Arun Rajagopal

Weekender Movies at Muscat – Pachaikili Muthucharam & The Prestige March 16, 2007

Watched Pachaikili Muthucharam (Tamil) at Star Cinema yesterday. Quite credible performance by a star cast comprising of Sarath Kumar, Jyothika, Andrea and Milind Soman. I strongly recommend you to watch this movie if you dig family-oriented romances that’s got elements of suspense in them. The music score by Harris Jayaraj is impressive. The melodious Unakkul Nan by Bombay Jayashree is one of the best numbers from Kollywood in the recent past. Directed by Gautham Menon, Pachaikili Muthucharam is a story about a married man who falls for another married woman and the interesting turns their lives take due to their dangerous infatuation. Warning: After watching Pachaikili Muthucharam, one should expect anyone with a commitment to a loved one think a wee bit before straying out of that commitment – cuz sometimes it’s not really worth it!!! The film is inspired by the bestselling book, Derailed by James Siegel which was later adapted into a film with the same title starring Clive Owen and Jennifer Aniston.

The Prestige (English) is one of the most raved about movies from 2006 – it enjoys a 74% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Watched it at Ruwi Cinema today. Starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson and David Bowie, this twister-turner thriller is directed by Christian Nolan who gave us the flick Batman Begins. Nominated for two Academy Awards, The Prestige is the tale of the intense rivalry of Robert Angier and Alfred Borden, stage magicians in Victorian era London. The film follows a non-linear narrative and is adapted from Christopher Priest’s award-winning 1995 novel of the same name. My advice to you if you are watching The Prestige is to watch it closely, just like you watch a magician perform a sleight of hand. If you are not going to watch it closely, you will miss its magic like an illusion – just like I did!!!

A powerful exposition of the themes of obsession, sacrifice, deceit and secrecy, the film is split into three storylines, each resembling one of the three stages of magic – setup, or the “pledge,” where the magician shows the audience something that appears ordinary but is probably not, making use of misdirection; performance, or the “turn,” where the magician makes the ordinary act extraordinary and the “prestige,” where the effect of the illusion is produced. David Bowie plays an important role in The Prestige as scientist Nikola Tesla – his character was portrayed interestingly enough that I’m going to read more about him in the days to come.

Apocalypto – Now in Muscat February 11, 2007

I watched Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto yesterday at Ruwi Cinema. And my verdict is – Simply Superb! Apocalypto opens with an interesting quote by W.H. Durant on the collapse of the Roman Empire – “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.” Apocalypto explores the Mayan civilization in the Yucatan Peninsula on its way to decline. The main protagonist of the story is Jaguar Paw, a the son of a Mayan chief who along with his villagers, are enslaved by another Mayan tribe to be offered as human sacrifices to the Sun God. The movie highlights Jaguar Paw’s escape from the clutches of those who have held him captive and his return to his family in his native village in the jungle.

The entire movie is in an amazing language called Yucatec Maya that has such as beautiful, mellifluous feel to it. I came back and did some reading and learnt that the movie was quite controversial – most historians allege that Gibson has not portrayed Mayans accurately and the film is riddled with historical inaccuracies. In fact, a lot of critics have chastised Gibson for his ‘racist portrayal of Mayans’. Click here to read Liza Grandia’s (an anthropologist and postdoctoral fellow at Yale) article – The Sober Racism of Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto.

Gibson says that he made the movie because he finds great similarities in the way the Mayan civilization disintegrated and the world today, especially the West, which is steadfastly moving on a path of destruction. There’s no mistaking the amount of painstaking work that’s been put in this movie – it’s a compelling story, creating that magical effect on you – Gibson’s passion as a filmmaker is unquestionable. Even his message of using civilizations on decline to drive in the point that humans create the very conditions that cause their destruction would have been more powerful if he had picked the right civilization.

Apocalypto is heart gripping, packed with moments of suspense, thrill and action. The photography is just amazing – the pristine view of the Mesoamerican jungles almost leaves you glued to the seat. You are always rooting for the protagonist of the movie, Jaguar Paw, who has decided to ‘seek a new beginning’. It’s great that movies like this get screened in Muscat, despite the blood, gore and ample view of flesh. Apocalypto is never to be missed!

Babel, Guru & more movies! January 27, 2007

I stumbled on Robert Hruzek’s blog Middle Zone Musings by accident. He has got an interesting contest – tell an interesting story in just six words! I loved the idea so much that I still created my pick of stories even though the contest closed on 21 Jan. Here are my stories…

• I resigned. Before they fired me.
• Finally I’m in love. With myself.
• I proposed. She promptly disposed me.
• Wine is more precious than water.
• Help! My guardian angel just quit.
• I refuse to conform to conformity.
• Sure, you rock! In your dreams.
• Once married. Forever bitten and shy.

