The Queen (Stephen Frears, Color/English/2006)

PC


This is a Helen Mirren show all the way. Oscar for the grand lady? I vote for it. Sympathy for Diana is easily forthcoming and the general public will cry itself hoarse that the royal family killed her. The fact remains that she was killed in an accident. Period.

The movie shows the other point of view. Except for a few scenes and the depiction of Prince Philip as a dunce, the movie seems to have captured the mood in the royal family and the Queen's personal battles with the incident.

Looking forward to more great roles from Mirren.

SS

Ocean's Twelve (Steven Soderbergh, Color/English/2004)

PC


Now the first one "Ocean's Eleven" was an interesting remake and was bearable. This one is a clear NO NO!!! Completely garbled and overtly stylized, it left me asking if Soderbergh randomly shot the movie and created "a story" on the editing table. The acting, in most parts, was terrible, the plot cliched and confusing, the camerawork & editing gave me a headache.

Is Soderbergh losing it?

SS

Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck, Color/English/2006)

PC


This one I liked becuase at the end the movie didn't preach anything or showed a happy/sad ending. Half Nelson shows the relationship between a white male teacher in a predominantly african-american neighborhood school and a teenage african-american girl. The teacher is battling drug addiction and alcohol dependence and in turn trying to prevent the girl from getting entangled in drug peddling.

Without loud and preachy scenes, the movie shows the internal battles each of us fights inwardly, even though outside we tend not to show the world that we have issues. The movie has several messages and must be watched to understand them (instead of me writing in length).

The acting is good, but more than the acting, the direction stands out. Ryan Fleck has done a good job. Overall, a very fine movie.

SS

Lage Raho Munnabhai (Rajkumar Hirani, Color/Hindi/2006)

PC

Just like Terminator 2, Lage Raho Munnabhai turns out to be far better than the first movie, Munnabhai M.B.B.S. Defintely the best Bollywood movie of this year (yes, I'll have to agree with all the reviewers on the net), this movie and not Rang De Basanti, should have been sent to the Oscars as India's official entry. For one, RDB espoused violence as a solution to the problems India (and the rest of the world) faces, but LRM rightfully reminds us to look back at Gandhi's principles (not his political ones, mind you) and urges us to imbibe them. Ah, it's all together another issue that neither of these movies should be sent to the Oscars, though Munnabhai 2 defintely is a movie that India needs to market around the world.

Munnabhai & Circuit are in full form in LRM!!! And, we love them!!!! Sanjay Dutt is perfect as Munnabhai (as always) and Arshad Warsi as Circuit is a pleasure to the sore eyes. In particular, Circuit's reactions to Munnabhai's Gandhi halucinations are the peak moments in comedy!! The rest of the cast ably supports our two heroes ...... Mention must be made of Boman Irani -- once again he shows us what a fine actor he is .... Having seen him play Gandhi in Mahatma vs Gandhi (Feroze Khan <not the pathetic actor FK> directed play) way back in 1999, I was always hoping this actor should make it big so I can keep watching him on screen. Three cheers for Boman!!!! The songs are irrelevant, but fun to watch. At least, they are not pretentious like other Bollywood song & dance routines ........

Rajkumar Hirani's script is a relevant social commentary on the state of affairs in India and how we need to get back Gandhi's ideals in our lives to make some changes. As Jhanvi (Vidya Balan) says at the end "..... I've seen many professors who preach Gandhi, Munna you are the first person I've met who actually practices what Gandhi stood for .....". This sentence sums up the movie .... Hirani's direction is top notch and he proves a second time that he's one of the promising new crop of directors in Bollywood (Lord: please spare me from the crappy bunch of Johars/Barjatyas/Chopras et al).

Way to go Hirani & Vidhu Vinod Chopra (the producer) ...... more Munnabhais to come????

SS

Makdee / The Spider (Vishal Bharadwaj, Color/Hindi/2002)

PC


Interesting. For a Bollywood children's film, it stands out. Shweta Prasad is impressive playing the twins and Shabana Azmi is fun to watch as the witch 'Makdee'. Overall, a nice effort by Bharadwaj. Looking forward to watching his next children's movie The Blue Umbrella.

SS

Titli (Rituparno Ghosh, Color/Bengali/2002)

PC


Classic Rituparno! The movie feels like silk and makes one feel good inside. The three actors are brilliant -- the young Konkona, experienced Mithun Chakraborty and a rare good performance from Aparna Sen. Even Dipankar Dey's cameo stands out (a fine actor he is!). Music by Debajyoti Mishra stands out and the opening title song by Sreekanta Acharya is memorable.

