Tess (1979) - Romance

After I saw Michael Winterbottom’s latest (Trishna) and wasn’t too happy with the way story of "Tess of the d'Urbervilles": A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented” written by Thomas Hardy in 1891, I had to see Roman Polanski’s version of the same book “Tess (1979)”. As expected Polanski’s version was way too good than Winterbottom’s for sure, because it was stretched at least in a couple of years (may be around 10 years) whereas the original story goes for around 30 years or so which I guess was impossible to be made into one movie. Still, this one is almost as long as three hours but told in a damn good way. Since I saw “Trishna” last week – it did help me big time in understanding the story a good second time and I could see the sea of change that had taken place in the way they showed it to us in today’s time. This was no doubt a visual treat to say the least; some scenes captured my attention big time and were shot in too good a manner. A wonderful piece of cinema by one of my favorite Directors and a must watch for all Romance / Drama lovers.

The Movie: Even this one didn’t do full justice to the novel but as I said earlier – it would be quite a task to put that mammoth story into one movie for sure. The length of this movie says the same – it’s almost as long as 165 minutes and still by the time it ends – you keep asking for more. Tess is the story of a young strong willed girl from a peasant family, whose family thinks that they have a connection with some aristocratic family. Her father sends her to seek a job with the same family of “Urbervilles” who they think they belong to. Her cousin immediately falls in love with her, right after he confirms her into a job in one of his poultry farms in the mansion and ends up raping her. She leaves the house, goes back to her family, her baby dies too and her family is again in tatters. Years go by – again she gets into a job in a milk farm, falls in love with a nice guy. Unfortunately she hides her past with him till they get married and once she tells him after the marriage – the guy rejects and leaves her alone. She has no other option but to go back to her cousin as a mistress so she could fend for her family. Again after a couple of years her husband comes back realizing his mistake, finds her but by that time its too late for Tess to go back to him. She sends him back and tells him to never return to her, later she realizes her mistake and does something drastic to go back to him. What she does? Will they unite again? You’ve got to see the movie or read the story to know the rest.

Beautiful Nastassja Kinski

Characters and Scenes: Tess is played by beautiful Nastassja Kinski, she is simply superb and too good in the role. She was one of the reasons why I was hooked to the movie big time, I could seriously not take my eyes off screen as long as she stayed on screen – such is her beauty. Her husband Angel is Peter Firth, lovable character – you simply fall in love with his simplicity and sympathize with his situation throughout. Leigh Lawson as cunning Alec (Cousin) is perfect; you hate him but love him as a strong character. Although the movie was made in 1979 – yet there were some scenes which captured my attention big time. One of the outstanding scenes was of the horse carriage Alec rides – it’s fantastic to see the way he rides it with Tess on board and the speed that they go in, simply superb, awesome camera work, you see the shot at least 3-4 times with different angles, sometimes from the back and sometimes from the front. Check it out – you will totally love it. Then there is this scene of Tess capturing a bird (A cock) in the poultry farm. Another scene showing the use of some kind of tractor to cut the crops from the farm, I was shocked to see that device which was cutting the whole thing with such an ease, indeed one of my favorite scenes of the movie, I almost saw it a couple of times to see how that machine worked. Other than these there is one damn good scene of a train pulled by an steam engine – trust me – it’s such a damn good and breathtaking shot that I simply cannot put it in words here, Mind-blowing use of moving camera and the way the whole train scene is captured. Not to forget some outstanding countryside sceneries too. All in all this was a better and superb watch in comparison to “Trishna”. If you have seen that – you’ve got to see this too.

Three Times (2005) - Taiwanese Movie

After seeing like a dozen Korean, Chinese, Japanese movies, I can definitely say that either their movies are subtle, sincere, simple, meaningful yet amazing or they are over the top action with blood and gore, so much so that they are not everybody's cup of coffee. The movie that I saw today was a Taiwanese movie made in 2005 from the first category. How cool is the idea of shooting three separate stories set in three different times (1911, 1966 and 2005) played by same lead actors. Sounds familiar? Yeah, we saw a Hindi movie (Teri Meri Kahaani) based on the same idea but that's where the comparison ends as this one is such a simple and adorable movie – I am sure no one can make anything similar to this in India from the current generation and the one guy who made similar stuff is long gone. This movie reminded me big time of Satyajit Ray with its simplicity, almost no dialogues, hardly any background score but just simple / soothing love songs playing in the background. It's a must watch for serious and meaningful cinema lovers. 

