CONFESSION OF MURDER (aka NAE-GA SAL-IN-BEOM-I-DA) (KOREAN) (2012)

Choi Hyeong-goo, a cop was on the trail of a serial killer who has killed 10 women. After fifteen long years of fruitless pursuit, the statute of limitations kicks in shutting the door on the investigation. Knowing that there can be no conviction beyond the period of limitations, Lee Doo-seok surfaces and confesses as the serial killer who committed those murders. What's more..? He pens a book detailing each of those murders and becomes an instant celebrity and media darling adored by the mindless masses. The appearance of Lee and his public confession also leads to the coming together of few of his victims' kin who seek to avenge their dead beloveds by bringing Lee to vigilante justice. Coincidentally, the media spotlight also falls on Choi who had investigated the case who refuses to accept Lee as the killer and pursues his investigation, albeit at a low key. Choi is also personally interested to solve the case as the last victim happened to be his lover and he hoped she is not dead yet as her body is yet be found. The media organises a debate on live TV between Lee and Choi to clear the confusion. However, in an unexpected twist, a caller to the show, identifying himself as J, claims himself as the real killer. 

Who is this mysterious caller J ? Is he the real killer ? Would Choi solve the crimes ? What happened to his lover ? Is she still alive ? Is the charming and enigmatic Lee the real killer ? If he is an impostor, why did he confess to such gruesome crimes ? Could the band of victims' kin avenge for the killing of their beloveds ? The rest of the movie answers these and more in a pacy roller-coaster narrative where the tables are turned continuously and the momentum oscillates continuously from one side to the other.

Confession of Murder is another notable addition to the genre of racy thrillers emerging from the realm of Korean cinema which dishes them out at regular intervals. The movie sticks to the tried and tested template of the genre and is replete with its standard ingredients like stylish leads, brilliant action set pieces, bloody violence, suspense, intriguing twists, brisk editing and racy screenplay which doesn't let the viewers to exercise their grey matter too much. Besides the thriller element, the movie also serves a reflection on the rot in a society sozzled in sensation-seeking media ever craving for the next big scoop, reality TV and 24-hour news reporting that could morph even ruthless murderers as celebrity rock stars even as it breeds a growing insensitivity to the agony and anguish of the voiceless victims and their kin.

A VERY GOOD WATCH !!

RATING - 3/5

I (aka MANOHARUDU) (TAMIL/TELUGU/HINDI) (2015)

Shankar, the showman of the current generation, has presented a personal revenge story set in the glamorous world of modelling in his latest venture. While he continues his trend of pushing boundaries in terms of budget of regional movies, capturing hitherto unexplored exquisite locales (this time in China), cutting edge special effects, he has moved away from his usual social message embedded narrative featuring a lone hero/vigilante fighting societal evils.

Keeping with the theme of the movie, I is the cinematic equivalent of that lavishly made, well picturised attention grabbing commercial which captivates you for the first viewing, but remains/means little else thereafter. Whether that spells success/otherwise of its maker Shankar is the big question.

Speaking for myself, despite its several shortcomings - including its length of 189 minutes, a paper-thin plot lacking depth and further beset with several crater-esque perforations, cardboard-cut characters, indulgent action set pieces that lack the zing and overstay their welcome - I liked it for the way Shankar has managed to package it as an engaging entertainer with P.C. Sreeram's visual brilliance showcasing a montage of vivid and rich imagery, WETA's magic in creating very real pro(ae)sthetics, Rahman's numbers (Ennodu Nee Irundhal, Pookkale & Mersal) and above all, for the towering brilliance of its leading man,vIkram whose performance and transformations through the film are simply SUPERB.

A GOOD (ONE-TIME) Watch !!

