Leader

2010 by Shekar Kammula

In India, we have seen lot of political movies. In fact, from around the end of 80's Malayalam movies got a procession of movies with political overtones, in which 99% happened to be quite on the same lines with the same kind of stuff. Some of them still were good entertainers. The best definitely was Panchavadippalam, by K G George relased some time in the mid of 80's. That was a sarcastic, but brilliant take on politics on the ground level. Recently Prakash Jha made Raajneeti, which I thought was just average normally, but it was above average stuff compared to the normal ones from Bollywood. So most North Indian media took it as a huge political movie. I just saw Leader, a Telugu movie and I found it miles ahead of Raajneeti, but no one outside the states of South India (barring Kerala) seems to know about it.

A corrupt Chief minister is killed and his young son, who was working in the US, arrives and takes charge. How he evolves into a leader of the masses is caught quite nicely in this excellent movie. 

This is not a very serious movie, it is actually an entertainer, but it is a great entertainer. Its story can be read almost every day in news papers in India, in parts. In fact everything that is happening in this movie is actually happening in India, not just as a single plot though. And it is only at the end, where a leader of the masses evolves, it turns cinematic, but not going over board.

For people worried about India, its corrupt system and politicians and the majority poor this is definitely an excellent movie. For, it is a feel good movie on contemporary politics.

It would be brilliant, if this movie will be released all over India, in Hindi or English, when we are seeing many, good and fake, fighting to find the black money outside India. The movie actually talks about black money which is stuffed in India itself.

The movie still has a few songs, but we may not even really notice how these songs come and go. It just melts down with the movie. Only in the second half, when there is a love angle, does the movie drags a little bit, bit it falls back into the track very soon. Even as an entertainer, I would say the direction was brilliant. It is an excellent movie under the technical categories too. Even the back ground score and songs are nice.

And Rana  Daggupati as the young Chief Minister was excellent. He has a wonderful charm and I am very impressed.

I really wish, this movie is shown all over India. 

Shankaranum Mohananum

2011 by T V Chandran

There have been so many movies which worked on the life after death and how some souls tried to interact with the living, after their death, some serious, some entertaining, some funny and some awful movies. As a plot for a whole movie, I think Shankaranum Mohananum is a new one in Malayalam, but its awfully flawed movie.

An elder brother, Shankaran dies the day after his marriage, from snake bite. The younger brother, Mohanan starts seeing him.

The script is horrible for many reasons and actually towards the second half of the movie, Mohanan starts seeing not just his brother but most dead souls around him. Even in a funny movie like Ghost Town (2008), it clearly established a simple reason why the protagonist was able to see the dead souls. Here there isnt any and towards the end, more souls are visible, without any reason which makes it even terrible. Forget this particular aspect, but even otherwise this movie doesnt interest us, I am afraid. It is not able to touch us in any ways, even light heartedly. Instead, sometimes we feel laughing out loud at the kind of fancy dress that is presented to us, for reasons what soever.

In spite of that, one aspect which was mentioned was quite interesting, I thought. That, the 9 months after death, when a soul is preparing for its next birth, its difficult to forget the events from the previous birth, this was quite interesting, but even when this is told, we really do not get moved, is definitely a fault of the director.  And the background music, I am afraid, is quite horrible.

The only good aspect, was the cinematography. It is not great, but that is one aspect which made the movie look good, at least, compared to the other movies from TV Chandran, an award winning director. Often his movies lack any kind of technical brilliance, barring one or two mentions like Pondanmaada.

Badrinath

2011 by VV Vinayak

I watched Passion of Christ with an American friend. He doubted the real intention behind the release of the movie, the timing of its release especially. He thought the timing was meant to gather a lot of conservative votes in favour of Mr. Bush. I found it quite strange, how could a movie like that help a presidential election. In India I never saw a movie which would help garner more interest in a particular political party or ideology. For the first time I watch a movie and felt, there is something wrong with this movie. It tends to exaggerate a kind of campaign from a section of religious fanatics. May be it is not. But there is something basically wrong and foolish looking in the plot for this Telugu production. May be Allu Arjun wanted to make a movie which would surpass Magadheera in its grandeur. The way the movie was promoted, I thought so and all campaigns seemed to talk about a sure block buster movie. The first ever Telugu movie to be released in Malayalam simultaneously with the original. But..

If there is a competition for the worst movie ever, from South India, I am sure Badrinath can be a serious contender.

