Guru

Villager. Visionary. Winner.

Guru was fantastic. An experience by itself. I’ve seen every Mani movie till this one, and have loved them all. Guru stood out amongst them in quite a few ways, which I found refreshing. Firstly, it wasn’t a feel-good tale, which brought with it an exciting prospect that Mani was going back to his days of hard-hitting cinema. The golden Nayakan and Dalapathi days. Second, the acting is always great in his movies, but there’s not been a movie yet where the protagonist stole Mani’s thunder, so as to speak. Abhishek Bachchan does just that. Out of the blue, we have this guy, who has been consistently terrible in almost every film he’s graced, deliver an absolutely fabulous performance that defines the whole movie!

Guru’s debate is very stimulating. It lets us decide if it was really wrong for Gurukant to bend the old, rigid laws and systems of this country to grow his business. Haven’t we all seen how difficult it is to climb up ‘corporate ladders’ or whatever they call it in bureaucratic India? It’s not hard to imagine what it would take a villager like Gurukant to grow to the level he eventually gets to.

The way to watch Guru right is to not make a judgment about it too early on. Not react to its content prematurely. So hold on to your horses, and wait till the very end of the movie to decide whether you agree with it or not. I did, and I agreed.

OK now I’m going to stop reviewing and get to more interesting stuff. Aspects of Guru reminded me other movies. Firstly, other Mani movies itself. Guru and Nanaji’s deep friendship and eventual rivalry reminded me of Iruvar’s Anandan and Thamizhchelvan. Even the way the people under them further the animosity by taking things into their hands (like the factory supervisor who employs goons to attack Mithun’s car). We see a similar situation in Iruvar too. Second, Guru and his stop-at-nothing-to-succeed attitude were reminiscent of Velu Nayakar and his ‘Naalu perukku nalladhu seyyardhu naa edhuvum thappu illa’ ideology. Third, ‘The Aviator’… enough said. If you’ve seen it, you know what I’m talking about.

Children of Men

Children of Men could’ve gone 2 ways. The sci-fi story, adapted from a P.D. James novel, would have been perfect for a Jerry-Bruckheimer-produced-Michael-Bay-directed ‘this summer (dramatic pause) get ready (pause again) for the end of the world’ kinda movie.

Fortunately, it isn’t that. Directed and co-written by Alfonso Cuaron(Y Tu Mamá También), Children of Men has a human edge to it that we never see in sci-fi thrillers. A human edge that makes it so engaging and chilling to watch, making it succeed both as a nightmare thriller and as a sophisticated human drama about how society would react to a situation like this. The ‘situation’ here, is when mankind mysteriously loses its ability to procreate. Women have been infertile for 18 years. Every part of the world has already disintegrated, decayed into war and craziness. We are shown a fascist Britain, intolerant to immigrants, and filled with activist groups fighting each other, with agendas of their own.

I am not going to go into the details of the plot here, but I have to tell you how Cuaron has gone about it as a filmmaker. CoM grabs your attention in scene 1, and keeps a vice grip on it. Not resorting to the temptations of dramatic slow-mos or aerial shots, it throws you right in the middle of all the chaos, and leaves the rest to you. You are not told how terrifying it is, you are left to feel it. Stunning, to say the least.

And the action sequences. Oh my. Complicated single-take sequences that blow you away. Unforgiving, violent, and starkly real, the action in this movie leaves an indelible impact on you, moves you, and is a device of drama rather than the conventional form of entertainment it’s used as. Sensational stuff.

Watch it, for god’s sake!

Trailer: Click here.

of Sivaji and the armchair critic

I find it very funny that people actually go about doing a traditional review of ‘Sivaji’. They obviously take themselves too seriously! There are some things we just react to, which is just an emotional reflex, without any intelligent thought going into it. ‘Sivaji’ is something I’d definitely put into that category. More like a festival, like Deepavali, where you just enjoy the fireworks. Nothing cerebral about it, no-one’s complaining ‘they all sound the same’ or wishing there’s more to it than a burst of color.

