Friday, December 28, 2007

Taare zameen par...

Tagline: Every child is special.

"Taare zameen par"....Ever since i heard the title, i loved it. Such a sutle and soft title...After reading that this movie is directed by Amir Khan, i was a bit disappointed and was thinking what justice would Amir khan will do for such a good title. After watching the movie i felt like congratulating Amir Khan for creating such a beautiful movie. For me, this movieis as good as "Masoom" (Classic by Sekhar Kapur and Naseeruddin shah).

The movie is about a boy, who always fails in his academics, could not read or write properly. The movie is about a teacher who cares about his students, who cares about the free thoughts of the innocent children. Its about the every parent who is unwilling to know their own children.

Ishant Awasti is a 3rd standard boy who is poor at reading and writing. For him all the alphabets are so confusing and seems tobe like dancing in front of him. But he enjoys life. He has his own world. He loves aquarium. He dreams comics and dreams aboutconquering the 'Pluto'. He loves painting. But due to his inability of reading / writing properly, his acedemics are very poor.His teachers always have complaints against him and his parents are worried. Without trying to pay attention to his problem orunderstanding him, they admit him in a boarding school. Dut to this, Ishant becomes more worried. He always remains silent and due to the strict administration of the boarding school he always seems to be afraid of teachers. He stops talking to his parents.Most importantly, ho stops painting which he loves the most.

Ram Shanker Nikumbh is an arts teacher who joins this school. He cares about children a lot. He is already teaching at the 'Tulips'school which is for mentally challenged children. He does not stick to the conservative or traditional style of teaching. He asks his students to paint as per what their thoughts say, the way they feel. He encourages them to be creative. He finds that Ishant is very calm and has a problem. He enquires with Ishants friends, and verifies his notebooks. He understands Ishants problem to be 'Dyslexia'.This is the cause of his improper reading / writing skills. Rest is all about how he tries to make Ishant learn things and boosts his confidence making him a champ.

The movie is excellently directed by Amir Khan. The way he has portrayed the character of Ishant is amazing. The way Ishants dreams shown using cartoons is entertaining. The scenes which deserve to be mentioned are:
1) The scene in which Ishant dreams a cartoon in which he conquers the Pluto. The whole scene here is very funny. The way Ishant givesa justification to "3 * 9 = 3" is excellent.
2) The scene in which the alphabets appear to be dancing.
3) The scene in which Ishant misses the train, while his mother is already in the train. This is dream sequence to explain how afraidIshant is, from getting seperated from his mother.
4) Mr.Nikhunbj asking Mr.Awasti to read chinese and thereby trying to expian him the way Ishant is being misunderstood.
5) The scene in which Mr.Nikhumbh makes Mr.Awasti, what actually is 'caring' about. (khayal karna)
6) The scene in climax where Ishant verifies the painting of Mr.Nikhumbh in the Art mela.

Amir Khan gave an impressive performance as Mr.Nikhumbh. For such a brilliant actor, though, i feel this role might have been an icing on cake.

Darsheel Safary as Ishant Awasti is an excellent performance. The way he has expressed the feelings "happiness in his ownworld of imagination, unhappiness of not being cared about, his anger, sorrow when he is admitted into boarding school, his emotional feelingstowards Mr.Nikhumbh" is awesome. He has done full justice to this role.

Music by Shanker/Ehsaan/Loy is impressive as well. For such a subject, they have composed soft and meaning full songs. My best picks are"Dekho inhey" (Title song), "Maa" and a small bit song 'A little sweet' where Ishant expresses that "All he wants is to be free".

All in all, a very beautiful movie to watch. Let me know your views about the same.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Happy days kaburlu

If Anand was like a good coffee, happy days is like every dish you rememer which you have tasted, cooked by the worlds best cook...yes...the movie is all about the reminiscence.

When i watched the movie for the first time, it seemed to me like an ordinary movie with good music....but even after two days i could still remember the scenes of the movie which i could relate to some of my college incidents....funny...then i understood that its really a good movie.

Actually there's nothing so special about the story of this movie..its actually the scenes and characters in thosescenes are the ones which deserve to be appreciated.

