Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn

For a person like me whose primary email id is one of the most famous swear words in the history of comic books, watching Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn was mandatory. And I absolutely loved it

While this may not be Spielberg's numero uno output till date, it still is one of the flawless paradigms of the man much celebrated craft. The entire movie is an adaptation, which means, it is a fairly unique story which draws unto itself characters, situations and most critically mannerisms from the original Tintin books. The story is a mix of two or three books namely "Secret of the Unicorn" & "Red Rackham's Treasure". One gets to see Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock, Thompson & Thomson, Bianca Castafiore and a few sidekicks Nester, Mrs Finch. Here I shall share my impressions of the film as a whole and each of the characters

The Film - As an entire package, it scores well. The new elements in the storyline are very interesting but crucially for purists like me, very Tintin like. What I mean by that is, it almost feels like Herge (pronounced Errzhe) wrote it himself. This is a film which the kids will adore. During the entire period of 109 mins, kids were laughing and clapping, especially towards the end, when Tintin & Co pull off an incredibly unbelievable chase sequence (seen in 3D its even better) which is where I see Spielberg's genius. There is also one more important point, this film should also appeal to the non Tintinized world. It is very simple to follow and understand. While aficionados would look for subtleties (and there are plenty!), walk in audience would love the adventure and animation. The only negative, if at all, is the lack of dearest of all dears Prof Cuthbert Calculus and the indomitable Rastapopulous. Maybe there would be a sequel.

Tintin & Snowy - Both very nicely depicted. Spielberg has taken care to visually represent Tintin as close to the print version as the freedom of film making would allow. I particularly liked the screen presence given to Snowy. He has been made as central to the plot as Tintin & Haddock. He enjoys several seconds of solitary focus on the frame, which again I liked a lot. Herge would have certainly wanted it that way too :-)

Archibald Haddock - His entry is a tad late in the film and he is not at his best. But again, since this is the relatively older story adaptation where Tintin & Haddock meet for the first time, we really wont get to see what Haddock is capable of. Having said that, the script still does ample justice to his famed drinking, lunatics and how can I ever forget swearing. Yeah! he does say Ten Thousand Thundering Typhoons.

Thompson & Thomson - I absolutely loved them. They have been given a fair bit of screen presence and as usual they hog the limelight. Again, just like Haddock, this storyline does not give enough latittude for them to really demonstrate what they are capable of. The scene with the pickpocket is hilarious. I had a riot laugh.

Bianca Castafiore - Castafiore's character and role has been very deftly woven into the script, which is what pleased me essentially. She has not been 'forcefully' introduced just to please the Tintin fans worldover. What was missing, though, was Castafiore & Haddock's jugalbandi. They dont speak to each other at all :-(

In summary, the film has my thumbs up. Go watch it. Doesn't matter if you are a kid of seven or seventy.

Movie Review - Haunted

The only thing which I did not like about the movie Haunted is its name! Come on, what a spineless appellation to an otherwise brilliant piece of art. Imagine calling Picassa's Guernica as 'Painted'. Silly isn't it. I would have preferred calling it something like the title song 'Sau Baras Guzare'

I am writing a movie review after ages, probably years. This fact is rather straightforward, as neither do I watch movies regularly and neither do I find even the best ones worth writing anything about. However, after watching Haunted something struck me which merited some promulgation. This is regarding the immaturity of Indian audience towards the horror/supernatural genre of film making.

I have enough circumstantial and personal experience to conclusively say that in India horror/supernatural movies are viewed with two lenses. The first lens is of logic. "Kya logic hai, kuch bhi dhikhaya hai" is often the one line summary of people rushing out of the theatre after the curtain falls. The second lens is of perceived bravado. "Let's see if I get scared" or "I don't get scared" are some motives which audience take with them either for impressing the girl at hand (which is ok) or showing off among friends (which is passable) or for self gratification (which is stupid). And when people wearing both lenses watch such movies, its a complete hogwash

There is no other genre that requires as much skill, creativity and technique than the horror/supernatural. I know this because I primarily read and write about it. I wish people had some appreciation of this. The question is not wether you found it silly or scary or funny or grotesque. If you can stand and heave sighs of wow at the Taj Mahal, can you not spare a small nod of head towards such movies. After all, they are also manifestations of human art & skill.

