Is Murph Interstellar's Superman?

I have already seen “Interstellar” twice and the more I analyse and over-analyse it, the more mind bending it appears to be. What looked like an unusually straight-forward story by Nolan’s standards is actually turning out to be a complex multi-layered narrative, closer to his style of story-telling.

While I can go on and on with the space-time concepts, gravitational time dilation and their role in the plot complexities which already have their fair share of discussions on various internet forums, I surprisingly saw virtually no discussion regarding a very subtle, what seem to be intentional parallels between 'Interstellar' and the Superman mythos as presented in 'Man of Steel (2013)', which again is a Nolan produced movie. The similarities are hidden in plain sight. Let’s have a look:

The Prologue:
The basic premise of the story: a dying planet and the need to colonize other worlds. Even the dialogues in both movies are subtly similar. Sample this:

Cooper: We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars, now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.
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Cooper: We've always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we lost all that. Or perhaps we've just forgotten that we are still pioneers. And we've barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us.
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Lor-Em: Our energy reserves were exhausted. What would you have us do, El?
Jor-El: Look to the stars, like our ancestors did, for habitable worlds within reach. We can begin by using the old outposts.
Ro-Zar: Are you seriously suggesting that we evacuate the entire planet?
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Dr. Brand: We must confront the reality that nothing in our solar system can help us.
Cooper: Now you need to tell me what your plan is to save the world.
Dr. Brand: We're not meant to save the world. We're meant to leave it, and this is the mission you were trained for.

The Holy Trinity: Father, Son and the Holy Ghost:
Man of Steel had strong religious undertones to it and Superman was presented as a Jesus-like figure. There was allusion to the Holy Trinity in the form of Jor-El (Father), Kal-El/Superman (Son), and the consciousness of Jor-El as a hologram (The Holy Ghost). Jor-El even refers to his son as being a God to humans before putting him in the ship along with Codex.

Interstellar, on the other hand had Cooper (Father), Murph (Son) and the ghost in the bookshelf, again being Cooper himself (The Holy Ghost) completing the Trinity. While you might say that this set hardly qualifies since Murph is a female character, it would be interesting to know that in the original screenplay, Murph was a boy. Christopher changed the character to daughter to bring in that additional intensity to the emotional connection between the father and the daughter. Nevertheless, the way Murph's character has panned out during the course of the movie, she is no less than a son.

Murph saves humanity by building the huge spaceships using gravity, much like Superman saves the world by thwarting General Zod and destroying the gravity powered world engine.

Codex and Fertilized Embryos:
Baby Kal is sent to earth through the wormhole after infusing his cells with a genetic codex of the entire Kryptonian race, with the hope that those genes maybe used to recreate bloodlines in a new planet.

Similarly, fertilized embryos  are placed on Endurance to be taken to the habitable planets with the aim of kick-starting human population on them, in case earth cannot be salvaged.

Corn fields:

While the farmhouse and the farm in Interstellar immediately reminds you of the one from Signs, it has an obvious connection with Man of Steel again.
Jonathan Kent, Superman's adoptive father is a farmer by profession who has a farm just outside Smallville. In Man of Steel, there are many scenes on this farm which seems to have acres and acres of Corn being cultivated, much like Cooper's farm in Interstellar.
In fact production design used the experience from Man of Steel for all cornfield scenes in Interstellar. 

Saturn and its rings:

While the choice of showing Saturn in Interstellar has been peculiar (more on that below), it is the most obvious thing to do these days as Saturn is the most aesthetically pleasing planet with its rings and makes for a nice CGI shot.
Baby Kal-El's spacecraft carrying him from Krypton emerges from a wormhole near Saturn in Man of Steel. While this has no significance in the plot as such, this has a striking similarity with Interstellar, where a wormhole has been created artificially by higher beings near Saturn, to enable humans to travel to habitable worlds. It has been explained by Kip Thorne that the wormhole had been placed sufficiently away from earth to avoid its gravitational effects taking any toll on earth's orbit. But then they could have placed it near Jupiter as well. 

And one more similarity: Murph uses red blanket, an obvious nod to Superman's cape.

Footnote:
Why Saturn? To me, the answer seems to be more rooted in history than anything else. In Roman mythology, Saturn is the God of agriculture, founder of civilizations and of social order, and conformity - obvious references to the plight of Earth and the only solution. 
Not just that. Greek equivalent of Saturn is Cronus. For a brief period in classical mythology, Cronus was occasionally interpreted as Chronos, the personification of time - one of the important themes in Interstellar.
Saturn also provides visual symmetry on Earth side of the wormhole, to the Gargantua on the other side. 

Book Review: All You Need Is Kill (a.k.a Edge of Tomorrow)

How many times has it happened that our mind ponders over a past unpleasant situation trying to figure out ways we could have handled it better? How many times did we feel we should have had a reset button to make it right? Like a video game. Sounds fun! Well that’s exactly what Private Kiriya, protagonist of “All you need is kill”, gets when he embarks on his solo battle. But here’s a catch: The situation that he gets to reset is his own death on a battle field fighting against a formidable enemy which has landed on earth from another planet.

The central concept of the book is like any other alien sci-fi story. The aliens called “mimics” are organisms that have tough endoskeleton and deadly weapons. They have been sent on earth by an intelligent race in the hopes of terraforming it to make it their habitat. To encounter this threat, humans have developed their own metal suits called as ‘Jackets’ that enhance the physical strength of the human inside it and allow heavy weaponry to be used in the battles without slowing them down. Private Kiriya is one such soldier who is in his early twenties. The story is told from the point of view of Kiriya and it starts with him being dropped into the war zone for his first battle ever. The situation soon turns bloody as mimics out play the humans and Kiriya is killed in action. Within moments Kiriya finds himself waking up in his bunk bed on his base, approximately one day prior to the supposed operation. Assuming he may have seen a bad dream, he relives the day, only to have a feeling of Deja Vu. He dies again in the battle, wakes up again in his bed. He soon figures out that he is caught in some time loop which he cannot exit and has to experience his excruciating death in each loop. Doesn’t sound that fun now!