RATING - 2.5/5

OMAR (ARABIC) (2013)

When you are born in a land which has been suffocating under strife for generations, distress and betrayal could well permeate into your very being to the extent that they get embedded into the genetic code itself. Perhaps, it seeks to serve as a flimsy line of defense that helps this cursed populace fight on in a futile battle of survival. And, it would appear that trust is something that gets truncated with the umbilical cord at birth itself. In the resulting melee of such poisoned environs that fester with insecurity and hatred which feed on each other, innocence goes incognito. 

This is a case of a history which refuses to remain just that as it transcends the realm of the past to haunt the present, perhaps in a death wish which seeks to reenact itself on a daily basis. History, akin to a mighty banyan tree, which even as it provides the security of shade from the heat of a scorching sun, stunts the inherent growth - in this case, the present and the future - of plants beneath it. Seen that way, this is a generation buried under the burdens of their past which is spreading its tentacles through timelines to slowly scupper their present and future.

The story is set in the West Bank region of Palestine which features the tall wall that separates the fellow Arabs on either side as much as it seperates the Israeli and Arab settlements. Our protagonist Omar (Adam Bakri), a baker is in love with Nadia, the younger sister of his close friend Tarek. Omar and Nadia  steal occasional moments of romance and togetherness hiding away from the eyes of their conservative society and plan for a "happily ever-after" marital bliss. Meanwhile, Omar, Tarek and Amjad who are buddies from childhood are planning to launch an attack on an Israeli army post as their act of angry defiance against an enemy who defiles their daily lives through their continuing occupation and oppression. Their ill-conceived, mindless act results in the death of a random Israeli soldier which triggers an Israeli backlash in the form of a manhunt for the perpetrators. 

While Tarek and Amjad flee, Omar is apprehended and lands in the Israeli prison. In the prison, after being put through the customary third-degree torture, Omar is entrapped by the wily Israeli agent Rami who persuades him to accede to a deal for his freedom in return of him aiding the Israelis to capture Tarek who is seen as the leader of their gang. A desperate Omar agrees on the false hope that he could somehow wriggle out of this mess and may even turn this deal to the advantage of their gang. He also hopes to salvage his relationship with Nadia and realise their dreams of a life together. Alas, all is not well and the best laid plans and hopes turn to mirage in a land parched by the unquenchable thirst of a continuing conflict. 

There are no winners in this battle of betrayals which is a zero sum game that feeds and fuels a seemingly perpetual vicious cycle of  meaningless violence and bloodshed. Fears cloud the psyche as a thick and persistent smog strangling any recourse to reason. And, this is  a land where even love appears steeped on conditionalities of one's conformity to a credo that is identified as the common cause.

Director Hany Abu-Assad, who awed the viewer with his earlier Paradise Now (2005), paints an intimate picture of love and betrayals in a conflict zone. While he refrains from making any overt political commentary on this region trapped in turmoil, in his observation of events at the micro level of his leads here, he subtly brings out the lasting effects of life in a war zone. With a cast of mostly fresh, albeit confident, artists, Assad succeeds in essaying an engaging human drama which is filled with romance, friendship, commitment, betrayal, pain and survival laced with intrigue and subterfuge.

"Omar" has been richly awarded in several international film festivals including the prestigious Un-Certain Regard Jury Prize at the Cannes. It is also the second film directed by Hany Abu-Assad to be a finalist among foreign language films nominated to receive an Oscar at the 2014 Academy Awards and lost to The Great Beauty, the winner from Italy. It was featured in the recently concluded Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFES-2014).

A multi-layered film, Omar is at once a crisp thriller, engaging human drama as well as a subtle commentary on the devastating impact on the daily lives of ordinary citizens of an occupation that has spanned several generations without an end in sight. It is a thoroughly satisfying watch which stays with the viewer long after watching it.

A MASTERPIECE & A MUST WATCH !!