Which one do you like the most?

Another weekend went by. Today Oman is playing Bahrain in the semi-finals of the Gulf Cup Football 2007. Looks like the men in white are poised to win. I’m kinda wondering what has happened in my life since my last post… I’ve been watching loads of movies, as always. I picked up Khosla Ka Ghosla, America Pie presents The Naked Mile, Thiruvillayadal Aarambam and Dharmapuri (both Tamil flicks) from my video shop ‘New Age Music’ in Ruwi High Street. Before, I get into the movies; let me tell you a quick word about – the guy at the video shop – Devaiah. He is such a sweet soul; though I take a lot of time to return movies, he doesn’t crib and still keeps aside new movies which I might be interested in watching.

If there is one movie that is not gonna hit theatres in Oman… that is America Pie presents The Naked Mile – a raunchy college comedy featuring a lot of people in their birthday suits – it’s about a high school student who is a virgin and is desperate to have sex – and to complicate matters, he is under immense peer pressure to lose his virginity as he happens to be a member of the Stifler family – a clan known for their high school / college sexual escapades and macho ways with the women folk. Let me not waste your time with Thiruvillayadal Aarambam and Dharmapuri. Was never fond of the two ‘doyens’ of Tamil cinema – ‘Captain’ Vijaykant and Dhanush. I’ve just started watching ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’ and it does seem to be a pretty interesting flick. More on that later! I watched Pokkiri again… for the fourth time. This time not in the big Star Main Cinema, but in the much smaller Star Mini Cinema. Enjoyed it… and now people have begun asking me if I’m planning to take my PhD in Pokkiri. Dr. Arun Pokkiri Rajagopal… sounds interesting, right?
I celebrated the weekend by washing clothes, working on a corporate website for a major technology client and… watching movies, what else?

Went for Mani Ratnam’s much hyped ‘Guru’. I can hear people yelling / screaming in celebration… looks like Oman won! Wow… way to go…
Back to Guru. The movie is a sort of biopic, loosely based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani, one of the greatest industrialists India has ever seen and his rags to riches story. I constantly kept thinking of him as the movie progress. Guru is not an outstanding movie. I guess it is all the hype that preceded its release that works against it, including the much bandied engagement of its leading pair – Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai. Abhishek delivers a good performance as Gurukant Desai, his journey from the village of Idhar in Gujarat to a salesman in Turkey to a small time cloth trader in Mumbai to India’s greatest industrialist… again I can’t deem it an outstanding performance. The movie fails to grip you entirely, all though it kind of carries you away at certain points. But again it is a fitting tribute to the spirit of entrepreneurship and the power to dream. Dhirubhai Ambani’s life is a classic management case study. Do watch it once, not for its acting performances… but to take a leaf out of the life of one of India’s greatest visionaries and his ‘unique’ way of doing things… will most definitely inspire a lot of us to pursue our heart with conviction.

I also watched the much acclaimed ‘Babel’ yesterday. I absolutely loved the movie. I feel that you need know to a little about Babel from the Bible to appreciate this movie.

Excerpt from: http://www.festival-cannes.fr/films/fiche_film.php?langue=6002&id_film=4352770
According to the Bible, Babel was a renowned tower built by mankind united together to attain Paradise. This enterprise provoked the wrath of God, who, to separate them, had each of the men involved speak a different language, thus putting an end to the project and spreading over the Earth a disorientated people incapable of communicating.

In the movie Babel, director Alejandro González IÑÁRRITU spins three tales happening in three parts of the world at the same time. In the beginning, the three stories are seemingly disconnected from each other, before powerful, shocking connections emerge. Richard and Susan (Brad Pitt & Cate Blanchett), an estranged couple from California, are vacationing in Morocco. Two Moroccan kids watching over their herd of goats play with a rifle and accidentally shoot Susan, an incident which soon gets aggravated to the status of a terrorist act. As Richard struggles to save his wife in a forlorn Moroccan village in the desert with only a tour guide to help, his kids back home in California are taken by their Mexican nanny across the border to Mexico, so that she can attend her son’s wedding. The simple act of taking the kids along turns into a nightmare when her drunken nephew bangs his car at the US border followed by a car chase which results in the kids and the nanny being lost in the desert. They are finally discovered by the border patrol, after some anxious moments for the viewers. The third story Babel takes place in Japan, where Chieku, a deaf-mute girl struggles to come to terms with her mother’s recent death, her disability and consequent lack of social acceptance. As the movie culminates, the Moroccan goatherd has lost one of his sons to a shootout by the police who are hunting for the ‘terrorists’ who have shot at the American tourists. The kids’ nanny, who has been staying in the US illegally, is deported back to Mexico. Susan’s life is finally saved after creating an international crisis.

