KABALI (TAMIL/TELUGU/HINDI) (2016)

First up.. The good news.. This is a mighty leap from that lackluster Lingaa.. But, that's not much to write home about.. Is it..?

Be warned..

This is more a film for Rajini, the actor .. who shines through with a neat performance.

And..

Less from the SUPERSTAR, worshiped by the masses.

Director Ranjit's movie is a mixed bag..  A movie which is neither an entertainer in the mass masala mould that the fanboys crave from the Superstar, nor in the signature style of the auteur that is rooted in the milieu and emotionally potent.

It has some good bits of both worlds. Alas, in his meandering between these two worlds, the final result is less than fulfilling.

The revenge drama at the center lacks sufficient bite. While some of the action sequences pack a punch, the rest are so so. This movie has more emotional content than most contemporary movies of the Superstar. Yet, most of it fail to deliver the impact, except for the bits between Rajini and Radhika Apte.

One gets the feeling that this could've been so much more if the best elements from these diverse universes were to be assembled better with more coherence and finesse.

Rajini, with his trademark swag, is in fine form as the aging gangster who still has the fight in him and holds some aces up his sleeves. He convincingly portrays the character's vulnerabilities and yearning for his lost family. After the disastrous Lingaa, he has made a bold choice of choosing to work with a next gen director and a character that suits his age in a story which, while not far off from the run-off-the-mill kind, has enough to showcase his acting skills.

  

Among the other positives are Santosh Narayanan who has delivered a great album that goes well with the movie and Radhika Apte who is once again impressive and holds her own against the Superstar.

Don't get me wrong. This IS a GOOD film. But, given the director's potential, the Superstar's magical presence and the promising glimpses from the trailer, one expected a much more heady cocktail.

Nevertheless, the fact that it comes on the back of a let down called Lingaa and is promoted aggressively through a high pitched carpet bombing marketing campaign, should set the box office on fire as deprived fans lap up enough of their Superstar to satiate themselves till 2.0.

Overall, it feels like a well intentioned recipe that is a tad under-cooked (perhaps, I should call it overcooked, given its length that calls for some trimming) ... a jigsaw puzzle that doesn't quite fit so well.

A DECENT WATCH !!

RATING - 2.5/5

THE BRAND NEW TESTAMENT (aka E TOUT NOUVEAU TESTAMENT) (FRENCH) (2015)

Who wouldn't want to see God..? The Almighty who is the Creator of all of us and everything around, above and below us - including the big and small miseries that engulf us on an everyday basis. While God is generally conceived as an epitome of love, grace and all things wonderful, it is also true that most, if not all of us, on our bad days, would've cursed this very entity for a sadistic streak that piles on the pain on us, the hapless victims.

This delightful movie imagines God (Benoît Poelvoorde) to be a nerdy, booze addled and perennially grumpy middle aged guy, living in Brussels, in an high rise apartment which has no doors to the outside world,  with his submissive wife (Yolande Moreau) and young daughter. He terrorises his meek wife to such an extent that she hardly ever opens her mouth in his presence and shivers whenever his temper escalates which happens quite frequently. He spends most of his time behind closed doors working at his computer through which he controls the fate of everyone on earth. He finds great amusement in concocting ever new modes of misery to torment the mortals on Earth ranging from a falling toast landing on the wrong side to catastrophes which claim numerous lives. 

His daughter, Ea (an endearing Pili Groyne), though, is mischievous and is keen to explore the world outside. She considers her dad as a sadistic boor and hates him for shutting her out of the rest of the world and for his ruthless streak of seeking pleasure by heaping pain on hapless human beings. Egged on by her long lost elder brother JC (Jesus Christ, of course), Ea breaks out of her home. But, before leaving home, she hacks into her dad's computer system and resets the password, thereby locking him out of it. She also reveals the date of death to all the residents of the planet through a celestial SMS which sets off a series of bizarre repercussions across the globe.