RATING - 3.5/5

UGLY (HINDI) (2013/2014)

The kidnapping of Kali, the ten year old daughter of Shalini (Tejaswini Kolhapure) and her ex-husband Rahul (Rahul Bhat), kicks off the action in Ugly, director Anurag Kashyap's latest venture. Shalini had walked out of her marriage with Rahul after being exhausted by his continuing failure in becoming an actor compounded by his stubborn reluctance to choose an alternate career that could provide for the family. She is presently is married to top cop, Shoumik (Ronit Roy) and feels trapped in a well-provided, albeit, loveless marriage. Rahul is allowed to meet Kali only on Saturdays as per the terms of their divorce and on one such Saturday, Kali is abducted, when Rahul's attention was distracted from her by some calls with his casting agent, Chaitanya (Vineet Kumar Singh), about an audition that could help his career. 

Soon, Rahul and Chaitanya approach the local police station seeking their help to find Kali. Their initial interaction with the police inspector Jadhav (Girish Kulkarni) who treats them callously provides for some darkly comic moments in the film. However, things take a serious turn when Jadhav realises that Kali is the step-daughter of Shoumik. Shoumik, who has hated Rahul from their college days and for being the ex-husband of Shalini, sees this an opportunity to hit back and prompts Jadhav to accuse Rahul and Chaitanya for the kidnapping. This sets off a chain of events which meander through several perverse twists and turns where Rahul and Shoumik are continually at loggerheads even as they try to succeed in their quest to rescue Kali. The plot is muddled further as every player in the story, including the leads, try to wring out some opportunistic benefit for themselves from the grave situation.

Kashyap has crafted a tight plot and has populated it with characters who inhabit in several shades of grey with competing and often, conflicting interests. He does not bother to burden any of his characters with cross of a moral compass and as a result, with every decision of these characters arising from their twisted and selfish motivations, the plot thickens and the tension ratchets up another notch. 

While on the apparent level, Ugly, is a gritty and raw thriller about the attempts to rescue an abducted ten year old girl, Kashyap's brilliance is manifested in using it merely as a setting to stage an in-depth exploration of the ugly side of every character that walk through his frames. He infuses a good deal of character into each of his characters, even the most minor ones, which makes them to stand out and get noticed. Be it the callous inspector who finds perverse fun at the cost of a tense father seeking to rescue his abducted child fearing for her safety or a father who is preoccupied with his career which puts his kid in peril or the top cop who is keen to settle scores from his college days or a suicidal alcoholic mother who is seldom bothered about her kid or the friend who even while helping his distressed mate does not flinch from milking an opportunity that presents itself, Kashyap puts the glare of his spotlight on the pervasive perversity in everybody. 

Kashyap is acknowledged for his penchant of casting talented artists to play the characters and here too, the cast consisting of Ronit Roy, Rahul Bhatt, Tejaswini Kolhapure as leads who ace their roles and excellent cameos by Vineet Kumar Singh, Siddhanth Kapoor, Girish Kulkarni and Surveen Chawla provide the power-packed performances that the plot demands. The pulsating background score by Brian McOmber and the dark frames by cinematographer Nikos Andritsakis accentuate the gritty and grimy proceedings.

Through the entire course of his movie, Kashyap continually underlines the moral bankruptcy and ugliness that lurks under the seemingly normal personalities of each and every character as they continue to plumb ever-greater depths seeking some self-centred goals. As a result, Ugly is not an easy film to watch and definitely not for the weak of heart or those who would prefer to remain straight-jacketed in their moral certitudes. In fact, it unleashes the lasting impact of a knock-out punch to the gut that makes us feel queasy and dazed long after the viewing. And, somehow, as if by some quirk, that doesn't feel so bad and on the contrary, leaves you, strangely, satisfied.

In an era that is marked by the continuing shrinkage of the viewer's attention span, Kashyap's craft demands their unwavering attention and wields complete control over it through the two hours of his very real, grim yet riveting tale set in the mean streets of Mumbai. It richly deserves the standing ovation it received in Cannes and many more accolades that are sure to come its way.

