The documentary is set in Malegaon which is a small town about 175 miles from Mumbai. The town is based around the power loom industry and the town cinema hall provides a much needed escape from the drudgery of everyday life to the people residing there. Nasir, a videographer who helps run the cinema decides to shoot his own movie in Malegaon. Having previously shot such masterpieces like “Malegaon ke Sholay”, he wants to go all Hollywood this time. He decides to remake Superman into “Malegaon Ka Superman”. From here on the film follows the mad cap antics of the film crew as they go about bringing their dreams on to the silver screen.

He ropes in Shafique, who works in one of the local looms to play his “Superman”. Nasir explains that his “Superman” will be different, and will suffer from a variety of disease like asthma from flying in the polluted skies.  So he chooses Shafique, who looks like anything but Superman. And he chooses Akram to play the bald villain with a penchant for filth. (Excellent dialogue delivery by the way) As the movie progresses, you begin to see the joy that the simple act of making a film brings into their lives. They shoot with makeshift gear, green screens, a handy cam, a bicycle for a dolly and have many accidents on the way to completing the movie. And the local newspaper keeps referring to their production as “Spider-man”.  At the end of it you are convinced that even that scrawny set of bones playing “Superman” can fly! Such is the magic of cinema!!

The film crew is uniformly funny, from their attempts at green screen magic (quite successful actually), to the leading man playing Superman to the mishaps on set. The movie is darkly comic at times, and brings about the aspirations of simple people beautifully to the screen. It also highlights some of the problems that small town India faces like lack of power, clean water and other facilities. But most of all, the movie’s sheer brilliance lies in the manner it brings the joy of movie making to the audience.  Highly recommended stuff.

PS: The film has one kick-ass theme song  :)

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes hasn’t seen many big budget movie adaptations in recent years, and when I heard that Guy Ritchie (of all people) was making a Sherlock Holmes movie, I was particularly intrigued. It came out in theaters here in India on 8^th January, and I managed to catch a show yesterday. To put it in 140 characters: Conan Doyle’s Holmes it ain’t, but thank you Guy Ritchie for giving us a new action franchise

The movie opens with Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) and Dr. Watson (Jude Law) stopping a black magician called Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong). Blackwood is put behind bars and sentenced to death. Meanwhile, Holmes is in a bit of a rut, with no new cases and long time pal Watson getting ready to move out of 221B and into the marital home. Blackwood is executed and he shortly rises from the death and begins his reign of death and terror, leaving Holmes with one big mystery to solve. In the middle of this, enters Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams) who wants Holmes to track down a man for her mysterious employer. What follows is a roller coaster ride of pure action with Holmes displaying the customary use of “ze little grey cells”.

A lot has been said about Guy Ritchie’s take on Holmes. In general, I agree with Wired.com’s assessment that to a large degree Ritchie’s Holmes is the kind of character that Doyle imagined. A lot of people were miffed that Holmes wasn’t shown wearing his deerstalker hat and smoking his gooseneck pipe. While it does seem weird to see Holmes on screen without his trademark garb, one must remember that the image of Holmes today is largely due early illustrations of the stories in the Strand magazine and the way that Holmes was portrayed in early theatre and film adaptations. That being said, a lot of Holmes’s characteristics such as his skill in the boxing ring are drawn directly from references in the Conan Doyle tales. Guy Ritchie does skirt around Holmes fondness for cocaine, but he does hint at a possible penchant for substance abuse in a few scenes.

In the end, I think the performances are more to blame than the story or the interpretation for how the film has been received so far. While Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law show excellent “chemistry” on screen, Downey Jr’s performance as Holmes leaves a bit to be desired. He actually looks like he walked into this movie straight from the sets of Iron Man 2 (coming this summer by the way). He employs a lot of the same mannerisms that he uses in his portrayal of Tony Stark. In fact I was half expecting him to don some Victorian Era steam-punk version of the Iron Man suit for the final fight sequence.

And it’s not just Robert Downey Jr. who looks out of place.  Mark Strong, who plays Lord Blackwood, looks like he walked straight into the movie from the sets of Stardust. Mark Strong played Prince Septimus in Stardust, and I think that character bears a very strong physical resemblance (in the manner of dress etc.) to Lord Blackwood (minus the longish hair). Strong, who otherwise was very good in movies like RocknRolla and Body of Lies, seems wasted here.

