So here is My pick of my 5 favourite movies in the style of the Hindu - "My Five" Column.
1. The God Father 1 & 2 - Francis Ford Coppola - Generally when i evaluate a movie, these are the criteria i use to evaluate them - 1. They should potray, events close to reality (this may be done through fictitious characters). 2. They should have a great miriad of human emotions and must stay true them. 3. The Film must have great technical competence (cinematography, Lighting, Casting, Set Design, Music and so on.). In the process of spelling out the criteria, i have effectively described the God Father 1 and 2 for you. A Gripping and realistic account of the Underworld of the early and mid twentieth century america. Francis Ford Coppola gripping screen play and Marlon Brando's and Di Nero's performances and the intense screenplay and scenes which stay in your memory long, are worth a special mention.
2. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Peter Jackson - This movie is every fantasy guzzler's ultimate movie. Backed by a strong fantasy of Middle Earth by J R R Tolkien, which "scream out to take its place with the greatest of mythologies in any language", deft screen play by Peter Jackson and company, this movie will have you engrossed by its mere story content - an account of the histories of the middle earth, wound around the Central theme of the "War of the Ring".The characters of the story are its greatest asset - they are characters which you can relate to, inspire you and will stay with you for long. The Film making tools adopted to bring to life the world of Middle Earth, has never been matched and in all probability will never be. The stunning visuals of the City of Guard (Gondor) (watch out for this one) and The Golden Hall of Meduseld (Rohan) and the Shire are worth a special mention, so is the make up and the Music by Howard Shore. Performances by Viggo Mortensen, Ian Mackellen, and the stunning potrayal of Gollum by Andy Serkis (The Oscars would look in retrospect with shame, for not having a category to award this guy) are also worth a special mention.
3. The Matrix - The Wachowski Brothers - This film is every philosophy geek's ultimate delight. The film is an allegory depicting principally, the principle of Hindu Advaita. The World of the Matrix represents the world our senses perceive, and Zion the Real world. How Neo perceives the Real World and how he saves it from the Machines which have taken it over forms the Crux of the Movie. The Dialogues of this movie are not only witty, but puts you deep in thought and makes us question a lot of things that we take for granted. They actually make you wonder as to whether this movie is in fact the province of fiction. Both the worlds of the matrix have been clearly distinguished using smart techniques and the film per se is not quite difficult to understand. It is what you infer from the movie that counts. So are you going to take the red pill and go back to who you were or are you going to take the blue one and see how deep the Rabbit hole (As in Alice in Wonderland) goes? The Action sequences and the Dialogues are worth a special mention.
4. The Bourne Identity - Paul Greengass - One of the most aesthetically appealing movies i have seen. The story is based on Ludlums book The Bourne Identity, which tracks the journey of a renegade CIA Operative, who mysteriously looses his memory, and who tries to discover his true identity afterwards. This movie scores very high on the criterias of 1. Integrity to reality. 2. Integrity to emotions and 3. Technical competence. The stunning visuals and the soundtrack of the movie stay with you long after the movie is over and compels us to watch it over and over again. The story is very simple, the Screen play crisp, and illustrates the concept of relativity - was that 1 hour and 40 minutes? Matt Damon s performance as the Renegade CIA Operative, with partial memory loss is compelling viewing.
5. Sherlock Holmes - Guy Ritchie - The First thing that strikes you about this movie, is the detail included in every scene, each shot is teases the senses, containing huge amounts of information, to perceive. The Movie is based loosely on the story of the Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, though it can be called as a distinct Sherlock Holmes mystery in itself. The instant story involves Sherlock Holmes attempts to thwart Lord Blackwood's attempt to take over England, through his seemingly supernatural powers. How Holmes manages to achieve this in the end and in the salvages the face of Reason, Science and Justice form the crux of the story. How manages to pick up and put together minute details in the scenes, which most of the viewers fail to do will fail to do is the Director's personal testimony to the Brilliance of the Character. The Stunning Sets, the haunting music by Hans Zimmers and Guy Ritchie's exemplary attention to detail and storytelling make for one mesmerising Experience.
Those that almost made it -
1. Inglorious Basterds - Quintin Tarantino
2. Pulp Fiction - Quintin Tarantino
3. The Sixth Sense - Manoj NIGHT Shyamalan
4. Other Guy Ritchie movies - Rock n Rolla, Snatch and Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels
5. Bad Boys - Michael Bay
6. Casablanca - Michael Curtiz
7. To Kill a Mockingbird - Robert Mulligan
So what are your inputs on the above? And what are your favourite movies?
Monday, January 30, 2012
Friday, July 29, 2011
NASA - NASA's Chandra Observatory Images Gas Flowing Toward Black Hole
NASA - NASA's Chandra Observatory Images Gas Flowing Toward Black Hole: "Different models describing the flow of material onto the black hole make different predictions for how quickly the density of the gas is seen to rise as it approaches the black hole. A more precise determination of the rise in density from future observations should help astronomers rule out some of these models."
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Review: Ponnar Shankar
As i start to write the first thing that comes to mind - "Why did i go to this movie, spending what is almost half my daily wage?" The Answer comes pronto: "The story is about two characters who are revered as demi-gods in Kongu Nadu Area - (supposedly present day Coimbatore - Trichy Belt). A lot of learning to be had from there - 1.History 2. Character of two people who turn out to be Today's Gods 3. Story and Screen play writing 4. The ability in contemporary Tamil cinema to picturise a war based novel."
Direction: Thiagarajan: Good job. Firstly the director has to be given credit for concieving the film. (If at all such conception is on own volition and not through coercion). Though Thiagarajan is no Peter Jackson, he manages to set a precedent for making war based movies even before aspirants like Kamal (Kamal should realise by now that technology is here, CGI my friend is the answer to your problem my friend, if the problem is lack of funds, for your dream movie). For this alone he deserves huge credit. But even a good director can be let down by the gross mediocrity of the story and characterisation.
