Capernaum - Movie Review
1st March, 2019
Even the darkest night will have the brightest day. I am truly out of words to express the feelings I am going through after watching the movie.
I can understand why this film got a 15 minutes long standing ovation at the Cannes in 2018. It a film that will make you feel the pain, the crisis and the pathos of the characters. The soulful cry of the children will go deep down inside you and will remain there for sometime. You will feel them and their presence, your eyes will get watery now and then. The impact is so large scale that you will remember such a movie for a very long period of time.
This movie will break all boundaries of film making you know till date. You will understand how important the story and the characters are and how beautifully we can make them act.
Capernaum is a heart touching drama of a kid named Zain who lives in the slums of Beirut, he accuses his own parents of given him birth and unable to take care of him. The story is a wonderful flashback into his life and his daily struggle.
Zain tries his best to save his younger sister from marriage at an early age of 11 but fails, he knows very well that his sister will go through hell if she gets married at such a young age. His anger takes him away from his home. Staying on the streets he comes across a lady who works at a restaurant but she also lives her life under the threats of arrest as she has no legal papers to stay in the country. The lady has a small son, but Zain starts taking care of her son in her absence in return of a shelter and food. One day when the lady fails to return home after a phone call to her mother Zain and the small kid comes out on to the street for food. From here on the second half of the film is about his struggle for life with the small kid. Later when Zain returns home only to find that her sister is dead, he loses his temper and stabs the person to whom she was married. At the court, the judge takes their decision we see that Zain is being photographed for a passport which symbolises for a better life and on the other hand the kid gets her mother back.
Everything about the film is exceptionally done. I was truly amazed to see the kind of performance the team has captured which is definately outstanding and remarkable. You will directly connect with the pathetic life of the characters. You will feel their hunger and satisfaction when they eat ice cubes with sugar as food. Every aspect of Zain is perfectly imperfect. The sound in the film is so well merged that you will never feel it's going out of the story.
You definitely need a strong heart to watch the rawness of the visual poverty through the eyes and character of Zain.
Period. End of Sentence - Short Documentary Review
22nd Feb, 2019
It's a proud moment for all these ladies in the picture above. And why not they are holding one of the biggest and most prestigious awards in the world, the Oscars. So what exactly they have shown to the world?
The initial portion of their documentary shows how they asked some awkward questions to girls & boys in group and individuals of varying age at different locations and how they reacted. The questions were related to women's menstruation and periods. And then the rest of the film is about 'fly sanitary napkins', how they made it and how they sell it for the first time.
While watching it I felt a little awkward especially the portions which clearly recorded the humiliation of the girls when they were asked about menstruation & periods. I understand the need and urgency of breaking the taboo related to such topics but recording a girl getting humiliated is what I am againt. We must understand that rural India is still not mature enough to handle such exposure. And I strongly condemn the act of recording a visual where a question makes a girl feel ashamed to answer, especially when it is a documentary for public viewing.
Mythri Speaks, an organisation working on the same subject for almost a decade now has posted on their blog today about the documentary and they have demanded a public apology from the makers of the film for using False Data, Misrepresentation of Indian girls & women and Violation of Child Rights. In a very detailed blog, the writer has clearly targeted each and every point that has gone wrong in the Oscar winning short documentary film. According to the blog the film has violated the UNICEF's guideline for reporting children, also the guidelines of The National Commission of Protection of Child Rights. The blog also raises the question about the data that has been shown in the documentary film. The organisation has demanded the proof or the research paper based on which the filmmakers have put such numbers as data in their film.
The same blog by Mythri Speaks has also targeted the pad man of India Mr. Muruganathan very strongly on generating funds from foreign companies for his profit owning business. The blog says, "His (Mr. Muruganathan) work is no social cause. Make no mistake, his company Jayashree Enterprises is a for profit entity. He has never been able to create a sustainable business model, and has only survived owing to the international funding that he has been receiving from accelerators such as The Girl Effect, who put him on platforms such as TED."
One thing that I am sure of is that the film has taken advantages of the innocence of our rural India. The film is available on youtube also, take a look at it and decide yourself.
