"Movie reviews"

Someone had said to me once that "Movie reviewing" was a good hobby to have. When i was told this i thought i could review movies because i watched so many of them! But i had one problem which my friends told(teased) me, i always appreciated movies! I never said that a particular movie was bad and that was because i always used to ignore the bad part and accept the good part of the movie.

But as my knowledge of movies increased( at least i think so) i started noticing the bad or low quality cinema. Bollywood also helped me a lot since a good movie was so rare!

One of the main reasons i started this blog was to write about movies and i have reviewed some of them but in a unorganized way. I din't know what to write in a review,I mean on what parameters will i judge a movie? Thats the reason why you can see that i have abruptly ended the previous review posts. So now i have decided that there has to be certain parameters on which i shall review a movie.

According to me " A Movie is not only a medium for entertainment but also a way of expressing the society" You can learn a lot from movies( I mean good quality movies) Hence for me it is of utmost importance that the Director has a clear purpose of making a movie and if he is successful in portraying his vision on the screen then thats the best award for a film.

Now i shall try to review a movie based on following factors

1. Story or Script which is the soul of the movie.
2. Cast. Is the cast assembled the best?
3. Direction.
4. Is the movie Logical and if it is illogical then does it have a proper reason to be so?( ai wonder can it still be justified?
5. Is it a film for masses or a particular sect of society?

Also technicalities of the movie which includes Cinematography,Art direction,Camera work etc

I do not have much expertise on these but if i find something interesting worth to note then i shall mention it. There are many other factors which can be considered but above 5 are the main parameters around which the review will be centered.

There can be movies which might not satisfy even one parameter mentioned above,i will try my best to ignore such movies. There are many Bollywood movies which are like that!

I would like to end this post with some beautiful quotes on movies

"The movies we love and admire are to some extent a function of who we are when we see them"- Mary schmich

"You know what your problem is,it's that you haven't seen enough movies-all of life's riddles are answered in the movies"-Steve Martin

"Movies are something people see all over the world because there is a certain need for it"-Wim Wenders

"My true inspiration for movies comes from my Grandfather who absolutely loved them"-Me!

"Reservation Road"{2007}

Firstly thanks to Shyam Govind for his tips which helped me to change the look of my blog. Must say Blogger has done some remarkable changes. You can check out his blog here

Now coming to the movie "Reservation Road" by Terry george who also directed the wonderful film "Hotel Rwanda". This movie is a drama which is high on emotional quotient. First thing which came to my mind after watching the movie was the brilliant acting by two fathers and very good direction. If you consider the plot it looks like any other 90's bollywood revenge theme movie but it is more than that! It is a very powerful film.

Ethan learner and Grace lose their child Josh in a fatal car accident which is caused by Dwight anro's (Attorney)SUV. Not knowing what to do,Dwight speeds away from the accident site but Ethan got a glimpse of the vehicle and heard Dwight shouting his son's name "Lucas". Both Ethan and Grace cannot accept the fact that their son has been killed and are in extreme trauma. Ethan tries all options to nab the culprit by going to Police,attorney and personal investigation but success is hard to come by.

Grace decides that she has to move on with her life but is perturbed because of her husband Ethan who is still traumatised. Here both the actors have acted brilliantly especially Ethan played by jaoquin phoenix. There is a beautiful scene here when Josh's sister Emma asks her mother whether music can be heard in heaven,since she wants to play the piano only if his dead brother can listen to it.

On the other hand Dwight is very nervous and does not know what to do hence he hides his car in the shed and tries to concentrate on his work but he is unable to. He tries to spend more time with his son Lucas so as to forget the incident but it keeps on haunting him. He is unable to sleep and tries to confront Ethan and the police for confessing but is unable to gather the courage.

What is interesting is Ethan goes to the same law firm where Dwight works and dwight has to handle the case which makes it more difficult for him. Here both the fathers have given captivating performances which make the movie very engrossing. Finally Ethan recognizes Dwight's voice and tries to shoot him but is unable to do it since Dwight had realized his mistake and is dying every day because of it.

Watch the movie for amazing performances and good direction. If you do not like too much emotional stuff then this might not be your type but the movie is worth a watch.

If you are wondering why the movie has been named "Reservation road" the accident takes place at Reservation road.

"Random thoughts"

The time i spend in thinking useless topics, if used properly could have actually got me a job!

