127 Hours Review

127 Hours, a gut wrenching and stirring true story of a lone mountaineer trapped in a ravine for over 5 days with his right arm pinned to the rock wall without any possibility of salvage is what this 1 hours 35 minutes flick all about. Perhaps, the most energetic and commendable directorial efforts made by director Danny Boyle, the movie televises an act out version of the true incident of Aron Ralston, a hiker who suffered this horrendous fate in 2003 while canyoneering along Moab, Utah.

Aron Ralston, a typical American snob with an usual footloose outlook towards life goes on mountaineering near the deep and meandering canyons of Utah. Struck by an erratic accident in his attempt to climb down a deep isolated crack down the surface, a boulder dislodged, crushing his right arm against the rocky wall having him stuck in the place for the ensuing 5 days. Flooded with trepidation, he makes successive efforts to wedge, haul, roll and heave the rock with only disappointment and failure in the outcome. With a bottle of water and a bite of food for sustenance, he goes on with his failed attempt to scale the rock with a Chinese, blunt unitool. As his water runs out, he resorts to drinking his own urine and occasionally blood as the only alternatives.

As delirium inundated his thoughts with racing pounding heartbeats, he assumed that death was impending and inevitable. He inscribed his name and supposed death date on the rocky wall and started recording videos in his handicam bidding goodbye and apologizing to his family. Impatient with unswerving agony, he finally resolves to amputee his own arm with the knife of the unitool, using the pliers for sinewy tendons. After a lengthy span of unthinkably agonizing operation he breaks free of his arms.

Finally at the climax, after accomplishing a 8 mile long hiking through the deserted canyons under the scorching heat, he finally receives help from a group of tourists luckily sited around the place. The end of the movie pictures him as a changed human being with success still on the crown as he continues his mortal combat.

The movie circumspectly pictures the excruciating pain, mental trauma and psychic crisis that he experiences during his entrapment. It veers around men’s fundamental prerequisites for survival as the character suffers from hunger, bodily pain, mental constrain, carnal appetite, emotional emptiness and craves for deliverance as he embarks on desperate measures to emancipate himself from predicament as his final attempt for survival. With the ultimate approval and salutation to the “Survival of the Fittest” theory and human bravado, the spotlight is concentrated on man’s dependability on the earthly essentials to sustain his mortal shell.

The director has made use of every symbolon possible to manifest human’s unconquerable forceful will to live. The fallen boulder has been portrayed as Nemesis that strikes hard when the victim is least prepared mortifying his conceited superhuman confidence thudding him back to the consciousness of his mortal limits. The flying bird atop is the representation of liberty from captivity that in the due course accentuates and act as a catalyst to up swell his indomitable desire to live. The undefeated spirit of man finally wins over the repugnant destiny through inexplicable suffering that brings him to the point of realization of the greater meaning of his life.

Boyle has very diplomatically shifted the focus from human limits of pain and endurance to an overt condemnation of the American way of living in particular, and modern man’s dilemma in general. Living an offensively self-centric and secluded life with an intolerable arrogance and prejudice, the movie establishes that man is himself responsible for his downfall. The fact that Aron had snubbed his anxious mother’s phone calls, alienated his forlorn lover and ignored everyone to the point of bigotry have bit by bit contributed to his quandary.

The film is essentially a one-man show with a speedy initial. The subsequent course is very slow and slacked at times as the director presses on to inject old memories, hallucinating apparitions and steady pinch of guilt and repentance surging high in the character. Other characters barely share the screen that exposes the movie to sluggish dallying. However, the arm amputation part was highly disturbing and repelling with a lot of bloody scenes that has seen severely criticized and was highly distressing to watch. Though the director could have cut short such a brutal scene, he chose to keep it intact to express the dreadful pain and torture experienced by the protagonist.

Actor James Franco has done an appreciable job and evolved as a much prudent actor with his role as a funky American explorer in the movie. The movie has witnessed not only a remarkable change in his straight looks, but also in his acting skills which can only be expected to develop and enrich in future. The visual effect is also very convincing and impressive giving the audience no scope for skepticism.

