Passion

Six Suspects

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Thu, 26 Dec 2013 19:03:00 +0000

Six Suspects is a murder mystery novel written by Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat. He is well known for his debut novel Q & A which has been made into Academy Award winning film Slumdog Millionaire. I have read this novel around 9 months before. It is just yesterday I’ve got the mood and time to write my opinion about Six Suspects. Actually I am running out of movies in my hard disk, and I don’t know what else to do in the little leisure time I get.!!

A suspect is someone who is accused of a crime. Here we have six different suspects as the title suggests and the crime they are accused of is a murder. It is a high profile murder occurred at the capital city of India and the victim, Vivek ‘Vicky’ Rai happened to be the son of U.P home minister. Vicky throws a party in his farmhouse in Delhi to celebrate his acquittal from a murder case which he did before 7 years. That’s where he was killed. Inside the farm there found six individuals, each one with a revolver in their possession and indeed with a motive that is enough to kill Vicky Rai.

Let’s see the suspects one by one.

The actress – Shabnam Saxena, a Bollywood actress and heartthrob of many youngsters who lands herself in a bloody mess that takes away her name and fame.
The bureaucrat – Mohan Kumar, a corrupt bureaucrat who claims himself as Mohanlal Karamchand Gandhi after a mishap when he attends a reality show.
The tribal – Eketi, a tribesman in Andaman and Nicobar who is on a quest to trace and recover a sacred stone that belongs his tribe.
The thief – Munna, a petty thief who falls in love with a very rich girl and daughter of a politician that leads himself to problems that are unimaginable.
The politician – Jagannath Rai, an ambitious politician who wants to take over the throne and become chief minister. He also happens to be father of the victim.
The American – Larry Page, who visits India to meet his fiancé whom he knew through internet.

What is interesting about the novel is the way it is presented to the readers. The characterization of each suspect is superb and narrated cleverly. After the prologue, each character is introduced through a back story, their motives to carry out the task, i.e., the murder of Vicky Rai and the evidences in separate chapters .Though all the characters are etched out in a neat manner, the part of the actress and the politician are outstanding. The politician's dark and dirty games in order to attain the throne is superbly written. Others are also good except 'the American' part which I find damn boring. He could've been cut out from the novel and title can be changed to Five Suspects!!

Another interesting aspect about the novel is, many events in the story are derived from real life incidents. The case for which Vicky Rai was acquitted is based on Jessica Lal murder case. Other events like driving over the platform killing homeless people, hunting deer and other protected species from forests are also based on real life events. I don’t know their real life counterparts though. The novel also parallels the Indian political scenario, the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, the way they operate for their benefits, the industrialists who run the government by bribing the ministers and so on. Being a diplomat, the author would not have much difficulty in expressing these things.

Apart from these aspects, the novel has nothing special to call it a great piece of work. Its like a commercial movie. No wonder if it is made into a movie in the future. By the time I started reading it, I was told that it was murder mystery novel. That’s the first reason I chose to read it. When we read a mystery novel, we know that at the end the mystery will be revealed. The revelation should be shocking enough to make you speechless. Unfortunately here the revelation is not much shocking, or at least for me it was not. I felt that, as the end is approaching, I found the plot getting convoluted. Nevertheless, this could be read for its distinctive style of narration and the real life inspirations. If you are an avid reader, and likes mystery and investigative genres, Six Suspects will keep you engaged and I could say you won’t throw it away in the halfway of reading.

Happy reading…!!!

Regional movie trivia - facts about Indian Films

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 19:47:00 +0000

Previously I have posted a few trivia about English films. Not only they are fascinating. Trivia from our own regional language films are also good to know. Here are some of them listed below. Happy reading..!!

Bala succeeded in shooting a scene in the 2007 Ardha Kumbh Mela without anyone's knowledge for his film Naan Kadavul.

Andha naal is the first Tamil-language film without song sequences.

Antha naal (1954)

The ring-tone in Abhishek's mobile 'Aye Handsome' in the film Jhoom Bharabar Jhoom is voice of his wife and actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan!!!

Some of the parade scenes in the film Dil Se were shot during the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of India's independence.

Most of the young actors who appeared in the film Salaam Bombay! were actual street children.

The role of Shekar in the Maniratnam film Bumbai was initially offered to Cameraman Rajiv Menon but he turned it down. By the way, don't they look same? !!

Arvind Swamy

Rajiv Menon

The producers and director of the film Kamasutra: A tale of love bribed the Indian authorities “protection money” to avoid prosecution, when they became aware of the content of the film. Before that the film was shot under a different name.

The slaughter house scenes in Gangs of Wasseypur were actually shot in a slaughter house in Allahabad. The back story of Sultan Qureshi is told as a fearsome butcher who at the age of 12 could slaughter and skin 1 buffalo in a single day. Similarly, Sultan in the contemporary time scale of the film could cut 60 buffaloes in a day. Both of these were developed on seeing a boy and man doing it.

When Aparajito won Golden Lion award at Venice film festival, its director Satyajit Ray was utterly flabbergasted as he felt that the film had some serious flaws. It is the first Indian film to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Satyajit Ray - the legendary director

From the film Aparajito

Former France president Francois Mitterrand personally went to Satyajit Ray’s home in Calcutta to present him with the The Legion of Honor, the most prestigious award in France, instead of inviting him to France for the award ceremony.

Ray and Francois Mitterand at the Award ceremony

Prince Charles served as a clapper boy for some of the scenes while on a visit to the set of Mangal Pandey – The Rising.

Here are the links for my other trivia..
Trivia I
Trivia II
Academy Award Trivia

Irandam Ulagam - my opinion

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Sat, 07 Dec 2013 18:55:00 +0000

It’s been a while since I have updated my blog. After joining job in May, I didn’t get much free time as before. Being in a banking sector, my weekend is restricted to only one day, Sunday. That one day leave used to go off in either washing or sleeping or both. I almost forgot that I am having blog account and it was not updated after April 2013. Even now I have no big intention to post anything. But after seeing different reviews and opinions about the recent Tamil flick Irandam Ulagam, I feel that I also should post what my opinion about the film. A few days back, I watched the film with my colleagues in Ramesh Theatre, Ramanathapuram. One reason I chose to watch the film in that theatre rather than the one in my hometown is that, it was a well maintained, neat cinema hall with fantastic acoustics and ambiance.

Before watching the film itself, I’ve heard many reviews from friends and blogs with most of them happened to be negative. Much of them said that the script is worst, sema mokka film, can’t bear the length, no logic at all, blah blah blah. I don’t deny that the script is weak and lengthy. But the film is not as bad as the negative criticisms it got so far. Tamil cinema audiences enjoy films like Azhagu rajas, sagunis, singams, thalaivas, vaalibar sangams, etc, etc without any logic and story. But this is a fantasy movie. Why expect logic in a fantasy movie? Funny, isn’t it?

At the interval, my friend asked me how the film was. I said “story ellam sumaar than.. but parkirathuku sema colorful a iruku.. Fantastic visuals” (its little boring, but very colorful).

He replied me, “yes. Ithu vara tamil la intha mathiri visuals yarum try pannathilla. Brave attempt” (no one has tried visuals like this in tamil cinema).

I agree with my friend completely. Irandam Ulagam comes with never-seen-before visuals in tamil cinema. For that one reason I’d like to watch the film one more time despite its boring second half. This is neither the best of Selva, nor great like his previous ventures Puthupettai, Rainbow Colony. But surely a milestone in tamil cinema when it comes to visuals. So much vivid and I was amazed at the visual presentation of the film. Had the director concentrated a little more on the script, it'd be more terrific. I am not trying to exaggerate things here as a Selvaragahavan fan. As a movie buff, I quite liked this film because of its vivid imagery, despite some flaws the film has come along with. This was what came to my mind while coming out of the theatre. Apart from the fantastic imagery, I liked the actings of Arya and Anushka also.

I still don’t understand why people don’t welcome such a new, brave attempt. Who knows... If it comes from a newcomer director or the same has been made in English by a James Cameroon or a Spielberg and dubbed into regional languages, they will silently watch it keeping aside the logic and other things and praise it, like how they praised Avatar and Jurassic park.

Ok. Let’s stop here. I am not going too deep. This is not a review of the film. I just wanted to share how I felt after watching the film. Those who haven’t seen the film yet, please watch it in theatres and give your honest opinions.

Special 26 - an excellent heist thriller

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 19:08:00 +0000

Remember the tamil film Guru Shishyan released in late 80s? In that film, there comes a funny scene in which Rajini and Prabu pose as bogus CBI officers and conduct raid in another police officer’s house. At that period of time, there actually happened ‘real’ bogus raid in a Mumbai jewellery shop by a group of persons posing as CBI officers. It is reported that they were never caught by the police. I don’t know whether that scene in Guru Shishyan was inspired by this event or accidental. But Special 26 is not accidental. It is made entirely based on those events.

Kollywood and Bollywood have a great similarity in getting plagued by masala flicks. There is a two way communication between these woods in remaking films. One need to forget that there is a word called ‘logic’ and should not even think of what the story is while watching those films. But there used to happen rare occurrences of good films then and there. Here comes Special 26 as the above mentioned the occurrence.

Special 26 is special because it deviates from many stereotypic elements of a usual bollywood masala flick. The mass hero turns into a thief and the most wanted villain turns into a honest government official. There is no song-dance (except only one), no songs set in foreign locations, no forced comedies, and no 1:10 fight scenes. Also, an Akshay Kumar film without any item number is very unusual. It’s about well dressed professional conmen who carry out raids by posing themselves as CBI officers. Their targets are the big hands having loads of unaccounted cash and jewels so that the crime could not be reported. They are perfectly professional and vanish without any trace.

