"7-am arivu" - an worthless offering

Saw 2 very different movies by very different directors who have attained great fame in very short time. One relatively old. One brand new. One @ cinema hall. One in the movie channel @ home. One costed me. One free. One having a silly actor in the lead. The other got a much superior talent in the lead. One super success. One is a sure flop!

7-am arivu

Wow! I went to watch this movie with shit loads of expectation and excitement. The name sounds fantastic. A possible good tamil movie in the offing. That apart, you can't blame me for all the enthusiasm, check out the combination:

The quartet that wasted my evening

• Wonderfully talented, hard-working & super-handsome Suriya.
• Extremely capable, critically acclaimed & innovative director AR Murugadoss.
• Super gorgeous & yummy Shruti Hasan.
• Well established, supremely melodies & recipient of many awards Harris Jayaraj.

Well, with this combo I dare anybody to question the outcome. This combo could be an atomic bomb waiting to burst out loud in the box-office. If you thought so too like I did then you are not very wrong. Just a slight difference would be: It was indeed an atom bomb waiting to burst but it did not blow away the other releases with its explosion but it imploded under its own expectation & weight. What a hotch-potch work from the team!!! Can't believe 3 out of this 4 were involved in one of the brilliant forward thinking movie like Ghajini! Law of averages, I suppose! :-(

The highlights first.

Bodhi Dharman

Nice educative start. Keeps the audience in rapt attention with the information about Bodhi Dharman.

Bodhi Dharman

I was fascinated by the information and Suriya has done a good job as the 5th Century monk. His eyes spoke. His presence was powerful. His appearance rustic. His face had the rugged but calm charm. The director handled these scenes with finesse and to the point. In fact, when the movie FINALLY ended we felt these parts should have been given more proportion in the movie time. These were nice patriotic scenes. Makes you feel proud to be an Indian & more so a Tamilian. Suddenly the name of the movie 7-am arivu (i.e., seventh sense) kinda made a lot of sense. It set the expectation quite high up and also gave an insight onto what is about to come. The Kalaripayattu stunt scenes are brilliantly taken. The raising dust & the body-language of Suriya is a treat to watch. Also these scenes gave a very ethereal feel to Suriya's role & what to expect from the modern-day Suriya's character. When this sequence ends, the movie stops to make sense. But the audience are unaware until a lot into the rest of the movie.

Lights & Camera

The very thin & heavy built
look not very different!

You gotta give it to Ravi K. Chandran for a very technical work. Nice work. The lights and the angle has been typical of his work. Very right. He has shown Shruti Hasan extremely beautiful. There are moments/scenes in the movie where you will blown over by the gorgeous beauty and the pretty face of Shruti Hasan. All thanks to Ravi Chandran to have captured it that way. She is a very very thin slim svelte gal and Suriya is hard & very masculine. Also Shruti Hasan is, at least, 2~3 inches taller than Suriya. But, on screen, when they are together you never find the difference in height & hardly figure out the difference in their size. The angles Ravi Chandran has chosen should go into the textbooks of cinematographers as reference on how to counter-act the physical difference between the lead with technology & acute sense and understanding of camera angles.

Visuals were at its best

Also his lights was on spot. I liked a few nice touches like when Suriya is on the bike he had lit his face and just about the right amount. Also the blue serial lights to light up the insides of the SUV driven by Jhonny Tri Nguyen, the villian, was fascinating and beautiful to watch. Well, after all he has been around for nearly 20 years and he has given the world of cinematography some fantabulous scintillating work in the recent past, so nothing unexpected from him. All said, this definitely deserves mention, there is a particular song (a slow sad song after the break-up) which is a visual treat. Watch out for that song. Brilliant settings. Great lights. Awesome costume (simple). That song's visuals were, for me, the best moments of the movie. Classy. Colorful. Soulful. Experimental. That song was a photographers' delight. One can learn still photography by just watching that song. :-)

Subtitles

The movie has subtitles all through the movie. It sounded a bit optimistic. Were AR & team thinking of releasing this movie to English speaking audience? Really? Has Indian films (esp Tamil movies) grown up to that? Hmm.. I wonder.

Shoes

I loved the different variants of shoes Suriya wore. Very colorful and vibrant. I wish I could own a few of those pairs. :-)

I guess that's it. I can't think of any more good points for the movie.

The pain points.

