ഷട്ടർ (Shutter) (2012)

Director: Joy Mathew
Writer:    Joy Mathew
Cast:       Lal, Vinay Forrt, Sreenivasan, Sajitha Madathil
Language: Malayalam

The film portrays unexpected incidents happening in two days and a night in the city of Kozhikode. The story centers around the mess created by three mean - a Gulf Malayali, an auto driver and a film director. As can be seen from the poster above, it involves a prostitute as well and the title of the film is not derived from the camera mechanism, but from a room whose shutter is down and locked.

I went into the film without knowing anything about the story and was expecting a murder mystery or something like that. In a way that helped because the expectation of a murder and things going out of hand helps in enjoying the film even more as it turns out to be more of a satirical-thriller in the mould of Alphonse Putharen's 'Neram'. He was rumored to direct a Hindi remake of the film after 'Neram', but the project fell through. Lal plays the role of the Muslim Gulf Malayali, who is perturbed by the manners of his teenage daughter and decides to arrange for her engagement. Usually, Muslims have their 'Mundu' tied towards the left and are teetotalers but he is just the opposite. His drinking buddies are some of his 'friends' from the neighborhood and they are portrayed as the leeching kind which is very typical for NRIs in Kerala. They are there for the drinks and in exchange they will flatter the guy during the drinking session while behind his back they will be gossiping about him. Their drinking session takes place in the empty shop room that the protagonist owns just in front of his house. Vinay Forrt plays the role of his trusted Auto-rickshaw driver who also masquerades as the procurer of alcohol, a common phenomena in Kerala. The NRI gets locked up inside his shop-room with a prostitute and the film follows whether he can escape from it without harming his reputation in town. It works very well as a satire on typical middle class hypocrisies and false moralities in Kerala. 

Overall the film is a very good watch and the director achieves a fine balance between it being a thriller and satire. Things could have easily gone sideways if he chose to end it with violence and some shit moral message but he opts to go in a different direction. What really helps is the casting of Lal, who is now kind of type-cast playing negative rough roles and in the initial parts of the film his character is given that treatment. So we kind of expect a doomed violence that never quite happens in the film. Vinay Forrt is also excellent in his role as the auto driver and is the character through which every other ones connect. Sreenivasan plays a typical 'Sreenivasan' role from recent times. Sajitha Madathil, who made her name as a theater artist, plays the role of the prostitute and this is her second film.

Some minor points to complain about would be a totally unnecessary connection between the film director character and the prostitute which happens during the final scene of  the film. It is as if Malayalam films should have a cheap twist towards the end and I really get pissed off when I see that. I just feel it is just disingenuous without adding anything to the film since the probability of all the characters having multiple connections between them is just too convoluted. Another minor quibble could be that, there was no need for that conversation between the NRI guy and his daughter towards the end which comes across as a very  unsubtle social message. It was quite obvious from the get-go regarding who will open the door after the phone-call mistake. He could have just chose to convey it in an ambiguous manner with some knowing looks between the characters and by having the NRI dude just change his decision on his daughter's future. And the last criticism would be there are these imagined scenes which works as twists, like him going back to the house to face hostilities, and I just think it is another one of these cheap tricks. But all that said, it is a very good watch. It was remade into Marathi by V.K. Prakash recently and is also getting made in Tamil. I don't think a Hindi remake by Alphonse Puthran would have worked very well because I imagine it to be very similar in tone to 'Ek Chalis Ki Last Local' and what made the film work very well for me in Malayalam was the casting of Lal and the threat of violence that he offers. Shutter was Joy Mathew's directorial debut and his love for Kozhikode is apparent in the film, even though it is a bit jarring sometimes, especially the love-in for autowallahs.

Rating: 3.5/5

                                                                         

Tabu (2012)

Director: Miguel Gomes
Writers:  Miguel Gomes, Mariana Ricardo
Cast:       Telmo Churro, Miguel Gomes, Hortencillo Aquina
Language: Portugeese

A restless retired woman teams up with her deceased neighbor's maid to seek out a man who has a secret connection to her past life as a farm owner at the foothill of Mount Tabu in Africa. It is filmed in black and white and title of the film is a reference to F. W. Murnau's silent film with the same name, Tabu.

