Two Line Reviews - #475

Movie: David (Hindi, 2013)

Plot: Stories of 3 Davids from three different periods and places (1975 London of a David who is a don's protector, 1999 Mumbai of a David whose pursuit of musician ambitions is disrupted by a communal assault on his father & 2010 Goa of a David who drinks and falls in love with the girl of his best friend) get related to each other at the fag end.

What Works?

• Even though I was expecting much more from this Bejoy Nambiar film, there were parts where the film was absorbing enough. The 1975 portions are intense with the shoot-out at the Moharram march taking top honours; the riot scene in the Mumbai portion is quite engaging as well.
• The camerawork and slick editing make their own marks in the film. Malpe beach and its surroundings (shown as Goa in the film) is captured in all its vigour!
• In terms of performances, there is no single exemplary one but none of them disappoint as well.

What Doesn't?

• The film's climax where the episodes are attempted to be tied together is a sad old stretch of imagination!
• Vikram chooses the most non-happening of the 3 stories and tries to bring it to life which he cannot quite well do, except for a bit of humour thrown in between.
• The strong cast has been inefficiently used - Vikram, Nasser, Tabu & Neil - not much of their talents have been extracted!

As separate stories, they mave have been better. Problem is, they aren't and it shows!

Two Line Reviews - #436

Movie: Life of Pi (2012)

Plot: A family owing zoo animals decides to move from their base in Pondicherry to the U.S.A. On its voyage with the animals, calamity strikes in a Pacific storm, wrecking the ship leaving only the younger son cast away in a small boat.Not alone though! He has a Zoo tiger for company! The peaks that the surival instincts of living beings can scale is what constitutes the rest of the tale.

What Works?

• Firstly, Ang Lee is to be appreciated for adapting from a book whose contents are not the easiest to conceive and place on a film reel. With immense focus on graphics and advancements in visual technology, he manages that quite well!
• Some of the scenes have been made tastefully and are magical! The scene where the boy Suraj Sharma (who has enacted his sturdy role pretty well) enjoys the storm, the small yet nice portion of his uncle's love for swimming, the scene where he communicates with the Tiger in the Mangrove are some examples.
• VFX is stunning in places: the digitally created Tiger is a winner's label for 'technology in films'.

What Doesn't?

• Background Narration that moves the story forward in places is weak, artificial and induces theatre-drama effect. Usage of Direct speech in narration is excessive.
• At the end of it all, There isn't much impact: You don't get that feeling you get when Tom Hanks butchers his Wilson and breaks down in Cast Away!

Few technical aspects and the core idea of celebrating human perseverance are appreciable!