I Am

I had been listening to I Am's OST for a few months and finally i found the movie, it was one movie i was looking forward to watching...!! The movie is about 4 individuals, it is 4 stories, it is 4 lives, ... it is all about PEOPLE!! Though the people involved in the plot are from different corners of the country- Kolkata, Bangalore, Srinagar and Mumbai, with the stories ranging from artificial insemination, child abuse and gay prostitution, they're connected by a common thread of disenchantment.

Onir's I AM opens with a Rabindranath Tagore's quote from Gitanjali, 'Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high...'
 

Meet the ‘I’s:


I am Afia

The 1st story opens with Afia [Nandita Das] looking for a sperm donor to fulfill her wish of getting artificial insemination done. She meets her doctor, and insists on meeting the man before taking a call, which is how she meets Purab Kohli. They spend time getting to know each other, breaking barriers before going ahead with the procedure. Their relationship goes through a transformation at the fertility clinic while waiting for the doctor to come in.

I Am Megha

Megha [Juhi Chawla] is a Kashmiri Pundit battling with life and emotions after having been chased out of Jammu & Kashmir when the military took over the land. She goes back, meets their Muslim family friends Manisha Koirala but interacts with them quite curt and to the point. There is a lot of anger and resentment in her voice during the one day she spends in town. 

I Am Abhimanyu

This is a story on Child abuse..the victim is Abhimanyu [Sanjay Suri] who grew up abused by his step-father on a day to day basis... He grows up bitter, severing all ties with his family, quite unsure of his sexual preferences..  The entire movie flows through the stories, while showing the different phases in Abhimanyu’s life, as the abused child going on to a manipulative adolescent and thence to whining adulthood, in a very short share of the total running time. It is only when his mom calls to announce his step father's death that he finally confronts his demons and lets it all out to her...

I am Omar

This is probably the most devastating story in the movie, the one that will shake you up. It is about Gay relationships and this plot is about  Jai (Rahul Bose) and Omar (Arjun Mathur)... Jai, who is obviously doing well in life meets Omar at a coffee shop one lazy evening. He is drawn to Omar, takes him out and giving into his strong feelings, wants to go all the way. Omar convinces him to just get naughty in his car, only to get accosted by a vulgar homophobic cop, who scares Jai beyond repair. It is later than Jai comes to know Omar is a con and was playing him all along... Abhimanyu Singh as the cop was so ruthless and brutal with his foul language and crude behaviour, quite revealing how people react when they come across a Gay guy...

I AM is more than a movie, it is not exactly a documentary either. It tells the tales of people we meet on a daily basis, but whose lives are so deep, and go beyond what we see on the surface.  Each and every story has its own unique rhythm. The emotions and feelings, the experiences that each of the actors portray is quite surreal, making us think while the credits roll on the screen at the end of the movie... 

Cast : Sanjay Suri, Radhika Apte, Shernaz Patel, Anurag Kashyap, Rahul Bose, Arjun Mathur, Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh, Nandita Das, Juhi Chawla, Manisha Koirala, Purab Kohli & Anurag Basu
Music : Amit Trivedi, Vivek Philip & Rajiv Bhalla
Director : Onir
Producer : Onir & Sanjay Suri

50th post -- Movie spree continues....

Yayyy, just discovered this is my 50th post in this blog!!! :)

The past 2 months i've been watching movies like crazy... Every night before sleeping, i grab a movie and then zzzz.... Some are big award winning ones and others are unheard of , but nevertheless Good movies... here are some more i feasted on...

Vicky Cristina Barcelona-

The one for which Penelope Cruz won a Best Supporting Actress award... wonder why though!!! 

A movie set in Spain, is about two gals who go on a vacation... end up spending time with a casanova, and finally get to meet his estranged wife and its one big Sex based trip.... As the movie's title suggests, it's about Barcelona[ the town] as well as Vicky and Cristina[ the two friends].

The places, tour given of Barcelona... amazing acting by all the women are what leaves an impression.. For those, who are against sex, explicit scenes in movies, this might not be their cuppa tea...!!!

August Rush

A movie i picked up in Pondy... its about a kid who is a musical prodigy, in search of his biological parents!!! the only familiar faces in this movie was Johnathan Rys Meyers[ the hot looking hunk from Bend it Like Beckham] and the infamous Robin Williams...

Evan Tyler flits about from one home to the other and ends up with Robin Williams where he starts playing the Guitar in new ways and ends up in the park earning a living...He is also on a quest to find his parents... The blending of classical, rock and street-sounds music was phenomenal. The movie was funny, poignant and a tear jerker.... Must watch!!!

