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KOHRRA (PUNJABI) (2023)

Set in a small town in Punjab, Kohrra (Mist), a six part web series, is, at its surface level, a slow burn investigation into the mysterious murder of a young NRI man shortly before his marriage.

What makes it exceptional is the way it constructs its universe of characters - all flawed in some measure - and succeeds in taking a deep dive into their lives scarred with deep-seated traumatic episodes and struggles set against the wider landscape of today's Punjab with its issues like addiction, feudal and patriarchal society, and much more.

The emotions are affective even as the mystery builds on the viewers - engrossing us like a winter's mist that shrouds an entire city, gradually in the beginning and building steadily to engulf it entirely.

Excellent casting who deliver in aces and fine writing which builds in several layers make this one of the best series in recent times.

A MUST WATCH

PS - Streaming on Netflix.

Comparisons to the epic novel by Kalki are futile as movies are by nature a lesser medium than books. Books translate the imagination of the writer into words which is, in turn, translated and plays out in the near infinite canvas of the reader's imagination which is unbound by the limits of physical media and budget that constrain performing arts like cinema, drama, etc.

Comparisons to recent blockbusters like Bahubali, RRR or KGF, while natural, would also not be fair as they were not bearing the burden of responsibility of being the cinematic adaptation of a much loved epic novel that is adored by readers despite several decades.

If that be so, what is PS-1 about..?

Director Mani Ratnam's magnum opus presents the sprawling story as an adventure doused in generous doses of palace intrigue.

Painstakingly mounted across several exotic locations with elegant production design (Thotta Tharani) and gorgeously visualised frames (Ravi Varman), there is a lot to captivate the viewers here.

Among the ensemble cast which bring to life these much loved characters, the leading ladies - Aishwarya and Trisha - stand out and dazzle the screen in every frame they are in. Karthi, Vikram, Jayaram, and Jayam Ravi are also excellent in their respective roles.

Rahman's songs and score add to the narrative like a curious accessory that enhances the attire without seeking excessive attention to itself.

So... Is it perfect and superlative....?

No..

The narrative could feel too rushed and even disjointed, especially to those who are uninitiated to the book. A trilogy might have done more justice to the story and more importantly, the many memorable characters. Hopefully, this would inspire someone worthy to make a grand webseries soon to delve deeper into the material🤞🏽.

The CGI bits are not eye-popping and are at best, decent.

The action set pieces are not as exciting or innovatively staged as one would've expected.

There are also some departures (not all of them work) from the source material which the readers may not approve of.

Nevertheless, at the end of the movie, I felt Mani is largely successful in marshalling his star studded cast and first rate technical team to the service of this book as he transports us into this adventure set a thousand years ago which remains engrossing through its entire runtime.

RATING - 3.5/5

A MUST WATCH !!

Director Rishab Shetty's Kantara (aka mystic forest) is a story of tribals who inhabit the forest in coastal Karnataka - Tulunadu region. Rishabh has also written the story and stars as the lead. The story which is largely set in 1990s strings together strands from an earlier century as well as 1970s, weaving these three timelines in a brilliant blend of mythology, folklore and movie magic.

The narrative yarn is spun around multiple conflicts - some overt and some simmering undercurrents which are on the verge of eruption. Nevertheless, the primary fault line traces the near unending conflict between humans and nature as the humans continue in their vain quest to conquer, own and control nature - land and resources - to satiate their utmost avarice.

Rishabh Shetty mounts the movie on a canvas that is deeply drenched in the earthy hues of its milieu and richly textured with unique cultural ethos of the coastal Karnataka.

His story presents an eclectic mix of emotions ranging from resonant spirituality, rustic love, healthy oodles of irreverent humour, primal rage, greed that is almost genetic as it transcends and consumes generations, juxtaposed with firmly held beliefs of a close knit community and how such beliefs permeate and define their lives.

Within moments into the film, Rishabh magically transports the viewers to the verdant space where his story unfolds with Kola, Kambala, nocturnal hunting and much much more, thanks largely to the songs and background score by B. Ajaneesh Loknath along with the superb cinematography of Arvind S Kashyap who conjure up an immersive experience.