I think this is the first Portuguese film that I have ever watched. I saw it after seeing its name in the Indiewire list of 50 best films from this decade and I think I have seen it mentioned elsewhere as well. It is basically a very simple story that is elevated to a higher level by the way it is told. There is a significant prologue to it before it gets into the main story. Film begins with an abstract scene from Africa about the suicide of an explorer, hoping for a better future, after the death of his wife. Then it cuts to present day Portugal and the protagonist for this segment is the kind retired woman, Pilar. Her neighbor, Aurora, stays with a black maid appointed by her neglectful daughter. Aurora is paranoid and behaves pretty much in the manner that old people close to death would do. She mumbles things about her crocodile in Africa and writes an address and hands it to Pilar when she falls sick. Pilar seeks out and meet the old man mentioned in the address and by the time they reach the hospital, Aurora dies. Then the old man narrates their connection from Africa and turns out that there was more to Aurora than meets the eyes. They had an adulterous relationship in Africa and rest of the story is basically about that. It might sound a bit Bollywoodish and bit like fucking Titanic, but it is a great strange watch. It is shot very much like a silent film with the story largely told through narration in stead of actual dialogs. Some people might be put off by the initial segments of the film but I do think that made the film special since you are not sure where it is going. The contrast between Aurora from the present and the past is so stark, not just in terms of age, and that made the film stand out for me as there is an element of playing with our expectations.

Overall it is a great and unique film. It is not a political film and doesn't try to make a statement about colonialism in any significant sort of way. I saw some criticism for it regarding that, which is utter lunacy as every film doesn't have to be political or with some social message. It is a simple story of love which is told in such a manner that the adulterous nature of it is not made out to feel like cheating in any sort of way. Nobody is portrayed in a bad light and everything happens in a matter of fact way except for the two central characters who feel guilty. It won 'Silver Bear for a feature that opens new perspectives' at the Berlin Film Festival 

Rating: 4/5

                                                                   

Four Horsemen (2012)

Director: Ross Ashcroft
Writer:    Ross Ashcroft
Features: Noam Chomsky, Joseph Stiglitz, Herman Daly

Documentary takes a look at the systemic issues concerned with the form of capitalism pursued by Western Democracies, mainly United States of America. It criticizes the system of fractional reserve banking, debt-based economy and political lobbying by banks and corporations and regards them as a threat to Western civilization.

I first encountered the Biblical concept of 'Four Men of the Apocalypse' when Liverpool fans made a banner on this theme during the fight against the American owners of the club, Tom Hicks & George Gillett. In the banner both of them were depicted along with the CEO, Christian Purslow, and Chairman, Sir Martin Broughton, with question marks over the last two.

In the end the latter two proved useful in ousting the owners but Purslow, who referred to himself as Fernando Torres of Finance, was culpable in getting rid of Rafa Benitez and bringing in Roy Hodgson as the manager of the club and playing Fifa Manager with the club playing squad. 

In this documentary the four horsemen of apocalypse are: Financial sector which is acting as a parasite, wars being fought in the name of War on Terror and democratic evangelism, poverty and resource crunch due to consumption driven economic growth model. Systemic issues that exist in US economy coupled with its political system, which is driven by campaign contribution and lobbying, is known to people who pays attention to these things and the documentary will be good watch for those who are not familiar with those problems. Many documentaries have been made with similar theme, like The Corporation, but a common problem with them is that they just end up as an outright attack on Capitalism without any solution. This documentary is aware about that and includes a statement that people will criticize it as an advocacy for Socialism. Capitalism have won the battle against socialism and documentary makers embraces it by advocating it, but wants a return to classical economics model, instead of the neo-classical model unleashed under Reagan and Thatcher, and a return to Gold Standard instead of the Fiat system. I don't personally agree with the latter proposal of a return to Gold standard. Fiat currency model is better and fractional reserve banking system can work with the right kind of regulations. Problem is that the elite are shoving down our throats the idea that capitalism means deregulation and always manage to implement a system of 'Socialism for the rich and Capitalism for the poor', the best example of it being the bank bailout during the sub-prime crisis. It is moral hazard to bail out the poor by writing off debt but it is apparently not when you bail out big banks which failed in managing its risk or worse who knowingly made loans which they knew were never gonna get repaid but was fine with it since they were gonna get bailed out anyway during a financial crisis.

