Precious Words

"In America, we told a story. We are the worst at it now, as far as I am concerned. We don't tell a story, we tell a situation. Most of the movies that you see now a days, and I am not a Hollywood basher because enough good movies come out the Hollywood system every year to justify its existence, but without any apologies, however, a good majority of movies that come out now you pretty much know everything you're gonna see in a movie by the first ten or twenty minutes. Now that's not a story. A story is something that constantly unfolds. I am not talking about this quick left turner or a quick right turner or a surprise. I am talking about, it unfolds."

Quentin Tarantino (Film director, writer, producer, actor)

Just In: The Great Gatsby First Trailer

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Toby Maguire, Carey Mulligan and Amitabh Bachchan.

If I am not mistaken, Amitabh Bachchan, playing a sketchy Business Associate Meyer Wolfsheim, is the first ever Indian actor to be cast in a non-Indian role for a Hollywood flick! Amazing!

Click here for the trailer of the film on YouTube.  

iREVIEW: The Dictator

Starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris, Jason Mantzoukas and Ben Kingsley. Written by Sacha Baron Cohen, Alec Berg et al. Directed by Larry Charles.

Sacha Baron Cohen is a phenomenon than just a performer.  The way he has absorbed himself and dedicated most of the limelight to his on screen characters (Borat, Bruno, Ali G and now Aladeen) is unmistakably truest of testaments to acting.  It is a fact that Sacha's on screen characters are much more popular than he as an actor is. And, I believe, this is the real accomplishment for an actor.

This time Sacha plays the last surviving dictator in the world, Admiral General Aladeen.  From the trailer itself, we don't expect the next biggest satire but we do want to roll down on the floor and to be shot with those gazillion gags. But Alas, the film tries to be sensible! I always believe that a film's failure (or success) depends on its level of honesty.  If the trailers try to make a different impression than what the film is actually about (for the most part), it is more often than not, going to fail.  Not that The Dictator failed completely but if you spent your money for a rib-tickling venture, you will feel cheated.

I've been a big fan of Sacha's array of funny episodes as Ali G, Borat and Bruno but not so much of any of those character based films.  And I think this is saying something.  Playing gags or trying to bust someone balls by political satires for five minutes is extremely funny, however, films are not formed with gags. They have to move somewhere.  The Dictator feels short, choked and longing to breath out something funny but all it ends up as is merely a forced extension of those short episodes.  The story is very simply (not that we really want the next inception!) but the screenplay lacks the number of punches, the key word being number. Yes, there are some scenes that are truly Sacha's trademark but they are few in number and far in between.

I personally think The Dictator is a missed opportunity. It could have easily been the funniest of all the Sacha's films, but it's not even a runner up.  It seems to lack the stability of a film, tries to unfold too quickly and on the whole it tips towards a romantic-satirical comedy rather than just a comedy with some satire. And what the hell is Ben Kingsley doing in this film? Such a waste of an actor!

** / *****

iREVIEW: The Shining

Starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd. Written by Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. 

When you can foresee a battered past of a family just by the delivery of one dialogue, you know you're watching great actors with immense control of the story.  It wouldn't be incorrect to say that The Shining is Jack Nicholson.  But it is definitely incomplete to say so. The Shining is a testament to the fact that one doesn't need a plethora of characters, a hullabaloo of dialogues and twists and turns to create a majestic piece of cinema. A demented human mind would suffice!

It took me a while to make up my mind to watch this film because I knew what the film was all about.  And that's the beauty of it.  Within fifteen to twenty minutes of this over two hour long film, one gets an idea of where this film is heading.  But it's not the ending that matters here, it's how we get there.

So, Jack decides to move to Overlook Hotel with his family as a caretaker of the picturesque resort during the brutally cold off season.  Right away, just by the shear chemistry between Jack and his wife, their son's sprouting psychosis and Jack's layered expressions (read, great acting), we realize that there is certain airlessness, a detachment between the characters, a charred relation.  And that is what a horror movie should be about.  Uncertainty of oneself, as when Jack says "I think I am losing my mind", just before one actually loses it, is the most horrific aura of experience, mush insidious than sudden jarring screams that are current trademarks for horror films.

The Shining begins, as a horror film should, with a surreal look at a sketchy back story of the leading characters. With each passing minute, right after a relationship is established between the characters, they begin to detach.  The hotel which gets completely disconnected from civilization in winters due to yards of snowfall represents nothing but a cage for a family that actually needs open ground to expand. And then the isolation takes over.

