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Yesterday, watched the Spiderman 3 in PVR cinemas Bangalore. It was not as fancy and thriller as expected, but still I liked several aspects of the movie. I agree, there were several flaws in the screenplay and the story itself. Moreover it was too complicated with so many characters, and especially with no explanation of the black crawling substance. I had liked Tobey Maguire in the Spiderman-1 film, and had almost become a fan of his, but now, not more. He indeed looks no more special, but M J (Kirsten Dunst) still looks cute and like the girl-next-door.
The main thing i like is the theme and the tagline: “The greatest battle lies within”. Exactly true. I guess this time, the director was overcome with emotions just like me and made the film, with a sentimental touch for the youth, who is ready to embark life on its own.

The symbolic representation of aggression, jealousy, revenge, in the form of black substance and the struggle within Peter to get out of it, gaves away the simple message that only you have the control of yourself. Though it is not clear why the sound of bells remove them. Symbolising church and evil n all???!

Few points of the film which really captured my heart:
* It is easy to bind, but hard to unbind – Yup! All the evil thoughts are easy to get into our thoughts, but very hard to rule them out.
* Each person is made of choices they make, and every person has the right to choose how to live their life – Life is indeed full of choices, and decisions, which we are supposed to make over time.
* Every one needs helps at some point, even the spiderman needs help – Each human being and even the strongest man needs help at some point in their life.
* Not all bad persons as are bad from heart. Its again the bad choices they made at some point in their past. The sandman chose bank robbery for saving his daughter’s life.
* A man needs to prepare himself for marriage by understanding his priorities. (I love Peter’s aunt so much!! )

But all these did not made the Spiderman 3 worthwhile as the first two in the series. The first and second was the real spiderman with stunning editing and photography and screenplay, while in the third, I guess, they tried to incorporate a bit of realism and ended up messing it.To cut short, the third in the series is meant not for fantasy but instead an attempt at family and individual values.
Overall rating of around 6.5/10

Lot many people I know are fans of Rock, Pop, Trance and other music. Also the Hollywood movies. They say its an awesome movie. Beautiful editing and storyline blah blah… I seldom watch English movies for one n only reason that, its hard for me to understand the dialogues!! But another thing I noticed is, all these people blame the Bollywood and regional films sometimes saying they are crap and boring and contains only masala and mushy stories… The Hollywood is well advanced I agree, but why do we forget that our people are also trying its best in Indian Film industry. The good films are termed as “art films” and are given bad remarks. They are directors and producers who earn a living through the Film industry. They do need money. Shouldn’t we the people encourage them to bring out more and more good films, instead of blaming them as show off films? Instead the films having a night club dance are being boosted for “unrevealed” reasons! Personally asking, I consider lot many films from the directors, Sanjay leela Bhansali, Nagesh Kukunoor, Madhur Bandharkar, Ashutosh Gawarikar, and few regional films. My wish-list of to-watch films includes the following:
Corporate, Hyderabad Blues, Guru, Traffic Signal, Kalyug, Woh lamhe, Life in a Metro, few Tamil films like Kanda naal mudhal, Unnale Unnale, along with the English romantic ones Music and lyrics, The notting hill, The Holiday, and the Spiderman 3 and Pursuit of happiness..

I have felt most good Indian Films portray feelings and reality. But isn’t there lot many romantic and mushy films in hollywood too??? I love them for the simple plain storyline. The entertainment films are given more importance by the families and for the youth, the violent action thrillers, amazing cinematography and direction are the main reasons for shifting to Hollywood. Maybe Hollywood is indeed good, but please don’t blame our Film Industry too… Its just a developing country!!! Give ‘em a break!!

On a side note, its comparatively easy to show action and thrillers, but very very hard to portray emotions and feelings and make people think of it!

Last night, I accidently heard the song from the film “Sillinu oru kaadhal”(or is it “Jillinu oru kaadhal!.. bah! I dono!! who cares!). It reminded me of the film story again.

