The attacks of 26/11

After reading many reviews on this movie as RGV’s come back film. I was very curious to watch it. But, I’ve waited for Telugu version to come out so I can better understand the dialogues. Some reason it is not released in Telugu so I had to watch it in Hindi.

Even in my opinion,  it is truly RGV’s come back movie as you can see his director's expertise in several scenes. It is based on 2008 Mumbai attacks, which is the one of the greatest tragedy in Indian history. This type of attacks indicates how fragile our security at coastal areas is.

The first 7 minutes of this movie, had already been released in youtube as a trailer before releasing it in theaters. It was first of its kind in film history to release 7 mins as a trailer. That trailer had created enough buzz in audience on the movie. Everybody thought after very long time, RGV is going to get a big hit. However, in reality, it got very poor openings.

The actor who played as a Ajmal Kasab exactly resembles him. I should appreciate RGV for casting him. While watching this movie, I was thinking how easy for anybody to come to India from Pakistan over the sea on a small boat?  I’m not sure, if there would be any patrolling boats on the sea as like on roads. Otherwise, how could they come without any fear?  There could be more attacks like this could happen if we don’t provide a tight security at our coastal line.

The first attack happened at Leopold Café, and following attacks happened at Taj hotel, Chatrapati Shivaji terminal and Cama Hospital. Those are the only attacks Ramu pictured in this movie. The scenes in those attacks are terrifying and felt as if I’m watching it on Live. I should also appreciate art department who made Taj hotel and the rest of the sets, they resemble original constructions.

As I said before, in many scenes you can see the director's talent. For e.g. in one scene people hiding on the side of platform with fear when terrorists are shooting at Chatrapathi terminal  (you must see that scene, I’ve not seen that before in any movie) and Constables throwing stones inside Leopold Cafe just to confirm whether terrorists are present.  After seeing those scenes, you can realize how much unprepared our police personnel for this kind of attacks.

As given in one of the reviews, RGV would have continued the movie after Kasab got caught, and would have showed how other Terrorists were killed. Otherwise, it feels he did half justice. Once they arrest Kasab then RGV moves total focus on him, and continues movie in his point of view till he dies. As a senior director, he knows how much to spend for a movie. He would have assumed that the scenes that involved shootings at Trident Hotel and Nariman house requires huge budget as it involves National Guards and Helicopters etc.  Since already he had spent 30 crore on this movie, so he might have not ready to spend more. What ever he made, he made with quality and perfection. If he would have spent even for other scenes, then that would have been a disaster to producers. Because this movie struggled to collect even that 30 crore though the reviews are positive. That is a surprise thing to me. 

I wanted to know what happened after Kasab caught and how other terrorists were killed, so I watched a CNN-IBN's program called ’60 Hours’ in YouTube, which is a documentary based on these attacks. That documentary is very detailed, and I think for many of RGV's scenes this program might be the reference. In that video, they had put CC camera footage of the shootings and  conversation that happened between those 10 terrorists and people behind them from Pakistan.  People who are behind them were guiding them to put Taj hotel on fire and asked them to kill people in Nariman House.

Regarding actors performance, I won’t say, this is Nana Patekar’s the best role or something as he did many better roles than this. But he fully justified to the character and the other guy who played as Kasab also done a good job. The background music is excellent and elevated the scenes. Overall, it is unquestionably RGV’s best in recent times, though sadly it became an average film as per box office reports. I wish he would continue to make movies like this. Probably he can make a part 2 to show other incidents that happened at Trident hotel and Nariman house.

My rating for this movie is 8.

Argo

While watching Oscars 2012 live, I was hoping “Life of PI” may get the best picture award. But, surprisingly (May be it is surprise only to me) they had proclaimed “Argo” as best picture for 2012. Until then,  I was not intrigued in watching this movie though it was nominated for Oscars, otherwise decided to watch it to figure out what is that it is in that movie that made it as the best film. Usually award winning movies means, in my notion, very bore to watch as they contain melodramatic story with historical background or war related with less to almost zero action. Bottom line is, we (I) can’t “enjoy” while watching all award wining movies. The best example is 2009 Oscar best picture, “The Hurt Locker”. That movie got Oscar award over “Avatar”that year. I’m still wondered how it got best picture over Avatar. Anyway, there are exceptions, sometimes few movies, which are very entertaining to watch and the same time won “best picture” award. For e.g “The Lord of the Rings”, “Titanic” etc.

With that, I watched “Argo” movie. As a plot, it is a true story of how a CIA agent rescued six US diplomats from Tehran, Iran, during 1979 Iran hostage crisis. The rescue was called as “Canadian Caper”. There is a twist in how actually he had planned to rescue them. I’m not going to reveal that here. But, I assure you, it’s NOT a James bond kind of rescue. If that is the case then it would have become another old-style James Bond movie.  That twist is very interesting and keeps you to watch the whole movie without feeling bored.