After escaping from home, she follows the advice of her elder brother JC and sets out to find six new apostles who would assist her in writing a brand new testament for humanity. She chooses an assorted bunch of persons to be her apostles including a lonely beauty who has lost her arm in a freak accident, a middle aged sex maniac, a corporate worker, a rich and lonely old woman and a young boy diagnosed with terminal illness along with a homeless old beggar who is her designated scribe. The rest of the movie narrates the events of Ea's encounters with this assorted bunch of individuals and creation of a brand new testament even as she is hounded by her dad who wants to regain access to his celestial computer system. 

Director Jaco Van Dormael has created a very imaginative and highly irreverent satire which is playful to the extent of being blasphemous. It is quintessentially a feel good feature which is laced with several laugh-out-loud moments including those involving the fate of the God, in hot pursuit of Ea, getting a taste of his own medicine which are especially hilarious. Besides the loads of fun, there is also a distinct feminist undercurrent that runs through the movie which is perfectly cast and well executed.

A co-production between Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, this movie is a manifest testimonial to the levels of artistic freedom prevalent in these countries which have collaborated to produce a movie with such irreverence to contemporary religious beliefs. A movie of this nature is simply unimaginable in most parts of the world which is sinking under a surge of religious bigotry and intolerance. This movie has won many accolades at multiple film festivals across the globe and was also highly appreciated in the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFES), 2016. 

Check out this lesser known gem and am sure that you would find yourself laughing out loud and grinning till its entire length. A word of caution though to those of you who are highly conservative and may regard any kind of pun/satire on religious beliefs as highly objectionable - If you are one, then you would do well to skip this flick. 

An EXCELLENT WATCH !!

RATING - 3.5/5

THERI (TAMIL) (2016)

THERI = SCARY !!

Why ? Was it not supposed to be a sleek action entertainer ? 

First up, if it is a solace enough ..  I concede,  that Theri is definitely not in the league (or, should I say, twenty thousand leagues under the sea) of Sura and is much better than his previous outing  - Puli .. by some distance ! 

So.. 

What is so scary about Theri ??

Not the done to death story (if you can call it that) line.. We have seen several such star vehicles with much less.

Definitely not the audacity of presenting Amy Jackson as a Mallu school teacher. Should we credit the casting department's spine or funny bone ??

Not even the adventurist streak of the director Atlee in making Vijay (definitely looking good) emote (??) and cry more than we have seen him do in the past decade

Not the inane ensemble of villains who barely register (by the way.. I am still puzzled as to why veteran director Mahendran agreed to become a prime contender for the most insipid and predictable villain of the decade??)

Not the revival of the long buried tradition of hero slugging it out with that muscle man foreign "motta boss" in the final fight sequence

Certainly not the "ghost apparitions in the smoke" horror film act of an avenger Vijay

Nor his attempts to ape the famous famous Scarlett Johanson's introductory action sequence as Black Widow strapped to a chair from the first Avengers movie

No.. No... No..

The scariest part of the movie comes in the final few minutes when we find Vijay, having vanquished the villains down south and having shifted his base with his daughter, aide and Amy in tow, to (I guess) Ladakh ( a la Yennai Arindhaal ??), receives a package which gives the hint of some new assignment. 

That is Atlee, in all his ruthless and merciless cruelty, threatening us with a possible (& quite probable, given the current trends in Kollywood) sequel.

Now.. That's a REAL SCARY THOUGHT to walk out of the hall with .. a thought which could visit you in your sleep as a VIVID NIGHTMARE !! 

I, for one.., am T(H)ER(R)IFIED !!

RATING - 2/5

AHALYA (BENGALI) (2015)

Sujoy Ghosh (of Kahaani fame) presents his take on the story of Ahalya - a minor subplot from the great epic of Ramayana - with a feminist twist that keeps the viewers on the tenterhooks till the end. 

Aptly cast Soumitra Chatterjee as the sagacious, yet naughty, artist husband Goutam Sadhu, ravishing Radhika Apte in the titular role and Tota Roy Chowdhury as the wavering cop Indra Sen, are convincing in their respective roles. 

A Subtle.. Sublime.. Scary.. short. 

A VERY GOOD WATCH !!

RATING - 3.5/5

P.S. - YOU CAN WATCH IT RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW @ THE LINK BELOW !

