Nothing Comic about The Dark Knight Rises!

One of the defining moments of The Dark Knight Rises, is in the climax when the Gotham Police force face off against The Bane’s men- The policemen, with only batons in their hands, while the outlaws are armed to the teeth with automatic guns and prototype Batmobiles. The policemen, with fear written all over their faces, walk shakily towards the outlaw army. It clearly is a mismatch of epic proportions. Suddenly, the Batman arrives in his Batwing, and destroys the Batmobile prototypes being manned by Bane’s Men. Suddenly, there is hope on the faces of the policemen and they start running towards the outlaw army....

This scene perhaps is the message Christopher Nolan wants to deliver in the concluding edition of his eminently watchable interpretation of the Batman Series (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises). That, there is hope even in the darkest and most hopeless of all situations. I could not help comparing the story with that of Aamir Khan’s blockbuster Hindi movie Lagaan, where a rag-tag team of villagers take on the trained team of English cricketers and defeat them in a cricket match.

Improbable in real life? But hey, how many times have we seen the human spirit conquer supposedly insurmountable obstacles?

Though essentially a comic strip from DC comics, the issues explored by Nolan are anything but child’s play. Again I found parallels with the great Bengali director, Satyajit Ray’s Hirok Rajar Deshe, which in the garb of children’s movie explored serious political issues.

However, while Hirok Rajar Deshe was primarily a comedy, The Dark Knight Rises is as dark as it gets, with characters inspired very much from real life.

The movie begins 8 years after the events of The Dark Knight, when Harvey Dent was killed. Batman has disappeared and Bruce Wayne is leading the life of a recluse. Gotham has been rid of organised crime, thanks to the Dent Act. However, the peace is soon shattered as Bane attacks Gotham City and takes over the city, cutting off all contact from the rest of the world, turning a fusion core device, originally developed to generate power, into a nuclear bomb, which he threatens to explode, in case any outside help is attempted.

The movie, besides the usual cast of characters, also introduces Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle, a cat burglar, who though wearing a cat-woman type costume, is never referred to as Cat-Woman!

At 2 hours and 45 minutes, the movie is pretty long but after the initial 15-20 minutes, when the new characters are introduced into the scheme of things, the pace picks up and it is pretty much edge-of-the-seat stuff, culminating in the thrilling climax!

Batman has a new gizmo in the form of the Batwing, which looks really cool. The action sequences are really breath-taking, including the hand to hand combat between Batman and Bane in the climax.

Christian Bale as Batman, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Michael Caine as Alfred, Gary Oldman as Commissioner Gordon, reprise their roles with usual competence which was demonstrated in the previous editions.

Anne Hathaway is cutely competent as Selina Kyle and adds the feminine glamour quotient and the much needed lighter moments, in what is essentially a pretty intense and humour less movie.

But, man to watch out is Tom Hardy as The Bane. If Heath Ledger’s Joker was unpredictable and sinister in equal measures, The Bane is perhaps a cross between The Hulk and Professor Moriarty!

With a mask on his face, and a soft voice in contrast to the body of wrestler, Bane is quietly menacing. But, the only drawback of the mask is that his words are not very clear, and one has to strain to understand what he is saying.

The movie explores issues like economic collapse, collapse of social structure due to disparity of wealth between the haves and have-nots and urban terrorism which are very contemporary and relevant in today’s world.

A movie which provides a very satisfying end to the first two episodes, The Dark Knight Rises is a must watch for any movie buff.

5 Must Watch Movies this Christmas & New Year

There must have been so many different lists compiled by so many different people about everything under the Milky Way, be it list of best smart phones or lest of best lipsticks to use during winter!  But, sometimes its fun to simply jump onto the band wagon (Or would it be a reindeer powered sledge!). Of course, I am a big-time movie buff and ergo my list of favorite movies to watch this season. But, is there any diktat from St. Nicholas aka Santa Claus regarding the type of movies one should watch? I certainly am not aware of any such memo which Santa might have sent.

