PK

Ever eaten pav bhaji on the streets of Bombay?

If yes then ever wonder what makes pav bhaji so special?

If you know the recipe, you also know that it’s a mixture of vegetables with spices that gives it flavor.

In case if you are wondering why I am talking about pav bhaji instead of movie is because the plot reminded me of it.

Too many elements with no head and tail connection and still in the end, gives a feel good movie. That’s PK the movie.

I am wondering about the writers of the movie if they were planning to write a story on alien on earth, a love story, god vs religion or alien and girl from earth love story.

Then again I don’t think it matters as it has been touted as a hit and a majority of the audience seems to consider the movie good overlooking the loop holes and getting caught in the hype.

In Indian movies, the story does not count as long as the movie gives a feel good impression even with a story plot that does not make sense.

A movie by Rajkumar Hirani starring Amir Khan certainly deserves to be of high stature. This one does not make the mark.

The story is about an alien PK (Aamir Khan) who comes to research humans and finds the remote of his spaceship stolen. His search for remote takes him to Delhi and wherein he bumps into Jagat Janini aka Jaggu (Anushka Sharma) who then helps him get his remote and in the process also exposing the godman and making people aware about god and religion.

In the beginning of the movie itself, post the alien lands, the story moves to Anushka and her love story but it get wraps up so quickly in one song that it’s almost blink and miss. Then Anushka moves to Delhi and bumps into Aamir and the actual story begin.

It’s not until the end of the movie that her love story comes alive again. One would wonder why put a love story in the first place if the movie’s theme is going to be on god/religion.

The movie’s first half is completely dominated by Aamir and proves that he is truly class apart.

The second half of the movie lets you down specifically the way the remote was found in the hand of god men. Also the only way to get back the remote was to expose the god man.

It never really shows how and why the godman bought the remote apart from stating that it was delivered from the God. My question is if the locket was a remote then no one tried to fiddle with it considered that it was different.

The movie moves at a pace that keeps you intrigue in the first half and must say the script for certain scenes keeps you hooked till the end.

The movie’s highlight would be Aamir Khan and the witty dialogues that keeps you laughing but this is limited to only certain parts of the movie.

Anushka does pretty well job and Sushant his bit in a small role. Saurabh Shukla shows off his acting prowess as the godman Tapasvi. Boman Irani has been wasted in a minuscule role that does not do justice to him.

The climax of the movie ends with Aamir choosing not to express his love for Anushka. Though she comes to know about his love. She ends up writing a book on him and he comes back again this time with a group for his research.

If you are send on a planet to research, don’t you think there will be someone watching your actions, coordinating and in case of lost, send in a search party. None of which takes place. Intriguing ha?

The best part aliens are always considered to be super intelligent with powers but the alien in theis movie does not come across as one and has only one talent of learning one’s language, thoughts through holding their hands.

The movie draws comparisons with OMG (Oh My God) and I must say OMG fares much better and sends across the message with clarity wherein PK fails.

Would recommend this as a one-time watch and yes watch it for Aamir and Saurabh.

The Equalizer

When you watch Hollywood movies, there are certain genres wherein it fails to deliver anything new.

Action and Thriller will top the list. The plot maybe different but in the end the storyline would end up to be similar if not same.

The Equalizer is no different with nothing new to offer in terms of the plot. It’s like old wine in a new bottle.

The movie is about Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) who works in a home mart hardware store and spends his time reading books in an attempt to complete the reading list compiled by his wife who has passed away.

He befriends with Teri (Chloe Moretz), a prostitute in a dinner who aspires to be a singer but is caught in the wrong job.

One day she ends up in the hospital due to her pimp and Robert decide to take matters in his own hands to make things right.

What are we not told on how easily he was able to kill the bad guys and walk away? It does not stop at that. He ends up beating two cops who were extorting money from shop keepers by threatening them.

What really changes the game, is when he finds his match in Teddy (Marton Csokas), the man send by the mafia kingpin from Russia to clean up the mess created and ensure business as usual.

It does feel a little odd that Teddy has access to the crime scenes and the cops are nowhere to be seen in the movie like they don’t exist.

It becomes a game of cat and mouse between which leads to the revelation that Robert is an ex CIA SOG Paramilitary Operations Officer when he seeks his friends help to find more about Teddy.

No guesses on who wins in the end.  

The movie only highlight is Denzel Washington who seems to carry the movie on his shoulders and makes it worth a watch.

Chloe Moretz is pretty though her role is short. Marton does get the job done.