If one thinks about it, The Shining is a simple film yet it possesses such brilliance in its subtleties that it would take a jeweler's eye and a handful of psychotic knowledge to make one.  Moreover, from the technical point of view, it is one of the very few complete cinematic experiences I've ever had. From the breath taking bird's eye shots in the beginning portraying a journey to isolation that the audience will live in for the rest of the film to the surreal background score elevating with intensifying madness of the characters, the director uses every tool in its palate to enhance the experience of insanity in isolation.

Before I wrap up, I must say when the movie was released (in 80s), it's pace would've been considered optimum.  But for today's audience, it's tempo is slightly slower. Having said that, The Shining is what a horror film should always be.

iQuote

It's the restlessness in reality that prevents us from escaping it. 

iREVIEW: Satyamev Jayate (Female Feticide)

It took me some time to convince myself to watch Satyamev Jayate and I am not proud of it.  Over the years,  I believe we have all grown a tendency to turn our backs to the social problems faced by our country and the world.  Rather, we find live-in relationships and their problems to be more exciting and intriguing.  It is indeed a shame.

So, I must begin by applauding the efforts of Aamir Khan.  He is the only star who is using his stardom in the most noble way possible.  It is only the star power of Aamir Khan that can do justice to this noble cause of a show.  Of course, there are monetary rewards involved for him but the fact is he deserves every penny of it.  I once heard Sajid Khan, a pitiable film maker (of Housefull... duh!), commenting that films and motion pictures can't change our lives or inspire us and are merely a dose of entertainment.  Well, Satyamev Jayate is the closest thing that challenges this statement.  Aamir Khan's current Bollywood run has jeweled him with the repertoire of being a rare "thinking" and great film maker (the other being Raj Kumar Hirani of 3 Idiots and Munnabhai Franchise), and this show will add another diamond to his crown.  If Aamir Khan is thinking, he is thinking hard!

I am writing this review for what I believe this show will be about based on the structure of its first episode.  Is Satyamev Jayate the first ever social issue based serial? Not by any means.  But because of everything else, it is indeed a beacon of light in otherwise abysmal lot of Indian soap operas and reality TV.  What has been done this time has never been done before.

So, what's different about this show?  The shear focus on the detailing of every aspect of the show, the structuring and the motif is what makes this show a path breaking step towards revolution.  The first episode talks about Female Feticide.  Logically, the show begins with defining the problem and evoking an intense emotional response in the audience via tragic real life stories of two mothers from illiterate, low income and rural backgrounds who suffered unthinkable atrocities by the hands of their husbands and in laws because their unborn child was a female.  At this point, just as I thought that the show will keep documenting such stories, the tempo changed.

The audience is presented with factual statistics in a vernacular that common public would understand.  And then comes the interesting part. Most of us thought female feticide was an issue brooding in rural, low income and illiterate parts of India, but the reality is very different.  Female feticide is happening more around us than far from us.  It is more common in the rich than in poor, in literate than illiterate and in posh than low income families.  Satyamev Jayate, at this point, places us at the epicenter of the problem! Nobody has ever done this!

This inspiring structure continues with more tragic real life stories, history and origins of the issue and then it tells us how some people are fighting it.  The show reveals the large cracks in the judicial and executive body of our government and presents us with some alarming repercussions of this issue. Every social issue in our society has a devastating rippling effect.  Female feticide leads to reduced female to male ratio is one thing, understanding that female feticide can also lead to increased number of gang rapes is another thing. This is what this show does.  It creates urgency, it creates an atmosphere for action.

Last but not the least, this show has another motif.  It isn't simply a messenger to report crimes and mishaps in your neighborhood, it is trying to be an immediate platform for a change.  It is an office to collect petitions directly from general public aimed at the judicial system to ask for specific and immediate changes in our society.  And nobody should be left out, petitions can be made through text, emails and by postal mail as well.  By the way, it's not the government or the police who brings a change, it's you and I.  I won't keep on dissecting this show any further, there's no point, you can watch the first episode in the video below. But if this show can't inspire us, nothing can.

***** / *****

Hulk Smashes Loki

Type this title and you'll see what I mean.  After the success of The Avengers, by crossing 200 million dollar mark on the box office within 2 weeks!, one scene of the film has swept the cyber space like a sandstorm and that is - Hulk Smashes Loki!  There are tons of uploads of this scene, equal number of bans due to copyright infringements by the Avengers team (they know how valuable this scene is!), entire blogs, social networking pages and media hosting site pages such as the ones on imgur and Tumblr are dedicated just to this one scene!  People are dissecting this simple scene on Yahoo answers and trying to decipher what The Hulk mumbles at the end of this scene (which is "Puny God" by the way).

