Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Movies Roundup 2014

 First things first, 2014 was a sub-par movie year for Bollywood. No two ways about it. The last couple of years had raised the expectations but this was back to the superstars and their regular Rs. 200 crores rubbish, for the most part.  Also, personally this year I ended up seeing far fewer movies in theatres primarily because the downtown cinemas that had started screening Hindi movies dialed it down, and most of the non-mainstream movies like Filmistaan, The World Before Her etc. never saw the light of day in this part of the world. However, my friend Parth had thrown a helpful challenge, to also take into account the overall movies watches, including those at home. Though I failed miserably on my 2014 resolution of 100 movies overall (theatres and TV) but the last month of the year saw a strong upswing with a TV moving to the bedroom. Ended the year with 14 movies in the theatres and 24 on the smaller screen. Barely passed with 38% marks. Toning down 2015 expectations to 50 movies overall.

 Moving to the real deal now. Just like in 200920102011, 2012, & 2013 I made a quick note of my initial thoughts and a rating on 10, purely on how much I enjoyed it. As always, very keen to hear your thoughts and exchange some notes. Welcome 2015 and let the show go on!

  Starting with the popular stats first, only for movies released the same year.


Year     # Seen Hindi:English:Bangla   Top Rating      Avg. Rating
2007     32               22:10:0                           9.0             5.78
2008     30               23:7:0                             8.5             6.35
2009     24               18:6:0                             9.0             6.85
2010     25               16:9:0                             8.5             6.62
2011     22               15:6:1                             8.5             6.77
2012     28               12:11:5                           9.0             7.33
2013     28               14:14:0                           9.0             7.12
2014     16                10:6:0                            9.0             6.16 

 The average rating was significantly impacted by the worst movie I have seen in the last 10 years - Gundey. And it breaks my heart that after a 10 month stay at the bottom of IMDb rankings, it's now the 3rd worst movie in history.

Coming to the top 5, and with just 16 movies, decided to go with a mix of Hollywood and Bollywood this time. (All posters courtsey Wikipedia)

5. 2 States


Exaggerated, stereotypical plot but thoroughly enjoyable. Besides one pretentious social message, a fun, feel good movie. 7.5/10.

4. American Hustle


.Smart, fast paced and genuinely funny. Smooth performances, great lines with Jen Lawrence a cut above the rest. 8/10

3. Haider


Recommended to not watch it with real life biases and enjoy a brilliant movie. Pulls you into the story from get go. Haunting. 8/10

2. Gone Girl


One of the most intriguing characters in modern cinema. You'll forget whom you're rooting for and what you want. Gripping. 8.5/10

1. Queen


Characters & situations you identify with. Touches upon prejudices without being preachy. Spectacular Kangana and support cast. 9/10



Below, a collection of tweet reviews of all the movies of 2014.

American Hustle - Smart, fast paced and genuinely funny. Smooth performances, great lines with Jen Lawrence a cut above the rest. 8/10

Gundey - 0.5/10

Highway - Superb performances by Alia & Randeep, beautiful locales & cinematography, soothing score, unnecessary parallel thread. 7/10.

Gulaab Gang - has a message, and is delivered in simple black & white. An outstanding Juhi Chawla. Unnecessary music. Masala lines. 6/10.

Queen - Characters & situations you identify with. Touches upon prejudices without being preachy. Spectacular Kangana and support cast. 9/10

2 States - Exaggerated, stereotypical plot but thoroughly enjoyable. Besides one pretentious social message, a fun, feel good movie. 7.5/10.

Finding Fanny - eccentric, funny, realistic in an over the top way, heart warming performances and Goa beautifully captured. 7/10

Haider - Recommended to not watch it with real life biases and enjoy a brilliant movie. Pulls you into the story from get go. Haunting. 8/10

Gone Girl - One of the most intriguing characters in modern cinema. You'll forget whom you're rooting for and what you want. Gripping. 8.5/10

Happy New Year - 5/10 (a series of tweets on the movie here)

PK - 7/10, but that's irrelevant. Here's the full review - And an earnest request to watch it.

The Interview - Utterly outraged that a topic as fascinating as North Korea was completely messed up in this terrible comic attempt. 3/10.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

PK - Review

Photo Courtsey PK's Official FB page
Came back after watching PK a couple of hours back, and was getting my thoughts together for a review. In the meanwhile happened to glance at the Twitter trending topics in India, expecting some Aamir Vs SRK fireworks. One of the top trending topics in India right now is #BoycottPK. We don't come across irony this thick even in our movies. 

Yes, it's got a bit of E. T. (Koi Mil Gaya), Forrest Gump, and a lot of OMG. The music is slightly below the usual Rajkumar Hirani (RKH) standard, though very hummable, and the message is in your face, and underlined in bright pink just in case you manage to miss it. But the trend tells me all of that is completely besides the point. 

PK is more of what a junior school moral science video should be like (which we don't show in our schools) with some of the biggest stars in the country, espousing a cause which shouldn't even require hundreds of crores of rupees to send the message. But we're a large country with high illiteracy rates and years of divide based on religious grounds, and I admire the makers and the actors for taking up a project like this. They have no obligations to equally represent every religion to prove a point, but to be fair to them, they do make an effort to not totally single out one. 

The movie is about the simple message of removing middlemen between us and the Almighty. Though perhaps not as relatable as the 'Jadoo ki jhappi' of Munnabhai M.B.B.S  or 'Gandhigiri' of Lage Raho Munnabhai, 'Wrong Number' of PK is a message which is more universal than a cursory viewing of the movie suggests. With hashtags like #BoycottPK it becomes that much more evident how dire the situation is and why we need movies like this to get even a few minds to raise some questions.

My request to you will be to criticize the movie as much as you want from a cinematic perspective, and the plot has enough holes to be unable to cover Aamir Khan's modesty, but please watch the movie and ask a few others to do so too. PK is vulnerable and innocent and requires our support. 

It's very easy for superstars like Aamir Khan to churn trash and make Rs. 200 crores, and many of his contemporaries do so every year without fail. Glad that he used his reach to try and make a difference, while making the 200 crores. I am glad that WeSupportPK started to trend in the meanwhile.

Monday, December 15, 2014

2015 Cricket World Cup Schedule

The World Cup starts on Feb-14-2015 (Australia)/Feb-13-2015 (USA) with the first Pool A matchbetween hosts New Zealand and Sri Lanka, in Christchurch. The same day Australia take on England in Melbourne to start things off for Pool B.

There will be a total of 42 group stage matches to decide the 8 quarter finalists. 

Pool A consists of: England, Australia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Afghanistan, and Scotland.

Pool B will have: South Africa, India, Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland, and UAE. 

The quarter finals will be held on 4 consecutive days (March 17-20) in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Wellington respectively.

The two semi-finals will be on March 23rd and 25th in Auckland and Sydney, with the final slated for Sunday, March 29th (Aus)/Saturday, March 28th (USA) in Melbourne.

You can download the .ics calendar file from ESPNCrincinfo (here). This can be easily synced with the calendar of your choice (Outlook, Google Calendar, etc.) as well as your mobile calendars.