Cries and Whispers

           

Where does a tear emerge from? is it from tiny pores of the eye or from the thousand invisible pores of the mind? does it drop off from the shivering body like wind shattering the water on the tree or does it ascend down like rain when the grey clouds of solitude cover the soul? does it seep from the floors of the spirit drenching the mind or does it break the walls of the eye and collide into the being? Where does a tear emerge from? a tear emerges from truth. Yes truth. We cry at the moment of truth, the truth of an intolerable pain, the truth of an unbearable revelation, the truth of an irreparable loss, the truth of an irreversible moment. When left alone in the dark room with just a candle of truth we all cry without being able to handle the brightness of that tiny candle. I am an atheist, but I believe truth is god, crying is a prayer and tears are an offering. And whisper? whisper emerges from our most secret chambers, any whisper is an indulgence with a secret, a whisper is the wind which blows into the keyhole of a guarded room, a whisper hides more than what it reveals. Ingmar Bergman made a movie in 1972 called Cries and Whispers (Viskningar och rop- Swedish) which has become the benchmark of art that cinema is, and for years people have interpreted it with a hundred emotions. My interpretation literally translates Cries and Whispers into Truths and secrets and its infinite possibilities. A behavioural study of the human mind with respect to reality and disguise, a peep inside the well of the dark emotions, relationships, hypocrisies and insecurities. An artist’s impression of the human mind. A tale which takes you a ride into the complexities but teaches more about the path left behind. A fable amidst all its morbidity proposes selfless love as the only virtue to sustain life.

The film opens with Agnes a middle age spinster who is on the verge of death, a disease is slowly eating her insides, causing moments of tremendous pain and agony. She is cared by her two sisters Karin, Maria who have come taking a break from their daily lives to be with their sister. Then there is the fourth women who completes the circle, Anna a long time servant who takes total care of Agnes in her hour of pain.  The story is the exploration of the insides of these four women who live together in a old Swedish manor house. We slowly learn about the human beings they are, for Agnes pain is an everyday suffering she requests comfort in the presence of her sisters, but her sisters Karin and Maria slowly we learn, are women with shallow and pretentious traits. They are physically and mentally distant from each other and except for their sorry faces there is nothing they feel from the heart for the sufferings of Agnes. Karin is in total disgust with others, she has lost the belief in love or touch, she loathes herself and everybody around her in secrecy. Maria too distains herself from her sister but she is very obvious and weak, not able to care for others because of her self-centeredness, she is unable to sympathise for anyone. But the drama of love and care unfolds in between them everyday with Anna being the only true soul in the house who reaches out with the warmth of love. In non linear sequences we slowly learn about these three women who are somehow are the observers of a gradual death. Maria has been infidel to the man who truly loves her and Karin has a painful history of a disturbed childhood and a fruitless married life. Anna a mother who lost her child, lives with the sisters taking care and giving out love. With the plot firmly set, Bergman slowly reveals the human mind which dwells in the constant battle of love and hate. The characters break to tears, not able to handle the pain both physically and mentally. The intrusion of the thinking is so close that we are not able to handle such realities that are usually not discussed or agreed upon. The death finally happens after enough revelations, screams, cries, whispers and pain. The house is closed down and the inmates leave back to their false lives and Anna the only true soul who expected nothing takes only the diary of Agnes which reads or paints the climax where the three sisters are seen happily on a swing on a perfect autumn day. Agnes being comforted by the presence of her loved ones, and looking at the distant green meadows, says “I feel profoundly grateful to my life, which gives me so much." The screen closes as our heads drop down, down enough to look inside ourselves.

This is not a movie, this is an experience. Not entertainment but enlightenment of some kind. It should be watched with the indulgence of someone looking at a piece of art hanging on the walls of an ancient museum. Or like reading a very intense literature. Never before a movie was so intruding, never before it explored the dark state of human condition, at times becoming tough for us to endure it. Bergman chose women as his subjects as the women mind always has deeper kept secrets, there are men in the movie but not as intense as its women. The performances requires the weirdest emotions to be portrayed on screen. In a scene Karin and Maria enter into an confront, Karen reveals how she hated Maria right from her childhood, the most intense scene of the movie. The reactions that Karin gives out after revealing a truth disturbs you than words ever can describe. The movie is set in a house which is filled with blood red walls, carpets, and in a set up which actually replicates the bloody vacuum of the human mind. The vision of the movie is claustrophobic that at times you need some breath. The cinematography captures very very deep close-ups trying to capture every single emotions through the face. The film projects itself into the insides of the eye than the outsides. Later you understand that the film was not even made for you to watch, but it was the work of filmmaker whose vision in life was to capture everything that he believed to be documented. Ingmar Bergman, is a phenomenon who for decades has inspired all those filmmakers who wished to take the art to a greater level, to a more profound and honest level.