I was thinking on so many topics that i could not write this post on one single subject hence now have to make it a melody of thoughts!

"first random thought"

Today Naxalites(Moaoists) again targeted civilians by blasting the railway track near kharagpur which resulted in derailing of train and killing 65 "INNOCENT" people who i am sure had no connection with ignoring the ''Genuine'' demands of naxalites. On the other side of the planet in Africa,Indian cricket team lost its first match against Zimbawe.( I am not a news reader!)

Now what does the Powerful Media of our country show in prime time news?? Its a very important question they ask " Should BCCI have rested 10 indian players for the tournament" Some of them go to the extent in asking whether Suresh raina is misfit for Captaincy?

As the media always says that they show what the people want to see! I am sure people are more interested in knowing what happened in Zimbawe to our second string side rather than knowing who was responsible for the killing of only 65 civilians. I use 'only' because life of a individual does not hold any value nowadays. If it had then Government of india would have taken a stern action against the Maoists. Only few channels were flashing the helpline numbers which are of extreme importance in the time of crisis.

I am not a idealist who wants a overnight change in media but at least they should understand their responsibility and take a step in having some ethics.

Next random thought

After watching a thought provoking serial in Television( I know its surprising) I had to think about our education system which has been the focus for past few months,thanks to the HRD minister Kapil sibal's "Landmark" Policy decisions. The serial was highlighting the age old fight between English and Hindi. I do not want to write about the debate,but whats interesting to note is, Our education system does teach both languages in weird kind of hierarchies like Ist,2nd,3rd language but do we really learn the language??

As everyone knows Languages in schools are the least important subjects since we need to score more in subjects like Science,Mathematics. But still we need to learn them since they give is all important "marks". I had the opportunity in studying a CBSE school which was decent and had some good quality teachers, most of the children do not get a chance like this. For now lets leave alone the matter of Poor children like our government usually does.

Now i read Hindi as my second language and as any other common child i by hearted my poems since i had to recite them in front of the whole class because i had to earn 5 marks! Did i understand the poem? Who cares? I couldn't understand the great poem "Madushalla" by Hari vansh rai bachan at the age of 21 and you expect me to understand them at the age of 15, that too on my own! That's too much isn't it?

So after learning Hindi for so many years all i can do is talk in Hindi which is far far from the pure language. Now what about English? The pheonix laguage! In order to know about the rise of english read "Imagining india" by Nandan Nilekani. Coming to the point, After reading my post so far you might have find out numerous grammatical mistakes which clearly suggest that i don't even know English properly! Bottom line is we are not perfect in either languages so why should i care what's my national language??

"Third random thought"

The place where the train accident took place today was near Kharagpur in Bengal. I travelled on that route just 3 days before, so i thank god for not killing me and mourn 2 minutes for 65 souls and then continue to use Facebook,watch TV. What should i do?? Din't i elect the Government to do the worrying? what more can i do? Join IAS and change country? Well there are many people doing that, all i can do is blog! Isn't it?

Armageddon(1998)

Category:Science fiction

I have watched this movie 3 times on Star movies. First time in 2005 during my mid term examinations of 12th! I had a Mathematics exam next day but i was more interested in the movie rather than practicing integration problems, because of which my mother was furious. I don't get bored of watching it again and again,Just now watched it again and felt i should write a review.

First thing which you will notice in the movie is the wonderful assemble of cast. Casting director has done a excellent job.Bruce willis is wonderful in his usual macho-hero role,Ben affleck in a romantic role,Billy bob thornton as head of NASA and steve buscemi as comic relief. Rest of the cast has done a equally good job.

Plot: An asteroid named dottie the size of texas is going to crush earth in 18 days and after consulting with world's top space agencies NASA decides that the asteroid has to be Nuked. But the problem is that the bomb must be put 800 feet deep into the asteroid so that it completely blows out and misses earth. For this NASA finds Harry(Bruce willis) and his team which is the best in oil drilling.The movie follows how Harry and his boys team up with NASA and finish the job.

For complete plot check out this Wiki

The movie is good on emotional quotient but when it comes to scientific facts it is dissapointing.

NASA could identify 168 impossible things shown in the movie! But if you can forgive those mistakes and watch it( As you do in the case of Bollywood movies!) then it is a good watch.

Some comedy scenes are really good and Steve buscemi has done a remarkable job.

