JFK

Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci, Kevin Bacon
Year of Release: 1991

I knew JFK was assassinated, I knew it was a sensational case, I never knew this many details into the assassination earlier. I never knew so much about what was going around in the media and in the minds of the people then. An insight, a deep insight into those times.

Dances with Wolves

Director: Kevin Costner
Cast: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell
Year of release: 1990

Cinematic Masterpiece. Don’t miss it!!!

Taming of the Shrew (BBC)

BBC presents the modern version of Taming of the Shrew. Set in London, Kate is the leader of the opposition and opposite anything that is normal and social. Rest what ensues, is what changes her course of life. Not only hers but others too.

Normal

Interlinked stories of families, dysfunctional sometimes, people, hurt people, accidents, accidents which mar people for lifetime, needs and wants of people, expectations – met and unmet, people who get along and start afresh, people who still stuck to old times, people who are unable to overcome the grief, unable to forgive themselves.

Separate Lies

Director: Julian Fellowes
Cast : Tom Wilkinson, Emily Watson
Year of Release : 2005

Set in London, this story works on multiple levels. Adapted from a book by Nigel (A Way through the Wood). For a movie with so many levels and melodrama, it usually is an adaptation from books. The screenplay gives the anchor to the plot and the movie. The actors are superb and give the movie the needed pace and depth. There are times when they shun typical English mannerisms and break free in times of frustration and desperation.

An evening with the Genius - Adoor

Nizhalkuthu

When NECAB, whatever it stands for, I did not bother to read about it, and after the screening, even more so. Well NECAB has nothing to do with the movie, they had arranged for the screening of the movie and also, an interaction with Adoor Gopalakrishnan himself. Had they not been so pompous about their association and had carried on their business like serous cinephiles, they would not have got my wrath. They way how Collective Chaos used to arrange for screenings and interactions.

There is a little I wish to say about the movie, well for such movies, there is a bleak chance to do justice to it. But what I do wish to share is the interaction with Adoor.

Adoor, comes with a high dose of intellectual humor and wit with him, which he uses adequately in the interaction. He is absolutely calm, and knows how much and what to speak, always in control.

The interpretation he gives to the movie, changed a lot of perspective of the film for me. And hearing it from him directly made all the difference. The key lies in the name of the ‘Nizhalkuthu’ Shadowkill. Shadow kill is the ability of magicians to be able inflict pain on someone by doing something to their images. The movie’s central theme is an interpretation of that. And in that woven are so many other practices, rituals, facts, and other intricate details. Adoor says he wishes to tell the truth to the people and nothing else.

Oru Pennum Randaanum (A Climate for Crime)

I have seen Naalu Penungal, and this is a continuation of the same series. Adoor says that for all the festivals where this movie was screened, it was always house full and that this was movie which was for him has bought the maximum number of awards worldwide. The universality of the subject and also the genius of the writer who wrote these stories when coupled with the genius of a filmmaker what you get is this

Paleri Manikyam

Well when I heard the name of the movie, and vaguely remember seeing some trailers, I though it was all about black magic. I was well, what should I say soft talked to come for the movie. I do that sometimes, because after all a movie does have something to offer, always.

With all those at the back of the mind, we walked into the movie theater with a particularly low attendance. It starts of with a narrative from Mammootty, and sometimes I find the narrative in Malayalam movies to be forcefully literary w/o any particular need. I felt the same about this maybe till the time the story actually goes back to the time when it actually happened.

There are so many characters introduced, each one having a role to play, each of them knowing some part of the truth, each of them linked to the plot intricately. There are some phrases which I still remember something to the tune of saying that Sreenivasan was the ‘intellect of the village’, the madman ‘the sleeping consciousness of the village’. Also like in Shakespeare, the madman has the liberty to speak, speak his mind freely. Even in a free world, even amongst people whom we know and are free, are we really free to speak our mind, we are conditioned, hence we sometimes do not.

I am not sure if the movie is an adaptation of a book, because it so very looks so.