For sight the movie looks like a very bleak tale, then you think of Anna the poor servant who knows nothing but simple, straightforward, and selfless love. Not the selfless love that we show to the people around us and the people whom we already love, but the spiritually selfless love on every human. Anna would have cared for Maria and Karen too, because she is made only by love. Anna is the soul of the movie, and she silently proposes love as a remedy to all the misfortunes of the mind. Anna is an ideal image that we don't get to see around, because selfless love on every human is tougher to practice than said. There is this dream sequence where the dead Agnes wakes up and calls for her sisters to hold her hands and give her the warmth, but the sisters refuse and scream at the corpse and run away in disgust. Anna comes to Agnes. Anna makes Agnes sleep on her naked bosoms, giving the sufferer the warmth of the human flesh. The corpse of Agnes is shown lying down on Anna’s breasts in comfort and love. It is in this particular scene we understand the magnificence of the movie, for the movie reveals more than it hides, it cries more than it whispers, for the movie not only locks you down in a room filled with darkness, but also lights a candle.

The Pianist

Once there lived a butterfly, a little one, a beautiful one, its wings were filled with colours and shades that were rare to find as if nature hand picked its hues and contours, It was an innocent little butterfly which swapped its tiny wings to fly around the greenerys of the woods, it stood on top of ancient tress, it flew amidst the morning mist,it kissed the dew filled grass, it drank from the yellow flowers covering the floors of the river bed, it befriended nature and where ever it flew it carried with it a beautiful melody which was heard in the air, its wings wrote a fable on the unending pages of the sky, when it flew on top its little eyes always fell in awe with the beauty of its mother nature,one day a wild strom changed its path,caught in the wind it flew in unknown directions, it travelled across landscapes to reach a war field; the little butterfly had no clue, like a drop of blood woozing from the eye it flew in the forbidden land, it sat on top of glittering swords,it flew amisdt the raging bullets, it saw men fighting with rage and anger, it saw people killing each other, it sat on top of corspes, it sat on top of bleeding wounds, the innocent little butterfly which knew nothing but the beauty of the world was confused, it was distressed,it observed people killing each other, it obeserved the soil turning red, it tried to flee from the place but a sharp knife scissored its wing: the wing which was once filled with a million colours now fell on the ground and was filled with red blood, the wing kissed the ground and slept with the corpes, our little butterfly which was hurt and bleeding, flew away from the warfield fighting the air with a single wing, its little eyes dropped a tear which evoporated before it reached the earth.Now replace the butterfly with a pianist and the warfiled with thestruggling city of Warsaw of the 1940, what u get is a movie in return.The Pianist(2002) a polish/english movie by Roman Polanski is the real life story of an innocent pianist a jew who underwent the worst days of his life living in Warsaw during the German invasion of Poland, a movie which portrays the sufferings that innocent men undergo during a war, a movie which teaches u the ill effects of war like a slap on the face, or in simplewords The pianist is the story of a butterfly caught in the battle.

Władysław Szpilman is a famous Pianist in all of Poland and all of Europe, a man who is made up by music, a polish jew by birth he lives a contented life with his family of 6, untill terror strikes, the German forces invade Poland and the city of warsaw is under siege the family which lived a peaceful life till then is made to undero struggles they could never imagine, along with other jews they are made to vacate their homes and are made slaves in their own land, they are tortured by the nazis and finally are taken to an extermination camp, Szpilman escapes as his entire family enters the horrific mouth of death, then the movie travels with Szpilman in his plight for survival in the holocaust, A man who knew nothing but music is made to undergo pain and torture which almost breaks him into pieces, a pianist by soul Szpilman is made to work as a slave, he is made to walk on corpes, eat rotten food, drink dirty water, he is beaten to death, he hides behind closed doors, suffers from illness with no one by his side to take care, he grows beard and roams around like a lunatic in the demolished streets of warsaw with the memory of his lost family haunting him for an eternity.Finally when the war is over, he survives and all his struggles end up as a brilliant tune which he plays for his land, his people and for his survival.

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Adrien Brody as Władysław Szpilman won an academy award for his performance in The Pianist, I was mesmerized watching him perform as a naive young man, in a particular scene where he is caught in a room with a piano but he cant play it because any sound may bring troops up there, so he plays the piano on the air without touching the keys, the minute emotions he shows as a Pianist who is denied his play shows that he is legend in the making. Described as Polanski's best film till date the movie takes us to the streets of Warsaw, where life is living on the edge.The movie is no-sugar coat when it comes to depicting the pain the torture that the world underwent in the hands of the Nazis is visually translated on the screen.The movie doesn't compel any idea on you it has a very detached view.What we see at the end is a movie which is so honest, bleak, and powerful that it disturbs you more than a live wound.The cinematography is a high point depicting the past in hues of green, brown and grey and the final scenes which dwells on hope takes a slight variation in the colour tone,a master work.The movie considered one of the best films made on Holocaust and struggle of Jews won high credits at the Oscars and at Cannes.

