BRIDGE OF SPIES: Brought to life by Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg the master, has painted yet another master piece, Bridge Of Spies​. A brilliant Cold War thriller, where thrills don't come from gunshots and nuclear bomb countdowns, but from shady men, their secrecy, their conversations, political deals, legal arguments, the cold war atmosphere and prisoner exchanges. How these wonderful real stories of personal and political weight embedded within World history, consistently fall on Spielberg's desk, simply amazes the audience. 

On one hand, Steven Spielberg can distill the World Events into personal stories. On the other hand, he can plummet you into the atmosphere of the worlds that he creates. The World in this movie is set in the Cold War era of cold Germany. Its a cold world tainted with paranoia and mounting tensions between US and Russia. Amidst this, the ever bankable  Tom Hanks​, playing insurance lawyer James Donovan, is supposed to defend an FBI-arrested Russian spy in US courts. But the leading men in Spielberg's movies tend to do more than whats being asked. Though they walk on that thin wire of high stakes, they always take the side of true Justice. From Oscar Schindler, to Abraham Lincoln, to now James Donovan, they all share that same empathy. Further down the movie, our hero is also supposed to negotiate a complicated prisoner exchange of an American Spy-Plane pilot, shot down by the Russians and held guilty in USSR, and an American Student arrested in East Germany, with the Russian Spy caught by US. The ratio of 2:1 exchange rises the stakes.

Despite the dreadful premise, There are so many beautiful things in this movie. A beautiful screenplay by Cohen brothers is filled with moments ranging from poignant moments to Light Hearted moments around Tom Hanks, from espionage-sque shadowing to in-your-eye negotiations, from the Secrecy of the Spying world to the intimacy of the family world. It beautifully balances its act between personal intrigue and cold war politics. Like every classic movie, This movie opens discussions about various issues like, our basis on how we can label someone as traitor ? Does he have a right to defend himself ? How do you treat a person who has stood by his country in the face of enemy courts without giving into enemy's rewards for co-operation ? Is legally defending an arrested Enemy Spy as a part of constitutional duty wrong ? What if your own countryman, who has volunteered for your country, gives into the torture of enemies and divulges the classified information ? Does the life of a little student, matters in the bigger picture ?

The technical Sophistication is intact in this movie from the word go. Spielberg's mastery in staging a sequence is displayed in a brilliant opening chase scene, which is almost wordless and music-less, but at-most gripping. The juxtaposition shots to convey visual messages, like the comparisons between people shot at while climbing the Berlin wall vs Kids freely climbing the fence in New York, the fate of the prisoners visually described in the climax, assure the fact that the technician in Spielberg, never ages. Cinematography by Janusz Kamiński is a true poetry in motion. As if, every frame is a painting. That trademark use of heavy Back-light gloss behind a character never gets old. Immaculately detailed set designs of 1960's era, is also brought to life by little things like, Nuclear Attack Safety TV advertisements and Motorola radios of that Era. All of this is a perfect recipe for multiple Oscar nominations, which will be well deserved, as it contributes to the realism of the movie in a huge way. In the climatic scene on the bridge in title, we not only witness humanity, but also classic film-making at its best.

Whats more beautiful about this movie are the performances. Toms Hanks is as ever-likable as he can get. He is a pleasure to watch on screen. He manages to inject his cause in our hearts through his character, which stands tall on what it believes is just. For the fourth time, his collaboration with Spielberg brings magic on screen. Then there's Mark Raylance playing the Russian Spy, who compares his self-painted-portrait to his mirror-self, and tells us that the reality he lives in, lies somewhere between there, muddled within the political cracks of East and West. So many recreated landmarks and scenes of east Germany in the movie, from Charlies point to Berlin Wall, stand witness to what was bought upon the lives of people, without ever sentimentalizing it. 

We as fans, have all worried that Steven Spielberg has geared down from his trademark escapist Adventures. We have been skeptical about his foray into these "personal" movies. But when movies like Bridge of Spies come along, we are constantly reminded again and again, time in and time out,  that when Spielberg chooses a good story, he always does what he does best, make it into a classic. Bridge of Spies certainly registers on that list. Now, Watch out for the Oscars.

Baahubali: the Beginning ... How Thou Shall Feel ...!!!

Imagine Rajamouli as our most trusted Chef. 

We have enjoyed his meals (movies) over the past decade. And man, his meals are a complete package. Delicious starters (herosim), mouth-watering main course(Action-scenes), tongue melting Biryanis(dramatic-revenge-stories) and finally some Relieving desserts(sentiment) giving us the most satisfactory cinematic burps of all time. We trusted him blindly even if he offered 'Eegas' in our plates. And to be honest, we have enjoyed his Eega meal the most. He is the best chef who knows the exact recipes that will satisfy our appetite and offers more than we can imagine every single time. Even his simplest meals like Curd Rice (Maryada Ramanna) are deliciously enjoyable. Such has been his consistency of vision and originality over the years.

So one day, our beloved Chef announces that he is going to make the best meal of all time. He says he is gonna work on it for three years and serve it in two parts. We customers sleeplessly wait for that day to come. We embrace  his Hard work and follow him on his journey till the end. We see all those behind the curtain videos of him struggling day and night trying inspire his magnificent team to keep up the enthusiasm for three years. We surrender our awe to his commitment, while he bears the burden of the biggest promise he has ever made for us. But We don't expect our chef to beat Hollywood. We only expect him to deliver his promise and beat all his previous meals in terms of taste.