Rishabh Shetty excels in the role of Shiva as he emotes with ease through the character arc which sees him go from a irresponsible ruffian to the transformation with a final tour-de-force. He is complemented well by a supporting cast including an excellent Kishore, ever-dependable Achyuth Kumar, Pramod Shetty, Sapthami Gowda and the rest. Rishabh's control on the medium as a director is evident through the entire runtime of Kantara, especially as it crescendos to a phenomenal final stretch that packs the potency akin to a force of nature.

Rishabh the writer cooks up a heady cocktail - masterfully mixing up the sensational with the subtle and the surreall; this is one happy "made-in-heaven" marriage of mystique philosophy and mass masala moments.

A delectable coastal Karnataka delicacy that is cooked to perfection to delight the discerning viewers.

As the final visual vanishes from the screen, the viewers leave with the lingering legend of Kantara lurking in their minds.

AN UNFORGETTABLE & UNMISSBALE EXPERIENCE !!

Hero is a barber in a small town in Karnataka. Heroine has ditched him and is married to a dreaded gangster. Villain is extremely cruel, sadistic, has an alligator for pet and commands a gang of brutal henchmen. When the frustrated hero gets an opportunity to enter the house of villain set in the middle of a vast estate, hoping to kill the heroine for ditching him, all hell breaks loose. Add a few more oddball characters like a zany cook, a petrified vet brought in to treat the alligator's loss of appetite and a henchman who is obsessed with hunting wild boars. Throw in a truckload of weapons from primitive clubs, knives in every size to guns and bombs which are used in stylized action set-pieces choreographed with gusto by Vikram Mor. What follows is a weird, whacky, bloody black comedy that takes us on a rollercoaster ride which is engaging to the most part.

The fact that the entire movie was made by a cast and crew of 24 members in the height of COVID lockdown makes it all the more appealing.

Rishabh is spot on as the bumbling barber; Ganavi provides the ideal foil as she brings the right amount of charm, guts and intrigue to her role. The rest of the cast who are also multitasking as miscellaneous crew members do a competent job.

Ajaneesh Loknath revs up the sequences adding an all new dimension to the movie with his pitch-perfect score as well as lilting songs while cinematographer Aravind Kashyap excels with his verdant visuals as well as the action sequences which are superlative.

Debutant director M Bharath Raj who has co-written this gem deserves kudos for delivering a deliciously dark comedy which could make Tarantino happy. He clearly holds the potential to become the latest addition to the celebrated club of the brave new wave of Kannada auteurs consisting of Pawan Kumar (Lucia), Anup Bhandari (Rangitaranga), Hemanth Rao (Godhibanna Sadharana Mykattu and Kavaludari) and the spectacular Shetty duo - Rakshit (Ullidavaru Kandante) and Rishabh (Kirik Party).

PS - Streaming on ZEE5.

This is the story of Sandhya Giri, a young woman widowed within few months after her arranged marriage. To the surprise of those around her, Sandhya is unable to grieve for her deceased husband as she finds that he was little more than a stranger to her. The story unfolds over the days when she along with the extended family go through the motions of last rites and picking up the pieces of their hitherto carefully ordered life. Sandhya embarks on an inner journey of discovery of her husband, his world & rediscovery of her own self, her priorities and purpose in life.

Despite dealing with a dark and difficult theme, writer-director Umesh Bist succeeds in consistently mining sparkling humour from the morbid moments as well the muddle of the mundane household milieus (like the calling bell tunes) in equal measure and with effortless ease. Conversations suffused with sharp wit and impressive art direction create an authentic lived in feel of a house nestled in the bylanes of small town India.

The movie benefits from the abundant talents of a top notch supporting cast consisting of a mix of dependable veterans like Ashutosh Rana, Sheeba Chaddha, Raghuveer Yadav, Rajesh Tailang, Sayani Gupta, Jameel Khan along with the rest of lesser known actors who excel in their respective parts. Ashutosh Rana and Sheeba Chaddha are exceptional as the grieving parents smouldering in sorrow after their catastrophic loss and trying to get a grip on their chaotic reality.