Except for Killadi, Allu Arjun never did any kind of semi serious or even different kind of movie. All his movies were simple or hard core entertainers and that is what his fans like him for. But it is unbelievable how he committed, performed and promoted this kind of a horribly stupid and terrible movie. I think once a couple of movies are successful and a film personality gains recognition, it is difficult or nearly impossible for them to stick to their basic common sense or feel or think like a common being. Either they get carried away and believe blindly in their fans or they have lost that thread between a new plot and common sense. I cannot fathom how in the world they thought about this kind of a plot. Even a hard core Hindu fanatic would find this movie stupid.

In spite of all the chaos in the movie house, Allu Arjun still got a lot of applause for some of his dance steps, is the only positive aspect of this movie. 

Italienesk for Begyndere - Italian for Beginners

2000 by Lone Scherfig

Many years back some University students from Denmark, who after watching a couple of Indian movies with me, which included Lagaan, had told me that they get some very good movies in Danish. It took me long to watch one. I never expected there movies would be like this. If my memory is not outdated, this is my first movie from Denmark and what an experience it has been.

There are a few characters in a region. A Priest who has just lost his wife and is actually filling in for the permanent priest who is on suspension, A hair dresser woman, whose mother is sick and interrupts her work quite often, A very clumsy woman at a bakery, who has an old father who is quite dominant and difficult to manage, A rude manager at a restaurant in a Football stadium, A man who is afraid he is impotent and works in a hotel and a young girl working in the stadium restaurant. All these guys are somewhere around in the nearby streets where we have the Chapel, the hotel, the restaurant, the bakery and a muncipal hall where an Italian language class for beginners is organised by the local council. 

Some pretty ordinary characters in even ordinary circumstances live their routine life in front of the camera for us. The only unique point about all of them are they are loners in some ways. Thats how this movie start, a very slow and uninteresting start though. To be frank, it is quite difficult to pass through those first 10 or 15 minutes. Without any kind of cinematic help the movie jumps on to one of these characters right from the first frame and jumps to all others. It can take us by surprise, in the first few minutes, that what we are seeing is just ordinary life. But slowly but nicely this movie takes us through a great experience. By the end we are sure that we have seen one of the best feel good movies.

I cannot remember a different film which proceeds through so many ordinary characters without any kind of main plot at all. For some time I did think Short Cuts was the closest, but of course not. This is a very different attempt. Even the major catalyst of this movie, the Italian class for beginners is thrown in a very subtle way and it is only with time we see all characters merging in there. In between there are these two very touching moments of an Euthanasia and of two characters realising that they are sisters. I would say those scenes depicts the heights of capturing emotional subtlety in movie making.

This is a really unique movie, a unique way of making a romantic comedy in fact.  May be the most brilliant attempt in celluloid to capture the romance among the most ordinary and imperfect people during our times. I think that's the best way to explain this movie.

I cannot imagine, how they scripted or conceived this idea at all. May be all started from the end just like how the Tamil movie Kalluri was made and built a history for the characters. That is the most probably possibility.

Brilliant movie. 

Fighter

I saw Raging Bull some years ago and was convinced that would be the best boxing movie, or even the best movie on any sports stars ever. I am yet to see anything even closer to it actually. Fighter, which too is a true story, is not anything like the above master piece, but it is still a very good movie about boxers.

Dickie, from a working class town, rose to great heights in Welterweight boxing, but fell just short of being the best, is still a living legend in the town. His younger brother Mickie trains under him and adores him like anything. But when Dickie is unable to get him the best opportunities, Mickie has to find his own way out to reach the top. 

Three aspects of this movie are brilliant.

The beginning when we are introduced to the brothers through the eyes of an HBO docu team. In this period, it was so realistic, as if the characters were out of a Mike Leigh movie and I really suspect the director is a fan of Leigh movies.

The performance by Christian Bale as Dickie. At the end of the movie, this is what we really treasure. I am sure he has taken great pains to do this character and it tells. Brilliant performance

The depiction of the family of these brothers lead by the mother and some sisters. It is so rare that we get to see such picturisations of a unorthodox family in Hollywood. We have similar cases in Tamil movies a lot actually but I cant remember seeing something like that from Hollywood in the recent past.

 The Editing, especially, is excellent in this movie. I am still not very convinced about the boxing scenes though. It rather looks like Mickie decides to punch back and win, just because the script demanded it. Even the final fight in Rocky I, though so many decades older, is much much better.

And glad to see Amy Adams in a very different role than from Julia and Julia.

