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Archive for March 2014

Written by Hariharan Anbazhagan in , , , , , , ,


12 Years A Slave - Enslaved by the Narrative!



Solomon Northup, it seems was one of the few slaves who managed to get liberated from the iron fists of slavery, an unfortunate practice that was prevalent in ancient America. His startling revelations and account on slavery and the tormented life of slaves in his book “12 Years A Slave” has been adapted and made into a movie almost after 160 years by director Steve McQueen who seems to have a nose for scripts that paint the black pages of history with much more darker shades!

Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man and a brilliant fiddle player (violinist) is trafficked unlawfully by kidnappers who disguise themselves as businessmen and sell him to slave traders. The rest of the movie delves into the life of Solomon at the hands of his tormentors who treat him like an animal and trade him like a commodity.

We realize the meaning of freedom only if it has been taken away from us! Every scene where Solomon tries to break the shackles with his intellect, he is shadowed by his tormentors’ hypocrisy and egoistic ideals which leaves him as an incapable individual whose cries go unanswered! The visuals were too graphic sometimes that it was hard to digest whether those were the true happenings a century ago in America, which today boasts of upholding human rights to the fore!!

The performance from Chiwetel Ejiofor was brilliant and the girl who portrayed the role of a toughie who remained almost unshakeable in the face of ultimate torture, played by Lupita Nyong was the icing on the cake.

A must watch for its narrative and performances!!

Written by Hariharan Anbazhagan in , , ,


The Patience Stone - Ingénue



I came to know about this movie from the social media! What urged me to watch this movie was that it was from Afghanistan and that left me pleasantly surprised as I realized that they too weren’t apprehensive in exposing their creative side inspite of their conservative outlook and have effortlessly communicated with the most powerful form of visual art form amidst the ongoing instability in their land! Kudos for the effort!!

Directed by the Afghan-French writer Atiq Rahimi, this movie is an adaptation of the novel that was titled the same. The story is set in the war-ravaged terrains of Afghanistan where there is routine curfew followed by mayhem and chaos which puts innocent lives at stake. The narrative follows the life of a desolate woman (Golshifteh Farahani) who has to tend to her husband who goes into a coma after suffering a bullet wound in his throat. She also has to protect her toddlers from the Talibans who launch attacks every now and then. Apart from her external struggle to safeguard her self and family, as the days go by with hopeless grief and sorrow, it gradually allows her to vent out her inner struggles to her almost lifeless husband who resembles the “patience stone” (according to the Afghan mythology, a patience stone is one which would absorb a person’s grief and sorrow when confessed and then at a particular stage the stone is believed to shatter in order to relieve the person who confessed from all miseries).

The feeling of misery, hopelessness and grief was well etched out on screen and the director though takes a very feminist standpoint at times, tends to vent out his anger towards his own people who have suppressed women for ages! The role was played brilliantly by the Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, who not just brought her emotions on screen but had a big heart to deliver an overtly solid performance!!

We tend to travel along her life, the apprehensions which women face in such a conservative society that is devoid of any freedom, where objectification of women is a norm, where touching a prostitute is considered sin whereas raping a virgin is considered sacred - everything gives us a deep dive into the lives of these poorly treated souls whose cries have gone unheard through centuries!

Watch this movie for its slow, steady but engaging narrative, brilliant acting and beautiful visuals!!

Written by Hariharan Anbazhagan in , , , , , , , ,


The Wolf of Wall Street - Werewolf!



After watching this star studded movie directed by the veteran, Martin Scorsese, the first question that popped on my mind was ‘how come Leonardo did not win an academy award for his stunning performance as Jordan Belfort’. Even the real wolf (Jordan Belfort) wouldn't have been so bad  as depicted in its reel avatar.

This movie is an adaptation of the autobiography of the same name written by Jordan himself! It depicts the life up-close of the yesteryear stockbroker and a man who is considered to be the greatest salesman and motivational therapist who could push anyone to sell anything, his rise in the wall street as a penny stock broker and his infamous fall after the government finds his frauds and sentences him!

The pulpy narrative paints the plot with a unique style that portrays the abuses which the lead does time and again such that we tend to empathize with him as the movie takes its course. There is lot of money, abuse, alcohol, drugs, sex, whacky display of pride and possession and what not, but still the script was solid enough to justify all that was depicted on screen.

Leonardo was omnipresent and was the obvious screen snatcher! Among others Jonah Hill shared a prominent role as his loyal friend who stays with him till the end. Matthew McConaughey makes a brief but an impactful presence at the movie’s beginning by imparting the indispensable ‘gyaans’ for Jordan (Leonardo), that lasts throughout the movie (including the ‘rhythm of the soul’). Margot Robbie was beauty with brains and performance.

The movie is a must watch for anyone who enjoys excellent narratives, but at the same time one should remember to remove their moral hats and train their adult visions as it is riddled with drugs and sex in liberal proportions.

Written by Hariharan Anbazhagan in , , , ,


Aadhiyum Andhamum - Psyched!



A befitting trailer for a movie touted to be a thriller was certainly called for and more than that an edge of the seat screenplay is of foremost importance - the latter seems to be lagging in debutante Kaushik directed ‘Aadhiyum Andhamum’.

The plot involves a psychiatrist (Ajay) visiting a mental asylum in order to help the ones who need his assistance. He encounters strange things there and “sees dead people” and hears voices. All we get revealed during the latter half was as predictable as the next morning’s sunrise.

Among the many hiccups the ones that stand out and seemed to have pulled the rug under the movie were the screenplay and performances. The plot seems to slide in quite fast and infuses too much of drama in a short span of time and then struggles to move on with hardly anything left to hold the plot and so tries to substitute it with a few doses of itchy melodrama. The story seems to have been plucked from so many well etched Hollywood psychological thrillers including ‘The Secret Window’ and ‘The Sixth Sense’.

The performances from Ajay, Kavita and Mitali can be weighed on the same scale as there was nothing exceptional from anyone. In fact Kavita looked much older for her age and Mitali wore a thrusted smile on her face for the most part that she appeared. Ajay on the other hand made merry in his small screen avatar but here he seemed really uncomfortable for reasons unknown.

Music was bad - period. The BGM was jarring! Cinematography was bizarre as there were so many close-ups at places where they were never called for. Especially watch out for the scene where Kavita and Ajay were shown really close to each other when they were supposed to exchange a tense dialog and above all they were just acquainted at that time.

A somewhat decent plot suffers at the hands of an immature director and writer, who tried to lace thriller with melodrama, but was left stranded on the highway to find his lost way!!

Verdict: Avoidable!

Rating: 1.5 / 5