Sol

Majestic.

When I searched for the most beautiful movies, this constantly topped the lists, I had to watch it. I am thrilled by this epic tale. I have loved the entire film frame by frame. I could take a screenshot at any moment and it would be a wallpaper for sure.

Cinema is a visual medium. Movies like these keep highlighting this intrinsic fact about films and I am thoroughly grateful for their existence. The visuals are a unique trait of this medium and they must be given paramount importance when making a film. Those are the elements which make a story into a movie. Many times those are the ones which break or make a film. For a story of this epic proportion, stunning cinematography was needed. There wasn't any other way to emphasize the grandeur of the characters and the weight of the moral choices.

A simple lowly person from a remote village has managed to kill three of the most formidable assassins of China. This grants him an audience with the king, which otherwise is just not possible. The King is very keen to understand how these encounters went. He wants to learn how such a feat was even possible for a simple person such as our protagonist.

Minor spoilers ahead!

To write about the film, you will need to think about how the colours are portrayed in the film. There is a Rashomon element to this tale. It starts with black, devoid of a perspective, it is neutral. The king is intently listening to how Jet Li is narrating his tale. When the first assassin's duel is described, the king looks sceptical but demands more information about the other two. The colours start appearing here. Jet Li, who is referred only as the nameless one, surmises that the king will not easily lap up the tale he is describing. So he adds more passion and elements of betrayal in his story. To make it more believable. Here enters the colour red.

However, unlike many of the movies idiot emperors, our king is thoughtful. He peruses the tale deeply and rejects it. He then offers his own explanation of how events must have unfolded. He likes the tales and his interpretation is painted in colours black and blue. They are neutral and rational. He is calculative. His motives are to understand the reasons behind the deception. He already has a history with these assassins and so, he constructs a tale so this mere peasant's account becomes justifiable. We do have elements of green and yellow in between, which showcase tales within tales.

When I started the film, I was only aware of its cinematography and colours, but it turned out, the movie has a brilliantly crafted story. The assassins are named Long Sky, Flying Snow and Broken Sword. The hidden meaning of the third assassin only becomes clear towards the end of the film.

Apart from the cinematography and story, there is another element which adds to the overall impact. The music. Tan Dun's often introspective, soft violins are a highlight of the music department. They amplify the tone of a scene to relegate the exact emotion needed. He also has percussion pieces to add the needed intensity for the action sequences, but primarily towards the end, his violins help you appreciate the moral choices the characters have to make.

Films like these are best enjoyed alone, preferably in theatres. But a silent night, laptop and headphones, is the next best setting to truly relish the art the director wants us to enjoy. It was a brilliant experience and I would wholeheartedly recommend this. Make it your top priority when you are thinking about what to watch next.

I am thankful that I saw this meditative drama from Alfonso Cuaron. This movie is a storytelling masterclass. Long wide shots, tracking and panning camera, artful use of the black and white, it has it all.

The movie follows a story of Cleo, one of the two house helps of a rich family in Mexico during the 1970s. That's it. The slice of life movie doesn't have a lot of over the top dramatic moments, but just by direction and acting it held my attention throughout.

The opening shot is a full minute close up of floor tiles and water flows in after the opening credits end, then after a few seconds you see a airplane in a reflection of the water. By this moment I was sure that it would be the slow moving perfect drama that I have started enjoying recently.

A lot of weight is carried by the actors in films like these. The long takes and wide shots mean a lot can go wrong in the frame. So when I came to know after that the central character of Cleo is not a trained actor, rather a primary school teacher in rural Mexico, I was amazed. Alfonso managed to bring in the authenticity just by casting someone out of the fraternity. He was looking for the face of Cleo for about an year.

Alfonso mentored Chaitanya Tamhane, the director of Court and The Disciple, both I enjoyed immensely. This sort of movies are like classic novels. The characters are fully fleshed out. It takes time to invest in them but when I did, the payoff was good.

It's one of those movies where I ended up watching the entire end credits too.

I generally hate 4th wall break. The reason why I had put 'generally' in this sentence is #phoebe-waller-bridge's amazing execution of this technique. Her 4th wall breaks made me an accomplice in whatever nefarious thing she is going to do next. I gladly obliged.

Fleabag is a story of a younger sibling trying to fit in the world. She does not see the world like everyone else and considering the people in her life, I couldn't blame her either. She has lost her mother recently, and her godmother has eventually filled the void in her dad's life. She and her sister, however, find this hard to digest and are not much fond of the new lady. What ensues is fleabag trying to move on and get a hold of her own life again. She has a very close friend and a confidant who loses her life in an accident. As the show starts, she really has no direction.

It is a bit fast-paced for a comedy series. For a non-native English speaker, I struggled a bit initially. American sitcoms have slowed my brain and so a British show with accented English took some time getting used to. But I was thoroughly rewarded for my patience. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is the writer as well as the lead in this show and her command over the medium shows in every scene.

Her portrayal of elder and younger siblings is quite perceptive. A tightly-wound elder sister who worries about almost everything in the world. Who is stuck in a bad marriage but has to peddle on because of 'responsibilities' towards a family. #Sian-clifford does a really enjoyable job at that. Then we have their father played by #bill-paterson. He is quite successful and well-to-do but has no clue in the world about how to handle his two daughters after his wife's passing. He stammers around them. Gives them coupons and tickets to feminist seminars, and does everything to keep them somewhat engaged but away from him.

