REC (Spanish)

It had been a long time since I saw a good horror movie.

REC is a brilliant horror/thriller movie. It is about a TV crew recording about the life of a firefighter.

DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE. JUST KNOW THAT IT IS A MUST WATCH MOVIE. GET A COPY WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES, CREATE AMBIENCE FOR A HORROR MOVIE – Lights Off, Volume Levels High and Preferably sitting alone! – AND WATCH IT

The movie is about a TV crew recording the life of a firefighter and gets trapped in an infected house. The infection is contagious and spreads through saliva. The TV crew thought they were being brave before they found themselves trapped amongst zombies. Then it was just a run for their lives. With the building sealed by Police from outside and the house full of zombies, they did not have any option but to shit in their pants (not literally). The camera from TV crew is all we have.

The ambience, soundtrack and the screams make it a perfect horror flick.

Do watch it if you haven’t seen it yet.

The movie earns a rating of 4 on 5 – Must Watch!

~Read this and many more reviews at http://cinemagarage.blogspot.com
~~Quality Reviews by AbhiTaneja and Sandy

Slumdog Millionaire

Swagat hai aapka kaun banega Crorepati dwitya mein!

Aur ye raha 2 crore rupaiye ke liye aapka sawaal… 

The above two lines are no strange to Indian audience.. Amitabh Bachchan did it first and then Shahrukh Khan followed but now Anil Kapoor does the same although not on TV but on the larger screen. He plays host of the show: “Who wants to be a millionaire” (English translation of Kaun Banega Crorepati).

No one would have thought that someone will make a full movie on a TV show but British director Danny Boyle found an opportunity to make a brilliant masterpiece keeping the TV show in background. The movie has already won several awards in the selected limited screenings it has had so far.

The movie is basically about a kid from slums of Mumbai managing to get a berth in the show “Who wants to be a millionaire” and the events that follow. The kid was arrested for a probable case of fraud/cheating as no one expected the kid to advance to the final levels. This suspicion prompted the show host to call for an enquiry, where the kid (referred to as Slumdog in the movie) takes the police inspector (played by Irrfan Khan) through his life and how an illiterate kid from slums of Mumbai knew answers to the questions that even literates might find dicey at times.  

The movie takes you through life of a slumdog through a series of events. It is basically like walking through the tragedies of life of a slumdog without having that thrown directly at face. The changeovers between the TV show and the life are so subtle that you at times even forget about the show running in background. 

In all this drama and action, the movie also conveys a message of “Never give up” in a very profound manner. The quest of finding her girlfriend never ended for the slumdog despite the challanges and problems he faced!

Although the storyline of the movie is not very strong so as to say but the magnificent screenplay and excellent direction makes this movie a brilliant watch. I am yet to find a person who did not like this movie.

No suprises, the movie scores 4.5 on 5 and is highly recommended.

~Read this and many more reviews at http://cinemagarage.blogspot.com
~~Quality Reviews by AbhiTaneja and Sandy

Amu- Simple yet very powerful

A good week for watching movies. The second review for movies I watched this week.

Amu- Simple yet very powerful

the central character of the movie is a foreign return girl Kaju played by Konkana sen sharma who left the country when she was 3. Now that she is back in the country she wants to explore her motherland and is more keen to know about the interiors and about the poverty ridden. Among these she was also keen to know about her actual family as she was an adopted child. During her interaction with people she gets to know about the 1984 riots and gets very curious to know about it in details. This coincides with her quest to know about her family as she finds out that her mother had migrated to city before she died and she happened to be living in the region which was most affected by the riots. She falsely assumes some drunkard to be her father as his wife’s initials match with her mother’s. This is the time when she is told everything about her family. The movie enters a flashback mode. She belonged to a Sikh family and her father was killed in the riots. Her mother tried to get some help and in trying to do so, she also loses her baby brother. Her mother shifts with her to a relief camp and there her mother hands her over to her new mother.

It would be inappropriate to say that the movie portrays the sufferings of people well (since those sufferings actually could not be reflected/portrayed at all – The loss and suffering caused is uncomparable). It attempts to reflect on the insane and irrationale behaviour of the Hindu community then. Although at times, it appears to be an attempt to target specifically the Hindu community but a few otherwise instances were sufficient to get the benefit of doubt from me. As far as timing of the movie is concerned, I think it is a bit late and could have been released when the rulings on 1984 riots were announced. Anyways the movie would not be able to cash in huge amounts for being on such a serious and sensitive issue but crititcally, the movie manages to score high for good handling of a sensitive issue, for apt screenplay, an engaing pace and above all its simplicity and effectiveness!

