Daybreakers

Film: Daybreakers
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Claudia Karvan
Genre: Sci-Fi
Direction: Michael and Peter Spiereg
Duration: 1 hour 38 minutes
Critic's Rating: 3 stars


Story: It's 2019. A global epidemic has reduced humans to an endangered species and the world seems to be brimming over with vampires who are hunting them down for their precious blood. Who will win the war for plasma? Seems the vampires will, unless Ethan Hawke, a haematologist, finds a solution to the global crisis. He does, by developing a substitute for blood, but not before a bloody battle for survival.

Movie Review: Vampires again. Only this time, it ain't the handsome teen mutant Twilighters (Robert Pattinson and co.) who are quite welcome with their blood-lusting fangs. Here, the vampires are a bunch of nasty snarlers who brutally pounce on the handful of humans left in this grim-dim scenario and then indulge in some lip-smacking, blood-dripping drama, even as the endangered human race cries out for a saviour.

So, who's the messiah going to be this time round? Dr Ed Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is the man of the moment. Doesn't matter if he himself is a vampire, because he is a vegetarian blood-sucker, feasting only on animal blood. He develops synthetic blood which has magical powers. It allows humans to survive and vampires who feed on them, to perish. But the benevolent doctor cannot re-build the human race without the help of the crossbow-wielding Elvis (Willem Dafoe) who has his own gory vampire history.

This one's for those who still haven't had their fill of vampire lore which happens to be the current craze in Hollywood and those who like their vampires mostly mean and monster-like.

Prince of Persia: The sands of Time

Film: Prince of Persia: The sands of Time
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina
Genre: Adventure
Direction: Mike Newell
Duration: 1 hour 56 minutes
Critic's Rating: 3.5 stars


Story: Dastan (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a ragamuffin picked up from the streets by the Persian King Sharaman for his bravery and daring. He grows up as his son, along with his two foster brothers, Seso and Garsiv and life is a veritable bed of roses until he is sent by his Uncle (Ben Kingley) to plunder the beautiful city of Alamat, ruled by the feisty Princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton). This is the beginning of a nefarious plot of treachery and intrigue where the conflict centres around a mystical dagger that has the power of unleashing time travel and world destruction. Who is desperate for the dagger? And who can save the world?

Movie Review: Here comes another end-of-the-world adventure, wrapped up in quintessential Hollywood style, which essentially translates into a larger-than-life desert safari where swords clash, sandstorms rise, intrigue simmers, magic brews and passion soars....Yup! Prince of Persia is a great getaway from the summer ennui and offers you a popcorn crunching two hours of fun and games.

And why not? For, the film is actually based on a video game that hit the market in 2003 and asks you not to tax your brains at all. All it demands is to sit back and serenade the over-the-top adventure which unfolds in ancient Persia where palace intrigue, shaman mystique and royal romance seemed to be the only thing that mattered. Add to this, a band of gypsy-like mercenaries, led by Alfred Molina and you have all the masala to keep the mercury rising this summer.
The high point of the film is its stellar ensemble cast headed by Ben Kingsley who lends gravitas to the entire proceedings as Nizam, the King's brother who may have lived all his life in the shadows but remains a dominant figure, nonetheless. Jake Gyllenhaal's Prince of Persia is quite an unusual act too, for the actor has never been as playful and acrobatic before. As for Gemma Arterton's Tamina? Now she's a delicious tease, an oriental bombshell who truly oversteps her Bond girl brief and grows from mere eye candy to a woman of substance. Tamina is the keeper of the magical dagger and is determined to stay in-step with the warrior prince, fighting to save the world as an equal partner, albeit with a yummy pout....Of course, you cannot ignore Alfred Molina as the scruffy Arab ostrich runner with the ragtag band of fighters and marksmen.

The review wouldn't be complete without a special mention for the arresting canvas of the film, created by some stupendous camera work by John Seale and the Armageddon's-here special effects by Trevor Woods. Total mazaa!

Brick Lane

Film: Brick Lane
Cast: Satish Kaushik, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Christopher Simpson
Genre: Drama
Direction: Susan Gavron
Duration: 1 hour 41 minutes
Critic's Rating: 4 stars


Story: Young Nazneen (Tannishtha Chatterjee) is sent off as a 17-year-old bride from her village in Bangladesh to Brick Lane in East London, after her wedding to the much elder, Chanu (Satish Kaushik). She settles down uncomplainingly to a dull and monotonous life of quiet domesticity with her likeable, yet boring husband and two daughters, until love and passion walk into her life against an incendiary post 9/11 backdrop.