But if I had to give one award for the best actor in the series, it easily goes to #olivia-colman. Such an extraordinary genius. It takes tremendous talent to portray livid rage even with a smile and not let it break the forced amiable demeanour. The scene where the priest, played by #andrew-scott, refuses the officiate their wedding, oh that seen I could watch so many times just for her. Anytime Phoebe is on the screen, she holds your undivided attention, only except when Olivia is on screen.

In the second season, the brilliantly talented #andrew-scott enters the show as the priest. This is where the show went slightly downhill for me. He is brilliant. No doubt about it but the story arc gets unnecessarily edgy. The brilliant first season continues rising till the first episode of the second. S02E01 is easily the best episode of the series for me.

The premise is aimless by design, but towards the latter part of the second season, it tried to head towards a concrete conclusion. You have to watch for yourself if you are satisfied with the end. The show reminded me of one of the great chaotic movies ever, Roman Polanski's 2011 film, Carnage (I had to stop typing and go watch that trailer once again, it is that good!).

With just two seasons, I kept thinking I wanted more, I wanted to know fleabag more. That is the testament to a successful show with a timely exit. With what's happening across the Atlantic, with everyone trying hard to create franchises out of moderate successes, a two-season run is a welcome change.

I would recommend this sharply written, brilliantly acted comedy-drama. Finish one season in one sitting, it's more potent that way.

It is always a pleasure to see a cinematographer turned director. Avinash Arun did this well in Killa and repeated that even better in Three of Us.

Shailaja is diagnosed with dementia which is in its early stages. Before she loses her memories, she wants to go back to her childhood village in Konkan, Maharashtra. There she meets with her childhood sweetheart.

The plot is this much. But that allows for a nuanced execution. The screenplay can take its time. The camera can stay on and steady for longer durations. Avinash has thanked Chaitanya Tamhane at the start. The meditative use of a steady camera reminded me of Chaitanya's films Court and The Disciple.

While the movie says three of us, there is a fourth very important cast member, Konkan. It is exquisitely shot on all occasions. There is a moment where an old man gives directions to the couple, and his purpose is fulfilled, but still, there is a passing shot of him sitting reading a newspaper with the backdrop of early morning shuttered down shops. Moments like this highlight how it is a cinematographer's film.

I think with the vast changes happening in landscapes of cities and villages alike, such movies capture and seal the essence of the times for future generations to look at and admire. Take the Kolkata of Piku for example. There are scenes when Amitabh is riding a bicycle in the bylanes of the city and those are now immortalised in the film. I wish more and more filmmakers give significant attention to the Mise-en-scène of a film and spend some frames on worldbuilding.

The plot isn't complicated. There are insecurities of the husband, the bafflement of the high school sweetheart. And at the centre of it, it's Shailaja seeking closure before things go out of her memory. There is a philosophical scene where she goes to meet an unnamed woman. This is one of the best highlights of personal fears, closure, holding on to the past, and forgiving yourself. Loved the execution and dialogue of it.

Varun Grover and Shoaib Zulfi Nazeer have done brilliant work with the script. The scene I referenced above and a few lines on the giant wheel hit like a truck. They made me introspective and even made me shout an expletive. The content is especially insightful when the characters open up. Even the chemistry between supporting cast members comes out very well because of this diligent writing.

All the leads are amazing in portrayals of the roles, but I think it was a deliberate choice to cast non-Marathi people to give it a wider appeal beyond being regional cinema. Shefali has portrayed Shailaja amazingly well, and the same goes for Swanand and Jaideep. Some names like Sukanya Kulkarni and Ila Bhate come to mind for the role of Shailaja as well. Again, nothing to take away from Shefali's amazing performance of Shailaja, but there are scenes where she appears somewhat out of place. Her slow loss of memory does not come out prominently barring a few scenes either.

Alokananda Dasgupta's music is good in a way that allows the location details to come in. There is a scene where these three are walking by a temple and a chanting of shloks is going on. This chanting comes in prominently and further cements the location details of the film. The music never overpowers even when the emotions rise.

Overall, it was an amazing experience to watch this film. I am thankful that it is made. I am thankful that Konkan is forever immortalised this way too. Absolutely recommended and my best wishes for all future projects of Avinash Arun.

This Iranian film is a masterclass on how to hold up the tensions without employing anything unreal or far-fetched. About Elly started slow, settled me in and then turned on the knobs of stress slowly but continuously.

Three 30-something couples and two singles go out on a vacation. It is just an ordinary long weekend beach outing. Elly is one of the singles in the group. She is a teacher who joins this group of her acquaintances to watch their kids. But is it a pretext? Things get a lot murkier at about 40 mins in and from that moment on, it does not let you settle even for a bit.

This is a brilliant example of storytelling. There is no larger than life event here. It is a drama through and through. With his camera and support of brilliant acting by all, Asghar Farhadi held my interest till the very last frame. He tells how easy it is to judge someone even when the moral conflicts don't allow you to take clear sides.

I particularly enjoyed the camera handling. It is not a fly on the wall kind of spectator. The camera made me feel like one of the group members. I could feel happiness as the trip started as if I was with them as they entered the beach house. I felt like a silent member when friction started rising and personalities started clashing. There is a sea rescue scene in which the camera, as if a person helping the rescue party, goes in the water. The tensions are thick and palpable. The changing centre of attention in long continuous shots is one of a kind. Also, the usage of depth in many frames adds such a lived-in feel to the composition that it further enforces the feeling of you being there as a member of the group. There is a YouTube video about the blocking and staging in About Elly, which explains this far better.

