red rose

it had to be a remake of a south indian film. this strange moral misogyny when playboy rajesh khanna stops being lover boy and becomes serial killer to avenge the wrongs women have to done to him while growing up- including a wrongful rape charge. his house has a rose garden above the bodies of the women he has slaughtered. poonam dhillon plays the damsel in distress but keeps taking her clothes off periodically. and in the end stands by her man- even though he wanted to kill her. the mangalsutra... see? i dont. 

on the road

a weird nostalgia for something i have never been part of- an american youth. rebellion and madness overspilling into each other. yet, as the young person in me responded to the story of wild youth, the older person scoffed at the juvenile staging. the overheated 'poetic' seemed at some level childlike and looked like what it perhaps really was- white boys wanting to get their hands dirty by living like the 'other'. and then they pay the price for it by standing alone on the streets of new york, while the one who wrote the 'novel' is in a limo heading to a duke ellington concert. 

movie checklist

a movie checklist of the past few days. and yes, there are many. beginning with the anime: hayao miyazaki's two films. the first 'lupin 3: The Castle of Cagliostro' follows the adventures of the master thief and his sidekick as they save a princess from an evil relative in a gothic tower like fortress.' behind this fortress lies a treasure that turns out to be a half drowned roman city... in the second 'nausicaa: the valley of the wind' our heroine of the wind has a deep connection with the natural world. a call for harmony between man and nature that even sees the horrific as necessary for the survival of the earth. these being the insect world that has poisoned the atmosphere.

a third anime that i saw yesterday remixes some indian mythology and turns it into a mystical action adventure. 'rg veda' is the search by the five elemental spirits for the sixth to save the world from the domination of the evil warlord. all the characters have their own distinctive personalities and animation styles. 'ah my goddess' makes a teen romance of memory loss and racing between the gods and human beings. belldandy is a goddess from heaven in love with a mere mortal. some interstellar shenanigans and eventual resolution follow.

not quite anime, but one that makes the world animated. warsaw through mamuro oshii's live action 'avalon'. the ace player of the 'avalon game' is a woman who is in search of redemption within the world of the ruins that the game offers as an escape from the drab monotonous reality of trams and drab interiors. when she manages to reach the final level it turns out to be one in the contemporary city, finally out of the sepia tinted darkness of the earlier film like in 'the wizard of oz' perhaps.

two china films: the first was the beautiful new film by jia zhang ke 'i wish i knew'- a history of shanghai told through first person narratives of many who have lived through the traumatic history of the city. we connect from here to hong kong and taiwan where the stories continue. film clips also serve as evidence- but as does the city itself gorgeously photographed making sublime the incredible landscape of the city. the 'city of life and death' is nanjing during the japanese invasion of 1937. shot in black and white the film is a nonstop propaganda machine systematically documenting the horrors of rape and mass murder committed upon the Chinese by the invading forces. it is relentless and after a while a little tiresome.

some contemporary Hollywood thrillers- 'skyline' about an alien invasion that sucks the brains out of people. a skyscraper in downtown los Angeles serves as a prison from where there is no escape. in 'frozen'  a chair lift on a ski resort is the prison and instead of evil aliens we have wolves who can tear your flesh apart. in both films the only survivors are the helpless women. and 'the crow' in which Brandon lee exchanges his soul for that of a crow to avenge the murder of him and his girlfriend. a city of dark shadows and high rises. the crow leaps over rooftops and crashes in through glass panes. the only thrill in 'honey' is jessica alba gyrating her hips to hip hop. the film otherwise is an ordinary rags to riches tale about a hi[p hop dancer making it big in the music video world. missy Elliot guests.

the disintegration of a marriage and of love forms the story of 'blue valentine', the story of a passive aggressive man who falls in love with a stronger woman. the films flashes forwards and back between the wooing and the disintegration of the marriage over one weekend in a sci-fi styled motel room. Ryan gosling makes his bid for an Oscar nomination. the minefield of dynamics with a family is the landscape of the film version of 'cat on a hot tin roof' with paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor. the dramatic action takes place mostly in the plantation house of the family. it is perhaps too much of a stretch, but that does not stop me from trying to make a connection between the architecture of the house and the emotional terrain of the play. the top floor is the place where the lies are told; on the ground is where the truth finally comes to light; and it is in the basement that finally the father and son reveal who they really are and come to some kind of reconciliation. 'picnic at hanging rock' is not afraid to take a basic story and turn it into something else entirely. ostensibly about the disappearance of a group of schoolgirls and their teacher on a valentine's day picnic, the film in delicate sunlight as girls in white skip over a stream and stare at rock muses over the nature of beauty and youth, adolescence and sexuality, class and friendship.

