Machan

I saw this movie at the 13th IFFK. "Machan" is a sweet, overly earnest immigration comedy-with-a-soul. Based on the true story of a group of Sri Lankans flying to Bavaria and pretending to be the national handball team.
Serious bartender Manoj (Gihan de Chickera) and scampish fruit-seller Stanley (Dharmapriya Dias) have their visas to Germany rejected. Stumbling on a flier for a handball tournament in Germany, and desperate to better themselves abroad, they apply without knowing what the sport is about. A motley team is assembled, with the intention of disappearing into the night once they've landed in Europe, but an unexpected welcoming committee means the guys need to delay escape until after the games.

Blindness

I saw this movie at the 13th International Film Festival of Kerala. Although this edition of the festival was not quiet impressive, this movie was a great experience. I liked the concept very much and the visualisation was superb.
A city is ravaged by an epidemic of instant "white blindness". Those first afflicted are quarantined by the authorities in an abandoned mental hospital where the newly created "society of the blind" quickly breaks down. Criminals and the physically powerful prey upon the weak, hording the meager food rations and committing horrific acts. There is however one eyewitness to the nightmare. A woman whose sight is unaffected by the plague follows her afflicted husband to quarantine. There, keeping her sight a secret, she guides seven strangers who have become, in essence, a family. She leads them out of quarantine and onto the ravaged streets of the city, which has seen all vestiges of civilization crumble. Their voyage is fraught with danger, yet their survival and ultimate redemption reflect the tenacity and depth of the human spirit.
To prepare for the film, the actors, extras and crew participated in "blind camps." They were blindfolded, taken in a car to an unknown location, and left in the middle of the street. However, there were always somebody there to guide them. Despite this, the director claimed that someone would always breakdown.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Monty Python (sometimes known as The Pythons) is the collective name of the six creators of Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that was aired on the BBC.

This 1975 movie was a huge hit and also is listed among the top 100 movies by IMDB. I watched this movie since I saw this movie in the Top 100 movie list. Its a humorous movie. But I was not much impressed by the movie (especially considering its Top 100 Status). The plot is as follows

King Arthur is recruiting his Knights of the Round Table throughout England. He is frustrated at every turn by anarcho-syndicalist peasants, a Black Knight that refuses to give up despite losing both his arms and legs, and guards that are more concerned with the flight patterns of swallows than their lord and master. Finally he meets up with Sir Bedevere the Wise, Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Galahad the Pure (also called "the Chaste"), Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot, and "the aptly named Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film", who appears to be Palin's son (a baby those days) suited up in chain mail, and declares them the Knights of the Round Table. When 'riding' to Camelot, they are given a quest by God to find the Holy Grail.

They encounter a castle with a French Taunter who taunts them with random names like 'Daffy English knnnnnnigghits' and makes up insults to them, saying, "I fart in your general direction!" and "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!" The Knights then retreat, weathering a barrage of livestock. Arthur decides that he and his knights should search for the Grail individually. After they split up, Sir Robin travels through a forest with his favourite minstrels, and encounters a Three-Headed Giant, Galahad follows a Grail-shaped light to the perils of Castle Anthrax (the girls of which are very interested in having sex with him), Sir Lancelot massacres a wedding at Swamp Castle, and Arthur and Bedevere encounter the dreaded Knights who say Ni, who want a shrubbery (they beat the knights by saying "it" though they never figure that is the knights who say ni's one weakness). They each overcome their individual perils and reunite to face a bleak and terrible winter. Surviving the winter by eating Sir Robin's minstrels, they venture further to a pyromaniac enchanter named "Tim", who takes them to a cave guarded by a killer rabbit.

The Killer Rabbit attacksAfter killing the vicious Rabbit of Caerbannog with the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, the knights face the Legendary Black Beast of Aaargh in an animated scene, ending because the animator suffered a "fatal heart attack," and cross the Bridge of Death that is guarded by "the old man from Scene 24". Arthur and Bedevere survive to arrive at Castle Aaargh, and face the French Taunter once more. The film ends abruptly when a group of police from the 1970s interrupt the climactic battle scene to arrest Bedevere and King Arthur for the murder of Frank, the "famous historian", who was cut down by a knight while he was narrating a scene from the film.

Fight Club

This was an interesting movie. The movie turned out to be interesting once I realised that whatever I was watching till then was an illusion. The concept was good.
Fight Club is a 1999 American feature film adaptation of the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher.
The narrator (Edward Norton) is an automobile company employee who travels to accident sites to perform product recall cost appraisals. His doctor refuses to write a prescription for his insomnia and instead suggests that he visit a support group for testicular cancer victims in order to appreciate real suffering. By attending the group, the narrator feels distraught at the condition of these ill fated people and breaks down. He is then able to sleep soundly and subsequently fakes more illnesses so he can attend other support groups in order to get out his pent up emotions through crying. The narrator's routine is disrupted when he begins to notice another impostor, Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), at the same meetings and his insomnia returns.

