Tag: movies

  • So I recently watched: Arjun Reddy

    So I recently watched: Arjun Reddy

    A Question first

    How do you consider whether a movie is good or not? If a movie is really well made and makes sense technically most of the times but you don’t agree with the actions of the characters or feel that the story missed on some aspects, would you still like the movie? Or say, you loved the story, but the treatment could have been improved. The production quality, technicalities, VFX could be better? What’s your take on that?

    Back to the Review

    *This review has SPOILERS*

    I recently watched the Telugu movie ‘Arjun Reddy’, which was claimed to be a mature and path-breaking of sorts. For those who haven’t, it is available on Amazon Prime with subtitles in English. This movie is from a debutant director Sandeep Reddy Vanga and stars Vijay Deverakonda as Arjun Reddy Deshmukh and Shalini Pandey as Preethi Shetty in lead roles.

    I was particularly intrigued by some discussion on Twitter about some folks not liking some sexist aspects of the movie. Usually, such discussions on Twitter bear no fruit but since the movie was available and the trailer made sense and had a good background song, I just watched it anyway.

    This movie can be seen as a more realistic take on India’s ever favorite story of the loser, Devdas. The guy likes a girl but she gets married to someone else. The guy is not able to cope up and falls prey to alcohol and in this case, drugs abuse. The guy, however, is quite a prodigy in the medical field. He is the top student, amazing sportsman and good-looking, etc. But also suffers majorly from Anger Management issues.

    Now, we have seen many Devdas movies and I am not at all fond of such genre. But this movie has a basis in reality so this made it an interesting watch. The way Arjun Reddy woos a fresher girl (Shalini) can be easily termed as patriarchial and borderline-abusive but then that is in the context of the movie and passable to an extent. But then, again and again, Arjun imposes himself on Shalini and she gives in every time which made me cringe. Eventually, this movie proves yet again the Indian Movie Theory of Wooing a Girl that, if you persist and stalk and threaten and don’t give up on a girl, she will eventually give up and be yours forever. But I will shut myself up and give credit to this movie as all was shown in the context of the story. Some people are like that in reality too so I understood the intent. The acting of the leads, as well as supporting characters, was really good. Overall, the movie continues to tell the story of this guy who has not been able to move on with life. He starts taking drugs. He leaves his home. He starts womanizing but in a weird way in which he just sobs/drinks in front of them and doesn’t care about doing anything positive about his life. He totally doesn’t believe in any usual-society rules about lovers getting separated due to caste and regional issues.

    I would even appreciate the portrayal of this realistic Devdas by Vijay. He does everything which made me think of slapping him with a bat and bringing him back to normalcy. So, I guess he did justice to his role.

    Now the major issue part. Devdas movies might be fake, grand and everything dramatic but they do one thing right. In the end, the Devdas character drinks so much that he loses his health, mental state and eventually dies on the road. He is never able to move on and ends up only in shambles and disaster. SPOILER ALERT but this movie has a happy ending. Not only this abusive, angry, junkie, loser, etc finds the girl back, she comes back to her as if their love was 100% Dettol Pure types kosher. This means that whatever happens, if you still don’t move on from your lover, even if you spend months and years away from them, the lover herself has not even tried to contact you at all, eventually, in the end, all will be well and you will get what you always wanted. Even if that love was partly just lust.

    Seriously?

    I will give all marks for the production value, non-linear storytelling, technical details, core in realism, really good acting, decent background score, but if this movie ends up as a happy ending movie, it will only make me delete half of the marks I gave earlier.

     

  • So I recently watched: Justice League

    So I recently watched: Justice League

    Has it ever happened to you when you took a turn anticipating less traffic but ended up getting stuck with no turning back? Now, when you have taken the turn you decide to continue with it, albeit with a sore mood.

    DC, with its movies, is at a similar crossroad/junction where it knows that it has taken a path which leads to nowhere so it thinks okay what the heck, let’s buy something on the way, enough with the somber mood, time to light up and make the trip slightly merrier.

