Examination blues...
I vaguely remember starting this no-good blog of mine in a 'season' on one of my engineering examinations. I say season coz with regulars n supplies i had quite my hands full of papers to clear... even after completing my engineering course, i still have quite a handful of supplies left.... And i don't know why but at these exact moments i have a literal and artistic urge. My mind gets over flooded with ideas and creativity i have never felt in my off-seasons... So here I am facing my another series of rapid fire university exams completely devoid of even a remote intention to study and venting my exam-specific artistic surges in a continuous rhapsody of meaningless words and wisdoms....
So first up i have decided to trim my reinvented and revived blog to a series of reviews about movies of which not many people have heard of, both national and international. And adding to the spice will be any thing that i can conjure up in my brain so as to hurl it right back at any accidental visitor who may have stumbled upon this god forsaken blog of mine.
Now on with the review of a film titled MOON which i saw some weeks back.....
Lets get this straight, this film is basically a low budget sci-fi flick. But never ever during its runtime of mere 97 minutes it makes u feel that you are actually watching a film made on a budget of peanuts compared to the recent Hollywood productions whose budget has more zeros than I could count with my fingers. its a beautifully crafted saga of a man who is sent to moon on a contract period of 3 years to carryout mining operations in the near future. Except of 2-3 glancing shots showing other human characters, the entire movie is based on this one particular man. However towards the end of his contract which forced him to live in isolation 384403 km (238857 miles) away from his home, he makes a startling discovery of another astronaut on the surface of moon who looks and talks exactly same like himself.
The story unfolds in a pace of its own and those looking for unusual visual effects brilliance and mind numbing action are going to be disappointed. But it doesn't in anyway mean that the visuals are bad. Infact they are just perfect but one wont find any shots just to add the visual candy. The film rather than lurking on the technical aspects of the future and the usual ingredients of films from sci-fi genre, tends to discuss the impact of all these advancements on the mind of a single human astronaut. The lead character Sam Bell portrayed by actor Sam Rockwell is nearing his 3 year contract and longs to see his wife and baby who was born just days after his departure from earth. All along the film the protagonist is accompanied and assisted by his local robotic help GERTY (voice over by Kevin Spacey) who exhibit uncanny levels of emotions and humanity.
More than being a pure sci-fi movie, MOON actually is more of a psychological drama. The cinematography leaves no space for errors though one may feel the repetition of several shots and angles. But I strongly feel that this was done on purpose just to emphasize the monotonic life of the protagonist. Background score is minimal and to the point and never ever hinders any dialogue though most of it is shown to be day to day repetitive computer generated responses. The other departments have also performed crisp and well.
The movie stands out for its more human approach to such a futuristic concept. And the director has stayed faithful to the character driven story and has crafted out an slow moving yet unusual masterpiece which directly impacts the viewers soul...
Rating : 3.5/5 and a thumbs up
after a while my New Work...
Sorry folks...i know iknow..i had been leading a completely 'net-shy' life for months now...but here iam...back with sumthing to share with u all... Nothing special or important...but just another phase in my self learning process of video editing...Hope u ppl wil watch it and leave comments..Now this is the video of our Gang...BACARDI BOYS.... the most notorious gang of EC 2005-2009 Batch of MBCET.... The whole video was conceptualized and executed by me, Jishnu.S.S. The shoot was on our friend Renjith alias Koshy's Sony camcoder.... Editing completely done in adobe premiere pro... It was intended as a stylish visualization of all the Ungodly deeds that we have been upto in 4 years of our engineering college life... with all the members of our gang being properly introduced in it... and ends with a msg for our juniors...[;)]... WATCH IT !!!
in love with my life.....
hey for the past 1 month in which i dissapointed u completely lots happened....
1) My sis got married
2) My college organised a national level intercollege technocultural fest "CROSSROADS 09"
n this two things had me back breakingly busy....
Not going to anymre details... but i have uploaded all the relevant pics of my sissters marriage on my orkut profile which u can visit at the link
and i also designed posters n created a theme video for CROSSROADS 09...which i will share with u right here... but let me jus tell u i simply had a Rockin time in the fest & its simply the BEST CROSSROADS i hav ever experienced... n the thanks goes to all my batchmates n juniors of my college who went allout to make this great event simply AWESOME... kudos to u all....!!