radical politics gets a Hollywood musical makeover in milos forman's 'hair'. groovy people in new york sing and dance in central park against vietnam and american imperialism. a newbie from oklahoma on his way to the war falls under their spell. some genuinely funny and touching moments (like the physical test scene where men and women lust after white boys and white girls, but largely little silly fun.

 godard's 'weekend' screams out against consumer culture and the class divide and bad cinema by breaking all rules of convention. intertitles break up the narrative (?) and bodies pile up on multiple car crashes on a weekend drive. a road trip from some tripped out version of hell. a casual violence at every turn as husbands betray wives and vice versa and children kill off their parents.

the italian mobster film 'gomorrah' is set mostly in a monstrous apartment complex whose inner corridors, terraces and basements serve as locations for murder, and betrayal. starting off with the murder of mobsters in a spa, the film then follows four stories that spin off from the result of that killing condemning the innocent to a life and death of crime.

exquisitely drawn, the erotic anime 'the sensualist' makes a visual language of its own- referencing ukiyo-e with its flattened perspectives and delicate details. the symbolic fire/water/flower references might have been embarrassing if they were not so gorgeous to watch. the story involves the journey of a young man to sleep with a famous geisha and the help an older, more experienced 'sensualist' offers him.

in 'the angelic conversation', underlining the homoerotic content of Shakespeare's sonnets, derek jarman composes a music video for them. two men in slow hypnotic movement love one another, lose one another and long for one another. judi dench reads sonnets on the soundtrack.

ben hur. delhi belly . just go with it . rango . the tourist . inglorious basterds . beginning of the great revival. just wright . total eclipse. edward ii

was i being over cynical while watching 'ben hur' that made the tedious and pompous biblical epic inot a thinly veiled homoerotic tale. the loving looks that messala and ben hur exchange, the strange relationship between the older roman and the perpetually half naked charlton heston and his mother obsession and asexuality. besides this, i kept seeing phallic symbols everywhere. and then i read that this was all intended by a very naughty gore 

vidal who wrote the script and by william wyler. fantastic horse raceing scene- but everyone knows that. homoerotic period pieces cant get much better than derek jarman's edward ii. shakespeare through the wringer as staged scenes conflate contemporary gay rights protests with medieval politics. fantastic.

'delhi belly' would have been funny i it was not so self consciously cool. the lines seemed funny enough, but everyone was so busy soaking in the "cutting edge" of the film- its casual profanity and potty humour- that the film ended up being a string of plodding incidents strung together for the sake of a plot. the aamir khan guest appearance as a disco fighter at the end merely exaggerated the hatred these film makers feel for bollywood, but what they give us in return is a film that caters to the most juvenile desires of the multiplex crowd. maybe it is a young people film and i am too old.

hollywood animation was always predictable and the creation of a central odd character is supposed to suddenly make these films adult-friendly. in this case it is johnny depp and rango. but really it was only a typical coming of age drama full of references to westerns of sergio leone.

johnny depp again in the really dreadful 'the tourist'. angelina jolie pouts through the whole film in exotic europe. a spy film whose silliness was grating. for good bad hollywood must be the queen latifah romantic drama comedy 'just wright'. more power to the black girl who gets her man away from the hot godsister in spite of being a tracksuit clad trainer. only for in flight brain drain. in spite of jennifer aniston and adam sandler, two actors whose incessant sweetness can annoy the hell out of me, i was all right with 'just go with it'. the story was really that of 'maine pyar kyu kiya' where the doctors secretary pretends to be the ex-wife. but some of the one liners were funny enough. cant imagine watching it on screen though.

if the 'delhi belly' filmmakers want to be super cool they need to really get quentin tarantino. the chilling opening of this mad comedy where the jews beat the chit out of the nazis was terrific fun. irreverant cinephilia that makes many peoples fantasies come true. we won the war- at least on screen.

'the beginning of the great revival' is a recent chinese film about the birth of the communist party sponsored by the state and is a spot-the-star festival. chow yun fat, john woo and a slew of canto pop stars flow in and out of the film playing characters from history. set up as a series of conversations in rooms, the film had really no dramatic tension to hold it together. instead if the giggles and squeals of the shanghai mall audience were anything to go by, it was not much more that standing on the edge of a red carpet watching stars walk by in period costume.

but the worst film of the past two weeks must be the godawful 'total eclipse' which tells the story of the relationship between french poets verlaine and rimbaud. leonardo decaprio plays rimbaud with an irritating swagger and the script is so bad it makes you scream in pain. 

the hour of the furnace . transformers 3d . vampire hunter d . natural city. abba - the movie .