    After getting hugely disappointed with Batman v Superman (and later ending up finding some sense in BvS Ultimate Edition), getting immensely saddened by Suicide Squad, liking Wonder Woman a lot, I thought, alright we can surely give one last try to the Justice League. So, I recently watched it and following are my thoughts for your perusal.

    Lee Bermejo Justice League Movie Poster Released for MondoCon
    Lee Bermejo Justice League Movie Poster Released for MondoCon

    Throughout the movie, except a handful of moments, I didn’t feel any excitement for any character. I liked Barry Allen of course but probably because of the Flash TV Show knowledge. Not sure from where Aquaman and Cyborg came into being and it was left for future movies to tell about their origins. This is a somewhat similar treatment to Hawkeye in Avengers where the character is just a character for whom we don’t need to care about much. Batman cracked some PJs and suddenly fell in some bro-love with Superman only when Superman had left after BvS. There was a scene where Wonder Woman looks at Batman’s bruises and then suddenly turns like a Hindi Movie Bhabhi and helps him get at ease with his muscle pull. Seriously? The antagonist was also as forgettable as the villains in Marvel movies. Do you remember any good one?

    There are some positive points though. And that’s the lighter mood brought by Aquaman and the Flash. And the return of the MAIN DC CHARACTER also brings some sort of hope. I don’t want to comment on his lack of mustache though as enough has already been said. This light mood saved the movie from being a total bore and I hope future movies take some lessons out of it.

    They also did a comic-animation-tie-in in the post-credit scene where the Flash and Superman compete in a race. That was a good note to end with. (I didn’t see the other post-credit scene during the movie but later on Youtube which turned out to be okayish)

    Sometimes, if we do take the path which didn’t turn out to be as good as expected, it is better to enjoy it with much more confidence and moving on from the regret. Hopefully, DC would have realized now as to which path would be best to take from here.

  • So I recently watched: Spiderman : Homecoming and, Dunkirk

    So I recently watched: Spiderman : Homecoming and, Dunkirk

    SPOILER ALERT: No spider bite this time!

    Spiderman : Homecoming
    Spiderman : Homecoming

    In case you have watched Captain America : Civil War, the audience cheered most when  Spiderman appeared on the screen. Such has been the love for the character on big screen, thanks to the relatable Sam Reimi + Tobey Maguire take on Spiderman back in 2000s. I even watched the Amazing Spiderman when Andrew Garfield was there. And if I remember correctly, I didn’t hate it.

    Now I recently watched Spiderman : Homecoming, the third reboot or Boo-t-hree, if you will. I found myself enjoying throughout the movie. Mostly because, the movie’s core is how eager a teenager is to become an adult and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. I generally liked it.

    The only problem is, just after a couple of weeks, I am not able to remember what all happened in the movie. Only if I really press hard, I realize that Michael Keaton was there too. Then there was that scene of boat splitting into 2. That’s all! That’s the case with most Marvel movies. But, I am not complaining more.  Because just the week after, I went to watch (I mean hear Dunkirk).

    So, I recently watched Dunkirk and this post is mostly about Dunkirk only!

    Dunkirk
    Dunkirk

    You have heard it correct, Dunkirk is mostly about Visuals and Sounds. Story is plain simple that Allied forces are forced to evacuate Dunkirk because ‘Enemy’ has surrounded the area from all sides. Nolan tries to be Nolan-y by making it more intense by showing same thing from 3 perspectives: Land, Water and Air and, 3 timelines 1 Week, 1 Day and, 1 Hour. But overall, it stays a spectacle, one should see only in IMAX. And thankfully, there is no 3D, otherwise half the time is spent in adjusting 3D Glasses over actual spectacles.

