Thoughts on 'Boyhood' and the films of Richard Linklater

Before Sunrise introduced Richard Linklater to me. I watched it 8 years back by the time I started to break free from mainstream movies and delved into foreign films, period films, Art and Independent cinema. Actually, Mr. IMDB recommended it to me (People who liked Notting Hill also like Before Sunrise and Before Sunset). It was unlike any other films that I’d seen. Yes, I’d seen our Woody Allen’s films where he always talk and talk and blabber and talk right from psychology to nature to religion to relationship to ‘men are from mars and women are from venus’ to communism to world war to dating to French women to Italian artistry to film making to smoking to claustrophobia to kids to anarchism to narcissism to nihilism to New York to Manhattan till life. Either Woody or his lead actor/ actress will be dominant on-screen and make the other party numb/ dumb/ weak in the conversation. Here, in Linklater’s films, two lives talk their heart and soul out. This is what makes his movies (Linklater’s artistic works aren’t just movies, but yeah, I don’t have a term to suit up for this argument) a special one. A man and a woman just don’t talk about love and relationship. They talk life itself.

Now, my fellow movie buffs will wage a war against me for leaving out the films of Jean Luc Godard where the male-female conversation has always had a huge part. The conversation between the Hero and Heroine, right from the road to her apartment room in Breathless (1960), the silent stands scene of the trio from Bande à part (1964) and Post-sex/ sleepover conversation between the writer and his girlfriend in Le mépris (1963) are classic without a doubt. On a deeper perspective, the dialogues, conversation and the theme of their speech would be way too abstract, sketched, impulsive, highly cerebral, Kafkaesque or tough to connect. I feel, maybe, the French-to-English subtitle translation of Godard films might’ve lost/ added a different context to the narration. Isn’t it? But we all owe a big time to these French folks for many things. The Inception of subtitling, Coffee& Cigarettes combination, new cinematic frames, wonderful filmmakers and last but not least their film noir.

Back to Linklater, from his popular Before series, I moved to Dazed and Confused. It came to me as surprise package in a period where I was watching classic coming-of-age films like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Breakfast Club, The 400 Blows, Stand by me,  Rushmore, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Dead Poets Society etc.. The life lessons that one can take from the coming-of-age films, man, it’s unexplained. They must be termed as a coming-of-life films, I say. This is applicable to Boyhood too.

And then his Tape, a typical high school reunion of three friends that builds up to heated, traumatic conversation and drastic actions. It’s similar to the type of domestic trauma, tension and heat that develops amongst the characters from Asghar Farhadi’s films like A Separation, About Elly, Fireworks Wednesday and The Past.

Next comes School of Rock, which I’d seen on HBO and thoroughly enjoyed. It made me to watch Linklater and Jack Black combo again in Bernie, a wonderful ‘based on a true story’, black comedy about a charming criminal and a murderer. Bernie is Linklater’s take on black comedy at its best. I progressed to Waking life, next. Even though it was thematically, philosophically, morally inclined at heights beyond my consciousness and understanding, the grasp and sniff of it, like a dope, made me go high and elated. Must re watch it again, someday.

All this led to my 5-year hunt for a good print of Slacker (1991), the film that mapped Linklater at Sundance and the film world, which was unavailable for years, until our dear, beloved, doer of good deeds, grand Uncle Mr. Criterion Collection restored it in a gorgeous Blu-ray. Sudden encounters, hookup, walk by, pop-in, drop-in, checking up, going-out etc…happen amidst the Texan population and the characters discuss right from poop to weed to accident to love to death to science to Scooby Doo to Meta physics to mattress to burglary to world war to what not. Slacker is a full course meal which will make your stomach and mind full for months.

Coming to Boyhood, 12 years in the making, it traces the life of a boy from age 6 to 18. We witness not just this boy, but his father, guardian, mother, friend, sister, grandma, grandpa and various important folks in the boy’s life, for the entire 12 years. Like us, he experiences everything that one needs to experience in their 6 to 18s. Right from pestering elder sister, childhood friend, new school, shifting homes, first crush, mom-dad fights, first porn, kiss, night out, party, inspiring school teacher, finding the true calling and passion, junior school, senior school and college etc... Linklater loves to play with them.

Unlike the movies where we witness characters unfolding over time (In films like Cameron Crowe’s Almost famous, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage, Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, Anurag Kashypa’s Gangs of Wasseypur, Jim Carrey’s Truman Show, to name a few) in Linklater’s films we see time unfolding the characters. Time revolves at the apex of his narrative content and everything / everyone ( including the plot / story ) around it. All his films are such a piece of art.

One might say that Boyhood doesn't have a proper story, but yo!, the movie unfolding right in front of your eyes and trailing these characters life itself is a one helluva story, I say. Right from the Coldplay track, Beatles reference, life lessons from father Hawke, emotional outburst of busy/ working mom, Gameboy, Nintendo, Wii, Big ass desktop computer, flip mobile phones, long hair style, retro t-shirts, film roll camera, faded denims, art obsession, the traces from his life’s early 2000 till 2013 were aesthetically captured.

