John Carter

Rating : 5/10
Release Date : 9th March, 2012 (India)
Time : 132 minutes
Director & Co-Writer : Andrew Stanton; Co-writer : Mark Andrews (based on Edgar Rice Burroughs story ‘A Princess of Mars’); Music : Michael Giacchino
Starring : Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Dominic West, Ciarin Hinds, Daryl Sabara, William Dafoe, Samantha Morton, Thomas Haden Church, Mark Strong

John Carter. A caring, generous uncle. Feisty cavalry man. Renegade captain. Interplanetary traveller. Loner.

A battle between good and evil. Exotic creatures. Space travel. Rugged, breathtaking landscapes. Towering structures. A besieged princess seeking help. Gladitorial contests. A planet under threat. Gods seeking to run their writ. And a race that seems doomed.

There is a flatness to the film, none of the spark or awe while watching films like Star Wars or Avatar. A sameness, a feeling of déjà vu. Driven only partly by the slightly wooden, lead actor and the character he is given to play. Made up only partially by the charismatic Lynn Collins. Enlivened only partially by the awe-inspiring scenery. And a storyline, plot that comes across as very ordinary.

I wouldn’t rate the time I spent on this film badly spent. There is enough fantasy, sci-fi, romance, exotica to sustain. However, it somehow doesn’t come together in a harmonious whole.

This Means War

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 16th March, 2012 (India)
Time : 97 minutes
Director : McG; Writers : Timothy Dowling, Simon Kinberg; Music : Christophe Beck
Starring : Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon, Chelsea Handler, Til Schweiger, Rosemary Harris

They’re best mates, almost the only mate each has. They fall for the same girl. Ruin their friendship. She has a really hard time making up her mind on who to go with. Despite lots of advice from her happily married, sex crazy, opinionated friend. And oh, did I mention, both the guys are secret agents ?

You know where this is heading very soon into the film. The Daniel Craig-esque Tom is the quiet one, Brit, divorced, father of a boy, safe, still waters run deep kind of guy. Chris Pine is the smooth one, multiple relationships, has a glass swimming pool, the clubbing, I know the bartender / DJ / bouncer kind of guy. She loves her work, which is to review various consumer products and soon you know everything that is possible to know about her as the two use official resources to relentlessly tap & tail her. And oh, did I mention, they are chasing / being chased by a villain seeking revenge for his younger brothers death ?

I think they forgot about the villain midway through the film. Focused too much on the romance / wooing / spoiling the others courting. It felt a bit stretched there. The dialogue is good, witty enough to keep you listening and the best moments come from the way the two ‘fight’ each other, the teams both use to tail her and the kid who circles around with a bucket over his head.

Reese looks a tad old, stretched, lacking a few sparks from what she used to be. Chris and Tom are believable in their roles and Chelsea, playing Reese’s friend, is given a character that seems to be trying too hard to be quirky / funny.

It’s a one time watch, light, easy and uncomplicated without being mindless. And oh, did I mention that the action, when it happens, is good ?

The Vow

Rating : 8/10
Release Date : 9th March, 2012 (India)
Time : 104 minutes
Director : Michael Suchsy; Writers : Jason Katims, Stuart Sender; Music : Michael Brook, Rachel Portman
Starring : Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, Sam Neill, Jessica Lange, Scott Speedman, Jessica McNamee, Tatiana Maslany, Jeannane Goossen, Dillon Casey

Suppose, you got a chance to travel back in time four years of your life and restart your life from that point, without any memory of what you’ve done in those last four years. Do you think you’d end up doing the same things or take a different path ?

Our main protagonist, Rachel McAdams, is happily married to Channing, had left her parents house a few years ago (and is not on talking terms with them), has quit law school to pursue a career as a sculptor and is happy with the life she’s leading. Until an accident happens. Which erases all her memories of the past few years. When she wakes up from her coma, in her head, she is still living with her parents, still going to law school and is engaged to her childhood sweetheart, Scott.

The fact that she doesn’t remember Channing at all, that Channing has never met her parents, that her parents are rich and she & Channing aren’t, the fact that her father is dominating and clearly wants to run her life, while Channing wants her to just be, make for an interesting film.

The subtle humour and moments shown, help keep the film in non-intense territory. From their wedding vows (and ceremony), the forget-me-nots, the chocolate Russian roulette, the blueberry Mojito & sorority girl remark, the ‘you didn’t knock’ to ‘I have to be back by ten in the morning’, the jokes feel real and not the product of a scriptwriters imagination. Incidents like the one involving Channing and her father, Sam, or her fiancée Scott, came across as filmy while the one between Channing and her sisters fiancée, Dillon once about recording studios being a dying industry & then about Radiohead were just right.

