Freedom Writers

 

 

Freedom Writers

 

 

It is not often that one happens to see an excellent movie and Freedom Writers was definitely one. I can rate it among the top 10 I have ever seen.

The story is about a school teacher who at the cost of her personal life spends time, effort and money on her students to improve their lives. These students are part of a reputed public school, because of some recent rules that makes it compulsory to have under-privileged children too. The general attitude of all the other teachers is extremely discouraging. They do not trust these students and do not even give them good books. In fact the whole set of such children are put into one class. These primarily constitute blacks, Asians and other origin children from the lower level of the society. There is considerable animosity among the class members and this is something their teacher deals with beautifully. The story is about how this teacher commits to their development and improvement in their general behavior and grades and makes them realize that they need not die like their friends in their neighbourhood. They need not continue to live in poverty and squalor, but rise above it to be someone important. She shows the importance of graduating and pursuing studies beyond it; instills confidence and pride in each one of them.

Her way of teaching is very unique and different. She encourages them to maintain a diary and write in it daily. Later on these accounts are compiled to be published as Freedom Writers. She introduces the concept of holocaust and relates to their existing lives. Makes them realize the importance of voicing their concern and doing it the right way and finally teaches the “Unteachable” lot.

Hillary Swank plays the role of the young teacher. The director of the movie is Richard LaGravenese and the movie won Humanitas Prize in 2007 under the Feature Film category.

Watch this movie, for its content and strong portrayals and you’ll love it. 

 

Mama Mia!

I had one of the rare opportunities to see Mama Mia, performed live at broadway and what can I say that it was splendid. I was blown away with the way the actors performed. They sang and danced to the famous ABBA songs and the best part of all this was that the stage had very few changes, all through. Just by rotating some aspects of the set and elevating thigns here and there, the whole effect of a Greek island and a home cum hotel was reproduced.

This famous musical has been made into a movie – Mama Mia! Starring Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth. The story is about a girl who is raised by her mother on this Greek Island and is now getting married. She wants to know who her father is and hence invites three men to her wedding. 

 I just happened to see one of its trailers once more, I suppose it is time I catch up with the DVD.

 

D for …

A number of things/names could start with ‘D’ and I have many lovely people whose names start with the letter D. Unfortanately, I came to hating this poor letter, all because I watched ‘Delhi 6′ as D stood for Disaster.  

The songs are good, editing is pathetic, actors did their best and were good, the story line sucked, promos are excellent, theme was abused and handled horribly. I could simply go on with my rants, but I stop here. In case you wanted to see it, don’t waste your money. I didn’t listen to the forewarnings and thought that if RDB was so good then Mr.Mehra would do justice to this movie. 

Absolutely let down and disappointed. Well, the flip side being, if you really want someone to suffer or you have someone whom you don’t particularly like then recommend them to watch Delhi 6.

 

Social Networking & Billu

After a long hiatus of four months, we went to a movie on Valentine’s Day. The movie was Billu Barber. Not particularly a celebration activity for V Day, but merely the fact that me and hubs got the time to go to a movie and also the fact that this movie theatre is the closest to our lil abode. 

Having cleared that, let me get on with Billu. It is a run of the mill story with two long lost supposed friends. One becomes extremely rich and famous – Sahid Khan (or King Khan) and the other remains where he was – Billu, as barber, tied down with family responsibilities and difficulties. Their paths cross in a small village named Budbuda. The King Khan is there to shoot for his film (wonder why, when all he does there is some space setting and fights, nothing rural). Here starts the social networking bit. 

In today’s world, it is not enough to be well educated or well qualified to go up the ladder, it is all about whom do you know and hence what can you do. Social capital can be defined as:

•  Recourses available in and through personal and business networks

                 o    Information, ideas, leads

                 o    Emotional support, goodwill, trust, cooperation, power, influence

• Potential resources inherent in an actor’s set of social ties 

Hence, coming back to the movie, Billu also reaps some advantages. Simply based on the rumour that Billu is the famous actor’s friend, things change drastically for him. Some of the changes are:

•  Billu couldn’t pay the school fees for his children and now the school authorities come to his home to tell him that his children’s education would be funded till 12th standard – IF (there always is an ‘IF’) he brings the famous actor to the school function
•  Billu’s barber shop is in dire straits. He hasn’t been able to spruce it up like his competitor, but the man persists. With the “supposed” new ties, he has a line of unending customers to gain – Sahid Khan’s hairstyle and the village bigwig sponsors new equipment for his shop – Once again, IF Billu can introduce the village bigwig to the superstar
• Billu’s wife is now seen with envy and her social status is elevated over night. There are polite IFs, which require her to get a picture of the star or autograph or in one case, his handkerchief (I wonder if men today carry such a thing anymore)

So, the rise in Billu’s social status and the respect and advantages he is now able to enjoy is due to the “supposed” social connection that he has with this superstar. I wouldn’t want to tell what actually happens in the movie, but the climax dragged on and it was too obvious towards the end. All through, director Priyadarshan has maintained a light and funny script that has kept the audiences quite lively. 

