The Boy in the striped Pajaymas is a simple tale

The Boy in the striped Pajaymas is a movie set in World War 2 and is a simple tale of unimaginable circumstances that existed. Its not much of war movie as much as the story of people during those times.

The movie is about the war period seen from the eyes of 8 year old Bruno, who's father is the Nazi Commandant. They were enjoying a charmed life in Berlin before the commander is transfered to the countryside. Bruno struggles to be at peace with his new surroundings where he cannot wander around and play. The kid loves to explore things around him but the people (even teachers) keep trying to give him taste of harsh reality.

The Jewish community during that time were treated as outcasts and this story revolves around the friendship that Bruno develops with the Jewish boy(Shmuel) from the concentration camp. What is interesting about the movie is that each of the characters is affected by Nazi policy in their own small way and the conflict is evident. Asa Butterfield shines in the role of Bruno but the unsung star of the film is Vera Farmiga who plays a classy role of the mother constantly fighting between saving her kids from Nazi school of thought and living with her husband who's executing the same policies. Bruno is conflicted with the new image of his father, the perpetrator of Nazi hate against innocents, who was once a hero figure to his son. 

The developing friendship between Bruno and Shmuel provides the best moments in the film. The fantastic scene where they tell each other that they haven't heard a name like theirs OR where they are seen playing checkers divided by the barbed wire is a joy to watch. But this same friendship is what forms the devastating end to the movie.

It is a remarkable film which handles a difficult subject with great sensitivity and grace. Be prepared to be stunned into silence by the time the movie ends. Highly recommended watch.

Rating:7.5/10

My Sister's Keeper is touching

I first watched this movie with great reluctance at the behest of my friend Geetika and was told that it was a very touching movie. It turned out to be much more than that.

Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric play the characters Brian and Sara Fitzgerald, whose daughter Kate (Sofia Vassilieva) is diagnosed at a young age with leukemia.  Cameron plays this paranoid mother who does everything to protect her child and even gives up one her personal life. On doctor's "offline" advice, they conceive another child with genetic modifications so she can serve as a donor to her sister. The rest of the story unfolds from there.

My Sister's keeper is kinda 2 stories - one of a unique 11 year old girl, Anna (Abigail Breslin), who is suing her parents so that her body will no longer be used for spare parts for Kate, Anna's long-dying sister. But the actual story completely belongs to Kate. The scenes with Kate growing through a scrapbook/collage of her life with each of the special people around her is so touching, that even a person with neutral emotions like me was moved. Going through the collage also forms a part of the narrative in a beautiful way.

Its essentially a story about human relationship and their reactions to the difficult stages in the lives. The difference in views of the parents and Anna on the subject of trying to save the ailing Kate gives different shades to the film. This film asks the questions of how far you should really go to keep someone alive.

Its also a sensitive yet non-victim-like take on the subject of cancer. The scenes where Taylor another cancer patient jokes with Kate about the treatment sessions that they would have and where the kiss between these teens is pointed by Kate as tasting of chemotherapy, makea one feel strongly for the characters.

Because of moments like these and the stellar acting performance by the starcast make it a movie worth watching. This one has the heart in the right place.

Rating: 7/10

Tearjerker alert: If you are the emotional or sensitive type, keep the handkerchief handy

This Butterfly is Effective

The butterfly effect is a movie based on the chaos therory for time travel. Ashton Kutcher plays the protagonist, a young man who blocks out harmful memories of significant events of his life. As a child, he has had traumatic formative experiences with As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life

The movie isn't so much about time travel as its about how seemingly insignificant alterations beget major consequences. Its a rivetting 2 hrs of back and forth into the events and lives of the protagonist and others around him.Ashton Kutcher shines in the movie with his mix of expressions and characters of anger, criminal and mostly confused with events that he has altered.

The movie keeps you engaged through the series of time travel and one keeps wondering what memory will he alter next. Director did  a brilliant job of defying viewer expectations and keep suspense building by continually creating new crises for Evan (Ashton) to resolve. Concepts like chaos theory, alternate reality have been dealt in other movies too and successfully so. But this one is made with such engaging storyline and almost everything a movie can show - Troubled love, college, prison, madness, lots and lots of nosebleeds :)


Rating: 8/10

You just have to watch Sita Singing the Blues

Sita Sings the Blues, is a film that carries deep emotions carefully wrapped in humour and imagination. It’s visually delightful and highly original. This 2D animation film of about 70 minutes, combines four different styles of narration and ties them together with a common thread.

