KARTHIK CALLING KARTHIK (2010)

Sometime you ended up watching such a bad film that you feel insulted as a viewer. KCK is one of the worst Hindi film I ever seen in a long run. In his debut direction Vijay Lalwani has completely screwed up the promising pair, the film and above all audience’s heads. An intelligent viewer digest the film’s so called suspense in the first strange call to Karhtik. But director wants to confuse the viewers in the first scene so that he can stretch the viewers till the end. Before you guess right along with the dumb lady psychologist, he gives you second twist in the middle to mislead you and than all of sudden ended up convincing you that your first guess was absolutely right!!! From mass to class everyone feel cheated, we don’t land up to theatre to watch such an irritating crap product!!!

I don’t want to blame Farhan or Deepika since bad script can’t save even Big B. Not often but sometime critics are absolutely right and this is one such a film. Don’t want to waste more words showing my frustration.

Ratings-2/10

VIVRE SA VIE (French) (1962)

“There is truth in everything, even in error.”

“Someone may discover me one day…” said Nana to his boyfriend in the initial scene. For her Love is something like mirage and she is a kind of woman who’s desperately needing it. She has no fixed address, and her life is full of unfulfilled desires; to be a film actress, to get true love, to live a decent life. But life is so hard for her and with unfavorable circumstances around her she starts selling her body in the streets of Paris.

‘Vivre Sa Vie’ (My life to live) is Jean Luc Godard’s an episodic account of a short life of a young Parisian prostitute. The film consists of just 12 scenes with the duration of less than one and half hours. The scenes punctuate the conventional narrative and with Raoul Coutard’s aesthetic camerawork makes it one of the classic of new wave cinema. The scenes which I like most are Nana’s encounter with the first man in the hotel room and her discussion with philosopher regarding silence and speech. The ending part was shocking and tragic but that’s quite abrupt ending in my opinion. The film is regarded as one of the JLG’s mature work in treatment; it’s both supremely analytical and sensuous achieving a sheer aesthetic pleasure.

Anna Karina’s had one of the finest expressive & photogenic faces and the most beautiful pair of eyes and Godard knows how to exploit it with some gazing camera close ups with vulnerable women characteristic. So far in all Godard films her character wins our sympathy among all others, needless to say she looks heavenly beauty in all of them. Her beauty is something which grows in every next film I see and her character here is so mythic one i.e. the scene where she’s crying watching Dreyer’s silent classic makes it aesthetic at one and spiritual at next.

It’s difficult to rate artistic pleasure accomplished by Godard & Anna Karina.

CHE: PART TWO (2008)

“Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. This is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary.”

In a way this second part is a concluding part of Che’s life after Cuban revolution. Soderbergh made it as a single film but may be due to length it was decided to release it in two parts and in most of the theatres both parts were released on the same day or after a week's interval. It’s a wise & favorable decision for viewers as well as for the film. No matter how fine a film may be, one can’t watch it sitting at the stretch for four hours. Secondly due to single production the consistency of the film and characters remains intact.

As first past covers his journey to bring Cuban revolution, the second part tells the later tragic life story of this influential figure. Just after Cuban revolution Castro became the new leader but Che started exploring other borders. He again left his home and family in 1966 and went to La Paz in disguise to pursue another communist revolution in Bolivia. He met comrades there and training them for guerilla warfare. Survival was challenging for them in remote hostile territorial jungle; for so many days they’re without food and faced harsh weather. Locals quit supporting them and constantly they’ve to hide from search aircraft. Che’s asthmatic condition becoming severe without medicines during this unfavorable time; when Bolivian president Barrientos’ with the help of CIA ordered army to execute all rebels including Che. With locals support they soon sniffed them and executed them all.

Unlike first part the movie seems bit dragging one, repetitive and flat in narration as its plot gradually moving towards tragic end of Che’s unfulfilled mission and execution but the spirit and integrity remains intact. Like first, the film has some great visuals, matching background score and tense moments too. The last shot of the film is again striking one where Che’s confronting bullets and my god I’ve never seen such an intense execution where viewer becomes so subjectively involved with visual and sound.