Being a late 80s kid, I would already feel nostalgic with 90s reference, but Linklater made me even more sad and nostalgic by showing early 2000s and 2010s as a flash of sweet memory and dejavu. This make me wonder, yell and ask myself ‘Man, Am I getting fucking old and aged?’ Dammit. Fuck You Linklater. I am in my prime 25s and your films makes me to feel old already and think like mid-30s. Fuck you, seriously.

One must see Boyhood as the gateway to Linklater’s films. Watch it first and then move on to his other films. As discussed above, Linklater has a foot print in coming of a̶g̶e̶ life, romance, Life philosophy, dark comedy, animation (A Scanner darkly & Waking life) and what not. So enter Boyhood and pick your favorite department/ DVD later on.  I would like to discuss more and more about Boyhood and the profound impact it had on me, but at the same time I don’t want to spoil your movie watching experience.

Boyhood is a new landmark and a remarkable achievement, not just in film making, but on the whole cinematic process itself. There is a little piece of life in every poem, art, essay, music and movies. And there is Richard Linklater's Boyhood as the collective sum. Experience this delicatessen that will serve you the real meaning of existence with a cocktail blend of time, life and emotions, unveiling right in front of your very eyes and get lost in its serenity and gargantuan beauty.

Not really, but miiiiiiiiild mild plot spoiler alert, in the following lines. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt your morale so read on.

Now that I’d seen Boyhood from 6 to 18 and the frames ceased out right when he enters the college, 2 decades from now I would love to sit in front of my home theatre and watch Boyhood sequel that traces his life from college to adult to relationship to marriage to kids. Oh wait. I’d already seen that in his Before Sunrise, Sunset & Midnight Trilogy. Holy, You fucking Linklater. What, man? Is this a prequel to Before trilogy?

And Hey, the only thing that I’d missed witnessing or I would’ve loved watching in Boyhood is his pet and a death of his closed one. Had Linklater touched upon the Pet and human/animal loss, would that have been even better or worse or Clichéd?... And that’s how I start/ strike a random conversation, with you, my stranger/friend/reader, like a character from Linklater’s films.

Kochadaiiyaan - My thoughts

So Kochadaiyaan has been watched, Finally. 

If you’re the guy who yells “Dei, this is the first epic novel attempt in the Indian cinema of the Tamil cinema with Rajinikanth and this is a Marana mass, theri story of the motion capture blah blah blah.. How dare you talk about Thalaivar, Dei ne oru….” Please kindly stop reading this post further and move the F on. If you want some fun, pun and jolly post about Kochadaiiyaan. Go on. HEAVY PLOT SPOILER ALERT.

Ever since they started the project, so many had double and triple face palm moments. Cheers, me too bro. When the first teaser poster of Kochadaiiyaan was released with ruthra thandavam looks resembling the book cover of The Immortals of Meluha, my mindvoice was exactly the same as George Clooney's from Gravity. Remember his opening dialogue in the film ? “Houston in the blind, Houston in the blind, I have a bad feeling about this mission”.

Here goes the plot. Kochadaiiyaan is a successful, much loved warrior of Naseer's county. His popularity and fame makes the king Naseer to go jealous and evil on him. Kochadaiiyaan and team has been tactically attacked and captivated as slaves. Our poor Kochadaiiyaan fellow is left cornered and helpless. Naseer sentences him to death calling a traitor and betrayer. Kochadaiiyaan is beheaded (Hum Game of Thrones sad theme). (2^nd Half) 

His son Rana escapes to the enemy’s city, grows up there, becomes the Thalapthi (captain) of opposite army. Frees the slave who are his own country men, makes them to join in the army and takes them back to their own county to avenge Naseer for killing his father. He gets caught red handed by Plastic Padukone while he attempts to kill Naseer, her father. Rana is sent to jail for this. (1^st Half)

(Climax) HAHAHAHAHAH. LOLOLOLOLOL. (Ok, stops laughing). Thalaivar Rana escapes Jail, killing not some poor animated security guards but few leopards, tigers, cheetah or some dog fucked wolf face creature (Not sure if that creature has been animated by Irandam Ulagam animators). Whatever. He returns to the battlefield, kills Naseer and JOCKEY Shroff. While he attempts to kiss our Plastic Padukone and grope her improvised anime butt, douche bag bro Sena, comes outta nowhere, whose sworn duty is to protect Naseer, arrives to the scene like the delayed Policeman entry to crime scene in Tamil movies. We get a Thodarum (To be continued…) card there.

“WTF, Dei, Adanga…!!” Is that what you feel. Cheers. Same feeling mate.

