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.