fernando solanas' fiery trilogy of films is fantastic agit prop. from the rat-tat opening of the first part with its episodic introduction to neo-liberalism to its incredible end where one  long shot of che guevara's dead face calls for martyrs in the cause of the revolution. some of the pot-shots at the bourgeoisie are pat but very effective. the second part of the trilogy is divided into two- one that follows the peronist revolution and its growth / decline and the other that collects testimonies of the revolutionaries. the final part, only 38 minutes long, calls for action by documenting the violence of the state.

the new transformers film aims at shock and awe by blowing up the head of abraham lincoln- the only really 'new' image in the history of destruction of cities in american films. the rest is action by rote- the twirling snake like machine ripping through the chicago skyscraper being the most vivid image of all. but, if a transformers film is what you are expecting (as i was) there is nothing much to complain about. some of the 3d is spectacular- especially that opening sequence of the landing on the moon and the destruction of the planet of the robots.

in the korean 'natural city' the line between man and cyborg is blurred when love breaks the boundary. 'natural city' has an underground inspired by blade-runner where cyborgs are blackmarketed. a cop falls in love with one and needs the body of a real woman to keep the cyborg alive forever. action packed and bloody, this was terrific fun.

vigilante d is a vampire hunter with a talking hand and a samurai sword who takes on the blood sucking count and his family when he exploits a delicate sexy young girl from the village. set in a generically european city, this 1985 film makes goth horror in anime. the animation is dated- none of the carefully detailed movements and sounds of recent years- but more effective because of it.

not a spot of darkness can taint the perpetually happy 'abba'. in the film when the public is asked what they like about the group most say that they are 'clean cut'. i.e. they wear white and gold clean clothes and smile a lot. the music is dance without the darkness of funk. eurodisco at it most catchy. in that sense its appeal is really its lack of personality- like the band. blandness as an art form. the inane lyrics that reference generic american landscapes that are decidedly not real- but instead emerge from the world of comic books and western films like the "rio grande" of 'fernando'. it is flat and easy to use. sing along. there is nothing to feel- because feeling would be dangerous. the film 'abba- the movie' knows this and makes sure that even when the reporter finally gets his chance to do a heart to heart with the band, about who they 'really are', it cuts to a song in an elevator, thus keeping the 'real' hidden and revealing only what we always see- blonde hair and smiling faces with glittering disco lights. and the pleasure of emptiness- with a catchy tune. very catchy- mamma mia / dancing queen / voulez vous / money money money /knowing me, knowing you/.. and the list goes on. i am now an abba convert. 

the green hornet . x-men first class. pina . salesman . ecumenopolis . strike . ready . shaitan .hallelujah the hills. derek . whisper of the heart

disappointing this descent into hollywood clichés for madman michel gondry, in spite of the twist involved in making the sidekick kato- the chauffeur with the karate skills- way more heroic than the hero. less disappointing, but no spanking new reboot, was the new x-men film. more action film than the others and way less darker. the only real charisma came from magneto. the rest was big explosions and chases.

in london, with sachin and chintan, we saw the new wim wenders 3d film on pina bausch- 'pina'. performing on stage, on streets, in gardens, some of bausch's most famous pieces including the stunning opener- 'the rite of spring'. beautiful to watch- in spite of the headaches that 3d gives me. the other film in london was at the bfi- eisenstien's 'strike' with its the last sequence in the apartment building with the killing of the baby and the slaughtering of cattle accompanied by live piano.

at the sheffield film festival we saw only two other films besides 'vertical city'- 'ecumenopolis' that was paired with mukul's film turned out to take some of the themes in vertical city and expand them in istanbul's sprawling landscape. with some spectacular aerial views of the city we see bridges that are being built to create new real estate, slums that are being demolished, absolutely no public transportation and the city meanwhile continues to be spectacle and speculation. the other film was 'salesman' the maysles brothers film on the life of bible salesmen in1960s america. with nicknames takes from their selling style, the men ingratiate themselves to middle america to saddle them with expensive editions of the bible illustrated with images by the 'masters'. surprisingly un-judgemental about the profession and warm to its protagonists.

in 'ready' salman khan perfects the swagger. the film is easy, confident and funny as hell like only early david dhawan was. the dialogue crackles with everyday humour and salman khan delivers them with a panache that reminded me of the timing of a govinda. asin manages to keep up. must watch. and so high was i i with the joy of 'ready' that i had the energy to walk into 'shaitan' directly afterwards which turned out to be too cool for me.

last week i also saw the american independent film 'hallelujah, the hills' by  adolfas mekas, a free spirited, exuberant ride through the episodes (real or fictive?) of a love triangle where the men play goofy games in the landscape with and without the object of their affection (who is played by different actresses for each of her suitors). the film winks at film history throughout lovingly and in some jaw dropping gorgeous black and white sequences.

