Milk

Movies like "Milk" can't seem to get out of the huge shadow being cast by Oscar front-runner "Slumdog Millionaire" this year. "Milk" is clearly one of the best films of the past year, with a great cast and features quite possibly the performance of the year - from Sean Penn. 

Biopics of late have not had a good run in Hollywood. Film makers struggle between staying true to the story while making it creatively interesting. It is easy to fail, and the fact that "Milk" gets it right explains why it got eight Oscar nominations. 

Sean Penn plays the activist Harvey Milk who was the first openly gay person elected to public office in the US. He fails in his first two attempts but finally succeeds and thus makes huge strides for gay rights. Milk is tragically killed by a mentally disturbed colleague Dan White (Josh Brolin) who is actually as intriguing as Milk. 

The strong point is clearly the cast. James Franco plays the long suffering lover and the chemistry between him and Penn is charged and believable. Emile Hirsch undergoes an astonishing transformation to play Cleve Jones. There are other bit players like Diego Luna playing Milk's other tragic lover Jack Lira. 

But the best of the supporting cast has to be Josh Brolin. Brolin is impressive as the troubled Dan White and is slowly showcasing his range. In the past two years he has played a man on the run in "No County for Old Men", a slimy cop in "American Gangster" and the US President George W. Bush in "W". 

Here he impresses, and if not for the stellar performance by Heath Ledger, would have been a shoo-in for Best Supporting Actor award. Penn also gives one of his best performances and brings more warmth and a touch of playful lightness that strays from the more intense work he put in the likes of "Mystic River". 

Director Gus Van Sant is also establishing himself as a more mainstream director after having started off making small and more quirky films. He does a fine job of bringing out the volatile love story. It unfolds to show how love, of any kind, is so similar in its ecstatic highs and its devastating lows. 

Milk was not a perfect man, and this movie does not shy away from showing those faults. Milk could at times be ruthless and under that veneer of charm lay a streak of determination and ambition. He was willing to sacrifice and was not very wise in his choice of lovers. 

It does not veer off into hagiography. "Milk" weaves wonderfully the politics, personal life and even the context. We get to see the main players of both sides of this issue and can see clearly just how much gay rights have progressed. 

"Milk" is an entertaining film and well worth the time. This is the second most deserving film to win Best Picture Oscar after "Slumdog Millionaire". 

The Reader

It's not so much in the telling as it is in the feeling that "The Reader" scores exceptionally high points. 

The layering is so lush and luminous you want to clutch the poetics of the brutal politics beneath the plot's surface - so close to your heart there's no room for anything but of the beautiful love story at the centre of this film. 

It all starts in pre-Nazi Germany where a 15-year-old boy (David Cross) falls sick at an enigmatic, sullen and unhappy woman Hannah (Kate Winslet)'s doorstep. What follows is a story of forbidden love told with an erotic and elegiac edge that drains the taboo together of all torridity and dissolves the age barrier. 

As we see the two mismatched people making love, bathing and reading together in Hannah's austere apartment we become witness to an alliance that transcends social definitions of conventional love. 

The lighting is sparse, the cinematography captures the two people in soulful but spirited silhouettes suggesting a power play that transcends sex gender and the nowness of the experience. 

Nothing prepares us for what's to follow, unless you've read the bestselling novel by Bernard Schlink. Mythic playwright David Hare adapts the original material into a film that speaks through its indignant silences and screams through its unspoken statements on socio-political morality. 

Hannah disappears from the besotted and distraught David's life. Years later she reappears as a Nazi criminal in a courtroom where David (now grown into a very sullen and aloof Ralph Fiennes) watches quietly as the woman he loved to death is sent away to prison for life. 

As mentioned earlier, silences play a pivotal part in the proceedings. The actors and the narrative design lend a certain aura of grace to the film usually found to be absent in the saturated soundtracks and over-punctuated narrative mode in today's cinema. 

If the dignity of silence even under the most stressful circumstances comes across so forcefully it's because Kate Winslet is that kind of an actress. She constructs an inner and outer life for Hannah which manifest themselves in every pore of her face and movement of her body, imbuing the character with enigma and doom without making her feel sorry for herself. 

Hannah's scenes in the prison as the middle-aged maritally troubled David suffers outside, are the film's most lucid and graceful episodes. Here the power of cinema comes out and reaches us not in a rush of emotions, but the opposite. 

Economy of emotional expression in a hugely melodramatic plot is not easy to achieve. "The Reader" does it. 