Still the movie does have its moments. I particularly liked the explanation that Holmes gave for the supernatural events in the movie. I think it had a nice steam-punk feel to it, a lot like the ultra-silent air gun in “The Adventure of the Empty House”. Besides this Ritchie does a marvelous job of recreating the London that Holmes must have lived in.

If you are a Holmes fan, go watch it, I’m sure you will be entertained. It’s definitely worth a watch. And for those who watched it and loved it, I’m sure you must have seen the big hint at the end. There is a sequel coming and it’s starring Professor Moriarty. I can’t wait enough for that.

Avatar follows Jake Sully, a paraplegic ex-Marine, who is flown in to Pandora – a distant moon of a gas giant – as a last minute replacement for his brother. Here he takes part in the Avatar project that links his mind with a bio-engineered eight foot humanoid alien, designed to resemble the Na’vi, the natives of the planet. The idea is to infiltrate the natives and learn more about them. As Jake integrates with the natives, he finds his loyalties are increasingly being tested and he wonders about whose side he really should be on.

Avatar’s story isn’t its strong point, with Cameron weaving in everything that’s “wrong” with this world, with the least possible subtlety. Maybe that was his intention, to make us sit up and take notice, but it doesn’t really work and the sermonizing detracts from an otherwise fine film. What he does succeed in doing is create an immersive world, populated with strange creatures, both deadly and fascinatingly beautiful. Brought to life in glorious 3-D, Pandora looks like no world you have ever seen on screen. It’s hauntingly beautiful, and is guaranteed to stay with you for a long while.

So if you haven’t seen it as yet, go and see it in 3-D (preferably in an Imax). I liked it so much that I’m headed out watch it again tomorrow.

But Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece is not just about Hans Landa, and rests on strong performances from all its cast. The story is typical Tarantino fare, but set in World War II and tells of an alternative ending to the war. It’s divided into five chapters with the first being called “Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France”, a nod to Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns. It opens in typical western fashion with the Nazi’s led by Hans Landa driving in from the distance. Hans Landa is hunting for Jews and suspects that they may be hidden on a farm. What follows is a tense, suspenseful scene with Landa menacing the farmer in German, French and English!! Waltz gives a thoroughly mesmerizing performance as the Nazi colonel, with some of the best lines throughout the movie. The chapter ends with Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) escaping to Paris to run a theater which later plays a focal role in the climax.

In subsequent chapters we are introduced to Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), the leader of the OSS commando squad nicknamed “The Basterds”. Dropped behind enemy lines, Raine’s squad brings terror to the Nazi hearts with their scalp taking apache ways. We also meet Oberschütze Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl), a German war hero and now movie star, who is smitten by Shosanna and Sturmbannführer Dieter Hellstrom (August Diehl), a diabolically clever Gestapo Major.  Other characters like the german movie star / Allied spy Bridget Von Hammersmark (for Diane Kruger) and the suave British soldier / film critic Archie Hicox (Michael Fassbender) pop up as the plot chugs towards its climax. The climax ends in typical Tarantino fashion, with violence, explosions and gunfire, a fitting ending to an absolute gem of a movie.

At just under 3 hours, Inglourious Basterds is long, but thanks to the superb performances you don’t really notice it. My favorite scene is the extended showdown in the tavern between Dieter Hellstrom and Archie Hicox, Bridget and the Basterds, with the suspense hinging on something as little as an out of place accent. And I also liked Pitt’s performance as Aldo Raine and in particular his brand of “eye(I)-talian”. And last but not the least, enough praise cannot be showered on Christopher Waltz. He brings a diabolical sparkle to the proceedings, probably will get nominated for an Oscar (and maybe even win) for the role.

To conclude, Inglourious Basterds is brilliant, diabolic, funny, violent, brutal, human, typical Tarantino and a must watch (if you haven’t already seen it).

