Mithya

The age old story of a down and out actor (Ranvir Shorey) who bares an unearthly likeness to an underworld don and under duress is forced to take the don's place. The presence of Naseeruddin Shah and Vinay Pathak does add some panache to this often repeated plot but they unfortunately are not enough to allow this film to be seen in a new light with a fresh perspective.

Rating: * *

Blind Shaft

The illegal mines that dot China's countryside send thousands to an early death. The only grace is that the family of the deceased receives a minor compensation for it. Song (Qiang Li) and Tang (Shuangbao Wang) are hardened con men who use this unwritten law to their advantage until one of them decides to grow a conscience. A gritty crime thriller from director Yang Li that shows the skewed nature of today's economic condition in China



Rating: * * *

Offside

The eve of the qualifying football game between Iran and Bahrain for World Cup 2006 sees all of Tehran trying to wedge their way into the stadium. Except the women of course thanks to a law that prohibits from entering the stadium. But a group of football crazy girls decide to buck the law and go where their hearts are. Jafar Panahi's film that is part political statement / satire and part hilarious comedy is a must of for all football fans and people who care for woman rights the world around.

Rating: * * * +

Bamako

The forefront of the film is a mock trial featuring the people of Mali vs western oppressors disguised as well wishers. The witnesses rant and rave albeit in a cogent fashion against the World Bank, IMF and colonization. The backdrop is the sordid life of the locals and in particular a couple struggling to keep their marriage afloat. A well meaning but poor executed film which also featured a western soap opera that locals tuned into featuring Danny Glover as cowboy. At that point I decided to use the stop button and call Wenerd to abuse him for no reason.



Rating: *

Avenue Montaigne

Jean-François Lefort (Albert Dupontel) is a pianist who is tired of the concert circuit and wants to play just for his love of music. Catherine (Valérie Lemercier) has had enough of her role in a weekly soap and yearns for a meaningful role. Jacques (Claude Brasseur) who has spent every waking moment collecting art, has decided to sell his entire collection as he has no desire to play his last inning as a museum guard. Jessica (Cécile De France) is a waitress who serves these collage of characters their drinks. A noisy, conversation filled film that has a magical calming effect that one feels when sinking into a book where you love all the characters.

Rating: * * * +

Dam Street

The film opens in a small town in China in the 80s. Yun (Yi Liu), a young beautiful girl in her teens, finds herself pregnant. Her moral decadance is announced on the school's speakers, much to chagrin of her mother who is a teacher at the school. So in spite of everyone knowing, the baby is spirited away for the family to save face. Yun is in fact told that her baby's spirit now floats in heaven.

As the film drifts into the 90s, Yun finds herself stuck as a singer in a pop troupe catering to the masses. It is at this time that a young boy, Xiao-yong (Xingrao Huang), befriends her and is infatuated by her. The film floats around the realtionship between the two unlikely characters.

Through the life of Yun, directory Yu Li also looks at Chinese society that seems to be stuck in between the Mao era and modernisation. A singing troupe with dancing girls but any hint of promiscuity from the women causes them to be labeled as sluts. The scenery and sorroundings are grim and gritty with some brilliant scenes from every day life. Like that of a couple of men trying to throw half alive fish back into their overturned truck. Yet another fascinating look at changing China.

Rating: * * *

Unknown Pleasures

The turn of the century finds China opening it's doors to the world. At this juncture the director focuses his lenses on the lives of Bin Bin (Wei Wei Zhao) and Xiao Ji (Qiong Wu), two dispirited youths who live in a remote Chinese city near the Mongolian border. Even in this dead end city, western infleunce slowly creeps into their lives. A dollar bill here, a Coke there, westernized Chinese pop music and references to the Monkey King are juxtaposed with talk of Pulp Fiction. As the world around them changes, the lads find everything leaving them behind including their love interests (Tao Zhao, Qing Feng Zhou). Another well constructed film from Jia Zhang Ke.

Rating: * * +

The Groomsmen

Paulie (Edward Burns) is about to get married and he has all his old buddies lined up as groomsmen. The only issue being that all of them seem to be having issues with friendship, marriage and family life. A succinct coming of age story for grown men.

Rating: * * +

Khoya Khoya Chand

Nikhat (Soha Ali Khan) and Zafar (Shiney Ahuja) are rising stars in the Bombay film industry in a time it was not known as Bollywood. She a blossoming actress and he a budding script writer, cause sparks to fly when they meet. Intoxicated they carry on, without a care for whom they burn with their passion. Set in the 50s and 60s, the film casts an introspective eye at the life in the industry showing the back biting that goes on and the dog eat dog world it is.

Shiney Ahuja has eerily crept into the skin of the character but the same cannot be said of the daughter of Sharmila Tagore. After the initial half hour, she looks out of her depth failing to portray the changing phases in the actress's life. In fact Sonya Jehan who plays a rival actress could have done better in her role. But the actor who steals the limelight is Vinay Pathak who plays Nikhat friend.