'derek' was a homage to derek jarman that collected his thoughts on his films and his life chronologically, interspersed with tilda swinton considering their relationship and her admiration for him. the film gave me a good frame of reference to watch the rest of his work- and the films i have seen again. it is too bad we could not get to dungeness this time in the uk.

and to end this survey of recent films, my anime obsession is back. i am watching the twisted tv drama 'deathnote' after i have finished reading the whole manga. a notebook falls from the hands of the death gods into the hands of a precocious young man who takes it upon himself to change the world by killing all the criminals. his nemesis is the brilliant and elusive investigator 'l'. the twists dont stop. miles away is studio ghibli's 'whisper of the heart' - a coming of age drama where a young girl grows up fast during the summer as she discovers her first love with a young man aspiring to be a violin maker; and her own inner desire to be a writer. the super realism of anime distorts the everyday into fantasy- the gesture of a hand as it feels the side of a wall, the dappled sunlight in a garden, the sky over the city and the sound of crickets in the night. 

bal gandharva . crank 2

after 'natrang's world of lavani and 'harishchandrachi factory's nostalgia for a time when marathi culture actually meant something, here is another look back at a marathi cultural icon from the early part of the 20th century. 'bal gandharva' was a female impersonator, singer, performer and the film attempt s a bio pic by checking all the boxes- tilak's admiration, the rise to fame, the daughter's death, the ridiculous lengths he went to for the creation of the 'total work of art' including the spraying of every guest with attar, the celebrity fashion craze where women thronged sari shops to wear what he wore in the latest play, his eventual poverty and disgrace that led to his failed attempt at entering the world of cinema, and his downfall by his devotion to the reviled 'other woman'. and in all this the film steers clear of demonizing the man- content merely to blame something approximating a vague 'artistic temperament' for his eccentricities. this oversimplification is pat and unconvincing. examining his egomania and vanity; or the complexity of gender and sexuality shifts as he plays a woman; or the cult of celebrity and its repercussions; and so many more possibilities, are merely a scratch away and the film makers make sure that no such revelation is made for fear of alienating an adoring crowd.

in this case the adoring crowd was made of elderly maharashtrian couples some of whom has seen the man perform in the flesh - including my grandmother- who couldn't stop repeating the same stories of her and her brother going as children to watch the man perform in amravati, eating a dabba packed specially for the performance and the continuous 'once more's and dramatic changes of saris. sticking to the artist biography template got the film flattened and predictable. the only time that a possibility of some frission existed was in the very beginning of the film when the first night of his marriage is turned into a lesbian dream. while 'natrang' played more with the gender shifts and had better music; this film suffers from playing it too safe- although the music sometimes soars.

hadnt expected to enjoy 'crank 2' in its jittery jokey action packed madness. like a comic book on screen.

movie wrap-up

dum maro dum . wild grass . the assasination of jesse james by the coward... rio . shor in the city . i am . charlie chan and the curse of the dragon queen . gone in 60 seconds . thor .

'dum maro dum' is all cool boredom. goa is made drug capital in an oversaturated piss yellow tint. deepika padukone sizzles for a short while in a short skirt- but most of the time the twists in the tale are predictable and abhishek's expression vacillated intermittently between a smirk and sneer. alain resnais' 'wild grass' was gorgeously shot but tried to make profound the story of an encounter between a woman pilot who lost her purse and the aging eccentric who found it. lightweight arty. i fell for the epic conceits of 'the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford'. unashamedly long and slow. the landscape of frontier homes and desolate landscapes beautiful. the train robbery in the night was exquisite. now new hollywood- 'rio' in 3d- besides the great renderings of the barrios in rio in that wild chase sequence- nothing unusual. run of the mill american animation. 'thor' did more with kenneth branagh tapping the inherent silliness of a god walking the earth. the actor looks like a god and natalie portman is duly impressed. then the two alt-indie (somehwhat) films released last week- 'i am' and 'shor in the city'. while 'i am' travels to kolkata for the surrogate pregnancy story, kashmir for the kashmiri pundit story and bangalore for the child abuse story it has to return to mumbai for corrupt cops and rahul bose kissing arjun in a car. which other city has the best corrupt policemen? i wish he hadn't fallen for the cliche in the end. but otherwise warm. more clichés in 'shor in the city' where the only 'normal' people in mumbai are the desi american returning trying to make it in maximum city; and the telugu boy wanting to be a cricketer. around them are stereotypes of gangsters, corrupt policemen (again), poititians and goondas (with or without a good heart). nothing surprises or moves- except for that one shot of the ghatkopar slums. breathtaking. tv movies: 'surrogates' with bruce willis in a sci-fi future where we live out lives through a mirror image of us. great premise devolved into hollywood action drama with a twist so predictable it made me wince. 'gone in 60 seconds': angelina jolie plays very pointless sidekick to nicholas cage as he steals 50 cars in a few days. you cant believe that anyone could take this seriously. i hope not- and finally, 'charlie chan and the curse of the dragon queen'-a relief to see a 80s murder mystery that new it was silly.

