Amelie(2001)

Amelie is directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet .Amelie is the story of a young women and how she deals with an unexpected accident. The story looks simple and complex. The story might not be the attractive element of the film, but the way the story has been treated by Jean-Pierre Jeunet is wonderful.

Amelie has been brought up very cautiously by her parents due to some misunderstanding and she never had a normal childhood and she is lonely. One day she discovers an old box of a guy who used to live in her apartment and she decides to give him back the old box in order to make him and herself happy and she decides to make everyone happy and in this process she falls in love with a guy.

Amelie is the only film which I watched at least 10 times. It may or may not come under the list of greatest French films which I have seen but it’s definitely the film which I want to watch it repeatedly. The beauty of Cinema is before our eyes. I felt like the perfect visual treat and the best moments which my eyes can capture on the celluloid.

Many scenes in the film made me feel elated and at the same time surprised because of its absolute clarity in it. You just think that we do it and still we don’t recognize it. The minute moments of the film makes us feel close to it. Starting from the titles till the ending credits it’s just a delicious treat.

When the director mentions about the actions which the characters love, perform, hate etc.., they remind us of our daily unusual and unrecognized rituals which we do. The actions like pealing strips of paper, polishing the shoes, puckered fingers, pillow marks, cracking bones, popping bubble wraps, TV shows, dipping the fingers into sacks of grain, cracking the solid layer of cream with spoon, etc…

Amelie is a film which talks about life .It tells the actions which we do every day, infact it reminds the actions which we do. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet tells the story of everyday life, he tells how amelie had suffered in her childhood and how she is lonely in her adolescence. The Photography is very good and the color used is amazing, I wonder if we had the same scenery in our real life. The crazy camera angles just look perfect for ‘Amelie’. Amelie is not just about the young women Amelie but it is much more than that.

Caramel(2007)

I came to know about ‘Caramel’ when i was looking at the list of winners of Asia Pacific Screen Awards(2007).When i decided to watch the movie i was a bit suspicious about the credibility of the film,but it turned out to be a wonderful experience.

Caramel is a film about Lebanese women who work in a Beauty salon.The film deals with the lifes of five women who are very different from each other.The film is directed by Nadine Labaki,who also stars as one of the women,.Unlike many feminist films Caramel does not show the hardships of women,it does not show the social issues related to women,it does not show the political issues related to women but Caramel shows the normal life and behaviour of common women.

The female characters in the film are just amazing.Each character is designed in such a way that it is very close to reality and very far from our imagintion.Some might anticipate of having characters like a social activist,jounalist,Human Rights member etc… ,none of the charater in the film resembles of anything which i have mentioned above,it is just simple representation of a common women and beautiful execution of the perceptions,convictions and infatuations.
Three of the five female characters work in the Beauty Saloon,two characters are the female customers of the Beauty Saloon and the other female character is an middle aged women. Nadine Labaki inspite of directing her first film she did not fall into the obvious trap of Character exxageration she just keeps everything at limits without overshadowing one character over the other.

Layale (Nadine Labaki) is in a relationship with a married man, Nisrine (Yasmine Al Masri) is no longer a virgin but she is engaged with her boyfriend,Rima (Joanna Moukarzel) has homosexual feelings, she is attracted to women and she becomes close to one of her female customer.Rose (Sihame Haddad), a tailor with a shop next to the salon, is an old woman who had devoted her life to taking care of her mentally unbalanced older sister Lili (Aziza Semaan), but she falls in love with an old guy,Jamale (Gisle Aouad), a regular customer and wannabe actress, is worried about getting old and makes others believe that she is young.

The intimate relationships and the sexual feelings does not dominate on the screen,its the sisterhood between those women which dominates .There are some obvious mistakes in the film which Nadine Labaki could have avoided , but Caramel being her first film the mistakes can be overlooked.

I being a male recommend this movie to everyone because of the beauty and simplicity of ‘Caramel’.I am not being gracious or compassionate towards Carmel but this is the kind of film which i have been looking for many months.

Rock On!!(2008)

Rock On!! is a film about 4 friends who are the members of the Rock Band Magik.
The friends split and they reunite after 10 years and they decide to a perform for the last time on the stage.Rock On!! stars Farhan Akhtar as Aditya Shroff (Lead Vocalist),Arjun Rampal is Joe Mascarenhas (Lead Guitarist),Purab Kohli is Kedar Zaveri (Drummer),and Luke Kenny as Rob Nancy (Keyboardist).

The story is very simple and the predictable, it is just the story of 4 friends who split and how they reunite and some good amount of music involved in it.The Cinematography of Jason West is amazing,it adds to the mood of the film.The Characters played by Prachi Desai and Shahana Goswami are good.

It was an audacious attempt to use the voice of Farhan Akthar in the songs and he does not disappoint us,in fact his husky voice was untypical and was really good.The one guy who makes most out of this film is Arjun Rampal,he is perfect in his role.Arjun Rampal as the Lead Guitarist is brilliant.Luke Kenny and Purab Kohli are good and add some humor in the film.The relationship between Farhan Akhtar-Prachi Desai and Arjun Rampal-Shahana Goswamiare well directed.There are some areas where the screenplay goes arwy and the climax of the film could have been much better.The beard of Purab Kohli is awful,i wanted to close my eyes when he appears with his unbearable beard.

The picturization of songs is impressive,when you watch the movie observe the way in which the camera moves.The live songs are natural without any artificial elements in it.

The film’s first song is ‘Socha Hai’ sounds similar to the song “Sweet Child O Mine” of Guns and Roses.The Music is the heart of the film.Shankar Ehsaan Loy managed to give foot taping music which has hindi lyrics embedded with rock music.

