Raavan(an) - A Good Movie After All

Though Raavan(an) released on June 18th, I did not watch it till sometime last week. Due to all the negative feedback I received from everyone I kept postponing my plans to see the much awaited movie. Once I finally decided to watch the movie the next question was "Which one to watch? - Raavan or Raavanan". I immediately decided on Raavanan as it had Vikram and Prithviraj - both talented actors.

The story is pretty straight forward. The wife of a police officer is kidnapped by the terrifying outlaw to exact revenge. The reasons are revealed halfway through the movie. From there on the heroine starts seeing the outlaw in a new light.

I did not enjoy the movie for a number of reasons. Mani has used direct interpretations of the Ramayan characters - Karthik's character being one of them. We get that he has been cast as "Hanuman". There's no necessity to make him jump from tree to tree or block the way just like Hanuman did. I'm just glad they didn't end up cutting Priyamani's nose literally. It is also funny that for the climax sequence the heroine is able to conveniently track Veera's brother and subsequently meet Veera when all the police force is unable to achieve that task.

Mani could have found a better replacement for AB Jr. While Vikram was able to easily essay the role of Veera, it was clear from the first scene that AB was just not cut out to play the role. One positive aspect though - I ended up appreciating the cinematography and the locations better. I would therefore suggest watching the Tamil one if you want to watch some good acting. If on the other hand you want to be enthralled by wonderful picturesque settings, go for the Hindi one.

Movie Time

We recently switched our cable connection to a different provider. As an added bonus we got 3 months of movie package. When the movies come in HD and that too with no ads all this translates to more movie time :) We watched a lot of movies non stop since everything looks good in high definition. We watched a wide variety of movies ranging from Harry Potter to Pirates of the Caribbean, Cars to Bourne Ultimatum.

Two movies which I had not heard much about but which were really good have been shared here.



The movie revolves around the life of a professor, a widower, who tries to compensate for his loss by trying to learn the piano since his wife was a classical piano player. Despite his sincere efforts to learn the art he is unsuccessful. Similarly he is grumpy in all his activities. His life takes a sudden turn when he goes from Connecticut to New York to present a paper. He finds two people living in his apartment. Soon the grumpiness fades from his life and he appreciates life and becomes attached to the two people in an unexpected way.

Along the way he gets drumming lessons from one of them and surprisingly he is good at it. Things take a tragic turn when one of them gets arrested. The professor tries all that is possible to get his new friend out. Is he successful or not?? That is the story. Richard Jenkins was nominated this year for Best Actor for this role.




This movie is a total opposite of the above movie. Where Visitor was a soft real to life portrayal, SEU is a total non stop action movie which goes beyond all reality. The story line is pretty simple. A stranger rescues a new born baby from being killed and then self appoints himself to guard the baby from the repeated attacks on it's life. He tries to find out why the bad guys are out to kill the baby so desperately.

The movie boasts chases and fight sequences of all possible varieties. They are firing at each other while running, driving and even jumping out of airplanes with parachutes. They are firing right from the first scene till the last scene when Clive Owen puts even Rajini and Vijayakanth to shame by shooting bullets with his bare hands (no gun). This is a must watch for those who enjoy nonsensical action movies.

Two movies which are from opposite ends of the spectrum but both are good watches. Try them when you have nothing else to do.

Little Miss Sunshine

It's been quite some time since we really laughed our heart out watching a movie. LMS turned out to be just the type of movie one can see at almost anytime - when you are happy, sad, angry. By the time the movie ends you will be happily laughing forgetting all your problems.

The movie is funny from the word go. It's filled with ironies as well. We have the dad who is a motivational guru who has found the 9 steps to success but is still struggling to meet ends meet, the mom who is overworked, the son who gives up talking till he attains his dream of becoming an air force pilot, the daughter who wants to be a beauty queen, the grandpa who smokes pot and the uncle who recently had a failed suicide attempt. It has some memorable dialogs such as "High school-those are your prime suffering years. You don't get better suffering than that." or "Oh my God, I'm getting pulled over. Everyone, just... pretend to be normal." & "Losers are people who are so afraid of not winning, they don't even try."

The plot is very simple. The girl gets selected to participate in a beauty pageant and the entire family (out of no other options) is forced to drive cross country for the pageant. The movie follows the events as they drive up to the pageant and how each person starts appreciating the value of each other. What hurdle are they going to come across next? Will they make it in time for the pageant? Will she perform properly? Will she win? These are the questions which float through our heads while we see the movie.

One of the must watch movies.

Not so famous movies I Enjoyed...

The number of movies that I watch has risen over the last few months. We manage to watch at least 4 - 5 movies in a week. Not all the movies are the latest ones. The movies range from Godfather to Finding Neverland, Pulp Fiction to Juno and occasionally some good Tamil or Hindi movie.

Last month had been quite momentous in this sense. We managed to watch a few big hits such as Robots, Patch Adams and LOTR. Apart from that we watched a few movies which were not so famous. We actually picked them because we couldn't find any other movies. But as luck would have it we were very glad we picked these movies. They were just awesome.

Let me share those wonderful movies.

This movie tells the true story of Truman Capote. The movie centers on the Kansas murders which Capote wants to use for his new book. This experience affects him like no other. The movie was taken very well. Toby Jones just sank into Truman with ease. The whole movie was very enjoyable and very touching.

This was one those feel good movies which was set in the depression period. The story was very simple. It was about a golfing prodigy who becomes disillusioned after he is the sole survivor of a dangerous mission in the war. Due to a sequence of events he is pulled back to the game of golf but he's unable to touch his talent. A mystical caddy appears out of nowhere and helps him get his strokes back. Once his work his done the caddy disappears again. The movie holds the viewers' attention from the first scene. Very well taken. Not sure why it didn't do so well.

Offside is a very interesting movie. I'm not sure whether to put it as a movie or a very interesting documentary. It is set during the 2005 World Cup qualifying match in Iran. As the rule goes Iranian women cannot go to the stadium to watch sporting events. Due to the love for the game a few girls disguise themselves as men and try to enter the stadium. Some of them are caught. The movie shows how they try to get a glimpse of the match and of the relationship they develop with the soldiers out of pity for each other.

All the 3 movies reinforced the fact that good cinema is still out there. We just need to search harder to get to it. So let me hunt a little more and try to appease my thirst for excellent movies.

Good Old Days of Disney

Yesterday I was browsing through the favourite videos of one of my friends and as one thing leads to another on youtube I was soon way off the track from where I started.

Before I knew it I was revisiting those classic cartoons from the older Disney movies. The cartoons back then had such wonderful songs and stories. Who can forget "Hakunamatata" from Lion King or "Colours of the Wind" from Pocahontas?

Some of the videos that I enjoyed...

Hakunamatata:





Colors of the Wind:





Mulan:



Beauty & the Beast:




All these clips made me wonder why we don't get such cartoons or music any more. Somehow such imagination has become a rare thing. We don't get many good cartoons these days. Sad but I guess we have to learn to appreciate the new things. I'll definitely return to this page whenever I feel nostalgic. And keep adding to the collection of wonderful videos. Anyone remember any other great songs or cartoons?