Loved the acting of Golshifteh Farahani. From the very mischievous initial personality to a serious and self-blaming hurt character, the journey is portrayed brilliantly. I loved the work of each of the cast members. From tiny little details of limping, wiping away water from the foreheads, all the actions are natural, which adds to the camera handling giving a very realistic notion.

The sound of the sea is present in almost all the scenes in the beach house and that modulation, keep the tensions rising and falling like waves. It has its own YouTube video explaining this handling of sound.

Overall the movie gets a clear recommendation from me. It is well worth your time.

There are a lot of things about Vincent Van Gogh's life I did not know about. He started painting at the age of 27 and left this world at 37. This means he painted for 10 years only. Only one of his paintings was sold in his lifetime, and today he is considered as one of the best painters of all time.

From wiki, One year after Vincent van Gogh's suicide, postman Joseph Roulin asks his son Armand to deliver Van Gogh's last letter to his brother, Theo. Roulin finds the death suspicious, as merely weeks earlier Van Gogh claimed through letters that his mood was calm and normal. Armand reluctantly agrees and heads for Paris.

Each of the film's 65,000 frames is an oil painting on canvas, created using the same techniques as Van Gogh by a team of 125 artists drawn from around the globe. This is a feat in its own right, but even without this, the movie worked well for me as an independent story. There is a lot of charm in the painter's works but the movie goes beyond that and tries to understand the painter. The movie tries to read between the lines in the circumstances of his death.

The paintings are surreal. The painters needed real world actors to portray characters and that has come to life exceptionally well. I could see Saoirse Ronan in these painted frames.

There is a lot to unpack in this and although the protagonist is reluctant at the start, he gets pulled into the situation and towards the end, he takes it as his mission to uncover the truth. This journey comes out very well.

I was in Amsterdam many years ago for one day. I could not fit the Van Gogh museum in that day, but if I ever go back, it will now be one place I surely want to visit.

From the film poster to performances, and from cinematography to characters, the film is brilliant. Then there is Paul Dano. He is just a pleasure to watch. Okja left a lasting impact on me as a moviegoer.

An American MNC starts a 10-year project to develop a perfect pig. They have given the piglets to farmers all over the world and created a competition out of this. The winning animal they can mass produce and rake in profits. Your usual capitalist nightmare. One such pig is Okja from Korea. She is being raised by a mountain-dwelling farmer and his granddaughter Mija. Naturally Mija and Okja and close to each other. 10 years pass and it's time to examine and surrender the pigs back to the company. It is officially still their property. But not without a fight.

It is not a creature feature. Okja has very little to do in the film. The film is about Mija, the capitalist corporate suits i.e. Tilda Swinton and the Animal Liberation Front or the ALF i.e. Paul Dano. The ALF are very serious about non-violent ways. And even assault and kidnapping are very graciously executed. That is the moment Bong Joon-ho gets hold of you and then never lets go till the very end.

The movie starts a bit slow to establish the relationship between Mija and Okja and even goes on to show how Okja is an intelligent animal. With that much establishment, you would expect a bit more from the pig, but that does not come. Agreed that there is so much else happening that you don't miss it very much until after the movie is finished.

Darius Khondji's camera work is really good. From a mountain village and jungles to urban glass structures, his camera accentuates all the details. It tugs at your heartstrings towards the very end. The end is realistic, and not entirely tragic, but it keeps you thinking about the world. You keep imagining if any other non-idealistic utopian ending was even possible. When you are thinking about this, the story takes us back to Korea and the sombre mood intensifies with Darius's camera. No words are spoken for a long time which gives you time to process and recover.

This genre-bending tale is worth watching for many reasons. It has a friendship between a girl and a super-pig, and it also has themes of capitalism, industrialisation and veganism.

When your director is also the writer (Rahi Anil Barve), you have a cohesive vision of the project. You add a brilliant DOP (Pankaj Kumar) and you have a brilliant experience like Tumbbad.

This was forever on my list, and now finally have seen it, I instantly regret not watching it on a big screen when it was released.

Tumbbad is a story-driven experience. In the mysterious town of Tumbbad, where it always rains, there is an old mansion (vada). It holds a terrifying secret that very few are aware of and it has to do with all the gold in this world. Saying anything else would be risking spoilers.

This was a long journey for the team which started from even finding a producer who could back this director's vision without forcing changes citing Indian audience preferences. The rain scenes of Tumbbad alone took 4 monsoons of on-location shoots. Then there were iterations of the main antagonist too which overall needed 2+ years of post-production alone.

I am always a big fan of movies where the writer gets the free hand. Here Rahi had this story ready for quite some time. The spooky atmosphere is heavily inspired by the works of Narayan Dharap, a prominent Marathi horror writer with 100+ books under his name. In one of the interviews, Rahi mentioned that the story could be adapted to any other culture/language and it can then transform organically as their own story.

Apart from DOP and screenplay, the movie does a brilliant job in the sound department. Jesper Kyd, the guy behind some Hitman and Assassin's Creed games, provided the very essence of atmospheric soundscape the movie needed. There is a song composed by Ajay Atul, which fades in comparison to the indo-western soundstage Jesper has set up. This is another unique thing about the film where sound is the first citizen and not an afterthought once all the catchy songs are made. Further kudos to the director for sticking to his guts about not compromising by introducing item numbers, or more songs in general (yes, he was asked to do so by some Indian producers)

With many areas of the film being spectacular, it fairs well even with mediocre acting. There aren't any known faces in the film and overall the acting department is shortchanged. The main lead is also the producer of the film.