During a flight for a business trip, the narrator meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), who makes and sells soap. The narrator arrives home to find his apartment has been destroyed by an explosion. He calls Tyler and meets him at a bar. Tyler agrees to let the narrator stay at his home on the condition that the narrator hits him. The narrator complies and the two end up enjoying a fist fight outside the bar. The narrator moves into Tyler's dilapidated house and the two return to the bar, where they have another fight in the parking lot. After attracting a crowd, they establish a 'fight club' in the bar's basement.

When Marla overdoses on Xanax, she is rescued by Tyler and the two embark upon a sexual relationship. Tyler tells the narrator never to talk about him with Marla. Under Tyler's leadership, the fight club becomes "Project Mayhem," which commits increasingly destructive acts of anti-capitalist vandalism in the city. The fight clubs become a network for Project Mayhem, and the narrator is left out of Tyler's activities with the project. After an argument, Tyler disappears from the narrator's life and when a member of Project Mayhem dies on a mission, the narrator attempts to shut down the project. Tracing Tyler's steps, he travels around the country to find that fight clubs have been started in every major city, where one of the participants identifies him as Tyler Durden. A phone call to Marla confirms his identity and he realizes that Tyler is an alter ego of his own split personality. Tyler appears before him and explains that he controls the narrator's body whenever he is asleep.

The narrator faints and awakes to find Tyler has made several phone calls during his blackout and traces his plans to the downtown headquarters of several major credit card companies, which Tyler intends to destroy in order to cripple the financial networks. Failing to find help with the police, many of whom are members of Project Mayhem, the narrator attempts to disarm the explosives in the basement of one of the buildings. He is confronted by Tyler, knocked unconscious, and taken to the upper floor of another building to witness the impending destruction. The narrator, held by Tyler at gunpoint, realizes that in sharing the same body with Tyler, he is the one who is actually holding the gun. He fires it into his mouth, shooting through the cheek without killing himself. The illusion of Tyler collapses with an exit wound to the back of his head. Shortly after, members of Project Mayhem bring a kidnapped Marla to the narrator and leave them alone. The bombs detonate and, holding hands, the two witness the destruction of the entire financial city block through the windows.


Fight Club failed to meet expectations at the box office, and the film received polarized reactions from film critics. The film was cited as one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999. It was perceived as crossing a milestone for visual style in cinema and introducing a new mood in American political life. The film later found commercial success with its DVD release, which established Fight Club as a cult film. The film has also permeated American society, inspiring people to set up fight clubs.

Rear Window (1954)

This 1954 Movie was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The entire movie is shot inside an Apartment Complex. This movie didn't impress me as much as other Hitchcock Movies. The suspense of the movie was not worth the wait. The plot of the movie is as follows.

During a heat wave, normally itinerant news photographer L.B. Jefferies (James Stewart) finds himself confined by a broken leg to a wheelchair in his Greenwich Village apartment. Each day, and often into the night, he has little to do but gaze out his rear window at the activities of his neighbours in the surrounding apartments. Jeff’s main visitors are his fiancée Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly), a high-fashion model, and Stella (Thelma Ritter), a wiry insurance company nurse. When Jeff says he suspects that his neighbour directly opposite, costume jewellery salesman Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), has murdered his wife, no one pays much attention at first. Lisa is mainly concerned to overcome Jeff’s reluctance to get married. But Jeff intensifies his window-gazing, using binoculars and even a telephoto lens. After Lisa volunteers to cross the courtyard and obtain evidence against Thorwald, trouble erupts. Thorwald catches her in his apartment. Jeff frantically calls the police, who come and arrest Lisa. Meanwhile, having learnt that Jeff has been spying on him, Thorwald decides to pay a visit. Only last-minute intervention by Jeff’s detective friend Tom Doyle (Wendell Corey) saves him from the enraged killer.

Strangers on a Train

This is the second time I am watching an Alfred Hitchcock movie. The first one was Psycho. That was an awesome movie. This too was impressive. Hope, I will be able to watch more of his movies.

The plot is as follows [ i lifted this from wikipedia...I hate typing too much :)]