Suriya's performance

You should have got an idea when I listed subtitles & shoes in the highlight of the film! :-) The performance was not great. Suriya did NOT do a BAD job! But I have seen far better performances from him.

Forgettable performance from Shruti
Not his best by Surya

He is one actor who gives his best in ANY film but I wonder why he did not here. For one he did not receive much support (or any support, I should say) from his lead-lady (Shruti Hasan) but that has not stopped him from performing in the past. He is, typically, a one-man machine that churns out brilliant performance. But he failed me miserably; went with a lot of hope of watching this bugger spew out another classic performance. His role did not have the depth other than Bodhi Dharman part. A very shallow role & he could not add colors to it either. A guy who has been cheated by the gal he thought loved him too just 2 days ago would not go spending his entire day with her however serious the pretext be! But Suriya's character does! How?! Unbelievable! No wonder Suriya could not do justice to his role. Ever since that scene Suriya never looked his powerful self on screen. Probably he never believed in that part but did it anyways. He probably lost belief in character. Never the less, his performance was NOT forgetful but not worth mentioning either.

Shruti Hassan

Bloody hell! What is wrong with her? Has she ever seen her pa acting or her mother's work or even her pa's current muse's (Gouthami) performance?

Gorgeous but at unease

At least, her ex-live-in-boy-friend's acting prowess would have been enough for her to do a decent job in this movie. The theme of the movie was about tapping ancestral talents and benefiting from it. If only Shruti Hasan can tap her father's talent she would be burning the screen with her scorching presence and brilliant acting. This is my first film of hers and I was mightily disappointed. She looked so uneasy in the first half. She was slightly okay in the 2nd half but by which time we were bored of her. She can't act for nuts. And, her voice! Oh, please! You are in a movie that promotes being a Tamilian & in fact, proud of being one and her tamil is forgettable to say the least. She should have asked for a dubbing or at least the director should have enforced it. She is hot, I give that to her. She should try & get comfortable in her own skin and be confident of her presence on screen. In his hero-centric industry, unless the heroine has a strong screen presence she has no chance of a future. And, yeah, sit with your papa & learn some skills. If you have already then put it to some use. We love your papa and do justice to his fans like us.

Songs & love story

Boy! Boy! Another great let down. As I am typing this I am listening to Vaseegara song from Minnale movie. The killer song. In my opinion his best best so far. And, I can't believe it is the same music director who has composed songs for this movie too.

No songs stood in mind & timing was terrible
More over, non-existent love story

Harris Jayraj has not given any such numbers in this movie. I had not heard any song from this movie prior to watching the movie and I came out of the cinema hall without remembering even one song from the movie!

That apart, except for the introduction song of Suriya not a single song made any sense in its timing. The songs came in randomly. They are running away from a killer hot on their pursuit and they are having a romantic song!!! For christ sake, AR get your reins together and put a practical jigsaw puzzle together. Also the love story was very very very very shallow is what I would say if I am very generous & extremely nice to the director. If I have to put my actual thoughts my blogger id would be blocked for ever! Giving partial importance to the love story, the director lost the track of the original intention of the movie. The worst part is he hasn't done justice to the love story either. In essence, it is a mesh of mess created by a very unclear director. Why did he get confused by the non-existent love-story is unclear to me. When such talented directors go hay-wire & confused the state of the future tamil movies is not consistent! Unless consistent these talented young directors can never fill up the void left by the yesteryear's trio - Balachander, Bharatirajaa & Balu Mahendra. Waiting for such talents to revitalize tamil film industry. We need no flash in the pan. We need consistent folks.

Stunts

What a let down this was! What makes the stunts team to think a badly done graphic sequence would convince the audience or even have an impact on the audience? Esp when the cars were flying like pigeons one-after another for over 10 minutes? The stunts were lame! The flying cars. The hypnotized strangers having an expression like one of the zombies from Resident Evil series. When you got somebody like Johnny Tri Nguyen use him. Sweat him out. Don't just parade him. He is supremely talented and extremely flexible. The stunts could have been beyond belief of Indian cinema if only they has used him. What a waste of talent. Any unknown Chinese guy roaming on the Indian streets could have done what he did in this movie. Finally when he gets his due chance to fist-fight it out with Suriya the fight sequence was... to say the best... worthless of even Suriya's stature let alone a Hollywood stunt double's stature. All Johnny Tri Nguyen was doing was ramp-walking. Staring at people with a slight tilted head. Walk with an expression as if he is God. Man, he is a stunt double, if you ask him to jump of a cliff without a shute he would do and still be intact to do further stunts. Grr... Couldn't stand him staring people in the name of hypnotism. Can't believe this is the same stunt director who choreographed super awesome stunts in Ghajini not far in the past! Peter Hein dude, what's wrong with you??

