Kahaani 2

Posted on June 19, 2017 by Tennyson

Vampire Owl: But I haven’t watched the first Kahaani.

Vampire Bat: Neither did I watch that flick. It is not necessary to get into this one.

Vampire Owl: You mean to say that this is not really a sequel even though it qualifies as one.

Vampire Bat: Yes, there is no real continuation of the tale here. This is more like Story One and Story Two, as is Kahaani One and Kahaani Two.

Vampire Owl: So both Vidyas in the movie are not the same even as both outside the movie are the same.

Vampire Bat: Yes, just Vidya Balan is the same. Otherwise, in the movie, there are Vidya Venkatesan Bagchi and Vidya Sinha as characters.

Vampire Owl: It makes a total of three Vidyas, two inside the movies and one outside.

Vampire Bat: That is certainly not relevant. We are in no need to be talking about these simple human names.

Vampire Owl: Yes, why can’t they choose interesting names, like The Great Vampire Owl?

Vampire Bat: You don’t have “Great” as a prefix. And yes, humans are not vampires or owls.

[Gets three cups of lemon tea with 50-50 biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: Vidya Sinha (Vidya Balan) takes care of her teenage daughter Minnie (Tunisha Sharma) who is paralysed from the waist down. She has a nurse (Soma Adhikari) taking care of the girl when she goes to work. Vidya hopes to make enough money to go to the United States of America, and get her the best treatment so that she could walk again. Despite Vidya’s concern about her daughter, Minnie is happy with her life, and feels the she has nothing to worry about, being content with her present with her mother. Things seem to go on normally, but one morning, the nurse just doesn’t come, and she can’t get her on phone either. She is worried to leave Minnie alone, but the happy girl asks her to go, telling her than she can handle things until the nurse arrives – she might be on the train which should be why they are not able to get her on phone. Vidya finally decides to leave, asking her neighbour to keep an eye on her daughter.

So, what happens next? :: But when she returns home, she is shocked to find out that Minnie is missing, and there is no clue about what had happened around. Earlier, when she called home, she had managed to talk to the nurse who had told her that she is there. But when she calls at the nurse’s number, it she tells her that she never came to the house because Vidya had told her not to come on the day. Her neighbour also tells her that he was told by her that the nurse had come, and so he could stop checking. It is then that she gets an anonymous call which asks her to arrive at a certain location if she is to find her daughter alive. There is also some reference to the past which scares her into running out – all tensed and frightened, she gets hit by a car and ends up in the hospital in a coma. The nursing home where she is admitted is run by Dr. Maity (Pradip Mukherjee) who asks the Police officer Inderjeet Singh (Arjun Rampal) who is on the case to speed up things as the medical bill only gets costlier and costlier.

And, what is to follow next in the adventure? :: Inderjeet keeps searching for clues about the lady in the hospital, and finds something interesting in her diary. Meanwhile, Inderjeet’s senior officer who is after a woman named Durga, Pranab Halder (Kharaj Mukherjee), tells him that a certain lady is wanted for a certain kidnapping and murder case – the photo of the wanted woman looks exactly like the lady in the hospital. But Inderjeet doesn’t reveal the similarities between Vidya and Durga, and decides that he has to discover things all by himself. He understands that both the women are one, and are known by the name Durga Rani Singh who worked as a clerk in a school in Kalimpong. After having a terrible childhood, she seems to have a better youth, and is in love with her good friend, Arun (Tota Roychoudhury) who is working in publishing. But, something from her childhood repeats once again in front of her, and she can’t be silent about it – but what she will decide to will have consequences? What is her past all about, and what is happening to her present? What will happen to her future?

The defence of Kahaani 2 :: The movie keeps us trying to figure out the twist which is to come up, and we find the thrilling moments in between – the suspense is maintained, and we are kept unsure about who is right and who is wrong, and above all, who really is the protagonist? The first of the movie is actually done without providing us any chance to complain, as we are taken into a world which has too many secrets, and we are drawn into this mystery which is to be solved in one way or the other. Vidya Balan is just so good in this visually good movie too, and handles the whole thing with so much of skill. We would want her to return if there is a Kahaani 3 too, as she is sure to get hold of proceedings with ease in this kind of a movie. Arjun Rampal provides with some nice support, and he really suits this character, which has balance, being a usual cop with usual family and usual problems. There is also a nice message in store here along with the strong emotional side, about which more talked is to reveal a little too much of the plot as spoiler.

