Friday, May 27, 2011

Panda and Kung fu China Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism at its best.


This computer-animated action comedy film from the studio DreamWorks Animation is one movie on the likes of its other production, Shrek. Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, is also the first woman to solely direct an animated feature from a major Hollywood studio. And the impression of a women is clearly seen. The Panda is made lovable like a kid with innocence splattered all over.
The screenplay is wonderful and gives some genuine laughter. The lines are small but witty and full of Humor. The animation lacks details like that of Ratatouille but in some scene where The Guru Red Panda is introduced with Inner Peace Practice is shown with extreme details and gives a good feeling. However The 3D version, like always, lacks depth of field and details. The blurred vision is extremely lively only in few scenes. The frame with Apples blurting out of Panda's big mouth is a true Rollercoaster. 


The story is about revenge and is unimpressive. The animation was the savior with the rightful dubbing and voice-acting. The voice of Jack Black along with Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu was perfectly scored and synchronized. Especially Jack Black timing were good. Ancient China was shown beautifully , but the selection of animals for Anthropomorphism was dubious. There was a peacock ruling Chinese lands and no use of Dogs and Ox. Other Animals from Chinese philosophy like Goose, Rabbit, Dragon and pigs were wise-fully used. The Mantis was shown powerful was another story untold. The use of explosives to cease Kung-fu was really childish. The enemy was not shown with equal Powers and therefore this one sided flick. The use of digital puppetry shows china in good light and keeping its tradition flawless.
The Movie is good and watchable with all age, there is no explicit dialogue  except a pinch of digital violence. 
Panda is lovable and cute and cuddly and tender.







Po: But, I just caught Kung Fu ! 
Shifu: And now, you must *save* it !

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Kashmakash class-clash

When you have Rabindranath Tagore scripting a story for you and a director of stature like Rituparno Ghosh has it, there has to be a classic touch with it. Subhash Ghai roped in Gulzar to help Hindi audiences to narrate the Bengali story Noukadubi. This film was made in 70's both in Bengali and Hindi, while Dilip kumar played the protagonist in the previous make. Earlier Ghosh has taken Tagore's Choker Bali and painted in silver screen with   a grace. The national award winning director again got inspired from Tagore on the likes of Satyajit Ray and Guru Dutt.

The camera was superb in portraying rich india in 1920, where the story was set. Though it moved very slow but was able to capture the beauty in its best. The costumes were perfect especially the wedding sarees. The Art had a vintage touch through out the movie. Most of the movie was shot indoors with long shots. The camera moved slowly with poetry of Gulzar sahib. The story may not look feasible for those born in 2000 as there were  pair of husbands and wives who didn't see each other's face even days after their marriage, wife could not speak out their husband's name and the nobility was such that you really stand on your words. But we all know India was such in early 1900 in villages. The social norms were always male dominated. However like Guru dutt, Ghosh also portrays his female leads strongly, better than those times.

The actors played their best performances, esp the sen sisters. Raima sen did deliver her best with those cajoled eyes. She played a strong girl yet vulnerable. Her dad played by Dhritman Chatterjee was one of the matured character and Dhritman did the justice completely. So was the male protagonist Jissu, He held his expressions for the silence. He got very few lines and more screen presence. When you have a story like this, its a director's job to make sure e does a good casting. While Prosenjit  had a very few frames, but he did averagely.
When we talk about the lyrics, Gulzar was not at its best , but the poetic verses were very likable. The songs (Singers and music) could not do justice to the literary giant. The screenplay was good and gave a impact of early 20th century.
On the flip side, the movie dragged a bit. It was slow but definitely not tardy. The hindi dubbing spoiled the mood and the expressions a bit. The lip sync was not at all good, but I will appreciate the effort to bring this cinema for Hindi audiences A serious watch for mature audiences.


Sunday, May 15, 2011

The Ragini B!tch MMS Project

This raunchy date movie has turned the table into a voyeuristic horror genre on the likes of 'Blair Witch project' and fixed camera angle of 'Paranormal Activity'. But, Defiantly its not inspired from both of its Hollywood counterpart. Only the technique and presentation style is inspired, and Ragini MMS has its own real story and Desi flavor. The debutant director Pawan Kripalani has done justice to the digital real film camera by  borrowing it  from the producers of Love, Sex and Dhoka Ekta Kapoor.While Ekta has proved that if you have a good story, you don't need A rated superstars. Actors and budding artiste can do the justice with a pure dedication. Dibankar Banerjee's casting from LSD has proved it once.