Tumbbad's worldbuilding deserves praise. The myth is well fortified. I could not find plot holes in it, and also there are discussions about it on quora and Reddit etc. Very few Bollywood films can claim such a feat. The last twist worked very well for me.

Made on a production budget of ₹50 million (US$630,000), the film grossed a total of ₹136 million (US$1.7 million) at the box office, making it a profitable venture. I just hope this results in more Indian producers and directors venturing into genres which are not traditionally mainstream.

And more on-location shoots, please. Quite recently I have enjoyed almost all on-location shot films, Newton, Sherni, Anek and now this.

My second movie from Asghar Farhadi. The first was About Elly. The way he handles chaos and rising tensions is just unparalleled. His movies start with such a simple premise but soon the situations force the characters to break their usual amiable demeanour and human emotions prevail in their true form.

The Dark Knight's joker talks remarks about knowing people more than their friends,

Do you want to know why I use a knife? Guns are too quick. You can't savor all the... little emotions. In... you see, in their last moments, people show you who they really are. So in a way, I know your friends better than you ever did. Would you like to know which of them were cowards?

Asghar Farhadi's characters follow this remark to the T.

There is so much happening in this film. It starts in a divorce judge's cabin where #leila-hatami and #payman-maadi are going through a hearing on their case of separation. Leila wants to separate because Payman is not willing to emigrate out of Iran, whereas Payman pleads that he does not want to let her go willingly, but also he can't immigrate because of his ailing father, who is suffering from Alzheimer's.

Owing to this rift in the marriage, Leila moves out of the house to her parents and Payman is forced to hire a caregiver for his father. Then comes the stroke of luck which I can't reveal without giving spoilers. From this moment onwards the movie spirals into something else entirely.

Payman is marvellous in his portrayal of an egoistical yet loving father, and son. Leila matches his energy at the same level. Their daughter, played by the director's daughter, #sarina-farhadi. She knows quite well that her mother won't leave the country without her, and so tries desperately to keep choosing her father to hold the marriage together. The amount of responsibility and tension on her shoulder shows in her muted acting which earned her awards for best actress for this.

Like About Elly, #asghar-farhadi 's camera continues to follow the characters as if the spectator is part of a family. Like a dream you sometimes have where you have to be a mute spectator and no one really notices us being there. There is so much we want to correct or interfere, but just can't. He is excellent at creating that helplessness in the audience.

If you are comfortable with #world-cinema and would like to explore outside of the mainstream, you must try #asghar-farhadi 's work. Both this and About Elly are definite recommendations from me.

The devil lies in the details.

The wire is easily one of the most in-depth takes on a lot of things. It centres on the depiction of the war on drugs. While it does so spectacularly, it also goes into the corruption, politics and the systemic rot which is all around us.

It starts off as one man's spirited fight against a local drug kingpin, and the first season devotes itself to this fight, but in doing so, it continues to bring other characters into the picture and over the course of 5 seasons, convincingly takes them to closure.

It is a masterclass in character development. People truly evolve through the five seasons of the show, and dynamics change. There is no plot armour for anyone. Also, there are no heroes. The approach McNulty takes in the fifth show is arguably deplorable, but it seems natural coming from that character.

Among many bigwigs fighting it out, what truly stays with you is the story of Reginald Cousins, aka, Bubbles. A heroin addict who loses everything, hits rock bottom, but then manages to rise back up to a life which he could die peacefully with. Many of the scenes with Bubbles hit hard. Andre Royo has given his best in living the role through 5 seasons of the show.

The show does not need any manufactured drama. Reality takes care of it. The director just had to keep looking and reality provides all the friction needed. With such an in-depth focus on the matters, the series is definitely a slow burn but it is still definitely worth your time.

Also, this series has some magnificent writing I have experienced to date. Take Major Colvin's take on the war on drugs,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA5za4VsskM&t=23s

Have a look at all the headlines about this film. Many acclaimed critics have seen this as per their intrinsic constitution. They all are right, yet they all wouldn't be complete, that is the power of subtlety.

Ever since I came to know that Chaitanya Tamhane was working on his next project, I was eagerly waiting for it. The subject of Hindustani Classical music was an added bonus, and on release, it met all the hype and yet had a bit more to offer.

This is Chaitanya's second film. After the success of the first film Court, the pressure to outperform must have been enormous. He showed that he is made of a special fabric altogether and holds ample capacity to sustain this pressure and produce another gem, arguably an even better film than Court.

Chaitanya Tamhane sticks to his title wholeheartedly. He was deeply committed to court as a system in his first movie of the same name. His steady camera was an unbiased, firm, nonchalant observer of a monotonous creeping pace of judicial proceedings. In the disciple, he takes on a bigger challenge. In his second feature, he still shows the same commitment to the title. He presents a tale of a disciple from the limited and focussed perspective of him being one. There aren't a lot of details about his personal life, or technicalities of the music he pursues. There is a laser-sharp focus on him being a disciple. From an observational study of a non-living entity like the judiciary, his second venture moves on to a living human being and the specific role he plays.

