Sangeet Manapmaan - Film Review

 A classic being remade into a film. A new trend in Marathi films. Commendable attempt, good to view on the big screen. Though it reminded me of Bahubali, with a fighter leading lady - without over-the-top special effects. 

Subodh Bhave does a good job as the outsider who wins the heart of the Army commander and later, his daughter. Vaidehi Parshurami, as the daughter Bhamini, is equally good. (Balgandharva played her, in the original play, 100 years ago). Sumeet Raghavan as the kaba mein haddi, is competent. Others too.

Music is very good, and a strong point- though it stretches the length of the film. Worth watching is my view.

Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin

                                                    

                                                           
This film in my view is one of his best creations, the other one being The Great Dictator where he played Hitler. Just watched this again, after quite some time. The story is of angst in the industrial world, the greed of corporate chieftains, and the struggle of a common man..and woman.

That paragraph above does no justice to a masterpiece. How that story translates into film is what is hard to imagine, until you see it. It manages to be a comedy all through its run, with a romance on the side. And it's better than most comedies I have seen, in Hindi or English. That is its achievement, apart from the superb acting by the great man himself. Unparalleled!                                                        

Avatars

 We all have avatars. This was mine (Clemsonavatar) in the late eighties. With Anu at Clemson, South Carolina, where I got a Ph.D. Not sure why I wore a jacket and tie. Maybe it was the day I defended my Ph.D. thesis.

 We outside our abode (above and below). I think a Clemson prof. owned the apartment.

La Dolce Vita- Classic Film Review

Though it rhymes with Bournvita, this is a classic film directed by Italian director Federico Fellini. It is a classic, sometimes abstract in its depiction of ideas-existential angst being one of them.

Loosely, the title means "Living the good life," and the hero's quest for one is the major theme. He is a member of the paparazzi who chase every sleazy story possibility, ad somewhere along the line, he realises the futility of it. Aspiring for what he believes is the ideal life, he tries to chase women, and then imitate a friend who seemingly has it all-a wife, two adorable children and a beautiful house and exotic interests (such as Oriental music). The hero is shattered when he finds that the friend has shot himself and his two children in a depressed state.

He drifts in and out of a hippie-style crowd, and out of his one long-standing relationship too. The film ends without resolving his issues, and could be a comment on many things wrong with our society, individuals and their goals in life.

It is a bit long, but mostly sustains interest due to the rich imagery and imaginative visuals, starting from the first shot of a helicopter carrying a statue to the Vatican. The acting is good, and some of the scenes are quite intriguing.

Nebraska-Film Review

Taking a U.S. state that is known for nothing in particular, and turn it into a minor classic-that is what the director has achieved. I liked it first for what it does not have- supermen, weird animated characters, horror, well-sculpted and manicured people of 'Hollywood-defined Americana'. In other words, all the stereotypes and weirdness, unnatural or supernatural.

The characters are so real, and believable, I can't remember the last time I saw similar ones in a Hollywood movie. There is not one slim female in the film. Not many young ones either-male or female. But the film is absolutely engrossing, and visually enthralling. Just the landscapes of Montana and South Dakota, and the small town of Nebraska, are worth a watch. The farms and the barns, the old houses, and so on are a treat. The gray photography adds to the charm. The acting is world-class- I am not kidding. The actors are mostly unknowns (to me), and Bruce Dern, who plays the old dad around whom the story revolves, is the only one I recognised from old times.

His wife is played by a rumbunctious lady, who remembers all her affairs, real or not, in the funniest situations. There is also a graceful ex-girlfriend of the old man, and an ex-partner who has stolen a compressor from him under false pretences. The humour is under-stated, and evolves from the situation- the old man thinks he has won a million dollars, after he gets a junk mailed letter saying so from a publisher.

The movie works at different levels, with a discussion on what one can do (mostly cannot do) with the American dream- a million dollars. Worth a million bucks. Do watch it.

The Name of the Rose- Film Review

I caught this by chance on the World Movies channel. The book (by Umberto Eco, translated from the Italian) I had read a couple of years ago. This is a classical tale of ancient Italy, with intrigue in an abbey where there is a large library of handwritten and translated tomes from around the world.