The movie by no means is a commercial movie but for all fans of sensible movies, Amu is yet another treat. All the people sensitive to the social issues are likely to feel touched by the movie.

Going by the rating tradition, Amu manages to score 4 on 5 for its subject, good acting by Konkana Sen Sharma (and others) and a good and engaging pace of the movie.
It is indeed an art to present so much sensitive issues in a manner that will heart everybody’s heart and yet not offend anybody.

~Read this and many more reviews at http://cinemagarage.blogspot.com
~~Quality Reviews by AbhiTaneja and Sandy

Jodha Akbar

Jodha Akbar
Good direction, Good Sets, Good Acting, Proper dialogue delivery, Proper casting … is sufficient enough to make a successful period movie.

Akbar is a kind hearted king who doesnt believe in inwanted tortures and uncalled wars. His target is to rule whole of the country but with harmony. He believes in making allies(to work under him) and not fighting them for stake. A fight is last resort to him and he would like to do anything to save any bloodsheds and to save honour of his territory. In fulfilling this quest, he is confronted with a difficult condition to marry a Rajput girl. He agrees to marry and also agrees to allow her to keep her religion. This does not pleases some of his family members who try their best to distance Jodha and Akbar. Falling into one such trap, Akbar sends Jodha back to Amer but as soon as he realises his mistake, he himself moves to Amer to get her back. Jodha made her feel that although he can win wars but he knows little about ruling. He gets the point and did a marketing research on what is percieved wrong among common man and he takes immediate actions to bring about changes. Then there are couple of war scenes, which are very similar to the scenes from Troy.
Hrithik Roshan does a terrific job in the Mughal getup. Deliviering Urdu dialogue is not that easy but he does it with so ease that one could not help but admire. Aishwarya Rai also displayed extremely good acting display. The emotions are pretty similar to what I was expecting for this being a period movie.

What I think lacked in movie was some focus on Jodha and Akbar. At times movie strayed a bit from the theme but those durations are so small that before someone realises it is off the point, it gets back. So, it doesn’t hurt the movie as such.

Overall a tremendous performance on part of actors, a beautiful job on part of script writer and terrific job as far as costume designer is concerned.

Based on the lively performances by the actors, I would rate Jodha Akbar 3.5 on the scale of 5. There is not much more one could expect from a Period movie.

Why to watch?:
Lively performances by actors
Good Direction
Long yet engaging throughout
Good sets
Well written dialogues

Why not to watch?:
Only if period movies is not your taste and you do not admire Hrithik Roshan or Aishwarya Rai

I strongly recommend that you watch this movie.

~Read this and many more reviews at http://cinemagarage.blogspot.com
~~Quality Reviews by AbhiTaneja and Sandy

Jogger’s Park (2003)

I had heard a lot about this movie but never had the chance to watch it and then I thought it was too late to spend any time watching an old movie. But things do change and yesterday was a bit different. While browsing through list of available movies on LAN, I came through the name Jogger’s Park and thought ‘why not?’. And to tell you frankly, I have become a huge fan of this movie now.
I know you must be aware of story but still just for the sake of background in case you missed it, here is the story:
Justice Jyotin Prasad Chatterjee (JC) , one of the most respected judge, retires from the post after serving the nation for 40 years. He has never taken any favours from anybody and has always gave rulings in favour of justice. But now is the difficult thing for him. He, being a judge, never socialised much throughout his life and now being a public figure is afraid of social gatherings. He, who used to be busy all the time with his work, has now nothing at all to do. His family members suggest him to join Jogger’s Park to keep himself fit and busy. Initially he did not like the idea much for the fear of public there but when everybody insists, he agrees to join the Jogger’s Park. There he meets a ‘model cum VJ cum event manager cum hotel manager’- Jenny, who is a big fan of his. The bonding between them gets stronger and stronger and JC feels love for first time in his life (but he has a family!!). The story carries on and a lot of characters are introduced. Then one fine day, Jenny was unwell and JC took him to hospital and Jenny also felt love for JC (Earlier it was mostly regard for him). But JC has a family and there is a big age gap!!. Jenny’s friend told her about Ranjit’s love for her (Ranjit is a famous singer) but she is incapable of deciding anything at the moment due to feelings for JC. Her friend told her not to get carried away with those feelings for JC as that is not love but infatuation. To prove the point, she asks JC to come over to Jenny’s place for a party on the day of JC’s wedding anniversary (which JC did not remember as he was so much involved with Jenny). While he was about to leave, a newpaper editor visits his place and handed over some photographs of him and Jenny that were supposed to be published in next day’s edition but he, being the editor, stopped it from happening for some favour JC had done in past. JC’s daughter gets the photographs and asked him to choose either if the two. JC had no choice but to choose family and they moved to Pune. After 4 years, JC met Jenny at airport and she was married to Ranjit. She was happy.

