Saturday, June 24, 2006

The DaVinci Code

There is nothing much to talk of the movie, but i'd like to take an opportunity to compare the book and the movie for sure.


The book would give u more details about each scene that has been pictursed for the movie and would also have more details of course. But as the wise people have said - a picture speaks a thousand words - those who didnt read the book till they saw the movie, should now try the book. It would make more sense.


The movie is well paced, with quite a good amount of French spoken in the movie which might make u feel like pausing the movie for a while and make sense of the scene. and the pace of the movie doesnt leave any room for that.


Quite a lot of scenes and descriptions given in the book are not to be found in the movie. I think the producer has done a gud job by trying to squeeze the minutest details in the short time frame.


now about watching the movie, if u have already read the buk - yes go for it - its definitely worth a watch.

The movie and the book are kind of complimentary to each other.I think the promotional authorities for books shud sell a DVD along wid d book and those for the movie should give a book with the movie ticket :)

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

36 China Town

36 China Town

A story about a town (area) in Goa that has nothing to do with Chinese. :) Yes, this is apparently address of a place where a murder takes place. The victim is a rich, beautiful, young lady (dunno if she had a husband - not mentioned in the story) who had a small kid, probably few months old only (And since she is a Indian naari, she ought to have a husband since she has a kid).

This lady is owner of "Hollywood" Casino in Chinatown where a lot of ppl have made small fortunes and even a lot more have lost even larger fortunes.

Story revolves around almost dozen people including the victim, while others are suspect of the murder, because they were somewhere in or around the "36 China Town".

A well paced story holds the viewer to the seat; and if you dont go by the name - like there was a "China Gate" starring more number of heroes as the suspects in "36 China Town"- then the movie is worth a viewing.

The place that as address as "36 China Town" in the movie is the same bunglow that was used by Sanjay Dutt, when he was Munna Bhai MBBS (suddenly you find a place of Bombay being address as a place in Goa - that's Bollywood :)) One thing to think about is that, such a wonderful bunglow, which is otherwise surrounded by yards of garden on either side, is supposed to have one room (where the murder took place) next to a free flowing road, connected to the building across by a couple of 6 inch pipes !! :O Cant digest that!! - (Hajmola sir!!!)

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Farenheit 451

A movie from the past but of the future.

The storyline depicts an era of the future when the society has evolved so much that any form of written words are anti-social. For they bring upon unhappy feelings of all sort (the reason given as per the storyline). The law has forbidden to have any literature written and printed. The newpapers too are all pictures with no words. There is television, elevated trains and even men flying on elevation/flying machines. But there are not books - children in school are taught orally and there are no written test.

The job of firemen is not only to erase fires, but to rage fires too - fight the fires in the buildings and at the same time find printed books and material and put fire to it.

There is a revolt when one of the firemen starts reading books and finds them full of immense knowledge. A friend of his, a school teacher is also fond of reading books and there is a whole circle of people, hiding from the law who have learnt (by-hearted) a book and passing the books on with the generations. The movie leaves us with questions - can this world survive for long? what else is behind this world ?

Farenheit 451 is a good imagination put to reel. The movie of early 60s does depict things of the future, where I reckon, there would not be much on paper, but on plastics and metal (and something else not yet invented) in form of software.

The movie is based on the then best selling sci-fi book by Ray Bradbury.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Naram Garam

When a classic movie (don't ask me when this one was released) has a cast of Amol Palekar, Utpal Dutta, the movie is bound to b a good family comedy and that exactly is what this movie is. Now one thing I noted, (having seen Golmal earlier), Amol brings along his dialogue delivery and nature of his character in this movie too (or maybe he's carried it from this movie to Golmal, but essentially both he movies seemed to be of the same frequency).

Old poor village teacher (A K Hangal - aka AKH) calls upon his pupil, poor clerk (Amol Palekar - AP), to marry his daughter (Swaroop Sampat - SS). But AP has his own problems like low salary while working as clerk at a firm owned by a superstitious 50 year "young" fellow (Utpal Dutta - UD), who has a car mechanic brother (Shatrughan Sinha - ShaSi) and a 16 yr old daughter. The firm is managed by his relative, some Radheshyam.

Well cirumstances bring the old master and his daughter to AP's place; the place owned by UD, but vacant and managed by AP. AKH and SS start residing in that house. Now Radheshyam, ShaSi and UD in turns, come to try and throw them out, only to fall for the beauty of SS. (By the way SS is dubbed by Farida Jalal - probably her voice was too husky for a 20 year old sweet village girl :) )

The movie is all about how AP and SS fight it out (of course without violence) to marry each other and also manage to stay permanently in the house.

Its a nice movie worth treasuring, one can see it any number of times. !! :)


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Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Raamji Londonwaale

Log at 2042 060606 [:)] Dats 06 May 06 (Chicago time):
Movie review Raamji Londonwaale

Actually yeh Raamji jo hai Bihar ka hai! i fargat hiz billage name !! He got a sister and he want to collect dahej (dowry) to give in his sister mairage. But he hab no money. So his sister ka sasur (father in law) send him to london. He good cook. So he go to london to cook at a indian house. But when he reach der, the person (his employer) already die. So he got no pilace, no money. His suitcase stolen. And his problems start.

But he seb (saves) kid of indian femily. So dey keep him. He gud cook so dey give him job - but illegal coz he no workpermit - lost. Police after him. So he mery a NRI. Lots of twist n turn. Den wat happen. ? - watch d movie...

Raamji londonwaale is a movie of a simpleton Bihari cook. The storyline too is very simple and predictive. But the simplicity seems to be adding value. With sufficient amount of comedy in the movie, and appropriate pace of the story, it does not bore you even though you can guess what happens next. One must definitely watch it once if looking for a decent homely movie. The surprise package of the movie is Amitabh Bachchan in one of the scenes.

