PK

If you expect one of those over the moon reviews on the much hyped movie, well you are certainly at the wrong place. I went to the movie expecting some pure, unabridged fun  and I had it to the fullest; but it does come with the flaws which you can let go, for, such a heart warming entertainer doesn't come very often.

'PK' starts with no fuss or sensational frenzies as the hero's spaceship lands in some less inhabited arid area. The alien gets out of the spaceship draped in a Remote/Locket around his neck (and nothing more). Soon he is robbed off his locket and that kick starts the array of events that forms the crux of the story. A parallel thread involving Anushka and Sushanth runs in Belgium and as you would see, both the threads blend well in the climax. I wouldn't be revealing any more specifics on the script as it would serve nothing more than a spoilsport.

Talking about the performances, Amir Khan was just superb and somehow I felt the character was tailor made for him. Even though his sermons at times felt awkwardly idiosyncratic, I am sure one would have the appetite to tolerate it. Anushka and other characters justified their roles and played their parts beautifully. As for the script and direction, the minor flaws can be sidelined given the motive was good and crew were successful in delivering their message. I liked Hirani's style of conveying relevant social messages in a strong yet subtle and gentle manner well blended with humour and fun. But one thing I felt was we can never give away with melodramas and hero-heroine romance cliches in our movies just like our obsession for spicy food. It doesn't matter if our hero- heroine are of different species or aliens, love has to be in the air, but that again is an easily forgivable part.

There are two important things I would like to say about this Amir Khan flick.
- You can certainly watch the movie since its worth it.
- Please go with a lighter belly and not a stuffed one, because you are gonna laugh your heart out.

Interstellar

Hats off to Christopher Nolan, not for his latest flick 'Interstellar', but for his sheer guts to portray interstellar travel as nothing more than a cake walk. I wouldn't suggest you to watch this movie if you are just hoping for a visual fascination, it would be worth watching if you are in the theater with an open mind not only to appreciate what you see on-screen, but to appreciate the determination of a man to bring onscreen what usually is associated with a nerd physicist's cup of tea. Whatever be the critics verdict, I would give a thumbs up for 'INTERSTELLAR' even though the movie comes with flaws.

The movie begins with the camera panning over burning fields somewhere in United States. The crops seem to fail one after the other due to ... (I am actually not sure what is the reason). There is dust storms everywhere around. The director has tried to portray a gray picture of earth that is wanting to be perished. The generation of the protagonist is termed as mere 'caretakers' of the world which is running short of its  resources. Meanwhile our protagonist is an ex- astronaut, engineer and a successful farmer who has a daughter whom he loves a lot. Before you catch up with whats happening, you see the hero is suited for his space adventure. But you really cant blame Nolan for any of these because he has lot of things to show you and he has time restrictions, so does his characters.

The concepts of time, black holes, relativity, gravity, space-time fabric, quantum mechanics, time dilation, worm holes are all covered and it would be very difficult to comprehend everything unless you have an idea about these things. But then again, you don't always need to know swimming to enjoy the beach. This movie possibly could be the first of its kind in terms of a realistic effort in bringing into screens what has remained within the books authored by astro-physicists or CERN labs. Nolan tries to let people know what time dilation actually is. He dares people to dream of a future where we will be capable enough to transcend galaxies in search of new home.

The visual extravaganza of Interstellar is not as rich as that of Gravity, but this has a holistic purpose in the the theme which Gravity didn't. Nolan has cleverly avoided mentioning the era the story is taking place. It was fascinating to see how gracefully the concept of multiple dimensions and the time warp has been captured. Even though I couldn't find the 'bookshelf in a black hole' convincing, I would still give it to him for there  couldn't be a better way of visualizing a scenario when you consider time as a physical dimension. The best thing about the movie  is the precision with which he has knitted intense emotional psych of the characters  into what would otherwise ended as another soulless sci-fi movie.

At the end , I can only say I saw a sincere attempt being made to show me something which I found only in  complex equations and incomprehensible definitions .

Gone Girl

Gone Girl is an absolute watch beyond doubt. But please don't take your kids to this movie.

David Fincher is one guy whom you can certainly term 'Mr Dependable'. You wont sob over the money you spend to watch his creation. 'Fight Club' was an absolute cult, a master class; 'The Social Network' was good, so was "The Girl with Dragon Tattoo' (Though the Swedish version of the same was stand out). Be rest assured, "Gone Girl" wont disappoint you.

Ben Affleck plays the lead role and Rosamund Pike portrays the role of missing wife. I saw her last as a typical Bond girl in 'Die Another Day' where she flaunted her curves more than her acting skills. But believe me , she is a damn good actress and 'Gone Girl' is all about her. The movie begins with Ben Affleck having a drink with his sister at their bar. When he returns to his home, he finds his wife missing. He reports at the nearby police station and the plot develops with more complex ingredients being added at every moment. The movie gets interesting with each passing moment and maintains the suspense and intensity throughout.