The story goes like this. Gautam(Surya) is married to Kundavi(Jyothika) and has a kid also. A happy family of age 8 years with the usual tensions at times. Then one day, while, Gautam is out of station, Kundavi finds his old diary, and starts reading it. In the diary, he says about his college days, his college love, Aishu(Bhumika Chawla), who is a Telugu girl and daughter of some minister (high position type!) and how they were in love, the happy days, and then finally the decision to run-away and get married inspite of her parents reluctance, and in the end, how they gets splitted up in the register court, cos of her father’s tactics..(Its shown in the film, that by the time, the villain ppl separates the love-couple, the knot has been tied between Gautam and Aishu.) The diary ends with a note, that his sole wish is to meet Aishu just once more.. Kundavi then decides to make the two people unite once more, to fulfill his wishes! And as filmy as it can be, Aishu is shown returning from Australia and is still angry with her father and family. Kundavi meets her up (And provides us a hint that Aishu is still living as Gautam’s wife!). After a stretched drama, Kundavi manages to make Gautam and Aishu meet at their house. The film ends with Kundavi returning back home, only to find a farewell note from Aishu to her, saying that she is thankful to her for this meeting before her departure back to Australia, and also assured her that, she realized from the talk she had with Gautam, that he loves only Kundavi now, and has completely moved on from the past… Thereafter Gautam and Kundavi lives happily everafter!

The film has a happy ending and the onscreen chemistry of Surya and Jyothika was a big hit as always. But the song, “Munpe vaa” portraying Aishu and Gautam of their happy college days is a bitter one, as in the end, its not portrayed what happens to Aishu and how she lives on. Why is that relationship not given that much importance from Gautam’s side? He was rebellious in his college days to break her away from her family and to get married. Why hasn’t he felt or given any thoughts to how she might have been living? Why did he hide the fact from Kundavi? Maybe cos he doesn’t think of it anymore. But if she too had married someone else and had moved on from the past, then we could have concluded its really a happy ending. Here, its absurd!! They say, the time is different, time heals all wounds, all pains… Maybe its true, but what about some scars which never heal? Maybe pains get cured, but how to erase those memories?

I guess life itself is absurd, leave alone the films and stories!!
Peace!

Recently saw the film, “Swades” once more. The film is really beautiful, and depicts India and the patriotism very clearly. I do wonder about the NRI’s (not the Non-Returning Indians, but the actual one. ) who have been staying there for either studies or job; whether they too think the same: to leave the job/studies abroad, and to settle in India.Personally I do like to have a short term onsite job, but not more than 6 months for sure!! Be it for living also I think I’d do the same. I even sometimes miss my home town in Kerala, when I am in Chennai, leave alone abroad!!

I agree, maybe the life is more easier and comfortable than in India, as they are more developed countries. But still, don’t they wish to travel in the MTC buses, and to pass the ticket! (Chennai buses!!) Don’t they wish to ride in the guttered roads and complain it to the person sitting next to you! Don’t they wish to see the natural ponds and lakes in their home town, with fields all nearby, to hear the grinding noise from the mill nearby, to see the children playing in the common playground, to have the tea from the roadside shop, and to watch the raindrops falling through the trees, to have the special home-made food from their grandma’s, and all the (boring) advice from her..(hehe ). The temples, the festivals, the crowd, the grains, as depicted in a rectangular box in the film. The vibrant colours of India!!

Indeed the song boosts up my spirit levels, the lyrics are so beautiful, and has plain message to people living abroad.

ye jo des hai tera, swades hai tera..tujhe hai pukara…

ye jo bandhan hai jo kabhi toot nahi sakta….

The film directed by Sooraj Barjatya, like his other films, portrays a beautiful story which is a fairy tale indeed. The main roles are portrayed by Shahid Kapoor as Prem, Amrita Rao as Poonam(bittu), Alok Nath as Poonam’s father, Anupam Kher as Prem’s father. All the roles are perfect and acting of all people suited the story and the characters. Amrita is absolutely beautiful and sweet and cute and what not!! (The perfect girl in everyone’s eyes as the story demands) and Shahid does his job pretty well, as the good-hearted boy of this generation(Again as the story demands). The on-screen chemistry of both is really wonderfull.