Aanjaana Aanjaani Review

Siddharth Malhotra’s Anjaana Aanjaani is a typical Rom-com specimen flick with a unique approach to the typical Bollywood ‘Boy Meets Girl’ genre. Supposedly an improvised remake of Patrice Leconte's Girl on the Bridge, Malhotra has done an exemplary job with such a challenging synopsis based entirely on the relationship of the two predominant characters. Commencing at the most critical point, under the most unusual circumstance possible, the movie successfully merges the two oxymoronic concepts of intense pain to utmost ecstasy as the characters manage to discover love, during the course. The main protagonists form the crux of the movie with no subordinate characters, sub plots or side tracks that could act as fillers or swathes to hide the inescapable inconsistencies that could potentially rupture the toilsome performances.

Kiara and Aakash are two American Indians who run into each other at the worst points of their life, on the brink of making suicidal advances to shun the despicable failures of their lives. After an event of fluky encounter followed by a series of failed mutual attempts of suicide, on Kaira’s insinuation, they submitted to the supposition that they both have some unfinished tasks left to be taken care of until it all ends to ashes. They mutually settled to live the ensuing last 20 days of their life together to the fullest until the day arrives for the final departure. The subsequent itinerary pictures ocean boat rides, cross country road trips, fun filled adventures, hilarious antics and their gradual romantic involvement and growing attachment.

The underlying serious and troubled tone of the storyline has been deftly overlapped with the apparent cursory jovial aura, and has been prominently surfaced in glimpses through the characters to remind the audiences about the wounded sentiments and plights of the characters. As the movie slackens down a bit towards the intermission, Malhotra has proficiently revved up the proceedings with eventful twists. However, the pact of the duo ends with the arrival of the impending ‘D’ day where the theme takes an unexpected turn, meandering the respective course of their lives back to where they root from. However, though the final strike of love was foreseeable and ever-looming; the climax sketched to ratify it was outstandingly brilliant convoy by the poignant fragment of “Aajaana Aanjaani” soundtrack.

Sultry Priyanka Chopra as Kaira, an animated girl next door has finely blended with the character with her inordinate charm and proficient acting skill. Her performance, in both melancholic and spirited points has been pertinent, as she impersonates Kiara completely, yet retaining her innate charm, partially. Piggy Chops has once again shown her flair in bonding up with her first time ever co-actor Ranbir Kapoor and has done a focused job to claim a lion’s share of the lime light.

Standing opposite the vivacious and talented Priyanka Chopra, Ranbir Kapoor as a NYC simpleton in pursuit of success in the line of American dreams has scaled new heights with his screen presence. Though relatively new in the industry, Ranbir has always carried the repute of an accomplished actor and justified his Kapoor pedigree. He has captured the pain, frustration, emptiness, love, joy and final rediscovering of his own self with precession as the character copes with destiny and evolves as a person.

Ranbir and Priyanka has jammed and gelled brilliantly and smugly with each other on screen. With vigorous off screen jamming sessions under the expert supervision of their mentor and director Malhotra, the new on-screen couple has been able to deliver an apt feat with moments of unison while maintaining their individuality, as demanded by the script. Even so, the chemistry between the two has been exceptionally striking and spontaneous, the alchemy has seemed to fall apart in certain junctures that has caused a crisis to the summary.

However, to sum it up, Aanjaana Aanjaani has been a love story with a difference. With an entirely new plot and approach to life and love, the actors have done justice to the storyline with their dazzling screenplay and romantic quotient. The locales comprising arid desert roadways, sprawling casinos, cheap motel rooms, rustic inns, strip bars, ocean bodies, etc. have also added an appeal to the aura of the theme. The songs of the film have been amazingly melodious ranging from hot peppy numbers, to fast tracks, to sad emotional sagas, with lyrics that sync with the scenes impeccably.

Aisha Review

Aisha, an adaptation of Jane Austen’s 18th century novel Emma is a romantic comedy that showcases the intricacies of love in a very simplified and honest prototype. Director Rajshree Ojha has done a commendable job in portraying the characters in keeping with the source, while altering the backdrop to the contemporary scenario. Veering around the age old concept of “Marriages are made in heaven and consummated on earth”, the movie is an eye candy for its remarkable and stylish costume design that depicts the high class modern fashionistas.