The narration focuses on how he uses the looping to his own advantage. He improvises and hones his skills in one single day, playing it over and over, like a video game. But unable to exit the loop he sees no end to his ordeal. Until he meets a decorated war hero, an American named Rita Vrataski, who can also loop just like him and knows how to exit it. As they both form a team against the mimics, they soon realize that it is not that easy to win the war and exit the loop. But I will not spoil all the fun by telling you how the book ends.

The story is fast paced and laced with dark humor. Hiroshi Sakurazaka, the author of the book kept the proceedings interesting and the story short. Considering how a time loop story device is prone to be boring, he has done a commendable job. Two thumbs up! And yes, “Edge of Tomorrow” is based on this book.

Ringa Ringa, Elizabeth Ekadashi

Weekend Watch: (All Marathi Movies)

1. Ringa Ringa: A mystery thriller that for most of its run-time appears to be a psychological tale. A very good story and some well-known actors make it an interesting watch. Upside: Short length, Downside: Unnecessary songs, some really bad editing.

My Rating: 6/10

2. Elizabeth Ekadashi: Watch this movie for some heartwarming performances by the junior cast. A light hearted tale of everyday hardships that a rural family goes through to make ends meet. It makes you feel that all is not lost, that the world is still a better place. All based on the teachings of "Sant Newton" and "Sant Einstein" :). I bet we never had come across an altogether different perspective of Newton's Laws before.

My Rating: 8/10.

Interstellar

This was the most awaited movie of the year, for me.

A brilliant work that at times fools you into believing that it is NOT a Nolan movie, till the third act, when all hell breaks loose and you see the familiar hectic cross-cutting, background score with a gradually increasing tempo and an enigmatic end. Surprisingly, my favourite characters from the movie are non-humans - the two robots: TARS and CASE. They are way better than HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Especially due to their Humor setting of 100% and Truth setting of 90%.

The plot seems to be simple yet multi-layered, probably due to the inherent complexities of the concepts of space/time travel and time dilation. But we must remember, that in the end this is a movie about father-daughter relationship and rest all are in a different dimension. Great concept, stunning visuals and well executed.

My Rating: 9/10

More dissection of the work to come soon.

Trivia: All the alphabets in robot names TARS and CASE can be used to spell - TESSERACT. Is it a co-incidence or my futile attempt to see a pattern where none exists? Can't help it, Nolan's work has that kind of effect on you.    

Gone Girl

Amazing screenplay, great direction and some of the best on screen performances by the lead cast to top it off. Don't miss it.

A slow, small town who-dun-it mystery reminiscent of Mystic River. The whole plot folds over itself after the interval. And that to me is the best part. Rosamund Pike takes everyone by surprise, especially in the last 30 min. She is terrific and terrifying at the same time. Ben Affleck seems to have got his grove back with Gone Baby Gone, The Town, Argo and now Gone Girl. Waiting to see how he dons the black cape.

My Rating: 9/10.

Transformers: Age of Extinction

In recent times, the definition of a summer blockbuster (Hollywood) has become synonymous with endless action sequences aided by CGI, a bunch of characters who refuse to die in otherwise life-threatening situations, and incoherent plot whose only objective is to induce those mindless action sequences every 10 minutes. Especially the super-hero movies. To top it, these movies have total disregard for human lives. As long as the heroes - and to some extent villains - survive till the last frame, nobody cares what happens to the extras or the environs that they occupy.

For instance - Avengers, Captain America - Winter Soldier, Man of Steel (at least Man of Steel had some plot). And the recent addition is the movie mentioned at the top. It really IS an "Age of Extinction" of smart movies, movies which count their audience to be intelligent beings. Will someone please stand up and create a movie worth its billing?!!

Mark Wahlberg’s talent is wasted in this movie. Such a shame.

My Rating for Transformers 4: 1.5/10.

Don't bother going to theaters. Wait for its TV premiere and give it a miss too to exact your revenge for such a sub-standard piece of work.

Chaar Diwas Premaache: Marathi Play Review

Genre: Comedy/Drama
Cast: Prashant Damle, Savita Prabhune, Arun Nalavade, Vina Jamkar
Director: Vaman Kendre
Writer: Ratnakar Matkari
Runtime: 120 min (approx.)
Rating: 9/10

Well, I don’t watch too many plays; forget about any visual art that’s presented in Marathi. But there I was, watching probably only the 4th Marathi play in my life, with a (false) hope that it will ignite in me (false) pride about my Marathi roots and trying to prove myself (and probably others too) that I am Maharashtrian enough. The only thing I knew was Prashant Damle was the leading actor and I needed nothing else to convince me to go for it. After all Prashant Damle is a very well known actor with natural born talent for acting and lots of records in his name. He didn’t disappoint me. Well the play’s name is “Chaar Diwas Premaache” which when literally translated into English sounds “Four Days of Love”, but in essence means “Love is short lived” or rather “Days of true love are numbered”. The theme of the play is based on love marriages and why or how they fail. It tries to say that in today’s fast paced world and superficial relationships, it takes few moments to fall in love and a life time to adjust to it. Hmmm… quite serious topic eh?!! Indeed, but it has been presented in a very innovative way with a humorous theme. It portrays events between lovers, and eventual husband-wife, in day-to-day situations that we can easily relate to. Though the theme is love and the genre is comedy, it tries to distance itself from vulgarity that is so common place in media today. The play itself has no story as such and is divided into random acts depicting events from “falling in love” to “taking care of each other in the last days of life”.

Synopsis: The play opens with the theme song “Chaar Diwas Premaache” followed by different acts with different characters in different situations. (The name for each act is given by me and no such naming exists in the actual play.)

Act 1: Soneri SandhyakaL (The golden evening):
Situation: Guy 1 loves his childhood friend Girl 1, who loves another Guy 2, who in turn loves her friend Girl 2. Fortunately Girl 2 also loves Guy 2.
Best performance: Arun Nalavade entering the stage on a bicycle in a manner as if he is riding a horse.

Act 2: Beach warchi bhet (Intimate moments on a beach)Situation: Both lovers in a dilemma if they are too fast in proposing for a marriage.
Best Performance: Prashant Damle and Savita Prabhune as conscience/second mind of the lovers.

