Movie Geek's Blog

Cast: Rani Mukherji, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Sanjay Taneja

Directed by: Pradeep Sarkar

Also featured in IMDb Critic Reviews

Remember 'Taken' ? The 2008 cult action movie which starred Liam Neeson in the lead role. It seems like it is still ruling the minds of film lovers in all corners of the world. Taken portrayed the story of woman trafficking, and it was well received by both critics and audiences alike. Even after six years of its release, many directors are still in its hang over, and they are all trying hard to make a movie just like the Liam Neeson thriller. A recent attempt to make a thriller based on human trafficking is done by Pradeep Sarkar. His recent movie 'Mardaani' which portrays the same old story of sex trafficking has Rani Mukherjee in the lead role. Now let us see whether the movie has lived up to the expectations.

The movie can be described as the lonely fight of a brave heart woman Police Officer against the sex trafficking rackets. Her name is Shivani Roy, and she lives in Mumbai along with her husband and niece. She is deadly daring, and is not at all concerned about the worst outcomes of beating up the baddies. One day, Shivani takes up a case which changes her lifetime. She takes up the case of Pyaari, a young teenage girl who gets kidnapped. Shivani tries to take down the baddies with her full fury, but she has only 30 days to complete the task as she challenges with the mafia kingpin. The ruthless mafia king pin is much powerful, and he has all the measures to tackle the moves of the Police. And from here starts some breathtaking chases and unbelievable stunts.

The proceedings of the movie is just like any other thriller which unveils the mystery in a sequential manner. The director has succeeded in creating some fine moments, but he failed to carry this edge of the seat ambiance throughout the running time. The moment which portrays the challenge of mafia don and Shivani may provide some goosebumps in the initial moments, but later it feels like a kind of sledging. The movie is completely filled with insane language, and there is no surprise that this movie got an A certificate.

Mardaani is an in and out Rani Mukherjee show. She was excellent in the role of the daring Police Officer, and her movements was a real visual treat to watch. She delivered the dialogue with finesse, and stunt scenes were done with perfection. Jisshu Sengupta, who plays Rani’s doctor husband, has nothing much to do, and if my memory is powerful, I remember him uttering less than two dialogues in the movie.

Mardaani is a movie which has good intentions, and the story is racy too. But the weak script derails all the plan, and in most probabilities, you will not rate this movie more than an above average thriller. It is just a one time watchable movie with a fine performance by Rani. 'Go and watch Mardaani only to see the scintillating screen presence of Rani Mukherji'.

Movie Geek's Rating: ★★★

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Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper

Directed by: James Gunn

Super hero movies are of huge demand in all the corners of the world, and the case of India is no different. Indians have a rich history of making Super Hero movies block busters in the box office, and this past have compelled the distributors of Guardians of the Galaxy to hit the film in Indian screens just seven days after its United States release. The speculations of the movie distributors are now slowly proving to be right as Indian audiences welcomed the movie with open hands and a warm heart. Most of the theaters are packed especially with the educated youth in the country. The initial reports about the film are positive in nature, and this James Gunn film is showing all evident signs of emerging successfully in the Box Office. The movie which has the capability to boast about its ensemble star cast has Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace and Micheal Rooker in the lead roles. The director has succeeded in extracting the maximum from the actors, and he was amply supported by the technical crew members. The movie will impress all kinds of audiences, and it will not let you down in any manner. Now, let us discuss the movie in detail.

Image Source: www.wired.com

Marvel's 'Guardians of the Galaxy' can be considered as the right blend of super hero movie and space action adventure. The movie tells the story in the back drop of space, and this premise it self is a huge point of attraction. Peter Quill, an American pilot and adventurer gets trapped in the Galactic prison, and from here the movie begins. Soon, he join hands with some other abducts, and forms an alliance called 'Guardians of the Galaxy'. The alliance soon start their war against the dreaded baddie, Ronan, and this forms the remaining part of the story. 

The movie is completely filled with high octane action sequences, and breath taking visuals. The film is crafted perfectly by the director, and there is not even a second of boredom in the 122 minutes running time. The filmmaker and his crew has shot the film in such extravagant ambiance which will provide you the real life feel of entering the space. All the actors have done their role in the perfect manner. Chris Pratt was excellent as Peter quill, and he showed up an impeccable performance. But my pick among the lots is none other than the mesmerizing Zoe Saldana. 

