28 Weeks Later
Directed by: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Starring: Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Amanda Walker, Catherine McCormack
It feels weird. I mean we are talking about another sequel here. Another one? Yes sir. And that too a zombie movie, a genre done to death by Hollywood. Yet, here is a film that makes you sit up and think. Pretty absurd actually, but it's true. Who could have ever thought that a film inspired by titles like Dawn of the Dead and Resident Evil would outclass all the previous attempts and make you sick and claustrophobic, literally.
Apocalypse, Armageddon, end of the world, whatever you may call it, this has been a pet science fiction theme, where the world, as we know it, collapses and humanity stands at the brink of extinction. In this context, this film, like its predecessor 28 Days Later is a post-apocalyptic science fiction horror movie.
Don't ask why Britain, especially London has become the prime site of humanity's last fight for survival (Remember Children of Men?). Anyway, the scene is London. As the title suggests, the film begins 28 weeks after the events of depicted in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, where a contagious and deadly virus wipes out the entire population of British Isle, barring a few survivors. No, the virus does not kill, but make you a zombie, mindless and violent.
28 weekly later, a platoon of US army arrives at the scene to rescue the survivors. But the epidemic is far from over. You may miss the cast of the earlier film, especially Naomi Harris as Selena, but this time the focus is the Don Harris (Robert Carlyle) and his two children Tammy and Andy. Their mother is attacked by the zombies but she is not dead. Soon Alice Harris is found and doctors discover that her blood contains a natural antidote to the virus. But she is still a carrier and soon the virus begins to spread again, and mayhem resumes. How the two children survive all the violence is the crux of rest of the film.
Unlike other zombie movies, the aim of the film is not to scare you, but to leave you claustrophobic, make you feel the utter sense of lose and to force you to think, what if this was all real! And Juan Carlos Fresnadillo succeeds in bringing home the message bloody loud.
Danny Boyle's film was especially lauded for its images of a deserted London, with all the grand buildings and no human, and like all faithful sequels, this one amplifies those scenes (just watch the city being blown away by napalm), giving us a picture of utter hopelessness. And this is this sense of hopelessness that makes the movie worth your time. Whatever you may do, you are dead, sooner and later.
In a film like this you don't expect class acting, but as usual Carlyle is marvelous and so are the other actors.
Rating *** (Good)
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Struck in slow lane
Rush Hour 3
Directed by: Brett Ratner
Starring: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Vinnie Jones, Hiroyuki Sanada, Noémie Lenoir, Max von Sydow
There’s a standard practice in the comic book industry. When a particular comic book character or an adventure becomes popular, they release other shorter, stand alone episodes, not full-length adventures, but something to keep the fans entertained. The new Brett Ratner sequel to Rush Hour (1998) and Rush Hour 2 (2001) falls into this category. You can’t compare this one with the earlier two movies. This is just a reminder of how entertaining the previous two films were, and coming after a gap of six years, that’s saying a lot.
Oh, those good ol’ days! (This reviewer remembers standing in a queue for two hours in front of Vijay Talkies in 1999. Now, they don’t even show English films there anymore!) The world has changed. But not the characters of Chan and Tucker. One is still playing the sincere cop in his own funny way and other is still enjoying his speech qualities without realising how crude he sounds. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker and Inspector Lee and detective James Carter, two matured men behaving like two adolescents with extra-hormone and getting away with it.
The scene is Paris, Eiffel Tower included where the climatic actions occur where Lee and Carter get embroiled into a Chinese underworld gang, which according to one character, is the largest criminal organisation in the world. (And you are made to believe that there’s one Chinese to every Frenchman in Paris, not bad!) Yeah, cool. Now you expect some trademark action. And boy, you are disappointed. This time around what you see are the highlights of the first two movies (remember the flag that saved Chan’s life in the first film. It makes an appearance again, this time as a makeshift parasuit). For a 53 year old, Chan is still flexible and agile, but there are no more new tricks up in the old man’s sleeves. Tucker’s pick up lines elicit laughter, agreed. But they are boisterous, crude, over-the-top in a very adolescent short of way.
On the brighter side, you get to see the bustling streets of Paris. But the screenplay is not exactly a cracker that will force you to sit up and take notice. But you do sit up and take notice when Roman Polanski and Max von Sydow make their appearance in two inconsequential cameos. Why on earth, you ask. Polanski should stick to his place behind the camera. And, does Von Sydow miss Ingmar Bergman, who died last week? We guess, he surely does. But pray, this is no place for him to continue acting.
What’s left? Did we mention the story? Never mind if we did not. You know it already, if you have seen the first two films.
