Inglourious Basterds

Another movie for which I got only good things to tell!

The brilliance that lies in the Quentin Tarantino‘s work is distinctive in it’s own commen

dable way! He is known for overdoing certain things, like the bloodshed, fight sequences which work perfectly, for him, and of course throwing in some awesome dark humor (Pulp Fiction – best example), you will get to see all this in Inglourious Basterds. I might have little bias for the movie, probably because of the duo, Quentin Tarantino–Brad Pitt, and come on, I bet just first look of the movie would have got you hooked on for sure!

I personally find the movies set in the Nazi era very fascinating and also the ones based on racism, like The Pianist and Schindler’s List [Both Oscar winning flicks – must watch btw] based on former, and American History X & Crash, based on latter.

Now coming on to Inglourious Basterds, movie is set in Nazi era showing slaughter of the Jews by the SS and Nazi Army but not to the extent of Schindler’s or even Pianist, more than the Jews, it has gore filled with slaughter of Nazi army, and that too, Gore-Tarantino-Style!

Even though it might appear that the story’s protagonist is Brad Pitt, I really didn’t find that way, in fact I found the story somewhat revolving around Mélanie Laurent (Shosanna Dreyfus) (who btw is a French actress) and what amazing performance she delivered, I’m a fan!

Speaking of performance, do look out for Christoph Waltz, the guy in “negative role” – Nazi Col. Hans Landa, sheer brilliance!

The characters or the “Bastards” if you may, have been hand picked and have done perfect justice. Take for example Eli Roth who played Sgt. Donowitz aka The Jew Bear, great screen presence.

Now, Brad Pitt – Lt. Aldo Raine, supporting a thick Southern accent, gave out a great performance, as always, but didn’t really have a lot of screen time, as I said earlier, not really the protagonist. Mike Myres has a “guest appearance”, nothing that’ll stick to your memory.

There are some really hard hitting sequences in the movie, like at the end when the projector keeps rolling but projection comes on to the Smoke with the sound still on, it sent chills down my spine. Or the one where The Jew Bear lashed out on a Nazi Officer in the middle of the Jungle, whoa!

Now having said all this, the movie did not leave a mark in my memory, which obviously I expected it would. And what could have been better, the background score, there was so much possibility there.

Anyway, this one the biggest movies of this year and worth catching on big screen, and a little heads up, movie has lot of French and German, so keep an I on the screen – subtitles .

P.s. I still have to confirm if Inglourious Basterds is remake of the Italian movie – Quel maledetto treno blindato.

Rating: 4/5

Year: 2009

Imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361748

Kaminey

A remake of Pulp Fiction? Yes and NO! Yes, because it does have the “feel” of Pulp Fiction and you can relate Kaminey to it. No, because even though it does feel like Pulp Fiction a little, it doesn’t matter since the movie has way more to offer! Kaminey is a great package, in terms of performance, plot line, humor, romance and action, which was much needed by the Industry and the viewers as well. It definitely reaches the top watch of this year, after Dev.D (In case you missed this one, then you have no idea what I’m talking about).

A “masala flick” which is perfectly directed, and so well, that it gives a whole new definition to “masala flicks”. What I personally feel, Vishal Bharadwaj tried his best that no one could typecast this movie; he molded two to three different genres of every aspect, in it. Ok, let’s start from the star cast first: Shahid Kapur & Priyanka Chopra, who are out-and-out “mainstream” actors, then Amole Gupte and Shivkumar Subramaniam (I remember his movie Parahar, brilliant!), the ensemble of actors was made from different forte. Then the humor in this movie is again a mix of different kinds, from lame jokes to dark humor to strategically placed punch lines, and situational comedy. There are loads of moments in the movie where you’ll really laugh-out-loud! And, same thing goes for the music (which is very good by the way)!

As for performances, kudos to Vishal Bharadwaj for squeezing out the best from Shahid Kapur and Priyanka Chopra, now both of them can proudly go around saying they are “good actors”. Both of them have performed with such an amazing ease, watching them on screen makes it a delight! Amole Gupte too has done an amazing job! Speaking of actors, I just realized Kaminey has just 6 characters out of which only 4 have names.

Now comes Vishal Bharadwaj, ok, I’m going to be a little biased as I’m a big fan of this guy! He has done a great job on this movie, not his best but definitely great! But the movie does have brilliant cinematography! Very well balanced movie yet the second half feels a little dragged, and the masses might find the movie “dark colored”, you’ll find the whole movie has been shot either in dawn, dusk or at night. One more special mention goes to the sequence when both the brothers confront each other, for a moment you’ll forget there’s only one Shahid Kapur in real.

Even though the movie has the title which translates to Rascal in English, and it’s a Vishal Bharadwaj‘s movie, surprisingly it doesn’t have any strong swears like Omakra and Maqbool. So you can watch this one with your family without any awkward air.

What I personally feel, it’s because of Directors like him, Anurag Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee, Indian Cinema has a meaning!

That pretty much sums up the whole movie, but I still feel there’s lot more to be mentioned here, but it might work as spoiler. One special mention and thanks to PVR guys who sponsored this movie for me. So, catch Kaminey at a PVR near you!

Rating: 3.5/5

Year: 2009

Imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1274295