Salt - Enough spice for a one time watch.

Director: Philip Noyce.
Release Year: 2010.
Rating: * *1/2


It’s been almost an eternity since I last saw a decent popcorn movie; Salt filled that void recently. Surprisingly, and unlike other members of its herd, the movie had a pretty nice concept at its core, which could’ve executed in one of many ways, with “competent enough thrill-ride” being one of them, and Salt paints that picture pretty vividly.

The movie opens with Evelyn Salt’s (Angelina Jolie) interrogation at the hands of North Korean military, charge with being an American spy. The opening sequence itself is pretty grim and the movie itself is pretty violent in parts; an improbable trait for such flicks, but the movie does ample of justice to this approach. Flash forward to two years later, with the front as a petroleum employee, Salt is, in fact, a CIA agent, with a pretty steady life and a loving German husband. Soon, this whole equation is soured, when a Russian defector walks into the hands of America’s secret services, with an incendiary piece of information. On the eve of America’s Vice President’s funeral, visiting Russian president will be assassinated by one of the Russian agents, currently active on American soil, and has been so for a huge portion of his/her life. But that info is just the tip of the iceberg. He proceeds to reveal the identity of the assassin in question, which obviously, is none other than Salt herself. Inexplicably, despite claiming innocence and having her colleague Ted (Liev Schreiber) stand by her side, Salt escapes from the facility, and we’re thrown into the thick of action. Thereafter, it’s a breakneck-speed ride, with not even a straying moment, and the movie breezes past its running length in a snap.

The movie acts as a vehicle for Angelina Jolie, to remind people that she still got the Lara Croft chops, the agility, the oomph, and some acting talent, too; I’m yet to see her act as good as others in her league do. Anyway, the lady digs into her role, coming up with some fabulous action scenes. She looked very unconvincing, though, in scenes where she’s shown excelling in hand-to-hand fights. She just doesn’t carry that super-swank ass-kicking presence; something Carrie Anne Moss symbolized and is idolized for in “The Matrix Trilogy”. Talk about jumping down an elevator shaft, or from one tanker in transit to another speeding van, or even handling myriad of firearms with ridiculous ease, I’m willing to bend backwards and watch her do all that, but she just wasn’t convincing enough for me in the combat department. As for other instances, she was an absolute treat to watch. Her turn as a desperate agent on the run, dumbfounded by the accusations made on her, and yet, seemingly cryptic in her actions at every step of the way, was credible indeed. She managed to let the ambiguity of her identity reflect and project onto the viewers. Throughout the movie, we’re left guessing the verity of her reality, and the moment we recline in our seat, believing that we’ve figured it out, the plot throws another acute twist and jolts us out of our comfort zone, to use our noodle some more.

As previously stated, if the movie’s concept had been utilized to its exhausting possibility, it would’ve been more than your typical summer action flick. In fact, if Paul Greengrass had directed this movie, I’m certain he would’ve produced another Bourne-class female spy movie. Sadly, but not regrettably, the actual director does plenty of justice to his role as well as the movie’s rather zigzag plot, which is told in a simple fashion. The director lets the story unfold through a series of over-the-top chase sequences, gunfights, improbably hairy situations that are always a joy to watch and see it materialize on the big screen. The director does try to throw in a little humor, with Liev Schrieber quipping in some parts, but they come out as clichéd or corny as they can ever be. Amidst all the crashing cars, whizzing bullets, some overblown claims and scenarios, the director does stop to remind us of the actual plot the movie is woven around, but doesn’t add much to that notion. It just acts like a reminder, while you’re busy watching the femme fatale kick some butt. Overall, the movie is not a bad choice at all, for a lazy evening with friends of both genders. Males would get to drool over the leading lady they probably fancy or once did, and the other lot would gape in awe, admiring the stuffs that this lady can pull off.

Insomnia - A Downcast, Potent Thriller.

Director: Erik Skjoldbjærg.
Language: Norwegian, Swedish.
Release Year: 1997.
Rating: * * *1/2

Watching this original version of the Nolan’s brilliant remake of Pacino and Williams starrer “Insomnia”, one can’t help but make unwarranted comparisons. The original has its own strength and its own way of telling a gloomy tale set against a backdrop where sun doesn’t set for a long time, but unfortunately, it falls a few inches short in being the masterwork that the remake was.

