Review: Midnight’s Children (2013)

Midnight’s Children is a stunning mess

How do you go about adapting an epic novel whose scope is as humongous as its legacy… if you are not Peter Jackson? The evident answer is: you don’t. Fanboys (ahem… guilty as charged) may go on a limb and even say: you *can’t*, but every now and then, a Cloud Atlas turns up and proves us wrong. Midnight’s Children, unfortunately, is no Cloud Atlas, and is certainly no Lord of the Rings (and not because it has no Hobbits — in fact, it has Darsheel Safary).

It’s not so much that there’s anything Deepa Mehta, the director, or Salman Rushdie, who has adapted his own book into a screenplay, have done anything wrong, or even anything less, than what they could have done — it’s perhaps that adapting a 600-page novel that spans 60 years and intertwines genres as diverse as magic realism and historical fiction, into a two and a half hour movie, was never going to be easy.

For those who’ve been living under a rock, the story of Midnight’s Children is the story of Saleem (played by Darsheel and Satya Bhabha), who was born at the precise stroke of midnight, and exchanged at birth with the child of an affluent Indian Muslim family, the Sinais. Saleem shares a gift that over a thousand children born between the hours of 12 and 1 — the Midnight’s Children — that historic night, were bestowed with: he has super powers. In a Bryan Singer movie, this could have led to a X-Men type battle between these children and the villainous humans who want to destroy them, but this film sticks largely to Saleem’s story, as he battles his destiny through two wars and the emergency.

To its credit, Midnight’s Children holds your interest for most of its running time, because, well, it *is* a phenomenal story and no matter what you do, you cannot screw it up… beyond a point. But the problem lies with the fact that there’s just too much happening on screen, and there’s too little coherence between it all. There are more characters than the number of years the movie covers, and due to the limitation of its running time, the plots these characters inhabit are half-baked and remain unresolved, not exactly unlike the protagonist of the film, Saleem Sinai.

The screenplay quickly moves from one plot point to another, but not seamlessly, and as a result, before you can properly start connecting with a character, or even, err, lusting for the actor that portrays it (Anita Majumdar as Emerald, woot!), another has been introduced. And before you can start wondering where – and why – did Emerald go, another story begins and ends prematurely, so as much as you’d want to see more of the gorgeous Shriya Saran or the powerhouse Siddharth (playing Parvati and Shiva, two other Midnight’s Children), all you get is a *lot* of Darsheel and Satya.

While both are decent actors and do a pretty good job, they’ve been pitted against some of the finest and most experienced talent our country has to offer, which really isn’t fair to them, and so, the supporting characters register far more than them. The scene stealers are Ronit Roy, who reprises a role similar to the one he did in Udaan, and is just as outstanding again, and Siddharth, who sets the screen ablaze in every scene. Shahana Goswami and Rahul Bose also deliver top-notch performances and everyone else, from the legendary Kulbushan Kharbanda to Saran are a joy to watch.

Mehta does a solid job of direction, given the muddled script, and deserves credit for ‘showing’ so much of the history of India — including a daring section on Indira Gandhi — by showing so little. The cinematography (Giles Nuttgens) makes the film visually powerful and while the background score (Nitin Sawhney) compliments it for the most part, it really could have been less clichéd. Really, when will India stop being represented by flutes in Hollywood? And after such great primary casting, the make up on the fringe characters is annoying, since they look like those Indian stereotypes that Americans see us as.

Largely though, Midnight’s Children is a stunning mess, but it is, ultimately, a mess. For the brave attempt and the fabulous ensemble cast, the movie warrants a singular visit to the theaters, but unlike the novel or the momentous date it is built on, the movie won’t be making it to the history books.

Note: This review first appeared on Firstpost.com on February 4, 2013
Link: http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/movie-review-midnights-children-is-a-stunning-mess-611692.html
Picture courtesy: Google. None of the pictures are owned by the author all rights belong to the original owner(s) and photographer(s).
© Copyright belongs to the author, Nikhil Taneja. The article may not be reproduced without permission. A link to the URL, instead, would be appreciated.

Review: Zero Dark Thirty (2013)

Zero Dark Thirty is good but not great

At the upcoming 2013 Academy Awards, it’s been nominated for five Oscars, including Best Motion Picture of the Year. So far, it’s won the Best Picture Award at AFI Awards, Austin Film Critics Association, Boston Society of Film Critics Awards, Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, National Board of Review, New York Film Critics Circle Awards, and some 40 more. Yes, it just *might* be a little fact that critics love the film and that they *may* want to marry the film and have little baby sequels of the film.

So the question isn’t whether Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn “The Hurt Locker” Bigelow’s film about the decade long hunt for Osama Bin Laden and his subsequent assassination, is any good. The questions are exactly how good is it, precisely how excited should you be to watch it, does it really deserve all the awards on this planet over Argo and most importantly, whether or not the Osama in this film looks better than Pradyuman Singh from Tere Bin Laden.

