A languid bio-pic lost in translation

                                        

“Perhaps it is the first time I have started writing a review and ended up delivering an article instead; I tried keeping my regular tone away that I usually hold on to when I pen down a review. It is milka who made me do this finally. After reading an article from a famous author in one of the leading websites, it terribly instigated me to watch the story of milka which had stalwarts on its making end.”

                     Post watching bhag milka bhag I was drifted back to my past where I had my first encounter with Gujarathi thali in the summer of 2009. I still remember the scene when I excitingly dipped my roti into a bowl of yellow gram which I supposed it to be dal (by appearance) but unfortunately turned out to be a sweet. The struggle I had for a moment with my expectations toppled is never forgettable.  Though the sweet which was mistaken for dal was delicious, the pain in misinterpreting things haunts you for a suitable time. The same thoughts haunted me when the 1^st half of BMB was done and as I pushed myself out for a coffee to refresh. The problem with BMB is “misinterpretation”. Though the misinterpretation works quite often, it terribly backfires with over the top expectations. BMB which was directed by ROMP (short for Rakesh om prakash mehra) serves you a nice meal in an entirely different dish in which you never expect it to be delivered. It’s never a mistake of anyone when a film like BMB happens and fails to reach the “janata” to the fullest. Getting back to the genesis during the pre-release, when the movie got its promos out, people simply expected it to be an adrenaline rush bonanza where the hero would have terrible past and rises up with inspiration from a boasting coach with his emotional speeches and finally wins the medal. It’s as simple as that. This would be the story line framed in the brains of every person who settles himself into his seat ready to watch the so called inspirational biopic BMB. But if the movie concentrates on drama, milkha’s personal tragedies, his love, his failures and again a few failures of his for more than an hour and a half, audience would definitely get frowned as if I did when I have tasted the “sweetened” dal from the thali I mentioned above. My argument in the above line might discomfort some sect of people. People argue “what else do you expect from a biopic?” It’s just milkha’s travel through his life and it has to be like that. Yes I agree with the respectable citizens who have these questions pondering in their minds while they read this piece of wannabe review but accidently crafted article.

                  BMB when seen from a perspective has all the  ingredients to be a perfect and even a heart throbbing biopic but it fails with the imperfect narration choice opted by its team. When a movie has to be inspirational & emotionally taut it has to be portrayed in an ascending order with a plain narration that would make people empathize with the emotions of the characters where everything builds up eventually with time. Or at least it has to be the format chosen with a film like BMB which has rugged attire on a whole with lots of personal tragedies embodied and finally ending with the anticipated triumph of Milkha. But when a non linear narration breaks into a film like BMB, script gets broken into pieces where each part has its own drama, emotions and music artificially pushed into it. It looks like an anthology of stories bound together with Milka singh tag and some inspirational music playing behind. It fails to create an impact in the brains of people. In the end people would accept it with half nodding heads but very soon the flavour of the film vanishes as the end credits are done. But if the makers of the film have shown some other promos with lots of drama incorporated then people might have been prepared for the 3 hour long languid biopic. But such a promo could never be the USP of a film coming from the most talented cast and crew. The best part of the movie is the director never tries to leave the track he has chosen; a typical honest attempt is an understatement. This commitment amuses a few and irritates the others.

                   Keeping the problems apart the movie really shines at parts with a couple of inspirational songs, emotionally binding scenes and modestly written humorous snippets. Sonam kapoor who played a stronger part in the recent film ranjhaana, surprisingly gets her role restricted to a very limited episode, just more than a cameo which has very little to do with the life story of the “flying Sikh”. Keeping the misfit narration apart BMB is periodically inspirational, effective at parts and certainly worth a onetime watch.

     

            Giving it the bottom line I would not apprehend to say “The story unfolds rather slowly that gradually loses the grip on the people’s brain and wanders around in a non linear fashion that makes it an average fare on a whole.”

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REVIEW: MAN OF STEEL

                                                         

                Few films carry expectations mounted up to the sky, the kind of crew it carries, previous works done by the those film makers everything comes into count for the viewer. Sometimes it falls on the positive side by throttling the audience expectations about the film; sometimes it falls on the darker side when it fails to catch up to the levels set up in the petty brains of people watching them. Man of Steel comes into the second category I am speaking about. Though stalwarts like David.S.Goyer, Christopher Nolan, Zack Synder are on the making end of the movie, they couldn't create the necessary magic on the viewer’s mind from their most anticipated work on the superhero SUPER MAN: MAN OF STEEL. 

