Change Your Image
srgclub
Reviews
Prisoners (2013)
Thrilling. Riveting. Hard-hitting. One of the best of 2013.
Jingle bells. Batman Smells. Robin laid an egg. The Batmobile lost its wheels and Joker got away.
With Prisoners, Denis Villeneuve delivers a perfect piece of thriller and drama punched with an impeccable blend of music and suspense, add to that Deakin's absolute sublime cinematography. A bit of David Fincher-esque thriller and a bit of Hitchcock-esque suspense that culminates into a riveting climax with some astounding developments. Superlative performances from Hugh Jackman (one of his best till date) and Jake Gyllenhaal. A story of a father who goes too far, goes too down, relinquishes all the values and morals in order to find out his possibly abducted daughter and a detective who commits himself onto his pursuit to find the same missing girl. At the end it is we who end up make ourselves the prisoner. It is we who get trapped out of a self-righteous crime. Denis Villeneuve's inch-perfect measure of storyline development, character moulding, Deakin's master cinematography and brilliance from Hugh and Jake are just too powerful to ignore what the film wants to convey. Turns out we all are prisoners in some way or the other. A must must watch.
Madras Cafe (2013)
Madras Cafe is one of those rare movies which has its scenes inspired from a great movie and an inspiration in itself as well
Madras Cafe. Whoa, where to start. Because, THIS IS THE END. With some spectacular inspirations to the great Apocalypse Now, Madras Cafe projects an extremely intense image of hard boiled Indian politics,intelligence and war amidst a turbulent South India and the Sri Lankan civil war in the 1980s, that culminated to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and also played a major role in changing the entire political contour of the nation.
Everything that the movie portrayed right from the start to the climax, every damn thing fell perfectly in place. Who would have thought that Shoojit Sircar, who directed a film like Vicky Donor could come up with something as brilliant, gutsy and gritty as this. I have some complaints on the cast, a certain Kay Kay Menon would have fit the bill in place of John Abraham, but apart from that the direction, the cinematography was top class.
Lootera (2013)
Lootera is a masterpiece of heart wrenching pure romance. A piece of poetry on celluloid. Something rare in the bollywood of today
Lootera is a movie that takes the audience far away from the stereotyped world of sugarcoated love-making adorned with masala item numbers ... Talk of pure romance with prominent shades of an inexplicable heart wrenching tragedy mixed into it, Lootera is exactly what you should see.
Vikramaditya Motwane has just hit the hammer right on the nail with this piece of story of tragic romance set amidst a backdrop of post-independent India and Bengal of aristocratic zamindars.
Slow it was, but the right pace just set in at the end of the first half and you should not see this if you do not like slowly progressive film-making. But the beauty of romance couldn't have been explained any better than this one. Then again, on the flip side too much of over-gentle snowfall is too dreary, an occasional blizzard is necessary. That is where Lootera faltered at times and lost on the steam and pace albeit the fact, the hues of romance didn't fade away any time.
Not merely a film, but a piece of poetry on celluloid, Lootera, however is bedecked with some eye-catching astounding cinematography and some masterclass background music. Amit Trivedi in his absolute Hans Zimmer mode never seems to get it off the hook and this time it was not an exception, too ! Superlative performances from Sonakshi and Ranvir Singh intensify the fact all together that it's time teens stop drooling over unnecessary sparkle-in-the-light stuff and see movies like this, a piece of unadulterated romance which is !
Bombay Talkies (2013)
Bombay Talkies is something definitely in the elite standards to come out of the Bollywood of today
A conglomerate of four individually directed stories rolled into one , Bombay Talkies exhibits a sharp deviation from the typical mainstream and commercial Bollywood of today.
Getting into the very first one , a 25 minute unusually bold attempt on homosexuality and the subsequent tantrums that follow, is undoubtedly and ironically enough , Karan Johar's best individual direction till date. A 8.5/10 for me.
The second one was an absolute stunner of a direction from Dibakar Banerjee with its very poignancy being augmented by an impeccably brilliant acting from one man Nawazuddin Siddiqui at his versatile best. A straight 9.5/10 for me, if not more.
The reel rolls onto the next half and here we have the third and what we have is a brave, mature, rich-in-content subject with a diluted direction from Zoya Akhtar. With the kind of subject it was, Zoya Akhtar could have made it look equipotent but no, it was not to be. Some unnecessary bits did actually mar the value of the subject. Expected more from an otherwise good direction from Zoya. This one bags a 7.5/10 for me.
Just when you have got that feeling that it was gradually loosing out on the steam, the mastery of Anurag Kashyap storms in with another piece of mind blowing story ,the fourth one in the slot. A typical Kashyap showdown with a subtle flavor of tragedy molded in, the last few minutes of this one as well as the whole movie, sparked a standing ovation from the audience in the end. A terrific acting from Vineet Kumar like his Wasseypur brother Nawazuddin earlier, marked the very essence of the story, only if you are not too critical about mentioning the charismatic presence of Amitabh Bacchan. A rating of 9.5/10 will somewhat, still seem a tad bit less for this piece of story.
And after "THE END" was shown, when actually it was not, and just when you feel you have had enough for the ticket you paid, you gotta sit back, only to see that Bollywood being revisited from the vintage past and present alike to mark its 100 years. On a confessing note, it was still not required and even if it was it should have been précised out to clamp on to the mood the movie had set. Some unnecessary sparkle-in-the-light stuff did partly dampen the mood in the end.