Cutting to the chase (pun totally intended), Zero Dark Thirty is an engrossing, superbly directed, well-acted and finely made drama about the longest manhunt for the most dangerous man in recent history. It’s an intense, grim and disturbing film that seethes and festers in the palpable tension that Bigelow creates on screen through the superlative performances. But – yes, there’s a but – there are a few glaring hiccups in the film that make it far from perfect.

For one, the film is unapologetically one-sided in its portrayal of what exactly happened. We see people being tortured, maimed or killed through the film, and the film focuses on the fact that it is wrong, but never on the story behind it. There’s no remorse shown by anyone in the film – whether on the “right” side or the “wrong” – and there is no justification or reason given as to why one side is right, and the other wrong. Like the protagonist of the film, CIA agent Maya, who takes it upon herself to capture Bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty is clinical in its approach as well.

Most of the film is, hence, devoid of any moral ambiguity or real emotion, apart from the tension that runs through the atmospheric first half, and while it’s always refreshing when a cliché is avoided, somehow, the film feels a bit hollow and because of the categorical absence of the other side. Of course, this could all be propaganda, but if that is indeed the case, it is a far cry from the balanced portrayal of war in Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, and the film’s emotional maturity.

Then there is the case of the graphic torture scenes, of which much has been made in the American media. Without getting into the political implications of these scenes, cinematically, and as part of the film as a whole, the scenes are long, drawn out and after a point of time, unnecessary. Whatever they add to the dark, harrowing feel of the film is conveyed in the first 10 minutes, after which, they seem like an exercise in futility. Even the last 30 minutes of the film, shot in night vision, that focus purely on the elimination of Bin Laden by the US Navy Seals, could have been done with some chopping on the edit table.

The real film lies somewhere in between the first and last 30 minutes, in Jessica Chastain’s gritty portrayal of Maya, whose resolve to capture Bin Laden against all odds, be it political, professional or emotional, give the film its highest dramatic points. It’s hard to miss the fact that her arc, and the movie’s actual story, mirrors that of the brilliant American TV series, Homeland, and just like Claire Danes carries the series on her shoulders, it is Chastain’s measured and tenacious performance that makes Zero Dark Thirty the riveting watch that it is.

Watch the film for Chastain, Bigelow’s direction, and the remarkable story that it is, but carry along some patience in good measure, since Zero Dark Thirty is more a pensive drama than the thriller it is made out to be.

Note: This review first appeared on Firstpost.com on February 17, 2013
Link: http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/movie-review-zero-dark-thirty-is-good-but-not-great-628499.html
Picture courtesy: Google. None of the pictures are owned by the author all rights belong to the original owner(s) and photographer(s).
© Copyright belongs to the author, Nikhil Taneja. The article may not be reproduced without permission. A link to the URL, instead, would be appreciated.

Review: Lincoln (2013)

Somewhere in the middle of the new, two-and-a-half-hour long Steven Spielberg historical drama, Lincoln, Daniel Day-Lewis’ eponymous title character speaks to a Union soldier about an incident that had occurred during the American civil war. A 16-year-old boy had been sentenced to hang as a punishment for laming his horse to avoid going into battle.

Lincoln asks the soldier if their general would complain if he were to pardon the boy. The soldier remarks that his general feels Lincoln pardons too many already. Lincoln replies, “War is nearly done… What use another corpse? If I were to hang every 16-year-old boy for cruelty to a horse, or for being frightened, there wouldn’t be any 16-year-old boys left.”

There are several such moments when Day-Lewis’ Lincoln narrates off-hand, arbitrary stories, sometimes funny, sometimes absurd, but always with the singular intention to drive home tough points to tougher people in a compassionate, gentle way. Spielberg uses this precise approach with his movie too, and it has the precise outcome – like the many men and women of that time, who were smitten by President Lincoln’s charm and awestruck by his aura, we are sold too.

The movie isn’t a broad biography of USA’s 16th President, Abraham Lincoln; it’s about a specific time in his leadership and a momentous time in our modern history, where he successfully fought for the abolishment of slavery through democratic means – the passing of The Thirteenth Amendment of the United States. At the outset, this seems to be too narrow a period to adequately portray the man, Abraham Lincoln, behind the great leader of men, President Lincoln, but Spielberg surprises with the incredible panache with which he pulls off this enormous task.

We already know the climax of the film, but even with that constraint, Spielberg packs in enough layers of drama and emotion, with just the right amount of wit and light humour, that at every point of the masterful screenplay, written by Tony Kushner of Munich fame, we are continually anxious to know what happened next, and how! Of course, like all great dramas, Lincoln has an unhurried, deliberate pace, that at times gets a bit too slow, but by and large, the proceedings are far too compelling to worry about the time. The movie could have definitely ended five minutes before it did, though – showing the assassination was entirely unnecessary and looked forced.

