Green Zone (English)

film description
Had to recommend this movie after discussing Syriana. Green Zone is a similar movie of control. The US have urged the world to attack Iraq and eliminate WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) which is but an illusion.

There is no WMD in Iraq. Parallely the US are restoring democracy by introducing a puppet as the President. Matt Daemon is the Chief Warrant Officer who is tasked with finding the locations of the WMDs. Every site that he is ordered to investigate turns out to be a dead-end. why is he given the wrong intel on every mission ?

The truth is slowly revealed of how there are no WMDs in Iraq. The real reason has been to setup a puppet government for Iraq using WMDs as camouflage.

The truth well told !

Syriana (English)

film description
You get to learn how the CIA is the puppet master of the middle east. In the words of one of the characters, Prince Nasir "The US does not want Iran to become democratic. They want to control the oil." The Prince can potentially become the Emir of Iran and then sell oil to China instead of US. He is a target to be killed.

The plot of the movie is to show the cause and effect of the Merger of 2 big Oil companies. The merger itself is not the issue. The main problem is once this US merged company gets oil from Iran, does the economy of Iran benefit. Not until the puppet master controls them. Iran is not allowed to prosper as long as they milked for Oil.

The CIA gets cheap Oil for US by controlling the Emir. The next Emir is neatly positioned by the agency using the strife between the princes and royalty of Iran.

The story is the star here. The heavy casting are a neatly woven ensemble that makes great story telling. Had to see it with subtitles to understand the big picture.

Dream Girls (English)

film description
An interesting musical about the dreams of 3 talented girls and their hopes to record hit songs. The lyrics and the music has captured the temperament of the 70s perfectly.

There are many twist and turns in music that leave you wanting more. I actually liked Eddie Murphy in his role of a R&B star. He keeps your attention with his antics.

The girls sang wonderfully especially the lead singer of the group - Effie White (Jennifer Hudson). The music composition for almost all the songs were fantastic.

Watch it ! you won't be musically disappointed.

Clockwise (English)

film description

A true british comedy. Very well structured. Its one of the movies where it ends like a huge snowball down a mountain. Thats right ! a big avalanche of comedies ...

I've laughed quite a bit through the movie and loved the characters eccentricities. One being his constant rehearsal of his speech. His thoughts are intertwined with the speech.

Which always begin with "This is a historical moment ... (referring to his appointment as the Chairperson of the Head Masters Conference) I have come a long way, (correcting his thoughts about the long journey to the Conference )no, I have to go a long way ..."

Its a british movie which I managed to get from the British Council Library.

Udaan (Hindi)

film description

Its been some time since I've seen a movie that deals with emotions so well. A similar movie would be Tare Zameen Par. Udaan is without any well known stars like Amir Khan. The Story itself is the star here. Having lived 2 years in a boarding school, I find it easy to connect with movies dealing with kids growing up in such places.

The core of the movie is about Freedom. All through the movie Rohan (main character) finds it hard to convince his father of his need to be loved rather than disciplined.

Rohan is rather free at the begining of the movie,where he enjoys his life at the Bishops Cotton boarding school in Shimla. He is found watching a porn movie at a theatre with his buddies. Rohan and his buddies get expelled from school and sent home. Home is in fact a place where he feels out of place. A paradox in itself. He comes home after 8 years and is met by a 6 year old boy - his step brother Arjun.

Slowly the 2 boys draw strength from each while they are subjected to discipline by their father. The most cruel thing in this world I feel is when some one is forced to do things under authority. Rohan is a poet and has aspirations to write anything - stories,essays,poems. The first time he looses his freedom is the loss of his mother. The result of which was being subjected to a boarding school at the same age as Arjun.

Rohan soon realizes that his father is incapable of being reasonable. He decides to leave home and join his buddies in Bombay, where they have joined together to run a restaurant. Rohan decides to leave his home and join the friends whom he has known all his life. This is the most touching part of the story, where he actually returns back for Arjun, who is being packed off to Bishop Cottons school by the father.

Rohan tells Arjun, that where ever he goes, he's going to take him along.