I just wonder if the title of the film should have been A Disciple, rather than being The Disciple. There is nothing exceptionally special about Sharad Nerulkar. He has given his everything to classical singing. He has let go of all other pleasures on road to masting the art form. Yet, he has his limitations. Coming to terms with one's own limitations is a battle fought alone. If your limitations fall in the realm of mediocrity, then this battle is tiring and disheartening. There is no one on the sidelines to cheer you up. The crowd is already with those who have risen above the rest and are fighting to go that extra edge where no one has gone before. But what of the ambitions of the commonfolk? A lot of them have already locked away a side of their personality after a few discouraging remarks from folks offering unsolicited advice. What of those who have the unrelenting perseverance to go on despite their limitations? Popular wisdom has nothing to offer on this, for such people are destined to walk alone silently on their personal journey. When Sharad laments about not being able to think of the right emotion to put in his singing, not even his Guru can help him.

Indian classical music has always venerated teachers of the art. This veneration and devotion is at times at par with worship or even beyond if that is possible. I think this movie would be one of the first ones to highlight even the finest and most talented Gurus are human beings. There is a scene where a classical music collector, Joshi, shares opinions, thoughts and rumours about revered musicians of the erstwhile era. Sharad's reaction is evident in the film's trailer. Joshi has his own perspective to look at those people without thinking about them beyond someone who renders music, which is almost like thinking about them as a machinist producing some output. This casual indifference to the process is a bit too much to handle for Sharad or even for us considering the point in which the scene meets us, for which the credit goes to Chaitanya.

Of all the various reasons why Chaitanya should be given credit for, these oft-overlooked bits make the movie a little more than being just acclaimed. I loved his wide-angle shots and patient camera work. He takes his time with the scene. The style takes time to grow on you. It is unhurried to the point of becoming meditative. There is no pomp or flair here. The slice-of-life style filmmaking continues from his Court days. This self-assured pacing of keeping the audience in the scene slightly beyond their comfort zone makes Chaitanya's work nothing short of an evocative painting. You see a modern art frame and the voids are filled by your interpretation. Those come alive with your personalities and outlooks and hence they say beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Steady and long takes do that to your psyche. Just after the narrative puts in a comma as the action subsides in a frame, your mind starts extrapolating and imagining beyond that frame taking it as a prompt for further thought. That is likely the reason for so many different headlines trying to ring-fence certain aspects of the film. There are people praising the camera work, people praising the editing, some talk about the acting or plot and yet some go on a totally different tangent. The film gives that space to the audience to experience, process and interpret the scenes in their own way, and that is the success of this film.

Chaitanya did not go for established actors for this. He wanted established musicians to portray a slice of their life in the context of the film. Aditya Modak is a Hindustani classical vocalist who debuted as Sharad Nerulkar (amusing to say debuts, as I am not sure if he is pursuing an acting career as such). His Guru played by Dr Arun David is a foremost disciple of the renowned classical vocalist Kishori Amonkar (who might be an inspiration for Mai, but don't quote me on this). The character Mai, who makes a profound impact only with her voice and not shown on the screen. The voice is given by the distinguished director Sumitra Bhave, who just recently passed away. This casting is exactly opposite to another successful work in the Hindustani classical musical context, Bandish Bandits, where we see debutant actors learning and rendering classical music for the camera. That is a distinctive difference between commercial and arthouse, but more on that a bit later.

For non-veteran actors, both Aditya and his Guruji have noteworthy screen presence. Sharad's frustration and his anger on his own inability to overcome his limitations despite sincere efforts are very well presented by Aditya Modak. There is casual passing footage given to the current talent hunt shows and the fickle popularity owing to short-lived celebrities status. Aditya's reactions towards these shows hint at both condemnation and jealousy. Again, Chaitanya shows restraint in limiting the scope for this subject as it goes slightly tangential to his main theme. Other side actors who come for few scenes feel believable and natural. The 10+ months spent in casting were spot on.

Subtlety and exposition are two ends of the scale. No points for guessing which is the favourite of the producers and marketing guys. For commercial equations it is imperative that you want to know your target audience, you want to know exactly how the film should make you feel, where this is to be placed, which genres it is going for. With subtle films, such equations do not work. If you can not pinpoint the audience reaction on a scene (to the point of putting a fake laugher track if needed) there is probably little for the producers to invest in. I suspect that is how the gulf between the mainstream forms of art and indie arthouse projects is formed. From the pure drama and expressions point of view, movies like Court and The Disciple are brilliant but they fail to garner the required audience appeal. Probably because the audience today does not want the art to confront or question them. They want art to precisely tell them what they should feel at what time and how much. Evocative background music and explosive dialogues are there to nudge the audience's mind exactly in the required direction.

I had read somewhere that art and audience work in tandem. Both need to confront and challenge each other to elevate mutually. The widening gulf between the supposed arthouse (and therefore non-mainstream) and the populist mainstream is a cause of concern.

I hope the success of The Disciple or even the mouth publicity of the film helps narrow down this gap and we are more willing to be tested by films rather than being pacified.

"If it was never new, and it never gets old, then it's a folk song."
Llewyn says that twice in the whole film. once at the start and then towards the very end. Between these two occurrences, we have had a journey, or was that just one another day?

Inside Llewyn Davis is a polarising film by the Coen brothers. Their usual fanbase did not expect this. It goes away from their usual work. Inside Llewyn Davis is a story of a struggling folk singer. He is living in times that are probably lost, yet he is clinging to his passion. Does that bring him a lot of happiness? Hardly so. He is in love with the struggle itself.

Succinctly acted and brilliantly filmed, this left a lasting impression on me. Llewyn has the voice and the presence, but he is practising a craft that has fallen on the sidelines of culture and is slowly being forgotten. His puritanical love of the form is not enough. He does not wish to change with times. He had a partner, who committed suicide. He is not out of that shock. He has not processed it yet.

