Star Wars- The Force Awakens (2015) – Film Review.

Star Wars- The Force Awakens (2015) – Film Review.

Director:  J.J. Abrams   Stars: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Harrison Ford. 

The new Star Wars movie, the J.J.Abrams directed latest installment of the Star Wars franchise raised a lot of new hopes but ultimately failed to measure up to standards. Leastwise to my standards. I believe that the excessive hype pre-release raised up expectation to such a fever pitch that the resultant movie on screen turned out to be an anti-climatic finish. Anyway the duty of a good reviewer is take the good with the bad and thankfully in this instance its not all bad, but good in patches. The best scene of this movie comes a half an hour after the movie begins when Harrison Ford playing Han Solo enters with Chewbacca inside his old Correlian freighter The Millenium Falcon. Till then the movie is all yawn worthy and suddenly with Han Solo's entry the screenplay picks up or it seems so due to Harrison Fords imposing screen presence. And that shows up the biggest Achilles heel of this movie- casting disaster. Casting relatively unknown actors in important starring roles is a welcome step, but only if they have the acting chops to pull it off. In this case they dont. I am not sure why with such a big budget film they too the risk of it all imploding spectacularly with such a casting disaster and I can only think of two reasons- either there was a pressure on the producers to be politically correct by casting an african american and a woman as the main protagonists in complete antithesis of the usual Hollywood white anglosaxon male domination or they believed that with the power of the star wars franchise actors didnt matter and anybody, any  robot faced cipher could just coast along in a crucial part and people would still be cheering in the theatres with the memories of the original trilogies making them view everything in a nostalgic haze.

Anyway to get back to the story, the film opens with the exact same scene as the original star wars- an important secret, a secret vital to the success of the rebel alliance, is hidden inside a droid named BB-8 - a cute adaptation from the hit movie Wall-E (in tribute?) and the droid's owner is captured by the First Order, the evil successor of the old Sith Empire. The droid is rescued by a spare parts scavenger called Rey who then teams up with a reformed storm trooper called Fen, a character who channels his inner Chris Rock (and fails pathetically to) in an effort to play the comic side kick to Rey's warrior woman. Together they end up escaping in an old abandoned spaceship which turns out to be the iconic Millenium Falcon and in search of which Han solo soon turns up. From then on its a Harrison Ford show as he takes over the search for the missing Luke Skywalker the last of the Jedi who alone can defeat the evil First Order and its dark side adherents. The film ends on a poignant note, with Han Solo's death at his son Ben Solo's hand, for Ben solo is the new Sith apprentice to the Chairman of the First Order. And Luke Skywalker is discovered standing amidst the ruins of the deserted Jedi temple as the credits roll promising more films to come in the future.

Director Abrams does a fair job by not going overboard with special effects but keeping the CGI scenes at the same level of technicality as the original trilogy which somehow makes it all believable. And by giving the best lines of the movie to the old pair of Han Solo and Princess Leia he shows he knows the pulse of the audience and satisfies the fan boys. Now if only he had stuck his foot down with the studio and the casting director what seems to be a fair movie would have become a good movie. A good storyline, excellent special effects let down by bad acting is what we feel as we the movie ends.

Our verdict- just passable and worth a single watch. Or better wait for the DVD. 

Hindi Film “Tamasha” - A Review

Hindi Film “Tamasha” - Review

[Movie Review - Tamasha starring Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Dir- Imtiaz Ali]

Why do we travel?  Seriously why? Do we travel just to see more of the world? Or do we travel to find out more about ourselves? I would say the second was more true for me. Atleast on the evidence of my most recent trip abroad. I am sure everyone of us knows first hand that every single trip is different- every time we leave the comforts of our home to go off and slum somewhere  we are challenging ourselves to forsake all the comforts we are used to. But some trips do more than that, they push you to the limit, they redefine what challenging is to your own mind, take you to such extremes that you never thought existed and demand that you give more than you ever thought possible. Such trips re-define yourself to your own eyes. A trip like that shows you what you can be if you weren't what you are right now.

There i was in the middle of the Indian ocean , well at least on a tiny part of it, wearing a mask and snorkel and peering about underwater starring at rocks and tiny little fish darting around and all i could think of right then was why the hell am i spending all this time with these rocks, while i could be comfortably spending some time with a vodka on the rocks. That was a moment of revelation for me and all the way back on the boat to the shore i was promising myself that never again would i go for a vacation which involves any action, except to lie on a beach somewhere with a drink in my hand- that is my kinda vacation. Its these epiphanies which travel brings out in us and holds a mirror to our true selves like nothing else does and the least  we can do is to at least  hold on to these memories even if we dont do anything else with them in our lives.  But sometimes some people do- they take these lessons and make them work in their lives. They re-invent themselves and start a new life post the trip.

