Monday, March 26, 2007

Light and Sound

Three movies over the weekend is a good count as far as I am concerned.

Lucky Number S7evin

Don't ask me why I wanted to watch it. It was not an informed choice, but more of a before I delete it, just five minutes kind of preview. And Bruce Wills always manages to get my attention. So does Ben Kingsly. So does Morgan Freeman.

So what are these three guys doing in one movie anyway? I kept watching the movie, till the very end, to find an answer to that question. At the end of it, I was left strangely unmoved. Often, one of them is enough for me to be riveted to the screen. I was left detached till the end. May be it is the sight of all these men trying to act in half baked roles. The movie had it all - good actors - Josh Hartnett & Lucy Liu are the hero/heroine; incidentally - the expected surprise ending, reasonably good editing, above average dialogue, emotion, drama, romance, family...

But at the end of it, the movie is like a beautiful plastic plant with no life. It will gather dust at a corner of your mind. And your heart will never be open to this movie.

Terms of Endearment:

Alright, I cried. There is Shirley Maclain - who so reminded me of my mother and the love/hate relationship I have with her and reminded me as to why people go ga-ga over her - her family friend, Danny DiVito and even that wicked old sexy man called Jack Nicholson who can portray those rascals whom every woman want to slap across his face and kiss up at the same time because of his personality despite the alcoholic slippery steps, leering face and overweight body. He daughter Debra Winger who can so beautifully express the hopes and fears of youth in an instant, the guy who acted as her husband, the guy in Third Rock from the Sun with whom she has an affair, the lady who acts as her best friend, and her kids - especially her second son. Yeah, it was when he cried that I cried.

This movie has soul. It has love. Not the perfectly packed and perfumed kind of love; but the ordinary kind -the one which hurts, disappoints, hurts some more, strays, stays and the one which is made all the more precious by the tears that mix with it. I loved this movie.


The Namesake:


Once upon a time, there were movies made in India like Namesake. In Malayalam, in Tamil, in Hindi. I grew up watching them. Ordinary, believable stories, where people do fall, but hey, they always get up, dust their knees and go forth again. This is a sunshine movie which will filter into the deep corners of your mind. Watch it guys - for Tabu and Irfaan's amazing love story. For Karl Penn. For all those times that make you think of your parents and family. You wont regret it.

This movie shines through - without melodrama but with emotions, without cliches but with slices from life, without stars but with good actors. Thanks Meera, for redeeming my faith in literary adaptations.

This movie gives you hope. And hope is a precious commodity for us to ignore.




1 comment:

N A R I YA L C H U T N E Y said...

Name sake is an amazing movie . In fact often I wonder how Mira Nair is able to bring about such an authentic Indian touch in all her movies :).