Movie Review: Isn't this the biggest irony of the Indian film distribution system that a film with Indian artists, which has won over sundry fans -- and garnered rave reviews -- the world over, finds a low key release in India, almost after three years? And that too, only in a single city (Mumbai), despite the fact that the film deals with a purely sub-continental issue (the migrant experience) and showcases some towering histrionics by desi talent. Both Satish Kaushik and Tannishtha Chatterjee literally set the screen ablaze with their gentle, restrained and unforgettable portrayals of a mismatched Bangladeshi couple that gradually learn the meaning of love and togetherness, against a backdrop of personal and social turmoil.

Based on the riveting book by Monica Ali, the film is a fine celluloid adaptation: extremely picturesque, pithy, introspective and not at all verbose. Nazneen's journey begins as a young girl from the backwaters of Bangladesh as her carefree childhood games are suddenly interrupted with her mother's suicide. And then comes the seminal dialogue where the young Nazneen says: Nobody questioned mother's death because if we were allowed to ask questions, God would have made us boys. Hence, the virtue of silence and unquestioning acceptance, as Nazneen passes from girlhood to wifehood and motherhood, without ever experiencing the highs and lows of life. Of course, she has husband Chanu by her side: the good and kind Chanu who quotes Chaucer and Hume and dreams of fitting in as the perfect Brit. But is Chanu her dream man....Indeed, a difficult decision to make, specially when the young firebrand Karim (Christopher Simpson) walks into her lonely afternoons with his quest for the unspoit village girl.

Watch the film for the grandeur that both Satish Kaushik and Tannishtha Chatterjee invest in their role of the low key couple who try to cope with a changing world order. Satish Kaushik completely reinvents himself as an actor as Chanu, the quintessential nice guy, the eternal optimist and the unflinching liberal. And watch it for its humanist-feminist-non-fundamentalist message.

Kushti

Film: Kushti
Cast: Rajpal Yadav, Om Puri, Sharat Saxena, Khali
Genre: Drama
Direction: TK Rajeev Kumar
Duration: 2 hours 20 minutes
Critic's Rating: 2 stars


Story : Post master Rajpal Yadav falls in love with the local wrestler's daughter but can only win her hand if he defeats the mighty Khali. He enters the tutelage of rival wrestler, Om Puri and hopes to win a losing battle. Will love conquer all the odds?

Movie Review: Rajpal Yadav is a lucky man. He manages to get a lot of film makers who are willing to weave films around him, which isn't what many comedians or character actors can dream of in Bollywood. Sometimes he manages to carry them off (Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon, Main Meri Patni aur Woh) and sometimes he slips. Here, he just manages to maintain some ground beneath his slippery feet. But only some.

Set in a sleepy village, the film follows the travails of the postmaster (Rajpal Yadav) as he tries to woo wrestler Sharat Saxena's daughter. Needless to say, he keeps getting into sticky situations but none is as bothersome as the climactic one where he must defeat the mighty Khali before he can claim the village belle's hand. He does try to learn a few tricks of the trade from Om Puri who runs his own akhada, but eventually, it's his me-just-a-joker act which creates a bigger bang than all his thigh thumping in the arena.

Needless to say, the high point of the film is Khali's presence in the film. But this one would be quite a disappointment for Khali fans, because the professional wrestler has a minuscule cameo that includes a terrible sequence where he is supposed to savour an item number too. Poor Khali, he simply can't handle this khal-bali and looks truly uncomfortable.

Kites

Film: Kites
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori, Kangana Ranaut
Genre: Romance
Direction: Anurag Basu
Duration: 2 hours
Critic's Rating: 2.5 stars


Story: Hrithik Roshan treads the crooked path in the by-lanes of Las Vegas. He has married umpteen girls for the coveted green card and Barbara Mori happens to be one of his abandoned wives. But sparks fly between the two when they meet again, this time under different -- and dangerous -- circumstances. The mercenary couple are all set to marry a rich brother-sister duo (Kangana and Nick Brown) for their money but they soon discover they are in love and flee the rich and powerful siblings who are hell bent on avenging their dishonour. Will love surmount all odds?

Movie Review: Where's the chemistry? Where's the story? And where's the twist in the tale? Kites could have been that cross-over film that Bollywood has been dreaming about since long. Sadly, it flounders even before it can take off and soar....

