A Good Year - a good one!

Country-side, french, vineyards, green, love and more - that was 'A Good Year' for me - fun, delightful and super pleasing :)

I decided to watch this when a friend forced me to watch the first scene of the movie last week and at the end of it, I was smiling and smiling and smiling. Its really the story of Max, an I-care-a-damn-about-ethics-as-long-as-I-make-money kinda stock trader from London who travels to France to sell off his inheritance from his dead Uncle Henry. What follows is interesting drama - connection with country life, brush with the past, falling in love and basically, 'living' really.

The setting is stupendous - French music, awesome sets, francaise (yey!!) including the accent (ac-saun :)), gripping background score, the acting super real - Russel Crowe, Albert Finney!!

For me, the movie was about the world outside of 'work', a world that I feel is the only real - where you see, touch and feel the fine lines of life....and yes, all that french :). I particularly loved the climax oozing with romance, and I quote,what in my mind is, the line of the movie:
"Pardonne mes lèvres. Elles trouvent la joie dans les endrois les plus inhabituels"
....like us and life - finding pleasure in unusual places, sometimes unknown, sometimes without wanting to know:

Far
like open spaces in the whites of the eye balls
often intercepted by
blinks
of the protecting eyelids
that seem beautiful with eyes closed,

my mind yearns for bad eye sight,
in my irrational, distance-less, short-sighted
vision
or the lack of it! :)

PS - Its raining here as I write this...tres bien!

Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara!

Refreshing! I watched this movie today and came out feeling very pleasant, rejuvinated and merry.

There's nothing significant about the plot per se; its jus constantly driving in the point that the title subsumes - Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara....so there are the 3 protagonists Hrithik Roshan (nice!), Abhay Deol (nicer!) and Farhan Akhtar (nicest and one of my fav stars :)) who set out for a holiday in Spain to face their fears and inhibitions.

So the film has quite a bit of good humour and the music is superlative keeping the mood and the energy at appropriate levels. The pace is not perfect and kinda gets loose at times but the constant dose of poetic commentary kept me involved throughout....so i've no complaints!

Farhan Akhtar is brilliant; he's witty, honest and extremely cute. Hrithik is so-so, I couldnt connect much with him. But my pick would be Abhay Deol; maybe I did not expect this much from him....the guy's character of this peeved yet composed, funny yet bullied high society gentleman was sooo real and well executed....:)

I'll sign off leaving you with these lines that I found profound:

Dil, tu aakhir kyu rota hai,
Duniya mey yuhi hota hai

(Whistle Whistle!!! :))

Dor

- Is a very pleasant journey of two women who seek justice. The story is heart wrenching and strength inducing together.

- I'm a Nagesh Kukunoor fan from Hyderabad Blues and have loved the way he's evolved through 3 Deewarein and Iqbal ...and Dor has jus reinforced this liking!

- Wanna leave you with these lines from the movie:

Yeh hosla, kaise jhuke,
Yeh aarzoo, kaise ruke,
Manzil mushkil tho kya,
Dhundla saahil tho kya,
Tanha yeh dil toh kya!!!

(How can u allow your resolve to budge,
How can you ask your desires to vanish,
So wot if the goal is hard to achieve,
So wot if things look hazy,
and so wot if your heart's lonely)

PS - the translation's not half as effective as the words in hindi :)

Mona Lisa Smile!!!

Wonderful movie....brought a smile to my face :)
Julia Roberts - Take a bow!

127 Hours

What is it about goriness and my aversion to it...
I did not like "127 Hours"!!!

The Sixth Sense

When they say that a masterpiece is one that envisages new meanings at different points in time, I always thought of it as a misnomer. Coz its not wot u see that has new meaning....its just that you, as a changed person tend to attach new "thinking"to it.

One of the things that "The Sixth Sense" did to me when I watched it the second time was that it proved that a work of art has a meaning that changes...with or without you.

Subtlety, simplicity, silence, steadiness and style with substance are what characterize the movie. Bruce Willis proves why he is considered so formidable. But the star of the show is the young kid "Cole" who is effortlessly real and endearing. Anger, frustration, fear, helplessness are emotions that the director personifies through Cole's facial expressions and body language. Shyamalan's concept blends into the extraordinarily engaging background score which is intercepted by well scripted dialogues.

The Sixth Sense came as a breath of fresh air when I was desperately looking for some in life. I watched it to break away from all the clutter in my head since it was a different theme. The movie did more than that. It was refreshing, revitalizing and an absolute treat for my sore, rusted brain.

Scene of the movie -
Cole - I'll tell you my secret
Malcolm - (nods)
Cole - I see dead people
Malcolm - In your dreams?
Cole - No
Malcolm - How often do you see them?
Cole - A.L.L T.H.E T.I.M.E
They're everywhere...walking around....
They dont know they're dead!!

The last line made more sense to me than it did earlier.....Strongly Recommend....Watch it!

Blood Diamond - A review!

I watched the 2006 movie "Blood Diamond" last night and it left me unsettled and moved, to say the least.
Set in Africa, the movie per say, portrays the use of "conflict" diamonds to fund civil wars and how innocent communities are devastated in brutal killings and kidnappings. The film presents Leonardo Di Caprio (Danny Archer) as a trader of diamonds for arms and Djimon Hounsou (Solomon Vandy) as a fisherman whose son is captured by the RUF (Revolutionary United Front ) to be trained as a rebel. The latter's quest to get his family back and how Danny Archer helps him forms the crux of the film's plot.
The movie is brilliantly shot. The cinematography is very real and beautifully done. The background score is engaging and blends well with the storyline. The direction (by Edward Zwick ) is taut and more or less manages to give the film a decent pace.
But the highlight of the film has got to be its performances. Leonardo Di Caprio delivers a stellar performance; the measure of grief, helplessness, practicality, aggression, use of language and in some places a certain flamboyance is perfect, to say the least. The twitching of his brows is something that I have to mention coz, from where I see, it does most of the talking for him. Djimon Hounsou is superlative; his expressions are earnest and dialogue delivery savaging; the show of frustration, agony in the scene where he meets his wife and children at a refugee camp is brilliant. Jennifer Connelly, who I thought was great in A Beautiful Mind, stars as an American journalist and delivers a decent performance.
For me, the movie is a sincere attempt at getting a point across. A must watch!
My fav dialogue: Danny Archer - "I wondered if God would ever forgive us for what we've done to each other. But then I realised that God has left this place long time back"!