Wong Fei Hung - Once upon a time in China

1991 by Hark Tsui

Sometime in the mid 80's when VCR's started appearing in Keralan homes, thanks to those working in the middle east, one of the first heroes who came with it was Jackie Chan. All video libraries tried to stock each and every Jackie Chan movie which became terrific hits, even in villages. For us Chan movies were the first international movies we were exposed to as school students. Of course, there were movies like Gandhi and Beautiful people, which were international movies too, but those were more of educational ones for us. I remember watching Jackie Chan movies with all the neighbour hood in our family home, mostly containing boys and men who were amazed by the powers of the martial art star (Apparently there were bigger crowds only when the '86 world cup was shown live by Doordarshan and Maradona lit the scene). As news came in that Jackie Chan performed his own stunts and gets operated at least once during each of his film shoot, his fan base increased. We used to watch those movies again and again and again. Watching them now, for eg a movie like Drunken master or Protector, I still admire and appreciate him as an ultimate action star. But the comic scenes of those movies looks a bit oldy now. But I still like to watch those earlier movies of Chan than his modern flicks with Hollywood. Wong Fei Hung or the movie famous as Once upon a time in China, came highly reccommended, but while watching it I thought this movie was still in the early 80's.

Wong Fei Hung, a martial arts maestro has to set up a local militia to protect his town from the increasing number of foreign invaders including the Americans and the French. He faces opposition also from another local gang and a brutal martial art master. 

The movie starts quite slowly and its pace varies, sadly though, many times until it enters the final third. Therein, it is excellent. There is something wrong with the basic script and especially how it is edited, I thought, was the reason for its varying pace. Also as in the case of the earlier Jackie Chan movies, its comic scenes are a bit oldy for now. May be if I had watched it in 90's I would have felt different. And technically too, it is only slightly better than the Chan movies of 80's.

Whatever, the fight scenes are brilliant and that is all what matters finally. Wong Fei Hung was a legendary martial art hero. There should be hundreds of movies made upon this man and every Chinese must be proud about this legend. What a life it must have been for this hero. Even a century later, he is a hero not just in his country, but through cinema, his stories are flying high to the nook and corner of this world.

Dead Poets Society

1989 by Peter Weir

Some years back there was a movie in Malayalam from Fazil, Life is Beautiful. I liked it then, as it was a different attempt from all the stupid ones that were coming out in that time. Also it was one attempt by Mohanlal to perform a role which didnt had any of his routing song/fights/walking scenes. The movie still looked up at his character was one of the reasons it didnt turn out as great. Also the private life of Mohanlal's character was portrayed in a way, the 'hypocritic' Keralan family audiences thought was not fit for a family watch. Neither the fans nor the family approved of the movie and it was a big flop. It was a better movie from Fazil after a couple of horrible attempts since his master piece Manichitrathaazhu. Thanks to my friend Jijo, I watch Dead Poets Society and it is quite embarassing that Fazil infact destroyed an excellent movie of the 80's through his terrible adaptation. I dont know why Fazil decided to run a parallel story in the teachers school life, in the form of his personal life involving his wife and sister in law. That, now I can see, was a weird decision.

In a famous boarding school, a new English teacher arrives and urges his students to look at literature and life in a different way. 'Carpe diem' - he says, ie to Seize the day, as everybody is going to be food for worms very soon. So enjoy life. He instills confidence in the students to go for things what they really like. However, parents and the school itself is not impressed as one of the students kills himself when his parents are against his wishes. 

The best part of this movie is definitely the performance by Robin Williams, as Mr. Keating the teacher who wants the students to be free thinkers. A sublime performance, I must say, never going over board even during some scenes where a bit of overdoing would have been pardonable. From the character, Mr. Williams could have made Mr. Keatings a very theatrical person, but he isnt. A wonderful performance indeed.

The climax, when most of the children stands on top of the desk, just to be against the school's conformity, as a recognition to their teacher or a kind of see off for him, or a way of apologising was very beautiful. A single shot shows that the other students who didn't get up, where leaning towards the front desk as a sign of being embarassed or guilty to not supporting Mr. Keatings, was really nice. Even in these scenes, the movie never goes over board is a real credit for the director.

At the same time, the drama performed by the students by which one of them is applauded by one and all, I thought looked a bit mediocre. Nothing extra ordinary was shown for all those around to look at him as a star.