    It was mostly about the horrors of the war and the soldier’s struggles once they are caught in between and they have nowhere to go. There are tales of the bravery of soldiers during war-time, but realistically, when you know that you can die any instant and you have no help, that only makes you a mute silent spectator, like the movie’s characters. You never get to know the names, their background but just their struggles to somehow reach home.

    The sound design by Hans Zimmer is the real hero. They have used this Shepard Effect with full effect throughout the movie.

    That makes it sound really haunting. And it really works. Some sounds are so intense that you actually feel as if your seats are shaking.

    I thoroughly enjoyed it and I feel I can watch it again in IMAX. But I won’t because tickets are costly. Sigh.

  • So I recently watched: Wonder Woman

    So I recently watched: Wonder Woman

    I recently watched the latest outing from DC, Wonder Woman. The supposedly best female Superhero since last 75 years without a proper movie till now.

    Wonder Woman 2017 Movie
    Wonder Woman 2017 Movie

    First things first, I have never read any of Wonder Woman’s comics but I did watch a bit of that 70s TV movie they made with Lynda Carter (may be only for the visuals of Lynda Carter). So I went in with no expectations. Because DC movies have mostly ruined my expectations. I liked Man of Steel but I cannot recall a thing about it. I was disappointed with the theatrical edition of BvS but the extended edition was much better. But not super. And I was severely disheartened with Suicide Squad. What nonsense was that! So my overall excitement was as high as, nothing else to do on a Sunday evening, so why not go sit in the dark for a couple of hours to watch a movie which is getting good-ish reviews.

    So, I ended up liking the movie. Mostly because, it shows something new Superhero wise. A proper origin story, though a lot was still left for speculation which is also good in a way. Second, a proper plot which nowadays superhero movies take for granted. Thirdly, great visuals which is the only thing DC has done right till now. But above all, the lead Gal Gadot, makes the movie worth what it is. Not only her chemistry is great with Chris Pine (Steve Trevor) with good jokes and everything, but overall she does fab in the fighting sequences which are choreographed pretty nicely. She was also quite interesting in BvS. I specially loved the part where she goes right in the middle of an open fire and does what a Superhero does with style. Kicking and beating the enemies with finesse and a lasso.

    When it comes to female Superhero movies (if there are any), there is more talk of how the lead looks and what ethnicity is she, and what all she wore. For me, I didn’t even think about that throughout the movie, because whatever was presented in the movie, was in context of that movie. (And I am not an expert movie critic anyways).

    Except the final act of the movie, which goes full supernatural, overall movie is entertaining and keeps one hooked. What else matters?

    Memorable? Mostly no, partly yes, It would be now, because there are going to be more of Gal Gadot Wonder Woman appearances in future, considering this has been a huge box-office success. I am not complaining.

    Which brings us now to decide over the expectations setting from Justice League movie releasing later this year.  I would say, it would be good. (hopefully)

    I will go with dash out of dash stars. (We don’t do stars here, go away!).

    Here’s a brilliant take on this character by Kaptain Kristian on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j73IkjslvoM

  • So I Worked in a Movie

    So I Worked in a Movie

    I didn’t get a chance to say these lines…

    https://giphy.com/gifs/C767ptzM7gdUc

    but still, I got to work in a feature film.

    Things happened in the following fashion:

    Back in 2012, when I was getting fame and money for the minimal posters, film-maker Sandeep Mohan approached me to make official posters for his movie, Love Wrinkle-Free. So I made the posters and became friends with Sandeep.

    He’s a full-fledged Indie Movie Maker so he usually also casts non-actors to do parts in his movies, in true Indie style. For more of his work, follow this.

    For his new movie, “Shreelancer” he had come to Bengaluru sometime in 2016. He posted on his Facebook page that he wants to shoot a scene involving a Company’s Induction day. He invited his friends to be a part of the shoot, or if someone just wanted to see how a movie shooting’s done. I went there and then being his friend, I was asked to be a part of a couple of scenes. There was one more scene but unfortunately, the camera was slightly ahead of me so I couldn’t be seen there.