I thought that the crisp run-time of 2 hours was really good. But again, that crisp run-time was ruined with frequent, useless songs like the ones from Thiagaraja Bagavathar films. Hero arrives. Song1. Countrymen claps. Song 2. Hero, Heroine looks at each other. Song 3. Marriage. Song 4. Past story sequence. Song 5. Sad feeling. Song 6. Happy comeback feelings. Song 7. DEEII. Songs has been misused and Rahman’s craft hasn’t used properly. Paavam poor ARR. 

Many of them were raving that KS Ravikumar has done justice to the screenplay. I was like, Dude WTF. Even Hanuman or Chotta Bheem or some Tamil Aesop fable has the same shit. To me, it seemed like this current plot of Kochadaiiyaan is the least script writing work one could do, just for the heck of it. If you are really into fantasy stories of dynasty, do watch Game of Thrones. Being a big fan of Game of Thrones series, I can’t stop myself connecting and noticing the similarities, I am not saying that it’s inspired and intentional, I just found it so funny. Imagine Kochadaiiyaan (Ned Stark) – Beheaded by the Mad King (Joffrey). Rana (Arya Stark & Daenerys Targaryen)  sees his father’s beheading, runs to JOCKEY Shroff's county to free the unsullied slaves and he makes them to join the army. Only nudity, wine and blood shed of GOT series missing. Guess they spared it for procuring a 'U' Certificate from Indian censor board.

They’d reincarnated the legendary Tamil comedian Nagesh in the movie. Yes, I did loved it. One big positive note in this overly ambitious stupidosaus project. The guy who had given voice and typical Nageshesque gestures had really done well. Ho! Did Sarath Kumar was also a part of the cast, I thought he just gave voice for Naseer’s son’s character, as the animated figure looked like the face of actor Prem from Krodham (Remember the one who looks like a cross between our Gaptun VijayaKanth and yesteryear Thillu Mullu Rajinikanth) or Suresh Babu of Annamalai fame. One of my friend told that "Idha Sarath Kumar na appo Raadhika va kalyanam pannadhu yaaru!"

Naatiya Peroli Rukimini (Kana Kangiren Kana Kangiren Kannalaney..) is casted Kocha's daughter and Nadana Thaaragai Shobana as Kocha’s wife. Well that some what makes sense, No?. Similar facial looks, both of them are dancers, easy to animate, one inflated figure and another one deflated figure. Deepika Plastic Padukone animation was like the strip down minion version of Kim Kardarshian and by any chance, was Shobana animation is inspired from Savitha Bhabhi comics?. Boo.               

Kochadaiiyaan's character animation looked like a topless, angry Toshiro Mifune, a mandai with a big kondai and a dark skin texture. He is an ardent follower of Lord Shiva, intro with Ruthra Thandavam dance and all. Edit that dark skin to white color palette, apply smiles, rajini’s grace, change hairstyle. Boom. We get Rana. WoW. Now magnetic lasso cut the face, add a beard and long hair. Boom. We get his bro Sena. Yo!

Rajini’s grace and facial looks, being both the save face and decoy for bringing in the audience crowd, the makers of Kochadaiiyaan tried their best in getting the graphics right in Rajini’s face as real as possible. Compared to the worst menial, mediocre, shitty graphics throughout the whole movie, Rajini’s face (Rana) was somewhat saved and spared, I would say.

Why use a (Loose or lost) Motion capture picture in the first place when you can’t capture neither the motion nor the emotion of characters? The big lecture on motion capture during the start and ending of the film is even more nauseating and irritating than the typical “Naan thaan Mukesh..” Hey foreign folks, check this "Naan thaan Mukesh." video. It’s fucking hilarious and creepy as well.  Statutory warning ad played before each and every film in Indian theater, as a government and film chamber’s rule.

The lecture on the technology, to me, felt like a gentle disclaimer card that goes like “Yo Homies, we wanted to do some serious pioneer, motion capture animation stuff with big actors. We neither had prior experience nor huge budget like Hollywood films but did our best, which is shitty and worst. So please shut the fuck up, pay Rs. 120 or 150 (If you’re in Chennai, Pune or Hyderabad) Rs. 500 – Rs. 700 or One Kidney ( If you’re in Banglore or Mumbai) and watch this 2D, 3D piece of shit and walk off home praising and singing the hymns of Thalaivar. Rajini IN DA HOUSE” (Try and read this again with Hiphop, rap style song)            

Being a big fan of animation films and the recent motion capture technology, I can’t stop watching the film and getting my cornea ruptured. The makers could have done justice by making it as a good Animation film and adding the voice overs of Rajini, Nagesh, Naseer and others. Remember how Robin Williams voiced for Genie character in Aladdin, Tom Hanks voiced for Woody in Toy story, Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway voiced for Rio 1 & Rio 2 etc..