The movie opens with a sort of back story for the McCullen clan, giving the origin of this clan of weapon traders and how the word “Destro” got linked with them. For newcomers to the GI Joe universe, Destro is the silver encased Cobra weapons designer who also heads the armaments company, MARS industries. The movie then cuts to a NATO meeting where James McCullen (Christopher Eccleston), the current head of the McCullen clan and CEO of MARS industries presents his new nano-technology based warheads that can eat through metal, tanks and even entire cities. The movie then follows the efforts of a mysterious group led by the Baroness (Sienna Miller) and Storm Shadow (Lee Byung-hun), which is later referred to as Cobra, to acquire the weapons and unleash mayhem on the world. Enter the elite Special Forces unit called GI Joe that is hell bent on stopping them, to ensure peace for all men and the protection of the American way of life. What follows are some pretty well executed action sequences, involving action in the heart of Paris, in an underground base and deep underneath the polar icecap.

The movie was one of the better action blockbusters that I have seen so far this year. It also had some pretty interesting plot points.

• The movie displays a range of advanced technology. I loved the idea of nano-technology warheads being deployed as tank and city destroying weapons. I also liked the “pulse” weapons used by the Cobra troops. The climax shows them to be electricity based, though the manner in which they are shown on screen is reminiscent of the sonic weapons used in the movie “Steel“. Also, the accelerator suits seem straight out of  “Crysis” (possibly minus the Predator like camouflage) The one thing that I failed to understand, why on earth would you need a multi-million dollar particle accelerator to arm the nano-tech warheads ? That was just plain inexplicable, but, then again it’s a movie.
• The movie also had some neat re-imagining of the characters, some of which wasn’t exactly in keeping with GI Joe canon.
  • The manner in which Destro gets encased in his silver suit was well thought out. Still, the comic book re-imagining of his suit is actually more impressive
  • The same goes for Zartan and the Cobra Viper troops. I thought it was quite cool, that their powers (of disguise for Zartan, and apparent stupidity and lack of self-preservation for the Vipers) come from the same nano-tech which also made a neat Cobra insignia at the point of injection
  • Snake-eyes for a change has taken a vow of silence, rather than having his vocal chords damaged like in the original conception of the character
  • I didn’t like the introduction of Cobra commander in the end. I was expecting it to be someone else. The character was too Dr. Mindbender-ish from the start to be the canonical Cobra commander.
• Finally the acting. While you definitely can’t expect Oscar worthy acting from the movie, there are some decent performances. Seinna Miller has a blast playing the Baroness, easily the best performance in the movie. Christopher Eccleston, last seen as Dr.Who and in Heroes, does a good job as Destro. The Joe’s all put in decent performances, with Ray Park doing his usual silent action role (Maybe this guy should have been born in the Silent Era ?). Brendon Fraser, puts in a “small blink and you will miss” performance as Sgt.Stone.

To sum up, I found GI Joe to be a decent action / adventure flick, definitely recommended. Go into the movie suspending all disbelief and you won’t be disappointed. (After all it takes tremendous suspension of disbelief to believe that its possible that the lead characters convoy, of the thousands of convoys on the planet, just happens to be raided by his ex-fiancé, one he hasn’t seen for four years, now doesn’t it ? )

Public Enemies
Public Enemies has Johnny Depp playing Depression era gangster, John Dillinger. Dillinger became quite famous (or was that notorious) because of his stylized bank heists, so much so that the FBI named him the “first” ever public enemy. The movie follows Dillinger’s exploits as his nemesis Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale)  attempts to catch him. Directed by Michael Mann  (Collateral and  The Kingdom), this promises to be a good cops and robbers caper.

Moon
I think 2009 is a good year for sci-fi, and Moon is as good as it gets. Moon is set well on the moon, where Sam Rockwell plays a miner on a three year contract to mine some sort of clean energy source on the moon. He is kept company by a computer / robot (very reminiscent of HAL from 2001: A space odyssey), and can only communicate with his wife and son on earth through recorded messages. His three year contract now nears its end and he expects to rejoin his family on earth. However his replacement is not something he quite expects. The movie stands out for its 2001 like ambience and Rockwell’s amazing performance. A definite must see for sci-fi movie fans.

GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra
GI Joe was probably the first action hero toy I played with as a kid (I had Cobra’s Firefly), and thats why this movie is on the list. The movie is an origin story of sorts with the Joes banding together to take down a shadowy terrorist organization called Cobra. Cobra in the movie is headed by renegade arms dealer, Destro, who aims to hold the world ransom to his advanced weaponry. Throw in some great special effects, action sequences and this just might be the formulaic action hit of the year. On a side note, the trailer indicates that the GI Joes will be powered by an exo-skeletal suit, somewhat like the GI Joe: Sigma 6 series.