After suffering and surviving so many ‘threequels’ last few months, you come to a logical conclusion that sequels are usually pathetic. And when it comes to the third one, please, please exercise caution and don’t rush into things. Hey, why there’s no rush out here?
Rating **
Directed by: Brett Ratner
Starring: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Vinnie Jones, Hiroyuki Sanada, Noémie Lenoir, Max von Sydow
There’s a standard practice in the comic book industry. When a particular comic book character or an adventure becomes popular, they release other shorter, stand alone episodes, not full-length adventures, but something to keep the fans entertained. The new Brett Ratner sequel to Rush Hour (1998) and Rush Hour 2 (2001) falls into this category. You can’t compare this one with the earlier two movies. This is just a reminder of how entertaining the previous two films were, and coming after a gap of six years, that’s saying a lot.
Oh, those good ol’ days! (This reviewer remembers standing in a queue for two hours in front of Vijay Talkies in 1999. Now, they don’t even show English films there anymore!) The world has changed. But not the characters of Chan and Tucker. One is still playing the sincere cop in his own funny way and other is still enjoying his speech qualities without realising how crude he sounds. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker and Inspector Lee and detective James Carter, two matured men behaving like two adolescents with extra-hormone and getting away with it.
The scene is Paris, Eiffel Tower included where the climatic actions occur where Lee and Carter get embroiled into a Chinese underworld gang, which according to one character, is the largest criminal organisation in the world. (And you are made to believe that there’s one Chinese to every Frenchman in Paris, not bad!) Yeah, cool. Now you expect some trademark action. And boy, you are disappointed. This time around what you see are the highlights of the first two movies (remember the flag that saved Chan’s life in the first film. It makes an appearance again, this time as a makeshift parasuit). For a 53 year old, Chan is still flexible and agile, but there are no more new tricks up in the old man’s sleeves. Tucker’s pick up lines elicit laughter, agreed. But they are boisterous, crude, over-the-top in a very adolescent short of way.
On the brighter side, you get to see the bustling streets of Paris. But the screenplay is not exactly a cracker that will force you to sit up and take notice. But you do sit up and take notice when Roman Polanski and Max von Sydow make their appearance in two inconsequential cameos. Why on earth, you ask. Polanski should stick to his place behind the camera. And, does Von Sydow miss Ingmar Bergman, who died last week? We guess, he surely does. But pray, this is no place for him to continue acting.
What’s left? Did we mention the story? Never mind if we did not. You know it already, if you have seen the first two films.
After suffering and surviving so many ‘threequels’ last few months, you come to a logical conclusion that sequels are usually pathetic. And when it comes to the third one, please, please exercise caution and don’t rush into things. Hey, why there’s no rush out here?
Rating **
From extremes to extremes
“The author and the book is only half the bridge. The other half is completed by the readers. Without them you are nothing…”
Kiran Nagarkar tells Dibyajyoti Sarma about his new novel, his views on extremism and how we see the world around us, among other things
His latest novel God’s Little Soldier is already out in the market. Since then he has finished writing a new chapter for the book. You are surprised. You ask why? How? The author grimaces.
You talk to Kiran Nagarkar and you instantly come to realise that it’s not a nice thing being a novelist in India, especially when you are based in India. But Nagarkar cannot help being one. He cannot help saying what he wants to say, this time, a young man’s journey to the world of extremism in the context of the war on terror and religious conflicts. The author is passionate about his subject and about his protagonist, Zia Khan. He talks of Zia as if he was a living person, someone in flesh and blood, and, as if Nagarkar was defending his case. And that’s the reason he had to write one last chapter after 16 months of completing the book. “It will be added in the paperback version,” informs the author.
But what about the book itself? After a few initial discussions, the book seems to have disappeared from the market. The author grimaces again, as if to say, what do you expect? “All my books have found their places slowly. Even no one wanted to read Cuckold for the first few years till the Sahitya Akademi award happened. So, there’s hope.” The German translation of the book is a success, however. It was named as one of the best books of the year in the Frankfurt Book Fair. “I’m grateful for that,” says the author. “They have been able to engage the issue.” But he would have been happier if the Indian readers would have shown the same enthusiasm. “The author and the book is only half the bridge. The other half is completed by the readers. Without them you are nothing.”
We return to God’s Little Soldier. His name is Zia Khan, a brilliant mathematician, and a religious fantastic, and a man confident of himself and his relationship with God. As Zia gets embroiled into the world of religion and Islamic fundamentalism, Nagarkar embarks upon a journey to understand the realities of terrorism. “Zia is not a terrorist,” explains Nagarkar, “he is an extremist, always shifting from one extreme to another, a Muslim converted to Christianity.”
