Varun's Word

We have seen quite a few political thrillers in the past. While Ram Gopal Varma concentrated on the evil mind a lot more and Mani Ratnam concentrated on the path and youth’s entry into politics, Dibakar Banerjee is the king of details.

The thumbs-up symbol has a reverse meaning in Indian bureaucracy. If too many people are saying you have done a good job, especially your superiors, then it means they are going to crush your self respect and take a decision in favour of their personal benefit. Dibakar Banerjee shows exactly this. From a slew of chapraasis to help the bureaucrats to personal assistants standing ready with the water bottle in the gyms, to assistants handing over tooth prcik to the officer so that he could clean his teeth! God save Mother India from these practises. Thank GOD, the economy opened up in 1992 and the Americans taught us how to value human labour.

Abhay Deol portrays the role of an IAS officer from Tamil Nadu, who listens to Vishnu Sahasranamam on his Laptop, speaks Tamil occasionally, who wears a tie whenever he is performing his duty, who has the ‘I am highly qualified’look on his face, who occasionally removes his spectacles and takes deep breaths to imitate and irritate like a pucca bureaucrat, who works on enquiries very methodically, who threatens his boss but still handles the larger picture well, comes as the clean winner in the movie. For those 2 hours he merges himself into the IAS role like iron binds to globin in human blood.

Emraan Hashmi’s first experiment without his popular act of smooching the leading ladies has indeed come out very well. This is the first movie of his that I paid money to go and watch.

Kalki Koechlin does a fine role. However this role was not as tailor made for her as her roles in movies like Shaitaan, ZNMD. Abhay Deol steals away the limelight from her. She is famous for portraying strong roles, but has compromised being the love interest of a professor who is already married.

Prosenjit plays the role of a professor supposedly from some university in New York. He appears in the movie for the first 15 minutes and is a welcome change.

The only weak link in the movie is the unnecessary drama around Kalki involving her domestic help. It could have been avoided as it seems too much of a co-incidence. May be it was to give more depth to Kalki’s role?

Shanghai glorifies the details in high profile enquiry commissions. Intelligent watch ! As the song goes, we have dengue, we have malaria, but still life goes on and we sing ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’.

–Varun Mannava Gowtham

Entertainment is inversely proportional to logic in Indian movies. If a movie, that is set to entertain crowds of all sorts, can still tie back to logic, I consider it to be top class entertainment.

Remember the bus stop, the isolated stretch of road while going to school or the super-market near your house where you used to frequently get a glimpse of the girl on whom you had a teenage crush? This movie transports you to the magical world of school days. Those days when you thought you would not get caught in rain but you would end up getting drenched. The days when you wanted to dance around in the rain thinking of your blossoming love. Aishwarya Dhanush (Director) can definitely strike a chord with the youngsters when it comes to portraying the first love. Add to that Anirudh Ravichander’s amazing background score, the feeling of watching it on the big screen grows on you.

The director did not submit too much to the image of the leading actor (Dhanush) and controlled herself from doing something illogical. This has been so evident from the fact that the world popular Kolaveri Di song was shot in a simple way on Marina. This proves they have not got carried away with the success of the song.

Dhanush has got a rare combination of entertainment quotient as well as acting depth. He breezes across as the teenager in pursuit of his first love. Comic timing of Shiva Karthikeyan is a plus point during the school days. He emotes heart-break with ease when his lover tells him she is going off to US for higher studies. He sets the standards while acting as a Bipolar disorder patient. Only an actor of his caliber can make sure such a concept sails through to the audiences un-adulterated.

Someone please stop Shruthi Haasan from crying. Can’t stand when she is trying too hard to impress the critics that she can act those emotional scenes. She is cute as the schoolgirl, and shares great chemistry with Dhanush during the intimate scenes. However when it comes to the depth scenes, she just irritates.

Anirudh Ravichander is a bunch of talent. When he takes the piano or the violin or the guitar, he just owns the crowd. Mandolin Seenu for the theme music is a smart application of talent.

For those who are wondering what 3 stands for, since the suspense is already out, I can go ahead reveal that it is Ram (Dhanush), Janani (Shruthi Haasan) and Ram’s other side ! And just like Bipolar Disorder that Ram develops, the movie and the performances excite you too much in the first half and deeply affect you in the intense second half.

–Varun Mannava Gowtham

Be brave! Be a Horse!

A thing of beauty is never permanently owned.  At times auctions are held to decide the owner. Sometimes it is just snatched away. At times it is owned through love and friendship. There have been wars over owning Helen! Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal, but he perished. The Uttar Pradesh Government owns it now.

This warhorse too, a thing of beauty and courage, is owned by several owners at different stages of his life. Some owners give him compassion and love. Others take pride owning the horse. Some just employ him in pulling artillery and torture him! But Joey (the warhorse) keeps looking forward during its struggling phase.

This movie has been rightfully nominated for best cinematography, art direction, original score. The landscapes of England have been wonderfully covered by the cinematographer. The background score generates the emotion in your heart and it ends as a tear in your eye. Emotion is the silent character throughout the movie.

This is one of the masterpiece movies that does not care about box-office. It has its fair share of humor, however it keeps focus on the main protagonist, the Warhorse and his journey. The brilliance of a director like Spielberg reflects during the war scenes. What amazes me is the perfection with which they shot the scene where Joey gets entangled in the barbed wire. Directing excellence, one must say! Watch out for some exceptional dialogues on Bravery! The costumes and the settings transport you back to the war-zone that existed a 100 years ago!

Saving Private Ryan is one of the greatest war movies ever made, this is because of its star-cast! WarHorse does not have a cast to depend on. This in a way becomes its only drawback. Its more like a documentary on the Horse’s life at various stages rather than a movie involving characters. Maybe it was meant to be that way. This leaves a sense of incompleteness in this Spielberg movie.

Miracle horse found in the battle front re-unites with his master.
Bottom-line : Karma can be lenient on Hardworking Horses!

–Varun Mannava Gowtham