The plot is simple and so are the conversations the characters have. But yet the movie keeps you glued. Robert De Niro is superb as the 70 year old intern and plays the character with utmost sincerity. This is one of those feel-good movies which leaves you entertained and uplifted by the end of it. I don't remember the last time I saw a movie on my laptop uninterrupted without being distracted. The best of creations are the simplest of them all. This movie exemplifies the same and so will the review for this one do.
The trailer for the biopic on the life of Indian mathematician S. Ramanujan released recently.
The movie is slated to release in April 2016 and I am eagerly awaiting this one.
We have such great stories in India, unfortunately the storytellers here fail to take notice. All they come up with is this:
and this
and finally these ones:
It's strange how Hollywood directors can make excellent movies on the simplest of plots (Bridge of Spies for example) and we screw up the best of plots (Attacks of 26/11 for example)! It's a pity that no GOOD filmmaker has thought about a 26/11 movie yet (RGV has, but then he no longer comes in the good filmmaker category after the Aag debacle). Movies like Neerja and Airlift are a welcome change in this respect, but they aren't even close to what Hollywood does. Lots of efforts goes into the execution and they are honest to the topic. Indian movies invariably end up adding that "senti" or "common man" element to most films to get the sympathy of the audience,
It's high time that Indian film makers realize that the audiences are ain't as dumb as they think. There are exceptions though and a large section of the audience wants those kind of Masala movies. Probably that's why a Bhai film crosses 300 crores and movies like Titli, Masaan and Aligarh fail to get what they deserve. Fortunately in recent times , filmmakers are taking those kinds of risks. There are so many unexplored and 'film'worthy stories in India, for eg Manjhi. No-one knew what Dashrath Manjhi did in the the remote village of Gehlaur before the film released . No-one knew about soldier/athlete turned dacoit Paan Singh Tomar before Tigmanshu Dhulia decided depict his story on the silver screen. We need more such biopics. Unfortunately these films get sidelined and all they end up getting a 'critical acclaim'. For eg. This year the Filmfare award for best debut went to Sooraj Pancholi for Hero. Its ridiculous that he ended up winning despite the likes of Vicky Kaushal (Masaan) and Shashank Arora (Titli) being in competition. If you haven't watched any of aforementioned movies or even heard about them, you need to head to the nearest DVD store (or your favourite torrent website, which 99% will end up doing) and watch them ASAP (except Hero of course. If you watch that movie , I would not be responsible to the brain damage you suffer hearing Athiya Shetty mutter out her lines.)
I can either rant about the sorry scripts that we come up with (Kick, Dabbang, Dilwale, and so on and so forth) or be happy about the welcome change that is coming up. I choose the latter! Hopefully a few years down the line, these will be the "mainstream films" and outnumber the keep-your-brain-at-home movies that Bollywood is so used to. Hoping that Khan-o-philia would be a disease of the past and we immunize ourselves with the Nawaz/Kashyap vaccine!
P.S. I know the last line was lame but then, I couldn't come up with something good to counter Khan-o-philia. Apologies to the miniscule number of people (:Read 2) who are going end up reading this blogpost.
I know this is an old movie and most of you must have already seen this. But then this is for people who haven't watched it yet. I had heard about this one some time ago and actually forgotten until one of my friends suggested this one. And what better time to watch this than a lazy day when the Mumbai rains make it impossible for you to get out of your room.
The movie is about a young self made genius Will Hunting played by Matt Damon working as a janitor in the MIT , a professor who finds this genius and wants to shape his life as HE wants to and the therapist Dr. Sean Maguire, played by Robbin Williams who helps him to decide what he (as in Will himself) wants to do.
The conversations between Will and his therapist are excellent and are the essence of the movie. Along with that there are many other sub plots , like how in spite of being a genius in other aspects Will is poor with inter-personal relationships, including his love interest; the old time rivalry between Dr Sean and the mathematics professor; how the professor wants the kid to be more like him rather than allowing him to chase what he actually wants to do with his life; his relations with his friends. My personal favorite quote from the movie is when Will's best friend is trying to convince him to utilize his talent instead of wasting it doing labor jobs:
"Alright. No. No no. Fuck you. You don't owe it to yourself. You owe it to me. 'Cause tomorrow I'm gonna wake up and I'll be fifty and I'll still be doing this shit. And that's all right, that's fine. I mean, you're sittin' on a winning lottery ticket and you're too much of a pussy to cash it in. And that's bullshit `cause I'd do anything to fuckin' have what you got! So would any of these fuckin' guys. It'd be an insult to us if you're still here in twenty years. Hanging around here is a fuckin' waste of your time. Every day I come by to pick you up. And we go out we have a few drinks, and a few laughs and it's great. But you know what the best part of my day is? It's for about ten seconds from when I pull up to the curb to when I get to your door. Because I think maybe I'll get up there and I'll knock on the door and you won't be there. No goodbye, no see you later, no nothing. Just left. I don't know much, but I know that."
Do watch this one if you haven't. You can catch the full length movie on YouTube.
