mere funde

Category: Movies

  • Parzania – A review

    It is such a shame that two movies based on the same similar events, Gujrat killings communal riots and the trauma that follows, at different times, get released together, just because of the ruling party. Parzania – made during the Congress rule got released immediately without Censor cuts while Black Friday, made at time a BJP led government ruled the country, will get released in a couple of weeks. Anyways, it is not a rant about that. After all hasn’t each government abused its power in such cases to impact the fortunes of the movies.

    Parznia is an exceptionally well made movie. Directed by little known Rahul Dholakia it explores the misfortune of a Gujrati Parsi family during the Gujrat riots. The movie stars Naseeruddin Shah as Cyrus, (the oh-so-beautiful eyes) Sarika as Shernaz, Corin Nemec as Allan, Parzan Dastur as Parzan and Pearl Barsiwala as Dilshad. The movie attempts to chronicle the pain, anguish and post-riot trauma faced by these people and many more.

    It is an extremely well paced movie and goes about the job of telling the story in a no-nonsense manner. The character development and build up is excellent. Halfway you are left ashamed at being part of a country where politicians can manipulate people to kill each other and they still get elected despite everyone knowing the truth. Maybe we guys deserve this. Maybe it is because we do not take active interest in what is happening around us.

    Nasseruddin Shah has only grown on me, be it Being Cyrus or Parzania. The one person I discovered in the movie is the still so gorgeous, natural and extremely talented Sarika. The place the part of Shernaz to perfection and with minimum fuss. Her last dialogue in the movie did leave most women in the theatre crying and even me moist eyed. She is very natural as an actress and plays her part with minimum fuss. Another highlight of the movie is how the entire thing is narrated through the character of Corin Nemec. He plays his part to perfection and one feels that he may have been under-utilised in the movie.

    The movie gets a rating of 4.5/5.0 from me. Go spend money on it rather than some dumb love stories.

    Cross posted on Desicritics.

    Update: I am sorry about the confusion regarding Black Friday. It is based on the Mumbai riots and not on Gujrat riots. Also, I am on the featured list on Desicritics 🙂

  • Oscar Predictions

    The Oscar nominations are out and I am sticking my neck out to guess who would win.

    1. Best Actor – Leonardo DiCaprio
    2. Best Supporting Actor – Mark Whalberg
    3. Best Supporting Actress – Adriana Barazza
    4. Best Animated Film – Cars
    5. Best Direction – United 93
    6. Film Editing – Babel
    7. Best Picture – The Departed

    Other categories, I have no idea. Now wait and watch to see how many come true.

  • It Ain’t Over

    Just watched Rocky Balboa. And he quips,

    It ain’t over ’till it’s over.

    Watch the movie if you have loved Rocky. Slightly different. Not the usual Rocky stuff but good nonetheless. The story has been well developed and Rocky gears up for one last fight. To fight off the history and move forward. To accept Adrian’s death. And he does that.

    You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward.

    That is so true. One of my new year resolutions was to be happy this year. Well, the last year wasn’t so great for my personal life, even though I have lots to be thankful for. I guess I hadn’t moved on since. But I am truly trying to and I do hope I meet my resolution this year.

  • Blood Diamond: A review

    Almost a month back I had written about 5 movies I wanted to watch over the next few months. I have so far watched both the movies out of the five that have been released in India so far. Babel last week and Blood Diamond today. Babel was brilliant with one very memorable scene in a pub, but that is an old story now.

    Blood Diamond, however, is a different sort of a movie. A movie that shakes you to your core and at parts you definitely feel depressed. However, as the movie progresses a sense of something good coming out of the whole thing starts building up in you. The movie is based on illegal African diamond trade that was used to finance Civil Wars in Angola and Sierra Leone. The diamond trade caused so much killings and blood shed that these were actually called blood diamonds.

    The movie has so much blood shed that it is easy for everyone to digest it. You realise that such things did happen in the past and despite several UN resolutions things might not have totally stopped. There is a scene where Solomon (Djimon Honsou) says that he understands the greed of white men, but what he does not understand is how his own people can do all that to themselves. I think that he is bang on. The other scene is where Danny (Leonardo DiCaprio) tries to explain why he is what he is to Maddy (Jennifer Connelly).

    DiCaprio is absolutely brilliant and I think he has improved with leaps and bounds with each movie as an actor. If he was good in Departed, he is awesome here. Djimon also plays the part of Solomon Vandy to perfection. However, Jennifer is under utilised in the movie and her part under developed.

    All said and done Blood Diamond is a fabulous movie and highly recommended by me. The quote of the movie, and the only scene where you can manage a smile:

    I hope they do not find oil here. Things can get really bad then.

  • Perspective

    Confused points to this quote from Stanley Kubrick on Schindler’s List.

    “Think that was about the Holocaust? That was about success, wasn’t it? The Holocaust is about six million people who get killed. ‘Schindler’s List’ was about six hundred people who don’t.”

    This is from a review of the movie WTC by Roger Ebert. Catastrope does bring out the best and at times the worst in people.