Nayagan (Mani Ratnam)

Some movies are made just for commercial purposes. Some movies are made to fulfil the craeativity of a person. Nayagan is a very good example of the latter.
Basically its the story of a man who becomes a gangster by chance and not by choice. Its the story of Velu Nayakar whose circumstances force him to take the wrong albeit easier path in life.
Though its shown pretty clearly right from the beginning of the film that Velu has a violent streak and can go any length to get things done, He is shown to have a heart of gold. Take the scene where he threatens a doctor and then apologises for threatening him. These are the scenes which lift the film to dizzying heights. The one thing that really impressed me about this film was that though violence is glorified initially in the film, Mani Ratnam has subtly shown through the course of the film that though violence is glamourous, It brings you more bad than good. This is a very good piece of advice for the people who watch the movie.
Since the movie is adapted from a real life story, Mani Ratnam has the luxury of moulding each and every character with a reference point. That could be one reason for the extremely realistic character sketch. Though there are a lot of cliches in the screenplay, the characters are not at all cliched. Another strong point of the movie is the haunting musical score given by Ilayaraja.
All said and done, Nayagan is by no means without its share of flaws. As i have mentioned before, the story is very cliched and by the 2nd half we can guess whats going to happen next. Even the ending though very well executed is somewhat expected. It doesnt really shock you.
Where Nayagan really scores is the execution of the subject material. Mani Ratnam is very fortunate to find an actor as great as Kamal hassan for this movie. Kamal literally lives as Velu. No wonder he won the National award. Amazing screen presence, superb dialogue delivery.
Nayagan was a pathbreaking film when it was released and it still gives you goosebumps when you watch it. Maybe i am a little less impressed because i have watched some of the classic Hollywood gangster movies like goodfellas and set the bar too high..
Watch the movie for its extremely realistic treatment,Haunting Musical score and of course for Kamal's amazing performance.
p.s If you are into gangster movies, Watch American Gangster. Superb movie with a lot of similarities with Nayagan.

Fight Club (David Fincher)

Fight club is by far one of the most unique and amazing films i have seen.... Superb haracterisations,amazing dialogues and very clever. This film for me excels in every aspect of film making. Its a tough job to hook your senses completely from the very first scene, but director Davi Fincher does this with ease. And not only that,he takes you deeper and deeper into the warped world of the narrator (Edward Norton in an amazingly complex role which he pulls off quite effortlessly) and his sadistic sociopath friend(Brad Pitt who is superb) .Helena Bonham Carter appears here and there in the movie but has no long lasting impact.......
The main advantage Fight club has over the other violence films is that it has a very neat script and a very very good twist........ if you thought the twist in Usual Suspects was good just wait and watch this..... another amazing part is the very clever dialogue and dark humour....
So final verdict - Just fu%$#$ watch the movie........ You will learn from it......
p.s One of my favourite dialogues from the movie
Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.
 

Hats off to UTV

If you notice in the starting credits for Aamir there is a note of thanks for one
Neill Dela Llana and Ian Gamazon...... these 2 are not random names.... they are the writers of the original of Aamir which is a filipino film called 'Cavite'........So I would really like to congratulate UTV because its the first movie house which has taken pains to get the rights of a hollywood film unlike the Bhatts and Abbas-Mustan whose every film is ripped from some hollywood movie...
Great work UTV...........

Aamir (Rajkumar Gupta)

Very often we expect a lot when we watch a movie,and most often we get dissapointed(Ex Tashan) and sometimes we have zilch expectations about a movie and it turns out to be very good. Aamir is a very good example of the latter.I had hoped that the film would be as good as the soundtrack but its gone one better on the soundtrack. A very compact thriller which keeps you on your seats till the end.Though the story gets predictable in the final moments,there is no other way the film could have culminated. You might feel that Aamir (Rajeev Khandelwal in a role that fits him like a glove..)
should have run and thrown the suitcase with the bomb far away in to the sea but that sort of thing does not happen in real life......This film is an incredible slice of life itself and is totally believable more so due to the great emotions potrayed by Rajeev. 
Go watch this movie even if it means spending 200 bucks in the multiplex.... We will understand what cinema is all about only if we watch movies like Aamir....