A lot of people have equated this to the depiction of depression and how Llewyn is unwittingly struggling to come out of the pit which is hard for him to even perceive. Oscar Isaac, who portrays Llewyn, won a well-deserving Gloden Globe for his portrayal of the trapped, tragic titular character. Carey Mulligan has a smaller role but she is at her vulnerable best. I just like her too much. (please go watch Drive)

The cinematography is by Bruno Delbonnel. He has worked before on Amelie, Darkest Hour and even a Harry Potter film. All praise to him for keeping these different movies different. I remember pausing the scenes filmed in The Gaslight Cafe (a real place which operated from 1958 to 1971, notable as a venue for folk music) for the beautiful frames Bruno captures. Tell me what you feel about the lingering smokey haze that almost always exists in all the frames. The passage of time through a long road journey or the passing train stations convey a lot more meaning than anything overtly said.

I have always loved The Eagles so the folk song genre was not new for me. For a movie about the folk singer, the movie takes its music very seriously. Oscar has performed many of the songs himself. Hang Me, Oh Hang Me, Fare Thee Well, and The Death of Queen Jane are especially memorable. As I am typing this, I am listening to the movie soundtrack on repeat. Especially all Oscar's songs embody that melancholy fighting spirit Llewyn holds dear and seldom lets go.

Apart from a personal story, it also talks about the need for patronage artists need in their career. All forms of arts or sports rely heavily on the audiences' backing and support. It also raises an important question regarding should artists go commercial in search of popularity and validation or stay true to their personal dedication towards the form and nature of their craft and refuse to budge even when all support is lost? There are no easy answers to this dilemma.

Inside Llewyn Davis is an experience. It is worth a watch for Oscar's acting, Bruno's cinematography and Dave Van Ronk's enchanting music. The Coen brothers have created a lovely piece of art that will stay relevant for long.

So Scent of a woman. This was on my list for a while now. I like Al Pacino. He has this edge about him. His deliveries are so power packed that he leaves everything behind and comes forth on the screen. He appears more of a drama actor where a single spotlight covers his speeches.

Al Pacino plays a blind retired army officer. He is now dependent on his family and needs to be watched over. On a thanksgiving weekend, the family has to leave him in the care of Chris O’Donnell, a timid but strong willed gentleman. These two people are a class apart and their moments together change them both.

Al Pacino comes off as a very strong person who needs to constantly exude the air of control. He needs to make sure that others around him are on the edge, something that keeps him alive and kicking. Chris is more laid back. Non-compromising, and strong but laid back.
Al Pacino has this outward appearance of a strong guy who is on the edge of breaking. He wants to end his life after living a perfect day. He wants to dine at a perfect restaurant, drive a Ferrari, fuck a great woman and blow his brains out. From a societal standpoint, his views are strong and irrational, but I found myself identifying with him. He is the guy who embodies what Master Oogway says to Po in Kung Fu Panda.

The past is history, the future is a mystery, but today is a gift — that’s why they call it ‘the present’

He lives in the moment. The reason he is discharged from the army and the reason why he lost his eyesight is that he pulls of grenade pins in a drunken stupor. He just has no care of the world. Would you call him selfish? Arguably so. He has seen life. The wars have changed him. He knows the importance of living in the moment. Only a guy with tremendous confidence and charm can pull off the tango. According to me, it is one of the best scenes of the film.

His face talks so much. There is a confidence in there. There is the feeling of living it up. This is the guy who knows in his mind that he is going to blow his brains out. He gets to live this moment once. He cherishes it. Yet he makes her feel so special. She enjoys it very much. Her apprehensions fade and she opens up. He takes care of her. Showing all that as a blind man takes a lot of efforts and yet he makes it look like to effortless, so poetic. The audience is in the background looking at the pair with happiness and appreciation. Instead of more bombastic scenes, this scene is my memory.

Chris, on the other hand, is shy. He doesn’t open up. He is conflicted. He is not the kind who would compromise willingly. He has integrity, but he is just entering the real world. He is naive, he is an idealist. In Al Pacino’s company he changes. He is more steadfast by the end of the film. The film is successful because these two very different characters leave impressions on each other and you get the fuzzy feeling of having watched a great film.

I add very few movies on my re-watch list. I guess this one will go in there.

'Par? Nahi maar sakta'. The conviction with which Taapsee Pannu uttered these words got me in double mind about this movie. I wasn't sure if it would be a one-sided tale of the current version of feminist thought or a nuanced take on the domestic abuse and more importantly a successful overthrowing of entitlement. When I finally watched it, thankfully, it turned out to be the later.

The movie grabbed my attention just as it started. The use of an ice cream dolly to open about four story threads in parallel catering to different strata of society was one of the best movie openings I have seen. The director wants his story to be universal. That he does not want it to be the story of a family but rather a tale of typical household psyche transcending classes and educational qualifications. It would have been very hard to weave these stories giving them proper importance later and hence starting them all together was a stroke of a genius.

Having said that, it is still primarily the story of Taapsee. She plays a character of Amrita. She is well educated, comes from a liberal and modern family. She is married to Vikram, played by Pavail Gulati. Vikram is at a very high position in the office and is keenly looking for a transfer to London to oversee operations there. Amrita voluntarily chooses to stay at home and finds happiness in taking care of her husband and in-laws and builds her life keeping them as central pillars of her existence. When the titular slap comes to be in the film, she starts to think deeply about her lifestyle, her choices of staying at home and is it right for her to be taken for granted.