Jonas Engstrom (Stellan Skarsgard) and his buddy cop, Erik Vik (Sverre Anker Ousdal) are brought in from Sweden to help the Norway police with a teenager’s murder, whose body was found at a dumping ground. Engstrom’s reputation precedes him, especially because of a past incident in his profession that seems to have tainted his, otherwise, spotless and unprecedented career in the law enforcement. This particular part seems to have been left out from the original, and was only touched upon on few, rare occasions, whereas the remake had developed an engaging subplot out of this fallacy of the lead, and had acted as a rather catalyst that drove the movie to a great extent. Engstrom doesn’t waste any time in lining up the suspects followed by his subtly methodical interrogation in making them squeal.

Not long after, while chasing the real culprit amidst the blinding haze at the riverside, a serious lapse in judgment on Engstrom’s part results in a tragedy, which he himself, unwittingly, has perpetrated. This blow to his conscience leaves Engstrom devastated at first, later, manifesting itself as sleep deprivation, a.k.a. insomnia, and hallucinations. The guilt and the residual images of the event, constantly and vehemently eats away at Engstrom. However, being an ace cop that he is, he pushes through this unforeseen eventuality, and closes in on the real murderer. Now, it’s not actually a whodunit, because even a 10 year old would be able to point his finger at the real murderer here. It’s more about playing the balancing act with the real murderer. Fearing that the murderer would act on his knowledge about the accidental shootout at the riverside, the only way out Engstrom can see from this mess, is to help the murderer escape the rap, and frame someone else for the crime committed against the teenage girl. It’s as simple as “you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours”. Engstrom does comply and uses his wits to wipe off all the traces that could lead the cops back to either him or the real murderer. The ending lacks the purging that was a part of the remake, but the movie still manages to hold its own.

It’s Stellan Skarsgard all the way in this movie. His portrayal of the troubled, with a guilty conscience and with “a dead man walking” demeanor cop, relays the deadening calm and glumness of the movie in a very underrated and “beneath the layer” sort of fashion. The constant battle with his actions, both in the present and the past, gradually taking a toll on his psyche, was vociferously apparent in how he goes about his job after the incident by the river. Carrying the whole movie on his shoulders, helped to a great extent by air-tight screenplay and execution, Stellan Skarsgard leaves an immensely engraved impression. Speaking of execution, the movie almost lacks any background score, which compounds the eerie feel of the movie and the gloomy town of Norway, takes it to another level. It feels as if one is walking through a silent nightmare, watching over the lead’s shoulders, as he proceeds to unravel the secret of a crime, and eventually, putting his own wounded scruples to rest.

Now coming to the inevitable comparison with the remake, the original lacks the grim style and the gripping approach that Nolan had going for his movie. Both the movies are slow in its pace, but the remake had a handful of subplots, seemingly attaching itself to the main plot, and keeping the whole affair intriguing and fresh. The original however, doesn’t do that, and goes straight as an arrow, following the main plot, with a semblance of minute diversions that doesn’t really transform into anything. On the performance front, the original has Stellan Skarsgard playing the lone ranger, while the remake had stellar performances from both the hero and the antihero. The original doesn’t give much room to the killer’s character, played by Bjorn Floberg, to maneuver his acting chops, leaving him to play the second fiddle to Stellan’s character.

Overall, the original is a good movie, with great acting by the lead, strong script and some nice photography, but it doesn’t quite hit the mark that the remake was able to. If I had to pick between the two, I’d pick the gripping remake by Nolan, over this rather wandering, sleepy thriller.

Sheng Si Jie - Meeting Life in it's Starkness

Director: Shaohong Li.
AKA: Stolen Life.
Language: Mandarin.
Release Year: 2005.
Rating: * * *

“Stolen life” is a coming-of-age tale, told in a very uncompromising and unflinching fashion. The human fallibilities that lead to life-altering consequences are on display here, and it helps to have competent actors flesh out the script onto the screen.

Yan’ni (Zhou Xun) was abandoned by her real parents, and burdened on her aunt and granny for her upbringing. Obviously, she grows distant from her parents, and never makes any bones about it whenever she gets to see her mom; which is rarely. Unable to understand the reason behind her parents’ decision of forsaking her, she gives them the “could shoulder” when both her parents visit her for the very first time in her life. Seeing her dad for the very first time, she’s at loss of words, both out of shock and awe. Coming up with opposition from her guardians, on her decision to pursue higher education, she finds an ally and encouragement in her estranged father, who gives her the needed boost to follow her dreams. Soon, Yan’ni is accepted into a university, and her guardians are only happy to get rid of her.