Act 3: Me navin vicharanchi adhunik mulgi ahe (I’m a modern girl of new age culture)Situation: Girl going against her parent’s wishes and marrying an illiterate, unemployed, good-for-nothing man. After marriage she realizes that it takes more than just love to make it work.
Best Performance: Savita Prabhune as a grieving mother. Her wailing act is hilarious.

Act 4: Bayko geli maheri (Wife goes back to her parents’ after a fight)
Situation: A couple have a fight over something. One thing leads to another, and in the heat of the moment husband says he does not love his wife anymore. So wife leaves him and returns to her parents’. The rest of the act shows how the guy apologizes and requests his wife to come back.
Best Performance: Prashant Damle as the husband trying to win back his wife’s heart.

Act 5: Professor aNi tyanchi bayko (Professor and his wife)Situation: How a couple loves each other and yet don’t show their feelings. Why a romantic guy before marriage seems uninterested in his wife later?
Best Performance: Arun Nalavade’s analysis of a fictional play. “Pahilach anka dusryanda kela asta tari challa asta”.

Act 6: Saasuche guNgaan (The incredible Mother-in-law)
Situation: A guy comes home and hears from his wife that “Mom is coming”. He immediately gets frustrated and starts squabbling about his Mother-in-law and how his life becomes hell when she comes. The funniest part comes in the end where husband realizes that “The Mom” is his own mom.
Best Performance: Savita Prabhune as the Mom and various nicknames that she uses to call her son.

Act 7: Bhandaychi yogya veL (Appropriate Time to fight)Situation: Husband coming home tired and having to sleep early since there is an important meeting in his office the next day. But wife finds exactly the same moment to pick up a fight over some trivial issue.
Best Performance: Prashant Damle as a poor husband deprived of sleep due to ever complaining wife.

Act 8: Game Show (Game Show)Situation: A couple enters a TV game show to show how much they know and love each other.
Best Performance: The ending where husband tells wife that they don’t need a game show to prove their love’s worth.

Act 9: Ayushyachi sandhyakaL (Life’s last act)Situation: A couple trying to console and support each other, with son and daughter-in-law settled in America and no one to look after them in old age.
Best Performance: Prashant Damle as the old husband, who sings a classical song to entertain his wife. Savita Prabhune as his wife who has lost eye-sight due to old age.
My favourite act.

Though when looked at them individually, these acts seem like different episodes, but essentially constitute one single story in itself, when the bigger picture is taken into consideration. Only four actors portrayed all the characters in the play. Quite an impressive performance by each of them. And I must appreciate Prashant Damle’s energy levels. He puts in so much passion in everything he performs, it is quite remarkable. He seemed like a guy in his twenties. The flow of the acts was smooth and except for the last act, I was laughing till I dropped off my chair. Full credit to director and story writer. Some of the dialogs were really striking. Like “Romeo and Juliet premaat padunach war gelet mhaNun amar zalet. nahitar tyanchahi lagna zala asta tar kaay zala asta ha vichar karun paN hasu yete” (Romeo and Juliet fell in love with each other and died and that’s why their love has become eternal. Just imagine how it would have been had they got married!) But the play carries a strong undertone and it is presented very systematically throughout until it becomes obvious in the last act. The writer is trying to tell that “With love comes compromise, and if you are ready to do that, your union is bound to survive for ages. Before marriage lovers are trying to know each other, after marriage they try to understand each other. For doing that patience and tolerance plays a vital role. That’s the secret of surviving a marriage till old age.” A serious message packaged in a light hearted way – Takes a real artistic mind to do that.


Ratings Break-up:Acting: 2.25/2.5
Direction: 2.25/2.5
Plot/Story: 2.0/2.5
Theme Factor (Comedy) : 2.5/2.5

An outstanding play. Kudos to entire team!!!
I still find myself murmuring the theme song:

“Chaar diwas premaache, Chaar diwas priteeche,
Baki saari saunsaaraachya riwaaj riteeche…….”

Shoot 'Em Up: The Review

Genre: Action
Cast: Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci
Director: Michael Davis
Distributor: New Line Cinema
Runtime: 80 min
Rating: 3.5/10

Till now I have written reviews on movies that were either decently good or excellent. As a result people were convinced (wrongly) that I loved all Hollywood flicks that came into being. This review is for all those freaks.

The name is Shoot ‘Em Up and the movie lives up to its name, so much so that it shoots all the logic and brains out of the ceiling. Clive Owen is Mr. Smith, a carrot-eating trigger happy man with unknown past, in the wrong place at the wrong time (for the villains of the movie, and unfortunately for us too). He gets involved in a shoot-out with some bad guys trying to murder a pregnant woman in labour. Smith helps the woman deliver the baby while picking out his targets at ease in the entire process, but fails to save the woman. After smoking up all the bad guys, he proceeds to abandon the baby at a park but soon realizes that the thugs are after the baby too. So he rescues the baby, and takes him to his prostitute friend Donna played by Monica Bellucci. But Mr. Hertz, formerly an FBI psycho analyst and now the “smart” boss of bad guys, played by Paul Giamatti, traces him there. And so begins a chase action (con)sequence that ends (finally…!!!) with the climax. In the process bad guys die in heaps and bunch, our hero manages to dodge bullets which otherwise would have created a 9 inch gauze in a zillion meter square iron sheet, and we get a new on screen body count record that surpasses Kill Bill and the likes. On the way our Olympian finds his way into record books for single bullet kills also. Ah and yes, this basically overshadows a very mediocre sub plot of a conspiracy theory, where we learn that Hertz is working for a gun manufacturer who is trying to stop a bone marrow transplant of a Presidential candidate who is an active gun control supporter, and that the cells for the transplant are to come from the baby. What happens to the baby? Is the conspiracy squashed? How many carrots does our bunny eat on screen (they should ban on screen carrot eating, it should to be limited to bugs bunny only)? Nopes… you are not getting it all here. I am not going to waste this perfect chance of having my revenge. Go watch it yourself for all these unanswered questions and for answers to un-asked questions.