I am sure there would be at least a few parents who would have decided to not forbid their wards from seeking their wishes. If there were, I am sure this movie is a great success.  In fact, it would not be a bad idea for every parents to watch this movie. Some serious points are told in a simple way.

By the way, Dead Poets Society, is a stunning title.

In my 16 years of work experience, I have had the luck to meet people from all over the world. Especially during a 9 year stint in a cultural centre, I met people even from the remote parts of the world and made friends with nationalities (people used to stay for a long period, even upto an year or so sometimes) from every where. One thing I realised during all these period was that, Indians are more adept in meeting the hard ships of life. Of course we (this is not true for the new Indian generation of the affluent class, I agree) learn life a hard way and Indians seems to show more common sense, this in spite of not being literate or as educated as in the west. It is quite strange then that our movie makers always wants to go overboard or explain too much to illustrate things in their movie. Do they really take their own people as illiterate fools. I simply dont get this.

Vaanam

2011 by Krish

I learnt a lesson yesterday. It might be always better to look to find some information about a movie before attempting to watch. I had just watched Train and was disappointed and then thought, ok at least go for a no brainer movie and relax. So I just went in for Vaanam. I cannot believe how all this happen on the same day. I watched Train, and was thinking, Jayaraj should have watched Vedam, may be. The movie starts with a song and then there is a scene and I was like perplexed, what the hell is this, isnt this a scene from a movie I watched not long ago, even the actress, Anushka, is the same. And in a minute I realised, this movie Vaanam is a remake of the Telugu movie Vedam, and what its done by the same director too. And except for a few characters, even the actors are the same mostly, in both version.

Some characters from different walks of life ends up in a hospital,which is being targeted by a terrorist group.

I was cursing my selves like anything. I had watched Vedam, yes in the same theatre sometime in 2010, and was actually thinking about Vedam, when I was looking at Train unfolded painstakingly on the screen. I thought in Vedam, the characters were better and all their life leading to the hospital was much much more authentic than in Train. So the movie was still good in my memory and this happens to me. A really bad day, especially because I thought the Telugu version looked better.

What a day. 

Anyways, Vaanam, is still a much better watch than Train. 

The Train

2011 by Jairaj

It is beyond any explanations that directors who proved their mettle in the last two decades are climbing down their career graphs in Malayalam cinema. This is true for almost all the Malayalam veteran directors. Jayaraj, a proven director, recently came up with a nice movie, could have been even more beautiful if he had not tried with some horrible songs and comic scenes, in Loud Speaker and gave some hope that there is still hope with some veterans. That movie, though it took (not sure if this was intended) the age old theme of Zorba the Greek, people from two ends of life finding friendship, but did have some nice moments and was a kind of refresher. His new movie, The Train, immediately got widespread negative reviews and  I was sure to not watch.  But then a cousin of mine pulled me in.

Life unfolding for few characters in the city of Mumbai, before they lost it in the serial bomb blasts of July 2006. 

Last year, there was a telegu movie, Vedam, which was dubbed as Killadi in Malayalam. Since the star cast included Allu Arjun, the young charming star most people expected it to be a no brainer in the entertainment category, but it was a pretty decent film on some terrorists taking a hospital, where again different characters from many walks of life are affected. No doubt the stars fans were disappointed. I wish, at least Jayaraj had watched that movie, before he went about making his own Train.

Train fails miserably, because of its terrible script and the soul less characters in it. Except for a couple of scenes and minutes, the film is really disappointing.

How can a director who made movies like Vidyarambham, Kaliyaattam and Makalkku not realise the emptiness in this script. 

Red Cliff 2

2009 by John Woo

Rafeeq managed to find the part 2 and thanks to him I was able to watch it yesterday itself.

Based on the Battle of the red cliffs in 208 - 209 AD, at the end of the Han dynasty, with the emperor on one side and two local war lord who have formed an alliance, not against the empire actually, but against his war mongering chancellor. Part two is the final part of this war at the red cliff.

I have nothing more to say from what I did yesterday. As an out and out war movie, this is brilliant. I cannot remember a single movie in which the war strategy is so much detailed and executed with lots of details for the viewers.

And it is brilliant. Each and every aspect is brilliant. It is just a bit disappointing that the music is slightly western influenced. The same too, if it was purely Chinese, it would have been even better.

The end of the movie claims there are no winners. How true. Nobody wins at the end of a war.  And most wars are unnecessary. Here too, it is frightening to know that all this was actually for a woman.