Like in the movie Tamasha starring ranbir kapoor and deepika padukone which i  started out to actually review here on the blog before i got sidetracked into  my own reminiscences. There is a ten minute sequence at the start of the movie where the hero and heroine – strangers to each other who meet by accident  at a corsican resort and become acquaintances- decide to live out their fantasies for the ten days they stay there on vacation and instead of living their own true lives they take on the persona’s of their favorite film stars.

The rest of the movie is about showing the boringly routine real life of these two characters- especially ranbir kapoor who is trapped in an everyday corporate job with an overbearing evil boss and an extraordinarily demanding father who insists on responsibility before anything else. Crushed under the weight of his mundane existence he runs into the heroine again after a gap of a few years and she tells him that his everyday life is a mask while his real self was the one she met on vacation.  That flips him and he turns violent with her- for of course, if you have spent years in denial and self repression, to be shown the truth of it all is maddening to say the least and acceptance is very very hard and almost impossible to get over the self delusion.

The rest of the movie is about how the hero casts aside the mantle of being responsible and goes back to his real carefree self and in the process rekindling the romance with the heroine which ends in the alls well that ends well genre favored of our directors. But although the ending is as cliched as they come, the middle half of the movie where ranbir kapoor shows all the angst of a sensitive soul crushed under family and societal responsibilities is as outstanding a piece of cinema as i have watched all year long.  Tamasha gives a lot of lessons in a jolly tamasha way. Its  worth a watch and a re-watch. Highly recommended.

The Hobbit Part2- In 4-D - An Unexpected Visit

The Hobbit Part2- In 4-D - An Unexpected Visit

Last weekend I watched the movie- "The Hobbit Part 2- Desolation of Smaug" in a 4-D version. If you are your average 3-D movie go’er and haven’t ever seen a 4-D movie before allow me a moment to dance and caper in your face. Ok, gloating done, let me share my 4-D experience in detail, especially on how I ended up watching a new release on the second day itself. On Saturday I found myself with a little free time on hand- at the awkward time between noon and late noon when there is not much to do or see in the city. As I was on my way back home ready to do some serious TV watching, I happened to notice accidentally that the recently released film The Hobbit- 2 was running in my neighborhood theater Sangam.

Now for those who don’t know Sangam it’s an old theater (predating modern multiplexes) on Poonamalle High Road near the erstwhile Dasaprakash Restaurant (now turned into luxury apartments). It’s on my route back home and as I had a window seat on the bus I could see the hoarding with all the latest Tamil films running at the theatre and in one corner, the bottom right hand corner, there was a small, very small poster of The Hobbit.

Hold on, I thought is the hobbit running here? If so what would be the probable timing of the show? Will they have any show running now or will the fact that it is an English film (clearly not meant for the masses) would have consigned it into a late night show for the English film watching “hoi-polloi” crowds. Do I take a gamble to get off the bus at the next stop and walk back to the theatre to ask if they have a show right now or if it’s already begun or if they even have tickets or whether they were all sold out or should I keep going on the bus in my right comfortable seat till my stop came and I could watch the film next week after pre-booking a ticket? That’s the dilemma I had to resolve within the next one minute.

But hey, you know that I like to live life dangerously, so I abandoned my seat (in that crowded/standing space only bus) without a pang and jumped out at the Neyveli Lignite Corporation House bus-stop to walk back to Sangam theatre with a hope and a prayer. Being a Saturday the theater was overflowing with crowds and i hoped that I wasn’t too late for the show and end up missing a few opening scenes.

But at last I reached the ticket booking counter after and I asked for a ticket to The Hobbit and was told that only the front row tickets were available and was I sure I wanted one? What the heck after coming this far, I wasn’t going back empty handed was i? So I said yes, I would take any damned seat in theater if I could enjoy the movie on the opening weekend- for I am frankly sick of all the one-line film reviewers on social media who keep spoiling films for us- the average viewers who usually cannot catch any release in the first week.

Once inside the theatre seated in the very second row in front of the big screen with my 3-d glasses on I experienced the well you could say the experience of my lifetime (my young and youthful lifetime ok?) as the film begun on screen. It is a unique experience to watch a 3-d film when you are on the very edge of the screen. Unlike normal 3-d where the images just leap at you in front of you, the edge of screen experience means that the images often enfold you, immersing you inside them at times -like you were living inside a holographic projection.

