Film Review

Taare Zameen Par

A wonderful movie specially considering the Indian movie scene. Off the beaten track, fresh and inspired. The idea or the presentation is not necessarily very original but a well made film is always a treat to watch. About a boy who suffers from dyslexia, a learning disability, how he feels about it and how he is treated by others around him. Due to lack of awareness in the general population, every disability is treated as some sort of oddity or weirdness about the person. The oddity overshadows any and all goodness a person may have and typically what remains is sympathy or pity. In the style of presentation it was not very original and  I think Aamir Khan should have maintained the qualities of Lagaan, which was not only similarly inspiring but also very original in presentation. 

Michael Clayton

Another thriller from Sydney Pollack. Not the best of his movies but fun to watch. Those who enjoy movies by Sydney Pollack will not be disappointed. He brings a completely different movie every time, that I suppose is also one of his great qualities. From Tootsie to The Firm, to Sabrina, Random Hearts, Heaven, Cold Mountain, The Interpreter and now this. He also has a knack for great thrillers which happen to be my favorite genre of movies. The movie looks at dark side of the law firms, not the usual lies and deceits and unconscionable behavior but the clean up and washing of dirty laundry they do for their "Clients". Well made and thoroughly enjoyable.

Enchanted

If you liked Shrek, then you would like Enchanted as well. Its the same process of telling old stories in intelligent new ways and creating humor in the process. I don't know which fairy tale it really was, may be none of them through mixing all of them, the whole idea was the meeting of a princess with her true love, the charming prince, and finding the very powerful "kiss". Though like other animated movies this may look like a children's story but the main character being a divorce lawyer talking about the impracticality and impossibility of living "happily ever after" is not really the kindergarten stuff. The lawyer learns the lesson of love from the naive princess whose only dream is to find the true love and live happily ever after.

I  Am Legend

Since I am already a self-admitted thriller fan, I cannot possibly not like it. Thrillers just appeal to me naturally. Not new as far as the story goes, the last man on earth, the rest wiped out or turned into zombies because of a biological holocaust. So there may be an immediate disapproval but watch it again and superficial similarity will give way to its uniqueness. Now the last man either saves the world or in this case just survives. Science fiction story tellers like fairy tale writers use the fantastical with a touch of realism to deliver their ideas. They talk about everything from the human condition to psychology to philosophy to religion or just plain ol' science. The movie tells the story of the last man who has to survive such a biological disaster where the people have died or been converted into darkness seeking, man eating zombies. They are not your usual idiot zombies but are as intelligent as you are, except they cannot bear the sunlight and are driven by their instinctive needs. The last man in most stories is a symbol for something else such as lone sane voice in the darkness of human ignorance, a person who has  something or knows something that others don't see has become the loner, the last man. A parable through which the writer typically conveys a greater message such as hope, realization, truth, love etc. The main character here is a scientist who survives the biological hazard because he has some inherent resistance to it. Everyone except a few like him, turn into the monsters. He is desperately trying to find a "cure" for this "disease" that makes people shun the light and eat other humans unlike them. Its a tale of survival, of desperation, of finding hope in the bleakest times, of finding those who are "like you" in the sea of others. Its a tale that not everyone can enjoy, but its a tale that reveals a fact of life, peeks into the human condition and describes the pain of those born with something greater than other human beings. These people throughout  history have been the the "loners" who had something and only much later the world benefited from it.