Humane Touch

"Suicide is not a solution to any problem" is the noble thought behind the Dhanush, Shruti Hassan starrer - 3. I would have been grateful to the director, Aishwarya R Dhanush, had it remained a thought and did not materialize as a real world movie! I would recommend this movie only if you have lost everything in life; then again, I might say "Get a life dude!" 

The movie starts in the present time where Dhanush is no more and Shruti is a grieving widow. But who is Dhanush? Who is Shruti? Who are everyone crying for the loss of this guy? All these questions are answered through an interlude flashback. The flashback does start with a huge promise and the stars breeze their way through the first half. Shiva Karthikeyan has done a great cameo that will make Santhanam a little jittery! A worthy competitor for Santhanam is on the anvil. We will have to wait and watch how Shiva carries his career forward. Dhanush and Aishwarya have done very well in their innocent teen roles in the flashback and the irrational puppy love that they share has been very well made. The sequence where Aishwarya goes to Tirupathi and the separation makes the couple go mad might strike a chord with the youngsters. No one can ask Aishwarya what was different in her movie. She has special aces up her sleeve just for this question.  One of the aces is the marriage happening in a pub! I mean, why? This is when the director decides to give a break. A hope blooms that things will continue and I won't feel so bad for spending 250 bucks on the ticket. The director has other plans for minions like me. I went out and come back with loads of popcorn, eagerly waiting for the second half to begin. 

I am now eager to see the super excellent romantic sequences. Again, here is the second ace, the mother of all aces. The second half is not about their life at all! It is about how Dhanush died. Now, you will think Dhansuh's death must be somehow connected to their life, the way they lived it or something. Minions!! You are all wrong! In the second half they took me through a meaningless roller coaster ride of Dhanush and Shruti crying at various pitches and locations. Then just like how a mokkai speaker hogs all the air time and then says, "Without much further ado..." the director also finishes the movie abruptly. Maybe she thought that was her way of causing a lump in our throats. Caused a lump she did, but not because of her movie but because I  realized I have been tricked!

Debut Musician Anirudh shows a lot of promise in songs like Kannazhaga and throughout the first half with his BGM. However, in the second half he is overshadowed by Shruti with her crying BGM and he takes a back seat. At least after seeing the "Why This Kolaveri Di" song, I hope people will allow it to RIP and I strongly recommend they do the same with any thought that arises to watch this movie. This movie is best described by any 1990s Indian cricket team chasing a target. They start well but then lost not just steam but also their sanity mid-way through and then laugh derisively at the audiences who have wasted their time and money. End of it all I have only two questions for the director – “Why the name 3?” and “Why (this kolaveri di)?” 

In the end, when the message of the movie is flashed across the screen I wondered if it is the director asking me not to commit suicide after watching the movie. As a good friend, I advise you to not even think about watching this movie. But if get a free ticket because you bought two juices at the karumbu juice kadai and happen to go for the movie then get out after interval. Save yourself!

When we think about time scientifically it is the unit used to specify rates like the rate of change of velocity is acceleration . Philosophically, I think it is circular. Circularity of time has many takers and nature is one of them. The repeating of seasons, day & night are all examples for cyclicity of time. We also observe cyclicity of time in the stages of man's life as depicted by Shakespeare in his seven stages of life which is also incidentally described in Sanskrit vedas (Remember the Rajnikanth song about stages in life?). But when I look at an hour glass, the past is so vast (the bottom of the glass) and future is so vast (the top, of course) while the present is a tiny narrow opening with constant change. It is like everything that happens in life is compressed to a single point in time that our human brains cannot comprehend and hence is expanded by us to experience and enunciate the happenings at that point of time. I know you are wondering why am I blabbering this in a movie review. I am not blabbering! This is what happened inside me, the argument that my mind was having with itself, pulling its hair, searching for more philosophies about time and existence. This is what you will be doing after watching this great movie - Before the Rain.