In the defining moment of the film, when a German official asks Szpilman to play a tune in the piano when he is caught inside skeletons of demolished buildings,sitting in front of the piano in a place which is void of life, Szpilman's hands tremble to touch the piano, then he plays a tune, a tune from the inner depths of his heart, a tune which conveys his pain, solace and all his anger, the sound keeps violently filling in the space like a prodigy of the suffering he faced. His hands travel across the black and white blocks of the piano, and that single tune conveys the soul of film, after all what can an innocent and musical pianist do, except to play his tune? I am not a very compassionate person by heart, but moments in the film did make me shed a tear, my mind was thinking about all those butterflies caught in the Battle, in Lanka, in Israel, in Bosnia, in Iraq, in Palestine and in every other place where children, woman, elderly suffer for no reason of theirs, how many more musicians, poets, authors would be suffering right at this moment? please leave them alone their beautiful hearts was not made for war, let them enjoy the beauty, let them walk in breeze, there are still millions of butterflies those who loose their wings in unknown battles, they too were meant to live like the rest of us, please spare them from your ugly wars, after all the beaks of the butterfly was meant to drench in honey not in blood.

To visit my World Cinema series click here..

Still Life

A few nights back I was there in this crowded restaurant near my place, burning with hunger, I ordered my food and waited. Time passed and i got nothing. Restless,I looked around for my waiter. It was a chaotic sight all around, people moving in and out, noise of the speaking voices, waiters rushing with the servings.And finally i found him, the middle aged man who took my orders, he was standing by the other side, he stood there motionless like a saint, i looked him in his eyes , his eyelids made no movement; they were wide open, he was staring at something across the road. It was a little bird standing in the middle of the busy road. It was idle too.My waiter's eyes were fixed on the bird, he seemed to have forgotten himself, it was just the bird and him and nothing else. Not his job, not the chaos, not his family, not his life- nothing. Time stood still for him. I have no words to bring out the essence of the moment. I left him to enjoy the moment, and closed my eyes to interpret its meanings. When i opened my eyes, both the bird and the waiter had left the place. A special moment had ended for the three of us. And chaos was back on track. In a way it is these moments that remind us the real pace of life, however maddening we make it, life moves in its own pace. One tear at a time, one little grin at a time.Incidentally i watched this movie sometime back and all through it kept on reminding me about the real pace of life. "Sanxia Haoren" (2006 Eng- Still life) a Chinese film by the acclaimed director Jia ZhangKe is the story of two people who come in search of their spouses to a city which will soon be disappearing under water.

The movie opens with a ferry travelling across the breathtaking waterways in the city of Fengjie; The place which is soon to be submerged to construct China's largest dam. Inside the crowded ferry in a lonely corner sits Han Sanming a poor coal miner who has come to the place in search of his wife who ran away from him 16 years ago with his infant daughter.He enters the city just to find that his wife is dislocated elsewhere and he has to stay there and wait till her return.He joins the local groups of workmen- slowly demolishing the remaining buildings with hand tools. He roams around in the to-be-empty streets of Fengjie smoking cigarettes and giving himself to the calmness and depression of the town.The movie then cuts to the story of a pretty young nurse Shen Hong who has come to Fengjie in search of her husband who left her two years earlier and never returned. She searches for her husband in the abandoned factories and excavated lands. She finds a friend of her husband and together they try to reconnect with her missing husband. Finally after a long search Shen finds out that her husband has become a successful businessman and also he has found a new woman. Shen who came to reunite with him finally confronts and informs him that there is another man in her life and decides to divorce her wandering husband.Again the film travels with Han Sanming who finally finds his ex-wife to be a bonded laborer and he has to pay 30,000 Yuan to cover the debt and release her.The film ends with a determined Han Sanming leaving Fengjie and walking back to his hometown to work hard and earn enough to save and reunite with his ex-wife.

The movie travels with the two souls who come in search of their loved ones, along with it the movie conveys the story of Fengjie province which has relocated more than a million people to build the massive Three Gorges dam. All the supporting characters who accompany Han and Shen in their journey convey the pain of dislocation from home.And the film is suitably divided into four section namely "Cigarettes","Liquor","Tea", and "Toffee" which accordingly classify the mood of the lead characters.Also there is the presence of some surreal elements such as a UFO and a flying buildings that add to the addiction that the movie creates in us. “Still Life” is a film which wanders throughout, and is narrated by visuals and anecdotes rather than a traditional story line. Cinematography by Yu Lik-wai is the strongest point of the movie. Right from the very first shot the viewer is captivated to the screen, the majestic river covered by dense green mountains and gray clouds which give an artistic touch to every shot conveys the rest which the characters forget to convey in their silence. The film as such is poetically beautiful and presented in a dreamlike narration.It went on to get wide critical acclaim and top honors for best movie at Venice International film festival and many others.

