jon_s_chan Reviews

Ugly (2013)

Ugly - An ugly state of affairs in the lives of ordinary people

[10/10 · 22 January 2015]

Anurag Kashyap yet again proves that he is in a league by himself among accomplished Bollywood directors. Lately in Bollywood there has been a surge in talented writers/directors creating movies that steer away from typical Bollywood glitz, glamor and grandeur. These glamorous movies appeal to the delusions of most of the Indian audience. But audience who take movies as a form of art and source for inspiration can see through the bling and realize that the substance is utterly lacking. Writers/Directors like Kashyap do not have audience in their mind when they create movies, they cater their work for themselves, which in my opinion brings the best out of any creator of art.

Ugly is a tale of ordinary lives involved in extraordinary circumstances. It starts out with a missing child followed by sequences that will make you utterly hate some characters initially. But as the movie unfolds and characters develop on screen, opinions on most of the characters will gradually change. This is a rarity in Bollywood movies, because many of them have characters that are purely good or evil. There is no middle ground, everything is looked as black or white and 30 minutes into the movie you can predict the plot by connecting dots between good and bad characters. But what if you start watching a movie where characters are constantly evolving on screen and every character has some evil and some nobility to him? That is when things become unpredictable and keep you on the edge of your seat if it is a thriller like this story is.

Greed and desperation, combined with poverty has a way of bringing out monsters in people you would usually deem as normal. Let me go ahead and say that you will find no character likable in the movie. Correction, I liked all the characters, but I could not root for any of them. But if I had to make an exception I would say one character would come out in a positive light by the end of the movie, even if there is some evil to him/her.

This movie is very condensed and concentrated with many raw, heavy hitting scenes that prompt vivid reactions from expressive audience. The plot is captivating and progresses linearly, with some retrospection in-between. Kashyap manages to have his audience on the edge of their seats 15 minutes into the movie. If you are a sucker for suspense thrillers like I am, you wont be leaning back for the rest of the movie. Kashyap also compels you to empathize and cringe at the plight and despair of characters, a lot of which is brought onto them by themselves.

Kashyap is a master at writing characters and finding impeccable actors to bring them to life. The lack of make up combined with many improvised scenes give a "real life" rawness and experience you are not used to in Bollywood movies. The movie "Apocalypse Now" where the character played by Marlon Brando talks about "the horror" is a scene that resonates deeply with audience. That was an improvised scene played by Brando who hardly could remember the lines and thus improvised in front of cameras to give us arguably the greatest scene ever. Kashyap obviously understands the positives of improvisation and lets his extremely talented cast do their thing. I only hope these actors get the recognition they deserve.

All in all, Ugly is the best Bollywood has to offer for the year 2014. I can confidently say that without even watching 99% of Hindi movies that came out in 2014. It is entertaining and inspiring. I wish I could meet Mr. Kashyap in person and thank him for all the wonderful creations. He is one of the very few reasons I still bother with Bollywood. I wish he managed to squeeze in Kay Kay Menon and Manoj Bajpai somewhere, that is the only (silly) complaint I have about this movie.

Asoka (2001)

A pitiful excuse for a biography of one of the most influential historical figures of Asia

[5/10 · 8 June 2014]

I understand that movies are made for the sake of entertainment, but I am ashamed that the only type of entertainment that is appreciated by Indian viewers is romance, which this movie is really about. I read the comments section of this movie and I see a lot of people make excuses to why so much romance was involved in what should have been a serious dramatization of Asoka the tyrant and Asoka the saint. They say that without romance the movie would not have been entertaining. The ones that say this likely have never seen the real good stuff such as Lawrence in Arabia.

Seriously, imagine Lawrence of Arabia movie, not imagine if several scenes portraying his multilayered character were replaced with some romantic scenes with a scantily clad beauty in the desert. That movie would have been laughed at globally. A similar form of adulteration was done in the plot of Asoka. I am startled by the kind of praise this movie has received despite the utter dilution and corruption of topic at hand.

The problem with general Indian audience is they do not even know what makes a good movie. If someone made the movie Asoka without romance and mostly focusing on conquests and spiritual messages, the same fans who are praising this movie would have loved it and probably called their all time favorite. Problem with Indian movie making industry is you very rarely get movies that have been flawlessly directed and focused on a certain topic. This has made the fanbase laud mediocrity.

I am terribly disappointed in Santosh Sivan who went this route, possibly at the behest of producers. I do not doubt Sivan's credentials, but someone like Gowariker would have probably made a far superior flick by condensing the romance to about 10% of what we saw. Sivan and SRK probably took this route to earn profits, but this movie was a huge disappointment at the box office. I believe that if this movie got a Gowariker treatment where he would not give two f***s about catering to the masses, the movie would have done much better.

Mumbai Diaries (2010)

This movie is NOT a tool for escapism

[10/10 · 15 October 2011]

What prompted me to write this review is the kind of negativity this movie has received from reviewers on IMDb. I understand that every review written here is an honest opinion, but the number of 1 out of 10 scores I have come across from people who also had time to write a review amazes me. I have taken time to read most of the reviews and I see that they were all disappointed with the movie not featuring Aamir over other actors. I have one thing to say to all of them, THIS MOVIE IS NOT ABOUT AAMIR KHAN!!! There is much more this movie has to offer than Aamir and don't downvote the movie for such a silly reason.

