Blogathon - Movie Products

My very first Blogathon participation comes from a blogathon started by Nostra from MyFilmView.com

Taking bloggers into the world of science fiction gadgets/products, my mission is to change movie history and in some cases include myself in movie stardom by answering these following questions;

Which movie would you find in your own Pulp Fiction briefcase? (One which you would treasure or is impossible to see because it is not available)

I've actually been trying to get my hands on the DVD of an excellent Indian film called Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. Although the movie was made in the 70s, it still remains one of the freshest and funniest movies to ever come out of Indian cinema. Furthermore, lightheartedly looking at corruption in India, the films still hold true after decades.

If you had a Back to the Future DeLorean, which cinema related time period would you travel?

I honestly cannot answer that. I don't think I will truly be able to appreciate the 20s to 50s period and 80s onwards has been pretty average and something I've lived through. So, either have a look into the future, or if I must travel back in time, I guess the time of free love and radicalism would be fun to experience, so 60s and 70s it is, especially since the true Summer Blockbuster films also originated around then. 

If you woke up tomorrow morning and found out that you were living your own Groundhog Day and could only escape it by watching all the movies from a specific genre, which genre would you choose and why? And which genre would be your personal hell?

If I was living my own Groundhog Day, then first I would arrange to meet Anne Hathaway. If that works out, I guess I will not be watching any films because I would be in my celebrity heaven. If the plan fails, then I would probably go for the brainless action films (Fast and the Furious, Transporter, and the like) which would take my mind off living my life in a loop. As for my personal hell, period dramas. I can take only small doses of those every few years, and having to watch them day in and day out would be horrible. 

You have the Neuralyzer from Men in Black in your pocket. Which movie would you travel into to use it on one of the characters to change the movie in a fun or interesting way and what would happen because of the change you made?

It would have to be The Usual Suspects. I'd like for Verbal Kint to have a memory loss on the ship after the explosion and then see how the movie progresses since he would then not know who Kyser Söze is ;-)

If you would be able to enter the dreams of a famous movie character like Cobb did in Inception using the dream machine, which character's dreams would you jump into to get to know that character better and what do you think their dreamworld would look like?

I'm a big fan of psychology, so there would be a number of characters whose brains I would like to pick to see what's really going on in there. Jack Nicholson from One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. Maybe Edward Norton from Primal Fear. Or even Anne Hathaway from Rachel Getting Married which is such an underrated performance. I think all the three characters would have edgy dreams, but that of Edward Norton in Primal Fear are the ones that are bound to be the scariest.

Lacuna Inc, the company from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind just opened on the corner of your street. Which one movie memory would you delete to experience it for the first time again?

You know I asked this questions recently when I was watching Predator one day. How cool would it be to watch a movie without knowing anything about it? I would definitely love to experience some of the movie greats like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, or even Clerks again without knowing anything about them...not even a trailer.  

Right next to Lacuna Inc, another company Rekall from Total Recall has opened as well. Which character in which movie would you like to be to experience it in first person?

No doubt, Ferris Bueller from Ferris Bueller's Day Out. That would be an amazing experience. 

Thank you Nostra for the opportunity to participate in the Blogathon. Cheers! 

Agneepath (Hindi) (2012)

Brash, Gritty, Bloody, Unapologetic, that's Agneepath for you. A remake of the Amitabh Bachchan 1990 film of the same name, Agneepath stands its ground firmly. It's an updated version, more in your face, with just one essential emotion carrying the film forward, Revenge!

It's important to mention that although I have seen the original Agneepath and remember liking it, it has been years (maybe more than a decade) since I last saw it. I remember bits and pieces from it, but I was glad about that because I wanted to enjoy the new Agneepath as a separate film and not a remake.

Agneepath is the story of Vijay Dinanath Chauhan who witnesses his father being wrongly accused of a crime and being hanged by a local criminal Kancha in their village Mandwa. Vijay, along with his mother and sister, head off to Bombay and the film is all about his rise to power in the Bombay underworld in order to take back Mandwa from the now dictator Kancha.

Starring Hrithik Roshan as Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, Sanjay Dutt as Kancha and Rishi Kapoor as Rauf Lala, Agneepath somehow miraculously manage to extract the best performances, by all the three leads, in a very long time. Hrithik's Vijay is a man on a mission and although there are emotional aspects to his character, it's his single goal in life, revenge, that fuels him. Sanjay Dutt has come a long way from his Rocky and Khalnayak days and seeing him in an all out negative role was pure entertainment. Rishi Kapoor's portrayal of the child selling, drug dealing, local gangster Rauf Lala is by far the best performance. His evilness is so brilliantly disguised that when we see him in his final act being as bad as he can be, it comes almost as jolt of surprise.       

Agneepath, a gritty revenge drama, is filmed so beautifully that each frame is a piece of art. The use of colours in the sets brings about richness to the film that is mostly shot in decapitated and burned down buildings. The background sound throughout the film is what made it so much more intense. Technically, although there are parts which seemed a bit fake (explosions), the film was far superior to a lot of Indian films I have seen.

The main reason for Agneepath holding on the audience captive for almost 3 hours is that it doesn't slow down. The story progresses at a breakneck speed with one event after another adding to the story and characters. There are a few characters that seemed unnecessary, and my fear was the unintentional emotional baggage they might bring about, but once again the film doesn't slow down for anyone. It felt that every time the film diverted towards the emotional road (mother-son, brother-sister, boy-girl relationships) there was someone standing tall to give the film a slap and put it back in the direction of that one emotion, Revenge!

