Badlapur and Ugly: proof that hindi movies can be good!

First badlapur, it is dark movie about a genre which has been explored may times in movies. Revenge, as we call it, sometimes takes over us and we don't even realize that we are being driven by rage and revenge. The plot is simple but it had been woven such that it gives a fresh vibe. Nawazuddin and varun have given a performance which makes audience like both the characters alike. The story is gripping and kept precise. No useless scenes of songs which makes it a very fast screenplay as well. All in all a wonderful way to show how many great artists and how better a small story can be written and used.  Full thumbs up to the director for not taking stereotypes and one can't predict what's there in this movie. Must watch!

Now Ugly, this is very complicated story, again no spoon feeding to audience. Each character no matter how small has been given an important part. The police interrogation and read between the lines way of screenplay makes it one of a kind.
The use of background score sends a bit of 'ugly' vibe to audience, the audience keeps predicting the ending and nothing is given away. The movie should be one of the top ten thrillers in hindi cinema.  Another must watch!

Lance and Walt: More Facts, Unbiased!

Note: With this blog, I am trying to mend few facts which I wrongly stated in previous blog. I have tried to be honest to my heart here. And I do accept that in previous blog post, I missed few things, but the character sketch of Lance was still correct. Just read & decide. I would welcome any kind of criticism.

Recently I shared an article about Lance Armstrong being a hero even though he accepted that he  "cheated" all those years and even though he brought suspicion I respect him and put him in high regard. 

As expected, I received lot of comments, since it is very controversial topic; people have their own perspective, about Moral, Heroes, Success, and everything. Many people called me stupid on Facebook; they even said the article was crap. I respect their emotions and opinions, and thank them for bringing me to thoughts of another controversial article about the things which will haunt Lance throughout his life. I am just  a mere spectator in this situation, I am observing a fall of a hero in the eyes of those who think that by cheating in races, and by breaking hearts of many he has done biggest sin of his life. And since I did post some wrong facts, I must make amends for it. I could have edited the previous blog, but I do not want to make those people think that instead of accepting my fault, I went and corrected the wrongly posted information.

So another blog dedicated to all those fans that are still not recovered from the saddening acceptance of Lance's cheating.

First I would like to explain few things:

Moral: as we know it, is not really that small word, it has meaning full of universe, the world's population, couldn't really categorize really what is morally correct and what is not. We live in a world where we call Gambling morally wrong, a sinful act, yet we promote events like betting, gaming, and lottery. We (many religions and communities) call drinking alcohol a bad thing, not just for health but for moral as well, but on the other hand, the most profitable organizations are those which do some or the other business with alcohol, which includes manufacturing, marketing, selling and serving. I myself like eating chicken, though many people tell me I am killing a living thing, it is another topic for another blog post how I defend myself from those vegetarians. Moral, explaining simply points to ethically correct? Are we ethically correct when we hop from one job to another for more money? When we leave India and settle in another country and from there we post on Facebook saying bad things about Indian politics? There are very few things which one can call morally correct, if you are in a group of 100 people, where 99 of them drink alcohol, you will find yourself “morally incorrect”.

One way to scrutinize people who do something great is to dig up their past and personal lives. Someone said, Tiger Woods is not a real legend, I couldn’t understand, he cheated his wife, maybe he is a nymph, but he is a legend in Golf, you can’t deny that.  Another person compared Lance with A Raja and Kalmadi, as their deeds should also be pardoned if we ignore Lance’s cheating. Lance didn’t run away with a nation’s money, even if lied, cheated, the money went to the noble cause.

Keep this line in your mind: Can moral save people from death?

Success, I believe is also a varying entity. It cannot be fixed, that what would be called a Successful feat. What you would call success may seem ordinary to the other person. So this also remains a term which gets meaning from your perspective. Irrespective of your perspective, if 1000 people think you are successful, would you consider yourself successful?

Pain: until and unless you yourself realize pain you would never understand it, a simple headache may seem like hell to you, while the same thing would look like an excuse if you tell it to person who is not having it. Simply because I am not feeling your pain, it doesn’t make it lesser in any regard.

Hope: It helps you; in any case a hope is a hope. The hope which could give life to a dying person is biggest of them all.

I took only 2 lines to describe this term because it is easy to explain.

Now, let’s see, what is hard to explain: Pain, Harder to explain was Success, hardest was Moral. But Moral couldn’t give a dying person life.

