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.

A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Director : Ron Howard.
Genere : Biography / Drama.
Cast : Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris.
Rating : Classic

Solving an equation often involves many manipulations like assumption, derivations, integration, neglection, formulation etc. “A Beautiful Mind” is a well formulated, sure/safe shot, semi-fictional tale about a genius mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr, who won the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics, whose brilliance was in a constant battle with schizophrenia. His mind wont satisfies anything less for an ordinary but for an original idea.

The story starts with Russell Crowe as John Nash at Princeton in pursuit of an original idea to make his name in History. It’s here where he develops his work on game theory which contradicts exiting theories. Soon he began to work at MIT which involves confidential code breaking for the Government. There he happens to meet a beautiful and brilliant student Alicia, played by Jennifer Connelly, whom he latter marries. Soon their life becomes a struggle and John gets diagnosed with schizophrenia.

The movie is a thin line between an extraordinary mind and a self-destructive mental disease, and his struggle to overcome it with the help of his wife. It’s a conflict between mind and heart, a story about true love and passion. Director Ron Howard has utilized Akiva Goldsman to maximum for creating a highly contrasting and unpredictable character for Russell Crowe, which Crowe exploited very well and delivers a fantastic performance which makes us feel John Nash had just lived before our eyes. Especially notable is Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris as supporting characters who did their finest. The film ends with John Nash getting standing ovation at the cinematic version of the Nobel Prize ceremony, it is not only John Nash but also all the crew members of this movie who deserve a standing ovation.

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.

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.

My Sassy Girl (2001)

Yopgijeogin geunyeo (2001)

Director : Jae-young Kwak.
Genere : Comedy / Drama / Romance .
Cast : Tae-hyun Cha, Gianna Jun.
Rating : Classic

My Sassy Girl is also known as the titanic of the East, it is a romantic story between an aimless college kid and an enigmatic Sassy girl. This can be said as a romantic adventure movie. They meet in a subway station in a most embarrassing situation. Each time they meet our hero get more and more embarrassed. But he finds himself drawn to her and hopes that he could somehow heal her desperate inner sorrow.

The girl always loves to boss and humiliate the hero. She tries many things, but slowly a romance builds up between them. But she was not sure about the relationship, so they decides to write about their feelings and put it in a time capsule(HEROIN is a strong believer of time travel) bury it near a tree and read it after two years. But it took three years for the girl to come back for the capsule. The movie beautifully transforms from comedy to an emotional one in the second half.

This Korean flick is packed with an unusual energy and freshness which will remain in you for days. It says that the film is made based on an original story. Its simple, realistic storyline mixed with right proposition of comedy, romance and fantasy along with awesome background music makes it one of the best Romantic movies made. If you want to watch a good love story with your girl friend for the first time then, “My Sassy Girl” will make a wonderful choice.

Getting Home (2007)

Luo ye gui gen (2007)

Director : Yang Zhang.
Genere : Comedy / Road Movie .
Cast : Benshan Zhao, Qiwen Hong.
Rating : Master piece
Getting Home is a movie with a light touch of nostalgia. The whole movie is a road travel exploring deep into the life of common people in modern China. Although the movie is made to be look like a comedy from the surface, it’s packed with inner layers of human virtues and bits of philosophy. Through out the travel the movie explores all kind of people living on different levels of Chinese society.

The movie is about an honest and innocent poor worker who tries carrying his dead friend home, so that it can be cremated traditionally. On his way he encounters different types of people and problems. He explores china by his own, mostly by foot, meeting people of all age and class, a kindhearted thief, a teenager in pursuit of his dreams, a loving mother, a couple who lives away from society, an old man who celebrate his funeral before death, a girl who lies in the edge of society, a kind police man etc. Through all this, our hero experiences the beauty and dark side of human nature.

This is undoubtedly one of the best films made in China. It’s packed with beautiful visuals, music and brilliant acting that, only the celluloid can produce. Yang Zhang successfully portrays the common people and geography of china including the “Three Gorgeous” from a simple script. It can be considered as a modern day classic and a must watch.

Bridge to Terabithia (2007)

Director : Gabor Csupo.
Genere : Adventure / Drama / Family .
Cast : Josh Hutcherson, AnnaSophia Robb, Zooey Deschanel.
Rating : Classic

A warning for those who thinks all stories for children, although I disagree that this movie is just for children, should revolve round the good vs. evil thing and at the climax the evil has to be defeated. This is not a movie about such things. Also this movie doesn’t have wonderlands powered with special effects. In this movie the only evil that the character may feel as evil, in the end, is Ms. Edmunds green eyes. Bridge to Terabithia is a beautiful fable. Here your imagination is the only limit. You must have an open and imaginative mind to enjoy this movie to its full extend. Once you open up, the movie will carry you.

The movie tells the story of a 10 year boy Jess Aarons. He is the only boy among the five children. His father is more of a farmer who always expects more from his only boy and worries about what he doesn’t, than does. Jerry is a kind of loner and the kids at school always bulled him. His only support at his school is his little sister who cared him the most. For an imaginative child the school may feel dump.

Things began to change when Leslie Burke comes to their neighborhood. She is a live, sprit full and imaginative kid who can bind any one in her spell. Soon they became thick friends. Their real fun begins when they invent Terabithia out of their imagination. For them Terabithia is a magical kingdom that they rules over, where any thing happen according to what they can imagine.

If you think this is just a movie about child play you are wrong. This is a movie about friendship, about relationship, about lose and more over this a movie about imagination. I don’t know if this movie have done faithful to the original novel by Katherine Paterson, but this movie stands perfect. Both Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb done fantastic job as Jess Aarons and Leslie Burke. Robb can pour magic on screen with her energy. Gabor Csupo and the screenwriters should be congratulated for relaying more on characters for telling the story than special effects. This movie is done with in the imagination and perspective of 10 year old Jess Aarons. And if you could go back to that age along with them, then they will take you to the magic lands of Terabithia for sure.