life during wartime . a fish called wanda . the lincoln lawyer

in highly saturated miami sunlight this is a dysfunctional family drama including a pedophile father, a neurotic screenwriter and a strangely sexualized relationship between mother and son. the film considers the abnormality of the hyper confessional suburban american life while the dialogue is made completely of the kind of homilies we hear on a oprah winfrey show – ‘finding yourself’, ‘be there for you’ but breaks open in sudden bursts of violence.

the fish cant speak and protects the key to the locker where the loot is stashed away. jamie lee curtis plays the femme fatale twisting all the men around her little finger- kevin kline’s armpit smelling, brit accent hating, nitezche reading otto, michael palin’s bumbling animal loving, stammering ken and above all john cleese’s sexually repressed, family man who can speak almost all european languages. a comedy about languages and speech, of there ever was one.

matthew mcconaughey stars in this mediocre courtroom drama about a lawyer forced to defend once client against another. ryan phillipe is evil client and marisa tomei the ex-wife. nothing to talk about.

bambai raat ki baahon mein . the illusionist . appleseed . nine months to freedom . angels and demons . prince of persia

theres nothing subtle about the rich vs poor polemic of this film; or the heavy handed metaphors that make eggs in a frying pan a symbol of life; or, as a matter of fact, the catalogue of the evils of the big city that starts off with slum displacements under the hands of big business and goes through alcoholism, smuggling, avarice…. the list goes on. when our reporter is about to be sold out from good but poor to rich but a lackey for the evil empire an accident shows him the path to goodness. a car chase in the climax kills the con man (who is the orphan child of the city- knowing no father mother trations), his muse- the gorgeous persis khambatta- the cabaret girl, and the girl next door who is vying for his attentions- and getting none- who has just been raped at a drunken party in an art deco building on marine drive. through this all there are some images that are indelible- the last scene where the rosie embraces the night and death, the silly and funny rape scene where the waves of the sea approximate orgasm in intercut black and white; and of course two songs filmed on persis khambatta. the first a fashion shoot in the new india assurance building on d n road with its enormous bas relief sculptures of farmers and workers. the fashion show catalogues the costumes of india under a portrait of naked and hungry farmers. i told you there was no such thing as subtlety here. the other song is the title track in which persis does the flamenco in costume in front of a set of bombay landmarks- the university, vt and a smoking chimney.

the tati film that was never made. hulot here is a french illusionist who travels to edinburgh via a small village in scotland where a young girl who thinks he can bring her magic decides to follow him to the ends of the earth- on this case edinburgh. almost completely silent, the film is beautifully drawn. like a tati film the tone is relentlessly bittersweet and poignant. its one note through the struggles that he goes through as he scrounges around looking for a job to keep the increasing demands of the girl- from a new dress to new shoes. meanwhile, she falls in love with a young neighbour in the margins.

as against a typical anime (think ‘princess mononoke’) where the battle between man and machine is always won by man’s flawed but inherent goodness ‘appleseed’ makes no such claims. it acknowledges the fact that all of us are cyborgs whose animal nature has been tamed by technologies- cultural as well as material. the future of the world after the another great war that leaves most of it looking like war torn beirut is in utopia where ‘bioroids’ – manufactured humanoids – live in peace, side by side with their human counterparts. these bioroids are the force that keep peace and happiness in the city. utopia has high rise towers and highways that reflect the sky, green parks and a couple of enormous eye like central buildings within which ‘gaia’ – earth mother sustains the balance in the world overseen by 7 old men. things are thrown into disarray when the humans begin to resent the doe eyed bioroids and when the 7 old men try to erase humanity forever.

a propoganda film that pulls no punches and much to its own detriment ‘nine months to freedom’ documents that bangladesh war in an unashamedly partisan and sensationalist mode. it lingers over mangled and rotting bodies in creeks; over newspaper photographs showing gruesome remains of rape; and has now qualms about making a good vs evil arguments portraying india as the suffering and kind hearted neighbor (endorsed by a variety of white men speaking into the camera) and pakistan as evil empire no 1.

and some hollywood- ‘angels and demons’ th follow up to ‘the da vinci code’. the esoteric symbols that were so entertaining and amusing in the first film are now reduced to statues by bernini that point to each other across rome. the tourism is nice- the film bad. ‘prince of persia’- video game in which jake gyllenhall tries unsuccessfully to overcome his brokeback mountain gay icon status but swishing some swords around him.

