Dirty Dancing

                                            

Every now and then we have these few classics you really want to watch but never really get the opportunity to. I ve always heard of Dirty Dancing , being the lover of dance that i am i really wanted to get my hands on this movie an watch it... And watch i did today...and must say i thoroughly loved it.....

Loved it for the obvious reasons - 'Dance'..any movie that can depict dance in the purest and subtle way is surely to win my heart and this movie did too. Keeping the fact that i am dance fanatic aside... i think this is a great movie to watch... has really great music that keeps ringing in your head all throughout the movie, very crisp plot depicting 2 contrasting worlds of the protagonists... and really good character sketches of the leads and the people in the movie..all tied up to a very simple , believable romantic storyline.

The heroine Frances as the poster perfect 'good girl' whose grown up in the sophisticated world, wants to study economics and eventually would get married to a Harvard grad like her father.A girl who does n want to disappoint her father and yet cant help fall in love Johnny.She's depicted as this perfect girl to take home to, who is selfless and nothing but perfect...One of the best non-dance moments of the movie for me was when she has the emotional outburst with her dad when she confesses she s spent the night with Johnny..The scene is really well shot and acted brilliantly by Jennifer Grey as the vulnerable Frances..

And then we have Johnny as the rustic, smooth dancer who grew up in poverty and makes his ends meet with his job as a dancer. Patrick Swayze is truly amazing in his performance in this movie as the guy who gets 'used' by rich cougars who dance with him or learn dance from him. I ve never seen a male character being depicted on a delicate emotional front as Johnny is done in this movie..and he s truly fantastic in the movie and really eye candy...  All thumbs up for Patrick who is brilliant in his dance moves and portrays his nice-boy character effortlessly...

I believe that men who look good and men who can dance are 2 different species all together and when those 2 worlds really meet ..one really has to appreciate it :D

Another thing great about the movie is the music, great to hear such classic symphonies used soo brilliantly in this movie, I would have heard the song "Time of my Life" zillion times before, but never saw the movie for which it was made...and trust me when you see Johnny dance with Frances for this song in the last scene you really want to get into the frame of the movie with your partner and dance your heart out for that song :) 

Brilliance :) 

This is one of my recos for a lazy weekend afternoon for all dance and music fanatics to just curl up in their couches with some popcorn and have a lovely movie watching experience..This movie falls in the same movie watching experience as Pretty Woman or Ghost . 

Great that i watched this movie when i was having dry runs at classics :)

Not so sure i would feel the same for the sequel Dirty Dancing -Havana Nights though.

The curious case of Benjamin Button

Its been a real long time since i ve watched an intresting Biogrophical english movie....:)

So after a really long hiatus from good english movie watching..here comes the saviour 'The Curious case of Benjamin Button'....It was an amazing movie...judging by the fact that i was silent most of the times while watching it at the cinemas :)...concentrating on every frame of the movie...The true winner of the movie is definetly the curiosity element if the story.Its a story about this child born in an unsual circumstance-he s born old and grows younger.After every scene there is this curiosity woven on how would Benjamin look or what would Benjamin do next? Its just amazing how cinema and art can define and redefine creative and artistic boundaries and pull out a story which is soo definetly improbable yet soo well weaved and blended.Brilliant make up and some extraordinary performances define the 13 Oscar nominations worthiness of this movie.Some really soulful moments on how to look at life .I think one amazing dialogue of the movie that really hit me hard was "You have to lose people in your life to realise how much you love them"- ....or that beatiful scene where Benjamin takes his dad to the pier to show him the horizon and helps him "let go" of his guilt...These are the moments that define the sheer brilliance of this movie.Its not about any particular character that blends this movie soo well its more about the plot and the after thought you get while seeing the movie.

Imagine putting yourself in the shoes of Benjamin Button and living life in the reverse..growing young by the day..turning the clock backwards.Its such a scary thing!!!!!Growing young!!!!...imagine growing younger without fighting with your siblings for candies..but instead....worrying about arthiritis....!!!!!yikes...its just too weird...

But this movie deserves to be respected for its creativity and thought put into the script , and its potrayal of life and death in such a brilliant and meaningful way.It gives you soo much food for thought over how one makes the journey and how one meets his destination.

The Prestige

Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts.

The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't.

The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back.

That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige".

There are some movies which you can watch many times and each time you do, you notice something new and appreciate the movie one notch more. Prestige is one of those kinds for me. Each time I see it I realize I missed out on something , and this realization keeps me grounded on to every scene as though I am seeing it for the first time.

The first time I watched it, I was at the edge of my seat trying to follow the superb plot.

The next time I watched it, I knew the plot well but while I was running the plot in my head, I realized how fine and extra ordinary the performances given by each actor were. Like, when you watch closely you realize the difference in acting of the 2 ‘different’ characters portrayed by Christan Bale which is a brilliant feat. But what really tricks the audience into not noticing these finer and significant things in this movie is the magic of the movie itself-its plot. Its got its pledge, turn and prestige in the right places and happening at the right time. Being the complex movie that it is, the execution of the movie is soo good that you don’t feel lost between characters, situations, time and the performances.

