Kerala Café

Cast: Mammooty, Prithviraj, Dilip, Suresh Gopi and others

Directors: Shaji Kailas, Jose Shayamaprasad, Anwar Rasheed, Unnikrshnan, Anjali Menon . . .

Breaking the mould of one director, one movie concept in Indian cinema was Dus Kahaniyan where 10 stories were told by 10 different directors. Mollywood, as the Malayalam film industry is referred to, debuts with this fast-catching phenomenon with Kerala Café. Featuring big stars and top 10 directors, your expectations would be naturally high. Wonder why everyone seems to think “10” is a lucky number.

The movie begins and ends in a small railway restaurant and yeah you guessed right! teh restaurant is indeed called “Kerala Café”.  So you have characters either entering or leaving this café as some story unfolds. You have a story of love, betrayal, parting, infidelity, debt, death, journey and so on.

The stories lack substance and a good script. Some don’t even have a good title. It’s one boring but endless story and with predictable endings. You still try to endure the torture thinking that somewhere it will all start to fall in place and finally start to make some sense but by then the credits start to roll.

Stars appear in blink-and-miss roles. Thespians such as Srinivasan and Mammooty are wasted. Stars such as Prithiviraj and Rahman don’t even have a role so to speak. They seem to appear out of nowhere and disappear as quickly as they appeared.

Unlike Crash, where the dots all connect, Kerala Café tries in vain to connect its dots by showing some of its characters settling their bill and rushing to catch the train (some even bumping into other characters). It would be an insult to wannabe directors to call this movie amateurish (I have seen some great work by amateur dircetors on some of the talent shows despite no funds, no big names and no resources); even the big stars fail to impress or be the saving grace.

After watching Kerala Café, head to the nearest café and order a double strong chaaya to get rid of the lingering headache.

Rating: 2/5

My Name is Khan

I had almost not wanted to watch this movie because this movie is nearly a decade too late to be conveying a message against terrorism post 9/11 attack. But I am glad I did because it turned out to be different. Apart from the age-old Muslim guy falling in love with Hindu girl, it tries to project Muslim in good light. My Name is Khan and I am not a terrorist rubs in the point without ruffling any feathers.

For once the Khan-Johar duo break from the guy-chases-girl-around-London-and-gets-married-in-pomp routine to present My Name is Khan by tapping SRK’s pathan-ness and Karan’s mawkishness.

SRK plays Rizwan Khan who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome; he learns from his mom that people are of only two types: good and bad. A slow but a smart learner, he’s slowly alienated from his brother because of his mother’s over caring ways and is united with him in the US following her death. In the US, he meets Mandira, a single mom who works in a beauty salon, and chases her across LA with enough marry me’s to make her finally accede to his wish and more than enough to make audience go mad.

As they find conjugal bliss, 9/11 happens and their world turns topsy-turvy. Mandira loses her son in a racial attack and consumed by anger she drives Khan out. Khan vows to return to her only after meeting the President of the United States for whom he has a message. As he chases the President across the US of A in the second half of the movie, he becomes an unwilling participant in a jehadi meeting and a tsunami disaster. Does he get to meet the President (who thankfully is not the dumb bell Bush) makes the rest of the story?

SRK’s acting is good though not novel as he has played autistic roles even when the role was not meant to be one. But he does manage to endear audiences with his character’s innocence and earnestness. Kajol needs to still work on her make-up (ironically she runs a salon in the movie) and her tediously repetitious acting. Would someone please tell her that acting involves more than just shrieking, squeaking, and rolling her eyes?

Zarina Wahab is back on the silver screen after a long hiatus as Khan’s mother, Tanay Chedda as the young Khan and Vinay Pathak, though in an itsy-bitsy role, as the enterprising Gujju motel owner stand out with their performances.