Madhavan, (I am his fan too) is done well to depict himself as a bihari, yet one might find some gaps in he attempt to achieve that goal. Nothing much to act for Tanishha (if i m not wrong) - Kajol's sister, but done well. In a small role, Satish Shah got mixed up with speaking US english for UK english. That's it....



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Sunday, June 04, 2006

V for Vendetta

Log at 1538 4Jun2006 (Chicago time)

Movie review V for Vendetta

Watched V for vendetta a few minutes ago - it reminded me of RDB (Rang De Basanti) - it talked all about revolution, martyrdom of a person in order to bring about revolution.

A group of powerful people, make and experiment to make humans more powerful and immune to day to day disease, more active - essentailly something like a superhuman. They test the virus on a group of ppl (essentially political prisoners), all but 1 die of the new virus. The person in cell no "V" (5 in roman) develops the strength that was expected. But there is an explosion in the prison and everything is lost (formula survives). the prisoner blames the govt, (which actually was the culprit) for all that happened.

After the explosion in the cell, the govt tries to test the virus in a resident area, where almost 100,000 die not withstanding the change in body. A medical company owned by the head of the govt, has the anecdote to the virus and makes fortune out of the situation.
The prisoner of cell 'V' assumes the form of 'V for Vendetta' and kills all those people of the govt; destroys a few govt building, bringing about a revolution.

One needs to watch the movie carefully to understand it, the dialogues use undoubtedly pure english, which pour into the ear as mersmerising music. Most of the movie is in dark as "Matrix" was in green and black. The flow is nice and movie is edited nicely. Once can watch it once for sure.




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Thursday, June 01, 2006

Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara...

How can he, when he was only 6-7 years old when MKGandhi was Shot dead ? well.. here it goes

log at 1653 01 May 2006 (Chicago Time)Movie review - "Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara"

The movie is about a family, of an old Gandhian man AK(Anupam Kher), with two kids (Rajat Kapur and sm new fellow) and a daughter UM(Urmila Matondkar). He was a hindi literature professor by profession. His wife is dead and the movie begins with the scene showing him suffer from initial stage Alzhiemer which gradually increases as the movie progresses.

A few years later
The elder kid is settled in US working in mechant navy. the younger 1 is too young to take care of d forgetful dad, n finally it comes to UM to take care of AK to take care of him, putting on stake her career and life (yes she is shown to have affair wid a south indian boy who seeks to marry her). the elder kid has long forgotten the family it seems and the younger one is too modern and revolting to keep a sick father with himself.

Well the life moves on AK, UM and the younger kid are staying together. AK is in new madness of collecting paper cutouts. One day there's smoke in his room and when force opened he is found clinging to a file with title - maine gandhi ko nahin maara - all this till the interval :)
Well, the story progresses and AK's health deteriorates. Der even UM suffers coz her boyfrnd ditched her coz of her father's condition. Finally d elder brother returns from US and UM (who works in a NGO) 's boss recommend an upcoming psychiatrist, (d second hero for UM :) ). AK is again and again reciting MGKNM (title). When dey dig history (from AK's younger brother in delhi) dey find out dat AK used to play wid bow n arrow and 1 day wen dey didnt find ne target for der game - some1 put up MKGandhi's photo while AK had his eyes covered. And dat day MKG was shot.

AK's father considered AK's act as bad omen that caused MKG's death. And AK when he grew older, supported by alzheimer's disease starts to think dat every1 is condemning him for MKG's death.

final twist in d story...The new doc sets up a false set of courtroom and runs a trial wid duplicate ppl - whole setup is false - from judge to ppl in d hearing. Well, at the end AK is acquitted coz he was playing wid toy gun using which no 1 cud kill ne1.He is not completely cured of d disease - but get a belief dat he didnt kill gandhi. Den ders a senti lecture. How Gandhi is being abused. his presence in govt offices, currency notes, with presence of corruption around - almost everywhere. and dat he is rememberd only twice a year - 2nd oct and 30th jan !! How true !! : kinda felt crying ... sob !! sob !!!

At the end ders a nice inspiring poem

leheron se darr kar nauka paar nahin hoti
himmat karne waalon ki haar nahin hoti

nanhi cheenti (ant) jab daana lekar chalti hai
chadhti dewwaron par sau baar fisalti hai
mann ka vishwaas ragon mein saahas bharta hai
chadhkar girna - girkar chadhnaa naa akharta hai (not sure of these last two words - dunno d meaning either - mebbe somthing like the ant doesnt mind reclimbing the path again n again)aakhir uski mehnat bekaar nahin hoti
himmat karne waalon ki haar nahin hoti

dubkiyaan sindhu mein gotakhor kagaata hai
jaa jaa kar khaali haath laut aata hai
milte naa sahaj hi moti paani mein
behtaa doona utsaah issi hairaani mein
mutthhi uski khaali har baar nahin
hotihimmat karne waalon ki haar nahin hotia

safaltaa ek chunauti hai usse sweekaar karo
kya kamee reh gayee dekho aur sudhaar karo
jab tak na safal ho neen chain ko tyaago tum
sangharshon ka maidaan chhod mat bhaago tum
kuchh kiye binaa hi jay-jaykaaar nahin hoti
himmat karne waalon ki haar nahin hoti

Moral: ppl wid alzheimer's can b treated to some extent - and dey need love n care over nething else :) A person suffering from dis disease is really in bad state - i hope d docs find a cure to it ASAP. as of now ders only sme preventive steps - dat too not guaranteed !!

Well 1 can c dis movie 1ce - but those who are luking to have a relaxed mind instead of a thoughtful 1 at d end of d day - stay away !! :)



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