Saturday, April 29, 2006

7/G Brindavan Colony


A.M Ratnam's done it.......he's successfully managed to expose me to a myriad emotions, successfully manipulate them and leave me utterly unsettled after the end of this 3 hour flick.

'7/G Brindavan Colony' aint your typical love story. Our hero aint the dreamboat of regular candy-floss and saccharine sweet settings. He is more in the genre of Quasimodo, pining for the woman that never could be his; with the underpinnings of unrequited love written all over.

The object of his affection, a stunning and totally convincing Sonia Agarwal is Ms. Goody Charms who can feel nothing but revulsion for the oddball of our hero, Ravi,who stays in the same housing colony. The ruffian grossly misunderstood and ostracised by the colony he stays in, our hero has learnt to fight failure with indifference and humiliation with aggression. His dad has given up on him, and the only loyalty he feels is for his wayward gaggle of friends. The obvious happens (to get the screenplay going!) and he falls for Sonia, who is disgusted by his antics and rebuffs him all along. Well, how he manages to get the heroine to like his sorry ass is what the movie about largely.

Love apparently can move mountains; it apparently prods our hero to trim his scraggly beard at the latter end of the movie! He does it all for her....turns a new leaf, gives up his ruffian ways, manages to get a job, make peace with his father, get a life...all for the bimbette who resides in 7/G, and she finally responds. But fate and a scriptwriter decide otherwise.

Turns out the girl is from another community which aint gonna let this have a happy ending. Her parents immediately shift base when they get whiff of the affair and start making preparations for her marriage with someone else.

They elope and stop at a hotel for the night. In what could truly be a pathbreaking moment in Indian cinema, Sonia and Ravi engage in a night of unbridled premarital passion. Well, that shouldnt be the pathbreaking moment, but rather the potrayal of the heroine. The traditionalists would be squirming with this potrayal of our 'indian' heroine. This one does not believe in fighting till the end for her love. Caught between her parents (Dad's got a tollywood heart, which has an attack every 2 reels) and the one man who could make her truly happy, she tries for a compromise. Not the ideal one perhaps, but maybe a more realistic one.

Turns out she plans the whole thing before hand including the encounter. It apparently is her way of showing her love, and the next day bids farewell to our hero. Ouch!!

The movie then ends with a very surprising and disturbing twist.

It just could have been another routine movie; but the taut screenplay, good songs and great acting makes for some real good viewing. There are a few hiccups in useless fight sequences though.

Our hero Ravi Shankar should be inducted into the great hall of fame of "L". He is one of the rare breed of actors who look convincing only in playing the loser. He joins my list of alltime filmi L's at the top with Tushaar Kapoor and Chandrachur Singh for company.

Sonia is simply superb.

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind


Of late, i have developed the knack of finding movies i can relate to instantly (Or do they happen to find me?). Watched one such gem of a movie yesterday, and since this is the second day in a row where im bored out of my skull; my idle brain cant just get over the imagery and clever direction of this masterpiece.

How cool would that be? Having a machine that could erase the memories that keep haunting you. That would usher the end of heartbreak, guilt, pain of loss as we would know it. Thats what the peddler of instant bliss, Dr. Howard Mierzqwiak (Tom Wilkinson), a specialist in memory erasure, promises to embittered souls in this flick.

Joel Barish (Jim Carrey) is sad. He's broken up with his girlfriend, the uninhibited Clementine Kruczynski (Winslet) and is finding it tough to move on. His meek, unassuming personality finds it tough to meet other people and start over again. "How can i find another person, when i dont even have the courage to return the friendly stares of a curious onlooker?" is his lament. His ex is everything he is not. Bold, brash and selfish, they seem to complete each other and their relationship starts with a bang. Over a period of time, the very things that attract them to each other start to stifle.

Clementine starts to find Joel boring, while Joel on his part finds Clementine too loud and nagging. Things start getting bitter and they call it quits despite the love they feel. They just arent meant for each other.

This is when the old doc steps in. Joel wants a quick fix for his sadness, and he goes in for the treatment. What happens next is the highlight of the movie. The memory erasure starts and Joel starts a desperate attempt to save them. This is largely un-chronological and is interspersed by events flitting between the past and the future.

The poignancy of the character is beautifully played by Jim Carrey. Understated and never over the top, he's a treat to watch. Kate Winslet is pretty good in her part as well, with other competent performances from Kirsten Dunst and Elijah Wood.

Some scenes are particularly good; Jim Carrey's futile attempts at retrieving flotsam, His reflections at the beach house. This movie probably has a message; irrespective of the good and the bad memories, we learn to love the complete package.

Kate and Jim, though arent probably meant for each other are deeply in love with each other. Another interesting fact, is the patterns we keep following. Both of them, even after the operation hit it off immediately when they meet. Are we sometimes the victims of set patterns?

Bébés fatales: The Lion, the Angel and the Warbler

Name: Cutie Beauty a.k.a Amrutha
Age: 2.5 years
Height: 2 1'
Superpowers: Able to completely subjugate people at will (with just one twirl of her tiny hands). Ability to hypnotise with 'baby goo' talk. Has a genius vocabulary; can recite complicated phrases like "ssshhI sshloove shyou shhoo much!!".Can melt hearts with prolonged stares upto 5 seconds at a time.
Cuteness Factor: Very Strong
Weaknesses: Choclates, Dora "doll", Bob the builder

Name: Simba a.k.a Aravind
Age: 4
Height:2 5'
Superpowers: Nimble as a leopard, Can emit deafening screeches upto 150 dB. Can recite the same story about the Cookie Monster 321 times in a row (wow!) Can elicit gasps of "Oh! how cute" from women of every age. Exercises powers of persuasion with cogent arguments (mostly repeating the phrase "I WANT IT!!")
Chaalu Factor: Unbelievable
Weakness: Lion King, Coloring books, Spiderman, His favorite uncle (ahem! ahem!)

Name:"Nadia the fearless" a.k.a Arushi
Age: 1.5
Height: 1 8'
Superpowers: The naive one(or it seems), this angel is known for her brave demeanor, Ability to watch every soap imaginable on TV!! Prolific inventor of the "ba blah, cha cha" talk that include a complex combination of hand signals, cooing and smiles.
Bholu factor: Amazing
Weakness: Choclates, Tickling and her handsome (ahem! ahem!) uncle