Rating: 4/5

Harishchandrachi Factory

Harishchandrachi Factory was India’s official entry to 2009 Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Category. Marking the directorial debut of theatre-veteran Paresh Mokashi, the movie follows the relentless passion and pursuit of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke) to make the first-ever motion picture in India called Raja Harischandra which released in 1913. The movie marked the birth of Indian Cinema and spawned an industry which is now credited as one of the biggest after Hollywood.

Phalke is an out-of-job man who quits his job as a publisher after a falling out with his partner but nevertheless keeps his word of not opening another publication even when he finds a sponsor in a wealthy man. With a loving wife who supports his decision and two sons, he makes end meet working as a magician. It is after one of his acts that he stumbles across a place where a motion picture is being shown. Spellbound and enamored by what he has just seen, he’s determined to pursue film making by spending every waking hour in the theatre until he goes blind and spending every cent of his savings and assets until he’s completely broke.

Even if he did exhibit apathy towards his pregnant wife and poor parenting skills by leaving the family behind with little resources to pursue his interests in film making, Phalke’s making of the first movie not only showcased his talents but exposed other traits in him such as patriotism (he turns down the offer from the British who try to woo him with the latest in technology), his optimism to complete the movie despite all odds (when he goes blind, he still nurtures hope of making the movie by giving instructions to his pre-teen son), his pragmatism (he asks of a favor from his friend before boarding the ship telling him not to write to him if someone were to die in the family because it would be of no use as it would take him two months to get back to India anyway), his perseverance (from learning from the projector man to pawning his assets to go to England to learn the art) among others. But none of this would have been possible were it not for his wife who supports her husband’s decision and stands by him through very trial and tribulation.

Stickers for ethics themselves, Phalke and his wife raise instill these values in their kids by telling stories of their favorite character—Harishchandra. Phalke is often ridiculed by friends and neighbors for being a Satya Harishchandra for not compromising on his ethics and starting his own publication company when the family has nothing to eat. So it comes as little surprise when he decides to make the movie on Harishchandra.

The hardships and challenges faced by Phalke from hiring a cameraman to finding a heroine (he even chases after prostitutes for donning the heroine’s role but is turned away as they consider it too disgracing a profession) to building the sets to scoring the music and finding the right cast and spots to shoot and finally marketing the film to find the audience to watch his magnum opus, there is no dull moment in the movie.

Entertaining and at the same time elucidating, Harishchandrachi Factory is a must watch for every film maker and every moviegoer. It is a pity that it lost out on the Oscars but definitely a laudable attempt by Paresh Mokashi, who won the Best Director award at Pune International Film Festival, to honor the Father of Indian Cinema.

Rating: 5/5

The Hurt Locker

Storyline
The movie starts off with a quote “The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug”.  It’s not until you have watched the movie do you understand the significance of the last part of the quote.

When the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit loses Staff Sergeant Thompson in a bomb explosion, Sergeant First Class William James is roped in. The team comprising three soldiers goes around Baghdad finding and defusing bombs set up in every shape and form. The tension and the emotional turmoil each of the soldiers goes through during these missions and the camaraderie they share form the rest of the storyline.

The impassive Jeremy Renner as Sergeant William James is an unassuming guy who has a record of defusing more than 870 bombs. Like a groundhog, he has an uncanny nose for bombs be it hidden deep under the ground or deep in a boy’s belly. He also has unconventional ways of defusing bombs (from wearing an outdated bomb suit to removing it when he feels it’s getting in the way of his work (when asked why he’s taking off his bomb suit, he coolly replies that if he’s going to die, he would rather die comfortably).

My two cents
The movie is along the lines of Saving Private Ryan and Letters from Iwo Jima which show the human side to a soldier. Even though Jeremy is shown as a war veteran who loves the challenges of his job, he’s also shown as one who would never let an innocent die. From befriending an Iraqi boy (who sells him DVDs that don’t work) to trying hopelessly to save a person who’s strapped with bombs with locks and saying sorry to him for being unable to save him thus risking his own life in the process, James comes across as the true hero.

