Movie - 32, Exodus: Gods and Kings

Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

by

Ridley Scott

Movie Seen: 06 September 2015

Note Written: 01 October 2015

'Exodus: Gods and Kings' is a film which follows the biblical story of Moses, his life in Egypt, and the exodus of him and his people in search of the promised land. The film works as a visual spectacle but isn't that impressive, lacks a soul I felt. A recent biblical epic which came, Daren Aronofsky's 'Noah', is a film that had emotional depth as well as being visually stunning. All the characters in the movie gave great performances, and the epic visuals were a treat but I felt something was missing, most of the time. 

What guides the movie forward is conflict and contention - between Moses and Ramses, between Moses and God. Moses has to make choices for his people while going against his 'brother', Moses has to watch the acts/wrath of God - it's not an easy task. Even when I was little, I had felt that God's punishments to the Egyptian people were too harsh. I don't get it when people say that God of the Old Testament was harsh and New Testament gentle. God at least, of all entities, should have some consistency. 
Overall, the movie is just watch and forget.

PS: There's Aaron Paul and Ben Kingsley in it. 

Book - 32, Without Feathers

Without Feathers (1975)

by

Woody Allen

Book Read: 15 October 2015

Note Written: 23 October 2015

'Without Feathers' was recommended and lent by Thara Mohan- cheers and thanks! She had warned me of the apparent danger of 'public laughter' and related embarrassment- so it happened as well, to be frank. My symptoms were broad smiles and wide grins and I somehow managed to laugh silently with a my cheeks almost exploding due to all the suppressed laughter, during my reading sessions in the MMTS train and RTC bus. 

Without Feathers is a collection of various essays, notes, and two plays by Woody Allen. I especially enjoyed the two plays - God and Death. The whole book was weird and funny, going haywire, and making you laugh all the while. Do read, everyone.

Woody Allen's method of classic, thought-provoking humour, which is seen in his movies and writings alike, makes for an absolute pleasure reading and viewing experience. He has a great understanding of arts, literature, politics, world affairs, and many other subjects and his humour comes from the combination of all these. I shall try and read his other works as I come across them in due time. Again, do read if you get Without Feathers!

Movie - 31, Kunjiramayanam

Kunjiramayanam (2015)

by

Basil Joseph

Movie Seen: 31 August 2015

Place: Rose Theater, Mukkam

Note Written: 25 September 2015

After watching morning show 'Double Barrel', I went for matinee show of 'Kunjiramayanam'. Jobin (my cousin) was supposed to come with me but he didn't turn up. The movie was a pure entertainer. The audience at the screen where I watched gave a really good response to the movie. There was laughter all through the movie. Before the movie began they showed the trailer of 'Ennu Ninte Moideen' and the response was crazy, as it was the story of Mukkam itself. 

The title sequence of Kunjiramayanam deserves a special mention. With its visuals of village folk in their various daily activities and smiling faces, the sequence is lovely and evokes a smile in our and freshness in our mind. Also deserving a mention is the 'Salsa' song, a recent favourite of mine in terms of its parody style lyrics, tune and its hilarious visuals. 

From start to finish, the approach of a Kerala youngster with good humour sense is evident. The experience was like reading a children's comic and having lot of fun with caricature-like characters. My favourite in the movie was Dhyan Sreenivasan, whose portrayal of Lalu, a shy, stupid boy who looks adores his good-for-nothing mentor and never achieves anything. Dhyan was such a darling as Lalu! The suspense created and maintained for the guest appearances were really worth the wait. 'Kunjiramayanam' is definitely my kind of a silly, fun movie. Had a great time. 

Book - 31, A Game of Thrones

A Game of Thrones (1996)

by

George R R Martin

Book Read: 05-14 October 2015

Note Written: 17 October 2015

Getting the whole set of 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series (5 books) for just Rs. 740 is perhaps one of the best deals I ever got. Thank you Flipkart, Ann (who lent me the money then), and Paulami (who received the order) for that. The sheer thickness of the books astounded me and I was wondering when and where will I find the time to read them all. Now that I have read the first book of the series, A Game of Thrones, I have discovered that it's no big deal, the language is as simple as it can get and the story is told straightforward - you don't need to work your brains a lot. You can just race through the books. 