Set in the nineteenth century in London when the magicians formed the crux of the entertainment industry. Its about the 2 central characters-

One a maverick(Alfred Borden)- who wants to break free from the traditional reams of the magic world and try tricks which are never tried, one who doesn’t shy away from experimenting on his ideas. The other a quintessential go-getter (Robert Robert) who wants to play dirty after he loses his wife in the middle of a magic act gone horribly wrong due to Alfred.

The entire movie is the never ending war between these 2 characters to prove their vengeance on each other, to prove the better magician in each of them, the self sacrifices each made to get the other down.

My favorite element of the movie apart from the plot itself is the narrative or the screenplay. Most of the movie is shown from Robert Robert ‘s point of view , but its not one sided though. Justice was done to bring out the good and bad shades in each character without being partial to portray it as how Robert see’s it. It’s generally very difficult a task to achieve something like this when the plot moves back and forth between time and between the prejudices of the characters at that particular point in time. You really can’t point your finger and say- yes I think Robert was right or Alfred was right, the director never gives you a chance to empathize with one particular character at any point in time. You know that each can go any lengths to get better than the other-so no one’s right and no ones wrong. So who then is the protagonist of the entire movie-again it falls down to the brilliant plot.

Good dialogues can really change the movie and this one has quite a number of them. Some of them want you to find out the real trick in the movie but you wont be able to figure it out soon, because you are not watching(or rather hearing) closely ;)

A mention must be made on the superb cast of the movie- Christan Bale is one gem of an actor and portrays the character soo earnestly that not once would you doubt the twin element involved in the entire movie ,till the last 5 minutes when the noose is let free .Hugh Jackman is superb in his quest to put Alfred down and take revenge and be proven as the better magician amongst the two. I would probably call this character foolish but without him the movie wouldn be any exciting as it turns out to be.

Enjoying this movie really boils down to this – ‘Are you watching closely?’ :)

Sholay-The Best Hindi movie i ve ever seen or rather ever made...

"यह हाथ नही फासी का फंदा है ,यह हाथ हमका देदे ठाकुर "

Pardon me for my delay in watching a movie as great as "Sholay", when i am 20 something...i really regret watching it soo late...regret enjoying such a masterpiece after being made about 3 decades back...not being able to rejoice a 4 hour long beauty in the cinema halls as a youngster(if i could)...regret whistling for those power -packed dialogues....regret not being able to watch it on the 70 mm screen where it truly deserves to be worshipped..... i have fallen in love with this movie..
I feel too small a mortal to give a review on this movie but i definetly want to bring out all the flavors in this movie which made me soo happy watching this bollywood masterpiece...The two characters i terribly (sorry for my adjectives) enjoyed are Thakur-essayed with great elan by Sanjeev Kumar।Watching this movie made me fall in love with Sanjeev Kumar all over again-i loved him from days i watched his movies like Manchali,Silsila and the others of those times.And the other undoubtedly being Gabbar by Amjad Khan..he was worth a watch in his debute...not once did i feel that this might have been his first movie..his first taste of the silverscreen...his slippery dialogues...his boisterous laugh all fit perfectly in this already perfect movie... Believe me i would have watched a zillion spoofs of nearly every scene in this movie before watching it today...i would have seen soo many rip offs of the particular scenes in this movie but while watching the movie-i felt like i was watching every scene for the first time.. like i was feeling every scene for the first time ,every dialogue,every location,every everything...the first time!!!

There are very few Hindi movies which have a realistic effect all throughout...and this is definetely one of those...

*You want to feel the desperation of Thakur to have Gabbar alive..
*You want to feel the pain of Radha..the pain of loosing your husband and his immediate family soon after ones maritial status coming along..
*You want to feel the anger of Veeru when Jai-his best friend through thick and thin is dead..
*You also want to believe that just 2 people(Jai and Veeru) are enough to fight the army of dacoits around them..
*You also want to believe that yes....Thakur can fight against Gabbar with just his legs and his head alone ;)

Thats not all....generally when ur watching a movie your either sympathetic towards hero and his good men or towards the villan and his bad boys ..but this is one movie you would love both the sides...because both of them are brilliant and effortless in their own way...
The script being strong does justice to every character and every situtation shown..
The music feels appropriate- no unnecesary songs to prolong the movie..and the best part of the music is that there is minimalistic background score-which gives the viewer soo much attention and lets him feel the scene till the very end.And also unlike the movies of those days no sounds of "dishoom dishoom":)....
The setting seems perfect for us to picturise the gang of dacoits exploiting Ramgad.....
The part which i loved the most...the only mode of transport shown all throughout being primarily -horses....It was amazing to see every scene being shot with these 4 legged beauties which gives such a realistic feel to this movie...
And also nothing would make this movie as good as it is without the superb dialogues by Javed Akhtar, one of my favourite dialogue from this movie-
" यह रामगढ के आदमी अपने बेटियों को ,कौन चक्की का अता पीसते है रे !!!!!
" Wow what a dialogue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hats off to Ramesh Sippy and his crew for brewing up such a phenomenal movie....It was soo worth the 4 hours i spent on my comp today ...

Honestly i am very apprehensive of watching Ram Gopal Varmas -Sholay...It couldnt have got better than the original..but this chain of thoughts will be another post :)