Indian animation films, though very less, few like Arjun: The warrior Prince, Kashyap’s Return of Hanuman, Hanuman and even Fantastic Mr. Fox styled Roadside Romeo had some good animation. Again, I know the budget constraints for an Indian movie and I am not comparing Kochadaiiyaan with Avatar, Tintin, Planet of the Apes or Gravity but.. Man.. rather than making a shitty motion capture with hard work and big budget, why not make an excellent animation film with the same budget and work. Even Soundarya Rajinikanth, the director, has a good experience on animation works, I guess. In another case take Selvaraghavan’s Aayirathil oruvan or Kamal’s Dasavatharam for example. They attempted to narrate a Tamil mythological fiction, best used the graphics wherever necessary and made their best they could. (Don’t expect me to talk about Selva’s Irandam ulagam. I ordered a MIB Style Neuralyser to forget the gory moment and movie experience).

To the fellows who make mokka Chuck Norris jokes on Rajinikanth (without even knowing the reference), you can laugh your ass off during the animation fight scenes saying “Abhe Yaar Rajinikanth beats 5 villains at a time and make them fly both in animation and real feature films. Hilarious LOL ROFL”.  Poda dei, you accept the same if Salmon Bhai, SWAG Rukh Khan, Jr. NTR, Nagorjuna and Ravi Taja does the same in Hindi and Telugu movies, No?. Same KOMMERCIAL formula for us. Yeah, racial and linguistic pun in-un-intended. English pesnaalum tamizhan da. Ada Poda!

Having said all this, let me confess. I somewhat liked and enjoyed this movie. Yes, you read that right. I know it will sound sarcastic but its not. I liked it as guilty pleasure of sorts, obviously, for watching Thalaivar Rajini's gestures, moves and hearing some of his trademark punch-packed one liners, after long time. And yes, in a bomma padam which could've still been enjoyable even if it has been done by perfect voice impersonation artists or mimics like Robo Shankar, Siva Karthikeyan or Lollu Sabha Jeeva. There, I said it.

Thalaivar rocks. Period. This time it’s just an experimental, high jump slip between his over enthusiastic daughter and an unexpected commercial slaughter. Baba type legacy, it seems. He He.

Her - Love & emotions of the faceless & voiceless

Can you fall in love with someone whom you might not have known fully? Well, Yes, It depends.

Can you fall in love with someone whom you might not have seen? Oh..!! Yeah, may be.

Can you fall in love with someone who might not even be real or alive? Huh!! Oh Wait. WHAT?

"Falling in love is a crazy thing to do. It's like a socially acceptable form of insanity" – This is Director Spike Jonze’s response to the previous question via his character Amy played by Amy Adams in the film ‘HER’.

Plot spoiler alert: Set in the futuristic Los Angeles, HER is the romantic tale of Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix)  who works for BeautifulHandWrittenLetters.com as letter writer #612 (Satire for identify & existential crisis in a corporate, capitalized environment). He is a loner, antisocial and has an only friend/ neighbor Amy who wants be a documentary film-maker but struck in a game developer job. Theodore struggles on his divorce with his wife Catherine (Rooney Mara) and ends up falling in love with his new, highly intuitive, advanced, Artificial Intelligent Operating System OS1 Samantha (Voiced by Scarlett Johnson).

Unlike Robin William’s 'Bicentennial Man', Steven Spielberg’s 'Artificial Intelligence', Minority Report or any other Sci-fi films, the Human-Computer interaction in HER doesn’t seem plastic, unreal and unnatural. OS1 Samantha doesn’t act/ voice like a robot/slave rather she extends herself and keep on learning, growing, evolving more and more during her perpetual existence which most of our human kind fails to address or achieve. It can be well observed when she voices down about her experiences, wishes and expectations to Theodore. ‘I want to know everything about everything’, she says. Spike Jonze trolls the entire humanity and mankind with the rhetoric questions, deductions and conclusions, as the voice of Samantha. Those Cliché Philosophical annotations, existential questions asked by Samantha to Theodore doesn't seem like the questions that a stupid AI device ask the humans in the most silly, rhetoric and childish way. Samantha sounds humanly rich and very much alive like  complex homo sapiens.

Spike Jonze’s touch and stroke to the characters and the aura that entire movie has in itself is remarkable. Theodore as a letter writer in a futuristic world seems like a straight ode/ tribute to the professional letter writers/ messengers who used to sit in common places, transport service stations and help people with writing letters, passing written messages etc... Remember the old lady from Walter Salles Central Station movie? One might come across similar characters in Italian Neo-realism films, historic and World war films.

Being a Sci-fi, fantasy film the beauty of HER lies in the way it connects with its audience. Just like how the OS1 Samantha seduces Joaquin Phoenix in a particular conversation, Spike Jonze seduces us, draws us close, soaks deep down into the film and makes us to fall in love with HER, irrecoverably. The conversations between Joaquin Phoenix and OS Samantha has been penned really well. Plenty of dialogues strike a deep chord in heart.