Agneepath will not be liked by everyone. It has a love angle, but that too is kept in place on the side. It has its item number and numerous songs, but they play an important part in the film's continuity and are just not there for the sake of it. So, do I want to compare the original with the remake? Not really. Sometimes, even when the stories are similar, it's best to take each film as a separate entity. Enjoy this movie for the direction, for the cinematography, for the acting, and lastly for being bold enough to take a step towards a new form of cinema, one that is unapologetic about not satisfying everyone. 


Rating 5/5

       

Movie Thoughts - Does your traffic dictate your blog & your movie watching experience?

Now, this question relates to pretty much all bloggers and not just film bloggers, but honestly speaking have you ever specially gone and seen a movie, or skipped one, because you thought that it would/not appeal to your blog readers?

Although I have never really done this, but often when I write about an Indian film or like right now I am planning to write about two books on Indian films that I have just read, I do wonder how many people will actually read it considering most of my readers are from the western world and not too much into Indian cinema. Moreover the books cater to people who have seen the movies, which I am pretty sure most of my readers have not (although I am always pleased to be proved wrong).

Now, I do go ahead with writing articles and reviews on Indian cinema because I have a personal goal of trying to make it more popular. I also did a recent post on when someone might have had to go watch a movie when they really did not want to, be it to impress a girl or even for their blog. This question is more specific in that knowing who your readers are, and where they are from, or what they like, are you thinking about what you write and maybe even how you write, when you do write?

So far I’ve tried to keep true to myself. I know I have a very basic writing style and I like to write as little or as much as I want to about a movie, but there is always a question in the back of my mind, checking to make sure, if the post will be "popular" amongst my readers.

Have you ever thought about your readers when you stood in the theater deciding on your next film, or has it always been what YOU want first and then the reader?

Let me know... 

The Age of Cinema

Heads Up! This post is not at all as epic as it's title suggests. It has nothing to do with the actual age of cinema, nor does it have to do with the age at which you can watch a movie. It deals more with the age at which you should watch a movie. What I plan to talk about is two simple yet important questions that to me are basically two sides of the same coin;

1. When is a good time to make children watch the modern classics like Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Breakfast Club, and the likes?

2. Does a movie say The Goonies or Stand By Me, if viewed by an adult now for the first time, have the same effect they had on the masses when they were initially released?

To start off with the first question, recently I made a group of four children/young adults aged 10-15 watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off. For me, the movie is the ultimate feel good movie. I do have to point out that I watched it much later in my life (late 20s) and it has stayed in my favourites ever since the first viewing. Not only did it take a lot of convincing before the four young adults agreed to watch it (they were having an X-Men marathon and the third disc wasn't working resulting in a movie change), but when I told them about some film essentials like "The Breakfast Club" all I got in return was laughter and that the sequel is probably called "The Lunch Club". I feared the outcome of this.  

Now, the reviews of Ferris Bueller's Day Off were somewhat mixed. They laughed at most comic scenes. The heavy philosophical scenes might have been a bit too much, I'm not sure. I asked them to give me a short review and this is what they said;

Sehar (15): The film is just full on entertainment. From the acting to the storyline to Ferris' impromptu performance, everything makes the audience wish that they were living the teenagers life.

Maha (13): I did not enjoy this movie very much. I found the plot quite cheesy and the acting was over the top. However, in places it was quite funny and enjoyable sometimes.

Harun (13): I thought that the movie was very funny and entertaining, and the idea of the film was good. However I would have really liked the movie to have a scene with Cameron and his dad arguing about the ferrari.

Hashim (10): The movie was really funny and I liked how the principle stopped at nothing to catch Ferris.

My question after this little experiment is that what is a good age to watch some of the modern classics? I often wonder if I would not have liked Ferris had I seen it earlier in life? For example, just as I found out about movies like The Breakfast Club (seen again in my late 20s) through forums and twitter, should these be discovered by the younger generation on their own? Or is it that with time something like Say Anything or 16 Candles will slowly move into the group of movies that should be viewed by everyone, but just are not? Will my daughter (almost 4) consider Harry Potter and Twilight as the modern classics and consider the movies of 70s and 80s and even 90s too old to be viewed? Only time will tell.

Moving on to my next question, which came to my mind when @movieanarchist on twitter recently stated that they did not like Stand By Me. This adult had seen the movie for the first time, and putting his review aside (no disrespect) what I tried to figure out was that had it been watched at the time of its release or when the said person was younger (closer to the age of the characters in the movie) would he have liked it?

Take The Last Emperor. It is one of the few movies from my childhood that I remember watching and liking. It is a rather strong drama and by no means is a children's film, but then why do I remember watching it? The only connection I could figure out was that it features a child in the title role. Once again the question arises, should the younger generation be introduced to movies like The Goonies at their age or should we just let it be?

Recently I saw people talk about Super 8 with a sense of nostalgia linking it to the movies of the past. Does age and the time you watch a movie really have an effect on you liking it? What would people think of Super 8 if they have not seen the movies they relate it with (Goonies, Close Encounters of the Third Kind)? Could it be that the age you watch a movie at is almost as important as the content of the movie? I know I watched most of the modern classics in the late 20s and liked most of them, but maybe I need to dig deeper and watch some more and see if this theory holds true?

I do know one thing. Whatever the case, when the time comes I'll make sure my daughter get to watch these modern classics even if I have to pay her to sit and watch them.

If you have any thoughts about this, you know what to do smarty pants :-)