The plot-driven approach by Neeraj Pandey (remember A Wednesday) works very well here, accompanied by the well acted cast and fantastic production design. Being a film based on real events, thankfully it didn’t turn out as a docu-drama. The script is well written and executed, making the story to go on in a gripping fashion. The narration spans across different places – Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Rajasthan and Chandigarh. There are many funny and comic moments which are not induced and rather subtle.

The production design deserves a special mention here as it brought out the mid-1980s look very exquisitely. Old model dialing phones, type writers, the Rs.100 note, rickshaw-men, taxis, hand-drawn posters, costume design and hairstyles and other aspects are well researched. The 80s lifestyle is reflected realistically in a finespun way – buying imported goods from Bombay, lack of awareness about family planning (Anupam Kher has more than 6 children and one more is on the way), lovers communicating through letters, using money order service to send a sum of Rs. 100, etc. The photography is very proficient with long shots and color tone reflecting the period of the film. The background music is good but it reminded me of Billa and Don theme music at many places in the film.

Special 26 bears a fantastic casting and amazing performances. In fact the performances by the trio – Akshay Kumar, Manoj Bajpai and Anupam Kher – is the biggest + of the film. Akshay Kumar as Ajay is the mastermind behind the fake raids. What an amazing performance Akshay ji! – as a silent, well-planned and determined in the job. This is the first time I liked him on screen.

Manoj Bajpai who is very famous for notoriety in his works, takes up the role of real CBI officer Waseem. About his acting, he is no different from Akshay – an equally amazing performance. Special 26 will give a special place in the career of Akshay and Manoj and they will be remembered for their respective roles. Anupam Kher as Mr. Sharma j is Ajay’s accomplice. I don’t need to elaborate about his perfection here, as the versatile actor delivers an as usual excellent performance. Overall, the trio delivers A-one performance and adds more charm to the film overall.

Jimmy Shergil has quality acting but unfortunately not given much part, as much of the focus is on Akshay and Manoj Bajpai. Divya Dutta makes presence in a few scenes as lady constable. Rajesh Sharma and Kishore Kadam as Joginder and Iqbal, are the other two accomplices of the team. They have no big part except raid scenes. I feel the romantic subplot between Kajal and Akshay is inappropriate here. Kajal has nothing to do except passing letters to Akshay, and weeping down tears. One difference from other films is that she already knows Akshay is a thief. The romance part gives a sense of boredom and is the only barrier in the gripping script. Either she could’ve given a more important role or ruled out from the film simply. Other than this aspect, everything is fine.

A movie without any conventional entertainment factors doesn’t mean it will fail to entertain the audience. Special 26, as a whole, is a very well entertaining heist thriller – with its well drafted script and charming acting that won't let down the audience.. Enough said. Enjoy the heist..

This picture explains everything...

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:35:00 +0000

This is how I feel every time I book a tatkal train ticket through IRCTC.

Image source: some facebook page.

oh dreams.. you are fascinating!!

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 19:15:00 +0000

It was an afternoon, a couple of weeks before I guess. After taking lunch, I was sitting on the cot. My laptop was placed on the cot with a song playing in windows media player. I could not recognize the song as I was hearing it for the first time. It started with a mild prelude, sort of a song in a melancholic situation. Suddenly there was a sound in between. What is that…? It’s like the sound of a vehicle horn and what’s the need for that in this song. I wondered. In another few seconds, I heard something falling down on the floor. I woke up suddenly and realized that I was in dream. The song I listened to and the horn sound I heard were in fact in the dream which I had a few minutes before during the nap. I saw my laptop screen and it was not even turned on at that time.

Later after a few days, I heard the same song again while I was travelling in a town bus. It was from the tamil film ‘Paradesi’. Oh.. wait.. where is the horn sound? It was missing now. I wondered how. I mean, how the horn sound came into the dream. I still have no clue about how that sound came into my dream.

Yesterday afternoon, I had this dream that a granny was taking food in my house. I saw her eating fish curry with brinjal. She is a relative to my family, of the same age as my grandmother and used to visit my house often. I saw also in the dream the same day where a man of late 30s, may be diplomat, was walking in the corridor to meet his superior officer. He had a file in his hand and while walking, he drops a book by mistake. A young man takes it and opens it. In the first page there was written something and the handwriting was quite familiar to me. And that’s the end of the dream. I couldn’t remember whether these two incidents occurred in the same dream or in different but both happened while I was sleeping yesterday noon.

Not only these two incidents, there are quite a number of dreams which threw me a lot of questions. The basic questions are ‘how’ and ‘why’. In fact dream is one thing that fascinates me like anything. I am now obsessed with them for a few months to an extent that I started making a log of my own dreams in a separate notebook.

What is a dream?

Ok. What is a dream, by the way? One greatest advantage of internet is that it serves as a source of information for almost anything and everything. My obsession and curiosity made me spent considerable amount of time in searching over the internet for stuffs related to dreams. The more I read, the more I am interested in dreams.

Researchers define dream as a picture in your head that appears while sleeping, which may or may not be related to the events of our life. It can include anything ranging from images, thoughts, emotions, etc. It may be very very vague, or extraordinarily vivid, or scary enough to take away the rest of your sleep, or pleasant enough to make you smile for next couple of days. More importantly it may or may not be meaningful. This is the most interesting aspect and beauty of dreams.

Dream researchers claim that sometimes our dreams have our own life incidents, like a replay, with certain unfamiliar events mixed up. Our dreams are a result of our actions and thoughts throughout the day which we incorporate them. Why we see them in our dreams is still a mystery to the researchers. Some say that they really do have a purpose while some others say that they don’t have sense at all. That’s the beauty of dreams.

Why did I dream of the granny?

As told already that dreams are a reflection of our actions, I could relate some of my dreams (which I remember) very well with the events associated with my life. I deduced to some extent the reasons for the occurrences narrated above. When I slept yesterday, I was reading a novel. It is a memoir of an intelligence officer. I have started reading it only a few days before. It was so much interesting and impressive the way the author described his office, the corridors, and all. The corridor I saw in my dream was more or less same as how I imagined the office when reading the memoir. That could be the reason why I saw a man walking with a file in his hands. The booked he dropped resembled another book I had taken from district library a few weeks before.

The granny visited my house my a few days before. On that day my mother prepared fish and brinjal for lunch. She took lunch in our house and appreciated my mother for its deliciousness! That may have a reason how she jumped into my dream. A coincidence was that, my mother again made fish on the day I had this dream.

That makes perfect sense. At the same time, they sometimes do not have any meaning at all, like the song and horn sound. In the above narrated incidents, the actions took place in my dream are those happened earlier in my life. There are also occurrences of dreams where the actions haven’t happened really but you may either want it or don’t want to happen in your life.

I used to go to an ice cream parlor with two of my best buddies while I was doing my post graduation. Once while chitchatting in the parlor, my friend told that what I will do if my project guide visits the shop now. Actually I was eluding from my professor at that time due to delay in the task I needed to accomplish. So she made such a statement just funnily. And that night I had the dream of sitting in the same ice cream shop with the same friends and suddenly there is a voice “Ashik... What a surprise!” A very friendly and familiar voice and Yes it’s my project guide. I was shocked. And that’s the end of the dream.

Simply saying, dream is all about our day to day actions and thoughts. The question of how a particular event is reflected in our dream is answered. The ‘why’ is still unanswered and the purpose still remains a mystery.

Pepper Juice - homemade remedy for throat infections

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 06:57:00 +0000

Throat infection, sore throat or simply throat pain is a form of bacterial or sometimes viral infections. It often causes inflammation in tonsils, cough and cold. Most sore throats often get alright in 2 or 3 days without any medical treatment. At times it used to be quite annoying to an extent that we couldn’t fix our mind in work.

Not only throat pain, whatever disease or infection hit us, we all want it to go away suddenly. We run off to doctors, he gives medicines and it works fine. But we often forget the handy, homemade remedies available in our home itself. I’d like to say ‘not aware’ rather than ‘forget’ because most of us do not know about such easy and very effective remedial measures. As for throat pain, it can be cured with just a pinch of pepper. Looks quite easy, isn’t it?

I like to call it Pepper Juice. Let’s see how to prepare it. Its not a very big deal. Anyone can make it easily with the availability of a glass of hot water and pepper powder. enough. There is no kitchen without pepper powder in it I hope.

Take a pinch or two of pepper powder and put it in a glass of water, say 200 ml. If you think it will be too spicy, add a small piece of jaggery cube to the mixture. If it is not spicy enough you feel, add one more pinch of pepper powder. Boil the mixture till it gets warmer. That’s it. Pepper Juice is ready.

Drinking the extract once in every 3 or 4 hours while having throat infection will give you instant and effective remedy. The next day will be a day with a great relief. Why go to doctor when you have a handy remedy! Your time and money are saved.

Not only this throat infection, pepper can also be used as an effective medicine for other infections, cold, and mainly toxic contents in our food. There is a proverb well said about pepper’s significance.

பத்து மிளகு இருந்தால் பகைவன் வீட்டிலும் சாப்பிடலாம்.

It means that when you have pepper with you, you can even eat at your enemy’s den. Such an effective natural medicine it is. Adding pepper to our daily food will improve immunity generally. Let’s utilize it effectively for own benefits.

P.S: The entire credit for this post goes to my mother!!