On her very first day, she runs into Muyu, a 20-ish, charming fellow, working as a delivery boy at the university. Muyu is very forthcoming and doesn’t let any moment pass without helping the lonely and the lost soul that Yan’ni is. Yan’ni, too, doesn’t miss a beat in falling in love with this benevolent fellow, who always goes out of his way to help her with everything; from buying her knick-knacks to giving her the only friendly shoulder. After both of them realize the love they have for each other, Yan’ni’s life takes a drastic turn for worse. Her focus starts to shift towards spending time with Muyu, which also includes being intimate with him at such a nascent stage, both in age and life. Following in the footsteps of a typical teenager, she moves in with Muyu, into a dingy, underground bunker of sorts. Just like your run-of-the-mill teenage complications that arise, by getting into a “relationship” at such a tender age, here, too, Yan’ni meets reality in its bareness: She becomes pregnant with Muyu’s child. After perusing all the available options, and weighing it against her own prospects of getting educated, Yan’ni decides to quit everything, and live at Muyu’s mercy in bringing the child into this world. Muyu doesn’t hold back anything, and helps her and loves her with all his might, while Yan’ni becomes a shut-in, festering in that shack, surviving off meager necessities, loneliness and dreariness, all the while, stagnating.

A setback makes both these characters sit up and smell the coffee. Struggling for even a proper two meals per day, both of them scamper around for monetary reprieve. Managing to come up with some means to survive for a while, with Muyu helping on all terms, Yan’ni’s met with another predicament when one of her guardian discovers her miserable self, and the deplorable state she’s dug herself in. Soon, Yan’ni’s mother comes knocking on her door, and lets her daughter in on the reason she’s neglected her all these years. She tells Yan’ni that, just like her, even her daughter’s fallen in the same rut that her mother once had. Her mother proposes a way out, but Yan’ni isn’t too keen on taking that piteous helping hand, but that doesn’t stop the mother from making a deal with Muyu. The deal is to put the child up for adoption once it’s born, and in return, her mother will bear all the related expenses up till that point.

Losing her child to a stranger in adoption, Yan’ni is nothing but devastated. Thereafter, life is not the same for both Yan’ni and Muyu. They are well off, but the spark they once had has started to die out, or perhaps, even dead. One day, to Yan’ni’s disbelief, the news about Muyu’s affair is revealed by Muyu’s current girlfriend. Rejecting the claim, but still needing to put her curiosity to rest, Yan’ni ransacks her place, only to find something that comes as a blow to her guts, and rips her heart into shreds. Muyu’s skeletons come tumbling out of the closet, and Yan’ni is appalled at the man’s heinousness and her own stupidity, for having trusted her life in the hands of such an abhorrent creature. The climax is where Yan’ni finally takes charge of the situation and her life, avenging the unspeakable things done to her, in her own poetic way.

The movie is shot with minimal fuss, employing no unnecessary fancy cuts, or intellectual angles, or going ballistic with the score. The treatment is grounded in reality, with its blandness evident in every scene, and an almost absence of music. It’s more like documentary, but only more fictional yet, relevant. With only a handful of actors to deal with, the director doesn’t mess up with the combinations, and is successful in bringing out the authenticity in the situations and characters onscreen.

Jun Wu as the masquerading philanderer and lover Muyu, was a presence to be reckoned with. Playing it below the radar in most of the scenes, he delivered handsomely on all counts. One scene in particular, where his performance was truly outstanding, was couple of minutes before the end. After being exposed, Yan’ni tries to hurt Muyu, but a medical condition makes it very hard for her to do so. There, Muyu just sits on the couch, smoking and blowing smoke nonchalantly, being absolutely indifferent toward Yan’ni’s plight and pain. How, after each and every sentence, Muyu was able to peel off the hidden layers of his personality, is truly commendable. Another scene is right at the end when, in his own twisted fashion, Muyu gives Yan’ni, probably the best advice she ever got. The apathy and the lurking selflessness that Muyu impregnated that particular scene with, was a treat to watch.

Yet again, it was Zhou Xun’s performance as the ingenuous yet, strong-willed Yan’ni, that was the heart and soul of this movie. She’s a thespian with an uncanny knack of putting a cathartic spin on the parts she plays. With her trademark subtlety and elegance, Zhou evoked every emotion there was to be evoked for her character. Unparalleled in her charm and all those tender expressions she infuses her scenes with, one can’t help but fall in love with her acting and her. It was a yet another tour de force of a performance, which made an almost average movie into a worthy affair. If it weren't for her, the movie just wouldn’t be as good as it was, and it wouldn’t get the rating it did. Yes, I’m that besotted by her

Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai - A pretentious, trite take on Mumbai's seedy past.

Director: Milan Luthria.
Language: Hindi.
Release Year: 2010.
Rating *1/2 (Only for Ajay Devgan).