The movie is a dark one. It, certainly doesn't have a sad ending, but can you call it a happy ending?, you certainly cant. Actually you would certainly come out of the cinema with a mixed feeling and its neither happiness nor sadness, its more of a fear, more of an empathy, more of an inexorable agony . You would  never want to live a life you saw on the screen . I probably think at least one Oscar would go to the movie and I wont be surprised if Rosamund Pike grabs it. As I came out of the cinema,  I felt, "Of all the demons you can think of, nothing can be more dreadful or torturous than your unfathomable fear/ agony.

Vellimoonga (Silver Owl)

Vellimoonga (Silver Owl)  is a recently released Malayalam movie which doesn't have a huge star cast to boast about, but its worth every cent you would pay for. The movie would blend in to your imagination in the most smoothest way and you would leave the screen with a smile and a satisfaction that you have indeed watched a sensible entertainer.

As I already mentioned, sensible is the tag I would associate with the movie. Biju Menon is the central character of the movie who portrays "Maamachchan', a typical politician and Aju Varghese as his trusted lieutenant does justice to his role. The good thing about the movie is it is very realistic, the  'hero' is not essayed as the most eligible bachelor in the town, but is crooked, cunning and gets way with things and people in clearly a ruffian way. Tiny Tom as 'Jose', Maamachchan's arch-rival plays a fine part in the movie and so do the others. The sequences are well knit and you don't feel let down or bored at any point.

The movie is a very pragmatic portrayal of the current political and social fabric told with a  wonderful humour touch that keeps you engrossed throughout. The only drawback being (that you wouldn't bother much) that the entire cast using a 'Kottayam/ Pala' slang for conversation even though the story is supposedly set in the lavishly green hilly areas of Kannur. Bottom line is this is the movie that you don't wanna miss. No IDI , no VEDI, no POGA and hence not at all a KATTAPOGA. Go give it a try, you would love watching it.

The Three Calamities

And after a long long time, I thought I will post something. A hell lot of events and drama unfolded in about an year that kept me away from this space. Many a time I sat in front of my laptop trying to carve out something onto this canvas, but nothing got realised. Today, in this cool pleasant evening, I thought its time I should write something. Not that I have run out of topics, in fact there's a lot of to talk about, I thought I will just share a few thoughts on few things. Even though I have titled my post as my take on some calamities, certainly for sure, all the incidents that I have bothered to poke on necessarily aren't calamities as such :).

Since decades, Kashmir and kashmiris   have been on the receiving end in the  political and social fronts and the valley has undergone gruel some test of time. If human misdoings weren't enough, now nature has thrust its fury upon the helpless to pile upon the misery. But a lot of interesting things came into forefront. The so called symapthesizers never turned in to wipe the tears of the needy, in fact they seemed to have vanished. The much 'hated' and 'savage' Indian armed forces pitched in for help. It was not only army, but localities as well as others too pitched on to do their bit. There is nothing new about the handicapped infrastructure or never existing preventive mechanisms that always fail us in these scenarios, but what startled me was initially it was solely Indian army who was involved in search and rescue operations. Nobody said no when army pitched in for evacuation operations  but to follow, there were bunch of critics who found armed forces' operations insufficient and inefficient at times. I don't know what exactly is the ground truth, but I certainly feel something is better than nothing. Till date I have not seen or heard from any symapthesizers  regarding the plight of the people of Kashmir owing to the devastating floods. Probably the logic may be the bodies drowned by floods is nothing sensational compared to the ones downed by bullets.

Well the next news is I got married. Not heeding ears to the sincere requests and warnings from my friends who are already encaged, I decided I will join the bandwagon. As of now the ride seems smooth, and I do expects bumps and gutters in the way forward. Hope I would be able to handle them well and move forward with conviction. The days seem to be running away and time seems to be always a step ahead of me. Early days into the new stage of life and I hope things will settle down with time.

Peruchaazhi is the latest malayalam movie of the legendary actor Mohanlal. I don't feel like reviewing the movie here but would touch open my feelings about the same. The intro was good, Mohanlal was at his usual best, so were the others. The movie had some wonderful moments , some ordinary moments and towards the end some embarrassing moments. I can't say it was bad, but I just felt numb at times thinking how immature the film maker expects the audience to be. I do understand the movie had a statutory warning requesting the audience to switch off their logic, but I felt they should have replaced the word 'logic' with 'sense'  in the warning. Another sequence from the movie which held me pondering was when the hero lavishly drapes an American flag as dhoti and unleashes his martial skills. I wondered what would have been the scenario had it been Tom Cruise draped in Indian tri color in a Hollywood movie. Our media houses would have celebrated it at least for a month. I am neither criticising nor vindicating anyone regarding this matter ( couldn't find a better statement to be on the safer side :) )

That's all for the day, just a few thoughts that I thought I would share. Awaiting new adventures in the seas as my ship has embarked on a new journey.