The dialouges are amazing and one which is worth mentioning is at the end part of the movie, the Russian astronout says

"American components,Russion components all made in Taiwan"

Harry(Bruce willis) Sacrifices his life when he has to volunteer to stay back on the asteroid to detonate the bomb. The movie could have been lot better than what it turned out to be.

Even the critiques din't give a favorable response and the movie was nominated for Raspberry(Awards for worst movies) awards in various categories,eventually winning in one. On the other side the movie also received some nominations in oscars but the categories were technical.

If you are a person who tries finding logic in the movie then you should stay away from it but if you are a Pure Hindi movie fan then i am sure you will love the movie. I am surprised that no one tried to remake the movie in Hindi.Its not possible to do it, Bollywood still has a long way to go to be able to make science fiction.

"Housefull"

I am not sure whether review of this movie deserves the amount of online space it is going to eat up! After Sajid khan's "Hey baby" which was quite entertaining, lot was expected from Housefull but like many dud films which bollywood makes every year even this is going to bite the dust.

Though it is estimated that it has grossed 10crores in the first day itself but i wouldn't be surprised if its business goes down drastically in following weeks.

Like many comedy films of recent past even this movie does not have a story as such,but uses situations and confusion to make us laugh. Hence you can easily compare it with a movie like No entry. Akshay Kumar( Read pannauti!) is the lead who has no luck in his life and marries a rich girl only to get divorced later. Then he falls in love with Deepika who shares the same feeling,everyone is happy but Arjun rampal(Deepika's brother) a Police officer is hell bent on checking the genuinness of Akshay. Then story unfolds with lots of confusion where some scenes which make you laugh and others which are the same old "Dostana" type jokes.

Sajid khan couldn't think of a suitable ending hence came up with a stupid climax which brings home the point that "your money has been wasted". Akshay kumar has eased through the role with no difficulties,Riteish is good and about Arjun Rampal less said the better.Actresses have done what they are expected too! I wonder if anyone expects them to act nowadays!! Music of the movie is average with a few good numbers and a Emotional atyachar type song which is repeated throughout the movie.

Speaking of Arjun Rampal his controversial National award comes to mind which he won for "Rock on". His performance was good in the movie,he deserves accolades for that but National award?? Thats too much! Isn't it??

Before the Housefull movie started there was a interesting note by sajid khan which indicated names of Manmohan desai and Prakash mehra who are the great directors of bollywood. The note said that they taught that cinema is all about entertainment. True cannot agree more but Housefull does not entertain me. I wonder who the target audience is?

"Catogorisation of cities"

After weeks of no activity on this blog,I have decided to write something. Its been a Non-eventful last 2 weeks in my life where i was away from the virtual world. It was kind of nice to be away from internet. I realised that i am not a addict to the virtual world but that doesn't mean that i din't miss any of the social networking sites,mails,Forums,blogs etc

I was in my village for a week and it was strange that i was thinking on different topics on which i can write on my blog,rather than enjoying the peace and silence which you feel in a rural place compared to noisy fast paced life of a city. Thinking of city i do not like the way our cities are divided into clusters and named Tier1,Tier2 etc

This divides our cities and it is as harmful as caste division, the only difference is that the affects of this divide are not there for everyone to see.

I am sure people living in so called "Tier2/3" cities know what i am talking about. I did my engineering in a region which was considered as "Backward region" and hence you hardly had any companies coming for the Prestigious campus placements!

This is the reason why you see many people going to cities and overcrowding them.

But can we blame the herd?? People go where opportunities exist.

I don't need to provide facts indicating the rising population in metropolitan cities. It is for everyone to see.( If you are numbers conscious then just google and find out!)

Be it Mumbai-Financial capital of India,Benguluru-IT capital,Hyderabad-IT hub etc

These cities are overcrowded and hence are also a easy target for Terrorists!!

I come from a place called Gulbarga in northern karnataka region which is considered "Backward". There are many Engineering graduates and highly successful people which my city has produced but not even one wants to work for the development of their city!!

All of them just complete their education and get settled in the famous cities.

What does Government do? Karnataka government invites investment from companies across the world. These companies are set up in the same cities which are polluted with all kinds of companies. What does gulbarga have? Only a Mill which has stopped working! There are thousands of cities like "gulbarga" in our country but no one wants to work for the development of them.

It is sad that you can have a Multiplex in Gulbarga but not companies,factories etc

What needs to be done to develop these cities?