Memory is an amazing thing. She remembers the way to her parents house, a conversation with Scott, her moms phone number but not her own house, the fact that she turned vegetarian or her own husband. As Channing points out, we are the sum total of all the moments we have lived. But what if, you forget everyone of those moments ? Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams give a great performance to make us believe in their predicament and keep us engaged as they figure their way out.

Sliding Doors-esque in its approach, the film raises some pertinent questions about life, the choices we make. We seem to use the word ‘chick flick’ in an almost derogatory fashion. This one is a chick flick, but with a message if you’d care to find it…

Kahaani

Rating: 8
Release Date: 9th March, 2012
Time: ~120 minutes
Director & Writer : Sujoy Ghosh; Co-Writer: Advaita Kala; Music : Vishal-Shekhar
Starring: Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chatterjee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Darshan Jariwala

This one breaks quite a few ‘rules’. It’s a woman-centric film, it’s a drama, no lip synch songs, no fancy locales, choosing instead one of the most dilapidated cities in India, Kolkata for all its scenes. And yet, it works and how.

A pregnant lady (Vidya), has come all the way from London, in search of her missing husband. A helpful cop. Secrets, shadowy organizations, contract killers. Just someone who doesn’t want to be found or is there more to it ?

The storyline is quite simple and to the directors credit he resists all temptation to add more characters, more twists, relying instead on crisp editing to keep it taut and letting the uniqueness of Kolkata almost become another actor in this fast unfolding drama.

Beyond the yellow Ambassador taxis & the white uniformed cops, it brings out nuances about the city. The innate helpfulness. The soft-spokenness. The neighbourhood teastalls. The respect accorded to women (probably the safest place for the fairer sex amongst the 4 metros ?), the old world charm. The trams and the metro. The ubiquitous Rabindrasangeet. And of course, the Durga Puja, the pandals and the magical, transformed city Kolkata becomes during those few days every year.

Vidya & the fine character actors don’t put a foot wrong. Even the ones with bit roles. The cop who first files her missing persons report (and later begs her to fix his noisy error-prone computer). He also has the funniest line in the film ‘I’ve been trying for 30 years aur yeh do saal mein kar ke chala gaya’. The receptionist at the zero star Mona Lisa guest house who insists on calling his NRI guest ‘your majesty’. The running water boy who is inseperable from his transistor. Special mention for Parambrata, who I think matched Vidya expression for expression and had a pleasant appeal about him. Would want more cops looking & behaving like him.

The plot is interesting, enough twists and turns thrown in to keep it pacy, many layers, each peeling off at suitably placed intervals. Want to say more but wont for fear of giving it away. We spent the ride home, from the multiplex, trying to think of flaws in the storyline. We’re still thinking. Are probably going to watch it again to test various theories. Its that kind of a film…

The Iron Lady

Rating: 4
Release Date: 2nd March, 2012 (in India)
Time: 105 minutes
Director: Phyllida Lloyd; Writer: Abi Morgan; Music : Thomas Newman
Starring: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbrent, Anthony Head, Richard E Grant, Alexandra Roach, Harry Lloyd

If I was watching a movie about the first woman PM of the Western world, the person who broke the trade unions, defied Europe, fought a war over Falklands and helped dismantle the Eastern Bloc, I would want the movie to focus on things I don’t already know. What in her upbringing, her circumstances, put the steel in her ? The ability to take tough calls, unwaveringly, unhesitatingly. And to know more about the unseen side, the personal side of the above events – what was her thought process, what opposition did she face, what were the circumstances leading to things coming to a head ?

However, this film, for some strange reason, decides to focus more on the Old Mrs Thatcher (MT), who is suffering from memory loss, who is still mourning for her husband, missing her wayward son and is a shadow of the person who transformed a nation. It merely skims past the above historic events, showing them in an extremely shallow fashion, and at the end we are left none the wiser…

Meryl Streep is brilliant, but when has she not been so ? Even fluffy films like ‘Its Complicated’ and ‘Julie & Julia’ show us how lucky we are to have this chameleonic performer in our midst and in this she seems to get the mannerisms of MT bang on. Jim Broadbent is very good as you would expect. And there are no other characters really shown or built in the film.

The Falklands, for instance, is the only situation which is shown in some detail. The opposition within her cabinet. The debate with the American secretary. It was interesting for the brief while it lasted. However what made her reputation was facing up to the trade unions. This gets just a few mentions in the film.. The IRA, apart from a couple of bombings shown, gets zero screen time. Her role with the end of the Cold War (it was after all the Soviets who gave her the titular sobriquet) almost zero.

