Yet another cinema.....

Many a times i have been told one should not be a cinemato-freak like me.. as far as i am concerned i can watch any and every type of movie at any time of the day.. i don't exactly mind going for a movie show at eight o' clock in the morning. In a similar fashion i love late night movie shows.. And why not? Living in the fast paced lives the way we do, there are only a few things outside the circle of work for which we do get some time.. so when we go out for a movie.. its basically for sheer enjoyment. probably this is the reason why the farther the movie is from reality, the greater are the chances of the crowd enjoying it... i, myself, am a connoisseur of good serious movies.. but that does not mean i dont enjoy the far from reality flicks... take inception.. the latest flick by Christopher Nolan.. Lot of rules make way for a lot of loopholes. And moviemakers use these loopholes to cheat and let audiences fill in the leaps of logics. The latest Christopher Nolan flick plays fair. It will twist your mind, take you through highs and lows of logic but it is not a film based on twists. It will stimulate you to think where to draw a line between real and the not so real.. there is a lot to take in but the imaginative and thoughtful delivery of exposition keeps the viewer riveted despite the amount of information required in order to understand the premise, setting, and plot. And best part is, it’s not a confusing movie if you provide your full attention to it.


It includes probably one of the best fight sequences ever picturised. Take a moment to consider that: in the entire history of cinema, of every fight scene that has ever taken place, the one in this movie is among the best.  Watching a fight without gravity is incredible.  It’s not like in The Matrix where a character can defy gravity if they choose.  The fight scene in Inception has no gravity to defy and Arthur (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the team’s point man, has to figure out how to achieve his objective while fending off projections.  I can only hope that someday in the distant future, when people with free time are on a space station in zero-gravity, they will re-enact this scene.  In the meantime, Nolan’s spectacular visual effects will have to suffice. While the sequences in Matrix look unrealistic, the ones shown here seem to be so real..  other action scenes are spectacular.
Visually lush and imaginative, Nolan transforms car chases into countdowns, fistfights into puzzles, and shootouts into…well, shootouts.  There’s a mission on a snowy mountainside that doesn’t work as well as the other set pieces because there’s a poor sense of location, a lack of visual diversity, and sloppy editing.  But that doesn’t really halt or hurt the film because Nolan brilliantly placed the car chase, the fistfight, and the shootout on top of each other.  You would think this would cause action fatigue, but by cutting between three set pieces and having what happens in one set piece affect the others, the action climax of Inception isn’t exhausting—it’s exhilarating.
With Inception, every character not only has a particular skill and task, but has a personality that mirrors their job description. With exception of Cobb( enacted by Leo de Caprio), we learn about the characters  by how they interact with each other and not with a monologue of past.
 The small moments between Arthur and Eames, “The Forger” (Tom Hardy) indicate years of working on j tolerating each other on jobs but with no animosity between the two.  Neophyte “Architect” Ariadne (Ellen Page) is a total jerk towards Cobb, but she’s the only one who’s willing to cut through his bullshit.  Cobb’s relationship with his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) is the heart of Inception.  The interactions among the supporting characters are standard for a well-made action movie, but the relationship between Cobb and Mal is yet another reason why Inception stands apart. No wonder i enjoyed the movie... No wonder the concept of dreams in dreams appealed me,... 


come to think of it, many people actually live the life of lies or dreams. for them those are not really lies.. they are fabrications of their imaginations and they become so self engrossed that they start accepting the lies as truths and the actual truth disappears in the web of lies...

Rajneeti...!!

Much has been said about Raajneeti and how it is comparable to the Mahabharata and the Godfather; the performances, the dialogues and the screenplay have all been critically reviewed. But what stayed with me was how Ranbir's character Samar Pratap Singh, the reluctant politician, actually becomes the kingmaker.
I can't but think of the parallels with the Gandhi family, first Rajiv Gandhi and then more specifically Sonia Gandhi, who stayed away from the limelight for years. I have asked myself many a time, what finally made Sonia Gandhi take the plunge into mainstream politics?


For years, the Italian wife remained in the shadows of Rajiv Gandhi, a commercial pilot by profession, who reluctantly joined politics after younger brother Sanjay Gandhi's death and was propelled into the forefront after Indira Gandhi's assassination.


After Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in 1991, Sonia's decision to stay away from politics in an attempt to protect her children Rahul and Priyanka was understandable. Honestly, Sonia, the Italian widow didn't quite seem to fit the image of a politician ready to take on the reigns of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
What came as a shocker for most of us was her decision to assume the controls of the Congress party in 1998. Sonia was constantly criticized by the opposition for being Italian-born, of speaking Hindi with a foreign accent and having nothing but the Gandhi name going for her. And yet, she steered the Congress-led UPA to a thumping victory in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections.


For a moment, it seemed that Sonia too had been seduced by the lure of power to move out of the shadow and step onto the political front. And yet again, despite being unanimously voted to lead the government, she unexpectedly declined the post of Prime Minister. On the eve of the inauguration, amidst intense insistence and persuasion, she said, "I request you to accept my decision and to recognize that I will not reverse it…. It is my inner voice, my conscience."
Honestly when she decided to move in to politics, I along with many Indians presumed that she finally made a run for the Power…!


What then was the motivation for someone like Sonia Gandhi, who by default had become intrinsically linked to politics, to take on such a daunting task of leading a party that was on such shaky ground?
In a country where everything is politicized, whether it is the Naxal attack or the Bhopal tragedy verdict, I wonder where she fits in. Ranbir in one of the final scenes in Raajneeti says that he always wanted to stay away from politics because it brought out the worst in someone, making them manipulative and scheming. Ranbir, the shrewd Arjun in Raajneeti, plots and plans till he avenges his father's death. In the great Mahabharata of Indian politics, which character is Sonia Gandhi?