BAAHUBALI - THE BEGINNING (TELUGU/TAMIL/MALAYALAM/HINDI) (2015)

 
Most of India identify him as the maker of the 2012 sleeper hit Makkhi (aka Eega/Naan EE/Eecha) as well as the reincarnation saga, Magadheera (Maaveeran in Tamil). However, in the annals of Tollywood, S.S. Rajamouli, is better recognized as the serial blockbuster maker with a Midas touch. Even his lesser known earlier movies have spawn successful remakes/dubbed versions in multiple Indian languages. Seen thus, he is among the few regional film makers who can rightfully claim of winning adulation and appreciation across the country.

Baahubali, Rajamouli's ambitious magnum opus, to be presented in two parts - The Beginning released now to be followed by The Conclusion next year - owes much of its existence to the critical and commercial success of Makkhi (2012) where Rajamouli proved that he could weave a riveting revenge saga with a humble housefly as the protagonist. One can also say that Baahubali as well as Rajamouli's dream took flight with the tender wings of that housefly which could establish him as a maker who could assure delivering the goods on a much larger scale and reach.

Set in a fictional medieval land, Baahubali - The Beginning is a revenge saga of a royal family where the long lost prince - Shivu (Prabhas) - would be seen avenging the injustices of a cruel and corrupt king - Ballala Deva (Rana Daggubati) who murdered his father - king Amarendra Baahubali (Prabhas) and imprisoned his mother - Devasena (Anushka Shetty goes completely de-glam). While the story is as old as humanity itself, it is in his presentation that Rajamouli scores his aces. Without doubt the design and execution of the movie is on a scale hitherto unseen in Indian cinema. The movie boasts of state of the art CGI which could rival most of what is on offer from Hollywood which is seamlessly complemented by gorgeous art design of the ever-dependable Sabu Cyril which is captured by K.K. Senthil Kumar to spellbinding effect. While the songs themselves are quite unremarkable, music director M.M. Keeravani (aka Maragadhamani) has amped up the intensity of the action set pieces with an energetic score. The extended action set piece of  the battle which forms the finale has been spectacularly conceived and rendered by Peter Hein and his team. In fact, the visionary director, his visual effects team, Sabu Cyril and K.K. Senthil Kumar as well as the audacious producer who believed in the director and his team to deliver the wares are the real stars of this movie. Speaking of the star cast, Prabhas and Rana bring on an intense screen presence with their hulking herculean builds even as veteran Ramya Krishna matches them with her fiery presence. Satyaraj (as Kattappa) and Nasser (as Pingala Deva) excel in their minor cameos.

S.S. Rajamouli has the rare twin gifts of being a visual artist and an entertaining storyteller. In Baahubali - The Beginning, he has let the visual artist to overshadow the storyteller in him. Baahubali has several instances where Rajamouli doffs his hat - without copying, per se - to Hollywood masters like James Cameron, Peter Jackson as well as local influences like the epics of Ramayana, Mahabaratha along with notable works in Bollywood and his own earlier works. 

If one were to count the failings of the movie, I would flag the lack of emotional connect with the story and its characters, especially coming from a maker who could hook us and root for the revenge saga of a humble housefly. The insipid romance between Prabhas and Tamannah is unconvincing and is the chief culprit resulting in the extra long first half which feels a tad of dragging. Nonetheless, the movie remains consistently engrossing as Rajamouli shifts the action from one verdant locale to another which rise up in majestic CGI visuals which are well crafted with the exception of few blemishes which look phony. 

Baahubali - The Beginning heralds the breach of the long held and accepted horizons of Indian film-makers and explores brave new visual vistas where contemporary Hollywood has held reign for a decade or more. Now, if only our film makers build more muscle in the storytelling side too, our films would be celebrated across the world, besides India. But, till then, Rajamouli and his team richly deserve the shower of praises that are to come their way for imagining and  executing an epic entertainer that has taken Indian cinema to an all new apex. Hope he scales greater heights and concludes his epic saga with a fitting finale. I AM WAITING !!

A VISUAL SPECTACLE ! A VERY GOOD WATCH !!

