Sunday, May 1, 2011

I AM by ONIR - MUST WATCH


“We don’t make such movies by choice, this is what the audience wants; we just cater to their choice” – for ages, each Bollywood movie-maker with a disgustingly shitty movie to his credit has claimed as an excuse for doling out a dud on screen. Well, if this is in fact the reality, I am glad that Indian audience is so powerful, because that is how we get a movie as brilliant as I AM, right?

Onir’s powerhouse movie has been released in India after it has already bagged numerous international awards across the globe, more importantly so, the awards that really matter, not (thanks to good sense), waiting for those pre-decided and dolled-up awards like FilmFare and Stardust awards that the thinking people are categorically giving a clear miss of late.

I AM is about four different stories from different backgrounds, the characters somehow related but not really connected to multiple stories. Each story becomes more of an identity in itself in the end.

The first story, I AM Afia, is the story of a young and modern woman Afia (Nandana Sen). Set in Kolkata, it takes us through the life of the protagonist, her success in her career and her desire to start a family. It talks about the choice of IVF, about a woman wanting to have a baby by injecting someone else’s (Purab Kohli) sperm in her own body, of putting a stranger scientifically in her being and bringing to life a baby who only she will mould as she can. Her choice to go ahead shocks all those close to her, the most apparent reason being that she is a woman and should not take such decisions herself. Afia’s story talks about a modern woman in a modern country, still justifying her actions to everyone and getting lost each day in trying to convince people around her that yes, just by taking a big decision herself, she does not automatically become ‘abnormal.’

The second story, I AM Megha, is about Megha (Juhi Chawla), a displaced Kashmiri Pundit, who now lives in Kolkata but faces constant pressure from her family to go back to Srinagar. Running away decades ago along with her family from riot-torn Srinagar after a family member is killed and the house looted, Megha finds it hard to understand her family’s constant yearning for that ‘lost’ paradise. She has decided never to go back again. But Srinagar she does visit once, to sell off the old house, a house she grew up in, in which now live her best friend (Rubina – Manisha Koirala) and her family. The best friend is a Muslim, and though they offer love and look upon Megha as their own, the latter cannot forget the horror that the Muslims had inflicted earlier. Memories of a wonderful childhood spent together keep coming back, but there are enough memories in the present to bring back the hurt and the anger. As Megha is set to depart, Rubina finally breaks her silence and tells her to imagine just for a second how life would have been if instead of Megha, Rubina had run off to a free land, while Megha would still be stuck in a terrorist-stricken army-controlled ‘paradise’.

The third story, I AM Abhimanyu, is the story of Abhimanyu (Sanjay Suri), a young man who still cannot decide about his sexual orientation, who is trying to come out of a horror-filled past, a scary childhood, and the confusion of understanding his own sexuality. Set in Bengaluru, the story talks about child molestation and how, most victims of child sex abuse, are in danger from someone from within the family itself.

The fourth and final story, I AM Omar, is about Omar (Abhimanyu Singh) and Jai (Rahul Bose). The story, set in Mumbai, shows the plight of young adult males in the country, of their choice to be with a same-sex partner, but the lack of space in the city where two mature men can be together in privacy, where a feeling of love can be respectfully shared without being harassed by society, and, most important of all, by the moral brigade, the police.

The beauty of I AM lies in the direction, the acting, the picturisation, and of course, the setting. Each and every shot has a meaning, each dialogue, each pause, each silence, talks words and emotions that build up a story. The characters are completely real and believable, so much so, that out of all the characters you see in this ‘real’ movie (which has been inspired by real events), you are sure to identify with atleast one, if not more. Shot like a hand-made movie, the settings are real, with ‘real’ background sound giving it that much more feeling of ‘believable’. The accents, the spattering of the local lingo of all four states, the ‘real’ locations, the everyday humdrum of life, all come together to give you a feeling of watching someone’s life up close and personal. You sometimes forget you are watching a movie, especially in some scenes where you react verbally, and realise the person sitting next to you in the hall is also reacting in the same way. A movie worth the wait, a movie finally that talks about the ‘different’ people in a way that does not make fun, that does show that the ‘different’ people too have a right to their choice, that life is not always what it seems, that in everything we do, sometimes, its okay to just let go and move ahead. A movie that will stay with you for some time, that will give you more than your ticket’s worth. A serious movie, no typical naach-gaana (Bollywood song-and-dance sequence), so if you are going with the thought of being entertained the ‘typical’ way, please stay away.

