Spectre: Review

Bond movies have never stopped generating curiosity.  They are in the news over the last 5 decades for all the reasons most watch movies.  And, in today's world where media has encompassed every aspect of life, any news is good news.  There were sniggers and sneers along with whistles and bells when it was announced that Monica Bellucci was part of the cast.  Overnight Craig became the darling of the feminists too when he declared famously in an interview that Bond is a misogynist.  He made all the politically correct noises.  

'Spectre' was on my 'to watch' list for all the reasons above.  When AP suggested we watch this - we were meeting after many years and I was watching a movie after many months - I readily jumped at it.  Another friend, MA was kind enough to drop us at the cinema. He refused to join us though as he didn't want to face hellfire at home.  We made it in time - even had time for some corn, coffee and conversations before the movie started.  

The movie opens with a bang - reminds the viewer of the entry in Skyfall too; both the movies are directed by Sam Mendes.  Set amidst a Mexican fair celebrating the dead, the set piece buzzes with high energy accentuated by foot-tapping musci.  The audience gets prepared for more thrilling action and an engaging fare. I was grinning too as the movie shows multiple locales that I have been to in the recent past.

Then the disappointments begin.  The opening number is slow and so un-Bond-like.  It almost felt that I was listening to a lullaby.  You realize that Monica is only making a special appearance and isn't the Bond girl (what a pity)! Mendes tries to bring in the gravitas of the movies based on John le Carre's works and eases the pace and yet compromises on the content - a lousy screenplay and a hackneyed plot.  What you get is a slow movie with a harebrained story.  There are fewer bangs for the buck as the movie has a runtime of nearly two and a half hours.  I just wondered if I was watching Prem Ratan Dhan Payo!  The regular humour that one finds in the Bond films is missing too (or falls so flat that nobody laughed).  A brooding Bond is only as good as his cause.  Without one, he comes across as avoidable sour-face! 

Movie Review - LSD

Even if you guys haven’t heard of Dibakar Banerjee most of you would’ve heard of (or even seen) the movie ‘Khosla ka Ghosla’ and/or ‘Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’. DB established himself as a moviemaker to reckon with these two films. Well made, well acted and movies that pleased both the critics and the crowds (yeah, yeah). ‘Chak de patte’ from KKG is a number that’s still heard regularly (sung marvelously by Kailash Kher). LSD, the latest movie from DB is not in the same mould. It’s NOT light-hearted fun, breezy movie. It’s not even a conventional movie (even by Dibakar Banerjee’s or even Anurag Kashyap’s yardstick).

LSD (Love, Sex aur Dhokha) is a realistic, hard-hitting cinema captured on hand-held camera. It tells three different stories that run into one another albeit briefly. The stories don’t seem disjointed and the acting by the entire ensemble cast is uniformly superlative (everyone is new; you won’t find a single face that you might recognize from anywhere unless one of them is your friend). The movie is influenced by the happenings that have grabbed a lot of footage on news channels – the Nitish Katara – Bharti Yadav love story and its aftermath, the MMS scam and the sleazy stings.

So the three tales are about an Aditya Chopra-addicted film institute student who falls in love with the heroine of the movie he’s making (for his graduation), a youth-in-trouble-over-money willing to sacrifice emotions for cash and a dancer who’ll go any length to get featured in a music video (and a journo team into sleaze stings).

But beware before watching the movie! The language’s street lingo – filled with expletives and profanities, the violence (and sex)is graphic and disturbing and there are no cinematic conclusions. The entire movie more akin to a docu-drama or better still, appears to have been told from a neutral perspective, “It happened thus” way. It reminded me of an old movie (which bagged National Award then), ‘The New Delhi Times’ starring Shashi Kapoor and Sharmila Tagore.

If you don’t mind thinking about the movie long after it’s over and you don’t have a queasy tummy go watch it. It’s ground-breaking in more ways than one. If you want your movie to be even remotely ‘enjoyable’ or have moralistic issues then this ain’t your cuppa!