The claws of flaw :: The second half, with the curse that Indian movies, especially the Bollywood ones have, except for the final reveal that brings the twist, is not that much thrilling as the first half, and we would have expected the weaker section of the tale to the be covered better. Those who are awaiting the continuation of the first story are also going to be disappointed, because we hear this tale as another one. Sometimes, we just feel that the movie is getting short with its logic. There is a little too much focus on making the protagonist a superhero, despite getting hit by a car so hard that she had earlier gone into a comma – things get too easy for her, and even with outside help, this is just too convenient for the lady. When you start a movie so well, there is the need to make things better by the end, but the need for the same is not that much reflected here. A few things in the movie are also predictable, and it is quite a bad situation for any thriller movie.

How it finishes :: There are going to be comparisons with the first movie, and it does seem that it had become more popular than this one, but I wouldn’t comment on the same as I didn’t watch the first flick. Also this one is not a direct sequel to the previous movie – well, as Kahaani 2 is a stand-alone movie, it could always come up with something different, and when we look into it, things are rather interesting, and it never ceases to be the same. It does keep us guessing for what is to come next, and even when things are slow, it is never boring. It is nice of Bollywood to have had some nice thrillers in the year, from Wazir to TE3N and this one, as all of these had something special in them, and it is better to have movies like these represent the industry rather than those irritating romantic comedies which keep coming again and again as if there is a certain machine producing the same. Thrillers which are close to the common man’s life is in need more.

PS: Meanwhile, this week’s releases, Cars 3 and Despicable Me 3 has the family audience interested.

Release date: 2nd December 2016
Running time: 128 minutes
Directed by: Sujoy Ghosh
Starring: Vidya Balan, Arjun Rampal, Tunisha Sharma, Naisha Khanna, Manini Chadha, Jugal Hansraj, Amba Sanyal, Kharaj Mukherjee, Tota Roychoudhury, Koushik Sen, Pradip Chakrabarty, Nitya Ganguli, Pradip Mukherjee, Ardhendu Banerjee, Biswajit Chakraborty, Gargi Bharadwaj, Soma Adhikari, Haridas Chatterjee, Sarthak Dey Sarkar

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Aby

Posted on February 24, 2017 by Tennyson

What is it about? :: Aby Baby (Vineeth Sreenivasan) has always been interested in flying more than anything else. Right from childhood, he has been fascinated with the airplanes, and he has worked hard to make something that could help him fly. Even though he is an expert in the subject of Physics, nobody considers him as good because he is not just an introvert, but also someone not interested in anything else, with his passion even ending his chances of continuing his studies. Anumol Xavier (Mareena Michael Kurisingal) is his childhood friend who has always supported him, and in return, he has been helping her with her science projects. Aby’s father Baby (Sudheer Karamana) considers him as a fool, and doesn’t favour anything that he does, with the feeling that he is the main reason behind all the misfortunes in their life, chasing after an impossible thing and doing nothing good. But Aby is determined, and leaves his home.

The defence of Aby :: There is no shortage of inspiration in this movie, as our protagonist is the kind of person who is least expected to be successful in life, especially with what he loves the most, and his focus only on that – nobody around him thinks that it is the best thing to focus on. With the visuals of a beautiful village area, the movie provides the message to go after one’s dream, something which the present society doesn’t allow, with parents forcing their children to take the courses which they don’t like – the world has had that obsession with engineering and otherwise also related to getting any job with a high salary. The whole thing is kept simple, even with that tendency to complicate things always there. There are also some good songs, and a fine climax which is sure to make the audience leave with smile on their faces.

The claws of flaw :: One can be sure that a lot of people will find this movie as predictable with its tale of chasing a dream. But the thing about inspirational movies is that you will know how things are to go, and it is something that you need to be prepared for. There is also some trouble here and there with the journey of the protagonist, as it could have surely been shown in a better way. Among all the similarities with inspirational movies, this one is the closest to Kochavva Paulo Ayyappa Coelho, with that “achieving dream”, element which will make one feel a certain repetition – you remember that the protagonist there also wished to fly, but by traveling in an airplane rather than trying to make one and fly. The part where the protagonist is in the city, and his relation with a new character called GK is also quite strange – it is the part that could have been better thought out.

