Sunday, January 31, 2016

Movie Review: Room..its confines are its best times



The worst thing you can do before you watch Room is to watch the movie trailer. Even if you watch the first 20 seconds, it’ll give away all that the Room has in store in terms of plotline and plot twists. Then again, it might not be as bad because the Room is really about the presentation and the performances than what happens to its occupants.

Working in the tiny space that the Room offers can be an exhausting and claustrophobic task. However, the director does a brilliant job and coupled with the exquisite camerawork gives us the best moment the movie has to offer, within those confines. Sure, its intense and not at all pretty, still it delivers what it needs to. As the audience, you too begin to feel confined, wonder if the room extends to more than it appears and sympathize with the occupants of the room. This would be roughly the first half stage of the two hour runtime. So far, so very good.

The movie makes references to Alice in Wonderland and the rabbit hole she disappears into. That is an apt frame of reference to wonder at what goes wrong in the second half. Given perhaps a thousand possibilities after the limited arena in the first half, the Room begins to lose its firm structure and foundations. If this is done on purpose by the director, to align with the confusion its central characters feel by the course of events, it would be a masterstroke. Unfortunately, it just feels like the director (or maybe the writer since this is a book adaptation) genuinely got confused with what to do with all the options now available. It is only in its final 20 minutes that that movie truly redeems itself and gives meaningful dialogues and some structure to what it wants to convey – the ending being particularly noteworthy.

There are gaping plotholes and convenient contrivances in the Room but all that can be ignored and forgotten simply because of the earnest performance of the mother and son at the heart of this unusual tale. An absolutely astounding performance by child actor Jacob Tremblay is more than ably supported by a wonderful performance by Brie Larson. These two are the life of the movie and together deliver its most memorable moments – though the feather in the Room’s cap is that you view the entire movie from the eyes of the child. In a side act, we also have a short but credible performance from Joan Allen (Pamela Landy from the Bourne series).

Barring the half hour that the Room comes somewhat off its hinges, it offers a deeply stirring peep into a beautiful mother-son relationship and the innocence and simplicity of childhood despite its terrifying situation. I can say this much for sure – you’ll emerge from the theater with a better appreciation for your life and the world you live in – for that and the astounding performances its worth glancing through the skylight and looking into the world of the Room

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Movie Review: Airlift..takes off in nearly grand style



Movies like Airlift are not generally made in Bollywood and that’s really a pity. If this is a harbinger of things to come, 2016 couldn’t have started on a better note (let’s just forget about Wazir for the moment). While its not perfect, Airlift sets the bar really high. More so, it pays a grand tribute to an epic story, that most would never have known had it not been made.

There are two main reasons why Airlift succeeds – one, due to its powerful storyline which is inspired by real events and two, because of the wonderfully understated yet deeply intense performance of Akshay Kumar. In fact, it’s the second of these that will get you to overlook some of the flaws in direction – the unconvincing transformation of Akshay’s character, the hurried build up to the sequence of events that play out and even the over-dramatization of the hero towards the climax. I wouldn’t be overstating the case to say that this is probably Akshay Kumar’s best performance till date.

Playing his better half is Nimrat Kaur who is surprisingly a bit of a mixed bag. The dolled up look doesn’t suit her and for someone so naturally beautiful it is the second half where she isn’t wearing that much make up that she is much more appealing. Her performance also has a similar trajectory and it is her acidic monologue in the second half that gets you to sit up and take notice. The side act isn’t really for her and she should take more and more central roles – she seems most comfortable and convincing in those. The side acts are solid as well – Purab Kohli, Kumud Mishra, Inaamul Haq (a tad unconvincing in comparison to his natural act in Filmistaan previously) and Prakash Belawadi (as the particularly well delivered obnoxious Malyali) all bring credence to the script.

Unlike Baby, which harped too much on the mission and action, Airlift is about human emotions and you can feel for the trials and tribulations of every person you see on the screen. There are other gems as well – the good production design, wonderful camerawork and mostly tight and deft direction which keeps your interest going in the events of Airlift pretty much throughout its runtime. There are some special touches too – scenes where no words are spoken and yet everything is said, the aforementioned monologue, Purab Kohli’s understated character and his story arc. I should probably stop here..lest I spoil your fun.

Its not all a smooth ride though. There is the obvious turbulence with completely avoidable songs – which do nothing to help the tense nature of the plotline and seek to provide unnecessary relief. Thankfully they are cut short and we go back to the events before they can become more tiresome. There is a distinct focus on keeping things real and balanced rather than making them sensational, that is truly the hallmark of the film and takes the script to greater heights. This has been the bane of most Bollywood commercial entertainers and while it almost teeters on the edge, Airlift doesn’t succumb to that trap.

Instead Airlift gives wings to a tight script and makes a near perfect lift off the runway giving us a flight that is truly worthy to remember and a great start to 2016

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Movie Review: Wazir..check but far from checkmate



Making a movie titled Wazir is a risky move to open with. Having themes of chess introduced into it is riskier still. Why? Because It gets your audience thinking in that vein as well. As the director moves his pieces into place, as the audience you too start trying to guess what he is up to. Unless, he’s got something really unexpected up his sleeve, there’s a good chance you’ll see through his game. And that..in a nutshell is the issue with Wazir.

If you hear absolutely anything about the movie, and there’s a fair share of spoilsports who would like nothing better than to ruin things for you, there’s nothing left to go and watch so, read as few reviews as you can (barring this one, of course)

Wazir starts off strong. While the title credits start with a song, it goes for the jugular right from the first few scenes and has you invested in its characters and context. Unlike chess, however, to which the movie alludes every chance it gets, there are no pieces being laid out, no stage being set to reel you in. Still it all builds up well and you are engaged for majority of the movie. However, the climax squarely falls flat.

Maybe if you can’t figure it all out, you’ll have your moment of shock and awe. Me, I could see where it was all headed at the interval itself. Hardly the thrills one would hope for. Also, the sequences are contrived to the nth degree. Throughout the movie, while you’ll have every urge to do so, avoid questioning ‘how’ did this happen and just assume that is how it is meant to be. The sad part is, even if you accept the sequence of events as they play out, the finale doesn’t create those moments of disbelief that thrillers are supposed to be all about.

Some of the writing is par excellence. A few lines will get you to have a lump in the throat and could scarcely be presented more simply and effectively. Unfortunately that’s not the case throughout the movie and despite all its ‘talk’ of shatranj and the ‘khel khel mein..’ strain, the dialogues are quite straight forward.

The acting is top notch as well and the exchanges between the duo of Amitabh and Farhan (which forms a significant part of the movie itself) being particularly engaging. Some of the high strung scenes have Farhan screeching rather than performing, but he does equally well in the more restrained emotional bits. Aditi Rao Hydari while she has a side role, expresses plenty with her eyes and despite less dialogues makes her presence felt. Amitabh performs flawlessly but then he has far more calibre than what his (finally) simple character demanded.

The songs are the other bane of this a little over 2 hours of drama. While sung by the best crop of singers we have today, none of them are particularly melodious and most of the time they only slow down whatever little pace the movie would’ve developed so far.

Much like the game of chess, the checkmate move is what would’ve made this one stellar – when one had the sinking feeling that they’ve been outwitted by a mind keener and sharper than their own and the gameplan is truly worthy of applause. Unfortunately, instead you come back with the feeling that you spent the last two hours playing with an amateur who while he had the best pieces and played what he thought was a winning move basically led you to the conclusion that you deserved a more worthy opponent.
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