Harishchandrachi Factory

This Marathi movie and India's entry to the Oscars in 2009 has been on my watchlist for a while now. I saw it last week and was blown away. 

This is the directorial debut of Paresh Mokashi and stars Nandu Mahadev as Dadasaheb Phalke, Vibhavari Deshpande as his wife Saraswati Phalke and Atharva Karve as his son Mahadev Phalke.

Dadasaheb had split up with his partner in a printing firm and becomes fascinated with the movies. In those days, silent movies were played for the Britishers on the life of Christ and other topics. Dadasaheb decides to make a movie of his own and travels to England to learn more about it. He was not someone rich and has to sell off his furniture at home and leave his pregnant wife alone. Once back, it is quite a task to convince people that the camera will not suck their soul and movies are just moving pictures. He also cannot get even a prostitute to act in the film since it was looked down upon. The movie is called Raja Harishchandra and was the first Indian film ever made. He gets the offer of making movies in England but turns it down to establish the Indian film industry. 

What is commendable is that the movie is not sad or depressing. It is funny and does not linger upon the tragic parts. It is not serious and yet you can feel the kind of hardships Dadasaheb would have gone through. 

I loved the movie. It is a must, must watch. And I watched it with English subtitles because I don't understand Marathi.

The Artist

I try and travel by Air India while going to my destination (and Indigo while returning because I like to reach home without delays) because they still have the TV screens on their flights. Most of the times, I pick something I have never seen before. I don't know what attracted me about the The Artist but I started playing it while travelling to Kolkata.

It is a silent movie, without dialogues, though it has background music. It may seem strange and boring but this is one of the best movies I have seen and brimming with creativity. 

One on One 2

We watched this play 2 weeks back when Anu Menon tweeted about it. What would I do without twitter? This is part 2 of One on One and has 8 sketches/monologues. Basically, each sketch has only 1 person performing.

Terms and conditions may apply

Last night I was looking for something interesting to watch- nothing dark though and I came across this documentary on Netflix. 
Wow!!! This is going to sound very ironical- this documentary is about our right to privacy and am the least private person on this planet. Or am I? 

This piece has been directed by Cullen Hoback who was crazy enough to go to Mark Zuckerberg's house, film him, pretend to turn off the camera and then film him- just like he does to all of us. 

Carnage

The movie is based on the French play "Le Dieu du carnage" or "God of Carnage" by Yasmina Reza. I watched this flick for the 2nd time and enjoyed it as much as the first time. In fact, it is one of my favourite movies. I like dark comedies... the darker the better. Why don't Indian directors make such movies? I watched this flick because I wanted to compare the play with it. Review of play here.

It stars Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C Reilly and has been directed by Roman Polanski. It was shot in Paris because Roman was on the run from the USA because he had raped a 13 year old girl. 

Travelling Pants 2.0

This blog now has reviews of comedy shows, plays and documentaries for the simple reason that the former two rarely have reviews online. 

My colleague wanted to watch a stand up comedy show last week even though she spends most of her time at Bangalore which has a much, much better comedy scene compared to NCR. As luck would have it, she was here on Thursday and we headed to Manhattan.

Fed Up

Another documentary on Netflix. There will be more reviews on documentaries now because I love watching them and finally have access to sooooo many.
I read a lot on the topic of food, nutrition, health and fitness and now know what is believable and what is trash. The best book I have read on this (and I have read 100s of books by now) is Salt Sugar Fat How the Food Giants Hooked us by Michael Moss. Review here. 
This documentary talks the exact same things on Fat and Sugar. But watching everything on screen is of course a big shock compared to reading about it. It has been written, produced and directed by Stephanie Soechtig. 

Crossing Bridges

I was very excited when I saw this movie in the flight entertainment. You cannot even download movies like these because nobody cares to upload the torrents. Watching in the theatre is difficult because nobody will be ready to accompany you.

*I really, really, really need to find someone in Gurgaon who is genuinely interested in non-commercial films. Also, that someone should not eat nachos and not talk or laugh loudly in the movie. Ok fine, I will just watch such movies alone. Nobody is ever going to make the cut anyway*

This is the blog where I first read about the movie. 

Gulaal

This is undoubtedly my favourite Anurag Kashyap movie. I can watch it over and over again without getting bored.
Directed and written by Anurag Kashyap, it stars Kay Kay Menon, Raj Singh Chaudhary, Abhimanyu Singh, Aditya Srivastav, Jesse Randhawa, Deepak Dobriyal, Ayesha Mohan, Mahi Gill and Piyush Mishra. 

The Namesake

I have had to pull myself away from the book to write this review and it is killing me. 30 precious minutes when I could have curled up on my bed under a blanket with the kindle reading. Sigh. Right now... everything I have to do - work, gym, run, badminton etc, are things which take me away from the book. It makes me long for days when I was younger, when I had vacations or even when I was studying since there was enough time to while away. Now each minute of the day spent reading is a luxury. 

I watched the movie yesterday and it made me feel sad, touched, melancholy and yet contented. Because that is what life is. We know how it begins and how it ends. 

