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Showing posts from 2014

Incendies (2011)

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              Incendies belongs to that rare breed of films that induce a tumultuous surge of emotions in its spectators while engaging them through the narrative. Jerry Seinfeld once said in his show Seinfeld, to add to the humor of that show undoubtedly, that Leo Tolstoy wanted to name his novel ‘War: What Is It Good For’ instead of “War and Peace”. Maybe that rhetorical question of a book title would have been an apt tagline for what was portrayed in this film.  What sets Dennis Villeneuve’s ‘Incendies’ apart from other films with post-war trauma as their underlying theme, is the spectrum of human relationship he constructed on the screen. The film starts with twin brother and sister, Jeanne and Simon, receiving their recently deceased mother, Nawal’s funeral wishes; wishes that need to be fulfilled, before the children can proceed with the burial. In two different letters, the twins were asked to locate their father and half-brother, who we would later find was called N

2 States(2014) Review

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At the very first act of the film, we find our protagonist saying that it does not matter whether the story has a hero or not. The story, itself, should be the hero. True and a very promising premise for viewers who love a good story. But, halfway in the film, you would realize that neither the protagonist nor the story is a ‘Hero’ of any kind. In fact, the film succumbs to provide the traits that would make us call the story a person.  The film is based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel of same name.   It does not take much time to render the traits of its central characters so that they appear to be representatives of our young generation. Krish, a Punjabi guy and Ananya, a Tamil Brahmin girl, meet at IIM Ahmedabad and they fell in love. One ought to appreciate the first few minutes where there was no beating around the bush regarding the love and chemistry between the two leads.   They were in love and there were some genuine zany humorous moments about them. There was a subt

Mud (2012) Review

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Jeff Nichols' Mud is a modern day fairy tale. Keeping the essence of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, he wove a coming-of-age story so gratifying that it will leave a smile on your face when the credits roll. A wonderful piece of character study that we do not see very often.  Set in the background of Mississippi banks and the city De Witt, Arkansas, we see two teenage boys(Ellis and Neckbone), adventurously, as boys of that age often do, set out for an island in the middle of Mississippi river; with the aim of taking ownership of a boat that one the two boys had previously found out. Upon arrival, they found that the boat, as they had hoped, is not completely unoccupied. A man, who called himself 'Mud', had taken shelter in that boat. With turn of events, the boys befriended Mud. As it would turn out later, Mud was a fugitive on the run. This is where the film treads in the water of 'love'. Here we see variants of love from the eyes of our protagonist