It is a one-time watch movie. Watch it for Denzel…

Interstellar

When you go to watch a movie on outer space, the only thing that intrigues one’s mind is our imagination. Space that exist outside earth but lived in imagination as very few had the opportunity to go and see it out for themselves.

There have been many movies exploring the space theme and most of them have been about our quest to explore the outer space, life outside earth and survival. Apart from that it has been on to divert/destroy the giant asteroid that will hit the earth.

Apollo 13 was a movie that I recall that showed that situation astronauts have to face when everything goes south.

Recently it was Gravity, another movie on outer space that surely must have scared the hell out of many people imagining to be stuck in space all alone with almost no means to return back to earth.

Interstellar stand apart from all those movies not by its plot but execution as it explores the human emotion within and beyond earth apart for the visual indulgence of outer space.

The movie begins showing earth becoming an inhabitable place for human beings. Dust storm seems to be the main cause along with gravity anomalies that comes across. The armies around the world cease to exist and people resort to farming as food becomes a scarce resource with corps dying out…

Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a pilot turned farmer is the key character who lives his life farming along with children, Tom and daughter Murphy and his father in law Donald. A chance encounter with a space probe and gravity anomaly takes him to the NASA center that was considered to be ceased to exit.

He ends up meeting the father daughter pairing of Professor Brand (Michael Caine) & Dr. Ameila (Anna Hathway). There he comes across mission about finding habitable planet in another galaxy through a wormhole they come across.

To save the planet earth, they need to send spaceship to check for habitable planet through the five people who were sent to different planets.

Cooper chooses to leave behind his life to fight for survival of the human population along with three other including Amelia and two robots. Post that it’s been a journey of uncertainty, survival, faith, love and hope.

Professor Brand though hides the fact that there was no plan to save the people on earth. It was to save the human species by finding a suitable planet and use fertility eggs to start fresh. He connives everyone into thinking that they will able to save the human population by creating gigantic space station but to do that he needs to find a way and to solve that equation he needs additional data that can only sought through a black hole singularity.

Murphy takes the hardest when Cooper goes into space and cuts off all ties with him. She does not even send video message until she old enough of his age and thinks that he is never going to come back again. She works with Professor Brand as his assistant.

In the end, love triumphs everything as Cooper makes a go at the Black hole to provide the data required and his daughter able to decipher the equation to save the human race.

I don’t think anyone without any knowledge of wormhole, blackhole, time slippage and different dimensions is going to understand the movie a bit as it’s assumed that you know…

It touches upon a theme about science that you have heard theoretically and probably in classrooms but never on a movie theatre and visualized in a way that takes the breath away. Nevertheless one cannot predict how accurate the depiction is.

The beginning of the movie is too vague with no clear indication on why earth is becoming an inhabitable place. The audience needs to just understand that it is and due to dust storm and gravity anomaly.

The space probe found belonging to Delhi control mission made me wonder if that was a way to recognize the Indian Space Agency work in outer space.

The visuals of the outer space are stunning that keeps you enthralled giving a boost to your imagination of outer space.

Time slippage along with hours of day varying in different planets has been shown in a way that could be understood.

Matt Damon playing the role of Mann’s one of the people who took on the mission to find habitable planet does justice his role even though a small part.

The human emotion has been beautifully explored in the movie. Like Mann’s desperation for survival that causes him to fudge data in the hope that people will come and rescue him and they did.

Going to the extent of almost killing another human being so that he could fight to live another day as the fear of dying alone in an icy cold planet was not the way he wanted to die.

You will find many such facets of human emotions probed that actually become the highlight of the movie.

The climax of the movie makes me wonder about Tom who is nowhere to be seen. Nor shown what happens to him. The reunion of father and daughter is shown but no mention of his son. Instead Murphy reminds Cooper that Ameila is still out there and he along with a robot steals a shuttle to look for her.

Christopher Nolan has kept the movie on a tight leash as he keeps on bringing surprises to the screen that makes this movie different and stand out.

The movie has its loopholes; it’s for you to decide how to look at it.

Watching the movie, one forgets that its almost three hours long movie.

It’s a must watch movie.

Deliver Us From Evil

This movie has been the third in a row of watching horror movies in this week.

As the title of the movie signifies, it’s a movie about a cop’s encounter with the bad spirits and is supposedly said to be inspired by the true events in the life of New York cop Ralph Sarchie.

The movie revolves around the New York cop who comes across strange cases in his line of duty and finds them to be inter-related.

Even though he is not the one to bite the bait of supernatural powers behind it, a chance encounter with the priest changes it all as he comes across the truth and fights against it as his family gets embroiled.

