Reign over me.....

This Friday i went for a movie-my first movie in a theater this year, and the first one after MD left for Europe.....We always wanted to see a movie in the CREST theater, which usually screen good indie movies and has a nice decor.....but somehow couldn't make it! But finally, i got to see a movie in this glittering theater.....

An old photo of CREST theater

By now, you all must be knowing what this movie "Reign over me" is all about. About someone having gone through a loss, leading to a total disconnect from the world around. About tragedy invoking denial.....and denial it is.....a strong one at that. Charlie Fineman shuts all the doors on any thoughts from his past, after a tragedy (or rather the tragedy).....He's living in a cocoon, if living is a suitable word here. With the ear-phones on perpetually, he moves about the streets of NewYork City on his trolley scooter, plays video games like there's no tomorrow, does few things obsessively and tries to escape by watching Mel Brooks flicks. All in a hope, that he can escape-a hope that makes him shun anyone who has anything to do with his past. His flight response, his denial is so over-powering that he refuses to recognize any kind of loss, be it his own, or a friend's. Yes, after years of living in a cocoon, he does find someone he opens upto-solely because the person doesn't have much clue about his past.....

There's no Adam Sandler in this movie-i only saw Charlie.....i am not willing to believe that Charlie is not real. He's very much there, there are many Charlies in this world..... His eyes don't meet yours, he mumbles a lot, he's as blank as empty space.....and the fact that i was watching this movie with someone who lost a dear one in the same tragedy in real life, and the familiar looking places from New York City, which very often made the backdrop, didn't make it any easier......i am notorious for shedding tears while watching movie-i even cry during penguin flicks-but this was something different.....something hit me real hard-its hard to explain what it could be.....especially in a particular incident when Charlie's friend suffers a loss, and all Charlie says is , "lets get breakfast", followed by some more gibbrish.....how hollow and drained can anyone get in pain..... but i have to remind myself that this is just a movie.....

Charlie, the near reality and the rest of the movie.....and i guess i should talk more about the latter. Don Cheadle, who plays Charlie's friend, and a dentist, is good and Liv Tyler (the shrink) quite OK. But the movie does have a perpetual irritant.....the character of the dentist's patient-she's really irritating.....But the movie owes a lot to Charlie. They say its Adam Sandler-the same guy who does movies like "Click", i say the movie has only Charlie, a real, believable person.....and any comments on him being a cross of Bob Dylan (for looks) and Rain man (for personality) are not well taken! Mike Binder, the director does a fair job in building Charlie' character, though the movie could have done away with some irritants.....You can read his interview here.

Go, meet Charlie-this is one more story to tell us about the tricks mind plays on us.

What an award.....

So, its Oscar time. but thats not what i am gonna' talk about.....here's to the Razzies-for being the worst awards! and the single great reason they win themselves this honor is this.

Yes, Manoj Night Shymalan, according to them is not only the worst director but also the worst supporting actor! and he "wins" these "honors" for his 'Lady in the Water".....really! now, that was not a bad movie, if you ask me! infact i found it pretty alright-not his best, but not something that would get him these accolades either.and he definitely doesn't qualify to be the worst supporting actor in anyway!

The movie was a simple fantasy.....with a simple message, that each one of us has a role to play in this world.....we may not know it.....but we are all here to do our bit. To me thats a fine message.

He's being labeled a man full of ego.....

"He cast himself as the savior role of the film on top of everything else," Wilson said. "Shyamalan falls into one of the traps that's almost guaranteed to win you a Razzie, when you let your ego run rampant as that man did." (From the CBS news link mentioned above)

Now, this is going over-board. His was not the saviour role-he was just the link that brought things together, someone who clearly couldn't do things alone.....Rather, he got the fantastic Paul Giamatti to play the protagonist.

If you have seen the movie (or have read through the links above) then you know that this was just another fantasy. How different it is from other fantasies that have graced the silver-screen!

Oh, i forgot, he deserves all this hate, because he actually criticized the critics!

Really, the only thing that could possibly be criticized was the over-the-top portrayal of the Korean family.

Some of the opinions expressed here and here and sounded more balanced to me.

Criticism is always better than hate!

Dancing with the penguins :)

Whats your favorite dance style: Bhangra, tango, tap or salsa-bring it on!
Mumble wants you to dance along-Mumble, the cutest penguin ever (besides Pingu).

Oh! and i've been meaning to share my meeting with this lovely penguin since a couple of days. A meeting that made me laugh and cry.....gently tugging my heart strings.....

I am clearly besotted :).

I met Mumble at the Fox Theater where he's currently making an appearance, and in style! His show is named "Happy Feet"-it leaves everyone happy.....and touched :).

Rarely there is any movie that tries to address many things at the same time, and does it so wonderfully well.

