CineBits_'How Old Are You'

It was my second stab at the regional cinema in the recent times and incidentally both were Malayalam movies. Have watched loads of regional cinema on DD during late 80s,early 90s, when the satellite channels were yet emerging and DD was creative in its own ways as the ‘sky’ is not dictated by the western media tycoons. While ‘Drishyam’ was recommended by an inspirational colleague, and will be remembered for the story telling and for Mohanlal’s awesome performance, ‘How Old Are You’ will be remembered for the tribute to the Indian woman and a superb portrayal by Manju Warrier.

It’s about a middle aged woman, a homemaker in a small town of Kochi and the finer aspects of her life initially dealing with her mundane and unsatisfactory government job, a teenage school going and daunting daughter, a loving but negligent husband, and her tryst with the graying hairs. And then later on the moments which phenomenally change her as a person, regaining her self-respect, confidence, and becoming an entrepreneur, creating rewarding jobs in the neighborhood, and promoting an environment friendly culture.

A must watch for the Déjà Vu with Erin Brokovich and English Vinglish, and an equally compelling performance by Manju, which is her come back movie after a long hiatus of 15 years. And also for the overall feel good factor about India!

Yo&U.....

CineSketch_Begin Again

Size and Scale:

Fits All! ‘Must Watch’ in a theater while you pay for friends and family! Home collection too! 10 on 10!

CineScope:

One of the best Hollywood musicals of recent times. Very successful / talented Dan’s (Mark Ruffalo)  career is nose-diving along side a troubled marriage, making him alcoholic. Gretta (Kiera Knightly) who has devoted her teen / young life for her boyfriend’s career but who has cheated on her. It’s about Dan and Gretta’s struggle and then beginning again successfully in their respective lives with unparallel passion and conviction.

BFB (Bang For the Buck):

Must watch for the songs, for songs Kiera sung and enacted on screen, for Mark Ruffalo‘s drunkard  but a very passionate song producer. For the wonderful chemistry between both of them and for lots of beautiful tracks that will last in your memories forever.

My High!

Incidentally both are songs:

1.       Song ‘A Step You Can't Take Back’: Cut 1: At a bar Gretta was pushed by her friend to sing this even though she is not prepared, and she sings beautifully w/o any supporting instruments. Cut 2 – Dan in the audience at the same bar, the  very moment, heavily drunk, having a great ear for the music, immediately picks up this song, and starts composing it adding and orchestrating various instruments IN HIS MIND. Directorial marvel!  And he thus sees a Superstar in Gretta

2.       Song ‘Like a Fool’: Comes at an emotional turning point in Gretta’s life. Just the light bass guitar, subtle keyboard and Kiera Knightley’s soft but very sad voice and equally deep portrayal of emotions. Unforgettable!

ScreenEsha Speaks:

At least 2 Oscar nominations and most likely a  win at 2015 Academy Awards.

1.       Mark Ruffalo: Best Supporting actor

2.       Best Original Background Score

3.       Best Original Soundtrack from one of the above

4.       Kiera Knightley: May be for the Best Actress

Yo&U......

CineLogs_Apur Panchali

London - Summer of 2014 - It's been a while now being in London and amongst few other key things, one thing that I'm surviving on is the 'Cineworld - Unlimited Card'. One can watch plenty of global cinema at a negligible price. Got to watch a number of Hollywood, Hindi, and Indian regional movies over last 08 odd months but surprisingly, only a few were notable amongst those.

While getting out of the movie hall after watching 'Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya' , well hold-on, I'm not talking about that one here :-)…. So a girl was distributing leaflets in the theatre and unlike every other time when I humbly decline any requests for picking the leaflets, I went over to her and collected one, knowing there's certainly something interesting for me. And I am glad I did that. The leaflet was for the 5th London Indian Film Festival (LIFF), and opened up Pandora of events which proved to be the most memorable week over last one year stay at London. Fortunately in midst of gruelling but containing work week, I could cover 2 movies and 2 interviews . But incidentally it wasn’t planned. The leaflet was actually a small brochure enlisting 12-15 films at various venues in London. And 2 movies definitely caught my attention, one was Apur Panchali and the other one was Hemalkasa, both are coincidentally biopics. Could be because of the themes that interests me about human psyche and emotions as against the Sci-Fi and CGI effect movies.

