AND JUSTICE FOR ALL(1979)

For someone who devoured the novels of John Grisham with mouth watering appetite ,this courtroom flick is nothing but a tribute to maestro ...Al Pachino just makes me gape at his bloody gesticulation..
This man is so good..
I saw him in scent of a woman and he was awesome with his character of a cynical soigné visually challenged retired colonel...
“too tired,too old ,too fucking blind” he said..
Not a bit..
I lumped when he cheered a motley of soccer players with his awe-inspiring monologue in Any Given Sunday that makes “70 minutes” of our Kabeer khan of Chak de look so platitudinal..
So here he is again towering above all with his moral-oozing , high on ethics portrayal of lawyer Arther Kirkland of Baltimore caught in a dilemma when he is entrusted with the job of defending the judge he despises ...
Now in the words of his ladylove who again happens to be a member of the Arther scanning club he got to defend his client to the best of his ability ...
No matter what!!!!
that nitty-gritty of law-sphere was beyond me...
no respite on bed even...poor Aurther.
Well the movie was all about telling justice is not that simple a concept and between the lines of penal-code many lives get ruined for want of better judgement ,better discretion,better arguments..
And the consequences are far more tragic..when the law of land gets after you, you have to be a dawood or osama to ditch the lambe haath or better still ..become the lawmaker...
Think of it.. one of the innocent , sentenced for some technical glitch in his appeal was raped in the cell..
Don’t trust what Kiran Bedi blurts out as prison reforms ..its hell..
So for all the friends I wish a prison free life..if at all you commit a crime ..make sure you don’t get caught..if eventually you do get caught run like hell..its better living a life on run than serving your time in prison ..:P
Ohh..BTW screenplay was quite good..funny antics of his friends were really amusing

PS: prisonwise If Tomorrow Comes will make a good read..

ILLUSIONIST(2006)

Well, the thing that stands out is not Jessica biel’s beauty(no she doesn’t look million bucks and she doesn’t get a single wow moment... ) not cop Uhl’s not so mentionable act ,not crown –prince’s timely histrionics(to give the devil his due few of his authoritative blabs and late democracy bashing is passable) .....its the eyes..
At this point i risk sounding gay but hollywood’s answer to our KK menon could be none other than
Edward Norton...
Story hinges on the art and love of a magician who returns to the city of his doom where class disparities nipped his amorous voyage...15 years later our ordinary joe (wait...we are told he could get decent card magic and arcane pendent design back then) returns to the girl’s city and his magic seems to rub the girls fiancée on the wrong side...
Now the fiancé is no lame chic –charmer but the crown prince who carries the ignominy of lady hunting and our hero is supposed to vanish in thin air with his girl...

movie’s climax comes with the requisite surprise in the otherwise poetic justice (lame) ending..

MUNICH(2005)

Eric bana not just puts on an accent ..
as a Mossad protaganist,he brings out the mortality and vulnerability of the person caught in the chord of a never ending war ..
Avner(Bana) is entrusted with the job of eliminating 11 masterminds of
the 1972 Munich massacre that rocked the sporting cradle..
shown as a staunch family man ,Aver lies exposed to subtle patriotic appeal
Orchestrated by the prime minister and generals
.moved by the enormity of the attack, aver undertakes a highly discreet mission with 3 others..
A lame role for Daniel Craig as bana's associate...
his trigger -happy aggression is the looming anger of Israel against the
Perpetrators of the black september...
Ciaran hinds as carl is the moderate voice of the group ..
and thinking cap-wearer.. though bana with his impassionate face and endearing innocence
presents a pleasant aberration from the agents stereotype....
he saves his defining histrionics for the end...
Trauma of war and its futility riding on the loss of his team- members life drives on the
verge of getting paranoid..
one of the most touching scenes captures bana breaking down at the sound of his new born ...
this coupled with cross of words with Ali,the terrorist have the high decibel irony of the cat and mouse game...
quest for a home has put on line the meaning of being together ...
old order changes making way for the new...
each killed enemy sprouts more killers...
those who leave home and family to make it a safe place must know they just scratch a layer
that regenrates with even gretaer alacrity ...
every piece of land they fight for has seen more men resting inside than it than living with it..
chilling confessions of Ali tells its not a war that could be won..its just fought regardless of outcome...
and there is no Gita sermon to prop it..
but its the same heat for a home ...
which would never be coz we would be too busy protecting it...
steven spielberg's another classic..

thinking of one

New Year party is around the corner and apart from guzzling cans of beers
and texting bye bye 2008 type smses what else i m gonna do..
Nothing special..
What else did I do last year...
Nothing special again..
Frenzy and festivities of idiot box (I am at home ..U see) trying to suck me up in this vortex of New Year phenomenon...
I have a great deal of maudlin stuff to get off my chest this night...
For some it leads to a new promise, new vows
For some it’s the single biggest showdown of every year..
For some it’s the time to chase down old days and gone time...
I belong to that some...
I have this weird habit of being in two times at times...
I live this event with an eye as to what I will have to say for this thing 1 year down the line...
May be that precludes me from being in that moment fully but this assortment of little moments And their subtitles have given a delightful kaleidoscope...
This New Year my slide show for the best and the greatest of the fading calendar will be pages of Memories...
Year 2008 marked the end of a personal epoch...
Four awesome years of engineering...
I always wondered why B.Tech as engineer is not as conspicuous as an MBBS being doctor...
I got my answers first hand...
B.Tech...
It’s an idiom of carefree-ness, companionship, courage (40 subjects...) personified by each outgoing engineer....
Then there were experiences I wanted to have...
Usual guy stuff...
I had...
Best part of all was the friends I made...
I saw them singing best songs...saying low things...doing great feats...
Doing cheap stuff...and yeah sometimes I wondered do I really knew them at all...
But that something I have asked myself umpteen times feeling
Do I know myself at all...?
Today when I am grappling with presentations and case studies and a place where your logic will be stripped to the bone by very own classmates...i yearn for those days when fallacies and foibles where your ticket to fame....
I kind of feel how naive last event was when everything seemed liked eternity and its denouement today seems like just another crossroad in light-years long mesh...
My climax won’t be the one until someone else has to pen it for me...
Wishful thinking...that’s the easy virtue we seek at new year eve...
And great to feel it’s one time of year when u say some high held words to your future...

Sort of re-birth...birthday eves may also vie for that occasion but we are too lame to think beyond our count of gifts and wishes...
so that brings me to hustling and hopes of 2009..
I wish this New Year I could be honest with my dumbles and crunches....
I get over my procrastination...
Read more, play more, travel more, see more...
As an adult franchisee of this great nation being run by the most incompetent guys my only wish will be they speed up Delhi- Gurgoan metro project ....sitting duck as we are for others ,at least get me the legs of an ostrich...