Well, that was just a synopsis. Here comes the review.
Since the name is Shoot ‘Em Up, there are shooting sequences in all possible environments in all (im)possible ways. The action is way over the top. Mr. Smith defies all the laws of physics and ballistics in such a grand manner that Mithun and Rajani look like rookies. Some action scenes worth mentioning:

• Killing a guy by stabbing him in throat using a carrot.
• Turning a carousel by shooting at it.
• Booby trapping gun storage cage using wooden planks and ropes.
• Shooting by pulling the trigger using carrot.
• Jumping from an over bridge into a car through sun roof.
• Shooting a hiding goon by shooting another one lying on the floor so that after shooting his hand, which holds a gun, turns to point at the hiding man and fires it to injure the poor soul. Such a fast thinking. Man I am impressed.

And wait for this….. wait for this…. Shooting by keeping bullets between fingers and placing the hand in front of a fireplace. Where the hell did this idea come from man?!!!!! The only fight worth mentioning is the one that takes place mid air when Smith and the thugs jump from an airplane and a gun fight ensues.

The soundtrack is good in some action sequences, but becomes boring and repetitive in most places. Direction obviously is very poor. Davis should try making movies with Van Damme and Jet Li as his cast. 100 marks to the editor for his job since all scenes look the same. How did he manage to make a story out of scenes which are basically nothing more than a meaningless gun-fight? Beats me!!! Clive Owen who has done better movies like King Arthur is a complete waste in the movie. He seems to have carried his role from Sin City to this movie without realizing that Sin City is altogether in a different genre. Monica Bellucci’s role could have been done by any other hot looking babe. Paul Giamatti shines (?!!) as compared to other cast.

There are lot of references and allegories to other classic Hollywood movies and books. Smith is referenced to in one scene being a trigger happy man with no name, an obvious reference to Clint Eastwood’s character in the Dollar Trilogy. Smith eats lot of carrots in the movie and even has a dialogue – “Whazzup doc?”, similar to Bugs Bunny. Then in one scene is the dialog “They had you at hello” – almost similar to the now famous line from Jerry Maguire. Also the name Smith is one of the most common names in England, and as Clive Owen’s character has English accent it is safe to assume he has English roots. This fact is consolidated further by a passing fact that his character’s grandfather emigrated to US and became a gunsmith. That could be another possible reason for his name being Smith. Also in one of the action scenes, Smith falls down a staircase shaft in a manner similar to Bourne Identity. Baby’s name is Oliver after the famous fictional orphan – Oliver Twist.

If you want to commit a suicide, I have better idea for you. Go watch this movie. And if you want to kill your boss, get him a couple of tickets.

Rating Break up:
Acting: 0.5/2
Direction: 0.5/2
Plot: 1/2
Editing and Soundtrack: 1/2
Theme Factor (Action): 0.5/2

Such a waste of time and money, especially when you are watching it alone on a drowsy Saturday afternoon.

The underdogs, the Never-Say-Give-Up Cop and Autobots Vs. Decepticons

The detailed review is in the making and will post them soon.
Just ratings for now:

1. Chak De India: 8/10
2. Die Hard 4.0 : 7/10
3. Transformers: 6/10

Blood Diamond - The Review

TIA. No this is not the usual "Thanks in Advance" that we are so used to sign-off our mails with. This is something more stark and straight in the face - 'This Is Africa'. Yes Africa. The war torn land that has been ravaged by tyrants, rebels, and not surprisingly businessmen alike. A land that is so full of nature's rarest of rare gifts that channels like Discovery and Nat Geo literally thrive on it. But these gifts include Ivory, Gold, Oil and that every woman's best friend - Diamond. Africa, the land that has been gifted and yet cursed. Its precious gifts have drawn upon it an undivided attention of all the greed and power in the world. And with that has come enduring struggle and elusive peace. For so long this continent has witnessed so many bloody civil wars that the people believe that the soil is red because of all the blood that it has soaked for so many years. This is the land that even Gods have forgotten about. And Blood Diamond is a story of this continent and its people.

The Plot: Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a solder of fortune trying to sell some high end sophisticated military hardware to warring factions in civil war ravaged Sierra Leone, a small West African Nation, in return for crude diamonds. It does not matter if he is helping people on both sides of "The Law", as far as he is getting his cut. These diamonds mined from Sierra Leone's slave camps are then smuggled into the neighboring country Liberia for exporting them to the nations of the West. Needless to say, the whole movie revolves around this particular aspect of the origin of majority of African Diamonds - known notoriously as the Conflict Diamonds, thanks to the Kimberly Process that came into effect in 2003. During one of his misadventures, he gets caught and is put into prison. There he gets to know a local fisherman by name Soloman Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) with a misplaced family during a raid by rebels on his village. Soloman is taken as a slave by the Commander of the rebels to work at a diamond mine. Now it so happens that during his labour at the slave camp, Soloman comes across a particularly large size of the hardened Carbon, pink diamond, which he obviously tries to keep for himself. But the rebel commander finds out about it and just as he is trying to kill Soloman for the stone, the camp gets attacked by Government troops and everybody is taken into custody. But not before Soloman hides the stone in the ground. In the prison Danny is witness to a spat between the Rebel Commander and Soloman, and comes to know about the stone. He immediately decides to buy his way out of Africa forever using the stone, and through his influential connections gets himself and Soloman out of the prison.

While Danny is particularly interested in getting his hands on the diamond, Soloman is desperate to find out what happened to his wife and kids. While pursuing Soloman to join him, Danny comes across a disillusioned American journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) who is in search for the inside story on conflict diamonds, her last resort to somehow get the attention of the whole world on the plight of the people in Sierra Leone. Her close ties with UN personnel enabling her to trace Solomon's family makes her a perfect yet reluctant accomplice in Danny's plans. And thus is forged the most unlikeliest of alliance. The already paced movie then goes into top gear, taking us onto an emotional yet action packed journey through the confines of Africa, ending into the three accomplishing their individual missions, albeit with a difference.

