I promise to write again. Soon.

Academy Awards - My Annual Predictions

Growing older, watching time marching by, one can only sit and find amusement at how certain rituals and customs are performed purely for the sake of performing them. I really wish I could utilize the word 'perfunctory' somewhere in the above sentence, an impossible task it would seem since my writing skills have diminished somewhat from general lack of practice.

In any case, my annual Oscar predictions have fallen in the above perfunctory ritual, serving me neither pleasure in presenting my analysis nor grief in having lost a once much loved past time.

Here goes -

Best Director

1. Darren Arofonsky - Black Swan
2. David Fincher - Social Network -- Winner
3. Tom Hooper - The King's Speech
4. David O'Russell - The Fighter
5. Christopher Nolan - Inception

Best Movie (Assuming Academy is still going with hare brained scheme of nominating 10 movies....)

1. The King's Speech
2. Social Network -- Winner
3. The Fighter
4. Inception
5. Toy Story III
6. Black Swan
7. 127 Hours
8. Blue Valentine
9. The Winter's Bone
10. The Kids are alright

Possible sneaker(s)- True Grit


Best Actor

1. Colin Firth - King's Speech -- Winner
2. Jesse Eisenberg - Social Network
3. James Franco - 127 Hours
4. Ryan Gosling - Blue Valentine
5. Kevin Spacey - Casino Jack

Possible sneakers - Javier Bardem (Biutiful); Mark Wahlberg (Fighter); Jeff Bridges (True Grit); Paul Giamatti (Barney's Version)

Best Actress

1. Natalie Portman - Black Swan -- Get your speech ready.
2. Nicole Kidman - Rabbit Hole
3. Annette Bening - The Kids are Alright
4. Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine
5. Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone

Possible sneakers - Julianne Moore - The Kids are Alright

Best Supporting Actor

1. Christian Bale - The Fighter -- Winner
2. Geoffrey Rush - King's Speech
3. Andrew Garfield - Social Network
4. Jeremy Renner - The Town
5. Mark Ruffalo (The Kids are alright)

Possible sneaker(s) - Matt Damon (True grit), Jim Broadbent - Another Year

Best Supporting Actress

1. Melissa Leo - The Fighter -- Close.
2. Helena Bonham Carter - King's Speech
3. Amy Adams - The Fighter
4. Barbara Hershey - Black Swan
5. Hailee Steinfield - True Grit

Possible sneaker(s) - Mila Kunis (Black Swan), Jackie Weaver (Animal Kingdom)

Best Screenplay (Adapted)

1. Social Network -- Winner
2. The King's Speech
3. The Ghost Writer
4. True Grit
5. 127 Hours

Possible sneaker(s)- The Town

Best Screenplay (Original)

1. Black Swan
2. Biutiful
3. Another Year
4. Inception -- Winner
5. Fighter

Possible sneaker(s) - Somewhere, Blue Valentine

Mani's best

I had high expectations from Raavanan. Now having watched it, obviously since the final product does not meet the expectation set I feel slightly letdown. But surprised by wide spread criticism of the movie, I began wondering if this movie would be judged differently by future audiences if released say 5 years down the line. Would the reaction be more favorable? How would it compare to all Mani's other works.

There is no doubt Mani Ratnam is a pathbreaking director. He has an uncanny knack of understanding the pulse of the audience and delivers accordingly. But if you look closely, you'll notice that not many of his movies stand the test of time.

Here is my ranking of all Mani Ratnam movies till date-

1. Iruvar
2. Thalapathy
3. Nayakan
4. Roja
5. Agni Nakshatram
6. Alai Payuthey
7. Bombay
8. Mouna Raagam
9. Guru & Raavanan/ Raavan (Tied)
11. Geethanjali
12. Thiruda Thiruda
13. Pagal Nilavu
14. Ayudha Ezhuthu / Yuva
15. Kannathil Muthamittal
16. Anjali

I dont think too many would disagree with the top 4 movies, although Iruvar could be questionable choice to some. And maybe the rankings would differ. But by and large, the top 4 define the essence of Mani Ratnam school of filmaking.

The rest if seen hindsight are quite topical in nature. For e.g I must have watched Agni Natchataram probably 10-15 times and at one considered it to be one of the best Tamil movies produced.
But watching it the other day on youtube, it just seemed so poorly directed with its jerky editing, its none too subtle camera work which distracted me from the story. And mind you, this was pioneering work from P.C.Sreeram

So that being said, it could be possible the reverse maybe true for Raavanan and that once the dust is settled and people have forgotten all the immense hype surrounding it, maybe, just maybe it could be judged for what is really worth.