The movie portrayed that love sees no age barriers, which was portrayed beautifully by running the love story of JC’s granddaughter in parallel. On the other hand was social norms – either it can be about you and your happiness or your responsibilities. Society doesn’t approve of such a behaviour and JC himself gave a ruling against similar case involving his son in family court(A judge never retires in that sense). On the one hand, movie talks about freedom of individual while talking about social norms restricting our actions on the other hand. Director manages to strike a perfect balance between the two, effectively conveying the importance of striking this balance in real life as well. The actors really played the characters well and you can relate to them as common man. Despite of building a plot around high power individuals (which I think was an appropriate act), the characters are representative of the common man and there is no jazz about the high end society.
There is just this one story and a very powerful one. There is no redundant story running parallel, which had become quite a common phenomenon lately. The songs are really good and the background score by Usha Uthup, which I earlier thought was irritating, managed to engage me totally into the movie.
Hats off to the apt screenplay, awesome music, simple yet effective script and good story.

~Read this and many more reviews at http://cinemagarage.blogspot.com
~~Quality Reviews by AbhiTaneja and Sandy

No Smoking – A miracle or a fluke!

Originally Posted at Abhi’s Space

NO SMOKING (2007)

Genuinely speaking, I did not expect a Bollywood movie to be of that class. Deeply impressed by the concept and the way abstractness is handled in the movie. HATS OFF!! -

A miracle indeed.

The movie switches on and off dreams so beautifully that sometimes you just can guess it being real or illusion. The movie runs in good pace and the surprise factor is created beautifully as well. The acting department has certain glitches at places but still it manages to score above average in that. The characters had their roles to play and none of the character looked under developed. Although the director failed to show the emotions properly at places (As for example, the scenes with Ram, Shyam, Balram could not depict what the director really wanted to). And more importantly, I failed to understand the purpose of keeping the names as K and J..may be trying to imitate James Bond (I am K..only K) or may be trying to portray the ego (which was clear from the actions and hence did not make any impact).

The Story: Mr. K(John Abraham) is deeply into smoking and feels ashamed even about the idea of leaving it. His wife( also secretary) (Ayesha Takia) decides to leave him and it was then that he decides to quit smoking. He is referred to ‘Baba Bangali’ by his friend and then the real drama begins. Beyond this point the movie runs into illusions and imaginations. Mr. K is put to agree to condition that he will do whatever being asked to do. What happens next: watch it for yourself!!

The movie does preach of downsides of smoking but does that in a style. It talks about the cost one incurs on cigarettes etc.. It talks about the impact it has on friends and families. It talks about the diseases it spreads. It talks about the impact on health and expenses due to that. It talks about it all but in such a style that it never looks like some preaching. Well Done!

Phoonk de!

Ratings:

Overall No Smoking gets 4.5 out of 5

Why to watch? (I hope you dont need a reason after reading the plot above)

- If you want to quit smoking

- Good concept

- Well executed

- Decent acting

Why not to watch?

– If you do not want to quit smoking [:)]

~Read this and many more reviews at http://cinemagarage.blogspot.com
~~Quality Reviews by AbhiTaneja and Sandy

Dil Dosti etc.- A sensible movie

Originally Posted at Abhi’s Space

It is evident from my posts that I generally dont write many movie reviews but again like it happened as with Blood Diamond, I am deeply touched by the simplicity, by the screenplay and more importantly by the message conveyed by the movie. This time it is ‘Dil Dosti etc.’.

