Harish Film views

Director: Steven Spielberg I always felt Spielberg is a unique filmmaker who bends his style for the genre he wants to create. While he could make an emotional, yet witty drama in the form of ‘Catch me if you can’ & ‘terminal’, he wouldn’t bring that genre defining theme into his sci-fi thrillers like ‘AI’ or ‘War of the worlds’; or for that matter, he never mixes the grandeur of ‘Jurassic park’ & ‘Indiana Jones’ with his emotional ventures like ‘Munich’ or ‘Schindler’s list’. So when he decided to make a film out of ‘Tintin’ I felt he would go into the ‘Indiana Jones’ theme with a little more serious tone tossed in. In other words, one should be prepared for kickass nonsensical fun. Indeed, the movie felt like another misadventure of Mr.Jones, placing it well as a prequel to the 'Last Crusade', concentrating on how the boy Jones turned into an adventure seeking man. But with it comes the unnecessary grandeur that Harrison Ford seemingly pulled off with his infecti...

Director: Imtiaz Ali With a title like Rockstar, it is elementary to expect a movie on rock music. But, similar to the remark that a character gives to Jordon, ‘tum gaane baja rahe ho, ya gaane pe baja rahe ho?’ (Are you playing music or playing on music?), Imitiaz has used Rockstar only as one of the many layers (a wonderful layer at that) to wrap his painful, soul stirring love story. His concentrations are more towards the relationship that his lead pair share, which will still be strong, even if this movie were to have a software professional as lead, instead of a musician. Like the character of Jordon (Ranbir), Rockstar is a film which never submits itself to be understood; instead it treads a path that brings out joy mainly by what it shows as an aftermath of the events that cause the characters to behave that way. It doesn’t care about the character’s whereabouts or how a character ends up bedridden. In other words, it has immense disregard for any and every ba...

Director: A.R.Murugadoss With a title like 7aum Arivu (7 th  sense) if you thought the movie is going to be insanely smart. You are partly correct: it is insane, although it is not bad. A film is a piece of art that captures your imagination and holds you in its control till you are watching it and even beyond it at times. It need not have logic to convince you, but it should create a perception of having logic. In plan words, the film should make sense even in its craziest moments. But in order to make sense some writers forgo the novelty and freshness in approach that is needed to grab the attention of the audience. If a film can do away with these two perils any movie can connect with its target audience regardless of what the writer tries to convey. 7aum arivu is one such movie that was marketed to be made with the same intent, that of creating a perception of logic without forgoing the novelty and fun part. But till intermission one couldn’t find enough interesting materi...

Director: Venkat Prabhu Probably the biggest star to have a worst success ratio, Ajith has always been at the farther ends of the needle: success & failure. He could give the biggest hit of the year and the biggest flop of the year, (which he attributes to the intelligence of his fans to like only his good films) yet his star status always rests on the positive side of the needle. The problem with any Ajith film is it needs to cater to a wider range of audience, regardless of its content, to become a hit. I could easily get away with saying that he didn’t select proper scripts but some of his films would eventually prove me wrong. Because, when he played to the ‘gallery’ with films like ‘Attagasam’ it wasn’t well received by his ‘style requisite’ fans & the ‘thinker’ fans; and when he came up with ‘Kreedom’ his ‘gallery’ & ‘style requisite’ fans let him down. Both were equally tolerable films but unfortunately his reach is too large to be constricted to a particular sec...

Director:  Thiagarajan Kumararaja “I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze…” A cloud moves with the wind over picturesque locations and ends up seeing a lot of daffodils. But as we all know Daffodils is not just that. It is the experience of seeing/reading about the natural beauty which fills our heart. That being a poem, Aaranya Kandam is nothing short of a cinematic Daffodil to me. The movie sweeps the screen of any frill that is attached to our usual cinema and concentrates completely to let us experience the vision of the director. That is why a scene when a principal character jumps out of a police jeep, you get the high of watching a quality film – not because of the twist in the tale but because of the way the scene was handled (& pictured as well). When we say arty film, people might think the fi...

Director: K.V. Anand When one ought to communicate through paper, he/she sometimes scribble few words (knowing that will make the point) or write in detail or go for pictorial representation. It is left to the discretion of the writer as to which form he/she should use given the content. Problem starts when the writer giving it all, tells the reader to filter what he/she wants to take: if you want photos – here they are, if you want hints – here they are, if you want long drawn explanations – here they are. Well, won’t that be a hindrance, you might ask. Given the premise of journalism in the film KO, it is but natural for a journalist to analyze a point in every possible angle. But just because the journalist invested a lot of time in analyzing the various aspects of a single point should he/she publish it all? Won’t it hamper the flow and affect the scheme on the whole – just like how ‘he/she’ acts as a speed breaker as you read through this article. You can’t question the logic ...

Director: Suraj It was not a race; there weren’t any freebees distributed, though it's the election season; there weren’t any celebrities spotted in the vicinity; yet people made beeline for the exit. As Vivek, Danush & the team of Maaplillai bombarded us with PJ after PJ clubbed together with sentiment & action sequences, which even TR will squirm at, I was dozing off in my seat. I woke up to a heavy blow on my knees. Opening my eyes, I saw a sexagenarian running past me which I thought was to attend his call of nature: how wrong I was! As he opened the door, he let in a sense of awakening amongst the inmates. What followed was a mad rush to be freed. The ‘unknown Anna Hazare' has shown us the path: a generation has awoken to protest against these haphazard films. It was a proud moment, a feeling of patriotism gushing towards the only source of entertainment I have had, as I witnessed a radical change in approach to film viewing. It was like yesterday when the wh...

Director: Gautham Vasudev Menon How many times as a kid, have you stood in glee with a piece of scribbled paper in front of your parents/people you looked up to? The satisfaction that you would have felt in your face comes from the gratification in producing something straight from your heart. But are products that come out of passion (at whim though) good? Certainly not. Quality can be an act of luck which clicks for you or the area where you ventured would have been something that you are naturally gifted at. But when things fail to please; especially when it comes from your heart, it only means you have been lackadaisical in not rethinking against the flow. In films we can term that as sluggish writing. But isn’t that too harsh a word for something that was approached with so much gusto? Will you break the news like that when your kid shows you an incompetent work? You tell them to work on it and improve the substance. Gautham the kid here, unsure as he honestly accepts, has bro...