Sequels are tricky beasts. Handled wrong, they can sully your positive memories of the original movie. Thankfully, the folks at DreamWorks Animation did everything right with Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. The story's meatier and the animation is even more spectacular than the first Madagascar movie.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa brings back the best elements of Madagascar, including the familiar critters: Alex the lion (Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett-Smith), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer), and my personal favorite – the loony lemur, King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen). Even little Mort, the world's most adorable animated lemur (you know you just want to pet his little head every time you see him on screen), returns for more adventures. Building on the characters we grew to love in Madagascar, the writers have added a herd of new creatures who are just as fully fleshed out and entertaining.
The Story
This Madagascar sequel picks up right where the 2005 film left off, with the Central Park Zoo animals preparing to leave Madagascar to return to the Big Apple. Attempting to prove penguins can fly, the tuxedoed dudes pieced together a plane and now Alex and company, along with King Julien and his 2nd in charge, Maurice, believe they're on the way back to New York City. But penguins, as we soon discover, are not qualified to be airplane mechanics.
The plane crash lands in Africa which turns out to be the best place on the planet for our NY gang to wind up – if they can't make it back to the States. Their plummet to earth couldn't have worked out better if it'd been planned. The four zoo buddies, the penguin posse, and the lemur duo find themselves face to face with wild animals of their own kind. And for Alex, this unexpected detour is actually a homecoming. The king of the lions, Zuba (Bernie Mac), and his mate (voiced by Sherri Shepherd) turn out to be Alex's real parents.
Everyone's happy to finally get to know members of their own species in the wild, but the reunion between Alex and his parents doesn't please all members of the pride. Makunga (Alec Baldwin) has long wanted to replace Zuba as the leader, and the return of the city-raised Alex provides him with just the right opening to make his move...
If you can digest an overdose of physical violence, then Ghajini is a film you shouldn’t miss for Aamir Khan’s unforgettable performance.
It’s been years since I saw a Hindi film that had so few dialogues for the leading man. Quite unlikely for a masala movie about romance and revenge! Stoically, Aamir Khan walks and rips through the film with the charm of a Casanova and the beastliness of a vengeful man, and delivers a performance that will be remembered even though the movie itself may be forgotten after a few months.
‘Ghajini’ is a film that ought to be seen for the sheer novelty of its theme. Inspired – and to some extent, lifted – from Hollywood’s ‘Memento’, it tells the story of a man who can’t remember anything beyond 15 minutes. He suffers from short term memory loss. But somehow he has found ways to remind himself of just one thing – which he has to find and kill the man whose name his murdered lover (Asin) whispered in his ear just moments before he too was hit on the head with an iron rod, never to fully recover his memory again. So, through tattoos and polaroids and notes he keeps reminding himself of just one aim – to find Ghajini, the killer whose face and whereabouts he neither knows, nor can remember.
As our amnesiac hero, Sanjay Singhania (Aamir), closes in on Ghajini and goes about bumping off one bad guy after another, we are given repeated flashbacks into his past life, when he fell in love with a struggling model Kalpana (Asin), an Indianized version of the French ‘Amelie’ who helps the poor and needy on the streets. It is this very quality of Kalpana that makes her the target of a gangster, who hunts her down and kills her.
Now, Sanjay, with his limited memory and eight pack abs, lives for one purpose – revenge. He is like a loose canon, a self-propelled torpedo that keeps veering off the course and leaves behind a trail of broken bones, wrung necks and pummeled jaws wherever he passes through.
And oh! I almost forgot. There’s also Sunita (Jiah Khan), a medical student interested in the case study of our amnesiac hero. She’s a frail collegian who hinders and helps Sanjay in his mission.
Director A.R. Murugadoss tells a long story at a brisk pace and shows no frugality in depicting violence in all its goriness. It is blood curdling stuff gruesomely glorified. Stuff that gives you the heebie-jeebies! It’s mostly hand-to-hand combat with frequent use of iron rods that serve the sole purpose as skull-crushers. Repulsive!
But if you have stomach for such revolting violence, you would enjoy sitting through ‘Ghajini’ for many reasons. First, it’s unique plot. Second, Aamir’s mind-blowing acting. Third, Asin’s confident debut in a heart-winning performance. Jiah Khan is appropriately cast in a role that doesn’t demand much from her. Pradeep Rawat, as the antagonist, is menacing.
There is a gaping hole that yawns right at the very base of Ghajini’s story. If a man can’t remember that his lover was killed or who killed her, why does he need to remind himself again and again to take revenge. Wouldn’t his vengeance wane away with his memory? Murugadoss should have established some internal link that keeps pushing the protagonist back to his mission – something like sporadic dreams or memory flashes.
Verdict: Anyway, realism is something you shouldn’t expect from ‘Ghajini’. It’s a full-on masala film that is stylishly shot and has above average music by A R Rahman. It’s a film that needs to be enjoyed with mouthful of cola and fistful of popcorns even though the no-holds-barred violence keeps getting on your nerves. Despite its long duration of three-plus hours, the movie, with its quick pace, doesn’t weigh heavy, and leaves you with a mind out of time. Anterograde Amnesia, anyone?
Like aged and mellowed spirits, director Bharati Raja has matured and levitated towards one of his first loves - a whodunit.
It concerns three murders with a single thread - its psychotic protagonist movie director Rana (Nana Patekar).
However, one is still to fathom the fixation of filmdom with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), whose officer Varma (Arjun) unravels the plot in "Bommalattam".
The story revolves around Rana, a seemingly clever murderer who leaves no clues behind to nail him. The cat and mouse game that follows keeps the audience guessing till the end.
The central, subtle theme of puppetry with enough indications of strings being pulled from an altogether unexpected quarter actually embellishes the film.
One comes out of the cinema hall with a hangover due to a scintillating performance by Patekar, whose histrionics pale "action king" Arjun into significance. Kajal, who makes a bow through this venture, has an easy screen presence.
Himesh Reshammiya's music does not impress, but the background score is apt and takes the movie to a different plane.
Raja has handled his theme well and the stars know when they see a good script.
Cinematographer Kannan, a regular in all of Raja's ventures, has done a perfect job.
There are picture postcard shots galore - the nicest part of a Raja movie.
Kannan deserves more than a pat on the back.
Verdict: His earlier suspense thriller "Sigappu Rojakkal" starring thespian Kamal Haasan was a hit. Though not in the same class of Agatha Christie's murder mysteries about showbiz personalities, "Bommalattam" is an experience that keeps one glued to the edge of the seat.