Green Book - Movie Review
Feb 15th, 2019
Its a story of friendship between a fine pianist & his driver cum bodyguard. Based on the real life of Don Shirley and his piano tour into the deep south American states, during the year 1962, the story not only portrays a fine example of friendship between a black & white American but also shows how their own personality changes each other's character and even habits.
Almost eighty per cent of the film is occupied by these two characters, but I never felt the saturation of their presence on screen. The script is so nicely woven that you will never feel bored of watching the duo throughout the film. Surprising events and emotional moments have been placed nicely to cater you with enough elements of sustainability.
The most amazing part for me is the name of the film, Green Book, kind of a guide book for Negros in those days to avoid places where they used to face racist violence while travelling and it was drafted by an African American, New York city postman or mailman Victor Hugo Green between 1936-66. How amazing it is to give importance to such great works. Imagine the movie without the green book. You won't see any major changes. It appears hardly for a few instances, but the best part is giving importance to that book by naming the film on it. How amazing!
Green Book, is a must watch. We must watch to learn how simple storytelling works. How only two characters can make you sit for 130 minutes. How beautiful friendship can be between a white and a black man. How two strong characters can influence and change each other.
Three billboards outside Ebbing Missouri - Movie Review
Dec 21st, 2018
Three billboards outside Ebbing Missouri is such a strong film that you will feel the after-effect of watching it for quite a long time. Frances McDormand as Mildred Hayes, is a single mother, trying her level best to force the police to finish their investigation of her dead teenage daughter, who was raped and murdered. As her last desperate measure she rents three billboards and questions the local police chief about the same.
Brilliant dialogue writing is what you will notice throughout the movie. Frances McDormand's rugged look as a desperate mother is very affecting. Her rudeness in the film is so powerful that it leaves a deep mark in the viewers' mind. It is only her character that drives the entire film, even the scenes where she is not present. Her character is like a warrior who is on a mission to end things, just brilliant.
It is very rare that almost the entire supporting cast is remembered just because of their characters. But 'three billboards outside Ebbing Missouri' had such a strong cast and performance that you will remember them for a long time. Believe me. Every character is so real and worked so well in the story that while watching it I never felt a single character is even a little out of track. The police chief Willoughby played by Woody Harrelson, the racist and angry policeman Jason Dixon played by Sam Rockwell and even Red Welby played by Caleb Landry Jones (the billboard businessman) looked so real life.
I personally felt a very strange thing about the movie. That is you get slowly looped within the story of the film. You start feeling like a part of the story witnessing everything as a neighbour. The unrolling of the plots and the sudden turns are very must unexpected. There is an untamed comedy where you will get confused when and on whom to laugh.
I must accept that good films are tough to express in words as critics. Though I do not hold any specialisation on criticising any film, and I will also not force you to watch this film just because I liked it very much. But for me, Three billboards outside Ebbing Missouri is the best English film of 2018.
Mirzapur - Web Series Review
Dec 7th, 2018
Mirzapur, yet another small town gangster story, crafted under the supervision of a talented production like Excel Entertainment, failed to impress me at various levels. I simply felt like as if I am watching just another Kashyap film, made half-heartedly. With no stronghold on the story and its developing plots and without any promising character the entire barrack of 9 episodes falls flat on a hard-hitting dusty ground. At least for me.
Let us not talk about the bad things first. But to be very frank there is not much to appreciate in Mirzapur, other than Pankaj Tripathi.
Divyendu, tried his best, worked very hard but failed to impress. It's a wrong cast I suppose. Rasika Dugal, on the other hand, was miss used without much reason. Ali Fazal & Vikrant Massey did a fair job, but I liked Vikrant's work is more apt compared to Ali who looked over stressing his character.
There were things which have no relevance to the timeline of the story. For example the first scene of Shweta Tripathi, where we see her exciting herself in the library while reading an adult book. What is the point of crafting such a scene when you have nothing in reference to that scene in the entire story? For the rest of film, we see Shweta aka Golu as a studious, smart and intelligent girl. No mischief at all.
Not to mention the bloody crime scenes. They look so bloody but not real. There was something wrong in most of the cutting & killing scenes that they fail to transfer the fear into the mind and heart of the audience. I never really felt the pain, the gunshot effects were disgusting.