city of sadness . lebanon

watching history from the margins- just out of sight. only through allusion and words floating in the air- interrupted by bad transmission. the drama of the nationalists against the kuomintang in the first few years of the birth of taiwan- just recently freed from japanese occupation plays out through the story of a relatively apolitical family. all the action is observed from the wings as off-screen antics destroy the family unit. in this disorienting de-centeredness the story meanders through long takes of relatively plotless minutes of everyday life- the times when nothing is happening here- but always elsewhere.

as against this the first day of the israeli invasion of lebanon is only seen close up and in the sights of a gunner stuck inside a tank. fragments of the remnants of war- piles of bodies, devastated buildings, blood and flesh seen in sudden swoops as the tank plies through the city left behind after the aircrafts are done with their business. at night the tank is stranded in the middle of travel agency and the war is visited by the eiffel tower, the big ben and the twin towers. meanwhile inside the dark claustrophobic space of the tank the four men fester in their own filth.

zamaane ko dikhana hain . rajnigandha

another film that proves fully and finally that muslim sidecicks only exist to save the dynastic hindu family centerpeice. but the songs are fun- disco everything- disco competition and pathan bop or a qawaali with the most spectacular lightshow. hearts leading like arrows from the boy to the girl on the floor. i like the asha version of poocho na yaar more that the version in the competition medley; but love the 'ae kanchan' on top of the train.

for a change a film that spends time at home with her as she arranges the flowers in her apartment at delhi. she waits. when she goes off to that city of strangers and spectacle she almost falls right back in love with the ex-boyfriend. delhi is domestic bliss and bombay - the perennial city of temporary pleasures- fickle and faithless. some things have not changed. :)

discreet charm of the bourgeoisie . naya nasha

random and fantastic: the perpetually unfinished dinner party of the bourgeoisie. every time they sit to eat ridiculous guests turn up. ritual and ceremony are displaced by other rituals and ceremonies. it is in the collision of these, and the completely unfazed nature of the goings on that the film that an exquisite corpse of a film is made. and then there are the recounted dreams by characters who walk in and out of the film and also by the participants of the dinner party. and while these performances around food repeat endlessly going nowhere, our group of suit and gown clad elites walk steadfastly down a road heading nowhere in particular.

if only they had met 'grandpa' in his cane and bamboo den behind the psychedelic smoke filled haze of the drug palace where nanda is tempted out of her boredom into the world of sin. but then this 'naya nasha' is not only the bane of the bourgeoisie as the title scroll right at the beginning tells us it is 'the seventies'. where the working class is bored because of unemployment and the bourgeoisie because of the rejection by their parents. students are rioting on the streets or escaping into fantasy. nanda chooses the latter as she walks over the tome called 'moral moral moral' that she dumps on the floor when our vamp takes her to 'grandpa'. it all comes down to the doctor/ husband to save her from herself. he stands by steadfast even when she gives birth to a deformed little boy and shelters a drug dealer in her garage. all this time nanda talks to inanimate objects, throws her hair about and laughs manically and is in a flash reduced to tears. and she bites her lip. over and over again. in close up and in several violent crash zooms.

carlos. eden is west . fish tank . latcho drom . 7 khoon maaf . beautiful losers . pirates of silicon valley

the 6 hour epic drama about the jackal ' carlos' plays like a terrific thriller. he doesn't shapeshift as much as the forsythe characters but the story is way more exciting/ his journey through the murders in paris through the opec kidnapping and his eventual capture in libya. a terrific story and unstoppably told.

a road movie through france 'eden is west' cuts through landscapes from a high end beach resort on the mediterranean through rural landscapes with gay german truckers, all the way to paris as an illegal migrant searches for a magician who promised him work in paris. at the end the magician hands him a magic wand that makes the eiffel tower twinkle.

the 'fish tank' is dreary working class housing in britain where a dysfunctional family lives in the endless grid of rundown skyscrapers and derelict parking lots and overgrown gardens. it is in these that sudden beauty is found- a sky through the window where birds fly rapid in formation; or the waves hitting the shore in the desolate landscape around an industrial area; or in the skin on an aging horse caressed in the morning light. its beautifully shot. the heart shaped balloon in the last shot as it flies above the housing complex was a redundant metaphorical image in a film that before that had managed to stay above such symbolism. reminded me of the last scene in 'the flight of the red balloon' when the red balloon flies over paris.

the music in 'latcho drom' is fantastic. i am not quite convinced by the journey of gypsy music as constructed by the film- from the plains of rajasthan through egypt, turkey, hungary, romania, france and eventually in spain. i am also not certain about the pretend gyspy lives that the singers are purported to be living- singing on the tracks of trains, or otherwise. regardless- the music is gorgeous- the voices!

i tried to love '7 khoon maaf'. not quite dark comedy, not quite romantic drama, not quite anything much. murky and meandering for most of the time. some of the husbands were fun to kill. my favourite bit is the s&m seduction of irrfan. but the final murder was a cop out. and the music disappointing.