The film as such conveys nothing, with visuals of strange blank spaces and stories of lonely hearts it requires a certain amount of patience to watch. Throughout the film the protagonists keep staring at the life around. They look at the flight of UFO's, demolition of skyscrapers, death of a loved ones, dilapidated town with calmness and with absolute indolence. They are not excited, they take life-one moment at a time, they stare at the stillness of every event happening around them. The stillness of commotion, the stillness of chaos, the stillness of despair, the stillness of life, the stillness of death.The ending sequence shows Han Sanming walking away from the town, just to stop by the sight of a tightrope walker who tries to to travel the distance between two buildings over a rope with just a long stick for balance and the grey clouds forming a mystic background. Han Sanming keeps staring at the view above him and the movie closes with a black screen and a magical score filling in the thoughts and ears.When it ended I was reminded of the sight of the waiter and the little bird. I closed my eyes to interpret the thousand meanings that are always left untold.

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UZAK

Loneliness. My loneliness is where i take refuge. My loneliness is where i seclude myself from all the chaos. My loneliness is where i reinvent the process of living. My loneliness is my greatest boon, I love being a loner, but there is always the other me. The other one who balances the loner, the one deals with the chaos, the one who just lives. Whenever I get into the mighty web of loneliness I always know that sometime when i come out of it, life will be waiting for me, there will be people eager to speak and shed love, then I kill the loner for a while and I become a social animal like the rest of us. But what if someday I am trapped in my web of loneliness and there is no way out? What if my loneliness turns out into my greatest curse? what if I become the only one in my world? what if the mask becomes my face? NO. I cant even think about it!. Socially induced loneliness sucks out the very essence from living. Each of us are have a book the book called life and there are some pages that we always prefer to skip. Those pages filled with the deepest and unexplored emotions. I read them today, A movie made me read it. UZAK(2003) a Turkish film by Nuri Bilge Ceylan contains excerpts of hidden pages from the book called life. It deals with the lives of two lonesome men who are forced into the cavities of a painfully isolated existence.

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Yusuf comes to the city from the country side. The factory has failed in his village and he has no means to earn. He foolishly believes that he can find a high paying job in the city at the shipping yard and save his family from the cruel hands of poverty. He comes to Istanbul on a bleakly winter day in search of his distant cousin who is now a well-of photographer. Mahmut the cousin is a lonely man, he is divorced from his wife and lives all alone in his apartment. He has no friends or he doesn't have an active social life. He gets on with hookers, smokes, drinks and photographs the dusky beauty of Turkey. The two men slowly become isolated companions of the house.As days pass by Mahmut begins to loathe his cousin, berating him for everything from failing to flush the toilet to the smell of his cheap cigarettes, he feels that Yusuf is disturbing his privacy and gradually grows furious at the disorder that has come into his life. As the "for a few days" job search extends for weeks, Mahmut gets annoyed at Yusuf's presence. Meanwhile Yusufs job search doesn't turn fruit full, he is deeply hurt, he knows that he has become an unwanted guest but he has no choices, he roams around smoking cheap cigarettes. Both men start living a distant life in the same room, they are unable to connect with themselves and with the society. They smoke, they wander, they live in a vacuum.When things get worse in Mahmut's personal life they enter into a shabby confront which makes Yusuf leave the house without informing his cousin. The movie ends with Mahmut being seen sitting on a bench in a gray, cold day, smoking the leftover cigarette cheap of Yusuf and the deep silence on screen gives a number of meanings, one of which is Muhmut finally is disturbed as he has lost the only companion in live, with no one even to annoy him, he has finally become the same old loner which he was before.

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The two men in their own way portray the pain of being lonesome and helpless. In the eyes of Yusuf we could sense the sufferings undergone by all unemployed men, who are pushed into the verge of rejection, who remain defenseless to the abusive attacks of the society, who long for love and who are always ignored by women. The pain he undergoes when he gets rejected by women and the complex that he develops over it are disturbing. And Mahmut remains as a deep physiological study of what happens to a man who is exhausted by life.The cinematography is a strong point, handled by Ceylan himself it portrays the disturbing beauty of the grey snow. Winter which makes us confine in our homes is aptly chosen as the theme. Silence is the language of the film. With some deeply moving performances, an efficient screenplay and a disturbing camera work UZAK can be one of the most important films of the decade.

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Let me end up by narrating what i feel the most disturbing and defining moment of the film "In a scene after Yusuf goes to bed, Mahmut closes the door and secretly decides to watch porn, with the fear that Yusuf may enter the room at any moment, his eyes are reluctantly fixed on the closed door, on the other side behind the closed door Yusuf secretly uses Mahmuts phone to converse with his sick mom, but his eyes are fixed on the closed door fearing Mahmut". Both men hold their secrets behind the closed door.Hence the closed door symbolically defines the dual faces that people portray to each other.The behavior in the absence. The "real" person can always be found behind the door. What is behind our doors remains as the most kept secret.Hence this movie which is an ordinary story of ordinary people asks us a question, which we always prefer to parry, which in deeper thought becomes a nightmare for many, but the question remains. What does it mean to be really alone? How does it look like?