    Nevertheless, I am there in 2 scenes and can brag about it to my grandkids.

    Also, funnily, Shreelancer is a tight budget movie where they get things done via Jugaad if they run out of resources. For some reason, they couldn’t get a blue colored formal shirt. By chance, I had one. So they used my Shirt for a big portion of the movie.

    Arjun Radhakrishnan, who’s the protagonist in the movie and does a fine job, wore my shirt and spoke many dialogues. So what if I didn’t get any dialogue, my shirt looked fab and played a major role in the movie.

    Here’s the trailer for Shreelancer:

  • Marvel's Daredevil and few words about superhero movies and shows

    When I said that I’m going to read Comics again, since this is 2016, I meant that I would also watch the new form comics have taken, that is Television Shows. And by Television shows, since this is 2016, I mean things on Netflix and stuff. I just finished watching Netflix and Marvel’s Daredevil and I am glad that I watched it.

    Marvel's Daredevil
    Marvel’s Daredevil

    For the uninitiated like I was before delving into this, Daredevil is Marvel’s and co-creator Stan Lee’s yet another Superhero which is one of the most popular ones, right after their Avengers which everyone knows by now. And this series fits right into their MCU or Marvel Cinematic Universe where all their shows and movies intermingle into each other in one way or the other. They keep bringing characters or locations or put easter eggs through some manner to give enough hints to the fans that the universe in which everything happens, is somewhat related. Even if the effects on one might not be directly visible to the other but, as you progress in the series, you will get the feel eventually.

    I hadn’t watched any of the shows Marvel had made earlier, which comprises of Agents of Shield or Agent Carter, etc. Also, my knowledge of Marvel was mostly based on their movies as I didn’t get much chance to read their comics. Though I had liked the Sam Reimi-Toby McGuire’s Spiderman in early 2000s and was thrilled to see Stan Lee’s cameos in them, I lost the interest and zeal to continue with their other movies. I watched Iron Man 1 and 2 and Avengers but not Captain America, neither Thor, nor The Incredible Hulk or X-Men if you include that. I watched and then I forgot their plots. Lately, I caught up with Captain America Winter Soldier, X-Men Days of future past and more recently Avenger’s Age of Ultron. I thought their movies are entertaining but not memorable, as compared to DC’s. And by DC’s I actually mean Nolan’s take on Batman and then Man of Steel. I even went on to state, that for me DC movies were much better than Marvel’s. But after watching Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice and Captain America Civil War, I guess I have to rethink of my opinion. While I didn’t hate BvS, but everyone agrees that it could have been a lot better. Civil War on the other hand doesn’t take itself so seriously as BvS and turns out so much cooler, hilarious and super serious when it needs to be. To summarize, Marvel has up the ante a long time ago and they are continuing to be good at what they are doing. Hoping to see Suicide Squad and further Justice League movies to see what DC comes up with eventually, after almost losing race to Marvel, if you may say so. Anyways, last few movies I watched, it has surely made me eager to watch more of Marvel’s stuff.

    Doodled
    Doodled

    Anyways, talking about Daredevil and not digressing, I liked a lot of things about the show. Most importantly that it is as realistic as the Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy ought to be. While I have no intention to give any plot points here as a lot of time has already passed when this show was released, I am just writing about the things I liked the most. And that is the brilliant, hand to hand combat without any CGI or anything. Just plain, fist fights and round kicks. Ah, and that Hallway scene in the S01E02! That got me hooked to it. And it keeps getting better with each episode. Season 2 was equally good as they brought in more characters and made it more complex and delight for the viewers who love comics and pure action. The Punisher was straight out of Sunny Deol’s Ghayal and Narsimha, if you know what I mean. Even if you haven’t read any comicbook, this show fits into all the categories of Crime Thriller genre, making it a dark, gritty and nicely crafted and choreographed violence show which comicbook lovers or anyone who’s an adult now, would love. If anyone is reading this, heh, I would recommend this right away.