So what's holding it down? First and foremost, the film completely lacks a story (oops! it has three people credited for story: Anurag Basu, Akash Khurana, Robin Bhatt) and unfolds as an unabashed chase film. Nothing wrong with that, for we have had a number of road movies that have thrilled and chilled us. But for that, there has always been a twist in the tale to provide an edgy feel to the film. Kites, on the other hand, does have Hrithik and Barbara spending the second half of the film as fugitives on the run, but their journey is so predictable, it fills you with a yawn. If the first half is a non-happening prolonged romance that unfolds in stares, glances, looks followed by some more stares, glances and looks between our protagonists (Hrithik and Barbara) as they try and seek out covert moments of togetherness in the palatial house of their respective bethrotheds (Kangana and Nick), the second half is a hit and run case which sees the fugitives hoping to make out 'neath the shadow of the gun. Both Barbara and Hrithik decide to give up their get-rich-quick plans and opt for penniless love instead, even though they know they will be pursued till the end of the world by the ditched brother-sister duo.

But hey, do they make out? Not really, unless you call Barbara yakking relentlessly in Spanish as sexy or Hrithik stitching up her arm beneath the rocks as romantic. Which brings us to the chemistry bit....Quite unlike the pre-release claims, the Mexican-Indian mix isn't exactly red hot chilli pepper stuff. Their romance hardly sizzles, with Mori spending most of her time flashing toothy grins and Hrithik failing to match up to his hot-hot bonding with Aishwarya Rai in Dhoom 11. Even the waterfall sequence in the jungle ends up as ekdum thanda!

So what works in Kites? It's the look of the film which carries it forward. Director Anurag Basu may have dipped in the emotional quotient of the film but he does create a visual feel and texture that has an international feel to it. The cinematography by Ayananka Bose has a grand texture and creates compelling montages, specially in the rain-drenched climax sequence. Performance-wise, the lead actors are just adequate and do not exactly set the screen ablaze, neither with their emotions nor with their passion. One almost feels sorry for Kangana, a fine actor who is reduced to a speechless accessory that is left to do what Hrithik and Barbara do -- stare, glance, look as the woman scorned -- for the short span that she's on. The audio track by Rajesh Roshan doesn't linger too, because the film mostly has a loud, repetitive background score by Salim-Suleiman interspersed with maybe just one forgettable number.

Watch Kites for its kool looks. But don't expect the popcorn to remain crunchy for long.

Shrek Forever After

Film: Shrek Forever After
Cast: voice of Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Eddie Murphy
Genre: Animation
Direction: Mike Mitchell
Duration: 1 hour 33 minutes
Critic's Rating: 3 stars


Story: Shrek is bored with domesticity. He hates changing diapers, celebrating his kids' birthdays and settling down to a happily-ever-after life with wife Fiona and his family of three little ogres. So, he decides to go back to his carefree ogre days and signs a contract, bartering away his present life for a picture perfect past, with the evil Rumplestiltskin. But he soon begins to miss his family and wants to get back to the present. Is there a way back....

Movie Review: Midlife crisis, Shrek (Mike Myers)? Yup. Specially when you are forced to rise and shine everyday with the cheery cackle of your brood; when you must burp and feed them and dabble with ogre shit relentlessly; when you must parrot `Ever After' each time wife Fiona (Cameron Diaz) mumbles `Happily' on the dinner table; when you can't snooze in your favourite chair because high-spirited friends, Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss (Antonio Banderas) want to spent some quality buddy time with you. And more importantly, when you are denied that one single pleasure of yours due to pressing house work: a relaxed mud bath, while the Carpenters blare their popular `Top of the World' number.

So what does our friendly neighbourhood ogre do to get back his roar and stop being a jolly green joke? He signs a contract with the wicked character from the Brothers Grimm, Rumplestiltskin, turns his back to his friends and family, yells on wife Fiona and returns to a time when he wasn't born. This being a time when Donkey was a slave to the witches, Puss was an overweight domestic cat and Fiona was leading a band of rebel ogres to free Far, Far Away land from the misrule of Rumplestiltskin. But it doesn't take long before the green ogre realises he has ended up with a raw deal. Since he hasn't actually been born, the day will end with his end too and he will never be able to return to his family unless he manages to snatch one true kiss with Fiona. Now that ain't an easy task because Fiona is in militant feminist form, too involved in insurgency to focus on romance. How does he convince her about the happily-ever-after that lies ahead....

The popular franchise that made a hero of an anti-hero still retains its quintessential charm, even though an element of deja vu has begun to set in. The voice-overs by Hollywood biggies, Myers, Diaz, Murphy and Banderas, is top class and the 3D immensely electrifying. More than the lead characters, it is Donkey and Puss who fill you with delight and end up as the more colourful characters. Of course Dreamworks' animation is as usual splendid and kaleidoscopic.

Go watch your favourite ogre live out the ugly-is-beautiful revisionist tale, once again. And make you feel good about it.

Rebecca Maeder

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