But the USP of the film is its gory, realistic and no frills attached depiction of how the terrorist and warlords are hiring young guns to wage their own war. Remember that particularly touching yet shocking scene from Black Hawk Down where a US Marine has to shoot down a young boy brandishing an AK47 in his hands? Ever wondered if it could be real? Well, wonder no more. You will get your answers here, explained in the most brilliant manner possible, through Solomon's son Dia. He is abducted from a refugee camp by the same Rebel Commander who knows about the pink diamond, after coming out of the prison. And he trains him to be a guerilla in his army. The scene where Solomon tries to turn his son's heart and make him remember where he truly belongs is particularly heart wrenching.

Rating: 2.25/2.5

Direction: The director, Edward Zwick, has an impressive resume in Courage under fire, The Siege, I am Sam and The Last Samurai. He knows how to play with audience's emotions very well. There are many heart warming incidents in the film and all the action and reality has been packed really well with the stories of optimism and hope. Though he is trying to put forth a strong message, he never gets carried away. Everything is measured.

Rating: 2/2.5

Acting: There are three protagonists in the movie.
Leonardo DiCaprio as Danny Archer has given yet another superb and sustained performance. He plays a ruthless soldier of fortune who has sold his soul to The Devil himself, hardened by personal life experiences, and who will resort to any means in order to get his hands on the stone. Yet, somewhere in an unexplored part of his heart resides a soul that is righteous. The character is not as complex and demanding as the one from The Departed, but he surely delivers a power packed performance. He truly departed from the chocolate boy, good guy image with his character in Gangs of New York and then he has taken it to the next level in the latest two movies. And his consistency in dishing out brilliant performances in a row - The Gangs of New York, Catch Me if You Can, The Aviator, The Departed and Blood Diamond - is worth mentioning. His Oscar nomination is well deserved.

Djimon Hounsou (remember seeing him in Gladiator?) as Solomon Vandy earned a well deserved Oscar for his supporting role, that of a simple fisherman motivated to go to ends of world in order to get his family back. Jennifer Connelly as the journalist has an important role too, but does not get enough footage. Yet job well done.

Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy Franchise) and Jimi Mistry (The Guru) make the rest of the cast.

Rating: 2/2.5

Screenplay/Music/Cinematography/Editing: The story is well written and is successful in conveying the message that it aims to. It explains the plight of the continent, coming on the lines of The Constant Gardener, though in a different way. The story makes a strong statement with the trade of conflict diamonds, and has made me convinced that I need to ensure that my marriage proposal is not funding any arms to claim innocent lives.
The background score is good but not over the top.
Cinematography is the captivating factor of the movie where at one point we are watching a city with bullet hole riddled walls, and suddenly we find ourselves into a country side with green pastures. Some of the action scenes are also very well picturised. Equally complementing is the editing, and we never lose track of the story.

Rating: 2.25/2.5

So all in all a truly touching and impressive movie.

My Rating: 8.5/10
Pity it did not win an Oscar Nomination for the Best Motin Picture.

Mission: Accomplished

I hate to do it, but here I’m again writing yet another movie review. Maybe some time I will get to write a real blog (and not a review). So anyways, here’s my review of the much awaited summer action thriller of the year: M:I-3.“What’s the matter, Mr. Hunt? You seem to be upset!”

“Katridge, you have never seen me upset”. (M:I-1)

That’s the point where our super spy Ethan Hunt set on a series of adventures in true sense. And M:I-3 proves that it hasn’t ended yet.And this time Ethan Hunt is more upset than ever (in the pre-credit sequence itself we see him enraged but helpless) and what else, it’s personal!

The Plot: (Warning!!! - The following paragraphs include spoilers.)
Ok. So it starts with our hero tied to a chair, and a white haired guy asking him for something called Rabbit’s Foot. Quite evidently he’s the bad guy who seems to be in a pretty bad mood and then we see a girl, all tied up, sitting in front of Ethan. She’s crying. Ethan is faced with a problem that our superheroes always face - the problem of singular choice. Either he has to give the location of Rabbit’s foot to the bad guy or lose the girl whom he calls “Jules”. But there’s a catch here. Ethan seems to think that he has already given the Rabbit’s foot to the bad guy. As such he’s confused and tries to buy some way out. But the bad guy is pretty mad and hell bent on hurting the girl. In the end the bad guy shoots the girl in the head and the credits sequence starts in the same way as the other two parts of the installment.

What follows is a long flashback, in which we come to know how Ethan ended in a situation like that. Agent Hunt has retired from field service, but still in active duty. So as his team mate Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) says “those who can’t do, teach”, he’s taken up a job to train fresh recruits. In addition to that he has found a nurse Julia (Michelle Monaghan) whom he loves immensely and planning to marry her and get settled. But on the night of his engagement party he gets a call from IMF Missions Director, Agent Musgrave (Billy Crudup), and comes to know that the first girl recruit Agent Farris (Keri Russell) that he ever recommended for an active field service has gone missing in Germany, while on a trail of a dangerous arms dealer Owen Davian (Philip Seymour-Hoffman). What follows is a high adrenaline action packed rescue mission that fails and agent Farris dies. Ethan’s boss Brassel (Lawrence Fishburne aka Morpheus) is quite unhappy in the way the mission is planned. Meanwhile Ethan receives a microdot sent by mail to him by agent Farris. Also the hard drives recovered from the unsuccessful mission point out to a transfer of something called Rabbit’s Foot at Vatican between unknown sellers and Davian. So Ethan and his team decide to kidnap Davian, fake his death, and recover the Rabbit’s foot, but not before Ethan and Julia marry.

Using the high tech equipment, as usual, for the deception, Ethan’s team pulls off the mission in Vatican. But Davian seems to be a cold blooded crazy villain. On the plane back he warns Ethan that he’s going to harm his girlfriend and then kill him in front of her. On the way from Airport to the IMF headquarters, Ethan learns from a message on Farris’ microdot that there’s a mole in IMF in the form of his boss Brassel. There’s an attack on the convoy, and Davian escapes. Ethan realizing that his wife’s life is in danger rushes to hospital where she works, just to find that she’s already kidnapped. He then receives a call from Davian who threatens to kill his wife in 48 hrs unless he get’s him the Rabbit’s foot. But at the same time IMF is after him on orders from Brassel. He’s arrested and then taken to the headquarters where he is helped by Agent Musgrave in escaping to Shanghai.