So, what type of movies should one watch? While compiling my list, I have tried to keep one thing in mind. Christmas is a time for happiness. So, all the movies I recommend are comedies, i.e. they have a happy ending. Secondly, all of them, and I might be accused of stretching the imagination, espouse some value or other of the spirit of Christmas.

So, watch the movies at leisure and let me know if you like them. And, I honestly believe, these are all evergreen movies, worth watching again and again. So, you can definitely watch them again, if you have seen them all!

In keeping with the trend of any list worth its salt, I will count-down from 5 to 1.

Number 5- One Fine Day

Starring 2 of the most talented stars in contemporary times, George Clooney and Michelle Pfieffer, One Fine Day is the story of two single parents (Pfeiffer & Clooney) whose paths cross one rainy morning in the city of New York, and keep crossing the whole day. Pfeiffer (Melanie) is a divorced single mother, who works as an architect. Clooney (Jack) is a divorced journalist who finds himself saddled with his daughter by his ex-wife (who has re-married and is going on a honeymoon) for the whole week. Melanie’s day starts off on a bad note, because of Jack’s forgetfulness, which causes her son and Jack’s daughter to miss their field trip. This forces both parents to take care of each other’s children, because of the extremely busy work schedule they have. At their respective workplace also, Melanie and Jack face crises which are potentially job threatening. The story beautifully weaves the different incidents the parents face both at work and in managing the kids through the day. Of course, what makes the movie eminently watchable is the wonderful performance by Michelle Pfeiffer, as the hassled mother who is trying to juggle her career and her personal life. Clooney is his usual charismatic easy-going self, as a father who is suddenly made to cope with unforeseen situations.

A feel good movie, it will definitely put a smile on your face, even on the coldest night.

Number 4- Milagro Beanfield War

Directed by one of my favorite directors and actors, Robert Redford, Milagro Beanfield War is one of those quaint movies which never quite make it in the box office. A mix of fantasy and reality, the movie deals with an issue which is quite relevant in today’s India. How do people react when development and big business reaches a rural community?

Set in the fictional rural town of Milagro somewhere in New Mexico, with a predominantly Hispanic population, it tells the story of Joe Mondragon, an unemployed handyman, struggling to eke out a living for his family. Mondragon rebels against the big corporation building a new township in Milagro. All the landholders have sold their land to the corporation except Mondragon. Due to water laws, which allow only the corporation to use the water, Mondragon is unable to use the water from the irrigation ditch running past his farm. A rebellion more impulsive than planned, as the story reveals, the film studies the different perspectives of the situation, without portraying any of the characters as completely villainous or heroic.

I say it’s a must watch this Christmas!

Number 3- Falling In Love

Ok, this one is probably the most intense of all the 5 movies I recommend. For Hindi and Sharukh Khan Movie buffs, it might interest them to note that the Karan Johar movie Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, is based on this movie starring the wonderful Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro. Watch this to decide whether KANK is anywhere near to the original!

2 married strangers meet randomly while shopping for Christmas gifts for their respective families. Their gifts get mixed up, and they again bump into each other on the train to New York. The meeting soon blossoms into romance, before either can realize the same. It’s a story which is makes outstanding viewing, due to the excellent performance of Streep and De Niro.

Why is it ideal for Christmas? Who gives a damn! It’s a good movie so added it to the list! J

Number 2- The Best Years of Our Lives

An absolute golden oldie, this 1946 movie directed by the great William Wyler, is one of my absolute favorites. I must have seen this movie at least 20 times!

Considered one of the greatest films ever by Roger Ebert, the film has a 97% freshness rating at “Rotten Tomatoes”.

Set at the end of the 2^nd World War, the movie deals with 3 servicemen returning to their home in the fictional Boone City, and trying to adjust to the life after war.

Fred, Homer and Al meet and become friends while flying back home.

Fred, who used to be a soda fountain operator at a drugstore, became a decorated Captain in the war, He returns home to find that there is no job other than that of the “Soda Jerker” which he is not very keen to be. His wife also enjoys leading a social life, which the salary of a soda jerk does not permit. Moreover, it’s much more glamorous being the wife of a decorated captain than that of a soda fountain operator.

