Nader and Simin, A Separation (2011)

Country: Iran

Language: Persian

Actors: Peyman Moaadi, Leila Hatami, Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat & Sarina Farhadi

Director: Asghar Farhadi

A drama that explores the judicial, familial, gender, social and religious pressure the middle class Iran is faced with today. Amazingly acted out, it doesn’t seem like a film at all barring a moment or two. This one is more real than the most real reality show you would ever have seen.

A couple married for 14 years with an 11 year old daughter is in the middle of a bitter divorce battle. The reason, the wife wants to leave the country to give a better future for her daughter. The husband can’t because he has to take care of his Alzheimer afflicted old father.

The judge doesn’t give a ruling but asks them to take some time to see if they can reconcile. As Simin, the wife moves to her parents place, Nader hires a woman to take care of his father. The young lady, Razieh hails from a poor family hounded by debtors thanks to her jobless husband. Getting a hang of the taxing job of taking care of a Alzheimer patient and the religious implication of handling an elderly male, she decides to put her jobless husband in her place. But as luck would have it the guy gets arrested for defaulting on a loan and is sent to jail.

So the pregnant Razieh decides to continue with the work till her husband comes out. And brings her toddler daughter to the work place. Circumstances force Nader accuse Razieh of stealing money and neglecting his old father. The accusation leads to a fight and Nader shoving Razieh out of his house and a miscarriage for her.

Nader is arrested for having caused the miscarriage, a charge he refutes. And the drama reaches a crescendo touching upon the key drivers of the contemporary Iran like gender, morality, monetary & political uncertainty, judiciary and religion.

Towards the end the couple is back in the family court for finalising their divorce. This time with both parties agreeing on separating, the judge asks their young daughter with whom she wants to stay. The girl says she wants to tell her decision to the judge in person. The credit title rolls with the couple waiting outside the courtroom as their daughter is alone in the courtroom talking to the judge.

The actors, Leila Hatami who plays Simin and Peyman Moaadi who plays Nader have already won loads of acclaim and awards for their lovely portrayal of the two main characters. Sareh Bayat who plays the role of Razieh and Ali-Azghar Shahbazi who plays the Alzheimer affected father of Nader are a class apart.

This movie doesn’t have fancy cinematography, except the lovely piano piece as the end titles roll there is no other music you remember, no major locations or set properties and costumes. If this movie has succeeded it is purely on the merit of a great story, tight screenplay and direction by Asghar Farhadi.

This lovely drama is the Iranian nominee for Best Foreign Movie at the 84th edition of the Academy Awards. I’m sure this will be one of the shortlists and one shouldn’t be surprised if A Separation eventually wins.

Most recommended, a straight Super Watch

Paleri Manikyam: Oru Pathirakolapathakathinte Katha (2009)

Country: India

Language: Malayalam

Actors: Mamootty, Shweta Menon, Mythili, Sreenivasan

Director: Ranjith

Story: T P Rajeevan

This is a crime drama based on a Malayalam novel of the same name by T P Rajeevan. This story is supposed to be based on the first recorded murder case in Kerala (after the state was formed following the linguistic carving out of states in the 1950’s). This is yet another movie where Mamootty plays a detective and cracks a previously unsolved case. But it doesn’t just stop there, we get to see Mamootty in 3 different characters and you get to see a different him in each of those.

A young woman, Manikyam is raped and murdered in the village of Paleri. There is another death on the same day, of a young priest which passes off as a case of drowning. After prolonged investigation and court procedures the accused are acquitted for lack of evidence thanks to a weak prosecution case.

Around 52 years after that, the protagonist Haridas a detective from New Delhi comes to Paleri to solve this case. The reason, he was born on the same day the murder happened and happens to be the illegitimate son of a powerful landlord in the village. Who incidentally was accused by a few to have played a part in the murder.

The movie is gripping as it traverses the length and breadth of feudalism, money, cronyism, power and politics. The director very subtly shows how the two major political parties, the Communists who have just come to power and Congress who have just lost play to the galleries for political one-upmanship. This battle is eventually won by the comrades at the expense of humanity & justice for the oppressed.

The way Ranjith has treated this film is fantastic and is worth a special mention. For many of us who remember Kamalhassan’s Virumandi as the Indian tribute to Kurosawa’s Rashoman should watch this movie, the way Ranjith cobbles up the story through the different points of view (although in the strictest sense this is slightly different from Rashoman). There are also many characters who come in and go out, telling what they know about the Manikyam murder case. But each one of them serves a purpose in the whole scheme of things.

