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Reviews
Black Button (2007)
A Brilliant Short Film that will make you Drop your Jaw
There is an unimaginably huge flood of Movies in Hollywood, Reality Shows & Soap Operas on TV around today and much of it is a torrent of garbage, but the people adding the crap to the pile are either unaware of this, or are too busy counting the bags of money to care. At least my friend Lucas Crandles has a certain self-awareness. He knows that his Black Button is a minor release not in cinema but on You Tube and will never be a top seller.
He knows that he's unlikely to be the toast of the party, and that there will be no big fuss made.
But so often, the loudest voices at the party are those of crashing bores all bluster and no substance. It's in the corners where the most interesting people are found, who though quiet have so much more to offer.
In the era of Desperate Housewives, Sex and the City and American Idol and shitty movies like Hancock and Babylon A.D., Lucas Crandles from Australia comes with a short Jaw Dropping Masterpiece called Black Button.
I won't reveal anything about it, just watch the flick and love it.
The Father Son Grubb duo perform brilliantly, and can give Kirk & Michael Douglas a run for their money.
Lucas, the Director of the Short, is an illustrator and an imaginary genius who translates his dark creativity to live-action (a la Hitchcock), Lucas has all the makings to be modern cinema's pre-eminent visual stylist.
Manorama: Six Feet Under (2007)
Hindi Cinema's Most Under Appreciated Gem
First things First, if I need to describe Path Breaking Cinema, I will use Manorma Six Feet Under as an example. And this film is not a Direct lift of Roman Polanski's famous hit Chinatown, Manorma hold on its own. The first word that comes to my mind while I intend to describe this movie is Efficiency.
There have been few thrillers that so effortlessly thrill you, keep you right on the edge of your seat, get you acquainted with such rich characters yet manage to knock you with killer twists and pull a fast one on you. Endlessly inventive, this is not one of those films that are just that. It explores the psychology of being a wannabe spy like no other film.
Abhay Deol is in a role thats tailor made for him, he's such a natural actor, he brings life to Satyaveer Singh and you feel that Satyaveer is a small town Rajasthani and you never feel that the character actually is played by a Punjabi Jat living in Bombay.
This is Navdeep Singh's first film as a director, and it is apparent he has the heart and soul of a storyteller. He never imposes himself upon the film; he just lets the narration flow effortlessly. He seems to be an actor's director, and the finesse with which he handles them, in close ups, dealing with each other reminds me of Steven Soderbergh.
Gul Panag is one of the Finest Actresses in India today (Lot more talented than a Rani, Priety & Aishwaria). She already proved it with Dor and now in Manorma in a not so significant role, she still proves why she's the most underrated actress in the Hindi Film Industry.
Vinay Pathak, Kulbushan Kharbanda & Sarika are competent too.
Only Raima Sen hams here.
Anyways a 9.7 out of 10 from me for this Masterpiece.
Too bad for most of my friends who had to settle tor Over The top Nonsense movies like Partner, Hey Baby & Welcome while I loved every bit of Manorama.
Anand (1971)
Fully Deserves to be among IMDb's top 250 Movies
What a privilege to have been witness to such a wonderful motion picture. A cinematic triumph so tender, so gentle yet so powerful. This is the rarest of cinema; this is the reason why a motion picture is such an important medium of art, maybe the most important medium of art.
I'm at a loss of words to describe it. I cannot explain in simple words how such an economic work can be so breathtakingly beautiful and powerful at the same time. That was Hrishikesh Mukherjee's magic. He was the Rebel filmmaker of his time. When all other Directors made mindless larger than life films where The Hero & the Heroin ran around tress and wept like babies, Hrishikesh Mukherjee made films that had simple themes, characters we could relate to and the whole movie had a Middle Class set up, something thats extinct in today's movies.
It is a work of great intelligence and subtle intensity, every frame greatly observant of the varying moods. I'm at a loss of words at describing how affected I was by this movie at the moment, but all I can say is this is one of the finest motion pictures I have seen. ANAND represents cinema at its finest, at its peak- accessible to the lowest commonest denominator yet compromising nowhere on quality. I just cannot stress enough how wonderfully gentle and beautiful this movie was, and such a wonderful character study.
Rajesh Khanna so effectively captures the easy going personality of the protagonist Anand Saigal. Part of it owes to his previous effort at playing the same man in the film SAFAR but we would know him more from movies like Aradhana and Amar Prem. This film also marks the arrival of Amitabh Bachchan, and he's fantastic as Dr. Bhaskar Banerjee. Dara Singh is also excellent in a sweet cameo as a Pahalwaan.
I strongly Pooh-Pooh Karan Johar & Nikhil Adavani for stealing Anand's plot and making a Trashy & Crappy Kal Ho Na Ho which was not even 0.0000000000000001% close to Anand.