Most of the drama comes from Lincoln’s predicament that Spielberg ably showcases and Day-Lewis spectacularly portrays through the length of the film, of how the president must go about trying to pass the Amendment in Congress before the civil war comes to an end – because once it ends, the bill could never be passed – even as he must try to end the war independently, to bring an end to the suffering. Spielberg gives Lincoln the shades of being a kind and fair leader, but one, who could be tough and do what had to be done, if the situation demanded it.

All this while, his relationship with his emotionally unstable wife (Sally Field), his son (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who’s determined to go to war despite his family’s opposition, his peers including the aggressive leader of the Republican Party (a brilliant and terrifically entertaining Tommy Lee Jones) and his rivals, make for an absorbing biography too.

And of course, while there’s hardly any need to say it, it must be said all the same: two-time Oscar-winner Daniel Day-Lewis is a modern god of acting, and it’s hard to imagine if President Lincoln himself could have portrayed his self on screen so expertly. Day-Lewis gets under the skin of the role, just like he always does, and makes Lincoln his own, and from every pause he takes between his lines, to every twitch of his face, he is so utterly convincing, that there’s absolutely no way Lincoln could’ve been any different in real life.

There’s another question that Lincoln asks a soldier somewhere in the middle of the film that stays behind long after the film: “Do you think we choose the times into which we are born? Or do we fit the times we are born into?” Day-Lewis is the kind of actor who chose to be born in today’s times to play the roles he’s chosen to play in the films he’s chosen to play them in, and while there are several reasons Lincoln is an excellent watch at the theaters, Day-Lewis’ performance is worth the price of the ticket alone.

Note: This review first appeared on Firstpost.com on Feb 9, 2013
Link: http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/movie-review-daniel-day-lewis-as-lincoln-is-a-modern-god-of-acting-619494.html
Picture courtesy: Google. None of the pictures are owned by the author all rights belong to the original owner(s) and photographer(s).
© Copyright belongs to the author, Nikhil Taneja. The article may not be reproduced without permission. A link to the URL, instead, would be appreciated.

Review: Life of Pi (2012)

Life of Pi will make you believe in Ang Lee

“Your uncle told me that you have a story that will make me believe in God?” questions the writer (Rafe Spall) to Piscine Patel (Irrfan Khan), better known as Pi, in a conversation at the beginning of the movie. It’s an incredible premise, setting up enormous expectations for the story to follow, and leaving you roused in anticipation, even more so than all the early reviews, the stunning trailers and the featurettes gushing about its 3D, and the distracting hype that Oscar-winning director Ang Lee’s stature carries with it, have doubtlessly had already.

But twenty minutes into the movie, you’ve forgotten everything. You’ve forgotten the Oscar buzz and the 3D argument. You’ve forgotten the jarring accents that bothered you merely five minutes ago. You’ve forgotten the horrendous Peter Sellers-like brown-painted white man with the offensive Indian twang and you’ve forgotten the painfully trite use of sitars and tablas in the background score to give the Hollywood manufactured “feel of India.” As astonishing as it may be, you’ve also forgotten the breath-taking, timeless beauty of Tabu that you longed to stay with, just a little bit longer. (And you’ve somehow forgotten that bitter feeling of envy that comes from AdilHussain working with the most gorgeous of Indian women.)

Because twenty minutes into the movie, Life of Pi emanates within you a strange feeling of calm, as the striking visuals and the powerful storytelling take over. You are then not just a viewer of the film, you are a part of the film’s wondrous, expansive world; a world in which you are Pi (Suraj Sharma), the 16-year-old boy stranded on a life boat in the middle of the ocean after a shipwreck, and a world in which you are also the carnivore, the majestic Tiger, who is stranded in the same boat with Pi, the only relatable part left of the habitat that once surrounded it. Twenty minutes into the movie, you are the movie, as Lee taps into your innermost, most primal emotions and immaculately plays them back on a screen grand and fitting enough to match the scale of Yann Martel’s ambitious novel of the same name.

Masterfully using the big screen as a canvas and painting a series of gorgeous images on it, but ones that are deeply rooted in human emotions,Lee infuses the ‘life’ in Life of Pi, a novel largely about the 227 days that its protagonist, Pi, spends in the middle of the ocean with a tiger for company, and one that has largely been considered unfilmable. The movie is reminiscent of the Robert Zemeckis directed and Oscar-nominated Tom Hanks’ movie, Cast Away, in its basic premise of ‘Man vs Wild’, but is infinitely more gripping, and superior in driving home the point that everything you thought you know about life and its meaning change when you have to survive at sea (and of course, when you are in the company of a carnivore).

The tiger in the movie is, at times, a digitally (but astoundingly) created tiger and at times,the real animal itself, and more than just young Suraj Sharma’s remarkable portrayal of Pi, the triumph of the movie lies in the way Lee has used the tiger, both as a creature we fear, respect and perhaps one we are yet to understand, as well as a metaphor for survival, endurance and persistent grit, at a time when it could seem that your faith in God could only have been misplaced.