The film is in three parts - Words, Faces & Pictures. Each word perfectly describes each part with both subtle and in your "face" cues. Each part portrays a love story that is affected, either directly or indirectly, by the conflict happening in the Balkan region. Except for the second part, in which the story is based in London, the other two are shot in Macedonia. The Macedonian born director & writer,  Milčo Mančevski, has done a master piece that is quite possibly one of the best movies that you never heard about! After watching the movie you might either dismiss it as a noob's directorial venture where he did not even pay heeds to editing or you might appreciate his delving deeper into the philosophy of time. One sentence "Time doesn't wait and the circle is not round", that is repeated in the movie either pictorially or verbally, is the corner stone of the movie which eliminates the doubt about the editing skills deployed in this one. 

This is one of those movies which ought to be seen with friends and later to be discussed over drinks. Many sites or so called movie buffs have discussed the genius of Nolan and his idea in Inception while a similar euphoria might be absent for this movie it has done well in international circuits. Everytime I have tried to watch this movie, which is thrice in the past week alone, I have discovered something that I had missed earlier that is obvious. When I tried to decipher the movie, with my brain that has been trained in linear thinking and sequential philiospohy of time in which one thing leads to the other, I laughed like a mad person. I won't analyse more about this movie or the cinematography or music. It will not do justice to this very well made movie to say the least. All I can say is that this movie will drive you nuts in a good positive way, make you want to travel to the shores of Adriatic and make you wonder why are such movies not screened let alone made in India!?

If you want to wager with me and win, here is the secret: Show me a Julia Roberts movie and challenge me not to fall in love with her acting/character. You can even extort my entire salary at times! She is so good at what she does. Be it the struggling mother and activist in Erin Brockovich or the high flying actress in Notting Hill or the distressed lady in Eat Pray Love, Julia does it supremely well. The movie based on a book by the same name revovles around her and is another Julia Roberts treat for her fans. But is it enough for others?

Elizabeth (Liz), played by Julia Roberts, is a professionally successful PR who is struggling with her personal life. When shit happens and hits the fan, she decides to travel and travel in style. She decides a theme for her travel, Lonely Planet/Globe Trotter style - Eat. Pray. Love. The movie follows Liz in her glorious journey to rediscover herself through new experiences and learns to fall in love again. Of course she did not know what will happen during her journey and she ends her journey with a new born belief in "connecting the dots in your life" theory. 

Peeping into her past gives us a few hints to how she chooses her travel destinations. Even without the flashback or the hints the choice of her destinations is not surprising. Liz chooses to eat in Italy, pray in India and love in Bali. The choices were quite apt/obvious considering the reputation for the these places in the US where the protagonist lives. She starts in Italy where she befriends a few locals and a swedish girl. The Italy that the movie portrays is the place of dream for anyone! Beautiful Roman buildings, street side bistros and mouth watering pizzas! The concept of crossing over explained through a single beautiful sounding word "attraversiamo" is excellent! But my favourite part about Italy is the one where they explain how to learn Italian! The series of visuals that describes the so called "Body language" of Italian language and the music that accompanies will definitely put a smile on your face. 

The movie then follows Liz into one of the most vibrant countries, India, to pray and seek some serious inner peace. You would naturally expect a riot of colors, festivities to be interlaced with the whole inner peace thing. You are in for some disappointing portrayal of India!This part of the movie is the most dullest. They never really show any part of India. Almost the entire part is shot indoors in some god forsaken Ashram. Nothing much to write about except for the realization of balance that Julia attains through her recitation of Gita and meditation. There is also this old man who joins Julia in a quest to get a new life at the Ashram. I could not see any chemistry or friendship between the two and he overacts in his last scene as far as I can say. Perhaps, this is what the real Elizabeth experienced and hence is best for the movie. Perhaps, this is the best part for a few troubled souls. But I did not watch this movie to get any gyaan and I was not happy with this part. I usually do reruns of my favourite movies or parts of movies and whenever I do a rerun of this movie, I am sure I will skip this part. By now I was a little bored and paused the movie a few times to refresh facebook and Gmail (hint).