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P.S. I think the same could be said for any filmaker. Indian or non-Indian. Think any Subhash Ghai movie could fall into the above category. Just imagine how his blockbusters like Ram Lakhan, Saudagar and Hero etc would fare with today's audiences.

Quick Reviews - Raavanan

Raavanan released worldwide on June 18. 5 watched Raavanan on the 19th and Raavan on 21st.

Some of the thoughts I've penned below were written soon after on a word document.

Today I finally found the time to publish it here.

Raavanan

One of the few Indian movies which I’ve eagerly awaited in a long time. And for good reason(s) – Well for one, any Mani Ratnam production is an event in itself, but this had the added bonus of featuring Vikram in a challenging role.

The presence of A R Rahman didn’t hurt either. The premise looked interesting. Ratnam’s re-telling of the Ramayan and specifically focusing on Raavan’s side of the story. The previews were just right and kept me hooked on for more. Pains me to say I checked Sify.com religiously (almost every other day) to track the latest news related to this movie. Ahem.That being said..

Having watched both versions, the Hindi version twice, my personal and hopefully objective opinion is that this a noble effort.

Mani Ratnam experiments with the presentation, heavy emphasis on conceptualizing and creating beautiful images, ably supported in his efforts by Santosh Sivan and Sreekar Prasad. This could arguably be the finest technical product to come out of India in a long time.

I won’t go into too much detail about the story which is threadbare at best. Ratnam takes an interesting concept and tries to weave some semblance of a narrative around it but falters. It is as if he visioned a high level road map in terms of plot structure and scene creation but just couldnt translate it to character development and dialogues. And this would rile even the most ardent Ratnam fan boys since the generic, card board cut out characterization and cliched dialogue makes it difficult for the audience to establish any sort of emotional rapport with the characters.

It is only the individual brilliance of Vikram and Prithviraj, who despite being let down by Mani’s script, who carry the movie. It seems as if they had to dig deep into their thinly sketched caricatures and add layers and emotional resonance into their characters.

Vikram scores in most scenes where he gets to display his softer, understated acting. Take all his interactions with Aishwarya Rai, especially the scene next to the Statue of God in the forest and the climax. A True genius.
Prithvi has comparatively lesser screen time than Vikram and Aishwarya Rai but shines as the suave, cool super cop modeling his Ray-Ban aviators. His characterization allows a dynamic counterpoint to Vikram more rustic, roguish portrayal.

Aishwarya does a credible job in physically and emotionally demanding role although post intermission her role reduces significantly which is a pity since her character was shaping up quite well – A woman caught in between the war of men.

You need only look at Vikram’s performance to understand the wave of negative reviews and comments about the Hindi version and Abhishek’s performance in particular.

AB Jr is best suited to limited type of roles and this movie requires him to improvise and perform outside of his comfort zone. And he fails to connect with his character.

While Vikram channels an un-educated, backward person, AB Jr brings a more manic, off-kilter energy to the screen which seems inconsistent and just a little off the mark.

On the music department A.R Rahman’s back ground score is haunting. And I mention haunting in its most positive way. You can read more my thoughts on the back ground score here

But the songs themselves are mostly situational based and save for the Raavanan's theme song 'Beera Beera' and perhaps 'Usire Poguthey' (Behne de in Hindi) none of the others hold up on repeat listening.

Karthik, Prabhu and PriyaMani have minor roles. Karthik makes the most of it, despite Mani Ratnam having him jump around like a monkey to nail in the Hanuman comparison. Unnecessary but Karthik shows glimpses of his old self.
Govinda is wasted in the Hindi version of Hanuman.

Raavanan - Mani's version of a masala movie. Worth a watch. But don't take it too seriously.

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2009: The Movies

I've been known to watch a lot of movies. In theaters and on DVD. But in 2009 I watched a significantly less number of movies on the big screen as compared to previous years. Difficult to pinpoint exact causes - Overall there just weren't too many movies which caught my interest and well I'm sure being married had something to do with it also.

I've listed down all the hollywood movies I watched in the theaters -

1 Pink Panther 2
2 Star Trek
3 Angels & Demons
4 Terminator Salvation
5 Up
6 The Hangover
7 The taking of Pelham 123
8 Transformers: Revenge of the fallen
9 The Hurt Locker
10 Public Enemies
11 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
12 GI Joe: Rise of Cobra
13 District 9
14 Inglorious Basterds
15 Law Abiding Citizen
16 Up in the Air
17 Avatar
18 Sherlock Holmes

We've attempted to watch the major releases; Avatar, Hurt Locker, Inglorious, Up & Hangover make up the best of the year. Harry Potter narrowly misses out the top 5.