Now, I was willing to put myself through this guillotine called Bollywood movie ,only for the lead actor Ajay Devgan and him only. I knew beforehand how the movie will pan out, despite having a solid concept at its core. So, I’m not going to waste my talent at picking movies apart, and just get it over with, with as few words as possible.

Sultan Mirza (Ajay Devgan), drifts into the Mumbai waters after a deluge in his hometown. Subsisting on petty jobs, he starts to reach for the bigger and riskier piece of pie. Sinking his teeth into the smuggling business, he soon becomes a name to be dreaded by all the antagonists, and to be revered by all in need. An innate philanthropist, people look up to him as their savior, despite his shady profession, and all he asks in return is for them to pray for him. He’s a stern follower of the principle: If you can do away with by being friends, then why make enemies? He follows every word of it religiously. Thanks to him, all the warring factions within the city are kept in check, by delegating a part of the city to each gang, while Mirza keeps his stranglehold on Mumbai’s sea.

Shoaib (Emraan Hashmi), the anti-Mirza in terms of his approach to realize his ambitions, forms the other side of this coin. Irascible by nature, he quickly gives in to violence, with a devil-may-care attitude toward the aftermath. Committing petty crimes, and later on, gangs up with the Mirza clan, hoping to climb the ladder to the top with whatever means he deems fit in getting the job done. Soon, a righteous and a no-nonsense cop ACP Agnel Wilson (Randeep Hooda) is appointed to keep these antisocial elements from taking the whole of city to ransom. His initial attempts at coming down hard on these gangsters, Mirza in particular, are met with embarrassing failure. However, after the fallout between Mirza and Shoaib, Agnel decides to play bystander, while these two forces are en route to a collision, where only the weaker and the older power will yield, leaving one less scum to deal with for the police. This lapse in judgment by the cop, results in dire consequences, both for the police and the city of Mumbai.

Now, such an interesting concept, loosely based on the real-life gangsters Haji Mastan and Dawood Ibrahim, and the eventual violent souring between the two, could have been made into an engaging watch. Alas, the director doesn’t have the chops to keep the integrity of such a story intact, while transitioning it from paper to the screen. Certain aspects of the bygone Mumbai era were faithfully revived, but that wasn’t enough to save the movie. Among performances, Kangana Ranaut as Mirza’s moll does an okay job at filling the screen for the time being. Prachi Desai as Shoaib’s gullible love, does as much justice as it was possible for a one-shaded role she was given to play with. Randeep Hooda exudes confidence, but the screenplay and those terrible, threadworn punchlines he’s made to spew every time he makes an appearance, does an irreparable damage to his contribution to the movie. There are some scenes where he does shine, and lifts the movie to an admirable height, but the effect ceases to exist as soon as he comes up with yet another infantile crack. Emraan Hashmi as Dawood’s fictional embodiment breezes through the movie with one wooden expression, and hams it up while delivering those, yet again, corny oneliners. Honestly, a serious misjudgment on the writer’s part to make every Tom, Dick and Harry sound like a philosopher of the modern Dark Age, played a huge part in evoking derision and embarrassment.

The only saving grace, and the only element that made me stand this torture was Ajay Devgan. He, too, is made to quip, but the director was benevolent and sensible enough to give him some smart wisecracks and not platitudes. Every scene he appears in, makes it your worth while. His performance can be compared to his flawless take on an underworld don in Ram Gopal Varma’s eternally classic “Company”. The only difference is that his character in the other movie wore dark humor and radical philosophies on his sleeves. Here, Ajay Devgan’s character romances, goes all “gaga” at the sight of his love, and has a slightly bright disposition. With his unearthly eyes that speak volumes, and the charisma he personifies in his portrayal, made this movie a tad bearable for me. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t even look at the movie’s poster.

Suzhou He - A Raw Beauty.

AKA: Suzhou River.
Director: Lou Ye.
Language: Mandarin.
Release Year: 2000.
Rating: * * * *

I had heard quite a bit about the movie, thereby piquing my curiosity. Even in the absence of this urge, I still would’ve proceeded to watch the movie, simply because it had Zhou Xun: the actor who continues to enchant and amaze me. A rather uniquely told, the movie has a simple yet, an unconventional story, dragged through the mire and grime infesting the titular river bank.