John Woo should be a proud man. He must have taken a bit of fictionalised history for the script, but still.
I had rather measure it on what I get to see and how it is told. There are moments which can only be told poetic. This is an epic war movie in all its sense and am sure many directors must be jealous of him.

Red Cliff

2008 by John Woo

A friend who runs a small cd shop, in the same building where my office is, sometimes takes a lot of pain to get me the dvd's I ask for. He says normally people only ask for hollywood blockbusters and some people just pick cd's based on the pictures on the cover - of war or explosions or guns etc. It is not feasible for him to buy just a couple of copies of a non English movie, but he still does it for me. He says whenever he comes across such CD's he just picks them for me. There are also a couple of other guys who occassionally turn up in his shop for European or movies from other regions than Hollywood. I am very grateful to this guy for giving me dvd's for a small price, keeping only a bare minimum profit for himself. I do understand, Rafeeq has only some basic education and all, but he is immensly helpful. Well he called me yesterday to say about this new Chineese movie and I liked it immediately when I saw the cover design.

A movie about a real war at the end of the Han dynasty in the 208 - 209 AD.

It is such a brilliant movie, BRILLIANT I must emphasize, and is so detailed in its description of war and its preparations, chequered with some wonderful imagery. When a part of this amazing war was over and we are looking for that final , the screen says - to be continued..... -- I really got mad. I looked the cover again and there is no sign at all about this dvd being a part 1. Except for the name Red Cliff, everything was in chineese. It was so disappointing. Even if it meant the second pat was another 2 hours, I would have continued watching it, even if it was 0130 in the morning. Oh what a pity.

I spoke to Rafeeq and he has promised me to get the second part, if its available in Kochi. So eagerly waiting for this part.

In fact, the part I show was released by itself and still went to break all box office records in East Asia. The second part was released a few months later and that too was a historic success.

Once again let me say, this movie is bloody brilliant. It is all about this epic war, but goes into details as to its preparations and strategies, through some characters. It can match or overrun any of the best epic war movies from the west in its production and all other values and is even better as to some ways it details some war techniques and some interspersed imagery, which makes this movie to tilt it to the artistic side of scale. As a whole movie, I might still consider Mongol - the rise of Chengiz khan slightly above, but as an out and out war movie, this is brilliant.

Blood Work

2002 by Clint Eastwood.

I always liked Mr. Eastwood for many reasons and it was Million Dollar Baby, which made me admire this wonderful talent. That was a movie, a real brilliant movie. Blood Work was may be his training ground, before he set out for that master piece.

Terry McCaleb is a retired FBI agent, who has just undergone a heart transplant. He is approached by a woman, Graciella Rivers, to help find her sister's murderer. It was her sisters heart which is ticking on Terry and he owes it to her. And then it is the investigation by this retired agent.

The start of the movie is really good I thought, and it is allright almost till the middle and but then it continues as ordinary. It is full of typical Hollywood cliches is what is most disappointing. I dont know at what age an FBI agent retires. Whatever, Mr. Eastwood is too old, for a relationship with the 30 some Graciella. And there is hardly anything that brings them close too.

Anyways, investigation wise it is excellent till the mid point, but looses its compactness and some silly errors would help most people guess the killer. May be some fast editing on a couple of scenes, for eg. the shot where Terry pins up the cheque for his buddy, would have made it for difficult guessing.

It is not a bad movie, nor is it really good. Just a one time watch.

Admire Mr. Eastwood though, still. 

Thoonganagaram

2011 by Gaurav

A lots of debutant directors are coming up in Tamil language, most of them really young. It is good that a considerable percentage among them do make a mark. This is a very interesting factor that is doing wonders for Tamil cinema in the new millennium. It is even more appreciable that they make movies with a real Tamil flavour, with stories and characters which are routed in Tamil culture, may it be urban or rustic. However, a good percentage of these stories are based on rustic characters is the biggest credit to Tamil movie makers. At least in one state in India, there are artists who haven't forgotton the fact that, India lives in its villages and a good majority are still suffering.

Four callous youth are all struggling for their livelihoods in the sleepless city of Madurai. When they come across a situation when some body takes shoots videos of girls in a trail room (in a textile show room) black mailing her, one of them goes out and bashes out these bad guys. It turned out that one of them was the son of a prominent local bad guy, who is now wanting revenge. This guy makes this strange plan, by which three of the friends have to save their families by killing their friend, who was responsible for the bashing. 

