First Blood and John Rambo

A couple of days back, happened to see the movie 'First Blood'. Some thing about the movie was captivating, for I'm someone with very little patience for nonsense movies. At the time of watching, little did I know that it was the first film of the Rambo series....but just a glimpse and something told me it was a cult film in the making.  I sacrificed a little sleep for this but the price paid was worth it. Compared to the later Rambo films, this one is a psychological thriller, with less physical violence.

The film is about John Rambo, a decorated war hero from the Vietnam war, struggling to return to civilian life. I a small US town, he is hounded by their police dept for his rough looks, interrogated and jailed. This brings back his PTSD related to the torture  he suffered at the hands of the Vietnamese as a POW. He escapes from police custody and soon becomes the target of a huge man hunt. He manages to fight off the huge but inexperienced police force with his guerilla warfare tactics. The surprise package came at the end, in the form of Rambo opening his heart to Clnl.Trautman about the trauma of war. Sylvester Stallione who comes across as stone faced throughout till then, now suddenly and amazingly springs to life and breaks our hearts as the sufferring hero. As his mighty frame crumbles and he cries like a child, the human price of the war is brought into the picture. In those few, brief scenes, are etched poignantly the human tragedy of the war; a price paid by the individual soldier, some times with his life, or with his limbs or with his tattered mind.

Stallone captivates with his rugged physique and handsome looks. The small town setting and egos are splendidly portrayed. If anything, they could change the very tame ending. I'd leave everything else untouched.

7 khoon maaf (pardon the 7 murders)

The translation of the title from hindi is mine, pardon me. After seeing the film, there would surely be the 8^th murder, that of the director. I can’t pardon Vishal Bhardwaj for directing this after the wonderful hopes he gave after Ishqiya [Now, that was some movie]. How can you ever destroy all the suspense of a movie with its title. Now that’s dumb. After the 1^st murder, you realize you have to plod through 6 more. In the end, nobody can blame you for baying for the script writer’s bloody blood. Priyanka Chopra is wasted in a role with potential. She did a much better job in ‘Fashion’. None of the male co-leads have enough in the plot to explore their repertoire. Fine actors, Irrfan khan. Nasruddin Shah, all wasted. The fellow playing the narrator, could do more with his face, for that was one of the better scripted roles in the movie. 

Honestly, if there is a Susanna in the society, she deserves mental treatment. The movie at times seems to be trying to evoke sympathy, portraying Susanna as the victim.

If you are asking me why write a review for the film which was released last year…that’s coz Air India forced me to watch this on its flight. This was the only movie in the flight DEL-BLR. The other option of course, was listening to Annu Kapoor and Durga Jasraj, which I was in no mood for.

Urumi...a half baked tale

As the title makes it amply clear...this is about the movie Urumi...starring Prithviraj in what could be his truly first larger-than-life filmy endeavour. No, he doesn't resort to any super hero antics but there is hardly any frame without him ...sorry, of course I remember this one shot, it had just a horse's tail and the mud kicked up by its hooves in the frame!! :-)

Though the balcony was "houseful" by the time we entered the theatre, the reservations we made earlier saved the seats for us. Even before the film started daddy was speculating when it’s going to end...and half way through the movie, the rest of us actually found ourselves doing the same and twiddling our thumbs and peering at our watch dials in the dim light. Since three of us had watched “Pazhassiraja” (hence forth referred to as P) we felt it was unfortunate that this movie was made after it…because the one among us who dint watch the P movie felt urumi was a good take, where as the rest of us felt it was a poor imitation of the P movie A poor distant cousin…

First the plot. The basic failure of the film lies in the inability to work up a tightly knit, compelling storyline. The loopholes stare in your face like black holes. The cast seems to be an under utilization of very talented actors. May be the one who is used to his full potential is Prabhu deva. Even Prithviraj, I feel couldn’t live up to his potential because of the poor script. His character is not fully developed, having only emotions of anger, revenge, righteousness, romance etc. Genelia is a misfit in her role. A similar role in ‘P’ was immortalized by the talented Padmapriya. G comes nowhere near her performance. One sincerely feels the makers had used Vidya Balan in that role. She is wasted in a useless song sequence and a couple of dialogues. That brings me to the songs. They spring up at you like ‘jack-in-the-box’. Kind of startles you…in Malayalam you could say- ‘potti mulachu’. Except for one, all the songs feel like they were fitted in later for commercial purposes. I felt disappointed there was nothing in the movie to justify its title. The weapon urumi became another wasted character, like Tabu in the song sequence. It is a one of a kind weapon; deadly, difficult to master and unbeatable if you use it correctly. The intricacies of the weapon are completely unexplored, other than a couple of shots of the wriggling golden wraith.

The saving grace is the cinematography, every frame being a treat to watch. The art direction is also wonderful with all artifacts and accessories taking one back to the period.
Personally speaking I would have preferred to see more of Arya in the movie, and preferably in the role essayed by Prithvraj. Well that’s all just too much wishful thinking.
Actually at the end of the 3 hr session I was feeling like watching Pazhassiraja again!!

The old timers

Yeah...we won, we won, we won!!! The cup is our's, we are the world champions after 28 long years of waiting. This team was superb, really deserved the cup. Congrats and hats off to Dhoni and his men in blue.

But then this post is not about them. I just finished watching the last 45 minutes of an old- old movie called "Falling in love". There's nothing remarkable in the story line; two married people falling in love with each other and the toll it takes on their families- is how to sum it up in a single sentence. What makes it remarkable is the acting by two highly remarkable people- a young, dashing Robert de Niro and a young, feisty looking Meryl Streep. I watched the whole thing just to see them act. It was a real treat... the subtleties they bring into ordinary roles... just like watching two real people in their situations. I would say they just took the story into a different plane with their performance. But for them I'd have flipped the channel in another 2 minutes. It was pure joy, to watch the two of them, so young and beautiful. so talented...just magnificent. So natural, so spontaneous.