Satyajit Ray's Indigo Stories

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 09:37:00 +0000

Visiting library has many great benefits. One can come across variety of books, old ones, rare editions, precious and valuable books, new arrivals, etc. I do visit my district's central library often. It has a very big reference section with numerous very useful books. Once while glancing through the English Literature section, I came across this book Indigo Stories. It is a collection of Bengali short stories written by the famous Indian cinema director Satyajit Ray.

Two reasons why I chose to read this book. First, the name Satyajit Ray drew me towards the book that I instantly took it from the shelf. I have known the great man only as a filmmaker but never knew that he has published stories too. In fact, most directors are writers themselves. Aren’t they? Next thing, it’s a collection of short stories. I prefer to read short stories rather than hundreds of pages of novels with only one story.

‘Indigo Stories’ has horror, fantasy, adventure, magic and supernatural stories. They were translated into English by Gopa Majumdar and some of them were translated by Ray himself. All of them look seemingly very simple and average. Yet they hold the attention of the readers with a humorous narration, suspenseful plot and fantasy elements, like other similar works of Ray.

The characters in the stories, their lives and the places are very ordinary, yet they land in unimaginable and extraordinary circumstances. In the segment The Scarecrow, a writer gets stranded near a paddy field on his way to the city and encounters the scarecrow in the field that becomes alive. In I am Ghost, a ghost occupying an abandoned burnt bungalow tells about its past life and how it is to be a ghost. In The Case of Mrigaonko Babu, the protagonist feels that he has not evolved as a complete human being. Another one Patel Babu - Film Star tells the story of an artist who strives for excellence and perfection rather than fame and wealth. In the titular Indigo, a traveler who takes shelter for one night in an old lonely bungalow encounters bizarrely the events happened over a century before. Likewise, each and every tale has its own charm and elegance. A few characters became unforgettable once I finish reading them. In one way or other, we can connect them with the events in our own life to some extent.

Satyajit Ray - pioneer of Indian cinema

Ray was quite imaginative, a quality that is a mandate for a creator. He has had an endless fascination towards supernatural and ghost fantasies. That’s how most of the tales turn out to be of such genre. Through the stories, Ray presents us with the beautiful, aesthetic valued Bengal of 1950s, its people, lifestyle, the environment and surroundings. In addition to this,

Above all, the most inviting aspect I find in this book is that they are very crisp and clear. No story lasts for more than 10 pages, no unwanted contents. Very apt for slow readers and lazy people like me! No problem in losing the continuity.

Simply speaking, Indigo Stories is a treat and treasure to the voracious readers especially those who are very much fond of short and fictional stories.

Happy reading...

Haywire - classy action

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 19:50:00 +0000

Haywire (2011)

Cast: Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Antonio Bendares, Mathieu Kassovitz

Direction: Steven Soderberg

Genre: Action, Thriller

Haywire is an action crime thriller directed by Steven Soderberg. The plot is very simple and ordinary as we have seen in couple of high rated action films. Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is a freelance operative for a firm that handles “special covet operations” off the grid, headed by Kenneth (McGregor). Considered as very skillful, she is the most wanted for these kinds of operations to be successful. After a supposedly easy mission turns awry, she is forced to run from cops and the people associated with the mission.

Let’s not get into too much detail about the plot. Haywire is a simple and straight action movie. There are a few movies with similar plot as this one. What makes it good and different from the rest of similar films is its realistic stunts. Thanks to Gina Carano’s professional martial arts background, the action sequences are quite natural, realistic. Comparing to Angelina Jolie starrer Salt which has a similar female centered storyline, Haywire is far better and really cool in action part. For the realistic action alone, you can watch it, well atleast once.

Carano is the perfect choice for Mallory and suits well as the tough girl, stamped as rogue, convicted and on the run. You need not wonder when she biffs the bad guys and jumps off rooftops, as she is a mixed martial artist. She is the stunt-woman for herself. The fight scene with Aaron (Tatum) at the movie beginning looks raw and more like wrestling inside ring. It is like, people shown fighting actually fights.

Carano in action

The cast is ensemble. Apart from Carano, you can see big actors together on screen. There is no other significant female character in the film too. You have Michael Douglas as Coblenz, a government agent, Ewan McGregor as Kenneth, director of the firm that handles covet operations, Antonio Bendares as Coblenz’s Spanish contact Rodrigo, Michael Fassbender as MI6 agent Paul, Channing Tatum as Aaron, Mallory’s team-player, Bill Paxton as Mallory’s father and French actor-director Mathieu Kassovitz as Studer, a wealthy businessman.

The big stars casting is not a new or odd thing in films directed by Soderberg (Oceans 11!). In fact this is the first reason I chose to watch this film. They all have done their part quite well. But I feel this time it didn’t work too well. Given the fact that the run time is only 92 minutes, most of them appear as a sort of extended cameo, especially Fassbender and Kassovitz. I thought Fassbender is the male lead but he appears for hardly 10 minutes. The fact here is, there is no solid male lead in the film.

Haywire is cut by Soderberg himself. The editing and non linear narrative works well here with the pace of the story. Soundtrack is impressive at a few instants, for example when Mallory chases a guy in Barcelona. Unlike many spy movies, it doesn't rely on special effects and there aren't any inappropriate fight sequences. Soderbeg's direction and script gives an appeal to the viewers that nothing goes out of the track. That invites and engages the audiences without any sense of boredom.

This isn't a perfect made film. There may be some flaws one can observe. Forget that and it will offer more than what you can expect from a normal action thriller film. I wonder why IMDB has lower rating for this film but it deserves a lot more than that.

Overall, with its appealing pace and charisma in Carano’s stunts, Haywire will not let you down. Enjoy yourself!

Freaking Awesome investigation thriller films

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:28:00 +0000

Thriller films are always a treat to watch. It gives the audience an adrenaline rush to what will happen in the next scene. A common aspect of crime thriller films is that, it involves an extended investigation conducted by police, lawyers, journalists and private detectives. But most of them happen to be predicable in the midway. Only a few films will leave us puzzled till the end, and there are also films that require multiple viewings to know what actually has happened. Here are some of the best and of course my favorite of such films. I call them freaking awesome because they really are! I don't like the idea of ranking the films while making a list, as each of the film is different in its own way.

1. Se7en (1995) – USA

Director: David Fincher

A soon to be retired veteran detective and his newly transferred replacement are on hot pursuit after a serial killer whose motifs are based on 7 deadly sins. Believe me, this is the best thriller film I have ever seen. Se7en is an outstanding film in all the aspects, especially the way the thrill element is maintained throughout is really terrific. The cinematography and visual effects gives you a haunting effect that will remain with the viewer for quite a while. The film brings out one of the finest performances from Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. For thriller movie freaks, this is a not-to-miss film.

2. The Secret in Their Eyes (2009) – Argentina

Director: Juan José Campanella

In the Argentinean era of political unrest and state sponsored terrorism, the film tells the story of a murder case and its effect on the lives of persons closely involved. Switching back and forth between 1974 and 2000, this film sets the standards of how a mystery drama film should be, with an intense and engulfing plot, mesmerizing performance, excellent execution of a well written script by the director. For those who are bored of mediocre Hollywood films, go for this emotional and rich thriller. You will not be disappointed!

3. Memories of Murder (2003) – South Korea

Director: Bong Joon-ho

Two detectives with different mindset and methods in approaching homicide cases are appointed to solve unsolved mysteries behind murders of young girls. The film is based on the true story of South Korea’s first known serial murders. The film moves in a slow pace but that suits it very well with a fantastic character development, acting and a flawless screenplay at the top. You can find many thriller films like this but not like this one for sure. Films like this are very uncommon and far better than most of the Hollywood counterparts.

4. Angel Heart (1987) – USA

Director: Alan Parker

A private detective is hired by a mysterious man to find a missing singer and soon realizes that things are not simple as he expected it be in the course of his investigation and finds himself in lot of trouble. What makes this interesting is its blend of horror, mystery and detective genre, a gripping and intriguing plot and great performances from Rourke and de Niro. The eerie soundtrack is excellently coherent with the dark and unnerving plot. Read my review about the film here.

5. The Ghost Writer (2010) – British/German

Director: Roman Polanski

A ghost writer is hired to complete the memoir of an ex Prime minister, and in the course of writing, his own life is put under risk.The film turned out to be a slow paced gripping thriller, thanks to Ewan McGregor’s powerful performance and Roman Polanski’s stylish direction. This may not be the best of Polanski, but it surely is a terrific mystery thriller film that keeps you engaged till the end. Other than the plot, I really liked the film’s chill and rainy environment. Upon its release, the film drew controversies because of its sensitive political content.

6. Shutter Island (2010) – USA

Director: Martin Scorcese

Set in 1954, U.S. Marshal Edward Daniels arrives at a mental hospital for criminally insane located in the titular Shutter Island, to investigate the disappearance of a murderess escaped from the hospital and suspected to be hiding nearby. When you have a film directed by Scorcese with Dicaprio in it, what else you need! Shutter Island’s great success lies with Marty’s superior command and flair in delivering a simple plot as a sophisticated psychological thriller. Dicaprio portrays Edward as a desperate one in finding the truth in a brilliant manner that we start to follow him in his quest to solve the puzzle. Shutter Island combines variety of genre like detective, fantasy, period, film noir and psychological thriller, and heavily influenced by Hitchcock films.