When I was reading the book I became in awe of the TV series more and more - it's such a brilliant adaptation! The story is not much different from the book, at least the first one is not, just a bit more detailed, that's all. When you read through, you understand the scale and finesse at which the series was made - each character, each scene will appear in front of you - it's very easy to guide your imagination. They made Tyrion such a womanizer in the TV adaptation with added scenes in brothels and all and I wondered why, but then I realized that they were just playing showbiz - more skin, more controversy, more viewers, more money.

The narration, each chapter focusing a single character in his or her point of view is interesting, but the problem is that you wish while reading that some people you could just skip to reach other people. I wouldn't now know the fresh feeling of reading the book with its plenty of twists and turns since I am already familiar with the story. That's kind of sad I think. This is the problem when you come across adaptations and remakes - you constantly compare and lose the elements of freshness and surprise.

PS: I think R+L=J is true. Unless George R R Martin decides to deceive us or not tell us at all. 

Movie - 30, Double Barrel

Double Barrel (2015)

by

Lijo Jose Pellissery

Movie Seen: 31 August 2015

Place: PeeCee Theater, Mukkam

Note Written: 21 September 2015

The thirst to see Lijo Jose Pellissery's latest, even when no one was willing to come with me due to the negative reviews and reports of the first two days, took me to PeeCee mukkam. Jobin (my cousin) had promised to come for 'Kunjiramayanam' in the afternoon, so I though I could already be there at mukkam after watching Double Barrel. The movie is definitely not for the normal Indian audience, it is something totally unseen in our commercial films as yet, that's the reason for the hesitant acceptance of it, according to me. 

Double Barrel is LJP all the way - he is a craftsman who knows what he's doing, who's passion towards cinema is unflinching, who sees nothing else but the joy and thrill of making quality cinema. My favourites of the various characters in the movie were 'Silent and the Kid' - a great duo, and also Blacky, the gangster. There were a lot of experiments in craft and script of the movie which made it a fun, cinematic experience to me. Double Barrel is LJP's yet another step to the future of Indian cinema. Most people won't understand or accept it now, but will laud this movie later - the same way 'City of God' is being accepted now as one of Malayalam cinema's best.

Double Barrel is a clash of genres- enjoyable, weird, full of classy frames, plenty of fun shootouts. I should watch it again and again! I feel sad that I couldn't watch it a second time in big screen, since it was taken off from screens in Hyderabad the next week itself. 

PS: The DVD has released now - yay torrent!

Book - 30, Silent House

Silent House (1983)

by

Orhan Pamuk

Book Read: 28 September - 04 October, 2015

Note Written: 04 October 2015

Normally what I do is read a book, wait for a couple of days, reflect on the book, and write my thoughts. This time, it's not that. I just finished reading Silent House. Pamuk weaves his magic of stories into my life yet again (not that I have read many of his works, just two, including this). Silent House claims nothing profound in its plot or but remains profound as it unravels the lives of the characters who narrate their own life and experiences. Every person is different in life and life is equally different for everyone. Our choices maketh what we are and we are all closely linked to each other, every human being, in thoughts and deeds- what affects you can affect me as well, some way or the other. All characters in the novel, Grandma (Fatma), Recep, Faruk, Hasan, Nilgun, Metin - all of them have lives knit close to each other and all of them bears crosses of their own. The book shows a clash of ideologies, religion, personal conflicts, love, lust, meaninglessness of life events, lack of empathy and understanding, fraud, and much more to us. Somehow, Recep the dwarf had always had the form of Peter Dinklage in my imagination while reading Silent House. Sometimes you place people/actors you know will fit the role, in your mind, for when events and characters are visualized as you read. 

I don't know what else to say... Life is a journey straight ahead, there is no turning back from it, there is only memories left. We can relive them, we can brood over them. We can amend our sins of the past through regret and repentance. We can build a new life through our memories. 

