Homeland

The art of creating a thriller. Homeland is one of the best series I have seen. The casting, direction, screenplay, music, story - all spot on! Nothing to complain about except the pace - which eventually suits the twists that the viewer is subjected to.

Claire Danes (Carrie) has done a stupendous job - beyond stupendous. Damien Lewis (Nick Brody) has done a good job. My favourite character though is Saul Berenson played by Mandy Patinkin. He is a caring, decisive, brutal, soft spoken gentleman and ruffian all rolled into one. His equation with Mira is the stuff of great emotional content. In the last episode of the 2nd season, when Mira tells Saul that she is coming to the US, Saul says 'Yes'. No triumph, no happiness, just plain relief.

Homeland touches the viewer at so many different levels and makes the viewer question each possibility. A true masterpiece. But as it goes with so many shows, the odds are that they fk things up in the next few seasons...

Closer

Is love a creation? Are humans always in pursuit of that which they don't have and especially of that which they can't have...? May be things like alcohol in prohibition or restricted drugs?

The law of the land enforces monogamy and somewhere, humans have started believing that monogamy makes sense; for most cultures, multiple partners had been the norm for a long time and then things began to change as humans started living in societies and the concept of materialism reared its ugly head.

Another issue that this movie raised for me was about sex.
Could sex really be that desirable? Could sex really be that much of an issue such that it could hurt a man's ego? May be this movie says a lot about the India that is becoming.

Jude Law, Natalie Portman (didn't think she would have had such a brilliant body) and Clive Owen were phenomenal. One can see Clive's potential on the real stage. I have never liked Julia Roberts. Alas.

The movie is not for the masses because it demands patience and thought. Parts need to be glued together to make sense and one is left wondering how it will end and often, how it is still progressing. Something very operatic about the movie, like a tragedy. It ends with the godess that is Natalie.

Can't take my eyes off of you.

Titanic

When I first saw this movie I understood little and had an iota of patience. Saw this movie again recently on TV and damn - it's a brilliant movie. Add to that Leo is there and a red-head Kate Winslet in all her vulnerable, voluptuous glory.
"Gentlemen, it has been a privilege playing with you tonight." I loved the scene where the musicians played on while panic ensued around them. I had completely missed the grandeur of the movie when I saw it first; I never saw how strong a role Kate's was; the end of the movie where Rose and Jack try to escape towards the deck, the 'lower class' being discriminated against, the nouveau riche American lady hollering at the lack of humanity in her fellow travelers when aboard the boat, a group of people craving the word of the Lord when on the verge of dying, the fact that only 1 boat returned for survivors.
Old Rose says at the end of her narration, "A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets."

Kshay

Revolutionary Road meets Trainspotting in India. Not suggesting that the creators of this movie copied from any other movie - am just referring to how deeply thought-provoking, social, intense and terribly depressing this movie was.
An absolutely wonderful creation shot in black and white - good idea though because it focuses attention on the characters. I haven't heard such wonderful use of music in a while now and the story was simple yet filmed in a brilliant way. Even with the use of expressionism, the director didn't tire the audience as it happened in that god-awful movie: The Tree of Life.
Rasika Dugal was awesome and it was her movie through and through.

Thoughts:
Why was the sculptor kid such an angry boy?
Why was Chhaya obsessed with the stone?
Why did Laxmi always look at Chhaya?
Could losing a child during pregnancy be that disturbing?
Would Chhaya have been the same if she would not have cared for the neighbour's kid in the beginning of the movie?
Why was Arvind oblivious to everything?
Is India finally becoming like the West, where social support is difficult to find?
If life really is that difficult, why do people struggle through it?
Would a dead spouse be better than a dead self?

I went for this movie because a friend recommended it. I didn't know the meaning of Kshay until I came back home after the movie. The progression towards the end.
"Do you know what a woman goes through when her child has died and she will never know what it would be like to ever give birth to one of her own? Do you know what it's like when she is left all alone at home with nothing to do with her life?"

Dosar

I love human relations. The movie kept things vague and kept one engrossed with the questions or comments: "What is she going to do/ say? How is he going to respond? Why is this woman suffering an abusive husband? Who was Mita? Yeah sure, now he wants her back... Who are these two? Yeah, the prostitute makes sense... I think."
Wonderful symbolism and art meshed with a good story. Don't know why he did a B/W film, but read somewhere that he did it just for kicks...
"Here's the pack of condoms; my wife won't need it. Your husband might." Ghosh seems to do a wonderful job with personalities and close-ups. Aaaah... Bengali movies...