The cinematography, direction, special effects and art of the movie scream ‘Oscar’ and superlative performances from the entire cast only help the movie’s cause. And for once, the 3D actually helps. It’s also gratifying to finally see Irrfan Khan in another Hollywood role after The Namesake (although it is again an extended cameo) that does justice to his talent – the final scene of the movie will make you understand why. But yes, though I personally loved the movie’s ending, if you are looking to be spiritually moved or find answers to the questions of life, reading the book may serve you better than watching the movie.

Because this is not a movie that will make you believe in God. It is a movie that will make you believe in Ang Lee.

Note: This review first appeared on Firstpost.com on November 23, 2012
Link: http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/movie-review-ang-lee-infuses-life-into-life-of-pi-532744.html
Picture courtesy: Google. None of the pictures are owned by the author all rights belong to the original owner(s) and photographer(s).
© Copyright belongs to the author, Nikhil Taneja. The article may not be reproduced without permission. A link to the URL, instead, would be appreciated.

Review: The Hobbit (2012)

The Hobbit is a big film about little moments

It was a task so epic that it required not only vision and talent but also courage and passion. It required not only fantasy and myth but also humanity and soul. It required not only a fierce stamp of originality but also required a faithful adaptation of the source. It was a task both exceptionally daring and exceedingly foolish at the same time.

One man, Peter Jackson, was foolish enough to dare. And the world was gifted a masterpiece of art, stunning in size, spectacular in vision, sweeping in scale, grand in emotions and insurmountable in inheritance: The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) Trilogy.

Till now, that is. Nine years after the final part in the LOTR trilogy, The Return of the King, was released, Jackson has taken on a task even more foolish (what is with the man!): to, at the very least, live up to the indelible legacy he created himself, and at the very most, leave behind an even bigger one.

The good news is, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the origin story of Bilbo Baggins and his adventures with a group of 13 dwarves through perilous mountains, frightening orcs and terrifying dragons that led to him finding the ring, lives up every bit to the majesty and magic of its celebrated predecessor. And the first part of three that form the prequel to LOTR sets in motion for fans of cinema an exciting adventure in itself – of witnessing greatness unfold on the silver screen again.

With the amount of poetry (also known as ‘difficult words’) I’ve used in just the first four paragraphs of this review, it wouldn’t be hard for you to fathom a guess that the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has me deeply and completely in love, at first sight, with it. But let me be clear: it’s not the body that I’ve been lusting over, it’s the soul that got my heart skipping multiple beats.

Of course, I wouldn’t blame you for admiring the body itself; it is quite gorgeous, I have to admit. Peter “Epic” Jackson, has lovingly recreated those marvellous visuals we sighed over in LOTR, and painstakingly created many more striking ones we’ll long remember. The soaring music, cinematography just the way God intended it, and enduring charm only a cast so full of British talent could provide, keep you glued to your seats. And the action scenes? Well they are f**king awesome and will help you realise your manly parts with boners that will last at least till Gangster Squad releases, if I may get so primal.

But look beyond the action, the SFX, the costumes, makeup, 3D and magic, and you find that just like Jackson’s LOTR trilogy, The real Hobbit actually lies in those glorious little scenes that stay with you long after the, erm, boner’s gone. The real Hobbit lies in the awkwardness of Bilbo (a career-defining turn by Martin Freeman) as he reluctantly tries to both help and fit in with the dwarves, it lies in the courage of Dwarf King Thorin (the ‘Aragorn’ of The Hobbit, Richard Armitage) as he impulsively takes on an enemy ten times as powerful; it lies in the testing search of the dwarves for their home, it lies in the climax where Bilbo finds his courage and it lies in that ten minute game of riddles between Gollum (the masterful Andy Serkis) and Bilbo that is everything cinema was intended to be.

So ignore the whining about the length and the criticism about its format and go watch the movie, because in the words of the wise Gandalf (Ian McKellan), the real Hobbit lies, “not in great but in the small moments of kindness and love, that keep the darkness at bay.”

Note: This review first appeared on Firstpost.com on December 14, 2012
Link: http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/movie-review-size-matters-little-moments-make-the-hobbit-a-big-film-556990.html
Picture courtesy: Google. None of the pictures are owned by the author all rights belong to the original owner(s) and photographer(s).
© Copyright belongs to the author, Nikhil Taneja. The article may not be reproduced without permission. A link to the URL, instead, would be appreciated.

Review: Stolen (2012)

Stolen is stolen from Taken

In 2008, French director Pierre Morel made an action thriller 56 year old Irish actor, Liam Neeson, who was earlier best known to the world at large as various things, none of them having anything remotely to do with action or thrill. The film, about a father who is hunting down the kidnappers of his daughter, went on to be a spectacular success and with it, Liam Neeson turned from the softy Oskar Schindler and the father of the cute kid from Love Actually, to a badass, who “does not know who you are, does not know what you want, but will find you, and will kill you,” for reasons like… err… calling him a softy.

