Longer than you can imagine, this will be good feed for your boredom for this week. read on.
First of all, Gunda would be the first and last of its kind ( as it had been in the History of Bollywood itself). Now for the better ones.
Indian : While the debate of Indian Movies being of sub-optimal quality compared to the Hollywood, never seems to end, we definitely started to score better in the debate.
-Wednesday : The first time i watched it, the audience were clapping for every 15 minutes, it shows the level at which the movie was able to engage the audience. Packed with best of performances by best of actors, the film is flooded with freshness and audacity of the debutante director Neeraj Pandey.
- Rock On : The crowd would have already got to you and you would have got to the movie. SO i wouldnt say nothing much here.
- Mumbai Meri Jaan : Doesn't seem to end in the perfect possible way, but does leave a mark in your thoughts. Watch out for some good performances again by Paresh Rawal, Madhavan, Kay Kay Menon, Irfan Khan and Soha Ali Khan. But, out of the whole movie, best performance is definitely by Vijay Maurya who plays the rookie cop at the dawn of his career, grappling to come to terms with the law and order system.
-Welcome To Sajjanpur : This is undoubtedly the best pick of the season, (though it falters to tie up the loose ends in the end). Shyam Benegal stays truly Indian and disproves all those Multiplex theories of Indian Diaspora converging towards Urbanity . He takes you back to Sajjanpur through the letters and words of Mahadev's letters (brilliantly portrayed by Shreyas Talpade). What is surprising about the movie is its perfection in its execution in terms being so local/sajjanpuri, and yet being so universal. The movie leaves in an irony whether to appreciate the performances or not , because it might be difficult for one to acknowledge the acting itself for they lived their roles.
-Tahaan : Cannot really recommend because i didnt watch it, but can surely guarantee a pleasant experience through few of the reviews and just for the sake that Santosh Sivan had stayed simple and chosen J&K for a portrait infront of his camera.
I would just like to re-iterate that Indian Cinema is on a rise, as long as we can appreciate movies like these and at the same time don't give openings to movies like Drona that expect the audience to be dumbos.
English/Hollywood : N0thing in the recent past had really been interesting except for Wall-E and Dark Knight. Iron Man is claimed to be one of the smarter superhero flicks. So, interested ones can surely try out. Rotten tomatoes had also been tagging everything rotten except for Coen Brothers' (No Country for Old Men) Burn After Reading (starring Brad Pitt, John Malkovich and George Clooney) . So is the case with recently released Body of Lies (directed by Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe and Leonardo Dicaprio). But one will have to wait for these as it will take some time for them to land here.
Do watch out for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button(David Fincher and Brad Pitt get back) and Quantum of Solace(bond seems to get more natural than geeky).
If you have missed recent flix screenings, you sure can watch, In Bruges (Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson , Ralph Fiennes) , trio you wouldnt want to miss. Movie gets a tad eerie by the end.
World Cinema and Critics Picks : Well , we have been trying to come to terms with fact that besides India, US and UK, Human species had not yet been extinct on other parts of the world and they surprisingly have developed and adopted this skill of film making. Technology and a few benevolent jobless people had bothered to make subtitles for the same . So they are also watchable and in fact they are good. So this section, takes care of good movies all over the world, which will include english and indian as well(fortuantely , we are still part of the world).
Boy A : English flick about a man-child who tries to be good after a childhood crime, but is still struggling to wash his hands clean of it. Well portrayed by the protaganist, the movie keeps prodding the question of forgiveness that society buries under reinforced sensationalism and fear.
Nouvo Cinema Paradiso : Italian : The movie bowls you out with its simplicity and the serene portrait of an italian town and its characters bound to the only cinema theatre in the town : Cinema Paradiso. Thanks to an impeccably sweet performances by the Projectionist and his friendly disciple , you would neither smile nor stop smiling through the first half. The second grows a bit responsible with the characters , but the ending is something you wouldn't want to miss.
13 tzameti : French Thrilling Absurd tale of Human Behaviour, as someone put it . Watch it not for the best of the movies but for its tangential idea and film making. Shot in inky Black and White , the story of young man, who doesnt know what he is heading into can be nothing but a thriller.
The Great Dictator : Charlie Chaplin's satire on the Nazi's still ranks the best in its Genre. Acted and Directed by Charlie Chaplin, you sure would want to have a laugh at it.
Seventh Seal (sjunde inseglet det) : Swedish : Hailed as Ingmar Bergman's best, Seventh Seal is a harsh but subtle take on the eternal question of God, After life and Man's belief in them. Set in the Post Crusades era, the director carves excellent characters as metaphors for his discussion. The scenes with Converstions with Death are something that would beat your imagination and visualisation Film Making.
These will do for now :) . If you still want to pursue good movies, need to do some intersting hard work. Here are a few sites you can refer to :
1) This site itself :P
2) dearcinema.com
3) rottentomatoes.com
4) ibnlive.com - rajeev masand's review to stay off the bad movies atleast and to get to a few occasional good reccos.
5)UTVworldmovies.com - its running a series on 50 movies you want to watch before you die (few reccos above are from the same)
6)http://movies.nytimes.com/pages/movies/index.html - reviews from newyork times to be updated about the best and the worst.
I think blogger will crash now. So, thats it.
Coming Soon : Gango's Reccos (Yes, you read it right)
Posts