It is such a tome translated from the Greek that becomes the reason for the intrigue, and murder, because it has the potential to challenge the existing dictates of the Church. How? It advocates doubt and laughter. And it is written by Aristotle. So scared is one of the older monks there that he prevents the book's discovery, and kills anyone who finds it or tries to. There are sidelights like a witch-hunt, and the love story of the young monk with a village girl who gets accused of being the witch.

Brother William, a somewhat maverick monk, along with his understudy, figures out the truth, but not before a lot of drama happens on this remote hill-top abbey. The story is engrossing, and Sean Connery in the lead puts in a credible performance. Do watch it if you get a chance.

Farewell My Concubine

This is the title of a classic Chinese film made in 1993. I had heard about it somewhere long ago, and got a chance to view it today. It is stupendous, and unlike many of today's films that can't keep you interested for even an hour and a half, it leaves you wanting more after 170 minutes! That's real art, in my view.

Like Dr. Zhivago does for Russia, it also takes in a lot of the history of China from the Japan-China war to the Chiang Kai Shek era, to the communist takeover and the Cultural Revolution. But all this is in the backdrop. The story is of two boys who become stage partners in an opera company and perform the role of the King and his concubine who remains loyal to him through thick and thin, finally laying down her life for him when his kingdom is about to be lost to a rival. The name of the opera they perform successfully is Farewell, My Concubine. This itself is mesmerising, and holds one spellbound when it is on, a few times in the movie.

As they turn successful, there enters a woman, a prostitute, whom one of them marries, and this drives a schism in the relationship of the 'stage brothers'. How they all get through the years of political turmoil and persecution, sometimes lucky and other times not, is the rest of the plot.

A must see, for any movie buff interested in good cinema One of the classics, reminds you of the Kurosawa films from Japan.

1984 by George Orwell- A Review

Rather late in life, I read a classic that I had missed out on. I would rate it as a masterpiece- can't find a more suitable word to describe it. A few countries in the world probably practice what Orwell has described as fiction even today. A few have stopped doing so recently, particularly the communist bloc of countries, and countless must have done so in different forms of oppression and colonialism.

What is important is to remember that Orwell was unhappy with British imperialism when he wrote it (around 1948), and not with some unknown dark force. He conjures up a great humdinger of a tale, which is about a ruthless, brutal and completely power-mad state operating out of London, the capital of a fictional State called Oceania, the other two being Eurasia and Eastasia. These three states are perpetually at war, or so the citizens are told. The hero works in a department which alters the truth by rewriting all newspapers, books, so that whatever the state says, appears to have been the only truth.

There is also a ministry of Love which tortures people brutally, and a ministry of Plenty which makes sure no one gets much to eat. All these are great parodies, and together with telescreens operated by the Big Brother (the head of this enterprise or govt.) placed in homes and elsewhere, make for a controlled existence (or extermination) for every citizen. Kids are taught to spy on and report their parents to the govt., there is a Hate Week where public indulges in rants of Hatred against the other two countries and their people.

There is a brilliant manifesto and slogans (and words like doublethink and Newspeak) through which propaganda is carried out to obliterate facts, and perpetuate the myth of an immortal and invincible Big Brother. A stupendous concoction of a tale about Bad Governance. Reminded me about the movie V for Vengeance, where a crusader battles a similar govt., surprisingly, again in England. Maybe it was inspired by Orwell.

Lawrence of Arabia- film review (classic)

Not that the review is classic, the film is! I saw it only once before, way back in high school in the seventies, and it stuck in the mind- I think it was at the Sangeet theatre, Secunderabad- another classic that no longer exists!

Anyway, this movie shows what wonders are possible when a film-maker is uncompromising, single-mindedly focused on telling a great story. It is long by English standards, but that does not affect the viewer one bit- at least, not me. Engrossing, it could be called a film about the birth of Saudi Arabia and a few other Middle Eastern Countries, and the role played by a non-descript and maverick Lieutenant Lawrence of the British Army, in it. He brings together warring Arab tribes and puts the idea of Arabia in their heads, in the process snatching a part of the Turkish empire from the Turks.

Anthony Quinn, Alec Guinness, Omar Sharif and a host of others support the strong central character played by Peter O'Toole. A visual delight for its desert panoramas, and a study in costume design and acting, it's a treat for anyone into this sort of a thing- history, in particular. And how politics of war is about the same, generation after generation. Fascinating, even on DVD.