Che Guevara was just 30 years old when he brought revolution to Cuba and 39 years old when he was captured & executed in Bolivia. The best eulogy after his death came from his long-lasting comrade Fidel Castro- “If we wish to express what we want the men of future generations to be, we must say: Let them be like Che! If we wish to say how we want our children to be educated, we must say without hesitation: We want them to be educated in Che’s spirit! If we want the model of a man, who does not belong to our times but to the future, I say from the depths of my heart that such a model, without a single stain on his conduct, without a single stain on his action, is Che!”

Soderbergh & Del Toro paid great tribute to him with a medium which caters the largest audience.

Ratings-8/10

CHE: PART ONE (2008)

"What is the most important quality for a revolutionary to possess?” asked an American reporter.
“Love…a true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love…love of humanity, justice and truth,” replied the greatest revolutionary figure of 20th century.

If you have seen ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’, you very well know what spark transformed a topper medical student into the great revolutionary called Ernesto Che Guevara. The first part of the film tells the story from then onwards about how his bonding with Fidel Castro brought revolution and freedom to free Cuba by toppling Batista’s dictatorial government. The film is an epic journey of Che and Castro along with bunch of young men believed in same ideology to bring historical revolution. It’s great film about great man and where most often biographical films trying to seek attention with hype, this film seems like unsung praiseworthy accomplishment. And all credit goes to two people- Director Steven Soderbergh and Producer-Actor Benicio Del Toro.

Benicio Del Toro gave a performance of lifetime. It was damn difficult to carry the realistic and consistent character of such a historical figure in a grand film like this consists of two parts with duration of more than four hours but Del Toro carried it with great aplomb. What is more impressive is he never overshadows the character above human and that’s something which only few actors can do. He deserved Cannes Best Actor trophy by all means. Watch him delivering the Marxist driven ‘Homeland or death’ speech at UN assembly or fighting and leading the troops for Cuban revolution amid his asthmatic condition or diagnosing poor peasants during his journey is something so multidimensional about this visionary man of principles which you would love to carry even after the film is over. The final scene stays with a great message reminding revolutionary that sticking to principles is more important after war is won.

Steven Soderbergh has presented Che in all flesh and blood emphasizing his humanitarian face guided by spirit of conscience in the film so authentically with fascinating combination of linear and nonlinear narration. It’s equally brilliant screenplay by Peter Buchman based on Che Guevara’s original diaries. Technically the film is astounding one too with brilliant sound mixing of action sequences, exclusive camera work by Peter Andrews where he captured significant political parts of movie shot in black & white authentic documentary style; quite cinema verite and rest of the chronological events in natural color. A laudable effort.

Request you to watch it on Blu-ray disc/rip off to enjoy the great sound and visual clarity; this film deserves it.

Ratings-10/10

P.S- Can’t resist quoting few great lines of the film by reel/real Che Guevara:

# “A country that doesn’t know how to read and write is easy to deceive.”

# “In capitalist system people live in an invisible cage, for example, they accept the myth of the self-made man, but they do not understand that opportunities for majority are determined by the forces completely beyond individual control.”

# “It’s very easy to claim that in capitalism the individual has the option to satisfy or to express true human nature. A child has one toy and wants two, that child get two toys and wants four. This is human nature, isn’t it? But when a whole society behaves in that same way or when it becomes a monopoly oppressing the less fortunate… is that human nature? This is when exactly you have to do something.”

GOMORRAH (Italian) (2008)

Power, Money & Blood: these are the ‘values’ that the residents of the province of Naples and Caserta confront everyday. They have practically no choice and forced to obey the rules of system. Before watching this Cannes Grand Prix winning film of 2008, based on sensational facts, I didn’t know anything about Europe’s killing machine crime syndicate called ‘Camorra’. It is shocking to know that Camorra alone has murdered 10,000 people in last thirty years; perhaps more than any other criminal organization or a terrorist group. It is also the most powerful ‘Organized crime Enterprise’ in Italy with a stronghold of European economy with business estimated at 150 billion euros per year.

