Movie Review: Highway..derails post interval

 
Highway starts off giving visuals to a nice idea. The initial development is taut, tense and realistic. An interesting revelation leads to an intriguing interval. Post interval there is even a bit of Breaking Bad’esque magic. And then, silence…we are quite clearly lost after that

Highway could’ve been made so differently – a little more focus on the rear view window to give a solid context to the road ahead and the journey itself would’ve come into its own. It would’ve removed the need for the path to be so meandering and the pace to unnecessarily slow down. The message would’ve been subtle yet screaming in silence, the agony obvious to the viewer..but I digress..that’s not what has happened

The reality is that the second half will take you on a picturesque journey, never mind the story. If you’ve been postponing that vacation to our very own Paradise on Earth, you’ll likely pursue it with renewed vigor after watching Highway. The sprawling landscapes and snow capped peaks make for many a pretty sight. Then the dreams would end and the story would culminate to its by now, inevitable conclusion.

After Rockstar, Imtiaz Ali seems to have done it again. A promising start is let down by a sense of abandon towards the original script in the second half. Much like Rockstar started as a journey of a musician and his coming of age and then digressed to a forced love story, Highway too starts off with a unique idea and then digresses to something else entirely. Given this context the climax is still quite decent but the message is shouted out rather than felt

I am not sure why A R Rahman has given the music for this movie. In my view, the script didn’t require music in the first place and any songs would slow proceedings and take away from the realism of the visual drama. Still as it stands, there are songs and none too great to stay with you after the movie (but then Rahman’s songs have their latent effect so who knows)

What is commendable though is Alia Bhatt’s ability to pull off a rather tough role, in only her second movie. Kudos to her to even consider such a role so early in her career and even more to have performed so well in it. The innocent yet independent teenager she plays may come naturally, but the varying shades her character takes through the course of the movie would take some doing. Randeep Hooda is good but he is on all too familiar grounds with his angry brooding avatar. He could take a leaf from Alia’s book and try something more challenging

Highway then, lets itself down. After a promising start to an intriguing adventure, the course of the journey disappoints and there isn’t much to cherish once you reach the final destination

Movie Review: 'Her'..offers you only what you can take from it

'Her' isn’t an ordinary tale. In fact, am not even sure if I can call it a tale. There’s no beginning, climax and end, nothing that I can call a plot – just a very unique context (which may be not be too far a stretch of imagination, the way the world is going) and a lot of emotional depth in a lot of conversations. In fact, 123 minutes later when you emerge from the hall, you are still not quite sure what you’ve just seen  - its all too layered and complex – 'Her' is that kind of movie

If you don’t wish to explore it, trouble the ol’ grey cells or maybe in this case, more importantly, pause and reflect, you might as well not watch 'Her'. You’ll likely get bored with all the random conversation, moping about and sheer pacing of the movie. However, if you are one of those who likes to go deeper, unravel the layers and reach out to what lies at the core – 'Her' may well be a goldmine. I am not even sure that the director himself has an explanation for every scene he’s shown and what it implies

Like a good idea (and one of the movie characters), 'Her' just grows independently, evolving to have a personality of its own and its depth is more about how you interpret it, than how the director intended it. Me, I am still struggling with the ending of the movie – not quite sure what that depicted. The movie explores many important themes and emotions – love, relationship, the need for connection and simply human nature without stamping its own message with either of them. Its only what you take away from it that matters. There is some subtle irony as well but again it takes some doing to catch it

Given the lack of characters, a lot of responsibility falls on Joaquin Phoenix who does a very credible job with an extremely complex character.  Amy Adams in a much simpler role also does a good job, as does Scarlett Johansson in her very unique character. Sorry..can’t say more

'Her' then is a layered and complex movie. One viewing may not be enough to take away all it has to offer. Go for it only if you are willing to explore what lies beneath

Movie Review: 12 Years a Slave..is cold, hard and relentless

12 Years a slave is a very well made movie. No one can doubt that. However, despite how good it is, I wouldn’t say you should go and book your tickets right away. Here’s why

The thing about a true story is that it is scarcely the romanticized stuff we want it to be. The highs and lows cannot be pre-decided, hardly ever are things ‘planned’ to go a certain and even so, most of those times also the plan tends to get derailed. Thus, if one has suffered much hardship, the hopelessness of the situation has been all too obvious, despite any amount of courage and there has been much despair and grief, then that’s how their story will be. One can’t fault the makers for it. And that’s the issue with 12 Years a Slave

Exquisitely executed, in painful (and I mean the word literally here, as well) detail Steve McQueen does not shy away from showing the horrors that a man suffered in the despicable act of slavery. The basest of human emotions and utter sadism is exposed bare (again, quite literally) in scene after scene in unrelenting fashion. That such savagery existed amongst humans, itself, is a shame for humanity altogether and the movie makes no efforts to hide any of it.

As a result then, 12 Years a Slave can scarcely be described as ‘entertaining’. If anything, it gets more and more gruesome and depressing as it progresses and while you feel for the protagonist and his circumstances, the whole situation itself is over-whelmingly off-putting. After a point, the whip lashes, kicks, bared backs and blood marks become too much to withstand and you will the movie to move on to the better part, content-wise.

Apart from the subject matter itself, the treatment of the movie is perfected to a fault. Dialogues spoken plainly would sting you long after they’ve been said. A lingering scene will have you thinking deeply about it rather than pass it off as a mere occurrence. The character of Chiwetel Ejiofor suffers too much but is pulled of extremely well by him. That said, I don’t think his character was as complex as the others in the race for the Oscars. Brad Pitt’s role is too small to speak of. Michael Fassbender is fantastic as the evil slave owner and Benedict Cumberbatch is more than equal to his relatively smaller role as Mr. Ford

12 Years a Slave is right up there in terms of quality movie making. However, given the extremely depressing nature and hopelessness of the situation the protagonist finds himself in over and over again, for majority of the movie, it makes for a rather grim watch. Bear that in mind if you decide to go for this one