The actor plus director Ben Affleck is a back bone for this movie. His direction is very nice, but acting; I don’t know somehow I don’t see certain expressions on his face, he is subtle. I knew him before as he acted in many action movies like Armageddon, Pearl Harbor.  He did very good action in those movies. Perhaps his expressions are choked off because of his beard in this movie. They almost succeeded to replicate 1979 atmosphere, in terms of actors get up, hair style and locations. Only the Ben Affleck (Tony Mendez) get up does not feel as he was from 1979 era. They should have taken much care on this makeup.

I wondered seeing Iran’s women holding guns and leading revolutionary guards that to in 1979 in this movie!!! I didn’t realize that women in Iran had so much courage during that time which is almost 35 years back. Some of the "Iran's" shots as hanging a person on the public road, protesters demolishing the walls of US embassy etc, are brilliantly pictured. It was terrifying to anybody witnessing angry protesters wrecking everything and trying to capture them. The interesting thing is the people of Iran that time, they rebelled US people so much, but whereas they were favored Canadians, who were long term friends to Americans. They even didn’t think that Canadian people who lived in Iran may try to help US diplomats due to their long companionship with USA.

There are many tensed scenes towards climax, I don’t know whether absolutely happened in that way, but, in the movie, it was like “edge of seat” scenes and glues you to the screen. Though it was American CIA agent Tony Mendez who planned whole rescue, due to the classified nature of the case, US suppressed it and gave full credit to Canada government.  Hence it named as “Canadian Caper”. The whole details were revealed to public only in 1997.

Overall this movie is very interesting to watch due to the fact that it is a true story and they had rescued US diplomats using cinematic idea. I’m satisfied with this movie and felt it is a good pick for best picture award. After all in that way US can show to the world, how ingenious their CIA agents were ;). I’m giving 8 out of 10 to this movie.

The Day After Tomorrow

The Day After Tomorrow ( TDAT ) is one of my favorite movie in disaster category.  The story is great, and it gives very good lesson to human kind. If we keep polluting the atmosphere by taking nature resources as granted, then eventually nature will turn around. And if it turns around then effects are devastating and catastrophic.  We can't survive. Though we are so advanced in technology and we are proud as superior species on the whole planet. But Still we are surviving on the grace of nature. We can see plenty of examples. We can take only precaution to minimize the effect of hurricanes, cyclones etc... otherwise we don't have the power to stop them. Some of the nature disasters like earth quakes even don't leave any hint to us to take precaution. However, at least few things like temperature rises, acid rains and things happened in this movie can be prevented if we don't pollute nature.

Anyway, when It comes to the movie. The story is so realistic, and  in one point you can feel it might happen in one day to earth. I've not seen the lead actor Dennis previous movies, and in fact I don't know him until in this movie. His acting as paleoclimatologist is very natural, but sometimes I feel his face don't show few emotions. The first scene in Antarctica where ice breaks was a highlight, and that helps to involve in the movie. The next following scene is in Delhi, India. I was wondering why most of the disaster movies, starts scenes in India. The other successful disaster movie is "2012", which also starts in India. It could be that these disaster movies have huge openings in India, so if they put at least few scenes in India then Indian people easily connect to it.

Later in the movie, the sequence of scenes like sudden temperature drops in oceans, violent changes in the weather across the world hook you to the movie. I liked the scenes which shows the storm from the space station. I don't know whether really there would be any people living in space station and watching earth regularly. But those scenes are helped to understand the magnitude of the storm on the earth.

As usual the CG works are nicely done. Since I watched this movie on blue-ray, so there are few deleted scenes included in special features. Which were deleted before post production. You can see in those scenes how they picture and mix the CG work and actual scene with actors. Apart from main disaster theme, there is a underline father-son bonding in this movie. The father comes to rescue his son, who stuck at new york public library.

There is a funny scene, where all Americans escapes to Mexico as illegal immigrants as Mexican government closes the border gates due to massive people coming to Mexico. This is really funny because in real it happens in other way round where Mexicans try to enter US illegally.

There are few hospital scenes with Dennis wife, where she is treating an ill boy. I felt only those scenes are blocking the story. Even if they delete those scenes there is no damage to the movie. Actually they deleted 18 mins footage. I watched all those deleted scenes. Some scenes are re-done, especially when Jack ( Dennis ) and Jason ( The other guy who comes to rescue Jack's son ) take shelter in an abandoned hotel. The whole scene they had re-done though dialogues are remain same.

At the end, all of the sudden, the  deep freeze stops and the atmosphere becomes normal, which I thought they did that way to end movie in happy note. But the complete northern side of earth covered in ice and snow.