Nagarkar continues: “We have a template in our minds that compels us to see things in a particular light. We just buy into things that America would show us.” He offers an example: “Islamic fundamentalism brings you the picture of a Madrassa, with a bearded clergyman teaching religious fanaticism. But this is not the reality. The reality is much more complex. I have tried to get away from the stereotypes, that we are forced to believe what terrorism is and what is extremism.” His protagonist Zia is an average Indian, complex, and capable of doing brilliance. He is a good man turned bad and the novel tries to understand the psyche of that mind. Zia’s character is contrasted with his brother Amanat who claims: There’s only one God. She’s life. She’s the only one worthy of worship.
“You see, we consider Islam as a religion without a scope for repentance,” Nagarkar adds, “I have tried to put another perspective into it.”
The theme of the novel reminds you of another book which has created ripples in the international market, The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Pakistani-British author Mohsin Hamid. The book has enjoyed its share of fare coverage, but not God’s Little Soldier. Why? According to Nagarkar the answer is simple: “The sun still rises in the West. We still look upto the West and we don’t have any self-esteem.”
War, religion, politics are all seem to be the permanent fixtures of Nagarkar’s fictional world. His most celebrated work till date Cuckold too dealt with the same themes. “I have no desire to write about religion,” the author explains. “For me the story is important. Concerns are only the by-products.”
Nagarkar started his writing career with a novel in Marathi, Seven Sixes are Forty-Three (Saat Sakkam Trechalis). Does he think he would have got more readers if he continued writing in Marathi? Not really. Even the Marathi novel is not read by many. But it is considered to be a landmark book. Nagarkar agrees: “But I don’t want to make milestones. I want to be read. And I don’t really want to tailor my thoughts.”
The author calls himself an occasional author. “That’s because I don’t write novels alone. There are other things that demand my time. And yes, he agrees, he’s still barbaric, primitive, because he writes in longhand, with a pen on paper.
Kiran Nagarkar tells Dibyajyoti Sarma about his new novel, his views on extremism and how we see the world around us, among other things
His latest novel God’s Little Soldier is already out in the market. Since then he has finished writing a new chapter for the book. You are surprised. You ask why? How? The author grimaces.
You talk to Kiran Nagarkar and you instantly come to realise that it’s not a nice thing being a novelist in India, especially when you are based in India. But Nagarkar cannot help being one. He cannot help saying what he wants to say, this time, a young man’s journey to the world of extremism in the context of the war on terror and religious conflicts. The author is passionate about his subject and about his protagonist, Zia Khan. He talks of Zia as if he was a living person, someone in flesh and blood, and, as if Nagarkar was defending his case. And that’s the reason he had to write one last chapter after 16 months of completing the book. “It will be added in the paperback version,” informs the author.
But what about the book itself? After a few initial discussions, the book seems to have disappeared from the market. The author grimaces again, as if to say, what do you expect? “All my books have found their places slowly. Even no one wanted to read Cuckold for the first few years till the Sahitya Akademi award happened. So, there’s hope.” The German translation of the book is a success, however. It was named as one of the best books of the year in the Frankfurt Book Fair. “I’m grateful for that,” says the author. “They have been able to engage the issue.” But he would have been happier if the Indian readers would have shown the same enthusiasm. “The author and the book is only half the bridge. The other half is completed by the readers. Without them you are nothing.”
We return to God’s Little Soldier. His name is Zia Khan, a brilliant mathematician, and a religious fantastic, and a man confident of himself and his relationship with God. As Zia gets embroiled into the world of religion and Islamic fundamentalism, Nagarkar embarks upon a journey to understand the realities of terrorism. “Zia is not a terrorist,” explains Nagarkar, “he is an extremist, always shifting from one extreme to another, a Muslim converted to Christianity.”
Nagarkar continues: “We have a template in our minds that compels us to see things in a particular light. We just buy into things that America would show us.” He offers an example: “Islamic fundamentalism brings you the picture of a Madrassa, with a bearded clergyman teaching religious fanaticism. But this is not the reality. The reality is much more complex. I have tried to get away from the stereotypes, that we are forced to believe what terrorism is and what is extremism.” His protagonist Zia is an average Indian, complex, and capable of doing brilliance. He is a good man turned bad and the novel tries to understand the psyche of that mind. Zia’s character is contrasted with his brother Amanat who claims: There’s only one God. She’s life. She’s the only one worthy of worship.
“You see, we consider Islam as a religion without a scope for repentance,” Nagarkar adds, “I have tried to put another perspective into it.”