Homer had lost both his arms from burns suffered when his aircraft carrier was sunk. Homer and his family now have trouble adjusting with his disability. This even causes him to move away from his fiancée, as he does not want her to marry a handicapped man out of sympathy.

Al, the senior most of the three, was a bank loan officer, with a wife and an adult daughter, and a son in college. He is offered a senior position in his bank, as the bank expects many servicemen to approach the bank for loans, and having a serviceman would be convenient. Al also has trouble adjusting back into civilian life. To add to his troubles, is the attraction which develops between his daughter and Fred.

The movie is superlative in capturing the inner struggle of its protagonists and how it affects the people around them. Of course, it would not have been possible but for the excellent performance of all the actors.

The movie is about hope and the strength of the human spirit in overcoming any obstacle.

Number 1- It’s a Wonderful Life

Now this is a movie which always is a topper in any list made of movies, whatever category. So, watch it anytime, and you will know you have seen a classic. Of course, it’s something of staple for Christmas time movie viewing. Somewhat similar to the telecast of “Gandhi” by movie channels on Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary on 2^nd October. This Frank Capra masterpiece stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who wants to commit suicide on Christmas Eve, because he feels he is worth more dead than alive.

The story is not new and has been dealt with in different ways in numerous movies and stories. It’s the story of a man who gets a glimpse of what life would have been, if he had not existed, to realize the difference he has made to people around him.

In this story, Bailey leads a life full of sacrifices to allow people around him to fulfill their dreams, be it saving his little brother from drowning in a frozen pond, causing loss of hearing in his left ear, or providing the money saved for his honeymoon to prevent a run on his bank.

It’s a story, which as I mentioned has been told many a times, but I am sure you will still love this one.

Honestly, there is not much to differentiate in the level of performance or direction in this movie or “The Best Years of Our Lives”. But, this movie somehow is just right in keeping with the spirit of Christmas. Hence, it is number 1 on my list of movies to watch this Christmas.

Watch them and let me know if you enjoyed them as much as I did.

Merry Christmas!

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

My mom has a big problem with my liking for English movies like The Matrix or X-Men or Iron Man. Movies which, according to her, must have been directed by someone who is not in the right frame of mind or definitely high on cocaine! Because she can’t understand the point of movies in which people are flying around in strange suits (Neo in Matrix) or having tongues (Toad in X-Men) which can be used as a weapon!
She has no patience for” such absurd movies”[sic] and would prefer movies which are serious and have a proper story...or a comedy but with a good story but no flying men!
This made me think. Where do the ideas for these so-called ABSURD movies come from? Is it not true that life inspires fiction more often, than the other way round?
Is it not true, that fact is stranger than fiction?
For instance, have you seen the movie “50 First Dates” starring Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler? It’s about this girl (Barrymore), who has a car accident which causes her to suffer from Anterograde Amnesia, a loss of the ability to create new memories , which causes each day’s events to erase from her memory overnight , and for her time has stopped on the day of her accident. It was an absurd comedy and we all laughed watching the movie. I mean it’s an Adam Sandler movie, right?
But, what if there were actually a person like Drew Barrymore’s character out there somewhere?
Read out the excerpts of stories, from Dr. Oliver Sacks’ “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and other clinical tales” published in 1985, and judge for yourself. Dr. Oliver Sacks is a New York based Neurologist, who was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2008.
Take the case of 49 year old ex-Navy man, Jimmie G. He was admitted in Dr. Sacks home for the aged in the year 1975. An intelligent, personable, likable man, he had very clear memory of his growing up years, the town in Connecticut, where he grew up, and early years in the Navy, when he served in the WW II. But, there was only one problem. He believed that he was living in the year 1945! And he was still 19 years old and Truman was the president of USA and of course, Allied forces had just won the Second World War!
And of course, like one of the characters in “50 First Dates” he had extraordinary loss of recent memory, a condition known as Korsakov’s Syndrome. In one session, after Dr. Sacks had examined Jimmie for a sufficiently long time and then gone out of the room to come back in couple of minutes, he found that Jimmie had no recognition at all of the doctor or the interaction which had taken place till few minutes back. He was extremely good at arithmetic or algebra or games like checkers and tic tac toe if it could be done at lightning speed, but totally lost at chess. The moves were too slow and he lost track! The doctor tried to encourage Jimmie to keep a diary, in which he would write down his experiences. But, this move also failed because he would keep losing his diary all the time and even when the diary was physically attached to him, he would not recognise his own handwriting and was always surprised and indifferent, that he had written something before. He was a man with no “day before”. As Dr. Sacks put it, Jimmie was both aware and not aware of this loss of ‘self’. If a man loses an eye or a leg, he is aware of the loss. But when he has lost himself, he is not there to know it. But, though with no recent memory, he had a strange inertia and gave an overwhelming sense of “something missing”. The only person whom Jimmie recognised was his elder brother, but was always perplexed as to how he looked so old! But, these were the only emotional meetings Jimmie had, the only so-called connection of his past and his present...

