A Peck on the Cheek

This is a story about the search for the birth mother of a cute-naughty girl Amuda, with her loving and foster parent. The movie shows a nice juxtaposition of motherly love, love for nation, fear and terrorism as they search for Amuda's birth-mother. With all the intense terrorism and blasts there is a nice tone of humor in the portrayal of Amuda's present family and their love story. Words are less and best when used, like in all Maniratnam's movies that stand apart from the mostly verbose Indian movies.

Paths of Glory

This is a film about the class differences in the French army during WW1 and is directed by Stanley Kubrick. This film depicts the suicidal ant hill mission where the French army tries to take on a hill well defended by the Germans. It depicts the lower classes in the army(like the soldiers) to be much more morally responsible and integrated than the higher classes. Throughout the movie there is a moral degradation of the higher class generals in search of promotion or fame. The degradation goes so far as to give an order to attack their own army. Kirk Douglas gives a brilliant performance in his role as an officer who tries to fight all the vile stuff that goes on during this movie. This is one of the best Kubrick movies I have seen.

One Hour Photo

This movie is about a weird photo guy Sy Parrish(played by Robin Williams). Sy tries to escape his solitary and monotonous job by observing and admiring the family photos of Yorkins. Slowly this admiration turns into a dangerous obsession. And this obsession jeopardizes his career and he loses his job. Throughout the movie Sy tries to get closer to the Yorkins in a desperate manner. We can observe this when he tries to get a gift for little Jake or when he tries to get closer to Mrs Yorkins by trying to read the same book as Mrs Yorkins does. But this never really happens due to standoffish nature of the society. For those who like psychologically stimulating thrillers this mus be a good watch.

Anita and Me

One more movie of the theme: diaspora, but very differently handled. Its interesting to see how did different cultures interact. This movie is about growing up and friendship of a 12 year old Indian(east) girl: Meena with a pretty blond: Anita in England in 1970's.

Bend It Like Beckham is an entertainer but this one is a classic. The movie touches various topics: racism, growing-up, diaspora and friendship all with a nice sense of humor. The thick Black-country accent is hard to follow but going through the story from the child perspective helps us hold our attention.

I always love movies on this theme. I feel a natural curiousity to understand how different cultures are read or perceived out of their context. Other movies on Indian(east) diaspora are: Bend it like Beckham, Namesake, Mitr: The Friend, American Desi. If interested in this genre do check out Russel Petter's Stand Up Comedy( yes, you can you can find it on YouTube :) .

Anita and Me stands out for sure from the list above,
- in its slightly French-movie(cute like in Amelie) like narration,
- set up in 70's and
- it surely dealt it at a greater depth than superficial stereotype humor.

Drunken Master (Jui kuen)

Saw this one few days ago, a kung-fu classic out of my recent uprising Martial Arts appreciation. Jacky Chan is always action + humor but its the later half of the movie you realise why the movie is a classic . Here is a glimpse of the drunken kung fu moves towards the end of the movie.




Jacky Chan is brilliant and so is the action choreography, storyline is bit loose. If you are just into the action and sweat , just jump to the middle of the movie and start watching.

Crash

Saw this movie last weekend and pretty impressed with the message it conveyed. Narrated in similar fashion of Amerros Perros. I like this movie for the fact that it illustrates racism, such a sensitive subject in a very mature and balanced way. Movie being such a gripping medium forces people into believing certain philosophies through a strong story. But this masterpiece doesn't draw any conclusions or statements but allows viewers to see the criss-crossed confusions in our heads with a bunch of connected stories.

Watching this film I felt, that Racism doesn't exists only in how the "other" treats you but also in how "we" perceive ourselves. Like fear doesn't exists without our acknowledgment of it.

Awakenings

This is the story of a neurologist Sayer(played by Robin Williams) who tries to solve a intricate pathological situation related to a set of patients who survived the Encephalitis Lethargica (also known as Sleeping Sickness) outbreak in 1920s. But almost all these patients who survived this disease were in a catatonic state ever since. Sayer was hired to diagnose and treat this condition. This movie depicts the struggle of patients to fight and the struggle of doctors to treat some of the impossible diseases. Robert De Niro plays the protagonist (Leonardo) as one of the patients on whom Slayer experiments using a new drug called L Dopa which is actually devised to treat Parkinsonian patients. Sayer somehow believes that this drug will eventually awaken the catatonic state of the patients. So he goes onto try this drug on Leonardo. After he tries this drug several interesting miracles take place during the course of the movie. Both Robin Williams nd De Niro were at their best ..a mus see..

King Kong (1933)

This older version of the movie is released in 1933 which is 72 years before the newer version.

Oh no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.

is the last dialogue of this classic version of King Kong. And this dialogue alone describes the whole wisdom of this movie and the reason why this movie is one of the greatest movies ever made. Here BEAST becomes the metaphor for senses and BEAUTY refers to the sense objects. So this classic version is built on the very basic moral fundamental that even if a king craves for sensual objects outside the realm of rationalism, he is subject to destruction in no time. Just a few days before, I saw the newer version of King Kong and it gave me a mild impression "Wow nice graphics" and nothing else. In the newer version the protagonists become friends of the King Kong which is so unrealistic, considering the highly insecure nature of the present day people. After watching this newer version I was so reluctant to see the classic version thinking that it would be same bullshit. But the classic version escaped all these silly hypocrisies and went onto destroy the beast mercilessly and hence entered the list of beautiful classics...

Letters From Iwo Jima

For all those who like wartime flicks this is a must. Brilliantly directed by Clint Eastwood, this movie depicts the Battle of Iwo Jima from point of view of Japanese soldiers (features english subtitles). This same battle was also shown from the American point of view in "Flags of our fathers" also directed by Clint Eastwood. The battle is a part of world war II and features some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The name of the movie refers to the letters written by Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi starring Ken Watanabe (of The Last Samurai fame). This movie depicts the helplessness of the Japanese soldiers due to lack of the reinforcements from the headquarters. All the Japanese soldiers on the island are bound to die and they show great courage till the last moment of the battle. Some of the soldiers are ordered to commit suicide by their Commanders hence depicting the wartime irrationality. The movie also has a protagonist called Saigo who is a baker conscripted to Japanese army. He is like a witness to all that goes on during this battle. He is repeatedly saved by the general Kuribayashi who orders him to do some errands potentially saving his life. The background score of the movie is wonderful. This movie also won a Oscar for sound editing and also won several other awards. Be sure to concentrate while watching the movie as the names of the locations and faces of the soldiers are pretty alike..

21

Saw 21 this weekend. Me likes mathematicians and maths... been watching Star wars.. got the Yoda's lingo. Will write about Star Wars after we finish watching 1,2 and 3...

Coming back to 21, it is decent... can be shorter. Felt like a mix of Good will Hunting and Ocean's 11
The twist in the tale wasn't mind boggling enough for me. After watching A Beautiful mind, me caught on to Go(a board game), hoping to try Blackjack http://www.hitorstand.net/game_m.html