There were scenes when I turned around to see if the hideous orcs were sitting right beside me (on my left hand seat there indeed was one) and it was an out-of the mind experience. I have never enjoyed 3-D in any theatre as much as I enjoyed the 4-D experience of the hobbit. At times I flinched when the arrows shot by the Elf Lord Legolas almost passed over me in the front seat to go hit the orcs seated behind me. When the were-wolves of the Orc chieftain Azog the Terrible jumped out of the screen i bent my head to let them overshoot me and pass behind. At one time i very nearly pulled out my magical sword and started stabbing and hacking the spiders all around me (I hate spiders btw) before I realized I was causing a mini riot in the theater and calmed down. 

For those of you who still have not watched the movie and don’t mind a few pointers here are my wiki-leaks. The movie starts from where it left off in the first part (logical right?) as the hobbits are being chased by the orc-hordes under Azog and they take refuge in the house of Beorn the Shape-shifter who takes the form of a humongous gigantic bear and protects them through the night from the chasing goblin hordes. Come morning the dwarfs and Bilbo flee into the relative safety of the large forest Mirkwood but which is now overrun by gigantic spiders (who knew spiders were soo loathsome on close up view?) which capture them and tie them up.

Bilbo as befits the hero of the tale frees the dwarfs from the spiders and takes them onwards deeper into the forest where they are next captured by the wood elves under their fearful lord Thranduil who says that all he wants is to be left alone without being disturbed by each and every passing traveler knocking on his front door. Bilbo again (with the help of his magical ring this time) frees the dwarfs from the elf prison and they escape through an underground river riding on empty barrels. The movie closely follows the book till this point.

In the second half the movie departs from the book version and expands into new territory which is surprisingly good. The dwarfs reach the newly re-built town of dale - the old one burnt by the dragon in the past and there they get the help of Baud the Bowman (spoiler alert) the future dragon-killer who helps them reach the slopes of the Lonely Mountain - the once-home of the dwarfs. After getting there it’s again the ingenuity of Bilbo which helps them find the back door into the mountain only visible on a full moon's light on Durin's day and as a reward Bilbo gets to go inside and find out if the dragon is still alive and kicking so to say.

Turns out the dragon Smaug is indeed more than alive and after some funny interludes with Bilbo (Seriously I don’t want to spoil your pleasure if you have still not seen the movie) the dragon and the dwarfs get into a fight over the ownership of the mountain and the pissed off dragon decides to go after an easier prey -the men of the floating city Dale at the foot of the mountain rather than fight with crusty old dwarfs who pour boiling gold on it, coating it and turning it into a golden dragon for a brief while. The rest as they is - for the next part- part 3. 

To say I enjoyed this movie would be an understatement- I really, really enjoyed the movie- despite my initial misgivings. For when i went inside the theater I did not know whether I would be watching the movie in the original English or a dubbed Tamil (the local language) version with all the characters speaking in local patois. Thankfully they screened the movie in English but with the addition of English subtitles (a first for me- watching an English movie with English subtitles) at the bottom of the screen which did not irritate me much as the movie sucked me into itself with nonstop action sequences. At one point i even enjoyed reading the translations of orc talk running at the bottom of the screen as subtitles- words like hmmfff, angg, faffff translated directly from Goblish into English.

The Graphics (CGI) was top class in the film and you can almost believe that there is a middle earth somewhere out there in the real world. The acting for the most part was top notch with the dragon Smaug a cinch for an Oscar award this year. All in all it was a totally enjoyable experience for all that it was unexpected. And finally- if you haven’t seen it yet- go immediately to watch. And book an extra ticket and call me- I wouldn't mind watching again with you.

P.S.- And in future if you want to enjoy a similar 4-D experience buy a front row ticket for a 3-d movie and watch it on a big screen - you'll love it.

Udhayam NH4- Not a Review- அட சத்தியமா இல்லைங்கோ'ன்னா

Udhayam NH4- Not a Review- அட சத்தியமா இல்லைங்கோ'ன்னா 

Genre :Comedy/Spoof

Stars - 5 star/dairy milk/alpenliebe/kinderjoy.

Last Saturday an old friend turned up suddenly and insisted we go to a movie. When i demurred pleading an earlier appointment, he rode roughshod over my protestations and dragged me off to watch a movie called Settai- the Tamil remake of Delhi belly. But last minute movie plans always have a hitch in them, namely you don’t get tickets at the counter. In these days of online booking, nobody gets to watch a movie on a whim anymore, everyone picks their tickets and seats a week earlier online and pays by credit card. The unfortunate few who want to watch a movie unplanned have to either watch it on pirated DVDs or stream them online from torrent sites. Does the movie industry which always bleats about the issue of piracy ever realize that they are the ones who are encouraging the trend by totally denying tickets over the counter? Except for flop films which have no takers? For that is what precisely happened to us. The movie we wanted to see was house full and there was not a single ticket available over the counter. And my friend who was in the mood to watch a movie, any movie, rather than go back home  disappointed made a bad and instantaneous decision to get tickets for a film which had released just the day before and was already running to empty- and hence with tickets available in plenty at the counter. And that’s how I ended up at PVR cinemas watching the movie - Udhayam NH4, starring Sidharth as hero,  Kay kay Menon as villain and a new face as heroine.