Now take the story of Christina, for instance. A self assured, robust 27-year old mother of two, she worked as a computer programmer at home. Intelligent and cultivated, Christina liked hockey and riding and was fond of the ballet. Active and fit, she hardly had any illness in her entire life. So, somewhat to her surprise, she was found to have gallstones, for which removal of gall bladder was advised. She was admitted to hospital 3 days before the operation. The day before the operation, she had a strange and disturbing dream. In her dream, Christina was swaying wildly, very unsteady on her feet, could hardly feel the ground beneath her, could hardly feel her hands, and kept dropping whatever she picked up. Naturally, she was distressed by the dream. But, later the same day, the dream came true! She could not stand unless she looked at her feet, could hold nothing in her hands and they ‘wandered’ unless she kept an eye on them. She could not even sit up- her body gave way! Her face went slack and expressionless, jaw fell open and even vocal posture was gone. In her words, she felt DISEMBODIED. Her condition worsened so much that doctors considered putting her on the respirator. On examination, she was found to be afflicted with a condition called Acute Polyneuritis.
She had lost her Proprioception, i.e. one’s own perception or sense of the relative positioning of neighbouring parts of the body. Proprioception is like the “eyes” of the body, which she had lost, and it was as if her body had gone blind. But, there is no limit to the strength of the human mind. Christina, the tough woman that she was, fought back. After the initial shock and horror had worn off, she started moving, using her vision as substitute for the lack of Proprioception. The natural movements, to which we never give a second thought, had to be replaced by an artificial, regulated movement. She managed to bring about some semblance of working life, but only with extreme vigilance on her movements. Her life was condemned to this artificiality, and of course that had its emotional toll. The lack of social support and sympathy was an additional burden. Disabled, but nature of disability not clear. How do you explain lack of Proprioception to a normal human being?

Third is the story of Dr. P, a gifted musician, who was well known as a singer for many years, and then as a teacher at a school of music. It was in the School that he started facing strange problems. Students would present themselves in front of Dr. P and he would not recognise them, i.e. not recognise their faces. The moment they spoke, he would recognise them. Think this might happen to lot of people. Well, hear the next development. Dr. P started seeing faces when there were none. So, this led to many hilarious situations, not uncommon for Dr. Calculus in the Tintin comics, like patting the heads of water hydrants and parking meters, taking them to be heads of children!
When Dr. Sacks visited Dr. P at his home to observe him further, he found that he could recognise abstract shapes easily. So platonic solids like a cube, dodecahedron and icosahedrons presented no problems. When shown photographs, he easily recognised Churchill’s cigar and Einstein’s characteristic hair and moustache. But, shown photographs of his own family, he could not recognise almost anybody. When shown a red rose, Dr. P described it as “A convoluted red form with green attachments!” Only when asked to smell it, did he recognise it to be a rose.
On one occasion, while leaving Dr. Sacks’ chamber, Dr. P started looking around for his hat. He reached out his hand and took hold of his wife’s head, tried to lift it off, to put it on.
He had mistaken his wife for a hat!
I will be honest. I bought Dr. Oliver Sacks’ “The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales” for a very simple reason. I liked the curious name! But, as I read on, I found that the title is the least interesting part of the book. It has many interesting stories or case studies, which in Dr. Sacks’ easy going and humorous style makes for wonderful reading.
Of course, I had prior experience of his writings, having read his “The Island of the Colorblind and Cycad Island”. But, having read the book, I strongly feel that it is worth every penny spent; if you want to experience the saying- fact is way stranger than fiction.
Speaking of the absurd or strange, after reading these stories, I somehow find flying men in red capes and men bitten by radioactive spiders developing supernatural abilities, a distinct possibility! It’s only a matter of time, before I find a specimen Homo superior, to my mom. Yup, I dream of the day when we will both find the movie, X-Men enjoyable and real.