RATING - 3.5/5

INSIDE OUT (2015)

This post has been selected by BlogAdda as a Tangy Tuesday pick for 30.06.2015

The success of any movie depends directly on its ability to forge an emotional connect between the characters who inhabit the movie and the viewer. The greater we feel with / for a character, identify / empathise with their predicaments, feelings, choices and actions, the higher the chances of a movie's success. What if the main characters in a movie are the basic emotions themselves..? Would it make it easier or difficult to forge an emotional connect with such a movie ?

Pixar, the path-breaking animation studio that presented us with such classic delights such as Toy Story series, Finding Nemo, Wall E, Up and many more have explored the above question in their latest ambitious animated feature, Inside Out. When 11-year old Riley, is forced to relocate from Minnesota to San Francisco with her parents, she undergoes an emotional roller-coaster as she is stressed out in adjusting to a new place even as she misses her hitherto dear home and friends. The movie captures this emotional turmoil of Riley by exploring the working of her mind through the interactions between her five basic emotions of Joy (a chirpy Amy Poehler), Sadness (adorable Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling). 

While the movie deserves kudos for its high quality and vivid animation which we have come to expect from Pixar, what makes it tick is the fact that Director Pete Doctor (Up & Monsters Inc.) who has co-written this movie has conjured up a magical movie which works at so many levels. He presents a lively animated feature which breaches the hitherto accepted horizons of its genre to bravely explore the abstract world of mind and emotions, angst, existential crisis and depression. The movie succeeds mainly from its sheer brilliance in writing which successfully communicates, without compromising on an iota of entertainment value, the nature of every emotion,their behavioural outcomes, their utility and prominence in the larger scheme of our lives, the need to accept all of them as well as the need to strive towards a balance among them. Multiple abstract concepts which one would normally associate with psychology texts and self-help books such as formation of memories, transfer into and storage of long term memories, imagination, nostalgia, dreams, influence of emotions on memory, emotion - behaviour connect, loss of unused memory, repression, fears that fester in the subconscious, need for a balanced emotional state are presented through inventive and imaginative visuals in a sincere and heart warming manner.

Pixar has done what it does best.. Outdo Pixar.. in making the BEST animated features ever. This is an abundantly funny, yet, subtle, sensitive, profound and poignant movie that presents its inherently complex and abstract material in a lucid manner that appeals universally. It is a veritable treat which would satiate the appetite of every demographic one could imagine, effortlessly making each of them laugh and cry. Inside Out is a triumph in movie-making and am certain that it would find its place in the coveted club of everlasting classics in movie history.

If there could be ONLY one movie that one would see this whole year... THIS IS IT ! THIS IS IT !! A RARE GEM ! MUST WATCH !! RATING - 5/5

JURASSIC WORLD (2015)

Jurassic World directed by Colin Trevorrow is officially the fourth installment of the famous dino franchise that started in 1993 by the master auteur Steven Spielberg who had, in turn, adopted it from the best selling novel of sci-fi author Michael Chrichton. When Spielberg presented his pioneering movie, as an adventure 65 million years in the making, it proved to be a defining moment in movie history - an early triumph of movie magic concocted from CGI and animatronics wizardry - which redefined the possibilities and consequently, the paradigm of popular cinema. It left a firm imprint (a la T-Rex's footprint) on the minds of its viewers like me with its vivid imagery - be it the tiny ripples in the water accompanied by the thuds of the approaching creature, the chilling chase sequence of T Rex hounding a speeding jeep, the nail biter of a pantry sequence involving the two kids and a bunch of raptors as well as the sequence where kids trapped in the car are confronted by the mighty T Rex in a rampaging mode.

However, as with most such mega movies, the franchise soon became a victim of its own momentous success. Dino movies, just like their dinosaurs, soon got relegated to a prehistoric era in the minds of the movie goers as subsequent summer blockbusters have continued to grow and hone their CGI wizardry to create bigger, meaner and scarier monsters which pile up the scale of mayhem with each passing year. However, the enduring value of the original movie was reinforced when Universal Studios released the reworked 3D version of Jurassic Park in 2013 to mark the twentieth anniversary of its release which proved successful across the globe. 