The version I saw was 99 minutes long and apparently there is an official 144 minutes long official version of it. Overall the version I saw was a very good watch even though I don't agree it with entirely, especially the solution that it offers. I wonder what the extra 45 minutes of it contains. Another part of solution that it offers is change in the taxation policy to reform the current form which helps in wealth preservation of elite. It proposes abolition of the concept of income tax and instead proposes that taxation should be based on consumption. Also the rentier economy things like land, natural resources etc should be taxed heavily so that inequality is reduced by preventing concentration of wealth. I broadly agree with this and find taxation of land based on its market value can also provide a solution for usage of land as a way of hiding black money in economies like India. Instead of trying to tax when transfer of ownership takes place, you tax the owner instead, every year, based on the value of land he owns. 

The documentary is not as compelling as the ones done by Adam Curtis since it largely features number of intellectuals explaining things for you. Adam Curtis have handled all these things but he did it over several different documentaries and you need to watch all of them to get a full picture. So this documentary has its place by providing a useful synopsis for people who have not seen anything similar prior to this. But I definitely recommend Adam Curtis documentaries for everyone, especially Pandora's Box, Century of the Self, The Power of Nightmares, The Trap and Bitter Lake. The Youtube video titled 'Money as Debt' is also a very good watch for people who are not familiar with fractional reserve banking.

Rating: 3.5/5

                                                                           

ライク・サムワン・イン・ラブ (Like Someone in Love) (2012)

Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Writer:    Abbas Kiarostami
Cast:       Rin Takanashi, Tadashi Okuno, Ryo Kase
Language: Japanese

In Tokyo, sociology student Akiko moonlights as a high-end prostitute while her relatively cruder boyfriend is suspicious. One night she is assigned to Takashi, a very old university professor, who is more interested in companionship rather than sex. The next day, while he drops off Akiko at the university, he meets the boyfriend who mistakes him for her grandfather. He offers some advise for the young boy which he thinks will help them both in their relationship and all three of them have a bonding like session in the car.

It is Kiarostami's first feature film in Japanese after his foray into making a French film with 'Certified Copy'. I guess he is doing it so that he could express himself better by handling subjects that Iranian films won't entertain. He might have chosen Japan so that he would get a quite Westernized country, where there is legalized prostitution, while at the same time holding traditional Asian family values at least outside the big towns. Akiko's grandmother is visiting Tokyo that day and wants to meet her. Akiko is reluctant because she knows that her grandmother is also suspicious about her activities having seen posters of her in the railway station. Her handler forces her to attend to her next assignment and she is quite surprised to see a very old person waiting for her. The film proceeds at an elderly pace and because of that the ending can seem very abrupt leaving you scratching your head wondering what exactly was the point. The ending kind of reminded me of Michael Haneke films, especially Cache. The point I guess would be the generation gap between the grandfather like figure and the couple he encounters. The boy is somewhat patriarchal, harking back to older times, and he is kind of caught up between the two Japans. His idea of marriage is to have the right to have more control over her. Akiko seems quite adept at playing the Metro girl after moving there from her small town. Professor seems estranged from his family and has opted for Akiko because of the similarity in appearance to his family. All of them are under some form of alienation.

I encounter Tokyo mostly through Japanese films from Takeshi Kitano and Takashi Miike and both of them portray the seedier side of the city. So it was quite a refreshing change to see the beautiful side of it in Kiarostami's sedate film. It is a great watch and very beautiful to look at. Language can get in the way when directors handle a foreign language film and it did seem that the Japanese sounded bit different in the film, slower and less shriller. Since I don't know the language it didn't affect me in anyway but it would be interesting to see how it was received in Japan.