Tropic Thunder

 

This movie is sheer time pass, ahem, there were some scenes where i was bored and almost switched off the dvd... Borrowed the dvd from a friend , and thought why not!!! Glad i dint shell out $$ to buy this movie... And i have no clues why and how Robert Downing Jr was even nominated for the movie.. Arrrgh!!! silly ass movie produced by Ben Stiller simply isnt worth it...

The film stars Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey, Jr. as a group of prima donna actors making a Vietnam War film when their fed-up writer and director decides to drop them in the middle of a jungle, forcing them to portray their roles without the comforts of a film set.

It is a satirical comedy about movies in Hollywood and takes a lot of patience to sit through.... but if you like wierd wacko stuff,go ahead.... :)

Small Change [Argent de poche, L'] 

The movies opens to kids running down the narrow lanes in France , and with every turn, more kids join them and finally they all rush like water down the river towards the school..  The movie is all about the kids finding their ground, a Single mother looking for her Mr Right and so much more..

It is also the best film from the group of “new wave” directors of the ’60s, including Truffaut and fellow movie critic turned filmmaker, Jean Luc Goddard.  

Small Change is not a single story, but a series of stories from a small town in France. It is shot in a naturalistic style, with naturalistic acting. Truffaut was famous for taking non-actors and making them actors. I guess you could call him the original actor’s director. The man had a way of coaxing a good performance out of his child actors that is truly astounding.It’s multiple stories, about multiple people, and their interaction inside this small town. The child actors are superb, as are the adults.

The Women

The movie i saw last night is about 4 best friends and how their lives change when they discover an ugly secret about one of their spouses..Upon seeing the name Meg Ryan i told my friend, i wanna watch this, am taking it with me... :)

 This is what is called a Chick flick... all women..[kinda like a diff version of Sex and the city]. A high flying corporate executive, a mother of 4, expecting her 5th child[Debra Messing says - she will try try till she gets a baby boy], a lesbian who flaunts her model girlfriend and a wife who is more than happy to sit back and let the world go by..  A fun movie with various splashes of emotions thrown in.. a mother who tells her daughter to not do anything when she finds out about her husband's affair, a manicurist who loves to gossip [ using whom the women turn tables around and reunite the couple] and the final scene where Debra is ready to deliver the baby and all the women are in the labour room is just wacko...awesome.. hilarious... and voila, she has a baby boy!!!!

I wouldnt say this is a must watch, but watch it if you have the time and someone lends you the Dvd!!  :)

Phew.... gonna sign off now... i think there are a few more i dint mention.. will come back for another one!!!anybody got a drink??? ;)

[Movie] buzz of the week!!

 

MILK, a movie i had picked up from my DVD store, only because it had Sean Penn in it was quite a movie...Its yet another true story[ i say yet another, cos Changeling was the other movie i saw this week!!based on true incidents]

In 1977, Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay man to be voted into public office in America. His victory was not just a victory for gay... Milk is about Harvey Milk, who was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay man to be voted into public office in America. And this happened around 1977.... This is not just a movie about a Gay citizen, but its about a movement, that caused quite a revolution in US Political History....

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While living in New York City, he turns 40. Looking for more purpose, Milk and his lover Scott Smith (James Franco) relocate to San Francisco, where they start the small business --- Castro Camera,much to the chagrin of neighbors!!. Over time, with support from Scott and from new friends like young activist Cleve Jones (Emile Hirsch), Milk plunges headfirst into the choppy waters of politics. 

When Milk is elected supervisor for the newly zoned District 5, he tries to coordinate his efforts with those of another newly elected supervisor, Dan White (Josh Brolin). But as White and Milk’s political agendas differ, the movie takes quite a turn... A movie about the life of Gay people back in the 70s to how Politics was always ruling the roost is what sets this movie apart from others!!! 

-- Stick to what you believe

-- Fight till you die

That is what i learnt from this movie.....  

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The 2nd movie i saw today was A Wednesday [ friends had been raving about it for months, and finally on Monday, i borrowed the DVD from a blog friend, Bhar.. Thanks Babes, sure enjoyed the movie..]

 

This is a hard-hitting thriller, great execution of the script by the director and performances that make an impact on the viewer. The movie is just 1:30 hours and had me glued to the sofa the entire duration!!! The story takes place on a wednesday between 2 and 6 pm. Prakash Rathod (Anupam Kher) a police commissioner gets a call from a man (Naseeruddin Shah), saying that 5 bombs are going to explode in Mumbai in 2 hours and the police needs to do as he says[ following which he will reveal the location of the bombs]. First task for the police force is to release 4 militants. Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill and Aamir Bashir have done a good job in executing their roles to the T.  

 

What will he do now in the short time period that he has been given? Will he release the militants or just work towards finding "The man"... Watch this movie, if you havent already!!!