Showing posts with label Movie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Movie. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

All The Best, "Barfi"!

It is really so thrilling to know about "Barfi" getting nominated for Oscar. 

While it is always great to find an Indian movie to Oscar nomination, what made Barfi's Oscar nomination so thrilling for me is the movie's close connection with two places that I am so obsessed with - a.) Darjeeling (in the North Bengal region, i.e. the picturesque region that was once the home for my family), and b.) Calcutta/Kolkata, the magnificent city where I grew up. 

All the best, Barfi!

NB - However, I am aware of the controversy that "Barfi" has imitated a number of scenes from a Charlie Chaplin movie. Well, I am not aware of to what extent the imitation has been made. But it is certainly not appreciable if the movie owes the acclaim it is enjoying to the scenes that it has imitated from other movie/movies. 

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

“White Lies” – The Simple Yet Captivating Short Film That Touches Your Mind


Was lucky to come across other day Mr. Rajarshi Mukherjee, a law student by occupation, and a short film maker by passion (for the clueless - a short film is one with a duration that does not exceed 45 minutes).

It was a new experience to know about short film, a specific genre of movie, and a really enjoyable experience to watch "White Lies", a nice short film directed by Rajarshi himself. In fact, I watched the movie on his laptop, sitting beside him (that was also a new experience, i.e. to watch a film siting beside the director of that film). 

I really loved the movie - the story, the script, the narration style, and the acting (incidentally, none of the actors is a professional). It is undoubtedly one of the best movies that I have seen in my life. And while I loved everybody's work, I will like to offer a special note of congratulations to Arinjay and Sukanya. Especially Arinjay has done a marvelous job. 

The story is about a young Kolkata lady named Isha discovering her husband Subodh to be secretly spending time with a female colleague, which is followed by a husband-wife spat. Emotionally upset, Isha decides to leave her husband for good, and comes out on the road. While loitering on the road with a disturbed mind, she is lightly hit by a car being driven by a young college professor named Amit. Amit takes Isha to his home for few hours, so that she can take some rest and get OK. Though initially a bit uncomfortable, Isha gradually opens up, and tells Amit about her spat with Subodh and the reason for the spat, and her decision to divorce her husband.

Amit calmly listens to her. Then he tells her about how he himself had cheated on his wife, and how she forgave him and gave him an opportunity to start it anew.  He tries to convince Isha that Subodh deserves another opportunity. Isha is so touched that she changes her mind, and goes back to Subodh, who was already repentant and was eagerly waiting for her return.

Well, there is something more in store for the audience even after this happy ending. After Isha goes back to Subodh, the audience finds that Amit is still a bachelor. He never married, and there is no question of cheating on his wife in the first place. He actually cooked up the story to make Isha changer her heart. It was this twist that I personally liked the most.

I have fallen in love with this "short film" category of movies, and will look forward to more such movies. And all the best to Rajarshi for all his future projects.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

“Interested Is Interesting” – The Fabulous Message From The Film “Loser”

The other day I was watching “Loser”, a nice Hollywood movie starring Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari and Greg Kinnear.

It is about an innocent small town boy named Paul Tannek (Jason Biggs) who comes to New York for college studies, and tries to cope up with the big city life while countering huge cultural shocks at every step. A both entertaining as well as thought provoking movie armed with high quality acting.

However, what I enjoyed most in the movie was actually a particular dialogue. There was a scene which showed Paul packing his bags before leaving for New York, when he asks his father that how he could make friends in an unknown city where he knows nobody. And then his father says – “Always remember, interested is interesting.” Puzzled, Paul asks – “What do you mean?” And his father says – “Remember, every man has a story. And he looks for somebody to listen to his story. Listen to peoples’ stories, and they will like you.”

How true! Indeed, lending an eager and sympathetic ear is the key to becoming popular with people. You take interest in people, and people will take interest in you. Simple!

Hats off to the dialogue writer of “Loser”, who has presented this basic truth in such a simple manner. It is not that I did not know this fact. In fact, we all are aware about this basic fact of life. But what I liked was the novel way it was presented. I basically liked the short and simple dialogue that said it all – “Interested is interesting.”

Sunday, March 29, 2009

"Slumdog Millionaire" – Such An Enjoyable Movie


I watched "Slumdog Millionaire" today (29th March 2009) with my dear friend Sourabh Sinha and his wife Ranjana. And man, I really loved watching the movie.

While I will not say that the storyline is very innovative (though certainly imaginative), what was really innovative was the presentation style. “Narration through flashback” is nothing new in movies. But usually it is a “continuous flashback”. What was really new in this movie was the “situational flashback”, the way every flashback scene was being presented in the context of another scene.

The quality of acting in this movie is really startling. While there is nothing surprising about the world class performance of Anil Kapoor (we all already know his class), I am simply floored by the acting delivered by Dev Patel (Jamal), Freida Pinto (Latika), Madhur Mittal (Salim) and even the child actors – Ayush Khedekar (youngest Jamal), Tanay Chheda (middle age Jamal), Rubina Ali (youngest Latika), Tanvi Lonkar (middle age Latika), Azharuddin (youngest Salim) and Ashutosh Gajiwala (middle age Salim).

Dev Patel has a beautiful command of facial expressions, which shows that he is a natural actor. Some effective pieces of facial expressions (and eye expressions) have been displayed by Freida Pinto as well. And little sweet Rubina and Ayush are also quite strong in this context. Tanay Chheda and Ashutosh Gajiwala have impressed me with their natural body movements and dialogue delivery. In a nutshell, it was a superb teamwork.

At the end, all the best for Freida and Dev. Hope they will have a great career, and will keep entertaining us for many more years.

Have you watched the movie? If not, then please watch it. I bet you will love it.

Photo Courtesy - www.firstshowing.net