ORAAL

Oraal(2005) is the debut movie of director Kukku Surendran. I liked the movie but this is the movie that one may not like to watch it in cinema hall. This movie can be enjoyed watching in DVD or TV. The movie was made with lot of financial constraints and there were a few controversy related to the script but I feel that Kikku and the crew members has done an excellent film. Oraal is a different kind of film, I would say that it falls in the category where the story fools the audience. This movie was the inagural film for Cochin International film festival-2005 and Director Adoor Gopalakrishnan praised Kukku for his direction during the film festival. The story has only three characters . I would not like to give away the story because it will take away the suspense (Sorry Resaf I am disappointing you again :)).

Renowned writer cum film-maker Gautam Shankar (Mukesh) is going alongwith his girlfriend Isla (Shreya Reddy) to a tourist house which is located inside a dense forest. Gautam is going there to write the script for his next film. During the journey through the dense forest towards the guest house, Gautam feels that he is being followed by someone. Though this is a very low budget movie, the forest has been captured excellently and at some moment I felt that I am really inside a dense forest. The Background music was used brilliantly. In the middle of the forest the car breaks down and both of them take refuge in a small abonded hut. As there is nobody in that dense forest, Gautham decided to stay in this hut for a few days and complete the script. Gautham always feel that somebody is following him and one day he happens to see a man in the forest. Gautham gets disturbed and to worsen the situation one day he observes that the stranger has befriended Isla. At one point Gautham comes to face to face with the stanger and the stanger questions the achievements of Gautham. Gautham feels frustrated unable to take it anymore, one day he tries to kill the stanger and escape.

Back home in the city, both Gautham and Isla start normal life . but after a few days one day Gautham again sees the stanger in bed with Isla. Not able to control his emotions and anger, he tries to stabs the stanger to death.

Who was this stanger? What was the relation between Isla and Stanger?....You need to watch this movie to know the suspense...It has a very unguessable climax. Mukesh who usually does comedy roles has a very serious role and he has done full justice to the character of Gautham Shankar. Shreya Reddy is okay and the actor in the role of Stranger is also done a commendable job. I dont think everybody will like this movie but if you want to watch a different film on your DVD during the weekend that will make you think, then go for this one.

Bhujaye sirf pyaas!!!

Parallel Universe

I have always believed in theory about parallel universes. We all know that the human eyes are capable of seeing colors between a certain frequency band. similarly we've also learnt that hear sounds only within a certain frequency band whereas other animals can see and hear colors and sounds even beyond these frequencies. Now this must be true for all our senses - sight, smell, taste, sound and touch. This means that we are experiencing a part of the universe around us while there definitely exists another part which we do not experience and just because we do not experience it does not mean that it does not exist! so we could say that we exist in the 'world' which we experience and there exists one or more other 'world' which we cannot experience and are not aware of! So now the question is, is it possible that there is an entire universe existing parallely with our universe which we are not aware of, which is beyond our experience? and is it possible that the creatures in those universe may or may not be aware of our existence? It might be possible that it is they who are controlling us or using us for their needs. We have devices which are able to measure signals and transmissions beyond those of human perception but just like the limitations of our sense organs i believe these instruments would also have a limitations. It is also possible that what you buy for your daily needs from the shop near you are actually the wastes discarded by the creatures from parallel universe :). Imagine that our day to day activities are the source of entertainment for these creatures, a sort of reality show for those beings. Oh God! I feel that I am getting out of this universe and have hacked into the the 'System' of the parallel universe :).

Imagine, there must be another 'being' sitting here next to me and smiling at these conclusions that i am arriving at and another one sitting next to you reading this with you :-).

Jab we Met !!

Gone Baby Gone

"I find the people who started in the cracks and then fell through. This city can be hard. When I was young, I asked my priest how you could get to heaven and still protect yourself from all the evil in the world. He told me what God said to His children. "You are sheep among wolves. Be wise as serpents, yet innocent as doves."

When I saw the name of the movie 'Gone baby Gone' , I assumed that it might be a romantic-comedy flick but when I saw that the man in the poster has a gun in his hand, I became curious.

The first three minutes of the movie and I could sense that I was in for something special and it really blew me away. This is a tough movie where even people who set out with good motives can’t help but leave a lot of dead bodies.

The film is about a little girl, Amanda, who is kidnapped right out of her mother’s apartment. The girl's mother Helene McCready (Amy Ryan) seems indifferent as she is always drinking and high on drugs. She doesn’t seem to be too concerned that her daughter is gone. The girl's Aunt & Uncle do care and they hire Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) to supplement the investigation because they will get info on the street and through the neighborhood unlike the cops. There is also two police officers Remy Bressant (Ed Harris) and Nick Poole (John Ashton) who are investigation the case. The movie then tracks the investigation part by patrick and his partner Angie talking to shady people, using their contacts. What happened to the little girl, was she murdered, what was the motive behind the kidnapping? I don’t want to get into the plot anymore as it’s better to discover it as you watch the film. But the ending was surprising as well as shocking for me, It made me think was the decision that is taken in the end of the movie is right or wrong? Life is all about taking decisions and Sometimes, the choices we make are very complicated and it is hard to tell what the right decision is.

Ben Affleck's directorial debut is stunning. I hate most of his films in which he acted (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Paycheck, Gigli, etc.), so I think he is good to be in director's seat. The movie is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, who also wrote the novel Mystic River. The acting is terrific across the board. Casey Affleck is perfect in the role of Kenzie. It is quite tough to believe that a soft and child faced actor can carry the arrogance and harshness the character needs at times with vigour and zeal. In a way his mild mannered face helps in giving the person the stillness and lucidity required to take decisions affecting many at conscience level. Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris are excellent, as usual. Amy Ryan is excellent in the role fo missing girl's mother, she has been nominated to this year's Oscar award in the best supporting actress category. Personally I did not feel that she should be nominated for oscars, all I could remember was her character abusing and using a lot of foul language.