Luck By Chance

I carried 2 movies for my Kolkata trip - Luck By Chance and Namesake. Both I have watched earlier. Both are my all time favourites 
And then I realized Air India has Luck By Chance and watched it there instead.

I don't remember the first time I watched this flick but have seen it soooo many times since. It is Zoya Akhtar's best movie and produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani. Yep... better than ZDNM. And it is the most accurate and realistic portrayal of Bollywood. Is Bollywood as fickle as we hear it is? Yes... it is... mostly. 

The Japanese Wife

I have seen this movie earlier but wanted to re-watch it. I did so today. 

The Japanese Wife is based on a short story from the book of the same name by Kunal Basu. 

It stars Rahul Bose as Snehamoy, Chigusa Takaku as Miyage, Raima Sen as Sandhya and Moushumi Chatterjee as Maashi.

The Ghanta Awards

I just realized I have reviewed plays I have watched but not shows. So, am now going to review comedy shows I watch. The only rule is the show has to be based on a theme. So I won't be reviewing a stand up comedy which does not have a theme. 

I could not believe my luck when I got to know through twitter that this show is coming to Gurgaon. I have watched the previous videos on YouTube and loved them.

The Ghanta Awards were started 1-2 years back by East India Comedy which is a group of stand up comedians- Sapan Verma, Sahil Shah, Sourabh Pant, Kunal Rao, Atul Khatri and Azeem Banatwala. They are basically awards given to the worst of the worst in Bollywood.

The shows in all the cities are for nominations while the one in Mumbai today and on 4th April are the final awards. 

Rockford

When I miss school and cannot visit it, this movie comes closest to reliving my life in an all girls boarding school. 

I remember the first time I watched the movie. Hyderabad Blues had already made Nagesh famous and my sis and me were looking forward to this flick. It released in Ahmedabad when there were no multiplexes. So, we went to a theatre at Ashram road to watch it. For us, Ashram road was old a'bad and we were not allowed to go there. But hey, when you have a 2 wheeler (miss my scooty so much) and some cash nothing can stop you. 

Hyderabad Blues

When this movie released, we got to know through word of mouth. Watching it was impossible because I don't think it released in the theatres then. And if it did, I wouldn't allowed to watch a movie like this at that age.

You know a movie is simply great when even 16 years after it's release you identify with it and it's relevant. Or it's just that we, Indians, have not evolved much since then.

Lakshmi

The whole uproar about the India's daughter documentary is just ridiculous. I don't want to watch it right now even though I could review it on my blog and get many hits. That is because Nirbhaya incident is too recent and since the rapists are still alive, it is a little hopeless. I would rather watch it once she gets justice (if that is even possible).

But let's not shift focus from another great movie which deserves it's due. Lakshmi released in March and I wanted to go watch it but couldn't. It's a little difficult to watch such movies in the theatres. And buying a DVD is pointless. If only I could pay and watch online, it would make life simpler AND the producers would earn some money. I have been looking for a copy online (in all the wrong places) when Sonal told me it's on YouTube. Always, always check on YouTube first.

Chocolat

I watched this movie a very long time ago. After reading the book I had the urge to watch it again today. Thanks to a super download speed despite having used up this month's 15 GB quota I watched it today. 

Chocolat is based on the book by Joanne Harris. It stars Juliette Binoche as Vianne Rocher, Johnny Depp as Roux, Judi Dench as Armande, Alfred Molina as Comte de Reynaud and Victoire Thivisol as Anouk.

Dum Laga Ke Haisha

OMG!!! I read a lot of good reviews on twitter but then it's so unreliable. You hardly ever hear anything negative before the movie releases so I brushed them off. Then my reliable reviewer Anupama Chopra announced that she is down with swine flu and so I turned to the other reliable reviewer rediff.com. When rediff gave a thumbs up I booked the tickets.

It is a YRF movie directed by Sharat Katariya and produced by Maneesh Sharma (of Band Baaja Baaraat fame). It stars Ayushmann Khurana and Bhumi Pednekar in leading roles. The supporting cast has Sanjay Mishra, Alka Amin, Sheeba Chaddha and Seema Pahwa. 

Bubblegum

I was looking for stuff to watch online and came across the Junglee Film Club on youtube. The movie title 'Bubblegum' rang a bell. I vaguely remembered hearing about it when it released but wasn't sure whether it was good or bad. I decided to watch it anyway.

The movie is directed by Sanjivan Lal and stars Tanvi Azmi, Sachin Khedekar and newcomers Sohail Lakhani, Delzad Sanjay Hirale, Apoorva Arora and Suraj Kumar.

Whiplash

Oh my god! Ohmygod! OMG! OMG!OMG!
When was the last time you watched a movie which blew you away? 
Which kept you on the edge of your seat?
Which was so far from your life or interest but you were sucked in completely?
Where you wondered 'Will he? Won't he? What happens next?'
And when he does you scream 'Oh yes... yes... Oh yes'
And when he doesn't you scream and cry in horror 'Oh no... no, no, no... THAT did not just happen'
and clutch at your blanket 
(I know it's hot but I like to cover myself)
And when was the last time there was a twist in the movie at every minute?
That movie exists... ladies and gentlemen... it's called Whiplash.