debi_chat Reviews

The Companion (2006)

Smart Movie !

[7/10 · 1 September 2010]

Remember the song "Perhaps Love"? it went something like.."some say love is everything/ some say they don't know.."...you would be forced to encounter this dilemma over and over while watching this movie.

incredibly enough, the plot is a love-quadrangle ! one wonders if there is anything left in this genre that the oxygen channel has played to its death...but rituparno does a tremendous job of redefining adultery and its legacy on a marriage.

what I liked most about the movie is the extent to which the characters were real. This is a movie where the characters speak like I speak, falter like I falter...even their mobile ringtones, their accessories...everything reeks of contemporary-ness (i made that word up)...urban, educated, working class...captured perfectly on the canvas and then rituparno has proceeded to paint the story of love, lust, trust, security, duty, responsibility, morality and so on...

watch it if you are a bong (and you know who you are), watch it if you are not one...

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

Read the Book !

[6/10 · 25 August 2010]

This movie is based on thriller. So there is very little to be done make it captivating. I am not going to comment like an expert on the technical aspects of the movie but all that I would like to say is that the book is far more engrossing than the movie.

I hated it that they twisted and truncated the plot in so many ways. Consequently, the film has major continuity issues. Who are the characters? Why do they come into play? All this is so fuzzy !

The most interesting part of watching a mystery is, to me at least, the way the detective goes about unraveling the mystery. The book does this brilliantly, almost at a real time pace, which makes it a bit too fat, but the movie shows none of that. Lisbeth does not crack the code of the verses. She does not match the photographs to note that the guy wearing blue sweater is Martin in the pictures. Also, Anita Vanger (the real one) is not dead in the novel and locating Harriet is not as simple as a Google search of Anita Vanger.

I am just so mad for them butchering up the novel. They should stop trying to cram any length novel into a film. Lay off people.

The Kite Runner (2007)

Humane, humble and honest

[8/10 · 11 January 2008]

I have read both the book and saw the movie today. The storyline is so powerful that almost any script or screenplay would have done justice to it. So nothing much there. However, this is still a beautiful movie because it makes one think and feel, just like the book. Watching it is not like watching a documentary on a failed state and feeling sympathetic towards people suffering under an oppressive regime, but is like watching any other common man's story unfold, across generations, across continents. Amir's cowardice, his guilt, his dilemmas and finally his choosing a way of redemption could have been a story of any of us. There isn't a single infallible character to look up to and idolize but all of them are gray, just like all of us.

Another important observation is that the movie does a great job of chronicling the lives of Afghans through the twenty some years of turbulent political scenarios. The vibrant, care-free childhood represents Kabul before the Russian invasion and the desolate, shattered remains of the city echo what the Taliban has done to it.

The child actors deserve 'thumbs up' all the way. They can put any matured actor to shame.

If you have not yet seen the movie or read the book, just walk into the theater keeping in mind that you are going to witness a multi-layered story woven on a multi-colored fabric of human emotions and sentiments. This movie is not meant to stir anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban feelings but to feel the trials of human existence.

I read some of the external reviews linked to the site and I must confess I do not see the point in writing reviews that summarize the storyline like a distant spectator and point out technical details about amazing cinematography or something similar. At least for this movie, one should try to connect to it rather than judging it objectively.

15 Park Avenue (2005)

An intellectually and emotionally stimulating movie

[8/10 · 1 March 2006]

From "36 Chowringhee Lane" to "15 Park Avenue", Aparna Sen has indeed traveled a long way. If the first one goes down in history as a débutant's clean sweep the latter will definitely carve a special place as a "mature" film. Until you see 15 Park Avenue you cannot imagine feeling thrilled and moved at the same time. Thrilled to see the director's ingenuity and agility in portraying seriously challenging situations and moved by the sensitivity echoing throughout the film. It is not a movie that merely makes you feel 'tchh tchh, how difficult life must be for schizophrenics', but makes you ask a much deeper question about the reality that you see and believe. Sen has done a brilliant job in highlighting this supreme fact of our existence that we all are, in some way or other, trying to live in a make-believe world of our own, trying to run after mirages called happiness, peace, contentment. Along with the depiction of a delusional mind, Sen's magic has brought forth many little nuances of human relationships as they sustain stress and strain. The fact that at times we all lose calm, break down, make wrong choices, be haunted by guilt, behave selfishly and so on, is captured with extreme adroitness by Sen. She showed the cruel dilemma which Shabana had to deal with all her life, of having to choose between a schizophrenic sister and a normal life with a husband and kids for herself. And in the act of always being beside her sister, always being a strong persona, providing support, making judgments and so on, she unknowingly cut off some of the oxygen that her sister needed to bloom. Isn't this a very harsh truth that at times, in an attempt to do the best for someone, we strangle their assertiveness and end up hurting their self-esteem? Of course Konkona's and Shabana's acting deserves laurels as always because had the ingredients not been so good, the dish could not have turned out to be so extraordinary. Aparna Sen once again made a masterpiece of a movie for those who crave for some "food-for-thought" . Bravo !