And finally the Day Arrives, the show time. The movie starts:

He starts us by serving delicious starters. And boy they are Magnificent. (Magnificent shots of Waterfalls and Prabhas Rock-climbing) True sights of visual slender to behold. The story starts with that once-upon-a-time kind of template signifying the epic recipes to come. We customers begin to feel that our chef is weaving his magic once again. We are busy imagining the hot and spicy mouth-watering dishes and biryanis that are about to follow. And then suddenly, he throws half baked coconut at us to eat. We are a bit surprised at this unusual interference. But in our chef we continue to trust. But, then he follows it with needless Coffees and Teas and sugar cane juices in between. Unnecessary song additions, forced Half Boiled romance, unconvincing acting by Tamannaah, unusual drag of scenes with no significant outcomes, makes us customers restless for a true Rajamouli package. We only get 30% of that package in the first half courtesy of the action scenes in snow, waterfall scenes and the Rajamouli's signature post interval Bang.

But we still trust in our chef. As nothing exciting happened in the first half, we are sure our chef saved the best for the last. And yes the second half starts good. Breath-Taking visuals of the Mahispati kingdom. Top notch computer graphic shots. At this point we see a glimpse of Rajamouli's dream and the way his imagination-creativity graph as a director has only expanded upwards from Student No.1 to Baahubali . His three years of effort reminds us why he is our master chef.  But again, he serves us the last week's left over Pastry, the item song. By this time we customers are in "enough is enough mode".60-70% of movie is over and story is still crawling like a snail. And that's where the Rajamouli Magic begins. The story gathers its lost pace and all culminates to a huge build-up of an epic climax. And hence, the Mother of all Battle Scenes in the history of Indian cinema begins. A complete Hyderabadi Chicken Dum Biryani with yummy Sherwa-Raitha is served by Rajamouli. Purely Indian made, No Hollywood Copy Cats. These Battle scenes have a spectacular sense of speed and brutality in them. Such an epic-scale of sheer awesomeness for a climax battle has never been witnessed before in Indian Cinema. That's where you stand up salute and Rajamouli's Brain. We are satisfied that the money was well spent with a heart of sincerity behind it.

But then, when you are half-way enjoying this mouth-watering Biryani, Rajamouli suddenly snatches our plates and says "come back in 2016". Thats unfair. Because we were starting to have that little bits of fun that we waited for the entire movie. But rajamouli has other plans. So we have to wait. And we will wait, because we trust in that SS Rajamouli stamp. We are sure that, Rajamouli is preparing the audience for the set up and build up of a bigger story in part 2. So we forgive the junk that was served in the name of Establishing characters. 

 Baahubali proves one thing for sure. If you put a 1000-crore  budget in Rajamouli's hands, it wont go for a waste. Because by now, He has developed the imagination and the method of excecution to spend that money for the best. Thats what Hollywood Directors do too. Telugu people can be proud that Rajamouli is the only Indian director on par with Shankar who has the courage to make big promises. Hands down applause to their Boldness and enthusiasm to take their audience to a different world. And very rarely do they Mis-fire and deviate from their vision of pushing the bar of popular Indian cinema to new heights.

So if you are casually asking someone how's Baahubali, There are two ways of asking it:

1) Hows is Baahubali the beginning, just as a stand-alone movie for a Sunday evening ?

2) Hows is Baahubali the beginning in context of the combined story of Part-1 and Part-2 ?

The 2nd question cannot be answered unless we watch part-2. The best guess is, its gonna feel like those three parts of Lord of the Rings. 1st part may be a drag, second may be awesome, third may be half-drag-half-awesome but overall. WE LOVE Lord of the Rings as a wholesome story. Lets hope the Same thing happens with Baahubali after the Part-2 is released.

But if you are asking the first question, here's the answer:

It felt like Hobbit part 2. 60% of needless drag but when the rest of the 40%'s Dragon awesomeness begins, it super-seeds the drag part and takes your senses to next level. But, just when you are about to get consumed by its awesomeness, it suddenly ends on a high but abrupt note, only to leave you gasping for more. It might make you feel cheated, but also, it might make you feel hopeful for a better second part to come. 

Since the part 1 has cleverly done its job, Bring the Part 2 already. And this time, it better be better than the first. It better have that proud SS Rajamouli stamp on it.

 Because how many of you have observed that, the iconic stamp dint come banging in the end ? Like Sharukh Khan said in the Om Shanti Om, " Picture Abhi Baakhi hai mere dost".

BOYHOOD ..... To Adulthood and Beyond

BOYHOOD: ...... In one line, its about the growth of a boy into adulthood. Though it sounds simple enough, why is this movie a true milestone of Movie Making in the history of films. Why ???? 

This movie was shot for 12 years, with a few weeks of shooting every year, with same actors for all 12 years. Its like, the director made a short film every year for 12 years, starting in 2002 & in 2014, stitched all those shots into a single 3 hour movie. How in this sane world did he possibly do that ? I cant even plan a shoot for 12 days for Gods-sake.

How did he convince everyone to commit to a movie for 12 years. 12 years is a very long time. People (actors) change a lot in 12 years. Their looks change, their hairstyles change, their priorities change, their fashion sense change, their voices change and still, how did he accommodate all of that in his movie. ? I have heard in an interview that the Director let the hero to have whatever the hair style or tattoo or an ear piercing he could have through out the filming process and he was filmed exactly the way he looked at that point of time. I mean, this director has no idea what his actors would look like after 12 years. He simply goes ahead with this insane curiosity he expressed in one of his interviews,  " i was not afraid, i was curious about what this boy would become when he goes from 1st grade to college."

 The funnier fact though is, he had no script for this. He just wanted show how a child will absorb this world as he grows up and hence, went on improvising the story continuously for 12 years. I wish i could just tap into the minds of the cast and crew just to see how they felt at the end of the shoot, what they went through, their feelings, emotions etc,,. It must have been the most extra-ordinary experience of their lives. Hands down salute to the director. I can't remember any other director as ambitious as this Richard Linklater.