The movie ends with president speech saying at least we should open our eyes and stop misusing natural resources in greedy.

Overall in disaster category this is one of the best movie. I'm giving rating 8 out of 10.

Avatar ( 2009 film )

James Cameron is one of my favorite director. I watched all most of his movies starting from Alien 2. And his master piece T2 ( Though people say Titanic is his the best, but I won't agree with that ), I watched T2 movie n number of times. Even now after these many years if you see that movie, you will be amazed by the CG work and stunts. James Cameron has a style as he always keeps multiple climaxes in his movies. Usually in all other Hollywood films, once the mega fight ends then you can conclude that movie is over. But in Cameron movies, that is not the case, he won't satisfy simply with one climax, he keeps putting it until you say, enough my stomach is full. The best example is the climax in True - Lies and Alien 2. You watch those movies and observe the climax(s), you understand what I'm saying.

So, such a great director was making a movie after 7 years and that too after of his biggest hit Titanic, and he took around 4 years to make the movie, which is Avatar. Considering all those things I had  huge exceptions on Avatar.  I watched this movie in 3D. Though the movie is visual wonder, when compare to his previous movies, I didn't feel as it is Cameron's best work. I felt something is missing. The way I felt  when I first watched Terminator 2 ( like MAN WHAT A MOVIE HE MADE), not felt alike when I watched avatar, It doesn't mean that movie is bad or something. After wining that many Oscars, it is sure that it has so much stuff. Perhaps, I expected so much action and thrill, as like in T2 and True / Lies. Though there are actions scenes, but those are not enough for me :)

I think after Titanic, Cameron has changed so much. He is trying to put humanity and some kind of message in his movies, that's what reflected in Avatar. Where as his other movies T2 and Alien 2 are fully commercial type so he had put a lot of action and thrilling scenes.

Anyway, I more I watch the more I liked this movie. The CG work is really mind blowing and it has reached its peak and I doubt there would be any better graphics in movies in next 10 years time.

I watched some of the deleted scenes in Blu-ray and those are not very long scenes. However, it was a pleasure to watch them,

The lead actors acting done by the actors Sam Worthington and Zoe is good. I think Sam Worthington was unknown guy before this film. May be he acted in few films but not that popular actor. I wonder that year was his lucky year as he acted in several Hollywood high budgeted films like Terminator salvation and Avatar. I heard he was auctioned for James bond role, but lost to Daniel.

If you ask me story of the film, it is something like this,  "Hero goes to "Navi" people as as a diplomat to know their secrets as humans needs their land for business, eventually he fells in love with a Navi's girl and rebel with the humans to protect their land". The basic plot of the story is not unique or new, however, the premises are different.

Finally I would say this is another best ( not THE best)  work done by James Cameron.

Knowing

Though I watched this movie before on my laptop. I decided to watch it again on my HDTV with Bluray. The main reason to watch it again is for the flight crash scene. That scene is a highlight in this movie. I also liked the basic concept of this movie, a time capsule. It is buried 50 years back, and it has revelations about the future. The leading actor Nicolage cage who played as a MIT professor gave his 100% best.

It starts up very well and goes on with gripping scenes. However I felt the climax could be done differently as Nicolage could not save the earth from dooms day. And of course logically that should end like that as no one can do anything if nature comes against us.

The never-seen-before scenes are flight crash scene and subway scene. I watched the behind the scenes how they shot the flight scene. As I thought that was not completely CG shot.,  It was a mix of live action plus CG work. It was amazing to see how they take care of filming every single shot in movie. As I saw mack-up artists spent hours of time to make up people like crashed passengers burning in flames, though those people appear very far away in the scene.  The whole shot where Nicolage explores the crash place and tries to rescue some of the passengers was done in a single take.

Another excellent scene is train crash in subway. They didn't put behind the scenes of this shot in blu-ray disc, so I don't know how they shot it. But I was thrilled by that scene. As it looks so real and makes the impact. It was grueling to watch the train crushes the people on the platform. I really appreciate the makers for this scene as well.

Apart from Nicolage cage the child actors are acted nicely. Especially the girl who played the key role at the beginning of the movie is very professional.  In one scene where she found scratching the door in school,  her acting was terrifying. Later she also played as a modern kid and one moment I didn't realize that she is the same girl.

The other kid, Nicolage's son, he is very cute and tried his best. All other actors including Rose Byrne are performed well.

It seems the director Alex Proyas did a lot of background for this film. He included mythology references and also used scientific references. He is an Australian director so for most of the scenes he chosen places in Australia. That is good for Australia as that shows his patriotism :) I haven't seen his next project after this film, which is surprising.