Director Matteo Garrone has interwoven few stories together amid violent scenario and built a drama based on the tension of chaotic reality. The film is technically flawless & has stunning cinematography. Unlike romanticizing the gangster genre, the film documented the stark violence and shows us the dark face of the organized crime corrupting the core of society on every level. From drugs peddling to contract killing and from latest designer apparels to waste disposal everything is fair business for them. But they are so intelligent that they churn out more money from one task as they analyze it professionally and set the permanent income out of it.

Amid all chaos, the hopeless thing here is the way next generation is luring into this viscous cycle of organized crime unknown about being scapegoats. Going crazy with guns in hands street kids are wannabe Tony Montana of ‘Scarface’ and they are enjoying the thrill of it. Give these kids euros, a gun and bike and they are ready to settle any score. A boy named Toto drawn into the organization has to unite with other members to help them killing his own mom. The rule is simple here, in all complicated condition either you are ‘with us’ or ‘get ready to screw yourself’. Poor boy has no option; he has to lose it from both ways. Here everything is breaking down into pieces whether its relationship, trust or conscience. Anybody can kill anybody. The end was really disturbing one makes it a film not to forget so easily.

A highly recommended gangster film since ‘City of God’.

Ratings-8.5/10

AU HASARD BALTHAZAR (French) (1966)

Which director can possibly think about making a film keeping a donkey in a main lead? Here is a film where a common donkey is not just silent ‘beast of burden’ but reaching a status of almost a saint. Robert Bresson’s this minimalist classic literally surpassed all my film experience for the sole reason that he raised the scale of cinematic medium with impeccable purity of visuals. As a viewer the only things this film demands are a lot of patience and a complete surrender of your visual sense to Bresson’s unique camera narration.

The film is a beautiful and symbolic life journey of a donkey named Balthazar passing from one owner to another till the end. It also follows the life of other changing characters around him. The one most central and almost parallel with a donkey is a girl named Marie who’s also like to run away in search of pleasure but like a stray donkey she too ended up with pain each time. Instead of emotional manipulation, Bresson kept a certain amount of detachment towards his characters; quite a trademark of Bresson’s any films. But it’s this detachment which makes you feel deeply.

The subtlety of the film lies in its scenes where silence is most felt. Bresson seldom used even background music to uplift the mood; for him camera is the only tool to tell his story. His gaping close ups on his characters tells a lot about internal strife than any other filmmakers. The scene where loaded donkey is observing other wild animals rested in cages around a circus is really moving one. The last scene is one of the most tragic and touching one. Along with the donkey, we also feel and witness the height of human selfishness, cruelty in a deeply moving way.

I have seen just three Bresson films and with each film, he’s becoming one of my favorite one.
A movie which surpassed all ratings and an emotional experience not to miss.

DRAGON LORD (1982)

“In Asia…I am Jurassic Park, I am ET.” – Jackie Chan

The beauty of watching Jackie Chan movie is that you don’t have to think hard for anything. There’s seriously no plot, no narration. The theme is simple plain vanilla of Good guys Vs Bad guys. But these aren’t things why anybody watches his films. It’s his quick, hyperactive energy on screen that makes him an international icon of Hong Kong cinema. No space of the world is boundary for him but a playground where any object can be a prop to his vulnerable stunts. The timing of his action runs quite parallel to his comic expressions reminding those old slapstick comedies.

Directed and performed by Chan, this film is almost a sequel to his earlier ‘The Young Master’ which was better film IMO. It was a period when he was too young full of raw energy to take any risk to break his bones frequently. The movie was perhaps the last traditional comic kung fu film, after that Chan moved towards Hollywood kind of pulp action cinema.

For me or anyone none of JC film is ‘classic’ but at the same time watching his films gives us enough joy & cinematic pleasure.

Ratings- 6/10