So my brother asked me the right question when i told him about this.

How is the movie ? Is it good ? Does it have a good story and stuff or am i just lingering in the awe of its extra-ordinary film making process ? 

Well i told him, its was just the most wonderful movie watching experience of the most simplest of story i have had in recent times. We have seen movies where the child and adult version of a character are played by different actors. Sometimes we see the same actor playing the adult and child through the magic of make-up or CGI. But, Just watching the same actors, from that boy to others around him, grow up 12 years through a span of three hours is something i cant describe in words. The movie is full of beautiful moments you can relate with, like, the first love, the first kiss, the first sex, the first beer, the first cigarette, the passing of high school, the hatred of homework, dealing with angry dads, consoling exhausted mothers, hanging out with friends, doing silly things and realizing how silly they are after you grow up, catching up with Pop Culture, your changing tastes in music, your changing tastes in girls, you changing passions and interest, your changing topics of conversations at different ages etc,,. Basically your entire childhood unfolds in this movie in the most beautiful and simplistic manner possible.

But this 12-year-old vision of Linklater lies within those beautiful dialogues he wrote himself. The dialogues in this movie are so natural, they could have been the lines you would have spoken with your mom, dad, friends and girl-friends or vice-versa. The best thing about the screen play is, there is no text on screen to indicate of what year is going on in the movie. The Writer-director cleverly hints at the major events to indicate the time line. So, if character is talking about Iraq war, you know its 2003 or if he is talking about Dark Knight, you know its 2007. These dialogues seamlessly blend in with the ages of the characters so you know their age when you listen to the type of conversations they have with each other. The poetry within the simplicity of these dialogues is bound to baffle you every-time, especially in those beautiful father-son chit-chat scenes. Couple that with the fact that they were improvised every year, this screenplay is simply a work of true Genius. 

This movie is not only an ode to childhood, but also to the parent hood. It gently asks simple questions regarding life, like, is it absolutely necessary for every adult human being to fit into this Get-married-have-two-kids format of life-style ? So people who like having a family and responsibilities don't fit in the society ? Is life all about only the milestones, like getting into a good college, getting a degree, getting a job, getting married, growing kids ? Is our entire world centered around the kids after they are born ?  Don't we deserve to have some moments for ourselves even when we are stuck within the Cobwebs of marriage and parenthood ? My favorite moment in the movie is ***spoiler alert*** in the end when the mother character cries while sending her son to high school and saying, " I expected more from my life".

You see these questions and situations come to life through the wonderful Oscar-worthy performances of the cast, especially from the parents themselves, Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke. Everything about this movie is Oscar worthy and i hope it sweeps all the awards functions for best picture, screenplay, direction and acting categories just like the way it sweeps your imagination with its grand vision and intimate intention.

PK - Is it that good... ????

Here's my conversation with a friend on PK...


Him: Is PK an Entertaining movie ?

Me: Nope.

Him: Why ?

Me: I dint find any genuinely funny scenes that i could go back to youtube and watch them over and over again just for laughs. I'll show a plenty of them from Munna Bhai and 3 Idiots created by the Same director. They are just not there in this movie. Nevertheless, I have to agree, the scenes where PK figures out how things work on earth are brilliantly written and funny in bits and pieces. The Coconut smashing in the Church scene is epic funny.

Him: Where do you think is the problem ?

Me: The problem is with the Characters. If they are not funny themselves then where would the laughs come from ? MunnaBhai had Munna, Cirkit and Boman Irani as Dr. Raskhana and the evil Sardar. 3 Idiots had Virus and Chatur. The very look of these Characters would make you go lol so, the comedy would come from the behavior of these characters in a scene. There is not even a single unique or a memorable character to remember in PK. Everybody is either bubbly-happy-go-lucky-type or totally naive-i-am-an-April-fool type. May be the Aamir Khan's PK himself is unique, but still, there nothing roflolling about his looks or traits.

Him: Don't you think this movie mocks and questions religion and its blind followers effectively ?

Me: I appreciate the sincere intention and attempt of the director to mock and question this God-Crazed society. But does he do it effectively ? I dont think so. Its not as effective as OH MY GOD, where this topic is bashed left, right and center. But off-course people in India wont watch an effective movie like OH MY GOD coz there is no Khan or Kapoor in it. Face matters over content in this country. In the same oh my god style, this Director too had effectively questioned on the face of Indian Medical system in Munna-Bhai-1, Gandhisms in Munna-Bhai-2 and Indian education System in 3-idiots. These movies tapped our inner thoughts regarding these fields. PK did not tap them i felt.

Him: That is a stupid reason. You know religion is a sensitive topic in this country. So just to do something different, Did you expect the director to show in the movie that God himself does not exist or what ??

Me: WOW that would have been fantastic. I wish the director had the balls to do that. OH MY GOD atleast had an atheist character. But in PK, Raju Hirani uses his old formula of applying butter to the serious issues and presenting them through funny situations and Goody-good characters. Its called Playing Safe to the Gallery. And Playing safe is not a bold move. Every other Raju Hirani movie from Munna Bhai to 3-idiots achieved something regarding the topics that it addresses. But i dint learn anything new from PK.

Him: What else did you hate in PK ?

Me: The 90s-Bollywood-Melodrama-meets-SatyamevaJayathe type of climax. I was rolling in my seat out of boredom during that entire debate sequence which was too elaborate and emotionally Hammy. I was disappointed to see Boman Irani totally wasted. I could not figure out what Sanjay Dutt was doing. I could definitely figure out where this movie was going because everything was so predictable and cheesy. Off-course you need the lovable couple of Sushant-Anushka for those shitty romantic songs without which bollywood cannot swallow water down its throat.  Not so impressive comedy scenes. There is nothing different in this movie. All the same old happy-go-lucky-feel-good-bubbly characters with very few memorable scenes and play-it-safely jokes. Its a good enough one time watcher, but we expect more from the creator of Munna bhai, Cirkit and Chatur dont we.??

