Michael Clayton - A Masterpiece

I generally do not watch Oscar-nominated movies. The reason being that they are usually the typical drama-type movies, with long never-ending stories that run for over 150 minutes. But this year, the Oscars panel seems to have a change in taste and the movies that have been chosen have a lot of commercial flavor in them. All the movies have stories that have the capability to pull audiences of different choices to watch the movies.

So coming back to Michael Clayton, this one is a complete George Clooney movie. From scene one where he makes an entry as a gambler, to the scenes where he is shown as an efficient lawyer till the last scene where he a judicious decision, he carries the entire movie on his shoulder. The mind blowing climax is what makes the movie so good.

Acting wise, Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton have also done a good job. The movie starts off by showing a few cut scenes that are someway related (Clooney being the common factor in most of the scenes) but it does not make any sense at that point in time. It is only in the last half an hour that all the puzzle pieces come together and you understand the plot of the movie.

The cinematography is also amazing. Some scenes like the ones where Clooney stands near the horses, the one where he sees the photo-copied pages of the secret report, are some of the scenes that get glued to your memory.

I have not seen the other Oscar nominated movies. But my heart says that this one will grab the throne!

Jodha Akbar

Just after the release of this movie, the media seems to be all set to make this movie a complete flop. I read in the newspapers today that the general masses don’t like to see historical movies. So what do they like to see? A masala movie like Om Shanti Om… or a senseless comedy like Welcome! If this is what the choice of the Indian masses is, then I’m sorry but the choice of the Indian masses has turned really really bad!

Coming back to the movie, I believe that this movie is a very well-tailored movie. Excellent cinematography, excellent direction, and a well performed role by Hrithik. Overall it is a very good one time watch. And it has to be watched in the cinema hall to get the feel of the Mughal forts, the Rajput palaces, the battlefields, etc.

The movie was not exactly what I thought it would be. This movie emphasizes more on the relationship between Emperor Jalaluddin Mohammed Akbar and Princess Jodha Bai and the historical events surrounding them. It portrayed Akbar as a king who loved his queen beyond all bounds and could break any custom, any tradition to please her and make her comfortable. But was this how the real Akbar the Great was? I doubt… I seriously doubt about it. But as they say, Indian films should contain that extra tadka of love to make it digestible to the masses.

Although a few of the facts were not shown accurately, it may have been purposely done so to bring out the love quotient in the movie. For example, Jodhabai was the third wife of Akbar. But the entire movie, the first two wives were never shown or mentioned about. Another problem I found was that when Akbar killed Adham Khan (his cousin brother who stabbed Atkah Khan – the person who was auditing the finances of the Mughal Empire), Akbar was 19 years old then. So this incident would have happened in the year 1561 and Akbar got married to Jodha in the year 1562. But in the movie, when he ordered his commanders to throw Adham Khan with his head facing downwards, Jodha was present at that time. I guess Ashutosh Gowarikar got it wrong here!

Overall a very nice movie and I enjoyed the movie. Maybe it was a movie of my type. I don’t think it was a movie of the masses anyway. For that case which Ashutosh Gowarikar movie was for the masses? Lagaan was different but people enjoyed it for cricket. Swades was different but people enjoyed it for projecting the rural India. And Jodha Akbar is again different. Irrespective of whether the masses like it or not, it is a wonderful movie.

Rating: 7.5/10

Mithya – Amazingly different

I had no plans to see this movie today. I was planning to watch Superstar (it stars Kunal Khemu in double role) but then just before I went to book the tickets, I decided to read the reviews on the net to check which one was better. And all the reviews drew a clear line and Mithya was supposed to be a better movie.

The movie revolved around the life of VK (Ranveer Shourie). He has done a marvelous piece of work. I loved his acting in Khosla Ka Ghosla and Traffic Signal, but in those movies he was overshadowed either by actors who had better skills or had a better role in the movie. But Mithya is all Ranveer’s. And I must say that he has done full justice to the role. His expressions, dialogue delivery (the “hmmm” especially) and his body language was marvelous.

The movie starts off on a very comic note and remains a complete comedy movie almost till the last 20 minutes. VK is a struggling actor who does his best to get into films. He accidentally gets trapped into the hands of Naseeruddin Shah and the movie goes on as to how his life changes because of this.

Some of the comedy scenes are just amazing. The scene where Ranveer is shot on his hand after giving local anesthesia – its simply amazing. The comedy scenes are very natural and they do tickle the funny bone!

Neha Dhupia is there just for the sake of a heroine. She could have done a far better job if she knew what acting was… alas! Naseeruddin Shah was at his usual best. Its very difficult to get a bad performance out of him! There were other characters like Vinay Pathak and Saurabh Shukla who also did a very good job.

The climax of the movie turns into a serious mode and ends on a very harsh realistic note. Although many people did not like the climax (I overheard people cribbing as they were coming out of the theatre), I felt that it was the best climax that the movie could have got. Anything more “happier” than this would have taken the entire charm away from the movie.

Overall a very good one-time watch and certainly worth spending money in the theatre of watch this one.

Rating: 7/10