As one who strongly opposes the argument that cinema is just to entertain and that it needn’t do anything more, I seem to be contradicting myself when taking this stand. Actually, I’m not. This doesn’t apply to a Rajni movie, as it never tries to be something more than the all-out glitzfest that it is. I’m sure you guys agree. It’s never pretending to be a meaningful drama or never trying to ‘convey a message’ like most other movies are.

Sit back, and just watch the movie. If it excites you and entertains you, it worked for you. If it didn’t, please don’t walk out saying something like ‘there’s no semblance of a script’.. the joke’s on you then!

(post primarily in reaction to this.)

Perfect!

I had my doubts when I saw the trailer of Sivaji. And even was doubting whether I should watch this film spending 20$, this early. But, in words of Jack Sparrow, Capt. Jack Sparrow, “Couldn’t resist mate”. And was that a good decision? Hell yeah!

The leading lady was shown at her hot best, no overdone comedy by Vivek, he was brilliant with his one liners and of course then there is Rajini!  Rajini had his style and persona written all over in this movie. A perfect foil for a perfect entertainer. A.R.Rahman’s songs got the deserved credit in the film. Everyone will have something to like in it for sure, and I liked it better than Padayappa and Basha.

My only complaint is that I did not see the movie in Singara Chennai. First time I ever felt like “I want to go home, my place!”. I want to watch this movie back home dammit! And I want to watch it there, NOW!

Bring on the Confetti

Sivaji was a very fine piece of clothing for Rajni. Great material. Well knit. Fitted him great. All he had to do was slip in and walk around. But he decided to do better.

We all went berserk!

Ocean’s is low on the Quotient

Ocean’s Thirteen is enjoyable if you choose to enjoy it, much like a mainstream Indian movie. Definitely not bad for a ‘threequel’, going by Spidey 3, Pirates 3 and the likes. But, it totally defies logic, is as linear as a movie can get, and leaves you wondering if there was a finale to it that you missed.

George Clooney and his cronies are at it again, and this time its casino-man Pacino they’re against. One of the best things about the movie, this Mr. Pacino is. He sizzles as the egoistic Willie Banks who double crosses one among Ocean’s 12, Reuben. And hence, Clooney’s back with his assortment of multi-talented crooks, and this time, their last victim Andy Garcia is with them too.

The one aspect of the movie that irked me the most was the narrative style. The best thing about Ocean’s 11 was how the whole task seemed impossible at first, then they went about planning it and doing it, and they saved the best darn twist for the last. This one has no such thing. From scene 1 till the end, we’re just relentlessly fed with small problems that they’re facing with their plan, and ridiculously far-fetched solutions to each. You’ve gotto see it to believe it. In one bit, they’re actually diggin’ a friggin’ tunnel under the Las Vegas Strip, and generating an earthquake that shakes up just this one hotel. Yea right.

What makes things worse is the unimaginative dialogue. Even though the fantastic jazz soundtrack makes up for it, you’re looking for some nice funny lines in this ‘threequel’(damn, I hate that word!), just like you did in Pirates 3, but no luck here either. One or two laughs, but nowhere near enough.

I’ve noticed this with all franchise movies made for the sake of making one (more). They all take the audience to be very stupid, and expect them to lap up anything that’s served in a format resembling the successful original. Soderbergh resorts to that too, and that’s very disappointing, coming from the man who made Traffic.

You could watch it for: The high glamour quotient, the soundtrack, and the fact that it’s better than the terrible Ocean’s 12.

Otherwise, you’d be better off watching Knocked Up.

Are you watching closely?

 

While we aren’t watching ‘Memento’ for the 42nd time you would find us here. While we aren’t putting together the non-existent script in ‘POC: At World’s End’ you would find us here. While we aren’t saying lines from ‘Apocalypto’, (yes Apocalypto) you would find us here.

And while we are here, we are going to talk about what happened during the previous 3 sentences. Savvy?