In other words, folks please please please keep off this movie. Not worth the money. You can watch it once. Sitting at home. Definitely not worth going to the cinema hall.

If you are wondering what was the other movie I saw & mentioned in the header? It is 7/G Rainbow Colony. I loved it. It was perfect. Not much of mess by the director Selvaraghavan. He knew what he is doing. Not a single wasted song. Not a single useless scene. Perfect. Despite very bad acting by the leads (arguably, the lead actor did a great job bcoz the character was such) yet the director gave his best. Needless to say, Yuvan Shankar Raja gave his best in that movie. So, as compared to 7-am arivu, 7/G Rainbow Colony was a killer watch.

meet the spartans - a piece of sh*t!

this saturday was my black-saturday. I happened to watch this sorry movie called 'MEET THE SPARTAN.' This is my back-lash @ the director. I am also joining the zillions across the globe who have questioned the existence of the film makers



To start with, I had loads of expectation as I was picking up the tickets for this movie. I expected it to be, to say the least, partially interesting. The movie started on a decent note. Spoofing the wild-wolf with 'happy feet' famed penguin. We kinda enjoyed these scenes esp the spoof of the depiction. (Remember, the shadow play of the young Leonidas piercing the spear into the throat of the wild-wolf) The shadow was very aptly spoofed here. The subsequent scenes of him picking the wife (Carmen Elektra) is also fine. In fact, King Leonidas(Sean Maguire) training his son is also a very hilarious compilation. Probably the only best sequence of the entire movie.

Then starts the trouble. They hit on Britney Spears! Why? Why? Poor Britney is, even when left to herself, in shambles! Hitting on her was not sending any laugh-vibes! In fact, a brief touch on Britney's subject might have been tolerable but giving her more than a minute of screen-space in an 80-mins movie is ridiculous. Then a hit of K-Fed. Boy! Boy! Why? It sounded like the film-makers lacked the subjects to hit upon. This scene was spoofing the famous-kick by King Leonida when the Persian messenger insults the queen. I could not understand what K-Fed, Britney Spears, Ryan Seacrest, Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell & Randy Jackson (of American Idol fame) are doing in that scene?! I was under the belief that even while spoofing you spend a considerable amount of time trying to stitch the scenes together!! Apparently the film maker did not have such thoughts!!
And, I have had enough of Britney and K-Fed. How many more years are these paparazzi gonna spend their time, energy & effort on this couple. Even his name has FED but our fellows are never FED-up of K-FED!! Phew! And Paris Hilton! My Good Lord. Another of those bakras this world is interested in! Always! Always! And, for the depiction of Paris Hilton in this movie, if I were her I would take Mafia's help to eliminate the film-makers. What crap shit they made out of her. I am no fan of her but then showing her (for that matter any body) in this fashion is, to say the least, damn demeaning!

Carmen Electra! The super-hot babe has been a waste of screen presence. Except for a couple of scenes where her assets are of some use, I could not find one good reason why she is even around?! I mean, there was no scope for acting and interestingly, she did not even try to act. No story. No Big banners. No big production house. At least, a couple of bedroom scenes would have added credit to her presence & her assets. NO! No nothing what so ever. Then WTF was she thinking when she signed this film?! All she is in this film is a slutty whore who does not expose too much either. All she does is try (mark the word - try) to walk in a sophisticated manner with some old & boring fashioned dress.
Sean Maguire! Ah! The other waste of time! I should say, he did attempt some decent acting. His presence was not totally useless as much as Carmen was. Even the painted abs looks quite natural on him. His expressions might require a bit more skills. Though this movie gave zero-scope for acting et al but still such plain acting is not going to scale up. At the very least, he was some treat for girl-viewers. But Carmen ditched they male viewers! :-(

The most horrible part of the entire movie was not even the lack of focus... it was the presence of body fluids!! I have got no clue why this western spoofs are always filled with -
          1. mucus
          2. farting
          3. gay-relationship
          4. vomit

