netflix claims another…
yup. netflix claims another victim. i haven’t gotten butterflies in my stomach like this since the day i shot for my first movie, or played in my first varsity soccer game in college, or asked a cute gori girl to the homecoming dance during my sophomore year in high school (sure, she said no, but seriously, what the hell was i expecting?). i felt like a kid in a candy store with an unlimited gift certificate as i browsed their movies. i’m all set to make the most of my one-month free rental. signed up for 4 movies at a time, with the intent of catching up on all the movies i’d missed during my 6-month stay in india, and also all the movies i’d been telling myself for a long time that i’d get around to watching some day.
i lost my netflix virginity to a movie that couldn’t have a more simple storyline, but the complexity and turmoil shown in it could put most bollywood films (and their makers) to shame. the story? a thug pulls off a carjack, only to drive a couple of miles and discover a surprise in the backseat, which eventually changes him as a person. “arre bore mat kar maamu (trans: don’t bore me dude)…is this a coming of age type movie or something?”
bole tho.. kinda. but needless to say, it’s about a helluva lot more. i’m not going to sound like a wannabe on a b4u “rushes” show and say “yeh phillum zara hatke hai” (trans: this movie’s a little different)… bc it’s really not. this one’s all about execution and performances (you listening KJ/SRK?). wow. and how. in case you haven’t already figured it out, i’m talking about last year’s best foreign film oscar winner “tsotsi”.
the film doesn’t go over-the-top sentimental or emotional. instead, it continually shows tsotsi in a constant state of anger, which is true to his character, even until the very end. and every performance, from the homeless wheelchair guy to the main lead (Presley Chweneyagae in a brilliant performance… just watch his eyes in the climax as the gate opens), is brought out even more by the minimal dialogues.
the DVD also has a “making of” feature, which would appeal to most cinema enthusiasts, and also includes gavin hood’s short film “the storekeeper”. not a bad film, but my attention span is a bit limited when it comes to silent films, as it was in this case. a special mention to the editor for keeping the pace crisp to the very end and another one to the soundtrack. i found the african hip-hop music way more fun to listen to than the crap being played in my gym.
i guess this went from a hooray netflix to a semi-review.. but what do i know? this is my first blog post ever… and i’m not even a writer! (i’ll work on it though)
bottom line. rent tsotsi and give it a watch.
next in line:
goal! the dream begins, walk the line, cinema paradiso
Tags: Medium
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
- And another movie fanatic bites the Netflix dust… sigh… welcome to the club pal. After trying to avoid the Netflix storm for over 4 years, I finally gave up early this year. The trips to Blockbuster & Hollywood video will be sorely missed. Though going there and then realizing that the movie you came for is not in stock – this – will not be missed.
Netflix was the first debit from my bank account after reaching the US… Oz bhai’s suggestion once again…
But its taking abt a week for the delivery return process so just a little slow on catching up on all the movies…
Netflix rules…
between netflix and italkies.com i’m pretty much booked solid with movies up the wazoo.. and in case anybody doesn’t know about italkies yet.. what’re you waiting for??
LOL! the post gave me a sense of deja vu