I enjoyed the movie, primarily because I am a die-hard SRK fan and loved him on screen. Yes, it is for die-hard Shah Rukh fans! But then, it is definitely not one of his or Irfan Khan’s best performances. You really don’t have to see this movie. The reason this movie kept me interested is because of  this social networking connection that a lot of Bollywood movies sport.

It is not an observation out of blue that – “People who do better are somehow better connected” and yes, towards the end, it is left for us, the poor audience to understand that Billu’s life has changed, for the better, due to his – Social Network.

 

 

A Wednesday

 

Writing movie reviews on my blog is something I see as a repeat, as there are umpteen numbers of people dedicated to do just this. One might want to read the expert’s view. But this time, I take an exception. I would like to share my thoughts on the movie – A Wednesday.

The movie starts on the last day of service of Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, Prakash Rathod (Anupam Kher), who gets thinking about the toughest case ever handled by him. 

Flashback: It is on a Wednesday that the Prakash Rathod gets an anonymous call asking for the release of four militants and in return the caller is ready to reveal the location of four bombs planted in the city. Initially, the Commissioner thinks it might be a crank call, but his doubts are dispelled when his team discovers a bomb in the police station right in front of the Police Headquarters, as per the details given by the caller.

But, Prakash Rathod is a hard nut and will not give up easily. He taps all his sources and mobilizes his best team to work on the case. He even employs a hacker to track the location of the anonymous caller. Time passes and the team has no major breakthrough. The whereabouts of the caller are still unknown and Prakash Rathod decides to release the four militants. It is after this that the story takes a sudden turn.

Neeraj Pandey, the writer-director of this movie has done an excellent job. There is nothing that one finds is usual or run of the mill.  The theme is based on terrorism and Mumbai, but the emphasis here is on the effects of all this on the common man – Aam Aadmi. It is a short movie for one and a half hours, with no song or dance sequences and no masala.

The movie stars Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah, two of the industry stalwarts in one of their career best performances, along with Jimmy Shergill and Aamir Bashir. Jimmy Shergill has effortlessly played the role of a volatile cop. Aamir Bashir stands out with his terrific performance. Probably the performance in this movie can be rated among Naseeruddin Shah’s top five movies. His character portrayal as a common man and then later his outburst in the end, is simply outstanding. It simply leaves the audience spell-bound. Only Anupam Kher could be the single choice to play the role of a tough police officer opposite Naseer. He epitomizes the role of an experienced, cool, composed and in control officer.

The story and its execution are so well done that one feels the tension throughout the movie. It is only once, in the movie, that the Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah come face to face, and this scene comes about very well.

On the whole, the entire movie is power packed, with excellent performances and its cinema at its very best. If you have missed it, then you should catch up soon.  A Wednesday is a must watch.

 

Ninnu kori….

This beautiful composition from the Telugu movie Gharshana (1988) is a song that I love and it is one of the best expression of love for her lover .

 

 Six months to this date I was married and this is for my darling.

Love ya!

 

 

Flowing like ….. Water

This weekend was spent doing some of the most mundane things. Lazed around, read a magazine, touched on Wodehouse, cleaned up lot of neglected closets, bathed at leisure without even bothering about time. Watched a movie and thought I might just crash. Pretty ordinary, peaceful day till then and yet memorable, in terms of the time I got for myself, quite a change from the ordinary. Must say, the rat race is pretty abhor able.

With world cup finals having started, my sis came up with the proposition of watching ‘Water’ – Deepa Mehta film. I must say, I was a little weary at that time in the night to watch it. But then, had been postponing this particular movie for a while now and the idea to watch a good movie won over my sleep deprivation.

I really don’t wish to do any kind of movie review here, but then it was simply excellent! Strong in its story line, subtle in portrayal of situations with a nice under current to be felt by the viewer accompanied by some very good cast and direction to back up. Water, was straight and hard-hitting. A seven year old little girl is married and then widowed and left in the widow aashram as that is the custom of the times. She is waiting for her mother to come and take her back home. How heart wrenching can that be? The supposed explanation she is given is “When the husband dies, half of the woman dies and hence an aashram is the best place for her”. The girl replies, “But, she is half alive.” Subtle dialogues like these that give this movie a nice touch and set one thinking.

The meanings of the rituals and practices written in the scriptures have been understood as per the convenience of the times and more so as per the convenience of the wealthy people of the times. This is pertinent even now. Just that, this has shifted to politics and politicians make use of religion and manipulate people to fill their pockets. At the end of the day, it’s all about money, honey.

Being the optimist, I hope to see an improvement in the world and more so in the treatment of children around. We, the blogging or say the Inet accessible community, all said and done, is definitely more privileged when compared to millions of others. Isn’t it time, we did something about people around us? The question is part rhetoric too, because going with the milieu it is very easy to follow the crowd.

I think it is time I did something.

To catch an in-depth review of Water, check out Rashmi Bansal’s blog.