The story is about Mumble, a lovely, cutesy penguin, who's different! Different, in that unlike others in his 'hood who sing their way to glory, he expresses himself with dance. Born to Momma and Papa penguins, he's not particularly well received by his community, but lives on with a smile. He finds his muse in the pretty Gloria, who's every young penguin's heart-throb. Our dude makes friends with the cutesome foursome penguins, who are naughty and full of beans (but also feel the pain of being from 'the wrong side of town'). The naughty bunch enthuses Mumble, dances along with him and takes him to a philospohy spouting guru Lovelace (voiced over by Robin Williams). Together, they solve the mysteries of the penguin-land, doing everything penguinely possible, reaching out to the other worlds and having their voices heard.....

This penguin-land story has many shades of what we desis are so familiar with: here are few things that make you nostalgic ;).

1. Its a musical :). Yeah! and plenty of dance numbers ;).
2. Momma and Papa penguins singing a love song (Baghban, anyone!).
3. Mumble wooing Gloria in typical Hindi movie style (playes a saviour to the damsel in distress: imagine the baddie running away with heroine's purse and the hero chasing the baddie. well, in this case its about a fish :)). Mumble dances for his beloved, while she sings on.....
4. Our hero fighting the baddies and reaching out to the aliens single-handedly! He's surely a super-sweet super hero :).
5. Song and dance in the graduation party :). (Papa kehte hain and more).
6. Father and son duo dancing crazy ( Rock and Roll Soniye-Mumble and Papa make the AB duo of penguin-land ;)).
7. One of Mumble's amigos singing for him (just like Kishore Kumar sang for Sunil Dutt in Padosan :)).

See, the Hindi movie school works!

Mumble, you are good. You are great. i totally heart you. and i sincerely hope and pray what you did in the show, someone would do in reality too. Wanna come and stop by on planet earth.....

Al Gore must be a happy man :).

Verdict: GO watch the movie, NOW! Mumble takes us through this joy-ride bringing lots of things to our attention. As a bonus, he DJs some great music and lots of it. Its really heart-warming to hear some great songs from back in time.

P.S.: I noticed a desi contribution while the credits were rolling: Sonal Joshi is the Supervising Dialogue Editor here.

Darshan, embracing the baggage?

This morning i saw a trailer of the movie Darshan, The Embrace (L'etreinte) - there, its on my nerves again, have to talk about it.

Well, last month I got a chance to see this movie at a theater in Santa Monica. I have met Amma (courtesy one of my close friends) once while she was visiting Los Angeles this year. I found her to be very simple, child-like and innocent and her darshan means a warm embrace. She sits there the whole day, hugging people-all sorts of people. Amazing energy she has, she smiles all through, chit-chats with people around and doesn’t look a bit tired. She’s Amma (Mother in many Indian languages), lovingly so called because she hugs like a mother. And this was a movie about her, so I thought why not-must go and have a look.

Flashback: Its mid-September. A lil’ chilly in down-town Santa Monica. Hmm, its already 7:00 PM. I am a bit excited- a movie about an Indian saint here in US-lets see what its gotta say. Its a movie made by a Dutch guy, Jan Kounen. I am with a friend. We walk into the theater and take a seat. There aren’t too many people around, mostly her followers who’ve come to see the movie, hoping to see their beloved Amma. The movie begins with some vintage clips of Amma’s interaction with people who come to see her and then goes on to describe about “the hugging saint” a bit. The focus shifts to a young French woman, who’s come to see Amma. For next few minutes we are made to explore her spiritual journey, or so seems the aim of this footage. But, the camera just seems more interested in documenting empty corridors and even when it captures humans, its without much emotion and dialogue. In the latter few reels, we get to see the lush and beautiful Ashram in Kollam and few snippets of Amma. The movie then takes us to different cities (Calcutta, Benares and Jaipur) in India, where Amma goes to meet people. This is interspersed with Amma’s interaction with her devotees in Ashram. Its nice to see her dancing and singing, interacting with lil’ children, talking and even giving a part shy and part cute, but very sweet interview to the film-maker. The movie just sort of brushes on her charity work and her teachings, the former mainly in the form of footage from TV newscasts. There is also some beautiful old footage of Amma as a young girl on the swing and Amma doing Poojas-something sort of personal about the once lil’ girl, now a revered mother to millions. The movie concludes with a replay of the footage showing the young Amma on a swing. The movie is over and I am a bit disappointed, actually a bit off.....and I am just starting to tell this to my friend, who shares the feelings about the movie.

I hear someone say now, “whats your problem girl, with this movie?” Problem? I want to shout, No-I have PROBLEMS with the movie (and with some reviews too).....

