Saturday, May 28, 2011

404: movie review


                                                        Psyche your mind

 “The eye sees what the mind is prepared to comprehend” --- this quote by Robert Davidson creates the basis of a movie that represents the genre that has never been rightly trodden by any Indian. Though some shallow trespassing was done by Vijay Anand in ‘Johnny Mera Naam’(1970) and Jyoti Swaroop in ‘Parwana’(1971) – the attempts remained too much melodramatic and unbaked  till 2007 when Manorama Six Feet Under, Mithya, Johnny Gaddar were released. But still, those were not quite worthy of getting the accolade of film-noir, the genre that expresses the flip-side of the glory --- the dark emotions of human.

But in the mid 2011,in the midst of all neo-commercial MMSs and the Khans ‘Ready’ to blast jhinka chika  on the rain-thirsty summer-struck Indians – Prawal Raman , of Darna Mana Hai (a product of RGV factory) fame came out with a movie that can give the audiences the spine-chillers – they hardly ever had experienced in this language.


Set in the chilling north-Indian hills, the plot dwells upon a prime medical institution, keeping ragging as a backdrop. There is a fresher (Rajvir Arora) who defies his seniors and the long-drawn tradition of ragging, an internationally renowned professor (Nishikant Kamat) obsessed with rational thinking and a secret locked in a room ,numbered 404, the non-living protagonist !!!!
And, there in an intriguing story – a desperate fight of a professor to dispel surrealism and a tremorous conflict of a student to cope between illusion and reality.

Ragging and surrealism – the two seemingly unconnected ideas are perfectly juxtaposed to create this paranormal thriller. And , stunningly, the perfectly weaved script inter-twin between them to craft a coherent flow of events that will psyche the mind gradually but with grace – to play with your darkest emotion you would never want to unveil – the obsession with fear.
The film explores the darker aspect of modernity, ambition in a criminal milieu – with an undercurrent of fear playing – a perfect mix for a neo-noir plot.

The film has its own pace. There has never been an attempt to become racy, the unhurried grimness of the film gradually penetrates and trepidates your mind – like cyanide dose slowly but steadily singing you a lullaby to death.

Prawal Raman, the director previously tested his hands in a portmanteau with ‘Darna Mana Hai’ and later in ‘Darna Zaroori Hai’ --- this time he bounces back with a spark. His tribute to the neo-noir genre is a milestone of the evolution of the Indian film Industry. The long shots, the black coats, the dark aroma and the grim feel – all plays in sync. He never made any attempt to sensationalize moments, overplay the tunes of thrill – rather, he let the film choose its own pace.

The background scores of any thriller plays a major part. Here also, the outstanding score by Sameeruddin helped the audience to relate themselves with the compose of the film – the grey-ness of characters – the eerie feeling. The cinematography of the movie by Savita Singh is also excellent. And, the editing is perfectly done to keep the charm of thrill – letting the fear to get its ground in the veins.
404 is embellished with fine performances with each actor infusing flesh and blood into his/her character. Rajvir Arora does a decent job as a fresher in the college. Imaad Shah, after a long time since Dil,Dosti , etc. is cool and effortless. His lucid expressions make me remind of veteran Naseer in every frame. And, Nishikant Kamat, as a professor is superb. His prowess as a professor is flawless.

In a noir movie, the actors need to convey emotions through silence and facial expressions – and here, all the characters have portrayed that with an alarming ease. The flow is visible.
But, the confusion remains, will it mark the start of an era that will emerge with more such sensible thrillers? May be not. In the era, when the producers are coming out with all-out effort to promote their film, 404 movie name was not even known to normal movie-goers. Its not that this type of movies is a sure box-office dud, but still there was no attempt of reaching out the larger mass of audiences. The film fails here, and this is really pity that such milestones will be lost without even creating a craze.

The treat of the movie reminded me of a short-story of Satyajit Ray. There also, the theme was on the lines of paranormal. The story with Ratanbabu, driven to the edge by the existence of his own earthly-shadow, pushed him over the railway over bridge down on the track to death. And, as few moments passed, he can feel the uncanny feeling --- with a thrust on his back –down on the track – only to be rolled by the running train.
Ratanabu’s mouth-freshener container remained stuck in the railing of the overbridge – as an evidence of the mortality and the existence of surrealism.

