SUVISO

Pride And Prejudice - 1995 Directed By : Simon Langton There are some books written exclusively for adaptations. They make good stories. They have good 'plot'. Perhaps alluring mystery or some centerpiece around which the whole thing revolves. They hardly provide anything else. Once you read it, you are done with it. You might not look up to that book or film later on ever. Though it certainly may give some pleasure. And there are other types of books; where an adaptation is nearly impossible. Its characters are perhaps so intricate, intriguing and nuanced that they cannot be transformed to the screen. Sometimes these books give something so distinct of a feeling, mood or ambience that cannot be replicated. Like that one of Hardy's mysteriously dark, symbolic and tragic Tess, or The Mill On The Floss' brother - sister dynamic by George Eliot, or the social commentary in Dicken's Hard Times or even Oliver Twist. Pride And Prejudice is certainly one of those books. ...

Okja - 2017 Directed by : Bong Joon-ho Okja is four or five films in a single one. It is a drama, a sci fi, a comedy and maybe a satire as well, and many more things, maybe even a thriller. It is a kind of film, which have bit of everything, which is all over the place, and still everything works, quite rare. It could have easily been called as a chaotic mess or undercooked or overcooked, but in fact it really isn't. It is a lovely mess. It has very contrasting elements, the very first scene is; an evil CEO of meat company is promoting her beaf, she tells how she is going to revolutionize the pig meat industry by producing meat from genetically mutated large pigs, which are enormous, probably the size of elephant's baby. Now that scene is business like, very monotonous and superficial and sick. As the evil lady finishes telling her stupid plan, the camera cuts short. We are now in a completely different part of the world. Previous was New York and now some remote ...

Pyaasa - 1957 Directed By : Guru Dutt One of the true pleasures of watching Pyaasa is Guru Dutt's face and his genuine expressions. It doesn't seem like he is playing a character; he is playing himself. Such is the power of those expressions. The genuineness of eyes, the horror in the same eyes when he is exposed to the dirty existence of social hypocrisies and selfishness. Or genuine delight over simplest of things. Or the childlike wonder about the world around him. Everything about that face felt so real and human.  Here is an actor who knows art of acting. While others are waving their hands obsessively, exaggerating expressions, speaking dramatically and mechanically, leaving no traces of subtlety; Dutt is subtle, hardly exaggerating or waving his hands or making faces. He is still. His every word leaves an impact, whether he is angry, sad, disappointed, horrified or happy. Every emotion is portrayed to its utmost perfection. Here is someone who is magical, mys...

Us - 2019 Directed By : Jordan Peele Us is a very layered horror film. It has lot to say, apart from being an excellent tense horror flick. Jordan Peele had given similar film before, Get Out, which was not very subtle like Us, and was different from this one, but there are same techniques and approaches which obviously draws few valid parallels. Although keeping all that in mind, its safe to say that Us is its own thing and should not be compared to the former film of Peele. Us is deliberately and so skillfully shot, it is certainly a solid work. The cinematography and editing is top notch. The score is chilly and effective. You feel that a lot has been done to achieve what we have seen in the film. The acting is fantastic, especially Nyong'o, who is so dynamic and skilled. She is literally playing two people in the film. Its an ambitious film to say the least. Its overwhelming only to think about how much rich symbolism it has and how much thinking is done to make it....

Death Proof - 2007 Directed by : Quentin Tarantino Death Proof is quite a niche film. So Tarantino-esque. There are cues everywhere suggesting it to be a Tarantino flick. With characters trying to be cool, the scenes of women's feet obsessively throughout, group of people sitting on table and just talking, lot of talking, people shitting curses, and more talking. Only certain type of people might enjoy this. I am stuck in between; neither hated nor loved it. The film is competent, sure. It feels like it. The camera work is top notch, the cinematography is great, and the stunts, breathtaking. But its so obsessed with itself. I later learnt that Death Proof is an attempt to imitate the general exploitation B films of 70s era of Hollywood. Cant relate. That takes the fun out for me. People who are aware of that context seem to enjoy the film better. With characters just acting as action caricatures, who dont have any psychology but just doing what they are supposed to do. ...