Sreenivasan appears in a small but a superbly crafted role, of that of an aged renegade barber. A person who always suspected his top comrades to be hand in glove with the rich & powerful murderer. His character is sure to stay etched in the viewers mind for a while. And so are all 3 of Mamootty and Shweta Menon who does superbly well as Manikyam’s mother in law who is also the village prostitute. Cinematographer Manoj Pillai makes the movie come alive with his pleasing visuals.

I wonder why this wasn’t India’s submission for the foreign movie Academy awards in 2010 (Peepli Live !!).

A great movie, highly recommended.

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Country: USA

Language: English

Actors: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Adrien Broody, Kathy Bates, Marion, Cotillard, Carla Bruni

Director: Woody Allen

Cinematography: Darius Khondji

A fantasy RomCom movie by Woody Allen. The story is set in Paris and revolves around a group of Americans – A father, mother, daughter and her boyfriend to whom she is engaged. This movie brings to life some of the largest contributors to Modernism and Surrealism, which is supposed to be the extreme form of Modernism.

The plot is simple, the daughter and her boyfriend take a free ride to Paris with her parents. Her father is there to broker a business deal. The girl’s parents are very wealthy and conservative, the boyfriend is a distracted Hollywood writer who is in the process of finishing his novel. So the boyfriend, the protagonist of this movie is a misunderstood person as far as his fiancé’s parents go. To compound the situation another pseudo-intellectual friend of his fiancé comes into the scene. While he dislikes & questions his intellect his fiancé adores him.

As the protagonist walks through the streets of Paris he is transported into the golden era of Modernism, the 1920’s and there he meets the greats of that era one by one. Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemmingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Picasso, Matisse, T S Elliot and also the master Surrealists in Salvador Dali, Man Ray, Luis Bunuel et al. During his time in the 1920’s he falls for Adriana, the beautiful mistress of Picasso which she too reciprocates. At the behest of Hemmingway, Gertrude Stein reads the protagonists novel. She praises his writing abilities but questions why the main character is ignorant of his girlfriend’s affair with the pedantic character.

This leads to his breaking-up with his fiancé and settling in Paris as he always wanted to. Having taken the big decision, he goes for a midnight walk where he meets the antique shop owner. The lady who, like him loved the Modernist movement and the music of Cole Porter. The film ends with them walking together in rain.

A lovely movie, Darius Khondji’s cinematography is worth a mention. The marriage of romance, comedy & fantasy works really well in this movie and the credit for which needs to go to Woody Allen.

A good movie which I guess will be part of the Oscar shortlists in 2012.

8am Arivu – A sequel to the great movie

This one is a story made for “Namma Captain”, yes Vijayakanth. Whatever said and done A R Murugadoss has moved the goalpost for the Indian movie scene. He has introduced China into the scheme of things. Thank you kind sire, we were bored of seeing all those Pakistan themed movies. This movie, the sequel will cash in on this new phenomenon. The evil Chinese design and how Captain Vijayakant singlehandedly saves India and its people.

Now to the story, most of us who took fancy of the Wikipedia page of Bodhidarma wouldn’t have progressed beyond 2 pages of the long write-up. According to the legends Bodhidharma woke-up from his grave and walked back to his home, India with one shoe in hand. Now comes the story for Captain Vijayakanth.

The movie starts with the riots in Guangdong, China. Cut to the ethnic riots in Xinjiang province and then the devastation of earthquake.

Cut to a secret meeting between the Tamil speaking Chinese politburo and the Shaolin monks. The monks trying to reason that the riots and all these calamities are happening because Bodhidharma has left his grave and gone back to India. Here we fan some nationalistic feeling with one of those present saying, “Look at how the Indians have progressed and prospered. We have to do something to stop them. We have to bring Damo back and have him interred in the grave. Then we shall be superpowers, as we were”. So they set up operation “Qilai” or “Raise” to get Bodhidharma back to his grave in China.

Cut to India, there is this boy who is 16 who still works in the same circus where his grandfather worked. This boy can’t act but has a well-built muscular body (because he is the descendent of Shruti Hassan & Suriya from the previous installment). The Chinese send an old Dong Lee back to India to kidnap this boy and transport him back to China so that he can be killed in interred in the grave of Bodhidharma.

And there comes Captain with his red eyes and punch dialogue, “Chinese-la enakku pudikkatha vaarthai Qilai da” (the word I don’t like in Chinese is qilai). And demolishes the Great Wall of China to save India and restore Tamil pride. In the interim we have 3 item songs, one for the Chinese (the politburo & Shaolin monks) and 1 for Dong Lee and another for Captain himself when he goes to a dance bar for an encounter.

We also have the boy’s elder sister who romances Captain as he tries to save the universe and of course have two songs with her. One on top of the Great Wall in Chinese costumes and another in some European location.