7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) – USA

Director: David Fincher

Financially broken journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired by leading business magnet Henrik Vanger and assisted by an aggressive and talented computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, to find a woman from Vanger family who has been missing for 40 years. Fincher has given yet another immensely enjoyable film with a captivating plot staged brilliantly. The film is technically superior, well acted, excellently shot and progresses in fast pace. You will never get a boring or dull moment with captivating performances from Craig and Rooney Mara. An apt choice for those who prefer a fast paced mystery thriller.

You can also read these..

Films set in dystopian future
A dozen best movies

Respect thy mother!!

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 08:17:00 +0000

Let me narrate you a story, a small incident that happened before 2 months. Please do bear with me if the writing is crude and narration is boring.

It was a chill Sunday night, around 8.30 PM. It was a busy place in the city, where a few shopping malls are located. As it was a week before Christmas, all the shops were flooded with people busy in their purchases. The place was a junction of 4 roads. All the buses leaving the city must cross the junction to take bypass road and the buses entering the city must cross to reach the central bus stand. From there people can get town buses to their respective places in and around the city.

After a few minutes, a boy stepped out of a bus that stopped there and walked towards the town bus stop. He was carrying a small bag in her back. Looking very tired he glanced around the bus stop as to whether he could sit somewhere. There were around 30 to 40 people waiting in the bus stop. Some of them had to go their villages and they looked restless as the buses to their places were a bit rare after 9 PM.

The boy took his mobile and saw the time. It was 9.05 PM. He already knew to some extent about the bus timings to his locality. He remembered that he once took bus from the same place to his house at around 9.25 PM, though he is not sure whether it is a regular timing. As there was no charge in his mobile phone, it was difficult for him to pass the waiting time. He always used to browse with his internet enabled mobile phone when he happens to wait at any place. He simply forgets everything at those instants. Unfortunately on that day, his battery was low. So he stood there calmly. Slowly the crowd in bus stop started to move as buses come and there were only 10 in the place.

The time was 9.20 PM. There came a bus that goes to a village “Veeralaperumselvi” through his place but takes another road one stop before his stop. If he boards that, he has to walk half a km to his house. That’s not a big issue. He had done it many times but as he was tired and exhausted because of continuous travel on that day, he was not ready to walk. He was hungry too. At first he suddenly moved forward to board the bus. Then his mother’s words stopped him. His mother often tells that whenever Veeralaperumselvi bus comes, after a few minutes, surely bus going through his house stop will come. He also thought that what if the other bus won’t come or will come very late. He thought rather than waiting there, he could board the bus and walk slowly to his house. He could get a lift from two wheeler riders or call his cousin to pick him up from bus stop. With these thoughts, he at last boarded the bus.

In another 10 minutes, he reached the bus stop and got down from the bus. He called his cousin only to find that he was out of station on that day. As he put his mobile in his pocket and raised his head, he saw the other bus approaching the stop. He was shocked to see that and cursed himself for not considering his mother’s words. Much to his dismay it didn’t stop there as there was no one got down and no one waiting. So he had no other choice than walking to reach his home. He badly needed to take a cup of tea. But the tea shops were closed earlier than the usual as it was Sunday. An acquaintance offered him lift in his bike in the mid way and dropped him nearby his house, and at last he reached his house at 10 PM. He kept on thinking about not considering his mother’s words while walking all the way.

Now the whole thing about telling the above is very simple and straight. Always hear, respect and follow your mother’s words, no matter how big or small the situation is! Even the toughest things will become easier like a walk in the park with her wise words. Though the boy reached his house, he could have done it easily without having to walk amidst his tiredness and hunger if he had followed what his mother told.

P.S. The boy in the above incident is none other than me.

Films set in dystopian future world

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:54:00 +0000

A dystopia is a fictional society or a country in near future, represented in films and literary works, often characterized by dehumanization, post apocalyptic environment, totalitarian governments, political imbalance, and well advanced technologies. Films set under such environments are said to be dystopian films, that mostly fall under science fiction film genre. They are usually set in a future world, sometimes as an allegory to present day economic, political and social conditions. Below is the list of my ten most favorite dystopian films that I consider to be the best (films are not listed in any specific order).

1. Brazil (1985)

Terry Gilliam’s sci-fi fantasy film Brazil is about Sam Lowry, a harried technocrat who is accused by the government for terrorist activities along with Jill Lanton, the girl he dreams often, while attempting to help a man named Harry Tuttle. Set in an unspecified futuristic society occupied by machines and overpowering technology, Brazil is a political satire that showcases a desolate future under a totalitarian, inefficient and bureaucratic government, in a hilarious way. With its stunning and distinct photography and its thematic explorations, Brazil is considered to be a well made classic.

2. Children of Men (2006)

For two decades, the society is facing human infertility and restlessness due to oppressive immigration laws on illegal entrants by the government, a civil servant Theo Faron must save a pregnant refugee woman amidst all the chaos, to deliver the baby safely. The film brilliantly explores various themes of hope, redemption, faith, spirituality, hardships that are being faced by immigrants, rebel communities trying to overpower and so on. The story is told in a more dramatic way with less stunt jargons and more emotional context.

3. Equilibrium (2002)

After third world war has devastated the Earth and human emotions are suppressed by the brutal authoritarian government by enforcing the citizens to take daily dose of emotion controlling drug, a law enforcement officer John Preston accidentally misses out his daily dose and begins to feel and express emotions. Meanwhile a resistance group is operating secretly against the regime. Though the themes in the film are reminiscent of many other yesteryear sci-fi classics, Equilibrium has a pretty appealing visual tone and catchy action sequences. If you are fond of heavy action films and just want to see one good action thriller, this will be an apt choice.

4. V for Vendetta (2005)

Set in 2030s futuristic London, a masked vigilante only known as V, a bold, charismatic and determined fighter, whose sole aim is to ignite a revolution against brutal fascist regime. This comic book adaption is politically controversial as it is an attempt to represent many totalitarian regimes prevailing in the world. Despite the fact that V’s face is not shown in the film, Hugo Weaving has given out neat performance, and also Natalie Portman as Evelyn, a working class woman who gets caught up with V. For those who like political thrillers with some good thought provoking dialogues, V is a good choice.

5. District 9 (2009)

In Johannesburg where a group of alien race named The Prawns is put in slum like refugee camps in District 9 ghetto, a soft-hearted government official is accidentally exposed to biotechnology of the aliens and started to transform into one of them slowly. Unlike the usual Hollywood alien films, the usual sci-fi atmosphere is ruled out here. District 9 is technically brilliant, well acted, emotionally valued and thoughtful sci-fi thriller. For those who like to see a sci-fi film without any mind numbing and stereotypic action jargons, this is highly recommended.

6. The Matrix (1999)

In the near future, human population is controlled by sentinel machines by a simulated reality called The Matrix. Computer programmer and hacker Neo Anderson, after learning this truth, joins the rebellion forces led by Morpheus who are in war against the machines. Written and directed by The Wachowski brothers, The Matrix is a science fiction film with technically superior and innovative visual effects, gripping plot and action scenes that are not seen before in many films. Though the theme of the film is almost same as The Terminator films, this is far more superior in its visual presentation. Two direct sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolution continue the same plot in fighting the machines.

7. A Scanner Darkly (2006)

Set in near future, where the government has lost the control of harmful drug Substance D, and amidst high tech surveillance systems for counter measures, a detective is sent undercover to infiltrate the drug underworld and break the supply chain of the drug dealers. He works with a small group of drug sellers and as he goes deeper in the drug world, he starts losing his own identity due to the exposure to Substance D. The film is based on real life drug experiences of noted sci-fi writer Philip K Dick. The film’s intelligence lies with the hypnotic, appealing visual presentation of hallucinative drug world using rotoscopic animation technology, suspenseful plot and powerful performances from Robert Downey Jr. and Keanu Reaves, making it one of the best written sci-fi films.

8. Sunshine (2007)

In 2057, the sun has lost its lighting power and slowly dying, and a group of scientists are sent to attempt to reignite it by detonating a nuclear bomb as large as Manhattan. Rather than the simple space film, the film could be seen as a psychological journey of scientists involved in the mission, with an ensemble cast of international actors. Throughout the film, the characters undergo various hurdles and setbacks in the form of opinion difference among themselves, loss of a spaceship sent in previous mission, the urge to get back to their families. Danny Boyle’s direction, well crafted screenplay, perfect casting and well shot visuals render us with a pretty good psychological thriller.

9. Minority Report (2002)

Set in the year 2054, where technology is well advanced to apprehend and arrest criminals by specialized police force PreCrime, using the future knowledge provided by three specialized precogs, PreCrime Captain Anderton is predicted to commit a murder and on the run from arrest, to prove his innocence. The film centers on its main theme of free will as to whether it will be perceived with the existence of future prediction technologies, incorporation of electronic advancements and its effects on humanity. This high profile thriller offers a murder mystery plot with excellent, nail biting, edgy and fast paced action, very clever visuals, writing and editing. In every way, be it murder mystery, action, acting, sci-fi elements, this surely is a must watch.

10. In Time (2011)

In 2169, where human race is genetically altered to stop from aging and living time has replaced the currency system, a young man fights against the brutal government and the system to eradicate the inequalities based on the living time and to bring equality among different time zones. The film pays an allegory to the social inequalities prevailing in across the society, where those who are rich have many years of living time whereas the poor have only a few days, and they must work as daily labors for their survival. The film has an intriguing plot and good acting but spoiled by too much action and poor handled script. Despite the downfalls, it is worth watching for its new and different concept of time currency.