12 Angry Men

That’s the name of the movie I saw recently.

Some of my friends and family have been encouraging me to write. Why? Probably in the hope that it would keep me from talking! Knowing my reluctance for any kind of hard work or anything which prevents me from talking, they even suggested topics, ranging from my experience at work (I am a retail salesman of telecom products) to my limited travel experiences. But, I could never really get down to writing, because in the former case, I don’t think I am qualified enough, and in the latter, I am too forgetful to remember any of the details long enough to actually write it down.

And then I saw the 1957 movie, 12 Angry Men. It’s an all-time classic, with Roger Ebert calling it one of the greatest movies, and Rotten Tomatoes giving it 100% freshness rating! And I wondered what if I wrote about the movie and motivated a few people to see it! After all, many more people would have visited Varanasi or Goa or any other place I have visited than watched Hollywood movie classics from the year 1957!

12 Angry Men is directed by Sidney Lumet, the same person who directed classic movies like Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and The Verdict. I have seen the first two, both starring Al Pacino.

The story is about 12 jury-men in an American courtroom, who have to decide whether an 18 year old city slum boy, with a history of violence, has murdered his father or not. It seems like an open and shut case, and right in the beginning, the judge instructs that a guilty verdict would mean the death sentence for the boy. Also, the verdict has to be unanimous. The verdict is put to vote, and not surprisingly, 11 out of 12 members of the jury vote for a guilty verdict. A lone juror (played by Henry Fonda) votes not guilty. The next hour and a half shows how Fonda’s character brings out flaws in the prosecution’s case, which show there is “reasonable doubt” to the guilty verdict.

I don’t want to get into the details of the story. But I do want to point out a couple of unique features of the movie. For instance, almost the entire movie is shot in a single room. And, none of the characters are named in the movie.

The movie brings forth some interesting aspects of human nature. It shows how prejudices always influence our decision-making. For instance, one of the jurors (Juror 3) is very rigid in his stance of awarding the guilty verdict because his own son is estranged from him, and he takes out his frustration and anger against the accused (who is the same age as his son) in his decision. Another juror wants the accused dead, because of his prejudice against slum dwellers, whom he considers not worthy of trust or even human enough! On the other hand, one of the juror changes his verdict from guilty to not guilty, simply because he wants to be on time for a baseball game, and he believes, by changing his decision, the case would end faster! The fact that a boy’s life is at stake is lost on him.

What I liked especially was that all 12 characters were explored in detail, and allowed to blossom and show their inherent nature. To do that in 96 minutes, I believe, is remarkable.

What made me write about the movie is the fact that, even 54 years later, I found the story and the portrayal of the men extremely relevant. In our workplaces also, we see this happening all the time. You put 10 or 12 people together and ask them to decide something important… more often than not, you will find personal prejudices, rather than logic, influencing the decision-making. I find this happening not just at my workplace, but even in our small apartment complex. Get 12 families to try and decide on something as basic as whether the building needs a fresh coat of paint and you find 12 different opinions; and, it’s not easy to change someone’s opinion because you have to deal with their egos.

As Descartes once famously quoted, Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. And when 12 people start thinking simultaneously to prove their existence, you have a challenge on hand to control or channelize those thoughts, without the help of Jedi mind tricks (Star Wars - Another of my favorites).

12 Angry Men is not just about a court case, but a very good study of human behaviour and how different personalities react to a situation. It also shows ways of dealing with such varied opinions and building a consensus.

A must watch.