The theme of the novel reminds you of another book which has created ripples in the international market, The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Pakistani-British author Mohsin Hamid. The book has enjoyed its share of fare coverage, but not God’s Little Soldier. Why? According to Nagarkar the answer is simple: “The sun still rises in the West. We still look upto the West and we don’t have any self-esteem.”
War, religion, politics are all seem to be the permanent fixtures of Nagarkar’s fictional world. His most celebrated work till date Cuckold too dealt with the same themes. “I have no desire to write about religion,” the author explains. “For me the story is important. Concerns are only the by-products.”
Nagarkar started his writing career with a novel in Marathi, Seven Sixes are Forty-Three (Saat Sakkam Trechalis). Does he think he would have got more readers if he continued writing in Marathi? Not really. Even the Marathi novel is not read by many. But it is considered to be a landmark book. Nagarkar agrees: “But I don’t want to make milestones. I want to be read. And I don’t really want to tailor my thoughts.”
The author calls himself an occasional author. “That’s because I don’t write novels alone. There are other things that demand my time. And yes, he agrees, he’s still barbaric, primitive, because he writes in longhand, with a pen on paper.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Ride the Weves
Surf’s Up
Directed by: Ash Brannon & Chris Buck
Starring (voices): Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, James Woods, Diedrich Bader
Yet another penguin movie, you ask. Yes. But, hey wait. Let me explain before you decide that you have had enough of those cute penguins on their happy feet.
The movie has penguins all over, but it’s not about penguins, it’s about surfing, yes bro, it’s all about the swell surf in a cool island called Pen Gu, Hawaii of the Penguin world, and it’s about a young dreamer and his mentor and it’s about never giving up. Oh, well, you have heard and seen all these in countless movies, and yet it’s still charming when the young hero leans to appreciate his surroundings, and when they are all penguins who are in the thick of the action.
Animation movies have finally comes of age. The classic formula of a classic cartoon film is that you take animals as your protagonists, make them talk and behave like human beings would do and present their lives as a verisimilitude of our lives and then, finally, you tell the story, mostly of the triumphs of an underdog.
Surf’s Up is a happy departure from this routine, not completely though. It’s still the story of an underdog achieving his dream. Yet, the world of designer penguins is taken for granted, and the film refuses to tell the story in a linear style. Instead it follows the format of documentary film, taking interviews of the participants of the World Surfing Championship for Penguins.
That’s how we meet Cody Maverick (voice of Shia LaBeouf), a penguin from Antarctica, whose dream is to be a great surfer like his idol, Big Z, the legendary surfer who is now dead. Cody is enthusiastic but not skilled, and a minor accident introduces him to an old man called Geek (Jeff Bridges). They bond soon and realise that legendary Big Z was not dead after all.
The dialogues are crisp, and have a ring of an uber-cool attitude, which keeps the atmosphere of the surfing intact.
The animation is deft and life-like. But it’s the sea that scores. The sea never looked so good, especially in an animation movie. The rise and fall of the weaves are just awesome. There are points when you even forget that you are seeing an animation film and feel transported to the beaches. And if you are a surfing fan, you will give this film ten out of ten. And for others, it’s a good Sunday entertainment, not any heavy-duty staff, just pure fun, a roller-coaster ride on waves. Enjoy the ride.
Rating ***
Directed by: Ash Brannon & Chris Buck
Starring (voices): Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, James Woods, Diedrich Bader
Yet another penguin movie, you ask. Yes. But, hey wait. Let me explain before you decide that you have had enough of those cute penguins on their happy feet.
The movie has penguins all over, but it’s not about penguins, it’s about surfing, yes bro, it’s all about the swell surf in a cool island called Pen Gu, Hawaii of the Penguin world, and it’s about a young dreamer and his mentor and it’s about never giving up. Oh, well, you have heard and seen all these in countless movies, and yet it’s still charming when the young hero leans to appreciate his surroundings, and when they are all penguins who are in the thick of the action.
Animation movies have finally comes of age. The classic formula of a classic cartoon film is that you take animals as your protagonists, make them talk and behave like human beings would do and present their lives as a verisimilitude of our lives and then, finally, you tell the story, mostly of the triumphs of an underdog.
Surf’s Up is a happy departure from this routine, not completely though. It’s still the story of an underdog achieving his dream. Yet, the world of designer penguins is taken for granted, and the film refuses to tell the story in a linear style. Instead it follows the format of documentary film, taking interviews of the participants of the World Surfing Championship for Penguins.
