Movie review - Aravaan

Has been a while since I watched this movie; but remember it to be a good one.  A novel theme (this is a period film) about a people who steal from the rich to survive. 
There is a good mix of action and emotion, and this movie is an entertainer. 
Aathi as the hero is very convincing.

Kumki - Tamil Movie review

Overall a very nice movie!

Certainly a welcome change to watch an elephant in almost every scene.  

Manikkam the elephant is adorable.  My favorite scene is the one in which he follows his angry mahout Bomman (Vikram Prabhu) around town and finally finds him aboard a bus in the bus-stand.  Animals have an amazing way of endearing themselves even without dialogues and dramatics!.  

The story is based on a 'Kumki' or a trained elephant which is taken to Adhikaadu to stop the rogue elephant which is wreaking havoc every harvest season.  The Adhikaadu residents are very traditional and do not compromise on their ways in spite of changing times.  They chose to bring a 'Kumki' elephant to their village rather than take the help of the government to oust the nuisance.

As expected, the hero falls in love with the village leader's daughter (Lakshmi Menon) and whether they are able to come together and also keep the rogue elephant at bay forms the rest of the story.

The photography is awesome: the greenery of the Western Ghats is simply awe-inspiring.  Music score is pleasant but all songs seem similar.  Comedy is spontaneous and hilarious!  But I found the hero's love a little annoying - especially since he jeopardizes all his close circle.

 

Movie review - Vazhakku en 18/9

A wonderful enactment, full of pathos.  Two parallel tracks, one of an upper middle class family in an apartment and another a slum.  The two tracks and the people involved meet only after the poor servant maid, Urmila Mahanta, survives an acid attack.

The police conduct a thorough investigation and the culprit is caught, but he is not brought to justice, sadly.  The usual powerful politics pokes its ugly nose and the innocent poor Sri is framed.  His love for the servant maid is exploited and he consents to plead guilty.

The unexpected turn of events consists of Urmila taking matters in to her hands and the film ends in poetic justice for the corrupt policeman.  What is not justice, poetic or not, though is Urmila having had to suffer the disfigurement and the jail sentence too.  Sri makes a very convincing and endearing young one-sided lover.  His friend in the roadside restaurant is initially irritating but he turns out to be an honest fellow.

On the whole a very gripping narration.  All the atrocities that can be done with the mobile phone are well brought out.  This film made me understand the hatred I have for rich spoilt teenagers.  

The end leaves the viewer feeling sad for the innocent and gullible people in the film as well as all those out there whose stories never make it to the world outside. 

Movie review - Main Gandhi ko nahi mara

I was left wondering how this Gandhiji related title was suitable for a film based on dementia/Alzheimer's. 

Anupam Kher dons the role of an absent minded professor, whose absentmindedness is actually the beginning of a more serious brain deterioration.  It could be age-related, because he is retired from active service for a couple of years, but still remembers some incidents with vivid detail.  Urmila Matondkar is the only daughter between two boys, older one away in the US and younger one still in college.  Not wanting to trouble her older brother she takes up the responsibility of caring for her father - taking him to doctors and worries over him.  The younger brother immaturely talks about admitting his dad in an 'asylum' which angers Urmila and rightly so.

Things shoot out of control when Urmila's four year boyfriend's parents visit to discuss the possible marriage when her dad bursts out in anger for having kept a teacup inadvertly on Gandhiji's picture.  Urmila is caught in between her father's deteriorating mental health and the insensitivity of her boyfriend.  Its when she finds him married that her world collapses, but she has to pull on for her father's sake - he has had more instances of running away from home and even setting his room on fire.  He repeatedly says that it he did not kill Gandhiji.

A good doctor comes into the picture and his approach turns around things.  The family unlocks their father's obsession with his guilty feeling.  An unexpected experiment turns out to be a success and things get back to normalcy.

Its only possible in Indian movies that the topic starts off as brain dysfunction and ends up in patriotism! 

Movie review - Kahaani

I give full marks for this movie.  Very gripping story which keeps up your interest till the last scene.  A nice plot which even entertains your brain.  Vidya Balan plays very well her role of a very pregnant woman who visits Kolkata to search for her husband gone missing since two weeks.  How she takes revenge on those who were the reason behind her husband's death and so many other innocent victims in the Kolkata metro train poisoning is the theme of this story.  The story plays out so well, that at last, it is confusing whether it really happened or not.  That's why this movie is named so aptly as 'kahaani' or 'story'.

"If your path is more difficult, it is because of your high calling"

The more I ruminate on this the more it rings true.  However I would substitute 'difficult' with 'unique'.  

Some well meaning friends used to advise me :  Do not specialise too much in one area, because the more you specialise in one area, the more difficult it is to join the mainstream.   It made sense to me but never really affected my choices.  To begin with mine is a unique subject and jobs cut out for it are indeed rare.  Even the few jobs do not really give one an opportunity for personal growth.  But on the flip side, a lot of my growth depends on how I improve my knowledge, outside of the job area.

And certainly I do feel a very strong invisible pull to my subject.  Right now I do not know perhaps that it is my calling but in the past whenever (more specifically on two occasions) I have tried to switch areas somehow it has not materialised.  And it has not been painful at all!  Thats the awesomeness of it!  Both times I have landed with better opportunities to learn and grow.  That s why I call it 'invisible'.  I certainly don't see it but it does exercise a strong pull.  Its like whenever a child tries to wander off from its nursery, the mother gently but surely makes sure it does not go astray and puts him back in his nursery where it is safe for him and where he can learn a lot.

Movie review - Moonu

The thing that stands etched in my memory about this film is Shruti Hassan's crying face.  I think in every alternate frame, this dame is crying - for something or the other and for no apparent reason whatsoever! Whew!  

The story was okay, certainly an off the beaten track one and based on a 'psychology' subject and could be considered 'trendy' I suppose!  The first part of the movie moves well and both Dhanush and Shruti can pass off as school kids. Prabhu and Bhanupriya seem typical parents of a laid back boy, the mother very protective and the father too strict.  Though they seem affectionate and acquiesce to his every wish, why are they not in the picture when he has a serious problem? 

I would have liked the movie to start on a more positive note instead of Dhanush's funeral.  The anguish of a young widow is portrayed well. Shruti makes a very convincing grieving young widow who is torn in her sorrow.  What makes it all the more unsettling is that Dhanush has been killed in his own apartment, in broad daylight, but there are no signs of a struggle or nothing robbed from the apartment.
The movie flows on briskly, weaving together the past and the present and how finally Shruti finds answers for some very troubling questions.
On the whole, an entertaining watch if you are into serious themes.