Why such a rage? The Hulk's emotions and wrath was contained throughout this film until this very scene.  In a matter of few minutes, The Hulk catches Loki unaware in the middle of his snobby lecture and smashes him left and right onto the granite floor like a piece of wet comforter! Just like you want to smash your ex-girlfriend, your boss, your snobby friend or that annoying "crazy guy" on the train!  And then, after a beating of the century, buried halfway in the floor, Loki's expression of "What the hell just happened?"  is Oscar worthy!

This scene is just hilarious! Nobody feels bad for the pesky ones! Oh, should I bother to ask you to check "Hulk smashes Loki" on Google images?

Advice for the doers... do it!

Advice abound when it comes to any particular topic in this world! Start a conversation on politics, sports, electronics, philosophy... anything, and wait as one of your friends volunteers to shower you with myriad of suggestions.

Say you're trying to learn Final Cut Pro (Apple's), you will be given all sorts of reasons for why it's not better than another leading program, what are the shortcomings, what are the advantages, what is the opportunity cost, etc.  You will be surprised, however, most of these suggestions are not inherited from the personal experiences but rather word of mouth, consumer report stuff or even personal opinions based on nothing but mental prejudices and judgement (much like discrimination and profiling!).  A question has to be asked, why do people tend to barf out their advice mostly on things they have never tried?

It is a proven fact, on the same hand, that it doesn't matter if Final Cut Pro is better or worse than its competitors, if you master it, become skillful enough to call yourself a Final Cut Pro expert, you will have more customers, employers and cash on your door than you could imagine.  Of course, Final Cut Pro is just a metaphor, thinkers will get what I am trying to say.

Canon 5D Mark iii - courtesy Canon USA

In this post, I'd like to remind that curtains have been lifted off the Canon 5D Mark iii! It is much more inclined for the filmmakers who want to venture into independent film making, much like me (again I suggested, when I've not even seen this camera in actuality!).  Having said that, I believe if I burn roughly four grands for this camera, by no means, I am being privileged with great cinematography.  This is slightly off the topic (maybe not) but I'll continue.  Beginners, like me, have the notion that great film making starts with a great camera... WRONG! Greatness comes from within.  Camera is merely a tool for greatness.  The better the tool, the easier the task... but that's about it.  As far as film making is concerned, this is a word of advice (again, phew!) for independent film makers - if you have the costliest equipment in your bag (one of those RED cameras) and still not getting the satisfaction with what's on the screen... then stop, relax, and check the detailing in the production value.  Are you shooting at the location which you initially thought of or did you trade if off with a more convenient one just because you are lazy? Did you dress your actors in a way that they compliment their surroundings the most? How about that upside down chair... did you place it in the backyard like it's mentioned in the script or did you not because you didn't have a chair and you convinced yourself it isn't an integral part of your story? Detailing, my friends, those excruciating details is what differentiates a mediocre film from a great one!  Of course, film making is a metaphor, thinkers will get what I am trying to say.

Strictly for film makers, you might wanna check out the video below to see what I am talking about.  Also, check out all the other videos in this channel as well. They are great!

iREVIEW: 21 Jump Street

Starring Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, DeRay Davis and Ice Cube. Written by Michael Bacall, Jonah Hill et al and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. 

From the trailers itself, 21 Jump Street seems to be a fun ride.  And it won't fall below your expectations.  At times, it is rib tickling hilarious.  At some instances, it takes a matured turn to steer the story to higher strata without ever getting stained with melodrama.  21 Jump Street is about two young boys who have some issues in high school - one is a cool dude (Jenko played by Tatum) who barely makes to graduation and is not allowed to attend the prom thanks to his abysmal grades and the other is a nerd (Schmidt played by Hill) whose pitifully low self-confidence makes him choke when he asks a girl for prom and needless to say is rejected.

I had issues in high school, so did you and all of your school mates.  And as we grow older, we philosophize our petty troubles and term them as experiences because this is all we can do.  21 Jump Street is a movie about chance for redemption.  After a shaky start to their police careers, Schmidt and Jenko are relocated to a new office and given a task to attend a high school as students to track and bust an expanding drug nexus in teenagers.

All of a sudden, Schmidt and Jenko have to face the anxiety and terror of being a teenager, and that of a high school student, again.  Schmidt and Jenko are more fun and relevant only because they are grounded to their weaknesses like all humans instead of being instilled with some philosophical idea of "desperation to grow." Nobody ever grows because they want to.  We grow when time wants us to grow.