Why? Why? Why do these guys have the fetish for such nauseating stuff? I almost threw up watching one such scene in this movie. And this fetish is not limited to this movie alone. I watched 'The Date Movie' and my good lord, I could not stand the movie after the 20th minute, when 2 guys are playing basketball and one guy gets to rub his face on the sweaty-hairy opponent and finally he vomits a bundle of hair!! Yeeeks!! I cannot stand such stupidities. Do westerners enjoy these?! And, worst, only these?!
On the most interesting aspect of the 2 movies - Date Movie & Meet the Spartans are both written & directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. And when I looked at the IMDB, I realized the ratings were 2.70 & 2.30 (out of 10), respectively! Ah! I should have had the sense to check this before watching the movie. Next time I shall.

W.A.T.E.R - an beauty of its own.

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~*. D E E P A .* ~ : tanq... so there is some one who still believes my lame excuses. :-) this gives me loads of confidence! ;-)

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Me went to my friends' house and they had a small quarell. It concerned one guy ditching the other & goin for a night show. And my presence gave the victim an idea. "Even I will go out with my friend" and he looked at me! I was surprised. He decided for me??!! Meekly, I said, "Yeah, we too shall go!" So we went for this great movie!

This is one hell of a film. Believe me, this is fantastic. I went in with a bit of apprenhension and a bit curiosity. After all, isnt DM the director of the in-famous FIRE?? I was also half-expecting so see some skin-show and stuff. DM disappointed me. Disappointed me badly....


...by no nothing of adult content in the movie. Its a clean movie with strong strong (repeat over zillion times) subject. The movie is a eye-opener and makes you feel like kicking the butt of our ancestors if they were anywhere close to how its depicted in the movie.

I can with all joy reveal the story out here bcoz this movie rides on an directorial excellence with fabulous screen-play. So this will not be a spoiler of any form but for those who feel otherwise plz close the window right now!

This movie is placed @ 1938 timeline. Starts with a cute little girl being take to the ashrama for widows. And after over an hour of the movie, I realized that this ashram is only for those kid-widows. Apparently child-widows are considered cursed, I suppose. Else why a seperate ashram for them?? Anyways, this kid is a Srilankan, whose real-life name is Sarala. She portrays the innocent widow who does not even understand/realize that she is a widow. Her performance is remarkable! Sweeps you off your feet!! She over shadows other big-wigs in the movie and has outrun them by miles. Imagine performing better than Seema Biswas & John Abraham. Fantastic performance. We should watch this movie at least for this babe. Her expressions are so innocent yet filled with the emotion she is expressing. Hear say that she does not even know English. A transalator used to help her out in the movie sets! Boy, imagine hearing the scene transalated from English to Silangeese and then act in Hindi!! Boy! Its tough. Very tough.

Her in the Ashram, Chuyia (Sarala's reel name) meets Didi - Seema Biswas and Kalyani - Lisa Ray along with various other insignificant characters. Chuyia is all of her young age and bubbling with enthusiasm but none in the ashram, leaving apart Didi and Kalyani, give her the space that is essential for a kid. Then plot revolves around how Didi & Kalyani with patience and love truly welcome & enjoy the kid's company.


At this juncture you are thrown the most important question, subtly by the director! What life does a kid-widow have? We have heard zillion times about kid-widows & kid-marriages. As a matter of fact, both my grannys (mom's & dad's moms) have had child-marriage. Probably just after their puberty. So we have heard about kid-marriage from childhood and it does not strike us how terrible it is to be a widow & a kid too! This movie dwells with that sad portion of the life. In fact, at certain junctures, we get irritated and angry with our in-human ancestors! How in fuck did they justify their behaviour?? I mean, get a kid of 3-4yrs old to marry a stupid 60yrs old bas***d. And when that dumb-of-an-ass dies, which anyway he would even before the kid understands that she is married, throw the kid (if lucky, 8 or 9 else 4 or 5yrs old) into that ashram and tell her that she should never be normal!!!

Can ye blve that? Imagine yerself in the kids position. You grow up not knowing truly why you are not staying with your mom or dad but with some fat-lumps!! Also not knowing why you have to keep your head shaved and wear only white saari!! And, when you attain puberty and all those sensual feelings arise, you realize that you are never too enjoy those aspects of life!! And this is all bcoz yer father & mother wanted to get to married to some fucking fool for Rs 20/- This is fucking insane!!

