talkies

Go see An Inconvenient Truth. Pirate it. Distribute it. Watch it. I saw it yesterday and while Elizabeth Kolbert’s Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change had already scared the living daylights out of me [well, her NYer version], I was still taken aback. It made me wonder, watching Al Gore, what [...]

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The title leaves a tad to be desired but Sudhir Mishra’s Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi really impressed me [no, it is not an underworld movie. wtf is up with the marketing on this one?]. It is sad that I cannot watch any Indian movie without thinking, ‘how would I teach it?’ but, at least, this will [...]

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A solitary Netflix has sat on top of my tv for the last month. It just sits there. Sometimes, it makes it all the way into the DVD tray. Maybe even the menu comes up. Maybe a few scenes play out. But, this is one movie that never ends because it never can begin. There [...]

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Perhaps the best reviewed movie of the year, David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, pissed the living hell out of me. It has been proclaimed “Epic”, “Incredible”, blah and blah. I had been looking forward to this for a while. I thought – here is a good director, an interesting script and a lot of [...]

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The Rising is a Bollywood movie – with a vibrant palette and a song on the lips – unless it is a historical epic with a vibrant palette and a scowl on the lips. Oscillating between scenes of village life, romantic intrigue, communal harmony and British racism, oppression, exploitation, it sets the viewer up perfectly [...]

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update: Ok, ok. ok. Now, I am in it for the glory. We shall compile the Top 25 of Indian Cinema for a newbie. The movies should be representative of genres, influential directors or stars, cultural themes or epochs, and regional film industries. They should have had popular appeal. They should be available on DVD [...]

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Let me say it people, even at the risk of eternal damnation. I liked Kingdom of Heaven. I even liked Orlando Bloom’s second assay as a blacksmith. Has everyone forgotten ‘Pirates of the Carribean’ already? So am I, like Saladin, now destined to be a heathen in Limbo? What I like about the film is [...]

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It is through Richard the Lionheart that we get Saladin [neÈ Salah ud Din Ayyubi] into Western cinema. In most cases, these were small roles or even just dialogue. His character was peripherally important to the story of King Richard – the noble savage who personified the purity that eluded King Richard’s crusading brethern. Hence, [...]

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A lovely group of Seattle-based cineastes are calling out for new independently produced films about South Asia. Their Independent South Asian Film Festival (ISAFF) was a blast last yearÖ a well-balanced mix of very cool filmmakers and ñgoers, but refreshingly lacking in pretense. Maybe it’s the salty breezes of Puget Sound, or some lingering spirit [...]

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David Denby, film critic of The New Yorker magazine, might do well to step out of the movie theater and sit in on a World Religions class. In his review of Gurinder Chadhaís gleeful Bollywood/Hollywood hybrid film Bride and Prejudice, Denby declares: ìin the street bazaars, cross-dressers and goofy guys with turbans break into dance.î† [...]

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Rex Reed writes film reviews for the NY Observer. He wrote a short review for Park Chan-Wook’s Old Boy. Damn thing is SERIOUSLY offensive to me. I am half-korean [on my dad's side]. All Pakistanis are. It is one of those nationalist pipe-dreams. Legend goes that under Ayub’s dictatorship, we were so advanced that the [...]

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