The movie is actually narrated by "Chandu" (Varun Sandesh)...it starts with his narration about the changes in his life from his first day of engineering and ends with the completion of his graduation...meanwhile, he is introduced to life....friendship, love, cheating, tragedy, failure, success..everything..he went through almost all the aspects a college guy would go through. Through this character which revolves around the other characters of the film i.e. his other classmates and his own buddies, you will actually identify yourself or your own friends and eventually remember your college days.

Sekhar Kammula has succeeded in presenting an entertaining movie with all new faces. The way Sekhar has introduced, linked and narrated the characters is pretty good. He aptly chose the actors for all the characters and treated thesame with class. He has dealt with all the aspects which a engineering student actually goes through. Right from the introduction to college all the way to the farewell scene he has dealt with ragging, fights with seniors, freshers party, friend ship, soft corners, ego clashes, betrayals, love tragedy, exam results, ambitions, campus interviews and finally confusion....:)..

The scene which i liked most is the climax scene where Chandu explains his confused state by saying "aslemi ledu...nenemi nerchukunna...nenemi saadhinchaanu...". Then professor says, "college ki achieve cheyydaniki evaru raaru chandu...achieve chese capacity ni sampayinchukuntaru".

There are many good scenes in the movie, but, i liked the songs much. Infact there are some bit songs which are pretty good.In the episode where Madhu wears "Langa-Oni" when asked by Chandu, there is a bit song explaining the feelings of Chandu:
"ninna choosi vennele anukunna
monna kooda ninnala kalaganna
adigetu padutunna
tanavaipelutunna
kunukaina raani samarana
kanu mooste chalu tamarena
pena vesukunna pranayamuna yamunaa teerena"
"Kunukaina raani samarana...kanu mooste chalu tamarena" is very well written.

In the episode where chandu feels that he is not able to get Madhu's love:
"ningi loni taraga neevunna
nelakande daarule choostunna
eduruga nenunnna
eragavu kaastaina
oka manasu tapana choosaina
odi cheravela o lalana
alajadulu bayatapadutunna avuna kaadanna..

kariga oka theepi kalaga..migila eenadu shilaga..
musirey nee theepi kalalanni.. saakshalugaa..."

The songs "Arere arere", "Jil Jil Jinga" and "Oh my friend" are beautiful. Music director Mickey J Meyer definitely deserves a special mention for the music.
One my collagues said to me that the song "Oh my friend" is not apt here. Rather she felt that this song would be apt between childhood friends than engineering friends. Below lyrics might be the reason:
"vaane vastey kaagitaaley padavalayye gnapakaale
ninnu chooste chinnanaati chetalannee chentavaaley"
But i think this line means that "the joy and fun you get in the company of a true friendship will be as innocent as the fun you had in childhood while playing in rain", which is very much apt in this song.

Anyways, happy days is worth watching and for me this movie (Video and Audio) will be found in my favourite collections.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Doctors..Life saviours..

Doctors are supposed to be life saviours. People believe so. What if doctors do other wise.
The on-going protests of Nilofar doctors in AP is a very pathetic and sad incident to happen.
Agreed. Every citizen has his own right to fight for their needs. They have the right to protest. But if a doctor or a poilce man does the same...is it justified.
From the time the doctors started protests and not performing their regular duties, till now,more than 10 children have died. Hospital authorities say they are providing enough resourcesfor looking after the patients. Then how come more than 10 chidren die ina span of 48 hours.
If these deaths are so normal and usual in this hospital as doctors are saying, then there is seriously some problem with the doctors, facilities and the way patients are treated at this hospital usually. A serious enquiry should be done on this.
And if these deaths are only due to the ongoing protests, then, it is indeed a very sad hour and shameless thing to happen. Doctors simply cannot afford this. This is not the way for them to choose for protests.
Even if the deaths have happened not "only" because of these protests, victims family and a lotpeople will definitely consider this as a failure of doctors. And in such situation, though they are not killing the people, they would be responsible for killing the beliefs of people on doctors.