The movie is brilliant in all areas of film making. The film is perfectly etched, and it has some fine elements which will glue you to the seats till the end. The story telling style is pacy, and it is a perfect epitome of making super hero movies. All the characters have given equal importance and screen space, and this clearly shows the crafting finesse of the director and screen writer. This movie will not disappoint you if you are an ardent lover of super hero movies. 'Watch Guardians of the Galaxy and enter a new world filled with thrill, adventure and action'. 

Movie Geek's Rating: ★★★★

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Cast: Salman Khan, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Randeep Hooda

Directed by: Sajid Nadiadwala

Also featured in IMDb Critic Reviews

Kick, the new movie directed by Sajid Nadiadwala with Salman Khan in the lead role hit the theaters today, and the film is opened with packed houses throughout the nation. Like any other Salman movie, Kick is also getting tremendous initial pull, and all the theaters are overflowing with unimaginable crowd. The movie is a direct remake of a Telugu movie with the same name, but the class is not maintained when Salman made this film in Bollywood. The film is strictly recommended for hardcore Salman Khan fans who wish to see their hero doing the impossible action sequences. The movie is undoubtedly unimaginative and unoriginal, and the story telling is not up to the mark. Now, let us analyze the movie in detail. 

The movie portrays the story of Devi Lal Sing, a young crazy lad who wish to unleash some thrill in everything he does. He love to call it 'Kick', and sometimes, this 'kick' overboard the elements of reality. The attempt to generate laughs sometimes fails miserably, and some audiences were howling when Devi Lal tried to generate Kick by walking with hand cuffs on while going to jail. Our beloved Sallu doesn't like to walk like a normal man, and he wish to wear handcuffs to get that extra kick. The same way, he beats up some poor lads in the bar for eve teasing. Remember, Salman have one or many reasons to beat baddies to pulp. 

In the meantime, Shaina (Jacqueline Fernandes) tells the story of her ex lover to Himanshu (Randeep Hooda). Himanshu is a Police Officer, and Shaina is meeting him due to the compulsion of her dad. The flashback of Devi and Shaina will surely evoke some laughs in the initial moments, but as time passes, it will surely make you scratch your heads. The quest of Devi to unleash Kick will compel you to kick the director, and it is high time for Salman to say a big adieu to remake movies. The story takes a new turn when Firoz (Nawazuddeen Siddique) enters the scene, and the remaining parts of the movies are filled with some high octane action scenes and chases. 

All the actors in the lead roles have performed their best in the movie. Salman Khan as always rendered a decent show, but some of his efforts to evoke laugh was quite mediocre. Jacqueline was hot to the core, and her screen presence was impeccable. Mithun Chakraborthy who acted in the role of Salman's father was apt, but Nawazuddeen Siddique tested the patience of the audience by giving the character a caricature touch. Randeep excelled in a small yet decent role. 

Kick is undoubtedly an entertainer with some fine moments. But, if you are the one who wish to see realistic cinemas, then it is wise to stay away from this movie. You should keep your brain at home while watching Kick. Whatever the case, this Salman movie have all the chances to reach the 200 crore milestone in Boxoffice. 'Watch Kick if you are a hardcore Salman fan'. 

Movie Geek's Rating: ★★

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Author: Nirmal Narayanan

Cast: Irrfan Khan, Suraj Sharma, Adil Hussain, Tabu

Directed by: Ang lee

Also featured in IMDb Critic Reviews


So I thought of writing a review this morning, there were back to back conflicts in my mind while selecting the film to review. It happens when you have a young movie blog. You have so many films to write about, you just can’t settle on a particular film. So, I opened my watch list on IMDB and laid my eyes on all those movie posters of the films I have watched, suddenly I saw “Life of Pi” on one side of the web page and instantly all the doubts vanished and I started watching Life of Pi for the 2nd time.

I don’t like missing the high points of a film when I am going to write about it, so I had to watch every film once again just before I start writing about it. Life of Pi is a tough film to review, as a viewer; one may get carried away by its adventure or the fantasy element or the VFX. But above all, this is an inspirational film on life. 