Nevertheless, the movie belongs to Sanya Malhotra who is spectacular as she gets into the skin of her character of Sandhya Giri and owns it completely. This is a superlative performance as she manages to effortlessly navigate between moments of morose loss and mirth and is sure to establish her as an actor par excellence.

Umesh Bist's writing strikes a subtle balance at multiple levels - adding healthy doses of humour while avoiding caricatures; has its share of poignant moments without descending into loud melodrama; manages to capture the complex dynamics of an extended family without creating any evil villains. While Pagglait might share some resonance with Vikas Bahl's Queen, I reckon it is a bigger challenge to pull off and director Umesh Bist deserves kudos for his deft handling of this difficult theme.

MUST WATCH !!

RATING - 4/5.

It is the final phase of second world war. The Allies are knocking at the threshold of Germany. But, it is business as usual in Berlin where our protagonist - ten year old Jojo Betzler considers himself the ideal Aryan as he prepares to join a weekend camp of indoctrination by Hitler Youth. The Fuhrer is his greatest idol and also imaginary best friend - a confidante with whom he has several personal conversations and seeks guidance. Jojo lives alone with his mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) while his father is away fighting in the war.

Jojo aspires to rise through the ranks of Hitler Youth and become a personal bodyguard of the Fuhrer. But, underneath the facade of his Aryan pride, Jojo is a kind and sweet boy who flinches at hurting another being. JoJo's orderly world gets a bolt from the blue when he accidentally discovers that his mother has been hiding a much older jewish girl, Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) in the attic of their home. Jojo intends to betray Elsa to the authorities and regain some of his lost prestige by winning a medal for the act. But, he faces a dilemma as he feels that it could put his mother in peril.

Thus unfolds a coming-of-age drama that sees our little Jojo on a journey of self discovery of understanding his beliefs including the systematic indoctrination of hate he was subjected to despite his tender age.

While most parts of the movie breezes through as a well made satire filled with oodles of irreverent and dark humour, these are interspersed with moments which are poignant and underline the grim realities of the time without resorting to any melodrama.

Without being preachy, the movie casts its focus on how ideologies - howsoever well meaning - if let loose, could crush the idiosyncrasies that make us human and could convert us into unthinking automatons under the command of powers that be.

Roman Griffin Davis is endearing and absolutely spot on as the vulnerable Jojo. Scarlett Johansson brings a natural warmth and mirth as JoJo's mother Rosie and richly deserves her Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. The talented Sam Rockwell shines in a short cameo while Waititi is having a whale of a time playing Hitler.

Director Taika Waititi (Thor Ragnarok) has delivered an important movie which, despite being set during second world war, resonates strongly with our own times that is marked by a rising tide of restlessness and distrust across the globe.

The GOOD, BAD & NOT-SO-BAD

GOOD

Superstar Rajni - For his undiminished charisma, style quotient and energy through which he fits into the role of a super-cop, when he is almost seventy, including courageously gymming out in all glory. He is a living testimony to the adage that age is just a number and remains the primary reason to watch this otherwise avoidable flick. And.. that is a near impossible feat that he can rightfully claim that only Rajni can accomplish.

Nivetha Thomas - For her commendable performace in a meaty cameo as Rajni's daughter.

Anirudh - For an energetic background score and few good (not great) songs.



NOT-SO-BAD

Yogi Babu - who fares decently with his comic one-liners.

Action set-pieces - While none of it is exceptional, the railway station piece is well choreographed and packs a punch.

Nayantara - She continues to look like a billion bucks and oozes elegance and grace even though she has a nothing role here. While there is a weak pretense to rationalise the semblance of a romance, it is what it is - at best, a weak pretense, if not entirely phony.



BAD

The Villains - Sunil Shetty and co who are bad because they are not bad-enough baddies to challenge the hero in any meaningful way.

A R Murugadoss - Director ARM appears pretty directionless as he puts up a tepid show with weak writing which is all over the place. Looks like the chart-buster "Summa Kizhi" was actually inspired by a reading of this ragtag script. If not for the Superstar who shoulders this pretty sloppy outing and salvages it to watchable category, this would have been declared DOA - dud-on-arrival.