The movie is tight as far as the plot and direction goes and it keeps you intrigued as the story moves forward.

The priest who looks nothing like one is his partner to help him get rid of the evil spirit that is troubling the neighborhood.

It’s more about the demonic possession than evil in any other form, so it might disappoint the audience if they are looking for a scare that makes them jump out of their seats. The movie though does have its moments.

The movies falls short when the truth is known and post that it’s all about an end to the evil and rescue the family. 

The movie climax fails to live up to the momentum set and yes that disappoints in the end.

The movie is directed by Scott Derrickson and the lead is played by Eric Bana who does justice to the role.

The priest being played by Edgar Ramirez and am just wondering if guys like him become priest then what affect that will have on the women.

The wife role is played by Olivia Munn who looks pretty.

Would recommend it as a one-time watch and if not watch it for Eric Bana.

The Strain: TV Series

Saw the TV series The Strain first season and must say it began in a good way.

The first few episodes were shrouded in mystery which got my attention. The death of all passengers except four in an airline upon landing in the JFK airport. A beautifully carved coffin finding its way into the plane’s cargo and later disappearing in thin air.

The Center of Disease Control (CDC) officials thought it to be an epidemic as they search for answers through the dead bodies when they come across the coffin.

The story revolves around a few main characters in the plot:

• The CDC officer investigating the cause of the deaths and coping with the break-up of his family.
• The Jew who runs the pawnshop and only goal is to defeat evil.
• The German, a true loyalist of his Master and ensure that they succeed in their evil plan.
• The Dying Man, who is powerful and only seeks his immortality at any cost.
• The Thug, trying to making a living by committing petty crimes.
• The Master, the evil spirit that’s out to control the New York city.

The coffin transported to the city happens to be the lair of the Master who has traveled on behest of a dying man desire to attain immortality. Unwittingly he ends up playing in the control of the master putting the entire city at risk.

It’s the Jew who stands between the Master’s plan along with a few accomplices to put an end to it as he shares a past with him.

The series started on a good pace though in between I wondered how the human who were infected ended up being called as vampire. You always see vampires sucking blood out of its victim by its teeth. Here they do it by a tube like organ which could be one or two feet long to suck its blood. My question is why they are called vampires and not any other name especially when people’s perception of vampire has been different.

After a few episodes, I was really wondering what the master was about, but they have hardly revealed anything in the first season. Apart from the encounter of the Holocaust survivor who is out to kill the evil.

There is really a point where one kind of thinks, when there will be an ending given that the concept/story of the series is a straight give away. There is evil spreading across and human spirit is required to stop it.

What got me thinking is how long one can stretch such a concept to probably more than two or three season and that too with the assumption that post killing the master the plot leads to some other mystery that would keep the tv series alive and the viewer’s busy.

The first season has been okay though they have maintained the mystery of the master and its existence. The master not getting killed by the daylight in the last episode does leaves one looking for answers when there are none.

Looking forward for its second season but hope it’s spiced up with more mystery and is not a straight plot that anybody can guess….

The Maze Runner

When you go to watch a movie, it does not matter who the actors are or what the story is about as long as the movie keeps you engrossed.

That is what the movie The Maze Runner is about.

The movie keeps you enthralled all the time. There is not a dull moment where you think what the hell they are showing.

The Maze Runner is a story about a boy with no memory of his past and is brought into a place called Glade with no memories of the past teenaged boys living surrounded by the walls of a maze.

The maze access is only restricted to the runners group. Runners who enter the maze to study it and try to find an exit out of it but it keeps on changing every night and then there are greivers whose stung can kill one. The boys are divided into a set of a group who has been assigned specific tasks to do.

The curiosity of one boy to get out of the maze and the events followed is the theme of the movie. The ending gives a glimpse of the sequel movies that will follow as part of the trilogy.

The movie lead is played by Dylan O’Brien, a talented actor. Those who have watched his TV series Teenwolf should know.

A well directed movie by Wess Ball

If you have watched Resident Evil series and the Hunger Games, then you will realize that the story is on a similar pattern but different treatment.

This is probably the first installment of the trilogy. Based on a book with same name; written by James Dashner. He has also written the two sequel books on it. The Sorch Trials (movie supposed to be released on Sept 2015) and The Death Cure.

He has also written two prequel books The Kill Order and The Fever Code.

The movie has got my attention and yes I am keeping my fingers crossed that the sequel too is this interesting.

Do watch it. Recommended.