As readers of my blog know, when it comes to films i am a total fan boy. I am the guy who hoots and whistles when the hero stamps his foot on the ground and causes an earthquake which sends a dozen ruffians flying into the air. I am the kind who claps continuously for punch dialogues and repeats them to everyone in casual conversations. As such, I never go to any movie with a critic’s eye and to note down with pen and paper all the faults I can spot. With me, it’s the other way around, all I want is to be entertained, just paisa vasool for my ticket price. If you keep me from getting bored for the next two hours, I always give five stars. But even so some movies baffle me and make me scratch my head on why they were ever made. I mean it must have cost a bunch of money and taken a lot of time and work and sweat to make the movie. If so why didn’t someone take a good hard look at the script before deciding? Did they find this script in the back of some old cupboard where it had been lost away for twenty years or more and suddenly decide to make it?

For make no mistake, Udhyam-NH4 has such a jaded look that it looks like the movie must have been made way back in the early nineties but released now. I don’t know how that’s possible but I make a guess that maybe the hero, heroine and director decided to make a period film and to make it all the more authentic they went back in a time machine to the nineties and actually made it with a nineteen nineties script. That would explain a lot of things about this movie. Like how the characters speak on screen and wait for the next few minutes till the sounds come from out of the time warp- cool special effects I must say- delaying the dialogue and making it non-sync with the actors. Or like the fact that Actor Sidharth plays a seventeen year old, first year engineering college student. Or like the fact that when a seventeen year old boy (the hero's) legal guardian (his elder sister) advises him to  lift the girl (the heroine) and bring her home where she can stay as a guest till they both finish their education, get a job and then marry- however many long years it took for them both. Seriously? A sister like that? In this time and age?

Which brings me to the lifting dialogue. The very first dialogue in this movie is about a group of people advising the hero to "lift" the girl. And at regular intervals in various points of the movie right till the end, the same dialogue gets repeated often, everyone around talking about "lifting" the girl as if she was a pair of old dumbbells at the gym. Close your eyes for a bit, drift off for a few minutes and chances are the first dialogue which penetrates your ear when you wake up is "avala thookanum" or lifting her (I lost count after the 77^th time). The way various people talk about lifting her might confuse one into wondering whether they are referring to a human being or about cattle lifting.

Ok, I don’t want to turn into one of "those" critics and keep pointing out just the negatives. Are there no positives in this movie? I can hear you ask. And so i answer yes, a lot of them, if you can fit this movie into the category of a spoof film and not a serious film, if you enjoyed meet the Spartans after watching 300 or if you enjoyed scary movie after watching the exorcist, then you would definitely love this film- it’s a total laugh riot, an out and out comedy film if you can just spot the sly humor. This film spoofs college life movies on so many levels that I find it hard to pick out just one or two instances. For example, all college students spend every single day drinking alcohol and love happens in first day orientation in class, and seventeen year olds run away to get married but wait till the clock strikes eighteen and they become major. The humorous scenes run on and on, more fun for the fact that the director has hidden them under serious scenes and springs it on to you suddenly when you least expect.

But the best humor is reserved for the last scene- the climax, where a tough encounter specialist who has been chasing the eloping pair throughout the movie (which takes over two days/48 hours to get from Bangalore to Chennai- which normally is a 5 hour journey for you and me) and the cop finally corners the pair on a deserted and empty road (the NH4 in the title of the movie) in the middle of the night and just as he is about to kill the boy and take the girl back to her politician father, the alarm beeps in the hero's mobile, he pulls it out and sees the time and says to the cop "its twelve'o clock, she has turned eighteen, she is a major now and you can’t do anything" and the fearsome villain cop, puts his gun back into his pocket and walks away without a glance back, leaving the love pair to kiss happily and credits roll for the end of the film. I rolled out of the theater laughing too and wondering whether i should really be ROFL'ng - roll n the floor (the aisles) with laughter?

(P.s...This is a heartfelt request to all the new wave directors and film makers of Tamil cinema...I know you are all born geniuses and education would have hampered your creativity and so you chose not to get a formal college education. But please do visit some college campuses and talk to real life college students next time you decide to make a movie based on college life. Reality in college is quite different from what you have heard. Not all college students drink or do drugs daily. And not all college students fall in love and marry their classmates compulsorily. Sometimes they even fall in love with their juniors or seniors or even students from other colleges also.  College education is hard and filled with big, big, books and regular exams and students do occasionally study too. OK boss?)