Him: What did you like in this movie ?

Me: The skill of Raju Hirani to take serious social issues, apply them some Jam and Butter and sell it to the audience, giving them a message without offending them and in fact make them laugh in that process. Writing Comedy is the most under-rated skill today hence i have the utmost regard and highest respect for those directors who make their audiences laugh as consistently as Raju Hirani. The audience may be foolish but the guy who makes them laugh is definitely the smartest among the lot. I also appreciate the Boldness of this director. Imagine these three points i observed:

1) He made a muslim laugh on a scene where hero takes a wine bottle to a dargah.
2) He made a christian laugh on scene where hero takes puja samagri into a Church,
3) He made a Hindu laugh on scene where hero calls out a Hindu godman in his ashram.

Now it takes some skill to pull-off these scenes in this God Crazy Country. A special skill only Raju Hirani has.

Him: What is your Favourite Scene ?

Me: That Last minute Guest appearance by an amazing actor i wont name here, truely bought a smile on my face. It can bring smile on anybody's face. May be Whistles too.

MADHURAM .. Sweetness Re-defined ..!!!

SHORT FILM ...!!!!

What is the first thing that comes to our mind when we hear this phrase ??

Bunch of amateur studs pooling their store room resources together to prove something, using their low-fi cameras, shaky shots, Local locations, shooting on weekends over multiple cups of chais out of their pocket money, adding voice-overs and sounds that sound like they come from the next universe, believing in their own little Make-up-break-up romantic stories and trying their best to fulfill their little fantasy of seeing themselves on screen or in the director's credits.

But how about a short film from some one who is different among the usual lot. From someone who can stand out and say, " This is how an Independent film should be made". From someone who has SOME knowledge of what cinema is and the power of this wonderful art-form. Some one who respects movies and has all the knowledge of those tools and trickery and uses them to great effect to paint his thoughts on silver screen. He did exactly that in his first Short-film Back-Space - A Path-breaking trend setter in terms of amateur film making by making a movie entirely from an I-phone. And now he is back with his second venture, a 1-hour Independent movie, Madhuram. And Boy .!!! .. he is back with a bang ...!!!! . He is none other than Phanindra Narrisetty.

Madhuram is a love story or a story of love - as the tag line says. As soon as i smelled this Romantic tinge in that title when i first heard about it, i was turned-off. " Why is Phanindra- the guy who made the awesome back-space, has fallen into that trap of making a romantic movie like every-body else ? Isn'it he different ? what the hell is he doing ? " ... These are the first impressions that popped in my mind because i was fed up with all the Romantic crap that this Short film industry was throwing at us. I was craving for something different from different people like Phanindra, and let be me honest here, i had the least of expectations on this.

But I owe an Apology to Phanindra now as I was proved wrong 

I WAS PROVED WRONG :

I was proved wrong as soon as i heard that terrific voice over driving the entire movie, something only people like Martin Scorsese have mastered. I was proved wrong when i realized that the backbone of this entire movie was that endlessly engaging conversation between those lifeless characters of a coffee cup and Mr.Specs actually, that actually bring life to the movie. The way Phanindra brings this Cup and Mr.Specs into his universe out of thin smoke and makes them the most important layer of his film is truly magic. You will have no idea when you un-consciously become so attentive to what they are talking about. Phanindra's dialogues play Abraca-dabra on your mind and i will talk about this in length. I was proved wrong when i saw Phanindra not only giving emphasis to Love, but also sparing some time to tickle all our pop-cultaral icons, from rajni-Kanth to Al-Pacino to Savithra, and addressing issues in a single line at flash speeds. Dialogue writing Magic again. I was proved wrong when i saw that story had a Multi-Layered non-linear treatment. Christopher Nolan Style. It was divided into seven chapters. Quentin Tarantino Style. Hyper-link format story telling, Steven Soderberg style. Bottom-line, Phanindra proved me wrong in every single frame of the movie Madhuram and in his own style, has Punched all the formulaic Romantic short movies right in their Scrotum.

WHAT I LOVED :

I loved Every freaking thing ...!!!

Lemme start with dialogues. The way the dialogues are written, it makes you wonder how many girl-friends this Dialogue writer ever had. Because they were not just lines, they were bullets. My assumption on a lighter note is that the writer must have been a terrific player with women because those voice-over lines, dialogues and conversations were simply terrific. They were witty, intelligent, satiric, comic, romantic, puzzling and mysterious and they were being fired like missiles in this entire 1-hour movie. Exactly the stuff women love. If the writer can engage a 100-thousand audience for one-hour with his dialogues, then engaging just one girl for eternity is no big deal for him. LOL . But I write all the above in my sense respect towards Phanindra as i am in the awe of his Pen Power. If a pen is mightier than a Sword, then Phanindra's pen here is mightier than a fucking rocket. Phanindra the writer is the real hero of this movie. And he gonna amaze a lot of people just with his pen. That dialogue of Micro-Love story our hero tells to heroine from 37:00 and 37:30 will make you pause the movie and reflect back to your past. It'll make you wonder How many micro-love stories you have lost in your life. That dialogue is something that i will etch in my heart for the rest of my life.