The film is beautifully shot by John Toll and perfectly cut by William Goldenberg. Ben Affleck has made a perfect thriller, the pace of the movie may be a bit different from the rest of the thrillers but it keeps our interest because the story is so powerful. I am waiting to see what Affleck direct's next and hope he comes out with something different.

Vegetable Art

Last weekend I went to attend a marriage reception function of a friend. At one corner of the function hall I saw table with art on Vegetables :). Have a look......

The Namesake

19 December 2005, Midnight 12.30, my mobile phone is rings, I get up from deep sleep and look at the display screen on my mobile, its a call from my wife's house in kerala, my mother in law informs that her mother, my wife's grandmother expired a few hours back. For my wife her grandmother was everything because she was very much attached to her, she was more close to her grandmother than her own mother. I received the call and I was thinking how to break this news to my wife, who was still looking anxiously at my face and asking who called and what was the problem. When I told her about the death of her grandmother, she was heartbroken. She wanted to have a last look at her grandmother. The distance of around 600 km from bangalore to her native seemed too far... no buses or train at midnight ..I contacted my colleagues at my office and friends (thanks to my friends Risaf and Shibu) to get the latest flight but the next flight was only in the morning and there was no seat available. Both me and my wife felt the helplessness of being away from home and not able to have a last look at our dear ones for the last time.

You might be thinking why I remembered this incident after such a long time. The reason is that yesterday I watched Mira Nair's film 'The Namesake' and one of the scene where Irfan Khan holds his wife down and tells her of her father’s death made me remember the above incident. I felt as if somebody has copied that scene from my life. 'The Namesake' is the screen adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's award winning novel of the same name.

The story is about a couple coming to terms with living in a new culture discover their troubles are compounded by their son. Ashoke (Irfan Khan) and Ashima (Tabu) are a young couple who are brought together in an arranged marriage and soon leave Calcutta to seek their fortune in America. As the couple becomes accustomed to one another, they learn to deal with the coolness and superficiality of life in New York, even as they revel in the opportunities the city offers them. Before long, Ashima gives birth to a baby boy, and pressed to choose a name, they dub the infant Nikhil, though he soon picks up the nickname Gogol, after Ashoke's favorite author. By the time the child is old enough to attend school, he insists upon being called Gogol at all times, and he displays little interest in his Indian heritage. Several years on, Gogol has decided he wants to be called Nick (Kal Penn) and has become a thoroughly Americanized teenager, openly rebelling against his parents, smoking marijuana in his room, and dating Maxine (Jacinda Barrett), a preppy blonde from a wealthy family. Ashoke and Ashima are uncertain about how to deal with their son's attempts to cut himself off from their culture, but Nick begins expressing some uncertainty himself when he meets Moushumi (Zuleikha Robinson), a beautiful girl who also comes from a family of Indian expatriates.

THE NAMESAKE is a story of the power of a name and of family the immigrant experience; the search for love, context, and above all….identity. Irrfan Khan and Tabu deliver a powerful performance. I was eagerly waiting for this combination since 'Maqbool'.

Mira Nair yet again does an outstanding job as a director, her ability to convey so much without words is simply amazing. The emotion of loss has been portrayed beautifully by Mira, the loss of parents, the loss of partner, the loss of children, leaving behind your country. This is a universal story, with universal emotions, emotions that we all might have experienced someday. Some of the emotional sequences made me really move like Tabu's breakdown after her father's death and the scene after her husband's death, I also liked Gogol’s breakdown in his fathers hotel room. The emotional impact of Namesake on me was much bigger than that I imagined.Technical aspects by Cinematographer Frederick Elmes and production designer Stephanie Carroll and Nitin Sawhney's music are excellent. In my view it is a brilliant movie, .....thanks Mira for making me nostalgic and making me remember about myself.

PARZANIA

I saw Parzania and in it the Gujarat riots. The movie presented the riots, their cause and after effects. I shivered.....shocked...the thought of myself in that situation sent shivers down my spine. Someone has had the courage to show what happened, and the talent with which to show it. Parzania is highly relevant in today's intolerant society. It shows how religion can be used as a weapon. Parzania is also a scathing attack on governments which exploit religion for votebank politics

Parzania, the movie, is a drama about the Gujarat riots that occurred in February 2002, post-Godhra. It recounts the nightmarish experiences the Muslims had to go through as a result of a Hindu backlash to protest against the Godhra train fire which killed 58 Hindu pilgrims. The horror and violence that we had read about in newspapers come alive in Parzania.

Based on a true-life incident, about a Parsi couple searching for their son who has been missing since the Gujarat riots.

I would like to give a standing ovation to the Director Rahul Dholakia and his crew for the courage to bring such a sensitive issue to the audience. Sarika and Naseeruddin shah....just one word.....Brilliant. The movie was not released in Gujarat as Bajrang Dal and to some extent State Govt were against releasing it in Gujarat.

I ask every Indian to please go see Parzania. Riots must not happen. When i think of India after a few years...I think of High end technology, wide and cleaner roads, planned cities, better facilities, high living standard, good education, better facilities but after I watched this movie I am forced to think that there is a lot more to be done before we think of all that....we need peace....we need to uproot corruption....we need to understand the country like our home!! Having said that, I still believe India is the greatest country and I still have faith in our young democracy and am bullish that it will prevail.

To know more about the film, go to http://www.parzania.com/.

In Director Rahul Dholakia's words.