The Stories Men Tell

It has been long since I have written about the movies I have watched. Honestly speaking there has been not a single one that I have watched and gone “Wow!!! I must recommend them to my friends.” But then I have never judged movies. Every one has a story to tell.

Take for example, Limitless. A man becomes super intelligent by having a pill which can destroy him in the long run like all drugs. While the change he was undergoing was brilliantly documented, the plot went haywire; people were killing each other and suddenly we knew that the protagonist will one day become the President of the US of A.

X Men First Class with all its promise, failed to deliver, at least for a X Men loyalist like me. Everywhere people are going gaga over Erik and Charles and the subtlety of their relationship and how one becomes Magneto and the other Professor X. But I found both the actors wanting. Perhaps it was also because of the script which had gems like, “you need to find the point between rage and serenity.” We were guffawing at the theatre. All super hero movies must speak about the journey towards understanding their inner powers. X Men First Class lacked it. The storyline is a standard one. The evil Sebastian Shaw had killed Magneto’s mother when he was young at a concentration camp and he was searching for revenge. Charles wanted to get the mutants together and work for the greater good and the Cuban Missile crisis was caused by Sebastian Shaw. As V put it, the only saving grace was Hugh Jackman’s guest appearance.

Shaitan was a movie which as S put it, tried to be “edgy for the sake of being edgy.” It could have been a great psychological thriller but it failed to be. The worst part was that you could not connect to the movie as something that’s happening around you. Of course, the stories came straight out of a Mumbai Mirror front page but then you never feel connected to them. The reason why the movie failed to excite me was that it was brilliant in parts and the parts were disjointed. The brilliance however was in the picturisation of the song “Khoya Khoya Chand”. Worth a watch just for the song.

The Pirate returned with Penelope Cruz and the franchisee-ing of everything under the sun is just getting plain irritating. It’s just like refusing to launch any new Brand because that will cost a lot. A certain creative bankruptcy is evident everywhere in the movie industry today. The story was similar, the acting saved only by Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz spoke through her lines and one could sense that the stories now had fallen into a set pattern.

The Panda was back too. In all his awesomeness and like last time showed the humans what it meant to be a Dragon Warrior, what it meant to take up one’s responsibility with pride, what it meant to face inner demons and the outer ones. But I think the one who stole the show here was the villain. Brilliant portrayal of how anyone can become evil. The movie just made me realize, how feeble we were when standing up against our inner evil. While watching Kung Fu Panda II, I wondered if 3D was worth it at all. It just doesn’t give me any extra joy, the glasses are bad across theatres in India and after the movies my eyes always cry for some rest.

And finally there was Stanley ka Dabba. Maybe the storyline was not the perfect, but it takes a great lot of talent to direct so many kids in all their naturalness. I think the greatest gift for me while watching the movie was to go back to my school days and remember how important the tiffin box was to all of us. It was when the first bonds of loyalty were created and the innocence of our hearts blossomed unfettered.

With a flurry of movies not meeting my expectations, I wait for Cars II and the last Harry Potter adventure. And I wait for someone to give me Cinema Paradiso once again to watch. Landmark and Crossword disappoint me with their collection. But I know the movies find me, for I never act snooty and choose between them.

Till then I can watch Ready, again and again :)