A MASTERPIECE ! A MUST WATCH !!

RATING 3.5/5

P.S. - As an add-on, check out the snapshots of the key characters of Ugly with Kashyap's tongue-in-cheek description of them and their dark sides.

PK (HINDI) (2014)

After the stupendous success of 3 Idiots which highlighted the maladies of an education system built on rote en route to setting new benchmarks of box-office success, in PK, the team of Rajkumar Hirani & Aamir Khan, put the multi-billion dollar industry called religion in their cross hairs. 

PK is an alien from a distant galaxy who lands in the middle of the desert in Rajasthan in a spaceship to study earth and its inhabitants. However, soon after landing on earth in the buff, he is divested of his remote - an exotic looking medallion -  through which he can communicate to his spaceship to return to his planet. The stolen remote is purchased by Delhi based godman, Tapasvi Baba (Saurabh Shukla) who intends to use it to milk more money from his devotees for a grand temple project.

PK follows the remote to Delhi and, on his way, is assisted by Bhairo Singh (Sanjay Dutt), a band leader in Rajasthan and Jaggu aka Jagatjanani (Anushka Sharma), a Delhi based TV journalist. There is a minor subplot involving a truncated romance between Jaggu and Sarfaraz (Sushant Singh Rajput), a Pakistani student, when they meet in Belgium.

Using the curious eyes of a being from another world, ignorant of the ways of our world, the director raises several valid questions on religions - man-made paths to God - as well as to godmen - those self anointed custodians of the faith who enrich themselves in the name of salvation and instant solutions by preying on the fears and weaknesses of their devotees. Though most of these questions are neither new nor, by any measure, daring and have already been part of the recent Paresh Rawal movie, Oh My God, Hirani and Aamir approach the subject with sincerity and Hirani's trademark zest which is appealing to the viewers and makes an instant connect.

Aamir, despite his continuing penchant to over-act, is excellent as the bumbling alien who tries to make sense of the multiple contradictions - hypocrisies which are accepted norms of our everyday life - that confound him. Anushka Sharma has an effervescent presence and lights up the screen in every scene she appears. Rajkumar Hirani regulars Sanjay Dutt, Boman Irani, Parikshit Sahani, Saurabh Shukla along with Sushant Singh Rajput are effective in their minor cameos.

PK has its fair share of flaws in the form of a rushed up romance in the first act that is dovetailed into a contrived climax of the third act which stick out as out of place appendages. The length of the movie could also have been clipped by 20 minutes at least to make it more crisper. While Hirani might have wanted to depict PK as a commoner, he could have still avoided the thick Bhojpuri accent for PK which is tacky and hampers clear understanding of his lines. The movie is in its elements in the middle portion when PK is on his exploratory quest throwing up common sense questions on the absurdities that confront him. Yet, The songs, while not chart busters, gel well with the narrative. While there is no doubt that Hirani's movies deal with issues which are socially relevant and his tone of communication despite being evocative, remains benign, one gets the feeling that, in PK, Hirani seems satisfied having barely scratched the surface of an important issue and that, in a sense, could account for a less than fulfilled sense when you leave the movie. 

Overall, PK is a brave attempt (perhaps, not brave enough) - and a cinematic SUCCESS as it packages an important message by flagging several hypocrisies and inanities that baffle us in the garb of religion, rituals, accepted norms and conventions into an entertaining movie with a healthy dose of fun.

A VERY GOOD WATCH !!

RATING - 3/5

LINGAA (TAMIL/TELUGU) (2014)

A BIG THANKS to the Superstar.. A potentially unbearable bore, that preys on our patience, becomes just about bearable.. Director K.S. Ravikumar is guilty of squandering the star power of  Rajni with an insipid and ancient (belonging to a pre-Muthu era) narrative to the extent that despite the presence of Rajni, the movie seems to benefit considerably from the comic gags of Santhanam.. It is a disappointing effort from the Mozart of Madras too as his songs fail to register... what's more, their picturisation as well as their  placement appear like warts which hamper the flow of an already glacial pace. Rajni looks his old fine self, especially in the role of the old king. While the cinematographer does a good job, the stunts, except some brief elements of the train sequence, are unimpressive.