In Shanghai he meets his team and plans the operation to steal the rabbit’s foot from a tall skyscraper in Shanghai. The mission is a success with just 5 seconds remaining for the time limit of 48 hrs to get over. Ethan bids good bye to his team, and is taken to Davian’s safehouse somewhere in the city. That is where the flashback ends. And we see that Ethan is sitting next to his dead wife.Then comes the twist in the tale, where we see that the mole in IMF is not Brassel but Musgrave who helped Ethan run from the headquarters. It seems that he has been collaborating with Davian to get Rabbit’s foot and sell it to some Middle Eastern country, then collect enough intel to persuade the American Forces to invade that country, and install a puppet government - the usual conspiracy theory. Will Ethan find his way out of this situation and uncover the conspiracy? I'll let the movie answer these questions.
(The spoilers end here)

My Rating: 1.5/2

The Screenplay:

Hmm… So we have a pretty good storyboard here. I heard that Tom Cruise did not go ahead with the shooting until he was satisfied with the script, and I think it is a job well done. First of all, if you ever happened to watch the original TV series that aired on STAR World, Mission: Impossible was all about espionage, deception and hi-tech gadgets. Agreed there was some action, but out-and-out it was always a spy thriller to the core. And so was the first installment of the movie series, with a complicated plot and seemingly impossible heist at CIA, Langley. And it remains my personal favourite till date. Though many people would choose to disagree, second movie was all about style and only action, and very less espionage. A typical John Woo film and I didn’t like that movie very much. The third movie on the other hand is a good mixture of espionage and action.

Contrary to the other reviews, the mission does seem impossible.I have always loved the character of Ethan Hunt more than Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan or Ian Fleming’s James Bond or even xXx’s Xander Cage. (Wonder why super spies always have 4 alphabets surnames!!!) And thank God for getting him a new hairstyle than the one he had in M:I-2. That Ethan Hunt had looked too much flashy and too stylish like James Bond. In the latest installment he is back to what he is – being a spy. Good to see him do ‘lip-read”, pick out targets from moving vehicles, imitate voices and pick-locks using wires. These are the necessary attributes of a spy, right? Also they have tried to show a more personal side of him. I liked the way they have explained how the harnesses work, how the masks are created and how the voice simulators work. Many people don’t like this aspect of the series. But then again, whoever has seen the original TV series will agree to the fact that this is USP of the entire franchise. The gadgets and equipment used are cool, especially the super hi-tech remote controlled rapid fire guns, the remote detonators etc.

Also the final fight sequence with the villain is short and sweet, unlike boring and prolonged one in M:I-2. The villain is yet again an arms dealer. But he sure looks menacing and cold, remorseless, vicious, tough and crazy when compared to Max (Or Maxine as Ethan calls her playfully) from M:I-1 or Sean Ambrose from M:I-2. He is the toughest villain that Ethan Hunt has faced so far. The story writers have avoided the redundancy in the scene where Ethan enters a building from the top to recover the Rabbit’s Foot, a chemical formula that might be used to destroy the world. Since the scene being similar to the one in M:I-2, a clever move on the writers’ part, I must say.Though I must say that at the point where Musgrave lets Ethan escape from the IMF headquarters, I realized that he infact is the mole and not Brassel. So the twist in the end was not a big surprise for me.
My Rating: 2/2

The Action:

The film opens with a scene which looks inspired by the pre-credit sequence in Confidence. It is this sequence that makes you think –“Okay, we have got an edge-of-the-seat thriller at work over here." After all how many times have you seen the love interest of the main protagonist die in the first 5 minutes of the movie? The action never seems to go overboard and is quite believable. The first action sequence where Ethan goes to rescue Agent Farris gets your adrenaline pumping. But the most brilliantly shot one is the Bridge Ambush which reminds of True Lies and Clear and Present Danger. That is the point where I actually felt like the movie should never end. Not to forget the superb jump from the top of a skyscraper in Shanghai, of course.
My Rating: 1.75/2

The Trivia:

All three M:I movies involve recovering an artifact from a dangerous arms dealer.

All three movies have promotional posters with Ethan’s face’s side profile. The first two had Ethan facing right. The third one has Ethan facing left.

Like Jack Ryan’s girl friend and then wife, Ethan’s girl friend also is in medical profession.

The woman in red dress (Maggie Q) again provides distraction, very much like the one in Matrix.

Like Ronin, they have never explained in the movie what Rabbit’s Foot is.

The Performances:

Tom Cruise is brilliant as ever. The scenes worth noting are: Where Julia is confused about Ethan’s commitment to the relationship and he cannot tell her why and where he is going, is just too good.The first actual face to face interaction between Devian and Ethan on the plane back to US.The pre-credit sequence where he is totally helpless and enraged.

Lawrence Fishburne has a small role but made the best of it with a Morpheus like dialogue delivery. A few to be mentioned are:

“You can look at me with those incriminating eyes, but it is people like me who bleed on the flag to make sure that the stripes stay red.”

“Are you throwing a title at me Mr. Musgrave? I don’t give a damn if your father plays golf at the white house.”

“Mr. Musgrave, don’t interrupt me when I’m asking a rhetorical question.”

“It seems we have a lot to talk about, don’t we?”

Oscar Winner Philip Seymour-Hoffman shows why he won an Oscar. His character of a complex and idiosyncratic real-life villain is a stark contrast from the washed up self indulgent best friend he played in Along Came Polly, or a stupid fabricator from The Jackal, or even the geek from Twister.

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers who became famous as a semi-pro women’s football team coach in Bend It Like Beckham, and Maggie Q as a super-sexy spy do justice to their roles as Ethan’s new team-mates. Ving Rhames is more humorous in this installment, with all the advice he gives to Ethan for getting involved with a girl. Michelle Monaghan looks cute and plays a perfect damsel in distress.
My Rating: 1.5/2

The Music Score and Direction:

Some parts of the background score have been taken from the original soundtrack of the first installment that was never used in the movie. These music pieces are a kind of remix version of the original theme by Lalo Schiffrin. The music blends well with the drama unfolding on the screen and never seems to become a distraction. The Alias and Lost director J.J.Abrams has done a superb job in direction.
My Rating: 1.5/2

Total Rating: 8.25/10

So all in all it is a good movie. Though the International Box-Office figures tend to show a different story, it has got nothing to do with the actual movie. It is due to the declining fan base of Tom Cruise because of his so called heroics in electronic media. I have already seen it thrice and given a chance would see it again atleast twice. But then…. I’m a die hard Tom Cruise fan.

