The film takes place over a 24 hour period and a month after the infamous Godhra incident which were followed by a horrific communal carnage in the state of Gujarat. It peeks into multiple characters amongst such as Aarti (Deepti Naval), a housewife who is silently haunted by the image of a Muslim woman begging for sanctuary. Another is Khan Saheb (Naseer), a renowned musician who lives in a Hindu area, and teaches classical music. He cannot understand the destruction of his familiar world, and naively assumes that it is possible for the two communities to live together. There is also Muneera (Shahana), who hides with friends during the violence, and returns to her home to find it burned to the ground. And there is Sameer (Suri), a young, dashing, wealthy Muslim married to a Hindu Anuradha (Tisca), who is torn between the dilemma of staying in Ahmedabad or leaving for another city where he and his wife might be safer. Lastly, there are the stories of other hapless Muslims, who make incompetent plots to take revenge.
Despite choosing such a heavy subject in her directorial debut film, actress Nandita Das has succeeded in handling it with utmost sensitivity and technical finesse. With an able technical support from India’s finest technicians such as cameraman Ravi K. Chandran (Ghajini, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi) and editor Sreekar Prasad (Guru, Yuva) Nandita has managed to assemble and ensemble cast of talented actors which take the film to a completely different level. The stories are not exactly interwoven but do manage to strike a chord. Firaaq’s strength lies in focusing on ordinary Hindus and Muslims whose lives were affected by the riots. Nandita barely resorts to showing graphic violence on screen and it’s fear, anger and anxiety are all understated.
Paresh Rawal in a serious role after a long time is a treat to watch. Sanjay Suri carries one of his most difficult roles with aplomb. Tisca playing his wife lends able support. Shahana Goswami post Rock On delivers yet another award worthy performance. But it is Naseeruddin Shah and Deepti Naval making a comeback on screen after a long gap whose performances linger on your mind long after the film is over.
Verdict: Firaaq is not meant for the faint hearted or those seeking two hours of time pass. It shows us the uncomfortable truths and painful reality in which the people of our country must live, as they set about repairing the destroyed trust between two communities.
Allah gave a gift to the world when you were born—
a person who loves, who cares,
who sees a person’s need and fills it,
who encourages and lifts people up,
who spends energy on others
rather than herself,
someone who touches each life she enters,
and makes a difference in the world,
because ripples of kindness flow outward
as each person you have touched, touches others.
Your birthday deserves to be a national holiday,
because you are a special treasure
for all that you’ve done.
May the love you have shown to others
return to you, multiplied.
I wish you the happiest of birthdays,
and many, many more,
so that others have time to appreciate you
as much as I do.
Many More Happy Returns of the Day Jano Akka …
May Allah shower blessings on you… Many More Happy Returns of the Day Jano Akka...
Daniel Craig is Joe Scott, a washed-up Hollywood actor with suicidal tendencies. After throwing himself at the mercy of the ocean, it triggers a flashback to his youth in 1970s England, when he launched into a forbidden affair
As the title suggests, Flashbacks of a Fool spends much of its time in the past. In fact, the hour-long middle section of the film is one long flashback, just after central character Joe Scott (Craig) has thrown himself into the ocean, presumably to kill himself.
Taking us back to one long hot summer of his youth, when Joe (now played by Eden) becomes embroiled with his married older neighbor Evelyn (May), it's a daring move - after writer-director Baillie Walsh has just spent 30 minutes setting up Craig's character - though not an entirely successful one.
The problem is that such a structure ensures Flashbacks of a Fool feels like two disparate films uncomfortably harnessed together. Set in California, the opening sequence portrays a man whose lifestyle is evidently taking its toll - not least in the opening credits where he enjoys a hedonistic drug-fuelled threesome with two women, one of whom says he has "no stamina" anymore. Known as 'Captain Wacky' for his frequent narcotics use, we swiftly learn that Joe's life is as shallow as his chic drug-dealer (Fox). "We don't need to go to the movies," she tells him. "We live in the movies." Only his sassy housekeeper (Eve) seems to keep him in line. The day starts to go wrong for Joe after his mother (Williams) calls to say his long-lost school-friend Boots has died suddenly.As shocked as Joe is by this, things get worse after a disastrous meeting with his agent (Strong), who bluntly tells him "no one's interested anymore". Heading to the beach, Joe downs some booze and walks into the water. The film re-emerges in 1970s England where Joe lives by the beach with his mother, sister (Clifford) and aunt (McCrory).
From this we lurch into a coming-of-age tale, as Joe hangs with his friends, including Boots (Deacon) - with whom, bizarrely, he's first seen masturbating round the back of a fairground ghost train. Everything shifts when the alluring Evelyn, a married mother of one, comes onto Joe, who succumbs to her charms even though he's supposed to be on a date with local girl Ruth (Jones) who Boots is also interested in. Another illicit union between Joe and Evelyn leads to the film's major turning point - an unconvincing event that's supposed to account for Joe's lack of emotional growth in his adult life.
While Walsh does a neat job in conveying the era when David Bowie and Roxy Music ruled the airwaves, never laying it on too thick, he does less of a job when it comes to convincing us this South Africa-shot film is actually in England. Far worse, he never really persuades us that Daniel Craig's Joe is the same character we see Harry Eden (best known for Gillies MacKinnon's Pure) playing.
The failure is not the fault of Craig or the excellent Eden; it's just that they feel like they auditioned for two entirely different movies. In the end, one has to ask whether it is Walsh - and not Joe -who is the fool.
