movie

Pondering Over The Lyrics Of ‘Ghar’

December 21, 2017 Movies

Like most verses of my time, I pondered over the use of a ‘home’ (Ghar) in a romantic song like ‘Ghar’ because, in isolation, the lyrics seemed detached from a plain break-up scenario. This melancholic song penned in Hindi by Irshad Kamil is a melodious composition by Pritam from the movie  ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’, and the lyrics go something like this:

[perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]खाली है जो तेरे बिना में वो घर हूँ तेरा,
घूमे फिरे तू चाहे सब शहर तू है मेरा |[/perfectpullquote]

I am that home you own which lies desolate without you,
You may roam cities far and wide, but you are only mine.

Home Is Where The Heart Is.

I had seen the movie and thought to connect with the lyrics of this particular (awesome) song, and I did. The protagonist “Harry” (Shah Rukh Khan) is a tour guide perpetually on the road, and (perhaps) yearning to return to his home. The pain of this separation and deep love is likened to the emotions felt by Sejal (Anushka Sharma) for Harry as they are breaking up, and Kamil symbolically combines their despair using the metaphor of ‘home’. It’s a wonderful instance of how lyrics could be subtlely & creatively intertwined with a movie script.

Link to the YouTube Video of ‘Ghar’

‘One Heart’ Is A Melodic Pilgrimage with AR Rahman

November 17, 2017 Movies

I have been an ardent fan of the Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman since the ‘Roja’ days and I feel particularly sorry for admitting that I haven’t been to any of his live concerts! But all is not lost and I still have my hopes high. Meanwhile, I was privileged to watch a movie on his life and times through a concert called ‘One Heart – The AR Rahman Concert Film’. It’s a film for anyone who has missed the chance to experience a live performance.

The 90-minute documentary consists of footage from AR Rahman’s ‘The Intimate Concert Tour’ in which his cherry-picked 10-member band performed in 14 cities across the US. Though I could not ignore the fact that this movie appears to be produced as an afterthought by including additional footage, in the end, it was the music and the live performances that mattered. It revealed the maestro’s melodious journey through a rare interview of the legendary composer himself, how he engineers those tunes, his inspirations, and associations, etc., also a never-before-seen Rahman opening up on his personal life. The live band consists of AR Rahman himself, with Ranjit Barot (percussion), Annette Philip (jazz/vocals), Marie Calhoun (violin), Jonita Gandhi (from Toronto! Yaay!!) and Haricharan (vocals), Mohini De (bass guitar/prodigy), Keba Jeremiah (guitar), Devi Rani Najev (dancer), along with Shiraz Uppal, Sanket Athale, Ashwin Srinivasan, and more, most of whom you might have caught jamming on the MTV Unplugged (India) season. I imagine I may have missed a few names, but then again, the concert was very engrossing.

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‘The Kite Runner’ Is An Adventure of Emotions!

October 28, 2017 Movies
“The Kite Runner’ portrays a present-day saga of friendship, redemption, and sacrifice against the backdrop of strife-torn Afghanistan.

I had come across some rave online reviews about the movie ‘The Kite Runner’ based on the namesake book authored by Khaled Hosseini, and when it finally released on Netflix I watched it this weekend. To put it mildly, I was blown away by the casting and characterization of the script! ‘The Kite Runner’ is a saga of brotherly relationship between juvenile buddies Hassan and Amir set in the glorious backdrop of the city of Kabul in the 70s, mired in catastrophic events that unravel the true characters of the young boys as they grapple with forces of time. It’s a beautifully crafted screenplay directed by Marc Foster which released in 2007 and nominated in several categories at the Golden Globes and the Oscars.

‘The Kite Runner’ paints a poignant portrait of Afghanistan in its esteemed history, characterizing the capital Kabul as I have never seen before on screen, and will probably won’t for a long time. It left me gasping in surprise and wishing to visit Kabul. In the midst of a nation moving towards destruction lies the innocence of 2 young boys, Amir, and Hassan the son of a servant, who would selflessly scale any height to fulfill the ambitions of his affluent bosom buddy. Until political disturbance ravages their beautiful hopes and separates them for eternity. The gruesome ‘Talibanisation’ of Afghanistan and its fall from grace is metaphorically visualized through Amir’s innate emotional battles which result in his quest to take up a perilous journey to his native land to redeem his past.

