Gran Torino

A must watch for all the Clint Eastwood fans and definitely worth watching for everyone else who appreciates a well made movie. Its a treat to watch Clint Eastwood reprise the role of a man of few words who looks like he means business when every time wields a gun (for all the Clint Eastwood movie virgins, check-out Dirty Harry, Good, Bad & the Ugly, etc). The movie revolves around the interactions between Walt Kovalski (Eastwood) and his neighbors, a Hmong family living somewhere in mid-west in a predominantly immigrant community. The high points of the movie are 1) casting, can't imagine anyone other than Clint Eastwood playing this role, he even carries off the lighter scenes pretty well, all the Hmong actors are good considering that none of them is a career actor, 2) depiction of human emotions is handled quite well, bringing to the fore the fact that all of us share the same set of emotions irrespective of our outward appearance, behavior or ethnic/ geographical origin, 3) climax of the movie is simply awesome. Now only weakness in my opinion is that like most of the movies directed by Eastwood, this one is a tad too dramatic this kind of dilutes the emotional impact of the story.

Rashomon

The idea of a movie based on an event being told from the view points of different characters involved always fascinated me, so it was awesome to finally watch the movie which pioneered the concept, "Rashomon" directed by Akira Kurusowa. The movie was made in 1950 and is considered one of the classics, a multitude of people have written their opinion about the movie since then, and here are my personal reflections about it. The central event in the movie is a young couple traveling through a forest spotted by a womanizing bandit. The bandit takes a fancy for the beautiful wife and the series of events so unfolds that he rapes the wife and the husband ends up loosing his life. Each of the participants in this event, that is, the bandit, the young wife, ghost of the dead husband and a woodcutter who discreetly witnessed the whole drama narrates the chain of events. The interesting part being how the different narrations are slightly different from each other, each one trying to project the narrator in favorable light, beautifully highlighting one of the basic weaknesses of human nature. Also, we get subtle glimpses of social aspects of life in contemporary Japan, like the male dominance in society, evident from the scenes where both the husband & the bandit treat wife as a commodity. Cinematography, sound effects, direction everything is superb, all in all a very solid story handled perfectly by a legendary director.

Sorry Bhai

This is definitely one of the better hindi movies I have seen in recent months. There are multiple things which make this a very watchable movie, to begin with the cinematographer did an excellent job in capturing Mauritius in all its resplendent beauty, combine that with a bunch of competent actors and an unconventional story handled with care. Now a story about a person falling in love with his brother's fiancee would be considered a bit unconventional for a movie anywhere in the world but more so for a hindi movie to be released in India. Kudos to Onir (director of movie) for handling the story sensitively without making it overtly melodramatic or too heavy to watch. Watch out for the cracking chemistry between Shabana Aazmi & Boman Irani (enacting the role of mother & father of the 2 brothers in the center of the story) and the scene where Sharman Joshi tells his elder brother Sanjay Suri that he has fallen in love with her fiancee (& vice-versa). So definitely rent the DVD and check-out this movie if the plot does not offend your sensibilities or moral values & you think that such things though not common place may happen in real world too or if you appreciate well made movies. And yeah, icing on the cake is that music is pretty melodious too.