'beautiful losers' - a talking heads documentary american style that makes heroes out of so-called freewheeling out-of-the-box artists; and then goes ahead to in a half-hearted way explore the problems when this avant garde begins to be mainstreamized. utterly predictable and would have been completely pointless if it wasn't for the drawings. street art and graffiti. nothing 'radical' about the film making though.

is the title of 'pirates of silicon valley' a reference to the johnny depp series? are we supposed to see steve jobs and bill gates with pirate hats on and eye-patches as they steal ideas from each other and mega-companies to make their own massive monoliths. ibm and xerox play the giants that windows and apple brings down. while jobs comes across as a self centred power hungry ass; gates is a slimy weasel. the only hero is steve wozniak who steps out of the fray and is therefore the only person the film is partial to. don't film makers like geeks? think 'the social network'.

tron legacy . the autobiography of nicolas ceausescu

'tron legacy' was awful. the plot was silly as was the premise of a man entering inside a computer and being caught inside 'the grid'. his son enters too to find himself in a world of racing bikes and hot chicks. even the special effects couldn't save this one from being a bore.

of all the films in this set, my favourite is 'the autobiography of nicolae ceaucescu'. we only see the romanian dictator in his public persona. newsreel footage is loosely assembled almost chronologically. we see him take oath, survey disasters, give speeches, travel around the world. the film is also bookended by the ad-hoc tribunal before he was shot. the pace is easy and the film 3 hours long. there is no attempt at a behind the scenes or a psychoanalytic study of the man. instead in the gestures, looks, words that he gives to the camera; in the servile behaviour of everyone around him; in tiny gestures that happen in the margins when no one is looking but the camera is still running; we see him brutal and self obsessed.

cape karma . the kids are all right . the karen carpenter story . before night falls .

'cape karma' was more than most other new 'alternative' hindi films but much less than pankaj advani's other films that i had seen. some of the madcap free association madness creeps through in the beginning; but later on as the plot begins to unravel the film begins to become predictable. the pschotic madness of sankat city or urff professor is lost as all the plot lines are tied up in a neat ending.

'the kids are all right' is a drama about a lesbian couple and their kids from a sperm donor should be crazier than this. traditional feel good family values are extolled in a format seen many times before in too many hollywood films. still very watchable though.

on the other hand, todd haynes debut film twists the american dream. shifting between stop action animation, newsreel, songs and moral lessons about food disorders in a format we are all familair with and whatever he can lay his hands on he tells the story of karen carpenter the deep voiced popstar of the 70s and her eventual death by overdose.

julian schanbel's 'before night falls' is another biopic- this time about a cuban gay writer who is persecuted because of his sexuality in havana. eventually he leaves and comes to america only to die in new york. america here is the land of freedom and opportunity that everyone wants to get to. in one scene a friend tries a hot air balloon crossing that fails and in another our hero played by javier bardem, tries crossing in a tyre. for some reason the film started to piss me off.

smiles of a summer night . the rules of the game . moloch . chungking express / mirror (again)

in a mansion outside town the three smiles of a summer night- one for the young, the other for the dissapointed and the thrid for the old in a beautiful sequence of floricking in the half light making love in haystacks. the servants watch as their masters betray one another. an older man's son elopes with his wife and falls into the arms of an actress lover. gorgeous film about love and aging. in another such mansion more complications in 'the rules of the game'. this time when the classes intermingle tragedy strikes. the hierarchy cannot be disturbed. the elite, the bourgeois, the middle classes, the servant class, the vagrants and lastly the animals in a great rabbit hunt sequence. but in reality everyone is prey in this tragicomedy. a third mansion- this time in the clouds where eva braun waits for her lover. as she waits she dances naked in stone corridors and listens listlessly to music on the gramophone. when he does arrive with acolytes in tow, the politics and backbiting between the cronies and the delirious rants of the madman are both amusing and frightening. hitler is humanized but not forgiven. this is the second of sokurov's trilogy. i have only seen the third and final one on emperor hirohito. that was fantastic. in 'moloch' the claustrophobia of the house on the mountain top is frightening. and so is the strangely distorted picnic scene. half seen landscapes and lengthened limbs.

for my theory of design course i am showing films to the kids. last week was 'chungking express'. which i really loved only this time. the noir first half with the bangladeshi smugglers and the woman in a raincoat was more fun than the sweet love story of the second. still the jittery staccato rhythms and the music- all electro pop mash-up- was terrific. and for this friday the plan is to show 'mirror' - for now my favourite tarkovsky film. identities blur through the mirror as mother becomes wife and father becomes sun. personal and political history intermingle. the images are unforgettable.

pink flamingoes . sampurna ramayan . sita sings the blues . the social network . black swan .

