Sunday, January 4, 2009

17. Ghajini (கஜினி - Tamil) - 2005





Director : A.R Murugad0ss
Cast: Surya , Asin Thottungal , NayanThara

This happened to the be the first film that I see in the first day of release.
You can guess how it can be if you ever tried in your college days.

And once I returned home I was sure this is going to make history.
That was almost 4 years back.

Surya was absolutely great with his character.
The dress sense was another great plus .

The fight scene at the last would be a mile stone to the grap

Today I saw the Hindi version of this movie and thought I should recall about this movie.

Well this was a movie that had re-defined the word action in Tamil movie.
You can accuse the director of taking the core concept from the English movie memento.

But apart from the core concept , all the rest is his own creation.
There is one more scene inspired from the Movie - Amelie.


But even that scene fit perfect to the story.
There was wonderful songs , great editing and great stunts.


If there is something I really hate about this movie is - the character of played by NayanThara.
There was a song where she does the equivalent of item number.

I was never been embarrassed before like I felt after watching that song.

If I should make my words polite and graceful I should say -the kind of camera angles experimented in it will be a treasure to the western cameramen who work with adult film industry.




16 . Pedar (1996)



Director:
Majid Majidi
Writers:
Majid Majidi (writer)
Mehdi Shojai (writer)

More at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117315/


This is the only Majidi film which failed to make an impression.
May be because it is little bit old.

If you look close - you can see few things that repeats in majidi Movies.
1) A wild River 2) A small stream of water 3) A return trip usually from city to village 4) Something that floats with the water in stream.



15. Baron (2001)


Director:
Majid Majidi
Writer:
Majid Majidi (writer)

More at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0233841/

A cute , soft romantic movie with an unique style of narrating.
Great acting from all the actors regardless of the length and importance of their roles.

14 . Ratatouille (2007 , IMDB 159)




Directors:
Brad Bird
Jan Pinkava (co-director)
Writers:
Brad Bird (screenplay) and
Jan Pinkava (story)

More at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382932/

When your medium is life less digital images which is essentially zeros and ones the director has to direct the movie as well as act for all the characters in the movie.


This movie has redefined my concepts about Food , The art of making Food and yes - about Rats.
:) .

If you happened to read the book - Icon - An autobiography of Steve Jobs - you will have a fair idea about animation films.
I mean how difficult it can be.

When you have a fine - end product like this - of at least around 100 greatly talented people what you can say in return?

Thank you very much.

13. അനന്തഭദ്രം (Ananthabhadram-Malyalam)



Director: Santhosh Sivan

Cast : Pridhviraj , Kaavya madhavan , Manoj K Jayan


A beautifully shot movie in which each single frame carries a signature of Santhosh Sivan.
Of course all the three lead actors have done a great job.

If you really want to point out a draw back in this movie it is the lousy climax.
May be the best in Malayalam in this category.

12 . Slum Dog Millionaire (2008, IMDB 58)



Directors:
Danny Boyle
Loveleen Tandan (co-director: India)
Writers:
Simon Beaufoy (screenplay) and
Vikas Swarup (novel)

More Info at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/


I started watching this movie with great expectation but ended it with much disappointment.
There were lot of news and reviews about this movie all over internet.

If I have to believe what Danny Boyle has to say about India , Bombay in particular - yes Ashamed.
I am extremely shamed.
This is a very improbable , eccentric , illogical bundled together .

If you are a Westerner and you like the movie it is just because you like strange things once in a while.

If you are a Bollywood freak and you love this movie , it is just because - this is another stupid bollywood movie which speaks English.


11. A Mighty Heart (2007)


Writers (WGA):
John Orloff (screenplay)
Mariane Pearl (book)

More Info at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0829459/

A movie based on a real incident.
A perfect film with perfect story,background score,acting,editing,dialogues.
Hats off to the Director- Michael Winterbottom.
Brilliant acting from -Angelina Jolie.
May be the best of Angelina`s performance as an actress.

Archie Panjabi was great as supporting actress and Irfan khan as one of the supporting actr.

An extra ordinary movie which excels in all departments of film making with a perfect 10.