Apart from the above listed movies, some of the other notable films under this genre are I am Legend, I robot, The Terminator series, Serenity, 1984, A Clockwork orange, A.I - Artificial Intelligence, Renaissance, etc.

The Banyan - Serving with a noble cause

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 15:41:00 +0000

Have you ever thought of the mentally disabled patients under treatment in various facilities and asylums? What about their condition after they get cured? Do they really go back to normal life? Do their family and society accept them? The answer is only partially yes. Only a few instances where those who cured are taken back to their home and start to lead a normal life again. The rest are again abandoned, and they may face troubles for the rest of their life.

There are a few NGOs operating for the wellness of such persons, especially women and one among them is The Banyan. I came to know from this through a Facebook post shared by a friend. Since its inception in 1993, it has been serving for the noble cause of identifying and helping those who are mentally ill and abandoned to make their lives better. They train those persons to make handicraft products and enabling them to earn. The bags in the below image are handmade by one of the persons belonging to the care of The Banyan.

Image taken from a Facebook post

Here are a few things we could do to render some help to them.

1. We can visit them and buy their products. Those who belong to Chennai are easy to access them, as the organization is located in Mugapper, Chennai. It not only will make revenue to them, but also becomes a token of encouragement and appreciation that they are not just what other thinking about them.

2. Apart from buying ourselves, we can also share this information and recommend our friends, family and colleagues to buy their products.

3. Our responsibility doesn't just stop from sharing the information alone. If any of us come forward to arrange a wholesale purchase of their handmade profits, it will be of a great help.

The person behind this noble service is Mr. Senthil Kumar and his contact no. is 08754501642. The contact address is below (contact info taken from Facebook post).

The Banyan Adaikalam

6th Main Road, Mugappair Eri Scheme,

Mugappair west, Chennai – 600037

T: 044 – 26530504, 26530599

F: 044 – 26530105

Please visit the website for more details. Please share this as much as possible.

Sorna Regai (Golden Palmlines) - my favorite novel

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:28:00 +0000

In the present era of computer, internet and smartphones, novel reading has been reduced to a considerable extent. People read novels as ebooks in their smartphones nowadays. I myself do not read much nowadays, as I spend more and more time in front of laptop. But whenever I read any book, it still gives immense, unmatched and ultimate pleasure which I don't find in internet and computers. If it’s a book of favorite genre or written by a favorite author, it’d be more interesting and exciting. I always get this excitement whenever I read the novel Sorna Regai (Golden Palmlines) written by Tamil writer Indira Soundararajan. I read it for the first time 12 years before, and I have read it many times after that. But it still looks fresh to me, may be because it was the first mystery thriller novel I have ever read.

The plot is about the events surrounding a death sentenced prisoner, a crime branch police officer, a young palmist, a theatre projectionist and his wife in a time span of less than 2 days. Most of the author’s works are based on supernatural elements, traditional beliefs and mythological aspects. Sorna regai falls under similar category with Palmistry as the base for the plot, thus given the title. There is a small note about different aspects of palmistry, its meaning and benefits, at the beginning of every chapter, making it interesting to read.

Apart from being published as a novel in the year 1999, it was also aired as a tele-serial in Raj TV channel as Marma Desam – Sorna Regai, as the third installment of Marma Desam series. It was quite famous those days. I have heard many people saying that some of the author’s works are kind of crap. I agree with that partly. But I can say surely that this one is an exception. Sorna regai is not a great novel, not the best written book, but comparing to bulky, hundreds of pages of current bestselling thrillers, I feel that this is a fairly good thriller, not long and not too short. Those who like to read mystical thriller genre stories, this is for you.

About the Author

Indira Soundarajan is the pen name of P. Soundararajan, a well-known Tamil author of novels, short stories, and and screenplays. He is an expert on South Indian Hindu traditions and mythological lore. His stories typically deal with cases of south Indian Hindu traditions and mythology, supernatural occurrence, divine intervention, reincarnation, and ghosts, and are often based on or inspired by true stories reported from various locales around the state of Tamil Nadu. He lives in Madurai.

(This review is an english version of already published review of the same book in Tamil)

Indian Quills Reading Challenge 2013 - Are you ready to read!!

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 21:21:00 +0000

Last year when I started blogging, I kept this thing in my mind that apart from movies, I should write a lot about books, the books that fascinated me, the books that made me crazy that I kept reading it over and over. But being a very very lazy person, I hadn’t done that except only once. I like to read a lot but I am not an active reader because of my stupid laziness. Nowadays I rarely do sit to read. I have a habit of lying in bed while reading (even for my semester exams I used to like this only). I start reading a book and within a few minutes I will be in a pleasant dream, as I sleep without my knowledge. This happens 90% of the time when I attempt to read any book be it a novel or a magazine or a textbook. Even in public libraries, I had slept a couple of times, turning everyone's attention towards me. I still haven’t completed Agni Siragugal (wings of fire) which my father bought me at a book expo some 12 years back. Funny thing is, when I try to sleep I won’t get it and when I eagerly start reading a book, I have no idea when I get slept.

Ok let’s leave the boring stuffs about my reading habit. The point is, now I am given a chance to make myself active in book reading, through Indian Quills Reading Challenge 2013. It is an effort to gather all the books penned by Indian authors, irrespective of the timeline, in order to make an effective database of Indian literature under one roof The Tales Pensive. As part of the challenge, the reader has to give a target of the number of books that he/she will read throughout this year through this introductory blog post and add the link in the challenge’s website. After that they can review the books in their blog and share the link in the website. My target is atleast 15 books.

Image source - The Tales Pensive

It’s not just confined to bloggers alone. Non bloggers can also participate and put forth their reviews. There is a separate column for non-bloggers to share their reviews in challenge’s website. For more details and guidelines about the challenge, visit here.

I feel that it’s time to change and improve my reading habit (and a few other habits too) and I am going to achieve it through IQR Challenge 2013. Thanks a ton to the organiser of the challenge Reshmi. I wish her efforts turn out to be a huge success.

Happy reading!!

Virus Protection without Anti-Virus software

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 18:21:00 +0000

This is my first post other than movies. I like to share something I know which helps in protecting our computer from viruses. Thanks to my best friend Anvar, who has taught me with this information 3 years before.

Keeping our computer out of virus is an important task. There are plenty of antivirus programs available in the market. But there are ways to keep your computer out of virus threats without using any such antivirus software. It is very well possible with the internal features available in Windows operating system.

Actually, Virus is a program that executes by itself. Its adverse effects vary from making certain applications not function properly to mother board failure at the worst case. Now that removable media is very common, virus gets easily transferred to our computer through pendrives. Usually the virus files are associated with an autorun.inf file that has the script to execute them, and they are hidden inside the drive. Those who use shared computers, like in college laboratories and offices, are more vulnerable to get a virus attack when they use their pen drives in one of those computers, and use them again in your personal one. The moment the USB drive is plugged into the computer, it starts executing, which we must prevent in order to keep our computer safe.

Using the Group Policy Editor in Windows operating system, the task is achieved. It works well in Windows XP, Vista and 7 operating systems and the steps are same for all the three variants. The main benefit of this method is that, it is a time one process only. A repetition is necessary only in re-installation of the OS. Before that, one important thing to keep in mind is, there shouldn’t be any threats or suspicious files in your computer already. So here are the steps. The images shown below are from Windows 7 OS. Click on the images to see it enlarged.

1. Go to Start -> Run and type the command gpedit.msc. The local group policy editor window will appear (Image 2).


Image 1

Image 2 - group policy editor window

2. The Group Policy Editor window is divided into two panes. In the left pane, there are Computer Configuration and User Configuration. Select the User Configuration option by double clicking on it, and three sub headings under User Configuration will be displayed.

3. From the three, double Click the Administrative Templates. There will be another list of sub options displayed and choose Windows Components. Policies under Windows components are displayed and choose Autoplay policies option which is third from the top. Selecting the Autoplay policies will display the existing autoplay related options in the right pane of the window. The first one Turn off Autoplay is our concern (Image 3).

Image 3 - Autoplay policy

4. By default, it is Not Configured. Double clicking or a right click and choosing Edit option from the popup menu, its properties are displayed (Image 3).

Image 4 - Turn off Autoplay default properties

5. In the properties window, choose Enabled, and under the Options dropdown list, choose All Drives.

Image 5 - Turn off Autoplay properties after modified settings

6. Click Apply and then Ok. Mission accomplished!!

Hereafter you can simply use your USB drive without any fear about threats. As said earlier, virus files are usually hidden. So while using pendrive, there is no problem in leaving them as it, unless you manually execute the virus program by mistake. To avoid that, it is advised to first delete them. It can be done using either Winrar file compressing utility or Command prompt. Using Winrar is fairly easier than command prompt. One advantage of winrar application is that it shows all the hidden files in any folder or drive. This makes the process easier to spot and delete the malicious files.

Image 7 - Deleting virus files using Winrar

After inserting the pendrive, and before the opening it, pen winrar application and using the address bar, open the drive in which the virus files have to be removed. In this case, the suspicious file is folder.tmp and autorun.inf is the file that has the script to execute the virus. Selecting them and pressing delete key will throw them off your computer. Misson accomplished again.!

It is a good practice to check every time you use pendrives in your computer, that whether it has any malicious contents. In this way, you can ensure the safety of your computer from threats. Please do share this information with others.