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To explore more details please visit

Trailer-UZAK

Ceylan official site.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring

Now what does these seasons remind us? Spring reminds me of the blossoming beauty of mother nature, Summer remains be about a lonely village street and some somber moments of life, the falling autumn leaves remind me about the philosophies of life and death , and winter reminds me about a child's grin, joy and festivity. Together they remind me a beautiful phrase from a long forgotten poem. Kim Ki-Duk's 2004 movie and his masterpiece Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring (Korean- Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom) reminded me of something else, that if all worlds a stage in which we act, then these seasons are the backdrops that mother nature keeps changing.Accompanying us throughout the drama called the cycle of life. Spring, Summer.. is a a simple. spiritual, spellbinding tale about growing up from innocence to sagacity.The five seasons in the title depict the different stages in the life of a Buddhist monk, implicitly referring to all lives of humanity.

The season is Spring and the place is filled with the sight of blossoming flowers and dense green vegetation.The screen opens to a small, floating Buddhist monastery, in the waters on a isolated lake surrounded by nothing but serene forested mountains. We are introduced to the two main characters, an old Buddhist monk and his young apprentice. The young boy who is nearly 8-10 years old is is learning the ways of Buddhism. Their lives are filled with prayer,mediation and total surrender to god, far away from the cries and desires of humanity. On an unusual day the master observes the kid torturing a fish, frog and a snake by tying heavy stones to their heads. The next morning the master ties a heavy stone to the kids back and offers to remove them only when the kid frees all the tortured animals from their burden, and also hints that if any of the animal dies of pain then he has to "carry the stone in his heart forever". To the kids dismay the snake and the fish die out of pain. the spring season ends with the huge cry of the kid upon seeing what he has done to the snake, thereby learning an incredible lesson to shed love on all beings.

The season is Summer and the air is filled with the warmth and clarity of the sun.The young kid is now a charming young Buddhist monk in his late teens.When a sick and lovely teenage girl arrives at the monastery for treatment, young monk is experiencing a first-crush, a race in his hormones. For the first time he has encountered the outside world , and he wants to taste it. Soon their age makes them vulnerable and he falls prey to his emotions. The two fall in love and have sex, a number of times.When the master finds their out their act, he advises the young monk that lust leads to desire, and desire opens door to more sinister impulses. And asks the girl to leave. The young monk who is not able to bear her departure abandons the master land eaves the monastery in search of her and the "real world". The summer ends with the departure of the young monk who is ought to learn some harsh lessons from the real world.

The season is Autumn and the place is filled with the beautifully colored leaves and the shedding trees.The old monk remains as the sole occupant of the monastery. the young monk who left years back returns to the monastery. We learn that he is now a wanted fugitive in the hands of the law for killing his wife for infidelity(the same girl whom he fell in love with). He seems to be tortured by the hands of the "real" life. He has lost the charm of a boy and that of a monk, he is now filled with rage and anger. He tries to kill himself, and when the master discovers it, he beats him ruthlessly orders him to carve ancient symbols on the monastery deck. The wood carving acts as a treatment for the raged mind, he sheds out all the anger in his mind by ruthlessly carving symbols using the stained knife, peace settles in him. And finally detectives arrive and arrest him for the crime. After a "final" goodbye with the master the young monks leaves for prison.Autumn ends with the master knowing his end and performing a suicide ritual, and meditates as he is suffocated and burned to death.

The season is Winter and it has frozen the lake with Ice, the mystic winter and the moody clouds fill up the air.The young monk who left for prison now returns as a middle age adult monk. he soon finds that the master has left, leaving behind the monastery and his position for his apprentice to occupy. The adult monk gets through all the ancient journals and prepares himself physically and mentally. Soon a woman with her face wrapped with a shall arrives there with an infant boy. She abandons her baby to the monk and tries to flee in the middle of the night, but drowns and dies in the middle of the frozen lake. When the monk uncovers her face, he finds something deeply disturbing or enlightening and it makes him tie the old rock to his back and climb the nearest peak. He undergoes huge amount of pain and torture as he climbs.He erects a Buddha statue on the peak. And finally the winter comes to an end with the monk trenchantly meditating on the summit.

when again as the Spring returns, we find the same floating Buddhist monastery amidst the sight of blossoming flowers and dense green vegetation.The adult monk is the new master and the abandoned boy is the new apprentice,the cycle continues, with new people getting the same old roles thereby hinting the viewers that it shall go on for years. In his turn the kid is found torturing a fish, frog and a snake by forcing stones into their mouth. He is happy to see them suffer in pain, just like his predecessor(the new master) was. And finally spring comes to an end with the sight of the Buddha statue nonchalantly observing the happenings from the peak.