In the closing sequences Hannah finally educates herself enough to write a letter to the 'boy' whom she loves. We feel her indomitable power to recuperate from life's most vicious attacks in those delicate written lines and words that bind Hannah to the literate and literary world. 

The Reader is filled with gloriously luminous moments. If one has to choose one it would have to the moment where David finally comes face to face with Hannah in prison. The extraordinary caliber of writing and performance in this sequence has to be experienced to be believed. 

We don't get a character like Hannah Schmit every day. We don't come across an actress like Kate Winslet too often. And a film like "The Reader" is indeed a rare occurrence. 

Gran Torino

At 78 Clint Eastwood continues to conceive ingeniously appropriate vehicles for himself. In "Gran Torino", he plays a cliche, upturned, rejuvenated and restored to a position of glory by some expert writing. 

Eastwood is cast as a newly-bereaved cantankerous sullen and hostile widower whose life changes when his bigoted sense of Americanism is challenged by a large Hmong family of noisy custom-ridden people who seem to celebrate, eat and fight all day long. 

They are your classic Asian chasers of the American dream. Substitute the Hmong family with a brood of Indians in the same beautifully-shot American suburbia, and the picture remains unchanged. 

This is the insider's feel good film. The American dream-maker's ultimate socio-cultural orgasm. 

Make the hero an intolerant racist patriarch who gradually comes around. And, voila, the American dream lives and thrives! 

The simple manipulative formula is redeemed to a large extent by outstanding characterisations. No effort is made to burden the patriotic premise of America's mythic appetite for cultural assimilation with any serious commentary on the power equations that drive third-world people to prosperous countries for better opportunities. 

The mistake that "Gran Torino" makes is to show the migrant family as one big mass of noisy amiability, eating, talking and assimilating fast. In comparison the American world is shown to be getting meaner, more uncaring and ill-mannered by the day. 

The film works because of the basic rapport between the Eastwood character and the Asian girl next door (Ahney Her) and specially the way the bigoted protagonist takes charge of the young migrant boy Thao (Bee Vang) and eventually sacrifices his life to save the boy from crime. 

Hugely dramatic and largely predictable "Gran Torino" has a kernel of truth protecting its pedestrian plot and prodding it into a creative awakening that just stops short of being rejuvenating. 

As a portrait of disintegrating family values and the urgent need for cultural flexibility "Gran Torino" possesses a basic integrity of purpose that never quite explodes into a statement on the human condition. As one more made-to-order vehicle for Clint Eastwood's vast abilities as an actor and filmmaker this film lays out an impressive blueprint of basic values that most of our society and by extension cinema have forfeited. 

Heaven on Earth

When the first slap comes, it hits the audience hard across the face. 

Spousal abuse as a theme is not new to cinema. What sets Deepa Mehta's "Heaven On Earth" apart from other films including Jagmohan Mundhra's "Provoked" is the fusion of unspoken unexpressed terror with mythological elements all packed with sardine-like compactness into a small apartment in Ontario, Canada, where Chand arrives fearful and hopeful after her wedding. 

What she brings with her is her mother's tales and homilies, songs and mythology that follow the bride into her chamber of horrors. 

What follows in Chand's new life is a nightmare that could claim the life of any Indian bride transported into a foreign country after marriage. 

Absolute authenticity is the hallmark of Deepa Mehta's vision. Her permanent cinematographer Giles Nuttgens enters Chand's adopted Canadian home with her and remains by her side, living her pain, experiencing her humiliation and agony, as within no time Chand becomes that nightmarish entity whom we all read about in crime sections of the papers: the abused wife. 

The film's greatest triumph is its economy of expression. The tightly-wound tale of the tormented wife is never allowed to have loose moments. Ironically, outwardly we see a warm home filled with a Sikh family half of whom seem to have absolutely nothing to do. Within their abject nullity lies the secret to the violence that claims, possesses and tries to smother Chand's domestic dreams. 

We know from the start that she'll escape the nightmare of a brutal marriage. That she lives to tell her tale is self-evident. The magic of her existence in the trap of an arranged marriage lies in the illusion of normalcy and compassion that she creates within the ambience of abject terror by inventing a double for her husband... a doppelganger, a spirit in human form, if you will, who applies balm to all of Chand's wounds and gives her the courage to survive when the very breath of her existence is being choked out. 

