The Shape Of Water

Movie Review (English)

The USP of the movie is its height of imagination and then hitting the right note connecting with the audience through that imagination. The movie is a love story. Elisa, who cannot speak, is an orphan and works as a janitor in a secret scientific facility. She falls in love with a marine creature held captive in this facility.

As plans are laid for this creature to be cut up and studied, the audience becomes a part of the group that sets out to rescue him. The fact that the creature becomes Elisa’s lover follows naturally and only endears the characters.

Elisa beautifully expresses herself, “The way he looks at me, he does not know what I lack, or how I am incomplete. He sees me for what I am as I am. He’s happy to see me. Every time, every day.” If that is not love, what is? The sensitivity used by director, Guillermo del Toro, and the closure of the love story is simply magical.

When Elisa approaches her close friend and neighbor, Giles, to rescue the creature, he remarks that the creature is not even human. She sums it up, “If we do nothing, neither are we.”

The writing is there on the wall. Do we care?

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Movie Review (English)

Mildred Hayes, played by Frances McDormand, the protagonist, is no perfect mother. But she will not rest till her daughter’s killer is brought to book. Single handedly, she takes on the establishment and the only ones on her side are the socially oppressed. Her fight to get justice leads her to the three billboards, well, just outside Ebbing in Missouri where she lives.

The plot weaves around the lives of Mildred, her son, her ex husband, the police chief and his family, the deputy and his mother and the proprietor of the billboards. People who begin as enemies turn into friends, as circumstances change with sudden events.

Frances McDormand, as the single mother living through the guilt of being a bad mother, of trying to get justice for her daughter, suppressing her anger, her fear and again giving vent to these emotions, has excelled. This role ought to fetch her the top accolades.

Does Mildred get justice for her daughter, Angela? Well that is a question that will haunt you long after you have walked out of the hall.

A Death in the Gunj

Movie Review (English and Bangla)

When I first came to learn that Konkona Sen Sharma was directing a movie, I instinctively knew that the movie would be different. I guess that thought came from the fact that she is Aparna Sen's daughter, and so a thinking director. What also pleasantly surprised me was the Satyajit Ray influence in the movie. There is a smooth subtlety that leaves you a little breathless because the characters have hit closer to home.

This movie is once again proof of the fact that the story is the king and the characters are the ones that bring in the magic to that story. It does not matter who the actor is. 

The Ambassador, the surrounding forest and the tribals with their music were characters that have added that special touch to Ray's movies and did the same here. From the opening scene, it was evident that there was something ominous waiting to happen and that grips the audience right from the start.

My heart goes out to the countless Shutus of every family who are fighting losing battles every day, and today this battles grows more intense and the consequences are equally disastrous. In the movie, the actors seemed to be born for the part played and therein lies the director's touch.

Thank you Konkona! Here's to many more such stories from you.

Bridge of Spies

Movie Review (English)

If you haven't seen it yet, What Are You Waiting For?? The electric combination of Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg gave us this fast paced movie set in the 1950s. It's the time of the Cold War, something that we really cannot think of today.

 An American lawyer, James Donovan (Tom Hanks) takes on major powers like Russia and Germany singlehandedly. The Berlin wall rises and divides. A Russian spy is caught and then defended by the American lawyer. Now the lawyer is targeted by his own countrymen for defending an enemy. 

The movie revolves around the exchange of two prisoners and with characteristic cleverness, Donovan converts a one for one exchange to one for two exchange. 

Loved the character of the Russian spy Abel (Rylance). Donovan asks, " Aren't you worried about the trial?" Abel's reply: "Would it help?" Quite a simple matter of fact answer really. 

The best part -- the movie is based on real events.

The Intern

Movie Review (English)

Robert De Niro is one of the few actors who is a guarantee to a worthwhile 2 hours or more watching the silver screen. And I have never been let down. So when The Intern comes along, I have no choice but to go. Anne Hathaway is another actor difficult to ignore. I enjoy the magic she brings to the screen. 