I dont know how many would have even heard the name of this movie or even if heard how many would have seen. Further, even if seen, I doubt how many would have seen the value in the movie.

Introduction: The movie is simply about Politics and Sex! That’s what those who have seen will tell you. My perspective is different. I believe the movie is about the values and the mindset of different economic castes.
The upper class believes in freelancing and living-in while the middle class believes strongly in values like trust, bond, love, relationship. However, I do not comment anything on what is correct and what is not. Neither did the movie. I neither comment on which one is better. Nor did the movie. It just brings out these aspects in a very touchy and emotional setup. The movie also seems to be following my line of thought that nothing is wrong and it is the perspective which makes it right or wrong. The story teller tells it as a high class individual but more from a middle class perspective. (which ensures it doesnt touches any of those extremes)

About the Story: There is not much in the story as such. The story revolves around two individuals: One from a very rich family in Delhi, who has only one ambition in life – SEX and other from a middle class (or may be lower middle class–The whole point being not a rich/upper class) family from Bihar who wants to become student council president and may be join politics. Thanks to the ragging in campus, these two get into a friendship and the rich guy ends up helping the other in election campaigning. The middle class person tried preaching his values to the high class dude and ended up challenging him to have Sex thrice in a day before the elections. With self-respect at stake, both sincerely get set to their missions.
In the meantime, the middle class guy also finds a love(as likely to be used by upper class people) in a high class babe who aspires to be a model in recent future. The conflicts in their thinking are apparent as well.
Finally, the movie ends with guy from Delhi having sex with Bihari’s girlfriend(third sex on the day of election), which meant nothing to the two high class people but meant his life to the middle class guy from Bihar. The poor guy had even lost the meaning and excitement of having won the election.

Plus: Smooth Story telling, No major breaks as such, Songs much into the story line of the movie, No explicit content (Plus from middle class point of view, although may be minus from upper class point of view [:P]), Good screen play, Decent pace, No preachings, Overall Well executed

Minus: Nothing much into story, No well recognised stars(although acted well), Somewhere between a commercial and an arts movie.

Recommendation: Recommended for people who like to watch movies that make some sense, that give some message. If you liked ‘Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi’, you are quite likely to like this movie as well.
Additional Remarks: Not many movies impress me enough to write a review for.

~Read this and many more reviews at http://cinemagarage.blogspot.com
~~Quality Reviews by AbhiTaneja and Sandy

Blood Diamond (2006)

Originally Posted at Abhi’s Space

It is not a new movie but I had not seen it then.
I had heard a lot about it but watching it was really a different experience.

“Sierra Leone,1999
Civil war rages for control of the diamond fields.
Thousands have died and Millions have become refugees.
None of whom has ever seen a diamond.”

The people are innocent. They have never seen a diamond. To them, it is just another white piece of stone but they are still being killed for it. Children are doped and trained to take lives…to help fighting in struggle for motherland!! (something which is already yours!) All foreigners are our enemies!!(Is there any rational at all!)
And all this just to make some money..OK a lot of money.. but is it still worth the cause!! On one hand we claim of distributive effect of money (poor benefits from rich getting richer) and this is what rich do to get more richer!!

Greed is such a vice that it can make any rational human being do such pathetic acts.

I appreciate the director/producer’s effort to bring up the issue to public..and I agree to my friend’s words, “Movies are biggest source of learning after Reading”.

The closing message of the movie was not just a mere consolation but also a warning. This needs to be stopped..at least for the sake of humanity.

“In January 2003, forty nations signed “The Kimberley Process”–an effort to stem the flow of conflict diamonds.
But illegal diamonds still find their way to market.
It is up to the consumer to insist that a diamond is conflict-free.
Sierra Leone is at peace.
But there are still 200,000 child soldiers in Africa”

Stop smuggling Blood Diamonds.
Stop selling Blood Diamonds.
Stop buying Blood Diamonds.

I suggest Ban the company even if a single case in this regard is reported..The world wont be any different without the Diamonds but the presence of diamonds is making such a big difference!!

~Read this and many more reviews at http://cinemagarage.blogspot.com
~~Quality Reviews by AbhiTaneja and Sandy