It’s truly heartwarming and thought provoking to hear the characters uttering dialogues like ‘The Past is the story we tell ourselves’, ‘What it feels like to share your life with someone’, ‘This beautiful piece of music is our photograph together’, ‘You’re beautiful’, ‘I wish I could touch you’, ‘ I feel like I can be anything with you’. The scene where Catherine finds out that Theodore is in a relationship with his computer OS and says "You're dating your computer? ...You always wanted to have a wife without the challenges of actually dealing with anything real”, it is definitely a slap on face for many. The Moon song that Scarlet Johnson sings to the music of Theodore is such a sweet melody/ lullaby that you would ever hear since your childhood. The scene where Theodore searches to find Samantha will shake you upside down, like a father trying to find a lost child or a soul searching for his lost love.

During the climax, when the screen fades out to black, brace yourself, you will definitely start weeping and beware, you might hallucinate the closest electronic device to you (Your laptop or TV or Smartphone) trying to console you and pass a napkin or Hanky to wipe your tears.

HER wrenches your heart, makes you weep and you’ll keep on searching within yourself, probing loads of questions with a daunting feel that Theodore gets when he loses Samantha all of a sudden. Spike Jonze, just like in his previous films ‘Adaptation’, ‘Where the Wild things are’ and ‘Being John Malkovich’, has created a dystopian world within HER where one would long and dare to go, live and love.

Having said that, HER has a heart, soul, an aura, an ambiance, a silence, a sheer touch of sense and sensibility within itself that most of the Sci-fi or Romance drama films lacked big time. To my knowledge, the last time that a Sci-fi, fantasy films had so much of heart and romance was in ‘Wall-E’, ‘Robert & Frank’ and Michael Gondry's ‘Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind’. Though the OSCAR panel failed to recognize Joaquin Phoenix’s acting skills, I am happy that HER is nominated for Best Picture, Best screenplay, Best original song, Best original score and Best production design. I wish it fetches and deserves more and more awards and accolades. HER releases by February 14^th Valentine’s Day, in most parts of the world. Go watch it in theaters and it would be the best Valentine’s Day that you could gift someone or in a better state to yourself.

After all, if you want to know/ feel the love and pain of being with someone remotely, emotionally, virtually, verbally conversing with someone who doesn't exist near/ next to you, the one whom you miss in the best and worst of your times… Go talk to someone true in a long distance relationship for years. You’ll almost hear and feel the same story.

P.S. Don’t forget to check this intense discussion post about HER’s gorgeous production design and parody videos, spoof skits of HER.

Confessions of a Lucia addict

In accordance with my prejudiced stupidity, I’d always assumed that the world of Kannada films has always remained hidden, dented and tainted (term courtesy Abhijit Mukherjee) for the film buffs mainly because of their utter crappy, howlarious, masala films and lack of English subtitles. I’d even wondered why there was not even one single good Kannada film that came out remarkably well whereas Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali and even some commercial Telugu film names made good rounds on the best regional movies list, among the Indian audience. To relieve me from this stereotypical notion, Lucia came out of the blue, like the magic pill that the hero of the film consumes.

*Plot Spoiler Alert*

I started hearing about this crowd-funded Kannada Indie ‘Lucia’ in my Facebook and Twitter feeds when reviews broke out and filled my whole timeline during its release. An Insomniac movie theater usher consumes a colorful ‘Lucia’ pill that helps him to lucid dream, live the dream and also rest well. His reality looks like a total sarcasm to his dream life which goes to an extent where he prefers living his dream but not his reality. His dream-scape crashes down, reality fades and engulfs in a scenario where he gets lost in the sane line between his dream and reality. What makes and takes Lucia to the next big level is its stunning ‘third act’ that will leave you perplexed and get your minds blown away into nanos.

All it takes to succeed in a mystery and psychological thriller is the third act, one stunning Abracadabra third act, to win the audience heart. One can define this by Syd field’s Three-act structure in screenwriting but as a film buff, I would like to go the Nolan way of Three-act structure approach as inferred in The Prestige.

Three parts of a magic trick while performing a ‘disappearing bird trick’ for a little girl.

First, there's "The Pledge," where the magician shows you something ordinary, like a bird.

            - The director introduces us an Insomniac lead, a roadside Romeo and his ground reality.

Then, there's "The Turn," where he does something extraordinary, like make the bird disappear.

             - The dream sequence of him as a prodigy figure.

But this isn't enough.

There always has to be a third act, "The Prestige," where you have a twist, and bring the bird back, before the audience will clap.

           - In Lucia, the Twist and The Prestige is when director/ writer Pawan kumar stuns us with the miraculous third act of the STORY where he push us, audience, along with his story and characters to get lost in limbo state where a whole new story unfolds.

Icing to this spectacular screenplay and colorful cinematography (dreams in black and reality in colors, wow) is the crisp editing and beautiful melodies, songs that doesn't bore the creep out of us. The lead actors along with the total cast has performed soulfully. What I liked most about Lucia is its high attention towards the slightest detailing over the subject. Take any random frame and watch it closely, you can sense the level of perfection and visualization that Pawan kumar has conceptualized. It will seem that he’d kept the narrative scenes simple but yet it consumes and draws the audience fully in and force us to lucid dream until the end.