I once watched a movie called "Adrift in Manhattan", was reminded a lot about it while watching Dhobi Ghat. Yes, the concept of Dhobi Ghat isn't fresh if you have seen many American Independent (Indie) flicks, but it was a courageous attempt if we are talking about Indian Cinema where mass masala has become the recipe for success again. The major thing about this style of directing is that you are either a fan of it or you aren't.

This movie does not focus on a burning controversy, nor does it focus on a love couple and certainly does not focus on a one man army daring to bring down the corrupt government. It focuses on 4 common individuals and the common events that happen over a span of few days in their lives. Nothing out of the ordinary happens, just some interesting encounters with people and places which is what the movie is all about. The beauty of the movie lies in how beautifully the writer/director allows the characters to develop based on day to day events. It is so fresh to see this in Indian cinema, I cannot believe such a thing isn't being appreciated.

Another major reason this movie is under-appreciated is the fact that you aren't escaping into alternate reality by watching the characters of this movie. The average movie goers, no matter what the nationality is, wants to imagine himself as a guy making beautiful girls fall for him or acquire power or even be an agent of chaos. Watching movies has been the best tool for such a thing, but in this movie, most of the Indian populace would feel like looking into their own lifestyles. Does not sit well with average movie fans, which is why even in Hollywood, movies such as Taxi Driver and The Machinist are critically acclaimed, but not well reviewed by general audience. Of course, over time once the movies age like fine wine, people will realize the kind of masterpiece of Indian Cinema this movie is, like the world appreciated aforementioned Hollywood flicks.

I don't know why people are disappointed with Aamir Khan. Does his presence mean his character is supposed to do something extraordinary? For the character he was asked to portray, which I admit could have been pulled off with ease by several others, Aamir did perfect justice. What else is left to complain about? Aamir was fresh as ever to me, and the new faces added to my delight. Really talented bunch that pulled an easy job effortlessly. Overall, I would not suggest this movie to the casual audience, by casual I mean the ones mostly into blockbusters. This movie is more for serious movie goers who mainly are accustomed to the independent Hollywood flicks which really introduced to us great actors such as Christian Bale, Edward Norton and Ryan Gosling in recent years.

Monster (2004–2005)

One of the best experiences ever

[10/10 · 13 March 2010]

This is not typical anime, it is not even a series or a video, it is an experience I have gone through watching this piece of brilliance called Monster.

I have been a huge fan of crime dramas of Martin Scorcese and thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock and totally enjoy movies that dive deep into human emotions such as 7even, Taxi Driver, V for Vendetta, Machinist, Schindler's List, American Beauty etc. For anyone out there with similar tastes, this is a must watch content. It is must watch because all those works that we have seen until now seem so little in terms of their emotional intensity before this masterpiece of a thriller.

Unlike the title, there are no monsters in this series, well actually there is one, far more deadlier than the ones in our nightmares, monster created as a result of difference in the perception of what we see in society. No, we are not talking about psychopaths with extreme emotions that enjoy hurting people here, but normal human being that can see the difference between good and bad, light and darkness, life and death very clearly and thus obviously does not agree with the society. The whole series is about a monster created out of the extreme surroundings around him and the people he encounters during his life that either get obsessed with his thinking or want to kill him for how dangerous he is.

Overall this series could be the best animated work as it would leave you with an everlasting feeling like it did on me. There has been an attempt to make a movie out of the plot and nothing seems to be happening, I wish it stayed that way. A story like this will be a disaster as a 2-3 hour movie, there is just too much good stuff in here that cannot be passed/cut-down to make a movie.

For those who watched V for Vendetta, this work will seem relevant to the main theme of series. Be ready to spend some time (74 episodes) and make sure you do not give more than 1 day break between each episode as you could forget everything very fast. You should concentrate on everything in the episode as there are hundreds of characters that have a lot to do with the plot.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)

A dumb movie, funny at times

[1/10 · 18 October 2008]

I mean it, I don't even know why many of the guys that watched gave it a rating above 1. If you've watched epic movie, this movie would be its brother. Comedy is so poor, the plot is so silly, the scenes suck so much that I feel guilty for even spending my time. Clerks 1 and 2 were so great, I thought these two guys in that movie would do something similar. I assumed that quality would be at least close to those movies. I don't get why guys like Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Will Farrell (cheap movie for even Will), Chris Rock and others agreed. The movie has so many unnecessary elements like an ape, A federal wildlife officer, hell, the whole movie was unnecessary, did not see it making a point.

Tathastu (2006)

A decent movie with decent performances

[9/10 · 16 May 2006]

Well, I would say this movie is a sentimental one, but not like the sentiments in flicks of Shahrukh Khan. The movie is all Sanjay Dutt. Amisha Patel as usual doesn't have anything to do. Jayaprada makes a good comeback. The storyline is pretty decent. The movie is all about a simple minded lower middle class father who is ready to go any extent to save his ill son, whose treatment costs something he would never make out in his whole life ,1.5 million rupees. I feel my rating of 9 justified, coz, these days again the movies have started getting boring. And Sanjay Dutt has become more matured in his action as well as choice of movies. Critics may try to point out weaknesses in this movie, and yes there are many such as average screenplay, but ultimately the movie succeeds in making a good impact on us. We will feel satisfied after we watch this movie and will be happy for watching something like this.