Rocket Singh - Salesman of the year

The movie did not get very good reviews, but I decided to watch it none-the-less.
Interestingly, I found it more interesting than 3 idiots! *
I liked the overall theme, and loved Ranbir Kapoor in the film. And oh, the choice of songs at parties - 'Mai ek disco, tu ek disco, duniya hai ek disco... Disco '82!!!' Dill khush ho gaya ;) Ofcourse, the second half gets way too preachy and simply ruins the movie... But if you can ignore the stupidity of the second half, you might just like the movie.

[Spoiler ahead]
Ranbir Kapoor is a delight to watch, and the character seems genuine. The grey shades look good on him :) I did not like the sudden preachiness of the movie towards the end, and I so wish Shimit Amin could have thought of a better conclusion than projecting Mr. Puri as a villain, and Ranbir as a morally-pure hero.

*Not that 3 idiots was not good (its a wonderful mirch masala movie), but many of the jokes seemed cliched, and the attitude seemed a little weird - you cannot just walk into an interview, throw your weight around, and expect to get recruited! And you cannot ask your love interest to deliver your sisters child!! Anyway...

Julie & Julia

This movie is based on TWO true stories :)
It covers some highlights of married working womens' lives - cooking, writing, husbands and having a GOAL :D (ok, I really hope no working married woman reads this blog).
So the Julie-part of the movie is a little lame story-wise, but the julia part is a delight to watch. How did a 40yr old Julia Child go on to write the famous "Mastering the Art of French cooking", and then went on to host "The french chef", a very popular and first-of-its-kind cooking show on American television? I admit I never heard of her, her book or her show earlier, but it was nice to watch.
Its the small things in the movie that make you laugh - like "Whenever you eat a fantastic dish and wonder WHAT made it so tasty, you should know it is BUTTER" :) (Pav Bhaaji was the first thing that came to Jatins mind), or when Juia tells her Cooking teacher that "All my friends at the embassy, including my dear friend the Ambassador, would be extremely surprised if I do not give my cooking test", though she does not know the Ambassador :)

[Spoiler ahead]
I liked the undying optimism of Julie and Julia - both never stop believing that they can publish their own book. Way to go girls! :)

Network (1976)

This movie was engrossing from the start. An old news reporter plans to commit a suicide on national tv in front of millions of viewers, because he was fired and had nothing going for himself other than the job! I was hoping it was not another hero hiralal! :) Far from it actually - it was more like a Madhur Bhandarkar film in many ways* - it had a STRONG female lead and mocked the commercialization of news.

Faye Dunaway won the best actress academy award for this one, and I think she completely deserved it. Peter Finch won the Best Actor award, and was the first one to receive a posthumous award for an acting category, and he so deserved it too. I think any film in which the lead actors bag an academy award is completely worth a watch! (ok, the only other example I can think of is As good as it gets).

No spoilers for this movie, because I liked it as a whole :)

* Qsn to all those Madhur Bhandarkar haters - how come you liked Network huh?

Groundhog Day

This is an old one, but I managed to watch it only recently.
Its a hilarious movie - mushy and cute, but am guessing mush-hating guys could like it too.
What I dont understand is - how come this movie doesnt have a Bollywood copy? It has ample scope for mirch masala.
If like me, you have missed this one all these years, please go ahead and check it out.

[Spoiler ahead]
I loved the scene where Bill Murray tells Andie Mc'Dowell that he is 'A god', not 'THE god', and goes on to explain it.

Yeh mera India

It's an Indianized version of Crash. There are so many stories running in parallel (similar to Mumbai meri jaan), but somehow the movie seemed complete, with no questions left unanswered. Some characters seemed exaggerated - like those of Perizaad Zorabian or Milind Gunaji or Rajat Kapoor; but on the other hand character's of Anupam Kher, Seema Biswas and Sarika seemed so real.
I don't know what message the movie tried to convey, but I liked the fact that everything ended on a happy note.