In mystery and psychological thriller genre, there are directors who prefers giving minimal details or no detail and others who loves to give all sorts of clues and details and still leave us boggled. Pawan fits the second set. I liked the same with films of legends like Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Darren Aronofsky and Christopher Nolan. There is no random, fast, fading cuts over the details that he gives us. Instead he is happy to furnish and throw everything open and still keep us interested, engaged and guessing ‘What next?’. This proves how Pawan is confident and tough enough about his script.  

Shades, patterns, cuts and signatures of popular Hollywood and sci-fi films can be traced in Lucia but its restricted only to the shots, cuts and tonal color of the film but not the concept and writing. So many netizens brand Lucia as ‘Inception of India’ ‘Indianized Inception’ ‘India’s reply to Inception’ ‘Blah Blah Blah of Inception’, NO it’s not. Inception is class apart, so as Lucia, in its own standards. Recently I’ve watched two mesmerizing, black & white Indie, psychological thrillers The Untitled Karthik Krishnan project and Kshay. Both of the films have their own level of standards and wonderful art/ experiment tag branded to it but they were successful as well. A year back Eega was praised for the same reason, in commercializing the Sci-fi concept well and feeding it with perfect regional and Indian flavor thereby delighting the entire audience. Lucia took not just a step forward but a giant leap in all aspects such as production values, crowd funding, conceptualizing, acting, making, distributing etc..

Feeling good that Lucia is being well received by the audience and making good rounds in various film festivals. Also the Tamil and Telugu remake rights of the film has been procured by the revolutionary, new wave Tamil film producer C.V. Kumar of Pizza and Soodhu Kavvum fame. To my limited knowledge, Lucia is one of best Sci-fi Indian Indie with all the aspects of so-called ‘Indian commercial cinema’. Lucia is a unique product/ pill, for the fellow movie buffs, which makes us not just lucid dream about watching a standard and successful Indie but to make one. Director Pawan Kumar has not just shaken the traditional film making model of Kannada/ Indie films but totally stirred it. Bravo.

P.S. You can pay a minimal price and legally watch it online here. Please support Independent film makers.

Here’s my favorite films on the genre of dreams, lucid dreaming, surrealism, hallucination and mind-fuckery.

1. 2001: A Space odyssey & Eyes wide shut by Stanley Kubrick
2. Holy Motors by Leos Carax
3. Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind & The Science of sleep by Michael Gondry
4. Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen
5. Jacob’s ladder by Adrian Lyne
6. The Day he arrives by Sang-soo Hong
7. Dark city by Alex Proyas
8. Being John Malkovich by Spike Jonze
9. Kshay by Karan Gour
10. Inception by Christopher Nolan
11. Abre les Ojos (Vanilla sky) by Alejandro Amenábar
12. The Machinist by Brad Anderson
13. Mullholland Drive, & Lost Highway by David Lynch
14. The Untitled Karthik Krishnan project by Srinivas Sunderrajan
15. Gandu by Q A.K.A Qaushiq Mukherjee
16. Fight club & by David Fincher
17. After life (2009) by Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo
18. Enter the void by Gaspar Noé
19. Antichrist by Lars von Trier
20. The Matrix trilogy by Wachowski brothers
21. Persona by Ingmar Bergman
22. Waking life by Richard Linklater
23. Requiem for a Dream, Pi & Black swan by Darren Aronofsky
24. Videodrome by David Cronenberg
25. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie & The Exterminating Angel by Luis Buñuel.
26. Tasher Desh by Q
27. Melancholia by Lars von Trier
28. Synecdoche, New York by Charlie Kaufman

Yet to watch (Just a short list)

1. Dreams by Akira Kurosawa
2. Mood Indigo by Michael Gondry
3. Solaris by Andrei Tarkovsky
4. Perfect Blue by Satoshi Kon
5. Thirst by Park Chan-wook
6. Eraserhead & Inland Empire by David Lynch
7. Crash, eXistenz & Naked lunch by David Cronenberg
8. The City of Lost Children & Delicatessen by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

Lists goes on and on, just like my quest and thirst of watching quality films. 

Lootera – Totally loots the hearts.

Lootera comes from a guy who did his schooling at Sanjay Leela Bhansali public school and graduated from Anurag Kashyap University. Vikramaditya Motwane’s debut Udaan is based on Anurag Kashyap’s life story.  Udaan’s plot deals with a expelled teenage guy who has no choice in life than to stick with his tyrant father until he takes a giant leap in his life. Each and every one of us could relate to this movie, in some frame, especially the ones stayed in boarding schools and stayed away from home during their teen phase. It was selected to compete in Cannes under Un certain regard category and won a cult status globally. Udaan will leave you spellbound with a triumphant smile and simultaneously with an ecstatic tear and a heavy heart. His Lootera, a poignant period drama, does almost the same but on a different emotional note.

