Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Chalachitra O Chandalika

Now-a-days, the only thing on which I consistently spend at least 1/6 th part of a solar day  is : Watching movies . Thus on this blog I'll try and write my feedback on a few recently watched movies. Some of these movies are brand new and the others are pre-historic (to me at least , considering the fact that my personal history as a human being began at 1989!). And for the 1st time in my blogger life I've decided to KISS and thus none of these reviews would be the answer of a PG level history paper. So, let's start the journey with looking back at Indian Mythology.

Peter Brook's Mahabharata: The director has successfully turned this epic into a rather parochial skirmish sprinkled abundantly with venereal innuendos which, far from giving the film a erotic hue , restricts the true potential of the epic. Though at 1st I was elated to see the use of Rabindrasangeet in this movie , soon I realized , it's a half baked effort to try to give an "Indian" special effect to the otherwise bland movie. I wont be  a hypocrite and say that Mahabharata never had any sexual connotations, there were plenty of it throughout this (or any else) ancient scripture. But like a giant ultra complicated onion , this epic has many layers which are intricately entwined by erotica.  I was upset to see the way Achilles's relationship with his lover Patroclus was being ridiculously portrayed as mere camaraderie in the movie version of Homer's epic, but the portrayal of most characters of Brook's Mahabharata redefines the word 'ridiculous'. Final Opion : Except some of the actors' brilliant performance and the elegance and enchanting beauty of Draupadi, Brook had nothing much to offer and  it remains to be  "Peter Brook's" Mahabharata , merely an obscure shadow of the epic. 

Inception:-YES, Finally I've done it . I've watched the most talked about movie of this year . The revolutionary movie which  bridged the gap between  both critics and average movie goers and became the adam's apple of both of these species . Now , on a movie of this public esteem , it's almost impossible to say anything which has not been said before. But nevertheless, I'd try and commit the same sin I've committed while writing the review of '3 Idiots' . Yes, I am gonna be one of those few who has criticized this movie. 1st thing 1st. Whatever Inception might be, this hybrid between a heist and a science fiction is NOT an intellectually stimulating film. The dreams shown in this movie has not only been dreamt but also brought into existence in films like 'Solaris' (the original Andrei Tarkovsky version) and  Matrix series. So, in the end this movie is but the extension and redecoration of the Ocean's series with a few ideas extracted from some other maestros' dreams . And the worst part was the misuse of a brilliant actor like Marion Cotillard. Seems like she was cast in this movie only as a marketing gimmick , just to evoke the distant dreams of her brilliant performance as Edith Piaf , what else can explain the use of the song "Non, Je ne regrette rien" as the only song to wake up the dreamy thieves? Fianl word? Complete waste of my 220 bucks. Could've easily downloaded and watched it from P2P sites.