    Next up, Jessica Jones, which would also be special as Breaking Bad’s Jane plays the titular role. This was released in November 2015 but it is okay. A least I hope it would have some story. As compared to that nonsense Game of Thrones where Winter is yet to come even after 6 seasons. Yawn.

  • I'm not a movie buff

    Yes, I am not a movie buff. I don’t watch movies much nor do I remember them for long. I think I stopped taking movies seriously after 1994. I last danced (without being pulled over in a baraat or DJ in college) on Pak-Chik-Pak-Raja-Babu (The song lifted from Chikku-Bukku-Raile and made ‘awesome’ by Govinda by wearing Michael Jackson’s Bad attire) on my own by doing all those moves and rolling over the floor dancing / ROFD. I could also do that stuff kids used to do back then which was imitating a fan by rotating one of your legs squatting on another leg while dancing. I have seen Allu Arjun do the same recently. He only got to know about it now? Poor chap.

    When I was growing up I was told that watching movies is not a good thing at all. Instead, it was taught that one should concentrate on studies. I used to play a lot and watched Cricket at odd times. But no movies. Probably because my experience of watching movies was weird. Once I had to gone to watch the movie Dil along with my uncle when I was just 3.5 ft tall in a nearby movie theater called as ‘Lakshmi Mandir’ in Jaipur. Now they show only 18+ movies there sadly. Or rather good for some. While I was entering the hall, because of it being crowded, I got lost in the darkness. When my uncle finally found me after 10 minutes, my cheeks were all wet because of tears. I mean how can a 3.5 ft tall guy tolerate being lost in darkness while Saeed Jaffrey unleash wrath on Aamir Khan and Madhuri. Then once I went to see Bol Radha Bol with my parents (I think that was the last movie I saw with my father and mother together in a theater). Sadly, we couldn’t see the climax because my younger brother kept on weeping throughout the movie and father decided to go home because he didn’t want others to get disturbed. I felt so bad that I told them that ‘leave me and go, I will come back on my own’. He instantly declined the plea because it was a night show and I was just 3.7 ft tall. Later, I got the video cassette of the movie and watched it on VCR at home itself. I loved the movie by the way. During the period from ’94 till ’98, I just watched very less Hindi movies and usually Animated movies or Jurassic Park sequels only in theaters. Including Godzilla.

    Studies weren’t helping either. Probably I was in 7th and read this beauty of a story in Hindi called as ‘Punchlight (पंच लाइट)’ by Phanishwar Nath ‘Renu’. It was a story about a village where the Punch (village headmen) weren’t able to use a Petromax lamp and then a guy called Godhan (who was considered a useless and छलिया types guy because he used to watch many movies and sing indecent songs from them) helped them because he knew stuffs. Although the story was pro-movie watching as it said that watching movies makes you aware of stuffs but till then I had decided that movie watching is a waste of time.

    Now after coming to Bangalore, the only pastime left here is watching movies because there is nothing else to do in this city frankly. In past 2 years, I watched more movies than I had watched all my life. Moreover MMP happened. I got in touch with so many people who are movies aficionados that I feel awkward to comment on anything. I have been often called as a movie buff whenever MMPIndia was featured in newspapers which made me feel bit weird. If one makes some graphics out of movies, that doesn’t mean that he is into movies or anything as such. But. But I don’t hate movies. I just hate useless movies. I admire some cinematic brilliance and want to know more and more about those people and watch all the movies they have made. People can discuss lengths about certain characters portrayal on Twitter and write thousands of words on what they interpreted about certain movies on their blogs. I don’t. I don’t review movies because art is subjective and carrying out discussions over fiction is not my cup of tea till now. The movies which were offered to us in 90s and 2000s kept me at bay as well. When I watch a 70s movie, they look so much better (and so slow but still good) because their content was worth watching. Seriously, if you keep feeding a person with bad quality food, one day he get used to it. And when suddenly you serve him great quality food, he won’t like it at all. The taste of the movies of my friends has moulded in such a way that they can watch Salman Khan movies and like them. I cannot. For me to become a movie buff, I need to see better movies. Better directors who are plenty in number nowadays can do that. There are some great people on Twitter who know a lot about movies and I am keen on learning from that. Being an Indian, one cannot be separated from Movies and Cricket. Hence, I should not get away anyways.

