Some recently watched good movies

Well in the last 2-3 months there have been a few good movies & I thought its better I write something on them rather do a formal review of them. To start with I begin with A Wednesday ( well I saw it again last evening & so thats top in my memory)- a movie made by Neeraj Pandey & coming out from the UTV stable.Starring the veterans- Naseeruddin Shah & Anupam Kher in the lead along with Jimmy Shergill, Deepal Shaw etc among the supporting cast, the movie talks about how a " stupid, common man" can wake up & shake the law & order system and tell them that enough is enough.The movie which started off on a slow note at the box office has gone on to be well received by both the critics & at the box office.

Tahaan- by Santosh Sivan is another good hindi movie which I saw incidentally on the same day as I first saw A Wednesday ( both released on the same day-5th Sep).The movie though having shades of resemblance to Majid Majidi's films, shows that in India Santosh is the best to make movies with children at the focus point.It talks about a boy in Kashmir undertaking a journey to get his donkey back.Terrorism makes its presence felt with the scenic beauty of Kashmir in the background.A very good movie but sadly not appreciated by the masses.

Amitabh Bachchan made his english debut with Rituparno Ghosh's The Last Lear.it had also had Preity Zinta, Arjun Rampal, Shefali Shah ,Jishu Sengupta & Prosenjit.The story was that of an retired theatre actor ( Big B) who is an expert at Shakespeare who is cajoled to do a movie by a director ( Arjun Rampal).The performances were good but the subject was found to be quite slow in its narration & quite offbeat to make any impact at the box office.

Rock On- was spot on.Probably the first movie with rock music as its theme to make such an impact in India, the movie had rocking music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.Farhan Akhtar made an impressive debut both as an actor & as a singer ( though I prefer him more as an actor).The film also had good performances from Arjun Rampal,Luke Kenny,Purab Kohli,Prachi Desai ( debut) & Shahana Goswami.

In tamil I happened to see quite a few decent movies of late.Dhaam Dhoom by the late Jeeva was a decent action entertainer- shot mainly in Russia.It had good performances by Jayam Ravi,Kangna Ranaut,Lakshmi Rai & Jayaram.The story was all about an Indian doctor getting framed for murder in Russia where he's attending a conference & how he goes out to find the truth.Music by Harris Jayaraj also played a role in the movie's success.

Jayam Kondan released on the same day as Dhaam Dhoom & had a slow start at the box office.But with the word of the mouth being good, the movie went on to do quite well overall.Directed by Kannan, a former assistant to Mani Ratnam , it was old wine packaged well in a new bottle.It had ( step) sibling rivalry between Vinay & Lekha Washington as its main theme.Bhavana played the love interest of Vinay.Kannan made sure that the movie also had the necessary ingredients to pull the family audience & it worked.

Saroja was the 2nd movie directed by Venkat Prabhu & was inspired by Judgement Night.It was basically the story of 4 friends off on a road trip from Chennai to Hyderabad to watch a cricket match & what happens when they get lost & stumble upon a group of gangsters.A very refreshing concept for tamil cinema,the comedy by Premji Amaran was a major highlight in the movie.

In malayalam I would say Thirakatha directed by Ranjith & starring Prithvi Raj & Priya Mani as well as Gulmohar directed by Jayaraj and marking the acting debut of Ranjith were two good movies among the recent releases.Thirakatha has Prithvi Raj as a film maker who along with his friends run a coffee shop & also belive in making realistic cinema.Prithvi stumbles upon the story of a relationship between the reigning superstar ( played well by Anoop Menon) and a yesteryear actress ( Priya Mani who is simply brilliant) and wants to make this as his subject for his next movie.When the superstar knows this he tries to prevent this .What happens then is what the story is all about.Rumoured to be the story of Kamal Haasan's relationship with Srividya, the film found favourable response from both critics & masses.

Gulmohar was all about Ranjith playing Induchoodan, a naxalite who is reminiscing about the old days of the movement.When all of a sudden one day an incident makes him take up the cause & restart the movement again.Ranjith made a solid debut as an actor, but unfortunately the movie wasn't really appreciated by the masses.

In telugu the recent movies that I liked are Kotha Bangaru Lokam, Nenu Meeku Telusa,Ashta Chamma.Will write on them later.In english there havent been many- probably only Wall -E & Body of Lies.

Now I would soon start off with my regular reviews starting with movies seen from diwali....

Time to wake up!!!

Well its shameful but I need to admit that I have been quite lazy of late & thats why I've kind of disappeared from here in the last nearly 3 month period.I have had a job change, went to Ladakh for a trek, been travelling a lot for my "training" period in my new job in this intervening period.

Now its time to hit the world wide web & pen down my thoughts once again.I've moved out of one of my favourite cities- Chennai & moved into a much smaller city- Vijayawada.And what do mainly people do in Vijayawada for relaxation? Simple- they watch movies, eat & drink.This is amply illustrated by the number of theatres & bars in town.

I have already been making my customary rounds of the theatres in Vijayawada.Inox (yes Inox is present in :) ) I'm sure will soon become my favourite haunt apart from the other the regular theatres.So now that the honours have been done, let me get back to writing on my favourite subject- cinema.