Story 1: A time for love (1966): This story has hardly any dialogues – only damn good love songs as background score. It’s a very simple story of a guy going for military training, falls in love with a girl where he plays snooker, they write letters to each other while he is away. He comes back after couple of years only to find that she is already left the place. Somehow finds her house, visits her mom, has a lead, will he be able to get her? Is she still waiting for him all these years? Story 2: A time for freedom (1911): This story has no dialogues either – almost a mute movie with captions as dialogues. Based on the life and times of a courtesan, who looks forward to one of his clients as her ticket to freedom. Will she get it in the end? Would he marry her and take her away? Story 3: A time for youth (2005): Final story of a young couple, madly in love. Both of them are suffering from two different diseases – yet they live a good life in each others company. Based on the current times with mobile phones, computer and technology. Even this section too has hardly any dialogues but the simple treatment and visually strong movie never makes you miss the interaction as everything is quite simple and understandable.

Brotherhood of War (2004) - Korean Movie

A friend recommended this one and I saw it today – what an amazing experience it was. I’ve always been a Korean movie fan and this one took the respect to a next level altogether. If you like war movies – you are going to Love this one big time, if for nothing else – you will always remember for its graphic war sequences and visuals – totally out of this world shots. No wonder, it became one of the biggest one of the biggest success till 2004. It totally reminded me of two of my favorite movies “Forrest Gump” and “Saving Private Ryan” and a lot of similar movies, I haven’t still forgotten them and will never forget this either. It shows us the story of two brothers in war torn Korea in the mid 50’s. They both get sucked up in the war when North Korea attacks South Korea, elder brother tries his level best to save his younger brother, makes him promise to complete his education and support the family back home. Although it isn’t for the weak hearted as it has a lots of shooting, bombing, killing, stabbing, blood and gory moments, that all may not like, but they are done in such a way that you actually end up hating war more than what you are shown onscreen. It’s a must watch for all war movie lovers – I am glad that I came across this one.

The Movie: Starts with some people working on a excavation site, they find a lot of soldiers bodies dumped in one area with some belongings. After identification they start calling relatives to notify them of the findings. An elderly gentleman gets a call with information that they found his own belongings, he believes that these are not his but his brothers remains and drives down to the site with his granddaughter. Rest of the movie is in flash back with him thinking about their past and happenings in South Korea in and around 1950’s war between North and South Korea. Jin Tae the elder brother owns a shoeshine stand to pay for his younger brother Jin Seok’s education. Suddenly war breaks out and army picks up anyone who is more than 15 years of age to fight for the country. As Jin Tae tries to get his younger brother off the train – the army picks both the brothers up and they are sent to the battlefield to fight for South Korea. Jin Tae leaves his Fiancé and her family behind to go with his brother as younger brother had a heart condition and he would not be able to survive for long with ongoing war and its toll. He does requests his seniors to release his brother and offers his services instead but he is told that if he can earn the highest award for a South Korean soldier – his brother would be sent back home. What he does to earn that award is heartening to see and how a difference develops between both the brothers because of the war is something that breaks your heart.

Mind-blowing scenes: As the movie started and progressed – I was taking it as another emotional drama from Korea but as the focus shifts from brother’s relations to the war, it changes gears and I was totally hooked to the war sequences with eye popping action, some sequences are simply mind-blowing to say the least. I haven’t seen a better war movie in I guess last five years which comes any closer to this one as far as visuals are concerned. If you have seen “Forrest Gump” and remember those bullet shots and explosions – you will know what I am talking. It’s totally outstanding how they have captured the moment in the camera which is as real as it could be in real life. Bullets being fired left, right and centre, bombs exploding with people getting shredded like anything, body parts flying, blood flowing like water, there were so many scenes which refuse to go out of my mind like there is this shot where one of the bomb goes off near a soldiers leg and next moment you see his leg gone below thighs, another soldier who is firing an automatic gun, gets shot on his elbow with so many bullets that his arm is cut off in a moment and but his hands remain on the gun shooting. I have never seen something like that earlier in any of the movies so far. Jin Tae’s determination to kill all the enemies and kill as many as he can to ear the award – is totally mind-blowing stuff. How he fights back with enemies even hand to hand combat or with guns or he gets into those craters with automatic guns blazing all over – is totally heart wrenching. Every moment – your heart says – he is gonna get himself blown over any moment – yet he survives and keeps fighting. He keeps telling his brother that he has to go back, complete his school and support the family, they have their own ideologies and differences yet they remain together as long as they could. What happens next is something you gotta see the whole movie for. Would Jin tae be able to save his brother from the war? Who was that elderly gentleman? Was he the elder brother or the younger?

