kruttik-a Reviews

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)

Our Unfortunate era

[9/10 · 24 May 2006]

Its just so unfortunate to not have 'Maya Daren' with us today. Her exemplary direction with perfect length of her movies makes her a legend in short film category.

Meshes of the Afternoon has everything that no one has ever seen before, in terms of abstraction, philosophy, movie making.. everything is just so beautiful. Her movies cannot be categorized into any available genres, cos' no on e really makes movie of her sort.

A girl entangled into a recursive event which by the directorial pattern looks like a figment of her own imagination. It seems like she is waiting for her lover or something like that and then she finds her replicas all around her haunting her and finally killing her. It also seems that Maya's other short film 'At Land' is a sequel to 'Meshes of the Afternoon' for she keeps alive the same passion and abstraction and romance in 'At Land'.

All in all, its one of the best attempts I have seen. If you believe in movies you cannot miss it.

Eureka (2000)

Inexplicable Cinema

[9/10 · 21 April 2006]

Probably the only thing that has happened to me which i cannot express in words. Maybe thats what the director 'Shiniji' felt and instead of trying to express is it in heavy-Hollywood-dialogs syndrome, he chose the absolutely pinnacle and quintessential form of communication- ...... If you are looking for the definition of that art, you wouldn't just find,because it doesn't exist. You have to see this movie to venture into the world which is way beyond cinema and story-telling.

Each character has just defied the very fabric of artificial situations that are cinematic and have stepped into the horizons of real world much real that what we see now. Shiniji's brilliance is not only in the way he picked up the situation and silhouetted it with ever so beautiful backdrop but also in that fact that he hasn't compromised on the lines of letting the movie talk with its aura of silence. Many great directors would have been tempted to use the brilliant characters of Naoki and Kozue to speak up their frustration(a usual ploy in American and European Cinema) to reassure their directorial capabilities, but Shiniji's belief in the movie and its characters was much more intense than both his audience and himself.

Now a little about the movie. Eureka centrally addresses the condensed emotions of people who go through a catastrophe which might not be fatal physically but is absolutely draining mentally. The eventual darkness of body and mind that leads such people to imagine heinous crimes like murder without knowing the true essence of its legitimacy. It deals with complete disintegration of human psyche to unwanted darkness. But it also shows the inevitability of human victory of life and happiness over death and darkness. Eureka tours the human road-map of complete disillusionment and back to reclaim its lost grounds.

Naoki and Kozue though being kids display a true situation that can drive even kids to craziness. Though not being dumb, words have not been their respite. The killing emptiness within woven with their apathetic vocals drilled them to their core and they became immune to popular practice of existence. Talking and involving with others were a waste, for nothing in the world could bring them what they lost. And if you ask what they lost, they cant describe it, I cant describe it, and neither can Shiniji. We can only feel it.

Makoto together with the kids was also a subject to the catastrophe. It hit him so hard mentally that he lost himself to isolation. But he regrouped and returned to his home just to find that things have changed around him, he could not justify but accepted it because he could find himself a reason to it. He visits the kids and they form a small family in which no one has to say that they care for each other, they just have to feel.

I can go on for this movie for the rest of my life but if you are alive you will see it.

Malena (2000)

A true display of cinematic brilliance winning against critic's samovar

[8/10 · 21 April 2006]

I am absolutely livid to read Mr Wood Foster-Smith's comment on this movie. Only a man with as myopic vision as his can deny the extreme brilliance of the movie and its story telling. Maybe the critics show quit watching films and go back to novel reading for he who is a movie buff, very well realizes the difference between story telling and story reading. The remarks were apt had it been a novel.