Rating: 4/5

                                                                      

To Rome with Love (2012)

Director: Woody Allen
Writer:    Woody Allen
Cast:       Woody Allen, Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Alec Baldwin, Penelope Cruz, Roberto Bengini, Greta Gerwig, Judy Davis

The lives of some visitors and residents of Rome and the romances, adventures and predicaments they get into. There are four story lines with two of them involving predominantly English speaking cast and another two involving solely Italian speaking characters.

Vicky Christina Barcelona was set in Spain, it is kind of obvious where 'Midnight in Paris' was set in and with 'To Rome With Love' it seemed as if Woody Allen is continuing his European sojourn. 'Midnight In Paris' is his best output from recent times and could very well be put along with his all time best works in a career that has spanned about forty five years as we speak.  Out of the three films listed, his ode to the Eternal City Rome, is definitely the weakest. I found the two English speaking stories to be really good and funny whereas the Italian speaking ones were really boring with Woody Allen going for a slap-stick approach. It was also a bit disconcerting to see Woody Allen play play a bit-part role in an ensemble cast film because his acting style doesn't lend itself well when he is not there in the film throughout. Alec Baldwin's character is used in a fly-in-the-wall fashion with the characters in that story-line talking to him in what can be called a not quite breaking the fourth wall method. This story strand is the most interesting out of the lot with all the pseudo-intellectual talk and excellent performances from Eisenberg and Ellen Page. Getting to be a celebrity or presence of a celebrity is common to all story-lines.

Overall it is decent enough watch without being all that good. Towards the end it kind of drags it out in all the four individual stories and the film overstays its welcome. If you want to watch just a great film from recent times set in Rome, then I would recommend Paolo Sorrentino's 'La Grande Belezza'.

Rating: 2.5/5

                                                                      

The Master (2012)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer:    Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast:       Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Laura Dern

A naval veteran Freddie (Phoenix) arrives home from the second world war unsettled and uncertain of his future-until he is tantalized by The Cause and its charismatic leader, Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman). Dodd is attracted to Freddie initially by the drink that he gives him which is made out of several industrial/household chemicals like Paint thinner. For Freddie it is a case of someone who is actively being interested in him and also it might be a case of him liking an authoritative figure around him. 

I had seen it when it got released and found it to be good but requiring multiple viewing to appreciate it more. It took me three viewings to fully appreciate P T Anderson's previous one, 'There Will Be Blood'. I finally got round to watching The Master again after listening to Anderson's interview with Marc Maron in the WTF podcast. When the film got released, most of the publicity it got was because of Lancaster Dodd's character being based on the Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. I am not that interested in that particular comparison mainly because we in India are so familiar with all these God Men/Women like figures and 'Art of Living' fraudsters. So it was better for me to view Dodd as such a generic sort of character and the conflicts that he goes through keeping with his lies is an interesting angle. I do think most of these people are just living their lies rather than actually believing in the kind of shit that they come out with.

Both Dodd and Freddie need each other. Dodd is surrounded by his family members and the cult. Some of the family members like his much younger wife, daughter and son-in-law are very much into the cult either being fully bought into it or as a matter of convenience. His son is of the view that Dodd is just making up shit as he go along and Freddie is also under that impression even though he want it to be the other way. When Dodd's wife warns him of Freddie being a negative influence and not really into the cult, he makes him go through the ridiculous programming process and we see how conflicted Freddie is when doing it. There could also be a homo-erotic angle to their relationship but sometimes they come across as a father-son combo or just friends. Freddie needs him but can't put up with all the other bullshit that comes with Dodd. Dodd needs Freddie to escape from the cult he is surrounded with, at least fleetingly.

Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead continues his collaborative partnership with P T Anderson which started with 'There Will Be Blood'. It is a 'tour de force' acting performance with all three of them earning academy award nominations. Film was shot in 70 mm which has become a sort of fad with Tarantino and Christopher Nolan also joining the bandwagon. They have at least saved Kodak with some of the studios guaranteeing a quota of films to be filmed in the traditional way. To sum up, I still find the film to be something that I admire rather than really love. That was the case with 'There Will Be Blood' also before the third viewing changed it to something that I love. To end it on a tragic note, Philip Seymour Hoffman had his first drink in 23 years at the wrap party of the film, leading to a relapse of his alcoholism.

Rating: 4.5/5 

                                                                      

The Gatekeepers (2012)

Director: Dror Moreh

A documentary featuring interviews with all surviving former heads of Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency whose activities and membership are closely held state secrets. Shin Bet is one of three principal organizations of the Israeli Intelligence community with the other two being Mossad (foreign intelligence) and Aman (military intelligence). 

Documentary follows the history of Israel-Palestine conflict post 1967 six-day war. First half of it poses the moral and ethical issues regarding their operations and techniques which I didn't find that interesting. The interviewer, who adopts the Errol Morris style of being invisible, don't ask really meaningful questions and seem to concentrate much on what seemed to be a silly issue of captured bombers getting killed by the army personnel. It seems that bus bombing incident was a big issue in Israel and to be fair the documentary is mainly aimed at the Israeli people so that they get a different perspective regarding the whole issue. The second half of documentary is much more interesting as it deals with resistance from some sections of the Israeli society regarding the peace process. They are instigated largely by some batshit crazy Rabbis (Religion, who would have thunk) who don't mind an all out war since they think it is essential for their prophet, as per the scripture, to emerge. Now the situation is such that there is no progress regarding the peace process and one of the former heads conclude that Israel is following the tragic path of 'Winning all the battles but losing the war'. Israel is at its peak in terms of relative power with respect to other powers in the region. It is for their own good to initiate the peace process and reach a solution considering their geographic location. They simply cannot keep such a large population under occupation in the long term when that population can't see a solution to their plight emerging. 

Everyone has an opinion on the Israeli-Palestine conflict and the following is mine, for what it is worth. Countries are made and the borders are established always on the back of bloodshed. It is naive to think that it isn't so and Israel is no different. People go on about the unfairness regarding the formation of Israel, well that is how it played out and we cannot do anything about it now. Statehood of Palestine is almost universally accepted now and it seems the only feasible solution (despite the impracticality of it being another version of West and East Pakistan considering the locations of Gaza and West Bank). It is up to Israel  to take the initiative since it is in their own interest to do so because at some point of time in the future, the backlash against its policies will dominate over the guilt/sympathy that the developed world have regarding the holocaust. I am not absolving Palestine but they at least have the excuse of being occupied. That said, I find people comparing the body count on both sides as some proof for Israel committing genocide against the Palestinians. Its not their fault that Iron Dome is so damn effective now.

Overall the documentary is a good watch if you already have some background regarding the whole issue. To quote Yeshayahu Leibowtiz, which is used in the documentary:

"Rule over the occupied territories would have social repercussions.  After a few years there would be no Jewish workers or Jewish farmers.  The Arabs would be the working people and the Jews the administrators, inspectors, officials, and police—mainly secret police.  A state ruling a hostile population of 1.5 to 2 million foreigners would necessarily become a secret-police state, with all that this implies for education, free speech, and democratic institutions.  The corruption characteristic of every colonial regime would also prevail in the state of Israel.  The administration would have to suppress Arab insurgency on the one hand and acquire Arab Quislings on the other.  There is also good reason to fear that the Israel Defense Force, which has been until now a people's army, would, as a result of being transformed into an army of occupation, degenerate, and its commanders, who will have become military governors, resemble their colleagues in other nations.Out of concern for the Jewish people and its state we have no choice but to withdraw from the territories and their population of one and a half million Arabs."

