No Man's Land...

For a few years now, I had a touch of contempt for this movie "No man's Land", for it had snatched the oscars from "Lagaan". But having watched the movie, I must say the contempt is replaced by awe and respect.

The movie revolves around the two soldiers who end up in the no mans's land. Interestingly, they are from rival borders and are left with one more soldier whose is alive but lying on a land mine in a trench. The role of the UN and the press is shown in an interesting manner. From the helplessness of the UN officials on the field to the irritation caused by the reporters is well portrayed. However, the intention of the press is to get the truth and hence any amount of irritation seems justified. The film itself is well made. The ending is cunningly subtle.

One funny conversation that I remember..

UN Official 1: A bomb diffuser makes only one mistake in life...(smiles)
UN Official 2: Well...actually two.
UN Official 1: How is that?
UN Official 2: First, when he chose the profession.

Apart from this the last scene is quite tragic and hence, seems to persist in your mind.

[Favorite Films] The pursuit of happiness...

'This part of my life.....is called remembering my favorite film'........."The pursuit of happiness" is one of the best films I have seen. Its a truly inspiring one and the fact that it based on the real story only makes it more special. The film has plenty of dialogs that stick and also a lot of scenes which only make me think how blessed I am.

Before I go into those specific scenes /dialogs that I want to talk about, a brief summary about the whole film can be found in the wiki page here. Now let me get to the parts of it that I savored most...

Offer of the Job - My all time favorite scene. I am sure anybody who has endured the movie till the end is waiting for this scene. Chris is asked to come inside the room where he was interviewed. The dialogs were to this effect

Chris: I decided to wear a shirt today for it will be my last day. (History: he had not worn a shirt for his job interview.)
Partner: Well, why dont you wear one tomorrow for it will be your first day.

And bam... all the pain, suffering, comes back to Chris in that one moment and just passes out of him through his tears turning his eyes red. And after that comes my favorite part where he runs down to the street. He is not able to control his happiness and seen jumping. I like the way its been pictured with the normal life passing by him with poeple moving on, around him. And he wanting to share his happiness with anyone and everyone, finds no words to communicate. He doesnt have that anyone right near him. He has to run all the way to his child's school to share the news. I always contrast this with the ease in which I called my mother as soon as I was made the offer of my first job. It was as easy as dialing a few numbers on my cell.

Repairing the Bone-density scanner - From the time he recovered the stolen scanner to the time he sold it, it has been one hell of a time. He first unsuccessfully tries to sell it only to realize at the last moment, right in front of his customer that it has stopped working because of a fuse. Then with only a few dollars left, he buys a fuse. On the way back, his son out of a child's curiosity wants to take a look that. He neither wants to disappoint his child nor does he want to see anything happen to that fuse. I liked the way he hands it over and at the same time keeps a watchful eye on that fuse. Finally, inside the dorm when he fixed the machine, I love the scene when he switches the machine on. They show the whole dorm and the to his much relief the machine LIGHTS up. This is kind of symobical in a subtle way, because starting from that point, everything in his life seems to light up.

A night in a sub-way restroom - This again is an interesting scene for he wants to somehow spend the night at the sub-way. And at the same time he does not want to make it explicit to his son. He comes up with this whole time machine/caves etc etc story. This kind of reminded me of the famous "Life is beautiful" where the father made the whole stay at the concentration camp appear like a story to his son. However, the difference being, in this film the son is not so innocent to not realize whats happening. Specially, when somebody starts knocking at the door of the restroom, the desperation/insecurity is nicely portrayed by Will Smith.

The spirit of Chris Gardner - Another thing that amazed me about the story was the spirit of Chris. Under no circumstance would he give up. The confidence in himself is well portrayed in the interview. I do admit that desperation sometimes adds to your confidence. But the interview in itself, though a little unrealistic tries to convey the message. I still remember a few dialogs from that interview where he says - "Sir, I am the kind of a person, who, if I do not know the answer will tell 'I do not know the answer', but I bet you what, I know how to find one and I will find it no matter what" and towards the end when partner asks "What would you say to a person who hired someone who had not wore a shirt for the interview." this is one of my all time favorite reply that "I would say that he must have been wearing some damn good pants..." .
The same spirit is also seen when he is seen literally carrying his whole house along with him. Once in the lift when somebody asks him about so much of baggage, without a wink he replies saying he is going out of station on work. He never gives up and also we should notice that there is not an inkling of inferiority complex either.