In some aspects, Thoonganagaram is even better than Subramaniapuram, the predecessor in the Madurai youth based movies. Yes its brilliant in patches. But it turns out quite ordinary at some places and those places really takes the charm out of this movie making it just an average entertainer, which could have been an excellent movie. It is certain scenes in the script, unnecessarily detailing certain incidents and elaborating few cliches, which fails this could have been brilliant movie.

But the debutant director has been excellent, who also plays a part as one of the friends. May be it is this double duty which made him ignore the details. But still credit to him, because if this movie was made in Malayalam, I am sure the Malayaali viewers might have appreciated it even more as there are not even good average movies coming up in Malayalam. All the more, there have been a lot of Madurai youth based movies now in Tamil, most are still different in some ways, though.

Once again, the Cinematography is brilliant.

El Hijo de la Novia - Son of the Bride

2001 by Juan Jose Campanella

I have been searching for this movie for long time, ever since I read Luca's book on Messi, in which it mentions this was the favourite movie of Leo. And just like the cherry on top of ice cream, after the Champion league victory, a friend send me the links.  I thought it would be a simple comedy, but it ended up as a beautiful movie, of a family.

Rafael is a busy restaurateur who forgot about life. As a result, he has earned a divorce with rights to have his girl child, once in a week. His mother, Norma, is suffering from Alzheimers and under pressure from his father Nino, he meets her after a long time. Nino and Norma had a legal marriage, against the wishes of Norma, as Nino was against religion. At this old age, Nino wants to give a present to Norma, by getting married in a church as per her wish. A religious marriage after 44 years. 

We assume Rafael and his mid life struggles are definitely going to be the centre point of the movie as it starts. Slowly he has a change of mind, after a heart stroke, towards his priorities, and wants to help his father with the marriage in the church. I was more than moved by the 44 year old love for a man to a woman. And this love is been told in the most beautiful and touching way. Believe me, there are so many moments in the script, which could have been made too much emotional and melo dramatic. But Campanella has told all those moments in a very subtle way and makes it very simple and non dramatic. But still it will reach the deep corners of our heart. I had tears at least twice during the scenes towards the end.

Yes, this is a touching love story of an old man. It is also a wonderful movie about a family. And even if not intended, it also is a movie about how to love anybody suffering from Alzheimers.

I wish Blessy had seen this movie before making his Thanmatra, which was over melo dramatic.

This is a perfect feel good film with family values and love taking centre stage. I can see why Leo Messi, a family boy, adores this movie.

This is going to be in my must watch list, if anybody asks me.

There is a scene when Rafael's girl friend accuses him that he is no Einstein, Bill Gates or Dick Watson and just like Rafael, we too are puzzled by this Mr. Watson, who the hell is he? during the end credits, a small scene shows us that Dick Watson is a porn star. That was really excellent. 

Beautiful, Brilliant, Biwitching - Barcelona

Barca 2008 - 11 by Pep Gaurdiola

For a true lover of football, Barcelona does a performance on the field. After watching the 2011 Champions league finals about 4 times already, I couldnt help writing a few lines about my beloved Barca here.

All my nervousness from the last two days cooled down from the 11th minute onwards when Barca started its own tiki taka and made to look the EPL champions like school boys. What a performance it was, only second to the 5-0 master class we gave to Real Madrid at Nou Camp on the 29 of November 2010, in the first el classico of this season.

Like millions of cules across the world, I feel the most luckiest to have watched this Barca side, ever since Pep Guardiola took charge. From 2008 till May 28  2011, Barca have shown the world how the beautiful game is to be played. More than anything they have showd what a team ought to be, with the kind of spirit they hold amongst their utterly humble and on the earth super stars.

And Mes que un club slogan was more than appropriate when Eric Abidal, the man who went through a life threatening surgery, just a few weeks before, lifted the cup at Wembley.

I am more happy that finally the bloody, hypocritic and mean British media, even, have acknowledged that this Barca is purity at its best lead by an amazing trio of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta.

Look at these passing stats.



Some more reviews, from British, are here.
Review by Jonathan Wilson 

from The Telegraph

Tactical review from Zonal Marking

How do you Know

2010 by James L Brooks

Still nervous about the Barca match. In Rome '09 nobody thought Barca was any match for Manchester united, especially the UK media and hence, most cules like me was not really that worried about that match.  Since, even UK media think this Barca side as something special, a once in a generation kind of team, all seems to just wonder how the hell can M United stop Barca. This favourite tag on Barca, I think, is not good and is making me really madly nervous. So I decided to watch one more movie after Due Date, especially since Due Date didnt offer any kind of healing.

