A movie review...albeit, late in coming
Let me start by saying I am not a movie buff. But yes every once in a while I like to watch good movies. Since my daughter’s birth I haven’t been able to go to a theatre. Watching movies was relegated to late nights on TV. So when I sailed with my husband recently it was a good time to catch up. DVDs are the most popular form of entertainment on board. And they have an enviable collection to choose from.
Four of them are worth a mention. Movies, that I would like to watch again.
1)Avatar
I have never liked sci-fi too much. And I thought I wouldn’t enjoy this one when I saw the promos. But I was wrong. I loved it! The sheer imagination of the creative team in order to create this make-believe place! The human like beings, their language, locale, the forests and the forest monsters...Absolutely fantastic. How much more enjoyable it would have been on the big screen!
2) Water
I have always wanted to see Deepa Mehta’s work. I missed ‘fire’ and earth’. I laid my hands on this and I am her fan now. The movie is very convincing and leaves you deeply disturbed when you think of the hypocrisy of the Indian society. The cruelty one can inflict on fellow humans in the name of tradition is shocking. I sobbed in the last scene as Seema Biswas carry’s little “chuhiya’ away from the cloisters. This one is for the emotional kind.
3) Inglourious basterds
Well directed and true to Quentin Tarantino style... gory! But for me the best part of the movie was the performance by Christoph Waltz as Col Hanz Landa. He evokes such fear and hatred on screen, the audience cannot help but feel it too. I would watch it again just for his performance.
4)Pa
Amitabh and Vidya Balan were brilliant. But the part that I loved the most is the character played by Arundathi Nag as Vidya Balan’s mother and as Auro’s sporty grandmom who is affectionately called ‘BUM’ by her progeria inflicted grandson. The calm maturity with which she confronts her daughter who gets pregnant out of wedlock is unseen on the screen. There is no reproach or anger. Every question of doubt and hopelessness uttered by the daughter is met with one sentence... “Do YOU want this child or not?” For me the story was more about these two strong women. The two mothers in the two generations. Both having reared a child alone under trying circumstances and with dignity. At the end of it I was left wondering, “Shouldn’t the movie have been titled ‘ma’?”