Hollywood was, of course, mighty surprised how a film that turned a presumably over-the-hill actor into a clinical killer of people who annoyed him, and decided it was time to pay an ode to the movie by doing two things: Making a sequel that was exactly the same film (Taken 2), and rehashing the film into exactly the same film (Stolen). Both released in 2012, and both are so very abysmal that you don’t allow yourself to fall asleep in the theatre because somewhere, deep down inside of you, you truly feel that putting yourself through the movie could help atone for your sins. You can read my review of Taken 2 (and the 5 Rules of making a Hollywood Sequel) in the archives, but here’s my review of Stolen, which is probably the most original thing about the movie:

Stolen is such an uninteresting, uninspiring and unnecessary rehash of Taken that even the makers felt guilty enough to admit the truth about the movie’s origins in its name – the film is literally stolen from Taken. The story is precisely that: about a father (Nicolas Cage) hunting down the kidnapper of his daughter (Sami Gayle), who has been taken from him. The difference here is that Nicolas Cage is no Liam Neeson, the daughter (Sami Gayle) is no Maggie Grace, and the action is no good. The movie could still have been a notch above dung, had the very hot Malin Akerman given some sort of a preview of what she has in store for us in her upcoming Linda Lovelace biopic, but unfortunately the movie has no, umm, ‘aesthetically shot’ swimsuit moments either, which almost made Taken 2 bearable.

And I have to admit, I was actually looking forward to the movie because the last time Stolen director Simon West and Nicolas Cage came together, they gave us the Die Hard of aviation films, Con Air, whose climactic action scene is alone worth the price of Stolen’s ticket. Ten times over. In gold. But where it stands at the moment, even if you take Taken out of the picture, Stolen is, in the words of Joey from Friends, a moo movie – it really doesn’t matter.

A silent word of prayer in the end for Nicolas Cage, who is, to give a dreadful analogy, like the S Sreesanth of Hollywood movies: he annoys the crap out of you, but you secretly hope he succeeds, even if it is just to see him dance in the middle of the pitch (or the Hollywood equivalent of that). Here’s hoping Charlie Kauffman’s Frank or Francis or any of Cage’s 50 upcoming B-movies do the trick for him. Or let’s just trust Sylvester Stallone enough to cast him in Expendables 3, shall we?

Note: This review first appeared on Firstpost.com on September 18, 2012
Link: http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/stolen-is-stolen-from-taken-523895.html
Picture courtesy: Google. None of the pictures are owned by the author all rights belong to the original owner(s) and photographer(s).
© Copyright belongs to the author, Nikhil Taneja. The article may not be reproduced without permission. A link to the URL, instead, would be appreciated.

Review: Skyfall (2012)

Skyfall is the very best and the very worst of Bond

‘Ladies and gentlemen, I’m delighted to inform you that Skyfall is Daniel Craig’s best Bond film yet and easily amongst the top three of the entire franchise. Sam Mendes, you bloody genius, you! *Brain explodes out of excitement*’

So that was the opening sentence of the review I had expected to write after watching Skyfall, the twenty-third film in the James Bond franchise and the third starring the very intense Craig, given that the badass trailer had very literally left me delirious for days at end and the phenomenal hype had me convinced that I was in for the motion picture experience of a lifetime. And then, as is usually the case, I saw the movie.

Before I make my case about the specific failings of the movie, which has a plot that puts Judi Dench’s M and the MI6 directly in line of danger, as Bond battles his body and the demons from his past to save the day, let’s start with some reassurance that Skyfall, for the most, is well worth a trip to the theaters, because you’re probably going to watch it irrespective of this review – or any review for that matter.

This is Craig’s most accessible and well, fun, Bond movie to date; the most popcorn Bond, if you will. It’s also his funniest Bond, with deadpan humour in huge dallops, at the most unexpected places, adding even more charm to the proceedings than Bond usually carries in his armour.

Director Mendes pulls out all stops to give us one of the most visually intoxicating Bond films too; the cinematography by veteran Roger Deakins is a class apart, and certain sequences – including the dazzling opening credits and a fight sequence filmed almost only in shadows – give the movie a tone that’s fiercely original and still, fiercely Bond. The acting, from all quarters, is a delight: Craig and Dench have “played this game long enough”, and Ralph Fiennes and the talented young Ben Whishaw (who was also fantastic in the recent Cloud Atlas) ably demonstrate that they aren’t merely there to be cogs in the wheel, but that they truly belong.

And to cite an analogy that’ll perhaps be used freely in the days to come, Javier Bardem is the Joker to Bond’s Dark Knight, even though Skyfall is the franchise’s ‘James Bond Rises’. Bardem, who makes one of the best-written entries in Bond history, is deliciously wicked, and constructs a frighteningly real villain with an uncomfortable, sinister presence that looms large over every scene he’s a part of. In an alternate universe, Bardem would be the common villain to the Bond franchise, with a new Bond to foil him in every movie.