In 404, the end-twist is a stunner --- and the aftershock will remain till the end-credit rolls and the audiences will remain stuck in the seats – just like Ratanbabu’s mouth-freshener container, with a tickling conflict of rationality and surrealism..!!

from the Crow's Nest ...




Reporting live, Crow's Nest gives you an overview of what's happening in and around our space of life. While you bask in your new found glory, while you lie complacent on your couch, Crow's Nest will act your third eye -- opening up views you thought it never existed !!!

Bon Voyage !!!





When prayer is a misnomer !!!

No. The answer would be a plain NO. If you ask me, am an atheist. Maybe, I don’t wear it by my neck, but asking Him for a favour is something I don’t endorse. If I may quote a certain Mr. Aakar Patel, the basic idea of worshipping God is like bribing. In his article in the Mint, dated 3rd July, 2009 (http://www.livemint.com/articles/2009/07/02203128/Why-Indians-don8217t-give-b.html), Mr.Patel writes “Why don’t we worship Brahma? We know he’s part of the Hindu trinity as the creator, but we worship Vishnu, manager of the cosmos, and Shiva, its eventual destroyer.” The reason is simple. You pray only to that God who can fulfill your wish. A Give-and-Take-policy. A Temple of Brahma? Nope. A Temple of Shiva?  By scores. Reason self-explanatory. Anyways, that’s a topic meant for some other day. Today we talk about the earthly-mortals and a misnomer called prayer.

I remember a funny  sms.


There was an old man sitting on his porch watching the rain fall. Pretty soon the water was coming over the porch and into the house.

 The old man was still sitting there when a rescue boat came and the people on board said, "You can't stay here you have to come with us."

 The old man replied, "No, God will save me." So the boat left. A little while later the water was up to the second floor, and another rescue boat came, and again told the old man he had to come with them.

 The old man again replied, "God will save me." So the boat left him again.

 An hour later the water was up to the roof and a third rescue boat approached the old man, and tried to get him to come with them.

 Again the old man refused to leave stating that, "God will grant a miracle & save him." So the boat left him again.

 Soon after, the man drowns and goes to heaven, and when he sees God he asks him, "Why didn't you save me? I thought you would graNT me a miracle and you have let me down."

 God replied, "You idiot, I don't know what you're complaining about. I sent three boats after you!!"




The SMS had its five-minutes-of-fame, made its journey round the Sun and rode into oblivion. But the moral remains aeonian. Your prayer will find an answer only when you act towards realizing it. You need to walk till the end of the rainbow to get your pot of gold. There’s no Khushiyon-ki-Home-Delivery of that pot. There’s no short-cut. Simple. Period. A prayer will only get materialized when it meets a real effort in achieving the desired result. Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer, so goes the saying. Drawing a thread from that, until the hands work, the prayers will never come alive.


A real-life incident for you all, as an appetizer.

The boy and the girl love each other. They want to get married. But a family fall-out prevents that from happening. Balaji-serialesque events unfold. Now, after a break-up, they are separate yet their personal boulevard is not decorated with shards of broken dreams. They still dream of getting married. The girl keeps visiting the famous, overtly over-hyped temples and mosques all across the country. He lives in seclusion in a sparsely-populated part of India to stay away from her. They will not patch up. They will not be each other’s pillar of strength. They will not make up and fight the world in unison. Yet, both will live, both will pray for their marriage. And they will expect their prayers to be the miracle the above-mentioned old man always dreamt of. Strange world it is!!!

You teach a man to fish, he’ll feed himself for a day; give him a religion and he’ll starve to death while praying for a fish. People should realize real prayer bears fruit when we work towards it. An escaped slave once told – “I prayed for 20 years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.”

Wake up guys !!!


(image courtesy: http://www.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=http://wiki.hl7.org/images/8/83/Arb_work_in_progress.jpg&imgrefurl=http://wiki.hl7.org/index.php%3Ftitle%3DHl7_Internal_Architecture&usg=__Fp18eTOHlakvXLZ5uytuuR5nbMM=&h=762&w=640&sz=83&hl=en&start=12&sig2=0yBY9cMSqM9aR57CqZSHyA&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=3QEGkWaQihI2EM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=119&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dwork%2Bimages%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D644%26tbm%3Disch&ei=vTPgTffjMcn3rQfn2c2ODw&biw=1366&bih=644 )





Monday, May 23, 2011

from the Crow's Nest ...


