ragavacharyar Reviews

Distant (2002)

A wealthy man gets a visit from a poorer relation from the countryside

[16 March 2012]

This movie was very subtle and understated. A rich and lonely man is called upon by a poor relation from his hometown. While they ideally would solve the other's problem, things don't work out that way. The wealthy man appears at first to be very successful and a kind of person that the poorer man would want to emulate, but the appearance begins to fade shortly thereafter. The wealthier man is seen watching programs of significance when he is being watched, but changes to cheap pornos when his guest is not present. The wealthier man also proves to be more callous, both in terms of the treatment of his erstwhile wife as we later find out, and at his meanness in allowing the poorer man to think that he is suspected of theft, when the wealthy man loses and finds a silver pocket watch and fails to mention it to the poorer man as a way to drive him out of his life. The poorer man, despite his lack of cleanliness and education, is more capable of emotion and empathy than the rich man as seen by his compassion for a captured mouse, his love of his mother, and his feeling of indignation at having been accused of a theft he didn't commit. Ultimately the poorer man leaves leaving the rich man alone.

The tension is always under the surface in this film and seldom is the subject of an outburst. In that sense I found it very realistic. A lot is conveyed in this movie without unnecessary dialogue. The viewer is invited to make his own conclusions.

The Girl on the Train (2009)

Insipid Crap

[1/10 · 21 July 2010]

This movie is basically pointless. I was drawn in by the storyline only to find that the movie meanders on for some 80-85 minutes or so in the 'les circonstances' except that there really aren't a lot of circumstances that add up to what the protagonist does. Afterward, the protagonist cuts herself a little, draws a few swastikas on herself and says she's been a victim of a hate crime. Her mom knows its not true as her daughter, the protagonist, claims she was attacked because the lawyer Blestein's card was found in her bag (it turns out that Blestein didn't believe in business cards and didn't print any). Then Blestein and the girl's mom try to get the daughter to confess to what she had done. She does, gets a suspended sentence and is seen rollerblading again. What a pointless movie.

The Making of the Mahatma (1996)

Great for the most part

[8/10 · 6 February 2008]

The movie chronicles Gandhi's life from his initial departure to South Africa in the 1890s till his return in the late teens. The movie is great for the most part. Instead of putting Gandhi on a pedestal like the Attenborough film does, it shows Gandhi more as a human being, and shows how an ordinary man came to become a hero to his people. The movie also shows how Gandhi sacrificed his family to ascend to become a leader of his people. The book faithfully follows incidents outlined in Gandhi's autobiography, and is perhaps for this reason a bit wooden. Wooden in the sense that the characters seem like caricatures rather than having the full depth of emotions that a person would normally have. This is a problem generally with many biopics in that they fashion a script from an official record and lose some of the human character in the process. Some of the statements made by Gandhi seem like grandstanding when Gandhi just utters them out of the blue in reaction to a complicated issue without any serious reflection (since some of this is a dramatization of things actually written by Gandhi, it appears funny when Gandhi out of the blue spurts out some language that seems awfully esoteric and philosophical) Some of the extras don't appear to act with genuine enthusiasm either. Getting beyond this, the movie does a good job of showing the fear and injustice which awaited Indians in South Africa in much more stark terms than other movies, and did a good job of showing realistically the creating of a social movement. Thumbs up to Mr. Benegal, a fine filmmaker for another fine movie.

Pinjar (2003)

Awesome Film

[9/10 · 19 July 2007]

I was very fond of this film. It kept me guessing till just before the very end what would happen. One of the better movies about the partition that I have seen. Urmila Matondkar is gorgeous too. This is one of the most personal and down-to-earth films I've seen on the partition. It's a little less mainstream than Gadar, and is really an emotional roller coaster where you start out with one opinion of what is going on, and come out completely one the other side. This isn't typical bollywood fare, but rather an art-house type film. The best part of this movie is that it doesn't dehumanize one side of the partition conflict when focusing on the story of another. It doesn't blame or castigate but rather lets you draw your own conclusions about things.

