Saturday, June 14, 2008

Dasavtharam

"Synthetic bio-weapons, research and analysis wing, Kulothunga II’s distaste for Vedanta and the Chaos theory!"
That was the line that piqued my interest in the movie. I was kind of worried that the storyline would be OTH and the movie wouldn't run. I even felt sorry for Kamal, a man who has to go through the agony of 10 roles, especially when his last attempt of 4 roles in a fine movie had flopped at the theatres.

Excited about the ride Kamal was going to take us through. He did take us for a ride, alright!

A 15$ cliche-ridden ride.

Every cliche that has ever existed in Tamil movies is in this movie. A Japanese brother cannot really add much novelty in a cliched track of brother revenging for the sister's death track.

Ten masks even if they are worth a total of 70 crores isn't going to make the movie worth it. Especially, when the make up remains just a mask. These thing hinders all the movements from one's face, that only device left on your face to emote is the eyes. To be honest, I have always been irritated by Kamal's over enthusiasm for make-up. A trait unfortunately , the younger lot like Surya and Vikram seem keen on picking up. When Kamal can bring out the nuances of 10 characters why resort to such make-up gimmicks?

Graphics - seriously? Tom and Jerry had way better graphics than this.

I have only myself to blame. I prided myself on how I have been able to watch these over-hyped movies in the first day without much effort(got good friends, you know) before several others. Now, the only person I feel sorry for is myself. Because you know what? Next time around when there is a hype, I would still go there. That is exactly what these geniuses(kamal, shankar) count on - fools like me!

Something about these crores is making tamil movies scriptless(including sivaji!).

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Juno



" You are a part time lover & a full time friend
The monkey on you are back is the latest trend
I do not see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you....."

It happens sometimes. I read a book or watch a movie, dismiss it in the first glance and then I go on to discover more things about the book without even a revisit over a period of few days.

Juno had put me in a similar state. I watched the movie, felt it was a nice movie. But couldn't move away from the question," this got nominated for academy awards?".

I still don't know if it is worth the academy award nomination.* But I have rediscovered the movie in few days. More than the teenage pregnancy , what defines the movie for me is what Juno realizes from Vanessa and Mark and the decision she makes afterward. Sort of coming of age except I know even a decade latter I haven't gained the maturity Juno has in the movie.

In quite a few ways, the ethos of the place where you come from affect you. I did not grow up here and I never quite mingled. So, it is hard for me to understand the quirky way in which the family decides to handle Juno in general and pregnancy in particular. I know how a teenage pregnancy will be dealt in India. I grew up with too many population growth ads that Pro-choice versus pro-life debate just doesn't ring a bell in me.

Music was another thing everyone was gung-hoo about in this movie. I am not familiar with music genres outside Indian sub-continent, so it is hard for me to go wow over Juno's soundtrack. But I like it. Music is different from the usual hollywood stuff.

Wanted: A part-time lover and a full-time friend:)


Ps: * . One expects a lot more depth when an Oscar gets associated with it. And may be content depth of a movie gets defined by the amount of gloominess in a movie in my brain.