Beyond the Clouds

When it comes to international cinema, we have all, at some point in our lives, heard about Majid Majidi.

I discovered this on YTS when I made the decision to watch one of his films.

I then realized that I had seen a commercial for this movie on &Prive, although I had no idea it was Majid Majidi's movie.

I immediately freaked out when I noticed Ishan Khattar and Goutam Ghose on the cast.

And made the decision to watch this movie as my first Majid Majidi movie.

There were some positive and negative aspects to Beyond the Clouds. (In my personal Opinion)

The good ones being..... >>> The movie was expertly filmed. I thought the establishment shot was fantastic.

>>> Also, the color had a light, neutral tone, which made it appear more natural.

>>> The film had very little background music, which Mr. AR Rehman very discreetly added when it was absolutely necessary.

The bad ones being..... >>> The story was not very motivating to watch. It seemed like a lot of effort was being put into having the audience care about the characters, but it lacked vision.

>>> The casting relied very heavily on the appearance of the characters. Which was not at all justified by the acting. Despite the actor Malavika Mohanan's good expression, the delivery of her dialogues was unsteady. That appeared to be quite rehearsed and robotic. Even Amir's friend's acting skills were lacking.

Ishan Khattar delivered everything he had, in my opinion, but even he occasionally lost his composure.

>>> The film's story felt lost somewhere in driving the plot. And became unpredictable in a bad way.

In a nutshell, Beyond the Clouds should not be the movie to enter Majid Majidi's cinematic adventure.

This is not among Majid's best works but it is still very watchable and heads and shoulders above most Bollywood films. It is a moving story of two families whose lives get entwined after a desperate girl injures an obsessed man whilst defending herself. Majid is a genius at weaving moments of hope and joy amidst a bleak backdrop. The acting is top notch and Ishaan emotes well - a solid start for a debutant. The movie fared poorly at the box office as is often the case for little gems with no 'face value'. Ishaan is a newcomer and Majid is not known outside the festival circuit in India. Thank goodness for Netflix though - it provides a platform for such movies to reach a much wider audience.

The only reason I wanted to watch this movie was the director, "Majid Majidi". He is one of my favorite director.

As expected, I was more than satisfied after watching the movie. He knows how much emotion is needed. Never too much never too less. He puts the emotion at the right place and at the right time. King of tragic endings. Kind of helplessness he brings, shows how deeply he has analyzed the situation before showing it on screen. Be it any movie Children of heaven, The Song of Sparrows or Baran, he never failed to touch our hearts(mine atleast).

Acting wise, everyone of them was able to convince. For me the person who wasn't acting at all was "Asha". She was raw and natural. Her expressions when she was scared of Amir, when she was uncomfortable and shy when he was clicking her photo and many more. Even though Akshi had very few dialogues in the movie, he has done a brilliant job with his facial expressions.

This film a treat for a human mind which always wants a square in life..! This film teaches us that Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans. Hats off to Ishaan Katter, Malvika and of course Director Majidi. Suggestion for viewers:- Watch it at night...watch it alone ! You will start apprenticing your life and will never curse the life for what you don't have. A must watch !!

First of all I would like to say Triple Congratulations to the director, hero and heroine of the movie. Hero has lot of talents and shown up in the movie (especially I like the robot dance steps) and Heroine acted very good in all different role plays.

Big Salute to the director and enlightened the risk of being more alcoholic persons, dealing with drugs and using ladies for fun objects. Some of the scenes are shown through the Shadow that is really mesmerizing.

I liked the movie very much and big salute to the entire team!! Well done guys!