This is where you should stop reading if you are only looking to be entertained by Bond’s latest, and aren’t necessarily interested in the movie that Skyfall independently is, because I promise you, you will be entertained.

To be very honest, let me clarify that it’s hard to point out exactly why the movie, which possibly has the best first act in action movies this side of the 2000s, goes wrong. It has all the quintessential Bond ingredients, and each of them spectacularly well-done at that, be it breath-taking beauties (both women and cars), dizzying action, crackling dialogue, an unconventional but remarkable choice of director, a terrifying and terrific villain, and a man’s man in Bond, “an old dog who has learnt new tricks.” But then again, if these were enough to make for a great movie, Agent Vinod would have been the greatest one ever made.

The movie’s biggest problem is the disjointed script that takes an exciting new turn every fifteen minutes, but by the end, ends up confused about where it was heading to in the first place. Take the premise itself: MI6 is under attack and the identities of several secret service agents are now in the wrong hands. But somewhere mid-way, these agents are all but forgotten as the plot shifts gears to a cat-and-mouse game for your typical action movie staple of ‘vengeance’.

There are also more clichés in the movie than there are criminals in Indian politics. Without giving away any spoilers, here are some of the formulae that you’d expect Bond to avoid, but Skyfall revels in:
1. When the bad guy is caught early in the movie, you know he wanted to be caught.
2. When the bad guy pulls a gun on the good guy early in the movie, he is not going to pull the trigger.
3. When the bad guy pulls a gun on the good guy at the end of the movie, he is going to give a speech.
4. When the specific quality of a particular weapon is spoken of and dismissed, you know that’s the quality that will save the day in the end.

Then there’s the problem of the Bond girl who serves as much purpose in the movie that ‘Smoking causes cancer’ ads serve at the beginning of it – she doesn’t. Bardem’s splendid villain is given a shockingly ill-etched out characterisation too, and his job through the movie is waiting it out for the good guy to thwart his bad moves. There’s also the bit about Bond’s backstory, which should have helped made Bond more human, but seems trite and forced, and would’ve made no difference to the movie had it been left out.

Truth is, all of this wouldn’t have mattered had the grand finale been as devastating as was promised. Instead, we get an ode (?) to – without giving it away, a famous children’s film – that seems in scale and impetus, a significant departure from the tone of the movie, as well as the franchise itself. Good or bad, it just doesn’t feel like Bond.

My complaint with Skyfall is that somewhere in between the entertainment, the CGI, the stunts and the twists, there was a great movie to found, that’s seeped through the cracks into the abyss, and one that only a James Bond could locate now. This is a Bond that’s both same and different to the earlier editions, and that’s possibly the reason the movie ends up being, at once, both the very best of Bond and the very worst of Bond. Watch the movie for the decent entertainer it is, but wait till the dust and hype have settled to see if you feel the same.

Note: This review first appeared on Firstpost.com on November 1, 2012
Link: http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/movie-review-skyfall-is-the-very-best-and-very-worst-of-bond-510772.html
Picture courtesy: Google. None of the pictures are owned by the author all rights belong to the original owner(s) and photographer(s).
© Copyright belongs to the author, Nikhil Taneja. The article may not be reproduced without permission. A link to the URL, instead, would be appreciated.

Review: Cloud Atlas (2012)

Cloud Atlas is long but exhilarating

Here’s what you can do with three hours of your life: Travel from a city or country to another (or a pothole to another, if you live in Mumbai); listen to the entire discography of Greenday – or Daler Mehendi; for that matter, listen to the entire discography of Baba Sehgal three times over; watch the first part of The Lord of the Rings or, umm, the first part of an average 20 hour Ashutosh Gowarikar movie; download and read one of Firstpost.com’s awesome ebooks, or if you are a nice human being, read all the other awesome-ish reviews and interviews by this author (hint!). In fact, you could spend three hours of your life reading better suggestions of what to do than trying to make sense of this article’s feeble attempt at humour and intelligence.

So when you can make your life this much more exciting, why should you choose to spend this time in an overpriced multiplex, with a popcorn-soft drink combo that costs more than the pension you’ll get on retiring per year, watching a three hour epic fantasy-scifi-comedy-thriller-romance-adventure-horror period drama that does not have any people in capes, masks and incorrectly-worn underwear in it?

The answer is… well, actually, there are about six answers to this question, one each in the six stories that the three-hour long Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski and Tom Twkwer-directed movie, Cloud Atlas, skilfully interweaves with each other in a motion picture experience you haven’t had since the… erm… re-release of Titanic and Avatar.

If you haven’t read or heard of the David Mitchell novel on which this movie is based, it’s difficult to reduce the movie to a single comprehensible line (although the IMDB page thinks otherwise). Because in its six stories, the movie flirts with just as many themes as there are characters in the movie – over six hundred, probably. But the core of the movie lies in the belief that everything in the world is interconnected, and your actions, good or bad, will echo throughout history, impacting the bodies your soul inhabits, and those of everyone around you, in each subsequent life.