Phanindra the Director is no less. He commands an absolute Iron grip in every single frame and every single element of his movie with optimum clarity. Imagine this, you have half a dozen characters plus the lifeless characters of Cups and Mr.Specs, you are supposed tell a love story, but not in routine style, make it multi-layered, hyper linked, non-linear, divided in chapters. You are not supposed to confuse your dumb audience but you should not bore them too. To add pepper to your wound, you have to impress them in a genre which has been running in the blood and veins of popular Indian Cinema since ages. And you have to do this in a low budget and yet not compromise on production values and not make it look like another short film made by some Tom-dick and Harry of a B.tech college. I can only imagine how an Independent Director needs a hundreds of cigarettes to tackle the tension of getting his movie done, but The Director of madhuram here never loses track in all the scheme of things i mentioned above, keeps his cool, holds his nerve with patience, never lets his movie fall apart, holds it together firmly with the thread of his Imagination and succeeds in bringing up a memorable independent movie. Madhuram sets an example for all the aspiring Independent film makers thriving to make their name right now and Phanindra has provided them the oxygen they were waiting for.

Madhuram the movie itself is amazing. Starts with a fictious mythological back-story, unusual for a love story, and then challenges you to catch your breath amist all the multi-layered story telling style of phanindra, filled lot of twists and turns, emotions, flash backs, flash forths and heap of hyperlinks between the characters and leaves you speechless in the end. Two elements i enjoy the most in Phanindra's movies is the terrific editing and brilliant use of sound-mixing. We saw that in back space, but Madhuram takes it to the next level. With right proportions of jump cuts, match cuts, smash cuts and split cuts backed with terrific voice over, this movie serves as an editing text book for an aspiring editor. Phanindra's acute ear to the use of sound and the juggling between the dialogues, music, voice-over and the sounds is something so easy to over-look and very  hard to actually execute. 

Cinematography is simply BULLSEYE. Perfect canvas for a perfect story, another example of how a good director always extracts the best from his crew. Same of applies for music. If there were Oscar awards for short films, This would have definitely won for the music. The toughest challenge for the music director giving the back ground score would be, to catch up with Phanindra's lines but yet avoid choking itself with forceful insertion. I enjoyed this behind-the-curtain-race between the Background music and Phanindra's dialogues so much that, the one song in this movie dint feel redundant for a guy like me who hates songs popping out of no where in desi style. I am especially in love with that music bit at 10:40 where the hero picks a ear-ring from floor followed by that terrific Piano bit from 10:57. If that Mr.Cup-with-voice is the narattor of Madhuram, then the Back ground music is the voiceless narattor of Madhuram. Terrific music and this Music Director will go a long way.

WHAT I WISHED :

There are a few short comings in this movie though. Though the actors did a terrific job of delivering those Tongue-in-Cheek dialogues of Phanindra, the conversation between the Ravi and Chandini were a bit Cliche. I wish their lines were as strong as the Narrators'. The addition of the Mystery-post-card-girl character in the end was quiet redundant though it completed the story Arc of Phanindra's character. Phanindra's character himself could have contributed a bit more to the story instead of merely adding another layer to it. 

Nevertheless, all these weak points and short-comings become infinetly smaller in front of the Larger canvas Phanindra had managed to paint. And this painting is going to be the Monalisa of Independent Romantic Telugu Short films in the future. I hope the Leonardo Da-Vinci of this painting goes a very long way down the lane and re-defines as many genres as possible and show them ''conventional' people how its done. !!!

DHOOM 3 .. Thumbs down ..!!!

What is the purpose of a sequel ??? 

To be bigger and better than the previous versions. Well hello ..!!! Welcome to Bollywood ...!! Here sequels only become more and more dumber and stupid. Its the reverse case here. Dhoom 3 makes Dhoom 1 and Dhoom 2 look like works of Jules Dassin (no offense Jules). I don't expect Dhoom 3 to be an Italian Job or something. But at-least, it could have been a better than Dhoom 2 for crying out loud. (dhoom 2 is my favourite of this series.)

What do we expect from a Dhoom movie ? 

Not much. Just some nice action scenes and fancy bike chases with sudden burst of DHoom theme music, imaginative robbery scenes, fancy cool gadgets, hot chicks, chemistry and romance, Jai-Ali bad-cop-comedy, little LOGICAL twist in the tale, nice DHOOM title song and the most important of all  A COOOOL VILLAIN ...!!! .. Let us be generous and skip less important things like story, script, direction, acting, character development and B*ll-sh*t. Lets see how Dhoom 3 fares in THESE IMPORTANT DEPARMENTS ONLY.

1) ACTION SCENES and BIKE CHASES

What is the purpose of making an action movie ? It's to thrills your senses to an extent where your adrenalin is over-flowing. What Dhoom 3 does ? It dries up your existing Adrenalin and other brainy fluids that support your intelligence. It seems like the director imagined these bike chases after watching his son play the Chor-Police game with his toy cars. There is no chasing here. They just make the actors roam around Chicago on fancy bikes making vroom-vroom sounds to give an impression of speed and give us a tour of chicago, but we can do that ourselves on google streets without wasting so much of petrol. Instead of giving the sense of rush and sense of awe, these long and boring action scenes gave me sense of yawwwwnnn ..!!! .. and the less we talk about the logic, the better it would be. 

If the Chicago police knew that they will be treated like Indian Police in this movie, they would have never given the permission to shoot there, which would have been a HUGE RELIEF ....!!! To make things worse, the slow-motion show off in this movie gave me migraines. But thank-fully i was watching this on my laptop in VLC player, so i pressed x2 speed option every time this Slo-Mo show-off was triggered.

2) ROBBERY SCENES

You wont believe if i say, there were Robberies inspired and Executed exactly as shown in movies. Read this yourself on wikipedia.

 " In Malappuram district of Kerala, four members of a group of criminals had cracked the floor of South Malabar Gramin Bank in the early hours on 30 December 2007 and looted  2.5 million and 80 kilogrammes of gold, a total worth of Rs. 80 million, considered to be one of the biggest thefts in Kerala’s crime records. The Kerala Police have arrested four people in connection with this and the leader admitted that he was inspired by Dhoom. The media in India drew parallels to Dhoom 2.^{[13][14]. "}

Now ...!!!