1] Create Job opportunities so that people do not migrate to other cities.

2] Encourage Entrepreuners to invest in these cities.

3] Improve the level of education in these cities.

When the ex chief minister of karnataka Dharam singh( now a MP) was asked what would he do for Hyderabad karnataka region under which Gulbarga comes.

He said i would make "Jewargi" (a town near Gulbarga) singapore of india!

Another false promise by a Indian politician.

These cities need not be made singapore, these should be made self reliant.

We should focus on Inclusive growth not Exclusive.

Book Review: Fountainhead

Well this is my first attempt to review a book and see my guts! I have decided to write about one of the greatest books of all time. "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand.

I remember the time when i had first heard about Ayn rand,It was my friend who was reading Atlas shrugged( Do not remember exactly) and he had said that it is difficult to comprehend the Philosophy in her books. I thought it would be interesting to read a mix of Fiction and philosophy.

Few weeks ago i came across the book Fountainhead in my friend's place and borrowed from him.

I check out the number of pages of book before starting any book,when i checked this one it was 680!! I knew it would take long time to finish considering my phenomenal speed in reading!!

First few pages done,I did not know what was happening! I got confused but then i tried to comprehend and then started understanding the difficult style of writing of Rand. Difficult because it is different from the contemporary writers we read nowadays. I had heard from different sources that Fountainhead is about some kind of philosophy called "Objectivism"

In the middle of the book i was in inspired by some characters and the kind of philosophy which was being explained was Timeless! The book was published in 1943 and its been 67 years since and the philosophy seems so relevant to present! The book was so ahead of it times.

It is difficult to comprehend everything at one read,it surely requires careful re reads so as to grasp each and every concept which is so beautifully explained. The book comes alive because of its amazing characters. So i shall try to give a short description of each character.

1] Peter Keating: Very similar to every common individual you see in daily life. Has great interest in painting but his mother forces him to utilize the talent in Architecture.He attends the best institute for architecture and is the best student there but he doesn't have any originality. Because the college itself doesn't encourage originality. Goes to the best Firm for work,makes his way to top by some clever plans which also involves causing a death of a person! He becomes famous but it is short lived. He loves a Girl Catherine but they never marry.

2] Dominique Francon: Very difficult to comprehend her nature. She does not believe in the World'y concepts. She writes a column for a Newspaper "Banner" on Architecture and makes no effort to appreciate her father's work. She criticizes most of the work until she meets Roark and falls in love but their love is the most weird i have ever seen. But the understanding and passion is amazing.

3] Ellsworth toohey: A man who preaches Altruism. He is the representative of good in the society. Encourages Unions to fight for their rights. An architecture critique who's views are very important. A man to whom everyone looks up to. In the starting i was so inspired by this character but then he was too good to believe. He actually is actually after power and wants to rule the world! His explaination of how he goes about this work is very interesting and made me think a lot. How he encourages self sacrifice,selling of your soul. Amazing insight into some real concepts of Altruism.

4] Gail Wynand: Rags to riches story. Started his life as a Hooligan but later becomes a billionaire by building Wnand enterprises which has newspapers,tabloids,newsreels etc Even he is after power and iys termed as a Capitalist who runs the most vulgar Newspaper "Banner". He is inspired by Howard roark and they both become friends. He at the end goes all out to support Roark but ultimately loses out to the pressure. But he does not allow Toohey to take over his paper because he shuts the newspaper itself!!

5] Howard Roark: He is the soul of the book. His ideologies rule the book. His Egotism which is showcased in such a wonderful manner that you can't hate him. You will end up being inspired by this man. He is a brilliant Architect who believes Bulidings have their own life and is a Modernist which the world does not like. Very few individuals like his work and give him commissions. But all his commissions make huge furore in the Architecture world. Toohey keeps on ridiculing his work.Roark and Keating are classmates but not necessarily friends! Roark helps keating in designing his work and keating gets away with all accolades which Roark does not even care for. At the end roark blows up the building he designed because it not being erected as it was designed!! He faces trial in which he defends himself by giving a long speech which is thought provoking. Actually it is difficult to write about Roark!

This might be a amateur's review since i couldn't grasp the entire concept but it is one book which you cannot afford to miss!!

Just to tell you the significance of the book, read the comments on this blog by different people who have read it.

http://www.bennadel.com/blog/359-The-Fountainhead-An-Amazing-Book.htm