The trailer makes everything clear as daylight. There are no spoilers here. You know while going in what to expect. The success of the film is in the pace and attention to the details. There are moments where the film could have become flashy, but it restricts itself and remains close to the topic. It becomes almost introspective at times. The aftermath of the slap slowly unfolds. It's not a decision taken in haste. It's not a knee jerk reaction. She thinks about it for a while. And it's not just her. The family is seeing her distraught and that fills them with a foreboding. As an audience, we are given time to introspect and form a stance. Time and again characters tell her to let go because it's just a slap. Probably, at the instant when it happens, considering the buildup to the scene, a significant percentage of the audience might also think the same.

It's the challenge for the director to show a believable build-up to the slap without painting the male lead in pure black. It is easy to dismiss a narrative when we can disassociate a character from ourselves. It's easy to say, he's wrong here, he's bad. Then we distance ourself from him and it's easy to condemn his actions. It's tough however when the person is not your usual wife-beating abuser. You can't write him off any longer. Yet, he has done a deplorable act. And Taapsee in all her sincere conviction is asking you, 'Par, nahi maar sakta'. From this, the director needs to take you to a point where you understand the thought behind her decisions. Then you are more equipped to pass judgement.

While telling this fairly non - glamorous main story, we are also presented with archetypal variations across classes. We are also shown a strong-willed single mother living just next door, reminding us that the change is not that far away. It's around us. We coexist with both ends of the spectrum. Where then you find yourself? Will you now stand with Amrita? Is her decision still so outrageous now?

The next bit is the attention to detail. How can a girl like Amrita, who has almost dissolved her individuality in the house of Sabharwals, suddenly take such a drastic step? Despite the gravity of injustice, what gives her the strength and conviction to follow through? Kumud Mishra. I usually like his work very much and even here he does not disappoint. He portrays Amrita's father. An open-minded, affable person but with a strong moral character. He is the force behind her courage. Amrita has seen her father respecting her mother. Sharing small household chores and even affably making tea mocking her mother's way of over-boiling tea leaves. Amrita comes from this egalitarian household, and that slap makes her realize how drastically different lifestyle she is living now. It is her upbringing and the same moral character that she has got from her father helps her in this troubled time to follow through her decision.

The movie worked for me for these reasons and additionally Taapsee's down to earth yet the convincing portrayal of Amrita. She embodies the nerve of Amrita very well and blends well with the character. The moments she is aghast after the event are just so heartfelt. Her sudden high energy bout of rearranging the living room in the dead of the night with intense agitation perfectly conveys her inner turbulence.

I liked almost all the actors in the film, the casting was brilliant, from the bubbly and frank maid Geetika Vidya Ohlyan to both the mothers, the casting truly gave justice to the need. Maya Sarao's advocate Netra Jaisingh felt a bit underwhelming among the other stalwarts of acting.

There aren't many songs in the film, but one which remained in my mind much after the movie ended was Ek Tukda Dhoop. The style reminded me so much of works of Amit Trivedi, it is a beautiful rendition. Raghav Chaitanya's voice, although soothing, started me thinking where did all the deep-voiced singers have gone? Closest I can currently recollect would be Papon in Khumar, but even that is not deep enough. But more on that sometime later.

Overall, the movie worked for me. Giving due credit to the performances and story, I guess the lasting impression was that how the story was told without broad generic strokes of good and bad, but enough emphasis was given on how the characters were the product of the society and the times they live in, and that, it is always possible to change if you have courage without blaming or vilifying your ideological adversaries.

I have always loved animation films. They have a lot more tools at their disposal to present the flights of imagination. Spirited Away is one of the scintillating peaks when it comes to animations for numerous reasons.

I saw this recently as it used to turn up quite frequently on many must-watch animations list. Spirited Away is a tale of a young girl who unbeknownst to her ends up in a spirit realm. Her family is driving to a new town where her father is now posted. She is not very happy that she has to move and let go of her friends and the school in the old city. So she is very annoyed and cranky throughout the road journey to the new town. While searching for their home, they end up crossing the borders of human and the spirit world. However, when they make this inadvertent mistake the onus is on her to make the family whole again.

The movie is brilliant because it appeals and works at three significantly different levels.

The Technical side. This Hayao Miyazaki film consists of hand-drawn animations having great details. Many of the scenes which feature only for a few seconds in the narrative are also drawn in detailed and immersed manner. It shows the dedication towards the craft and the desire to give a complete and whole package to the audience. It is the expression of the animator and that shows, that he is willing to go the extra mile and make the best effort when creating his art. If you compare this with Disney's work, Spirited Away feels more organic and real. This reminds me of old Indian temples having hand-sculpted idols across temple walls. Even if one of the idols is going to be at a rarely visited obscure corner of the temple, no less effort is taken on it. It is still as accurate and beautiful as the rest of the temple.

But the technical side alone may not draw the mainstream audience to the theatres, you need a great story for that. That is another big highlight of this film. The story of Spirited Away works for both Adults and Kids. If you just look at the story from a kid's perspective, you'd distinctly remember Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. The flights of imagination are all there. For a young girl who is moving away from her home, this new world could be an enchanting fairy tale. This is where the Japenese film differs from its western counterparts. The responsibility that the movie puts on the girl's young shoulders is crushing. She needs to be very careful and defiant to bring back her family together. There are a lot of clear learnings for kids. It is not a sugar dipped fairy tale. It has harsh realities, it has decision points which test the mettle of our young protagonist and as a young one watching the film, it does have a lasting impact on the psyche.