And also these widows are used as prostitutes!! And the head of the ashram herself lends these kids/girls. I mean, thats very sad. The way its portrayed is that these widows are considered as low, cheap & dirty in the caste-dominant society. In fact, some fucking zamindar goes around screwing 9yr old kids!!!! I cant believe it. I mean, I was so agitated when I saw this little Chuiya being sent to a Zamindar as a prostitute. And the little kid did not even know that. When I see a little kid, I feel like hugging her & showering with kisses for all her innocence and not otherwise. I cannot think of sex with her. Bastards! The zamindars of yore are cheap sex maniac and would go around screwing even if you tie a saree around a tree. Cheapos!

I was so overwhelmed by this movie that If I had a time-machine @ my disposal, I would have gone back & time & killed all of them...

Its time India wakes up and allows screening of such wonderful eye-openers. These Politicians are indeed killing India & its future... Why this movie was not allowed to be shot in India? It has immense relevance and societal importance. Similar was the case for the other great moview Parzania. Read here and here for better reviews of Parzania.

anyways, getting back to the movie. This is a wonderful movie, which does not have any skin-show or no nothing that can be rated as A. But a clear good story line with great acting and fantastic direction. The movie moves mountains within you.... A great great watch!! Dont miss it even for zillion dollars!

For Other comments/reviews pls check into these:
1. blogcrics.org
2. stylusmagazine.com
3. boston.com
4. apunkachoice

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Blood Diamond

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chax: Dont ever think about reading a new movies story in moi blog. I will never spoil even with a spoiler warning. :)

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In this stupid place where I live the number of English movies that run in theatres are, at its best, 2!!! So, when I heard this movie was current on screens, I rushed. Me and Moi cousin went for this movie and we were awestruck. This is a movie one should never miss.


I dont like to give away the story of any movie I watch. But this movie its gonna be difficult but I will try not to give away the main stuff; @least not the climax!! :-) So I have compensated with pix of the movie. I am so awe struck with this movie, I could not contain my excitement since last night. Also I have been ever since waiting to get hold of my comp to pen down on my blog.

The plot is set in 1990 under the cloud of chaos & rebel war @ Sierra Leone. Well, as the name of the title says, this movie is all about....

...the infamous conflit Diamonds. This movie touches you with a gripping screen play. The entire movie is about the struggle Africans face because of the craze for this stone - Diamond. Once we are through with the movie, you feel a tinge of pain when-ever you come across a Diamond. This movie has been taken so beautifully that you wonder what are getting ourselves into. Our craze for such exotic stone is causing zillions of lives.

The movie's protagonist is difficult to identify. Its not one but two. Both Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou. Each have out performed each other. Just like a race, where each performer tries more to compete & out-perform with each other than simply winning the race; here too, these two fellas have given such a magnificient performance. I wonder why they did not earn the oscar. These guys did a great great job. You get so involved with their natural acting.

Leonardo DiCaprio has so out-grown his boy-image, which he acquired during his early years esp in Titanic. Movie after movie & year after year, his performance shows the maturity & extreme character. When I look back at the movies I have enjoyed the most, quite a few of those flicks are Leonardo's!!! Is that suprising? I did for me. Think about it - Departed, Aviator, Titanic, Catch Me If You Can and now, Blood Diamond!!! Boy! Boy! What a performer he is?

But note that here is another actor, who does not get over-shadowed by his bigger co-stars. He steals his share with all aplomb and grace. He showed that he knows what he does and his eyes spoke more than any body. And full marks to his body language. He might be seen running behind Leonardo but if you notice, he is not far behind and he is catching up with him! Yep, I am talking about Djimon Hounsou.

Djimon Hounsou has rendered a sterling performance. Never heard this name till now. But when I searched his name, I realized that I have seen a few of his movies. I liked him in Gladiator. And he is there in Eragon, which is due to be released in India. Will catch up with this movie soon as it is realized @least to watch this fella's performance. Pretty impressive. In fact, there are other older movies I missed like Rising Sun, Constantine, Biker Boyz.

Ok, dont ask me why she is there; but she is & we have to accept. I am refering to Jennifer Connelly. She still looks pretty though her age is catching up with her looks. Her smile is still radiant. And her physiche is sooooooo picture perfect. Damn! How does she maintain such a hot hour-glass structure without looking tooo thin!! She comes for few more scenes and captivates us with her smile. May be, she is in the movie just to take the mind of all the killings. No doubt she gets in a fresh air to the other wise bloody scenes & quite literally too.

