The Great Gatsby

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The excess, success and progress of America come alive on screen in a vivid, almost poetic form by director Baz Luhrmann.

Its in the many details of the film that you will find the various forms of love. The love that can endure, wait and persevere is present alongside love that can sway, be short lived and is perhaps fickle.

The irony here is not love itself, but the grand stage one sets for something which is always intended to be a personal moment. Its the balance that the film strikes between the noise and the silence, the grandeur and the pain, the selfishness and the selflessness that you step back and question your own belief of love.

Leonardo has once again walked the tight rope and shown the complexity of an ambitious man in love. Carey Mulligan is a victim of her own choices, showing wondrous fleeting moments of love, amongst her spoils. Tobey Maguire plays the fine narrator of a quixotic tale he didn’t want to be a part off, but was swept away by it like the rest of us.

Its artistic treatment and sparks of brilliance indeed make it ‘Great’.

Indulge yourself, old sport!

4/5

All in a day…

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5 malls. A 90 minute massage. A coffee with a friend. Checked out the new Q 10 blackberry.. Me likey! My favourite Fleur de Lis cake at Pauls. Picked a birthday present. Bought another set of pressies. My favourite Cafe mOre, caught up with another friend. Driving around the spotless city, listened to my favourite music. Now I know why I missed you.

Bombay Talkies

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Celebrating 100 years of Indian Cinema, this film is a talented tribute by 4 directors; Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap. Four stories that cover totally different genres, social spaces, dreams, aspirations and goals. What ties them together is the string known as ‘our world of films’.

The story by each director is short, yet complete. The well written characters are played by a confident cast. Urban, rural, modern, conservative, everything is weaved in effectively with a message. As each story begins and ends, you feel you have had a balanced Indian meal, a little bit of every spice and food group, giving you complete nutrition and satisfying your palette.

There is a well shot and fitting song at the end, featuring many of our favourite actors and actresses, either through a montage of their previous work or live in the song. That was the best dessert for such a meal. A proud moment indeed for our cinema and the ones that enjoy it.

It is a time capsule worth watching.

4/5

Aashiqui 2

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If there ever was an ‘Anti Alcoholics Anonymous’, its this film. I needed a drink to survive it, maybe even two. Pity we don’t have cinemas that serve alcohol in Mumbai. We were drawn to this film expecting great music, a Kapoor girl and a Kapur guy.

Mohit Suri sorely disappoints in a film named after Aashiqui which had brilliant music. Here too, the music is good, but the pace of the drama and the placement of the songs doesn’t do them any justice.

I was waiting for the film to finish and found myself laughing in scenes which were definitely not funny. Forced drama, romance, empathy, anger, every emotion seemed orchestrated and not natural.

Thankfully, Shraddha doesn’t take any genes from her dad Shakti, but looks like a replica of her mum Shivangi (Padmini Kolhapure’s sister). She has a good screen presence and body language. Her dialogue delivery tends to fall flat, but is saved by a pleasant voice. Aditya has done ‘Action Replay’, but takes on a lead role with confidence, though the character is very poorly written.

1.5/5

Spoilers ahead:

The sole weakness in the film lies in its baseless complication. It appears laughable and almost forced and one wonders why the hero is an alcoholic in the first place. His faceless father and many other loopholes in the story give you many ‘why?’ and ‘huh?’ moments. The end was predictable. Terrible waste of talent and music.

Iron Man 3

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Robert Downey Jr. is back in his arrogant, suave, genius avatar, a little humbled this time round. The movie has a string of spectacular action scenes, which are spaced out between some slow drama, which get a little too sluggish at times. We are used to seeing one guy in a super suit, here we get a treat with multiple super suits, but see much less of Tony Stark’s dry wit than we would like. Watch out for the ‘intense’ Sir Ben Kingsley!

An action treat with brilliant special effects, it fulfils the promise of a summer blockbuster.

3/5

Scary Movie 5

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Spoof, tongue in cheek, slapstick and ridiculous comedy can either see you through the whole film, or you’re wondering why the moron next to you (that would be me), is laughing. Either you like it or you don’t.

2.5/5

The Croods

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We have seen cave people before, but never has their life been presented in a real comic sense. What did they think? How were their survival instincts? Were they scared of anything new? What were their social norms and behaviour towards each other? Saying all this and making it funny and visually rich, is no small feat. And that’s just what this movie does.

4/5