Too much to take in a trip to the same multiplex that generally plays you close up shots of Sonakshi Sinha’s bosoms and Salman Khan’s CGI bisceps? There’s more: In each of the six mini movies, that are intercut mercilessly in a puzzle the makers assume you are intelligent enough to solve for yourself, the lead actors – Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Hugh Grant and more – appear in different avatars, with no identifiable caste, creed, colour or even gender!

So where Jim Sturgess is an American notary in the 1850s, he’s a Korean revolutionary from the 2100s. Where Halle Berry is a black American journalist in the 1970s, she’s the white lover of a famous composer from the 1930s. And where Hugo Weaving is a green Grinch-esque devil far ahead in the future, he’s a she in the present: an evil nurse with a dominatrix complex. And all these characters are connected not only metaphorically and spiritually, but also literally, through a story the lead character in each movie reads/watches that was recorded by a character from the previous generation. (My favourite one is set in the present and features Jim Broadbent as the lead)

If this sounds too complicated a premise to spend your hard-earned money on, the good news is, this is exactly what makes the movie a must-watch. Because Cloud Atlas does what so few movies can claim to do these days – it dares. It attempts to go beyond conventional techniques of storytelling and screenplay, it takes the risk of juggling six different time periods, genres and universes in the same movie with the same actors on a grand, sprawling canvas unlike anything you’ve seen before. It takes its own time to reveal its cards, assuming that the average moviegoer possesses the intelligence, patience and trust to wait for the payoff.

And what an exhilarating payoff it is, both visually and emotionally, as the movie tries to bring home a point we all know only too well – be good and kind, and the rewards won’t be just yours to reap – but in a manner so beautifully complex and enriching, you will continue being affected by it long after the end credits roll. Because essentially, the message of the movie is one of hope: that in the grand scheme of things of this infinite universe, we don’t just exist, we matter.

So if you have the patience and bravado to sit for three hours without BBMing, texting, Facebooking or letting your mother know loudly on the phone when you will be back for dinner, watch Cloud Atlas because it’s not just a movie, it’s an experience. And do stay back for the end credits, for some surprises!

Note: This interview first appeared on Firstpost.com on October 28, 2012
Link: http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/movie-review-cloud-atlas-is-long-but-exhilarating-505478.html
Picture courtesy: Google. None of the pictures are owned by the author all rights belong to the original owner(s) and photographer(s).
© Copyright belongs to the author, Nikhil Taneja. The article may not be reproduced without permission. A link to the URL, instead, would be appreciated.

Review: Premium Rush (2012)

Premium Rush is the Fast and Furious of bikes

Someone famous once rightly said, “Why let things like story, plot and character development come in the way of a good movie?” Oh wait, I think that was me… ahem *clears throat*. But leaving the famous part apart, that quote is almost always true for genres like thrillers and comedy, where the movie depends not so much on the originality of its plot, but on how well it’s told. David Koepp’s Premium Rush is exactly that kind of a movie.

Essentially about an adrenaline-pumping chase through the streets of New York, most of which takes place in real time, Premium Rush is one of those crackling and ridiculously fun movies that constantly surprise you with how engaging they are. Straddling a fine space between action and thriller, the movie’s genius lies purely in the idea of using bikes (or ‘cycles’, as we call them in India) as the carrier of hip (pun not intended) – a vehicle that has largely been ignored by Hollywood, except, maybe, for the iconic scenes of ET.

In a sense, the movie’s an ode to the art of cycling, and a nod to the great and audacious work of Manhattan’s ‘bike messengers’, couriers who risk their all to deliver things from one corner of the city to the other in the shortest possible time, when it’s impossible to do it any other way. It’s also a nod to, well, how hot these messengers are (Dania Ramirez is droolworthy), and how that’s only natural, given that if you put a Nitin Gadkari on a bike, he probably won’t be able to do his job well… and the bike may probably break too.

In Premium Rush, Joseph-Gordon Levitt plays Wilee, a bike messenger who rides like he has a death wish, and is given a package to be delivered in a certain amount of time to a certain place across the city. But things get strange, when an impatient, aggressive man (Michael Shannon) starts following Wilee, asking him to hand over the package. As Wilee goes about out-biking this guy – because once the package is with you, you do not give it to random strangers – he uncovers the truth about the package, leading to more chases, more action, more thrill, and an exciting blast of a finale.

David Koepp’s slick direction, especially his intercuts to graphic mapping of routes that makes the audience feel part of the chase too, combined with the awe-inspiring choreography of bike stunts amidst the busiest and most dangerous of Manhattan streets, makes the movie an urban popcorn classic.

As the sociopath, whose actions are darkly funny, Michael Shannon does the menacing bad guy act as well as he’s always done, but the movie’s shining star is the fantastic Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who’s so insanely good at being a biker that I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw him taking part in – and winning – the next Tour De France. Levitt adds so much heart, energy, drama and cool to Premium Rush that in a way, he is the premium rush in the film.