This is a story set in the 80s in a fictional South Indian village of Amaravathi which is reeling under the sinister shadow of a gang of deadly dacoits called Abhiras. The story kicks off in the form of a lost bounty of treasure that the dacoits are after and is hidden from them by a band of visiting theatre artists who get greedy. Fifteen years after, Rakshit Shetty enters the village as the titular maverick cop with malleable morals who is also in pursuit of this lost treasure. Thus begins an epic fantasy tale that is fantastic fun oozing, nay, overflowing with style.

Filled with action, adventure and flamboyance in almost every frame - the narrative utilises the grandeur and richness of movies as a medium to the hilt to exceptional effect. Imagine Jack Sparrow as a cop in a wild western terrain in the search of a hidden treasure, a la Mackenna's gold set to the sensibilities of a Guy Ritchie directorial. The result is a heady mix that combines multiple genre elements of revenge, drama, action, mythology, mystery, theatre, thriller and irreverent black humour with equal aplomb.

Leading man Rakshit Shetty and his team of writers weave an incredible story and a grandiose narrative that transports us - lock, stock and barrel - to this fictional landscape of Amaravathi on a witty quest to locate this lost treasure. Rakshit Shetty radiates charm and excels in his comic timing as he handles most of the heavy lifting as the lead writer and the leading man. He is ably supported by veteran Achyuth Kumar as an apt sidekick providing perfect foil as well as meaty cameos by Balaji Manohar as the prime antagonist Jayarama and Shanvi Shrivastava.

Composer B. Ajaneesh Loknath's cooks up a background score to match the quirky proceedings while the cinematography by Karm Chawla captures the unfolding adventure in grand visual tapestries

On the flip side, one has to concede that..

Yes.. It does tend to overdo the style quotient and smarts ..

Yes.. It does feel more than a tad stretched with a run time spanning an overwhelming 186 minutes..

Nevertheless, it is a jolly good ride for the most part as director Sachin Ravi, Rakshit and their team are in fine form delivering their wares in aces in an ambitious venture that is set to expand the horizons of Sandalwood cinema much more than KGF ever did or could.

In Gantumoote, debutante director Roopa Rao beautifully blends a coming of age tale with an in-depth character study of her protaganist - Meera, who is also our narrator. The major portions of the movie which is set in the early 1990s revolves around an intense teen romance of Meera with her classmate Madhu. It is a romance that lingers on to create ripples through her life well into her adulthood. This teen love story is showcased with a rare sensitivity and without any frills that cry out for attention or sundry commercial compromises.

Director Roopa Rao builds the narrative of this school time romance with a good deal of poise and grace. The budding interests, and its evolution into a warm romance is captured with great care and authenticity punctuated through poetic voice-overs, several stolen glances, those sheepish looks, multiple magical moments when two sets of eyes converge to exchange private notes within a crowded classroom and the loving gazes that sets both the hearts aflutter.



The fact that she could convey the intensity of the emotional tumult within Meera as she goes through the journey of life without translating the same into melodramatic scenes is a testimony to the maturity of Roopa Rao and her mastery over the medium.

The cinematography by Sahadev Kelavadi is unobtrusive as it captures the precious moments without compromising on their innocent charm. Background score and songs by Aparajith Sris has the rythm of a summer day's gentle breeze that caresses the back of our neck to pleasently surprise us.

Roopa and her team deserve kudos for their apt casting choices for the lead pair as well as the entire supporting cast. Teju Belawadi dives into the heart of the character of Meera and aces the entire palette of emotions with those big expressive eyes. Nishchith Korodi provides a perfect foil as he rings in the right kind of boyish charm as well as the vulnerabilities of Madhu.

Gantumoote feels like a personal conversation that we have with our closest of friends. During the course of the movie, we feel similarly connected to Meera as she confides in us and bares her soul. Both the debutantes - the director, Roopa Rao and the lead actor Teju Belawadi - have heralded themselves as talents to look out for the future.

Overall, Gantumoote is a delicately crafted, deeply personal, poetic movie that surprises you often with its unique perspective and is sure to stay on with the viewers long after they have watched it.

