Pather Panchali

With all these years of fanatical movie watching, it is a shame that I never caught up with Pather Panchali and the Appu Trilogy. Well...I finally caught up with PP on this dreary Sunday evening.

This is seriously for the discerning viewer but for some strange reason, I would recommend that in case he or she wants to view Pather Panchali, it may be a good idea to first watch the Korean Classic Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring by Kim Ki Duk. 

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring is a movie of extraordinary beauty and is a motion picture but the viewer goes through the spectacle as if it is seamlessly bounded by Still Photographs. I feel that this could enhance the appreciation of PP.

Once you digest the magic of the Korean master and if you have the patience to watch PP, the viewer will be rewarded with innumerable 'That is what we watch cinema' for moments.

The superlative black and white photography, with the most pleasant and unobtrusive music by Pandit Ravi Shankar freaking out combined with terrific re-recording takes your breath away. All the characters are well etched, the dialogues are optimal, the screenplay perfect and the casting, especially of the old lady with sunken eyes, the hunch, the receding hairline, the absence of any teeth and yet with a glint of gleam in her eyes, is just mind-boggling. 

Only for a very serious cinema viewer, others may please give this a miss.

When Pi converges to zero.

The last Ang Lee film that I had watched was Lust and Caution, where Lee masterfully steered the movie to an poignant yet explosive climax etching it in your memory forever.

Well Lee does a somersault here, starting of like a literary classic with each frame beautifully embellished, slowly but steadily the story meanders to a eminently forgettable climax. Yet another classic case of inability to translate a literary writing to an exciting screenplay.

It is difficult not to see parallel between Life of Pi and Castaway. When Wilson, the ball, in Castaway drifts away from Tom Hanks you had a lump in your throat, but when Richard Parker, the Tiger, In Pi walking away, there is only relief that your nearing the end of the movie.

Thanks to Lee, though for a visual treat, whether it is the magnificent ocean which is infinitely sprawling in the day, resplendent in the night, furious during the storm, bountiful when hungry, the quaint little church in Munnar,  the magical Puducherry and specifically for the shot of the flotilla on the temple tank with diyas lit all over, the camera zooming on the Lord Vishnu and then drifting up above into the star lit sky metaphorically depicting cosmic existence. Wow!!

Thuppaki, Muted Shots.

When Murugadoss directs, there are definite expectations. There are Navarasas but whatever be the genre, it seems to be Indian Cinema's curse is to have a love story as an undercurrent. 

Four chunks of action blocks interspersed with Love and sentimentality served in Indian Cinema' style, that is Thuppaki for you. 

In tune with the big releases in recent times, Mugamoodi. Thandavam and Mattran, the director sets it up nicely till the interval and fails to step up the accelerator in the second half.

The opening credits with the stills from Mumbai Skyline needs special mention. Very Creative.

Vijay punches away without his punchlines. All Vijay needs is some great writing and you have the screen writer set it up for him with clinical execution of the plan of eliminating the twelve terrorists.

When you have the brains to conceive of such great sequences, one wonders mindless violence in a couple of action blocks in the later half.

By setting up the story in Mumbai and including characters from all parts of the country, the director, successfully transcends the regional boundaries and makes you feel that you are watching the film as an Indian and not as a Tamilian. 

Only hope directors like Murgadoss treat a subject by the merit of the subject and not by the constraints of the local market. The market have become global!!!

Skyfall

When you have Sam Mendes don the director's cap, your expectations are Sky High!!! And when Javier Bardem is cast as the villain, the expectations become higher than Sky!!! And when the movie opens to great reviews, the expectation are hurtled to the nearest planet!!! And when the movie opens to a Spectacular begining with an Un Bond Like exit for James down the cascading waterfalls, well your expectations soar even further. With the beautifully shot Shanghai sequence in the night, the Shangai skyline and stunt choreography dazzle and will be etched in your memory for a long time,  here is where the fall starts and what a free fall it is!!!! While Bond has inspired the Bourne Franchise, the MI franchise and even the making of the First Sherlock Holmes(have not seen the second part) have been inspired by Bond. I thought Bond inspired people to travel around the world and took his viewers along with them for a grand treat with some rollicking action. With Sam Mendes one would expected the action to be intertwined with definite cerebral stimulations . Alas!!! there is not an iota of it!!! Action, there is, in a stuttered fashion and the motives of the villain cliched!!! For me the greatest disappointment probably is the casting of Bardem. Bardem was at his menacing best as a beast in NO country for Old Men. One does not understand the compulsion for him to emulate 'Jokeresque' persona.