SS

Gangster (Anurag Basu, Color/Hindi/2006)

PC


A very good effort by Basu. Good acting by the debutant Kangana Ranaut and as in the case of Hazaron Khwaishain Aisi, Shiney Ahuja SHINES brightly. Nice music from Pritam, including the song picked from Mohiner Ghoraguli. A very enjoyable and rare Bollywood watch this one.

SS

Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, Color/English/2006)

PC


I've decided to give a masterpiece rating because this movie, after a long long gap, really made me split up! Funny as hell ....... Rating downgraded to 3.5 ....

SS


One of the best comedies I've seen in a very long time.

Omkara (Vishal Bharadwaj, Color/Hindi/2006)

PC


Vishal Bharadwaj's Othello adaptation to the hindi movie screen stands out as a fine piece of moviemaking. For the average Indian moviegoer this film will be a bit hard to swallow. However, for cinema lovers, the adaptation stands shoulder to shoulder with other productions of Othello.

Set in the north-Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), the movie showcases the Brahmin dominated landscape of western UP and the violent politics of that region. But, in essence the movie is faithful to the bard's play and interprets most of the story accurately. Without comparing to Othello, the movie on its own shows how jealousy and rage can break havoc in people's lives.

As for acting is concerned, Saif Ali Khan stands out as "Langda" Tyagi (Iago), Konkona Sen Sharma (Indu/Emilia) is very good, as usual, Ajay Devgan (Omkara/Othello) is sufficiently good, Kareena Kapoor (Dolly Mishra/Desdemona) gives a clean performance (laudable for a commercial Bollywood actress), Naseeruddin Shah sleepwalks through his role (nothing challenging for him), Bipasha Basu (Billo/Bianca) & Vivek Oberoi (Keshu Firangi/Cassio) are all right in their small roles.

Vishal is getting better with each movie, Tassaduq Hussain's first movie as cinematographer stands out as a fine piece of work, the editing is ok (Meghna Manchanda), the music (Vishal) & lyrics (Gulzar) are fantastic .... overall the movie is good, however the ending is rather abrupt and could have been stretched a little longer instead of the slower (dragging) middle part of the movie.

Way to go Vishal!!!

Ratings Explained

Masterpiece
Very Good
Good
OK
So-So
Bad
Very Bad
Disastrous

The Devil Wears Prada (David Frankel, Color/English/2006)

SS

While "The Devil Wears Prada" seems another silly movie at the outset, it is notebly more enjoyable by the acting of Meryl Streep, who playes the role of Miranda Priestly, an eccentric and quite demanding editor of a top notch fashion magazine in New York City.

Anne Hathaway (Andy Sachs) plays the young woman that enters the fashion scene, a complete unknown area to her as the second assistant for Ms. Priestly. Though her role inteh movie is not a complicated one , Ms. Hathaway, brings to it a girlish charm that is all her own, allowing the movie to remain on solid ground instead of becoming a bore.

Of the remaining characters in the movie, the role of Christian Thompson (Simon Baker), who plays a freelance journalist of loose morals, has the more interesting and twisted role that is not revealed till the end of the movie.

Overall as a comedy, this movie is charming and has some depth, unlike most comedy films of today's genre. Regardless of the simple plot and storyline this film maintains the interest of the viewer due to the acting of Meryl Streep. Though tedious at the end, the movie brings several laughs and a leaves one with a happy smile at the end.

Superman Returns (Bryan Singer, Color/English/2006)

PC


A sheer waste of time for us ..... on top of the torture on screen, the IMAX airconditioning for some reason wasn't working properly. What a pain!!! Compare this movie to Batman Begins ..... and we end this review here.

SS


Seen in the IMAX setting this movie is not worth seeing in any theater setting despite it's 3D effects, which leave much to be desired. The special effects lack any realism and is not worth viewing in IMAX theaters. Though the lead actor, Superman/Clark Kent (Brandon Routh) and the villan, Lex Luther (Kevin Spacey) were quite good, the plot and the screenplay leaves the viewer bored and awaiting the end of the movie with baited breath.

Overall the movie is not worth spending the money to see in theaters. Furthermore, the movie is one that should be avoided if one has anything, something more interesting to do.

The White Balloon / Badkonake sefid (Jafar Panahi, Color/Farsi/1995)

PC


A feel good movie from director Jafar Panahi with a great script by Abbas Kiarostami. The simple story of a little girl going out to purchase a goldfish on the eve of the Iranian new year and her adventures, the people she encounters on the way to the shop and her travails with money!!!