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And like I always believe in and say:
"Heal the world we live in
Save it for our children" - MJ

Debolina Raja Gupta

Friday, January 21, 2011

Sleuth (2007)






With only two actors in the entire movie, Sleuth is a 2007 film directed by Kenneth Branagh and is based on Harold Pinter's screenplay adaptation of the Tony award-winning play SLEUTH by Anthony Shaffer. The movie stars Jude Law and Michael Cainee, who had also starred in the previous movie adaptation of Sleuth way back in the year 1972.

Cast: Michael Caine as Andrew Wyke
Jude Law as Milo Tindle
Director - Kenneth Branagh
Music - Patrick Doyle

Running Time: 86 minutes

Plot: Two extremely witty and scheming men will fight it out through the movie, matching their wits with the other, fighting for a woman they both claim to love, a woman, who, interestingly, the audience will never finally meet. She will always be a voice on the phone maybe, an entity who is out there in the world somewhere, but never shown. The men fight out each other in a dangerous game of wit and words and scheming, a game that will result in some dangerous final moments.
Andrew Wyke is a wealthy old millionaire, an established writer with a highly intellectual mind. Wyke's wife Maggie is living with her young lover. This lover is Milo Tindle. Wyke is alone in a huge house, a house that is old and royal, a house with a lot of character and intensity in it, a house that will haunt the viewer for days after they have watched the movie. To this house comes Milo Tindle, to visit the old man (either on the invitation of Wyke himself or on the insistence of Maggie). What follows is a series of intellectual and twisted games and role-playing..with dangerous consequences.

The movie is amazing in the way it has been handled. A movie with only two people in it requires extreme merit from the actors and characters to not let the audience drift even for a moment, and that is exactly what this movie manages. Not for a second do you get the chance to look away from the screen. Each word, each sentence is full of meaning, each scene has a purpose, and every angle on the set and in the frame is essential.
The house where the entire movie is based is in itself a work of art. With the theme of the house as much modern and at the same time having that old-world charm, even while everything about the house is so modern, it looms large in the background and serves well to the plot.
Caine is brilliant in his character. He is distinguished, intellectual, full of that old charm that was once so popular among 'real' men of the years gone by.
Jude Law is of course too good to look at to begin with. For those who did not watch the older version, Michael Caine had portrayed the character of Milo Tindle in 1972 that Jude Law now does in 2007. Jude Law is exceptionally wonderful in his display of emotions. Charming, sexy, rugged and full of attitude on the one hand, vulnerable, scared, innocent the next moment, he portrays each emotion with elan and the utmost sincerity through the portrayal of Tindle.
The movie is a cat-and-mouse chase throughout, with both the characters keeping scores of who won which round. They use wit and words to hurt and humiliate the other, using double-crossing, planning, scheming and deception to the hilt. The movie is dark and claustrophobic, extremely smart and filled with that you-know-something-is-about-to-happen feeling.
The music by Patrick Doyle is haunting and perfect. It matches the mood and theme of the movie, providing character to the background and a feel to each frame.

Many people were of the view that the movie would be a remake of the 1972 hit. But it has come as a surprise to all that not only is this movie not a remake, it is in fact a brilliant new take on the original play. In Jude Law's own words - "A completely reinvented Sleuth. It didn't feel like a remake. I always loved the idea at its heart of two men battling it out for a woman you never meet."
Harold Pinter, the screenwriter of the 2007 version, had never seen the 1972 movie, nor had he read the original play or seen a theater adaptation of it, and none of the lines in the movie matched the ones in the previous version.

Sleuth (2007) is a Must-Watch...

- Debolina Raja Gupta
 

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