In the Loop
I’ve always loved British comedies, and this one is one of the better ones to come out this year. It follows the exploits of the Minister of International Development, who due to his inept handling of the media sets things in motion that might just escalate into an invasion of a foreign country by the US and UK. The movie is hilarious with several laugh out loud moments. Peter Capaldi is superb as Malcolm Tucker, the communications minister who serves as the British PM’s enforcer. If you like it you may also like The Thick of It, a very similar British TV series.

Shutter Island
Bhooshan recommended watching the trailer of this movie and so I decided to give it a shot. What can I say, looks like Shutter Island might just be one of the best thrillers of 2009. The movie follows two US Marshals who travel to a mental asylum for the criminally insane which is set on the titular island. They are there to investigate the disappearance of a murderess who was committed to the asylum. Directed by Martin Scorsese, the movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo.

Surrogates
In the future, people live in isolation only interacting with other people through avatar’s called ‘surrogates’. When an increasing number of people are killed through their surrogates, a cop (Bruce Willis) decides to investigate. However, destruction of the cop’s surrogate soon forces him to confront the real world. This movie is based on the five-issue comic book series of the same name. I remember that the graphic novel was pretty good, and with Bruce Willis returning to the big screen after Die Hard 4.0 , this movie promises to be interesting.

Whiteout
This is another graphic novel to big screen adaptation of the hit comic book series by the same name. The movie follows US Marshal Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) as she tries to locate a killer at large in the McMurdo station, Antarctica. The situation isn’t helped by the stark and bleak landscape and the fast approaching storm which promises to cloak the base in a whiteout. The comic book series was pretty good with its stark “Sin city”-esque black and white panels, lets hope the movie is as good.

Pandorum
Pandorum belongs to the genre of Sci-Fi horror (you know Alien, Event Horizon, monsters in space etc), and not having seen anything great in this genre of late I was particularly intrigued by its plot.

Two crew members awaken out of deep hyper-sleep and find themselves on a seemingly abandoned spacecraft. They don’t know how they got there and nor do they have any recollection of what their mission might have been. They soon realize that they aren’t alone in space and there is something or someone on board with them.

Bull
This movie is dark comedy about well – bull. Seems interesting and being a fan of dark comedies will wait for this to come out. Here is the description from Apple Trailers:
Bull is a darkly comic neo-noir about deception, identity, money, murder, and really tall buildings. Deep within heatwave-baked skyscraper canyons, a hapless stockbroker gets caught up in a twisty web where no one – no one at all – is telling the truth.

Flame and Citron
After Valkyrie, this year there are quite a few historical thrillers set during World War II. Flame and Citron is one of them. The movie is set during closing years of the World War. Nazi Germany has occupied Denmark, however it still faces fierce underground resistance. Flame and Citron are the code names of two underground agents, renowned for their ruthlessness in dealing with traitors and the Nazi. When they are sent to kill Flame’s lover, they begin to question their orders and decide on their own agenda, sparking a secret war with the Gestapo.

Inglorious Basterds
Ladies and Gentlemen, Tarantino’s back with a new explosive thriller. The movie follows the World War II exploits of a special unit, nicknamed ‘The Basterds’. Led by Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), the unit is composed of American-Jewish soldiers who strike fear in the hearts of the Nazi enemy through their brutal slayings of Nazi soldiers. Tarantino calls it a “western” with World War II iconography. Early reviews indicate that its quite in the Tarantino mould, ultra-violent and highly stylized, so I’m hoping its a good watch.

Cold Souls
Paul Giamatti in this metaphysical targicomedy set some time in the future.  Here is the description from IMDB: Paul (Giamatti) is an actor who feels bogged down by his participation in a production of Chekov’s play, Vanya. His condition which leads him to an organization that will store his soul while he treads the boards, though complications (and international travel) arise when his soul goes missing.

The acting sucks as well as the script. The only redeeming feature is the extremely stylized production value. The screen world of Max Payne is very enchanting, I only wish that the story did justice to it.