The most morally correct character I ever came to know in any fiction was “Yuddhishthir” from the epic Mahabharata, and what moral did he have? May be I am wrong, if anyone could correct me, please do. Was he any useful with his truth and justice to Pandavas? And did he stick to moral all his life? I would love to have a debate with someone who can try to bring any character from Mahabharata as “Perfect” and “Morally Correct”! (Wait, Karna was Morally Correct! Do you agree?) I am not trying to bring down the respect of such a great epic, it is great and I love reading and discussing about it again and again. But as we see, the current society is reflection of such epics. Talking of reflection, Movies also reflect the society, movies where The Protagonist “Hero” takes revenge with villain with his “tit for tat” rule, he even robs bank to get someone cured with that money, he probably will sell drugs and we would still “hope” that he should never get caught, because he is a character played out by his circumstances. He gets sympathised because we earlier have seen his “Pain” in his story, which caused him to become that character which he is today. And when he gets “Success” by taking revenge, or by robbing the bank, we feel that it was a “happy ending” when he escapes the chase by the good cop who was never loved for his great deeds. It’s an irony that in great stories, the Anti-Hero is much more glorified, because it is more realistic.

I am sure, people will say I am trying to rationalize what is bad, and I am a very bad person, who is trying to justify worse people on the planet. What is bad? For me, the person who is stealing money from the innocent people, who is killing innocent people, who is causing pain to others, is bad. A doctor who doesn’t operate a poor guy just because he doesn’t have money is bad. A policeman who is taking bribe from a thief who just stole hard earned money from another person is bad.

Lance is bad. I am not defending his arrogance, his love for hype, or his cheating, I only want to say is, there are worse people on planet. There are worse crimes on planet; there is lot of pain already in this world.

What we lack is Hope! Everyday hope is dying for many people. Lance may not be a hero you all wanted. He is just another athlete who doped. Now, He might not be what he was once.

I did some research and this time I found some facts, which I present unbiased this time.

He is still the same guy who made Livestrong to be able to raise more than $470 million dollars for the fight against cancer, and 81% ofthose have gone directly to support our programs and services for survivors.

He gets closer for being an anti-hero, your reasons to hate him with this link probably.

All in all, Lance is bad guy, who did some exceptional work for the foundation which helped people survive. In this world where you have people who could kill for a little money, he proved that some bad people can still do good work. His foundation, which is independent of him now, will still help people. He has earned $125Million for himself; probably he would have to lose a part of it because of cases against him. His punishment will not end so easily; probably he did all this earn money, but while doing this, something heroic he did mistakenly? Probably he could have never stopped lying about his doping, until USADA successfully showed the world his real picture?

My knowledge about him in my previous blog was wrong, because there I missed some critical things to point out his relationships, his luxury loving life and his media love and proclaiming himself as best, bullying others. I also stated wrongly about the fact of providing to his family there. He didn’t need the money for providing for his family. These things actually bring him closer in resembling to Walter White of Breaking Bad now with his love of being bad but trying to do good things on the other hand? As a person you don’t want to become bad. You think he shouldn’t get caught, and he keeps doing sins. The other world which doesn’t know him, still believes in him because he looks clean outside.

I still believe in the flawed character which he is, and I can never forget one reason for which he has given the world what could be his redemption as well: The Hope of surviving. A hero falls, but I wish the hope he raised will keep on living.

I hope this post is a little more informative, more unbiased, and I am able to tell my reasons of still believing in Lance as a hero. 

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D ... The Real Unwatchable of the year!

I don't know what I thought when I decided to watch this movie in theater. Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, became irritating to me, I don't know why, but this movie takes the credit of being the first rejected and real "UNWATCHABLE" award on my blog. However, I don't want to be so cruel to leave the good points from the movie.

Ok, Let me list down the Points first, then we will decide are they good or not.

1. Sean Bean: As soon as I saw him in the trailer, I was waiting for his character's death, the movie disappointed me in that as well. He has been dying in movies for half of his career now. At least that much could be done in this. Ohh I almost forgot, I was waiting for this character's death in previous movie as well.

2. Adelaide Clemens : I am not sure if I can write this, the acting was just OK. I think she would need a better script to show her best. Don't know why, I got so irritated with her character as well that I wanted someone to kill her and end the movie.

3. 3d: At Times 3D looked ok and sometimes it looked like the only good thing about movie. But it too became a headache after a while, as I couldn't bear the utter disgust of script and the addition of scary graphics sequences, just like someone is adding them in the movie, because they made it. This brings to another point: Editing.

4. Editing: It could have been better, But since I have already thrashed Script, Acting and Screenplay (Ok, Till now I didn't But I just did!).

4. Scare Tactics: I was not at all amazed by any of the Shocks given by the makers.

I had very bad experience watching this movie and I had around 50 horror movies in my collection which I have not watched until now, but after this movie, those 50 Horror movies will wait for sometime, because the horror of watching this movie still haunts me.

