Delhi Belly

When Dk Bose(click here) was launched it raised quite a few eyebrows. If your eyebrow(s) were among them then do NOT watch 'Delhi Belly'.
I would term the release of this film as the coming of age of mainstream bollywood cinema. Gems like 'Udaan' or 'Peepli Live' in my opinion were not mainstream enough. This movie is dirty, filthy, crass but not hypocritical. And that is what I liked about the movie.
The movie deals with the miserable lives of three losers, one of whom (Imran Khan) is about to get married to Sonia (Shehnaz treasurywala). Sonia picks up a package for a friend at the airport and through some series of intricate, comical(/vulgar) , and unfortunate events puts the lives of the three main characters in danger.
This short, crisp movie with a running time of just over 100 minutes have stretched the boundaries of acceptable scenes and language in bollywood cinema. Expletives flow freely like water and toilet humor is packaged (see the movie to know what I mean) in an entirely shocking manner. It is this boldness that is remarkable about this movie. It is bad and does not feel sorry about it.

Shaitaan

"Shaitaan.."exclaims kalki while  her character menacingly holds a teddy bear and " Pareeee !!" she calls out while playfully brandishing another. The movie Shaitan is about all of us juggling the shaitans and angels within us every moment of our life.
The movie has promising start with the mentally traumatised  Amy (Kalki) coming to India with her parents. Here she meets a group of friends - all of them super rich, carefree and lives a wacky lifestyle. Their  lives take an unexpected turn and they have to confront the devils within them, and in the society.
The movie is shot brillianly with breathtaking colours and tantalising angle but the direction has a 'david fincher'  feel to it. The music is funky and creative but sometimes goes over the top. The 'khoya khoya chaand' sequence is simply superb.The dialogues are the real gems of this movie. Sample this -" Kuch dost aisen hein jinhe raath ke do baje hi call kiya jaata hein" or the brilliantly delivered "himani navratna tel kahaan lagate hein?". When a  police superior tells his junior "Sach aur Sachchai mein fark hota hein" you can't help comparing it with the present situation and nod your heads.
Shaitaan portrays the brash, violent section of Indian youth who are aggressive in pursuit of the 'trophies' they are obsessed about and get confused after getting them. A good watch.

.SRT - Some Retarded Talk

Subtitles -Those inseparable companions of movie files. Those little minions,going by a rather plain name of .srt becomes a crucial part of our cinema experience especially if the film is in a foreign language or the film is too 'slangy' to comprehend. Take Guy Ritchie's whimsical tale 'lock,stock and two smoking barrels' for example. The London slang was difficult to get hold of and I had to seek the help of a subtitile.
But I have found that they are not always very helpful.on the other hand they can be distracting and times even annoying.Picture this:
the location is a typical gangster den (don ka adda) with guns , drugs, old drums, furniture that a 3-year-old can break etc etc There is a fierce inter-gang gun battle proceeding towards a bloody climax. Blood literally flowing all over the screen , human organs decapitated in ways that one cannot even think of; and the subtitle says - {Guns firing}. All that tension and mayhem reduced to just two words {Guns firing}.
Do they have to tell us even the most obvious? Tires screeching, raining , snowball rolling,kissing (oh yeah!),scratching head - all these can very well be exluded from the description.Its similar to
the instructions behind some shampoo bottles -
step 1 : Open the lid.
As if we don't know that! Anybody who can buy a shampoo bottle will definitely know that the lid has to be opened.
Another funny experience is when I watch dubbed movies. Oh! I have a great time watching them. Whether its the sophisticated Judi Dench playing M
uttering podaango!(thoo teri!in our rashtra bhaasha) in place of a rather restrained 'for heaven's sake Bond' or terrifying dinosaurs being called 'bheeman palli' ( just a harmless chipkali) I had pure unadultered fun. But this one is the creme de la creme.I thank my friend for sharing this with me .
Superman returns after a long soul-searching journey back to his rural abode. He is welcomed by his Mom with a classic 'Aa gaye mere laal'!(it does not translate well to other languages).
I enjoy watching  the dubbed versions more than the original and as far the subtitles are concerned - I still hunt for them.

Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film (Alphabet City)

Raavanan (tamil)

I watched Raavanan the tamil version of Mani ratnam's magnum opus today and I honestly feel that it does not live upto the hype it has generated. I felt disappointed at the maestro's latest offering.
The film begins with a brilliant scene that introduces the antagonist Veerayya (raavan/Vikram) kidnapping raagini (sita/Aishawrya rai bachchan) wife of a superintendent of police Dev (ram/Prithviraj). But from then on throughout the first half the movie is just a mish-mash of images that roll in front of the eyes without any effect on the viewers. The only saving grace is Vikram whose unflinching dedication to the character pays off. He literally lives the menacing and unpredictable Veera with relative ease.
The second half gets interesting as the cat and mouse game between Dev and Veera intensifies.Dev tries to catch Veera by hook or by crook while Veera
remains elusive and poses fresh challenge to Dev and his army every minute. I felt that Raavan actually came alive only at this juncture. This half also explains
reason for Veera's enimosity with Dev.It culminates in a brilliantly choreographed fight sequence above a hanging bridge that sent shivers down my spine.
I think Mani Ratnam's idea to narrate the Ramayana from the view point of Raavana was a brilliant plan.To explore the oft-heard tale from the viewpoint
of the oppressed and bring about an alternate narrative is commendable. But i think that is also this film's biggest disadvantage. Mani Ratnam i feel
has been too faithful to the original Ramayana. We have Karthik jumping from tree to tree desparaely trying to show us that he is Hanuman, the
henchman of Rama. We hear many characters talk of the 14 days that raagini has spent in custody of Veera - an obvious reference to the fourteen years
of Vanvaas.And the repeated references to the ten characters of the fugitive is just irritating .There are many such scenes in the film which I felt was included
because it is there in the original. We understand the meaning of an adaptation , but you don't have to rub it in!
Prithviraj cannot even even act as a monkey's tail and he portrays Dev!To watch him trying to act was hilarious . Aishwarya looks jaded throughout the film.
The camera by Santhosh Sivan is scintillating. He has absorbed the hues and beauty of those scenic locales brilliantly. Each scene looks like a vibrant
moving canvas. The background music is amazing and the songs have a raw energy in them. Vikram is just outstanding - slowly trying to untangle his complex and multi-layered character and place before us the bare man behind the 'Raavan'.
Watch this movie for the picturesquw locales ,superb cinematography and impressive background music. But above all watch it for the devotion of Mani ratnam to this art - he has given it his heart and soul to it.

The Hurt Locker

I was fed up of watching ugly duels between wizards,mis-adventures of human greed on some distant planet, mythical creatures running havoc ;getting mauled by werewolves or vampires and some one( one man and only one man required for)saving the planet.( for your information this 'one man' is always a white american and in most cases has a military background)I wanted a break from all this and wanted to watch something real - an escape from all this eye candy. That is when I got 'The Hurt Locker'.
'The Hurt Locker' is directed by Kathryn Bigelow who now received an Oscar for this movie beating ex-husband Cameroon. The movie is set in the war ravaged country of Iraq and tells the story of a  bomb disposal squad. What makes this movie stand apart from the rest of the terrorist-bashing, all-hail-america group of movies is its no-nonsense approach of story telling. The movie wastes no time in introducing either the premise or the characters and takes us straight into the action. The restless camera-work makes us a tense witness to the action and at times even we feel the scorching desert sun on our skin.Almost unknown actors bring the characters alive on screen as they faceless and nameless enemies across the desert. The right dose of music works wonders and a tight script guides the movie to a realistic climax.
The movie may not be politically correct. But the directors effort to provide a straightforward narrative devoid of any gimmicks must be praised. She does not take any stand. She merely provides us an 'eye' in the bomb infested streets of Iraq.

Ayirathil oruvan - A crime against humanity

How many times have you succumbed to your friends pressure and watched a movie 'for them and with them'? If you are such a habitual succumber then don't hang out with your friends when this movie is playing at a theatre near you!
The main thread of the movie is very original and is not a rip-off of any indiana jones movie. The director must have felt that our culture and folklore has many hidden gems and its better to use them than ape some hollywood movie. Hats off to Selvaraghavan
NOTE:the positive part of this blog ends here. Do NOT read further below if you expect a good word about this movie.
The story starts off with a quest to find a mythical land where cholas live to this very day ruled by a direct descendant of the chola dynasty. Every character has their own personal reason to find this mysterious place on earth  - some good some not-so-good. But the pressures of commercialism has poured cold water over this dynamite of a story and we see is a mish-mash of bad editing, terrible music , horrible music, and some funny bloodspills. The cholas in this movie are so black that charcoal will look like chalk in front of them! In one scene ( the nataraja shadow sequence in the desert) the sun sets and rises from the same place!

The blunders are so many that after a point we  will start to enjoy it! Watch this historically inaccurate artistically disastrous venture if you need a good laugh at the end of a busy day
As i told my friend while coming out of the theatre - I should have burned my money rather than watch this movie