Sita Sings the Blues has Valmiki’s Ramayana running parallel to the modern biographical story of the film maker, Nina Paley. The epic is narrated from Sita’s perspective with a fair share of feminism. It’s a simple story made stunning by unusual storytelling, delightful visuals and a captivating script, that is both funny and irreverent. It combines the ancient and the modern without any obvious effort. There is Nina’s story set in San Fransico running parallel with Sita’s story set in Ayodhya, there are shadow puppets that have an ancient frame but use modern script, there is Sita singing blues in the forest of Lanka and yet to the story teller’s credit, these disparities appear natural.

Nina uses paintings to show episodes from the Ramayana, narration with the help of Indian shadow puppets that helps put scenes into context and adds immense humour to the script, seamless musical interjections where Sita uses music to convey her emotions and loneliness and a contemporary modern story.

It might not be easy to find a DVD of this movie, but you can visit sitasingstheblues.com, download a copy legally as it's a creative common film, buy movie merchandise or even make a donation if you want to.

It’s art. It’s brilliant story telling. It’s a burst of new thoughts. You must not miss this one.

Rating: 8/10

"The Oxford Murders" dies of poor acting

The Oxford Murders is based on a Novel of the same name by Argentine mathematician Guillermo Martínez. It stars Elijah Wood as Martin, an American grad student who comes to Oxford so that he can study with renowned professor Arthur Seldom (John Hurt). However, Martin and Seldom find themselves thrown together when they stumble on the murder of Martin's landlady (Anna Massey) and join forces to try and crack the code.

The movie has very cold overtones throughout the movie and maintains a "bitter" flavor both in terms of the characters & look of the movie. Especially the sharp and bitter Mother-daughter conversations, when the protagonist played by Elijah Wood in introduced, is particularly well written screenplay. The editors have done a good job in keeping the mysteriousness of the story while maintaining the cold outlook of the movie.

But that’s pretty much the only good about the movie. It’s an astonishingly bad movie, as the good subject matter is marred by poor acting especially from the poker face Elijah. The film never really takes off and keeps moving like a pretentious intro to Philosophy 101. The film tries to impress with its erudition but it’s the mathematical concepts which make it slightly interesting, but only very slightly. Infact I liked the first 10 mins of the movie and was looking forward to the rest. The subject matter had a lot of potential but the execution did no justice to the story. To add to it, the script is quite bad and most scenes the actors keep talking gibberish with each other without any conviction. The movie about solving puzzles ends up being one itself.

Bad casting especially for the lead role makes the movie sink with very little trace. Only John Hurt pulls it up a little but bad chemistry amongst actors and a very average script makes it a rather dull movie.  In comparison this one makes Da Vinci code look like a masterpiece :)

Watch it if you want to pass time while sipping on coffee on a dull rainy day.

Rating: 5/10

The King's Speech -it's a film that triumphs

I went for the movie with a fair amount of reluctance. I expected it to be dramatic and aesthetic, but not really engaging. The King’s Speech surprised me and surpassed the expectations I had of the Oscar winning movie.

Casting, Screenplay, Direction and Storytelling – they got all four right.  Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, who play the stammering King George VI and the rather radical speech therapist Lionel Logue respectively, carried the story on their shoulders very efficiently. Every other character did their piece in an unobstructive manner.  The movie in short is about triumph –triumph of an unexpected friendship between the king and his speech therapist, the triumph of king’s voice over his stammer and the triumph of perseverance built into almost every single character.

An ordinary theme such as a king getting over his stammer is garnished with a fine sense of narration and an even better sense of story development. From the mouth of possible clichés, this story blossoms, allowing the two prime characters to come to life. A vulnerable yet haughty king succumbing to the radical and unconventional ways of an irreverent yet capable speech therapist is a predictable story with an unpredictable storytelling method.

By the end of the movie, the king’s and Lionel’s victory becomes important to their viewers, which in itself is a testimony to their splendid performances. It is slow in parts, which allows in a strange way, the time that the story is set to sink in. What comes through without a stutter is the screenplay and timing.  The flowing lines punched in with wit and brilliance takes the crown in the King’s Speech. It’s an excellent film with a fine story. 

Rating : 8.5/10

Michael Clayton - slow buildup to a good end

Michael Clayton was one of those movies that i watched waiting for it to give me brilliant experience and it didn't quite do that. With all the Oscar nominations (and wins) and George clooney, it was supposed to be a movie which would blow you away atleast in my head.

Its named after the protagonist played by George Clooney who plays a "fixer" for a highly successful law firm. He seems to have a reputation of fixing everyone;s problems just not his own. But the conflict arises when the main attorney of the firm has a birth of conscience while defending a mega corporation and even Clayton cannot handle the mess.