[Spoiler alert]
The court scene involving Anupam Kher was really moving. Sometimes you wish the judicial system works more subjectively than objectively..
I also liked Seema Biswas's character - practical, yet infectiously optimistic. :)

Up

The name is short and sweet and so is the movie. It's a gzip of a normal persons life - a person who appears to be simple, laid back, but who is adventurous at heart. Yeah, there are MANY implementation related questions I have about his adventure, but well, who cares how he does it when it looks like so much fun!
Like all Pixar movies, the movie makes you laugh, cry and happy.

[Spoiler alert]
I loved Kevin (the bird) and Doug (the talking doggie). Just looking at those 2 characters made me smile :)

District 9

Definitely a unique alien-theme film. Most of the 'alien' movies portray them as all-powerful, scheming beings. But this one is different. The aliens of District 9 are more 'human' in that sense. The movie touches upon various themes like apartheid (infact the name District 9 is inspired by District 6) and xenophobia.
Interesting film, but extremely gory!
[Spoiler ahead]
What I liked most was how 'human' Christopher was - he loved his kid, loved his friend, hated the humans for conducting medical experiments on his fellow-prawns, but at the same time felt sympathetic towards Wikus :)
I bet he came back for Wikus after 3 years..

Kaminey!!!

Its quite frustrating when you look forward to a movie, and don't get to watch it for months after its release (in this case due to the Swine flu scare). Not only do you not get to watch it, you also get to read reviews, which you try and skip.. But how do you escape status messages and tweets?? Well, finally the problem is solved - and I have watched the film! :)
Firstly, let me mention that I have a soft spot for actors with long hair, and I thoroughly enjoy fast paced films, and I loved Lock Stock.. So how could I not like Kaminey? So at the risk of angering all the Omkara and Maqbool lovers out there, I liked this film almost as much as Omkara, and better than Maqbool. There I said it..
Ofcourse, there are some minor flaws (eg. Charlie sings 'koudi kkoudi paisa paisa, paise ka khel' flawlessly, and Sweety speaks Marathi more like a convent-school-chi-mulgi than a marathi mulgi), but well, they are few, and possibly too well spaced out for me to take notice..

Rachael getting married

This is my favourite of all the 2008 Oscar nominated films.
Favourite for 4 reasons -
1. Bill Irwin (Rachel's dad)
2. Jonathan Demme (The director, of the Silence of the lambs fame)
3. Anne Hathaway (NOT Rachel, but her younger sister Kym) and
4. Rosamarie DeWitt (Rachel, who in real life is the grand-daughter of James Braddock, the Cinderella Man)
in that order.

The reason I have picked the above pic is becoz it has 3 of the 4 ppl I mentioned :)

I dont remember crying so much during any film since Masoom (which btw always makes me cry).

If you like hat-ke movies, and dont mind emotional dramas, do give this one a try..

[Spoiler ahead]
I simply LOVED the character of Bill Irwin - a father who knows his younger daughter is completely messed up, has lost a son, but is thrilled to get together with his family for his elder daughter's wedding! I loved the dishwasher scene, and the way it ended.
Loved the confrontation between Kym and her mom about who is responsible for her brother's death, and also loved almost all of Rachel's dialogues with Kym.
Heck, to put simply, just loved the movie overall!
[/Spoiler ends]

Apocalypto

I can't believe I had missed this movie when it was released. Its one of the most engaging movies that I have seen. The cinematography, the story, the execution are all simply superb. Mel Gibson surely has an eye for camera angles! While watching the movie I actually thought I was running along with Jaguar Paw (name of the film's hero). The image I have picked for the movie does little justice to the movie's imagery. This is a must watch if you fancy thrillers!
The movie is set against the backdrop of the declining Maya civilization. Mel Gibson intended to draw parallels between the kind of problems that the Mayan's faced during their decline and the kind of problems our society presently faces - such as environmental damage and political corruption.
Feels good to watch a movie that adds to your knowledge of history :)
P.S. - Its funny how history gets interesting only after school. Is it just me, or does anyone else feel this way?