Even on the personal side, while it hints at some minor discord between her husband and herself, and an issue with her daughter and a much bigger one with her son, it is again just the briefest of glimpses with no depth at all.

Misplaced focus. Its sad that the brilliance of the film poster doesn’t translate into celluloid. Instead of feeling awe for her, her leadership, her style, we instead feel depressed for the withering impact of age on her. Would rather have seen the inspirational side of her. The side that earned her the nickname, Iron Lady.

Paan Singh Tomar

Rating: 7
Release Date: 2nd March, 2012
Time: 135 minutes
Director & Writer: Tigmanshu Dhulia; Music : Abhishek Ray
Starring : Irrfan, Mahie Gill, Zakir Hussain, Vipin Sharma, Imran Hasnee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajendra Gupta

Stop me when you think you’ve seen or heard it before. We in India treat our sporting heroes badly. If you’re poor, God help you because the system wont. Might is right, especially in villages. Our policemen are steeped in corruption, the court system inefficient. Justice delayed is justice denied. Ultimately, after a point trying the right way, you have no option left but to resort to violence.

The fact that, despite knowing all of the above, despite knowing where the story is heading, you still are engaged for 2 hours is a tribute to a fantastic performance by Irrfan, a very good ensemble cast, very funny dialogue and crisp editing.

Paan Singh Tomar, an army recruit, was naturally gifted as an athlete. He decided to join sports as the meager rations of the military men could not satisfy his voracious appetite. He wins many races, sets many records and then to solve a land dispute in his village, he takes premature retirement. Ultimately, the same dispute escalates, makes him take up arms and rebel against the system.

The setting, in the feared ravines of Chambal, with villages, along the UP and MP border. The rustic lingo and the one liners. The whole sequence involving the journalist. The deadpan delivery of Irrfan. His mannerisms and eccentricities. The omnipresent spectre of violence in that belt. Its an environment that really works, a setting that is rich and unusual enough to make you follow what is happening on screen.

I wish the second half was shorter. I wish it was all not so predictable. I wish things unfolded differently. I wish

One of the most telling dialogues in the film is the difference between a dacoit and a rebel. The system labels you a dacoit. But in reality you are a rebel, a product & outcome of the very same failed system. Paan Singh Tomar, after this film, stands taller in my eyes and that’s where the success of this film lies.

London Paris New York

Rating: 7
Release Date: 2nd March, 2012
Time: 100 minutes
Director & Writer: Anu Menon; Music : Ali Zafar
Starring : Ali Zafar; Aditi Rao Hydari

This movie is conversational, engaging, fresh. Has passion, love, romance. And the concomitant heartbreak, drama, betrayal. Is inspired by several English films of its ilk, Before Sunrise, When Harry Met Sally, Blue Valentine, to name a few. But, if you notice the absence of inverted commas in the inspired, it sets its own firm clear path in that genre, which is fairly bold in the Hindi film scene. I mean, people here actually talk to each other before falling in love !

Aditi & Ali meet as they land at Heathrow. She is a Tam Brahm from Mumbai on her way to NY to study politics, wants to make a difference to the world, supports causes, works for NGOs, is full of trivia which borders from knowledgeable to flaky and comes across as serious yet vulnerable at the same time.

He’s a Punjabi, comes from a rich, dysfunctional, possessive family with his parents still not over the death of his elder brother many years ago, is in London to study film making, is cocky, spoilt, doesn’t think too much of money as he has shovelfuls, is a bit of a drama queen (not sure whether nautanki sounds better ?) and a charmer.

Sparks fly on their one day together in London and the story, with a gap of a few years, moves to Paris and then a few more years later to New York with the characters evolving, changing persona as they move over time and cities.

Critical for any romance is for us to connect with the lead actors. Ali, being naturally effusive, brings that element of zest and fun to his role, his sense of humour deserting him but briefly. Aditi, is a revelation, handling a complex character well, looking cute in London, hot in Paris and warm in NY.

Couple of songs stand out, the photography is excellent and the movie is crisp, short and sweet, not deviating from its main storyline for an instant. There is a certain languidness in the first half, moments when you wonder if the story is progressing. Or wish things moved faster. Am also not sure I agree completely with the end but its not a major issue.

This film is for those who prefer to cook on slow heat vs those desirous of the instant gratification of microwave cooking. Its designed more to make you smile than laugh out loud. I enjoyed it and look forward to more from the debutant director.

(In the interest of full disclosure, have to share that the makers are friends and I have read the script at inception stage. Plus have been told that if I don’t say good things certain body parts will go missing and am not sure they were joking when they said that)