Whats Dhoom 3's idea of robbery ??? 

Its normal sunny day, every body is busy, everything is quiet and ....

ABRACADABRA ..!!!!

Suddenly, the dollars are raining all over the place and Kaboom ..!! Aamir khan is running exactly how Tom Cruise ran vertically downwards  on Burj Khalifa in Mission Impossible. Thats it. Thats Robbery for you and you are supposed to believe it ..!! .. I wish this movie was renamed and telecasted on AXN as " Yash Raj's Believe it or not". That too in slow motion. 

3) TECHNOLOGY and GADGETS

Nothing new in this department. Its only like recycling the same cow's dung into a manure and showing it off as a fancy new fertilizer. Dhoom 2 was a clear winner in this department.

4) HOT CHICKS, CHEMISTRY and ROMANCE.

Hot chicks are there in this movie, but i wish their purpose was something more than being hot.

The chemistry between Aamir and Katrina is the most plastic romance i have seen in a movie for a very long time. And Uday Chopra's attempts to be a Romantic Comedian have inspired Adam Shandler to re-consider his career in Rom-Com acting.

5) JAI-ALI Bad-Cop comedy

Honestly, the SMS jokes have made me laugh more than what Abhishek and Uday Chopra could do. Continuing the Bollywood tradition of mocking Tamils thanks to chennai express, their opening scene of auto chase itself is so hammy, so hammy, ab kya bataaon kitni hammy. Uday Chopra does a 'Phata poster Nikli bike' and Abhishek Bachan does a 'Phati Deewar Nikla Auto' in this scene, and from there on, their only purpose in this movie is to walk in slow motion wearing Sun glasses. 

6) LOGICAL TWIST, TITLE SONGS

The songs are the worst to say the least. The twist is good before interval but the way that twist was used in the second half is the reason why aliens don't visit mother earth.

7) THE VILLAIN .. THE BACK-BONE OF ANY DHOOM MOVIE. (this part is going to be big ..!!!)

In my teenage, i never wished to be a hero. But i always wished to be a Dhoom Villain. Smart, Hot, Cocky, Unpredictable, Cunning, Intelligent, Serious, Self-Disciplined, Highly skilled, Highly Intelligent, Highly Athletic and Acrobatic and the most important quality of all - that pumping confidence and attitude. Hrithik Roshan showed all these just through his eyes. John Abraham was good too. But Hrithik set the standard too far for anyone to reach. He carried Dhoom 2 on his shoulders with his looks, dance, acting and stunts. He stole the show single handedly, even side-lining the great Aishwaria Rai. He was the complete package for an action hero. He re-defined villain-ism but making you fall in love with the villain and at point in Dhoom 2, you start feeling that Hrithik is the Hero here and Abhishiek is the villain. Thats the range of emotions Hrithik managed to generate. He convincingly got the Audience to fall in love with his terrific robbery schemes too.

Now i don't expect all those from Aamir. Its not his fault though. But atleast the writers could have taken an extra care atleast for this villain character. It would have been Awesome if Aamir's character was something like what we see in that terrific Interval seen in Fanaa. 

Instead of that, what writers choose to give us is this :

Looks like a wanted criminal's pic on Thane police station right ??? I was so dissapointed to see the portrayal of villain by Aamir Khan. Sorry to break it down here, but this is his worst performance till date. Looks like Aamir Khan chose this role only to help Abhshiek and Uday Chopra revive their Gloomy filmy Careers which are being run on the name of their fathers.

Serioulsy man ..!! .. what went wrong ??? Dhoom 2 was so well made. All i asked was to give me something better than that. Plus, i had that "Aamir Khan cannot go wrong" kinda thing going in my mind. Everything was shattered as soon as i watched that Bike going on a rope from one building to other. This is the article am writing with the least most interest, thanx to the movie. Thumbs Down Yash Raj ..!!! I f you tell me that Dhoom 3 is a parody to action movies, I will accept it. If you say its a serious action movie, Then Namasthe ..!!! you need a Psychiatrist. I am still waiting for that perfect Indian Action movie. I dono when my thrist will be quenched ..!!


( I am sure the following reviews on Dhoom 3 are more entertaining than Dhoom 3 itself, read it right away ..
http://www.thehindu.com/features/cinema/cinema-reviews/dhoom-3-magic-no-logic/article5486865.ece
http://imaansheikh.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/dhoom-3-a-detailed-pictorial-summary-of-an-incredibly-shitty-movie/
http://stupidusmaximus.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/dhoom-3-are-you-watching-closely/ )

LUCIA .. my Hats-off to this movie .. !!!!

I still remember the excitement i felt while watching Inception for the first time. That sense of confusion, that sense of mental breathlessness, that hustle to catch up with the story, that feeling of solving a puzzle piece-by-piece, that mind melting sensation in your head after the movie ends, that sense of achievement after figuring out the entire story-arc, followed by the sense of admiration for that Director's genius. Inception gave me that. It later became my inspiration for taking up short film making. And three years later, a Kannada movie took me back to those same exact memories and feelings. Now, this is something that i have never imagined, not even in my "dreams". Because i was like, " Dude..!!!  .. kannada movie .. ??? seriously .. ??? .. Get a life man ". Honestly, i don't know "Sandalwood" beyond Upendra. I cant even speak or understand a single word in Kannada. I am not even from karnataka. But this Kannada Movie, it changed my perception. It changed my thoughts. It affected my opinion. It mocked my under-estimation and it increased my respect towards the true talent of sandalwood. This  is the only Kannada movie i have watched in my life. But it gave life to lot a of my lazy cerebral brain cells, which have been craving for smart Indian movies since years. These are the few humble words i could muster up to describe this fantastic movie, which deserves more. The name of this movie is called LUCIA.