Movie - 29, Nosferatu

Nosferatu (1922)

by 

F W Murnau

Movie Seen: 24 August 2015

Note Written: 19 September 2015

Nosferatu is one of the earliest film adaptations of Bram Stoker's 'Dracula'. It is a silent film with inter-titles. I watched the movie on Youtube, from my office, in one of those jobless, bored days. The reason I decided upon this film was that the film constantly featured in various online lists as one of the most notable horror films of all time. In over hundred years of films, we are all now used to various kinds of scary movies- we might find most of the of horror movies as stupid or funny. Nosferatu still managed to give me goosebumps at times. 

The passion of the director in making a great horror movie with the resources and technology available at the time is a evident and found great result through Nosferatu. Various visual effects used, achieved by actual cutting and pasting of film, to show the might of Count Orlock (Dracula) were stunning! The image of the Nosferatu with his long limbs, long nails, weird head and walking style will strike you as you watch the movie and haunt you later. As someone reviews the movie 'the movie is in awe with its literature'. Even though it was an unauthorized film version of the story of Dracula and was subjected to burning because of its copyright infringement, the movie is indeed legendary. Now the film has a cult status. Sometimes, taking 'inspiration' can produce surprising results. 

Book - 29, Summer Crossing

Summer Crossing (2005)

by

Truman Capote

Book Read: 27 September 2015

Note Written: 15 October 2015

I was pretty excited about reading 'Summer Crossing' since only recently had I watched 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' - a delightful movie based on Truman Capote's novella. But the excitement didn't linger after I was through some chapters of the novel. It has been two weeks or so now since I read it, and I have already forgotten about what happens in the story. I had to check Wikipedia to refresh my memory.Now I remember what happens; but there is all chance of me forgetting it soon enough. The novel failed to captivate or interest me while reading. The book is just about 150 pages and I slept off in between due to boredom and I had to wake up and complete it later. It is said (in the wiki entry) that Capote himself wasn't that interested in the story and trashed it. A manuscript was found 50 years later and it got published in 2005. It was Capote's first attempt on a novel and I think that's why it felt very amateurish and dis-interesting to me I guess. I'm not going to trash it. It'll be in my slowly growing collection of books.Will read his other stories and share my opinions on the go. Thank You. 

Movie - 28, Kick 2

Kick 2 (2015)

by

Surender Reddy

Movie Seen: 23 August 2015

Place: Sridevi Theater, Chilkalguda

Note Written: 16 September 2015

I had two choices that day - either go for 'Bajrangi Bhaijan' or 'Kick 2', and I chose because it was the latest release compared to the other and I thought it would be more fun, especially since the first film was great. How I regret that choice now! Such a wrong choice it turned out to be. I have no idea how I endured all that bullshit - I am particularly sad since I missed Bajrangi Bhaijan and missed Biriyani from EFLU mess (Chithra had called in between, I should have gone for Biriyani then and there) that day because of this hell (literal) of a movie. Surender Reddy, the director had said that the Hindi version of Kick lacks the 'Kick' (fun) element of the original Telugu version. Then, I don't know what to say of this abomination called Kick 2. If what he says is true, then Kick 2 is the lowest the movie franchise could go. There is no kick to it at all; the movie is not even the original character's story, it's his son's, who prefers 'comfort' rather than kick. 'Kick' had given me a kick watching, but this 'comfort' guy really made me uncomfortable. Ravi Teja gave a decent performance and so did the people who constituted the Bihar village that was shown(Rajpal Yadav was there), but all of was in vain, as the director chose to make some crap story anyway. Ravi Kishan played one of the most irritating villain's ever - he disturbed the hell out of me by his 'Son of God' crap! There was no commitment to the story or its direction - they just made a franchise for the sake of it and packed a lot of bullshit - as it is normally done for most sequels now. Grow up people! Stop taking audience for granted. Make something good or don't make unnecessary sequels - do not destroy the good name you had with crap like Kick 2 or Kilukkam Kilukilukkam.