

 

 

But the star of the casting show here is Roja, the migrant Tamil teenage home maid. She speaks broken Tamil and Malayalam, and is made to do every chore in the grand house. She does not complain though, even after being over worked and beaten and punished by the family. The grandmother in the family is the only who does not shout at her. Her pain is visible only to the kids, who together hatch a scheme to save her, and to send her back to her hometown in Sivakasi. The kids succeed, of course, and put Roja on a bus home, but she has is found and has to return in the final moments, her return having something to do with the climax of the movie.

 

The screenplay flows, covering both the wonderful kid’ world, as well as the tumultuous life of the elders equally well. The background music and theme imprints on the nostalgia factor. The scenes are sure to take you back on a journey to your childhood.

My only gripe would be in the songs section. I watched the longer theatrical release, which according to wikipedia, has more scenes and songs than the initial release. None of the songs stayed in my memory. But these can be skipped, as the songs themselves do not add anything new to the movie. The one scene which stood out was the ending of the thiruvathira song, where characters move from the thiruvathira dance steps to taking aggressive fight steps, waking Vicky from his dream turned nightmare.

The dialogues are nicely written. The young ones speak their characters, Vicky, having been brought up abroad, uses English when he is confused about the true Malayalam words. Towards the end, however, his Malayalam vocabulary increases, along with his confidence. The sanyasee maamman speaks in riddles, due to his religious believes. The women in the household all are quick tounged, speak aggressively, along with Raghu, who despises everyone. But, none of the characters speak in the trademark Thrissur region accent. The village is revealed to be in Thiruvillamalai, in Thrissur, where the locas speak in a characteristic regional up-and-down accent. But none of the characters show even a hint of this trait.

After all these problems, the movie ends on a happy note. A happy ending is what the this nostalgic and fun journey down memory lane.