Performers of the soul :: The last time we saw Vineeth Sreenivasan on the big screen was in Oru Muthassi Gada, in which he played a rather small role. The same was the case of Jacobinte Swargarajyam, which he himself directed. Kunjiramayanam was the flick in which we last saw him throughout the run, and also as the protagonist. Here, he is back as Aby, and bringing life to the dreams of the character. It is the certain amount of innocence that stays on his face, that makes things work even better in this movie. Aju Varghese is there, providing the needed support as always; he has been the best support with an evergreen funny side throughout so many Malayalam movies, and we see him doing the same, even though he is not there as much as he should have – there is not much a direct influence that his character creates in this movie’s progress, and still we remember his work here.

Further performers of the soul :: It is Sudheer Karamana who gets the best of attention among those who come up with the supporting roles. He is there right from the beginning itself, and has moments until the end. Suraj Venjaramoodu provides some comedy here and there. Meanwhile, Mareena proves herself as an interesting presence in the industry for future, as this role works really well for her – throughout the flick, she has kept it simple, and yet so effective. Most people will know her for playing Sophia in Happy Wedding, and Angel in Amar Akbar Antony, even though the movie which had her the leading heroine was Mumbai Taxi. It was a movie which had some nice moments with twists, and could have done better if it hadn’t tried to be the overreacher it ended up to become. But Mareena has the role for which she is going to be remembered from now on, and we hope that she will get an even better, a huge movie soon.

Soul exploration :: There is always something special about dreaming against all odds in a world which doesn’t believe in you, which seems to have very less in store for you. Yes, some people do have it easy, especially those who have too much money and so much time without having to do anything about it – the rest are to struggle for their dreams, sometimes for an eternity, and at other times, until that destination is reached. There is always something inspirational about going for what one wants, and achieving the same. We keep reading those inspirational stories all the time, of which most of them are only partially true, and some of them just make us rather depressed instead of being motivated. Aby tries to make it to such a world of inspiration, and manages to be another interesting motivational flick here.

How it finishes :: This year has been very good for the Malayalam movie industry and its fans. We had Munthirivallikal Thalirkkumbol becoming the best family movie in recent times, and Ezra bringing something new to the horror genre here; there was also Jomonte Suvisheshangal doing well, and Fukri bringing some fun element. With Veeram also releasing, Aby brings extra feel-good to the scene, and there was the space for an inspirational flick, which has now been filled. Malayalam movies have had so many of them, and with some variety in treatment, this one is also there, following the movies like Mili, Su Su Sudhi Vathmeekam, My God, Oru Muthassi Gadha, AnnMariya Kalippilanu, Kochavva Paulo Ayyappa Coelho and others. It is once again time to take the inspiration home, and Aby is for everyone, indeed.

Release date: 23rd February 2017
Running time: 133 minutes
Directed by: Srikant Murali
Starring: Vineeth Sreenivasan, Aju Varghese, Mareena Michael Kurisingal, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Sudheer Karamana, Hareesh Peradi, Vinitha Koshy, Manish Choudhary, Dileesh Pothan

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

A Monster Calls

Posted on February 17, 2017 by Tennyson

Vampire Owl: Do you know that a monster did call me before?

Vampire Bat: Yes, the potato chips monster.

Vampire Owl: No, a real monster.

Vampire Bat: What did he say?

Vampire Owl: He said that he would eat me for dinner.

Vampire Bat: Oh! A monster that eats the undead for dinner. This should have been in the news.

Vampire Owl: Yes, but it was April Fool, coming right from Uncle Dracula.

Vampire Bat: According to the humans, we are surely monsters. So, from another perspective, it is true.

Vampire Owl: But we are vegetarian.

Vampire Bat: Yes, that is indeed our specialty which is to remain the same.

[Gets three cups of masala tea with potato chips].

What is the movie about? :: A young boy named Conor O’Malley (Lewis MacDougall) is in a state of worry due to his mother Elizabeth Clayton’s (Felicity Jones) cancer. She keeps telling him that she is getting better, but the truth is that she is not. It is only getting worse, and she is slowly and steadily moving towards her end. It is difficult for him to accept the same, and with his father Mr. O’Malley (Toby Kebbell) being separated from him and living far away from them, he has not many people to look forward to. He is also targeted by Harry (James Melville), a bully at the school, and he is asked by his grandmother Mrs. Clayton (Sigourney Weaver) with whom he doesn’t have a great relationship, to move to her home with her. But Conor is more frustrated by the idea of moving to his grandmother’s home than about being bullied by his classmate and his friends.

