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Reviews
Black Swan (2010)
Intense and Watchable - But not for the Faint Hearted!
A lot has been said and written about this movie. A lot good and a lot of it bad. I was unsure of what to expect and did it surprise me? The answer is a resounding yes.
Acting:Top notch. Ms Portman does this one to the hilt. Does not hold anything back. This adds to the intensity of the film. Whether it is her emaciated back, or her stressed out face,her roughly cut nails or her bruised toes, the physical ardor she endures, is remarkable, and none of it looks like acting. I winced every time she did, cried out in anguish every time she fell, exulted when she completes the final act! It is her film and her film alone, so much so, she must have had 90% of the camera time to herself. The rest of the cast did their jobs well, Cassel as Thomas, the brilliant but exploitative boss, Mila as the liberated fun loving soul from SFO, Barbara Hershey as Nina's obsessive mother, who has nothing better to do than to keep her daughter under surveillance.
Direction, Script and Editing: Aronovsky's direction makes the film very real. The tight editing never let me off the hook, and I groaned in exasperation when the interval was forced. The camera work is amazing, although the gritty, hand-held camera made me giddy at times. Am not a big fan of hand-held stuff, though it has to be mentioned, the frames were composed beautifully. The only real color used was red, be it the smudged lipstick stolen by Nina, or the blood oozing out of her fingers and toes. Towards the end, when Nina is alone at the studio, practicing and the lights go out, the shot where Nina is searching for the light man, highlighted by just a single stage light in silhouette, is amazing. That being said, I have seen remarkably gritty films (Thin Red Line, No Man's Land etc), without the surfeit of violence and stomach turning shots used here, (skin peeling, nail cutting, face stabbing). At times the film descended into the macabre, and I felt like I was watching a House of Wax sequel! The film could have done without these cheap quirks to elicit audience squeals.
Story: The story line is powerful, and it is almost like watching the ballet live, where I could visualise the transformation from the pristine white to the dark, seductive black in Nina's character. However, barring a few twists, once I got hang of the director's portrayal, the story was predictable.
All in all, a good watch. Portman's performance, the music, the story make it a memorable watch (you feel like you are watching a thriller with a well defined climax), managing to transcend the grittiness portrayed. However, it is too real for comfort sometimes, and the rest of the cast dwindle into oblivion, towards the end like dewdrops evaporating in the heat of the final act.
Dhobi Ghat (2010)
Brave Attempt, Brilliant Music Score
The plot needs no retelling. At the base of it all, it is a beautiful love story, and like most love stories, has a lot of pain and anguish interlaced, particularly towards the end. Although the acting is not top notch, particularly Aamir Khan's, the casting could not have been better. Although, a Kunal Kapoor for the role of the sensitive painter (instead of a stiff, at times uncomfortable Aamir Khan) might have done more justice to the role. Prateik is outstanding as the coy simpleton from Bihar, harboring Bolly dreams and fixing his leaking roof in the middle of a monsoon night. So is Kriti Malhotra as Yasmin, the newly married Muslim girl who makes videos of her daily life, intending to send them to her brother.
Two things make this film a milestone in Bolly cinema. One is the music score. Gustavo Santaolalla has poured in his heart and soul in this, with the strains of classical songs in the backdrop of the Mumbai monsoons, along with the haunting guitar strumming bringing up the climax. The other is Kiran Rao's cinematography rather the arrangement of the shots. The scene where Yasmin (Kriti Malhotra)shoots her Bai and her daughter recites Tennyson's The Brook, or the car chase (with a difference) where Prateik lunges through the chaos of Mumbai traffic to give his ultimate offering of love to Monica (a slip of paper with an address)are shot brilliantly, and the actors do not act, they simply are the people they play.
A very, very memorable film, and barring Aamir's no-show, is a must watch for film lovers who like to see the beautiful city of Mumbai shorn of its superficiality and clichéd Nariman Point shots, portrayed in all its character. The director takes the cake in this one.
No One Killed Jessica (2011)
Excellent editing, good watch
One of the better movies in recent times to come out of that film churning machine called Bollywood, this film does not flatter to deceive.
Script & Music: The film runs on a very tight script and has a nice flow to it, with the music and songs never releasing the tension or disrupting the flow. In fact, the biggest plus point would be the soundtrack, edgy, metallic and racy at times, yet moody, melancholic and somber at other times, carrying the narrative forward. Rajkumar Gupta has carried forward the good work from his last masterpiece, 'Aamir'. Excellent direction and camera work, along with high emotional content make this eminently watchable. However, unnecessary use of expletives at times seems forced and contrived.
Acting: Rajesh Sharma takes the cake with his brilliant portrayal of a dishonest cop who still has some qualms of fairness left in him. Vidya Balan starts off shakily with wailing and screaming, but later matures and pulls off her part beautifully, particularly in the funeral scenes. The one big let down is Rani Mukherji, who never gets under the skin of the role, despite all her acrobatics, huffing & puffing, obscenities and supposed 'wise cracks'. Her act seems contrived, and the dialogues lack conviction or charm. The role of a firebrand journalist eludes her, which was portrayed much better by a Preity Zinta in Lakshya.
Styling: Spot on for almost everyone, except again, the journalist protagonist. TV reporters are careful about the image they portray and Rani's clothes kept clashing from scene to scene, while she goes on national TV in a girly T shirt, jeans and neck pendant, she wears beautiful designer trench-coats at rallies. Amateur stuff not expected from a director of this caliber.
Overall, a good watch, not living up to 'Aamir', but tight, edgy editing and music ensures the interest of the audience is engaged till the last minute/ scene. The biggest plus would be, there are very few loopholes in this film, though in retrospect, since the film has been scripted exactly along the real murder case, scope for such bunglings and necessity for research work was low.
Mirch (2010)
Short, sweet and enjoyable
Vinay Shukla has done an excellent task of weaving separate stories together on a common theme of suspicion and lust. Although the theme of all the stories portrayed in the film are innate human desires, the portrayal is subtle and never relapses into anything similar to the traditional ribaldry that marks mainstream Bollywood films (aka dances with towel between legs or songs with incantations of 'jawani'). The cast is powerful, and lives up to its promise, although the second half of the movie loses its Woody-Allenesque feel and becomes much too dark, and even predictable. Overall, a good watch, and one of the few recent movies that tickle the humor, as well as get the audience thinking about the frailty of human relationships.