Story, Screen Play and Dialogue: Current Tamil Nadu CM Mr. M Karunanidhi: Guess what, the story turned out to be a rip off (as distinct from the word Inspiration) of a lot of themes from the Mahabharath. I find it hard to believe that the same outline of events in the Mahabharath happened in the case of Ponnar Shankar. A man acquainted with even the basic themes of the Mahabharath can see right through the veil of purported "intelligent story telling" spun by Mr MK. Not only does Mr MK do that, Mr MK also manages to play his farce of criticising anything remotely to do with Hindu Culture. And he is quite willing to this in the midst of writing a story that is naught but a rip off of the Mahabharath which is the corner stone of the Hindu Tradition. Does he think that the people as so stupid not to note the contradiction? And having ripped off a major chunk of the Mahabharath story, he still manages to reduce it to mediocrity - Good job. The biggest let down of this film is the Story.
Cast(sic): Prasanth excels. The sheer intensity of his expressions convey the plethora of emotions right from valor, anger, romance, pain and delight, and brings the two protagonist chararcters to life. He carries the movie on his shoulders through his meagre presence. Imagine his first credible dialogue comes in the second half!! still you could not miss his presence in the first. He stands out as the biggest strength of the movie. Kushboo and Jayaram again play their parts assigned to them very well, so do sneha, nasser, vijaykumar, ponvannan, riaz khan, raj kiran. But such a lot of talent could have been used a lot better and would have made a greater impact if again (yes again) their characters were either better defined / or are not mere rip offs from The Mahabarath. Again the story teller to be blamed.
Support: The CGI work handled again by Prasanth, shows that Tamil Cinema has arrived. I cannot wait to see the day when the two greatest epics of this country are brought on screen. Prasanth once again hats off man, great job. You will be remembered as a trend setter of sorts. But next time avoid ripping off sequences from the LOTR, Troy, 300 etc or other related movies of the genre being made.
Ilayaraja needless to say stands up again to the occasion, through his great songs. His RR does justice only to the extent that the story does justice.
The Art Director - (Muthuraj?) of the movie deserves the greatest reward in filmdom for the sets put up. The Cinematography (Shaji Kumar) was excellent
In the end did i really learn, what i set out to learn. 1. A flawed hi"story" was told. 2. Characters were learnt, but that was incidental. 3. I learnt how not to write a story. 4. Ah yes, But one good thing - Tamil Cinema has arrived.
Ponnar Shankar deserves a watch for the sheer work put in by Prasanth and his dad and the cast and support staff, and if history based cinema is to be encouraged.
Direction: Thiagarajan: Good job. Firstly the director has to be given credit for concieving the film. (If at all such conception is on own volition and not through coercion). Though Thiagarajan is no Peter Jackson, he manages to set a precedent for making war based movies even before aspirants like Kamal (Kamal should realise by now that technology is here, CGI my friend is the answer to your problem my friend, if the problem is lack of funds, for your dream movie). For this alone he deserves huge credit. But even a good director can be let down by the gross mediocrity of the story and characterisation.
Story, Screen Play and Dialogue: Current Tamil Nadu CM Mr. M Karunanidhi: Guess what, the story turned out to be a rip off (as distinct from the word Inspiration) of a lot of themes from the Mahabharath. I find it hard to believe that the same outline of events in the Mahabharath happened in the case of Ponnar Shankar. A man acquainted with even the basic themes of the Mahabharath can see right through the veil of purported "intelligent story telling" spun by Mr MK. Not only does Mr MK do that, Mr MK also manages to play his farce of criticising anything remotely to do with Hindu Culture. And he is quite willing to this in the midst of writing a story that is naught but a rip off of the Mahabharath which is the corner stone of the Hindu Tradition. Does he think that the people as so stupid not to note the contradiction? And having ripped off a major chunk of the Mahabharath story, he still manages to reduce it to mediocrity - Good job. The biggest let down of this film is the Story.
Cast(sic): Prasanth excels. The sheer intensity of his expressions convey the plethora of emotions right from valor, anger, romance, pain and delight, and brings the two protagonist chararcters to life. He carries the movie on his shoulders through his meagre presence. Imagine his first credible dialogue comes in the second half!! still you could not miss his presence in the first. He stands out as the biggest strength of the movie. Kushboo and Jayaram again play their parts assigned to them very well, so do sneha, nasser, vijaykumar, ponvannan, riaz khan, raj kiran. But such a lot of talent could have been used a lot better and would have made a greater impact if again (yes again) their characters were either better defined / or are not mere rip offs from The Mahabarath. Again the story teller to be blamed.
Support: The CGI work handled again by Prasanth, shows that Tamil Cinema has arrived. I cannot wait to see the day when the two greatest epics of this country are brought on screen. Prasanth once again hats off man, great job. You will be remembered as a trend setter of sorts. But next time avoid ripping off sequences from the LOTR, Troy, 300 etc or other related movies of the genre being made.
Ilayaraja needless to say stands up again to the occasion, through his great songs. His RR does justice only to the extent that the story does justice.
The Art Director - (Muthuraj?) of the movie deserves the greatest reward in filmdom for the sets put up. The Cinematography (Shaji Kumar) was excellent
In the end did i really learn, what i set out to learn. 1. A flawed hi"story" was told. 2. Characters were learnt, but that was incidental. 3. I learnt how not to write a story. 4. Ah yes, But one good thing - Tamil Cinema has arrived.
Ponnar Shankar deserves a watch for the sheer work put in by Prasanth and his dad and the cast and support staff, and if history based cinema is to be encouraged.
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