As the film ended i was tied to my seat, it looked like i was in deep meditation for the past two hours. An intriguing experience which we rarely experience in cinema, transporting me to a different reality altogether. The way the cinema portrays the beauty of various seasons will stay in ones mind for long time. Mutability of life and the desire for inner peace which the film portrays have universal implications. It is a magical fable which conveys Buddhist philosophies in the most spiritual and persuasive form. With very minimal dialouges , the calmness of the movie intrigues deep into the viewer. The usage of Buddhist chants add to the ambiance that the movie has created. And the night when we were done with the movie, we found a frog in the closet. My usual reaction would be- just flush it out, but i just couldn't say that. I felt something deeply moving, and we decided not to disturb and to let it be. I didn't want to carry a stone in the heart for the rest of my life.The frog was saved, and for sure a lesson was learned. I could feel the tiny ripples that the movies has created within me, I was humbled .And that is what they call the power of good cinema.

Do check the comments, for some interesting counter views and discussion about regional movies by Raj.

For more info visit
Spring, Summer - Trailer
Kim Ki-Duk

Y tu mamá también

Sex.Now how many of us agree that it is, and it will be the very reason for our existence? How many of us approve it as a humane act? How many of us are comfortable discussing about it? How many of us have honest views about sex? How many of us act like it has nothing to do with our lives and our thinking? How many of you have already started making judgments about me? No I am not very comfortable discussing about sex. I am just one among you. But it was after watching this movie i felt we we Indians are not so honest, we have never made a movie which peels the skin and shows human emotions in its barest form. Alfonso Cuaron is a director whom I adore, his Children of Men redefined the science fiction genre. A friend of mine suggested a movie which is described as his masterpiece, Y tu mama tambien (English-And your mother, too) is a masterpiece which redefines our understanding about lust, desires and relationships.Made originally in Mexican, but when you listen keenly you can hear the universal voice of the human soul which is driven by the very need of sensuality.

Set in the modern day Mexico, it is the story of two young boys who are in their late teens and a women in her late twenties who go on a road trip across Mexico. Coming from different economic backgrounds Tenoch and Julio are two foolish adolescents on the verge of manhood who see women as commodities, and like all their counterparts across the universe they find themselves caught in the web of fantasies, it is their primary drive in life. It is when they meet Lusia an orphan, who is not-so-happily married to Tenoch's cousin. Mesmerized by her beauty they invite her to join them on a road trip to a imaginary beach called "Heavens mouth". She agrees. Not because she is foolish, she is numb with pain. Luisa is lonely, humiliated, abused and neglected, she is a testament to the suppressed woman community; mentally tortured by the chauvinistic husbands . She is aware of the intentions and implications but still agrees because she finds it as a way to escape from the cruel hands of life and a means to strike back at so called society.She agrees and together they start the journey, A journey which helps Luisa discover how clumsy, selfish, and dishonest men really are, a journey in which she tries to teach boys to treat a woman properly, a journey which will for the first time make her the master, and when the journey ends as viewers we discover the harsh realities behind men, women, friendships, bondings, relationships and on top of all sex.

The movie is very sexual in nature, but it is honest.There are explicit scenes but they are not glorified or romanticized. The scenes look obscene only if your intentions are so.The viewers are not made into intruders of privacy instead we are transformed into observers, when you see a 'something you actually observe something else. And the movie is not just about the adventures of three individuals, it is surprisingly funny most of the time, it has all the hip and peppy ingredients of a teen flick, as a road film parallely the director speaks about the poltical and economic strata of Mexico which they are driving through. Lead actors specially Maribel Verdu who played Luisa is very intense, and the expression in her eyes speaks about the struggle that she is into, she suffers from cancer which is revealed at the very end. And there is Gael Garcia Bernal as Julio ( I consider myself as his greatest fan on earth) with a performance of a lifetime. The cast is near perfect. The film mostly uses long takes, and there is a graceful silence that accompanies throughout. A pale brown colour pallete helps in revealing the dullness even if they are into the most disturbing of acts. Right from the beginning we can sense the seriousness and the genuine intentions of the movie, praised for being honest and unafraid of sexuality. Hyped as a "teen movie" for the arthouse crowd, it went to win golden palm at cannes and critical praise world over. As Roger Ebert my favourite critic says "Beneath the carefree road movie that the movie is, there is a more serious level--and below that, a dead serious level".