It was one of the best films of 2012, among other greats like “Zero Dark Thirty”, “Argo”, “Lincoln”, "The Master" and others. I haven't watched much of Ang lee's work, Life of Pi is only his 2nd film I watched, the other being “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”. Just 2 films and I have become an Ang Lee fan. 

Now coming to the movie right away, the story is being told by the ‘grown up’ Pi Patel, played by Irrfan Khan to a writer played by Rafe Spall, who is looking for a story. 



Life of Pi is the story of Pi Patel, played by Suraj Sharma, who is ship wrecked and left alone on a boat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena and a royal Bengal tiger who is called Richard Parker. 

Pi Patel is an Indian boy who lives in Pondicherry and his family owns a zoo with many exotic animals inside. As Pi becomes a teenager, his family decides to move abroad. They left on a cargo ship with their zoo animals for Canada. A deadly storm while the cargo ship was on the Pacific Ocean changes everything. 

It is the journey of Pi Patel reaching the coasts of Mexico in more than 200 days on a life boat in the company of the Bengal tiger “Richard Parker.” It shows the friendship which was there all the time but never shown directly. It also show the attention Richard Parker had Pi, so much that he could hardly think of surviving in the sea and was rather worried about the tiger himself.

There were some unexplained fantasy element which the director or the Author of the book leaves for you to interpret. I read some reviews, a few months ago about Life of Pi, which questions the protagonist’s relationship with god, I strongly feel offended with a remark like that. That was a fantasy element, which is not the most important thing this movie is all about. 

This movie is about the conversation between Pi and Richard Parker, though this conversation has no words to it, this is about the friendship which is not to be seen but to be understood and this film is about how one can be responsible for saving your life even if he/she was not particularly kind at any moment.

I really loved a quote told by Irrfan Khan later in the film, he said "I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye."

Life of Pi is an achievement in cinema, there are many great films made every year, but some sticks to the timeline of Cinema and when we talk about cinemas of the century or the millenium, a film like this is always remembered.

When great actors and great filmmakers collaborate, we get to witness a great film. Be it the Marlon Brando-Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather, Brad Pitt-David Fincher's Fight Club, Clint Eastwood-Sergio Leone's Dollar Trilogy or any other pair. The list is endless.

However there is one actor-director duo, who never worked together, which I always wanted to see; Heath Leadger and  the Coen Brothers. Ledger worked with great directors like Ang Lee and Christopher Nolan, but couldn't work with Joel and Ethan Coen before he died in January 2008.

But, the fact is that Heath Ledger had his chances to work with the Coens. He was offered the role of Llewelyn Moss in "No Country for Old Men", but he refused to do the role to take some time off from work.

This role went to Josh Brolin, he was more than happy to win the part for Llewelyn Moss. 2 days later he broke his shoulder in  a motorcycle accident.

Later in an interview with a magazine, Josh Brolin recalled the moment when he was hit by the car at the time of the accident. He was saying to himself  "Fucking Shit, I really wanted to work with the Coens."

In spite of that, his injury didn't hamper his role in the film as the character he played was shot in the shoulder very early in the film.

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PS: Since Movie Geek's Blog is trying to determine the greatest movie ever made as voted by its readers, will you please take a minute to vote for your favorite movie(s) on the right side bar of this blog?

I love films, not only watching it but also reading and knowing it. I can read anything that has Cinema as the background. This is what attracted me to MK Raghavendra's "Director's Cut: 50 Major Filmmakers of the Modern Era."

Director's Cut is a take on the film making styles of the greatest directors of the modern era. The book starts with an introduction section,which explains the pattern using which Mr. Raghavendra chose the most influential 50 directors among all the great filmmakers we have ever watched. 

The Pattern is actually very intelligent, he chose 1960 as a cut-off date as he believes the french new wave, which is one of the most influential movements in cinema commenced around this time and cinema became Modern only during this era. 

Since the title of the book contains the term Modern Era; we shouldn't have any grudges with the Author for not including legendary filmmakers like Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, Charles Chaplin and Orson Welles as their greatest works was witnessed before the 1960s. Instead he put the spotlight on directors like Luis Buñuel, Werner Herzog and Béla Tarr. 