All the President's Men

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." These were the words from the inaugural address by the youngest elected president of the United States of America John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) in 1961. He was also the youngest one to die, still holding the office at the time of his death barely a couple of years after he became President; assassinated on November 22, 1963, at 12.35 pm, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas by a pro-communist who went by the name Lee Harvey Oswald.

Now, it is not a routine thing for a head of state to get assassinated, more so when it comes to the US of A. So you would think that this event would have created frenzy in the whole country. But surprisingly it was not true. The storm had calmed down even before it had begun. Call it the efficiency or inefficiency shown by Dallas Police Department (DPD) and the Federal agents who were able to nail down the assassin not through any kind of significant trail or leads, but only on suspicion, an hour after the assassination. The same department also managed to lose the sole thread of the whole case when an apparently infuriated JFK fan called Jack Ruby shot L. H. Oswald point blank inside the DPD headquarters, two days after the assassination, while he was being taken to a preliminary hearing at the Dallas Court. The case had ended even before it had begun. How convenient…how bloody convenient!!!

And this was the official version of the story. Now let’s have a look at it from other angle, an angle proposed by Jim Garrison, New Orleans District Attorney (DA) as a result of his investigation that he started in 1966. This investigation resulted into the filing of the only case on JFK assassination in a federal court. The subsequent rise to a conspiracy theory is the theme of the movie JFK by director and screen writer Oliver Stone, who is famous for his critically acclaimed and politically sensational trilogy on Vietnam War, the second among it being the Oscar winner Platoon.

So here are some of the minute details that were missed out in the Warren Commission, the official investigation carried out by White House, which stated that L.H.Oswald was the sole assassin in the case:

1. Lee was supposed to have used Mannlicher-Carcano Rifle, which was ordered by post. Now orders by post can be easily traced to the address of order and hence the owner of the rifle. But in 1961 any person could go to a gun shop and buy a rifle by producing a fake identity. So L.H.Oswald ordering the gun by post just does not sound smart enough.
2. This rifle was considered by many experts as a bad shoulder weapon to have. Now it is a presumed fact that three shots were fired from the weapon. Number One completely missed the President, the third was the fatal one which hit him in the head. The second bullet now widely known as the Magical Bullet hit him in the neck and then proceeded to create a total of seven wounds in JFK and in the Texas Governor John Connally who was sitting right next to him. In doing so this magic bullet traverses a zig-zag path at varied angles that defies the laws of physics.
3. One more interesting thing was that the time interval between the first and the third shot was 5.6 seconds. But when this rifle was tested by the best of the best snipers in the Bureau, it took them a full 7 seconds to fire three shots including the time to reload. Also the time interval between the second and third shot reports was very less in case of the shootout than what would have occurred for a normal reload time.
4. Any excellent sniper will accept the fact that the probability to get hit the target is highest for the first shot. But in this case, the third shot proved fatal. Considering this Lee had to be one master marksman, since he had to reload the gun twice and at the same time aim in just 5.6 seconds.
5. Check out the accompanying figures. It is very clear that if Oswald was sitting in the book depository to make the kill, it would have been easier for him to shoot JFK when he took the 90 degree turn toward the Dealey Plaza. But he did not do so. He waited for JFK's car to make the turn and head towards triple underpass, away from him. This is very absurd.

6. There were orders from high above from Pentagon to the Naval Office of Dallas for the security troops of the state to stand down on the day of assassination. The Naval Office assumed that the security task had been assigned to some other group, which clearly was not the case. This meant that the security in Dealey Plaza was at the minimal. Also the path chosen for the motorcade was a bizarre decision. At the end of the plaza, the car had to make a 120 degree turn, which made it go at a speed of around 10 miles per hour only making it very easy for the sniper to take a shot. JFK was a sitting duck.
7. There were no Nitrite traces found on Lee’s hands, meaning he did not even fire a single shot.
8. If it is to be assumed that Lee shot JFK, then the fatal shot came from behind JFK. If it is so, his head should have gone forward when the bullet hit him. But that day amongst the viewers at the road side there was an amateur video shooter called Zapruder who had shot the entire event in his video camera. The film captured by him shows that JFK’s head went back and towards left when the third bullet hit him, meaning this fatal bullet came from the front, most probably from grassy knoll in the secured parking lot. The Zapruder film shows some smoke coming from the grassy knoll area after the shooting.
9. The conspiracy theory states that there was a triangulated cross firing (Blue arrows in first figure, red arrows in second figure) by three teams of snipers and their co-ordinators in Dal-Tex building, Book depository and the parking lot.
10. Now Oswald was supposed to have defected to USSR and given vital information about US navy to KGB. But he came back after 4 years to US, and he wasn’t asked even a single question. Apparently he was a double agent for US. He was a trained agent of the Office of naval Intelleigence and remained so till the day he died.
11. The autopsy of JFK’s body was not done properly and the official medical reports were incomplete.
12. Many eye witnesses agreed to hear more than 4 shots and from different directions, but they were told to not tell this to anyone by the federal agents who took them into custody few minutes after the shooting. Surprisingly this was even before the assassin was apprehended.
13. Jack Ruby who shot Oswald was supposedly seen with Oswald on a number of occasions before the assassination.
14. The key witnesses died of sudden unexplained heart attacks or accidents.
15. And the best of all - The official investigator for Warren Commission was Allen Dulles, the former CIA director who had been fired from his post by JFK.


I don’t know when the US federal courts started accepting circumstantial evidence as a proof, but if anything is to go by in this case, L.H. Oswald did not even fire a single bullet and was a scapegoat of a wide spread conspiracy by the US Government and Security Services at the highest level. The other people who were involved were just involved because they did not know what they were doing under the pretext of “Orders”. And this is just the tip of the ice berg. If you want to know about this in detail, read the book “On the Trail of Assassins” by Jim Garrison or watch the movie JFK. It is simply mind numbing.