The present movie is set in Isla Nublar after 22 years from the timeline of the the first movie and ignores the story arcs of its sub-par sequels (1994 by Spielberg and 2001 by Joe Johnston). John Hammond's dream is finally a reality with his successor Mesrani (Irrfan Khan) having set up a hugely popular, luxury dino theme park called Jurassic World spanning the entire island of Isla Nublar. The park is headed by a control seeking, very formal - "I am all business" - park manager, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard). Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) is an ex-navy officer-cum-animal expert, working in the park and is involved in a study on training velociraptors. As the movie opens, Claire is forced to play host to her school going nephews, Zach and Gray, who are sent by their parents for a fun weekend while they consider an impending divorce.

The park itself has been a successful venture for several years now with steady growth of visitors from across the world. The influx of the visitors is spiked periodically by introducing a new species every few years to sustain the waning interests. The tourists' fatigue of older attractions is succinctly captured in a sequence where Zach, in his observatory, prefers to remain glued to his smart phone and ignores a T-Rex (no less), quite literally, devouring a scapegoat (a key element in the first movie). So, when mother nature is incapable of dishing out attractions that could sustain such volatile attention spans, the corporation running Jurassic World decides to take matters in its own hands to bolster the sagging growth curve of footfalls in the park. They cook up a new dino attraction  - read bigger, louder, smarter dinosaur with more teeth - called Indominus rex, by concocting a genetic cocktail of DNA sourced from multiple dinosaurs and other species. Predictably, as dictated by the template of such genre movies, the dino escapes its confinement to go on a killing frenzy, unleashing mayhem on the unsuspecting tourists as well as other dinosaurs. 

Off the cast, Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy) continues to charm with his performance and one gets a feeling that he might well be the right guy for an Indiana Jones reboot. He shares an interesting chemistry with Howard who is competent and brings in the necessary intensity in the second half. The rest of the cast including Irrfan and the two kids are merely for functional aspects - to stage an action sequence, mouth something vaguely philosophical or become feast for the predators - with limited scope to perform as is the norm in such monster movies.

Director Colin Trevorrow who had impressed with his indie time travel comedy, Safety Not Guaranteed, on his debut, is filling some VERY BIG shoes for his second feature and has managed to ace his first try at the summer blockbuster genre. Trevorrow's execution manifests his brilliance in marshaling the resources at hand to craft a sure-fire winner that packs in the right dose of spectacle to shock and awe the viewers. He stages the action sequences with commendable clarity and fluid camera work which herald him as a maker who is confident of his craft and can leave his mark despite several imprints of Spielberg (Executive Producer here) that permeate the movie. Trevorrow also doffs his hat at Spielberg's original as well as earlier works more than once as in the case of using Mr. DNA animation, statue of Hammond, using the dilapidated site of the earlier park to stage an action sequence or even in the spectacular sequence of feeding a great white shark to an aquatic dinosaur (Mosasaurus). 

Besides being the big bang blockbuster, Trevorrow and his co-writers supplement the regular fare of faulting human hubris in playing God to include multiple elements of self-referencing all through the movie by flagging the never-ending saga of our times - the interplay of consumerism and capitalism wherein we, the consumers (even as audiences) are constantly seeking the next BIGGER, BETTER experience and the capitalists seeking to continuously stoke this innate, insatiable instincts of the consumer and milk the same for more and more moolah. 

On the flip side, the movie could be definitely held guilty for doing such self referencing a tad too much as well as for playing up the ancient gender archetypes, multitude of conspicuous product placements and some pretty hollow characterisations. Yet, it redeems itself by delivering solidly on its promise of bringing the scares through BIGGER, LOUDER & MORE TEETH which translates into popcorn munching fun, fear and wonderment. While clearly not surpassing Spielberg's original, Trevorrow's energetic movie is mighty successful in replicating much of the awe and is clearly a worthy successor that ups the benchmark of spectacle value for future movies which could well make it the biggest winner of this summer.   

A MUST WATCH !! (preferably, in IMAX 3D, if you can !!)

RATING - 4/5