One woman, two men and a couple of characters around. The same plot which have given lots and lots of romantic comedies, some times brilliant ones. 

I picked up this movie, because of Jack Nicholson. I am nearly a fan of this wonderful actor. Also to see Owen Wilson, with him was quite nice. So didnt hesitate at all to pick this up.  But oh my dear... but. Even Mr. Nicholson makes this kind of mistakes. Well, his role as a businessman, who does some dirty things and indicts his son instead, is a different character. But not for this kind of movie. I felt really sorry for Mr. Nicholson to have chosen this movie. What  a waste of talent. He does give glimpses of his brilliance, especially in the very first scene, but there is nothing for him in this movie.

And compared to this movie, Due Date is a better watch, at least. What a waste of time.

I really dont understand what happened to Reese Witherspoon. Where is her charm and where is that energy. Very disappointing.

Avoidable, cent percent. 

Due Date

2010 by Todd Philips

I have really got into the mood of the Champions league final match between Barca and Manchester United and hence have been really nervous, since yesterday and as I type this now, I think I can hear by heart beats.
So decided to see something really entertaining.

Peter and Ethan meets in the airport and finally ends up on the no-fly list. Peter has to reach Los Angeles immediately as his wife is expecting delivery. Two guys with contrasting attitudes to life and everything travels together. 

Quite ordinary plot, dont know how many times this has been repeated now, from Hollywood, filled with all the typical cliches. I am afraid this is not even average.

Watch this movie only for Zach. Even if its the same kind of routine character, he is still funny.

Baaria

2009 by Guiseppe Tornatore

Even the very best directors, sometimes can faulter. When I am on my movie search, more than anything, I am  lead to movies through the director. I came across Baaria, as a Tornatore movie, the man who gave the beautiful Nouvo Cinema Paradiso and the wonderful Malena. Baaria, doesnt really have that heart touching free flowing stamp of Tornatore.

The movie is set in the Sicilian town of Baaria and extends from 1920's to the 80's, giving the life story of three generations from Cicco to Peppino to Pietro. It also touches the varying political scenario of Italy during this period. 

I was little disappointed. May be it was just me. For some reason, the movie lacks the usual heart that we get to see in Tornatore's cinema. It is not a bad cinema at all. It just fails to reach the levels of his other works.

I am not sure about this, but may be Tornatore wanted to make an epic movie like 1900 or Le Meglio Gioventu. But sadly, Baaria is not anywhere near those movies. In spite of lot of opportunities, there is a not a single moment in Baaria, which can match the emotional scale of Le Meglio....

The only factors which were brilliant were the cinematography and the editing.

But let me say this, during this movie there is a particular scene and I immediately thought, may be the Malayalam director Ranjith watched this movie, before making his Paleri Manikkyam. May be not. One shot was strikingly similar in its setting. May be its just a coincidence. Two artists thinking alike.

Naked

1993 by Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh must have done something in his life to understand human behaviour so well. How he creates, prepares and depicts his characters, I am afraid, is beyond any imagination for most directors or artists. It is unbelievable how he creates his strange plots, looking strange and unique but these sort of things are happening around, and brings life into it with extra ordinary characters. Naked, is yet another example of this amazing anthropologist director. I dont know if Mr. Leigh had anything to do with Anthropology, but for me he has studied human beings better than anybody I know.

Johnny flees from Manchester to London, to avoid getting beaten by the husband of a lady when his sex with her turns out to rape. He arrives in the shared flat of his girl friend, Louise, shared with Sophie and Sandra. Sandra is out on a trip to Zimbabwe, which means there is space in the flat. Its Johnny's tryst with Sophie, Sandra and couple of other London characters, what make out this brilliant movie. 

Johnny is bloody intelligent actually, but like many Leigh characters, he speaks out loud against many problems of this world and its existentialism and cliches. And he does this in the most brutal and unsophisticated manner, ruthless, brutal, sadistic and cruelly sarcastic. At the same time, he needs only few seconds to charm anybody, man or woman, and to seduce them. But then its his after conduct that brings out his ruthlessness and kind of dictatorial nature.

To be frank, this is an unbelievable movie. It is no action, no comedy or drama or anything like that. But just through one character, which is unpretentious and ruthless, it portrays a different side of human nature. May be that is why it is named as Naked, as human mind is left open without any pretensions here.