Finally, for the director - Edward Zwick. What a direction! You have to watch this movie to know the difference between a Hollywood flick against our own Bollywood flops! There is never one time in the movie when you think that this scene is unwanted. Or this scene is unnecessary. Or what is he trying to tell us? Every scene is gripping. Edge of the seat. He has maintained the thrill & kept the adrenal pumping till the last scene. Very precise & clear no-nonsense direction.

On a whole this a wonderful movie to watch, dont miss it.

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Eklavya - A Majestic Beautiful No-Nothing

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pv: I know. I know. I am just playing it safe & praying. And thanks dude for the financial help offer. Can ye plz transfer $55,000 to my a/c! ;-)

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The day was boring, as in nothing much was happening. Also I had not-a-so-good-time with the ICICI bank. As they money is still @ large. I was just riding by Hyd Central and I decided to watch a movie. I just went in and bought a ticket.


I went and saw this movie. I have my own opinions on it. Read further for my opine.

If you want a short one, just note that if you are not a creative-freak KEEP OFF FROM THE MOVIE SCREEN

The movie starts with a usual period film start. A commentary from the legendary voice in the industry - Big B's. Damn good voice. Then the screen is filled with a beautiful face of a dying Sharmila Tagore and a weird looking Boman Irani. They are accompained by a beautiful Raima Sen. Sharmila passes away then in next few scenes the sexy hulk Saif is flown in (literraly); followed by the super sexy Vidya Balan.

Until now every body in the audience is smiling for they saw somebody whom they wanted to see. The oldies saw AB & Sharmila, the middle aged saw Boman Irani and youth Vidya, Saif & Raima....

And thats the last time ye will see them smiling... For from now-onwards the audience (which includes ye) is taken an amazing ride filled with great sets + background scores. The directorial touch is seen in every scene. Every scene takes you by a awe. The background score is superb. There is only one song and its fabulous too. But, what strikes you the most is the confusion.

It looks like the director is confused in telling you what he wanted to. Frankly, when you step out of the hall, ye are left thinking what in heavens' did he try to convey? The acting is superb, so you cannot blame on the actors. So is the dialogues. The background score has done its job in giving you the feel of the emotion but then something is definitely missing. Slowly it dawns on you that there was simply no story what so ever.

PROs -
      Star Cast: Impressive
      Acting: Quite Good
      Cinematography: Excellent
      Background Scores: Simply Superb
      Sets: Mind Boggling
      Per Scene direction: Fabulous
      Directorial Touch: Scene-after-Scene

CONs -
      Cohesion b/w scenes: Not bad
      Story line: Hmmm... gotta look for one
      Screen Play: For this story line its great.

Is it a casual watch?
      Nope! If you want to watch movie only for fun, then plz keep off this movie. You will left with a sad feeling. As there is nothing commercial about this movie other than the cast.

Then who can watch this?
      Fellas who are interesting in creative cinema! This movie is full of creativity. Starting from the story till the climax, from the music to sets, also the cinematography is superb. Worth watching for a creativity freak. Its a must for a DFT students but not for story writers :-)

Will you go again?
      Yes. Provided I have a good company who can appreciate the hard-work and behind-the-scene works. I was once involved in a short movie-making for my class & I know the stuff that goes behind. So when you see this movie you can feel the work & concentration of the behind-sceners...

In Short, for commercial public its is a
Eklavya - A Majestic Beautiful No-Nothing
but for DFTs & creative-freaks its
Eklavya - A Majestic Beautiful Creative Bundle
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6 movies in 4 Days!!!

I have lots to write but thought would pen them in one post. No point in splitting bcoz all of them are of similar type. All of them concerns the various movies I have seen. :-)

After a pathetic 3 weeks of house-hunt, I felt I needed a break. A serious break, I meant. But how will I if I have not yet completed what I had started? I mean, my house-hunt!! Fortunately, my college senior gave me the good news of his re-location to my current city - Hyd. Boy, what joy! I no more need stay all alone! :-) **i hate living alone** Since he is not sure of the exact locality where his office would be, we cannot search the house in advance until he arrives, which was @least an week away!! This mean, FREEDOM!!! Now I am free of house-hunting for few days until my friend lands here.