The Hurt Locker has the look and feel of a documentary. From the time a bomb is identified to the time James is called in to defuse it with immaculate precision and expertise, the tension and the tempo builds up within the viewer. Shot on a shoestring budget, there are times when it feels the movie was shot using a hand-held camera.

Not too graphical in its content, except for the scene where James fishes out a bomb from the boy’s guts, the movie does not have limbs scattered on the ground or the camera splattered with blood to depict the war. Instead it chooses to follow the less-travelled road of exploring the psyche of a soldier and how he reacts to a situation.

Verdict
A very valiant effort by a woman director who shares the rare distinction of being the first woman to win an Academy Award. Hats off Katherine! Looking forward to more brilliant films from you.

Rating: 4/5

Invictus

Storyline
Invictus is a biographical drama film based on the book, Playing the Enemy, by John Carlin. The storyline involves one man’s dream to see his country make it to the World Cup. The man being none other than Nelson Mandela. Directed by Clint Eastwood, it stars Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as François Pienaar, the captain of the Springboks, the South African rugby union team.

The movie starts with Mandela being freed from prison and his subsequent win in the election to become the President of South Africa. As he tries to find amicable solutions to some of the deep-rooted problems within the nation including apartheid, he attends a rugby game played by the home team, Springboks. After he wishes luck to each of the team members, he is shown moving towards the front row of the stadium to shake hands with a white guy who is cheering for the home team while the rest of the native Africans are cheering for the rival team. To the natives, Springbok still symbolizes apartheid. In a bid to unite the whites and the blacks of his country, he decides to back the failing Springbok team to enter the World Cup, which is just a year away and to be hosted in South Africa.

At his meeting with François Pienaar, Mandela says that the English have given them two good things: one is rugby while the other is the afternoon tea, which he himself pours for François.

Even as he’s greeted by cold shoulders from his cabinet, family, and even his own countrymen to support Springboks, his unflinching belief and support for the team and their subsequent win in the 1994 World Cup forms the rest of the storyline.

The title of the movie, Invictus, comes from a poem written by the English poet William Ernest Henley. The poem apparently served as an inspiration and helped Mandela bide his time in prison. A day before the D-day, he writes that poem and hands it over to François.

My two cents
For a man who has played the first U.S. Black President in Deep Impact to playing the first Black God in Bruce Almighty, slipping into a character such as Mandela’s would have come easily to Freeman. From the slight hunch to his other mannerisms, Morgan Freeman’s portrayal of Nelson Mandela is perfect and inimitable. After watching the movie, when you think Mandela your mind will only conjure up the image of Morgan Freeman. Matt Damon with his usual deadpan expression (not even a smile when he meets with the President or a hearty smile when his team wins, but he’s seen smiling in the poster) fails to capture any emotion or the audience’s attention. His depiction as Bourne had him at least look serious but this role could have been played by any rookie with blond hair. Makes you wonder if the real François is stoic too! And wonder how Damon was even nominated for the Best Supporting Actor (Academy Award).

Invictus fails to be a drama where the unintended bonding of a President and a Captain could have been captured beautifully but ends up more like any other sports movie where the coach ultimately leads his team to an unexpected win in a nail-biting finish. The movie is incredibly slow and fails to rev up even when the rugby match starts.

The movie shows Mandela as one interested more in rugby than in any of the pressing political matters; his security guards as a bunch of dimwits who panic at newspaper delivery vans and an airplane that is flown to cheer the team but of whose inclusion they are blissfully unaware of; Francois as a spineless captain who cannot even get his team mates do what the President desires.

I am huge fan of Clint Eastwood’s movies. I always thought he made a better director than an actor. There are very few movies of his where I have not shed copious tears. This movie too made me cry out of disappointment. After the grand success of Gran Torino last year, this movie falls way too short of his fans’ expectations. For a director who relies heavily on pathos, the only emotion he can expect from his fans is a big yawn and a bigger frown for such a huge let-down.

Verdict
Watch this movie only if you have nothing else to do! Definitely no big shakes and is worth a miss.

Rating: 3/5