Movie Review: Prey Alone

Prey Alone is a short thriller film shot totally in front of the Green Screen. The duration of the movie is around 13 minutes excluding the credits.

It was produced in Ireland and the backgrounds and props are entirely digital. This has been done before in a few Hollywood blockbusters like Sin City and the very recent 300 but with Prey Alone, the digitally rendered settings and props look amazingly realistic.

Other than the fantastic digital visuals what stands out for the movie is its storyline, I didn't expect such an elaborate plot for a 13 minute film. I don't want to give away anything about the plot, you should better watch it yourself.

I have posted the Google Video of the movie(full movie). The movie would be much more fun if you could download and watch it at an higher resolution, Click here.

PS: Post watch, don't forget to tell me how did you find the movie!

Movie Review: Eklavya

This is my first Hindi movie review, and I am writing this for two reasons, one, because I thought the movie was excellent and two, I want the people who have not seen this movie just because it got really bad reviews from their friends, to watch it. Even I didn't have any great expectations from the movie, the first time I saw Eklavya's promotional trailer I thought it was a sequel to Parineeta(almost same lead cast). Also my friends who had seen the movie put it as a boring, slow movie(yeah, I know, I always get these misguiding reviews). But my mother wanted to see it, hence the good old download. Yesterday I saw it with my whole family(4 members) on my massive 15" computer screen. All four of us liked it, me the most.

I think every Indian would(should) know the story of the fictional character of the great Indian epic Mahabharata, but for those who are ignorant to the Indian mythology, I have pasted below a brief summary of Ekalavya's story.

In the Mahabharata epic, Ekalavya is a young prince of the Nishadha tribes, and a member of a low caste, who nevertheless aspires to study archery in the gurukul of Dronacharya. Despite being rejected by the Drona, Ekalavya embarks upon a program of self-study in the presence of a clay image of Drona, and achieves a level of skill equal to that of Arjuna, Drona's favorite and most accomplished pupil. Fearful that Ekalavya will excel him, Arjuna begs Drona to take action. Drona goes to Ekalavya and demands that Ekalavya turn over his right thumb as a teacher's fee. The loyal Ekalavya cripples himself and thereby ruins his prospects as an archer by severing his thumb and giving it to Drona.

Here in the movie, Eklavya(Amitabh Bachchan) is a royal guard who lives to protect a royal dynasty that no longer rules, he also has a dark secret of the dynasty to protect. He is the perfect marksman(which is why he was named Eklavya).
What makes Eklavya a great movie is that it has redefined the concept of Dharma, through Eklavya, Vidhu Vinod Chopra tries to debunk the belief that Dharma is all about following the path of righteousness as defined by tradition, rather, he endorses the view that righteousness is not an absolute concept but has to be rooted in reason- Dharmah Matibhyah Utgritah.(These are not my words)

Other things that make the movie stand out is its superb cinematography(every frame is a beauty) and some brilliant acting by most of the cast, Amitabh Bachchan comes up with a great performance, really deserves the Rolls Royce. Sanjay Dutt is just fabulous in the role of DSP Pannalal Chohaar. Saif just keeps getting better with every movie.
Some guys were not that good though, Jackie Shroff should try to open his mouth before he mouths his dialouges(most of his words were not audible) and Vidya Balan needs to loose some weight.

My two cents: Eklavya is 100 minutes of pure song less cinema with some great performances and an excellent theme, really worth watching.

Movie Review: Little Miss Sunshine

Although the movie released in Indian theaters just a week back, it was available on the internet for a long time. It got great reviews at IMDb and a few Oscar nominations as well(finally received 2 Oscars). I liked the storyline and decided to download it. My friend who I share my movies with had already downloaded it and deleted it before sharing it with me. His excuse:"There is nothing in the movie, Bekaar hai". But after reading a rave review(a four-star rating) for the movie from Hindustan Times's Vinayak Chakrovarty(I trust his reviews, simple and unbiased), I finally put it on download. And now after watching it, I can surely say that it really deserves the appreciation it has received. Below is a very well-written plot outline proudly copied by me from IMDb.

Olive is a little girl with a dream: winning the Little Miss Sunshine contest. Her family wants her dream to come true, but they are so burdened with their own quirks, neuroses, and problems that they can barely make it through a day without some disaster befalling them. Olive's father Richard is a flop as a motivational speaker, and is barely on speaking terms with her mother. Olive's uncle Frank, a renowned Proust scholar, has attempted suicide following an unsuccessful romance with a male graduate student. Her brother Dwayne, a fanatical follower of Nietzsche, has taken a vow of silence, which allows him to escape somewhat from the family whose very presence torments him. And Olive's grandfather is a ne'er-do-well with a drug habit, but at least he enthusiastically coaches Olive in her contest talent routine. Circumstances conspire to put the entire family on the road together with the goal of getting Olive to the Little Miss Sunshine contest in far off California.

Its not like the regular Hollywood nobrainer comedy. It is more of a dark comedy with some amazing road movie situations. The movie has no big stars but the casting is perfect, really everyone is nothing short of excellent in the movie. It has been made on budget smaller even than the Bollywood movies produced these days.

My two cents: You shouldn't miss it unless you are not much of a fan of dark humor. It is still running in theaters in India.

Movie Review: The Prestige

Every magic trick consists of three parts, or acts. The first part is called "the pledge." The magician shows you something ordinary. A deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it, to see that it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But, of course, it probably isn't.

The second act is called "the turn".The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret, but you won't find it, because, of course, you're not really looking.You don't really want to know. You want to be... fooled.

But you wouldn't clap yet,because making something disappear isn't enough. You have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act.The hardest part. The part we call......"the prestige."

I am doing my first movie review and what better a movie to do it. Three months back I saw a movie named Memento, which some of you may not have heard of as it was not released in India. It is a movie for which I do not find any adjectives good enough, I cannot give it a better compliment. The movie is in reverse chronology, which means that the movie starts with its end and keeps movie in reverse order towards its start. You can read a 6-page analysis of the movie Memento here.

Now you would be wondering why am I talking about Memento when I am writing a review about The Prestige. The reason being, Memento introduced me to a hollywood director Christopher Nolan. Curious, I checked out his profile on IMDb, he is a young 36 years and 7 films old director who was pushed into limelight after Memento released in the year 2000. I decided to watch his latest work which is The Prestige but had to be content with watching his Batman Begins (which again was a great movie but nowhere close to Memento or The Prestige) and waited for The Prestige to release in India. It did 3 weeks back but I for some reason couldn't watch it in theaters so I had to wait again, now for its DVDrip to be released, it released a week back. And now here I am writing a review on it.

I do not want to give away any spoilers in my review so that you enjoy the movie to the maximum. First the plot outline which I have copied from IMDb:

Robert and Alfred are rival magicians. When Alfred performs the ultimate magic trick, Robert tries desperately to find out the secret to the trick.

The best part of the movie lies in its detailing, they show you every minute detail. Even with the movie being so complicated I could not notice a single flaw in the whole movie. And again Cristopher Nolan doesn't believe in following proper chronology, this time he has experimented with some kind of recursive chronology, its like one narration inside another one(you will understand what I am saying once you have seen the movie). I highly recommend the movie, go and watch it!

PS:Do not forget to look into the FAQ for the movie as you will sure have some doubts after watching the movie.(I strongly suggest checking it out only after watching the movie as it contains some spoilers)