Emma Woodhouse of Highbury has been played by the charming Sonam Kapoor who has stepped into the character proficiently by filling in the essential attributes of ‘handsome, clever and rich’. With the recent success acquired in setting things up between her ‘masi’ and a certain Cornel Singh, which was followed by their romantic marriage, Aisha glows with pride and goes on in pursuit of another possible match making. In the ceremony, she comes across Shefali, playing Harriet, a behenji type plain-Jane typecast, new to Delhi. As she weaves the possibility of a potential matchmaking between Shefali and Randhir, (played by Cyrus Sahukar), she pressed trying to fix them up together. The plot rolls on to reveal that Randhir was instead, love struck by Aisha, who immediately dismisses Randhir and sets herself to the task of finding Shefali another high profile suitor. With a pure passion for meddling into people’s business, Aisha goes on manipulating Shefali’s decision directing her into all but blind ends. However, Aisha lacked the depth of a female character as both the novel and movie have tried to maintain the frivolous and superficial aura of the affluent section.

As typical to Emma and other novels by Austen, the male characters are side staged, the role of Arjun, a replacement of the prudent Mr. Knightly has come in the play only to add an impetus to Aisha’s realization that love cannot be forced upon. As Aisha evolves out from her shallow, juvenile being during the course of the story, Arjun guides her all through, in his attempt to disentangle the web and rescue her out of the mess. The character of Mr. Knightly has been aptly and subtly played by Abhay Deol without skipping any trait of the character that contributes positively to the synopsis of the story. With a critical eye, he scrutinizes Aisha’s activities recurrently, reprimanding her for her unripe advances. In his role, as he shakes her out of her stupor into the real world and into the realization of her true feelings towards him, Abhay has done a palpable job staying within his limited parameters and intermittent appearance in the movie.

The flick catches pace as Aarti, Arjun’s colleague and love interest comes into being and Aisha suffers pangs of jealousy which leads to the moment of epiphany about her true feelings towards Arjun. This is where, the movie shifts slightly from the novel as Mr. Knightly didn’t have any romantic company. The second half witnessed appearance of some sublime hurdles, small conflicts and debilitating crossroads where Aisha had to grow out of her usual infantile self to make sensible judgments that contributes to her fruition into a lady. As the climax approaches, all the impasses started to un-complicate themselves and differences get diluted with the final knot of adoration between the main protagonists left to be tied at the end. However, Arjun seemed very clear in his inclinations throughout and in the end as he romantically proposes to Aisha about his love for her in a typical Mills and Boons style.

Other subordinate characters like Pinky Bose, Aisha’s daddy, Masi, Aarti and Dhruv have accentuated the drama by donating to the plot. The character of Pinky as Aisha’s best friend, played by Ira Dubey is an add-on to the storyline and has given the course of action a twist in the process as eventually she gets wooed by Randhir unexpectedly. M.K.Raina as Aisha’s daddy played a lovable, kindhearted father figure. It appears that the rest of the team, Aisha’s masi as a supportive character with motherly disposition, Dhruv a gentleman with modern sensibilities and Aarti as a New York returned, today’s woman with an offbeat oomph factor about her have been handpicked and tailor-made to personify the characters pertinently.

The humor in the movie is delicate, yet prominent enough to make the audience break into fits of laughter at time. Since, the movie does not have any unsettling element in it; the makers have not pressed much on the hilarious aspect to loose the potency of the characters. Whatever slight comedy the movie holds, it has been aptly surfaced through the character of Shefali who has done a laudable task in doing so.

In a nutshell, Aisha is an entertaining film with a different approach on love sketched on the canvas of the upper-class futility. The costume and style of the characters are indeed a feast for the senses of fashion enthusiasts that dedicates the movie essentially to the young generation. Endowed naturally with her superb sense of style, Sonam Kapoor has faced no difficulty in carrying them modishly. Popped with peppy music in an elegant setting, the movie has a different feel about it which has succeeded in materializing the 18^th century society, even though in an understated manner.