But the movie was not particularly remarkable or the one which i would be wowed with. It moved at a slow pace and the buildup to the story was too long to have the effect that the last 15 mins had. Its a kind of role which fits Clooney like a glove but then again we have watched him play such roles before.
It a decently good movie if you decide to stick to it for a while. Maybe its that kind of a movie that would grow on you but then i wasn't that impressed with it the first time.

Rating: 6.5/10

"Rachel Getting Married" is not that much about marriage

It’s a story about a dysfunctional family and the whole drama about the wedding of Kym’s sister- Rachel. Ann Hathaway plays Kym who’s just comes out of Rehab for her sister’s wedding. The whole story revolves around the uneasy situations that are created by unwanted Kym being backed up by her dad and lack of belief in Kyms goodness due to history being a junkie/addict (even their brother’s drowning). It’s a typical scenario of a good child –bad child seen in completely different light.

Its shot in a “blank verse” style (if I can use that for non-poetry media), sometimes loosely stitched scenes and personally I like it. But the shades of discomfort are captured very beautifully and characters dilemma portrayed quite remarkably by the director. Some mundane house situations are woven into a unique drama. There is a scene where Kym realizes she actually inspired a fellow rehab guy to start his life again by her made-up stories, which upsets her sister. This escalates into a situation which eventually makes family open to each other’s point of view and Kym being a misunderstood girl.

Its moments like these and the completely different take on a wedding in a family makes this movie worth watching. However, most characters other than Ann Hathaway’s are not quite convincing esp. the couple who are getting married. It was nominated at the Oscars in 2009 only for best actress role and we know why J

Rating: 7/10

Tangled - A good tangle to be in

Grimm’s fairy tale comes untangled in this Disney animation film, the 50th from the house of Disney. This modern take on Rapunzel is an entertainer. Simply put – it’s clever, it will make you feel good and will make sure that you come out of the theatre smiling. It’s a straight forward story with some great musical interventions. The songs are unfussy like the movie. ‘I have a dream’ is the most hummable piece followed by ‘Mother knows best’.

The story is simple. Rapunzel, the princess is kidnapped from the palace by a witch who yearns eternal youth. While the entire kingdom waits with hope (in this case, lighted lanterns) for the return of their princess, Rapunzel stays locked up in a tall castle with no awareness of the world outside. The turn of events manifest when a charming thief lands up at her place and an engaging bond is formed between them. The events unfold in a very simple way. And quite as expected, has Rapunzel falling in love with the hero of the story.

The length of Rapunzel's hair keeps varying through out the film, which is rather distracting. But it does not take away from the movie. The characters are filled with life, as is every frame in the film which makes a rather predictable story engaging. The songs add life, break the monotony and add to the story building. The imagery is beautiful and tickles the imagination. It’s a warm, fun story, only made better with a fine dose of wit in the screenplay. Tangled is a fine tangle of music, fun and colours. It’s an easy laid back watch for the weekend.

Rating: 7.5/10

7 Khoon Maaf - This crime is unforgivable

The highlight of 7 Khoon Maaf is the song ‘Darling’. The rest of the film is a disappointment. 7 Khoon Maaf is everything you would not associate the maker of engaging movies like Omkara, Maqbool, Kaminey with. Vishal Bhardwaj has created a very uninspiring, rather boring and a definitely loosely packaged movie this time.


The movie is based on the short story by Ruskin Bond, Sussana’s Seven Husbands, a thrilling black comedy. However, the inspired piece is predictable, devoid of thrilling moments and is far from funny. What is a pity is that the potential of the subject is underutilized to an extent that it renders the movie unimaginative. It seemed like a story that didn’t wait to be developed but was delivered in a hurry without weaving the 7 stories into a single one. It failed to bring out the horror or the trauma of an effected mind, or the emotional build of the girl who marries wrong seven times and ends up killing her husbands in order to get out of the bad marriage. Even brilliant actors like Priyanka Chopra, Naseerudin Shah, Konakana Sen Sharma were poorly presented and suffered the whiplash of erratic story telling.


If there is one word I could use to describe this movie, it would be ‘patchy’. From the make up to the acting, to the story telling, if there is one common element, it was the fact that they consistently remained patchy. Neil Nitin Mukesh however deserves a mention for the playing his role, albeit small as Susanna’s first husband with great charm.


No revelations, no surprises, poor storytelling and a patchy delivery turns this movie into a long boring watch and leaves us with no empathy for any of its characters. No Maafi for Vishal Bharadwaj for this movie!
Rating : 3/10