Argo

A thriller after a long long time. Who knew that Ben Affleck could actually make a career in Hollywood!? I woke up today craving a movie, so I booked one ticket for Argo and didn't know what the movie was about, except for the fact that it had received quite a few praises. So it starts off and they say its based on a true story - OK.
The story is simple - 1979, Iranians storm the US embassy in Tehran. 6 Americans take refuge somewhere; the CIA has to get them out. But there's something that gnaws at you when faced with the prospect of having your freedom taken away - and that is what got me quite hooked. Were the Americans right in giving refuge to their stooge - the Shah? Were the Iranians right in having held innocent Americans hostage? I guess that the Iranian anger was justified...
And then I thought of the madding crowd - if a bunch of people do it, it is justified. It's like the broken window syndrome and it is quite an influence in my field of work. An American tried to reason with the crowd; of course, he was tied down and used to gather more hostages...

I enjoyed the slight comical element of Argo fuck yourself. A movie production unit that goes to Iran, from Canada. The screenplay and the writing was excellent. Here too, I found it funny how certain crass jokes got the audience in an uproar and certain subtler jibes had only a few of us laughing and thinking.

A must watch. Brilliant movie.

And if you think that you have the end figured out... may be you do, but the movie doesn't allow you to believe your forecasting abilities.

Ilhaam

Every thought is unique. Similar to how everyone who saw this play would have thought of different things.

There is a time when the world flows into you, when you can sense everything around you and understand all that there is; when that happens, things that used to matter, cease to matter in the same way. What would you do if you were to choose between moksha and bondage to human societal life?
/I can't be here and there at the same time... that is what humans want./
/Kya poori duniya aa kar tumse kehti hai... main hoon...?/

There is a joy in being a kid and there is regret in seeing that innocence in somebody else.
Someone weird is just someone who does not conform to accepted norms of human societal behaviour. Epilepsy was deemed madness, homosexuals are still not treated well, cross-dressers are not accepted, autistic people are scary, deformed faces are revolting. Odd people exist because of the categorization by other people who form the majority.

Moving to another point; what would you do if your loved one goes insane, i.e. you can't understand/ tolerate him/ her? What happens when that someone does not appreciate your presence?
What is the similarity between someone who treats you badly and someone who suffers from dementia or Alzheimer's? Are you liable to take care of a loved one more because of your love or because of society? What would you do if you realised you were losing control over your sanity?

Ilhaam is a play that I saw at Prithvi Theatre yesterday. One of the best I have seen in a while. A note to the buffoons who like to text and email while the play is on - one fine day, you might be shot or stabbed by someone like me.

Big Fish

Our lives are too boring; exaggerate. One of very few true fantasies intertwined with reality. One never knew (nor did the Son) where reality waned and imagination erupted. But somehow, as one watches the movie, one cannot help but believe in every nugget of information even though it may well be absurd.
"She said that the biggest fish in the river gets that way by never being caught." Is this statement a positive or a negative? Figure it out :)
For me, this movie signified story-telling in its rawest form; such that it would generate a buzz long after the storyteller was dead and gone. Could this be how many of the folk stories and mythologies came into being?
Edward Bloom was pure, free-spirited, gutsy, dumb and a child - till he died. One of those movies where most of the actors were replaceable, but the story and the screenplay were exquisite - and nothing could have changed that. Only later did I come to know that this movie was directed by Tim Burton, which draws a perfect parallel with Alice in Wonderland :)

Cape Fear

Revenge is what makes us human, may be. Directed by Martin Scorsese and even though I believe that it would have been more refined had it been created today, he did an excellent job of giving Robert De Niro his identity - fantastic acting; Martin played with gore and nudged at us with hints of brutality. The movie definitely lives up to its name.

When we watch older movies (this one was released in 1991 - and was in fact a remake of a movie by the same name from 1962) we notice how difficult it would have been for a creator to paint his/ her movie, and therefore we notice the flaws.

The end of the movie was very well chalked out (although it was poorly pictured, relative to current standards) and that is when Max Cady (De Niro) surprises the audience, with his brutality, grit and sheer insanity; when he turns back to talk to the camera as an attorney talking to a judge, how he is able to weather physical pain and when he sinks down to the river bed while uttering incoherent 'sounds?'

M

Fritz Lang's M is a movie in German that was released in 1931. The story is about a psychotic child murderer and potentially, a rapist. It's an old movie, one which could well be set in today's time sans some of today's technology; very similar to how 12 Angry Men could be an everlasting classic. The insanity is well portrayed by Peter Lorre and even though the movie seems to be going towards an expected end, it doesn't. The last 30 minutes or so of the movie are very powerful, powerful to such an extent that it can glue a viewer to his / her seat, think, question and sympathise. Peter Lorre was beautiful and his eyes were perfect - one who watches the movie will know what I am referring to. He was theatrical and he was the psychotic killer whom he portrayed. Be afraid of people who whistle a tune.

When one watches old movies, one notices how there was so much emphasis on the story and on the direction. The actors had to work harder, and one can see it in their performances (at times). One can see how movies have changed; they are more colourful now (pun intended) and the movies are louder. One also notices how times have changed and how society has changed. This is one of the beautiful aspects of movie-making - preservation of the people as they used to be.

Taxi Driver

The character was so flawed, from the very beginning, and everything went astray from the first half of the movie onwards. The end seemed rather poor but served its purpose well. Robert De Niro was fabulous without a doubt; but the real gem lay in the character that was created by the writer and shape given to it by Martin Scorsese. A particular part of the movie stood out:
This is when Robert meets the secret service agent and Robert acts like, or is, a complete moron, similar to a village idiot; he was very convincing - It reminded me of real idiots who mouth inane sentences and people at the receiving end tend to have monologues running through their minds. Also, the length of that encounter did not seem to serve a real purpose, which stuck out for me.