Let me try explaining the legend Tornatore and his endeavor to conceive all aspects of human existence in a single masterpiece. 'A fresh-faced boy making wide-eyed sexual discoveries' might me trite but something that marks the beginning of youth. And where would one witness the childish infatuation evolving into an inexplicable exemplary of human love which propelled a kid-usually associated with I-want-it-now attitude into a super human who understood love more than expressing it. 'The cruelly indifferent parents' might be mundane but the same mother crying over the same child for his sickness and the same father showing the same child the path to adulthood is a display of sublime imperfection humans have been dented with.The love of parents can never be called indifferent.'The misunderstood heroine' might be quotidian but the constant struggle with self to endure worldly crass or to give up once and for all to just continue breathing, and still eventually realizing that this crass is in-definitive and a habit of so called educated-happy-alive families.'A husband falling for a faithful woman' might be a cliché but a husband coming from war to meet his wife and discovering that she has turned into a whore and his house is confiscated and the town is howling at his face with a mocking silence of their own- and still after realizing the truth goes back and ordains his wife her lost dignity.'A howling town with sick people' might also be a pitfall but my friends, a town that has seen war and have seen their kins and loved ones going and never coming back isn't too prudent to understand that its their men who are weak to run to prostitutes and not women who have grown beautiful out of bounds. And yet the same town showers respect and sympathy when Malena returns.

On the whole Malena is not only a great movie but has sublime story tell with no manipulation what so ever.

A must see.

Being Cyrus (2005)

Finally bollywood enters the world of darkness

[8/10 · 20 April 2006]

I am thrilled to witness this change in the Indian Cinema. Gone are the days when débutante directors used to create the trite love triangles or Suraj-B family crap. This director just displayed that a good direction with a sublime story line is all it takes to manufacture brilliance.

Being Cyrus is a very dark movie concentrating primarily on the human psyche and absurd responses that humans resort to under different situations. Without talking more about the movie, I can only say that 'Being Cyrus' is a serious display of 'real' cinema.

A must watch.

Memento (2000)

A complete experience

[9/10 · 27 February 2006]

Memento definitely ranks top in my list of favorites. I have seen the movie many times and every time I see it, I realize it has a fascinating blend of all facets of movie making.

Generally when one talks about this movie, the focus is on the directorial misadventure or brilliance to run the movie backwards and forwards to converge somewhere but I have strongly felt that this is only one of the many beautiful things the crew of Memento have done to this great movie. I would like to discuss some other amazing feature ignored by many critics.

Memento is a story of a guy who has lost his power to retain and create new memories after an "incident". So basically, this movie revolves around this guy Lenny and his quest to exist in a world where his condition is almost an exception. But since one needs a reason to carry on the ventures of daily existence and since Lenny has no way of remembering these reasons, so he invents some extraordinary techniques to remember them - taking photographs and writing notes on his body. He tends to create opportunities and forget that he created them and that the reasons he has created are not a consequence of natural course of life. The movie not only brilliantly explores the agony and pain of a person suffering of such a condition but it also describes the journey of this person to fight all odds and still exist in a world without time but only matter.

The "incident", which happens to be the last memory of his, is compelling him to exist but only till he finds the man responsible for it and kills him. Lennys knows that after he has killed the man, he would loose the reason to live and so he practices the great gift given to him-the ability to forget.

Christopher Nolan has displayed that story telling is the most important part of movie making. He has successfully brought all the faces cinematic experience in one masterpiece.

If movies mean anything to you, you have to see this one.

Matrubhoomi: A Nation Without Women (2003)

First true cinema in history of Bollywood

[9/10 · 23 February 2006]

Manish has definitely brought about a revolution in Story telling in India. With Matrubhoomi not only has he challenged the very fabric of Indian Movie making but also the residing fear in Indians to accept and admit their own apathy towards their own wisdom and creed.

Indian cinema has long been manifested, rather infected with a megalomania of movie making thus fooling the audience into illusions of happiness and so called feel-good-factor. On the contrary, here is a movie that is brilliantly directed to not only present the an imagination perfectly, but also telling the story absolutely pertinent to fathomable future.

Truly this cinema not only shows the harsh realities of female infanticide but also displays a sublime love and purity of womanhood to her kind. It also blends the cruelty of men responsible for female infanticide with a sympathy that veneers their characters due to lack of adulthood.

Manish Jha has successfully entered the shock art cinema and guys believe me we have our own , Desi version directors like Gasper Noe, Quintin Tarintino or Bernardo Bertolucci. A perfect recipe!!!!!!!