The snake-god from Chand's backyard in human form assuming the physical traits of her violent husband is a metaphor that illuminates the darkest recesses of Chand's life. Every time she hides in her bedroom for a dialogue with her phantom-soul mate, Preity Zinta's face lights up with thousands of unexpressed yearnings trapped in a heart that aches for release. Preity lights up the darkest corners of her tortured and frightened character's heart. 

Thoroughly deglamourised and devastated by destiny's cruel blows, Preity plays Chand with dignity and depth that take us by surprise. She and director Deepa Mehta keep the hysteria completely in check. The drama is generated completely from the normal domesticated sounds and sights. 

The film creates the growing claustrophobia of Chand's marital domesticity with acute austerity. The spurts of on-screen violence are all the more shocking for the way they erupt within the workaday milieu. 

The one big sequence of violence erupts in the kitchen when Chand's somewhat confused and altogether out-of-control husband Rocky thrashes his wife... for his outwardly-stoic mother's sake of course. 

There are no villains in "Heaven On Earth" - not even the husband Rocky (played with understanding by newcomer Vansh Bhardwaj) who hits out at wounds that are never allowed to heal. There are only victims in Deepa's scheme of presentation. Silently-screaming puppets on a string being manoeuvred into a life of domesticated dereliction by forces that we could designate as fate or just cruel blows of workaday drudgery. 

The mythic intervention that creeps into the plot with the appearance of the naag in Chand's backyard, slithers into the scenario with surreptitious grace, creating for the theme a residue of myth and dream that nourishes the wife's bereft kingdom. 

The borderline between illusion and reality, between Chand's violent reality and the world of harmony and love she creates in the womb of her heart, is so superbly seamless we never know when Chand's smothered scream transforms into a silent whoop of triumph. 

"Heaven On Earth" is not a film that offers easily digestible solutions to the complex problem of domestic violence. It neither takes sides nor allows the bride to turn into a pitiable victim. Preity standing supremely dignified at the centre of the conflict furnishes the theme with amazing grace. She's the only known face in the crowded Punjabi home of patriarchs, matriarchs, victims and perpetrators of bitter violence. But Preity never lets it known she's a star. 

She merges into the terrifying domesticity of Deepa's household. The character steps out occasionally into the workaday world of a migrant job (the friendship with the feisty Jamaican woman at her workplace rings a little hollow when compared with the reality that envelopes the the rest of the plot) and returns to her horrific home space where she creates a mythical merger between illusion and reality. 

Finally when Chand says goodbye to a life of married trauma, we see on Preity's face a mixture of distant triumph and immediate self-realisation. She finally comes home. 

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

It's movies like "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" that make you believe that Hollywood will not move away from it's fascination with superheroes or fantasy flicks.

That's because with subjects like these in hand, there is ample scope for a film maker to go the whole hog and come up with enough dope that could lead to unabashed entertainment which is tailor made for the big screen. In this context, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" truly and completely fits the requirements to the T.

This action drama is comic book at best, but who minds that this summer season, when there is absolutely nothing else in the offering. Even otherwise, "X-MenOrigins: Wolverine" packs in so much in its 100-odd minutes that you don't have to look elsewhere for any other entertainment outlet.

For those who have been following the journey of the "X-Men" series, there has already been enough curiosity built around this Hugh Jackman starrer. Even for another section of audiences who would possibly be exploring X-Men for the first time, the movie keeps its narrative simplistic enough, hence ensuring that this segment doesn't feel left out.

So what one gets to see is a seriously sexy-n-rustic Jackman promising himself to move out of his surreal world where murder was the key word. He wants to leave his mutant origins behind and become a part of the real world.

But will his demons from the past allow him to do so?

Now, how many times have we seen such a situation building up for the lead protagonist of a film? Not just Hollywood, even Bollywood has traditionally explored such subjects at regular intervals.

However, that's the beauty of this Gavin Hood directed film that in spite of such cliched developments, there are ample thrilling moments that keep one glued to the seat.

So, the fight begins between a good Jackman and "still bad" brother (Liev Schreiber) who continues to feel proud of his killing powers. Danny Huston, who is a cross between the saviour of his country, a scientist and someone who wants to bring together all mutant powers for his own benefits, is pitted against Jackman as well.

And then there is this exotic female Lynn Collins who plays the quintessential "I will be there for you forever" part pretty well.

In between the battle of these characters, there are the usual chases, blasts, trademark claws and the super villains making an appearance at regular intervals, hence ensuring that the pace of the movie never drops.

Enjoy "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" with a bagfull of popcorn. It's the kind of film that is made especially for the big screen. 