At the very end, the little girl (Aida Mohammadkhani) gets help from her older brother (Mohsen Kafili) in getting back the money she had lost on the way to the shop. Jafar Panahi makes the children act well and Aida Mohammadkhani's expressions, particularly the pain of not being able to get the goldfish is captured brilliantly. The movie shows that essentially all human beings are good at heart and a little girl's tears can move us enough to make us forget about our own problems. Overall, a superb movie that makes one forget the outside world and makes one relaxed ......... I had a smile on my face way to the end!!!

Fireworks / Hana-bi (Takeshi Kitano, Color/Japanese/1997)

PC


Controlled chaos?? Sudden bursts of brutal violence in the midst of poetic film making ...... WOW!! Takeshi Kitano is the Guru ...... I'd consider him even more influential than Quentin Tarantino.

Kitano's character in the movie was very predictable, yet the sudden violence from him was very very unpredictable. The ending came with a burst of touching moments and blood and gore. I have never seen such a good cocktail of violence with poetry.

Looking forward to watching the other controversial Kitano movies!

Manhunter (Michael Mann, Color/English/1986)

PC


Hmmm .... an earlier version of Silence of the Lambs .... A prequel of sorts that was actually shot before SOTL came out. SOTL, of course, is a far superior movies because of obvious reasons. Manhunter was engrossing enough to be called a fairly good movie. Especially since it was made with little money compared to SOTL and didn't have big stars associated with it.

The one thing I'll remember (and which was mentioned about in the review) will be the music from the film -- very very 80s kind! Thumbs up for the movie!

SS

The Tramp (Charles Chaplin, BW/Silent/1915)

PC


Definitely one of the great Chaplin movies -- it had the typical social message from Chaplin, was well scripted and the screenplay was good, the acting (if that's what it was) was as usual absurdly Chaplin like ..... but, a good movie to sum it up.

SS


As yet another in the series of Charlie Chaplin films depicting the harsh life in the early 1900's, and yet promises bursts of laughter from the movie viewer. However, it falls short as it the storyline makes little sense. A wandering pauper who attempts to save the life of a young lady from robbers and becomes smitten with her. He returns with her to her home to find work on their farm and only creates havoc. Though he is invited into the home, he is eventually outwitted by the young girl who's fiancee returns home to marry her leaving the wanderer on the road again looking for a home. This film left little for me to laugh at but was quite effective in provoking me to think of the current bleak situation around the world.

A Dog’s Life (Charles Chaplin, BW/Silent/1918)

PC

I found this movie very very irritating. Not because it wasn't humorous in the typical Chaplinsque way, but because unlike other Chaplin movies, this piece of work didn't offer me anything new. Except for Chaplin's tomfoolery-a-plenty!!! Not one of his better works for sure ....

SS

True to Charlie Chaplin humor this short silent film provokes the viewer to realize the harshness of the poverty, but can easily initiate laughter in the same scene. A very enjoyable short film.

Child of the Big City / Ditya bolshogo goroda (Yevgeni Bauer, BW/Silent/1914)

PC


For a movie shot in 1914, the theme was definitely daring!! Apart from the theme, the movie offered nothing to me. Comparing this movie to Eisenstien's Battleship Potemkin (1925), it falls flat on its face ...........

Nothing to comment about on the acting front .......... overall thumbs down.

SS

Woman of Tokyo / Tokyo no onna (Yasujiro Ozu, BW/Silent/1933)

PC


Pretty daring subject for those times. The acting was very good and the story line was compact and to the point. I lost a little interest primarily because I could anticipate the direction the movie took after the brother found out the reality of his sister's dual life.

Nothing more to write, I guess. But, I'd like to say that watching two silent movies by Ozu back to back was an experience. Before that there were two other silent films, so it was getting a little tedious anyway. Ozu changed that -- Woman of Tokyo screened first and made me sit up again .... however, An Inn in Tokyo was overall better except for the fact that it went on and on .... Overall, a good experience.

An Inn in Tokyo / Tokyo no yado (Yasujiro Ozu, BW/Silent/1935)

PC


Went well till about 3/4 way and then dragged. I liked the part where the father and his two sons look for dogs to sell so that they can buy their next meal and find shelter for the night. Even the part of meeting the woman and her daughter and the interaction of the kids was very good. However, the last part of the movie fizzled out trying to show how the man tries to be nice by stealing to save the woman's daughter.

The ending should have been some time after the man gets a job, but the woman is shown to suffer more.

Overall, a good piece of early work from the master Ozu. As was expected, a silent movie from the great director is as good as movies with tons of dialogue and sound!!!