No Man's Land (2001)

Director : Danis Tanovic.
Genere : Drama / Comedy.
Cast : Branko Djuric, Rene Bitorajac, Filip Sovagovic.
Rating : Master piece
How well do you know your enemy? Is he something really different like another species or an alien? Is he someone just like you or your brother? Can anybody give the actual reason or the one who is responsible? Is it really possible to love your enemy? “No Man's Land” is all about these questions and more.

Two enemy soldiers one a Serb and the other a Bosnian happens to be caught in a trench that lies between their line, the no man’s land, along with another wounded Bosnian soldiers lying on a bouncing mine. They are in the middle of a war and they knew they can’t be friends. They have to help each other for their escape. Owing to a television report UN comes in to the scenario for helping them out. But is it possible for two enemy soldiers to behave just like two men who are in need of help, could someone be literally neutral in the phase of a war or will they have their own reasons.

Danis Tanovic ‘s superb script and direction balances humor, emotion, drama, and some insights without loosing the originality. The cinematography and background music are combined wonderfully to create some powerful images that will last in your memory for days. “No Man's Land” is not a war movie but it is all about war.

The Prestige (2006)

Director : Christopher Nolan.
Genere : Drama / Mystery.
Cast : Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson.
Rating : Must Watch
Magic tricks consists of three parts “The Pledge”, “The Turn” and “The Prestige”. This movie is about two rival magicians who try to become the greatest magicians. They try to sabotage each other’s “Prestige” to upstage the other. But when Borden comes up with his ultimate trick “The Transported Man”, Angiers was dumbfounded and becomes obsessed to find the secret behind the trick.

The trick is told when the trick is sold. The movie is a thrilling race between the two to expose the “Prestige” of each other’s ultimate trick. The movie explores through the world of magic and magicians. An ultimate sacrifice is necessary to perform the ultimate trick.

Christopher Nolans’s dramatic story telling itself makes Prestige more magical. A movie is much like a magic performance; both are meant to make belief. Like magic a movie can also be divided into three parts, The introduction, The cause and The climax. Magic can never be explained but to be experienced and so is the movie.

Philadelphia (1993)

Director : Jonathan Demme.
Genere : Drama.
Cast : Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Jason Robards.
Rating : Classic
“Philadelphia” is all about AIDS and the societies prejudice towards AIDS victims. It’s a court room drama about a homosexual AIDS victim (Tom Hanks), and his lawyer, a homophobic family man (Denzel Washington), against Hanks’s former employers who fires him after discovering his illness. The movie mostly revolves round the main subject AIDS and thus lightening the gay factor between Tom Hanks and his partner Antonio Banderas.

Joe Miller, the character played by Washington can be said as a mere representation of the whole society in general. As the movie progresses, along with Joe, our minds are also get transformed and fills with compassion. The movie is plain and simple but made extraordinary by brilliant performances and a wonderful script. The director Jonathan Demme succeeds in keeping the emotional tension throughout the movie to gain a better reach.

Black & White (2008)

Director : Subhash Ghai.
Genere : Drama / Thriller.
Cast : Anil Kapoor, Anurag Sinha, Shefali Shetty.
Rating : Regular
“Black & White” is a fine movie from Subhash Ghai, Leaving his typical style of mere entertainment, Ghai portraits life in Delhi in the face of terrorism. The movie explores through the mind of a suicide bomber and his transformation. The story may be a bit usual but said sincerely. The real life situations and characters should make Ghai proud. The lead character played by new comer Anurag Sinha, is a terrorist trained in Afghanistan to cause trouble in Delhi. He comes to Delhi disguised as a victim of Gujarat riot and mingles with the local. He happens to meet many good hearted people and began to get the actual political value of jihad than its religious value.
The hero manages to enter the V.I.P. gallery during Independence Day but can’t complete his mission. He was reformed by the love and affection of his neighborhood. Anil Kapoor as Prof. Rajan Mathur and Shefali Shetty as Roma Mathur, his wife and human right activist in Delhi, show maturity in their acting. The film ends with a poem by Habib Tanvir ‘Yeh Hindustan Hai’. Although one can say the climax is the least worked part in the film, “Black & White” is a sincire attempt to showcase some of the common views on terrorism.