List of Bollywood/Indian movies watched in a theater (in US/India)

1 Luck by Chance
2 Delhi 6
3 Abhiyum naanum
4 Naan Kadavul
5 99
6 Kaminey
7 Kurbaan
8 Josh
9 Unnaipol Uravan
10 Kandhaswamy
11 Ayan
12 3 Idiots

Kaminey, Kurbaan & 3 Idiots round up a pretty good year for Bollywood which is currently riding a high in terms of quality.

List of Movies watched in the comfort of my home -

1 Dev D
2 I love you man
3 Gulaal
4 Barah Aana
5 13B
6 8*10 Tasveer
7 Aa Dekhen Zara
8 Stoneman Murders
9 State of Play
10 The Merry Gentlemen
11 Little Zizou
12 The Brothers Bloom
13 Away we go
14 Moon
15 Cheri
16 New York
17 Love Aaj Kal
18 Whats your Rashee

So we're looking at a total of 30 movies watched at the cinemas. Out of the 100s of movies released in the world in 2009 we watched a grand total of 48..which seems remarkably less.

Some of the movies which we missed out and hope to catch on DVD soon -

1 In the Loop
2 500 Days of Summer
3 The Fantastic Mr.Fox
4 Me & Orson Welles
5 Everybody's Fine
6 Crazy Heart
7 An Education
8 The Men who stare at goats
9 Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani
10 The Messenger
11 The Road
12 Rocket Singh: Salesman of the year

2010 Oscars - The beginning of the end

The 2010 Oscars was possibly the worst show I've witnessed since I began watching the annual event in 1994.

The jokes were dull, the presentation sluggish and the winners themselves were predictable and boring. And truly a shame for this was a historic year at the Oscars with the first female director to win the top prize. But that will probably be the only memory to take away from this otherwise drab ceremony which is surely losing its relevance on the world stage.

And pray how could Avatar lose out as best picture of the year. Both the people and critics have spoken out loud. It is THE BIGGEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME. It has set new benchmarks in terms of visual style and technology. And it was infinitely better than titanic which raked up all those awards a dozen years ago.

And isn't it sad that the Academy goofed up and forgot to mention Farah Fawcett as part of the In Memoriam segment. Unlucky to have died on the same day as the King of Pop Michael Jackson, and thus provided poor coverage by the news media. And now Oscar forget to pay tribute. Eh. Overall just a bad show.

Although it seemed that they cut down on a lot of the bells & whistles, yet the whole show stretched past the 3.5 hour mark. The ass-kissing testimonies to best Actor nominees were just plain embarrasing and had me squirming in my couch, spare a thought for those nominees who had to sit through it with cameras pointed straight at them..

And why was George Clooney acting all sour and Mr.Grumpy. Guy needs to really take himself less seriously. I think he really isn't laid back as he makes out to be on the reel screen.

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2010: Oscar Nominations Predictions

Oscar nominations will be announced early tomorrow. For the past 3 years I’ve being going through this exercise where I predict the nominations ahead of the actual announcement and see how close my choices were.

Writing, talking and analyzing about the Academy awards used to be such a fun thing for me. But over the past few years its becoming more a chore and my excitement levels have been mostly blah.

Last year was truly a snooze fest and personally if not for the all the buzz surrounding Slumdog Millionaire & A R Rahman I would skipped the event all together.

No such buzz this year as none of the potential nominations have roused either my interest or passion. To make matters worse the academy have come up with this brilliant plan (note the sarcasm) to nominate not the usual the 5, but 10 films for the coveted Best picture category, thereby diluting the once sacred sanctum of best picture nominations. Especially in a year where the quality of films have not quite hit the benchmark set of a few years ago.

Anyhow lets give a shot –

Best Picture-

1)Up in the Air
2)A serious Man
3)The Road
4)The Hurt Locker
5)Avatar
6)Inglorious Basterds
7)Fantastic Mr Fox
8)Up
9)Precious
10)A Single Man


Give it Avatar and be done with it. I mean it has afterall grossed over $2 billion worldwide and counting. And the film has set a benchmark, for years to come, in terms of Visual effects, pioneering 3D & gross earnings.

