Kadal ( Music Review ) – This Sea Is Salty And Sweet

Director : Mani Ratnam

Music : A R Rahman

Lyrics : Vairamuthu & Karky

Magic happens whenever A R Rahman joins hands with Mani Ratnam. I think there is more than harmony, understanding, freedom and all. They make music FOR the movie. Its story, its soul in mind. Rather than a defined prescription – one shava shava song, one drama song, one patriotic etc. And it shows. If the soundtrack has so much to tell about the movie, what will be there in the movie Mani Ratnam picturise… Let us go to the music for the time being :)

You've Got Mail - Great Cyber Friend Can Be Real :)

Directed by : Nora Ephron
Studio : Warner Bros.
Starring : Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan


Well, this is fairly an old movie. I mean, released in 1998 makes it a good 14 years old. To me, the movie is more clearer and close to life now! When I watched it during engineering, email was very new thing and the ‘expensive’ dial-up browsing was so rationed that having a chat friend or, even visiting a chatroom was a remote possibility. Later, once it becomes less expensive and I got more of it, I too had my share of cyber friends, so much that I got enough things to put in a story ;)

Black Swan - Intense, Sad And Haunting

Directed by : Darren Aronofsky
Starring : Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis
Distributed by : Fox Searchlight Pictures

The story may be about split personality or the agony and tragedy of a perfectionist or the story of a girl who fight against all odds to prove herself. I got another viewpoint about the movie. The stress and pain one goes through at work!

Kahaani

This review is by Pushkala, I am just posting it for her... 

Director : Sujoy Ghosh
Banner : Pen India Pvt. Ltd, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Boundscript Motion Pictures Pvt. Ltd
Music : Vishal-Shekhar
Cast :     Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chatterjee, Saswata Chatterjee

It's been long since I wrote anything on these pages. Life kept me busy. :)However, I couldn't help find a few minutes to write about this well-made film "Kahaani". 

IF you haven't seen it yet, you are missing on a very well- made Bollywood thriller. Mark my words. This movie has an attention grabbing script. And well chosen characters.

Rockstar (Movie) - Intense, Not Cute

Director : Imtiaz Ali
Banner : Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd and Eros International
Music : A R Rahman
Cast : Ranbir Kapoor, Nargis Fakhri, Shammi Kapoor

We got expectations about every product, every movie. When it is an Imtiaz Ali movie, we naturally expect it to be cute and simple. Though the music and trailers hint us to think the other way, how much did we change the perception... When Rockstar audio was released, many turned it down saying it was not good. When something is offered very new, it will need some time to sink with the audience. Now when the songs been repeated in TV, they became everyone's favorite. Movie also could be hit by the same view. Audience was not expecting something like this from Imtiaz. For the Junglee Jawani kind of scenes they were cheering. When Janardhan was playing around foolishly in the beginning, they liked it. But when Jordan was going through trauma, they were bored and commenting not again, yeh banda kya kar raha hein etc. Unfortunately, movie will not get the luxury of another look like the audio had...

Rockstar (Music) - Unconventionally Classic !

When a director knows what he wants and a musician who can give it come together, we expect nothing less than a classic, and that is what Rockstar  delivers. With Irshad Kamil's deep, thoughtful poems add to it, the experience becomes magical. First thing first - Thank you A R Rahman for not making this sound like another Bon Jovi album! From the first song you will be hooked to a musical journey, fresh and different. The songs are so fresh ( both in sound, and rendering ) that first time, there is a big chance that it might let you down. But for Rahman fans this is a treat. Because they know that the guy is going to deliver something different and like slow poison, this is going to infect each and every soul listen to it... Let's listen to the songs now ::

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - Live Every Moment ( At Least Of The Movie )

Director : Zoya Akhtar
Banner : Excel and Eros
Music : Shankar-Ehsan-Loy
Cast : Hrithik Roshan, Abhay Deol, Farhan Akhtar, Katrina Kaif, Kalki Koechlin

Whoever said rain is a good omen is right - it was raining when I was leaving for this movie and it turned out to be great, lived up to the expectation it generated. A plain movie one can relate to or the life one wants to live - a dream kind of life.

Rio - As I See It

Directed by : Carlos Saldanha
Studio : Blue Sky Studios
Distributed by : 20th Century Fox

The biggest attraction of this movie was that it is from the makers of Ice Age ( not withstanding the colourful world of birds ). After the third edition of the series, I became a huge fan of them. It was the first animation film I ever watched in theater and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After watching Rio, I felt regret for taking the Ice Age baggage…

Dhobi Ghat ( Mumbai Diaries ) - As I See It

Direction : Kiran Rao

Cast : Aamir Khan, Prateik Babbar, Monica Dogra, Kriti Malhotra

Banner : Aamir Khan Productions

Curiosity can kill a cat. And too much of curiosity - it can make the cat curse the reason it got killed !

Well, this is what I felt after watching Dhobi Ghat – Mumbai Diaries. If Aamir Khan was not associated / promoted the movie, then there will be nobody out of the Film Festival circuit might have seen this movie. But Aamir being a part of it, or this is the debut of his wife as director will not make the movie good. Though that can be a good reason to build up hype and sell it.

Toy Story 3 - As I See It

Directed by Lee Unkrich
Studio Pixar Animation Studios
Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures

Remember the first of Toy Story movies ? Which made us take notice of the world we never thought of existed (!!??) - The world of toys ! How eagerly they were waiting to be played by kids. Their anxiousness when a new toy comes to house. Fearing whether it will replace their place in Andy’s favorite list… Be happy when the new one makes friends with the existing ones, and Andy adds the new one to his play rather than replacing it for the old ones.