So, what happens next? :: One night at exactly 12:07 a.m., Conor comes across a strange tree-like monster (Liam Neeson), that tells him it is going to come up with three stories, after which Conor has to tell the monster his own story, which is the truth behind the nightmare that he keeps seeing. The first story is that of an old king who has lost all his sons battling giants, dragons and great wizards who led men and creatures of darkness. The only heir he had was his grandson who was loved by all people of the kingdom. But at his old age, he gets married to a beautiful woman, after which he falls ill and dies. With the prince not old enough to claim the kingdom, the queen becomes the ruler, and the prince runs away with his love, a farmer’s daughter who seems to be murdered. This queen who is claimed to be a witch, is supposed to be behind the death of both the king and the lover, is saved by the monster, as he claims – Conor wonders why.

So, how do things go from here? :: The second story is that of an ill-tempered, greedy apothecary who follows the old ways of medicine, and pesters a local parson to let him cut the yew tree in the churchyard. The parson who is a man of strong faith is against the apothecary who grows in hatred towards everyone around. But when the parson’s two children gets ill, he asks the apothecary for help, and even offers the yew tree and a change in his own belief. But the apothecary refuses to help him, and the children die. The tree then takes his monstrous form and begins destroying the house of the parson, much to the dismay of Conor who doesn’t understand why the creature is not destroying the house of the apothecary instead. As the third tale nears, Conor’s relationships with his father and grandmother worsens further, and his mother’s disease also gets worse – now, the question remains if the creature can actually heal his mother.

The defence of A Monster Calls :: There is sadness in A Monster Calls, and you can feel it all the way from the beginning to the end. The monster has the message to move on with one’s life, and survive through the unexpected pains – on what it takes to live through the certainty of losing a loved one. It uses all the available themes to its advantage, and tells the message with ease. All the characters used here points to that one message. It has all which are needed to strike you emotionally, and at the same time, despite being a fantasy movie, has more of real life in it with all the fiction that seem to be part of the world. It becomes more of a fairy-tale for the adults rather than children, as each point that its main characters make is worth pondering about. It makes one turn into one’s own mind and ask the same questions about humanity again and again, and at the same time, we get to see the nice creature detail to go with it.

The claws of flaw :: You can keep feeling a certain amount of drag throughout this flick, and those who are looking for the usual kind of fantasy movies are going to feel strange. If you can’t take some preaching, this one is going to be not the movie for you. There also seems to be an attempt to get more and more emotional with things, but that was really not needed, as there was a lot of the same, which came naturally. This is also based on a novel of the same name, written by Patrick Ness, and so it is up-to the author who wrote the screenplay for the movie as well as the fans to decide on how it did justice to the work. There is also the chance to miss out on the symbolism that one comes across in the movie, and so maybe the flick could have hinted on what it was planning to do – a lot of people should have felt that the monster is the usual one, but this one is not just a monster, but much more than that, and one needs to take that.

How it finishes :: The fangs of the message here is quite strong, and it is the performances which support the same more than anything else. You will see how well Lewis MacDougall takes the protagonist to the viewers so well. There is no doubt anywhere about how Sigourney Weaver gets us closer to things, and Felicity Jones makes us feel the pain. As the movie deals with a situation which most people will face in one way or the other, one can be certain that there is the need for A Monster Calls at some point, and we will have to take these messages from the movie right back home. Well, above them all, there is Liam Neeson as the monster, and there is nobody else who could be a monster who provides us with the best messages – proven here without doubt. What would you do when your own monster calls? Well, it is something to keep thinking about.

Release date: 23rd December 2016
Running time: 127 minutes
Directed by: J.A. Bayona
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell, Lewis MacDougall, Liam Neeson, James Melville, Geraldine Chaplin, Max Golds

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Knock Knock

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Tennyson

Vampire Owl :: It has been a long time since we saw a movie starring Keanu Reeves.

Vampire Bat :: Well, John Wick and 47 Ronin proved okay, but nothing huge for us.

Vampire Owl :: Nothing since The Matrix Revolutions for me.

Vampire Bat :: Actually, I consider it since Constantine.

Vampire Owl :: Yes, those were the best times.

Vampire Bat :: And John Wick: Chapter Two is also coming. I believe that it will be better than the first.