RATING - 4/5

PS - Gantumoote is streaming on Amazon Prime Video

A truck load of drugs is seized by a crack team of cops in what appears to be the biggest drug bust ever. The desperate drug gang wants the consignment back at any cost.

Thus begins a narrative that is a thrill ride of events unfolding over a night with well placed moles on each side and safety of the cache as well as the lives of some top cops hanging by a slender thread resting on the shoulders of a recently released convict.

Karthi brings a simmering intensity to the part of the protagonist, Dilli - both as a father yearning to see his daughter for the first time after spending a decade in prison as well as the titular macho convict rescuing the cops. Sam CS throttles the proceedings onwards with his pulsating score.

After a stellar debut with Maanagaram, director Lokesh Kanagaraj (LK) delivers an above average action flick that is fairly engaging and entertaining.

Overall, while it may not match Maanagaram in its audacity, Kaithi, despite its flaws, is a neat action entertainer.

The Irishman sees veteran Scorsese (now, in his 70s) returning to a genre that he had redefined with his early works .. a genre that brought him widespread critical as well as commercial acclaim and made him what he turned out to be.

And.. he returns with a power packed cast that is headlined by Robert de Niro (a frequent collaborator), Al Pacino and Joe Pesci (all three, now in their 70s) and many more stars in juicy cameos.

The Irishman is adapted from a novel - "I Heard You Paint Houses" by Charles Brandt. It is set in the period from 1950s to 1980s and narrates the story of Frank Sheeran - a war veteran, truck driver who gets associated with the underworld crime families, becomes a mob hitman and how his life intersects with trade union leader, Jimmy Hoffa.

The movie which runs for a whopping 209 minutes demands - nay, commands - a patient viewing and rewards the viewers with superlative performances by Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and De Niro at the heart of the narrative filling almost every frame besides excellence in almost every technical aspect of filmmaking - be it the brilliant staging, fluid cinematography, pitch perfect score.

De Niro is a class act in the role of Frank Sheeran - a stoic mobster of few words and fewer emotions. Pesci gives great company in his own version of stolid mentor for Sheeran while good old Al Pacino more than makes up for the lack of words and emotions of the these two in an energetic performace where he explodes in almost every frame.

What we might miss in terms of pace is more than made up by the quality of performances and the craft of a master who shows that even the oldest genre tropes, if handled right, could work like magic.

While the CGI assisted de-aging of the leads is not perfect yet, it is nevertheless unobtrusive and heralds exciting augurings for the future of movies.

The deliberate pacing by Scorsese allows us to soak in more of the unfolding events through the conversations, character arcs and gets us ever more invested in their predicaments. The narrative flows like a clear stream that is seamlessly punctuated by historic events (a la Forrest Gump) and sudden bursts of bloody violence.

Overall, this movie feels like a sagely Scorsese in his Yoda mode meditating on a mobster life.

The Irishman would certainly rank among Scorsese's finest and is certain to enjoy a brilliant run at the awards functions too.

An unexploded bomb from second world war washes ashore near the coast of Mahabalipuram, a historic town in Tamil Nadu. If it detonates, it could cause widespread destruction wiping out everything in a large radius. It slips through the hands of cops who seize it initially and begins a perilous journey from one scrapyard to another where it is seen as just another piece of rusting metal. Meanwhile, the cops and their masters are desperate to retrieve it as its discovery could open a can of worms that they seek to conceal.

Our protagonist Selvam (Dinesh), a truck driver, is unwittingly assigned the task of transporting the bomb along with a load of sundry metal scrap. Selvam has a running feud with the owner of the scrapyard for insulting him as well as his general attitude towards the workers of the yard. He is secretly working on his ambition to own a truck through his savings and quit the job in the scrapyard. Selvam is also in love with Chitra (Anandhi), a trained teacher from his village. However, her family which is steeped in patriarchy is vehemently opposed to their marriage as they are unwilling to accept a match from a lower class. She escapes her family and joins Selvam mid-way through his trip when he is transporting the cargo from Chennai to Pondicherry. Meanwhile, Tanya (Riythvika, in an impressive cameo), an activist cum investigative journalist is struggling to unearth the truth behind the bomb. The rest of the narrative sees the journey of the bomb with Selvam and their path crisscrossing with Chitra, Chitra's family as well as the cops and Tanya who are chasing the bomb for their own respective reasons.