The story theme as like other films of the director, is of a middle aged girl family and a high caste boy family. Here the only difference is the boy and girl does not fall into love on their own, instead its an arranged marriage from the start, decided by both families in the form of a proposal through a common friend. Poonam stays with her father’s brother(Alok Nath) and their family. The Chacha and Chachi have their own daughter(the one who comes as model in ads! dono name..) Chachi is not so kind towards Poonam coz, she is more fairer and beautiful than her own daughter, Chotti. For the extremes, Prem’s family runs a very prestigious business spread over world. but family is very kind hearted and does not mind the proposal from the small village. The engagement happens on the day when the groom ppl come to the girls’ house and marriage is fixed after 6 months.

In between, both families have a picnic at Somsarovar for few days, after which Prem flys over to Japan(or some country..) for project work. All the while, Prem and Poonam develops a mutual understanding over time. After coming back, marriage preparations are in high swing, when the story twist occurs!

The film is beautifully framed into a good family drama theme, with good meaningful dialogoues which is true to some extent. In the start, Prem’s father talks long about marraige and stuff to his son which is good and true to all those who are swinging thoughts regarding marriage. Then the feelings and tensions between the engaged people and the non-stop talks that they do makes an interesting watch. The small roles played by Prem’s elder brother, bhabhi(wife) and their son’s jokes, the cheerful Chotti etc gives comedy touch to the otherwise serious film. And the film is a full fledged family movie genre.

Overall rating: 8/10

Yesterday, I saw the film ‘Black’. I have always been a fan of Sanjay Leela Bansali from ‘Hum Dile De Chuke Sanam’ and ‘Devdas’. His direction, the way of portraying the characters, the presentation, the music, the colours…
The three strong characters, Michelle as a girl and as a woman and the teacher portrayed in the shades of black. The frustration of the young girl whose life is always full of darkness…She is blind, deaf and dumb… (Helen Keller??? Ahem.. I dono…) She founds herself a path through that blackness… And with the help of the teacher, she finally becomes a graduate! The man God she finds in that teacher, who maker her feel the meaning of words and reactions, meaning of mother, father, and finally a woman herself…She smells the beauty of life, the success of failure, determination, will power, emotions of love and trust, and the pain of darkness…Also portrayed is the Alzheimer’s disease of the teacher as the film moves towards the climax, where he fails to memorize all the small things. It’s the same state as the small girl, but the only difference is, even in the light, we find ourselves in dark… Man is really nothing without memories though he has all the senses…
The script seems fast in the beginning when we fail to understand how the teacher gets through the small child’s heart. There are no songs in the film and the background music is superb. Overall it is a worth-watch film.

Well.. Yesterday watched the film, but Ididnt find the film so bad and sucking…
The film was slow and dragging Ii agree, but the story theme is acceptable… atleast outside india and among the higher societies of india itself.. in the fast pacing run of our life, its hard to work out a marriage and when the peopl e at both sides cant take or adjust beyond a limit, this happens…. then what does the increasing number of divorce says??? in india mayb, ppl adjust more and live like that just to make their families happy.. they all mayb happy, but to how much extent is the contentment.. no one speaks out abt it…..
In this film too everyone is happy at times.. all the characters are good.. thinking on the indian old style, we can think like dev and rhea cud have adjusted a bit more, by rhea adjusting a bit more(as kirron kher says) or rishi and maya cud also have lived more happily, if they adjusted a bit more by finding out the others needs… but is this what one really wants of his/her own??? leave the family, society and ppl .. just the individuals….why does life turns out to be just a mere adjustment with some friend or known person??

Today, me down with small fever. So at home now. Being at home alone, i can realize the loneliness and the refuge one gets from internet at that time. Some days back, had seen the film ‘mitr’ which portrayed the worries of a married woman living in US. She remains at home whole day cookin and cleaning the house all alone, with no one to even talk to. Her expectations from her husband and daughter and when they both could not decrease her loneliness because of their own issues, she finds solace in an online friend, who at the end turns out to be none other than her husband! The film carries a strange remark-sometimes it gives us a different perspective when we talk to strangers. I don’t know how much this is true but it makes me happy when i talk to online people,to know that people listens……..