gaur-abhi

Hitler is definitely one of the most enigmatic and larger-than-life personalities to have lived in the 20th century. His views, ideologies are very disturbing and smell of hatred and detest towards a particular community. His actions confirm his distorted view of the world and the amount of damage that it inflicted on humanity as a whole.

'The Downfall' captures the last few days in the life of this person as seen by a lady personal assistant. It is most certainly one of the best movies to have been made on Hitler. The Direction, cinematography, acting, are all top class. Most of the movie is shot inside the famed bunkers of Hitler.

Movie shows how Hitler in spite of realizing that the war was lost, kept on making fantasy plans of how he would be defending Germany while his closest troops stood in silence. One of the highlights of the movie is the portrayal of Hitler by Bruno Ganz. It is as if one is seeing Hitler himself, and not some actor trying to impersonate him. He is that good.

Some of the scenes leave a lasting impression. Like a mother poisoning her children, Hitler's assistants not leaving him even when they are sure that it will lead to death, Hitler's own suicide with his wife.

Do watch this movie, and get enthralled by a spectacle...

Are movies made to entertain people or are they made to send a message? Do our filmmakers have a moral obligation to fulfill in terms of giving social messages to the masses via their movies?

I am not sure of the answers to these questions. Some people say that movies are only meant to entertain and some argue that it being a mass media having a great scope to influence, filmmakers ought to make movies which have socially relevant messages. I guess these arguments will keep on happening. But once in a while, there comes a movie which satisfies both the arguments outlined above. It entertains and at the same time successfully transmits a socially relevant message which cuts across societies, class, gender and age. 'Taare Zameer Par' is one such masterpiece.

I saw this movie last week. It starred Aamir Khan and Darsheel Safary. Darsheel plays an eight year old dyslexic boy Ishaan. He has trouble reading and writing and scores poorly in almost all of his subjects. His older sibling on the other hand is a brilliant student and a top performer in class. His poor performance in school is troubling his parents a lot and as any Indian middle class parents they hope to see their kids become engineers/doctors when they grow up. Not realizing the basic problem with the child, Ishaan is sent to a hostel thinking this will teach him a lesson and he will improve.

This had a negative impact on the kid and he goes into a shell. Enters Aamir Khan, as a temporary arts teacher. He, being a dyslexic cured child himself, is able to understand Ishaan's problem and helps in his recovery. Also, he is able to nurture the kids ability as a painter and encourages him to draw and even manages to make him a celebrity at school because of this. More importantly, he is able to convince his parents that their kid has a problem which needs to be tackled. That not all kids are the same and we should not be imposing our expectations on them. Each child is unique and has a some special talent. As parents its our responsibility to understand this and nurture these talents of our kids rather force them to join the rat race to score well and become engineers and doctors.

The movie has some brilliant performances by Aamir, Darsheel and Tisca (Ishaan's mother). But it is Darsheel who steals the show. As a dyslexic but very naughty kid, his natural flair for acting and his facial contours are simply a treat a watch. Aamir as a first time director is awesome. In fact, it is one of the best debuts that I have seen in Mumbai Film Industry for a long time.

Its a must watch movie for every kid, for every parent and would be parent. It is specially relevant in India. A country where every lower and middle class parent hopes to see their own unfulfilled dreams through their kids. Its a lesson for those parents who loose sleep when their kids have exams. A lesson for parents who feel if their kid is not in the top percentile at school, then his/her future is doomed. A very relevant film that has the potential to change the way Indians think and act with regards to their children.

I saw Babel two days back on Saturday evening. It had been a tough & tiring week and I had hoped that watching a movie will be the best way to relax. Having watched Babel, though i thoroughly enjoyed the experience, but I wouldn't say "it was a relaxing experience". Babel is a well thought-out, intelligent film that has also been presented and edited brilliantly. The word 'Babel' means 'a confused mixture of sounds and voices'. The movie tries to highlights the differences among various cultures and how language can prove to be a barrier among people. It is a complex interplay of four stories going around parallel to each other, but converging together at the end. Babel has some nice performances by Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, and a host of other characters whom I did not recognize. I don't think the movie was made to give users any message. It is just a story of how cultures differ and how sometimes small mistakes/decisions can lead to devastating consequences. Babel is a tense thriller and a must watch for anyone who enjoys intelligent film making.