Our hobbies revolve around movies, movies, more movies and movie related other stuff.
I am not sure, if we are 'made' this way, or this is something forced into us by some media desparado's.
I believe, the movie watching phenomenon is predominant, because most of us lack other opportunities to spend our time in a better way.
Some of us, who do have fairly better opps, neglect to pursue them, due to our inbuilt lackluster attitude towards 'quality' life.
I lie among the lackluster crowd with lazy couch-potato skills, who take pride in spending every minute I have, in watching movies.
I do this movie watching with a zest and with the pace I am in right now, I will probably saturate watching all the (good) movies ever made (that gives a chill :) ).
I will dwelve in to the details of the kind of movies I like and hate in a separate post. For this post, I will briefly comment (not a full review) on a few recently watched movies.
1) Eklavya - The Royal Gaurd (2006)
I usually decide to watch a movie in a big theater if the movie had received raving reviews. Very few times, I do a blind-watch for my favourite director/actors. ( my recent blind-watch was GURU, and it was worth the watch).
as for Eklavya, I decided to spend my $10 to watch the movie in a theater, after reading some positive reviews about the film.
I was also thrilled by the trailor of this movie.
Unfortunately, the 2 minutes movie trailor was made by hand picking ALL the good scenes in the movie and the left over movie was not as thrilling.
The movie quality was good (cinematography, sets, acting, ..), but it lacked an overall appeal.
Eklavya (Amitab) was about a royal gaurd who thinks his dharma was to safegaurd the royal castle and everything within. The king, saddened for many years by the 'Eklavya secret' kills the queen and also plots to kill Eklavya. Prince (Saif-Ali-Khan) arrives, learns about the 'Eklavya secret', voes his ex-girlfriend (Vidya Balan), and engulfs himself in sadness throughout. King has a evil brother (Jackie Shroff). King was killed by someone, Eklavya decides to avenge.
Amitab aced his part. Saif-ali-khan has no screen presence for this type of role. Vidya Balan was Ok.
well, watch it in a theater, if you absolutely have to.
for the rest, you can wait for the DVD.
2) Pachaikili Muthucharam - Tamil (2006)
Gautham Menon (director) has proved his cine-making skills again. He has evolved a new template of movie making since Minnale. He is pruning the template and shines better and better each year.
Pachaikili Muthucharam, is a nice drama about a married middle aged male (Sarath Kumar) who his overpowered by the charms of his train-mate Jyothika. The story revolves around the extra-marital affairs between Sarath and Jyothika for a while and takes a nice twist when Milind Soman steps in as the villain.
I dont like Sarath much, but his presence in this movie was fitting.
Jyothika was awesome to watch and so was Andrea(?), Saraths wife.
The only negative was, Milind Somans dubbing (Gautams) voice. Gautam should stay behind the camera and not do any more dubbing for his villains. Enough of that!
well, watch it in theaters. It will be a good movie watching experience.
3) Deepavali - Tamil (2006)
reminded me of 'Moonram pirai', though this movie is not a lift from 'Moonram pirai'.
what happens when your beloved, suddenly forgets you one day?
This happens to our hero (Jeyam Ravi), and the movie is about how he gets her (Bhavana) back.
Movie was nicely done. The chennai slang tamil which is filled in the movie was a irritant in the beginning, but then it flows well and adds up to the beauty of the film.
Bhavna is cute and bubbly. Ravi has acted well.
for me, watching a movie in a theater will usually require a good proven director/actor or atleast a good review. Rarely a movie like 'Kadhal' comes in and pushes me to spend my $10. Deepavali is not one among them, but a can-watch, not-boring movie.
4) Perumazakalam - Malayalam (2004)
I enjoy malayalam movies - and I believe some of the very best movies are 'made in Kerala'. I watched Perumazakalam (directed by Kamal) on DVD a few weeks back.
Its been a while since I have seen a subtle and touching movie and Perumazakalam was a feast for the eyes, ears and the heart.
Meera Jasmine, a typical muslim wife with a kid, lives in some corner of Calicut near a big lake (or backwaters?). Like most keralite husbands, Meera Jasmines' husband (Dilip) works in Saudi Arabia to make a living.
Movie unfolds with the news that Dilip was arrested and was sentenced to death for killing a fellow Keralite (Vineeth).
To save Dilip from the gallows, Meera has to convince Kavya Madhavan (Vineeths wife) and have Kavya provide a clemency.
What a movie! vow!! Back waters, monsoon, rain, cinematography, background score, songs - everything fits very well!
The actors lived their part - every one of them.
Perumazakalam gave the best movie watching experience. If you like watching good movies, this is a must watch for you!
Happy Oscars!! lets celeberate the movies!
more to come (Iranian movies)... later..
to be continued...