The film is almost a monologue, seen through the eyes of a nameless and a faceless narrator, who works as a videographer, doling out his services to anyone interested in capturing the stark and unadulterated slice of their lives. One such job leads him to a dingy bar, where the owner asks him to shoot a special attraction he provides for his customers. The bar holds a huge water tank, and Meimei (Zhou Xun) performs in it, dressed as a mermaid. The boss wants the narrator to shoot one such performance for reasons unknown. The narrator loses his heart to this lovely lady the very first time he sees her, and they soon start to go out. Temperamentally inclined, Meimei keeps the relationship physical, with only occasional burst of feelings from her side. She arrives at the narrator’s doorstep as an unannounced guest whenever she sees fit, and vanishes with an equally discourteous abruptness. This erratic nature of the relationship keeps the narrator guessing about her true intentions, with the fear of she never returning, constantly gnawing at him. Meimei’s past remains a mystery to the narrator, and she makes sure it stays that way. The narrator doesn’t try to read too much between the lines, poring only on the beautiful present he’s getting to share with her.

On one such random moment between the two, Meimei asks the narrator if he’d hunt for her if she were to disappear some day for good, just like a certain, fabled lover Mardar (Hongshen Jia), who’d comb the city looking for his long-lost love Moudan. From that point on, the movie takes an acute turn, where the narrator decides to withdraw from the present narrative, and digress into an impromptu fictional world of the star-crossed lovers Mardar and Moudan. The narrator depicts Mardar as a handsome, thirty-ish guy, bearing a poker-face and an austere attitude, making his living as a courier. During one such assignment, Mardar is asked to take a twenty-something girl, Moudan (Zhou Xun) to her aunt’s, while her father satisfies his capricious carnal urges. Moudan is quite an animated character, with a typical teenage zest, and in anticipation of being discovered and loved.

After a couple of outings with Mardar as a part of his assignment, Moudan starts to fall for this enigmatic fellow, but Mardar keeps her at arm’s length. Deciding not to mix business with pleasure, Mardar meets Moudan’s advances with disappointment more than a couple of times, leaving her heartbroken, but not beaten. The narrator continues to add details and twists as he goes along with the narration, which later becomes a scene of kidnapping, the tragedy that ensues, and Mardar pounding the pavement looking for his lost love.

Seamlessly insinuating details from his own life, characters and situations, to spice up the simmering alternate story, the narrator fuses reality with the tale he fabricated. At this point and thereafter, the movie’s reality becomes pretty hazy, as the collage of two different worlds are juxtaposed, blending an action from one with the consequence into another. This makes for a very engaging and an interesting viewing, sometimes heartrending, but always something fresh on offer. The narrator decides to end his story on a “punch-to-your-gut” note, albeit not without a final deft blow to the chin, which also serves as the finale of the movie itself.

Almost the entire movie is seen through the eyes of the narrator’s handheld camera, featuring the ever-pervasive jerk effect. The cinematography is up close and personal, bringing out the deformed texture of the rundown habitat the movie festers on, with the dark, dour omnipresence of an unseen underbelly flanking the eponymous river, sprouting lives on the edges. The opening shot could easily be mistaken for a typical Dharavi sewer that any guy from Mumbai could spot blindfolded. The camera is seen floating above the filth and through the haggard lives surviving on them by the river. The loud staccato of drums bring out a brooding sense of a grand melancholia, and desperation and the will to exist in the face of degrading, isolated lives. The natural production aesthetics, including the ubiquitous shots of the river, stands out as another character, against which lives are stacked, pinned and tested.

The direction to me seemed like a concoction of Steven Soderberg’s gritty realism, Chris Marker’s solemn narration rife with soliloquies, Wong Kar Wai’s meandering yet, beautiful imagery and mood, with a hint of Hitchcock-esque obsession in uncovering the facts underneath all the dirt and masquerade. All these traits permeated the movie, treating its viewers to a many-lobed execution, all for the price of one. Coming to the performances, Hongshen Jia, with his impassive portrayal of Mardar, wearing his cold heart on his sleeves when confronted with Moudan’s love, and later, exhibiting a steadfast resolve while perusing the crowd for a face lost, just to redeem himself, and finally, melting away when his efforts pay off, only to meet an abrupt, spiral decline.

The real star of the movie, however, is Zhou Xun with who portrays two diametrically disparate individuals. Meimei, with her unflinching survival instincts, languishing eternally for something not expressed, and finding some reprieve and love in the narrator’s arms and later on, in Mardar’s, is exactly what brilliant performances are made of. Moudan, on the other hands, packs in that impish and naïve appeal that one can expect from a typical teenage girl, who’s oblivious to the cogs and wheels that make up the mean machinery of life around her. Zhou balances the two sides of the coin, giving each of her character their own distinct style and emotional baggage. With such an offbeat and unique blend of storytelling, propelled to a great height by the performances from its leads, especially Zhou Xun's, the movie is an exercise in existential cinema, with an occasional and surreal touch of crude reality, all coming together to deliver an extremely palatable and an unprecedented piece of art.