Now how Good a movie is LUCIA ?

Just Imagine Christopher Nolan Making Inception as a Kannada movie in a Bangalore setting. Imagine it being made on a tight budget, crowd - funded by the Facebook crowd, with limited resources and technology, unknown cast and a few dozens of technicians as Crew. How would it be ?

With the elements of 'dream vs reality' conflict, the non-linear story telling, a sense of mystery, twists and turns in the story, lot of parallel action editing ala Nolan style, it will certainly not only be a movie, but a deliciously complicated and engaging puzzle which challenges you to watch and understand it in a single viewing. Now add a raw Kannadiga touch of simplicity, a subtle humor, a multi-layered love story, a social commentary, a mockery on south Indian masala films and a pinch of loyalty sentiment. Now  grind them all in a grinder box and what you get to see in the end is a true master piece recipe called LUCIA.

What is the movie about ?

Its about our hero who is an insomniac - low class - torch bearer working in a single screen ' pakka mass' theater. To find some sleep, he takes a dream inducing pill believing that its a sleeping tablet. If addicted, this magic pill enables him to dream about all his fantasies of becoming a movie star and living a 'filmy' life style. Hence he leads a duel life, as a torch bearer in real life and as superstar in his dreams. If he stops using that pill, his dreams turn into night mares. Now that's only 10% of the movie for you.

I would not spoil the things for the viewers any further, but i can certainly tell it has the themes of multi-layered narrative, virtual reality, dreams, insomnia, effective parallel action cuts and all the other interesting Christopher Nolan stuff with a backdrop of a love story, catchy songs, genuine sentiment and many more . You can compare the genius of the director Pavan Kumar with Christopher Nolan here but not his movie LUCIA with Inception. Both are different and miles apart. Inception is an action-heist-sci-fi, where as Lucia is more of a Mystery - Psychological thriller which does more than thrilling your senses. It enthralls you on all levels. This is Independent film-making at its very best. Why else would Anurag Kashyap tweet, " My birthday gift to myself would be Lucia ..  " ? That is how i came to know about this movie in the first place.

Why i love this Movie so much ? what is so special about it ?

So many things are special about this movie and i have no clue where to start. Let me try :

1) The movie starts with a beautiful poem of Kanakadasa and a Chinese Quote on Illusion & disillusion. Watch how cleverly the director questions the audience through this poem indirectly. For me this is the first clue of the entire puzzle of Lucia. Are watching what you think you are watching ? Are you perceiving the story in a way you think you are perceiving ?  What if the story you think you are watching and perceiving is something else entirely ? Director Pawan Kumar beautifully soaks his entire movie based on this metaphor so well, that by the end of the movie the audience will bite their fists in admiration for not being able to anticipate how the movie ends. The Director lays out all the clues to see how smart you are, he makes you think you are figuring out his puzzle, but he is always two steps ahead of your game. At the end of the day he'll fool you but there is no shame in getting fooled by a good movie.

2) The best part of the movie is : ITS NOT A SERIOUS MOVIE AT ALL despite its heavy themes. Unlike a typical physiological thriller, you will not find it dark and dead and serious and boring. There are no psychotic villains or mad-arse doctors. This movie has characters which are lively and look like real kannada people walking in Bangalore streets. The dialogues don't have a faked seriousness in them, its just natural Kannada. The acting is just on the right notes. The cinematography is raw, natural, bright and the scenes are aptly lit. The drama in the screenplay never feels inserted. It doesn't take itself too seriously, its funny in parts and yet manages to keep you on your toes. Its a thriller that throws all the rules and conventions of a normal thriller movie in a garbage can. The director never succumbs to these rules and successfully tells the story in his own style.

3) Simply terrific editing. This must have been one hell of a challenge to edit, but the editor pulls off a perfect job, thanks to the clarity of the director. The way this movie is cut, it reminds you of Christopher Nolan. How ? Off course the frequent cross cuts even for a small scene and the parallel action cutting. A special mention to the parallel action cuts, especially the way they switch from dream mode to real mode, the right timing of that switching gives it a sense of fluidity in every scene and even in the songs set in both dream and reality modes, the editor acts like a virtual choreographer. It truly shows the amount of care taken by the director for every minute detail. Sometimes the editing evokes the humor in the way it cuts to the unintended hilarious face expressions of the chocolate skinned actors, sometimes it evokes the romance , sometimes the head spinning feeling and sometimes it is cut according to the music. In that way the editing is a mixed bag of switching genres. The movie switches to dream, reality, flash-back, Flash-forth and present on-going investigation scenes but  never loses its grip and gets clumsy, even for a moment, thanks to some tight editing.

4) A special mention to its songs. What is the role of songs in a typical Indian masala movie ? Even i never understood that till now. But i clearly understood the intentions of the director here : to mock the south Indian cinema culture. The  director cleverly uses the songs and the soundtrack for this purpose. The lyrics of the songs and their music are soaked with satire on these stereotypes. For example, The opening song and the Jamma Jamma song indirectly mocks our culture of a compulsory Introduction song, a romantic song and an Item song for our heroes, it mocks the way they are written, shot and edited. The Thinbedakammi (+the hilarious A for apple) song taps our xenophobic arrogance towards foreigners and our desperation to teach our culture to a foreigner. Every single song serves its purpose and nothing feels redundantly added. All those songs are catchy,  you would enjoy them even if you dint knew Kannada. They had that 'Kolavari Di' feel to them. Even these songs also have the parallel action cuts which is something Christopher Nolan never tried. Terrific use of the songs in this movie and i never skipped a single song, which i usually do while watching general Indian movies.