There are 50 chapters in this book, each dedicated to a director. Beneath the name of the director, there is a tagline defining the basic theme they have followed in almost all of their films. For example, below Steven Spielberg, you will see the words "Family Matters." 

Spielberg always portrayed family as a valuable entity in most of his films like there was a family that struggled together in "Jurassic Park", hundreds of Polish families were saved in "Schindler's List", a mother and son was reunited in "Saving Private Ryan". A Mecha [Robot] was given the love of a mother in "Artificial Intelligence" and a man returns to his family in "The Terminal." 

MK Raghavendra also included legendary directors Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, David Lean, Satyajit Ray and many other legends. It's good to see inclusion of acclaimed regional film directors from India such as Adoor Gopalakrishnan from the Malayalam Cinema and Ritwik Ghatak from the Bengali Film Industry.

This book does ignore great filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola and Roman Polanski and contemporary talented filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson and Richard Linklater but still the 50 that it talks about are very aptly chosen and you will love understanding the approach with which they make/made films.

This Book Review is also Published on my Personal Blog

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PS: Since Movie Geek's Blog is trying to determine the greatest movie ever made as voted by its readers, will you please take a minute to vote for your favorite movie(s) on the right side bar of this blog?

It was said by 'Red' [Morgan Freeman], when the "Sisters"; a group of homosexuals in the Shawshank Prison, led by Bogs, beats Andy [Tim Robbins] 'within an inch of his life'. Andy was sent to the infirmary, and that's how Red and the boys plans a welcome for Andy.
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PS: Since Movie Geek's Blog is trying to determine the greatest movie ever made as voted by its readers, will you take a minute to vote for your favorite movie(s) on the right side bar of this blog..? No registration required

Birdman is the story of "A washed-up actor who once played an iconic superhero must overcome his ego and family trouble as he mounts a Broadway play in a bid to reclaim his past glory". [Source: IMDb]

So, who is playing this washed up Actor..?

It's Michael Keaton, who played Batman/Bruce Wayne in Tim Burton's Batman [1989] and is still the most loved Batman actors for many, including me. Though I equally love the Nolan's version but I love Michael Keaton much more than I love Christian Bale as Batman, Period.

So, the plot of the movie sounds pretty much like the real story of Michael Keaton, he played an iconic superhero once, and though he is not a washed up actor, he had a pretty mediocre career of late.

Whatever the case may be, the trailer of Birdman looks very promising and since it is directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, we can expect great results out of it.

Among the cast, Keaton will be accompanied by Edward Norton, Emma Stone and Zach Galfianikis.

Here is the Trailer, do let us know what do you think of this trailer.

The dystopian, Chris Evans film, Snowpiercer has been getting rave reviews from pretty much everybody, meaning you have to go out and see it in the theater right now.

Or maybe you don't have to go out since it's on your television right this instant. Welcome to the future of Video on Demand, a service that has always been great with getting you films that have run their course at the box office. But what was once a mere convenience has now turned into quite possibly the future of how we're going to get our movies. Sure, it seems like only smaller films like Snowpiercer or the documentary, Life Itself, are really getting the early home treatment. But the success of Snowpiercer's home release (Entertainment Weekly cites an estimated $1.1 million in its first week on VOD) is a sure sign that Hollywood is going to start getting interested in the possibilities of releasing films in theaters and then, putting them on VOD in only a couple week's time. Especially if they're initially failures.

But is this a good thing, or a bad thing? I think it could be a little of both. The main argument some have against this plan is that it will hurt box office sales. Why go see Transformers in the theater if you can watch it on your couch? Also, this kind of makes it seem like all movies need to be big-budget productions if you really want to get people out to the theaters. So there are definitely negatives.