The movie as such is a behavioral study, and for sure the lessons learnt are a bit harsh. I doubt such movies will ever movies be made in India. Can we tolerate a character like Lusia, the name the society will give her is a whore or thaasi. All we need is cliched women with no real emotions who have no other job but to make men fall in love, dance around tress uncovering the belly buttons and showing some decolletage, SHAME. I believe nudity is far better than the obscenity that we see in our movies. I don't want to break my head speaking about the society.Anyway Y tu mama tambien will remain in my list of unforgettable movies- for a lifetime. As they say "cinema is truth 24 frames per second" Y tu mama tambien is meaningfull cinema at its most refined honest and barest form.

For more info visit
imdb- Y tu mama tambien
Alfonso Cuaron

The Son's room

Have you ever been to a house that has just lost a teenage son?, the sorrow that you find flowing across the house is infectious, distress caused by the loss would have sucked out life from all the faces ,the eyes of the inmates would have lost the moisture and there will be no more tears to shed, people would be submerged in the memories of the past and reasons for leading a better future become very thin, the dreams and hope that they would have pinned upon the lost child can be found shattered broken on the floors, the inconsolable grief makes your feet to tremble and you start questioning about the philosophies of death and the very existence of god!!! La stanza del figlio (English-the sons room) ,an Italian film by Nanni Moretti speaks about all these psychological effects on a family and their life after the death of a loved one.

The Giovanni's are a happy family of four; the father leads a idyllic life. He has a successful practice as a psycho-therapist, a loving wife, gifted children and spends quality time for running and treating patients who are hysterical and sad. The families led by the caring parents live for each other and stay together in all the good and bad times. It is a perfect family scenario that we find in most houses, but then tragedy strikes. On a day when the family has to cancel a day-out due to a sudden appointment of the father, the teenage son goes for sea-diving with his friends and dies suddenly,un-expectedly. And in the aftermath, the death instead of bringing the family together, splits them apart. The loss incurred has deep psychological effects on the family, the emotional traumas faced by each of them makes the pain intolerable. The father is affected with an obsessive complex disorder, he curses himself for the death of the son, and he thinks if he had taken the family out the other day, the death would have been avoided. The mother becomes very fragile and the sister becomes arrogant there by showing her regret on the world. They are not a happy family any more. They get lost within the loss that has incurred. The loss and the anger has disintegrated and torn apart their lives. But hope comes in the form of Arianna- girlfriend of their son. She on a road trip iterates the necessity to move forward from the loss, and that time will always move forward and life that must go on whatever the circumstances. The film ends with the family finally accepting the loss and trying to find reasons to leap forward in their own ways.

As a film, the son's room makes a profound impact on your thoughts. It takes you through the period of grief that a family goes through after the death of a loved one. The father role played by Nanni Moretti himself is so real and the minute emotions that he shows throughout the film makes you understand the trauma of a sobbing father. The screenplay which has interlaced scenes of father treating his patients helps us to track the psychological changes of the father before and after the death. And the most important of all...the cinematography, the film uses a pale mustard color scheme throughout and all the other colors are subsided thereby reducing the impact of colors and giving a precipitated look. The movie on a whole looks very pale void of all natural colors that we see in everyday life thereby aiding to the films main concept of death, which in a way sucks out life from the beings and makes life very dull and abnormal than usual. Most of the scenes are heavily lit thereby by creating a vacuum, similar to that of the vacuum that occurs in our minds after the death of the loved one. The film was released in 2002 and won Palm D'Or the best film award at the Cannes film festival.

Watching the film you sympathize for all those who suffer from the loss of a loved one. You pray god asking him to shed more love. The film helps you understand the fact that, whatever the race, religion, language, nationality may be the pain caused by death is universal. The eyes from which the tears emerge may differ, but its taste is always saline.

For more info visit
ImdB- the son's room
Nanni Morreti

Children of Men

Twenty years from now, imagine the world where woman have become infertile, imagine the world without birth, imagine the world without children, imagine the world where people live with no hope and no future, Imagine the world in a quagmire of hopelessness, insurgencies and brutal violence. The solution to bring back life,peace,smile and hope lies in the birth of a child. And finally will it happen?. Watch Children of men.Before watching the movie i was a bit cynical, i had never seen Alfonso Cuarón movies before and i had little admiration for the cast namely Clive Owen and Julianne Moore, but after watching i was spellbound. I already knew that this movie will remain in my best movies list for a lifetime. Alfonso Cuarón is by profession a Mexican film director, a coterie of men who by far are the best in class. Children of men can be taken as a science-fiction that disguises itself as a road movie, or a road movie that disguises itself as a science fiction.

The synopsis goes like this -It is the year 2027 in London. The world suffers from two decades of global human infertility and the youngest person in the world is eighteen years old. The extinction of human race is just around the corner and Humanity is broke without the reasons to live. Unrest and rebellion has spread throughout the world, all nations and cities have collapsed except London. The world is reduced with three kinds of people, the pessimists who try to capitalize on the rebellion, the optimists who still believe that human race will triumph over the struggle and someday light will replace the gloom, and the indifferent people who wish sit back and count the days.The movie is about how an indifferent guy does the herculean task of saving a young girl from a group of pessimists' and handing her over to the optimists' who run human-project. What is so special about the girl?... she is pregnant. (Guys...the actual plot is very complex and far more interesting what i have written is just like saying "mathematics is all about 1+1=2"...)