Cocktail (2012) - Drama

WOW – what a disaster! Some movies actually turn out to be – how you expect them to be. This was one of those movies that I predicted long back that it won’t be any good – no matter who makes it and what’s the story all about. I will remember this for – what a great fall for a guy like Homi Adjania (Director) from “Being Cyrus” to “Cocktail”. He actually carried so many people from his last movie still this wasn’t a quarter as good as that one. Anyways, what confused me further was – what was the point of making this movie – obviously other than making a movie for money and breaking off the image of “Offbeat Movie Maker” to a “Commercial Movie Maker”, as he will be called now once Cocktail crosses at least a 100 crore mark. This wasn’t entertaining, was this comedy? No, cause I laughed like only thrice, movie with a message? No, I didn’t get any, serious stuff? No, Movie with a difference? Yes, indeed it has a different ending, better than your imagination for sure. Will I watch it again? No Ways. Would I recommend it to anyone? Yeah, the DVD will be out shortly, check it out then.

The Movie: As I said earlier – I had no expectations from this one hence I wasn't shocked with the outcome and those 150 minutes didn't bother me. Saif actually needs a good Director to extract best out of him, no doubt he is a good and proven actor but here in this movie – you actually see an over the top over confident Saif with the corniest lines ever heard in a movie. Movie starts with Meera (Diana Penty) landing in London to unite with her estranged husband Kunal (Randeep Hooda). As expected Kunal throws her out of his life but promises her a Citizenship in lieu of their marriage and money he got from her to come to London. Cut to scene two – we see a carefree Veronica (Deepika) walking in to a grocery store, drunk and needs to use the wash room, guess what Meera is already in the washroom – crying hence Veronica being an India – helps her and takes her home. They come across Gautam (Saif) in a restaurant just like that. Meera had already met Gautam at airport where he tried to woo her with his corny lines before she walks out on him. Hence Veronica takes a revenge on him by throwing the same lines on him in the restaurant in front of his clients. This scene was supposed to be hilarious but I couldn't even smile – let alone a hearty laugh. They meet again in a pub and become friends, so much so that he moves in with them to stay at Veronica’s place. Veronica is a rich spoilt girl with careless parents and oh yeah – she has a SLR so guess she works and makes enough money to frequent pubs in London every night, as if I care. Gautam is a Software Engineer who maintains a 3 day old beard all the time and Meera conveniently gets a job as a Graphic Designer in no time. 

Gautam has a family and a maternal uncle right there in London with a mom somewhere in Punjab who keeps sending him pictures of his future wife. This uncle happens to be Boman Irani in a thankless and pointless role. Although he is the one who is responsible for some fun in the movie after all. His mom is none other than Dimple Kapadia who does gives them a surprise visit – only to find her son having a ball with two girls around – so she picks up one of them as his future wife who wears salwar kameez and looks like the one – who would make a perfect Indian wife. As they do in all the movies – they play a couple as long as mom is around and end up falling for each other. By the time mom goes back they are already in love with a third angle that even Veronica realizes – she too loves Gautam and cant be left out. So she changes gears and becomes all goody two shoes like Meera (At least she tries). Now the big question – who gets Gautam in the end? That’s what you need to see movie for guys. Go ahead waste your hard earned money in a not so funny movie – waste your 150 precious minutes too to know the ending or rather I would say, Google it and wiki has the full story with the ending written too.

What’s my problem: The promo’s and posters tell us a different story altogether – we hoped that it would be a great entertainer at least a good time pass for sure with those cute faces. The thing I did not like was – it had nothing to offer that we haven’t already seen in our movies. Almost no entertainment – if your definition of entertainment is an aged looking guy trying to look chick n hot with those one liners. Deepika is now being typecast in almost same roles in all her movies – she is almost wearing the same cloths too I guess. She doesn’t even look one bit different than how she was in her earlier movies – for a moment we thought she straight walked out of the Item number from movie “Dum Maaro Dum” to this movie set – was drunk too I guess. Boman and Dimple are wasted in such a crappy movie – I guess the Director just wanted to buy some more footage to lengthen the movie to make it two and a half hour long hence the additional characters in thankless roles. Randeep Hooda had hardly anything to do but whatever he did – his screen presence was a kind of relief to me as his character wasn’t a cliché but a normal guy in bad situation. Songs – the less said the better. Cinematography – how many times do we need to see those same locations again and again and again. Actually every 15 minutes spent on the movie – you feel like – what the heck am I watching? And then you tell yourself “Cocktail” cause when everything is added in one drink – that’s what you get. It was actually reminding me of the title every now and then – just like that. If you have seen it or plan to see it – do let me know how you like it.