Vampire Owl :: The female leads look very much new though.

Vampire Bat :: I have noticed that too. But I am more looking forward to how this story will progress.

Vampire Owl :: I read that it is a remake of Peter Traynor’s 1977 movie called Death Game. Any knowledge of it?

Vampire Bat :: Not at all.

[Gets three cups of tea with tapioca chips].

What is it about? :: Evan Webber (Keanu Reeves) is a happily married man, and an architect living with his wife and children. Due to a shoulder injury and a lot of work, he is unable to go to a trip to beach which was planned earlier; so his wife Karen (Ignacia Allamand) leaves with the children and he is left alone in the big house. He decides to spend his time working and waiting for Louis (Aaron Burns), the assistant of Karen who works as an artist who will move a particular sculpture to an art gallery. When he is busy with the job, he hears someone at the door and sees two girls, Genesis (Lorenza Izzo) and Bel (Ana de Armas) outside. They claim that they were here for a party, but lost the address to the place and their mobile phones are also dead which left them stranded with nowhere to go.

So, how and where does things take a big turn? :: Evan invites them in, and offers them internet and computer for them to locate the place. They get fresh at his home and he also arranges the closest available driver for them, but that would also take forty five minutes to arrive at his place. The girls make themselves at home, and more is revealed about them. But soon, Evan will come to know another side of them, and it is not really that beautiful as what they seem to be. Almost everything which they had told him would prove to be just lies and nothing else. He almost gets away, but these two won’t stay away until they have their sadistic games imposed on him. There is no hope for him except for Louis who won’t be expecting this kind of trouble.

The defence of Knock Knock :: There is a certain message here in the movie, and there is the next level of morality tale stored inside – the need to resist temptations despite the situation is shown here. Powered by performances and moments of thrill, the movie is an interesting mixture of things; a home invasion movie with a certain amount of dark humour which is present throughout, and a little bit of the erotic side also being there – it also doesn’t go the way of the director’s two most known movies, Hostel and Hostel: Part II. It is a welcome change that we have here, as the environment has been changed, and the blood and gore gets a lot down by a long way. The torture porn does go away this time, and this movie surely has its moments. There is no way that one will end up finding this one not entertaining; that is for sure.

Claws of flaw :: This is another thriller which surely had a lot of scope, and that is not used as one would have wanted. It could have explored the psychological side better, but it decides just to go weird without much of explanations. It also has too much of the ups and downs throughout its run. If you are looking for the erotica elements, that is going to be a disappointment, because it is also rare. A number of scenes also feel repetitive, and without the idea to bring the needed change and variety through the material which has already been used many times in a good number of ways. There was better chance to use the moments in the first half to reach a big climax and finish in the end which is unfortunately not that much there. The Naomi Watts starrer Funny Games from 2007 could do a home invasion thriller with a psychological side better, and You’re Next as well as The Strangers had their own ways of handling the horror with the home invasion!

Performers of the soul :: If you wanted to see Keanu Reeves as the chosen one or in the form of the chaser of demons, you are not going to have that here; this gets not even close, as his character remains hopeless for most of the time. The thoughts of the hero from The Matrix trilogy and Constantine takes the back-seat, as he once again brings a fine performance here as the protagonist completely in distress throughout the movie, starting from a few minutes into it. Never will you see the tendency to go John Wick around here, and there will be no samurai effect. The girls are good, and I would like to mention Ana de Armas more, as she manages to take a certain amount of cuteness to the wicked side; Lorenza Izzo has the evil side working strong in the movie too. I surely had my doubts, but they worked really well here!

How it finishes :: You have to admit that unlike most of the people, both the critics and the general audience had said, this is surely a good one – most of them surely had problems with how things went around with this movie only because they wanted something else, and it is from this strange and somewhat detestable want that the hate for this movie could rise. You have to watch this one to know that the same won’t affect your ability to like this flick. Unlike some mentions here and there, you can’t consider this one horror; for the same, you can look into the recent horror movie reviews including It Follows, The Vatican Tapes, Jessabelle, The Remaining, The Pyramid, The Lazarus Effect and The Woman in Black: Angel of Death; plus there is my personal favourite Gothic horror romance, Crimson Peak.

Release date: 9th October 2015
Running time: 99 minutes
Directed by: Eli Roth
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas, Ignacia Allamand, Aaron Burns, Colleen Camp