Then comes magical Bali! As Liz's friend in Bali says, "Everyone has a love affair in Bali :-)" It is here that she meets an emotional, good looking, Spanish jewellery exporter by accident (quite literally). Of course, with the Spanish accent, his charm and an exotic, excellent bossa nova version of "S' wonderful" playing in the background Felipe,played by Javier, wins over Liz. Bali, like Italy, is shown in all its glory! The lighting is just great, the colors are vibrant,music is soothing. Perfecto! Bali gets such attention from the director maybe because the whole story starts from Bali. It is here a year ago, when on work, Liz meets a fortune teller (called Ketut) and he predicts that she will return in one year to Bali to teach him English. Also, it is here in Bali that Liz truly rediscovers herself and meets some interesting and wonderful characters - like the divorced traditional Balinese physician. Julia collects & donates a hefty sum to this divorced mother so that she could start a new life. 

Cinematography and music highlights the importance of the events in any movie; more so in a travel based one. Both these aspects are good and this is one of the movies whose background score also sticks in your mind. Not in an Inception kind of way but in a very softer mode. Julia, I will say it again, has done superbly well (Yes I am prejudiced). She beautifully portrays the plight of the protagonist in the scene where she abruptly wakes up from her bed and prays to god with desperation, "Dear God, I know we have not spoken that much. But I need you now. Just tell me what to do and I will do". I am sure all of us have had such moments of desperation when having to make difficult choices and we want someone else to make the decision and make it easier for us. Who better than God to confide to, who lest assured wont divulge your plight to others and make fun of you later! Casting of the supporting actors, whose interactions and interventions can elevate or destroy (as in the case of "No one killed Jessica")the movie experience, has been good in this movie. With the exception of the Old man in Indian Ashram and the divorced physician in Bali I liked everyone else. 

Bottomline - Is it a great movie? No. But its a decent enough movie which can be watched at least once. Will I watch it again - Yes, but without the Indian part :)

One of the important value-add through my MBA at IIM Lucknow was the introduction to a game called Mafia and redemption from the stupid Mafia wars on FB. The new mafia is a game involving real smart, enthusiastic people. That’s it! No boards, no dice, no cards, no timekeeper or any other equipment/prop. Its a simple yet powerful game and you will be so engrossed that you will forget time passing by you, tapping your shoulder and saying a quick "hi". This was one of the biggest tactics used by us to have breakfast which is ever so elusive otherwise. "Let’s play Mafia all night, then have anda maggi from GnB at 7" someone would suggest and then after furious messaging you have a gang of 6-9 students playing mafia with mild music in the background, alcohol is optional. "Enough of the teaser!" you say. Ok. Let me introduce to you, the best strategy/psychology based game ever - Mafia!

This game involves an imaginary village with lush green fields, prosperous and dutiful citizens and one banyan tree. Yes. Banyan tree is a must; where else will you gather for the night meetings? Now, their peace is being disturbed by the presence of 2 Mafias (This can vary depending on total no. of players) camouflaged as villagers among them. Every night the village headman, also known as coordinator of the game, brings the entire village together to identify the mafia members through logic and reason. During night, everyone sleeps (just close your eyes but be attentive!) while the Mafia is awake. The Mafia takes advantage of sleeping villagers and scheme to kill a person. They identify the target to the headman and go to sleep. The headman asks only the doctor/witch/angel of the village (A villager with special power) to wake up and gives him/her the choice to redeem/purify one of the villager. Now, if this person identified by the doctor/angel is same as the mafia target, then he/she is spared. On the other hand, if that person is not the same as mafia target, then the target dies and the one chosen by the angel gets nothing. When dawn breaks, the headman asks everyone to wake up and announces the actions from previous night without revealing the identity of the perpetrators. Usually this is followed by pandemonium - Villagers desperately trying to find the mafia and the mafia trying to defend them. Then there is voting to find the accused (like Jury style justice in US) and the headman eliminates the person with maximum votes to the cheers of others "Let’s kill the mafia bitch!" and declares the dead person's identity. Yes. Mafia also votes. Dude, democracy man... Come on da! Ok, now this is one day in the village. The days passby until all the villagers are killed or all the mafia are killed and depending on that we have the group winner. 