Trishna (2011) - Drama

I have seen almost all of the movies of Michael Winterbottom and definitely found some of them to be too good. The most recent one that I saw was The Trip (2010) and I found it to be hilarious. The story of "Trishna" as I read everywhere is an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel “Tess of the d'Urbervilles” but I differ as the novel goes from the very start till Tess ages to her late 50’s. But here in this British version they have wrapped it up in hardly 2-3 years of her life. May be they took too many cinematic liberties and botched up the perfect story to make it better for movie going audiences. Now, I know why I couldn’t find that depth in the movie and it sounded more like a drama cum thriller in the end. Good part of the movie is its cast – Trishna (Freida Pinto) fits in the character to the T, with Jay Singh (Riz Ahmad) as rich business man’s son is too good and convincing, Roshan Seth in a small role is good but the best part is cameos by Anurag Kashyap, Kalki Koechlin and Amit Trived (Music Director) with a short item number by Huma Qureshi of “Gangs of Wasseypur” fame. The story revolves around the life of an ambitious lower middle class girl, who needs to supports her family at whatever cost yet need to fulfill her wishes and what it takes to achieve and where she lands in the end is heartening to see. I am sure Ms Pinto will claim yet again that the sexuality shown in the movie was “Scripts demand” but we were definitely shocked to see what they showed, beware if you watch it at home because I am sure it isn’t getting a very wide release anyways as it got a limited release in USA.

The Movie: I actually wondered why they had to shoot this in India and change it as per obviously Indian standards, anyways we are not getting any replies to those questions but how they screwed the actual story is very disheartening to see. The original story as per the novel goes almost 40 years whereas here its wrapped up in a just a couple of years that too with a way too different ending. What further shocked me is while they changed it as per their requirement to make a movie with Indian characters – what they did not change the sexuality of the same. I mean, it was surely a little too much to show on screen the way they showed it. Its Trishna’s story set in the current time that belongs to a lower middle class family based in a small town of Rajasthan. She is very ambitious and educated too. One fine day during her one of the part time jobs in a hotel, she meets Jay who is son of a rich NRI businessman. He is fascinated by her beauty and looks forward to meeting her again and again. Finally, due to her poor financial situation, he offers her a job in his hotel in a nearby city (Jaipur) on a very good salary and she joins them. Jay even offers and enrolls her in a hotel management course too to upgrade her skills, but as they say “nothing comes free of cost” this too doesn’t and she has to pay a hefty prize as he starts making sexual advances towards her, she gives in one time and but leaves the job very next day, later she becomes pregnant and she goes for an abortion without telling him.

Her family situation worsens with her dad’s accident and she is forced to join her maternal uncle’s family and work in a Henna factory. Jay finds her again, offers her to move to Mumbai in a live in relationship. She meets his high society friends, models, movie makers, dancers etc. Right when you think her life is going to change for good the twist comes. Jay’s father falls sick back home in England and he had to rush immediately, he doesn’t return for quite a long time and in the meantime the lease of their flat expires and she has to vacate. She tries her had in film industry too but doesn’t lasts long, goes back to her home and again starts from a scratch. Her parents coax her to go back and get a better job. Jay comes back and again with a fresh hope she joins him back in the hotel, although she had hopes that he is going to marry her but again her heart breaks when she realizes that the only way he treats her is a sex object – he actually never loved her in the first place. The ups and downs in Trishna’s life are amazing stuff. Her ambitious nature sends here everywhere and she is desperate to succeed in whatever she does but life always has a second plan for her. How she is used and abused is totally heart wrenching stuff. What happens next is the rest of the movie; would she take a stand and go back to her life? Or would she take revenge from him? How does it all ends – is what you need to see the movie for. The way they have changed the story altogether works and not works partly. I am sure this movie is going to get mixed reviews – some will like it as an individual movie but when you compare it with the original story – you are going to hate it. Check it out and decide for yourself if you like it or hate it.