This film I’m sure will be a super dooper hit with much better commercial value and restore Tamil pride better than what 7am Arivu did.

The movie will be called "8am Arivu - Saving 7 worlds and beyond"

Serious producers who can reach this story to Captain can contact me for taking this further.

7am Arivu

Language: Tamil

Actors: Suriya, Shruti Hassan, Johnny Tri Nguyen

Director: A R Murugadoss

The first 30 minutes moves like a documentary, one of those “The floods of Bihar” or “The visit of the Indian prime minister to Zambia we would have seen in the 80's before the start of a movie. Those are the 30 minutes spent to tell us who the principal protagonist of the movie is, Bodhidharma.

And then come a group of Chinese plotting against India and one woman who stands between their plots success or failure. And then of course the protagonist who will ensure the plot failed, his DNA, research lab, 3-4 songs and then the usual vanquishing the antagonist and the end.

The film starts okay but then nosedives to abysmal depths. Only Ravi K Chandran’s camera work and some slick stunts, thanks to Peter Hein and Suriya & Johnny’s acting skills are things worth a mention. Murgadoss even tries the tested formula of infusing / invoking the Tamilian pride but the attempt falls flat as one can’t understand what pride he’s talking about.

Let’s get one thing right, we are talking about someone who lived in the 5th or 5th century AD. At that point in time there wasn’t any Tamil Nadu (Tamil Nadu or Tamilian came into being only in the 50’s when the linguistic splitting of states happened). So there couldn’t have been a Tamilian and hence any attempt to colour anyone who lived in that era as a Tamilian is a convoluted argument (he was a Pallavan citizen who spoke Tamil, get that right). That is the argument our Dravidian politicians make to fool us. At max the only thing common between us and Bodhidharman is the language Tamil.

He is supposed to be a master in Charaka’s medicinal science – Charaka is not from any of the Tamil speaking kingdoms. He is supposed to be as expert Kalari practitioner – Kalari is a martial arts form from our neighbouring Kerala (we have Purananuru texts that say this art form was practiced in the Chera, Chola & Pandiya kingdoms). He is supposedly a Buddhist monk – Buddhism isn’t a phenomenon that originated from Tamil speaking kingdoms. So just because he came from a Tamil speaking kingdom we try to sell him as a great Tamil icon and invoke Tamil pride ? Isn’t that stretching the rubber a bit too far ??

The director could have invested in 2 or even 3 new faces (who could act) as heroine for the money he would have paid Shruti Hassan. Shruti Hassan reminds me of Rohan Gavaskar, talented father. Everyone can’t be as gifted as Rahul Gandhi, gifted with the ability to pull cotton wool over the eyes of the general public. We have already seen her music direction skills, now acting. She should apprentice with T Rajender to expand her horizons and prolong her film career.

There is nothing else one can talk about in this movie.

Watch it if you really want.

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (2010)

Language: Tamil

Actors: Silambarasan, Trisha Krishnan

Director: Gautam Vasudev Menon

The plot is nothing new, we have heard the singsong Shanti Mantra from the Vedas followed by a harmony played together with the Church organ enough. We hear this combination more than once every year, clichéd if you want to clichédly describe it. I started watching the movie cynically, nearly two years after the movie was released.

There are a few things that make this movie watchable, Silambarasan aka Simbu is probably one of the most talented and misunderstood actors in the Tamil movie scene. More than his acting skills, the way he snaps his fingers and the prefix he puts before his name on the title is more talked about. And not to forget his “Made to order” father who comes to our mind every time we think or talk about Silambarasan.

Add to this the lovely Trisha Krishnan, who does fantastically well and the bunch of talented actors backed up by the storytelling skills of Gautam Vasudev Menon, pleasing visuals thanks to Manoj Paramahamsa and some lovely music by A R Rahman make this a movie to watch.

The only thing unpredictable (the WOW moment) is the end, thanks to the film background of the protagonist Karthik the director affords to end the movie differently. Not like the ones we have seen in those clichéd Veda + Church organ movies we have seen till date.

If one wanted me to list the items I liked about this movie…

1. Taking a clichéd subject and surprising you in the end
2. Lovely visuals
3. Superb background music
4. Dialogues one can relate to (Mathematics is easier compared to becoming successful in movies)
5. Actors who don’t act but bring the visuals to life

This is one movie where the songs weren’t intrusive but their picturisation is like any other Tamil movie. But still you can sit through them with a smile on your lips thanks to Rajeevan’s art direction and Nalini Sriram’s costume designing skills.

Originally I would have wanted to affix a good movie tag to this one, but it deserves a bit more. For, it has I believe pushed the envelope a bit further.

Super Watch !!