This spooky genre has not wasted time in explaining the story behind the haunted mansion or the love between the two quintessential Bombay lovers. The best is left for its sheer imagination and that's bang-on the target. Its creepy when your girl-friend is Pink Handcuffed, and you are about to unzip the down, you get a hair-pull so strong that your skull bleeds and you forget the hard-on and fall straight in to the paranormal world of frenzy bites and creepy voices.The senses are bound to loose. The most real shot was when you see a door open on its own you don't freeze in the demurral but run like a child screaming and shitting from the ass. That was hilariously spine chilling. The camera was loosing the resolution from time to time but the angles on which they were mounted gave a good Wide-Angle view of entire frame. By keeping the 3/4 frame empty, the viewer was forced to ignore the 1/3rd frame where intimate kisses were shared. Eyeballs were looking for something paranormal throughout. The twists and timings of Ram Gopal Varma's Bhoot were missing in this clip, nevertheless, it was a good attempt.
Both the actors Raj Kumar Yadav [again borrowed from LSD] and Kainaz Motivala were amazingly truly perfect. Raj almost doing the same cast from LSD , mouthed the frustration in a very natural way. The explicit dialogues were neatly written to show him as insensitive and chauvinist. While Kainaz ruled the second half of the movie with her screams and pleads. While Bappi Lahiri did a great remix of 'You are my Chicken Fry and Fish Fry'. The other songs were in background and competent enough to get mixed with a background score. The Score was scary enough to run a sense of fear was was repeated so badly that it became evident about a paranormal presence. The screenplay and cinematography did justice to the subjectiveness of a voyeurism.




A new benchmark is set in Indian Horror flicks.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Old and dated Shagird

Nana Patekar plays a smart cop who is not honest but likable. He mouths smart and witty dialogues, Kills anyone for money, wires money to New-Zealand and takes the politicos by his stride. Ab tak chappan guys is more witty and plays more dangerously for more green bucks. But the buck stops here with loopholes.
Haasil director Tigmanshu Dhulia who once made a good college - political drama, doesn't go strong with Cop-politicians game. Indeed he calls it Chor -police khel rahe hai.
The casting was good from the likes of Dil se and Bandit queen and so was the screenplay. The witty humor and rustic north Indian touch were fantastic . Although a senior inspector mouthing those lines may look unreal but was good. The Tarzan one was really hilarious.

The casts include Mohit Alawat, a tall and handsome hunk into the police with the unfading dearth of mysteries around him. He is one actor play best without dialogues. Other casts like Zakir hussein was brilliant. Looks like the casting director Tigmanshu Dhulia himself picked the whole casts from Ram Gopal Varma's factory and it strikes a general note. Anurag Kashyap tries hard to play a cool Allahabaadi criminal and mouths some silly humors too. He was fitted in the character. Only misfit was the female protagonist, Rimi Sen, who plays a modern journalist from Aaj-tak covering all king of stories and wears a spaghetti top.
The loopholes continues with senior Inspector holding a press conference, in-charge of terrorist kidnapping case, cops beating terrorists in tihar jail, embezzling crores of cash crops and  many more. But when I treat this movie as Masala action twister, it doesn't betray me.The twists are boggling but story is flat.
Nana Patekar plays Hanumant singh like the way he is. He got most of the screen space and screenplays and he did quite a good. He lacks when he cries and fails completely.
There was no need to bring the old muse Hrishita Bhatt for kissing old politicians, Thank God, we were saved from another item number.The music and background score didn't made and mark and went unnoticeable.
Not so Far yet Not so Near.



It lies in between Haasil and Charas.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Stanley ka Dabba Movie

Ok, so enough of  praises and subtle style of direction.
This isn't a Documentary neither a Main stream cinema . Indeed it's a Debut. Debutant Director Amol Gupte has tried his skills best using a SLR (Canon 7D - impressive). The closeup shots are good, but camera shakes a lot depicting a weak hand held streaks. Although the shots are always cut short. First half is wasted totally showing different tiffin boxes with unusual stuffs. Yes, the Dabbas are loaded with Jalebis, biscuits or chakris. Ironically, there is a rich fat kid who brings a Dabba which can satisfy appetites of many.

Altogether the second half looks incomplete and fails flat on the promises or the surprise. The child labor story lacks the punch and the thrill. The whole gag is circumcised around who eats whose dabba. There are several better narration with respect to a child labour. The Protagonist is a lovely child of Gupte -Promising Partho. His eloquence are best in the movie and he delivers with the cute little face of his. His expressions are hard but can come easy with time.
The end morals and the statistics cannot save this movie. There was not a single stealer when you talk about emotions. The obnoxious crave for children's Dabba was never explained and so was the Vanishing act of "Khadoos" the hindi teacher played by Gupte. The screenplay was superb in patches and songs were good with the timing. However they could not strike the right chord. Other casts like Divya Dutta, Divya Jagdale, Raj Zutshi and  Shiv Subramaniam were not given any screen space. The story completely lacked the head and tail and therefore the roles were left unfinished. There was "India Dance" sequence, completely out of the way leading to a road side Dhaba. The last 5 minutes were touching and tried to leave a message.
This movie could be avoided on a trade-off with DD-1 at prime time.
Half star for Stanley
and Rest was packed in Staley's Dabba - Undelivered.