We get to see a different side of Johnny through all the characters he come across, all of them unique in their own ways, may it be Louise, Sophie, the security man, the young couple on street, the young waitress who throws him out of her apartment, the aged woman across the building or finally Sandra the nurse coming back from Zimbabwe. I wish, I could recollect and write down some of the dialogues of Johnny that anybody reading this, who have already not watched this movie, will understand what I am trying to say. It is a pity I cant write. I could write and write and write about this for long. Brilliant.

Truly out of the world performances by everybody, typical of Leigh movies, especially David Thewlis as Johnny. How can a man with blood and flesh understand this kind of a character and live as that person on celluloid. Unbelievable. I am told, Mr. Spielberg was so amused that he requested for a meeting with Mr. Thewlis. Speilberg, Martin Scorcese and Brian de Palma had spend a whole night arguing on this character before.

And what to say about Leigh, nothing more than what I have already. This man is a genius. It is towards the end that he really surprise us. The final 20 minutes or so turns out literally to be a laugh riot actually, even if it is not what might have been intended. Especially since the arrival of Sandra, the movie takes a very different turn for the viewer with lots of laughs. All credit to this genius director.

I dont have anything more to say actually, my salutes to Mr. Leigh and his team.  This is the best of raw cinema. Most uncompromising effort on celluloid, to my experience.

There is a way of saying in Malayalam - I live in Kochi - and I can tell to my friend, if I need to get beaten, I can get it done in Kochi, why go all the way up to Mumbai to get beaten.. In someways, this is how it works for the major character in Naked. 

Oldboy

2003 by Park Chan wook

I think I have seen all Kim Ki Duk movies and I never understood why his movies are not that popular in Korea. In fact even most Koreans are not really appreciative of this wonderful director. I still dont know the reason and am not sure why I even thought about Kim Ki Duk now. But I must say that Korean movies, from all what I have seen in the last 4 years, are excellent. Even some of the pure entertainment ones were excellent. Watching Old boy, I was thinking how lucky Koreans are.

Oh Dae-Su gets drunk on the birthday of his daughter and before he can reach her, is kidnapped. He is locked in a  room and actually spends about 15 years there. When he is released he wants revenge and soon finds his kidnapper who reveals to him that Dae-Su has been hypnotised for selective memory and he will have to find out the reason behind his 15 years solitary confinement. Dae-Su, with Mi-do, a young chef he met in a restaurant, sets on this search for his past. He realises that the 15 years itself was a revenge on him, for a silly sin, and its not over. The worst part of this revenge is for him to experience, yet.

This movie is based on a novel, but if we can call some movie scripts as intelligent, then here is one for those list, which I would say is brilliantly intelligent. What a plot! Absolutely stunning. In the beginning, when he is in his jail, I was struggling to think about another movie on a similar kind of jail - still dont remember the name and if it was from US or Europe - but the similarity ends there. Oldboy actually starts only when Dae-Su is out of the jail. His quest for the past is excellent and so is his relationship with Mi-do and how he wants to take on his kidnapper Woo-jin. And as the past is out there, obviously not just Dae-Su, but even the viewers might think, is it all for this.  Really? That just looks like a very silly sin. But once the final revenge on Dae -Su, the main secret, is revealed, the transformation on Dae-Su is stunning. He falls and pleads on the legs of Woo-jin like a dog and even cuts off his own tounge. The most amazing aspect is that we keep wondering, but isnt this a bit too much of a revenge. However, at the end there is this really touching scene between Woo-jin and Soo-ah and that scene was really heart broking. If one has ever fallen in love, it is hard to bear that scene and I must say I really felt sad.

It is also noteworthy that Hypnotism plays a major part in this movie, it occupies only a few seconds on screen though. The final scene, were Dae-su finds his original hypnotist and wants to be hypnotised again, is quite nice. The movie is left open for interpretations, like modern French classics, and I liked it. It is for sure that Mi-do is still not aware about the secret, but the final hypnotised Dae-su, what exactly is he carrying in his mind, is open to the viewer to interpret.

There are still some ethical questions here but I would like to ignore all that and all those probability questions and just admire and appreciate this movie. Cent percent, this is an intelligent and beautiful movie. Intelligent for its script and direction, beautiful for its technical sides and performances.

I feel proud about this movie as an Asian. My salutes to the writer and director.

Just wanted to note down something which is repeated in this movie - When you laugh the whole world laughs with you, when you cry you cry alone. Truly loved it.

This is a kind of genius of cruelty. Brilliant movie. It is nice that Hollywood haven't remade this yet.
Please don't.