The film opens with a subtle, untold note which one could hum themselves as ‘Once upon a time, long, long ago, there lived a beautiful princess called Pakhi Roy Chaudhuri’. The story and premise of Lootera can be stripped down in two lines. After hearing a story about a prince whose life has been locked up inside a parrot, a diseased Zamindari girl believes that she will die on a day when a last leaf falls from a tree. Motwane juxtaposed a good old Indian mythological short story with O’Henry classic ‘The Last leaf’ and baked a whole delicious, saccharine flavored love story under the Bollywood mainstream grammar. He has proven that one can make a successful, sensible and a soulful story without the mainstream clichés and compromise.

Amit Trivedi has composed, sorry, crowd sourced some of the best tones, orchestra & OST from Hollywood and world music. We definitely owe this guy big for bringing in the best world sounds, Indianize few and sync it perfectly. The main theme of Lootera has  been ripped from One day’s theme by Rachel Portman and you can also hear Hans Zimmer’s Time from Inception in a long run before the Intermission. But apart from few rip-offs he has composed few original scores too. Music will make you to linger around the spectacular aura on-screen, captured flawlessly by Mahendra shetty. It will be a treat, for all those who drool and jaw drop for dim lighting yellow, groovy gray and blusih black frames with gorgeous lightings.

All the characters have justified their roles perfectly. Even the ones with limited screen space won’t make you to forget them. It was a great transformation to see Sonakshi Sinha on-screen after all the brainless, sultry skin show roles that she had done right from Dabangg. She sizzles and sets the screen on fire not with her flesh but with her elegant grace and looks dashingly beautiful in a traditional Bengali Saree. From sex siren, item number dancer to an artistic performer, she made quite a great leap and Ranveer Singh is equally good, matching her charisma, paring up with her and rendering an adorable and heartwarming on-screen romance and chemistry.

Lootera is well crafted, passionately sculptured, aesthetically cam-captured, soulfully acted. Like a fairy tale romance, one can witness the magic of pure love story on-screen after ages. I don’t remember the last time I've seen an Indian romance, period drama which is as genuine and as good as Lootera. Not in the recent years at least.

Motwane elevates and transcends you into a whole different era in the first half, immerses you in an ocean of heart wrenching, melancholic emotions in the second half and finally sweeps you off completely in the climax. Amongst the big family tree domination in Bollywood industry, Motwane stands tall, stiff, solo and firm as a masterpiece ‘Last leaf’ amongst Kashyap’s kitties.  

Opening the frame with a small, glowing, hot fire flame and closing it with sad, sorrowful snow at the end, Motwane casted his magic spell throughout the film. Lootera is an original piece art and Motwane, you’re a magician.

This post of mine has been written for movie movieroundup website. You can find it here. 

Thanks to Haricharan for publishing it.

Singam 2 - The Saint, Savior and Superman of Thoothukudi

Yo! I am back after watching SINGAM 2, Bitch!. *Breaking Bad series Jesse tone*

I am fully charged up with blood boiling intensity, tones of audacity and ground-breaking curiosity… DEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!! Adraaaa, VAAAAADAAA, Thoooku raaaa, Paaaaakrayyyaaaaa daa.. DDAAAAAIIIIIII!!!  Never felt this confident, strong, sound and profound even after watching The Dark knight series or the recent Man of Steel. Yay! Our very own Desi Dirty Harry DURAISINGAM is back with a huge ultra heavy ONDRA TON WEIGHT bang this time.

Usually I do blogpost only when I love a movie from the bottom of my heart or hate it and puke it out. But this time I wanted to do a special mention post and write about this Saint, Savior and Superman of Thoothukodi.

Hari is the man with the best local plan. He won’t showcase the use of Macbook pro, Hi-tech devices, flashy gadgets and all in his films rather he makes his SINGAM to use Windows XP, MS-office tools, Google Earth, SMS, Black market pistol, IMEI tracing, Google Maps, Phone signal Jammer, Whatsapp etc.. This man has a particular style, spice, flavor and signature in almost all his movies like Saamy, Arul, Vengai, Aiyaa, Vel, Thamirabarani etc.. No one would've know their roots, people, hometown, railway platforms, bus stand, Flight timings, pump set switch, one way road route, train Tatkal fare, Hotel & Lodge bookings like the way Hari does. I am damn sure about it.

If Kubrick and Spielberg were praised for their attention to detail, our man Hari too deserves the credit, No?. Whatay attention to detail, Man. (Don’t take eggs and tomatoes) If Tarantino has some signature scenes (violence and bloody massacre) and stereotyped shots like his very famous Trunk shot, our Hari has his own shots like Mass murder in marriage hall, 144 notice bandhobasth sequence, gang riots, caste clashes, Top angle crane shot and Helicopter cam, Aerial view, Hunt down in Harbor, Flight landing close-ups, Bus & car bombing,  lorry flying, Planting drug and arresting, property round fight with Kovil mani and Kuthu vilaku, sketch pottu thukradhu, Retta paalathu kita vetradhu, otrai sandhukulla odradhu, Murugan textiles pink and blue costumes, Small town girl’s adamant love etc.. 