Soul - 2020 Directed by : Pete Docter One of the most misleading advice we get from the people around us is, to have purpose, a passion and in Soul's language; A Spark. When you are naive, 13 or 14, receptive to all that is happening around, you cant help but listen to those advices and think about yourself and think about how does that relate to you. You hunt for your passions and mistake your hobbies and interests as passions. You go on indulging in them just to later find out that, it is not you really wanted. It never was. While the real questions of life gets sidelined and you are left with your own little petty passions in this complex, incomprehensible world.  Even after you find your passion, or something that you truly love to do, there is not really the end of it. It isnt that concrete, or black and white thing where after finding your Spark you will be happy forever after. Tragedies happen, misfortune happen, world never goes according to your plan, the messy world is fu...

Maqbool - 2003 Directed by : Vishal Bhardwaj Maqbool is a clever character study of a man's gradual descent from loyalty to betrayal; from respect to rage; from reason to madness; from life to eventual and tragic death. Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool is powerful adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth, which deals with themes of loyalty, betrayal, love, guilt and death. Set in underworld of Mumbai, Maqbool is realistic portrait of world of gangsters' and their psyche. It is oftentimes dark, serious, repressed and at unexpected times wickedly funny.  Jahagir Khan aka Abba ji(Pankaj Kapoor with his Brando-esque mannerisms), is an aging don of Mumbai, who runs the crime world, with the help of his loyal lieutenant, Maqbool(Irrfan Khan) and Kaka, his loyal(underrated Piyush Mishra). Purohit and Pundit, are two utterly corrupt cops who help them fight their rivals(played charmingly by Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri respectively). They are film's charm and wit. ...

The Fugitive - 1993 Directed by : Andrew Davis From now on whenever I will get a chance to talk or think about thrillers, The Fugitive will always be there in my mind, mingling right there with some of the brilliant thrillers ever made(or the ones I have ever seen); with genius Silence Of The Lambs(1991), Hitchcock's masterpiece North By Northwest(1959), and Polanski's bleak Chinatown(1974). Although it cant match the wit and charm of Hitchcock's North By Northwest, or The Silence Of The Lambs' dread and horror or never the bleakness of Chinatown. But to be honest, it really doesn't have to. It is its own thing. There are things in the film which the former also cant match. Its the perfect thriller in the truest sense. Thriller is hard to define, some musicals are thrillers, so are psychological dramas, and so are some of the science-fiction. There always is a difficulty in defining what a perfect thriller really is. But The Fugitive is perfect thriller by the trues...

Mank - 2020  Directed by : David Fincher  It is not clear that how much of all this is closer to actual reality. And thats the biggest problem with this film. Everything else is as meticulous as any other Fincher movie. One cant help but question about what this film wants to say regarding the event that happened many many decades ago, and whether is it really an accurate depiction of what have had actually happened at the time. The answer for it is not clear nor easy to find.  For those of you don't know Mank is story about Herman Mankiewicz aka Mank(Gary Oldman) who wrote the screenplay for supposedly greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane. And it is a film about, the relationship of Orsen Welles(Tom Burke) with Mank and his own contribution towards the screenplay. And the main center point of the story being, how much is written by each of them. And this film takes an Anti-Welles approach and practically gives all the credit of the screenplay to Mank. Finche...

Baby Driver - 2017 Directed by : Edgar Wright Baby driver is a 2 hours of pure adrenaline rush, with its fast pace, meticulously executed action packed car sequences and the killer soundtrack. Its a pure entertainment. So much is said about the directing style of Edgar Wright(its my first film of him), and watching this certainly makes me excited to see his other works as well. Baby, an Atlanta gateway driver is accidentally becomes indebted to Doc, a crime boss. Doc making most of the opportunity, hires him to do the job which otherwise anyone wouldn't dare to do. The job is to flew away his crime partners from the crime scenes, and drive them somewhere safe. And its not an easy job. And Baby, as Doc says, is best in the bussiness and his lucky charm. Doc's team have other members including, Buddy, Darling, Griff and Bats. Yes! Thats their names, brevity works here. We don't want their names, do we?  Baby is soon on the verge of repaying all the debt which he h...

Ak vs Ak - 2020 Directed by: Vikramaditya Motwane  Ak vs ak is an intriguing experimental film by Vikramaditya Motwane. Who made pretty solid independent films before including;  the gritty and dark Udaan; a masterful coming of age drama, and Trapped which was also very skillful film starring, one of my favourite bollywood actor Rajkumar Rao. This film also boasts solid cast and team. And most interesting part or member being independent filmmaking giant and Motwane's friend, Anurag Kashyap. There was lot of hype around the film, which is surely justified just knowing who made it and who are involved in it.  To say that the film was mediocre would be an insult to such a welcomed experimental film in Bollywood, but it would also be quite inappropriate to praise just for the sake of who made it, and ignoring the many obvious faults it had. There was great sense of enthusiasm around the film before its release, which I also shared in huge amount, but the film, di...