But there are positives, too. Just think of all the films that didn't receive the attention they deserved, like Edge of Tomorrow that could benefit from VOD. A lot of hype formed around that film weeks after it came out. And if it were On Demand, there's a greater chance that people might check it out who wouldn't go to the theater now that it's been out for so long. The same goes for How To Train Your Dragon 2. I'm sure there are plenty of parents who, rather than take their kids out to the movies and spend all that money on popcorn and soda, would much prefer to sit in the comforts of their home and watch a brand new film that just recently came out. The possibilities are endless. All it takes is for a mega blockbuster like The Avengers: Age of Ultron to try the same tactic for us to see how this will truly impact the market. It's only a matter of time. VOD looks to be the future.

About the Author:
Rich Knight has written for a number of publications including Cinemablend.com, Complex, and SMITH Magazine. You can find more of his writing on his blog: http://knighttakesrook.blogspot.com He is also the author of the book, The Darkness of the Womb.

"My name is Harvey Milk and I am here to recruit you"

This movie is all about getting intrigued in 125 minutes; I must admit, I am truly awed and zapped at the same time to believe in the infinite connection that Mr. Milk makes throughout the movie. The details, reach, assembles, characters in the movie just doesn't let you get away from them. 

It is a biopic about first openly elected gay politician and an activist rising to the horizon by the revolution in the status of homosexuality in the year of 1977 in the US. He changed life of the community and the history of that era all together by sheer hard work and his reach to the heart nature. Watching Academy Award Winner Sean Penn in the lead role of Harvey Milk was a delight. His mannerism, his flow and his presence is something that will not slip from your mind for a long time. 

I believe, Director Gus Van Sant did the very right choice of getting Penn play the heart melting role of Milk. The movie initiates with a start of an audio tape marking all the details in the journey of Milk’s life. In a gush of doing something with his life and mind, Milk decides to fight against the wisdom, space and rights of homosexual people. Having said that, this line makes me remember his dialogue: “Forty years old and I haven't done a thing that I'm proud of.” 

Deeply in love with Scott Smith (James Franco), he decides to move to San Francisco, and opens a camera shop in the midst of Castro Theater, where large number of homosexual community are down eyed left, right and center by the other group including the police. Campaigning for gay rights, stabilizing the heated crowd and playing very calm yet smart leader, proves the ability of Mr. Harvey Milk. The movie is not about being a hero and changing life of people but about the rightful right of a gay/lesbian citizen of a country. Friends, romance – new or old, rivals, fame all intertwined with each other makes the movie connected to you from the first scene till the last. 

Playing the role of Milk as “I am as normal as you are” to “We will make a change starting now”, Penn draws a remarkable perception about his presence in the industry for all better reasons. The screen play and the dialogues either melt your heart or force you to fight against the cause with the characters. Direction and other detailing work are simply flawless. Background score not being in the movie beside the after credit list scene doesn't really itch you much since you are too engrossed with the biopic drama. Supporting actors also do a mind-blowing job proving their particular role to utmost justice.

I recommend this movie to each of those people who understand the true sense of film making and its thought process. Concluding with HARVEY MILK’s best dialogue from the movie – “Without hope, life is not worth living.” 

Movie Geek's Rating: ★★★★½

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Author: Deepshikha Deb

I find it extremely fascinating when a large number of great films [and I mean CULT CLASSICS] come together in the same year.

1957 was the earliest one that comes to mind, I can think of 5 timeless classics that came that year. Kubrick's "Paths of Glory", Bergman's "Seventh Seal", "Pyaasa" by Guru Dutt, Sidney Lumet's "12 Angry Men" and Akira Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood" added so much rich content to the then existing standards of Cinema.

Another Year that almost beats 1957 is 1994; films like "Pulp Fiction", "The Shawshank Redemption", "Forrest Gump", "Leon: the professional" and "The Lion King" came together, along with Burton's "Ed Wood" and Robert Redford's "Quiz Show".

I have already talked about 2007 many a times for that year gave us Classics like "American Gangster", "No Country For Old Men", "There Will Be Blood" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford" with other great films like  Sean Penn's "Into the Wild", Ben Affleck's directorial debut "Gone Baby Gone" and Fincher's "Zodiac".

But one year that has actually given Cinema a lot more than others is 1999, for it was the year we have received great films from every genre breaking some preconceived notions about certain genres.