Jhootha Hi Sahi - As I See It

Directed : Abbas Tyrewala

Music : A R Rahman

Starring : John Abraham, Pakhi, Raghu Ram, R Madhavan ( guest )

We have seen Jaane Tu Ya Na Jaane... and liked it. We heard the music of this movie Jhoota Hi Sahi and got a clue what this movie is about. Trust me, you will leave the theater content. Happy to watch a simple, cute movie, which entertained you, if not enlightened !

Nothing lies like true Love. The movie lives upto that tagline. The small lies one end upto save lives, his Love and how things get complicated and he ended up saying more and more lies. Will his story ends when the lady finds the truth and how they handle it is what the movie is about.

Endhiran - As I See It

Directed : Shankar
Produced : Kalanidhi Maran, Hansraj Saxena
Music : A R Rahman
Starring : Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai, Danny Denzongpa

Endhiran was not released, Endhiran was arrived! Along with it Indian cinema too ! If you think I went a bit too overboard or before laughing at that statement, go watch the movie. It will make you proud and sad at the same time ! Proud for an Indian movie being so rich in visuals and techniques and sad because the one thing that hinders Shankar from making something like Avatar or Matrix is the lack of money. He has ideas - brilliant ones, but to materialize it he needs bigger banner and wider audience. May be the Hollywood guy Vijay Amrithraj who made Jeans with him can sit with him for a pure Hollywood movie now !

The movie indeed is huge. The production, team, theme, music, location, costume, hype everything is rich. Interestingly, even the audience too, in Bangalore I never seen such a rush and excitement in the counter that too in the second week of release. The best part is it lived upto the expectation. It offered worth for every penny of the moviegoer that he left movies content. 

Dabangg - As I See It

That was it ! The hype before release and the news of breaking records from the day of its release - Dabangg got the curiosity of me ignited. And I must confess it didn't disappoint me either ! It lived upto the expectation and I was happy coming out of the theater. And surprisingly the 'mass film' satisfied the viewers in multiplex too. I mean when there was a scene in which Salman shows any heroism or gives out a punch dialogue, there was enough wah wah's and aaahhh..'s. ( The same story with Ice Age 3 too. I thought we will be the odd adults for the kid's movie, but majority of the audience were adults and they enjoyed the movie thoroughly and was letting the kid inside them show).

Enthiran - As I Hear It ( Endhiran Music As I Hear It )

Update : After watching the movie, the way I hear the songs changed. Changed completely…. The songs are tailor made for the movie and it fits perfectly with it. The songs are not at all used as fillers but convey the story at that point. Whether it is the opening title track Puthiya Manitha ya the Chitty Dance Showcase, every song is with a reason. If the song has lyrics like, Neutron Electron Unn Neela Kannil Motham Ethanne, it is because that is the only way it can be. How else a scientist obsessed with his research sing… ;) I n the new light after the movie I am awestruck about the songs and Loved it more than ever….

Raavan – As I See It

“Ten heads. Ten minds. A hundred voices. One man.”

Dear Mani Ratnam, but where is THE MAN? If I can be ruthless in criticizing, I would prefer to say “the hero wasn’t man  enough.” (In the Hindi version…)

Abhishek irritates. As Raavan.

I grew up listening to Amma reading out stories from epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata. I would choose Raavan over Rama any time, for I believe he is a man who followed his heart. A man of madness and devotion. After all, that is what a real man should be, NO? :)

Karthik Calling Karthik - As I See It

I brought this movie at Planet M without much expectations, because of it's ill-fate at the box office. And it got added to the list of movies which were not fared well at box office but surprised me. Full paisa vasool.

Wake Up Sid - As I See It

It is a clean cute movie with lots of laughter, fun, Love and a little bit thinking. In a line, story of a nonsense guy becoming serious and winner in life. But there is more to it...

Rithu - As I See It

ഞാന്‍ കണ്ട ഋതു

ഈ കൊച്ചു സിനിമ എനിക്ക് ഒത്തിരി ഇഷ്ടമായി. ഒപ്പം ശ്യാമപ്രസാദ് എന്ന സംവിധായകന്‍ കാണിച്ച ധൈര്യവും - ഇങ്ങിനെ ഒരു സിനിമ പുതിയ അഭിനേതാക്കളെ വച്ച് എടുക്കാന്‍.

ഒരു പരിധി വരെ ഇന്നിന്റെ ഒരു നേര്‍ കാഴ്ച ആയിരുന്നു പടം. ഇന്നത്തെ യുവാക്കളുടെ ചിന്ത അതിനെ ശരിക്കും മനസ്സിലാക്കാനാവാത്ത സമൂഹവും അച്ഛനമ്മമാരും.

UP - As I See It

Get this first - DO NOT call it a cartoon. This is an animation. The story can be better told by computer generated sequences and so it is told that way. Because of the graphical content we never called Avatar or Matrix a cartoon. Give this genre the respect it deserve and call it an animation and not cartoon. Thank You...

Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya - As I See It

I liked the movie, right from the title - Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaayaa... Will you come down ( for me ) from the sky... Wow... Do I need to tell more what the movie is about...

Yes, the movie is about Love. Romantic - the way Love always is... Silly, straight, complete, pure, crazy, with only one mantra in the mind - Love... The way it begins, it grows and all show the stupidly beautiful Love... And made me completely drowned in the movie...