American Blend (2006)

Contrived, Wooden acting, stock stereotypes

[4/10 · 19 July 2007]

I agree with the other posters that the husband and wife played their roles well. Other than that this movie was rubbish. It tried to be something interesting and provocative, but instead suffered from a lack of any meaningful plot, characters which one has a hard time sympathizing with, unrealistic Decalogue (give me a break, some of the conversations the characters have is so unnatural and ridiculous), and seemingly pointless side action. I can't believe someone said that this movie was better than American Desi. That movie was a lot better than this by leaps and bounds and portrayed the Indian-American experience somewhat more realistically, at least as per the reality that I have experienced. If you want a movie about the Indian American Experience try American Chai, American Desi, The Namesake, or Leela, but this is on the level of Fillum Star, Banana Brothers, and other similar movies long since forgotten.

Delwende (2005)

African Social Realism

[8/10 · 12 February 2007]

This is another fine film from Burkina Faso that deals with the conflict between tradition and modernity and while not deprecating either, shows the need for social change from within society without following Western models of change. Much of the film, according to the director, is actually real footage and the characters are very real. That adds something to it. Especially the visit to the witches' asylum, all of that was real, and heartbreaking. The village scenes and the conflicts early in the movie show that traditional cultures have their positive aspects as well as their negative, and prevent romantic notions of tradition, while the scenes depicting urban disaffection in Ouagadougou show the continuing relevance of the traditional in providing safety and belonging in society.

Rang De Basanti (2006)

Good but not entirely believable

[7/10 · 23 January 2007]

This movie was a rather good movie that portrayed the traditionalist/modernist divide among Indians and among the Indian Diaspora well. I liked the message of the movie and how it tried to portray that the deeds and heroism of Bhaghat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and others is not something best committed to the history books but rather a living spirit of rebellion that still has meaning today. It seems people take for granted the heroic deeds of the characters of the independence movement and see little relevance of these people to today's India. This movie shows the continuing relevance of these heroic characters in modern times. I think the assumption of the roles in reality of the 5 college students is a bit unbelievable. I mean just how quickly it happened and how quickly they decided to do what they did seemed to be a bit hasty and go beyond the willing suspension of disbelief a bit, but it was an entertaining movie just the same. Not a 10, or something of unbelievable insight and depth, but a valuable commentary and interesting movie.

Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (1998)

An excellent Movie

[10/10 · 12 December 2006]

This was really an excellent movie that shows the birth of a class warrior, a revolutionary from the suppression of his mother within his home. The intimate oppression of women seems to lead the young man to take up the cause of the oppressed in joining the Naxalites until his death. The other interesting angle, is the conversion of his mother into an activist when she learns more about the deeds of her son. This is a really great movie.

You can't compare the USSR and China to the Naxalites. The ills of Chinese and Russian communism came in their attempt to enforce a status quo after they had achieved victory rather than a revolutionary movement yet to achieve success that engaged in revolutionary violence to liberate the oppressed. Perhaps if the Naxalites had won, they'd have eventually also become a tyrannical status quo, but to say this would be to engage in some rather speculative pseudo-history that might not take into account, small but essential differences between these various Marxist revolutionary movements.

Did the naxalites kill? sure they did. What about the landlords and upper castes who oppress the peasants? Do they not commit violence too? The Naxalites killed landlords and oppressors of the people who got their justly deserved end. Peaceful methods have never been very successful at resolving class conflict. JP Narayan and Vinoba Bhave's movements never really alleviated much of the suffering of the rural peasantry. The Naxalites gave them a way to fight back against their oppressors, a movement dedicated to the liberation of the oppressed. I was very happy to see a movie on this subject.

Sardar (1993)

Average

[5/10 · 12 December 2006]

I was very intrigued to watch a movie about the strong man of India, but found the movie to be a bit lackluster. I think this is due to the fact that the editing is so choppy and the film doesn't transition well from scene to scene. The film has its good moments and doesn't completely miss the mark, as there are some scenes that reveal a bit about the man, Vallabhai Patel, but other than that this is almost like a recitation of facts on film about his life, without much reference to why these scenarios are important. This isn't obtuse in the way that films sometimes willfully are to leave some things to the viewers imagination, but rather is just not all that well done. Anyway, if you're interested in Sardar Patel, it's worth a view, but it's no Legend of Bhaghat Singh, or Gandhi for sure.