Reporting live, Crow's Nest gives you an overview of what's happening in and around our space of life. While you bask in your new found glory, while you lie complacent on your couch, Crow's Nest will act your third eye -- opening up views you thought it never existed !!!
Bon Voyage !!!




That thing called Love ...

There are many relations. Relation that brings smile to your face. Relation that brings tears to your eyes. Of joys. Of pains. Relation that makes you jump in unanticipated pleasures. Relation that makes you turn back when you find you are riding the cycle alone. Relation that make you run down from the school bus till your porch. Relation that makes you gape in awe when you find a sudden chocolate in that cupboard. Relation where every tomorrow is a celebration, every today is a present. Relation where every past is either dead or colorful. Relation that will toss you up in the air. Relation that will catch you mid-air. Relation that is tomorrow’s morning-dew. Relation that is as stale as yesterday’s overflowing dustbin.

There are many realities. Realities that can make you, break you, shake you. Realities that can churn you, turn you, burn you. Realities that stink. Realities that smell delicious. Realities that push. Realities that pull. Realities that pounce upon you. Realities that catch you from the back. Realities that talk back to you. Realities that taunt you. Realities that haunt you.

And in between the two, in between all the relations and the realities, are all the abstract nouns – love, trust, honesty, respect et al.
And there are all the laughters and all the silence.

To be forlorn in love is to be a point perpetually at the centre of a circle. However much things may appear to change – the reality may change from a back-stabbing to back-thumping one, the relations may change from overwhelmingly puritan to painstakingly placid – the geometry never changes. Your gaze is always a radius. The circumference is ever great. In fact, the circles multiply. To be a forlorn in love is to be caught in a harrowing ballet of circles. You are at the centre of one circle, while above you, two opposing circles spin about.
The crowd around you love you, hate you, lure, socialize with you, empathize with you, sympathize with you yet you fail to come up with a solution that is endearing and long-term.
The closest circles of near and dear ones will silently remind you of solitude; you open your eyes wide to escape your loneliness. When you look up, you sometimes wonder at the centre of a solar storm, if in the middle of a Sea of Tranquility, there isn’t another one like you also looking up, also trapped by geometry, also struggling with reality, relation, trust, honesty, disgrace, last of all – love or rather, search of it !!!


(Chapter 78, Life of Pi, Yann Martel ... the entire chapter inspired me to come up with this article. His description of a castaway fits the bill of a lovelorn, perfectly ... well, perfect or not will be decided by you. Feel free to drop in with your views and suggestions. Happy reading !!)

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Ragini MMS : movie review


                                        Chills and shrills in a mould of realism

Once in an interview, a popular Bollywood actress told,” Only sex or Shahrukh sells in India”. I am not going to justify the present validity of the statement but one thing for sure , at least with Ekta Kapoor’s recent venture with debutant director has isolated ‘sex’ and combined it with ‘ghost’ to present a spine chiller in the stuffy summer of India.

 As per the skeleton of the story goes it follows a normal course that even Ramsays have followed decades ago – a sex-driven couple , a desolated haunted haveli   and a back story of an woman and her dead children.
But the film differs heavily from the run-on-the-mill horror flicks with ghostly creatures or white-clad singing ghosts. The differentiation lay on the presentation. It rests heavily on the fact of sharing an intimate experience.  The jerky, badly framed camerawork may pose hard on the eye sometime but it really make the eerie feeling even more striking . The film craves out the spookiest chills by keeping some heavy moment half-seen or unseen at times. And believe me, these unseen creeps you out the most.

The background score is at par and never sounded out of sync.

The concept inspired by the ‘Blair Witch Project’ or ‘Paranormal Activity’ – a horror flick with reality check took ground in India with this one, if we ignore the unbaked Varma’s Phoonk few years back. But, the venture still remains half-baked. Though it is never advisable to seek logic in a horror film, the question tickles – if the whole movie is not holding the self-shot footages, then why it goes for the jerky, hasty frames? It holds good if the whole movie is presented from a single vision just as BWP or Paranormal Activity did. It may be the hangover of Dibakar Banerjee’s ‘LSD’ or a desperate attempt to provide a meaning to the term ‘MMS’ in the title that they have adopted this style  but surely it is an unbeatable strategy to claim a reason for it’s cheap aroma.
The film starts with a puzzle by showing back-to-back two contrasting disclaimers ’based on true events’ and ‘any resemblance is coincidental’..!!!!