After some brilliant indies like Brick, Mysterious Skin and one of my favourite movies ever, (500) Days of Summer, Levitt’s career is skyrocketing towards greatness, and deservedly so. He’s already my favourite young actor and you can almost hear him say, “Give me your script, I’ll give you awesome.”

If there were only one reason to watch Premium Rush, it would be Levitt, although the movie’s the Fast and Furious of bikes, so that’s a great hard sell.

Note: This interview first appeared on Firstpost.com on October 22, 2012
Link: http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/movie-review-premium-rush-is-the-fast-and-furious-of-bikes-498428.html
Picture courtesy: Google. None of the pictures are owned by the author all rights belong to the original owner(s) and photographer(s).
© Copyright belongs to the author, Nikhil Taneja. The article may not be reproduced without permission. A link to the URL, instead, would be appreciated.

Review: Argo (2012)

Argo is a stunning achievement

Some stories are so incredible, they can only be true. Argo is one such story.

In the year 1979, the Iranian revolution erupted in an attempt to overthrow the ruling monarch of the Pahlavi dynasty and replace him with religious leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, for a US and UK backed coup that saw him rise to power, and for human rights violations during his years in power. During the revolution, the American embassy in Iran was overthrown by revolutionaries, who then held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days in captivity.

But unknown to them, six American diplomats escaped, and found shelter in the Canadian Ambassador’s house. They were in hiding for 79 days since rescuing them was considered too risky. This was the status quo, until a CIA exfiltration specialist, Tony Mendez, came up with an incredulous plan: He would create a fake Hollywood science fiction movie, pose as its producer on location scout to the exotic Middle East, fly in solo to Tehran and fly out with the six Americans pretending to be his crew. Mendez’s movie, Argo, was fake, but his mission was real. And in the words of Ben Affleck’s new film based on this astonishing true story, “it was the best bad idea” they had.

Affleck’s third feature film as a director, Argo, presents this unbelievable hostage rescue mission on screen as a taut, well-paced suspense thriller with so much palpable tension throughout that along with you and the entire audience, even the seats, the popcorn, the soft drinks and other inanimate objects are on edge. You know the story but the drama of how it unfolds is of aiming-for-an-Oscar-nod quality, with powerful questions about morality, humanity and the wretched politics of it all intermingled with pulp Hollywood elements of ‘Oh My God! What’s going to happen next?’ ‘Kill the evil bas***ds, I say! Kill them all!’ ‘Nooo! Please don’t let the good guys be caught!’ and ‘THIS IS THE BEST MOVIE EVER *Orgasm*’

Yes, the thing that elevates Argo from gritty art cinema that people would watch only after finding out that it’s been nominated for an Oscar is that apart being from a classy period film about one of the “highest-rated” hostage dramas in history, the movie is spectacularly entertaining too. Affleck pulls out all stops to add enough “dramatic elements,” as he referred to them in a press conference, to make the movie that gives you hope, inspiration and the feel-good aftereffect, one that also provides you with the kind of potboiler twists, turns and unexpected laugh-out-loud moments that would make James Cameron proud.

The entire cast is terrific, led by Affleck himself playing Mendez in the movie, but veteran acting legends, John Goodman and Alan Arkin steal the show with their delivery of some of the smartest lines on film this year. “You want to come into Hollywood and act like a big shot without doing anything?” rhetorically asks Goodman’s character John Chambers, who was awarded CIA’s highest civilian honour in real life, to Mendez in the movie. “You’ll fit right in!” he answers with a punchline. Arkin’s character of director Lester Siegel who takes it upon himself to not just make a fake movie, but a “fake hit” gives the movie it’s most quotable phrase, “Argo f**k yourself!”

Unarguably, the full credit of one of the movies of the year goes to director Affleck, who has transformed himself from the guy best-known for being Jennifer Lopez’ ex-boyfriend (aka the Ben-part of ‘Bennifer’), Matt Damon’s Sudama-type best friend and managing to pull off what is known as “one of the worst movies ever made”, Gigli, to possibly, the next Clint Eastwood of direction.

Affleck’s embarrassing filmography as an actor has given way to an accomplished, assured and formidable filmography as a writer-director, one that only keeps getting better with every film. Watch Affleck’s first two directorial ventures, the intelligent Gone Baby Gone and the gritty The Town to know why Affleck is one of the industry’s brightest upcoming directors, who seems to have only gotten started. And of course, do *not* miss Argo this week because it is a stunning achievement in direction, screenwriting, acting and filmmaking itself.

Some stories are so incredible, they can only be true. Ben Affleck is one such story.

Note: This interview first appeared on Firstpost.com on October 20, 2012
Link: http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/movie-review-argo-is-a-stunning-achievement-497363.html
Picture courtesy: Google. None of the pictures are owned by the author all rights belong to the original owner(s) and photographer(s).
© Copyright belongs to the author, Nikhil Taneja. The article may not be reproduced without permission. A link to the URL, instead, would be appreciated.