Friday, April 13, 2018

October: A meditative piece about love, loss & changing of seasons

'October'
Directed by Shoojit Sircar 
Written by Juhi Chaturvedi 

Few things that I completely loved & adored about Shoojit Sircar's extremely real and relatable saga about love & loss.

1. Juhi Chaturvedi's evocative writing of these believable & affable characters that make you feel as if you have met them somewhere in your past. With October, she successfully writes a meditative piece that manages to linger on with the audience even after one leaves the theatre.

2. Beautiful use of the city (Delhi) & its people, that end up becoming supporting players to this soulful story.

3. The writing isn't rushed, which makes one feel more connected with Dan (Varun) and everybody else that orbits around Shiuli (Banita Sandhu).

4. None of your usual tropes of a love story are added or even remotely grazed.

5. Avik Mukhopadhyay's steady no-gimmicky, almost transdental camerawork that superbly captures the intensity of a hospital and the changing of seasons.

6. And of course, VARUN DHAWAN. All these years after Badlapur, he once again shows us that if it's needed he sure can risk it & act his heart out, and give a soulful performance. 

Slow & steady storytelling, indeed at times can win the race.

P.S: October may be not everyone's cup of tea, but I feel people should give this fragile & tender love story a chance. It is bound to pull on your heartstrings.

Monday, April 2, 2018

How Warner Bros. Ruined What Could Have Been an Amazing Experience at the Cinemas for the Whole of India


Ever since I read the book back in 2011, I have been waiting for its visual adaptation. 'Ready Player One' written by Ernest Cline had transported me to an amazingly fresh and imaginative world that took me on a ridiculously fun & quest-filled ride. I remember reading it and thinking to myself that this is like a treasure-trove of 80's nostalgia, covering everything from 'Back to the Future' to Roald Dahl.
My headlong love affair with movies started ever since I saw the Hindi dubbed version of Jurassic Park way back in 1994, when I was 5. I didn't understand much of what was happening on screen, but I sure was really fascinated by it. That was the first non-Indian movie I ever saw in a theater, and I was completely blown away!
So imagine my happiness when couple of years ago it was announced that none other than Steven Spielberg was going to adapt this into a movie! He may not be a so-called "auteur filmmaker", but there's no denying that he knows how to pull the heart strings and take the audience on a magical journey, and that's exactly the kind of filmmaker this movie needed. Whether it's E.T - The Extra-Terrestrial, Indiana Jones or Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg has always managed to take the audience on an adventurous ride, filled with emotional scenes, artistic long takes, haunting music, masterful scene transitions and beautifully choreographed camera movements, in short he has given us many of the most iconic moments in cinema history.
So now you know how badly I was waiting for 'Ready Player One' to release here in India. Had booked my tickets in IMAX and was eagerly counting down the seconds, when suddenly rumours started coming in that the movie for some 'unknown reasons' is getting delayed/postponed!
That sure felt like a gut-punch by Warner Bros. For no rhyme or reason, WB had all of a sudden decided to cancel all shows all over India a day before the official release (except for a handful of theatres where the movie was distributed by SPI Cinemas).

No official statements were issued by WB or WB India (It's been 5 days and they still haven't), and for some weird reason, none of the major news outlets in India are covering this. All of them are/were busy covering Christopher Nolan's arrival in India, and I don't blame them. But now that he's gone, I guess you guys can help us out a bit, and get some response out of the studio if possible.

There have been lots of rumours floating around, from distribution disputes to censor issues to delay/errors in KDM ('Key Delivery Message' is a special electronic key that contains a code which unlocks an encrypted film), but a source has said that this might all be happening because of infighting within WB. And that there is also a very strong possibility the movie won't get a WIDE release now in India, as WB has already started their marketing & PR campaign for their next major release that's happening on 13th April (Rampage).

I sincerely hope someone from WB takes notice and decides to do something about this and gets the movie released here.
"Every time I go to a movie, it's magic, no matter what the movie's about." 
- Steven  Spielberg