Like college romances became interesting after "10 things I hate about you" Sex Comedies became a major genre after "American Pie" [though it couldn't really flourish, but still I never knew whats a MILF before that :P] "The Matrix" is another milestone in the Sci-Fi Genre, we had an important Anti hero in Tyler Durden with "Fight Club" Among other significant films that came in 1999 were PT Anderson's "Magnolia", Oscar Winner "American Beauty" Frank Darabont's "Green Mile" M Night Shyamalan's psychological thriller/horror "The Sixth Sense", Coming of Age film "October Sky" and one of my favorites Spike Jonze "Being John Malkovich". 1999 was also the year when Brad Bird made his first film and Kubrick made his last; the films I am talking about were "The Iron Giant" and "Eyes Wide Shut", both a classic piece of work.

1999 was indeed one of the most significant years in Cinema.

Do let me know if I missed any other significant year or forgot to mention some great film. Share your thoughts.

-Amritt Rukhaiyaar

[image source: https://tvlists.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/1999.jpg]

"A reporter's dream of becoming a news anchor is compromised after a one-night stand leaves her stranded in downtown L.A. without a phone, car, ID or money - and only 8 hours to make it to the most important job interview of her life." -IMDb

As a movie enthusiast, sometimes you just love some actors without caring about their insignificance to the film industry. Elizabeth Banks is one of those actor I love watching, I don't care about her filmography or her own performances which is not even worth talking. She is one of those early actresses, I had a crush on.

Elizabeth Banks is the sole reason why I am putting a trailer of a film which looks weak, unpromising and hopeless. Now if this turns out to be good enough, that's certainly a bonus.

-Amritt Rukhaiyaar

[This post is a part of the A to Z Challenge in April 2014. Let's celebrate blogging.]

There are many genres of cinema, Action, animation, crime, drama, fantasy, history, mystery, romance sci-fi and there is another genre; Las Vegas.Usually when a film is shot in Las Vegas, the city is like a character in that film. There is a  purpose they set films in Las Vegas. Here is a list of some of the films I have watched, which is shot entirely or partly in Las Vegas:

Ocean's Eleven [1960]

The Godfather Part II [1974]

Rain Man [1988]

Casino [1995]

Leaving Las Vegas [1995]

Fear and loathing in Las Vegas [1998]

Ocean's Eleven [2001]

Resident Evil: Extinction [2007]

Ocean's Thirteen [2007]

21 [2008]

What Happens in Vegas [2008]

2012 [2009]

The Hangover [2009]

Fright Night [2011]

The Hangover Part III [2013]

Last Vegas [2013]

[This post is a part of the A to Z Challenge in April 2014. Let's celebrate blogging.]

If you have watched Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy, you already know the greatness of this scene. If you haven't, here is the background story you need to know.

Gotham City has been saved by Batman from Bane's terror, but there is still something that needs to be taken care of; the Nuclear Bomb. Now this nuclear bomb cannot be defused anymore and for that Batman has to sacrifice his life as he will haul the bomb over the bay with the help of "The Bat" [an aircraft developed by Lucius Fox which replaces the Bat Mobile.

Now this scene was after Batman sacrificed his life. One of the greatest final 5 minutes of a movie.

Rain Man is a 1988 Drama by Barry Levinson, it stars Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise as lead actors playing brothers.

Tom Cruise plays Charlie Babbitt 

Dustin Hoffman plays Raymond Babbitt

Rain Man won 4 Oscars, 3 of which were Best Picture, Best Director for Barry Levinson and Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman.

There was many people who were supposed to be a part of this film but it was rejected time and again. Here goes a list of people rejecting a certain part in Rain Man.

Jack Nicholson turned down the role of Raymond Babbitt.

Rober De Niro turned down the role of Raymond Babbitt.

Dustin Hoffman turned down the role of Charlie Babbitt to play Raymond Babbitt.

Dustin Hoffman almost left Rain Man after shooting for a couple of weeks and asked the director Barry Levinson to cast Richard Dreyfuss as Hoffman was unsure of the film's potential and his own performance.

Barry Levinson turned down the offer to direct this film in 1987 and instead he directed Good Morning, Vietnam.

It was Steven Spielberg, who was supposed to direct Rain Man, he made some notes as well in preparation of starting the project,  he later had to withdraw from it as his friend George Lucas needed him to start working on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade [1989].