You may ask why the headman is not revealing the identity of the mafia. One, this is a game, stupid! Two, he is elected by the people but paid by the mafia. Got the flow? *wink wink nudge nudge*, huh... huh? The roles are assigned by a fair means (which is random chit picking). Also you can get imaginative and improvise on the roles, add some new characters and give them powers. But worry not, whichever role you play, you will enjoy this game. The amazing thing about the game is the worry/excitement that villagers display to choose the accused in the morning. Also, every action you take during the day has repercussions in the night, just like in real life. Finally, the discussion, alliance formation, argument and final decision of choosing the accused is awesome. The reason behind the choice can be as lame as "On the basis of Maslow's hierarchy law and the porters five force model he is the mafia, I think" or as logical as "I heard him move when the headman asked mafia to wake up, he is the mafia!". What? You are going to play now? Wait. Wait. I want to tell more. 

When a game is so close to real life, can't a movie be so close to a game? There might be many movies that have taken this game as the base. But The Departed is one movie which really kicked some serious ass and which I loved a lot. Martin Scorsese is a wizard in Hollywood churning out magical movies. He has some great movies to his credit and The Departed would have been just another day in office for him. My humble opinion is that this movie loosely adapts the game. Maybe I am wrong and it is just two scenes that inspired me to write this post. The movie is about a mole (Matt Damon) in Massachusetts state police dept and a counter-mole (Leonardo DiCaprio) in one of the city’s gangs planted by the police dept. The gang is headed by Jack Nicholson who had planted Matt in the police ranks. In essence, in the movie, there are two villages - Policeville and Gangstaville. They have their own set of villagers, mafia and coordinators. Information flows on both sides and both sides get to know they have a rat in their ranks. This is when things get interesting.

Now, everyone is under scrutiny and everyone is tensed about his fate after inquiry. The game actually reveals itself so clearly in one of the scenes where DiCaprio, one of the latest recruits of the gang, is questioned by Jack. The answers, logic and the body language that DiCaprio brings in that scene is tremendous! Partly because of his skills, partly because of the director and partly because of the nostalgia (about the mafia game) that the scene brings out, it easily scores a perfect ten for me. There is another scene in a deserted theatre where Matt Damon tries to convince Jack that he can find the rat in the gang's ranks. This scene is another gem which again replicates the scheming sequence of the game. One big difference between the movie and the game is the absence of a doctor/angel. Though one can argue, the two officers who trained Di Caprio could be considered as one. These two mini mafia games collide to form one big mafia game like how the 3*3 squares form the su-do-ku puzzle. Before you even realise, truth reveals itself and there is a mega explosion - of blood and awesomeness! 

PS: For a 7 member group - Have one headman, one doctor/angel villager, 3 normal villagers and 2 Mafia men. You are free to improvise on the schema, no copyrights involved!

For complete rules, tips & tricks - check the wiki page - Mafia (party game)

Just before the interval, Ajit plays chess and rehearses his moves to eliminate his partners. He would declare with finesse and arrogance "I am the King... maker!" That is when u sit up, smile and tell yourself "Bring it on baby!". The movie is about four rogue friends trying to complete a heist. Now money is evil, the only thing more evil is the desire that it creates. With 4 rogues, one planner and so much money the film heads into a topsy-turvy roller coaster ride that you shall enjoy. This is the first true multi-starrer for Venkat Prabhu, the director of the movie. With 2 Established heroes, 1 upcoming fellow, few sidekicks, 4 heroines... phew that is a plateful to handle. Venkat Prabhu has done a decent job in helping the male stars to shine as much as they can while the female stars have little to no role to play. The movie line is such. 

Whadday movie(s)! Definitely one of the best ever romantic movie that I have ever seen. There are only two characters in the entire sequel of movies. There is the protagonist and his opposite or her opposite, should I say? Really, there are no hero or heroine in this movie. Nor is there a villain! Now, if you are a hardcore Indian movie buff, you will dismiss this movie as a total bore and would want to skip this post as well. If not, move ahead.