Dahan

I met someone who recommended a bunch of bengali movies. I saw Dahan last night. Fabulous movie - there is beauty in its creation, in its characters, in their emotions, in the nuances of being Indian/ Bengali. I liked how the director did not make it a 'powerful' movie about rape, but rather about molestation born out of an act of instinct. I loved the grandmother in the movie.
There was a story about how many years ago, someone from her (grandmother's) family forgot a wallet full of money in the cab. Everybody was upset. In the morning, the cab driver returned with the wallet. Everybody was happy and rejoicing and distributing sweets and giving a tip to the cabbie. "They reacted as though stealing the wallet was the natural thing and returning it was something special."
I loved that story because it is thought-provoking.
Coming back to the movie... characters were thoroughly controlled. The husbands/ boyfriends were quintessential MCPs and may be a little more than that. When Romita (victim) thought about divorce, it wasn't made a big issue in the movie, but the snap response was, what will the people think? Think how much your parents spent on the marriage? Polash (Romita's husband) shied away from the incident and hoped to not face it in society; as a defense mechanism, he diverted his angst towards Romita and accused her of having pre-marital relations with the molesters. May be she was raped? That's the story which floated about in the community.
It was odd, how I thought the movie would be about the plight of a girl who had been molested and when  I sat through the movie, the plight was shared by every character in the movie but based on the perceived thoughts of others in the community.
We Indians grow up with a cultural burden based on how society perceives events; luckily, things are changing in cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore but not as much as they should.
I am also reading Swami Vivekanand's letters right now and I see that the Hindu culture had a wonderful influence on Indian development, but somewhere, society has indeed become such an overwhelming force which dictates most people's behaviour based on what is the right or the wrong thing to do.
Strawberry fields forever. Nothing's gonna change my world. I am happy to be a Mumbai-ite. Thank you Rituparno Ghosh.

The Artist

So they decided to make a silent movie in 2011/12 and it won the Oscar for best movie. Well deserved! The silent movie managed to grip my attention throughout and I don't know why... I have a feeling that if it was a 'talkie', it wouldn't have been that powerful a movie.
I was simply mesmerized with the detailing and the sets and even the behaviour of people throughout the movie. The font in the newspapers, the clothing, the hair of the women, the cars, the homes, the sidewalks... The bulky actor suited the 1920s, the actress - Berenice Bejo - OMG!! I was quite impressed by her performance. She oozed of sex appeal, her body language cried of oomph and damn, she had one expressive face. There were moments in the movie where I literally gasped when she would strike a pose or express an emotion.
The story was simple. A leading proud actor falls behind the times. "Talking" movies would soon replace the era of silent movies - similar to how 3D movies will soon kill 2D movies - and this guy is a silent movie actor; the audience now wants new, young faces. Dude slips into depression along with the economy (1929/30); Berenice Bejo loves him secretly.. climax scenes... It's not an extraordinary plot, but it's a fantastic motion picture. The old ways were simple, and life seemed to proceed along just fine... movie makes one think along those lines...

Addendum: Berenice Bejo did not win the best supporting actress award at the Oscars but daym... some of her poses in that skinny frame of hers with those wonderful eyes and high bones of the face... ooooo laa laaaa

Bridges of Madison County

Has to be one of the best romantic movies of all time. Sadly, it's a questionable topic and one of my favourites... Infidelity.
Meryl Streep has done an outstanding job and that almost goes without saying :)
The slow movie does a great job of picturing the romance that apparently develops over a very long period of time but is in fact only a day. Before the intimacy begins, all along, the viewer is forced to believe that physical intimacy will lead to passion and so forth - but this story was about a very mature romance born out of the desire for something new and a form of security.
Meryl's character is quite evidently lonely and bored and when she finds a person who has traveled the world, is a gentleman and very secure about his own identity she experiences a lust which later develops to belonging and hope.
Loved the part when she is about to run out of the car her husband is driving and go for Robert's (Clint) car.
Regret - Francesca lived with it for her life and the movie shows her son and daughter living with similar circumstances where they adjust to 'normalcy'. It is something that many people accept and adjust to even though the possibilities of changing course could lead to greater paths. We often choose security over adventure and potential fulfillment.


Just a note about Clint Eastwood's brilliance.
Francesca asks Robert, "Tell me the most exciting place you've been to in the whole world, unless, of course, if you are too tired..." Clint almost takes a sip of his beer, glances at Francesca in a weird way, goes back to the bottle, takes a sip, looks back at Francesca and comments about how much guys like talking about themselves. The nuances to that scene and many others... :)

Monster's Ball

Patience is missing too often nowadays... The director did a great job of taking his time with filming each scene. Often times, loosely woven stories and bad actors make movies slow, and in this case, great acting, especially by Halle Berry, combined with a well-knit story made this movie easy to watch. When I say easy, I refer to how quickly the movie passed me by; it was, however, a movie that was subtly grotesque.
There was a guy who was going to be executed, and he liked drawing. He said that he disliked pictures - portraits were better. This statement stood out: "Truly takes a human being to see a human being".
Loved the way the movie tackled racial discrimination in the US, the way sexual satisfaction tends to make humans happy, the way we are forced to think of our plight once we grow old... This movie touched so many nuances. Wouldn't call it one of the best movies I have seen.. Would call it a very good movie. But surely, a must watch.

Million Dollar Baby

I have seen many movies but I have not come across any actress who I have been crazy about, may be because there are very few woman-centric movies.
Never thought I would adore or be in awe of a female actor, but Hillary Swank... I have no better way of saying this. I am terribly attracted to her character in the movie, and on a certain level, to her. Clint Eastwood lends charisma to the movie and Hillary is simply outstanding. The movie does get a bit slow towards the end but certain aspects of human relationships were highlighted so well that it made me smile.
What was the bond that Clint and Swank shared? Why was Swank so loyal to her family? What emotions did Freeman go through the entire movie? Why was Clint such a devout follower of a religion? The movie was made magnificently and I'm not surprised that it won the best movie, best directing and best actress awards at the Oscar.