[Spoiler ahead]
There are so many memorable scenes from the movie! But if I have to pick one, it has to be the one where Jaguar Paw gets Zero Wolf to walk into the trap set up for catching tapir.
[/Spoiler ahead]

He's just NOT that into you

IMDB rating for this movie is about 6. Hmmm.. That normally discourages me from watching a movie. But the name of the film, and more so the first few minutes intrigued me enough to go ahead. Well, I completely agree with the IMDB rating of this movie. It definitely isn't a regular IMDB 8 pointer. But despite that, I enjoyed it! I wish I had seen this movie as a teenager. How many "does he really like her? does she really like him?" discussions have I been a part of?!!

All in all, I would say watch this movie with your gal pals! And try to avoid watching it with your spouse ;)

[Spoiler ahead]
What lingered on in my mind was what Jeniffer Connely's marriage did to her. I distinctly remember her statement "I used to be a fun person you know". She seems so pitiable in that scene - all dressed up for her husband, trying her best to save their marriage; and her husband is distracted by the presence of his young and lovely mistress Scarlet Johansson. Its a scary portrayal of the seven year itch.
[/Spoiler ahead]

Gulaal

I was not much of an Anurag Kashyap fan before I watched Gulaal. I went for the movie full of skepticism. Especially because after watching Dev.D, I was convinced that all Anurag Kashyap movies are just dark and full of foul language!
Gulaal is no different in that sense - definitely dark, and the music lends an eerie feel too (I still dont get why the weird red and blue painted dancer accompanied Prithvi Bana)! But despite the weird dark feel, the movie is engaging. Performances of the entire cast are simply brilliant! I haven't really seen a movie based on this theme earlier, so the story was a delight to watch unfold.

[Spoiler ahead]
To me the most intriguing part of the film was - the manipulative natures of all the characters, especially the women.

Waltz with Bashir

This is the only Oscar 2008 nominated movie that I am blogging about (apart from Slumdog millionaire ofcourse), though I have watched atleast 5 of them (Changeling, Milk, Doubt, Revolutionary Road, The Reader). Not that I dont find the others worth blogging about, but this movie deserves to be mentioned.
Broadly, the movie is about events leading up to the Sabra & Shatila massacre of 1982.
The movie is presented in a very interesting way and definitely worth a watch.

Spoiler ahead:
For me the highlight of the movie is - discussions about how our memory behaves. Two examples of interest are:
- The experiment where they showed people images from their childhood, where 9 out of 10 aspects of the image were real, and 1 was fake. Since the mind recognizes the 9 / 10 aspects, it believes that the 10th one is true too!
- To survive the war, one of the soldiers imagined that he is viewing the war through a camera, and that he isn't a part of it, but a mere spectator. Hence, he could not remember even the most horrific images that he saw - because he had conditioned himself to believe he isn't a part of it!

Luck by chance

There is a striking resemblance between this movie and Madhur Bhandarkar's Page-3. Both revolve around the lives of people in the show biz - stars and their tantrums, new comers, and the transience of their relationships. What sets this movie apart is the sensitivity with which the subject is handled... And the music... The songs fit in so perfectly into the movie!

[spoiler alert]
My favourite part of the movie is the dialogue between Konkana and Farhan at the end of the movie. When Farhan apologizes to Konkana, saying that he now misses Konkana's love and support for him (with Konkana touched to tears in the background), I was just about to dismiss the movie to be a typical cliche! But then wham comes Konkana's retort - 'Where do I figure in this equation? You are just here because you are guilty'. This practical outlook is probably what made me respect this movie. There was no hatred in her for Farhan at that point- just a plain no-nonsense, grounded outlook towards life. Hats off!
[/spoiler alert]

P.S. - I think Javed Akhtar has picked the most poetic names for his kids - Farhan (means merry) and Zoya (means alive) :)