Ginger drafts...

“Solaris” is one of the top ten, greatest, groundbreaking and purest form of movies one must definitely see. I often wonder how it must have been to live in the seventies when scientific paradigms were shuffled ceaselessly. It was a time when the scientific world was indomitably theorising to have found expressions of the unification theory, the one law that explains everything from the atoms to big bang. It is in the spirit of those days that one must visualise, against the backdrop of the culture that was caustically rooted in scientific ecstasy that one must watch Soalris. If 2001, a space odyssey was the celebration of science giving way to inquisition of the nature of troubled human inventions; solaris is an elevation of philosophy, nature of which can only be understood through the movie. Nothing that I can say about the movie would suffice, it has to experienced through the movie. Physical laws governing the universe had been largely understood, we were probing deeper into the n...

Movie opens with an innocuous nude beach scene with Meinhof and her family spending the day out. Meinhof, a lady of great temper is shown to exhibit kind heartedness in the opening scene followed by stately appeal of revolution in the party conducted in her backyard. Brief interludes of students staging a protest and the police lining up before them; it is still innocuous at this point in time. Meinhof is shy, but as she reads through to the passage where the reference to fooling German pride is extolled, she is flushed red in her face, the interludes gradually turn violent. In fact, before you realise, the protest, which was only a gathering with placards turns into a pandemonium with the police beating up the innocent and the ladies. This scene is the evidence of what the viewer is up for. If you are not exposed to foreign language movies, you will find it very refreshing, for the movie is anything but Hollywood. Too many Hollywood action movies preserve the action for a moment to le...

Who would have thought that travelling could be so benumbing and delightful? We rented two honda activas to get to Auroville. I was not prepared for what we were about to witness. On the way to Auroville, you will find the motorists turning friendlier as you get closer. Trees on either side of the road stood in steadfast harmony as if in a wedlock. Through the mystic shade- slightly daze, for the last night's Black Label was still not worn off- we drove into one of the by lanes that seemed deserted at first notice. If not for the powerful 2 stroke engine, we would have found it difficult to ascertain our minds of the silence. We were out in the open; we drove in and out of the broad shadows cast by 200 metres long tall trees, but were gasping to make a grasp on the nature's irony. We felt claustrophobic in the forest, the thick and dense forest, so dark, it blithe fully stayed calm. Not a whiff of air entered the thick forest. We pulled over, made futile attempts at apprehendin...

Cronenberg's M. Butterfly is a masterpiece of intrigue. It is as if you have been thrown into China and have to find your way back home. Who would have expected that Cronenberg would muddle the minds of his audience to such proportions. A french aristocrat is seduced by a Chinese singer who sings a version of madame Butterfly that elevates our protagonist to the plateau of love. Decidedly, he follows her to her abode and is stately denied permission, for she is too shy and her culture is buried deep beneath the floor of the current time. 'The french have extolled the virtues of progressive societies to the point of apotheosis, from where they glance at the floor beneath them' the Chinese singer observes. The French man falls for the Chinese woman, the man of heresy finds himself amazed at the shy and restrained love that the Chinese woman orchestrates. So blinded by the platonic love of madame butterfly, he unconsciously confesses the french and US army strategies to the Ch...

"Bright star" is more of an epic poem that is evocative of John Keats, although it is misunderstood as a biography of the poet. In his last days, poet Keats is put up at a cottage that is surrounded with beautiful gardens around it. And, in it, is a rather lonely girl, in her twenties and is fond of sewing. Movie is a lucid play of fractured emotions playing out on the characters until such time that the plump looking Fanny falls for Keats while his friend feels neglected. The closer fanny gets to Keats, more strained the friendship becomes. All the locations are strewn with blissful springtime flowers; a scene in which fanny sits up in the middle of the garden full of blue flowers is at once enchanting. Towards the end though, it is all too melancholic; keats has to leave, for he is not salaried and is terribly ill. Fanny's reaction to the news of Keats' death is one of the best scenes in the movie. Although it’s a poignant tale of love, the mood of the time wrap...