Amateur tennis star Guy Haines (Farley Granger) wants to divorce his vulgar and unattractive small-town wife, Miriam (Kasey Rogers), in order to be able to marry the woman he loves, the elegant, beautiful, and rich Anne Morton (Ruth Roman), the daughter of a senator.
Guy Haines' wife Miriam, however, is not at all interested in divorce: she is having plenty of affairs, has become pregnant by one of her numerous lovers, and is perfectly happy to carry on exploiting her husband indefinitely.
In the opening scenes, Guy Haines chances to meet the charming, rich, clever, but psychopathic Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) on a train. Bruno tells Guy his "amusing" idea about how to commit the perfect murder: two people who hardly know one another at all "exchange" murders; that way, neither one would have a motive, and each could arrange to have a perfect alibi for the time when the murder was committed. It would be, as Bruno describes his plan to Guy, "crisscross".
Bruno goes on to explain that for example, he, Bruno, could kill Guy's wife Miriam, and in exchange, Guy could kill Bruno's unpleasantly authoritarian father, and then both of them would be free to do whatever they wanted. Guy thinks Bruno is joking and leaves, but Bruno imagines that they have in fact made a bargain with one another.
In his hurry to get away from Bruno, Guy accidentally leaves his gold cigarette lighter behind, and Bruno takes it. Bruno knows that the lighter was an intimate gift to Guy from Anne, and he has seen that it has a tennis logo and "From A to G" engraved on it.
Bruno gets tired of waiting for Guy to contact him in order to set up the appropriate timetable for the murders. Bruno unilaterally goes ahead with his half of the "plan", strangling Guy's wife Miriam on an island in a lake at an amusement park, while she is out on a date with two of her admirers. The audience sees the murder as it is reflected in Miriam's glasses, which have fallen to the ground when Bruno attacks her.
Once the murder is discovered, suspicion immediately falls on Guy, because he had an obvious motive. It turns out that Guy is unable to provide a solid alibi for the time of the crime. Bruno starts making increasingly more intrusive appearances in Guy's life, in order to forcibly remind Guy that Guy is now obliged to kill Bruno's father, according to the bargain that was supposedly struck on the train when they first met.
Finally the police close in on Guy as he chases after Bruno, at sunset in the lakeside amusement park. Bruno is about to "plant" Guy's cigarette case at the scene of the murder, so that the police will have convincing evidence that Guy was the murderer.
The two men struggle on the carousel, which spins out of control and crashes. The police seize Guy, but an amusement park employee (who remembers Bruno's previous visit) points out that Bruno is in fact the murderer. Guy explains to the police what Bruno was about to do with his cigarette lighter.
Bruno is mortally wounded in the crash, but even though he is dying, he lies to the police, insisting that Guy was the one who killed Miriam, and that Guy left the lighter on the island. The moment after Bruno dies however, his fingers open up, revealing the gold cigarette lighter with Guy's and Anne's initials on it.
Guy and Anne are then seen reunited on a train home, and this time there is hope for their future together. A man asks Guy if he is Guy Haines (identical to the way Guy met Bruno), but Guy, fearing another mishap, leaves the compartment with Anne, leaving the man stunned.

Dasvidaniya

Dasvidaniya, good bye in Russian (Tats wat i understand) is a simple movie. Not tat impressive in the initial phase. However towards the end it turns out to be a gud movie. The climax is too good.
The movie is all about the transition tat happens in a person's life and character after he realise tat he is suffering from stomach cancer.
Two three scenes in the movie is very touching. The one in which the guy tells his childhood crush(Now a married woman) tat he loved her all these year, The love sequence between the guy and a russian prostitute etc are too good.
Overall the movie is a watchable one.

2001: A Space Odyssey

My Rating : 4/5

Today I watched this movie. I downloaded this movie long time back but i never found time to watch this. (Maybe because of the opening scenes of the movie)

The film starts with shots of chimpanzees....that seemed odd...what are these chimpanzees doing in space odyssey...
Finally today i found time to watch this movie....oh god what a movie it is....unbelievable...especially considering tat this was made in 1968....great sci fi movie.....the shots of space craft, zero g, space walk....everything was superb...
Although it seems boring in certain areas and certain philosophical aspects are quite difficult to understand, overall the movie is a superb one....a must watch...kudos to Stanley Kubrick (Director, Producer and Co-writer) and Arthur C. Clarke (The movie was based on his short story The Sentinel)

The first spoken word is almost a half hour into the film, and there's less than 40 minutes of dialogue in the entire film. Much of the film is in dead silence (accurately depicting the absence of sound in space), or with the sound of human breathing within a spacesuit.

The film was snubbed by the Academy that instead voted its top accolades to the odd musical Oliver! (1968) based upon the Charles Dickens tale. [In the same year, Planet of the Apes (1968) was given a Special Honorary Oscar for John Chambers' outstanding, convincing makeup (there was no Best Makeup category until 1981) - the Academy members presumably didn't realize the superior, too-believable makeup in the opening scenes of 2001 that included both human actors with life-like masks and infant chimpanzees.

Kubrick's goal in portraying 2001's technology was "absolute realism". Never before (and probably never since) have fictional spacecraft designs with such solid real-world aerospace foundations been portrayed on the big screen. This is due in large part to Harry Lange and Fred Ordway. Both men came from the aerospace field and were green with respect to cinema. Lange designed most of the hardware, with Ordway providing technical support. They tackled the job with even more enthusiasm than Kubrick had hoped.

Once production on the film concluded, Kubrick ordered all the models, sets, and plans destroyed. He'd seen too many quality sci-fi films become trivialized by use of their props by later B-movie productions.

A Wednesday

Today I saw this movie. I couldn't watch this movie when it came to the theatres. Hence I had to watch this on my PC (which I regret now..this should have been watched in a theatre)

Although the movie is a short one, It keeps us riveted to the movie through out the length of the movie.
The theme of the movie is also superb. The entire movie is based on incidents that takes place in bombay on a particular wednesday. This is narrated in flash back, through the memories of a polce commisioner (Anupam Gher) who remembers the most memorable day in his carrier.
The movie revolves around the incidents that follow after the commissioner receives a phone call asking him to release four militants.
Nasserudin Shah's portrayal of the 'Common Man' is superb. I loved watching the movie. The movie was directed by Neeraj Pandey