Saturday, March 28, 2009

Mon Oncle Antoine(1971)



English title: My uncle Antoine.

Country: Canada

Language: French

Its a chilly and snow filled december in Quebec. A father leaves his children and wife behind to find work. An undertaker raises a child as his own. An employee has secret liaisons with the wife of his employer. A mother sees her son die. A whole town basks in the joys of christmas and fights the hardships of daily life. And a little boy watches with his big, blue, innocent eyes. We watch through him. We watch with him. And we watch him as he struggles to become a man, in every possible way. Jutra's film about the coming of age of Benoit is so simplistic, so real and so heart wrenching, it reminds us of Apu in "Aparajito". Benoit learns to take on the world, he gets a taste of death, love, betrayal and sex. And at the end, he gazes innocently at the life out there, the real life where there's no uncle Antoine to protect him, no Carmen to love him. This film is a wondeful journey through two fateful days in Christmas time. But a journey that changes lives forever. And one that will change the way you look at life too.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Dev D(2009)






Director: Anurag Kashyap

Language: Hindi

Kashyap arrived on the scene a few years back with "Black friday" based on the Mumbai blasts. It had its shortcomings but made us wait for his "Paanch", which never came out. Then came "No smoking" and Anurag took Hindi cinema on a ride, a bumpy roller-coaster ride. With "Dev D" the ride comes a full circle. Kashyap has finally given Bollywood what it deserves, a true masala entertainer for the serious cine-lovers. Shed all your inhibitions, this is not your regular Hindi movie. It is a tale of lust, love, lust, obsession, lust, psychedelia and lust. Bollywood finally grows up, with the help of a man who has disgraced the silver screen more than once before. Devdas Mukherjee had always been an epitome of self pity, drunkenness and failed love in Indian cinema. Dev Dhillon is instead an absolute bastard who fondles other women and cracks up at rumors of Paro kissing someone else. Dev Dhillon is essentially just another avatar of Devdas Mukherjee, yet so very different. He drowns himself in vodka, does coke, calls up Paro's house at 4 in the morning, yet he sees Chanda's face when he closes his eyes. Dev D doesn't believe in "moving on", yet he truly does by the end of the film.
What Kashyap does to the much cliched tale is quite unexpected. It has always been about the man, Devdas himself. Kashyap, on the other hand, examines each and every character with utmost sincerity. He gives us the two of the strongest female leads in Indian cinema. Paro sends her nude pictures to Dev, carries a mattress on a bicycle to a field to have sex with Dev and ultimately, on being refused, manages to have her revenge too. Lenny on the other hand is not afraid being filmed while she gives a blowjob to her boyfriend, or accusing her father of getting aroused by her mms, or becoming Chanda by night. Kashyap gives these characters various shades of gray and turns them from mere props to symbols of women empowerment. Not that he accomplishes this all alone. He is helped by the wonderful Mahi Gill and Kalki Koechlin. Kalki's almost deadpan expressions, indifferent moaning and impish smiles alongwith Mahi's big eyed passionate looks mark their arrival on the big scene. Abhay Deol is fantastic as Dev. The use of light throughout is brilliant. Kashyap uses different shades of blue, pink to set the dark, often brooding mood of the film. I already talked about the music before. How it was all different and stuff. But what I was amazed to find was all the 18 songs were used in the film. And still the film didn't stall for a single moment! Kashyap makes use of the music wonderfully well, sometimes to tell a part of the story and take it forward, sometimes to compliment the mood and sometimes just as a background score. His use of music is actually reminiscent of Godard. I don't know if its only me or Lenny reading Moravia's "Contempt" with Brigitte Bardot on the cover alongwith the use of music is really a tribute to the French master. I hope it is because it would be a most befitting one. Kudos to Mr.Kashyap for finally giving us a nouvelle vague Devdas.

P.S : Did anyone else notice three random guys in the film? Once when Dev first goes with Chunni to Chanda's den, next when Dev drunk drives and almost crashes his car? Even if you did, did anyone else think they were the three horsemen of apocalypse? Gah! I see too much into everything!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

La Gran Final(2006)



English Title: The great match

Director: Gerardo Olivares

Language: Kazajo dialect(Mongolia), Tamashek(Niger) and Tupi(Brazil).

Scene 1: A group of Mongolian nomads and a few soldiers play football on the snow-capped peaks of the Altai mountains as a few others try to plug in a television to an electricity pole.

Scene 2: Three African men, clad in yellow and green jerseys dance around foolishly on a desert in Niger as a handful of others watch a television with glum expressions.

Scene 3: A native Indian in the forests of Amazon, "9" painted on his back, climbs the highest tree with an antenna on his back as his tribesmen wait eagerly for reception on a television.

This unique film is all about scenes exactly like these. Its about three very different groups of people with one similarity. They can go to any lengths to watch the final match of the 2002 football World Cup. The nomads risk losing all their savings in paying fines to the Government, the Africans forget all their errands and take a detour, the Indians risk getting shot. All for one reason. To watch Brazil take on Germany in the final. It is the love for the greatest game on earth that is contained in each shot of this film. Every frame speaks of the passion for football. Only that may be more than reason enough to watch this film. Add to it the wonderful cinematography, brilliant use of wide angle shots on the desert and the mountains, absolutely hilarious situations(like an African guy selling pages of Playboy in the midst of a desert) and also the very subtle socio-political undertones. And voila! You can't afford to miss this film.