Things i loathe

1)The autos and the bajaj chetaks who seem to take almost an eternity to give space to overtake(especially the chetaks with the whole family on them i.e dad,mom,a small boy standing in the front and a baby in the mother's arms......sheesh)

2)People picking their noses in public.....

3)The power going off exactly when the song you have been wanting for a week is about to be downloaded...

4)People in second class compartments of trains telling us to adjust in our own seats...... I just hate that....(mostly happens in trains between Bangalore and Chennai.......)

5)Being in a state of perpetual Deja vu...... Its the state of mind I am in when I give exams.....

6)People who hate the movie Fight club (not the shitty hindi one)

7)People who liked the movie Fight club(now its the shitty hindi one)

8)The fact that SOAD split up.......

Aamir (Amit Trivedi-soundtrack)

When i heard that tv superstar Rajeev Khandelwal is going to make his debut in some obscure thriller i was very happy and surprised...... I have always thought that Rajeev is a very good actor and thought he deserved to get better rols than the ones he's been doing till now....
So i downloaded Aamir's soundtrack with curiosity. What i heard has simply blown me away... Mehfuz is an amazing sufi track with great vocals.... If i had not seen the music director's name i could have sworn that it was rahman.... Phas gaya with its different albeit superb song structure is my pick of the album. Brilliantly developed. I was not very happy with Haara but more than happy with all the other songs....... so i go with 5/5 for Amit Trivedi's Aamir I just hope the film is as good as the soundtrack........

The Shawshank Redemption(Movie)

I am really bugged today so am posting a review of an inspiring movie.... Inspiring is the perfect word to describe this outrageosly good piece of cinema
The film moves forward towards the climax so smoothly that you are left thinking 'oh has the movie ended already??'. The performances are so good that you really feel for the characters. Its consistently in the top 2 of imdb's top 250 films of all time. That shows how much people loved this movie. Its a shame that this movie dint win any oscars(the oscars for the year of its release were swept by forrest gump.... another superb movie)
Rating 5/5
Do yourself a favour,watch Shawshank Redemption.....

Pulp Fiction(Movie)

Now this is what i call a great movie..... i am sure every new-age director who is worth his salt will be influenced by Tarantino's style of film making. This movie catapulted him to superstardom. It even resurrected the sagging careers of bruce willis and John Travolta Cool movie with amazing sequences and dialogue.... The music used in the film is also very apt. Cool music for a cool movie.
i think this is one of those select num of movies which can be watched over and over again.......
Rating-4/5
p.s watch reservoir dogs. Its tarantino's first movie and its also really cool with unbelievable dialogues and memorable scenes.........who can forget the ear cutting scene???

Race(Movie)

So another remake of a B grade hollywood film with loads of sex and scheming....... This film is so bad that its actually quite enjoyable to watch it. I know twists are the essential part of a thriller movie,but if only twists make up a movie it becomes a tad too tough to comprehend......
The movie has some cool music and some amazing girls (a perfect teen fantasy)
A perfect movie for a matinee show with college friends.......
Rating- 2.5/5 Some of the dialogues are quite cool.........

Tashan(Movie)

Tashan means style.... so i thought that i would be watching a somewhat stylish flick with a reasonable storyline and some good stunts and dialogues. Mind you i was not expecting pulp fiction(i mean who would????from yashraj???no way) but the movie really surprised me,not in a positive way but in a negative way....... i have never watched a more crappier film than tashan. What were the producers thinking when they okayed this script????

So to keep it short and sweet, if you want a stylish thriller where assasins chase robbers rent a dvd of pulp fiction.......... save for the 4 odd mins of the song were kareena exposes everything like a B grade actress who would do anything for a role,i consider my 100rs gone down the drain....

rating-stay far away from the theatres........or on second thoughts go for the AC(its summer time)