Stylish Action Entertainer - Mission Impossible 4 : Ghost Protocol

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 10:45:00 +0000

Is there anything Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) cannot do? No. He climbs the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa tower, jumps off the tower, chases the bad guy amidst sandstorm, infiltrates the highly secured Russian archives base Kremlin, etc, etc. He does all this for one sole purpose - to save the world from a nuclear attack in Mission Impossible 4 - Ghost Protocol.

The plot is very plain. Launch codes of a Russian nuclear device falls in the hands of nuclear extremist Cobalt. IMF must stop him at all cost to avoid a nuclear war between two superpowers. Not very difficult to understand right?! In fact you will be immersed into the mind-blowing action scenes that you won’t even think of whether the story is complicated or not. M.I.4 has not even a single dull moment, not deviating from the plot in any instant. The film blasts off as a jet with full speed throughout, with as much action sequences and gadgets to please and entertain anyone who likes action-spy films.

Tom Cruise is back, reprising his role as super cool, charming, ultra superspy Ethan Hunt. This time he has to lead a team that he didn’t choose, and without any official support from the agency. His team comprises of computer geek Benji (Simon Pegg) and Agent Jane (Paula Patton), and later joined by Chief Analyst William Brandt (Jeremy Renner).

The action sequences are mind-blowing and spectacular right from the beginning till the end. The Burj Khalifa tower sequence in Dubai is breathtaking and stylishly executed both by Cruise and the crew. It must be one of the outstanding stunts of all the times. Other notable stunts being the foot-chase between Ethan and the bad guy, Renner’s jumping into a narrow vent with a magnetic suit. There are other fast and quick action scenes too - like the initial letter drop scene, the standoff between the team members at one point of time. Renner is awesome in that standoff.


Ethan climbing Burj Khalifa tower

The casting is very strong. Except Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg who reprise their respective roles, all others are newly cast. The acting is convincing and very impressive, especially Renner and Paula Patton. It sounds like Renner’s role of Brandt could be a possible replacement to Ethan Hunt in future sequels if at all Tom chooses to retire from the franchise. Paula Patton is good in stunts – the one with female assassin Sabine Moreau (Lea Seydoux). Simon Pegg is cool and funny as computer expert Benji. Michael Nyqvist as Cobalt has nothing much to do. I felt like he is wasted. This time the villain role is not much effective as in the previous installments like Davien in M.I 3. There is a female assassin Sabina Moreau (Lea Seydoux). Her eyes are simply terrifying, and she is more terrifying than the main villain. Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor has a minor role as a Mumbai based telecom industrialist Brij Nath.

Though an end-to-end action film, it’s not completely rigid. It has enough funny and comical moments - friendly interactions between Brandt and Benji, Benji making silly mistakes despite highly tense situation inside Kremlin, and Ethan’s prison friend Bogdan. Most action films fail to impress because of not having this aspect and occupied by prolonged noise of stunts. M.I 4 in that way is very well balanced.

Sabine Moreau, the contract killer

The film has all the typical trademarks of the franchise – M.I original theme, masks, hacking satellite and high security systems, new car, foot-chase, jumping off buildings, self destructing messages, etc. Believe me, these guys have more gadgets than Bond. Some of them seem to be unbelievable but how the team uses them is interesting and appropriately. For example, the hand gloves used by Ethan to climb the tower, the way they get into Kremlin, switching suites in Burj Khalifa tower, Renner wearing a magnetic suite to jump into a narrow went – all are quite good with these gadgets. They tactically play the game with the very less time span remaining. In fact, the whole plot is set within 48 hours of time only.

Jeremy Renner in Action

The locations are very catchy and include Russia, Budapest, Dubai and India. The photography is very rich giving an overall stylish appeal to the film.

It’d be unfair if I don’t mention about the director of the film. The director of the film, Brad Bird is a newbie to live action films. He has earlier directed academy winning animation ventures Ratatoulie and The Incredibles. But this doesn’t have any impression of a live action debutant. Pretty neat.

I don’t find anything that lets the film down. There is no second thought that this is absolutely one of the best action films of all the time that action movie freaks love to watch, a thrill ride to enjoy. If anyone feels it’s not entertaining or boring or lets you down or something like that, then it is a mission impossible to entertain the person through any other means.

Truth, Remorse - Atonement

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 21:19:00 +0000

Atonement (2007)

Genre: Drama, Romance, Mystery, War

Direction: Joe Wright

Cast: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan, Ramola Garai

I usually don’t prefer to watch romance genre films irrespective of the language. My choices are mystery thrillers, movies with twisted ending, and sort of stuffs. There are around a dozen of high rated romance flicks in my laptop without even opening the folder for more than 2 years, occupying space simply. One among them ‘was’ Atonement. I watched it at last, a couple of days before. At first I thought it’s an ordinary love story. Yes it is a love story, but not as what I thought to be ordinary. It’s an extraordinary film made in recent years.

We humans often commit mistakes, do misinterpretations, sometimes assume things to an extent that we blindly believe what we have witnessed are the truth. It may even bring unexpected and unbearable consequences to the persons involved. But we don’t let ourselves to at least try to know what has actually happened. Because, what if we are wrong? What if the things we believe are actually the other way around? Our ego does not let us accept our mistake. This happens with most of us. Doesn’t it? Well… the British romance mystery drama Atonement has a similar storyline, a story of how a blind mistake committed by a young girl Briony (Ronan) turns the lives of her elder sister Cecilia (Keira) and her lover Robbie (McAvoy) upside down.

Atonement has an intricate but spectacular story, fantastic narrative style, terrific performances, and wonderful visuals. The continuous 5 minutes long war-torn Dunkirk beach scene is more than enough to speak about the film’s photography. It is breathtaking and one of the visually stunning scenes of all time. The camera movement inside the palatial mansion is also pretty good. The background score is very well effective and coherent. This is the first time I have seen the typewriter clanking sound being used in soundtrack in important scenes. This is really distinctive and absolutely praiseworthy. The direction by British director Joe Wright is remarkably good, followed by his previous film Pride and Prejudice. This marks second consecutive and successful collaboration between Keira and Wright. Adapted from the novel of the same name, it is considered to be one of the best adaptions till date.

Keira has an intense role which she has done perfectly, except that she smokes a lot on screen. Her role in Atonement is largely different from her earlier roles. She proves her mettle with strong acting throughout the film. James McAvoy is none different from Keira. He has also given his best shot. His performance adds more credibility to the significant Dunkirk scene. Both Keira and James have given one of their career best performances in Atonement. But the show stealing performance is from Saiorse Ronan, who played the young Briony, age 13. Briony is the vital character of the film which is actually played by three different actors in different ages. Ronan takes the role of young Briony, delivering a subtle, surprising and strikingly awesome class act, like a precious stone or gem that is not seen often. She earned an academy award nomination for best supporting actress at the age of 14 years itself, becoming the youngest. Ramola Garai plays the teenage Briony, who has a nearly equally good show to Ronan. Vanessa Redgrave who takes the role of an aged Briony, did the needed, though she appears for less than 10 minutes in the film.


From Left to Right : Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave as Briony Tallis

As said already, it’s not simply a romance film. Most of the romance films used to be of comedy-romance genre. If you expect it to be a movie like, a boy and girl falls in love, part their way and rejoice again, and sentimental stuffs, Atonement is not for you. It largely differs from those clichéd films in a way that it strikes you hard. It has situations that are painful sometimes, shocking at some other instances, and characters that are helpless and remorseful. A movie is successful if it manipulates you and leaves you with an impact even after hours after watching it. That’s what happened to me while I was watching this. Such kind of movies only becomes unforgettable for years. And Atonement is surely one such not-to-miss film.

My Rating: Do I need to tell you that I’m gonna give 10 out 10?!!!

Renaissance - A graphic novel alive!!

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:25:00 +0000

Renaissance (2006) – English/French

Voiced by – Daniel Craig, Catherine McCormack, Ramola Garai, Jonathan Pryce, Ian Holm

Direction: Chirstian Volckman
Genre: Sci-fi, animation, crime thriller

Renaissance is a French/English rotoscopic animated black and white film directed by Christian Volckman and voiced by Daniel Craig, Ian Holm, Ramola Garai, and Jonathan Pryce. The plot is set in 2054 in Paris where everything and everyone are under surveillance. Everyone is heard and every action is seen with the use of high tech monitoring systems. The plot follows the abduction of Ilena (Ramola Garai), a talented and key genetic researcher of a big corporation Avalon. Police captain Barthélémy Karas (Daniel Craig) is assigned to the case. Karas is a reckless officer who has expertise in rescue operations, and finishes the task assigned to him at all cost. Karas’s attempt to solve the mystery leads him to various clues and directions which he really doesn’t want to lead but he has to. Other characters in the film are Bislena the sister of Ilena, Avalon's chief researcher Dr. Muller, Avalon's chairman Paul Dellenbach, an Arab mobster Farfella.

The visual imagery of futuristic Paris has skyscrapers double the height of what we have now. Holographic touch screen devices, powerful corporate organizations, advanced weapons are all become a part of the dystopian Paris. Unlike most of the animation films that mainly targets the children below 15 years, this is a sci-fi film noir, with murder mystery, violence, nudity, cops striving to solve the mystery behind those murders, wealthy manipulative organizations, advanced technology, etc. The radical and distinctive black and white look without any grey shades makes the film unique and marvelous. It is like giving life to graphic novels and comic books, a feel like comic characters are moving and fighting in front of you. A visual treat! A ‘wow’ while watching..!!

