PARIS, TEXAS

Director: Wim Wenders

Language: English

Courtesy: Netflix

My Rating: @ @ @ @

Synopsis: The film is about a lost, almost empty, rugged, middle aged man, Travis, who has been MIA for the last 4 years. His family tries to locate him but can't seem to.. Life goes on for them, when one day a phone call changes everything for his brother Walt. When Walt meets Travis, at first he won't speak, then he won't eat, and finally he refuses to fly with his brother to LA, where Walt lives with his wife Anne, and Travis's son, Hunter. 

The movie is slow, and takes its own time to unwind the mysteries of Travis's past. He is a man who is not always making the best decisions, but he is trying, with hesitation, to become a person, a human. The entire film is a build-up for the final scene where Travis meets his past. I thought that scene was shot brilliantly. This is where the philosophy of "LESS is MORE" comes to life. This film is about the life and unforgettable love you once had and then lost, the life you wish you had. It also makes me wonder, if there is a hidden message about disillusionment or is it simply about men who can't communicate, or for that matter, the many ways in which people fail to communicate?

Ry Cooder's guitar soundtrack adds that perfect mystery to the beautiful cinematography capturing Travis walking aimlessly across the Texas desserts.

FOLLOWING

Director: Christopher Nolan

Language: English

Courtesy: Netflix

My Rating: @ @ @ @ @

Synopsis: OMG.. I just finished watching this film and what a brilliantly CLEVER film it was!!!! Absolutely loved watching it. I could not wait to write about it... so here goes... 

The main character of the film is an aspiring, young, unemployed male writer, who is obsessed with following random people on the streets of London, mainly to use them as characters for his writings and stories, until one of his leads confronts him, and before he knows the young male is entangled in a series of "wrong doings" and "double crossings". Scenes are shown out of chronological order, and as such the viewer becomes disoriented (typical Nolan style), having to deduce the elements of the story in the same way as the protagonist calculates what is going on around him.

I learnt something new today.... this film is typified as a "neo-noir" film... which in simple terms means, NEW BLACK or Dark film (Neo, means new in Greek, and Noir, means Black in French), and has elements from a "film-noir" or black film in it.

I decided to watch this film because it is directed by Christopher Nolan, director of Memento, which I thought was brilliant also. Following, is Christopher Nolan's first feature film released in 1996, and was made for just $6,000. He shot it on weekends, over the course of a year, working with friends he had met at the University College London film society. It began to receive notice after premiering at the 1998 San Francisco Film Festival, and was eventually distributed on a limited basis by Zeitgeist in 1999. There are a couple other movies by Nolan which are on my "have to watch" list. I have great expectation from them, and hope they make it to my blog as well!

MONSOON WEDDING

Director: Mira Nair
Language: Hindi / English

Courtesy: My local DVD store

My Rating: @ @ @ @ @

Synopsis:  In this romantic drama, the film's central story concerns a father, Lalit Verma (Naseeruddin Shah), who, as the monsoon rains begin to shower, is trying to organize an enormous, chaotic, and expensive wedding for his daughter Aditi, for whom he has arranged a marriage with a man she has known for only a few weeks. As any typical large scale Indian family (Punjabi in the film's case), Lalit Verma and his extended family reunite for this last-minute arranged marriage in New Delhi. As the story unravels, long-guarded secrets threaten to tear the family apart. As wedding preparations proceed, five stories intersect, highlighting different aspects of love and crossing boundaries of class and continent. This is all set within the four days preceding the wedding, predominantly at the Vermas' house.

Writer Sabrina Dhawan wrote the first draft of the screenplay in a week while she was at Columbia University's MFA film program. The film won the Golden Lion award and received a Golden Globe Award nomination. A musical based on the film is currently in development and is scheduled to premiere on Broadway in 2011.