For adults, there is a lot to offer other than a simple fairy tale. The movie takes a lot of inspiration from folklore and uses those elements to make you think on the social structures, capitalism, and some dark realities like kids being sold into sex slavery at a very young age. These elements are not apparent. You have to peel the veneer off of the story and think about what more the director is trying to tell us. I think the success is mostly due to the ability to blend in two messages in the same story.

Apart from the technical attention to detail, there is also much thought given to how a 10-year-old girl will behave. Her mannerisms, the way she holds her mom's elbow and pulls while walking, or when she slows down while walking as she gets lost in the sights and then rushes back to her parents. These small observations make her character very believable.

Although most of the characters take inspiration from Japenese folklore, the only character which does not draw inspiration from it is No-Face and it was the most enigmatic character from the film for me. I would have loved a more rounded and detailed ending. Especially for the sake of No-Face. His arc felt rushed or somewhat unconvincing, but that depends on how you perceive the film.

This was the first Studio Ghibli film distributed widely in North America giving Americans the taste of a different style of animation. That increased market is also a reason for its popularity. To quote Wiki on pure popularity numbers,

The film was originally released in Japan on 20 July 2001 by distributor Toho. It became the most successful film in Japanese history, grossing over $347 million worldwide. The film overtook Titanic (the top-grossing film worldwide at the time) in the Japanese box office to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history with a total of ¥30.8 billion. Spirited Away received universal acclaim and is frequently ranked among the greatest animated films ever made. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards, making it the first (and, to date, only) hand-drawn and non-English-language animated film to win that award. It was the co-recipient of the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival (shared with Bloody Sunday) and is in the top 10 on the British Film Institute's list of "Top 50 films for children up to the age of 14"

Needless to say, it gets a recommendation from me. Especially in the trying times like the lockdown, as a family sit together and enjoy this lovely spirited tale of Chihiro and get lost in the world of the spirits. It is available on Netflix.

When you have a veteran in the industry who dons the hats of producer, director and main lead, it is truly a concept the person is passionate about. Ben Stiller brings us the titular Walter Mitty in a project which is memorably shot and convincingly acted.

I have always seen Ben Stiller in comic roles, and this movie carries a similar lightheartedness like his other works. He works as a negative assets manager. His job is to develop the filter rolls and neatly archive negatives the photographers submit for his company, the Life Magazine.

This is an interesting metaphor. An adventurous young kid in early ages, Walter had had to take up a job to support his family. Now he is stuck in the neglected corner of the office building, in an essentially negative space of all the adventure out there. He tries to fulfil his thirst for adventure by abundantly day-dreaming through the mundanities of life.

As the print magazine is acquired and is transitioning to an online-only version, Life magazine is now working on its last print issue. His longtime partner, a celebrated photographer Sean O'Connell, played by Sean Penn, conveys to the entire staff that he has captured a perfect photograph for the last issue which captures the 'quintessence of Life'. Unfortunately, the negative is missing.

Sean is a nomad photographer who is not easy to be found. Walter takes it upon himself to go in search of Sean and starts from his last known location, Greenland. This is where the negative asset manager jumps on the stage of adventure he has only daydreamed about.

Cinema is a visual medium. In the early parts of the film, Walter's daydreams come on screen in vivid detail. The editing of these transitions from real life to imaginary dreamscapes is cleverly handled. The cinematography turns an entirely new leaf when he embarks on the adventure. From Greenland, the landscapes and vistas are just breathtaking. This is a critically acclaimed film, not for the story or performances, but for the visual treatment. This must have been a feast in theatres, but I would suggest going for a darker room to simulate a poor man's theatre even when watching on laptop screens.

There is a love story angle with Kristen Wiig as Cheryl Melhoff, and a track about the magazine acquisition and a childishly caricaturish managing director of the 'Transition' to Life Online, played by Adam Scott. Both these tracks are average and not the selling features of the film. Adam Scott is fun though.

Overall, it is recommended for the visuals, the escape from a volcano, the turbulent North Sea, and the mesmerising skateboard run. Please turn the lights off!

What a sunkissed beauty this is. Amelie hits all the right notes to create a harmony which is seriously missing these days in real life. This movie brings to life to the feeling of doing something good for others. And through that act of seeing the happiness in others, you are rewarded. This guardian angel like feel is so romantic and wholesome that it showers like stardust in all the scenes.

Amelie is an introvert person. Her strange parents are to be blamed for her personality. She is a bit timid, without friends and lives a lonely simple life. One day in her apartment, she discovers a tiny box kept hidden by the previous owner. With a stroke of the divine will, she decides to find the owner of the decades-old box. This tiny roll of snowflake snowballs into her later life where she finds immense pleasure and meaning in making others happy unbeknownst to them.

In these endeavours, her paths cross with Nino, another esoteric imaginative soul who collects discarded photos from photo-booths and creates photo albums from those. Seeing those albums itself is one high point of the film. She likes him, but her timid and introvert personality would never allow her to just engage, so she takes a support of her creativity and imagination, probably to check if Nino is even worth allowing to enter her shell.

Amelie is a beautiful film. The attention to all the characters shows. By the end of the film, you start caring about every one of them. There is a glass man painter who repaints Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party every year, there is Georgette, the resident hypochondriac of the cafe Amelie works at. Even the annoying Joseph is worth caring about a bit.

Then there is music. Yann Tiersen piano music engulfs you with the emotions on screen. I guess the music is one clear operative factor for this film.

Overall, it is worth a watch to see how happiness flows. It is higher on the list of films which can easily uplift your mood.