CROSSROADS 09 poster:
Crossroads theme Video:
This is the Theme Video of the National Level Inter College Technical & Cultural Fest, Crossroads 09 organised by the Mar Baselios College of Engg & Tech, Nalanchira, Tvm...
The theme fer this year was Atlantis...the video depicts the Story of Atlantis & how it went down n then goes on to illustrate that the technical ingenuity & skyscrapping brilliance of atlantis has reincarnated on the grounds of mar baselios during the fest, Crossroads 09
The theme fer this year was Atlantis...the video depicts the Story of Atlantis & how it went down n then goes on to illustrate that the technical ingenuity & skyscrapping brilliance of atlantis has reincarnated on the grounds of mar baselios during the fest, Crossroads 09
The voice over is done by one of my Batch mate, Jyothish Varghese of final semester mechanical.... Man he ought to be a dubbin artist man...such a freakin gud voice he has....
The Motorcycle Diaries.....
Yet another film review n this comes at a time when i should be better off studyin for the comin exam which jus one day ahead as of the time of writing.... But against all my reasoning i would like to put my mouth where my heart is...
Title : The Motorcycle Diaries (Diários de Motocicleta)
Director : Walter Salles
Writers : Ernesto 'Che' Guevara (book "Notas de vijae)
Alberto Grando (book "Con el Che por America Latina)
Jose Rivera (screenplay)
The Motorcycle Diaries is the English title for the original Brazilian (or is it Argentinian?) film Diários de Motocicleta...which tells the story of a road trip embarked upon by 2 young lads on their motorcycle with the aim to see and experience the continent of South America of which they have only read in books... The 2 main characters are Alberto Grando, a 29yr old Biochemist and Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, a much younger medical student who is about to acquire his MD n who later became known to the world as Che Guevara....
The Tag line of the film reads Before he changed the world, the World changed him.... True to tht, the story basically illustrates the road trip that young Che went, which showed him his life's true calling... But don't be mistaken, its only the sparks that ignited his thoughts that are being brought on the celluloid... Those expecting to see the biography of Che are goin to be terribly disappointed... The film is based on the book written by the close friend of Che, Alberto Grando with whom Che set out for this adventure... The film unfolds itself from the viewpoints of Che himself n his Diary entries... n never does the character of Alberto interferes the flow of the film as a story teller... He stays there by Che's side as a dedicated friend though he grows poles apart from him in character and outlook as young Ernesto undergoes the metamorphosis to become Che... The story never dwells into the inner minds of Che nor does it provide us with an exceptionally satisfying reason of Ernesto's transformation to Che... It simply flows from incidents to incidents tht Alberto along with Ernesto aka Che shared on their trip together... to quote the movie itself 'Its not a story of heroic or great deeds but a story of 2 lives captured in a moment when they were cruising together'....
The metamorphosis of an young lad to the most influential revolutionist of all times is not the main theme that this film intents to portray... Rather its the homage to him from a dedicated friend... Not even for a single moment does the film tends to exhibit a commercialised nature trying to sell off Che... The growth of a character from a simple ashtmatic young medical student in love to someone who is truly humanitarian forms the basic plot... The growth of the character with the progress of the journey is well categorized n lucidly depicted with charm... Many characters come n go but the 2 central characters stay, influenced n moulded in different ways by those who pass by... The film ends not where the usual films of this genre ends, but just at the beginning of the Che's final transformation....
Dwelling into the details of technicality, one fails to notice these aspects as the story grips n drags u along with it... But to say about for the sake of a review, the film though was shot recently has not tried to be picture perfect or present a beautiful locale with all its grandeur n glory... The lack of a crystal clear frame is not goin to hinder this movie experience, believe me on tht!! The script is taught n sturdy with the dialogues (though i read the subtitles) to the point n apt... Direction is top notch with all the right ingredients in the right quantity n proportion... The post production departments of Editing n BG scores have added to the quality of the finished product...
I highly recommend this film n include it in the Category of Must Watch.... n goes with a rating of 4/5....