RAINCOAT

Director: Rituparno Ghosh

Language: Hindi

Courtesy: My local DVD store

My Rating: @ @ @ @ 1/2

Synopsis: A freshly unemployed Manu, is in search of money to finance his new business. Off on his quest in Calcutta, on a rainy day, wearing a raincoat he borrowed, Manu visits his former intimate friend Neeru, to whom he was once engaged to be married, about six years back. Although Neeru broke Manu's heart by dumping him for a rich man, she's still the woman of Manu's dreams. The story follows Neeru, who pretends to be in happy and prosperous situation. During the rainy evening, the couple reminisce about their former love and how each ended up in their current situation. The raincoat comes to role when they are visited by the Landlord, who speaks to Manu in private of the real situation of the household....

DADDY

Director: Mahesh Bhatt
Language: Hindi

Courtesy: My local DVD store back home

My Rating: @ @ @ @ @

Synopsis: Everytime I listen to the songs of this film.... I get goose bumps.... and I tell my DAD how much I love him. Love you Pa! I miss you and Ma everyday...

A beautiful father-daughter story about a young girl who is trying to, and at times fighting with herself, to rediscover her father, a famous singer in his hay days, and eventually rescues him from from destroying himself at the hands of alcoholism. The story is very sensitively woven, and unfolds rather delicately to reveal the reason behind the fathers addition to alcohol. 

I absolutely love the songs.... my fav songs are.. "ghar ke ujiyaare so jaa re.... daddy tere jaage, tu soo jaare..." gosh!! I'm getting those goose bumps right now... my Dad used to sing me this song when I was younger... it translates to something like this... "O light of my life/home, try to sleep.... your daddy is awake, so please try to sleep..." and I am soooo not doing justice to this.... it is sooooooooo much better in Hindi..!!

.. and the final song in the movie..."aaina mujhse meri pehli-se surat maangey.... mere apne mere, hone ki nishane maangey....." just listen to the words ... the story and songs are writer by Suraj Sanim.

GREENFINGERS

Director: Joel Hershman
Language: English
Courtesy: NetFlix

My Rating: @ @ @ @

Synopsis: "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue...... I'm about to FUCK-up..... so what else is new???....." Yeah! that's how the movie begins. This film is an inspiring real life story in which Clive Owen plays Colin Briggs, a man imprisoned for a crime he will not discuss. He thinks of himself as a prisoner and nothing else. Colin and a few other inmates are chosen to be relocated to an experimental prison, an open system based on trust, to finish off their sentence.  All Colin wants here is his peace and quite, but when his rather talkative and artistic, elderly roommate, introduces him to gardening, Colin realizes he has an inner gift and passion to nurture this talent. Suddenly, Collin an his inmates find themselves with the task of growing and designing a garden on the prison grounds. This brings them the attention of renowned & celebrated gardener Georgina Woodhouse. Soon, the unexpected gardeners find themselves preparing to compete for England's highest flower show award, the Hampton Court Flower Show. And when Colin meets Georgina's beautiful daughter Primrose, he discovers another reason to fight for his freedom: True Love.

DEPARTURES

Director: Yogiro Takita
Language: Japanese
Courtesy: NetFlix

My Rating: @ @ @ @ @

Synopsis: This Oscar wining film is about Family, Love, Self Discovery, and Hope. It is about finding your goal and eventually being content with what you do, your purpose in life, the real reason of your existence. I would hate to ruin the movie for you by giving you the real synopsis... so I will try to "ambiguate" it a little for you.... Daigo is Cello player, married to a beautiful, caring and understanding wife, and who's dream job is to play in an orchestra. He is finally living his dream, but fate has something else in mind for him. Freshly unemployed, he realizes that maybe he is heading down the wrong career path. He decides to move back to his home town where he could live off his mom's house and look for a new direction. He does... He finds a job as a "nokanshi", the one who prepares the dead, and ends up working for the "undertaker".... 

Honestly, I learned something new about the Japanese culture and their rituals to celebrate life and death after I saw this movie. Even though it is a thought provoking drama it has many moments of comic relief that I found very hilarious at times. Pay close attention to the dialogues (sub-titles), there are some very intense and powerful lines that will move you deeply. My fav lines are "off you go..... we'll meet again....", "It's you last purchase, and someone else chooses it for you..."