The movie takes you through a journey filled with despair, When the protagonist travels with the task of saving the woman you become a co-traveler and share the same emotions and agony to save the mother and the newborn. The entire movie is filled with poignant moments, the place where the mother shows the child to the protagonist is a barn, is an inherent reference to Jesus Christ who was born in the confines of the barn. The shot in which the newborn gets caught in the war front and the reaction of the people after seeing a kid after nearly 20 years are so intense and will stay in your mind for a long time. The climax shot in which a boat named tomorrow emerges from the mist to save the mother and son who are left stranded in the sea, is a poetic end to which gives you glimpse that future will emerge to be hopeful.

Technically it is one of the best films i had ever seen. Rather than making a routine science fiction in which people look like aliens from another world and cars and building look like plastic miniatures of impossible concepts, Cuaron has made a science fiction without artifice gimmicks and it is very real and sensible. It depicts your perception of future on screen. Secondly capturing the coarse beauty of the future London in shades of grey adds to the mood of the film. The usage of single-shot sequence in the war front scene is an epitome to the many technical heights the films has touched. The technical department does the job right to create an ambiance which makes you travel through the streets of London in an epic journey of hope winning over apathy.

A movie-watching doesn't turn into an experience all the time, it happens in Children of men. I agree the movie has negative tones to it, it makes you imagine about life in a different and cruel time-frame, it makes you imagine about the broken human psyche, it makes you imagine about the travails of survival, it makes you imagine about the shabby sufferings and the extinction of our race, it not only makes you imagine the worst, but also assures you that the best is yet to occur.

For more info visit
Official movie site

iMdB - Children of men

(P.S: Guys i look lost for the past three days, after cutting the hair that i grew for more than 8 months ;-(... maybe it reflected in the post... try to watch the movie to understand its magnificence...Also i scrapped the palette idea... i knew it was dumb:))

The Edge of Heaven

As i realize now, I have been caught in the beautiful paradise of cinema for a while. I never believed that movies could have such an impact on the thought process that you have, and now i would say movies are the second best sources to enlightenment, what is the first then?... Books of course. And when i speak about movies you would have already known that i am not here to speak about the desi movies(I proud to be an Indian, but definitely not when i am watching those so-called-masala movies with with screenplay like sh** and a story like its source.. sorry for the language). leave it lets hang these Indian movies later :). I am here to speak about those meaningful cinemas which break borders, linguistic barriers, cultural differences and rend you with sleepless nights. lets not call it reviews coz i am nobody to criticize the works of legends. lets call it an experience sharing. And what is in store today,....? A movie with a title that very much describes the power of cinema, yes a good movie can really take you to The Edge of Heaven.

By far German movies are becoming the tenets of modern cinema. There was Run lola run, there was Die Fälscher, The lives of others and now there is The Edge of heaven(German: Auf der anderen Seite) by Fatih Akin. A poignant tale on the inter-woven lives of six people of which four are German and two are from Turkey. It was critically acclaimed and won top honours at cannes by winning the Best Screenplay Award.(lets hope someday movies like these will be released in india, and we are relieved from the usual Hollywood-carp with bizarre tamil names like marana adi and Kavasa Veeran).

Coming back to business TEOH is about six people A 'kinky' father and his son from Germany, An old prostitute and her daughter from turkey and finally a comfy, middle-class mother and her college going daughter from Germany. The story is about how their lives are interrupted by each other and how relationships are lost with someone and found with some other. It's in a way a drama about human resonance and reconciliation, which has strong political undertones.I am not here to discuss about the plot coz this ain't a review. But the movie has a lot of about love, rebellion,relationships, politics, hope and definitely- lot of human emotions. the story travels between Germany and turkey and is shown happening in different time frames but stills looks so coherent and intact. No doubt it won the award for best screenplay at Cannes. the writes has a abundant belief in the intelligence of his viewers, and the best part is always left untold for the viewer to perceive it. And its technically so strong that you totally forget that there was a technical team behind the making:).

When it comes to the experience you would fell a lot of optimism during the final sections of the movie. When the protagonists find more reasons to re-connect with life you find your reason for walking through the film for nearly 120 mins. Even though it will not be one of my 'best-movies' list, the Edge of heaven will definitely find a place in my DVD box.

We indians are used to the verdicts at the end of each review, this blog will be no exception, the colour palette(inspired by the tomatometer :-))is not a grading but can be taken as my liking and suggestion quotient.

My palette for The Edge of heaven

For more info visit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Edge_of_Heaven_(film) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0880502/