Debutante director Athiran Athirai has cooked up a raw, genre-jumping recipe that blends elements of a tense thriller, road movie, love story, message movie on class/caste struggle garnished with a generous helping of humour. While some of the elements might feel generic and formulaic, it is to the credit of the director that and the sincerity he infuses into the project that most of the elements work to deliver the desired effect.

Dinesh fits the role of the truck driver Selvam effortlessly and handles the whole range of emotions convincingly. Anandhi provides an ideal foil and turns in a neat performance in the role of Chitra, which resonates quite a bit with her role in Pariyerum Perumal. Muneeshkanth is in fine form and spot on with his comic timing in the role of Puncture. Debutante composer Tenma has turned out a stand-out score and an earthy soundtrack which adds to the allure of the movie.

Through his production house - Neelam Productions, Director Pa Ranjith is on a mission to support movies that extol the plight of those at the bottom of the caste/class pyramid. Last year, he had introduced Mari Selvaraj who made a stellar directorial debut through Pariyerum Perumal - the best Tamil movie of 2018. Continuing on his mission, Pa Ranjith acquits himself as a producer who has a keen eye for the craft and has picked another exceptional talent to watch for in Athiyan Athirai.

Athiyan has the rare skill to beautifully blend the multiple ingredients of his narrative recipe without losing focus on the fate of the bomb and those around it. He keeps the tension real and combines it effectively with regular doses of humour as well as the underlying message of all humans being the same irrespective of our apparent differences and how all of us are equally vulnerable when confronted with certain challenges. The fact that the ideology and message delivered through his characters come across as neither preachy nor phony is testimony to his skills in crafting a sincere narrative populated with characters that we could relate to.

While it may not be as hard-hitting as Pariyerum Perumal in its tonality, IUKG is equally effective in its layered narrative with a rich subtext of socio-economic commentary through multiple metaphors including the use of the scrapyard as a backdrop, the bomb washing ashore along the coast of a historic town, the use of colours, the manifestation of the bomb itself which heralds the repetition of history which sees the odds steeped against the oppressed.

It is third time lucky for us, the viewers, in case of this Vijay-Atlee combo.

Director Atlee presents a decent entertainer which mines the charisma of the star to a large extent.

Bigil also benefits from the fact that the entire movie and the semblance of a story is not entirely buried under the build-up for the star.

In Bigil, Atlee places his star Vijay shining bright at the center of the universe with the plot itself and the subplots merrily orbiting him as minor satellites.

Rahman delivers a rousing anthem and a good score. There is nothing - including the music or performances - that could be counted as superlative in any sense. Still, the entire movie works and doesn't feel like a tedium despite having a runtime of almost three hours.

The fact that this movie remains largely coherent on a whole does not make you cringe despite its runtime is no minor blessing.

Awesome movie..

This movie kicks off with a team of amateur journalists who want to write an article for their magazine on a person who placed the following ad in a newspaper..

WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.

What follows is an entertaining comedy which is also so much more.. the movie is sparklingly fresh and is populated by nicely written & well performed characters whom one can relate to..

Engaging & keeping you constantly edgy, it throws quite a few surprises ...

Two murders separated by more than two decades.. committed at the same place .. victims sharing similar profiles..

A very different thriller, devoid of gore & kinetics associated with the genre... grows on you gradually ... A whydunit instead of the regular whodunit..

Moving at a meditative pace which could border on the glacial, this thriller plumbs great depths into the minds of its characters sinking in melancholy ..

A Slice-of-life movie .. it tells the story of a former Pakistani singer who is toiling to eke out a decent living in New York by vending beverages & bagels in a push cart..

Abjuring any cliches or melodrama, this movie sensitively captures the daily rigours of this widower who is still haunted by his lost love and is struggling hard everyday to realise his dream to take the responsibility for his three year old son who is with his in-laws..