Excellent Sound-mixing too. Sometimes when the music goes quiet, the director makes the scene work using the sounds available around his environment. A perfect example of this is *spoilers, don't read if you haven't seen this movie yet*, the scene of Shankaranna's death in the theater's projector room, where nikki finds his body coiled up in film roles, the music used in that scene is actually the sound coming out of the movie playing in the theater. That Apt use of the sound there elates that scene. The image of Shankaranna lying dead coiled by the film reels beautifully suggests how his entire life was consumed by movies itself. Simply terrific use of symbolism.

5) The casting was right on the money. No glitz, No glamour, Every single actor and actress has that next-to-our-door look. Very naturally they slip into their characters and bring the story to life.

6) Let's see how many themes the director manages to stuff in this movie through small glimpses :

• The issue of Euthanasia on Moral basis.
• People's obsession with looks and Six Packs with quick results & how Pharmaceutical companies exploit them through false advertisement and branding for mere profits. 
• Our obsession with movies, movie stars, their life, their special treatment on sets whereas the extras get treated like peanuts and how their privacy goes to a toss due to the over-enthusiastic scrutiny by the media.
• An insight in the lives of 'Filmy' people and their inner disgust with the life of fame and glamour.
• An indirect commentary on the 5-songs-4-fights culture of south Indian Movies in a funny way
• The future of Single theater screens vs Multiplexes
• Penetration of other language movies and people in Kannada film industry.
• About the central role for Film reel projectors in this movie, the director once mentioned about it in an interview as a tribute to the celluloid and 100 years of Indian cinema which was bought to life by those reels.
• A very sweet and a multi-Layered love story which kicks all the 'formula-based' love story movies right in their face. Very real, very believable, very relatable and very natural. This is where excellent writing comes into picture. The writer covers all possible hurdles in a relationship from love, trust, betrayal, honesty, jealousy and possessiveness and yet never lets the movie turn into another melancholic love story. 
• A beautiful contrast upon the social division of characters based their incomes,, their homes, their life-styles, their tastes, that funny English-vinglish struggle of the deprived class people.
• A funny tap on our whole process of arranged marriages, especially on rural level.
• All these themes embedded in right proportion within a terrific story line, make this movie a beautiful dream you can go through for the entire 2 hours 15 minutes.

Again, the last time i saw a director who induced multiple themes and issues into his movies was Christopher Nolan, And now i have seen Pawan Kumar.

7) Can you believe all this stuff was done just in a 75 lakhs budget, out which 51 lakhs have been accumulated through Facebook crowd-source funding. What Ram Gopal verma demonstrated by making Dongala Mutha, Pawan Kumar has implemented in Lucia. What Ramu misused in department, Pawan Kumar has used it to great effect, the Go Pro cameras. What big budget movies hardly achieve through crores, the Lucia team has done with mere DSLR cameras. Lucia ha paved a new dimension to Independent cinema by following a unique path from its production to marketing. 

8) The most vital department of any movie, writing. Full marks to Pavan Kumar again for his terrific screenplay. He beautifully balances the entire movie swinging between flash-backs, dream states and different moods ranging from romantic to comedy to seriousness. He precisely allots apt amount of dialogue and screen time to each and every character leaving no hint of redundancy. Not even a single character is left to waste and you'll realize this in a second viewing. The comedy in this movie doesn't lie in those dialogues and slaps, but in the way these characters behave and the way their behavior is captured and cut. It never feels added as a parallel comedy track just for the sake of comedy and there is no mega comedian hired here to make you laugh. It's there because that's the way these characters are and it feels so natural. In the drama portions, you wont find a single trace of  needless Sensationalism, even in the crucial most scenes.

9) The last 15 minutes of the movie are simply true masterpiece. Why ?  Watch and know it yourself. You will then bow down and touch the feet of the director for the way he handles the most crucial part of the movie. Without over-sensationalizing the climax just because its a climax, he'll silently blow your brains out and make you watch the entire movie for the second time so that you can completely come in terms with your understanding of this story. Your saluting to the director is what that follows next.

10) Last but not the least, patiently sticking to his story and constantly backing his belief on his ability, though director Pawan Kumar has went through many rejections from big producers, since last two years he has put his 200% effort behind project Lucia. His hand is visible in every department and his dream is worth coming true. I have never seen any director, even independent, who works round the clock for promoting his movie even long after the release. Till today, i get updates of Lucia on YouTube and Facebook. A true hats-off to his immense passion and persistence behind this project. 

What can i add more ? Other than to recommend as many people as possible to watch this movie and breathe some hope to the aspirations of independent filmmakers like Pawan Kumar. Actors Irfan Khan and Vivek Oberoi have voluntarily promoted the movie. May many more come forward to promote Lucia. May many more accolades come to Lucia. May many more good kannada films churn out in future inspired by Lucia. May the money minded producers invest much more in smarter movies inspired by Lucia. May many other talented kannada directors get more freedom to give wings to their ideas, inspired by Lucia. May the urban Kannada audience start taking Kannada movies more seriously after watching Lucia. May every Kannadiga feel proud that Lucia is a Kannada Movie. May god give strength to Pawan Kumar to make movies more awesome than Lucia in future. This is not just a movie, this an achievement of a passionate film-maker who made something magical defying all the odds against him and hence worthy of every praise. That's the reason why i spent two days for writing this article alone. That's how much i loved this movie. That's how much it Inspired me. Thank you Lucia and team for quenching my thirst for a smart Indian movie. I have watched it three times already and every single time i watched, i discovered a new clue that i had missed before ..!!! .. To Pavan kumar and the Makers of Lucia, I simply tip my hat and say ... BRAVO ..!!!