It was a Monday evening and was on business calls till pretty late, could complete those just on time, and almost ran for the movie - It was Apur Panchali and I was 10 minutes late for a 97 minute movie. The hall at Cineworld Wembley was 70+% full, which was great knowing the movie is in Bengali with English subtitles and that even being first day of the week. Apart from being a biopic, the key reason I chose to watch was the love and respect I've nurtured for Satyajit Ray movies and especially for 'Pather Panchali.' I remember watching most of his movies screened on DD during 1992 after Ray's demise. It was DD's retrospective tribute to one of the most influential movie maker from India, who contributed not just to Indian but towards the World Cinema immensely. So I had real high hopes to see something similar to Ray's 'Body of Work' and to my surprise it was indeed the most captivating movie experience for next 80+ minutes.

The concept itself was very unique , on the real life of Apu - Subir Bannerjee who played the character of Apu in 'Pather Panchali' . The movie is about the elderly Subir Bannerjee in his mid 60's (~2005) and slowly unravelling his pshyche through the lens of a student who's also helping him to get his lost pride /persona back. The story shuffles across 3 levels, 1) the elderly Subir as of today (~2005), 2) his memories about Apu the character in Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar (from a child to young Apu in the trilogy), 3) the actual incidences in Subir's life from childhood to 60s, and which are strikingly similar with the reel life of Apu. Pather panchali which was released in 1955 and instantly became a global phenomenon, gave huge exposure to most of the movie crew including Apu played by Subir. However across all these years surprisingly the only movie in which Subir acted was Pather Panhcali. He couldn’t get selected for Aparajito, while Satyajit Ray was considering him but at the last moment it was given to someone else. And this reality haunted Subir for rest of his life, the fame he garnered at the age of 8-9 remained frozen there, and he had to live a very modest mill-worker initially and a PF officer life in the later part of his life.

The story is about his depression, feeling of a non-achiever, very short lived and lost glory in his childhood, and unfortunate events taking place in Subir'a life which are parallel to Apu's character which are multiplying all his frustrations. We see 2 different actors portraying Subir in Apur Panchali - Ardhendu Bannerjee the older Apu and Parambrata Chatterjee the young Apu. Ardhendu has underplayed the role just to show all the suffocation carried by Subir for almost 50+ years and definitely worth keeping the tone of the character very subtle. Parambrata (inspector in 'B'idya Balan's Kahani) is probably played the role of a lifetime - Showed the emotions with great intensity. Lived Apu in totality. Parno Mitra looks very graceful and loving all the time playing young Apu's wife. Cinematography and music are at a level which definitely resembles and camouflages with the texture of Ray's work.

But the highlight is the script and direction - The very concept and an equally intense presentation is unparallel. Ray's movies are altogether at different level, but Apur Panchali definitely gives any Ray fan a reason to relive those moments. In fact it's more apt to watch all that, than capturing here in the bllg. The first thing I did after getting out of the movie hall was to call Paresh in LV, to discuss about the movie (sheer excitement and nostalgia). Fortunately he is in the decent timezone to get hold of at that moment @9 PM BST. The reason being, we used to watch those art-house dramas and movies together 20 years back and there could not have been a better person that I know of, to talk about this masterpiece. The second person was Partha (fortunately in London) who's again a big fan of Ray's work.

Even though the movie was only about 97 minutes long (and while I started 10 minutes late), towards the end I had a feeling of getting over with a sumptuous and heavenly 7 course meal. The other feeling I got was of the strange but positive sequence of events occurred right from me collecting the leaflet, making it to the movie without even planning for it -but like someone is pulling me to the theatre. I don’t see a reason why it shouldn’t get the highest level of acknowledgements across film festivals and awards globally. This should be India's movie of the decade. This was just the start of one of the most happening, positive and soothing weeks that I've experienced in last several years. Will try and capture the essence of rest of the week some other time.

For the time being, Hats Off to the Indian cinema and long live Satyajit Ray and Apu!

YO&U....