Overall, as is the case with most of his Masala flicks, it is Rajni, the Superstar with his larger than life image, who rescues this movie despite being given the short rope by his director and some key members of his crew !

A GOOD WATCH (ONLY, if you are a Rajni fan.. But, then again.. It is pretty hard to find a person who is not one in these latitudes) !!

RATING - 2/5

INTERSTELLAR (2014)

Christopher Nolan holds a special place among Hollywood's top billed directors for his unique credo of creating mammoth blockbusters which venture beyond being a slam-bang visual spectacle to engage the viewers' grey matter. After The Dark Knight Rises, the triumphant capping to a glorious Gotham trilogy and nested, nebulous dreamscapes of Inception, with Interstellar, Nolan has set his sight quite literally beyond the visible horizon. As in the case of excellent Inception, Nolan is again fiddling with one of his pet themes of asymmetric time lines across one or more planes. The vastly differing speeds of passage of times between earth and in space, especially close to black holes.

In the not so distant future, the survival of human beings on earth is at peril. Global warming and ecological degradation induced blights have killed most of our food crops and corn is the sole surviving food crop. The human race is on the brink of a near certain extinction through starvation and diseases induced frequent dust storms. The human race is pushed back to pre-industrial agrarian age to sustain life on the planet where schools train students to become food-growers of the future. 

Cooper (Mathew McConaughey), a widower, former NASA pilot turned forced farmer, lives in rural America with his son Tom, daughter Murph and father-in-law. Murph is an intelligent and curious kid who shares a deep bond with her father. Strange events involving the bookshelf of their home set Cooper and Murph in a journey which leads them to a secret installation which happens to be a near defunct NASA headed by Professor Brand (Michale Caine) and his team including the Professor's daughter, Amelia (Anne Hathaway). 

Professor Brand states that they are planning to send a team of astronauts on an inter-galactic mission to find new planets suitable for human inhabitation. To this end, the mission would make use of a large wormhole that had appeared mysteriously near Saturn some years ago. Brand urges Cooper to be the pilot of this mission as the other members have no flying experience outside a simulator. Cooper accepts the offer much to the chagrin of Murph who believes that this is dangerous and could well be an one-way journey. Nevertheless, Cooper sets out on this daredevil mission after making a solemn promise to Murph to return from the mission, no matter what the circumstances. 

It is also revealed that NASA under Professor Brand has been working on utilizing the mysterious wormhole for several years to find new inhabitable planets in far away galaxies to replace the earth which is withering in a wasting dust bowl.  They have already sent several manned probes - called Lazarus missions - through the said wormhole and three of them such probes have been transmitting some basic signals indicating potential destinations which could hold promise for humanity. Brand wants Cooper to lead a mission through the wormhole to explore these three planets for possibilities of human sustenance. Meanwhile, Brand is also working on earth in solving an equation which could help escape earth's gravity and enable a larger mission to transport humans from earth to a planet to be located by Cooper and his team. If the transport of humans at such a large scale to the new planet, which is Plan A, fails to succeed, Brand has devised a Plan B which involves creating a new settlement on the new planet from a collection of fertilized embryos being transported along with Cooper and his team.

Cooper's team includes Amelia Brand,  physicist Romilly, geographer Doyle, and two multi-purpose artificially intelligent robots— CASE and TARS. Their long mission involves an initial docking with a rotating space station Endurance which would, in turn, carry them on a two year long trip to Saturn in hypersleep mode. Thereafter, they traverse through the wormhole to reach a distant galaxy where they find that the three planets to be explored by them - Miller, Mann & Edmunds (named after the pilots who had flown on the initial Lazarus missions and reached those planets) - are orbiting around a super massive black hole called Gargantua.