The movie is a bestowal of faith in human ethos and celebrates the virtues of emotional bonds that are unfortunately shattered in the suppression of freedom, in that, I found ‘The Kite Runner’ as a perfect narrative for today’s microcosm of human suffering through its message of faithfulness, love, and the price that we must pay to keep our dignity in strife. Also, against the grim betrayal of human values, ‘The Kite Runner’ succeeds in delivering the message of redemption in a heartless time that we find ourselves entangled today. It’s a must see!

The Jungle Book (2016)

May 19, 2016 Movies

The Jungle Book movie was an enchanting showcase of technology-meets-human experience. The live action/CGI depiction of the characters is a daunting task for a 105 minute movie when you are bringing an animated version alive on the big screen for the first time. Apart from the brilliant storytelling, there was some degree of fear and discomfort felt while watching The Jungle Book on the big screen versus a TV.

As I mentioned, since I was coming to the cinema from a TV experience of the animated version I was expecting to be enthralled by the cuteness of the characters. Shere Khan wasn’t looking so horrible in the animated version. Kaa was not so fearful and scary, in fact, she was Mowgli’s friend and mentor from reading the books. The beauty of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book is that despite the inherent qualities of the ferocious animals they are still believable and adorable. No matter how beastly the behavior you could still love them with all your heart.

The only way in which Shere Khan could instill fear and dominate the animal kingdom was through his roaring voice. His horrid appearance went overboard in the movie. Or maybe it’s the traditional movie stereotype of making a bad person look monstrous too. Kaa’s entry was the scariest moment as she almost strangulates Mowgli with her coil. You know how it feels in 3D to have a snake look into your eyes that closely. Snakes are awful in appearance but not Kaa from the book and Disney’s cartoons.

In short – Bagheera was the hero of the movie, Baloo was cute, Raksha was amazing, the jungle was depicted quite nicely, King Louie was funny, and the bee stings on Mowgli disappeared sooner than I had expected in the next scene. Was that a blooper? Anyway, the movie has reignited my interest in the animated version and that’s what I’m looking forward to. Art is immortal.

Further Reading:
The Jungle Book (2016 film) – Wikipedia
The Jungle Book (2016) – Rotten Tomatoes
The Jungle Book (1894) collection of stories by Rudyard Kipling – Wikipedia
The Jungle Book (2016) official SuperBowl movie trailer – YouTube
Information on the Tiger species – WWF

The Monuments Men (2014)

March 18, 2016 Movies

I just found The Monuments Men appealing on several aspects. It’s just a great WWII movie. As an art school alumni and an art lover, I could accept the sensitivity around nurturing art, not just as an artifact, but as a document of a culture reflective of human traditions and lifestyle of that era. In Frank Stokes words (played by the ever-so-elegant George Clooney!):

You can wipe out an entire generation, you can burn their homes to the ground and somehow they’ll still find their way back. But if you destroy their history, you destroy their achievements and it’s as if they never existed. That’s what Hitler wants and that’s exactly what we are fighting for.

And my mind goes back to what Hitler was thinking when he wanted all the artworks to be housed in his ambitious Führermuseum (which never happened), later ordering his men to destroy it all because they lost the war. Not even sure how many pieces of artwork were destroyed by his men, but that’s a different discussion.

Directed by George Clooney and based on a true story non-fiction book (The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter), while the Allied army is fighting the Nazis, a group of men – basically artists and architects, from the  Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program are in search of precious artworks which have been looted by Hitler’s men when they occupy parts of Europe. Barring this team of fervent art lovers, the generals of the Allied force care less about canvases and colors. They’d rather focus on winning the war in Europe. In a thrilling turn of events, the group leads a heroic effort in finding most of the paintings, important among which is the Ghent Altarpiece. The paintings and other pieces of work are found safe in copper mines which prompts Frank Stokes to note – “It seems the Nazis took better care of art than they did people.”

I would highly recommend The Monuments Men, even if you are not a WWII/war movie fan.