Death Note (2006)

Desu nôto (2006)

Director : Shusuke Kaneko.
Genere : Adventure / Crime / Mystery.
Cast : Tatsuya Fujiwara, Ken'ichi Matsuyama, Asaka Seto.
Rating : Regular

Based on a popular Manga series, Japanese animated comic book, Death Note is a Live action thriller movie characterizing two exceptionally intelligent minds, namely L and Light. Light got possession of a book from the other world, the death-note, which is capable of killing people by writing their name on it. He began to use it for killing criminals with a dream of creating a crime free world. Owing to the increased rate of death the government was forced to start an investigation. L, a famous detective comes to help out. And the real battle begins.
Death Note altogether gives the feel of a graphic book, a bold experiment in direction by Shusuke Kaneko. With its vivid colors and cinematography the movie looks more like a peeled out page from a graphic novel. The script is self contained and has almost all ingredients to entertain a general audience. The movie manages to maintain a psychological tempo throughout and finishes with a suspenseful twist. Death Note is not merely a thriller; it questions the authority of power and shows how power manipulates by its own. Also recommends its sequel “Death Note: The Last Name”.

Dasavatharam (2008)

Director : K.S. Ravikumar.
Genere : Drama / Sci-Fi.
Cast : Kamal Hassan, Asin, Mallika Sherawat.
Rating : Regular
Dasavatharam is a term from Hindu mythology for describing the ten principal Avatars of Lord Vishnu. In this film actor Kamal Hassan has done 9+1 character including the hero and the villain. Almost all important characters in this film are portrayed by him with the help of makeup and technology. The movie took parts in two different chronologies. The main story line is set in a recent past where he plays his 9 characters and a bonus track which is set in the early 12th century for his +1 character.
The main story line is based on a biological weapon that gets loose into public and happens to reach India. The hero and the villain chaises to get hold of it, meeting other characters all played by the same actor, on their quest and ends up in 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami which neutralizes the virus and thus saving the earth from a mass devastation.
This is probably the first time an actor is handling 9+1 character for a single movie. All 9+1 characters follow different slang and body language apart from their physical appearances. Despite the actors effort all other departments fails to keep up to the mark. Although the cinematography and CG are miserable, and in some places the script is so much manipulated, Dasavatharam can be said as a modest experimentation from an ambitious actor.

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.

The Truman Show (1998)

Director : Peter Weir.
Genere : Drama / Sci-Fi.
Cast : Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Ed Harris.
Rating : Regular
What if when one day, you realize that your entire life was cast for a reality show? Every thing you lived on believing to be true including your true friend from the childhood turns out as a lie someone is building for a TV show. The Truman Show is a knock towards the reality shows and it’s addictively.

A television mastermind decides to do the impossible, to create a world of his own, to create a real real-life character for his ultimate reality channel 24x7 globally. Truman was born and grown into a world of pre-scripted reality show. Every thing including his mother, father, friends, wife etc but himself is part of the system, hired to run the show.

But no system can hold a man entertained for so long. Later backed up by his bored routine life he feels the inner quest to break free and explore. May be it is an underlined instinct within all of us. But when he tries for that the show began to loose its balance, and they are forced to play God. He began to feel the resistance and limitations. The rest is like a man’s fight against fate to reach destiny.

The Truman Show is a brilliant; in depth subject handled with almost care. Despite from the incredible nature of such a hard subject, the director and the writer tried their best to make us believe and to keep it real. They have lightened the subject with a humor face to ensure the reach ability to the audience. Jim Carry as usual handled the comedy so well to melt down the hardness to believe.