The climax scene where the whole world burns in flames due to solar flares was also done excellent. In Overall,  it is very decent movie in disaster category.

I'm giving 8 out of 10.

Sarkar ( Hindi )

I liked most of the RGV's movies due to his unique taking style, and realistic feel. His movies make you feel as if you are watching things that happen around you. The stories  and genres that he selects also interests me so much, especially thrillers and horrors movies. Those are my favorite genres. I was in school when his debut film shiva got released, so I didn't realize why many college students were madly watching that movie. I still recall, people were standing before the tv show-rooms to watch this movie when it did telecast in local cable. I wish I would be in some college when it released so I would have enjoyed the mania along with many other students.

Anyway, from to shiva to his latest movie, his basic movie making style is not changed. Now  days, many changes happened in the way films made. One major problem in RGV' films is they are very slow in narration. Ironically, in the begging days, his movies are brand names for fast action and screen play but not any more.

Most of his movies in Bollywood got dubbed in Telugu, which is my native language, so I watched all of them. But as for as I know Sarkar is not released in Telugu, so I didn't watch this movie. Recently I got a chance to watch it through Netflix.

After watching the whole movie, first thing that I felt, do they want 2 hours to make this movie that to without any songs. If the same movie could be made with any of the present generation directors, then this could be made in 1 hour or less than that.

The movie is good (not extra ordinary). However, the story is simple, and each shot is made with fewer dialogues and more expressions. Some times I feel, common Amitabh ji, say something don't look at him like that.

Amitabh action is top notch. Other actors also did a good job. One good thing about RGV is, being a Telugu guy, he had introduced many Telugu actors in Bollywood.   The funny thing is, though Kota is from Telugu, he has been portrayed as Tamil tambi in this movie. That shows that south means for Bollywood is only Tamilnadu and Madaras.

Even though, the movie is very serious in nature, RGV could have added 1 or 2 songs. Lack of songs is good for few movies, but not for this movie. Back ground music is nice.

There are few interesting conflicts in the movie, which I feel are the main reasons to make this film watchable. The twist in the climax is good; otherwise the whole film feels dry.

Overall movie is decent to watch, but it could be really good if those dragging scenes are made it quicker. Otherwise most of the times it feels slow and dragged.

My rating for this movie is 7 out of 10.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

This is one of THE best movies that I have watched recently. I'm glad that I watched this movie in a blu-ray format as I was able to listen director commentary. That helped me to understand some of the scenes better, and why they had shot in that way.  As a matter fact, this is the first time, I listened the director commentary for any movie. This movie is based on a famous book in Swedish with the same name. People say that the book is intuitive and thrilling. I like to watch three hours movie than reading 300 pages novel. One of the Things that I don't like in Novels is, "adjectives" or scene describing words. Authors have to use lots of words to describe the scenes, but whereas in the movie, that problem is not there. May be that's why many say "A picture is worth a 1000 words". Anyway when it comes to movie, it is dark, thrilling, suspense and mind bending. In most of the murder mystery movies, you rarely see other aspects of the protagonist character like his other life, relations and problems.In this movie, first 20 to 30 minutes, they used to establish all main characters not just murder victim, and even rest of the movie, characters development keeps happening in parallel with the suspense and investigation.

In terms of acting, the character Lisbeth done by Rooney is extra ordinary. After watching the movie, I searched in the internet to see how she looks really. And I wondered that she actually having a pink long hair, which is got short and made total black in this movie. I bet you can't recognize her in real picture. It takes some time to realize she is the girl who played the character in that movie. She lived in her character, and I really thought she would be awarded Oscar for her acting. However, she was nominated but didn't win.

Even Daniel Craig also acted so naturally. When Daniel acted in his first James Bond movie, I didn't like him, because of his aged look and just average height. But later on he developed so much, and attracted with his unique acting stills. He became one of my favorite Hollywood actor after watching this movie.

I don't feel any scenes in this movie are done with out purpose. All scenes are important and move movie forward.

When this movie first released, I didn't thought of watching it because of the Rooney getup on movie posters. Her getup is really disturbing and feels as the movie is on drug addicts or something. Later on when I heard this is actually murder mystery story then I thought of watching it. I'm still struggling to understand the American accent fully though I would have watched hundreds of Hollywood movies, and I don't really like to miss even a dialog while watching the movie, so I watch movies with always subtitles on so that I don't miss any dialogue. I glad even this movie watched on  blu-ray player with subtitles on.

One of the best part in this movie is, after one scene you feel like the movie is ended, when actually there is still 10 or 15 minutes movie is left, and suspense is not revealed yet.

This movie won the Oscar award in Editing, and you really see that, the brilliance of editing and worth giving award.

I give 9 out of 10 for this movie.