Distinctive visual imagery of Renaissance

While certain motion captured films use the voice and faces/body of same actors (A Scanner Darkly), Renaissance has no face resemblance to any actor. So there is no need to talk about the performances. Only the voices have been rendered by familiar French and English actors. Although it is a strong story, the pace is slightly slow at certain places, giving a slightly bored feel to the viewers. But that doesn’t mean it has no action scenes. There are some really impressive car chases and fight sequences.

Renaissance is purely original. It was released a year after visually similar Sin City but not its rip-off, as the making lasted for a painful 7 years. Director Volckman has deviated from the standards of making normal, live actions with similar plots to which the outcome is original creativity. The movie as a whole is not too great, but technically it is excellent and admirable. For the director’s efforts and creativity, it is underrated and surely deserves more.

If you like sci-fi and detective genre films, and their combo, and imagine them as animated, Renaissance is for you!

A racy entertaining thriller after long time - Kahaani

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 12:57:00 +0000

Kahaani (2012)
Starring - Vidya Balan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Parambrata Chatterjee
Direction - Sujai Ghosh

After quite a long time, I got the feeling of watching a very good Indian thriller movie. At least for me this is the case, as I haven’t seen any film “made in India” as good as this one in recent years. When a husband sent away to work is missing for days, a wife dares to go to any extreme to find him, despite her pregnancy and health conditions. Kahaani is the story of one such wife.

Vidya Baghchi is a pregnant woman living in London with her husband Arnab. When Arnab, who came to Kolkata for an assignment didn’t contact her for days after the assignment was over, she herself arrives to Kolkata from London to find him. There she faces a number of obstacles during the investigative pursuit of her beloved husband. What makes the rest of the story is whether she accomplished what she came for.

For a woman centered film, there is more responsibility on women actors usually and Vidya Balan does it with ease and perfection here. She did come up with yet another excellent performance, as a pregnant and naïve Vidya Bhagchi, without any support or any known person in a densely populated metro city, but well determined in purpose of her travel. She is the ‘one woman army’ of Kahaani, a center of attraction, fulfilling all the responsibilities. There is no wonder she is considered to be one of the very few well-talented actress. She seems to be turning into directors’ actress when the plot is fully woman-centered, as she has already done a few such films like Ishqiya, The Dirty Picture, and No one killed Jessica. I’d like to share a thing I once read in a magazine long back about Vidya. For the tamil film Run, its director rejected her during screen tests, as she was not beautiful enough to be a heroine. Thanks to him. Things turned out different after that!!!

Parambrata Chatterjee as a rookie cop Rana did an impressive job as the one who supports Vidya right from her arrival to Kolkata and throughout her pursuit. Nawazuddin Siddiqui as ruthless intelligence officer Khan gives liveliness to his role. The LIC agent cum hitman Bob Biswas role done by Saswata Chatterjee is interesting. There are other small characters who did what they are asked to without fail.

The director of the film is Sujai Ghosh, who has failed to make an impression with his previous ventures. But this time he succeeded in making attempt a fruitful one giving a firm place for himself. The story written by Advaita and co-written by Sujai is gripping and lively to the end. The extensive research performed and effort laid down, in order to bring an authentic Kolkata to screen is largely evident. As a native of Kolkata, it helped Sujai do this in a better way. Photography by Setu is another attribute to the success of the film. To achieve the reality, director Sujai filmed the scenes in the streets of Kolkata without the knowledge of people there, with a crew less in number and barely known. This aspect of filmmaking is called guerilla filmmaking. It includes the densely crowded Durja Pooja festival scene also. Background score by Clinton Cerejo is in par with the script.

There may be some flaws in the film, as is with every film. But Vidya’s mesmerizing performance as well as the edgy story is well enough to make you not think of that. Don’t miss this rare, racy entertaining thriller if you haven’t seen it yet.

My Rating: 8.6/10

The Others - Genuine thriller, no cheap scares...

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 14:05:00 +0000

The Others (2007)

Cast: Nicole Kidman, James Bently, Alakina Mann, Fionnula Flannagan.

Direction : Alejandro Amenábar

I used to have confusion in identifying (not now) the Australian actresses Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman because of their strikingly similar appearance. Just like the giant ape starts to like Naomi in the film King Kong, I also started liking her from the moment I saw her in the same film. One day I saw a few scenes from the film The Others for the first time, and couldn’t beat the thought about its lead actress that, “is this the same girl whom Kong likes?” My friend clarified me they are different actors. King Kong’s actress is Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman is the lead actress here. I was amazed that they look almost exactly same. The same night I finished watching The Others. And it was really good. Yesterday night I saw it again and it is still good as the first time.

Grace Stewart (Nicole Kidman) is a single mother living in a lonely mansion in coastal England in the near end of World War II. She is badly waiting for the war to end soon so that she can be reunited with her husband who went to fight in the war. Her 2 children Anna (Alakina) and Nicholas (James) are about 6 to 8 years old and they have a strange and rare light sensitivity disease. They cannot be exposed to light brighter than a candle. Suddenly one day, 3 servants, an aging housekeeper Mrs. Bertha Mills, an old gardener Mr. Edmund Tuttle and young maid Lydia who is a mute. They come and take the jobs voluntarily. Things turn after the arrival of the servants and their weird behavior which makes the rest of the film.

The Others bears remarkably brilliant performances from Kidman and her on screen children. She captivates and scores by her clean and neat performance, as a fear-ridden, over caring mother who gives utmost care in keeping her children away from disease. Rest of the cast is also no different. They did what is required at their best, especially the young lad.

What makes The Others interesting is its very minimal cast, low lighting and a single location – the palatial mansion where they reside. Unlike most horror films having barrels of bloods and gory images, this is different from them that there are no cheap scares and not even a single drop of blood spilled. Spanish director Amenábar deserves a large applause for this. This is the most interesting part of the film. The fact that the children have a light sensitive disease itself gives a necessary dark and eerie setting to the film. His screenplay seems to be at a slightly slower pace for a thriller-horror. But the thrill and suspense never faded away from the beginning to the end of the film. For a film of horror – thriller genre, it is surely one of the best made, without leaving the viewers disappointed at the end.

My Rating: 9/10

Maniratnam's Magic with Train and Rain

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 14:57:00 +0000

Every artist in his work reflects his or her personal characteristics, who he or she really is, or want to be. How they want to see things in their life is largely apparent in their works. If the artist is a filmmaker, you can see such fascinations repeatedly occurring in their films. One can find the same aspect in Maniratnam, one of the most talented filmmakers of Indian cinema. Maniratnam is well known for his distinctive direction style, handling controversial subjects, and visual splendor. However his fascination about rain and train are not widely known by many. His enchantment about rain and train is visible in all his movies, making them integral features in his films. His unique talent of be-charming the audiences by perfect placing of the train and rain is an aspect one cannot see in any other director. Well… let’s briefly explore his rainy world.

Maniratnam - The magical man

Rain, nature’s most beautiful aspect, is often considered a romantic element in most of the regional movies. But it really matters how it is portrayed and director Maniratnam mastered that art years before. In almost all the movies he has directed, love blossoms between the hero and heroine in the midst of rain, drizzle, mist or foggy environment with a pleasant breeze and music. In the classic Mouna Ragam, Manohar (Karthik) chases Divya (Revathi) and at last wins her heart after a series of mishaps. Their romance is the most interesting part of the film which starts blossoming in a rainy night. In Dil Se, Shahrukh and Manisha meet for the first time in a rainy dawn at a railway station where he falls for her at first sight.

If not romance, then its violence and racy emotions heavily supported by rain, as in Thalapathy in which Rajini’s character thrashes goons in a rainy night, one of superstar’s most heroic intro scenes. The emotional encounters usually take place with a great support rain. The song Evano Oruvan Vaasikkiran in Alaipayuthe where Karthick (R. Madhavan) searches his lover Sakthi (Shalini) in the backdrop of drizzle and breeze and wailing winds has one of the finest emotions with soulful voice from the late singer Swarnalatha. Simply poetic..!!

A love-sick maddy in Alaipayuthe

Mani’s last flick Raavanan has a gloomy and drizzling environment throughout as it is set in hilly region. Not only romance and emotional scenes, songs in his film are also usually set in rain, for example andhi mazhai megam from Nayagan, Kannaikatti kollathe from Iruvar, the former film considered as one of the greatest films. His fascination about rain doesn’t simply end here. When most tamil movie heroes have intro songs, he gives her heroines intro song, letting them dance in rain. Teenagers in 80s were crazy about the film Mouna Raagam where a dance number is done by Revathi in the song megam vandadho. Another lucky star to dance in rain is Aishwarya Rai in the film Guru in the song barso re.

Aishwarya Rai in Guru

Another fascination of the ace director is the portrayal of trains in his films. The vivacious song Chaiya Chaiya in Dil Se is performed by SRK on top of a train. raja rajathi rajan indha song from Agni natchathiram, one of the most performed songs in many college cultural events, was also set in train. Not only songs, some of the crucial scenes also take place in trains. The opening scene of Thalapathy is the most crucial scene in the film where a new born is abandoned in a goods carrier, a soulful and painful scene with whistling train adding more power to it. A very emotional climax in Mouna Ragam, a tension building climax in Raavanan where Dev questioning her wife Raagini’s (Aishwarya) infidelity, Velu (Kamal) sending away his children for their safety in Nayagan, and love proposal in Alaipayuthe were also some noteworthy shots set in train.