DON’T DOWNLOAD THE MUSIC
BUY THE CD
Some Ramblings on Rock Music in India:
India embraced rock since the 1960’s and even today Rock Music is a secondary option to music lovers.Many films contain rock music in them but the greatness of rock music has not been appreciated.Many musicians did mix rock in their music.Many great music directors like R.D.Burman have shown their talent in Rock Music, ‘Hare Krishna Hare Ram’ which is the baap of all and the best Psychedelic rock song in India till date.I just wonder how the Rock bands are surviving,it really takes a lot of hard work,pain,patience to make rock bands like Indian Ocean,Parikrama etc.,.Jaideep Varma is directing a film on the band ‘Indian Ocean’,let us see …

The Dark Knight(2008)-The Joker Steals the Show

The most awaited film of the year comes with a bang.Christopher Nolan has provided the perfect stuff what everyone expects in a action movie and has also delivered the artistic flavor which the Batman franchise was devoid for many years.

Christopher Nolan potrays his characters in an intelligent manner,every character is handled well without any overdose of anything,Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne(Batman) did a very remarkable job which was expected, Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent is good and his character has a U turn in the end, Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes was acceptable,she did a descent job and Christopher Nolan did the right thing by limiting the emotional feeling between Bruce Wayne and Rachel Dawes.Gary Oldman as Lieutenant James Gordon,Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox have been projected well.

The above mentioned characters are overshadowed by the character ‘The Joker’ played by Heath Ledger.The perfect characterization for ‘The Joker’ … ‘Christopher Nolan’ take a bow for portraying the character of ‘The Joker’ in an impeccable way.The character of ‘The Joker’ is not filled with evil, it is filled with cruel Vengeance and the vengeance is something strange as there are no words to defne it.When i was watching the film i was just asking more of the ‘The Joker’ because the character of ‘The Joker’ takes you into the true darkness of humans mind without really talking about the evil behind it.

Heath Ledger as ‘The Joker’ is unbelievable.Heath Ledger steals the entire show of ‘The Dark Knight’.A character becomes unforgettable only when there is an unforgettable performance supporting it and Heath Ledger has given his best and last performance with ‘The Joker’.I felt that he surpassed Jack Nicholson.Every scene and every frame is just a delight to watch.Film critics who are very cynical about performances will be made dissapointed by Heath Ledger.

The stunts are wonderful and the technical quality is amazing.As we know Batman is not a Superhero but we feel that we are watching a Superhero film.The dialogues in the film gives the idea of nature of ‘Batman’ and ‘The Joker’.The chasing scenes,the bomb blasts are wonderful.The tricks used by the main characters are very good and has been neatly executed.

Christopher Nolan needs to be applauded for the characters he created in ‘The Dark Knight’.

Christopher Nolan did not make a film based on a Comic Book but he has done much more than that and he has taken the Batman franchise to another level which is very difficult for others to reach.

‘The Joker’ character which is filled with(inspired with) German Expressionism and Christopher Nolan has shown us the different version of German Expressionism,which i would like to call as the Neo-German Expressionism.

Aamir(2008)

‘Aamir’ is a film about a guy named ‘Aamir’.Aamir is choosen by a terrorist organisation to blow a bomb in the Mumbai city.Aamir has been choosen by the organization because he is a muslim and the film is about how the events take place on that day.

Aamir is a very good film.It is well directed and well written too.Aamir does touch some sensitive issues on terrorism,but on the whole i am dissapointed with the story.Raj Kumar Gupta had a very good chance of making one of the best films of 2008but he lost it, the story could have been much intresting but the director failed to enhance script

The direction is very good,but some points are missing in the film.There was a very good chance of educating the people on the real facts of terrorism,but Raj Kumar Gupta restricted himself to very few issues and the climax was really a big dissapointmentfor me.

I am not against sad endings but Aamir deserved a happy ending because you need to send a message with this film.The director was probably under the impression that only films with sad endings are considered to be thought provoking.

I would have given ‘Aamir’ 4 stars but the climax and some missed issues in the film make me give 3 stars to Aamir.A film which is definetely worth watching.

The Dreamers(2003)

As expected Berenardo Bertolucci comes with a surprising and shocking theme with The Dreamers.It was beyond my imagination.The Dreamers is filled with Incest.

The Dreamers is set against the background of the ’68 Paris student riots.Eva Green and Louis Garrel are twins,they meet a guy called Matthew (Michael Pitt) and these three live togather in Eva Green and Louis Garrel house.All three have an avid love for movies, especially “the classics”. As their friendship grows, Matthew learns of the extreme intimacy shared by the siblings and gets pulled into their world. Over time he falls in love with them, and the three seclude themselves from the world, falling further and further from the reality of the 1968 student rebellions. An abrupt ending to this relationship comes when that world is shattered and they are compelled to face the reality of 1968 France.

To experience ‘The Proof of Love’ tag in the film which bertolucci owns it is very much visible,the innocence and the audacity of adolscents has been portrayed very well. Be prepared to see some audacious scenes, as we know Berenardo Bertolluci is not a man who compromises on many things.

The direction of Berenardo Bertolucci is excellent.The riots,student rebellion,classic films and the intimate relationships are showed in a very peculiar manner.As always we have a face of Communism in this film too.If you are a strong belief in morals,ethics etc..,. then i dont recommend this film.If you want to enjoy the film and the direction of Berenardo Bertolucci then forget everything about ethics and watch the film as i did.

An audacious endeavor which looks perfect on the celluloid due to Bertolucci.I recommend this to be watched only by people above 21,even at 21 i don’t think that we can comprehend Bertolucci’s artistic view.