Coming back to the movie, I found it just too good. There are some inane masala here and there to cater to the degenerated tastes of the intelligent audiences I have talked of before, but that can pass. Its a fairly long movie and hence will grow on you. The story telling is perhaps the best I have ever seen in a Hindi horror flick. Since I write stories myself, probably my degree of appreciation of the script and its plotting would certainly be much more verbose than others, so that is the qualifier which you could bear in mind while reading this hyperbole of mine. Let me try to explain nevertheless. Any horror/supernatural story will have two elements or parts in it. The first one will be the ghost, spirit, demon etc part - the concept basically. (Example - in The Ring the concept is the ghost coming out of the TV and killing whoever watches the movie). The second will be the plot which is there in almost any story (Example - The young hero, falls in love with damsel, falls in a well ...). The trick for a writer is to marry these two parts seamlessly. In my memory, never have I seen such a masterful amalgamation of the spook and the plot as in Haunted. Then, the songs and background score is really haunting. Special effects are average, one area where Bollywood is several years behind Hollywood.

I am told the reviews of Haunted are rotten. I dont know who writes these reviews but under this blog's jurisdiction Haunted gets a 4 out of 5. I shall leave it for you to decide who to listen to.

Movie Review - Valkyrie

Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise is a World War II era movie. It is based on a true life event, an assasination attempt of Hitler. I liked watching a Nazi, WWII movie after a really long time.
In the credits, was mentioned that this was just one of the 15 known attempts to kill the Fuhrer ! Astonishing, made me deeply wonder how the world would have been almost a century ago.

The plot to assassinate is during 1944, just 8 months before Hitler commits suicide. Its a good movie, for those who like history. Go watch.

Slumdog and Rock

I saw two movies yesterday. Slumdog Millionaire and Rock On. I shall not get into reviews about how good they are. Its been proven. Let me share some personal reflections over and above the brouhaha.

Slumdog Millionaire -
Of all the adulation and worthy praise being flowered on this movie, I felt one angle has not been adequately extolled; that of the tenderness and purity of love. One of the prime reasons why I generally avoid Bollywood flicks is this reason. Some movies which our industry makes are remarkably successfull in portraying this form of pure, unadulterated love. Case in point - Kal Ho Naa Ho, Tere Liye, Tere Naam, Qayamat se Qayamat tak, Saajan so on .. These bring me immense pain for reasons of my own being. So, I was very uncomfortable watching Slumdog from this point of view. Rest all off course, super movie.

Rock On -
Wow. A million times over. I rate this one certainly one of the best Hindi movies I have ever watched. 'I have ever watched' .. please dont jump on my neck, coz you first need to understand the 'I' there to appreciate the statement. If Dil Chahta Hai were 5 on 10 for me, Rock On is a 8. It is so so 'real'. Thats exactly what happens! Thats exactly how breakups happen - of rock bands, of best friends and of relationships. Thats exactly how rock bands are made up of. Super!

301

Follow up to this and this

I finally managed to see 300. Thoroughly enjoyed it but not the ambience in the theatre ( though the couple next to me was thankfully well-behaved). The moderately dressed young lady next to me on the left, and a heavy Arab gorilla on the right encroached my fundamental right of freedom for (errr..limb) movement.

Since I had drooled over everything from the story line to production anecdotes, the ‘wow’ factor was tempered down to a smile. What I loved were the amazing one liners throughout the movie. I shall reproduce whatever I can recall

Act: (Convoy asks why is a woman speaking in a conversation of men)
Gorgo (Leonidas’ wife and Queen of Sparta) replies ‘Because only Spartan women give birth to real men!’

Act: (Emotional scene before Leonidas sets out for war)
Gorgo says ‘Come back with your shield or on it’

Act: (Leonidas is inspecting his 300 men, sees a young lad the captain’s son and
comments that he is young)
Captain looks at his son’s eyes and remarks, ‘I have younger sons to replace him’

Act: (The Spartans are piling slain Persian soldiers to build a rampart for
defence, when the Persian commander turns up)
Spartan hero says ‘Most of the mortar for this comes from you guys!’

Act: (The Persian commander asks them to surrender, saying the Persian armies
arrows will blot out the sun’s rays)
Spartan hero replies with a wry smile, ‘Good, then we’ll fight in the shade!’

Act: (The commander from the tribe which come to aid the Spartans asks Leonidas
how come he has brought only 300 men.)
Leonidas: (points to a man behind the commander) You, what’s your profession?
Man: I am a sculptor
Leonidas: (points to another) And you what is your profession?
Man: I am a blacksmith
Leonidas: (points to a third guy) And what about you?
Man: I am a carpenter
Leonidas: (turns his head and yells madly) Spaaaartans what is your profession?
Men behind Leonidas: Raise their shields three times and give a war cry in unison.
Amazing ain’t it?

If I were ever born in 480 BC, thousands of years later, men and women would have ‘entertained’ themselves by treating themselves to popcorn, soft-drinks, arms around spouses with some animated story on men fighting and dying selflessly… only 301 in number.