Rating: 3.5/5 

Islam: The Untold Story (2012)

Writer: Tom Holland

Islam: The Untold Story is a Channel 4 documentary film written and presented by English novelist and popular Historian Tom Holland. It explores the origins of Islam, another one of those Abrahamic religions, that originated in Arabia in the seventh century. It takes a critical look at the orthodox Islamic account of its history claiming that it lacks sufficient supporting evidence.

I am an atheist and is of the view that a  person's belief in any fancy God or some religion should be a personal matter that should be left in their personal space. If you are prepared to take it to a public sphere and start interfering in matters that start to affect other people's lives, then you should be prepared to face up to the scrutiny that would entail. I see no difference between the scrutiny that these people should come under to the one that politicians are subjected to since both are handling power, which is a very dangerous thing. I wrote all this to make the case that questioning the historical evidence regarding what people are propagating in the name of God and religion is fair game since it is not just a matter of faith for us non-believers.

The Arab empire which came up during the waning years of the Christian Roman empire and Persian empire is something that has been credited with spreading Islam as a religion and even the conquest has been compared to as an 'Act of God'. What the documentary attempts to answer is whether it was Islam that spawned the Arab empire or is it another one of those case when the empire actually created the religion to consolidate the power and keep people united. This has precedence in history with the Roman Empire using Christianity for the same. Bible was commissioned and consolidated by the order of King Constantine who lived during the fourth century, around 300 years after the death of Jesus, if at all he existed. The documentary looks for evidence of Muhammad, The Prophet, as well as Mecca during the early days of Arabic conquest. The first evidence that comes up is in a coin issued by one of the kings fighting for leadership of the empire around hundred years after the supposed death of Muhammad. The presenter proposes that it was the empire that spawned the religion to keep it all together. As for Qur'an, unlike Bible it is very hard to pin down the places that it mentions which prompts the presenter to conclude that it is either a collection of texts written by different people or it is a deliberate attempt to remain ambiguous regarding the historical evidence. 

Overall Tom Holland manages to convey the confusion regarding his attempt at giving a historical examination to the whole thing. He presents the evidences that he could find upholding the skepticism that is the necessary characteristic for academic studies. Documentary when it aired got criticism from the expected quarters. 

Rating: 4/5 

Akam (2012)

Director: Shalini Usha Nair
Writer:    Shalini Usha Nair
Cast:       Fahad Fazil, Anumol
Language: Malayalam

The film is an adaptation of Malayattoor Ramakrishnan's classic psycho-thriller novel 'Yakshi' but set in modern times. It features a young architect Sreeni who starts suspecting that his beautiful wife Raagini is a yakshi (Ghost). 

In what was a pleasant surprise, this is a film which takes the intelligence of audience for granted and doesn't spoon feed you with details. Good that they didn't compromise on it as it wouldn't have met with commercial success even otherwise. It is ironic that the film was produced by Box Office Cinema as there was no cat in hell's chance of it being a box office hit.

The protagonist who was an eligible bachelor before his face got disfigured in a car accident. He is coming into terms with it and meets his future wife under mysterious circumstances. Without knowing much about her he ends up getting married to her even as he feels uncomfortable with the way in which they met. He latches onto the idea said in jest by his boss that she must be a ghost. I suspect it is a deliberate falsehood that he preferred to be true over the possibility that she was a prostitute. He later go on to call a prostitute to his home from a number he finds in a seedy place which I think was near the place he first met Raagini. The insecurity over his appearance is clear in their first meeting itself when he makes her see his plush apartment. Even his boss gives a Freudian explanation for the dream he is having about a lighthouse. Towards the end when he harms his wife by nailing her, his neighbor turns up first whom he mistakenly calls by his boss' name. Don't know whether it a deliberate error to suggest us something about things that he imagined.

The film is a technical brilliance when it comes to visuals and sounds. Trivandrum never looked this good. There is a scene in which Sreeni puts his disfigured face near the running treadmill belt and the scene cuts to pelting rain. I hope the film gets the recognition it deserves when the channels screen it but it is really a mood piece that should be enjoyed without ad-breaks.

Rating: 5/5