Babel essays a fine treatment of human tragedy. Seemingly innocuous, simple incidents seem to have a terrible impact on human plight. The message is quite simple – whatever be our cultural or geo-political differences, man is connected / united with another, in a good or bad way. Our actions have a definite impact on the lives of other people, even if they are on the other side of a continent. An example would be Chieku’s father giving away his hunting rifle as a gift to his guide in Morocco, who then sells the rifle to a goatherd who gives the rifle to his naughty kids who then shoots at a bus to see if a bullet travels three kilometres resulting in an American tourist being shot and the resulting international furore. And the connections still continue… Most of the dialogues are in Arabic, Japanese and Spanish… but the sub-titles do an excellent job in retaining the flavour. Babel also reminds us how stereotypical the world has become… about how we hear but don’t listen, about how we have lost the ability to understand and comprehend the ‘other side’. There are some brilliant moments in Babel… poignant moments in human life… and to experience that, you have to see Babel.

Excerpts from: http://www.festival-cannes.fr/films/fiche_film.php?langue=6002&id_film=4352770

“With Babel,” explains Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu, “I wanted to explore the contradiction between the impression that the world has become quite small due to all the communication tools which we have, and the feeling that human beings are still incapable of expressing themselves and communicating amongst themselves on a fundamental level.”

Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu on the film’s message: “I don’t know if it’s an x-ray of the world because that’s too ambitious, but I tried to show what is going on with us at the moment. We see the “other” as always abstract, so that to be different means to be dangerous and not able to understand the other. This is happening not only country between country, but against fathers, against sons, against husband… We are not able to listen anymore. I want to talk about that, the borders within our souls: our preconceptions of our fathers, the archetypes we have from religions, races, cultures. I tried to make a film that talks about prejudice without being prejudice.”

Weekender Movies in Muscat January 22, 2007

The long weekend was a blessing (Saturday was a holiday in Oman because of the advent of Muharram, the Islamic New Year). Finally cleaned up my home, two weeks after returning from India. Watched Tamil flick ‘Pokkiri’ at Star Cinema Ruwi for the third time. Vijay’s Pongal release ‘Pokkiri’ is a movie not to be missed, for the amazing screen presence of the ‘larger than life’ hero Vijay, who stars as a ruffian who is in fact an undercover cop. Songs are good to the ears. Directed and scripted by, surprise surprise, ace dancer Prabhu Deva, this flick promised to be a delight to Vijay fans who were let down by his last release ‘Aadhi’. Another one I went for was the rocking ‘Happy Feet’ at Ruwi Cinema. It is an amazing flick, never knew that every Penguin had a ‘heart song’ to woo a mate. Happy Feet is the story of Mumble ‘Happy Feet’, an Emperor Penguin in Antarctica who is probably the worst singer in the world – a deformity attributed to the fact that he was dropped as an egg by his father – but has a unique talent that eventually gets him thrown out of his community – his ability to tap dance. A dancing penguin is considered taboo – and Mumble has to leave his colony, when his tap-dancing is attributed to a fish shortage. Though it is an animated movie targeted at tiny tots, adults can surely watch ‘Happy Feet’ and appreciate it for its powerful message – that every one has a unique talent and one can always change the world by passionately pursuing that talent. A review on Wikipedia says that Happy Feet “astonishes,” it has brilliant choreography and orchestration, and is entertaining for younger viewers.

Also went for a supernatural mystery ‘The Illusionist’ at Ruwi Cinema again. Was so tired that actually dozed off in the deserted theatre. By using brilliant hues of browns and yellows, the movie sure did an amazing job of conveying how Vienna looked in the late 1800s. ‘Illusionist’ is simply the story of how Eisenheim, a famous illusionist uses an illusion to win his childhood love Sophie back from the clutches of Leopold, a ruthless crown prince. I’m now eagerly awaiting the release of Maniratnam’s ‘Guru’.

As a parting shot, here’s some trivia on Penguins…

– Not all penguins are found in the Antarctic. The Galapagos Penguin is found on the Galapagos Islands and has even been known to breed north of the Equator.

– Female Adelie penguins prostitute themselves as a means of collecting valuable stones that they use to help protect their nests.

– Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air.

– When Penguin moms lose a chick, they sometimes attempt to steal another mother’s chick, usually unsuccessfully as other females in the vicinity assist the defending mother in keeping her chick.

– Penguins either waddle on their feet or slide on their bellies across the snow, a movement called “tobogganing”, which allows them to conserve energy and move relatively fast at the same time.

– The Linux mascot is a penguin named Tux. A penguin’s striking black and white plumage is often likened to a tuxedo suit and generates humorous remarks about the bird being “well dressed”.