                The movie starts off with some unrealistic and uber sci-fi visuals that falls naive in developing the relevant emotions in the viewer’s mind, everything sets back to normal after the story shifts to the planet earth from the inconvenient planet to watch, named krypton. The makers terribly failed in creating the effective visuals that are amiable to the 3d version. Thanks to the musician Zimmer for his boisterous music for the first few minutes, even this drains off eventually with mere repetition.

                 Coming to the script, the story unveils with random non-linear fashion for the first few minutes, switching between present and past which reminds us of the typical Nolan’s writing. As the director slides back and forth in narration with umpteen flash back snippets, he somehow stays back in the subplots and loses his grip in the main plot which ultimately falls flat. You never find a character evolving in the entire story, not even superman. All of a sudden he appears with a suit, whose designer is never known (LOL). The only scenes that make some sense are in the subplots that reveal the child hood of superman. There are few scenes that generate some genuine laughs but it gets unnoticed on a whole. The story appears to be written with mere adrenaline rush rather than with passion and honesty to introduce the neo superman to the people who are quenching for the super hero genre in the recent times. Or it might be a strategic corporate attempt by DC and Warner to defend against the Marvel’s wave of fortune in making the recent super-hero blockbusters. Whatever may be the reasons in actual sense, the film suffers from poor treatment in all of its segments.

                  Sometimes you need not have a great story or a twisting, intriguing screenplay with you but still you can make a decent attempt that is worth appreciating by a grandeur presentation on the silver canvas. The example that articulates the above line is Cameron’s Avatar. Sadly Man of Steel falls negative even in this regard. The visuals are hazy, confusing and irritating in the 3d version. It gives a dozing sensation for our eyes watching such meaningless, noisy and high octane destruction. We seriously feel that the director suffers from the “Micheal Bay”-ian effect when it comes to destruction. No sooner we realize that the music keeps on repeating in the loop. Even Zimmer loses his usp in building effective BGM.

                 Coming to the actors, everything stands just normal. There is no character that we carry with us leaving the theater; instead we try to come out of the trauma of watching a terribly misfired action drama with the terrible 3D effect. Even the superman character that is played by Henry Cavil loses its charm with poor writing and dreadful depiction of the neo-version of the super hero. The cast might have had a cake walk in enacting the stuff as nothing exciting was written for their roles.

                 After all, the most awaited venture of the year “Man of Steel” fails to impress our hearts amidst huge expectations on its cast and crew. On a whole it’s just another Hollywood flick which is stuffed with excess action and a solidly uncooked script.

Verdict:

Two stars for the super annoying hero.

 Ps:

 Do go with a “STEEL” heart, else you might be disheartened terribly.

reviewed by  SRIHARSHA VELAMAKANNI

Ice-creams & Milkshakes

Do you like a sundae ice-cream or something like a milkshake with ice-cream and the favorite cherry on the top! I bet we all do love it. Did you ever observe that we all look at that cherry curiously, we are unknowingly anxious to check who grabs that cherry when a two or three share the same shake, we give our best to pop that little lonely cherry first but if some one outsmarts you in that cherry popping competition we just say OK to ourselves. A silly act of self-console will follow. 

                But do we ever see or experience the same tacit competition in completing the ice cream that gets silently settled down in the bottom of that colorful milk shake glass. No way! I have never seen such thing. All we fight is for the pompous, glossy and fruity little things. We prioritize a cherry even though we call it a milk shake as a whole. So next time when you order a milkshake, is it OK if the bar guy gives you a flamboyant cherry, unapologetically leaving out that glassful of milkshake  and then bills you 10 dollars? A big NO will be your answer. 

                My point is, we all look at those petty little moments in life like cherries in the milkshake and ignore the whole damn thing called life like the poor ice cream in the bottom. The above lines being the biggest and stupidest ever adjectival phrases used, baby I just want to say one thing! You are definitely not my cherry. You are my Milkshake. Love you a lot. I might not be fancy at the moment but my love towards you is as everlasting as that last spoonful of milkshake that everyone of us would undoubtedly rejoice. Love you till I die.