The persons who were supposed to have protected their president had conspired against him. One of the widely accepted reasons for this assassination was that JFK had gone soft on war issues. He wanted to end the cold war, the result of which was the withdrawal of support to anti-Castro groups and refusal to invade Cuba. He strongly believed that Vietnam and its problems should be left alone and he was a strong supporter of the civil rights to Afro-American community. He gave a sound backing to Martin Luther King’s movements, who by the way was also assassinated some time after JFK’s assassination. JFK’s brother Robert, whose career was also following the same political curve as that of JFK, was also assassinated during California elections. These were all the casualties of what we now call as the Military Industrial Complex. It states that the organizing principle of any society is to go for war. No war, no money. Due to this, there are large military establishments who are exercising strong unwarranted influence over the economics and politics of a democracy. So it was not a big surprise when all the changes proposed by JFK were rolled back along with the signing of the official document for the “Go Ahead” with Vietnam War, within four days of JFK’s assassination, by the new President Lyndon Johnson.

JFK did all that he could do for his country, for his people. He diverted the money spent on wars towards social and economic development. He wanted to bring in peace and end the moon race in favour of co-operation with USSR and in doing so he remained true to his words. He never asked anything in return from his country. But I am sure he never asked what he got on that fateful November ‘63 morning either. He was a true patriot, a martyr.

Paint Me Yellow...

Power packed, immense, relevant, at times funny and surprisingly refreshing........that’s how I can sum up Rang de Basanti.(RDB)
Now I am not an avid Hindi movie fan….. my sincere apologies to people who think that this makes me less Indian…. (I can’t help it, Hindi movies are boring and long, and in most cases I have already seen the Hollywood movies from which they are copied from!)…….
Last year I had been to movies like Shabd and Hulchul, and that’s when I said to myself, “That’s enough. No more Hindi movies”.

Surprisingly now, after a long gap, there I was buying tickets in advance for RDB.
Not because of the hype it created, but for the reviews that I heard.
And well I am happy to say that I wasn’t disappointed.

Well, the story lived up to its reputation. The performances have been power packed with some top notch acting by the not so famous actors. To me, except for Aamir Khan, the movie has no other superstar (meaning one who has given more than 5 hits in the lead role). Nevertheless there was no hint of overacting nor was there any instance where the emotions were flowing like a running tap. The humour never seemed to go overboard. In going with the current trend of Aamir Khan movies, his actress had to be a British one, and I found her to be better than the previous ones.

Music from A.R.Rehman, as always, was just too good. I find it hard to stop myself from singing the songs, especially the title track. The background score was equally good.

The story is very much relevant to the current political situation in the country.
Pardon me when I say that I don’t get inspired by hearing the stories of extraordinary courage and unmatched sacrifices that our freedom fighters have done so that their future generations, us, could enjoy the fruits of liberty. I am sorry, but what they did was relevant in their times, something that was inevitable. But that does not free us from our responsibilities, towards our nation, towards our fellow countrymen and towards ourselves. We, the representatives of a Corporate India, are so much engrossed in boasting about the strides that we have taken towards realizing the dream called India 2020, that we have forgotten the true message, “ A Country is never perfect, it has to be made perfect.
The society and the overall system will need reformations, and in order to do that we will have to get our own hands dirty”. But no one wants to do it. We imagine shaping the future of this country through the cozy confines of our air conditioned cubicles, trying to look at the world through the green tinged windows, much like the virtual reality of The Matrix.
But then we also have someone like the late Manjunath who come across from time to time to awaken us, to make us stand up to our principles, to remind us of our moral responsibilities. Why do we always need someone to inspire us to carry out our duties towards the nation? Shouldn’t it come natural? Agreed I said that our freedom fighters did something that was inevitable, but it must be taken into account that they didn’t need any stories of courage to get inspired, they were self motivated to achieve one and only goal – Total Independence. That’s what makes them great. Perhaps Manjunath had realized this, and it is high time we do too.


Back to the movie now…
The movie is refreshing in many ways:
The first that comes across is the juxtaposition of the events from the past and present. The editor’s skills have to be applauded here. A job well done.
The second is the kissing scenes. Finally there is some director who thinks that the Indian viewers is a matured lot. (I am sorry if there have already been instances in other movies, I missed them you see)
The third is the end….. It is not the usual vanilla ice-cream with chocolate sauce kind of ending…. Imagine the end of Kal Ho Na Ho, where Priety Zinta says that she loves only SRK and that she will remain unmarried for the rest of her life, no matter how much Saif loves her or the end of Dhoom, where John Abraham’s final plunge is not a leap to death, but to freedom. Like he drops into an ocean and gets away…. But no…. we audience always wanted those “Lived Happily Ever After” kind of ends.
Though I must say that was the only part of the movie which is flawed. For God’s sake, they are showing the NSGs, known popularly as Black Cats. They are the elite of the elite. They are to India as the Delta Ops are to US. So an action as irresponsible as the one shown in the movie is just too impossible to warrant a NSG action, especially when they are showing the whole event to be telecasted across the whole country. And one more thing that I must say here, you don’t have to be a martyr to bring out a radical change in the mindset of the people. Agreed Manjunath had to give up his life, but the circumstances were different. They won’t always be like that. In today’s world with powerful tools as the Media at your fingertips, it is very easy to put your point across. You just need to have the right thing in you.

Anyways, all in all a good movie.

The tagline of the movie says “A Generation Awakens”. It did in the movie, in reality though…I seriously doubt. Inspiring…. Maybe not, but thought provoking…definitely yes….
If I ever happen to be in a situation like the one in the movie, I wouldn’t pray for God to make things easier for me, I would just pray that my courage does not fade.

Regards
Gaurav S. Dandekar

P.S. : Please do not consider this as a review of the movie. These were just some of the thoughts that sprung into my mind after watching the movie.
So as my friend (and the editor of my first blog ever) Smiley puts it – Bouquets and Brickbats are most welcome.