That’s how we meet Cody Maverick (voice of Shia LaBeouf), a penguin from Antarctica, whose dream is to be a great surfer like his idol, Big Z, the legendary surfer who is now dead. Cody is enthusiastic but not skilled, and a minor accident introduces him to an old man called Geek (Jeff Bridges). They bond soon and realise that legendary Big Z was not dead after all.
The dialogues are crisp, and have a ring of an uber-cool attitude, which keeps the atmosphere of the surfing intact.
The animation is deft and life-like. But it’s the sea that scores. The sea never looked so good, especially in an animation movie. The rise and fall of the weaves are just awesome. There are points when you even forget that you are seeing an animation film and feel transported to the beaches. And if you are a surfing fan, you will give this film ten out of ten. And for others, it’s a good Sunday entertainment, not any heavy-duty staff, just pure fun, a roller-coaster ride on waves. Enjoy the ride.
Rating ***
Book-ed to Capacity
Talk about second chances. It’s a rare thing when it comes to a cultural event in event in the city. It’s even rarer when it comes to a book reading event. It was therefore heartening to see all the chairs full at the British Council Library when Aniket Jaaware’s collected of short stories Neon Fish in Dark Water was formally launched on Tuesday. You are right. It is the same book which the author Jaaware read at a book-reading event in Landmark bookshop some weeks ago.
That was an unofficial reading whereas Tuesday’s event was an official one. The book was formally released by author Kiran Nagarkar, whose recent novel God’s Little Soldier was also released in a similar event some month ago. “But this time, the focus is on Jawaare,” the chief guest of the event mentioned jocularly. Nagarkar continued saying that it’s the readers that make a book live. Without readers books are nothing.
You agree. But when the author begins to read from his own book, that’s quite a different experience altogether. So, formalities were dispensed with quickly and we came straight to the point: the reading. The author Jawaare read two full-length stories (which were not actually very long) and an excerpt, which gave the audience a fare idea what the book was all about, a set of stories based in the year 2050, and seen from an outside perspective.
A quiet evening of words and its meaning, quite literally.
Magically real
Film: El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth)
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Doug Jones, Ariadna Gil, Álex Angulo
You will be pleasantly surprised to see a copy of the Spanish film El Laberinto del Fauno at your next-door DVD parlour. You have heard about the film. It has garnered three Oscars this year. Critics have termed it one of the best films released last year. But you really did not expect to see it. Because the film is in Spanish.
The DVD you will borrow has English subtitles, so you don’t need to worry. And again, the film is so visually enchanting that you would probably not worry about the language at all.
Pan’s Labyrinth, as the film is called in English, opens like a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, where the line between imagination and reality begins to blur and at the end, you are asked to choose what you want to believe, the grim realities of life or the possibilities that there is something else beyond our limited sense of vision.
There’s a fairy tale of Princess Moana, daughter of the King of the Underworld. She was so fascinated by the talks of the outside world that one day she left her underworld kingdom. Here, affected by miseries of the world, she died. But her father, the king, believed that her soul was still alive and she would return one day.
Cut to the current scenario, this is Franco’s Spain of 1944. He has own the war, yet rebel forces are still holding resistance. We meet captain Vidal, a proud fascist general who is fighting a guerilla resistance somewhere in a remote village. He is joined by his pregnant wife Carmen and her daughter from previous marriage, Ofelia. Soon the two worlds collide, Ofelia’s world of fairy tale and Vidal’s world of fascism.
Ofelia soon discovers a large insect who eventually leads her to the faun (the Pan, a half-man, half-goat creature) in his labyrinth. The faun succeeds in convincing Ofelia that she’s actually Princess Moana of the fairy tale and that her real father is waiting for her in the underworld, and to go there she has to perform three tasks.
Here begins a nail-biting thriller, as Ofelia struggles with her fantastic, out-of-the-world tasks, while the rebel group begins to gather force, Carmen struggles with her pregnancy and ill heath and Captain Vidal with his last hope, to be the father of his son.
As Ofelia grapples to understand the reality of her fantasy world, her mother admonishes her saying that she should stop reading fairy tales, and that the harsh realities of the world is an altogether different thing. But you question whether Ofelia’s world is less real than that of Carmen’s, and as the film ends this is the question you are faced with: What do you believe and how much?
Spanish director Guillermo del Toro who directed Blade II and Hellboy before is tour-de-force, and he gives us a flawless film in every department, from acting (Ivana Baquero as Ofelia is heartbreakingly innocent) to photography to makeup (the captain with a slit face!). No wonder the film piped Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto in the Oscars to win the awards in art direction, cinematography and makeup.
At the end of the day, you can’t slot the film in a genre and here lies its endearing appeal. You don’t get to see a film like this often.
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