One more thing that I have been observing in web contents, is extremely low light shot execution. There are scenes in Mirzapur which are so dark that other then the voice you can hardly see the characters. The point that I want to raise is that the makers must not forget that web is a small screen medium with bright to the very bright surroundings. The audience may lose interest if the screen goes dark and you can hear only voices for 2 to 3 minutes or maybe longer.
To be very frank, Tripathi family behaved more like a psycho family than a gangster family, as Kulbhushan Kharbanda, the father of the family, who only watches animal behaviour on television and is on wheelchair as he is paralysed from waist down asked his daughter-in-law, Rasika aka Beena to oil his legs properly as if he can feel the oil massage. How stupid! Beena, on the other hand, who is married to much older Pankaj Tripathi aka Kaaleen Bhaiya is sexually frustrated. She wants more but gets very less. As a result, the servant of the house, Raja becomes her favourite toy, who gives more and takes nothing. Divyendu aka Munna Tripathi, Beena's step-son, performs very violent sex either under intoxication or frustration. And more to this Beena calls her step-son by the name Munna Bhaiya and indicates for intimacy all the time which Munna avoids purposely throughout the story.
With a very predictable storyline, Mirzapur will not really get into your bones, neither the knots which hold the subplots together are strong enough to sustain through 9 episodes.
I will never say that you must not watch Mirzapur because I didn't like it personally. You should watch it. And you decide yourself how is it? and what is it? I am in no state to criticise the art. The above words are my personal & exclusive feeling towards the content.
Tumbbad - Movie Review
Nov 30th, 2018
Tumbbad is an example of hard work, great craftsmanship and a true example of unique content expose. On the other hand, we must say that the Indian film audience is learning very fast and developing a sense of acceptance to a new genre of filmmaking with experimental subjects and artistic works.
I must start with the fact that I won't be discussing the storyline or the synopsis of the film. You can read that from the world famous imdb or peoples favourite Wikipedia.
One of the most important factors that I felt while watching the film is the attention towards the details. I have hardly seen such great artwork in Hindi filmmaking industry in recent past. I strongly believe that when you create something out of your imagination it takes away a lot from you because your imagination is a part of you. You need a strong emotional base to carry out such an imaginative story. Secondly, the smartness of filming the sequences. Do notice at many instances that the artwork has been prompted up and front very purposely and smartly. Purposely because they created a different period of time under a strict budget, I hope. And smartly because they have framed the film in such a way that you can see the artwork so closely that it covers the entire frame of view, hiding away the unnecessary and empty/negative spaces. Which I suppose is the perfect example of smart filmmaking.
Anyway, there is one thing that I felt went a little loose, is the acting. A few points when the characters were exchanging dialogues, I felt they were little robotic in throwing dialogues at each other. I felt the lack of emotional connection even in between the dialogues. But I also think that in the case of Tumbbad, dialogue can be an understatement. Even as an audience we must give the importance towards what we see in the film rather then what we hear. In other words, Tumbbad is a visual delight, so pointing little mishaps in dialogue is a matter of less concern.
I have heard that the production period of the film took a long time. Something around 5 or 6 years. And its worth enough. We clearly see the visual transition of the landscape, the sky and even the weather. Creative Director Anand Gandhi did a superb work. The amalgamation of the dusty tree and the very much alive heart is uniquely new for the audience. The red alive womb of the goddess, the shadow of the man, and the idea of stealing the gold coins from the loincloth of Hastar is just amazing. Who can imagine that even the son of God can have an evil nature?
I will never insist that you must watch Tumbbad because I like it personally. You may watch it. And you decide yourself how is it? and what is it? I am in no state to criticise the art any further. The above words are my personal & exclusive feeling towards the content.
Chhatein | Chhat Pe Milte Hain | Ambuja Plus Roof Special - TVC Review
Nov 23rd, 2018
Good commercials are always in the process of making, you just need to find them. And good commercials for me are those which will loosen up your hormones to feel some particular trance. For better understanding just have a look at this particular ad, the 'chhatein' series by Ambuja cement group. With the best combination of poetry and the mesmerising voice of Gulzaar, this particular ad is very nostalgic. Believe me, you will have a taste your childhood while watching and listening to this commercial.
I believe criticising every time is not necessary. Just a share of thought is enough to convey what you want to say. More to that this particular ad is so good that I hardly have words to put together to express my feeling. Just enjoy watching it.