The frustrations, aspirations & melancholy of the protaganist are captured authentically .. This gently paced movie draws you in slowly and gives you an up-close account of a protaganist who represents a class of people we come across daily and momentarily co-habit our lives soon to be forgotten till the next momentary meeting..

Poetic, Sad, Authentic & above all BEAUTIFUL !!!

Another wonderful movie from Ramin Bharani (the director of Man Push Cart). It tells the story of interaction between a middle-aged Senegalese taxi driver Solo in a small town in USA and William, his aged (& apparently weathered) white passenger who presents him with a curious deal.

Solo & William are a study in stark contrasts. While Solo is loquacious, needs no reason to beam his warm smile at anyone and is genuinely warm to everybody (especially his passengers), William is copybook taciturn & guarded to the extent that we end up knowing almost nothing about him at all. Although he is initially annoyed with Solo's advances to connect to him, he is unable to resist the genuine warmth of the taxi driver and opens to him a bit (just a bit). Solo's has a Hispanic wife & cute stepdaughter. He is studying hard to realise his dream of becoming a flight attendant. William seems to be winding up his affairs in every sense of the word.

The beauty of the movie is the simplicity with which the interaction between these two are captured and the gravity in the relationship which engrosses the viewer. The director ably harnesses the emotinal energy in many a silent moments and the eyes of the lead actors which are pregnant with several unanswered questions and unuttered answers.

A beauty from the realms of bare-bones movie making !!

This year's Oscar entry from Germany is an edgy political thriller set in East Germany of 80s.

Nina Hoss plays the titular role. She is a doctor from Berlin banished to work in a small hospital in the provinces as punishment for her attempts to emigrate to the West.. Despite being choked by the omnipresent & omniscient secret police - Stasi - & surrounded by people she cannot trust, Nina Hoss brilliantly personifies a defiance that is as resilient as it is understated.

The movie is almost completely devoid of any background score. But, the silences, natural sounds, even the door bell ringing & clock ticking have been used to such great effect to underline the oppressive existence.

A tour de force in film-making !

A sci-fi movie that is built around the eternal debate between determinism & fee will (& even random occurrences)..

In 1959, a school girl, apparently disturbed by unnatural whispers that she hears continuously puts a sheet of paper filled with seemingly random numbers in a time capsule buried in the school yard which is opened fifty years later. The paper is received by the son of a widower (Nicholas Cage) who teaches astrophysics at MIT.

Strange things begin to happen & the professor accidentally finds the possible meaning behind those seemingly random numbers.

The movie builds up nicely to what I felt was an underwhelming, albeit visually stunning finale ..

Nevertheless, the movie is worth a watch !

An EXCELLENT movie. A crime thriller fused with a subtle love story..

Set in Argentina, over a period of three decades, it covers the investigation into a brutal crime by an investigation team consisting of a poor, sullen investigator who has fallen head over heels for his boss - an upper class assistant judge educated at Cornell - and an alcoholic assistant investigator.

Populated by "passionate" characters played competently by stunning leads, this Academy award winning movie straddling multiple genres is A HIGHLY SATISFYING WATCH !

An endearing zombie movie. Oxymoron ?. But, nevertheless.

After an apocalyptic event, human survivors live in a walled city & try to evade attacking zombies & bonies (zombies so deeply zombified that they consume themselves to their bare bones)..

It is here that the protagonist R (zombie) saves a human girl from attacking zombies & in her company appears to slowly turn into a human..

What follows is an interesting Romeo & Juliet-esque twist with subtle humor & a tad under-cooked finale ! The performances are competent & the narration from the zombie perspective is a refreshing change !

Save for the mandatory bit of gore of this genre, this is one very different & engaging take on the done & dusted zombie genre !

A delightful comic noir ... It tells a story of a schizophrenic & his team of dimwits who indulge in kidnapping..nay, kednapping for small sums.. But, when they attempt to raise the stakes all hell breaks loose in several quirky, chaotic & HILARIOUS twists.

After Pizza, NKPK, once more, Vijay Sethupathy, the lead, shows his stellar skills in picking wonderfully original & entertaining scripts.