Probably, I need to watch some good animation movies from Disney to remove the bitter taste from my mouth which I still have because of this movie. Even writing about this movie is sickening!

And this movie is so much moved from the story, I almost forgot that this is a sequel. So people, Give a hand of applause and standing ovation for the award "Unwatchable of the Year" to Silent Hill: Revelation 3D!

I feel Sorry for the gamers, who had a very good video game and this makes it really move into "Silent Hill"!

Cloud Atlas: Need to watch 36 times..

Cloud Atlas, as Tom hanks told in an interview, is as risky as Inception. At that moment I couldn't understand what he meant. After Cloud Atlas, I could relate it to Inception. Inception, when I watched, I couldn't understand it fully. Then I watched it second time, it made some sense. Then, third time watch helped me to get the most out of it. I still don't say I have got 100% of it. But the story, screenplay, acting and the effects never allowed me to get bored. I watched it with same excitement all 3 times. Similarly, Cloud Atlas, is a much abstract version of the book which has been written by David Mitchell.

After watching it, I regret the fact that I acted without patience and pounced on the chance of watching it. Yet, I know book reading wood have been difficult. I feel Cloud Atlas is one of those book based movies where you should watch the movie first and then read the book.

The movie contains 6 stories running in parallel, and if we start relating all the 6 stories, it will not make sense. Although there is a thread that binds those stories, you will see same characters in same roles. Watching Tom Hanks in 6 different roles is a delight. He is a master of disguise in the movie. Ben Whishaw as well looks astonishing in his role(s), one needs to be a little focused to actually see him in all 6 stories. Halle Berry and other cast members make this movie a master piece.

I could understand the makers' point of view of repeating same cast in multiple stories, as it will separate the stories from each other, as you can see Tom Hanks in different roles and you would yourself make out which story is going on. The movie if not watched with interest may become extremely boring at times. My friend who was sitting besides me watching the movie slept two hours out of three. He must be cursing me for such a poor choice.

But i was going through the characters and their stories, I was least interested in Cloud Atlas as a whole movie, I took Tom Hanks characters, Ben whishaw's main character, Halle berry's characters and watched their stories with them. The portrayal of the world at different times is amazing and it really takes you through a journey of past and future in those three hours.

In the end, I was a happy person to go back home, because I could understand at least 3 of those 6 stories, and I saw an epic being portrayed on big screen. Though I just wonder if this masterpiece could have been made by Nolan, would it be same? He would have made it so dark and so interesting, that even the person who has no knowledge about the book and the stories, would have seen it with so much interest.

To me, movie created enough interest to pick up the book and then watch it again. I am not disappointed with the movie, as it delivered what I wanted to see: Tom Hanks in 6 roles!

Pizza: Horror's New dimension!

Tamil cinema as I have been told has many innovative makers and actors, the stories and ideas in Tamil industry are much ahead of any other language film industry. I have been watching Rajanikanth in awe for some years now, he is a legend beyond doubt. But yesterday, when I saw something which probably could be the masterpiece of horror. In this era of horror where horror is more of Torture Porn. And every other horror movie will be about zombies eating humans or Paranormal Activity genre. The movie is very unorthodox and it could become a genre in coming years.

The innovation starts with the name itself, Pizza. Which makes people think what it could be about? The Story start as well unconventional. Being the first movie to be shot with 7.1 Surround sound, this movie is as scary as hell could be.

I don't know many actors from Tamil industry but the cast of this movie seemed nice and the characters suited their roles, there was nowhere it looked like they are trying to persuade me hard to get scared. Many horror movies lose their grip when they start to scare too much. They would put on makeup too much, the shocking effects, too much blood, excessive use of technology and graphics also ruins it.

Here we get a simple yet innovative movie, where a house is being used to tell a story about a tragedy. The idea of using torch, photos, darkness, right camera movements, The use of cellphone ringtones, Songs running on TV has also added to the scare tactic of the maker.

Even if you don't know Tamil, movie should not be missed. This is going to be remembered for a long time.

Skyfall: Bond getting Darker!

Bond: 007 reporting for duty.
M: Where the hell have you been?  

Bond: Enjoying death!

50th year of Bond Movies, must be marked with a legendary story to tell.

I haven't been a Pierce Brosnan fan of Bond Movies. When I was growing up Pierce Brosnan was releasing a Bond movie every 2-3 years, but none would enthrall me. It was when Pierce Brosnan actually signed off from Bond franchise, it gained my attention. I thought, ok, here is something new. This guy looks different. He doesn't have the charm of Pierce Brosnan, he looks more like a spoiled millionaire. He was Daniel Craig, much intense, rarely smiling, dialogues rather smaller than Pierce Brosnan had got. He got more action, more athletic, less gadgets, would kill people by just beating with bare hands. He got cruel, more cunning and cold heart.