Director Sydney Pollack was the 2nd person to direct Rainman, but he later ditched the film saying he wasn't keen on the idea of a road movie.

Dustin Hoffman originally wanted Bill Murray to play Charlie.

-Amritt Rukhaiyaar

[This post is a part of the A to Z Challenge in April 2014. Let's celebrate blogging.]

The day I saw the trailer of jOBS, I could sense that something is terribly wrong with it. Yes I am talking about that Ashton Kutcher movie that looked highly commercial and glamorous. The film came and as I expected, it was not appreciated by many including me.

Why did I sensed so? That's because I saw a better film on Steve Jobs and Bill Gates earlier and this was not even close to what I felt while watching Pirates of Silicon Valley.

A drunken man [Oh Dae-Su] is arrested by the police. His friend bails him out and when this friend was making a telephone call, the man disappears only to wake up in a place that looked like a cheap hotel room. Little did he know that, he will be in that room for the next 15 years, day in, day out? 

Oldboy tells the story of that man.

Time and again, a little tune plays and the room is filled with some kind of gas so as to faint him. He wakes up and notices that the room has been cleaned, his clothes have been changed and his hair and beard has been trimmed. This same routine goes for 15 years.

He doesn’t know who imprisoned him and why. There is a TV in the room being the only source of new information for him. There is a desk with a pen and a journal, he writes, finishing journals one after another. Through TV, he finds out that his wife has been murdered and his fingerprints and blood were found at the place of the crime. Thus he has been framed for the murder of her wife. He also found out from TV only that his little daughter is adopted in Sweden.

TV taught him everything, the martial art, the tragedies of the world and the fact that the world is racing ahead at a great pace. And then one day he has been released; he became unconscious after that regular tune and the gas and wakes up in a Red box only to realize that he is not in that room anymore and that the city where he was taken from has become faster than ever.

His abductor left some cash in his court pocket and a cellphone, intentionally leaving him resourced so that he could survive and find; who did it and why? 

Now this is half the plot, the other half is even more complex, devastating and shows you the truest colors of revenge and vengeance.

Upon being free, he meets a young woman who he saw on the TV as Korea’s Chef of the year. This young woman is Mido. They talk and she comes to know of all he has gone through, she sympathizes with him, cares for him and falls in love with him.

When Oh Dae-su was abducted, for 15 years, he was only fed pot stickers, which is why its taste was imprinted on his memory. With the help of Mido, he visits every restaurant in the city and orders Pot Stickers so as to recognize the same taste, in order to find a trail to his abductor.

In an important scene, when Oh Dae-Su fights with more than 25 of his previous jailers with just a hammer in his hands. In this scene, more than a two dozen men are blocking his way to get him out of a building and because he is so occupied by revenge, he doesn’t even slow down after somebody injected a knife on his back.

In another brilliant scene, Oh went into a restaurant and asks “I want to eat something that is alive.” This shows his starvation is for life and not the food, considering the fact that he has not seen one living person in the last 15 years.

When the film started, Oh Dae-su was a good man who got drunk because he couldn't be with her little daughter on her birthday, and these 15 years made him a hardened vindictive man who reacts weirdly against emotional actions or any other act of kindness towards him.

Once Oh Dae-su finally confronts his abductor, there are some shocking revelations that unfold one after another. These revelations affect the viewers emotionally and mentally. They are shocking and deep. 

All the three performances were class apart, the prisoner Oh Dae-Su [Min-sik Choi], the chef Mido [Hye-jeong Kang] and the abductor Woo-jin Lee [Ji-tae Yu]. 

Oldboy is a harsh film that offers no sympathy, leaves you devastated for what you watched and at the end make you have pity on the characters. This is a film which will be respected even after 50 years from now. Director Chan-wook Park has made something even he will find difficult to imitate. 

This is why I hated the idea of its remake, but Spike Lee remade it and failed miserably. Some films should never be remade, tampered or even touched but only be respected for its existence.

Movie Geek’s Rating: ★★★★★

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[This post is a part of the A to Z Challenge in April 2014. Let's celebrate blogging.]