Chaiya chaiya (Dil Se)


Maddy's proposal to Shalini in Alaipayuthe

For those who haven’t seen his movies or only a few, you’d be surprised to know this fact if you give a close observation, like how I was surprised. This close observation also reveals a fact about how he loves women or how he wants to see young women. In most of his films, the leading ladies have same attitude, energy, fun-loving, secretive and unconditionally good characterizations. Anyone who is an ardent fan of Maniratnam, or fond of romantic movies would’ve surely observed his magic with train and rain. Expecting his magic in his upcoming film Kadal…

Academy Award Trivia

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 10:16:00 +0000

Before downloading a film, I used to check whether it has got any academy award nominations or wins with an expectation that it'd be a good movie. Sometimes back I downloaded only the films which have either best picture award or best screenplay award nominations (later I have changed this perception after watching a few films which are not worth the awards... that's a different story). However, it is kind of interesting to know about the facts and statistics of academy awards, like who has won maximum times, who hasn’t won even a single time, etc. While I was surfing about them, many such facts fascinated me. I have posted a few of them below.

Walt Disney is the only individual person to walk away with maximum number of Oscar wins and nominations, a total of 26 wins out of total 64 nominations.

The record for maximum number of Oscar awards has been shared by 3 movies - Ben Hur, Titanic and Lord of the Rings – Return of the King each holding the record number of 11 awards.

There is an informal term called Big Five awards i.e., the awards for best picture, best director, best actor, best actress and best screenplay. Only three movies have got the Big Five Awards till date. They are It happened one night, One flew over cuckoo’s nest and The silence of the Lambs.

The best picture winning film usually has awards or nominees in other major categories too, mainly acting category. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is an exception, to be the first and only film which has more than 10 awards including best picture category but not a single nomination in acting category.

Winning an academy award is what every actor and actress wants to achieve in their lifetime at least once. How about winning it twice, successively!! Spencer Tracey and Tom Hanks are the only two actors to achieve it. Tracey won best actor awards for Captains Courageous in 1938 and Boys Town in 1939. Tom Hanks won for Philadelphia in 1993 and Forrest Gump in 1994.

In best actress category, Katherine Hepburn and German actress Luisa Rainer won 2 awards in consecutive years. Hepburn won the awards in 1968 and 1969 for Guess who’s coming for dinner and The Lion in winter, and Rainer in 1936 and 1937 for the films The great Ziegfeld and The good earth.

It happens sometimes for talented artists to not win an award despite their repeated nominations. Lawrence of Arabia actor Peter O’toole was nominated 8 times in acting category but he has never won an award.

The above said thing happened for one of the most talented filmmakers of all the time Alfred Hitchcock who has even created a genre by his name “Hitchcockian”. Unfortunately he had never won an award out of his 5 nominations.

Russel Crowe is the only actor to have nominated for Best Actor Oscar for three times in a row, for The Insider (1999), Gladiator (2000) and A Beautiful Mind (2001). Of these three, he won the award for Gladiator.

The facts that fascinated me the most are related to Australian actress Cate Blanchett and her oscar profile. She has some unique achievements in oscar history. She got the best supporting actress award for playing the role of Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator, making her the first and only person till date to win an Oscar for playing the role of a previous Oscar winner, Hepburn.

Left: Katherine Hepburn, Right: Cate as Hepburn

Cate is also the first and only actress to be nominated twice for the same role, as Queen Elizabeth in 2 different movies Elizabeth (1998) and then again in Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007).

Cate has an added credit to her award profile. She is the only actress to have appeared in 10+ films that were nominated for Best Picture.

Cate is also in the league of 11 actors to have nominations in both main and supporting acting categories, in the year 2007 - best actress for Elizabeth - the Golden age, and supporting actress nomination for I am not there.

Like Cate, another beauty Kate Winslet also has a distinctive feature in her academy award credit. She is the only artist to twice share an oscar nomination with another for portraying the same character in same movie. In titanic, she shared her role of Rose with Gloria Stuart who played the older Rose. Kate and Gloria received best actress and best supporting actress nominations respectively.

For the second time, Winslet played younger Iris Murdoch in the film Iris with bond mentor Judi Dench playing older Iris. Winslet got supporting actress nomination and Dench got best actress nomination. These are the only instances of the younger and older versions of a character in the same film both yielding Academy Award nominations.

The Hurt locker is the first (and only) Best Picture winner directed by a woman, Kathryn Bigelow who is also the only woman director to win an academy award.

There are many films made as trilogies, even more than 5 or 6 as a series like Harry potter. Of all of these trilogies made, only two trilogies have all the three films nominated for best picture award. They are The Godfather trilogy and Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Horror and Mystery perfectly blended - Angel Heart

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 18:11:00 +0000

Angel Heart (1987)

Cast: Mickey Rourke, Robert de Niro, Lisa Bonet

Director: Alan Parker

It’s exciting to see a movie with mystery and suspense right from the beginning to end of end credits. Fight Club, Seven and Mulholland drive are few examples to mention. It is even more exciting when a favorite actor has acted in it even if it is a small role. Angel Heart is one such, a relatively unknown and underrated cult movie. The film has Mickey Rourke in the lead role and my favorite star Robert de Niro in special appearance, the reason why I took special interest to watch it (I am a diehard fan of de Niro!!).

Angel Heart is a perfect blend of mystery, horror and detective genre. The plot is set few years after the end of World War II, in the 1950s in which Harold ‘Harry’ Angel (Mickey Rourke) is a private detective from Brooklyn. He is hired by a wealthy but quite mysterious man Louis (de Niro) to find a singer named Johnny Favorite whether he is dead or alive. Throughout the course of his investigation, things get more and more bizarre when Harry unfolds something crucial and there is another knot waiting for him to tie around his neck, and get him into mess as if he is going to be transported to another world which has no return path.

Adapting the novel Fallen Angels, director Alan Parker has done a meticulous job of setting the extremely dark and scary environment full of secrets. It is a horror movie without any cheap scares. But the real scare elements are the visual and the music score. The visual presentation is distinctive and well matching to the film’s environment. The soundtrack scored by Trevor Jones is breathtaking, eerie and builds tension. The script is good with some really catchy dialogues. These aspects are well synchronized and leave the audience anticipating what may be an unusual and unexpected twisted ending.

Robert de Niro in Angel Heart

The film has a powerful acting. Rourke takes the lead as a chain smoking, least bothered private detective, giving a tremendous acting showing us the horror through his eyes. Initially he is reluctant to accept the job, but eventually agrees when Louis is ready to a lucrative sum. The ‘special appearance’ by de Niro as Louis is much special that, with only 10 to 15 minutes of screen presence out of 112 minutes duration, de Niro had given a stunning acting. This is one of his best in the line of Taxi Driver, The Godfather II, though not much popular among many. For those who have seen him as a gangster all these years in most of his movies, you people can see him in a completely different character, a role that he has done neither before nor after this film. When there is a slight lag in the screenplay, the gap is superbly filled by de Niro and Rourke’s sparkling acting. Rest of the cast also does their part quiet satisfactorily, mainly Lisa Bonet as the voodoo girl and Harry’s lover Epiphany, and Charlotte Rampling as Margaret, a fortune teller.

I wonder how movies like this are underrated despite having near perfection in almost every aspect. Those who like the above mentioned genre and the fans of de Niro who haven’t seen it yet, will surely enjoy this thrill ride. Please do watch fully till the end credits are over.

My Rating: 8.8/10

A Jackie Chan film with Less Action - Shinjuku Incident

noreply@blogger.com (Shareef S M A) — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 10:51:00 +0000

Shinjuku Incident (2009) - Hong Kong

Cast: Jackie Chan, Daniel Wu

Direction: Derek Yee

Genre: Drama, Crime, gangster

Jackie Chan, the action king is the favorite star of most action freaks. He has attracted the kids and teens by the funny actions he does in his films. It’s rare if action freaks don’t like him. Likewise it is rarer if we see him deviating from his usual and typecast action movies. Isn’t it? Yes. After acting in numerous action films and having achieved an unbreakable action hero image, Chan turned his focus towards drama with powerful story and least action.

The plot follows the rise and fall of Chinese immigrant workers into gangsters amidst the native Japanese clans. Chan plays Zhao aka Stealhead, an illegal immigrant from a Chinese village among many others, and does odd jobs for living. He wants to get legal status in Japan and protect the fellow immigrants from native gangsters’ assault and law enforces. After a couple of conflicts with native Yakuzas and Thai gangsters, he rises to prominence as the boss of his fellow immigrants.

Shinjuku Incident is a heavy drama with least action. The plot is dark and set in an amazing manner, with Chan in a completely different and ‘never seen before’ performance. He delivers a stand out, laudable performance and steals the show. I must say that this is the best film of Chan’s career. It was produced by Chan himself. I wondered why Chan hasn’t acted in movies like this before. Also this is the most violent of all his movies, with some brutal killings and bloodshed. But it suits very well to the tone of the film. Added to Chan, the supporting cast also gave more than average performance. Chan’s ex lover and his present lover, inspector Kitano, gang leader Eguchi, and fellow immigrant Jie did their roles above the mark. The film tells a moral truth that newly found power and money makes people tend to become corrupt, sinister, and aggressive and lose their control. Trusts, love, deceit, defeat, guilt, regret, all of these are in Shinjuku. The film has more dialogues and emotional expressions rather than fist fights, martial arts and chases. There are of course fights in the movie of course, but not Chan’s usual comical type.

Chan’s and hardcore action fans may get disappointed if they expect much action like his earlier movies Police Story, First Strike, etc. Those who are very much fond of dramas, this is highly recommended. Please do watch the Hong Kong version. The English dubbing is not so good.

My rating: 8.3/10