Beyond The Clouds

Beyond the Clouds is a typical Majid Majidi film that embarks on a bold and often beautiful journey. The story is built on characters whose poverty denies them justice. It captures the turbulent rush of thoughts when that sense of evil inside you is starkly juxtaposed with the genuine call for doing good. Majidi being able to pull off such complexities, always keeping a step ahead of melodrama - is absolutely mesmerising. Redemption is not an easy process after all.

Anil Mehta's excellent cinematography and A R Rahman's fairly good score breathes life into Majidi's vision. As you watch this movie, be prepared to get out of your comfort zone and have a taste of otherworldliness. And if you are an avid reader, the climax will certainly make you smile.

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The Post

The Post is a well-told story of bold journalism that led to the ousting of President Richard Nixon on multiple charges involving abuse of power. The Watergate Scandal revealed how Nixon had launched his personal vendetta against his critics using the FBI, the CIA and the IRS. The movie however restricts itself to the Vietnam War part of the Watergate Scandal, appealing to an audience who still have wet dreams about the only long fought war the US lost during the Cold War times. All the President's Men (1976), Nixon (1995) and Frost/Nixon (2008) are other good movies that centre around Watergate. The movie has been scripted wisely, the idea of how Kay talks highly of her husband without hinting on Phil Graham's extra-marital affair (with Robin Webb) that pushed him to commit suicide - is the right approach to writing this story. Too much of information sharing usually spoils the craft, even if the genre be biography. The Post would make you laugh, give you chil...

Resurrection

Two brothers fight, one dies, the other escapes. To a deserted forest area. Only to be found by an old man who lives alone with his dog. The killer does not speak a word until the movie ends. The old man speaks, but not so much. Two police men come to him to ask if he had noticed anything around, of late. He says no. Because no body speaks, and in the climax you see the old man in jail, you are forced to assume that the old man goes to jail instead of the killer. But how? Nobody knows. T he landscape clearly suggests that the movie is shot in Mont Rigi, Belgium. Unfortunately, there is not much this movie can offer you apart from Mont Rigi. Johan Leysen acts really well, no doubt on that. But just because you pace the movie really slow, it would not necessarily make the cut to being an art film.

Ballad from Tibet

One half blind kid, Thupten, leads three of his blind friends from school (Sonam, Droma and Kelsang) to Lhasa, and they fly from there to Shenzhen to perform in a reality show. There are scenes that capture the Tibetan region and culture in a beautiful way. But the script fails to appeal, despite the kids having put up a fairly good show. The dramatic sequences are slightly over done, adding to the bad acting from every adult actor cast in the movie. The movie simply gambles on the sympathy it could generate from a sensitive audience who would melt at the idea of blind children singing. It is very hard to relate to the story, because if it happened in India (500 kms south of Lhasa) these kids would have been trafficked, transported to a completely different place and made to beg on the roads.

Grumpy Burp

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