in john waters madcap and over the top and intentionally gruesome 'pinak flamngoes' divine is a murderting runaway with a family with strange sexual fetishes- chickens and eggs. the villains are the only 'normal' heterosexual couple in a single family home in the basement of which they impregnate women and sell them to lesbain couples. if that is not whacky enough wait for the party sequence in which anal gymnastics are performed or the end when divine eats dog shit. in glorious bad taste. disgustingly brilliant.

two ramayana films. 'sampurna ramayan' and 'sita sings the blues'. its easy to overlook the homemade specail effects and set design when the film is from decades ago. the story is told, thankfully, without any necessity for a contemporary retelling. 'sita sings the blues' tries too hard to be cool. reeking of american desi scorn regarding indian popular culture- it tries to 'update' sita by making her sing american blues music. the visuals are often stunning but in the final reckoning shallow. channel v does it better. the voiceover party conversations that keep the story moving are actually pretty annoying.

the social network is a wordy nerd story. people talk in quick one liners and the story moves backwards and forwards, in and out of a courtroom. our hero is actually the guy who stood by the nerd through thick and thin and got effectively booted out towards the end. meanwhile the nerds motivation for revenge is the rejection of a girl who still wants to be friends with on facebook; and whom he wants to poke and like.

over the top operatic story within a story. balletic camerawork and hyper stylised images as natalie portman plays the schizophrenic swan queen. she is fantastic. the film- fun.

dhobi ghat . naked space . hatim tai . chitchor

in dhobi ghat i was taken in by a nostalgia for the city as it is- spectacular, lonely, gorgeous. where strangers meet and fall in love and ghosts haunt apartment buildings. its unashemdly in love with the city and the characters are all warm and gentle. prateik babbar is terrific and so is his love interest. aamir khan acts too hard and the video diaries are a little tiresome and predictable. but thaose are small niggles when some of the images stay with you long after the film. the jia zhangke like images of construction activities above the inner city or the marine drive opening sequence or that climactic rush through saat rasta.

trinh t minh ha's 'naked space- living is round' also makes for some unforgettable images. an architecture without architects journey through the homes of rural africa- phenomenology of dwelling is woven with myth and metaphor. men women wombs. entering and leaving and light and shadow play as the everyday life of a tribe is connected to universal cycles through geometry and structure. the circle. the round. the voice over that played with self reflexive ruminations about looking and voyeurism was intercut with information and some philosophical rambling.

the 'hatim tai' of 1956 is a fable about a fairy who turns into stone over a sultans lustful touch. hatim tai must solve 7 riddles to set her free. each test along his journey is story within a story. characters include a animal/human princess, bodyless heads of women hanging from a tree and many more. its great fun non stop and the special effects and set design are fantastic.

for a nostalgia trip into my childhood nothing worked better than chitchor which i remember half watching when i was in school. it is relentlessly feel-good, sweetened characters and storyline with music that i will always remember. most of the film takes place in a verandah- appropriate for a film about the encounter between the city engineer and the village belle.

last days . the fourth dimension . my migrant soul . sitara . art yesterday .

the 'last days' of kurt cobain play out in a home on the edge of a forest with only a church for company. a group of acquaintances and friends meander aimlessly through the house as out main character escapes into a private world of daydreams. a biopic that does not make a hero of the character- and does not even try to 'explain' his suicide. instead 'blake' and his depression and his delirium before he blows his brains out are played out in elliptical time spirals, random conversations and incidents, and some incredible images. the train running through the forest in the beginning of the film is incredible. like so many of gus van zandt's films the muse is youth, and america.

having loved 'reassemblage' i was looking forward to 'the fourth dimension' trinh t minh-ha's Japan film. simply put- i did not get it. some japan tourism and a voiceover with profound insights into the act of recording, visiting and mediation. it seemed dated. or i am not worthy.

another disappointment for me was 'my migrant soul'- yasmeen kabir milks the death of a Bangladeshi man who migrated to south east asia to make a tearjerker with easy villains and heroes. the devices are manipulative and voyeuristic. the letters that babu sent seem like mere complaint boxes. he is reduced to a caricature and the long suffering mother and sister made into these martyrs. a story that deserved better.

it has not been a good year so far for films for me. zee classic is helping me get my hindi cinema fix. 'sitara' si zarina wahab and mithun is the man of her dreams. she comes ot the city and makes it big and gives it all up later to win back her man. need i say more.

but yesterday was a good day for art shows. first it was ranbir kalekas brilliant work on at volte. mixed media projections on paintings. no ham-fisted one liners here. enigmatic images where foreground and background dissolve into one another. bodies move like apparitions and strange ghosts appear and dissapear.

and then sudhir's show at sakshi- though it was too crowded to really see- moves into the privacy of his home, his history, sexuality and memory. the city is outside the window. lovely.