Igor

 

 

Every hero has a sidekick, and every sidekick has a story that goes untold. Behind every mad scientist is a hardworking, always at hand, lab assistant, who goes by unnoticed and often unnamed. Well, Igor is no ordinary lab assistant; his aspirations are greater than his unkempt insane boss, and he is not going to let even the smallest opportunity to prove himself go by! And that's the story in a nutshell, of director Anthony Leondis' animated adventure, titled after the lead sidekick!

The story takes place in a country called Malaria that is rife with loony scientists. The only occupation of these madmen? Making the most destructive inventions and to compete with each other at the annual fair. The winning invention will be used by the King of Malaria to terrorize the rest of world into filling up Malaria's treasury. While all the reputed scientists are busy at work, Igor, an assistant to one of them - hunchbacked and ambitious - manages to make his own invention. He creates a she-monster, and though it seems quite natural that he will win, there is a unique catch. This monster he calls Eva is the most polite being to ever set foot in the rot-ridden Malaria. In order to win the contest, and prove he's better than all the other lab assistants and as good as any other evil scientist, Igor has to teach Eva to be evil!

Though most animated monster movies are truly targeted towards children, these days cartoon films have even the adult companions well-engaged. Igor starts out to be a kid flick, but soon becomes one, whose humour is more suited for adult audiences. Chris McKenna's script is affected at times and directed towards the adult audience at other times. All of Igor's foes in the battle for the prize at the inventions' fair are often less evil and even more juvenile. Igor will not have you in splits, but it won't have you thinking, "That's an hour and a half wasted!"

 

Villu

Villu - Loose strings

The hype and hoopla surrounding Villu, prior to its release was huge. Director Prabhudeva and actor Vijay promised lots of entertainment. Unfortunately the end product is far from impressive as it is a 'chaotic' cocktail of comedy, action and needless stunt sequences far from any logic.

Prabhudeva is greatly impressed by Abbas – Mastan's Bollywood hit Soldier. But in trying to remake the movie, he has far-stretched his imagination, which fails to find its way with audience's favour.

It's a wholesome Vijay show. The actor is at his best – be it the stunt sequence, comedy or romantic episodes. There is an aura of style in whatever he ventures to do on screen. He is as usual cool in his mannerisms. Prabhudeva portrays him an invincible one-man army who floats on water and fly on air with ease and élan. But his hard labour is foiled by wafer-thin storyline, which has no logic.

The story is as old as that of lithic age – an angry son who taking revenge on those responsible for the death of his father. Vijay enacts a dual role – that of a son and father. Prabhudeva has laced it with commercial elements including comedy and action.

The movie revolves around a macho-man Pughazh (Vijay). Thanks to the help of Joseph (Manoj K Jayan), a honest cop, Pughazh begins his search for a international gangster and arms supplier JD (Prakashraj). Meanwhile, Pughazh goes to a village to attend a wedding and comes across Jhanvi (Nayantara). After cat and mouse games, love blossoms between them. Pughazh comes to know that she is the daughter of JD. He sets to Munich in Germany to meet JD along with Jhanvi. He meets JD's gang (Sriman, Anandhraj and Devaraj). After initial encounters, he evolves his own plans and starts eliminating them one after another.

A flashback reveals why Pughazh is behind their blood. His father 'Major' Saravanan (Vijay) gets killed by a gang, which is led by JD, when he prevents them from selling arms to ultras. JD and his team enact a drama and bumps off Saravanan before managing to create an impression that he was the one who had nexus with ultras and succeeds in branding him an anti-national. Eventually Pughazh manages to bring JD to India and avenge them for their wrong-deeds and establish his father's innocence.

Vijay walks away with all honours, while Nayanthara catches the imagination of the audience appearing in skimpy costumes appearing in peppy numbers with Vijay. Vadivelu tries his hand at evoking comedy and succeeds fairly especially the scenes involving Vijay, Nayantara and himself.

Prakashraj platys a clichéd don who controls international arms racket. His dialogues and acts are far too predictable. The rest of the cast including Geetha, Ranjitha, Devaraj, Anandhraj play their part on screen.

Devi Sri Prasad has come up with some peppy numbers while Raviverman's cinematography is passable. Thanks to Fefsi Vijayan's stunts Vijay has belied law of gravitation. The real scene-stealer is however the producers Ayangaran Internationals, who have come out with a grand venture. Almost every frame is rich and lavish.

On the whole, Vijay's Villu is a action-packed mass masala film for his ardent fans but with loose ends