Revelations...
hi all.... was utterly busy with my exams...u see in addition to my regular university papers i hav papers that need to b cleared from my past semesters....but aside with these depressing thoughts.... here comes the first Blog post of 2009....what i want to talk about today, after such a long time is sum works, exactly 2 in numbers that i came across which made my spirits high.. not cos i could relate them in any way with me (however hard i tried) but cos they jus created an aura n feeling of watchin sumthing artistic..
1st..i came across a photoblog of my friend today... u too can visit it at http://www.photoblog.com/ArunHarish jus go through his works.... he always had this dream of being a photographer... n frankly speakin has been always a source of inspiration for me... now pertaining to his works.... my all time favourite is the one he so fondly calls as 'bottle blues'... transforming sumthing so insignificant to a nice picture...hats off to u man!! n there is his new one named portrait... it is a truly near professional quality pic... n the work of creating centres of attention by turning the other parts to grayscale is really nice...but i personally feel the natural look of the same colour composition in the original picture might create a more visual impact... jus giv his blog a visit... n before i conclude about him let me say jus a lil thing...he takes his pictures with an ordinary point n click digital camera....
2nd..after much naggin from my sisters part i bought the DVD of AakashaGopuram... n since she was hogging the computer watchin it, i jus sat there without any particular interest to watch the film... n after about 10 mins into the film i realised that i had missed the theatrical experience of the greatest visual extravaganza tht i hav ever seen in a malayalam film.. The film directed by K.P Kumaran is a celluloid adaptation of 19th century Norwegian playwright of realistic drama, Henry Ibsen's classic 'Master Builder'... But story n characterisation wise it is not every ones cup of tea... the pace of the film is slow as compared to the 100 mph scripts of these days... the characters not defined in the conventional way...we are just given the pieces of puzzles of the characters... its upto u to figure the rest out... The basic story revolves around Albert Samson,a master builder who has trampled upon many to reach the status he is in now n the reputation he so proudly holds... we r put in the phase of his life where he has started to grow old... the 2 things that he fears the most is turning old n him being replaced from the throne of master builder by the upcoming generation... He is portrayed as one who has always aimed for his personal career growth, willing to go to any extend for it... the character of Albert Samson is clearly etched out by the other characters interaction with him but alas! the support characters are left incomplete much for ones dismay... i havent read the original play but i think the film as a whole could have been much more clear...
The actin front is in safe hands with the big talents like Mohanlal, Bharat Gobi, Sreenivasan, Manoj K Jayan living out their characters... Shwetha Menon enacts the role of the distressed wife of Albert n Geethu Mohandas who plays his secretary are also equally good... But the surprise was a gal named Nithya who plays the role of Helda... She acts as beautiful as she looks... n to say the truth i think im in love with that beauty...
The dialogues of the film makes one feel like they are watchin a drama... its has the unusual n unnatural stress on the dialogues with the language used bein more of the print type than dialect, which is common in the case of a drama... ac act of the script writer which i justified on the grounds that this is a homage to a great plarwright n one of his master plays...
Now let me come to the part where the film just left me wonder struck... each n every single frame in the film is perfectly composed... the beautiful backdrops of foreign locales actually blends in with each scene rather than just acting as a mere eye candy... The cinematography is absolutely brilliant from shots varyin from indoors to outdoors, closeups , longshots, pan, steady cam shots area all handled with exceptional finesse... even the angle selection is worth a mention here... the visual treat doesn't bother u in anyway and actually does wonders by creating an exact atmosphere for the story... the lighting for each shots is also sumthin that will catch ur eyes... examples of these can be best observed in scenes where Shwetha Menon sits in her room n the evening sum creates a shadow of her rooms window partly on her & partly on her bed and in a shot where the setting sun becomes the backdrop for a mid range closeup shot of Mohanlal... n Kudos! for that to the cinematographer Santhosh thundiyi n his assistants.....
This is the most technically brilliant Malayalam film i have seen till now n no wonder, the end credits listed the name of various foreign technicians... But i strictly feel that this film should be set as a technical standard for the malayalm films yet to come... and with blending background scores conducted by John Altman providing the perfect aura needed, the movie is as good as a work of art rather than a a feature film... the minor flaws that it has is more than made up by the technical brilliance and the plethora of visual treats that soothes the eye... But do urself a favour and watch the film in a theatre or at the least a DVD cos a VCD doesnt provide u with the clarity needed for this kind of film...
AakashaGopuram rating - 2.5/5
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