The intense gravity of the black hole distorts space time in such a way that one hour in a planet orbiting near the black hole could be the equivalent of seven years in the earth time. This poses an additional  constraint of time on Cooper's team over and above the limitation of fuel to explore these planets and return to earth before the human race embraces a painful extinction through starvation. While Cooper and team are busy on their mission which skews their time line, several decades pass on earth, where we find that the now grown up Murph (Jessica Chastain), a brilliant astrophysicist, is assisting Professor Brand in solving the equation while Tom (Casey Affleck) is struggling to sustain the farm and save his family. 

What happens to Cooper and his team as they set out to explore these three planets ? Could they explore all the three planets ? Could they identify a planet hospitable to human sustenance ? Did Professor Brand solve the equation that could help him operationalise Plan A ? Could Cooper keep his promise to Murph ? Could Cooper's team find the planet in time to save the human race from extinction ? How did the worm hole near Saturn come about in the first place ? Who had put it there ? An technologically advanced race of aliens ? Or super-evolved humans ? Why would such an advanced race want to help us in the first place ? The movie answers most of these questions through a narrative spanning across galaxies while raising several others as we walk out of the movie hall.  Remember, the scene in Inception where a whole city folds in half over itself.. Suffice to say that the Nolans have written Interstellar in manner quite similar to Inception's city such that the entire movie folds over itself as it proceeds to its conclusion.

This is a movie which engages, nay, demands the viewer's undivided attention to understand the proceedings on screen. In fact, it would help a great deal if we go prepared with some basic understanding about stuff like black holes, worm holes and time travel (Click here for a quick primer from Stephen Hawkings himself). 

The movie checks several key elements which we have come to identify as a Nolan template - be it dealing in wildly ambitious themes dealing with cerebral &/or psychological conflicts, exceptional set pieces, movies which kindle several questions which linger on long after viewing and which requires repeat viewings & further reading for better understanding and above all movies which are superlatively entertaining. While it is true that the movie deals with dense and theoretical concepts in physics, it is to the credit of Nolan that he renders most of these accessible within a narrative which results in a momentous movie that stretches the horizons of a Hollywood blockbuster. Yet, at its very core, this is a very human drama involving the emotional bond between a daughter and her doting father which places love as a force which transcends all dimensions -hitherto known and unknown. While a drama like this can be set in any period or geography, Nolan, true to his penchant, has chosen to stage this on an interstellar scale, in a very literal sense. 

While not a very challenging role in the league of Dallas Buyers Club, Academy Award winner McConaughey sparkles in the role of Cooper and is effective especially in his scenes as a vulnerable and emotionally conflicted father. But, it is Mackenzie Foy who plays the young Murph whose performance which tops the charts among a cast which includes such renowned performers as regular Nolan collaborator Michael Caine, Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway among others. While Hans Zimmer's score puts the galactic proceedings on an overdrive with a thumping score, Hoyt Van Hoytema, who has handled the camera in the absence of Nolan regular Wally Pfister, captures the action in space in visuals which are simply overwhelming.

Interstellar does not trump the towering 2001 - A Space Odyssey, which remains the definitive touchstone for a space movie. Yet, Nolan's movie, despite its calculated cinematic liberties, succeeds in bridging the narrative of a Hollywood blockbuster to cutting edge concepts in space science (thanks to his collaboration with renowned astrophysicist Kip Thorne), which are accessible to the commons. And, while it may, on the surface, appear to be a sensational sci-fi flick set in space packed with resplendent visuals and set-pieces, Nolan has suffused its core with the power of love and bonding in what could well be his most heartfelt movie till date. 

A MUST WATCH (preferably in IMAX) !!

RATING - 3.5/5

P.S. : Click here for an info graphic explaining the science behind Interstellar