KUDOS to the debutante director & his team for a wholesome entertaining treat. One of the best movies I would see this year by a long stretch !

The protagonist, Lee Kang-do, is a loner working as an enforcer who collects dues for a loan shark from meek borrowers. He is incredibly ruthless and cruel in collecting his dues and appears to have no compunction whatsoever towards the plight of his several hapless victims who are at the receiving end of his severe punishments when they fail to pay up.

One day, a middle-aged woman enters his life claiming to be his mother who had abandoned him some thirty years ago. Despite several (some very disturbing) attempts by him to shake her off, she stubbornly & resolutely sticks around till she wins him over.

He becomes a changed man as her maternal love (which he'd yearned for all his life) transforms his cold, cruel & ruthless persona to someone who could be loving, sensitive and even compassionate. The rest of the movie is the effect of this transformation on his life which I wouldn't want to elaborate for it would providing spoilers..

Halfway through the movie, a visibly confounded Lee raises a question "What is money ?" She replies that "It is the beginning and the end of all things: love, honour, violence, fury, hatred, jealousy, revenge, death."

Acted competently by both the leads, this is a remarkable movie on crime & punishment at their cruelest.. In equal measures, grim, violent & deeply disturbing (definitely not for the faint of heart - Compliance, may feel like The Lion King), this movie is also an effective study of the human psyche and remains with you long after you've watched it.

On the last day of the school term, a teacher at the Junior High School tells her apparently disinterested class about the value of life. Gradually, she draws the attention of her class when she declares that she is resigning the same day and further confesses that her 3 year old daughter who died, a few months ago, by drowning in the school swimming pool did not die by accident. The class is stunned by the time she declares that she now knows that two of the students in the class (referred by her as A & B) were indeed responsible for the death. She also expresses her anguish that she cannot register a complaint with the authorities because the law does not hold anyone below 14 as responsible for their actions and accordingly, cannot be punished for whatever they do. However, she states that, irrespective of the law, she is determined to punish the culprits.

Thus begins this psycho thriller wherein the teacher adopts a twisted way to avenge her daughter. The events surrounding the death and the teacher's punishment unfold through a series of confessions of the students who recount the happenings. The narrative style may remind us of Rashomon which also used multiple accounts to reconstruct a set of events. However, unlike Rashomon where each account narrated a different version of the events, here it is a singular version which is narrated from the perspectives of the individual confessor.

Although the movie succeeds as an effective thriller, one does not particularly feel much for any of the characters. The characters appear to be emotionally bereft and also guilty of harbouring dark motives (not that dark/grey characters can never evoke feelings). This movie was Japan's entry for 2010 Academy Awards and was also shortlisted a final nominee. The entire movie is picturised in a sombre tone though a scene towards the end where an explosion is captured in reverse slo-mo stood out for its magnificence.

This psychological thriller turns the cat & mouse game on its head, a la Tom & Jerry, one may say. But, the content here is far removed from the innocent and enjoyable pranks of those animated characters.

This is the story of how a young teenager Hayley (played true to form by Ellen Page) ensnares Jeff, a fashion photographer (Patrick Wilson) who is also a pedophile. She appears to be well aware of his modus and gradually entices him through conversations in internet chatrooms which culminates in an innocent ice-breaker meeting at a cafe. At the meeting where she comes fully prepared, she tempts him further and gets herself invited to his residence.

What follows is a suspenseful thriller of twisted cat & mouse game filled with mind games where he tries to take full advantage of what he feels is a serendipitous development while she intends to deliver her own version of justice for his unholy deeds. She is smart to decline the drink offered by him which was not mixed in her presence and offers him a drink laced with sedative which he gleefully accepts without any qualms only to wake up hours later to find himself tied securely to a chair.

Much of the movie takes place within the confines of his residence as interaction between just these two characters. Full credits to the two leads and especially to Ellen Page for wonderful and convincing performance and the director for spawning such a suspenful thriller which is also remarkably economical in more ways than one.

Nevertheless, at the end of the movie, one gets a feeling that if Jeff is definitely a pedophile and deserves the punishment, there appears something deeply & chillingly wrong with Hayley too, though the jury is out on that one.