I felt so many goosebumps, lightening, thundering instances and jumping-from-seats Jhapak moments while watching SINGAM 2. In one scene where Surya utters a continuous English dialogue and slams his desk yelling ‘Power of Indian police’, I almost spilled my Soda on an Aaya sitting in front row. The only saving face of Singam 2 is that it’s not as horrendous or crappy as SalmOn Khan's Dabbang franchise or Ajay DevBUM's Himmatwala remake or PAAn Kalyan’s Gabbar Singh. No, I ain’t a linguistic or a demographic or a cultural racist. Even we Tamil folks have our very own Korathi's Siruthai and Hoax Pandiyan, VishOl's Vedi, Sathyam and all, I agree. 

I wish Singam 3 is made starring not 2 but 3 glamorous malgova Heroines with Surya getting transferred to Hong Kong police department, taking help of Malyasian special squad, beating the hell outta Mexican drug lord and outsmarting Scotland yard, NYPD & LAPD. INDIAN POLICE DA. Paaaaakrya daa. Bet katryaaa da. Paaru Da. Weight pannu da.

Do some 100 push ups, run/ jog few kms, stuff your ears with sponge, wear a tight T-shirt and Boot, Take a dumbbell and march to a nearby heavily crowded local theater with sweat, shit and piss stained aroma and watch SINGAM 2. You’ll definitely like it. I did the same and quite liked and enjoyed it actually, though I needed an Aspirin later on.

First half tests your acoustic decibel level, second half tests your patience, tolerance level and Climax was like GTA Vice city Miami or Malibu episode. With league of extra-ordinary gentleman cast, safe-face Santhanam, a black villain like GTA's Lance Vance, Thoothukodi cashew macroon shaped Hansika in School costume; SINGAM 2 is the TRANSFORMERS OF THOOTHUKODI with SUPERMAN DURAISINGAM SURYA as the OPTIMUS PRIME carrying the supreme energy of the Spark cube in his rugged game face. 

And yeah, there is some fundamental Vastu and Feng-shui problem if you shoot a climax in ship, no?. Thuppaki, Sura .. ain't tat Vijayish.  Oh wait, even Mani Ratnam's Kadal dealing the same problem in climax, Right?. *Scratches head*. Also that Singam dance reminded me of the climax of Madagascar movie where the real singam Alex & friends dances for 'I like to move it move it!' song. 

Yo! Hater pellows, Going to a Hari movie and complaining that it’s too loud, noisy and racy and all is like going to Saravana stores and asking for a Giovani suit or Tommy Hilfiger accessories and ordering Kotthu Parota and Kepan koozhu with Urugai in Hilton hotel, No?. Post the movie, I speeded up my bike to 127.5 kmph and drove home, personally booked a fitness trainer, extended my gym annual membership and placed an order for Ray Ban Black Aviator sunglasses in eBay.

Looks like the dubbed English version of SINGAM 2 i.e. Pacific Rim is releasing next week. But Yo! I don’t mind it even after watching the big hugonomous robot slamming other one with a real big ship in Pacific Rim trailer. I almost had similar moments in SINGAM 2 itself.

*Insert Hans Zimmer’s BWAAAAAAAAHRRRRRRMMM sound from TDKR*

P.S. You won’t believe me. Once the crowd got disbursed after the show, the parking bay gate was still locked and none of the theatre authorities were there to open it. Few guys barged the gate, banged the lock, yelled ‘Ondra ton weight da’, broke the lock and opened the gate. I was like “HOLY SHIT, This movie must be subbed and telecasted in Egypt as an energy booster for their Revolution”. 

DAAAAII!! IDHA SHARE PANRAAAAA. COMMMENT PANRAA. TWEET PANRA.  YENNI EZHE NAAAL LA PADATHA PAAAARDAA. ADINGAAAA!! 

*Takes Bolero jeep and rushes off *

This part of my life... this little part is called HappYness.!!

On June 16, 2013, In a fine Sunday morning, a sweet shocker article about myself appeared in Deccan Chronicle's Chennai Chronicle edition under the title "Movie Buff Goes Places" quoting about my passion for movie watching and my blog posts. I am yet another nano speck of dust in the big universe of Bloggers and Cinemaniacs. Yet, I feel so proud that I was recognized for it. Feeling so positive and inspiring. Now, I understood the seriousness of it and planning to spend more of my time and resources for the same. Thanks to all of you my blog visitors, followers, my virtual buddies, FAM members, Twitteratis, friends and fellow critics for sharing with me your views, opinions and recommending good movies. That dramatic 'The pursuit of Happyness' movie's job offer moment for Chris and 'Nuovo Cinema Paradiso' climax moment for adult Salvatore when he was offered the complete montage of deleted film shots with intimate scenes. *Wipes Happy Tears*

Below is the article that appeared in the newspaper column. Check this Deccan Chronicle's web link for the same.