As the movie progresses and takes us to different cities in India through Kounen’s camera, we are made to sit through footage that doesn’t necessarily focus on Amma or her energetic gatherings. There is a shot of a bus going to another city, and there multiple shots of hungry childrem in the slums in Calcutta, dust and grime-the cliche’ we are so used to seeing about India. And this goes on and on. Yes, there are slums in India-but how relevant is that to a movie about a saint. You know you are completely done when you see a carcass of a calf being consumed by maggots.....and that becomes the focus for a couple of minutes!! Pray, whats the relevance. and to top it all, as some touchy souls informed, its a calf.....In the whole of the conutry, all the film-maker finds is a dead livestock to focus on and disgust the audience. Or is he trying to convey something like “look, look-they worship cows and then leave them for maggots’ edification”. Worst, how does this become relevant to a documentary on the life and work of a motherly saint! Thankfully, the footage in Jaipur and Benares gets slightly better. The movie just has us taking a few glimpses of Amma and how she interacts with her devotees. Thankfully, it highlights her energetic presence and her wonderful gift of a hug to one and all. But, the movie doesn’t even explain the meaning and essence of Amma, the word and the persona. Instead of a film on a person and who she is, it merely follows her around and then mixes it up with irrelevant stuff and serves it to the audience. It doesn’t matter to a gora in the audience-hey have seen “India is poor, India is dirty” crap before. But it matters to me, an Indian-and where I come from-things just don’t look this way-its this and much more. Things could have been better.....If only Mr. Kounen had refrained from selling India’s poverty and instead focused on telling us more about Amma.

This agony is made worse when you see such irreverant stuff written in National Newpapers:

Quoting from http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/07/26/movies/26dars.html

“Mr. Kounen, who is Dutch, wants everyone to share his captivation: watching the white-garbed faithful line up by the thousands for a smile and a cuddle, his camera is guilty of lingering on the faces of the beautiful. Abundant shots of lush foliage, pastel-toned rooftops and sizzling sunsets are also a far cry from the images of Indian deprivation we’re accustomed to seeing on the news.”

Another strange thing is the use of this song "Jab hum jawaan honge" from movie Betaab in the background whenever a young Amma is shown on the swing. I know it sort wants to tell us that this lil' girl will one day blossom into Amma. But given the context of the song, as we have seen in betaab, it sounds out of place. Besides, the movie doesn’t choose to tell us much about the charity work Amma does and even her hugs are presented as mere statistics. There is more to a hug than just numbers in my opinion, you'll know if you ever hugged anyone.....or may be I am being too harsh on Kounen.

Do I even need to say more-its Friday night-am just back from work and completely tired, so I guess i’ll take leave for now. May be I am over-reacting, may be not. Afterall, the guy has made this movie on a shoe-string budget and made a movie about an Indian mother, a woman who’s hugging millions and doing charity tirelessly-is that what I am expected to day (one more cliche’ and this takes the cake).

Happy Diwali and have fun.....

Who's the rat

Am back. to chirp about the movie i saw this Tuesday. if you've seen the movie already then the word 'rat' is hint enough to guess which one. yes, i am talking about "The Departed". i watched this movie for three different reasons: 1. its got three of my favorite actors (Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio). 2. Its set in Boston and i am in love with the city, having lived in the Brookline area. and 3. It was playing in the famed FOX theater in Westwood that i never stepped in before, because they rarely play movies that i want to watch.

So, the movie is about finding the rat-the mafia suspects that they got a rat and the Police 'the staties' think they got a rat too. and rats there are, aplenty. Even the ones you don't suspect might be rats. I would have personally liked the term "mole", now made famous by desi media. Jack Nicholson plays the don Frank Castello and as usual does the job too well. Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio play the cops Sullivan and Castigan, respectively. Matt Damon is quite good, but show here belongs to DiCaprio, who lives the role. Martin Sheen plays Queenan, a fatherly chief of special unit and a perfect mellow foil in the movie to Nicholson's ruthless Castello. Mark Wahlberg is the abusive sergeant Dignam, really abusive and induces hate instantly-thats some performance too. Who's the bad cop-go, watch the movie. We also have Madolyn (Vera Farmiga), who is the department pyschiatrists and love interest to? umm, no spoiler, watch the movie.

Plenty of four-letter lingo, really plenty. do you want to get immunized for such language-its a must watch then ;). there is some unabashed use of racial-slur too. May be its there to make the stuff look more believable. and ah! how can we forget the corner convenience store-wallah desi guy. Though for a change he is not made to put on an un-authentic desi accent. it sounds more believably desi than most in recent past.

The movie can get a bit confusing towards the end, making you wonder "whats going on here"-but hold on, the last few scenes solve the mystery and you are good to go back home thinking that you didn't really waste time. All in all, a reasonable movie to go for.