Finally, after having gone through the entire film, my train of thoughts...("arjun express") comes to a halt, but is still able to hear the echo.."This part of my life......this small part..is called happiness"

Woodstock Villa...where the truth lies

It was hard for me to recall the name of this film even to fill the Title of this post. That should sum up in a nut-shell my opinion about this film I just saw. Before I start with what it was actually, let me begin with what was supposed to be.

I googled for the review and got this as one of the top search results - REVIEW FROM NOW RUNNING.COM . According to this,

"In the tradition of film noir, that is guaranteed to shock, thrill and surprise. A compelling film from director Hansal Mehta about swiftly changing moralities in today's world.
After a successful businessman's stunning wife disappears, hostile and taunting ransom demands follow. As the true nature of stakes for the captor and his captives unfold, Woodstock Villa lithely transforms from a precision neo noir into a chilling and shocking thriller, and ultimately into a vivid, invigorating, icy masterpiece of murder, mystery and suspense.
Neither pleading eyes nor bound wrists nor a shallow grave are what they seem, as a moment of relief is suddenly transformed into a web of deceit, and a moment of truth is followed by a sudden web of lies. Unsettling, thrilling, hallucinatory, suspenseful and erotic, Woodstock Villa is contemporary entertainment that breaks new ground with every twist".

I am surprised with amount of positive perspective , the reviewer has seen this film (if he has seen it at all). In any case people are entitled to their individual opinions and tastes. So I shall let the matter rest there.

For me however, this film is a disaster in all aspects. To name a few obvious ones - lack of a proper story, the sequence of events (which seems to kill the suspense/thrill that you would expect in a thriller) and the untimely songs. I personally did not like the photography also, for I felt the photographer was trying to focus from all possible weird angles. However, this is very subjective and a little benefit of doubt could be given to the photographer. Amidst all this, to test our patience, there are some totally mushy dialogs which would have been best placed in the 1970s. And before I forget, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the person who came up with the TITLE for this film (sarcastic ofcourse). The person has successfully captured the essence of the film in these two words which comprehensively covers the whole plot. Well on a serious note, the house figures only a couple of times in this film and I would say is one of the most insignificant things out there. As insignificant as the role of Mr Gulshan Grover and his buddies. A title which stands for deception/cheat would have been more apt, for everybody seems to be cheating everybody here.

Overall, it was 2 hours well-wasted (actually 12 man hours of productivity) and not just that it was a whopping 960 bucks from 6 of us. All in all a forgettable time. I am pretty sure, none of us were shocked, thrilled or even slightly surprised about any twist in this film (if there was any).

Hoping to make up for the loss by soon catching up with a nice movie...

....Indiana.....Junior....... Dr Henry Jones...

"Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull" is here after a long wait. 15 years back, when I was in 5th grade, my mother took us (5 cousins) to the Plaza theatre on the MG Road, which was showing "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusades". That was my first Indiana Jones movie. Ever since, I have been a great fan of this series. Although I had my own reservations about "The temple of doom". Finally, this weekend I took my parents to this new sequel. Thanks to "Mr Traffic" and "Mr Rain", we missed the first 20 minutes, although we left for the theatre a good 1.5 hours before the show. I hope to catch those first 20 minutes as soon as possible.

Just as we left the house, I was telling my brother how I was looking forward for the predictable scene, where after the first adventure, Professor Jones is shown to write something on the white board in his classroom, addressing his students. Unfortunately we missed the start and I do not know if that scene was there at all this time.

However, the film did not fail in evoking the nostalgia. The captivating Indiana Jones background music, the same energetic, inquisitive and relentless archaeologist is still very much alive in Henry. The film has its own way of evoking subtle sentiments, like when they show the photo of Dr Henry Jones Sr (Sean Connery), or when Mr Jones finds out that his son is totally not what like he expects him to be. (This is similar to how Jones Sr percieved Jones Jr at times). Also, the setting is very much like 1950s or 1960s. This takes the film even closer to its predecessors. One good thing is Harisson Ford is aged even in the story and no attempt has been made whatsoever to hide his white hair or aged/wrinkled face. But after all its Harrison Ford and its no big deal for him to carry off these traits. The sense of humor / timely jokes are in plenty.

Overall, we enjoyed the film very much. Steven Spielberg has blended his extra-terrestrial passion very well into the storyline of Indiana Jones. I think more than comparing it to the previous films, the spirit of Dr Henry Jones is what we need to look for. And that has not been compromised at all.