Kainaz – as the title girl Ragini does a decent job. But the showstealer is Rajkumar yadav – the male lead deserves accolades. His attitude made the character convincingly naturalized. And more importantly, the impulsive pedestriatic comments that spurted under his breath sometime – help the audience to relate with the feel of the movie. He did a brilliant job.
 
As a debutant director – Prawan kriplani did justice to the film. But the excuse of ‘panditji’ and his associate setting up an extravagant in-room-set-up of spy cam that can make even the IPL broadcasters feel shy – to make some scenes un-jerky and framed –stands vague. And, if it is taken as a cinematic liberty taken by the director, this flick has obviously raised the bar of the horror genre movies in India.
To stand out from the industry that is producing innumerable movies in a year – added with the big-shot production houses Chopras and Johars, it has highly become important to make out a point of differentiation and sell it. ‘Ragini MMS’ rightly proves the fact that if a film with an interesting concept and a intelligent plot is marketed properly, it can become a money spinner. Barely made on a budget of 1 Cr. ,the movie has gained nearly 1.80 Cr. In the weekend itself .

The film-makers have realized that the main target audience is the youth .So, starting from Chopras, Johars and even SRK is trying his luck in making film targeting the age group of 18-30.And ,here also, this film succeeded in wooing the youth by promising an irresistible combination of sex and ghost.
So what if it does not hold the boldness to become a all-rush print edition – it struck the right chord for an Indianized potboiler that present an ecstatic combination of the two taboos in the society--- “sex and spirit” .

Monday, May 16, 2011

Who is Accountable for the massacres causing by toxic waste?


On 4th October,2010, a leak at an alumina plant in Ajka, Hungary has endangered the environment of not only the country but also of its neighboring places. The toxic sludge spilled across 40 square kilometers contaminating the Danube river and its tributaries. The concern was not only confined in those 40 square kilometers, but it was a threat to the environment of the 12 surrounding countries.

The worst possibility of the case did not happen . The director of the company was detained and held responsible for the case. But , should he alone be held responsible ? Or, does his punishment justify the massacre that was possibly going to happen? Certainly not.
 
In September 2006, thousands in Ivory Coast report falling ill from waste in Abidjan .Trafigura , a multinational company was accused of exporting illegal waste from Amsterdam. And, on July 2010,the Dutch court found them guilty and fined 1m Euros.
 
Again , does a mere fine can refrain the companies from doing such illegal ,irresponsible behavior .I really doubt. The fact can be justified  by the fact that when Dutch court was suing Trafigura , MV Maersk Nashville , allegedly carrying a container laden with toxic materials was intercepted in Lagos. And few weeks down the line, M.V. Gumel was  detained for bringing into the country, eight containers laden with materials were suspected to be toxic .
 
But the legal binding is quite hard. The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal is the most comprehensive global environmental agreement on hazardous and other wastes. The Convention has 175 Parties and aims to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects resulting from the generation, management, transboundary movements and disposal of hazardous and other wastes.
But still the illegal transboundary movement is on high. The developing countries are now being treated as the dumping yard. Not only Africa, India and other sub continental countries are experiencing this. The buzz was only created during the time of Clemenceau but many such cases remains unnoticed. A major  amount of waste also comes as charity . Despite the ban on these illegal imports by The Supreme Court of India , it is still going on.

The case that is observed in Korea , between 1995-2001 reveals the fact the deadly diseases like Hepatitis out broke as a result of exposure to the hepatotoxic materials generated during treatment of industrial waste using unslaked lime. Mostly , the toxic hepatitis or acute hepatitis is caused by occupational exposure rather than viral infection.
Who can he held responsible here - The companies or the ignorance and negligence of people or the negligence of the Government? The developing countries like India and China are expected to generate electronic waste  of 500% more than the current generation. The toxicity of these waste can be brutal to humanity itself.
And , then who will be accountable ?