Two other possible candidates -District 9 & 500 days of summer

Best Actor
1)George Clooney - Up in the Air
2)Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker
3)Viggo Mortensen - The Road
4)Morgan Freeman - Invictus
5)Jeff Bridges - A Crazy Heart - Winner

Possible candidate - Colin Firth – A single Man


Best supporting actor
1)Christoph Waltz - The Inglorious Basterds - Hands down winner
2)Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones
3)Matt Damon - Invictus
4)Woody harelson - The Messenger
5)Alfred Molina – An Education


Best actress
1)Meryl Streep - Julia & Julia
2)Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side
3)Carey Mulligan - An Education
4)Emily blunt - Young Victoria
5)Penelope Cruz - Broken Embraces - Likely winner. As long as Sandra Bullock doesnt win.


Best Supporting actress
1)Soirase Ryan - The Lovely Bones
2)Monique - Precious - Throwing a dart blind folded.
3)Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air
4)Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air
5)Diane Kruger - The Inglorious Basterds

Director
1)Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
2)James Cameron - Avatar - Deserves to win. Probably the first time in the history of oscar that an ex-husband & wife are going against each other in any major category
3)Jason Reitman - Up in the Air
4)Lee Daniels - Precious
5)Quentin Tarantino - The Inglorious Basterds

Best Original screenplay
1)Inglorious Basterds - Should win. Comon everybody loves QT.
2)Avatar
3)500 days of summer
4)Up
5)A Serious Man

Best Adapted Screenplay
1)Crazy Heart
2)Up in the Air
3)Precious
4)District 9
5)Fantastic Mr.Fox - Should win


Thats the word. Enough said about this non-event. I'm off to sleep.

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Aayarthil Oruvan

AO

While watching AO this past week, the one thing which kept running in my head, was how far Tamil cinema has aged. And I deliberately chose the word aged rather than progress, cos progress seems to somehow puts a positive spin/connotation to it.

AO is unconventional. Some may decry it, some may proclaim it as the best of the year, and others like me may just go – “what the hell is going on here” right through the movie yet remain glued to the proceedings on the screen.

Cos not a lot of it makes a whole lot of sense, but there is a definite a new-ness to the visuals, the story lines and the characters, both in depiction and approach.

AO continues the trend of new age Tamil directors defying conventional cinema and not being afraid of taking it to outer reaches, darker places.

And Selvaraghavan (SR), after this monumental efforts will join the league of directors like Bala, Ameer, Gautham Menon, SasiKumar who have slowly but surely transformed the landscape of Tamil cinema, which has always worked well within the boundaries of populist entertainment. Even those handful of film makers who have attempted to shed the weight of commercialism (like Mani Ratnam, K Balachander, Balu Mahendra) have never really strayed too far away from the brahamanical , puranitcal framework of story-telling. In comparison we have the world of neo-realistic, raw & gritty cinema which new age directors revel in.

I wont dwell too long on AO's plot. A quick search in Wikipedia shall tell the readers all they need to know about the film.

But what I will try to attempt is to grade AO. And in order to do so, I would look at the intent and execution.

In terms of intent, a big kudos to SR and all the people involved behind the scenes who had the gumption (read Balls) to produce and create this epic. I praise the boldness.

In terms of execution although great strides have been made in the realm of story-telling, acting & cinematography, the special effects/visual effects domain continue to be stuck in the 90’s which is a big letdown. There is nothing more distracting then seeing a good idea on paper fail completely cos the special effects on screen look like a hand-drawn cartoon. And for audiences who are lapping up the wonders of Avatar, the f/x in AO will look clumsy and amateurish.

The story overall seems to suffer from SR's over-ambition. The tone and pace of the first half does not gell well with second half which takes a turn for the serious. The last 15-20 minutes detailing the torture and cruel treatment meted out to the captured cholas – Is this some allegorical references to treatment of Srilankan tamils? If so then it deserves to be in a different movie. In fact the entire second half deserves a movie of its own.

Credit to SR who at time seems to be chanelling either Quentin Tarantino (the F-bombs flying between Reema Sen & Andrea), Francis Ford Coppola (the Jungle sequences and the second half reminded me of Apocalyse now) or Peter Jackson and who has also liberally drawn ideas from King Kong & Gladiator and others and yet managing to ensure AO retains its own unique flavor.

At the onset Karthi seems to be stuck in Paruthiveeran mode, then disappears, and towards the end changes gears and becomes the reclusive hero. Reema Sen seems to be out of sync with her dialogue through most of the movie, but makes up for it through dynamic physical acting & body language. Andrea's character is too thinly sketched to work with. Parthiban brings an imposing physical presence as the towering Chola King. His introduction scene is well executed.

Definitely worth a watch. But go in with an open mind.

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