    Having said that, if you find out the number of movies an Indian watches on an average, I would still have seen lesser number of movies than that number. And I would like to keep that this way. As they say that if you start watching more and more movies, you begin to explore for more and more about them. I am currently in that phase.

    Bol Radha Bol
    Bol Radha Bol

     

    P.S.: I watched Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola today and liked it instantly. Great quirky and intelligent humor. I recommend it and refrain from giving any rating.

  • THE BEST WAY TO ENJOY A MOVIE IN THEATRE WITHOUT GETTING DISAPPOINTED BECAUSE OF YOUR HIGH EXPECTATIONS IS TO

     

    Happened with me for Shanghai and Gangs of Wasseypur. A bit. Yep.

  • Critically Act Lame Post

    Since the day I’ve became famous (heh, I’ve still got a bit of humor left in me) and was adjudged a movie buff, I’ve come across plenty of people/bloggers who kind of consider themselves as movie reviewers. Not that this is a new practice or path breaking stuff, people used to share their takes on the movies they watched earlier too, peacefully. I also shared my expert opinion about Tashan once and how much I enjoyed it but everyone is a reviewer now. Whenever a new movie, music album, TV show or even a trailer hits the web/TV, they come out and start pimping their expert reviews about the subject with the word go. This pimping continues every <insert your desperation limit> minutes on Twitter and other social media platforms till <insert your tolerance limit> until you click to read the review finally. And I have a problem with all that jazz.

    Firstly, anything which is shoved up your face that read my review on this and that, becomes a turn off. But since we are on Twitter so I should better stay away from this practice.

    Secondly, I firmly believe that nobody has any right to hold back anyone from sharing their opinion. Everyone is entitled to say what they feel where ever they want, whenever they want, how many times they want. My problem is just that while they are sharing their opinions, they forget that it is ‘their’ opinion and ‘their’ opinion only. I look for certain words and phrases in their blog posts which range from: in my opinion, i feel, i think, it looked like to me, my point of view is that, my conclusion, etc. And I found none. Nobody owns any copyright (heh) or any qualification to become a reviewer but point to note that it is you who is giving your opinion about a certain thing. What you have concluded cannot be the final judgement. Look around, the movies you had written off, say Housefull 2, to be a circus of non sense scenes and full of idiots, has earned more than what you could ever dream of. (I have not watched that movie and have no intention to watch crap) In a country of ours where opinions are so much divided that people can fight even over anything, even the way one glanced the other, how can you be so sure that your take will be even given any respect. You talk about technical details? Take a look at your own blog Sir/Madam and the aesthetics of the space from where you are announcing that the movie is a unedited series of ham videos not even worth of being shown in Bangladesh’s Funniest Videos but the movie ends up being a hit and the normal people actually enjoying it whole heartedly? What sense do you make out it?

    Like they say, the best way to become famous now is to hit below the belt and when the person cries out in pain, take pics of him and put it on 9gag. Similarly, to become a critic, blast the movie off. Don’t become a constructive reviewer, no no no no no, how will you be famous then, just make fun of it, that is the right way, no? The most hilarious thing is the stars or thumbs up these reviewers give. This movie had bad direction, lets cut 1.523454 stars out of 5, this actor had slept with the producer’s wife, lets add 0.69 stars to it. This movie had brilliant music but all inspired from Asian and Arabic music, lets cut the stars from the rating by 2 bilangs.

    Try doing something creative and let others judge you. Then review whatever you can.

    That is my opinion. And i don’t expect you to follow it. But you should.