Movie Review:The Revenant..life in its every breath

The Revenant could have been just another ordinary movie albeit with great leads. Story-wise I wouldn’t call it anything new. There’s plenty that has been made and made well on this kind of a theme. However, where The Revenant resurrects this ordinary story line into something much more, is in the way it is presented.

I started watching this one with an air of skepticism. Birdman, Inarritu’s last outing was a little too metaphorical for my taste. With all its talk of the trees and its roots in the first 10 minutes of The Revenant I braced myself for yet another offering wherein everything would be implied and nothing would be as it seems. Turns out, I worried for naught. The Revenant is as straight as they come.

What you really come to appreciate in The Revenant is the film-making – the breath taking cinematography – each frame can be a picture postcard despite the desolate environment it captures, perfect screenplay and minimalist background score that perfectly compliments and in fact, enhances the tense visuals. Like many others, the movie is visceral and brutal in its display of violence and bloodshed (certainly not for kids). However, where it sets itself apart is that it all comes across as natural to the script, rather than forced in, just for better impact.(12 years a slave – am talking about you). The changing seasons and the impact of weather conditions is masterfully shown and you start to feel as if you yourself are out there – affected by them, battling them. Most of the time you hear nature, in all its diversity, in all its brutality and all its reality. What nature does well, the movie doesn’t spoil with background score.

To be fair, the movie also sags in parts but just as you feel you can catch a quick shut eye, it jolts you out of comfort and you spring back to attention – wide-eyed at the turn of events, that you never anticipated. Still there was potential for a 20 minutes shorter runtime.

And now the big question – will this one finally win Leonardo Di Caprio his much deserved Oscar. Well, he can win it, I mean he’s done complete justice to his character. While it isn’t all that layered a character, it would’ve taken gritty determination to shoot the scenes he has shot in the first place – maybe that alone deserves an Oscar. If I am not all that enthusiastic about him winning for The Revenant, it is because I’ve seen better work from him with much more complex characters in the past. Fingers crossed on that one.

It must also be mentioned if Leo is the central protagonist, Tom Hardy is the other pillar on which The Revenant comes to life. Barely recognizable up front, complete with his new accent, Hardy is a tour de force and even overshadows Leo in a couple of scenes. In comparison, his Bane act is pretty much amateurish and with The Revenant, he showcases how well he can get into character. This one definitely deserves the supporting role Oscar.


The Revenant then is a compelling watch that you almost start to feel a part of as you watch it. While it doesn’t resurrect anything in particular - there is good cinema for this genre already, the characters are pretty much black and white and storyline is simple – purely by its film making quality it makes sure it gets counted amongst the top lists and is one of the better offerings across 2015-16.

Movie Review: Neerja..a story of extraordinary bravery and heroism

Here’s one rare review where I don’t need to worry about giving away what the movie is about (maybe even a first). If you don’t know the story of Neerja Bhanot, well then you ought to know it and if you do, you already have some idea of what you can expect to see.

Me, I was one of the ignorant fools who had only a sketchy idea of what she actually did and the first thing I did after witnessing such heroism in the hall, was to check up on how much of it was fact and how much was fiction. Often these stories can have some fictional elements – just to make the hero more heroic, if nothing else. Well, that’s not the case here – every single act is how it actually happened and I am damn glad this movie was made. At least now I know and can sincerely salute this lady for her incredible bravery in the face of this terrible ordeal.

That brings me to Neerja – the movie (which is what this post is supposed to really be about). Unfortunately, am a little torn – on the one side I want to continue to laud the story of this incredible woman and on the other, the movie making didn’t wholly grip my attention. In fact, the movie starts off painfully slow and predictable and you don’t even feel the build up as much. There is no sense of underlying tension despite showing terrorists in preparation and had this not been about Neerja – I doubt if I could’ve felt as much for the goings on on-screen. Thankfully though the direction becomes better when the action heats up and some scenes are executed with near brilliance. Still, that happens only in certain moments and it is Neerja’s (the woman) brilliance that keeps you interested rather than how the movie is made

In a lot of ways I thought there were missed opportunities – the childhood of Neerja and her zest for life, her actual voice, which has separately been tweeted by Sonam Kapoor (I wonder what good that does now and why they didn’t have the common sense to put that in the movie itself especially at the end), accounts from the actual passengers and how they saw Neerja deal with the situation – Neerja (the movie) could’ve been so much more. That said, the sincerity of the effort is still laudable.

Which brings me to Sonam Kapoor. Aisha (which is unfortunately how I see her) is very much Aisha in the initial part and you almost groan inwardly. However, the second half sees a virtual transformation and suddenly you start seeing her as a different person. Its in her moments of silence and cool collectedness that she becomes a different actress. If only she would screech a little less – there might be hope for her as an actress after all. The characters of the terrorists are again a bit of a hit and miss. While convincing to begin with, there’s just too much screaming and shouting towards the climax. As for the others, well Shabana Azmi is a brilliant cast as Neerja’s mother – but I felt there was an over-dependence on her, especially towards the climax. Yogendra Tiku does a commendable job as the father. There are some subtle moments between the distraught parents which are captured particularly well.

Painfully, there are some songs too, that you have to sit through, which of course, have no meaning or purpose to the storyline.


All that being said, Neerja (the story) is a must watch and for that reason alone I would suggest you go and witness the ordeal of Pan Am 73 and the heroic feats of Neerja Bhanot. While the movie has its faults, one cannot doubt the sincere effort that the director and for a change, Sonam Kapoor too, have made to immortalize the ‘Heroine of the Hijack’ on screen.