Being of an past the thirties, I found this start-up world, inhabited by today's youngsters a little intimidating. Seeing Ben Whittaker (De Niro) take up a job as an intern after retirement  in a start-up firm dealing in e-commerce was a gutsy thing to do. Loved his perspective of the world and the way he conducts his life.

With a personality like him around, Jules (Hathaway), the founder of the company, is bound to have found her North. And mind you she has the driven CEO syndrome, the guilty mother and wife syndrome and OCD. 

Simply enjoyed the relationship between the two. 

If you want to feel "All's well with the world", then go watch The Intern. You will not regret it!!

Thank you Nancy Meyer. Though sometimes, too much on the plate might just make one lose appetite.

Movie Review (English)

Gone Girl

Does a movie do well because of a particular director only or also because the original novelist also wrote the screenplay? Gillian Flynn translated her book on to screen with love and imagination and thrill which was evident.
The twists in the story left me dazed. Ben Affleck as Nick and Rosamund Pike as Amy are really wonderful actors giving the right dose of chill on screen. When it began, which was the end actually, I was sure I had got the gist of the story. But every half hour I changed position and thought I had got the gist yet again. But when Amy returns, that was quite a master stroke. First she lets people think her husband murdered her. For this she prepared like a master artist, down to the last detail. Once out of the house, she prepares never to come back, preferring to watch her husband being hanged. But luck does not always favour the evil. So more twists follow and she returns. Poor hubby, he wanted a divorce long before, now he is caught in his suffocating marriage! The people will not let him leave her.

I enjoyed the movie. Highly recommended!!!.

Movie Review (English)

Finding Fanny

Thanks to Homi Adajania, for roping in big name from Bollywood to act in his movie. This is a great deed for small budget film makers who have a story to tell. I wonder, if this film had unknown faces would people still go and watch it. 

I loved the slow movement unfolding real kind of life experiences and emotional upheavals all of us have, that the movie portrayed. Hopefully, more well meaning directors will take to making such movies and again give those actors a chance who might not be well known faces but excellent actors.

Deepika was a surprise. Loved her subtle performance. I also could not get over the Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron touch. I have no words for Naseeruddin, Pankaj and Dimple. 

All in all, had a great time watching a worthwhile movie.

Movie Review (English)

The Wolf of Wall Street

Another power packed performance by Leonardo. Scorsese never lets me down. This is the thrilling real life story of the rise and fall and rise again of Jordon Belfort, a New York stockbroker. But why so much of debauchery?! Drugs and Sex seemed a better title for the movie. The movie moves with the premise that every one and everything has a price. It’s a scary world that opens up the immense possibilities with money and the vast black hole somewhere down the road waiting to engulf you. And then you no longer remain yourself. You are a distorted shadow of yourself who thinks you have got it all, that you are the King of the World till this world comes crashing down taking everything away. But for those who have sold their souls to money, drugs and sex, there is finally no coming back on the path originally taken. The black hole is a companion for them.I am now a little scared to see Leo’s films. They are getting too dark.  Have also learnt – NEVER EVER INVEST. Thanks!

Movie Review (English)

Saving Mr Banks

When I was a kid I believed that if a fairy godmother did exist, her name should be Mary Poppins. So when I saw Saving Mr Banks, I was fascinated learning about the origin of my fairy godmother. The writer of the Mary Poppins stories, P.L. Travers played by Emma Thompson struggles with her traumatic past. The film weaves beautifully through her past and present and the entire mystery of why Mary Poppins appears in the Banks' household unfurls. 
Pamela (P.L Travers) shows total disdain for everything American including Walt Disney, played by Tom Hanks. The gradual transition from a crotchety old lady with rigid ideas to a warm, creative person is so masterfully achieved by Emma. Tom Hanks is, as usual, at his best as the one and only Disney who gets what he wants and he wants the rights to Travers' Mary Poppins. For 20 long years he has cajoled Pamela to grant him this wish (for his daughters) but in vain. This time things are a little different. In the end, the two do get to save Mr Banks.