Little has happened in their lives to make Schmidt and Jenko vulnerable to a change till they face their fears all over again, quite literally.  They are back in high school. Schmidt has a crush and Jenko has to attend an advanced Chemistry class when all he knows is "Chemistry is about pictures and stuff."  I believe  that the happenings never forced Schmidt and Jenki to change.  The time has changed and so is the peer mentality which simply made the nerdy Schmidt look like a cool dude whereas Jenki somewhat of a "douche."

The hullabaloo accompanied by their under cover mission is quite hilarious and the core of the comedy.  But there is slightly more to this film and I believe it slowly grows on you as you leave the theater.  There are some deepest of our fears that we have to voluntarily face and conquer.  And that's what Schmidt did when he asked out his crush to go to prom with him and that's what Jenko did when he finally "used his brains" to some effect.  In the beginning, both Jenko and Schmidt were left out of the prom for different reasons, but believe me I am revealing nothing when I say they both go to the prom in the climax in dashing Tuxedos and white limo with doves flying out the door.

iREVIEW: Marvel's The Avengers

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston and Samuel Jackson. Written by Joss Whedon and Zak Penn.  Directed by Joss Whedon.

Films like The Avengers can very easily be reduced into a mishmash of superhero drama if its created by a lesser writer.  In the times when sagas based on even a single superhero is hard to digest once it multiplies into a sequel, the fact that I was left craving for the next Avengers should wrap the review right now.  But I won't wrap it up just yet!

So our planet is on the verge of a war against the Asgardians lead primarily by the king of Frost Giants, Loki.  Beyond this, I believe, the story is trivial!  I have said it time and again that a good film is never about a subject or a topic, it is simply about characters. Within ten minutes, we knew there is a war brewing up and we are going to win at the end of it.  But the excitement lies in the "how."

The Avengers would have easily fallen into the traps of naked action and blinding stunts, thanks to all the superheroes from The Hulk to The Iron Man packed into this venture.  But then we are caught off guard by the ego clashes of these characters.  After all they have been accustomed to heaps of praises, thank you letters, tons of media coverage and dreams of young gals. This would make any saint an egoist pig! And I believe this constant quarrel between the characters for ego adjustments is not only the crux but the genesis of this film as well.  It is the human element of egoistic complex that prevents the film from reducing into a dumb action flick.  Not once do we feel that a character is comfortable taking orders from the other! Not once do we feel that they are helping each other because they want to, it's simply because they have to!

However, the ending has to be reached.  The fact that the demise of the antagonist is not the climax tells us that the creators are still left with the task to weld a team together.  The war happens to be the reason. "It's all about the endings" Nolan once stated. I believe the last twenty odd minutes is what the entire venture is all  about. The Avengers fighting together. The adjustment of egos, sacrifice of personal space for the greater cause and search of qualities that complement the rest of the team is what the film is all about.

From a technical point of view, the film could have been chopped by 10-20 minutes.  The sequential introduction of each superhero seemed quite routine.  But again, I believe the relatively first slow hour was the fuel for the pumped up last hour of the film.

I still believe Batman Series by Christopher Nolan is on top of the psycho analysis of a superhero,  but The Avengers has crossed a milestone in socio-analysis of ego maniacs aka superheroes!

Kinds of Man and the Paradoxical Winner a parent wants

It is a time proven fact that society has always churned out robotic beings while sheathing their consciousness from this puppeteer theory.  It is indeed tragic. Once in a blue moon, there emerges a man who decides to think of its own and question these hard etched rules and regulations of society.  The genesis of society may have been simply to collect people into a commune and live side by side to support one another and face calamities of any kind with unity.  If that is the case, then a major but subtle point has been completely overlooked.  Human and its mentality are anything but isolated.  How you think has an effect on how I think.  How we all think has an effect on how that little child thinks.  This elemental behavior has a rather constraining effect on the creativity of humans.  Society ends creativity, it creates losers.  And for a child, society begins at home and expands outward from parents to neighbors to friends to colleagues and so on.

In essence, society has managed to bisect humanity into four kinds:  foolish, ignorant, coward and brave.  There are people, thought relatively few or as I hope so, who have absolutely no aspirations to gain anything.  Life is a beautiful or an ugly world, a static or a dynamic domain, whatever it is, these kind have no desires to either fly out of or dwell deeper into it to look for answers.  For them, their existence is their biggest accomplishment.  Beyond the point of their birth, they seek no wisdom, no knowledge beyond what is given to them.  These are the foolish kind.  They are the kind who will enjoy living in a contaminated puddle oblivious to the fact that there exists a grand ocean full of life and dynamism in the same reality.