Life - 2017 Directed by : Daniel Espinosa  The idea of this film might or might not be original but it offered a good thrill nonetheless. No film have absolutely original idea of its own. Every film has some influences on it of other movies. It might seem that this movie is just a poorly implemented replica of Alien. But Alien itself had drawn some its influences from others. So it is not completely unethical for a film to get its influences from other movies, given that it have its own world and own bunch of original ideas. And Life has some of its own unique achievements. Although it is definitely not one of the greatest sci-fi horror flick but it provides a decently engaging thrill throughout. It would be inappropriate to compare it to something like Alien, 2001, Gravity or some of the bests out there. We would only be disappointing ourselves because of it. When you watch it as an independent movie itself, it provides a fairly decent watch. And it claims no better....

Duel - 1971 Directed by - Steven Spielberg  Duel has a fairly simple plot. A bussiness man is on his way through a deserted area for a meeting. And he unintentionally overtakes a big old tank truck. Now the the movie would have never been made, if the driver of the truck would simply have counted down from 10 to 1 to calm his nerves. But the driver of the truck turned out to be psychopath who will only stop when killing that man that dared to overtook him. And what we see after that is the Duel between these two, one is obsessively trying to kill other over slightest offense and other just want to save his life from a raging psychopath. This was Spielberg's first feature film. He directed it when he was only 24! And what an intense ride. With fairly simple plot and resources what Spielberg achieved was truly phenomenal. Just passionate film-making. With not more than couple dozen dialogues, a lonely desolate road and just two vehicles, what we get is a totally cool and ...

What has changed in 2020.. This is the worst year anyone could have ever imagined. It couldnt have gotten worse. But not in terms of movies I guess. This had been great year for me as movie admirer. I have seen more number of films than any other year before(actually I haven't counted films before this year, but still I guess I watched more than previous years). Still not as many as some of the movie madmen who watch 2-3 movies every day for an entire year!  And with the process of watching films I have really developed a new hobby or.. an obsession, really!! For better or worse I have started watching movies differently, being more into it, and analysing and thinking about how its made, whats its meaning and all the behind the scenes developments. And because of it I obviously stumbled upon many other things which go complimentary with movies: the critics, the reviews, the interpretations of films, the behind the scene stories, the personal reasons of why the film is m...

Honorable Mentions:   | Enemy - 2013 | Arrival - 2016 | Rushmore - 1998 | The Revenant -2015 | Being John Malkovich - 1999 | The King Of Comedy - 1982 | Sicario - 2015 | Annie Hall - 1977 | Nocturnal Animals - 2016 | Psycho - 1960 | Slumdog Millionaire - 2008 | Knives Out - 2019 | Mulholland Drive - 2001 | Jaws - 1975 | Alien - 1979 and Aliens - 1986 | The Shining - 1980 | Blade Runner 2049 - 2017 | Dunkirk - 2017 | Life Of Pi - 2013 | The Royal Tenenbaumbs - 2001 | Moonrise Kingdom - 2012 | Thw Grand Budapest Hotel - 2014 | The Departed - 2006 | Gone Girl - 2014 | Hereditary - 2018 | Little Women - 2019 | The Game - 1997 | ET - 1982 | Gangs Of New York - 2002 |Mad Max: Fury Road - 2015 | The Top 25: 25. Contagion - 2011 24. La La Land - 2016 23. 12 Angry Men -1957  22. Citizen Kane - 1941 21. Rear Window - 1954  20. Saving Private Ryan - 1998  19. Donnie Darko - 2001  18. Pan's Labyrinth - 2006  17. Fargo - 1996  16. Rosemary's Baby - 1968...

2020 was decent year for consuming books, having literally unlimited time to explore new books and good literature. I had set realistic goal to read at least two books a month, which I completed but still I hoped for more. I know people who read twice, thrice and more amount than what I have read. But could I not complain because I loved the whole process and looking forward to reading more good books next year.  I had also suffered underperforming last year by setting a reachable but unrealistic goal of hundred books(and only completing quarter of that goal). So setting a goal within a reach was important this year. I also got little more familiar with the books and literature world, exploring new authors and books. I read quite a deal more about the authors and their ideas, themes of their books than the actual books themselves, and it gave me fair idea about whom to read and whom to skip and whom to avoid at all cost! Reading bad books in between does not necessarily hurt but th...