So, without wasting my time. I plunged upon this opportunity & watched like **wait lemme count** 6 movies :-) viz,
1. Apna Sapna Money Money (Hindi)
2. The Departed (English)
3. Snakes on a plane (English)
4. The Great Train Robbery (English)
5. Crash (English)
6. Being Cyrus (English/Hindi)

Wanna know my opinion on these? :-) Here we go...


1. APNA SAPNA MONEY MONEY: Its hilarious movie but depends on how quickly does your humour-bone gets tickled (or not). The cast is an impressive list of upcoming-actors. Ritiesh Deshmukh, Celina Jaitley, Riya Sen, Shreyas Talpade, Koena Mitra and also some veterans like Jackie Shroff, Suniel Shetty. The story as such isnt that great. A normal story with a guy in love with another gal & his friend , a petty-thief, helps him out. A age-old story. But the only difference is that the entire set of protoganist(s) are behind money. Every body needs money. The acting of Ritiesh Deshmukh has been a revelation. He was pathetic in his early films & has not improved a lot. Pretty decent. His acting prowess is shown completely in this movie, esp his appearance as a lady. :-) Hilarious. He has acted very well. For a new comer, Koena Mitra has proved to be good. And, as always, Shreyas Talpade is awesome. A movie worth watching esp if you get quickly tickled on your humour-bone. Yeah, I should not miss it. The music is very good. Esp the title song. Pritam is giving lots of very good scores. And skin-show was @ its peak. Boy! Boy! Koena Mitra & Celina Jaitely will make any saint lose his saint-hood.

2. THE DEPARTED: An awesome movie. The Crux of the movie is how the police infiltrates the criminal gangs & the criminals infiltrate the cop ranks. And the life of these infiltrators! The movie is excellently directed by Martin Scorsese. The direction is such that you know and yet you don't know. He has nicely played with the screen-play to get a high thrill quotient. Guess will try & see his other movies. The star cast is very impressive. Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen. What acting. Phew! Jack Nicholson is so sexy in this movie. He over powers the charm of both Leonardo & Matt, who themselves are very masculine & good-looking. Phew! I am going crazy on Jack! He has a smooth presence on screen. The way he walks in or render his lines with such ease, he makes you wonder if he is portraying his real-life character. A movie worth watching for both direction & Jack.

3. SNAKES ON A PLANE: Another fantastic movie. Though a freaking frightening movie yet its worth the penny. At the end of the movie, I am sure you will freak out every time you see a snake. What a direction by David R. Ellis. He freaks you out. WEAK-HEARTED PPL PLZ KEEP OFF THIS MOVIE. The entire movie is about how thousands of very poisonous snakes suddenly appears on-board a 747. Boy, it was very very frightening. The entire movie is how the crew & the passengers almost lose out to the snakes and finally somehow manage to reach alive albeit only a handful. The start cast is again an impressive one with Sameul L Jackson, Julianna Margulies, Nathan Phillips, Rachel Blanchard, Flex Alexander. Sameul Jackson is awesome. What screen presence and the force with which his acts is awesome. He over-powers everyone. Julianna is hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot. :-) Definitely gonna watch her other (if any, interesting) movies. ;-) Check this site

4. THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY: Do I need to even comment on this? What a classic it is. And to my surprise, it is directed by my fav author Michael Crichton. Never knew he was an director too. :-) What a revelation. I love this. And the cast again contains my fav actor Sean Connery among with others like Donald Sutherland, Lesley-Anne Down. This is a movie which should go into your collection. I am sure to buy this DVD once I buy myself a DVD-player :-) I dont even have the rights to comment on the acting prowess & capability of Sean Connery or Micheal Crichton. Just watch it & you will not regret it. And did i say its a collectors' item? Hope so. If you like own certain DVDs & Books then both the book & the movie is awesome. I have read the book too. Its worth the penny.

5. CRASH: This is an interesting movie with an interesting concept. The movie is directed by Paul Haggis. The story concept was a bit confusing to me until i realized that there is not much of story in it! The movie is all about how few disconnected people bump into each other & change the course of each-others lives. In short, how the lives of disconnected people "crash" into each other. **got the idea behind the name of the movie?? The movie has so many in their cast that I did not even recognize lot of them. I am listing only the few whom i could recognize. The cast is filled with Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser. A good movie. A great time-pass. But not my collectors' item.