Then there is the ignorant. And I hope this makes the majority! Today's fast paced life and a rather career oriented one is churning up many ignorant brains.  These people begin a thought process with benefits and move inwards to source.  Who they want to be is not important, rather silly for that matter, but what they want is the crux of their lives.  They want a mansion, a six-figure car, a vacation every year, and so on.  The ignorant bases its life on how to get these benefits most efficiently and quickly. It doesn't matter if the source is a medicine career or a career in engineering.  They are oblivious to the source.  But they do have an aspiration but that is of the effect and not the source, making them at least more dignified than a foolish.  Ignorant minds, as I hope, make up the majority.

I am sure there are many cowards than we can ever find out.  There is a thin line between being an ignorant and a coward.  We all agree that most of us, if given only two of these options, would settle for ignorant rather than coward.  There is a certain dignity in working for something which you know as the only way of life.  But that dignity plummets into a man hole when you do things that an ignorant would do without being an ignorant!  When you completely realize who you want to be in life and still resort to the more socially accepted avenues, you become a coward.  These so-called "accepted" tracks are, without any doubt, easier, more expected and reputed tracks than the not-so readily accepted ones.  But that's the tough game and coward is the truest loser.  And the only way to be a loser is not to even charter into a territory because you are afraid of its environment.  So afraid of losing, that you don't even try.  If you have lost the fear of losing and decided to tread your way into the oblivion, you belong to the next and the most precious category of all.

Brave people do exist but far in between.  Tragically, seldom a person even realizes who it really wants to be and rarely that person sacrifices its life for its being.  Sacrificing this beautiful gift for your passion is the ultimate stamp of a brave soul.  It is even more tragic that not all brave faces make the front, but those who do shine as a star.  They are the demi gods of our society.  You realize your passion, you realize the odds, you realize the obstacles, you realize there is no map and it is blindly dark and still you walk in, with the hope to reach your destiny and with determination to rise every time you fall and with consciousness that you will fall more than society can accept, but then you become brave.  Then you rise above everything.  Then you die happily because you lived happily.

Unfortunately, the above classification may sound too mathematical and discrete but it is indeed the fabric of our society.  It makes up the acceptable and outlaws, the followers and the renegades.  It differentiates the leader from a disciple.  And we have to understand and completely live with the fact that our parents are no different.  Their utmost goal is to see their children live a fulfilling and a happy life. They don't want to see struggle in their children's life not just because they can't endure the insomniac nights bestowed upon their little ones but also because children already have enough work at hand before they are "accepted" into the society. How will they survive if they try to first anchor themselves on a lonely post in stormy waters and then carve their way completely against the tide? Only few have done it.  The probability is not great.  The risk is too high.  So, the parents, as they were brought up by their parents and encoded with such sensibility, raise their children at best to be ignorant.  They project future in their eyes, the sweet comforts of mansions, cars, respected social standing, and a spouse who tirelessly helps in producing more children.  But not once, in the entire development, does a parent gain enough wisdom and courage to mention the importance of finding yourself.  Not once, they prevent children from not getting swept away by the effectual delicacies of certain professions.  Not once, they allow children to devour on the voluptuousness of their passion.

Upbringing of a parent plays a key role in this typical attitude more than we can think.  A renegade parent would completely empathize with its renegade son.  But an ignorant parent has no reference point beyond ignorance.  All the classifications, of being foolish, ignorant, coward and brave, are simply perceived within this "bigger" pool of ignorance.  An ignorant parent is simply a fish in an aquarium oblivious to the cool and refreshing streams of rivers.  How can that fish ask its offspring to spill out of the aquarium in search of the ocean?  The fish had heard stories about those who achieved freedom of sea but aquarium isn't bad either.  This is what every fish is living in.  This is what their world is.  At least, so the fish thinks.

There are four kinds of man, as mentioned above.  And there are three kinds of tragedies happening to mankind. First, foolish and ignorant make up the majority of society and that is a tragedy in itself.  Second, when a man realizes its true passion, it can either be a coward or a brave but he can never be a foolish or ignorant even if he wanted to be.  And third, the first chronicle in many chronicles that lead to a decision is that of the contribution of a parent.  A child, whenever perplexed, looks back at his parent.  The tragedy is the choice between cowardice and bravery is rather simple to make for a parent.  And you know what that is!