The film looks lush and the saturated colors can fool you into believing Chris Doyle was behind the lens. The script too is craftily written with Urdu laced Hindi dialogs. But director Sudhir Mishra does not take advantage of this palette and fails to stitch it all together. Allowing the film to run a tad too long did not help either. A poor follow up to Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi.

Rating: * *

Paruthiveeran

Paruthiveeran's (Karthik Sivakumar) only ambition in life is to visit the Madras jail after a lifetime of wandering around village prisons with his doting uncle, Chevvazhai (Saravanan). His childhood sweetheart Muththazhagu (Priyamani) has other plans for him as she doggedly pursues him. A simple village tale set in the outskirts of Madurai, that shines as a love story hiding behind a well written script. Excellent acting by the debutants all around and it sure looks like Karthik has come a long way from Crescent Engineering College.

Rating: * * +

Inland Empire

Nikki Grace (Laura Dern), a married actress lands a plumb role in a mystery film which has a checkered history. She soon finds herself attracted to her co-star. Devon Berk (Justin Theroux), in spite of her dangerous husband. But it is unclear if the attraction is fact or fiction. As the movie proceeds, the lines between the actors and the film within they are acting in begin to blur. Jeremy Irons is the director of the mystery film and he too seems to be left in the dark. The real force behind both films is of course David Lynch who seems to have imbibed way too many exotic substances when writing and directing this mindless, convoluted and obtuse piece of krap.

Rating: *

I Don't Want to Sleep Alone

The film opens in Kuala Lumpuer with a street wizard handing out winning lottery numbers for money. The ever silent Hsiao-kang has a number but no money. He proceeds to get beaten by the street performer and his cronies. Left to die on the street, he is picked by a group of Bangladeshi's migrant workers. One of the workers, Rawang (Norman Atun), nurses him back to health and slowly finds himself making space in his life for Hsiao-kang. Hsiao meanwhile finds himself attracted to a Chinese waitress (Shiang-chyi Chen) in the neighbourhood. As the film winds down, smog envelopes the city, its citizen and the viewer.

Rating: +

10 Items or less

Morgan Freeman being out of the acting limelight, finds himself looking into a sleeper role of a store manager to get things back on track. The "production" company drops him off / abandons him at a seedy joint at the edge of town. Here he runs into Scarlet (Paz Vega), a feisty grocery store worker, who takes pity on him and agrees to give him a ride. Freeman find himself drawn towards the cashier who is also trying to get her life back on track. A strange friendship ensues and most of the film is about the easy bond that forms between the two.

Freeman has taken a page out of Taste of Cherry. His character is curious almost to the point of annoyance. But the no BS presence of Paz Vega cancels things out leaving the viewer in a better frame of mind to appreciate the film.

Rating: * *
PS: Paz Vega is HOT!!!

Dance Party, USA

If you are interested in watching teenagers having awkward and boring conversations about life, sex, booze and partying, then do not miss this film.

Rating: *

Bheema

Small time crook Chinna (Prakash Raj) finds his fortunes rising against his arch rival, Periyavar (Raghuvaran) when Shekar (Vikram) magically joins his gang. Sprinkled with many sightings of the very hot Trisha, who inexplicably falls in love with Chinna , this gangster flick too tries to show that violence only begets more violence.

Rating: * +

Cimates

Nuri Bilge Ceylan instead of calling this film Climates could have named it Distant II. For this one he acts, writes and directs. To top it off he drags his wife (Ebru Ceylan) in to play his lover.

Isa, a college professor and Bahar, a TV producer are in a relationship where you can easily feel the distance between the two. On a seaside vacation this chasm becomes insurmountable and Bahar returns alone to Istanbul. One really cannot blame Bahar as there is a touch of Abbas Kiarostami like annoyance to Isa. He finds himself wandering this sudden desolate landscape of his life finding himself still reaching for Bahar. A film that highlights the need for connectedness that we crave and will search endlessly for.

Rating: * *

Linda Linda Linda

A few days before the school fair, Kei (Yu Kashii), Kyoko (Aki Maeda) and Nozomi's (Shiori Sekine) rock band lose their lead singer to artistic differences. Left clutching at straws, the one that comes up short is a Korean exchange student, Son (Du-na Bae), who is coxed into filling in even though she hardly speaks any Japanese. As the band perseveres through late night practices, this quirky comedy also touches on the romantic fringes of the band members. But just when it starts to sniff greatness, it loses it viewer and meanders.

Rating: * +

The Wild Blue Yonder

A sci-fi movie experiment created by splicing together NASA footage and underwater film of the Antarctic Ocean glued together by an over the top narrator. The experiment failed in my book.

Rating: +