Verdict: Much like its central character, Walsh's film is stylish but empty.
Manohar (Madhavan) and his elder brother (Hari Nair) with all their earnest works, buy a new apartment house on loans. It’s a happy family where their mega-serial buff mom (Saranya), their wives (Manohar’s wife is Neethu Chandra while Ameetha is Hari’s brother and their kids). Wow! What a pleasant ambience and you will feel how sweet it would have been if we were one amongst them.
If so, please spare few minutes for you’ll witness the heart-breaking, edge-seated twists and turns when a TV serial named ‘Yaavarum Nalam’ in which the same scenario of a happy family entering into their dream house is telecasted. Well, now things are topsy-turvilier entangled as everything over there on the screens turns into reality.
Would Manohar turn aware about this or is it too late for him to sort it out forms crux of the story.
Madhavan is stunningly great with his flawless performance where he doesn’t slip out of perfection. He’s great while romancing with this spouse or when he’s bounded with lots of perplexing situation. Neethu Chandra and other star-casts have done justice to their roles.
Director Vikram has precisely depicted how women of today are so adhered to TV mega-serials and unaware about what’s happening really around them. Leave it apart, on the script, it’s a best one that has bit of traces in Hollywood’s ‘The Remote Control’. The screenplay is so gripping that doesn’t let your attentions scattered. Especially your will feel loose out of your nerves in the latter half as mentioned earlier.
Musical score by Shankar-Ehasan-Loy are good with couple of songs and the climax song ‘Oh Sexy Mama’ is stupefying. Background score by Tubbi Parik’s is extraordinarily mind-boggling while P.C. Sriram’s cinematography on ‘Fujifilm’ that has a specified tone is stunning adding to the visual enhancements.
On the whole, ‘Yaavarum Nalam’ is a trendsetting flick in the pages of Tamil Cinema where our filmmakers didn’t wanna pick up the hardest bet on venturing through this genre.
Watch it out and you’ll experience something different… Maybe, for those who are more attached to their gadgets; Television, Mobiles and more…Well, male audiences would hail as most their women would stop watching mega-serials after viewing this film.
You're more to me than my sister
You are also my best friend
You're always there for me
For an ear or a shoulder to lend
You're the one to hear of my joys
It's you I go to if I've had a bad day
I love you more than I have words
To express myself or say
Many More Happy Returns of the Day Sugi
May Allah shower blessings on you… Many More Happy Returns of the Day...
“Pride and Glory,” directed by Gavin O’Connor (“Tumbleweeds,” “Miracle”), plods across familiar ground. It’s yet another movie about the fraternal disorder of the police, in which a gaggle of brothers, professionally sworn to enforce the law and tribally committed to one another, weep and rage and recriminate against a backdrop of urban chaos. Jon Voight — his face as pink as a Christmas ham, his acting in the same food group — is the patriarch of this particular clan, a New York Police Department chieftain named Francis Tierney.
Francis’s older son, Frannie (Noah Emmerich), commands a rough precinct in WashingtonHeights. Frannie’s brother, Ray (Edward Norton), once a hotshot detective, has withdrawn a little from career and family, making his home on a leaky boat and tending to a scar on his face. Frannie and Ray have a sister named Megan (Lake Bell), whose main function in this highly male-dominated movie is to be married to Jimmy Egan, a hotheaded street cop whose hobbies include breeding, smoking, football and — since he’s played by Colin Farrell — jittery displays of misdirected intensity.
But Jimmy is also, and most consequentially, mixed up in some dirty illegal business. Right under Frannie’s nose he has assembled a squad of thugs and shakedown artists who work with the city’s nastiest drug dealers. After four officers are killed during a raid gone bad, Ray is persuaded by his dad to head up the investigation, which leads him toward Jimmy and his crew, and also leads to some breathless shouting matches.
And the story, while none too fresh — especially if you’ve already seen “We Own the Night” — has a certain rough potency. Written by Mr. O’Connor and Joe Carnahan (with story credits to Mr. O’Connor, his brother Gregory and Robert Hopes, a former New York City policeman), “Pride and Glory” relies a little too much on expository shouting, but there are nonetheless some fine details and powerful, tense scenes. The best stuff can be found around the edges of the main family drama, in subplots and in the supporting performances of Shea Whigham and John Ortiz (as two of Jimmy’s minions) and Jennifer Ehle (as Frannie’s wife, Abbie, who is dying of cancer).
Mr. Norton and Mr. Farrell, unfortunately, play to their weaknesses. Ray — an intellectual as well as a warrior; a gentle avenger with a troubled conscience; kind to children and tough on bad guys — brings out the full measure of Mr. Norton’s vanity, by far his least appealing attribute. Mr. Farrell, meanwhile, once again indulges his blustery mixture of menace and charm, overdoing both. He threatens a baby with a hot iron, but on the other hand he loves his children. It seems plausible that this guy would lead a thuggish criminal enterprise, but not that he could keep it secret for more than 10 minutes.
The third point of the brotherly triangle, Mr. Emmerich’s Frannie, is the sharpest. Even though Mr. O’Connor never fully dramatizes the bonds of loyalty, love and envy that bind Jimmy, Frannie and Ray, Mr. Emmerich conveys the full nature of his character’s uneasy mix of decency and cowardice. While Mr. Voight, Mr. Norton and Mr. Farrell do most of the screaming (and shooting), he quietly and guilelessly steals the movie. If only it were worth a little more.
Rating: 3 stars on 5
“Pride and Glory” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has violence, swearing, drug references and a bit of pointless nudity.