Skyfall starts with a chase which is a signature start of Daniel Craig's James Bond portrayal. And from the first moment of the movie, you are on a ride with him. One would wonder what is the age of James Bond?

Like every Bond movie, the Antagonist should be equally strong, he must be so evil that even Bond would have to take a gasp.Javier Bardem portrays that evil antagonist, he is epitome of baddest man you would ever see. At one point I actually remembered the Joker of Christopher Nolan if Javier Bardem has taken notes from it. But please don't think that I am comparing the two characters. They are all from different universe altogether. So coming back to the point, the antagonist has to be bad to make the protagonist suffer. He has to have a upper hand always. And that happens here as well. 

Re-entry of Q (portrayed by Ben Whishaw, I was actually excited to know that he would be part of this movie) has got a good effect in the movie, M has got comparatively larger role than the previous movies, Bond Girl(s) (Bérénice Marlohe and Naomie Harris) have been equally good and they have got good chemistry with Bond. And since the story goes to roots of Bond, his origin, this movie becomes special.

London tube's display and Turkey's presence with Scotland's portrayal in the movie adds to its artistic sense. Beautiful Aston Martin getting blown up actually irked me, as I was in love with that beauty.

So, don't wait, go and enjoy the movie! It has got some sarcastic humor as well (like all Bond Movies). at IMDB, movie is already with 8.5 ratings so I am no one to tell you what rating it deserves. People have already termed it finest till date. 

And yeah, Adele's song is so good, it actually sets up the Skyfall's theme and story. You would love it. I am in love with it and would be listening it all night!

Let the sky fall, when it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together
At skyfall!

Halloween Special Review: Paranormal Activity 4

You would wait for something bad to happen. And you will be jumped with many moments, after that you will feel foolish, after realizing, that all the while you were alert for something scary to happen, and finally you got scare-jumped because of something foolish and common.

Above three lines are the summery of this new Sequel of Paranormal Activity franchise. The Genre is shifting. No, It is still "Found Footage" but stand still cameras have made way for Laptop and Kinect and Mobile Videos and Laptop Chat windows. 

I never intended to watch this movie in theater in first place. I went for Skyfall, which apparently didn't have any seats left. So bought it's next day's ticket. Yeah, next post will be about Skyfall. Then what to do? I still had time and wanted to watch something, so asked the lady at the counter which English movie is running next? The answer comes Paranormal Activity 4. Immediately I said yes and she was shocked. My friend also agreed and we booked next 2 hours with Paranormal Activity 4. 

My friend didn't have any background of previous 3 movies, so I was explaining him before the movie, about the characters and story so far. While explaining that, I realized, the Genre has become a template and how this movie would be shown. How the sequence of happenings are going to be. I realized, that first 30 minutes would only be spoon feeding about characters, and the story build up. I also realized, that since it is laptop video and Kinect is also going to play a big role, the characters will be more paranoid to the thoughts of devil's existence and one guy/girl would keep telling about something weird happening to others, and those others would certainly ridicule him/her and eventually all would succumb to death by the ghost. The question was how it has to be narrated. The narration should be new. Every-time it has to be new!

So, as I imagined, first half an hour, was exactly like that. But, now we had Robbie, the Kid, which I supposed would be Hunter, makes you jump in his very first appearance, and that too within first 15 minutes. It was kind of new. It made every one scare-jump and then everyone laughed at their stupidity.

Similar thing happens for 5-6 times in the movie, and it is really good, it adds to the the storyline, and keeps audience busy with these jumps. But I guess still something was missing. Since this is 4th installment of franchise and the makers have not tried anything new, they should have taken the risk of doing something new, instead they have taken the risk of playing safe, which I afraid has backfired. That is movie's biggest drawback. First hour. Important and full of scare-jumps, and interesting stuff but something missing!

But the 2nd half is promising and freaks out everyone. The story plays well. But only thing wrong I found here was quick killing of characters, the screenplay is so fast, there is no time to separate different characters' killing. Very small build up of the fear makes the movie little weaker. Yet, it is a scary movie. And what I felt in the theater was the creepy feeling after the movie. This is the weakest movie of the franchise and still it leaves the audience shocked at the end.

So, if you watch this movie and are getting dull in the first half, just wait, the movie still has something good to offer, and you will not go home unhappy err.. unscared!

Happy Halloween!