6. BEING CYRUS: If you dont get confused @ the begining. And till the last few scenes plz call me. I will bow-down to your abstract thinking. This movie, directed by Homi Adajania. This is a dark (apparently) comedic venture by this debutant director. When the movie ended I enjoyed it. It was a good movie. But till the movie ends you will frustrated on whats happening. The best part of the movie is Saif Ali Khan. Boy! Boy! He fits into any role, I suppose. Imagine his previous movie to this was Salaam Namaste, which was full comedy-romantic role and the very next movie a dark-psychotic role. Mark of a great actor. This movie cast is also very impressive with Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia, Boman Irani, Simone Singh, Manoj Pahwa. Its a nice movie. If you like seeing movie beyond whats screened then you will not regret watching this movie.

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Ghost Busters (1984)

I visited my friend last night & we both watched this movie on Sony-pix. Boy, we were not able to stop laughing. Every scene was interesting & comical. Every dialogue is so situational & the timing was awesome. So i decided to blog about it

3 scientist, Peter Venkman(Bill Murray), Ray Stantz(Dan Aykroyd), and Egon Spengler(Harold Ramis),gets their grant @ Columbia University revoked (or expired, not sure). They suddenly find themselves job-less. They decide to fight against the world & set up their own business. The business of Ghostbusting - trapping pesky ghosts! They become extremly successful after a dull initial period. And, soon they are a celeb and are also joined by Winston Zeddmore(Ernie Hudson), who is looking for a job with good pay. The story develops further on how famous they become & towards the end of the movie, how they save the entire New York from ghosts. Thats it!! Thats all the story is!! :-)

But the movie has got more to it than this. :-) Read on...

If you read the story, you would wonder - STORY?? WHERE?? Might even come as a silly one. But, you gotta watch the movie. The screen play is good and the dialogues are fab. Esp the acting & dialogue delivery of Dr. Peter Venkman. Boy. Boy. Bill Murray has excelled. He has an amazing attitude & has a very cool demeanour. Fab. His acting prowess has overpowered almost every other actor on screen. His flirtatious moves toward his client Dana Barrett(Sigourney Weaver) is one to be admired. The movie overall is a very good experience. You would not regret watchin it. Every scene is well knitted with the dialogue as funny as it can be. A movie worth spending time on.


As always, I did not want to be a spoiler so not giving the full story. But, unable to resist my tempation, here are some of the qoutable qoutes (actually dialogues but i like to quote) from the 1984 classic.

Quotable Quotes
**For benefit of those who do understand subtle jokes, i shal highlight them. :-)**
1. Winston Zeddemore: Ray. If someone asks if you are a god, you say, "yes!"

2. Dr. Peter Venkman: [surrounded by excited reporters during the montate sequence, which shows the Ghostbusters as a sudden popular culture craze] Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, no job is too big, no fee is too big!

3. Dr. Peter Venkman: I don't have to take this abuse from you, I've got hundreds of people dying to abuse me.

4. Dr Ray Stantz: Where do these stairs go?
Dr. Peter Venkman: They go up.

5. Dana Barrett: That's the bedroom, but nothing ever happened in there.
Dr. Peter Venkman: What a crime.

6. Dana Barrett: [possessed by Zuul] Do you want this body?
Dr. Peter Venkman: Is this a trick question?

7. [Dana is possessed]
Dr. Peter Venkman: I make it a rule never to get involved with possessed people.
[Dana starts passionately making out with him]
Dr. Peter Venkman: Actually, it's more of a guideline than a rule...

8. Dana Barrett: [as the gate keeper] I want you inside me.
Dr. Peter Venkman: [referring to the voice alternating between human and demon] It sounds like you've got at least two or three people in there already.

9. Dr. Peter Venkman: Yes sir, it's true. This man is some kind of rodent, I don't know which.

Interesting facts
1. Before the release of Home Alone (1990), this was the highest-grossing comedy of all time.
2. Voted number 28 in channel 4's (UK) "Greatest Family Films".
3. Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 6 nominations (imdb)
4. It was followed by a sequel, Ghostbusters II (1989), and two animated television series, The Real Ghostbusters (later Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters) and Extreme Ghostbusters.
5. Mozilla's user interface language, XUL, and its JavaScript debugger, Venkman, are named after Ghostbusters characters.

Courtesy: imdb


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